Weekly 10 - A fail week - Whoops, and a little food for thought.

Well, I have to put it out there....I did nothing from last week's list. Now don't get me wrong, I thought about it, I just didn't do any of it. AND, I'm super happy about it. My biggest downfall? MKR. God I love that show.

Why am I super happy about it I hear you ask? Because I gave myself permission to snuggle up under the blanket and water the NRL or MKR. I wasn't flipping around like an energiser bunny, going balls to the wall until bed time - and I liked it! When I originally began Weekly 10, I took the inspiration from another blogger who did a similar thing, but I feel like I've taken it too far. The woman ensured she has things that were productivity thing, but also things she wanted to do with/for her kids and husband. I now and then add in that I want to relax of read, but I'm really not good at the relax thing.

Yes I love being busy, yes I love being productive and yes I love getting things done BUT, It's been getting me down - weird huh. Picture this, I'm getting my bits and pieces ready for the following day - the girls breakfasts, bags in the car, clothes laid out for tomorrow, checking the washing situation and so on and so forth. This is after Willow is in bed, but Leah is still up. I like to get everything ready for the following day so that when Leah goes to sleep I have time to get my things done. What I've been unhappy with recently is that Leah doesn't get any of that time with me, because I'm so busy.

So a different kinda list this week. I am going to try and complete last week's list because I still think they're valid things that I've been wanting to do. I also want to do the following.

1. Snuggle up with Leah on the couch when Willow goes to bed.
2. Talk to Leah about the games she's doing on her iPad.
3. Take some staged photos of Willow with her Punk Baby bibbies.
4. Read one more book that I usually do with Leah at bedtime.
5. Make a yummy pudding for Damien one night.
6. Watch TV WITHOUT doing anything else at the same time.
7. Read, read, read.
8. Count to ten before I get grumpy - especially when someone isn't doing as she's asked.
9. Make and freeze kumara mash for Will.
10. 20,000 steps a day (this does seem like adding something - but I'm really enjoying this, so why not?!)

Weekly 10 - A new week

First week back at work after a 2 week break today so want to go a bit easy on myself. It's already been a busy Term!

1. Waterblast the area around the washing line.

2. Begin planning my gourmet meal for 30 before 30.

3.  House lists - start adding to these.

4. Organise photo cupboard.

5.  Get photos printed.

6. Plan for more photos for the the 'Whanau' wall.

7. Check smoke alarms.

8. Read!

9. Organise Recipe folder.

10. Have some fun with the family in the weekend. Spend some time not worrying about getting things done!

Weekly 10 - here's how I went

1) Blog! Get back on the blogging wagon. I've had a love/hate relationship with it recently.

I feel like I'm back in the groove with this, and I'm determined to keep it going.

2) Begin the 'Love Yourself' Challenge'

Didja see my post?

3) Begin to make some of these habits. Numbers 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 27, 37, 39, 40, 42, 45 and 48 in particular interest me.

I've done super well with Meatless Monday's having just finished my 2nd. It's actually not too bad. I'd like to keep looking at these things to continue to make them habits.

4) Plan fun activities for Leah and Willow and days that I can commit to doing them when I'm back at work.

5) Read!
Went from 15% read to 42% read. Getting there! She's a big book!

6) Plan out 30 before 30.
I did this with a blog post you can find here.

7) Finish journal page and do another.

8) Make a kick-ass dinner on Wednesday for Mum.

We had Pork loin with blue cheese, shallots and pears, hassleback potato and steamed bok choy and then for dessert we had a self saucing pudding. Was delish!

9) Water blast the Washing Line area.

10. Sand the writing stool for school.

Road map for this 30 before 30 thang.

To date I have complete 17% of my goals (5) and I have another 43% on the go. Phoar! That's a 60% pass rate at the moment. Happy with that.

My problem is that I'm not used to waiting to get things done. If I have a to do list, I do it. It's hard for me to leave some things on the back burner while I focus on others, and it makes me worry about the ones that I haven't touched at all or put much thought into.

The ones that are worrying me at the moment:
#2 Learn how to apply a cracking face of make up.
#7 Swim with dolphins
#10 Write a children's book
#11 Make more money from my blog
#12 Master a fancy schmancy gourmet meal, and
#25 make time for video games

So let's have a closer look at these.

Things with the face of make up goal keep falling through, and ashamedly, it's not a huge priority for me. I've always wanted to be into make up, I like the idea of it, but the wearing it is another thing altogether. I'm sure it will get done, but if it didn't I wouldn't super cry? lol did I just say that?

For Swimming with Dolphins, I decided to keep it for the end of the year where hopefully I have achieved #2 on the list and will look primo in a wetsuit, lol. I am planning on using Dophin Seafaris and they recommend November - April as a time to do it. I wondered whether this might be a cool thing to do for my 30th birthday. (:

I started to look into #10 and the first thing that was suggested was to read lots of children's books. Which I do, on a daily basis. The knack here is coming up with a theme or idea...it's an easy one to push to the back burner for sure.

#11 is also a tough one. I've had someone approach me recently to do a sponsored post. So that could be a start...

I really want to start on planning #12. In fact, I might even pop it into my next week's Weekly 10 goals. I have been worried about what people will think I meant by 'gourmet'. I even asked my facebook friends today what they think of when they think of 'gourmet food', but I think I might just stick to the 'fancy schmancy' part of the goal. Who cares what is considered 'gourmet' or 'fancy schmancy'.... a 5 course meal that I've taken time to complete will be deliciously awesome no matter what you label it!

I have been doing pretty good with #25. But I also get very frustrated. I feel like if I make a mistake or can't pass something (STUPID SAND BOSS ON PIKMIN!!!) that I'm wasting my time. It shouldn't be that way! I enjoy playing games, when I'm not putting pressure on myself to enjoy them. It's a vicious cycle. My head is a nasty place when you're me. I need to give myself time to relax and time to enjoy. Stop being the fun nazi Kate!

I'm glad I thought about that. It's made me feel better about my progress and every now and then I feel a pang of 'uh oh' about it. 8 months to go!

Things I'm Loving

It's been a long time between posts in this series. I decided to give 'Things I'm Loving' a rest for a while because I just wasn't feeling it anymore. I found I was scrounging for things to find, and it shouldn't be that way. I've tried to revive it a couple of times between now and then to no avail, but I'm hoping this will be the push to get it going again.

Firstly, I'm loving feeling better. I was feeling super drained towards the end of the term, and the holidays have really perked me up again. It's amazing what spending some time with friends and having some 'me' time can do in such a short amount of time.

Super loving this photo of first time on a swing for this girl. She's such a cheery little thing. We've had a trying time with her and sleep recently (although tough for us is probably nothing compared with others, we're such wusses!) but seeing her little smiley face (at an appropriate time of the day) means you can't help but love her to bits.

Also loving 'Murder Burger' milkshakes. Burger was OK, although I wouldn't go for the Wild boar bacon number again. I prefer my bacon super normal thank you very much.

Loving this big girl and the fact that she pretty much always spells her name correctly, it's just that sometimes H and S sound so much alike! I love that she loves learning. I intrinsically do things with her, sometimes without realising it. and she loves to learn, and boy can she ask a question!

And last but not least...I'm looking forward to planning a trip to go and do this. Eeeep!

"Dream big, aim high and pay your bills on time!"

I'm excited to cross this one off my list - as I am with any of my goals - but this one especially as it has meant some beneficial changes for our day-to-day, week-to-week lives.

It's noteworthy to say that after looking into it, I only changed one of these things - our phone provider - and even decided not to change out power company because even though they're not the cheapest, it's easy. Let me break it down a bit.

I'll start with what I decided to change. Being a Capricorn (or I'm going to blame it on that) I'm a super bitch grudge holder. And poor Telecom, or spark as they're now known learned that a scorned woman in me, does not a harmonious phone company/customer relationship make.
Poor service and then poor customer service, even from a manager meant that I was fast on the lookout for another provider.
This actually turned out really well for us as we chose to go to Vodafone and were able to consolidate both our phone and Sky television (cable TV) bills into one. We're now saving, on these bills combined, around $60 a month, which I think is a pretty big deal.

Now, with the insurance company. I was more than ready to begin looking into new insurance companies and finding out if I was getting the best deal. I know our premiums are slightly higher and it would be nice to pay less every month for this. And then my stupid dog broke our front door barking at a courier delivery man.

Within 10 minutes on the phone to State insurance there was someone on there way to assess the window and get the ball rolling on fixing it. My dad always said, "With State, you'll pay a little bit more, but come claim time, you'll realise why", and it has been that was with every.single.claim we have made with them. They're great, and there's no way we're changing.

I looked into a few different power companies, but to be honest, in the end, I was all a bit confused. I know we pay more than some with our power, but it's easy. I don't have to think about 'on-peak' and 'off-peak' times or reading a meter. It just happens and we get the bill. So I must say, with this, I gave up!

Very happy with our changes and with our not changes. :) And YAY!!! for another goal crossed off.

"You don't have to wait to love yourself"

I think it might be Term burn out, but I've been feeling really euck over the past few weeks, only just starting to feel better now. It's not even necessarily an outward thing and most people wouldn't even know it's going on, but on the insideI've convinced myself that I'm not doing enough, am hopeless at being a mother, at teaching and that I need to sort myself out to be worth anything.

I get peaks and troughs of these feelings and I couldn't exactly say why - possibly stress or doing too much int he first place. I think most of mine stems from my expectations of myself. When I'm at that point it's like there's a rain cloud over me all day, every day and even when I make a conscious effort to be happy I'm aware that really I'm not. It makes the moments like these when I'm feeling better seem like a technicolour of sky in comparison. I feel energetic, motivated and...happy. 

So, to begin the Love Yourself Challenge this week I was asked to list 5 ways that I can love myself better. Here they are. I may not be able to stick to them all the time, but I at least hope to keep myself mindful of them.

Tasty Tuesday

It's been a while between Tasty Tuesdays, mostly because I haven't been doing anything amazing in the kitchen. But thinking about it, I should really share what I've found amazing over the last few months....more to come.

But first!

A few weeks ago we had these Skinny Thai Meatballs and they were delicious!

Tomorrow my mum is coming over for dinner. I'm going to attempt the Stuffed Pork Tenderloin from this post (Uhhh, YUM!) and this decadent dish for dessert (DOUBLE YUM!)

Now, I haven't really been doing anything new in the kitchen lately for a few reasons...
One being that it's been a hectic few weeks and we've either been out a lot or too exhausted to cook anything new or exciting so we go back to the same old, tried and true dishes. The other main reason is that many of our current recipes come from the 'Fit Girl' Cookbooks.

They're great! But I can't share any with you on here because they're all from paid for cookbooks...or can I? What I can do is promote the books here, because they're amaaaze balls in terms of motivation (and just for a bit of a giggle) and tell you our favourite meals thus far.

There are currently 3 cookbooks - 28 Day Jumpstart, Fitkini Body Challenge and The Fit Girls Cookbook Our faves are the Sweet potato wraps and blueberry pancakes. My personal favourite are the pizzas. I can attribute the sentiment behind these books (which is clean eating and being active basically) to my 17kg weight loss. Thoroughly recommend. :)

Eat something yummy this week.
xox

Weekly 10 - Here we go again :)

It's always good to feel recharged and ready to take on the world...and today, that's how I've woken up. It's a welcome change as I have been feeling a bit deflated recently. Glad to be back at it - thankful for the holidays!

Here's what I want to knock out this week...

1) Blog! Get back on the blogging wagon. I've had a love/hate relationship with it recently.

2) Begin the 'Love Yourself' Challenge'

3) Begin to make some of these habits. Numbers 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 27, 37, 39, 40, 42, 45 and 48 in particular interest me.

4) Plan fun activities for Leah and Willow and days that I can commit to doing them when I'm back at work.

5) Read!

6) Plan out 30 before 30.

7) Finish journal page and do another.

8) Make a kick-ass dinner on Wednesday for Mum.

9) Water blast the Washing Line area.

10. Sand the writing stool for school.

Weekly 10 - How many week's was that last one?

The last couple weeks of a busy term and then a busy Easter weekend and beginning of the holiday have meant that I was fairly rubbish at this list. I did most of it, somewhat but I've neglected some, as well as the blog. Took #9 a little too literally? Lol. Let's see...

1) Do a journal page
I began one...


2) Go through photos on computer and organise
Boom! Did actually cross one off
 
3) Get some cracking photos of the Balloons over Waikato
We had a sick little girl, so left this one. I did although take some photos of the easter bunny last weekend.

 

4) Plan some more at home activities to do with Willow and Leah
I'd like to get back into this. Willow is a bit more independent when we get home from daycare now and I miss giving my big girl these fun learning activities at home.

5) Read at least 50% of the new bookclub book
20% - It IS a big book! I need to rattle my dags with this though.. only 3 or 4 more weeks to read it.

6) Wrap birthday present
Two! :D



7) Plan out what's left of the 30 before 30 - what am I missing?
Would still like to do this.

8) Take Willow's 7 month photo

9) Relax? Even a little bit.

10) More regular sleeping pattern - bedtime and wake time. You can do it!
I got good at this and then lost it again.

New list coming your way tomorrow :)
xox

The Langham - My cup of tea!

Today I knocked another goal off my 30 before 30 list:

And what a super fun goal it was. I got to feel fancy, chat with friends for a couple of hours AND eat some nom noms. Like, super nom noms.

When we arrived we were greeted by a lovely young man who was very knowledgeable, welcoming, and made me feel at ease (I was a first timer and felt waaaaay outta my depth in terms of fancy, lol). He was just a delight. Everything you could want in someone who's looking after you at a restaurant.

But let's get down to the real reason we're here shall we? The super noms.

Our drinks were iced tea and delicious. I unfortunately didn't take note of what they were, but it was very fruity. I think I've begun a love story with iced tea now, it was that good.

On our afternoon tea plates we had a selection of sandwiches, savouries and desserts, and we were then brought some delicious scones as well. Was so full, but so satisfied by the end of it. I was actually really impressed with myself as there were some items on the menu that I normally wouldn't touch (beetroot - euck!), but I ate it all up like a good girl!

The sandwiches were  champagne ham and english mustard, smoked salmon and horseradish, free-range egg with watercress and cucumber with lemon cream cheese. I definitely dug the classic salmon, but the winner for me here was the cucumber. Having worked in a cafe one summer I knew the cucumber and cream cheese combo was a delight, and the addition of lemon was just delicious.

Our savouries were prawn salad and tomato mousse tartlet, beetroot panna cotta with pickled beet and salmon caviar, basil sable with potato and truffle puree and peking-style duck leg roulande with coriander and cucumber. There was nothing here that if I would choose having to pick from a menu, but it was all really good. I didn't particularly like the beetroot number, but made my way through it. The winner for me here was the duck roulande. I'm a big coriander fan, I know it polarizes people - our table was!

The desserts were as delicious as they looked. Vanilla macaroon with salted caramel filling, lemon and ginger tea mousse on a biscuit with freeze-dried raspberry, rhubarb compote with vanilla sauce, dark chocolate cupcake with white chocolate mousse, grand marnier pop cake and strawberry tartlet. My favourites here were the macaroon, which has made me want to become a master at making them, the ginger and lemon mousse number and the rhubarb compote which showed me that I in fact do like rhubarb.

Scones were plain and passionfruit with a selections of jams. The clotted cream (which I don't think I've ever had before) was NOM. Would bang again.

I cannot recommend The Langham enough. Was just devine. A great goal! Thanks Nicola and Rachael for sharing it with me :)