Gratitude Project 18 - 20 April 2015

What a lovely weekend we had!

Mr M was working on Saturday, so I had Mac and Warrie all to myself. After a morning of chores around the house, I took them out for the afternoon.

After running around a playground for nearly two hours, I decided it was type for this mamma to go home and have a cuppa.

As I was strapping Warrie into his seat, Mac piped up with "Mummy, can we go to IKEA and play in the ball pit?". Unable to think of a valid excuse not to go, we headed over to IKEA and proceeded to wait for 45-minutes to get them into the one-hour free child care. Then I headed upstairs for a cup of tea and cake; I fully intended on working on a project I have, but ended up spending the time reading a book! It was such bliss.

Yesterday, we had a film crew at our house for a short film that Mr M is working on. I took the boys to a playcentre to meet with a girlfriend and her boys. Five hours of non-stop running around later, I headed home to find the crew still there. With two more scenes to film, I was delighted to be able to watch Mr M in cameraman mode for the first time ever.

{Mr M, doing his thang!}

It was utterly fascinating to be behind the scenes and see how the magic of the silver screen is made.

Today was a wet and miserable day, which of course meant that all the crazy people were out on the road to work.
After a shocking commute, I got out of the car only to realise that the umbrella was not in the car as I had assumed... and to top it all off, I discovered that my shoes have a hole in them, so I ended up with wet feet!
Oh well, if that is the worst thing I have to endure today, then I am a very lucky girl!

So the things I have been grateful for this weekend:

1. Spending some awesome time with my baby boys at the playground. They must have gone down that slide 50 time each - easily! Warrie crashed in the car before we made it home, so I put him straight to bed and then had a wonderful one-on-one cuddle with Mac. Which we both enjoyed. Those boys are the light of my heart.

2. My physio. I have some weird nerve/muscle/skeletal pain going on in my shoulder and neck. Whilst it hurts being manipulated, the kazillion cracks she got out of my back at the end of the session made it all worth it!

3. Mr M. I don't tell him often enough how grateful I am for him. I just always assume that he knows, but I want him to know know. Ya know? So not only will I put it out here, so the whole world can see how thankful I am for my amazeballs husband, I'm going to tell him to his face. And then I am going to give him the biggest cuddle ever!!

How was your weekend? Do you have a hole in your shoes? What was one of the biggest highlights of your weekend?

Just touching base

I wasn't going to write any posts on my trip; in all honesty, I hadn't anticipated having the time to!

But this afternoon, the opportunity presented itself: my Little Monster is happily engrossed in SpongeBob, Husband is laying on the sofa with his book and the rest of my Family are hanging by the pool or playing squash.
A tropical downpour has just passed over; the sound and smell of it reminding me of my childhood years growing up in the Tropics.
All is well in my little world.

And to top it all off, we had a lovely Christmas full of the usual overdose on food and wrapping paper.

This trip has been so wonderful, as I get to spend long overdue time with my Brother and Sister-in-Law, as well as my Dad, his wonderful Wife, and my half Brother.

But the best part for me, has been watching my Little Monster playing with his Cousin. These two little boys have only met once before (at our wedding), and within hours of their second meeting they were laughing and giggling like long lost buddies, and I am pretty sure they were even conspiring to get up to lots of mischief together!!

I am desperately NOT counting the days that have already passed, the time is already going to fast... Instead I am trying my best to cherish each moment with the Family, to burn each memory on my brain so I can always refer to them when I need a pick me up

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas with your families (or just some good old fashioned time out, if Christmas isn't your bag, baby)

I shall finish this post with a little bit of a gush... feel free to reach for a sick bag!
I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family! We live spread across the globe, and yet when we are together everything just seems to slip back into place; conversations flow and the laughter is almost never-ending.
I truly am a lucky lucky girl

The perfect end to an otherwise ordinary week

This week at work was not my greatest, but thankfully it is almost over - and I am looking forward to a weekend with Husband and the Little Monster.

Just in case you happen to live under a rock, this Sunday is Father's Day.

It's Husband's second one, and I'm am so excited about getting the the Little Monster to wake up his Daddy with a big kiss and cuddle.... or by his zombie walk (his little voice saying "baaaaiiins, baaaaaiiinnns", coupled with the flailing arm/swaying walk , cracks me up every time!).

We are hoping to get out of the city for a night, or at least for a day!, just to have some good old fashioned family "down time" in the clean country air.

However we spend this weekend, it will be full of love and cuddles and family.

What a lucky girl I am!

{Image credit}

What are you up to this weekend?

My {relaxing} day off

Firstly:

A big shout out to The Organised Housewife who is dedicating this month to Wardrobe Organisation – the inspiration behind my Day Off .  And to Toddler Tastes , for the dinner inspiration   J

NB – better give you all the heads up, this is a bit of a novel  J

My flat looks like a bomb site; the kitchen floor needs a damn good mop, the carpet hasn’t seen a vacuum cleaner in weeks and my wardrobe has spilled onto the floor.

The mess clutter was really starting to get me down, so I decided to take a day off from work to play at being a housewife.

Now, I am not known for being good at getting things done in a timely manner – especially housework! – so in order to at least try to combat my affliction, I wrote a list of everything I wanted to achieve, the things I needed to buy, and I set myself a schedule.

I was going great guns until 10.45am.

“I’ll just pop into Kmart to buy the few things I need for this endeavour. I know what I want, so it should be a quick stop. By the time I get this and the food shop I’ll only be about 10 minutes behind schedule.”

Famous last words.

By the time I had gotten everything I needed (and put back everything I didn’t!) and was on the road home, it was 12.30pm. I was an hour and a half behind schedule!!

Driving home, I quickly rescheduled my time – ok, no time for lunch now, I’ll just eat it whilst I’m hanging out the washing. Then I’ll quickly wash the dishes, clean the kitchen, mop the floor, and then head to the WARDROBE OF DOOOOOM for a good 2 hours before getting dinner prepped and then picking up the Little Monster and Husband.... PHEW!

I got home, unpacked the bags and made a sandwich. Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil I ran to the laundry and grabbed the washing. I wolfed down my sandwich and hung out the washing in record time. Then I hit my first stumbling block... my cup of tea.

I had been up since 5.45am with the Little Monster, and had been on the go proper since 7am. It was now 12.45pm, and I was starting to lag big time. That’s ok, I thought, I'll take five-minutes to have a lay down, enjoy my cuppa and to have a little rest – it will recharge me before I get stuck into the kitchen.

It was 15-minutes before I could drag my sorry ass off the sofa; I am now nearly two hours behind schedule and I STILL haven’t started anything that I wanted to get done.

I glance at my printed out timetable; I was supposed to be halfway through my wardrobe task and already have the kitchen done.

With a huge sigh I drag the vacuum into the kitchen at get to work, convinced that it will only take me 30-minutes to get some kind of cleanliness happening.

An HOUR later I stumble out of the kitchen and make my way to the WARDROBE OF DOOOOOM with garbage bags in tow. I now have just two hours to get my wardrobe into order. That’s ok, it should only take 90-minutes, I’ll be sweet.

My plan was simple:

1.       throw out the shoes that I no longer wear;

2.       separate all clothes into “chuck”, “charity” and “keep” piles;

3.       turn my coat hangers to see just how many of my clothes I wear;

4.       put together the recently purchased shoe racks, and fill them;

5.       wipe down the mirror;

6.       go get my Boys.

Yeah, nice plan.... but it kinda didn’t work out that way.

I managed to chuck more than a couple of shoes out (which I am very proud about!) but as I sat in a sea of shoes, I decided to put the shoe rack together and put the shoes away. That’s when I discovered that, although I can build and IKEA wardrobe, 10 bits of metal and eight screws make me a DIY idiot.

No joke, it took me THIRTY MINUTES to put the shoe rack together – but I got there.

Before I could even start on the clothes in the wardrobe, I had to tackle my ever growing floor-drobe. I was working quite quickly with the chuck, charity, keep mentality – it was mostly “chuck” or “put in the washing basket” – and was just about to start on the wardrobe proper, when I looked at the time.

HOLY CRAP! It was time to get my Boys! And dinner wasn’t prepped, and I hadn’t finished the wardrobe, and I hadn’t vacuumed the lounge and, and, and.....

I walked away from the wardrobe, put the two bags of crap I had chucked out into the rubbish bin and went to collect the Boys.

By the time the Little Monster went to bed, I had managed to cook dinner, vacuum the lounge, and push everything to the side of my bedroom so I at least had a clear path to bed.

As I ate dinner and savoured my glass of wine, I reflected on my day with Husband. Yes, I hadn’t achieved everything that I had set out to do (that hair dye will just have to wait until the weekend), but I had made a start. And that is so much better than just leaving things

And in all honesty, I am just glad that I had the intention to do something about the clutter... For the first time in a while, I was excited about making a positive change in my home – a change that I know will make me feel better about spending time there.

{images 1 2 and 3}

The Hangover

Today has been a struggle... I blame the hangover.

No, actually, I blame Husband

You see, I had a Girls Night Out last night (Not on a School Night!? I hear you gasp). Yes, on a School Night.

I was was supposed to drive, thereby limiting my wine intake to one solitary glass; enough to feel a part of the evening, but not to have to worry about the morning after.

However, just as I was putting the final touches to my make up, Husband came into the bathroom and uttered the fateful words:

"We'll give you a lift in. That way you can have a few drinks and enjoy yourself with the Girls. I'll even do the morning shift with the Little Monster"

Of course when he put it like that, how could I refuse!? In fact I felt it my duty to enjoy a glass of wine or four....

And despite a number of attempts to alternate between the glass of wine and the glass of water in front of me, I continually found the wine glass in my hand - sometime you just can't fight the Universe  J

So you see, it really is Husband's fault - not mine.


{images 1, 2}

I heart my family!

Oh what another wonderful weekend!

I’m not sure what has changed, but the last few weekends have been such a fun filled family time. And at the end of those weekend, on the Sunday nights, as Husband and I lay in bed we look at each other and say “I have had a GREAT weekend”

This weekend we played in the park with the Little Monster’s cousins, and fed ducks with the grandparents. We went for a walk around the block. We had a family “Masterchef Finale” dinner with the in-laws, and the Little Monster was spoilt for choice of where to get his cuddles (and chocolate!) from. And we had a kajillion family cuddles – the best kind in my mind!  J

It’s funny when I think back to what a great weekend entailed for us in our previous life; meeting up with friends, copious amounts of alcohol, lots and lots of laughter and a sleep in.

These days, it would seem that a great weekend for our family requires the following; meeting up with family or friends preferably in a large child friendly space, copious amounts of children’s paraphernalia strewn all over the floor, lots and lots of laughter and an early night.

This will sound strange to say, but I finally feel like we are a proper family – we do things together, we have conversations (some more one sided than others!),  we enjoy each other’s company and we have fun as a family. Maybe it’s because Husband is no longer working on weekends. Or maybe it’s because the Little Monster has reached an age where we can interact and actually interact, if that even makes sense

Or maybe it’s because I am starting to find my role as A Mother to be more rewarding, and it’s starting to feel a little bit easier.

Yes there are always challenges, and there are often moments of “arrrgh!”, and I know that there will be plenty more!! But more often than not, when the Little Monster looks at me with his big blue eyes and says “More {insert word} Mumma. Pease?” I think to myself, Isn’t this fun? Aren’t you glad you’re his Mummy?

And you know what? I most certainly am!!

Pics - 1 and 2

The Story of Us - aka a Proposal to Remember

I've just read through my last post - hmmmm, t'was a tad... cranky, for want of a better word. So let me counter act that unpleasantness with the uplifting "Story of Us"...

Nearly 9 years ago, I was quietly sitting at my office desk, minding my own business, when a spunky young man who I had met before, and briefly chatted with, sat down at the desk next to mine and started talking.
A mere 15 minutes later, he walked away again. Leaving in his wake a young woman with a smile the size of the sun on her face; we had just arranged our first date! You see that cute guy who just left the building, he's my Boyfriend!!

Fast forward 6 years, during which time my Boyfriend and I had travelled to the UK, Jordan, Russia, Oman, Fiji; we had moved overseas to start a business and we had moved back to Australia to close a business.... It was a busy time!
We had just finished a 16-month stint of living in separate countries (not fun!) and were finally together again, in our little flat, re-discovering our bond as a full time couple.

We had talked about marriage before, and always came back to the point “but we know how we feel about each other, and our commitment to this relationship – lets be happy with that”, and we were.

And then I peed on a stick  J 

Fast forward another 9-months, during which time my belly had grown to outrageous proportions, my patience had shrunk, and I was waddling like a penguin. Sexy stuff!

After 3 days of pre-labour and 7 hours of labouring at home, I decided that it was time to go to hospital (don't worry, for those who are interested, our birth story will be another post!)

Just as we are about to leave the flat, my Boyfriend pulls me in to the baby's room.

"Are you ready?" He asks, with his arm around my shoulders.
I burst into tears, "No!" I cry, "I am not ready!"
And then out it comes (his proposal, people, not the baby!) "Melissa, I love you. I am so proud of you. I can't wait to meet this new person that we have made together, and I am so excited for our future. Will you marry me?"
I cried harder "Yes! Now can we please go to the hospital!?"
(Honestly? I cannot remember the exact phrasing used by my Boyfriend during the proposal. But bear in mind, I was in labour, very exhausted and an insanely heady mix of excited and terrified about what was to come (with the baby, people, not the wedding!)... so I have chosen to use some creative license in this particular narrative)

Totally not us!

Cut to 8 hours later, when my Fiance and I welcomed our beautiful Little Monster into the world, and all thoughts of proposals and weddings completely vanished from our heads, until we suddenly remembered to tell our families two weeks later.

My Husband and I were married April this year. After 8 ½ years of blissfully living in sin, and with a Little Monster in the mix, we finally decided to make it official.  J

Pics: 1 & 2 3