Sunday...

Sunday was a quiet day.
On Saturday night, for whatever reason, I was so sick and woke up feeling spent so we stayed home all of Sunday and rested. I woke up with the kids so Mike could have a little sleep in and then when he woke up I went to bed and had a nice sleep myself. Mike held down the fort while I rested in bed...

Charley loves being close by, she loves checking out what we are doing and here she was reading with me.

 This was late afternoon after bath and dinner time - Ollie had his wormy and blanket and Charley was harassing him for them so we gave her her own ones, she was SO chuffed with herself. I wonder if she will be as attached to her wormy as Ollie is?

I am so grateful for my husband who was happy to spend the day at home on Sunday with the kids while I rested... I am even more grateful for the fact that he raves about how cute they are and feels like days like this are such a privilege and not a burden at all. He chooses us every second of every day with genuine love and care!

That time...

You know that time in the afternoon when the kids have been playing all day and they start getting irritable? Ollie came to me in tears on Saturday afternoon after a few hours of a play date and stated "Mom, everyone is being SO loud" - My boy, I completely understand you!
So we rounded up the kids, threw them in front of the TV and put on some Peppa Pig - sweet sweet quiet.

There was a bit of hierarchy here -  the three big kids were allowed on the bed but they decided the little ones were not hence them dragging in chairs to watch with them... I could only laugh!

Thank you TV for being able to quieten down a rowdy playdate.

Building...

This was the caption on Ollies school facebook page - 

"It's not often that a principal can walk into a classroom unnoticed...or that children can be so engrossed in their group work that they are literally ON TOP of desks! This was the 'build' part of the Design Technology brief today. First person to guess correctly what they were making and for whom ..wins a glass recycling bag"

The answer was in fact a barbie house that could withstand a very strong wind and no, I didn't win anything :)

I just love this school!

15 months...

On Saturday we had to go for Charley's 15 months inoculations and she did SO well, only a few tears surprisingly. C Bear is on track with everything, her weight and growth have been on point.

Her brother on the other hand does NOT like it when his sister cries and refuses to be in the room when Charley has her injections. Luckily there is a nice big room outside with toys so we have all our bases covered.

I cannot believe now big both of my kiddies are!

My two bests...

These two are my best boys.... like for ever and ever!!!!
I adore this photo of them!

Ushaka...

At the beginning of the year we decided to invest in some Ushaka platinum passes so we can go to Ushaka anytime we like, we have been waiting patiently for beautiful sunny days when we have nothing else planned and Sunday was one of those days.
The weather was lovely, a little windy BUT lovely and we spent the morning at Ushaka ending the morning with a dolphin show.
Ollie now (before it was pure fear) gets so excited when he sees a penguin, seal or whatever else is dressed up walking past - he runs up excitedly and give them a high five while shouting to his dad to please take a picture. Charley on the other hand starts shaking with fear... too funny!!

We look forward to spending many more sunny days at Ushaka and hopefully one day Mike and I will be able to leave the kids and go ourselves so we can try all the rides - we do tag team from time to time but its no fun going down the slides on your own!

Eating lego...

On the weekend was Charley's first time she was allowed to play with the big boy Lego... lets just say that she thought it was for eating and not playing and we spent the short time playing lego making sure she didnt swallow any!

I think for the moment this will be something for Mike and Ollie to play with... until such time our youngest member decides to play with the lego and not eat it.
I will say though that she was SO CHUFFED that she was allowed to finally play with the lego - she has been itching to get her grubby little paws on them for a while.

Water fun...

As mentioned we had cancelled all our weekend plans and made up our plans as we felt like it, this is how life should be! So when Saturday afternoon came Mike suggested us going to visit peoples park and I am so glad he did - it was wonderful. They had the fountains on and the kids loved running through them and playing in the water....

Sunshine, fresh air and no where else to be is the perfect weekend afternoon combination.

Weekend find...

On the weekend, seeing as Charley was sick during the week, we cancelled all our plans and decided to have a weekend just us 4 which was lovely. We could wake up and decide what we wanted to do and on Saturday we decided to pop to the shops to browse which we haven't done in a while.

Mike and Ollie went to play some games while Charley and I browsed some clothing shops and on our way out I asked if we could pop into the Le Creuset shop (my happy place) just to browse because I have a few things on my wish list... one being a medium size casserole dish. I have a beautiful big one which is perfect for a BIG meal however I wanted one to use for just Mike and I... and to my delight there was one for half price (which is a HUGE discount) AND I had enough ebucks to get it without is costing us anything. They also threw in a mini pie dish - I have the full size one exactly the same so I was very happy.

I am a HUGE fan of Le Creuset, their quality is FANTASTIC... one day I will have a kitchen full. One day.

Maintenance...

So... losing weight might have felt like the hard part BUT I think moving forward the maintenance phase is even harder.  Its finding the balance between enjoying life and eating well - I don't want to live in a world where I cannot have something super delicious from time to time BUT I also want to fuel my body with good food that will sustain my weight loss but that is also tasty.

After losing a total of 30kgs the fear of putting on that weight again is a huge reality for me and I don't want to go back to that again...

Here are a few changes I have made -

1) I tend to lean towards intermittent fasting most of the time - I had to change my whole mindset as I have been told  that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I have always struggled with breakfast. So after doing much research I am ok with not eating breakfast and so far it hasn't been a problem. Having said that I am also being careful to listen to my body and if I wake up hungry (which is very rare) then I will happily eat something.

2) I love to snack, its my downfall. So I have been researching some healthy snacks one being roasting my own nuts. These are cashews roasted with ginger, garlic, chill powder and nutritional yeast.  I have also roasted cauliflower and Brussel sprouts which are very yum! Plain yogurt as pudding also works really well.

3) I am a huge fan of wraps, they are safely my favorite food however I am trying to stay low carb most of the time and a lettuce wrap is a very satisfying alternative to a wheat wrap. I made this for my lunch on Sunday and LOVED it, I was still full at dinner time it was so good! I wrap all my chicken, salad, veg goodness in lettuce, wrap it up and it really is delicious.
I also use yoghurt as an alternative to mayo adding in some mustard and garlic to flavor it.

4) I have been making my own chicken stock to add to my curries and stews. We have at least 1 chicken a week so I keep the bones and make my own stock out of them - I know exactly what has been added to it so I know its 100% safe to eat and so tasty. I have been using my slow cooker a lot lately and really enjoying the ease of it.
I made myself some chicken soup last night and by this morning it was all cooked and smelling delicious - this will be used as my meals or a snack for the next week - I will freeze it in ziplocks and grab one when needed.

I have really  been enjoying finding what works for my body and what doesn't - there is the obvious foods such as wheat and carbs that make me feel bloated BUT there have also been a few surprises that are good to note that my body just does not do well with - this way I know to steer clear of these foods and make a different choice.
I am in this for the long haul and don't want to go back to an unhealthy weight, I love the freedom and confidence of being a healthy weight and a weight that is right for ME (everyone is different).

Sickness

Last week was our week of sickness... but to be honest the kids have been sick on and off for the whole year. This bout of sickness was the measles and our youngest was infected.
Having said that I got to stay home with my munchkin one of the days and it was really lovely spending some alone time with my girl. Mike and I have been trying to make time to spend alone time with each child at different times and when we do its so wonderful!

Our sick day was saved by some Barney / Pepa pig and many snacks.

This child is getting cuter and cuter with every passing second... my joy!

Church playroom

This is how we do church with my little one...

She does stay quiet so I am able to listen to the service which is a lovely change!

Ollie's valentines...

Ollies school do the cutest little valentine dance for the kiddes in the hall. They sing and dance and have so much fun. He really LOVES orange group this year and is thriving.

 We also bought the sweetest little valentine day badges from school and I wore mine to work.

My heart loves baking...

My heart loves baking.. and my boy loves baking so Ollie and I often bake together. He is really good and measuring out cups of flour and he LOVES to turn the mixer on and off so hes the best helper. We love baking anything and everything but lately our favorite thing to bake is cookies - partly because they are easy and delicious and partly because cookie batter is my favorite thing in the world.
Even with being on a very healthy eating plan I love baking as for me baking is more fun than eating the baked goods... don't get me wrong fresh cookies are heavenly BUT I am happy skip the cookie for a salad but enjoy the time baking.
Our last batch of cookies was a 3x choc chip cookie - milk choc, dark choc and white choc.

 My mom got me 2x cookie sheets for my birthday and they are AMAZING!! A definite game changer for cooking baking...

I want to be that mom that bakes delicious goodies for parties and sleepovers - practice makes perfect so cheers to more baking!

My precious girl...

This girl has my heart!

Having a daughter is surreal at times especially since I was convinced I was going to be a boy mom - she has shaped my heart and changed me in so many ways! I look so forward to the many many girly things we get to do together.

A rare quiet morning...

This was one of those mornings when we were all ready way before we had to leave and as the kids sat down to have some breakfast Ollie asked if I could read him his school library book... and we had time so I did. It was just lovely having Charley on my lap reading to both kiddies and I didn't realize that Mike had taken a photo of us which he sent me later.

Its moments like this that make life so much sweeter!

Special Fridays...

Friday are the only days I get to leave early enough to fetch the kids and then 'do' something with them. Our week days are fetch the kids, feed them, bath them and then its such a small amount of time until bedtime... but Fridays I have some extra time and I have decided that it will be a treat one way or another. Ollie gets to choose one week and Charley (me) gets to choose the week after.
The choices are -
1) Spur for an ice cream (total cost of R25 and they have to share)
2) Wimpy for a baby-chino (R4.50)
The reason I am adding the values is that another change we made this year was trying our best to stick to a very strict budget which we lacked a bit last year. I have explained to Ollie the value of money and the reason we cannot always buy something when we want it - he fully understands and often says "mom, I would really like that but its very expensive hey?" to which I reply YES and we move on. I must say, I am very proud of my boy - he has never had a tantrum when we are walking in the shops and he asks for something to which the answer is NO (which is more often than not), he makes my heart very proud!

The last Friday play date we had was at spur - Ollie chose to rather have the bigger ice cream and share it with Charley than have a cone and this boy is too bright cause he must have known Charley wouldn't have liked the ice cream too much - she just wanted the empty little sweety containers which Ollie happily gave her.

 The week before we had baby chino's at wimpy - poor Charley just had water :) But next time she can have her own one I think.

I have been really enjoying going to our Wimpy or Spur, ordering one small things for the kiddies and a water for myself and seeing the bill be less that R30 each time. We have put money aside for weekend spending and when its finished then its finished - this way our outings can be so many more and we just eat at home - which is healthier and cheaper - I always felt like I needed to make the bill a substantial amount by ordering extras because swiping for R30 seems ridiculous but why? I feel more than ok to pay a whole R30 for something as having excess is more ridiculous than paying a small bill. I so cherish this time with my kiddies!