The bullet journal

Further to my last post...



The bullet journal.  People, I'm a convert.  Let me explain.

I am an organiser.  I'm a list-maker.



I have post it notes stuck to my computer monitor, lists of things to buy, books to read, plants to plant, stuck to the fridge, more lists saved in my phone, a wall calendar to manage our day-to-day appointments, and my diary for recording family life.



I need to write stuff down, especially to get tasks done.  I will write and rewrite my lists.  Tapping everything into my phone doesn't work for me - even when I worked in an office and managed numerous electronic calendars for other people, I still preferred my own "day to a page" desk diary.  The problem with the diary is that I would jot down important information on a certain day, and weeks or months later I would remember that I had written it down, but it would be almost impossible to find.

Bullet journaling (invented by Ryder Carroll, and, shockingly, shared with the world for free) makes sense of the chaos.  And I can indulge my artistic side as much or as little as I want.



The system itself is very simple.  I won't bore you with an explanation because you can find the original and best explanation here.  The most important thing (to me) is that you can write any old thing - any task or reminder or inspirational quote or whatever - that comes into your head, at the moment you think of it, and later on you will be able to find it.



This is exactly what I've been looking for.  There are so many things I'm keeping track of at any time and finally here is a way to keep track of all of them, together, in an organised way.  Oh and you can make it pretty.  AND you can use beautiful stationery.

I must admit that googling "bullet journal" brings up a deluge of the most intimidatingly artistic journals with beautiful lettering and delicate artwork.

That stuff is really nice, but it's not what your BuJo (oh yeah!) is about, and not being artistic shouldn't put you off starting a bullet journal.

It's not for everyone, of course, but for someone like me it's the perfect solution that I've been looking for.

Anyway!  Make up your own mind.  Moving on.  

Look at this handsome boy.  One of the few people (yes my cat is people thank you) who gets his face on the blog.

I know we're not even halfway through August, but I'm starting to notice undeniable signs of spring being around the corner.  We've already discussed the daffodils at length.  And the light these days is... different.  The sun is definitely setting later.  My kids go to bed super early (fist pump) and it's barely even dark now when I close their curtains.

But on top of that, the other day I was strolling the driveway with my little girls when what should I see underfoot?

I glanced up and, yep!  Blossom!  Blossom on the trees!  And in fact, now when I drive down our road I realise that there are soft little smudges of pink and white on the bare trees.  Oh boy.  I loved autumn here.  Can you imagine me in spring?

Our resident tuis also appreciate the blossom.  I love hearing their distinctive calls through the trees.  They went a bit quiet over winter and I'd almost forgotten they were here.

After the surprise of a whole tree in flower without me noticing, I took my camera for a closer look through the orchard and it's true!  Little buds forming everywhere you look.

The jonquils by the house continue to do their thing.

Looks like the peach tree outside the kitchen window is gearing up for something.

Speaking of the peach tree, check out my amateurish bird feeder efforts.  The pinecone that J and I made into a bird feeder at play centre one week was, frankly, a big fat failure (although they did pick it clean eventually).  The big success has been the bird feeder we bought at a garden centre recently.  The waxeyes (which I call silvereyes) have been having quite the bonanza, and J loves watching them twitter and spin.  You could just about set your watch by the times they arrive and leave: always the same every day.

The cat also watches with interest, although his facial expression is a little more calculating than J's.

It's been seriously wet this past week.  To the point where yesterday the septic flooded.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.  Luckily everything is back to normal today.  Thank goodness.

And lastly, the cows are gone.  Sad face.  They did their work eating lots of grass, brought immeasurable joy to the little girls (and, ok, to me), caused plenty of headaches and very early starts for B, and now they're off to... actually I don't know.  Greener pastures?  I literally have no idea.

Already I miss seeing their hopeful faces standing at the fence when I pull in the gate.



Ah, well.

What's new with you this week?  Any signs of spring at your joint?

Winter flowers and bullet journalling

There's a great view of the mountain we get sometimes when the peak is obscured by cloud.  I keep taking photos because it looks so cool in real life but it (once again) just doesn't translate to film.  See Exhibit A below.  On another note, do you think those people are getting sick of me taking photos of their house?

 I've been waiting almost since we moved in to this house for the camellias to bloom.  I never realised they start so late?!  Meanwhile the daffodils are definitely flowering now.  Even the ones I planted on the very last day that the packets recommended are coming up and the first one has now flowered.  They came in mixed packets of 25 so I'm looking forward to seeing all the different varieties we've got.  I also scattered some windflowers along the same fence but they've been slower to emerge.  Fingers crossed.

There's a modest handful of jonquils flowering in one of the garden beds by the house.



And the drifts of frilly yellow daffodils out in the paddock doing their thing.

We've got three different types of camellia so far - this big pink one out by the wood shed....

This very simple white one in the front garden...

And this deep red almost rose-like ones by the roadside.

We've taken cuttings of all of them with a view to a camellia hedge in the future.  I especially love the  neatness and symmetry of the red ones.  I wish I knew the names!

With such a profusion of blooms, I took my basket out and picked as many as I could reach.  It made me feel very grown up and accomplished picking and then arranging flowers from my own garden.  And there are heaps more!  Anytime I want!  For free!

The other thing I'm loving is proof that the sun is most definitely shifting southwards.  It now shines in the window and warms my feet when I'm (inevitably) at the computer desk in the early afternoon.

Lastly, before I go, have you guys heard of bullet journalling?  As usual I'm very late to this party but I find the idea quite appealing.  Aside from this blog, I also write in a journal about the girls' milestones and parts of my life that might be on my mind but don't need to be broadcast to all and sundry.  The problem with my current journal is that details get lost in the pages and pages of scribble.  It's also hard to capture everything I want to record longhand.

I like the idea of being able to index topics, as well as record briefly the things that have happened that day, not to mention keeping a calendar/diary all in the same book.  At the moment I save our old wall calendars because they record so many events that I want to remember.  Bullet journaling would save me from eventually appearing on Hoarders: Buried Alive when my tottering collection of calendars threatens to squash us all.

Not sure why you would care that I may or may not ponce around writing a bullet journal that you won't see but... yeah.


Oh!  And this really is the last bit of news.  I think.  B and I are back on the 5:2 bandwagon.  We had a break while, you know, moving internationally when willpower and motivation was at an all-time low, but it's time to return to the fold.  It is seriously the easiest thing to do for your health.  Just don't eat for two days of the week!  So our first fast day will be this Monday.  I'm quite looking forward to it.  Remind me of that at 2pm on Monday.  Ok good.  Thanks.

That's weird...

Ok... something weird happened when I added tags to all my posts and now an old post from March called Renovations #1 has republished itself today.

Disregard please.

Sorry for any confusion!

Renovations #1

Right, so, as threatened previously, it's time for our first update on the renovation of our little cottage. I don't have a huge number of "before" photos but just picture burnt orange curtains, flocked wallpaper, high gloss ceiling tiles, brown lino, and a BAD eighties pine kitchen.  Oh, and how could I forget the olive green bathroom.  Ya-huh.

We don't expect to stay in the cottage long - it just has to be liveable - but even if we're only there for a year or two we still want it to be a pleasant place to live.  The deck was rotten so that had to be replaced no matter what.  And the olive green bathroom, well obviously it HAD.TO.GO.  But beyond that, we had originally intended just new floor coverings and a coat of paint.

As so often happens, though, things took on a life of their own and it's turned into a pretty major overall.  I'm excited though because it's going to be a really nice place to live, however long we are there for.  The intention long-term is to build a family home of our own further back from the road and we'll rent the cottage out perhaps as a B&B (that I would run), or, more likely, as a long term rental.  So it does make sense to get everything done now so that it's ready for its next incarnation whenever and whatever that may be.

Kitchen/Living Room

I honestly did not mind this kitchen too much - plenty of cupboard space, and it has a dishwasher.  Tick and tick.  Sadly the stove is electric which is going to take some getting used to but it's not the end of the world.

The lino on the floor was U.G.L.Y IT AIN'T GOT NO ALIBI, and that *ahem* charming stained glass overhead cupboard?  NOICE.  I especially enjoy the fancy turned spindle things holding it up.

That's the hot water unit in the cupboard on the right above, kind of a waste of space in the kitchen but at least it's hidden.

So, the kitchen is now being almost entirely re-done.  The door to the hot water unit cupboard has been moved to the other side and we've now installed a wall to separate the kitchen from the entrance and laundry.  The bench top will be replaced and extended along the island to give me more bench space.

You can also see in the photos below that the ceiling tiles have been replaced too, thank god.  The lino has been torn up to reveal some surprisingly lovely floorboards.  Unfortunately, with the intention of renting it out, we don't want to worry about the maintenance of the floorboards so they will be covered again by a (nicer) lino in all the wet areas.  And we'll have carpet in the living and bedrooms.  I would love to have exposed floorboards, and what a jackpot to have beautiful tightly fitted ones hiding beneath the icky old floors, but it's just too cold a climate to have them throughout.

If the B&B thing eventuates we can always tear everything up and put rugs down.

Right, onwards.

Below is the living room in its original state, with cameo by woman I don't know.

 Here we have torn up carpet, replaced ceiling tiles, replaced down lights, and removed fireplace and relocated in the "nook" you can see to the left in the photo below.  Moving the fireplace is another one of those things we wouldn't have bothered with but it segmented the room making positioning furniture really difficult, plus in its new location it will be more central within the house so the heating will be way more efficient.

Can I tell you how excited I am to have a wood burning fire?!  VERY EXCITED INDEED.  Yes, ash, yes, wood chopping.  But: crackling log fire.

Bathroom

I have no words.  There are none.

Unsurprisingly, the lovely bathroom was also leaky so the whole thing has been torn out and replaced.

White!  Shiny!  Clean!

Bedrooms

All the bedrooms had built-in robes which have been torn out to make more space, and they're all getting new carpet, paint and curtains.  Unfortunately the ceiling tiles will remain but at least they're not as offensive as the high-shine ones that were in the living areas.

Outdoors

LOTS of work has been done around the garden and house paddock clearing away overgrown shrubs, dead and diseased trees, and other mess.  As mentioned the deck has been replaced and it looks so good!

It's all ticking along at a fantastic rate.  We have actually now booked our flights and will be living in NZ before the end of April.  I'm tremendously excited but also daunted at the amount of work to be done between now and then.  I've said it before and I'll probably say it again quite a few more times, but the logistics of moving internationally with two small children are significant.  

Significant.

The coldest night of the year

So, I saw on the news that the night of this frost was the coldest night this year so far!  I'd believe that.  It actually hurt being outside to take these photos.  Which, considering my pansy constitution, probably doesn't mean a lot.  But it really was very cold.

I always feel really sorry for the cows in this weather.  I also feel sorry for them when it rains, or when it's really windy.  I mean, sheep have nice thick wool to keep them warm, and horses get blankets, but the poor cows just have to deal.  When the paddock gets really muddy and they get mud caked between their... toes? hoofs?... I also feel bad for them because it looks really uncomfortable and I want to pick it out for them.  I mean, you clean horse's feet!  Why do cows get the rough end of the stick?

Poor cows.  In summer I will certainly worry about them if it gets too warm or sunny.  I can't say I have ever before given the comfort of livestock much thought but now we have our own it plays on my mind constantly.

I made B go down to their paddock and made sure the ice on their trough was cracked so they could have a drink.

He cannot believe that we now have fourteen extra children to take care of.  Here he thought we were just getting some stock in to strip the pasture and now he has me nagging him about their welfare.  He lives in fear of my sneaking them into the house, but that's unlikely to happen.  Unless I can toilet train them.

Speaking of toilet training, it appears that we're at that point with J.  In deepest cold winter.  Goody.  Someone struck the fear of god into me that if you put it off when the child is clearly ready that then it becomes a huge issue and they will take forever to get the hang of it.  I don't know if that's true but I know I just have to put knickers on the child and get on with it.  But - and I never thought I would ever say this - nappies are so easy.  And I am inherently very lazy.

So I'm writing it here to hold myself accountable.  We will make a serious toilet training attempt here this week.  The poor little thing is so ready.  She is giving me every hint in the book.  I must take the plunge.

Any and all tips and advice gratefully received!

A has been teething like a demon but at last count she now has four teeth through with another three imminent, so at least all the drama hasn't been in vain.  The teeth appear to be coming through in random order so she has the bottom middle two, plus two on the top right.  Next appears to be far right on the bottom followed closely by top left.  She looks like quite the hillbilly so obviously I have to photoshop a straw hat and a corn cob pipe onto all photos of her at the moment.

She's still not crawling, but it is so agonisingly close!  I think I've been saying that every week for months.  She's 10 months now which is the same age J was when she started crawling.  Not that I'm comparing.  The way A's going I wouldn't be surprised if she skips crawling.  She's started trying to pull herself up so I wonder if she will just try and walk?  She's quite, shall we say, hefty so getting herself off the ground in any manner is no small feat.

My favourite bit of news today is that as you read this (or thereabouts) I'm having my first hair appointment in, what, it must be about a year.  I got the confirmation text yesterday and it took all my willpower not to reply with YA HUH when all they want is a calm "yes".  One of my friends in Perth who is a hairdresser (go see her, she's amazing, you will not regret it) gave me an amazing haircut not long before A was born, and - like a great haircut should - it's carried me through until now.

So it's a long overdue tidy up AND I've even booked in to get some foils.  An insignificant decision on the face of it but for me it also signifies that I'm starting to feel that I'm coming out of the baby woods somewhat, where I can entertain the idea of something more than the most basic self care and grooming.  I'm also getting my wild eyebrows attended to on the weekend which is another milestone for me on the way out of dazed baby land.  It's nice to be able to get back to that feeling of being a whole person aside from being a mother.  I was just hitting that stage after the birth of J when I fell pregnant with A and started the whole cycle again.

I've got another whole post rattling around in my head on that topic and if I can get my thoughts into coherent sentences you'll read it here first.

Ok, that's us caught up.  I may or may not report back on the success of the toilet training.  Think dry thoughts!