The Week That Was

I am linking up to Elizabeth's Sunday Snippets linky! (photos are coming, I promise, but Blogger is not letting me upload just at the moment!)

Our week was a busy and yet quiet one.  Busy because Boyo worked some afternoon and evening shifts.  Quiet because he wasn't doing 55hrs a week (which he is back to this week).
Quiet becuase a lot of friends were still away so Munchkin and I hung out at home a lot.

So what did we get up to?

Received a VERY cool card and gift from sister-in-law (I am guessing that the artwork is not my brother's at any rate!)...she knows I love buttons.

Went to Spotlight with my mum and Munchkin.  Forgot that the extra wool I need for Munchkin's cardigan (which has been on the go since about May last year) was purchased at a different store, not Spotlight.  Oh well, good outing for us still.  Bought another fan from Mega10.  Which is getting good use in this hotter weather.  Also found a real bargain.  These two pieces of cotton fabric for just $4.  Wahoo!  I can probably make 4-6 decent sized drawstring bags out of them for my Operation Christmas Child boxes.  After I finish my skirts.  And do the rest of my mending.  Haha. 

I could become a fabric addict.

Discovered that mould is hazardous to your health.  Which I guess I always knew in a vague kind of way, but I didn't realise just how much it contributes to and causes poor health...from sore throats and colds to breathing issues, depression, and tiredness, mould has a lot to answer for.  The problem is that we have a mould problem.  Quite a large mould problem.  You would think that we don't open our windows or something, when in actual fact we open them every day, even in winter.  And this past winter I wiped a lot of condensation off windows and Munchkin had a heater in his room at night.  But still, this is what the external wall of his room looks like.  AFTER I wiped the mould from wall and ceiling several months back.  Not encouraging.  It is kind of ingrained into the texture of the wallpaper.

We will need to contact our landlords but other than insulation I don't know that there's much they can do (and that's a fairly pricey thing to do).  We are going to borrow a dehumidifier hopefully this winter - but that's of course going to add to our powerbill at a time we really don't have the money for it.

I am currently feeling very grateful to my youngest brother for making me aware of the mould issues, and also offering a great solution.  Google tea tree oil for mould, he says.  So I do.  And discover that it can kill most any mould!  Yippee.  $18.50 spent on small bottle of tea tree oil.  I also discovered in my reading that plain white vinegar kills quite a lot of common mould too.  Ceilings and walls in both bedrooms and bathroom were sprayed with vinegar yesterday (have I mentioned lately how much I LIKE vinegar!?  Boyo can't stand the smell, but the stuff sure is useful!).  The tea tree oil I am holding in reserve, to spray on walls should vinegar not appear to be effective.  And I will have to wash all the curtains in the house with vinegar and tea tree as they pretty much all have mould up the backs.  Even the new ones.  The lounge has managed to come off lightly as we run the heat pump in winter, but it still has a little on curtains and ceiling.  YUCK.  So, if you happen to have mould you really should do something about it as it might be making you sick.  My poor Munchkin, sleeping in a bedroom that has been a mould-fuzz-zone, no wonder he was getting so sick last winter!

Our last day of 'non-routine' this summer was spent at Church at the Beach, then a friend's birthday bbq lunch.  Munchkin had a blast.  He also missed his sleep which meant we didn't get such a great sleep last night, but ah, it was fun.  This has got to be one of the highlights of our day (and our week):

Sliding down a dirt bank with a friend.

One VERY dirty little boy...covered in dust and dirt.

This week past we also discovered that our less-than-one-year-old stroller is almost broken.  Despite our best efforts to treat it with tender loving care.  The left wheel started clunking.  On closer inspection we realised the internal plastic bits the brake mechanism is supposed to click into are almost all broken, twisted, or otherwise not up to scratch.  Grr.  A great deal of frustration as this cost us quite a bit and should have lasted.  Waiting to hear back from the manufacturer.  Feeling a little cautious about using stroller with brakes that are almost gone.  Ugh.  There are only about three intact pieces on the left wheel (below).

We all watched, amazed as our rescued monarch caterpillars became chrysalis.  It was incredible to watch.  They actually become liquidified inside as they hang suspended upside down, then shed their final caterpillar skin to reveal the chrysalis underneath.  We got to watch two of them transform.  Boyo took photos...you can actually see the caterpillar going green underneath it's skin in his collage here.

And here you can see the newly formed chrysalis compared to one that was a day or two old.

I just love the glitter of gold on each chrysalis.  Beautiful!

I hope you had a good first week of 2013.


Amy