Backyard Treasures.

Had a brain wave that I needed the lawn mowed; I have been avoiding all contact with the backyard, I new it was bad. Today I accidently ventured out to freak and NEED it done ASAP… it was above my knees in places!!!

I convinced eldest DS to do part of it; if I do the yard, I use a push along mower, but apparently when males do the lawn, they find a ride-on mower! Geez if I had a ride on I might be able to do it myself.
A ride-on was found at Nonna’s home; eldest DS drove it up through the paddock, this was met with screaming from youngest DS who thinks it was sent to eat him… screams from another that it is UNFAIR how J always gets to ride the bike ha-ha (tell her it is a mower, and get my most loved word… ‘Whatever’ as an answer)

I’m just about ready to say where to start, and I see a toy, go down to get it… and see another toy… and some shoes… and socks… and a bucket… and pegs and lunches. Yep the sandwiches that I declared I’m NOT making anymore were in the yard/ grass. ; All sorts of stuff!

We do a junk hunt, and I’m not feeling real happy (Youngest DS was very upset about this… I got LOTS of ‘Are you happy?’) We collect 4 piles of stuff.

1 pile is washing that I now have to rewash!
1 pile was dishes, mainly lunch boxes, and chock buckets, but adds t-spoons and cups just to top it off.
1 pile was toys, stuff that IS meant to be out side… but NOT hidden in the grass.
The last pile was Brocken toys, and bits of brick, wood and pavers.

I had the 4 elder children helping me (and youngest DS following, wanting me happy). All were complaining how they DIDN’T do this, it WASN'T them… I was getting quiet mad and fed up, giving them sarcastic comments telling them they must have, because I didn’t put all the stuff out there, and the fairy sure as hell can’t be blamed! Etc

We get the wheelie bin to throw out the last pile and DD 6 years comes outside, she was so upset.
Apparently we have ruined her treasure hunt game!!!… As she was storming off she made it clear that she now has to hide all the treasures again! ROFL

Had to laugh… what else could you do. :)

My children are the ONLY ones in their school that have to….

My children are the ONLY ones in their school that have to….

….do jobs... Apparently!

I am over how the children do jack crap to help out… I’m their mum yes, slave no.
To rectify this issue I wrote a job chart. Jobs aren’t foreign to the children, they do them, but I thought the chart would help them know exactly what is expected, and decrease their complaining how it is unfair because such and such never does anything, and how they do it all.

Apparently this job chart is worse than getting shot by a firing squad, worse than being thrown into a lion’s pit; both are things that are more appealing to them than what is on the dreaded chart.
DD 10 years was sobbing, saying she wished she had a new family and that this family isn’t a family but a slave camp. DS 13 was quick to agree and suggested he move out to Nonna’s, as he is NOT doing that ‘sucky shit’, and feels that if he didn’t make the specific mess… why should he clean it; NOT that he does clean the specific mess he makes, if you look into his bedroom there is proof that he really wants to be a pig, as a human wouldn’t find the simple task of cleaning 1 room that hard.

I hear your concerns about what is on this chart…if you ask the kids – EVERYTHING, but in reality it is between 3 and 5 jobs each (assuming you count them as jobs) each, depending on age. Tavanna and Taivian share their jobs, and are happy to do them… Washing hunt, bottle hunt and try neaten their bedroom.

Maison has 4 jobs, and LOVES the chart as he often gets blackmailed via the older kids, so he thinks it is great he knows what he has to do – Dry half the dishwasher stuff, open blinds, coat hanger hunt and neaten the room he is in.

Apparently the younger 3 are SOOOO lucky and the next 2 up want to swap jobs as it now becomes unfair… age shouldn’t change expectations, and they know I just hate them cause of how hard their jobs are!

DD 10… the one that wants to change families now; - dry half the dishwasher stuff – OMG why did SHE get THAT, she HATES doing that and would rather do ANYTHING else in the world (apart from her other 3 jobs) Her other jobs… put away towels, wipe under 1 side of the bench and wipe the vanity top. As you can see, I truly missed my calling, a slave driver is what I’m destined to be.

DS 13, normally he gets out of most things as he exhausts me and I get to the point where I can’t be stuffed fighting, regarding the jobs - he wants to move out… or ring DH to complain (Like that will help) His jobs are chook bucket kept OK, if it is full he gets to throw it to the chooks… NOT the whole bucket... just what is in it. Yard duty, and this really isn’t a job, as he will ride his bike or go to the park, but it sounded good and it was away from me , picking up the pegs that grow in the grass under the line. I say they grow, because they are always there; not on the wire! The BAD one is cleaning up the breakfast bits and pieces, put away the stuff everyone got out, rinse the dishes and wipe the bench.
What is so hard about this…? EVERYTHING… according to him *sigh*

Eldest DD isn’t to bad, and she got a couple of ‘real’ jobs, like hanging a load of washing, taking the bins out, ironing 10 items every 2nd day and doing her sisters hair. (The mega curly hair that is a mattered ball of fuzz each morning)

I’m seriously thinking of writing a new chart… one that is more age based… they could do the same number of jobs as their age! ha-ha
If I must hear them complain about it, might as well give them something to actually complain about! ;)

Lucky for them I can’t be stuffed, but I’m not giving up on what I’ve written, and personally feel it isn’t expecting much at all.

Zamirahs Baptism

Finally we have succeeded in getting our 7th child Baptised. This might sound easy, but the more children we have, the harder things like this are to organise. In part because we lack the motivation we once had… Not sure where it went, but somewhere between the 3rd and 4th child the newness, and excitement of occasions was replaced with a realistic daunting enlightenment that occasions are money sucking days that disappear in the blink of an eye, and that no matter how hard you try, you can not make everyone happy.
Our aim is to just get through the day and hope for the best, and surprisingly this is working relatively well.
The lead up is tremendously time-consuming, at times stressful, but the day is gone super fast, and with each baptism you know the things that didn’t work well previously, so human nature is to tweak theses issues aiming to illuminate all negative moments.
This is actually impossible, unless you take out 90% of the guests, including some of our own children … Don’t get me wrong, all the people we invite are important to us and our children, but they aren’t all necessarily going to be important in a positive way to each other ;)
Overall, with the diverse selection of family and friends we have, the day went really well.

We woke to a beautiful 14 degree day, black skies, gale winds, bucketing rain; a typical Albany day. The plus we had over other people was that we were all really ill, and had high temperatures. To us, it felt like a pleasant day of about 24 degrees with a slight breeze.
Zamirah was amazing, I really thought she would scream the church down; temperamental should have been her middle name, but unpredictably she was brilliant! We gave her nurofen for her soaring temperature, and it mellowed her just enough that she was alert, but not making a scene.

It is both hard and easy to pick godparents, we have found that in a strange way the child picks them for us, as each child has a connection that you can only hope, but not guarantee. We have tried to not have immediate family fulfil this role, as an Aunt or Uncle will always be part of the child’s life regardless. We have been so lucky with each set, and regardless of where life takes us, we have made it clear what we expect and feel very blessed that they understand and make the effort with their godchild consistently.

We momentarily entertained the thought the godparents had decided to pull out, as both the godmother and godfather were slightly late! We were getting ready to do a godparent hunt, and drag them to fulfil their duties, but they arrived ready to commit to this lifetime responsibility.
The priest was wonderful, and was happy to wait till we were ready, and made the whole ceremony work for us.
I think we had more children in the church than adults, and this always helps keep the day in perspective.

Once the formalities were over, we all went back to the motel to celebrate getting through another family occasion, welcoming the godparents into our immediate family, and officially celebrate Zamirah into the catholic family.

Thankyou to everyone that helped make this day another memorable occasion.

Warning… BIG whinge!

This last week I’ve had sick kids, 5 of them… some are/ were really sick. I even rang the heath direct line I was so over it all, and anyone that knows me is aware that unless we are literally dyeing, I don’t seek help… ever! Geez, if I did rush for help with as many children as I have, I might as well camp out in the casualty waiting room for months at a time.

Add to this, I’m also really sick, I can’t remember the last time I was knocked about so hard from a stupid virus.
I want to crawl into a hole and not come out until the children and I are better, unfortunately the universe is against me, and I have to apparently keep going as mums don’t get sick!
If we do get sick (and I’m proving that we CAN get sick) we still have to do everything as before.
I’m failing this commandment, if you look about all you can see is mess upon mess upon mess… WHY did the kids have to get this ill? To make it worse our dog got baited on the weekend and died, this has caused a large amount of tears and distress among the family, and we are organising a baptism for our 7th child… this weekend! Actually we were organising it… now I’m hoping it will just miraculously happen on its own, as I can’t be stuffed doing anything for it.
Z was the worst, she would cough so much she would stop breathing and just look at you with panic till she lurched another breath just when I’m ready to call 000. I actually think she has finally turned the corner, as her temp isn’t sitting on 39.5 anymore… but she is still whinging all day!
I wish she would rest, cause then I might be able to watch cartoons with the other sick kids and rest, but no, she wants to scream/ whinge, cry all day and night. I WANT SLEEP.
Eldest DD is also unwell, and this is like the straw that broke the camels back, I need her to be well if I’m not as she is my helper… unfortunately she is useless when ill (as we all are) and I’m getting even more tired of it all.

On a plus, we wont need to spend much on the groceries this week, and we are all looking a lot more in shape after loosing a bit of flab :)

Well I’m off to crawl into my box again, (and pick up Miss Z who is still whinging :( ) I WILL be better by Sunday, and a lot brighter next time I blog

Playschool concert.

If it was left up to me, I wouldn’t have even realised playschool was visiting town, but I’m blessed to have some amazing friends that know I live in a cave, and they let me know the big things that are happening.
Youngest DS loves 3 programs, Diego, Dora and Playschool, we couldn’t miss this!
Had to cancel youngest DD needles… after all what is more important… immunisation or a kiddie concert ;) (We have rescheduled the needles)
This truly was an amazing day… sun was shinning, it was warm, not much wind: anyone who knows Albany realises that this is a rarity.
I had organised vaguely to meet my friend at the pool, and walk over to the PCYC… The general idea was that one of us would ring/ text, but this was not an option as I still had no phone after flushing it.
After parking, and getting Z and T out, I promptly put them back in. The 500 meter walk from the pool to the concert venue was as wet as a swamp, and we would have possibly drowned making the crossing.
As it was only 45 minutes till the concert, getting a park close was not going to happen, hence why I’m still in awe about how beautiful the day was! It was a really nice walk, as we were walking towards the assembly area, I did briefly think about making more effort to go walking; but it was only a thought, and unlikely to eventuate LOL
Finally we catch up with my friend…
(OMG I’m a terrible friend, I’m surprised I still have friends… note to self… pay her back for the tickets).

We got great seats (on the floor) and the concert began… it made my week, watching my friends DD and Mr T was so uplifting, they looked like real little groupies, dancing and joining in any interactive parts.
The only slight negative was when Mr T got smashed in the head with a shoe from another groupie standing behind him. He was a bit shocked, and it took a few minutes for him to come out of the daze. Who would have thought a playschool concert could get so aggressive. Oh they had a no camera/ video or pram policy… we did snap a quick shot after the concert had ended though :)

We spent money at the gift shop, and got a humpty dumpty, that Mr T insists on calling his humpy. Now we have one more thing to find each night for him to sleep with.

Fathers day

DH tells me on every occasion throughout the year that gifting isn’t a ‘him’ thing. I always get upset, as I am a gift giver; makes me happy, as does receiving, but DH is wearing me down to realise that it is easier not to bother.
The older children have also become hard, and don’t make much effort, it still hurts, but I can’t keep fighting a loosing battle.

DD in pre-primary is still optimistic about gifts, and made him an assortment of things over the last week, this included something she cooked a week or more ago in class. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been 100% safe to consume, it wasn’t kept in the fridge, but she was so proud that he had to try a bit! It was brown and as hard as cement, the spoon wouldn’t pierce it at all, and it looked similar to a brown cement brick, according to DD it was a moist yummy chocolate pudding. Looking at DH face, it was anything but.
Miss T also made numerous drawings and cards. DH does try to pretend to enjoy this, but you can tell he isn’t really into it when he attempts to throw out a special picture of him fishing, thinking it is rubbish/ wrapping paper!
I ask Miss T why she drew daddy fishing, and she tells us that she had to draw something daddy loves doing, she did 3 pictures, but 2 weren’t what the teacher wanted, apparently drawing him sleeping or working wasn’t the ‘fun’ thing the teacher had in mind. LOL

Personally I think that fathers’ and mothers’ day should be a day opposite to the usual; if you are a stay at home parent, with the children you should have a kid free day, and if you are away from the kids each day, you should spend the day with them.
For my DH Fathers day should mean he gets all 7 kids, and has them with him for the day, after all the name fathers’ day implies that it is THEIR day to be the father - hands on. ;)
With this in mind, father’s day wasn’t how it should have been, but seeing the younger children’s joy at celebrating how much they love him, made this an OK day regardless. :)

Positive thinking was a failure (Tuesday)

Get up and think; Today will be a wonderful day, boy was I kidding myself! It has taken me till now to gather enough energy to even think about blogging it.

Have had a lot on lately, the stress of day to day stuff keeps mounting, so I decided the power of ‘positive thinking’ would help.
The lack of sleep was a little hard to shake off, but the positive spin on this was I got a LOT of cuddles from bub… all night.
Make a coffee, to find we have no milk…. or sugar - yes I need to go shopping, decide that this is great for my diet that I’m yet to consistently start.
Start making lunch for the kids, and we have no margarine, and only 2 apples for 5 school kids, notice that the fridge is leaking and that I forgot to turn on the dishwasher at bedtime last night.
My positive thinking is dwindling rapidly with screams from the children that the gas has run out and we have no hot water. I guess the positive there is that for once it didn’t run out when I was in the shower! :)
Youngest is tired, her determination to not sleep at night results in a grumpy little princess all day, and her screams are at the very least consistent. She might be a rock star in years to come with such powerful lungs.


I had a couple of meetings at the high school, but I must talk a foreign language, as I felt they didn’t understand the questions I asked, and I left more confused than I arrived. Positive here was I agree with DD that this teacher is in a world of her own; always nice to have something in common with your teens :)
Come home, and go to the toilet… (yes I know, TMI)… but this is where my day went down the drain… my mobile phone drops out of my pocket as I stand and flushes away!
Toys DON’T flush, food that you don’t like DOESN”T flush, Toilet rolls DON’T flush, but mobiles DO!
All my contacts, photos, music, and cool messages GONE! To make it worse, I haven’t saved any numbers anywhere else, they were ALL just in my phone… (So if I did have your number… I don’t now)
Positive… Hmmm … NOTHING, there is NO positive to flushing a phone! Now I pay out for a plan I can’t use, I don’t know if I should scream or cry, bub is screaming, and this time I can really relate to her feeling of frustration.
Have a couple more school meetings that were no more informative than the 1st, and do all the running about we regularly do after school.
I’m sure every idiot driver was out as I got stuck behind a few; if there is a big gap, you can GO… you will never get a gap where you can see no cars at all. Very frustrating when you are on a time limit.
Mentally and emotionally exhausted I decide to get take away for tea, and we go to Maccas, order , go home, and we start eating to realise they forgot the meat in the burgers! HOW do you forget the main part of a burger is beyond me! I couldn’t be stuffed fixing this issue, any other day and I would have rang them, but this day… I just wanted it to be over.
This was a day that I don’t wish to repeat… I don’t feel positive thinking worked as well as the literature implies,
Do you think if I tried the power of negative thinking my day would be better LOL