In terms of music I have a ridiculous range on my iPod. I can listen to most things quite happily, but most like something I can sing to or something that is quite heavy.
I'm very lucky that a couple of years ago my lovely husband installed a new stereo into my car that has an inbuilt USB connection that can run my iPod without it hanging around in the car - I hate those in front Aux inputs. Too messy for my OCD. This, coupled with a fairly long commute each day (40 minutes each way) I've decided to download the audio versions of the 'Harry Potter' series and listen to these as I drive.
This week I'm back to school and on to the 2nd Harry Potter Novel. I reckon I can be done all of them by the end of this term - 9 weeks. Whoop!
I miss lots of things - Leah's little newborn toes, Dad's laugh, the smell of my Nana's house, good reality television (Rock of love...yes, I said it), Georgie pie kid's club (you bring back the pies but not the club McDonalds? Not freakin' acceptable) and most importantly I miss sleeping in until ridiculous hours on a Saturday morning.
Along that vein I was talking to a friend the other day about how I really miss my spare time being a mother. Now I'm pretty good at using the time I have, really good. 3 people have asked me in the last week if I sleep, so I must be doing something right, lol. But I do miss being able to waste time just for wasting time's sake...and not after Leah's bedtime either but any old time I liked. I suppose in a way I should be thankful that I now use my time more wisely and more productively, but gosh it was nice to be able to play video games for an entire day, or sleep in until midday, or watch an entire TV series back to back on a lazy Sunday.
Those were the days....but these new days with Leah cuddles and gardening and maintaining a house... that's just another chapter. I'm sure I'll miss these days at some stage too.
Day 8: Biggest Pet Peeve (whoops I missed day 8 out earlier in the week - went straight from 7 to 9. Here it is :))
MESS!
I hate mess. I'm forever decluttering and picking things up. I find it really hard to relax if there are things that need doing, which can be a big pain. It's also really hard with a 2 year old running around, but we manage.
I've found that the best defense is a great offense here and am a manic organiser. I try to have systems and a place for everything so that we avoid as much mess as possible. It doesn't always work but I'm sure it helps!
At the beginning of the year I had a little idea inspired by someone I met on a school course that went to a book club. I very fleetingly put on facebook a status update that was something like, "Anyone keen on coming to a book club with me?" The response was HUGE. Lots of people wanted to. I then weeded out the best ones (just kidding, lots of people were all talk and dropped out) and the rest is very recent history. I have a book club! There's only 6 of us but we're a great bunch. You can check out our book club blog here. There's not much on it but you'll be able to see the books that we've read so far and the discussion questions we've used when we get together.
The most recent completed book I read was 'Change of Heart' by Jodi Picoult which was given to me by a collegue on the back of the fact that last months book club book was 'The Storyteller" by Jodi Picoult and I loved it. Yes I know, I'm the only person on the face of the earth who hasn't read Jodi Picoult before. I loved it, hence the reading of a 2nd of her novels. Loved the characters, love the way it challenged my thinking and loved the easy to read nature.
I usually read series of books I loved the 'Earth Children's' series although I do think it could have stopped at Book 4 and The Georgia Kincaid series by Richelle Mead made me feel like this...
In fact... a lot of Richelle's series do that to me. Must be because I read 5 or 6 books in the series and am then sad their gone. I feel like I know the characters and I often wonder what they're doing when the book is finished. Haha, silly huh?
And lastly, a message to all you non readers out there...
OK. So, today's not really a typical day - I'm on school holidays which means I'm home on a week day and Leah's also home because she's starting at a new day care provider next week. For whatever reason though it makes for a more exciting daily routine... so here is our day (and what most of our days have been like this week - give or take a few activities).
Leah has an amazing body clock, so even though she (and mummy!) can sleep in as late as she likes 7am it is, so that's where we start our day.
- Leah plays iPad on mummy and daddy's big bed while mumma has a shower. Our favourite apps are Elmo loves 123 and Pink Fong's Best Kids Songs. Halfway through my shower Leah came in to see how I was getting on and then started making herself 'pretty' in the bottom drawer of our vanity.
- Breakfast time! Toast for mummy and Leah. Leah watches Dora the Explorer while mummy gets breakfast ready and opens the curtains. This is how we wait.
- Because mummy is a pig and eats fast Leah watches TV and eats breakfast while mummy skives off into the kitchen to clean the kitchen that daddy didn't quite manage to finish last night after dinner and do some other cleaning up.
Before
After (this is a smile believe it or not)
- Got dinner ready to go in the slow cooker - Dinner tonight. It covers two of my 52 goals. YUS! Made bed and decluttered a bit. Also got Leah's clothes ready for today and put all the changing stuff down by the TV.
- Helped Leah wipe down her high chair, face, hands and put her dishes in the dish washer.
- Watched 'Max and Ruby' while changing Leah (she needs distracting when getting changed at the moment, got some weird fear of changing her nappy all of a sudden, poor poppet) and putting today's clothes on.
- Talked Leah into turning the TV off. Only took 2 minutes! New high score!
- Helped Leah put her pajamas in the washing basket. Then Leah helped mummy put the towels into the blue washing basket and take it into the wash house. Taught Leah how to pour the power in and turn the washing machine on.
Side note. I found a great little blog with a cool article with a 'Toddler Curriculum' that we somewhat follow for bits and pieces. I think it's important that Leah gets used to doing jobs around the house and have always got her to do things like wipe down her tray, so liked that part of it and the other bits call out to my teacher side which are some things that I do with Leah just because (you can take the teacher out of the classroom but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher). Everything on the list is quite logical but the list calls out to my OCD nature (List list list!) which is why I follow it. - Let Leah watch 'Cookie World' on the 'puter' as this was the ransom mummy was held to for the washing help. Incentives much? Barbara Coloroso would not be happy (small work joke there. If you're a parent you should read some of Barbara Coloroso's stuff, amazing). If nothing else Cookie's world allowed some time for me to get a wee activity ready for Leah.
- Talked about shapes and used 'Shape-o' to match the shape through the hole. We can say circle, square, triangle and star and we think the oval is a lot like a circle too. Then we cut out some shapes and pasted then onto the paper and wrote their names around them. Leah also decorated the page. Mummy thought this was a good time to check on colours too. I think Yeeyow (yellow) is her favourite. Our poster now has pride of place on the fridge.
- While we were finishing up our colouring we noticed a naughty dog running around with something in his mouth. 'OH NO' said Leah. We told Jake he was 'VERY NAUGHTY' and decided we should go to the shop to buy a new ball.
- Walked around the shops at Waiuku. Not only did we find a new ball (with a cat on it. The lady at the dollar shop thought Leah was adorable saying 'Meow, meow') but we also found a 'Don the cow!'. Leah thinks Don is pretty cool.
- We played with Don and our ball when we got home. Then watched 'Diego'.
- Baking time. Leah was chief mixer. When I put the chocolate chips in I gave her one to eat and that was it. After every stir it seemed she picked another one out to eat. We did make some yummy cookies tho. She had one for dessert tonight. Yum yum was the verdict.
- Lunch for Leah - Peaches and a ginger bread man.
- Bedtime for Leah. Mummy had her lunch and then read her book for an hour and a half <3 Woo hoo!
- Playtime in Leah's room when she got up from her nap. We played a matching game with the cool animals and talked to 'gan-ma' and 'daddy' on the 'phone'. We also let Monkey and Jake talk on the phone. Leah then chose to do some reading by herself.
- While Leah was reading mummy put up Leah's letters on her door. They look pretty cool hey?
- After Leah had practised her reading she asked mummy to read all (yes all) the books in her bed time book box. Then Leah read Mummy 'Mrs Wishy Washy' for the first time. It was a proud mummy moment to hear 'Cow, mud, pig, mud, duck, mud, wishy washy wishy washy, MUD!' Clever girl.
- Leah then asked if she could watch Sesame Street so we got some afternoon tea and sat down to watch it. While Leah watched mummy did her drawing challenge day 4 drawing of Jubjub.
- Finished off the washing and folded it up. Very helpful Leah yet again.
- Had a kani kani to these choice as jams. They may be mummy's rather than Leah's favourites.
- Dinner time for Leah. Leah had one of our cookies for dessert. We even shared some with Daddy seeing as he decided to come home.
- Daddy gave Leah a bath so mummy could type up her blog post (here I am!). Then Leah played on the iPad while mummy and daddy made dinner and began watching 'The Footy Show'. Leah's off to bed soon...
...and that's where I'm going to leave you all. Another full on day tomorrow <3
I don't know if I really take it seriously or it's just things I'm hoping will happen and making small steps towards. I love the bucket list tumblrs. The little pictures often make me smile and I have made a set of my own cards in their style with my bucket list on. Some things are teeny tiny and some things are huge. I think I would take it more seriously if I really was in line to kick the bucket sometime soon...but I suppose it always could be anytime right? Get hit by a bus tomorrow and all that jazz?
In the future I'd like to incorporate them into my yearly goals a bit more. In 2012 I did the 101 challenge and this year I'm working on 52 goals in 52 weeks. So you can see that I'm trying to do bits and pieces as I go... I'm very goal oriented. I think in 2014 I might start a 30 things before 30 and make them a bit more meatier to complete seeing I will have two years. Excited about it already. Woo hoo challenge!
Teaching. I think I've lost a little bit of my passion in the last little while but I'm attempting to claw it back. Wish me luck! Everything that got me into the career is still there, it's just bogged down at the moment by all the little things like paper work and politics. I'll get there. You just watch me!
I try as much as possible to do little things all the time - empty dishwashers and buying lunch for someone - those sort of things. I had a couple of these RAKs on my 101 list last year and when I see ideas that I think would fit someone I try to get it for them.
I've blogged about a couple of things I've done;
Lynn's study present - here.
Rachael's present of Maddie photos - here.
Each year in my school we have a random act of kindness period of time (to promote RAKs, not that they only happen in this time) and we choose a name out of the hat to spoil. We usually do it for valentines week. It's really fun seeing everyone so excited about the goings on around the place.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Day 5: Favourite movies you never get sick of watching.
#1: Pulp Fiction (or any Tarantino movie really).
Pulp fiction is my favourite movie. I've watched it a bajilion times and can quote various parts word for word, if not the whole film. I've even blogged about it before - here. My favourite quote? The part where Jules is telling honey bunny about Ezekiel 25:17 and then says "and if you heard it, it meant your ass". Why can I watch it over and over?
What I like about pulp fiction (and many other Tarantino films) is the depth of understanding you can take from it. It's an interesting little tale to begin with, then you add on top the imagery and symbolism that this amazing director has chosen and you almost need to watch it multiple times to get the most out of it. Did I mention I love Quentin Tarantino?
#2: Forest Gump.
The movie has it all really, amazing story, amazing soundtrack and an adorable main character.I cry every time he talks to Jenny's grave, I giigle every time I hear his accent and I LOL every time I watch the scenes with Bubba in (Fried shrimp...baked shrimp...boiled shrimp...shrimp salad...shrimp gumbo...). Why can I watch it over and over?
It's an incredible story, with an incredible cast... and Tom Hanks. I love him, as you will see with my last movie.
#3: The Green Mile.
Paul Edgecumbe... I love him. John Coffey...I love him. Percy Whitmore...I loathe him! Great characters inspired by a Stephen King novel translated so so well to a movie. Which is a real compliment because I usually hate movie adaptions of great books. Pile on top of that an amazing story and you get three and a half hours of pure riveting genius. Why can I watch it over and over?
Easy - great characters and a great story (as I've already said).
