Costco will it work for us!

A week ago Costco opened in Brisbane, Australia and the number of people who visit the store is amazing. People camped out overnight just to be the first in line, some of them even missed watching 'The State of Origin' (big football match here in Australia) and others spent ages in line waiting for the large cues to shuffle through the doors. Since it's opening last Thursday our major media outlets have done there best to either sell Costco as a great thing for people OR they've fallen over themselves to give you all the negatives.

I've seen a few media reports on the television about Costco and I must admit they're trying really hard to sell the other three major (Woolworths, Coles and Aldi) grocery stores as been better value for money. I tend to shop at all three for different things but the majority of my shopping is done at Aldi and that's because I can get better value for money. The only things I buy in bulk is toilet paper, nappies and rice so having an issue with storage isn't a big deal. Now with our family of six I tend to spend around the $200 mark for a weeks worth of groceries and that covers everything. There are weeks when I spend more, especially if I don't FAIL to draw up a Menu Plan.

So when a girlfriend offered to take me to Costco for a look see I was really excited to say the least. The car park was nearly full by the time we arrived arrived. I took my youngest two children with me and when I told them what we were doing they jumped up and down. Their reaction was priceless and I was lucky enough to get a picture of them.

I spent about 90 minutes walking around the store and honestly I have to say that I probably only saw about forty percent of the store. In part this was because my little boy was tried and I straggled to keep him in the trolley. He was happy when various Costco ladies offered him food samples, which he took, ate and said thank you for. Although he was in a bad mood I was pleased that he did remember to say Thank You.

I did make a purchase from the bakery section so that the kids could taste something yummy after school. However, what Viveca and Quinlan enjoyed the most was the Hot Dogs after we'd paid for our purchases. My girlfriend contacted me later in the day, letting me know she'd returned to purchase the strawberries and blueberries we'd spoken about as we walked around the store.

I haven't made up my mind yet as I'd like for Mr Opoes to take a look before we sign up to becoming members of Costco. So far I'm happy with what I saw especially as Costco has more health food items than my local supermarket does. One thing I'm thinking of doing is doing up a price comparison per 100 grams to see if Costco offers me value for money. I read an article today from Christina, Plain and Simple and she raises a few points relating to the true value of Costco and other Wholesale group.

I have decided that I'm going to wait a few more weeks before deciding to sign up or not as I'd like to take a better look inside and preferably without the children in tow. I would have to say that I am very interested in the store especially if I'm able to make some savings with our food budget. I'd love to know if you're a Costco customer and how long you've been shopping there.

Megan

Coeliac Awareness Week

So today's Coeliac Awareness Week and this week is dear to my heart because this September it'll be ten years since I was told I needed to follow a Coeliac diet. My diagnosis came just after we'd found out we were pregnant and it came as a complete shock. All I remember about my diagnosis was walking out of the doctor's room, sitting down at a coffee shop and wondering what I'd be eating for lunch while I drank a cup of tea. I'd been experiencing morning sickness and it was while I was drinking my tea that I remembered the doctor had told me I'd need to eat my breakfast twice if I was sick. I soon got use to making two lots of breakfast every morning.

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Ten years ago I read labels every time I went shopping, never went out to eat and I always made sure that I had enough gluten free food in our pantry in case the grocery store went out of business. I'd spend hours on the internet researching recipes and looking for new products that might be good to try. The one thing I did learn quickly was that eating gluten free wasn't cheap and with a growing family I had to find products that would be tasty and good value.

I'm now happy that our supermarkets have increased their product range for people who have intolerances and that they're always looking into ways to make it easier for the consumer to find items that suit their lifestyles. Recently my local Aldi store sent out a catalogue showcasing all the new products that they're offering to help celebrate Coeliac Awareness Week. I'm looking forward to trying a few of the new cakes and biscuits that they're offering however, I'm hoping that the other three big stores also celebrate the week with new products, cooking displays and free recipe cards.

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Every little bit of information you can collect can make a difference. So this week if you're a coeliac why not try looking for a new product that you wouldn't normally eat, try a new recipe or maybe go out to that new restaurant and try their menu (remember to ring first and check that they can accommodate your dietary requirements). I know this week I'm looking forward to trying a new pasta and some gluten free lasagne sheets. Lasagne is one of my all time favourite meals and for a few years I tried making it using rice paper sheets and it just never tasted the same.

So if you've intolerant to gluten I hope that you use this week to do something different or special. I know that my children will be looking forward to eating some of mummies' lasagne. Maybe if I get it made before we go away on our trip up north, I might get around to sharing my recipe with you. Until then I hope you have an enjoyable week.

Megan

Getting closer to 40

It's my thirty-ninth birthday today. I can't believe it where have my thirties gone? When night clubbing was all the rage I'd continually get asked for identification, even when I was ordering a soft drink because I'd be the designated driver again (lack of money meant I couldn't party with alcohol). I remember being told over and over again wait until your thirty and things will change. Holy Moly have they ever. Sometime I feel like I've slept through the last nine years of my life especially now as time seems to be fly by at the speed of light.

Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed the last nine years of my life even when it's filled with loud, crying and naughty children I wouldn't swap it with anyone WELL NOT FOR A LONG TIME ANYWAY. I've birthed four children who I love to bits and everyday they do or say something that makes me love them just that little bit more. We've sold our house, moved three times within eleven months before our house was built and I've done most of that while I was pregnant. We've changed schools, picked kindergartens, had a few holidays, caught up with family, celebrated a few weddings, planned Christenings, birthday parties and generally lived life one day at a time.

So today I thought I'd share ten things you mightn't know about me.

1. I was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, started school over there but I was made to wait four months before I could officially start school in Australia.

2. When I was young we were going to travel around Australia, we never made it out of Queensland.

3. Growing up I loved athletics and I won a few age champion things at school.

4. I ran against Cathy Freeman (Australian Olympic Gold Medallist) when I was in primary school. She won.

5. I'm the eldest of four children.

6. When I was twelve I wanted to be a nun and we weren't even Catholic.

7. A month before my eighteenth birthday I was told I was a type 1 diabetic.

8. I got pregnant on my honeymoon, we found out while in Hamilton New Zealand which we thought was unusual.

9. I studied to become a Primary School teacher but never finished and I only had one more semester to complete.

10. I always support New Zealand in sporting events especially the rugby. I also love yelling loudly so the neighbours can hear if New Zealand beats Australia in the Bledlisloe Cup.

So there you have it a few little bits of information about me, think about it as my present to you. I'm off to have fun with the kids and wait for Mr Opoes to come home from his business trip. The kids have been talking for the last three days about the great gift they have (daddy) gotten me and there's been times when they've nearly spilled the beans. Hope you have an enjoyable day and have a piece of cake for me.

Megan

Thermomix

Let me started by saying that I'm not a Thermomix consultant, this isn't a sponsored post in any way shape or form,all opinions are mine and I haven't been compensated in any way. Last week I purchased a Thermomix and it arrived in my kitchen yesterday morning. My consultant ran through things with me, showed me how to make a stock and then she left me to play with my machine.

I spent about ten minutes looking through the cookbook that comes with your machine and there were a few things that caught my eye. One thing I loved straight away was the number of Gluten Free recipes that were included in the cookbook, so menu planning should now be somewhat easier. When my machine arrived I hadn't planned on making anything in it for are few days as I was a little scared that I'd make a huge mistake and the recipe would be ruined. However, I lasted about five hours before I cracked and I make the kids something for afternoon tea. I had a bit of leftover berry sorbet from my demonstration and I wanted to give it to the kids before it got freezer burn so I refreshed it a bit and added two apples to make it like a Slushie. This was a hit with all the kids which was a good start.

As many of you know I'm presently doing Weight Watchers so I've been getting all our meals from various cookbooks so that I can plan and track my points for the entire week. I planned on having '5 Spice Chicken with Noodles' for dinner last night. I'd had a couple of glasses of cordial during the day because my blood sugar level had dropped so our planned meal was going to need adjusting because the meal was 10 points per serve. After a quick look through the Thermomix cookbook I choose Apricot Chicken Risotto as it had a few vegetables in it that I could hide from the children and they were more likely to eat it. Twenty minutes after turning the Thermomix on I was serving dinner to the children and I'd even included five vegetables that they couldn't see and they ate it up without too many hassles. In our house that's a win because I usually always have ONE child who refuses to eat what I've made.

Now because they had eaten all their dinner without complaining I made decided to make them Chocolate Custard while they had their bath. This also allowed me to surprise them and instead of having to drink their nighttime milk in a cup I was able to give them the custard and a spoon so that they could still get their daily serve of calcium. So far I've used my machine three times today and I know that is unusual but so far I'm happy with the way things have gone. I was able to make dinner and dessert within thirty minutes and everyone ate it.

So when it comes to planning next weeks menu I know I'll be consulting my new cookbook and Pinterest to see what other great Thermomix recipes I can find on the Internet. I thought I'd share a few pictures I took of our dinner, now keep in mind that these photo's were taken quickly and moments before the children got their hands on their bowls. So I apologise for the bad photographs but like I said I had to hurry to get them taken so staging wasn't an option.

I'm going to continue to have a play around the the Thermomix for a few more months before I review it and I'll give you the pro's and con's as I see it. So do you have a favourite appliance so do you enjoy chopping and dicing things yourself.

Megan

When motherhood throws you a curve ball..

This post was written not long after I took a break from blogging

and it's one of the reasons why I choose to focus on my family.

Where has the time gone? It seems like it was on yesterday that I was celebrating my birthday, we were madly running around getting Caelan's birthday organised, school was about to break up for Easter and I was preparing to get ready to celebrate Easter with the children.  So what have I done while I've not been blogging? The answer to that questions is 'not much but I have done more than normal'.
 

 

I generally love been a mother to my four young cherubs, its hard work sometimes but more often than not its really rewarding. My eldest son came first in he's school cross country for the eight year old group two days before his eighth birthday and we were all so proud of him. However, at the same time I was dealing with a sick little cherub.

Quinlan picked up a cold due to teething at the beginning of March, I was really grateful that he's improved by about the 10th March as this meant that I could use my evenings and his sleep times to work on getting Caelan's birthday party organised. However, seven days later he was sick again. This time things were a lot different and my happy go lucky little boy was pale, tired and NOT HAPPY AT ALL. He has since had small bouts of the flu every couple of months so I'm watching him closely to make sure that things don't get any worse. I have a new understanding for parents who have sick children who spend time in and out of hospital.

I took Quinlan to the doctor's one day after a four and a half hour sleep because when he woke up he was pale and lifeless. I then spent the next 5 hours sitting on the couch holding him and trying to get him to drink a little bit of water as the doctor had informed me that he was dehydrated. The other difficult thing was trying to get a seventeen month old (he's now 22 months old) to tell you what was wrong, it seems funny now but every time I'd ask him if his tummy was sore he'd shake his head 'yes' and then vomit. At the time though I just felt sorry for him.

After countless trips to the local doctor's and the children's hospital I was informed that he'd probably started off having a gastro bug which had been masking the fact that he also had pneumonia. I found during my time at the Children's Hospital it was important to see the funny side of thing otherwise you can spend all those hours thinking the worst. On our first visit they wanted a urine sample from Quinlan so he spent four plus hours in his room naked in the hopes that the cold air would make him urinate. Didn't work. They even suggested I go to the toilet in the hopes that he gets the idea of what they wanted from him. No such luck. At the end of the five hours I left the hospital with a urine collection container and a very tired little munchkin.

One of the best part of the whole visit was the number of nurses who came in to talk to Quinlan and left after telling me that he was a very cute little boy. However, as his mum I already knew that Quinlan is cute BUT I did enjoy all the cuddles that we had during the time that Quinlan was sick.

Motherhood had been difficult of late. I've had to learn how to multi-task in area's that I've never had to before. More importantly, I've had to learn how to look after a very sick little cherub while also being solely in charge of three other cherubs. Mr Opoes took a business trip to Newcastle and I was left to figure things out on my own. It's funny no matter how old you are you still run to your mum for help and that's what I did.

I rang my mum just to make sure that I was doing the best for Quinlan and that the decisions I'd made were the right ones. So I'm hoping that my little man can bounce back and continue to improve. One thing I will miss is all the time Quinlan and I spent cuddling when he was ill, he's not a typically cuddly boy so the time spent together was really special.

During this time I learnt some very valuable lessons. The first thing I need to start doing more of is  cuddling my children more often and I need to spend some one on one time with each of them. I noticed during this time that the other three were trying to get my attention and because I was always tired up with Quinlan I never seemed to have any time for them. They would then end up being naughty in the hopes that this would get them some attention. The other thing I learnt was that I'm generally doing the right thing. I may over think things, worry about small things and get confused with who has done what or when something needs to be completed BUT overall I'm doing well and I'm forever learning.

 

So thank you for allowing me to have a moment and for sharing my thoughts with you. Tomorrow is a new day and things can only get better.

 

Megan

Blogging Again

Welcome back to my little piece of the blogging universe. As you may or may not have noticed I’ve been MIA during the last twenty plus weeks. Unfortunately, this wasn’t because I’d been whisked away to a beautiful tropical holiday resort - I’ve just been busy looking after sick children, getting over the flu and working hard to improve my relationship with Mr Opoes. One thing I’ve come to realise in the last few weeks is that when times are tough you’ll discover who your true friends are and the same can be said about close family members as they too may desert you.
 

Now I’m not someone who likes to tell everybody my business so you won’t read anything here that is too personal. I will share my personal weight loss journey, interesting things that the kids have done, craft projects the kids and I have done together, things that I’ve discovered that I think you might be interested in and there might even be times when I try getting things off my chest without going into too much detail. Don’t get me wrong I won’t be airing my dirty laundry all the time BUT sometimes I might just have to get it off my chest.  Please don’t judge me because by no means am I doing everything right. Although motherhood is difficult at times I am blessed everyday by things that the children say, do and show me. All in all I have found that I've spread myself too thin (wish my weight was looking that good) so I've taken the time to focus of been a better mum, wife and friend. Let's talk about more positive things..

So what have I been doing since my last post?

I've had a few visits to the Emergency department due to Quinlan been really sick with Pneumonia, then moved onto weekly doctors visits just to make sure he's gaining weight, trying to make the children happy while daddy's been away on business trips, rang up to get quotes for built in bookcases, a 3 metre long desk and curtains to go into the kid's play area. I've tried to work these quotes into our families budget BUT some of these dream items will be left sitting on the shelf for a long time. I've been planning on making this little house of ours into a home and one of the last things I've been doing is taking time out for 'myself'. I read earlier in the year that to be a better mother and wife you should look after yourself, otherwise you won't be much good to anyone. Well I can tell you now that this is a hard lesson to learn especially when you've put yourself last ever since becoming a mother.

 

Have you thought about your blog while you've been away?

The simple answer to this is YES. During my time away I decided to enrol in an e-course run by Amy Davidson Latta from One Artys Mama and I can tell you it was the best money I've ever spent. I was one of twenty bloggers who took part in Amy's Growing Together: Summer 2013 group. During the twelve weeks I learnt about program's I didn't even knew existed, I developed skills using Picmonkey and with help from my fellow blogger's I was able to set up a Facebook page, clean up my Blog, add a button and make cosmetic changes to my blog so that it's more appealing. When I started this blog nineteen months ago I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like but as I'm not really good with computers I just did a basic job. With the assistance and guidance of Amy and the girls I cleaned up my sidebar, installed a button, added an about me page, I joined bloglovin and I added some social media buttons. So I hope you like the cleaner, modern look that I've we've created especially as it was a team effort.

 

Will anything be different?

Ever since I started this blog the one thing I wanted to do was share my craft projects with people. I have come to the realisation that I don't share many projects on my little blog so I'm going to work on doing and sharing projects that I do and those that I do with the children. Last year I created a board on Pinterest called 'Try Something New Tuesday' and the whole idea behind it was to find, learn and cook new recipes. As I enjoy trying new things I will be maintaining this weekly feature with the hope of building up both my skills and my Pinterest board.

 

In the coming weeks I hope to share some home décor projects I've been working on, share a few really yummy recipes and just babble on and on like I usually do ha ha. So I hope you come back to see what I've been working on.

 

 

 

Megan

Weight Watchers Journey

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I came to the realisation last night that I've known My Opoes for a little over eleven years, we'll celebrate nine years of marriage in July and I've also been a full-time mummy for eight years. Early on in our relationship I spent time organising what I was going to wear out, what shoes would work best and should I wear a little bit of make up or nothing at all. We got engaged a year after our first date and from that moment on my focus shifted to other more important things e.g. organising a wedding, babies, kindy, planning holidays, school, errands etc I have spent the last ten years putting myself last, getting on with things so that everyone else is taken care of. Now I know I'm not alone in thinking like this (putting myself last) but I've decided 2013 is going to be the year I start taking care of myself.

It's funny but when you write it down, saying that you are going to start looking after yourself sounds selfish. I believe that if I don't start looking after myself then the outcome could become dire. There are a few reasons for wanting to look after myself and at the end of the day the longer mummy is around the better it is for my family. Some of the things I do regularly is always eating last, I put off going places especially if one of the children are tired, I tend to fit in a shower when I get a chance instead of first thing in the morning, I can't remember the last time I went to the hairdresser on my own let alone to have something done others than a quick trim, I tend to grab clothes or shoes at the shop and bring them home to see if they fit because it's just too difficult to drag three kids and a pram into the change room with me and if I do purchase something it's always on the cheap.

Some of the things I do are easy to change but my weight is something that I can't magically change over night. Although it's not an excuse I've had three babies in thirty-eight months and I never really took the time to start loosing the weight after number two or three were born. So I've decided that the first thing I'm going to concentrate on is loosing weight and I've decided that I'm going to get a little bit of help. This isn't a sponsored post, all the opinions expressed are hundred percent mine and I'm only sharing this with you so that I can hold myself accountable while I'm on this weight loss journey.

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When deciding I wanted to loose weight I was shocked to discover that I had more than twenty kilograms (more than 50 lbs) that I had to shift from my frame. This twenty plus kilograms seemed huge, very scary and to loose this amount of weight wasn't just going to happen overnight. Being a Celiac (Coeliac) means that I can't do most of the meal replacement diets, Jenny Craig is out of my price range, joining a gym involved daily child minding fees for each child and the weekly membership fee and having meals delivered to our house would have to be added to our weekly grocery bill. So when you added it all up joining Weight Watchers was the best decision for me and our families budget.

At my first meeting I had to sit up front so that the leader could find me after the meeting to get my weight recorded, to give me all the items I'd need to start and then to talk me through the additionally items that I could need to start the program successfully. I enjoyed being out of the house on my own for that hour so much that I don't think I focused to much on what was being said. One thing I took away from the meeting was that 'any loss, small or large was better than a gain'. Being told this on my first visit was really helpful especially when a new member lost 2.4 kilograms (5.29 lbs) and I only managed to lose 0.4 grams (0.88 lbs).



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So at this stage I'm looking at doing Weight Watchers for a minimum of a year at the rate I'm travelling BUT at least I'm losing weight safely and not to dramatically as I don't think I could afford having any surgery to fit me up after the weight has disappeared. One thing I'm learning is that I need to be better prepared. Meal  planning needs to be done for the entire day instead of just planning dinner, having snacks prepared and in my bag will make my life easier and having my weight watchers 'eating out' book on hand will allow me to make healthier options when eating out.

I am still learning and making mistakes BUT I'm getting there very slowly and hopefully I'll reach my first goal of losing 4.2 kilograms (9.25 lbs) which is 5 percent of the weight I need to lose. Now I'm off to have my breakfast and to organise some more snacks. Hopefully I'll get better at working the program into my daily life, I'll find a way to introduce exercise into my routine and soon the benefits will start playing off with a wardrobe that fits better. I hope to share my progress with you as I progress and maybe soon I'll be able to announce that I've reached my 5 percent goal.

Megan

Happy Birthday to you..

 

As a stay at home mother I've come to the realisation that I haven't noticed how my children have changed while they're growing up. I was talking to a school mum last week and she commented on how tall Quinlan was for a 10 month old. I corrected her about his ages, as he's nearly 16 months old but I also didn't think he was tall. So over the weekend I pulled out various photography's of Viveca and I was reminded of what she looked like as a baby. Being my third baby I remember being a little surprised that she was my biggest baby, she weighed in at just under 8 pounds 1oz (3650 grams) and she was 49 centimetres long which also means that she was the shortest. Yet when I see new babies now I can't remember my babies ever been that small so it's not surprising that I don't notice things about them as easily as other people do. So I thought I'd write a letter to you for your birthday.

Ready for her first night in hospital.

 

Dear Viveca,

Today is your birthday and it's hard to believe that our baby girl is turning three. In the short time you've been with us you've experienced a few changes to your environment, your routine and you're family. At no stage have you complained, you've been a good sleeper and because of your lovely nature you haven't made it difficult for mummy to do all the day-to-day things that I needed to do. As a little sister you adore Caelan and Mackenna, following them around and wanting to be involved in everything that they do. As Quinlan's big sister, you're always there to help him, grab him and to protect him. At times Quinlan gets frustrated when you pick him up under the arm's but I can always count on you to have him laughing by the time he's back in front of mummy.  So Viveca, I thought I'd write down a few things that I wanted to share with you, so that you knew how loved you are.

1. You had lived in four different house by the time you were 2 and a half.

2. You love to say 'hello' to people when we're out and if they don't respond you'll just say 'hello' to another person .

3. When you're tired you twist your hair while either sucking a dummy or your finger.

4. You are the only one who as used a dummy and a bottle and this makes you special.

5. You are scared of animals e.g. cats, dogs, ants, spiders

6. When eating you have to have the same as Mackenna and you will often get upset if she has something you don't.

7. You love having peanut butter and strawberry jam on Raisin Toast.

8. You enjoy sharing the bath with Quinlan and Mackenna BUT if you're offered a shower you think all your Christmas's have come at once.

9. You don't enjoy having your hair washed and at times you can get quiet upset.

10. You're not afraid to tell me when you're scared and at times you'll miss doing things because they are scary.

6 months old and ready to be baptised.

 

11. You don't like eating pea's or corn.

12. You love going to Kindy with Mackenna and being part of the class even though you're not quiet old enough.

13. You tend to fall over or walk into things when you get really tired.

14. Your favourite colour is PINK but you sometimes get it confused with purple.

15. You love changing your clothes two or three times a day.

16. It's extremely difficult to get you to put your clothes in the wash or away in your drawers.

17. You often tell everyone that you love them BUT at bedtime you'll give me a big cuddle and you're also let me know how much you love me.

18. You love watching Peppa Pig on television at 5pm every night.

19. When Mackenna gets up and dances you will copy her and the two of you will put on a show.

20. I sometime think that you and Mackenna were twins, you just decided to stay an additional 18 months because you enjoyed being in my womb.

Look who's 1.

21. You are still having at least a 90 minute daytime sleep every day.

22. You have asked to wear underpants to bed and we are going to start that tonight.

23. You would much prefer to sleep on the floor than in your bed BUT you also love sleeping in mummy and daddy's bed. So if you had to list your sleeping preferences they would be:

 

* on the floor with your head out in the hallway.

* in mummy and daddy's bedroom on either the floor or on our bed.

* on your bed

 

24. You are loved by Caelan, Mackenna, Quinlan, Daddy and Mummy and we are happy to have you with us in our family.

Enjoying her 2nd birthday dinner.

 

As a family we're so blessed to have you in our lives and I thank God every day for giving you to us. I cherish the relationship I have with you as it can be challenging, fun, loud while also been rewarding. I love how you let me tickle you and you'll laugh so hard and long even after I've finished tickling you. People have asked me if our family is finished and I think it is because I already have the most fabulous children and they bring such joy, happiness and delight into our lives.

 

So Viveca I hope you enjoy your 3rd birthday and that you enjoy your star birthday cake. I'm looking forward to watching you grow, starting school, making friends but most of all I'm going to enjoy the time I have with you as time has passed so quickly.

Happy 3rd Birthday Beautiful Girl.

Lots of hugs and kisses to my beautiful girl from your brothers, sister, Daddy and Mummy we all hope that you have a great birthday with us.

 

Megan

Welcome 2013.....

So I've had 6 weeks away from blogging. I've spent quality time my kids and Mr Opoes during which time we have had a great time. Christmas has come and gone, 2013 is well under way and I've made my list of 'resolutions', the majority of them I've already broken or I will have by the end of February. It's the same every year, I have the best intentions. I really strive to address each item on my list BUT every year my list doesn't change much and I end up giving up trying to achieving anything around the beginning of February. So this year I only have a few things I want to achieve. Fingers crossed that I can work on achieving these few goals.

So these are the THREE most important things I want to achieve in 2013.

1. DECLUTTER

As you may remembered, last year I attempted to declutter the entire house while also trying to get it organised within a week. Sadly, nothing much changed. In less than a day the children came home and anything that I had achieved went out the window because their curious little minds and fingers wanted to investigate everything that I'd done. So this year I've booked a Professional Organiser who will work with me to declutter, organise and place our items so that the house is functional, while also been easy to manage and maintain. I'm hoping that the children will love the look of the house once its finished. After we've DECLUTTERED it I want to start educating the children on how to maintain the house and hopefully then I can introduce them to doing chores, I want to change the way they've lived and together I want us to take PRIDE in our house.



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2. DECORATE

We've lived in our new house for 7½ months and in this time we haven't added a thing to it. I've had a heap of idea's, I've made lists, set budgets, priced everything, purchased a few small decorative things and then I've made adjustments to the list in the hope that it'll get me started on one of the planned projects. So my goal for 2013 is to decorate one area. Being a procrastinator means that I'm tossing up between our study and the kid's retreat area. At the moment the kid's area is more important especially as Caelan starts back at school tomorrow and he needs an area to do his homework.

Having the area set up also means that all the children can use the space, it'll give them a place to read and play while also giving me the opportunity to help Caelan with his homework. I've gathered a few images from Pinterest that I like and I've taped area's off in the room so that I can get a feel for the layout. One thing I've realised is that I might have to get an electrician to add another power point as the kid's will eventually need to use computers and with only one power point I'm not going to be able to run four laptops at once without causing major problems in the future. Having the electrician in now will allow use to work on the desk design so that I don't have to make any additional changes to it later. Here are a few things from my Pinterest board that I want to put into the room.



found here

found here

Fingers crossed I get things organised and that I can cross them off my ever growing list. Who knows once I finish the kids area I might get started on the study or maybe a few other area's.



3. HOUSEWORK/CRAFT

Growing up my mother had this organisation system that allowed her to do all her housework, look after us kids and she still wore make up everyday. Unfortunately, I am not my mother. I've longed to have a beautifully, spotless house but unfortunately my organisational skills are no were near ready for me to be that brilliant. So this year I want to get better organised with my housework so that I can spend sometime each week to work on a craft project, a DIY project or even working on doing a bit of work on decorating one of the many lifeless rooms in our house. It would be great to get some type of system going so that I could possible work on creating a special space for each of the children. Who knows I could even get the opportunity to start sewing again or even doing something as simple as reading a book.

So although I only have three resolutions that I want to accomplish in 2013 I'm hoping that along the way I'll develop a system that will allow me to work towards getting rid of any future clutter so that I can get things under control. I'm thinking that once we get rid of all the negative energy (declutter) in our house we may have the ability to become more creative, we may develop skills we never knew we had or we may grow as individuals and as a family unit.  If nothing else I would really, really like to get this house cleaner so its set up for all of us to enjoy.

Megan

When Clutter Own's You

 

clut·ter/ˈklətər/

Noun:                 A collection of things lying about in an untidy mass.

Verb:                  Crowd (something) untidily; fill with clutter.              

 

I have a secret, everyday this secret is impacting on my life, my happiness and the relationships that I'm having with my kid's, husband and those around me. It's getting more difficult to hide IT from the children, the eldest is starting to ask questions and I've realised that Mr Opoes and I have had this secret in our lives for the last 9 years. The impact of this is hurting my family, our time spent together normally involves running away from the house, having people drop by the house is confronting and I'm becoming more and more depressed with the situation.

 

We're about to entire the fourth month of living in our new house and during that time we have had clutter all around us. The car can't be parked in the garage because there's no room, we have boxes sitting around the house waiting to be unpacked, I haven't seen the floor in our bedroom for weeks because it's been used as a dumping ground, any clear space gets covered in seconds with stuff and with all this around us we aren't the happiest of people. The children are fighting more, Mr Opoes and I spend far too much time talking about clearing it up but no time actually doing it and my relationship with him is also suffering because our clutter is so in your face that we can't see past it. 

 

I've read books, searched the Internet and even watched television programs dedicated to helping people fix their problems. For me personally CLUTTER is overwhelming, embarrassing, never ending and consuming. In the past I have started to de-clutter but then something happens to distract me, I've lost interest OR I get started and then realise that this piece of furniture would be great to store the kid's toys, we don't have the money to purchase it and doing this will just mean ...........

 

I become side tracked, Mr Opoes spends about 15 hours a week travelling back and forwards to work so he can't really help me and most of all at the end of the day I just want to sit down and do nothing. So if you put all this together and the fact that we have stuff that we JUST DON'T NEED then it's no wonder our house never looks any good.

 

I found a quote the other day here and I think  from now on that I'm going to have to live by this simple yet effective rule.

 

"If you look at your entire house as one unit of junk,
you'll never do anything because the job is too overwhelming.
Take it one drawer at a time."
Janet Luhrs

 

So starting next week Mr Opoes and I will be working together to get the garage sorted so that we can park the car away every night, empty all the boxes, clean up the bedrooms and living area's so that we can use them, donate to charity all the things we don't need, take stuff to the dump and maybe sell a few items that we just no longer need.

 

Because I want to keep it really I'm going to show you photo's of what my bedroom and the garage look like now and in two weeks time I'm going to show you how we have progressed with the task of DE-CLUTTERING OUR HOUSE. I hope that I haven't scared to many people and that by doing this I start to feel more organised, creative and that I become a more productive mother and wife.

 

Our Garage.

My side of the bedroom.

 

Megan

Time for me...........

So my baby is about to TURN ONE in a weeks time and as a family we are about to head into the next phase of parenting. In a way I'm really excited to see how Quinlan grows, how his personality will develop and more importantly how he'll interact with his brother and sister's. However, the one thing that I've been thinking about during these last few weeks is that it's about time I lose all the extra weight I've gained.

 

You see I've punished my body, I haven't looked after it and I've just taken it for granted. I had three pregnancies in 38 months and that takes a toll on you, your relationships and your emotional well being. Being a mum is the best thing I've ever done, I love staying at home with the kids and just watching them, listening to Mackenna sing her beautiful songs, watching Viveca follow Mackenna around the place trying very hard to be like her big sister, Caelan trying to show everyone how independent, big and grown up he is and then Quinlan moving around at lightening spreed getting into everything BUT always watching and learning. Being a parent is one of the few things I've stuck at. I am known for starting things but never finishing them. I have a brand new house to prove it, after four months of living here I still haven't unpacked everything and the car isn't even close of getting into the garage.

 

During the recent school holiday's I spent and entire day at home all by myself trying to work through some of the boxes that still needed unpacking. During this very quiet time I got to thinking about how I was going to start looking after myself so that I could be a fitter, a happier mother and to work towards improving my diabetic control so that it's back to were it was prior to falling pregnant with Quinlan.

 

February 2013 will be my time to celebrate 20 years of being a type one diabetic, since my diagnosis things have changed greatly but I'm still not in the drivers seat when it comes to knowing and doing everything correctly. So long story short I have decided to lose some weight, how much I'm not sure as I haven't weighted myself and frankly I'm too scared to. What I have decided to do is to see if I can drop a dress size once I've achieved this then I might think about getting on those scales.

 

Today is the first day of my weight lose journey. I have decided to use a food plan that takes all the guess work out of it for me. I'm starting off having 5 days worth of food delivered which will total 1200 calories a day. After doing this for a while I'll try to incorporate some exercise into my routine and then from there I should be able to improve and change things as the weight drops off.

 

So far I have eaten strawberry yoghurt and muesli for breakfast which is a world first. Although I've never had strawberry yoghurt before I was 110% sure I'd hate it and I didn't. Lunch was a turkey salad, fruit and a cup of tea which was also really good. What I like most so far is I'm still getting to choose what I want an I'm not been forced into having to eat what's written down for the day.

 

So fingers crossed I have some success doing this because my poor neglected body needs it and so do my kids. I want to be able to run around and play with them especially Quinlan because he has so much energy. I'm also thinking that maybe I should change my hair style BUT I might wait a while to do that to.

 

We'll see how the diet goes first.

 

Megan

Unconditional Love

In this day and age it's difficult to give everyone all our attention,time and energy that they need. As Quinlan gets older I'm getting a little time back from feeding that I can now redirect towards the other children and my husband. In the past I've watched other mothers, family members and our immediate family to see how they show love to their children both young and old.

 

Growing up I always thought my parents love for me came with so many conditions attached, for me meeting their conditions seemed impossible and often unobtainable. I came up with plans, I'd over think them and then something would happen and I'd move onto something else. I remember speaking to my Grandmother, she'd tell me that although being the eldest was difficult it didn't make me any less 'special'. So with my children I have tried to let them know how special they are to me with kisses, cuddles, individualised actions e.g. I use to play with Viveca's hair while feeding her, just spending the time listening to them and making time to be with them each day.

 

Sometimes its difficult getting that one-on-one time but there's ways around it. Over the weekend Mr Opoes mother celebrated a big milestone she turned 70 years young and a birthday party was held in her honour. Unfortunately Quinlan and I didn't attended but Mr Opoes took Caelan, Mackenna and Viveca off to the venue for a night with family, friends and food. Each of the kids wanted to do something to show Grandma how special she was even though they didn't remember what it was by the time they arrived. Mackenna had been working all day on a special Irish, English tap dance and she was super excited about getting dressed for the evening - so much so that she worn her dance shoes for most of the day.

 

Caelan and Viveca wanted Grandma to see how handsome and pretty they were so that all Grandma's friends would tell her that she had beautiful grandchildren. So Mr Opoes bathed the kids at 3pm and I started organising their outfits so that they would be ready to leave at 5.30pm. Unfortunately Mackenna had issues with her outfit because it wasn't pink enough (it's her new favourite colour). Viveca liked her clothes but she also wanted to have ribbons just like her sister and Caelan had picked his own clothes and he felt he wasn't dressed correctly.

 

So after much fussing around I managed to get everyone organised, dressed, give Mackenna a hair cut, styled hair, styled clothing and took a few photographs to remember the evening. Because my girls think that they are twins here is a picture of the two of them waiting to go to the car. Caelan also wanted in on the action so here he is doing his best 'print ad' impression.

 

 

When they arrived home I spent time talking to each of them about their evening. Caelan told me he had a belly ache because he had eaten too much, Viveca wanted to sleep with her balloon and colouring book but we managed to put them both in her cupboard so that they would be safe from Quinlan. Mackenna had fallen asleep on the way home so I took the time in put her in her pyjamas before putting her to bed. About 20 minutes after I put her to bed, I found her looking for her Barbie friends she told me that she had to tell them about the special night she'd had. Mr Opoes had come home looking a little worse for wear and tired.

 

The sparkle in his eyes had gone from when he'd carried Mackenna into her room, he looked sad. Now for those who known Mr Opoes you'd know he likes to hide his emotions and he will also buried his thoughts as he doesn't want to dwell on the things that have hurt him. So when I asked him what was wrong his answer surprised me.

 

During the birthday party two thank you speeches had been made and Mr Opoes hadn't been asked to join his family while these were taking place. As Mr Opoes hadn't been involved in organising the party he didn't expect to make a speech BUT what got him upset was that he wasn't asked to stand with his family they just didn't include him. In the past when he's been left out it hasn't affected him but last night it did, it's made him question his role in his family and he is now trying to show the kids that he loves them just the way they are.

 

So I'm hoping that we can learn from this experience, that in the future we don't leave one of the children on the sideline feeling left out and lonely. Next month we're going to start a new tradition with the kids, I stole got the idea from Naomi. We're going to have a weekly date with each child, during this time we are hoping to have time to talk with them, answer their questions and just give them our undivided attention and to show them our unconditional love.

 

 

Megan

Leasing a KIA Grand Carnival

This is not a sponsored post, I was not contacted by the mentioned car companies nor was I paid any for any of my opinions or thoughts.

 

Close to four years ago Mr Opoes and I made the decision to upgrade our car as we were expecting our third child and we thought that the car we had just wouldn't cope with our growing family. So a long story short our car is just not working for us as a family with young children any more. We have issues getting the pram, groceries and one child into the boot most weeks. The other major issues we have with the car is that if someone comes for a visit I have to climb into the boot so that we can go out and our petrol bill is a huge problem, it keeps growing every time you visit the petrol station.

 

So while I was pregnant with Quinlan Mr Opoes thought that maybe we should novated lease a car through his work. I've left all the research up to Mr Opoes as he's really good with that plus when it comes to cars I really have no idea what I'd be reading. So after much research, late night discussions and looking at various cars while driving to my various destinations we narrowed it down to two vehicles.

 

The first was the Honda Odyssey and the second is the Kia Grand Carnival. I won't go into all the details about the good things about these cars except that the Honda is a 7 seater and the Kia is an 8 seater. So over the weekend we all went off to the car yard to check out both cars and to take them for a test drive to see which car we liked best.

 

Off we went to Honda to look at the Odyssey, after looking through the car we came to realisation that i'ts very similar to what we have at the moment. The older children will still have to climb over their seats to sit in the boot, access to the seat belts was an issue especially when doing them up and Caelan wanted to know if the air-con would reach him in the boot. We looked at the car for ages and if anyone knows us as a family we are never quiet, so after waiting 15 minutes without been approached by a sales person we left.

 

Mr Opoes and I realised while driving to the other car yard that the Odyssey just wouldn't work for us. Its a nice looking car but we both felt that it was great for a family of 5 who would have the occasional visitor and then you would have a boot that was only used to store the groceries. So off to Kia we went. Now one blog that I like to visit regularly is Retro Mummy. At the beginning of September she was given a Kia Grand Carnival to test drive for a week. Now she is a busy mother of 5 young children who are very similar in age to my children, so it was good to read her review but to also watch a video of the family using the car.

 

This is the look we want.

 

So with this information I was looking forward to looking at the Grand Carnival especially as I've seen hundreds of them during the last week while I've been doing the school run. Mr Opoes and I both wanted to test drive the diesel Si but they didn't have one on the lot so we got an upgrade to the diesel SLi which had beautiful leather seats but they aren't very practical for this family. We loved the Kia, so did the kids and now we have to talk things over with the leasing company.

 

Happy little passengers.

 

I'm looking forward to leasing this car because it's something that we've never done before. I'll end up saving us a bit of money in the end but the best part will be that we'll have a car that's better suited to our family's growing needs.

 

Megan

Thirty Finds

Mr Opoes told me about a school fete that was happening nearby so we piled everyone in the car and off we went. The school had blocked off many of the streets surrounding it, this was a great idea as the number of people attending the fete was quiet large. Having a pram really limited access to all area’s which was a little off putting but what can you do? I really wanted to go up to the second floor because they were selling a heap of art and I’ve been thinking of buying a small piece for the new house. Didn’t make it up there as the kid’s weren’t happy and I wasn’t going to carry a pram up two flights of stairs.

I found out that there was a second hand clothing stall and I wanted to go see if I could get an avocado green t-shirt so that I could re-purpose it. So off we went down about 10 stairs, the kids entertained themselves looking at books while I trawled the clothes. I didn’t find anything that resembled an avocado so I moved on over to the books. The kids were quiet in grossed in the books so I moved on over to the trash and treasure section to have a quick look around.

This was what I found. I got these three wooden photo frames for $1.50 and $0.50 cents. I’m going to spray paint them both and then use them to create a gallery wall so you should see some of it from the front door or I’ll add them to the hallway that leads to the kids bedrooms.

The other item I purchased was this blue lamp base and it even came up with a light globe. I paid $3.00 for it and it’ll be the perfect lamp for Mackenna. I’m going to spray it a glossy white and then add a dark purple shade so that she can put it on her bedside table. Mackenna wants a purple bedroom but I don’t want to run the risk of her not liking the chosen colour. I’m going to add the purple using accessories so I’m hoping it works.

So what do you think? I’m happy with myself because I’ve never found anything that I’ve needed before, I’m hoping that there re-purposing is a success.

 

 Megan

What the HELL happened!!!!!!

So much has been happening during the last three weeks, particularly during these last two weeks. We have been doing so much to get this house ready for handover and we are soooo very close. The final payment from the bank has been arranged, the council had come by to do their final inspection, we've had a final valuation inspection so that the bank will release their funds, the tiler, concreter and carpet people are all begging for start dates. Official Thursday 31st May is handover day, but we know that the bank won't get the funds to Coral until late Friday afternoon (1st June).

Imagine my shock and surprise when I pick Mr Opoes up the first words out of his mouth are 'ALL HELL HAS BROKEN OUT'. The bank rang Coral Homes to get the final council approval faxed over so that they could the funds transferred and apparently she got abused. Mr Opoes rang Coral's office down at Robina and he to got abused because he'd rang the wrong person.

This is all happening because Moreton Bay Council has said that we need a retaining wall at the back of the block. Instead of calling us directly Coral has kept the details to themselves and now our bank and the builders are having words. So instead of organising the last of our tradies we are uncertain of what's going on.

Here's hoping that things sort themselves out by Monday, that we get a handover date, the bank pays out the final balance and I can co-ordinate the tiler, concreter and carpet installers so that we are in the house within the next 3 weeks. I want to be getting ready to move in by Monday 25th June. So it'll be more like a 5 month build instead of the 14 weeks we were told in the beginning.

Megan