Month: September 2017

A day in the life of a mum with 5 children ages 8, 6, 5, 3 and 16 months.

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Once again I am doing a day in the life post! I love writing these because it’s so fun looking back and reading my old posts and seeing how much my family changes every 6 months. Children do a LOT of growing in 6 months! I hope you enjoy getting just a little taste of what a typical day is for me caring for my family. Every day is so different yet seems to always follow the same pattern.

7am – My alarm goes off. You know that playschool song that goes

“I jump out of bed in the morning

I jump out of bed in the morning

I jump out of bed in the morning

I hope it’s a very nice day.”

That was NOT me this morning. Actually it’s not me any morning. I do struggle with getting out of bed and always have. I was particularly tired this morning because of a little middle of the night visitor in our bed who then got a blood nose, which went all over our bed!

I roll out of bed and do my morning routine which consists of;

Packing the boys school lunches (I’m not quite organised enough yet to do this the night before). Getting all the children their breakfasts. Getting dressed. Helping the children dress and supervising their morning chores.

Willow has a blow out nappy! Luke hadn’t left for work yet and he dealt with that! Phew

I make myself a green smoothie for breakfast and sip it as I head out the door with all the kids to drop the boys off at school.

I drive the wrong way home even though it’s been several weeks since we moved to our new house. I must be tired!

Once home I head to my room with a green tea and spend some time in prayer. The Lord will give me everything I need to get through each new day!

9.20am – I begin my morning chores which consists of putting a load of washing on, doing all the dishes, clearing and wiping the table and benches and sweeping the kitchen and dining room floors. Sometimes I am not finished this until 11 in the morning or later. I have no idea why it takes that long. It just does.  I guess I have lots of people to clean up for by myself and during this time I also get the little girls some morning tea, take my supplements and maybe deal with a cranky toddler. Or a change poopy nappy or two.

10:30am – My parents in law drop in and give us two boxes of yummy oranges from their tree and a birthday present for Francis. We chat for a while.

11am – I settle Willow for her nap, then make myself another green tea. I continue the breakfast dishes which are still not done yet. Savannah has come down with a fever and is now asleep on the couch.

11.30am – I head outside with Holly. It’s a beautiful spring day and I spend an hour digging and pulling out weeds where I plan on planting some summer veggies. Holly loves finding worms and is having a great time in the dirt.

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12.45pm – Holly and I have lunch. Holly has a peanut butter sandwich and I eat butter chicken, baby spinach and brown rice leftover from last nights tea.

1.20pm – I have an oat straw tea and sit down to have my quiet time of Bible reading and devotions. I get out my journal and write a little. I read Holly a book about colours in bed and try to get her to have a nap but she just quietly plays in her room for a while.

2pm – Savannah wakes up and wants to watch a movie. She appears to be coming down with the flu that we all have had in the last few weeks. I put on Tarzan for her on the laptop then head outside to hang out the washing.

2:05pm – Willow wakes from her nap. I give her lunch and she eats it sitting outside watching me hang up washing.

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2:15 – Holly is knocking on her door and wants to come out. She had a ‘play nap.’

2:25pm – I put on a second load of washing and whip up a marinade for the chicken wings I’m planning on cooking for tea.

3:05pm – Shoes on for everyone and I buckle 3 girls in the car to pick up the boys from school.

3:30pm – Luke is home from his work training day. We have a quick chat, cup of tea and ‘handover’ as I prepare to leave the house.

3:50pm – I take the boys to their cooking class. They’ve had a block of 5 cooking classes and this is the last one. Savannah is upset about being sick and missing out, poor thing! Holly tags along with us and Luke stays home with Willow and Savannah.

5pm – We arrive home from the cooking class. I put the chicken wings in the oven. Savannah is in her bed now feeling very sick. I read her a book and try to cheer her up a bit.

6:15pm – We eat tea. Chinese chicken wings with brussels sprouts, cucumber slices and brown rice. I let the boys eat their pizzas that they made at the cooking class.

6:40pm – I sit with Francis and Arrow and help with their homework. Luke puts the little girls to bed and does some dishes.

7:15pm – I give the boys their supplements. Francis practices piano. He does a bit but he’s so tired he’s beginning to lose the plot and act loopy. Piano can wait for tomorrow – it’s bedtime.

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I brush my teeth with Francis. He’s really excited about some toothpaste and a teeth cleaning chart that he got at school today. He loves charts and orderly things.

Luke sits with the boys in their room and does a Bible story with them on his phone. He’s been using ‘The Bible App for Kids.’ By Youversion. They are really enjoying it.

I do a few more things in the kitchen like get out some meat for tomorrow’s tea and some chicken carcasses for some chicken stock I’m planning on making. We say our good-nights and pray for the boys.

8pm – Blogging and writing time and checking emails and replying to text and facebook messages that I haven’t been able to check yet because of our full evening and afternoon so far.

Luke and I have a cup of tea and usually head to bed between 10 – 10:30pm.

Our life with our family is busy and full and I love being a mum so much! It really brings me so much joy! I do hope to home school our children again in the future but for now I am enjoying this season and it’s restful simplicity.

You may also be interested in A day in the life with 5 children ages 6, 5, 4, 2 and 3.5 months

A day in the life of us: Homeschooling with my four under 6 while pregnant.

Blessings, Peta

Make sure you check out the I Quit Sugar Kids cook book. It’s full of great kids recipes and are all sugar free. I took my children to the dentist this week and the dentist gave us a handout pamphlet about how much hidden sugars are in our foods. It’s scary and so unnecessary! As soon as Luke got home Savannah ran up to him with the pamphlet and says “look how much sugar is in your iced coffee dad, you can’t drink that anymore!” Haha he was totally busted!

Kids Cookbook

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How I plan meals for my family of seven.

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When there are seven hungry people in your house wanting to know what’s for tea in half an hour, replying with “I don’t know” would be a disaster!

That’s why I started meal planning. Meal planning reduces my stress massively. It reduces the amount of money we spend on food. It helps us to eat healthier. It helps our days to flow smoothly because the huge task of preparing every one a satisfying meal has been dealt with.

I used to do meal plans weekly. But since term 4 last year I have been trying something different and it’s working really well. I was finding that I wasn’t able to keep up with meal planning every single week and some weeks I wouldn’t get around to planning and would fall back to ‘winging it’. I find it stressful not knowing at least the day before what we are going to eat for the following days evening meal. When I have a meal plan I feel better prepared because I can just check and see what we are eating tomorrow before bed and get out any meat to defrost overnight.

My new and improved way of planning our meals involves sitting down with a pile of cookbooks and my laptop every school holidays and typing out the whole next terms worth of meals. I usually plan for the next 12 weeks so that I can still follow it during the school holidays while I’m planing the next 12 weeks.

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I only plan the evening meal because we like to keep lunches, breakfast, snacks and sides very simple and repeat the same foods over and over.

For Breakfast depending on the season the children can choose eggs, porridge, muesli, yoghurt, smoothie, fruit, Vitabritz or toast. Sometimes we have other cereals for a treat but not all the time as they are too sugary and expensive.

For lunch we eat things like sandwiches, salads, soup, wraps, baked sweet potatoes or leftovers.

I always keep snacks like Saladas, rice crackers, cheese, yoghurt, nuts and fresh and dried fruit on hand for the children. I like to bake up large batches of biscuits too and try to always have some available in the house for them to eat but if life gets busy this doesn’t always happen. The home made biscuits that I usually have on rotation are chocolate chip, Anzacs, ginger bread and vanilla cockals.

To help make my meal planning simple I like to choose a theme with for each day of the week on the meal plan. For example Monday = lamb, Tuesday = chicken, Wednesday = vegetarian, Thursday = soup, Friday = pizza, Saturday = fish, Sunday = leftovers.

I also repeat the same meal 3-4 times or more throughout the 12 week meal plan. This helps to make cooking simple and to help me become confident with cooking a new recipe. Plus I’ve noticed children like to eat the same foods they like over and over again and are not keen on trying new recipes.

When choosing the meals I try to finds recipes that I think everyone will enjoy. Even the fussy ones.

I don’t include side dishes on my meal plan because I usually serve every meal with whatever vegetables are in season and were on special when I went shopping. We have vegetables with every meal either in a salad, roasted, fried or boiled. (or steamed, but my steamer is broken and I need a new one!) I serve many meals with rice, white or brown or with quinoa.

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Savannah and Holly enjoyed flicking through cookbooks and pointing out meals that they would like to try this week while I was doing the plan.

I don’t usually get my 12 week meal plan done in one hit. I find I need to work on it in a few 30-60 minute sessions over a week or so. I can’t sit down and concentrate on something longer than this amount of time during the day when I have 5 children to care for who all need me to help them with something.

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Above is my latest meal plan for the next 12 weeks. I always put a reference to myself of the cook book a recipe is from and the page number so I can find it quickly when I do my shopping list.

I really like Sarah Wilson’s cookbooks. Two of my favourites are Simplicious and her slow cooker one. I used her slow cooker cook book heaps this winter. Her vegetable korma is really delicious and was a huge hit with my family and friends at Savannah’s 5th birthday party. Click on the pictures below to purchase them for yourself and help me to earn a commission to support this blog.

Simplicious Print

 

Slow Cooker Cookbook - PRINT

Shopping is a huge part of meal preparation and I always go to the shops with a list. I have been using a master shopping list for a few years now. I simply typed up every grocery item I buy and store in my cupboards, fridge and freezers including household and toiletry items and printed out many copies. I then highlight the item that I’m out of with a highlighter texta. This saves me writing out a list from scratch before every grocery trip.

Do you plan your family’s meals? My mum likes to simply shop for similar ingredients every time and plans her meals based around what’s in her house and garden. She usually just decides what she’s cooking the day before.

It’s all about finding something that works for you. If my planning looks too elaborate then try something that suits you better. I believe that it’s a huge responsibility as mothers (and fathers) to provide our family with a healthy, filling meal everyday.  It’s very important to eat meals together as a family with the TV and all electronic gadgets off. We don’t even allow our son to read when we are having a meal because I want him to engage in conversation with his family. A lot of joy and laughter can be shared at mealtimes. Luke, my husband, is especially good at making everyone laugh and we have a great time together while enjoying tasty food. These memories can bring a deep sense of comfort and belonging for our children and will last a lifetime.

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Blessings, Peta

 

 

 

My top 5 ways to motivate yourself to finish losing weight

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Have you lost some weight but still have a bit to go? Did you begin your weight loss program with enthusiasm but now you just ‘can’t be bothered’? Do you find yourself finding 100 excuses why you can’t keep going and lose the rest of the weight?

I’ve done this. Here’s my top ways for keeping myself motivated to reach my final weight loss goal.

  1. You need to do it for yourself. You can have many reasons for wanting to lose weight but what motivates me the most is the fact that I wanted it. I really wanted it. You have to want to be slim so much that you are willing to pay the price it takes to get there.

2. Get some inspiration. Read a pretty weight loss book. Buy a fitness magazine. Read a weight loss blog. Find something that triggers your motivation to keep going. Other people’s weight loss success can be inspiring.

3. Get out some clothes that don’t fit you yet that you hope to fit into once you  lose weight. If you just keep going these clothes will fit you again.

4. Get some air. Do some exercise outdoors. Go for a walk, run or bike ride. While you are out think about why you really want to lose the rest of your weight and imagine yourself as the new slimmer you.

5. Change your program. If you can’t be bothered to keep going with your weight loss program but you were enthusiastic at the beginning, chances are that if you begin a different program you will get excited and motivated again.

All the best with your weight loss!

Blessings, Peta

Doing this one thing weekly has strengthened my marriage, reduced my anxiety and brought order to our home.

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I can’t remember where I first heard of the idea. But this advice is gold! And the Lord has really blessed our family through this.

Once a week my husband Luke and I have a meeting with each other.

We meet once a week after the children are tucked into bed and have a full on ‘business’ type meeting with each other. The laptops and phones are put away (unless we need to research something together) and over a cup of tea we discuss everything we can fit in before bedtime.

I have a special A4 sized lined notebook that I use to keep a record of everything we discuss and highlight important things we need to remember.

As each of our five children have come along we have been able to talk to each other as a couple less and less. While the children are awake they have a way (as most children do) to interrupt every conversation we try and have. Every time Luke or I open our mouths to speak to one another someone seems to need us to fix something/comfort them/listen to them/help them/break up an argument over a toy/clean an urgent mess. So our meeting together is vital for keeping us talking to each other about things.

Because lack of communication is a silent killer of marriages.

Some topics are icky and don’t want to be discussed. But they need to be. We try and talk about the tricky and stressful things (like insurance and sick kids) as well as our dreamy and exciting things like holidays and future dreams.

Also, as someone who suffers from anxiety I really benefit from getting all that stuff out that is swirling around and around in my head. The 10000 things that I feel I have to organise/should be doing/haven’t got around to yet are spoken out in the open, made sense of and written down on paper. It calms my mind and eases the stress. Solutions are found and the world begins to look a little brighter.

Our meetings together have turned into something we both look forward too. When the mood is low in our house due to business and stress it really helps our moods to be lifted and gives us hope, clarity and direction as a couple.

Blessings, Peta