What am I turning into and is this normal?

Over the past couple weeks I have noticed that I am doing certain things that really is different for me.

Like the following for example;

I seriously could not think of anything better to do on a Saturday night but stay home and flick between all the CSI's and Escape to the Country.

I actually think on Saturday night that I cant wait to go for my run on Sunday.

I get excited about what "brain food" I could make up for my daughter to take to school.

I also plan like there is no tomorrow. I am talking years out!

I get invited out for a friends birthday, but am secretly excited about the amazing food I can order.

Now they are really just a few things that have been going on, that list could be endless when I think about it.

So I am wondering if this is an age thing?

Am I getting OLD!?

I don't feel all that old, and I know I am now more than ever trying to take better care of myself.

But is this the transition over to mid 30's and is it only going to get more bland from here on in?

Don't get me wrong, I am happy - I guess I am just finding myself somewhere new and trying to process it all.

I will keep you posted on how the "processing" is going.

If your experiencing something similar I would love to hear about it.

The challenge is on!

I was out walking today when my brain started to do all this thinking.

I thought the following;

• Why haven't I lost any weight, I did start this new diet on Monday and all!
• Whoever told me to do 2 loads of washing everyday to stay on top of it was right.
•  Wonder what was going on in my daughter's room last night, because I was not allowed in there for almost an hour.
• Oprah has always said never go to a second location with someone trying to abduct you. Great piece of advice, no good is going to come from being dragged to a second location. Really scary thought actually.
• Elle McPherson's skin is amazing I'm going to do better this summer with the sunscreen.

Some crazy stuff goes on in this head of mine.

Anyway, back to point one! Weightloss!

I have decided to do the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Challenge, with one small difference. Seeing I cant actually afford to officially sign up for it at the moment I am going to try and do it by myself. But from what I read, Michelle has been very inspiring.

Now I am thinking this has failure written all over, so don't feel bad if your thinking it!

I dusted off a couple of books, both by Janella Purcell.
Elixir and Eating for the Seasons - Cooking for health and happiness.

There is some great advice, tips and recipes in both books so I am going to give the 7 day meal plan in Elixir a big old go! Along with 30 min exercise each day.

For the first few days of this week I just ate super healthy, no bad snacks, lots of tea (no milk) and exercise. But now I am converting over to the "meal plan".

I know I should just start it on Monday but if I don't do it today that packet of Tim Tams are going to get smashed.

As I type I am eating my Organic Goat's Mil Yogurt as an afternoon snack and have already made Corn and Trout Fritters for dinner. Hubby will be rapt that he is having Porterhouse.

If you want to try them I changed up the recipe just a little as I didnt need to feed 4 and wanted to add a few other flavours.

Corn and Trout Fritters

2 Fillets of Trout
1 Corncob - kernels cut off
10 Green Beans - sliced thinly
1 Clove of Garlic - Grated
1/4C Beasan Flour
2 Organic Eggs
2Tbs Oil - Rice Bran
Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
Coriander to garnish
S&P to taste

With half the oil fry off your corn, beans and garlic, then set aside to cool down.

Pan fry or grill your fish, then flake into the corn mix.

In a mixing bowl add your eggs and flour and give a good mix. Then add the fish mix and zest/juice in your lemon and season to taste.

Now with a clean pan add your oil and spoon out the mixture. Do what ever size you want, just keep on a low heat or they will burn.

I got 9 fritters out of this amount of mix. And will be serving it with a side of stir fry veg.

Hi Ho Hi Ho...back off to school they go!

And there you have it, they are back at school already!

This morning my daughter asked if Dad could make his Sausage Pasta for dinner.

Now I need to fill you in about this pasta she speaks of.

When I met my hubby at the ripe old age of 23 he had one meal in repertoire.

Sausage Pasta!

It consisted of Spaghetti, cut up beef sausages and a jar of pasta sauce.

Sound good?

I like it, but I am not a huge fan of sausages and also thought I probably couldn't eat it too many nights in a row, where he could no problem.

Over the years I have adapted it a little by adding some veg, using wholemeal pasta and good quality sausages.

So I told my little angel that Dad works late during the week so maybe I could do my version of it.

She replied "If you have to"...nice!

Now, my plans of watching what I eat and starting some exercise have not really eventuated just yet. So last night I really went all out with normal pasta and a massive chunk of white crusty bread with butter. Even a few glasses of Red...I know on a school night!!!!

So below is my version of Dad's Sausage Pasta.

3 Big handfuls of any pasta - I used Spirals
3 Good Sausages - I used Organic Pork

1 Red Capsicum - sliced
A few Basil leaves

Sauce
1 Tin of Organic chopped Tomatoes
2 Cloves of Garlic - Crushed
1/2 Onion - diced
Splash of white wine
2Tsp Raw Sugar
Splash of oil - I use Rice Bran Oil
1 Cup of stock - I used Chook

Ok first get your sausages and take them out the skin. You can just squeeze one end and it will pop out the other - Gross...I know!

Then chop them up into little pieces. And fry so there is some crispy texture on them, then set aside.

For the sauce -  splash in your oil to a fry pan and add you diced onion and garlic, I also added the sliced Caps at this stage to cook off. Then I added in the can of tom's, wine, stock and sugar. Simmer away for about 10-15 min.

While the sauce is doing its thing put on your pasta.

Once pasta is cook add that and your sausage into the sauce and heat through. And your done!

Garnish with some basil if you feel like it.

Home safe and sound...with a bag of fish!

After 5 long days I have my darling little girl back home from her mini trip down to Apollo Bay with the grandparents.

You may have seen on my facebook page the cute gift she bought me.

She ALWAYS come's home with gift's for the family. Very thoughtful for a 5 & 1/2 year old I think.

The last couple times she has been away she has been very sad for mum and has wanted to call a lot more often. I guess that's what happens as they get older. I did find it interesting that she wanted to take a photo of a Jeep (yes the car) that Jeep sent me after I entered a competition to win one. She said it would help her not be so sad.

Today when we were having a big cuddle she said she cried a couple times for me when she was having a shower (gulp, hold back tears mum) and then one time when she looked at the Jeep photo (again, look up mum and don't cry).

This made me feel that I AM a very special person in her life right now, and god knows that one day she may not even want to look at me. So I have to hold her a little tighter when she wants a cuddle and not get upset when she wants me to play schools again for the 5th time in a day!


You get what I'm saying.

My hubby tell's me I'm a great mum all the time and I do actually try really hard as I had a not so great childhood and relationship with my mum. I know from that if you don't give your children any time, love or affection they in return don't love you. A cuddle or simply telling them you love them means the world and spending time with them doing whatever games they want is pretty much all they want.


So after lots of cuddles and even a few hours sleep in mum and dads bed I asked her the highlights of her trip.

1. Forest walks
2. Seeing Whales

Now I am very jealous of No.2 as I have never seen a whale, my hubby even took me to Hawaii and we didn't see one!

So I think my own backyard will be a better option next time.

Here are some photo's from her trip she said she would be happy for me to share with you all.

Forest walking

Forest walking via the waterfall

Whales....amazing

One last treat she bought home was some fish. So tonight I will cook up her fish and do some veg and get her all healthy ready for school next week.

Its funny after your kids are away you feel the need to give them a good home cooked meal, even though she pretty much had that in the camper van.

Pan fried Trout with an orange yogurt dressing with hasselback potato's (with my new herbs) and grilled zucchini with feta

School holidays are not just for the kids!

As a few of you may know I am currently on maternity leave, I had a company car which had to go back during my time off so we decided to live with just the 1 car for a year.

So far so good.

My hubby invested in one of those old school looking bikes that all the cool kids are getting around Melbourne on. So he rides to work at least 1 day a week.

The first week of the school holidays my hubby had to go a bit of driving around Melb for work so we didn't have the car. Not a huge drama as we can walk about 20 min and be at the local town center.

I asked my daughter if there was anything in particular she wanted to do this break, no real surprises - go see Ice Age 4 and Brave and a trip to the library.

Easy.

So without a car we walked a lot in week one to do the following:

A 3 hour visit to the library, which also happened to be running a Life Be In It morning (which she refused to participate in), in trial run of birthday cake making (you can find here) and a trip to the movies to see Ice Age 4.

The trip to the movies was interesting as we had 6 month old bubs with us. He has never been to the movies before so i didn't know what to expect.

If anyone is planning on doing this it really wasnt all that hard. I asked the guy at the counter to have seats on an aisle, we parked his pusher up the back of the cinema, I took a heap of toys that didnt make a lot of noise and as he is teething lots of things to chew on.

He was great! He actually watched a lot of the movie and if he did make any happy baby noises the sheer volume the movie was playing at drowned him out.

He was very "where are we and did our TV get BIG or what!"

So tick. tick for baby at the cinema...well this time!

Little angels...well that day they were :)

The rest of week one was general food shopping and trying to clean out the old summer clothes from the over filled draws in my daughters room. Nothing too crazy... we need some down days on holidays too.

Then the weekend came and it was my turn. I did feel a little guilty as I have been a way a lot this year on mummy only weekends. But we have to do it when the opportunity arises...right?

My friend spoiled me to death with a weekend away at Peppers Moonah Links, the place was stunning! Then on the Sunday we headed to Rye for breakfast before doing a few well deserved hours at the Peninsula Hot Springs.

After a drama with my car on the Sunday afternoon I headed home to the family. Which I had actually missed.

I came home to spend an hour with my daughter before she was off with the Grandparents in the camper van for a few days.

So my little angel has been away since Sunday, she has called me each day at lunchtime and then called her dad each day at dinner time. She has seen Whales and Birds and has a lot to tell us each call. Very cute!

With her coming home either today or tomorrow I feel I need to get the wholesome cooking happening before she returns to school.

I should probably dig out her uniforms form the bottom of her wash basket and empty her school bag!

Hope you are all having great holidays too.


Feel free to share any of your stories!

Fucking blah...can I say that?

Today has been a day with real mixed emotions.

I was up then I was down, then up and then down again.

I am really struggling with a few things at the moment one being my weight issues (and not being back to pre baby size) but in saying that I'm not really doing anything to fix that. Another issue is hubby and I have got some things we really need to talk about for our family and we have not had a chance in over a month to do so.

With the weight issue I am hoping to head down to the gym over the next week or so and slowly introduce myself to the equipment again.

I'm not one of those people who can turn stuff in the house into a gym and loose weight during the day while the baby sleeps. That's when I get actually get housework done. Or do something for myself like moisturise my legs.

So I decide to get me out of my mood to have a go at making this Tie Dye Cake that I saw on Bird on a Cake's blog. It was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be, and the daughter loved helping with all the steps.

It came out the oven looking like this.

Then like this.

Then like this.

And finally like this.

Very happy!! I even had a little trot around my show pony yard!

I am also happy that I have a cake to make for the little madam's upcoming birthday.

But not long after the success of the cake high wore off I was back to feeling shit!

It seems today that everything I need is missing, empty, unaffordable, out of stock or just plan fucked. To make the day brighter the baby is still grumpy from Saturdays 6 month immunsiation. The 5 year old is also testing my patience by asking me to repeat everything I say 3-4 times.

Also don't understand how I can sweep, mop, do the dishes, clean the kitchen and lounge room table only to have everything an absolute mess an hour later. Looking like I have not done a thing.

Just bloody over it all today!

Worst thing of ALL is I am trying to cut out my mid week drinking, but days like this is not helping.

 Oh well, onward and upward - wonder what tomorrow will bring?

What to do on a rainy day!

Today started out freezing and wet and it didn't get any better.

The bitter, icy cold wind met me at 9.00am when I went out to do some grocery shopping while the family stayed cuddle up, warm and I think in bed!

It was nice to get out early and get somethings done though.

After I had packed away all the shopping I knew I had to entertain 2 kids pretty much all day inside.

What to do, what to do?

God the holidays haven't even officially started yet and I'm already on holiday entertaining duties.

First thing requested was "paint the nails". You're not allowed to have them painted at school so during the break they are every colour we can find.

Second thing I "thought" we could do is walk the 500m up the road to the post box to mail a letter. This letter had to go today or we wouldn't get our $5 discount of a after school activity. C'mon times are tough $5 is $5!

So I looked out the window saw a break in the rain and bundled up the kids, only to get outside to it bucketing down....again!

Back inside we go.

After about an hour of Little Things on the iPad we need a more active game. So I remembered I pinned something the other day that looked easy and fun. So we did that.

It was as easy as finding an old icy pole box, the tube from the paper towel and 6 plastic plates that I cut the middle out of and then stapled 2 together (to give it some weight - 1 plate was too light)

I'm sure this game has an official name - I called it Hoopla but my daughter called it Scoring Hutton's (Hutton being our last name) very inventive I say!

So there was some happy times and some sad, but overall great game that has now lasted long into the afternoon.

I had a great shot where one hoop sat on top of the pole....I tried to claim it as a point but the family wouldn't hear of it.

We have left the scoreboard up as I am sure this game will go on during the holidays.

After such a jammed packed day I really couldn't be bothered cooking so Marion Grasby is here tonight doing the honors.

 Thanks Marion! It's time for a vino!