What is it about mother’s groups that make one feel completely inadequate, stupid, and totally out of place?

Or is it just me?

A friend invited me along to one run by the local health clinnic. So last week I went along. I figured even though this is my third child I might still learn something, and since they never had a mother’s group when M&M was born, I thought I’d check it out.

I have never felt so out of place in my life. I bolted without even saying goodbye to my friend. I felt sick, completely alone and like the worst mother in the world (well, maybe not the worst, cause, you know, I don’t beat my kids or neglect them or anything, but pretty close). If I listened to all the advice I was given I would have:

1. Demanded hearing tests for all my kids because clearly they have a hearing problem and their speech is delayed by this.
2. Immediately started expressing so Hubby could feed Miss Moo at 11pm, whether she wants it or not, so she will sleep through the night (because apparently midnight to 6am is not long enough) and stop feeding in the middle of the night if she wants it, somewhat related to #3
3. Immediately put Miss Moo in her own bed - which would mean getting out of bed whenever she needed anything, having her have to cry to wake me up (currently she kicks me in the back when she’s hungry ) thus waking the whole household (I sleep like a log) and causing everyone to be tired and grumpy.
4. Stopped carrying her in a sling - despite the fact I like having two free hands when I have two toddlers. It’s really handy.
5. Insist on daily nappy free time even though she cries every time I change her clothes. Meh, I like my neighbours. I want them to talk to me. Not to child services.

*Contrary to the fact I co-sleep, use cloth nappies, breastfeed and carry my child in a sling, I’m not a hippy. My first two children were bottle and or formula fed from 8 and 6 weeks respectively. Neither of the older two have slept with us (they snore if nothing else) and wore disposable nappies. My parenting philosophy is “whatever works and as long as Mum, Bub and Dad are happy, rock on”. Ok, so maybe I’m a little bit of a hippy

Phew, another lucky escape because I was on the ball. I stopped in at the shops yesterday morning and when I got back to the car I noticed a puddle of green fluid under the car. Now, I had noticed some water in that vacinity a couple of days earlier, but just a couple of drops and always clear. I assumed it was the air conditioner or something.

But this was green.

And, … well, … green.

So I drove down the street to the mechanic (literally, down the street, maybe 500m).

I like my mechanic. No matter how dizty a female walks into his workshop, he can make you feel not stupid, and even somewhat knowledgable about your car.

Except yesterday.

I drive in with the car full of kids, and say in my best ditzy blonde female sexy voice:

“I just noticed a green fluid leaking from somewhere under the front bit of the car. Is that bad?”

One guy laughed and walked back into the shop. I assumed it was bad.

My mechanic came and looked at it. In about 3 seconds he’d diagnosed the problem, and booked me in for today to fix it. Apparently it’s that urgent.

I knew green fluid wasn’t good.

Apparently the radiator’s cracked. I have no idea how much it’s going to cost  (actually don’t want to know, didn’t even ask) but it should be done tomorrow. Now I just have to juggle 2 kids to daycare, get the car to the mechanic’s and get myself and Miss Moo home without breaking any laws so I can finish my criminal law assignment.

Wouldn’t that be poetic? “In my recent experience with the criminal justice system…”

Where did that week go? Honestly! Here we go again:

Well, this week I’m in a mad assignment funk, with one handed in today, and another due Thursday (which is about 1/6 completed - eek!). So for the first few nights this week we’re eating from the freezer:

Monday - Lasagne

Tuesday - Spinach & Fetta pasta (I’m ashamed to admit it’s a packet)

Wednesday - Cottage pie

Thursday - Pizza (to celebrate getting my assignment in on time - so I’m an optimist)

And that’s as far as I got this week. My Dad arrives on Sunday, so we’ll have something nice then. Friday & Saturday I might make Hubby cook.

As always, head over to I’m an Organizing Junkie to see what everyone else is eating.

I posted this recipe here, but I just thought I would post it again. We finally got around to having it last night and it was gorgeous. Hubby even said he was going to make a note of the recipe for when he opens his restaraunt (he does like to cook….). Simple, delicious, and really cheap if you can catch your own fish (we’re still working on that part though). My comments are in italics.

Creamy Fish Dish

Boneless, skinless fish fillets (fresh Australian mackeral, barramundi, tuna, salmon, or coral trout)
600ml cream
½ cup tasty cheese, grated
½ small onion or 1 spring onion, finely chopped (we used a normal onion, but think a spring onion would be better)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste (we used a pizza sauce cause it’s what we had and the flavour was very delicate)
any of the above ingredients are optional and others may be added to taste   

1. Make sauce by combining all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat until cheese is melted.
2. Place fish fillets into baking dish (one that can go directly onto the table works well). Spoon the sauce onto the fillets.
3. Bake in a pre-heated hot oven for 10-15 minutes (for thick fillets), or under the griller (for thin fillets) until cooked and top is browned. You can also reduce the sauce in a frypan on a medium to hot heat on top of the stove. Turn heat down to medium and then cook the fillets in the sauce.
4. Serve with a garden salad or rice and green beans. (We think rice would be good to soak up the sauce, and green benas add some colour to the plate) 

We were spending the day in town in Knaresborough, West Yorkshire the home of some of my family. As we strolled through the Wednesday markets and headed out to look at the castle I came across a beautiful World War I memorial.

I had forgotten it was ANZAC Day until I noticed the wreaths and decided I had to take a picture of the memorial so I could remind myself that all over the world today, Australians, New Zealanders, and people from many other countries are remembering the sacrifices of our not only our soldiers, but all those who have served, and continue to serve to protect the freedoms we take for granted.

Lest we forget

The timing of this is amazing as I struggle to write a Criminal Law assignment on theories of punishment. In my Google Reader I have a feed showing the latest news headlines from the ABC. Today I refreshed to find the following headlines:

Judge jails p-plater for driving 255 kph

followed by:

No jail for doctor who raped patient

Are you serious? I know I only wrote about the appaling rate of rape, sorry, sexual assault convictions a couple of weeks ago, but it appears that even when a woman goes through SIX YEARS of charges and trials in search of justice, and have the rapist found guilty, the guy (a doctor no less) walks free? Yet a 20 year old gets sentenced to 9 months jail for speeding? Where are our priorities?

I’m not sure what’s more appalling. The sentence or the fact the doctor’s name was supressed.

So here I am, finally back in the land of broadband. Hubby yelled at tech support on Sunday night, and miraculously on Monday morning we had internet. Meh.

I gotta say, while I could quite happily live without the internet, I really do need it for uni. Even with broadband it took me a good 4 hours last night to find a case I needed. Of course that means you lucky people get to put up with me read my entertaining and riveting rants posts on a much more regular basis now.

But for those of you who’ve stuck out my posting hiatus, thank you. And if the number of drafts I currently have is any indication, I’m also going to apologise for innundating you with posts for the next few weeks.

Wow, the last few weeks have been a blur. I’m so glad I’ve had meals in the freezer, and stocked up on packet mixes when they were on special.

This week is so far looking quite interesting:

Monday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Tuesday - Beef Ravioli with creamy mushroom sauce

Wednesday - Chicken Curry with pasta

Thursday - Sausage Casserole

Friday - Creamy Fish

Saturday - Haystacks

Sunday - Leftovers

I couldn’t decide what recipe to share with you this week, so I’m going to do two. The haystacks recipe is adopted from Jen’s on the Frugal Aussies yahoo group, and the Creamy Fish Curry is one someone emailed to me years ago. Source unknown

Haystacks

1 tin diced tomatos
1 tin baked beans
1 tin kidney beans (drained well)
1 pkt corn chips (home brand is great for this)
1 cup grated cheese
1 jar salsa (optional)
1/2 avocado (optional)
sour cream to serve (optional)

Bung the diced tomato’s, baked beans and kidney beans in a saucepan. Cook on medium/high until heated through, then mash to form a sauce. You can add salsa at this stage, but my kids don’t like it, so we use it as a topping. Preheat oven to about 150. Layer the chips on a plate/bowl and top with tomato/bean sauce. Add cheese and place in oven until cheese melts (about 5 minutes tops). Serve with salsa, mashed avocado and sour cream if desired.

Creamy Fish Dish

Boneless, skinless fish fillets (fresh Australian mackeral, barramundi, tuna, salmon, or coral trout)
600ml cream
½ cup tasty cheese, grated
½ small onion or 1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
any of the above ingredients are optional and others may be added to taste  Make sauce by combining all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat until cheese is melted.
Place fish fillets into baking dish (one that can go directly onto the table works well). Spoon the sauce onto the fillets.
Bake in a pre-heated hot oven for 10-15 minutes (for thick fillets), or under the griller (for thin fillets) until cooked and top is browned. You can also reduce the sauce in a frypan on a medium to hot heat on top of the stove. Turn heat down to medium and then cook the fillets in the sauce.
Serve with a garden salad or rice and green beans.As always, head on over to I’m an Organising Junkie to see what everyone else is eating this week!

At current count… 3 planes and a car. Oh and a luggage trolly. And the stair thingy’s you use to get off a plane in the country when you don’t have air bridges. I don’t know it was specifically me that broke them, but the common denominater in all incidents was me.

My week didn’t get better. Some would say it got worse. Let’s recap shall we?

Sunday 13th - arrive at the airport to be advised of a 6 hour delay, meaning I’d miss my flight from Brisbane. This was apparently partially due to a broken plane, and partially due to a computer error. I ended up in a hotel in Brisbane.

Monday 14th - the car sent to take me to the airport broke down en route, nearly causing me to miss my 6am flight to get to uni on time (I was half an our late!)

I was sure the trip home could not possibly be worse. I was wrong.

Friday 17th - I was on the 9:35am plane from Sydney. When I arrived I heard on the PA the 9:05am plane was delayed due to the incoming flight being late. Mentally thanking myself for picking the later flight, I boarded my plane unaware of the disaster about to rain down upon me. As we boarded I heard the 9:05 flight arrive. Before we got anywhere, we were advised of a mechanical fault on the 9:05 plane, and that all the passengers would be transferring to our flight. An hour later we are ready to leave, and as we back out of the bay while our attendents run through a safety briefing, something else goes terribly, terribly wrong.  As we return to our bay, the captain advises that the ground engineer has noticed a leak from one of the drainage holes. While, yes, it’s designed to drain, it apparently isn’t designed to drain what appears to be oil. Now, I’m not complaining, any investigation of things leaking on a plane before I take off is fine by me.

After a while we were advised a container in the freight cargo hold had leaked oil, and they would get us off the plane while they investigated further. Two hours later another plane had been found and we were loaded onto that to be told that the oil had leaked all through the hold, and would take at least 24 hours to clean up.

Finally we were on our way, leaving Sydney about 30 minutes before my flight was due to leave Brisbane. Did I mention there’s ONE FLIGHT a day. Miss that flight, you’re stuck. I had allowed a 2 hour stopover, which clearly wasn’t enough.

When we arrived in Brisbane at 2pm, I missed the flight to the next closest airport by 5 minutes. The airline kindly booked me on the next flight which was 5:15pm - two hours after I was supposed to be home. The nearest airport? 2 hours drive away. I called Hubby and he got the girls and came down to meet me. We landed about half an hour late (not worrying me by this stage). Then little things. Like there only being one set of stairs to get off the plane, because the other was broken. The truck broke down to bring in the luggage - 20 minute delay.  At this point I was waiting for my luggage to not arrive at all. But thankfully it did. And I made it home at 11:30pm.

After last year’s plane stress, I’m thinking next time I’ll just drive to Sydney.

Still no broadband either. Doing uni assignments will be fun…

The universe is trying to tell you something?

With all the phone and internet drama’s over the last few weeks, you’d expect me to have figured it out. But it took a lot more than that.

Last Thursday, in the midst of my mad “7 weeks in 7 days” uni cramming sessions, our TV set top box died. Faced with the necessity to purchase a set-top box (mind you the old one was a whole 2 months out of warranty) we decided to look at HD ones, and ended up with a HDTV - oops! On the plus side - we now have an AWESOME tv.

Then Sunday. Oh my Sunday. I had booked a flight from home to Brisbane, with a 2 hour stop over, then a flight on to Sydney. Well, for the first time in my life I took out travel insurance on a domestic flight, and I’m certain that’s the reason, but our flight was delayed by 6 HOURS!! Well, obviously I was going to miss my flight from Brisbane, but I was also going to miss EVERY flight from Brisbane on Sunday. Neither airline I was travelling on was being particularly helpful, so I booked myself on yet another airline first thing Monday morning from Brisbane. This necessitated the original airline to arrange accomodation for me in Brisbane, and a car to and from the airport.

After a mere 3 hours sleep, I was ready and waiting my car to take me to the airport, determined that the day would be different.

Ha!

After waiting 20 minutes for my car, a hotel staff member rang the airline who chased it up. Apparently the car had broken down, and I would have to catch a cab and be refunded. $45 later.

I nearly missed that flight, due to the delay by the car. Because I nearly missed my flight, I’m still $45 out of pocket (not to mention $180 out of pocket for the flight, and $70 for the flight I missed.

When I finally arrived in Sydney, a cab ride through peak hour traffic was my reward. Costing me more than a late night trip with a 20% additional fee. Fantastic.

Despite all this I was only 30 minutes late for my class, and managed to participate, and even contribute (I think) positively to the discussion.

What did I learn from all this? Positive thinking doesn’t always work. But I had a chat with a close family friend on Monday night, and determined that the rest of the week would be different. Things HAD to get better. And you know what? They did.

My tutorials so far have gone well. It’s fun catching up with people, and making new friends. I recieved a phone call from Hubby to tell me the phone was working again, and that he’s working on the internet. I even recieved a phone call from Telstra today checking that our phone was working. I know. I nearly died too. A mere 2 hours after I met a guy who works for them. It’s not what you know is it?

So my flights home on Friday will go well, and I will be on the internet Friday night to regale you all with tales of my wild experiences during the on-campus sessions for my course.

I hope you’re all having a fantastic week, and I apologise if it’s taking me a while to moderate comments, my email is now broken also, so I need to organise that to be fixed when I get home. But fixed it will be.