Thursday's Thought from Life

Thursday's Thought from Life: Sometimes life involves sharp points!

Thursday's Thought from my Life

Thursday's Thought from my Life: "I Like Photographing Trees"

Thursday's Thought from my life

Today you're getting my Thursday's Thought on a Friday! That's normal isn't it?! It's a true reflection on the state of my mind this week!!! My 'to-do' list is just ridiculous. So, without further ado... here is Thurday's Thought.

Sometimes around here life is just tea and toast. Or, just toast and tea. With the littlest one and me. That's it. Nothing gourmet or fancy-schmancy about that. Or our daytime life. The littlest one still sleeps in the daytime and so we grab a quick bite to eat before it's time for the 3pm school run. The afternoon deadline of all school mum's. Which then leads in to that dreaded period of the day when everyone is tired and oh-so-grumpy! So, to get my psyched up I decided to make a nice, pretty and yummy 'toast and tea' for just the baby and me! And take some pics to make it look lovely! Here it is...

The littlest one is here too. I'll show you in a minute. We'll just stick to the pretty end of the table for now.

This is our dining table without the sun shining on it! It's featured on a few other posts, see here, here and here, but normally the light is reflecting off the protective plastic (necessary on a table where small people eat) that sits on top of the maps. In this shot you get to clearly see the map. When I first put the maps on it resulted in a number of mealtimes being a circus! And that wasn't due to the small people! Talk about inspiring! We planned all sorts of trips, all the maps are of or in Australia, these plans included the very long drive I told you about yesterday.

On the table we have a woven placemat that I've had for so long I don't remember anything more about it! A plain white $2 plate from Kmart - yay for basic china! A serviette courtesy of my last birthday, I'm rationing them! A Casa Domani 'Damask' bread and butter plate, I have one of each size plate and bowl, I use them for serving. Plus our favourite Jasper Conran mug. These mugs are a bit of a splurge item for us. We love their colour, size and thickness. So I add 1 or 2 to each Peter's of Kensington order, we generally get big presents from there (wedding pressies). That way no-one notices it in the total on the bottom of the bill ;-)

I just popped some multi-grain bread under the grill, toasted it on one side and turned it over. Added tomato sauce on the littlest one's, and maybe on mine:-) A layer of cheese on each and then grilled it again for a few minutes. Yum! Definitely best eaten warm though...

And definitely to be enjoyed even when mum is trying to get your fingers in focus!!! When I play with the aperture setting it makes the focus look shot, especially when small fingers wave about, but I like the 'busy' effect you get. That toast must have been good, or the cheese was stringy, cos she gave up on the fork and used those good old fashioned cutlery - the fingers. I love little fingers, see some more here.

Sure, I know it's just toast and tea, but it tastes good and twas enjoyed by both the littlest one and me! Sometimes it's just the basic stuff, simple living, that makes life satisfying. Do you agree? Rhonda's thoughts on her simple living in this post are great! She writes about a quiet contentment. That's what I'm aiming for. In the mundane bits of life. That's why I take photos of the everyday stuff. The simple stuff. That we all live through, with and because of. Sometimes the picture doesn't capture the full scene; we don't always need to remember the mess or the chaos. Sometimes the light isn't great, though GIMP helps with that a little, and I need all the help I can get! And sometimes we forget to take the camera... but we can still have that quiet contentment. Or just the contentment if it's after the school run! Or we can wait 'til everyone has left the house the next morning and then make a cup of tea.

Hope you enjoy your tea and toast! I'm off to clean the house for the house-sitters....

Thursday's Thought from my life

Here's a thought from me, from right here in the middle of everyday life; get your little people immunised on time! And always keep a bottle of calamine lotion in the cupboard!

Can you guess what's coming next? Uhuh. You got it. Well really the littlest one has got it. Chicken Pox! The rest of us are hale and hearty. The eldest two are outside 'exhibiting Baxter, our pet calf (imaginary, need I state), in the local country show' - apparently he's winning them a ribbon! They had their immunisations on time, or at least within a week or so, when they were small. Us parents are fine, we have the pox when we were little before immunising for it was common. But the littlest one. She's another story. She's currently asleep. But that's because she hasn't been getting very good sleep at night. She's too busy rubbing/scratching/itching! Poor little thing.

So when your federal government has a 'funded immunisation schedule' that runs for the little people in your country and they have suggested dates for immunisation, here's that thought again, do it on time! Write it in your diary, on your noticeboard, on your calender or on your forehead! Add a reminder into your phone and computer! Do whatever it takes. I thought I'd covered this. Here is a detail shot of my noticeboard:

To put that detail into perspective, here is a shot of my noticeboard.... right behind my computer. And I spend just a little bit of each day reading blogs on this computer, with this noticeboard in the background.

Hmmm. Not much justification for forgetting huh? And I admit I've even put reminders in my phone to call and make an appointment. Why, oh why didn't I add it to my weekly and then daily diary list??? All uncompleted items on this list get carried over to the next day and/or week. So the 'system' would have kept it on my 'to-do' list. This list is as important to me as it seems Rhonda's is to her at Down to Earth - check out her post from Monday.

Anyway, I didn't and we missed the schedule by 2 months or so. And look what happens. The poor little possum.

So, I have a bad case of mother-guilt happening here at the moment. It could have all been prevented, or at the very least minimised to a much milder dose which probably wouldn't have affected any night sleeping! Both other children have been exposed to chicken pox (after having their immunisations) and neither had one spot to report. 

I will say though that I am slowly paying off that debt of mother-guilt as I do sick-duty through the day and night. We're up to day #5 now and I don't think there are any new spots today. I do wonder though if that lovely skin will ever be the same again! Oh dear. Do take this thought on board!! Please :-)

BTW - I realise that there are some who choose not to have their children immunised. Good for them. However, after doing a science degree at uni I just must immunise our children. 

Thursday's Thought from my Life

Today's post is a mix of thoughts about life as a stay-at-home mum. So rather than having lots of pretty images, this post will focus on a thought. To be a stay-at-home mum or not to be. 

This post, I must point out, is unscheduled! After nearly 4 weeks of blogging I think it's becoming easier and so I just might try for an extra post in coming weeks... we'll see if Thursday's Thoughts from my Life keep happening. 

Recently there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled 'A mother's load: time at home is hard work'. Lily Taylor is the author, she is a mother of three children. She basically outlines how much work it is being a mum whether you work outside the home or only at home. The quote of quotes from this article (in my mind) was this: 'There is no answer to the conundrum. You're damned if you do, and you're damn unhappy if you don't. I guess all you can do is find moments in the day to keep you going'. 

I think that conundrum holds true for many mothers (I know dads stay home too, so you can read 'fathers' in here if that applies to you!). For normal girls we are. We grew up, got good jobs we enjoyed and then had kids. They changed our lives yes, definitely. We knew they would. Everyone who had had kids before us told us all this. What I didn't know was just how much they would take over who I am. And a career is a big part of who you are. So whether you  work out of the home, or only in the home, it's an ongoing battle to make the right choice for you and your family. And to stay happy with that choice! 

Do you think it's the same all over the world? Should we just be grateful we had a job, could earn money and can now afford to stay home? Or does it make more sense money-wise to stay home? Rhonda from 'Down to Earth' makes some good arguments for that cause here and here. Me staying at home makes sense for our family.

That way I can run the house and focus on the children. Make it my career. For now at least. It's not what I would have dreamt about when I was studying at uni. Nor when I was working in a great job before children came along. But I do mostly enjoy it. And I try valiantly to make the most of my days and my moments... And I try and think about the 'work' as professionally as I would a job for an employer. Sound silly? Well, it's only the little things, for instance I have a weekly plan in my diary that I jot down on a sunday night. Just keeps me organised and together, or professional in my approach. I was a great planner in previous work so why not here at home.

Staying home means that I have time to make my own dishwasher powder and knit things (I am knitting something yummy right now for me, more details next week!). It also means I can have a reasonably orderly laundry, though I will never ever ever get on top of my ironing! However, I also do things to economise so that my wage isn't missed too much. And some of those things are as pleasant as just spending to have it done, I really miss my trips to the hairdressers (frivolous I know). And I think hard about buying new clothes because really I don't need so many when I'm just at home. In fact I've noticed my whole wardrobe is changing, it's much more casual even though I love dressing up. I just don't need thousands of gorgeous shoes, so I try not to buy them. What else? Hmmm. I painted the tiles in our bathroom and we'll wait for a new one, rather than just borrowing the money and re-doing it now. We love a good holiday, and when I was employed we enjoyed a European trip with the first two childran in tow, we only  dream of it now that there is just one income.

Another part of being a full-time mum is this..... I used to have lovely lunches when working. Lunches with work colleagues and/or friends. I can do that now too. But it's always with the littlest one too. Ever tried having a lovely lunch in a nice cafe with a toddler along?! That's when I miss childcare ;-)  Plus I have to time all trips out around her sleep routine.

So there are plenty of pros and cons. And each of our stories are different. No-one else should be able to make the decision for us, and often we don't want to make it for ourselves! But I do know that I wouldn't accept these terms of employment from any other employer! And they probably couldn't pay enough to keep me in the job either!!! It means that a child's smile and little hands are VERY valuable :-)

Ah, the joys. Will move on now. And do some work, at home of course, in our home. I do like my home and it's people. I hope you like your's whether you work only in it, or for some-one else as well. 


Hope you also like the littlest ones hands. Seems some photos snuck into this post after all!