Impressed by Kale. Really.

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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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July 2015: School Holidays for bigger kids

Now that I have kids that are not pre-schoolers, I am finding many activities advertised as holiday options are not really suitable. The ten minute craft activity at a shopping centre doesn’t do anything other than make us all wish we had stayed at home. School kids can pick an 'Eductainment' option from three days away and are not impressed by anything that attempts to be teaching them something. 

So here are a list of things that you might like to do these school holidays if you have school aged kids which are just simply fun, for all of you. 

A BONFIRE 

This first one is actually a pre-holiday event, but I love a good fire. Plus, it’s winter, it’s cold and nothing beats a big massive fire. You should go,  celebrate that the long long cold nights are now officially starting to become shorter and warmer…even if it doesn’t feel that way.

Details: 

Collingwood Children’s Farm Winter Solistice

Saturday 20 June. 

During the holidays there is also another event at the Collingwood Children’s Farm and chances are, your kids don’t get enough time these days to run around and get grubby. Go, be ipad free for a day and all sleep well that night.

Mansfield Lantern Festival

If you want to go to an entire festival to celebrate the longest night of the year, the Mansfield Lantern Festival looks like a fabulous event to go and check out. It's the first year this festival has been run so you will be the first to experience it. You get to make your own lanterns, check out the local markets, the foods and the fun. It really looks like a fun weekend. Mansfield is an easy drive from Melbourne...and there will probably be snow, so snuggle up.

All the details: Mansfield Lantern Festival.

ROYAL PARK

Go to Royal Park. It’s such a great park and has the best climbing frames. It’s free.

Really you should just get in the car and go. Take towels. I wrote a bigger post about it a few weeks ago.

Chocolate Classes at Yarra Valley Chocolatier

I haven’t tried this one, but if you have a kid aged 6 -12, I think they would love this. Making chocolate at a real chocolate factory in the beautiful Yarra Valley. There are only four days that this class is available, so take a look early and book your kids in. It’s an adult free class, so I can only imagine that you will need to sit quietly somewhere with a great hot bevvie and a few chocolates to try until the kids finish what they are up to. So far it really sounds ok to me.

Details are here - let me know if you do go and can tell me what it’s like.

Sovereign Hill

A couple of years ago Sovereign Hill started the gorgeous Christmas in July festival for the winter holidays. Each year it has got bigger and better and this year looks like it will be really magical. There is no mistaking that Ballarat is cold. Believe me, I went to school there for 8 years and my chilblains have barely recovered twenty years later. So having a winter Christmas in July, even if it is fake snow, is just perfect, because you will be cold, there will be little having to pretend about how cold it is.  

You can easily do a Ballarat day trip from Melbourne, but I think it might be worth staying over for the night if you can manage to. It looks like the light show is going to be well worth it.

Details Here: http://christmasinjuly.sovereignhill.com.au/experience

Head to the Beach!

We have long been groupies of Big4 Bellarine and we love it just as much in the winter. The indoor heated pool is cosy and warm and the nearby beaches are empty. You can run along them if that’s your thing, or rug up and just play on the sand. Surprisingly, the kids love the beach whether it is hot or not. Once you have enough sand in your gumboots for one day, just head back to the cabin, go for a bike ride, jump on those pelvic floor weakness alerting jumping pillows and have a lovely time.

Winter is off peak time, so prices are good, check it out here 

Indoor Water Park  - WaterMarc

Next on our list of day visits is the swimming pool at Watermarc.

With a heated pool, slides, and playgrounds that you can use no matter how crap the weather is. It’s a public pool so you won’t go broke just to enter and you can stay for as long as your kids want to play in the water, which for me is likely to be all day long.  I will be packing my own bathers, swimming for a few hours and eating hot chips for lunch. It’s kind of my perfect day, which the kids will just have to cope with.

Details for Watermarc here. 

CHECK OUT DISNEY ON ICE!

Disney On Ice presents Dare to Dream, and that it will be on at Hisense Arena from 2-6 July. 

This show is on every year and we have been for the last three. Every year the kids love it and last year Mr H came along too and really enjoyed it. He appreciated the fabulous skating skills of the actors and we all really enjoyed the show.


For 2015, Disney on Ice presents Dare to Dream! I am a bit of a dreamer type so I think this theme sounds like the best one so far.

It's a show filled with cute stuff, big life size mice who can skate on a thin piece of metal...I can't even stand up in ice skates, so I do think this is quite a thing.

 Plus...a horse, on ice skates! 

Tickets are available all over Australia and are on sale here for all the shows.

OR, just leave a comment on this blog post because I also have a family pass (that’s four tickets) for you to win right here. Entering could not be easier, just tell me one thing that you will be doing with the kids during July. 

TICKETS are for the show on FRIDAY 3 JULY, at 2.30pm, in MELBOURNE (HISENSE ARENA) you must be available to attend the show on this date. 

Comments Open Monday 1 July 2015 and close Sunday 14 June at 11.59pm

PLEASE LEAVE AN EMAIL THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU ON (please)

If this is still not enough suggestions, I had a few more last year too, you can read them in the post: Sorted: 10 Great Ideas for the Victorian July School Holidays.

Community Dress Announcement.

I have been looking for the perfect dress for sometime. I have found a few, but they just were not quite right. Too long, short, expensive. Too floral, too bright, too tight!

But, being Christmas, I was stocking up on socks and jocks and school sports stuff at Bonds when I saw a dress.

It was perfect and it was on sale. At $25 I could not leave it behind. I have since worn it as often as I can.

It whips through the wash and doesn’t need ironing. It gives the arms a little cover for those that like it and the waist belt does not require a tight squish around the Christmas pudding girth.

I was sent some slide on shoes from the team at FRANKiE4 and they team up with this dress really well. Better then that, they team up with my crappola back even better. 

After I was down and out with my back in November I was told to accept the fact that I need to wear sensible shoes from now on. I even sent my work team an email to apologise for my sensible shoe wearing faux pas that would be required from now on.

The sensible shoe issue is tricky. I am trying not to gallop into my old age wearing shoes that make me look 109 years old.  Thankfully designers like those at Frankie4 have got my back!

And it seems they also have my Mother-in-laws. Because she has been seen wearing my shoes around quite a bit too! I am going to be giving a pair away on my Instagram account, pop over this week, follow me on Instagram and see if you can get yourself a pair.

I have also found myself a few kaftan’s this summer. I just haven’t quite got the right one yet. I have one that is going to be great to wear over my bathers…except I need to get some bathers…can there be any shopping worse then bathers?

Lucky I have my Bonds bargain dress find, and the plain colour version, black included for my fellow Melbourne black garment lovers is down to just twenty bucks! 

What great fashion finds have you found this summer?

For those wondering, this is not a sponsored post. Bonds do not pay me. Nor do Frankie4, but they sent me a pair of shoes and asked me what I thought of them, I thought they were good enough to share with you.

On our Book Shelf: November 2014

Last week I worked my first (and only) day at my new job at the Itty Book Book Van.

You always need to look for the perks of a job, in this case there were many but one of the main ones was that I got to read heaps of new children's books. Shoppers were keen to know what I thought about certain books and I really enjoyed talking about them with both the kids and the adults they dragged into the van.

The van holds books that are old favourites and fabulously new.

These were my top three recommendations:

1) The Story Machine by Tom McLaughlin. 

This was new to me and I loved it all. Elliott finds a typewriter. Imagine not knowing what a typewriter is? My kids didn't. Elliott learns to use the typewriter in a way most adults wouldn't have thought of. The illustrations work among the text in a beautiful way. This is a must add book to anyone in love with children's literature. Adults will happily read it over and over again to a child who enjoys re reading favourite stories.

2) All Through the Year.

We have had this for close to two years and it is still a favourite at bedtime. Children pick up different things over time, noticing the seasons, the festivals, the flow of their year. Illustrations that seem so simple are actually quite engaging and provide just enough for little eyes to see without giving the entire picture that can be filled in with your imagination.
I find this a perfect book for the child you don't know what to buy for.

3) Doll House Book

The reality is that this is a drawing book, not a reading book and there are not even any prompts. However I still really liked this one. It encourages kids to draw any type of building. It's a dollhouse for some or a barn or a farm. It could be the inside of a room or the outside of a dwelling. It's for your own stories, and really they are probably the most important. For adults, it's also a much more convenient way to hold on to some of your kids artwork.



Away from the van I have recently finished the books The Five People you Meet in Heaven and For One More Day. Both written by Mitch Albom. They are not new books and I don't know why they haven't crossed my path before. You might know Mitch Albom from his more popular book Tuesdays with Morrie. Both books are written in a simple conversational dialogue, as though you are just chatting with the characters. Both are fictional accounts of life after death. I am rather fascinated with the possibilities of what heaven may or may not look like and I enjoyed reading about just what might be. Because really. You just don't know.

What are you reading right now?

Mr H gets some new threads.

This post is sponsored by Target.

1. Men's Onesie  2. Striped tee 3. Pocket tee  4. Riding Jersey 5. Business Shirt  6. Jeans  7. Work pants  8. Hoodie


Do you buy your partner clothes? Mr H would much prefer people to buy him his clothes. It saves him having to do the shopping, trying things on and making decisions. The only problem is, he is quite fussy with what he wants. It has to fit perfectly, not too long in the body, not too loose. The sleeves and neck on shirts should be perfect.

Luckily most of his fashion buying team are pretty good at choosing what works for him. He also has some favourite stores that make choosing for him much easier. Target was not usually one of them. I decided that if Target was good enough for the rest of the family surely it should be able to provide Mr H with some much needed new winter threads.

Take a look at the image above. There is one item that is NOT suitable but it made me laugh to even suggest it to him. Any guesses which garment I mean?

Got any friends from primary school? Not me.

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Oh the 80s. Such a time was had. I remember wearing my fluoro fingerless gloves to one of my schools, the only part of the uniform you could really make your own. When I shot my arm in the air to answer a question the teacher could see me from miles away. He was probably wearing Ray Ban aviator sunglasses to protect his eyes from all that glare.

Amazingly I don't have a single friend from back in my primary school days in the early 80s. 

My first school was great, but I left there at the start of grade 2. When you move around as a kid you meet lots of new friends and it can become hard to keep up with all the old ones. Especially when you are only just learning to write and computers have not yet entered the home environment. Friends become pen pals, but you can’t write to five friends every night. Over time, the new friends replace the old.

It might be different these days. If we were to move around Popps could use Skype, or Facetime to chat with her friends. When she is older she would be texting or using Kik or Vine or Keek or any other new app that allows instant contact with people. Keeping in touch is just one of the benefits of modern technology.

New tools, tablets and apps provide so many advantages to kids these days and that is why Colgate is running a campaign as part of their Bright Smiles Bright Futures project to allow you to win an iPad for your old primary school and of course one for yourself to play with.

As part of the campaign they have a fun app on facebook where you put in the faces of your friends from primary school. I took a look at it and of course I couldn’t enter to win the iPad they have on offer as I just don’t have any primary school contacts.

You need a few friends from your own primary days to make up a picture of your class.  Colgate are looking for bright smiles! 

The app is really easy to use and once you have a go at it you go into the running for the iPads.  I am hoping someone from Popps’ school gives it a try and they might win one for our school. I am a big believer in the benefits of iPads in the classroom and how they are so versatile, allowing children of all levels and needs to learn in so many different ways. 

Have you got any friends from primary school  - or do you sticky beak at any people you used to go to school with on facebook sometimes?