Random stuff and birthday parties.

Brennan's birthday party was 'awesome', according to what he said to Mum. Pretty easy really; just lots of food (homemade popcorn, biscuits, chips, lollies and party pies), the chocolate game, a couple of 'Happy Tree Friends' dvds over lunch (what is it about boys that they find these gruesome cartoons so funny??), drama games in the backyard and Guitar Hero. This is the third birthday party in a row I've given where we went the traditional path. Homemade food, 'homemade' games, time where they're just chilling with their mates instead of being whizzed here there and everywhere by the professional party people. The kids love it. The sad thing is that this sort of party is now a novelty. They're so used to being catered for and run around after that the traditional home style party is new to them.

Plus, of course, it's far cheaper for me. I entertained and fed 11 kids for three hours for around $30. Far cheaper than paying $20/head for go carts or a bowling party. (Which I've done in the past when my frugality kick was sleeping.)

The last day of the year was going to be spent doing lots of little jobs around the place, but a combination of blistering heat and a really good book meant that all I did was read. I've been reading a lot of Sara Douglass over the last few weeks. She's a member of a forum that I frequent (Simple Savings) and so I started reading her novels. I started at the first one and I've slowly worked my way through 8 of them so far. I wasn't very impressed with the first novel, but I kept telling myself that it was a debut one, and that she'll probably hit her straps as she goes along. Thankfully, that's what's happened. The first trilogy got better with each book, and I really enjoyed the follow up trilogy (except for the ending. It was a tad airy-fairy, and the character of Faraday got to be so annoying I just wanted to slap her.) I've now embarked on another set... The Crucible trilogy.

The idea behind these novels is interesting. They're set in medieval Europe, but it's an alternate universe, which of course basically means that Ms Douglass can use whichever parts of history she wants, and it's ok to change the parts of history that she feels she wants to. Very clever. She's using historical characters and events (Joan of Arc, Henry Bolingbroke, the Hundred Years war) but the scenario includes the premise that angels and demons walk amongst the people, just as the real medieval people used to believe happened. There's a battle going on between the forces of good and evil, but not everything is as it seems. Also the exploration of the attitudes towards women in those days is something that makes me vastly glad that I live nowadays and not back in the good old days. It's fascinating. I knocked over the entire second book yesterday, and I'm champing at the bit to finish the third.

Nicola has tagged me for a meme. 8 Random things about me. I have to link back to the person who tagged me, list 8 things and then tag 8 more people. Ok... just off the top of my head....

1. I really want to buy a female black and tan daschund. I've owned and bred Cavaliers for twenty years, and I adore them, but I want a change. But apparently if I get a daschund it'll probably boss young Molly around. That wouldn't be fair...

2. I loathe detest and despise bananas. Hideous evil smelling and revolting tasting fruit of the devil. Yuck.

3. I hate walking across dewy grass in the morning with bare feet.

4. Since my last relationship ended I've had coffee, drinks or dinner with 86 different men. I'm still single. I think it's a combination of me being a bit picky and the men in their 40s and early 50s being really screwed up. (Of course, I'm not at all screwed up. I'm delightful...) I've had a break from dating for the past 18 months, and I've loved it.

5. I have a collection of wooden masks that I've bought on my travels overseas. They live on the shelf under my glass topped coffee table.

6. When I was 40 I had my eyes lasered. I was so short-sighted that I needed to put on my glasses to get out of bed in the mornings, and the best thing ever after fixing your eyes is to be able to roll over in the middle of the night and instantly see the clock.

7. I wish that my name was Sarah instead of... um... Frogdancer. I called my first Cavalier Sarah, and if Connor/Tadpole was a girl he was going to be Sarah as well.

8. When I'm alone in my house and the next door neighbours' cars are gone, I turn up the stereo full blast and sing and dance around my lounge room. I sing and in my head I'm famous and adored. I've been doing this since I was 11, and it just keeps on being fun. I call it a 'party for one'.

I know. That last one is just plain tragic.
I tag Scott, Capello, Maybaby, Stuntmother, Suse, Kelley,Lightening and Kim.
Now I'm off to sit under the airconditioner vent and read. Or quilt. Or knit. Or something. I love holidays! So many options.

What a great day.

What a lovely Christmas! The boys were totally ecstatic with their presents. I can now reveal that the gifts I smuggled out of Australia, hid in a wardrobe for a week in Phuket and then smuggled back into Australia without the boys ever suspecting were 2 digital cameras and 2 Samsung K3s (like ipods but with a bigger screen and brighter colours.) Connor was so delighted with his camera. Since starting his photo blog he's been wishing and hoping for a new camera that was his and his alone. He had that thing glued to his face all day. Jack and Jordan couldn't believe their eyes when they saw their mp3s. They jumped straight onto the computer to download all their music onto them. What they didn't know is that I'd teed up with their Dad to buy them speakers, so they'll be set up beautifully (music wise, anyway). It's so lovely when Santa gets it right!

(Santa also forgot until a week before Christmas that he'd bought a sleeping bag for each of the boys back in June. He'd stored them at his Mum's place. So they each had a sleeping bag and a major present. Funny how it works ... most expensive Christmas ever, with the smallest and fewest presents ever.)

We went over to Mum and Dad's place for Christmas. My sister and her husband and girls were there as well. We had Christmas dinner outside under the weeping myrtle tree and it was just beautiful. The table was being used as a table tennis battlefield just 10 minutes before, but with a cloth and christmassy decorations you'd never know. It was just the right size for 5 adults and 6 kids to sit around comfortably in the sparkling sunshine and enjoy the meal and each other's company. My nieces were given a guitar and keyboard for Christmas, so we brought around Brennan's electric guitar and Jack's acoustic, and the kids spent hours just noodling around on the instruments, playing and singing. It could've sounded awful, but the four years of music lessons I'd made the kids do really paid off. They had a ball, and our ears didn't bleed. Got to be happy with that.


Just to prove beyond a doubt that it was a true Aussie Christmas.... here is a shot of the beach towels drying on the clothesline just to the side of where we had our lunch.
And we still have 4 weeks of holidays..... god I love this time of year!

Christmas cheer.

The tree is up! The picture is what we have at the top. For twenty years or so this little bird has nested at the top of our tree. She's getting very delicate and I don't know what I'll do when she finally falls apart, but I love that she sits up the top, peacefully surveying the surroundings every year. Not being a particularly religious family, this seems to fit us fine. I took the obligatory photo of the tree, uploaded it and put all the cameras and cords away, but when I viewed it it looked very ordinary. There's no way I'll inflict it on the general public. So you all get the bird. (I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course...)

We had a lovely time decorating the lounge room. The kids do most of the work now, which is nice, as I can see Christmas traditions developing that they'll pass on to their families when they (eventually) have them. Jordan brought in the tree from the garage and he and Connor did much of the initial tree decorating. (As a side note... apparently I lovingly tell them every year! to put the larger ornaments at the bottom, and gradually decrease the size of them as they go up the tree. Well, there's no need to snap at me. It's important to have a balanced looking tree. At least I know they're taking heed of my words of wisdom.)

When the tree is going up I always have Christmas carols playing. For years it's been a hideously sweet children's choir with unnatural annunciation singing stuff, but this year we had a treat. Scott gave me my Christmas present early. Every year he makes a Christmas mix, and it's fantastic. I tell you, you haven't lived until you decorate a Christmas tree with Angela Lansbury belting out a song about needing a little Christmas. There's a few versions of Jingle Bells... one with Barbra Streisand on speed, while Lena Horne makes it sound like the sexiest song you've ever heard. (How did she do that?? ) There's also a cha-cha version...

"Jingle bells, jing-jing-jing jingle bells,

Jingle all the way CHA-CHA-CHA!!"

It's fabulous. The kids couldn't believe their ears. Jack kept grabbing the album covers (yes, Scott gave me two!) and shaking his head in disbelief. (None of them took the music off, though.) They now know that Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra are two of my Mum's favourite singers, and who could resist a rendition of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Mambo"? It was so much fun.

However, there's a cooking failure to report. Tonight is our faculty breakup at Scott's house, and I said I'd bring an apricot nectar cheesecake. Surely one of the most delectable things on the planet when it's made right. I was racing around after work doing a billion things at once and forgot to shake the tin of apricot nectar before I poured it into the cheesecake mix. I didn't realise until I was pouring what was left in the tin into a container to make the topping this morning. Suddenly rich, orange nectar was glolloping out of the tin, unlike the thin watery nectar I'd used. I tried the cheesecake this morning, and all I could taste was cheese with just the slightest hint of apricot. I feel like such a twit. I'll finish it off this morning but this'll be one for the kids. The Cheesecake shop will be making a sale later on today. There's no way I'm taking a near tasteless cheesecake to a gathering where there's so many great cooks. I'm annoyed with myself though, because this is one thing I really make well. When I've got my mind on the job, I guess.

Bits and Pieces.

Sunday was a good day. I sewed like a frantic woman and got most of the top of the quilt done before Mum arrived. She walked into the lounge room with her dog bouncing all over her, and there was a sewing machine. Something that has never before been seen in my house. She's an intelligent woman so she knew something was up. So while Dad fixed a couple of things in the kitchen that had come apart, we had coffee and talked about sewing. It was all very arty-crafty.

Mum's actually a very creative person. She's always been ducking off taking classes in different crafts for as long as I can remember.They've still got glazed pottery mugs from the pottery phase she went through when I was 13 and I still remember the drawing classes she went to where she'd put bright colours on the page, then cover the page with black and then scratch out a design. The colours show through the black. That was pretty amazing when you're small. We always wore the clothes she made us when we were growing up, both knitted and sewn. The list could go on, but it won't because I'm going to move on from nostalgia about the olden days. She's always done her own thing, and now that 'thing' is painting. After she retired she took up the paintbrush, and she goes to classes, exhibits at shows and has sales to her credit. What makes this even more incredible is that she has really bad rheumatoid arthritis that has twisted her fingers and gives her pain in every joint of her body all the time. She never complains about it, which is brave. If I had it, (which I never will. I've told the cosmos that I'm not inheriting that particular gene. I refuse), then I'm sure I'd be sitting on the couch whimpering like a miseryguts all the time. But she just gets on with it. I could go on about the quadruple bypass she went through a couple of years ago, then just when she'd recovered from all of the painful physio resulting from that, how she tripped and smashed her shoulder and had to go through it all again with such grace and bravery, but I won't. It'll sound like a eulogy, and she definitely isn't dead yet. Unless she's the most solid ghost ever seen in the history of the world.

After Mum and Dad left I finished the patchwork. I'm really happy with how it looks. I rang Sandy and we had a batting and backing expedition to Spotlight. Mum said that one of her friends who is a quilting demon told her that she prefers to make backing out of flannelette because it grips the top of the bed better, so when we walked in and Spotlight had a sale on flannelette sheet sets I stocked up. $20 a set, no matter what size. I walked away with four sets. There were two more sets left, but somehow I didn't think the boys would be too fond of bright pink fairy backings on their quilts. They're reasonably evolved little males, but the pink fairy thing just isn't a boundary any of us are willing to fight through.

After that it was time for Brennan's guitar concert. He's been learning for three years now and he's finally good enough to be put in a band to play, instead of sitting up there with his teacher, painfully plunking away at some lame song. They played 'I love rock and roll' by Joan Jett (which coincidentally is the same song that he won the school talent quest last week playing.) There were three guitarists, a drummer and a singer. They sounded good, but Brennan made me laugh. He looked like the 'cool' one.... he stood like a rock in one place and simply played. He should've been a bass player.

Nicola from Back to Books included this list of the top 100 books of the twentieth century, compiled by the good folk of Random House's Modern Library. This is a very American list, but I like skimming down lists like this and seeing which ones I've knocked over. I've put stars next to those ones. If you're not a reader, then feel free to skip the rest of this post, because there's nothing else after this.

Modern Library Top 100 Books of the Century

ULYSSES by James Joyce
*THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
*LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
*BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
*THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
*THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
*1984 by George Orwell
*I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
*TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
*INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
*ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
*LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
*THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
*PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
*THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
*A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
*THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
*BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
*THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
*THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
LOVING by Henry Green
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
*SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
*THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
*THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
read 22/100
(that's pretty bad, isn't it? I'd better start using this list as a 'tick off' list and get me some more of that C20th lit happening.)

Crime in our quiet suburbs.

This palm was right near our apartment in Phuket. I liked it because of the square ends on the fronds. I've never seen this before. It looks as if someone has snuck out in the dead of night with pinking shears and done some creative gardening, doesn't it? (Or maybe that's just me who thinks like that....)

Big news last night. My Dad caught a burglar!!! Seriously.

(I mean... seriously... I'm not joking. Not that he caught her without a smile on his face. Though now that I come to think about it, that's probably true as well. )

She broke into the house next door, and was coming out of the front door as the owners arrived home. How lucky was that? The old guy grappled with her, but she fought him off and raced down the street. The guy came running next door to Mum and Dad's place. Dad, being a bit of an impetuous Aries, jumped in his car and went off looking for her while Mum rang the police with a description. Of her, not him.

Dad drove around, couldn't see her, and was on his way home when there she was, trying to hitch a lift. He pulled up, she started to walk over, then a police car pulled up behind him. Dad leaped out, pointed to her and yelled, "She's the one you're looking for!"

She started to protest, but the cop wasn't going to have a bar of it, so away she went in the divvy van. Now Mum and Dad are a bit worried that she'll target their place. The police said that she was so off her face with drugs that she probably wouldn't remember which street she was in, so let's hope that's true. But what a bit of excitement! They came around here to tell us, so I broke out the champagne and we all got tipsy. Just what I needed after all of that spinach chopping.

Now I'm going to take Brennan down to Spotlight for some wool. He's been wanting to learn how to knit for ages, so I'll give him a surprise and let him start. He'll be rapt.

The early bird shouldn't knit.

(This photo was taken during the Christmas holidays, before I shaved my head. I look much more aerodynamic now.)

Woke up at 5am AGAIN this morning. I don't know why. Mum says that it's because we're all waiting for daylight savings to start. I wouldn't mind so much if an early start was all I got. It's lovely to quietly paddle around, read the computer, have breakfast, feed the animals in deathly peace and quiet. I talk to myself, and I don't mind saying to you all that I'm damned good company.

But it's the early night you need to have at the end of the day. By 8pm last night I was yawning my head off. I retreated to bed with my knitting (just how old am I again??) and The Simpsons. Soon all the kids were in there with me, lolling all over the place and watching the show with me. When it finished Connor brought his book and snuggled in beside me, then Jordan went and did his piano practise in the room next door. Jack and Brennan were doing homework and coming in and out to talk about it with me. Meanwhile my eyes were rolling around like a crazy woman's. I was looking at the inside of my skull more than looking at the kids, and my opinions about their homework had more vowel sounds in them than actual words.

Nobody seemed to notice. They continued on with blithe indifference to my pain. I tried to do the right thing and be A Good Mother and an engaged listener to my four favourite people, nodding and showing that I was awake by grimly knitting row after everlasting row (oh, the afghan!). This went on for a while, until I blearily checked my knitting. I'd made a mistake three rows back. Only one stitch, but in a basket weave pattern it's noticeable. And with 252 stitches in each row, I'm not about to unstitch. I may be a perfectionist Virgo, but there are limits.



"Alright, everyone out! I've hit the wall." (Not literally... you know what I mean).


I got up, put the cats away, got ready for bed, then snuggled back in under the doona with the electric blanket. At the very late time of 9.20pm. Even the eleven year old was still vertical. This is the life of the single woman in the suburbs. Woo Hoo baby!

Sanitised potatoes.

Don't you love that overseas travel opens you up to new experiences??? This was in Bali, when all of us except Jack cuddled the snake at Tanah Lot. Hilarious video, especially Connor's face as the snake writhed around.

My Bali video has worked its magic again...

A couple of months ago, my friend Sandy came over on a Friday night after I'd dropped the boys off at their Dad's place. Well into the second bottle of champagne, after viewing the video, we hatched a plan to go to Bali in 2008...two families NOT joined at the hip, but meeting up for dinner, doing Waterbom Park together, etc. And now my sister and her girls are desperate to go to Bali next year after seeing the video. We all watched it again yesterday, and now the boys and I are all fired up for the next trip. (Finally! I was starting to think I'd never get excited about Phuket!)

It was funny, talking to my sister and showing her the vegie garden... SO not her bag! When she got here I was washing out some ziplock bags that the kids use for their lunches. They bring them home, I wash them, hang them on the line till they dry and then re-use, re-use, re-use. Good for the planet, and (over time) far cheaper to do this than continue to use Gladwrap.

Anyway, she came out with me when I was hanging them up, and said, "You know Frogdancer, this isn't normal."

I debated- what to say? Who wants to look cheap? So I simply said, "Yeah, but it's good for the planet." Which is true.

She said, "Yes, I know, but it still isn't normal."

Which is interesting, because her tone of voice would've made me stop doing it if I was at all worried about what other people think, but instead I started talking about the vegie garden.

I was showing her the little potato sprouts and she told me about when she was pulling up weeds in her new garden, and up came some little potatoes!

I said, "Did you cook them?"

She laughed and said, "NO! I threw them out."

I gasped, and she said, "I know! But you don't think that food comes out of the ground...."

I looked at her, and knew exactly what she was talking about. Food comes from the supermarket in shrink wrap. She threw out the potatoes because they were in the dirt, but would have no qualms buying brushed potatoes in a plastic bag. We laughed about it, because it's so true. We've been sanitised, homogenised and pasteurised... not just with milk but with everything.

But Guess What?? We were talking today and she said that I've rubbed off on her. She's bought a tomato plant!! This stuff is contagious.

Tony rang while I was writing this. He wants to take the kids out for lunch tomorrow, because he misses out on half his 'boys weekend' because of Phuket. He passed the phone to Vivienne, and we nattered away for nearly twenty minutes. It's so nice that he's chosen to marry someone who is down to earth and fun. The kids love her, and it's all good. Plus the boys look so good in the wedding photos (last year... they were the groomsmen), that I've got the photos up in my office. Bizarre, I know, especially to those who are still married, but it's far better than warfare.

Busy day today. I finished knitting a scarf, went to the bank and cleaned them out of Thai money... before you start thinking I'm a millionaire-they only had $200... and then I mowed the lawns and did the edges, unearthed the passports (the kids look so young!) and filled out various bits of paperwork. Booked the car into long-term parking, tried to have a nanna nap but was interrupted by some water guys wanting access to a watery-pipe thingy on the property, did three loads of washing and was filled with guilt because we should be packing, but we'll do that tomorrow..... the usual stuff when holidays are coming.

The good news is that I texted Pitsa in Phuket. She answered, and it's raining there, but the shopping is fine.

My perspective on a sustainable,balanced life.

I'm trying to get started with this, but I've got a very interested 11 year old bobbing around behind me, looking over my shoulder and telling me what to write. It's very distracting. (And no, Connor. I'm NOT going to write 'me as a happy mum.' !)

I've been reading other blogs over the last few days, and it's been very inspiring. Women are really making a difference, in their own small ways, and it's been fascinating to read of the things people are doing to simplify the lives of their families. The handcrafts, cooking and gardening are amazing to see, and (now he's doing the Oompa Loompa song beside me. He's not helping!!!) it's a truly humbling thing to see women from all over the world quietly going about the day to day business of nurturing the people who are important to us. I guess it's what we've always done, but it's nice to see proof that we're not alone....

However, one thing I've noticed, and that most of the blogs I've read have been written by people who are either retired or are SAHMs. I suppose this makes sense in one respect... you are the the ones with a tad more disposable time. But what about people like me?

I work full time, I have no partner, and I want to provide the fullest, healthiest and happiest life I can for my family. (Without turning them into spoiled brats.) I want my kids to enjoy their childhood, but I certainly want the rest of us to enjoy it too, if you know what I mean! I am fortunate enough to have earned my degree , so I have a reasonable wage to support us, but it isn't enough to provide everything. Again, I'm sure you know what I mean!

I feel like I've got a foot in both camps. I'm moving towards simpler living, but I'm not going to go overboard about it. There's got to be a balance of quality of life, time and money.

I work, and I love it. I wouldn't give up my career (such as it is!) for anything. The kids I teach are funny, smart people... and gee they make me laugh! Every day is different, and my work in the classroom is entertaining and fulfilling. We learn a bit, we have a laugh, and it's all good. The people I work with are (generally) great, and I've made some close friends from here. I feel very lucky I fell into this profession because given the size of my mortgage, I'll probably be working at the school till I'm 92. (I'm 44 now.)

But...

I love pottering around at home on the weekends and the holidays..... I do all of our baking and I love that the kids have my biscuits in their lunch boxes, and they come home and demolish a quarter of a home-made cake each after school. We have take-away maybe once a month if I'm really tired, and I'm making more and more things from scratch and eliminating powdered packaged chemically garbage from our diet. I've never been a 'foodie', but over the past year or so I've broadened my horizons. (And dragged the kids along with me.)

We started a vegie garden last year, and my enthusiasm for it has only grown. My oldest son was sure I'd get sick of it, so it's nice to prove him wrong!! I enjoy planting new things and trialling how they go, havesting produce and eating it (anyone want some silverbeet???) and feeling good about feeding the kids organic food.

But...

forget about buying organic produce... who can afford to feed a family organically??? We'd go broke! My challenge is to conserve our finances to be able to spend $$ on the things that are important to us.

So, I find it interesting that in my quest to be frugal, I'm quietly picking up many environmentally responsible habits. Who would've guessed that being 'tight' would be helping the earth? I'm happy that I'm doing lots of little things to improve the quality of our little corner of the world, but the bottom line is that I won't do 'environmentally' things just for the sake of it. I can't afford to throw the balance of quality of life, finances and time out of whack.

Does this make me shallow? Or merely practical?

Anyway, this blog is written from the perspective of a suburban girl juggling a fair few plates, racing from one thing to another and trying to do her best in everything she does.

Sounds like every other woman out there, doesn't it?