The Pear Diet

Over the past year or so I have really struggled with my Muddy Pixie's moods and behaviour. Some days she'll be as high as a kite, silly, uncontrollable. Then other days she will be as low as anything, clingy, whingey, crying, really difficult to get to separate. If it was one or the other I think I would probably cope better, but it's the unpredictability that's keeping me on my toes. Then there's her airy fairy concentration, as she's so busy watching everything else going on you can't get her to focus on a task.

We've seen an OT and got some good strategies, but while talking to the OT we started talking about food and behaviour and this has led us down the path of the 'Pear Diet' as we have so aptly called it. It's actually officially called the Elimination Diet but we have called it the Pear Diet, because it involves a lot of Pears. Pears are the only fruit you can eat on the 'Strict' Diet.

We are almost one week in and it is killing me, but the Muddy Kids are doing really well. Before we go anywhere they are under strict instructions to ask me before they eat anything offered to them by somebody else. We have the Recipe Book that goes with the Diet and we've been making things from that to take to morning teas and swimming lessons.

It has been really interesting reading and learning about the chemicals that occur naturally in food that can affect behaviour. I'm already noticing a difference, not so much in my Muddy Pixie, but in my Muddy Puzzler, her withdrawal symptoms have been more significant than the other Muddy Kids.

We still have a few weeks left, the food challenges and then the planning after that on adaptations to our regular diet. What I'm learning a lot about though is how to use pears in meals, who knew they made a good lamb kebab marinade!

Grateful in the heat

This last week has been a busy one, the first week of swimming lessons, Muddy Hubby away, the heat, the insane heat, a baby shower, followed by a kitchen tea, it's all served to make for a lovely time, but messy house, but really, I'm too hot to care.

So in this busy hot week I have been very grateful for airconditioning, it is only in a couple of rooms in the house, but it's still making it cooler than the 47.5 degrees it hit on our inside back verandah in the shade! I have never been so grateful for airconditioning since I was living in the Territory in the build up to the wet season.

I have been grateful for the plastic pool that has kept the kids cool each afternoon as they splash around and pretend it's big enough to do everything in that they've been doing at swimming lessons.

I am so very grateful for my Mum for coming to visit again (despite her house being burgled) to look after my Muddy Cherubs for a day so I could go to the Kitchen Tea.

I am grateful that for now Muddy Hubby hasn't had to fight any bush fires and (touch wood) that our properties are so far safe from fire. I know that call will come for Muddy Hubby to go and lend a hand, but for now he is safe.

Surprisingly this week I have been most grateful for the Rural Fire Services 'Fires Near Me App' and their Facebook Page which have kept us up to date with what's happening and whether or not we need to be on alert, I do wonder how they did it before social media!

Bushfire Currently Burning in the Nearby National Park

So an eclectic list of Gratefuls this week, as I make sure I take the time to join in for 52 Weeks of Grateful over at Village Voices, kindly hosted by Maxabella. It's a lovely spot to visit, please check it out, you'll be pleased you did.

Puppy Central

A few weeks before Christmas our working Kelpie had puppies. They are squirmy balls of delight that are keeping us entertained for hours each day. They are now drinking from a bowl and eating dog biscuits, as well as occasionally getting a feed from Mum.

 

We will keep one and will try to find homes for the others. Then begins the process of trying to train one into being a super sheepdog! Muddy Hubby has the book on how to do it, he just has to put it into practice, slowly building the dog's confidence and skill. A properly trained sheepdog will do an excellent job and save lots of yelling and running around the paddock after errant sheep.

 

I'm not sure how the Muddy Kids will fill in their days once we find homes for the rest of the puppies and they'll be a bit sad to say goodbye.

 

So many questions.....

When I was a teenager, say about 14-15 years old I was starting to become interested in boys, was busy listening to music, starting to get into musical theatre and hanging out at stage door and the furthest thing from my mind was how to make a quick buck.

This weekend my Mum and Dad's house was robbed, they smashed a window, damaged two doors, pulled everything out of the wardrobes and drawers. Pulled things off shelves and threw them on the ground. They also stole some items, nothing massive, but enough to be a nuisance and they caused enough damage and mess to make the clean up a big effort.

The thing that bothers me about it though is that the police think it was most likely amateurs, kids at that. Their theory on this is that the things they stole were small, portable and easily sold for cash, a quick buck. To quote 'if they were professionals, they would have cleaned out everything'.

So for my Mum and Dad's sake it's a good thing it was amateurs as it could have been a lot worse. I find it sad though that kids would break in to a house, make a massive mess and take what they could. What turns them to this? What makes them tick? Who raised them to have a values system where they feel they can do this? Are there older people guiding them, coaching them, fencing the things for them? Do they even think about who's house their invading and whose privacy they're violating by going through their things?

For me this robbery has raised lots of questions. Did teenagers back when I was one do this? Or has society changed and robbery is getting younger like most other things?

The hard thing though has been trying to explain it to the Muddy Kids, why someone would come into Nana and Grandpa's house and take things that are theirs. Why someone would throw their clothes around and make a mess. Two things that I try to instill in my kids are that they don't take or damage things that are someone else's and to clean up any mess they make! Obviously the young robbers were raised under a different parenting system to mine.

Have you had to explain robbery or property damage to your kids? How did you explain it?

Finding their Sea Legs

That week between Christmas and New Year is a great one, time seems to slip away and one day melds into the next so you're not quite sure what day it actually is. For the past few years we have spent that lovely week in Sydney visiting my parents, we invade their usually quiet house with noise and mess and chaos. To help try and let Nana have at least one hot cup of tea each day without being interrupted we try and take the kids out and about, explore Sydney, catch up with friends and exhaust the Muddy Tribe so they drop straight off to sleep at night.

 

One of their favourite activities is to go out on the harbour on Grandpa's boat, if the weather is right we'll throw them in for a swim (never ones to miss an opportunity when we're on the coast). Slowly, slowly they're finding their sea legs, learning how to balance as the boat moves and how to avoid feeling sea sick.

 

Their most exciting trips though are to watch the Family Fireworks on New Years Eve, we pack them up and head down to anchor off Clarks Point at Woolwich and try and keep them entertained until the fireworks start. It is a highlight in their calendar, and as soon as they're over they start asking when they'll be on again. 

 

 

 

 

 

Grateful for Generosity

Start as you plan to continue......I'm going to give it a go anyway with my first Grateful post for 2013. Things fell off the wagon for me linking in with Gratefuls, somehow, as often happens, life gets in the way. Sometimes something has to give and for me it was regular posts and regular grateful posts.

For a new year that is incredibly hot so far, I am very, very grateful for the kind and generous gifts my beautiful Muddy Kids received for Christmas, they have made the time we have to spend in airconditioning that much easier to bear. With the novelty factor of new gifts and the perfect choice of some gifts they are that much happier to be confined indoors for a few hours each day.

From Barbie and her million accessories, hairstyles and outfit changes to the Fluro Pink Zhu Zhu Pet we have been awash in imaginative play scenarios from weddings, to babies to coffee dates, they've done it all. One of my all time favourites - Mobilo!! This has literally kept the kids entertained for hours, as they build so many different things, and the best bit is the Muddy Girls build things for my Muddy Baby Boy to play with so everyone is happy!

The biggest hit though, thanks to my wonderful sister and brother-in-laws and nieces and nephews are the swags, the Muddy Kids just think they are the bees knees and they make camping in the airconditoned lounge room at night so exciting and that little bit more comfortable.

So this week for the start of the year I am so incredibly grateful for the generosity of family and friends keeping my Muddy Kids entertained, inspired and happy inside.

 

Linking up with Maxabella at Village Voices for 52 Weeks of Grateful! Come on over and check out some fabulous posts and link in if you can.

 

 

Time keeps moving on

I can't believe tomorrow marks the last day of the year. The past couple of weeks have passed in a blur of pre-Christmas parties, end of year school and preschool wrap ups, the chaotic packing for a Christmas Eve departure for a Christmas spent away, and of course Christmas thrown in for good measure.

 

Through all the chaos has been wonderful time with family and friends and lots of fun, excitement and laughter from all of us, before we get those tired eyes and the tears start. We have had a ball, but come New Years Day, I will be very pleased to pack my family in the car and head home from the big smoke to our little home in the country and enjoy the peace and quiet and routine that keeps us going.

 

I hope you and yours have had a fabulous friend and family filled Christmas time like we have and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year and may your 2013 be full of love, laughter and minimal drama.

 

 

 

Thanks Chrissy for the Fabulous Glasses, we 'll be wearing them to watch the Fireworks!