It took 4 months but finally today I got that phone call. The scary one.
The number for the kids school flashed on my phone just as I had sat down with the last 4 squares of chocolate. It was an hour before pickup and I really wanted to relax.
"Bradley's had quite a fall at school, he hit his head quite hard on the ground and he's pale, sweaty and shaking"
Immediately I panicked. And I started praying that Bradley's heart could take it. Stupid dodgy heart!
I rushed down to the school where I found him lying flat on his back as I've been instructed to do whenever his body experiences trauma. The teacher walked over and they had already taken his heart rate, he was laid down straight away after the fall and he was ready to go to the hospital. The school did AMAZING, followed his care plan exactly!
So I grabbed him and went down to the hospital. They monitored him some more there but his heart rate was ok, it hadn't dropped to the dangerously low levels it did after his accident with the drawers. He seems to have just a mild concussion.
Last time the "episode" didn't happen until 12 hours after the trauma and resulted in him being flown by Royal Flying Doctors to the city. We can't tell if it's going to happen again this time but he's been put on 'rest and stay quiet' for 24 hours because it was quite a big hit to the head.
Ever since that incident in February I've been dreading this phone call. Being quite a rough and tumble little boy I always knew it was only a matter of time until he gave himself another good knock to the system. To be honest I'm surprised he's lasted this long!!
Another day, another hospital visit. . .
Friday, 26 June 2015
Budget Series Part 1-The Basics
Budget Series Part 1
So I’ve decided to do my budget blog as a series of posts. Because if I did one post it would be like 25 pages long. Well not really but it would be long and you would probably get bored by the end of it.
This will be my first 4 posts. And this first part is for total beginners. If budgeting seems like a really hard thing to do that is going to totally confuse you, if you just want to start out simple for the first year or if you’re spectacularly bad at budgeting then this will be where you start off.
When my husband and I first got together over 8 years ago he owned (well, technically the bank owned) a rather expensive car and as an apprentice he struggled some weeks with the repayments, fuel, bills etc. So me, being the slight (ok more than slight) control freak that I am, offered him a few tips to help him stay on top of it. From then on until he eventually sold the car (when I got pregnant) he never again missed a payment and always had money for fuel, bills, groceries and date nights with his very beautiful, very intelligent girlfriend.
So what were those few handy tips I gave him all those years ago??
1. Open a new bank account called your direct debits account.
2. Grab together all your bills, loan repayments, rent, phone/internet, insurances and calculate how much they cost you yearly.
3. Divide by how often you get paid (we get paid fortnightly so divide by 26 fortnights per year)
4. Each pay cheque BEFORE anything else put that amount of money into your bills account.
5. Whatever is left over in your “everyday account” is what you have left for food, medical expenses, savings etc…
6. Next you need to SAVE. Before you go off spending any of that left over money put a few dollars into your savings account. If you save before spending you will quickly learn to live without that money and won’t even notice its gone each fortnight.
7. Roughly divide up what’s left in the “everyday account” between food and other expenses.
This way whenever a bill comes in the money is already sitting in your direct debit account. Make sure you have changed your bank account details with banks that take the money directly from your account. Phone bill? No worries, I can pay that within 5 minutes of opening it because I know I’ve been putting aside a few dollars a week all month for this!!
And that is how I helped my 21 year old boyfriend keep his car and never default on a loan repayment again.
I was only 18 when I gave him those budget tips and now at 25 and living in a single income household with 3 kids and a dog to feed and keep alive I feel like I’ve definitely improved my budgeting skills. This is a very basic way to budget but it’s one way to ease you into having a budget. From here you could learn what suits you and continue to build a better budget.
If this is a little too simple for you then hang around. My next post is how I budget now. It includes a much more in-depth look at your finances and how to set yourself up to keep the banks happy.
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
You're Afraid Of WHAT?!
Just a little funny for today.
Some of you may know, and those of you that don't- well my BIGGEST fear, in fact it's more an enormous PHOBIA, is any living creature with wings.
And I mean ANYTHING-birds, ducks, chickens, even moths and butterflies.
And by phobia I literally mean curled up in a ball crying, throw my kids in front of me to protect me, screaming, shouting, shaking scared of them.
Yep, absolutely ridiculous I know. Don't judge me-I'm sure your phobia seems stupid to me.
Anyway on to my funny story. Today I took Isla out the front for a play in the sunshine. Not too long afterwards I picked her up to bring her back inside in the warmth. As I turned her around to snuggle her close to me I saw she had a freaking moth on her shirt.
Those that know me would expect me to scream and throw my baby-and in all honesty that's what I wanted to do. But, I was very brave I very carefully put her on the ground. And then because the stupid moth wouldn't fly away by itself I proceeded to throw toys at her until finally I threw a domino that hit it and the stupid winged beast flew away. Before I had a chance to get my thong to squash the beast Zac the dog came through and ate it.
No screaming, no shaking and no throwing the baby.
Proudest day of my life. . .
Anyone else have a totally irrational phobia?? Let me hear them-leave a comment and let me know what stupid 'unscary' thing your afraid of :-)
Some of you may know, and those of you that don't- well my BIGGEST fear, in fact it's more an enormous PHOBIA, is any living creature with wings.
And I mean ANYTHING-birds, ducks, chickens, even moths and butterflies.
And by phobia I literally mean curled up in a ball crying, throw my kids in front of me to protect me, screaming, shouting, shaking scared of them.
Yep, absolutely ridiculous I know. Don't judge me-I'm sure your phobia seems stupid to me.
Anyway on to my funny story. Today I took Isla out the front for a play in the sunshine. Not too long afterwards I picked her up to bring her back inside in the warmth. As I turned her around to snuggle her close to me I saw she had a freaking moth on her shirt.
Those that know me would expect me to scream and throw my baby-and in all honesty that's what I wanted to do. But, I was very brave I very carefully put her on the ground. And then because the stupid moth wouldn't fly away by itself I proceeded to throw toys at her until finally I threw a domino that hit it and the stupid winged beast flew away. Before I had a chance to get my thong to squash the beast Zac the dog came through and ate it.
No screaming, no shaking and no throwing the baby.
Proudest day of my life. . .
Anyone else have a totally irrational phobia?? Let me hear them-leave a comment and let me know what stupid 'unscary' thing your afraid of :-)
Friday, 12 June 2015
Let's Talk About THOSE Exercises. . .
Exercise. You either love it or hate it.
You either do it or don't do it.
But as a woman there is one exercise that you really, really SHOULD do, especially after you've had babies.
I'm talking, of course, about pelvic floor exercises.
To be honest I've never really bothered with my pelvic floor exercises. After each kid I've not had any real leakage problems-so I've never worried about it.
But a few months back my arthritis in my hip flared up, yet again, and I ended up at the Physio. I'm trying so hard to stay off the steroid medication (purely because I hate how much weight I gain while taking steroids). I mentioned the typical mummy lower back pain that I've always had, as I've always mentioned to health care professionals, but this guy was the first to say to me 'have you ever seen a women's health Physio about your pelvic floor.' Well no I've never seen a women's health Physio and never thought I needed to, apart from when I drink lots of water and do star jumps, I'm fine ;-)
The Physio told me that having a weak pelvic floor-even if you don't have leakage problems-can lead to that typical mummy lower back pain. Who knew right?!
So off to the women's health Physio I went. I will admit I was slightly nervous. I've never had my pelvic floor muscles checked and I was worried she would tell me it wasn't good. I always had the thought 'please don't let me be a pants wetter when I'm older' but, while my pelvic floor isn't totally destroyed, it is slightly weak. And so I got sent home with instructions to 'do pelvic floor exercises'
I've been really good and been doing my exercises everyday. And yesterday I went back for a check up.
I've gone from a 2 second hold to a 6 second hold in 5 weeks and can now do them laying, sitting and standing up. Apparently standing and sitting up are the harder, slightly more important way to do the exercises.
There are also other exercises that focus on another muscle close to the pelvic floor. It's a similar thing to doing the pelvic floor exercises but you need to focus on trying to draw your hips together, kind of like when you try to button your jeans up. You don't suck your tummy in completely but it's a similar sort of feeling. These are called TA's and I have no idea what that stands for...
So what's the point of talking about pelvic floor exercises? Well in 5 short weeks of doing these exercises a few times a day I have improved my pelvic floor. My lower back pain??? Well let's just say I've been bike riding, playing tennis, running around with the kids and just generally having a lot more active fun than normal and my back pain is so minimal it's almost non existent!!
I also had my tummy muscle separation checked and I'm super pleased that somehow, even after carrying 3 above average sized babies, my muscle separation is minimal and I don't need to worry about that at all.
So mummies-go see a women's health physio, get your pelvic floor muscles checked! It will save you from wearing adult diapers through menopause and beyond but it will also help out with that typical lower back pain that I always assumed was just from carrying babies around!
You either do it or don't do it.
But as a woman there is one exercise that you really, really SHOULD do, especially after you've had babies.
I'm talking, of course, about pelvic floor exercises.
To be honest I've never really bothered with my pelvic floor exercises. After each kid I've not had any real leakage problems-so I've never worried about it.
But a few months back my arthritis in my hip flared up, yet again, and I ended up at the Physio. I'm trying so hard to stay off the steroid medication (purely because I hate how much weight I gain while taking steroids). I mentioned the typical mummy lower back pain that I've always had, as I've always mentioned to health care professionals, but this guy was the first to say to me 'have you ever seen a women's health Physio about your pelvic floor.' Well no I've never seen a women's health Physio and never thought I needed to, apart from when I drink lots of water and do star jumps, I'm fine ;-)
The Physio told me that having a weak pelvic floor-even if you don't have leakage problems-can lead to that typical mummy lower back pain. Who knew right?!
So off to the women's health Physio I went. I will admit I was slightly nervous. I've never had my pelvic floor muscles checked and I was worried she would tell me it wasn't good. I always had the thought 'please don't let me be a pants wetter when I'm older' but, while my pelvic floor isn't totally destroyed, it is slightly weak. And so I got sent home with instructions to 'do pelvic floor exercises'
I've been really good and been doing my exercises everyday. And yesterday I went back for a check up.
I've gone from a 2 second hold to a 6 second hold in 5 weeks and can now do them laying, sitting and standing up. Apparently standing and sitting up are the harder, slightly more important way to do the exercises.
There are also other exercises that focus on another muscle close to the pelvic floor. It's a similar thing to doing the pelvic floor exercises but you need to focus on trying to draw your hips together, kind of like when you try to button your jeans up. You don't suck your tummy in completely but it's a similar sort of feeling. These are called TA's and I have no idea what that stands for...
So what's the point of talking about pelvic floor exercises? Well in 5 short weeks of doing these exercises a few times a day I have improved my pelvic floor. My lower back pain??? Well let's just say I've been bike riding, playing tennis, running around with the kids and just generally having a lot more active fun than normal and my back pain is so minimal it's almost non existent!!
I also had my tummy muscle separation checked and I'm super pleased that somehow, even after carrying 3 above average sized babies, my muscle separation is minimal and I don't need to worry about that at all.
So mummies-go see a women's health physio, get your pelvic floor muscles checked! It will save you from wearing adult diapers through menopause and beyond but it will also help out with that typical lower back pain that I always assumed was just from carrying babies around!
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
The Harsh Reality
Whenever I've heard people talking about living in the Pilbara they have always said 'it's a harsh environment'
And until we moved here I assumed it was just the heat that made it so harsh.
But it's not. The heat is such a small part of the harshness of the environment it's almost forgotten.
Don't get me wrong, it gets hot up here-bloody hot. Hovering between 44-48 degrees for the entire summer school holidays. Everyone hides inside with the aircon and makes sure they don't need to leave the house between 9am-2pm. Kids are let outside about 6pm to play as its 'cooled down' to 34 degrees by then.
There are so many other things that make this environment so harsh, each one annoying, scary or just plain irritating. This morning I was reminded of the possible dangers of living in the Pilbara.
As I was dropping Bradley off at pre primary another little boy arrived, as usual he had ridden his bike to school and his mum pushed his twin siblings in the pram. This morning the boy was visibly distressed and told the relief teacher they saw some 'bad dogs that scared us' then he burst into tears.
There are lots of dogs in town but I don't actually know of anyone that has dogs that would chase/scare/attack a little boy. As the boys mum came inside she snuck up beside the teacher and said they had 'an encounter with a dingo' on their way to school.
There are plenty of dingos that live out this way and most of the time they don't come into town. But so I've heard about once or twice a year they do venture a little too close to town and can cause some trouble. And it seems this little boy, his mummy and toddler twin siblings had gotten in this dingos way. They weren't attacked or harmed physically but I don't think that little boy will forget his experience any time soon. His mum seemed quite shaken up and close to tears as well. I didn't like to pry while they were still so upset so I don't have the full details but it was a reminder to me of the place we live and the cautions we have to take in our day to day lives.
Apart from dingos what else makes the Pilbara such a harsh place to live?
The most obvious one is, of course, snakes! I thankfully have never seen one but I know they are around and since we live on the edge of town I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I turn around or lift up the couch or pull out a chest of drawers and find a snake. Also giant lizards, we have had one of those on our back door and it was so big and I made hubby go and chase it away.
The tap water. It is disgusting! So full of calcium and chlorine it tastes like you're drinking water from a public swimming pool, so instead we drink bottled water. The calcium leaves white marks on all our outside toys. Our car needs to be washed and then dried every single time otherwise it gets white marks all over it. My skin gets so dry that my lips crack, my legs get all flaky and I get eczema flare ups on my SCALP!!
The bugs. I'm not a bug person so this was always going to be a weakness for me, but the bugs up here are gigantic!! Grasshoppers are the size of rulers (almost!) crickets, moths, spiders, you name it we've got it. And all at least twice the size of 'city bugs'
Ants. Don't ever leave a SINGLE crumb on the bench top or God help you, you will be spraying and cleaning for the next 3 days. Doesn't matter how many times you get the pest guy out or how often you spray they ALWAYS come back. Like tiny little warrior Devils. They dig through the grout in the tiles in the bathroom and laundry leaving little sand piles around. They sneak through the pantry and cutlery drawers. They even get my toasted sandwich maker in the cupboard if I've left a single crumb on it!!! I definitely have to be a much cleaner person in the Pilbara than in the city. No more 'oh I'll just leave these dishes till morning' you either do them straight away or suffer the consequences.
Money. Ok so this isn't technically an 'environment' thing but it's annoying. Living in a mining town it's safe to say that at least 90% of the town is on a salary of greater than $100,000. With 90-95% of all our bills paid for us. I get it, we are very fortunate, we get given a house, free electricity and water. We can water our gardens 24/7 if we like and never have to worry about putting the air con on for fear of a huge bill. But just because we're all on high incomes shouldn't mean the shops can blindly rip us off.
The local hardware stores sells more than just hardware but my goodness! The price they charge for some of their kids toys, esky's, tools and homewares is ridiculous.
The local cafe you would be looking at a good $15-$20 per person for a tacky take away lunch.
"Fast food" vans in town, let's put it this way. In Perth we could do takeaway for our family of 4 (excluding the baby) for an easy $40. Now it's more along the lines of $60 for one takeaway night. Or from the local restaurant which does AMAZING Thai food we would be looking at $80-$100 depending on whether or not we let the kids 'splash out' and get a seafood dish. Compared to $70-$80 on a massive Chinese takeaway meal in the city. Needless to say we eat a lot less takeaway up here. So I guess that's not exactly a bad thing, but for those extra busy days or days when I'm sick it's just not possible to have an extra takeaway night per week.
Kids clothing-$40 for a baby romper anyone?! $25 for a kids craft set?!
Online shopping is my saviour up here. Even including postage costs it still works out cheaper to buy online.
And on the topic of postage. The last and possibly one of the most annoying things of this town (not all Pilbara towns are the same) is the bloody post office. Run by a couple of old, brain dead numb skulls who 'don't have a hurry bone in their body' (as I was once told by someone i knew) they are slow, annoying, rude, and just plain inconvenient. We have a PO Box as that's the best way to not get your mail lost up here and we decided to get a big one as I was planning on lots of online shopping. However if they ever actually put a package in my PO Box it would be a bloody miracle! Instead they stick a stupid card in and I have to go inside every single time! And then you have to wait in line which can often be out the door! And wait. And listen to them try and chat to everyone. And complain about how hard their slow paced life is, and how people complain about them and ta 'not fair'. And shuffle around like little old men that can't walk anymore. It's infuriating! And Mail has never taken so long to reach me. It can take 1-2 weeks for a simple small parcel to make it through sorting. If you ever need something in a hurry-too bad.
But all this is just the bad side. The harsh reality of life in the Pilbara.
Some days, when I find more ants, or we run out of drinking water or my skin feels like crap I get frustrated and have a 'I wanna leave this town' moment. But 99% of the time I love it here. It's a friendly town, the people are great, the schools are pretty good for a country town, there is so much on offer for the kids and we are so close to so many amazing places in the top end. We have explored and gone places we never would have gone if we didn't live in the Pilbara. And we are planning many more trips to come while we are here.
Waking up every morning and seeing the beautiful Mount Nameless through your front window and living through beautiful winter mornings with clear blue skies and perfect 25 degree days is just bliss!
As harsh as this environment is I LOVE living in the Pilbara.
And until we moved here I assumed it was just the heat that made it so harsh.
But it's not. The heat is such a small part of the harshness of the environment it's almost forgotten.
Don't get me wrong, it gets hot up here-bloody hot. Hovering between 44-48 degrees for the entire summer school holidays. Everyone hides inside with the aircon and makes sure they don't need to leave the house between 9am-2pm. Kids are let outside about 6pm to play as its 'cooled down' to 34 degrees by then.
There are so many other things that make this environment so harsh, each one annoying, scary or just plain irritating. This morning I was reminded of the possible dangers of living in the Pilbara.
As I was dropping Bradley off at pre primary another little boy arrived, as usual he had ridden his bike to school and his mum pushed his twin siblings in the pram. This morning the boy was visibly distressed and told the relief teacher they saw some 'bad dogs that scared us' then he burst into tears.
There are lots of dogs in town but I don't actually know of anyone that has dogs that would chase/scare/attack a little boy. As the boys mum came inside she snuck up beside the teacher and said they had 'an encounter with a dingo' on their way to school.
There are plenty of dingos that live out this way and most of the time they don't come into town. But so I've heard about once or twice a year they do venture a little too close to town and can cause some trouble. And it seems this little boy, his mummy and toddler twin siblings had gotten in this dingos way. They weren't attacked or harmed physically but I don't think that little boy will forget his experience any time soon. His mum seemed quite shaken up and close to tears as well. I didn't like to pry while they were still so upset so I don't have the full details but it was a reminder to me of the place we live and the cautions we have to take in our day to day lives.
Apart from dingos what else makes the Pilbara such a harsh place to live?
The most obvious one is, of course, snakes! I thankfully have never seen one but I know they are around and since we live on the edge of town I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I turn around or lift up the couch or pull out a chest of drawers and find a snake. Also giant lizards, we have had one of those on our back door and it was so big and I made hubby go and chase it away.
The tap water. It is disgusting! So full of calcium and chlorine it tastes like you're drinking water from a public swimming pool, so instead we drink bottled water. The calcium leaves white marks on all our outside toys. Our car needs to be washed and then dried every single time otherwise it gets white marks all over it. My skin gets so dry that my lips crack, my legs get all flaky and I get eczema flare ups on my SCALP!!
The bugs. I'm not a bug person so this was always going to be a weakness for me, but the bugs up here are gigantic!! Grasshoppers are the size of rulers (almost!) crickets, moths, spiders, you name it we've got it. And all at least twice the size of 'city bugs'
Ants. Don't ever leave a SINGLE crumb on the bench top or God help you, you will be spraying and cleaning for the next 3 days. Doesn't matter how many times you get the pest guy out or how often you spray they ALWAYS come back. Like tiny little warrior Devils. They dig through the grout in the tiles in the bathroom and laundry leaving little sand piles around. They sneak through the pantry and cutlery drawers. They even get my toasted sandwich maker in the cupboard if I've left a single crumb on it!!! I definitely have to be a much cleaner person in the Pilbara than in the city. No more 'oh I'll just leave these dishes till morning' you either do them straight away or suffer the consequences.
Money. Ok so this isn't technically an 'environment' thing but it's annoying. Living in a mining town it's safe to say that at least 90% of the town is on a salary of greater than $100,000. With 90-95% of all our bills paid for us. I get it, we are very fortunate, we get given a house, free electricity and water. We can water our gardens 24/7 if we like and never have to worry about putting the air con on for fear of a huge bill. But just because we're all on high incomes shouldn't mean the shops can blindly rip us off.
The local hardware stores sells more than just hardware but my goodness! The price they charge for some of their kids toys, esky's, tools and homewares is ridiculous.
The local cafe you would be looking at a good $15-$20 per person for a tacky take away lunch.
"Fast food" vans in town, let's put it this way. In Perth we could do takeaway for our family of 4 (excluding the baby) for an easy $40. Now it's more along the lines of $60 for one takeaway night. Or from the local restaurant which does AMAZING Thai food we would be looking at $80-$100 depending on whether or not we let the kids 'splash out' and get a seafood dish. Compared to $70-$80 on a massive Chinese takeaway meal in the city. Needless to say we eat a lot less takeaway up here. So I guess that's not exactly a bad thing, but for those extra busy days or days when I'm sick it's just not possible to have an extra takeaway night per week.
Kids clothing-$40 for a baby romper anyone?! $25 for a kids craft set?!
Online shopping is my saviour up here. Even including postage costs it still works out cheaper to buy online.
And on the topic of postage. The last and possibly one of the most annoying things of this town (not all Pilbara towns are the same) is the bloody post office. Run by a couple of old, brain dead numb skulls who 'don't have a hurry bone in their body' (as I was once told by someone i knew) they are slow, annoying, rude, and just plain inconvenient. We have a PO Box as that's the best way to not get your mail lost up here and we decided to get a big one as I was planning on lots of online shopping. However if they ever actually put a package in my PO Box it would be a bloody miracle! Instead they stick a stupid card in and I have to go inside every single time! And then you have to wait in line which can often be out the door! And wait. And listen to them try and chat to everyone. And complain about how hard their slow paced life is, and how people complain about them and ta 'not fair'. And shuffle around like little old men that can't walk anymore. It's infuriating! And Mail has never taken so long to reach me. It can take 1-2 weeks for a simple small parcel to make it through sorting. If you ever need something in a hurry-too bad.
But all this is just the bad side. The harsh reality of life in the Pilbara.
Some days, when I find more ants, or we run out of drinking water or my skin feels like crap I get frustrated and have a 'I wanna leave this town' moment. But 99% of the time I love it here. It's a friendly town, the people are great, the schools are pretty good for a country town, there is so much on offer for the kids and we are so close to so many amazing places in the top end. We have explored and gone places we never would have gone if we didn't live in the Pilbara. And we are planning many more trips to come while we are here.
Waking up every morning and seeing the beautiful Mount Nameless through your front window and living through beautiful winter mornings with clear blue skies and perfect 25 degree days is just bliss!
As harsh as this environment is I LOVE living in the Pilbara.
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