Posted by Anita
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 02:09:00 GMT
I haven’t used this blog much. In fact the most use it got was when we were in Laos. And we even managed to leave the end off that adventure. Maybe I can remedy that?..
Now I am embarking on another adventure of the kind that many mothers of small children have to consider. I am going back to paid employment. The children are 2 1/2 and nearly 1 and as I am not too keen on putting them into daycare for any length of time it will require some juggling.
I have been remarkably lucky in that I work at the Hospital laboratory as a scientist, and that my boss has allowed me to pick some shifts that suit the family. Namely two 4pm to midnight shifts a week. Supplemented by a half day every second Friday to keep my competency up.
Jack has been able to take 3 days off so I can be signed off in a couple of areas at least before I go back. Dad has doesn’t work Fridays which is unbelievably good for me; I get to take both kids to swimming lessons and then work every second one!
I have often, in the lead up to returning to work, asked myself “why I am doing this?”. We are blessed to not require the second income to keep our finances in order (although obviously it would make things easier). And its not like I’m not busy everyday with things for the kids (Playcenter and Mainly Music etc). So why try to cram one more thing into an already brimming life?
I guess I’ll have to admit that I want to do it for myself. I spent four and a half years studying for a degree that I have used for three years. I must admit that I didn’t really enjoy working that much when it was full time but the short stint that I did part time between the kids was so great. I had all the mental stimulation that kids just don’t provide. As well as adult company, responsibility and RECOGNITION!
I think that last one is pretty important. Alot of the other SAHM’s I know really struggle with feeling that they are contributing to the family unit too. Even though we cook, garden, look after kids, clean and generally just do all those other jobs that we all know are important it can be hard on our self esteem not to be a financially contributing member of the family.
Anyway here’s hoping this new phase is something that brings only good to the mix and that I don’t get too tired from pulling Myself in too many different directions.
Posted in Family
Posted by Anita
Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:25:00 GMT
As my wonderful Husband has pointed out on quite a few occasions recently I do have the odd hippy tendency. Also our little girl who becomes hungry a lot while we are out and about chows down muesli bars like they are going out of fashion! Now while I was perusing the ingredients list of one of the brands I had been buying I found that not only did it have a bunch of numbers listed but also it had more sugar per 100g than the biscuits I buy as a treat and was overcome with a case of the hippies. So I cruised the internet looking for a recipe for home made bars. This Recipe is a bit of a mashup of a few of those but it works a treat for me!!
The Recipe:
4 cups dry ingredients
You can use any muesli-type mixture I use:
Rolled oats
ground linseed
pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, sesame seed
nuts (any kind on hand)
wheat-germ
1 cup dried fruit (any kind)
a tablespoon cinnamon or mixed spice
1/2 cup each Tahini and Honey
Mix dry ingredients, spice and dried fruit together. Microwave honey and tahini till honey is liquid then mix with other ingredients. Use glad wrap over your hand to stop mixture sticking to you and form into short logs. I have tried cooking the mixture then cutting but it is generally to crumbly. Pop in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius and cook for 10 minutes or till golden. Store in airtight containers.
This recipe makes heaps and keeps us going for up to 3 weeks.
Posted in Food | Tags Muesli, Recipe
Posted by Anita
Tue, 18 May 2010 05:53:00 GMT
Jelly brain, nappy brain, spaced invaders, I am sure that every mother of small children suffers from this at some point. Those that know me well would probably not be surprised that at the best of times I can be fairly described as a bit vague, but now that I have two small children the I feel that my brain has been wrapped in cotton wool all the time.
Take last week for example; I was at Mainly Music, an excellent institution that has music for the kids and mums to mingle and dance, and one of the other Mums remarked that my daughter loves to dance. Under normal circumstances I would have made some sort of reply along the lines of “yes it is one of her favourite things to do”. But it just happened to happen during an extreme attack of nappy brain. All brain cells bar two seemed to be otherwise engaged. Number one brain cell starts jumping up and down saying “ooh look someone’s talking to us”, number two says “huh?”, I turned to her and raised my eyebrows and smile as if to indicate I hadn’t heard.
She repeated her remark. Number one cell still registering that I was being spoken to number two getting busy working on a reply says “Stall, stall!” so I said “Pardon?” The upshot is the poor woman had to have three attempts just to get me to reply to a simple statement!
I wonder what it is that turns us normally intelligent women into people with the brain capacity of the average zombie but without the predilection for brains? I don’t believe that lack of sleep is solely to blame (although it always amazes me what we can get away with). But if you combine that with having your day taken up with routine tasks constantly interrupted by crisis after crisis (children seem to be able sense when you are just getting into a rhythm with your task, you are just starting to relax, enjoy it and suddenly they are scratched by the cat and the world ends). And the person you spend most of your waking hours communicating with either wilfully ignores what you say or doesn’t understand, and you have to figure out which it is without prematurely loosing your cool. God when I look at it like this I can only count my blessings that nappy brain only strikes at discrete moments (no matter how embarrassing) and I’m not wondering around like a post-lobotomy outpatient all the time.
Posted in Kids
Posted by Anita
Mon, 11 May 2009 05:25:00 GMT
Not being a family that celebrates anything more than birthdays and Christmas I was not expecting much from my first mothers day as a Mum. Even so I was disappointed to learn that Jack would be working. Our darling daughter Lua, now 8 months old, woke at the usual time of six and invaded the parental bed for a breakfast of milk. After feeding she went to sleep beside me as her father exited the bed to get ready for work. It being Sunday I thought I would take advantage of Lua’s sleepiness and have a lie in. After not very long I needed to get out of bed to go to the bathroom and returning, found that I had lost my place in bed to Lua’s feet. She is so like her father in so many ways!!
So I Made my way to the kitchen where Jack was having his breakfast and found that he had made me a cup of coffee that he was about to bring me in bed and he had bought a book on container gardening and a small packet of Forrero Rocher chocolate. And a CARD! He is so wonderful!
So I made my way back to bed with my prezzies, pushed Lua’s feet back into the middle to the bed and made the most really enjoyed the lovely presents that Jack had so thoughtfully surprised my with.
Posted in Family | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Anita
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:02:00 GMT
We have moved into our new house on the 27th March. Our original plan was to move closer to Jacks work and get a bigger place with a bit of land. However we realised that of the three requirements we would probably have to compromise on at least one of our three requirements.
The house we ended up buying is much bigger and nicer than the one in town, and its new! Its 10 minutes drive from Jacks work which is nice. It is also 10 minutes walk from the harbor beach as well which will be fantastic in summer. So we have compromised on the section size. Only 650m2. But with some careful planning I think we will get just about everything we want in the garden. And until the sections on either side of the house are sold we have as much space as you could want.
To celebrate our new abode we had a little housewarming. We couldn’t have picked a day with worse weather for a barbecue. Wind and rain a plenty. About 35 people braved the weather and there was so much yummy food!! Even with that many people in the house it didn’t feel too crowded.
Lua behaved admirably. Unfortunately she had decided against an afternoon sleep so she was pretty tired when the barbie started but it was just so exciting to have a bunch of babies round to play and heaps of adults to shower her with attention she didn’t really want to sleep at all. I manged to get her to have a sanity-saving nap at about 6pm but that only lasted about half an hour and she was ready to go again. The only problem with her being so tired and wired is that she must be within touching distance of mummy AT ALL TIMES! Which makes being a good hostess quite difficult at times. And it’s a little embarrassing if anyone else wants a cuddle. All in all though I think she did extremely well.
Can’t wait for the next party. By he looks off all the food we have left over it will have to be tomorrow!
Posted in Miscellaneous fun | no comments
