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Category Archives: In the home

Vinegar Cleaning

Written on May 24th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Going green, Handmade, In the home, Saving money

I know a lot of people are aware that white vinegar is an awesome way to clean the home. It’s cheap, doesn’t contain nasty chemicals and is much healthier for the family. It’s also far better for the environment than harsh chemical cleaners.

I’ve been using white vinegar for many years now. I started out just using it mixed with essential oils such as lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree and lemon scented tea tree. Of course, there’s many other great oils that can be added, but these were the ones I regularly used.

Now, living out here in the middle of whoop-whoop, it’s a little more of an effort for me to just race to the shops to grab some essential oil. Sometimes I’ve needed to clean the house then and there, without time to replace those empty essential oil bottles. What’s that saying? Necessity being the mother of invention? Anyway. Maybe someone else has already come up with this idea, I don’t know.

I’ve been a little bit mean with some of you on facebook, asking you guys to guess what I’m doing with the bottles in the picture above. These are three white vinegar bottles that were empty to start with. I’ve picked some plants from the garden (from left to right in the photo): wormwood, lavender and mint.

How to make it:

I’ve picked as much of each as I could carry, then chopped it finely. I pushed them into the empty bottles, then topped them up with white vinegar. So basically, they’re pickled herbs, and when they’re ready to be used, need to be strained first. I am saving the wormwood for summer when the flies really get out of hand around here. The lavender just smells pretty and is so soothing. (Don’t use in pregnancy, though). I’ve also heard that floors mopped with mint essential oils mixed with vinegar can deter mice, so I’m curious as to whether or not it’d worked with my pickled mint. I’ll update this blog as I find out.

I’ve found, having made these concoctions a few weeks ago, that the wormwood becomes potent quite fast. The lavender needs a little longer, perhaps a week or two, and the mint needed the longest. In fact, the mint smelt like salad dressing for a long time! It’s only now, a few weeks down the track that it actually smells like mint! I’ve heard that slugs dislike mandarin peel, so in future when I have some fresh peel, I’ll try pickling some to see if it’s useful. Because our home is over one hundred years old, we often get disgusting slugs on our floors!

The ways I’ve used this vinegar so far include:

- Making up spray bottles of one quarter vinegar solution and the rest, water. Makes a fantastic all-purpose spray cleaner.

- Adding a splash of this vinegar solution to the mopping bucket water.

- Mixing the solution with baking soda (also known as bi-carb of soda, they’re both the same thing) to make a paste. This makes a good scrubbing paste for cleaning the bathtub, shower, stovetop, etc. Basically, anything that requires a little extra ‘oomph’. (Edited to add: don’t mix vinegar and baking soda into a paste then store it in a container or bottle. It’ll explode! Just make up enough to use once at a time)

- To unblock the sink with baking soda

- As a final rinse in the washing machine.

…But the job my kids like doing best with pickled vinegar is scrubbing the cereal-encrusted dining table with a cloth nappy splashed with straight solution. How great is it to be able to get kids so involved in nature, and to be able to let them clean up safely without worry about them handling poisons?

As for me, I’ve not bothered buying any essential oil for cleaning for a few weeks, now. Don’t get me wrong, the oils mixed with vinegar are still by far cheaper than buying chemical cleaners. However, I’m so chuffed that I can use something natural, nice-smelling with useful properties (eg pest control), and it works out cheaper still!

I remember when I first began cleaning with vinegar all those years ago. I remember being gobsmacked at having less headaches in general, and not coughing and sneezing when I cleaned anymore. And it works just as well, if not better. Vinegar works as a disinfectant and an odour neutraliser. Of course, it does smell strongly for a few minutes, but once the smell fades, it takes those stinky house odours away with it.

I can’t wait to try some other plants/scents in this way. What do you think would be good ones to try?

Other reading:

How to clean carpet naturally

Homemade air freshener

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How do You Choose the Best Baby Formula?

Written on May 17th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Baby, Care, Challenges, Food, Health and beauty, May 2011

If you plan on feeding your baby formula milk, making a choice as to which brand to use can be a minefield. Manufacturers are not permitted to advertise their products, and in Australia, health professionals are prohibited from giving advice as to which brands are better than others.

Before I go on, I’m going to add this disclaimer: when I say, ‘if you plan on feeding your baby formula’, I’m referring to any situation that may call for this plan. You might be an adoptive mother or foster carer. You may have tried breast feeding and it didn’t work out. Or you may not want to breastfeed. This post is not about women’s reasons for using baby formula. Everybody knows that breast milk is the best possible way to feed an infant, and this is not an anti-breastfeeding post. I write this piece free of any judgement of any parent or carer who finds them self using baby formula.

In the ten years that I’ve been a parent, a lot has changed. I had my first child then, born a month premature. She was fed a combination of baby formula and my milk for the first two weeks; mostly my milk, though. I won’t go into the reasons why today, but breastfeeding ended up not working out for us, and so after two weeks, we switched her to formula. I was able to talk to health professionals about formula brands, and what the differences were. Some gave opinions on which were better than others or more suited to my daughter’s needs.

In hospital, the brand she was given was Enfalac, but by the time she arrived home, she was fully fed on breast milk. When I put her on formula, I started her on S-26. She had dreadful, painful constipation. Back then, the Tresillian nurse I spoke to on the phone was easily able to tell me that little babies such as my daughter don’t always do so well on S-26 due to it’s high iron and sodium content. She suggested I check the label for these levels, then choose a formula milk that had lower ones. We followed her advice, switched over to Karicare and voila! Crisis over. Happy baby.

Fast forward to six years later when I had our next child, my son. We breastfed for five weeks, then changed to formula after that. Oh my god! What a nightmare it was trying to get any useful information! The brands had changed in that time, and good old Tresillian this time were restricted from being able to advise me on which brands were better than others. I was kindly told this, and she muttered, ‘all I can say is, they’re pretty much all the same’. (Except, in my opinion, when you factor in that all children are individuals and react differently to different brands)

I googled the subject, and got no answers there, either. The only way I could find what I was looking for was to take myself to the store and research the labels myself. With a high-maintenance baby boy, I decided to wait until my partner came home so that he could help with bubs and I could take my time to read in peace.

So, how do you decide which formula to choose these days? If you need advice, who do you turn to?

It’s not great to change a baby’s formula regularly, as it can wreak havoc on their little tummies, so it’s no wonder as mums we feel the pressure to try to get it right as early as possible. I have some suggestions here on points you might like to consider before choosing a brand. Of course, if your child has reflux, lactose intolerance, is premature, or has other medical issues, definitely talk about this with your doctor.

Read the label

Pretty obvious, but read the nutritional information on the back of the tins at the shop, or your friends’ at their home. Do you want your baby to have omega-3′s added, or probiotics? Do you feel comfortable with the nutrients offered, in the amounts given?

Some people choose to boycott Nestle

Many of us are aware of this, and if you aren’t, you can read a brief summary on why here. I mostly boycotted Nestle, but I did go through a stage when formula feeding my son, where I did use it. It’s your choice, but it’s important to know what goes on behind the scenes so you can choose whether you want to vote with your dollar or not.

Think about your budget

Think about how often you get paid; is it weekly, fortnightly? How many tins will you need in that time? How much will this cost? Some brands are more expensive than others. Cost may not be a factor for some, but if it is for you, this could heavily influence the choice you make. The first formula my son started out with was Bellamy Organic formula. It was one of the more expensive ones. At the time, we could factor it into our budgets, and decided to use it. In the second half of his first year, we wanted to tighten our belts a little more, and so we then changed brands to Nestle, which was one of the cheaper options at that time. He was also on solids, so we felt not as bad doing this as we would’ve when we was a newborn.

Try to gauge availability of different brands

When I had my son on Bellamy organic formula, I was very happy with it, but sourcing it each week was often a nightmare. Stocks often ran low in my town, which made it difficult to buy on many occassions. I’d end up having to look for it in other towns, often spending a lot of time and money travelling to do this. This was almost five years ago though, and hopefully things have changed!

Obviously, I had no clue this was a problem when I started my son on this brand, otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen it. If you know other mums who are formula feeding, it’s a good idea to ask if they ever have problems with low stock for their brand, or if they’ve ever heard of it happening to mums who use other brands. It’s especially important if you don’t live in a metropolitan area.

Sometimes it takes trial and error

Despite our best attempts to choose carefully, sometimes certain brands simply don’t agree with our babies. Like the S-26 with my daughter. Or my son, with a particular brand (the name which now escapes me) with high levels of acidophilus. He got a terrible rash with that formula, and I had to switch to something that had no acidophilus instead. Although I said earlier that it’s not good to switch products regularly, sometimes the only way to know what’s best for your child is to experience it first hand.

Have you ever been in a position where you’ve used baby formula? How did you choose which brand to use? Who did you turn to for advice? What would your advice be to other mums in this situation?

Other reading:

Baby formula in Australia – brands sold, where to buy and cost

Bottle feeding (all about infant formula)

Bottle feeding with formula

Our experience with baby led solids

The frugal baby

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Peeved.

Written on May 6th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, In the home, May 2011

There are no words (except for these words to tell you there are no words). I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

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How Can Mums Get the Exercise They Need?

Written on May 5th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Good times, Gross motor, Health and beauty, May 2011, Parenting, Saving money, School aged, Teens

I’ve been a lover of exercise since my late teens. Not the crappy PE-type exercise we did at school, or team sports. I’m more interested in workouts such as walking, using weights, aerobics and yoga. I’ve tried pilates in the past and enjoyed it, but I haven’t really gotten into it in a big way as yet.

When we lived in Sydney, we had *horrors* no car. We were in a fairly toffee-nosed suburb, and I would be walking to and from school, half an hour each way, twice a day. (Thankfully, I had some wonderful mum friends who’d offered to help me with lifts when I needed it) When my youngest started kindergarten (first year of ‘big’ school in NSW), I sported a pregnant belly. When my son was born, I’d be out pushing the pram, and very soon after, another pregnant belly. Then, I graduated to a double limosine-style pram, and I can tell you honestly, that put me through my paces. Once my fiance got sick and wasn’t working, I would leave the younger two kids with him as I took my eldest child to school, which made it faster, plus reduced the strain on my back, not having to push that heavy thing around so often.

There were only two types of responses I’d get from the other mums: horror (‘I couldn’t survive without a car!!’ Not really what one wants to hear when they’re trying to be stoic) and encouragement. I’m sure you can imagine which group I made a higher number of friends in! Although this regime was a little too extreme for my joints most of the time, I never had to watch my weight. I ate pretty much what I wanted. It was only once I stopped pushing that heavy pram that my metabolism slowed down a little. Once we got a new car a few months before we moved here, man, I got fat fast.

In some ways, I don’t regret taking such a drastic break from exercise for so long. I have a horrible hip injury from giving birth to my eldest daughter, and I find that an hour a day of exercise is perfect to stop it from jamming up. More than that just aggravates it. After so many years of walking two hours per day, five days a week, either pregnant and/or pushing prams, my body honestly needed the rest. I enjoy walking long distances, but the amount I was doing became a bit of a drag.

Since we’ve moved to a remote country town and need to drive to most places, my exercise slipped even more. You guessed it, I kept gaining weight. My hip started getting stuck and sore again. I’m only 5’1, and small-boned, so the slightest weight gain really puts a strain on my joints.

It’s funny; a year ago I wrote this post, about wanting to get into a new exercise routine. I dabbled in walking, but found it not so inspiring. A walk around the block in this town doesn’t take long at all, then once I’ve done that, I don’t know where to walk next! There are no hills, which I’m used to, and everything’s completely flat. I find it hard to raise a sweat at all, walking around the block. Having grown up as a child in a beach town, and now living further inland than I ever have before, has made me homesick for a good ocean walk. I found a walk I enjoyed, walking in the outskirts of town, and I loved it. No oceans of course, but lots of beautiful farms to look at, and dams with ducks swimming in them. Canola fields and sheep.

Being a new habit and a new town, I didn’t get to go walking as often as I would’ve liked. There was also my partner’s anxiety to consider. I couldn’t/can’t just up and leave the house or the kids with him whenever I feel like it. I’m needed here. It’s far too hot in summer for the farm walk, not to mention snaky.

Recently, my partner and I had a group meeting with his and my support workers about his situation. It became rapidly apparent that I had a need for relaxation, and fast! I suggested yoga, and suggestions of classes flew in, thick and fast. Being in a remote area, this would be costly for us in terms of petrol in addition to the cost of the actual class. I was pretty sure the class timetable wouldn’t fit into our schedule and I knew my chances at actually being able to do my yoga was heavily dependent on what sort of day my partner was having.

So, out of a need to bring some relaxation techniques into my life, I’ve stumbled into creating a fully-fledged work out area. We have an office attached to our shop, in which we had stored a tv and coffee table gathering dust until we found a spot for them. We went to Big W and purchased a simple book on yoga with a DVD yoga session attached for roughly $11.

The result evolved into this:

It’s nothing fancy, but hugely practical. I had a floor mat handy, so I used that to define the space (these were moved to the shop), and pad the concrete floor for extra comfort. (As you can see, the tv is quite grotty, but I took this photo soon after setting it up and cleaned up the area soon after)

I had a bunch of exercise dvds and equipment I hadn’t been using. I tried using them in the lounge room, but it was too disruptive with children so close by. Even if I waited until their bedtime, the two younger ones would be too distracted by what I was doing to sleep! So although this area started out solely for yoga, it’s opened up the opportunity to solve my exercise problem also. I can go to this area by myself when I know it suits my partner and do what needs to be done.

Once I started getting back into exercise, I realised how much I’d missed this! The stress release, the adrenaline, the feeling of accomplishment. I’ve had a little break from working out for the past few weeks as I’ve had the flu, but I honestly can’t wait to get back in there.

I know some mums who read this will be thinking, ‘that’s all well and good, but she has a separate shop, not everyone has that!’ and this is true. Trust me, I can relate, having moved from a cramped two-bedroom cottage housing five of us. I also know how it feels to get stuck in a fitness rut, completely willing to exercise, but finding it hard to make it actually happen, due to being a mum.

Here’s some tips I think might be helpful for mums who are truly finding it a challenge to get that much-needed workout time in:

Wear a pedometer during the day and work towards a step-count goal. Incidental exercise is recognised nowadays as being just as effective as time set aside to work out. It’s a good way to ease back into being more active. I did this a few times when we first moved here, and it encouraged me to do a little more, and planted the idea of looking for places to walk. (Admittedly, I was disappointed with the offerings, but just because it didn’t work for me this time, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t for others)

Look at your obstacles to exercise and try to find creative ways to make it happen. If you can see a chunk of time in your day where your kids can be looked after by someone else, make the most of that time. If gyms and classes don’t suit you due to money or clashing timetables, don’t let that be your reason to give up. If you are able to exercise with your kids and are happy to, then that’s great too. I personally prefer to exercise on my own at the moment, because I find the alone time is better for my stress levels.

Think about what you’ve got that could help you. Do you have an exercise bike or dumbells gathering dust? Don’t be put off using them just because you may not have been up until now. Maybe you just need to find a more suitable time/place to use them. Where would be the best place for you to exercise without disruption? What time would that be?

Ask for support. If you have a partner, ask them to help you make this happen. You might need them to look after the kids, or help move your family schedule around a little to ensure you get this time. Although my partner has severe mental illness and needs my help with a lot of things, there are still times in the day when he’s capable of spending time with the kids whilst I disappear to exercise.If you’re a single parent, can you get anyone to help you with the kids? If not, can you make walking to school with the kids your exercise? If your kids are older, you can ask them to respect this time of yours, and to avoid distracting you unless it’s urgent.

Where suitable, get the kids involved. It’s really dangerous to have little kids hanging around your treadmill, but there’s lots of ways kids can be involved. If you have a wii fit, you can play that together for some family fun, or run around together at the park or in your backyard. Sometimes Missy 10 will have a go of my yoga dvd. She loves the relaxation it brings, and I think it’s great that she finds a stress release right before the teen years. It’s also her NAPLAN year again, and usually she gets a little stressed about it. As mentioned, you can also walk together. I’m going to mention bike riding here too, because although I hate bikes with a passion, I know lots of family do this, enjoy it and it works for them.

Talk to other mums and find out what works for them. Often brainstorming and sharing ideas can lead to inspiration, especially if it’s a recommendation for a great gym or walking route. Also, let’s talk to each other here, share our ideas and see if we can add more solutions to this list.

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Making Pom Poms

Written on May 1st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Craft, Fine motor, Handmade, May 2011, Projects, Saving money, School aged

Yes, this is a pom-pom made from the french knitting kit I mentioned the other day. I’m not overly thrilled with it, because of the technique used to wind the wool on:

Having made pom poms in the past the old fashioned way (winding yarn around cardboard circles with a hole in the centre), Missy 10 and I both thought this would be much easier. It was, but we didn’t like the effect as much as how it turns out doing it the old fashioned way. There was a lot of trimming needed afterward to make it look circular, and we didn’t like how the tied-up centre turned out, either. It didn’t seem as secure. Violet Le Beaux recently made heart shaped pom poms by wrapping the yarn around something rectangular with great results, so it could be a personal preference thing. I’m determined to make some of her cute heart pom poms very soon though, I think they’d look awesome on the end of some beanie ties!

This is a great activity if you have a child who’d like to dabble in wool/yarn craft, but isnt yet confident/interested in learning to knit or crochet. It still provides yet another opportunity to work the fine motor muscles and to problem-solve. It can be pretty tricky cutting those loops of wool, so a child will have to dig deeper than using just average scissor skills! They won’t be able to cut all that yarn in one hit, and will have to learn other ways to do it, such as snipping just a little wool at a time.

Making pom poms with children also encourages them to concentrate on this task for a longer period than many other activities this generation likes to do. I think it’s good to involve children in activities which don’t necessarily provide instant gratification in a matter of minutes. As with most wool crafts, school aged children are given a chance to lengthen their attention span and to learn about patience.

When Missy 10 made her pom poms, she quickly learned that although it’s a simple project, these make great gifts. She made a toy for Sookie the cat, and we both gave some pom poms to Missy 3 to play with. She was over the moon to be able to carry them around and cuddle them. Missy 10 did attempt to decorate one pom-pom into a toy character, but unfortunately, Sookie tore it apart within seconds of its completion. In time, we’ll make more pom-poms, and show a bunch of cool things kids can make either for themselves or others.

In future, I’m thinking we’ll buy one of those plastic versions of the cardboard circles, as a compromise. It’s tedious cutting out cardboard every single time, after all.

This is the perfect weather in Australia to be snuggling up, making pom-poms. I have fond memories of making them as a child, and making funny toys out of them. What did you do with pom-poms when you were a child?

Other reading:

French knitting

Knitting project for children – finger puppets

Teaching kids to knit

Crochet for children and finger knitting

Flower looms

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School Holiday Craft – French Knitting

Written on April 29th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in April 2011, Craft, Fine motor, Handmade, Saving money, School aged

School holidays ended this week (sob!). Missy 10 kept herself busy these holidays with plenty of craft, which she loves. A few weeks prior to the holidays, I was in Big W and found this cute kit for roughly six bucks, so I made a point of grabbing it in advance (it was in the knitting section).

These are also sometimes called a ‘knitting nancy’. We thought this one looked really cute. It also came with a bonus pom-pom maker, which I’ll write another post on shortly.

This is a simple, cheap and fun activity for school aged children. It’s more of a structured activity than a creative one, but let’s face it, school-aged kids are ready and able to learn crafting techniques at this age, and enjoying mastering them. Once mastery is gained, creativity can come into play if the child chooses. They could use the cords created for decoration, for example on knitted toys (the post I’ve linked to wasn’t decorated with french knitting, I instead used i-cords, which looks very similar to french knitting and could be used in the same way), as ties on beanies or other clothing.

Kids are attracted to this craft for the fun, but they get so much more out of it than they realise (or need to know):

- This activity is highly cognitive, as they try to remember the steps in the sequence of french knitting. Kids are challenged to use trial and error, experimentation and problem solving, just to get the little loops over the spikes! Are they pulling the yarn too tightly? Is it too loose? Your child will be encouraged to reflect on the consequences of every attempt they make to get this to work, and tweak the way they try it on each next attempt.

- Eye-hand co-ordination is challenged quite a bit, as they really need to look at what they’re doing to make their own hands match what their eyes can see!

- Because this is very fine, close work compared to preschooler craft, it helps children to become more skilled at using their hands, strengthening them at the same time.

- It’s a beautiful way for parents or grandparents to spend with the kids in their life. I don’t think this generation values this sort of interaction as much as previous generations.

So many families are obsessed with filling each day up with play dates, extracurricular activities and so on. Whatever happened to spending time with the adults in a child’s life, learning new things with them? I love that when I craft with my daughter, it’s a perfect opportunity for her and I to slow down, de-stress and reconnect. I’m all too aware that soon she’ll be a teen. I’m all too aware that she spends so much time at school, and less time with her dad and I as a result.

I think once our kids start school, it’s so easy to let that time together slide and for parents to become disconnected from their children. We need, as a society, to re-claim that bond with our children. What better way to do that than by teaching them new things? And please, if you’re reading this, and you and/or your child aren’t crafty, don’t think that’s that’s the only way to spend time and connect with your school-aged child. I’ll be talking about lots of ways we can keep that bond alive with our older kids very soon.

Did you french knit as a kid? Did you have a wooden cotton spool with four nails bunged into the top, or did you have a store bought ‘knitting nancy’?

Other reading:

Knitting project for children – finger puppets

Teaching kids to knit – school holiday fun

Crochet for children

Flower looms

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Happy Birthday to Missy now 3

Written on April 26th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in April 2011, Good times, Handmade, Preschool aged, Projects

Can you believe it?? It feels like we only just celebrated her 2nd birthday, and yet here is our youngest daughter, growing up on us and turning three. I tell you, you can’t afford to blink with this parenting gig, can you?

I feel so guilty. I know she would’ve loved her very own birthday party, just like Missy 10 had last year. We were genuinely going to have one, then, argh! Life happened. I hadn’t gotten around to taking her to playgroup yet, so although we know some other little kids around her age, there wouldn’t be too many kids to invite, as we still settle into this town. Also, time really has gotten away on us. I’ve been weighing up my options with regard to visiting my mother, who as some of you would know, has recently had a stroke. She’s now in rehab, and doing much better than was originally expected. I’ve not been able to visit her yet, but want to as soon as I can.

Then, there’s the issue of my partner’s treatment. Would you believe he will be getting admitted to hospital after all, even after my recent announcement that he wouldn’t be? We’ve been making plans for that time, stepping up his appointments, getting extra workers, and so on. It’s basically been consuming all the time we’ve got, lately.

So yeah, not only do I feel guilt about so many things these days (and obviously, wanting to fix my blog back to its former glory or better), but I’m trying so hard to fight the feelings of guilt about giving Missy 3 a great birthday. I’ve been floundering under the pressure of everything going on lately, to the point where the time immediately after my mother’s stroke is just this blur that I don’t remember very well. I do know, though, that I wasn’t much help to anyone. I wasn’t writing down my partner’s appointments, or helping to ensure he was getting to them. It really felt that my brain had packed up and gone elsewhere. It still feels a little like that, but less so.

So, no party this year, and we managed to bugger up the cake as well! Because her birthday was on Sunday and all the shops were closed from Friday onward, we ended up giving her her birthday cake days earlier, because we had to buy a cake, due to not yet having an oven at this house. I was worried about confusing her, but she and the other two kids were happy, so that’s all that matters, and no amount of self-flagellation will make a difference.

Missy 3 and my mother actually share a birthday, too. I’m normally not able to talk to my mother on the phone, because the rehab doesn’t allow it, but they made an exception for her birthday. This was the first time I’d spoken to her since her stroke, so it was good to be able to catch up. Of course, it re-ignited the guilt about not having visited her and round and round we go… But hey, it was good for both of us, and made the day even better.

I made these two cute toys for Missy 3:

A knitted gingerbread man and snake. I know how much she adores the story, and she loves handmade things. I had been working on this toy for a while, and was pleasantly surprised to see how big and cuddly it ended up! As for the snake, I discovered a knitted rectangle in my sewing drawer the day before her birthday. It was for a door snake for blocking drafts that I started making a long time before I had our last two children. Knowing how crazy my daughter is for snakes (she likes to get pieces of wool and make believe they’re slithering all through the house), I quickly fashioned it into a cheerful snake toy.

Well. She hated the gingerbread man! (Keep in mind, I’d shown her the pattern months before, and she’d said she liked it) So, we talked about being polite when getting birthday presents, then gave it to Missy 10 who’s besotted with it. Missy 10 agreed that if fickle Missy 3 changed her mind later down the track, that she’d give it back (she knew I was planning to make one for her in future, also). Missy 3 has since teetered from loving the toy to loathing it. I think she’s just getting used to it…

She really loves the snake, which I find hilarious, given its simplicity and how little time it took to make it!

All in all, despite an insane amount of mummy guilt this year, it was a great day. I just keep reminding myself of the important things in all of this: the five of us got to spend time together as a family (we were expecting my partner to go to hospital before this, so we felt very lucky) and no matter what’s going on, how buggered up our plans have been this year, and how scrambled mummy’s brains are these days, is that she knows she’s loved. Everyday Missy 3 tells me, ‘I love you Mummy, I make you happy. You love me, and you make me happy’. In all of this craziness, I just have to hang onto the stuff that matters the most with both hands and know that that’s what will get us all through this. And you know what? Despite everything that (in my mind) went ‘wrong’, we all had a truly lovely day.

Now, please make me feel better by regaling me with your stories of birthday guilt!

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Cute Sandwich Cutter

Written on February 5th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Baby, February 2011, Food, In the home, Preschool aged, School aged, Toddler

I got this cute little gadget when I had a bento splurge recently at J List.

I get so bloody sick of making the same old boring sandwiches everyday. Sure, Missy 10 helps out when she can, but it’s nice to break up the monotony for the kids and I. All you do is press the cutter into a sandwich, and it cuts four bite-sized sandwiches with crusts removed. (The crust that was cut off was so thin, I was hardly wasting any at all)

I love that it’s probably easier than dragging a knife through the bread and ripping it. I love knowing that the kids are more likely to sit down for longer and actually eat what I’ve made them. Most of all, I love the smile it brings to their faces. Plus, it’s so much more fun to open your lunch box to something so cute.

PS – this isn’t a sponsored post, just something I bought myself and loved the idea of.

Other reading:

The origins of food

Kids growing mushrooms

Picking our mushrooms

Buying in bulk

Our fruit garden is planted

Mr Three makes pea and ham soup

Quick rice pudding for cheats

A BPA free home the tight-arse way

Homemade LCM’s

Our experience with baby led solids

How to prevent childhood obesity

School supplies on a budget

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What I did on the first day back to school

Written on February 1st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, February 2011, In the home, Organisation, School aged

There’s something about starting a new school year that makes me want to try to make life easier each year. A few days leading up to the new school term, I began trying a new system to manage my time and get a little more done.

After years of going off and on Flylady with varying levels of success, I’ve started dedicating only two hours per day to cleaning the house. Flylady bangs on about doing fifteen minutes a day for all these different jobs, and I was always frustrated to find that before I knew it, I’d be cleaning all day if I followed her system. Really, that’s not how I want to live my life. Two hours per day is still more time than I usually spend anyway, so it seems to be accomplishing more.

What I do, is I pick out the most disastrous looking areas of the house first, and start with those. As time goes on, the house looks a little bit better everyday, and I’m finding it easier to keep on top of things. Here’s yesterday’s disaster I found after Missy 10 trotted off to school:

Yep, it’s our very own dumping ground, *blush*. That’s where the bills and school notes were getting plonked, then lost. When we needed a bill or note, we had buckley’s of finding it on time. Not to mention how difficult it was to open the microwave, clean it or let the vents on the sides breathe. I thought this was a perfect place to start, as I knew my daughter would be bringing notes home, and I wanted to start out the year having a proper place for them.

Here, I’ve decluttered the area, and created a yellow folder. In the folder, Missy 10 has been instructed that this is where all of her school notes will be placed as soon as she gets home from school. Once they’re out of date, we’ll remove them. We already have an expanding folder for our bills, so it was a matter of just putting them in the right place. All the other clutter simply needed to be put back in its place or thrown out. You can just imagine how much time we wasted with all this junk piling up when we were looking for something, or trying to use the microwave.

Now, obviously, this wasn’t the only job I got done in an hour, but I thought this was a great example of a starting point to better organisation in the new school year.

I’ll be sticking with this system, because I’m amazed at what I can get done in two hours. Once the two hours are finished, I stop for the day. I either let the two younger kids help me as I go, or give them a play activity, or they play together with their own made-up game. The first day I tried doing just two hours a day of cleaning, I got the lounge room floor vacuumed, the kitchen floor swept and mopped, four loads of laundry washed and in varying stages of drying, lots of forgotten laundry put away and a heap of decluttering. By focusing on the jobs in most desperate need of being done, it means that everyone in the house is much calmer. Things are being dealt with that need to be, and our living space is feeling more pleasant again.

And now I want the dirt from you guys: where is YOUR disaster area, that you dump all your crap on? Spill!

Other reading:

Pushing kids to do their best

How to get rid of flies

How to clean carpet naturally

Students’ homework: how much should we help?

Decluttering and recycling at the same time

Home made air freshener

How to unblock your sink without using poisons

Finding the time to do it all – time saving tips

School supplies on a budget

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Inner B Mum Organiser Giveaway

Written on January 31st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Giveaways, January 2011, Organisation

Are you feeling organised for school, yet? Maybe your kids have gone back already, or if you’re in NSW like me, today’s the big day. I spent all of yesterday, madly running around, making sure everything was ready for my daughter’s first day back at school. Talk about stressful!

To help make life much easier, Inner B is giving one lucky reader the Mum Organiser, in fushia pink.

I’ve actually had a look over this gorgeous diary, and I’m so impressed. It costs $44.95, and can be easily customised according to your family life. You can store your appointments, to do list, birthdays and anniversaries. It has a unique format which allows you to plan all of your family’s activities. It has a section for you to write in all the important things, such as details for your children’s dentist, local pharmacy, GP, local hospital, and whatever else you need regularly.

Inner B always makes sure to remember mum too, though. The Mum Organiser therefore also has a personal well being contacts section for you to keep your physio, hair dresser, massage therapist, and all those other contacts that make our lives more manageable.

Then, it has a household contact information page, for pretty much everything; local council, your accountant, electrician, gas, water, internet providers, and so on. As if that weren’t enough, there’s space for your entertaining contacts, your brilliant ideas (come on, we’re mothers! We have ‘em all the time!), things you want to do and places to visit, your dilemmas, goals, health and fitness ideas, favourite websites and passwords, must read books, must see movies, must listen to music, favourite restaurants, retail stores you like, items borrowed and lent, phew! (This is reminding me of that ‘I’ve been everywhere, man’ song!)

And then, there’s family medical information, current immunisation schedule, dates to remember, (eg, check fire extinguishers, torch batteries, all that practical stuff we all get caught out on), kids’ favourite activities and it even has holiday and party planning sections, with checklists and all. Bloody hell. Pretty much all it doesn’t do is wipe your butt for you!

What I also love about this organiser is that it looks so cool. It comes in four different colours: fushia (shown here), butter, lime green and the most popular colour of them all, turquoise Tiffany Blue. You can also buy refills for it every year too.

So, here’s what you have to do if you want to win this baby:

First entry (both actions mandatory):
- Go to Inner B and tell us which Inner B product would help you to get organised the most, in the comment section.

- Sign up for email updates from Hear Mum Roar. If you already are signed up, that’s fine. And yes, I do check!

Optional entries (one extra entry per action):

- Follow Hear Mum Roar on twitter.

- Subscribe to Hear Mum Roar’s RSS feed.

- Tweet this giveaway.

- Follow Inner B on twitter.

If you have extra entries, please mention in the comments box below what you did, so I can check. Thanks!

The lucky winner will be drawn on Sunday, the 6th of February, 2011 and is open to Australians only.

Good luck, people!

Update:

I ended up deciding to buy some goodies from Inner-B for myself. Since Diminishing Lucy was interested in seeing what the Tiffany blue mum organiser looks like, I thought I’d share the photos of my purchases here, as the Tiffany blue was my favourite colour, too. I also bought the completely AWESOME meal planner. It’s magnetic and fits really well on the fridge. Each meal square is a cute little magnetic tile. The kids have been going stir crazy choosing meals, because they love sticking the pieces on. Valerie was kind enough to send me the planner notepads (meal planner and daily planner) just to be nice. I’ve got to say, I’m very impressed. I’m not the most organised person in the world, and all this stuff has been a godsend.

Other reading:

What I did on the first day back to school

Finding the time to do it all – time saving tips

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