Recently in our house....

I've been doing a lot of baking to satisfy some of my "sweet" cravings. Trying to put healthy ingredients with the unhealthy - banana choc chip muffins. Super easy and quick. One i'll definitely make again. I can personally recommend them hot from the oven with a home-made flat white on a sunny day sitting in the garden. :)

Our kiddies are getting so grown up. I swear our girl Miss E has added two inches to her legs in the past 2 weeks. Master L is just a little dude. Loves to be silly and getting a sensible picture of him standing still is proving to be quite a challenge.

Trip to the dentist today for both of them. We take them twice a year for a check up with our own dentist, a lovely soft spoken scottish lady called Morag. Turns out Miss E has 3 of her adult molars coming through and a wobbly bottom left tooth. She was so delighted! I had a terrible experience with the dentist in my younger years and swore that my children would enjoy going, hence the twice annual visits and all the excitement I can muster running up to the appointments. Both sat in the chair without a hand hold and opened their sweet little mouths like professionals. I'm a very proud Mummy!

I'm back

Its been a busy couple of weeks. Been on a week long holiday with family and had a lovely time, but it took almost a week planning to get everything packed and organised to go on holiday. How does that happen? We had a lovely time and I'll do a seperate post on it when I get time to upload photo's.

Here's a quick update of what's been going on lately.

Organising - new filing trays for paperwork and a cork/white board combo for my to-do lists. I always keep them in my head and therefore ALWAYS feel overloaded with stuff to do. This way its out of my head and I feel less stressed. Phew.

Broken camera - we've had ours for a few years now and it's finally given up on us. I'm working on Music Man to invest in a new digital SLR when we travel home to Scotland. Nikon D70 is a preference.

Booked flights to Scotland - between packing and organising for holiday, this was the other thing that took up most of my time before we went away. Music Man's a procrastinator when it comes to spending cold hard $$, and I'm not as persistent as I need to be. I was that week though and we're (finally) booked to go home to see everyon on 7th Sept. I'll do another post on this too.

Bronchitis - After my trip to Queenstown and Wanaka I felt a little off colour. Trip to the doctor confirmed bronchitis. Eew! A week of amoxycillin, still no better and my lovely family and extended family had to put up with my hacking cough all week. Back to doc on Monday and stronger antibiotics this time. Its working, I can feel it.

Doctors - on the aforementioned trip to the docs, we had Master L's 15 month check up which included his vaccination catch ups, so my poor wee baby had to get 3 injections that day. Its my commitment as a parent to protect him and the wider community from the diseases that these vaccines are created for, but boy, it still hurts to watch your baby being assaulted by a nurse with needles. Poor boy.

Weather - Summer arrived this past fortnight, oh, just about 10 weeks late. Its been great, in the high 20's, but the Slip Slop Slap routine is not that romantic and protecting my babies skin (and mine) from the harsh New Zealand sun is a huge chore in itself. I've decided that 25 degrees celcius is my ideal temperature, when it hovers pre 30 degrees I get sloth like.

The usual routine this week. Pre-school run. Nightly wakings from both Master and Miss. Catch up with friends. Pop in on the in-laws. Emails and phone calls. On top of all the other obligatory chores like laundry, cooking, baking, folding, hoovering, wiping, cleaning, cuddling and the same all over again and again. I feel like I'm caught in the Bermuda Triangle some days and can't escape. Oh, wait, that's just being a stay at home parent.

So, after my post on my holiday, I'm afraid that there will be no more pictures for a while. Unless with brute force I can convince my camera to start working again.
Will my blog be boring without photo's?? Your comments please! I love colourful blogs with great writing and lots of pictures, but I don't want to look at mine in a few months and get disheartened and stop writing because I won't have a camera until September. I need to know that someone other than me will read all this rubbish I write, sans photograps. Mum, you're bound by family law to read this regardless, so, sorry you don't count. Call it unconditional love.

A dirty little secret

Mr Stef has a dirty little secret. It's not my place to say and I don't indulge in idle gossip.

What?

You want to know?

Well, you musn't tell anyone. Comprende?

Mr Stef is having an affair.

With two other women.

I'm okay with it. Really...truly I am.

You see it's an emotional affair. You might even say an affair of the heart. It's been going on for a long time.

I've known about it since we got together seven years ago. To be honest it was one of the stipulations of getting involved with him. I had to accept it. It was who he was and there was no way he would end it.

I've come to terms with it. It's taken a lot of time and patience. I won't say that it hasn't bothered me. There's definitely been ups and downs. Times when I didn't think I could go on.

Then Miss E was born, and of course I had to think of her.

I don't know the women that well. I'm only really able to distinguish them by their looks. I don't even want to know their names. I think if I did it would be like acknowledging it's okay? And I know its not.

You want to see them don't you? You want to know what they look like? I can't blame you, I did too. I'm a woman after all, and I needed to know what I was up against.

I've trawled my archives and found photo's. Before you look, please prepare yourself. One of them is taken when the kids were with him and her.







Mr Stef is a Muso. Yes, a musician. He plays brass instruments and its been the bane of my life for some time. Some people are golf widows, I'm a brass instrument widow. His flugel horn and trumpet mean SO much to him. I would even say he gives them more tlc than I get. Hmmph!

So Mr Stef's new pseudonym is.....Music Man. I tossed around a few ideas. Clean freak - he's more of a tidy freak or to-do-list freak though. Music Man just suits him don't you think? Look at him doing his bit for the local Brass band.

This week will be dedicated to the special folks in my life. I'll tell you a little bit about each and every one. Can't promise a dirty little secret on each, but i'll rack my brains!

My family and friends...be afraid. Be very afraid.

:o) xx

My Day

Here's a little peek (or a wee keek for the Scots) into my Thursday morning...

7:13am
Rise from bed, get kids up, get kids breakfasted, have innumerable (a word?) conversations with Miss E and lots of smiles from Master L.

7:32am
Eat my toast and have obligatory cup of coffee whilst getting kids lunchboxes ready for Nursery and Pre-school.

7:52am
Get dressed, get kids dressed, wash faces, brush teeth, threaten Miss E with naughty spot if she doesn't start using her ears.

8:24am
Prise Miss E from riding bike in garage and insert into car seat. Chase Master L around the garage and firmly insert him into the other seat.

8:34am
Wander through house and realise I forgot what I was looking for.

8:35am
Retrace steps back to garage to work out what I'm missing.

8:35am
Miss E asks me if I found her shoes.

8:36am
Wander through house trying to find Miss E's shoes.

8:37am
Put shoes on Ella and get into car, reverse out driveway, off to Pre-school. It only started seven minutes ago.

9:10am
Home, no kids. Nackered. Need another coffee. Have another blasted conversation in my head about resolutions. So... put on these.








I know, glutton for punishment. But you know what, good habits are hard to form, bad habits are easy. I'm trying hard to be good :o)

The run today was a hard one. I started off well then realised that my inner voice was trying to tell me something. I can hear you inner voice, what's that?

My Body: "I'm trying to digest breakfast, will you just slow down"

My Brain: "No, push through, no pain no gain!"

Okay, so I had this conversation on and off over the 1/2 hour run. I ran for a solid 15 mins or so then did the old stop, start to the end. I did it though, I continued and completed and even ran more than I walked. That's the third run of the week and I've been pretty consistent this year.

Rest of the day went like this...

Shower, cold drink, set up sewing machine, start the fabric coasters i've been procrastinating about for an age, phone calls x 2, tidy kitchen, pick up Master L, Supermarket, home to put Master L to bed, Make and consume lunch, browse Net, prepare dinner, tidy kitchen, hang washing, tidy bits and bobs away, get Master L from his cot, cuddles and cold drink for my boy, pick up Miss E, pick up milkshake for the latter as promised, get home, give kids afternoon tea, put dinner in oven, clean bathrooms, clean stovetop, stop to have a bit of playtime with kiddo's, clean cooker top, front of fridge, front of dishwasher, do dishes.

Garage door opens, Daddy home! Yay, now I can have a rest. :)

Set table, discuss with Miss E about importance of eating dinner and not speaking with mouth full, Master L refuses to eat, Miss E refuses to eat, I decide to eat, argue with Miss E a bit more about eating dinner, give Master L a banana and a yogurt for dinner (his time will come for dinner arguments), clear table, load dishwasher, run bath, wipe kitchen bench, get kids in bath, get kids out of bath, fetch bedtime clothing, sweep kitchen floor, try to catch the news headlines, get Leo into bed, get Ella into bed.

Postscript - Daddy contributed to at least 34.7% of the workload after his arrival. Everyone knows that girls can work harder and faster than boys.

6:50pm
Silence.

What the....?

No noise. No questions. Nothing. Bliss.

Clock off time.

A whole lot of calories burned today, run excluded ;)

Milestones

Two very important milestones happened this week.

This. Doesn't he just look like a little man out for a stroll on his own?

And this.

Her: "Look Mum. No trainer wheels!"

Me: "And no shoes darling. You'll hurt yourself" *cringes*

Him? Well, he did it all in his own time two months after his sister did it. He's a whole 14 months old on Friday (where did that time go?). Wouldn't be prompted. Wouldn't be coerced. Just had to be left to it.

Her? She did it all in her own time. Wouldn't be helped. Couldn't be watched. Tenacious and determined to achieve her goal. She's was 3 years and 7 months yesterday.

Our determined, stubborn, independent kids. I can't imagine where they get it from.

Monday

Some people get the monday blues. Mr Stef did over the weekend. Back to work for him after over 2 weeks off. Bronchitis and 10 days of antibiotics meant his "holiday" was not the break he wanted. Poor him :(

7:07am. Back to work he went. YAY!! I get my house and my daily routine back. I'm happy. Not just happy that he's off to win the bread. I'm free. The clean freak has gone. I can get on with my domesticated bliss. I will do things only when I want to. He won't know I've gone out and left dishes on the worktop. That there are unswept crumbs on the floor. That a washing hasn't been put on and hung out. I'm FREE!! *waves arms*

8:36am. I miss him. He's gone. Off to win the bread. There's dishes on the worktop. Crumbs on the floor. The washing machine is looking very empty. We're all still in our pj's. Come back honey, all is forgiven.

I'm a lucky girl ;)

a couple of birthdays

I've had a bit of a sabbatical from here. Nothing really, just haven't had much joy to talk about lately. Stresses of daily life and concern for mum have kept my body and mind too active to sit down and have some clarity to write properly.

But...here I am. Our beautiful little boy was one on the weekend. I spent most of my birthday (the day before) icing his birthday cake and preparing for a family pot luck dinner with the in-laws. I went all out this year and felt inspired by sis in law P to try something other than a round or square cake. I don't sing my own praises often, but this I was chuffed with. Princess E helped make the blue icing and lick the various implements clean; resulting in a suitably blue toned face. Isn't being a kid just great?

Happy days, happy babies, happy parents, happy home :)

Just for me

I've been picking flowers. The sun is shining and my baby is asleep so i took a wander around the garden. I love seeing Spring in full swing. We will hopefully have more of where these came from in a few months.

A friend called to say that her grandfather died suddenly and she's heading off to her parents on a late evening flight. What is it with bad news at the moment?

I've got a head cold and have almost lost my voice. Master L slept through the night last night (hurrah!) so i'm feeling tired on a full night sleep. Will make the most of the peace and quiet and have a wee lie down i think. Mr Stef away with work overnight, so will probably need the energy for the tea time chaos later.

We're off to the hairdresser with Miss E later this afternoon after pre-school; she can only just see out from under her fringe. She went to pre-school today with hair swept back in plenty of clips and promise of a hairdresser visit later in the day.

Time to rest now.

Shopping and Baking

I spent yesterday morning at the Mall after dropping the kids at pre-school. It was great to wander around the shops with no-one pulling on my trouser leg or asking for this that and the next thing like money's no object (E!). I was choosing a gift for my sister-in-law, and thankfully also one of my closest friends. Fortunate to get exactly what I wanted I browsed the shops for and found these shoes on sale. I come from a family of women who like a bargain, so they were swiftly purchased; i won't tell you how much, but they were ridiculously cheap! Flat and comfy, just how I like them these days.

I was surprised to read on my mum's blog that she too had been shopping for a more worrying reason than my shopping expedition. Hoping to hear some news in the morning and wishing for the best news possible considering.

I love to bake when i get time. The aforementioned sister-in-law came around this afternoon with her mum and her mum's friend who were visiting. P always pulls a cake or two out of the hat for special occasions and birthdays, including my own, so thought to whip up a quick something to celebrate. This cake is soooooo easy and even more tasty, it's a staple bake for an afternoon tea. It was a lovely afternoon and thoroughly enjoyable to see Nana B again.

Here's to tomorrow's joy and Happy Birthday P. x