Beet Goes On…

Well not really.

Cos if he was extraordinary at “my job” I wouldn’t have to leave him ‘ToDo’ lists every morning, but he is doing the housewifey thing seeing as how I am studying fulltime now and he is, well, not doing much at all since there isn’t much around for an almost 40 year old truckie who wants to shift jobs and needs to reskill.

Actually, he’s also studying, but his study load is a lot less than mine hence the new housewifey role which has given him a WHOLE new appreciation of what I have done for the past 18 years (yes EIGHTEEN year! Happy birthday Lou!). He understood before that I had busy days running around after everyone and not a lot of time for housework…. but now… Now he KNOWS!!

If you know what I mean?

He knows exactly what it feels like to be so busy running around doing errands and making sure everyone else is where they need to be when they need to be there that you only get half an hour home all day and choose to use that to eat, drink and rest for a few before heading back out the door again too harried to give a fuck if your hair is brushed or that you haven’t gotten any housework done all day then to arrive back home in the evening and collapse in a chair and not want to move let alone cook or catch up on all the housework you missed through the day while you were out chasing your tail….

While he never complained before, he now has a whole new appreciation for why housework beyond making sure everyone had clean clothes and food in their bellies was at the bottom of my “give a rats arse” list.

And I’m not even making him do everything I would ordinarily do.

Yet

hehehe

I am getting a lot of mileage out of calling him “the little housewifey” and trying to fob stuff off on him… like waiting up an extra half an hour to put CJ’s clothes that she forgot to wash earlier in the dryer. lol

Now if he could just learn to multi task….

Our new home

CJ enjoying cooking in a spacious kitchen with every mod con

TJ relaxing with a game of pool on the table our landlord generously left here

Oh, and our new, reliable wheels thanks to my bestie who sold us her old car and is letting us pay it off

Now excuse me while I go soak my feet in the pool.

I don’t have a pic of our new house yet… because it was dark when we arrived for PSLS and TJ to have a looksee, but I do have pics from a place that makes me feel like I am home.

Love it!

Following the impromptu departure of the eldest teen from the house a week before xmess (anxiety thing – long story, but she was moving out this month anyhow), the middle teen decided that she needed a replacement family member.

Initially she was making plans to acquire a baby goat for herself.

Yes, you read that right.

A baby goat.

We said no. :\

Then a couple of days ago we were heading out to run errands and CJ starts rabbiting on about how we needed a new kitten after the disappearance last year of our black cat Coal.

And we would name it George.

And it would be a boy.

And he would be ginger.

And he would play with the norti puppies and like chasing bubbles and be the best kitten ever.

And we walked into the vet’s to get flea treatments for the dogs and there was George.

Just waiting to be adopted.

We couldn’t say no.

And George is a boy, and he is ginger and white, and he likes chasing the pups and bubbles and my cranky old cat Sox, sleeps so deeply that he keeps falling off the lounge, climbs everything and everyone, has mad ninja vanishing skills, and is apparently the best kitten ever. Except for when he wants to play at 2am while CJ is trying to sleep so starts loudly meowing at her for attention.

He’s gorgeous. And much less work than a teen

Welcome to the family George!

from amongst the packing boxes!

Yes we are moving again.

Yes we are going interstate again. Back to our home state, but not to our home town.

We are heading for the Illawarra region this time, to the coast.

We’ve been quite happy here. I love the community centered, friendliness of Wodonga. And I’ll miss all the groups we’ve gotten involved in and the friends we have made but we need to go.

The cosmos told me so.

We always planned on heading to the South Coast eventually. It was a vague, sometime-after-the-kids-have-finished-school type plan.

Then a few things happened – one of my besties moved to the South Coast and her hubby’s cancer became terminal. He only has months left and I want to be near her. PSLS’s work situation changed and he is only casual at the moment so free to leave if he wants, our lease expired and the real estate hasn’t gotten around to drawing up a new one yet, so again we are free to leave, then another friend said we could rent his house at a reduced rate if we took care of his animals for him…

The timing of it all we took as kismet.

Obviously meant to be.

So we are saying goodbye to Victoria and heading to the beach in about four weeks time.

Oh, except for the eldest teen who wants to stay here and has already moved out.

Its going to be another year of lots of changes, adjustments, exploring, and settling in.

I can’t wait!

So after my big post earlier this week about the trials of teenage job hunting… the very next day Lou got a phone call to say she had a job!

Yay!

She was literally bouncing around in excitement!!

And it was from a place that she had cold called, a second time, who hadn’t advertised at all. Just goes to show that persistence and cold calling really does work.

Then on Wednesday she had another interview as part of the application process for the design course she wants to do next year, and was offered a place in that.

Woot!

Anyhow, her first work shift was last night.

She was excited, she was nervous, she was there with reindeer ears on! (Literally – they made her wear them LOL)

And she loved it.

Loved taking that next step into adulthood, into independence, into being the person she wants to be.

I am in awe of the lovely young woman my daughter has become.

(and to the incredibly generous person who contacted us from the other end of the country with offers to help in the hunt… you have no idea what that meant to us. <3 We love you long time. Without the fiddy dolla. mwah!)

Lou is job hunting.

Her VCAL is all finished. Graduation is next week and the design course she wants to do won’t start till mid to late February next year. Satanlink have very kindly cut her Austudy in half (which we need like a hole in the head), and she has plans – she wants to start saving towards her own car, her own flat, more shoes (cos honestly a teenage girl can’t have enough shoes!). Plans that require her to be working and earning her own money.

All normal ‘coming of age’ things.

So she’s been hitting the streets armed with a resume, tidy ‘work suitable’ clothes, and a winning smile.

And DAMN! we are proud of her for doing all the cold calling she’s been doing!

She’s cold calling six to ten places a week, plus applying for anything she spots in the paper, has registered with three employment services, and is regularly checking a list of employers who conduct their recruiting online.

She even went and did some short courses on safe food handling, customer service and till service to boost her chances.

She’s had a few promising contacts that went nowhere, a few people saying they’d ring that didn’t, and a couple of interviews… and I got to tell ya, its a nerve wracking process!!

For me!!

She gets nervous too, but I’m the one sitting at home worrying about how its gone, worrying that she’s done well, worrying that she asked all the right questions and gave all the right answers, wondering if she’s reading the situation correctly… this is truly the first time where the situation is truly out of my control and I don’t like it!

Honestly, this is worse then when she started school. At least at school we knew they were going to take her, could go have a ‘quiet word’ with people if we saw need (or to reassure ourselves) and could pop in and visit.

Sigh.

This teenage job hunting stuff is hard!

We know persistence is key here though so she keeps trying, and I keep worrying (lol). She had another interview today. We are crossing fingers, but also making plans for more hunting later in the week.

I just hope something turns up soon.

PS – if anyone in the Albury/Wodonga area thinks they could use a bright, chatty, slightly goofy, almost 18 yo with limited experience, but a great, people pleasing, ‘can do’ attitude feel free to email beetgoeson@gmail.com

PPS – I told you she was slightly goofy!

since I wrote a post.

Ooops.

Time gets away from you.

A concept that keeps repeating itself whenever I turn around.

My eldest baby, my Lou, has now finished high school. With the completion of her VCAL a few weeks ago she is officially finished “school”. She turns 18 in less than three months. She is now older than I was when I left home. She is job hunting, gathering stuff she’ll need for when she moves out, making choices about tertiary study, learning to drive, has her own sense distinctive style of fashion, has boys chasing her, and has morphed into a reasonably confident young adult before our eyes.

It’s awesome and scary all at the same time.

My youngest baby, my TJ, is enrolled for high school next year, about to finish primary school, about to start orientation to his new school, confidently using machinery at gem club, riding his bike 3km’s each way to school each day, winning peer voted awards for effort in cooking during Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden sessions, and turning into a feral teen.

I can’t believe that we are about to be finished with primary school. :\

My middle child, is finishing year 9, planning to go to tafe mid next year, doing short courses, trying to take charge of her health, has had a couple of boyfriends, learnt some valuable life lessons, has purple and black hair, is learning guitar, and always has her nose stuck in a book. Typical teenage stuff.

Its hard to believe that next year she’ll be old enough to get her L’s, to go to tafe, to be a few more steps along the path to adulthood. But she still wears pigtails. And that is a comfort. lol

And I spend so much time running everyone around that I sometimes feel like I never get out of the car.

Yup.

Time definitely has a way of getting away from you…

We still haven’t gotten around to putting in a veggie plot here yet.

*waits for shocked gasping to stop*

I know!

Shockingly slack of us right? Especially when it saves us so much money and gives us so much satisfaction to grow our own.

I really want to get one started again. And I think it would be good stress reduction therapy for hubs while he’s trying to quit smoking (fingers crossed) as well as giving him something to do for when he gets fidgety.

Coincidentally enough, the September issue of  ABC Gardening Australia magazine arrived in my letter box this week with a handy guide to growing veggies. I love this magazine. When I was studying horticulture, way back when I was in my 20′s, our teachers recommended a few text books, but mostly they recommended this magazine. Told us to buy it, read it, love it, and consider it our bible. I have to admit they were right about how useful the mag is, and their advice stuck. Even now if I have a garden query the first place I look is my old Gardening Australia magazines.

But the mag is also a great communication tool for me… Because we all know how much husbands listen to their wives right?

Yeah, not much.

It’s one thing for me with my horticulture background to tell PSLS that the garden needs more mulch, or it’s time to spray for bindis, not to put citrus and onions in the compost (or feed them to the chooks),  or that it’s too early to frost sensitive plants to go out into the garden beds without protection BUT if someone else tells him all this then he will take it to heart. Gardening Australia is my “someone else” LOL

I guess I’d better go leave mag in the living room then.

On his chair.

Like it’s his Father’s Day present or something.

Open to page 39 where the guide to veggie growing is.

hehehe

Oh and by the way – I was reading in the mag that the next Junior Landcare Challenge is about to begin to grow Australia’s heaviest watermelon!! *drool* The challenge is open to all all children under 16 years of age and you can participate from any school or youth group, or with your family at home. Register by logging on juniorlandcarechallenge.com.au before September 25 to receive your free packet of Yates Candy Red Watermelon Seeds to be ready for planting from October onwards.

We got rained out of last years Sunflower Challenge with all the flooding but we’ll be giving this a red hot go!

Disclaimer – This is not a paid post. After I blogged the other day about only doing reviews or trials on things in future that actually interested me I was offered a copy of ABC’s Gardening Australia magazine to review which I jumped at because it saved me having to buy it this month. Not that it is expensive. $6.50 for the current issue on sale now at your local newsagency or supermarket is very reasonable. I’m just cheap. And broke. And I really do love this mag. 

PS – Gardening Australia are now on Facebook – head to http://www.facebook.com/ABCGardeningAustraliamagazine to become part of their green thumb community.

since PSLS started his new job in Albury.

There was no turning back from that point.

And honestly we haven’t looked back. Well not much.

Sure we miss a few particular people, but generally, we don’t miss our old life much at all.

We’ve been too busy doing new things lol

But yeah. A whole year.

wow.