You have a blog?

Blogging comes up often amongst homeschoolers. A lot of them keep a blog of sorts to help keep track of their schooling journey or to record when they did what, what programs and curriculum they were using... lots of reason... also in spite of the constant pace of things homeschool mums tend to get bored, I think. Not regular "there's nothing to do" kind of bored, more tired of the monotony and the education-centric thinking of almost every aspect of their day.

Without fail when blogging comes up and I mention that we have a blog I get this response... "You have a blog? You should put all that crazy stuff from Facebook on your blog!" And I know I should, but the short and sweet format of Facebook fits better with my schedule, or lack of schedule.

Right now though, I miss the cathartic outlet of writing, the focus that it allows me (even if the writing has nothing to do with whatever I need to focus on, it's weird) and the creative expression.  So............ I'm going to try and get blogging again. I might just do a few lines here and there, maybe a little catch up from my Facebook posts, maybe I'll fade away again after a week or two, but I need to get my fingers typing and record some of our year of homeschooling.

So for now, until I get my backside moving, here's a photo of Butterfly doing what girls do...

You can knock all you want...

but I'm not in today.

Consider this a note pinned to our bloggy door to say that you can find me at a friends place today...

Sweet Lisa over at Boondock Ramblings asked me to guest post while she cares for her darling little boy after his surgery.

I wouldn't say I'm taking care of the place while she's "out".  It's more like I'm making it look lived in.  You know, leaving my grubby shoes by the door, coffee cups sitting on the table, dishes in the sink... that kind of thing.

Anyway, pop on over there and put your feet on Lisa's furniture with me.  We can always blame the grotty marks on her pets.

MMcT.

Peer Pressure

Hi there, If you've popped across here because you've clicked the link in Lisa's post today under the misguided impression that you were going to be taken to a site all about Australia's vast beauty and desolate nothingness then I'm pretty sure the first post you see shouldn't contain huge amounts of ranting about the fact that my son wont poop so I thought I'd better get something else on here quick smart!

If you have come across from there please make yourself at home and start cleaning up a bit, the washing needs to be taken out of the machine, the dishes need to be loaded in the dishwasher, and the lounge room needs a good clean... leave a comment.  I'm pretty okay with most of this blogging stuff but I just can't figure out that stat counter thingo and how to tell who came from where and all that sorta stuff so please say hi, even if you are so scared by my rantings that you are never ever going to return.

If you would like to know about Australia might I point you here to see some of our local wildlife.  If you would like to learn the language my Australia Day posts from last year and this year may totally confuse you help you out.  Info on crocodiles that may or may not be accurate can be found here and here.  Feel like being thankful you don't have our spiders?  then go here.  Want to meet some more of our wildlife and find out about our day to day interactions with them? then this is the post for you.  One last little known beast that calls Australia home can be found here.

So, I hope you have fun finding out about our beautiful country.  One exciting piece of news is that we seem to have a man eating bird making his home in our back yard.  We are strangely excited by this.

Here's the big boys pointing to him (what? he's a man eating bird, not a boy eating bird!) under our poor little mango tree.

and here is a really rather dodgy close up of him.  He looks ferocious doesn't he?

So, kick aside the dried up bodies of our beautiful native green tree frogs and Barra frogs that have managed to get inside the house and not back out again (or perhaps had their insides turned into milkshakes and sucked out by those freaky spiders) and pop out onto the back patio to check out the lucky one that I rescued this morning, lovingly removing the dust bunnies from him and leaving him sit in a little dish of water to revive... or possibly leaving him sit in a dish as a meal for a snake.  (this link will bring up all the other snake related posts for you... you're welcome).

So, I'm sure this was all a part of some devious plan by Lisa to get me to do a new post and I have given in to the peer pressure by recycling all the old stuff and disguising it as new... clever aren't I?  She'll never notice.  Perhaps one day I will get a chance to do a post about our other native animals but everyone knows about our beautiful ones.  The Koalas, the Kangaroos, the Emu and the Cassowary.  Did you know Wombats poop is square?  Oh, man, I've turned it into another post about poop.  Time to go.

Sunday Snapshot

I picked a special photo for this weeks Sunday Snapshot...

He sure is a cutie!

Even with a finger up his nose.

I am horrified to think of how many photos we have like this.

Anyway... It's a short and sweet Sunday Snapshot this week so that I can get to bed and get some SLEEP.

This morning I kept brushing Dragon aside as he was asking me to read him a book and I was trying to get ready for church.  He kept asking and I kept getting frustrated and telling him "later" or "when I'm ready" or "no, not yet"... eventually I was ready to go to church, I called him and we went and sat on the bed to read it.  Before we knew it Lion had joined in and then Monkey joined our party too.  It was a lovely calm way to start our Sunday.

Monkey looked super cute sitting there all propped up, so Wolf had to get a photo.

This next photo is for Sandra.  Sweet bloggy friend Sandra send us a lovely package when Monkey was born with this sweet monkey friend, this book, and a funny little toy rattle that isn't a rattle (it makes a weird, squeaky, funny noise that is quite fun).

 In spite of the look on his face it is one of his favourites!  He loves the feel of it's fur and will hold it up against his face to cuddle it.  It is the softest toy fur I have ever felt!  Thank you again Sandra!

He's a bit of a pest this little one, I keep trying to get good photos of him with some special toys he's been given for the people that gave them to him.  He will not smile in one of those photos, on the off chance that there is a hint of a grin then the camera will not focus and I get a blurry blob photo.  If you want a specific photo then he is NOT going to be a part of it.  It's his way or no way.

Okay, this has ended up not so short but that's just me.  G'night.

♫♪Meeememememememe♪♫

've been hit!  or tagged, or whatever.  It's a desk meme and my real life friend Queen Stuss has tagged me.  So the details are sketchy but it looks like I need to show you how my desk is lookin'.

My desk is lookin' at this.  poor desk.  This is my computer-looking-at pose... seriously, I just came back to re-read my nonsense and it could have been a mirror... always the same pose. This is my late night tired, haggard look... it's attractive.  Web-cams are fun to play with your kids but you shouldn't use them for photos of yourself.

Oh, what my desk looks like?  Well that's nowhere near as exciting but here it is.

Paper clutter and bills on the right (paid on the bottom, unpaid on the top) with a box of flashcards and a folder of kids CDs thrown in for good measure, old crusty stained mouse mat and a little case thing with a mini SD card that i think may belong to Wolf... well, I'm pretty certain it does because it doesn't belong to me and I doubt it's the boys... laptop, Lego, tissues (serious sinus issues in this house) pen, cords and cables... that's the kitchen bench to the left and the back door to the right... Under the kitchen bench on the desk is the external hard drive and that blue cord is our currently too long network cable.  Under this desk is just enough room for the printer and a container holding USB cords and other such clutters.

I quite like this little set up.  When we got the laptop we wanted to move the computer workspace into the house (it was in the hot old garage) and Wolf had this tiny bench hanging around at work so he brought it home and it fit perfectly.  I can crane my neck to see the kids in the playroom at the end of the kitchen or I can look out the door and see them in the cubby house.  Perfect.  I can bring up a new recipe online and turn the computer around so I can see it to cook (but the computer is safe from cooking mess) but the whole thing doesn't take up precious space in our small house.

I've had a few people over who have tried to come up with some wonderful solution to our workspace problem but seriously, it's not a problem.  I like it the way it is.  I don't care if the desk is daggy and made out of a few leftover bits of wood, it works.  I like where it is.  I like to put my feet up on the shelf under the bench.  I just listen politely and don't change a thing... I do that with a lot of stuff actually, but we aren't sharing secrets in this meme, just our desk.

So that's my desk... now who to tag...

I tag YOU.

Yes YOU.

Don't pretend you didn't read that, now off you go, have fun and let me know in the comments if you do it!

Whinge... Moan... Complain...

I am currently trying to decide if I have given my whole family food poisoning from dinner or if it's just me and it's a pregnant thing... I feel like rubbish and would love nothing more than to puke my guts up and go to bed... sorry probably an overshare.

Two posts in one day... days and days of nothingness then two in one day. This one was started ages ago so I thought I should finish it and post it... it probably contains nothing of consequence but I'll find that out when I read through it as I go... just a bunch of ranting and raving.



While we were shopping for the stuff I needed for Little Bear's cake we bought a bubble machine. Yep, nothing like sticking to the essentials. Mum asked why? My answer was that I took Wolf with me to do groceries. That seemed to explain it well enough. I saw it on the shelf and made the comment "bubble machine, cool". Wolf heard "wow, we really need that bubble machine, we'll have to buy that" so into Dragon's little shopping basket it went. Little Bear loved dancing in the bubbles at her party.

I am going to start putting out an all day feed trough for my kids soon. "Feed them porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast" they say... "fills them up for longer" they say... "cheap, nutritious and filling" they say... Then why is it Lion asks for food less than 10 minutes after he tells me he "can't finish my breakfast because my tummy is too full". Unfortunately I had already given his leftovers to Dragon so I couldn't present him with those to finish off.

He "needs" to eat constantly! TV is a big trigger, if he's in front of the TV he's S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G and only biscuits and lollies will do for the ravenous beast. It's not like I have ever encouraged this behaviour... REALLY, this time I'm not being sarcastic. They do eat snacks in front of the TV occasionally but for the most part they don't have anything while they watch. It's driving me nuts. Especially when he can't finish his filling breakfast and goes and sits down to finish his cartoons and decides that he is starving. But it's not just TV that triggers them. Seeing the kitchen reminds them that they need food, walking through the door after we have been out reminds them that they need food, playing in the yard reminds them that they need food. They are in no way underfed. There is usually fruit in the fridge and I rarely say no to them having a piece of fruit. We go through kilo's of sultanas for snacks, often they get a handful of sultanas and a plain biscuit for a snack but some days there is nothing I can offer them (unless it's a chocolate biscuit and a handful of lollies) that will do.

I don't actually think his tummy was full when he said it was this morning. He had just (out of silliness) knocked a glass candle cover off the table and he and I both froze as we waited for it to hit the floor and smash. Luckily for him it managed to stay on the chair and not hit the floor but he still got in trouble for being careless and I explained that if his silliness had caused it to get broken I would have taken money out of his piggy bank and taken him to buy me a new one. "well, that's not really a very fair idea" he says. After I explained that if I broke something of his by being careless I would replace it with my money and I expect the same from them he thought that it probably was a fair idea. I think the butterflies as he waited for the smash combined with being chastised by mummy made his tummy feel a bit yucky so he said he was done.



I am not sure if it's lack of sleep or pregnancy but my lack of intelligence is getting worse and worse. I can now provide you with this piece of useless information after one of my latest 'incidents'... Hairspray is really hard to clean out of your armpits... I know, you have been wondering that your whole life! Yesterday I actually sprayed my underarms with hairspray. Now I know that hair grows faster when you're pregnant but that's just crazy. I had mistakenly picked up the hairspray can instead of the deodorant (because it's easy to mistake a LARGE BLACK 360g can for a small white 30g can) and it wasn't until I put my arm down and it felt rather sticky that I noticed what I had done. I then had to try to clean it off so I could put the real stuff on. I often go to put soap on my toothbrush. We have pump soap in the bathroom and I haven't had pump toothpaste since I was about 10 so why I go to do that I don't know... but now I am worried that I will actually do it one day... when will I notice that one??? BEFORE I put it in my mouth I hope!



We went computer shopping this morning. I am sick of sharing Wolf's work computer. I am frustrated with feeling like I am depriving him of computer time whenever I get 5 minutes on there. I don't like the hovering at my shoulder waiting for me to finish. I have been reading blogs bit by bit but not getting to comment except here and there. Blog posts are being written bit by by too, any photo editing I want to do or googling (I'd call it research but I don't know if it really classifies as such) I want to get done gets pushed aside so that I don't have to sit with someone watching my every keystroke. The other option is to stay up real late and do it all... yeah, I need sleep since I am the one that gets dragged out of bed at 6ish every morning because Wolf's ears shut down between the hours of 10pm and 8am so he supposedly can't hear the kids asking for breakfast/TV/cuddles after nightmares/blankets pulled up/whatever else they decide they need to drag me out of my nice comfy bed for.

We have the electricians coming in just over 2 weeks to install our air-cons. Yep, right in time for winter. This is something we have been working towards for years now but it is finally happening. This time we made the decision, got a GREAT quote from someone that seems to actually be genuine, got the money together... and then my hand-me-down laptop fritzed... that's okay, we still have the desktop... then the hard drive on that fritzed... um... okay, I can handle only having access to a computer while Wolf is at home... turns out he sometimes wants to use his computer at home too. So we need to get at least one replacement computer (we really should stop using the work computer for home stuff quite so much) which has to come out of the air-con money. We can still do it though, just. We decided to just get a new laptop since our only place for a desk set-up is in the garage and that's not entirely practical. It's also REALLY hot in summer and is not getting air-conditioned (unlike our last house where the garage was the only place air-conditioned other than the master bedroom).

I think winter has been and gone. We had a couple of nights where I wore socks to bed but it's over now. The boys are still wearing flanny jammies to bed because they don't keep their covers on. It's only the first week of July. I WANT WINTER!


I have googled our front runner baby names. first and last together, first, middle and last, all initials, first and last initial. Here's what I found.

Horrible Diseases - None (oh, we have come close to this one before).
Gangsters - None.
Criminals - None.
Pedophile watch lists - None (yes, it has happened when I googled a friends name trying to hunt them down).
Dodgy film stars - None.
Famous people of any description - None.

We may just have a winner folks!

I am kind of enjoying this whole -not telling everyone what flavour baby we are having- thing... I am thinking that once it's born I might keep it up. Only post photos in non-gender-specific outfits, keep all gender references out, just keep it up as long as possible. Good idea?

Anyway, today's post was brought to you by some photos of Little Bear's birthday. I got a super sloppy kiss for that cake :) I figured I wont get around to doing an actual post of all the photos we got so I'll pepper them through other posts. Just a little something to distract you from my whinging and whining.

Now blogger is messing with my head... my last post it kept telling me that there were no spelling mistakes and I knew there was a heap. This post it is correcting correct spelling. It picked up half a dozen words that were spelt right... it offered me the EXACT.SAME.SPELLING. Blogger, don't mess with me... I'm feeling yuck and I'm hormonal... not a good combination.

What's all that shouting about????

Oh... me! Not that that alone is all that unusual, but this time no one wants their botbot wiped, no one needs me to pretend to be a dump truck with them, and no one needs any food. Now THAT is unusual!

Jonny's Mommy over at Boondock Ramblings has made little old me her first Sunday Shout Out.

So "Hi, welcome to our corner of the blogland" to all the lovely folk she has sent over this way. I've sent Wolf down the shop for some cheese and crackers (this was so unexpected, *blush* I have nothing ready) but for now you can help us get through some of these Easter eggs. And would you please stop jumping on the couch!!!! Oops, that was one of mine doing the jumping...

"Soup-Man" ***CRASH*** "MUUUUMMMMMMYYYYYY"

Make yourself at home while I give this owie a kiss. Thanks Jonny's Mommy.

Seriously, make yourself at home... there's dishes in the sink you can wash, the floors need to be done and another load of washing through wouldn't hurt while you're at it.

Striking fear into the heart of bloggers...

I just heard a bang and now the silly laptop is telling me I am using battery power... I can't remember what I was going to blog about I am just hoping that the battery lasts long enough to put all the music back on my iPod after I stupidly removed everything except the kids music the other day (seriously Apple, instructions wouldn't hurt would they?)

Since I can't remember what I was going to blog (I am sure it was of earth shattering importance) I probably shouldn't have blogged anything but since it may be a while till I'm blogging again I didn't want everyone to worry what had happened to my super cute kids.

I'll share one little bit of cuteness with you from our day...

Lion was randomly blowing kisses to nothing this morning, I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was filling the house with kisses so when I walked around I would get covered in his kisses... Awwww.

Blogger rage....

So I read a blog post about using text talk and some other stuff. I left a comment mostly on the other stuff and accidentally used the wrong lose/loose. So most people turned the text talk angst into general spelling and grammar angst and one in particular left this comment...

"My biggest nailbiting words are LOSE and LOOSE. It drives me batty when someone writes, "I need to loose weight." I could scream and I see it at least once a day when reading blogs online. In fact, I've seen it VERY recently...that's all I'm going to say...."

Sooo, I was tempted to write a really grammatically incorrect comment on the same post for her to read but I don't like hijacking other peoples blogs.

I thought of emailing her direct and leaving a polite note on etiquette and how petty her comment was. Alas, no link from her comment. Then when I decided that there was nothing I could do that wouldn't lower me to her level I started thinking of all the really great things I could do...

• Find her blog, search through for the post she wrote really late at night and didn't check through very well and go through it with a fine tooth comb marking all mistakes in red and email it back to her.
• Send her a scathing email about her comment being rich coming from someone living in the country that has butchered the English language more than any other. (sorry, I love you all but really...)
• Find her blog and leave heaps of dodgily spelt and grammatically incorrect comments.
• hmmm... still thinking.

So, that was my vent for today. I've been cooped up inside for too long and I'm going crazy. I would never actually do any of these things, not even the passive ones, it just made me cranky. Make the comment about what drives you nuts sure, but don't point out a specific incident in another comment.

Have you ever flamed anyone? Have you really wanted to? Really, never?

Disclaimer: I don't have great spelling or grammar (which you have probably noticed) but it seems I do know more than most my age (sad really). I just get so cranky when a Spelling Nazi has to get on their high horse and belittle others over a mistake, just a mistake caused by commenting and cooking dinner at the same time. To her I say SORRY, I am sorry I offended you so greatly by my mistake, I shall be more careful in the future. Not that she reads this blog.