Brick Event 2016

July 9, 2016 / Renae / 1 Comment

Oh wow. You know when you have little expectation of something (little as opposed to low) and you are just blown away by it!? I love when that happens. Those little surprises in life make me happy, especially when they also make my kids happy.

I took the kids to Rocky’s Brick Event this morning, along with a babysitter to help out, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever taken the kids to.

The reasons for my expectation level, is due to this event that we went to last year. Looking back, I can’t believe how little I wrote about it! I think that’s quite telling. As I did mention, I was hoping that there would be more interactive things for the kids, other than the trays of bricks at the end. That’s where this event was different.

The displays were AMAZING and had heaps of moving parts.

Retro train set! Wooooo wooooooooooo!

There was SO much Star Wars Lego. My kids were so excited.

See?

We were among the first to arrive to beat the crowds (which was my plan) and it was great as it meant I could put Darby in the stroller (he took some convincing!!) and he could still see everything without other people getting in the way. By the time we left, there were crowds 3 or 4 people deep at each display so it would have been impossible for him to see. He loved it!

So busy!

There were probably about 40?? displays, but this was my favourite by far.

I couldn’t stop watching it! So amazing.

After seeing all the displays, there were a bunch of tables for building Lego! And not just any Lego; the kids could build their own train carriage to be put on the back of a running train! The kids thought this was so awesome. Here’s Chance and Quinn’s efforts (the 2 end carriages). (Gotta love Quinn’s comment at the end!!)

There was a staff member there the whole time, taking carriages off and putting new ones on to go for a spin. All the kids were so proud of their creations being shown off like that.

And that’s not all! There were a few towers like this with heaps of different shaped Lego for kids to make their names. Quinny had some help, but Chance did his all by himself. Such a great idea.

Sooooo much Lego. Almost as much as our collection at home!

And of course, because I’m a massive softy, I couldn’t not buy the kids some Lego to take home. I had told them not to ask me to buy any, and they honoured that, so I surprised them at the end. Of course they wanted to go straight home to build it.

Quinn chose Cinderella (quite fitting, as one of her nick-names is Quinderella) and Chance chose the Ambulance rescue plane.

We were only there for an hour and a half, and if it wasn’t so crowded, I would have loved to go back and look at the displays again, but it was just too crazy and the kids were ready to leave. I’m glad I had our friend there to help with Darby as I didn’t want to just keep him in the stroller the whole time. There was a Duplo table for him to play at while the kids were building their creations, but he was more interested in running around.

I think the biggest difference between this expo and the last one, was this was really aimed at kids. The one in Brisbane was more about showing the design side of things, and showing off creations, which were really impressive, but not that exciting for kids after about 10 minutes. This one was all about showing what you could do with Lego and really encouraging kids’ participation and creativity. 10 thumbs up from this crew. Will definitely keep an eye out for more events in the future!

A new morning routine

July 5, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

It’s been in the pipeline for some time now. Our old routine went a bit like this:

I would be half-awake by 5am-ish with at least 3 of us in our bed, sometimes 4 and sometimes 5 of us. I’d check my phone and hope that I could drift on back to dreamy-land for the next hour, but know deep down that there was little chance of that happening. Kids would start stirring a bit before 6am, Hubs and I would both ignore them and will them to either leave us alone for “just 5 more minutes” or get themselves out of bed. Then Hubs would start catching up on the daily happenings on his phone while I threw the covers off in a huff of “FINE! I’LL GET UP THEN!!!!!”

Not an ideal start to anyone’s day, right? Hubs would then be rushing to get to work on time, and I would be in a cranky mood after being kicked out of bed so rudely. We would often say to each other “we really need to get out of bed earlier” but neither of us are morning people, and our hearts just weren’t in it. So this has been going on for a looooonnnnng time and we definitely got to breaking point.

So something had to change. We discussed what our plan was going to be, and even though it’s early days, it’s going very well. My alarm goes off at 6:05am, and I immediately get out of bed. I have my socks and dressing gown waiting for me, and I go and make a cup of tea for Hubs and a coffee for myself. I take that to Hubs and wake him up so he can read his news in bed while the kids wake up and I prepare for breakfasts. We pretty much all have something different:

Me: boiled egg on toast (I always have boiled eggs in our fridge as it saves me time)
Frith: either a mango smoothie or some leftovers on toast
Chance: 2 weet-bix with honey
Quinn: whatever tickles her fancy which can range from porridge to weet-bix to mini weet-bix to cereal, to mango smoothie, and usually some of Dadda’s toast
Darby: used to also be a 2 weet-bix guy (without the honey) but is now super fussy in the morning. Usually wants to eat whatever I have, or eat his food sitting on my lap.

Riveting stuff, I know. So while I’m preparing brekky and enjoying my coffee in relative peace, Darby stumbles out of our bed (somehow he has been sleeping in our bed for a few months now!!) and comes and finds me. It’s actually really cute – I have the kitchen light on in the morning as it’s still dark til almost 7 (the sun has to come up over Mount Archer before we get to see it) and I get a glimpse of what teenage-Darby is going to look like – stumbling around in a onesie (gosh I hope not) and shielding his eyes from the blinding light, mumbling incoherently. Aaaah bliss.

Sunrise from our back stairs. This is 6:30am.

The extra, interrupted 20 or 30 minutes of rubbish sleep is nothing compared to waking up on my own terms and starting the day well. My sister-in-law told me years ago that a good start to the morning involved getting up before your kids, but a) I didn’t want to believe her and b) I didn’t want to get out of bed even a minute earlier than was absolutely necessary. I get it now. This is my time. And getting up is on my terms which makes me much less cranky.

Just ask Hubs…

A shout out

June 18, 2016 / Renae / 1 Comment

Today I got what I feel was the biggest validation of my life as a wife and mum.

Let me back it up a bit.

My dear friend who has just moved to Rocky asked if I could help out by looking after her two gorgeous daughters, aged 4ish and 2ish for a few hours today. No problem, I said. I knew that Hubs was around this weekend and would be only happy to help out too. While the youngest slept, Hubs took Chanbe down to our friend’s place for a play, and offered to take Darby, Quinn and my friend’s oldest daughter for the walk, while I stayed with the sleeping 2-year-old. Except he didn’t come home. He sent me a text to tell me that he’d also picked up our other friend’s 3-year-old and they were heading to the park.

Not long after, I received this photo and a text that read: “I don’t see what the big deal is with 4.”

Hubs just goes about parenting without the drama. When I head to the park, I pack water bottles, food, nappy bag and sometimes toys, and I drive there. When Hubs heads to the park, he walks out the gate with the kids in the pram, and sometimes takes a nappy bag. He spent the whole afternoon there, and the kids had a blast, while I had the house to myself and 1 toddler to look after once she woke up from her nap.

I didn’t have to ask Hubs to do it. He didn’t have to do it. He just did it because he knew the kids would have fun and I would get a bit of a break.

And it gets better.

When he got home, and the girls had been picked up, and after he had walked down to pick up Chance, I went to give him the biggest hug and thank him for his efforts. And he said something like this:

“I honestly don’t know how you do this every single day, honey. I was walking home and thought if I had to cook dinner when I got home after this, we’d have Maccas every night, and I’d buy new clothes for the kids every day cos there’s no way I’d want to do the washing as well. And you have a grumpy husband who asks you what you’ve been doing all day long when he gets home from work and bugs you for sex at night after you’ve put the kids to bed by yourself because I’m too tired from work. I can’t believe you do this every day.”

I almost cried. And I’m almost crying as I type this. He gets it. Today he got a taste of my life and instead of trying suggest how I could maybe do things better, he empathised and he got it. And as a stay at home mum to three kids, and a devoted wife to a budding orthopaedic surgeon, there was no greater gift he could have given me.

This Man. And he’s pretty easy on the eye to boot 🙂

It’s a little bit funny

June 16, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

… this feeling inside.

Ha! I love that Cleaver Green (aka Rake) is The Duke from Moulin Rouge. Classic stuff. By the way, how awesome is Rake??

Wow, already at a tangent. This is going to be interesting. And I haven’t even been drinking…

To start with, here are three things I am utterly failing at, at the moment. You know just to kick things off:

1. I’m struggling with the balance of being a “fun Mama” and discipline. I really need to work on letting more things go, and focusing on the more important, lesson-learning things; things that will actually make a difference to Chance and Quinn’s behaviour. I guess that’s the challenge of parenting kids at such different ages. I’m trying to teach them all about consequences but I have to do it in three different ways. So I guess I’m not failing as such, I’m merely learning. Just like them.

2. Napping. Man I used to be able to nap like a pro and now I just can’t. I can do a mean sleep-in (just ask Hubs) but when it comes to a quick kip during the day, I fail hard, even if I haven’t had a coffee as yet. I’ve even tried my coffee/nap/coffee 3-punch combo, to no avail. I was right on the verge of drifting off yesterday while Darby was having a sleep, but I woke myself up with thoughts of him spontaneously having stopped breathing so I got up and checked. Yeah, that still happens. Then it was all over red rover. Hubs thinks it must be because I’m getting “so much sleep during the night.” So adorable.

3. Deciding what to wear each day. This is just embarrassing. I have severe decision fatigue over my wardrobe and I really struggle each morning to choose my clothes. Though, I did have a win on Tuesday morning when I threw on an outfit that I’d never worn and ummed and ahhhed for about 5 minutes and was going to change because I wasn’t sure how I looked and then I thought “stuff it” and walked out the door, and actually got complimented by 4 people at playgroup. I should just go with my gut like this more often!

There is a lot going on around here at the moment, with house plans being approved, loans being finalised (we hope!) and looking into job possibilities for Hubs for next year (tis the season!) but we are all plodding along nicely. The kids are going great-guns, and I’m feeling pretty cruisey, even with my above-mentioned shortcomings. It’s
small stuff and I’m trying not to sweat it.

And to end with, here are three things I’m doing well at the moment:
1. Not drinking booze
2. Not snacking on crap food
3. Exercising regularly

Boom. Done. Now for a cuppa.

10 things on the 10th

June 10, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

10 movies I’ve seen in the last 12 (ish) months that I’d like to tell you about.
(Links to IMDB sites and italics is the IMDB blurb.)

1. Boyhood – “The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.”
If you haven’t heard of this movie, it is filmed over 12 years and uses all the same cast members, filming them in “real time” at different points in the character’s lives. It’s amazing. I love a good “coming of age” movie and this probably tops my list because the characters are literally growing up before your eyes. It was in no way fast-paced, and it didn’t follow the typical flow of a movie in that there was no real build up, climax and resolution, but it kept me interested the whole time, and it was just a real, honest movie. 5 stars.

2. Mud – “Two young boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the vigilantes that are on his trail and to reunite him with his true love.”
I can’t really tell you why I liked this movie so much, and that blurb makes it sound like a bit of a soppy movie which it is not. I really like the subtlety of it. So often these days, movies are very over the top and go from one extreme emotion to the next and it’s exhausting. This was an unusual story that reminded me a bit of Stand By Me actually. 4 stars.

3. Interstellar – “A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity’s survival.”
Wow. Talk about an epic movie to feed the old existentialism. This movie was full-on and I found myself thinking about it for quite some time afterwards. I think I would like to watch it again to really nut it out in my head. 4 stars.

4. Birdman – “Illustrated upon the progress of his latest Broadway play, a former popular actor’s struggle to cope with his current life as a wasted actor is shown.”
Another incredible movie. The soundtrack is definitely worth mentioning – it’s pretty much all percussion and just sets the pace of the movie beautifully. Again, a bit existential (see a pattern forming here??) and very quirky, and it just worked. 4.5 stars.

5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – “Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.”
I love it when there’s a whole lot of hype around a movie, and I know nothing much about it (specifically, not generally) and I see it and love it. One word to describe this movie: FUN. It was light, had some lovely cheesey moments, a few surprises, and a strong lady hero. All good things. 4 stars.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy – “A group of intergalactic criminals are forced to work together to stop a fanatical warrior from taking control of the universe.”
Speaking of FUN. Hubs and I re-watched this recently and it was even better the second time around. Looking forward to #2?? 4 stars.

7. Mad Max: Fury Road – “A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in postapocalyptic Australia in search for her home-land with the help of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshipper, and a drifter named Max.”
I was not excited about seeing this movie, but I did my wifely duty and kept an open mind and watched it with Hubs about 6 months ago. I didn’t really love it or hate it, but I found some of the visual effects a little hard to watch (I’m a complete wuss) so when Hubs wanted to re-watch it in HD a few weeks ago, I was less than enthused. Until one night, he really needed pepping up, so I suggested it. He gave me a wry smile and jumped on the couch like a little kid. And I gotta say, I actually really enjoyed it the second time around. I think I took more notice of the story this time, and was less affected by the visuals. So yeah, I surprised even myself. 4 stars.

8. Soylent Green – “With the world ravaged by the greenhouse effect and overpopulation, an NYPD detective investigates the murder of a CEO with ties to the world’s main food supply.”
One of those movies that I can now say we’ve seen. Not particularly fussed either way. 2.5 stars.

9. The Book of Life – “Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears.”
This was our Friday night movie 2 weeks ago for the family, and even though I only got to see about half of it in the first screening, the kids watched it again the next day so I got to fill in most of the blanks. I often get a bit nervous about the kids watching movies that I find a bit visually scary/creepy but I know they are not as wussy as me (see #7) and they really loved this story, as did I. It had some lovely “take home” thoughts and feelings, and I would like to watch it uninterrupted at some stage (ha ha ha ha) so we’ll see how we go. 4 stars.

10. Zootopia – “In a city of anthropomorphic animals, a rookie bunny cop and a cynical con artist fox must work together to uncover a conspiracy.”
This is a pretty good kids movie. The sloth scene actually almost killed me! Ha! I am not a patient person, clearly. Hubs enjoyed watching me squirm, I’m sure. A solid performer. 3.5 stars.

Happy Birthday Grumpy

June 1, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

We have just had my parents up for a few days visit for my Dad’s birthday, and as usual the kids had a fabulous time and were spoilt rotten, and I got to have a few sleep-ins which I have seriously been in need of. And of course Gran and Grumpy got to have some lovely time with their grandkids. Win-win-win! On the afternoon of their arrival, it didn’t take long for the Mini Magnums to appear! And as you can see, Darby has learnt to say “cheese”!

With Mum and Dad being around, I got to have a child-free session at the gym on Friday morning which is always nice for a change! And after a fairly low-key day, Dad served up an amazing slow-roasted beef which I accompanied with creamy mash and greens. Sooooo good. After which, we had CAKE! Chance requested a spider cake, which I happily obliged.

I didn’t actually get that many photos during this visit (Mum got a heap) but a wonderful long weekend was had by all. We finished up the celebrations on Monday night with my kind of Magnum. There was nothing mini about this bad boy!

(I look tired and a bit frazzled here, as we had spent much of the day lounging around with our neighbours, and having a few drinks while partaking in BBQ’d goodies! The best was yet to come that evening!)

Dad always says to anyone who will listen, that grandkids are the best thing ever which always makes my heart sing. Happy birthday Dad. You’re a wonderful father and a fun and fantastic Grumpy.

Fit Mums – 1 year on

May 19, 2016 / Renae / 2 Comments

This is me to an absolute tee right now:

Wow. A whole year of doing regular exercise. This is definitely noteworthy for me. I’ve never stuck with anything (other than team sports) for this long. Like, ever. Sure, I’ve joined gyms; too many to count, but I’ve never actually attended them for more than a month or two. Previously when I have joined a gym, my aim is to attend six sessions a week, and once that starts dropping back to one or two a week, which it always would, I would think “what’s the point” and drop out. I now see how much of a difference those two regular sessions a week can make to my life.

I’d be lying if I said I’m exactly where I wanted to be a year on. If I was to be completely honest, I was hoping to be down another 16kg and at my “goal weight”, but the fact that I’m still showing up each week, and getting cranky when I have to skip a session, and never (seriously, never) looking for an excuse not to go, I’d say, at this stage, that is a much more important achievement. It means that I have a baseline to build on. It means that I know how it feels to be fit and strong, and I know it’s possible to continue to get fitter and stronger.

So let me break down the last 12 months for you:
73 Fit Mums sessions attended
18kg* lost
A bunch of muscle gained
Plenty of lessons learned
A dozen new friends
A newfound respect for my body
Plenty of good food eaten

Things I’ve learned:
It takes more than a month to get nice arms; (woo!)

Two sessions a week makes a huge difference to my lifestyle;
Eating two chocolate biscuits or having a glass of wine will not ruin my hard work;
Eating two chocolate biscuits and having a glass of wine almost every day will make a difference;
There’s more to it than weight loss;
Putting back on a few kilos is not the end of the world; it’s what I do about it that counts.

It’s this last point that I’m most proud of. At the end of last year, and the start of this year, old habits were creeping back, but instead of giving up and ignoring the issues, I addressed them and refocused and that has never happened before. And now that I’ve done that, I’m not starting all over again, just merely picking up where I left off.

So thank you Ben (our trainer) and Michelle and Ash (the child-carers) and all the other Fit Mums for being such an amazing and supportive community; for all the encouragement and high fives; and for being the “thing” that finally got me to love getting up in the morning and exercising. Here’s to another 73 sessions!

Here’s the first part of the journey ☺

*I’ve lost the same 2kg twice after putting on a few kg over Christmas. Still counts!

A happy mothers day

May 12, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

Simple. Easy. A bit relaxing. That’s all we ever really want isn’t it? Hubs has been working pretty much every day lately so I assured him that I didn’t mind going out and buying my own mothers day gifts this year. I picked out a couple of new shirts and a few other things I’d been eyeing off. All I asked was for a yummy brekky and some time to myself.

I didn’t snap any photos of the yummy brekky but Hubs delivered as always. And we had our friend and 2 of her boys over to join in as her hubby was away at the time.

We just spent the rest of the day pottering about and I got to do some baking which was awesome. We headed to the neighbours for arvo tea and then I had to drop Hubs off at the airport to go to Brisbane for a course for 2 nights. We stayed at the neighbours house for baked beans dinner so by the time we got home it was time for bed!

Yummy cupcakes

Squashy cuddles (see that spoon? I bribed Quinn with more icing if she sat in the photo with us. Oh yeah.)

Hubs was a bit apologetic that it was a bit of a nothing day, but I assured him I had a lovely day and that the ending was the best.

Kids in bed, leftover garlic mushrooms on toast for dinner, house to myself, a glass of bubbly, and some Nashville to catch up on. What more could a Mama want?

10 things on the 10th

May 10, 2016 / Renae / 5 Comments

10 things I’d like to serve at my dream cafe that I will run one day

1. Pulled pork and crunchy slaw rolls

2. Beef cheek stew with creamy mash potato

3. Apricot chicken and rice

4. Pumpkin soup with home made crusty bread

5. Orange polenta cake with vanilla ice cream

6. Jaffa cake

7. Chocolate mousse

8. Ginger nut cookies

9. Scones

10. The best coffee in town (whichever town that might be)

A girl’s gotta dream ?

1 hour in

May 4, 2016 / Renae / Leave a comment

I have a “day off” today.

Well, actually it’s a “morning off”.

And by that, I mean I have 21 things on my to do list that would be great to get done while I’m child-free. In my first hour, I’ve made and drunk 2 cups of coffee, paid bills, ordered some more Jamberry nail wraps, fb chatted with a friend, looked on Gumtree for a new induction cooktop, and spoken to the bank about our renovation loan. Only 2 of those things were on my to do list, but it’s a start!

I have so many blog posts floating around in my head at the moment, but nothing has made it to the blog. Sorry about that. I’ve got a zillion photos and stories to share, but I’m just enjoying having those moments with my family. I know. So selfish.

I’ve definitely had a change in mindset lately about my place in this crazy world. I was getting to the point where I was resenting the monotony of being a stay at home mum, but I’ve decided to embrace it more, and am finding myself less bogged down in the daily grind. I’m allowed to be fun and not cranky and not always looking for things to tidy or clean or wash. I’m allowed to say “stuff it” and sit down and play instead of fussing about and feeling bad about having an untidy house.

Since my existential crisis back in 2013, I’ve had a bit of a cloud over my head. I’ve been trying to figure out what life is all about; what’s my purpose? What’s the point? Why bother doing the same thing day after day, week after week etc etc. And I’m not saying that I’ve figured out the meaning of life or anything, but I’ve found more meaning in my own life. And I finally realise that I don’t have to answer all of those questions, as trying to find the answers leads me to a place of hopelessness and disinterest which is neither fun nor helpful for those around me. I’m just feeling lighter than I have for a while and even though I know those questions will always be in the back of my mind, it’s okay if they are left unanswered for now.

Life is good up here, and I hope you find something lovely in your day that puts a smile on your face. Like these crazy cats 🙂