The Party That Never Quits

To let you know we've been without a computer for the better part of the week, and are borrowing a power cable at the moment. LONG story.

But most importantly, to those of you who stumble over here and read my little bits and bobs, I wish you the very merriest of Christmases, filled with the love and joy of our Saviours birth, family, friends and copious amounts of good food.

And remember, from Andy Rooney, one of my most favourite Christmas quotes EVER...

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."

Remember what's important.

See you on the other side.

Much love.

We've officially entered cyclone season here, and last night a tropical low passed right over the top of us... dumping a bunch of rain but causing little damage. It made for a lovely cool evening, and today is also incredibly pleasant, even though the rain hasn't let up at all. I love where I live for many reasons. One of those reasons is that I very rarely, if ever hear anyone complain about the rain. We don't see it for 8 months of the year, so we revel in it when it does arrive :)


The rain is set to continue for the next few days, and we are closely watching the low, as it is due to turn into a catagory 1 storm later today and should progress to a 3 in two days time. You too can keep watch, if you wish!

Today, I managed to get the bathroom completely done! It was hard work, and took me 3 hours. I cannot fathom how my children manage to make our walls so putrid. Adam is woking on the kitchen, but he works slower than me, and takes many breaks ;) He went up to the store just now for the first time in as long as I can remember, simply to get out of doing more *grin* He even called his mother. *rolls eyes* LOL!

But we are on track. Sort of. I've washed dried AND put away 4 loads of laundry today, so that makes me feel a bit better about where we are at.

Our electrician friend stopped by to see what he's going to have to get to complete a few jobs we've asked him to do... all our light fixtures are breaking whenever we try to chabge a light bulb... they are over 10 years old, so we figure we'll just change the lot throughout the house. Also, two ceiling fans in The Big Room have broken motors, so they need replacing. I'll be sending my mother an email in the next couple of days asking for her to wire the money through to fix them, as we agreed when she was over here the other month.

My brother also stopped by, with some money for us all for Christmas, as he will be at sea over the holidays. I was so happy... it means I don't have to stress about the food situation! The kids won't notice if there is one less gift for them under the tree... they will notice if there is no ham! :) And wow, is it ever expensive. For a 13lb ham... $84!! I nearly fell over. ANd we have even more people arriving on Christmas day now, so we are going to need it!

The kids are behaving rather well today. Playing together and hardly fighting. This is a miracle from the throne room of heaven if there ever was one :)

Braved the shops on payday today to go do our Christmas shopping. I did ok. Still have a few things to get, but they can be collected next week.

I'm still slogging away at the cleaning, though slowly... I did some of the bathroom done today... it's all scritched out over there on the left... but I think that list will change in the next day or so because Adam and I have declared this weekend "Get It All Done Or Else".

Also known as "The Kids Are Now On Holidays And It's Impossible To Clean With Them At Home All Day Every Day For Six Whole Weeks"

I'm hoping that this little bog o' mine will get more exciting later on... It's been so long since I've kept something like this that I've almost forgotten how to do it. I know I used to attempt deepness and humour... often simultaneously... over on my Xanga... but Xanga is now no longer what it was, and while that makes me sad, I'm hoping this here will become a new place for me to unwravel what's going on in my head, heart and home.

Do you think, if I did this:

So, cleaning has ground to a standstill pretty much. The washing machine keeps chugging away, but the mountain of clean clothes in our bedroom is reaching all new heights. If I don't get them folded and put away soon, one of two things will happen, to the same end...

A) They will get spread all over the floor, trodden on and have to be washed again without being worn

or

B) The cat will pee on there somewhere, and it'll all have to be washed again without being worn.



However, I have done enough that Adam and I should be able to pull an all nighter, or at least a late one, and have it done this evening.

But I am emotionally exhausted.

November has been CRAZY financially. We had three cars break down. We had registration due... School bond to pay... money lost... money tied up... the girls ballet production costume hire... food (our one shocking habit)... the fridge needed new seals... the utilities bill is due any day now... and so on and so forth.

I am convinced God will provide. This does not mean however, that the month has not worn me down. It also doesn't mean I didn't totally flip out at the customer service chick on the other end of the line today, when I rang in a panic because my card wouldn't work at the ATM.


"It looks as if your card is damaged. I will send you a new one, but it will take 7-14 days. I hope you didn't need any money."


You know the proverbial last straw? That was it. I crumbled. I completely lost it. Saying such helpful things like "what a stupid thing to say! Why else would I go to an ATM if I didn't need money?!"

I am all forgiveness and light, obviously. And also obviously, my normal, laid back, low blood pressure character was temporarily hijacked by some neurotic psycho with no self control and blood pressure through the roof.

I rang The Hubsand in tears. I never cry over money. Well, hardly ever. Not for a long time, anyway. We have, as I mentioned the other day, guests coming for dinner on Christmas day, and I haven't even started shopping for food, or even ordered the meat. I just didn't see how we could make it work.

Today I will go up to where the kids Christmas toys are on layaway and will cancel it to get the money we have paid on it back. And we will start again, only with less stuff. We will look at getting some of the bigger, more special stuff we had (the Wii etc) in the January sales.

And we will continue to believe that God is in control. We will continue to trust in Him. Sure, I've failed in the "be joyful in ALL things". But I know I've never questioned that He will come through. I might not know how exactly, He plans on doing that, but really, is that for me to know prior to it happening?

It's December 1st here today.

I should be putting up my Christmas decorations, but my house isn't clean enough. I cannot fathom fluffing the house for the festive season unless it's pristine.

I have 1 husband, 5 children, a cat and a dog. My house is never pristine. But, as I suffer from MagazineCover-itis in it's most chronic form, I still expect it to be.

As you can probably gather, my expectations are rarely met.

However, as I am having a house full of guests over for Christmas dinner this year... a total of 7 adults and as many children in this tiny little house... I feel the need to have it sparkling.

Of course, I want it to be perfect for my family as well, during the rest of the year, but I find the task so overwhelmingly insurmountable most days, it... isn't. It's something I've been working on for many years, and I think I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For the last month I've been tossing umpteen garbage bags a week of miscellaneous crap to the op-shop... which in itself is wonderfully therapeutic... not actually having that stuff in the house to clean up or find a home for any more. But I'm still not noticing the house getting any cleaner.

And I'm pretty sure I've figured out why.

I stopped writing myself lists. A plan of attack for the day. Something to keep me on track. Without lists, I could waste my whole day looking for the perfect Christmas tags on Etsy (which I may or may not have done yesterday).

So, I'm beginning again. Only this time, I'm going to add it to my left side bar, so you can see it, and it should keep me accountable. I'm going to give myself until Friday night to have it done. That's two and a half days. I shall have Pride and Prejudice on in the background... I find it the most wonderful thing to clean to.

If you are feeling the urge to deep clean your house, feel free to join me.

I went Christmas shopping yesterday. Every year, Target has this humongous toy sale, where most things are half price, and you only pay 3 dollars to put it all on layby no matter how much you buy and they will store it there until Christmas eve.

Winner.

As I compiled my list of things for the kids the night before, I am reminded again just how expensive everything is getting over here. Most items at half price were still around $20. We had to quickly revise the $100 per child thing we've had going. At most, they'd get 5 things. I'm a gift giver. That just don't cut it in my book.

Or Santa's, for that matter.

Of course, the smallies could get away with less. As my brother would say, they barely know they're alive.

I understand that having 5 kids will always bring up these issues, so I wasn't too fussed about it. I have about 18 weeks to pay it all off (I like to have it all in the bag by the end of November. Then I don't stress out.)

Last year, Adam was able to come with me, and we filled two trolleys. Granted, we had some big stuff in there, skateboards, and Tonka trucks and doll prams and the like. No one really looked at us, because, well, we could just be two people who didn't know each other with a full trolley each. No biggie. There were lots of people like that.

This year, Adam couldn't get off work. So, I had the smallies sat, and after the three older ones were at school, armed with my list, the catalogue and a pen, I braved it on my own.

I had to stop three times to repack my cart. I also managed to stick a blackboard under it and use it as an extension to pile more stuff on. I did well, I got all but a few items on our list. This year, we also got the kids bikes and I had to get a staff member to carry them to the layby counter for me. I was prepared for all this. It comes with the territory.

What I wasn't prepared for, were the condescending looks that people kept giving me, obviously thinking I was completely over indulging my kids. 10 presents each, they had in my cart. That's 50 items people. With boxes bigger than necessary for the small thing inside it. I had also bought gifts for my niece, my mother, and a couple of things for Adam.

I decided, by the end of my 2 hour trip, that next year, I'm wearing a sign that says I HAVE FIVE CHILDREN... DO NOT JUDGE ME. I was sick and tired of explaining myself to people, either because of they way they looked at me, or because they actually felt it was their place to comment. And then of course, I had to cope with the "Oh my God, you're crazy" comments.

So, peoples, next time you're shopping at Christmas time and you see a parent with their trolley piled impossibly high, please realise that they may not just be shopping for 1 spoilt child. There may be another 4, 5, 6 kids that you don't see.

Also, read this. You might get where I'm coming from.