Bake-tastic

I recently had my first official cake order for a baby shower and I was wrapped! Cake making is only a hobby of mine and I usually do them for family and friends, however word is spreading of my baking prowess (lol, kidding) and I had my first official paid order! It was a whole new experience having specifications from a client as to what they wanted but I still had a ball getting my creative on. Here are some snaps and as I have said many times before, I am certainly no photographer..

Delicious French Vanilla cake with milk chocolate ganache filling and fondant icing. The baby's name is Aria.

Yummy moist chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing. 

Scrumptious vanilla and lemon cupcakes with fondant icing

And of course, the kids creations...I told them that their work was so great that I wouldn't send their cakes to the baby shower, we would keep them and eat them for ourselves. Yum!

Up to speed

I mentioned yesterday that I will fill you in on the epic failure that was my Saturday escape plan. I have kind of moved on from it and don't want to dwell on the emotionally exhausting weekend that was, so I'll just give you a really short summary...

Hubby woke up, I woke up, we had the shits with each other pretty well all weekend. I wanted him to play with the kids and help with the household chores, he wanted to spend the whole time playing in his shed and doing whatever he wanted to do. I turned into "bitch wife" and put my foot down, banning the shed for just one day. Hubby got the shits with me, then I got the shits with him for getting the shits with me, and Elliott literally had the shits (diarrohea to be exact). Oh yeah, it was fun times in our household over the weekend. I did manage to escape for the afternoon Feng Shui class though (which I loved!!!) and hang out with a couple of girlfriends for a few hours so it wasn't a total failure. Good news though, all is well on the home front now...or I guess I should say for now. lol. 

Other than that, there was a whole separate family drama within our extended family and I went into "mum mode" wanting to fix everything for everyone. I have been in the middle for many many months now as the sounding board for all parties. I have heard everything from all angles and kept my lips tightly closed. The trouble was that I was taking everything on board and really starting to get stressed out. My mum and Jayde (future sister-in-law) gave me some really great advice...I can actually still be the sounding board for everyone and offer support to all parties but I don't actually need to take their issues on board. Genius! I know it sounds so simple but I hadn't really thought of it that way. I am pleased to report that all issues have been resolved and everyone seems to be in a really good place. 

So I guess that brings you up to speed. The weekend was emotionally exhausting but all has worked out in the end. Families are like gardens...they always need work, love and plenty of TLC. Oh and, my family might be a little crazy at times, but at least we aren't weird...

Love is in the air xox

Well, Saturday's grand escape plan didn't go exactly how I wanted it to, but more on that later in the week. Today is Monday, a day for motivation, inspiration, consideration and generally anything that makes our hearts sing and our minds open. I am writing this post half way through the day because since 3:45am, when my beautiful little Sophie visited us in our bed, it has been GO GO GO. What I am pleased about is the way that I have been really present with the kids, I have not raised my voice, roused on them, rushed them, interrupted them or bossed them around. I have been moving at their pace and while it made us nearly two hours late for Kindy, I just feel like a child paced day is just what both kids needed to feel nurtured today.

So I think it is appropriate to share some bits and bobs I have come across that both remind us how important we really are to our children and also how important it is to show our children they are loved...

We hold our children's hearts in our hands xox

Hubby's comeuppance

I am feeling a little frustrated with my husband today...just for something different. You see, while I accept the division of labour that we have and our "roles" in this phase of our lives, I am kind of pissed off with the way he thinks that he can say "Oh I'm stuck at work" and get off scott-free. I don't think he has even seen his kids awake since Tuesday night?!?! Don't get me wrong, I know there are times where he has to work late and I tolerate his absences with a smile on my face...most days. Frankly however, today I am sick of being a married single parent!! 

Darling husband worked late last night and because it was "Thirsty Thursday" (the night he has a few mates around for drinks in the man cave) I told him, explicitly, to call his mates and cancel because he wasn't going to be home. I was so clear that I said "Mat, make sure you call them and let them know it's not on. I have already taken my bra off for the day so I don't really want to be greeting company with my boobs resting on my hip bones!" Of course he said he would call them and of course, he did not. So I had three male visitors yesterday evening come to my door while I wore my daggy PJ's, had a rosehip oil treatment lighting up my face like a beacon and, yep, you guessed it, no bra on. Grrrrrr. 

Anyway, about 8:30pm hubby said he was on his way home. No worries, I thought, I'm pretty shattered and could easily go to bed but I will wait till he is home so I can see him. An hour passed and still no hubby. I called him and he says he has just stopped by a mates house for a drink!!!!!!!!!! This would not normally be a problem except for the fact that he said he was on his way home, I was waiting for him and for some unknown reason, Elliott had been up screaming for about 45 minutes and nothing I was doing was pleasing him! I just wanted a break! Needless to say, I eventually got Elliott back to sleep and went to bed myself with no husband in sight. 

As I lay awake this morning listening to hubby's ute driving out of the yard, I came up with a brilliant plan. Tomorrow, Mat is home. I am going to set my alarm for 5am and snooze it about 6 times. Then I am going to get up, get ready for the day, kiss him goodbye and say "I'm off to work". Then, I am going to spend the whole day out. I will tell him of course that I will be home about 11am, and then not turn up. Let's see how much he likes being on the other end of it. I will also leave a list of all the things that I was going to do tomorrow (washing, floors etc) and he can try and fit that in amongst playing with the kids and running some errands. I think I might catch a movie, go to the library and also a friend of mine just messaged me about a feng shui relationships course on tomorrow afternoon so I will be going to that too. I will also go to Indigiscapes and enjoy some solitude on a quiet little bush walk. Yep, and I might even pop over to Mum's for a nap...see how I go.      

I know this sounds utterly childish, but honest to God I have no idea how else to tackle this right now. I have tried explaining to him how I feel, I have tried negotiating with him, I have tried ignoring the problem entirely which just results in him doing whatever he pleases and to hell with the rest of us (this is a phase I call "The Mat Show"). I am sure his theory is that it is easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Not that he needs to ask permission, he just needs to realise that we are a family and his choices don't only affect him. As I said, he hasn't seen his kids awake for days now!

Anyway, I shall let you know how this all pans out next week. Wish me luck! Or better yet, offer up some strategies for dealing with a situation like this...? Please!!! Surely I am not the only one with a frustrating husband??!!

I am woman, hear me roar!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had a handful of noteworthy empowering moments. Being married to MacGyver, I am used to hubby coming to the rescue whenever there is a challenging situation that needs to be handled. In these instances however, I took care of business myself.

First up, we were looking after Mat's parents house while they were away and they have a gorgeous fireplace to keep the house warm. Mat was running very late from work and the chill of the evening had well and truly set in. I reasoned with myself that if we were in the wild, just the kids and I, and I was the only one who could start a fire to keep them warm, then for sure I would be able to do it. So I set to work gathering supplies and can you believe it.....I made a fire!!!!!! I was stoked to say the least and I even got Sophie to take photos of me doing it so I could show Mat.

Then, a few days later I was all on my own at Mat's parents place, just about to leave and head back to our house (Mat was at work and his folks were still away). I loaded the car, put the kids in and turned the key...nothing. The bloody battery was flat. My first response was to call Mat and see if he could drive to me and fix the situation. Of course, he was working about an hour and a half away so that was out of the question. I then searched the shed for jumper leads but came up empty handed. Finally, I popped next door and asked to borrow a pair of leads. I then collected a solar charged car battery from the shed and jump started my beast. Boooyah! I am woman, hear me roar!

Then there was the time I was in the middle of some cake decorating and I managed to get three cuts on my fingers. Exposed wounds are no good when dealing with white fondant icing and neither are bandaids. I thought to myself "What would Mat do?" I came up with two options. One, he would use some electrical tape to plaster a dirty rag onto it...not really suitable seeing as the cuts were tiny, not gaping leg wounds and that method is sooooo unhygienic. Then two, he would just super-glue the cuts. Brialliant! That's what I would do. So the search began for some super-glue but again, I came up empty handed. I did however find some Bostik Multi Bond Industrial Strength All Purpose Adhesive and decided that would work just as well. I was wrong. It stung like nothing I have ever felt before and did little to seal the cuts on my hands. Now I am no doctor but I am putting it out there that perhaps medical super-glue uses a different formula to Bostik?? Just a theory.

The final empowering thing happened last night. I had separated some chicken breasts into smaller quantities and popped them in the upright freezer. The only trouble was that as one of the bags had frozen, it slipped through the shelving and expanded to the point that I could not get it back out. I resolved to leave it there until I next defrosted the freezer but it came to the point where it was either mince again for dinner or a chicken stirfry. I put my thinking cap on came up with a genius plan. I would pour boiling water over the chicken in the very back corner of the darn freezer, catch the run off in a bowl below it and presto, it would shrink and pop back through the racks. I began pouring and....it worked! Again, I was amazed and felt just a tad proud of myself. MacGyver would be so impressed!

So I guess the moral of the story is, don't ever feel like something is too hard or out of your league, just give it a go and you may be pleasantly surprised with the results. If it fails, you can always call 000 or RACQ. Oh and just in case you decide to pour boiling water into an electrical item like a freezer, I would suggest also training your kids to call 000. 

Self discipline

This is a bit of a buzz phrase for me at the moment and every time I say it nice and slow and really think about the meaning behind it, it is like something starts firing away within me. I get all motivated, responsible and accountable for all elements of my life. I just love it! I came across the phase in Women's Health Magazine, which I frequently purchase in the hope that I will become a fit and toned human being simply by association. Ha! And don't even get me started on the exercises I attempt from the magazine...they obviously assume their readers have an existing level of fitness and I question whether a 20kg overweight Mum with a sweet tooth is part of their target audience?? Either way, I love the magazine and get a lot out of reading it...hence my new buzz phrase "self discipline". 

I like this phrase so much that I came up with what I thought was a really unique idea. I would buy a wristband with the words "self discipline" on it and wear it every day to remind me of the power these words can have on my life. So I began researching...it turns out, there is a whole website in America dedicated solely to this phrase! They sell wrist bands, key rings, stickers etc all with the message "self discipline". So much for my original idea. Skip ahead a few weeks and I am now proudly wearing my wristband and hoping that it will help to have a very positive impact on my life.  

Have a go at saying "self discipline" nice and slow, again and again and see if it makes a difference for you. Ultimately we are all responsible for our own lives, our own happiness, our own health and our own wellbeing. As tempting as it can be sometimes to blame others for our problems and shortcomings, it really does all come down to us as individuals and our ability to be disciplined enough to create the life we want. I came across this profound quote that I think we all need to take on board when considering the words "self discipline":

     

Ah huh!

Well, there was definitely something strange in the air yesterday. In case you didn't pick up on the subtle message in my blog, I was exhausted. Elliott was also in a funny mood, full of cuddles and he even fell asleep in my arms...which never happens! Then, upon collecting Sophie from Kindy, I discovered she too had herself a little afternoon nap, which again is something as rare as hens teeth! So either we have all suddenly become narcoleptic or perhaps our busy weekend may have been a little too much for us all. I frequently find myself throwing my arms up in the air and asking "When did life get so busy!?!?!" and I know I am not alone in this line of questioning. We all seem to be so insanely busy and in fact, there seems to be some unspoken expectation that we should fill every spare minute of our lives with activity of some sort. What is with that?

On this topic of busyness, I have a story to share with you all today. I was recently chatting to my hubby about our goals and what we will focus on for our future. This sounds all lovely and rosy but it was more like we just had a low scale argument because we have completely different ideas of where we want our lives to go. During this "discussion" he revealed that he expects I will go back to work next year to take some financial pressure off him. While my return to the workforce is inevitable, I am simply not ready to take on that extra responsibility right now. I pointed out to Mat that I am the one who manages the complete running of the household, looks after the kids, does all the "man jobs" like mowing the lawn and washing the dog, I manage the finances, manage the admin side of his business and basically manage absolutely freakin everything when it comes to our existence. He nodded in agreement as I rattled these things off and supportively said "I know you do all these things for us and I know your busy". I was quite pleased with his level of understanding until this moment came... 

Me: "So you see babe, me going back to work a couple of days a week for just a few hundred dollars in our hand (after we factor in childcare and all the rest of the expenses associated with being a working Mum), it would just be yet another thing on my already overloaded plate". 

Mat: Simply nodded. 

Me: Astonished, I stared at him blankly, the man who was so adamant and passionate about the idea of me going back to work only five minutes before. "Mat! This is the part of the conversation where you are supposed to say that you would happily help out a lot more around here and take things off my plate if I were to go back to work!"

Mat: With some swift back-peddling, he says "Oh yeah, yeah, I would try but it's hard for me because I work so much". 

Now is about the time you would have seen steam coming from my ears. Instead of arguing my point further, I just shook my head in disbelief. Hopefully one day he will get it, but I think I will be waiting a while for that moment to come. Husbands! Who'd have 'em?!?