The Weather Forecast

It's raining again and this is the weather forecast for the next week. Pay close attention to the start of next week and the amount of rain expected.

This is what we ended up with last year after lots of rain on some of our wheat. They don't pay much for this sort of wheat.



Elders Weather is Muddy Hubby's favourite website, so much so, that it is the home screen for our Internet browser. He checks the weather whenever he can, or asks me what the weather's doing if I've been on the Internet. I'm not too keen to look at the moment as it keeps telling me it's either raining or going to rain. And all I have going through my head is the children's song:

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Another Day!

A big first.

Today was a very big day for our Muddy Family, our eldest little girl went to big school for her Kindergarten Orientation! As of next year she will no longer be my Muddy Preschooler, but my Muddy Kindergartener (not sure that is a word, but sounds good to me!). It's such a massive thing when your child starts school, especially when it's uncharted territory because she will be the first of our Four Muddy Kids to start her school journey. I know that it's ONLY orientation, but it's still a prelude for what's to come on 30th January (we've been sent all the info).

The day didn't get off to such a great start, I slept in, got out the invitation to orientation and realised I had forgotten to RSVP to let them know we'd be coming (a frantic phonecall to the school assured me that they had a name tag ready for her)! Then Muddy Girl 2 bit Muddy Preschooler on the arm (a little bit of jealousy going on at the moment). I also had to do a Harvest drop off to my Muddy Mum-in-laws before we could head into town. I was VERY worried about how we were going to go as she asked questions non stop all the way to town 'where will you be, who's going to be there?, what will you be doing in the hall?, what will my teacher tell me?, what will I learn?'. Muddy Preschooler also announced that she wasn't going to drink anything because she didn't know where the toilets were! I answered these questions as patiently as I could and we managed to arrive on time, and I reassured her they would show her where the toilets were!

I must say I have never been so grateful to have her already catching the bus, as she walked in and before I knew it, she had several Year 5 and 6 girls saying hello and taking her down to play in the playground before she had to line up and go into class! Off went my Muddy Almost Kindergartener as happy as could be, while I was tearing up at how well she was doing and how overwhelmed I was feeling! It couldn't have been a better start to her school life. I think though, that I'll probably need a full box of tissues for her very first full day in January!

They each got an Orientation bag with their name on it, a workbook of activities they did and a spider they made.



Our Muddy Preschooler explaining her workbook to Muddy Girl 2



She loves this workbook, sat down tonight and kept practicing her writing and colouring! It's going to be a long few months until January.

I love the space

As a mum to 4 Muddy Kids I do sometimes feel like I'm pushed to the limit. Some days are brilliant, some days run very smoothly, with only a few little hiccups (a day with no hiccups is an improbability), and other days not only do I feel like I'm chasing my tail, but feel like, if one more thing goes wrong I just might cross over into insanity. It's these days that I love the space. I love the fact that we have several thousand acres on which to entertain the Muddy Kids. I love that I have the space to have a fantastically big house yard, and an orchard (thank you to the Muddy in-laws for establishing when they lived here) in which the girls can explore.

Friday was one of those insane days, it started out pretty OK with my fabulous Card Party and once it was over things went pear shaped pretty quickly, I had 2 very tired Muddy Girls, one overtired Muddy Bubby and one Muddy Preschooler to pick up who would also be tired. Things just seemed to steam roll until Muddy Girl 3 covered herself and MY bedroom in PERMANENT Red Marker, right before we had to race out the door to meet the bus. In case you wanted to know Eucalyptus oil and Hairspray work wonders at removing permanent marker on a wide range of surfaces, including the doona cover and Muddy Girls.

I won't bore you with all the little things that made my day a shocker, but by the end of it we all went to bed exhausted and I resolved to have a fresh start in the morning. It's the space that helped, we spent a lovely morning outside, exploring in the orchard, playing on the swings, running around outside. After rest time we got out the paddling pool and had more fun with the space, with no neighbours to annoy and no limit to the fun that could be had.

Don't get me wrong, I think the city is fabulous and I love it ('spoken like a city slicker' as Muddy Hubby would say), it's just for me as a Muddy Farmwife and mum of 4 Muddy Kids, for me the space is my saving grace, the one thing that turns my world from insane to delightful.

Muddy Preschooler exploring the Fig Tree

Muddy Girl 3 exploring the garden

Muddy Girl 3 ALWAYS loves a good Hat

The Red Permanent Marker on some chubby legs

The Laundry Run

I have said before how lucky I feel I am to live where I live (at least when the weather's doing what Muddy Hubby wants it to do). Today was another fantastic reminder of how lucky we are. Muddy Hubby and the crew have been stripping our wheat up North since Friday, so today it was time to do a run up, take some more meals up and bring home 4 men's dirty washing, so they can have some clean clothes sent back up in a day or so. Before Muddy Bubby was born we used to pile the Muddy kids into the trusty dual cab and off we'd go, now it's my trusty Kluger (which I absolutely adore) which has already proven itself able to cross paddocks when needed! So I packed up all 4 Muddy Kids, made a couple of batches of muffins, made a couple of phonecalls to see if there were any extra special requests for me to bring up, and away we went.

The boys camp in swags in a variety of caravans, trucks and old bed frames, the toilet is a long drop, with an old toilet sitting on top (very flash compared to what it used to be) and the shower is a bit of poly pipe hung in a tree with a shower head screwed on the end, very classy and so not my cup of tea, but more than functional for Muddy Hubby and the crew (my Dad included, Pitt St Farmer that he is).

We arrived just in time to have morning smoko with Muddy Hubby, while he waited for his turn to load his road train full of wheat to cart into the silos. The Muddy Kids had a great time checking out the caravan and finding out who was sleeping where, trying out the beds etc etc.

They got to ride in the road train up to where they were loading wheat, then Muddy Girl 1, Muddy Bubby and I jumped in the tractor with the chaser bin and collected a couple of loads of wheat from the header. Our day was captured in pictures by Muddy Girl 1 who commandeered the camera and took some not bad photos that sum up our day.

At the end of the day I've come home with 4 very tired, but very happy Muddy Kids and 4 Dusty (not Muddy) bags of washing, and the reminder that we are lucky to be living the life we live.

Muddy Girls 2 and 3 checking out the water set up

Bottle time for Muddy Bubby and rest time for Muddy Brother-in-law

Muddy Hubby in the road train

Muddy Bubby's first ride in the tractor (I love my Baby Bjorn)

The overloaded Header unloading wheat into the Chaser Bin

Waiting for the Header in the tractor with Grandpa



My second love......Stationary

Oh how I LOVE a good bit of Stationary! I go all weak at the knees every time I get a catalogue for Officeworks or look through our Office Stationary Catalogue. I especially LOVE cards, wrapping paper, note paper. These are things I think you can never have enough of, as they are a fabulous way of sending thank yous, letting people know you're thinking of them and of course to mark special occasions. I have found the most lovely range of cards, gift wrap and note cards from Phoenix Trading and we are lucky enough (one of the few times we are out here) to have a consultant working out here.

Now I am not really a partyplan kind of person, I'd rather just invite my friends around for a good catch up rather than invite them over to have a salesperson try and push their product onto them. In saying that though Phoenix (or at least our consultant out here) is the total opposite, she simply sets up, has a chat while we have a cuppa and then you can just browse and pick out things you like and anything she doesn't have she orders in and it arrives within a week! EASY! So, I was brave and hosted a Card Party. Muddy Hubby thought it was hilarious, kept cracking jokes about 'Do you even know how to play 500' or 'Have you brushed up on your gin rummy rules'. Then he got jealous when he saw the morning tea spread I put on!

Some of the lovely cards I purchased to stock up my supply

Some Funky Notecards and Christmas Cards

I now think I have enough cards and notecards to last through next year (and possibly beyond, but don't tell Muddy Hubby). I am also feeling braver about the party plan thing, they're still not my favourite thing, but with the right person, can make for a lovely morning!

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

OK, so I'll fess up right now, I'm a swearer, as hard as I try not to be for some situations I do still swear. For example I trip over the coffee table and fall flat, for me it's an automatic swear word. Muddy Hubby and I do however try very very hard not to swear in front of the Muddy Kids. So it came as a very big shock the other day when Muddy Girl 1 came out, not only with a great big swear word beginning with F, but accompanied it by calling her sister a very not nice name which I will not repeat, needless to say it is not a name she has ever heard uttered in this household. So......my question is what do you do? How do you deal with something like this. I was prepared to cope with a swear word, but not the awful name.

I decided to deal with each part separately, mainly because I figure the swear word issue will come up again  and again down the track and I want to be consistent, but the awful name I never want to hear uttered past her lips again. My gut feeling (and I'm pretty sure it's right) is that she has absolutely no idea what the awful name means, she merely associates it with name calling such as 'Sooky Baby' which she is often calling her Muddy Sisters, and which we are forever reminding her not to call them names.

Muddy Girls 1 and 2 when they're happy to play together

So we sat down on the bed and we talked about how we don't call people names and that we especially don't call people by this name and that she is NEVER EVER to say it again (yes it is that bad). Then I went the very hard line on the F word, yes she doesn't know what it means, but if she says it again it means that her mouth will have to be washed out with soap, yes I know I'm a mean Mum. I'm really hoping I never have to do it, but given I made the commitment I'm going to have some soap ready, as I've learnt follow through and consistency is the most important part of discipline. It was automatic instinct to warn her about washing her mouth out with soap. I'm kind of wishing I hadn't said it, but it's out there now so we'll see what happens.

For the life of me I could not get out of her where she heard it, I pushed and probed and gently questioned and reassured. EVENTUALLY she admitted she heard it at Daycare, which I had kind of suspected, she tells me no-one said it to her, but that she heard someone say it to somebody else, but Muddy Girl 1 would not cough up a name. Now I know it's my issue to deal with and I expected that at some point I would have to deal with it, but I still felt I needed to make the Daycare Director aware of what she'd said, mainly so the teachers keep their ears open in case it happens again. The Director was very understanding, was quick to reassure me she'd be onto it if she heard it etc etc.

The real thing that scares me though is that the other child that has said this awful name, accompanied with a swear word, has obviously either had this said to them or heard their siblings or parents say this, and that is very very sad, that there are people saying such awful things in the presence of children or to children. I can do whatever I can to try and raise my children as I feel is best and to the best of Muddy Hubby's and my abilities, but what about kids that don't have the same love and nurturing, who looks out for them?

Almost Dejavu

Today it rained AGAIN! Another 10mm, still nowhere near as bad as last year but enough to again put everyone on edge, people are trying their headers on wheat here, there and everywhere in an effort to try and get some crop stripped before any more rain, and yes they are predicting more. It's whispered in very hush hush tones, almost as if you say it in a normal voice it will make it real.

Last year was a very hard year, we didn't park the Header up in the shed until February and it's normally all cleaned out and parked up before Christmas. Sometimes right up til Christmas but never through Christmas. Last year Muddy Hubby and the boys went to work stripping wheat on Christmas Day, needless to say it wasn't the happiest Christmas we've had, but at least we were together as a family.

The rain just didn't seem to want to stop coming last year, our road was covered in water, enough so that Muddy Hubby could surf down the table drain to the front gate being pulled by the ute. The girls could be pulled along in their washing basket boat almost to the mailbox. You almost needed a boat to get out to the highway, as the water was part way up the doors on the ute. The most depressing part was watching the wheat crops go under water. The Castlereagh River is a dry river, it flows underground and only flows above ground when there is lots of rain, last year it ran for a few weeks. Then there's the wheat that shoots in the heads of wheat, pretty impressive looking, but not really worth much!

Muddy Girl 2 in her washing basket boat

Muddy Hubby pulling the girl's boat through the paddock

Castlereagh River flowing through our Wheat Crop

A very memorable year was last year, but as the thunderstorm rolled in tonight I was starting to feel that icky feeling of what if that rain doesn't stop. Then I really need to slap myself on the wrist because a couple of years ago we were the opposite, in drought and praying for rain. We really do just have to suck it up and make the most of a bad situation, because like life farming is swings and roundabouts. I just never thought my life would be so dependant on the weather!