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Life’s short – be in all the photos

Last week we celebrated my parent’s 70th birthday. It was really fun; my sister, sister-in-law, husband and I had joined forces to organise it as a gift for Mum and Dad. We had invited a lot of their friends and family, and for those who couldn’t make they recorded video messages we surprised my parents with later.

I had been tasked with creating a photo slide to play on rotation on the big screen. I had raided my mother’s photo collection and spent nearly 48 hours in front of the computer and scanner. Together with photos emailed to me from the family we had over 400 images. [...]  read more

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2018: a look back on the year that was

It’s incredible to think how much has changed in this past year. I started the year breastfeeding a 2 month old and couch bound a lot of the day, and finish the year training for my first ever half marathon. It’s been an up-and-down year, sure, like most people, but there is so much to be grateful for.

Once again I did the 1 Second Every Day video, which I’ve shared below for you. Take a look and let’s enjoy 2018: the year that was.

Highlights (in no particular order):

  • My son turning 1
  • Celebrating my second year of marriage with my husband
  • Running 5km with friends in the Sunshine Coast marathon festival, and doing the Muddy Rumble obstacle course with other friends/family
  • So much time with friends and family, loved it all
  • Dropping 20 years of anger and moving on
  • Losing 15kg
  • Our holidays away – Gold Coast, Stanthorpe, Townsville for my cousin’s wedding, camping trips
  • Being able to run again
  • Returning to work (a little bit of “me”)
  • Attending the Commonwealth Games (bucket list right there)
  • Those gigles from my son (nothing beats that sound)
  • Home renovations – pergola being built
    •  [...]  read more

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    Time for a catch up and some good news!

    Oh, hi world! I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last wrote, although if you’ve liked my Facebook page you would have still seen the odd quick post here and there. It’s been a bit of a crazy month with lots going on, which I can’t wait to update you all about.

    So let’s dive in!

    Luca turned 1!!

    I can’t believe I’m the parent of a 1 year old! Where the heck did that time go?! We just spent the last two weekends celebrating, which seems a bit of overkill but I assure you it was necessary. We kicked things off with a party in Brisbane with my husband’s family so his 80yo biz nonna (great grandmother) wouldn’t need to drive 1.5hrs to where we live. This weekend we had a second party at our house with my family and our friends.

    It was a lot of fun, but we’re definitely a bit tired now! The little man partied hard and was so good being passed around to everyone. He got to play peek-a-boo with his cousin (second, third, something like that) which was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. He also went swimming in his new inflatable pool, and played with his pirate ship at his own pirate party!

    He did have a couple of episodes of throwing up unfortunately. Once on his Biz Nonna (she then had to go home to change before bingo) and once all over his daddy at midnight. We suspect its from another cold that’s coming through, poor little guy. He’s been running a fever for a few days too, nothing some painkillers can’t fix, but I hope whatever it is goes away soon!

    We’re blown away by the number of people that were able to make it to the events, and we thank you all. We were also stunned by the amazing gifts he received. He’s one very, very lucky little guy. I’m hoping that keeps him entertained for a while yet!

    I need to catch up on my Luca letters to conclude his first twelve months; I’ve got three left to go. From now on it will just a yearly catch up of everything he’s done; it’s been hard capturing every month and finding time to consistently post updates. But it’s been incredible to look back on our first year.

    I’m 10kg down since August

    I’ve been doing Lite n Easy as a way of breaking my binge eating disorder, and it’s been working really well. I’ve managed to drop 10kg, making it a total of 22.3kg since my son was born last year. I’m over halfway now, 17kg left to go until I reach my goal weight.

    (The light blue is my actual weight and the dark blue was my trend line)

    It’s not been smooth sailing the whole way, and these past two weekends with Luca’s birthday I’ve definitely fallen off the wagon. But I’ll be back on again tomorrow and my journey will continue. I never expected it would be easy, but I’m learning something new every step of the way.

    I want to do a dedicated post to everything I’ve learned so far, but for now here’s a quick update. I’ve been paying particular attention to when I want to binge. The goal is that I learn my triggers and find a way to overcome them. So far, I’ve realised I want to binge when:

    • I’m tired
    • I’m emotional – period, relationship stress
    • I’ve let myself get hungry

    The next phase is to find a much healthier way of dealing with those times. I’m not always going to be able to get a good night’s sleep, so I need a different approach to deal with fatigue. Emotional-wise I need to factor in some sort of physical activity – it’s been amazing for getting stress out for me in the past. Hungry-wise is just ensuring that I am eating regularly, and have easy, healthy snacks on hand if I don’t have time for some reason.

    Full steam ahead!

    A 52-in-52 update

    With just over two months left in the year I’m super excited that I only have 14 items remaining. I am very much feeling like this can be achieved, and I’m extremely motivated to get the list finished.

    It’s already time to start thinking about next year’s list!

    I’m going to try and include some tasks that involve Luca, some fun parent-baby time. Places to go, things to do etc. So if you have some suggestions I’d love to hear them. On the cheap would be preferable. My brain is already ticking over with some fun activities to do at home.

    Also, the optimist in me hopes that he might start sleeping through and my hubby and I could potentially leave him with his family and steal away for a sneaky adults-only weekend. That would be lovely! One can dream right?

    So that’s about it for me, a quick (long) recap of the last month! Hopefully this next month I’ll find more time to write consistently – I’ve still got so much to say!

    I’d love to hear how everyone else is going, and any big wins anyone else has had?

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    2018 second quarter review (one second a day)

    Halfway through the year already! It’s time for a visual break with this short video. It’s my usual one second a day, which I’m doing better at remembering videos more often instead of pictures.

    Videos are way more interesting right?

    Some highlights:

    • The commonwealth games
    • Another 3 months of my baby’s development
    • Getting back into running again
    • A run of bad health (including one hospital visit for Luca and one for myself)
    • Entering an obstacle course race with some friends and family

    It’s been a wonderful 3 months; thanks again to everyone for spending it with me!

     

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    Running, sleep and me time

    This week there’s been a shift in the air. I’m probably going to jinx it, but everything seems to be going well. I feel rested, energetic, motivated, and in love with my husband. My baby has given me a good sleep. My running training is on track.

    I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I feel like “me”.

    There’s a big disclaimer here. It’s not that I hate my life or anything. It’s just been a really trying time for a while now. I still plan on writing about some of the more personal things, but we’ll come back to that later.

    There was a lot of things going on. We weren’t well, and we hadn’t slept properly since before our baby was born. I was at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life, struggling to find time to exercise (a huge factor in my personal happiness) and I was still coming to terms with who I am as a mother.

    But as of this week, I am so ridiculously content with my life.

    Running training and my “me” time

    When I split up with my ex many moons ago, I got back into running. What I found was that it was instrumental to my happiness.

    Running fulfils so many needs for me:

    • A way to deal with stress
    • Time to “tune out” – I put the headphones on, turn up the volume and run
    • Time for “me”
    • Assists in weight loss and toning my body
    • A way to get out of the house (on some occasions – see below)

    So without it I’ve really felt it hard to deal with stress. And being a new mother is definitely stressful.

    Months ago I had done a 6 week trial with a fitness squad on the Sunshine Coast, which I absolutely loved, but it was expensive. At the time we were on one wage, so that was tough. I’m now back at work 3 days a week so we have a bit more income, but that means on the days I’m not at work it means I have to go to get value.

    It became easier to have a gym membership, but then when I found out child minding was $6.50 every time, after 3 sessions I may as well have just stayed with the squad since it ended up being the same price. I couldn’t always guarantee my hubby would be happy to look after the bub while I exercised, so it all just became too hard.

    I quit the gym.

    Desperate to run, I realised my in-laws had a treadmill which they hadn’t really used for a while. I asked if they would mind if I borrowed it; they didn’t, and brought it up to our place one weekend. I was so excited.

    For my birthday my friend signed me up for a 5km race in August, but I hadn’t done anything about it. So once the treadmill arrived it was time to pull my finger out and start training. I found a 12 week training program online, stuck it to the fridge and prepared myself. Now my ritual is that every day I cross the day off on the count down to the race. It means I’m accountable for my training, and I don’t forget about it. I’m happy to say I haven’t missed a single day of training in over a week now. I’m on a good roll!

    At the moment I’m doing training sessions either at night after the bub has gone to bed, or in the afternoon if the hubby takes him out for some boy time. I’m trying to get my bub more consistent with his naps, so that when he goes down for a sleep I can run then too.

    I am absolutely loving it. My fitness is terrible, to the point I’m proud that I can run for 5mins without stopping right now – a far cry from what I used to do. But right now the end goal is a 5km fun non-stop. From there I’ll keep going. The old Kelly is still inside of me, she’s preparing to come back. I’m just being realistic that it will take some time.

    Sleep

    Since he was born Luca has been a terrible sleeper. It’s been rare to get more than 3-4 hours of sleep at a time. We typically go to bed early enough that our total sleep works out to be 7-8 hours, but when most nights you’re up at least 2 times a night, 7-8 hours still hurts. There’s a massive difference between how you feel when you’ve had a 2 hour stretch vs 3. After 3 hours you feel human, after 2 you will kill your husband for simply breathing wrong.

    Tuesday night was our country’s final game in the World Cup. I expected Luca to wake up around midnight as usual, right on time for kick off. Hence I didn’t bother setting an alarm.

    What actually happened is that for the first time in forever he slept for 7 hours straight. I didn’t go to bed until 10, and got to sleep through until 4am.

    Let me repeat, I got 6 hours of sleep in one stretch.

    For a split second I was disappointed I missed the game, and then I suddenly realised how amazing I felt. Luca had a feed and went back to sleep until just before 7am. When he woke I was greeted with the biggest smile, and lots of cuddles.

    I’m really really really hoping this is the start of Luca sleeping through the night, but I’m also trying not to get my hopes up at the same time. I don’t want to be disappointed I just need to take it all in my stride. Occasionally I let myself dream though, but I shouldn’t wish too much. Soon I will blink, and he will be a teenager that I’m trying to drag out of bed to get to school on time.

    But hey, if it’s possible, another 6 hour stretch of sleep wouldn’t be bad! I’ll take what I can get!