News from the trenches

Well, today we are celebrating 10 000 page views. My how time flies.

I don't know quite why I have not been blogging this year. This year has been strange--but is OK at the moment.

I don't think I have much to say anymore. I feel I have said it. I don't want to sound like a broken record. I've been reading some old posts on this blog and not a lot has changed really in terms of mentalness.

Everyone is good. The Surfer is number 2 in the state and off to national titles in December. I'm kind of thinking that maybe HM and I could tag along as pit crew. Maybe the little people can stay at the best grandparents in the universe's house for a few days. Hmm.

HM has a new career. OUT OF THE HOUSE. And onto the set of HOUSOS. Well not exactly, but let's just say he is now teaching at one of the more challenging high schools with gangs, weapons, drugs right out there in the open. Where cops are hiding in the bushes. Where deputies walk around with ear pieces alerting others of "incidents". Where kids are smoking in the toilets. OK that happens at all high schools I am sure, but at this one they are smoking crack. There is total lockdown during school hours, complete with barbed wire fence. Not to keep the kids in, but to keep others out.

Anyway, HM is actually loving the knife edge atmosphere that comes with this mid-life career change. And I am really happy for him. He even seems to be getting through to some of the more hectic kids in a Dead Poet's Society kind of way. If you can imagine that Dead Poets was set in a prison. With Samuel L Jackson in the Robin Williams role. And with no poetry lessons.  I believe the quote is:

And me, well I am still trying to live the freelance dream but it is just not really working for me. I hate the feast or famine existence. I hate the unrealistic turnaround times. I hate trying to work out how to budget the lump sums for the times of famine. But then again, I love the freedom of picking what jobs I want to do. I love the fact that I can drop and pick the kids up from school (bizarre I know!). And I can do yoga at home whenever I feel like it.

I even love doing the parent helper thing at school. AND I simply adore being able to go food shopping during the day sans kids. But dammit, I NEED to get dressed and get out of the house. I am going nuts.

Having said that, there is a distinct lack of suitable jobs that aren't full time... though I will keep searching.

I am sure the nuttiness is totally getting to me because, drumroll please, I'm thinking of taking up running. Yes, laugh if you will. But I've been inspired recently by this lovely lady and maybe I should consider it. Everyone I know who runs says the same thing. Stay tuned. In the meantime, this is what I look like at the moment for those I haven't seen in a while:

SO what's new with you people? ANYTHING AT ALL??

Jane Jane Jane x x x

In the endless sea

I'm lost in a sea of blogs. I really started blogging at the wrong time. I should have started it years ago but didn't because I knew I'd get lost in it and I didn't have the time. And as predicted, now that I have started it, I am getting very, very lost in it AND I DON'T HAVE THE TIME.

Au secours © Rene Maltete

I'm not getting lost in my own blog, mind. I can churn out a (some would say) way-too-long post with barely ten minutes on the clock. Then I shamelessly rip off pics from Google images carefully source and credit a few relevant images and voila, Bob's your aunty's live-in lover.

 

© gapingvoid.com 

NO, what is happening is that I am getting lost in everyone else's blog. Everyday I find a new one that piques my interest. Some I am completely addicted to and of course I have to read back on all the years I've missed! Some I like to check every now and then. Some I read and think "goodness me, this person is like my own voice talking". I have a twin. I have several twins. So much so it's scary.

In my travels on the interwebs I have noticed that MANY, MANY parental bloggers seemed to have the same motivations when it came to starting their blog as I did. They wanted to keep their sanity. It's definitely been some sort of therapy. When I look back to what I wrote at the beginning, I know I feel much better than those horrid days.


I love blogging for the creative release as well. I am a frustrated [read: self-taught] web designer and I like to tinker on the net. I love fiddling about with codes. I get a little buzz when I change something in java script. It's not my day job but I do have the patience for it. HM is often amazed at my patience for all things technological. He thinks I would choose my laptop over him if it came to it. He might even be right.

So have YOU got a favourite blog you like to haunt? Or have you got your own blog that I haven't yet discovered. Any kind of blog. IF either, please leave me a comment below with the link!

The social commentator/domestic non-goddess

You may have noticed (on my subtitle) that due to recent press I'm now moving away from the mummy blogger tag. While I have the utmost respect for those in that GENRE, I just think it's a little closed for me. Yes I am a mum and yes I am blogging but I am not providing instructions on how to get nits out of the kids' hair or what sort of cereal keeps the fuzzies away. There is nothing remotely parental about my blog and there is certainly no parenting advice. AND I'm not receiving free stuff of any kind to promote. But if you want to send me free stuff I'll quite possibly use it. I'm not making a living out of blogging and I'm not looking to. I just like to rant. It's either that or HM has to listen to it = not very happy HM.

I read somewhere, probably on that bastion of knowledge that is Mamamia, that women who blog (even those sans kids) are called mummy bloggers and men who blog are called social commentators.

 

Now what would Carol say?

And also, since my last post, I've been thinking A LOT about this blog and how useful it has been so far and I now think it may have served its original purpose as I feel pretty good. SO I'm thinking it's not going to be ranting on about depression and stuff any more. I'm just going to tell it like it is ...

This is a spade.

Today is sunny. There have been moments of cloudiness but on the whole it is a most pleasant day. Too good for sitting inside trying to work. The whole family is at the beach--watching The Surfer in a comp--and I really should have vacuumed the house by now and whipped up a cake for the random afternoon drop-ins.

Today I have a not-so-random calling in (she who is the maker of very delicious food). One who doesn't have children and thus, does not EVER have a messy house. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my girlfriends who have no kids--they are the ones I can usually have a great conversation with. It's simply that I always feel just that bit more compelled to clean the house when these kinds of friends visit even though I know none of them care at all about the state of the house. AND tomorrow I have even more of these kinds coming. These girls (also makers of delicious food) are even threatening to BRING THEIR OWN lunch, despite having been catered for here on several occasions. I love how they think that I cannot possibly organise a meal for them despite the fact that I will already be making a meal for at least five people anyway.  What is two more? Plus I LOVE cooking.  I find it very therapeutic. I would rather cook than clean these days. I always like to make a hot lunch on the weekends. Yes, sometimes this involves toasted ham and cheese sandwiches but more often than not it will be a frittata or a quiche or something with cream, butter and pastry. YUM.

I ALWAYS look like this in the kitchen.

I better get started. x

One month birthday - Party time.

Ok, just the shortest of posts as one has 500 million hours of (paid) work backlogged.

It's been one month since I started this blog. Thanks to everyone who has shared their insights or commented on anything. I can't tell you how much better it makes me feel. I also have to say that I am hoping to keep Insane Jane advertising free and product free. It is not a source of income for me--it is a form of therapy. Although, I have to admit I was almost swayed when a certain mining magnate emailed me yesterday. The dear thing wanted to give me a $billion if I wrote something nice about her parenting skills.

 

Mother of the Year 2012

And just while we're on that topic, has anyone else been hearing all the debate about the "rise of the mommy bloggers"? Gosh, that phrase makes me laugh. I have this vision of a group of transformer-type metallic women with a couple of kids strapped on their backs and in-built laptops at the front, furiously typing about the merits of cloth nappies vs disposables as they rise from some murky underground nursery-cave. A bit like those tripod things in War of the Worlds. {Cue music from Psycho shower scene}.

Tom Cruise: OH MY GOD, it's the mommy bloggers!

They've been buried here all this time.

Writer's block

I have writer's block. I can't think of anything at all to write about without whinging and I am personally sick of reading whingy stuff on Facebook and literally everywhere. I've reread some of my earlier posts. I am such a whinger.

Watched Packed to the Rafters last night and aside from last week's episode, I haven't tuned in much this year. I was mildly horrified to see that Julie Rafter is now blogging. Vintage Mum I think she calls herself. And--quel horreur!--there's a Daddo in the cast. Oh the mainstream-ness of it all. And why do the Rafters have to be so clichéd? Dave Rafter will be tweeting about the next episode of Q and A at this pace.

[daverafter: @QandA: Loving Tony Jones' tie tonight. #paisley #slick]

Anyway, I digress. I really can't think of much to say. I've got too much work on and still suffering from SAD. A black crow keeps wandering down our path. I don't like this omen.

The alleged storm of the century last night caused a large tree branch to fall down in the back yard. The kidlets were most fascinated in the lead up to the storm and were hoping there would be some ugliness the next day. "When is it going to get ugly?" asked Barnstormer last night. Hammerhead wanted candles on. At that stage the power wasn't even out. It was as exciting as a trip to the zoo for them.

This was all of us in our bedroom this morning though:

That's me on the left with morning hair.

Thank god for gas stoves and hot water systems during a power blackout. It was nice to be able to have my hot cup of caffeine-free cereal beverage coffee replacement (?) and a shower, even if it was in the dark. HM made me a latte yesterday. It was delish and I savoured every drop. But I don't need them every day.

Ok, on with today's work. As I had anticipated, the publishing company I am dealing with IS way behind schedule (surprise!) so the pressure is somewhat relieved on the current workload. Although, completed projects mean money so it's still on with the show.

Procrastinating with the work stuff even further, I googled Insane Jane just to see what came up and was flabbergasted when I stumbled upon this: AN ENTRY IN THE URBAN DICTIONARY
And all this time I thought it was just a random rhyming adjective. No wonder I am whingy.

I wish I could hibernate during winter. Dear blog, I promise not to post again until I can think of something positive to write about.