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!

Time with family

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Hubs’ Dad and Nanna came to visit us on Sunday as they were “in the neighbourhood” (they had a party to go to in Shep) so we took them out to lunch at the King River Cafe. This is one of mine and Hubs’ favourite places to take family and friends to when they visit (hint hint!!). We were originally told about it about a year ago when we were coming up to Wang from Melbourne to go house-hunting. The nephew of one of the ladies I worked with at Newman College is a chef there, and after that first visit, we just have to keep going back. They change the menu every couple of months or so, so Hubs and I have never had the same meal twice.

On Sunday Hubs opted for the butterflied sardines…

…while I had an Asian-style pork, egg and rice bowl. 
 
Hubs’ Dad had the trout and gnocchi dish and Nanna ordered the pizza of the day which had smoked salmon and other goodies on it.

And of course we simply had to have dessert. (Lucky we went on that big walk the night before!!!) Hubs had an orange and chocolate torte:

And I just couldn’t go past the lemon tart:
And we accompanied the meal with a local bottle of Sangiovese. It was so so goooood…
And Chance loved all the extra cuddles he was getting too!

Chance and I are heading up to Brisbane for more cuddles from family and friends next Tuesday for a week. We’re leaving Hubs behind unfortunately 🙁 but hopefully he can make it next time. My solo parenting trip to Melbourne was a bit of a practice run, and since that went so well, I’m quite confident about taking Chance on the plane on my own. Hopefully that confidence won’t be challenged too much! See you in Brisbane if you’re around!

Super Moon!

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Hubs and I have been trying to increase our activity levels as well as our social network, so when we were invited along to a moonlight walk with the Warby Range Bushwalkers Club over the weekend, we jumped at the offer! As many as you would know, there was a “supermoon” on Saturday, and we walked about 9km enjoying the view! We met lots of lovely people and had a great time chatting with new friends we invited along as well. Hubs carried Chance in our new ergo sling and he slept most of the time. (I’m glad Hubs did the carrying – we had a “weigh-in” yesterday and Chance has hit the 8.5kg mark! And he’s only 4 months old!!)

One of the members of the walking group hosted us before and after the walk. Everyone (all 35 of us!) brought our own dinner and drinks and mingled before and after which was really lovely.

Hubs, Wifey and Chanbe at the start of the walk:

The route we took:

We had a really super time and look forward to the next walk!

A fine whine

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When we first arrived in Melbourne, our friend Nate came down for a visit so we headed to the Yarra Valley for a look and taste around wine country. We splurged a little bit (read: we didn’t have a budget) and spent a few hundred dollars (read: more than I care to admit) on some very fine wine. Now the thing about buying nice wine when you’re a little bit broke, or are about to become a little bit broke, is that you like to save the good bottles for special occasions. Fast forward two and a half years, and you end up with wine that should have been enjoyed two years earlier as it has endured extreme temperatures of anywhere between 2 and 40 degrees.

I’m so bummed about this! There were 2 wines in particular, one which we opened last night, that aren’t as great as they would/could have been. I remember buying this one in particular from Moet and Chandon and it was $30 and I thought “we’ll drink this on a special occasion”. But no occasion seemed “special” enough and now the wine is less than special.

Mental note: Life is special, so anytime is a special occasion for fine wine.

What’s in a name?

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When I booked the flights to go to Brisbane for Christmas, I was 5 months pregnant and didn’t know the sex or name of “Littlefoot” so on the booking form, I had to fill in “TBA” for both categories. Once Chance graced us with his presence, I had to ring Virgin Blue to let them know “male” & “Chance Harry”. Funny thing was, they made a typo and we ended up with an itinerary for “Chanbe Harry”. I was going to ring them but it was the day before the flights when we realised and I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal.

The thing is, the name has stuck.

Hubs and I call him “Chanbe” as much as we call him Chance. Hubs even asked if it was too late to change his name officially, as Chanbe has really grown on us. Hee hee! I have to warn you, now that I’ve told you this story, expect our little man to be referred to as Chanbe every now and then. Or, you know, all the time 🙂

Beauty mate!

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Today has been one of those ho-hum days. I’m tired and I’m sick of washing and trying to tidy our unit and am just generally nice and grumpy. Hubs cheered me up a bit before so now I’m (just barely) in the mood to write about our little trip to Mt Beauty yesterday.

We headed there to check out the town where we will be living in a few months time. Hard to believe we’ll be moving in the not-too-distant future. I keep trying to get our current abode in a manageable state, but I think I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s too small and we have too much stuff so it’s always going to feel cluttered. (This added to my doldrums today 🙂

So anyway, we had a drive around and chatted to the 2 real estate agents there. They seemed pretty confident that we’d be able to find something at that time of year so that was reassuring. I just can’t wait to move to a house where we can actually have people over for dinner as well as stay with us! Having people over for meals or to stay is such a big part of who we are and it’s really hard living in a place where it’s almost impossible to do that. And I miss having an outdoor area where I can just sit and have a cuppa or a glass of wine and watch the world go by. As much as we love living in Wang, it will be so lovely having a bigger place!

We are trying to be good with our pennies at the moment so we made our own breadrolls for lunch. I felt like such a Mum. It was awesome! Here’s Hubs and Chance enjoying themselves on our little lunch seat:

We have already confirmed house guests for August (yay!) and hopefully there will be plenty more to come. Please. Join us!

MIA

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I spent a few days in old Melbourne town this week, hence my absence in the blogging world. Plus, you know, I’m lazy busy. I went down to the capital to see my friend A-dele who was down from Brizzie for a conference, and I took the opportunity to catch up with a few other friends as well. I also dressed Chance in on of the very (very) few outfits that I have actually bought him:

And a way-too-cute close up to highlight the reason for the purchase:
What’s that? You’d like another one? Oh, okay then…
So clearly as soon as I saw the little feet on the onesie I simply had to buy one for my Littlefoot. Oh, and don’t tell Hubs, but I also bought it in white with silver trim for the girls we’re going to have. Hee hee!! Fun!!
The trip was HEAPS of fun and it was so nice to see our friends again. Chance hung out with his little friends who just adored him:
I was a little nervous about taking Chance on my own but I had a great trip which was made even more smooth by driving our newest member of the family, Sherry. Chance was an absolute dream and slept the whole way, there and back, and although we missed Hubs and he missed us, it gave him the opportunity to catch up on scary/non-Wifey movies (e.g. Resident Evil.) I’ll tell you about the other trip we had tomorrow…