What a week!

Where to start!  

Last week the lady I taught dance for phoned up to ask if I could teach - my replacement has whooping cough of all things, and has been sentenced to bedrest!  It was so much fun - I enjoy it much more only going now and then, compared to having to go twice a week plus have all the responsibility of children needing to get good exam results!

When I got home I found out my sister-in-law was on her way over here in an ambulance with appendicitis - turns out they got to her just in time!  After her second c-section she hadn't been sewn up correctly and the infection from her ruptured appendix went places it really shouldn't have.  She is really lucky to still be with us :/  She had a difficult few days in hospital, but went home after nearly a week.

I have my second cold this month - and I want to yell and scream loudly at the universe "HEY!  Give me a break!!!".

However it doesn't just rain - it pours.  We also have a really serious bullying issue happening to Angela at school.  I could just about write a book on this subject, so more about that later ...

2011

Wow, what a year so far!  

In February my husband hit burnout point.  For the first month after that it was up to me to run the business (which was falling over fast), run the house, care for the kids, and deal with him ... not a small undertaking!

In the months since then I've adjusted to the fact that I'm now a full-time working mum (jumping from 30 hours a week to 50!).  The business is back on it's feet (mostly).  

Most important is that I survived the last four months - and I've come out the other side stronger and more confident.  After struggling with post-natal depression for 4 years I'm proud of myself!  The 2 years of counselling I had has really paid off.  

The last bit of growing up I needed to do has been accomplished - I'm yet to decide whether that is a good thing or not!

The joys (?) of being self-employed.

The opportunity came up seven years ago to take over a business.  We thought it was a good idea and leapt in full of enthusiasm.
I think that enthusiasm would have been somewhat dampened if we'd had any idea that so many ignorant freeloaders would drag us through court for so many ridiculous reasons.
First with there was the short guy with a toupee who took us to small claims because "we did a service on his vehicle and then it blew up".  He got nowhere fast.  The small claims court denied his claim so he took us to real court ... where the judge denied his claim.  He actually got removed by security for yelling at the judge.  That was memorable!
Then there was the nasty woman who tooks us to small claims court because "we charged her too much".  In the end we had to pay her $50 of her claim for several thousand.
After that came the guy who did vehicle repairs at home in his garage (on the side of his actual job).  He didn't do a very good repair on one vehicle and it came to us, then he took us to small claims court because "that was all our fault".  He didn't win either.
Over the last few months we've had issues with one of our staff.  In the end he quit and walked off the job ... then raised a personal grievance with us for unfair dismissal, as you do.  After SEVEN hours in mediation with the department of labour, HE has to pay US.  The process, although extremely stressful, was rather entertaining.
My question here is - is it worth it to drag people through the legal system just because you're an idiot?  I think no.

Elastics fun

I decided to teach the girls how to play elastics. I loved elastics at school, and I was really good at it - not to boast ... but I could do elastics well even at necks.

At school lately they've had a big push from Sport Waikato on physical fitness and healthy eating, encouraging the kids to find new ways to get active.

After trawling around on the internet for half an hour I had a fairly good handful of elastics rhymes for them, so we headed off to Spotlight on one of "mum's mystery missions" where I don't tell the kids what we're doing, they have to guess ...

A 3m length of elastic cost me $5.10, and it entertained the girls for HOURS! Actually, it entertained me a whole lot too - I'm not as good at it anymore, but hey - I'm 20 years out of practice!!

Winter buglies

I was so healthy, and made sure I took a berocca every day to stay that well. Everybody around me was sick but not me, no way!

A month ago I had both the children home from school for the whole week ... and I came down with a chest infection, which cost me $73 at the A&E clinic. The antibiotics kind-of worked (while making me a whole lot sicker at the same time - my stomach disagreed with them for the whole week), and the doctor told me to rest. No chance of that - my students at dancing still need a teacher (there is nobody who can cover me), and my desk at work had disappeared under a week's worth of paperwork from being home with the girls. Being self-employed, I can't just leave it like that because noone else will do it!

What can one do other than plod on ... and on ... and on.

So here I am, 4 weeks later - still coughing (which has NOT done my pelvic floor any favours - thanks childbirth!). The chest infection has cleared up I think, but now I have a head cold to boot, not to mention that my throat feels like I ate a grater.

I want to stamp my feet because it's not fair - I hear this all the time from the children, but because I often tell them that life is not fair, I can't really use that line myself!

Adulthood is no fun when you're a busy working mum who is sick - looking after the children, looking after the husband, looking after the pets, looking after the house, looking after the business ...

Who's going to look after me?
Just me - because I'm an adult now.

Hi and Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my blog. Well, like it says above - when I was little I thought being an adult would be awesome (what kid doesn't!!). Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I'm learning to roll with it, whoever came up with the phrase "don't sweat the small stuff" was pretty onto it.

I'm a 30-something mum of two girls. My husband and I have been married for 15ish years. We run our own business ... at the time it seemed like a good idea, but in all reality it calls for a lot of hard work and plenty of regular stress! I work around 25 hours a week in the office, and because I don't already have enough to do ... I have a second job teaching jazz ballet.

Our family also includes a cat, who is older than the kids and doesn't like them one little bit! Out of the goodness of my heart we have picked up two kittens recently (they're gorgeous fluffy tiny, and ferocious weapons of mass destruction *sigh*).

I hope you enjoy following my adventures into the wilderness of adulthood.