Our own little Kiwi Thread ! page 68

[zoebird]

The old DH is always a bit more hesitant.

This is my ideal right now:

Move into a small one-bedroom apartment, with a good-sized closet in town that has parking included. Sell our furniture, and purchase sheepskin rugs and organic futons.

Organize the closet to house our capsule wardrobes (this is easy, honestly -- though I could keep the dresser that we have to facilitate this -- so lets say we keep that and pop it into the closet), DS's toys (using some simple shelves that we already have -- "garage shelves" i call them), and then our futons/linens (again, using shelves we already have).

Outside of this, there would be a simple bookshelf somewhere to house our computers and books (mostly DS's books because I've minimized ours down a fair bit), but if that could fit in the closet, that would be great too.

At the entry, we'd put hooks for coats/bags/scarves, a small shelf for our key bowl, space for our bags, and then a space for our shoes (we are looking to minimize down to 4 pairs each).

For dining, we would go back to our floor picnics with some vintage linens that I have.

And we would keep this one small bench that we use for *everything* from bench to desk to step-stool -- it gets a lot of use.

I would also probably get a couple of yoga bolsters for some comfy back rests when leaning against the wall, as well as to use as yoga props anyway (also keeping these with the futons in the closet!).

---

But, I do what I can. For example, DH has already agreed that capsule wardrobes are great. So, we've done that. We also do kitchen minimalism -- just enough dishes for us, just enough cooking stuff (we use all of our cooking stuff every day). We have bathroom minimalism as well -- currently the only products in there are vinegar, coconut oil, castile soap and baking soda. We have two towels each, and hooks for our PJs.

Comparatively, we are also toy minimalists. DS has a lot more toys that I would prefer -- I could probably streamline it down to lego (400 pieces), blocks (150), 11 wooden vehicles plus wooden peg people (6), two puzzles, and 10 stuffed animals plus musical instruments which is 5 -- drum, ukulele, harmonica, two rattles. It would be getting rid of about 1/3 of the toys (some of which are too young for him anymore, some of which he doesn't play with, etc) -- mostly gifted stuffed toys (from other people's clean-outs).

And, we finally got to paper-minimalism (DH is no longer collecting paper!). Which is awesome. We don't have any more piles of paper just randomly around! Yay!

I'd also like to let go of some furniture -- probably 6 cafe chairs and 2 mid-mod chairs (lounge chairs). we shall see.

[seaweed]

I get so torn up over friends/family who plan to use cloth and then decide that once the baby has arrived that they are faaaaaar to busy to go down to the local stream and beat the nappies on a rock, then stand about watching them dry...............seriously its like one or two extra loads of washing in the machine a week, and you don't even need to soak them anymore (like our mothers did) because our washing machines are so efficient. Grumble grumble......bloody wasting the environment.......grumble grumble.....

my youngest never wore a disposable nappy ever. my middle one maybe had a few but it used to pain me seeing people putting nappies in the bin all the time. it wasnt a drama washing them or drying them and i worked as well as looked after my kids. altho i didnt have to put them in childcare. i think the alternative movement do do some damage in some ways as it is seen as something alternative woo woo people do, not just a normal way to do things. which it should be.

[Lizzielou]

I am such a hippy Seaweed! Haha, all that babywearing, cloth nappying, extended breastfeeding, vegetable growing weirdness is just bizarre to so many people.

Ah Zoe that ideal sounds pretty good doesn't it? I'd never get there, but I'd like to give it a good shot. I know what I don't want - pretty much to be like my parents who still own clothes from the 60's and still have unopened crates sent to them from when they lived in London in the early 70's. My husband just loves the paper thing! He'll keep everything if I'd let him, and usually on the kitchen bench. Seriously if we get a bill in the mail, he'll open it, and then put the bill and the envelope it came in and the return post envelope and whatever else advertising that usually comes with it, on the bench and then walk away. I HATE THAT. We have a place for everything we just need to deal with it immediately or it becomes another 'hot spot', he just can't get his head around it though. I'm pretty good at clearing out my closet and drawers every season of unwanted things, but I need to have a fair bit more than I'd like because of my work - I have a complicated uniform system of 3 jackets, 3 blouses, 2 skirts, one pair of pants, tights and then in the coldest months of winter my uniform is too cold so I have to own at least 3 suitable items for then as well - and thats just the work stuff. My husband and MIL ruin my attempts at keeping the kids wardrobes to a minimum because they insist (and will go out and buy if I don't) on having a million pairs of socks for my son, and brand new 'going out' clothes all the time, which virtually get no wear or worn once before they grow out of them - and then I get berrated when we do go out and my son only has jeans with holes in them. Why is it always my fault?

Gosh I'm having a very ranty morning on here! Actually I'm not having too bad a day really, and I'm going out to lunch with my bestie soon, so see its happy times.....truly.

I am having ongoing ambulance issues at work so maybe thats got my mind somewhat distracted on the negative today? We have a complicated system of calling medical emergencies and this of course is leading to communication problems which is leading to errors and delays. Of course its always everyone else's fault, but the fact is that the two parties that need to pass on the relevant information don't like dealing with each other (they give me all sorts of excuses why) and this needs to stop. How do I convince them of this though?

[seaweed]

I am such a hippy Seaweed! Haha, all that babywearing, cloth nappying, extended breastfeeding, vegetable growing weirdness is just bizarre to so many people.

lol i did all that but i dont look the part. even if i do have the long hair lol i also had an unassisted home birth which flips alot of people out. i am off for a ride on my very non hippy motorcycle now. hey did anyone find the link to the enter the kettlebell workbook in that other thread? quite interesting but looks hardcore in not a very pleasant way.

[NZ primal Gwamma]

I am having ongoing ambulance issues at work so maybe thats got my mind somewhat distracted on the negative today? We have a complicated system of calling medical emergencies and this of course is leading to communication problems which is leading to errors and delays. Of course its always everyone else's fault, but the fact is that the two parties that need to pass on the relevant information don't like dealing with each other (they give me all sorts of excuses why) and this needs to stop. How do I convince them of this though?

if their behaviour is impacting on the health/lives of others - they need to seriously pull a finger out !!!! Emergency medicine is hard core and not something to dick around with. I am happy to give them both a rark up !!!!! (two women, i'll bet !!!)

hey did anyone find the link to the enter the kettlebell workbook in that other thread? quite interesting but looks hardcore in not a very pleasant way.

didn't find it Seaweed. If anyone does come across it, could they link it in ? Don't ask me to, I have no idea how to do it.

Zoebird, that sounds extreme !!!!!! I would love to have a wee place for everything, but then DH comes along and like Lizzie Lous DH leaves everything just where its lying !!!!!!!!!!!
I do love my DH dearly, but by crikey - he can be a PITA at times (pain in the a---) lol

[Lizzielou]

i also had an unassisted home birth which flips alot of people out.

OMG you are hard core! If I had another baby I'd love to do that.

[Lizzielou]

if their behaviour is impacting on the health/lives of others - they need to seriously pull a finger out !!!! Emergency medicine is hard core and not something to dick around with. I am happy to give them both a rark up !!!!! (two women, i'll bet !!!)

I know, this is my headache. So far we have been lucky in that each time its gone wrong the emergency hasn't been time sensitive. Nevertheless, feathers are being ruffled (my residents) and I'm most concerned next time someone's life will be on the line - its a big responsibility for me and I need to know that when I'm not around the appropriate resources are in place. Unfortunately its not as simple as two people who won't talk to each other, its two organisations that would prefer not to talk to each other. So we end up with one bypassing the other for information and getting stroppy with my residents who can't/are not able to/should not have to give them the information they need to respond appropriately. Sigh.......

[seaweed]

http://thief.mars.ucla.edu/piefiles/...20Workbook.pdf i warn you it doesnt look like a barrel of laughs or even fun. i hate those type of what i call circuit training workouts. i can do them if i have to but the emphasis is on the have to. i can see no earthly reason to do reps of 20 kettlebell swings interspersed with 2 mins of active rest lol active rest being jumping jacks or mountain climbers etc and that is just the start! give me a hill and a gun and some food to chase any day!!!

LL work politics suck. we come up against it every now and then and it is usually for someone's ends. what i find unreal is that no one can see that if we all get on and co-operate, work would be stress free, we'd all perform better, the client would be happy and so on and so on. unassisted home birth was sort of accidental but so much better than having a midwife there. i was slutted i called the midwife for the next one. i didnt need her and she got in the way to the extent that i actually made her and my backup midwife a cup of tea when i was in transition as i was that uncomfortable with them being there. the only reason i had called her is my second had been posterior so i tore. i didnt want a tear with the 3rd so i figured i would get the midwife in. she then just stood back and let me tear so she was worse than useless. i did do a subsequent informal poll of women i knew who had her and we all tore as she did the whole hands off approach. i did swear after that, if i ever had anymore kids, i would just call them after and say i didnt have time to get to the phone.

[NZ primal Gwamma]

LL good luck, it is not easy when you are in the middle of sh-t like that. But don't take no sh-t !!!!! we will all back you up !!!!!
Seaweed you are hard core. I so want you on my team !!!!!!
I would have loved to have had home births, but all our 5 have been premature. First was only 3 wks early, so that wasn't too bad....but at 6 wks old I had a postpartum haemorage, and lost 2 pints of blood. I was not well !!!!! Second was 6 weeks early and really unwell, so spent 3 weeks in the neonatal unit. Our third wee fella, was only 24 weeks gestation, I had a terrible infection in my broken waters and nearly died and he had a knot in his cord, and only lived a few minutes. So so sad. Then number four was 29 weeks gestation. I should never have lost him. My waters had broken at 27 weeks, and was happily waiting in hospital, just tryng to incubate him a wee bit longer, but at 29 weeks I knew I was getting an infection, but the night nurse kept sending me back to bed. By the time the morning shift came on, they took one look and I was down for a caesarian within 10 minutes. This wee fella fought so hard, but he was full of infection and died about 6 hours later. Then we tried one more time and had a wee 3lb daughter at 31 weeks. She was very well, spent 7 weeks in NICU and is now spending a year in the states, doing her 7th form....... so I had to have a specialist, and heaps of intervention etc... In fact I could possibly write a book on pregnancy issues !!!!!

anyway I really envy low intervention pregnancies, but their is definately a time and place for specialist help

[Misabi]

I'll second seaweed as being hard core!!

Thanks for popping by Gwamma :-)
I challenge you to give it a go, it'll go nicely with your plank challenge ;-)