Pumpkin Patch & Other

It's been hard keeping up on here. I thought I would have time over the weekend to update but a 'no plans' weekend turned out to be busy and eventful. Saturday Hub and I, our friends, and our two pups ventured out to a pumpkin farm.  
We went through the corn maze, the girls and dogs took the 'easier/shorter' route and the boys took the 'longer/harder' route. We thought for sure we'd beat them. Lori tried navigating through the map and when that eventually failed we tried to follow others who looked like they knew where they were going. 


Near the end of the maze we kept getting turned around/lost, then we looked up and saw them watching us from a lookout point. Sure enough, they had won the game and were waiting for us to find our way through. But hey, we had two dogs with us.. and we were enjoying the day anyway ;)  After that we got a bite to eat then picked out our pumpkins to later carve. 
Besides a little wind, it was a nice Fall day to be outside and Roxy loved the extra long walk.












Afterwards we dropped Rox off at home, ran errands, went over to Hub's parents for awhile then picked up Famous Dave's delicious food for dinner and watched Invictus. 
(I'm pretty sure that's a run-on sentence- oh well ;)
Invictus is a touching true story about bringing together a racially and economically divided country, South Africa, in 1994. Newly elected South African Nelson Mandela believed he could bring all his people together through one common ground, one universal language...a sport. In particular, their country's rugby team the Springboks. He showed his support by attending the games and talking personally with the captain of the team. The Springboks worked hard and won the World Cup in 1995 which indeed united the people in cheer. It was incredible to see how one common interest, a sport, strengthened the entire country. It was a great movie, I definitely recommend adding this to your Netflix line up!
Sunday we did a deep Fall cleaning of the house and took care of the yard work. Later we had a couple friends over for Redskins Sunday Night Football game against the Colts. We lost, but it was a good game. The Colts are a great team and I'm proud of the Skins for hanging in there and giving them a fight till the end!
Other news/thoughts: 
Sunday morning I got a call that my younger brother was in a car accident with friends early that morning. He is, thankfully, okay and was able to walk away with minor injuries. But a girl, friend, that he was with is suffering major injuries, including a broken arm and broken femur, which she had to have surgery for today. The scary part is that this happened in a neighborhood. The vehicle went through a ditch and hit two trees. I cannot share the details of what happened because the case is still fresh and under investigation, but I'm just very thankful that everyone is alive and okay, and that something much worse didn't happen. So if you could, keep her in your thoughts and prayers that she can recover fast and be able to chase her one year old son around soon. It's a solid reminder to be careful out on the roads, even a small accident can cause much damage.



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photo of the day : sunflower love

grown in our garden

The Zanorexic


Since my How to Look Good Naked post, I've been thinking more about body image. You see, even though I've worked out the key to strutting your stuff naked in the bedroom in the presence of your loving partner, I've yet to discover how to strut same stuff in the public space. Hence, I won't be taking part in Carly's admirable, you-go-girls, love-your-attitude I Heart My Body campaign over at We Heart Life. Me doing that would be WTMI for sure. The world is not ready.

BUT.

Weirdly, with clothes on, I have always thought I look way skinnier than I actually am. Back in my mid-twenties a girlfriend and I dubbed ourselves Zanorexics. No disrespect meant to suffers of anorexia nervosa, of course. It's just that rather than being unable to see our thinness, we were unable to see our fatness.

Fiona put our Zanorexia down to the fact that we were corporate workers who spent an inordinate amount of time at our computers... and we have skinny wrists. Looking down at our hands as we typed away made us think 'look at those bony wrists, I'm just so skinny'.

I put it down to the fact that I have always been unbelievably optimistic to the point where I am able to block out anything negative in my life. A sort of lah, lah, lah I'm blocking my ears so it doesn't exist type of thing. I've always found that flat out denial works really well for most things, up to a point.

I've since realised that Zanorexia has a genetic link. My Dad (hi Dad, I know you're reading this!) is also overweight and - up to a point - oblivious to the effect on his appearance. Many men are, of course.

Now, my frequent use of 'up to a point' is deliberate. Even a seasoned Zanorexic like me realised a while ago that things weren't looking good after years of chocolate abuse. But I'm talking over 20 kegs overweight before it dawned on me that 'secret' snacking isn't so secret after all. That's the power of denial, right there.

So, while I'm not exactly ready to bare my self-inflicted elephantitis to the blogosphere, I have recently made the enormous step of taking off my rose-coloured glasses long enough to give myself a hard look in a full length mirror naked.

Let's just say that I am miraculously cured of my long-term Zanorexia and will be taking steps to get back on track immediately. If you like, you can follow my track at 40 Skinny Street where I post most Thursdays on how I'm going.


I'm guessing most of my female friends will find Zanorexia rather alien, but how are you with denial in general? Does it help or hinder in your life?

[Image by Frollein.M]

My $2.50 Renoir Painting!

Don't you just love wandering about the $2 stores willy nilly, with no plans to buy anything at all... yet destined to walk out $20 poorer, with flimsy plastic bags full of bits and pieces you never knew you desperately needed until you discovered them here, in this store, for just $2!


Such was my experience yesterday, when sheer boredom encouraged me into the $2 shop. Such hurrahs to be had! Fern of course disappeared in the first 30 seconds, to be located minutes later with ripped open packets of horsey stickers... oops, we'll just pop those back on the shelf and hope that no one notices...

Idly I wandered the store until I reached the crafty section. Always dangerous, of course. And there I discovered a little packet containing water paints and a miniature canvas and easel! It would be rude not to buy such frivolity, I thought. Fern is surely a desperately frustrated artist, given her mother has an aversion to mess and is terrified at the thought of letting her 22 month-old daughter loose with a paintbrush. But I took a deep breath and added it to my cart, along with some hot-pink paint and 3 mini-canvases for another project which I'll share with you later in the week.


Dan came from work early and couldn't wait to 'help' with this project... any excuse to get dirty! We popped a picnic rug on the grass out the back, got a little container of water for the paint and showed Fern how to paint onto the little canvas. 



Needless to say, Fern had an absolute ball once she got the hang of what she was doing... she had to be forcibly removed from the paint in the end! Even little Elliott seemed interested:



Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of Fern after said painting adventure. Needless to say, her entire outfit from top to toe is currently soaking in Napisan. 

.. and the finished product? Try to guess which is Renoir and which is Fern's!

A Healthy Change


I feel that I am in a pretty good emotional place right now. I face each day with a smile on my face and deep down I know that I can handle any challenge that gets thrown my way. I don’t think I have been in such a positive and beautiful place in a very long time. I am learning to “stop and smell the roses”. I am learning “not to take life too seriously”. I know this sounds so cliché but I truly am! Even though Rob and I are going through a rough time jobwise, I know that we will never be given more than we can’t handle and if we stick together and keep positive, we can get through anything life throws at us. And I think we have truly proved this.  I am now seeing the true beauty in this world and letting go of all the negativity around me.  Our thoughts are very very powerful and I am lucky that I have learned this quite early on in my life and if I think big then I will be unstoppable.
Unintentionally I am cleaning out my life.  One Step at a time – but I’ll get there!  My next big challenge that I want to focus on is my health. On Sunday I had a relaxing day which was spent in bed and on the couch. It was lovely to relax and regroup after a long week but I still felt sluggish and just a bit blugh. Today I had a day off and I felt the same. I struggled to up before 11am just feeling yukky and not myself. I am craving chocolate, chips, lollies, sugar, anything that’s greasy and totally not good for you. This is the sign that my body is giving in and going into crisis mode. And my weight is definitely suffering. I am getting a little soft around the edges. I am certainly not a dieter…I absolutely love my carbs and couldn’t live without my pasta during the week and my toast and cereal for breakfast. I also could not live without my cheeky milo at night, a chocolate bar during the day (my substitute for coffee haha) and my spoonful’s of nutella here and there! So I am definitely not a dieter and cannot give up on my foods I love but I have decided to add in a few foods that is missing from my diet that I have researched should be an essential part of our daily intake. I will take it slowly because I feel that a lot of people go on these fad diets and start hard and fast and burn out within a few weeks. I’m going to take it day by day, week by week. 
I feel our night time meals are sufficient enough and we eat a wide variety of meats and vegetables but my downfall is my daily foods. Because I am on the run all day every day, as all mums are aware, I don’t get the time to sit down and make a lunch and eat it. I don’t get a lunch break like a normal job so I’ve been skipping the lunches and compensating with biscuits and treats…lots of sugar to keep me going. This is what I need to change. I need to make the conscious decision, to make the choice about what snacks I am going to have. I am going to start eating more yoghurt, and more fresh fruit. I’m not a big fruit eater…I cut up A LOT of fruit every day for the kids so it won’t be hard for me to eat a banana or some watermelon while working. I am super excited about all the new summer fruits coming out so it won’t be hard eating those delicious goodies. Mangos to me are WAY better than a piece of chocolate anyway. I am going to start making daily smoothies in the morning - this way I can get my daily fruit and yoghurt intake in a yummy delicious treat before the day starts just in case I don’t get to get to it during the day. I think the trick for me is to find yummy healthy snacks that I can eat on the go – that is not a block of chocolate.
My next biggest goal is to drink more water. I am quite disappointed in the amount of water I DON’T drink throughout the day. At the maximum I will only drink a few glasses of water which is terrible when we are supposed to drink 2-3 litres minimum a day. I have to really make a conscious effort to drink more water…every time I walk past the kitchen – grab a glass of water – and keep a drink bottle in my car. Hopefully this will get my daily water intake up!
By taking these few little steps of yoghurt, fruit and water I am hoping it will be the start of a new and healthier me…my mind and body will be at peace. 
Wish me Luck
x S.K.K x

Blood red Halloween

Blood red Halloween by Torie Jayne
Blood red Halloween by Torie Jayne
Blood red Halloween by Torie Jayne
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This week on Scrapbook Dreams, I share with you the gorgeous images I have found of blood red Halloween decorations. I am especially loving the toffee apples with twig sticks. Maybe a look for Halloween next year?!

Have a sweet day!
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