Fuck Modesty

So this morning I showed up for my appointment (late) only to realise I didn't have my referral. Which means I had to rebook. I had fasted 6 hours for nothing!
So I got back in the car and started to give myself a stern talking to about my lack of organisation - in my head of course. (Don't pretend you don't talk to yourself either, as parents it's sometimes the only sane conversation we get!)
And then I thought, You know what? Fuck it. I messed up. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Society does that enough for me.
We're always told we're not smart enough. Pretty enough. Thin enough. Tall enough. Young enough. Old enough.
So I thought I'd "stick it to the man" and tell you what I'm good at. And bloody proud of it, too.


I am a great artist. Not fantastic, but great enough that people are walking around with my designs on their skin.

I am a great cook. Even my almost two year old eats pretty much everything put in front of him. (the 16 year old sister is another story - but apparently there's no pleasing teenagers, so why bother?)

I have a great relationship with "hubby" - meaning I can tell him when I'm pissed off at him or when I want him to stop playing the goddamn ps3 for 5 minutes  because Dex has done an explosive poo. I don't just stew in it and let it build up. (the frustration about the ps3 - not the poo. Who would stew in poo?)

I am a great mother. My kids are happy. Well looked after. Well fed. Dex is an amazing talker and very smart for his age - daycare told me so. Lola is (mostly) a happy baby. She gets her nappy free time and her tummy time and all the other times.

I look great for having had two babies. Yes, I have stretch marks. But you know what? Who gives a fuck. Please, find me a woman, childless or not that doesn't have at least one. She deserves to be in a museum.
And finally, I have a GREAT life ahead of me. I have gorgeous, intelligent kids. A wonderful partner. A beautiful family and support network.


I deserve it. I deserve to be proud of what I have. What I've worked for and what's yet to come.
Fuck modesty. You should be proud too.

One week

This time last week my baby girl was 6.5 hours old.
I can't believe how quickly it's gone already. I haven't even given you a photo yet. So there you go. She looks like a big chubba in that photo hehe

Having Lola has made me realise I was born to be a mum. I can't imagine being anything else. Even when I'm frustrated, there's nowhere else I'd rather be. I don't find myself wanting 5 minutes to myself. I enjoy having my little people around.
I'm amazed I have been given such a precious gift that is all mine.
These little people rely on me for everything. I am their world. It is such an amazing feeling.

Pat has gone out tonight and asked if I was ok for a couple of hours. I think he feels guilty about going out with friends and leaving me at home. But I really don't mind.
I don't miss any of it.
I don't miss smoking. I don't miss drinking. I don't miss talking about pointless crap with people who couldn't care less.
How could I want to do those things when I have these tiny people, who are tiny for such a short time?
Not that I think badly of Pat for going out at all. He does so much for me and the kids that he deserves a break. He's so hard on himself and takes on so much responsibilty it's crazy. He does almost all the cleaning. All the washing and folding and putting away. He is really wonderful.

This post doesn't really have a purpose. Except to show you how wonderful my life is. How I feel blessed at being able to wake up to my complete little family and that I enjoy every minute - even when I'm stressed, there's no where I'd rather be.

xx

My Little Mister

This is Dexter.

(I did have a photo on here, but I got a creepy comment from a random named "John" so I have removed it).

He is my adorable, energetic, cheeky, life loving, opportunity grabbing 18 month old son. He is completely adorable and a little bit strange sometimes.

There are people in my life who are lucky enough to know him personally. For those of you missing out, let me tell you a little about him.

He likes drinking bath water. And eating bubbles. I'm not entirely sure why, but he is obsessed. Don't worry though, he'll try and share with you by saying "Ta!" in the cutest little voice and offering some too you, you'll feel compelled to pretend drink/eat what ever he's having.

He LOVES animals. Up until recently, everything has been a gog (dog). Now, it's either a dog, cat or a bird. Doesn't matter which one it REALLY is, he will still try and grab it's head/tail/body part within reach and drag it to his face for a kiss. Or five.

He's started toilet training himself. He tells me "poos" when he needs to go to the toilet. This word covers wees, poos and farts. Yesterday he was wet when he got up because he'd woken at 5am. He told me poos and I pretty much said "yes dear" but he was ademant, so I put him on the toilet and he did a wee. He was then running around without a nappy on, told me poos again and I assumed he just needed to do another wee, so I told him "good boy for telling mummy! you just do poos outside, ok?" That's why I had to clean poo off the deck.

He loves to laugh and loves making other people laugh. He will sit with his father and they'll both squeal at each other and takes turns giggling. It's a great game. He will also say "toes!" and try and eat your toes, because you freaking out about a child trying to eat your toes is obviously hilarious.

Dexter LOVES babies. Everything is a baby now. He rubs my belly and says baby! and kisses it. However, the other day I had no shirt on. My belly button has popped out. So he says baby, pats my belly and then ever so gently MOUTHED MY BELLY BUTTON! He thought it was great fun. I was mortified. No more shirt free belly kissings for a while.

He'll also rub his dad's belly and say baby and the other day he pulled up his shirt and made me rub his own belly and say baby. Obviously a little confused at the whole concept, but I think he's doing pretty well for 18 months.

He amazes me every day with the new words that come out. He's going to start day care on monday and I can't help but feel he won't be my little mister anymore. He'll be a bit more grown up and a bit closer to being the beautiful, funny, sensitive, caring and handsome man I know he will be one day.

Motivate Me

I've been suffering a serious lack of motivation lately.
It just seemed tooooooo hard to try and get under $50. So i didn't write my shopping list.

I didn't write my meal plan. I didn't even take my bags along to Aldi.

I did, however, still find myself gravitating towards the seconds trolley at the fruit shop before I went anywhere else. I did also take a big box from the fruit market to use at Aldi so I didn't have to buy any bags.

I really love Aldi. I know it sounds strange. I know people who HATE going there, because you can't get everything in one store and they hate having to do more than one shop. But I love groceries. I wait for every wednesday so I can go grocery shopping.

On the bright side. Even though I couldn't be effed to try and get under $50 - I only ended up spending $70. Which included a 1.5kg pack of chicken roasting peices and a 2kg bulk mince pack, which has been divided into four portions. So I guess I really didn't do too badly at all, considering this week once again, I will only need to buy fruit and veg (and bread).

I think the easiest part to sticking to the $50 budget is being flexible. There's no point being really strict on it, if spending a little bit more money this week is going to save you money in the long run. If you're not organised and divide it and freeze it as soon as you get it home, then buying in bulk is probably not going to help you at all. It does take a little bit getting used to. I used to just pack everything into the freezer and hope for the best. But I've found that being organised in the kitchen gives me a sense of accomplishment (kind of sad, I know). It might be because the Witching Hour is always terrible and having an organised freezer makes it just that little bit easier to handle.

Here's a little tip I was given in the storing of meat - bacon in particular - because we buy 1kg at a time but only ever use about 3 rashers at a time. So a Tupperware tip (although you'll notice it's not in tupperware, it's in chinese containers) Roll it. like so:



Then, when you need some, you can just clip of what you need rather than trying to defrost it partially so you don't have to use the whole thing and end up with chunky bits missing from your bacon. I thought it was genius.

Also, I got my new Car Baby. She doesn't have a name yet, but she's red and sexy and smells pretty. I will wash her then take a photo for you all to see and be jealous. Hehe.

Drove her down to Newcastle on Friday (the day after I got her). I shouldn't have gone, but I'm glad I did. It was for my Aunty's 40th birthday party and we ended up leaving 9:30pm saturday night (party night) because Dex wasn't sleeping, didn't sleep the night before until 11:30pm and up at 6am and my anxiety said "I just want to be home." Didn't end up making it home, got to Bonville to my parent's house (about 20 mins away) and crashed there.
Glad to be back and have Dex sleeping though. He slept for 5 hours today. FIVE HOURS. And, is back in bed at 8:30pm tonight. Poor little guy must have been exhausted.

I have no recipes for you today, I still haven't gotten around to making my Curried apple and Lentil Dal, so I will do that this week and let you know how it goes.

xx

Where's the Tupperware?

Ok, I'll admit it. I sell Tupperware. And you know what? I REALLY enjoy it. It gives me something to talk about other than poo and wee (because admit it ladies, if you have kids, that's what the majority of your conversations are about) and it gets me out of the house for some adult time. (it also puts some extra money in my pocket, but that's just a bonus)



Before I sold Tupperware, I didn't get it. I didn't see the big deal. I didn't understand how spending money on some plastic could save me money. I only signed up to get my free stuff and leave. That was about 3 months a go. Why? Because I believe in it.

So this week ladies, that's my tip. Buy tupperware. Fridge Smarts to be specific. Why? Because on average, we buy 3 bags of groceries a week (fresh fruit & veg) and most families throw out 1 1/2 - 2 bags a week from it not being used. I've kept mushrooms in my fridge for 4 weeks. Same with shallots.

That capsicum? Three weeks in my fridge. That's all I'm going to say.




Ok, enough advertising. I've been living without facebook for a while (ok, two days - feels like a while) and I always wondered how I'd cope without it. I'm a social networking kind of creature. But you know what? Sure, there ARE people I miss chatting to. And I wonder how many people will read my blog now that I'm not going to be sharing it on facebook, but I'm enjoying not having it.


I'm amazed at the amount of time I now have. My house is CLEAN. Not only is my house clean, I'm getting through That List. You know, the one everyone has? Cobwebs, clean out the cupboards, wipe down the cupbaords, clean out the toybox *shudder*. Yeah, I'm making progress on that. AND We're having dinner earlier. We're spending more time outside. I'm playing with Dex more - which is sad to admit. I didn't realise that he missed me until I started playing with him. And you know what? I missed him too - which is a stupid thing to say, seeing how it was self inflicted. But I'm making up for lost time. We've been cooking together, Trying to train the dog (she's just too damn intelligent. She knows what she's meant to do, but is too cheeky to do it).
Tomorrow, we're making play-doh!



I'm going to go check on my Vegetable Bolegnaise sauce (more that napolitana - more vegies, less than bolegnaise, no meat... what does that make it?)
So I'll leave you with a couple of really easy, pretty cheap recipes:
Because it's the party season, everyone needs a couple of good dip recipes. It always feels nice to say "I made it from scratch" so:



PP Dip
Block of cream cheese - room temp.
440g tin crushed pineapple, drained
Packet frnech onion soup mix.

Chuck it all in a bowl, mix together - bit of a summery, sweeter take on French onion dip.




Taco Dip
Small container (homebrand) sour cream
Taco seasoning packet.

Mix taco seasoning into tub of sour cream - amount depends on required flavor. Remeber, less is more, start with a 1/4 of the seasoning pack and go from there - you can always add more flavor.
Serve that one with corn chips.




Do you have any favourite fail-proof dip recipes?

So, I was thinking...

I don't do it very often (think, that is) but when I do, it's usually something worthwhile thinking about.
I was thinking about a friend who has their grocery bill for 5 down to $100 a fortnight. It made me think "why can't I feed three of us on that? It just doesn't make sense." Then I looked at last night's meal. Three people ate it last night. Pat took lunch to work, which he'll probably bring half home because there was so much in the container. I've had some for lunch. And guess what? There's still a whole container of it left!

That's my problem. I'm convinced. I make meals that can feed at least 6, pretty much every day. So, is this a good thing, or a bad thing? I guess in a way it's good, because we have a continuous stock pile of leftovers in the freezer ready for nights Mummy just can't be bothered cooking.
It's also in a way bad. Why? Let me tell you the contents of my freezer atm (just meals) 3 serves Lasagne, 2 butter chicken and rice, 2 honey mustard chicken and rice, three lots of pesto ready to be added to pasta and a loaf of pumpkin bread. WHO NEEDS THAT MUCH FOOD?!?! I could almost start up some sort of lean cuisine franchise solely based on what's in my freezer.
If I don't buy anything next week, and just eat the leftovers in the freezer (And there will be more coming from the meals planned this week as well) does that mean I've actually fed my family on $70 for a fortnight? There's an extra $20 there because I went to the fruit shop and raided the seconds trolley - Tip from afformentioned friend with the $100 fortnight family.

I honestly didn't think when I started this that I'd have so much to think about. And it's only been a week! Already I've confronted how much wasteage I usually have when I cook food - Although I didn't record it for you guys. The three pesto's ready to go in the freezer? Usually, I'll make the one that I need, forget about the rest of the bunch and throw it out in a couple of days when it goes a bit manky. This time, I prepped it when I bought it. Same goes with Necterines. I got 2kg for $4.50 off the seconds stand. Some were bruised etc and usually, I'd just throw the whole thing out. This time, I chopped the bruised part off and pureed or cliced the rest up and froze it for adding to yogurt, smoothies and ice blocks.

It is really empowering to realise that I am literally throwing money away when I do that. It's shocking to see how much I was actually wasting. It's scary to think if I hadn't set myself this target, I'd still be doing those things, because it's easier.

In completey different (but sort of related) news, I'm utterly convinced my life would be easier if I had a dishwasher. I was constantly washing up yesterday, because I was running out of places to prep things! If I had a dishwasher, I could load it during the day instead of stacking on the sink, turn it on at night before bed and then pack it all away while waiting for the kettle to boil of a morning. Ahhhh, the luxury. A girl can dream, huh?