Category: More about me

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family anecdotes Life More about me Random thoughts

Silly me.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’d know that a week or so ago, I swapped my kids rooms around – Mr 2 is now in the girls’ old room, and vice versa. This was because his room was slightly larger (and therefore more suited to a two-child room), plus the fact that this bedroom shares a wall with the main bedroom meant that his rolling into the wall would wake us both up.

Silly me. Now we get to listen to Misses 7 and 4 talking at 5am. Which I guess is okay. But what I didn’t particularly find okay last night (or should that be ‘this morning’) was the fact that one of them had knocked their alarm clock, and set it to go off at 12.54am. Which, being directly behind my pillow, woke me up. And it was loud enough to keep me from ignoring it, and returning to my dream – but not loud enough to wake up anyone else.

Very annoying. Silly me. Perhaps I should change them back? Either that, or earn another $100K per year, so I can afford to build an extension.

Anyone got a spare $100K they no longer want? LOL

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family anecdotes Life More about me Random thoughts

Early mornings…

I’ve always been an early riser. In my pre-kid days, I was up and about at 6am. Since kids, it’s been an assortment of waking-or-being-woken, and at almost every variation of hour and minute possible. Now that Mr 2’s almost Mr 3 however, my night-time patterns are slowly returning to some semblance of pre-kid existence, in that the hours in between 10pm and 5am are generally kid-free. And I’m okay with that. Really. Those night-time feeds were a killer – but nothing compared to the 3am vomit cleanups. (Sorry if you’re reading this while eating or with a queasy stomach!)

But my kids are getting older – it was inevitable – and that’s good. It’s also sad. No longer does Miss 7 want to come and see me as soon as she wakes up – she hasn’t done this for years now. Miss 4 also seems to prefer talking to her sister, and playing in their room. Now it’s just Mr 2 who comes to visit Hubby and me upon waking. It’s probably the only thing that he does voluntarily to show love / affection / a desire to be close to me. So I’ll be sad to see him grow out of that.

But this morning was precious. Mr 2 didn’t just visit, he climbed into our bad at 5.32am, and then Miss 4 also decided to join us at 5.45. Miss 7 even paid us a brief visit, to ask if she could now go on the playstation, seeing as she was completely dressed in her correct school uniform (part of a deal we’d made last night) so Mr 2 accompanied her to the lounge room, and Miss 4 snuggled, giggled, and played with her Daddy and Mummy until we all got up at 6.

Precious. Oh so precious.

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Life More about me Random thoughts

Freedom…

I love my kids. To bits. Deeply. And forever. But man! It’s good to get a night out occasionally!

Last night was such a night. I left the “Mummy!”; “Mummy!”, and the “Mummy!” to Daddy for a bit, and escaped with a great friend to the movies.

It was raining. I didn’t care. I got wet. I didn’t care. It was dark, and cold. Again, I didn’t care. I was out, and I was in excellent company, and I had no kids.

The movie was hilarious. “This Means War“, the latest Reese Witherspoon rom com, a little like the ‘Spy vs Spy’ of my older brother’s Mad magazines, back when I was a teenager. But funnier.

I think my taste in movies has changed over time. Although I have NEVER been able to handle horror movies – they don’t do anything for me at all – I used to quite like thrillers. Romantic comedies were alright, and I cold happily pay the money to see a kid’s movie, but my favourite were action flicks. Anything with Bruce Willis; later on Vin Diesel, or Jason Stratham. Now, not so much. Yes, action flicks are still great, but I can’t do too many thrillers any more. Maybe it’s that I see enough tension in my day-to-day life that I don’t relish it in what little time I give myself for leisure time? I’m not sure. But now, it’s more the superficial light-hearted “escape” that I seem to prefer, as evidenced by last night’s choice. And the time before that it was “What’s Your Number” – another click flick, escapist, triviality.

Still an’ all – last night was great. I got home and the kitchen was a mess, toys covered the floor, and life returned to normal, but I knew that for a couple of hours I had escaped. And been rejuvenated. Which was wonderful!

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Bloxham Marketing family anecdotes momentous events More about me Random thoughts Technology

*Thursday*

I did it again: wrote the post, scheduled it to post at a ‘daylight’ hour, rather than at the just-prior-to-midnight-ish of actual writing, then realised days later that it was set to ‘Private”. LOL Whoops!

So anyway… this (below) was my Thursday:

* * * * *

My day today was non-stop. But perhaps it could be easily remembered through these three snippets.

1. My 4.11am entry on my church’s wiki – a few of the ladies in the church are reading through a chapter of the Bible each day, and recording our thoughts / whatever we’re going through, and are supporting each other / keeping each other accountable. Today’s post was on Galations Chapter 1. I wrote:

A new month – a new beginning…
I’ve been absent recently, both virtually and in head-space. But I’m now longer in denial that Mr 2 lies somewhere on the autistic spectrum, and that’s been the biggie over these last few weeks; coming to terms with this fact. He’s booked into a paediatrician next week on the STRONG advice of our local GP, so I guess we’ll have to take it one step at a time. And work’s been full on (yesterday was particularly crazy) so when I saw that today was the 1st of March, I thought it opportune to start again here, in Galatians 1.
What I love about this chapter today is verse 15. Paul was ‘set apart at birth’. Me too. And my son. Set apart to do His work, is the places and ways He has chosen for me, and for my son, to be in and to do. So who am I to argue?
I pray that today I might see God’s ways – and walk in them.
Have a lovely day, ladies.

2. This second snippet is taken from the end of my day – a fb update at 10.49pm:

Mr 2 was stuck on a particular level playing Wall-E on the PS2 today. I tried helping him – and then Miss 4 entered the room. “I can help, Mummy!” “Sure, sweetheart…” I answered, handing over the control. And she did – about a gajillion times faster than I ever could.
How’s that for an eye-opener!

3. And finally, a snippet of IRL, that occurred in between the beginning and end of my day (well, naturally! D’Oh!!!)…

I signed another client for Bloxham Marketing. Woohoo!!!

* * * * *

So. It’s now Sunday morning, 5.46 am, three days later. And life just has NOT slowed down enough, since, for me to write again – let alone realise that I’d set this to private. LOL Whoops!

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More about me University studies

And we’re back!

Today is Monday the 27 of February. Very many years ago now, my younger brother was born. He’s now a freelance computer programmer based in London.

This time last year, I commenced my third semester in my Masters in IT, majoring in Library and Information Science. (I had started in July of 2010, and had also taken a course over the 2010-2011 Summer Semester). So I had completed three in my first semester, one over the summer, and was about to take two more. Six total, of twelve.

Source: Uploaded by user via Worldtraveller on Pinterest

Unfortunately, the way that the LIS is structured is that 5 core courses, of those 12, are Semester 1 only offerings. Which means that even if I wished to, I would never be able to complete the entire degree within the usual 3-semester time-frame. Which is a bit of a bumma.

As it stands, I’ve now done 7 total – 2 of the Semester 1 offerings, all of the Semester 2 offerings – and have 3 core (Sem 1’s) to go, 1 elective, and the practical course, left. The trouble is, I can’t take three courses in one semester any more (Hubby’s decree) so there’s no way I could finish this degree this year and keep my marriage.

So. I’m in for one (and one only!) course this semester. Might do the elective in Sem 1, and the final two cores (and the last of the practical this time next year. It seems a very long-drawn out process for what was meant to be a three-semester degree!

Never mind. I start today, “Online Information Services” under the brilliant @katiedatwork, and am super-excited to get another course under my belt…

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family anecdotes More about me

The star.

This morning, Miss 7 performed in her class’ “School Sunday”. She did great, in spite of bags under her eyes from an interrupted night’s sleep. She had come into our room around midnight and woken me up, full of nerves about her upcoming performance. Not that she was worried about her own part, forgetting it, stage fright, or similar… rather, she was worried for the others in her class, and that as a whole, they would disappoint their teacher.

This morning came, she performed with her peers, and very few (if any!) mistakes were made.

Afterwards, I happened to be talking with her teacher, congratulating her on coordinating an excellent performance, and mentioning Miss 7’s night-time anxieties. The teacher laughed, and said that Miss 7 had been the star student in this whole process. Every rehearsal, she did exactly as she was told, she learned her lines exactly and spoke them confidently and with great projection – she set the best example for the whole year level.

What praise!!! What a fantastic kid I have!!!

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family anecdotes More about me

Of fish and renovations

Whitey, Miss 7’s fish, died yesterday. I got home from Mr 2’s doctor appointment a bit of an emotional wreck, to be met by Miss 7’s sad face. “Mummy, I have some bad news…”

Long story short, today was fish tank cleaning day. And by cleaning, I mean that her tank was scrubbed to within an inch of its life.

And because I’m never one to do things by halves, I decided to act on a off-the-cuff thought this morning, and swap the kids’ bedrooms around. Mr 2’s room was slightly larger than the girls shared room, plus he shared an adjoining wall with the Master bedroom, and his rolling into the wall constantly woke Hubby and me.

Suffice it to say, my kids, their furniture, clothes, toys (and most of the assorted accumulation of ‘junk’ – I mean “treasures”!?) has been transferred into ‘new’ bedrooms. And Miss 7 was able to buy herself three more fish with the money she’s earned, so she’s happy. The photo she took of her tank ‘re-arrangement’ is below. She’s made rocks and shells into ‘towers’ for her fish to swim around!

So now all that’s left is the question…

I wonder how I’m going to sleep tonight…?

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family anecdotes momentous events More about me

Done.

Today I took Mr 2 to the doctor. I poured out my concerns regarding his extremely slow speech development and his inability to cope when told “no” or “don’t”. About how in the last three weeks he’s developed the habit of hitting himself very hard on his knees when he knows he’s done the wrong thing, like he’s smacking himself. About the high-pitched scream he’s developed when he doesn’t like something or if he’s thwarted in what he wants to do.
I mentioned his sleeping problems, his digestive problems, his extreme sensitivity to temperature change, for example when being given a bath or my attempts for him to use the potty.
About the fact that he’s only started looking me in the eyes in the last six months or so. About how he’s never wanted cuddles, and in fact he has only voluntarily given me a handful of hugs and two kisses in his entire life.
The doctor agreed with me, that these certainly do seem like signs of mild autism. And he wrote a referral to a paediatrician and sent it immediately. So now, I guess, I get to take my second step in what may turn into a very long journey, me and my boy.
I guess every journey has to start somewhere.
Thanks for letting me share with you, dear readers.

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family anecdotes More about me Technology

Starting young

I love that my kids are starting engage with technology at a young age. I honestly believe that it will set them up for an easier life.

Source: photographersbling.com via Denise on Pinterest

Miss 7 loves photography. Since I came home from #iPadexplore last week and showed her the ‘Water my Photo’ app, she’s been busy manipulating her photos – I especially love the fact that she put her “Ariel” barbie doll in the water (sparking the ‘wet shirt’ comment that I found hilarious enough to tweet and add to fb yesterday). At the moment, Miss 4 is playing with VidRhythm on my iPhone, and Mr 2 is on my iPod, busy getting a radioactive mouse to eat some un-caged cats in Mouse Maze. Yes, these are games, which in a way makes what they are doing no different to sitting in front of the PS2, or the TV. But what I like is the way they are regulating their own play. And more often than not, they’ll choose to challenge themselves with literacy games or mathematical quizzes. Just this morning, my daughters were on my iPad, taking it in turns to spell the words on ‘Word Wizard’, so that at the end of the quiz, all three of them could play with the interactive game at the end. And I just love that.

L: Three cherubs interacting with the post-spelling game on Word Wizard.

R: A photo taken by Miss 7, of Dave the 3D dragon and Proto the little 3D monster, from the String AR App, superimposed on the carpet of their (messy!) bedroom.

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From the archives… my thoughts on ‘folksonomies’

Again, another interesting piece from my first-ever blog…

Is ‘the author’ a dying breed? Just one of the disadvantages of folksonomies.

BY CERIDWYN, ON AUGUST 13TH, 2010

Imagine you’ve just spent the last few years of your life writing a novel. You’ve researched it; poured out your thoughts, ideas, and plans; agonised over characters, settings and  plot devices. Finally, after countless hours of Herculean effort, it’s finished. YOUR work. YOUR  effort. YOUR blood, sweat, and tears.

Should you have the right to feel some sort of ownership of that novel? Or those words? Phrases? Characters? Ideas? In my opinion, I yell out a resounding ‘YES!!’ (Of course I would, I’m an aspiring novelist.) However, there are many that wouldn’t.

Put a photo on flickr, and anyone can ‘tag’ it. Okay, that’s normal practice. Maybe, if the photographer hadn’t wanted their photo tagged, they shouldn’t have put it there. But they did, so they should accept the ‘standard practice’ on these types of sites. But what then, when it comes to something other than a photo? When it comes to something like that novel you’ve worked just so darn hard to create? Is it then fair that others can ‘tag’ this? Your work? I guess it’s all well and good if the tags are suitably reflective of the main ideas espoused: ‘historical novel’; ‘character-based’ etc etc. But what if it gets tagged ‘a piece of crap’?! How would you then feel? Because this is indeed a possibility – once ‘out there’, on the net, you have relinquished all control over your work. Completely. It’s enough to make you, the author, want to quit.

And another disadvantage? Finding your novel again! Say this piece of work that you had sweated over was ‘Les Miserables’ (which makes you, of course, Victor Hugo). Say hundreds of years have passed; hard copies of your novel have fallen into disrepair or worse. The only copies that exist, dwell in whatever the future’s version of ‘online’ is. But unfortunately, they’re impossible to find, because everyone has ‘tagged’ your work with classifications that are personal to them.

This system called ‘folksonomy’? I don’t agree with it. I can’t change it; and I know that I have to live with it; but I don’t like it. I’m with Daniel Pink on this one… “On the great library shelf in the sky, Melvil Dewey cannot be amused.”