Hey there February 2016

Hey February,

Did you know I could never get the first r in your name; it’s a tricky one. I give it one more century before you lose it. But for now, I am going to tell you a few things about life right here and now, on the extra day you’ve given me this year, which you usually keep to yourself. I have been:

Making:

Better use of my time. I am working more and I have had to break up my tasks. When you’re forced to work more efficiently at home, you can still get everything done

Drinking : Impressed Juices. 

Doing: Took the kids to Werribee to be photographed for the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt for Good Friday. They had a ball and were paid in chocolate. But guess what, they were in the highest read newspaper in the State and not one person noticed them...so how many people are reading the newspaper these days?

Reading:  Crap books. I am usually a bit of a book snob, but the last month, actually all of this year, I’ve been reading stuff that other people like. It’s kind of like eating McDonalds, I know it’s doing nothing for me, but in that exact moment, it’s actually pretty fine thank you.

Wanting:  Clothes are always on my want list. Today it’s these dresses from Gorman. It’s a fabric feeling thing, both just feel so good to touch.

  

Looking: At houses with pools. It’s a thing I do when I have time to waste.

Playing: Spotify. I finally subscribed and we all now have silly lists of songs to listen to. It’s the best thing for people who previously had limited music to listen to.

Deciding: That we need to plan more weekends away, otherwise the weekends disappear without us ever getting away.

Wishing: people who left ignorant comments on social media got electric buzzers on their fingers as they typed to remind them that they are being assholes.

Enjoying: Hot cross buns – ok, so the ones with chocolate and orange have been enjoyed too much.

Wondering:  If July is a good time to holiday in Noosa?

Loving: Kiddle the google for kids. I already have Kids YouTube on Immy’s ipad and it’s so good. My blog doesn't even get through...too much saying fuckity fuck fuck.

Pondering: What my next blog post will be about.

Considering: Buying Easter decorations.

Buying: things on sale. David Jones had a massive sale and I was there right at the exact time it happened. It would have been stupid not to buy things.

Watching: Movies with the smalls. Immy is one of those kids who LOVES a good movie and we have a date each Friday night now where she chooses something to watch. This week we had Nanny McPhie. I think she is going to be the next David and Margaret at the Movies.

Hoping: I will always always hope for healthy days for us all.

Cringing: at my credit card bill.

Questioning:  Other parents parenting.

Smelling: my roses. Every day. They are kicking goals in the flower garden and making my house wonderful.

Wearing: Active wear, active wear…I am picking up the kids in my active wear 

Noticing: My hamstrings are not working.

Knowing: Cardinal Pell is not a very nice person.

Thinking: About new projects and what they might end up being.

Admiring: People who just say yes and find a way to make everything happen.

Disliking: pimples. 

Opening:  the fridge to see if someone decided to make a cake and leave it there for me, so far no luck.

Feeling: Excited about ideas in my head.

Snacking: on peanut butter with chia seeds in it and then having chia seeds stuck in my teeth, not so glamorous

Hearing: TimMinchin sing about Cardinal Pell and then hearing that the funds from that song went to people who deserve it so very very much.

That's it Febby, I hope to see you again in 2017 to tell you all about another great month. 

xx

Impressed by Kale. Really.

This is a sponsored post

Life gets dull if you don’t take a little look at how you’re living sometimes. It’s silly to think that what you’re doing right now, how you’re living, can’t be improved just a little with a slight change here or there.

I don’t make new years resolutions but I do write down some little changes that I am going to make a few times a year.

Last year I decided to listen to a wider variety of radio stations. Why? Because if you don’t flick around the stations, you only hear one type of opinion, and that opinion can slowly become yours.

At first I rolled my eyes at what I had to listen to, with both commentators, callers and music choices, but after a few months I found I was producing less eye rolls and had a greater acceptance of why some people might like to listen to a certain station (just not all the time!)

This year I decided to give up soft drink and hot chips.  The soft drink isn’t really a big deal. I’ve been a big fan of the marketing for ReThink Sugary drink, I picture the drink in my head as a glass of lard and just prefer not to drink it. There is just no reason to tip that stuff into your body. For me, it becomes much harder to abstain when I go for a social drinkie. 

If I am not drinking alcohol, I’ll always pick lemonade or a coke and if I am drinking alcohol, soft drinks are often mixed in…Pimms and lemonade anyone?

When the Impressed Juices team asked me about any changes I was planning to make this year, I thought maybe I could replace the soft drink for a healthy juice option instead.

Let’s be very honest here.

1) I will never own a nutribullet and make my own juices.

2) I still think the best green smoothie is a Midori and Lemonade

3) I don’t believe in kale.

But Impressed Juices had me at totally ‘Australian made’ and that they are offered at a price point I think is very reasonable (I am also of the thinking that any type of Franchise Juice bar is a total rip off) so I was happy to check these new juices out.

The juices arrived at my door and I instantly saw the word kale on one of the bottles and must admit there was more eye rolling.  But I opened up my Summer Greens drink, drank it down and then had another one just to make sure I liked it. It's fantastic. Perhaps my bias against kale means I've been missing out on good stuff???

The next day I opened the Berry Beets and tried to get Miss 10 to drink some. She refused to let it pass her lips. Miss 7 wouldn’t even hold the bottle. Mr H had a few sips and asked if he really had to drink the rest. The beetroot juice just wasn’t going down well at all. So I took them to work to try out with some of my team.

They all said good things, it contains carrots, pears, beetroot, cucumber, strawberry and blueberries, which is an amazing way to get your fruit and veg for the day. My work mates drank their full bottles worth. I let them have a taste of my Kale Juice to compare flavours, but they all preferred the Berry Beets the most.

Over the next fortnight Mr H and I actually fought over who was drinking the Ginger Ninja juice, a delicious orange, carrot, ginger concoction.  One night I tried it with a splash of vodka, just to test it out. It didn’t really work, this juice is best left on it’s own or served over ice. 

It was also the favourite for the kids, not that I think most kids will want this, the flavours are more grown up, unless your kids drink fancy stuff a lot more than mine do (highly possible).

I’d started out thinking Impressed Juices would be a way to substitute for when I desired a soft drink, but it didn’t. Instead, it has started to become my breakfast on the go.  I work three days a work and have a long commute after I drop the kids, it’s the perfect time to drink one of my Impressed Juices. I throw it in my handbag and feel as though I have started the day better off, it also means I am not looking for a muffin at 10am to go with a hot chocolate.

The thing with Impressed Juices is, once you’ve drunk one, kale and all, your insides feel happy. It’s like giving your internal workings a nice big hug and after a few days, you want that feeling every day. I ended up relaxing on a weekend with my book and my juice and I really started missing them when my trial drinks run out. Lucky, all I had to do was throw them into the trolley on my next shop, and bingo, breakfast is now sorted when I am running out the door.

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The saying I hate the most in the world.

A couple of months ago when lumpy was first discovered, my world was a major stress zone.

Major. Every waking moment I tried to concentrate on being positive and using my energy to get through the day without booking a plot for myself at the local cemetery. Sounds pretty extreme right now as I am fully fit and recovered, at the time, not so much.

One night I scrolled through my Instagram and saw some happy person deciding to share their message of the day to the world. It was all so simple for them, just 'CHOOSE HAPPY', they cried out to me. Implying that I was making a decision to be fearful, anxious, scared, lonely, terrified and all I had to do was shake my head three times and pick happiness instead.

When you are dealing with shit times, someone sending you a CHOOSE HAPPINESS image is possibly the worst thing ever.

Click over to Pinterest and search Choose Happy and you will get hundreds of pretty pictures reminding you how easy it is to just be happy. You just have to choose to be.

Please take your Choose Happy/Happiness/Joy posters and keep them neatly in your own handbag. The people who are finding it hard to smile that day, it's probably for a bigger reason than you have felt. If they are grieving for a much loved person they shouldn't be happy! They should be sad, let them be sad, it's ok for people to really miss someone. It's probably even ideal if they cry about it and feel pretty miserable for a certain amount of time.

If you have a friend who has some type of health issue to overcome, they might need support for awhile, encouragement, reminding that they are not alone and that others are going to support them along for awhile, especially on days when they can't cope on their own. Suggesting they just Choose Happy, is like a smack to the face.

Some people live constantly with a piece of them that is fighting a black cloud. They don't like the black cloud that hovers over them and threatens to smother them when they least expect it. They wish it wasn't happening to them and some days they get on top of things better than others, but I promise you, this is never because you sent them a text message saying. "Hey, Be Happy!"

Also, it's boring. Share something else instead.

Get out and do stuff: Langham Hotel Pool Day

The Langham Hotel at Southbank in Melbourne is beautiful.

It has a divine staircase up the middle that is always filled with a flower display that makes you stop and take notice. The hotel is also well known for their high teas and cuisine.

But there is also a swimming pool and spa area on Level 9 of the hotel with beautiful views across the city, and you don't have to stay at the hotel to use them.

A few weeks ago Miss 9 became Miss 10. With her birthday falling in the summer school holidays it's always a tricky event to schedule and get invites out etc. This year, we decided that we would make all the decisions about her birthday and it would be a surprise day for her.

Mr H and I decided a day in the city was the perfect option and so we headed straight to The Langham, paid for a day pass for us all and that gave us the pool, spa, sauna, steam room and ALL the towels that we wanted.  We invited two other little girls to join us, so together we had four kids and two adults.

We ordered room service and had it delivered to the roof top balcony and the girls sat and ate hot chips and dumplings from a silver tray.

More swimming, more checking out of the snail shower, and steam room and then we dried off and went for a walk to Federation Square. There is always something to check out there, but for the birthday girl we went straight to ACMI, joined in on a make your own gif workshop and then went for ice cream.

Mr H then surprised them all again with tickets to the giant slip n slide and even though the weather was cool, they all still run straight on (again and again) until their 45 minutes was up.

A quick walk back to the Langham and we settled down for hot chocolates in the lounge area, then went straight back to the pool.

By the early afternoon there were a few guests sitting in the spa sipping on their champagne, but still none using the heated swimming pool, perhaps four squealing girls kept them out.

As I swam around I chatted with a lady who had just arrived from Canada and pointed out all the buildings that you can see from the pool.

Eventually we dragged the girls out of the pool, they went to get changed and found delight in the smallest of things - hair dryers, shampoos and hotel shower caps.

A day in a Five Star hotel isn't how they spend their usual summer holidays so it was a really fantastic way to spend the day for the newly Miss 10. It was highly enjoyable for parents too.

If you're looking for something a bit different to do in the city, head to The Langham, right up to Level 9 and grab yourself a day pass at the pool. You can also book in for massages and all that jazz and order dumplings and champagne...there sure are worse ways to spend your day!