Read this and weep guys.
My wife is a bloody legend.
Since getting out thermomix, we've been eating more at home and increasing our intake of really healthy organic (and fresh) foods.
Get this - milling our own organic flour for beautiful artisinal bread. Churning our own fresh butter. Cheese biscuits. Vegetable soups. Last night was savoury chick pea bread after organic buck wheat udon soup. This afternoon is freshly made pizza dough. As I fart around on this blog, she's in front of me kneading that beautiful elastic pale pizza dough. Can you smell that musky yeast? Wait till you smell it when it comes out of that oven!
Not only has the cooking been good. The kids are in on it too! Because the cooking is infinitely more efficient being in one piece of equipment, the kids can take turns with each of the steps during the prep work. Hahahahahaha. It's great for them.
Have a good long weekend kids!
Jojo, balance between housewife and career woman
The Jobs and Moms Career Center Home Page
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Archery - A Joint Sporting Endeavour for Parents and Children
My son Wills and I were out in the backyard two or so weeks ago with a toy bow I dug out from amongst other junk in his activity room. Of course I couldn't find the foam arrows that came with it. So in 'survival' mode, I hacked away at a green stem off the traveller's palm tree to fashion on. It fired well once or twice, but the short of it is that when I whipped out my phone to video William shooting, the entire thing exploded and broke in his arms. No, there was no fatalaties.
THe upside was that the next time William spoke to his Kong Kong and Ma ma on the phone, he dropped a really big hint that he did archery and his bow broke when he tried to fire it. WIth Kong Kong and Mama owning and running an archery import/export supply shop, it was easy to arrange for some proper equipment for him.
I've been secretly looking out for some joint activity which William and I can practice together, so was really happy for him to show some interest which at least I can nurture through my own experiences. This is as juxtaposed with my struggles helping him with the violin!
Anyway, the last few days I've been getting William to practice pulling the string to get his muscles used to the draw weight. Also took the time to explain safety rules.
Today, both of us did the father and son thing and went to the Archery ground. Sadly, with the long weekend, no one was there. So I swung back around to the home to pick up a target, and headed off to a certain park with conditions just right for safely firing off a few rounds.
It was good talking to William about archery and slipping in lessons of life folks. Two big lessons - one is that when you aim at the target, you look at the target and float the sighting mechanism over it -- meaning you don't look at the site and have a blurred target. Next lesson is that you have to have a stable head and body posture -- any movement sends the arrow off.
William was amazing. He fired off only three shots at close range, all of which hit the yellow centre for 9, 9, and 10 points. A fantastic start and not overly tiring for him.
We'll see how long the fun can last.
More Ammunition for Archers
T-Arch-Child-Art
THe upside was that the next time William spoke to his Kong Kong and Ma ma on the phone, he dropped a really big hint that he did archery and his bow broke when he tried to fire it. WIth Kong Kong and Mama owning and running an archery import/export supply shop, it was easy to arrange for some proper equipment for him.
I've been secretly looking out for some joint activity which William and I can practice together, so was really happy for him to show some interest which at least I can nurture through my own experiences. This is as juxtaposed with my struggles helping him with the violin!
Anyway, the last few days I've been getting William to practice pulling the string to get his muscles used to the draw weight. Also took the time to explain safety rules.
Today, both of us did the father and son thing and went to the Archery ground. Sadly, with the long weekend, no one was there. So I swung back around to the home to pick up a target, and headed off to a certain park with conditions just right for safely firing off a few rounds.
It was good talking to William about archery and slipping in lessons of life folks. Two big lessons - one is that when you aim at the target, you look at the target and float the sighting mechanism over it -- meaning you don't look at the site and have a blurred target. Next lesson is that you have to have a stable head and body posture -- any movement sends the arrow off.
William was amazing. He fired off only three shots at close range, all of which hit the yellow centre for 9, 9, and 10 points. A fantastic start and not overly tiring for him.
We'll see how long the fun can last.
More Ammunition for Archers
T-Arch-Child-Art
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
One Pot Wonder!
Time to soup up your kitchen, kids!
My wife recently made a fantastic purchase (the thermomix you see above)- off the recommendation of friends and her sister. The product was originally designed in the 70s (if I remember what the demo consultant correctly said) for preparing baby food. It's undergone a few changes since (31 to be exact). The current thermomix can blend liquids and mill grains. It can weigh, chop, knead, mix, and stir continuously or according to timer. The best is that it can cook the food and steam at the same time.
I don't like to depend on equipment when I cook, but we're increasingly reliant on this equipment - it is so convenient, and with the integrative functions, it allows you to do most of your food prep in the one bowl! It saves cooking and washing time. You can set and forget it. The only problem I've noticed is if I have to adapt a recipe and set the wrong blending speed - making the texture a little baby-food-ish. But if you use the thermomix recipe, food comes out pretty much perfect all the time!
Colin
Monday, 26 May 2008
Frazzled Pick Ups x3
I don't know if dealing with this one account has distracted me so much this morning. I picked up both B-girl at 1:30pm and son at 3pm with good time BUT forgot to pick up my cousin-in-law's little girl! We were all at the library when the school called my cousin, and her mom, and when I got the call from Po-po Kit Kat (my aunt-in-law) my heart absolutely sank to my foot. Then got tachycardia, cold sweats, started to stammer, heart in the mouth, etc. I got the kids into the car and tried to race back in bad traffic. Fortunately it all ended well - picked up little J ONLY 45 min late, making only three teachers stay back to babysit her. :-( Maybe I should customise my alarms in future.
My other life ... coaching martial art students.
I've just finished an article for the Australasian Taekwondo magazine, featuring my martial art school, the style of martial art I study, and my students. I thought to post one of the pictures we took in our practice here - showing something from my martial arts similar to my parenting style. Notice how I'm pushing Adina closer to Jacob - who's trying his best to punch her in the nose. Adina is doing a drill to prevent her from getting her nose bloodied -- and is benefiting from the added training pressure (but she doesn't realise or appreciate it of course ... as yet).
This next one is a handlock, takedown, and immobilization technique - and teaches control and moderation in the use of lethal techniques. It also applies quite a bit of pain and psychological stress ... in a safe-ish environment. :-)
You can read more off my martial arts blog which has a slideshow of more photos from the photo session.
This next one is a handlock, takedown, and immobilization technique - and teaches control and moderation in the use of lethal techniques. It also applies quite a bit of pain and psychological stress ... in a safe-ish environment. :-)
You can read more off my martial arts blog which has a slideshow of more photos from the photo session.
Part Timers Disease
I've got a slight problem at the office to deal with. One of my colleagues has either a schedule or role which may conflict with a new account that we're confirming. I just managed to pack the children off to school - if I get changed, tidy up, hang out the clothes, and drive down, it'll be 9:45am or closer to 10am before I get to chat with him. So I'm deciding to hop online now, basically in my PJs to clear up this matter so I can figure out what is going on. The clothes, dishes, and my further ablutions will have to wait. But we're not going to video conference this, folks.
Monday, 7 April 2008
14 SIMPLE TESTS BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO HAVE CHILDREN (Joke)
FOLLOW THESE 14 SIMPLE TESTS BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO HAVE CHILDREN...
Test 1
Women: to prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a
beanbag down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months remove
5% of the beans.
Men: to prepare for paternity, go to a local chemist, tip the contents of
your wallet onto the counter and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Then
go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their
head office. Go home. Pick up the newspaper and read it for the last time.
Test 2
Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods
of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels and how
they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they
might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners
and overall behaviour. Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that
you will have all the answers.
Test 3
To discover how the nights will feels:
1. Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag
weighing approximately 4 - 6kg, with a radio turned to static (or some
other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
4. Set the alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
6. Go to bed at 2.45am.
7. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs in the dark until 4am.
9. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up when it goes off.
10. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. LOOK CHEERFUL.
Test 4
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems:
1. Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang
out.
3. Time allowed for this: 5 minutes.
Test 5
Forget the BMW and buy a practical 5 door wagon. And don't think that you
can leave it out on the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't
look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
2. Leave it there.
3. Get a coin. Insert it into the cd player.
4. Take a box of chocolate biscuits; mash them into the back seat.
5. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
Test 6
Get ready to go out
1. Wait
2. Go out the front door
3. Come back in again
4. Go out
5. Come back in again
6. Go out again
7. Walk down the front path
8. Walk back up it
9. Walk down it again
10. Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
11. Stop, inspect minutely and ask at least 6 questions about every
piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the
way.
12. Retrace your steps
13. Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the
neighbours come out and stare at you.
14. Give up and go back into the house.
15. You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a
walk.
Test 7
Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.
Test 8
Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can
find to a pre-school child. A full-grown goat is excellent. If you
intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy
your weeks groceries without letting the goat(s) out of your sight.
Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily
accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.
Test 9
1. Hollow out a melon
2. Make a small hole in the side
3. Suspend the melon from the ceiling and swing it side to side
4. Now get a bowl of soggy cornflakes and attempt to spoon them into
the swaying melon while pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the cornflakes are gone.
6. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on
the floor.
7. You are now ready to feed a 12-month old child.
Test 10
Learn the names of every character from the Wiggles, Barney,
Teletubbies and Disney. Watch nothing else on television for at
least 5 years.
Test 11
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out:
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains
2. Hide a fish behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower beds and then rub them on clean
walls.
4. Cover the stains with crayon.
5. How does that look?
Test 12
Make a recording of someone shouting 'Mummy' repeatedly. Important: no
more than a 4 second delay between each Mummy - occasional crescendo to the
level of a supersonic jet if required. Play this tape in your car,
everywhere you go for the next 4 years. You are now ready to take a long
trip with a toddler.
Test 13
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually
tug on your shirt hem or shirt sleeve while playing the Mummy tape listed
above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there
is a child in the room.
Test 14
Put on your finest work attire. Pick a day on which you have an important
meeting. Now:
1. Take a cup of cream and put 1 cup of lemon juice in it
2. Stir
3. Dump half of it on your nice silk shirt
4. Saturate a towel with the other half of the mixture
5. Attempt to clean your shirt with the same saturated towel
6. Do not change, you have no time.
7. Go directly to work
You are now ready to have kids.
Test 1
Women: to prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a
beanbag down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months remove
5% of the beans.
Men: to prepare for paternity, go to a local chemist, tip the contents of
your wallet onto the counter and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Then
go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their
head office. Go home. Pick up the newspaper and read it for the last time.
Test 2
Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods
of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels and how
they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they
might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners
and overall behaviour. Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that
you will have all the answers.
Test 3
To discover how the nights will feels:
1. Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag
weighing approximately 4 - 6kg, with a radio turned to static (or some
other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
4. Set the alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
6. Go to bed at 2.45am.
7. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs in the dark until 4am.
9. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up when it goes off.
10. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. LOOK CHEERFUL.
Test 4
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems:
1. Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang
out.
3. Time allowed for this: 5 minutes.
Test 5
Forget the BMW and buy a practical 5 door wagon. And don't think that you
can leave it out on the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't
look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
2. Leave it there.
3. Get a coin. Insert it into the cd player.
4. Take a box of chocolate biscuits; mash them into the back seat.
5. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
Test 6
Get ready to go out
1. Wait
2. Go out the front door
3. Come back in again
4. Go out
5. Come back in again
6. Go out again
7. Walk down the front path
8. Walk back up it
9. Walk down it again
10. Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
11. Stop, inspect minutely and ask at least 6 questions about every
piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the
way.
12. Retrace your steps
13. Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the
neighbours come out and stare at you.
14. Give up and go back into the house.
15. You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a
walk.
Test 7
Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.
Test 8
Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can
find to a pre-school child. A full-grown goat is excellent. If you
intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy
your weeks groceries without letting the goat(s) out of your sight.
Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily
accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.
Test 9
1. Hollow out a melon
2. Make a small hole in the side
3. Suspend the melon from the ceiling and swing it side to side
4. Now get a bowl of soggy cornflakes and attempt to spoon them into
the swaying melon while pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the cornflakes are gone.
6. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on
the floor.
7. You are now ready to feed a 12-month old child.
Test 10
Learn the names of every character from the Wiggles, Barney,
Teletubbies and Disney. Watch nothing else on television for at
least 5 years.
Test 11
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out:
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains
2. Hide a fish behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower beds and then rub them on clean
walls.
4. Cover the stains with crayon.
5. How does that look?
Test 12
Make a recording of someone shouting 'Mummy' repeatedly. Important: no
more than a 4 second delay between each Mummy - occasional crescendo to the
level of a supersonic jet if required. Play this tape in your car,
everywhere you go for the next 4 years. You are now ready to take a long
trip with a toddler.
Test 13
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually
tug on your shirt hem or shirt sleeve while playing the Mummy tape listed
above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there
is a child in the room.
Test 14
Put on your finest work attire. Pick a day on which you have an important
meeting. Now:
1. Take a cup of cream and put 1 cup of lemon juice in it
2. Stir
3. Dump half of it on your nice silk shirt
4. Saturate a towel with the other half of the mixture
5. Attempt to clean your shirt with the same saturated towel
6. Do not change, you have no time.
7. Go directly to work
You are now ready to have kids.
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Designate. Allocate. Luxuriate.
Been helping with marketing taglines for a slew of collateral for the business. Then thought that there has to be a relation between that and the positive experiences I've had with some really nice coffees I've been enjoying on the road. Yes, I'm talking about those roadside coffee kiosks. It started with a hot day and an icy cold frappe; and I was hooked. I didn't just drink it to cool down, I made sure I drank it to enjoy it. It was great. The next time I had one a couple of days later, the kids were in the car and I made sure to ignore them for a few 30 second bursts while I pulled this crisp musky slush down the throat. So my tagline for the D.A.D. blog is Designate - make sure to identify some pleasurable activity for yourself only; Allocate - take the time and separate yourself from the maelstrom of activity; and Luxuriate - revel in simple pleasures, don't just go through the motions, it's not difficult to do. Have a great day, kids! Colin
Monday, 11 February 2008
Parenting Fuel Tank
More from Steve Biddulph's book ...
A fantastic analogy was used to help parents manage their own needs while keeping up with the near-exhaustion that comes with caring for children.
The idea was parents should think of a 'fuel gauge' to describe their energy levels. Think you're at or below 'E'? Maybe you think you need to give up your interest for the sake of children? Or maybe you're thinking of a zero sum game - sacrificing your own needs or lifestyle so that your children can have a better life? This model leads to a quickly emptying fuel tank!!!
What is better is that if you embrace the fact that you can enjoy yourself whilst providing for your child's welfare. If you change your mindset, caring for children becomes part of your routine. You look after both yourself and your children collectively.
Life sure becomes different with the lil' ones. But take stock and you'll see it's hard to go back to a place with less love and less activity.
Cheers!
Colin
A fantastic analogy was used to help parents manage their own needs while keeping up with the near-exhaustion that comes with caring for children.
The idea was parents should think of a 'fuel gauge' to describe their energy levels. Think you're at or below 'E'? Maybe you think you need to give up your interest for the sake of children? Or maybe you're thinking of a zero sum game - sacrificing your own needs or lifestyle so that your children can have a better life? This model leads to a quickly emptying fuel tank!!!
What is better is that if you embrace the fact that you can enjoy yourself whilst providing for your child's welfare. If you change your mindset, caring for children becomes part of your routine. You look after both yourself and your children collectively.
Life sure becomes different with the lil' ones. But take stock and you'll see it's hard to go back to a place with less love and less activity.
Cheers!
Colin
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
The Complete Secrets of Happy Children
"If we give attention and love to a child who is sulking, they learn a simple equation - loves come through being miserable. If you want to be cared for, just collapse yourself and work up a negative attitude, and people will give you free attention."
The Complete Secrets of Happy Children by Steve Biddulph (2002) p64
I had the luck to attend a talk by noted family psychologist Steve Biddulp. I had read a book previously by him called Raising Boys - both humorous and educational. At the talk I purchased the Complete Secrets, but had not started reading it until now.
This above paragraph sums up a lot of my own parenting approach to the children. There are expectations we have for the good behaviour of our children, and our own actions surrounding such behaviour and creating the environment for such behaviour to flourish is key to having great children. Much of what I think many parents do is reactive and comes from how they understand how children were brought up 'traditionally'.
But if you take a 'coaching' mindset and figure out how to communicate the right signals to the child, in time this will support and enhance all the 'rules' you might try to establish. You need to have some commitment and persistence in all the things you do to approach each 'rule you have. Every time you give in or try to appeach your children or become reactive to their tantrums undermines your children's image of you as a consistent effective coach. They'll tread all over you.
Be brave, brothers. It is not easy, but it sure will help with raising great kids.
The Complete Secrets of Happy Children by Steve Biddulph (2002) p64
I had the luck to attend a talk by noted family psychologist Steve Biddulp. I had read a book previously by him called Raising Boys - both humorous and educational. At the talk I purchased the Complete Secrets, but had not started reading it until now.
This above paragraph sums up a lot of my own parenting approach to the children. There are expectations we have for the good behaviour of our children, and our own actions surrounding such behaviour and creating the environment for such behaviour to flourish is key to having great children. Much of what I think many parents do is reactive and comes from how they understand how children were brought up 'traditionally'.
But if you take a 'coaching' mindset and figure out how to communicate the right signals to the child, in time this will support and enhance all the 'rules' you might try to establish. You need to have some commitment and persistence in all the things you do to approach each 'rule you have. Every time you give in or try to appeach your children or become reactive to their tantrums undermines your children's image of you as a consistent effective coach. They'll tread all over you.
Be brave, brothers. It is not easy, but it sure will help with raising great kids.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
