Tag Archives: children

My ‘BIG’ Bag Life!

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It’s common knowledge that I love fashion, whether it be clothes, shoes, accessories, I love shopping for it all! One thing I have always had a fetish for is handbags! I have bought that many since I was able to purchase my own things, that it would probably be close to over 100 bags that I have owned in my life so far! Big, small, clutch style, you name it I’ve probably bought it at one stage or another!

Pre-children I mostly bought small to medium style handbags, just big enough to fit my purse, phone, keys and the other few odd bits and pieces us females like to carry around! Oh how life has changed! For the past 6 years I’ve hardly sported many of my ideal style handbags as a nappy bag has mostly been attached to my shoulder! With each child brought a new nappy bag (or should I say several with each child heheheh)! I’ve gone from backpacks, to traditional style nappy bags, to a large style handbag that fits everything I need!

Most days I’m cool with not carrying a normal handbag around, but I still have the need to have a small one, especially when I go out on my own! I recently purchased a nice sized one from Esprit at DFO for a bargain $27….reduced from $100!!! This is my handbag I take to work or anywhere else I go on my own! The last handbag I bought was my $20 Kelvin Klein bag I got in New York – oh how I miss shopping in the states!!!

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In reality, my life has come to a point where my nappy bag days are almost over (sob), but it’s still going to be some time when all I have to take out with me is my normal sized handbag when the kids and I are together! Between wipes, nappies, drink bottles and snacks, plus all the other essentials, it is definite that I need a big bag to carry it all!

I’ve been looking for a nice stylish large bag for a while now that is big enough to fit what I need, but not the size of a suitcase (although sometimes tempting) and today I found one! I went out to look for a pair of togs and came home with a bag – as you do! The best thing it was $60 reduced to $24….score!!!

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I love my new big bag. It’s got loads of room, the colour goes perfect with so many of my clothes in my wardrobe and it’s made out of a cross between wool, hessian and straw (didn’t know how else I could explain it lol) which is different and I like different things! For now I will embrace my ‘BIG’ bag life as it means my babies are still very dependent on me and the day I won’t need to carry around what I do now, will be a very sad one!

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Sleep is for Wimps!

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Sleep….what’s that? Or should I say what’s a full night uninterrupted sleep feel like? Pre-children I loved my sleep. I needed my sleep to survive each day and without it I would slowly turn into a crazy lady by the end of the day. I was one of the lucky ones while I was pregnant I slept and slept and slept. Then I was blessed with my first baby as he only woke for one feed a night and slept through at 8 weeks old!  Even with all of his ear infections he would only wake up every now and again! He is still our best sleeper to this day! Then our first daughter came along!!!!!

I was expecting her to sleep like her brother but for the first couple of weeks was having two night feeds….what’s up with that?? I thought Lol. She settled nicely into one night feed before long and at 6 weeks old slept through! I was feeling so blessed. That was short lived though. By three months old and still waking every night I started to get a little frustrated – why can’t every baby sleep through at 8 weeks old?? Anyway she finally slept through at 5 months old which is when she started sucking her thumb!

I was feeling fantastic again. It’s amazing how getting great night sleeps contribute to a huge part of your life in terms of happiness, self-esteem, energy and patience!!! We were blessed for two months and then our sleeping life took a turn for the worst! From 7 months old until around 3 years old, Sienna slept terribly! Between her bad ears and allergies it took its toll on her sleep at night which meant there were many a day where I felt like I was surviving on nothing! Those days were tough. Everyone use to say sleep when they are sleeping…it was a bit hard when I was working a couple of days a week and running around after a toddler and baby, plus making sure our house chores were done! But somehow I managed. I had to, I didn’t have any other choice!

By the time Sienna finally settled Mia was a few months old (who was our worst sleeping newborn baby, day and night) and we just went from one awake child to another! And of course the more children you have the greater the chance someone will wake up! It’s only happened a handful of times, but when all three wake up, you get to the point where you think why am I even bothering to sleep! Mia finally slept through at about 11 months old and by this stage I worked out I’d had about almost 4 years of broken sleep! But in all of this, we do expect as parents that for a number of years our ‘good’ sleep will be stolen from us. And you do get use to it! You have days where you cope and days where the exhaustion gets the better of you, but I keep telling myself, it won’t be like this forever!

Like anything it’s all about mind over matter. I only get about 3-4 good night sleeps a month at the moment and when I do I embrace those moments and relish in every bit of energy I get out of that. I make sure I go to bed at a reasonable hour at night and I very rarely sleep in the day, but I do make sure I sit down for a half hour to an hour while Mia is having a day sleep. When I’ve had a bad night now, I try and think happy thoughts or thoughts that I have had a good night, otherwise if you dwell on how much sleep you didn’t get, you make yourself feel worse! Exercising has definitely helped me overcome that real exhaustion and gives me the energy I need to survive on at 5pm when you feel like you could collapse! But the biggest thing I say to myself now is “sleep is for wimps!” lol. The more you talk to yourself in your head, the better you will feel….as long as it’s positive talk:)!

A peaceful sleeping baby or child is like gold for a parent:)

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My Mid Year Resolutions!

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Sometimes, well let’s be honest most of the time, life just keeps traveling too fast! I mean for goodness sake it is almost Ekka time again!!!! Before we know it tinsel and Christmas carols will be staring us in the face and ringing in our ears literally! Where has this year gone or should I say why does it seem like each year flies by faster than the year before???

I don’t know about everyone else, but I felt like I started this year on the back foot! I went back to work in January after having 13 months off having my third baby and because last year consisted of a whole whirlwind of events, one – I wasn’t ready to go back to work and two – my household really wasn’t ready for me to either! We are half way through the year and I finally feel like I’ve got my act together! I don’t dread going to work (most of the time lol), I’m becoming more organised and on time and all three kids have settled into the routine of me going back to work!

I feel like the past 18 months has been a complete blurr…..which could have something to do with my burning tired eyes lol……so now that I finally feel like I’ve come out the other end, I’ve made some ‘mid year resolutions’ with myself, as I was quite in denial that a new calendar year had even begun when it did and my head space was only just coping with starting a new routine in life let alone fixing stuff that was already happening!

They are…..
*I will make sure I stop and enjoy my beautiful family:
Just recently we went through a massive month of one thing after another. Parties, football carnivals, reports, sickness, birthdays! I felt like I barely had time to breathe! Even though I get to stay home five days out of seven, some weeks I feel like I hardly get to spend quality time with the kids! They are growing up way to fast before my eyes and I’m determined not to miss anything and embrace my family for who they are! By last Saturday I had had it and I forced myself not to do much except for play with the kids….it was awesome! So Saturdays are my do nothing except for relish in the love and care Kane and the kids give me and so far it has been awesome:)

*I will listen to my body:
Since April until now, I have been sick several times. The kids have been spreading their germs as they do, but somethings have taken me longer to get over than usual. As we all know as mums we put ourselves last and get lost in the busyness of life until we get ill and realise it’s time to get a reality check. I’ve learnt now to rest when I can and stop worrying because if something doesn’t get done, there is always tomorrow!

*I’m going to start saying “no!”:
I have this problem where I find it hard to say no! Even if I’m busy and someone asks us to do something, we do what we can and fit it in. I’ve come to realise that there are just times when I have to say no!

*I’m making sure everyday I treat myself:
When I started loosing weight, it took a lot of will power for me to give up some of my favourite treats. Now that I have reached and maintained my goal weight for a few months, I happily treat myself to my favourite foods (within reason) without feeling one bit of guilt!

*I’m going to take my husband out on a date:
Before Kane and I became parents, we had the best social life and spent so much of our time going to the movies, out to dinner and generally just hanging out together. That gets pushed to the side once little people come into your lives, but I think it is still important for a husband and wife to go out and enjoy themselves once in a while. I am going to make sure Kane and I go and see the last Twilight movie together and maybe we might even be able to start a date night routine once a month or so!

*I’m going to make sure I start to be on time:
If you know me well, one of my worst traits is being late! It’s never intentional, my problem is I try to fit too much in before I go somewhere. I start the day on time but some how I always find myself racing around in the end like a chook with its head chopped off. From now I will do the necessities first and leave the rest for a later time or if I have time once I’m ready to go!

My mid year resolutions are only a snap shot of what I want to achieve by the end of the year. I still have cupboards I want to clean out, a toy room to redecorate, scrapbooking to finish from years ago, but I figure you have to start somewhere. I know I’ve jumped on the ‘resolutions’ bandwagon quite late in the year, but I believe if someone is attempting to make a change to something, you can never be too late! I think it’s better to attempt change when you are really ready, in order to have a chance of experiencing success!

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Mother’s Day……

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Mother’s Day….one of my favorite days of the year!

But they can’t all be perfect….

My day started at 3.48am when Mia decided she wanted to play ‘boo’ with her teddies! Even though I was thinking ‘what the’ it did bring a little grin to my face, until 4.30am when she starts to scream! She is teething so I gave her panadol, fed her and back to sleep she went! I crawled back into bed at 5am…Sienna wakes! Poppy stayed over last night and slept in Bailey’s bed so she was super excited to wake to her poppy! I’m still awake at 5.30am Bay comes in after having a camp out in the toy room, which he loves and asks to go to the toilet! 5 minutes later things settle again and I finally managed to go back to sleep, even amongst the roaring sound of Kane’s snoring! What felt like a 5 minute sleep turned into me looking at the clock and thinking ‘oops we have to leave for footy in an hour!’ Then the busy day really began….

Like our usual tradition, the kids bought all their beautiful presents to me in bed and we opened them, read the cards and got photos taken! Once I got out of bed and my feet hit the ground, they began running ALL day! We wanted to leave at 7.55am and we were driving out the driveway at 7.56am, so we were happy with that! Bay’s footy match started at 9am and he had a wonderful game. Scored 4 runaway tries and had his first attempt of a conversion but just missed! He ended up getting player of the game:)….so proud of that boy! Then we had to have morning tea with Kane’s mother and on the way home we stopped in to watch my nephew play the second half of his footy game, who also played well!

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I’m so blessed to be their mother:)

Finally at 12.30 we returned home for nap time for Mia and rest time for the older two! In that time groceries had to be picked up and a few other things had to be done….between Kane and I we had it all done in an hour or so. 3pm I finally got to see my mummy and my nana! Poor nana has had gastro for a few days and is only just getting better so my wonderful mother has been staying there, hence why poppy had a sleep over last night! We had a lovely visit with nana, which continued up the road at my sister’s house for afternoon tea! The kids had a ball playing with their cousins and I had a lovely chat with my mum and my sister! We finally arrived home at 5.15pm where the witching hour of bathing and feeding began!

I finally got to sit down and relax at 7pm and started to reflect on the day which made me a little disappointed at how rushed and busy I felt all day, but then I pulled my head in and thought it couldn’t be too bad if….
I received beautiful handmade gifts and cards from my children.
My $1 million dollar gift was revealed – a mobile phone accessory:)
I got a beautiful pearl bracelet with a love heart on it.
I got to see my son score 4 tries.
I had lots of kisses and cuddles from my kids all day.
I got to see my nana smile and watch Mia pat her head like she knew she was sick.
I got to see the joy on my mum’s face when she opened her presents and cards.
And the kids played so nicely in the bath while Kane and I were running around doing dinner and getting ready for school and work tomorrow!

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I’ve been blessed with the best mother in the world!

Yes I missed out on running the Mother’s Day classic, going out for brekky, lunch or dinner like we normally do, but things don’t always pan out the way you want them to, so you just have to roll with the punches! At the end of the day I was most satisfied with helping my mum out. Mum has been putting together a footy album for each of her 3 grandsons and because she was looking after her sick mother, I made sure I got to the boy’s matches to take the photos for her! My mum sacrifices so much for us, so sacrificing my fun run or meal out was worth it….that’s what Mother’s day was like this year and I’m happy with that:)!

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My children….my world!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women in my life…xoxoxo!

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My $1 gift is worth a million dollars to me:)

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God love my selfless son:)!

As today is Wednesday, he always gets $1 to spend at the tuckshop during lunch time. This morning was a rush, we all slept in…thank you Mia!!! I gave Bay his dollar and off we went to school. It didn’t dawn on me until 10am that I forgot to give him $5 for the Mother’s Day stall. Bailey is usually so good at reminding me about things like this, but he did sleep until 7.15am! I felt so terrible, I made a call to the school who said they’d already been to the stall, but were happy for me to still bring the money up. That I did!

It was lunch time when I arrived and of course I spotted the tallest child in grade 1 first….my son lol! He always gives me a beautiful big cheesy grin that bursts with excitement to see me! He was pleasantly surprised to see me and asked so innocently why I was there. I told him that I bought his Mother’s Day stall money up. His beautiful face expressed a thousand words and when I asked him had he already bought me something he replied with a very tender yes. He had spent his $1 tuckshop money on me at the Mother’s Day stall and was happy to miss out on his ice-block for the day!

I was so touched and thrilled that my hard work of teaching our children to share and be selfless was obviously paying off. He didn’t even ask me for more money for the tuckshop, but of course after that act of kindness how could I not. After a sweet little kiss and cuddle from him we went our separate ways to carry on with our day. When I walked away and turned around, I could see his chest sticking out with pride, as I’d praised him immensely for what he did.

It’s moments liken this that being a parent is the most rewarding and satisfying job in the world. These moments far out weigh the hard times and god knows we go through some very difficult moments with Bailey. When I spoke to his teacher about it she wasn’t surprised, as he does things like this all the time at school:) Her comment was though “but don’t expect a $5 present!” No matter what $1 gift I receive, it will always be worth a million dollars to me!

I love you son….xoxoxo!

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