ooops! and a life lesson learnt.

Boy have I made a very bad error in judgement!
Chicky babe went out into freo to watch a movie with her friends from drama. This group has expanded to include some friends of one of the girls. Their ages range from 15 up the almost 18. Any way Chicky Babe took along another friend from school, a girl who is like a part of our "family". This girl's dad is a bit restrictive in my opinion, and Chicky Babe thinks (as all teens do,) that I am a bit restrictive.
They were at a movie and then rang to say that they would be going to go and have pizza. I said that that would be ok as long as it was fine with the other parent. Then as Bantam Boy was stuck in Gossnells -a good hour and a bit and two bus transfers by public transport away on good friday with limited buses running Tim took my car to go and pick him up. I had intended to pick the girls up when he got back. Then they rang to say that James could drive them home.
Do you trust him?
Has he been drinking?
And is it OK with the B's folks?
I'm not really happy about it but I suppose it would be Ok and quite convenient as Tim has my car in Gosnells.... ( I have been listening too much to her tell me how evil I am for not letting her do stuff and being too careful and fussy- having grown up being fussed over and overly protected I have been determined not to over parent and allow them both a certain amount of freedom.)
All the while I forgot to listen to how CB was saying over and over "You can say NO but....."
Well apparently B's parents didn't know and the boy dropped them off with a screech and a whole lot of yelling and noise leaving great skid marks down the street.
B has been grounded for the rest of the year, Her father rang me up and proceeded to tell me what he would like to see happen with CB in a most condescending and bullying manner.
I have dealt with the situation here on my end and I will not be grounding CB for a year I replied- (I think that is a ridiculous amount of time and being SO authoritarian and extreme only sets up for more lies and deception ,that or running away from home!) I didn't say the part in brackets to him but I did say when he said that I needed to do something - I said again that I have dealt with the matter at my end and I actually thing that the rest of the year is an unreasonable amount of time. - Then he proceeds to tell me that I obviously don't care if my daughter ends up dead! -What a WALLY!!!!! I was so angry about that how dare he speak to me like that. It was B who was pressuring CB to ask me in the first place and it was she who did not ask her parents. I on the other hand was fairly informed (albeit not fully as I was under the impression that B's parents also agreed.)
Then his partner rang to talk to me about it, she did agree that he has a tendency to over react - and that he didn't feel I did a good job of parenting CB and was too lenient and this was a bad influence on B an that he was going tomorrow to the high school in Karratha where he works to enroll her there to get her away from CB's bad influence!- Then I did a bad thing and let her know what I thought of his authoritarian style and how I thought the outcome of that would go. And how outraged I was that he would say that I wanted my daughter dead! I personally don't care If I never have to talk to them ever again! But poor CB has had the punishment - well natural consequence of her actions in that B has been banned from having anything to do with her again until B moves out of home. She has lost their trust and suffers their bad opinion of her. I see no need to "punish" her further.
Oh and by the way she won't be getting lifts with this young man any time soon!!! And I feel so bad that I didn't listen to my gut and go and pick them up myself, thus saving them the pain of this commotion but then it wouldn't have been a life lesson....She is attempting to write to them to try to make amends..
It's hard to watch your kids go through these things... especially when you feel a little responsible, I should have known that there would be no way in a pink fit that B's parents would have agreed to it!

Mad Hatter

On Friday I discovered that I actually have a teapot collection.

Tim the tool man put up some shelves so I could display my teapots, at first I asked for a couple of shelves but it soon became apparent that it would not be enough as I gathered together teapots from cupboards around the place. (The morning light comes in here and has washed out the photo a bit but you still get the picture!)

I also had him put in an extra shelf above the ones I had already in the kitchen for every day china etc. I wasn't feeling too well on Friday so I took the day off and spent some time dusting, scrubbing and re-organising my kitchen. I also seem to have a collection of jugs too!


And to my huge relief at last I have a lovely clear bench below to make my breakfast.
I won't show you my lounge room yet as it is definitely NOT clear and organised, I had intended to finish that job yesterday but spent most of the day playing taxi driver and driving miles to purchase school books that I couldn't afford at the beginning of the year and were now a priority. I did manage to get a bit of gardening done though. Boy it needed it as it is almost dead after all the heat and inattention! I'm off to buy some soil wetting agent as it is as dry as desert sand out there at the moment. I have about 20 pots of herbs to plant out and I think I'll put in a lavender hedge near the limestone garden edging/seat.

Miles of Mural!

Healthy lifestyle mural 3
Originally uploaded by dette.k

Working like crazy to get this mural finished in time for the photo session organised for friday. (The principal told Healthways -who supplied the grant that it was alreadyy finished!!!!) I was working -outlining and patching up mistakes- until 6;30 tonight and 7pm yesterday transferring more of the children’s drawings onto the wall. Tim recons that there is about 65 square metres of mural. On brick which is revolting to paint on. If you ever get persuaded to one insist on the wall being rendered first!!!!!!
Click onto my Flickr site for more photos if you'd like to have a look.

Everyone should have one.

I found myself in possession of one of these....

and try to spend at least some time in it....

watching the view...

and being gently hugged by the fabric and having my cares rocked away,

if only for half an hour!

Mini me

I've just bought the kids a mini net book It is tiny really about half the size of my laptop but it has wireless network capabilities and you can attach it to a monitor and an external hard drive etc etc and the kids should be able to share it . So when we get the big computer fixed- it is in the process of being done, there will be one for each of us.
Thanks Mr Rudd for the bonus. I'm doing my bit to stimulate the economy (although I only used $500 for the netbook - the rest will go on bills!)

Missing in Inaction!

Sorry! Where have I been and what have I been up to?
Pretty much lost in the mess that has become my house in the last couple of weeks. I realise now that having Lin come once a week helped me cope and manage to tread water. Although it was a little expensive it certainly helped to save my sanity and I guess that a psychologist would charge more than $25 an hour.
Work has been pretty hectic. Having two roles in the school- ie yr classroom teacher 3 days a week and art specialist yrs 1-7 (with 45 min lessons-5classes a day with no changeover time factored into the equation ) is pretty full on. I feel in some ways that one week finishes on wednesday when I finish in the classroom and another begins on thursday when I go into the artroom. Sometimes I feel like I've worked two weeks for the price of one!
Home is feeling a bit intense too at present with three semi adults trying to find their space in the one small house. The study workload is making the kids a bit techie at the moment and they exhibit a strong reaction against helping out, siting homework and work pressures as an excuse. I feel very much like the little red hen and have spat the dummy and given in myself. Now I am faced with a huge mountain of things that need tidying and fixing and ordering......
Where do I begin???? I guess I pick a space and start with it- a little at a time and slowly it will improve.
My little dollies are now in Victoria. I think they went to Healsville. (A friend of mine has a sister who lives nearby to there and her mother took them over when she went to visit recently.) My current project is knitting woolly hats and vests (I am trying to interpret my grandmother's favourite children's vest pattern- all our kids wore them.) Anyway my friend "A" is knitting socks for little children who are freezing in Afghanistan in winter. She is of Swedish origin and this is a Swedish branch of save the children's fund who have organised a collection of bits and pieces to be sent, here is the link if you are interested in knowing more. Oh and I finally completed beaded necklaces for two little girls who have only been waiting a year to get them!
I have been lax with my posting, Firstly my camera batteries went and I am now photoless- I really want to get a new mobile phone that is actually a camera with a phone function! That would be convenient and most likely expensive! Then there is the roster with my school laptop, leased through the department for teaching purposes- I'm not actually on this roster -hence I'm posting now in the dead of the night now that the chicks have gone to bed. Which is where I should be as tomorrow is school photo day and I'm going to look worse for wear at this rate and I am already behind the eight ball!
The tax stimulus package is going strait into resolving our technology problems, fixing our big computer and a cheaper notebook for the kids to share and to mend our wireless network!
Oh I almost forgot I went away with my mum down south to see Chris Isaak play at the Leeuwin Estate. ( I thought this picture of the vegetable stack used which was also used in their advertising on the big screen when we were at the concert was a photo of a pile of washing! I found this most alarming until I realised what it actually was then I was really alarmed to think I was seeing piles of washing even when on holiday!!!!!!) It was actually quite relaxing, I left the chicks to fend for themselves (with Tim to help out) for two days. I actually took some photos- on mums camera so when I get a minute to teach her how to upload them I'll share a bit more with you.
Sorry if this post is not written particularly well, at least I can run a spell check over it, But it pretty much reflects my mood. I just re read my title and I've realised I've not been as inactive as I thought!

Some very bad news...

My cleaning lady has quit! She has decided to study english so that she can get work in her field- personal assistant or something- she said she used to use her brain all the time but now here she has to use her hands because her english was not good enough to get the kind of work she used to do. She rang today to break the news. She was so very sorry but she does not have the time to clean any more.
I am pleased for her. But I am very sorry for myself! I was so excited when I found her and she is so very lovely. I will miss her. And I'm not looking forward to the bickering with the children about chores and who has done more work and therefore shouldn't be expected to do this or that, and who has more homework and therefore not enough time.... And anyway don't I want them to do well at school therefore they shouldn't have to do this or that.....
So I guess my search begins again!