*apologies in advance, blogger is being a fascist about formatting with pictures again *sigh*

Yesterday we visited the In Laws, and MIL and her sister (up visiting from Victoria) whisked the boys away to their swim class.  They returned with roast chooks (that's chickens for you non aussies lol) and rolls for lunch, and with the announcement that Tuesday lunch time or so, they would be arrived to abscond with all three of my little guys until sometime Wednesday afternoon!   We knew they planned on having the older two for the night, but they are taking Merry along for the fun as well it seems.  So... for the first time in a very VERY long time... dh and I shall be without children for a FULL 24hours! 

This brings up a very important question... what on earth will we do with ourselves??   I barely know how to even plan a day that doesn't include some child centred activities, a poopy bottom or two, and a whole lotta whinging! LOL   So, to see that I don't waste this rare as hens teeth opportunity, I have started organizing my plan of attack in advance ;)

 I think that this 24hour period shall find me doing a bit of cleaning, oddly enough, so that I can enjoy a nearly 2 full day period where my house stays clean longer then 15minutes after I finish cleaning it!   With 3 small boys, this never, ever, happens *sigh*.

And maybe I shall do a bit of this, as well.    And I will not feel bad that I'm not paying attention to anyway, nor will I be reading aloud anything that children would be interested in.  As a matter of fact... I may go out to the shops, and have a....

... posh iced coffee, from my very favourite place.  Then I might head to the nearby book shop and pick up a copy of Diana Gabaldon's new book.  It's historical 'lite' smut.. I love her books :)  And certain parts of them, at least, are most definitely the opposite of read alouds for boys lol! 

Then Tuesday night, hubby and I are going to avail ourselves of a Sizzler gift card that he very cleverly won from a local radio station a while back ;) It's not 'fancy', but it's a dinner out, sans kids... and FREE!  We wont' be out late of course, because hubby has to get up at 430am to head out for work.

 While *I*, on the other hand, will be doing THIS.  I plan to sleep just absurdly late on Wednesday morning... as there will be no boys bickering over who gets the first toast, or what goes on it.  There will be no racing up and down the hall squeeling and giggling, nor watching abc kids WAY too loud.  And there will be no toddler sticking to me in the too warm early morning hours, and then weeing our bed (thank the gods for waterproof sheets!).  

For just one morning,  this will be ok.  Then I'll lay in bed, wondering what to do? Probably hang out some laundry.. maybe have a cuppa on the veranda if it's not stinkin hot out.. and wonder.. when are they coming home?  

So I know at least one blogger who's going to make assertions about my mental health being questionable for this... but we have put up our holiday tree!   The day before Thanksgiving I just couldnt' resist any more... that will give me 30 days of enjoyment (insanity?) before the big day arrives.  

I have a huge soft spot in my heart for my christmas tree ... it was a lifelong tradition of my mama's.  The family made a trip to the tree farm and spent ages picking the perfect tree, then step dad spent an absurd amount of time putting the lights on just so, then mama did garlands and bows before we were turned loose to hang our special ornaments on the tree.   It was always great... we often strung popcorn too, eating as much as we strung of course lol.

These days, I'm not quite so traditional ;)  But I still love my tree.  Our tree is rather unusual in that it's black.  I saw it last year and HAD to have it... and then ended up having my family emergency and was in the US the entire holiday season and never saw the tree lol.  Ah well, there were more important things to tend to!   This year I'm making up for lost time.. 

Frodo and Sam were very excited about the whole thing, as kids always are.   We have jewel toned decorations, including things like snowflakes and cut 'crystals' that the boys love.  And up high, there is a butterfly for Susan... who was my oldest sons love, and died in the accident they were in this time last year.  She had a huge love of butterfly's and had been decorating their tree at home full of them.  I saw them at the shop and had to hold back tears as I gave them to hubby to put in the trolley.  I never met her, but she was a beautiful girl and I really wanted to do something to remember her.

 We used to have a star on top of our tree, then a santa for a few years... this year I found a Faery tree topper and just fell in love with her.  She's adorable, and nigh impossible to get a decent photo of it appears *grumble*  So here is a slightly blurry one, which is the best I can do!  

And last but not least.. one very cozy rat!  This is 'Bitty' (his litter mate is, of course, Itty), FINALLY testing out the very comfy pocket hammock we got for the boys.  He seemed pretty comfy in there, but being summer here, he won't be getting much use out of it for several months yet.  Pardon the extraneous ratty 'raisin' or two in the pic, SOMEONE was being lazy about using the litter box that day apparently LOL.  

We have gotten zero done this week and I'd like a do over, thank you.  Sunday night Frodo was up with a fever & nausea completely out of the blue.  Made for a long day Monday that's for sure.  Oh I lied, he wanted to do a review page of his math so he did that on his own while mum was a zombie.

Tuesday... had grand plans for the day, until Frodo had a lapse of judgement and caused his head to make contact with ceiling fan blades (that were, as Murphy would have it, on HIGH speed).  This caused an urgent trip to the GP's office where the very nice doc checked him over, steri stripped the 2inch long gash in his forehead closed and gave me the requisite head injury 'to watch for' list detailing what would require an ER trip in the coming hours.  Luckily enough, none of those things eventuated and all was well in the end.  But for the better part of the morning we were both panicking.  

The fever from Sunday/Monday is long gone now... but Merry seems to have an awfully gravelly voice *insert suspicious look from me*  And as the evening went on it occurred to me that I had a bit of a sore throat.  Then a headache... O.M.G. I'm getting sick *splat*  Suffice it to say that upon waking this morning I had a headache that wouldn't quit no matter how much nurofen I took, a sore throat that was annoying as hell, and I felt like I'd run a marathon before being hit by a very large truck!    Frodo did another sysematic review page in his MUS, which I checked over, and he seems to be really grasping the round to the nearest 100 concept :)     The boys also dug into a couple of  'school project' kits I caught on clearance a while back, on The Planets and Ancient Egypt and did  a project page using the stencils, stickers and information they read in the booklet.  So I guess saying 'nothing' was accomplished isn't exactly true.

My MAIN reason for posting was to share this with anyone that might be interested!  This is the printing readiness program that Sam has used to help with his fine motor skills and writing, he enjoyed it and it really helped a lot for a brief program.    It's from Donna Young and even has a cool certificate of completion you can print out for yout little one.  We all know how kids love those :D

I am just about fed up with illness though, and am doing some research on wtf is going on with my immune system which I will discuss with my doc because it looks promising (and very common & overlooked even  ... how did my doc not notice that I've had numerous severe respiratory illnesses this year AS WELL AS a borderline low thyroid test and put those two together?)   

For now though, I shall go have a brief lay down as hubby is home to supervise the boys. Tomorrow will be a better day.