Sunday Stuff:: The Great Catch Up of 2013

Sheesh, I have really dropped the blogging ball the last few weeks. It's actually a gift, from me to you. 

Unwrap it, consider it, and then decide what to do with it. 

I've had nothing much to report on in the last few weeks because I feel like we're back in Groundhog territory.

Let's get something sorted out upfront. 

I love school holidays. I love having the smalls home. I love the easy routines. I love spending sunny days together. I just love school holidays. 

I am not so much in love with the rushing, the stress and the herding out the door for school, or picking up two tired bodies at the end of the day. 

These children. They are tired. 

One thing I have managed to do, is spend less time on the interwebz. Less time wasting time. 

This is good. This is very good. I'm more connected. I have more time to do what's important. 

It's made me rethink what's important. I'm spending more time with my family. Reading books. Getting rid of clutter. Watching Girls. Listening to more music. 

How much time per week do you spend on the computer when you could be doing something else? 

My Computer Is Dying

Pretty soon I'll be faxing out my tweets, sending a courier pigeon with my blog posts, going old school with a corkboard, some scissors and magazines for Pinterest, and arm myself with a photo album and a pile of Post It notes for Facebook.



My computer is dying a slow and ungraceful death. It stops working at the most irrational times. It plays this game where it doesn't show me the words on the screen, just some boxes. Or it just freezes for ages. And ages. And ages. I could do all the housework in the time between opening a new tab on the interwebz and when it actually decides to open. Or when I am writing a post, the text doesn't appear immediately. I will stop typing, and then slowly - and erratically, letters will start to appear on the screen. However it doesn't always start from when I started typing - it just takes a random spot to pick up from, and then starts typing. It's like a ghost is in my machine editing my blog.

My trusty, faithful laptop looks like it's giving up the goat. Or the ghost. Or whatever that saying is.

So in the meantime I've been off the interwebz and living a real life. I know. I'm a real boy!

Don't forget - today is the last chance to enter my LEGO giveaway. Five people WILL walk away with some LEGO Lord of the Rings today.

Of Death and Blogging

The big news here is that my computer has died. It's died party people. Well for now at least.

So there's your reason why I've been blogging sporadically.

I have to divert Matt's attention - point and say: 'look, look over there' - and while he's distracted trying to determine what I am pointing at, I grab his computer, hack into his mainframe, fire off a few tweets, read my emails, and then quickly give him back his computer.

It's a sad and sorry state of affairs.

What's a gal to do but go to bed early and re-read The Great Gatsby, and get some beauty sleep?

You can find me on Instagram though (@pottymouthmama). Until I figure out a solution to my dead computer problemo.

image via here. Someone really, really loved their computer.

Oh Yes. Hello There.

My computer is dying. A slow, painful and almost sincere death. Bits have broken off it. Buttons have ceased to work unless I punch them. The mouse button is moody and only works when it wants to.

It makes blogging difficult.

But nevertheless, I'll plug on - and if I start to drop some letters, you dear reader, yes you, you can fill in the blanks.

Agree?

So what's on the haps in your 'hood?

I am super looking forward to the weekend. Are you up to something mega exciting? Spill. Oh dear. Bad choice of words PMM.

PS - image is of spilt milk. There's just no use crying about it. So why not make it a book?

The End Is Nigh

My computer has been dying a long and slow and very ugly death.

It constantly blue screens me. Makes an alarm noise. It's crazy. But then I got it fixed. It was ok. We were back, friends in love. And now a just a few mere months down the track - it's latest affliction? Well the AC adaptor won't connect with the er, connection, and so I have to hold the cord in while I type one-handed. It stinks. Imagine blogging/working/paying bills/living la vida loca with one hand in some precarious position - oh and I can't move because it fritzes out and flatlines all over - while one-handed. It stinks.

I'm on Matt's computer because it does not have these same issues. Thank goodness.

I have a history of 'puters with afflictions. My last laptop died because the Doctor (at just 18 months of age) snuck over with his cup o' milk in hand and splashed the keyboard with a healthy dose of moo milk. I went into denial, left the computer to go to playgroup, returned and the screen was covered in pixelated computer speak. I freaked out and the computer dude made an emergency trip to my house, and had to literally drain the laptop of milk - and make a coffee with the score - and then thankfully rescued everything off the hard-drive for me. RIP Laptop.

Computers, sometimes you make me MAD!

If any computer companies wanted to send me a 'puter, I am totes happy to chat about how fabulous you are 'til the cow's come home. Milk companies need not apply.

Meltdown? Help!

Do you ever feel like you're heading straight for a meltdown? Right now I do.

- New job
- My computer died (so I am stealing time on my husband's - high five Matt) (Spare a thought for Pip, she has no space bar)
- Madly house hunting (rent is RIDICULOUS!)
- Navigating in-laws
- Trying to keep the house clean for inspections
- Regular parenting
- Regular wife-ing
- Being overtired due to an over-exuberant night owl

What do you do when it all feels overwhelming? I've been hanging the clothes out. With intermittent tears being blinked back.

I do have one thing going for me. I am not green. And I don't often wear a pointy hat.

Blogtoberfest Day 22: Exploring

via

The Doctor has been online exploring, sitting side-by-side while I clock up some work time. It's quite handy, and I think (or am I just brainwashing myself) quite useful for him to be learning some computer skills. Data entry may be just around the corner. Just kidding.

You might be aware of all that's online for little kids to play with, but we're just on the cusp of learning. We've fooled around on the Yo Gabba Gabba (or Yo Givva Givva as the Doctor calls it) site quite a bit. And there's oodles on there, with their signature upbeat and retro styling - what's not to love? Old stylie games (would it be naughty to admit I loved playing Planet Pong??), heaps of videos (with loads of good music - The Shins anyone?), and even gizmos you name it, Yo Gabba Gabba scores big time. While the games are good, some are a little advanced for our little four and a half year old. Unless you want to sit there assisting. Which trust me can become tired after a while.

The Wiggles site is also a winner. Easy games for the Doctor to manipulate and navigate. He spent a loooong time on here. There are puzzles, online colouring in, memory games and so on.

Playschool. He hasn't got to this one yet, and I have blogged about the Playschool site before. It's a good one and includes simple recipes that the smalls can make too. It has plenty of project ideas too. Printable colouring pages. Birthday party ideas. Useful box activities (in alphabetical order no less). It's cute. I like it.

Do your smalls visit any websites?

My Computer Got Out Of Bed On The Wrong Side

I boot up this morning to fit in a little bit of work while I'm breakfasting. Sad I know, but if I can dash off a couple of emails, it makes life run a little smoother.

Only today - well my comuter gives me a dark screen - ominous: Error 200.

Charmed I'm sure.

Action all panic stations. Start feeling tense. Start getting nervous rash.

Call my Dad the IT guru. Bad news. Ouch.

I madly text my friend, Juzzie.

I try to no avail to resurrect my laptop but am continually greeted by the black screen. Times like this, I need to hack into the mainframe, a la Angelina Jolie in this film (I use the term 'film' loosely here).

And there goes my computer couriered off to be repaired ASAP.

So now I have commandeered Matt's computer. It's newer. It's faster. I wonder if he'd notice if I made this swap permanent?

Kiddie Craft:: Spring Lambs

Because we're housebound (it's even hotter today) we're doing a minimally messy kiddie craft activity today.

When I think Spring time, I think flowers, butterflies, bees all a-buzzing, sunshine, the promise of Summer, and baby animals. Cute, fluffy, baby, snooky, snuggly baby animals. Who doesn't love a baby animal (and I'm not talking Suze deMarchi)?

So I came up with this genius idea. Well I am sure it's not new. In fact I know it's not a new idea. This is another of those fail-safe craft activities to do with the smalls.

Spring lambs. Just the name excites me. I love baby lambs. So cute. So clumsy. So fragile. So we set to making some. I googled lamb stencils and found a couple of different ones. I set about printing them out (which took longer than the whole crafting experience itself). The Doctor (my son who calls himself Dr. Sanchez will from herein be referred to as The Doctor) organised the cotton balls. I organised the glue and paint brushes and we set to.

If I had an artistic bone I would have drawn my own lamb and bypassed the printing experience. There's a special note in that for crafty mamas. Save yourself from wrangling the printer. Draw your own I say!

I usually don't really give The Doctor strict instructions. I let him see what I am doing, and he can either do the same, or something similar. No hard and fast rules.

But for this one, well, perhaps I should have set some more guidelines. This was the end result. Enter the Spring lamb. So woolly it can't see whether it's Arthur or Martha. Poor baby lamb.