10 things on the 10th

November 10, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

10 things that get said around here every day

Is that a good choice? (Me)
I want some busy juice*. (I give Quinn a look). Can I please have some busy juice?
Please just leave Darby alone. He’s fine. (Me)
Where are your shoes? (Me)
I’ve got an idea. How about we have lunch at a cafe! (Chance)
But I don’t wanna go to kindy (Chance and Quinn on various days)
Seriously, put Darby down! (Me again)
Can I have a squeezy yoghurt? (Another look) Can I please have a squeezy yoghurt?
Please stop picking your nose!
I love you guys so much

*busy juice ie fizzy juice is a mix of soda water and juice

I’m not good with fast talkers

November 6, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

I’m not a fast thinker. And when you add in some sleep depravation for good measure, a fast talker can be faced with this:

Or this:

I just find it really hard to keep up and to process what is being said so I can give a thoughtful reply.

I just had a builder here giving some quotes and ideas for our renovations and I seriously couldn’t keep up. I hope I gave him all the info he needed and that it was correct, otherwise we could be looking at a very different set of plans…

This wasn’t supposed to happen

November 3, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

When Mum arrived on Friday (yay!) I began willing myself not to get sick. My body has a habit of putting the guard down once mum arrives in the scene. It’s like “yay she’s arrived! Here’s a sore throat, runny nose and whopping sinus headache. Enjoy!”

But this? This is too much. A tummy bug woke up Quindy (and in turn the rest of the house) around 3am and not much sleep has been had since. I had to leave half way through the gym session because my guts started rumbling. And a couple of hours ago, the inevitable.

I’ve been in bed all day – something I haven’t done for a very long time. Thank goodness for my mum is all I can say. I just hope she doesn’t come down with anything! Because then who will get me cold drinks!

Thankfully it seems to have been a fleeting thing with Quindy as she’s been fine since 7am. I’m hoping I will get away with the same…

One thing every day. Day 1

November 1, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

While mum is here I’m planning to get a lot done and so far so good. Yesterday, with the help of our neighbour, I moved the kids bunks upstairs, bought a mattress and bedding for Quinn, and set up their room. The 3 of them are now in the same room which means our room is child-free for the first time in almost a year.

So today’s one thing is putting all the clothes that are all over floors and beds and in baskets in their rightful places.

Just one thing. Simple, right?

Wadda-heck?

October 26, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

… as Chanbe would say.

Since when can you email from an aeroplane? Hubs hit the skies on an A380 last night and a few hours later I got an email telling me he’d flown over Rocky and Mount Isa and was currently over Sri Lanka!

Seriously! I was so excited! I hadn’t expected to hear from him until he landed in London, which will be in less than an hour by the way. We’ve been sending little snippets of our day/flight which has been nice. He told me about his fritata and vodka and orange for breakfast, I told him the boys woke up at 5am; he told me about his beef something-or-other for lunch, I told him the kids were starting to get feral; he sent the following snippet:

No one to talk to in a crowded airport. Sitting jam packed next to people with ear buds in.
There is a couple with a four month old who have been to Spain and new Zealand. They told me it’s easy to travel with kids! And I told the person next to me that my name is Joe 🙂

And I responded with a smug “traveling with a 4-month-old is very different to traveling with kids.”

Anyway you get the drift. It’s been nice having that connection with him in this time. AND I was just chatting with a friend in line and she said “gotta go – I’m on a plane on the way to Spain.”

Seriously!? So freaking cool!

This post was going to be about the horrendous day I had with the kids today. I jotted down a bunch of notes when they went to bed, but I just don’t have the emotional energy to deal with that at the moment. I feel like a completely horrible mum after today’s efforts, yet the kids still hugged me and kissed me and told me they love me as I was tucking them in.

I guess one horrible day doesn’t ruin all the wonderful days. Kind of like when you eat well most of the time and then have a splurge. It doesn’t make a difference, as long as you move on, don’t dwell on it, and don’t let it happen often.

It’s the moving on and not dwelling that I may find challenging. But tomorrow is a new day and I have lots of things planned so the kids won’t have time to be little so-and-so’s and I can focus on the positives for the day. And now I’m thoroughly exhausted so I’m off to bed.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Tomorrow is a new day…

Dear Woollies laser lad

October 20, 2015 / Renae / 1 Comment

Hi! Remember me? You put my groceries through your checkout yesterday at around 5pm. I was the slightly frazzled looking lady with an adorable baby boy sitting in my trolley. You greeted me with an apology for taking so long putting the previous customer’s groceries through. You said you just weren’t on your game that day. I assured you that I hadn’t noticed.

We exchanged a few pleasantries; you asked how my day was, I said it had been fine; you asked where I had purchased my shopping bags, I told you I bought them at DFO in Brisbane, and so forth.

I started watching you pack my bags, and I must agree you were not on your game at all.

I’m one of those very considerate shoppers who groups like-items together on the belt so that a) it’s quick and easy for you to pack and b) it’s quick and easy for me to unpack at home. You should be so lucky to have me as your customer. I then tended to my baby boy and took no notice of your packing.

Let me just say here that I thank you, and appreciate that you have obviously looked at me and thought to yourself “now here’s a woman who has it all together. Here’s a woman who will be unpacking the shopping as soon as she gets home.” No really – that was so sweet of you.

The reality is, if one lot of shopping gets unpacked before I head back to the shops a few days later, I’m doing well.

So it rather perplexed me when I was loading the bags into the back of my car, that you had loaded up one of the cooler bags to overflowing and ridiculously heavy, and had only put one item in the other cooler bag. It happened to be meat and I almost didn’t even notice it in there and almost left it in the car thinking it was empty.

And then this morning’s discovery. I had only managed to unpack the cold stuff when I got home last night, and again I appreciate that you would think I would make a mental note of everything I was putting away, but alas I didn’t. So when I opened up one of the bags to put the sweet potatoes, potatoes and pumpkin away, I discovered the fresh lasagne sheets and 3 stray kids yogurts.

What the hell.

Lucky for you I’m able to breathe deeply and roll my eyes and move on, but not before blogging about it.

So thanks for the blog fodder, but next time please use your noodle.

Sincerely

Wifey

time + motivation

October 19, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

What a combination. I can achieve anything when these two things occur at the same time. The problem is, it doesn’t happen nearly often enough to keep up with everything that needs to get done. Especially when Hubs is working lots of long days in a row and I seem to be falling asleep before 9:30pm most nights which is very early for me.

Ugh. I’ve been trying to write this post for half an hour and it’s just not flowing. It’s 2pm and Quinn & Darby-doo have been asleep since just after 12 so I’m expecting them to wake up soon, but I’d like to have a bit of a kip as well. But I know I’ve left it too late. I got a few things done today, but the kitchen is still only half-cleaned after our dinner last night.

Okay. I’m falling asleep. I’m going to go and try and have 20 minutes of shut-eye before my two babies wake up.

Happy Birthday Gran!

October 12, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

Hope you have a cracker xxx

I feel good (da-ner-nah-ner-nah-ner-nah)

October 10, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

Well, how would you have written it?

It’s Saturday night, we’ve just had a lovely afternoon/evening at our neighbour’s place, Hubs is back there tinkering in the workshop with the man of the house, I’ve just had a wee tipple of wine, and I’ve been wondering what to blog about tonight.

Oh, and I just remembered I need to book some accommodation for Hubs’ upcoming trip to the UK. Must do that next.

So I thought I’d tell you that I feel good. Like, the best I’ve felt for a long time. Not just emotionally, but physically. And it’s all thanks to Fit Mums.

I have been attending this class religiously since May, and I could count on one hand the number of classes I’ve had to miss in that time. It has been my saviour this year and I friggin’ love it. Even though most of the hard work is around what I shove in my gob every day, this little group of mums, Ben the trainer, and Ash the child-minder, have all combined to help me feel goooooooooood.

I even bought new exercise clothes! So now I’m not working out in my maternity wear. Instead, I’m looking totally buff in this getup 🙂

Look at those clowns in the background. I’m a regular now, and the kids are just a part of the furniture. Or pilates equipment…

I know, right? I still have a long way to go, but I’m closer than I ever ever have been.

Want some comparisons? Well, this was me 6 months after Quinn’s birth (so just over two years ago), after completing my first 5km “run” with the fabulous Beth. Remember that post?

That’s a maternity top I’m wearing btw. I’m pretty much the same “size” (a.k.a. weight) that I was then, but am leaps and bounds ahead in physical strength and fitness. When I did the Couch 2 5k that time, that’s all that I was focused on, and although I’m really proud of what I achieved then, I have so much more understanding of my own body and health now than I ever have before.

Speaking of before, this was taken in April this year.

And I share this photo not to berate myself or feel bad about my appearance then. I feel no shame when I look at this photo. I’m happy. You can tell by the big smile planted on my face. I’m surrounded by my beautiful family, and I’m holding a glass of bubbly in celebration of my friend giving birth the day before, and life was good.

I’ll say it again: I feel no shame. Not then, and not now. I didn’t hate my body or how I looked. I was confident in my own skin and could find nice things to wear that made me feel good.

But I knew that my mental health and physical health would benefit from more nutritious food, and more physical activity. And that has led me to where I am now.

I just feel good. And on this Saturday night, I just wanted to share that with you all.

Oh, and I need to book that stuff for Hubs… 🙂

10 things

October 9, 2015 / Renae / 2 Comments

Darby is finally eating food and not just rubbish squeezy things! He loved the cauliflower and chicken soup I made last night. Yum.
The lady who put my groceries through at Woollies today was maybe in her 50s and she was wearing no make up and was so pretty. I wanted to tell her but didn’t know how.
We’re having 10 people over for dinner tonight. So just the usual weekend night at our place.
I forgot to put yeast in the bread mix this morning. Making second loaf of bread now.
We made it home in the kombi with only small dramas.
I’ve started thinking about this year’s Christmas cards.
We’re working on getting renovations started at the beginning of next year.
I’m so sick of buying things (like appliances) and being asked for my name and address and phone number and email and blood type. Just sell me the damn thing!
I slept in until almost 10am yesterday. Thanks Hubs.
I’ve chosen a piece of furniture I’m going to restore. Watch this space…