Pause.

Things to do. Things to do. I keep going, trying to get to the end of my list when I will reward myself with some relaxation.
Can't stop til everything's done. Can't rest til the work's completed.
But To-Do lists are ever-expanding; "a woman's work is never done..."
Like a hamster on a treadmill I run in circles, the tension building... until SNAP.
I've always done things this way. Sound familiar?

Yesterday I discovered a new way, a better way.
It was a mad day; we aren't home til nearly 5 o'clock. The kids are starving. Dinner needs to be cooked. I can feel the tension building in my head, a sort of desperation. Will I be able to make it through til bedtime?

Outside the sun is shining, calling to me. Inside the kids are complaining, whingeing at me.
I know I won't make it on sheer willpower. So instead of gritting my teeth and grinding through like I usually do, I take a Pause.

I make a tray of snacks, open some hummus, blanch some asparagus, chop some carrots. Then I take the tray outside and invite my husband outside to share a glass of cider with me.
The kids are happy, temporarily satisfied with snacks and SpongeBob.
Me and the husband sit in the Spring sunshine, sipping cider, sampling snacks.

We Pause. Take a breath. Before going inside and cooking the meal, we take a moment to connect and replenish our souls. We end the day with some new gas in the tank. Nobody snaps.

The morning comes too soon. The noise and demands begin immediately.
Behind the eight-ball, I know there is much to be done. Lunchboxes, breakfasts, transportation...
But I have learnt my lesson.
As my children race about doing their thing, making demands I say, Wait five minutes.
I am just going to Pause.

I make myself a cup of coffee, I sit on my window seat, take a sip, close my eyes.
I feel the morning sun warming me. I take a breath. I finish my coffee, soaking in the sunshine.
Then, having Paused and taken a moment for myself, I turn to the demands of the day and complete each task on time and without drama. I am calm.

It's fantastic. I have found the Power of the Pause.
(and I highly recommend it)
♥

Happy Birthday Dear Me

 

Forty-three. Who would've thought? Sometimes I feel every single one of my 15,695 days. Other times I feel no different than I did at eighteen (when I thought forty-somethings were over the hill and no longer qualified completely as human beings, but were rather, middle aged dinosaurs. O the follies and arrogance of misguided youth).

I have to say that the day did not begin too swimmingly. After spending the morning doing the usual Monday drudgery of conjuring nutritious lunchboxes from empty post-weekend cupboards, pouring cereal and pushing whingeing kids out the door to school, I was ready to head back to bed, feeling sorry for myself.

Still lurking in my PJ's feeling unfit for human company, I wanted to dive back under the covers and pull them up over my head. I was regretting sending a txt to all my playgroup buddies last week inviting them to share a birthday tea party this morning... But O I was so Glad they Came.

God was thinking of me, and he turned the sunshine on for the first Monday since way back in April. We can actually do playgroup outside? The kids can run free, climb, ride bikes, bounce, swing... while we can enjoy civilised grown-up chitchat? This might be nice...

My mum and dad wandered up the driveway, my dear friends began arriving, showing no consternation at seeing me still pyjama-clad. Rather they said, What do you want us to do? We dragged the picnic table out under the blossom trees (I went and got out of my PJ's) and we enjoyed a delicious morning after all...

Where would I be without friends? Thankyou girls for coming and making my morning so sweet. So glad to have each and every one of you in my life.

As I type this I am listening to a Genius Mix on this (my birthday iPod)...

...while seated on this (my birthday computer chair)...

So from an inauspicious beginning, my birthday seems to be turning out pretty nice.

Thanks to Hubby. Thanks to Friends. Thanks to God.

♥

My Birthday Movie Marathon

This weekend we decided to do something totally different. It's my birthday on Monday (whoop) and to celebrate I requested a family movie marathon (with sleepover) featuring all my favourite flicks from the Eighties and Nineties. We dragged our giant mattress into the lounge, strung some bunting and Christmas lights and settled in to watch some movies full of big hair and big laughs...

[Photo by Scrag]

All the movies we watched were rated (PG), but in the twenty years since I saw them last my memory had erased the low-level curse-words and sexual innuendos. Mr G played Censor, sitting vigilant with the remote, ready to mute or fast-forward anything not family friendly.

(I've noticed that PG movies from the Eighties and Nineties use much coarser language than the ones coming out these days. Even the movies I remember as being sweet and clean.)
I had pre-ordered a bunch of movies from Fatso in readiness for our sleepover, and since Saturday dawned rainy and wet, we hunkered down and kept the movies coming, not emerging from our PJ's until lunchtime.

The Old Favourites we watched:

• Overboard (1987), a romantic comedy starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. I remember watching this one repeatedly in the early nineties. It's funny. Lots and lots of great lines and revenge. Oh and love. But a few too many words needing to be bleeped. Sadly.
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), a comedy starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine. This one is a classic. Many many laugh-out-loud moments, as one dirty rotten scoundrel tries to run another dirty rotten scoundrel out of town. This movie hasn't lost any of it's coolness in the intervening years, and had far fewer bleeps than Overboard.
• Major Payne (1995), Starring Damon Wayans. Hahahahaha, this one is funny. I had memorised almost all of it. Again, a few bleeps necessary, but overall a very good family watch.

Some New-to-us Movies we also watched:

• Freaky Friday (2003) starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. This one was surprisingly good. And very clean. No fast-forwarding necessary or bleeping. See what I mean about the newer movies being cleaner?
• Arthur Christmas (2011) starring James Macavoy, Jim Broadbent (animated). Fantastic. A real surprise. I think we will have to review this one in depth. It came out last year and I think it will be added to our Christmas collection. A really really nice movie.

A Movie we ditched after ten boring minutes:

• Biggles (1986), starring lots of bad 80's acting and big hair. We gave it ten minutes and then all agreed to dump it. Just couldn't get past the bad acting. And the big hair. Yaaaawwwwwn.

(You can click on the titles to visit the full Movie descriptions and reviews on IMDB)

Here are the trailers for the all the Movies we watched (except for Biggles, cos really, why bother?)

Here's what our experts have to say about Our Movie Marathon:

Dash. B. Cool: "My favourite Movie was Major Payne. And I liked Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I laughed at Ruprecht the Monkey boy a lot."
Dash scores our movie marathon: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Foxy Fab: "I liked Overboard. I liked it when the girl wasn't a brat anymore. I liked Major Payne when the boys were in the dresses. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was cool too. I really liked Freaky friday too."
Foxy rates scores our movie marathon: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Super Scrag: "I liked Overboard the best. I liked the silly girl. I liked Arthur Christmas too. "
SuperScrag scores our movie marathon: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

As you can see our experts really really enjoyed our Movie marathon, and didn't think mummy's old faves too shabby neither.

Meet Our Expert Movie Critics:

Having a Family Sleepover (to Make Your Movie Marathon even more Super-Cool-Fab)

It's a different kind of birthday celebration. Instead of going out for dinner, requesting a family sleepover (with proper mattress) and my favourite cheesy comedy movies. But it was FUN. And memorable. End easy....

Here's what we did...

• we created a giant bed on the floor of the living room
• we made the effort to drag in the big mattress from our bedroom (so much more comfy than the thin camp mattress we used last time - which broke my back)
• the kids dragged in their duvets, blankets, pillows and cushions
• we created a cosy colourful nest for us all to watch the movies from
• we strung up some Christmas lights, lit some candles and hung bunting to create a festive atmosphere
• then we all hopped in our PJ's and snuggled down together for an awesome retro movie marathon (stopping occasionally for popcorn, icecream sodas, Chinese food, sleep, Breakfast and coffee)

What are your best Movie Night Ideas? Send me an email with your ideas (include a picture or link to a blog post if you can) so I can feature it here on Saturday Night at the Movies.

Have a great Saturday!
♥

DIY Paint-Facing

I had a phone call yesterday morning in the middle of the morning rush.
"Simone," my caller said, "I'm in a panic. My daughter's first birthday party is this weekend and our face painter has cancelled. Do you know anyone?"

I had to tell her No, I'm sorry. I have never once used a professional face-painter for any of my multitudinous parties.

Three kids. Ten years. Twenty Two Parties. And not a professional face-painter between them.

I gave my caller the suggestion I am giving you now.
Two. Dollar. Shop.

That's right. Almost every party we've had has involved face-painting of some kind. All courtesy of the local dollar store.

It began with Dash's third birthday party when I bought six jars of $2 facepaint to use at his Animal party. I shoved a paintbrush at an unsuspecting mama and asked her to do her best.
Seven years and umpteen parties later my face-paint collection has grown and been added to, but the principal remains the same. DIY Paint-Facing Rulz. End of story.

These days I usually hand the collection over to Miss Fab and her arty friends. They have fun being creative, the little kids get their faces painted. The results are colourful and we never get any complaints from the customers.

So if you are thinking you need to hire a professional face-painter for your parties, think again. Here's what to do instead...

• purchase 6-8 pottles of facepaint from the dollar store in a range of colours
• also purchase a couple of cheap eyeliner pencils in various colours (black, brown, silver, gold) - perfect for detailing
• add some pottles of glitter (glitter can be easily applied to wet paint for a sparkly look)
• perhaps have some cheap eyeshadow in various colours also

Set up your Face-Painting table with:

• a plastic cover (to protect against spillage)
• a mirror
• a jar of water
• various sized paintbrushes
• a bottle of moisturiser*
• some tissues and/or wet-wipes
• your face-paints
• extra chairs for the waiting children who will be queuing up to have their faces transformed by local artistes

Co-opt some artists for the duration of the party. These could include:

• older arty children
• creative mums
• willing grannies
• clever daddies
• older teenage cousins

*Make sure your face painters know to apply moisturiser to each child's face before painting. This stops the skin feeling itchy and scratchy as the paint dries*

The initial outlay cost is minimal (around $25 max) and the bonus is that you can put your supplies away and bring them out ready for your next party (or an impromptu theme night, or just-because random dress-up fun).

DIY Paint-Facing Rocks. I swear by it.

A Need for Speed (and Toys for Big Boys)

Some boys just love speed and Scrag is one of them.
He is obsessed with running fast. Any opportunity for a race and he's in.
Every morning when I drop him off for kindy he won't let me leave until he's shown me how fast he can run.
He has the "fastness" of everyone at kindy all figured out. And he is now the "First Fastest" (since the other first fastest boy left to go to school).

[Scrag racing away at the Family Fun Day]

Last Saturday our church held a Family Fun Day at a local school. Scrag was reluctant to get out of his PJ's until I told him there would be running races. Nuff said.

While we were there, hanging out, playing games, it was hard to ignore the crowd around our friend Adrian, giving rides on his Power Scooter. Every kid there wanted a go. (Every dad there wanted one for Christmas). Adrian and his pal Adrian (yes, two Adrians) have started importing these cool-as machines into NZ. They're the latest thing.

So when Adrian offered to bring over the scooter one evening for us to have a play, well, it didn't take much persuading for our speed-hungry bunch to say, Awww go on, then!

Everyone had a go with daddy, except Scrag who preferred to race the scooter down the road...

Flippin' hilarious.

I'm not very technical, but these things are pretty awesome.
When I first heard of them I imagined they were a Toy. But on closer inspection they are really really not. They are instead a very cool mode of transport. They can be ridden on the footpath (like a Mobility Scooter, but for the non-elderly) and can get speeds of up to 30km per hour. They are electric, with a rechargeable battery, which will get you around 30km scooting-distance on one charge.

They look really really cool (with grunty phat tyres) and even fold down for easy transportation.
I was impressed and I am totally thinking how cool they would be for teenagers or college students - or even intermediate kids - for getting to school or uni. They could ride safely all the way on the footpath and just padlock them up at the bike rack. If you're an unfit commuter you could even ride it to work and save on parking - heck you can even take it on the train.

So yeah. Not a toy as such. (They'd be an expensive toy, but are a super-economical mode of transport).

Not just useful, but loads of fun too.
I think I might have to save up and get one for Dash when he heads off to high school in a few years time...

I told our pal Adrian I would write a story up on my blog (he is Kezia's Dad for those of you who remember my story from earlier this year?) and he has kindly sent me a discount code for you guys, my lovely readers:

20% off full retail price scooters! (Offer expires end of Nov 2012)

CODE: GF4K1112

So if you have teens heading off to school or uni (or you commute to work and are sick of parking hassles) you should totally check out the Amp PowerScooter Website. (The scooters are made to order, so I think this week is the last week to order in time for Christmas).

Here are The Adrians in action down at the waterfront on their cool-as PowerScooter...



Fun aye??

♥ Amp PowerScooters on FaceBook

My Book: An Unexpected Christmas

I did it.
Finally after nearly a year of tweaking and figuring out stuff, my Christmas Book is ready to sell.
(Ready for you to buy for your kids / nephews / nieces / neighbours for Christmas).

I feel like a proud mother.
This little book is the beginning of a dream coming to fruition.

It's the Christmas story but from a whole different perspective...

It all began last year when I wanted to make my kids a personal gift for Christmas. I'm not crafty, I don't crochet or quilt, but I write. And I fiddle in Photoshop. And I love Christmas.

So I sat down one afternoon to put down some ideas for a story I could turn into a book and print up for them to read on Christmas Eve...

In the back of my mind was the idea that the way Jesus came to Earth was not really what you'd expect in any way. The whole idea is so out of the box, so radical... so unexpected I thought it would make a great basis for a story. Tell it from the perspective of the Angels (who must have surely been surprised when God told them his plans?)

Central to the story is a cheeky little angel called Scragger. Originally his name was Bob but when I came up with the idea of using the multitudinous photos of my kids and turning them into angels, well, Scrag just had to be that cheeky little chap...

After I started working on the book for my kids, I began to dream about getting it published and having it ready for sale this year.

But I had no idea where to begin. Until I stumbled across Blurb.
Through them I can self-publish and make my book available as both a printed book (soft or hard cover) and eBook.
You can order the book online and have it sent to you anywhere in the world.
Now all I need to do is sell some books...

Wanna help me out with that? Check out the book and if you like what you see, please spread the word to your friends and family.

I know the printed version is not exactly cheap (sorry about that; it's how it has to be unless some giant publisher discovers me and wants to take it on and print them by the truckload nice and cheap). But the eBook version is cheap-as. (now only AUD$2.99)


****UPDATE****
to get 25% off enter code "PERSONAL" at checkout!

Here's a full preview of the book so you know what you're getting...

An Unexpected Christmas by Simone Graham | Make Your Own Book

Pssssst! And guess what else?
My little story has been made into the Christmas film which was shown at Glow this year!
(And my little angels are in the film too, but you'll have to look really hard to spot the boys).



I am so excited about all this... can you tell?

Coldplay Rocks

[Source]

Coldplay is probably my favourite band in the world. I think I love them even more than U2.
They played this Saturday in Auckland. I went. And loved it.

If you know me at all you know that noise and crowds are really not my favourite thing; I tend to panic, freak out, even at times in church (which is often like a rock concert). Ear plugs and a quick exit are usually how I handle crowds and noise. You'd think a concert ticket would be wasted on me.

In fact the first time U2 came, hubby didn't even get me a ticket, much to my chagrin.
When I said, Why just the one ticket? he replied, well can you imagine it? There we'll be at this rockin concert and you'll be calling out "Bono! Bono! can you keep the noise down?? Edge... Edge! Turn down your amp!"
He went alone.

But when U2 came back I was feeling braver. So we got some tickets for seats waaaaay at the back. It was great. I loved it and decided I could be a concert-goer after all.

Then hubby stumbled upon the Coldplay concert and scooped up a pair of tickets for me and him to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary.
General Admission. Down on the field with the sweaty heaving rockin' crowd.

Saturday morning I was getting nervous. My back was aching after my latest run-in with Gravity and I didn't know how it would hold up with all that standing.
Then my friend Justine came to the rescue and loaned me her vintage fold-up camping stool which had gotten her through many concerts while preggers.

So with a couple of Voltarin on board and the camping stool tucked under my arm, off we went to see my favourite band in the world....

This is where we found our cosy spot. Sweet.
Down on the field, halfway back, out on the edge we had the best of both worlds. Space and a decent view.

(You don't imagine for a second that I lugged my camera with me did you? These blurry pics are snapped on hubby's phone. I was there to be in the moment. Enjoying every bit of it.)

If it were possible I think I love Coldplay even more now than before. If I loved the U2 concert I was in love with the Coldplay one. Probably because we were right down in amongst it. The glowy wristbands they gave us all as we went in were awesome, as were the confetti cannons that spewed out millions of "X"s which fluttered down like butterflies.

[Source]

But the coolest part for us was near the end. Coldplay had left the stage and everyone was doing the inevitable slow clap, calling for an encore.
My hubby has a thing about "beating the traffic" so he suggested we head to the back, ready for a quick exit.
Reluctantly I started to follow, not wanting to give up our cool pozzy, when all of a sudden right out the corner of our eye there was Chris Martin walking along the barrier fence right by us!
Surprise! They had set up a stage near the back for an unplugged encore.. When they climbed up so unexpectedly onto the mini stage, we found ourselves just a couple of metres away...

...look how close we were! Flippin awesome. Chris Martin said, "Well we couldn't come all the way to New Zealand and not say hello to the back of the room, could we?" So totally cool.

They finished back on the big stage with my favourite two songs (Fix You and Every Teardrop a Waterfall) and a massive fireworks display... me and hubby had spotted the barriers down, so we ambled up the walkway to near the front of the crowd for a great view and a quick getaway.

The back gates were open, so we headed up the stars and snapped this last pic of the crowd...

...and then out we walked ahead of the rush. No pushing or shoving or queuing or bottlenecks.

(Apparently for some reason these gates were shut soon after and there was only one way out for the whole 50,000-strong crowd which took forever and was a nightmare. I think Someone was looking after me, knowing how that would have totally freaked me out, don't you?)

[source]

Fab. A totally fab night.

Coldplay ROCKS.

(Here's my Coldplay Playlist on YouTube)

Which of your favourite groups would you love to see in Concert??