School holidays are back let me {us} take a moment to rejoice in that fact. The boys are back off to school as am I. The school holidays were great but they have ended just in time for us to remain friends and a somewhat unified family.

The husband arrived home Saturday. B1 turned 10 Sunday. We stayed a the Coconut Village Resort it was awesome. If you are coming to Cairns with rug rats stay there everyone gets a holiday then. So it was an all round awesome weekend.

Anyway a few things from the past week that caught my attention and stayed in  my head.

1. We road tripped last week. We did 1700 kilometres over three days picking up and visiting the cousins. Traveling with my kids always blows my mind as to what we talk about what they say and what they learn. Amongst subjects were cattle export and the free trade pros and cons. Drought and how it affects the farmers and city people as well as the environment. How to be conscious and aware of where their food comes from. Not to mention the reading of signs, the maths of working out ETA’s and how to talk to everyday people.
2. I had a reader rip me for my grammar I apologised for that. I am not known for my grammar nor spelling as try as I might. I popped on her facebook profile to see most of her posts were written with text abbreviations. At least I attempt the word in full.
3. A friend of mine has started going back to church and whilst I am not religious it has changed her. She doesn’t share her religion with me but it has made her whole. So it’s backed up my theory that humans do better with a faith be it in their god, in their family or themselves we need something to hold on to when all else is failing.
4. I have been dealing with a very insecure person of late. Do you think if I ask them nciely she will take some of the fat as well as the life she is sucking from my soul.
5. Have you considered being a bone marrow donor? Have a look here.
6. Watch this man discover he is going to be a dad after 17 years of trying to conceive. Here.
7. Taylor swifts Instagram account..I love her. Here.
8. Woman are expected to be living in poverty come retirement. Do me a favour get your super sorted. Here.
9. I’m going to ask the husband to make this cake. Here.
10. How to sweat-proof your makeup – I know just in time for summer. Here.

{image with thanks to here content by Debbie Russo}

School holidays have started here in Qld. I never use to like school holidays but with all the boys at school I love them. I love the late starts, the no chaos, I love them being home and then I love them going back to school again.

We don’t want to get carried away now do we.

These school holidays are short so I always treat them like a rest, come this time of year my boys seem to be so whingy. The year is almost at close and everyone is tired. This time of year everything is a drama. So these school holidays and even the weekends towards the end of the year I don’t like rushing around. I don’t plan too much activity but I do still however do a plan of attack, but that’s mainly just to stop what are we doing today mum. It’s also just to keep a budget in check.

So how was your weekend? Tell me would love to know.

Anyway, it’s almost summer here. The nights are so cool but the days a sun has that summer bite and yet I’m still in jeans because my legs just look urgh and I know I should be grateful that I have them, they work and that there is two of them but I’m considering public safety. Oops slight divergent but anyway these are the things from  across the web that have caught my eye

1. I made my first donation to Rize Up yesterday. Rize up RizeUp Australia is a community driven organisation dedicated to educating, empowering and ending domestic and family violence. So yesterday I went online to Kmart brought a few things for a bedroom and sent them through. It was nice knowing I was contributing some nice things {and Kmart has some great stuff} to create a haven for someone who hasn’t had one in awhile. You can help and support Rizeup here. However, if you or someone you know needs help now please contact 000 or the domestic violence hotline on 1800 737 732.

2. Food hacks that are really good like the waffle hashbrowns and one-minute icing. Here.

3. 15 tips to living on one wage here.

4. A bride took her own wedding pictures. I love the simplicity of them. Here.

5. One of my children has quirks and its been a long process of discovery and understanding. I have discovered recently there is seven senses. I only discovered this because I could never understand his heavy-footed step, the accidental slamming of doors, cupboards and draws and his need to chew everything. Have a read. Here.

xxDeb

{content Debbie Russo and image with thanks to here}

I saw your lights on at 530 when I arrived at school this morning, couldn’t sleep? She asked.

No, I said I get up at early most mornings I said

She snorted. What could you possibly do that means you have to get up that early.

Sigh, let the recital begin.

I don’t have anyone to give me a hand. My husband is at work. My parents don’t live here, and I don’t want to wear out my friendships with my friends and I’m also the only child of farming parents so I wake early; its part of my DNA.

I wake early sometimes a little later depending on whether I have slept with an epileptic starfish of a child. Sometimes it’s 5 am give or take a few minutes; either way it’s dark. I shuffle my way to the kitchen where I turn on my connection to the outside world the TV and my internet. I boil the jug for my coffee to have some toast with far too much butter and even more peanut butter. I don’t believe in moderation when it comes to butter. I will sit and wait for the caffeine to hit me before I start comprehending what has happened in the world overnight from the Qantas edition news and my ever faithful Facebook.

530am I will see my neighbours lights flicker on and know it’s safe for me to head out to walk my dogs. My neighbours will sit on their veranda that overlooks my home and watch my children sleep so I can walk the dogs instead of them chewing everything in site. I have four dogs so not to walk them would be costly. The dogs and I walk for 40 minutes before getting back and hanging the washing I had put on the night before.

I will write my blog until the boy’s wake that is usually 7 am before we start the breakfast and getting ready for school routine. How smoothly this runs depends on how tired I am and on a good day the boys will ask for a hot breakfast and on a good day the boys will get one. As they get older there are more hot breakfast. It’s also when husband calls and we get seven minutes to spill the happenings of the previous day.

School runs are done by 915, and I head to the gym until 1030, unless it’s swimming laps with B1 or I have school. Keeping healthy is important to me if I’m not healthy then none of this gets done. I treat it as a must keep an appointment. Usually when I am at the gym, my brain is consumed by what I need to do. I will then sit in the car before leaving and write my list in my iPhone.

The next four and half hours see’s me being Martha Stewart or working at the highschool 9-3. Highschool days are different things are more screamy like. I run my home like a business. Usually this is done with enthusiasm and but sometimes it’s accompanied by random thoughts of how different my life is to what I thought it I would be. These thoughts usually occur as I am cleaning pee off the toilet floor because apparently that hole in the toilet is not big enough. It’s also at this point I wonder if I have brushed my teeth put deodorant on or done my hair and I usually say two out of three ain’t bad.

However, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I love my life as much as its dripping with sarcasm I do. I like being a ‘Martha’ and CEO of my company called home. The pee, however, is whole other post. It’s also somewhere along here I start and finish dinner, so all I have to do is reheat especially if we have appointment or activities following.

3 pm is school pickup, and it’s a flurry of afternoon tea, making of lunch boxes, homework and activities. If we head out, we are home by 515, and we eat by 545pm. We head out most days be it to the park or an activity it fills in the in-between times. I dread the day we get home later because I like early dinners. It’s a control issue I like to think of it as a quirk my husband says it’s OCD.

The boys will do their dishes and start bedtime routine while I feed the zoo that we own and put the chickens to bed- yes I do- it’s currently saving my rooster from being dinner. The boys are in bed by 7.30 pm; usually. I read with them then lie individually with them, and we chat about their day. Most is done in a screaming manner to say anything else would be a lie.

At this point, I start my whole shuffling routine its almost 8.30 pm I shower, curse or smile at what I see in the mirror; then put the laundry on for the next day. I then make a de- cafe coffee that I only make because it’s routine. I never drink it as I sit on the couch and channel surf or write.

For me, bedtime is 9.30 pm before the whole shuffle routine starts again.

I have tried getting up later 6 am but I end up in a war zone more so in my head. My house is a mess; I’m a mess as I try and balance what is important to me, and for me it includes a 430am start. You do what you got to do and some days none of this gets done..none. My world implodes and I have learnt the hard way just to go back to bed after the kids have gone and start again.

ps 430 is my time and never compare yourselves to others..some get up early some stay up late ..I am not a night owl I am a mother hen short fat and kind of feathery picking away just as the sun rises..

xxDeb

{Image with thanks to here content is original by Deb Russo}