I'd rather be...

Oh dear, here I am again, it's Friday and the week has gone..where?
Our boys have decided to test our very existence as parents, with our eldest deciding that 7pm is FAR too early a time slot for bed, and why on earth would you want to put me in my own bed, when I can sleep  with you Mummy in yours?
Even taking the day time sleeps away has made no difference, so with renewed patience, I took a new approach tonight. I decided that I would  (pretend to) go to bed at 7pm and it would be a special treat to come and cuddle with Mummy. This idea of course lasted minutes, when Daddy came home from work. With stern consternation I kept Master 'I wont sleep' in bed after Daddy went to debrief from his day. Although there was a lot of resistance I held him tight and said nothing until an idea came to me and I suggested a story. Not one from a book, but this time a special story from me. And so, the story of the special fairy dust was born, and after I sprinkled it up and down his body 3 times, some magic really happened. The jigging stopped, arms began to fall deeper into the bed and eyes became very heavy, until after only seconds, they finally closed and fell asleep. All this and only an hour of effort. Bliss after this week's 2-3 hour marathons. Hmmmm...
I wonder if the fairies sell their dust in bulk?

Autumn Adventures

So after a completely dull day of flu like symptoms yesterday, I woke up all the better today, ready to enjoy a second family day in a row. For those of you curious by this remark, the life of a husband chef rarely allows for a weekend or consecutive days off. But this week, we were lucky!
Autumn is falling over Tasmania now and I must admit, I'm kind of loving it. A stiff breeze filled the air this morning, and the threat of rain stirred all around, but we still decided it was a great day to go out into the bush. So with super-cool winter hats all the way from Estonia, (or was it Finland?) and enough clothes to conquer Everest, we set off on our mini expedition, ready for action. Sticks, pine cones and fairy cups were the major highlights, with our Phil and Ted's playing faithful steed to our exhausted but intrepid young explorers.
With hungry bellies we made it home just in time for lunch, and the bigger boys settled into major fire lighting duties, while the littlest of the brood headed for an afternoon nap. As part of my preparation for my sister and her partner's visit this weekend (oooh 5 more sleeps!), I set about relocating the computer and its 80,000 wires into the dining room, managing to cause myself major stress by incorrectly reconnecting the phone lines and for a moment, being filled with dread that I had no phone or internet. Ahhh no blogs!!!!!!! THANKFULLY all was not lost (obviously). After accidental tweaking "oh this will never work", type notions, I fixed the problem and breathed a tremendous massive sigh of relief. So now that I've shared all that with you it's most definitely time for bed!

Life's a Merry Go Round

It's amazing what a good nights sleep can do. I finally felt like I slept properly after a rather forgetful week of troublesome toddlers, late nights and ridiculous o'clock starts. Add to this the energy required to developing BT, and all in all, I was a basket case come Friday. The pretty Merry Go Round we visited on Monday reminded me of my head, swirling and whoozing up and down, with no sign of stopping in sight.
But just when I was on the brink of committing myself, and ushered out the door to get the pizza, the boys gave in and actually went to bed without World War 5 erupting (we had already experienced 3 and 4 the previous nights). I almost dropped the dinner when I arrived into the living room to find only one person on the couch. What? And only 7.45pm?? Blink Blink...
And so, we jointly breathed a (slightly anxious) sigh of relief and managed to enjoy an uninterrupted evening and night without any visitors. The irony however, was that I was wide awake at 5am...

My Blog is Carbon Neutral!

I discovered, quite by accident (through cute blog Jojoebi), this great initiative from German environmentalist group, Kaufda. Their aim is to do their part in reducing the carbon footprint by raising awareness of the carbon emissions, resulting from the use of the internet - specifically of blogs. A blog with 15,000 visits a month has a yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 8lb. To neutralise these emissions they have created "My blog is carbon neutral" buttons so bloggers can demonstrate that they care about the environment and the carbon footprint of their blogs.

To help neutralize your blog's carbon footprint they are planting trees in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation in Plumas National Forest in Northern California. Thousands of wildfires burned down many national forests over the past ten years and 88.000 acres of Plumas' were destroyed by two fires in 2007. To help replanting they are looking for the support of bloggers all over the world! For every participating blog they plant a tree. One blog - one tree.Yippee! 

If you would like them to plant a tree for your blog too click on my green button on the right column, or just click here

Look on the Bright Side

Here's a gorgeous story.... 
"Once upon a time, it was very, very gloomy.  The skies thundered, the economy crumbled, and people only spoke to grumble. Everything looked bleak, bleak, bleak. Until one day, shortly after a market crash and right before another round of layoffs, a girl named Miss B. came up with a terrifically bright idea.  As she later explained to her friend and business partner, Miss K., their mission would be to scour the world for the best in fashion, design, and décor.  Then, one by one and everyday, they would give it all away to some very lucky people."

This is how The Bright Side Project began and so far they have given away hundreds of fabulous products to recipients across the globe. My lovely friends at Polli are currently giving away a pair of stainless steel earrings and a stainless steel pendant of their choosing as part of the project, so click here to find out how you can win!

Mama Mia

Whoever came up with the idea that Mothers Day should occur on different dates, depending on your geographical position, should be, well, just not allowed make big decisions. It's bad enough trying to remember what side your bread is buttered on, but to remember this important date, and the one for Dad's of course, twice, is just silly. Shouldn't it just be an internationally simultaneous celebration?

Once again I managed to get my timing all wrong and miss the posting deadline to get a little something created and sent from Australia to Ireland. So thankfully, my faithful technical sidekicks that I am leaning on quite heavily these days, came to my aid. Camera. Check. Editing wizard. Check. Email. Check. And away flew some photos with a special message to Mum, all in time for her morning email catch up. 

With Mother's Day necessities completed and husbands at work, my friend and I decided to wander down to the annual Greek Festival, just down the hill from us. With four kids in tow, we braved the unseasonably warm weather and hit a scented wall of BBQ'd octopus and kebabs. The Greeks are such a family orientated community and there was such a lovely sense of belonging all around. It made me a little homesick but I took some snaps to distract my nostalgia, the best of which you can see here. My most favourite are the little postcards made by the local Greek children who shared their favourite things about Greece. Click on the images to enlarge!

Zany Zooey

I just love the kooky Zooey Deschanel, and her talents just hold no bounds. Remember her as the air hostess sister in Almost Famous? Well she is also a fine singer and has a band with the incredulous Master of Folk, M Ward called She and Him. This is their latest single, a fun little ditty that is just right for the weekend. It's totally bonkers but I love it! Happy days people x

Jinxed

I had hardly clicked "Publish Post" last night than I had my apparent state of silent bliss interrupted by "Mummy, I NEED some WAWTA", followed by the shuffling of feet to find my whereabouts.

It seemed to be 'Thirsty Night' as both boys needed lots to drink and when I couldn't find "the green cup" for Master I'm the Thirstiest, well, I really didn't deserve the title of mother.
So today I will spend a stupid amount of time looking for said cup in the hope that it will satisfy our eldest's very specific requirements of late. If only I had this fabulous print to inspire me to pour myself a stiff G&T, maybe the Search might be a little more enjoyable!

3..2..1..lift off!

I have to admit that I'm feeling a little bit proud. Apart from my lovely friend Emma helping me with my supercool new Brothers Trimm logo, I managed to create the whole Brothers Trimm layout by myself! Ok self glorification over.
Poor Vinnie thinks that he will never see me again as every time he walks down the hall he finds me checking for latest stats, additional Facebook fans or any interesting followers on Twitter. I tell you it's addictive! Or maybe I am a little pathetic.
Anyway I tore myself away to enjoy some family time at the pool while it rained all afternoon. I thoroughly advise not sending your children into the water with regular nappies on. Feeling a little nervous about sending them in bare bottomed (albeit with swimmers on), due to previous mortifying accidents,  I still had to remove said nappies shortly after the initial dip as the poor boys ended up with what looked like inflated marshmallows sagging between their legs! Oh dear. (And before you start commenting or sending me emails, Yes I know swim nappies exist, I just forgot them!) It didn't bother them of course, just embarrassed me, as of course I thought EVERYONE was looking at them. Regardless, you can't beat a good swim to tire out the little ones and miraculously we have them both in bed with minimal fuss tonight. Ah yes, I remember this! Oh and did I mention we haven't had a little heater in our bed for almost a week now? Ahhhhhh

Do you know your neighbour?

We live on a very friendly street. Our neighbours are the types who would pop their head over the fence and chat to the boys, or call in with little rabbits for us to pet. It's kind of like what I imagined neighborhoods in the '50's to be like. And I'm pleased to report they still exist in Tasmania. Anyway, after a lovely morning in 'apple country', at the Taste of the Huon (pronounced hugh-un) Food Festival, (photos of which I have included, as it really was an autumnal country fair at its best) we arrived home and began chatting to our next door neighbours, who subsequently introduced us to a lovely older couple just a few doors up. It was only after a few seconds of introductory chat that we realised the youthful lady was in fact a compatriot. And not only that but she grew up ten minutes from my family home. Obviously we both squealed with excitement and proceeded to bore our poor neighbour senseless with 'and which road did you live on' and usual Irish probing until we had each other visualised exactly, in our former abodes. Who would pick it though. There's a coincidence!

The Countdown is on!

I have just realised it's Friday and I'm launching The Brothers Trimm next Wednesday! Yikes, what was a romantic notion has suddenly taken on a life of it's own...
With the boys now happily at daycare, I have been happily entranced in all things HTML with some very lovely friends helping me out with design layout, logos, product sourcing and general back up. So thank you to all involved.
It will be really interesting to see how this whole idea will pan out. I am hoping that there are lots of like minded parents, who would enjoy and avail of a one stop shop of products, ideas and inspiration dedicated to pre-teen boys. My dream is to expand the new blog into an online store, BUT baby steps... All I need is for you lovely readers to spread the word, and, on March 9, (the International Day of Awesomeness, by the way), become fans (I have 7 Facebook fans after 5 mins of launching my page, bless!!!), subscribe and ENJOY the very first post next Wednesday!

A Good Night's Sleep?

I now can't remember when the last time was that we had a full night's sleep. Nor can I remember when there was only two of us in our bed. Let me share with you the typical night time routine of late.
7pm Go to bed
7.15pm Demand for milk, and Mummy, and Daddy
7.30pm Chatting..Mummy, Mummy, Mummmmmy!!!! (Mummy ignores)
8.30pm Finally, silence
8.32pm Coughing, crying, sneezing, cuddle with fingers tightly crossed for more of that silence
Anytime between now and 11pm, a possible whimper, cough, another cough, possible re-cuddle and prayers for sleep and for other sleeper to not be woken. ( prayer often left unanswered)
Once in bed and sometime in the midst of a ridiculous dream, I am rudely interrupted by THE cry and so, in one of them comes, needing some extra security and safety in numbers. All very well for them, but excuse me, who gave me the short straw and allowed such a small person take up SO much space?
I am seriously pleading with the Man above to heal the lurgy that has enveloped our house and get these little people well again, so they can sleep soundly in their own beds for the WHOLE night. Or do I have to be honest with myself and stop taking the easy option of plonking them in with us, knowing it's the quickest way to get them back to sleep. Yep, who am I kidding?