emotional week

This has been a full on week... the last week of term 1.

It started with parent teacher interviews on Monday ... Kougra's was glowing of course.

Mrs Sands is very impressed with Kougra's vocabulary and her way of expressing herself and telling information. How she uses a variety of different words to describe things and how her thoughts and descriptions flow well from one to the next.

She is not too worried about the fact that Kougra still experiences separation anxiety in the morning .. especially as it only lasts as long as it takes for me to get out the door.

She is also pleased with the fact that after a slow start Kougra has ventured out into the playground at lunchtimes to enjoy play and make new friends. For probably the first 3 to 4 weeks she spent the whole lunchtime in the undercover area close to the teachers painting (they also had other activities set up ... blocks etc) but Kougra seemed to only do painting and would come home every day with mountains of paperwork!

After a bit of encouragement she decided to venture out into the playground and discovered quite a few friends ... many from prep B. The current favourites are Josie and Precious from prep B and Sophie, Abbi, Samantha, Bianca and Bailey (boy) from prep A. She also interacts with many other kids too, but is not always able to remember their names.

I have noticed lots of kids smile and say hello or goodbye to Kougra when I drop her off in the mornings or take her home. She was also recognized by Lilly and Dell who are in grade 3 and 2 respectively and pop their heads over the back fence when they are visitting their grandparents.


I have meandered off track a little ... there is still lots I want to cover

I also talked to Mrs Sands about not wanting to continue to help with PMP (perceptual movement program) on wednesday mornings. I liked it the first few weeks but was starting to dread it fairly soon after that.

Starting from next term I will try helping prep A with afternoon group activities instead. I think that will be better because it will only be Prep A ... and I know most of the kids by name now ... whereas I struggled to keep track of everyone in prep A and B. The activities will also be quieter and in a calmer indoor environment which suits me a bit better. Mrs Sands was really understanding about the whole thing and I feel relieved that instead of putting up with a situation I really don't like I actually dealt with it reasonably quickly (for me that is).

I usually put up with things until I am at breaking point and then fireworks, lava flows, and earthquakes happen. Although that being said ... first thing next morning (Tues) I was gripped by belly pains beyond belief and nausea, throwing up and horrendous runs every 30 minutes or so.

I got Uni to drop Kougra off at school for me and lay in bed sleeping all day (when I wasn't running to the loo). The only exception to this was a trip down to the school to watch Kougra compete in the Cross Country and take photos of the event. How I managed to stay upright and away from a toilet for 45 minutes or so is beyond me ... I did lean against Uni a bit towards the end and eventually sat down on the ground to steady myself.

I then went straight home and slept for most of the afternoon. Uni had to go to bed so he could get some rest before n/shift ... and Kougra had to pretty much entertain herself while I haphazardly slapped together a spaghetti dinner in between naps on the couch. I then slept all night ...

Wednesday I shakily took Kougra to school and stayed for the kids nursery rhyme presentation and PMP session that all parents were invited to come and watch ... my last PMP YAY!!!

Probably should have taken it a bit easy for the rest of the day but ants were invading my worm farm and I decided to do some work on it while Uni was available to help (see previous post for details of this).

Today was the last day of term and the kids reward for being good was a school trip to the movies ... the film they had picked was "monsters vs aliens". Knowing Kougra often cries and gets upset in movies I was a bit worried about how she was going to go ... but having spent half this week unwell and plenty of time at school I was reluctant to volunteer to go along as a helper. It turned out that not going was the right decision to make ... but while I was deliberating about it I forgot to put the signed permission slip in with my payment for the trip. I only discovered this at about 12pm ... the approx time that the movie was over and then I worried for the rest of the afternoon about whether or not the school would have taken her or not. Luckily Mrs Sands had asked me this morning whether or not Kougra would be going to the movie and I had said that yes we had paid (not realizing I'd forgotten the permission slip) ... so she knew I intended for Kougra to go along.

In the afternoon I apprehensively headed off to the easter bonnet parade to watch prep - year 3 show off the easter bonnets they had made. I arrived just in time to see prep A march around and Kougra looked like she was in good spirits. After a lot of arm waving and jumping around and smiling I thought I got her attention ... and then settled down to enjoy the musical performance. I was very proud and very emotional ... and I even managed to get a few good photos. Still not feeling 100% but think I will try to get myself emotionally and physically back on track now that holidays are upon us.

Phew ... big post ...but it all needed to be said ... and remembered!!!

Better get back to my housework.

worm farm

I am frustrated by how much time I am spending on the computer. This is not helped by the fact that it is so sloooooooow. We have just about filled up its memory completely ... poor thing.

I am trying to wean myself off the facebook farmtown game. I like how you can interact with others and negotiate and build wealth and buy things. I like how you can garden without getting hot or bitten by mossies ... and how everything always grows without fail ... including your bank balance.

Meanwhile my house is still untidy and there are mounds of washing to put away and iron. There are dishes to wash and dry .... a job much more difficult without a dishwasher.

I was sick yesterday .... I think i got KT's tummy bug ... although it hit me a week later than it hit her. I spent the whole day either sleeping or running to the toilet. J drove me down to the school to watch KT compete in the cross country and then I went back home to bed ... and the toilet. Lucky I have a large stockpile of toilet paper!!

I still feel tired and slow today but at least my appetite has returned and I can actually stand up for longer than a few minutes.

I have been meaning to put the legs of my worm farm into tubs of water/oil or vinegar to prevent ants from climbing up them and into the farm. I decided to wait until the bottom tray of the worm farm was ready to be emptied so that I could combine the two jobs and do them while Justin was available to help with the lifting (each layer gets pretty heavy).

I was going to wait until mid April but right out of the blue the ants have invaded ... after pretty much leaving the worms alone for the last 3 months. Arthur had to put the legs into tubs almost immediately.

When J got ready to empty the tray of worm castings into a foam box (which I will turn into a raised herb garden) he discovered that there were still heaps of worms in amongst the castings even though they are theoretically meant to move up into the higher trays where there is more food.

I didn't want to put the worms into the foam box partly because I didn't want to lose any food scrap eating power and partly because I thought the worms would get too hot out in the front garden and without any way of escaping they might die.

So I went back to my can of worms instruction book to see what they had to say about the situation.

We had done the right thing by putting the tray on top of the others, leaving it uncovered to expose the worms to sunlight and make them want to burrow downwards ... but unfortunately they weren't going down far enough to get to the next tray.

The next part of the instructions said to sift through the worm castings by hand ... separating out the worms ... hmmmpfff I must have skimmed over that part of the instructions previously.

So then I spent the next hour or perhaps hour and a half sorting the worms from the castings, wearing my gardening gloves. I'm pretty sure I got most of them. They are fairly easy to spot and the castings crumble away around them.

Note to self ...perhaps next time (when my worm population is bigger) I will empty the castings directly into the garden and put mulch over them ... so it doesn't matter if a few worms end up in there.

I think next time I will be prepared too and will know what to expect ... and I have this handy set of notes to refer back to!

Rainwater

I have been doing a lot of gardening lately.

I always get the urge to grow new life in September and last year was no different.

Usually the urge only lasts for a short while and then the garden gets forgotten.

I put in a bit more effort this springtime because we were getting our roof done and I was expecting to get water tanks as soon as our roof was finished. I also thought our new roof would be on display for advertising purposes and wanted our house and yard to look nice.

As it turned out the roof company decided not to use our house as a display home ... perhaps because they didn't want to impose on us after making several holes in our roof and taking quite a bit of time getting them repaired.

Since we don't have a rainwater tank yet ... and I have been trying to save money and also trying to be greener and recycle and not waste water etc I decided to start using Kougra's bath water on the garden. I also sometimes use the rinse water from our washing machine. Both of these methods involve carting water around and to the garden in buckets ... Lots of buckets LOL!!!

This job is very time consuming (although it does seem to be very good exercise!) but having spent so much time working on the garden and seeing things die very quickly if they are not watered at least every second day I am prepared to continue until my plants are better established.

For the past 10 years we have also found that when there is really heavy rain the downstairs section of our house floods. Some days we end up ankle deep in water and all our stuff gets water damage and the carpet gets wet and smelly.

Uni was starting to get frustrated by this situation every time it rained, so he took matters into his own hands and blocked off the area under the garage door where water flowed in and he also sealed up other areas that were contributing to the problem. He was keen to get the roof and gutters and downpipes replaced so this problem would not continue.

The first big downpour that we got after the roof and downpipes were in place threatened to breach Uni's garage barrier and knowing how much he didn't like the downstairs area getting wet I rushed outside in the pouring rain and tried to shift as much of the water as I could using a bucket ... transferring it from the areas it wasn't wanted to the areas it was wanted, by emptying it out into the garden.


Then I had a lightbulb moment!!!


The water was gathering so furiously in front of the garage partly because it was a concreted area at the bottom of a slope and partly because the roof of our car port also slopes downwards sending heaps of water down the carport downpipe ... straight onto the concrete right in front of the garage door.

I hadn't really realized how much water comes off the carport but when I stuck my bucket under the down pipe it filled up really quickly.

So then I had another lightbulb moment.

Until we get our water tank I can collect water from the carport roof in big tubs or buckets to use in the garden.

This prevents our garage flooding under extremely wet conditions ... as Uni's barrier usually holds its own when there is a small amount of rain. It also provides our garden with plenty of water ... usually up to 2 days worth. The plants (and even the dog) much prefer rainwater to tap water ... and for several days I don't have to cart water from upstairs or from the laundry to the garden.

Lately the major rainfalls have come at night and I rush out there after a bit of a downpour (wearing boots and a raincoat) and transfer rain from my main collecting box to as many different containers as I can so I don't lose a drop. It would be hilarious to watch and I can only wonder what the neighbours are thinking ... hopefully the sound of the rain muffles all the activity!!!

As I type this I am listening to the trickle of rain falling from the downpipe into my enormous collection containers. I started out with 1 normal sized bucket, then a 25 litre nappy bucket. Then I bought a 52L plastic storage container, several more buckets, 2 watering cans and another bigger 130L plastic storage container. (This 130L container is big enough to hold the rinse water from one full washing machine load ... and I leave it in the laundry for that purpose until it looks like rain is likely ... then it promptly gets put out near the carport!!!)

So at the moment I can collect about 300L and I try to fill all my containers so I have plenty of water to use on the garden.

I think I might need to buy anothe 130L container though .... or maybe two or three....LOL!!!

Peach trees and housework

I have had a great week this week. Kougra did not cry once during school drop off.

We went for a day trip to peach trees on Wednesday (out past kenilworth, near Jimna) and went for a bushwalk and had a BBQ. Uni had the day off work and so Kougra took a day off school too.

We plan to go to Peach trees for our next camping trip and thought we would take the opportunity to look around. Next camping trip will be two nights ... last year it was one night. Am looking forward to it ... not so apprehensive ... will probably be in May so we will need to rug up!

Today I had a very productive day. I managed to get up at 6am and do some fence painting ... have been rather lax with that this week, preferring to catch up on sleep instead!

I also cleaned the bathroom and toilet, swept the kitchen floor, did a load of laundry and some weeding.

I have been cleaning with vinegar and bicarb soda and sometimes lemon, instead of regular cleaning products.

I read a great book called "green cleaning" which detailed all the cleaning applications these products can be used for.

I like the idea of not using lots of different chemicals and I like the idea of saving money so it made sense to me to try these things out.

I have been really thrilled with the effect on my bathroom. Particularly the shower!! Nothing I had previously used was working very well on my very old shower. I tried scrubbing it with vinegar and a scrubbing brush and it looked terrific. After two weeks of this I had a go using bicarb soda sprinkled in the shower pan and mixed in a bit of water to make a paste. I covered the base of the shower very liberally and anywhere the paste covered scrubbed up so clean and white!!!

I reckon if I use vinegar one week and bicarb soda the next, my bathroom will sparkle!!!

You can also use a blend of vinegar and bicarb soda ... apparently the two together generate a fairly strong chemical reaction with fizzing etc ... I might try them together at some stage ... but so far I haven't needed to.

I used bicarb soda in the toilet too and the interior is soooo white. The only problem though is that I don't want to mix chemicals so I have to wait to do the toilet until my toilet deodorising block is empty.

Another thing that works a treat on the toilet is leftover softdrink poured in and left to sit for overnight ... (eg. coke or lemonade or soda water) ... I think its the carbonated water.

I have also been using a tip I learnt from http://www.simplesavings.com.au/a.php?a=238654" which involves cleaning the ring in the bathtub with shampoo. I usually use shampoo I don't like very much which I am trying to finish ... or I buy a cheap shampoo for this purpose.

I have been shaving my legs with cheap conditioner too instead of shaving cream. It works well and is much cheaper than shaving cream....although I do buy shaving cream for uni to use on his face!

Some time last year I realized that I was spending a fortune at the supermarket and very few of the things in my trolley were food ... most things seemed to be for cleaning ... or things like toilet paper, paper towels, food wraps, garbage bags, tissues, soap, toiletries etc.

I have cut down on the number of some of these things by using vinegar ($1.09/2L) or bicarb soda $3/kg (mixed with water) or dishwashing liquid or shampoo for cleaning. Vinegar instead of rinse aid in the dishwasher, vinegar or bicarb soda instead of shower power. Bicarb instead of toilet cleaner. Dishwashing liquid mixed with water for floors.

Feeling quite houseproud at the moment!!!

trying to get the hang of it

Hmm this is a test blog.

Technology is becoming more challenging every day.

There is a lot of work involved in making something simpler.

Think I might have achieved what I wanted to.

Hope so ...

Only time will tell