Waaaaah

Just got back from the specialist, DD#1 tear ducts still don't work, after 4 operations with no success he has just recommended the 'next' stage which is 3 more operations spaced out with one every three months and also we'd need another surgeon with more experience. I have no idea what to do, her eyes are often gunky and red looking. We have to supply letters all the time to prove she doesn't have an infection. But they are heaps better than before operation 3 & 4. They are heaps worse in the morning or if she is unwell, so during the day they are a OK.

But... with her autism and severe anxiety another operation could cause some severe reactions and regression. We have done so well to prepare her for school, and to calm her down the last 6 months, I just don't want to enter into something else new yet. Just the 1.5hrs at the clinic ended with her mute and rocking, the rocking is something we haven't seen now for about 5 months, argh.

I think we will probably wait a year or 2. Hubby couldn't come today but we just spoke about it and he is still holding out that it will fix itself, I think there is only a 0.1% chance of that happening. We will need to sit down and really hash out the pro's and con's and decide what to do.

I have worms

Today while running errands I saw a worm farm and a worm starter kit, so I bought it. I'm really looking forward to it maturing and expanding. There is still another level to go on. The instructions that come with it however are not overly clear.



? I can feed citrus as long as I add some lime?

? What about this - the guinea pigs eat corn cobs, which I buy when they are cheap, or the fruit shop has old ones, can I then give the empty cob to the worms, would they eat that.

? Also the guinea pigs make their bedding out of Lucerne hay and shredded paper, which I clean out each week. Can I put that in the worm farm?? The instructions mention no cat or dog poo, so does that mean no guinea pig poo too.. It seems like such a waste to throw the hay and paper away each week.

? So far I've read conflicting reports on if I can feed them meat? If I can feed them egg shells?

? So basically they live on kitchen scraps, not grass clippings? Moist paper?

Roaches, Spiders and general Bugs

This house we are living in is horrible, its badly built, you can see thru the gaps in the floor boards to the ground below and as such we get bugs, and lots of them. Even now as I'm typing it my skin is crawling cause the three things that horrify me are roaches, spiders and rats. And we have 2 of the 3 in large supply here. I would die if a rat moved in as well. Even all the water pipes and drainage pipes entering the house have a good 5mm gap around them, the bathroom vanity has a peep hole to outside as well, so god knows what crawls around in the vanity at night.

Hay I'm all for being one with nature as long as that nature is not spiders or roaches. So what do I do? I have honestly sprayed this house from top to bottom, inside and out with horrible smelly surface sprays but 1. I don't want to keep exposing my family to those chemicals and 2. the bloody bugs don't die anyway.

Please does anyone have any suggestions for me? I keep chanting to myself 'only 2 months to go' I will cry if any of the trades slow us down, I need out of here. Hubby is under strict instructions to make sure any gap in the building are plugged and filled in cause I do not want any access to inside for bugs.

Now on a totally unrelated critter matter. Both my kids guinea pigs are pregnant, planned pregnancy no less - we bought a male for them. If they became pregnant on the very day he arrived then their due date is today... so we will be on the look out every morning for babies, yay. Both girls aren't overly huge, they are noticeably bigger but not huge yet so I'm thinking maybe a few weeks to go yet and also the books I've read said you should be able to feel movement towards the end and that hasn't happened yet.

Long Term Goals

I read a lot of blog each day, my most favourite or the new ones I've found are on my blog list and the rest are bookmarked on my computer. I noticed each and everyone is aiming for something, and its been making me think about my long term goals, what I really want from this world and what I'm aiming for. Sure there are heaps of things that are dreams but never going to happen or I read something and think 'wish I could'. But what am I really wanting and working towards now and what is really possible in my life and situation. Here is what I've came with:

I've spoken before about our house, I really want to move into the bit we are building, and even though the lounge/kitchen will be temporary in the garage I want to make the house into a calm warm place where my family comes home to rest and recharge before entering into the world again. Building the rest of the house will just move along slowly, we need to put family first for a while.

We have a small mortgage in comparison but we also owe a bit of money to my parents for the land we bought so my aim would be to pay my parents back and try to overpay the mortgage as much as possible. The extra amount will be worked once we moved in and our new household expenses are worked out.

I'm really desperate to start a garden, plant veges etc. I've started doing my research on no dig gardens cause we were planning on having a few raised garden beds around the place, so I thought the theory of the no dig garden would be good. Also I am going to get chickens, the girls cubby is raised, so we were thinking of building the coop under that and then off to one side so they have a enclosed dry area.

I've already spoken of my long term goals for myself in terms of weight loss and getting healthy but also I'd love to be learn how to knit and sew, I've done a few searches on sewing classes in my area but there are none running this quarter so I'll keep looking for later in the year.

As I was hanging the clothes on the line today it accured to me that if something happened to one of my family or me today, I would not be in the position to easily just drop everything. You know if an emergency happened I would struggle to do what I needed to do without causing problems. I want to be in the position where I'm prepared to leave the house at any time. I probably am not explaining myself but I want to be up to date. If I needed to leave for a week or two then we'd have bills overdue, the accounts are already months behind, the kids and hubby would need to search for clean clothes cause although the washing is fairly up to date the clean clothes are shoved into baskets all over the place. There are no meals in the freezer so food would be an issue. I would love to go to bed at the end of the night knowing I've done all that was needed to be done today and if I slept all day tomorrow then it would only effect tomorrow, not the weeks of work I haven't done. So to be in the position I want to be I need to finish the accounts, get laundry and housework up to date, prepare ahead by cooking meals, tackle the overflowing filing tray in our office. And then maintain.

Go the above is all a bit messy, I'm trying to get all the thoughts out of my head and its jumbled but you get the general idea of what my long term goals are and what I'm working towards. So I better go and do it.... I wrote this while taking a small break from working on our accounts.

Man about the House

Rhonda from Down to Earth did a lovely post this morning about her husband and I've been sitting here holding a child who is getting sick, thinking about my husband.

He and I are not 100% compatible I have to say, we disagree on a lot of things. And unlike Rhonda and Hanno, we don't pick up where the other left off, things I'm bad at, so is he etc. Of course we both have a few things that are 'our own'. But regardless of all that, we get along very well, we were good friends for quite a few years before entering into a relationship (we met at school).

Right now while building our house I've realised how incredibly lucky I am to have the husband I have. He goes off to work in the morning, works on our house in the afternoon and finishes his office work at night. On the weekends he spends sun up to sun down working on our house. Over the last 6 months I'd estimate he has had a total of 4 days off. Over the last 2 years he has done labour for other men with trade skills so we can do labour swap, has collected material, like old hard wood rafters which he then de-nailed and cut to size, has collected bricks from building sites, plus heaps more. He has built racks and storage units to store all the second hand material in. Only now the job is far underway I've realised how much money he has saved us. (Also how much pride it gives me to know we have re-used material instead of buying it all new).

Of course I knew he was a good man before this. I have a condition which means when I'm pregnant I get sick, and I mean sick. For the first 16 wks of each pregnancy I can be sick up to 30 times I day. I was taken care of so well during this time, even to the point of him holding my hair out of the way. (not something I can do for another adult thats for sure, with my weak stomach).

I would love to be in a world where all women have a good caring man to be with, and visa versa. It would be nice to see marriages where a hardworking partner gets just as much back as they put in, I know this is not reality but I can dream. I can't do much at our house building, I've painted and cleaned and stuff like that but with two littlies and other committments its pretty hard. But we have fallen into a pattern. He builds the house and is the bread winner and I run the home, do the accounts both personal and business, and am the main care giver to the children, meaning I do all the research on therapy for #1, research daycares etc for #2, speech therapy, reading all that. Once I've done all the leg work I let him know the appointments on which he needs to attend and give him the run down (summary) on the therapy that I think is best. Or what budget I've worked out and why I think it works.

If you want something from a partner I've heard its best to show them by example, I agree to this on some aspects but sometimes it just doesn't work, my uncle married a lazy women who is very selfish. My uncle worked himself to the bone while being constantly sick from her dogs and she gave nothing back, unfortunately he is now a very bitter mean man who no one wants to be around, instead of showing her a better way to live he was shown a worse way to be.

I'll never want to be like this, my husband is a man who works hard for his family and in return I want to work hard for the family too, I hope we both continue to be like this to each other.

Menu Plan - 13 January 09

Here is my meal plan for this week, most of it is based on Weight Watchers Satisfaction Fast Track plan.

Breakfast
* Banana & Berry Smoothie with a crumpet
* Apple & Sultana Muesli
* Boiled Egg with Ricotta & Tomato Toast. Fruit
* Cereal with Fruit Salad
* Egg with Bacon & Ricotta Toast
* Porridge with dried Apricot
* Cheese & Tomato English Muffin

Lunch
* Beef, Fruit Chutney & Salad Sandwich
* Ham & Cottage Cheese Roll
* Tuna Nicoise Salad
* Chicken & Celery Wrap
* Tomato Soup with chickpeas
* Cheese, Ham & Tomato Melt
* Egg & Salad Sandwich

Dinner
* Steak & Couscous with Balsamic Tomatos and Steamed Beans
* Spagetti Bol with Rocket and Pear Salad
* Homemade Chicken Schnitzel, with Salad and home made wedges
* Chicken Pizza
* Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni
* Cheese Mustard Sage Chicken
* Egg, Strawberry and Cheese Salad

Hubby has looked over the meal plan and he is all for eating the same as me, so yay. He stepped on the scales this morning and admits he needs to lost a bit over 10 kgs, and he is loving the fact that he has gone off to work today and yesterday with a packed lunch. I used to pack his lunch everyday but lately I've been so unorganised and run down I've just not done it and he has been the same so he has been buying, as I'm working on the accounts I've noticed just how much KFC and MacDonalds he has eaten.

Me - 12/1/09

Last week has been a pretty good week for me. In terms of weight loss, I lost 0.8kg, which is a bit less than I was hoping for but in reality all I did this week was watch what I ate. I purchased the weight watchers satisfaction plan. I've done weight watchers before successfully but fell off the wagon a few kilos from my goal. Going to meetings are pretty difficult for me, I'm not really a meeting type person and dragging two kids, one who is often a wee bit crazy, is not really something I look forward to, so this time I've elected to do the At Home plan. I think the plan I bought includes weekly communication from weight watchers to check on me, but I only got the pack on Thursday so I'm not overly sure.

My goals were:
* Start drinking water daily - at least a litre (right now I'm barely having a single glass) I did drink more water over the whole week but didn't get to a litre a day, some days yes, other days no.
* Lower my food intake I did do this but this week I'm going to have to up my game a bit
* Lose a kilo (hopefully) Well no, but close

This weeks goals are are very similar:
* Drink 1 litre of water a day
* Stick to the weight watchers satisfaction fast start plan and eat 18 points per day
* Go for a walk or two
* I'd love to be able to lose a kilo (or ultimately 1.2kg to make up for last week)

Overall I feel pretty motivated and happy. I've sat down and wrote a whole weekly meal plan for all three meals, leaving a few points for snacks, I'll share my meal plan tomorrow cause it sounds yummy. I'm also going to feed hubby the same meals cause I think he needs to lose a bit of weight, his pants are all getting a bit tight now he is doing more office work and less construction work.

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.

So thankful for Tupperware

I have pantry moths, they arrived in a box of Rice Bubbles, I only caught them when the first 10 or so became moths, thats when I went searching and found the eggs and wormy things. Luckily not much else has been affected cause just about all my food is in airtight tupperware containers, yay. They certainly are sneaky little things hay.

So I'm well and truly on track to get up to date with our bookwork, not this week like I would have loved to but hopefully by next week. The girls are going to my MIL's on wednesday for the whole day so that will help heaps.

Todays plans: Is to tidy the house up, my husband was sick yesterday so while the girls and I were at swimming lessons and having morning tea with a friend he was at home generally just being a messy man. Honestly I think he can make almost as much mess at the girls can. And then once again working on the accounts.

Price Book

I've heard that keeping a price book is good way to save money. I understand why, its a great way to recognise good bargains so you can stock up. I just am unsure on how to set it up. I was reading on another blog about one a few days ago, must search back and see if I can find it. From what I understood of hers, she had a page per item and had it organised in alphabetical order. I think I might do that. I was given a black organiser as a gift with a purchase but I don't need it, I already have this years diary and a family calander so it was going to sit around unused, so what I've done is kept the a-z phone directory and taken out all the other tabs. As i buy things I'll put an item on a page and write the details. The details I think I should keep is: the date, the brand name, price and a price per unit, size and finally I've worked out two letter codes for each shop I go to, for instance if I was Woolworths it would be W_ and the first initial of the suburb it was in. I shop in 1 x Woolworths, 3 x Coles, 1 x Bilo, 1 x Franklins, 2 x Aldi, 1 x IGA on fairly regular basis so working out prices difference between stores will be important too. Also with meat, I shop at 5 different meat shops and 3-4 Fruit & Vege shops.

I can see the ultimate savings will come from Meat, cause I often bulk buy cause I have a full size freezer, also Fruit and Vege cause I have no real idea of their prices, I usually buy as I need, instead of buying whats in season. Other things I bulk buy is things like toilet paper, tissues, paper towels. At this stage I haven't stockpiled much pantry items cause I'm severly lacking in space at this house but when we move I can work on that. When we first move in we will only be living in half the house while we build the rest around us, so space will still be lacking but we will have more than we do now, especially in places like the built in robes etc. Ultimately once the house is finished i will be able to stockpile and be very organised cause our kitchen has a lovely walk in pantry.

I gather a useful price book takes months to set up, especially with fruit and veges changing prices during seasons so it will take a long time for any huge benefits to be seen... its a work in progress, but I have started.