My Beaters Broke

I wanted one of these....

I got one of these.

Let's hope when these dodgy hand beaters break down there will be room in the budget for the red machine.

Do I wake him up moment

I know you will all know what I am talking about.

It is 4pm and I am at that moment.
I am in the quiet, reading my blogs, spending much needed time with myself.
Paddy has been asleep for the last half and hour and it has been really nice and quiet. Have I mentioned how quiet it is here at the moment?!

Do I wake him up knowing that my peace and quiet will be shattered?

Or do I let him sleep knowing that if he sleeps much longer he will be a nightmare to put down early?

It seems like I go through this same dilemma every afternoon and every afternoon I never know what to do in the moment.

What is Success?

I was reading this post over at Girls Wear Blue Too and it has stuck with me all day.

I used to measure success in my life by things like doing a good job at work, making new friends, going out with old friends, finding a bargain at the dress shop, being able to afford those new heels, attending all the right events.

All day I have been thinking of how I measure success and this is what I have come up with.

: If I can cook a meal from start to finish in one go
: If I can get dressed or have a shower without anyone watching me
: If I get through an entire day without completely smelling of breastmilk
: If we go for a drive without hearing a crying baby
: If I get a load of washing hung out and put away in the one day
: If I get to finish a conversation on the phone
: If I can drink a whole cup of tea while it is still hot

It may seem simple but I kinda like it that way....

What I am Eating Now

Homemade Choc-Honeycomb crunched up in Icecream!

Thank you to my beautiful sister who whipped me up a batch.

You can see the recipe on her blog This Little Piggy

My New Blog Header

I decided to change my blog header. The old header didn't seem like me anymore. When I started this blog I was just married and my life was all about me. Now my life is about so much more.

The photo of our boots was taken on our honeymoon at the Port Fairy Folk Festival. It really represents to me how our two different lives have come together. I love this photo.

And what would be a blog header without a picture of Paddy.

Just felt like I couldn't make this change without explanation.

To Panadol or not to Panadol?

I gave my baby Panadol today. And I cried - I cried when I was giving it to him. I cried when I called my husband and told him. But there was nothing else I could do....

My little 3 and half month old is teething. Yes I know! He has two little white teeth in his top gums. We noticed them about 2 weeks ago but I have been in teething denial.

I really understood the school of thought that his behaviour would change around this age and that too often people use teething as an excuse when their babies aren't sleeping or are irritable. So I thought I would stick it out and keep going with my routine and that he would adapt with his new behaviour.

But as time has worn on I am becoming less convinced that this is a behavioural change and more convinced that his teeth are hurting him.
He has gone from a baby who has slept through the night without feeding for nearly 2 months. Now he sleeps when you put him down for a good stretch and then wakes up every half an hour crying. He was a great day sleeper and would do his hour long sleeps in the morning and arvo and a two hour sleep in the middle of the day. Now I am lucky to get two 40 minute sleeps out of him each day.
And he has become super clingy, he drools constantly and has started this whine like an alley cat when he is unhappy which is pretty much all the time.

Today he just started screaming with real tears, which get me every time. There was nothing I could do to console him. So I drugged him - well that's what it feels like. I dosed him up with Panadol, comforted him off to sleep and he slept for 3 hours straight.

Why do I feel like I have just given in to the easy road and dosed my baby up with foreign bodies? I know, as any mother knows, that my child was in pain. And I would do anything to stop my baby from being in pain. But pumping him with panadol - was that really the answer?

Gosh I really didn't realise how much you second guess yourself as a mother.....

Cheap Dinners: Meatloaf

I know, I know, I know. The same happens to me..... When someone would say "meatloaf" I would automatically picture a bland log of meat that very closely resembles a dog turd.
But in my quest to find cheap dinners I came across a beautiful meatloaf recipe - yes you heard right. And it is even more beautiful with cheese on toasted sandwiches the next day.
So why not give the old meatloaf another chance....

Glazed Meatloaf

500g beef mince

500g sausage meat

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs

2 brown onions, finely chopped

1 tsp curry powder

1 tbsn chopped flat leaf parsley

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 red onion, cut into wedges

Barbecue Sauce:

2 tbsn olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 tbsn white vinegar

2 tbsn honey

2 tbsn worcestershire sauce

1 beef stock cube

1 cup boiling water

1/2 tspn dry mustard

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.
2. Combine mince, sausage meat, breadcrumbs, onion, curry powder, parsley and egg. Season.
3. Mix in milk and 1/4 cup water
4. Shape into a loaf in a baking pan. Top with red onion wedges.
5. Bake for 30 mins
6. To make the sauce: heat oil and cook onion and garlic until softened. Add remaining ingredients and salt to taste. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins until it is reduced by half.
7. Remove meatloaf from the oven and pour off fat from the pan.
8. Brush half the sauce over the meatloaf.
9. Bake for 35-40mins, glazing with the sauce once or twice during cooking.

I have made a couple of variations.

• I use 1 full red onion for the wedges on top.
• And I double the sauce and keep some to drizzle over the meatloaf when I serve it.

This is the original recipe so I will let you play with it.

Sorry there are no photos. Though it may taste different to the meatloaf of old, it still looks like a piece of dog turd.

Enjoy!

My First Blog Award Woohoo!!

Lj at With My Own Two Hands passed on her first blog award to me. I read her blog every day and watch her journey of transforming her life as I go about transforming mine. It is a great source of inspiration to me. You NEED to have a read.

Anyway the Sunshine Blog Award means that I need to tell you 7 things that you don't already know about me.....

1. My name isn't Maree it is Natalie. And it isn't Natalie it is pronounced Na-tar-lee. For some reason my parents decided to spell it differently. This leads to much explanation but has been a great ice-breaker in the past.

2. I met my husband when I was a barmaid and he was a singer in a band. Very cliche and I love it!

3. I own 40 party dresses and 38 pairs of party heels. Definitely part of my former life as I learn to embrace flats as a mummy.

4. I run a family business with my brother and my husband and we make Christmas lights (among other things)

5. I am a fast mover - we got engaged in November 2008, married in February 2009, pregnant in June 2009 and had a baby in April 2010. Lucky we had been together for 9 years before that.

6. I am petrified of horses which doesn't work well when my husband plays polo and we have 5 horses at our house.

7. I have only recently developed my sweet tooth during my pregnancy. Pre-pregnancy I was a cheese platter orderer off the dessert menu. Now I am cheesecake all the way baby! Just another thing I have to thank my gorgeous little man for.

So there you go......

I also have to nominate 7 of my favourite blogs. Here they are

LJ at With my own two hands

Helen at Dal, Hel & Bel

Renee at This Little Piggy Bakes

Anna at Anna Bartlett

Rhonda at Down To Earth

M at EcoMilf

Christine at Slow Living Essentials

Thanks again LJ! This was a lot of fun.

Tea Anyone?

One of my beautiful girlfriends arrived at our house after 8 months overseas with this gorgeous teapot.

Now I am definitely equipped to host my very own tea party.

Random Question

Here is another question I have always wondered the answer to

What is the role of an egg in a cake?

Just another random question floating around in my head.....

My House might nearly be my Home

I work every Wednesday so yesterday was my first day out of the house in 4 days. And when I was leaving work I got this great sense of excitement in knowing that we were going back to our home.

For me this is definitely a different feeling. Pre-Paddy I was always at work. And when the weekends came I would always plan something to get me out of the house. I have never felt a real connection to any house that we have lived in.

I don't know whether it is Paddy - or the sheer effort I have to go through to go anywhere these days - but the realisation has just hit me that I am happiest at home. Rhonda at Down to Earth always talks about this but in the past it has been a foreign concept to me. Now I think I am starting to get it.

Now I am eager to create the homely vibe in my house - crochet rugs over the couch, the smell of food cooking, photos of things we love surrounding us, an inspiring sewing room.

I think the nesting that I didn't experience in my pregnancy has just hit me!

This feels good.....

ODI or OWI

We had a business coach who told us about ODI's - One Daily Improvements or OWI's - One Weekly Improvement. Every day or every week you pick one thing you would like to change and just do it.

So I decided to apply this to my home. You know those annoying things you always say you are going to do but never get around to it.

Yesterday my ODI was re-organising the pantry - it was in a complete mess and I had no idea what I had in there. About 20 mins later I had an organised pantry. I even labelled the tops of the spice bottles! I had such a great sense of achievement.

Today I have to go out of the house to work so because I am going to be in the car my ODI today will be to clean out the car.

Just an idea to help tackle the never ending list of "one day I will get around to it...." jobs.

By Ourselves

We have had a constant flow of visitors for the past few weeks. Some left today and we now have a few days before the next flow arrives.

It is the first time Paddy and I have been home by ourselves in a long time. So today I am just making the most of it.

So perfect.....

Forgetful Bread Making

Whoops I forgot about the yeast!

Could this be why my bread didn't rise so well?

Random Questions

The response I got when I put the buttermilk question out there got me to thinking....What other random questions can I get answered by putting things out into our blog world?

So I thought I would devote one day a week to getting all of the mysteries in my life solved.

So today's Random Question is......

"Why do my armpits get itchy when I breastfeed?"

Not the prettiest question I know but still something that puzzles me every single time. Oh, and yes I do wash regularly...

Does anybody know?

The Great Grocery Store Debate

I live in Maleny - scene of the great "No Woolworths" protest a few years ago. Despite the protests Woolworths went ahead and seems to always have cars in the carpark.

Maleny is definitely a town divided when it comes to this issue - you are either a Woolworths shopper or an IGA shopper. And where you buy your groceries defines the person that you are. If you shop at IGA you are a community minded person. If you shop at Woolworths you are a sell out. So being what I consider a community minded person I am a loyal IGA shopper and I am proud of that.

The trouble is though when it comes to things like Buttermilk..... I can't get that at the IGA. So I have had to make some compromises about the brand of products that I am used to. I can handle that....

The other problem is the cost. We are now living on one wage and I am having to be a bit inventive about my grocery list and meal plan each week. (Any suggestions of cheap meals would be really welcome.....)

So every time I get the final total from my IGA shop I think how much cheaper that would have been at one of the two big chains.

But the protest did change my beliefs. This is what I believe - in this country we have two huge companies controlling our grocery market. And these two companies are putting the squeeze on our farmers and food producers. They are demanding perfect looking food which means that farmers and producers are wasting a lot to meet the standards of these two big companies. These farmers and are also using a lot more chemicals to comply with this pressure to produce perfect looking food. And they are paying them peanuts for it!

This is my belief and therefore I make the following choices about my grocery shopping:

• I will buy all of my groceries from either IGA or Aldi
• I will buy all my fruit and veges from the local growers market or fruit stall
• I will buy all my meat from the local butcher

But where to get my buttermilk................?

Buttermilk

Where on earth can u find this stuff? All the most beautiful cake recipes need buttermilk.

Right now this is a major mystery in my life and I need it solved.

And not just because I am addicted to baking beautiful cakes.....

Newborn to Baby stage

The latest challenge in my world is having a baby instead of a newborn.

My newborn used to sleep and feed in two hour cycles - he would wake, feed, be awake for 1 hour and then sleep for 1 hour. He would have a 2 hour sleep in the middle of the day. I used to have oodles of sleep time to do the house and my work.

Now I have a 3 month old baby.... He is awake for 2 to 3 hour stints at a time. When he sleeps it is for 45mins to an hour and god forbid he has to be entertained when he is awake. No longer can I just put him on his playmat to play by himself. He needs someone to talk to all the time.

This new reality is hard and it has taken some processing. I was getting frustrated that I didn't have the time when he used to sleep. It is so much harder to get the things done in a day.

Now I need a completely different mindset - I ask myself why I want him to be asleep instead of interacting with him and seeing his personality grow? Why do all the chores in the house and my work take priority over being with my boy?

I need to chill............. I need to rearrange my priorities............

I need to enjoy my baby.