Month: January 2009

So

Today was stupidly hot.

So hot it made me all angry and anxious.

So hot I would just be sitting doing nothing and sweat would be running off my face, down my cleavage and over my stomach.

It was repulsive.

It was 41C – that’s something like 105.8F or something like that on that stupid scale.

And all I could think of all day was a) poor Chef, working breakfast, lunch AND dinner in 40+ weather and b) poor K, who lives on the Central Slopes and Plains where it must have been 50C in the freezer.

I have been daydreaming of moving to Canada all day.

Surely there is somewhere on the planet where it a summer high is 25-26C? SURELY.

Grace in Small Things: Part 2 of 365

1. The ocean breeze on blazing hot summer days
2. That my 18-month-old wonder will still take a 2hr+ sleep during the day
3. Our sandpit, shaded and cool in the mornings for hours of summer fun for Jasper
4. Washing drying on the line, blowing gently in the breeze
5. Unexpected opportunities, no matter how terrifying

Scenes from a holiday


There have been more trips to the beach this summer than in the previous eight years.

It is a love/hate thing for Oscar. Love the rock pools, hate the beach. We go to the beach more because it’s a two minute walk.

There was a king tide last week.
which made natural lakes up on the beach, perfect for all to muck around in as the surf was angry and dumpy.
There’s been bush walking

an impromptu trip to my Dad and SM’s place, which involved a night of me trying to sleep somewhere in this
and a trip to a naval aircraft museum. No really, it did:
Sure,
the sibling bickering,
the meltdowns over things like me putting the wrong Thomas the Effing Engine DVD on,
the incredible piles of washing that seemed to accumulate by the hour,
the insatiable appetites of my older children and the beige one of my third
and the fact crumbs and sand would appear within minutes of me vacuuming have seen me increase my meds and resort to alcohol for the first time in two years but the opportunity to have had this time to simply be with my children has been indescribably fabulous.

This photo, that Mum took this evening when we went over to the beach for a play after dinner, is how I hope all of us remember the summer holidays of 08/09.

Holiday news

So my mum started losing sleep last week about the state of the bigger boys’ bedroom.
I had just given up hope.
She kick-started the cleanup and three bags of rubbish and over an hour later three people had cleaned up the room to a point that it is still clean.
I am not kidding.
Then she told me she was going to attack Chef and my room.
So I just had to pull the proverbial out and get started in there.
Let’s just say that the dust was such that it triggered my allergies to such an extent a horse tablet of antihistamine didn’t have much affect.
But you know what?
I think I am sleeping better because the bedroom is clean.
Anyway, she’s checking the boys’ room every morning to check there are no clothes on the floor and that they’ve made their beds.
Seriously, sometimes it’s like I’m 15 all over again.
*****
I am in charge of the washing.
*****
I have taken the boys to the beach every day for about a week.
Glorious.
*****
I need to take a moment to update you all on the Grovemeister.
This kid floors me every.single.day.
He knows when he needs to do a wee. When we’re at my inlaws for a swim he gets out of the pool to do it.
He says mum,dad, botbot, bohboh (his favourite toy), toot-toot, dup (for yes), wee, poo and so many more. He natters away in little conversations all the time and you get little phrases where you can pick the intonation like, I wanna get done, I’m done, I did a poo.
But it’s not so much the talking and the words as it is the intent.
This kid knows what he wants and when he wants it.
Tonight he woke up at 9.30pm with a “MUM! MUM! Iwannabotbot. MUUUUUM”
I mean, how can you not pay that? There were no tears, no melodrama, just a very simple I’m awake and come get me.
Anyway, he drank his bottle and was then looking at me going ‘toot toot, dup’ and off he went to play with Thomas the Effing Engine.
Turns out he needed to do another poo and once that was out was fairly willing to go back to bed.


When we were at the beach this morning it was way into his nap-time and he got caught offguard by a wave.
I scooped him up and he was all ‘bye, bye’ at the waves and pointing up the beach (in the direction of home) ‘dup’ and when we didn’t make moves in that direction? Oh LORDY be the screaming that was unleashed.
The wailing.
The tears.
The holding of breath.
Until I said, ‘do you want to go home?’
Instant stop of tantrum replaced with a very calm ‘dup’
‘Do you want a bot bot?’
‘Dup’


Then there are the times when he finds the tv remote control, brings it to me, says ‘toot toot’, points to the DVDs and then settles in on the couch waiting for me to deliver.

and that is how every day goes. The determination, the assuredness in his actions, the sheer bloody will just make me very very nervous. I mean, I have to hide the kitchen stool if I want any chance of getting dinner made without him destroying the other bench or cooking various foodstuffs and utensils in the microwave that he has worked out how to use. I’m not kidding.


With a huge thank you to the Mighty Mary who took these shots of my wee chap on the weekend.

Grace in Small Things: Part 1 of 365

There are lots of things in my life that I am grateful for, feel blessed to have or want to shout from the rooftops. So I’m going to embark on Schmutzie’s Grace in Small Things project. I certainly won’t be blogging them every day, this is me after all. But I am intent on completely 365 posts in this vein.

So without further fanfare, I give you Part 1.

1. A husband with a sense of humour.

2. The possibility of new shoes. I am definitely getting new black boots this winter.

3. Good and true friends.

4. Chokitos.

5. The smell as rain just begins to fall.