I had a plan

I had in my head the post that I wanted to write today but as I think we all know, planning some writing in your head is not the same as writing that thing. What I should have done was write it last night, once the kids were in bed and my brain was still halfway working. But like a fool I didn't do that, expecting - for some reason - that I'd be able to write it today. You see, I took a few days off work this week, and not working has meant that I haven't felt quite as bled dry as I had been previously. But today 'school' started. Needless to say, at only 11:30am I feel completely bled dry. But it's recess now so I'm writing this different post. As this is as far as I can remove my brain from the day, (ie. not at all).

I sort of had high hopes for school starting. That it would add structure to the day and tasks for the kids to complete. But with Newbie in grade 1 he needs a fair bit of help and with Baby generally being a child that lacks motivation, is easily distracted and doesn't want to do stuff, he needs basically constant monitoring. So my hopes have sunk somewhat. But it is only day one and I guess the only way is up. Although I guess down is also a possibility if I'm honest.

Late week update

Hey guys! I know that you are gagging to know how turning my life around is going. So I'm going to tell you! It's going pretty shit guys, pretty shit indeed! On the plus side I've realised that I was just a fool to believe I could get out of bed before 6am to go to the gym on a regular day. The kids' sleeping is rubbish right now and, therefore, my sleeping is rubbish and I'm so exhausted in the middle of the day I think adding an early am workout could break me. I think I may be getting sick and I ran out of iron tablets a couple of weeks ago and I'm probably pinning way to many hopes on the idea that buying more iron tablets will improve things. 

You have to believe I'm not making excuses. I'm not. I've given up on that pipe dream of early gym for now and decided to turn my life around by working at night and then enjoying my days and working out at a reasonable hour when I can.  Oh sure this new plan for turning my life around has so far been as successful as the initial early workout plan but it definitely feels more feasible. How about I go get some more iron tablets and we'll check in with my great new life once they've kicked in. 

Where to take this

I hope K feels better soon. 

As autumn really settles into being autumn, with rain and cold days I've really been thinking about my winter wardrobe in earnest. And by winter I mean autumn, because of course when winter comes around I'm just going to be in jeans and woollen jumpers constantly. And by cold days I'm not talking about this week which is forecast to be in the mid-20s all week. But I think we know what I mean, right? Right. By February I'm already thinking about my winter wardrobe because I way prefer cold weather clothes and by now I'm bloody gagging to get my skin all covered up. Oh, yeah.  I feel like this season I'd like to do a bit of sartorial exploring, but also set some personal challenges. One of my concepts for my winter dressing this year is 'skivvies under everything.' Whereby I plan to wear skivvies under everything. And rather than just settling on a seasonal look and then trying to dress to it once in a while I'd like to set myself the challenge of dressing in that look everyday for a week, thereby actually seeing if I can do it and if it is a good look for me and hopefully, if everything goes well, just committing to it better because I have the lived experience of it.

Another thing I want to do this season is just fucking go for it. I have this tweed vest in my cupboard I think about wearing but never do, but not any more. This season I'm just going to fucking go for it!

Monochrome! Natch. Autumn is the perfect time for monochrome dressing, and this season I'm going to do it everyday for a week. And then a bunch of other times.

I'm excited about these dressing experiments guys! I can't wait to do them! And then tell you about them! But right now I'm just excited about getting my jeans on!

In praise of plans (AM)

I used to work with a woman who would always complain about her conservative parents; she thought of herself as very open minded and liberal. She wore red chinoiserie to her wedding. But she used to complain about junkies and youths and other people unlike her in a way that very much reminded me of someone's conservative parents. 

Another of her qualities that could indeed make her seem like an uptight, housewife type was her tendency to plan her weekly meals. She'd cook seafood two nights a week, meat two nights and vegetarian two nights, then she'd plan what she was making and do a weekly shop that she would supplement with biweekly market visits. Although this makes her sound uptight, it is one of the qualities in her I most admired. That and the fact she introduced me to Strawberrynet, a website that used to offer great discounts on beauty products before the Internet realised it could make lots of money in Australia by charging more for things that are expensive here and it became cheaper to buy beauty products from actual shops.

My old pod buddy's meal plans was always inspiring to me, far from creating shackles I think that the meal plan could be very liberating. Rather than pondering daily what to make for dinner and falling back on oft-revisited dinners, the meal plan and subsequent shop would provide a map to deliciousness and newness. I'd be freed from the shackles of pasta and Aussie meals that I fall back on so frequently.

Usually I go to the market on Sunday and that means I buy some fish, LB buys some sausages and that answers a couple of nights' problems, but imagine looking through cookbooks on the weekend, deciding to make things from there, buying the necessary foodstuffs, thereby forcing yourself to make those meals you'd dreamed of. I'm imagining that right now, and I don't know if it's just the energised fervor of the new year, but by god, I'm going to plan my meals next week! And, if I can maintain this new year's fervor, the week after that, and the week after that, and the week after that...

Who's with me?! (AM)

Recently I was cleaning my bathroom. Really, properly cleaning it; in the way that meant I moved the scales so I could mop under them. Of course a super clean bathroom is one of life's joys, but deciding to weigh oneself after many, many months just because you are holding some scales is, so often, not. Yeah, those scales told me straight out what my jeans had been whispering to me for some time. Now that I am off the world's easiest and bestest all-you-can-eat breastfeeding diet it's like I've got to start putting in some kind of effort. Lucky for me AND all of you, I think I have just the thing. These three books that made there way in or back into my life at the start of last summer.



Sure, late last year when I rediscovered them I had the best of intentions, but what with all the breastfeeding as if I was going to waste my time with watching what I ate and exercises. I'm not a sucker. So now the time has come. The plan is this. For one month each I am going to follow an exercises gleaned from each of these books. At the start of each month I will tell you about the book and the exercise routine and I will follow it for a month and, although I have not so much as uttered a word about this to K before writing these here words, I fully expect K to follow the routine too. Then we will decide which is the bestest! Who's with me?!

I think we should start with Jane. Now don't freak out, friends, this great new exercises routine isn't starting today. No, let's give it a couple of weeks so we can all get psyched! Now, as Jane Fonda is a woman and a feminist I think her routine will be the most beginner friendly. Plus, look at what a great time she is having!

Perhaps after Jane we will move to Travolta. His book "is designed to provide a six-day-a-week workout program"! Shit. Well, let's hope Jane gives us the goods to move onto that.

Then we will finish with Super Firm. That book has a subheading. 'Tough Workouts'! Eeek! This book contains such sections as 'Working harder', 'Advanced shaping and toning' and 'Plyometrics'! Until I looked on Wikipedia last night I didn't even know what that was. In fact, Wikipedia barely made me any wiser but Super Firm tells me that the section is about training to build power, muscle elasticity and recoil, and includes bounding and jumping routines for powerful legs! I didn't even know I needed better muscle recoil!

I CAN'T WAIT TO GET SUPER BUFF!!!! WHO'S WITH ME?!