Week In Review 26/1 - 1/2

This past week has been a real mixed bag. The funeral was on Wednesday and it was horrible to see my grandmother so upset and frail. I really fear she will be next and so does she, she mentioned its her turn next a few times. She is 77, she sister was 81 and their brother is 75.

Before going to the funeral we went to visit my cousin in hospital, that was a horrible experience as well, he looked terrible, his body was a shaking mess which he had little control over. We only got to see him for 10 minutes cause they decided to rush him in to get a series of test cause breathing is becoming more and more of an issue. The results weren't positive, he is looking at a minimum of 6 wks in hospital. He is only about 33. Because of the problems with his heart and the blood clots there is a real risk of death or serious complications. We are still keeping his problems a secret from my grandmother because we truly don't think she will cope at the moment and have no real answer or hope to give her at the moment anyway.

On the positives it was a great first day at school for #1 and also two great days for #2 in the 'big' room at preschool.

The real estate contacted us and although we know them very well they have to do a rental inspection, we've been lucky and had 14 months without one but the timing couldn't be worse. The office is a total mess, I mean a total mess, a cleared space for a walk way thru it and a small cleared space at the desk for hubby to sit. We have been using it for not only office stuff but for mine and his clothes, the kids misc. bits and pieces they don't use all the time and all my avon selling stuff. Overall the house needs a total clean and yard needs a huge clean up. I really didn't want to put too much time into it cause I'll be packing up stuff in a month or two in preparation for our move but now I'll have to tidy, clean and declutter this week.

No Shampoo: Is going ok. Actually the day of the funeral my hair was great, mum commented on how soft it was but as the day went on it got a lot worse and Thurs/Fri it was a matted mess of knotts again. Today it is oily but manageable and with my dry frizzy curls it doesn't look oily, I could easily wear it out if I want to, but I can feel the oily when I touch it. Its now been 5 whole weeks since I washed it. I'm hoping for umm... something in the next week or two. So far my hair has been no better than its been in the past. Obviously I've been avoiding those few days of frizzy breazy mess I get for the first 3-5 days after washing but I've not gotten a lot of great hair days. I do wonder what I'll do in the future about colouring over grey, I do colour it every6-12 months, I don't get a lot of grey but at 31 I'm sure that will increase.

Meter Reading: I didn't end up taking reading last week so this will be a fortnightly update
Meter #1 29183
Meter #2 31935
A total usage of 430 and a daily usage of 30.7. I really need to do some research to find out what I should be aiming for. I'm sure this daily usage is bad, we've been running the airconditioning alot over the last fortnight, like most people who live in NSW, I'm sure.

Water 59609, which worked out to be a daily usage of 117 per person.

Garden: Here are some photos, I have strawberries coming on which is really exciting. And the lemons are not getting bigger but are starting to turn yellow a bit. I ended up pruning the lemon tree a bit and trying it to a stake cause it was heavy on one side and leaning well over. I also cut off two of the smaller lemons. It just seems to be really struggling to support itself and 10 lemons in this heat so I cut some branches and the 2 lemons off, I'm not sure if its the right thing to do but the tree is still young, only a bit over a year old and the first time its produced fruit. I just wanted to lighten its load a bit.


Coming Week: Busy week for us. The first full week of full time school. #2 starts a sports programme tomorrow, I have a heap of avon deliveries to drop off and I also have my first day of volunteering in the school canteen on Thursday.

I'm hoping to get some baking done this afternoon for lunches and morning teas. I'm going to look for stuff I can bake and freeze and just take out as I need it.

Finally: I want to thank everyone who has been visiting my blog, I love seeing how many drop by and where they are all coming from, its exciting to see all the international visitors as well. Please leave a comment to say hello next time you drop by.

Week in Review 12/1 - 18/1

I am always amazed at how different my girls are when it comes to waking up. My youngest is smiling before she even opens her eyes, she wakes up instantly and is chirpy, asking 'mum lets get up, can I have milo and milk, what are we doing today', she skips to the lounge room with her curls bouncing. My eldest however wakes slowly, with groans and grunts, her long thick hair so matted around her face you can't see her eyes. Even when awake she likes to lay there for a while, preferring to be cuddled awake by me. She then prefers to be not spoken to for 1/2hr - and don't ask her if she wants breakfast too early or woe be to you.

I understand my eldest, that is the way I greeted each day for a good 25 yrs of my life, until I had babies. I do wish however I could wake like my youngest. Today I am half way in between, I hate waking and wish I could stay in bed and some days I curse #2 chirpy voice and smiling face. But I wake quickly from necessity.

This week: I really wanted to get the bookwork close to completed, but that didn't happen. Basically I was planning on 4-5hrs on Wednesday when MIL had the girls, well MIL ended up picking them up a good 1.5hrs after I thought she would, then wanted me to go and get them a bit earlier than I thought, so after doing a quick tidy, hanging a few loads of washing on the line and cleaning out the guinea pigs I only had 2 hrs to work. Oh well, I did get a lot done in that 2 hrs so I'll just keep going. I got a letter this week from ATO asking why I haven't done the Jul-Sept BAS yet... uh oh.

Our house, the solar hot water system was mostly installed yesterday and its being finished off today, hubby is also cleaning the whole place out in preparation for plasterboard which will start this week, we will probably go over this afternoon and help clean after the plumber leaves.

Yesterday I did something I somewhat regret now. I suggested to the girls we make a paper mache pig. Of course I suggested this before reading the instructions, only to find out you need to do 4 layers, with it drying in between, then leaving it over night before painting. The paste is annoying to make and you need to make it each time you put a layer on. This was a bad idea with a 4 and 5 yrs old, on a rainy coldish day, so it ended up being an inside project. I now have paste all over my floor. The girls soaked their paper and balloon in paste which did not dry even though we went to mums for lunch and stayed there for 3 hrs... the second layer went on and even though its now been left for 16 or so hrs its still not dry. Both girls continually coated their arms in paste cause it felt nice. And I still have 3 pigs needing another 2 layers plus paint. Argh..

Coming week: We have speech therapy for #2, therapy for #1 on Monday, a little playdate on Tuesday followed by swimming lessons for #1. Yay Wednesday is completely empty so far and I'm hoping to keep it that way. Thursday is a full day with just #1 and I while #2 is at preschool, I think we will head into the shop to buy food for Friday night and claim a few medicare and NIB bills. On Friday after #2's swimming the girls are going to MIL's again. When she brings them home she is going to stay for dinner. MIL and I don't click much, we are very different, so aren't overly close, we really don't see her much, though the last few school holidays she has taken the kids for a few hrs each week. (I think she figures that most of #1 therapy stops during school holidays so they will have more time and she can then take them to her house and see them away from hubby and I).

Meter Reading:
I made a huge mistake last week with my water meter reading, I was out by 1000, no wonder it was so high...
Meter 1 - 28857 (usage of 133)
Meter 2 - 31831 (usage of 58)

Total usage of 191 over 7 days. Or 27 per day. Still not sure what the average is or what I should be aiming for. This week hasn't been so bad though, I've hardly used the a/c.

Water was 53049. Which makes the usage 125 per day per person. More than last week but still well under our allowed usage per councils restrictions.

Week in Review 5/1 - 11/1

This week has been OK. I've read a few extra pages of Tightwad Gazette. I've started my price book (it has 2 items listed in it so far but its a start). I've spent many hours on our accounts and the pile is getting smaller so I'm feeling good about that. I have heaps of things I want to do and start around the house but I'm forcing myself to stay focused on getting up to date with the accounts so I can move onto the other stuff with a clear mind. Plus I know working on my budget or doing any sort of money plan will be stupid now when I have no idea of what we've spent the last 6 months. On our house front things are moving fast so yay, yesterday the girls and I went and bought ceiling fans for the bedrooms and office. Ultimately we are hoping with the cross flow of the window placements, the extra insulation and fans we can avoid using or even installing an air conditioner. Last night we trolled thru hundreds of material samples for blinds - we disagree on one thing, not the colour, we agreed on that but the type of blind, he wants light filtering and I want block out. He has no idea what the afternoon sun does to our loungeroom right now and this house faces the same way as our new house, which means sun will beat in to both the lounge, main bed and the girls room. I want block out.

So my meter readings, if anyone can help me with electrical usage that would be great as I have no idea what average is, or what I should be aiming for, this house uses electrical for everything, we have no gas, no solar, nothing but electrical. (I'm looking forward to my solar hot water system in the new house).

Meter 1 - 28724 (usage of 129)
Meter 2 - 32773 (usuage of 1050)

Total usage of 1681 over 7 days making it 240 per day, or 42 per day per person. I would presume this is really high as I had the air conditioner running most days we were home.

Water was 49529 (I listed last weeks incorrectly is should have been 46839 instead of 4683.9). So usage was 2690 making it 384 per day or 96 per person per day. I'm happy with this cause our councils recommendations for Level 3 water restrictions are to keep to 150litre per day per person. Should I note that we don't drink this water at all?? The pipes running into this house are... umm, old, gross.. you know, typical old rental property quality. The water is often murky and doesn't taste the best so we get spring water delievered for drinking, I usually get 3 x 11 litre containers each fortnight so thats an extra 33litres = 2.3 litres for day (which is only a bit more than 1/2 litre each per day so I should order more and have us all drinking more water).

Next week: The coming week is busy for us. We have playdates, speech therapy (for #2) and swimming lessons cramped into the coming 2 days, Wed the girls go off to MIL's while I get stuck into accounts etc. Thurs #2 has preschool, while #1 has therapy. Friday mum takes #2 to her swimming lessons while I take #1 down to Sydney to have her eyes looked at again. She was born with her tear ducts fully closed and has so far been operated on 4 times. Our next step will probably be a huge one and one we are trying to avoid or postpone as long as possible but it means she gets junky eyes a bit and we need constant letters from doctors to prove she is catching and can still associte with other kids.

I'm also hoping to really get constant with enforcing the early to bed, early to rise system in this house. I did the day count on the calander today and its only 18 days until #1 starts school, dragging ourselves out of bed at 7.45 like this morning will not cut it. I'm also going to start up doing my evening routine again so I'm more organised and ready for each morning.

Week in Review 29/12 - 4/1

This week was the week I started my blog, I feel really positive and happy about it, I'd like to be able to read back on this blog in a year or two and see how far I've come, about the positive changes I've made for myself and family, and for the environment.

This was also the week I received my much waited for book 'The Complete Tightwad Gazette', so far I'm only up to page 133 of 927 so I still have a long way to go. Being Australian a lot of points have little to no meaning to me - like the bit about the mail service and also coupons. We don't seem to have the same systems for coupons, sure they are around like two for one deals on the back of Woolworths receipts but not really on the scale of other countries I don't think, which is why I purchased this year Entertainment Book.

The last two days have been messed up and mangled from my original plans of several hours of bookwork - yesterday hubby decided we need to make the decision on bathroom tiles NOW, something to do with thickness for door frames or something, so off we went tile shopping, which was very successful. We also managed to pick up external lights for a fraction of the cost that we saw elsewhere, we bought the expensive eco globes which we will get several years of use out the them. I'm really happy with the way the house is going, my priority was to create a comfortable home that wouldn't have huge running cost and luckily so far hubby has come along for the ride. With lourved windows for cross flow ventilation, extra insulation etc it shouldn't cost much to heat and cool the house. Also hubby has been using the last year or two to collect material off building sites and from demolition jobs. It means a bit more work for him cause the timber might need de-nailing or cutting down but its meant huge savings and also huge chunks of our house are in the old hard wood timber not the new lightweight treated pine. I'm very lucky to have a man who is willing to work all day and then stay back and collect left over bricks etc. (most building sites, will allow you to collect bricks from a completed house if you do the labour yourself, brick layers scatter bricks all over a building site, so usually a builder will have to pay someone to walk around picking them all up, so if they don't need them they are happy to get rid of them, we've so far collected atleast $1,000-$2,000 worth of bricks).

I'm going to start recording my electrity and water meters on Sunday afternoons. Here is my first reading

Elect #1 - 28595
Elect #2 - 31723
Water - 0004683.9

Next Week Goals: I'd like to think I can get all the receipts entered onto MYOB this week and to start reconciling bank accounts (I'm six months behind on this). Though I only have one 3hr period kid free the whole week so it might be a bit big of a task for this week, I can only try.