The Climbing Frame Tree

In some recent high winds a 10m Gum tree fell down beside Will's school. What it provided was a nature built play space which Will declared the 'Climbing Frame Tree'. We spent over 30 minutes after school on the first day. Plus when the boys got home they called Les and instructed him to be ready to go back again as soon as he'd got sorted after work. We stopped after school a couple more times and Les took them on the weekend as well. Then much to Will great despair they came and chopped and mulched it before school one day.

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Together Tuesdays

 

Tama and  I have had a lot of this lately- and I'm looking forward to more in the holidays. I often feel a lot more together when I'm outside and certainly if I'm feeling a bit off at home the best place to go to get sorting is outside and the trees.

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This week on the web...

Lots of education reading this week...

Viral education from Teacher Tom was cool.

Finland moving away from 'subject based' education.

And they're dumping cursive writing in favour of keyboard skills. Great idea!!

I thought this was interesting and some good ideas for lunches too.

2015 is a PISA testing year it will be interesting to see how the results have changed. Here's a comparison from 2012.

Just randomly... I was kind of surprised to see what New Zealand's most popular beer was!

A kind of depressing Sugar Story, which makes you wonder. 

Diet and Violence... to be honest what surprises me is that no one discovered it sooner.... diet affects behaviour... gee really?

And diet and school work.

Microwave popcorn not cool.

Must learn to crochet and knit.... (images are linked)

 

Bacon and Eggs... I love that they did this!

I really like adult Wednesday Adams too.... There are two series with 6 and 7 episodes in each- they are all short so easy to watch and very funny...

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'You've had a good day son....'

This was a good week....

Because...

... Kieran was invited to Irwin Barracks to see a Bell 429 Helicopter.
... Tama and I enjoyed Lake Jualbup while he was there.
... I went to the Clubs Conference and was inspired by a guy called David Russel who spoke about Business Management.
... they also had yummy free food at the Conference.
... Tama had a great mud filled day at Kindy.
... we went to the book swap shop.
... Robert came for a play and Clare brought food.
... we went to the library.
... I finally finished my book, and then promptly read two more shorter books.
... Tama and I got a new game called Zingo.
... Tama and I enjoyed a morning at Hillarys Breakwater.
... Kieran had his assessment for ADFA and was invited to the next stage- Officer Selection Boards in Canberra.
... I finally got my Kind prints printed.
... Lucas came over for a play.
... we completed Roberts Domino collection and almost completed ours.
... Kieran went to Nadyas.
... Les went flying for the day with John Dolphin.
... K, W, T and I spent the day at the Club Carnival.
... John Came for dinner.

"You've had a good day son"  is the punchline of a joke my dad used to tell about a father, his son, a bear won in a side show at a carnival and a Mini Car... it's a great joke and the one liner punchline has stayed with us for a very long time. This weekly post is about being grateful for the little and big things in our lives and celebrating success the grand and everyday kind.

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365 2015 Week 11

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Flora on Friday

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Tama Month 45

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365 2015 Week 10

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Wordless Wednesday

 

My little camera has an annoying spot!

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The one about weight

Do you see her? I don't. Seriously. I always get a bit of a surprise when I see myself in a mirror, full length is especially shocking. My mental picture of myself stopped gaining weight back here....

Funnily enough my mental picture of myself is not nearly as short as reality either. Although I think something happens to short people when they get fatter I think their wideness makes them appear shorter... like the way side mirrors on cars say... object may be closer then they appear- 'wide people may be taller than they appear'. Or it's got something to do with the person I consider myself at my heart of hearts- which I am 100% certain is not how the people I know consider me, (Jim I think you get an exception) especially the Perth peeps who have only ever known this me. There's that whole perception of fat people and stay at home mums... and fat stay at home mums.... well, they may as well just give up right? I read an article recently about a lady who lost a heap of weight and she was really pissed- because she realised just how much people had ignored her when she was fat. All the people at the same stores she had always shopped willingly offered her way more service when she was a skinny person than they had when she was a person who was fat.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us and when you bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.

I could do with some miracles about now because what lies within me is not a small matter in fact it's about 50kg worth of matter.

I tossed up about whether to name numbers on here. My line of thinking for a while now is that the numbers are so big it's just embarrassing and tragic. And then something changed my mind... and now I can't remember what that is.

I started the year at 107kg. It's my biggest ever non pregnant weight... maybe biggest ever fullstop. I was solid at 100 for about 3 years after Tama was born and then all of a sudden in the middle of last year I put on 7kg just like that within the space of about 2 months. It may be but I'm not sure when I started the iced coffee again after kicking that particular habit for a while. Dunno, don't care- there it is for what ever reason.

When I got my fitbit back in June I upped my exercise levels to make sure I was getting my 10K each day... it didn't make any difference at all.

I quit lollies and most sugar a few months before Christmas. I still eat fruit, a teeny bit of cordial in my water, and the iced coffees. I had my fave chocolates for new years and valentines as well. And then there was the fizzy and cheesecake at Valentines. And lately Hot Cross buns. And, and, and.... all these little 'special' exceptions. Ha. But overall I had definitely cut back the sugar before Christmas. And it wasn't making any difference either.

Isn't it great to know that you cannot control your world from the outside? To try and control things on the outside feels impossible because it would take so much work, and in fact it is impossible according to the law of attraction. To change your world all you have to do is manage your thoughts and feelings on the inside of you, and then your whole world changes.

I was surfing the internet the other month (as I do) and happened to notice that one of the trending stories on Facebook was about former Australian Idol Winner Kate DeAraugo and her awesome 66kg weight loss, over half her size. I look at that and on the face of it I think "Wow, if she can then I guess I can." Except that she had a gastric bypass. And for a whole bunch of reasons (wait list times, major surgery, it's really hard to do and has long term side effects, and not conducive to also raising four kids) that's not an option for me- so I started to think maybe it's not actually do-able?

And then there's  C'mon Rach  who is freaking amazing. And Derek and Telaine- holy cow...

So then I did a lot of reading around the place and I started to mess around with stuff.... and more recently I haven't really been eating any carbs that aren't fruit and veg (and my ever present iced coffee). I've been eating lots of  eggs, meat, spinach, cream cheese, coconut cream and avocado. And I upped my water intake seriously. Well at least I did and then I got sick of cooking eggs and then I was busy some days and then I didn't do the shopping with me in mind and then I went to an event that had sandwiches and chocolate and so on and so forth. And holy cow... the amount of times you have to go to the loo and do a wee.

While I was doing it I have to say I felt pretty good. And a lot of things I took for normal went away and I realised they aren't normal and it's much nicer without them. Things like farting, pms, mood swings, and brain fuzz. But as I said I back slid and I learned fairly quickly that my body much preferred the changes and took the change back under extreme protest and now it lets me know when I am dehydrated and when I've eaten grains and so forth- and it's way more uncomfortable than when I was taking all those symptoms for-granted.

So where to from here? I'm making a proper plan- a menu plan and I'm setting a date to give up my precious iced coffee the last brick in the wall of my crap diet and then hopefully I'll start to see some changes... and I can buy my new winter jeans a size or two smaller than last years... hopefully.

If you want to check out some of my resources here you go:

https://www.pinterest.com/gypsyst/lchf/
https://www.pinterest.com/gypsyst/ya-egg/
https://www.pinterest.com/gypsyst/healthy-kids/
https://www.facebook.com/ChristineCronau/timeline
Healthful Pursuit on You Tube
Healthful Pursuit Blog
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/
http://authoritynutrition.com/
http://www.edify.net.au/food_pyramid.php
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/
http://lowcarbediem.com/
https://www.facebook.com/buttermakesyourpantsfalloff/timeline
https://lowcarbrn.wordpress.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/TheLowCarbRN/timeline 
https://www.facebook.com/LowCarbIsland/timeline
https://www.facebook.com/mybigfatlowcarblife/timeline
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cmon-Rach/1434801740105133?sk=timeline 
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/
https://www.facebook.com/thatsugarfilm/timeline
https://www.facebook.com/paleochefpeteevans/timeline
https://www.facebook.com/carynzinndietitian/timeline

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Together Tuesdays

  Today I'm all about getting my shit together with food- I've been courting some changes but not yet committed... today is about doing what needs to be done to be committed.

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This week on the web...

Some scrapbooky stuff... I don't usually visit scrapbooking websites I find it decreases my confidence, motivation and creativity but I do get some stuffed emailed and for design tips I think Debbie Hodge's 'Get it Scrapped' is the best out there this week I enjoyed: Ideas for Scrapbook Page Embellishment with Clusters and their 100th template and sketch.

Here's a lovely reason to go back home... way back home to Dunedin, if only I had a couple million spare.


UGH... this story shows the truly spooky reason why big business should keep the f@#% out of education... seriously a priority one alert??

I agree with a lot of what Jessica writes here and I'm not yet fully committed to this way of eating- in fact I have a had a couple of shit days this week where I was fully sugar loaded and holy cow I felt like crap... once you eat fat you can't go back.

I almost didn't share this Teacher Tom post- it's a bit dry and expresses a sentiment I feel like I do to death... but then I remembered it's like that because it's so important.

Some worthwhile kid snacks to check out in this post.

It was a busy week... so this is all I got!

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'You've had a good day son....'

This was a good week....

Because...
Me and Tama did a run to Ikea.
We scored exactly what we wanted at the toy shop and Will was able to buy himself the bionicle he wanted.
We won a very small prize in Lotto and Tama was very happy to buy himself a Kinder Surprise with the change.
I got some new circle dies.
I made some cool cards for St Patricks day.
I made a Kiwi and Lime Cheesecake for St Pats day too.
I did parent help at Kindy.
Kieran's Outdoor Ed Teacher gifted him a Mountain Bike.
Will went to Roberts for a sleepover.
We got two candidates to coach the Hockey Team.
Merenia went on an excursion to Scitech.
Les took the boys to the Picnic on the Green.
Merenia got to Umpire at the grading night and earned $60 in the process.

"You've had a good day son"  is the punchline of a joke my dad used to tell about a father, his son, a bear won in a side show at a carnival and a Mini Car... it's a great joke and the one liner punchline has stayed with us for a very long time. This weekly post is about being grateful for the little and big things in our lives and celebrating success the grand and everyday kind.

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Will Month 87

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Flora on Friday

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365 2015 Week 9

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Wordless Wednesday

 

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Together Tuesdays

Today is St Patrick's Day so I'm feeling Lucky to be together with the kids and getting my shit together enough to make a find green cheesecake!

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This week on the web....

First do no harm.... well say the doctors it seemed logical that fat would make you fat- we didn't have any evidence but we made a huge recommendation based on it anyway. And then there's the nuts... some smart cookie figured if we avoid nuts for a while we won't get nut allergies.... um except we don't have any evidence to support it... but lets make a recommendation anyway and sit back while the rate of allergies increases at an alarming rate over the next 13 or so years... it's enough to pretty much undermine your trust in the so-called experts I reckon.

PSA: Skip Thai Shrimp.

Teacher Tom this week: No Bad Guys... there are some people (grown-ups) who think they need to make rules for kids... as Napoleon Dynamite would say: "Idiots".

This article on Fat cells was interesting if somewhat depressing... I need to move back to Dunedin so I can freeze my butt off.... literally. :-)

Probably not 'only' in America but still... Innocence is not enough to get you out of Prison.

This is quite long but interestin- some people lead amazing lives- I kind of hope I can be one of them one day: The Proper Weight of Fear.

I've read a lot of the Livesay Haiti Blog this week- mostly older stuff about the Earthquake in 2010. But I thought this was a good post as well- I think the sentiment applies world over.
And this one about adoption- totally takes the romance out- which is a really good thing, I'd love to adopt a baby that has no family, but I totally know I don't have the skills to handle the tough side of it. It's such a sad and complex thing. 
I was also led to a couple of old posts about Unicef- I don't know if things have changed much in the last 5 years but I expect not... WWUNICEFD  and International Adoption: Unicef's and Other Critics’ War Against International Adoption

In one of her posts Tara said: "The new phases of parenting we are entering, are just weird. Balancing parenting a two-year-old, pre-schoolers, a pre-teen, and a very mature teenager makes us feel like freaks of nature. In many ways we are freaks of nature. One minute I am potty training one and the next minute I am discussing student-loans and college applications with another. Potty training is so easy." That's how I feel on a daily basis we have such diverse needs in our family right now it's exhausting.

I'm bookmarking How I learned to Fall asleep in under a minute- because I want to try it!

And the same goes for this Mayo and dressing recipe.

I thought the 'Your Logical Fallacy' Poster was cool.

I loved this article by Julie Kirk but not for anything book binding related- the introvert anxiety stuff was what made me happy.... it's not just me! 

 This is my sort of t-shirt!

 

Discovered an Etsy store of Fairy Goodness. Large Fairy Letter kit.

 Small Fairy Letter writing kit.

 And a teeny tiny fairy door- would be cool to get one of these for our Gumtree and surprise the boys. :-)

'You've had a good day son....'

This was a good week....

Because

We helped clean up the neighbourhood for Clean-up Australia Day.
And the boys got Jelly and choccy as a thank-you.
Kieran and Nadya had lunch at Kalamunda.
We got lots of yummy fruit from the fruit loop.
Merenia went on an excursion to Walyanga National Park.
It was Icy Pole day at school.
Will and I had a fun time when his Physio appointment got cancelled.
We got a fun new book called "Mike, I don't like"
A cyclone didn't come.
I went to the scrapbook store.
The son really did have a good day.

"You've had a good day son"  is the punchline of a joke my dad used to tell about a father, his son, a bear won in a side show at a carnival and a Mini Car... it's a great joke and the one liner punchline has stayed with us for a very long time. This weekly post is about being grateful for the little and big things in our lives and celebrating success the grand and everyday kind.

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365 2015 Week 8

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