Category: Stuff

Get shorty

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I had been growing my hair long for a while, but all I ever really did was wear it up. Except of course, in this photo I wanted to use:

And then I got over it. Hubs gave me a 5 trip pamper voucher for mothers day (among other things!) and one of the trips was a visit with a hair stylist, and a hair cut. She really chopped a lot off!

It wasn’t really what I asked for, which was a repeat of this hair cut I got a few years ago that I LOVED:

(of course I’m eating in both shots. Hubs likes to sneak up on me like that!!)

But I’m liking it more and more every day. Ready for a dodgy self portrait?

And obviously it’s going to get a lot shorter, as per #015 of my 101 in 1001 days!

A day in the life

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Hubs: “This cream smells like fart.”

Wifey: “Huh?”

Hubs: “Did you fart in it before you put the lid on?”

Wifey: “Yeah. That’s what I did.”

Who needs a TV when you have entertainment like this at your disposal?

New stuff on the blog & Day 1

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Today is day 1 of my 101 in 1001 days challenge – go and check out my list! I’m so excited to start this challenge, that I want to get everything done NOW! But clearly, that’s not the point. I really don’t know which one I’ll be crossing off first, or last for that matter, but I’m super keen to jump right in.

The other new thing is a “Who is Wifey” link. This is something I was saving for  the launch of my “new blog” (one of the things on my list!) but I realise that could still be a little ways off, so if I can’t be with the blog I love, why not love the blog I’m with. Ha! Girl’s on fire!

One of the things on today’s “to do” list is to vacuum and mop the floors, and since I just spent the last hour with my friend who just “popped in” for a visit (I LOVE a good pop-in!!) I’d really better get started.

And since it’s been a little while, here’s a fix for you all:

Breastfeeding makes me feel sad

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After Quinn was born, I went through a pretty rough patch, trying to settle in to my new life. We had just moved, Hubs had just started full time work, Chanbe was taking some time adjusting, and I had some initial problems with breastfeeding. Life was just hard and I often felt waves of utter sadness and hopelessness. I was a little worried about post natal depression, so I just made sure I got help when I needed it.

Things got better after a few weeks, but every time I feed Quinn, the sadness comes back. Just under the surface; almost unnoticeable, but there. I never really thought much of it as it would pass almost as quickly as it came on.

So I did what any person in this day and age would do. I googled it. And it turns out I am experiencing Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex or D-MER. As the website states,

“D-MER has been linked to an inappropriate drop in dopamine that occurs whenever milk is released. In a mother with D-MER at the time of letdown dopamine falls inappropriately, causing negative feelings.”

I’ve read quite a bit about it and it’s very interesting, and nice to know that there is a reason for my fleeting sadness during feeds. It’s not really something I feel the need to have treated, but it sure is nice to have an answer!

Look at this face. You can understand why I was so confused that feeding my little girl makes me feel sad!!??

 

Mothers Day

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Yesterday was Mothers Day here in Australia. Hubs had to work so I have booked in my sleep in and breakfast for his next day off which is this Thursday. Our friends are up visiting so we had a day of touristy stuff planned. Chanbe must have known it was a special day, as he slept in til 7am! Woo! He came into our bed for cuddles and gave me my presents and lovely card. I was given a pamper voucher for 5 visits which I’m very excited about, and a bike!! Well, a picture of a bike. Hubs bought me a fully restored Moulton commuter bike off ebay and I can’t wait to see it! It still has to make its way to us, so I will get another surprise soon!

Myself, the kids and our friends and their 16 month old little girl took off around 9am to see Castle Hill (we drove up), and the Strand. It was an absolutely beautiful day!

Us at the top of Castle Hill:

We had a walk around and took in the gorgeous views, and then headed down to the Strand for a walk and fish and chips for lunch. I then took the kids home for a sleep that never happened, and then we all headed to Riverway for a swim in the afternoon. It was Quinn’s first swim!

We came home and fed the kids, then I cooked up some parmas for us all. After dinner, I was getting some food ready for our trip to Magnetic Island today, when we heard Chanbe crying. Hubs went in to settle in, and then I heard Chanbe calling me so I went in as well. There was spew all over his bed 🙁 Hubs took him in the shower while I cleaned things up, and for the next 4 hours, he spewed every half hour or so. The poor little guy. We were up a few more times during the night, and he has been unwell today so we decided not to go out.

I was so worried my friend’s little girl would be sick as well, and she was fine up until they started driving to the ferry. She has only been sick once, so I’m hoping that will be it for her, and that none of us (especially Quinn) get it.

So that was my mothers day. And I wouldn’t change it for anything 🙂

Because I vacuumed and mopped yesterday…

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… Chance tipped out his water bottle all over the floor. No biggie. It’s only water.

Then…

Chance smashed his kombi money box on his bedroom floor (yes, porceline smashes on carpet apparently!)

Then…

I forgot to check for tissues in pockets and got tissue all over Hubs’ work shirts (and my 3/4 jeans) and as I was shaking them out at the back door, a big gust of wind brought it all back inside.

Then…

I didn’t realise there was still the dregs of coffee in our stovetop coffee maker thingy, and as I took it to the dishwasher, it spilt everywhere.

And then…

As I was coating the beef in a plastic bag full of seasoned flour, for our beef stew for dinner, I didn’t realise there was a hole in the bag.

Sometimes I have to wonder why I bother cleaning at all 🙂

Brokety broke

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Okay, so we’re not broke. Far from it. But we drew up a new budget the other night and there really isn’t as much wiggle room as we were expecting, on a week-to-week basis. Hubs and I have been looking forward to this year for over 2 years (since I stopped working) as we would be, as we called it, “raking it in.” Turns out it’s not so much “raking” as it is slowly collecting in small amounts and seeing the money leave as fast as it’s coming in.

I think we were kind of kidding ourselves and it is finally hitting home that the next few years are really going to be (slow) building years. We are only on one salary, and a starting salary at that. People kept suggesting we were getting ahead of ourselves with all the excitement, but we couldn’t help it.

I know it’s really counterproductive, but I keep having thoughts of “if we were in Wang things would be so much better.” I happen to be fairly certain that if we had stayed in Wang, our thoughts would have been “we really should have moved somewhere different this year.” Well, maybe I would have thought that. But we would have been heaps better off financially (without having to move, and paying substantially less rent); I feel I would have been happier around my friends in Wang and closer to our Melbourne “family”; we wouldn’t be being harassed by our real estate agent (they are getting rude and nasty and we are fed up); Hubs wouldn’t have shingles; (oh yeah, Hubs has shingles and has had to stay home all week) and Hubs would have gotten more favourable rotations.

And maybe I wouldn’t be biting my nails again. Dammit.

But Wang was never offered, so there’s no point dwelling. I know that in a few years time, with some self-control and sticking to the budget, we can meet our financial goals. We just expected to be more comfortable earlier than that. But it will happen. Now that we have the budget I feel better about things already. I function much better when I have boundaries with spending, and we haven’t had that the last few months.

Sorry for the big whine. I guess I’m not quite over it just yet…

Jumping back in

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Hubs and I invested a lot of time and money in to setting up our cloth nappy collection for Chanbe, and I loved using them. I really did. The extra washing very quickly became a part of life, and it wasn’t that much extra effort. When I broke my foot a year ago, we decided (I decided) to give myself (mum) a break from the “extra work” and vowed to go back to them soon.

Then when we moved back to Wang, I started using them again but found it to be the straw that was destined to break my back (or spirit, as it were.) And that was that. I never went back to them.

Until now.

It has taken me a few weeks of adjustment with Quinn, but I realised a few weeks ago that I was excited by the prospect of using them with Quinn, and even starting to use them again with Chance, to try and see if that will make him more interested in using the toilet. (Making him uncomfortable in the nappy 😉 )

So today was day one, and don’t she just look a treat?

Next step? Nappies for Chance. That may take a bit more convincing on his part, but as I said, I’m excited!

Wifey!? Awayoo??

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“Awayoo? “That’s how Chanbe says “where are you?”

So here I am! Life is cruising along without too much to report. Well, not much interesting at least. Until today!

This is Hubs’ 3 day weekend, and after we got reprimanded by the real estate agent for the state of the garden*, I suggested that we spend some time on it this weekend. This is after I got a quote from a gardening business to prune and spray for $550. Granted, there is a lot of pruning to be done, but we have better things to spend our money on! (Here comes a tangent!)

Like things at garage sales. As well as gardening this weekend, I suggested we hit the garage sales for drawers for the office (mainly for my crafty and sewing stuff), bookshelves, a cot, and Hubs is always on the lookout for tools and lego. We cleaned up big time! We went to almost a dozen places over 2 suburbs, and I couldn’t have been more proud of Chance. He is very much in to doing everything we do, and doing things himself (“Chance do iiiiiiiittttt”) but we didn’t want to take him out at every place, so Hubs would go and do a reccy and decide if it was worth us all getting out. We probably all got out at half of them, and the other half I trusted Hubs’ judgement. And he was so well behaved in and out of the car. A very proud day for us 🙂

So, what did we score? Well. We got 2 lovely, pine tall boys for $50 each, complete with slidey drawers!! I assured Hubs that this was an absolute steal, though he wasn’t as convinced. I plan to use these in the kids’ rooms, and use the dodgy flat-pack ones that are currently in there for the crafty stuff. We also picked up a tent for $75 that retails for $500 new. It’s a few years old but has only been used a few times and looks like new. Very excited about that too. We should probably go camping some time!

I sent Hubs back to pick up the second tall boy and check out a garage sale that started at 12noon (weird!!) and he rang me from there, very excited, as he had found a work bench and a bunch of tools. So he brought that home and has left again to pick up the other tall boy and the tent. We also picked up random crafty stuff, a wooden train for Chanbe, and some kids camping chairs (for FREE!!)

Lucky we are getting paid this week!! I plan to do lots of reorganising around the house in the next week or so, and hopefully have the rest of our stuff unpacked and sorted by next weekend. The only things we are still missing are a cot and some bookshelves, so I’m afraid the 5 boxes of books will remain packed at this stage. But we are getting there!

Oh, and we might actually get some gardening done at some stage as well……

(Random cute photo to keep you coming back!)

*I wouldn’t mind so much, except we have had outstanding maintenance requests since we moved in, 2 months ago, and have had to deal with 4 different agents from the same place because of staff turnover, and have had to resubmit the requests each time, as they have gotten “lost”. So yeah, my feelings about how renters get treated by certain real estate agents hasn’t changed.

Call the Waaaambulance

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The last year, as I have documented frequently on this blog, has been tough for me. This time last year I broke my foot, and that pretty much set the tone for the following 12 months. Well, I let it set the tone. I have been quite caught up in how hard my life is, except that it’s not. Not really. I think when your (well-meaning) family and friends (and strangers!) tell you how hard it must be to move around so much, especially when 36 weeks pregnant; to start again in a new town; for Hubs to be starting a new job etc etc etc, it’s hard not to accept the sympathy and empathy and get caught up in the drama of it all.

Hubs and I make choices, and sometimes those choices come with extra challenges, but the pay-off is worth it. We have had such wonderful experiences with each move we have made, and I can quite confidently predict that the same will be said of this move. We have already made some friends through the hospital, and  have plans for more social events coming up.

I don’t want to make light of feeling overwhelmed with a new baby, but if I really think about it, I can feel those feelings and work through them and come out the other side much quicker than in the last year. I will accept help when it is offered, and I will let myself feel whatever I’m feeling, but I am also committing to focusing on the positives; to taking each day (and sometimes each hour) as it comes, and to know that, when it has taken me an hour and a half of trying to get Chanbe to go to sleep during the day, and he is still awake, that it’s okay if he skips a sleep that day, and that “this too shall pass.” I’m committing to less “whining” and more “beering” and “spiriting”.

Onwards and upwards.