Wrestling with time management.. etc

well..

wow..

its been awhile since ive sat down and blogged.. for me it feels like its been forever.. *fingers crossed this wont stay a draft..*

Ive been busy... and looking at that sentence.. i almost feel like its a half truth, (while trying to ignore my semi-dictionary mind telling me that is soo cliche) and boring. Seriously how boring would blogs be if all they said was "ive been busy.." or something along the lines of .. ive been absent, forgive me.. read me again.. i promise i'll try to be more interesting, more pictures, more often.. only for your concious telling you.. dont commit.. you can't do it.. nows not the time for a big blog project.. x.x And then for me i feel like i'm stuck.. in between what i want to do, what i want to achieve and what i know i can do.. and what other things take priority.

Which leaves me with time management..
and..
fessing up..
toTRUTH!

What do i spend my time on? Where am i most of the time?
(*insert noise of rusty cogwheels* as tiffany tries to remember what she did last week..)
hmm...
Well i cant recall exactly what i did all last week.. i can recall the weekend.. pfft! that is easy!
Saturday james and I played fable II. Alyssa had a good day but with a annoying trend of snack feeds at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm before finally going to sleep.
Sunday james and i played fable II co-op doing the troll (like a very fat treeant), balverines (think werewolf) mission, spire mission (think evil gothic looking cornetto building). Alyssa had her annoying feeds, had a chicken satay stir-fry and the girls had a bath together.. it was hot and yukky..

but generally.. my week days..
i've worked out equal a load of washing every day. (not including towels or sheets)
generally some house work (not always the dishes.. as i loathe it..and put it off) my spring cleans i seem to be doing thru the weekdays end up with more mess as i dont always find a 'home' for something and i get distracted.. and it doesnt go anywhere....
Some relax time which includes lunch, watching the view or playing video games
do revolve around getting tia to and from kinder on those days..
do revolve around alyssa and whether she is happy fed, dry, comfy, entertained, cuddled and close by.. anything noisy waits till she is awake!!!!!!!
my weekends.. no housework gets done, i struggle to cook most of the time, generally do stuff with hubby games, dnd.. usually doesnt feel right either until we have all gone out to the shops together at some point during the weekend (even tho im trying to stop that 'want' as it ends up with blowing the budget and going on the evil (but not as evil as some) credit card!! x.x

lately been doing major spider killing.. and dead/dying spider avoiding.. i am completely paranoid. (i did wake up one morning and looked up to see a daddy long legs quite close to my pillow on the bed head bit.. too close for comfort!!!!) there was one daddy long legs (rather huge) that i never got around to killing as it was always on the move.. never stayed in one spot.. i did a dumb thing and watched it for a bit and then lost where it went.. i feel my spider woes make for a whole blog post in itself!!!!! EEP!!!!!!

What i'd like to get done:
Blog wise- New layout, colours, pictures, update side bits, twitter, visit & read more blogs more often.

Health wise- Manicure & pedicure, Wii fit every day, keep to planned meals, go to bed before 11pm no 11am and 4pm snacking on junk.. eating more salads (with help from growing our own)

House wise- Clean and organise and keep it that way! Kill all spiders, Work on folding & putting away clean clothes and not just have baskets of clothes everywhere.. Kill fleas in the house (where on earth did they come from??!!) start packing away winter clothes, blankets and wash summer stuff

Garden wise- Keep it weed free, grow grass back on nature strip, get my seedlings to grow bigger, get some lettuce & spinach seeds, encourage james to finish his backyard project, dig up a garden patch for veggies, get a lattice thingy for jasmine to climb, kill all red back spiders..

Family wise- have some planned outings, especially since tia is old enough to appreciate a trip to a zoo, movies or aquarim etc, more time with tia working on her sounds, counting etc. Get to church every sunday! Send out thank you notes (still), Stick to budget, take more photos & remember to upload it onto pc. find tia a dance class or activity to do with other kids. exchange details with the parents of tia's friends from kinder so she can play with them over the holidays

Christmas wise- organise & finalise meals/menu, organise sheets etc for guests, think about table piece, where christmas tree will go etc, find & do christmas cards, think about presents & budget, keep buying a few christmas food stuffs each week, Does anyone know a good whisky and brandy to cook with?????

Shopping wise- Stick to budget, buy only whats on the list, get some new shorts and t-shirts for summer, buy another fan for summer

hmm... think i will have to print this out and put it on the fridge!!..

grr.

well, yesterday was a waste of a day. I had planned to clean up in the morning and have lunch then wait for the plumber to come at 1.30pm and then go out do some shopping for dinner and DH lunch then come home and walk down the road to the laundrymat and do a load of washing. That was the plan.. and i thought i'd be able to get away with it.

But happened was i was still waiting for the plumber to arrive at 4pm! I got a stroke of genius (after maria called) They had called me on my mobile to arrange this time and i just had to look up the number from my recieved calls list (pray it wasnt a private line as the number doesn't show) and so i did that called up and politely asked if i had the day & time correct as the plumber hadn't arrived... the lady was very nice and i kept getting put back on hold and off as she talked to someone (obviously talking to the plumber on a diff phone) i had, had enough waiting around i was happy to change it to another day.. but she insisted that the plumber was still in the area and he would be 30-45mins away.. oh joy.. the plumber came around 5pm and left around 6pm (it was a easy job of putting new washers on the bathroom taps and changing something in the toilet so it would stop running, jobs i could do myself i could be bothered to learn how)
meanwhile DH came home and figured why i was in a foul mood. Then came the art called 'dinner'.. truly dinner is a art form.. getting it done, getting it right.. bleh! sausages on bread was the plan.. only i had no bread, walked to the corner shop and they had no bread?!!! argh! so i got flour.. thinking i can make bread.. or something.. but to make bread would take a few hours.. i didnt have that time.. so then i thought.. i can cook the sausages for dinner tomorrow and have the nachos for dinner tonight! yay! i am saved! thank you brain! That will teach me for not planning the meals.. i really need to get back into the habbit of doing that!

So today has been busy.. Been out shopping, had lunch, found presents then remembered ive got milk and meat and how long have i been walking around? had better get back home and put them in the fridge!

Got home, and im pretty sure i got the wrong size underpants for Tia, perhaps she will fit into them in 1-2yrs time.. or maybe they just look big? I wrote a letter to my former emplyers/doctors/workmates from the doctors saying we had moved to melb, DH was working doing something he loves, getting paid heaps (rub it in their noses, since they didnt believe it would EVER happen) all very polite.. and then it got to the bit of what i am or have been doing in my life.. and like usual i was uhh... oh crap! 'still a stay at home mum, pretty busy not sure what to do next' is what i wrote! I have been thinking of studying but my <3 isn't in it yet.. (i had to send a request for our medical records to be sent to our new doctor, so i thought i'd write a letter and not be complete snob) Thats done and mailed..

Also had to grab some cordial and bread from the corner shop as i had forgotten to get them at the shop. Did a load of laundry down the road.. thought about going to the arcade (for DDR) but by the time i had hung up everything and changed it was 4.30pm, bit too late..

Im trying a new daily moisturizer.. i couldnt go past it for $11, i couldnt resist the save $11! when the garnier ones were $11 save $4! so i think its working, considering the past week i've been up til midnight-2am and the rings under my eyes are looking better. HA! i've just been really into my book or video games lately!

Bleh! today i had kfc (which made me feel quite ill! half the reason i decided to go home from shopping without everything i needed) and now hubby wants to take me out to dinner, nothing to fancy apparently.. he said 'maccas is ok if u like', i dont consider having dinner at maccas a date! but it shall do.. and its across the road from DDR and hopefully thats still open! *cross fingers* YAY!!! So today foodwise is a huge blow-out.. i had better behave the next 2 days so i can eat tons of chocolate without feeling guilty doing so on friday in the city!

so thats what i've been up to, hope ur all taking care of yourselves.

@Tina. i think i remember u freeze milk, i was wondering if the milk expands heaps that u might have to empty some of it? or can u just put it straight into the freezer with the lid on and everything?

@maria. got the 3 frames working.. altho they lost their colours.. think i can retrieve ur widgets..

Whatcha been up to?

Well the weekend is over and its the dreaded Monday. (cleaning day)
Hubby spent almost all weekend working at home, i've been told this means he can come home from work on time this week and play video games with me 'party with you' was his words...
saturday, james got his robosapien media robot. I got a game Halo 3. Had a macdonalds brunch (the 3wk challenge of no fast food is over! yay!) and then went to a arcade/laser tag place thats usually empty (and it was) and had a go at dance dance revolution (DDR) what the? yeah i wasn't sure if you guys would know what im talking about.
id love to be as good as these guys, clearly they have to much time.. pros doing ddr

Malcolm in the middle, dad does DDR

and something more like my attempt

lol! this 5yr old ddr player shames me!

enough vids, you should have an idea now..
WOW! its alot of fun, i was laughing thru my attempt, strangely i forgot about anyone that may have been looking at me (parents picking up their kids from a laser tag party) because at least i had the guts to get up and do it! I was so sweaty and my knees were weak afterwards(had a few goes at it and did a vs with hubby) yes i beat him! haha.. and for 2 bucks we got 6 credits (theres 3 levels u can complete with 1 credit if you pass the level) some of the best arcade value EVER! lol!

a million laughs

Oh boy!
I'd thought id crack out once of my exercise dvd's i bought last week. 10minute solutions targeted toning for beginners..
i paid only 12.99 for it from target tho.. but thats the website thats listed inside the dvd cover.. ohh jillian michaels has 2 new dvds out, frontside and backside interesting (picture featured)...
anyways back to me trying to find my balance.. lol! the funniest thing was the chick instructor on the dvd, she didnt stop smiling! and i didnt see any sweat on her.. she was real funny so peppy i almost felt like some pet 'come on, you can do it'.. lolz.. But i think it was good in the end, i didnt need that much co-ordination the only equipment you need is a towel and a pair of light hand dumbells.. (i only have 1 at the moment) the muscles on that woman! crikey she had a chest that only a guy would envy tho.. i guess thats what happens when u loose that much body fat.. u kinda loose those 'puppies'! anyways it was great!!! theres some rule out there not to drink or eat what 30mins-60mins after a workout??.. but i had to stop and get water twice out of the 40mins (i did thighs, butt, powerstretch and arms.. avoiding the abs! eep!) and then after that i downed another 600ml of water and was soo hungry and had 3 sweet chilli rice cakes & 2.5pts of WW fruit slice biscuits both which i cannot live without.. yum. The rice cakes are flavoured so there isnt much point in putting marg/butter on them.. so i don't.. :p i think ive had enough snacks for today tho! (better make a mental note of that and id better not make that a habbit to eat after working out)

As an update i have not had any bad takeaway for just over a week now! 2 more weeks to go!
(i can have good takeaway=ww muffins from muffin break, maccas lite muffins, maccas yogurt, maccas chicken tandoori deli choices sub, subways 6inch 6g of fat or less subs, chocollo ice cream)

Today being monday, cleaning day.. i cleaned up the house, washed the bath, taps & basin/sinks, did a load of washing down at the laundrymat, directed & supervised tia on cleaning her room, cleaned under the computer desk.. (i dont know how things fall down there and end up being forgotten about..) i attempted to clean up the zillions of cables we have going everywhere.. so they look a bit better.. not that much can be done about that..

I am so glad tonights dinner is leftover stirfry from last night! my thighs have gone to jelly..
hmm, what else? I coloured my hair after my birthday.. not that colour stays much in my hair.. but its darker browny/red.. hmm our 1st cage(house) inspection is on thursday so i had better get a mop to clean the bathroom ceiling soon.. Tia has half day childcare on tuesday and friday.. last night she woke up crying saying she was sick.. oh boy.. just go back to sleep tia.. i woke up so many times last night it was crazy! ugh! it wasnt a good idea to think spring had sprung and we could minus 1 blanket right when that crazy cold snap came thru.. at least the sun is out today!

Im enjoying so u think u can dance, my fave guy would be the B-boy Hok. Im in awe of the poppin & lockin masters.. (and i just looked it up and saw who won.. whoops..no dont worry i havent given it away..)

How bout Australian idol.. was rock night.. and they all pretty much could have done better, picked better songs, sang in tune or actually rocked it?! even the rockers werent that great.. i think its pretty dumb they have the rock, swing, disco nights.. it should be their style all the way as in the end the winner makes an album in their style.. but then they will do whatever they can for ratings/phone revenue from voting..
Hmm i clearly watch too much tv, americas next top model well its some season waaay behind the current so no spoilers there for me.. but this had me thinking
check out the before & after makeover (season 7 not our current one on 10).. some are absolutely gorgeous after! Im wondering how photoshopped and airbrushed they are also..

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Now playing: Grandmaster Flash - White Lines
via FoxyTunes

Are you serious?

Im looking at the time.. 5pm? no way! where has today gone?
What did i get done today:

• Dishes.

• Recycling out in the bin.
• Got little miss to put her toys back in her room.
• Bleached the shower curtain.
• Cleaned the kitchen.
• Cleaned the bathroom.
• Did the vacuuming.
• organized the wardrobe and hanged up more clothes.
  
• folded clothes *gasps*.
• found the clothes that have acquired that musty-ive-not-been-worn in ages smell and put in laundry bag.
  
• found the socks with holes in them & thrown them out
  
• Rang my dad for fathers day that i had forgotten! oops!!!
  
• Uploaded more deviant art.
  
• catch up on blogs.
  
• catch up on forums.

have u seen the new weight watches adds on tv the ones for the food? It has kate richie from home and away.. interesting (not a fan)

have u seen the awful lite n easy adds? wow do they suck, its paid actors the whole 'say no to fads' if u watch the actors they are all (okay 2/4) shaking their heads saying 'no' while they are blabbing on how its so easy and i lost weight blah blah blah. my hubby picked up on it and now it bugs me alot watching it! argh! basically if ur lying sometimes you might be shaking ur head. eg you say 'that dress looks great on you' shaking your head u really meant to say 'nope. thats awful, but gosh it would look great on me!' HAHAHA..

the picture is of my quilt/duvet cover set oh and my handbag! I miss my duvet and its cover so bad! (i need to organize the delivery of our stuff!)
our duvet would have been so nice this winter, it was only new and we only used it for last spring/early summer til we moved.

Ive been buying reduced to clear capscuims lately, which is great $$ wise. i bring them home wash and cut them up and then put them in the freezer and then i have capscuim on hand already cut up when i need it. (unfortunately they go soft when thawed which is ok for cooking but not ok to be used in salads or uncooked)
Also i chopped up some carrots awhile back (for when im lazy) and put them in the freezer ready to be put into a hot frying pan (i miss my wok) for stirfries..
i chop everything that needs to be chopped before freezing it as i only have 1 crappy sharp knife (i miss my knife block)

Whoot! aw hubby is being sweet and while he is out getting sake he is going to do some grocery shopping also. what a honey-pie! its been rainy all day so i didnt bother to venture out into the wilderness to go grocery shopping (i have to walk everywhere..) besides i didnt have time today..

tonights dinner is left over spag bol (meat) on hot roasted potatoes with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. yum.

last night i made up a home pizza, it was delish! wish i took a picture! hehehe red capscuim, onion, lite ham, lite cheese & mushies! oh and 4 pieces of garlic bread.. so nice and so naughty!

i also found out that empty schnapps bottles make great rolling pins! lol! and today i found another great use for them! *just wait and see, i havent uploaded the pics to the pc yet!* dont hold ur breath, lol.. its not that interesting..

*excuse my scatter-brain-mode* its monday after all!

monday cleaning day

Today:

1) clean walls (we moved into this place and the ceiling was yellow and the walls were yellow.. the doors are strangely stained yellow too. The carpet in our room was replaced so im thinking someone died here (ew) and it took awhile to figure that out? (double ew.. but maybe im just been brainwashed by the many years of constant death-shows on tv (csi, SVU etc etc).. far out!) its the whole house.. its like the person before (single dad i believe) never had a hot shower! as with our hot showers in the bathroom the yellow has been seeping down the walls and dripping off the ceiling (the bits i couldn't reach) and thats what im cleaning today..

2) Clean up the usual weekend-mess-of-a-house. Tia's toys are everywhere, cables and leads everywhere. i dont know how it happens but when hubby is home not a inch of my body wants to clean the house! so it gets messy (unless i know someone is visiting, which is not often)

3) Clean the bathroom, toilet, basin etc

4) Do the dishes..

5) Go to the laundry mat (1st need to figure out what to take to keep me dying of boredom or dying because Tia is bored and decides to be a brat)

6) get Tia to water her plants (1 a pansy the others i have no idea but they are great at flowers which is why she picked them)

7)Vac the house with my little vacuum (the ones only to clean up spills of food kind) yes i have to bend down, and yes if someone recorded me zipping around the house just as its about to run out of batteries i would win Aussie funniest home videos.. (so hubby says)

8) Get tia to clean her room. last night i found this. (we have built in robes but its mainly a hanging closet-thing and even when i do hang up all her clothes she cant reach them. so they stay in her suitcase as we havent gone out and gotten anything else yet) so this is on top of her suitcase. Bubbles and Buttercup are having flowers pulled apart served on a plate (a wing from her transforming horse/pegasus/unicorn toy)

9) Take out the bins and put at curb.

10) Organise all these cables and leads.
11) Fix my painting up so it lines up straight with even gaps between them
12) Find any artwork of Tia's on the walls and scrub off
13) Organise all the paper stuff in our room (bills, payslips etc)
14) See about getting Tia into the community childcare centre so she has someone to play with.

~* WISH ME LUCK *~

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Now playing: Evermore - Light Surrounding You
via FoxyTunes

like my pancake?

i had been cooking breakfast for hubby last week and tested my hmm luck? at making pancakes without measuring ingrediants but of course knowing what i need: 1 egg, sugar, flour, milk. i bought a cheap mix awhile back (mainly for the bottle) so i have been storing leftover pancake mix made-up in the bottle ^^ oh and now im adding protein powder to almost everything i bake.

my 5cents on current politics.. so rudd had drinks at a gentlemens club cant remember what happened.. the only reason it comes out now? coz the government are still struggling at the polls despite tax cuts and promising to keep interest rates low at the last election and then it turns out afterwards that they have very little control over the interest rates and arent helping inflation with tax cuts etc.. *rolls eyes*

Today is monday which means:
we have been gradually getting kitchen-stuff and it had been just put on the bench, since i dont like the old cupboards. today i cleaned the cupboards, organized all this stuff craft, tools, cleaning products, phone books, plates, tupperware and pots... its like a new kitchen in there, everything organized and tidy! Ive cleaned up the dust that piles up on the tv (absolute dust magnet), ive cleaned up hubbys desk, wiped off greasy tia hand prints on cupboards and walls, vacuumed and changed the spot where i put all the 'recycling trash'.

Its almost the end of winter, i can see spring in some places, but nights and mornings are still absolutely freezing! its noon and im watching dr phil and a 5'2 tall 500pound woman talk while shivering.. and we have crap tv reception here and im noticing this scrolling transparency 'CONWA' on the screen.. how weird.. its only noticeable when the picture is dark..

So i made the DIY meal replacement shake. and i have some tips:
1) either get the biggest bucket tupperware or halve, quarter the recipe so you can a) mix the recipe b) store it!
2) go with metamucil, yes its $20 and the stuff in the food aisle is $7, but i imagine metamucil actually dissolves rather than absorbs and goes all foamy.. bleh
3) dont go with the cheap cocoa. i thought i had learnt my lesson before, i have now. never buy cheap cocoa. Its poor in comparison.
4) if you make it wrong, or too much or decide you no longer want to use it for shakes. add some butter/marg, sugar, a egg and some flour and you got a chocolate cake! (a filling meal replacement cake lol!)


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Listening to: Enigma - Gravity of Love
via FoxyTunes