Ahhh Holidays - UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

It is the September school holidays here. 2 weeks and 4 days of joy. Thus far we have:

• Been grocery shopping
• Babysat Middle child-sat a friend's son and had him to play/played at his house all day
• Gone swimming at the causeway

Notice a pattern here - nothing (except the groceries) has cost much money - and nothing has been outrageous, tell the girlfriends about, exultant fun!

That half changes today - today we start the half of the holidays that is both fun AND doesn't cost too much. We are heading off this morning for a week at the family property in Central Queensland.

Well, we are heading off after:

• I do a blog about it - DONE
  
• I do another load of laundry - DONE
  
• I peg them - DONE
  
• I unpeg everything dry (due to hot and windy weather, the above load will be in that category quickly) - NEARLY DONE
  
• I pack my port and toiletries - NEARLY DONE
  
• I do the washing up - DONE
  
• I have breakfast - DONE
  
• I call Electrolux about my washing machine - AAAARRRGGGGHHH!! NOTE 1
  
• I call AMP about taking 67% of my fund in fees when I rolled an account - AAAARRRGGGGHHH!! NOTE 2
  
• I call my client's suppliers and get the answers I have been hounding them for for a week - AAAARRRGGGGHHH!! NOTE 3
  
• I finalise a little job - see NOTE 3
  
• I pack the car with bikes and ports - TO DO
  
• I copy all I want to take with me from the computer - TO DO (LOTS MORE)
  
• I write notes to remind V of things he will remember anyway - TO DO (if I remember)
  
• I wait and wait for phone calls (see NOTES 1 AND 2)
  

'Salina awoke at 5.30 and is raring to go - she has everything she wants to take already packed in a pile all over her bed and is eating breakfast and working how to nag me until we leave.

Off for a full week at my childhood home, for 'Salina to boss around play with her cousins and ride horses and open gates for grandpa.

Off for a full week at my childhood home, for me to get a session of training on the Stock program and do data entry backlogs for the property and negotiate intriguing family relationships enjoy being a grown up in my extended family and miss V like crazy.

(I sound like such a sap, don't I? I actually will have a great time. I get to stay with my sister, BIL and their children (who I have not yet got names for on the blog - they are both beautiful and adorable - although her daughter is a little too much like mini-Jeanie in temprement - it warms the cockles), spend a night or so with brother, SIL and their children (Flowergirl, Rockgirl and Brutus), have some time with my lovely Mum and Dad as well - and I will get paid for the work that I contribute. I love my family a lot, its just that I insanely think I am more witty when I gripe. Apologies all)

Still, I will miss V like crazy - he will be working here and come over on the weekend. We haven't had this long apart since our "courting" days!

I need coffee!!

See you in a week and give me a yell if you notice any burglars.

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NOTE 1: Those of you keeping up with the washing machine drama will know that my lovely front loader is not working at the moment and last you heard I sent an email to Electrolux.

To update - they sent back an email saying "who told you" but no "oh, we will bend over backwards to keep your custom".

I rang the local Electrolux company and ended up talking to Rossco, a technician who made the right calls to the right places and assured me Electrolux would cover this little problem and he would call when they had the parts.

The next day, Rossco called and asked again about my washing machine as he couldn't find parts or records of such an object ever being manufactured or fixed. I gave him the info again and he would call me back when they had the parts.

A few days later, we repeated this step. I waited patiently for a week for this call back.

To check on their progress I called this morning. It seems my mate Rossco has retired in the interim - they will call me back before lunchtime to advise on what they can unearth about the saga...

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NOTE 2: I finally got all my superannuation funds rolled in to 1 account. What a feeling - until on Friday I got the details of one AMP one, and basically I am unhappy with the fact that 67% of the value vanished into a bucket called "fees".

On Friday I spent 40 minutes on the phone, listening to hold and before being told someone would call me back about it.

Today I spent 40 minutes on the phone, listening to hold, explaining to Jess, listening to hold, explaining to Daniel, listening to hold, explaining to Susan, listening to hold, explaining to Kay before Kay told me someone would call me back about it. Oh, okay, she would mark it urgent as I have to leave town by 12.

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NOTE 3: Last Monday I sent problems I had with a project to my client to follow up.

On Tuesday, a colleague of hers advised me that she was on 2 weeks leave and had sent it on to their suppliers IT/Marketing manager.

On Wednesday I called the IT/Marketing manager to find that she was on 1 months leave. I spoke to her colleague who I sent the email to and she would follow it up.

On Thursday that lady and I played phone tag while I was volunteering at tuck shop.

On Friday I was the only one playing tag.

Today she told me Friday was her 1 day a month leave, and she will have it to me this afternoon - so it looks like work will be coming on holidays with me...

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I need more coffee!!

The Toothbrush Saga

We had a few visitors on the weekend. My mother stayed on the Sunday evening, and my brother and his brood came on Monday night.

Our house gets quite cosy when you add another five into the mix.

It was lots of fun - 'Salina had Flowergirl (aged 6), Rockgirl (aged 4) and Brutus (aged 18 months) to provide Diva 101 lectures for.

We had two large pans of lasagne and green salad which enthralled everyone (well, until Rockgirl unearthed the fact that ZUCCHINI was an obvious ingredient in the lasagne, but being bordered by V and I had willing recipients of the offending articles).

'Salina then danced for them, sang for them, entertained them with raucous 8 year old hilarity and generally scared the pants of the demure little minions (well, the 2 demure ones - the toddler just kept bulldozing along happily). Possibly sent a thrill of fear in my sibling and his ever-loving wife...

I put all the visiting children in the spare room for the night, the visiting adults took up the sofa option (word to the wise - ALWAYS accept the offer of a mattress on the floor over our poor dilapidated sofa) - after a tumultuous bathroom dental session and only one "why can't Flowergirl sleep in my room" rant, all settled down to peace and quiet.

In the morning, everyone was up early - nothing unusual for us, but apparently there are children out there who will sleep in if the option is available - or even if not. Can you imagine? Children not bouncing at 6am?

But 'Salina did call most of the troops to action - we left Rockgirl sleeping, as she was due for grommets at 7.45 so food or drink was not an option for her.

After a hurried breakfast, showering, dressing, packing and peeling away, our little house was quiet again.

And then I went to shower. And then I tidied kitchen and spare room. And then I put on several washes. And then I br--- - well, I would have brushed my teeth, but it seems in all the mayhem one toothbrush went walking, and it happened to be mine.

Oh woe. I like brushing my teeth - it certainly beats the alternative of gross breath, build up and eventually no teeth.

(Just to disgust you, I did resort to using another's brush for a day or so)

So yesterday, we went on a great toothbrush hunt.

There are many options available in the toothbrush aisle, but I am not willing to have to toss up between our extravagant private medical coverage OR buying a toothbrush, so there are options that I immediately kybosh.

There are also other options that seem only to be concerned with the plain bristle and basic plastic design, and while I am not a fancy girl, I like to think my toothbrush manufacturer has put a little love into the finished product to sweep crap off my teeth.

So I am looking at the middle row - where they try to impress for as little outlay as possible. (Sort of how I used to lure men ha ha)

While some look at colour and costuming, I am then starting to look at economy - how much do I have to spend vs how many times I need to repeat purchase or can I take care of a whole heap of supplies at one time without busting the budget.

You will be pleased to know that my mental arithmatic stood me in good stead, and I finally purchased 6 for $7.98 (as opposed to 3 for $4.75).

I had 'Salina to help me with the purchasing dilemna (although I did not make her do the maths - I have learned my lesson), and she immediately set to the task of who would get what colours.

She likes blue - and there was blue - dark blue, light blue and almost exactly the same light blue but slightly aqua. However, her nearly 8yo mind has worked out that 6 toothbrushes and 3 members of family means she can only chose two (and furthermore, after a mother lecture, has learned that one at a time is good going).

Oh, it took minutes of angst at teeth time last night to work out which shade of blue she should chose and whether she could reserve her next brush and which shade of blue that one should be.

See - motherhood - its never as easy as the books say.

Can you manage to make such a mountain from a molehill?

Sprong

Thanks to one of my new "finds" in blogland, I have inspiration for a post.

Being Me, Just for Them accused me of having "green thumbs".

ha ha ha ha ha!! a ha ha ha ha ha!!

I love me my garden, but so far my most exciting task has been ripping out the 20 odd years of weed grown and hardy (but ugly) plants to make room for my patches of sustenance and colour.

However, I have put together a montage to walk you through my garden...

Jeanie's Bit of Green

Okay, so, lets start at the front of the house and have a little walk around, shall we?

The Parsley Patch - the secret to such a lush display of parsley lies with having a 7 year old daughter, extremely keen to get stuff growing and a parent not watching too closely to how instructions are being followed. Get the parent to have the patch nicely weeded, dug, manured and ready. Hand the seed packet to the child and WALK AWAY to another task. When you return, you will find that ALL of the seeds in the packet have been sown in a very small amount of dirt. Express astonishment but not admonishment, as you know that it is your fault for not watching with beady eyes all parts of the process. Thin as they emerge, and then prune like buggery every week enough to keep 2 hungry adults in continuous bowls of tabbouleh (but not child, because child doesn't like parsley), as well as enough to give all guests, hosts and neighbours a bunch whenever the mood strikes. The coriander component of this patch is courtesy of those half-baked plants they sell in the vege section and you think "heck, I could just stick the rest of this in the ground and see what happens" - and it ACTUALLY DID!!!

The Front Garden was a lush jungle when I first moved here just over a year ago. Imagine all the lush creeping plants that require no assistance for 25 years, some lovely clover and grass covering this patch. Then you have to imagine waiting for rain to soften the ant bed hardness of the patch, straining muscles as you unearth these lovely, amazement as you discover a shrub beneath it all that looks like it was (gasp) planted, more sweat as you dig over the ant bed, add manure, lime, compost and lots of water. Finally plant seedlings (in this instance, marigolds, salvias and pansies) and pray.

Zucchini Row - up until several weeks ago, this bed was possibly better known as "Cherry Tomato Row". Self-seeded, we had a monster vine that took possession of this bed and made itself quite comfortable. At times (generally the times just before we thought "hmm, time to prune") this one vine could grow upwards of 2 metres in each direction. It did lack one thing, though - viable tomatoes. Its strange, but they varied from "too green to pickle" to "too ripe for the birds" but we never found middle ground. So I got all huffy with it one day and just ripped the beggar out. Planted here now are zucchinis (obviously - although not as many as shown here, as I had another of those huffy moments this morning and culled 4 of the 5 male plants - good for only two things, and if there ain't a female around, the most important one isn't happening), peas, broccoli, bok choy (snails are loving this culinary option), beans, some beautiful flowering bulb thingy - and lots of self-seeded cherry tomatoes!!

Compost Corner - the local council, in their wisdom, give all ratepayers a cubic metre of mulch a year... The only hitch is, you need to collect - so last year, we did. It was a romantic moment when V and I wheeled a trailer load of ground up green waste (and whatever other crap people throw into their green waste with no regard to the outcome). On this little patch of dirt, we have since had a constantly growing and shrinking mulch pile, fed with compost from our bin and green waste from our garden. If you look at my banner at the top, you will see my first green endeavour in the garden - my beautiful sunflowers. If you look at this photo (and several others in this series) you will see many beautiful self-seeded sunflowers - I love nature!

Snow Pea Extrordinaire - so called because she has certainly been hardy. Planted so long ago that I had seriously given up. The only reason she wasn't uprooted was because I am a sucker for a straggler, and so I watched her valiantly hang in there for months before she finally found the trellis, wend her way up - and then discovered that if she looked around the corner, she could see the sun!!! It was a joyous day, and she has almost doubled in size weekly since then, flowering and snow peaing all over the place. I have planted more since then, but I feel she will very likely only ever share her shade with them because she has now got the spotlight, baby!!

The Bottle Brush - I am afraid I can take absolutely no credit whatsoever for this! Our bottle brush is fantastic, though, so I am not about to leave it out of the tour. We have one at the front and one at the back, a haven for many birds and a constant challenge to our cat. I will take full credit, however, for the exotic frisbee player in the background!

The Frangipanni Project. Previous to our moving here, a very good lawnmower man took care of the grounds for my parents. Unfortunately, he grew ill and sold his business to another lawnmower man - of which I am extremely hesitant to add the terms "very" or "good" to. As one who cuts the lawn, he was possibly passable. As to one who believed that effective weed control was to spray zero around all paths and beneath the frangipanni tree he did very well. It did destroy the weeds - and grass and topsoil, and left me a little project - especially underneath the frangipanni tree. I rebuilt the soil below and added a lot of green waste - including an old sweet potato and some pumpkin seeds, it seems. They are enjoying this opportunity to LIVE, as are the scattered self-seeded sunflowers. The mulch I have used here is shredded pandanus leaf - finally I have found a use for it BESIDES upsetting the neighbours each time the wind blows!

The Side Garden was absolutely covered in every weed imaginable, including some rather luscious asparagus grass. I hate asparagus grass. Now home to carrots, lettuce, eggplant, silverbeet, spinach and chillies. The lettuce are harvested by constant picking of the outer leaves, and I also grab the larger leaves of the growing silverbeet and spinach to make some salad - besides the parsley and the occasional carrot pulled to satisfy 'Salina and boy-next-door's curiosity (and hunger) our only edible harvest thus far - but extremely welcome!

Petunia Stump Patch.
We (as in 'Salina and boy-next-door) have planted petunias around and in this old tree stump (previously hidden beneath vines). The card advertised deep purple and yellow - fushia has been the colour of choice thus far. No cane toads have been spotted in the area since.

Herb Alley -my basil and lemongrass are again offering culinary options this year - and we have transplanted capsicum and chillies also to this bed (not pictured). This is where the banner sunflower lived last year and I am going to put some more in as a back drop, plus we are all praying that the oregano and chives in the annexe to this bed survive and pick up.

V has a theory that he owns his image and is very adamant that I not show the world my catch - therefore I am unwilling to replicate the very small photo of V in the montage. In lieu of that, I give you a shot of the bling. I suppose this way burglars can salivate while all those out there who aim to steal men away from happy homes will have to hunt elsewhere... ha ha


Meanwhile I will talk about something completely different, like the plans for corn patches in the back of the yard, watermelon beneath the pandanus trees and filling the craters in the lawn (due to shifting of large lava rocks in the fill) with cracker dust.

Thanks for stopping by for this tour. I am offering coffee, tea, cold drinks and museli bars on the balcony upstairs.

(BTW - this is not the real view!)

Searching for 'Salina's Inspiration

I love my daughter very much. There is so much about her that I sit and watch and am amazed - I have spoken often before about her creativity and she is a very bright, vibrant, energetic and caring child.

HOWEVER her development - or lack thereof - of late has been very shocking to me. Not because she is being super naughty (because she isn't) or inconsiderate (well, not more than the average 7 5/6 year old) but because there are some things she just isn't getting - and that I am having to look at my own mother and her methods to find ways of overcoming obstacles.

Tonight was a classic example. She is in Year 3 at school and doing "okay". Well, okay, she is an enigma which I think translates to "how the hell do you get this child to learn anything unless its on her terms".

However, tonight was one of those moments where you think to yourself "oh goodness - am I creating this - or what should I be doing to fix this?"

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Tonight's drama revolved around the time - 7.57pm - and her inability to deduce from that how many minutes until 8pm. It was well after the hour of 8pm before nerves were soothed - well, hers anyway. Mine are still jangling.

I tried working it out with her. Her cousin, P-C, could work out far more complicated time calculations in his head before he even started school, and she often is quite peeved that he knows more than her.

But then, he is a very different child to her and has had a very different upbringing. Not better, not worse but very different. And on top of that, he listens and analyses constantly.

Part of her frustration in trying to work it out is that she "forgot" that 60 minutes was in an hour and thought I had said 80. The fact that I had to tell her (several times) about there being 60 minutes in an hour was slap enough for me. She forgets so many things.

I blame it on her busy mind, and we had a talk about "unconscious listening" where you put what you are hearing on a shelf to deal with after your mind has jumped all over the place (and I understand that process very well) versus "conscious listening" - a concept that I feel she will have to really work at as I have had to struggle with it (and still do) over the years.

But its not just the mental maths that she cannot grasp (wait for the cogs and fingers as she tries to work out 10 - 7), the concept of time aspect - its a whole bag of stuff that I have finally realised that I have to face.

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With reading, she was very lazy and more capable of getting you to do all the prompting in return for her withholding tantrums and tizzy-fits.

I even sought help, and was advised that she was just above the line where she needed help. I ended up doing the "Readers at Risk" training myself (as a volunteer at the school with all those who fell below that mysterious line) just so I could have some tools to get her to start "clicking" on the reading thing.

As a bookworm who "clicked" at the breakfast table at the age of 5 it was incredibly frustrating to me to watch her not even trying to struggle with it.

She did improve greatly after I got that training, but it was still a little bit of a chore rather than a pleasure - which was painful for me to watch.

Well, about 4-5 months ago it "clicked" for her - I have the Sheltie series by Peter Clover to thank for that transition - and now, while not proficient she actually chooses to read as a past-time.

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Her handwriting is appalling. She had a very good excuse for that. Besides having me as a mother, that is.

On the 8th of April 2005 - that would be in the first term of her first year of primary school - she failed to adhere to her mother's constant "one at a time on the trampoline" rule (which her mother learned - from experience - can lead to broken legs) and then failed to return to the trampoline mat after one "super jump". Well, between gravity and the ground, her funny bone was the loser.

Well, actually, her humerus was - completely - resulting in months of back-slab casts and inventive clothing options, fear at anyone jiggling her, constant pain, several surgeries, physiotherapy and the possibility of a palsied hand. Can we all shout out "I told you so"!!!

This was a very convenient excuse for her having shocking handwriting (even though she learned to then write passably with her left hand) for a long, long time - that and the genetic factor - until I found a school book of mine from her age.

Now, I know I have shocking writing and it was drilled into me in childhood what shocking writing I had. My mother gave me special exercises to do (even on the school holidays) to improve my writing. I am only now coming to terms with forgiving them (my father shall share the blame as he was in cahoots with her).

However - my writing at a year younger than her was vastly more neat than hers unless she really tries - and she really tries so rarely.

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Her spelling is abysmal. With all of her creativity, she is in so much of a hurry to get her ideas down that the whole spelling concept goes out of the window.

Which is fine - I am no despot on spelling at the age of 7 - but words that she should have down pat as she learned them 2 years ago are part of the carnage, and it is all very well to write a book, illustrate it and then give it away, but if no-one can decipher it what has the world lost?

I asked the teacher for the words she should know (as she has had to do spelling for homework this year - when the homework actually gets home) and so got her friend's homework book.

I could have cried. Her friend has neat writing and such attention to detail, while my daughter cannot even remember to bring the darned thing home to TRY. I know she is only 7 5/6 - but that is part of the point. What do I have to look forward to?

My mother (again) was very tough on our spelling. We had our words recited every evening, with left field ones thrown in for good measure. My first letter home from boarding school was returned with the spelling corrected in red pen.

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I come from a very mathematical family. We do maths problems for fun. I write computer programs, for goodness sake!

When she was very young, she too enjoyed playing with numbers and working out stuff with me. Now, however, she is learning to dislike even that part of life - because we are past the joys of addition, and apparently subtraction just doesn't bring the buzz.

To help her, I have tried to work out fun ways for her to have the necessary facts at her fingertips. Frankly, if you can add and subtract by rote numbers to 20, you are really set because the rules don't change.

But my daughter "can't remember" and I am starting to lose my mind.

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Its not like I am an uninvolved mother and couldn't be bothered trying to keep up with where she is at in the classroom, either. If anything, I am slightly over-zealous and volunteer once a week just to keep abreast of her classmates, their rituals, how the teacher handles them and what they are doing.

I found out today that she is having special assistance - she is part of the "sentence group" that gets short sessions with a tutor (during school time, so she misses out on whatever they are learning at that time).

Now, I am at the school at least twice a week - once actually with the teacher in her classroom - am I asking too much for it to be mentioned to me that she is getting this help?

I am constantly wanting to know how I can help my enigma to move forward and always asking for feedback - and I don't get told "this is where she is falling down" but rather "she is always such a happy girl".

Am I unreasonable about that?

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I remember the resentment I had toward my parents with their snap quizzes and spelling bees around the dining table; being thrown sums on drives and expected to answer in the snap of fingers; j hooks, lines and curves until my hand froze just to jump high enough for their expectations.

And I realise now that it helped me enormously - and I wonder if I have to become that figure of pain to get my daughter into gear.

I need help to help my daughter.

I got the "I got up too early to be feeling this slow" blues

Dear Abby
I need to do a course in time management - but I don't have time to find out about, let alone do, one. Between mothering, lovering, hovering, hoovering, working, washing, cleaning, cooking, blogging and volunteering it seems in my life nothing gets compl –darn – can I get back to you?
Ms I-really-truly-do-intend-to-get-around-to-it.

There are two reasons I wrote this - one is because I got up at 3am. This is what I do when I wake at 2.30am and cannot return to sleep.

Insomnia is something I refuse to bow down to, so instead I beat it by getting up anyway with many intentions. If it ain't giving me the satisfaction of getting back to sleep, I am not giving it the satisfaction of keeping me awake with senseless stuff - much better to blog than toss and turn.

If I cannot return to sleep in 20 minutes, then I have a vow that I will get up and do - and man I have a lot of doing on my plate - so a cup of tea is brewed and the 'puter is switched on.

Unfortunately it seems I need light to complete the task I set myself this morning - and that is something I cannot have, given that the "office" is in the bedroom and, while I love watching, feeling and hearing my honey sleep - it is a state that I like him to maintain at 3am (unless, of course, he has insomnia too and we have to beat that together) - so my backlog of blogs is being perused.

And then to light came a Dear Abby writing competition at This Eclectic Life, and thought I would put in an entry and encourage people to do the same. Unfortunately she wanted funny, and it seems funny has been kidnapped by insomnia in this current tussle.

It is a competition for bloggers and non-bloggers, with a very pretty prize indeed.

Here are the competition rules:

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Here’s all you have to do to enter
the Dear Abby Writing Contest:

Write a funny Dear Abby letter that is 50 words or less (not counting the “Dear Abby” salutation and the “signature”)

It can be about any subject you choose, if you will please remember that this is a family friendly blog! It can be “from” anyone. You can choose a fictitious character (such as Just Married), or a celebrity (are they “real?”). Avoid profanity please, you are all much too intelligent to have to rely upon expletives. I reserve the right to delete your comment or refuse to enter you if you get raunchier than John Prine!

Non-bloggers: skip to the bottom of this post, hit the comment button, and write your letter there. If you are having trouble doing that, send your Dear Abby letter to me in an e-mail at shelly(dot)tucker(at)gmail(dot)com Then, I will post it in a comment for you.

Bloggers, you can enter with a comment, if you would like. I know that everyone would be able to read it more quickly then, but I would prefer that you post it on your own site, too. If you link back to this page to tell people about the contest, I’ll be happy to give you an extra link on this page.

You have until Saturday, September 15th at 11:59 p.m. Texas Time to write your ridiculous Dear Abby letter and post it.

On Sunday, September 16th, I will post my personal favorites right here on the blog, with a poll for voting. My readers will decide the winner. You will be able to vote daily, and you can send all your friend (s) to vote daily, too!

I will announce the winner on Saturday September 22nd at High Noon, Texas Time.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And, let me sweeten the pot! Send people to vote (you don’t even have to enter the writing contest to do that!)when I post the voting page on Sunday September 16th. You can link on your blog, or just tell your friends about it if you don’t blog. Have them comment and say, “_______ sent me.” Fill in that blank with your name (That would be Jeanie)!

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So go on over there - enter the competition (you don't even have to get up at 2.30 - and hey, if you don't you may actually have something humourous come along) and enjoy!

I think I may go back to bed and see if insomnia and I can broker a deal - maybe I will let it have me after 5?