Gimme 5

I'm a regular reader of Tines blog.
Tine recently did an interview.
I loved reading her interview and I volunteered to be interviewed too.

1: You have 6 young children...how do you manage the housework? I have 2 children and have piles of laundry, and toys, everywhere ;)

• I'm not very good with housework. The house is a mess most of the time. I do the least amount possible and I have a wonderful husband.
• Pete and I divide the work up. I do the cooking. When Pete is home he does the dishes, the vacuuming and washing. I do the bathroom, toilet and general picking up.
• We organised the kids into one room for a bedroom and use the other room to keep all their clothes in. That saves a lot of mess being all over their bedroom.
• We have a large shed which is lined and has power. We use this for the toys, my sewing and Pete's office.
• The kids are expected to look after their own beds and are limited to one basket of toys in their bedroom.
• Fern (DD1) helps a lot. She folds the washing up and the kids put their own clothes away.
• Fern also helps me in the kitchen.
• Pete does most of the garden, chooks and ducks. except when away then I do. But James is showing an interest in helping out here and has started letting the chooks and ducks out in the morning.
• Fern and Rose help with Michael. They play with him and cuddle him when he needs a cuddle.

2: You own a business, and you are studying pattern drafting! How do you find the time?

The business is a hobby and I really don't sell much. I keep meaning to put more of an effort into it but it doesn't happen. I'm a little dis-spirited with it. When we set it up I was all excited. Pete works in IT so we get the hosting space at a reasonable price. I used to teach a little in Tennant Creek and that is the part I like best. I had to have an ABN for getting paid as a teacher so that is why I set the business up. When they first set up the GST and ABN's you had to have an ABN to teach as the Tax Dept told me 'teaching' wasn't a hobby. We're tied into a contract with the hosting so I may as well have a couple of things listed and the server space now hosts the podcast.

I finished my pattern drafting and I'm now studying fashion design. You make time for things you enjoy and it really isn't that much work and I have 3 years to do it in. The course I'm doing is more of a hobby course than a commercial one so not the same amount of work or stress.

3: How did you decide your children's names?

When Fern was born. Her name just popped into my head. She looked like a fairy and I thought Fern was a fairy name. It was only later I remembered the Fern in Charlotte's Web. Fern's middle name is Violet, that was my nan's name. She had passed away earlier that year.

I just liked the name James, and at the time there weren't a lot of James' around. Being a teacher a lot of names got vitoed because of kids I had taught. Thomas is also a family name. My dad's younger brother was named Tommy.

Rose. We decided to go with flower names and Rose's middle name is Dawn after Pete's mum.

Liam another name I liked and David his middle name was a family name I had two uncle Davids and cousins named David and a good friend named David all of them people I liked.

Lilly another flower name and lilly has my middle name of Ann. This was also my Nan's middle name.

Michael Kenneth is named after his two grandads. My dad Michael who passed away 5 months before Michael was born.

4: You knit, crochet, sew and quilt. What is your favourite craft?

Depends on what I feel like doing. I go though stages of being obsessed with one and the others get ignored for a while. I love knitting and crocheting in winter in front of the fire. I tend to sew and quilt in summer as the machines are down in the shed and that is where the airconditioner is.

5: What makes you happy?

My kids. Peter. A warm, sunny day with a cool breeze. Finishing something crafty. Coffee and chocolate with good company.

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.