Lightening Online

Cute isn’t it?

I can count on 1 hand the number of Valentine’s I’ve been sent in my life.

So it was a welcome surprise to receive this in the mail!

Singstar Princess had fun putting it together for me.

I <3 her too!

Pity my font doesn’t make a very nice heart.

Lucky Lego does!

My lack of posting has not really been due to lack of time (although that is always a factor).

It has more to do with limited brain power.

Right now, my head feels like it’s going to explode.

That’s what happens when you take on a role like President and the Parents and Friends when you have NO IDEA what the job entails.

I’m on a high learning curve here.

And a lot of it is just little stuff.

Like…

Where’s the cupboard?

Where’s the key to the cupboard?

What do I do when I need to photocopy stuff?

How do letters home to parents work?  Does the Principal need to see them/sign them?

Finding out the best ways of communication with the school and within the school.

Not to mention figuring out how to communicate with parents.  And how to communicate how IMPORTANT parental involvement in the school is.  And how to commuicate that Parents & Friends are NOT just about baking cakes!!! 

Yes, any minute now I think my head might explode.

I sure hope it gets easier than this!!!!

If not, my blogging is either going to be non existent or a bunch of whines about how busy I am and why don’t parents care and why doesn’t the goverment care…etc etc.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.  Otherwise I might have a grand total of 3 readers by the end of the year! 

MAN - why couldn’t Zemanta give me an image of a brain exploding.  That would have been kind of cool!

Have you seen this website with personalised clothing, labels and other fun stuff?

I’m a BIG fan of personalised stuff.  My kids love it and I find it particularly good for presents for my nieces and nephews if I’m not sure what to buy them (in fact, I just ordered matching t-shirts for my twin nephews).

Mooo sent me some samples and I have to say the quality is wonderful!!!!

They have lunchboxes, bags, puzzles and much MUCH more.

It was interesting to find Mooo also mentioned in the great fundraising ideas mentioned on my last post.  You can find more information on this under Mooo Fundraising.

To help spread the word about their growing business, Mooo have offered readers of this site the opportunity to win a $50 gift certificate for Mooo.com.au.  All you need to do is visit the site and then leave a comment on this post stating what your favourite Mooo product is and why.

Entries close Sunday February 28th 2010 and the winner will be announced Monday 1st March.  All non winning entrants will be given a 20% discount voucher to be used on the Mooo.com.au website.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go check it out then come back here and comment!

This Giveaway Has Now Closed.

There’s an interesting discussion happening on the Simple Savings forum (paid membership forum) regarding fundraising ideas.  I’m amazed at how many different ideas there are out there.  No doubt we’re all involved in one group or another that has a need to raise funds for various running costs or projects.

On Friday, I took on the role as President of our school Parents and Friends group (unintentionally I might add).  It’s a group I’ve only been involved with for a year so I’m not even 100% sure on the full role the group plays in the school.  However, one of the things it does do is raise funds to help with bits and pieces that aren’t covered in other funding (and there’s always plenty of those).

So, my question to all of you is:

What successful fundraising ideas have you been involved with or seen?

In particular, things that are reasonably simple (workload wise) with not too much outlay.  We’re not a huge school which puts some of the big fundraising ideas out of our reach.

Also, how many fundraisers does your school hold a year?

Do you think that is too many?  Too little?

I actually think our school could do with holding a few more but I don’t want to overdo it either.

Any other thoughts you have on the whole issue of fundraising I’d love for you to share.

Thanks for your help. :)  Oh, and wish me luck.  LOL.

I grew up feeling like an over-emotional freak.

It wasn’t until I met my now husband that I even learnt that I have a tendency to absorb other peoples emotions.  He would come to visit me and all of a sudden I would feel absolutely awful.  We worked out (through talking) that he would be worrying about how his car was running or something else.  All I was getting was a negative emotion that seemed to have no source or reason - and was therefore almost impossible to deal with.

Recognising this tendency has helped a little.  It doesn’ t seem to always happen and I don’t always recognise it when it does.  I’m also learning that I’m more susceptible when my own emotional stores are low.

It happened this morning and took me by surprise - and caused me a lot of pain.

I’m emotionally low at the moment.  Signs like thinking my husband hates me and not being able to get to sleep (or stay asleep very long when I do get to sleep) are tell-tale signs.

I’m doing well and today planned a “mental health” day.  Plenty of rest, some recreation and pottering around making the main areas of the house tidy (because that seems to help as well).

I did have 1 task that really “HAD” to be done and that was talk to the Deputy Principal of our school about possible changes to our kids classes (they’re having to reshuffle the school at the moment and I don’t want our youngest changed).  That’s fine - all went fine with the phone call.  It should have felt a relief to have that dealt with and know they’re not going to change him.

Instead, I felt incredibly exhausted and in a LOT of pain.

Why?

I’m surmissing that I absorbed a heap of his emotions.

Unsurprisingly, he’s quite stressed at the moment.  He’s been sick.  He’s having to deal with all the extra work of reshuffling all the primary classes (we’re getting an extra teacher) and the principal is away at the moment.

Poor guy.  I do wish I was more that I could do.

But I’m guessing my carrying some of his emotional baggage is not helpful to anyone.

Mind you, I’d be curious as to whether he felt any better after talking to me.  Wonder if my taking it on unburdens someone else or whether the emotions multiply???

Dunno.  I’m still learning about this myself.  And I’m not about to ring him back and ask him.  LOL.

So, now I’m doing some research and trying to understand strategies for stopping this happening and what I can do to recover my own emotional state when it does happen.

Anyone else have this tendency to absorb other peoples emotions?  I’m not sure how common it is.

Now that February has begun, my new budget has clicked in to play.  As has my grocery challenge.

This month all I’m trying to do is TRACK what we’re spending on groceries.

I really can’t set myself any goals or challenges until I KNOW what we’re already spending.

As it turns out, I’m beginning the challenge with a well stocked freezer and pantry which should help.  It also means I need to take that into account when considering how much it is costing us in groceries.  One thing I would like to do is to set aside $50 each month toward the cost of our 1/2 cow.  We seem to get one about once a year and the cost is around $500 so that will give me the cash all ready for the next one plus enough to get a couple of sheep butchered as well.

BUT, we’ll see how we go.

For now I have allocated $150 for groceries.

I found an old little coin purse which should work well for our grocery money.

I’m a little bit peeved that our local supermarket has just instated a new “no cash out” rule.  My plan *was* going to be to do the weekly shop and take the “change” from $150 out in cash.  Now I’m going to have to be a little bit more organised and go to the bank first.

Anyway, so far this week:

Spent: $72.45

Leaves: $77.55

I know I’ll need to buy milk and fruit tomorrow when I go through town (they get fresh fruit and veg on a Thursday so when I know I’m going back through, I leave some of my stuff until then to buy).

Unless something goes drastically wrong, I think I’ll make it “within” the $150 this week.  Nice way to start.

EDITED TO ADD:

Second shop came to $15.70

Spent: $88.15

Leaves: $61.85 which stays in my “grocery” purse for future use if needed.