The Importance of Managing Stress

Our view from the cabin

 

The importance of managing stress usually smacks me in the head at the most inconvenient times.  Do you find that too?  You know, those times when your kids a cracking apart all at the same time, or when you have time-pressured deadlines looming which require a significant time commitment to meet them.  The events of the past term have converged and put me in a bad spot.  I'm sure you know what it feels like when you're overwhelmed!

When Dh suggested we join him on a trip to Echuca (business for him) I was reluctant.  In my head this was bad timing given all I need to accomplish over the school holidays for Uni.  But I agreed.  He loves to have the company, the kids had nothing better to do and my study is quite portable.  Dh organised a cabin right on the Murray River where our view was stunning, relaxing and intriguing.  We watched the water level rise a number of centimeters while we were there.  Just quietly and subtly, but it still rose!  We took a little trip on one of the paddle steamers (not the one below!), which came all the way up to where we were staying and then turned around to return us to port.

The 'Emmy Lou' on a tourist jaunt

 

 I returned home on Wednesday feeling a little less stressed and ready to get into some work.  Who would have thought that taking time to relax when you feel like life is most busy would be the answer to the issue of feeling stressed and overwhelmed?  It was so worth it.

 

The Summer Holiday Plan

It has been decided!  I have a plan for the summer holidays and it includes lots of books.  Frances tells me a holiday, to her, is guilt-free reading and not having to cook.  I don't like my chances on the latter but I can definitely manage the former in bucket-loads.

Those of you who have been reading here for a long time might remember I used to do book reviews for my very dear friend Rel....before I began my degree.  I emailed her this morning to suggest that some book reviewing might assuage my fears of being bored.  She was quick to agree!

So that's my plan.  A LOT of reading and reviewing.  If I can read close to 20 books in three weeks imagine what I could accomplish over six weeks?!  My overflowing bookshelf will need a new buddy to contain everything.

And while we're talking summer holidays, can I tell you something funny?  This morning when trying to figure out how long term 4 will be I counted six weeks and was devastated when Mr Busy told me ten.  In my figuring of weeks I completely forgot November.  Yep...the month with the long weekend and I skipped right over it.  Sad but true.

The Definition of a Holiday?

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I have decided my definition of "holiday" needs a little work if I am to survive the busyness of my life with sanity intact.  Over the past three years I have had two weeks a year where I've work and Uni have ceased at the same time.  Two weeks where I've had no responsibilities other than...well...the enormous task of mothering.  And wife-ing.  I know, it's not a word, but let's pretend for a moment!

I've just had a mid-semester break from Unit, during which time an assignment was due so it wasn't really a break.  I'm about to head into school holidays during which time I'll be studying and beginning end-of-semester assignments.  So not so much of a break.  December 13th is looking really good to me right now!  No work, no Uni.

So what do I consider a holiday?  It can't be about not having to be working on something important because that never seems to end, if it's not things outside of family it's my family that needs attention.  Time to stop and snooze.  Time to read a good book in a day.  Time to say "YES!" to spontaneous plans with friends.  In amongst all of that I need to feel like what I'm doing is worthwhile to someone else as well as me.

And every now and then a chance to be away from home really helps too.

I'm planning to take the Christmas/summer holidays this year without studying, since I only have six units (instead of 8) to complete next year.  I need to stop and do something the things that make me feel like I've had a break.  Rejuvenation, renewal, rest.  All so very important!  As well as being able to say "no" the first time instead of later!!!

The Parenting Files: A Pet Dilemma

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Do you have children who are pestering campaigning for a pet of one particular type or another?  From time to time our children have begged for a pet.  At other times we've had pet-loving friends insist we are depriving our children of all the benefits of owning a pet - you know, companionship, responsibility...that sort of thing. 

I have been the biggest resister to the pet owner wannabe's around here.  I maintain that I care for a husband and three children and that's enough living things to feed and clean up after.  My other insistence is that the best parent a child can have is a sane one and I am convinced adding pet responsibilities to my list of things to remember would tip me over the edge, not to mention that our fences are not up to the task of keeping things in.  I know this because we can't keep things out - dogs, cats, rabbits - they all visit our yard from time to time.

Over the last school holidays, however, I relented and we babysat Jane.  Jane is a spiny stick insect who resides in the VCE Common Room at school (VCE = Yr 11 & 12) and she needed someone to look after her for the three week break.  She doesn't take a lot of looking after.  She has her own 15cm glass cube and all she eats is gum leaves.  Well....this is Australia, we have plenty of those close enough to snaffle without causing problems.  She just requires a daily water spray and a weekly cage clean and replacement of leaves.  Miss Sunshine desperately wanted to have her for the holidays so I agreed, given she's old enough to take care of a stick insect without my intervention.

Or so I thought.

By the end of the holidays I was demanding Miss Sunshine clean Jane's cage and replace the dried-out leaves.  I was grumping at Miss Sunshine for spraying all kinds of who-knows-what smelly stuff around the room and fumigating poor little Jane who likes non-polluted air.  Every now and then I would bring Jane out to sit in the sunshiny family room with clean fresh air to breathe and let her crawl on my hand.  Just so she knew someone in the house loved her.

Jane was a trooper.  She survived.  She even grew.  We know this because she shed her exoskeleton.  And then she ate it in true stick insect fashion.  I'm not much of a pet person but I didn't mind having little Jane around, with her cute little dances.  Miss Sunshine, however, confirmed for me why we don't have pets. 

Jane survived in spite of her.

Spring...Father's Day...Sunshine

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Tomorrow Spring will arrive in all it's sunny warmth just in time to celebrate Father's Day with us.  This morning for the first time in many, many months I left the house without a cardigan or jumper of some kind.  It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine will do for your mood and energy levels after a long, exhausting week.

Our Father's Day will be rather full.  A friend rightly insisted we should have a BBQ for lunch - the first of the season - with my parents.  Then we'll have dinner with some close friends.  And the day will be warm and sunny.  Perfect.  The girls and I have done the requisite gift shopping so we're all keen for the day to be upon us and for Dad's to be celebrated and appreciated.  The one we have in our home is pretty darn good.

Before that?  An evening with 'Star Wars', and my brother and his gorgeous wife.  The snack food is at the front door waiting and my assignment is .... being avoided with this post.  Sigh.  It's easier to write assignments when it's raining and gloomy outside.

Book Review: The Pros and Cons of Being a Frog

It was 'Book Week' last week.  In the week or two leading up our library teacher read the shortlisted early childhood picture books to the lower Primary students so I got a bird's-eye insight into the books on the list this year.

Sue deGennaro's "The Pros and Cons of Being a Frog" is a heartwarming, charming  book about friendship and the up's and down's of children's relationships.  The characters are engaging - a boy (we think!) who likes to dress up as animals, and his friend Camille who loves numbers so much she uses them to speak in code.  These two unlikely mates find a way to embrace their differences and enjoy one another's company.  Until the day when Froggy yells at Camille.  It is then he realises that "frogs are not solitary creatures", and neither is he.  All is not well in his world when Camille is not his constant companion.

The author beautifully demonstrates the realities of children's friendships.  Cross words and hurt feelings are inevitable.  Yet deGennaro reminds young readers that it's not just the recipient of the cross words that lose out in these moments, and relationships can indeed be mended.

What can I say?  I loved this story immediately.  So much so I had to order it for myself.  My own copy now sits happily on my own shelf ready for days when I think numbers are cool or I need to be reminded that one of my animal-loving students needs to be appreciated for all his quirks.  Frogs are pretty cute!

Everything old is new again: Meatloaf

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It's Mr Busy's fault doing.  He requested meatloaf a couple of weeks ago and now we're all a bit hooked.  It's on the menu plan at least twice a month.  Old fashioned?  Yes!  Delicious?  You bet!

A way, way back in 2010 I posted this recipe for Savoury Glazed Meatloaf.  It came from a friend's Mum - one of those old-fashioned country women whose kitchen turns out all manner of really good honest food.  It's the recipe I still use now and I always add the grated carrot, which I saute with the onion.

Miss Mischief was having a go at making the recipe the other day and I couldn't be bothered with the finickity baking instructions, so I had her put it in a silicon form loaf pan and leave it to bake right side up.  You know what?  It was about the best meatloaf I've ever had.  The silicon form must have made quite the difference.  Or maybe it was just that I didn't make it?  We still baked it for half the time before adding the sauce stuff on top and now the silicon form is our cooking method of choice.