Author: Renae

Living life as a wife, a stay at home mama of 3 kids under 5, a marriage celebrant, a craft and sewing amateur, a cooked breakfast lover, coffee enthusiast, extroverted socialite, and most recently, someone who is trying to keep a tidy house. It's tough I tell you!

Aaaaaahhh….. sleeeeeeeeep…..

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I don’t know what it is about getting a good night sleep that makes me want to tell people all about it. It might be because good nights sleep are so few and far between with a newborn (is 11 weeks still considered “newborn”??) not that I’m complaining – it comes with the territory. But last night, Chance went to sleep at 10pm and only woke up for a 4am feed, and then, this is the best part, he slept until just after 9am this morning.

Absolute bliss.

He normally wakes up for a 2am and 5am feed, and then is up for good around 7-8am, so maybe this is the start of a new routine for him. I know I know, it’s only been one night. I shouldn’t get too carried away. But you just never know! I feel like a million bucks today! I wonder what he has in store for us tonight.

One of my faves

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I know I’m posting a lot of photos lately without much text but I just haven’t had the time to write many posts! I’m hoping things will settle down this week a bit (I can hear all you mothers laughing) so I can do some more blogging! Fingers crossed!

Afraid of the dark

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Yesterday and today have been pretty cruisey and not terribly newsworthy, so I’m going to blog about something I’ve been thinking about for a while. The fact that I’m afraid of the dark.

It’s great at this time of the year as it doesn’t get dark here til about 8:30pm. For as long as I can remember I’ve been afraid of the dark and I don’t like it. I’d like to change that about myself. Any suggestions?

Because of this fear, I absolutely HATE staying at home on my own overnight. During the day I’m absolutely fine, and feel that I can handle it, but as soon as it starts getting dark, I start getting anxious. It’s so ridiculous! All I want to do is lock myself in my room and will myself to sleep all night long. Don’t even get me started on having to get up in the middle of the night to pee when I’m all alone. If I don’t do it straight away, it can take half an hour to summons the courage.

So what am I afraid of? I think burglars are the big one for me, even though I have never ever ever been robbed. That is just so irrational! I think I’ve watched too many movies where getting up in the middle of the night ends badly. I do wish I were made of tougher stuff.

I read a quote by Marie Curie stating “Nothing is to be feared, only understood” and I’m really trying to embrace that. I don’t want to spend my life fearing something that will likely never happen. What a waste of energy that is!

Anyway, if you have any suggestions about how to become less afraid of “the dark” I would love to hear them…

It has begun…

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I’ve already had to put away nappies and clothes that Chance has grown out of. Last night I found some newborn disposables and said to Hubs “Can you believe he used to fit into these tiny things???”

So cliche…

Home sweet home (finally!!!)

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It has been one crazy week. We left Brizzie on Monday morning (it seems like weeks ago, not days!) and flew back to Melbourne on route to Wang. About half an hour before we were due to land, the Captain made an announcement that due to changing winds in Melbourne, we may have to redirect to Sydney or Canberra. Hubs and I started talking about what we would do if that happened, but decided to just wait and see, and thankfully, we were able to land safely. We picked up the kombi and headed straight to Nathan and Cal’s place – our home for the following 2 nights. Poor Chance didn’t know what was going on – the number of different places this kid has slept, I tell you what. But as usual he adapted wonderfully.

We had made plans to have dinner with Hubs’ aunt and uncle and cousins on the Tuesday night so we headed over early to do some shopping beforehand. Unfortunately on the way there, we ran into some car trouble. Long story short, we had to leave it at the mechanic overnight, so Hubs and I decided to get serious about buying a car – something we had been talking about for months. We jumped on line and lo and behold, found a car that ticked all the boxes. We took it for a test drive and committed to buying it there and then on Wednesday.

It’s a burgundy Ford Falcon (yes, we’re in the country now) Futura LPG station wagon. This is the first car that Hubs and I have actually chosen and bought, both separately or together. All of our other cars have been bought from (or given to us by) family or friends so it is a really exciting thing!! Another long story short, we were supposed to receive the bank cheque we ordered (only drawback of being with ING – no bank) on the Thursday and leave that afternoon, but it didn’t arrive til Friday morning so we didn’t get home til yesterday at 2pm. I got to drive “Sherry” home and what a ride! It certainly has some power behind it!

So we walked in the door, emptied the car of all our stuff and proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it. We were then invited to our friend’s place for lunch today so we only just got around to starting to unpack an hour or so ago, hence my presence in blog world! Hee hee! Chance is being an absolute dream, just chilling on the floor and being mesmerised by the mobile hanging over him, so we are actually getting a lot done. Blogging was a big priority for me! I’ve really missed it! I was worried after my hiatus that I wouldn’t really get back into it, and am so glad I’m a keen bean.

I have lots of half-thought-of posts in my head, including the one I plan to write on Monday/Tuesday, entitled something along the lines of “Day 1 of just me and the kid” or something perhaps a bit more eloquent.

Aaaaaaah it’s good to be home.

Third time lucky?

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I’ve started writing this blog post 3 times now, so hopefully I might actually post it this time! Life is so hectic and I don’t know how it happened but our 6 weeks in Brisvegas is coming to an end. We leave on Monday and have had a great time catching up with people and spending time together as a family. It’s been such a blessing having Hubs around to see all the changes in Chance that I’ve been able to see, and I don’t know what I’m going to do when he has to go back to work a week after we get back to Wang! I really love all the get togethers and socialising that comes with staying in Brisbane, but to tell you the truth I’m ready to go home. That’s really hard for me to say as I don’t want our families to think that I want to leave them, but it’s really tiring to be on our best behaviour for 6 weeks solid without much down time.

Having said that, I can’t wait for the fam to come and visit us down south again asap. It’s been so amazing having that support – always having someone there to take Chance for an hour while we grab some sleep or do some cooking or write a blog post. Like just now I heard Chance cry, followed by my Dad’s voice saying “Hello there. What’s going on? Maybe you need a cuddle.” I’m really going to miss that when we leave. Just thinking about it is giving me a headache 🙂

(Chance, 2.5 weeks old)

We’re going to spend a couple of days is Melbourne catching up with friends before heading back to Wang on Wednesday. I’m a little nervous about being so far away from our support networks, and with Hubs working full-time hours, but I know we’ve made some really good friends who are more than happy to help out when we need or want it. In the mean time, I just have to remember that everything always works out. Not always how we think it will, but it works out none the less.

Thank you to everyone for all their love and support and best wishes over the last 9 weeks, and in particular the last 6 weeks. We’ve enjoyed the chats and the beers and games of ping pong and pool, and watching the cricket and tennis, and celebrating life’s special occasions with you all. If I don’t get to blog again until we hit Wang, please forgive me, and know that I have lots to share with you in the coming weeks and months.

Wifey  xx

Happy Birthday to meee!

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For those who are unaware, I am currently celebrating my birthday week! And it has been a cracker so far! I kicked it off with a great day on Sunday where we started with brunch with friends (mmmm…. pancakes….) and their darling little girl who has grown so much since we last saw her! We then headed over to visit Kate, Kyle, my Godson and his baby bro. We crashed their family lunch (mmmm…. lasagne….) and had a lovely relaxing time with them before they jetsetted back to Cairns. It was then time to head out to coffee with 2 very dear friends and we found ourselves at Freestyle in the Valley (mmmm…. lindt chocolate saucy pudding….) Again, a lovely, relaxing time was had by all and of course the food was delish!

But we weren’t done yet!

We finished our day with a trip to the temporary Jazz Club. We had planned to go to the actual club but it was badly damaged with the recent flooding, so they moved it to the Australian Legion Memorial Club in the Valley. We arrived not long after 5:30pm and the band started about an hour later. Chance loved it! He was happy just to sit on my lap and take it all in. And then he had a little sleep and then he was ready to party again! We enjoyed great company, and tasty treats (mmmm…. pinot noir and cheese and crackers) and the music was lots of fun as well!

To cap that day off, Australia won their day/nighter against England! It doesn’t get much better than that.

On Monday I caught up with 2 of my cousins for a bit and then Hubs and I decided to hit Chermside shopping centre for the afternoon, partly to get out of the heat and partly to look for something to wear to Chance’s baptism. (What? Chance gets a new outfit, so why can’t we??)

Tuesday was my actual birthday so Hubs took me out to brunch at Di Vita Cafe at Wilston (mmmm…. double smoked ham, corn and parmesan hotcake with bacon and eggs….) It was the first time we had left Chance since he was born and I think we did pretty well! My brekky was SO GOOD and Hubs’ was pretty good too. We then lazed around for the arvo before heading over to Nanny and Grandpa’s for birthday dinner. Only problem was, a massive storm hit and they lost power again so we ate pizza and pasta by candle-light! Very romantic! We then had cake for dessert (mmmm…. cheesecake) by which time the power had come back on (thank goodness we could turn the fans on!!) and headed home for a great night sleep.

I’ll fill you in on the rest of my birthday week soon!