Fun is cheap

You know how at Christmas the kids get a hundred toys worth god knows how many dollars and then one little stocking filler worth about $10 is the biggest hit of the day?  Well this is ours.  Honestly I could have bought Noah just this pair of binoculars and he would have been the happiest kid on earth.  No other toy has commanded as much love and attention as these little beauties.

Watch out David Attenborough you have been replaced.

Watching Weight

I am very happy to report that I have had two weigh ins and lost 1.2kgs each time.  At first I was disappointed with that number as the changes I had made to my food intake were pretty dramatic in both quantity and quality. Then I had a good think about it and I realised that it is actually really good because if I was to go on a 'normal' diet as I have done many times in the past I would have banned all 'enjoyable' foods in lieu of 'Rabbit Food' and by Day 3 I would have felt deprived and pissed off and like life was no longer worth living.  Sure I would have lost 3 kilos in a week but by week 2 I would have been lunging for the nearest packet of tim tams and I would have seriously crashed off the wagon. Such is the cycle of dieting.

Weight Watchers allows me to 'spend' my daily points on any foods I choose so I have had that little chocolatey treat after dinner and I've had breakfast out and gone to BBQ's and still stayed on track without feeling deprived.

I can't say what the future holds but at the moment I am feeling super motivated and like I could really stay on track and lose a good amount of weight and keep it off.

Fingers crossed.

New Years Resolutions

I am so horribly bad at keeping New Years resolutions that I couldn't even keep my resolution to write a blog post about New Year resolutions.  (Ha try saying that 5 times fast)

What I do love though is the bright shiny prospects the start of a new year brings.  It's like a clean slate, a fresh start.  It helps that for us southern hemisphere dwellers it is in summer which I think is a time when people feel more positive and more alive anyway.

Last year I blogged about my plans for 2010 with the beat of intentions and I did make some great inroads towards a more balanced life.  I achieved a lot of things around my home that I wanted to but there is still plenty to do this year.  I definitely feel proud of the job I am doing of mothering Noah and I will aim to find even more new ways to keep his life fun and fulfilled.  Rob and I have worked hard together to keep our relationship on track through IVF and finances and parenting and working.

The only thing that I failed miserably at was ME.  I did not take time for myself, I didn't look after myself and I did not lose weight.  So even though it is such a cliche - that is where I will be focusing the majority of my attention this year.

I have joined Weight Watchers and so far so good.  I have found an amazing counsellor through a blog friend to help get my head in the right place for my weight loss journey.  (Apparently my subconscious might be sabotaging my excellent intentions!!!) I'm exercising - a little bit - more.  I'm taking time out to relax.

It's only the beginning of a VERY long road and I'm expecting hard times but right now I'm feeling great.

Happy New Year to Me

I'm baaaaaack

I have a very legitimate excuse for my prolonged absence however in order to explain I have to make a potentially embarrassing confession.  Actually perhaps not nearly as embarrassing for me as my husband.

Over the holidays Rob and I became addicted to Glee!!  We bought Season 1 Part 1 a while back thinking it was something we would like to watch so every day when Noah napped we snuck an episode in and then a couple more each night.  We finished those discs in no time and needed more. So we raced out one day to JB Hi Fi to buy Part 2 Season 1 (we may have travelled to a specific shopping centre after failing to find it in 3 others!!) See what I mean embarrassing.

Anyway it's out there now so the deal is we knocked off the whole of Season 1 in about a week (12 discs - god knows how many episodes).  As season 2 has not yet even screened on TV in Australia we were in a bit of a bind so Rob downloaded it off the Internet used all our download allowance and voila no more Internet usage for the last 2 weeks of the month.

We are now house sitting at a house with a healthy Internet connection and I am back in touch with the cyber world.  Thank god for my iPad and iPhone or I would have been completely lost - shame they are no good for blogging.

So now you know - We are loud and proud Glee lovers.  What slightly embarrassing TV addictions do you have??

The Christmas Wrap Part 2

This year to try and make the most of Christmas I really wanted to enjoy the whole month of December doing Christmas activities with Noah.  I wanted him to learn the real story of Christmas.  I wanted us to fully embrace the fun family times.  I enjoyed all of these activities far more than any of the presents but we did also have lovely family times on Christmas Day itself.

Our Nativity Puzzle which got many hours of play

We put together Gift Bags for our music class

 We baked gingerbread 

We took a night trip into the city to look at the Christmas decorations

We took a day trip into the city with our friends

We did lots of Christmas craft

We dressed Noah as an elf just for laughs

        

 Here's some of the stash from the big day

Noah's big present was this beautiful doll house and it was a huge hit

Mummy and Noah - Christmas breakfast at our place

We also went to the Christmas Pageant, Spent an evening at Carols by Candlelight and attended a special children's mass on Christmas Eve.  All these activities made the month of December so much fun and gave Noah a chance to enjoy the whole Christmas build up.  We will definitely keep up all these aspects of Christmas and cut down on the presents.

I'll let Noah have the final word

I hope your Christmas and the whole holiday season were merry and bright.  Happy New Year.

The Christmas Wrap Part 1

Hard to believe that already Christmas is nothing but a distant memory.  All the talk of Christmas seems to start so early - I did some of my shopping in the July sales. Then December arrives and it hits a fever pitch then in a flash it's all over.  Almost every year I feel a real sense of being ripped off - I feel like I work hard baking, making cards and craft, shopping, wrapping and planning for this one ultimately disappointing day.  I find the main event such a let down.  All my carefully thought out gifts are lost in a blaze of torn wrapping paper and stuff - lots of stuff. It's hard enough for the adults to take time to appreciate things let alone the kids who are so overwhelmed that they can barely remember what they received never mind who gave it to them.  Noah still has a few presents unopened such is the bounty that came his way.

It seems like I'm a bit of a Christmas Grinch but not at all - I truly love Christmas (my next post will be all about our fun month of Christmas).  I'm sure I wrote about it last year but I just don't like the commercial side of it all.  I can't really get up on my high horse too much though because I got caught up in the hype and bought Noah way too much stuff - Christmas Eve I found myself packing half of it away in our present cupboard for birthdays throughout the year.  We are simple people - we love the beach, camping, playing in the backyard and reading books - none of which require a lot of stuff.  We also love nice things - coffee machines, flat screen TVs, iPhones, iPods and iPads - you name it we've got it all.  It can be hard to resist, hard to find a balance.

2011 we will try harder to stick to our guns - birthdays and Christmas will be much less about stuff and more about fun and family. I won't compromise on my parties though I just love them too much!!