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Saturday, October 06, 2012

As The School Holidays Come To an End..

Is it just me or do the holidays seem to go a lot faster than the regular weeks? I can't believe it's the weekend before we have to get back into the dreaded school routine again! Iv really enjoyed myself these holidays, spending some beautiful quality time with my two boys.. Whilst life is a little less hectic & we could just have fun and enjoy. At the beginning of the holidays I set myself a goal to 'get out more' as I used to before the bub came along & I am proud to say we managed to have a lot of holiday fun both inside and outside the home. All it took was a little extra organising & forward planning on my part & of course STICKING to those plans (as much as I would have rathered veg at home some days!) getting out there made me feel fantastic.. Even if it was just to the park or local pool :) 

4th term is only a 9 week term this year and it's usually my most favourite term because Christmas is at the end of it (something to look forward to) I think I'm already counting down the days till I can bury the uniforms at the bottom of the ironing basket again (or do what I did these holidays, hang them up in their wardrobes in an attempt for the creases to fall out naturally!) as you wouldn't believe what a bugger creases are to iron out after 7 weeks at the bottom of a basket! (lesson learnt last year...)

At the beginning of this week I started a few back to school preparations. I tend to do this routine each holidays to get me back into the back to school mindset;
* Washed all school bags, lunch bags, hats, jackets & library bags. Re-label and replace items as necessary.
* Washed/cleaned and or polished the shoes (I tend to do everyone's shoes at the same time not just the school shoes)
* Restocked school supplies (I used to ask the Teacher in the last week of school by way of a friendly note what the kids were low on, but now that they are older they are usually pretty good at telling me - sometimes!)
* Restocked homework supplies.. Each of the kids has a pencil case with pencils, coloured pencils, rubber, scissors, glue etc to use at homework time - I make sure I replace the supplies that have gone AWOL.
* Organise the school uniform draw with their socks etc and the folded uniforms.. Ironed uniforms will be done this weekend (ugh).
* I pack the school bags with their diaries, library bags, hats etc all ready for the first day.
* Do a shop for school snacks..
* Relax.. Knowing I'm all the more slightly organised for Monday morning!

But knowing me I'm sure there is something Iv forgotten to do lol. Next week I'll share my 'Back to School' routine for 4th term..

In the meantime I hope you all enjoy the last couple of days of the school holidays... I know we will.. :-) xx 

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge.

I'v started this a few times before this year, but this month I am going to STICK to the Photo A Day Challenge outlined on Fat Mum Slim's blog. You can find the challenge on her Blog & or #fmsphotoaday on Instagram. It's good fun :-)

I'll be putting the pictures up on my 'A Wishful Whimsy' Facebook page daily & I'll do a end of month post on the blog. Here's to sticking with it this month!

Picture 1: Oct 1. Where I stood - under this beautiful majestic Fig tree in Newfarm Park. Gorgeous.

                      

Monday, October 01, 2012

New Space for the Boys.. Ideas!

2 years ago Indigo & Nicholas started sharing a room they are 19 months apart in age difference so we thought the combination of the two of them sharing the same room worked well as they had many of the same interests, toys etc. 2 years on at 7 & 9 they are still great roommates but their room is in need of an update. About 12 months ago my eldest stepson, now 12 also moved in with them, we are fortunate to have HUGE rooms in our house which easily accomodate 3 beds (I think even 4 could fit if Hayley was a boy, but no such luck, so no seperate toy room!) But Im in the middle of moving Tyler who is 12 soon to start highschool next year into his own room again..
 
Last time I decorated the boys room with a space theme, aliens and the like. I found a quilt I loved by Hiccups and worked the rest around it, finding great coordinates at the time at K-Mart for a great price!
 
Stock photo from Hiccups. Ill see if I can find a photo of the way our room is set up shortly..
 
 
However, the look is a little 'young' and I'd really like to explore something different, so this time iv decided to go with a beachy/surfy theme! Excited!

I always tend to start with the bed linen when decorating a room, so I went online to look for a doona cover but didn't have much luck. I was either going to go with a surf like print or a basic stripe that would last a little longer age-wise.

I'm drawing inspiration from the gorgeous beach house we stayed at in 2010 on Stradbroke Island, the beds in each of the kids rooms over there had striped quilt covers and they felt so relaxed and inviting! Vibrant & peaceful all at the same time :)



I found the following quilt covers at Pillow Talk, I'm a big fan of Hiccups linen, the boys old doona covers were Hiccups brand and they have most certainly stood the test of time but im unsure if this one is a little young, for the record I absolutely LOVE the KOMBI cushion and im trying to hunt that down, but have so far had no luck..

 






I really liked this next one, simple but still bright and effective with the surfboards at the end of the doona. But since the boys beds have bed ends, im not too sure if alot of the design will be 'lost'... The curtains they currently have in their room are green, so either of these 2 quilt covers will still allow me to keep the original curtains, which is a god send because the windows are HUGE.
The next two quilts are striped quilts which I dont mind and will still have a beachy feel..
I think I like the 1st quilt better than the second one..
 

 

At the moment the boys have a few corkboards in the room and they used to have a canvas with each of their names in chunky white letters, I will now put those letters onto the wall behind their beds, iv asked Hubby to install a large cork panel behind their beds for art work and such (as they get older i'd imagine a poster or two) and as far as canvas prints go, the funny space alien creatures might have to go for things more like;
 
I saw these prints in Loot and it was love at first sight!
 
 
Aside from that im going to be adding an expedit where there low line bookcase is in black/brown which will store some of their toys, books and keepsake/ornaments that are in the room.  We already have some funky red shelving on the wall, so ill give that a dust off and a redecorate and I think the room will feel so much more 7/9 year old :)
 
Ill be starting to do up the room later this week. I had a massive cleanout over the weekend to rid the room of some of it's clutter so im all ready to start ill put up some before/after progress pictures as I go.. so stay tuned :)
 

 
 
 
 
 


Sunday, September 30, 2012

Weekend Food... Macho Nacho's...

 
Hubby & I have been watching what we eat over the past few weeks.. We have cut back on a lot that is bad for us & formed many new habits that are good for us; such as eating breakky daily & not eating dessert throughout the week.

We've also decided fast food/take-away will now be foods reserved for birthdays/special occasions (rather than foods that were eaten once/twice weekly). I must admit as well as losing at least 3kg, I'm feeling much healthier/better for the changes already. My clothes are fitting differently & I have far more energy.

On the weekends, however, we allow ourselves 1 or 2 food luxuries for 'behaving' throughout the week & this weekend Hubby had a craving for nacho's. Quite a large craving so it would seem, lol.

So last night he cooked up these yummy nacho's..

What you will need;
- Packet of Feta, Garlic & Poppyseed corn chips from Aldi (they make all the difference!)
- Sliced mushrooms, diced onion & sliced black olives.
- 500g extra lean minced beef.
- 1 jar of tomato based pasta sauce (we used a chilli infused one as no kiddies were eating them)
- 1 large can of 5 bean mix
- Light sour cream to garnish

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan & preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, in your frying pan brown the mince and onion - once brown add the sliced mushrooms, olives & tomato based sauce.. Continue to cook until ready.

Arrange your corn chips into a baking dish (rectangular) and once the mince mixture is cooked, pour it over the top of the nacho's, sprinkle with light low-fat grated cheese and pop it into the oven until the cheese is nicely melted.

Once cooked, arrange on plates or serve from the dish. Scoop sour cream on top to suit :-)

Enjoy!

I had quite the heartburn and I certainly didn't have any Malteaser's with my movie but it was worth it for being good all week..

What's the yummiest food you love but dread to eat?

School Holidays.. Half Time Post..

One week down..

Well we're half way through the school holidays and I must admit we've been having a great time.. I have been looking forward to these school holidays for quite some time now and so far they have met my every expectation. Term 3 felt like it went for an eternity, so its been nice to have a welcome break at the end of it..

The past few school holidays since Charlie was born we have been rather reclusive, but now as Charlie is older, I made a conscious effort  to get out, explore and enjoy again! Our days haven't been as jam packed as they would have been 18 months ago we have had to find a happy balance between outings and rest but so far so good..

I found a school holiday planner very useful in organising my days/time as well as reading/looking up local publications, businesses and websites for great school holiday ideas/shows.  The best resources have been council sites (libraries) and local shopping centres - we were even fortunate to receive an itinerary of local events in our area distributed by our local councillor which also had some great ideas and events on it as well.

We have been on a shoe-string budget this past week as it's our 'off' pay week and car rego, insurances and a gazillion other bills fell due just in time for the holidays (great timing) however, I have found some of the best holiday activities have been either free or quite inexpensive so even having very little disposable money hasn't dampened our plans..

Here is how our first week of holidays went;

Saturday: Day trip to the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.
Sunday:  Checked out the new local water park and kicked the football around at the  exercise park.
Monday: Trip to the Art Gallery to see the Lego Exhibition
Tuesday: Morning at the local swimming pool with an ice-cream from Macca's afterwards.
Wednesday: Visit to the Play centre with my Son's school friend (We purchased this from Scoopon for only $5.00 and it included a game of Laser Tag/Mini Golf)
Thursday: Watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 at the cinema's
Friday:     Visited Grandparents & went to the park in the afternoon

Friday afternoon my eldest Son  Indi went to visit his Dad for the weekend and wont be back til Monday, so I get a few days off to catch up on time with my Hubby and Bubby and cleaning up the house etc ready for week 2 of the school holidays which I plan to be just as fun filled and exciting as the first week!

One week to go!