Think healthy thoughts

Hi.

Insert the world's longest groan here.

Man.

When did J have gastro?  Like a month ago?  So, yup.  Both girls have been sick preeetty much constantly since then.  Basically as soon as the weather got properly cold (we've got tops of 10-12C at the moment), the sickness moved in.



After the gastro, I think J or maybe A or probably both started coughing.  Is it just my kids who always always cough until they vomit?!  Why universe why?  The washing has been BIBLICAL.  The screaming and not sleeping and the fevers raging off the charts.  It's all been less than ideal and now I have some weird Pavlovian response where I break out in a cold sweat at the sound of coughing.

It's so boring, and yet stressful at the same time.

Clearly we have got to stop visiting the McDonalds playground.

All that aside, I've actually managed to do quite a few non-mum things these past couple of weeks which has been awesome.  Of course because I'm me I usually spend the whole time away thinking about the kids and wondering if they're ok which kind of defeats the purpose, but sometimes I get home and they really were ok the whole time I was gone and that is a tonic.



A couple of weeks ago it was the Ten Tenors.  I was a bit apprehensive as I don't love opera which is what I was expecting they would be singing.  But I have a rule never to say no to a night out if I can help it.  But then I found out it was the same night as the Royal Wedding.  Disaster!!

But, but!  It was AMAZING.  My expectations were way off, first of all.  They did sing some operatic numbers but 90% of it was music I know and enjoy, and the performance was incredible.  I mean they really know what they're doing.  I highly highly recommend seeing them if you get a chance.  Breathtaking.

AND we got home in time for me to watch the Wedding.  Yusssss.

Then this weekend my friend L and I went to a jam and chutney making workshop.  We had so many laughs - especially those ones when you're in the middle of class and you're giggling uncontrollably and have to stop but can't - and learnt a lot in between times. 

Basically, you can make jam or chutney out of anything.  We were asked to bring any organic produce we had to spare and it all went in the pot together.  Game changer.  I mean we kept the jam and chutney separate but you know what I mean.  We got a jar of jam and one of chutney to bring home too which was awesome. 

AND L and I went to KFC for lunch after which in my book makes for a pretty perfect morning.

Check out these stunning rainbows we've been having.  As J and A like to say, WAINBOW MUM

And then lastly, J's kindy ran a fundraising movie night showing The Breaker Upperers which was bloody hilarious.  Again, highly recommend.

Although... I did get home from the movie to discover that A had not in fact been to sleep yet.  Less than ideal.  And she's had a shocking few nights' sleep due to this bloody coughing.  Groooaaannn.

We're just getting it all out of the way now, right?  Right?!

Being ambitious... or not

I was thinking the other day (yup, here I go again...) about ambitions.  Or lack thereof, as the case may be.

I often sometimes feel dissatisfied with what mothering small children offers me day to day, but I'm mostly very content with what I'm doing right now.

I don't have big dreams of greatness for myself.  I never have.

Evidence of Mum! Photo courtesy of my dad a couple of weeks ago at J's kindy

My parents raised me to believe that I can do and be anything I want.  I went to a fairly prestigious girls' school where it was assumed that you would be a) graduating in the top whatever percent of the state and b) going to an equally prestigious university.  I didn't know what I wanted to be, unlike the future doctors and lawyers in my year, so I did whichever subjects appealed to me at the time.  My uni entrance score didn't get me in anywhere.

I worked in a supermarket for a while.  Worked in my dad's office.  Did some conveyancing which in a very roundabout way got me into the oil and gas industry.  Which, as an aside, is also how my life suddenly and wonderfully changed direction and how I met B... but that's a story for another time.

When I finally landed in oil and gas, I loved I mean really loved my work.

I was even sent to a... symposium? conference? seminar? whatever it's called for up and comers in the gas industry.  The problem once I got there was that I realised I knew nothing about the pertinent issues facing the industry at that time.  I had no opinion, nor even any basic knowledge, on the potential carbon tax - sorry price - to be introduced.  I had no engineering degree, or any degree.  I didn't even really understand how my industry worked.

I came home and thought hard about actually trying to catch up academically.  To take the next step.  But really.  Doing an Engineering degree part time for ten years?  I'm hopeless at maths.  I hate studying.  I just really loved my job.

Eventually it dawned on me that I loved doing what I was already doing.  I didn't want to become a manager or an engineer or climb to the top of the corporate tree.  It was just ingrained in me that you keep striving towards the next goal, that next step.  But actually I wanted to type, answer the phone, manage diaries and travel, and format documents.  It's what I was good at and what I loved doing.  Why do anything else?

No next step.  Just do my best at my job, which was nothing grand but which I adored.

And, now that I'm a full time parent, I'm not in any rush to return to the workforce.  Obviously we're really lucky that I have the choice whether to work or not.  But I'm not feeling like, man I wish my kids would grow up so I can get back on that career ladder/start that business/conquer that dream.

I, uh, have no dreams...?

I've never had a life plan or even a five year plan.  I had no idea that I would end up here.  I have no idea where I'll be in the future (although I really hope I'm still here).

I'm very content.  When my kids are older and more independent I can see myself quite happily doing more of the same.  Baking.  Knitting.  Gardening.

I'm not old-fashioned at all, I would very passionately define myself as a feminist, and yet here I am feeling extremely fulfilled in the old-fashioned role of housewife (not that I would ever call myself that).  In this day and age it can be hard to admit that you don't actually want to do anything else.  To not be ambitious.  I guess the thing is choice.  At least we have the choice.

You go conquer that corporate world if you want.  And I'll sit by the fire knitting if I want.

And now for some answers...

Ok so that last post with all my burning questions is officially my favourite post that I've ever written!  Thank you so much for all the responses.  I loved reading everyone's thoughts.  Although I still don't know what to do with Snapchat.

If you've no idea what post I'm talking about or if you've forgotten it already, here is the link: All the big questions.

And now let's talk answers!



Spoiler alert: no one has the answers.  Disappointing.  I know.

When it came to dinner time with kids, most people do eat together as a family.  We still don't, and I can't figure out how to introduce it yet.  B gets home from work at 6pm at the earliest, which is also A's bedtime.  And the idea of him eating alone every night if I eat with the kids just makes me sad.  So for now we will continue to have two sittings for dinner until the kids get older.

Oh and as for dinner prep, some people do it earlier in the day, and other lucky people have partners who are home by that time to assist with kid wrangling.  What must that be like?  I bet it's wonderful.

Showers.  Some, like me, shower at night.  Other (again, lucky) people have kids who they can plonk in front of the tv or, and this really has me daydreaming, are able to get up before their kids wake.  I bet that's pretty bloody wonderful too.  I hope you guys appreciate this.

Most people are also interested in a good not-falling-down brand of jeans.  My friend E recommends Country Road jeggings (don't let that name put you off apparently).  Link here: Country Road Jeggings.  I'm going to invest in a pair myself.  I have nothing to lose at this point.

*hitches up waistband for eleventy billionth time today*

As for make up, most say no not every day, except for maybe some basic eye make up and foundation.  I wear it very rarely myself.  Sometimes I remember to put mascara on but mostly I'm bare-faced and pretty unself-conscious about it.  It's very freeing don't you think?

The accumulating stuff is an issue for everyone!  Which is comforting but doesn't solve the problem does it.  The best suggestion was to burn it all.  Efficient.  Oh and my question about this inadvertently led to further questions from you re my passing mention of the oil diffuser.  It is Doterra.  My mother in law gave it to me.  I literally know nothing about oils, but I do like this thing and use it regularly, hence it taking up valuable real estate on my benchtop.

No one is actively interior designing their house.  Phew.  Me either.

No one has a great solution for dealing with the phone storage issue.  In fact some people are hoarding literally thousands of unread emails on there, which I still feel a bit woozy when I think about it.

I just realised that all the questions in the original post are numbered 1.  Fail.

We are all inventing stupid errands to get out of the house with the kids some days.  Phew.  Me too.

None of us are mindless consumers.  Op shopping is popular and definitely one of my favourites to get a shopping fix for next to nothing.

My friend L gave me a good tip re Instagram stories: use them for things like photos of dinner or videos of kids that don't need to clutter up your actual feed.  It makes sense to me now!  I have mostly stopped posting dinner photos for that reason... although I definitely do not need another excuse to post even more stuff of my kids.  Sorry in advance everyone.

Still no one can explain Snapchat to me.  I need a 20 year old friend I think.

Wasn't that fun and informative?  I already have a whole list of new questions which I'll probably pester you with at some stage down the track.

Oh and if you didn't get around to answering the original questions I'm still very interested to hear your input.

All the big questions

I don't know about you but I usually have a number of random questions swirling around my head at any given time.  Of course once I actually catch up with my friends I'm too busy word-vomitting in my excitement at talking to real grown ups, so I forget to quiz them on these important issues.

So then I thought: who better to ask than you wise people!  Thank you in anticipation of your assistance with, as I said, these very important and pressing questions.

If you're not a mother of young children you can probably click away now as there's not a lot here for you.

Here they are in no particular order, and, as you'll see, pretty random:

1. What do you feed your kids for dinner?  Do you all eat together or do you eat your dinner after they're in bed?  If they eat with you how on earth do you get dinner cooked without them driving you insane/trashing the house/killing each other in the process?
2. Do you shower in the morning?  If so, how (see above)??  Do your kids not get into all kinds of mischief while you're in there?  I know my two would take the opportunity for some serious UFC type fighting except that when they go at it there are literally no rules.

1. Can you recommend a good brand of jeans?  Skinny but not claustrophobic, preferably without designer distressing, with - and this is my number one issue - a decent waistband that doesn't require hoiking up eleventy billion times per day.  Oh and <$100 would be great too.  Ok thanks!
2. Do you wear make up every day?  I dunno.  Just wondering.

1. What do you do with all the stuff that clutters your house?  I mean the day-to-day detritus that seems to get shuffled around and around.  This drives me to distraction.  I may not be the cleanest but I am tidy.  I hate clutter.  And yet my kitchen bench, and in fact any flat surface in my house, is always cluttered with junk.  As I look at the bench right now for example we have the baby monitor, a bottle of gin (*ahem*), the tv remotes (since A cannot be trusted with them on the coffee table), medicines that B needs to take every morning, an essential oil diffuser, a tub of magnesium, a missing dog flyer, the plate of food scraps that gets emptied into the pig bucket once a day, and the girls' water bottles.  That's on top of the actual kitchen bench stuff such as the coffee maker and fruit bowl, which is allowed to stay there.  It's a mess.  It irritates me every time I look at it.  I'm a big believer in a place for everything and everything in its place but none of this stuff has a place.  It always collects.  How do you manage it?  I have tried the junk drawer thing but some stuff has to stay in sight in order to remind you to deal with it.

1. While we're talking about house stuff, do you have an interior design aesthetic in mind that you stick to, or do you just buy stuff you like?  I'm always fascinated when I see people selling perfectly good things on those sell/swap/buy pages with the reasoning that they're "changing the colour scheme of the lounge room".

1. How do you conserve storage on your phone?  Do you just ruthlessly delete everything?  We recently upgraded our phones and B got me one with less memory than my old phone by mistake.  It took me a week to delete enough stuff to actually start using the new phone.  Now I have to constantly keep an eye on things to make sure I don't fill it up again.  And yes I do back it all up to the computer regularly but I never know when I might need to see that video of J from 2 years ago.

1. If you have children under the age of 5, do you fill your week with activities or spend most of your time at home?  How do you fill those long hours between 3-5pm - especially when it's raining??

1. Do you shop all the time?  How do you afford it?  I'd say that we are pretty comfortable.  We have investments and I think we're good with money, but I can never figure out how you have spare cash to spend on non-essentials (new clothes, cushions, that kind of thing) every single week.  How do you do it?  Am I crossing the line into things that are absolutely not my business?

1. Do you use Instagram stories? How do you decide what to post as a story and what to just post the normal way?  I don't use stories because I can't figure out why you'd want all your posts to disappear after 24 hours.  It's the same reason I don't get snapchat.  And in fact can you explain snapchat to me?  Why can't I ever see anything on there?  Am I just too old?

Oh my god now that I've started I can think of so many more but we'll leave it there for now.  I know I can count on you guys to help out with all this.

No one said it would be easy

We finally had our follow-up appointment with the therapist for A's feet/ankle issue.  Although she's now walking, stooping, climbing, and very nearly running, it appears that the problem hasn't resolved satisfactorily.

I think I knew deep down that this would be the case.  She has no heel-toe action at all, and her arches are non-existent.  The alignment of her ankles has improved but it's still nowhere near normal.

So.  Splints.  Cute little break-your-heart they're so tiny pink splints.

She has to wear them for part of every day for the next 3 months at least.  She is so proud of her "special shoes", which for some reason makes me more emotional than the fact that she has to wear them.

I'm glad that we have access to a health system which means we get all this for free.  I'm glad that the problem has been identified and will be monitored until it's resolved.  I'm glad that she won't be relegated to a lifetime of pain.  I'm glad that her problem is small potatoes in comparison to some - all the brightly coloured but complicated medical apparatus in the therapist's room reminded me how lucky we really are.

But of course I'm disappointed for the little mite.  Why is nothing easy for her?  Why does she have to go through this at all?

Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard

I look forward to the day - assuming that there will be one - when this is all a distant memory.

Anyway!  Enough of that.  Here's some superior pumpkin soup made with our very own pumpkins if you don't mind.

The autumn colour this year has been less than superior thanks to all the storms and gale force winds which blew the leaves off the trees long before they could change colour.  I'm taking what I can get.

I also finally got myself a daphne in a pot next to the front door in anticipation of heavenly scents wafting as we come and go.

My dad visited all last week which was great fun especially for the smalls, but meant that I did not pick up my camera once.

B is still working all the hours of all the days, although he did get last weekend off - two days in a row!! - which was novel and meant that the girls followed him around like little lemmings the whole time.

That's about it for this week I think...  Happier tunes next time I'm sure!