So yesterday I bit the bullet and ordered a tonne of redgum, because I was sick of M having to bring home bits of good timber from the shed that could be used for things other than keeping us all warm. This was hard, as I come from a family who Does Not Pay For Wood. Ever. But goes out with a chainsaw after big storms and collects it from public land alongside country roads. [cue John Denver. Or actually, don’t.] It cost two hundred dollars. And ordinarily I’d be choking while I typed…

But this afternoon while I was changing Small Z, the phone rang. It’s astonishing that it was even plugged in, because I unplug it whenever she’s asleep and always forget to put it back. So it rang, and it was the Environmental Education Officer from my council - City of Casey. She told me I’d won this month’s draw for the THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR cloth nappy rebate. Oh. MY. GOD! I entered over a month ago - the deal is that you sent in all your receipts for the cloth nappies you’d bought in 2008 and if you won, they would refund up to $300. Woo!

That covers the firewood and leaves a hundred over, which I plan to spend on an Ergo sling - it craps all over the BabyBjorn (which was, admittedly, excellent, until Small Z recently became, Still Small But Curiously Weighty Z) and is less complex than the Hug-a-Bub. I have been listing things for sale on ebay over the last two days in an effort to get together enough money for the Ergo - but VOILA!

This is our ‘triumphant’ picture. Where we lay on the play mat and I look excited and Small Z muses on what she can spend the cash on.

It would be good karma to spend it on joining the Australian Nappy Network who helped the council put the offer together… Small Z and I have to go into the council and get our photograph taken for the local paper, and I think I’ll also get the opportunity to pimp modern cloth nappies in the article. Of course I am vain, and am now feverishly thinking - haircut? Or hat? (I can hear my mother thinking from 50 kilometres away “What will Small Z wear? It better be one of those GREAT things I brought her back from the USA. One of the ones I’ve NEVER SEEN HER IN. How about that LITTLE DENIM SKIRT?” Stay out of my blog, mum.

And the fun did not stop there. I had invented a bit of a traffic stopper dinner (well, for me…) of cous cous with roast pumpkin and garlic with baked salmon, and was putting it together as a surprise for M who was on the couch. I craved beer. “I wish I’d got some beer,” I murmured. M went to the fridge like a love-robot and handed me a Coopers Sparkling Ale. I was astounded. They had been there all day. They were so quiet, I never knew.

And THEN… M whispered Small Z to sleep in TEN MINUTES. Holy god. AND THEN…I forgot to mention. She drank from a bottle today. PROPERLY. TWICE. My killer touch was to whip her in between boob and bottle. And it was a SUCCESS. And now, I will go to bed. Full of stomach, warmed by free redgum, capital letters and happy of heart. And if that’s not POSITIVE POSTING THEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS. Ha!