Little Bit Heart Broken Today....

Okay so Miss 4 has never been a fan of preschool...and I'm pretty sure she never will be.

But hey, that's okay, I can live with that.  She goes 2 days a week, Monday and Tuesday.  Often the not wanting to go to preschool can start on the weekend as she devises reasons that she will be unable to attend...sometimes she saves the drama til the actual morning of preschool...and then sometimes, on the rare occasion, she heads off there without a fuss at all.

Today was NOT the latter!!!

Today was a full blown anti preschool episode played out in the carpark, the foyer and the kids room of preschool.

Most of it was the usual...she left something in the car, she left something at home, she wanted her other shoes, she didn't want that jumper etc... etc....  These I can deal with no problem at all......they are her little delaying tactics through which she hopes we will return to the car, or better yet home, to fetch whatever it is she needed ....then she hopes with all her might that somehow I will suddenly develop some form of amnesia and completely forget where we were supposed to be going and subsequently she gets to spend a day watching TV....sadly for her this is yet to happen !!!

But today amongst her usual fuss and tears with a few ear-piercing screams for dramatic effect she threw in a little 'what if nobody will play with me?'

Okay I've go to admit she got me with that one.  It truly broke my heart and I could have scooped her up and rushed her back home forever.  But instead I gave her a hug and a kiss and told her that lots of people would love to play with her.....and left a little broken hearted with a tear or two in my eye...... 

  

Self Serve....

Looks like the girls forgot to feed the cat this morning so she has opted for a bit of self-serve!!

Looks like it'll be mum to the rescue....again !!!

The Cost of One Child Free Day Out.....

Hubby had a job cancelled at the last minute this time last week.

All the girls were in school and preschool.

So  despite the housework not having been done, the grocery shop being well overdue and  both of us having piles of paperwork to attend to we decided that our day would be best spent heading up the mountains to Katoomba.

I love a day trip to the Blue Mountains... love the chill in the air......love the autumn leaves.....love the excuse for a hot chocolate!

We had a brilliant day in the main street of Katoomba, and spent hours fossicking through antique shops with their endless treasures.  As a little memento of our day I bought a gorgeous old photo from one of the shops.  It is of a family or a group of friends on a day trip to  Katoomba.  I love it.....love the old car....love the fashions....just love it ....so I had to buy it...!!

So all in all we had a great day and returned just in time to pick the girls up....and ever since it feels like the universe has been making us pay for one solitary day out!!!  

Following this I have taken a trip to emergency with Miss 15.  She broke her wrist almost a year ago at soccer training and that was a saga in itself.  But in the last week she has somehow injured the same area again....rendering her arm useless for cutting her own food, washing her own plates, tying her own laces.....you get the idea.  So thankfully we were in and out of emergency in less than 2 hours (that would be a family record to date!!!)....x-rays taken and the bones are all still intact but possibly she has done ligament damage....so on a daily basis she insists that we inspect the bruising and endure the latest instalment of where it hurts most.

Then Miss 8 somehow injured her leg at netball training and was unable to set the table, do her homework, help with anything asked of her and was unable to go to school.  With some divine intervention she was able to play the game on Saturday but again the injury is seeming to be aggravated by the word 'chores' and also by the concept of 'tidy your room'.

And the day I had commitments to be at school running the second hand uniform sale Miss 4 awakes crying with a sore head that cannot endure any of the noise that her sisters were making yet seeming could endure the shouting that she was doing in telling them to be quiet. So a trip to the doctors and a bottle of antibiotics that she refuses to drink later she spent the day resting and dozing on the lounge with the company of every Mickey Mouse dvd ever produced...she is still not 100% but has bursts of her old self so she is on the mend.

In amongst all of that we had a cushion due for textiles and a mood board due for tech...both of which needing a mums nagging to get them completed....study for year 10 exams that again needed a mums nagging to get it happening.....and we had to visit a sick relative who thankfully was cheered up by our visit.

So it seems that the universe puts a pretty hefty price tag on one nice day out.......!!!

Tell Me Why I don't Like...Thursdays!!!

7.50am      drop Miss 15, Miss 13, Miss 12 to school
8.30am      drop Miss 8 to school
9.30am      leave for Miss 4's dancing lesson
10.00am    attempt a few errands with Miss 4 in tow
12.00pm    arrive home with little dignity in tact after attempting errands with Miss 4
12.30pm    prepare lunch for Miss 4 to refuse to eat
3.00pm      pick up Miss 8 from school
3.30pm      collect Miss 13 and Miss 12 from bus stop
3.35pm      arrive home provide afternoon tea and listen to the woes of everyones day
3.40pm      leave for afternoon activities
4.00pm      drop Miss 13 to art, drop Miss 12 to violin, pick up Miss 15 from after school stuff
4.20pm      drop Miss 15 off at a study session
4.45pm      pick up Miss 12 from violin 
5.00pm      arrive home provide quick meal to Miss 12
5.30pm      pick up Miss 15 from study session
6.00pm      pick up Miss 13 from art, drop Miss 12 to sewing, drop Miss 15 to drama 
6.20pm      arrive home and serve something edible to Miss 13, Miss 8 and Miss 4
6.45pm      hubby arrives home
6.50pm      I go to P&F meeting
8.45pm      leave P&F meeting 
9.00pm      pick up Miss 12 from sewing 
9.00pm      pick up Miss 15 from drama 
9.20pm      arrive home
9.25pm      collapse into bed 


Please inform me if I've left out a pick up or two there....don't want to have to go back to get anyone that I've forgotten!

So tell me again why don't I like Thursdays !!!!

I'm Setting the Timer....

Sometimes as a motivator, sometimes as an enforcer, sometimes as a reminder I set the timer on my mobile phone....

After dinner of an evening we set the timer for 20 minutes and everyone....yes despite your new found illness, yes despite your amazing instant need to go to the toilet, yes despite the homework you just remembered you have to do....yes everyone...has to put in 20 minutes of cleaning time.  And that is 20 minutes at a reasonable pace...not the usual pace of pick up one piece of rubbish and take 20 minutes to find the bin....

Sometimes we set the timer when Miss 4 wants to play with one of her siblings who has homework to do...this way she gets to play a game with them but they are not tied there all night....

On occasion  I even remember to set the timer for soft boiled eggs....sadly not always before the boiling process starts....

Well today is a tad crazy in our household.....Miss 15's maths tutor is coming at 4pm and the house seriously needs a clean up....a huge clean up, netball training is on tonight and hubby will be late home from work so an easy dinner is required....

So whilst vacuuming with one hand and browning chicken for the slow cooker with the other....ok perhaps a slight exaggeration...but believe me that's how it feels....in amongst all of this Miss 4 wants me to help her write notes to each of her siblings....lets not forget that she has 4 sisters....so with one note done my response to her was that I would do the next one if 5 minutes after I had chopped the vegies.....

Well she marched into the kitchen, hijacked my mobile phone and proceeded to lecture me about how I had 5 minutes and that she was setting the timer...after pressing a few buttons she proceeds to leave the room...a minute later she comes back and announces that I have 1 minute, she makes the adjustments to the timer and states quite clearly that I am to go directly to her once the timer goes off......she'll be waiting....

Being 4 she is not quite versed in telling the time or setting timers.... subsequently I have 52 minutes left til the timer goes off as she set if for 1 hour rather than 1 minute.....hmmmm wonder how long I can get away with that for......hehehehehe

Rude Shock

I love Mother's Day...I really, really love it.

I love the sleep-in and the brekkie in bed.
I love that it is a day where we focus on family time rather than chores and homework.
I love that the girls work together for a change ;-)
I love the little thoughtful things.
I love that Miss 4 is understanding the concept and so directed all of her complaints to DAD!!

So needless to say that after a lovely Mother's Day of peace and tranquillity, of sunshine and calm.....Monday morning comes around as a rude shock!!!!!!

www.notshallow.org

Thrown straight back into the deep end of school lunches, ironing uniforms, after school activiites......

*sigh*

Til next Mother's Day........

The World is My....TOILET ??

The world is my oyster...okay that I get.....
The world is my TOILET...okay that I don't get...
.
So when did it become acceptable for boys to pee outdoors......when public toilets are available within walking distance.....

Ok I have 5 daughters hence I know very little about raising sons...in fact I sometimes know very little about raising daughters.....but that's another subject lol !!!

But I just don't get it.....why can't the parents take their son to the toilet?  Umm that's what I do when my daughters need to go.  

I don't want to see little boys peeing behind a tree at the local netball or at the local park...there are toilets.....perfectly functional toilets....within walking distance.

See the image on the left is a PUBLIC TOILET.....the image on the right a TREE....not the same.

I will certainly think twice next time I am about to set up our family picnic in the shade of a lovely tree....

Feel free to enlighten me......

Mummy's just going to have a lay down......

In my world Friday afternoon is up there on a pedestal....it is like the pinnacle...the culminating point of success...when I get to 3.30pm Friday afternoon it is the peak....I've made it....

I have made it through another week of  the 200 metre school bus dash (the children running that is...not me!) when my wake up calls were not heeded, I have provided breakfasts, recesses and lunches and some days they even had some nutritional value, I have made it through the weeks dinners, I have made it to karate class, violin lessons, soccer training, netball training, dance lessons, art lessons, sewing lessons, swimming lessons and drama lessons.

So when 3.30pm Friday afternoon rolls around it is fair to say that I give up!!!  I don the indoors only tracksuit pants and jumper, on go the fluffy socks and tired old slippers.  Dinner is scrounged from left overs and the pantry and I settle in for some television viewing and tune out from the fact that I have to be at netball at 9am tomorrow!!!

But today my 3.30pm Friday afternoon came crashing down from its pedestal with one tiny phone call.....from my sister.

After an already exhausting week at primary school in which I had to prime Miss 4 for her kindergarten interview on Wednesday, where Thursday was spent wrapping Mother's Day gifts and today was spent at the Mother's Day stall being shop assistant to some 400 indecisive primary school children...I was ready to collapse as we walked in the door this afternoon.

Just as I was reaching to grab my trackies the phone rang...my sister with that 'can you do me a favour' voice.  Crash....bang.....3.30pm Friday all smashed up !!!!

Seems my niece had cut her hand in textile class with the nice sharp scissors and was in sick bay needing to be picked up and possibly taken for stitches.  So into the car I jump with all 5 kids in tow.  I arrive at the school and head in to collect my niece.  After a recount of the incident from the teacher and a visual of the cut (no-one told me I'd have to look at the injury!!)  it was decided that she needed to be taken to the doctor to have it glued....queue weak stomach....

So into the car and off to her local doctor... we all pile in to the doctor's surgery....myself, my niece and my five daughters  whose sheltered lives become extremely evident with the excitement that they are displaying over what they are considering to be an awesome adventure....not sure my niece feels the same!

An inspection of the cut confirms that it does require gluing....queue weak stomach again!  But all in all the cut is not too bad and should be healed in 7 days.

Into the car again, off to the chemist to buy dressings, into the car again, drop niece home, into the car again arrive home.

If you want to eat dinner....find it yourself.....I am going to crawl under my bed and lay in the foetal position for a little while !!!!!

Did somebody say "FIRE!!!!"

Well it was an eventful Thursday in our little word last week....

It started with Miss 15 coming down with a cold and sore throat on Wednesday   Sounds uneventful you may think...but Miss 15 coming down with anything soon resembles an academy award winning performance...complete with moans and sighs...the coughing and spluttering ...the writhing in agony....and it goes on...and on....and yes on.....  So Thursday saw Miss 15 staying home sick while Miss 4 and I popped out to do a few chores.

Miss 4 and I had just about finished our chores when my phone rang.  Seeing it was Miss 15 
I answered it, assuming it was one of her usual are you bringing yummy lunch home calls.  Turns out it wasn't one of those calls at all!!

Usually calm her voice on the other end of the phone was shaking and distressed and thanks to poor mobile reception it was also faint.  

"I don't know what happened....I was in the garage....then a bang.....and fire....."

So that was what I had to work with....with my head initially thinking the house was on fire I checked that a) she was okay and b) that she had called the fire brigade.  Check and check.  

So now that I knew she was safe and that the fire brigade was on the way I was able to establish that a car was on fire out the front of our neighbours house and that there was smoke and flames billowing into the sky.

The view from our front door

With that Miss 4 and I made our way home to half the street cordoned off by the police and the fire brigade having just gained control of the fire.  It seems a man had been driving his ute when a small amount of smoke came through the dash....less than 10 metres on his ute was filled with smoke so he has pulled over and jumped out and in minutes his ute was completely in flames.  Thankfully he and everyone in the area were safe and the fire was quickly under control.

The burnt out ute

    

Miss 15 relived and re-enacted the morning to everyone as they arrived home from school and work that day.  It was a huge shock for her to see how quickly the car went up in fire but I'm glad she has had the chance to have an encounter like this where she was in no imminent danger and she has had to process all of the information and make some quick decisions.  Seriously she usually can't decide between solo or fanta in under 10 minutes !!!

Then as if that wasn't enough action for one Thursday Miss 12 somehow managed to sew her finger at sewing lessons that night...eeeww gross !!!!  Now whilst she may not have been to the same school of acting as Miss 15 she sure gave it her best shot at an award..gold logie for most outstanding drama perhaps.....oh and I'll spare you the photos of this one !!!

Here's to a less eventful week this week....