Did you know....

...that the week of 1 - 7 August is Simplify Your Life Week? Who decided this? I know not. I can't find an official site for it, but I did find 268,000 results for it on Google so it must be real, but I can't promise I'm going to check them all to make sure - sorry, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Interestingly in my research I also discovered that August not only hosts Simplify Your Life Week it also hosts Work Like a Dog Day. Who thinks this stuff up? And I sincerely hope that Work Like a Dog Day doesn't fall in the middle of Simplify Your Life Week or there are going to be some very confused people out there because it seems to me those two events are not compatible.

Now don't get me wrong here, I'm a sucker for simplifying my life. I hanker after a calmer lifestyle, less busy striving, less consumerism, less stuff, less frantic rushing about and so on. In fact I quite fancy a stint at being Amish but not for too long because I think those hats the women wear would make for even worse hat hair than a mortar board and I'd miss my laptop (I'm shallow that way) and I believe every day is Work Like a Dog Day for the Amish (except the sabbath of course). Also I just can't see Tom and the girls going for this......

However, there are other ways I can simplify my life and I'm going to make a list in readiness for Simplify Your Life Week - all suggestions gratefully accepted (although not necessarily acted upon). I shall post this list prior to the event and you can be entertained by how unlikely it will be that I actually do it my newfound simple lifestyle.

If it all works out I'll be renaming this blog - The Simpletons Gazette or something ....oh, wait a minute....

Photo credit - I did not take this photo and I always like to give credit for photos on the blog that I didn't take - however this one is in several places around the internet and none of them give credit to the photographer. If you took this photo and find it here on my blog please let me know who you are so I can credit you.

Last week I .....

• continued to 'enjoy' the school holidays - ahem
• entertained a house guest for two nights - Tom's youngest brother came to stay, he buys good wine
• got a little bit tipsy on Thursday night (see previous)
• had a slight hangover for the first time in a long time (some of you may recall this episode)
• wrote some stuff then presented it to a potential 'associate' - nerve wracking
• created a new household budget and stuck to it (time will tell on that one)
• ate way more chocolate than is good for me (but within budget so that's ok)
• missed my favourite blogs because I was too busy and distracted to read them
• didn't post to my own blog
• turned down the opportunity to interview for a very nice, very interesting, very important and very well paid job.
• in doing so also turned down a life of stress, pressure, exhaustion and parental guilt because my children would have to spend so much time in childcare
• beat myself up as to whether I'd made the right decision (ok, I'm still doing that one)

So tell me what you did last week....or I could just go and read your blog (if you have one..... if you don't you should......I'm looking at you Imelda).

..and very nice it was too.....

On Friday night, to celebrate our child free weekend, we enjoyed a rather lovely 1997 Wynn's Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner. Delicious.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, eating, sleeping and hours and hours reading. I never get to spend hours and hours reading so that was quite a treat.

Now I have to get to the shops because we're running out of food and, more importantly, toilet rolls. Yes. Back to reality.

Nothing to see here folks....

..unless you're interested in endless rain and the sight of me going crazy trying to think of, then supervise, entertaining indoor activities while still getting some work done? No? Didn't think so.

The winter holidays are always a challenge, even if it's not raining it's cold out there and no-one really wants to be out in it for too long. Short bursts are about all we can take then it's back inside to destroy the house engage in more of those entertaining indoor activities. Sometimes (but not this time) we go to the family beach house for the July break, it's even colder and rainier there but that doesn't stop us staying out for hours then coming home to a warm fire and hot chocolate. Tom and I may or may not lace ours with whiskey, I'm not saying.

I'm not complaining about the rain, we need it desperately and I actually love a miserable, cold, rainy day (what can I tell you.... I'm Scottish). Also, South Australia is facing some very serious water issues and it's not an exaggeration to say we're in danger of running out unless our illustrious leaders do something. Scary stuff. So keep the rain coming I say.

Tomorrow the girls are off to their cousins' for the weekend. I've mentioned before the arrangement we have with Tom's brother and his wife. For those of you that don't like to follow links I'll recap - we have their boys for a weekend one month and they have the girls the next. It works well and means that both couples get a child free weekend every two months. When this tradition began we'd spend the first 8 hours wandering the house aimlessly, occasionally bumping into each other saying things like 'what shall we do?', 'I don't know, what do you want to do?', 'oh I don't know, what do you want to do?' and so on. Very tedious. Now that we're used to it there is no such bewilderment. It's more 'I'll pick up the takeaway, you get the wine' then we proceed to eat, sleep, watch movies and have uninterrupted conversations all weekend. Very grown up.

But that's tomorrow. Today I have to come up with some more holiday fun. I'm running out of ideas.

Sometimes....

....pale pink cupcakes are the only thing that will get you through a rainy afternoon.

Because unfortunately Vodka is pretty much out of the question when you have children in your charge.

Local wildlife

I've mentioned before that one of the best things about living in Australia is the wildlife. There are so many interesting and unusual animals in this country, some of which can be seen in your own backyard (or shed).

So you can imagine my delight when I managed to photograph a little known, and rarely seen, species of wombat as it came through the cat door this morning (obviously trying to escape the freezing rain). This remarkable little marsupial is the Lesser Turquoise Wombat (Vombatus Acid Trippus) or 'Pink Ear', a very rare sighting indeed. I'm so glad I had the camera handy.

Alternatively my children could be messing with my head, planning to have me committed so they can get their greedy little hands on that bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk hidden at the back of the pantry.

If anything happens to me can someone let the authorities know please.

I've worked out what I'm doing wrong....

....I filled in the wrong quiz. Apparently I make a MUCH better 1930s husband than I do 1930s wife.

119 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

My friend Dave* (you can find him over here) left me a comment to say he'd done the quiz and was a very superior husband. This made me jealous curious. So I did the husband test (obviously replacing the spousal gender accordingly). Above you can see my result. Interesting isn't it?

Seemingly things like 'failing to sew on buttons or darn socks regularly' or 'walking round the house in stocking feet' make me a poor wife, whereas 'not using tobacco' and being a 'careful auto driver' make me a top notch husband. Who knew?

Thank goodness it isn't the 1930s. I'd be an outcast. Not only a hopeless wife but clearly way too much of husband. Disgraceful.

So come on...are you a better husband or wife?

*you'll note I say 'my friend Dave'. We've never met. I like his blog, he's funny and likes cricket and wants to walk on Mars. I like to chip in my ten cents worth in his comments and he sometimes comments here (hi Dave!). In the blogging world that makes him my friend, whether he likes it or not. Either that or I'm more of a stalker than I thought.