Cheezburger

Catriona reminded me of icanhascheezburger and LOLcats. Its something that i seem to come across every six months but then promptly forget about. Its true, you cant be grumpy looking at funny pictures of cats with silly subtitles

Thanks Treena, this one is for you

Communication with Children

Tonight Jack and I were at loggerheads. He is three and I am an only child, so its a normal thing to have happen in our lives together.

Me: Jack please stop being so aggravating

Jack: I'm not a robot mummy?

Sometimes a simple miscommunication can be all the communication you need

Matters of the Heart

One of my oldest friends rang me today, we have this relationship that includes him calling me when his dating life gets out of control and i, with my words of wisdom, help set him back on the right path.

Today's conversation was pretty much the same as always,

boy meets girl,

boy likes girl,

girl likes boy but slowly,

boy then meets other girl,

girl2 likes boy but fast,

boy shags girl2,

girl2 either dumps boy or goes psycho and starts stalking boy,

girl1 finds out about boys philandering and dumps boy,

boy realises that girl1 is the woman of his dreams but its all to late.

My mum would have called it Murphy's Law when anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Don't get me wrong i don't think my friend is special in this way, in fact i have seen the same thing from most of my male friends, although he is one of my last single male friends, (it seems to me that once you are a couple you loose contact with a lot of singles i think its because you either remind them of the loneliness of being single or scare the crap out of them at the idea of being a couple and they remind you of the occasional monotony of being a couple or they scare the crap out of you at the idea of EVER having to be single again) i think that flipping around from woman to woman is a perfectly normal state of being for a lot of 30 something single men.

What is the answer though if you want to change, what if your average single man wants to connect with a woman and have it lead down the scary coupledom road.

As i said today, in my oh so humble opinion its time to stop leading with your groin, your heart close behind because by the time your head catches up your already screwed.

General rule number 1 when trying to start a relationship

Lead with your Head then your Heart and your Groin will happily follow

Seems simple doesn't it ........ perhaps it has just been so long since i was single that i forget matters of the heart (and groin) are rarely that simple

The Nature of Laughter

In our house i can often be heard telling Andrew that i am hilarious and he has no sense of humour. You see i am one of those people that make myself laugh more often than i make others laugh.

Be it silly songs or dances or just saying something that to me seems clever and/or cheeky i make myself laugh several times a day, most of the time Andrew just looks something between bemused and annoyed. True he is often the butt of the joke but no more often that i or the children are (of course there are many many reasons to laugh at the kids)

I feel lighter and yet fuller after a good laugh, i think that it is one of the best things that anyone can do for there heart and soul and i often feel sad for Andrew when he is slow to laugh.

Wikipedia says "Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of merriment or amusement or an inward feeling of joy and pleasure (laughing on the inside). " but it so much more than that.

• Laughter produces endorphins, the feel good hormone
• It has been shown to help protect the heart
• It lowers blood sugar
• It fights a lot of the bodies reactions to stress

There are even laughing groups and laughing workshops, i want to join a laughter group ....... mind you there is always YouTube thanks YouTube 'grin'

Blame the street party

There is a couple across the road who are moving north and this weekend we had their farewell bash. Its the nice thing about our street, we are all pretty close and come together for these events quiet often, this one took and interesting turn.

After an afternoon at a blossoming pregnant friends blessingway with flowing champagne we then we got home and the street party was already in full swing.

Anyway cut to hanging out in a neighbours house at 1am drinking G & Ts and having a grand old time getting more and more drunk, kids sleeping under the dining table and lots and lots of laughter.

I felt every drink the next morning, but i also thought back and remembered how amazing our street is, how great our kids are and how i enjoy being the kind of mum who can have a laugh and a late night with friends and have the kids cope well (in fact they had a ball until thy woke at 1am at which time we went home)

Still feeling tired though so blame the street party for the short and sweet post

The Choice

As you may already know Andrew and i have been in deep discussion about whether to move out of the city to a rural town.

We found the above property and as much as we love it, it has not actually clarified anything.

How do you make the decision to leave everything that you know and love about an area, especially the people, and move to somewhere whilst it may be more beautiful, you know no one and would need to go through a period of isolation before you make acquaintances that then hopefully become friends.

After a week of talking it is no clearer, i wonder what we will find that will help tip the scales .... it is beautiful though isn't it!

The Love of Brothers

Jack: Mum could i have a strawberry

{sees the packet}

Jack: I need to get one for Hamish

Cut to me walking in to see him pulling the green top off before giving it to his brother

Hmm ...... life with my boys really is divine, what amazing hearts they have xx

Glorious Graffiti

Another beautiful mural i saw while wandering the streets of Newtown. This one feels like there is a story behind it i wonder what it is?

I know i have mentioned the graffiti around hear a few times, it really is one of the things i love about where we live. Tagging or random rude words aside, some of the pieces that you walk past are amazing, i wonder what their life will be, its seems like such a transient art form, tomorrow the owner of the house could paint over it, so why do it at all.

There is also the graffiti as a political statement, i guess its meant to make people stop and think and was wondering yesterday if that ever happened ...... and then i realised that i had stopped and thought so i guess it does

And then there are the even more random little pieces that i have no idea who does them or why, but they colour our city and even if they are written on a 100 year old sandstone wall, i still love them, but next time guys maybe pick something without so much historical value

For the Love of a Bargain

Over the past few years my love of secondhand shopping has blossomed. It started with a book fair 7 years ago where i got 40 odd books for $8. I was so overjoyed with my bounty that we now have more books than we know what to do with. It took me another year or so to start trawling for other recycled things and then watching my bountiful bargain hunter friend who manages to get almost everything secondhand or on sale, inspired me to trawl even harder.

This weekend she and i went to a car boot sale, we marked it on our calendar and booked it with our husband and unhusband. We arrived at about 8.30am and left at 1pm with bags full of trash and treasure.

There is really nothing more satisfying that hauling a bag filled to the brim and knowing you spent less that $50.

I got, 3 Harry Potter books which Andrew failed to appreciate

Me: Babe i got three unmarked Harry Potter books look!

AB: umm don't we have the whole Harry Potter series already

Me: yes but that's not the point its still a bargain

I also managed to score 3 pairs of kids shoes, 2 pairs of training pants, 4 pairs of kids socks, 1 pair of kids tights, 4 singlets, a groovy orange knitted vest for Hamish, 2 wrap skirts for me, 2 tops for me, a small picture in a frame, a beaded stretchy belt, 2 beautiful paper masks, a flower press and instruction book, 2 joke eyeballs and a pair of crazy eye glasses (for Jack not me :) 2 kids t-shirts and 2 pairs of kids leggings

All i all a day full of recycled bargains.

I know i keep saying that i am trying not to be a consumerist type of person and i do feel that seeing they were all secondhand that really I'm just recycling but there is this strange enjoyable feeling of bounty that stirs inside of me, hmm gluttony i know its a sin but it feel quiet good ...... until we are on the next 60 Minutes special on hoarders :)

Bloody blogger wont let me put paragraphs in, its the program not my grammar

Treasure Boxes

For Jack this last week has been all about his box of treasures, it started slowly with a chandelier drop given to him by Arieal and then the boy next door gave him some cricket cards. He started to worry about his brother taking his bits so i gave him an old bejeweled jewelry box, and that's how it started. Over the period of a week he had collected some stones that i had given him, an old die that was mums the tweezers from his "magnaglass" and of course a few marbles and cars.

The box filled and every time he dropped it it would burst open spilling all of the contents all over the floor, not such a big deal at home but seeing that he was taking it everywhere and sleeping with it we had to come to a better arrangement. The kicker was when we went to my Aunts last week and her friend gave him a large number of NRL cards, the box no longer closed and it was time to rethink the treasure box.

Andrew suggested that i give him a small bag and so know he has a pencil case with all of his bits in it, it took him a few days to let go of the box but i think he likes that his treasures are more secure in the bag and so do i.

Its funny watching him enjoy his possessions and to take note of what he sees as being precious.