The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: organising: stock piling for Christmas yes already}

Posted on by debbie / 2 Comments

Great news; FIFO husband is going to be home for Christmas this year, well at this stage. First time in three years. He will be home for the entire month of December hmm…just thought; we have been so fortunate this year with him being home for birthdays and now Christmas. And I know its September and I know it seems a little crazy and its another 12 weeks away but I have started organising for Christmas because well this year because he will be home so its going to be a BIG family/friend Christmas full of get together’s and catching up that never got done during the year.

Yes I am getting ready a tad early but the retail calender starts in October so its not so bad. So last week when Woolworth’s had those really good soft drink specials on I started buying for Christmas, super excited! I came home popped them into a 20l plastic box in the spare room (out of sight out of mind) and I’m on my way. Just to be extra organised wrote my purchase (3 liter soft drinks at 99cent perfect for punch will share closer to the day the best in the world..just add a little vodka and its perfect for Christmas afternoon) on a little list that has been taped to the 20 liter container and we are on our way to being Christmas ready. And yep I’m feeling a little oh yeah smug.

Now one may confuse my Christmas food buying as stock piling for the Mayan apocalypse but this kind of organisation for Christmas, it was inherited/learnt not sure which from my mother. When I was a kid we use to hold these massive orphan parties and mum would start filling up the hall cupboards with Christmas goodies as soon as the wet season build up started (spring/September). She was always so organised for Christmas and all the impromptu parties that went with the season. She was such a good host never was she without a mixer for a drink or a pretzel to nibble on. Having those massive parties was expensive, Christmas alone was expensive enough (remember the interest rates where in the 18% range in the 1980’s) enough so she would simply start buying a little something each week from September on wards to put in the cupboard for Christmas. I remember being so excited when I saw those first bags of Smiths chips go into the cupboard. I never ever got them unless it was Christmas or my dad was taking me out in the truck. It was so exciting knowing Christmas and all its goodness was on its way.

So have you started thinking Christmas yet? Or am I complete nutter?

xx Deb

The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: real life fifo: mummy breaks}

Posted on by debbie / 3 Comments

Go and get a coffee, my husband screamed at me yesterday like I was a two year old. Well to be honest it was a little more ‘ruder’ than that but I like to keep things clean somewhat here; he also pointed his finger out the door and said it again in case I missed the point. Me I put my hands by my side stormed out the door got as far the path and seethed. I was so wild with myself, I growled.

I didn’t go for coffee. I went and started the taxes and bass statements instead because they need to be done and well that’s my job.

The reason for the adult size tantie? In the daylight its nothing. Nothing. I lost my patience, is all. It was hot wash day because well we I discovered that B3 has worms; so it’s worming and hot wash time. Bugger the fact that its cold and raining everything, EVERYTHING has to be washed. So whilst I was stomach high in washing; my wonderful FIFO husband buggered off to mow lawns for the fire brigade and neighbours. Ordinarily fine. I get that they needed to be done. But he just toddles off without telling me boo where he has gone. And whilst I’m not in need to know where he is at all; that’s not the point here, he just goes because he can. And usually I’m okay with that but not yesterday.

Yesterday it was me, the washing, the dirty house, the boys fighting, the cloudy sky and the frustration and the dawning that ‘my’ job and that’s what it is and I take pride in that fact; never sees me with a day off. Never. I can’t just grab the lawn mower (or the equivalent) and leave. I’m accountable to someone, some seven in fact 24 hours a day 365 days a year. My job doesn’t end every four weeks and I get some new scenery I just get the same lot every day. And whilst I’m complaining I’m not you know?

So my husband scurried after that. Even though he had done nothing wrong he scurried. He made me lunch. He made me coffee. Yet I couldn’t look at him I was embarrassed. I have never lost my patience like a two year old in front of him before but there has been lots of first this month.

What’s up he asked? I started to cry. Head down. I didn’t want to make a big deal, embarrass myself anymore than what was going on. Is this about the lawns he asked? I wasn’t going to say hell yes this about the lawns and the fact you feel you can just leave at any friggen time of the day and not tell me. No I wasn’t going to say any of that and then well it just poured out of me like freaking Niagara Falls. I don’t get to leave my job ever I said. I love my job I do and I take pride in that fact I’m a stay at home mum but I just can’t bugger off when I want. My job doesn’t end after four weeks and I get to leave and see new people. I felt guilty saying it out loud. Guilty that even though I love my job as a stay at home mum it can be the same thing day in day out and some days its can well suck and today is a day where it sucked.

Go on a holiday he said. Thanks I said but that’s not what I want. What do you want? Well I don’t really know I said I guess I want to just bugger off when I feel like it. You can he said. I can’t it doesn’t work that way and let’s be realistic I can’t and when I’m not so tired and frustrated I’m okay with that. I love my little posse.

Yes it does he said when Im home he added rather to quickly. When Im away no we don’t have that luxury and thats just how it is but we knew thats how it was going to be he said. Basically he was giving me my own advice ‘suck it up baby, it comes with the lifestyle’. So now that he is home I am (buggering off) because well I am tired and this stay at home mum gig is losing its appeal somewhat and I’m not doing the best job because well I am tired. And my performance appraisal aka the kids tell me I’m having one to many adult tanties that pretty soon I will be deed polling my name to Mc Enroe’s wife instead of the fifo wife.

It is funny though that it gets forgotten (or perhaps taken for granted I’m not sure which) as stay at home mums that we may get tired. That we to may need a break. It gets forgotten that it’s a tough job. That someone’s whole development whole outlook on life depends on how we perform and this job has an extremely tough clientele. Some days we get it right other days it’s like what the crap happened there but still we go to bed and do it all over again. All awhile keeping the frustration, the not coping, the doubting, not daring to whinge and whine because well as mums and stay at home mums we don’t get the right to complain because that’s what we signed up for. Yet like everything it has its good days and bad days. And so the crap days get forgotten and the 24 hours a day 365 days a year roster starts again.

And that is okay because that’s what I signed up for but I just need a little quiet sometimes you know. So this weekend I am just buggering off. I don’t know where or for how long but I’m going and I’m getting infinity more excited about it. I’m even more excited because my husband has taken care of it all. He loves me what can I say? He gets it, sort of.

And It’s a not a holiday. It’s my weekend. My first weekend off work since March.

I need it to recharge. Regroup and just have a break. To be on my own for just a minute. To go to the toilet on my own. Shower on my own. Dress only myself.

Does anyone else have the occasionally mummy break to refresh and recharge the batteries? Do you go away? What do you do?

xx Deb

The Every Day

a fifo wife {misc: 911 where you?}

Posted on by debbie / 0 Comment

Can you believe its been eleven years since 911? That horrible day changed the world forever I think. Made the world reevaluate everything. My husband was in the defence force in the time, he received a phone call at 3am to tell him to get to the base because America was at war. We thought it was a joke obviously it wasn’t. His base went into lock down for a week.

It is a day and a feeling I will never forget.

Where you you when you heard that horrible news?

xx Deb

The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: health: pretend french women dont get fat}

Posted on by debbie / 0 Comment

Okay so I have put on two and half kilos this winter…neh…once upon time I would be starving myself right about now but as I have grown up I have discovered I like to eat. I like food. And I like to eat particularly in winter when it’s cold, they don’t call it comfort food for nothing. So given my new love of eating these two extra kilos will most likely stay put for another couple of weeks as I’m not particularly diet driven and have numerous ‘parties’ happening these coming weeks (so not a regular occurrence. My hermit self is having a hard time adjusting to the people and the light) and they will be serving cake and beside I am a commonsense kind of girl. You eat too much you’re going to put on weight. You eat too much of the wrong food and you’re going to get fat and possibly sick. You dont move enough you aint going shift that weight either. So commonsense tells me my new found love of caramelised pork belly this winter means I got fat.

Besides I like to eat everything. A little bit of everything. It’s just this winter I was eating for Mongolia every time I ate when ordinarily I pretend I’m a French girl; you know because I’m alone a lot and it’s my prerogative to pretend. So in morphing myself in to a French girl sitting in a Parisian cafe come spring I reduce my meal size and change my plate to something real pretty (Currently its a 1940’s aqua marine Johnson Australia table plate, so pretty check out your local op shops) and imagine myself away. I eat slower. Enjoy my food. Eat simple food. Food cooked well. I serve myself less and operate a little self control. In saying that I never say no to pavlova, cheese cake or my husband’s tiramisu; I never deny myself anything. Why? Why would you do it to yourself? It’s like why buy 99.9% fat free why? When you can 100% full fat that taste’s so much better? Just have less of it. So instead I eat one dessert or perhaps them all if they are small enough but I don’t try and feed the nation of China in one sitting and then go back to feed Mongolia and Russia. My serving size? It’s more like dinner at a fancy restaurant where you pay crazy money for art on a plate but the reality is that small serving size is all you need. When you slow down and enjoy your food, its’ all you need and you get the cake to eat it too.

So given that I don’t believe in diets and pure commonsense I was amused by myself when into my inbox today came a newsletter from Oprah; new ways to burn an extra 100 calories and the best non diet tip they and I would presumably ever read. Amused I was; that I actually clicked and started to read. Okay so let’s just say if you lack ‘my’ commonsense then head on over but their best non diet tip that they felt was so amazing that it was included in their email news letter: reorganise your fridge. Healthy food in the middle and the rest (junk) I would assume elsewhere. Hmm…the commonsense in me tells me reorganise your shopping trolley and just don’t buy the junk. Oh the kids? Don’t take them shopping. What will they snack on? I hear Oprah scream? Fruit and sandwiches my kids don’t have it (I didn’t have it either) and well they are turning out just fine.

I then follow through to Bob Greens advice for burn an extra 100 calorie a day. A quick fix to my two and half kilo problem, yes. Thinking I will find something amazing. He is after all on Oprah’s team and I do think she is a little special. Turns out you need to already be exercising. So Bob Greens advice goes like this: stretch while you’re watching TV, walk more, lean forward on the tread mill, cook for your family (apparently burns 76 calories per twenty minutes who knew?) ride your bike up a hill and switch your swim stroke. There is your 100 calories! So whilst I don’t mean to be harsh and I know it’s ‘my’ commonsense. Unless you move more you can’t eat everything you want. You just can’t. And whist I’m not an exercise fanatic in fact I hate it the only sport I really enjoy is swimming. I run, walk, and ride my bike. I do this because I understand if I want to eat that whole bag of cheezles (guilty as of yesterday) or have two serves of roast lamb and gravy I’m going to have to do some work along the way. It’s commonsense be it ‘my’ commensense.

Now you can say you can’t fit exercise in or you have no one to watch the kids? Neither do I. In fact after all my boys were born I did laps around my yard and up and down the street. Never out of ear shot. You will find away to get the exercise in. Your to tired? Just do it. Your health depends on it. Run up and down your front stairs. Squats in the kitchen. Skip rope on your back verandas. Hula hoop in the bathroom. Play tag with the kids. Just. Move. More.

So I was hoping as I read through all this diet literature on Oprah’s newsletter that somewhere anywhere it would tell me that exercise and a healthy diet is good for your physical and mental health. That exercise reduces not only your weight, but improves your quality of sleep, mental health, increase strength and agility (for when you want to go round three with your toddler), helps reduce migraines, lowers your risk of osteoporosis and it betters your sex life. Your sex life people! It also decreases your chance of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and stroke. Exercise can also help reduce your cravings if you’re trying to quit smoking I don’t know how it just does. She also didn’t tell me that by looking after myself I will be around longer with my kids, perhaps to see their kids. She didn’t tell me that exercise and a commonsense diet would help me feel more confident, and that playing with my kids would be easier. That taking care of myself, I would be a better version of myself. That I may even like myself more, which has endless possibilities in its self?

No in all her Oprah wisdom she didn’t tell me any of that. What she did tell me is that I will look better in a pair of Nordstrom jeans.

Well if that doesn’t get me moving I don’t know what will.

Xx Deb

 

 

The Every Day

a fifo wife {fifo life: bloke stuff: bare your soul}

Posted on by debbie / 2 Comments

Seems the ‘blokes and gentlemen readers’ loved my trivia post yesterday so instead of trivia we are calling it bloke stuff because as I have been informed they like snippets not post’s (typical..but I get it) so here is another ‘snippet’ also divulging my love of trivia.

In a study carried out by Eve Doohan from the university of Washington 163 people were asked to recall the most significant compliment they had ever received from their loved ones. The compliments that they cited the most was about how the person made them feel as opposed to their physical attributes (but don’t let this little bit of trivia stop you fella’s you should tell your partner how good she looks as often as you can..trust me its never tiring. Never.)

So gentlemen readers tell her she looks good enough to eat in those mighty fine flannelet pink poodle pj’s (she may or may not believe you) but then whisper in her ear she completes you and that not seeing her in those pink poodle pj’s means that the sun hasn’t truly risen that day. You get my drift ? Bare your soul just once..try its guaranteed to get you in the good books somewhere along the way…

So too my lovely lovelies tell me what the nicest compliment you have ever received?

xx Deb