Tired, tired, tired

I gotta get these boys to sleep all night for a few nights in a row to recharge myself I think. The boys have had a run of colds, unusually for them, and the last one has left them both with a fairly chesty cough.

 Fun. 

Last night at about 8.30pm Mr 3 woke up in a tizz, which very quickly degenerated into an all out screaming meltdown, that went on so long it actually woke up big brother. 

Fabulous.

 So now two kids awake and mum's plans to do various house and kitcheny things all evening fly out the window. That's when I'm already kinda tired from whoever it was that woke up the last two nights.
I can't remember who, I'm thinking they tagged teamed it.
 I do remember one of them was Mr 6, who woke up sobbing because he dreamed he lost his Milo cricket bag. Right.
Add to that two wet beds in row from Mr 3 and a lot of rain, so wet bedding draped everywhere and occasionally stuffed into the dryer. 

Ok.

Today Mr 6 came home and told me they've been watching High School Musical at school. 

Actually, he told me they finished watching it today, as they watched the first part yesterday.

This is a film about American teenagers and their relationships.

I cannot see in any way, shape or form how this is appropriate viewing for a class of 5 and 6 year olds.
Aside from the fact I don't send him to school to WATCH TV.

I am beyond annoyed.

Now, just to remind myself I do love being a mum, even when I'm tired and my kids are sending me round the bend, I give you this photo: 

Mr 3 year thought Buzz Lightyear and Zurg could do with a makeover. 

Much improved, don' cha think?

That was before he started jumping off the desk onto my bed. 

The last time of which he landed oddly and rolled round in laughing agony saying he'd broken his jacks crackers.

Oi

Lord give me patience and let my children sleep all night. Please.

Matching pants and environmentally friendly weed killer

My little monsters today....

As soon as the temperature rises above 12c, they are ready to get their gear off and race round like mad things outside. It didn't actually reach 25c I'm sure, but that did not deter them one little bit.

Do ya like their matching shorts?

Haaaahaha, yup, I've turned into one of 'those' mums, but I just couldn't help myself when I found them in Mr 3's size. The boys think it's cool, so I'll milk that for what it's worth while I can. Poor things.

I thought I'd give the new veggie garden a sprinkle but that soon degenerated into a bit of a free-for-all with the hose...

They don't need a beach to have fun with their bodyboards, either.

And, just LOOK at these dying weeds:

( I just know you're drooling with excitement)

My mission was to find an environmentally friendly weedkiller.

Answer to problem: straight white vinegar in a spray bottle.

Now, these are not huge weeds, as evidenced by the toe of my shoe, but I sprayed them yesterday afternoon and they are surely looking very much worse for wear now. Whether or not vinegar would work on the waist high jungle that was our backyard a few years back I'm not sure.

So, armed with vinegar for weeds, and a torch and my husbands big ol' shoe for snails, I am all set for gardening this summer. Yeah.

HeLLLOOO Garden!

Look at this.....

This piece of dirt is the garden bed that runs down the side of our shared driveway. The lady we now share the driveway with recently suggested we should clear it out of the random trees and ugly box hedging and use it for a veggie garden.

Brainwave!

So we promptly did just that.

Actually, she and hubby did it as I was heading out just as she came and suggested we make a start right then. The lady seems to have a knack for finding me when I'm busiest.

So, we have since dug in about 5 bags of composted cow poop and planted some tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers which I hope to get climbing up a trellis, spring onions and an asparagus plant. Still waiting to see if that's growing or if it rotted during the rainy spell that happened right after I planted it.....

I'm waiting for some yellow capsicums and chillis to sprout and my own baby toms to grow a bit bigger before I put them in the ground. Oh, and there's baby spinach and lettuce there too.

A while before all this went down, I had shot off an email to a local community garden I had found through Landshare Australia. The boys and I will go and check it out tomorrow morning, it's a permaculture garden run on the grounds of a local high school and in return for a few hrs work a week all workers get a share of the produce. They have 55 heritage fruit and nut trees planted, compost, chickens and water tanks, and I was told they would be delighted to have children around. It's fairly newly established from what I can tell and they are still very much in need of man/woman/people power.

Updates on how that goes later, a balmy 25c is predicted, and I'm really looking forward to checking it out!