Saturday, December 18, 2010

Piff-a-thon Tally

So far before today - ZERO



and today....

5 Books to mum
5 Books to the library
41 Items into the 'leave the house but not sure how' box
-jewellery doll
-2 candle thingys
-a dvd
-a jacket
-2 pairs of baby booties (what is it with these?!?!)
-2 evening purses
-28 books
-3 cookie cutters
-1 headband
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51 Items so far.... wow, only 99 to go... I might need to go over the planned 150 items to find sanity in this house!? Will see what it looks like over the next couple of weeks and then decide :o) There is a LOT coming into the house at this time of year, for sure!

Marked 'to go' but not ready to go, are a king sized doona and 2 European pillows.... that's some serious bulk but not a high number count... must get them ready to go in the next few days and then they can be counted.

Our lounge room at the moment as we're gathering everything from around the house that is in the wrong place or is not yet unpacked.... some serious hours of work to be done here!!


oh - and today, hubby cleaned out the art & craft cupboard!! Nothing has been removed from this cupboard but before he began, it looked like not another thing could be squeezed in here - clever man is he!

Should have taken a 'before' picture but we rarely remember to do that LOL

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Friday, December 17, 2010

Random Thoughts


Much is going on.
These last couple of weeks have been sooo busy
I'm LOVING the vegie patch
I'm a little overwhelmed with all the fruit in the back yard that will be good for picking over the next couple of months
My kids are just being painful while they fold the washing right now as I type
Hubby has 2.5 weeks off work starting tonight
Fish n chips for dinner - was going to be in a park but now it's pouring so it'll be here at the table
I am soo looking forward to 2.5weeks that fit a bit better with my preferred hours - usually we need to be in bed at 9pm to be able to get up at 5am!! Wake up time of somewhere between 6 & 7am will be so much nicer
We have so much to get done over the next couple of weeks but want to balance it out with family fun. Must keep that in mind.
Lots of fun was had at my sisters place last weekend when we did (my side) family Christmas there
There are so many nutrimetics orders coming in at the moment, which is great - must continue to track and write them down so I don't forget anything
I have received a whole bunch of curriculum stuff in the last week and a bit but have yet to sit down and go through them. I am REALLY looking forward to making & taking time to do this.
I love the sound of rain on the roof
I'm wondering if Pete got to the train dry or got caught in the rain.
There is nothing in the diary for tomorrow = bliss
Pete just called ~ he's wet... I no longer need to wonder
I wish weeding didn't make my hands so dirty
I have so many blog posts I want to finish writing.... and a whole bunch of blogs I need to go back and comment on from when I've only had a few minutes to read
I need long gardening gloves, the zucchini plants give my arms a rash
I need to publish this so I can get Pete from the train!

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Monday, December 6, 2010

150 Things To Go


That's my goal.... 150 individual items must leave this house between now and when Pete goes back to work on about Jan 6th. I can't count normal things I'd throw away in day to day life. They have to be things that moved with us to this house back in July.
I'm not sure how many I'll get to this week as I've figured it to be our busiest week of the year, but I'll post as I go, over the next few weeks. Life slows down again next week :o)

Anyone want to join me on a month of decluttering - even if it's not 150 things?

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Saturday, December 4, 2010

My FIRST Sewing Success!

I've started a couple of other projects but so far they are both incomplete. Well today, I have gone from start to finish on a skirt for Melinda... made so it should last her for a couple of summers at least.

She's thrilled with the result, as am I

Ta Da!!

A closer look at the fabric

I chose this fabric because of it's 'busy-ness' and thus it's ability to hide any errors.
Thankfully there were as good as none. I need to figure out the top part of the skirt a bit better for next time. It tapers in the whole way up - including into the waist band area.... need to look at some other skirts to see how best to finish them off. A blessing is, it can't be seen on this skirt!

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Friday, December 3, 2010

10 tips for being organised ~ Tip #5

Tip #5
Maximise your energy

Being organised is soooo HARD when you're low on energy and focus. Lack of organisation will just make you more tired and stressed... and attempting to 'sleep it off', won't necessarily re-energise you... it just shuts off the stress for a few hours and delays the inevitable.

Here's a small bunch of things I've figured out / discovered through hours of research, that affect energy/focus levels

1. WATER - Drink lots of it. Mild dehydration is a big cause of fatigue
2. SUGAR - is evil! It destroys energy among other things. It gives you false highs and very real lows. It's said to be more addictive than cocaine. If you need more energy, avoid sugar like you would the plague. It's in EVERYTHING. Cut it out for a month and then have something sugary. Notice how ill your body feels - this is how you will have always felt... you've just grown accustomed to it. Like the frog in a pot of water analogy.
In the 1700's we ate less than 2kg of sugar a year. By the 1900's we are consuming over 45kgs of sugar a year!! A glass of fruit juice has about as much sugar as the often quoted glass of Coke. 25g. Just one glass a day is over 9kg of sugar a year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomato sauce is 25% sugar/weight, most Jams 50%. There's a teaspoon-ish of sugar in every McDonald's burger... that's before you count the overall carb content which your body treats as sugar anyway! If you didn't change your diet and just added up all the processed sugar in a week you would FREAK OUT - I dare you, do it!!
Even avoiding all the obvious sugars, you're still consuming heaps and heaps... more than enough
3. Avoid ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS. Aside from the chemical toxicity, they wreak havoc with your adrenal system. Research your adrenal system and how it works. You don't want to mess with this. Your body assumes an artificial sweetener is the REAL THING... it releases insulin, which drops your blood sugar when it shouldn't, leaving you then craving more and the cycle goes on. Over use of the adrenal system ruins it. Stops it working effectively.Makes you a whole lot more tired among other 'not so good' things.
4. Exercise. Lack of it makes you feel blah. If doing it makes you feel blah then start and build up slowly. You don't need endurance. You need bunches of little intense bursts. This will increase your sense of well being, focus and energy.
5. Low Vitamin D... will lead to fatigue and make you susceptible to all sorts of illness and disease. I deliberately get, as often as possible, daily sun through the year. I recently tested and came back with a low Vitamin D result.... so if I'm deliberate in getting sun, how low are others?? Get yourself tested and do something about it!!

In short - quit whinging about low energy unless you are on top of these 5 things. I have NO pity on someone who doesn't pay good attention to these things yet complains about lack of focus, energy, fatigue or anything else related.

Get your energy on track - even a 5% improvement if you're really ill with something, will still help you get on top of life and be more organised!! Chances are you'll improve a whole lot more than that.




Next I'm investigating CoQ10... anyone use this? Know anything about it? 

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No Longer A 'Mystery Vine Thingy'

A lovely neighbour came over to introduce herself last week and told me of 3 fruit 'trees' we have that I didn't know about.... one being the 'Mystery Vine Thingy' out the back....

It's A KIWI FRUIT VINE!!!

And it's growing LOADS of these cute little Kiwi... all around an inch long at the moment!

How cool is that!?!?!

Now... just one QUESTION... if we're going to have buckets of Kiwi fruit, what else can one do with them other than eat them fresh or put them on a Pav?

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