The One I Hate

I'll admit it - I am not the neatest of freaks. My house is quite thoroughly lived in, and though do try and clean some part of it everyday it retains that air of ' recent tornado ' that only a 3 yr old boy can provide. So even though I do my best there one job I just hate doing.... and that's cleaning the bathroom.

Maybe if I had a bathroom like this I might enjoy cleaning it...

The problem is that the bathroom isn't one of those jobs you can put off forever. You know, like folding the washing - you can put that off until you've cultivated yourself quite a nice Mt Washing-ton and it doesn't really matter. But if you put cleaning the bathroom off for too long and you start cultivating yourself a nice batch of mould.... which is really not that nice at all is it?

So I nominated Tuesdays as ' clean the bathroom day '.... and its now Wednesday night and I haven't done it yet. ( Drafting a pattern and sewing Tully a pretty dress has been way more important ). I'm not sure exactly what it is that irks me so much about cleaning the bathroom - maybe the chemical smells, maybe the myriad of surfaces that have to be scrubbed, maybe the fact I'm the only one who does it - but I know that now that i 've already misuse my cleaning day by one day, I have to get to it tomorrow. Or Friday, at the latest.

So what about you - which domestic delight do you find less than delightful?

Adevntures in World Touring and Big Boy Rooms

I've always found that if i had things on my calendar to look forward to it makes the boring/slow/unmotivated down days a bit easier to bare. " So today i feel like balling my eyes out? So  what - next week i'm on holiday! ". You know, that type of thing. Well, yesterday was one of those " loking forward to " days because Flynn and I were lucky enough to have tickets to see " Elmo's World Tour " !

Sure, it may not sound overly exciting an activity for a grown up but truth be told i WAS really looking forward to it. I've loved " Sesame Street " since i was a little girl and i'm so glad that Flynn has inherited that same love of all things Muppet/Jim Henson related. So when i found out they were bringing an Elmo show to our local theatre i made sure i got two tickets - and front row at that!

Flynn loved it - he spent at least the first 15 minutes waving to all the characters ( its a wonder his little arm didnt fall off he was flapping it that hard! ), and had great fun dancing, laughing and participating in the show when the characters called for it. And i loved being able to see him all lit up by something so special - i was almost brough to tears by huge his smile was, and how his little eyes widened in wonder at every new aspect of the show. I'm so glad we were able to go, and only wish that maybe next time something like that comes to town Daddy is able to come with us and share in it too!

And after all the excitement of Elmo, i ahd the somewhat more adult excitement of being finally able to put Flynns new " big boy " room together! The garage-to-bedroom/playroom conversion was completed by the carpet layers while we were at the Elmo show, so when we got home i got busy moving him in. Aside from a lunch and a dinner break, i literally spent 7 hrs yesterday builing flatpack furniture, setting it up, and moving all the toys and books from loungeroom and old bedroom to the new one. I have to say by 8:30pm last night was completely and utterly exhausted - methinks this pregnant lady took on too much for one day! - but it was well worth to be able to put him to sleep in his cool new room and snuggle down into my own bed to watch " Revenge " in peace!

 Its still missing the finishing touches of decor/wall art but an extra living space we have in our duplex now, but it is ready in plenty of time for Miss Jelly's arrival into the world! ( Which, of course, means my next project is getting Flynns old room ready for the baby ). So my big important question for the day - who do you think is going to get shot on the beach in the " Revenge " season finale?

Getting Crafty With My Bad Self

So tomorrow my sister boyfriend, The Builder, is coming to turn our current garage/junk storage space into a new " big boy " room for Flynn. Even tough it will be another week at least before we can move Flynn in there ( we have to paint next weekend, get carpet layed and then put together his new furniture first... ) i'm kind of excited. Its not exactly as exciting as moving house - nor as time consuming or expensive! - but it does mean a bit more living space and hopefully the chance for a tidier home. See, in theory, the new room will be bedroom/playroom - Flynns bed and tall boy at one end, a futon, bookcases and tubs of toys at the other - so i'm anticipating not having as much mess to clean up in my loungeroom everyday. Of course, thats just the theory... i'm sure in reality there will be just as much mess, except i'll be able to shut the bedroom door and pretend the tornado-like destruction doesnt exist!

The mini-reno also means that Flynns old room will be free to set up for the new baby. Like most clucky ladies before me, this is the part i'm most excited about because it means re-decorating! Somewhat unfortunately, when expecting Flynn and knowing he was a boy, we went ahead and painted that room blue.... but this time around i have neither the time, energy nor inclination to repaint. I figure a baby girl can quite easily live in a blue room, as long as i give it a few feminine touches! And, seeing as in my head i'm a totally awesome crafty mama, i've gone ahead and started the re-decoration by making a bunting to go above her cot. As i dont actually own a sewing machine, anything i make will have to be hand sewn so i'm only part way done, but the finished product will be alternate plain/printed triangular flags with the letters to spell out her name ( which, yes, has been decided on but is a closely guarded secret til she arrives! ).

I'm also planning on using the same plain and printed materials to make some "art " to go on the opposite wall of her room. Its something i've never done before but i figure if i can source the right type of backing board and astaple gun i should be right! So - what do you think? Is it easier for a little girl to live with blue than it is for a boy to live with pink? And are you a wannabe DIY-crafty lady like me or is it pre-made/shop bought all the way for you?

List? Check!

I'm considering becoming a list person.

You know the ones - those highly organised people who make " to do " lists, and then manage to get everything on that list finished? I want to be one of those. If it means i can keep my house tidier and the general unavoidable toddler chaos more confined, then i'm willing to give it a shot.

My list will be a little more boring than this one...

I did try it once, when i was still a young singleton living on my own. I wrote down all the little jobs i wanted to get done that week ( i may even have broken it up into days, which is slightly more anal than it needs to be... ) and then i ticked them off as i got them done. It worked - having it all spelt in black and white on the front of the fridge helped keep me on track. I felt a sense of accomplishment when it was all ticked off, even if it wasn't anything groundbreaking. It was just standard stuff like " Fold clean washing ", " Vacuum carpet ", " Tidy Tupperware cupboard "... but it meant that my house was neater and tidier and, for me, a happier place to be.

So what say you? Are you a list person? I'm considering starting next week and doing one especially for Monday through Friday , so i can get myself and the house ready before the wedding, and so i dont forget to pack all the important stuff to take on the honeymoon!

Over The Hill And Far Away

So remember how i said i was trying to get all my ducks in a row? Yea, well - those ducks have officially flown off and deserted me. Gone north for the winter or something. Either way, those ducks are no longer lined up the way we wanted them to be, which means the dream of family home ownership is still not in reach.

There go my ducks... ( pic from here )

So - poo to that. Basically i went to the bank we are already with ( again - which bank? ) and basically got told we can borrow pretty much jack squat, and I got pretty basic customer service to go along with that little announcement. To be quite frank i got the feeling that i wasnt worth enough money to the bank for them to bother trying too hard to help me. So poo to the bank!

Then i went to Aussie Home Loans and spoke to a mortgage broker there who, despite telling me we could get a fraction more than jack squat ( which was better, but still not enough to buy a decent place ), was really lovely. She was really helpful - not only did she run the numbers to see how much we could borrow, but she also gave me some alternatives, and some advice in how to get moving in the right direction. Actually, she gave me such good customer service i think i might write a little thank you " Thumbs Up " into our local paper.

So basically - we arent in the position yet to sell my duplex and buy a family home. And where does that leave us, seeing as we are hoping to expand our family in the very near future? It leaves us with.... converting our garage into a third bedroom/playroom. I'm not sure whether it will add value to the property when we can afford to sell it but, seeing as we arent in the position to move, converting is what we need to do in order to have enough space for a growing family.

Have any of you converted your garages into "inhabitable " rooms? Any advice? Or anyone looking to donate a couple of hundred thousand dollars to a young family?

Getting All My Ducks In A Row

Alrighty - so you may have seen a few of my Tweets this past fortnight or so begging for someone to buy my house ( or to lend me a few thousand dollars ) ? Yes well, i have the itchiest of itchy feet.... our little duplex is great and all but i just want to start the next chapter of our lives NOW. However, until this week, i havent done anything to make that happen other than trying to will myself to win the lottery. Apparently, no matter how hard you wish, you cant attract absoluetly EVERYTHING into your life...

An " Edward Scissorhands " neighbourhood - that'd be nice...

So i've decided i'm going to be proactive about this whole " lets buy a house" thing. I've gone to an open home for a house that would be in our price range, and i've had a chat to the real estate agent there about the market, how much we could expect to sell the duplex for, and how long it might take.

I've made an appointment with our bank ( which bank? ) to see the home loan specialist, so we can figure out how much we might need to sell for to cover the existing mortage, plus commission/solicitor/etc blah blah blah, but also so that we can (hopefully) be pre-approved for a new loan. That way, Mick and I can have a realistic expectation of what we might be able to afford to spend on a new property.

I plan on making an appointment with a mortgage broker when i'm done at the bank. Mick isnt too keen ( he thinks we stand a better chance at the bank because we're existing customers ) but i want to know exactly whats available to us. I dont want to find "the" house, get a loan with our existing bank and then find out we sold ourselves short.

After all that, our plan is to list the duplex when we get back from our honeymoon, and begin looking for a new house right away. If everything fell into place ( which, lets face it - these things rarely do ) we would be able to sell the duplex and find a new house within a few weeks of each other, and move out of one and into the other before the 6 week settlement period was up. If we cant find and move into a house in that 6 week period... well, then it looks like we'd move in with my parents for a while. " Argh, no, dont do it! " i hear some of you shouting ( Holly is probably behind her screen screaming at me right now... )... but thats the only workable solution. If we did have that period in between selling and buying and we didnt move in with my parents we'd be homeless. And as frusturating as it may be to live in a household that would contain 5 adults ( including my sister ) and one toddler well... its gotta be better than having nowhere at all to live.

So - bring on November i say. Wedding, honeymoon, Wiggles concert ( i know - excited much!?! ) and listing a house.... you know, if my stress doesnt kill me first!

Itchy

You know that feeling of wanting something, and wanting it now, now, NOW? That unscratchable itch? Yea, well i've got the itch, and i've got it bad. Its like my brain is stuck in fast-forward, and the more i dwell on thoughts of the future, the "itchier" i get. I'm wanting three things:

1) I want to get married
2) I want to build a house and
3) I want to have another baby.
And i want all these things to happen tomorrow, or at least thats how i've been feeling the last few weeks or so.

He's definately got an itch....

Its crazy really - each of those things are very realistically on the cards, its just that i cant shake these feelings of wanting to have it all happen tomorrow, next week, next month... not next year, or the year after that. I mean, our wedding is now only just over 4 months away ( which, in reality, is crazy/scary soon ... ) yet night after night i run through the plans in my head and secretly wish that everything was already organised and we could just say the " I do "s this weekend. After the wedding, Mick and I are planning on having another baby - and by planning i mean i've sat down and figured out how to manipulate the Pill so i have my last period right before the wedding and we can start baby-making on the honeymoon. And when we have another child, a two bedroom duplex is just not going to be enough room, so the want for another house will be more like a need. And, rather than buy an established home ( which is still a great fallback plan ) what we'd like to do is buy a block of land in a village just outside of the town we live in and build. I'm not talking anything fancy - no giant McMansion for us - just a 3 or 4 bedroom home, with built-ins and a nice big kitchen. We've even looked at the option of having a kit home/transportable home built by a local company and have found that it makes things pretty affordable for us, providing we sell the duplex before borrowing money for the build. Realistically, all this selling and borrowing and building cant happen til at least the end of this year, and all the timing becomes a bit trickier if you throw a pregnancy into the mix.

I guess what i'm saying is - who wants to give me $250 000? No, no, thats not it ( athough, if you have deep pockets... ). What i really mean is even though i have this crazy urge to have it all, and have it NOW, i also know that the more i focus on the future, the less i'm concentrating on the now. I'm living with my head in the proverbial clouds, which means i'm missing so much of whats happening down here in the real world. The real, tangible, its-happening-right-now... well... now. So - its not just me is it? Tell me i'm not the only one who is itching to get things done, and to do it all without resorting to massive credit card debt or an astronomical mortage?

Baby, Baby...

Flynn and i hosted mothers group at our house this morning - and, to my delight, it actually went well. See, i had this dream last night that absolutely nobody turned up, so i was panicking just a little when, 15 minutes after the scheduled start time, nobody had arrived yet. But - phew!- people were just a little late because little babies dont like to let you get anywhere on time. They're either:
a) still sleeping when you need to go ( and you DO NOT wake them up )
b) needing a feed ( and you cant hurry a feed or bubs gets grumpy )
c) they do what is popularly known as a Number Three ( poo poo blowout! )
or d) its actually you running late because your just a frazzled new mum.

We only had a small group today ( Flynn and I and four other pairs ) but thats ok because I only have a small house. We live in a 2 bedroom duplex which, although its kinda on the small side, suits us just fine. For now. Lately i've been daydreaming about the time when we can get a bigger place - a house instead of a duplex - and ( gasp ) having another baby. Yep, Flynn is only four and half months old and i'm already daydreaming about another bubba. Is that weird? Even with the trouble he's been having with his digestion ( which we are going to see the paedatrician for on Monday... ) the last four months have just been such a delight, i cant imagine having only one. And i've always wanted to have at least two, possibly three. Of course, when i mentioned all this to Mick he kind of went white.... thinking about another baby so soon kind of sends dudes into an internal mini-meltdown.

So watching my son interact relatively well with other babies ( i say relatively because he did have a little sook for a while there ) - the little people we already refer to as his friends - just makes me think what it would be like having two kids to look after. Two boys or one of each? How jealous would Flynn get? Would he be a good helper? Is he gonna share? Lord, the things that go through my head and, in reality, another baby is at least 2 years into the future. One thing i know for sure - that bubba is gonna be loved....

I'm Drowning!

Not literally of course - if i was, there would be no way i could get word to you guys via the interweb from underwater.

What i mean is i'm drowning in a sea of washing and its kind of annoying me ( although i can still make time to blog about it... ). Its annoying me because its there, and its annoying me because its making my house look untidy and i want to fold it and put it away.... but its like i cant. I keep looking at it and its frusturating me because i sooooooooo wanna be this SuperHousewife and i'm so motivated to do it - until it actually comes time to fold the damn clothes and then i'm all like " Flynn needs me " or " I need a nap " or " Hey, those cookies are calling my name ". I mean, its so bad - i'm all caught up with washing the clothes so its not like i have a mountain of dirty stuff lying around, its just that the overflowing baskets ( two and bit... ) of clean stuff is making a total brothel of my house. Seriously, when i get off this computer ( Lori, i have a problem.... ) i'm diving straight into the washing.

In other news, this time of the TMI variety - my son is still, ahem, " backed up ". Its been 16 days since he went naturally, without any " prompting " by a doctor, and the worry is starting to do my head in. Sometime he's in real pain and screams for 30 to 40 minutes at a time, and thats kind of stressful. We've tried: plain water, prune juice, pureed fruit, a teaspoon of paraffin oil, massage, warm baths and now we're on a steady diet of carrot/apple juice along with booby milks. And ...nothing. Not even a skiddy. Anyone got any other suggestions?

And finally - its voting time! Head over to Blog This! and vote for me in this weeks challenge!

Just Call Me Slummy Mummy

I’m suffering from mummy guilt. Or maybe I should make that housewife guilt, because its not exactly the mothering side that I’m feeling guilty about, but rather the taking-care-of-housework side. That is, I kind of feel like some things are getting away from me and that makes me feel like I’m not doing the best job I can.


See there is cleaning washing piling up all around me – some that needs folding, some that I’ve already folded and just haven’t put away yet; dirty washing to be done sitting in the laundry; I haven’t vacuumed the floors in well over a fortnight and I think my wonderful post-baby hair fall is causing my bathroom tiles to resemble a shag carpet. Even as I take 10 minutes or so to sit here and blog, I know I could be using this time to put away the clean dishes ( that Mick washed last night ) or fold some of that piled up washing ( most of which Mick washed on the weekend ). I also know that all those parenting and mummy magazines say that the dishes can wait – whats most important is me and my baby – but I cant help but feel that bad that my house does not look like my mothers house, or at least the way I remember my mums housing looking when I was a kid.

Granted, my mum also let the clean washing pile up ( so maybe that’s hereditary ) but as far as I can remember Mum always had the carpets vacuumed, the furniture dusted, the dishes washed,dried and put away and had everything ready so that when Dad got home he could cook the dinner ( yep, my Dad did most of the cooking. He’s just better at it then my mum ). I know my mum had the whole “ it’s a womans work “ thing ingrained in her brain by my grandma and believe me, I don’t want to be some kind of weird Stepford wife, living only to please her husband. But I feel like Mick deserves a nicer, neater house than what I keep it, and I feel like I’m letting him down in someway. He says I’m not and, besides, I make him awesome muffins… but still, I just feel like I could do better.

So tell me other mums – and not-mums who manage to keep everything in order: how do you do it ? And, if like me, your in slummy-mummy territory, how do you feel about it?

Mi Casa es .... Umm, How Do You Say Baby In Spanish ?

I’m nesting. Kind of like a giant, watermelon-bellied bird.

Yes, until now I’d always thought it was an old wives tale or one of those funny things pregnant ladies say to explain away their craziness, but I have the “ nesting instinct “, and I have it bad. Basically, its this intense feeling of wanting to clean and rearrange and generally get my house for ready for the arrival of the baby. Like I said, I’d heard of women saying they were nesting before and I just thought it was a load of clap trap. But over the course of the last month or so this need to have my house in tip-top shape has taken hold of me – and its getting worse. Its not just cleaning ( that’s how it started ) – its decorating too. I purchased my little duplex earlier this year, and moved in back in July, but its only now that I’m obsessed with having all the decorating finished.

Mr Gil and I have spent a good amount of time in the last two weeks painting. Its with good reason – the previous owners had thought it a brilliant idea to paint the walls garish, circus clown colours and, pregnant or not, there is no way I could live with a Kermit the Frog green bathroom. ( I would find a Kermit the Frog bath mat appealing though ). So now all the walls in the living area are a nice, neutral sandy/green colour, with a slightly darker hue for the architraves. I’ve made it my personal project to paint all the doors ( the same colour as the walls, only in a gloss paint ) and I only have three doors to go. Mr Gil is fervently working on the baby’s room – and knowing that we are having a boy guess what colour we went with ? Blue – yes, no-one could ever accuse of being original. I liked a seafoamy green colour but Mr Gil was set on the blue, so blue it is. It’s a lovely aqua blue and the trim will be a darker navy colour and we’ve ( ok – I’VE ) chosen to go with white furniture.

I never knew decorating my home would get to me so much. Sure, I knew what paint colours I was and wasn’t willing to live with, but I wasn’t prepared for how emotionally attached to the choices I would be. I want the house – my first own, non-rented piece of property – to be an extension of me. A visual interpretation of what image I have of myself, and want others to have of me. I want to say “ of us “ because we’re almost a real family now, the three of us ( Mr Gil, The Bump and me… ) but aside from really wanting to have blue in the baby’s room, Mr Gil has been happy with my décor suggestions. Or at least, he hasn’t voiced any objections. So I’ve gone with what I like, whats “ me “ and i’m just hoping in some way its “ him “ too, and he’ll be comfortable living with neutral paint colour and black and white photography on the walls. I want our space to be classic yet contemporary, but I don’t want to feel like I’m living in some kind of art museum. You know ?

Maybe you don’t. All I am sure of is that there is crazy, overwhelming desire within me to get it all finished before the baby arrives. Its not just some idea of practicality – “ It’ll be much easier to do it before we have a crying baby to look after “ – but more of a “ I cannot possibly be a good mother unless my walls are painted/pictures are hung/bathroom is sparkling !!! “.

Yes, triple exclamation mark – its that nuts.

( I Have No ) Marley and Me

Alright,yes - I saw " Marley and Me " over the weekend. Mr Gil came wandering in after being out for the morning and my sister had just started the DVD, so we all sat down to watch it. It was a pretty good movie i suppose - it was your typical feelgood, fluffy, chick type of flick, but this post is less about the movie ( and how Jennifer Aniston will always be so perfectly thin, even after having three theoretical children )..... and more about how i want a dog.

I mean, that was the basis of the story right ? Its called " Marley and Me ", not " My Wife and Me " or " My Love/Hate Affair with My Job and Me ". And Marley, for those of you not in the know, is the dog in the story. A quiet giant golden retriever dog. Who happens to be completely mental and not even close to trainable ( until the babies start coming and he settles down in his old age ). And all of his mishaps and misadventures only make him more loveable. I'm sure that if this were not a Hollywood movie and actual real life, you might get sick of a dog like Marley in his puppy stages. But its all part of the fun right?

I cant wait to have a dog again. Dogs are the greatest, arent they ? Even when theyre the chew-everything-in-sight, jump-on-your-lap-at-any-opportunity, dig-your-lawn-to-pieces type of dog, theyre still so much to have around. They love unconditionally, so even when you completely ruin that fancy meal you wanted to cook for your special someone, your other, furrier, special someone will lap it up like its came Gordon Ramsays own skillet. They promote exercise, and snuggles and afternoons in the park. And even though they smell bad and they expect you to clean up their crap, they only have to give you that cute " puppy-dog eyes " look and your heart melts for them.

Only five more weeks until i move into my new place, where the landlord happens to me - which, happily, means dogs are allowed. I'm tossing up between a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a Whippet.... oh, decisions, decisions!

I've Been Stimulated

Ah.... the global economic meltdown. I'd like to say that you amuse me, but truth is... you dont. I dont think your amusing anybody, not even rich fatcats sitting up in their mansions because they're losing money along with everybody else. Truth be told, i'm not doing too badly - i have a good, stable job and i dont have any investments dragging me backwards. Plus, i've just received a nice little monetary gift ... courtesy of Uncle Kevin Rudd.

Who , you say ? Uncle Kevvie or, as you non-Aussies may know him ( if you've heard of him at all ... ) Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia. Thats right people, the Australian government is giving money away and i've got me some! If you're an Australian taxpayer who earned less than $100 000 last financial year ( uh, yea... i'm waaaaaay under the qualifying mark ) the government will give a $900 cash injection. The idea is that everybody takes their " free " $900 and spends it, thus stimulating the Australian economy.

Question is: what do i spend it on ?

High Definition TV?

Fancy new mobile phone ?

Sky high pair of Christian Louboutins?

I dont really need the new phone, and although i would die to be wearing gorgeous Louboutins ( i'd sleep in them i'd love them so much! ) i dont really need them either. I am actually tossing up getting a TV to replace my old flat screen but im going to wait til the price is right. So where will my K.Rudd money being going ? For now, into my savings account. Boring, i know, but until i can decide exactly what i want to do with it - tearing down a wall in my new house or investing in a new piece of furniture being two other seriously considered options - i'll be keeping a good hold on it....

The Horizon Has Been Defeated

For now.

So, I put in an offer on a property today .... and it was turned down. I put in a deliberatly low bid ( thats the way you play these thngs after all.... ) but still it was a little disheartening to be knocked back. But no worries, i plan on putting in another, slightly higher offer tomorrow. Of course, I've never actually tried to buy a house before so I'm not entirely sure of the processes of house hunting, but what i do know is i like the house i inspected today. It's relatively small - two bedrooms, but its still a whole tonne bigger than most shoebox apartments in major cities. Its also 58 years old, but its been nicely refurbished on the inside so i'd barely have to spend a dollar on improvements if didnt want to. So I guess all is not lost - i still have another chance and if that offer gets turned down i have a few more thousand dollars to play with before i have to admit Game Over. Wish me luck ?

And you know what gives you luck ? Or rather, what pays you back in awesomely good karma ? Giving to charity, thats what. Which is exactly what i did today - I donated some canned goods and new toys to my companys annual Christmas appeal. Each Christmas we try and gather small donations to give to a local charity and this year nobody had given anything yet. So i decided to set a good example and get the ball rolling by using the spare cash i had in my wallet to buy some non-perishable food and two small toys. I opted for a Barbie doll for the girls ( i always a Barbie kind of girl, as opposed to playing with "baby" dolls ) and a Transformers action figure for the boys. I, of course, made sure to get an Optimus Prime because everybody knows Optimus Prime was the bomb ( followed closely by Jazz ). Hopefully seeing our basket now has something in it will encourage others to give aswell. I'm not going to mention what the donation cost me but suffice to say it was probably more than some families can afford to spend for themselves. So now i get the good karma of having done a good deed, a satsifying good feeling and some family somewhere gets a little bit of a brighter Christmas. And isnt Christmas the season of giving ?

Oh, and in case you didnt read between the lines there, this is me now actively, officially and very obviously asking you to give something - time, money, food, toys, whatever - to someone in need this Christmas. Charity should be a year round activity, but if your only going to be proactively charitable once a year, why not make it during the holidays?