Christmas is Nearly Here

In my wanderings around the internet I have started frequenting a blog called "The Survival Mum", I think she may be a bit like me as she also stays awake a night thinking about stuff and making lists.

http://thesurvivalmom.com/

However, yesterdays blog is called "The 12 Days of Christmas: Day 1, A New Craft for Your Kids" about teaching your kids stuff over the holidays so they don't get bored. This got me thinking about what I am going to do to keep our number one and only son occupied, without having to do all the entertaining.


I was thinking things like helping me paint the house, sort through his clothes and get rid of the ones that no longer fit, get rid of toys that he is too old for that sort of thing. I know, doesn't sound very exciting but these things need doing and I don't see why I have to be the only one doing it. And what do we do with all his books from school that have now come home but have nowhere to live (except on his chair and floor).


We are going to do other fun stuff like go kayaking and swimming, visiting friends and kayaking (seeing this is our new hobby and will no longer cost us anything to do except the petrol to get there). However there are some things we just have to do.


So apart from kayaking in our sexy new kayaks (this word is starting to look funny now I have typed it a few times)we are looking for our new acreage so I can have an outdoor shower and roll around on the grass without anyone seeing me :) We are going tomorrow to look at a place that is very promising and looks like the one but we will see. Regardless, we have to start getting this place ready to put on the market.

So that will be our holidays, which is alright as I am not particularly fond of Christmas, I like the idea of it just not all the stress and pressure people put on you and the commercialization. You have to send cards to people you don't normally keep in touch with, give gifts to people you barely know and if you don't well...I don't know, I think that says it all.

I had now best go and get our Christmas boxes out (if I can reach them) as we have just received our first Christmas card today and I had better see if I can find some cards to send one back. I am actually unorganised this year, normally I am, so not sure if I can find the motivation this at this late stage, though in saying that, I do have most of my stuff done, I just have so many other things to think about this year.

All is good though, and I will muddle through as I always do and look forward to relaxing on Christmas afternoon with a glass of wine, maybe in my very, very comfy hammock :)

Hasn't summer hit with a vengeance, it is so hot we have been putting on the air conditioner, the humidity has kicked up a notch too. Our thermometer is telling us it is very hot.

We are currently looking for some acreage up the mountain and are going to look at a place on the weekend, from the road it looks good, from the internet photos it looks good so we'll go and check it out. If we move up there, the summers will be a bit better, the temperature drops a bit as you go up.

When we first got married we had a dream (but no money)to live self sufficiently on a large property, in a cabin, somewhere away from the rat race. Finally twenty years later we are in a position to do something about the dream, though the dream has slightly changed. I want electricity, water and my computer, love technology, twenty years ago technology didn't really come into the equation (don't think there was technology back then)and being completely self sufficient is hard work and I am tired now :) I like (actually love) my creature comforts and now have no intention of giving them up, I think when you have no money and no technology the dream is simpler (mainly as there is no money). Now I want it all, not asking too much is it? :)


If this is THE place, I am really looking forward to living in a shed. Admittedly it will be a bit cramped and we will need another shed for our stuff and eventually we will build a house (if there is any money left). The place we are going to look at has a shed that has been made liveable ie one bedroom, bathroom, laundry, kitchen lounge room and of course it has electricity (yay), phone and internet, biocycle greywater system, irrigation, dam, rainwater tank at the back of the shed, solar hot water, bore. It is in a little green valley, no through traffic, is 5 acres and sounds great, half the hard work is done (except the house) and we can live there now.

This may not be the place but it might be, it is everything we are looking for and what it is lacking, over time can be put in place. I really hope it is as good as it sounds, if not we keep looking, but I think it might be.

So with all this happening, it is time to fix our current house (which we love)so that is why I am painting and have made long list of things to do to make the house marketable. Mind you, within about six houses either side of us there are five houses for sale, I don't' think that is a good look but by the time we get around to selling hopefully they will be sold.

On Monday I am going to a funeral, one of the ladies in my Tai Chi class lost her husband last week so I am going to the funeral. Not much more I can say on that except it is very sad, I didn't know him but she is a lovely lady and I am very sad for her.

Off to do some more research on selling our home privately, and best get on with more painting or some such thing, something off the LIST :)

Christmas Carnival

We have had a great weekend, what a good way to finish up BMX for us. The Christmas Carnival was my fourth, started with a Christmas Carnival and finished with one, and we all had a great time.


The weather was not too bad, it is usually stinking hot (two years ago we had record temperatures of 37-38 degrees C) and no breeze. It was hot but not so much, and we had a lovely breeze for much of the weekend and it helped that we were sitting under some huge trees.




My partner in crime and life won all his races for 40year+ men, (he always looks good on the track, as he has a much more athletic body than me, whereas I just sort of blob around the track, not athletic at all but can't be bothered being embarrassed about it). I came last in all of mine but that is alright, I didn't do too bad seeing there was only one lady older than me and the rest were seven years younger and 25 years younger (and that is my excuse and I am sticking to it). Our number one and only son enjoyed himself and did well too, I could see the colour of his braces as he zoomed past which means to me that he was smiling (not grimacing).




We sat in our usual carnival spot at the top of the start hill where you can see everything, next to the people we always sit next to and other friends sitting with us too. There is always someone to talk to and there is always the danger of missing your race so mustn't get too carried away.


This is my little twinny, she is my twin as she has the same pants as me, she is eight years old and just started at the beginning of the year and usually rides against the boys. This carnival there were three girls (three is a class) so she rode with the girls, this was a surprise to her as her cruel father didn't tell her :) and she was wondering why her name wasn't called with the boys. Well, she was pretty happy to be riding with girls, she did very well.


We are going to miss our friends from BMX, and hope to keep in touch with some of them (shouldn't be too hard really, we all live in the town just have busy lives) but it is time to do something else. We have loved BMX, but we have been dragging our heels a bit this year, particularly the second half of the year, so before we start to really hate it we have decided to move on to kayaking (yay).


Finish on a high and have lots of great memories. There are so many things we want to do in life and we can't do them all at once, so we have to pace ourselves, financially as well as time wise. Our list of things we want to do is long, and some are things we have to do before our bodies are unable to do them (it really hurts when you fall off a bike, you just don't bounce the same as you did when much younger :)

The rain is coming down today, the dog doesn't want to leave the house and I always feel like cooking when it is raining. I have no Tai Chi class today as the hall got booked out for the week so a local theatre company could rehearse, so we gave up our slot for them. So I was going to do more painting, and probably will. And I don't know how the BMX track will be on the weekend for the Christmas Carnival, guess it depends on how much more rain we get and how damaged the track gets.


We went to the school Christmas concert last night and it was very good, a lot of kids out there can play instruments very well. Our number one and only son did a guitar solo, he played Silent Night and was very good, we were very proud, takes a lot of courage to get up and play alone in front of people. He is the shadowy figure in the background of the photo, obviously I didn't have control of the camera :)

It was a lovely evening, not all Christmas carols, mostly groups, only a couple of solo performances, and the church they held it at is really nice. Our number one and only son cooked a cake (from scratch) to take to contribute to the supper afterwards, it was yum too. However I think it was the only homemade thing there apart from cut up cheese, all the rest was packets of chips, bought biscuits and buns and believe it or not KFC (the mashed potato and coleslaw), I am not sure what people were supposed to do with that, I think as a dip?


My family are all pumpkined out for the year and I still have three small pumpkins left from my garden. My partner in crime and life eats it because I tell him to, our number one and only son refuses to, and I love pumpkin so I have no problems with it. So seeing pumpkin eating in our house is on the decline I need to use up the last of it, so I think I will make a pumpkin fruit cake or two (or three) and make other pumpkin things, at least they are not huge ones.

It looks like the rain has cleared a bit for the moment so I had better think about some painting.

We are starting to get a bit of rain now, just enough that I am going to have to start mowing more often, but only when the flame tree finishes losing its leaves. It is making a huge mess, so when it is done I really need to make an effort.


Just when we thought we have to start wearing our sunglasses at 5.30am, as it has been so bright, the clouds roll in and we get these lovely mornings. It was not too hot, it rained a little (which the dog hates) and the sunrise was only grey, no colour, but I still find it pretty. This is the time of the year when the weather gets interesting.


I have finally finished my two coat hangers, I have been so slack, yet they are only long rectangles, I knitted one and crocheted the other and even though I am a crocheter I think I prefer the knitted one. I have done very little craft and I want to (in my head) but just haven't, so (once again) I am determined to do more.


We are starting to get quite a few mangoes now, though we are losing a lot to the bats. Our number one and only son and myself have a bowl of fruit most mornings and so can now include mangoes, once they have ripened that is, and they are yummy. We also must really go and get down our bunch of bananas before we lose them, job for my partner in crime and life this afternoon I think (I can't reach them).

Well, must go and do some painting now but I think maybe another cup of tea first, or a pot :)