pick yourself up, dust yourself off

All righty then. I'm officially not in a panic any more. This is good because panicking is stupid. I've done some marketing, I've done some thinking, I've been reassured and helped by good people far and wide and I'm back to being Miss Caroline the Optimist again. Big thanks again to all who weighed in and helped out and calmed me down. You rock.

Meanwhile in household news, here is what's going on.

I received a lovely teatowel via Sooz's teatowel swap from Jo at Jellybabyblog. Thank you Jo!



And I indulged in some panic-induced retail therapy but actually I think I would have bought this anyway, panic or no, because it had my name stamped all over it.



I will be heading off to Sewjourn on Saturday for a crafter-rific weekend of girl power and err.. craft power. Yay for craft power and girl power. Time to try making a skirt with a zip. Time to finish off a few projects. And time to just generally recoup and regroup. The lovely Miss Kaye (from my performance troupe The Tap-pets) is visiting us with her mobile massage service and she'll be in charge of transforming the plank of wood into my upper back once more. Can't wait.

Fixit's motorcycle was declared a write-off after his little accident. Iron-balls 1, Honda Hornet 0. This is bad news really, as he got that bike at staff rates when he was still in the trade and it was supposed to be the bike that lasted. It was still under finance too, which means that we'll see very little of the payout, the bulk of it goes straight to the finance company. Fixit was very glum about this. I reminded him that in less than 2 years when the apprenticeship is done he will be, for the first time in his life, on a reasonable wage and that he can get a good bike then. Meantime he has the loan of a friend's bike and has started looking for a second-hand one. He is just completing a 6-week stint at TAFE and I think his brain is well and truly fried (I know his fingernails are), but so far he has passed all exams. It's probably good that I'm going away on the weekend because it has forced him to take time off to mind the kids (school holidays) and this will be an excellent wind-down for him. You see how I look out for that man?

Climber has started keeping a diary as a direct result of reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He is really committed to it too, and is madly scribbling away as we drive to and from school or last thing at night. He let me read a bit when he first started but wants it to be private now, fair enough. He tells me bits though. Quite often the last thing he writes is a preparation for the future ie: Today at school I... - that way he can leap right in when he's re-united with his diary. He also had to do a self-portrait for school, we used a printed iron-on transfer onto an old canvas then he painted things about himself round the outside. It will go straight to the pool-room once his teacher has finished with it.



Cherub lost his second ever tooth...



... and he came this close to swallowing it again. Luckily, as he explained in his note to the Tooth Fairy, he thought it was an apple seed so he took it out of his mouth in the nick of time.



Phew.