Well a week ago I looked outside and saw the dog playing with something. I soon saw that it was a tiny little mouse! I rushed outside and scooped up the poor little baby and brought it inside. I had a couple of choices. Either I could set it free and hope it survived, or I could take it in and try and look after it. I chose the latter course, because it was extremely young (barely weaned, I would have to guess).
I took it in, put it in a container and then went searching for our old mouse house (which was very small, but suitable for such a tiny baby). The funny thing was, even though the cage was small, the bars at the side were wide enough for the mouse to escape from! It was THAT small it could escape from a regular mouse cage. Fortunately, we noticed its ability to escape before it got too far away, and fixed up the sides of the cage with foil.
The morning after finding the mouse I noticed it didn’t look all that well, and wondered whether it was able to eat regular mouse food. I actually gave it a bit of cream on my hand to see if it would eat it, and it licked up all the cream. Later, I started feeding it cooked oatmeal, and it would stand there on the little plate I gave it, holding the oats in its little paws and nibbling away! The funny thing was, it seemed to go up and down. Sometimes it seemed very still and cold to the touch, but if I picked it up and held it for awhile, or warmed the room a bit, it would perk up. It shouldn’t really have been too cold for the mouse, as it’s early summer here and while most days haven’t been particularly warm, it’s not exactly freezing either.
Last night the mouse wasn’t looking so good again. I debated putting the heater on for a bit, but didn’t want to as I was going to bed. I regret that decision now. This morning when I went to check on the little mouse, it was dead. When things like this happen I feel extremely disheartened and frustrated. I wonder what I did wrong…what more I could have done…what signs I missed. I wish I’d tried the heater, at the very least TRIED it! I had considered putting some tissues in the mouse cage so it could make a warmer nest, but at the same time there was plenty of wood shavings it could snuggle into.
It was odd, because at times the mouse didn’t seem too good, and at others it was a zippy little thing you’d be hard pressed to catch. I always worried when it was more sluggish and still… but it always seemed to perk up and get better. I do wonder if the food I was giving it wasn’t ideal. Yes, it had regular mouse food in the cage, but being so small I was trying to feed it mushy food in case it was unable to eat the seeds and pellets.
I know it’s stupid to get upset over a wild mouse. Mice are, after all, considered vermin. There are plagues of the darn things, and yet I feel broken hearted over the death of a single one. I think of all the times I’ve tried to rescue creatures only to have them die on me. Whether it was my fault or not, I always harbour some guilt, some feeling that I could have done MORE that I could have prevented the animal’s death!
And yes, for awhile I will regret my actions last night. That I didn’t stay with the mouse longer. That I didn’t put the heater on low. That I didn’t put tissues in the mouse cage. If I had done these things, and the mouse had still died, at least I’d have known that I did the best I could.
RIP Little Mouse! I am sorry 
.
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Filed under General by on Dec 14th, 2011. 
So, I am entering the 2011 Body Trim challenge. Well, I was SUPPOSED to start a couple of weeks ago…and I did…sort of…but there have been some hiccups along the way, so I am basically starting again. The IDEAL time to start was October 3rd, but you can start any time until the beginning of January, so it’s okay…Sort of. LOL.
Well, I find it kinda tough, being a vegetarian, because it’s hard to find a good natural protein source without high carbs in it (in other words, it’d be much easier to be a meat eater…but I’m not so I must deal). I HAVE lost a wee bit of weight, but had some sabotage issues (some my fault, and some due to peer pressure lol… I NEED to get tougher!) So I am starting afresh tomorrow, which means new pictures (YUCK) and I need a newspaper for the date.
I would like to be a healthy weight by Christmas…and that SHOULD be physically feasible, if not simple 
. I just need to get my rear in gear! I have plenty of exercises I can do (eg TACFIT which I haven’t really started yet) plus some Wii games, as well as my bike (need to pump tyres). I just need to keep my EYES on the PRIZE (now first prize is a nice 50k, and while it’d be nice, the REAL prize will be feeling happy and confident enough to wear “normal” summer clothes in summer)!!
The aim is to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, all with protein, all low carb. I have been pretty good at avoiding sugary drinks, so yay for me, but not yet perfect. I did eat ice cream tonight and yesterday (BAD ME) and thus I am starting afresh. I had a wee bit of stress last week with my son on camp (although of course he was completely fine and had a blast…but that’s parenting for you lol) but really, that’s no excuse. So from tomorrow it’s ALL ON.
I need daily walking/cycling, plus some other exercises, proper eating, and I need to drink LOTS of water. I am reasonably good with water, but could be better (need 2L or so a day). My current weight is about 65kg, and I ultimately want to get back to 45kg (NO that is NOT skinny for someone of my height, in case you were wondering…it SOUNDS worse than it is…but for someone like me who is <5 feet tall…it’s perfectly healthy 
). In fact, 45kg makes a nice BMI of 20!
By summer I’d like to have a BMI of 25, and thus be technically “healthy” weight. Oh, and as I’m doing a PT course, I really, really need to get my fitness up (and my assignments all completed). So next week, I need to get RIGHT into things full speed!!! It’s just hours away, so I ampsyching myself up now lol.
As for other things…
It’s final term now, which means I need to get the house straightened out before the summer holidays. I also recently applied for a job where I used to work (on my sister’s urging) so if I get that, I’ll REALLY need to get more organised. Don’t know how much they’ll want me as they ideally want people who can start at 5am (which would be great if I didn’t have kids to get ready for school) but well, we’ll see…and some part time work would be nice. I am hoping once I’m qualified as a PT I’ll get work in that field, but something as a backup would be great. If I don’t get that, I may get some occasional cleaning jobs too… so that’s something else to think about. A few extra $$$ never goes astray, but my organisation isn’t the best NOW so I really need to give myself a kick in the pants if I DO get work.
Filed under General, Health, Weight Loss by on Oct 16th, 2011.
Well, yes, it’s been awhile since I updated. Overall, I’ve been slack. Long story to be honest… but the truth is I need a bit of a kick in the pants, and I need to focus on MY goals instead of running around after other people all the time (running around after my kids is one thing… but other people is a bit of a different story).
Anyways, I started a personal training course (I’m getting unemployment benefits and I’m allowed to do a course for 6 months without having to look for work… so I started this one). And yesterday, I got the TACFIT warrior course. I need to stick with bodyweight exercises for awhile, simply because I can’t afford the gym membership, AND as I’m studying to be a PT, I need to get FIT and HEALTHY and lose some more weight 
.
So, as part of TACFIT I need to do a bit of journalling. Today is therefore DAY 1, and Day 1 is a no intensity day (rest day… although I’ve got nothing much to rest from). However, I also need to do some GOAL SETTING. Whee! The areas are: physical, personal and career. So, I’ll set some goals that are concrete and written down (which I tend not to do often enough). Alrighty then, here we go…
Physical: My first goal is to hit the healthy weight range, thus a BMI less than 25. That’s about 56kg for me. This is NOT my final goal! I’d like a body fat % of around 15% I think! (But I’ll judge that when I get there). I want a max body fat of around 20%. Anything above is NOT acceptable! (These are not ultimate goals…but yeah, have to reach the first goals before I can get all the way).
Personal: Hmm…tricky! I think I want to focus on more positive parenting. Thus, spending more quality time with the kids, taking them for walks (getting them away from computers etc.) and helping the oldest child get into better shape!! Also, I want to focus on a bit more home organisation. My house isn’t where I want it to be by any stretch of the imagination and I’d like it to be a bit more comfy and homey!!
Career: For now, to get through my PT course. I do have further goals, but I want to tackle these things one at a time! I have a tendency to want to do too much too quickly, and of course, I always fail miserably.
So yeah… I want to change my life. I want things to improve. And I KNOW it’s all down to ME! But I tend to want to achieve too much too soon and I fall flat on my rear end and don’t end up accomplishing anything. It’s pretty sad to get to 38 years of age without a lot to show for it (although, I AM better off than some people…this is true…but I’m far behind where I COULD be if I really put my all into it).
So, here we go…it’s DAY 1 and I need to get my bottom up and about EVERY day in order to succeed at this!! GO ME!
Filed under Health, Personal Development, Weight Loss by on Sep 14th, 2011.
Sooo… got home this evening from a friend’s house (had been there for a good 6 hours) and there was a funny smell, it was a burnt sort of smell, but at first I couldn’t place it. And then, it hit me! My daughter had left two candles burning on the table! Well, one was in a sort of “lamp” shape, the wax was in a glass base and there was a shade over the top. Well somehow the glass had actually broken, there was wax all over the table AND there was a hole in the tablecloth and scorch mark on the wooden table underneath! I nearly had a heart failure, considering there were also pieces of paper sitting close to the candle. I actually can’t believe nothing else caught alight!!
Let’s just say I had a minor heart failure when I realised how close we came to having a possibly major catastrophe! It also makes me feel especially bad as all my beloved cats are locked in the house, and if there was a fire, they could have been killed if the fire brigade hadn’t come in time. It really doesn’t bear thinking about, and reminds me of how careful we need to be whenever we’re leaving the house (even though we didn’t plan to be gone nearly as long as we were).
Of course, I did one up on my daughter about three years ago, when I left food cooking on the stove when I went to pick her up from Guides one night! I only realised when I was a good 10 minutes from home. Fortunately the neighbours heard the smoke alarm go off and got into the house and turned off the stove (the pan had burned dry and the chicken was well and truly cindered). I don’t know if it could have caused an actual house fire, because there was nothing flammable nearby (even if the chicken had actually started burning), but it was another experience that really made me think and be careful.
Today, I sort of feel as if there is someone watching out for us! And for this, I really am grateful. I’m not generally a religious person, but when I realise how close we came to a house fire, it helps me to appreciate all I’ve got even more.
Filed under Family, General, Personal Development by on Jun 6th, 2011.
Well it’s a long weekend…that will be followed by another long weekend (yes, I kid you not…the teachers at the primary school have “report writing day” on Monday, and Monday week will be the Queen’s birthday holiday…which means we have two long weekends in a row). On the upside, the little Moo is off at camp this weekend, which means that she gets a day to recuperate from it! It’s her first “proper” Girl Guides camp. The first she went on was when she was 6 and wasn’t able to stay overnight as they had a policy whereby they didn’t let girls under 7 sleep over. (That was the first time she went to Girl Guides… as we moved away for the year after she didn’t go…and when she started back this year she started in a different pack that just happened to be more closely located). Anyway, they’re going horseriding and other such fun things (the two youngest kids went to the same camp almost 4 years ago when they were in Prep and Grade 1…so she’s rapt to go back again).
One annoying thing that’s happened this weekend is that SOMETHING has happened to my mobile. Well it says “SIM card rejected” when I turn it on…and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. I had it in my pocket and it beeped and when I got it out, that’s what it said! I have no idea what happened, all I know is that I can’t FIX it. I even checked to make sure I didn’t default on my mobile payment, but it seems to have gone through okay, so as far as I can see, there’s no reason for the issue. I’ve pulled the SIM card out a couple of times, and put it back in again…but it’s not working. It’d be nice if I could test it in another phone, but no… I can’t because my dearest darling oldest son has lost his blazer AGAIN and of course, his phone is in the pocket. Otherwise I’d be able to see if the problem was related to the phone or to the SIM card. Hopefully he brings his blazer home tomorrow… or I’ll be quite cross! I will get hime to search the school for it if necessary! I am quite vexed not having the mobile working. I mean… it’s not like I use it a LOT…but it’s nice to HAVE it in case I do need it! It’s just one of those things designed to give me extra stress. It’s funny how much we come to rely on something that a few years ago we didn’t even use… kinda like the Internet!
So what else to recount for the day? Well my son is making biscuits for my sister… which is nice… except I ate some dough… and then my other son made some more biscuits and I ate some of them… and now I feel rather crappy. I know I can’t eat rubbish and get away with it!!! ARGH! I need to use my brain. It always puts me in a far worse frame of mind, and gives me stress and anxiety and all that rubbish. And I just don’t NEED it!
Now, it’s almost time for bed… I started this post some hours ago and then forgot about publishing it. I am missing my baby girl, and I think she forgot her favourite toy so she won’t be too happy tonight! Well she is sharing a room with three other girls so I trust she won’t be too lonely. At least I hope not! She has a few friends at Guides, but doesn’t know the girls as well as she knows her school friends, so it might be a bit harder for her. Well, I am sure she will be okay! But even though the house is a bit more peaceful today with one less child, it’s also just a wee bit lonelier Funny how that is!! I do miss my little girl when she’s not around (probably cause although I get a good deal of grief from her, I also get lots of cuddles from her too!!).
Now, I’ve decided to think of one thing I need to accomplish for the next day… and I’ve decided that tomorrow I will (gasp!) clean the laundry!! Yes, I’ll even mop it. It’s fairly untidy and there’s stuff everywhere…so it will be nicer when it’s clean. As it’s the room where cats eat and toilet (yummo) it’s never perfectly clean and fresh though lol.
Filed under Family, General by on Jun 4th, 2011.
So, my legendary son has won a major role in his school play! I’m really rapt about it because he’s never done much drama at school (apart from some minor acting in primary school plays), so to get a lead in his middle school production is great!! I wasn’t sure he had it in him (cause it’s a musical… I mean, I have seen that he has some natural acting talent… but I didn’t think dancing and singing was his thing) lol. So the play is Aladdin and he’s been cast as the Genie, so he has a couple of songs too! I think he’ll be great for the role as it sort of suits him well (he wanted to play Aladdin…but really…errm that was so wrong for him…).
So we’re all very proud of our little man!
Apart from that… today I didn’t accomplish much at all. Well my good friend was unwell so I ran a couple of errands for her, and I had a rest this afternoon cause I’m not well either (but in my case it’s just a bit of a cold/respiratory infection thingy) so I’m sort of okay, but not brilliant. And I need to recover so I can start actually achieving things! Of course, in a sense it’s a bit of an excuse… I’ve been sleeping okay, but have had rotten headaches, and I think in part it’s because I’ve been sleeping with the heater on, which is perhaps dehydrating me a bit. I think I’m better off turning it off when I get in bed, as I should be warm enough without needing it on all night.
Anyway…tomorrow is Friday, which is usually a bit of a dead loss for me as I generally go walking, and I go shopping which takes up a good chunk of the day all things considered. Friday after school is swimming for the kids (which is slightly problematic with the oldest son now doing rehearsals on Fridays…but we’ll work our way around that), and that usually takes up the majority of Friday evening. Still, if I can get SOMETHING done tomorrow morning, that will be an achievement.
I do need to get my rear in gear though… financial times are tough, and I’m squeaking by… barely. This is one of those fortnights when grocery shopping is going to be very meager and skimpy indeed. No, we won’t starve, but there won’t be any nice little extras either. I think it will be awhile before they are! Usually when my kids have done something great, I take them out for a meal, but I can’t even do that today because I just don’t have the money for it. Well, that being said, it’s okay… at least my bills are all pretty much paid. It could be better, but it could definitely be worse too.
Filed under General by on Jun 2nd, 2011.
Although, today it didn’t feel like it at all! It was actually a gorgeous warmish (for this time of year) sunny day! Apparently this morning it was very cold though (-3 or something). Soo… it’s time for some FOCUS and goal setting and all that… oh and I wish I didn’t have this rampaging headache
So, where to from here? Well business hasn’t exactly been booming, but we did have a good meeting this morning on Skype (I missed the first hour of it… but it was a 3 hour meeting soooo…) and hopefully this means that things will start “happening” soon! They sort of need to cause I am broke… very very broke… totally paralysingly broke… Well that all sounds rather depressing, but as they say “the only way is up”. I’m not actually sure who “they” are, but it’s a good enough saying!
As for my freelancing work… well I have heard NOTHING for a couple of weeks. I submitted my last assignment and haven’t been paid, and haven’t seen any acknowledgement for the work at all… so that’s really not good. It’s not a lot of money, but even $250 or so is better than a kick in the behind!
You know, I would be OVER THE MOON if I could make just $5000 a month by the end of the year. It would seriously remove all my stresses. Errm… wait…not ALL… I should say FINANCIAL stresses. Yup, they’d be over. Paying the bills would be easy peasy, as would affording decent food etc. each shopping day and not having to resort to no name products.
So, I will try and keep this blog updated each day with “STUFF I’VE ACHIEVED” and honestly it doesn’t matter what that stuff is…whether I went for a nice walk, or I ate well, or I did some work, or I cleaned the house… or something. Just to acknowledge the progress I’ve made! Progress is good, and it’s something I’ve got to work on .
Oh, and as a matter of interest, in the shower this morning when my hair was wet, it reached my waist! Just But it was THERE!!! YAY for growing hair!!
Filed under Health, Personal Development, Weight Loss by on Jun 1st, 2011.
Yeah, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated the blog. Of course, as it’s really a private blog and nobody reads it except me…that probably doesn’t matter! Still, I think it’s a good idea to keep MYSELF accountable, and coming on here helps me do that.
Honestly, this year so far I feel as if I haven’t done or achieved much. Truly, it hasn’t been a great year self improvement wise. So I’m here today because yesterday was my birthday, and having a birthday always gives me a bit of a kick in the pants. Too bad the kick doesn’t stay for the long haul!
So, what are my biggest issues right now?
1. I suppose as usual it’s…my weight. Yes, despite a great start to last year and a good 10kg lost, I have really stalled over the past 12 months or so. In general my diet doesn’t seem to be awful, but clearly it’s not great because if it was, then I wouldn’t be overweight now! I am sick and tired of not living my life to the fullest because my weight is holding me back!! I know weight is no excuse, but there definitely is a psychological component, not to mention physically finding it harder to do stuff because of an extra 20kg weighing you down. Now, as usual I ate too much on my birthday, but that can be forgiven lol. However, the rest of the time it can’t! I need to watch my portions as well as make better considered food choices.
2. My finances. Well, this year has been incredibly stressful money wise and I need to get on top of that. Work has come in fits and starts which hasn’t helped, but then again, I haven’t helped myself as much as I could either. I need to get stuck into some work and really dig my heels in and suck it up. You can’t achieve much if you spend most of your time just stuffing around! The year is almost half over and I’ve achieved very little when all’s said and done on the career front, so this is something I really have to change.
3. Home organization. Yup, I’m still not organized in my personal home life. The house still generally looks as if a bomb went off, and I haven’t been keeping up with things. Obviously, I’m not going to achieve a peaceful tidy home if I can’t get stuck into it on a regular basis! I tend to get heavily into organization and housework for a few days, and then just um… well let it slip and everything goes back to the way it was.
Anyway, I will try and keep better track of my time and get my shit sorted! Promise!
Filed under Health, Personal Development, Weight Loss by on May 23rd, 2011.
Well it’s not the 1st day of the year… cause I was a bit slack and visited my husband and ate rubbish for the first three days of the year, but day 4 I am officially on the Master Cleanse. My goal is for 10 days on it (but geez I’m gonna need a LOT of Maple Syrup!!). Anyway, it’s 6:40pm and I’m feeling sort of hungry. I just whipped up another 900mL (think I’ve already had 1.2L today), and I can see that one bottle of Maple Syrup will only make 2.5L… so yeah, do the maths on that lol. Not sure I can keep going for 10 days with that much syrup needed!
Well, I’m doing some research to see if I can find a cheaper source of syrup! I think I will need to drink at least 2.5L of this each day!! Online it seems you can buy a 7 day pack for $87! Hmm… Cheaper or more expensive? I think it’s more expensive, but it’s also got the tea and sea salt thrown in plus a free book. Hmm they charge over $70 for 1 L of syrup LOL… well I think the Maple Syrup in the supermarket is cheaper than that! So, this just means I’ll have to go shopping tomorrow for some more syrup! I haven’t had the senna tea… because there wasn’t any in the supermarket…and I’m not sure about the salt flush?!
Well for now I’ll keep doing it this way, but I might buy a kit next time I want to do a cleanse and I have the extra $$ to spend lol! I’ve been a little slow getting going so far this year, but I’m going to whip into shape soon! Can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted here. I’ve been very slack!
Filed under Health, Weight Loss by on Jan 4th, 2011.
As you may be aware, I haven’t done much lately (no shit lol). Again, it’s cause I’ve been trying to do too much at once, I think. I really need to get ONE new habit to work towards for 30 full days (or a month… whichever happens lol). SOOO… I am going to do basically a YEAR of 30 day trials (approximately, cause Feb is only 28 days lol), so by that I mean one per month. Make sense? AND I’m not going to try to change ANYTHING else during that month!
As December’s coming up, and thus school holidays, I want to focus on organising and tidying for the month of December, because I want the house to be somewhat sorted out by school holidays. I find holidays quite stressful, partly because things get on top of me. While I still want to get fit, lose weight etc. etc. At this particular time I want to focus on getting my house sorted out! If it’s clean and tidy by the time the holidays roll around, and I’m in the habit of sorting things out when they need to be sorted out, then I think the holidays will pass much more smoothly. This year the kids have 7 weeks off (no idea why, it’s usually 6 weeks during summer!!) so that’s a long time to wallow in disorganisation.
I’m not sure what I’ll incorporate for January, as it will be a month of holiday, but I’ll try and choose something that will be supportive of my organization, and something I can do reasonably well while I’ve got kids home from school. It will probably revolve around doing more with the family, such as family walks or something though!
Anyway, starting December 1 (although I’ll get into practice before then) will be my new 30 day challenge of following Flylady for organisation, and doing 5 minutes/room/day (well not quite sure about that… it may be 15 minutes/room/day in half the house and then the next day in the other half of the house!!), doing morning and evening routines, and ensuring that the floors are tidy by the end of the day (the idea behind that is to not leave stuff around on the floor overnight…because quite often stuff IS left on the floor overnight, and it seems to multiply). The kids have only three weeks left of term (GULP) so I want to be in a pretty good position by the 17th, when they get off for the holidays!
Anyway… I am thinking that I have to be specific! So I will specifically say here exactly what I will do…I need to make it measurable I will try and make it fairly simple and uncomplicated.
Morning:
Get up and make bed, unpack dishwasher and shower. (Easy huh?? I often wait until the kids have gone to school before I shower, which sort of slows me right down!!).
Daytime:
15 minutes/day/room for half the house (rooms separated by hallway door). There’s about 5 rooms on each side (roughly lol), so that will be a total of 1 hour 15 minutes each day.
Evening:
Ensure there’s no “stuff” on the floor that shouldn’t be there.
And that’s IT! Easy huh?? Well, we’ll see… I’ve really cut down on the Flylady routines there to basics (I already do laundry, dishes and sink cleaning at night so I’m not going to include it here).
Filed under Organization, Personal Development by on Nov 27th, 2010.