A Day Of Utter Crapness. Erased.

It was a day that began with a complete and utter Mummy-meltdown, quickly followed by some particularly appalling Mummy-yelling. Then came the shoving the kids out of the car at school drop off followed by the kind of heart-breaking remorse that leads me to believe that (a) I am well overdue for a good night's sleep and (b) I am hitting pmt-hell again. After a bit of a cry on the way to work I sent a message to the boy-child that read: "I'm sorry I yelled at you this morning. I love you. Mum xx" It made me feel marginally less guilty and I hoped it would make him feel better too. I was very happy (and somewhat relieved) to get a message on my way back home that read: "It's okay. I love you too and I'm sorry I didn't do what u asked. xx" Aaah, mummy-relief. And yes, I cried some more and realised all over again that pmt and lack of sleep are just not pretty.

In the middle of the day more crap stuff happened. And that made me cry too. But not till I was safely in the car on the way home. It wasn't work related, just happened while I was there. And it's nothing that can't be fixed but, what d'you know? The whole sleep/pmt thing made it a hundred times worse than it really was.

But a phone call from the lovely Felicity in Queensland was as welcome as a warm hug and cheered me up no end. And a facebook message checking up on me from the lovely Anne, who promptly organised a GNO (otherwise known as a Girls Night Out) that will involve dinner and a feel-good movie, reminded me that BFF's rock. ROCK!!

And I remembered that a day of utter crapness is nothing. Especially when it's compared to the hugeness of love from forgiving offspring and supportive BFF's.

My Baby Turns 10!

Yes, you read that right. My wee boy is 10 today. And, as is the norm in our house, it's been a birthday of epic proportions with a birthday party, a sleepover, a family dinner and three birthday cakes! Because every kid needs to know how special and loved they are and what better way to show him than with lots and lots of cake...

He decided on a 'Football Party' and invited a few friends around to watch the game, eat 'footy food' (ie pies, hot dogs, chips) and play some footy in the backyard. We devised some games like a handball competition and kick a balloon goal and last night I was rewarded with a special hug and a whispered "I love you Mum, that was the best birthday party ever!"

Cake 1 - with his favourite football team's logo, for his party. I can't quite believe that I used a good portion of a bottle of blue food colouring to get the desired colour for the icing but there you go. The things we'll do to make our kids happy!

Today was his actual birthday and we began the day, as we always do for birthdays, with everyone (including his buddy who slept over and is really just one of our extra kids)) in our bed for the present unwrapping. He was thrilled with all his gifts and after a quick breakfast it was off to football where he scored a goal and his team won the game. Perfect! Then home to play with presents while I cooked for the family birthday dinner with both sets of grandparents. This year he requested lasagna and garlic bread. I threw in a big bowl of salad to mix things up a little.

Cake 2 - a cheesecake, as per the birthday boy's request.

And now he's tucked up in bed dreaming about his presents, and how to spend his birthday money. Tomorrow is back to school where the kids will rehash yesterday's party and today's game, his class will sing Happy Birthday to him and they'll all get to share his third birthday cake.

Cake 3 - for school tomorrow, chocolate upon chocolate by request. This is the same cake I've sent the past three years and it's always a big hit, with the classmates and the teacher.

I can't quite believe that my boy is 10. Double figures. Sure he comes up to my chin. And his feet seem to grow bigger and bigger every single day. And he eats more than me for most meals. But still, he's my little boy. I'm sure it was just the other day that he was off for his first day at day-care, learning how to ride a bike, or losing his first tooth. And now he's 10. And still my gorgeous, sweet, funny, loving boy.

Happy 10th Birthday sweetheart! Lots of love, Mum xx

So, How Was Your Day?

Term Two started today and we got the rundown over dinner tonight. Neither conversation got off to a flying start but we got there eventually. And Hubby and I managed to stifle our giggles. Almost.

Me: So, Buddy, how was your day?

Offspring #1 : Dumb. We didn't do anything all day.

Me: Really? Nothing at all?

Him: Nope. The teacher just talked a lot.

Me: Oh. Well, what did he talk about?

Him: Nothing. Just stuff. You know.

Me: Umm, not really. What kind of stuff?

Him: Just stuff. You know about what we were doing, and how to do the work and what we needed to do next and stuff.

Me and Hubby: So he was teaching you?

Him: Yeah, I s'pose.

And any positive thoughts we'd ever had about about ability to connect with our students and really get through to them went flying out the window!

Then we turned our attention to Offspring #2...

Me: What about you Poss? How was your day?

Her: Boring. BORING!

Me: That doesn't sound too good. Why was it boring?

Her: It just was.

Me: Well what did you do?

Her: Well... we went into the classroom and then we sat on the mat and then the teacher said 'good morning' and we all said 'good morning' and the other teacher said 'good morning' and we all said 'good morning' and this week we have another teacher so then she said 'good morning' and we...

Me and Hubby (giggling): all said 'good morning.'

Her: Umm... yeah. And then...

We were a bit concerned we might end up following the events of her day in real time and cut to the chase with a few well placed questions and then a distraction to change the subject. I'm thinking we might need to work on her summarising skills!

It's Gratituesday Again

I am very grateful to have had a really positive conversation with Offspring #1's teacher today - #1 is having a few difficulties at school at the moment and it was great to get a good response, hear a plan of action and then have #1 come home happy that something is being done. I don't think it will bring about a miracle fix but it's a start.

Cupcakes and Comfort Food

You know how the second day of anything is generally harder and slightly worse than the first? Like the first day of a new job is hard because of the unknown but the second day is harder because you actually know what you're in for.

Remember how yesterday, the first day of our school year, was all positive and good? Yeah.

The second day? Not so much.

Poor Offspring #2 came out of the classroom and was in tears before she even got to me. All of five steps away. She blubbered and babbled her way to the car before she eventually started speaking in a language I could understand. Oh my poor baby. Most of it was simple worrying about the world and not wanting to do the wrong thing, one part was about the class being told off because of two children who were misbehaving and another part had to do with the teacher asking them to write something and her having a panic because she's "only just started year 1 and I don't know how to write all the words yet!"

Offspring #1's day was deemed "okay" but he'd cut his finger and it hurt every time he tried to write. And when he saw his sister's tears he decided to join in the pity party

I hugged and kissed, commiserated and eased fears and racked my brain for how to make the afternoon just a little bit brighter. And then hit on the perfect solution.

So we made choc-chip cupcakes, iced them with chocolate icing and covered them with sprinkles. And then I made their second favourite dinner. Tuna and Pasta, or 70's style Tuna Mornay if you're feeling fancy. Cupcakes and comfort food. Guaranteed to make a rotten day just a little bit brighter.

Here's hoping tomorrow's a whole lot better.

Back to School

And the long summer holidays finally draw to a close! That seven or so weeks of holidays just seemed to go on and on and on. Perhaps not to the school teaching Hubby but they did to me. And please don't think I mean that as a negative thing - I have loved having a break from routine, hanging out as a family and having the opportunity to be a bit spontaneous. Yeah, I said a bit spontaneous -I think we all know I can only cope with a little bit of spontaneity.

My kids were up, dressed and raring to go before six this morning. Yes seriously. And yes, that two and half hours until we actually left for school seemed a great deal longer. Offspring #1 is now in Year 5 and well and truly qualifies as one of the big kids. Even if he's still my tiny boy. And Offspring #2 was completely over-excited to be joining the BIG school in Year 1. She told me yesterday that she was looking forward to not having to be with "all those little kids". You know, the ones she spend last year with, quite happily.

 I got a couple of gorgeous First Day photos...

And a couple of crazy face photos. And this one that showed exactly how fed up Offspring #2 was with the whole photo taking caper.

The actual drop off at their classrooms was something of an anti-climax. #1 gave me a wave and told me I could take #2 to her classroom now. And #2 settled into a seat next to one of her friends and told me I could go to work as she needed to be ready "to learn stuff" Good to feel wanted on such a big day.

And I'm very happy to report that while I spent the day at work worrying about them, they both had terrific first days, are happy with their teachers, brought home library books and are looking forward to tomorrow. Phew!

Gotta Love Holiday Time

We took a break from the house cleaning and chook pen building to pack a picnic morning tea, throw the canoe on top of the car and take the kids to the lake for the morning.

The kids played in the water, we all had a paddle on the lake, we pigged out on fruit, dip and vegie sticks and finished the last of the only-at-Christmas-coz-it's-special coloured popcorn. Then we paddled some more, played more, threw a tennis ball for the boy-child to catch in the water about three thousand times and finally all had an ice-cream from the cafe to top off a fun, relaxing and totally enjoyable family morning.

Here are some of the pics I did manage to get before my memory card was full. I really must remember to empty that thing - Offspring #2's ice-cream smile really should have been immortalised here too!

Christmas Photo Dump

Like so many others, we alternate whose family we spend Christmas Day with - this year was with Hubby's family and Boxing Day was spent with mine. So two huge days of celebrating, eating, drinking, presents, more eating and then a bit more celebrating.

Here are some of the shots I love most from the past couple of days. They aren't all great shots but they make me smile.

Grumping Along and Venting

I've had a shocker of a day so please forgive the whining and grumping that make up this post. It started with badly behaved children (my own) progressed to a spectacularly bad bout of ugly parenting (again, my own)and, with work in the middle, ended with me trying to help the boy-child with his homework. Which is actually the point of tonight's grumpy post.

Offspring #1 has a new teacher this term. Can't be helped, his regular teacher is unwell and they have someone filling in for her for the rest of the year. He's been given a book report to do that, to my mind, is more in line with what I'd expect of a year 8 class (he's in year 4). The part that really gets up my nose is that it was given as a 'completely at home, no time in class' task. Fine and all, but surely it would be a good idea for the teacher to know what book the kids are doing their report on. The fact that #1 has chosen a fairly lengthy, detailed novel that took five days to get through and now needs to talk about characterisation and themes with no assistance or checking on by the teacher has me seeing red. Back in my teaching days,when I assigned tasks like this I also set mini-due dates. For example: It's due in two weeks but by Tuesday you need to have notes on two characters and by Thursday I need to see your notes on the three themes in the story and by the following Monday... We also would have done extensive work on character, themes, etc before they had to do it on their own. You know, provide them with the scaffolding to let them actually succeed at the task they're doing.

To top it off, #1 was told he would be presenting his talk at the beginning of next week. We were working along to have him all done and dusted for that date. He arrived home today having a panic because now he's supposed to do it tomorrow and he hasn't finished all the work or practiced it. Ummm, not gonna happen. I've written letter to the teacher explaining that he will not be doing the talk tomorrow but will be ready to do it on the date he was assigned and that she should ring me if that's an issue. I think I've worded it fairly nicely but, to be honest, I don't actually care.

Hello Lovelies!

Hello there, it's nice to see you all again. Thank you for your extreme patience while I've been absent, yet again, with a sick girl-child. Her asthma flared up again and this time it was very bad. Ten solid nights of asthma attacks, and usually 4 or 5 attacks each night. And she started having them during the day which has never happened before. Our GP has put her back onto just about every treatment she's ever had, all at the same time, and finally she seems to on the mend. She's not quite back to her normal self yet - still tiring quite easily and needing to be handled a little more gently than usual - but I knew she was finally getting better when I told her to use her inside voice yesterday and realised I hadn't done that for two weeks.

Another thing that showed me just how unwell she'd been (as if I didn't know that!) happened on Friday when she jumped on my bathroom scales to see how much she 'cost'. It's a family saying and, when they were little, both kids loved to see that they 'cost' more each time they jumped on (unless they didn't leave enough time between visits!). She looked a the scales and announced, "Well, I don't know how that happened!" When I looked at the display window I realised what she was on about. What used to say 21kg's was reading 19kg's. The poor little poppet had lost two kilograms while she was sick simply through a lack of appetite. But she made up for it today when we were out to lunch - she ate all of her lunch, almost half of her Dad's and then had ice-cream afterwards. I doubt she'll eat anything for dinner but with all that in her I don't think she'll miss it.

We went to a family wedding on Friday morning - a nice drive to the country, a gorgeous sunny day, and a couple very much in love. Here's a pic of the kids, all dressed up and grinning their wee heads off. It was #2's first 'good' day and she lasted till just after midday. Luckily we left not long after and she slept for just over an hour on the way home. Not bad for a kid who flatly refuses to sleep during the day or in the car.

Red Is The Best, Forget The Rest!

No, not my hair colour, though I am rocking a newly red-ed do at the moment! We're talking the annual school sports carnival. There's my boy, in the middle of all the girls. Of course!

The kids had school carnival on Friday and while Offspring #2 wasn't well enough to take part she did have fun cheering (and eating!) her way through the day. I got to sit with one of my BFF's and catch up on all the news. And we all got to enjoy a gorgeously warm, sunny day doing not a whole lot more than yelling at our kids to RUNNNNN!!!!  After the super-busy week I'd had, with another to come, it was exactly the kind of enforced inactivity I needed.

Offspring #1 seemed to be in just about every single event. He did really well in the team events and put in a great effort in the individual events brigng home a whole swag of coloured ribbons. I was so caught up in the cheering and relaxing that I only grabbed the camera out a couple of times - and most of them turned into a blurry, eyes closed, really bad kind of shot anyway. But my favourite was from a fun team event. The tug-of-war.

And the best part? Red faction was the overal winner for the day. Oh yeah!

Pretty Faces

Hubby was tied up this afternoon so, for a rare change, I collected the kids from their after school care. And this is what greeted me:

A beautiful butterfly girl.

And a Blues face for my footy-mad, Carlton supporting boy.

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon really. 

Posting, With Pics!

I know my posts have been a bit sporadic lately and I haven't had many photos up here either so I'm making an effort to get back into more regular blogging as well as picking up my camera a bit more often than I have been. So, here's a post, with pics!

Here's my girl with her fat lips. Not that they've slowed her down much - she's till babbling away a mile a minute.

And here's my boy with his footy trophy.

And remember our puppy, Betsy? She's six months old now and the hard work of training her is paying off. She's still completely mental but she'll follow commands and is generally turning into a nice little dog. Remember how we were told she was a Border Collie? Yeah, not so much as it turns out. It would seem she's got a whole heap more Red Cloud Kelpie in her. In fact we rather suspect it's about 100% Red Cloud Kelpie and 0% Border Collie. Not exactly the breed we would have chosen but she's ours now and, despite the yelling when she digs up my roses, we all love her.

My Amazingly Clever Boy

Remember the footy mad son of mine? He's played his second year of under-9's for the local football club and his skills have really developed this season. He's worked hard on getting into the play, grabbing the ball and getting out again - or as it's known in our house ""doing a Juddy". We've reminded him of the need to stick to his man and stay in his position and he's taken that on board. He's come a long way this season and I have been so proud of his hard work but also impressed with how much he loves playing football and how hard he tries.

Yesterday the club held their end of season sausage sizzle and presentations. It's a big day with bouncy castles and inflatable slides, sausages and soft drinks and of course the presentations. All the kids get a medal for being part of the team and there are also some special awards too. My super talented, super clever, super gorgeous boy won the award for Best and Fairest Player and I couldn't be more proud of him. Watch out Carlton, he's looking to be on your player list in about ten years.

PS No, I'm not a pushy parent. Yes, I am being very tongue-in-cheek calling any kid in the Under-9's 'super talented'. Yes, I am fully aware that an award at nine years of age does not mean he'll hit the big league.  And yes, I'm doing my best to break that last bit to him gently.

Tap, tap, tap. Is This Thing On?

Hi. I'm here really. Between being worn out last week and not being able to get on the internet a few nights I lost track of the blogging. It wasn't until last night that I realised I hadn't posted since Tuesday. Then rather than actually blog I decided to go dye my hair instead. Yep, I'm vain and sometimes vanity comes first!

So what did we get up to last week? Lots of cooking, lots of running around and the most important thing of all, Offspring #1's birthday party. His birthday isn't until later this week but we had a few 'scheduling issues' (ie, Mum stuffed up) so we had his party the weekend before and told him he could have a week of celebrations! Hey, it sounds good to me and he went along with it. Because he's turning 9 he got to invite that number of kids along - that's one of our house b'day party rules, as many guests as the age you're turning - and we piled them all into the two cars and headed off for a couple of hours of rollerskating. It was so much fun, the kids had HUGE grins on their faces, and even better it wasn't at my place so someone else cleaned up the mess. Awesome. #2 had a blast, which was of course the purpose of the outing, and the kids were kept nicely entertained for the afternoon. Also awesome.

Just a note - I'm currently munching my way through a packet of chocolate freckles that I bought this morning to go on top of the birthday cake for school. Hmmmm... that's what happens when you get nice and organised and buy the lolly stuff you need at the beginning of the week!

This week's menu plan:

Monday: Corned Beef Fritters (last night's roast ended up being Corned Beef, so in an effort to be frugal and make good use of the leftovers...)

Tuesday: Chicken Curry pies with Sweet Potato (if it sounds familiar it was on the plan a couple of weeks ago but I didn't get around to making it)

Wednesday: Tuna Pasta Casserole

Thursday: BBQ

Friday: Birthday dinner - sausage sizzle with the grandparents after footy training

Saturday: we'll be out

Sunday: Leftovers from the freezer - probably mac'n'cheese for the kids and chicken casserole for us.

Baking: Apple and Butterscotch Sponge Pudding, Chocolate B'day Cake, Mini Quiches.

Passing It On

I read a letter in one the foodie mags earlier in the week that inspired me. The letter was about how the reader and her son had started cooking dinner together one night a week and, despite letting the kids help when I'm baking a cake, it make me think about how much I don't let my kids do in the kitchen. So I decided to have a chat with my 8year old boy, Offspring #1, and see if he wanted to try something similar. 

The plan is that we'll have a flick through some cookbooks and foodie mags, as I do when I'm doing the weekly menu plan anyway, and find something that #1 would like to cook for dinner on night each week. He was desperate to tackle Spag Bol for his first meal but was persuaded to leave it a few more weeks as we already have a couple of pots in the freezer. Instead he decided that we'd make hamburgers for Friday night. So we did.

He learnt to peel and chop an onion, grate carrot and cheese, shape meat patties and turn on the gas for the hotplates. He discovered the fun of mixing a meat pattie mixture with your hands and loved watching the onion change in both colour and texture as it went from raw, white and hard to  a deliciously sauteed soft, shiny and translucent. And he found out how satisfying it is to cook something yummy and have everyone pay you lavish compliments.

We both had lots of fun and have plans to spend some time tomorrow looking for something to add to next week's menu. Look, honestly I'm not sure how long it'll last - either his interest or my patience - but I figure it's worth a try. I'll let you know how it pans out.

You're Cooking What???

Offspring #1: What's for dinner?

Me: Minced Beef Wellington.

#1: Minced Beef LAMINGTON? That sounds... weird.

Me (laughing myself silly): NO! Minced Beef WELLINGTON!! It's a Jamie Oliver recipe. You'll like it, I promise.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

And Now He Is 8

Which makes me the mother of an 8 year old! Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

Here's my gorgeous 8 year old boy on his birthday present. I think his butt might have to be surgically removed from the seat as he's hardly got out of it all weekend.

And because I feel compelled to prove, year after year, that cake decorating is just not my thing here's a photo of the birthday cake. It's supposed to be an Aussie Rules football field, the candles are the goal posts and the ball is a chocolate clinker.

In other news about #1, he brought home his school report today and it is BRILLIANT! He got great marks, fantastic comments from his teachers and a really positive comment from his classroom teacher. It hasn't been a particularly great year school-wise (in my opinion) and I am so so so proud of him. Now we're on the downhill slide to the mid-year school holidays and I can't wait for Friday!

Oh Dear

When I collected Offspring #1 from school yesterday he told me that his hand hurt. I threw it a cursory glance, declared that it was fine and started to lead the way to the car, grabbing his hand as I walked. Oooops, grabbed the sore hand. He yelled and cried and I took a closer look then realised it was actually quite swollen and, after a poke or two, that it was very tender. Decision time. Take him home and listen to the moaning (he's a total sook) or go straight to the doctor, pay through the nose for a visit, and get it seen?

Off to the doctor we went. Who sent us down the hill for x-rays. Who charges us even more money and then sent us back up the hill to the Dr so he could tell us #1's thumb was badly sprained but not broken. The hand was bandaged to provide it with some support and he was told to take it easy, not take part in his sports class today and that hopefully he'd be fine for the footy game on Sunday.

Luckily it's his left hand so all is good school-wise, just can't do sport. He decided to help me out and write the note to his teacher letting him know.

I thought it was super cute and simply added my bit on the end:

Dear Mr Teacher,

As Ben has so succinctly stated, he has sprained his thumb rather badly - x-rays show no break - and is not to do sport today.

Kind regards,

Ben's Mum

When I collected him today the teacher gave me back the note. He and his student teacher thought it was super-cute too and that I might like to keep it. They didn't know I'd already taken a photo of it this morning LOL.

Footy Star

Here's my little football player.

He had his first ever 'proper' game of Aussie Rules football today. No more Auskick for us, he's in the under-9's team and is LOVING it. Proper training one afternoon a week and a real game with quarters and water bottles and oranges and an umpire with a whistle and everything. He had an absolute ball at today's game and I don't think anything could have wiped away the enormous grin on his face. Just gorgeous.