Some Scrapping

A few layouts... and for some reason Google is an idiot and has put them in weird rotations.  If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd be happy for a tutorial.

Risky Play

So one of my sisters just said "Go forth and update your blog.  It's been ages" (since I wrote something profound).  Or at least, I hope that's what she was thinking in begging me to put some thoughts on e-paper.  So I've turned the Hilltop Hoods up loud and am writing....

"Working Mum with Loads of Children" has been busy with the usual pursuits.  Washing clothes, moving house, walking kids to school, working (!), baby wrestling (or at least attempting to stop her pulling the computer cables out of the wall).

Apart from the normal stuff, #1 boy has broken his ankle.  We recently sold our unit and bought a back yard (and a tiny 2 bed-room Federation house.  The word 'villa' seems to overstate it).  And erected the trampoline.  Oh, what a relief, the children have some room to belt about, to get all that energy out before bedtime without ruining the furniture.  It's been great.  So relaxing.  Such fun.

For a week or two, anyway.  Until they were all on there together with an adult, and #1 fell awkwardly and started yelling in pain. The ankle started to swell, so we put ice on it and waited.  Nurofen seemed to help things, and he limped around a bit for the rest of the afternoon.  But just to be cautious I took him in the GP in the morning.  The GP recommended an x-ray, and we found an "undisplaced fracture" on the pointy bit of the ankle bone.  Too swollen for a plaster, but broken enough for crutches.

So many people have said "perhaps you should have a 'one-kid-at-a-time' rule for the trampoline".  Perhaps, but where is the fun in that?

Now #1 kid is pretty active, and therefore really quite bad at resting, so it was no surprise that it hadn't made any progress after two weeks, and no surprise that after another three weeks he re-injured it.  This time, we took him into RPA in an attempt to get a moon-boot (which would at least ensure the joint was protected while he ran around "resting").

But the doctor wasn't interested.  Mostly the damage is ligament damage (in old speak - a sprained ankle), and therefore if he rests the ligament then the bone will also heal.  The fact that we were here for a second time because this strategy hadn't worked the first time fell on deaf ears.  So we are back to compression bandages, yelling "Rest that foot" as he races past and the odd "Please rest, I don't want to see you hurt again".

The trampoline rules haven't been changed.  They remain "no sharp things, no eating, no jumping if someone is underneath".  "Risky play" is becoming the new parenting fad.  It's even an evolutionary response to ensure safety as adults, according to this study.  I agree with the idea of learning to evaluate risk at an early age, and won't be changing the trampoline rules to 'only one person at a time'.

I love my washing machine

This book of Rob's is taking over my life. There are no spare moments in my 'working' days to do fun things, but that's probably a good thing (unless you are this blog and are being ignored). Or a hobby. Or housework (no tears here though!).

Last night, the toddler spewed three times. And I realised that I LOVE my washing machine. Just fire all the sheets in there, hit a couple of buttons and hey presto - no more spew. Fall back into bed, repeat process later...

Imagine 200 years ago (or even 50 years ago), before the invention of awesome washing machines, waking up after all that broken sleep to a huge pile of spew covered sheets. Yuk. I hate cleaning up spew at the best of times, but there is a joy in knowing that a machine has it all sorted!

Somewhere in amoungst this book, other work, the usual kid stuff, and no sleep, I've started organising a big family Christmas party. Well, I'm kind of just project managing it. I've created a list of things that need to happen to make a party happen and I'm going to get everyone else to do them. I've started by making these cute little party bags that will contain 'instructions' and a few things to get people into the Christmas spirit.

I'm not a real writer, but what the hell, I've got a book to write and I'm going to write it!!

I have been asked to write a book. I guess you could loosely say that "I have a book deal!". But it's more that I'm an expert in a weird niche area and thus am suited for the subject of the book.

I am pretty verbose too, so you'd think it would be easy just to spew all the words onto the page.

I actually thought I was doing well, but a meeting this morning has (again) extended the scope of the project. A few weeks ago, my client wanted to know how long the book was so far. I said "82,000 words. I did some research and the standard novel is between 80 and 100,000 words". He said that we were on track. I felt I needed to expand some areas still but that meant a bit of a slash and burn in others, and I had been feeling a little directionless about it.

This week, he has read the whole thing and wants to keep most of it and expand it to 200,000 words. So it's back to bashing the keyboard and putting in the extras I want and increasing the list of things he should write. The publisher wants some of his life stories, so it has evolved into a collaboration.

In the rest of my life, I wrote a long piece about the spirit of the game when relating to the boys soccer teams. Here is the layout that it ended up on.

Great ideas and no time...

I've just looked at my blog for the first time in weeks and realised that I was completely in la-la land when considering doing a 'working mum with lots of kids' blog. There is reason none of these exist. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I'm hiding in my office for a few minutes of peace while 4 sleeps and 1,2 and 3 are doing lego (and not fighting, wonder of wonders!). I should be cooking dinner, but it's just left overs, so doesn't really need my attention yet....

I have been putting a bit more effort into my work internet profile recently, something that has been lacking, but now it's all facebooked up. That has provided me with an easier way of updating the website with what I've been up for various clients. I feel a bit like I'm overlapping them all this week, different clients naturally want different things but the threads from each seem to be pulling in the same direction. I've had a few "well I did that for someone else, let me ask them if it's ok if I use the relevant parts for you" conversations lately.

And no time for scrapping. Which is a real shame. I miss the "time-out" relaxing it gives me. Or perhaps it only feels like I haven't done anything. I caught up with friends from Red Earth Scrapping a few weekends ago at their retreat, which was fun. And did 7 layouts from Sat evening to Sun morning - a machine at work :)

No photos of layouts to put up, but here is one of Fergus with both his grandpas at Balmoral.

The working mum

I've been reading a few mum (and dad) blogs lately and it seems to me that there is a niche for a blog for the 'working mum with lots of kids'. The quote comes from Victoria Beckham (here) so she may have already done it. Although she is probably busy with her other business.

On that thought - perhaps that is why the niche exists. Mums with lots of kids who also work don't have time to blog about it. So where does that put me? Should I do it? Or would it be cheating since I don't work in a real office?

I work in my own home, running my own business. It's still work, it still provides an income, but it allows me to have the toddler and baby at home with me. I pick my own hours (except for client imposed deadlines) and have great flexibility. It does mean that on days when I have no deadlines, and I'm tired, that I can rest and catch up on laundry and other household chores.

Take today for instance. I've got two 'work' things to do (come up with story ideas for my next article at Breeding & Racing, and start putting the statistics from my articles into the book I'm writing). Neither of these MUST be done today. So instead, I've read some of my book, I've spent some time lying on the floor with Monique just staring, smiling and wasting time (oh and stopping Fergus from sitting on her), I've done 7 loads of washing and am contemplating organising some documents for our house sale. For a mum with lots of kids, today is called 'rest'.

It seems I'm also contemplating starting a 'mummy' blog. Or perhaps that should be 'mama' since that's what the kids call me :)

A few March challenges

Stuck Sketches











Scrap the Girls











Scrap the boys (ok, I have no idea why this one is sideways, but whatever - I seem to have problems with blogging, or perhaps blogging has problems with me!)