You know when you have that one brown banana that you don’t want to waste, but one isn’t really enough to whip up a banana cake or banana bread? Yeah that happened to me today. Not to be thwarted by my lack of over-ripe fruit, …
I’m so pleased to have joined Munch Cooking this year as one of their Munch Mums! Look out for my reviews and giveaways each month as I introduce you to some awesome {and pretty innovative} products from The Munch Cupboard. A cookbook for kids is …
Oohhh January you were a little ripper weren’t you? Hot and dry as a bone, credit-card cringeworthy, the audible crash and burn of resolutions could be heard everywhere, and for me, it was the month of running. I clocked in 23 runs in January, which is approximately 100% more runs than in any other month in my life! I’m winning at something so far in 2015, even if it hurts like a bastard. I literally wake up every morning moving like a nana. My feet hurt so much for the first hour of every day I swear I’m working retail while I’m sleeping, putting in some long hours standing on concrete floors……..oh wait, that’s what I do every day at home : /
Anyway….
Have an amazing Monday and first day child free gorgeous Mama’s!
I have been selfishly pining for this day all week. I have; silence light rain an empty house and holy shit does it feel good. Dave spent the week working in Wellington and upon his return yesterday, Nixon gave him a cursory glance and a …
I was phaffing about the other morning trying to do All The Things simultaneously as per usual. I wandered out of the bathroom whilst brushing my teeth, thinking that I would put the washing on. En route to the laundry I spied an errant plate, …
A lovely, but hectic weekend of dinner dates, bbq’s, skateboarding, eeling, family workouts, playdates, cycling, swimming and the endless minutiae of weekend chores came to a head last night when Dave and Ethan finally returned home for the ER at 10pm! Nothing major thank goodness, a suspected fracture in one of the small bones in E’s wrist sees him in a splint for 2 weeks with more x-rays to follow. Dave and I were getting Nix in his bike seat after a lovely swim in the school pool; E was practising riding his bike with no hands……..
With one week left before he returns to school, I caught a glimpse of how tired Ethan had become over summer. Slightly later nights and jam packed days have left him with little in the tank so a slow, quiet Anniversary Day is pretty much perfection for us right now.
Dave left for Wellington at 5.30 this morning so I needed to get the week off to a relaxed and easy start for both the kids and myself. I may not have had a shower yet but I have pottered, and tidied, gardened and played with the boys. I have tackled some easy {but mundane & dreaded} tasks like the fly spots and cleaning the high chair – pretty much my most despised tasks around the house. The whites are flapping on the line, the baby is asleep, the frog is chomping all the flies I’m catching to prevent any more fly poo on my ceilings {I wish!} and big is lying on the couch, reading and relishing a bit more screen time than normal.
So by most accounts, a totally lame Auckland Anniversary day, but life is allowed to move a little slower in the SAHM lane right? Knowing I’m not rushing off to work tomorrow allows a little chance to breathe and remember that the beaches and the parks, the pools and the ice-creams will all still be there on Tuesday and may just taste a little sweeter after our absence today.
I’m not going to write my usual bitch ‘n moan style post about the school holidays as I’m not feeling it this year. E and I have had some hard days, but we’ve moved on and had some totally kick-ass days too. Those days make …
Dave and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last month {yay us!} which understandably resulted in a wee bit of time spent poring over glass display cases, searching for the perfect sparkly something to help celebrate such an awesome milestone in our lives. Needless to …
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t realize it at the moment, but I’m hoping that this Saturday just been will firmly cement itself in Ethan’s head in an “oh yeah, that’s what we did when I was a kid” kinda way. It won’t be a Best Day of My Life kind of memory, more of the Normal Day in the Neighborhood variety; similar to the memories I have of riding bikes until dark {sans helmets of course!}, playing tennis on the road, rollerskating and pole tennis tournaments. Awesome memories that make me smile every time I cast my mind back.
E’s rugby coach came and picked him up in the morning to assist in a working bee at the clubhouse. He got stuck-in with his friends and teammates, scrubbing the tackle-bags, hopefully doing a good job and learning a thing or two about chipping in and helping out, pride in your club and team spirit. He had a great time by the sounds of it, yet I can’t even imagine what would happen if he was forced to clean anything at home that took longer than 10 minutes – it doesn’t bear thinking about honestly!
Whilst he was at the club, two of his other mates that live close by had popped over twice, desperate to go eel fishing with E in the river. Despite his protestations, we sent him off to find his friends when he arrived home. He totally wanted to stay at home, sit on the couch and play Xbox or Clash of Clans or some other waste of summer. It was worth the fight and the filthy looks as Dave and I knew he’d be stoked within 5 minutes of walking out the door. These are the battles that are worth fighting. These are the ones that matter and will have a bigger long-term impact than policing wardrobe choices or riding his ass about every, single manners slip-up.
The three boys had an awesome {muddy} time down at the river and caught themselves an eel which they decided they were going to gut and eat. They took care of business, hopped on their bikes and headed to another part of the river for an afternoon swim, supervised by one of their lovely Mums {not me, I was in DIY hell with a paintbrush and polyurethane but that’s another story}. Following this they headed off on their bikes again to the third amigos house where their eel was pan fried and they shared dinner together.
Ethan arrived home on his bike at 8pm with some of their {surprisingly delicious} eel for us to try. He was tired, happy and satisfied after a day which couldn’t really have had too much more ‘boy’ squeezed into it. Good, old-school fun with an absolute minimum of screen time. Loving it!
We live in a pretty special little pocket of Auckland that is very small {at this stage} and still very safe. Ethan is 10 years old. It’s time for him to experience independence {within clearly defined boundaries of course!} and having a little bit of freedom on his bike and with his friends is part of that imminent transition from child to teenager that is creeping ever closer. Without showing him we trust him to make good decisions, he would be bored at home and we would be forever battling the screen. It certainly helps to know other parents in your community and be able to quickly reach out and communicate with them via text message etc. If you can find a lovely place for your children to spread their wings in a safe community, it’s worth every penny.
So, a weird thing happened to me on the 23rd of December 2014. We arrived in Waipu to spend Christmas with Mum and Geoff and those l o n g, straight country roads began doing odd things to my head. And I’m being very serious …