Lightening Online

We decided to engage our children in some “slave labour” this week.  They’re actually pretty lucky and don’t have to do all that much around the farm (especially in comparison to kids of previous generations).

Farmboy’s actual motivation was to give the kids the opportunity to earn some spending money for our big trip.  When he talked to me about it, I pointed out that he doesn’t ask much of them and he has been taking a lot of time away from the farm for them of late.

They weren’t all the keen on the idea at first but when I got out there, Singstar Princess told me “this is more fun than I thought”.

Of course, Lleyton’s job was such a chore!!!!

LOL.  Farm kids have a great life don’t they?

It was really interesting watching the problem solving skills the kids were using when they had trouble cutting the old fence.

It was a beautiful day.  The kids had fun, learnt some new skills and got some fresh air.  Farmboy got his job done faster.  The kids will get some pocket money for the trip.  Everyone is happy. 

Mind you, I was the one who went back in the afternoon to help with banging in the new posts.  Wonder if I get pocket money too????  LOL

Today, the kids are helping Farmboy erect the cyclone on the new fence.

When Farmboy and I were dating, we had a friend who had a mammoth beanbag we loved to inhabit.  We decided we HAD to have one for ourselves.  Fast Forward MANY years and that never eventuated.  While I haven’t gone out of my way to hunt for a beanbag that’s comfortable for 2, I haven’t come across any either.

Not until these Omni chairs by Sumo were brought to my attention.  AWESOME!!!!

It’s like Farmboy and I have returned to those youthful “dating” days!!!! 

Of course, there are a few little differences:

Like back then, we didn’t have an 11 year old!!!! 

Or an 8 year old, or a 5 year old!  I wonder if the omni chair has ever been made into a car before?  Notice the babies in their carseats in the back?  I just love kids imaginations!!!! 

And at the end of a hard day….

Perfect for my new school boy to take a much needed nap! 

It has the perfect fabric for those with kids too.  It’s easy-clean (unlike our last beanbag which didn’t stand up to the test of children!).

Alright, enough talking about it, I’m off to snuggle in my omni pillow and watch NCIS! 

You can find more information about the sumo lounge range, including some other suggestions for ways to use it and information on how to get your own by clicking here.

After our first foray into Geocaching over Easter, we’ve decided it will be a great activity to participate in while we’re away on our big trip.  Or any of our caravanning trips really.

I’ve written a bit about it on 3 Kids And a Caravan.

And our Geocaching name?  3kidsandacaravan LOL

I love that it’s an international activity as well.

Anyone else involved in Geocaching?

I mentioned in my last post before going away for Easter the certainty of having plenty of smiley moments over the Easter weekend.

I obviously wasn’t thinking straight.

Or didn’t expect:

• To bash myself in the eye trying to unload the kids bikes from the back of the ute
• To come down with a cold and spend half the time sweating and the other half shivering uncontrollably.
• To have a young child crash into me while riding their bike
• To get bitten by March flies and have to endure HORRIBLE itching from the bites1
• To poke a stick through the bottom of my foot and end up with horrible bruising all around the wound that I can feel every time I take a step
• To be picking up after my children every half hour so that I can find the caravan under all their stuff!!!!
• To eat so much my pants don’t seem to want to do up (okay, I did kind of expect to eat too much)

LOL.

It wasn’t all bad, honestly. 

We did have HEAPS of fun!  It’s interesting to holiday close to home and really get a chance to have a good look around “in your own backyard” (figuratively speaking).

Views like this make my wonder why we’d ever want to go anywhere else!!!

These are some local fishfarms on the horizon:

The kids enjoyed running up and down some sand-dunes.  These are not far from where we stay in January every year and I had NO IDEA they were there!!!

Lleyton feels like he’s “on top of the world”:

We tried our hand at  Geogaching for the first time.  It’s a bit of a treasure hunt using GPS co-ordinates.  I don’t know a lot about it but the friends we were with did the research and found out about it.  We simply tagged along for the fun.  I think we’ll try and do some while on our big trip.

This was the first one we found:

Lots of fishing was the order of the weekend.  We even managed to actually catch some!!!!

And you gotta love a man fishing with a PINK fishing rod!!!!

Pity you can’t really tell from the photograph. 

I think you could safely say that “a good time was had by all”.  And the wonderful thing about not going far away is that we’re home, the caravan has been unpacked AND cleaned (go me!!!  I usually put it off for about a week) AND so far 2 loads of washing have gone through the machine (something for which my parched garden is extremely thankful).

The weather over the weekend was absolutely superb.  Great living weather.  We’d be happy for it to rain anytime now though. 

On the agenda for tonight is eating up leftovers and getting to bed early!!!!

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter weekend!!!!

I’m right in the middle of packing the caravan to head away for the weekend.  We aren’t going far but it’s far enough to be away.  We’re spending some time with friends who bought a caravan at the same time as us and who will be joining us part way through our big trip.  It’s the first time we’ve been away together so could be an interesting test! 

The weekend is set to be filled with food, chocolate, good company, tennis, fishing and who knows what else.  Just what the doctor ordered methinks.

Due to Easter, there will be no Smiley Saturday this weekend.  However, I will be posting all about our weekend when we return - I’m sure smiles will abound! 

Wishing you all a safe and happy Easter.

I have a confession to make.

I’ve been neglecting the blogging world a little due to my current Facebook addiction.

It’s fun and it’s quick (hmmm…well it can be) and you can keep up with what lots of people are up to, all on the one page.

That’s not to say that I don’t still love reading and writing blogs.

But there is something about facebook that manages to combine old friends and new, online friends and offline friends.

Last night I was reading through a discussion about teachers at one of my old high schools (I went to more than 1).  It really cracked me up and brought back a few memories (good and bad).

It’s funny really because Farmboy hasn’t moved away from the district he went to school in.  In fact, our children attend the same school he did (and yes, there are still a few teachers there that taught him - getting less and less mind you).  Every now and then he’ll get to stroll down memory lane with some of his old school mates.  I don’t get to do that.  Mine are all miles away.  So Facebook gives me an opportunity that real life doesn’t offer.

Of course, some memories (and people) are best left down memory lane!!!!  LOL.

So, if you’re on facebook and want to add me as a friend, you can find my profile here.  Just make sure you mention in the personal message that you’re a Lightening Online reader so I know who you are.

That is SO not the title I thought I’d be using for this post. Not in the middle of my training session at the gym today.

Believe me, it was a KILLER!!!!

It felt like the hardest session we’ve had so far!

And that was without doing any of those evil Burpees!!!!!

We did a 2-minute circuit, alternating cardio with strength work.

I can’t believe how LONG 2 minutes can seem!!!!

Maybe I’ve finally found a way to make time slow down!!!! LOL.

What’s interesting though is the contrast between that moment when you think you’re going to die and how good you feel once you’ve finished and recovered.

During the session I was all like “I can’t wait to get home and blog (read: whinge) about this”.

Then on the drive home I’m thinking “wow, I feel kinda good”.

Just don’t tell my trainer I said so - she might get the wrong idea and think she can torture me every week!!!! LOL.

911 - I need help with my Math!!!!

I know the feeling kiddo!

Have a listen to this 911 call:

911 Math Call

And no, you can’t have it.  Well, you can if you like.  You just can’t have mine.

I’ve been concerned that my term of “long service leave” is flashing past at the rate of knots and I’m not going to get anywhere NEAR the number of things done I wanted to.

I probably missed the point a bit in that my plans for long-service leave have pretty much been all related to the house.  Catch up on the housework, decluttering the cupboards, do some deep clean and some painting.  Not too much in there for “me”.

Mind you, a clean, clutter free, freshly painted home would sure make me smile. 

And I’ve been spending some of my time planning our big trip which definitely feels like time spent for me.

Anyway, back to my point about the “roundtoit”.

I’ve been working on a slight change to my weekly schedule.

Back when I had kids at home I used to think of Friday’s as my “day off”.  Not that I actually had the day off (since the kids were home) but it was a day I gave myself permission NOT to feel guilty about not doing any housework.

LOL.  Pretty sad that I needed to give myself permission not to feel guilty really isn’t it?

But housework is the kind of job that is never done and this somehow helped me to go easier on myself.  Whatever works right?

Well, now I’m trying to schedule in time for “me” every day (easier with no kids home during school hours) so I’ve decided to make some changes to my weekly schedule.

I’m making Friday’s my “roundtoit” day.  Every Friday I’m going to try and do something that has been bugging me but I haven’t quite gotten to.

Last week it was washing the lounge room windows and flyscreens.

It’s awesome because everytime I look at them now, they make me smile.

This week was going to be oiling the front decking but I did that yesterday instead.  I’ll probably do the family room windows and get 2 “roundtoit” jobs done this week.

Once I can organise the paint (need to decide on colours first), I’m going to start painting on Fridays.

I’ve realised that if I leave it until I get “round to it”, or I feel like I have the time, it just isn’t going to happen.

For now, this is what my weekly schedule looks like:

MONDAY - Office Day.  Pay Bills, Tidy Desk, Declutter Office/Paperwork (a never ending task).  Gym inthe afternoon.

TUESDAY - Cleaning Day.  Dusting, Vacuuming, Mopping, Bathroom, Toilets.

WEDNESDAY - Town Day (piano lesson, grocery shopping, banking etc) plus “Make It Better” Day where I visit each room and just do something small to “make it better”.

THURSDAY - Kitchen Day.  Clean oven, microwave, fridge and cupboard doors.  Baking.  Also working on decluttering and resorting kitchen cupboards/drawers at the rate of 1 per week.

FRIDAY - Roundtoit Day.  Deep Cleaning (such as windows).  Painting and other niggly jobs that just need me to get around to doing them.  P&F meetings are usually a Friday too - which is another “roundtoit” since I’ve been planning to get involved with P&F for some time now.

SATURDAY - Bedrooms get tidied and a few other small jobs.  Soon to be taken up with sport so we’ll have to rejiggle a bit.

SUNDAY - Church in the morning followed by family time/rest day.

Washing gets done on a daily basis (other than Sundays).  I find it helps to have a theme for each day.  It helps keep me on track and breaks up the week.  Some weeks more gets done around the house than others but that’s life.

Do you work with a weekly or daily schedule?  How do you organise your week so that everything gets done, while still having time for the projects you really want to get to?