Five Months Till Forty. The Blog is getting an overhaul!

Actually it's more like six months till the big day but I'm currently very influenced by my almost ten year old's obsession with Five Nights at Freddy's and everything 'Five Nights at..." thereafter.  Plus it sounds better.


It is blatantly obvious that blogging most certainly isn't my forte (ha, pun?  Help me out here)  but it's not because there is nothing to say.    If you could somehow stream my thoughts onto a page,  I'd have a millions posts by now.    Actually, maybe that's not such a good idea.

What started as a lifestyle blog took on a life of its own and became primarily a writing and book blog after I released my first novel.  It was great for awhile but very soon all the other parts of my life were pushed aside and when it came time to write about other aspect of what was happening in my life, thoughts, and opinions it just seemed a little too contrived.

So this is the introduction of my overhauled blog.   And what better time than to coincide it with my fortieth year which includes a child starting high school, an overseas trip, some work to the house and garden, and of course more books.

Looking forward to the chat :)

The Middle Finger, Justice Crew and Singing (and rapping) for your Supper (and Weenuses)

Last night was a fairly unusual affair.     Dinner wasn't the regular meal where there is often a lot of yelling (Mr Xbox) crying (me - because I've spent "all day"(last half hour) cooking this (vaguely) "nutritious" meal for the family to "enjoy"(shut up and eat).   Mr Comedy usually looks at it and says he's full which roughly translates to 'not eating this shit'.   Mr Maker thinks that the more he talks, the more we won't realise it's a ruse to not having eaten anything, and Mr Paleo manages to spread his food around the plate to make it look like he eaten more than he has.

Anyway the first surprise of the day was that everyone was enjoying the food - probably because we were all eating different things: Fried rice with leftover roast for myself and Mr Xbox.   Mr Paleo and Mr Maker were finishing off the tuna casserole that they actually liked from the other night, and Mr Comedy wanted his new favourite pasta, meat ravioli - usually plain but this time he had the gross wonderful idea of pouring half a bottle of sweet chilli sauce on it in some sort of italian / asian fusion dish.   At least he ate it.

But the weirder stuff was the conversation.

A lengthy discussion about the Middle Finger led to the decision that it will be banned from this house (to go with the previous banning of the words: stupid, idiot, moron, hate, loser, fat as well as the usual swear words).  However it was decided that in the event of a demon killing two people and then attempting to steal your burger, the middle finger is appropriate in this case.   Thanks Mr Maker!

Mr Paleo challenges Mr Xbox and myself to sing if he  'lays down some phat beats'.   We both refuse because neither of us can sing, we can't be bothered, it is dinner time.

Mr Maker is all about Justice Crew at the moment, so I'm not so subtly dropping hints about dance classes.  No go at this stage.  He's more interested the video for 'Everybody' where they teleport to the party from their work.   Mr Xbox is just confused because he still thinks the song 'Everybody' belongs to The Backstreet Boys.

  Personally, I prefer the video for 'Boom Boom', particularly from about 3.05 onwards. Wink wink.

Anyway, Mr Maker launches into song which prompts Mr Comedy to do the same as some sort of sing-off.  You both win, seriously.    I'm not Will.i.am so cannot really say if it's good or bad.

Giving up on the song,  Mr Maker decides to go the rapping route where he rhymes cool, rule and drool as in "I'm so cool, so I rule, but I don't drool" or something.  And then rhymes 'awesome' with 'possum' which strangely seems to work.

Not wishing to be left out, Mr Paleo announces "I'm slowly rubbing my weenus."  Look it up, it's not as creepy as it sounds.

Then Mr Maker starts singing a song about a Rock 'n' Roll Spleen while playing air bass guitar.

Mr Comedy has actually been a little quiet but goes over to Mr Xbox to tell him something.   Mr Maker then proceeds to interrupt just to tell Mr Comedy that "it's rude to interrupt and could he please stop doing it."

So that concludes our slightly more unusual dinner.    And now back to our regular program.

My Writing Life... and Cake Decorating

It occurred to me last night when I was trying to get to sleep that writing isn't actually my life. Should it be? Probably not.

My life is like a cake. We'll call it a nice, rich, moist chocolate mud cake. It includes my family - my husband who is also my best friend and with whom I get along with quite well on a daily basis and my three kids who, as kids have their days but really don't give me as much grief as they probably could, my friends, my other immediate family - mum, dad and brother, extended family, my house and how I'm trying to make it into a wonderful home.

Writing for me as much as I love it - I love using my imagination, creating stories and scenarios, developing irrational attachments to people I made up - is just the icing, and the decorating is what I could do with it. Now if there was no icing and decorations, if for any reason I stopped writing, it wouldn't affect the richness and goodness of the cake, but I'm sure it will be missed and eventually it will be added again.

If for any reason the icing doesn't quite work out as planned, for example, it doesn't quite come together, the end result still needs work, someone doesn't like it and gives it a bad review (wait, what?), or it simply just isn't right, other than the surface (loosely translates to me swearing and crying for a couple of days) the cake isn't really affected. It's still a pretty awesome cake.

Now my goal is to make that icing and decorating so beautiful and wonderful that it can only enhance the enjoyment of the cake. Because lets face it, who doesn't like a cake that has been presented as the best it can be.

Now I want cake.

*The above analogy really has nothing to do with cake decorating. In fact, I'm really shit at it. The cakes I make are usually quite yummy but the top is almost always either domed or sunken and the icing is just spread on and that's the end of it. I have tried but soon realised I'm much better off paying someone who is good at it to do it instead. I may one day try to gain some cake decorating skills but at this point in time don't have any solid plans to do so.

Case in Point

Mindcraft cake I made for Mr Paleo 2011

Plants Vs Zombies cake I ordered for Mr Maker 2012  (Diddlyscrumptious)

Brain cake pops to go with the Plants vs Zombies cake, also made by Diddlyscrumptious.  I'm sure they're a metaphor for something too but who cares?  They were amazing!

Goodbye and Thank You 2011

I just wanted to shout out the achievements of my family in 2011.

Mr Xbox put his hand up to be a cub leader and is currently undergoing training.   Hopefully in 2012 we'll be able to bring cubs back to our town rather than travel to the neighbouring town's Scout Hall.

Mr Paleo completed grade 3 and a huge achievement for him this year was his participation and major role in his school's J-Rock entry.    He also joined the local Cubs group which was the catalyst for Mr Xbox to join himself.

See the dance here  (he's the bug wearing the crown)

Mr Maker completed and loved his first year of school!   He'll be an even bigger school boy in 2012 and not one of the littlies!  His adjustment to school has been fantastic and he seems to be well liked by his teachers and peers.   I think he saves his attitude for after school's finished. 

Mr Comedy completed three year old kindergarten.   Off to four year old kindy next year and preparation for big school!  His speech and toileting have also come along in droves.   He is very much a fast growing little man.

My own achievements this year were obviously my two first drafts, completing my first NaNoWriMo and I'm also very proud to have participated in the school PFA and kindergarten committee.

So thank you to 2011 for being kind to us and here's to a fabulous 2012!  (I'll be the one slumped on the couch drinking the homemade Baileys.)

Raising Stewie Griffin

It would appear my youngest, Mr Comedy wants me dead.    Firstly, about a week ago as I was getting out of the shower he said to me "Mummy, you're going to die!".
Because he's four years old, I understand that it was going to come up eventually so I replied brightly with "Yes, I will one day but not today!"

I knew for a fact that he hadn't been watching any TV that morning, nor was he pissy with me like he often is because I'm so mean and don't let him have chocolate first thing in the morning (I didn't let him have it that morning either, just sayin', but he really wasn't pissy with me at that point in time)

His answer:  "You're going to die and I'll have to get a new mummy."  Then he kind of laughed maniacally.

Oooookkkkkaaaaaaaay, not freaked out at all.

Much.

So I spent most of the week at home (being very careful to not do anything silly like handle knives more than necessary or stand on a wobbly chair)  due to being a tad concerned about meeting my demise should I leave the house.

Then the other day I'm putting some towels away in the linen cupboard and I hear in a quiet voice behind me, "I'm going to kill you."   I turn around and he's pointing his water bottle at me like a gun and grinning. Maniacally.

I'm hoping he's just trying to be funny.

**The title of this post for those who may not know 'The Family Guy' is related to the youngest in the family who schemes to kill his mother, Lois.  I'm sure most people do understand the reference in which case I'm wasting my time writing this.

Hello from Buff Cosmetics and The Lazy Pagan

Hi There

I've created a new blog to encompass the ones above and much more. As much as I love talking about beauty and paganism I found the subjects to be way too limiting as I had so much to say about other things and, if you have read the other blogs, so little to say about those particular topics.

So A Broom With a View has been born and is much more personal. There will still be a lot of beauty and makeup talk and much Earth friendly chatter, but truth is, I don't walk around with a makeup brush in my hand nor do I constantly try and find new ways of building spirituality.

I'm a mum of three boys which is an experience in itself, housewife (love using that word - it's kind of unPC), writer, bibliophile (or maybe just a bookworm), music enthusiast, business owner (albeit a pretty crappy one - more of a business planner) film lover, dog owner, Nigella-in-training and enjoy a myriad of other things.

If anything, it's probably more of a way of putting off things to do like get on with my novel or the housework!