art supplies: after

Remember this pile of stuff behind my desk a few days ago?

Well, it's gone! Mostly.

I've kept one of the crates temporarily until I find homes for those last few items (mostly books), but the other two are empty, and the bottles and boxes and tubs and other assorted materials have been packed away. The majority is now cleaned and sorted into storage boxes on the shelving, so I can find it when I need it. A few items were thrown out, a few snaffled by the children, but mostly it was still in pretty good condition. The palettes were covered in dried up paint (because I'm slack and didn't clean them at the time), so they're soaking in the kitchen sink.

The kids have taken to hanging around when I'm sorting through things - they're discovering all sorts of 'treasures'! Today we found special markers, pen nibs and ink, drawing charcoal, a flexible curve, plastic templates, a full circle protractor, compasses, a big magnifying glass, a one cent coin and a round 50 cent coin. Treasures indeed!

lounge & dining rooms - photos at last!

We were supposed to have a playdate here today. Things didn't work out as planned (children still had the play, just not here), but we didn't find out about the change until after the big pre-visitors clean up of the lounge room. All in all, this was a good thing in the larger scheme of getting this place in something resembling order.

Hopefully the lounge room will stay like this for a while:

The furniture is all mismatched and the lounges are nearing the end of their lifespan; the crocheted blankets are daggy but warm and soft (and can be used to build cubbies and nests and all sorts of things!); the carpet could do with a thorough clean, but it's comfortable and, for now at least, it's tidy.

Oh - and the big hairy leg on the left is my gorilla, Coco, not the husband :P

And while we're at it, this is the children's computer desk in the old dining room:

They're growing fast, and we'll need to change it soon to accommodate full-size seats, but this is doing the job for now. There's a table in the X-man's room that might be able to come out here, and I think the computers will fit side by side on it, but that can wait a little while yet.

art supplies: before

I have carted various art supplies around in three milk crates for the past 15 years or so. Recently, the only thing that's changed about them is their location (they were moved to make way for the husband's electronics desk) and the amount of dust they've collected.

So now it's their turn ...

I can see (from the top): travel books and brochures (which I'm using in planning The Big Trip, but which can at the very least be tidied up); stickers (no idea how I ended up with them, but may be put to use in bribing children now I know they're there); a set of rubber stamps (can go in with the other cardmaking supplies in the desk drawer - which is yet to be sorted).

In the top crate: the cardboard box seems to contain beads and ribbons; a bottle of PVA glue of indeterminate age; face paint crayons; a silk screen squeegee (isn't that a great word? Squeegee!); a paintbrush; a tin of rubber cement (years old - may just need tossing); a red plastic bag containing a hot glue gun and glue sticks (which I am incapable of operating without getting strings of glue everywhere); a wooden box of artist's pastels; a large spool of orange giftwrap ribbon; and a signed 1997 Greenpeace calendar (from when I worked in the Sydney office).

In the second crate: plastic chocolate moulds; various boxes and tins of pastels, crayons, pencils and watercolours; a ceramic paint mixing palette; film reel canisters (also used as palettes); staple gun and staples; a magnifying glass in its box; a pencil case which I suspect contains special markers from my landscape architecture course at uni (which I finished in 1987, so I doubt they're much good for anything now); and possibly other stuff lurking at the back.

In the bottom crate: old tins of paint; can of spray fixative; jar of paintbrushes; tub of gesso; a yellow M&M tube filled with small ink canisters for a fountain pen; and more lurking in amongst the shadows and spider webs.


On the right hand side of the crates, beside the desk: the new home of the guillotine, and several large gift bags (too good to throw out, too big to put anywhere else).

On the left hand side of the crates: a paper bag of cardmaking items bought at a party plan event (with good intentions of making Christmas cards. Ha!); a blue eco-bag of books (have forgotton exactly what's in it, although I recall something about suicide bunny cards ...); spare shelf for the 'new' shelving unit (I'll eventually buy a second unit, so will just hang on to this one).

I would eventually like to get rid of the crates, or do something else with them (perhaps cubby house furniture?), but for now I'll pull everything out of them, clean all the dust off, sort out what's there and throw out anything that's no longer usable, and repack it so I can find things (don't know how many times I could have used that staple gun, if only I'd known where it was).

sewing and craft desk: after

The surface of the sewing desk is looking much better :)

The toolbox on the far end of the desk contains sewing-related items, and I cleaned the dust off the sewing machine and found its cover.

Please note I said the surface of the sewing desk ... I haven't even looked in its six drawers yet, although I seem to recall that half of them might contain the husband's leatherwork and other assorted tools, and half of them may contain sewing/craft magazine and papercraft equipment. I'll deal with all that another day - at least it's out of sight.

I also have an overlocker that needs a place to live - preferably accessible on the desk so I actually use it. If I can convince the husband to move his stuff elsewhere, I might try to stash all the papercraft (cardmaking/scrapbooking etc.; as well as what's in drawers, there's more in a large storage box on my shelves, so I'll pare it down so it fits in one place) items in the drawers, and only pull it out when needed, keeping the desk free for whatever my current project happens to be.

There are also a couple of blue plastic portfolios under the desk. I think they may be from high school and/or university days. I'll pull them out, dust them off and go through them. Might be fun to do this with the children.

invisible changes

I've been doing some more sorting and filing and tidying up today, but you can't really see any difference because it's all been on my computer.

I'm not particularly good at backing up files, but every couple of years (hey - I did say I wasn't very good at it!) I archive everything off my hard drive, clean up the disk, and (not surprisingly) my computer runs a lot faster. And then I vow to do it more regularly, but don't.

I keep everything - I've had clients come back several years down the track asking if I remembered 'that job you did for us', and whether I still had the original files so they do a new version without having to type the whole thing out again, because they didn't have it any more. So I keep it all.

So nothing too exciting, but change nonetheless.

Next decluttering task: sewing/craft desk

I like the idea of sewing. I have a sewing machine and an overlocker. I have a big sewing box with lots of sewing essentials. I even have a stash of fabric. But do I sew? No. Because of this:

Another pile of 'stuff'.

Ok, so we know the drill - make list, declutter, reorganise, clean ...

LHS of desk: pile of schoolwork (I've made a start on going through the workbooks, saving anything I really want to keep [and I've set up folders for each child, so it can go into them right away] and getting rid of the rest. Bulky items will be photographed before disposal), the little sewing kit that was on my work desk (at least it's on the correct desk now), newspaper (probably kept for something significant I can't remember), Guides sash and bag and badges that need to be sewn on (on the right desk, again), a scrapbooking album (yet another hobby I started, spent a fortune on, and then never looked at again), a small photo album (was supposed to be a Christmas present two years ago, but I didn't get round to it), a sketchbook, an Adobe Illustrator manual (can go onto bookshelf), and a couple of empty folders (can go with all the other empty folders until I need them). Behind the pile is a type size guide.

Middle of desk: sewing machine (+ a few loose screws, which hopefully aren't part of the sewing machine!). Roll of orange corrugated cardboard (not sure why I bought this - may just give it to the kids, and once it's cut into pieces and strewn all over the floor [inevitable, really] I can recycle it). Small scrapbooking cutter thingy (I seem to recall it never worked very well - will test and toss if no good). Work lamp.

RHS of desk: pile of fabric, old clothes I planned to recycle somehow sometime, clothes that needed repairs a couple of years ago and I never got round to (will go through the pile and ruthlessly consign to the bin or rag bag if too far gone, and wash, fold and stash anything usable where I can find it).

In front of the desk: large wooden easel (I want to eventually end up with a space where I can set up for painting. It's been a long time since I painted, and it made me sad to come across an old art workbook of my mother's from when she was at high school - she had some talent, but got too busy, and let it go. I don't want that regret.). The plastic bags temporarily hanging off the easel contain rubbish and recycling - they'll go. The fluoro tube is plugged in and hooked up to a timer when we go away, so lights come on and off. It can find a new home. The green cutting mat can probably sit flat on the desk when it's cleared up, as a work surface. The 'ditto' thing is a lid from a box of A4 paper (it can be re-homed near the printers). The boxes on the floor on the right contain card-making supplies and other papers (I'll go through them ruthlessly and dispose of items that aren't useful, and add the rest to the box of craft items on my shelves).

Under the desk: guillotine, another green cutting mat, and some sort of toolbox (not sure if this is mine or the husband's - will need to drag it all out to see exactly what's there).

It's not really as bad as I thought it was, now that I've listed it all out. Will report back when it's all dealt with and I have a functional space again.

state of the desk - part 2

Ta da! All tidied up, and a much better work space.

In the process, I rediscovered this gorgeous little fellow, who has been languishing in a little black box under an avalanche of paper for the past few months, and who is now on display, as he should be:

I remembered how much I love this old desk, and I'll give it some attention and see if I can polish out some of the scratches. I think I'll move the desktop computer around to the left a bit, and give the laptop a bit more space. I'm planning on cleaning up the computers as well, and archiving a lot of files, and I'd like to transfer my current work to the laptop (which has a bigger hard drive and faster processor than the desktop machine), but hook the big monitor into it.

The other thing I found on the desk was a small sheaf of papers relating to the death of a former colleague. David Green was an amazing man who achieved a lot, but was incredibly modest (I only found out a lot of what he did at the funeral and later), and willing to take on someone who was pretty new to the business but keen to learn. He's the reason I had the confidence to go out on my own and why nothing is impossible. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work with him, even for the short time before he died so unexpectedly, and the things I learnt from him are still very relevant to me ten years later. Thanks David.

changing my surroundings

I work from home. I don't have a separate office - I'm set up in what we refer to as the 'computer room', which contains desks for both the husband and myself (and our desktop and laptop computers, plus a server, a couple of printers and other paraphernalia.

It also contains two large bookcases, crammed full of work samples, general books (mainly reference books), photo albums, and a stack of CDs for the kids' computers (that's just my bookcase - the husband's has his technical car manuals, magazines and more).

There's also a digital piano, my sewing/craft desk (which is gradually coming to light after being stacked high with 'stuff' for a long time), a cabinet full of software and tax files, and my new-ish shelving unit (all on my side), plus the husband's electronics desk, a c.1980s drinks cabinet/display unit, a vinyl cutting machine, a small bookshelf and a filing cabinet (on his side). And stuff in boxes that I have yet to sort (the theory is that it will be sorted into boxes and stored on the shelving unit. There's also a gas heater that we don't use and which will eventually be removed, but it will cost several hundred dollars to have the gas disconnected and we have other priorities at the moment.

It's far from an ideal set-up, and one that's not working very efficiently. So I need to change it.

I spend a LOT of time at my desk. Some of that is work, some is research on various subjects, some is social interaction, some is just messing around on the internet. But to be honest, it's not a very inspiring space to spend all that time, so I'm going to take some photos of 'now' (which is vastly improved on what it was thanks to a gorgeous friend who comes around every so often and works with us to declutter and sort), and work on one small section at a time until it's all fabulous.

I'll post photos tomorrow, and get started on Part 1 - my desk, which was under control for a while but has built up a layer of detritus again.

changing shopping habits

I run my own business from home, and one aspect of it that never holds a lot of appeal (and I suspect this is true for many business soloists) is doing the accounts. But that's just what I couldn't avoid yesterday, so I knuckled down and got on with it. Thank goodness I did, because I hadn't realised that the Global Financial Crisis may have finally caught up with me.

Oh, things aren't really desperate, and if I absolutely had to I could dip into the travel fund, but it does mean we all need to tighten our belts a little and become more frugal - which really isn't a bad thing when you think about it.

It also means we need to change our shopping habits. We've become a bit lazy - it's easy to pop down to the local IGA when we run out of something, or opt for takeaway when cooking just seems too hard. It's easy to grab a few extra items in the supermarket, or head to the shopping mall for something to do.

I consider myself lucky that I don't find shopping much of a recreational sport, so avoiding the malls is not a hardship, but when I do need to go there for something, it's hard to resist the lure of shiny new things calling you from every direction. My particular weakness is books, and I realised last week that I spent hundreds of dollars on new books last year, many of which I haven't read yet. I really have no excuse to spend any more for quite a while!

The new shopping plan of attack - lists.

I will list what we have (and realistically, it will probably be me who drives this, although I will try to involve the family), and how we can use those things. Doesn't matter whether it's food supplies (I think we could last quite a while on what's already in stock, with the addition of fresh food as required), clothing (I will inventory school uniforms, and see what can be re-used for this year), laundry and bathroom items (including all those bits left in bottles and boxes) or other items.

Hopefully, as part of that process, I'll be able to do a bit more sorting and decluttering.

Then I'll list what we need, and prioritise the list. I'll meal plan around what we have, and make a shopping list with only those things that we need to complete the plan. I'll list the items of clothing the children need (they keep growing, and shoes will need to be on that list!). I'll list the laundry and bathroom consumables required, and anything else I can think of that we need in the short term.

I'll be avoiding much of the processed food that seems to make its way into the trolley, and going back to basics, and I'll be making things like laundry powder (I'm using my first batch now, and I can't see any reason to go back to the commercial stuff, even if money was no object). I'll also be looking at refashioning clothing, to see if I can get a bit more use out of it, and seeing whether I can sew other things we might need (I already have some fabric that's been sitting around for years, so that's another stash I need to inventory).

The funny thing is that I've been gathering information and reading a lot over the past year or so on a lot of these things, but didn't seem to have time to do more than read and bookmark for 'one day'. And now that work is a little slower, I have that time available. I just need to use it wisely.

I've mentioned my Pollyanna nature before, and I can certainly find plenty to be glad about in this situation: time available to try new things, the opportunity to put some of the frugal ideas I've been gathering into practise so they become habits, the incentive to work on a more healthy diet and lifestyle for the whole family. And it's all happened at a great time: Miss Tizz wants to learn to cook, and the X-man wants to make things with Daddy, so it may just have a really positive impact on their behaviour and life skills :)

changing rooms

Not quite a house makeover, but we have been looking at the function of some of our rooms, and making some changes.

Our dining room is quite dark. Our dining table is used for meals (we generally eat as a family around the table), as well as homework, craft projects, reading, games, and the list goes on. All of which need light.

Our lounge room is a Spanline extension to the original house. It has skylight strips the width of the room at regular intervals, where the light comes through so brightly it sometimes looks like there are fluorescent lights turned on. It's a long room, and the television and lounges are at the widest end, which left about half the room gathering 'stuff' - it's at the front door, so things would be dumped there on the way in, and dumped there when we intended to move them out. And sometimes they just stayed there.

We cleaned it out and moved the dining table into this area for Christmas lunch with the extended family, and realised what great natural light it provides.

Of course, there's a domino effect: a lounge was moved from the new dining area into the television area, which meant the kids' computers had to be moved. There is no way they're having computers in their rooms at this age - I want them in a public area of the house for supervision - which brings us back to the 'old' dining room. It's not a big room, and contains a bookshelf, a tall triangular corner unit, and an old blue cupboard I picked up years ago at an antique shop, but it's perfect for a couple of kids' computers, and we walk past it all the time so we can keep on eye on what they're doing. It also means the computers are out of direct sight from the (glass) front door.

The husband has moved his electronics desk just around the corner from where the computers will be, and they'll all need power, so he'll install a double-sided powerpoint in the wall between them.

And that's just the beginning of the changes ...

plans for the year

I'm not going to call them resolutions, because I'm not very good at keeping resolutions and then I just feel like a failure, but I do have some things I'd like to do in 2010.

1. The trip to Europe is the biggie. There are times when I don't know if I'll be able to save enough in time, but I'll be doing my darnedest to make it happen.
2. Sort out my superannuation. In cleaning up my desk today, i found statements from three different super funds, none of them with a huge amount in them, but it's silly to be paying three lots of fees. So I will be rolling them in together, after I update my name on two of them, and work out where to put it all (any advice gratefully received - this is not my forte!).
3. Sewing. I'd like to have a go at refashioning old clothes hanging in the back of the wardrobe, and making new things. I'd like to finally figure out how my overlocker works, after having done nothing more than hem some wipes with it when the kids were babies. I've made a start on clearing the sewing table, and there's not really too much more to do to make it usable - I just need to do it.
4. Get some value from the Questacon and National Gallery memberships we have before they expire (May 2010 for the national Gallery, May 2011 for Questacon).
5. Make more things from scratch - food and other products. I've collected and researched a lot, and now I need to put some of these things into practise. It's about saving money, not relying as much on processed items, organising my time better, and showing the children that there are alternatives.
6. Read more books. Real paper books. I want to make a serious dent in the linear metres of books I have stacked by my bedside.
7. Spend less time online. My work is computer-based, my friendships depend on online contact to a large extent these days, but I really don't need to spend as much time as I do playing games.
8. Get more sleep. I have a very bad habit of staying up late at night and getting by on far less sleep than I should. I've been doing it for years, and it's all caught up with me recently. So I will be turning into a pumpkin around midnight, and then trying to bring bedtime back little by little.
9. Get healthy - 5 + 7 + 8 + more activity, especially as my energy levels increase. I've been remarkably lucky healthwise to date, but I need to take into consideration that I'm now 44, and take a bit more care. Or a lot more care.
10. Get organised. This is something I struggle with. I like the idea of being a free spirit, but I know it's easier to be spontaneous and creative and fun when your environment is calm and running smoothly. And no-one can make that happen for me but me.

They're in no particular order, and there are a lot of connections between all these things. I'm not going to attempt to change everything at once - tried that and failed miserably - but take it step by step and make it happen.

rubbish!

We hosted the family Christmas lunch this year, which means we ended up with the associated mountains of rubbish. Unbelievable how much paper and plastic packaging is discarded in one day!

We currently have a full rubbish bin, a full recycling bin, mother-in-law took home some recycling and we dropped off more rubbish and recycling today, and brother-in-law accidentally packed the bag full of prawn heads and other assorted stinky waste on Friday when he was putting all their stuff into the car (hopefully he's realised by now ...). There is more in the kitchen, two big garbage bags of as yet unsorted wrapping paper and toy packaging in the loungeroom, and we still have two days of normal household rubbish and recycling to store until the bins are emptied.

I think the recycling will take a few fortnights of collections to finally dispose of. Just insane!

So I'm going to try to reduce my part in all this next year, and look out for specials on tea towels and other useful fabric items and ribbons to wrap gifts. Even if people don't need more tea towels, I figure they're more likely to pass it on to someone else, or even donate it rather than throwing it out. Maybe scarves, shawls, small tablecloths, pillowcases and bandanas could also be used. Sturdy, attractive, reusable boxes might be another option.

Any other suggestions?

christmas eve eve

Had a wee panic this morning about everything that still needs to be done before Friday, then realised that there will be at least 5 children aged 10 and under here, so it will pretty much be trashed anyway. We've worked out a simpler way of seating nine for lunch, which just involves rearranging furniture rather than bringing another table inside, and decided that some things can be moved into bedrooms for the day and the doors shut (which has the added bonus of keeping visiting children from dragging out all the 'old' toys).

We've done all the shopping, and don't need to leave the house tomorrow unless we want to (and it's going to be hot, so I doubt we will). Tomorrow morning we'll continue clearing out the area where we'll be eating on Christmas day (the husband has a desk covered in electronics bits and pieces there at the moment which needs to be packed up and moved, as well as a hydroponics cabinet and some boxes which can be stacked in or on the kids' indoor cubby. That's all really the husband's stuff, so I will probably give the bathroom and kitchen some attention while he's busy. Then the floors, move the tables, and that should be the worst of it.

When it cools down a bit in the evening, I'll cook the turkey breast stuffed with macadamias and cranberries, and the camembert and bacon chicken rolled roast. While that's in the oven, I'll boil potatoes and eggs and cook bacon that will go into a potato salad, and make the dressing for the noodle salad. And at some stage I'll make chocolate spiders and peanut butter cups.

So it's all under control, and anyway - it doesn't need to be perfect. We're celebrating with family and friends, and that's what matters.

checklist

• Hassle husband until he writes Christmas cards for his half of the family.
  
• Post cards and gifts for Christmas.
• Take Miss Tizz to school for her final guitar lesson for the year.
• Finish off work with pre-Christmas deadlines - one job to go, and will do some non-urgent work next week to prevent it becoming urgent after the break.
• Invoicing (yay!)
  
• Try to be a wee bit sympathetic about husband's summer cold. I know he's feeling miserable, I'm just not good at playing nursemaid.
• Help husband repot tomatoes in hydroponic setup.
• Put in support for beans in wicking boxes, + plant more seeds to replace the ones that the snails got to (and liberally apply snail bait - am very over feeding the local snail population). Planted two tomatoes, and need to buy more snail bait.
  
• Wrap presents, and remember to label them as I go so I don't forget what's what
  
• Pack away the rest of the cards ready for next year (except that next year I'll be making them ... maybe)
• Clear off and scrub table from back verandah so it can brought inside for Christmas day. Not happening now - we've decided to use the dining table and a separate kids' table.
  
• Encourage family (especially husband) to keep clearing stuff out of the lounge room and dining room. I've been encouraging - not much happening ... update Wed: He's been working on it, and we've even worked out how to rearrange the rooms to make it all work for Friday.
  
• Check what we're providing for Christmas day, plus write meal plan for this week.
• Food shop according to plan.
• Check and pay bills due over the next week or two so I don't have to think about it.
• Wash a load or two every day to keep on top of it.- Sat / Sun / Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu
  
• Do something fun with the family each day - Sat / Sun / Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu
• Accept invitation to high tea at the Hyatt with clients :)
• Make a concerted effort to catch up with friends, even if only briefly. Managing brief online chats, but not much more :(
  

Perhaps those last three should move to the top of the list ...

Ok - we have six days to get through the list. I'll come back and cross things off and annotate throughout the week.

only blogging because i said i would

My head hurts, and I'm tired. It's been hot (with more on the way tomorrow), I haven't had any coffee today, and the CPAP is going to take some getting used to. Took forever to go to sleep last night, and I woke about 4.30am in a panic and had to take the mask off.

Ok, whinge over, and heading for bed for a relatively early night, and to try again.

Christmas shopping is all done, at least the presents - the food for Christmas day is still to be bought, but that's a bit of a last minute thing. Might suss out options like shopping online and extended trading hours, and try to avoid the madness that is Christmas eve in the supermarket.

Miss Tizz has asked if she can skip the last two days of school - there's not much happening, so we've agreed - but the X-man wants to go tomorrow as the kindergarten children are singing for their Year 6 buddies. But he'd like an early mark please :)

There are a few things to pop in the mail tomorrow, presents to wrap, and a room to rearrange to accommodate a bigger table for Christmas day, but I think we pretty much have it under control.

Oh, and Santa rang tonight and has arranged a special visit on Christmas eve for two kids who are not quite sure whether he's real ;)

christmas food

Continuing on the theme ...

The husband has organised who's bringing what for Christmas day. A few phone calls backwards and forwards between him, his brother and his mother has resulted in a list, and everyone knows what they're doing.

We're sticking with pre-cooked and cold foods this year - if the weather lately is any indication, it will be quite warm, and heating up the house with the oven holds little appeal. So in three different households the day before, there will be turkey roasting, pork crackling, a ham being prepared, and pre-ordered prawns collected.

We'll be eating green salad, rice salad, potato salad and crispy noodle salad. And there'll be pudding and brandy custard and ice cream for dessert.

I'm sure there'll be homemade pink sugared peanuts, and chocolate, and other snacks, just in case anyone has any space left. And we'll all try to get out of taking home the leftovers.

Toasted ham sandwiches for dinner anyone?

today

I worked until 2am this morning. Then listened to the husband snore for a while before I finally went to sleep. Then the alarm went off at 7am. And I went back to sleep. Woke again at 7.45am, and then it's panic all round to get the kids dressed, fed and off to school with all the appropriate stuff. Always a good start to the day.

Sit down at the computer to read and breathe for a few minutes while the husband takes the kids to school. Receive an email with final instructions for a (freebie) job for the school fete committee, and a request to bring the files on a CD to the parent helper morning tea this morning. Aaargh! Am still unwashed and unfed, and it's 9.30, and I need to finish the job and check it thoroughly and burn the CD and get to the morning tea. Aaaargh! Breathe. Shower. Breakfast. Coffee. Breathe. Finish job. Check. Burn CD. Write out printing instructions (never assume!). Print laser copy of booklet so the people printing it know how to assemble it. Decide to burn a second CD to go in the fete files, just in case I'm not here next year. Darn hole in jeans (only have one pair at the moment, and don't want to buy any more fat clothes because I'm going to get this sleep issue sorted out and lose weight - any time now. Really.). Finish getting dressed, paint face, bolt out the door to the morning tea. Person I was meeting is late anyway. Last 5 minutes at the morning tea, then can't take the inane happy chat any more, and sneak off to wait in the foyer. Hand over the CD and the bad news about friend & fellow school mum. Head home.

Proof read several articles and return them to client. Work on a newsletter that should have been finished yesterday. Read messages of support for friend on Facebook. More on the late newsletter, which is taking longer than it should because the client hasn't taken any notice of my suggestions from previous issues.

Lunch - leftover Chinese from last night. Back to the computer and the newsletter. Send off the draft (incomplete, but need client input before I can do any more). Husband heads off to collect kids from school. Check Facebook/forums/emails.

Kids home with school reports. Have done well, but some room for improvement in specific areas.

Get ready to head out to swimming lessons, via petrol station (because it's on empty and if we don't we won't get home again!). Last week of swimming lessons for this year, so the kids get to go on the waterslide at the end. Hang around while they have a play. Miss Tizz turns on the tears because we won't buy her food from the cafe (it's 5.30pm, and dinner isn't too far off). Home. Pop next door to let them know about friend's husband's death. Miss Tizz whines and stomps and carries on about having to a) shower and b) wash her hair. You've just been in a heavily chlorinated public pool missy, you are GOING TO WASH IT ALL OFF. NOW GET IN THAT SHOWER RIGHT NOW! X-man showers & changes into pjs. Threaten Miss Tizz with physical violence if she doesn't get in there right now. Hand her over to husband while I prepare dinner (salt & pepper squid and veges - yum!).

Miss Tizz - now washed - gets out of shower and walks to kitchen dripping water all over the floor. No, I will not wipe you. Sulks. Again. The kids have been hyped up with Grandma and Grandad in town for a few days, and this is the crash. She's too much like me in that way, and I worry about her.

Dinner. Everybody happy :)

Comb & plait her hair (not as traumatic as it could be), and then both kids into bed to read for a few minutes before lights out. Put on a load of washing.

Lights out. Head for computer to work. Stuff it. Read blogs/forums/Facebook and chat with friend on Messenger instead.

It's now 10.42pm, and I think I will make it an early night. But first I need to load the dishwasher and start it, finish cleaning up the kitchen, take dry clothes out of the drier (from two days ago) and put the just-washed load in (and feel guilty because it was a nice warm day and if I'd been more organised I could have line-dried it), work out what I can do with the leftover chicken in the fridge for tomorrow night's dinner, and write my to-do list for tomorrow.

Good night!

the truth hurts

I was teasing the kids at the dinner table tonight (lasagne & salad, all made from scratch using my trusty Thermomix, and with silverbeet from the garden hidden in the lasagne - the kids loved it!), saying we couldn't afford Christmas presents this year because we were too poor (because I'm mean and nasty like that. Heh!).

For some reason, they didn't take me too seriously (knowing that there are reliable gift-bearing grandparents heading this way helps). I said that instead of presents we can just spend the day together having fun, and Miss Tizz reminded me we could each wrap up a game we already had to play. But then she specified that I was NOT allowed to get on the computer. ALL DAY.

And that's what really matters to her - my time.

I know I spend too much time here - between my work, the bulk of my social life, researching everything from Roman history to crochet patterns to lasagne recipes, finding a video of the X-man's current favourite song, playing games, blogging, email, and the list goes on ...

When the kids are looking for me, this is the first place they check.

It's another thing I'm feeling a real compulsion to change, and I'm finding it very difficult. I don't know if it's an addiction, but if not, it's not far off, and I don't like it.

I'm going to try limiting my computer time when the kids are home. It's something I talked about over a year ago - the idea was that I'd work 9am-3pm school days - and I have totally failed. And I'm miserable about it, because it's not how I want them to remember their childhood.

So ... I'm going to take a deep breath, and have another go, starting tomorrow. Wish me luck!

cash flow

One of the disadvantages of being self employed is a little thing called 'cash flow'. You can't rely on the regular salary payment appearing in your account, and it can make for some pretty lean weeks. Like this one.

I've had to pay a big utilities bill (not unexpected, but we made the decision not to be cold through winter) and a tax bill (a little unexpected, but it means the business is doing well - I just wasn't thinking ahead) this week, and it means there's not much left for anything else. I do have the travel account, which I can access with a couple of days' notice if I really have to, but I want to leave that for an emergency (or preferably for travel!), so it's not like we're destitute. And we're in the fortunate position of no longer having a mortgage or any regular payments due.

But it has meant getting a bit creative in the kitchen. Anyone who knows me knows the kitchen is not my preferred place to be, but a friend challenged me to plan a few meals in advance by looking at what was already available in the pantry. That pantry list I made a few weeks back came in very handy!

Tonight we had homemade baked beans, which used up 3 of the 5 tins of cannellini beans, the little bit of Worcestershire sauce left in the bottle, some Dijon mustard which has been in the fridge for a while and needed to be used up, a little of the golden syrup (it was supposed to be maple syrup, but was ok as a substitute), a tin of tomatoes, an onion and a little garlic, and a few rashers of bacon. Pretty easy (even for me) and delicious - even the children agreed after protesting about the tomato and onion, and quizzing me to make sure there was no mushroom. And it took under an hour from start to table (including letting it simmer for 20 minutes, and taking into account that everything takes me longer to cook than it's supposed to - can I blame the stove?).

For the rest of the week we're going Italian - fettucine carbonara, lasagne (including some of the silverbeet from the garden, which I'll hide in the sauce with the help of the Thermomix), Caesar salad, and homemade pizza. I will need to buy some beef mince for the lasagne, but I think we're right for pretty much everything else.

And by then, the cash should be flowing again, just in time for more weekend visitors :)

what do I want?

Today's Zen Habits post is entitled How to want very little - very apt after my post on priorities yesterday. It begins: "There are two challenges that people face when choosing to live a more simpler life: owning little and wanting little." The author talks about how wanting little is much harder than the decluttering and elimination involved in owning little, because it involves an attitude shift.

I find that these days I don't want a whole lot in terms of material goods - what I want is more about experience: travel, fun, sharing, trying new things, knowledge and so on. I have been struggling when relatives ask me what I want for Christmas and birthday presents, and usually come up with something I would need anyway (like clothes), or something related to the experiences I am working towards (contributions to the travel fund, a bigger memory card for my camera ...). I'm also struggling a bit with suggestions for what to buy the children - I would rather purchase a season ticket to an attraction they love, or put the money towards a combined holiday, than buy more 'stuff'.

And it's the 'stuff' we already own that is weighing me down. We're gradually decluttering, but it's a slow process. I love that I've been able to give friends certain items, and donate to the school fete and charities, but I have a secret desire to either a) set fire to the whole lot and start again, only replacing what we really need and love, or b) hiring a skip and just throwing stuff out - lots of it, ruthlessly. Of course, I'm far too sensible to do either of those things, but it's good to have a dream ;)

So I will go on with the decluttering, and resist the constant marketing hype, and hopefully pass on to my children that having more stuff isn't the answer to anything.