Oh the trials and tribulations of modern technology

I am a huge fan of modern technology, I use my smart phone daily, my digital cameras regularly and the internet is my life line. But I had a huge wake up call recently when my internet went awry thanks to a dodgy modem. I am sadly posting this with my antiquated D-link modem, that constantly needs resetting, until I can organise a replacement modem.

You see we have 5 computers, 4 smart phones, a PS3 and an Xbox 360 that all connect to the internet. We use it for study, entertainment, bill paying, research and reading to name a few and to be without it is horrible.

So this is why I have been MIA for the last couple of months, internet that drops out after 30 seconds and pages that wont refresh. But there were some good things to come from this time away from the world wide web.

•  I was able to break my facebook habit. I still check in every couple of days but I no longer feel the need to keep up with what’s going on.

•  I got some serious decluttering done. I dropped off 14 garbage bags of unwanted clothes to the local op shop this morning, along with a box of books.

• I finally had the chance to think about what I wanted to study and where I wanted to go career wise and enrolled in a double Diploma in Events and Management.

• I also decided to look for a job. I haven’t had any luck yet but I have my fingers crossed and will keep applying until something comes up.

•  And thanks to the last 2 things I had to get organised. So I have redone our Household Planner, done up our menu plans, reallocated the kids chores and set up a few other tasks to make life run a little smoother around here while I study (and possibly work).

• I managed to get through 12 books in my reading challenge, which puts me well over the 13 in 13.

• and I’ve been keeping up with my exercise and am finally starting to see some results.

So as much as I love the internet and all that it has to offer, I’ve learned not to rely on it or take it for granted.

I’ll be back later in the week to share my Household Planner update and next month I’ll be starting back with my Premmie Proud and Remembering Angels series. Until then, thanks for sticking around.

Guest Blogger ~ Lisa from No excuses! Easy organising for large families

I am lucky enough to have fellow large family mum Lisa, from No excuses! Easy organising for large families, blogging for us today. Lisa is sharing her tips on getting and staying organised.

You have No Excuses not to get organised this year!

Are your children back at school yet?  When did they return?  Were you looking forward to it or dreading the busy life ahead?  Whatever your answer, there are simple ways to stay on top of things and get back into school life with a little bit of organisation. 

While I do enjoy sleeping in, the lack of chores and routine during school holidays; getting back into the regular cooking, schedules, homework and activities is something the family needs.

Chores are a big part of family life and without a balance of rules and responsibilities; the home can fall apart quite easily, therefore learning to keep on top of things, having regular chores and tasks in place makes the home run more smoothly. 

Having the children do regular jobs also takes the pressure of the mother too (she can’t be expected to do everything on her own). Of course when one has young children, it does become harder to keep on top of the housework. However when the children reach school age, they must learn to be more responsible and keep things in order.  Therefore setting up your own family chore chart or schedules is the best thing to do. 

Starting with the younger ones, you could make up an easy routine chart for the morning and afternoon ~ one to do when they first wake up of a morning:

And another for after school:

You can adapt these to suite your own needs.  As for the bigger children, having a chore chart or list is essential.  Make up a list of tasks; place the child’s name beside and a comments section for how well a job was done or with or without complaints etc.

Here is an example of our chore chart:

The above charts can be laminated (so the chore list can be written on with whiteboard marker and easily removed) and placed in view for the children and family to see.

Rewarding the children for good behaviour and chores done is important; a job well done should be encouraged, praised and given gratitude.  Chores should be done out of love and not simply to receive a prize (of course it is up to you whether you wish to physically reward the children or not). 

Children soon realise the more help they provide, the less yelling and stress comes from mum and dad; which makes a happy and joyous home life.

So start today, don’t delay and make organising a part of your day!

 

Lisa runs http://noexcuseseasyorganising.com/ - a blog designed to help busy mums with large families get everything under control, there you will find easy to make recipes, household hints and some simple ideas for around the home to 

keep the place organised and in order.

Routines, Organisation and the Buddy System

So this is our first full week of everyone being back at school and work and that means I can finally get some stuff done.

One thing I plan to do this week is to update and revamp my Household Planner. Certain aspects of it are no longer working for us and other areas need their own folder. S I will be playing around with this and our Recipe Folder this week so that we can stay organised and make life a little easier for everyone, especially with 5 kids at school this year and Miss Jaidyn having early and late classes for her HSC subjects.

I will be getting started (and hopefully finished) on our Command Centre/Launch Pad, so that the kids have somewhere to store their school bags, hats, folders and shoes. This should mean no more hunting for shoes and library bags 5 minutes before the bus.
I have a pretty good idea of what I want and I'm hoping to re-purpose items we already have, so that it shouldn't cost anything.

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I'm also adding the finishing touches to my Home Office for the I Heart Organising January Challenge so I can post my before and afters (everyone loves a good before and after pic) and getting started on the February Challenge, the kitchen, which I'm really excited about. I've even bought some great kitchen organisers from Kmart to go in the new fridge.

Last year I set up the Buddy System with my 6 kids that are still living at home. I paired up each of my older 3 (15, 14 and 11) with one of my younger 3 (8, 5 and 1). The aim of the buddy system is that they always have someone older to help reach things (prevents climbing accidents), help with activities that may be too difficult on their own and somebody to help with boredom busting.
Not only is it teaching my older kids responsibility, it's allowing the kids to have some one on one time with each other and therefore building the relationships between them.

The system is fantastic for when I am cooking dinner or helping someone with homework as they each have someone else to turn to for assistance. Every few weeks we change buddies so that they each get a chance to spend time with another sibling. So far it has worked great with our only mishap being that Mr Bored (Jake) had Jaidyn as his buddy while she was busy with end of year exams, which meant she didn't have time to dedicate to treating his incurable case of boredom.

What systems do you have in place to stay organised? Later this week I'll have a guest blogger joining us with some great tips on getting and staying organised.






Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT

Premmie Proud ~ L'il Aussie Prems Foundation

My premmie is 20 months today and in honour of him and all the other premmies out there I am starting this new series to showcase and thank the amazing groups and organisations that support families with prems.

Ollie is not your usual prem. He was born at 37 weeks 3 days weighing in at 4.378kg, this was due tome suffering from Gestational Diabetes that unfortunately could not be controlled by diet and required insulin for the last 4 weeks of pregnancy.
He was delivered early via c-section due to his size and concerns that either him or I could be injured during a normal delivery and also the fact that in cases of gestational diabetes the placenta starts to deteriorate after 38 weeks.

We had had a prem labour scare at 33 weeks and I pretty much spent the next 4 weeks in labour with constant and painful contractions. During our scare I was given steroid shots to strengthen his lungs in case he was born early, even with the steroids, he had some trouble with his lungs being underdeveloped when he was born; which is a side affect of gestational diabetes.
This resulted in Ollie spending 11 days in the Special Care Nursery (SCN) being monitored. I am so thankful that after his stay in SCN we have had no further problems and that he is a perfectly happy and healthy little boy.

Not all families are as lucky as we were and often spend weeks and months with their little ones in SCN or NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and then specialist visits for months and often years afterwards. Thankfully there are some amazing support networks available for these families and one such organisation is L'il Aussie Prems Foundation.

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L'il Aussie Prems Foundation provide an online forum for families of premmie babies, they also have an online store where you can purchase merchandise and premmie items like clothing and gifts, they have articles about premmies and what it's like in the SCN/NICU and they hold events each year to raise awareness.

{L’il Aussie Prems Foundation Inc. (LAPF) is Australia’s largest online support community and forum for families of prematurely born children and sick newborns. We are a voluntary not-for-profit charity set up to provide online support, raise awareness, bring parents together who have traveled a similar path whilst encouraging families to share their personal and unique journey through our website. No matter where families are located geographically, our website and support services are assessable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Foundation’s website was initially established in 2007 by Julia Toivonen, who gave birth to her first son at 27 weeks gestation. The forum and website continue to offer a lifeline to families. In 2012, with the goal of expanding the online support provided to families, L’il Aussie Prems Foundation became a registered charity incorporated in the state of Victoria.

L’il Aussie Prems Foundation is a member group of the National Premmie Foundation and continues to work in collaboration with other premmie support groups in Australia.} Taken from their facebook page

If you would like to know more about L'il Aussie Prems Foundation and the work they do, you can check out their website or facebook page. You can also show your support for all of the premmies out there by taking part in Wear Green For Premmies Day on April 3rd 2013.

{This post is a part of a new series on honouring our premmies. On the 2nd of each month, in honour of Oliver and all of his premmie friends I will be sharing businesses and organisations that help premmie families and make life that little bit easier for them.}

Making a start

I mentioned in my setting goals post that I planned to do a little bit towards each goal on a regular basis as this would make each task more manageable and easier to achieve.

Some of my favourite bloggers are making this task a little more fun for me by hosting linky challenges throughout the year. So this month I will be getting my Home Office area organised with Jen from I Heart Organising.

And I will be tackling my reading list along with Little White Dove (and finally getting on instagram) and her 13 in 13 challenge.

As far as my other goals go, I have been scouring pinterest, ebay and the web in general for renovation ideas and coming up with a basic budget and style tile for the areas we'll be working on.

I have gotten back into the clean eating way of life (we eat 95% clean) and have found some great school friendly recipes.
We spent most of our holidays with no routine (one of the joys of holidays) but for the last week and a half Jaidyn, Abbey and I have been getting up at 6am to exercise and the hot weather has meant it's been easy to drink the necessary amount of water each day.

On the decluttering fron, I dropped 4 large bags of clothes and a box of books and toys off to our local op shop a couple of weeks ago and the house already feels roomier.
Unfortunately we had some unplanned decluttering of food thanks to our fridge'freezer kicking the bucket a couple of weeks ago. We lost all of our freezer contents (thankfully I hadn't been shopping and it was only our small freezer) and just about all of the condiments and sauces from our fridge along with some cream and soft cheeses.
On the bright side, our new fridge is clutter free and I am more than happy with the bargain I scored on the new fridge.

Next on my to do list is study, more regular blog posts, a lot more decluttering and organising and enjoying some me time. This will all be much easier once the kidlets are back at school and we are into our routine as it's only Mr Ollie and myself at home this year.

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT

Remembering Angels ~ Heart2Art

Every day I miss my precious angel Logan and every day I thank him for sending us our beautiful rainbow Oliver.

For those of us who have lost a child to miscarriage or stillbirth, there are often very few keepsakes or tokens. Some are fortunate enough to have photos but for others an ultrasound pic may be the closest they have and for some, not even that.
Other than ultrasound pics taken at my 7wk dating scan and my 13wk Nuchal scan, we have no photos of Logan.

Our local hospital usually takes photos for the grieving parents but on the night Logan was born, but as there were two women in preterm labour (less than 30wks) that night, including a twin pregnancy, it sadly slipped their minds.
I had fully intended to take my own photos but my grief overwhelmed me and it was not to be. Some days I regret that we do not have photos and others I am thankful for the perfect image I hold of him in my heart.

Not long after Logan's birth, I was introduced to an amazing and talented lady who gave me the next best thing to a photo of my beautiful boy.
Missi runs a business on Facebook called Heart2Art where she provides paintings for people that have lost loved ones.

Missi's work is so amazing that it took me 18 months to decide on what I wanted and when I told her, she instantly knew my hearts desire. From the initial sketch to the final piece, she was in tune with what I wanted.
Her painting represents all of our beautiful children and allows me a daily glimpse at would otherwise only be a memory.

{Logan by Heart2Art}

Missi puts so much of herself into each of these commemorative pieces and shares the heartbreak with each of the families. She has such an amazing and generous heart.

She also has a Facebook page for her other artwork called SEA ~ South East Art ~ where she offers in stock as well as custom pieces.
Please stop by her pages, show her some love and let her know what an amazing thing she does for heartbroken families.

If you would like a Heart2Art or SEA ~ South East Art ~ painting, please contact Missi via the message tab on either of those pages.

{This post is a part of a new series on remembering and honouring our angels. On the 14th of each month, in memory of Logan and his angel friends I will be sharing businesses, organisations and other ways you can honour and remember the angels in your life.}

This post is not intended as advertising and no payment or compensation has been received. It is intended for informational purposes only.

Back to School stress busting

I am one of those people who picks up useful items when they are on sale or clearance. I store all of our stationary in a large tub in the top of my built in wardrobe. It has everything from 7cent packs of pacer pencil leads to 97cent packs of pens.

Last week I was able to buy 6 packs of 50 Faber Castel pens for $15 thanks to one of our local discount stores closing down. This means the girls are set for pens (black, blue and red) to use at school for the next few years.
I am also able to do most of our stationary shopping from this tub so only needed a few items to complete their lists.

My kids are pretty good and take care of their uniforms and shoes and if I buy quality bags they can get a couple of years out of them too. Unfortunately this year we have had a couple of growth spurts and the older girls (although their feet have stopped growing) are in need of new shoes as well.
So for 5 children off to school my shopping list for this year looked something like this...

2 pairs of school shoes (The younger 3 are covered thanks to purchases made last year in the sales)
1 pair of joggers (again thanks to earlier sale purchases)
5 school bags (one will be replaced under warranty)
5 pencil cases
3 school hats
5 packs of school socks
5 packs of sports socks
8 pairs of bike shorts
1 pair sports shorts
2 pairs of school shorts
3 student diaries
4 rulers, sharpeners, erasers, glue

So $350 later and I have 5 children all kitted out for school for 2013 (with a heap of stationary ready for future years). This included a score on a high school winter uniform for $12 (skirt, shirt and jumper) and a couple of extra sports shorts for the primary kids.

I've been chatting to other large family mums and we all agree that back to school needs can be expensive and cause stress for a family. We are fortunate that our schools have a very basic uniform and allow plain coloured items (without emblem or monogram) to be worn and a lot of these items are unisex allowing for hand me downs between all of my kids.

Here are some tips to help plan for back to school without the stress or breaking the budget.

• See if your school has a system set up where you can make regular payments to an account that will go towards text books, excursions, camps etc. This wont necessarily help with back to school but will allow you to budget for the school items better.
• Get a copy of the book pack list for each grade. This may change from year to year but will give you a basic list that you can work from regarding exercise books, folders etc. I know that some schools use their book packs as a form of fundraising but when you are buying for several students it can get quite expensive. If you are feeling guilty about ditching the book pack to save money, consider buying just one pack or making a donation to the schools fundraising account instead.
• Watch the sales and not just in January. I often pick up stationary items in the tax time sales or when store are getting in new stock and clearing out the old.
• Check with older students (or their parents) about what was actually needed. We have often ended up with items that were required by the school but never used by the students. These items can add up, so see what you can do without.
• Find out if a different model of calculator/e-reader/tablet/laptop can be used instead of that which is listed. Often these items are extremely expensive and can be substituted for a cheaper version or model. Also check if any older students are selling theirs which are no longer needed.
• School uniforms don't always have to be bought brand new. See if your school has a clothing pool or second hand uniform shop. Check Facebook for local buy/sell/swap sites that sell uniforms and don't forget to check out your local op shops, I have picked up some of my best uniform buys at op shops over the years. Again check with older students that no longer require their uniforms.
• Text books (if not supplied by the school) can also be bought second hand in the same manner as uniforms.
• The new School Kids Bonus provided by the Australian Government helps with the cost of setting your kids up for school, unfortunately for some families it does not come close to covering these costs. If this is the case with your family, consider setting up a high interest bank account to save towards to school costs. This way you can put aside a little each week without feeling the strain of back to school expenses. It is also there to help cover camps and excursions throughout the year.