Day 15 – Where will you be in 5 years time

The dream for five years time is to be doing something very similar to what I am doing now.

I would love to be working in a job that will allow me time to spend with my children. I have always wanted to be a very hands on mom. I want to be there for the little moments as well as the big ones. I want to help with homework and watch ballet recitals and rugby games. So I hope to find something that will allow me to do this.

Even though there are days when I swear I will only have one child I believe siblings are important and hope to have another baby down the line. Our perfect age gap is about three years so we will start thinking about trying next year or the year after. I want Willow to have the best of my attention while she is little and would like to give as much to the next baby.

Maybe the next baby will be a boy, but in my mind I see another little girl. Don’t get me wrong I would love one of each, but now that I know the joys of having a little girl boys seem even more alien to me. It would be a huge learning curve!

With another child on our hands we will need a bigger house so maybe we will have moved to a place with a garden so we can have swings and sandpits and space to run.

Hubby and I will be celebrating eight years of marriage and 16 years together! It will be the year that our time together equals to our time apart which is crazy to even think about!

Whatever we are doing in five years I hope that we are happy and loving life. That our house if full of children’s laughter and mess (mess means they’re growing, learning and making memories).

Day 14 – 3 healthy habits

I try hard to live a healthy lifestyle. Some days I’m more successful than others, but its the thought that counts right?

Here are the three habits I am most consistent about:

Live an 80/20 lifestyle

I’m a big believer in 80/20. I believe in moderation and this is what works for me. The theory is that if you’re good 80 percent of the time then 20 percent of the time you can indulge a little. One hamburger will not make you fat in the same way one salad will not make you skinny. Life is just not fun without the occasional ice cream, glass of wine or giant burger. Just don’t do it on the daily. I find this way I really appreciate the little cheats and enjoy them a lot more. I also don’t allow myself to feel guilty about it. Its important to take a little time out for yourself as well.

Never go to bed with makeup on

Every time I have done this in the past I have regretted it so now I’m almost fanatical about taking my makeup off before bed. My normal cleansing routine is to get all the grease and grime off with an oil cleanser (I’m a big fan of the Body Shop’s Chamomile Oil Cleanser and Justine’s Epigran Oil Cleanser) and then to follow up with a cream cleanser to cleanse my skin. On lazy days I use Bioderma as my first cleanse and then a cream cleanser. I also always cleanse with a cream cleanser in the morning.

Try to get moving for at least 20 minutes each day

I love exercising but I have been finding it hard to get a workout in lately. Mostly I’m just lazy and unmotivated, but also having Willow around means I’m a lot more active on a daily basis than I used to be. But I always try to do at least 20 minutes of something every day. Willow and I may go for a walk, I may be able to squeeze in a quick Youtube video. I always feel better for it.

Day 13 – What’s inside your fridge

I try to keep my fridge stocked with as much healthy food as I can. This is much more difficult to do in the winter than in the summer as I hate eating things like salad in the winter. Just. Can’t. Do. It…

So now that the weather is getting so lovely and warm the contents of my fridge are getting healthier and more friendly to my waistline.

Right now it is stocked with a variety of fruits – blueberries, strawberries, grapes and pears – which I share with Willow.

I also have a whole range of salad goodies in there – a ton of carrots (Hubby loves carrots), cherry tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber, celery, lettuce etc.

We also keep our Sodastream bottles filled and staked in the fridge (I use my Fridge Monkey for this purpose.) I find drinking plain water gets a bit boring so I like to fizz it. When I took stock of how many plastic bottles we were throwing away each week and how much sparkling water was costing us we bought the Sodastream.

Then there’s Babybell cheese for Willow and grated cheddar which I use in her food quite a bit, full cream plain yogurt, cream and full cream milk (I don’t believe in low fat dairy. Healthy fats are vital to your diet.) Speaking of healthy fats I have half an avo in my avo keep from Willow’s lunch.

There is also condiments such as mayo and mustard and I always have a jar of Marmalade for a sweet treat.

In the tupperware I have some French Bolony, left over mince from dinner the other night and a left over lamb chop.

Finally my fridge is never complete without a bottle of champagne – you never know when you will need to celebrate something! I have found these half bottle of Prosecco at Woolworths which are great for this purpose.

Day 12 – Your Favourite Childhood Book

I couldn’t narrow this down to just three. Reading has always been a huge part of my life starting with having story time with my mom and sisters when we were too young to read and then graduating onto books I read myself. Reading to Willow is something I really enjoy and I hope she has a love for books when she grows up.

I don’t have the actual copies of these books here in Joburg with me – they are all at my mom’s house waiting for when Willow is old enough for them.

First up I have chosen the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. With three children in the house my mom let us each have a turn to pick the story we would be read at night before bed. My sisters loved Dr Seuss but I would always choose something from the Just So Stories. They were my favourite. So much so that as a congratulations gift on my pregnancy my mom gave me my own copy of Just So Stories to read to Willow.\

When I got older I was introduced to The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. My aunt used to be an English teacher and she bought me the series (for a birthday I think) Anyway, I loved the stories of adventure and I especially loved Moon Face – he was my favourite character.

Finally since I enjoyed the Enid Blyton books so much my mom got me the Mallory Towers series which I loved. I used to stay up late into the night reading them. Something about the setting – an incredible boarding school in England – and the characters really appealed to me.

What were your favourite books as a child?

Day 11 – 10 Favourite Foods

Ah food. One of my most favourite things in the whole world! Here is a very concise list of all my favourites.

1. Oxtail stew!!!
2. Oreo McFlurries
3. Pasta in pretty much any incarnation
4. Buttermilk Rusks
5. Toast with maramalade
6. Sago pudding
7. French fries
8. A really good burger! The specific place is always changing
9. Biltong
10. Sweet and Sour chicken

Day 10 – Best trip of your life

This is difficult because I have been to so many fantastic places and have loved each trip for its own reasons.

But one trip that stands out is the school tour I went on to the States when I was 13. It was the first time I had travelled alone and we went to so many cool places. We started out the trip with a five day stay in Disney World in Orlando and I have never had such a great time in my life!

We went to Magic Kingsom and Epcot and Blizzard Beach and all those cool things that made 13 year old me just about the happiest person on the planet at the time.

When we left Disney we headed to Chicago for a short stay before we went to the University of Missouri where we were attending a conference. Following that we headed to New York for two days. We went to a Broadway show and wandered around Times Square. I walked down Fifth Avenue and ate cherries by the pound in Central Park.

I have always wanted to do this trip again now that I’m older and have an even bigger list of things I want to see and do. I want to take Willow to Disney when she’s older and I’m dying to get back to New York.

Day 7 – My five favourite songs

Yay! Today is a much happier topic! I love music. There is always music playing in my house or my car and I have a wide range of likes. I also know the words to many, many songs and am always singing whether out loud or in my head – I get this from dad 🙂

So that makes this prompt incredibly difficult! How do you narrow it down to just five? Can I have five in every genre? No? Please? Ok I’m going to do my best to keep this to five. Here goes:

1 – Handwritten by the Gaslight Anthem (The words of this song get to me every time!)

2 – Southern Cross by Crosby Stills and Nash (This has such meaning to my family and I. Plus being from the Southern Hemisphere the southern cross is very significant – its how we find out way home.)

3 – Southern Girl by Tim McGraw (I used sing this to Willow all the time when I was pregnant. There is nothing in the whole wide world like a Southern Girl…)

4 – Night Moves by Bob Seger (My whole family is obsessed with Bob Seger. We each have a song that resonates with us and which is very special to us. My sister loves The Fire Inside and I love Night Moves)

5 – Laid by James (I’m a child of the 90s. I have incredibly memories of belting this out with my sisters. Completely inappropriate but completely awesome.)

Day 6 – What am I afraid of

We all have fears. Some physical and some metaphysical.

I’ve never been afraid of ghosts or water or that sort of thing. Although I have a completely irrational fear of praying mantises. I am slowly but surely coming to terms with these creatures. I can look at them, just don’t bring them near me!

The worst fears for me are bad things happening to my family, especially Willow. I live in a country that has gained a reputation for not being safe and I feel the threat of this when I am out with Willow. I worry about being hijacked or mugged and I can’t get her out of her car seat, things like that. I’m also afraid of losing one of my cats, or our house.

 

 

Day 5 – My Proudest Moment

I have many moments that I look back on and feel an immense sense of pride.

The proudest being the day I gave birth to Willow. It was not the plan but I ended up having an unmedicated natural birth. I was never opposed to the epidural (in fact I asked for one while in labour with Willow) but she came so fast that there was just no time for it. I am incredibly proud of myself for having got through it (with the incredible support of my husband). She is perfect in every way and I would change nothing about the experience.

 

Day 3 – My Favourite Quote

I’m having a little trouble with today’s post. I know I have a favourite quote but I can’t quite remember what it is.

So instead I’m going to go with something that has significance for my family. It was my grandmother’s favourite quote and something I remember my mother saying all the time while I was growing up.

“There but for the Grace of God go I.”

I find this floating through my brain when times get tough as a bit of a reminder to count my blessings. It seems appropriate right now as I have a teething baby and a husband with man flu so sleep is hard to find right now. But I think we all need a bit of a reminder sometimes that we have so much to be thankful for.