The weather’s not really giving much away at the moment but the daylight hours are gradually increasing and we’re all feeling like spring is j u s t around the corner. Nix has jumped up another size over winter so it’s time to hit the …
When I signed on to throw some Best Nest styling at a gorgeous lounge in a Golden Homes showhome, I truly floundered for a little bit. What on earth was I going to bring to a professionally styled and curated room that had been designed …
You know, I started the week off stressing about disclosure, wondering what my readers think about sponsored posts, wondering how much I still cared about The Best Nest and whether maybe, it was time to call it a day, hang up my boots and let the newbies take over mummy blogging here in New Zealand.
Then, Monday came and so did real life – a *somewhat* welcome breath of fresh air along with a good old fashioned slap in the face. Nix was sick and as the week progressed he got sicker culminating in a visit to Starship and a pneumonia diagnosis. I was so scared. I knew something was wrong with him, but as his bowels had completely slowed I assumed it was a Hirschsprung’s related problem. He had what appeared to be a common cold earlier in the week and though the cold symptoms got better, he only got worse.
As we were dealing with this, my ongoing battle with my eldest son continued, an all-out hormonal, pre-teen hot mess vs his mother. Twice daily fights, one before school, one every night before bed. I’m walking a tightrope with E right now and I have no idea how to get off. We have changed our home wifi code in attempt to get his head out of the ‘cloud’ and back to our family and the weekend has passed relatively smoothly.
The antibiotics have kicked so Nix is on the mend praise jesus.
Something keeps running through my head though. At Dave’s 40th last Saturday night a friend said to me ‘how effortlessly’ I manage to handle whatever comes my way, whatever mountain of of obligations I manage to heap on my plate.
Ha! This about made me spill my wine.
You see, it’s not effortless. I work my ass off. I stress, I cry, I yell, I wake up with my stomach in knots about my workload, about the kids, about being a bad mother, about thinking too much about my work, about the house being in ruins all the time because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for me to get my ass into gear and clean our shit up.
I wake up wondering every day whether just stopping blogging is an option and is that really what I want? I’ve worked so hard to become a ‘working’ blogger, the kind of hard that it doesn’t take anymore. Imagine building a blog without social? Without Instagram, or Facebook? Back in the days when it actually mattered if you were articulate, if you cared about writing and communicating, if you cared about anything more than being the cool girl in the gang of the coolest girls.
See, I do care. But my number of fucks allocated to caring about influencer anxiety in New Zealand is extremely limited. Plus, never in my life have I had any time for caring about what the cool kids are doing. My attention is needed in so many other places right now, my kids need me, my husband needs me, my mum probably needs to get rid of me, my grandparents need to see more of me while the seeing is good (#jokingnotjoking, they’re getting old yo), my rugby club needs me and my house and garden sure as hell need something – a downpour of RoundUp would be a good start!
I don’t think any of you need me, you probably never did, and you probably don’t need to read about how I had Pizza Hut for dinner on Friday night because I didn’t have it in me to cook dinner. But you know what? I got paid for that picture, and I told you that too (i.e. disclosure). That picture and others like it are going to pay for Ethan’s new, expensive maths tuition that starts on Tuesday.
And that is what I do care about.
What a difference a week makes.
I mean he must. There is no other reason why he would be waking every day at 3.50am but to get some buns in the oven, maybe rustle up some mince and cheese pies or get his eclairs ready for the glass cabinet. Lord knows …
In the grand scheme of My Grown Up Life, this is the breakdown; I’ve been a mother for 11.5 years and married the same. We purchased our home 4 years ago and completed our Grown Up prerequisites by adding two dogs and another baby to …
Navigating the treacherous rapids of the great sugar debate and the myriad voices of nutrition experts filling our social network feeds with raw food, gluten free recipes and chia puddings is exhausting, and confusing and ………….. a little bit boring (gasp!) to be really frank!
In the face of all of this often unsolicited advice, making smart choices around treat foods can be an exercise in #mumguilt – something I wholeheartedly refuse to subscribe to when it comes to food. Teaching the boys to enjoy all food (and treats!) in moderation and with educated consideration is definitely more my style.
Phew. Glad I got that off my chest!
So, we all know that flipping the pack and scrutinising the teeny tiny nutritional info panel on food is supermarket de rigueur these days (as it should be), but, I’m loving the latest offering from Allen’s which takes the guess-work right out of the treat-allocation process. One piece = one portion.
Easy.
I love this concept for many different reasons, but mainly because my kids are sticklers for the rules – “The pack says; one piece = one portion guys, so there’s pretty much NO way we could have more than one lolly!”. Ok, who am I kidding, ETHAN is a stickler for the rules and would totally buy this, Nixon would simply scale me like a coconut palm, steal the pack and run away – but he’s a work in progress lol.
I see the pre-defined portion control in a bag of Allen’s new Sea Stretchies as an excellent tool in my mum arsenal and have teamed up with Allen’s to bring you 5 ways to make the most of these perfectly portioned, stretchy and fun lollies!
There’s always room for cutting back on treats when it’s party time. Curate a fun collection of party goodies such as inexpensive toy car, balloon, cool pen or pencil, stickers or stamps and add one Allen’s Sea Stretchies for a take-home gift little guests will love!
The school holidays have been and gone and many of us will have hit the road and got out of town. The entire family can become quite ‘loud’ and ‘antagonistic’ when in transit (…..it’s not just mine right??). How about, on the next road trip, treat yourself to a few minutes of peace and quiet by passing out a Sea Stretchie to each of your passengers. They’ll have so much fun stretching, twisting and eating them that they’ll forget to ask “Are we there yet?”.
I’ve seen sideline-parents go nuts with after-match treats for their littles over the years, let’s pare it back a little and reward their ‘exertions’ with ONE perfectly portioned, stretchy, fun treat. A Sea Stretchie for each little All Black is easy, inexpensive and sensible.
Being good is sometimes really hard when you’re little, even harder when you’re in that awkward, hormone surge of Tween-ness. Ethan is being encouraged to work hard on self-management this year, and I’m quietly recognizing his efforts with surprise treats now and again when his chore chart is looking particularly spectacular! Little Nixon on the other hand is working hard on toilet training. I cut up a Sea Stretchie into little pieces and for every successful bathroom excursion he can have one as a small reward. No, I’m totally NOT above bribing my kids lol.
I’ve hidden in the pantry scoffing bikkies, laid down beside the bed to retrieve my hidden chocolate stash and feed my craving before the kids find me, and……I’m pretty sure most of you have too. The problem with sneaky snacking is that monitoring portion size usually goes out the window as you’re shoving your guilty pleasure into your mouth. #MumLife is hard, so don’t heap #FoodGuilt on top of it. Enjoying a Sea Stretchie takes the guesswork out of Mum Treats, 1 piece = 1 portion!
Thanks Allen’s for the lollies!
Screen time, device time, iPad use, tablet time, TV time – whatever you call it, letting your kids use a screen, be it large or small immediately places a target on your back and immediately opens you up to judgement by Sancti-Mummy’s everywhere. Screen time gets such …
There are certain items you covet for a while, quite sure that you need them but ‘Life’ forces you to bump them down the wishlist over and over again. Usually these are the pretty things, the luxe things, basically the things that don’t feed your …