Happy Christmas!! Merry New Year!

Yup this is me today. 

We went and hung out at a friends house for the middle chunk of the day, knowing that the kids would be in water and that I wasn't gonna be doing a lot, I dressed down. I had jandals on for driving and walking in, but that was about how long they lasted.

Let's be honest here for a second, given how this week has been going I don't know if I'm gonna be blogging much over the next coupla weeks. I will try. But as Captain is off work for 2 weeks, MIL is coming up to visit for a week, and kids are home so we may be catching up with friends who it's tricky to see during term time (you know - fitting them in around school/Playcentre drop offs & pick ups and nap time. ergh. too hard.)  I'm not sure I will have energy come end of day to write. 

But I will try. Yeah shut up Yoda I hear ya. ok, let's make a deal I will write at least once a week. If I get crazy and manage more than that, then let's call it bonus! Gravy. Awesome. (For those who know me, then you know I like to keep my word, but also love just slacking off)  :OD

My baby-who-is-no-longer-a-baby brother came round (he's taller than me. Yeah I know, it's not hard. pffft) and he's really awesome at origami things, so was folding paper cranes (the bird type) and boats and such for all our tribe. I suggested that he would be good at making these  we have a couple of slightly Stars Wars keen kids and I knew they would like these, but I hadn't found the umph to make them.  

Me: Hey J, you're good at origami you could make the snowflakes
J: Um, it's more cutting than origami.
Me: pfft, it's paper. origami is paper. same thing.

We had success!! Well *ahem* by we I mean Him and Captain. Of course.


And after looking at the completed snowflake, Captain started to crtique it, saying well it doesn't look right for a clone trooper.

Sheesh.

Therein followed a conversation about why it wasn't looking right. Because he followed the instructions. But they weren't right, why didn't you make it right. I was following the instructions bitch! The instructions are wrong. Well let's fix them.  (that was Captain and J. I wasn't involved. just watching and laughing....)

The darth vader looks better, altho is kinda flimsy and may well be broken before the sun rises.  The other side of the paper is black, and this is the side we have showing on the tree (coz Darth is black. duh.) but it didn't show up in the pic so well.   Not bad for first try of each I thought. 

Needless to say they were so fiddly the boys gave up after one. I'm not sure how it is expected that kids make these....but *shrug* maybe like the childproof cap it is easier for younger hands?  ;O)


This evening I sat down to write a little something something for ya, thinking I should at least write a little Christmassy thingy, wish you all well and such.  I got sidetracked.  

There are blogs I follow that I read every day. Almost religiously. The select few. Then there are a few that I read when I'm having a slow day, with no tv to catch up on. Or I'm vegging out. Tonight this was what sidetracked me. And as I'm not there often, I read shall we just say a number of posts?  


read this one first  coz it splains some of the terms used. Then I liked this one we've all been there.... and then oh do I have days when my brain feels like this!  


you know what? look. just go to http://www.rantsfrommommyland.com and have a laugh. Coz they are amazingly down to earth women, Kate and Lydia, and I dunno how they make their lives so funny but they do.  I aspire to be this awesome a blogger. And IRL.  


One day. One day.  But for now, I'm off to drink my wine in the bath while watching more episodes of The West Wing. Yay for laptops. 

If I can find an extension cord.  Wish me luck!  

Tree & lights look SOOO much better at night don't they? I think so.

Oh! and have a happy and safe holiday time. If you go away (crazy folk) or just hang round home. May it not be too stressful, may you enjoy the people you are with, and not end up spending time at the docs.  :OD

oh yeah, this writing thingy

Ok, so sorry. I haven't forgotten you all my lovelies. Don't feel bereft. I am still here. 

It's just the summer holidays started, all the kids are out. Yes. All 6 of them are home all day. It ain't pretty.  Not aided by the rain. 

In truth that hasn't slowed them down too much. By the afternoon they are still running outside to play with the hose (monkey & SirTalksALot), in the paddling pool (Darling Girl & Dude & Padawan) and on the swing set, or just running round crazy gettting fresh air. And wet in the rain. Which is all good with me, coz by afternoon I'm done with the constant asking for shit. If it's not one of them it's another.  Did I mention I had six (count them - 1,2,3,4,5,6) kids. 

And that was yesterday. The first day of 6 weeks of holidays.  

This does not bode well.  (check out those fancy words would ya?  bereft. bode.)

This of course was all compounded yesterday when the drier died. For the second time in 6 months.  Did I mention the rain? and the 6 kids? do you know how much washing 6 kids can produce??  And I'm not that fussy about them running round in slightly dirty clothing. But not peed on clothes. Sadly The Dynamic Duo are still working on the "fully toilet trained" concept so we still have a fair amount washing thanks to them *sigh* 

But in all honesty none of that is why I haven't managed to post in the last few days. Even spending all day with good friends - which was sooo wonderful!! Thanks for visiting us M clan! - wasn't enough to stop me.  I was perplexed by a puzzle that came up over the weekend....

If we have different names for different sizes of water craft: yachts, dingys, boats, RIBs, canoes and cruise ships; why are all sizes of craft used in space travel called ships? Rocket ships. Space ships. 


Why is that?  :O.

Good luck with sleep!!  Nighty night.  ;O) 

 

This Week....

I dunno about you, but I am buggered! 

It's either the end of the week, the end of the term, end of the year, or a horrible combination of them all that's done it.  We've been busy this week, but not really that much more than we usually are. 

We have been staying up late (read 1030pm) but really? How can that be so bad? Monkey sleeps thru more often than not now, so we actually get some sleep at night.  And as for feeding, I have managed to inadvertantly cut down how many times he feeds in a day so that shouldn't be draining me. He's happy to drink some milk during the day from a bottle, and when I was out during the week, he had some in the evening too. So YAY!!

We  did have the wood delivered.  And I did the majority of the work moving it from here....

To here.  Altho I did it over the week, little bit each day.


Maybe I'm just knackered from having so many children. Yeah. That's it. That's what we'll blame.  But I love them all. Most days. :O/  


I'm gonna go have another glass of wine and a lie down in front of the tv, watch Glee, Graham Norton, and maybe if I'm still awake by then 7 days. Have a giggle at all that.  That always helps, having a giggle at something, or someone. Captain Awesome helps in that department too. 


Then it's an early night for us. Altho not if we wait up to watch 7 days....
Hope you all have a nice relaxing weekend, that the rush down to Christmas doesn't drive you batshit crazy. It's just not worth it.  :OD

Mischief and Trouble

Here's some of the trouble that the Dynamic Duo and Monkey has got up to in the last week.....

Lovingly reorganising my toilet paper filing system.... 

I thought we were past the stage when we had to keep the toilet door shut at all costs - I learnt this lesson years ago when I found Dude cleaning the vacuum for me. With the toilet brush. Nice.

After a wee sleep in on saturday morning I was woken by Captain showing me these picks.  Apparently Monkey had found something to entertain himself. Cool. 

Awesome Independant Play there Little Fella. :O/

And oh Bless! Look the Dynamic Duo (when they were younger I called them Trouble and Mischief) found some Craft Herpes glitter and spread it round. I can only imagine they were trying to make the house look festive. 

Hoping to lift my day by making the house Spaaaarkly! 

Sad to say it didn't work. 

Altho, points for building a wall with the couch cushions to keep the herpes glitter contained. Pity that you found some mysterious red stuff that dyed your feet, the floor, the couch and anything else you touched, oh yeah WITH YOUR FEET so as you walked a nice pink colour too.

All I can say is thank goodness it's mostly all on the tiled floor, and came off real easy. Yay also for vacuum cleaners.  Except I couldn't be bothered vacuuming the WHOLE couch, so it's still a little twinkly.   Who'da thought that fairy lights just wouldn't be enough sparkly??

This is kinda cool. Darling Girl has been asking for an ipod. And for various reasons we weren't gonna be getting her one. She came to me the other day, and said "Don't worry mum. You don't need to buy me an ipod, I made one myself!"  

Please to be noting the ear phones (that's the thing sticking out the top).

And so she can listen to it in her room, she made a freakin Docking Station as well!!

She rocks. It's all I can say.  SO Cool!  :OD

  

Food For Thought

This was posted on twitter by someone I follow, @alronberg

well, actually it's his  page  but it's the easiest way for me to share it with you. And I'm sure he won't mind the visitors....

Sorry I can only give you the link. One day I will have the time to learn how to imbed vids....One day.  ;O)

We recieved the kids reports the other day and I was baffled. Even with an extra piece of paper accompanying the report explaining what all the different letters and marks mean, I was confused. I show the Husband. He repeated my sentiments.  It takes a degree to understand a primary school report nowadays. 

I managed to gather enough to understand that none of our older 3 are really sucking at school. They seem to be keeping up. But keeping up with what?  The Reading level or 'Asttle'is described as "the National Mean (average).  The Mean is generated based on what the average New Zealand student achieved in the data collected when Asttle was created." 


Wait. Am I reading that right? The grade is based on what the students were achieving? Not what level they should be at, but what they WERE achieving.  


That can't be right. 


So, my kid, based on this criteria, could be keeping up with the Asttle. But if the average student when they gathered the data wasn't able to read, does that mean my child can't read either? Even though they are meeting the criteria.   I'm hoping to God that I'm missing something here!

The thing that struck me was that we got detailed info on how the kids were doing in reading, writing and maths. Not just their marks but effort and such too.  But for all the artsy things they do, they got a mark based on Effort alone.  How does that really reflect how my child is doing at school?  

They could be trying their poor little heart out and still be behind the grade curve. Putting in Effort for Africa, and yet still failing.  That sucks. 

Anyways.  watch the vid. Be inspired to help our kids find their creativity again.  Think about ways we can help schools to see creativity as important. Failing that, or maybe as well as that, find ways to support your child's creativity - be it dancing anytime all the time; dressing as they want regardless of fashions; allowing them time to complete drawings; or just listening to their crazy stories.  


Children are creative. They come to us that way. We need to cherish it, not crush it.  :OD

Dancing Queen

I spent most of saturday racing around like a headless chicken....first trying, and failing, to achieve Christmas shopping with Captain Awesome Pants.  We have 6 kids to buy for, plus nieces and nephews on his side (altho there is a system where we only buy for 3 of them), as well as a little something for his sisters, and then there's my family....yeah it's a bit of a mission even though we try and keep it simple.

But that's the thing isn't it? How to really keep it simple, when everywhere there are influences inviting us to complicate the hell out of the occasion. pffftt. Getaway with ya.  *fingers in ears* I'm not listening! 

That wasn't my point and it's too muggy here today for me to have the energy to rant, so you are safe. Another blathering blog post coming up!!

After the semi-successful present shopping, we raced home so I could go to rehearsal. Then whipped home for to feed the Monkey, throw down some dinner and race back again for the concert. Actually I did it at a reasonable pace, I'm just trying to make it sound exciting for ya!

On saturday mornings I do an adult jazz class, it's mostly fun, some pain, some hard work. We've been learning a contemporary piece that I found quite airy fairy, floaty wishy washy. Once we learnt the piece tho, it was cool to be able to complete it without mistakes, and I managed to learn it even though I didn't attend every class this term, and without practicing much at home either - only at the last minute!!

This is us ---> 
Before we danced, looking all nervous.  During rehearsal we ran onstage too far so we were off centre, and there wasn't time to try again. Not even to walk onstage and find our place. So we were fairly winging it. Then when we were waiting in the wings to go onstage for our one and only 90 second performance, some in the group were walking the dance thru again....this went thru my mind (I tried to find a vid but failed so will just have to describe)  In the movie Bring It On there's a scene where it's the night before the big playoff, in a hotel room the two main characters hear others outside practicing.... Missy gets up to yell out window 
"Give it up already! If you haven't got it by now, you're never gonna get it!!"

We went on. We danced. No one fell over. No one fucked up majorly. We even kept mostly in time. We came off happy! We have low expectations, but hey, at least they were met, exceeded even  *grin* 

Later in the weekend we decorated the Christmas tree....or maybe it was earlier. I have taken a bunch of photos over the last couple days to share with you all, and the timeline is getting a little blurry....  

Anyhow, this is how it was after the kids helped me to decorate it.


Just a little in defence of our poor wee sad tree - it looks much better at night when it's dark and you can see all the lovely twinkly lights :O)

Even so, I decided it needed a little more something something....so I bought some stuff. The little kids helped me put the things on, then Monkey ran away with the beads. So they didn't make it onto the tree but here's how it looks. Better I think.  Altho, there are more lights I bought, (blue lights. I decided looking at the tree last night, that I like the blue lights the bestest)  but there are 2 sets on the tree already, so I may find somewhere else to put them. Stay tuned for twinkly light pics  :OD

  So, now there are a bunch of things that went wrong, well, mischief that the littlier boys got into over the weekend and yesterday. I think I will save these for a post all of their own. 


Darling Boys.  How we love them.  :O/

For now, the wood arrived last night. Finally.  Captain Awesome and I shifted it inside the gate, as it landed all over the foot path, and onto the road.  It only took us a little over half an hour.  Then we collapsed! 

And that be my job for the rest of today. In the drizzley rain. Shifting wood. oh, yeah as well as washing sheets, and making yummy cinnamon swirls - they is DEFINITELY having choc chips in them!!   :OD

Falling asleep Friday

Hmm, so um, yeah. This blogging thing. It's hard to find time to write, but I try.  And I sturggle to find things interesting to write about, altho I think I hit the middle ground, gave up on that a while back deciding that I would write whatever happens and if people wanna read it then, cool.

It's an odd thing, as I want to be interesting. But most days are the same. Or similar at least. Drag my arse out of bed; wrangle the kidlets thru breakfast, getting dressed and the get to school melee; take the littlier ones to Playcentre, where sometimes I stay and sometimes I don't; then it's make myself some lunchtime; nap time for Monkey; get lost online time for me while eating some leftover crap - like now when I am lost in theoatmeal.com instead of writing this, or I dunno, watching the kids....they is awfully quiet. Aw crap! Get out that is NOT your room!! Sigh.

Then there is school pickup, corralling kids to stop them killing each other, dinner and bedtimes. All good fun to be had by all.   You know what though, actually our kids are pretty well behaved really. In the grand scheme. They do bicker and argue over nothing issues, pedantic little shits sometimes, but they get that from me (thanks Dad) - but they also make us laugh with silly things, comments and such.  Case in point - the other day I was saying hello to Captain Awesome when he got home from work. We were fully dressed in the dining room, kissing. Then as I do often I followed him into our room to chat while he gets changed from work.  Darling Girl yelled after us "watch out! they're gonna do it!!"   nice. 

I guess the funniest bit is that she wasn't far wrong.  ;O)

So, the monotony of my everyday life as a Stay At Home Mum. Yeah, maybe I'm in a funk. Coz I just ran out of words to describe my life. Took to tweeting instead about the 2 cats (not ours!) growling and stretching at each other on our front yard.  I'm tempted to go outside and watch them, see what happens. I thought they were fighting initially but then it looked more like courting.......

Snazzy new hair colour FTW :O)

Fuck I need to get out more. 


I was gonna give you pics of the mammoth wood pile that will need shifting in the next few days so it's outta the rain. But it's not here yet. The delivery man said "After 1pm"  I guess he didn't technically lie but as of 3:40pm we have no wood. 


I have a rehearsal at 5pm for my dance concert tomorrow night, so it's gonna be a crazy couple of days. Altho on the bright side, this gives me something to write about.  Tired cranky boy who didn't sleep for long enough is singing my song tho, so I shall sign off.


Thanks for reading, have a nice weekend. And please for the love of all things Holy, DON'T let the Christmas Crazy get to ya!!   :O)