Weekend Rituals

48 hours goes by quickly when you work fulltime.  I crave weekends.  It means precious time with my family and a chance to catch up on odd jobs around the house. 

It also means while Liam is napping in the afternoon, I get some very precious time to myself.  I don't have to think about work deadlines, fighting traffic or making it to childcare on time.  In those couple of hours I actually can be on my own.  Its just Jo.  I'm not thinking about being a wife, or mum or employee.  I go off in my own little world and daydream.  I have always done this and I hope it never stops.

Here is what I love about my weekend rituals:

Getting my nails shelac-ed.  Am obsessed and it means my nails last longer than 1 day. 



Spending time in the garden with Rich and Liam.  Getting hosed by Liam.  We all get dirty and have a hot shower at the end of the day.

Reading stories to Liam.  His current favourite is 'The Places You Will Go' by Dr Suess.  Such a great message for kids.  And for adults too.

Singing in the car.  Ministry of Sound have bought out the Classics from 1992 to 2008.  It brings back hazy, happy, tipsy memories.  I've had strange looks at the traffic lights.

Coffee.  How did I live without it.

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

x

Step back in time

I remember the first St Patricks Day I spent with my husband.  It was in London and after spending a few hours trying to get into the packed pubs in West London, we went to a place called The Botwell.  Rich went there as a young tacker with his parents.  I loved our visits there.  It was a club that had been around for a long time.  It had an Irish band playing and a real family atmosphere.  Kids everywhere, husbands and wives dancing cheek to cheek and cheap drinks.  We had an awesome night.

Last night we went to a place called the Kingsley Tavern to meet my younger brothers girlfriends family (get that?) and it was like being transported back to 2004.

Liam was fascinated by the music.  I took him to the dancefloor.  It was carnage quite frankly.  Prams everywhere, newborns sleeping (how I don't know) and Irish kids everywhere.  He loved it.  He stood mesmerised and then tried to copy the little girls who thought they were part of Riverdance. 

It made me think of all the stories my husband told me about being a young kid and sliding across the dancefloor and putting the knee out of his trousers.  The minute I thought of that, two young boys did exactly that. 

It was so nice to go to a place that had a really family feel to it and I felt even prouder that Liam has the irish in him.  He didn't want to leave that dance floor.

Chinese Laundry

My mum makes a mean fettucine.  I remember coming home from my brothers wedding in 2008 at 1am and peering into mum's fridge to see a bowl of it.  I grabbed some of it, heated it up and sat at the kitchen table to eat.  Odd really, considering I had eaten half my body weight at the reception, didn't want to drink that night and couldn't quite getting into the dancing.  So not me.  Little did I know I was pregnant. 

A year ago, the night before I was admitted to hospital to have an emergency gallbladder operation, I heated up another bowl of that fettucine.  I couldn't eat it and spent the night being sick.

This week I had another bowl of it, and spent most of early Friday morning and Friday being sick.  Goodbye fettucine.  My body just can't process you after having an organ taken out and I need to make sure I don't eat certain foods.  Such a shame, because I love my mum's fettucine.

As is always the case, once I started to get over it all, Liam got sick.  Last night in our home resembled a laundrette.  Sheets in the washing machine at 2am, swapping beds, broken sleep, baths to get temperatures down and everything else that parents do to make sure their kids get better. 

We went to the doctors early this morning and it seems most kids in Perth have the same thing too, judging by the salad bowl the toddler next to us was chucking up into.

Oh how times have changed.

I'm glad we are all starting to get better, because this mumma can't afford to be sick right now.  Lots of work to do and I am missing my old bright sparkly self.

Sunrise

Monday, you kicked my arse today.  Why couldn't you give me more hours in the day?  Why couldn't I have had more than 5 mins to wolf down a sandwich at lunchtime?  Why did you decide I had to do a two hour course this afternoon when I had tons of work to do? 

But thankyou for giving me a moment this morning.  Amongst the rushing out the door, arguing about keys with my husband, forgetting to put my wedding rings on and wrangling a brush through my son's hair...you showed me a beautiful start to a hectic day.

'Mummy.  Look at the colours'.

And there it was.  A stunning sunrise.  I kissed Liam's cold cheek and we marvelled at the sky. 

In the car I stared at the sunrise while my husband drove.  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. 

'Mummy.  Its so pretty'.

Typo Love

I am so in love with this shop.  I seem to be in there every week buying something.  Yesterday I drilled the store manager and she actually showed me the 'retail calendar' of what is coming up until September.  I'm so excited.  Different themes and lots of canvases, letters and stationery to choose from.  Its actually a Cotton On store.  They seem to be diversifying quite a bit these days.  Here are a few of their latest items.  I bagged the Portobello Road sign yesterday.  I have been hunting for one of these for ages, so was very chuffed to bag it for $25.

Inspiration...

I love adding little touches to our home.  For so long we scrimped and saved for our deposit and now it feels nice to go and buy little things to make it look nice.  I am forever googling ideas or getting inspired my walking into shops, or remembering things on my travels.  So this week, I decided to splurge a little and get some things for our bedrooms to make it look a little nicer.

I really love the 'Calm down' pictures I have been seeing lately, so I got this really cool cushion from a new shop called Typo that does the most amazing stuff.  Then a new cream duvet from Adairs, brown and red cushion from Target, new sheets and an electric blanket.  I go to bed early now because our bed feels lush!

Tuesday was the perfect day to go to Ikea with Liam and my cousin.  Thanks to my cousin Sarai for the inspiration.  Our spare room looks really cute and I love the colours. 

Also from Typo I got three letters for $10 so I got this to put on our dresser:

Richard has been wonderful with the painting and our dining room is coming together with the new blinds and I got a new runner and basket from Target:

Our front room is coming together although I would love to remove our fireplace and put it somewhere else in the room.  I'm sure it will work itself out.

The Simple Things

Work is mad.  It is really taking over my life at the moment.  If I am not at work I am thinking about it while washing my hair in the shower or driving to work.  I love it and I love the people I work with and thank my lucky stars that I do, but I have to give myself a reality check quite often and realise its a job.  Its not my life and I have a much bigger life outside of it.

This week I had two days at home with Liam.  On Tuesday I worked half the day from home (impossible to do with a two and a half year old) and then on Thursday he was sick and had a nasty rash which I had to get checked out (all fine).  I realised this week it it was the simple things in life that make me happy.  Work is a part of that but there are other things that make me feel like I have fed my soul with some chicken soup. 

* Creating our garden.  I love getting muddy and picking out the plants at the nursery and then seeing it all come together.  I love it when it rains so that all the plants are getting watered.  If I don't watch myself I'll start talking to them soon.

* Spending time with Liam.  I love our conversations about buses, trains and tractors and singing the great white shark song.  Its a brilliant age and it has its ups (such a great memory for a kid!) and downs (massive temper tantrums where everyone stares in the middle of a shopping centre) but I do love being his mum so much.

* It occured to me on Tuesday that I have never shared a bath with Liam.  On Tuesday morning we did.  We made bubble moustaches and sang about horses and brushed our teeth together.  It was an absolute joy.

* Let's not forget my gorgeous husband.  I love waking up in the middle of the night to get a drink and return to our warm bed and cuddle up to him.  I feel safe and secure and at peace.  And happy.

* I bought flannelette pyjamas at Myer today for $13.  And they have spots.  I love them and have them on now and plan to spend a large majority of Sunday in them. 

* Sharing a glass of wine with my husband at the end of the day.  Whether its on the couch watching Spooks on a Saturday night or sharing a bowl of cashews at the kitchen table while we natter about life, I love looking forward to that glass of wine.

Simple girl, simple pleasures.

x