Quiet day

I was going to go to the shops to pick up the rest of the school supplies. But I decided that we really needed an "at home day" to get on top of the basics. Housework doesn't come naturally to me. I kind of have to bargain with myself to do it lol. Ie do the vacuming and then you can do some scrapbooking lol. I would rather do other things than clean, and I have a long, long list of menial tasks to do.

So I came up with a game to make it more interesting. I realise this is going to sound a little nuts, but it helps me actually do most of the continual clean up after kids. Here it is. I count the number of things I pick up and put away. Every time I get to 50, I jot down, what I am up to, otherwise I lose count. Over the time I have learned at about 250 items is the break even point, and 350 items is the slowly creep ahead point. I have a goal to do 400 each day to slowly clear the back log of unsorted areas in the house.

I did 600 items today as haven't been doing as much cleaning lately. I feel a bit behind with the recent heat wave, the back to school jobs, and my recent discovery of bloging. I am glad I have started get things done before they become urgent and therefore stressful.

It was really valuable visiting Mum on the weekend.  She suggested that I take time to really explain things to Jules so that he cooperates more. I have taken her advice and I am happily surprised to find that he is understanding more than what I thought he could. So its been a really positive influence. I rang her to let her know and she was happy.

About 4 times a year, or whenever I am asked to. I foster animals for the RSPCA, a large animal welfare agency.

This little family came to me when the babies were a week old. The mum was a very posh looking cat so I called her Cosette. I'll keep them until they are about 7 weeks old and then they split from the Mum so that she can dry her milk up. Its almost time for the Mum to go, as the kittens are six weeks old.





They could split now, but I feel for them, nobody seems to mind too much if I keep them together another week. I think its easier on Mum as she knows that her babies were more independent.

 After a week or two her milk is dried up and she can be desexed and sold to hopefully a good home.






We have too many unwanted kittens and puppies, so the  kittens get fostered until they are 1.1 kilograms. Then they are old enough to be desexed.

Of the litter, three are jet black with not a single strand of white. And one is dark brown, with black socks. As you can see they are incredibly fluffy.

And cute.   So, so cute!

Having cats is easy. You just need to make sure that the litter is clean. We like having dogs too, but at the moment our fences aren't secure enough to foster a dog.

Its on the to do list, Jason and I aren't very handy!!!

Hopefully now that I am getting serious with my health, more energy will flow on to other things.

We went for a walk today and I started to extend the walk so that it would be a 5 km walk. I was going to do lots of 50 seconds, but when the timer went off I felt like it was too short so I set the timer going so I did 100 seconds and 2 x 50 seconds. Which makes 3 mins and 20 seconds. It can get hard working out the time as you can't just go 4 x 50, so I use this nifty little time calculator. I noticed that I am indeed a heel first runner, so I deliberately tilted a bit forward to land more flat footed and I shortened my stride. I will wait to see if my shin is happier with that :)

Once my shin is happy with what I am doing I will be ready to start to prepare to do the first week of the couch to 5k. This requires alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for 20 mins. Which works oust to be 8 mins of jogging in 20 mins. So when I am doing 8 mins or jogging intermittently, I will be ready to try the first week program of c25k.

As I was walking I saw a red belly black snake across the path! I wasn't sure if this was the end of my walk but it scurried into the bush so it was fine. Seeing how fast it moved I counted my lucky stars that it wasn't a brown snake. They are very poisonous and aggressive, they are known to chase you sometimes. I need to make it a rule that everyone always wears a hat, not just for the sun protection, but also because if you are being chased by a snake you need to throw the hat down so that the snake can hide under it and leave you alone.

Just after that a friend called and said they were on their way over if that was okay. So I only managed half my walk today. The kids had a great swim in the pool and I comforted my friend whose Dad has just had a minor stroke  :(