Lightening Online

I’m feeling really flat at the moment.

I’m not exactly sure why.

Maybe the weather?

Maybe hormones?

Maybe another tragic death on our roads this week?

Maybe a little of all of the above.

I just feel really “stuck in a rut”.

Feeling like life is just “same old, same old…”

Which surprises me really as I’ve been doing some time on the tractor so it’s anything but “same old” at the moment.

The tractor driving has certainly been a welcome relief from staying at home doing the “same old, same old” though.

I don’t want to be at home but I don’t really want to be out either.

I’m thinking maybe I need to do a revamp at home.

Shift some furniture.

Get onto the painting I’ve been planning on doing for several years now (which is planned for after seeding but seeding is dragging out a bit this year).

Maybe that will help get me out of  my rut.

Or maybe not.

Wish there was a magic wand that could fix times like this.

Anyone have any solutions for getting out of a rut?

Life keeps trying to teach me an important lesson.

I’m not superwoman. 

Which is a bummer really as I’d LOVE to BE superwoman.

Not in the “save people” sense though.

More in the “able to do everything” sense.

Hands up who’s with me?

LOL.

I think most mum’s would like to have more energy, more time, more organisational skills at some point in their lives (or many points as the case may be).

So, one of my “not trying to do it all” moments came when I realised it’s okay to buy prepackaged snacks.

When I was a full-time stay at home mum I cooked a LOT from scratch.

It was a way I could contribute to the family finances by keeping our costs as low as possible.

Now that I’m working part-time (even if it is somewhat flexible, it all takes time) AND doing other things like being President of the Parents & Friends at school, running kids around to sport, music etc etc., I’m finding it increasingly more difficult to fit everything in.

So, the kids now have 1 prepackaged snack for their lunchboxes each day (well, most days).

And Farmboy and I have been using some when we need to grab something to take out on the tractor.

The problem is, it’s not that easy to find prepackaged snacks that have some nutritional value and don’t completely break the bank AND that we like.

I’ve never been a huge fan of muesli bars.  I’m aware that they’ve had a bad rap in the press in regard to their nutritional value BUT the main reason I’m not a fan is because I don’t like them.

Anyway, when Zing asked me if I was interested in the NEW Be Natural Berry Trail Bars, I thought I’d give them a go.

I have to admit that they are quite nice.  I like Berry flavoured things so they appealed to me well.

So, what about the nutritional side of things?

According to the information I was sent, per bar they have:

Energy 462kj

Protein 2.6g

Fat 1.4g total (0.4 saturated)

Carbohydrate 19.7g (5.8g sugars)

Fibre 4.0g

Sodium 54mg

Plus they promote that they have no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

They also contain 5 whole grains, 3 of which we actually grow (that’s got to be a good thing yeah? )

I don’t know.  Healthy snack?  Treat only?  What do you think?

I’d also love to hear from you as to what kinds of prepackaged snacks you do and don’t buy and why.

P.S.  On a “less healthy” note, I wouldn’t mind trying the Macadamia & Honey or Nut Delight Nut Bars.  They’d be more healthy than a chocolate bar, yeah?

Just upon waking this morning our house started to rumble and shake.

I’ve never experienced an Earthquake before.

I must admit, I jumped out of bed pretty quickly.

Not because I was worried about the Earthquake but I was worried about what the kids were thinking (whether it was frightening them).

They actually thought it was pretty cool!

We had quite a shake and a rumble followed by an aftershock that rattled the windows.

I haven’t heard yet whether anyone closer to the epicentre experienced any damage.

As it turns out, it was really good timing for Lleyton.  They are studying Earthquakes at school at the moment.

So, that’s our exciting news for the week!!!

Oh, and we won netball yesterday, in the rain.  That was exciting too (albeit rather wet and squelchy).

Well, seeding is progressing rather slowly this year.

Some paddocks are too wet to get the machinery on to (not a bad problem to have).

Some paddocks are giving us grief with stubble issues from overzealous summer weeds (you have to stop frequently to pull it out from around the seeding tines).

And then there have been the grey drizzly days which mean we can’t work.

Still, in spite of the late start and the hold-ups, Farmboy seems to be pretty happy with our progress.

It’s seems to be working well, me being able to do 3-4 hours on the tractor a day.

Makes a BIG difference to our productivity.

Then today I did around 6 hours but with down time etc, I was out there close to 8 hours.

A MASSIVE day for me.

I certainly couldn’t do that every day.

But it does mean we’ll get over quite a few acres today.

And that Farmboy will get home a little earlier than he would if I hadn’t done the extra hours.

Earlier like around 1am instead of 3am. 

When you get the fine weather, you just have to go for it.

Only about 1000 acres to go now.

When I blog about something that helps promote a company, I prefer for it to have some benefit to ME and, where possible, to YOU, my readers.

However, when I heard about this particular promotion, I really wanted to be a part of spreading the news.

Why?

There’s something in it for YOU (the readers) AND something in it for struggling Australian families.  That’s not too bad a trade off.

Not that there’s much Curves could offer me anyway.  Unless they’d like to open up a branch a bit closer to me (hint!  hint!).

I like what they do.  I like the way they try to help busy women fit in some health and fitness with their 30 minute workouts.  And I’ve heard of people getting good results from their program.

Anyway, what this post is actually about is to let you know Curves have a promotion on at the moment where they’ll waive their initial service fee if you bring in a bag of groceries to be donated to a local charity.

Here’s what you have to gain by joining now:

YOU get healthier and fitter

YOU get to save yourself some money

YOU get good Karma^ by helping out someone in need (plus of course the wonderful feeling of knowing you’ve done something to help someone else in need)

So, what are you waiting for?

Go check out their Curves Food Drive for Charity and give it a go.  I know I would (if I could).

^ Thought I should point out I don’t actually believe in “Karma” per se BUT I do believe that “what comes around goes around” which is kind of the same thing without the name.

One thing I love about the blogging community is it’s resourcefulness and willingness to help one another out.

I received this comment on one of my posts today and I’m thinking perhaps someone out there knows the answer to her question:

I have been looking for a recipe i used to make years ago but have lost it, It is a very simple chocolate slice, which the base consists of condensed milk coconut but that is all i can remember. It is a very moist and chewy base. Can anyone help me to recapture what i used to think was the best chocolate slice ever  Lisa

I hope someone out there can help Lisa find the recipe she’s looking for.  Feel free to leave links in the comments to recipes that might fit her description (or you can type the recipe into the comments section if you like).

I wonder how many chocolate slice recipes we can come up with?

I hate to admit this…but I’m not very technically minded.

In fact, people sometimes get the wrong impression when they see my blog.  It does make me look rather clever doesn’t it?  But all the “clever-ness” was outsourced.

Anyway, it’s usually Farmboy’s job to nut out any new technology in this house.

It’s just all beyond me.

So, I was a little hesitant when it came to getting the Canon Pixma MP990 all set up and ready to use.

It’s no good waiting for Farmboy this time of year.  He’s never home.

Besides, how can I blog about something if I haven’t actually gone through the process myself.

So, I’ve bitten the bullet and set about seeing if I can figure out what needs to be done to get this thing up and running.

STEP ONE - GET IT OUT OF THE BOX, REMOVE THE PACKAGING AND LOCATE THE POWER CORD.

Okay, seemed to manage all of that without too many dramas.  I seem to have notes everywhere.  Not necessarily a bad thing as it’s harder to go wrong that way.

STEP TWO - INSTALL THE INK

Kind of had heart failure when I realised I needed to install the actual print head (tray the inks go in) first!

The instructions were pretty easy to follow though.

And the best bit?

You know that little monitor I was going to talk more about.

Well, it gives you lots of HELP when you’re getting the printer all set up.

And for someone like me who is visually oriented, it makes the whole process SO much easier.

I used a combination of the written instructions in the manual and the visual instructions on the monitor to make sure I was getting it right.

AND, when you have all the inks installed CORRECTLY, they have little lights that light up to let you know it’s “all good”:

How uber cool is that????

STEP THREE - GETTING THE PAPER ALIGNED

The printer comes with a special paper pack that you use when setting up the paper alignment and testing the printer.

What I also like is that my little monitor tells me how long I need to wait while the printer is busy doing something.  It means I’m not left standing around wondering how many minutes cleaning the heads or getting itself sorted is going to take and can go and do something and come back.

STEP FOUR - INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE & CONNECTING TO THE COMPUTER

I did have a little bit of trouble locating where the USB cable was meant to plug in.  The picture in the manual doesn’t show it all that clearly.  With a bit of a hunt, I did find it.

I expected to have to install software from the disk but by plugging the USB into my laptop, I was able to go directly to printing.

You can’t get much easier than that!

STEP FIVE - PRINTING

You’d expect this to be automatic wouldn’t you?

Everything else is all set up, we should be ready to go?

Not quite.

I tried to load the paper in the same place it had gone for getting the alignment all set up.

WRONG!

I hadn’t read the instructions properly.

And, as the kids were quick to point out to me, the computer screen had an image showing me exactly where to load the paper.  *blush*  I did say I was technologically challenged!

The paper gets loaded into a cartridge underneath the printer (similar to the way a photocopier would load).

Unfortunately, I pulled the entire tray out from the printer and it was very difficult to work out how to get it back in.

Difficult for me anyway.  I discovered I just had to lift it up the tiniest bit and it just slid right in.  Doh!

IT’S WORKING!!!!

Always a bonus when you have a new piece of equipment! 

Now the fun part can start!

I know there are plenty of things “wrong” with our public health system.

But sometimes it’s all too easy to focus on the negatives and forget that there are some positives.

Trailer Boy has been a public patient in our health system while his arm has been broken.

He was attended to by the local hospital and local doctor then referred on to a surgeon.

Granted we had to travel almost 2 hours to have his arm bone reset in theatre but it’s unrealistic to expect an orthopaedic surgeon to sit around here just waiting for someone to break their arm. 

Through theatre, 2 follow up visits to the surgeon and now having his cast removed and replaced with a brace (quite a colourful one at that), we haven’t had to pay a single cent!

To be honest, I was quite surprised.

Pleasantly of course. 

So, hat tip to our public health system.

Sometimes it’s works really well.

I have started a new poll on printer brands.

It’s in the sidebar but I’ll insert it here as well:

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We have owned an Epson in the past and now have a Brother.  I’ve never had a Canon before.

It got me to thinking about what the more popular brands are and why.

If you have anything you’d like to add in the comments section about what printer brand you have and why you do or don’t like it, I’d love to hear from you.

P.S. Please give your honest opinions.  My latest toy gave me the idea for this poll but it has nothing to do with Canon or their current blogging promotion,

You’ll have to excuse me if I fail to blog as much in the next few weeks.

I’ve just a received a “parcel in the post” (okay, via courier but you know what I mean right?)

This is the new Canon Pixma MP990.

Isn’t that built in monitor so cute????  (I’ll blog more about that in my next post).

I’ve been asked if I’d like to put this printer through it’s paces and possibly blog about my experiences doing so.

I figured “why not”.  Who wouldn’t want a new toy to play with, even if it is only for a short period of time.

The bonus is, I’ve been considering updating our printer.

Now I have the opportunity to put one through it’s paces before trying to decide what features I’d like/use etc.

How handy that Farmboy doesn’t need me on the tractor this morning.

Housework be darned, I have a present to play with.

P.S. I don’t get to keep it.  I just get to play with it for a while and then I have to send it back.  *sob*

P.P.S.  I didn’t really mean it about not blogging for a while.