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| Winter = rest. |
All good illness wise, but we all need a huge rest. Daily, I tell myself I wish I was a bear and could hibernate because that is, in all seriousness what the 4 of us need most right about now. I'm sure it's compounded by the fact that Kevin is working 7 days a week (5 for his actual work and then 2 for his uni, bring on the end in October!) #liferightnow!! and that we are mid year, the plateau?
Last week at school Brian started to get teary. It began on a day I went in 10 minutes before the end of school to help out and he ended up screaming the classroom down with tears and crazy things like insisting I help him get his drink bottle and that he couldn't find his bag without my holding his hand. He doesn't ever disrupt the class. After much racking of my brains and assessing of behaviours I believe it to be a combination of tiredness, hunger (growth spurt?), winter, and a classmate moving overseas. One night that week I fed the kids their dinner at 4:30pm and continued with their nighttime routine, them none the wiser. They really needed the sleep and I was grateful for the winter darkness to help me successfully carry out my plan. I'm continuing to surprise myself with how much the seasons affect us and how much we need them to help us out!
Lastly on the health front, you totally don't want to know, but our noses are driving us nuts. Not runny, you get the idea, enough said.
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| The Wattle is out. |
WEATHER
There has been a mix of rain and sun and I have been astounded that the sun seems to shine on those critical days, like friend's outdoor birthday parties. As mentioned it's still dark for most of the time, sun up later in the mornings and down quicker at night. 6:30am til 5:30pm are roughly our light hours. I don't hate it and I think that's because I'm going with it. We continue to rarely set the alarm and we just cope getting up one hour later than we do in the lighter months. I'm not going to say it's easy, me missing out on morning showers and skipping brushing Simon's teeth and doing his hair just to make it out the door on time are some of our casualties, but hey it's winter it won't last forever.
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| New cardi. Love green. |
New clothes, woo hoo! I'm totally out of whack with the store's fashion season, but I've picked up a few new things lately just to get me through. Cardigans and pants. Nothing like leaving it til the last month of winter! For future reference the stores are, as we speak, rolling out their more summery clothes and boy are they gorgeous!
Loving my 'wear a tracksuit to school day'. It looks horrible and yes it's embarassing, but it's the closest thing I get to a pyjama day and I like to feel like I'm not missing out. I generally wear this kind of outfit once a week on a day that I'm planning on being home all day other than school drop off and pick up.
Brian is still wearing jumper and track pants to school, although I'm pretty sure there may be only one other boy in his class that has worn pants at least some of this winter. They all seem to survive in shorts. Brian can't, even in his current get up he still feels cold to the touch and he wants gloves. I think he has my Mum's blood.
MEALS
Sticking with this 'winter is a holiday theme' and rarely meal planning. I made double of a meal last week, thinking we'll eat it for two nights and I'd freeze the remaining two night serve. It was a meal we love so we all happily ate it four nights in a row. This is pure unadulterated budgeting and laziness I tell you. It's fantastic!
Eating fairly small portions of meals, surprisingly. Eating easy, simple meals. Trying to pair 'things I want to cook for the kids lunchboxes' with our dinner meals so I cook once and use the rest for lunches. Example: I'm making a chicken noodle soup and serving it with savoury muffins. I will use the rest of the muffins in lunch boxes (made them this afternoon and they failed!!).
Needing a break from the everyday, meal wise. Brian was a little over his usual 'I love the same thing every day lunchbox' and I'm over eating sandwiches that I have made. I would love to eat out more and have been sneaking them in. Kevin has too, so we'll call ourselves about even and pretend it didn't happen. Maybe this is the time of year we can eat what we feel like because the weather permits it. Summer feels more like, eat anything cold and juicy. I'm happy that I productively take away a lot from a meal eaten out, I often adapt it and recreate it at home, it's my way to teach myself more in the kitchen.
3 hot chocolates to date this winter, and one of those was yesterday because I realised I'd only had two, so I made a trip to Max Brenner especially, because it was necessary. Not sitting down to as many hot drinks as I anticipated, but still having tea and coffee sometimes, more than normal for me anyway. I have discovered my own homemade toffee coffee combination and love it.
Drinking lots of 'other drinks', lemonade, juice, treats like mocktails, frappes and rarely water. So, so, bad. The water we do drink is from the tap so our poor jugs in the fridge are going stale, eww.
FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
Still lazy with the cooking so freezer vegies are my friend. Cheap cauliflower (still) and capsicum. Mandarins in right now are full of pips. Grapes going up in price. Strawberries still around and reasonably (as I bite my lip) priced. Spotted blueberries too, evidently $5 a punnet (maybe 250g size) is cheap in my book, and how I hate that. Started to buy pears.
HOME
Blankets still on beds. Weeds growing fiercely. Ants in my kitchen, still, although it probably doesn't help that I bought an ant farm and they all escaped.
Most good TV has come to an end. I wish my brain/body/self could do Project Life after the kids have gone to bed, but I need that brain wash downtime to sleep properly. Loved Elementary and enjoyed The Block Sky High, maybe because I'm almost feeling that need to make our house a home and decorate. And I love the way kitchen design is headed. I'm enjoying living in our spaces and making them work for us, maybe a winter thing, in summer it's so hot that survival is really all I think about.
Adding in a new permanent monthly recap category:
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| Party sunshine. |
Life was busy this month. July was 'friend's birthdays month', we had one or two every single weekend. This coming weekend is our first weekend with no calendar filled for 2 months, not exaggerating even a little bit. I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time I did enjoy all the birthday mania and craziness. We were out all month and it was a welcome change to what I had been doing before that which was (one parent weekend survival mode) groceries one weekend day and pyjama day the other. We need a little fun in our lives too, so I'm hoping to carry forward with a happy mix of both.
Life was also a mix of happy and sad. July is the month where both of my grandfathers have passed and I was dreading that a bit. You may note I still haven't posted about my Pa. I think I'm mentally putting that off, but this post is allowing me to forgive myself for not (even though it's half written) and move forward regardless. Elise Cripe, all that you say about blogging is true - keep writing - thanks for that!
So that was July. Bring on the new year (Brian knew it was 31st July and thought that 'tomorrow' was the new year, gorgeous!).
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