Just Ace: Fairtrade Chocolate, Christmas, Shithead Comments, and My Kids Trying to Strangle Each Other
With apologies to Grinspoon…
October went by so damn fast, I got whiplash. How is it nearly November? What even happened? While I’ve no idea what’s gone on, I do know there was awesome things in it. October, you pretty good.
I am addicted to Costco chocolate chips. I read this post at The Art of Simple, and I KNOW I should buy fair-trade, child-slave-free chocolate, and refuse palm oil products. I KNOW I should. But after that post I thought I should try a little bit harder, at least. So I went to Costco and I bought the dang chocolate and now that there’s 2 kilos of it in my cupboard, my usual “meh”ness about chocolate (except Loving Earth chocolate because I will eat the shit out of that when it’s around) has suddenly turned into “hand it all over and nobody gets hurt”.
I have been getting disproportionately excited about Holiday-themed holiday things, So I’ve been stocking up on movies and whatnot on iTunes for the kids. “For the kids“. They have been subjected to A Charlie Brown Christmas and Dora doing Thanksgiving-themed activities, among other things. Just wait til I make them watch Garfield.
I also have been pinning them down and desperately trying to get them to love the old Wind in the Willows and Peter Rabbit TV shows from when I was a kid, but every time I flick past them there’s a bloody Dora somewhere and they want it. Mummy wants to watch wildlife have a quaint English picnic on the river in watercolours, DON’T YOU CARE, SMALL CHILD?! Let alone the attempts I’ve made to read to them from the actual books (and Winnie the Pooh) but the pictures are small and black-and-white, and it isn’t happening.
I loved “So they can’t wear nappies forever?” from The Uneducated Opinion about a stay-at-home dad wrangling toilet training, “Sydney Mother Risks Possibility of Third Son” from The Thud discussing the shithead things people say about pregnant women, and “Why your husband isn’t doing you a favour by watching your kids” from A Mother Far From Home, about the shithead things people say when women go out and leave the kids with their father. It’s not “babysitting”, y’all. Grrrrrr.
Speaking of A Mother Far From Home, she’s my podcast co-host and we are finally getting the ball rolling. You will have us in your ears toot sweet. You will LOVE her Southern drawl, except when I start speaking, because it makes me sound like my bogan is turned up to 11.
The other fun thing that October has brought has been the contents of my mailbox. Two great new books and some new season Mox shoes because I’m kind of obsessed with them (Exhibit A), and I’m now very stoked to see Vel as a sponsor in the sidebar. Hooray for cool people doing cool things!
The week before last, the ProBlogger Team went away for a planning retreat to Balgownie Estate in the Yarra Valley, and it was insane. I’m going to write a little post about it, but there’s a surprise for you, too. Just wait and see!
Oh and you know what is NOT ace? it appears that the walls that face the street in our townhouse (pretty much just glass windows and doors) not only let in the noise from the street (someone just lost their licence and his friend needs to go to the “torlet”, if you’re wondering) also means the street, which is pretty quiet, can hear our shenanigans.
So that means when I’m downstairs sorting the washing and I can hear the kids playing, then whingeing, the whole street can hear me screaming about children choking, thanks to both children wrapping each end of a six-foot-long dance ribbon around their necks and trying to convoy down the stairs. And seeing that one kid is way bigger and faster than the other – well, it isn’t going to end well. I thought shouting might give them a little extra fright so they knew this was a Really Bad Idea because Someone Could Get Really Hurt, when I realised all the doors and windows in the place were open. So the whole street thinks my toddlers are delinquent, and that I’m batshit crazy.
They’re not far wrong.
But what’s been Just Ace in your world? Kids trying to kill each other too?
The post Just Ace: Fairtrade Chocolate, Christmas, Shithead Comments, and My Kids Trying to Strangle Each Other appeared first on The Veggie Mama.
