Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Blog This Challenge



I am currently reading "The Black Death: a personal history" by John Hatcher. Yep nerd that I am, I don't get enough of infectious diseases at work so I read about them in my down time too! Actually my boss lent it to me as he is also a disease freak :)

John Hatcher is a historian trying to capture the nitty gritty of life during the Black Death or plague outbreak in an England village. So far, it is a little slow as he is clearly fascinated by every historical detail. But it is still interesting. I am of course eagerly awaiting the gory details that he should delve into when the plague starts to hit..

Gee I am not as boring as I might sound - hehe if you read my blog at least you know I do have other hobbies other than work lol!

Three names I go by:
1. Mummy/Mama
2. Ames
3. Dr J....

Three Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Riding Instructor
2. Science Tutor
3. Waitress

Three Places I have lived:
1. Far North NSW Coast
2. Canberra
3. Brisbane

Three Favorite drinks:
1. Milo
2. Soda Water
3. Champagne

Three TV Shows that I watch:
1. So You Think You Can Dance
2. Project Runway
3. True Beauty (its so bad but so good!)

Three places I have been:
1. Japan
2. Italy
3. Amsterdam

Three of my favorite foods:
1. Fresh white bread with butter
2. Decent Italian
3. Massaman Thai Curry

Three Things I am looking forward to:
1. Adam and Lee's wedding - we have a hotel booked and a babysitter for Elka
2. Our beach holiday in a few days time
3. Our trip to Sydney in September for Dana's engagement party - we have booked a gorgeous 5 star hotel :)

Three Things that are always by my side:
1. Elka
2. My phone
3. a cardigan as I get cold really easily

Three people who have e-mailed/messaged me today:
1. Dana
2. Kerrie
3. My mum

Three favourite colours:
1. Plum Purple
2. Mint Green
3. Chocolate

Three favourite items of clothing:
1. Grey Skinny jeans
2. My new cocktail dress
3. Witchery black long cardigan - Italian wool, so soft!

Last three words uttered:
1. Yeah
2. I
3. agree

My Thoroughbred Spech (Racing name is Special Knowledge) is a gentle sweet horse that thinks he is a dog. He is also a bit of a wuss - new things scare him. Actually, so do Kangaroos, strollers, brick walls, mailboxes.. the list goes on. Needless to say - showjumping which involves jumping brightly coloured obstacles is a big ask for him. A hoof injury and equine influenza also resulted in him not being able to jump for a long time.

However, this year I have had the chance to spend more time on training him in showjumping. And in our last competition, I actually entered him in the highest jumping grade at our little riding club (its not overly high in the world of showjumping but hey its high for that club!) and he soared over the jumps and got two clear rounds to place fourth. I was so proud.

We are now entering a showjumping competition in a weeks time. He has come a long way and its lots of fun seeing him improve!

Its so gorgeous and warm here, it seems winter or our wussy Qld version of it is nearly over.. I have started thinking about dresses and bright colours.

I am feeling inspired by all the lovely strapless dresses around at the moment. As Seen In has picked a few cuties - notice the early 90's inspiration... I don't normally like bright florals but I think I might be in the mood this year :)


Your thoughts?

1 What time did you get up this morning? 7am - Elka gets up at 7am every morning so I do to. All though on work mornings I am up at generally 5.45am, long before munchkin is!

2. How do you like your steak? Medium rare and with a yummy pepper sauce

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Transformers

4. What is your favorite TV show? Next Top Model, Project Runway or So You Think You Can Dance

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Here in SE QLD or just over the border in Far North NSW where I grew up :) I love it - its beautiful and the weather is just perfect

6. What did you have for breakfast today? Vegie Toast and Porridge with honey

7. What is your favorite cuisine? I love Italian but also love Thai, Turkish and Japanese..

8. What foods do you dislike? Fast Food - particularly McDonalds or Hungry Jacks. I refuse to eat at those places, its not real food.

9. Favorite Place to Eat? I love picnicking at the beach - particularly at Rainbow Bay - killer views and its all free

10. Favorite salad dressing? My mum's gorgeous dressing or balsamic

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? a 4WD - its a luxury edition with leather seats etc that I have trashed by using it for horse competitions, carting horse feed and the baby hasn't helped!

12. What are your favorite clothes? Currently its jeans with knee high boots but it varies depending on the season. I love my Witchery work clothes too - its nice to be all dressed up..

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? I want to go back to England and Italy oh and Japan... but there are a million other new places I want to see too! That is too hard a question!

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? half full most of the time

15. Where would you want to retire? on the coast here in SE QLD

16. Favorite time of day? I am a big morning person - I love watching the sun come up over our back dam with sunbeams pouring through the gum trees

17. Where were you born? Canberra

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Rugby League - bogan that I am. I am in a tipping comp and have been leading it most of the season!

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? dont feel like tagging anyone

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? see 19

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? I like reading everyones responses.

22. Bird watcher? I like watching our birds here on the farm - we feed most of them and they are quite tame. I love watching eagles fly over. And I feed our chickens and ducks so I guess I do a fair bit of bird watching without knowing it!

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? morning

24. Do you have any pets? 2 cats, 4 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 horses

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? not at the moment.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? a vet

27. What is your best childhood memory? just running around the farm with my brother with no cares in the world. Playing in flood waters with the boogie board too (Of course totally not a safe thing to do - but was so fun!)

28. Are you a cat or dog person? I love all animals so I love both.

29. Are you married? Yep - almost 5 years now!

30. Always wear your seat belt? sure do

31. Been in a car accident? Nope - besides small dingles with trees (thanks to living in flood prone areas with slippery driveways!)

32. Any pet peeves? So many when I think about it! I hate lazy people, people who never return phone calls and messages and people that spend their whole lives judging others.

33. Favorite Pizza Topping? homemade pizzas with lots of pineapple and cheese or tandoori chicken and mango chutney - yum!

34. Favorite Flower? Tulip

35. Favorite ice cream? I am dairy intolerant so dont really love it. I love gelato - especially the amazing gelato we were buying in Italy and the yummy Salt Special gelato at Salt Village near our beach house

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? humph see number 8. I will eat Nandos and a rare KFC and red rooster chips.

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Once - I left the handbrake on hehe and the tester couldnt believe how well I could ride the clutch to keep the car going for the rest of the test!!

38. From whom did you get your last email? Dana showing me here devine wedding dress

39. Which store would you choose to max out your card? Horseland or Witchery

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? most things we end up doiing are fairly spontaneous.

41. Like your job? I love it - so challenging, changes every day, combines everything I love about science, research grants, clinical testing, lecturing at uni and supervising research students but I have the wonderful bonus of being a well looked after public servant.

42. Broccoli? Elka loves it

43. What was your favorite vacation? Hard to choose - our honeymoon to Samoa or our European/Japanese backpacking adventure :)

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Jase's parents

45. What are you listening to right now? the radio on outseide while Jase does some landscaping work and Elka stuffing her face full of sultanas, oh and the ducks are waiting at the door quacking!

46. What is your favorite color? Mint green or plum purple

47. How many tattoos do you have? none - my skin is way too pale to look good with a tattoo!

I am feeling really indecisive at the moment... I just can't commit to any decisions. Do I want to enter the showjumping competition that is coming up... do I want to call the tree-loppers for a quote on cutting down a dead gum tree on our driveway... even shopping is leaving me flummoxed - do I want coffee cups, jumpers or some new summer clothes - dressy or casual? Do I want to save my pennies for now? Oh but what about the Oroton sale - but do I really need a new handbag? Do I want to clean the house throughly or do I just want to do a cursory clean and have some relax time instead? Are we going to book a fancy hotel for our trip to Sydney or something more practical close to the party we are going for... What shall we do with the mini-holiday that Jase is taking from work soon... Arrrgh!

Normally, I am the sort of person that just makes a decision and gets on with it. But I seem to have lost my confidence. I think I know what it is - we have a few big happenings potentially coming up in the second half of this year, early next year but at this stage nothing is decided or committed to. So I am don't know what to think yet or what to plan for and its trickling down into all facets of my life...

I really need to learn to live in the moment. Just soak up the loveliness of being right now. I know the rest will work itself out :)

.. but then I worry that without some goals we won't push forward and achieve what we want. arrgh I am so indecisive I can't even decide on how to make myself feel better! I think I need some chocolate....

I was at competing at a Dressage/Showjumping competition on the weekend. It is something I have done for years and its like second nature to prepare the horse and myself. However, it did cross my mind at how things that are just normal life to a horse owner/competitor are not quite so normal to the non-equine enthusiaist.. and I had to list some



10 Signs that you compete horses..

1. You cant imagine not being able to braid. It is an essential skill, not only that but it must be performed whilst standing a foot in the air on a rocking milk crate desperately hanging onto the slippery forelock of a fidgety horse.
2. You knew a thousand uses for baby wipes long before having a baby.
3. Your saddle cost more than your first car.
4. You were wearing knee high leather boots over pants way before it became fashionable.
5. It's not strange that the person riding next to you spent 12 thousand dollars to buy their horse.
6. You use horse make up, hairspray, wonder soap, Mr Sheen etc on your horse and don't understand why non- horseriders think that is funny.
7. Your horse sees a variety of medical specialists monthly but you won't go to the doctor unless its possibly terminal.
8. You spend hours clearing the paddocks of manure and you think your visitors will notice.
9. You never have to worry about tuckshop arms; trying to control half a tonne of horse that thinks its still a racehorse, move hay bales and carry water and food buckets is better than any gym.
10. You have broken at least two fingers and three toes and you know two or more people that are missing a finger to the first knuckle.
    

So you might remember this post here, where I am going to a cocktail wedding next month. Well I found my perfect dress for it whilst wandering through Witchery and better yet it was on sale and then further discounted- could it get much better (well it did actually cause I discovered I needed it in a size 6 - always a nice surprise!). The photo doesn't do it justice, its very pretty on and the top is a lovely sheer cream and the skirt a lovely soft pink mushroom colour. I have the perfect earrings for it and some nice chocolate pump heels that should suit but I still need some light stockings, possibly a new strapless bra and I am not quite sure what wrap or cardigan to buy to match it... (any ideas? I was thinking a dusky pink?)

Its actually surprisingly similar colours etc to the Alex Perry gown that I posted in my orginal post - funny how that worked out!

So, I love watching fashion and I love seeing what is on trend. But sometimes I sit it out and just watch from the sidelines. Memorable fashions that I didn't jump onboard for me are the fluoro colours of the mid-1990's, the high waisted double breasted skirts that came up to just under your boobs from just recently and the current trend of wearing leggings with short or tight tops that dont cover the crotch (oh the camel toes I have had to see recently!)

There are other fashion trends that I might like but for some reason dont suit me one bit. I cant wear oversized tops... I look really swamped and silly. I think I need more height to pull it off.

So Shop Till You Drop has done a spread on The Original 90210. It came to me as an email from As Seen In as a top trend. I opened the email ready to wince and shake my head - I remember those fashions from the first time round and it wasn't too pretty! But surprisingly, I quite like the clothes! I like the silhouettes of the body dresses and the acid wash is kinda funky...





Now I am worrying - should I be hating it? Normally I think I would... SHould I be sitting this one out?

I won't bore you with too many details but I am battling yet another sickness. That would be about a sickness a week for the last few months. Its been a hard winter for Elka and I. Last week was the lowest so far - a horrible virus that looked awfully like meningitis that caused me to lose 2kg in 12 hours and knocked Elka for six for days and required emergency Drs appointments and bags packed for the hospital. Not fun. But we are through that - only to find my glands are now swollen and I can barely swallow :(

So I am turning to my home remedies - I have started taking zinc tablets which have helped boost my immune response in the past and I have been eating an orange a day. Anyone want to share their failsafe immune boosting tips?

According to my mum, I need to put on some weight. And I had been poohooing her but I am starting to think she is onto something. The last time I was repeatedly chronically ill, was when we moved into the farm and I had randomly gone off food for a month or so and dropped about 4 kilos rapidly. Recently, I have been stressed with work and very busy running after a toddler and am under my normal weight - add to that that the 2kg I lost last week and I am now thinking I should put some weight on (arrggh I dont think I have ever said that before!). On the plus side - my jeans might start fitting again... and I might be able to convince Jase to cook me his soft centred chocolate pudding - yum!

Hmm choc pud sounds like the perfect cold and flu remedy ;)

Blog This Challenge for This Week
Tell us fifteen facinating, far fetched, frightening, funny or frivilous facts about yourself. Those bits of trivia that are floating around in your life.

Can you eat 10 burgers in one sitting? Do you sleep with your eyes open? Can you tie a cherry stalk into a knot? Speak 5 different languages?

All those things that you've bored your friends and family with for years - We want to know.

1. I am lactose intolerant. I hated milk all my life and always wondered why ice cream made me sick, but it took until I was 22 to work it out. I now love soy milk.
   
2. I grew up in the Hinterland behind Byron Bay - I remember when it was a quiet little hippy town and the Main Beach was my baby beach where I played in the sand nude. I can't believe what the Bay is like now - its a mini-Sydney with so many yuppies.
   
3. I do not relax... ever! I cannot sit still or not do three things at once. I refuse to nap during the day, even when I had a newborn. I figure life is too short and I will rest when I am dead.
4. Similarily, I dont like weakness or people who give up easily. If I can't do something, then I just try harder until I can. As a result, I hated being told I couldn't do things when I was pregnant - this was made doubly annoying by also being told to rest all the time LOL.
5. I don't really like talking on the phone, even as a teenager I didn't like it - I get bored. I much prefer to talk to my friends face to face.
6. My favourite author is Jane Austen. I love her wit.
7. I can't handle having neighbours that are close to me. I get upset if people can see me in my backyard. I lived in the suburbs for seven years during my uni years and hated it.
8. I can sense snakes - I can often tell when a snake is nearby.
9. I also dream things before they happen. They are always bad news though unfortunately.
10. I don't use my title of Dr very often. I worry that people will think I am a MD Dr and want me to answer boring medical questions or resuscitate someone.
11. I am the worst ironer I know. I simply refused to use an iron for 10 years or so. When I was a full time stay at home mum for 7 months or so, I tried to iron Jase's shirts for him. He often had to redo them before putting them on.
12. I am also a crazy cook - I never really follow recipes. I show Jase the food I cook in the pan or dish before I serve it up as I tend to destry food when dishing it up. Most things end up looking like mush.
13. I like to treat the house to flowers. Most weeks I make sure that there are fresh flowers in our lounge room.
    
14. I love animals and can't imagine my life without having pets. My charity is the RSPCA and aminal mistreatment stories make me very angry. If I saw someone mistreating an animal, I think I would try to hurt them.
15. I love Japan - I have been there three times and we have been thinking about going again soon. It is a fascinating culture. I got to live there for five weeks and work in a Japanese laboratory - it was the best work trip I have even done. The Japanese government paid for me and also gave me massive amounts of spending money. I saved most of it as I found it easy to live there cheaply and spent it on duty free extravagances on the way home. That was very fun shopping as I was a poor uni student at the time!
    

With great pride and pleasure I would like to offer for sale my Mother's first collection of Baby Clothes. She hasn't had time to set up an internet shop so I will be selling this batch from here - payment will be by direct deposit.

So we have done all the hard yards on the paving of our back laundry courtyard and I can finally do some before and after shots.

The courtyard is a little fenced area that we inherited from the previous owners - it had coloured gravel down and little skanky dead garden beds around the edge. The clothes line was not set in the centre and there was a drain running across the centre that actually had 45 degree corner in it and did very little to move out all of the water that flows from our tank overflows on that side of the house. Consequently - it was hot and yukky underfoot in Summer and flooded and muddy in any wet times. Needless to say, I preferred to hang my washing out on the clothes horses on the back verandah.

During our work on the drains for all the yards - front, back and side, the laundry garden became the dumping zone and it became very messy. Not only that but a little brown tree snake moved in there and was constantly scaring us and trying to eat my lovely green tree frogs in front of me! So it was high time to spend some time on cleaning it up.




We ordered huge piles of soil, sand, roadbase and had a massive stack of our pavers of choice delivered. The driveway looked like a landscaping supply store!

We laid two different drains - a non-slotted pipe to move all the water from our drains further up that side of the house and then the black rigid drain that sits on top to catch the water from the courtyard itself. We moved out endless wheel barrows of clay soil to drop the level down to what was required for the paving. This was long and hard and complicated by endless rain. Sure, the rain made the clay soft enough to cut out but oh so heavy at the same time. Both Jase and I toned our arms nicely ;)





Jase built two large planter boxes for either side of the courtyard and we filled them with soil and mulch.

Next we moved in a bed of roadbase. We also paused at this point to have the house termite treated which included digging into our base - it slowed us down but was well worth it for the protection it will provide over the next 10 years. At this point it poured with rain but we had already booked all of the hire equipment we needed for the paving so we had to press on.

We dealt with ankle deep wet clay, puddles of water in our base and mud flying everywhere from the compacter. It was pretty bad!



We had to cut heaps of tiles which made the extremely heavy tile cutter worth hiring! We paved over the long weekend and had floodlights set up as we paved into the night. We had no one to help mind Elka so we tagged teamed and Elka also got to play in (and eat!) a lot of sand. I also had a big horse competition on at the same time which meant I was extra sore and tired. Finally at 9pm on the Monday night of the long weekend, we had finished the bulk of the paving.

I completed the job over the next week or so, evening up wonky pavers and sweeping in the gap sand. Finally we dug the hole for the clothesline and set it back in with concrete - its now dead in the centre and looks much better! The final step is to place polished black pebbles in the clothesline hole and to plant in the planter boxes. We are planning gardens of multi-levels - ie gradiating heights and the front plants will be "touch and smell" plants for Elka to play with.

It was not fun and a lot of hard work but we are very pleased with the result and it serves the purpose of being a great spot to hang out the clothes. Believe it or not, but far from putting us off paving we have two more paving jobs planned!

So its been a little quiet on the blogging front lately for me. I am adapting to working three days a week now and it does take a lot more balancing. So of course its my time on the internet that suffers (as it should!). However my boss did point this article out to me the other day and I liked finally seeing a positive article on working mothers and wanted to blog about it.

The study supports something I have felt recently - that Elka still gets just as much quality time with me when I am working as I put so much more effort into our hours together in the morning and evening. I found on my "Stay at home Mum" days I am much more likely to get distracted by housework, farm chores, trips out etc and in some ways she doesn't get as much one-on-one Mummy play time.

I really love picking her up from daycare and hearing about her day, chatting in the car and then coming home to have some playtime with her toys (which are extra interesting since she has had time away from them!). It really is quality time, made even more so by the fact that I am fresh and eager to soak up some time with her, since I have missed her all day.

So chins up working mums! We can do it all (or at least do our darndest trying!)

xoxo

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25710533-23289,00.html

WORKING mothers can shed some of their "mother guilt", after a new study found their babies received just as much time being nurtured as the babies of stay-at-home mums.

The groundbreaking research reveals little difference between how much time the babies of full-time working mothers are held, cuddled, read to and talked to compared with babies of mothers who do not work.

The report's co-author, Jennifer Baxter, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, said: "This may be through mothers working hours that allow them to maximise the quality time they spend with their child. The other factor is the extra time the child spends with their father, or other relatives, or carers.

"When mothers work full time they spend about 83 minutes less per day with their child compared to a stay-at-home mother, but the child spends an average 81 minutes more a day with their father."

The study, Breastfeeding and Infants' Time Use, draws on diary data kept by the parents of 3000 babies aged between three and 14 months.

AIFS director Alan Hayes said the research offered significant insights into the question mothers so often asked, about the effect on their child of returning to work. "Given the pressures on Australian families today, this study presents encouraging signs that they appear to try and manage the responsibilities of work and raising families in a way that does not negatively impact on children," Professor Hayes said.

Melbourne mother Belinda Quinn, on parental leave from her job as a commercial property manager to look after four-month-old Harvey, said her brief experience doing a little work from home had made her realise how resourceful working mothers became.

"Your day revolves around getting the work done so you can spend that quality time with your baby," 30-year-old Ms Quinn said. "I think working mothers probably outsource those things that stay-at-home mothers have to do, so both get that important time with their child. If I was working I'd have a cleaner and spend the time with Harvey. Through my own guilt I'd probably try and spend as much time with Harvey as I could rather."

The report also looked behind the positive correlation between breastfeeding and enhanced development, finding breastfed infants often did more activities than those who were not.

"Breastfed infants were more likely to have been reported to have spent some time crawling, climbing or swinging arms/legs, and some time colouring, drawing and looking at books or puzzles," the report found.

Breastfed children also spent significantly less time sleeping, eating other food and watching television.

Dr Baxter said: "We aren't condemning non-breastfeeding mothers, rather trying to explain that breastfeeding is not the only element to the development and nurturing of children. There are many other things that happen in a young child's day."