Category Archives: Moms

1 Day

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I thought that I would share what a day in our life looks like.  Please join me for a photo tour!

1:50am – Bad start to morning – woke up with a terrible headache, ended up getting out of bed, being sick, taking Panadol (Tylenol) and drinking some water

2:30am – Back to sleep

6:30am – Awake with Joe. Decide to nurse him in bed because of being so tired.  Chris has already left for work, so it’s just him and me.

6:50am – Get dressed, make bed, and check email

7am – Start laundry, fold cloth nappies, drink a big glass of water

7:30am – Empty dishwasher, re-load dishwasher, and clean up the kitchen

In case you were wondering what was going on with Joe all this time, he was playing in the lounge, “reading” books, and listening to his records :-)

7:40am – Start the kettle, pump a bottle for Joe, read to Joe, and pour myself a cup of tea

8am – Joe starts to have a meltdown – time for his “second breakfast”!

I was watching a documentary on NASA while nursing him.  The photo below makes it look like it was some cheesy B-movie about space invaders, but I promise it was scientific!

8:15am – Hang some of the laundry, play & sing with Joe, change him, and dance around to “Hokey Pokey.  What?  Don’t you dance to the “Hokey Pokey” in the morning?  You should.

Put Joe in his Jolly Jumper for a few minutes while finishing the laundry…

9am – Read “Where is the Green Sheep?” to Joe, nurse him one more time, and put him down for his morning nap

9:10am – Run on treadmill

9:55am – Shower, start 2nd load of laundry, called and texted with friend who was in labor, put together a quick grocery list, checked email, collected library books/CDs to return, and took out a chicken to thaw.

10:30am – Joe is awake!

Take him into the lounge and quickly finish hanging the laundry and put away any dry items while he’s still smiling and happy :-)   Play with him once everything is up on the rack.

10:50am – Sunblock application in preparation for our walk outside later.  Got to put it on at least 15 minutes before going into the sun.

11am – Nurse Joe.

11:15am – Head out on errands to library, cleaners, and grocery.  First, have to get all of this…

Down these…

Just imagine what it’s like on the way back up, when I’m bearing groceries and a shirt from the cleaners!  Thankfully, it’s only this 1 flight of stairs before reaching the lift, and then down to ground level.

Ready to go!

Joe had fun at the library, though you wouldn’t know it from this photo:

12:30pm – Get home; burning up from carrying Joe + pram + nappy bag + groceries + library books + everything else but the kitchen sink up those stairs.  Rue decision to wear jeans in summer.

12:40pm – Nurse Joe, then feed him some solid foods.

This is what he was eating.  Looks gross, but it tasted so good that I wanted to eat a bowl of it myself!

Joe’s food was a meal that we’d had for dinner last night.  I just pulsed it once or twice with the hand blender so that it was a thick, lumpy mash, added some cottage cheese, and about 1/8 – 1/4 of a tsp of spirulina powder.

This is what Joe looked like when he realized that he had eaten all of his food and none was left in the bowl:

What a face!

1:00pm – Joe has some play-time while I try to eat lunch.  I get about 2 bites in before Joe sees what I’m doing, lunges for my fork, then bursts into tears because he can’t have any of my spicy homemade chicken.  Sorry, Joe.  I end up putting away the food and playing with Joe on the nursery floor.  Let’s just say that I’m glad that I have a cheap cell phone, because Joe loves to bang it on the floor!

Working on crawling…

1:50pm – Put Joe down for nap and work on Bible study

2:30 – 2:45pm – Eat a not-so-healthy lunch of corn tortilla chips; have a spoonful of Nutella for dessert

Side Note: In the 8+ years that I’ve known Chris, he’s been telling me about how great Nutella is and that I should try some.  I finally tried some this week after being given homemade chocolate hazelnut spread.  Wow – so good!  And so bad!

2:45pm – Napped {normally don’t do this, but pretty tired from waking up in the wee hours of the morning and being sick}

4pm – Joe is awake, and so am I!  I change him, nurse him, put away the remainder of the laundry, put a chicken in a pot of water to boil, and play with Joe.

4:30pm – Chris home – we chat about our days while he plays with Joe as a I check on the chicken.

5pm – Fed Joe more solid foods; ended up rearranging freezer while pulling out some things for him so that I could fit my 16 C of homemade chicken broth in there.  We don’t have a big freezer, so I’m constantly rearranging things:

Bottom drawer w/ homemade chicken broth and applesauce, fruits + veggies, and bottles

This is the top drawer, pre-organization…

And here it is after…

Chris ate his dinner during this time, too.

6:00pm – Bath time for Joe!

This was also when I ate my dinner.  Chris finished Joe’s bath time responsibilities by drying him off and changing him.  I scurried into the kitchen to try out a new recipe – hummus melts.  Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry that I made two mistakes.  Can you guess what they are?

Mistake #1 – this was supposed to have hummus, then spinach, and then cheese.  Mistake #2 – was supposed to use mozzarella cheese, not cheddar/tasty cheese.  Whoops.  It was good, but too cheesy and not quite as healthy as it should have been.

6:30pm – Story time and nursing Joe once more before he goes to bed.

7pm – Joe is asleep!  Hurriedly pick up the lounge, then finish the chicken, de-bone it, chop it, and measure it into 2 C servings in Ziploc baggies for the freezer.  Decide that I want something sweet, so I make no-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies.

Throughout the chicken de-boning/chopping process, Chris was like this:

However, within a few minutes of starting to mix up the peanut butter and chocolate, he says, “Whatcha doin’?” and ambled on over.  Hmm.

About the cookies – these are always hit-or-miss for me.  Last time I made them, they were great.  The time before, they were soupy.  This time, I got to the last cup of oatmeal and thought, “Wait… did I already add all of the oatmeal?”  Decided that I did, then second-guessed myself and added a 1/2 C just to be safe.  Turns out that I hadn’t added all of the oatmeal, so they were a bit runny, hence storing them in the fridge!

8:15pm – Write a post, play around with HTML on blog, upload pictures and videos while watching “NCIS” on DVD with Chris

10:00pm – Start dishwasher, head to bed!

Thanks for joining us!  I’d love to see what a day in your life looks like, too :-)

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Messy Mom Monday

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Took this photo of myself as the 3 of us were heading out for a walk in the early hours of Saturday morning {just past 8am}.

Hooded jersey, black UA workout leggings, and jandals

FYI – ja{panese sa}ndals = jandals = flip-flops!

I’m not even sure that I’d brushed my hair by that point.  Oh well.  Though I am happy to say that I’ve lost a further 2 pounds, and am now only 14 away from my 20 pound goal.

Family Portrait

Here’s a photo of my little project for this week:

That filing cabinet has been sitting in our bedroom corner for the last year.  Various things have been put on top of it – an odd candle, part of Chris’ clippers/razor, papers, and a heating fan.  Inside the cabinet are papers dating back probably 10 years, in some cases.  We moved it in here when we turned the office into Joe’s nursery, and I haven’t done anything with it since then.

This week, I’d like to go through all of the drawers and clean it out.  I have a feeling that it can be greatly downsized.  My hope is to clear out enough things that we can get rid of it.  The question is, who in New Zealand is going to want a file cabinet designed for 8×10 paper when the standard size here is A4?  Guess I’ll just have to post it on TradeMe.co.nz and find out!  Couldn’t be worse than this ad:

Love how they say that these 2 boxes are in “surplus to our own requirements”.  Does anyone really require Twinkies?  Thanks D for bringing this to my attention!

***I would normally link back to another blog that hosts MMM, but since Monday comes early in NZ, I didn’t realize till after this had gone up that they are no longer doing MMM and are instead doing something new, starting next week… so no linking back today :-) ***

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Messy Mom Monday

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I wasn’t sure if I’d be doing MMM this week.  Then I caught a look at myself in the mirror this evening and thought, “Yeah – definitely posting this on Messy Mom Monday!”

Yes, I realize that it’s a blurry image of me.  That’s because the lens focused on the dust particles on my mirror.  Sigh.  Let’s try this again, shall we?

Yes, I’m hiding my face behind the camera.  Whenever I exercise, my face turns beet red.  Doesn’t matter if it’s hot weather, freezing cold, if I’m huffing and puffing like a bellows or barely breaking a sweat.  All part of that fair-haired, fair-skinned Dutch background, right?  It’s haunted me since grade school.

I had just gotten back from running around Auckland Domain with my friend, D.  And it had been raining.  And we did some hills after that.  My running this past week has been pretty pathetic.  I needed to step it up a notch, and having someone to run with once a week definitely keeps me accountable.  I’ve also been doing baby boot-camp, but I’ll write about that some other time.

Here’s a photo of Chris, aka, my own personal superhero:

He’s not wearing his superhero costume in the above photo, but trust me when I say that he’s a wonderful husband :-)   He’s happy to watch Joe while I go running and even start the cloth nappies in the wash.

Well, technically I put the nappies in the machine, added the detergent, the whitening powder, picked the settings, and then set the timer so that all Chris had to do was add the last nappy of the evening and close the lid.  But still, he started the hot wash all on his own once the first, cold wash was over :-)

Here’s Joe, sound asleep:

It was after 7:30pm in this shot.  Sure stays light around here till late, doesn’t it?  The door was open because Joe’s room had gotten quite warm during the day, despite keeping it nice and breezy with the windows open.  I crept in and turned on a fan, then captured the above photo on my way out.

Our messy kitchen table.  This table tends to be the “catch all” area, along with Chris’ computer station.  The man has a huge office at the university, but still needs a little corner of work space here at home.  Guess I can’t begrudge a guy who’s willing to wash dirty nappies, can I?

Thanks for stopping by MMM, and be sure to visit Brittney’s main MMM page to link up and share your Messy Mom moments :-)

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Messy Mom Monday!

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I’m loving these MMM posts.  Why?  Because after I take the photos of our apartment, I think, “Hmm… I’d better clean that up!” and start to do chores.  It’s motivation, but in a strange sort of way…

In the meantime, here’s a look around our home:

Dishes in the sink and by the sink.  I’d say that there’s only one time of day that there aren’t dishes in the sink, and that’s in the evening.  One of my “tricks” for keeping on top of chores is to always run the dishwasher before going to bed.  Waking up to an empty sink and clean dishes is one small way of staying sane.

The lounge, aka, the play area!  I think that it’s time for me to put away the play mat.  Joe never uses it, and its main function these days is a place to store toys when I pick up in the evenings.  I need to get a bin and bookcase for this spot.

Then, there’s Joe’s room:

This suitcase was chock-full of baby clothes that were given to us while visiting family.  I have enough clothes now that I don’t need to buy Joe anything till he’s at least 2 years old.  I organized them by size and put them in plastic bags before coming back to NZ.  The idea behind this was that, when we got home, all I’d have to do is open the suitcase and put them in the right spots.  One problem, though.  Here’s Joe’s closet:

Not pictured – a very full clothes rack underneath that bottom drawer

All of the clothing that was still “out” when we got back to NZ was in the size 3 – 6 months range, which meant that before putting away all of those neatly organized bags from the USA, I would have to go through his current clothing and find a place to store it.  He has a dresser, but it’s entirely occupied with cloth nappies and baby cot linens.

So, I went to The Warehouse to buy some under-bed {or in this case, under-cot} storage bins.  I looked and looked and looked.  We asked a staffer to help us, and he told us where they were.  I got there, only to discover {at the very back of the shelf after wriggling past several big, heavy bins} that there were some lids, but no under-bed bins!  The staffer had assured us that they were there, and told me that I shouldn’t look for them in the sale aisle near the front of the store.  Wouldn’t you know it, on my way out I decided to have a quick peek at the sale section {exactly where I was told to avoid} and there were my under-cot storage bins.  Without lids.  Grrr.  I wasn’t about to walk to the back of the store, worm my way through the shelves, and grab the lids so I took 2 bins and 2 lids from similarly sized bins and checked out.

Anyway, I got the bins.  I got the lids.  I filled one bin with very small baby items (newborn – 3 months) that were already being stored in the hanging shelves of his closet.  This freed up space for some of the suitcase items.  Then, I went through the clothing rack and drawers and removed all of the 3 – 6 month items and put those in the 2nd bin, which freed up space for the 6 – 9/12 mos clothes.  I’m happy to say that the suitcase is now empty and all of his clothing sizes are up-to-date.  Still, it was sad for me to put some of them away.  There was one hooded sweater jacket in particular that I found myself getting a little misty-eyed over.  It was so cute on him, and now it’s too small!  When did my baby get to be so big?

That’s Joe – 7 months + 1 week old and very messy :-)   Joe has taken to solid food like a duckling to water.  He pretty much gobbles down anything we spoon out!

Thanks for visiting our home – see you next week!

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Mother’s Day in NZ

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I told Chris that he didn’t have to get me anything to celebrate Mother’s Day.  I was completely serious… but he surprised me anyway with “morning tea” and this cute little to-go cup:

World’s Best Mum!  I love it!  He also bought me a tea infuser and different teas.  He knows that I’ve started to drink tea on a fairly regular basis since about 5 – 6 months ago.  It was inevitable, I guess, living in NZ.  Having your cuppa is part of my work culture, and I’ve adapted.  I had black tea with my brekkie {that’s “breakfast”, to all you non-Kiwis} and some decaf red tea later that evening.  Both are delicious, and I appreciated the thoughtfulness of the whole morning.  I hope that all of you other mums out there had a great Mother’s Day, too :-)

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Happy Birthday, Mom!

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Today is my mom’s birthday. I won’t tell you how old she is, because I don’t think that she would appreciate my sharing that information on the internet :-) I’m very grateful for her, and I shudder to think at how our move would have gone if she and my little sister hadn’t be there to help us out!

This picture was taken a few months ago, about 1 week after my nephew (in her arms) was born. Now tell me, does my mom look like she gave birth to 10 children and already has 5 grandkids? I don’t think so!

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If You Feel Sick, Get Out of Bed!

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Famous words from my mother: “If you feel sick, get out of bed!” The idea behind this line is that when you’re feeling sick, don’t lay around and think about it but get up and get moving. Obviously I’m not talking about the throwing-up-constantly-fever-of-100.2-can-barely-function type of illness, but those times when you just feel yucky and have a sore throat and a cold or a headache. That’s the boat I’m in right now.

I blame it on work, and not because I’m around sick patients all day. This weekend I was charge nurse and the charge nurse’s desk is situated right in front of the air conditioner, which was on full blast thanks to a certain doctor who shall remain nameless. By the end of Saturday I had a mild sore throat. Sunday, it was a little bit worse. Monday, the sore throat was now a sore throat + cough, and you can guess how it progressed from there. Today’s Thursday and I’m working the evening shift, and I. feel. yucky. I went to bed last night at 8:30 and slept all the way through till 9am. I didn’t want to get up this morning, but I could just hear my mom’s voice in my head, telling me to get up and get moving. I feel a bit better now and am actually planning to work out once I get enough fluids in me. Something about running really does make a cold seem a little less worse, you know? Or at least it does for me – I swear I breathe easier once I’ve finished a run.

So, I’m off to the treadmill, then off to work. I am so happy that I have tomorrow as a holiday and don’t have to work the weekend, either, so it’s no work for me till Monday! Have a great day, everyone!
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