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!

Are you lonesome tonight?

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I’m lonely. There. I said it. Now I’m not looking for sympathy :-), I’m merely stating a fact. I know what you’re saying. “You’re really good at making friends” and this is true. But it’s those long-standing friendships that really sustain a person’s soul. I felt like I was just starting to make these friends in Melbourne and then we left. I still keep in contact with some gal pals from Melbs, and I love them dearly, but it’s not the same as having someone I can call up and meet for coffee on any given day.

I think another contributing factor is that I had all my friends and family in Brisbane so close by for 6 weeks and I really miss that. It was so great to hang out with all the people who know us so well, so we didn’t have to be on our best behaviour all the time.

I also have this huge fear that I don’t make good first impressions. I just get nervous and want people to like me and I end up babbling and telling weird stories. I’m sure some of the mums in the mother’s group thought I was a bit odd the first few times they met me. (I started late – they had already been meeting for a month before I joined the group.) Thankfully (hopefully) I have redeemed myself with a great meet up yesterday over coffee. There were about 8 of us and I was a bit less nervous and bit more coherent. They are such a great bunch of women and I do hope I get to know them better over the coming months.

A few of them in particular, come to think of it, most of them, are really outgoing and friendly which is so lovely. It means I don’t have to always make all the effort so I can  relax a little bit.

Anyway, things really are going tremendously well for our little family. We are getting into somewhat of a routine, and I make sure I get out of the house every day for a walk or lunch with Hubs or a coffee in town. I do love Wang, but we are also looking forward to our next adventure in Mt Beauty in July.

Nanny and Chance

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While we were up in Brisbane, we visited Nanny & Grandpa each week. Almost as soon as we arrived, Nanny would tell me to sit and eat while she took Chance to the lounge room to play. Chance is Nanny & Grandpa’s first “grand-grand son” and they really doted over him. They didn’t quite understand that “Chance” is a name, so in true style, Nanny said to me “I just call him Harry.”

Nanny would sit herself down on the couch and put Chance on a cushion on a stool in front of her and tell him all about how life works.

And kept him cool in the warm Brisbane summer:
And sometimes he would go to sleep:
He really loves his Nanny!
The 4 generations together:

Chance is so lucky to have 4 great-grandmas and a great-grandpa. He hasn’t yet met his Ouma Lies in South Africa, as well as the rest of our family over there, but hopefully that will be on the cards in the next few years!

Simple things done well

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The thing about Hubs is that he’s easy to please but hard to impress. (Luckily for me I’m totally awesome so he was totally impressed and just had to marry me! Ha!)

(Moving on…) I may have already mentioned that I can take all day preparing an elaborate 3 course meal for Hubs that he’ll enjoy just as much as spag bol or chicken salad, as long as they are done well. So when we were over at Aunty Alida and Uncle Wayne’s on Friday and Aunty Alida asked if we’d like ham and salad rolls for lunch, Hubs got very excited. I know what you’re saying. Ham and salad rolls? Big whoop. But when something simple like that is made with love (and avocado) then it will always be a winner with us Hubs. And you know me – I love anything that someone else makes for me!

And of course, they were awesome!

This visit kicked off a super weekend in Melbourne for us. More to come…

There’s no place like home

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Every gal needs at least one pair of red shoes. These are my latest edition. I bought them so I could walk to places like Mother’s group or coffee with friends and not have to wear my boring ugly sneakers. And since I have an aversion to paying full price for shoes and clothing, the fact that they were 30% off sealed the deal. Aren’t they just super cute!?

“Helpful”

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Throughout my pregnancy and ever since Chance was born, people have shared helpful as well as “helpful” comments with Hubs and I.

The helpful comments are things like:
“You’re going to just love being parents.”
“Every year it gets better and better.”
“You will love this time in your lives. It’s so special for you as a family.”

These comments from family, friends and strangers really built me up and up and made me even more excited about being a mum.

And then there was the lady on the plane coming home from Brisbane who had a “helpful” comment for me. I was holding Chance as we were looking for our seats and he was crying/whining a little bit and she looked at me and said “Don’t worry, it only gets worse.”

This really bothered me. Hubs reasoned with me that she was only joking and I know that, but I couldn’t work out for a few days why it annoyed me so much. And then I realised, it’s because there are many women who struggle with postnatal depression for the first few months of their baby’s life and if that lady had made that comment to someone in that fragile state-of-mind, that would have been extremely unhelpful for that new mum. What if she had been thinking “this part is really hard but surely it will get better.” No matter how much you reason with yourself, it’s hard to fight those demons, and comments like that can really send you crashing.

Plus she’s wrong. I know it’s just going to get better and better.

(By the way, I have more time to blog now! Hubs set up one of our laptops (we have a few) in the lounge room so I can play with Chance while I blog! Multitasking!!)

Gnocch gnocch

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Who’s there?
Pesto
Pesto who?
Pesto me long enough and I’ll make some gnocchi!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Okay okay. Maybe I should stick to what I know instead of trying to make up knock knock jokes.

Hubs and I went shopping together a week ago (side note: Hubs and I don’t grocery shop well together – I like to go in with my list, shop and leave. He likes to browse. And when Hubs is around, I can’t make decisions. I have to ask his opinion on everything. Such a pain!) and Hubs suggested I try to cook gnocchi some time. On another side note, we went out to lunch with my parents and K&K in Brisbane and Kturtle had the BEST gnocchi I’ve ever tasted. It was so light and fluffy and not at all rubbery.

The thing about cooking gnocchi (or so I read) is that it can range from disintegrating in the saucepan to a rubbery chewy concoction, or anything in between, and we’ve all had chewy gnocchi, am I right? (I’ve been watching The Sopranos and they always say that. Am I right?) (Enough with the side notes).

So, as with many of my cooking adventures, I took Hubs’ suggestion and gave it a go on Saturday. Gnocchi is quite “simple” but there are a lot of techniques (again, so I read) that can give you great gnocchi. I don’t know if it was beginner’s luck, but I’ve got to say, my gnocchi rocked.

Here’s what to do: I followed this recipe pretty much word for word. Start by boiling the potatoes whole with the skins on, peel them and scrape/mash them with a fork.

Then pile them up, add the egg and flour, and incorporate it with a spatula:
Roll them into logs and cut them up:
And then make them pretty with a fork (granted, this wasn’t my best work):
Throw them into some boiling water with some salt and fish them out once they float to the top:
Mix through some home-made basil pesto (recipe found in this book that my lovely friend gave me for my birthday last year) – I figured I’d go all out – consisting of basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and oil, and throw together some green beans and garlic:
Accompany with a bottle of bubbly that you’ve been saving for 2 years:
And enjoy! 🙂
I will definitely be making this again. Let’s just hope the beginner’s luck carries over to the next time as well!

Cuppa anyone?

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Warning: photo is not for the faint at heart!

I put my neck out a week ago – this is the first time this has happened to me in a very long time. The constant pain that I used to feel hasn’t been a part of my life for the better part of 2 years which has been absolute bliss. I put last Wednesday’s episode down to the breastfeeding positions – constantly looking down and lots of bending over and lifting. So I spent Wednesday and Thursday sitting around hoping that Chance wouldn’t want too much attention from me. He was an absolute angel – happy to amuse himself for a lot of the day between his play mat and bouncer. I booked myself in with the local Chinese Medicine establishment for some acupuncture on the Friday. I normally prefer a GP to perform the acupuncture but couldn’t be bothered trying to find one in Wang. By Thursday evening I was feeling a bit better – either my neck was getting better or I was just getting used to it. I think I did a pretty good job of sucking it in actually.

I went to my appointment on Friday afternoon and the acupuncturist got started. I don’t know if many of you have had acupuncture, or believe in it’s ability to help, but I had my first lot of acupuncture when I was 10 years old (I injured my big toe) and have never looked back. I’ve used it for RSI in my wrists, for post-nasal-drip that I had for 18 months, for sciatica (this occurred after a sneezing attack) and for a back problem that I developed 10 days before our wedding. Each time I had great success. I like the traditional way of putting in the needles – just using two fingers to almost squeeze it in. These days, most acupuncturists use the tube. I hate the tube. This method involves the needle being put into a cylinder and being “tapped in”. This ensures the needle is inserted the correct depth. I can’t quite work out why I hate it so much but it makes me tense up and cringe every single time. I liken it to nails down a blackboard or papercuts between your fingers or kicking your little toe on the corner of the bed. It’s not relaxing in the least.

Anyway, back to the story. She put in about 12 needles and left me for 15 minutes, came to check on me, then left for another 15 or so minutes. When she returned and took the needles out, I thought that was the end of the treatment, but she asked if I’d mind her doing some cupping on my back. I really like cupping so I said sure!

I think she may have put the cups on a bit tight though. This was my back a few hours later:

And the bruises are still there, albeit faded, a week later! I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to hurt as much as it did (it never has before) but she wasn’t done yet! She finished it off with a white-knuckle inducing massage. Why didn’t I tell her to be a bit softer? Well, ummm, I don’t know. Maybe because she didn’t ask, or maybe because I’m a massive chicken. Plus the pain felt pretty good. The next day I was quite sore but by Sunday it was feeling much better. I’ve been putting heat on it since then and it’s definitely better.

She said I should have a follow-up appointment sometime this week. I’m thinking not…

Bake-a-licious!

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Last night I baked!!! The hospital that Hubs works at has a cake stall once a month and obviously I’ve missed the last few and have been having withdrawals. So Hubs took the baby for a few hours last night and I went to town making these oat cookies and these brownies. I also made some banana/berry/choc bread. SO GOOD!!! Gosh I miss having time to bake every week, but it makes it all the more exciting when I do get the opportunity!

This was the first time I had used my new bundt cake tin and brownie baking tray (thanks Ma!) I also decided to bite off more than I could chew by cooking up some burrito mince and bolognaise afterwards, as I had taken some mince out of the freezer that needed cooking up. It was such a great night!!