Category Archives: Mother Angst

Grateful for The Mobile

Once a fortnight I pack 3 of the 4 Muddy kids in the car and we head off to the local session of the Mobile. This is a service partially government funded that takes playgroup out to rural communities. They have 2 staff members that load up the Landcruiser with toys, tables and chairs, craft, books, music, whatever exciting game they’ve decided to throw in the truck. They drive up to 2 hours, set up and run a session in a community and then pack it all up again at the end and head back to the office to do it all over again the next day for a different community, sometimes even 2 sessions in a day if they’re not travelling too far. They are taking early childhood services out to kids on stations and in small towns that have no other early childhood services

I am so grateful for a service that can entertain my 3 kids very happily for a couple of hours, giving me a chance to have a cuppa and a chat with other mums in the same situation as I am. A chance to just sit back while the kids have an absolute ball playing with other kids and exciting and different toys. We all come home exhausted and some weeks I’m even lucky enough for all 3 of the Muddy Kids to have an afternoon camp while I catch up on house jobs.

Yesterday I was feeling sick of my house and starting to feel very snappy with my kids so I was very excited to go to the Mobile and let the kids run off some energy while I recharged with a cuppa and a chat.

Linking up for the first time with *Maxabella Loves… for 52 Weeks of Grateful

Painting – End in sight

Given I feel like I’ve been painting forever, when it’s really only been 3 weeks in between baby sleeps and the daily demands of Muddy Hubby and the Muddy Tribe, I am now feeling like the end is almost in sight.

I’ve been thinking about how crap a painter I am (I really don’t know how people do it as a job, I take my hat off to them) and I have some handy tips if you’re thinking of embarking on any painting jobs any time soon, especially with kids around.

– Don’t let Hubby seal the paint tin back up, it’s likely he’ll forget he said he’d do it and before you know it one of the kids will have tipped the tin over and you’ll have even more paint to clean up.
– Best not to let him open it either, as he’ll get such enthusiasm up for the job that he’ll dent the lid and the rim, meaning you can’t properly seal the tin back up and will have to do more painting in a small space of time to use up the tin before it hardens with a now unsealable lid.
– Have at least 2 or 3 rollers or brushes, chances are your first one won’t have dried before Baby has their next sleep and you want to go painting again.
– If you’re getting new carpet it’s a perfect time to paint before the carpet goes in, you don’t have to worry about drop sheets, and can even wipe your hands on the carpet in emergencies and you don’t have to stress about it.
– As much as the kids would like to help – don’t let them. Wall paint does not wash out of clothes and takes a few days to get out of hair.
– If you’ve asked Hubby to look after the kids while you get some quick trim painting done, make sure he understands what you mean, not ‘yes I know where they are’, otherwise you’ll have kids running around your feet, bumping into freshly painted walls and trim and you’ll have more paint to try and get off their clothes and out of their hair.
– Avoid the cheap paint hubby wants you to use up to get it our of the cupboard if you can. It’s thin and takes about twice as many coats to look as good as the quality paint you would have bought, so you’ve wasted your time by having to do two extra coats.
– Do not pick a paint colour by solely looking at the Dulux colour charts on the website. You’ll be disappointed and it won’t look anything like you were hoping it would.
– Follow Shannon Lush’s advice and use Clove Oil to get rid of bathroom mould, but be prepared for your house to smell for days and days like cloves.
– While Feature walls are nice, they’re fiddly and mean more edging, more brushes and more tins of paint to clutter up your laundry and spill out onto the verandah.
– Think of the people who may move in after you and want to paint, light colours are easier to paint over, browns, blues, dark greens all suck to try and paint over, meaning you end up with either and undercoat or extra coats of paint til the colour you’ve chosen looks right.
– If you can afford it, get a professional in, you’ll probably be happier with the result, less stressed and your hands and hair won’t look like you’ve had a bad manicure and hair dye job.

One of the things….

One of the things I am not loving about living where we live at the moment is my Internet access. We’re on satellite Internet, which means we have a big dish on the roof. This also means that it’s nowhere near as fast as some other Internet options. It also means that when it’s overcast the service sucks, when it’s windy there’s often no service, and sometimes for no good reason the dish on our roof stops talking to the satellite in the sky and we get absolute zilch, zippo, nothing. Now the Internet service provider flatly denies any of this, says weather and wind do not affect the service. I disagree.

But rant now over, for all the little things that drive me batty living out here or give me cause for utter frustration, there are so very many more good things. My good thing for this week has been the complete turnaround from sunset to sunrise.

This was the sunset on Monday night, breathtakingly beautiful. The Muddy Kids and I went outside to feed the dogs, pigs and chooks and dawdled for ages just watching the beautiful sunset and chasing the animals.

The next morning we woke up to this awesome Fog. The first fog for the year for us, not a pea soup fog like I can remember growing up in Sydney, but a hazy, ethereal fog. It didn’t last long, by the time I’d dropped the Muddy Organiser at the bus stop it was almost gone, chased away by the sun.

It’s these little things that remind me how I love living where we live, and help stop me yelling at the Internet service provider in frustration. Just don’t ask me how long it took to actually upload these photos!

What are some of the little things that you love about living where you live?

Tearing my hair out!

This week has been a long one. Or at least it’s felt that way. I’m not sure whether it’s school holidays and work on the house that have all combined to turn my delightful Muddy Puzzler into a Muddy Wrecking Ball. Maybe it’s that she’s now competing for attention with the Organiser and the Pixie who are home from School and Preschool. Maybe it’s that she knows she’s only got a few months left of the terrible two’s and she’s going to make the most of it. Maybe it’s the work I’ve been doing on the house that I’ve been neglecting her and she’s a bit bored. Maybe she’s tired of the games we’re playing and we need to mix it up a bit. Whatever it is, it has me tearing my hair out, quite literally, as I pull paint out of it that’s been splashed in it by my Muddy Puzzler.

This week alone she has wreaked havoc in my household and shredded my patience with the following activities:

Tipping over a 10L tin of paint that Muddy Hubby had failed to seal fully, resulting in a big pile of paint to clean up and get splashed around (hence the paint in the hair)
Emptying Muddy Hubby’s aftershave all over herself so she still smells like Chanel Allure for Men 3 days later
Painting toothpaste all over the new bathroom walls and door, I’m told she was trying to polish it
Painting toothpaste all over the bedroom carpet (not sure how she got hold of the toothpaste)
Losing the key to the local tip, so we can’t take the rubbish and recycling to the tip until we find it
Running the water tap in the bedroom for a good while while I fed Muddy Bubby, depleting our rain water tanks which are getting a bit low
Climbing the painting ladder and falling off the top (I only turned around for a second!)
Sneaking the sticker book into the car and decorating the interior with stickers
Spraying Muddy Hubby’s deodorant all over our bedroom, including the photo frames
Spreading the Muddy Organiser’s Lip Smacker all over her face (resulting in tears for the Muddy Organiser)
Pulling all the photo frames down in her bedroom and pulling out all the photos
Stamping the office ‘Paid’ stamp all over herself and the office (not sure how she got it down from the top shelf)

Today topped it all off for me, she decided that her Baby Brother needed a little bit of attention, after she had finished colouring in her toenails in blue texta and decorating her lips with red texta she decided to draw on Muddy Bubby with blue texta. I don’t think he minded, but it probably isn’t the best of looks when we go out for a play date tomorrow.

Proud to show off his decorated face to Muddy Hubby when we ducked up the paddock

We have headed outside whenever we can to let the Muddy Kids run off some energy and have some fun in the sun. My plan at the moment is to keep her within a couple of metres and eyesight at all times (not really sustainable though) and to spend the remaining few days of holidays outside, where there is only a minimal amount of mischief that she can get into, surely?!?!?

Come on, please tell me she’s not the only one getting into mischief?

Do you have any tricks for keeping kids busy and out of mischief, please share if you do!

Expecting too much?

This week in town they are celebrating Seniors Week. There’s been lots of activities for the older members of the community and each school, preschool, day care has had an event on for them to attend also. Muddy Hubby’s Grandma is well and truly ensconced in the social activities in town, she’s a member of several community groups, and attends church every Sunday and is always one of the first to sign up for trips away to different parts of Australia. In other words, for 84 she’s a real goer!

Muddy Great Grandma has 26 great grandchildren, lots of whom live away, but for her my Muddy Organiser is the first one to go to school in the town where she lives, the first one where she can actually go to events that are held at school, with minimal effort, just a 2 min drive down the street.

So I rang last week and left a message with the details for Grandparents day, she was away on a trip, so I called the night before to make sure she got the message. I was informed that she wouldn’t be coming because ‘I want to stay home and clean my house’. This is the first grandparents day she has ever been invited to and her response to me was a little blunt and a little disheartening.

I know I probably got my hopes up expecting her to say yes to her first grandparents day as a great grandma, but I know if I was in her position I’d jump at the chance. Am I expecting too much, should I have not invited her, because it’s not fair if she comes to my Muddy Organiser’s events but doesn’t make it to the other great grandkids? Maybe it’s that she’s over the grandkid thing, she was grandma to 19 grandkids and now for the great grandkids she’s more interested in doing some things for herself?

Muddy Hubby tells me to ‘get over it’ and my Muddy Mother-in-law’s response was ‘she didn’t have to be so blunt about it’. Given I don’t have any grandparents left I have kids of adopted her as my Grandma, so I thought she’d be as keen as my grandparents would have been. I think maybe next time I have to lower my expectations, at least then Muddy Hubby won’t have to listen to me whinge if my expectations aren’t met!

Anyway, now that I’ve had my whinge, I did take a couple of photos, but my Muddy Organiser was concentrating so hard on her teacher’s instructions to ‘stand up straight and keep you hands behind your back’ that she did not smile once during their concert, only after they had finished.

I was a very proud Mum as My Muddy Organiser led the whole school out in single file

Do you have grandparents day where you live?

Was I expecting too much of Muddy Great Grandma?

He’s taken over!

At the moment my house is in chaos, there’s furniture spread out everywhere waiting to be put back or find a new home. Wet carpet that’s dried hard and smelly, wet paper that has dried wrinkly. A rogue mouse that I’m trying to catch, but which has left a lovey smell to tell me where it is. I’ve reached sensory overload, too many smells, too much stuff everywhere that I can’t think straight when I look at it all.

Normally when I reach sensory overload I take some time out cruising my favourite blogs and catching up on my Word With Friends games. It calms me, gives me a chance to refocus before getting started again.

With no laptop I’m relying on the iPad, but unfortunately so is Muddy Hubby! He’s addicted. He says he’s checking weather, but really, I’m sure he’s playing Bejeweled! Who would have thought my Muddy Hubby would end up addicted to my iPad! Each night he seeks out my iPad before I’ve even stopped all the jobs. He settles in on the lounge and maintains possession of the iPad until lights out.

I’m actually excited that he’s come so far since I first met him that he’s comfortable with technology. The downside though is that I miss out on my favourite blogs! The days are so busy at the moment I can’t catch up. At night I can’t reclaim the iPad until Muddy Hubby goes to bed, and my eyes are already drooping. I miss my iPad and I miss my downtime with my favourite bloggers!

Maybe soon things will settle down and my senses will return to normal. For now I’m trying to find new ways to manage my sensory overload, exercise is helping a little. I’m thinking I may have to take up knitting or crocheting, but pretty sure that would just increase my stress, so I’m still searching for ideas, something to distract my over active brain, give me a chance to refocus, recharge and relax!

Has your partner taken over something that’s yours? How did you reclaim it?
How do you manage sensory overload?

A Bungee

We survived the first day of school! No tears from our Muddy Preschooler, just a few tears from me, as she lined up so beautifully and filed into the classroom, holding tightly to the hand of her best friend.

I was so excited to pick her up and absorb everything she had done in her day, I had a tonne of questions all lined up and ready to go. I didn’t even have to ask, my Muddy Preschooler chatted non-stop all the way home! I heard all about who is on her table, what she did at recess and lunch, who else is in her class, who her Year 6 buddy is. Our stumbling block was what she actually did in the classroom. I know she coloured in a picture of a rocket and ‘we did a Bungee’. I asked her to repeat it, I still got the same answer ‘We did a Bungee Mum’. I went through a series of questions, but still we got ‘a Bungee’.

This morning I have learned that they coloured in a picture of a bungee jumper! Who knew they’d learn about Bungee Jumping on their first day at school!

For me, a Mum who has been keenly involved at preschool, I think I am going to be a little lost, as no doubt I will be left wondering on many ocassions what she has been learning or playing at school, as I get half stories or mixed up information from my Muddy Preschooler. I think it’s another part of me that has to learn to let go and trust in her teacher! A harder task than I thought, I’m hoping it gets easier!

Maybe today she’ll learn about sky diving or rock climbing, but not quite sure how you top Bungee Jumping on your first day!

Mandatory family photos

The back pack which is almost as big as her!

Best Friends

Lining Up!

How did your little one’s first day go?

What stories did they come home with?

The Rat

At the moment I feel like I’m living in an episode of Fawlty Towers, you know the one, where Manuel has a pet rat, but he is adamant it’s a hamster and it escapes and he spends the whole time looking for it while it happily explores the hotel. We don’t have a pet hamster, guinea pig or pet rat BUT at the moment there is a Rat in my house.

For the last two nights I have been ensconced on my lounge, iPad in hand when out of the corner of my eye a rat has run across the lounge room floor, to under the lounge I’m sitting on.

When I first saw it, I had to look twice, thinking it was one big bloody mouse, then it clicked ‘that’s not a mouse, it’s a rat!’ I then promptly jumped off the lounge, running into the bedroom to wake Muddy Hubby, screaming, ‘there’s a rat in the lounge room’. Muddy hubby stirred from sleep said ‘what can you do?’ turned back over and promptly fell asleep. I on the other hand dragged out every single mouse trap we had and proceeded to lay them all around the house. All in vain, as next morning not one single one was let off.

Last night, same thing, sitting with my iPad on the lounge, across the floor runs the rat! This time I had the traps already set, and didn’t waste my energy waking Muddy Hubby, as when he went to bed his instructions regarding the rat were ‘just kill it!’, very helpful honey! Me a city girl, kill a rat, I think not!

I have since discovered the following things about rats:

They can do a lot of damage gnawing on things (so far no damage I can find).
They are cunning and you have to put traps unset in their path for a few days before they get used to them, then you can set them.
They are not carnivores, rather they prefer seed and grain (this allays my fears about being eaten while sleeping)
Rats are seed and grain eaters, but can be herbivores (which is why they’re around the farm) and have likely moved around the house in search of food now that there are no crops in the paddock
They’re out of luck in our house (which is why I’m not sure how they’re here) as the food is confined to the kitchen and dining room, vacuumed after meals, and everything is securely packed away in mouse proof containers thanks to the mouse plague last year.
My house has never been cleaner, it has been disinfected from top to bottom as there are certain diseases you can catch from them and the health warnings state ‘If bitten seek medical assistance’, so that’s not a reassuring thing

So today, a different Australia Day, I have baited in Muddy Hubby’s workshop (pretty sure his workshop is their breeding ground!). I have vacuumed until the polish is coming off the floor, laid rat traps, mouse traps, investigated purchasing a cat and badgered Muddy Hubby about staying up to catch the rat.

My sleep is suffering as every sound I hear is in my mind the rat coming for me (silly I know, but a childhood fear I can’t shake!). I’m ready to issue Muddy Hubby an ultimatum, get rid of the rat or I move out until it’s gone. I can cope with snakes, frogs in the toilet, spiders, sheep, mice plagues, but rats are a big no no.

Have you got pest problems?

What would you do with a cunning little rat?

A sad, but happy, Morning Tea

Ever since I’ve had my Muddy Preschooler (maybe even a little before I had her) I have been having the most wonderful morning tea catch ups with the most wonderful group of friends a woman could ever ask for. It began with ante-natal classes, grew into a mother’s group and while the frequency and attendance has waxed and waned there’s been 5 of us who have continued our friendship on, through many, many, many morning teas, dinners and lunches.

Today we hosted morning tea at our house, what was special about this morning tea though, was that it will be the last morning tea that we have, where our firstborn children will be there (other than school holidays of course).

For the five of us our eldest children will start school together on Monday for the first time. They will all be going to the same school and will have each other there as a support. I’ve discovered that you cannot force friendship onto your children (much as times we may try to dissuade them from one wild child, to another, with a gentler influence) but we have been lucky enough that our 5 children have formed a lovely friendship with one another.

And so this morning while our children played just beautifully together, with minimal fighting and only a few tears, I felt both happy and sad. Happy that my Muddy Preschooler will go to school with friends she knows, friends she adores and friends that will keep an eye on her. I did however feel sad at the same time, that this is the end of ‘early childhood’ for my Muddy Preschooler, in 6 days she will be a ‘School Girl’ and a whole new chapter of her life (and mine) will begin.

I am honestly both excited and anxious at the same time about My Preschooler becoming a School Girl, and some days I’m not sure which emotion is stronger! Today though I was reassured that she will not be doing it alone, she’ll be starting her journey with good friends, and that I think is worth so very much. At least for me it is as it helps lessen my anxiety and worry.

One of our first Mother’s Group Morning Teas.

Fun in the Fig Tree

5 Cheeky Cherubs

Is your Preschooler becoming a school kid too? How are you feeling?

Are there friends starting with your children too?

Or is it a whole new world, with the opportunity to make wonderful new friends?

Play-Doh – Get over it Nat!

I am going to fess up straight away and say that I loathe play-doh. Can’t stand the stuff. I used to not mind it, I really enjoyed playing with it, with kids in our therapy sessions and found rolling out the play-doh somehow therapeutic while we targeted sounds, language, whatever the client was working on.
Now, as a parent, I can’t stand the stuff. I don’t make it from scratch, I don’t add glitter or smell or any of that exciting stuff. We do however have LOTS of play-doh and play-doh related equipment, that we have been given over the years, but I am a terrible parent. Every time the Muddy girls ask for it I find some excuse to not get it out ‘Puzzler’s awake and she’ll eat it’, ‘why don’t we do some cooking’, ‘Dad will be home soon, so we won’t have time’. Today I ran out of excuses! It is raining, that slow rain that has no breaks for going outside, just slow and steady, so before I knew it the Muddy Preschooler and the Muddy Pixie had dragged down the big box and were into it, having a lovely time.

For me it just reinforced my dislike. I have a suspicion it’s my control freak gene that influences my feelings. The mixing of colours together that you can’t separate out, the tiny bits that get stuck and then go all hard and dry, the little bits that get ground into the ground when they fall off the table, all contribute to our decision not to get it out.

As I was cleaning it all up today and making comments about how I don’t like it my Muddy Preschooler replies with ‘Well why do we have it in the house then Mum?‘. Sometimes I am amazed at what comes out of their mouths. I replied with ‘We have it in the house because you love it’.

I know how much they love it, how creative they can be with it, how it stretches their imagination. Today they had planned out a whole 3 course meal, sorting dessert from entree from main and making each individual piece. This is why we have it in our house. This is why I need to get over my hang ups on clean up and mess when it comes to Play-doh and let them enjoy, after all isn’t that what parenting is, in part, all about, letting go of some of our boundaries to let them explore theirs?