Writer's Workshop: the loudest aspect of increasing your family size

I'm jumping in with a Writer's Workshop post this week.  Finally I've got some inspiration! 

Prompt number 2: Relay an entertaining conversation ... you recently had with someone.

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Two was a great number of children to have.  We loved the days with us and Nat and Anna-Lucia.  This does not mean that we wanted to stop at two children however; it turned out that loving those days made us yearn for Baby Number Three.

There's a bit to consider when you're adding to your brood.  We'd thought it through a lot and decided that Baby Number Three would certainly be very much loved and would change our dynamic in many good ways. 

Sure the idea of three children when I was just coping with two got me thinking about how I would manage.  But whenever anyone said to me, "Wow - three kids!  You're brave!" (because people DO say that!) I always replied with a big grin and a breezy, "Yeah, I'm gonna need a LOT of prayer!"

So I was tossing this idea around with my good friend, Hippomanic Jen.

"You see Jen, having three children will take us from 'just manageable' to 'crazy raucous loud'.  I can just imagine days when people see me with my three kids and think, 'Wow, what a riot.  I'm not sure I want to invite them over to our house anymore."

Jen replied, "Oh no, I think three would be a lovely number of children for you."  And then she went on to say some lovely things about my children which made me blush with pride.  They also made me hope she never pops in during arsenic hour when all three of them are crying and demanding my attention.

I told her about an idea I'd had.  "Sometimes I wonder if I should have a little supper with you and all my other good friends before we try for Number Three.  You know - discuss things, and then pray about it.  And when that's done, we'd feel really secure and peaceful and confident to go ahead and try for another baby."

"That's a lovely idea," she replied.  "Although, as we all left your house after the prayer evening, we'd know what you'd be doing ..." she continued with a wicked giggle.

I laughed and vaguely agreed, then I continued on my original train of thought without much warning to Jen.

"I mean, of course I know that we would be all loud and raucous, and as I said, nobody will want to have us over to dinner anymore... Jen?  What?  WHAT?"

I've rarely seen her so paralytic with laughter.

Want to read something funny?

I've had a few posts ready for you but none of them has given me that satisfied feeling that makes you click "Publish."

One of my posts discusses an issue in the news this week regarding some of our highest politicians.  I'm sure many of you would agree with me, but just in case anyone didn't agree, or thought my post was about their politics instead of what they've been saying, I didn't post it.  I have no guts like that - I can't stand it when people tear apart what I think with their bare hands.

Another post was detailing the food we ate on Australia Day, but the company was better and we didn't get photos of them (nor ask if they would feature on the blog) so I've put that on the back-burner.

Another post was written in haste today after I picked Nat up from school.  I had a lovely conversation with the Crossing Supervisor on the way in, and on the way out she said something to my son that made me come home, switch on my computer and compose a post that started with "Dear Crossing Supervisor," and went downhill straight after that.  I didn't post it, but neither did I kill the Crossing Supervisor, so the unposted post served its purpose.

Tonight I read a post by Mama Kat that made me laugh out loud.  It's funny, and I wish I'd written it, but not had the experience that led to it.

Go on - there's nothing exciting happening at Killing A Fly tonight - head over to

Mama Kat

and read that instead!

Friday Fill-Ins on Saturday

Alison does these cool Friday Fill-Ins. I thought I'd have a go (irrespective of the fact that it's currently 5pm Saturday.)


1. Plans and schedules give me something the "hang my hat on" - I need them so I have somewhere from which to be flexible.

2. I'm happy when Things are asleep.

3. The last thing I drank was a hot chocolate.

4. One of the most valuable things in my life is the love of my children. They are always there for me.

5. I like roast pumpkin on my pizza.

6. Dear November, please please please don't be as frightening and lonely as you were last year. My heart just can't take much more.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to using my reading time to go out and buy a last-minute gift for a 5 year old's birthday party, tomorrow my plans include flying solo with three small children at the same birthday party and Sunday, I want to be cherished, thanked and honoured in some small way!

Heh. We'll see.

Not Me!

I've never done a "Not-Me Monday." It's about time.

Welcome to "Not Me! Monday!" This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Well, here's what I have NOT been up to.

Well to start with, I did NOT lose my head when I learned that I have placenta praevia. Oh no, I kept my head and abandoned all those idealistic ideas of birth that my last two deliveries have tempted me to crave more of. And I did NOT cry about this, not once. What a waste of time that would have been.

But I did on the other hand receive much support and love from friends here and far away, in the form of comments. However I did NOT fail to thank them all individually and personally, visit their own blogs and show that I care about each and every one of the kind people who spend time making this Aussie gal a little bit cheery. No way, I would NEVER fail to do something like that.

I did NOT continue the DVD marathon, sticking my dear little children in front of the TV while I got my head around things, while I did housework, and while I needed a few quiet moments for myself. I just don't do that sort of thing.

I did NOT neglect the dog again. I think I must have exercised her every day, hmm, maybe I even did it twice a day. Oh yes, I'm sure I did NOT fail to do that.

I did NOT ruin my sister-in-law's new carpet by dragging a mattress with broken spring protruding across it. I would never be so clumsy.

I did NOT continue to use the dryer to dry loads and loads of laundry, when God provided perfectly good sunshine with which to dry them. Can you picture standing before God at the end of your life and hearing Him say, "You have been a good and faithful servant, but on the other hand, you DID use the dryer instead of the sunshine I provided. So depart from me." No? Neither can I. Build a bridge and get over it.

I did NOT wear the same clothes for too many days straight, despite the fact that nobody's very sweaty up here in Winter. Oh no, I had clean fresh clothes every day of the week. Cos yeah, I actually OWN enough clothes (that fit me) to do that and I'm so totally on top of my laundry.

Good on me for NOT doing those things. Head on over to MckMama, not least because she's a mystifying blogger with twice the number of small children I have (one of whom has a chronic health condition) yet she blogs four times as often with ten times the interest level and a thousand times the photographic quality than I've ever achieved, but also because it is she who hosts this bloggy carnival she calls "Not Me Monday" and she's cool.

IYGAKAC

"If you give a kid a camera" is a game devised by "DysFUNctional Mom," a wonderful blogger who claims to have been putting the FUN in DysFUNctional since 1993. She seems pretty functional to me, though! I like her blog!

Well, it seems that if you give MY kid a camera... or, no, I'll rephrase that.

If MY kid uses pester power to wheedle, whine and cajole the camera off you with the reason that he knows which buttons to press, it seems he can come up with some pretty useless shots like these:

But he can also come up with the occasional gem. This one was taken at the shopping centre, with the hurried explanation he was going to chase his sister down and take a photo of her. I find this bewitching - the movement in the background, compared with the relative calm of her beautiful hair:



And after that, it can degenerate again, with shots like this:


And this self-portrait:


FLASH! Ooh, bet he couldn't see out of THAT eye for a while.

Until finally, engrossed in the camera, he ran straight into a man's legs. He looked up, startled, and promptly dropped the three-day-old camera on the floor, yielding this shot:


I thought it was dead. But yet, it lives another day.

Perhaps though, it doesn't live another day just so I can yet again see what happens IYGAKAC.

I honestly think your blog is scrap

That's NOT what this award means, if I understand correctly. Dee from Downunder was kind enough to offer me this award.
Here is a short explanation about this award: "Scrap means left over, fragments, discarded material. Many times truth and honesty are discarded material, considered fragments and left over. People like us need to tell it like it is, and let the scraps fall where they will."


And if that wasn't enough, Sassy Britches honoured me with this award:

The translation I believe says, "Please donate much in gold to this blogger, her writings will change the world." Either that, or "This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY" which has to do with ... "nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

In total, the tasks I must complete in order to accept these awards are to list 10 really honest things bout myself and nominate a grand total of 15 other bloggers to pass the award/s on to, preferably people who have not already received them. This is far too much for me to contemplate on a Friday.

Argh! Who hasn't received an award like this yet? Please tell me and I'll nominate you!

Tinsenpup? Mrs Tantrum? Adelaine? Help!

Meme from the burbs

Joy In The Burbs was doing a little meme I thought I'd like to try. Here it is:


Ten years ago I:
* was 21 years 11 months old
* was preparing to marry my best friend in 7 days time, and this means our 10th anniversary is coming up next Friday
* had worked for a year
* had lived in a little flat by myself for a year
* suffered most terribly from horrible panic attacks. But don't worry - God is currently busy restoring the years the locusts have eaten.


Five things on Tomorrow's To-Do List:
* fill our spare beanbag with trillions of little tiny beans so that the endless fights over our one beanbag will be put to rest. (Fights between my kids, not between me and Mr De Elba.)
* 10am - 2pm: go to Mr de Elba's work Christmas Party in the park. We're expecting a scorching 38 degrees C (100 degrees F) and it will be humid too. So a party in the park in the hottest part of the day might just kill us.
* endless pottering about the kitchen
* endless pottering about the laundry
* perhaps my parents will drop in for a little bit, but maybe the heat will keep them up on the mountain in Toowoomba!


Five snacks I enjoy:
* crackers and dip
* chips like Tasty Jacks (Louisa blogged about these and now they're on my mind. Mmm.)
* corn chips too
* macadamia nuts
* dark chocolate


Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
* Give to the mission organisations and charities I'm interested in
* Make sure that our parents, who have supported us from infancy to independence are well taken care of
* Set us up to be comfortable but not over-comfortable (yes I know I know, that's all relative, my idea of 'comfortable' is the third world's idea of 'filthy-rich'. Don't make me any more guilty of my blessings than I already am, okay? I'm working through it with God.)
* Set up my children for their education and a little helping hand with their first homes
* See if I could find something wise to invest in.


Five places I have lived:
* Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
* Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia
* Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
* St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
* Ipswich, Queensland, Australia


Five jobs I've had:
* An ill-fated three days' employment at Hanna's clothing store before I realised that they gave me a full-time job when I wanted a casual job over Christmas.
* Receiver of paper cuts in a Back-To-School Bookstore.
.......A step up because I knew what I was getting myself in for.
* Speech Pathologist with Disability Services Queensland.
.......A step up because it was what I was trained for.
* Speech Pathologist with Education Queensland.
.......A step up because there were no lying scheming manipulative managers trying to bring me down.
* Speech Pathologist in my own private practice.
.......A step up because I am my own boss, I set my own hours, I see as many clients as I want, and I manage my own workload and professional development.


That was fun. I enjoy memes, probably because I like talking about myself. In fact, I enjoy BLOGGING because I like talking about myself.

Wanna do the meme? Go ahead, then tell me so I can pop over and check out your dark secrets ... about ... your employment history and your snacking habits ... which I could learn from having morning tea with you while reading your CV.

"O"

There's a meme floating around right now which asks bloggers to list their ten top favourite things that start with a particular letter. Jen at Buried With Children inspired me with her wonderful list of things that start with "S" so I asked her to give me a letter and I'd try.

She asked the handsome Hayden to assign me a letter. Hayden chose "O".

So now I'm in real trouble. Thanks Hayden. A vowel.

Where to start? Obviously, the first thing was to google "things that begin with o".

This was hopeless. Most of the hits were for other bloggers who attempted this meme, and here are some of the uninspiring things thay have listed:

Osama bin Laden, Oprah, Obama, Opossum, Outhouse, Old School Friends, Ostrich, October, Offers of Marriage, Onyx, and Oil paintings.

Ya what?

I'm struggling with "O".

I've re-MEME-bered ...

I did that meme telling you 7 odd things about me. But I keep thinking of things. Perhaps I'm odder than the meme was expecting.


1. Sometimes when I sneeze, I follow it up with a quiet little "Yesss!" This is because I believe that after having 2 children, if you can sneeze and NOT let just a little bit of wee out, it deserves a celebration.

2. I don't eat blue foods. But you knew that already.

3. Thinking about playdough makes me gag and sorta vomit a little. And that you also knew.

4. I never use the word that is spelled h-e-i-n-o-u-s. This is because I do not know how I should pronounce it. It seems that there are two main bodies of thought on how to pronounce the word, and I'm not a fan of either of them. Either way, you're saying a word that rhymes with 'anus' or 'penis' and I'm so not down with that.

5. When I read my daily Bible reading, I always need to flick to the end of the passage first to see exactly where it ends. I feel like I can concentrate on the text better if I check the end-point first.

6. I just HATE people touching my belly button. This is difficult as little kids are interested in their own and others' belly buttons. My kids would dearly love to poke my belly button with their tiny fingers, but I can't bear it, and I won't let them.

7. Number 7 is not about my own oddity, it's about my sister's (her list would number into the hundreds, by the way). She has named me as an executor of her will, and in the documantation regarding her estate, she has a clause detailing where she gets her photos developed. I asked why this was included and she said that she couldn't bear the thought that she might die while she had a film in for processing, and nobody would ever know. Those poor photos ... waiting to be collected ... for years ... (sob).


Well hey, what a list. Thanks for continuing to read me here at Killing A Fly, even though I'm so ... odd.

Time for a meme

Thanks Adelaine for tagging me! I really should do more memes, I guess I just assume that you all are not that interested in my drivel about myself. But I've thought of a few things for this one.

You want to know 7 random and/or weird facts about me? Well, buckle up!

1. Although my sister can sight read about any piece of music you give her but she can't play anything from memory, I can memorise long pieces but am practially dyslexic with reading music. It might as well be Chinese.

2. Sometimes when I hug my kids, I love them so much it nearly hurts. Their small bodies feel so darn good pressed against mine, I think I'll burst. Then when I think of the "empty nest" we'll have one day, I cry a bit and I have to get busy with something or I'll keep crying all day.

3. I scream when I drive under bridges while trains go over the top. Trains are heavy, and I don't like them above me. Sure, that bridge has held for 70 years, but ... you know ...

4. Some days I fantasise about collecting up all the floor-bound objects that don't belong on the floor and throwing them out. Those particular objects would never bother me again, would they?

5. I find it very hard to drink plain milk due to "The Incident of Lesley and The Fly (1981)." I was in preschool. For morning tea one day, I realised that the usual warm plain milk that we were all served had a fly in it. It made me feel sick. I really didn't want to waste the milk, but I just had to ask the Aide, Lesley, if she would give me some more. Instead, she picked the fly out and gave the milk back to me. It turned my stomach. And now I can't bring myself to drink plain milk. Terrible, aren't I?

6. In high school, I was a percussionist. I was good at tympani and the giant concert xylophone, but I was total rubbish as a drummer. But being a drummer in a rock band is still my secret fantasy.

7. I have an irrational fear of opening roller doors. Call me crazy, but there is, isn't there, the slight but real possibility that a SNAKE has curled itself up on top of the roll of door, and as you lift it open it from the inside, the action of the rolling will tip the snake off and into your outstretched arms. Won't it? No, but it's possible, isn't it?



Would YOU like to play along too? Pretend I knew that all along and cleverly TAGGED you. Let me know you've got 7 facts up about you, and I'll come and read them!

I'd better do a meme!

My apologies to all who have tagged me for memes over the last few months and haven't had anything from me in return! I am now overwhelMEMEd and hardly know which meme to start on. I was trying to make my own - combine aspects of a whole heap of memes into a poem but the whole thing fell apart in the first verse and it was quite appalling. So instead I'll do one that I found when I was tagged by Jen from Buried with Children.

I'm going to tell you two quirks about each of the people in my family. Please feel free to leave and read another blog when you get bored.

Me:

1. I have a terrible phobia of the hotplates on our stove. Once I've taken a pan off a roasting hotplate, I have to get a clean saucepan and fill it with water to cover the hotplate with until it cools down. For this reason, I am splurging on an induction cooktop in my new kitchen.
2. I have a cowlick in my left eyebrow. What's with that?

Mr de Elba:

1. He played the cello all throughout school. I'm sure he could play something now, but there aren't many opportunities to pull out your stringed instruments from highschool.
2. He loves playing a game with the kids that we call "Rough And Tumble On The Big Bed". It involves him and one of the kids doing rough play on our bed. He recently broke our new post-bedbug bed by jumping on it when playing R&TotBB with Sonny Ma-Jiminy.

Sonny Ma-Jiminy:

1. He was 5lb 1oz when he was born but he always seemed to have these big Boy-Feet (even thought they were small). They're a bit like flippers. And he LOVES swimming. His flipper feet are much bigger now, and I love looking at them, remembering when they were the same shape, but tiny.
2. He has a fierce temper and is an Alpha. For this reason, I was terrified I wouldn't parent him well, and raise a difficult child for my first. I was worried he would cause problems for future children, setting a bad example. I wish I hadn't worried - he is a lovely kid and his strength of character will be good as he rubs off on Smoochy Girl.

Smoochy Girl:

1. She has only just started walking at 16 months. She was in no rush to sit, to crawl or to walk. But when she started, she was very certain of herself and hardly ever fell over.
2. When she was born, I thought she was a gentle delicate little thing, the opposite of Sonny Ma-Jiminy in personality. How wrong I was. They are cut from the same cloth. She can be fierce.

Puppity Doggity:

1. She was the smallest in her litter, but the first to open her eyes, try solid food and escape from the whelping box.
2. She has a fear of a step about two-thirds up the flight onto the deck. She always baulks there, she usually tries to run through the 'danger zone' too quickly and therefore she sometimes trips, reinforcing her fear.

Darn, Wrong Meme

I've been tagged for my first meme! This means I have friends, people! Problem is, I was hoping to be tagged for a different meme. Oh well, nevermind.

Mommastantrum said it so well: "I've been tagged for a meme and since I want all my new friends to keep playing with me after school I'm going to suck it up and do it."

Then she said I had to write Five Classes You Wish They'd Taught In School, said wishfully that she hoped they didn't involve parasites! Oooh, tough one. Let's see how I go, hey?

1. How to keep the layers of a sponge cake together in transit
2. Managing a plastics fire in your oven
3. Cooking under pressure: how to make a roast dinner with a child attached to your leg
4. Strategies for avoiding Tupperware parties, cosmetic parties, bookselling parties, lingerie parties, linen parties, candle parties and beading parties.
5. Recognising items that must be thrown away after use.

My school didn't teach these things. I had to work them out for myself. My school did however teach me:

1. Matrices and vectors
2. Titration
3. Conjugating French irregular verbs
4. Imaginary numbers
5. What the inside of a frog looks like

None of which I remember today.

Now I really was hoping to get tagged for the meme in which you post 5 pictures each with 5 words of description. I was lying in bed last night dreaming this up ...

Zis relevant to mah interests.

But by doze wuz ruddig.

Where DID that gecko go?

You'd think butter wouldn't melt ...

"No, No, NOOO!!!" - "Sowwy, Mummy."