So it is now 11:19pm and after a quick break I am straight back into blogging.
I had a bit of a lucky morning. My brother in law took the girls to Nippers so I was spared the pain of traipsing around the beach with Diddy and Rohan in tow. I did have to be up super early to get them ready though - bummer... no sleep ins for me!!!
I spent the day getting ready for my trip to Sydney. I am driving down on Tuesday with my sister Kristy and her two children plus Rowie and Diddy. Yes, Kristy and I are mad. Travelling to Sydney in a car with 4 children who are 3 and under. Getting ready to go to Sydney involved tackling Mt Washmore. I spent a good 3 hours putting clothes away and packing clothes into the caravan.
Luckily for me my mother in law came around to help with the little ones. I am very fortunate to have a mother in law that I get along with. It made my day so much easier, not having to worry about the younger two.
After a hectic day packing and cleaning I invited my neighbours around for a mexican feast. I managed to cook up a heap of veges for Diddy and vac sealed them in little pouches (just like the ones in the shop!!). After dinner I made a butterscotch pudding and had a twi-night with my neighbour and friend Rach. Twi-nights involve us watching one of the Twilight movies while fiddling on our smart phones and eating rubbish.
It is now 11:26pm and Ben is home from work after spending the weekend in Cairns. I have just finished listening to his riveting opinion on the qantas issues. My main concern with all this hullaballoo is whether or not Ben's job is in jeopardy - which apparently it isn't. So I'm not overly interested. There are much more important things happening at the moment. I can't waste precious energy and brain space thinking about Alan Joyce.
I leave for Syd on Tuesday and before them I have an impossible number of things to do.
Tomorrow I am driving down the Gold Coast to have a mole removed, then driving back home to pick up the caravan, then driving back down the Gold Coast to drop the caravan to Kristy's house, then driving back home to get my stuff, then driving all the way into the Mater Children's in Brisbane to stay the night for one of Diddy's follow up sleep studies. And I have to do school work with Kylah and Jazzy and Mt Washmore is only 50% conquered.
So much to do and all I want to do is zzzzzzzzz.........
Will write Day 5 from hospital tomorrow night!! Hopefully I don't fall behind again.
xx
Sunday, October 30, 2011
7 Days of Bianca - Day 3
Craaaaap!!! I am two day's behind already!
It is now 11:02pm Sunday night and I have decided to quickly write this blog because I realised that this is the last opportunity I will have to type my blog out on a computer. From here until the last blog post on day 7 I will be typing from my phone.
Instead of going into why I won't be able to type on a computer I will tell you a bit about our day 3 and leave the rest for tomorrow.
So day 3 of my daily blogging was tremendously busy.
Ben and I managed to stay in bed till 8am that morning. Diddybell slept in till 9:30 like the little angel that she is. Ben and I *layed in bed talking and sending children out of our room periodically when they would come into inquire about breakfast or tv or whatever it is they wanted. What a lovely way to start a Saturday!!!
The relaxing start was not a prelude of what was to come however. We always have extremely busy Saturdays and somehow Ben always manages to be working or unavailable to help out on them (I think he asks qantas to be rostered to work on the kids busiest days - I know I would if I was him!!!). We set off at 9:35 (yes 5 mins after waking Diddy) to go to a 1st birthday party in a nearby park. The kids had a lovely morning running around, eating lollies and playing with the other kids.
We left the party early to head off to dancing. The girls do 3 hours of dance classes on a Saturday. Jazz, Musical Theatre and Ballet. While the girls are at dancing I usually take Rohan and Diddy to my sister Kristy's house.
After dancing I went to visit a friend who is expecting her first baby. It was so lovely to catch up with her and her husband and see her beautiful bump. She is one of those women who looks absolutely SENSATIONAL pregnant (usually I hate those kind of women but I make an exception for Carol because she is so lovely!!!).
After afternoon tea with Carol I took the children to Grandmas for dinner. Spag bol followed by an icecream in the bath (for the kids not me). I then watched Doc Martin with my Gran (a show I have never seen before but which Grandma loves) and helped her use the internet to do some family history research.
I arrived home with the kids at about 10pm and had to lug all 4 of them upstairs, along with the numerous bags of dance outfits, cpap machines, handbags, drink bottles. It took me a good half an hour to get everything in from the car and by that stage I had my second wind and so did Diddybell, who decided that she had had her sleep for the night and was now going to be wide eyed and cute.
So Diddy and I stayed up till 12 watching a show on the human mind. It was actually quite interesting and was all about attention (an area which I am quite impaired in).
Anyway it is now 11:15pm Sunday night and I have finished Saturday's post. Only took me.... 13 minutes!!! AND I still have time to quickly write Sunday's one so I am not behind anymore.
Gotta dash!!!
xx
It is now 11:02pm Sunday night and I have decided to quickly write this blog because I realised that this is the last opportunity I will have to type my blog out on a computer. From here until the last blog post on day 7 I will be typing from my phone.
Instead of going into why I won't be able to type on a computer I will tell you a bit about our day 3 and leave the rest for tomorrow.
So day 3 of my daily blogging was tremendously busy.
Ben and I managed to stay in bed till 8am that morning. Diddybell slept in till 9:30 like the little angel that she is. Ben and I *layed in bed talking and sending children out of our room periodically when they would come into inquire about breakfast or tv or whatever it is they wanted. What a lovely way to start a Saturday!!!
The relaxing start was not a prelude of what was to come however. We always have extremely busy Saturdays and somehow Ben always manages to be working or unavailable to help out on them (I think he asks qantas to be rostered to work on the kids busiest days - I know I would if I was him!!!). We set off at 9:35 (yes 5 mins after waking Diddy) to go to a 1st birthday party in a nearby park. The kids had a lovely morning running around, eating lollies and playing with the other kids.
We left the party early to head off to dancing. The girls do 3 hours of dance classes on a Saturday. Jazz, Musical Theatre and Ballet. While the girls are at dancing I usually take Rohan and Diddy to my sister Kristy's house.
After dancing I went to visit a friend who is expecting her first baby. It was so lovely to catch up with her and her husband and see her beautiful bump. She is one of those women who looks absolutely SENSATIONAL pregnant (usually I hate those kind of women but I make an exception for Carol because she is so lovely!!!).
After afternoon tea with Carol I took the children to Grandmas for dinner. Spag bol followed by an icecream in the bath (for the kids not me). I then watched Doc Martin with my Gran (a show I have never seen before but which Grandma loves) and helped her use the internet to do some family history research.
I arrived home with the kids at about 10pm and had to lug all 4 of them upstairs, along with the numerous bags of dance outfits, cpap machines, handbags, drink bottles. It took me a good half an hour to get everything in from the car and by that stage I had my second wind and so did Diddybell, who decided that she had had her sleep for the night and was now going to be wide eyed and cute.
So Diddy and I stayed up till 12 watching a show on the human mind. It was actually quite interesting and was all about attention (an area which I am quite impaired in).
Anyway it is now 11:15pm Sunday night and I have finished Saturday's post. Only took me.... 13 minutes!!! AND I still have time to quickly write Sunday's one so I am not behind anymore.
Gotta dash!!!
xx
Friday, October 28, 2011
7 Days of Bianca - Day 2
I am sooo tired. I am not going to type much. I am only doing this so I don't fall behind on my 7 day challenge. The last thing I need is to fall behind on something else!!
So this morning I was up at 6 ready to go to the gym. Unfortunately Ben decided to sleep in till 9 so I couldn't go till then. I did some school work with the kids and then left Ben to supervise while I went for my hour and a half break. After the gym, I came home to a house full of screaming kids. Ben had been trying to get them to clean up and was in the process of putting their smurfs in a garbage bag to throw them out. "You can't throw out their smurfs!!!" I exclaimed!!! Ben was adamant that he was throwing them out because he doesn't make empty threats and told them that if they didn't work faster the smurfs would be tossed.
Anyone who knows my children at all will know how much they love their smurfs. It's all I hear about all day long. They have a few smurf toys, which they got from McDonalds, and they play with them CONSTANTLY. I was not letting Ben throw them out. For starters, he was due to leave for work at 11. Conveniently just 15 minutes after tossing the smurfs. I would then have to spend the day and night with 3 sobbing, inconsolable children. So we spent 15 minutes debating (this is probably a very polite way of saying what we were doing) about what to do with the smurfs. In the end I won!!! Of course. The smurfs did not get chucked.
After Smurfgate I spent a good 30 mins sifting through Mount Washmore looking for undies for Rohan. I could not find any so resigned myself to the fact that he would have to spend the day free balling. Rohan ended up completely stripping and spent almost the entire day starkers.
I then set to work on my next task for the day. Making a Rainbow birthday cake for my friends son. I think the cake turned out rather well. It was three tiered and had a rainbow on top made of smarties. I will upload a pic tomorrow. I also made zucchini soup for lunch - and totally stuffed it up!! I don't know what ingredient I forgot... but it wasn't as yummy as it usually is.
In the afternoon I started to pack the caravan in preparation for my upcoming trip to Sydney and spent an hour folding washing.
I have managed to sew SIX badges on Rohan's sleeping bag today. They aren't sewed on very well but they are done.
Anyway I have to go to bed. I am soooo tired and I have a busy day planned for tomorrow.
Sorry if this post is a disappointment to anyone. It isn't interesting or funny or anything really... just me blabbering on about crap.
Oh well - at least I did it!!!!
B xx
B xx
Thursday, October 27, 2011
7 days of Bianca - Day 1
I have decided to try to do a daily blog for 7 days, starting from today. I have wanted to do this ever since my friend Sig did a similar thing (hers was 10 days - but that is a bit ambitious for me!!). I have been waiting for a week when things are 'quiet' or 'normal', but that doesn't seem to be happening so I'm just going to write about my crazy weeks, as they seem to be the norm.
My main reason for starting this blog today is that I have had such a productive day, I feel the need to record it for use in future arguments with Ben about who does the most.
My day was due to start at 7am. I had my alarm set for that time so I could get up and go to the gym. Ben had to leave at 8:30 for work so 7am is pretty much the latest I could get away with. I went to bed the night before at 12a.m and was worried about how I was going to cope with only 7 hours sleep. Unfortunately for me my other alarm, that can't be programmed, woke up for her morning feed at 5am!!! It takes half an hour to feed and settle her and by that stage I was fully awake. So I decided to go to the gym early and then come back and try to catch the 2 - 3 hours sleep I was owed.
So off to the gym I went. I was amazed at the number of people who are there at that ungodly hour. I was sure I would have the gym to myself. Apparently there are TONS of women who like to work out before their day starts. By the time my alarm went off at 7am (which it did because I had forgotten to switch it off) my session at they gym had finished and I was on my way home.
Thursdays are a day when my children do yoga in a park with other home schooled children so there is always a humongous race against time to get the school work done early, everyone dressed and in the car in time for yoga. Usually I end up arriving 10 minutes late and extremely disheveled after running out of time to dress myself properly or run a brush through my hair. Our food is always something I have grabbed out of the cupboard and the kids have to fight over the one drink bottle, which is all I can find in such limited time.
Having woken up at 5 however, I was presented with a couple of hours extra for my day. I must have released some endorphins or something at the gym because I rejected the idea of going back to bed and instead started to tackle my day early.
I had so much time on my hands that I managed to get the school work done, picnic made (INCLUDING chopped up fruit!!!), I had a shower AND washed my hair AND straightened it AND made it look nice. I found 3 drink bottles and had everything packed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. I was so overwhelmingly proud of myself. I couldn't wait to get to the park and casually unload my picnic and presentable looking children (actually, I forgot to brush Jazzy's hair so they were only semi-presentable) and hear the chorus of 'I don't know how you do it' from the other h/s mummies while smiling smugly.
So you can imagine how shocked and horrified I was to find out, whilst walking out to my car to leave, that yoga had been CANCELED!!!! A large number of children were sick, so there wasn't going to be very many there today and the weather looked dicey so they decided to call it off. I was floored.
I decided that I was not going to waste a morning of organisational genius so I decided to go out anyway and arranged with one of my friends, who has two boys that she home schools, to come over for a play date. So off we went. Tracy is the one friend who would probably be the least impressed with my organisational skills as she is one of the most organised and efficient people I know (on par with my Nicoles). But it was lovely to have a nice long chat with her while our children played.
After the picnic had been consumed we left Tracy's to go do a spot of shopping. Usually I try to avoid shopping with all 4 kiddies but I was feeling quite brave so I decided to go to Aldi and Coles. Shopping was fairly uneventful. It is such an effort to drag all 4 kids into the shops and then even more of an effort to load them and the groceries back into the car but I managed. There was no bribery involved although there were a lot of empty threats being made. "Rohan if you don't put that down I am going to ban you from watching Wiggles for the REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!", "Jazzy if you don't stop whinging I am going to put all of your My Little Pony toys in a box in front of our house labeled 'free to good home'".
When that long and arduous task was finally over and we were all loaded in to the car we headed off for an afternoon play date with another home schooling mummy. By this stage I was back to looking extremely disheveled and unorganised so we arrived at Sara's house in a flurry of messiness. You couldn't open a car door without groceries spilling out everywhere and the kids, who had spied the treats I had bought for doorknockers on Halloween, were begging for this and that. The three water bottles I had so carefully packed that morning were now AWOL and it took me 10 minutes of digging to locate Diddy's dooey (dooey is what we call a dummy).
I had a lovely afternoon talking with Sara while the kids played. In fact we had so much fun talking that I didn't realise that time had gotten away from me and before I knew it I was loading the kids back into the car and it was 7pm!!!! Usually my kids are almost ready for bed at that time and I still had a car full of groceries to unpack, kids to bath and dinner to cook.
Needless to say my kids went to bed with no bath after having had toast for dinner. I can honestly say, that last night (I think I may have started my blog off saying 'today', but I only got half of it written last night so it is now Friday) was the FIRST night in my whole 8 years of being a mother that I have ever fed my kids toast for dinner. I almost felt bad about it but I was too exhausted to give two hoots. I was so exhausted that I didn't even bother to hide the evidence (toast crumbs and a jam jar on the bench) so Ben wouldn't know. I ate a Lean Cuisine for dinner and that too was left stranded on the same lounge it had been consumed on.
I had planned to tackle a bit of Mt Washmore (thank you for the name Nicole) last night but I was barely able to make it up the stairs let alone traipsing from one room to the next putting away washing. I don't cope well with less than 8 hours of sleep so I am amazed that I made it to the time I did on 5 hours.
Ben arrived home at 9pm to a wife who was passed out and 4 sleeping children. Usually I am at the door to greet him and he has a delicious dinner waiting for him, but last night he came home to a jam jar and some bread on the bench and groceries strewn everywhere (I had tried to put some away).
So it is now Friday. I was up at 6 ready to go to the gym but Ben was still sleeping. I am now biding time before I can wake him to watch the baby so I can go to the gym. I have a fairly busy day planned. I have school work to do with the kids, then they have some of their home schooled friends coming over (I dare anyone to say home schooled children aren't socialised!!!), I have to tackle some of Mt Washmore, decorate a cake for a friends' baby's birthday, and pack for my trip to Sydney next week.
So far I am off to a flying start. It is almost 8a.m and all I have done is start off the school work (Kylah is now working fairly independently) and then plop down in front of the computer to read the news/facebook and write my blog.
Ooooh!!! I also need to sew some badges on to Rohan's sleeping bag today. Did anyone read my holiday blog about how I had been buying cloth badges for my mum to sew onto the kids sleeping bags??? Well turns out that was the WORST idea ever!!! My mum has arthritis in one of her fingers (or so she says) so I have to do it. It takes FOR EVER and I feel like I need to do it or I will never hear the end of it from Ben, who watched in horror as I spent on average $5 on cloth badges per child everywhere we went. Hundreds of dollars will be wasted if I don't stitch these bloody things on so I had better get on to that.
Also, I just remembered something funny Rohan said yesterday. He came to me and said that he needed to do a vomit, which was followed by 'hic'. It was his first time having the hiccups since he has been able to adequately describe what he thinks is going on. It reminded me of Kylah's first time describing the hiccups. She came racing into the kitchen screeching "mummy!!! I need some water!!! My mouth won't stop moving!!!!" She had an urgent and panicked look on her face. "What?!?" I asked her. Her response was "Hic"!!! Hilarious!!!
Hopefully 'Day 2' will be written tonight.
B xx
My main reason for starting this blog today is that I have had such a productive day, I feel the need to record it for use in future arguments with Ben about who does the most.
My day was due to start at 7am. I had my alarm set for that time so I could get up and go to the gym. Ben had to leave at 8:30 for work so 7am is pretty much the latest I could get away with. I went to bed the night before at 12a.m and was worried about how I was going to cope with only 7 hours sleep. Unfortunately for me my other alarm, that can't be programmed, woke up for her morning feed at 5am!!! It takes half an hour to feed and settle her and by that stage I was fully awake. So I decided to go to the gym early and then come back and try to catch the 2 - 3 hours sleep I was owed.
So off to the gym I went. I was amazed at the number of people who are there at that ungodly hour. I was sure I would have the gym to myself. Apparently there are TONS of women who like to work out before their day starts. By the time my alarm went off at 7am (which it did because I had forgotten to switch it off) my session at they gym had finished and I was on my way home.
Thursdays are a day when my children do yoga in a park with other home schooled children so there is always a humongous race against time to get the school work done early, everyone dressed and in the car in time for yoga. Usually I end up arriving 10 minutes late and extremely disheveled after running out of time to dress myself properly or run a brush through my hair. Our food is always something I have grabbed out of the cupboard and the kids have to fight over the one drink bottle, which is all I can find in such limited time.
Having woken up at 5 however, I was presented with a couple of hours extra for my day. I must have released some endorphins or something at the gym because I rejected the idea of going back to bed and instead started to tackle my day early.
I had so much time on my hands that I managed to get the school work done, picnic made (INCLUDING chopped up fruit!!!), I had a shower AND washed my hair AND straightened it AND made it look nice. I found 3 drink bottles and had everything packed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. I was so overwhelmingly proud of myself. I couldn't wait to get to the park and casually unload my picnic and presentable looking children (actually, I forgot to brush Jazzy's hair so they were only semi-presentable) and hear the chorus of 'I don't know how you do it' from the other h/s mummies while smiling smugly.
So you can imagine how shocked and horrified I was to find out, whilst walking out to my car to leave, that yoga had been CANCELED!!!! A large number of children were sick, so there wasn't going to be very many there today and the weather looked dicey so they decided to call it off. I was floored.
I decided that I was not going to waste a morning of organisational genius so I decided to go out anyway and arranged with one of my friends, who has two boys that she home schools, to come over for a play date. So off we went. Tracy is the one friend who would probably be the least impressed with my organisational skills as she is one of the most organised and efficient people I know (on par with my Nicoles). But it was lovely to have a nice long chat with her while our children played.
After the picnic had been consumed we left Tracy's to go do a spot of shopping. Usually I try to avoid shopping with all 4 kiddies but I was feeling quite brave so I decided to go to Aldi and Coles. Shopping was fairly uneventful. It is such an effort to drag all 4 kids into the shops and then even more of an effort to load them and the groceries back into the car but I managed. There was no bribery involved although there were a lot of empty threats being made. "Rohan if you don't put that down I am going to ban you from watching Wiggles for the REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!", "Jazzy if you don't stop whinging I am going to put all of your My Little Pony toys in a box in front of our house labeled 'free to good home'".
When that long and arduous task was finally over and we were all loaded in to the car we headed off for an afternoon play date with another home schooling mummy. By this stage I was back to looking extremely disheveled and unorganised so we arrived at Sara's house in a flurry of messiness. You couldn't open a car door without groceries spilling out everywhere and the kids, who had spied the treats I had bought for doorknockers on Halloween, were begging for this and that. The three water bottles I had so carefully packed that morning were now AWOL and it took me 10 minutes of digging to locate Diddy's dooey (dooey is what we call a dummy).
I had a lovely afternoon talking with Sara while the kids played. In fact we had so much fun talking that I didn't realise that time had gotten away from me and before I knew it I was loading the kids back into the car and it was 7pm!!!! Usually my kids are almost ready for bed at that time and I still had a car full of groceries to unpack, kids to bath and dinner to cook.
Needless to say my kids went to bed with no bath after having had toast for dinner. I can honestly say, that last night (I think I may have started my blog off saying 'today', but I only got half of it written last night so it is now Friday) was the FIRST night in my whole 8 years of being a mother that I have ever fed my kids toast for dinner. I almost felt bad about it but I was too exhausted to give two hoots. I was so exhausted that I didn't even bother to hide the evidence (toast crumbs and a jam jar on the bench) so Ben wouldn't know. I ate a Lean Cuisine for dinner and that too was left stranded on the same lounge it had been consumed on.
I had planned to tackle a bit of Mt Washmore (thank you for the name Nicole) last night but I was barely able to make it up the stairs let alone traipsing from one room to the next putting away washing. I don't cope well with less than 8 hours of sleep so I am amazed that I made it to the time I did on 5 hours.
Ben arrived home at 9pm to a wife who was passed out and 4 sleeping children. Usually I am at the door to greet him and he has a delicious dinner waiting for him, but last night he came home to a jam jar and some bread on the bench and groceries strewn everywhere (I had tried to put some away).
So it is now Friday. I was up at 6 ready to go to the gym but Ben was still sleeping. I am now biding time before I can wake him to watch the baby so I can go to the gym. I have a fairly busy day planned. I have school work to do with the kids, then they have some of their home schooled friends coming over (I dare anyone to say home schooled children aren't socialised!!!), I have to tackle some of Mt Washmore, decorate a cake for a friends' baby's birthday, and pack for my trip to Sydney next week.
So far I am off to a flying start. It is almost 8a.m and all I have done is start off the school work (Kylah is now working fairly independently) and then plop down in front of the computer to read the news/facebook and write my blog.
Ooooh!!! I also need to sew some badges on to Rohan's sleeping bag today. Did anyone read my holiday blog about how I had been buying cloth badges for my mum to sew onto the kids sleeping bags??? Well turns out that was the WORST idea ever!!! My mum has arthritis in one of her fingers (or so she says) so I have to do it. It takes FOR EVER and I feel like I need to do it or I will never hear the end of it from Ben, who watched in horror as I spent on average $5 on cloth badges per child everywhere we went. Hundreds of dollars will be wasted if I don't stitch these bloody things on so I had better get on to that.
Also, I just remembered something funny Rohan said yesterday. He came to me and said that he needed to do a vomit, which was followed by 'hic'. It was his first time having the hiccups since he has been able to adequately describe what he thinks is going on. It reminded me of Kylah's first time describing the hiccups. She came racing into the kitchen screeching "mummy!!! I need some water!!! My mouth won't stop moving!!!!" She had an urgent and panicked look on her face. "What?!?" I asked her. Her response was "Hic"!!! Hilarious!!!
Hopefully 'Day 2' will be written tonight.
B xx
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Back home..... Final Big trip blog - For now!!!
You've probably all guessed, from the absence of blogs, that I am HOME!!!
If you're thinking that the reason I haven't been blogging is because I have been busying myself with cleaning the caravan and putting everything away then you are dreadfully mistaken.
No, I only wish it were so. Since being back I have busied myself doing anything and everything BUT cleaning the caravan and putting all the washing away. It has gotten so bad that my mum is coming over tomorrow for a 'cleaning intervention'. Rather than have an early night tonight, as my mum suggested, so I can be ready and raring to go at the crack of dawn, I have wisely decided to stay up late and write some of my blog.
I have been so busy lately that I don't know what day it is or what I am supposed to be doing. Can you believe that THREE QUARTERS of my children have birthdays between now and Christmas??? Those of you who know how OTT I go with my kids birthday parties will understand my panic. I have been frantically ordering costumes for Diddy's first birthday (nursery rhyme themed and fancy dress), Figuring out how on earth I am going to make a cake that incorporates Smurfs and Surfboards for Kylah's birthday (I am thinking of a surfboard cake with Smurfs on top and 'Smurfs Up Dudes' written on it) and organising a pony party for Jazzy. This is on top of all the present buying and organising that I have to do for Christmas. I am also heading off on a road trip to Sydney in Nov to be Godmother for my BFF's baby girl. So you can see how unpacking from our travels has managed to take a back seat.
I have written my final blog from the trip in my head about 6 times (it went nothing like this) but have never managed to find 5 minutes to sit down at a computer so the words can spew out of my fingers. There were a few things I wanted to write about. The first was a list of things I found useful on my trip and a list of things I found completely useless. So here goes:
Useful List:
1. The most useful thing I took on my trip was my 20Ltr bucket that has a toilet seat for a lid. You put a garbage bag in it and do your business. There are a number of disposal methods for getting rid of the 'business'... which I won't discuss here. None of them are particularly offensive but I am trying not to talk so much about toilets on my blog so I will refrain. It was a life saver, especially when you need to go to the loo in the middle of the desert and there are no tree's to hide behind. Much nicer than a portable toilet because you can get rid of your waste immediately and a lot nicer than traipsing through prickly things and ants to find somewhere to dig a hole.
2. Coming in a close second was my toweling dressing gown and microfiber towels. It is so easy to go to the showers with just some soap in the pocket of your dressing gown, rather than carting all your nice clean clothes over there and having to try to delicately dress yourself, making sure none of your clothes touch anything in the dirty bathroom.
3. Vacuum sealed meals. These were sooooooo handy. It was wonderful not to have to cook most nights and made things so much easier.
Useless things:
1. Topping my list of useless things would have to be the 6 books I took with me. They really didn't have a home and I only got time to read two pages of 1 of the books. I prefer to snooze in the car over reading and when we weren't driving there was no time for reading and relaxation.
2. Yoga Mat and Boxing gloves. Yes, Kristy was right. The boxing gloves were used on the first night and then spent the rest of the trip being shoved from one cupboard to another (I think maybe I did use them briefly one other night). The yoga mat was used only once - and not for it's intended purpose. It was used it as a play mat for Kobber and Diddy at Buley Rockhole - Litchfield National Park.
3. All of the tinned food I took. What a complete waste of space. What on Earth was I thinking? I took enough rubbish tinned food to keep us alive for a year... had a meteorite plunged into the Earth and caused a dust cloud that completely blocked the Sun and caused mass famine - then my family would have been safe from starvation for a long time!!! However, you CAN buy food in the outback!!! Surprise, surprise they have shops!!!! There was NEVER one meal where I thought to myself - "oh I had better go and open one of those tins of baked beans". We had fresh salad on our crackers for lunch EVERY day and not once did we have to resort to tinned carrots to accompany our dinner (although we did try instant mash one night just for the hell of it - it was ok, kind of similar to eating that paste we used in kindergarten). There were only two nights were my kids ate 2 minute noodles for dinner (and then it was only because they saw other kids doing it and wanted them for a treat). So I now have a cupboard full of tinned goods that will probably never get eaten. Actually, I take that back. I sent a lot of it to Fraser Island with Ben and I have the rest earmarked for him and the kids to eat on nights when I am going to one of my 'committee meetings'. (committee meetings are nights when a bunch of my friends and I get together to organise homeschooling activities and spend most of the night eating cake and talking).
4. My hair straightener. I have no idea what I was thinking taking this with me. It did not get used once. I briefly considered using it one night but then realised I had not packed a hair dryer and you can not do it on wet hair. So there went that idea. This probably should rank as the #1 most useless thing I took!!!
Gosh I could keep going on all night writing about the useless things I took!!! In reality you don't need much. I took waaaay too many clothes for the kids and myself. We could have survived with a lot less.
For those of you who were worried about my iq box (or was it just me???), you will be pleased to know that it did it's job and I came home to 99 hours of prime tv viewing. When I haven't been party planning, catching up with friends, visiting relatives etc... my butt has been firmly placed on my favourite reclining lounge catching up on what has been happening on Jersey Shore and Australia's Next Top Model.
My efforts at the gym have been extremely poor since I came home. I have been too busy and it is really sad to go there and see how far my fitness levels have regressed after spending 6 weeks primarily sitting on my arse. I have been so distraught about how much my fitness levels have declined that I have been forced to comfort eat to perk myself up!!!
Oh yeah... another thing that hindered my unpacking was the extremely sensible decision to rearrange the furniture upstairs ON THE NIGHT WE ARRIVED HOME!!!! I made the upstairs of my house so unbearable to be in that I..... can not bear to be there. Every time I go up there to survey the damage and try to work out a plan to fix it, I end up so overwhelmed by the shear enormity of the mess that I race back downstairs to the comfort of my recliner (and a jar of nutella + diet coke).
But it is my mission that by this time tomorrow night, everything will be cleaned, sorted and straightened. I will let you all know how I go!!!!
xx
If you're thinking that the reason I haven't been blogging is because I have been busying myself with cleaning the caravan and putting everything away then you are dreadfully mistaken.
No, I only wish it were so. Since being back I have busied myself doing anything and everything BUT cleaning the caravan and putting all the washing away. It has gotten so bad that my mum is coming over tomorrow for a 'cleaning intervention'. Rather than have an early night tonight, as my mum suggested, so I can be ready and raring to go at the crack of dawn, I have wisely decided to stay up late and write some of my blog.
I have been so busy lately that I don't know what day it is or what I am supposed to be doing. Can you believe that THREE QUARTERS of my children have birthdays between now and Christmas??? Those of you who know how OTT I go with my kids birthday parties will understand my panic. I have been frantically ordering costumes for Diddy's first birthday (nursery rhyme themed and fancy dress), Figuring out how on earth I am going to make a cake that incorporates Smurfs and Surfboards for Kylah's birthday (I am thinking of a surfboard cake with Smurfs on top and 'Smurfs Up Dudes' written on it) and organising a pony party for Jazzy. This is on top of all the present buying and organising that I have to do for Christmas. I am also heading off on a road trip to Sydney in Nov to be Godmother for my BFF's baby girl. So you can see how unpacking from our travels has managed to take a back seat.
I have written my final blog from the trip in my head about 6 times (it went nothing like this) but have never managed to find 5 minutes to sit down at a computer so the words can spew out of my fingers. There were a few things I wanted to write about. The first was a list of things I found useful on my trip and a list of things I found completely useless. So here goes:
Useful List:
1. The most useful thing I took on my trip was my 20Ltr bucket that has a toilet seat for a lid. You put a garbage bag in it and do your business. There are a number of disposal methods for getting rid of the 'business'... which I won't discuss here. None of them are particularly offensive but I am trying not to talk so much about toilets on my blog so I will refrain. It was a life saver, especially when you need to go to the loo in the middle of the desert and there are no tree's to hide behind. Much nicer than a portable toilet because you can get rid of your waste immediately and a lot nicer than traipsing through prickly things and ants to find somewhere to dig a hole.
2. Coming in a close second was my toweling dressing gown and microfiber towels. It is so easy to go to the showers with just some soap in the pocket of your dressing gown, rather than carting all your nice clean clothes over there and having to try to delicately dress yourself, making sure none of your clothes touch anything in the dirty bathroom.
3. Vacuum sealed meals. These were sooooooo handy. It was wonderful not to have to cook most nights and made things so much easier.
Useless things:
1. Topping my list of useless things would have to be the 6 books I took with me. They really didn't have a home and I only got time to read two pages of 1 of the books. I prefer to snooze in the car over reading and when we weren't driving there was no time for reading and relaxation.
2. Yoga Mat and Boxing gloves. Yes, Kristy was right. The boxing gloves were used on the first night and then spent the rest of the trip being shoved from one cupboard to another (I think maybe I did use them briefly one other night). The yoga mat was used only once - and not for it's intended purpose. It was used it as a play mat for Kobber and Diddy at Buley Rockhole - Litchfield National Park.
3. All of the tinned food I took. What a complete waste of space. What on Earth was I thinking? I took enough rubbish tinned food to keep us alive for a year... had a meteorite plunged into the Earth and caused a dust cloud that completely blocked the Sun and caused mass famine - then my family would have been safe from starvation for a long time!!! However, you CAN buy food in the outback!!! Surprise, surprise they have shops!!!! There was NEVER one meal where I thought to myself - "oh I had better go and open one of those tins of baked beans". We had fresh salad on our crackers for lunch EVERY day and not once did we have to resort to tinned carrots to accompany our dinner (although we did try instant mash one night just for the hell of it - it was ok, kind of similar to eating that paste we used in kindergarten). There were only two nights were my kids ate 2 minute noodles for dinner (and then it was only because they saw other kids doing it and wanted them for a treat). So I now have a cupboard full of tinned goods that will probably never get eaten. Actually, I take that back. I sent a lot of it to Fraser Island with Ben and I have the rest earmarked for him and the kids to eat on nights when I am going to one of my 'committee meetings'. (committee meetings are nights when a bunch of my friends and I get together to organise homeschooling activities and spend most of the night eating cake and talking).
4. My hair straightener. I have no idea what I was thinking taking this with me. It did not get used once. I briefly considered using it one night but then realised I had not packed a hair dryer and you can not do it on wet hair. So there went that idea. This probably should rank as the #1 most useless thing I took!!!
Gosh I could keep going on all night writing about the useless things I took!!! In reality you don't need much. I took waaaay too many clothes for the kids and myself. We could have survived with a lot less.
For those of you who were worried about my iq box (or was it just me???), you will be pleased to know that it did it's job and I came home to 99 hours of prime tv viewing. When I haven't been party planning, catching up with friends, visiting relatives etc... my butt has been firmly placed on my favourite reclining lounge catching up on what has been happening on Jersey Shore and Australia's Next Top Model.
My efforts at the gym have been extremely poor since I came home. I have been too busy and it is really sad to go there and see how far my fitness levels have regressed after spending 6 weeks primarily sitting on my arse. I have been so distraught about how much my fitness levels have declined that I have been forced to comfort eat to perk myself up!!!
Oh yeah... another thing that hindered my unpacking was the extremely sensible decision to rearrange the furniture upstairs ON THE NIGHT WE ARRIVED HOME!!!! I made the upstairs of my house so unbearable to be in that I..... can not bear to be there. Every time I go up there to survey the damage and try to work out a plan to fix it, I end up so overwhelmed by the shear enormity of the mess that I race back downstairs to the comfort of my recliner (and a jar of nutella + diet coke).
But it is my mission that by this time tomorrow night, everything will be cleaned, sorted and straightened. I will let you all know how I go!!!!
xx
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