I have to admit that it’s been a rather emotional time for me. All of my life I’ve wanted to be a stay at home mum and I feel very blessed that I have had the opportunity to fulfill that dream. Having the youngest start school has really hit me. I’m not ready to be “child-less” just yet. I don’t have a career to look forward to returning to. I don’t have great aspirations for what I’m going to do with all my “free time”.

Of course, my children will still need me. There’ll be sick days and school closure days. Not to mention school holidays. And Farmboy keeps reminding me that in actual fact, the school day isn’t really all that long and they’ll be coming home again before I know it.

I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday while Trailer Boy was at school for his first visit and sitting in the waiting room, struck up a conversation with an older mother.

“I had no trouble with sending mine off to school”, she said to me. “Wait until they leave home, that’s much harder”, she told me.

My heart broke a little.

Leave home? I don’t even want to think about that.

It’s so true isn’t it that the moment a child is born, they begin the process of “leaving the nest”.

It starts off with them being a separate being from your body. Then they wean from needing you for every feed. Before you know it they are mobile and don’t rely on you so much for getting around. *sigh*

I guess it’s all about the circle of life, isn’t it?

Not that that makes it any easier.

So, I’m about to make the move from “mother of preschoolers” to “mother of school age children”.

No idea what the future holds but like most things in life, I guess I’ll adapt and move on. What other choice is there?

PS: I was going to include a photograph of Trailer Boy in his school clothes but I’m too lazy to edit out the school name that’s all over the uniform so you’ll just have to put up with a picture-less post this time. He did look rather cute though and was so excited about starting school. When they go happily, it does make the transition so much easier. My heart broke for the mother whose child was kicking and screaming and not wanting to stay at school.

Post from: Lightening Online

Leaving The Nest

We started this tradition with our own children but the past couple of years we’ve put it off until after Trailer Boys birthday (which is December 1st). This year the kids were asking, so we decided to put it up Sunday (a week after the pageant but earlier than December).

I guess this means for us, the Christmas season has started. You can’t have too much of a good thing right?

The kids were SO excited and did lots of dancing around the lounge room during the tree decorating and afterward.

Here is Farmboy putting the tree together while the kids watch:

I remember as a child how loooonngggg it felt waiting during this part. All you want to do is get started with the fun bit - the decorating!

And here we are a decorating:

Once upon a time I had a more “magazine-ready” tree. Colour co-ordinated and perfectly balanced. These days we have a very “kid-decorated” look to the tree, complete with all sorts of home-made decorations. I will admit that it took a bit of an effort to step back and let them do it “their way”. They won’t be young for long and I want to enjoy this part of Christmas while we have them. There’ll be time for “perfect” Christmas Trees later (although I think I’ll keep the hand-made decorations).

And of course, the finished product:

Yes, we already have presents underneath. Aunty Santa has already been. I had lots of fun shopping for my nieces and nephews this year. We’ve already done presents with family on the East Coast but the rest of the gifts were languishing in the office. So I was pleased to get the tree up and have somewhere to put them. It feels good to have this part of Christmas sorted, wrapped and ready to go.

Want a sneak peak at what’s inside these presents? Here you go (any sister in law’s reading this might want to look away now if you want to keep it a surprise):

I bought all of these presents from the kindy toy fundraising catalogues. It made life so much easier and I really enjoyed browsing through the 4 catalogues I had looking for something that would be suitable. I tend to be a bit of a “perfectionist” when it comes to gifts - always wanting to get the perfect thing with the perfect “wow” factor. I’m trying to be realistic in that it isn’t really possible. If I can’t always get it right for my own children, how can I expect to get it right every time for my nieces and nephews? Anyway, I REALLY hope they like what I’ve chosen (and yeah, I did go a teeny bit over budget this year on some of them - but I had so much fun that I’m sure that counts for something!!!).

Now, I’ll leave you with a final shot of my little “santa”:

He’s so excited about the tree and Christmas and starting school visits and his upcoming 5th birthday (complete with pirate party if mum manages to get it organised). Life is good when you’re an “almost 5 year old”.

Anyone else got there tree up yet???

Ho, Ho, Ho…..

Post from: Lightening Online

O Christmas Tree

2 x Double Choc Tim Tams

1 x 10pk Bulla Splits

1 x 8pk Bulla Double Choc Ice Creams

1 whole pineapple (at least that’s 1 healthy “extra”)

In my defense, they were all on special!!!

Grocery spend for the week: $57.30

Amount now in grocery “kitty”: $157.40

I was going to wait until the end of the year to transfer my accumulated savings into my BHAG account but I think I might empty it at the end of this month (or maybe most of it) and start again. I don’t really like carrying too much cash around with me.

Menu Plan For This Week:

Monday - Homemade Pasties with potato wedges and vegetables

Tuesday - Chicken Pieces (haven’t decided exactly how I’ll cook them yet)

Wednesday - Fried Rice

Thursday - Roast Lamb in the Slow Cooker

Friday - Hamburgers

Saturday - Quiche

Sunday - Leftover quiche

Shopping List so far:

bread

milk

fruit & veg

margarine

Post from: Lightening Online

Menu Plan and Grocery Challenge Update

I have to admit that smiles have been few and far between around here of late. Things aren’t really going to plan with my medication changes which has been rather disappointing.

So it really did my spirits wonders this week when a couple of bloggers thought of me while passing on blogging awards.

Bettina and Kin passed on this Perfect Blend of Friendship Award.

It comes with a few questions to be answered:

1. Do you have the same friends since childhood?

No. We moved a lot when I was growing up and it was really hard to continue to maintain long distance friendships.

2. What do you value most about your friends?

I have an overwhelming need to be needed. I think my friendships somehow validate that I’m someone worth knowing. The difficult side of this is that I sometimes try too hard to be a friend and don’t allow my friends to be a friend in return. I’ve gotten way too good at hiding how I’m really going (to the extent that I don’t even realise I do this) and have a tendency to deflect conversations away from myself and onto the other person.

3. Are your friends your sounding boards?

Not usually. Although I’m trying to be more open. To an extent my DH is my sounding board (and he is my best friend) but I tend to be “stuffer” (stuff my feelings deep inside of me in the hope that they’ll disappear). However, when it comes to issues with my kids, they’re great sounding boards (and many of my friends have children a little older than mine so they make perfect sounding boards).

4. What is your favourite activity to share with your friends?

I went to an Enjo party yesterday and had forgotten how much I enjoy those party plan style parties. A few friends, some yummy food and SHOPPING!!!

I wish we lived closer to some decent shops as I really miss those days where you wander the shops with a couple of girlfriends. No particular purchases in mind. Just browsing. Sharing opinions and lots of laughter (oh and Mrs Fields Cookies for breakfast).

Thanks guys. I hope that one day we can share a real cuppa together.

The second award came from Dina at The Girl Who Wished She Was Australian.

Thank you Bettina, Kin and Dina for making me smile in a week where smiles have been few and far between.

I’ve also been in a bit of a blog funk. Not sure if it’s related. Comments are way down (although spam comments are way up). Not sure if that’s a result of my blogging funk or the cause of it.

Anyway, I’d like to pass both of these awards on to my Top Commentators list:

1. Bettina (9)
2. river (9)
3. Jason (5)
4. Richard (4)
5. Sharon (4)
6. Babyamore… (3)
7. Kin (3)
8. Prizetastic (3)
9. Gattina (2)
10. Kelley (2)

I know life is busy at this time of year which makes their comments even MORE precious. Thank you for taking the time to comment and be a part of the community on this blog.

In other smiley news:

* Last night Farmboy took me out for dinner. We dropped the kids off at his mum’s for the night and went to the local pub. Even better - it was $10 schnitzel night. Good feed, good company and under $30 including a shared dessert (Cadbury Flake Cheesecake) and drinks.

* All inspired after being at the Enjo demonstration, I came home and cleaned the kitchen. Discovered Enjo actually works a LOT better if you actually USE it (it’s been 3 or 4 years since I last went to an Enjo demo and the stuff had gradually been finding it’s way to the back of the cupboard).

How about you? Do you have smiley moments from this week to share? Perhaps a joke or funny you tube clip you’ve seen? I hope you’ll join us for Smiley Saturday this week and help spread those smiley vibes around!

Post from: Lightening Online

Smiley Saturday: Online Friendship

As a farmer’s wife you tend to become a “harvest widow” as all focus is turned toward the harvest and getting that crop off and delivered to the silos. When I was a young bride, I was stunned at the blinkers my husband seemed to wear during the busy seasons on the farm. Nothing existed in life other than the job at hand (whether that be seeding or harvest or shearing….). He’s a bit better these days and it helps that we’re not currently doing as many acres (and it’s been quite a few years now since we’ve had a big crop to reap due to low rainfall issues) but it’s still a busy and high pressure time of year.

The Header was reaping in the paddock next to the house a couple of days ago so I took some photographs to show you.

This Header doesn’t belong to us (no way we could afford it). We have an agreement with Farmboy’s father which allows us to make use of his header to reap our crop. One day we’ll have to buy our own header and it won’t be anywhere near as big or as flash as this one.

In some parts of the world (ie the US) these machines are referred to as Combine Harvesters. Here, we call them Headers.

Basically they cut off the top part of the crop (where the head is that contains the seed) and thresh out all the seed. The seed goes in the box (which is rather full in this picture) and the chaff gets blown out the back.

This is what the header looks like from the front:

I find these machines quite intimidating. Front on they look like a monster that’s just ready to eat me up (and I suspect I’d come off second best if I did end up being run over by one).

And here is the rather full Header pulling up to unload into the truck:

The Truck IS ours. This is only our second harvest with it and Farmboy is still in love. He’d been wanting to get a truck for a very long time and our old one really wasn’t up to the task of carting the grain. This one makes the job a lot easier and can cart more in a load (meaning we need to take less trips to the silo).

Harvest is currently the only time the boys work in together (Farmboy, his brother and his dad). It’s kind of a bittersweet occasion this year though as Farmboy’s brother has decided to leave farming so it’s their last season together.

It’s also a horrible time of year for me because I’m allergic to grain dust. I have no one to blame but myself really. I knew this before I married Farmboy. While we were “dating”, I climbed up onto the header they had at the time and ended up coming out in hives. Great idea to go ahead and marry a farmer knowing I’m so allergic to grain dust. At least it’s something treatable. But it does leave me feeling rather drained at this time of year as my body fights the allergens in my system.

Once upon a time it was also a fun time to watch the bank account as most of our year’s income would come in within the space of a few weeks. Of course, most of the money coming in goes out again to put the next crop in but it was still fun to watch. Not so much in the past years with poor yield’s and other factors affecting our income. Hopefully that fun will return again one day. Right now we are very thankful to have the crops that we do have. While they may not be fantastic, they’re a definite improvement on nothing.

Post from: Lightening Online

Harvest Time

Sounded like fun.

So I said yes.

And was assigned to Team Power Tac.

The purpose of this challenge? To help raise the profile of the humble, almost forgotten envelope.

Now, you know how much I LOVE to get real, live touchable mail!!! So, real live touchable mail from another country was REALLY exciting.

And the envelope - so thick and sturdy!!! I didn’t know they knew how to make “real” envelopes anymore.

Here is a photograph of some of the envelope contents:

It came to me from a lovely blogger in the US and I’ve now sent it on to Simone in Italy.

It’s quite exciting seeing the flags from various countries accumulate as the envelope circulates around the world. As you can see, I added some Aussie ones, as well as a few other little bits and pieces related to my blog and the envelopes visit here in rural Australia.

Don’t forget that in honour of the Great Round the World Envelope Race, I’m offering to send mail to any of my readers (and yes, you can be anywhere in the world). Simply enter your postal details on the form in this post.

Make sure you have a look around the Pushing The Envelope Blog. You get involved in your own envelope challenge, and of course, follow updates on the Great Envelope Race.

Go Team Power Tac!!!!

Post from: Lightening Online

The Great Round The World Envelope Race

Lest We Forget: Australian War Memorial

Right now I’m having a few tears.  Nothing to do with Remembrance Day.  Trailer Boy brought home a note today from Preschool about his transition visits at school.  They start on Monday.    And his first full day is going to be on his 5th birthday!!!  Which he’ll love.  Not so sure about me.

I’m finding it hard enough having my “baby” head off to school.  What must it have been like for mother’s sending their “babies” off to war?

Horrible, horrible stuff. 

I wish we could forget.

But I know it’s important that we don’t.

Post from: Lightening Online

Lest We Forget

Week One Progress

Total Spent: $45.30 leaving me $84.70 in the “kitty”. Yah!!!

I did deviate from my shopping list a little and bought damper rolls (on special), yoghurt (on special - MUST get back to making my own), garlic bread to have with the pizza (yum!) and some pastry sheets.

Didn’t buy any of the salad items (didn’t need) so other than that it was milk, bread and bananas.

We did deviate from the menu plan a little (which is pretty normal and not really a problem). Spag bol sauce ended up feeding us for 3 meals instead of 2 so we had lasagne one night (with enough left over for lunch the next day - yum!!!!)

Week Two Menu Plan

Monday - Lamb Chops

Tuesday - Steak and Mushroom Soup in Slow Cooker

Wednesday - Fried Rice

Thursday - Chicken Pieces

Friday - Hot Dogs with cheese and bacon (Lleyton’s favourite)

Saturday - Meat Pie

Sunday - Quiche

All served with veg/salad depending on whether and my mood.

Week Two Shopping List

Fruit & Veg

(Bananas are getting expensive again - hope that doesn’t last too long.)

Milk

Bread

Anything else that jumps into my trolley Good specials if I think we’ll use them in the next couple of weeks.

Post from: Lightening Online

Grocery Challenge: Week 2

Some time ago I agreed to participate in a round the world envelope race. This race is all about raising awareness of the humble envelope. I want to post on the race in more detail in another post so I won’t say anything more now but I will say that it is an exciting thing for me to be involved in and it surely made me smile when the envelope arrived yesterday. As someone who is a big advocate of the value of printed mail (as opposed to only digital mail), I’ve really appreciated the opportunity to be involved.

This morning, my children are having a great time watching the Christmas Pageant. I remember growing up with the pageant as a child and it heralding the beginning of the Christmas season. Some people prefer to wait until December to think about Christmas but as a huge Christmas advocate (it really is the most wonderful time of the year, right? ), I like to stretch is out as long as possible.

Christmas and real life touchable mail. Two of my favourite things.

And this year I want to combine the two in a simple gesture to my blog readers. I want to send out Christmas Cards to any of you who are happy to share your address with me.

I know privacy is an issue on the internet and I understand if you’re not comfortable giving me your real name and address. But for those of you who are, simply fill in the contact form below and I’ll send you a simple Christmas greeting via “real” mail. All details will be destroyed as soon as the mail is sent and will not be shared with another soul.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

I hope a card in the mail from me will make you smile!
Happy Smiley Saturday!!!

Post from: Lightening Online

Smiley Saturday - You’ve Got Mail

Anyway, on with todays post, albeit belatedly.

Here is my first weeks update on my BHAG progress:

1. Emailcash Cheque - $30.00

2. Interest on some long term savings we have (hadn’t been allocated anywhere else so I decided to “claim” it). Thanks Kin for the suggestion. - $239.68

3. Since I was so limited in what I could do today without power, I decided to clean out the top drawer of my bedside cupboard. It accumulates all kinds of bits and pieces plus coins etc that get swept into the drawer when I’m cleaning the top of the drawers. Found $100 in notes I’d shoved in there for one reason or another (and can no longer remember why) as well as some coins that have been added to my tin. Counting the $100 in the tally at the moment but not the coins as they’ll get counted all together later in the piece. - $100.00

Total $369.68

Not too bad for the first week! 

Post from: Lightening Online

BHAG: We Have Lift-Off