Q: How can it take 45 minutes to walk 1km?

May 25, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

A: Because of three kids.

That is literally how long it took us to walk home from picking Quindy up from kindy the other day. Darby and I left home at 2:20pm to walk down to Chanbe’s kindy which is only 650m down the road. Pushing the big pram, this normally takes about 8 minutes. We picked Chanbe up from kindy, and he hopped on his bike that I brought along with us. The whole way to Quindy’s family day care is flat, and Chanbe can really scoot along on his balance bike, so I have to walk quite quickly to keep up. Even so, with all the stoppages, drinks breaks, “my feet hurt can I ride in the pram” stops etc etc etc, the 1.5km can take up to half and hour to complete.

We arrive at Quindy’s kindy (ha ha) and as her educator is giving me a great debrief of the day, the kids play for a bit longer together and the carer has a cuddle with Darby-doo. By the time I put Darby and Quinn in the pram, and get Chance sorted with his helmet, then stop to find Q’s drink bottle, it was about 3:30. The walk home is 1.2km up a bit of a hill.

This is where things start to get ridiculous. Now I have to say off the bat that I’m in no hurry to get home. The longer it takes us, the better as far as I’m concerned. So when Q wants to hop out and walk, I encourage it. and then when C wants to get back in the pram, I say “sure thing buddy”. It’s when they both want to get in, that my back and neck and shoulders let out a whimper. This means I have to strap Darby into the carrier on my front, and push the pram, (18kg) Chance (20kg) and Quinn (10kg) up the small hill. Oh, and Chance and Quinn like to stand up in the pram and try and touch the low hanging trees.

Look, it’s a lot of fun really. Apart from when, 50m from home, Chanbe had a bit of a meltdown – I think he was honestly so tired from a full day of kindy, and riding most of the way home (he was back on his bike at this stage) and he’d just had enough of life really. But we got there in the end, and now that we have a wonderful, glorious, huge backyard, this is what we spend most of our afternoons doing…

I actually have a really cute video of the kids on the tire swing (behind the plane) but I can’t quite get it to work (still getting used to WordPress!) and since then, Hubs put the Red Barron plane bed up as a swing! So. Totally. Awesome.

A glimpse

May 21, 2015 / Renae / 2 Comments

Do you ever catch a quick look at yourself in the mirror and see something you didn’t expect to see?

That happened to me last Thursday. You know, the cheesecake day? After spending the majority of the afternoon kicking myself for eating too much cake, my self esteem and body image were taking a bit of a battering. I was faffing around in the bathroom when I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror. It actually made me stop and smile.

My sunnies were holding my hair back which made it nice and spiky out the sides; I had been bothered with a bit of foundation and mascara that morning, which were both still present; and I just didn’t look as tired and worn out as I was certainly feeling at the time.

I had to go grab my phone (and move to better lighting) and take a photo for the sake of my self esteem.

Okay, so I took a few photos 🙂

I gave myself a metaphorical pat on the back for looking at myself and seeing the good stuff. Far too often I am critical of my appearance and dwell on things, when I could be spending that brain space and emotional energy on more meaningful things instead. Like loving myself, and telling myself that I’m doing a pretty damn good job at this thing called life.

I’ve taken up deep breathing

May 4, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

Why? Here are some reasons just from today:

When it’s the afternoon and it takes you an hour and 10 minutes to walk the 800m round trip to the post office to check the PO box and pick up a parcel that I apparently missed the delivery for.

Deep breaths all the way, and it was a lovely walk. Even when Chanbe lost his cool because he wanted me to buy him the wooden model aeroplane that they had at the AusPost shop. So so many deep breaths and we all got through it.

When we’ve had a great dinner time, easy bath time, no trouble getting PJs on and teeth brushed, and Chanbe wants to read The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. For about the eighth time in recent memory. I take my deeeeeeep breaths and ask him very nicely if maybe he could choose two different stories tonight, since we have so many to choose from. And he did. Because I asked nicely and calmly. I am the adult, after all. (Meaning I need to set the example!)

When I’ve read the stories, (Chance ended up choosing two Hairy McLary books which I’m quite fond of) talked about what we did today, sung three songs, (I sang them Bike by Pink Floyd for the first time tonight and they loved it!) and brought them their cold water in sippy cups (man do I ever regret starting that little ritual a year ago) and Quindy starts up: “I wan’t more dinnnnnnaaaaaahhhhhh.”

I take my deep breaths and I calmly explain that she ate all of her dinner and her yoghurt and her fruit and now it’s bedtime. After a bit more fussing about (“I need a bandaid/blanket/froggy”) it’s done with and she is going to bed happy.

When I’m transferring my beef schnitzel from the frying pan to my plate and I drop it on the floor, and the Schnitzel von crumbs go everywhere (see what I did there?)

I took my deep breaths, brushed it off (I had just vacuumed the floors an hour before after the kids were eating grated cheese sitting down in the kitchen while I was cooking) and put it on my plate.

And finally, after a long day, and another day of not knowing when Hubs will be home, I should have known better, but learned the hard way, not to open a screw top bottle of wine while I’m holding it horizontally.

Deep breaths while I clean up the floor for the third time in 2 hours.

So there you have it folks. You heard it here first – breathing is good for you. I made a conscious effort to just walk around all day taking deep breaths, so when situations arose that needed me to be calm, I was already well on my way. I just have to remember it again tomorrow…

Cyclone Marcia

February 20, 2015 / Renae / 1 Comment

Marcia Marcia Marcia.

I’m sure no one else on the Internet has written that today. I’m so funny. As some of you may be aware, we recently moved to Rockhampton, and in turn moved directly into the path of a Category 5 cyclone. Woops! We also bought a 65 year old house with the contract settling 2 days ago. We figure it’s lasted 65 years and numerous storms, surely this one won’t knock it over! Maybe we should have settled next week!

The temporary house we are in has a rather leaky roof and is in a very low lying area. It is high set but I’m a little nervous about the few pieces of furniture we have bought from garage sales that we’re storing under the house. That part isn’t built in.

Anyway we’ve done what we can and now we wait. Apparently Yeppoon is getting hit pretty badly right now. Before we moved here, a number of people said “don’t live in Rocky, live in Yeppoon. It’s much nicer out there.” I’m kind of glad we didn’t listen 🙂

Apart from the whole “cyclone” thing we are doing really well! Mum and Dad have been up here for a week and we had a little party for Quinn’s 2nd birthday last weekend which was lovely.

We’ve also had some work done on the floors of our new place in preparation for us moving in. Here’s the last couple of weeks in photos!

I got another haircut!

The kids helped me make gnocchi

Quinn chose this bag to take with her to kindy drop off which amused Chance’s teachers and the other parents.

I made Quindy a froggie cake for her birthday

Which she ate happily

Ouma came up for some lovely cuddles

There’s been a lot of this going on

We removed all the carpet from our new place in preparation for getting them polished

So far they’ve gone from this:

To this after sanding. I know, right????

Darby-doo had his 10 week check last week and weighed in at a healthy (whopping!) 7.3kg. He is doing marvelously and even letting me sleep most of the night!

And then there’s the cyclone.

So that’s us up to date for now. I’m a little excited that this is my first cyclone which I know is morbid and I’ll probably feel very differently in a few hours but for now the novelty is there.

I’ll try and do an update in the next few days!

A great insight

January 27, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

I remember when my friend went from having 2 kids to 3. I only had 14 month old Chanbe at the time and was enjoying motherhood, especially since he was finally sleeping through the night.

When I visited my friend, I asked her what having 3 kids was like, and I still remember her reply: There are always 3 things that need to be done immediately but you can only choose 1. Right now the breakfast dishes need clearing, I need to get dressed, and my cup of tea needs drinking. Okay so the last one is not necessarily pressing but gee it makes me feel better in the morning. Oh, and write a blog post. And do the folding.

It’s very true, and I’m learning to adjust and try and choose one thing at a time. Obviously when Darby needs feeding the choice is simple, but when war breaks out between the other two at the same time, things get interesting. I’m trying to let them sort themselves out and that mostly works which is good.

I’ve had a few outings with the 3 of them which have gone really well and I plan on taking them to the pool this week. That will be interesting. We went to church on Sunday and meet some nice people and we’re going to their playgroup this morning.

I think Rocky is going to suit us 🙂

Rocky rocks

January 25, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

Okay so it’s not exactly the most original title, but I’m sleep deprived and have had a (rather generous) glass of bubbly so it’s the best I can come up with right now.

It’s been a good first week. We arrived last Monday just after midday and it was an absolutely stinking hot day, but I dare not complain. We drove to the hospital to pick up the keys for our temp accommodation and while Hubs went to do that, I took the kids to the cafe and bought 2 huge bottles of water. It was at this point that both Quindy and Darbs decided to fill their respective nappies. I bundled them up and found the baby change room and took a look at myself in the mirror. Yikes. I was extremely glad I had decided not to meet Hubs’ colleagues that day. My hair was dripping wet and I I didn’t have sweat patches – I had dry patches, and very few of them let me tell you.

Anyway we arrived at the accommodation and were pleasantly surprised. It’s a 3 bedroom house and although it’s on the main highway through town and is a bit of a hike from the hospital, we are grateful for the space, the air con in every room, and the luscious, green grassy yard!

We spent that afternoon and the next day looking at rentals, and even a couple of houses for sale. Hubs started work on Wednesday and I took the kids to the lovely big shopping centre. We had a 100% successful trip and I was particularly impressed with the parent rooms there! I arrived home feeling very confident that this year is going to be a good one. The next 2 days were equally great with the kids and after exploring the beautiful botanical gardens this arvo, I know that there will always be things to do with the kids here.

We have a couple of things brewing in regards to housing but I’ll share more when we know more which will hopefully be very very soon!

Of sunsets and smiles

October 2, 2014 / Renae / 1 Comment

On our final evening at Karumba, we decided to go to the recommended fish and chip shop, grab some takeaway dinner and sit on the “beach” and watch the sun go down. The food did not disappoint, and nor did the view. Hubs bought a “new” Digital SLR camera recently, and has been having lots of fun with it, as you can see.

Quinn’s response to Hubs’ direction of “go over there and look cute.” I think she nailed it.

As Hubs started losing the light, he told Chance to try and stay really still.

Then he said “try and stay still, but not look so sad.” There’s my little guy.

So as I sit here at our desk, feeling hot and a bit sticky, I’m already missing the sea breezes that turned 35 degrees into heaven. I spent a lot of time just sitting, enjoying the breeze and the green grass around me. It’s amazing the things you miss when you don’t have them. Living so far away from the coast has really made me appreciate the water so much more, and I can’t wait to get closer next year.

Did I mention we are moving to Rockhampton next year? Probably not. But that’s a post for another day.

Ay Karumba!

October 1, 2014 / Renae / 2 Comments

Very original, I know, but it’s the only way I can remember that it’s Karumba and not Kuranda. Last week, Hubs had 5 days off and we decided we needed (needed) to get out of our wee townhouse or we would go crazy. So we decided to look into Karumba. Family friends of ours used to go up there every year for the fishing season, catch their fill, and travel back down to their home in Townsville. They loved it, and within minutes of arriving, I could see why.

We set off Tuesday morning around 10am to drive the almost 600km, and the kids were in good spirits and being rather cute and delightful!

I wish I could say these happy faces lasted the whole 8 hour trip, but all of you parents out there wouldn’t believe me. On the whole, they were really great, especially considering how boring the drive is!! We arrived just after 6pm, and this is one of the first things we saw:

This was our first look at Karumba – the sun setting over the water. What is it about water that energises and feeds the soul? I’ve never considered myself a particular lover of water, but this made my heart sing. And things just got better from there. We arrived at the caravan park and were shown to our on-site caravan, named Frank.

It was nothing fancy, but very comfortable and much more roomy than I was expecting, with the permanent annexes on either side.

We were going to throw some snags on the BBQ for dinner, but then we saw a sign saying “prawns $20/kilo”. Um, yes please! So we ate prawns for dinner instead. Big, fresh, tasty prawns. I was pretty happy about that choice.

The next day I sent Hubs and Chanbe out on a fishing charter in the afternoon while Quindy and I had a little nap. They didn’t catch any keepers, but had a good time out on the water. And one of the other guys on the charter who caught a few, gave us one of his blue salmon.

The kids weren’t overly excited, but Hubs smoked that fish beautifully on the BBQ, and there’s nothing quite like fresh fish! We had booked in for the Croc and Crab tour for the next day, which Hubs was a bit ho-hum about (too touristy) but I was SO excited! Mainly because they serve fresh cooked prawns and mud crab for lunch as part of it. The tour went from 9:30am til 1:30pm, and considering the kids were in a confined space, they did really well. I even got complimented towards the end on their behaviour, which is always nice.

The tour was run by a married couple and they were just lovely and full of interesting facts about the area. Some photos? Sure.

They took us to see a couple of resident crocs which the kids were pretty damn excited about!

And after catching a few mud crabs in the pots, they showed us how to tie them up and gave us all a “pat”. Chanbe was not interested at all, and asked very kindly “please put it back in the bucket Dadda.” This one didn’t even have any claws!

Quindy was much more interested in finishing her Cheetos first,

And then of course she was interested in “patting” the crab’s claw! Girl is fearless!

And then, the feast was brought out. Everyone was given half of a (cooked) mudcrab each, and there were 3 big bowls of prawns to help ourselves to. There are no photos of this, as I was in the zone. That seafood was some of the best I’ve had in SO LONG! The kids were given a can of softdrink each – Quindy’s first serious taste of some orange sugary drink – and that kept them occupied for the next hour. Just you try to take it off them though! I think I’d fancy my chances with the crab more!

I’ll leave it there for now as this is already a long post, and there’s a fair bit more to come!

Time to Bounce

August 8, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

While we were in Brisbane, Mum wanted to take Chanbe to Bounce – a huge indoor trampoline centre. This place is massive and amazing and unfortunately, when Mum took Chance along, he was just a bit overwhelmed with the noise and all the people. Is that what happens when you live in a small, quiet town? Anyway, we thought if I went, and we took other kids he knew, that might encourage him to have a jump. So our friends Liam and Alex came along and even though they were all a bit hesitant at the start (it really is very busy and noisy!) once it was their turn, it took all of about 3 minutes and they were hooked. There were 6 areas you could jump in, but Chanbe stuck to just 2. This one was a huge hit:

And he probably spent the most time in this area. Just lots of trampolines to jump on and you could climb up the angled trampoline walls and slide down. It’s so wonderful to watch your child just having the time of their life.

Of course, when it was time to go home, he didn’t want to get off! You have to book ahead and you pay for an allocated hour (or more) so we were there from 12 til 1. It may have taken some ice cream bribery to encourage him to leave 🙂 You know, whatever works. We will definitely go back when we’re in town next. Wanna come?

The previous post

July 23, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

I just thought I’d inform you that the previous post was something I wrote during a creative writing workshop over the weekend. I attended a three day celebrants conference down the Gold Coast and it was so fantastic. I met some great celebrants, one of whom lived in Redcliffe and was kind enough to give me a lift home on the Sunday, and learned some invaluable skills to take to future weddings.

I’ve been wanting to revamp my methods and ways I run my weddings and I have heaps of ideas to try out over the next 4 weddings I have booked in the next little while. It also confirmed in me that I really want to give this Celebrant gig a good go. It’s a bit tricky in Mount Isa – not many people actually come to Mount Isa to get married – but I’ll certainly be trying none-the-less.

Anyway, the creative writing workshop was really challenging and a lot of fun. I’m not big on that style of writing but when given a task to complete in 5 minutes – write about your favourite song or piece of music and how it makes you feel – I was immediately excited to give it a go. And I was really happy with how it turned out, as was the facilitator. I think I’d like to challenge myself a bit more with my writing; both here on the blog as well as in my wedding ceremonies.

It’s going to be fun!