Does busy breed busy?

I started a new job today and in a fit of (semi) organisation, my partner and I managed to get the kids to childcare, ourselves to work on time, one child to doctor, delicious (and new) recipe made for dinner, trivia for the Mr, kids to eat dinner, picked up some papers from our neighbours, organised a talk for a seminar I'm doing tomorrow, some more paid work I'm doing on the side for another client and a blog post.

So, I've reflected on some mums I know who are super mums. The kind of mums who get thrown curve balls all the time and so gracefully manage to deal with everything that comes their way. And I think I've decided that busy-ness breeds more busy-ness. These mums seem to add more and more to their growing to-do lists and they get everything done, they are satisfied and content and their children are happy and see that giving back to their community and friendship group is a rewarding thing to invest time into.

I'll see how tomorrow goes but I might try for a week of busy and see how I feel at the end of it!

Giving craft

This is something that I've grappled with a lot recently.

Found a blog post from another which really sums it up for me. Don't forget to read the comments too.

Past days

When I started this blog, I had a list on the sidebar of things that happened each day. I liked re-reading over this but got sick of it clogging the side bar. This post archives all those days. Most passed in a fog when the littlest boy was a babe in my arms.

_______

Watched the last episode of West Wing

Zoo

February already

Museum

Australia Day

In a bad mood

Two sleepers

Considering a move to Iceland

It's too hot to have a laptop on my lap

Bang noodles

Scorcher

I like the word yikes

6am on a Saturday is just plain rude

Facebook you are a time waster

Exercise? Or no?

Rockin' the suburbs

I'm on the B list

Short sleeves

Windy

Bringin' home the bacon

Office politics

Mamma Mia!

Going on a date with the Mr!

Sunshine outside, cold inside

Ants are back!?

Kisses, kisses, kisses

The house is quiet

I have wheels - yipee!

The Mr is back!

Birthday party in the park

Borax...please work

Beware! Crazy woman with talcum powder on the loose

Pumpkin and fetta. Yummm

It's business as usual

I've eaten 3 blood oranges and 3 passionfruits

Has lasted for about 36 hours

Was so much fun

It is sunny!

I wish I was knocking out some zzzzz's

I'd like to feed the bub

I'd rather be in a chamber of silence

Hiatus...over?

So...it's 2011. And no post. I've tried a few different strategies to get me motivated but nothing has done the trick. You see, I really like blogging. I do. So why don't I do it?

I don't know.

This year, the Mr and I decided that we wouldn't 'do' New Years resolutions and to my surprise he suggested a monthly resolution. Now this is much more of a commitment - yes?

We tried it in January. The rules were simple - think of a few things that we've been wanting to get done for ages and write them on the calendar. All sorts of things made it to the list. Here's a sample of January:

* finish building the drawers in the kitchen

* put the baby clothes away

* order a TV bracket for the big arse TV that Mr bought

* find a way to get the kids in bed (and possibly asleep) by 8.30pm

* change phone companies

So you see, nothing major but every single thing on this list made a big difference. We'd been talking about changing phone providers for 7 months! And it took about an hour to actually action.

January got a big tick. So did Feb, March, April and May. We have been a bit slack with June but still have 17 days to change that.

You might be wondering what made me hit 'New Post' and actually pen this entry? I have two boys (4 and 20 months) and they LOVE cars. They love to watch cars drive up our street, cars on a highway, cars parked, cars being towed. You get the picture.

They will flip out when they see this:

Nuffnang have an awesome promo where they are sending bloggers free family passes to see Cars 2. And this is the thing that got me back to the blog. I really want to take my boys to see this movie but movies are expensive these days! We've just had a huge party for Mr 4 which involved obscene amounts of Lego, my 30th, the car rego x 2 and insurance renewals. June is always a hard month financially.

I loved the original movie. It is probably the only kids movie I have seen that doesn't have scary bits. So it is great to pop on for Mr 4 while I put the little one down to sleep at lunchtime. The boys have lots of the cars die cast cars which have been favourites for a long time. Who knows how much Cars 2 merch will find its way into this house?!

The plot looks a little deeper than the first movie and perhaps it will have a few scary bits....once we see the movie I'll report back!

Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to writing more posts soon!

Small town, big heart

We just returned from a week away in Phillip Island. I went there with my parents when I was younger but can't remember much (strangely I remember that Mum bought a Gucci t-shirt...). This time, the Mr and I took the boys. We hired a house and two other families joined us for a few days. It was chaotic at times but a brilliant thing to do - all the little boys (5!) had such fun climbing up sand piles, looking in rock pools and generally just mucking around.
After the other families left we had some rainy days where we layed low and I went into town with #1 and visited the CWA shop. Two lovely older ladies were knitting and crocheting while I looked around. #1 proudly showed them the contents of his backpack and started a long detailed explaination of just how much he loves Lightening McQueen. When the conversation started to die (the ladies clearly were not well aquainted with Lightening), #1 began to tell them how he helps mummy with knitting and terial (material). And sometimes he and mum do cooking together and we make yummy pancakes. And then he proudly announced, I love knitting.
So cute. It made me realise that those moments during the day when you share something with them - let them have a go of the knitting needles or a press of the sewing machine button - it's those times that they cherish more than I realise.
Later in the day he said to me, 'Mum, I like those girls.'
'Which girls?' I said.
'You know, those nice girls in the knitting shop.'
I bet they'd love to know that he called them 'girls'!!

Division of responsibilities

It's funny how the jobs are divided up within a family. We are going away on a holiday tomorrow and it got me thinking about who does what in this household.

I definately take care of the lists. I like lists. I look after the food (generally) and the social calendar (who am I kidding...that should have said, the kids social calendar).

Packing is the Mr's domain and he is so good at it. If packing were a game show or a reality TV show - well - we could be millionaires. He can fit pretty much anything anywhere. His golden rule is that he MUST have everything in one place before the packing commences. Nothing frustrates him more than someone (ok, me) saying 'Oh, here is another saucepan for the dishwasher.'

So that brings us to other household jobs: tidying (me), hardcore cleaning (him), changing lightbulbs (him), setting mousetraps (him), shopping list (me), remembering things like pyjama day at childcare (me), sewing (me), washing (both), nappies (both), making the peppermint tea once the kids are in bed (him), cracking the Tim Tams open (me).

Grocery shopping (me), Bunnings (him), outside stuff (him), paying bills (me), putting out the rubbish (both), remembering birthdays (me), writing letter to (his) grandma (me), writing on the birthday and christmas cards (me and this is a commitment that he believes was written into our wedding vows), figuring out how things work (him), map reading (him), driving (both), making appointments (me), choosing the music (him - he always makes the best music choices).

Turns out that for the most part I suppose we are pretty traditional.

Love that I'm really happy with him doing his jobs and I think he's pretty happy with me doing mine. Meant to be.