Eco warrior

I’ve always liked gardening.  Maybe it’s because we didn’t have much money when I was little.  Fancy toys were out of the question, but outside of our mobile home/trailer, we had a large yard and  a horse pasture, so when it wasn’t pouring down rain, I spent most of my time outside.  Even though I refused to eat vegetables when I was little because I was the most annoying, fussiest eater on the planet, watching them grow was amazing.  Once I spent an entire day pulling all the long grass out of the ground in front of the barn and then planted flower seeds.  I was only about 7 or 8 at the time, and it was the very first garden that was all my own.

Down the road there was a big wooden windmill next to a house.  Even though I knew nothing about sustainability or eco-friendly practices back then, I always thought it was really neat that  the family living there used wind to get electricity.

Fast forward many years,  go half way around the world, and now I’m very passionate about sustainability and being eco-friendly.  I am doing a degree in sustainable agriculture and food security, after all.  But it didn’t happen all at once.  I’m not even sure when it started happening.  Maybe when I lived on my own for the very first time at the age of 19 or 20.  I rented the 2 bedroom granny flat across the street from where Aaron and Jess lived with their Mum and Grandma.  The lovely family I rented from said I could do whatever I wanted with the little garden next to the house.  I planted tomato plants that ended up being taller than me, lemongrass, cucumber, and I can’t remember what else.

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I started cleaning the little house with vinegar, baking soda, and eucalyptus oil.  Not because I knew it was eco-friendly, but because I lived on my own, only made $400 a week, and was saving for my wedding and honeymoon.  Cleaning with such things was way cheaper than using nose curling store bought sprays, but they work just as well.  I still clean that way, but now I do it for the environment and my family’s health.

Now that we have our own house, I would love to plant every square inch of the front lawn (if you can call it that, it’s more like the front bindii infestation) with vegetables, fruit, herbs, and all things edible, but Aaron is not so down with the edible landscaping movement.  Instead, I have an edible garden around the perimeter of the back yard (leaving enough room for the kids to play), which, at the moment, is growing peas, beans, grapefruit, purple broccoli, cauliflower, four kinds of lettuce, two kinds of spinach, kale, asian greens, spring onions, basil, perennial basil, sage, thyme, blue borage, nasturtium, and marigolds. I’ve also started to infiltrate some edibles amongst the decorative plants in the garden under our front window, including a dwarf red banana plant, a red chilli plant, chocolate mint, peanuts, strawberries, chives, oregano, coriander, native finger lime (in a pot), rosemary, and a macadamia tree (in a pot).  It’s amazing how many things you can plant in a small space.

Growing some of your own food not only teaches your kids about where food comes from (some kids these days don’t realise that milk comes from cows!), but it also saves money (which is a huge plus if you’re a cash strapped parent.  Kids are expensive…), and encourages kids to eat more healthily.  Hannah and Daniel love eating veggies from the garden.  Before we started growing our own, Hannah wouldn’t touch veggies.  Plus, if you grow your own, you know exactly what they’ve been fertilised with, and what hasn’t been sprayed on them. You know your food won’t be laced with synthetic, bad for the environment, eco unfriendly herbicides, pesticides, and fertilisers, or genetically modified material.

Instead,  I have a worm farm. The kids love looking at the wiggly worms, and they eat all my veggie scraps.  Then I use their castings and diluted pee (worm “tea” if you want to be polite about it) to fertilise the garden.

I also have a bokashi bucket, which is an anaerobic digester that can take any kind of food, even stuff like chicken carcasses, and all the other food that the worms can’t have, and the compost heap won’t like.  My local council is very into sustainability as well and has a special bin for food scraps and yard waste.  When my bokashi bucket is full, I can put all the scraps in my green bin and they will be taken away to be made into compost in a giant anaerobic digester.

One of the best things the eco and budget conscious Australians can do is take advantage of the sun and get solar panels and/or a solar hot water system.  The sun shines a lot down under (according to the world wide web, Sydney has around 236 days of sun or partial sun per year, way more than my hometown, near Seattle, which gets around 201 cloudy days per year), so we live in the perfect place to harness it’s green, non-polluting power that has the added benefit of slashing electricity bills.  Yes, there is the initial outlay, but the panels will pay for themselves after a while. How many panels do you need? How much does it cost? How does it work?  Australian solar quotes can answer all these questions and more.

One day we also want to install a rainwater tank.  Fresh water is a precious resource, especially as the population increases and ground water can be contaminated with herbicides, pesticides, agricultural runoff, landfills leaching toxic chemicals into aquifers, etc.

Maybe my sustainable/eco friendly ways started because I’m cheap, but it’s so much more than that now. For the sake of our kids and our kids’ kids, we all need to at least start thinking about sustainability and being eco-friendly so that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch doesn’t keep increasing in size.  So that our fresh water supplies stop getting contaminated.  So that we lower our greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming.

*This post was in partnership with Australian Solar Quotes.

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call to the police

“Do you guys want to go to the park?” I ask the kids.  Despite being nearly winter, it’s shorts and t-shirt weather outside.  The sun is shining, the sky is blue, it’s a beautiful day.

“Let’s go on the country track!!”  Daniel says excitedly.   That’s code for the dusty little dirt trail that connects to a couple of bridges.

As we get closer and closer to the stepping stones water crossing, the sound of dirt bikes rings louder in our ears. “Mommy, I’m scared.”  Hannah says every time one goes ‘BBBRRRRRMMM.’  Her voice waivers and she hides behind my legs, grabbing my pants with both hands.  I should be able to take my kids to the local park without them being frightened of being run over.  Motorised vehicles are not allowed at the park.  Yes, there are trails and fields and plenty of space there, but that space is not for dirt bikes, it’s for kids running around, dog walkers, parents, bush walkers, pram pushers, people playing sports, the elderly, people in wheelchairs.  It is for all people, but not motor vehicles, which is clearly stipulated on signs around the perimeter of the park.

I can’t tell exactly where the bikes are until we pass the stepping stones and get to the field.  I hold Hannah and Daniel’s hands tightly as a man on a dirt bike tears by.  Usually I let them run off ahead, giggling through the field en route to the playground.  Near the trees on the other side of the field is a large group of men, teen, and tween boys, a 3-wheeler atv and the dirt bike that is being shared around.

As we walk towards the playground, the bike is speeding on the sidewalk, tearing past the playground, and doing circles in the field.  Kids may look like they are walking nicely next to their parents, but in seconds, they can be 20 feet away, running and giggling.  Can a dirt bike rider really predict that, especially one who is going really fast and is clearly too young to be licensed?  There is a reason dirt bikes are not allowed at the park.  What if a kid on the playground suddenly decides to chase a bird and runs out of the playground area? Can a dirt bike rider tearing by 10 feet away from the playground swerve or stop in time?

The other week we walked to the park and a police car pulled up when we were in the parking lot. I had just seen a dirt bike, so I pointed towards the field.  The cop ignored me.  He did a lap of the parking lot, whilst I flapped my arms and pointed to the field, but the cop didn’t stop to ask me anything, he just pulled back out again, making no effort to actually catch the person or people responsible for endangering children’s lives by tearing around in the park on dirt bikes.

The playground at the park. Behind is the field.

I put Daniel in the swing and call the local police station.  “Hi, I’d like to report a dirt bike at ____________,” I tell them, as I stand about 5 feet away from another mum.

“Yeah, we’ve had a lot of complaints about that.” She tells me.

“Are the police going to come?” Hannah asks me when I hand up after the brief conversation.

“I don’t know sweetie, they said they’ve had a lot of calls about it, so hopefully they will, it’s very dangerous to ride dirt bikes around a playground.”

30 seconds later, the bike speeds past the playground and ducks into the country track. The same track we were just meandering down, often stopping while the kids bent over to agitate the dirt with sticks to make “smoke.” The small dirt track that a speeding dirt bike would have trouble stopping really fast on if a kid was there.  The track where swerving is not an option due to large logs lining both sides of the path.  The short dirt path with trees all around where it would be too late to react by the time anyone realised those echoing BRRRRMMMs were actually coming from the same path they are on.

Inside, I was freaking out.  What if he had turned down that path when we were on it?

“Let’s go feed the ducks.” I tell the kids to distract myself from such thoughts.  A group of ducks is foraging on the cricket field next to the playground.

The mob of dirt bikers is staring at us as we feed the ducks.  I watch them in my peripheral vision as they push the 3-wheeler into the bushes, as if they somehow know I’ve called the police.

That’s silly, I’m just being paranoid, how could they know? 

The sound of the dirt bike is gone.  He has clearly gone down the country path to make a quick and hasty get away.

Maybe they saw a police car.

We run out of bread and go back to the playground.  Next to the woman who was near me when I made the police car is a tween in a motor bike helmet.

The rest of the group are walking up, pushing the 3-wheeler.

“Let’s get this in the back of the truck.” One of the men says to the woman.  There are about 10 of them all together.  All rough, hard looking men and boys with mullets and rat tails. All giving me the death stare.  Maybe they are actually really nice guys, but maybe they are planning to punch my lights out.  I don’t really want to find out.

I act as if I’m too stupid to put two and two together, like I don’t realise I know that they know that I called the police.  I pretend I’m so engrossed with pushing Hannah and Daniel on the swings that I don’t even notice they are there.

I look at my watch, long and obviously.  “Ok kids, time to go home and cook some dinner.”

“Please, just a little bit longer?” They beg.

I force my voice to come out as strong and unintimidated “No, it’s almost dinner time, we have to go home now.”

They hop off the swings and follow me towards the field, not our usual way home, but if we go through the parking lot, the men could watch us and see which house we go into.

The ducks are still waddling across the field, and I’m still freaking out a little inside, so even though I wouldn’t normally suggest such a thing (about ducks, not about pigeons or something), I feign excitement and say “WHO WANTS TO CHASE SOME DUCKS!!!???”

“I DO!!!” The kids say in unison and we take off running, quickly putting distance between us and the scary looking mob who knows I called the police on them.

When we get to the bottom of our street, a police car pulls into the parking lot down a hill and to the left of us.  If we go down there talk to him, the men will see us, but if we don’t, they might get away. Maybe they are still putting the 3-wheeler in the truck.  Maybe they will be caught red handed.

One thing is for sure though: I don’t want them to see us.  They don’t know we are at the top of the hill and I don’t want want them to.  Instead of turning towards the police car, we turn towards home, towards safety and anonymity.

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The P and O cruise

“How many more days?”  Hannah asked me every morning for weeks.  She and Daniel were so excited for our cruise with Aunty Jess, as was I.  It was our last hurrah before everything change, before she has a baby.  That’s not for another 20 weeks, but cruises have surprisingly early pregnancy cut off dates.

I have been potty training Daniel vigilantly for a couple of months, but it was all in vain.  He wasn’t allowed at the kids club.  Not because he wasn’t potty trained.  Contrary to what P&O’s website says, kids who aren’t potty trained can go in the kids club.  Their parents just have to respond to the pager given out by the kids club asap to change a soiled nappy if needed.

He wasn’t allowed in the kids club because they don’t take kids who are a day under 3.  I thought that when Jess said if he’s potty trained and speaking well, maybe they’d take him, that she had actually spoken to P&O, and that’s what they said, but it was just her wishful thinking.

We didn’t think it would matter so much though because of the group child minding service. Sure we’d have to pay $5 an hour, but it would be totally worth it, we could be kid free for a couple hours, relax, hang out, see a show.  Except the group child minding service turned out to be only for kids 3 and up and only after 10:30pm.

Kids under 3 are allowed to play in the kids club if an adult they came with is supervising them. That seemed fair.  We could all go there, the kids could play, Jess and I could sit in a corner and hang out.  Jess, Hannah and Daniel and I all went in and the kids excitedly started playing, happy that they could be in the kids club AND that we were there with them. Jess and I sat near Daniel, but in the corner out of the way.

“Sorry, only one of you can stay here with him.”  A kids club employee told us.

“What if one stays with him and one is here for her?” We asked her, pointing to Hannah.

“No, she is over three and enrolled in the kids club, so she can’t have an adult with her.”

There was absolutely nothing, apart from playing on the stairs, in the lift, and in our room, for kids under 3 to do.  Everything for kids was at the kids clubs (different clubs for different ages).  We thought the pools would be something fun for all of us to do together, but as soon as we got in, we got straight back out again because it was so cold.  Why would you not heat a pool on a cruise ship?  So for the kids to have something to do, The Jess and I couldn’t hang out together.

The window in our room. There was a side ledge under the window where the kids liked to play. They could close the curtains and it was like having their own fort right inside our room.

The kids club itself was rather disappointing too.   For Hannah’s age, there was one main room with a little room inside the main room.  In the main room were a couple of craft tables, a TV with Wii games, a heap of duplo, and a few toy car ramps.  There are scheduled activities every half an hour, such as dancing, duplo building, craft, etc, which is great, except all kids in there have to participate.  We’re talking about 3-6 year olds.  Sometimes 3 year olds don’t want to do group dancing, they want to play duplo, or watch their toy cars go down ramps.  I witnessed lots of whingy, unhappy kids when they were told they couldn’t play with the other toys during activity time.

Straight from P&O’s website

On the other hand, when it was free play time, I saw lots of kids fighting over toys, snatching from each other, pushing, etc., but the kids club employees weren’t really paying attention and didn’t do anything about it.

Daniel playing in Duplo corner.

The other little room inside the big room contained some Playstation consoles, a few books (some with all of their pages missing.  Daniel found a Thomas book, opened it up, and was very upset to find no pages inside for him to look at), and play kitchen stuff.  Most of the time though, that room is shut.  Only during scheduled Playstation time are they allowed in there.  Unless the child is under 3 and with an adult, then we have to go in there when the other kids are doing group stuff because under 3’s are not allowed to participate in group things no matter how much they want to, and we’re told to go in the other room.

I didn’t actually see a kid who knew how to use the Playstations.  Most of them picked up the controllers, mashed a bit, and then lost interest.  We are talking about 3-6’s.  Since when do 3-6’s play Playstation?  According to P&O’s website, there are iPad activities, which would have been more age appropriate, but there were no iPads to be found.

 

The playstation and play kitchen room in Turtle Cove (the 3-6 year old kids club)

There was also a little outdoor area for the kids clubs (with gates to prevent escape), but they would be taken outside for a group activity like mini olympics, and then quickly herded back inside.  They didn’t really do any free play outside even though there were heaps of tricycles, a couple of cubby houses, and a giant connect four game.

Daniel on one of the trikes in the outdoor area of the kids club.

For the mini olympics, girls were on one team, boys on the other, and they had to get in a sack, hop around some cones, hula hoop 3 times, then hop back.  They loved doing it, but there were about 10 girls and 10 boys, or more, so after their turn, the little ones quickly lost interest and wanted to ride around on the bikes.

They weren’t allowed.  They all got herded back over to watch the olympics instead.  Except Daniel,  he was with me, so we continued playing on the bikes.  He wasn’t supposed to be participating after all, but I waited in line with him and made sure he got a turn, then helped him through the course.  There was another family outside with a kid under 3 playing on a bike too.  Hannah came over to play with us, but she was told to back to the other side, as “she is in the kids club, so she has to stay with the kids club kids.”

I quickly signed her out, and she played bikes with Daniel and me.

One afternoon, the kids club had a “family remote control car race.”

“Since this is a family event, does that mean both Jess and I can come with the kids?” I asked them.

“Yes, you can all come, but you have to sign up.  If at least 2 kids are signed up, the event will take place. If not, it will be cancelled.”

“That’s fine, I have 2 kids right here.”

I signed one of us up with Hannah and the other up with Daniel.  It did say family.  Maybe it was only supposed to be for kids club kids, but whatever.  Apart from a sideways glance, they didn’t say anything.  No one else signed up.

We arrived right on time, but everyone was group dancing.

“No one showed up, so we cancelled it.”  They told me.

I looked at my watch, then at the lady.  Nope, we weren’t late.  Not even 1 minute.

“Er…we’ll do it when they finish this activity.” She said.

After dancing finished, they gave Jess and Hannah a car, and Daniel and me a car.  Hannah’s didn’t work and she had to get another one.  Daniel’s didn’t work if it went 2 feet away from us and he quickly got bored and wanted to manually push it around.  All the other kids tried to steal the cars and/or remotes as they didn’t get any since they didn’t sign up.  No one said anything to them, except for Jess and me.

Some of the kids stood right in front of Hannah’s car so she couldn’t drive it.  Again, no one said anything to them, so it was up to us.

One day, they had face painting in the kids club.  Hannah patiently sat in a little chair behind the girl who was having her face painted at the time.  She was the second quickest to get in the queue.  The face painter took ages painting the first kid’s face.  So long that all the other kids waiting behind Hannah lost interest and went off to play.  Hannah waited on, silently sitting there as the minutes ticked by.  We wanted to meet The Jess for the scheduled deck boules at 4:30 and time was quickly running out.  Hannah had been sitting there 20 minutes by the time the first kid was done.

Instead of happily greeting Hannah and asking her what she’d like on her face though, the lady stood up and walked off.  Another lady came in with an older kid from the kids club next door trailing behind her.  They both sat down and she got to work, leaving Hannah sitting there, still unpainted.

“I’m really sorry sweetie, you’ve been so patient, but we’re running out of time, I don’t think we’ll have time to get your face painted now, so you might as well play for a bit.”  I said to her loudly from across the room.  One of the other ladies got the hint and sat back down again, quickly painting a flower crown on Hannah’s forehead.

As soon as she was finished, we left the kids club and walked to where the deck boules were supposed to be, arriving just in time.  Except no one was there.  No balls were there. Nothing was set up, and no one else was waiting, there was only a ping pong table with a couple of guys in the midst of a game.  Contrary to what the daily schedule told us, deck boules were not happening.

Instead, we let the kids play on the stairs.  Up and down.  Up and down. Sliding on their bottoms, sliding on their tummies, going down in the lift then climbing up the stairs.  We killed nearly an hour with the kids happily playing on the stairs and in the lift.

Hannah and Daniel at the top of a set of stairs.

P&O would probably be fine if you don’t have kids, or if they are older kids, but travelling with anyone under 3, there just isn’t enough for them to do.  Not to mention the beds were the most uncomfortable I’ve slept on in my entire life.

We had fun on the cruise, but there were also a lot of things that were quite disappointing.  I definitely want to do on another cruise, but it will be with a different cruise line.

playing in the window

Part of our room. We moved one of the ladders to the ledge under the window so the kids could play up there.

Daniel after the lifejacket drill

Me and the kids the first night on the ship

Hannah at the kids club

Daniel drew and played iPad during bingo

Hannah drawing while we waited for bingo to start

playing bingo

Pasta. Delicious.

eating at the restaurant at off the proper menu

Spaghetti face

my salmon. It was delicious.

Jess eating at the restaurant (as opposed to the buffet)

Daniel and Jess watching Frozen from bed

playing on the stairs

At kids dinner time (4:30), the tables have colouring in and colouring pencils.

kids dinner. Nothing healthy on the menu.

Me and Daniel at kids dinner

Hannah having dessert

Keeping Daniel busy at dinner. They already had dinner at kids dinner time.

One night I had a cocktail and Jess had a mocktail

It was sunny on Moreton Island for us for about 5 minutes, then it poured for the rest of the day.

Hannah on Moreton island

We got a towel animal one day.

The captain trying to put his hat on Daniel. Daniel was not impressed.

The captain came over to us at lunch one day and talked to the kids. Hannah got to wear his hat.

Hannah and Daniel loved looking at the colour changing fountain on the ship

Hannah and Jess with the remote control car at the kids club

Windows are fun to play in

Mr. Cheeky playing on the ship

Cruises are tiring. Hannah rarely naps, but she was so tired she curled up on me and went to sleep.

Hannah and the bear from school at breakfast (they each get a turn taking the bear home for a week. She got to take it on the cruise)

Hannah and on a deck chair

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Something I’m passionate about

We’re back!!!  The cruise was fun, but it will take me a while to go through all the photos and pick out all the ones I want to post with our cruising story.

In the meantime, I’ve submitted two images to Canon’s Shine competition.  This isn’t a normal photo competition with cash or stuff prizes.  This competition is about subject matter: shining a light on what is important.  The winner gets a national advertising campaign about their image and why it’s important, a display in the NSW state library, and best of all, a documentary about the image and the issue.

My images are about sustainable agriculture.  And by sustainable, I’m not talking about GM and seed company giants.  If we want our future generations to have plenty of healthy, natural food to eat, we need to do something now.

Please click here to be directed to my images (the first one will show up and if you click the white arrow in the right hand side of the page, it will take you to my second image).  The first one is of Hannah holding a giant zucchini.  She’s so cute.  You can only vote once per image, but you do need to sign up to Canon’s website to do so.  Just don’t tick the newsletter box and they won’t spam your inbox.  You don’t have to live in Aus to vote.  So please, PLEASE vote.  Voting numbers are low for all images, so even one vote makes a huge difference. This isn’t about winning, it’s about the future of our children and grandchildren.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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The first poop

2 weeks ago:

Daniel and I are eating dinner together by ourselves.  Hannah is at Grandma and YaYa’s house for her weekly sleepover and Aaron is out with work friends because he is moving offices for a couple of months on Monday.

Daniel isn’t very hungry because Grandma filled him up when dropped Hannah off.  He is picking brown rice slowly, but mostly he’s just playing with it, and he’s not touching his Indian butter chicken.  I am about halfway through mine when Daniel suddenly stops twirling his food around his plate.  He forgets about everything else as a look of concentration crosses his face.

“QUICK DANIEL, LET’S GET TO THE POTTY!!” I tell him, trying, but failing to contain the urgency in my voice.  I don’t exactly want to be attempting to remove poop that’s been amalgamated with undies in the middle of dinner.

“I DON’T WANT TO!!!!” He screams.  But I don’t listen.  By the time he’s finished with his sentence, we’re already half way to the bathroom, despite his flailing arms and legs.

I pull down his pants and undies and put him straight onto his little potty.  The concentration fills his face again, this time laced with a look of excitement. His protests cease and the room is silent.

Plop.

“I DID IT!!! I DID A POO ON THE POTTY!!!!”  He stands up excitedly and looks at in the toilet bowl. “THERE’S A POOP IN THERE! I DID A POOP!”

He is jumping up and down with huge smile on his face as I give him a chocolate Easter egg and promise that we will go to Kmart tomorrow to get a pirate tent.

Daniel

“Good job buddy, let’s go finish our dinner now.”  We walk towards the table, but before we get there, my elation is replaced by annoyance.  Our bowls are empty.

“ROSIE!!!!!!”  She comes bounding in as if nothing happened.  “NO!  You DO NOT get on the table!”  I tell her whilst pointing my finger and furrowing my brow.  “OUTSIDE.”  I tell her sternly.  Little thief.

I was wrong though.  I thought it would take just one poop in the toilet and Daniel would lap up the praise, rewards, and excitement and continue to poop in the toilet, just like he did with pees.  But he didn’t.  He’s only pooped in the toilet once since then, and again only because I recognised poo face and ran him to the toilet at Grandma’s house.

Time is out though.  The cruise is tomorrow.  I had an alternate plan: putting Daniel in kids club with a pull up, and then telling the carers to call me if he needs a nappy change, until Jess pointed out that we won’t have any phone reception.  You know, since we’ll be at sea.  I’m still not giving up.  Daniel is a sweet, charming boy, so he is going to tell them that he really wants to go to kids club with Hannah. Maybe there won’t be that many kids and they’ll like him so much that they will take him despite his lack of toilet skills.  How can anyone say no to a 2 year old that tells you how much he wants to be there all by himself?  He has incredible language skills.  I’m not giving up.  He will have fun there. He really, really, really wants to go to kids club.  Hannah really wants him to go to kids club (she is looking forward to kids club the most out of everything on the entire cruise), and I really want him to go. You know what they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Also, there won’t be any posts whilst I’m away, except the guest post on Thursday that is set to auto post for me, since the only internet available is ridiculously expensive.

BON VOYAGE!  I’ll post lots of pictures when I get back 🙂 YAY I’M SO EXCITED!

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

The unobservant biker

As soon as I turn onto the residential street that connects to my dead end road, I slow the car down.  The road isn’t marked with lines, and is fairly narrow, plus kids could be at play, or animals could be running across the street. Going the speed limit here doesn’t seem safe.  As I turn the final corner onto my street, I see a teenager on a bicycle riding towards me, on the left hand side of the road, going the wrong way in my unmarked lane.  I can’t see his face because his head is down, looking at something that is not the road in front of him.  Slowing the car down even more, we drive towards the centre of the road to avoid the wayward cyclist.

He still hasn’t seen me.  He isn’t looking where he is going at all.  Is he texting?  One hand is on his handle bars, but the other is in front and below him, holding a phone.  He is veering towards the centre of the road, so I stop the car completely.

My mind is racing.  Should I honk?  What if that startles him so much he falls off.  If he breaks his phone, he might get violet.  kids can be crazy these days.  No, surely he’ll look up soon, he has to check where he’s going.  He’ll look up before he hits me.

He’s still riding straight towards the car.  Everything seems to be in slow motion but I’m frozen inside the car, unable to decide whether or not I should honk.  The thought that he has to look up before hitting the car is winning the honking battle, but he’s still coming closer and closer, not once looking up.

My hand migrates towards the centre of the steering wheel.  He’s seconds away from hitting the car.  I’m about to honk and scare the daylights out of him when finally, he looks up.  He is so close that I can clearly see the panicked look on his face as he instinctively swerves away from the car, narrowly missing a head on collision.

And that, people, is why you don’t text and ride.

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

The giant bug

Despite being fairly poor when I was little, we always had horses.  Having horses meant having big bags of grain in the barn.  My mom used to store them them in a small room in the little barn.  We didn’t have electricity in either of the barns so feeding the horses in the winter usually meant blindly plunging a cup or scoop or whatever my mom used at the time into the feed bag.  She wasn’t silly though, she kept the feed bags in thick plastic garbage cans to keep critters out.

My mom defied my theory that all women are secretly scared of the dark.  She’d go out in the pitch black night or morning every single day to feed the horses without so much as a flashlight.  It didn’t seem to bother her.  When I was a teenager and I started feeding the horses before school because mom had to work at ridiculous o’clock in the morning, I always turned the arena lights on, not caring that it was 5 o’clock in the morning and the blaring arena lights probably woke up all the neighbours.  They made me feel safe.

I think I was pretty young when it happened, so I’m not sure if I’m remembering the event, or the story of the event, but either way, I know it happened.  One morning (or maybe night, I was young at the time, so minor details are a bit fuzzy.) my mom went out in the dark to feed the horses.  She hadn’t been out there very long when she came back inside in a slight panic, blood oozing from her hand.

After removing the lid from one of the grain cans, as she did every morning and every night, she stuck her hand in the bin to scoop out some grain.  Except this time, something was lurking in the bin, feasting on the grain after it chewed through the thick plastic.  She had to go to the hospital to get rabies shots, stitches, and who knows what else.  I think it was a gopher, but don’t quote me on that.  My mom will read this (hopefully soon after I post it) and correct any wrongs in the comments, so have a look.

 

A gopher. Image courtesy of National Park Service.

When we first got Rosie, giant bags of puppy food were on special at Pet Barn.  I always like a bargain, so I bought one and put it in the garage, filling the small bag I keep in the house each time it ran out.

Mom getting her hand bitten by a something in the grain bin has always stuck in my memory though, so after I unzip the bag of dog food, I always have a look inside before sticking my hand in there to scoop the food out.

I saw something out of the corner of my eye after I opened the food bag the other night. A big, blackish blob scurrying on the wall.  A stupid, disgusting cockroach.  I rustled the bag of garden soil next to the dog food to scare him out, my foot ready for stomping.

The cockroach ran up from behind the bag, but suddenly, a little furry critter bolted out from behind the bag, seemingly at the speed of light.  It somehow dodged the weights bench, the bicycles, and all the camping gear whilst running faster than I’ve seen anything run before and hid in the corner of the garage.

My heart was beating a mile a minute.  There is a mouse in the garage.  Or maybe a baby rat.  

I lifted the almost empty bag of dog food, finding a pile of crumbs below.  The little bugger chewed it’s way to food.  I should have known better.  I should have had the food bag in a metal garbage can.  I didn’t think a mouse would get in the garage though.  How would it even get in there? It’s not like a barn with lots of open door, a bare earth floor, and wooden made out of chewable wood.  Our house is made of bricks, and the metal garage door goes right down to the ground.

Rosie would love to hunt the mouse, she hunts house crickets all the time.  Maybe she’s just trying to play with them, but her idea of play leads to death and dismemberment, which would obviously take care of the mouse.

“You can’t let her hunt the mouse,”  Aaron told me, “she’s still too sore, and she’s not supposed to run around yet.” Darn it, he was right.  Rosie was spayed only a couple days before and the vet said she had to rest for a week.

Tomorrow though, she is allowed to run around again, so mouse/rat, whatever you are, if you’re still there, watch out: Rosie is coming.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

Inside guide: 5 top hollywood hair secrets

Right now I’m trying to grow my fringe out a bit.  Not to the length of the rest of my hair, but just to about my chin or so.  At the moment it’s at that really annoying length that’s a bit too long to be a nicely kept side swept fringe, but too short to be a face framing fringe.  Plus I’m usually wearing my glasses so it hangs down to my glasses, the kind of shoots out over the sides.  It looks pretty ridiculous, but I can’t really do anything about it, I just have to wait until it’s that little bit longer and less silly looking.  In the meantime, I can dream about how nice it will look when it’s grown to where I want it, and take the advice of this week’s guest post so that the rest of it looks luscious:

Why is it that all celebrities seem to have the magic formula that creates flawless hair 24/7? Atevery red carpet event, without fail, their hair looks healthy and effortlessly shiny. Well, there is good news. It is possible for everyone to share in the perfection with the right products and tools.Below you will find five hair tips straight from Hollywood guaranteed to make your locks as luscious as the stars. The plus side is these don’t involve forking out for constant hairdressing appointments and expensive treatments.

Hair Concealers

You never see a spot of baldness, hair loss or hint of scalp on any celebrity – they always seem to have thick, luscious locks cascading from root to tip. One way to get this look is with a good hair concealer, a product that caters for endless shades of colour. Once applied, the fibres cling to the hair and cover up any gaps – making the hair appear full and healthy. Products like BioTHIK have a great range of affordable options that only take minutes to apply and will last through rain, hail or shine.

Dry Shampoo

Dry Shampoo is one of the best products to have on hand at all times – it’s quick, effective and can be applied anywhere. The shampoo works by eliminating the greasy look created by your hairs’ natural oils, and comes in powder form. Simply spray or pat on lightly and watch your hair turn from lanky to fresh and clean. Great if you haven’t had time to wash your hair properly and just need to get through the day without your hair looking like a puddle of grease.

Nourishing oil

The idea of adding extra oil to your hair is probably making you cringe, but nourishing oil is a must-
have for anyone wanting their hair to look healthy and shiny. Made with many natural products and antioxidants, it helps to calm down frizz-prone hair and heal dry ends. It’s designed not to make your hair appear oily or dirty, and is great for anyone who uses straighteners or other harsh tools to style hair.

Extensions

How does all of Hollywood seem to be blessed with voluptuous waves of hair? Well, often times they cheat the camera with the use of good hair extensions. Decent quality extensions are brilliant at adding extra length and volume and can easily be removed and re-attached for future use. Just make sure that the extension matches your hair type and colour exactly; it’s probably best to consult a hairdresser before making a purchase.

Ceramic Curlers Instead Of Metal Curlers

Curlers are generally a must-have in any woman’s hair care arsenal, but many don’t know that metal curlers are actually very damaging in the wrong hands. Because of the extreme heat of the metal, home-taught DIY hairdressers are probably best using the ceramic kind, as misuse leads to damaged, dry hair. Hollywood standard hair can be achieved by anyone with the right products and techniques, even if you don’t have an army of stylists and hairdressers at your fingertips. These products will keep your locks looking like the A-list for all situations, without costing a fortune.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson