Chores and a sane Mommy

Today I knew Paul was going to work late and I had so much to do...

SO... I decided to get the kids in on the working thing that happens around the house - you know, the normal everyday mundane stuff that's mostly left for mom (and dad, in our family) to do. Don't get me wrong, we've been getting the kids in on the chores thing for quite some time now> Every Saturday morning we do a big clean up and the house gets cleaned properly - floors washed and vacuumed, kitchen sparkling, bathroom really clean etc. But the day-to-day stuff is often a huge fight and I have to psyche myself up for it when I ask the kids to do something so that I don't feel like I've started WW3. I'm not afraid of the fight nor am I in any way willing to back down - doing housework together as a family is what we will do in our house and the kids will be used to it by the time they leave to live their own lives. I refuse to be the maid or servant so everyone has to pull their weight.

And today I did it all again and it worked and I felt as though I was doing great! When we got home, the kids wanted to swim so I told them that if they did everything I asked them to do first, then they could. They were happy with that so they all willingly went and did the tasks assigned to them. Jordy unstacked the dishwasher, Julie stacked most of the things she could manage - the pots that needed a bit more elbow grease were left for me. We had lunch and then they had a whole hour of swimming. It was super!

When we got back, they all played outside with their friends and eventually, at 5.30, I called them all in and got them all (barring Kael) to pack their clean washing away. Julie even got to taking all the clothes off her bottom cupboard shelf and re-packing it all neatly.

I had since made supper and we all ate feeling quite good about ourselves.

It just worked out so well today. Granted, I don't expect every day to be this easy from now on but I think just the fact that we got it right is good enough to keep me going for a while. I feel like a sane mother and think my kids rock!

And on days like these, I am also ever grateful that my children are growing up learning to be responsible and team players. This is why we have families - so we can feel the joy of working together and being happy when we've all done what we are expected to.

Just keep blogging, blogging, blogging...

I feel as though I haven't been here a lot recently. And since getting my dad's old BlackBerry, and consequently getting hooked, I find myself pushing the shift button every time I want to add punctuation. HAHAHAHA :) I love laughing at myself - keeps me a bit sane (if that's even possible).

Temptation Quotes

Lemon Cheesecake a la Sam

Ingredients:

250ml fresh cream
250ml smooth original cream cheese
1 tin condensed milk
30 - 45ml lemon juice (taste dependent)
1 packet Marie / tennis biscuits, finely crushed
Melted butter (enough to mix in with the crushed biscuits to make a base - I've never measured it, I just go by how it feels when I'm mixing it)

Base:

Mix biscuits & butter and line the bottom of a 30cm dish

Filling:

Whip cream til stiff, add condensed milk and mix well, add cream cheese & mix well, add lemon juice & mix well. Pour onto base, bake at 180ºC for 5 mins to ensure it sets [Have to add here that this is best done when you are using your oven for something else too else you just waste a LOT of electricity]. Chill in fridge for at least 4 hours.

EAT!!!

Seriously the best, creamiest cheesecake EVER! (and it's mostly all mine)

Quotes

Yes or no...

Should I Really Join Facebook ? (Priceless)

A good laugh for people in the over 50 group !!!

AND really quite true!!

When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the thirty-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures, and communicates with Facebook and Twitter. I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook , so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great-grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue Tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-u-lating." You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship.
When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, "No, but I do toot a lot."

P.S. I know some of you are not over 50. I sent it to you to allow you to forward it to those who are.

We senior citizens don't need anymore gadgets. The TV remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle

A year ago today... 31/08/2010

"When I'm a kid like Julie, I'm going to be a surfer!" ~ Eden Jade