Juggling Motherhood

Is it possible to not spend any money during the school holidays?

Spending detox: Day 5

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Mika

Mothernature didn’t co-operate with us today, it was very windy and cold. If the weather was better, I think I would have liked to have gone on a bushwalk. In the end, the children were in a melllow mood, and were getting into their own projects. I also got into a big project myself, and I was so busy, that I didn’t get around to taking any photos today…I also faced my biggest challenge which had me thinking about breaking the spending detox!

How we spent day 5:

Older girls did portrait sketches
DS4 used his mobilo to make transformers (he rented a transformer DVD last night. It was so cute how he would transform his mobilo and make that “chh chh chuu chhhuu” transformer sound)
DD2 played with dolls (isn’t it weird how the children take on a higher voice when they are doing the voice for the dolls…makes me smile every time!)
I moved the car out of the garage so the kids could ride their bikes inside
I started decluttering the garage and ended up staying there most of the day
DS4 found our picnic basket and decided to make us an indoor picnic with bread and fruit
All of the kids enjoyed the new space I made for them to do their drawings and crafts
The charity shop came to pick up 2 tables, a cot mattress, and a few other bits and pieces. BIGGEST TEMPTATION: I really wanted to take a load of rubbish to the tip/dump. I was really torn: finish my goal for the week or finish decluttering the garage and pay to go to the dump. ugh!
Hubby was late from work, so the kids started watching out for him out the window. All of a sudden I heard “DADDY!” then another wouldn’t know what to do with themselves so yelled out “HIDE HIDE!!” TEMPTATION: Felt like having a lazy Friday and pick up hubby from work and get take aways
Had a “breakfast dinner” at home (just to change things up, we sometimes have scrabbled eggs and/or bacon, and or mini sausages and/or pancakes for dinner as a fun treat)
After we played with the kids in the evening, we ate the traffic light jelly that we made in a bowl a few days ago
Got a DVD for DD2 that we will probably watch tomorrow
For a date, hubby and I watched a movie on tv together

MONEY SPENT TODAY $0.00

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED TODAY:

Sometimes you just have to let go of your things. I had to make some tough choices today about some of the furniture we have (did I mention I’m a bit of a hoarder!). Asking these questions, helped me to let them go: Does the item fit, or have a home? Do you use it now? Is it even worth keeping?!
I had trained myself to look past the mess of the house all these years. In reality, I was never really looking past the mess, if anything the mess was like a “to-do list” staring back at me, and that can make anyone feel down. As we de-clutter the house, and all pitch in to keep it tidy, I actually feel lighter!
Whenever I finish de-cluttering a section of the house, I ALWAYS say to myself afterwards “you should have taken a “before shot”. Then I do the same mistake the next time, and the next time! Will I ever learn?!
I love watching my kids play together! I also love it when they give each other sympathy when they get hurt.

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Is it possible to not spend any money during the school holidays?

Spending detox: Day 4

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Mika

I’m not sure when everyone else in the blogging world writes their posts!?! I seem to be doing mine late at night. I guess when you read what I have been up to today, you will understand why!

How we spent day 4:

Woke up to a tidy house. Thank you kids and hubby!

The Wind Chimes they made at the craft workshop & one of the balloon animals they got at the circus show

The girls made wind chimes at the hardware store kid’s clinic. TEMPTATION: A pack of two nightlights were calling my name “buy me, you know you want me, I would look so cool in your kid’s room!”)

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Went to a beach that we haven’t been to before
Went home to get changed and have lunch. TEMPTATION: I was starting to feel a bit hungry on the drive back to our place. Had to talk myself out of stopping off at my favourite bakery and getting a sugar donut.

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Went and watched a juggling/circus act at the mall. TEMPTATION: Curse those mall ice creams! There’s just something about sitting together and having a relaxing snack to finish off an outing.

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The girls got taught how to do the diabolo in a workshop after the show. The younger kids and I enjoyed going up and down the escalators over and over again! TEMPTATION: There was a coin operated massage chair, that looked very inviting!
We got some balloon animals made after the show
DD6 won a $10 mall voucher at the show!

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DS4 looking at worms up close!

On the way home we stopped by our local mall to go see the Science Roadshow. DD2 was in heaven unlocking and locking a larger than normal lock with a larger than normal key at an exhibit that showed how the inside of a key lock works. By the way! I didn’t even think about the mall ice creams! yay!!
We rented DD4′s free DVD
DD4 watched his DVD while the others pottered around
Had dinner at home
Hubby and I spent some lovely quality time together and had a nice dessert treat

MONEY SPENT TODAY: $0.00

MONEY GAINED TODAY: $10 DD6′s mall voucher, $45 supermakert voucher I got in the mail from my grocery loyalty points, $10 voucher for free online grocery delivery. TOTAL: $65 (We spend nothing, and gain $65! That’s crazy!)

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED TODAY:

Although we did a lot of things today, I felt like at any time, if things got to be too much, we could just go home and unwind. Once again this meant that there was no pressure or an expectation that we needed to do this or that. Since we had no real concrete plans, I would tell the children what we were doing next as we came to it (eg I wouldn’t tell them we were doing A, then B then C). That way there was room to really guage what activity would suit the mood of the children at that time.
Having an idea of what things are available to do in the area that you are in is helpful. Thanks to the research I did at the beinning of the week about what events were on and what activities to do, I always had a couple of options available on what to do next.
Being prepared and organised paid off, but there is always room for improvement. Packing food and water not only extends your outing (like I said in “day two“), but it means you are less likely to have to stop off and buy food – very helpful when you are on a spending detox! Going to the beach was another spur of the moment thing, so I had not packed any towels or swimsuits etc. The kids got a bit wet (some more than others), and because we weren’t too far from home, we just popped back home to get dressed. I’m thinking that having a couple of towels that lived in the car wouldn’t be a bad thing. I remember a couple of summers ago, the sand toys lived in the boot, because we were always going to the beach.
Sometimes you can make things work and sometimes you might have to revisit it another time. Once again the younger ones weren’t too interested in the craft workshop. Unfortunately the placement of the craft table was a little bit further from the play area and outside area. So trying to be with 2 sets of kids was proving to be a bit difficult, especially since the craft activity this time was a bit more tricky and needed more adult help. Thankfully a lovely grandma, assisted one of my daughters who was stuck. I thanked her thoroughly and she seemed happy to help. *bless!* I think this craft workshop is one that I will have to revisit when the kids get a bit older or I will have to get creative in how to manage the children (eg in the past my friend and I arranged to take turns taking the older children to an activity while the other stayed back with the younger children). Keeping the younger kids busy and happy by going up and down the escalator can definitely be counted as getting “creative”!
You feel a stronger family bond when you all pitch in and help out. There were times when the older girls would push the pram for me while I was holding DS4, or would help with food prep or everyone helped to clear the car of food and wet clothes etc. It just makes you feel a sense of togetherness.
The sun just makes me want to go outdoors! The weather was really bizarre this week. It seemed to know whenever we wanted to go out, and stayed nice for that duration of time! On Monday it poured down. On Tuesday it was nice for half the day (the part where we went out). On Wednesday it rained and was cold. Today it was sunny and warm for most of the day.
Even though kids are kids (and I had the sort of day that you would expect when you go out with children who are aged 8 through to 2), in the end, I feel like I had a great day with the kids! And that is a good feeling!

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Is it possible to not spend any money during the school holidays?

On the way home we stopped by our local mall to go see the Science Roadshow. DD2 was in heaven unlocking

Spending detox: Day 3

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Mika

Ummmm….I’m sounding like a broken record….but I slept in again! Hmmmm…I am starting to see what goal I need to be working on very soon!

How we spend day three:

Kids all played dolls etc together

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We made traffic light jelly

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We made fruit kebabs
The kids watched DD8′s DVD
I spent way too much time working on getting the Playcentre workshop and course schedule sorted

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We made a huge mess, and had loads of fun with junk construction
I went met up with 3 of my friends for a “girls night in” at my friend’s place,where I taught them how to make sushi TEMPTATON: go out and buy some yummy drink for the night

MONEY SPENT TODAY: $0.00

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED:

Just because I am on holiday, doesn’t mean my laundry is! I have so much laundry to catch up on! What was I thinking? That the laundry would collect and wash itself?
Stress and anxiety = Stressed and anxious Mother. I have no idea how mother’s working from home fit everything in? I took the opportunity while the kids watched the DVD to try and work on the Playcentre training schedule for next term. I need to get it sorted by the end of this week, and the added stress does not help me be a happy mother!
Let go, regroup and rejoin the kids. Sometimes you just need to let the stress go. Park it, and address it later. It takes effort to unwind and let go of the stress, but it is so worth it. It is so much more fun to be “present” and enjoy the kids, rather than having your mind plagued with things you can not sort out while the kids are still awake. I was glad that I did this, so I was able to be “present”with the kids. We ended up making kebabs (I was being a funny mummy in the kitchen and started dancing around while DD2 and DS4 yelled out “stop” and “go”…..did I mention that there was no music…hmmmm unless you call the tunes coming out of my mouth music!), and then I went out and got the junk mail, which gave me the idea of doing junk construction with the boxes etc in our recycling bin and old catalogues etc.
Having fun the with kids is great, but you need to keep the routines up, otherwise you pay for it later. Case and point: the laundry.
If you do not project ahead and plan according, you will end up making more trouble for yourself. Dinner was late, which had the roll on effect of the clean up being late, and by the time I was due to walk out the door for a meeting, my hubby was left with all the tidy up and bedtime was just around the corner….oooops!
Good conversation with Good friends + Good food = A Good night. We all staggered out of my friend’s house past midnight. We had no idea it was that late because we were having such a good natter!

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Is it possible to not spend any money during the school holidays?

Spending detox: Day 2

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Mika

Once again, we all woke up late, but I can’t blame it on daylight savings this time because I went to bed late the night before!

How we spent Day 2:

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We went to the craft workshop at the hardware store.

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Watched a show at the mall. TEMPTATION: they were selling a cute tote bag to raise funds for a charity and the kids wanted to go upstairs and have an ice cream like we have done in the past.

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Went to a park that we haven’t been to before TEMPTATION: there was a shop across from the park with a big sign saying “fresh bread” yum!
Had a yummy lunch at home
Watched DD6′s free DVD that she choose yesterday
Did more origami and the girls dressed up as farm animals
Had dinner at home
Went out to get DD8′s free DVD. TEMPTATION: saw a couple of DVDs that I wanted to rent.
Played tickle monster
Played hide and seek in the dark

MONEY SPENT TODAY: $0.00

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED TODAY:

I could have easily spent little bits of money here and there without thinking today.
You don’t necessarily need to go out to have fun. We had just as much fun yesterday when were stuck inside because of the weather.
Not having a strict plan meant that I didn’t have the added stress of trying to push the kids to keep to a schedule. We only decided to go to the craft workshop about an hour before it started. When we finished the crafts, I decided to try a nearby park that we had not been to before. On our way to the park, we drove past the mall, and I remembered a show was starting in 5mins, so we stopped by. After that, it was off to the park and then home for lunch.
Being prepared pays off! The kids gobbled down the fruit and water we packed. Another set of clothes would have come in handy when one child spelt water on their pants, and the other got their top all dirty. If we didn’t pack any food, and the spills were worse, we would have had to cut out outing short.
Provide activities that suit your children. You know your child best, and what they will or will not enjoy. The younger kids didn’t really go for the pot painting, so we went for a walk in the outdoor area of the shop, while the older girls finished up. My DS4 found the music at the mall event too loud, so I stood back with him, while the others sat closer to the stage etc etc
There are definitely parks that you need to closely supervise children (eg where there is water or equipment that the younger ones may be unsafe on), and there are parks that you could get away with sitting down the entire time. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Atlhough today’s park was one that I had to closely supervise the kids (which is sometimes hard when the younger ones are going in different directions) there was lots to do and it kept them entertained for a long time.
It is sometimes tough to manage outings with children who range in ages. The older ones get too far ahead, while the younger ones get behind. It’s important to regroup and restate the rules to keep everyone safe. A happy outing means you are more likely to do it again!

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