“To me my dad is…”

Posted on August 30, 2013 by natalietrew

A mother has a special bond with her children – one like no other, but a father has a special bond with his children as well….

When I was born, I was blessed with not only an incredible mother, I was blessed with the most amazing man who I call ‘dad’!

To me my dad is….
The first man I ever loved.
The first man to ever love me.
The first man to comfort me.
The first man to make me laugh.
The first man to make me happy.
The first man to teach me things.
The first man to protect me.

To me my dad is….
My hero.
Loyal, loving and kind.
Helpful and caring.
Hardworking and energetic.
Thoughtful and giving.
Someone I can talk to and laugh with
The best dad and the best poppy anyone could ask for!

Father’s day is a wonderful day to spend time with our dad’s and reflect on the great job that they do! Everyone’s father plays a different role in their lives. Some are hands-on, some are the main provider so aren’t home as much, some are passive, some are absent and some are just big cuddly bears that love to role around on the floor and have fun! In the end a father’s love is one like no other!

Today I’m grateful for my wonderful father who has always been amazing to us kids and his grandkids – I feel so blessed to have him! I’m also grateful that my children have a loving and devoted father who love them unconditionally – it makes me happy that my children will be able to look back and have the fond memories of growing up that I have:)

Today we created more memories together as a family….

Happy father’s day to the main men in my life…

A Daily Dose of Gratitude:)

Posted on August 25, 2013 by natalietrew

When we were conceived and given life on this earth, no one programmed into our brains how to handle the challenges that life throws at us. Some of us were lucky enough to have great role models growing up to help us deal with the ups and downs of life and others have had to muffle through it on their own. In the end, I believe how you handle yourself and situations comes down to our personalities, inner strength and our mental health!

If I took a snap shot of my life I would see many hurdles in my way, but I would see myself dealing with those hurdles in different ways! In my teens I would have melted down and cried, in my twenties I would have felt sorry for myself and then I hit my thirties and something changed! My mind felt different. The challenges were greater than ever but I was dealing with them in a more calm, rational manner with grace and dignity. Did I change? Was it having the kids? I know having massive health scares kicked my butt or maybe I finally grew up lol! My whole attitude to life now is all about being happy and positive. I try so hard everyday to provide that for my family and if the days seem dark at first, I look really hard and there is always a light of goodness shining!

Now that I’m in a great place, the best I’ve ever been, I’m always feeling grateful. Grateful for life and the wonderful things that it holds for me and my family. The challenges are still there as they will always be as that is life and they we learn! But even with the challenges that are thrown our way, there will always be something to be grateful for.

A couple of months ago a best girlfriend and I made a pact to text message something everyday to each other that we are grateful for. Two months on and we are still going and loving it! It really keeps you focused on what matters most. Some days are easy and you could think of a dozen things to be grateful for and then other days are a little harder and you have to look at a lot harder, but in the end there is always something to be grateful for!

Some of the texts messages I’ve sent have been…

Today I’m grateful for my mother’s beautiful nature:) – she is such a work horse!

Today I’m grateful for my wonderful father who has always been amazing to us kids and his grandkids – I feel so blessed to have him! And am also grateful that my children have a loving and devoted father who love then unconditionally – it makes me happy that my children will be able to look back and have the fond memories of growing up that I have:)

Today I’m grateful that I was able to have a half an hour to myself to eat my lunch and laze on my sun lounge…I’m sure that’s what’s going to see me through to the end of the day lol!

Today I’m grateful for my brave children and risks they take…they make me feel like I can take on the world!!!!!

Today I’m grateful for so much!!!!!

Today I’m grateful for my husband’s hard work and dedication to his job!

With so much hatred and angst going on around the world, it’s so important to not be dragged down by it all. Having a positive attitude and being grateful for what we have is so healthy for us. It contributes to our physical and mental health more than we realise. For as long as I’m privileged enough to breathe oxygen on this earth, I will spend my days showing gratitude and instilling this value into my children. For it’s not what we don’t have defines us, rather – what we do!

Everyday I’m grateful for my party of 5!

Our Masterpiece….

Posted on August 24, 2013 by natalietrew

A dictionary defines a masterpiece as…the greatest work, as of an artist….
Let me reveal our masterpiece – which I think is the greatest work we’ve ever created….

Our 3 beautiful babies who make up our party of 5!

This week has been another long and busy one (so very normal lol)! But it was certain moments that happened in the week that made me pause and embrace our masterpiece for what it is…

We’ve been working on our masterpiece for 7 and half years now and it will forever be a work in progress. When moments like; watching your eldest wipe your youngest’s ice-cream face (without being asked to), being surprised by your 5-year-old when she took the washing off the line (without being asked to) and hearing your 2-year-old say to her big brother “you played well Bay” after his footy match (without being told to), just makes your heart melt. It’s moments like these that I can’t always capture in a photo, but will forever be implanted into my heart and memory bank! These moments define our masterpiece for what it is.

Mia excited to see Bailey after his footy game!

We’ve worked hard over the years to instill the values of; love, loyalty, kindness, trust and respect in our children. These are not things that our children are automatically born with, they’ve had to be consistently taught and guided on how to use these values appropriately. There are days where you feel like you’re a tape recorder on repeat – saying the same thing over and over again, but when moments happen where your children are displaying the desired values, it makes all the hard work of sounding like a broken record worth it!

In saying all of this, our masterpiece is far from perfect. Like any masterpiece, there are days when things flow and work beautifully and there are days that seem disastrous! But that’s where our learning comes from. We don’t let those days make us feel defeated, instead it makes you more determined to work harder on your masterpiece the next day! Like anything you take the good with the bad….I embrace the wonderful moments when they happen and strap on my seatbelt real tight on the days that seem like such hard work!

I’m so proud of our masterpiece so far. The love we share for each other, the support we give each other and the team work that is displayed within the home is something I love to just sit back and take in from time to time. This week I’ve found myself just sitting and watching with pride as our children, the ones only us created, have displayed some beautiful behaviours and manners. But it doesn’t stop here. Our masterpiece is like a puzzle with a million pieces that we just keep working on until it’s complete. It’s a work in progress, that may never get finished, for as long as we are on this earth, we will always be guiding our masterpiece through life!

Our babies are so worth the effort xoxo

A Freshen Up…

Posted on August 23, 2013 by natalietrew

Earlier in the week, I posted a blog called Spring has Sprung which listed many reasons why I love this time of year! One thing that I mentioned that I always do at this time of year is give my house a really good clean and along with that always comes some resorting and decorating! It’s the time of year where I like to give my home a freshen up!

We’ve lived in our house now for over a decade. It’s gone from a dark brick and yellow roof to a latte colour render and burgundy roof. We’ve converted our single garage into a lounge room, painted several feature walls, completed renovations on the kitchen, bathroom and pergola and added our touch to the front and back gardens. I’ve changed the decor more times than I can count lol, yet we still call our home, the place we call our castle, a work in progress!

We have discussed and even looked at the prospect of moving, but we always settle on staying in the place we have created so many memories in. It’s our first home. We brought all our babies home to this house. Kane asked me to marry him in our home and now the kids feel safe and secure in the place they call home! There are so many positives to staying here. We live in a cul-de-sac that the kids play on all the time. We live on a 900 square metre block and we have awesome neighbours. Most importantly we are surrounded by my beautiful family who help us out when we need it!

We have lots of vision for our house that involves a pool and room extensions. Plus if we stay where we are, I won’t have to rush back to work anymore than my two days a week and we will always be able to afford going away on holidays….the positives at the moment definitely out way the push to move!

So far this spring, I’ve gone through every room in the house, given it a good clean and sort and added some kind of new decor. I’ve changed some colour schemes and it’s amazing how one new decorating piece can brighten up a room. You would think that after living in the same dwelling for 10 years it would be in good order…the answer to that would be no lol! After this clean up and kull, I feel our house is the most organised it’s ever been. I’m evolving over time and so is our home…another 10 years and it should be exactly how we want it lol!

This is what I’ve created…
Kitchen

Our kitchen isn’t the largest in the world, but I’ve made it as practical as I can and love my red decor which matches with the red splash in my bench tops.

Our dining room table is where photos of my beautiful nana sit:)

This year’s handprints needed revamping to the whole display just to fit them in. Next year I’ll have to think of something!

Bathroom

I love my light and airy bathroom. I’ve gone with a hot pink and chocolate-brown decor which matches in well with my bedroom as it’s a two-way bathroom!

Our bedroom

After redecorating our bedroom last year, I finally gave in and have gone with a black, white and hot pink decor to match my canvases. I was a bit unsure about the black, but now I LOVE it!

Lounge room

I’ve kept my red and chocolate-brown decor in this room. My plan for the future in this room is a new corner lounge and carpet. We are just waiting for Mia to grow a little older:)

Toy room

My latest furniture purchase is our new desk from Ikea. It fits so nicely in the kid’s toy room and they love it!! I can’t believe it’s been a year since I gave the toy room a complete face lift!!

Out the back

Our dog ruined the bottom of our screen enclosure and took over the outdoor lounge setting. Thanks to Sunset Signs, we now have new coverings (to keep the dog out) with a beautiful ocean print and new pillows for the lounge. It’s the cleanest our pergola has been in months…lucky we love you Sonny!!!

Out the front

New pots and plants that I pottered using plants from our own garden. Thank you to my daddy who taught me all my gardening tricks!

Our new blinds

After 10 years our blinds we looking a bit sad and faded, so we replaced all the living areas and bedrooms with the wide timber blinds and the bathroom, toilet and kitchen areas with roman blinds. Thank you to my wonderful husband for installing them:)

That is what I’ve been working on over the past couple of months! So much achieved, yet I still have a list as long as my arm lol! My next big project over the christmas holidays is doing a major overhaul to the kid’s bedrooms (hence why I didn’t show any photos). The girls will be going in together and having an ‘owl’ theme and Bailey wants an ‘NRL’ theme. Another big project for this house and has been an ongoing room for years is my laundry – I will finish it even if it kills me lol!!!!

So watch this space for my latest projects in our very own castle!

Life After Death…

Posted on August 17, 2013 by natalietrew

As the softness of her breath became slower and slower and eventually became her last, her soul left our world and ventured into another…..

When nana left us 11 weeks ago, everything for us stopped. Our hearts broke, our tears fell and we felt like we were never going to be the same again. The lady who we loved and adored was never to be apart of our lives on earth again. As we left the hospital that day though, life on the outside kept going. Everything around us kept going like nothing had changed, but for us we had to come to terms with the biggest change in our lives so far! It was a hard pill to swallow at first. We were breaking on the inside but to the outside world nothing had changed!

The minutes kept ticking, days kept flashing by, traffic lights kept changing, the sun kept rising and trains kept passing by. The birds kept chirping, the postman kept delivering, grass kept growing and the bills kept rolling in. It’s an awful thought that once you leave this earth, life after death will never really be the same again for the loved ones who have lost – yet the world still can manage to exist….!

Today is my nana’s 81st birthday! It is the first birthday that we don’t get to give nana a present, kiss or cuddle. It’s the first birthday that we don’t get to enjoy a favourite meal of hers with her. It’s the first, so it hurts the most;( We are determined to keep nana’s memory alive and to never forget the unbelievable person she was, who taught us how to be strong and resilient! 80 years on this earth – working hard everyday of her life is nothing to forget!!! So to celebrate the day nana was born, we decided to make a day full of nana’s favourites:)….

Ahhh the memories…if only we could celebrate one more….

Because today is a work day, we celebrated nana’s birthday a little earlier on Saturday. We went out to the cemetery, took cupcakes and balloons, sang happy birthday to nana and placed flowers on her resting place! We laughed, we cried and spoke to nana as we know she is with us all the time…

That afternoon we went back to my sister’s house and indulged in all the delicious foods that were nana’s favourite and that she would cook us over the years. We had roast lamb with baked veggies and cheesecake and dumplings and custard for dessert…it was a beautiful way to remember and celebrate nana’s birthday!

Today is a harsh reminder that nana won’t be here to celebrate birthdays, Christmas and the like from now on. It’s another example of a day that will continue to roll by without nana present. But although she’s not physically with us anymore I believe and will always believe that nana is with us spiritually! She has to be. Life after death has to continue in the form of a spirit! I am a firm believer in angels and nana was an angel to me when she was living and forever she will be my angel walking beside me!

Happy birthday my beautiful angel! May you be celebrating with loved ones on the peak of roof tops, doing the hot shoe shuffle!

Moment of Glory….

Posted on August 11, 2013 by natalietrew

Today I achieved something I thought I never would! It’s almost 2 years since I took up the challenge of running and I’m so very happy that I did! For me running is many things. It’s my fitness, it’s my therapy, it’s helping me maintain my heart condition! When I started running I never thought I’d get to the point I’m at today. Initially I was happy just getting out there and regaining myself back after having three babies in 5 years! That feeling only lasted a few months. Once I got past the sore feeling and feeling like I can’t catch my breath, I went from only worrying about how long I could run for to how far I could run.

Month after month I started believing. Believing in myself that I could achieve anything that I want to. I was becoming stronger and stronger, week by week I was getting fitter and fitter. My ability to run 4km turned into 5km and 6km until I reached my target distance of 10km!! My personal best times were being improved on bit by bit as I just kept chipping away! But today’s personal best and run in general was the best run I’ve ever ran and it went something like this….

I woke up feeling amazing. It was the best night sleep I’d had in about two weeks. I was very excited to be wearing my new outfit that I bought through the week…Lorna Jane 7/8 black tights, Michelle Bridges hot pink racer back singlet and a white bonds sports bra! I felt ready, I felt so comfortable in my new outfit and my head was happy and clear. My plan was to go out hard and run 5km under 25 mins – that I did! I’ve been carrying a knee injury lately and it’s the best it’s felt in a few weeks so I was happy to get to 5km under 25 mins without it causing me to much grief!

The first 5km were the hardest because once I started the back half of my 10k, I felt amazing! When I reached the 7km in a pb time of 34.50 I knew there was nothing stopping me running 10km under 50mins. Usually by this point in my run I start to lose a few seconds each km from fatigue but I felt so fit and energised today like I could’ve ran a marathon! As each km kept rolling by I couldn’t believe my ears when I was being told by the Map My Run lady the times I was running – I was in disbelief….8km 39.30, 9km 44.09!!! The last kilometer usually feels like 10km in itself but as I kept putting one foot in front of the other and feeling on top of the world, it was over before I knew it! And there in that moment as I’d run the the run of my life and had finished as strong as I started I was granted the time of 48.54 minutes at 10km!!!!! I was in shock, absolute disbelief. In that moment I had created my own personal moment of glory!!!

As I walked the 2km to get back home, I kept shaking my head and was questioning what just happened. “Maybe the Map My Run App that I use was lying?” I said to myself! But I’d run that route before and it was pretty much my 5km route twice as I wanted to do a flat fast run today…well that I did!! I’ll never forget that moment I finished – I wasn’t sore, tired or breathless…I felt fit, fantastic and most of all happy and content that me, the person who use to want to hurl at the thought of running a kilometer let alone 10km had just achieved something special…in the land of the world of amateur running anyway:) lol! After today, I believe anything is possible and if you put the hard work in you will reap the rewards!!!

My Party of 5

Monthly Archives: August 2013

“To me my dad is…”

A Daily Dose of Gratitude:)

Our Masterpiece….

A Freshen Up…

Life After Death…

Moment of Glory….

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