Well it has been three weeks of Kindy and phew I think I am surviving kindy (touch wood)...it's funny as a mother you just keep growing and growing without really noticing, it's like for example healing your own fears you had about school, and issues around making friends. I have learnt one very important lesson, which is to be aware of yourself and what emotions are churned up from stepping foot onto the school lawn - lol

One thing I found to be good in separating my feelings from my son's feelings was to ask him when he was upset about feeling left out, was (I know it sounds easy now) for me to focus on his feelings and to express them to me. If anything that would make me focus on him rather than the situation, which most of the time you can do nothing about.

I found that getting him to voice his own feelings he managed to work out how much of a big deal it was and what he thought he could do to sort the problem out. Gee's it hard work to remain impartial without looking like I don't care, so focusing on his feelings reassured him I did care, but I couldn't go over and punch the kid because he wanted me to...

I've learnt to let him voice his feelings even if they are strong and to cry as much as he wants to...then to reassuringly mention that this happens to everyone and what can we do about it...he felt better and that he had mummy always there for support...I guess this is what my role is now to do, he's not a baby anymore but a child - wow time flies - lol

With the economic situation as it is, I wonder how many mums track expenses...I was recently curious to get a real feel for exactly what we as a family where spending on and in which categories would we be spending mostly on. I guess it would have been easy to guess, but never the less having a clear picture would help me realize where to be smart and save money, without missing out.

It took me nearly a week and a half of night time capers, but I eventually went back an entire 6 months to June 2008. Excel spreadsheeting is quite easy to get the hang of and many issues you can simple type in google and find the answer...

If your like us and mainly use credit card then pay, it is easy to download all the expense data for a given month into excel...

You can then categorize into "Fun/Eating out and Entertainment", "medicare" so it shows just how much you can claim back, food and clothing (kids and parents), and any cash out from your savings account also shows spending trends.

You can then see month after month what items are unnecessary to spend on and which to see what may need to be sold on ebay. It is staggering after a birthday party just how much on child can get in one day.

I find it staggering myself to just walk about the house, making mental notes to gather up stuff we don't use and do something with it...

Being frugal is hard I wouldn't try it we have kids!!!, but being smart and knowledgeable about your expenses is entrepreneurial and empowering and it allows you to spend on the things that are important like "education" "books" "small day trips" and making things from scratch...or just how satisfying it is for all the family to do the gardening rather than Mr Hire-a-Gardener-Man, as well as keeping us all away from the TV for the day....

So mums, how do you track expenses and work out ways of not missing out and getting efficient in the home?

xxx

I felt some sense of relief that our family could help those in the Victorian Bushfires...We donated money to the Red Cross. If you can't find some spare cash to donate, I do believe that some toys are needed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people who survived and the families of those who did not survive...

Well, howdy all...Christmas and New Years was such a busy time with family and kids, that I finally have two days free a week. Proper two days free...speaking of which if anyone spots us in the street, please say hello and tell me what your member name is!!!

Okay back to update! Josh (aka Joshy) is growing so fast!! It's funny because Josh is so blond...I get so many people wondering hehehee

How many of you out there have kids that look so different to you??

Well, I am Australian English/Filapino and you would expect that my marrying an Australian also with an English heritage, would bring out very colourful kids. My heritage in the English line is Irish Grandfather and a Scotish Grandmother with very blond hair and some red in there too, as well as the filapino line having a strong mix of spanish genes...so you would think my children will have many aspects of my and their dads heritage...

It does remind me of the saying "kids change so much as they grow up"

Me? I started out with Golden Brown hair and blue eyes until about 18 months and then brown eyes...then around year 2, my hair and eyes changed to black, I am not sure when my eyes changed colour to brown, but they did - lol

Codi? Was very golden blonde and his blue eyes didn't change to light brown until he was 18months...

Josh? at 10 months, his eyes are morphing from blue to very light green brown and has very blonde, light peachy colour!!! He looks so opposite to me (dark black regrowth, am going naturale) and nothing like his daddy, but very much like Clay's dad and my dad, who both had white blond hair when they where young, with my dad staying blonde till his 50ies...

Clay? very blonde when little and now ash brown hair like Codi, Codi very much looks like me, with Clay's colourings and his same fuzzy wuzzy hair!!!

We will see a change around 18 months to pretty much what Josh maybe at 4...so it will be interesting to see what genes fight for what our kids will eventually end up looking like...fascinating stuff!!!

Now imagine if we had a girl...I hope all the kids get Clay's tall genes, hehe.. here's Joshy below, with his brother on the left