Lightening Online

Some of you already know the story of the day Farmboy and I met and how, in an innocent conversation, I informed him that I had no intention of marrying a farmer.  I have no idea what possessed me to share that with him but out it came in the course of conversation.  In fact, until that comment came out of my mouth, I didn’t even know I felt that way.  I guess I’d never met a “real” farmer before so there had been no reason to even consider how I felt about the whole issue.

He then proceeded to politely ask me why and to try and refute all my objections to being a farmers wife.

It’s one of those moments you might come across in a story where the author puts in an “if only they’d known” type comment. 

I can honestly say that neither of us had marriage to one another in mind at that moment.  After all, we’d only met just minutes before.  Our common link was Farmboys youngest brother.

Despite my intentions, we did indeed fall in love and I had to reconsider my intention to never marry a farmer.

It wasn’t an easy time in my life and involved a lot of tears and anguish.  Who’d have though falling in love could be so complicated????

I’d like to say that all of my fears were unfounded and that I took to farming life like a duck to water.  As it turns out, my fears were only the tip of the iceberg.  I had no idea about things like working hours and struggles to work with family.  arrgggh….

My biggest fears were based on media portrayal of farming life.  Lack of basic services, isolation and of course, the horrible media portrayal of the anguish farmers went through in the 80s when banks forced some of them from their land.

There have been numerous times over the years that I’ve wished I had stuck to my gut instinct to stay right away from farming.  I’ve never regretted marrying the man that Farmboy is.  His profession on the other hand….

To his credit, Farmboy has never thrust things upon me the way some husbands do their wives.  He doesn’t complain about my fuel usage if I go somewhere the way his father did to his mother.  He does occasionally ask for my help with different things but generally only as a last resort rather than a first resort like some other farmers.  He’s never made me feel inadequate about my lack of farming knowledge (not that that has stopped me from feeling inadequate).

We even did the whole “move to the farm” thing gradually, living in town for 4 years before venturing out onto the farm.

Many of you will be aware that farming has been going through some pretty tough times over the past years.  At the end of last year, Farmboys brother left the farm.  This was due to a combination of factors.

I have to admit, I was a little bit jealous.  How come he gets to go and we have to stay and continue to struggle?  Not just financially but emotionally.

At the end of the day, it’s our decision to stay.

I have to admit though, I’ve been harbouring a secret hope that while we’re away, something might come up that would cause us not to come back.  Or only to come back temporarily to sort things out before relocating up north somewhere.

Well, all that changed in the past week.

Why?

I tried tractor driving.

And I REALLY like it.

Really, REALLY like it!!!!

Who’d have thought.

Darn you tractor, now I WANT to come back from our trip.

It’s a conspiracy, I tell you!!!!

I guess I’m going to have to add this to my “101 Things I Thought I’d Never Do” list.

Yesterday I posted a meme that revealed a little of myself to you all.

You may or may not have realised this by now, but I’m away. These posts have been prewritten and prescheduled to publish. So you can stop sulking about the fact that I haven’t responded to your comments or commented on your blog. I do still love you!!!

I don’t like saying “hey everyone, we’re going to be away from X…. to Y…..” for obvious reasons. But since we’re due back any time now, I feel like it’s safer for me to say this now. I’ll be back on deck as soon as I climb out from under the mound of dirty washing and recover from jetlag (no, we didn’t actually leave our own time zone BUT I still suffer from “jet lag” after being away).

In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to encourage you all to share a tiny bit about yourself. Kind of like an “in-house” meme. Rather than going from blog to blog, it’s just for us here within this post and it’s comments.

So, here are my questions for you:

1. If you had to choose only 1 food item to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

2. Name one place you’ve never been that you’d really like to visit one day.

3. Where is the best place you’ve ever lived (your favourite) and why?

I hope you’ll join in and leave your responses to these questions in the comments section. I look forward to reading them when I get back on deck.

Do you know what this is????

Locals (ie, anyone who knows me in real life) - no cheating. You’re excluded. Yes, that definitely means YOU Sharon!!!!

Have a guess and I’ll be back later to fill you in.

Watch this space….

Alright, I’m having so much fun reading all your guesses that I almost don’t want to finish this post. But I will anyway.

Here it is in all it’s glory:

Yes, it is a netball uniform. And apparently I might be playing this Saturday. Okay, I think it’s more than “might” although I keep worrying that I might jinx it or something. Which is why I haven’t said anything until now (even though I’ve known for a bit over a week).

So SQEEEEEEE and wOOt and ohmygodwhatdoithinkimdoing …………………

After 21 years I am making a COME BACK at netball.

Am I crazy?

Who cares!!!

I am so totally going to add this to my “101 Things I Thought I’d Never Do” List.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why Sharon wasn’t allowed to answer this….she gave me the uniform!!!!

Naomi - not sure if I’ll be quite up to playing the yellow & blacks. I might “bench sit” that week. Although it could be kind of fun to play against Ellie (if she weren’t such a darn good Goal Attack!!!!).

Maggie - great guess.  Leighton is totally STOKED that his football team has the same colours as the Crows.  It’s great for me too because his crows stuff goes well with his football stuff (clothes I mean).  Yeah, the football club and netball club are part of the same club (and they have other sports in summer as well).

Oh dear, I’m getting butterflies just writing this post.  Yes, I’m a tad nervous (as well as excited).

Congratulations to those who guessed correctly and thanks everyone that joined in the fun by taking a guess.

I believe that a key part of Simple Living is to learn new skills. Learning to cook from scratch, growing your own food and making your own clothing are all skills which can bring much pleasure and connection with the earth. They are also valuable skills to help a household cut expenditure AND reduce our effects on the environment. Those who are worried about a peak oil crisis encourage everyone to develop these skills for basic survival.

I have to admit that I’m not really a “doom and gloom-est”. However, I do like to challenge myself and learn new skills. I think it’s the best way to grow and learn. Okay, sometimes I like to challenge myself and learn new skills. Other times I want to hide in the closet with my fingers in my ears.

This was the case when the shopping bag swap was announced at Down to Earth. After the stresses I went through trying to make my first tea cosy, I thought perhaps I’d sit this one out. After all, I’ve never sewed a shopping bag before. In fact, my sewing is pretty limited to track-suit material and flannelette. And really, who cares if your stitching isn’t straight on a pair of pyjamas?

BUT a shopping bag to send to someone else? That perfectionist monster started to rear it’s ugly head once again. I was SURE I couldn’t sew a bag that would be GOOD ENOUGH to send to someone else.

I think perhaps Rhonda Jean was inside my head that day because she wrote a great post “Swapping Helps Develop Your Simple Living Skills”. Here’s a brief excerpt from that post:

You don’t have to be an expert seamstress to join, Sharon has found some excellent tutorials to guide your project and no one expects perfection. If one of the reasons you haven’t joined is that you think you don’t sew well enough, put that thought aside right now. This swap will help you improve your sewing skills.

In response to my comment about hesitating, she then wrote:

lightening, the aim isn’t a perfect bag, love, it’s participation and developing skills. Join in, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

And Sharon, the lovely lady who now organises Rhonda Jeans swaps wrote:

Lightening-join in-there is no perfection in sewing by anyone. The point is to learn something, have a lot of fun, and meet new people. I have worn out many many seam rippers in my years of sewing!!

So I decided to give this a go.

One of the requirements this time around was to use something you already had. Many years ago I bought a few metres of calico. I figured to dress it up a little I could do a stitchery to attach to the front.

So I finally managed to do the “Live Simply” stitchery I’ve been wanting to do. Of course, now I’ll need to do another one for myself.

I chose to sew a singlet style shopping bag as it made the handles much easier for me to deal with. Here is the finished product:

It occurred to me as I was stitching the “Live Simply” stitchery to the calico that we tend to go to a lot more effort when it comes to making something for someone else than we might for ourselves. As much as I LOVE this bag, I couldn’t imagine taking the time to make one for myself. I thought that was an interesting observation.

I received my bag from my swap partner Julie the other day:

.

It’s so sturdy and large!!!! I’m going to be able to do LOTS of shopping with it!!! Isn’t it a pretty design? And look at the inside:

It’s PINK!!!!! Yaaahhhhh!!!! Thanks Julie, I LOVE it!!!!

I am so going to add this to my 101 Things I Thought I’d Never Do list. Did you notice that I’ve finally made a page for that???

One GIANT LEAP for Lightening!!!!!

I did something very brave!!!!!

Very VERY brave!!!!

I signed up with a PERSONAL TRAINER!!!!

She phoned yesterday to confirm and to schedule a weekly session.

So I am now officially SCHEDULED!!!!

And I have a starting date…..

31st March.

Today I am off to the local council to see about a membership to our tiny gym.

I need to become a member so I can meet with my Personal Trainer there.

Hear that???? MY personal trainer.

I so have to add this to my “100 Things I Thought I’d Never Do” List.

The one I haven’t written yet for this blog.

But I will.

Soon.

Because I can put “training with a personal trainer” on it.

Which sounds waaaayyyyy cool!

Even though cool isn’t a “cool” word anymore.

It is to me!

Oh my goodness. I am excited and terrified all at once.

What am I doing????

Lightening has a personal trainer.

Doesn’t that so make me sound all fit and healthy like????

If you’re reading this then you’ve obviously found me at my new website!  Isn’t it exciting????  I’m so excited I’m bouncing!!!!  I have to pinch myself to believe I have really gone to my own website!!!! I absolutely HAVE to add this to my “101 things I thought I’d never do” list!

Firstly, a MASSIVE thank you to Snoskred who has put in a MAMMOTH effort to get this up and running. Without her this would NEVER have happened. If you’ve not visited her site yet, please go and do that!!! And make sure you tell the world how wonderful she is because she truly deserves it!

Secondly, PLEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEE make sure you add this site to whatever feed reader you like to use. I think if you click on the beautiful pink button to the side there (under the word “subscribe”) it will take you through the process.

Thirdly, if you have been so kind as to add me to a blogroll or similar, could you please change that to my new “address” so that people can find me. And if you want to mention this new site in a post and give me some “linky love” to help me along my way that would be SOOOOO appreciated too. If I understand correctly, I’m starting again at the bottom of the heap here and need a little leg up!

Well, that’s all from me for now. This is a HUGE learning curve for me so please bear with me as I find my feet and my way around here.

P.S.  I have SMILEYS!!!!  Real, live smiley faces instead of pretend sideways sort of smiley faces!!!!!   

I succumbed today and bought the new knitting series that has just come out in Newsagents. I thought I was good the other day resisting temptation but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I would like needle knitting now that I’ve gotten quite attached to loom knitting. I learnt to knit as a child but it wasn’t something that really grabbed me at the time and wasn’t something I ever thought I’d try again.

So I spent the whole $2.95 to get the knitting needles (although I do already have a pair), 2 small balls of wool and the instructions for getting started. The instructions were what I was really after. It’s been toooooo long since I tried knitting to remember even the basics.

I’ve just given it a try and decided that I still prefer the loom knitting. It seems so much easier than trying to co-ordinate what feels like half a dozen items (but in reality is only 2 needles and 1 ball of wool). LOL. I’m not discounting the idea altogether. One problem I’m having with the loom knitting is that the cast on row is very loose. That’s okay for some things but not so great for others. I’d like to try knitting my own facewashers and dishcloths sometime and can’t see that working very well on the knifty knitter (loom) - unless I somehow learn a new way to cast on. So I think I will knit a few basic things with the needles and then see where to from there.

Knitting - I think I might make this number 3 on my “101 things I thought I’d never do” list.

Here is a picture of my latest project on my looms:

A pair of slippers in Crows colours for DS. The younger DS was very excited about these and insisted that he needed some too (even though he already owns a pair of slippers). In fact, every time he saw me not knitting his slippers he reminded me that I needed to do them. So he now has a matching pair. Well, actually I changed the design a little on his and made them higher at the top (and of course his feet are not as long). I copied a sock pattern for the heel and the toe but the rest of the slipper was just guess work so it’s all a bit of a work in progress.

I’m now working on a small handbag for my nieces for Christmas. Again, no pattern. So it’s taking a bit of nutting out to get it how I want it. It is quite satisfying when a project does come together though. I like the fact that I can make some practical things with this hobby.

It’s true what they say - loom knitting is addictive!!! I bought a set of looms from the Fox Collection kind of hoping that I would make use of them. I’m supposed to be working on finding a hobby or two. Something to give me some relaxation and fun. When I saw these in the catalogue I figured if I didn’t enjoy using them, the kids possibly would. Not sure how much a of look-in the kids are going to get! LOL. Just kidding! The good thing is, there are 4 looms and I can only use 1 at a time (unless I want to have several projects on the go).

If you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, here is a picture of the looms:

I’m finding them so quick and easy to use. And it’s amazing the range of things that can be made on them. My first 2 projects were a hat and small scarf for myself using a cream yarn called Rustica.

It varies in thickness throughout the ball so I figured even if my stitches weren’t even, it wouldn’t show (I can blame it on the wool lol). Each of these took me about an hour to make and cost me $2.50 (the wool was $2.50 per ball and each took around a ball to knit). So I’m putting some of my spending from last month to good use and there is a potential there to save money as well. I was looking at buying a cream scarf from Kmart recently for around $7.

On Monday I began making myself a black shawl using 8 ply wool combined with feathers yarn. It’s almost finished and I’ll try and post a pic when it’s done. It’s taking me a little bit longer than an hour (so far maybe 5 hours?) but it is quite a bit bigger. It feels so soft and warm - I can’t wait to finish it so I can wear it!

I find it so exciting to wear something that I’ve actually made myself! I can’t believe I’m knitting! I was hopeless with needles so it’s not something I’d ever seen myself doing. Perhaps I should make it number 3 on my “101 things I thought I’d never do” list.

I have another item to add to my list of “101 things I thought I’d never do”. Cutting hair. I blame it all on DH really. He decided to buy himself a set of those hair clippers and then wanted ME to use them. I remember the first time I used them. I was literally shaking, wondering what kind of disaster I was going to make of his hair. LOL. Fortunately clippers are fairly foolproof. The biggest problem is making sure I don’t pull the hair.

What a buzz it gave me to look at his hair and know that I had done that! LOL. I was quite proud of myself. Then came the time in between cuts where just a little trimming was required around the ears and at the back of the head. I was amazed at myself when Í didn’t make a total hash of that either.

So I figured if I could trim DH’s hair okay, perhaps I’d try giving DD a trim. Worst case scenario I’d have to ship her off to the hairdresser to fix it up a bit. That didn’t turn out too badly either.

Next I decided that if I gave DS a little trim in between his hairdresser visits, I could save a few dollars by stretching out the time between visits. He likes his hair as short as possible so other than some straggly bits around the ears and back, his hair didn’t need cutting quite as often. When he got a little older, he decided he liked dad’s idea of a very short cut (then I won’t have to brush it mum). Fine with me - meant he didn’t need to go the hairdresser at all.

The great thing about DS liking his hair but with the clippers meant I had a guinea pig to practise on. With his permission I did an experimental cut on his hair which ended up turning out quite well. So I went ahead and used the same style to cut the younger DS’s hair.

Yesterday I gave my 9 year old DS the choice of me cutting his hair or going to the hairdresser. He decided he wanted me to do it. With school photo’s coming up I didn’t really want to clipper his hair (I prefer it a bit longer for school photo’s). I usually prefer to take the kids to the hairdresser if we have some kind of event coming up (like Christmas, school photo’s, a wedding etc) so I was a bit nervous about cutting his hair in case I made a mistake. Fortunately there’s still a few weeks until photo’s so I knew it would have time to grow between now and then (his hair grows pretty fast). I was still relieved when it turned out okay though.

My latest project is my own hair. I’ve read an idea where you can put your hair up in a ponytail on top of your head and give it a trim that way. You end up with a layered effect (my hair is already layered so that was fine with me). I gave it a bit of a try yesterday and it seems to have turned out okay. I wasn’t game to trim too much off though so some lengths haven’t been trimmed. If I get game I’ll give it another go but we’ll see.

So there you have it. From the odd clipper cut and trim to cutting the whole family’s hair. Definitely something I thought I would never do!