All Things Mum

  During COVID we bought a house. It was obvious to me that while everyone was working or being homeschooled our current house did not provide enough space for all of us to live together in harmony. Well, not by my standards anyway. We had been looking for a while and I was really patient. We ended up buying this double story (two stories also below) with enough stairs that would make up for the gym membership cancellation. The boys are still sharing and the girls each get a room so all in all, we're doing pretty well. We had to get some new furniture and we're pretty settled in right now. I've just needed to use my daughter's walk in robe for my extra kitchen and hobby stuff. There's nowhere else I can store them right now. I guess I could move them all under the basement. Hmm, maybe I will. Amongst the lockdowns and restrictions we've managed to have attend hubby's niece's wedding (max 150ppl) and most recently a big birthday bash for two young niece a...

Hello from down under. We are all in some sort of isolation/quarantine here too. The cases in Australia are not as bad as Europe. I think also because it's just too bloody far to get all the way down here, lol. Plus it's the end of summer and we have not hit flu season yet. So end of March we were told to work from home. Most of us were quite excited but then school also decided to encourage parents to keep their children at home. Let me tell you it's been tough ! To say the least. Oh my, I could never be a teacher. But as the week went on, we all got a bit more use to it and we've had to make some sacrifices (like not getting a lot of work done). Our local church - Our Lady of Lebanon Harris Park, has posted parishioner photos in the pews to get ready for Easter. It's going to be really strange this year not having the traditional huge masses and being able to celebrate with family. We've been 'attending' mass online on Sunday mornings. ...

Hello readers.  I thought I might pop in again and let you know how life has been faring. I know it's been a while. My daughter recently celebrated her First Holy Communion and so the preparation leading up to that has been a bit stressful. In the end everything was perfect! We held it at a restaurant near by and the guys there were so accommodating and the food was fantastic. Most importantly she received the sacrament and it was such a blessing to have my family and my husbands family there to celebrate. Even if my sister kept calling it a Christening (haa ha, they are not religious) p.s I had my first cousin from Tina and Co to organise the dessert table. How beautiful is it? I got the invitations from Zazzle and used the same floral colours. It's just gorgeous. This was the photo set up at school and the gown is also from school but parents pay to hire it and then we had to dry clean it before returning it. She had another dress on for the party.  We re...

Arrived home in a sweat Hello everyone. We're back in full swing both at school and work. It certainly feels a little strange to me but I'm finding my rhythm for this year. Did I mention that the kids are taking the school bus? Prob not but yeah, I walk them up to the bus stop and then I'm literally on my bike on the way to work. It takes me like 12mins to get to work and it's great.  The school bus is pretty much the same. This morning I was sweating a lot and so I had my big towel with me and I had a shower. It felt really good. Since the weather is still warm I sweat on the way home too. There's a big hill and my heart rate reaches about 155bpm as I'm off my seat. The rest is down and hilly. So much harder than my old route by the riverside, which I miss. Sesame Salmon Salad bowl I met up with an old colleague and we went to a sushi restaurant. I had this sesame salmon bowl for lunch. Oh my it's sooooo good! I could have it every day. If ...

I feel the need to share with you lessons learned during my end of year shopping season. As with the coming of Christmas we all can get caught up in the frenzy of shopping like mad and buying all sorts of things. Some things we will keep and other things we buy them and think to ourselves that "oh I'll just return it if it doesn't fit.'  Well, a big caveat emptor - let the buyer beware! (I learned this phrase in high school Commerce)  you may have a big surprise when there's a hiccup on a return. So I bought a shirt from Guess on boxing day thinking I could return it if it didn't fit my hubby. I checked the terms and conditions of the website and it meant that I had to return it within 7 days, as it was a sale item. So, off I went with my receipt three days later to the store. It wasn't an issue. I put in my pin for the same credit card I used and when she asked if I wanted the receipt, I said no because we were in a rush and I could see the paper...

Lights at mums Happy New Year my Internet friends! Man, I think 2018 just, like, tried to kill me. Lol Is anyone with me on this? It was tough. There were many changes and challenges and I hope 2019 will go a bit easier on me. The kids finished up school a week earlier than the public schools so they had to fend for themselves for a few days at home. Christmas was lovely and finally the hot summer kicked in down here. I mean we had above 30 degrees Celsius most of the time. We had a few storms and a few areas had power outages which lasted a few days! I don't think I could survive a power outage. So much food though. The weight that I lost at the end of the year came back and found me! Ha ha ha. We took the kids to midnight mass. Hubby is really getting into all things catholic. It actually starts at 11pm but we got there by 10.30pm for seating. The kids did so well considering how late it was and waiting for mass to start. At least they got to sleep in on Chris...