A while back I offered myself up on the rack for you all. I told you to ‘ask me anything‘ and you did!

Quite a few of you asked questions along the lines of ‘How do you find the time?‘ or ‘How did you fit in blogging with everything else you have to do?‘ So today I thought I might share what a typical day at the Pickle Farm is like… which might explain how I find the time, or fit everything in…. or not!

Before I launch into our yesterday, I should point out that there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ day around here. No two Fridays are ever the same, but this gives you a glimpse into the daily insanity that is my life…

7:26am
I am awake 4 minutes before I need to be. I never set an alarm because I always manage to wake up a few minutes before the thing would go off anyway. But I don’t have a snooze button, so as long as I don’t roll over and try and get in those last 4 minutes sleep (which would result in me waking up 20 minutes later) it’s all good.

I drag myself out of bed and stumble around in the murkiness looking for semi-clean clothes without waking Noah. Of course that doesn’t work… he wakes so I send him in to wake up his sisters.

8:30am
School mornings are bedlam in our house, but I have discovered that waking up earlier doesn’t help much, it just prolongs the chaos, so I have it down to a fine art. I can get myself and four kids up, dressed, fed, brushed, packed and in the car in an hour. Today however, there is no kinder and no where else we have to be, so the boys go to school drop off in their PJs.

9:05am
I love the mornings when we get to school right on 8:45 and are home again just as the bell rings at 9am. It doesn’t happen often, but it makes me feel like I have achieved something before the day even begins. Mind you, I still haven’t eaten breakfast or gotten the boys dressed.

I dress Noey and eat a huge bowl of cornflakes while Morgan gets dressed then I tackle the endless piles of washing.

It has been raining here for the entire week and even though it’s not that cold I light the fire so I can hang a load of washing on the racks above it and get it dry by the evening.

Morgan does some collage and Noey entertains himself by trying to pick up big pom poms with some tongs….

10:00am(ish)

The rain stops so we go outside to look for frogs. We can hear them but of course we can’t see any frogs, but do we see a Black Shouldered Kite (at least we think that is what it is) swoop down into the paddock and fly off with something in it’s talons which is rather exciting. It starts to rain again so we come in.

10:30am
I feed the boys a snack and sneak a few moments on my phone, checking twitter and my facebook page.
I can’t put off my most hated task any longer so I sit and fold washing while the boys play. Morgan helps me put some of it away, and collect another basket full to put in the machine.
I also empty the dishwasher (which is really the girls’ job), tidy up in the kitchen and clean the bathroom… it’s a laugh a minute round here folks.

11:30 am
The Father Figure comes in from where he’s been hiding, pretending to work on the new bathroom, and announces he has to go to the hardware shop. He takes Morgan with him.
I turn on the PC and check some emails, and see if I can get Noey to have an early sleep. He’s not interested so I muck around taking some silly photos of wooden fruit (#marchphotoaday) while Noey loads things in and out of his toy stove.

12:30pm
We have steamed dim sims for lunch, and I announce the fact on twitter (as you do) and am vindicated to see Glowless tell me they are a totally healthy lunch option. I try again to get Noey to go to sleep but it’s not happening, so I hold him down while his Dad puts a clean dressing on the finger he sliced the day before.

1:30pm
Morgan is out the back ‘helping’ with the plastering. Noey is pottering around beside me as I write a blog post, finish an article, search for a photo for the article and put the finishing touches on my new media kit. I am almost done when I realise it is 3:05 already.

I race around finding shoes for Noey while Morgan ums and ahs about whether he will come to school or not. Finally the fact that it has stopped raining and he is likely to see some kinder friends gets him in the car.

3:25pm
Of Course Noey falls asleep in the car on the way to school and I spend 5 minutes trying to renege on my deal with Morgan, but I feel bad so haul the sleeping toddler out of the car and stand with the other mums waiting for the bell to ring. It is worth it to see Morgan racing around with his friends…
Noey wakes as the school kids are dismissed from assembly and join us on the equipment, we stay and play and chat for a few minutes then head home.

4:00pm
Everyone is starving so they eat, change out of their school uniforms (but not without a fight) and cuddle the Guinea Pigs for a while.

They’ve barely been outside all week so we go out the back and I choose to ignore the fact that the big kids climb to the very top of a smallish tree. Noey gets wet in the HUGE puddles so I bring him inside and we enjoy some peace and quiet. I have no idea what the big kids are getting up to outside but heir father can see them so it’s not my problem. Noey potters around, happily playing, so I finish off my media kit and publish my blog post.

6:00pm
I loathe to drag the big kids inside, but ten minutes sleep in the car is not enough and I know Noey needs to eat dinner sooner rather than later. I run the bath and the big kids get in while I cook dinner.

6:30pm
We are having super slack easy dinner tonight. It’s Friday and The Father Figure has gone out to his weekly ‘play date’ and when they ask, I tell them they can eat their toasted sandwiches and salad in front of a movie… if… if they can all agree on one. Much negotiation, arguments and some bribery ensues and finally they settle on 4 episodes of the Muppets.

7:15pm
Noey only makes it half way through the second episode before he is falling asleep in his dinner so I take him off to bed.

8:00pm
Thankfully Noey falls asleep quickly and easily (for a change) so I catch the end of the Muppets and pack everyone else off to bed and clean up.

8:15pm
Morgan complains of a sore stomach. I give him a drink and he is out like a light.

8:30pm
I plan to have a shower but he girls are fighting over something rediculous so I step in and lay down the law… then I do it again five minutes later and again, until there is eventually peace. I still have time for a quick shower before my planned chat with a blogging friend.

9:00pm
I step out of the shower and hear someone crying. I assume it is Noey so get dried and dressed quickly and go in to re-settle him. But it is Morgan and he is howling like a wounded beast, complaining of a sore stomach.

I shift him to the couch in the hope he won’t wake up the whole house and offer water, ice blocks, DVDs, hot packs, even lollies but he cries solidly for over and hour, obviously in pain. For the fourth time this week I contemplate whether I need to make a trip to the hospital as I cancel my chat.

As a last resort I give him some panadol, put on some Play School and settle in to rub his back. He stops crying and eventually falls asleep.

11:30pm
I carry my sleeping boy back to his bed and cross everything that whatever was bothering him is gone for the night and I crawl into bed. I contemplate reading, or working on an overdue guest post, or even seeing if my chat buddy is still up… but all the crying has taken it out of me so instead, I do the practical thing, and choose sleep.

So there you have it, a not so typical day at the Pickle Farm. I’m not sure if it answers the question of ‘how I find the time’ because quite honestly I just don’t. I always have an overflowing to do list which matches my overflowing laundry baskets… but such is life!

What are your days like? Are they as crazy as mine?

You can still ask me a question if you like… either pop over to this post and leave your question in the comments, or email me. I’ll do my best to answer each question…. eventually!

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Q and A – A Day in My Life. is a post from: picklebums.com

Our girls are seven and a half and they LOVE money.

They are so incredibly motivated by the idea of getting money and spending money. They spend hours pouring over junk mail, discussing what they would spend their money on. They spend hours counting their cash and dreaming up ways to earn more. They argue over whether they should pool their money, if they could ever agree on what to buy. Zoe even lies awake at night worrying about what she will spend her money on.

Their current obsession with getting money so they can buy more stuff is driving me insane.

They already have a lot of ‘stuff’… you know… all those tiny fiddly little toys like Party Animals, Polly Pockets, Squeakies, Littlest Pet Shops, and their latest obsession, Sylvaian Families. I’m not really keen on them getting more ‘stuff’, they have more than enough ‘stuff’ already.

But I do want my kids to learn about money. To learn how to save up for things and the value of working hard to earn something you really want. I think all that is important, so I try not to roll my eyes too much when they drool over more bits of colourful plastic crap that the baby will no doubt choke on.

The problem we have, however, is that of balance.

I am happy to ‘pay’ my girls when they do extra chores or other ‘work’ around the house, but there are some things I expect them to do just because they need to look after their own things, and because they are part of our family and I expect them to contribute to the smooth running of our home.

I expect them to put away their own clean clothes. I expect them to clean their room (with help) once in a while. I expect them to help set the table and clear the table. I expect them to empty the dishwasher. I expect them to feed their guinea pigs. I don’t expect anything too monumental, or at least I don’t think I do!

These are things I simply expect them to do, but with their sudden urge to get more and more money I am now faced with a never ending chorus of “how much will you pay me?” Not to mention a look of abject horror and a cry of “what? you expect me to do it… for FREE??? That’s not fair!!”

Kill. Me. Now.

I have to hold myself back from beginning a long and yelly rant on how the world is not fair and I am doing you a favour by getting you used to it now girly… But once I’ve composed myself and swallowed my lecture I try a quick reminder of why we all pitch in to help around out house. This never goes down well.

I’m a big believer in encouraging ‘intrinsic motivation’ – the idea that they want to do something good or helpful or right because it makes them feel good, not because they are going to get a reward of some kind. This is where I think helping around the home falls… it is just something we do because it is the right thing, part of daily life. It used to be this way, but it seems once I paid them to do something I broke my own rule and gave away the chance of ever getting to just help for the goodness of helping ever again.

Help me.

How do un-break my rule?

Are all seven year olds very into money and buying things?

Do I stop paying them to do anything, even those ‘above and beyond’ jobs (they moved 50 bricks on the weekend at 20 cents a brick!)?

Do I start just giving them an amount of pocket money each week, regardless of what chores they do?

How do I instil in them the value of ‘being part of a family means helping look after your own stuff and helping with the running of the house’ and the value of working hard to earn the things you want?

How do you deal with chores and money in your house?

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Burning Question – Do You Pay Your Child for Chores? is a post from: picklebums.com

I have a little bit of birthday money to spend on myself. Not a lot, not enough for a lap top or a new car, but a little bit, to spend on me, just me. But the burning question is – what do I spend it on??

Something I need?
Something I’d get lots of use out of?
Something frivolous?
Shoes?
Clothes?
Books?
But what shoes? What clothes? What books?

It’s such a terrible ‘first world’ problem to have I know, annd I am such a tight ar… ahem… I mean I am thrifty, so I like to get good value for my money, but….

If you had a little bit of money to spend on yourself, what would you buy?

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Burning Question – What would you buy? is a post from: picklebums.com

Brenda from Mummy Time asked me a question….

“What’s the most *ahem* badass thing you’ve ever done in your life?”

Well now lets see…

I once wagged double biology and nicked off home to watch Days of Our Lives.

Um… er…. I accidentally ‘shop lifted’ two tiny pink baby shirts because I’d hung them on the pram handle and forgotten about them when I left K-mart.

Um… you see I am not really the ‘bad ass’ type.

I was pretty square in high school, and I was lucky enough to have pretty cool parents so I never really had anything to rebel against either. In my wild and footloose twenties, I couldn’t quite detach the responsible bit of me all together. So while I had my fair share of ‘drinking till I vomit down the stairs in my best friend’s house’ moments and the occasional ‘try this slightly illegal substance’ I was always the one who managed to magically make sure we had $50 for the taxi ride home and be sober enough to direct the driver safely there.

All of which makes me sound oh so boring…. so I’ve been quietly trawling the dark recesses of my brain trying to remember something really bad ass that I’ve ever done. And here is the best I could come up with…

I broke into a house once.

I was pretty little when I did this… though I can’t remember exactly how old, but I can’t have been much more than 7 or 8.

I was with my brother and some kids who lived in our street and we were going through a phase of likening ourselves to spies or secret agents or something. We were all convinced that a vacant house in our street was occupied by robbers, or hid secret clues or treasures. The house has been empty for a long long time, it was old and run down. We’d scoped out the outside of the house on several occasions coming up with more and more wild stories about it. On this particular occasion we were determined to get a look inside… which was when we discovered a small window was unlocked. Me, being small and the only girl, I was immediately volunteered to go in through the window and open the front door for the others. So, you know, not wanting to be kicked out of the gang, I did.

In through the window, run like buggery to open the front door…. only to find everyone else had gotten scared and run off and left me!!!

And even more disappointing…. the house didn’t have any secrets or treasures… so I shut the front door after myself and went home.

And that is possibly the most bad ass thing I have ever done.
Oh man I am so lame!

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Bad Ass Me? is a post from: picklebums.com

photo by kaibara87 via flickr.

Due to pregnancy induced tiredness I am going to bed a lot earlier these days, going to bed and watching TV, that is. I never used to watch much TV, I’d spend most of my evenings here in front of the computer screen. That was probably a good thing. If nothing else it saved me from ridiculous TV advertising.

The number of ads these days for anti-bacterial this and keep-your-children-safe that is driving me insane!

When did we all become such germaphobes?

My eyes just about roll out of my head as I listen to some well dressed, never a hair out of place, TV mother telling me that if I don’t wash my children’s hands with this hand sanitiser after they touch absolutely everything then I will be sent straight to Bad Mother Prison. That’s if they let me into Bad Mother Prison – they’d probably quarantine me in a bubble when they discover that I actually touch door handles in public places.

I must be covered in germs.
Nasty, insidious, evil, killer bacteria and germs.

My house is surely full of the little buggers since I don’t use anti-bacterial disposable wipes or spray the air with something that ‘deodorises and disinfects’. Don’t come to my house because you will surely die of all the diseases that are festering here.

Sure… I get that using anti-bacterial hand wash is possibly a good thing if you, or your children happen to be immuno-suppressed. I happily squirted that chilly gel on my hands before I entered the NICU to see my baby girls and before I went to visit my father-in-law after his heart transplant.

I’m also all for keeping a certain level of cleanliness, even more so if there is a little nasty running rampant through our house. I don’t let my children suck on the door handle of the public toilet or eat food off the floor in the food court. But what happened to common sense and a good amount of hot water and soap?

I’m not frightened of coming into contact with a few germs. I have plenty of them living quite happily in and on my body right now, doing me no harm whatsoever. I’m also not paranoid about coming into contact with a few everyday diseases. I take the regular precautions to avoid this, but my immune system works fine, and the odd bug here or there isn’t going to kill me, in fact, call me crazy, but it might actually do me some good.

All these ridiculous ’99.8% bacteria free’ products and their associated advertising are just feeding on people’s paranoia and fear to make money. These crazily perfect-looking mothers with their hand wipes and their subconscious little messages that ‘bacteria free’ = clean = good mother….. it really makes my blood boil (hey maybe that will kill all the germs living on me?)!

I guess I just need to turn off the TV and read a book!

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Germaphobic? is a post from: picklebums.com

What do you make for dinner when it is a hot day…. and I mean a really HOT day?

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Burning Question – What’s For Dinner? is a post from: picklebums.com

Our first harvest of broad beans with plenty more to come… but what do I do with them??

Child friendly, no nut, easy recipe suggestions anyone??

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Burning Question – What to do with Broad Beans? is a post from: picklebums.com

We sowed our first round of spring seeds a few weeks back. They are mostly flowers and herbs, and one or two veggies. The lupins began sprouting within a week, followed by the borage and dill, the parsley and, just recently the leeks.

There is still nothing from the cone flowers, the bergamont or the luffas and only one tiny sprout from the lemon balm. It was the same last year – I couldn’t get any of these seeds to grow.

So here’s my burning question…

Is there a trick to growing cone flowers, bergamont, lemon balm and luffa from seed???

Help me oh green thumbed gardener people!

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Burning Questions – Sowing Seeds is a post from: picklebums.com

I have three kids (in case you didn’t know!). Twin girls (who are almost six), and a two year old boy. The girls share a bedroom. The boy still sleeps with us, and because there isn’t any more bedrooms some of his things are in our room, and some in the girl’s room.

The girls are pretty good at sharing and including their brother most of the time, but sometimes they like to go to their room and shut the door. Leaving their little brother screaming, broken hearted, in the hallway. That’s been happening a lot lately.

So here’s the burning question…

Do you let your kids shut their siblings out of their rooms?

What if it is a shared space?

Are kids entitled to their own space? To say they don’t want to be around someone for a while?

How do we teach our kids to ‘not share their space’ with kindness and compassion? And how do you deal with the one who is locked out?

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Burning Questions – Sibling Space is a post from: picklebums.com