Hello Baby Girl

This little chicken arrived in the world on the 5th of October and ever since has been loved on by most everyone... of course her Mum and her big sister....

And her cousins as well....

Talea Lynette Bracegirdle
5/10/15
5:53pm
4.2kg

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Together Tuesday

I pulled this image to write a post a couple of weeks into this years Hockey season I was out of my depth and had made at least one unintentional mistake. This mantra seemed like a good one to follow to get myself out of the hole.... onward and upward. I never wrote the post I was too busy doing Hockey stuff.

Fast forward to a few months later and I have done a lot of good shit- hours and hours and hours of good shit. I was at a point when I was nervously optimistic that it was going to be a pretty awesome last Hockey season hanging out with Kieran at the games and watching him play. 

As of today it's been a rough couple of weeks on the Hockey front- I have been relieved of one post and am planning on stepping down from the rest. I'm disappointed in the community that I had come to value highly. Don't get me wrong the vast majority of the people in the club are lovely, awesome people. But the politics, back-door, underhanded, boys club stuff overwhelms and undermines the good work and the good feelings you get from the rest of it.

For me Be Honest and Do Good Shit has turned into stay home and let other people deal with the shit. I'm sad and angry and frustrated.

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Together Tuesday

I'm writing this post in the future! I've been pretty busy lately and so didn't get a chance before now to write a post for last Tuesday. So I'm writing today (Friday) and I'm going to back post which is perfectly ok and utterly perfect.

Our mornings generally flow fairly smoothly. We move through a fairly standard routine each morning. Les leaves, the TV goes off. The kids realise they are hungry- but need to get dressed before they can have the food pay-off. I make lunches. They move about- trampoline to get some wriggles out before the school day. Shoes, bags and out the door.

Yesterday when Will woke up he stayed in his room rather than coming out to the TV and worked on some Lego Heroes. Tama joined him after he got up and I decided just to leave them. If they had have come out foraging for breakfast before 8am we probably would have got back on the school train. But it was 9:10am when Will came out.

W: If I go to school now, won't I need a late note?

G: Yeah you will. Why, do you want to go to school now?

W: Um.... no.

G: Ok then.

And so we didn't, after a crappy week of Hockey drama. Tama a bit out of sorts and the weather generally cooling down and slowing us down we were all ready for a break and so we took one. The boys had breakfast in PJ's. Worked on the Lego some more. Came out late morning for more food. I suggested they get dressed while I made an extra big morning tea and we'd head into town to drop something off and take Will to the Park Tama and I recently discovered. And that's what we did pulling into the drive way back home  just as the 3pm bell went at school. 

It was lovely.

At school they are looking to build children's resilience. The children are not coping physically and mentally with the increasing demands of the poorly designed curriculum and over the top school achievement aims. So rather than make the school work for the children they are treating the symptoms of the problem and encouraging resilience.

I've never heard of something so bizarre. Our physical bodies are not particularly resilient and when they protest we lay off. We rest ourselves. Skip a training session. We don't just heap more training on our injured body in an attempt to strengthen the weakened area. Why then would we attempt to do that to the precious minds and spirits of children? 

So before anyone calls the truancy officer I'm just saying- yesterday was a sick day... sick of the school treadmill and in need of a mental health treatment that really works.

Time and space. Dirt, water, sticks, sliding, splashing, birds, trees, sunshine, snacks, and love.

♥

Together Tuesday

 

I'm writing this on Thursday the 23rd. That makes it a 'Mum and Tama day' that's the description we give to school days that aren't Kindy days. The day started out well enough fairly calm and at ease. T and I got Will to school and came home and had fruit toast for breakfast. Pam came over and we finally gave her the Easter card Tama made for her. Tama was compliant, for want of a better word, he was cheerful and happy. He was up late this morning and so still in his PJ's, so opted to have snuggles and watch Telly in bed. We hung out there for a while interspersed with me adjusting the washing machine and then hanging the washing on the line. I had been thinking about vintage books so I suggested to Tama he get up and dressed and we could head out to the op shops. He's a willing Op-shopper and so happily agreed. It was a pleasant trip we scored some cool stuff and had a lovely conversation.

When we got back he sat down with his lunch box. It's not full of terribly great choices today. I still need to go do the shopping but I'm feeling fairly lacklustre lately- apart from anything else I have a cold for the first time in a long long while.

I did go to the supermarket on Wednesday just for lollies. Starburst were $1.31- half price! I got 19 packets. That's 4.5 weeks worth for the senior mens hockey games. And one for me... Forrest Berries, I deserve it right? It's just one after all. I can't start eating right until after I do the shopping. It's not a big deal. They're stashed in my drawers by the scrapbooking table.

While Tama was eating his lunch I snipped open the bag and grabbed a small handful. Tucked in. 

Tama spent the afternoon playing with our op shop finds, a few games and a plastic golf set. He got progressively louder and more aggressive in the two hours before school pick-up. He refused to go to the toilet and then pooed his pants while I was hanging the third load of washing leaving me a neat package of undies, shorts and poo to find when I came back inside. 

He bashed his hockey stick on the ground and on a box. He tossed some things in the air and I threatened him with violence should he break the TV (again).

I snuck a few more lollies when he wasn't looking my way and just before we headed out to school a few more.

Tama refused to find his sandals and was cranky about going to school. I refused to carry him to the car. And he threatened me with not being my 'best boy' any more if I didn't come carry him. I started the engine and told him to hurry up. In the car I sad he wasn't my best boy anyway considering his behaviour that afternoon and I'm guessing I probably wasn't his best mum considering mine.

At school he took off to play on the grass and a couple of Mums and I reflected on our day. I expressed my annoyance with Tama taking his sandals off (They were in the car from our trip to the op shop a couple of hours earlier). And then I wondered to myself who had flipped my 'bitch switch', how and why had I gone from the peaceful cosy morning to the angry frustrated afternoon?

I did. 

I flipped it, with my sweet, sweet mega dose of sugary lolly badness. I flipped Tama's too with his carb and sugar loaded lunch. And it was about that point where I lost hope of maintaining my mood, my composure, my clear head and struggled my way through the rest of the day. It's about that point where Tama did the same too.

There is no nutritional/health benefit to the foods that he and I ate. We meet some energy needs but at what cost? Too great a cost when those energy needs could have been met with some yummy cheese, sausages, boiled eggs or some other super simple  and delicious option.

There is no emotional benefit to us eating those foods- our afternoon was not a 'treat', it wasn't something special.

I guess it saves me time and energy to eat/serve these foods but I'm pretty sure that I used way more energy and time getting Tama to do what he needed too etc.

Eating crap food, or even just less than stellar processed food has no payoff and isn't worth the price my life and my kids lives pay.

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Together Tuesday

School and Kindy have gone back. I am alone. 

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Together Tuesday

 

 My brain is stuck on thinking about Hockey and I need to get past that because it's doing my head in.

Hopefully I can get it stuck on Game of Thrones instead. :-)

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Together Tuesdays

Shannon and Ehren are with us at the moment- it's some of the best together you can have.

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Together Tuesdays

 

Tama and  I have had a lot of this lately- and I'm looking forward to more in the holidays. I often feel a lot more together when I'm outside and certainly if I'm feeling a bit off at home the best place to go to get sorting is outside and the trees.

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Together Tuesdays

  Today I'm all about getting my shit together with food- I've been courting some changes but not yet committed... today is about doing what needs to be done to be committed.

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Together Tuesdays

Today is St Patrick's Day so I'm feeling Lucky to be together with the kids and getting my shit together enough to make a find green cheesecake!

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Together Tuesdays

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