Cut off from the World

After a hectic few weeks, we are finally settled in at our new house and loving it!

I had ideas for my blog running through my head the whole time - every time something amusing happened, or we had a new problem to worry about, I thought 'I could make this into a blog'.

There are lots of funny or stressful moments associated with moving, such as trying to remember where specific items were packed (why were the littlest Caveman's socks NOT packed with the rest of his clothes?), or completing all the relevant paperwork with the real estate agents. Not to mention the fact that life in general doesn't stop just because you happen to be moving house ... school assignments still have to be in on time, appointments need to be attended, bills paid, etc.

Of course, I had no energy to actually sit and complete a blog post anyway, so in the end I decided to leave the whole thing until after the move was over.

I could have posted about how we are now renting a house directly across the road from one that we used to own (and that my husband grew up in!). It is a little unusual, looking out at the neighbour's place and knowing that we were responsible for the colour of the house and what is planted in the gardens. But no, it is someone else's house now, so it doesn't feel right to me to make a big deal out of that.

As it turns out, the funniest part of the whole move for me was when we discovered that the phone line at the new house needed fixing. It's a nuisance when you can't make or receive calls (we had to divert them to our mobile phone), but the funny part came when the older kids discovered that until the phone line was fixed, we had NO internet. No Facebook, or Instagram, or any other form of social media was available to them until further notice. There wasn't even any warning, no chance for them to let people know that they would be offline for a few days. They came home from school one day to be informed that their connection to cyberspace was gone and we didn't know when we would get it back.

I wish I'd thought to have the camera handy to capture the looks on their faces when they were told. I've never seen two jaws drop open so fast. 'Stunned' would not be too strong a word for their expressions. It made me want to laugh. In fact, being the loving Mum that I am, I think I did let out a giggle. It may be why I got sulky looks from them for the rest of that afternoon.

I'm pleased to say I coped better with the situation than my kids did. I didn't miss Facebook, or emails, or reading the news online as much as I expected to. Over the next few days, the bigger kids helped us get some unpacking done and had proper conversations with each other while they were doing it. They even shared jokes - they are 12 and 14, difficult ages where sometimes they can't stand each other, so it was lovely to see them getting along better. Not that I'm blaming technology for their usual relationship - it's fairly typical for them to have issues with each other at their ages, so peace was probably only a temporary state anyway.

We felt a bit disconnected from the world, but it was nice. I would actually recommend it to anyone who has just moved house - cutting yourself off from everything for a bit can be very refreshing and a great way to recover somewhat from the upheaval.

And, while the kids are glad to have their social media back now, I'm sure they enjoyed the break too.

Moving on Up

Here at the Crazy Cave, we are gearing up to take on one of life’s major stresses. Before the end of the month, we will be moving house.

Luckily, we are renting, so we don’t have to deal with the extra hassles associated with house sales, such as contracts, solicitors, settlement … the list goes on. We've done that a couple of times before and, while I would love to own a house again one day, I am so glad that we don’t have to deal with those extra things this time around.

We are also staying in the same region, so we don't have to travel a long way or organise new schools for our kids.

 

No, for this move the stress is all about mundane tasks like decluttering, packing, cleaning, as well as the organisational duties - changing our address with everyone who has our details, arranging for the power and phone to be disconnected here and reconnected at the new place, and letting all our friends know where to find us. 

We are also both not currently working, which you might think makes things easier, but in a lot of ways it doesn't. It’s true we have more time and energy to put into the move – but we also have very little money to put towards it. We can’t afford removalists; we will be doing it ourselves, using our own car and trailer (although we may manage to pay someone to move a couple of the bigger items for us). Of course, the job hunting doesn’t stop while we are doing this either. If one or both of us gets a job in the middle of the move, we’ll just have to take the proverbial spoonful of cement and toughen up, to cope with the extra workload. Not that it would matter too much - we would be so grateful for the job, I think we could handle anything!

Many hands make light work, naturally. Thank goodness the kids are all old enough to be really helpful with this move. We are working as a team to get through all the tasks we need to accomplish in the next two weeks.

We have already started with the decluttering. The other members of my family don’t find it any easier to get rid of ‘stuff’ than I do, but we are all pulling up our big girl (and boy!) panties and getting on with it. We hired a skip bin last year and did a huge clean out, so we don’t have to do much more to really be on top of things. It is amazing though, how much one family can accumulate. In our case, there are a lot of sentimental items like old letters and photos, as well as schoolwork and drawings by the kids. However, there are also plenty of ornaments, toys, clothes and so many books that we just don't need anymore. Not to mention the objects we 'might need one day' or that 'only need to be repaired and it will be useful again'. Then there are other items that take up space just because we like to look at them (yes, Caveman, I’m talking about all those sports trophies!).

I think our local second-hand shops are going to do quite well out of us in the next week or two …

Down Time

Have I said before how much I love the school holidays? It’s my idea of heaven … I love not having to get up early to chase kids out of bed and make sure they get dressed and ready for school. Not having to pack lunches, ensure there is enough fruit for everyone or check that all homework has been completed.

Of course, I would probably find it a nuisance to have to figure out what to do with the little darlings while I’m away for hours every day if I had a job (and hopefully that’s a problem I will be dealing with next holidays) but for now, it’s nice to not have that concern.

The reason I love the holidays is because I love having my children home with me. I get to spend one on one time with each of them, watch movies with them, laugh and relax with them. Of course we do all that as much as possible throughout the school terms too, but then those activities are interspersed with episodes of my nagging. Phrases such as, ‘come on, it’s way past bedtime’, ‘how long has this sandwich been in your school bag?’ and ‘just hurry up and get IN THE CAR!’ are not so much a part of my vocabulary in the holidays.

Not that the routines and expectations are forgotten entirely. It is important for kids to understand that the house still has to be organised. Washing up still needs doing, animals need feeding and rooms DO need to be kept reasonably tidy.

A lot of rules are a little more relaxed though. I don’t chase my teenager out of bed early on the holidays, I let my Cavegirl play with makeup and nail polish a bit more than usual and my littlest Caveman gets to scatter his toys a bit further. They are all allowed to stay up later at night and get more computer time as well. We tend to be pretty strict on all those things during the school terms, so the kids really enjoy the relaxation on the holidays. The rules will tighten up again in the last week or two, in preparation for the new school year, but we will have had a few weeks of just enjoying each other’s company in the meantime.

I know a lot of parents can’t wait for school to go back. Even the Caveman refers to the school term as ‘parent holidays’ (and some days, when the kids are being difficult, I agree with him!). But, for now, I’m happy to enjoy the down time.

Confessions of a First Year Blogger

One year ago today, I published the first entry in my blog. I was new to this whole blogging world (although I was actually late to the scene, with so many people already doing it).

It’s been fun so far, although it has brought with it some challenges.

I have discovered that it’s much harder to blog regularly than I thought.  I assumed it would be no problem for me to sit down once or twice a week and tap out an interesting story on the keyboard. It turns out I am busier than I gave myself credit for!  

It can also be tricky to get an entire blog out of a small event – a lot of funny or unusual things happen in my house that I would love to share with the world, but they can often be described in only a few short sentences and it’s hard to stretch it out into something really worth reading.

On the other hand, sometimes there are subjects I could write an essay on … which I’m pretty certain no-one would bother reading.  I know if I am checking out somebody else’s blog I prefer it to be short and sweet. I don’t have time to sit and read other people’s essays either!

Sometimes it's tricky to know whether I should write about serious subjects, or focus on humour. I have tried to do both, with some entries being more serious and others being just about some random funny moment that I thought was worth sharing.

It has been an interesting exercise in learning how to write so that what I’m saying makes sense. Adding information where necessary and removing words (or even entire sentences) that just clog up the story. Taking the time to proofread what I’ve written and figure out what works and what doesn’t before I click ‘Publish’. I'm sure it is all good practice for when I get around to writing that novel I keep threatening.

I am enjoying blogging and will definitely continue. I'll probably never be one of those bloggers who makes money out of it, or gets famous (who'd want that anyway?), but it's fun.  I love when things happen and I immediately think, 'That would make a great blog'. Of course, there are also plenty of things that I wouldn't blog about - it is important to keep a level of privacy and not fall into the trap of just treating it like a private diary (after all, the internet is forever!).  

Blogging gives a whole new perspective on everyday life and I would encourage anyone to give it a go.

It's also nice to be able to look back over the year and see what I have written about my family and our adventures through the past 12 months.  I can’t wait to see what we get up to in the next 12 ...

New Year's Resolutions

Here we are in 2014, already!

Christmas suddenly seems so 'last year' ...

The sparkly tree and decorations have been taken down, the new calendar is up on the wall and we are ready for the New Year.

Oh, except for making resolutions ... I haven't done that yet.

It's because I haven't decided on one. Maybe I should resolve to be better at making decisions. Or to do less procrastinating (then I might get to my blog more often), or simply to be more well-organised. Now there's something my household could really benefit from!

I could even get really specific, by resolving to vacuum the house more regularly, or be better at planning my meals for the week or paying my bills on time.

To be honest, I don't tend to get too caught up in New Year's resolutions. I'm not a smoker, or much of a drinker, and I am happy with my health, so I can't do the standard 'I'll give up alcohol' or 'I'll go on a diet' resolutions. Anyway, it's been shown that if you place pressure on yourself by making one of those, it makes it harder to stick with it. I guess if you are really committed to achieving those things you'll just do them, regardless of the date.

In the end, I usually pick the same sort of vague resolution every year - to try to be a better person. To be more patient, more kind, more loving, more helpful. To be willing to listen, learn and understand better. To remember that my view of the world is narrow and that there is so much I do not know.

I think, if we all took that resolution, maybe the world really would be a better place.

The Silly Season

Christmas 2013 is done and dusted. The money has been spent, tummies were filled and all the rubbish bins were packed to the brim with festive wrappings and toy packaging.

We had a fairly typical Queensland Christmas; a stinking hot day with all the ceiling fans on (we don’t have air conditioning or insulation in our house), plus a couple of extra desk/pedestal fans aimed at the dining table to help keep everyone a bit cooler while they ate.

It was a tight Christmas financially, but in some ways that made it even better. There were just enough presents so that everyone felt spoiled, but not so many that the significance was lost. A lot of people in our town travel an hour away to the coastal strip to shop, but I pride myself on shopping locally for gifts, unless I can find something cheaper online (hey, we are on a budget).

There was less food on the table than in previous years, but then, we had fewer guests this year too. We still had plenty of leftovers, which was a bonus (because, let’s face it, who really feels like cooking in the day or two after Christmas anyway?).

Of course, for the cricketing males in the house, the day after Christmas was important too – with the Boxing Day test match beginning on television.  The littlest Caveman also joined them in the lounge room, simply because it was where he wanted to build with his new Lego. For the Cavegirl and me, it meant a day at the shops for the Boxing Day sales. With still not a lot to spend, we didn't buy very much, but it was fun to have a look.

So now the silly season is all over. Silly is the right word for it too ... with arguments about whether we should say 'merry christmas' or 'happy holidays' (I personally don't care, since both have been around for generations and mean pretty much the same thing).

Then there are the shoppers getting silly about car parks and crowds at the shops - luckily, most people I met this year were fantastic.  We all know we'd rather not be there, but it has to be done. Some things just can't be bought that far in advance.  

It will be easier now to get a car park at the shops, which is handy if you want to buy hot cross buns for Easter … no doubt they’ll have those on the shelves in the next week or two (and people will complain, even though it makes no difference).

Cynicism and silliness aside though, I really do enjoy Christmas. So does the rest of the family. My little Caveman asked if we could just leave our tree up all year because he loves it so much. I must admit, I’m almost tempted. It would save a lot of work and be a good start on being ready for next Christmas.

I sincerely hope everyone had the best Christmas they could have. May you all have memorable times with loved ones and allow yourself to relax and enjoy the little moments that really matter xx

Graduating Primary School

Well, school is over for another year and we are really gearing up for Christmas now. It has been an exciting time for the kids in our Crazy Cave – especially for our middle child, the Cavegirl, who has finished primary school and is moving on to high school in the New Year.

The Caveman and I usually hover around the school at the end of the last day, just to see the celebrations (and tears!) that come from the kids who are leaving. For the kids in younger grades the holidays are something to cheer about, but for those who are leaving primary school forever, it can be quite sad. 

Even some of the parents have tears, especially the ones whose youngest child has finished their primary schooling. I was mostly okay yesterday, watching my daughter hug her friends and shed a couple of tears, but I know I will be a mess when my littlest Caveman finishes primary school in another five years. All of our children have attended the same school (the first starting in 2004) so I expect to feel very emotional the day I walk out that school gate for the last time.

The common joke among the parents is that the kids who are sobbing as if they’ll never see each other again are usually the same ones you will see walking around at the shops together a couple of days later. These days, with mobile phones and social media, it is easy enough for them to arrange to meet up regularly … and, in a town the size of ours, they are likely to run into each other occasionally anyway. 

Some of them, though, won’t see much of each other after that final day of primary school – we have a number of public and private high schools in the area that they can move on to, and many of those kids have friends they won’t be attending school with anymore. 

So, for my Cavegirl, this is the start of a new era. After the holidays she will start at the same high school her older brother goes to and find herself stepping into a whole new world. She is looking forward to high school (with only a little apprehension) and I know she will cope with the changes – and challenges - very well.

In the meantime though, we can relax and forget about routines for a whole SIX weeks. Hooray!