I am SO Sick of Winter

The view from where I'm sitting on my bed.  Blah.

Even though there are only eight days left by the calendar.  I thought it was me, you know getting older etc but I've heard several people say it's been the coldest, wettest most miserable Winter they can remember.  Day after day of grey skies and drizzle, fighting to get washing dry, especially school clothes, struggling to keep the house warm.  This house has been badly neglected by the crazy landlady and the wind whistles through many cracks and badly fitting doors.  This morning I was standing in the kitchen and could see the trees waving in the bitter breeze through a large gap under the ancient air conditioner in the wall of the loungreoom right above where I sit!
One of the first things this city born girl learned upon moving to the country was to never complain about the rain.  Indeed, much of the state has been in drought for over ten years, and we have been personally affected by it, with Phill being made redundant at one point and having to work in Sydney for the better part of a year back in 2003.  But I've overheard some locals cautiously alluding to the fact that they've had a gutful of it.  That is something I have NEVER heard in all the years we've lived in this area.  Not once.
Em got her "new" phone yesterday.  Her last one was Phill's old one, he has a work phone now, but it got put through the washing machine and died a watery (and yet clean) death.  She wanted one the same as her mentor Julie's phone, which is also a work phone, and we found one second hand on Ebay.  It has one of those slide out keyboards and Dad and the kids were fascinated by it yesterday.  I reckon it could even cook dinner, it does everything else.  I gave her my Telstra sim card that is billed as I feel much better when I know she has a phone and can ring me if she needs to when she's out and about.  I am happy to just top up my credit as I rarely make calls from my mobile and it means I don't have to change my number again.
She had two girlfriends over yesterday, something that hasn't really happened since we've lived here.  I knew one of them, she's the girl who Em talked into wagging school a while back.  Her family is Seventh Day Adventist I think, they don't eat meat, and don't celebrate birthdays or Christmas.  I think that's sad.  I believe in the right of everyone to practise their own religion freely without judgement but I also believe in allowing children to make their own choices as well.  Some of my happiest memories, and that of Phill's and our kids are of Christmases and birthdays.  This girl's mother is also very controlling of her, she can't have a boyfriend (try to stop them!) and she's not allowed to go out much.  She only came here because the girls lied to her and said they had a Geography assignment to finish.  I told Em I will not be party to any lies and to never do that again.  But it was nice to have them here and I hope it happens more with both of them.  The other girl, who I really took to, is only in year seven but that is a good thing.  I did warn Emily that she has a responsibility with younger friends and not lead them astray.
In the Sunday paper I was reading an article about how some teachers are suggesting to parents that their children may have certain disabilities in an effort to have them diagnosed so as to get extra funding for support staff for their schools.  I went cold inside remembering one of Josh's teachers, when we lived here before actually, an older woman who should have known better, who implied that Josh may have Aspergers Syndrome.  Josh was over 11lbs at birth and came down the birth canal very quickly and needed oxygen at birth and I believe that is the reason he was developmentally delayed in some of his gross motor skills.  He didn't crawl till he was a year old and didn't walk till he was nearly two but has always been extremely bright mentally.  When we took him to the physio at 18 months when we were concerned that he wasn't walking, they asked him to draw a circle.  Which he did.  Perfectly.  They sent us away and said time would take care of it.  And it did.  For this teacher, who had no training and no expertise in this area to suggest he had some sort of disability was so wrong and I should have done something about it at the time.  As it was I cried for three days while researching the subject.  In the end it was Mum who had a neighbour whose little boy had Aspergers who said "That's nonsense Trish he has no symptoms or signs at all, he's just a bit behind in his milestones and is immature emotionally".  And she was right.  I am a champion of the teaching profession.  My sister, my daughter and my niece in law are all teachers.  Certain teachers have made a big difference in both my own life and that of my kids but some people just shouldn't be in the profession.  Labelling children is never helpful. 
We did burgers last night for dinner.  For some reason I decided to do caramelised onions, I must have read something about it somewhere.  I cut up a couple of brown onions (would have preferred red but didn't have any) and just set them on a low heat in some EVOO.  After a while I added some salt and some sugar and let them caramelise for half an hour or so then whacked in a bit of balsamic vinegar.  OMG they were wonderful, I am going to find other ways to use them.  I saw some ideas online for dips, soups etc.  Who would have thought the humble onion could be so good?
I'm thinking about Christmas.  Since Santa stopped visiting a lot of the pressure is off me, my goodness Christmas at our house used to be a HUGE production when all the kids were small and it was hugely stressful for me but so worth it to have given them those lovely memories.  Now we give the kids their big ticket electronic thingies and I just lay by them and pay them off over a few months and it's done.  But the things we did in years gone by aren't really relevant now.  There's only four of us now not five, and Kate was the big stickler for tradition every year.  We HAD to have a hot turkey dinner on Christmas Eve (something I started for a reason years ago) and other things that she wouldn't let us let go of.  I used to make so much food that just didn't get eaten, and also some of us have gone off seafood a bit. So what do we do this year?  We can't have the freaking pool.  I thought of going over to Mum, she lives on the coast and there might not be many more Christmases I can have with her, but she drives me insane.  But it's just one Christmas isn't it?  And it's not all about me.  Yep I think that's what we'll do.  Kids can take their scooters and have the run of the sleepy little town where she lives with the beach and the lake.  I can spoil my mum, do all the cooking.  It might be fun.  We can even take the dog.  Mum really took to Max when we stayed there on our way back from WA.  Thanks for helping me decide.