Getting organized for spring

Well have combed through KT's hair and removed several little things ... don't know for sure if they are eggs or baby lice or what, but I didn't find anything too enormous.

I am in the process of washing sheets, pillowcases, towels, blankets etc.

Today was a rainy day in the morning ... have really missed the rain and hope there will be plenty more to come, but I was able to get a load of washing out and dried.

We got our electricity meter installed by a fast talking, impossible to understand scotsman. He arrived on our street at 9am and waited in his car until 9.45am to arrive early for a 10 o'clock appointment.

Meanwhile I kept running backwards and forwards from the window to see what he was doing and was he coming in yet and why was someone else  pulled up near him and stopping for a loud chat.  It turns out the lady with him was his supervisor because as soon as he left my house she rang (I recognized the voice) to find out if he had done all that he was supposed to do.

Our hot water is at the right temperature, he gave us 15 CFL light bulbs ... we should be ok for lightbulbs now for the next 5 years or so if you include our long life ones we already have in place and the ones he gave us.

I have used most of our appliances today and done circuits of the monitor to see just how much power each appliance uses!

I guess we knew most of this anyway but it is a great visual reminder of how much electricity is being used.  The main offenders are of course the oven, dishwasher, kettle, iron, airconditioners particularly heating and the washing machine when it is spinning.  I will also have to try the dryer too.  I also discovered that having the rangehood light on at night is not such a great idea as it uses almost as much power as the two CFL kitchen lights combined!  I liked it because it cast a very dim light in the kitchen but I might just have to buy a few more night lights instead!

It was also absolutely freezing today!!

I was pleased that it would mean I should have the pool pretty much to myself.  When I arrived there were only two other people in there and after the initial dip the water was pretty warm.  Getting out was a struggle and the hot showers were heaven!!!

I am still struggling with the butterfly stroke, I have to remember to do head and arms first like going through a hoop on the surface of the water, then follow with my bottom and then my feet, and then do the pushing with the arms under the water.  I watched a "how to" butterfly video on the internet and I could see the head, bottom, feet pattern but I really need to watch the evening squad swimmers again to see it happen for a few lengths of the pool, because in the instruction videos they chop and change camera angles etc and there is an annoying voice over.

I have also tried to adjust my freestyle stroke as Jennie told me so that my elbows don't come up out of the water and instead my arms are doing more of a circular  or elliptical motion-starting out in front, going down through the water, past my hips and then coming up and out as more of an extended arm rotating at the shoulder (rather than a bent elbow) and then coming down (elbow bent in the water a bit in front of me) and then extending forwards and meeting the other hand  way out in front of me.

I am probably repeating myself but every time I get into the water I swim differently.  Better? hopefully but I am not always sure about that!!!

Just published this post and realized I hadn't really said anything remotely related to the title!!! 

I am winding down some of my facebook activities, games,  I think a few of them have run their course and I will only use them sporadically.  I am turning my attention to the house once more and trying to get rid of things I don't need, and taking care of jobs that I have put off.

Uni is on holidays for one month from tomorrow and he will probably like to spend some time on the computer too, so I will use this month to break my time wasting computer habits.

I will of course continue to email and blog and read other blogs etc but I have a lot I want to accomplish over the next month and hopefully I can create a new routine that will continue once Uni is back at work.

I also used our photocopy function for the first time yesterday .... brilliant!!!

arggghhh we are battling head lice

Need I say more!

Plenty of washing hair, combing hair, cleaning sheets and pillow cases and pillows in my immediate future.

Now I know what lice look like and I'm sure this is the first time KT has had them. 

Behind her ears is red and itchy and just below her hairline on her neck she is covered with little bloody spots/sores.

I also saw something biggish and white crawling on top of and then disappearing under her hair.

Yick!!!

And I feel as if there is something crawling on my head too.  Ewwwww

Later today we will both spend 30 minutes with head lice solution in our hair ... I think we will make a fine pair.

I did KT last weekend too and it killed off all the adult lice, but since I did not worry about the combing the eggs out of her hair step ... I am paying the price.

Swimming with KT

Tonight KT came with me to swimming lessons and met Jennie.

She was really cute and really funny, so very interested in everything.  She asked a million questions while we were there ... why is there a smaller pool, why are there numbers at the end of each lane, do the lane ropes go all the way down to the bottom, which one is the teacher, are these the people in my class, what are there names, is the water cold, where will I sit, will I be able to see you, will you be able to see me, can I help you put on your flippers ....

Then when she listened to Jennie's instructions she said to me "I know what she wanted you to do, I think I could do it perfectly".   I think it is so much easier to listen and take in instructions when you are not the one in the water ... because I think the same thing when I hear her coach telling her things in the pool LOL!!!

I planned tonight's itinerary with military precision and it went without a hitch.  We took pooch for a walk at the usual time, came in and I had a shower and changed into my swimsuit, then KT had a shower after me (instead of a bath), I had promised her a hungry jack's dinner so after we were dry and dressed we drove through the drive through and bought chicken nuggets and chips for her.  While she ate them at home, I finished my preparations ... putting in contact lenses, putting my hair up etc.  We arrived at the pool right on time.

There were only 3 of us there ... last week there were 5, the week before there were 6, the week before that 7 and the week before that 5.  Hopefully people come back next week because if there are not enough consistent numbers the class may get cancelled. Apparently they need at least 4 or 5 to make it worth them keeping the lights on etc.

I got plenty of attention tonight and Jennie really focused on butterfly.  She said so much stuff and I really wasn't doing anything right ... i need time to digest the information ... but I think if I can remember everything she said and think about it and practice it I may be ok.  Lots to practice.  I really wish I had a video of her demonstrating the stroke to me ... she does all the actions for you on land (out of the water).

From what I can remember I have to lead with my head and arms, head, bottom, feet.  The head and arms lead and the bottom follows and then the feet have to follow (relax and undulate along with the rest of the body) and they actually have to come up out of the water.  She got me on the right track when she indicated I should try to lead with my head and arms as if I was trying to go into a hoop that was lying on top of the water, then the bottom follows and so should the feet  BUT you have to keep your arms straight in front and once you have undulated you have to come up to the surface of the water again ....I was going down further and further.  If your arms and hands point down, that is where you go ... so they have to come back up to the surface of the water again.

She said I had a good dolphin kick when I do 3 dolphin kicks then one breaststroke arms, but when I tried to incorporate butterfly arms things went awry.  She also does not want me to try breathing ... just try to do 2 or 3 strokes with head down to get a feel for the motion and then stand up for a breath when I need one.

I  am also not supposed to start moving my arms downward to push the water until after my whole body has completed one dolphin undulate ... ie. Head~Bottom~Feet, then push the water with arms, pushing with thumbs down, right back until past my hips and then arms over keeping thumbs in same position and rotating shoulders.

I can also try doing just one butterfly arm at a time - and when I do it I have to bring it down into the water in front of me and then extend (stretch) forward (I guess this is where the next head, bottom, feet comes in ... Then alternate to give both arms a go .... not sure if this will be easier or not ... will have to practise.

I didn't even get a chance to do backstroke tonight ... and when I did freestyle Jennie commented that my elbows come back too far and out of the water.  I need to do a full stroke back past my hip (ending with my arms straight) and then rotate my arm forward (kind of like in butterfly how your arm does a bit of a circle).

Hmmmpfff I think I'm doing great at the beginning of the lesson and by the end I am confused, kerfuzzled, tired ... but very eager to come back and get things straightened out in my mind on Friday.

I am working with the computer on my photos at the moment and working on a how to diary so that I know what the best way to work with my photos is ... which is the best program for burning CD's and DVD's etc


Ahhhh where is the spell check function on this new improved posting thing ..... help! what do I need a strikethrough function for goodness sakes WHAT ABOUT SPELLCHECK!

safety switch

Today our safety switch shut off the electricity at about 7.02 am. I know it happened then because my snooze alarm had just gone off a few minutes earlier ... and when I got up to look at the time I was met with a blank clock face.

This is the second time in the last few months this has happened. I know it is the safety switch and not a power failure because our oven clock still works and all our lights turn on.

I have to switch everything off and unplug it at the wall, reset the safety switch and then turn on each appliance one at a time until the safety switch cuts the power again.

It is supposed to do this when an appliance that you plug in shorts out.

Unfortunately nothing made the switch turn off again and it looks like the something that malfunctions does it on and off once in a blue moon. Last time it happened during the night while we were asleep as well so it is a bit hard to narrow down what is causing the problem.

Hmmmmmmmm

todays date is Monday the 24th of August

Well tonight KT lost her first tooth! It started to be wobbly two nights ago and we were expecting a few weeks of wobbles etc but right in the middle of eating a home made chocolate biscuit ... out it popped.

I was surprised at how much blood there was, but tried to keep a lid on my reaction so as not to frighten KT. We cleaned it off and put it into the tooth pixie doll that Auntie Isadora bought for KT many years ago.

I have left the window open so that the tooth fairy will be able to fly in tonight!!!

Today I swam at the pool again. It was an incredibly hot day for a winter day and unfortunately there were a lot of people at the pool. Last Monday I had it to myself, this time there was someone in each lane. I had another attempt at butterfly. I did a lap or two concentrating on just doing the strong butterfly kicks and then I did rocket arms straight out in front and KICK, KICK, followed by pushing back on the water and then arms over and in front while kicking.

You are supposed to kick when your arms enter the water and leave the water ... I did two complete attempts of this and I managed to get my head out of the water to breathe this time, but it will be slow going!

I had a fairly hard time falling asleep last night, there was lots of banging and crashing (I thought it was Uni and Bella downstairs) but it turns out there was some kind of creature that was running madly around and crashing into beams in between our upper and lower level. I went to bed at midnight and kept being woken up by noises for the next 2 hours. The last noise was uni having a midnight (or should I say 2am snack).

To try and calm myself down and relax I started thinking about swimming technique and the freestyle stroke. I think it is funny how these days I drift off peacefully thinking about swimming whereas several months ago I would think about what plant I would put where in my garden and plan my next yard beautifying project.

Yesterday KT and I had a great day together ... we made chocolate biscuits and KT decorated them, using some of the multitude of packets of sprinkles that we purchased to put on her birthday cake and then did not end up needing to use!

We went shopping for swimming stuff .... goggles, swimming cap and thongs in preparation for starting swimming at school in term 4. We were lucky that the shops had restocked their swimming gear leading into spring. KT was able to find a great pink pair of goggles, pink silicone swimming cap and pink thongs! I discovered a red silicone swimming cap and just had to buy it. It was lucky that I did because when I returned home and compared it to my current green one, it was quite a bit bigger ... so it will be much roomier and more comfortable and cover more of my head and hair than the other one. KT's pink one is big too which will make it easier for her to put it on herself.

On Wednesday KT will come with me to watch my swimming lesson while uni is at work. She liked the idea of her watching my swimming lesson this time around whereas normally it is me watching her swimming lessons!

Easing up

I am easing up a bit on some of the things I have been doing in the past.



I am back to using 3/4 of the recommended amount of laundry powder rather than half the amount in my washing because I would rather have our clothes smelling nice rather than just be clean.



I have stopped using vinegar in the dish wash rinse cycle because I don't think it does quite as good of a job as rinse aid.



I still love using either vinegar or bicarb soda or a combination of both to clean the bathroom ... still very happy with those results.



I was trying to keep things and reuse them and not throw things out and not waste things etc ... but my house was getting over cluttered and there were things piling up everywhere. I will try not to be wasteful but I cannot save everything that comes into the house.



I have been trying fortnightly WW shopping (1st fortnight in) I have managed to stay out of WW for the whole fortnight ... but my cupboard the first week was so jam packed I could barely see what was in there.



I reorganized it a bit which did seem to help ... will have to see if I can keep the cupboards under control.



I treated KT for head lice today because she has been scratching her head a lot and behind both ears were itchy and very red. I also changed her sheets pjs etc.



Will have to re dose her in a weeks time. Hopefully it will work.



Swimming today was fabulous. I spent a bit of time practising freestyle, backstroke and even a bit of an attempt at butterfly.



30 minutes of swimming at a time seems to be ideal for me at the moment. And after the initial pain and strain of the first few weeks while I was swimming very tensely, I am now much more relaxed and have minimal aches and pains.



I still get the swirly vision things happening after evening training classes but these swims are for 1hr. Even so the ill effects nowhere near as strong or long lasting as before.



As my fitness level increases I hope to increase the amount of time I can swim ... but at the moment I am not pushing myself too hard and I no longer feel exhausted on a swimming day. I am counting my progress in swimming hours much like a pilot has to log flying time.

Spring cleaning

I can feel spring in the air and feel the urge to get things organized.

I have spent most of today on the computer but have been getting the last 6 years worth of photos backed up onto DVD. It is great knowing that I have everything safely stored.

I went swimming last night and attempted butterfly for the first time. It was a fairly hilarious session last thing before the class ended ... but I will have a chance to practice during the next week on my own.

I have been concentrating on looking down and getting the correct body position in the water. I have also tried to focus on what my arms are doing ... and trying to adjust my breathing now that my head is lower down in the water.

In previous weeks I was feeling confident with breathing, but was throwing my head up high out of the water ... now that I am keeping my head lower in the water I often end up with a mouthful of water when I breathe.

Jenni suggested I concentrate more on slowly expelling water out of my mouth as I turn my head to the side, then take a breath when my mouth clears the water.

I wonder if maybe I am keeping my mouth open too long and so when my head re-enters the water I get a mouthful of water. I will have to try and see what my mouth is doing (as well as my arms, head, legs, body .... LOL!!!)

I have been swimming now for about a month and I am very pleased with myself. The people in the night class are familiar to me now (by sight more than anything else) and I have become a recognized member of the group! It still is nowhere near as social as bellydancing is ... and I think I like that. Not much time to chat while you are trying to swim.

I think by the end of next week I will be finished the first coat of paint on the long side fence. Then I imagine if I work steadily on a second coat ... I should be completely finished the fence by the end of the year.

Uni joked that some people paint their fence every year! Hmmmphhh we will not be one of those types of people ... since it takes me more than a year to do it the first time!!!!

Yesterday we emptied the lower tray of the worm farm together, for the second time. We were both pretty impressed by the "soil" we found. This time around we left it for a full three months and it had a lot less worms left in it and was in a much more "finished" condition.

I think from now on we will empty the tray at the beginning of each season. I put the worm castings into the garden and in the next few days will plant some flower seeds for spring and then mulch the entire front garden.

I will also plant some paw paw seeds for someone!

There is a rogue tomato growing out of my compost ... will be interested to find out if it is a cherry tomato or not ... at the moment it is looking very healthy and has heaps of little tomatoes on it!

birthdays galore

We have just had an enormous week of birthday celebrations and various catch ups with family members.

Last Monday we had pops over for a visit. He is staying with Jeff and Jill at the moment and is here for K & J birthdays and Michael and Heidi's wedding, before heading off on his holiday. We all played balloon tennis with special rackets that KT designed and made all by herself.

After lunch we had some ice cream and a walk along the new Woody point jetty.

On Wednesday we celebrated with Mum and B and ate a delicious ripple cake. Nanna had made a special birthday story for KT.

On Thursday KT celebrated Ekka fun day at school with face painting, hair spraying, jumping castle (which she loved!) and assorted other activities.

Then on Friday we took 30 pink icing and sprinkle covered chocolate cupcakes to school so KT could celebrate with her class. She enjoyed being the centre of attention for the day!

I resumed swimming again on Friday and made sure I took a watch with me so that I would only swim for 30 minutes and no longer.

It seemed to work! I had no vision issues or headaches etc.

I was lucky to get a lane to myself, may have to go later next week.

On Saturday morning I woke up with horrible hay fever and a stack of cleaning to do to prepare for the evenings festivities.

I went into spring cleaning mode and by the afternoon more of the floor was visible than ever before. Unfortunately downstairs and the computer room are a bit messier than before ... but making progress in one room will motivate me to continue in the others.

We went out for dinner on Saturday night at Mamma's restaurant with Jeff, Jill, Pat, Arthur, Ben and Isadora.

J's family joined us for pre dinner nibblies and present opening at our house and Ben and Isadora met us at the restaurant at 7.45pm.

Well actually they were there at 7.45pm and we were late ...... mental note to self allow at least 10 minutes to get a word in edgewise when husband and his brother are talking.

Dinner was great although I ate way too much and had a sore belly for hours. I also found it really hard to hear anyone talking who was more than two seats away from me. I really should go and get my hearing properly checked I think.

On Sunday I continued my spring clean .... sorting out a few areas in the kitchen including the pantry, fridge etc. All the bench tops are beautifully clean and much less cluttered ... will re-arrange the cutlery drawers in the next few days too.

When I wasn't cleaning I was playing with all of the great birthday toys!!!

That Geo mag is terrific!!! I love it!! I mean KT loves it!!! LOL!!! I think it will be great for teaching her concepts like 3D shapes and much much later we can model chemistry and physics stuff!!!

We are now fully equipped with heaps of glow in the dark connectors and balls (thanks to Isadora) along with the initial kit of connectors, balls and shape panels and of course the original very brilliant idea from Mum.

We have had plenty of fun trying out hopscotch, uno stacko, guess who ... and J will have to take KT out fishing to try out her new rod from pops.

Grandma Pat gave KT a lovely dressy top and skirt and a 50 fairy things to make and do book ... should keep us very busy during the holidays.

Jeff and Jill gave her a Dr Seuss book and learn to draw book and a big pack of colouring pencils.

party

We have just returned home from KT's first party of the year.

It was for Eboni at Hungry Jacks. It was a small crowd of only about 13 kids which was terrific ... although that many is still enough to make plenty of noise.

KT participated fully in this one ... heading off to play outside in the playground with the other kids .. even a few she did not know who were older.

She didn't seem to be too worried by the noise and she finally went down (several times) the curly slippery slide.

Last year at kindy parties there she wanted to stay very close to me and would not venture near the curly slide until all the other kids were gone ... which of course never happened.

She got to have a brief play with her "best friend" Sophie as well. And I managed to get her sitting next to Sophie for the Ice cream cake eating part of the party.

I am pretty confident that she will have a great time and really enjoy herself if we have a party for her next year!

I am very worn out! I suspect KT will be too later on tonight.

We didn't end up going swimming today because when KT woke up she sounded a bit congested and was a bit sneezy and I didn't think there was any point exacerbating the situation ... especially as we have a big week of birthdays coming up.

I also missed swimming on Friday because I felt a bit under the weather and my throat was a bit sore. Hopefully we all stay healthy. I have been gargling with a few drops of tea tree oil in water every night and trying to get plenty of sleep.

On Wednesday night I had a great swimming class and was introduced to a drill where you do "rocket arms" along with a body undulate and butterfly kick and every 4th count you do breaststroke arms (continuing nonstop with the butterfly kick).

I was also asked to continue to be aware of my body position in the water and try not to lift my head so much because when my head comes up my feet and lower body go down. You need to bring your feet and legs up and when you roll your head to the side you have to blow air (and water out of your mouth) until your head is turned far enough that your mouth is clear of the water.

I found this quite tricky to do and ended up swallowing and unexpectedly gulping quite a bit of water.

Will have to practise this a bit more but this coming week my period begins, Uni's birthday is on the night of the swimming class and the pool will be closed and KT will be home for the ekka holidays on Mon and Wed so I may have a bit of difficulty doing much swimming this week.

May need to start fresh the week after.

When i returned home I had the swirly eye thing happening again ... thought I might have been over that now ... but admittedly I did swim pretty solidly for the whole hour again. There were more people in the class this week and some people had to share lanes. I did pretty well with back stoke ... when I concentrated on really pushing the water down to my feet with strong arms, and also moved both arms more frequently one after the other I really starting moving along the pool and I stayed pretty straight!!! The other thing I tried to concentrate on was stretching my arms forward, holding them out in front and keeping my fingers together while stroking.

I am not really doing too much with my arms under the water ... it is hard in enough to remember to breathe and move my arms above the water and bring them down in the right spot at the right angle so then I can stretch them forwards .... then somehow they make it back out of the water again but I am not aware how. I guess I have to move the opposite hand/arm under the water to the hand that is up above the water ... but for the moment that side of things is not very connected or co ordinated.

swimming diary

My blog is rapidly becoming my swimming diary.

Today was the first day that I had no ill effects from swimming.

I think this was because I put my contacts on just before and took them out straight after returning from swimming.

I didn't do any shopping trips or other errands just before swimming. I came straight home, showered and washed my hair and ate lunch and sat quietly.

I also made sure I only swam for 30 minutes.

Today I spent a lot of time without flippers on and took forever getting from one end of the pool to the other. Both my shoulders are sore and so are my back muscles ... which makes me think I probably used my left arm as strongly as my right arm this time ... although for the life of me I cannot actually remember what I did while I was in the water.

I was feeling a bit more self conscious in the water today too ... may try to go for the end lanes when I can so I don't have so many neighbours!!!

Most days I usually have women or older men beside me but both today and Friday I had (the same) similarly aged guy in the lane next to me and although I am not interested or looking for any interaction with anyone I find it hard to forget that he is there ... and would rather not be floundering and gasping for breath. It seems I need blinkers as well as goggles to swim effectively!!! Maybe there was some benefit to swimming without contacts after all !!! :-D

Anyway I definitely lost concentration today and am not likely to wow Jennie as much on Wednesday night ... but I am swimming 2 hrs each week these days (as opposed to none) and even if I don't leap tall buildings every single swim everything I do is working towards improving my swimming and my fitness.

My goggles are no longer fully sealed ... but my contacts don't seem to be in any danger - and neither do my eyes.

Jennie was going to give me details of a company online that sells prescription goggles ... that might be the way to go once my disposable contacts have been used up.

On the home front uni and I are both busily painting ... he is working on the carport which is going to be blue, with black gutters (to match the roof). I am still working on the last side fence. I have been contorted in all sorts of positions to reach it, but so far have not run into trouble ... although I wonder if painting may be contributing to the pain in my right arm/shoulder/neck. When I can't get a ladder into the spot I need to reach I climb onto the cross beams and hang on to the top of the fence for dear life. .. or lean back and brace myself against the shed. Some spots are not wide enough to turn side on to the fence so I just have to face the fence and move my left or right arm to the side of me. I think I will be able to manage all of it without too many dramas ... although I think I will probably have to go back and give it a second coat to make it look even.

I am starting to clear some of KT's stuff from the house. I can see a lot more floor now and once she seems to have finished playing a certain game I have been moving the "props" out of sight in the computer room and if they remain forgotten for a few months I then recycle or throw them away.

Her games are very elaborate these days and very easily take over the lounge room, couch and both chairs and often the hallway as well.

I am throwing away some of the newspapers we have collected ... the worms and the compost bin do not use nearly as much as I had expected and since we are not having puppies after all there is no need to have newspapers cascading across the lounge room either.

In a few weeks it will be KT's birthday ... I went a bit nuts at the last minute and considered throwing a party for her ... Uni would like us to invite all the kids in her class while she is still in the young grades. We quickly realized it would be too stressful to organize in just two weeks ... not to mention find the money to pay for ... so we will attack it next year.

I had thoughts of face painting, pass the parcel, uni wanted helium balloons for all the kids, games like statues etc ... we will have to round up a few family members to help though so watch out everyone!!!

Two of the kids in her class that she considers to be her "best friends" have both had or are having birthday parties in the last month and have not invited her. One she knows about, the other seems to have gone unnoticed. Luckily at this stage she doesn't seem too upset by it ... unlike her mum who had murderous feelings for days and had to paint the fence extra vigorously (since there are not as many weeds to pull out of the garden these days) to deal with her emotions about it.

Having just looked into the cost of parties I can understand why people might not want to invite too many kids to a party ... but I feel a bit sad and upset that KT's friendship feelings are not reciprocated. Admittedly though I know that there are kids that like and want to play with and be with KT and she doesn't want to be with them or they bother or annoy her so I guess that is just part of life.

This weekend we will be going to her first birthday party of the year (@HJ's) and she is very excited about it.