Aprill {life & family in the Southern Highlands} » Lincoln stuff

Beaches

muser — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:56:21 +0000

I’m a big fan of the beach, but I’ve only come to realise it now, in my mid-30s. We were lucky enough to spend a couple of days down at Sussex Inlet with friends in their family holiday home, recently. The kids had a ball, except for Fraser, who just wasn’t keen on the waves. I’m really pushing the beach idea this summer. Now we’re in Bowral, we’re that much closer to the coast—less than one hour—so when school goes back I hope to head across for some beach swims of my own. But the kids also need more exposure to the beach, and we enjoy the short weekends away, so we’ve booked another coastal weekend away in a couple of weeks.

And speaking of school, Fraser goes back on Monday. We haven’t had a busy holidays. The boys had a few overnighters with my parents, and a day out at the aquarium and wildlife zoo with their other grandparents, a couple of swims at the local pool, trip to Shellharbour beach on Australia Day, and of course, there was Christmas. But the rest of the time they wallowed about at home, getting a bit bored, doing a bit of arguing, and watching Shrek and The Fantastic Mr Fox on high rotation.

I struggled with trying to mix work in with school holidays. It doesn’t work very well, especially when Lincoln’s pre-school is also on holidays for a few weeks, so there are two kids to referee and keep amused long enough for me to knock out some editing or essay writing. Fraser is also at an age where the age gap between him and his brother is having an impact. He’s not interested in playing with Lincoln’s little friends and he’s growing out of ABC Kids, resulting in TV-related arguments with Lincoln. So, next holidays? Insert more play dates and sporting camps.

At this end of the summer holidays I can say that it’s flown, but it was hard. And I’m learning that I need clearer boundaries for myself if I’m going to keep working from home. Anyway, let’s get back into the term routine shall we? Yes, please.

Window shopping

muser — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:36:46 +0000

I went for a stroll around Bowral last weekend. I finally went and had a look inside the Crystal Palace antique store that I’d been admiring for a while. They do all their own re-upholstery.

I love these cushions that have been made from dog show ribbons.

These dining chairs have all be re-upholstered in different coloured fabrics. It made me want to get rid of our dark, heavy, Indian styled dining table and chair that we currently have.

And these chairs refinished in a glossy black enamel and bright patchwork satin fabric.

For those of you wondering about Lincoln’s toilet training…

Things are going quite well. Lots of toilet success with #1s. Not so much with #2s, but I’m sure we’ll get there soon enough. We’re officially in undies now, anyway. Hooray!

It’s Time to Stop Financing Huggies

muser — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:02:44 +0000

I’ve finally committed to toilet training Lincoln. He’s nearly 3.25yo. Fraser had it sorted out for daytimes before he was 3. But I was lucky with him—he’d picked it up from daycare.
Lincoln hasn’t had the same motivation, and I’ve been waiting for it to happen. With us going to Singapore in 6-or-so weeks I need this done. So I sent him to preschool yesterday in undies, equipped with a million spares. I did the same today. Apparently, he’s been doing very well with no accidents. At home it’s a bit different. I keep forgetting to prompt him to go and he’s still not telling me he needs to poo. So I’ve already had to deal with a few undie-poos. Nice.

Anyway, as I said, I’m committed now, so I will just have to set an alarm to remind myself to prompt him to go. Bribery has been working well. A marshmallow for every wee in the toilet and chocolate money for poo. No success on the second one yet.

Fingers crossed for speedy progress, and let me know if you’ve got any tips for this process.

In uni news, I’m excited to report I got 90% on my political issue news story I handed in a week ago, 77% for the media story before that. Obviously, I’ve learnt something in the middle there. Now I’m cramming on the theory stuff for the exam on the 1st September.

My First Junket to the Problogger Training Day

muser — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 04:17:01 +0000

I am constantly impressed by the view of clouds from above. The most miserable day below, is still sparkling and clear above a floor carpeted in cotton wool.

An aerial, greyscale view of dark forested mountains smattered with white snow contrasts with the muted coral pink of the sunrise across the tops of the clouds.

That’s how yesterday started. I flew down to Melbourne for the day to attend the Problogger training event.

I’m such a novice flyer. I rarely do it. I don’t have “points”, I’m prone to bouts of mild anxiety between home and the airport, (though I’m not sure why), I don’t even have my own laptop bag. So yesterday, I revelled in my first junket as a self-employer.

The Problogger training day brought together the blogging entrepreneurs — Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, Collis, Yaro Starak and Pip Lincolne — and those who are on their way.

I wasn’t expecting to learn much. I’ve been blogging for close to 10 years. The main reason I went was to meet people, but was I wrong! There was much to learn, especially for someone who hasn’t had the drive to try and derive income from blogging.

Not that I’ll ever head down that rabbit hole in this space, but it is something I am doing more and more of for clients and to support our own business.

The packed room of 150 guests was full of famous avatars and people I’ve been mingling with on Twitter. And imagine my delight to find Lady Smaggle and Mr Smaggle at the event. I positively squealed with excitement..on the inside.

It was a thoroughly worthwhile event. I’ve come away with some new ideas, some wake-up calls, and I hope, some new friends.

After waking up to start the day at 4.30am, I didn’t get back home to Mum’s place (where Lincoln had been all day) until after 8.30pm. A massive day with so much information.

Now I’m waiting to catch up with Fraser because he went to Sydney with Matt last night to watch Mumford & Sons at The Enmore.

During a break Lara Solomon asked me what my one tip of the day was. I suffer from a lack of ideas – implementation I can do, ideas not so much. So, when I need to find some material to blog about I go and read other blogs. Something there will be a seed to germinate something. It could become a different way of interpreting the same thing or a whole new idea. If you were there, what’s your tip of the day? And even if you weren’t at the Problogger event, how do you keep the creative juices flowing?

Learning curves

muser — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:52:29 +0000

We’ve had some exciting firsts lately.

Fraser has learnt to ride his bike without training wheels. Since the long weekend he’s gained so much more confidence. He’s ridden to our friend’s house, around the corner, and regularly goes riding with Matt.

We had his parent-teacher interview last Friday, the first day of our school holidays. He has settled in well and is keeping up with the rest of his class. He got a glowing report from his drum teacher and I’ve just signed him up to start back at swimming lessons next term.

BUt that’s not all he’s been getting up to. Last weekend we spent Sunday in Manly with some friends, where we had Yum Cha with the boys for the first time. They both seemed to enjoy the different types of food, Lincoln especially.

And finally, we’ve had a busy first week of holidays, ice-skating every day for the last three days. We’ve got a temporary ice rink set up in Bowral just for three weeks. I’m so proud of Fraser, who has only been skating one other time, last year, and he persisted to a stage where he could skate without holding on to the side.

I expect my next post to be about our re-upholstered couch that just came back. It’s had a whole new lease of life. I’m so impressed with how it’s turned out, so now I’m in the midst of amassing new cushions.