Things I (don't) Know About People and Life

Blogging this week has taken a bit of a back seat. To what I am not exactly sure I just know that I have not been able to get much (anything) out. I even failed to get something up for IBOT which regular A Parenting Life readers will know does not happen very often.

A week that sees me also forgo Thankful Thursday is also a bit of a rarity. It was not because I am lacking in thanks either. More so a case of motivation I think. I am on the verge of being a little overwhelmed by how much I actually have to do. This is always a sure fire sign that motivation is about to walk our the door.

Next Friday we are meant to be on the road to Cairns. However it now appears that Miss Eleven may have a hockey grand final to play on the Saturday so we could be slightly delayed. The following Friday my baby sister is getting married. No wonder my head is spinning circles.

I can still remember the day she was born. It was on my seventh birthday and even now I can recall how amazed and incredibly blessed I felt. Sitting on the swing in the front garden after my party, waiting to go and meet her. All so surreal I was sure that I must have been dreaming. She was a dream come true and to this day the best present I have ever been given.

But alas I digress. I am meant to be sharing some things I know.

I know that judging people is not always advisable. Nor is thinking ill of them.

The grumpy sales assistant at Spotlight, the one I will wait to be served by someone else rather than him, turns out to be not so grumpy when not at work. The other week at the Kenny Rogers concert, when we had squashed into a tiny empty space next to his rather large, yet empty blanket, he actually offered us some of his spare blanket. I now know I was wrong to judge.

Way back at the start of June I wrote a letter. It was a release of rage that had built up over the frustrations I let another parent build in me. I thought ill of them and wondered why they were out to get me if you will. Recent weeks however have seen this same person go out of their way to be more than nice to me. Compliments and smiles whenever she can. I now know I shouldn't have assumed the worst.

I know that when I started writing this post I had much more to say than this. 

Or at least I thought I did. Though perhaps the fact that it is now way passed stupid o'clock and I should be tucked up in bed fast asleep has something to do with my inability to think straight.

So there you have it, turns out I am not overly knowledgeable today, but I do know that all the cool bloggers are sharing what they know here

And I also know that a Friday Flog is always a good idea

Making Time to Look Pretty

On the whole I spend somewhere between little to no time on my appearance. Thankfully for me I pretty much live in hicksville so it doesn't really matter. As long as all the important bits are covered no one really cares what you are wearing. Thanks to the sweltering heat that is present for nearly ninety percent of the year there is also no expectation for make up either. Which is also great because my skills in that department leave a lot to be desired.

Mind you I haven't always been this way.

Well I have on the make up front but there was a time when I would give some thought to how I looked. Back in another life, before children, when I was fresh out of home and high school, I worked in the fashion industry. Well I worked in the only surf shop in a town that had no surf. It also happened to be the only place in the surfless town that you could purchase a whole range of exclusive labels.

Oh how I loved those days. Sure it might not have been high rolling fashion, but it did provide me with the largest wardrobe ever. Some days when the washing had eluded me, or rather I was out partying and neglected to get around to ensuring there were clean clothes for the next day, I would just go to work ten minutes early to allow myself enough time to get a new outfit.

Staff discount and a layby I was able to take home before I had paid it off are certainly some great perks that I sorely miss, even to this day. But I digress. This was not supposed to be a nostalgic walk down memory lane. This is supposed to be are rather awesome post telling you how really really ridiculously good looking I am.

It has been a month or more since I first came across this awesome meme. To start with I didn't think it would be something I could join in with because seriously who wants to look at photos of this week in and week out.

Since that is pretty much all I wear. Simple, comfortable and totally suitable for kid wrangling in warm weather.

Actually sometimes I spice it up with a singlet rather than the T-shirt and lately I have been seen at school of a morning in some running gear as I pretend that is what I am going to do upon completing drop off duties. Sadly my running has stalled a little in recent weeks, apparently just wearing the clothes is not enough. But again I am digressing.

Thankfully a few weeks after I discovered this link up I had a hen's night and a wedding to attend. A reason (or two) to actually get dressed up and dust off the lippy. All with the added bonus of getting to blog about it.

Since then however my social calendar that requires my 'special' or non everyday clothes as been somewhat blank. The few occasions I have gone to any extra effort I was wearing the same clothes as I first posted about...oh for my younger surf shop working days with endless choices.

Last week however something happened. Breaking from the traditional mundane that some weeks can be I spiced it up with a lunch date in the city with a friend. An adults only lunch date actually. Taking full advantage of this great blogging opportunity I thought I would dress myself up a bit.

Now I just need to work on my selfie photo taking skills!

This highly fashionable post joins in not just with The Surprise Beginning but since it has taken nearly all night to write and it is now the very early hours of Tuesday it gets to link up with Diary of a SAHM for her rather awesome meme

Make It Matter Monday - Time and Money

Recently I had a startling revelation. The year end is fast approaching. However before that happens my sister is having a wedding. Which means we get to have a little two week holiday driving over and back to Cairns. It will be the first time Mr Awesome and I will have travelled some of these roads so it will be super exciting to be showing it to our children.

Thankfully the girls enjoy the long empty roads as much as we do. Perhaps it is just in our blood? I have always loved the notion of being distantly related to the gypsies...

Anyway I suppose you are wondering how or why any of this matters. Well it goes a little like this. Obviously said holiday will cost some money. Money that will need to be saved. Money that I thought I still had plenty of time to save in.

Turns out the wedding is next month.

Yep. Just a few short weeks away.

Now before I create to much of a panic I must put things in perspective. I have quietly been stashing money here and there. Only it is in one of those tins that you only ever use once. I can't open it till two days before we go. It is essentially our petrol fund.

So here is what I need to focus on at the moment.

TIME - I must use it wisely, get done as much as I can. Waste as little as possible.

MONEY - Put as much of it as possible aside. Save, save, save. Must not spend.

All sounds pretty simple when I put it like that doesn't it. I think this calls for some iAssistance. Surely there is an app out there that can help me save money and organise my time? Please if you know of something that might fit the bill please let me know.

Even though it has been a while since I last did a MIMM post I can vaguely recall that what was meant to be mattering had to do with Miss Eleven. No seriously I know it was about using the language of love on her more. Which I did for a while, but could still certainly do with a bit more time in the forefront of my mind.

It sounds terrible, but it is something I need to keep reminding myself to do. Like yesterday when I discovered she had forgotten to bring the water cooler to the car. Any chance I ever had at Mother of the Year awards just got blown to smitherines.

All she had to worry about was putting the water for our picnic in the car. And yet somehow that was too hard. I went ballistic. To say the least. 

I had even asked her on the way, while it was still possible to go back and get it, if she brought the water cooler with her. She assured me she had, in her blase I'm so awesome because I'm 11 kind of way. 

I thought I was going to strangle her when I discovered she hadn't.

By the side of the I berated and carried on like an I don't know what but something pretty darn awful. I can't believe I let my anger and frustration explode forth from mouth like that. All over a stupid water cooler.

Sure she had done the wrong thing, and sure it had already been a more than trying morning, but still...talking to her in that manner was not exactly what a model mother would do. You know the one we all strive to be despite her existence being impossible to say the least.

Thankfully she is a forgiving soul and all was mended before too much further damage was done. She agreed that she was at fault. It serves as a reminder though of how constant mothering is. Especially when trying to change past behaviours and feelings. Though that is a post for another day.

What about you? What are you going to make matter this week?

Early morning wake ups and no milk

*Please be aware that this post will contain language that some may find offensive.  Let it be known that I will be using a word that starts with F and rhymes with duck.  Please consider yourself warned*

Yep that's right folks I am making time to get angry.  Or rather I am making time to share with you some of the things that have made me angry, or rather fucked me off lately.  Actually it will probably be more about the wonderful (not really) morning that I have until this point endured.

It is currently 7.47am Sunday morning.

After a night of sleep that was continually broken by a boob demanding child I was feeling rather pleased with myself for having convinced her that 5.36 was not in fact wake up time.  Sadly this was all short lived as not even an hour later we were horribly disturbed by the horrendous sound of an alarm clock.

That's right, Miss Eleven had not turned off her alarm.  For fuck sake!!  Good morning Sunday.

Naturally the booby fiend heard the ruckus and being smarter than your average bear knew that is signaled time to finally go downstairs.  I say finally because the little imp had been pleading with me to make the journey down below since about 2am when she first started waking.  Seeing Miss Eleven standing next to our bed only confirmed her greatest desire.

To say I was less than a happy camper is an understatement.

The part that really got my knickers in a twist was that I did have an early morning planned I just wanted to start it on my own accord.  I have a great internal alarm clock where I can just awaken at the required time.  Which is much more pleasant than the shit I went through this morning.  I don't like being woken up.

Trying hard to catch hold of a ray of sunshine, that was still waiting to rise, I thought a quick complain on Facebook may be what the doctor ordered.  While the kettle boiled I got the coffee ready and thought about what I would say. I also began to gather what I needed to make some muffins.  Because you know that is what Martha would do if she were up and about I'm sure.

So not only do I not have enough fresh milk for my muchly needed muffins, there is barely enough for my coffee.  Let me hear are are you fucking kidding me?

Thankfully I am cyclone ready and had some UHT milk on hand.  Which is guarannted to make my coffee taste crap but it is slightly better than no milk at all.

If ever the universe was telling me not to bother with something today was the day.  It wasn't just the bloody milk that I was low on either.  The gas bottle on the oven ran out while I was preheating it.  The recipe for the muffins I was making called for milk choc chips, choc chips and dark choc chips, being a triple choc recipe and all.  Do you think I had all three? Of course I fucking didn't.

I persevered though.  Despite not having enough patty cases either.  Surprisingly what didn't happen was that the muffins didn't burn.  Thank fuck for small mercies hey?

Anyway this post is linking up with the ever lovely Miss Cinders over at Saturday Morning Ogre Mum. She does have a cool button for here meme that is Lose Your Shit (LYS), only do think I can get it to work? Of course I fucking can't.

But wait there is more.

Miss Eleven, who has nearly been forgiven for her part in my awful start to the day, just opened the microwave and asked me why there is melted butter sitting in there.

Let me tell you why there is melted butter sitting in the microwave.  Because I forgot to put it in the fucking muffins.  For fuck sake.

Now part of LYS is that you also stop and take stock of awesome things around you as well.  Even at the lowest of lows there are always positives if you take the time to stop and look.  

1. While I may not have had all the choc chips that I needed I did have some lovely caramel chips that are beyond awesome.
2. UHT milk may not exactly be my preferred choice of milk but I am so pleased to have had some this morning.
3. Even though the gas bottle ran out I did have a spare ready and waiting to go
4. Despite not having any butter in them the muffins are edible.
5. It is Sunday.  As crap as the start of the day may have been there is still a lot of it left to go out and enjoy.  Which is exactly what I plan on doing.

Pausing For Inspiration

As I watched this particular sunset I felt full of inspiration.  The world was my oyster and I was ready to take it on.  Surrounded by such beauty and wonderous colours, a peaceful tranquility was created that made it hard for my mind not to runaway with itself.  

Sitting there I thought of all the wonderful things I could write about.  Thoughts that I wanted to share, feelings I had felt that others would surely want to know about.  A whole bunch of amazing things that would of course leave my reader feeling as equally as inspired and full of wonder as what I currently was.  Or at least make them think of something differently for a moment or two.  

It felt good.

Actually it felt better than good.  

As the sun was setting, ending yet another day it felt like I could do anything.  Right there, in that moment I was free from fears and self doubt.  There was nothing, not even myself, holding me back.  The vastness of the sky and ocean before me was full of nothing but hope and opportunity.

Naturally this would have been the perfect time for me to write.  Had it not been for the fact I was miles away from my computer and with the sunlight fading there was not enough light for the old fashioned pen and paper.  Not that it really bothered me though.  I was happily soaking up the moment and taking in as much as I could.  It was like my mind was bottling it all so I could take it home with me.

Fast forward two days to when I get home though and it appears as if my bottling skills may need a bit of honing.  Either that or my bottle has a leak.  

Perhaps it is even a combination of them both.  Who knows?  

All I know is that when I finally get the chance to sit down and write my mind goes to such a jumbled mess that it may as well be blank.  I can't help but think that blank would be a blessing.  At least it would leave room to start again, which right now seems more appealing than trying to wade through all the ideas that are currently vying for attention in there.

That's what I do you see.  Decide that it is all too hard and start again.  I wrongly think that it is easier that way.  Sometimes it might be, but there are many times when really it would be much better to just focus and get on with it.  Naturally so much easier said than done.

Since I started writing this post, I have been up and down from the computer at least a dozen times.  I have washed dishes, fed children, made lunches, did the school drop off thing, visited my mother and even put a load of washing on.  Which is probably about to start demanding to be hung out.  I have one of those rather rude machines that upon completion of a cycle intermittently beeps until you do something about it. 

Some five hours have passed.

Not only is it hard to maintain the flow of the post, but having faith that the words before me are worth the angst of getting them out.   I don't cope well with having to put a post aside while I tend to life.  Rather than enjoying breakfast time chatting over cereal and making the most of my time with my beautiful girls, I find myself rushing them through so I can bundle them off in search of that seemingly elusive writing time.

Source

I want to use the pause button for life just once, instead of it always going to the writing.  Even as I write these last two paragraphs I have gotten up and down three times.  And even if one of those times was so I could put a sleeping child down and fix myself some food and drink to enable more uninterrupted screen time, I would still rather have paused my need for nourishment.  Or better yet have someone bring me what I need.

Sigh.  Oh to dream.

Instead, now that I have everything aligned for perfect writing time, I am left feeling drained and wondering why I even bother with this crazy notion that I am destined to be a writer.  Destined to be a crack pot maybe.

As I was typing the the words  destined to be a writer there was a voice in my head saying you are writer.  Look at what you are doing RIGHT NOW.  Naturally he comes with an equally loud voice that taunts back.  I try hard not to listen to that one though.

Anyway incase you had failed to look at a calendar today it is Tuesday.  Which means only one thing 

@Diary of SAHM

Team Friday - Getting back into it

It's been a while since I have made the time to share how I have been making exercise matter.  While I have not been neglecting my exercise as much as I have been my blogging about it, I still haven't been reaching the goals that I had hoped for.

When I started running back in February the plan was to be able to run for thirty minutes.  Which also is meant to equate to 5km.  At this point in time I can run just about for thirty minutes.  By that I mean run for ten to fifteen minutes walk for 30 seconds to sometimes a minute and do it all again.  Actually I can run for four ten minute blocks with no more than a minute between runs.  

I can also run for 5km.  Actually I can run for up to 7km.  What I can not do though is get that 5km out in thirty minutes.  Luckily though I don't beat myself up about it, well not too much anyway.

When I completed the C25K program a few months ago I decided that the next logical step was to try the Bridge to 10K program.  Even though I can't get 5km out in 30 minutes I wanted to run for longer.  Sadly I am still on week one of that program.  Turns out I didn't have as much in me after 5km as what I thought I did.  

Despite the 10km feeling a little out of my league I have not given up.

The school holidays made it a little trickier than I would have liked to maintain my three times a week runs.  Though really I am just making weak excuses.  I did manage to get a few in here and there and had I really wanted to I am sure I could have gotten a few more in.  It was just easier to say having the kids around made it harder.

Not going three times a week really made it harder for the times I did get out there.  To save my morale from completely diminishing I decided to head back to the C25K and do runs that I already knew I could.  Best. Idea. Ever.

You see going back to runs that I once struggled with, that I now almost breezed through felt amazing.  I felt stronger and more empowered than ever before.  Running through stages that I had previously had to walk through let me see just how far I have actually come.

For two weeks I retraced my C25K steps.  Yesterday I redid a week one run from Bridge to 10km.  It was harder than the C25K but no where near as hard as when I first started.  In fact at the end of it, despite being a little disappointed with my distance, I was over the moon with the amount of time I was actually running.

From here I plan to keep on going with the 10km program.  Finding nearly an hour to run rather than thirty minutes is a little trickier than I expected but oh so worth it.  All the running events for this area are all over for the year but I am certainly looking forward to being able to enter some next year.

Joining in with Get On With it Already for

as well as With Some Grace for