Christmas, Kids, Kilo's and Craziness!

My Dad is from a large family, my husband is from a large family, and we've created what these days is considered... a LARGE family!  Day to day having 4 kids is generally great, we get 4 x the cuddles, 4 x the love, 4 x the tantrums etc.  But at Christmas all chaos reins supreme!  The amount of presents the kids received was extraordinary! And while both they and us certainly appreciate that so many people care enough to buy them gifts, I fear that next year I may have to speak up and ask that changes are made to the gift giving process!

We all know that kids love toys, but they have a favourite that they find and they play with that frequently, they certainly don't have more than a few favourites, and when they get new presents, maybe only 1 of them will join that exclusive group.  So, I have a kitchen table FULL of toys which remain in their boxes, we have 2 drum kits, 2 sets of boy babushka dolls, 3 play doh sets etc.  Miss 5 got a number of presents valued at $20-$30 which she'll open and put away and more than likely forget about because she has so much 'stuff'.  She did get a 2 wheel scooter which is her favourite present, but the rest she's shown little interest in.  Now what she really wanted was a DS, which we were happy for her to have, yet finances didn't allow for one.  But, if each of the people who bought her the smaller gifts had put that money in, she could have got what she 'really' wanted and would have used until it wore out!  Like I said, I'm not ungrateful at all, but 4 kids with 4 lots of presents that are given for the sake of giving a gift, and they don't need so much STUFF! 

One of the things I want to teach our kids is how to value things, how to appreciate the things that you have, and when they have so many things that's a really hard lesson to teach!

So, I'm thinking that next year, I ask each family group to put in what they would have bought, perhaps buy 1 x $50 present for Santa to hand over, but then also have 1 more expensive present that they will get good use out of!

That's the Christmas part out of the way!  Now on to kids!  3 x 2yo's all in cots and eventually someone had to figure out how to climb out of the cot, and my 6pm-7am sleeping patterns have been thrown in to complete and utter chaos!  Day naps are slowly becoming a thing of the past, and this Mumma is going a bit crazy!  I'm not sure where I went right tonight (though hubby is on an afternoon shift?) but they were all asleep in their own beds by 6.17pm! After about two weeks of 8-9pm sleep times and it's a rare treat!

KILO'S, KILO'S, KILO'S, KILO'S & KILO'S.  Yep, add them up! There's 5 of them!  5 have gone on since I went to Port Douglas 1 month and 3 days ago.  Life has been out of control, watching what I eat has gone by the wayside and exercise had become a thing of the past.  But when I hopped on the scales on Wednesday morning (I decided to get Christmas Day out of the way) and I saw how much I'd actually gained, I decided it was time for drastic action!  Boxing Day was watching my food intake, the following day was going to my new gym for a Body Attack & Body Pump class, yesterday was good eating again and today was 30mins of Body Step, 30mins of Body Pump and 30mins of Body Combat!  I'm bringing sexy back!

In February(ish) I'm due to have surgery for my abdo separation and removal of the excess skin, I'm not ashamed of my body, it's carried my 4 children (3 at once), I've done remarkable things. But the abdo separation is a medical, stability, necessary surgery, and the excess skin is a bonus of that!  But having a very good friend who is an amazing photographer, I'm actually thinking of asking her to do a 'before' photo shoot (in underwear) so that I do have a record of what I achieved all on my own before surgery, the scars that came about from surgery that saved my life, and stretching of the skin that is a result of my babies going from embryo's to healthy little babies!

Craziness! Well, life in general is crazy, but I'm doing my very best to be as organised, motivated, calm, serene, happy and active as possible!!

Does it get any better than this?

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are my favourite mornings of the week lately.  When the weather's good the kids get up, have breakfast, we all go and grab a takeaway skim mocha for yours truly and we come home to have outside time for an hour or two before morning nap time!

The kids LOVE playing outside, and this weather is perfect for them to be outside in the morning.  We have a backyard that most kids dream about; a 12ft trampoline, a swing set, a big cubby house, a HUGE sandpit, a big patch of grass, a big area of concrete for them to ride bikes, a slippery dip etc.  

The awesome foursome love TV, they dance happily to the tunes of Play School, Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Peppa Pig etc but it's by no means a babysitter for them.  We often go a whole day without even turning the TV on (and no, not just the days that they're in childcare!)

Sun safety with the kids is important to me, but Vitamin D is also important to them for their bones, which in turn produce red blood cells which keep them healthy (see, I really am learning something from the mind numbingly boring Human Body lectures) which is why when we're outside at this glorious hour of the morning (it's now 8.30am) they are hat and sunscreen FREE!  The rest of the day when it warms up we put hats and sunscreen on, but given that there's such a huge Vitamin D deficiency in our population, this is something I feel is important for their growth and their health.

Another thing is reducing the sodium intake in the kids diet.  Have you looked at the nutritional panels on some of the foods you regularly feed the kids?  I was staggered at how much sodium is in yoghurt!  And the other day I went to buy rice cakes for the kids.  One had 42mg sodium per serve, yet I managed to find one with only 0.7mg per serve.  All it takes is to check the nutritional panel and compare a few different brands.  I've found the iPhone app 'Food Switch' great for this!  Tells you at a glance how foods compare.

On a brighter note, only 1 more sleep until my Human Body exam at 9am tomorrow!  I was up studying until midnight last night, and tonight will probably be much the same!  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

This is my 4 little treasures playing together outside this morning:

Take me as I am

The shower is my thinking place, it’s where I have my most brilliant of ideas.  Ten minutes after getting out and having finished washing my hair I am kneeling by the side of my bed typing on my prized possession of the week, my new laptop.  I was struck with the idea of starting a blog, not about one thing in particular but about my life in general.

I’m not brilliant, I’m not what you’d call artistic or creative on a regular basis, though I do have moments of brilliance.  I am a suburban housewife and Mum.  I have 4 children under 5.  My eldest will be 5 next month, and my youngest are two year old triplets.  My husband is in the Police Force, and I’m studying full time to be a midwife.  I’m blessed because I have the chance to do all of these things, and do all of them well.  I’m not a superhero, I’m not trying to prove a point to anyone, or to the world in general, but I’m trying to teach my children lifelong lessons on a daily basis.

It’s not uncommon for people to tell me that I’m amazing, it’s embarrassing more than complimentary, but they don’t mean it that way.  People BB (before blog) have had no qualms about commenting on or questioning every aspect of my life; from my fertility to my sleeping habits. 

This blog is about me, this is telling it like it is, it’s me in the raw.  I don’t suffer fools, I love and loathe Facebook with equal passion.  It’s a train wreck that I just can’t pull myself away from.  Aside from studying and parenting, my other focus is my health and weight loss.  Since the triplets were 9 months I have lost 36ish kg’s, I have run a 12km fun run without stopping, I have changed MY world!

Between vaccuming and trying to clean the kitchen and dining floors which show signs of toddlers and meal times from days ago, I am refereeing a fight between Miss 5 and Mr 2 because he’s stolen her bangle while she’s doing other Mr 2’s hair in a game of hairdresser and client.

A lot of random thoughts later while doing various things around the house (hanging out washing is another of my periods of thinking time) and the following post may come across as a bunch of rambling, but should give some insight in to who I am and what I believe (for those who care!)

I haven’t had a particularly easy life, it hasn’t been particularly hard either; but it’s had its challenges.  I’ve seen hatred and anger and jealousy and bitterness destroy people, sometimes people I love.  I’ve seen people have everything, and then have nothing; or more accurately, they have less material possessions than they had before, yet the lessons they take with them means they actually have more in all of the areas that count.  I’ve seen those who have everything lose people they love, money can’t save lives.  I’ve seen people who believe they never had enough, were never given enough; those who believe they’re entitled are the worst ones.  On the flip side I’ve seen love, hope, devotion, forgiveness, friendship, belief and respect.  More often than not, from the people who never had anything, never felt entitled to anything, you see, these people in truth had it all.

I believe in life, I believe in getting out what you put in.  I believe in hard work and not making excuses…. EVER! 

I’ve read blogs about many subjects; weight loss, pregnancy, infertility.  Weight loss is the one people obsess about the most.  Why is that?  Is it important to be strong or be skinny?  To be beautiful inside or outside?  I’ve battled my own weight loss demons, I’ve worked hard, bloody hard to lose weight but I don’t obsess daily about it.  I weigh daily, but I promise not to bore you with what I weigh each day.  Who cares? Who cares how I lose weight?  What method I use?  What works for me may not work for you anyway. 

I have more friends than acquaintances; I’m somewhat of an acquired taste.  I will say what I think, I won’t sugar coat things for you, friend or not, if I believe in what I’m saying I’ll tell you.  That’s not to say I set out to make enemies, but I won’t tell you he’s the best thing in the world if he’s a tosser!  I won’t tell you that it’s a great idea to marry him if he treats you like shit!  If you want a friend who’ll tell you what you always want to hear, then I’m not that person.  I’ll be honest with you, but I’ll never set out to hurt you!

Until recently a big part of my childhood and my life has been missing.  It’s a relationship I grieved for for a long time, yet I have a second chance.  I finally feel completely complete! 

I love large skim mocha’s.  No matter my eating plan, I plan to drink these!  I don’t drink alcohol (save for the odd Jacob’s Creek Mascato), I don’t smoke anymore,  I don’t do recreational drugs, or gamble, I don’t eat copious amounts of chocolate or take away or chips or biscuits or any of those things, but this is my sanity in a cup!

My husband is my best friend, sometimes my biggest enemy, but that’s because he loves me.  I rub him up the wrong way frequently, but he sees far more good in me than bad.  I know how to push his buttons, and I do but it’s not a power game, it comes with knowing someone as well as you know yourself.  Feeling their frustration, their hurt, their hunger, their determination, their success.  It’s pushing them so that you can push yourself.  He’ s my biggest fan, and I’m his.  Seventeen years we’ve been together, that’s half my life.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve come through it with a comfortable home and an amazing family.  We’re rewarding ourselves in two weeks with a week in Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef.  Our first ‘real’ holiday! The honeymoon we never had. 

I worship my Mum, other than my husband and my kids, she’s my everything.   I’m her only child, my kids her only grandchildren, so we’re her everything too!  She doesn’t bullshit me.  If I’ve put on a couple of kilo’s, she’ll tell me, but not in a bad way, only when I ask!  If I look ridiculous in an outfit, she won’t let me going out looking like a dick.  She doesn’t tell me she loves me or that she’s proud of me, but I know that she does, and I know that she is.  She doesn’t need to tell me, and I don’t feel the need to be told.  She’s always worked hard and she’s always made me proud, as a single Mum she never took handouts; we were the exception where I grew up!  I never went without, EVER!

Losing my Nanna was my biggest loss.  She was my ‘other’ Mum while my Mum worked.  On reflection, maybe my minimal tolerance for bullshit comes from her?  She told it as she sees it, I loved and loathed that, yet maybe I’m just like her?  There’s worse people I could be like!  She’s my childhood of memories; my Christmas mixture, my apricot and chocolate balls, my melting moments, my banana cake or chocolate cake on my birthday, she was my window to real loss and true grief.  Yet she looks over me every single day!  After two and a half years of trying to conceive, I found out on the second anniversary of her death that I was finally pregnant.  When I had a massive blood loss early on, I felt a wave of calm come over me when I smelt her perfume through my bedroom window.  My first daughter carries her name as her middle name.

I like people to be proud of their achievements, and I like to hear about them. It's not being big headed.  Those who work hard and achieve deserve to brag, those who sit on their arse and tell other people how to work after having life handed to them, they're big heads yet they have no life lessons to teach.

Today it ends here, I have lectures to listen to (on the Human Body, I suck at the Human Body!) I have exams this coming week, and the week after, and the week after I get back from Queensland.  I have an assignment to write, I have 4 lunches to pack for tomorrow, I have a uniform to iron, I have a sticky floor to mop, dinner to eat, another load of washing to hang out.  And at some stage, I need to sleep!  I’m not superwoman, I’m just a Mum!