I have to get a new battery for my mouse, well I think that is the problem even that or the mouse is stuffed, I find after I stop using it for a bit it kinda freezes and I have to move it about and wait 3-5 minutes before it starts working again and that is so bloody annoying.

Well it is another stinking bloody hot day here in Newie, this morning after I took Leo to school I went to the doctors, I had an appointment for yesterday at 9.30am but forgot about it till I got a message via message bank 101 on the house phone about how I missed it, anyway when I got the message I rang the surgery and made another appointment for today at 9.30am but when I get there, there is no record of an appointment for this morning, I made another appointment for next Monday.

So since Tim is at work all day when I got home I parked the car in the carport where Tim usually parks his motorbike, however, due to the rubbish bins being there I was a bit far over on the neighbours side, but she no longer has a car, although she has two daughters with cars who often turn up during the day, but I thought if they wanted me to move the car all they have to do is ask. I only parked there because of how bloody hot it is, and the fact that I knew I would have to go out again. Although I didn’t think I would be going out till I had to leave to get the boys from school, but as she is leaving for work Natasha asks if I could go to Coles and get her some chocolate milk and of course not any chocolate milk but Oak she will not drink any other brand and of course Oak is the most expensive brand.

Ok I had to stop writing and go pick up the boys from school, I couldn’t find Leo he wasn’t waiting were he is suppose to wait, he said it was because I forgot to tell him this morning and he is right I did forget and yes it is only the second week of me getting him from the back gate, so partly my fault.

Of course when he got into the car the fighting with Blain started over nothing and continued till I dropped him off at his place. Also had Natasha on the phone going off about something, not sure what but something happened at school with Blain, nothing serious but I think he got into some kind of trouble at school. This I know because he took his mum off speaker so I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

Before I left to go to the school I put a couple of chicken gordon bleu in the oven on low as I am getting hungry I didn’t have breakfast so had brunch instead and that was 5 hours ago so feeling like food. I am doing some roast potatoes with it only the frozen ones so no work just out of freezer into air-fryer, I do like my air-fryer much quicker then the oven.

In other news today I wore a short dress over a pair of shorts not an outfit I wear very often as usually if I am home I am in shorts and T-shirt if I am going out I wear ¾ pants and T-shirt.

Today’s post is written by my eldest daughter, I am sharing it here so she can get feedback from people other then family.

How I learnt to communicate about my child’s day at school

Last year my eldest daughter started school at the tender at of 5. I knew she was ready to go, the boredom she experienced everyday was admittedly getting on my last nerve and I could no longer afford to send her to daycare 3 days a week, along with her little sister twice a week.

When your child is in a loving and caring daycare such as the one my children attend, you are able to take time to talk to their educators and discover what your child did for the day. The child to educator ratio is much lower than that of a primary school and therefore your child is constantly being observed. Especially when your child attends at 72 place centre and there is well over 20 educators coming and going during the day.

The educator assigned to be the primary carer for your child while you are away tends to be the one who observes them while they play. They take note on what your child did and give you their professional opinion on how your child is developing.

But what happens when your child starts school? How do you as a first time school parent communicate with your child about what happened during their day? It took me a while to figure it out, and annoyingly it the answer was right under my nose.

Every child is born to be curious. When you sit them in front of a box, the child will undoubtedly look inside the box to see what they can discover. If they find blocks they will build, while pencils and paper will allow them to draw, and dolls allow role playing. When children watch a television show or read a book this will lead to questions.

When my daughter came home from school each day she would always want to role play. And it was always mums and dads. But after a while it turned to teachers and students. My school age daughter would pretend she was the teacher and have her little sister play the roles of all the students in the classroom. Looking back at it now, this was how my child was informing me of how her day went at school. She would have her little sister try and count to 10 or say the alphabet. When it came to sport there was a lot of running and kicking of a ball.

I was never sure on what my child’s favourite thing to do in class was, but once again it was right under my nose. After a few weeks I realized the two things she like to do while she was pretending she was in class; It was standing in front of her peers and telling them about her weekly news while the other was sitting in class waiting for the teacher to say her name so she could answer a question. There were many times when I found myself pretending to be the teacher and asking spelling or math questions.

I know it can be boring and tedious sometimes to play the same games with your children each day, but have you ever asked yourself maybe this is how your child is trying to tell you what they did during the day or how they are feeling?

Recently I have found myself playing with Lego blocks with my youngest daughter. She likes to pretend they are people, in most cases these people are mums, dads, sisters, brothers, cousins and her darlings. While we were playing with the blocks she would place a small block on the bottom of a bigger block and pretend there was a baby in the tummy. I had no idea where she got this idea from. She’s the youngest and to the best of my knowledge has never understood that babies come from a mummy’s tummy. After reading one of the weekly summaries sent home from her daycare I noticed that one of the educators in her room is pregnant.

For a long time I dreaded playing these role playing games with my girls. It was always the same thing every single day and after a while I wanted to be more physically active instead of sitting in the one spot saying the same words over and over again. I will even admit there were times when I tried so hard to change their state of mind so they would want to play something else. I now understand that this is how children try to grasp what is happening in their life and how try to figure out what questions they should be asking.

Today, twelve months on, and I have discovered the best way to find out what happens in my child’s day to day life at school is to ask her what kind of questions the teacher asks and which friends she played with that day. I get a much better response from her and now have a better understanding on how to talk to my children about their day. It’s amazing how much a simple role playing game can tell you about what is going on in your child’s growing mind.

Kathy

Hi everyone, I have not been 100% the last couple of days, this morning at 10am I ended up going back to bed for what turned out to be 3 hours because I was just not with it. Anyway I am starting to feel more like me and less like not me, and yeah I know how much sense that makes but what the hell, if you know me you know I often don’t make a lot of sense.

I think the fact that today started out overcast and some what wet contributed to me feeling like shit but that is the past and what is the point of living in the past, the time to live in is the here and now, not the past nor the future. You may think how can someone live in the future, well if a body is always trying to predict what is going to happen they are trying to live in the future. Also no point in going around thinking “what if”, that achieves nothing.

As all who know me I am a drifter, not thinking too much if at all about the future, yes I look forward to things that I know will happen in the future such as a planned holiday or event. However, I usually just take each day as I find it and roll with the flow, I can tell you that when I wake up I am a get dressed straight away person, I know some people like my mum who wanders around in her nightie for a while after getting up, me not so much the longest I seem to stay in my nightie is maybe 5-10minutes after getting up.

Also were some people like to have a cup of coffee or tea after getting up I like a drink of Pepsi Max or Coke Zero first thing, my daughter Natasha goes off at me saying I should have milk or juice first thing but recently and by recently I mean now as I write this, I have realised that it is just how I get started for the day and I will be telling her this and telling her to back off.

In other news damn Leo is growing up, so is Blain come to think of it, but first Leo then Blain, so Leo is now really good to drop off at school I just drive to the drop off zone and he gets out and goes and this morning instead of going to the drop off zone I went to the back gate and dropped him off and he was great a kiss and a hug and he was gone. Of an afternoon I will be going to the back gate and going in to get him this saves me like 5 minutes or maybe a bit more as by going to the back gate I don’t get stuck at two sets of traffic lights.

Now onto Blain last week he asked me if he could go to a friends house after school, he wanted to ride his scooter to his friends place and I know for many that would be so what no big deal but being the first time he wanted to do this me and his mum was a bit worried. However, since Tim and I bought the boys 2-ways aka walkie talkie for Christmas I said I would like him to take one with him and he did or should say does as he goes up to his friends place most afternoons and I can tell Blain likes taking them he checks in when he is half way there and then again when he arrives and if his friend isn’t home he lets me know he is coming home, have to say one of the best things Tim has suggested.

Speaking of Blain this afternoon he asked me if I knew how to make him a milkshake and of course I do, I said it is just milk, ice cream and flavouring and I can add an egg as well. He naturally turned his nose up at adding an egg but guess what I added an egg and didn’t tell him, you can not taste the egg but it gives you a lot of good stuff and turns a normal milkshake into a much healthier milkshake. My mum use to make egg-flips all the time when I was a child and I made them for my girls when they wouldn’t eat much. He has now had 2 egg-flips one chocolate and one strawberry.

What a Tuesday I have had, what have I done?

Nothing much at all, but it has been another bloody hot day here in Newie.

Anyway been thinking today about how I don’t wear shoes inside my home but also cannot go barefoot outside of the home.

While at home I just walk around barefoot or in winter I will wear socks inside. However, I do not like to even walk just outside the front door to the seat to sit and talk to Natasha or Tim while they are smoking without shoes on my feet.

This made me think about when did I start to wear thongs, I don’t remember, I may ask mum when I speak to her tonight or tomorrow. The thing is that Natasha and Jessica wear thongs a lot and Kathy does as well but Kathy is more a flat shoe type of person, whereas her sisters are not.

Natasha for many years was one of those girls who would wear heels all the bloody time except when she was at home. Now, however, she wears thongs a lot and she wears joggers a lot she needs to wear enclosed shoes for walk like most people.

Jessica use to wear super high platform shoes but now she wears a semi-flat enclosed shoe most of the time.

My niece Kelli doesn’t like wearing shoes at all even when she goes shopping, at times she will put on a pair of shoes but they end up annoying her and she takes them off and walks around barefoot.

Of course all children are expect to wear the proper footwear to school, here is is usually black shoes with either white or grey socks, been that way as long as I can remember. However, when my mum was a school girl she didn’t school shoes in fact she didn’t shoes to school at all till she started high school. Now days we can’t imagine sending our child to school barefoot even if it was allowed.

Now back to what I was saying about thongs, I wear thongs a lot have done most of my life but out of my 4 grandchildren, none, zero,nadda wear thongs which to be honest is somewhat annoying as thongs are pretty cheap to buy and allow the foot to breathe and sweat and are in my opinion pretty good. Unless you are doing a lot of walking then not so good for me, I find if I was to try walking any distance in thongs my calves start to ache, my sister Sandra was saying only last Friday that she has the same problem if she tries to walk a distance in thongs.

My feet sweat a lot so I do like to be barefoot, but also because of how much my feet sweat I have to wear socks or stockings with my shoes (except thongs) or I will end up with blisters on my feet. In fact the last week or so I have been wearing booties to bed because I have this one toenail that keeps catching on the sheets and I feel if I am not careful I will end up with torn sheets.

So do you wear thongs?

While at home do you wear some kind of footwear?

Hello all it is now Monday and yes I know I have not posted since Thursday but Friday I am busy as and over the weekend I am doing other stuff like answering letter which I have had to do by hand as my printer is out of ink and yes I have been asking Tim for money to get the ink for like 2 months but the other day while doing a letter it stop and came up with a message saying I was out of black ink,

It is another bloody hot day here in Newie, this morning when my alarm went off I didn’t want to get up and in fact decided to lay there for 5 minutes more which of course turned into 30 minutes.

When I did manage to drag myself out of bed I naturally got dressed and went for a walk but had to cut it short as I was so very tired, when I was only a few feet from the back gate Leo came running out asking if I was ok and saying he was glad that I came back home safely.

I wanted to go to the library today but just couldn’t get motivated to do anything, the house although is nice and clean but that is thanks to Natasha who cleaned and vacuumed out complaining about one thing after another.

Tim is off work today he put in for a sick day as he didn’t get home till 2.30am and had to go and have blood taken, he is being tested for diabetes.

I of course will have to go and get the boys from school in an hour or so, I can tell you I really want to go to sleep but of course don’t have time to do that and by the time I get back from getting the boys it will be too late in the day for a nap.

We all know that it was Valentine’s Day yesterday and you know what I did, I made a chicken and bacon pasta bake for lunch, although Natasha was unable to be here for lunch as she was working doing rail. Tim and I don’t do anything for Valentine’s Day as a rule and yesterday was the same, Tim always says he doesn’t need a special day to show me he loves me and for the most part I agree.

29 years ago Tim said I gave him the best Valentine’s Day present ever, aka, Natasha she was born at around 11pm on Valentine’s Day weight 7lb 13oz she was my biggest baby and my smallest daughter now she is only 4’7” and oh so tiny.

Let’s go back to Leo for a moment he told me on the way to school that he thinks I am the best nanna, so soft and cuddly and kind and loving and he likes me taking him to school.

Yesterday afternoon Jessica rang me crying that her house was disgusting and had mould everywhere and she didn’t know how to clean it so I went over and helped her out, there was not much mould at all and the way she carried on was ridiculous. I got mad with her and told her to get a grip she wasn’t helping and really how hard is it to clean. Both Natasha and I have suggested to her that she might want to pay someone to come in and clean her house for a couple of hours a fortnight, to which she says “I don’t want strangers in my house” ok then start doing it yourself. She wants to pay Natasha to clean but since Natasha is a cleaner from Monday to Friday she doesn’t want to clean on the weekend she would just rather chill and do nothing. I get that but I don’t think Jessica does.

Damn I am feeling unwell, I really want to sleep but can’t I have to leave in 15 minutes to go get the boys from school.

Many years ago I took my grandparents for granted, they were always there, I spent a fair amount of time with them as a child, in fact just after I was born my parents lived with mum’s parents for a few months. 

Of course you all know that I try and go to see my nanna each week, she will be 95 this year and even though I love her and like going to see her, it would be a blessing if she passed away as she has no life she just exists from day to day. 

It wasn’t till I became a grandparent that I realised how wonderful it is to have grandchildren, I love all 4 of mine the same and different at the same time. As most will know I now have my eldest grandson Blain living here with me and pappa (Tim) and of course his mum. 

So this is a post for grandparents.

Hi all there was no post yesterday, why? I have no idea other then the fact that I was busy in the morning had to go to the chemist to get a script filled, although when I get to the chemist I find out that I do not have a script for the medication that I needed, so they lent me a script so Thursday will see me off to the doctor to get prescriptions.

Yesterday saw both Blain and Leo having swimming carnivals, both boys had a good time and the weather was great not too hot and not wet so pretty good.

This morning I over slept and didn’t wake up till Leo came in and woke me, so no morning walk as when I got up it was raining and I don’t walk in the rain.

You know when I was a child I do not remember people walking just for the sake of walking people walked to and from different places, I always walked to school unless it was wet and sometimes if it was stinking bloody hot. I do not remember my mum going for a walk just for the sake of it.

I used to walk my girls to and from school, this I did because I was worried about them walking on their own and told them that I was walking with them for the exercise but as I just said that wasn’t the whole truth. If they thought I was walking with them because I was worried about them they would get their knickers in a knot.

I like to go for my walk early in the morning and I like to go alone, no music or anyone with me to annoy me just me all alone. I usually like to think about how cool it would be if I won Loto, how I would spend the money and such.

Do you remember people walking for the sake of walking when you were a child?

Of course most days by the time I get home I am in pain, a lot of pain with my back some days it is an effort to put one foot in front of the other but most days I manage it.

Somehow my alarm clock has been changed the time isn’t right and the alarm isn’t going off which is somewhat annoying, I will have to take some time today and look at it and see if I can fix it. This morning I woke up to Leo saying morning nan rise and shine. It wasn’t that late though it was around 6.50am but still didn’t have the time for a walk and now I will post his before I go and take Leo to school.

Hello everyone, hope your day is or has been a good one, we are having another cool wet day here, I was lucky to get my walk done with before it started to rain.

Tim and Jessica drove to Williamtown/Newcastle airport to pick up a rental car, Jessica would like to learn to drive a manual so earlier in the week Tim rang around and found some place that hired manual cars. Anyway the get there and are told it would cost $400 for the day what the hell, no bloody way they were paying that type of money, they were told because it was being paid for with debt card not a credit card that it cost so much. Tim told them to forget it he wasn’t paying that much money. What a waste of time.

This morning I have 3 out of 4 grandchildren here, Kathy is also here but she is having a nap, the girls have been keeping her awake a lot at night and really doing her head in with not listening to her and demanding her attention all the damn time. She rang me while I was out walking this morning and she sounded terrible, I told her she could come over and have a nap here if she wanted to and she did.

Tim said he had a terrible night not being able to sleep and waking up a lot during the night and at 3am when he woke up he realised that Natasha wasn’t home so he rang her to see where she was, he was worried about her as she is usually home long before 3am. Nothing was wrong it is just the woman she works with, she is a gossip and will stand around talking why Natasha does the work which as you can imagine pisses Natasha off no end. So she is somewhat tired today.

Tim decided that he wanted to turn his hand to making a meal using the slow cooker, he has prepared everything it is just chicken legs and veggies with leek all mixed together in the slow cooker. I have never tired leek so have no idea if I like it or not but I am all for giving it a try. I told Tim if he is using the slow cooker he has to get it in and started before lunch so it will be ready for tea time/dinner time.

I have to take back a bottle of Pepsi Max I bought yesterday as when I opened it last night it was flat as, so I rang the store straight away and complained and let them know I would take it back today couldn’t do it yesterday afternoon didn’t feel like going out again. I like to ring straight away so I have no dramas when I take it back the following day.

Ok started this in the am but finishing it in the pm so all I am going to add is that I am now posting and then I will either read some more blogs or answer some letters.

After some really hot days we have today quiet cool and very wet, but of course it has to be like that since this morning we had the lounge suite cleaned which of course means I cannot sit in my armchair and put my feet up. I am expecting it to take hours for the lounge to dry also why he was here Tim had him clean the carpet in the lounge and hallway so wet carpet, wet lounge and raining so all in all not feeling a happy chappy.

This morning we went to see nan, yes I know it is Thursday but we have been going on Thursday instead of Wednesday as dad has appointments of Wednesday and mum would feel to rushed if we went to see nan.

Leo starts his swimming lessons tomorrow I hope all goes well for him, I sent Jessica a message reminding her that they start and he will need to take swimmers or boardies for him, I have a beach towel he can take with him.

As everyone might have realised that the photo I posted yesterday was the bed Tim made in his office for Leo to use when he sleeps over, Leo really likes the bed he likes how he can sit up in bed and play his Xbox or watch cartoons.