Mammajoy

A Bubbly Letter

Dear new 8.5kg washing machine.....

l'm so glad you're here.  I appreciate your flashing lights, your smooth dial and that cute song you play when you're turned on.  I'm sure we're going to get along marvelously.

But you see, my last washing machine broke down - more than once - because of the aforementioned flashing lights, dial and pretty tunes.

So here's the thing. I won't be swayed by your cuteness.  You can't dazzle me with your unnecessary technology.  You are here to wash, and wash only.

Don't sensor my clothes, don't adjust the water temperature to suit the level of dirt detected, don't do a 'medic rinse' at 40degress to kill the germs.  

JUST WASH MY CLOTHES.  

I want them clean and spun at 1400.  M'kay? Do that, and all is sweet.

Sincerely yours,

Your new owner.

 P.s.  Oh and the dryer can be a bitch sometimes. Just a heads up.

 

A Hard, Hurty, Itchy Week

I've had a pretty crappy week.  Just a yucky, every-day-struggle week that I'm so glad is almost over.

For the past 2 nights we have been staying at an apartment in the closest (bigger) town from ours because we had to leave our house due to an infestation of bird mites.

Yes.

Bird mites.

Google it and you'll be as horrified as I was!  They were EVERYWHERE.  In our bed, on our couch, in our dining room, in our study and most disgustingly, on me.

From my research online I discovered that they are fairly common but notoriously hard to get rid of.  Over the weekend we began to see bite marks on the kids and myself.  Monday I was beginning to realise that they weren't just mosquitoes.  By Wednesday I'd made the connection to the birds that have been nesting in our roof for the past 6 months.  That day we called in a favour from a friend who does pest-control and he sprayed the roof space with some pesticide.  Wednesday night I was still being bitten and was itching madly, so on Thursday I threw our clothes into suitcases, grabbed toothbrushes and some food and high-tailed it out of there!

As I was getting in the car a bird flew down into my garage and eye-balled me.  Seriously.  I'm sure I saw an evil glint in it's eye.

And let me just say this - it was bliss waking up in our apartment after a good nights sleep and not feel things crawling all over me.  I don't think we realised how bad it was until we spent a night away from the house!

The most frustrating thing in all of this is the disruption to our life.  And I know that some people have recently lost their entire homes which makes me feel just a little bit silly for whinging.  But I'm going to whinge anyway because you know what?  My body was covered in bites, each one of those bites burned and itched for days after.  I need to whinge!

The kids have been out-of-sorts and grumpy and they take ages to get to sleep at night.  I miss my couch and my bed and my backyard.

The owners of our home (we're renters) were at the house yesterday cleaning out the roof space of the many, many nests and filling all the gaps so that the birds can't get in anymore.  Matt and the kids went back this morning to clean and vacuum the house and check if there are any more mites biting them.

I refused to go back until inside the house has been sprayed and all the bird nests have been removed.  There's no way I'm lining up for more of those bites thankyouverymuch!

The best part of the week was last night when we had a lovely time with friends, some pizza and wine and lots of laughs.  It was just what I needed and really lifted my heart.

When life bites it's great to have good friends around to help you smile again!

Amanda

 

 

 

what we did on the school holidays :: part 1

There is one room in my home that I honestly struggle to keep clean.  As soon as it's tidied, it becomes messy again.  As soon as it's organised, within the next five minutes it's chaos again.  It drives.me.nuts.  Sometime about a month ago I kinda just gave up trying to keep it neat and clean and as much as I asked the girls to 'tidy your room', with the adjustment to school and kindy and the new business being run from home and rah rah rah....well, it just got left.

See?  Bad, I know.  The girls room has been desperately in need of a complete over-haul.  Enter school holidays and a dad-about-the-house who could help out.  It was on!!

 Cheeky Joseph, wanting a piece of the action. 

The curtains came down for a wash.  The carpet came up and the walls got scrubbed.  See the wet patches on the carpet?  EEEEEWWWW!

I know.

When we moved into this house four years ago it didn't have a stitch of carpet anywhere and with winter coming we accepted some second-hand carpet from some friends of the family so that we wouldn't freeze.  The carpet was great four years ago but now it's just gross.  The same carpet was in the lounge room and it got thrown out too and replaced by the rug seen here.

 
So much better! 

Can someone say 'organisation'?  Got me heaps of it!  I found the pink and purple basket shelves at Aldi a few weeks ago and knew it would be perfect for holding all their toys.  And see the kidlets?  (Did I ever tell you about those?  Yes, I just found the post.)   Well they now have a home where they can be filled and emptied easily.  Now let's just hope that the girls actually use them. 

We purchased some bunk beds for the girls and they love them - it's an instant cubby house.

I am so relieved that this room is finally sorted.  Every little girls needs a pretty space to call her own and it was fun creating one for them.
 

 
 
 
 

look! I cleaned!

As I awoke this morning, thinking about what had to be done today, the nesting-urge kicked in and I thought I'd clean out the girls cupboard.  It hasn't been done since Matt built this cupboard which was......well, I can't remember.  So yeah, it was due.

I specifically asked Matt to build this cupboard so that even if it was bursting with unfolded clothes the curtains would cover it all and no-one would ever no what lurked behind them....

See what I mean?  I wanted this design so that the girls can get their own clothes which does work really well, but it also means that it gets messy real quick.

In amongst all these clothes are about 2 years worth of hand-me-downs just waiting to be found!

And viola!  Sorted and stacked and neat.

     

Look at those neat piles.  Sorted into long sleeve and short sleeve shirts.  Someone hold me back.  I'm sure it will be messy by this time tomorrow so this photo will be my proof that it was once sorted!

And this is the huge pile of clothes that either don't fit, are too stained or too old to wear anymore.  I think I'll sort through it again and keep some for nieces/nephews, give some away and turn the rest into something else.  Old t-shirt material can make the softest quilts.  And there are so many cute shirts that my little babies wore that I just can't bare to throw out or giveaway, and it will be lovely to see them recycled into something else.

It feels good having done this.  Next?  Joseph's room.  He has outgrown so many clothes during the past 2 months, I may need to do some shopping....

Dishwasher Chronicles

This is where the dishwasher used to be.  IN THE LAUNDRY.  Handy?  Not really.

  M taking out the cupboard where the dishwasher will go.

 

And voila!  Who would have thought it was that easy.  See the kitchen sink?  Right there NEXT to the dishwashwer.  Handy?  Yes siree.

I can't believe how quick it takes me to tidy the kitchen now.  I really don't have any excuse for a messy kitchen any more!  But let's not worry about that.

In other exciting home-related topics I baked our Christmas cake last night.  It turned out beautifully.  I'm waiting for the cake to cool down before I photograph it.  So, photos and a recipe link are coming.  But that first part, about having cooked it last night, not so great.  I was up at 2.30am to take it out of the oven.  I think next year I will be a little better prepared and perhaps bake the cake for 3 hours IN THE DAY TIME, since, you know, I'LL ALREADY BE AWAKE AND ALL.

The good ideas, they always come too late.

Have a great Monday peeps!