Jikana Damaru

Happiness is ...

Finally I have made it to my happy list - thank you Lou from Lou, Boos and Shoes for tagging me and asking me to list all that makes me happy. I guess a happy list can be many things but this particular list is that which has made me happy this week - hope your week has been happy.

1. My beautiful warm and toasty fireplace that is keeping our house so warm!

2. An unexpected photo opportunity - here is Indi and Sofia this morning - happy and smiling (big sister was still in bed and it was 8am!)

3. My lovely new Kate Spade ring that Mr A found for me while on business in the US a few weeks ago - while I am very impressed with my bling I am equally impressed that he remembered hearing me mention the name "Kate Spade" so figured he should take a look!

4. A well co-ordinate party - my heart goes a flutter when everything matches.

5. My refound love of tennis - it has been over 20 years since I was out on the court - surprisingly I remember what to do and it feels so lovely to be out there again having fun each week.

6. Watching Rob Lowe on my TV screen every Monday night on Brothers and Sisters - apart from husband he has the dreamiest eyes in the universe.

7. An orderly closet and a tidy house!

8. The current Australian Home Beautiful which has a wonderful feature of the lovely A-M's house - and she scored the cover (I am sure most of you already follow A-M's blog but if you don't go take a peak - the link is on my blog roll).

9. Receiving a wedding invitation - this week we received a lovely wedding invitation - this friend who I have known for many years tragically lost her husband in an accident many years ago and it is so lovely to see her happy and with a new love - this is the second friend this year who after losing her love through tragedy has gone on to find happiness marrying a new love - happy times finally.

and finally ...

10. My lovely blogging friendships who this week have once again kept me smiling and happy - a few secret followers have said hello so hello back and thank you for leaving your comments (yes Mira would love those receipe's). I am getting around to everyone to say hi.

This weekend I am off to the Sunny Mummy Breakfast so if you are coming along I can't wait to meet you - if you would like to come along check out Stacey and the Sunny Mummy website here. I am hopping there will be lots of fellow bloggers there.

Last but not least I need to tag someone else to continue the Happiness 101 Award so I am going to tag the most perfect blogging friend for this award and that is Shelly at le happy - along with her positive outlook on life, the name of her blog says it all.

Have a happy happy weekend - look forward to sharing lots of happiness after the Sunny Mummy Breakfast.

Food Planning

I must say as a mum of three I hate dinner time! I know I am not alone with this as a lot of the mums I know feel the same. It is just such a busy and at times stressful time of the day - I am lucky to have two out of three good eaters but I still have to make 3 or 4 different dinners all of which are served at different times.

(Oh how I will it was like this!)

Indi is a great eater and probably the easiest of the lot - I have lots of pre-cooked vegies and meat all frozen into little cubes and I just get them out as I need them - she eats dinner at 5pm and still loves me to spoon feed her (which I am happy with as it is so much faster and cleaner!).

My four year old Sofia is my drama queen in the food world - has been since the spoon first hit her mouth - fussy and has the most limited palate - most nights it is plain pasta in a bowl and unless she is ravenous she only eats a few mouthfuls! She loves her nonna's food but unfortunately we can't eat their every night (it has crossed my mind though as they don't live that far away).

My 5 year old Sienna is a great eater and will eat most things but she certainly likes to tell what it is that she feels like each night for dinner - she loves fruits, vegies and meat and will generally pick the fruit in her lunch box over the treat (unlike Sofia who will avoid all healthy food at all costs).

Then there is dinner for myself and Mr A. As he is not home from work until around 7pm most nights that means we don't eat all together - sitting one is at 5pm, sitting two for the big girls is at 5.30pm and sitting three at 7.30pm-8pm and every sitting is something different! Is it any wonder that mums despise meal time.

Those of you that visit me regularly will know I am a highly organised person (yes very OCD) but I always feel very out of control when it comes to dinner - especially dinner for Mr A and myself - I honestly couldn't be bothered after feeding the kids and getting them to bed!

I am on a mission however to change things after reading a little ebook called What's for Dinner. I came across this little gem after purchasing a home organization system called Did you remember the milk?

I have today purchased a new receipe box from my favourite stationery store Kikki-K and I am about to build my new system. The book talks about having easy access to your favourite meals and doing a big marathon cooking session in which you freeze lots of food for either two weeks or a month - I know this is not rocket science as I have done it in the past but why do we feel guilty when we pull something out of the freezer for dinner - for some reason I feel that if I haven't made it fresh then I haven't really cooked dinner - silly really as it also means we waste more food and have to shop more often!

OK so I am off to find my favourite receipes and I am up for a marathon cooking session - will let you know how I go and please feel free to point me in the direction of any good meals to freeze. I am no longer going to feel guilty about pulling dinner from the freezer most nights!

An aside...

I just had to add that yesterday I committed the number 1 school parent error: Maxi-Taxi went to school in school uniform on a mufti day.

If it wasn't bucketing down with rain. If it wasn't 8.58am. If I didn't have another boy in tow (the slowest boy in the world) to schlep into his kinder classroom. If I didn't have Badoo under one arm, an umbrella in the other and both eyes on Cappers as she skipped her way along in her pink gingham rain jacket and matching umbrella. If things had been different I might have zipped him home to change or at least sprung a fresh set on him at recess. I did not.

I fretted all day.

He skipped out at 3pm, big smiles. "Mum, it's really cool to wear your uniform on mufti day. Everyone thought I was great!".

Delayed shame will hit one day. But for now, phew, I'm off the hook.

It's not about the drive

I'm off on an adventure. Alone. For four days and four nights.

Thanks to the enormous generosity of always-supportive LOML, I'll be driving down the east coast of NSW, then across to Daylesford in Victoria and back up to Sydney via Bendigo. It's a big drive and it may change en-route, but to be honest, it doesn't matter where I go, just that I go. Alone.

There have been two schools of opinion on this one. First there is the 'oh my god, I'm so jealous, I wish I was doing that' school. They get that it's not about the drive. It's about the opportunity to do what I want, when I want and for as long as I want. If you ask me, when you're a wife and a mumma and at the end of some days you've done so much talking in your work and real life that you are literally all talked out, being alone is the ultimate luxury.

Then there's the 'don't you want to take a friend?' school.

Now, I'm a social creature, don't get me wrong. I come alive in large groups of people and I love to talk and talk and talk. Love sharing a story, having a cuddle, showing off, listening to a problem, debating the universe and sorting out just exactly what needs to be done about that Shari-Lea.

But I really, really don't want to take a friend.

Cheers to thinking uninterrupted thoughts and spur of the moment stop offs. To arrivals and departures whenever it suits me. To suddenly taking a left hand turn to see what's down the road. To listening to the music that I want to listen to or to no music at all. To staying a bit too long at a gallery or lingering in a bookstore.

Cheers to the beauty of solitude.

[Image: photo-alchemy.co.uk]

Whimsical Kitchen sink ideas

Living Etc, Sept 2004

Country kitchen accessories

Elle Deco

Country kitchen sink

Last Friday in my new series of posts, "Friday Finds", I shared with you some of my whimsical kitchen ideas for around my new sink area. Having started to go through all my interior magazine tears in an effort to organize myself, I thought I would share with you today some of my favorite images for sink areas.

My absolute favourite image is the first one. I would love to put a pretty print tray behind my sink, but as we have a window directly behind it, unfortunately there's no chance! But there is room for an indoor plant and perhaps some herbs.

Have a sweet day!

Dreaming ...

Bit like this here in Sydney today ...

Was hoping for something more like this ...

Will have to keep dreaming for a little longer.

Must-Buy... or Complete Waste of Money?

If you've already been-there-done-that on the having babies front, you may remember the feeling of fevered frenzy as you peered into the room formerly known as a spare or guest bedroom (or in my case, the ironing nook!) and realised that it needed to be transformed into a nursery with a cot and nappies and tiny coat hangers and stuffed teddy bears and - well - STUFF.

Babies do seem to need a lot of stuff.

I remember feeling totally overwhelmed before I had Fern at all I felt I had to have, encouraged by stores and magazines and websites and friends and family. But in retrospect, I feel I was relatively restrained - - there were at least a few unchecked 'must have' boxes on my baby magazine tear sheets. I went a little more crazy with the decorative elements (how unlike me - not!) and figured I'd wait until I actually had the baby to decide whether to buy a baby bath (we did) or walky talky (we didn't) and so on.

Admittedly, I now have a lot of baby paraphernalia I can recycle for this new baby, but it does make me feel slightly guilty that with 13 weeks to go I've purchased nothing but one wrap, one blanket, one Alimrose rattle (on sale) and a tin of paint for my new arrival! Thank God Ikea came to my rescue by donating some key nursery furniture items and accessories, else the new baby might well have slept in the bottom dresser drawer until Fern vacated her cot!

Anyway, for fun I thought I might revisit the items I thought I HAD to have last time, along with those I WISH I had thought I should have and those I am damn grateful I DID HAVE!

Here goes.

Things I bought but wish I hadn't:

1. A Milkbar breatfeeding pillow. My stupidest purchase of all. Never used it.

2. One of those little handheld net thingies you pop fruit into and baby sucks it out. Interesting idea but mine was was rancid after the first use and I've never used it since.

3. A mosquito net for Fern's cot. Gorgeous and practical. Unless you forget to close it.... and your poor baby is bitten senseless in her sleep.

Things I wish I had bought prior to the baby's arrival:

1. Maternity pads. Lot's of them.

2. Breastpads. Possibly every box in stock at Coles.

3. A baby bath (sure its useless after a couple of months but I sure as heck enjoyed mine while we could!). Fern loved it so much, she used to fall asleep in it:

4. A breastpump and steriliser. I know, its frightening even thinking about it! But if you intend to breastfeed it will be your godsend at 4am when your baby chooses THIS NIGHT to sleep through and you are literally sleeping on boobs the size (and texture) of a football!

5. A grobag. In every size and weight.

6. A book on looking after babies... as opposed to 300 books about pregnancy!

Things I bought that I was most grateful for afterward:

1. A good SLR digital camera. You only get those first precious hours once and they can never be recaptured. And let me tell you, that camera got a workout the first 12 months!

2. Cloth nappies. Not that one ever touched Fern's bum, but they were useful for oh-so-many more purposes!

3. A nappy bin. Seriously, how does anyone survive without one?

4. A bouncinette. The only solution when you need to put the baby down somewhere that is not in your arms or in their cot.

5. A good nappy bag. It was my only handbag for a good 6 months and my lifeline when out and about!

What do you think - are/ were any of these items on YOUR list? What did you purchase that you regretted immediately or turned out to be most grateful for?! x