a better week...

Finding a bit of motivation again.Looking forward to kids going back to school, hoping we can all gain some more routine/organisation in our lives.I purchased and downloaded the companion from here: http://www.busymothers.com.au/
and only been using it a few days but already feeling a little more organised, still have lots to fill in it though.

Things with Joey are good, for now. I am still apprehensive though. We've ridden this ride before but this does seem different, we're focusing on getting ourselves help being respectful, and being caring. again kkeeping it simple, it is making for a happier household when we are all together.

The house is still in chaos, this week i am going to try leave work a litle earlier each day, pick kids up from school and come home and do alitle bit each day to try get back on top. I did sort stacks of the washing which was amammoth task but there is still more to go.

breathing

something I can manage on a daily basis... breathing. moving through the motions.

Things are improving all the time, its stilla roller coaster. We still live together mostly though we share using the back of my studio for a break form each other and form the kids. Love the studio, its so clean, very minimalistic and easy to relax there.

Home is still a mess, a real overwhelming chaotic cluttered mess. I truly believe it impacts on our mental health living like this.

I need to break it down into little baby steps to achieve organisation. I am off to hunt websites for tips (not flylady been there done that hated the emails!)

a fresh start...

a week and a half ago my 10 year relatioship ended.

At present we are still mostly living together as we sort the best plan of action for our children and for us.

It is a weight that has been lifted from over me. I feel many mixed emotions. sadness through to relief.

I look forward to living a life that will make me happy, whether that be alone, back with him or eventually with someone new. Not making any grand decisions on that, for now I live for me and the children, doing the best I can.

I plan to post here, some posts will be hidden for me, as a record of my growth, many posts will be shared.

I feel my relationship has been a huge contributor to my ups and downs on staying focused on my goals and plans.

This week I have simple plans and goals.

This week I plan to organise the unti behind my studio so I can stay there when needed.
My plan is to continue witht he decluttering of my house at home where the kids are.

Today my goal is to finish declutering my wadrobe. So at least every day I know where my clothes are.

its the simple little things.

I am a hopeless blogger

I think partly because I keep too many blogs, because I get busy and different things take different preference at different times in my life.

Anyway... I'm back, its been 4 months since my last blog post....

LOTS has happened in that time.

The biggest news is i took a shopfront for my business, so am now located at 81 Poath Rd Murrumbena, 3163 for any melbournites who ever want to pop by for a visit! I took the lease early march and spent a lot of the next few weeks renovating the place then shopping and moving in! Its still not finished but is great to finally seperate home and work. I LOVE that work is left at work and when I come home I am just 'me' not worker me. The kids like it more too I think! I'll have to get some photos and post them in here soon.

Personally lots has happened, I finally finally gave up smoking, 100% for good. Its been around 2 months now and I feel so much better for it!

I finally had my hip operation last week, it was found I had torn the ligements across the hip joint, or so i think thats what he said post op when the surgeon visited me! I see him tomorrow for a check up so will find out more then. hopefully this will mean I can start gettigng active again in a few weeks time.

Pet wise we have grown our menagerie by 2 more chooks so we are back at 7 again now. The girls are all still laying well , most giving us an egg every day. the 2 new are only 12 weeks or so old now so are living in the over sized rabbit hutch until they are bigger and can start mixing with the other girls.

We lost one of our guinea pigs a few weeks ago, poor thing, it was the one we adopted a year or so ago form the animal shelter, we knew she ws old when we got her but really no idea how old so no idea how or why she died. At first I was concerned it was neglect as with me growing the business, the hubby has been doing more round the house and taking over what was my role here as he isnt working much at all, but then found out that indeed piggy was still being fed regularly so prob just old age.

Garden wise, its in dire dire need of attention!

Houe wise, ah yep same as garden!

But life is good and I want to try post back here a bit more often.

Simple Womans Day Book

I found the simple womans daybook's blog (click header above to take you there) recently and love the idea of reflecting on the simple things in life. At taking time to look at these things.
FOR TODAY JANUARY 4TH...

Outside my window... the sun is shining, washing is drying on the line

I am thinking... how much nicer the house looks after spending abit of time cleaning this morning.

I am thankful for... my health, my lovely children

From the kitchen... I'm wanting to cook some recipes form new vegetarian cookbook I got for christmas. I made a really tasty mushroom, sun dried tomato, green bean and cream fettucini this week.

I am wearing... Jeans, barefeet and a singlet top

I am creating... a book of photos for january 09, a photo each day documenting our lives.

I am going... for a bike ride this evening when it cools down... some me time, some down time.

I am reading... The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I am hoping... that the shop front i am looking at this week either works out or inspires me to move my work out of the home environment.

I am hearing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtqjmuUaYXA

Around the house... am doing a lot of decluttering, sorting and rearranging! Today though I vaccuumed the enitre house, did 3 loads of washing and soon to do a HUGE pile of dishes, need to get on top of it all before going back to work tomorrow.

One of my favorite things... relaxing in the tub with a good book... which is something I actually did first thing this morning!

A few plans for the rest of the week: plan to visit my grandmother, she is respite care as my dad who lives with her normally has gone on holidays. start cleaning out the front lounge room and knock out the current bar in there.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

I quit

I'm putting this out there publicly. This is something i am a bit embarrassed by! I am a smoker. Yes a revolting yukky smoker. I dont smoke a lot, smoke more when drinking but have found myself over the last year smoking more often during the day. I noticed myself creeping up to 3 packs of 20's a week, waaaaay too much!

So today I've QUIT!

Its all good so far, probably helps I had a few wines last night so certainly don't feel like smoking much anyway. I'm going to go to the chemist tomorrow and get some gum and possibly the weaker patches. I'm going to limit my drinking over the next few weeks as that is certainly when I am weakest.

I will do this!

another month on!

I havent done an update for quite a while again!

I will get back to regular blogging here eventually!

I took a month off work and spent lots of time wiht the kids which was good, also went away to the beach for a week which was also relaxing (or as relaxing as 6 plus kids in a small 3 bedroom house can be!)

I'm still going along with most things.

The chooks are giving us lots of eggs and boy are they yummy! I think 2 are still not yet laying, but the rest are and we get 4 eggs most days. I'm having alittle bit of drama with themlaying where they please at present instead of in their house as they free range from sun rise til sun set!

Our bunnies and guonea pigs are great, all healthy and thriving and all the animals are giving us loads of mulch and manure for the garden. I have been heaping it below the lemon tree and the tree looks healthy now. I'll have to take a photo.

I'm participating in FebFast
http://www.everydayhero.com.au/Susan_Darcy
If you wish to sponsor me you can but please don't feel you have to. I just think its a good idea health wise for me and also to raise funds for youth drug and alcohol users.

The vegie garden is going OK. The lettuce/silverbeet bed has mostly gone to seed so i am hoping to get a fair amount of lettuce seed for future use as the guineas and rabbits love it all.
The tomatoes have been great though the chooks stole a few! I have a few plants I planted later that are just coming in to ripen now and the other ones are nearly ready to pull out.

We've been enjoying plundering the potato patch and feasting on home grown spuds! This is first time I have had success with spuds!

The garden does need a bit of work though. I need to plant more and start preparing the front beds and try to improve he soil. Everything out the front stayed stunted all season, very weird! I need to do a soil test still, I just didnt rush due to holidays and being busy.

I'm still knitting, still only dish cloths though i did knit wrap to use for photo sessions for newborns!

thats it for now. Lots more to update but will do it later :)

so much more relaxed!

ahhhhh


I am sooooo pleased xmas has finally passed!

I have some time off work (ok I still have a little work but nothing like the pre xmas pressure!) and have been potteirng in the garden, spedning time wiht the kids and animals. making plans (like my list) and just feeling oh so much more relaxed!

I must get ut and get more garden photos! I did some more planting this week. Transplanted a heap of silverbeet that I planted from seed a while ago. I also planted more seed of radish, corn, and coriander a day or so ago.

I am going to fence off two more of the garden beds as the chooks are grabbing the tomatoes the moment they start to turn red at all and thats just not on :)
The rabbits have gutted one garden bed and I have added heaps of their litter waste to it so will do some planting in that soon and then start to prepare the front beds to attempt some sort of winter garden.

I havent grown a winter vegie garden before. Being in Melbourne its always a bit colder so more difficult. This year I am going to try and start a bit earlier in the hope of getting it better established!

On a side note, I have many new plans for my photography bsuiness in the coming new year. I am going to expand into pet photography (so if you are in melb and have a pet you'd like done, send me a message at pets at susandarcy.com.au as I need a few to do for free or cheap to add to the port folio! I am after a variety of pets, not just your standard dogs and cats!)

Also business wise I am really going to push the 'green' message more in the coming year through my business. So if you have a local product or service that falls in any way under the 'green' banner (I'm pretty open) then again send me an email to green at susandarcy.com.au so we can discuss some promo of your product/service!

I think I might go bask in the glorious sunshine now! its so nice to be on holidays!

echo echo echo.......

Yes yes I'm here :)

Thanks for the messages asking after me :)

The biggest reason for my absence in posting is that this time of year is the busiest for me business wise. I am behind business wise also which isn't at all good. Everyone wants photos in time for xmas, every year I say I will organise it better and havent managed yet again. I will rectify it though and I will get on top. Plus I am shutting up shop for 6-8 weeks over december/Jan to be ready to start afresh all organised in the new year.

Now lets see, other than work.

Queensland:
It was really great! I worked but most of my jobs finished by 10am so I had the days to explore. I drove all along the coast (from Brisbane down the gold coast) and also drove inland and through the part of the hinterlands and Mt Tambourine. I loved tamborine it was gogeous!
I sipped wine with new friends often and ate fabulous often too and I made the most of my child free time but just enjoying the peace.
Poor Husband at home ended up haivng to deal with 2 sick kids with gastro! Oh well, he definitely had a new appreciation for me once I got home!

The Garden:
Out the back is growing great! My Tomatoes are thriving, I also have them self sprouting everywhere form lasts years crops so have transplanted some and given some away.
One chilli plant died but the other 2 are going really well. zuchini, pumpkin, cucumbers, beans, lettuces are all going great. some of the capsicums are thriving too.
Out the front is a different story.
I think the soil sucks! I used mostly a heap of dirt we got from someone who mulched a tree. The father in law brought it home and I didnt really want it at the time but hoped it would be OK. I added manure and compost and blood and bone to it but nothing wants to grow in it.
Everythign is turning yellow and dying and just stunted in growth. I am now adding lots of the animal litter to itin the hope it improves in time. i am going to transplant heaps of the self seeded tomatoes to it and just see what happens. I focused more out the back this year anyway.
Oh my potatoes out the back are booming too as is my passionfruit. I have recently planted a heap of seed too - radishes, silverbeet, spring onion, parsnip, carots and some lettuce out the back beds too and they have all sprouted now.
My lemon tree seems to have coped so far wiht the heavy prune I gave it and is starting to show alot of new growth. I pile most of the animal hay and litter under it all the time too so maybe thats helped.
I reconnected the hose fomr the washing machine this week too as the grass is already starting to really brown and die, earlier this year!

The house:
is CHAOS!!!!!!
Because I am snowed under wiht work the house has been sorely nelgected!!!! I just aim for the bare basics each day and am happy if that gets done. I think I might to get osme paid help in to get back on top :(

The Kids:
are all great!

The animals:
are all growing! Stella the rabbit is gorgeous. she free roams out the back now as well as the house. she eats form the vegie garden but doesnt demolish it, probably because there is plenty there. The guinea pigs are all gettign bigger and healthier.
The dog is the same old same old. actually we realised she is getting old! she is about 13 or so now!

The worm farm:
takes care of itself mostly :) I just add every few days and they are multiplying well now!

Op shopping:
I still go most weeks, if not more than once a week. Its my release! I've picked up loads of great books and stuff for the kids. When i have more tiem I'll start reposting my bargains!

Oh I am still knitting, still basically, nothign fancy but i am building a collection of dish cloths now and I find it really relaxing!

NEWS!
After much discussion we are seriously considering selling in a year or so and moving into the Dandenongs! very exciting!

I am sure there is heaps I have forgotten but will try to get back to more photos and updates :)

Just so you have at least one photo here is my Bunny Stella, taken this morning in one of the vegie gardens.
isnt she pretty :)

busy busy.

I haven't posted an update all weekend!
I'll try to keep it brief.
Saturday:
was spent doing a lot of cleaning round the house, a bit of catching up. No work in the garden, just lots of sorting and tidying inside. Joey also took the kids to see the Simpsons movie and I got a few hours peace!
Sunday:
More cleaning was done (some days it feels like it is never ending!) then it was out into the garden!
The kids helped build one of the top vegie beds and turn the dirt.
I then emptied the compost and moved it and gave it a good turning as I refilled it. i also was able to get quite a few buckets of it to use on the garden beds. I then trimmed the lemon tree, it has some strange growth happening, bulbous bits? might have to look it up and see if its something bad or not!
Here are the girls hard at work.


Jaime loves helping in the garden and seeing what friends she can find.


My little man and his cheesy grin, gone are the days of natural images of him, you have to fast or you get the cheese!Monday:
Went op shopping with my sister. Got loads of great buys. Havent taken pictures but got loads of books, some parenting ones, some cooking, some gardening. Got some great outfits for the girls, skirts and dresses. I got myself a new handbag (will take a photo during the week and post it) I also went shopping for an outfit for jaime for book week parade.
I picked up some seed potato too for planting, 1 kilo of it. Now need to get that bed ready down the side of the house.

Today: The girls had a bookweek dress up day at school today. They had to choose a character form a book and dress like them.
My eldest Tiahna, dressed as a netballer as she is reading the 'netball diary' and jaime dressed as 'Holly Hobbie'
Jaime's book is actually my book form when i was a child, It was one of my favs. I still adore the illustrations in it.
with her teacher who was dressed as 'puss in boots'


I so want to learn how to sew. We had to buy a hat for Jaime as I can't sew so couldn't make her abonnet. The apron and dress we scored dirt cheap at the op shop though.

Operation Study/Office

Hmmm this post is quite embarrassing really but I look forward to the end result so am going to just share, if you think I am a pig so be it :)

So, I work form home. I'm a photographer as I have mentioned before. I spend a bit of time on the omputer editing images. I have lots of paper clutter/prints etc etc.

It's now out of control.
I hate hate hate doing my paperwork, for either house or business, so I let it pile up , and pile up it has!
This is by far the messiest most cluttered room in the house.
It's time to change that!


So this is where I currently 'chat' to you all through here :)
Some of what's in the picture:
- my mac laptop
- my ball (my seat)
- toaster (that stopped working over a year ago!!)
-all my camera bags and gear
- my client display folder and display boards
-post it notes stuck to the wall to remind me what needs to be done :)
- 2006 organiser on the wall on the right.
- books I am freecycling
- books I bought for me recently
- stuff i am ebaying.

EEK! IT's just way too cluttered, not good for the mind!




So I'm moving, I'll be joining Joey in the above room (taken from 2 views as its a bigger room)
the table on the right is coming out, the bed is going in my current office (the clutter room once cleared) filing cabinets will move to other wall and my new (well freecycle new) huge desk will go next to Joeys desk.

This is a BIG BIG job of organising and decluttering.
Will take a while.

Neighbours

When we were looking to buy a house a few years ago we never imagined we would live in a street like we do now. Actually when we I first found this house Joey didnt want to come look at it as it is a weatherboard. I convinced him to come look and we both fell in love with the place straight off!

We live in a court (or cul-de-sac) and we live down the bottom in the bowl. I remember in the early days of living here a few of the neighbours came by and said hello, they all introduced themselves if they saw us in the street. In quite a short time we soon knew everyone in the bottom half of the court and had met the rest of the street also.

In the 3 years that we have been here we have made wonderful relationships with our neighbours.
I have made 2 wonderful female friends, our kids play and we get along fantastic. We have street parties and bbq's at each others places, dinners and drinks and lots of plays with the kids. We have babysitters that we very much lacked before moving here (a godsend for us especially as both mine and Joeys mums are no longer with us).
People help out, they help with the house, the garden, fixing things etc, with the kids and more!
We dont just live in a court, we live ina community, it really is great!

So back to today
Today we had a working bee at the neighbours house. My sister was over for the day so she helped too as did another neighbour up the street.
We worked on extending her vegie patch. The men built the fence (it has to be fully closed in as they have 2 large dogs who would love to dig it up!) and we weeded and dug out all of the beds and added compost and manure and dug it through. We also painted the lot and dug out a dead tree form the front and planted a new tree. Took most of the day but it feels nice to be working outdoors and even nicer working together with others.

After the days working everycame to our place for tea. There was heaps of salad in the vegie beds sprouted form ones gone to seed last season so the kids had salad and sausage rolls and i cooked up a lentil shepherds pie for the adults which we too had salad with.
(my neighbour said her husband wouldnt eat it as it had no meat and so many vegies in it, I told her that we wouldnt tell him til after he ate it that it wasnt meat, we just said it was shepherds pie, he ate 2 platefuls and shocked when we told him it had no meat in it! LOL)
I have 5 bags of salad to distribute at school tomorrow morning to the mums (they were all complaining of the price of it today and there was such a surplus even after each neighbour taking some for themselves, that is seems only fair to take some and share it round.)

Then after dinner i went for a jog, yes a jog!!! with another neighbour, just in our street which is hard enough as the court starts at the top of a hill and we live at the bottom so we jogged up and down!

A good day!

Well thats another rambling post :)

Menu Planning and some rambling.

Firstly 1 week of no smoking! woohoo, feeling really good about it!

I was chatting with Joey today (the other half) saying how good i felt and how I feel I am getting more organised, healthier etc etc. I was talking about how after my mum died (august 1st 2004) how I got stuck right into the garden as a way of coping and for stress relief and how it really helped, how I started to go to the gym and walk often a few months after she passed away and I felt good, it again helped me cope, How I used to be more organised, I used to menu plan, cook new meals each week and just generally take better care of myself. Then on the week before her 1 yr anniversary of her death we lost Damian, a very special friend the world just crashed around me. Over the past 2 years I have gained a fair amount of weight (am currently 97-98 kilos was 80 kilos the day of his death and was at the gym 4 times a week as well other excercise) I became super disorganised and struggled with day to day tasks.
My partner and i also separated last year for 6 months which added to the stress that was mounting in my life. Physically after my mums death I was not in a good way either due to damaging my pelvis during the birth of my son.

That all sounds quite depressing, but sometimes I think we need to look at some of the things we have overcome and gotten through in life to better appreciate the things that make us happy, to better notice when we are taking good care of ourselves, when things are going good.

For me, things are good and I like being able to say that. Not perfect, but thats all the fun of it. I am now back into gardening, have goals, ideas, plans and am acting on them. I am a lot happier than I have been for a while and it feels good.

So after that ramble! Today we picked up and delivered a washing machine from freecycle to my brother in law who hasn't had a working one for a very long time, as we did it we smiled at our good deed done for the day! We then went to the shops and had some yummy sushi and sahimi as alate lunch and then did the food shopping. I was craving roast lamb so thats what is cooking now in the oven! One thing I thought of whilst shopping is how I really need to get back to menu planning, it saves money and means we eat variety and helps us to be more organised.

So after all that rambling here is my proposed next fortnights menu plan!

Sun: Roast lamb and vegies
Mon: Lentil shepherds pie
Tues: Pork noodle stir fry/sausages and veg for kids
Wed: Osso Bucco casserole
Thurs: Marinated chicken pieces and vegies
Fri:Fried rice and honey soy chicken
Sat: Take away/fend for yourself night.
Sun: Roast Pork (in camp oven)
Mon: Lasagna
Tues: Tofu noodle stir fry
Wed: Chicken curry/ sausages and veg for kids
Thurs: Quiche and salad
Fri: Chow mein
Sat: take away/fend for yourself night.

Saturday

On Saturdays I usually work, its the nature of my job, weekend work. For those that don't know I am a photographer, I photograph pregnant women, newborns, children families etc. I specialise in black and white and used to be a darkroom junkie, but have now entered the digital age.
So because I photograph children and families I often work weekends. The great thing about working for myself and the type of job i have means I am not usually gone long when I do go to a shoot and I do only do 3 shoots on average a week so I can be around at home more and be there for the kids etc.

So yes when I have a complete weekend off it is special, so today i decided to NOT sit inside all day!

This morning we all went down and watched my daughter play netball, then afterwards we participated in some local tree planting!
They were planting at the reserve next to netball so we stayed and planted for an hour and grabbed some great info on the local environmental group and also on more plantings in the coming weeks that we will go along and help out on.

Then I dropped everyone off at home and I ducked over to pick up some match box cars that had been offered up on Freecycle. Freecycle is great. I wouldn't have bothered with these cars if they weren't in my same suburb , just round the corner and my son is car crazy so he was most impressed!





Once home I took the kids out the front and let the other half sleep as he is working night shift tonight, we got stuck right into shovelling all the dirt onto the main two front beds. (ignore the smaller ones, that was my 3 year olds help, they need completely reshaping and redoing, but hey he tried to help!) we then added some blood and bone and some organic fertiliser and mixed it all in. Have to get some manure to ad to it then mix that in then lay a nice thick bed of straw over the top then we can think about planting!!



My girls, such pretty little sweet things they are!

Day 5

5 days since i quit and I am doing just fine :)
I was a bit feral on day 1 and 2 but am feeling a lot more human now!

I haven't been in the garden this week due to work commitments but if the weather is good on the weekend I will be able to keep progressing with it all.
I have asked on my local freecycle group for any items to help wiht building the chook house, not sure if I'll get a response, I'm a little stuck wiht it as i am not a builder by any means!

Yesterday I taught a photography class at the breastfeeding assosciations Hot Milk conference. I have supported the ABA for many years now as i think that breastfeeding is a winderful thing to promote.

Teaching the class as interesting. I realised again my fear of public speaking. Initially I absolutely froze, felt myself go bright red! The class was difficult too as everyone had different cameras, some point and shoots some slrs and all different makes and models, then there were some with no cameras at all.
So I turned the class more into a long question and answer session. That was challenging as I was put on the spot but was able to answer everyone well enough I think!

I'm not entirely sure teaching is at all my forte in life, but hey I gave it a go!

Hopefully I'll be back after the weekend with some more updated garden images!

Day 1.

What a day!


Firstly I have a confession to make!

I quit smoking today. Hence the day 1 title.

I have never really been a full time smoker in my life but was leaning more that way in recent months. I'v always been a bit of a social smoker who will have one when out having drinks with friends. Then my mother died 3 years ago from lung cancer so i vowed to not smoke again. I had already not smoked for over a year due to being pregnant and then having a baby who was 4 months old when my mum passed.

Then 12 months after my mum passed my best friend was tragically killed in a car accidnet. that night I started smoking. I figured I had it under control, it was a stress thing for the few weeks after his death then it went back to being a social thing.

Again I quit a few months later to only take it up again when I seperated from my partner last year for 6 months. The stress form that was huge and for me smoking was one of my crutches i used to help me through.
I stopped at new years for 4 weeks then after a huge argument one day i started again.

So fast forward to now and the last few months my partner and I have gotten back together and things have been improving (except today but thats another story) I feel I have gotten a bit of 'me' back the last few months and I have not liked the fact I was smoking. Unfortuantly it isn't that easy to just stop.

But I am going to do it. I had my last one last night and will not have anymore. I was sititng outside last ngiht having it and was looking at my worm farm, thinking of the plans for the vegies, the chooks etc and thought how silly that I want all that yet I'm doing somethign so harmful to myself and i am sure has to be harmful to the environemnt also!

Now on a very positive note I had my working bee wiht my two female neighbour friends today! It was very productive!

We started out the front and laid newspaper over one of the larger no dig beds then shovelled a good pile of dirt form the big dirt pile that was out there.

We then headed out the back t do the chook run area.
we spent all afternoon on it and it is now ready to have the fence fixed and to start on the chook house!

This is just some of what we found under the grass/weeds
-about 40 besser blocks
-about 10-15 bricks
-about 20 heavy irons (used for hangis)
-one hangi basket
-some chicken wire
-some other wire
-corrugated tin
-2 large hoses
-some sort of pump?
-lots of wood
-2 large bread trays

and more!




We filled 3 red bins with weeds and scraps.
This is as much as we are weeding, the chooks will enjoy the rest.



I am absolutely aching, it was all very hard work but good in many ways!