And the lucky contestant was sent a whole years supply of buckets of yucky excrement

I love entering competitions and one of my favourite things to win (besides holidays!) is "a years supply" of something.

Some things I've won a years supply of-

Sunscreen (lasted much much longer then a year and I gave away heaps of it!

Green Tomato Sauce. The kids loved this, I found it hard to get past the colour even though it tasted the same as regular sauce!

Dishwasher Tablets, they're a really cheap brand but they were free!

Water. Sparkling water and normal bottled water. We have a box of out of date sparkling water in the garage. I call it my Armegeddon water, if the zombie apocalypse happens, I'm sure I won't care about the date on the water.

Simple face care products, didn't last a year with 2 teenage girls in the house. I've hidden a small amount so I can actually use it myself!

Mentos. Hmm my idea of a years supply is a lot different to theirs!

Icecream. They just sent me a voucher which of course we didn't spend on icecream.

Cereal. It won't last a year but we have a good choice for breakfast at the moment!

FFS Friday

So we went on holidays for 4 nights. We didn't swim on the first 2 days, we have 3 more days right? It rained for the last 3 days FFS
It's supposed to be The Sunshine Coast FFS
We had to go and buy jumpers it was that damn cold FFS
Since we got home it's been stinking friggin hot FFS
The whole household is sick now with the flu FFS
 Having the flu in warm weather really sucks FFS
I must have been crazy when I booked a 2 bedroom cabin for 4 kids and 2 adults FFS
The baby slept very well in the porta cot, I didn't sleep for more then an hour the whole 4 nights FFS
Since being home the baby has now decided not to sleep in her cot, it's much more fun to stand up at the side now we can do that FFS
Of course she has no idea how to get back down again, so she just lets go and falls FFS
The 2 hours of sleep I got between 4.30 am and 6.30am this morning is the most sleep I've had in 7 nights FFS
And the worst thing? School goes back Monday FFS

Linking up with Dearbabyg (If it works)

Life begins at 40, cards 1,2 and 3

I sent the first 3 of 40 postcards out today, all to people in Australia.

Number one went off to Rin from Paperedthoughts. I don't know Rin but she has her address on her blog and enjoys receieving mail! I hope she likes the penpalling themed card.

I did take photos of the front of the cards but for some reason they only load sideways on here, bizarre.

Number 2 I sent to Bianca from GoodnightLittleSpoon. I love Bianca's blog, one of the first mail themed blogs I started reading. 

Number 3 went to Steph from Stephandhusband. Steph sent me an awesome Batman postcard from her Superheroes box!

I bought more stamps today so I will send cards out randomly when I go near a postbox. I still have 9 spaces left I think! 

I joined another postcard box sendout over at JennUnger

Cleaning Out My Closet.....

I've been printing out The Organised Housewife's 20 day Challenge task sheets. There was way too much going on here to even think about starting on day one, but I bought a folder and I've been printing out the sheets each day.
I'll start when I think life is calm enough!

There are some great ideas in there and I love the idea of the 5 minute jobs.
I already have a reasonably organised house, I just wish everyone else would put things back where they belong!

I really enjoy seeing all the linked posts on the weekend, some more ways to get ideas for my home.

Life begins at 40....

A few weeks ago I received a postcard in the mail. Now that's not so unusual but this one was from a stranger. Kate from OurLittleSins started a postcard project where she sent out 100 Pantone postcards over 100 days (or close to !) and I was number 80. You can see her post about sending the postcard off here-
Day 80

Kate did a round up post after the 100 postcards were sent off and from that post I saw a couple of other people have started postcard projects, including Steph of Steph&Husband who is sending out Super Heroes! 100 Superheroes

Now I have a couple of box sets of postcards here but I've used some out of each box, and I also don't think I could ever find 100 people to send postcards to, but encouraged by Steph I've decided to do a 40 postcard project. Why 40? Well it's my 40th Birthday on Monday!

I'm not expecting to send 40 postcards in 40 days or anything that ambitious but hopefully by the end of the year I'll find 40 people to send them to.

I'm sending postcards from McSweeney's Greetings from the Ocean's Sweaty Face box. These postcards are odd, so sending them out like this is great as I always send other postcards from my collection as some people may find these ones offensive or just down right strange!

Of course I'd love to get some mail in return to I will be putting my post box address on the back. To start with I'm going to send them to mail bloggers who have their addresses on their blogs, some of my penpals and some of my friends. I'll also find addresses from lists on blogs like Good Mail Day and Send Something .

But I will have lots of spares so if you want one of these rather unusual postcards, comment below and I'll contact you!
And if you know of any mail bloggers or anyone else who might like one, let me know!

Well, I guess I'm freaking forty....

Inspired by Tiff's post at Mythreeringcircus ....

I'll be 40 in just under a month, I haven't really thought about what I want to do on my birthday or even what I want for presents. I already have all that I want really.

I'd like some washi tape I guess, new books are always welcome, and maybe some perfume.

I'd also like- to go to the bathroom without anyone knocking on the door, a whole nights sleep and to solve all the problems in my life at the moment, all these are unlikely!

What I will get is a day with my family, no matter what we do or who is or isn't here, someone will say something cute, someone will do something nice, the baby will give me her beautiful smile and I won't have to cook dinner!

Like Tiff I have a list of things to do. I want to learn to drive, I want to see more of Australia, maybe go back to New Zealand again one day.

I always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon but I'm too scared to do things like that anymore.

Some things I have done in my life-
I have given birth 5 times, 2 "naturally" and 3 csections.
Been pregnant 6 times.
Watched a friend give birth.
Been married twice
Had a church wedding
eloped
Been in a abusive relationship
Been a bridesmaid twice
I've had skin cancer
Been a "troubled" teen
Won 3 holidays including a "money can't buy experience"
Had a poem published in a book
Went to New Zealand 3 times and went on a ferry between the 2 islands.
Been in an advertising shoot for a book publishing company.
Walked under the Brisbane River
Travelled on the first electric train out of our town.
Been in an icebar, a gondola,a hovercraft and in a train drivers cabin.
Been on lots of camps.
I was on tv once, 
I went to Open day at Expo 88.
I've volunteered at school,at the War Veterans home, for Endeavour, and at Riverfestival.
I've Lived at 18 addresses
I've been a sister, a friend,a wife,a girlfriend, a mother, an aunt, a daughter and a granddaughter.
I've made many mistakes and done some dangerous things.

I'm sure there's a lot more to come... I wonder what the next 40 years has in store for me?

Eight Days a Week...

I wish I had eight days in a week! I might be tempted to use that 8th day to sleep though!

I'm a listmaker. I also have a diary and an iphone.

I use reminders on my iphone a lot as well as the calendar. I know I can somehow sync an online calendar with my iphone but I'm not clever enough to have worked out how exactly.

My diary is a Mum's Memory there are a couple of small things I don't like about it but mostly it works for me. I spent a long time looking at diaries before buying the MM. I've had the MM 2 years in a row now.
One of my main problems is that it's just too big to carry around with me. So it stays on my desk and I check it every day and try to write appointments in straight away.

I also bought an InnerB Mums agenda in a lovely pink but I haven't actually used it yet. If MM ever stops being made then I'll buy a refill for the IB.

A friend of mine made her own diary using a Levenger journal and some ideas from DIYPlanner.

Some other diaries I considered were-

OTI
InnerB
Masterplan 
Tiny Me Design your own
BabyBrain
Personal Planner


There are so many family organisers available. I've tried a few different things, I have a magnetic whiteboard family planner but I don't really use it. 
I've made our own family folder with ideas from some of these sites-

My Org
Did You Remember the Milk?
KikkiK
FlyladyOrganise your life
OrganisedHome

I keep our takeaway menus in it as well as school papers like tuckshop lists, uniform price lists etc.
There's also a section for family holiday ideas and a section for menu planning.
I also have copies of any organising printables I find on the net.



For menu planning I'm currently using a 5 week planner from Picklebums blog.
Kate has lots of useful printables on her blog (as well as some great family recipes!).

I find working our meals 5 weeks ahead works well for us at the moment. I can write a shopping list each week a lot quicker and I can swap meals around if I need to.

These things all help me stay organised to some extent but I could still do with that extra day!