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What We Read This Week (28/06/2025)

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Surprise! I suddenly had a braincell wake up last week and say, uh, the books post… you know it doesn’t have to be Sunday night…? Yeah. When I started this blog 4 years ago, C was 3 and E was a little tiny baby (S was “invisible”, or still a dream). There were piles of books that would form all over the place – sofa arms, coffee table, bedside tables – and I would aim to tidy them on Sunday evenings. A logical time to do a post about what books we had read that week was after I had tidied them all at the end of the week.

Fast forward to now, and for about a year now I have changed girls’ sheets and done a bedroom tidy and clean on Fridays. Fridays, because there had been too many occasions on Saturdays when I had gone in to change sheets and found a full-blown cubby in the making and if I needed to remove a quilt cover then that would mean full dismantling of the cubby and there would be tears so I wouldn’t change the sheets that day and so it became a Friday thing. E and S won’t build cubbies without C, who is at school on Fridays. So I have been cleaning and changing sheets and tidying away books and making notes of which books I am putting back on the bookshelf, but things can change. 

Yesterday, I did what I used to do. I took a photo of the books we had read, that were strewn across the floor, then put them on the bookshelf. Simple. Here they are.

Friends of the Unicorns, which came with the two main characters as toys. Ten Minutes to Bed: Where’s Father Christmas?, which is rather annoyingly missing its last flap with words. Goldilocks. Peppa Meets the Queen (groan – still). Where Did All The Dragons Go?, which is on an extended loan from neighbours who used to live in the house next door. I love this one. It definitely feels like an older book – think 80s or 90s, so “older” compared to this century – and has good rhyme and repetition that doesn’t go overboard or force the issue.

Then, Disney. The Misadventures of Heihei is one that was in an Advent calendar of books that the girls had a couple of years ago. Honestly, a wonderful buy. 24 books, all with substantial stories of what feels like outtakes of Disney movies. This one is a favourite of C, who will laugh so much she needs the toilet again. E chose it this week and her 4yo brain couldn’t follow and imagine quite so fully as C’s 7yo brain, so there were frequent fingers stopping the page turning and “Wait. Mummy. Go back”, followed by a question or 6. And the Ultimate Princess Treasury – see the benefits of a photo? Now I can tell the correct, actual title of “the big princess book” – has been a definite favourite this week. At least once a day – usually when I think she should be asleep but she has clearly missed a sleep train, but this has also happened at other times – I will find her on her bunk, leafing through the whole 250+ pages, intently checking illustrations. I have read each story to her at least once this week, too, and her questions are developing more into questions about character and reasons for doing things and personality.

C and I finished The Secret Garden on Monday night. This has been such a good book for us to read. Next book: Little Women. We are not far in, obviously, but already C has laughed and laughed and also been quite thoughtful as she takes in the situation. I am curious to see how she responds as the book develops. Not to mention, keen to reread this one as I think I was in early high school (or late primary school) when I read it. It’s been a while. Ahem.

What We Read This Week (22/06/2025)

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One of my favourite things from today was listening to C read to E, and listening to E be read to by C. It reminded me of the first day E was home from the hospital and, in the middle of the upheaval of a new person and visiting grandparents and new furniture to accommodate new person, I found C leaning over the side of the bassinet, “reading” (reciting as she knew it so well) Goldilocks quietly to E. This evening, E literally pulled up a chair to where C was, and C read The Book With No Pictures, and E let loose on her best laughs. They are loud, and joyful, and I will need to find better words to describe them but they are glorious. Then, as I nixed any further readings of THAT book as it was time for bath and bed and S was nearly asleep, C read a Rescue Princess book to E on the toilet. As you do. So S fell asleep listening to the calming sound of C reading quietly, which was rather nice, I must say. 

This week, I have also read (groan) Peppa Meets the Queen (groan) more times than I would like. Which, admittedly, means more than once or better yet, none, but still. Nightly seems to be the go. The book is nearly as annoying as the shows. So far E has remarked that the Queen is a person – which does actually seem odd in that animal universe – but has not yet commented on the placement of a fish tank on top of the TV. That gets me every time. Goldilocks has also been on high request rotation, and has been part of E’s calm down routine. Not the best-written version, but I can deal. 

I have also read Sleeping Beauty way more times than expected. Surprise! E seems to love this one. I love hearing my slightly-lispy 4-year-old have a crack at saying “Maleficent” multiple times in a 15-minute timeframe. This is one that I feel would not make it past the higher-ups these days. An arranged marriage plus waiting for a prince feels so old-fashioned. That said, every time it is mentioned that the princess is due to marry the prince on her 16th birthday, I comment about how young that is, and you never know. It might provoke some good conversations soon about child marriage and choices.

I have been steadily trying to make our place a bit nicer, and that resulted in a more obvious bookshelf. Seeing girls in front of it, contemplating, pulling out a book, sitting down and reading it, are all things that make my mummy heart happy. S spent rather a long time in the last few days just sitting and reading. Bluey books, mostly, so absolutely no complaints here.

C and I are sooo nearly finished The Secret Garden. I wasn’t expecting this when we started it, but it is helping us off screens. Not from the whole book reading instead of iPad time angle, but more from the content of the book, with children getting healthy from digging in the garden and spending their lives in the fresh air. 

Meanwhile, C’s preferred book to read before sleeping is (drumroll) … The Dictionary. For real. Which, honestly, is a great choice. No staying up to find out what happens next. No potentially scary plot points Just. Words. Best Christmas present ever, thank you very much.

Meal Prep Monday (16/06/2025)

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Friday and Saturday were fairly light on in the food preparation department. Cornflake cookies were made, which are apparently for me now. C, it turns out, doesn’t like the flavour of cornflakes, and E bit into a crunchy bit and hurt her mouth so apparently is never eating cornflakes or cookies ever again. Sigh. S has eaten some for me, but unless she spies the cookie jar, it will be Milo cereal for her. (Seriously. How do toddlers and preschoolers do this? She seems to eat nothing but Milo cereal and occasionally yoghurt. E had about 2 months when she was nearly 2 when I swear she just ate peanut butter and blackberries. That was an expensive time). To make up for the apparent cookie fail, on Sunday I made nut butter cookies and added chocolate chips to the tops and, guess what, nobody wants to eat them either. Make them without the chocolate chips and half the batch is scoffed as soon as fingers have braved the hot-from-the-oven cookie trays. It looks like I will be living on cookies this week.

Friday I also made a very healthy chocolate mousse then made it less healthy to make it more dessert-y and edible for girls. Thankfully, they had filled up on pizza dinner so I have chocolate hits ready to go in the fridge. Score.

Saturday was yet another flop which I will chalk up as future snacks. E was really wanting doughnuts so I finally made the (ultra healthy) jammy blueberry doughnuts from Jamie’s superfoods book for breakfast. It was a frustrating experience because I had neglected to soak our ordinary, not-expensive-Medjool, dates overnight, and also because we have a mere chopper and not a glorious food processor. I am debating whether I cave and buy one now in the sales or if I wait until the chopper dies then replace it. Hm. Decisions. It is definitely becoming more necessary. Anyway, there were leftovers. I have snacks.

Sunday was spent making the fail nut butter cookies, as well as doing hard boiled eggs, sandwiches, carrot oat slice, and what I think of as “Everything Balls”, or “Use it up slice”. This started off as the Eat This My Friend muesli bars and then I went crazy a few weeks ago and added a bunch of things that were needing to be used. You know. The 1/4 cup of almond meal. Tablespoon of walnuts. Slightly less than 1/3 cup chia seeds. The dregs of 4 different nut butter jars. Some sneaky powders of super greens or berry immunity. I mean, I started with the basic recipe and just embellished a bit. Squashed some into the mini muffin holes. Rolled some into balls. I thought for sure this would be a mummy-only treat, but before I knew it, S had demolished 4 balls. I kept meaning to cover them in chocolate but after not very long there didn’t seem to be much point. This weekend, though, I made sure to get the chocolate hit happening, so the minis are covered in a blob of chocolate and the balls are mostly half-covered, with a few glorious pieces entirely covered.

Delay in posting due to the futility of taking photos after 10pm. I’m glad I did this post, though, as I had totally forgotten about the doughnut snack option. I see there is a slight delay in work starting soooo first snack for the day is going to be a purple doughnut. 

Meal Prep Monday (09/06/2025)

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Three days. Three kids. Husband working. How much can I do.

The whole having kids and having a husband who works retail (so, weekends) has really hampered me getting into a lot of meal prep. All these people who post about their one hour on a Sunday when the dad takes to the kids to the park and the mum gets to meal prep and do the whole look at how much I made in an hour with no kids around and no distractions. Yeah. Good for you. Another factor is that Glenn loves to cook, so me not meal prepping much is fine because then what is he going to cook? Cooking is part of his destress and who am I to interfere with that.

This weekend I felt like I achieved a great deal. But I also felt that I was on my feet the entire time, and the one tiny bit of something for me that I wanted to do when the girls were playing – to sew two tiny bits on my skirt to secure the elastic at the waist – was ruined. I mean, I had to remove the needle and the foot and then do a deep extraction on the material, all because of girls fighting. The fighting that needs a grownup to intervene so we don’t have the kind of chaos and hospital trip that has the authorities involved and asking, where was the responsible adult in this. Ahem.

That said, much of what I did on Sunday – where we didn’t go to church because S was getting to the level of Snot Monster again and clearly needed a rest day – was accompanied by S sitting quietly on the kitchen floor next to me, pulling out the Christmas cupcake cups, lining them up, returning them to the tube, repeating. Or playing with the magnets on the fridge. It was very calming, if a little tripping hazard.

In my chocolate chip cookie post, I said to start it as early as possible. I started my mix last weekend and couldn’t progress with them until Friday. That is, I think, the longest between start and finish for me so far. We also had a three spotty bananas in the fruit bowl, and Glenn and I both held out on buying more bananas while there were spotty bananas. Three bananas is perfect for my new favourite snack, “4 ingredient” peanut butter banana cups. Which, despite the presence of a topping of chocolate chips, are apparently unappealing to my girls so they are all mine. Score. Also on Friday I made a batch of veggie pizza muffins, mostly for me for lunches. Italian herb seasoning has resulted in a very faint suggestion of spiciness so that’s a guaranteed return with grumpy face if I try to pack it in C’s lunchbox. 

Saturday morning I had a dinner panic. I wasn’t taking girls to the shops. We were meeting Glenn at his work in the afternoon and planning a little trip to South Bank.  The South Bank bit didn’t eventuate because everyone was exhausted but still, I knew we would be out and then home needing dinner and I had no idea what to feed girls. I found a recipe for chickpea nuggets. Perfect. Of course, when they were done and cooled and I was looking for a spot for them in the fridge, I found what would be a much better dinner option – chicken drumsticks and rice leftover from a recent dinner hit. Nuggets are destined for the freezer and an emergency meal. 

A new loaf of bread meant a new batch of sandwiches for the freezer, cut into love heart shapes because I love her and she maybe needs to have more reminders of that. And at 2am I remembered that I hadn’t prepped overnight oats so yes, I did that at 2am while everybody else slept, thank goodness. There was so much I didn’t get to do, but seeing all of this really does boost my sense of achievement. 

Top left: chocolate chip cookies. Top right: veggie pizza muffins (large and small). Bottom left: chickpea nuggets. Bottom right: love heart peanut butter sandwiches.

Meal Prep Monday (02/06/2025)

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I am inspired. One of my Facebook friends shares, it seems, everything that she makes for lunches and treats and dinners, and every single photo is terrible and unappetising. A page I follow, on the other hand, shares what she eats and what she makes for healthy everything, and everything looks fantastic and healthy and an Anna Thing To Eat. In my “I can do that, too” mentality, and with the amount of food prep that actually happens Friday-Sunday (usually), I now plan to do a roundup of that on Mondays for you. You’re welcome. Actually it’s also part of me reminding myself of achievements. If I feel like I’ve just been opening yoghurt pouches and doing the washing and chopping up oranges and doing the washing and separating squabbling children and doing the washing and sorting the washing and doing more washing, noting the other things really helps. Yes, I did all those other things too, but now I also have a record of the snacks and other things prepared. Lots of them include chocolate chips.

Friday normally gets me baking something but we had stuff to do so, no. Saturday morning, though, I baked sweet potato and apple oatmeal, sweet potato and banana chocolate chip bread, and “4 ingredient peanut butter banana bars”. That’s in quotes because, as is so often the case with recipes with a small number of ingredients, whoever did the recipe didn’t actually count. Out of bananas, peanut butter, vanilla, oats, salt, baking powder and chocolate chips, some of those are clearly more special than others. I am not, however, game to omit any. And also, I couldn’t find the silicone loaf pan I wanted so as the recipe makes 6-8 bars, I used a 6-hole silicone muffin pan and I will be making these again. New favourite, despite the lack of accountability (ha pun).

You may have noticed a theme with both bananas and sweet potato. We suddenly had a glut of 12 very ripe (black) bananas. Although I love Our Go-To Banana Bread, I had made it recently as bread and muffins and mini muffins and there was only so much I could take. With recent baking and Saturday’s baking, I cleared the build-up just in time for a fresh bunch to start going spotty. Good times. The sweet potato was from our farm box. Not the most recent one. The one a fortnight before that. I didn’t weigh it, but it was about the size of a toddler’s torso. Glenn used some in a couple of meals. I reserved some for baked oatmeal and then had enough to try this bread as well. The bread is fantastic and will be made again.

Less exciting meal prep but very necessary meal prep happens on Sunday evening. If we have eggs, I hard boil four of them. C and I both enjoy them during the day. Everyone else does, too, but E and S are not so adept at peeling or biting without the egg bouncing away. I also do a batch of overnight oats which will do me for three breakfasts. I did not do either of those things for a few weekends in a row and I was really feeling it. Mornings were a bit more rushed. Snacks were a little less varied and less protein-rich. I’m back on track now, though, and much relieved.

Top left: Sweet potato and apple baked oatmeal https://thenaturalnurturer.com/baked-apple-sweet-potato-oatmeal/

Top right: Sweet potato and banana bread https://thenaturalnurturer.com/sweet-potato-banana-bread/

Bottom left: “4 ingredient peanut butter banana bars” https://sammibrondo.com/peanut-butter-banana-bars/

Bottom right: hard boiled eggs. I draw on them so we know they’re boiled and not not-boiled. I am not good at drawing flowers.

What We Read This Week (01/06/2025)

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This week was a bit of magic. 

S’s choice to look at in her cot before sleep was (drumroll)… the dictionary. Yup. My First Dictionary that we gave to C for Christmas sits on the bookshelf next to S’s cot. One night S was clearly done with Pig Out (although, this was wasn’t Monday night so let’s add that one to the list again) and she pulled off the shelves and into her cot a bunch of C’s chapter books. They were all leafed through with the attitude of someone who has actually read these all before and they’re just looking for a favourite part or something, then she pulled down the dictionary. She was set. It has more pictures than a grownup dictionary, of course, but also no narrative contained within those pictures. Maybe she liked feeling like a big girl. Maybe seeing lots of words was soothing for her. Maybe the different feel of the pages and the sound they made when she turned them gave her a bit of a sensory hit. Whatever it was, that was her preferred nighttime reading. 

E’s top choice for the week was The Magic Beach by Alison Lester. Given to C a few years ago, it’s never made it to the favourite-story-please-read-it-every-night-for-two-months stage. I love it, though, and am delighted that E chose it one evening. And totally quizzed me over one of the imagination pictures and where are the mum and dad are they the king and queen where are they are they down there what are they doing down there are they drowning? These questions, of course, are asked for this particular page every single time now.

I also got it into my head yesterday that my three girls who all love mermaids hadn’t read Three Little Mermaids for a while. As Glenn had been using AI and technology to make the girls into mermaids and then messaged me the videos of each of them turning into a mermaid, my morning had a large chunk of it taken up by me playing said videos to girls. I started to look for the book, which meant a teensy bit of reorganisation of the kids’ bookshelf in the living area, which meant other books were rediscovered and read as I was searching. S had a bit of time looking and flinging books in my pile. E had a couple of moments of “Here it is!” So I also read her Good Night, Sleep Tight by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek – which was one of those above favourite category books for a while, and for good reason, and yesterday I read the horse riding part multiple times for E and an insistent S – as well as (groan) Peppa Pig Meets the Queen. Yes. We have a Peppa Pig book. Yes. I admit (cringe) that I even bought it for the family. Yes. The books are just as annoying as the show. No. I “forgot” to read it to her again at bedtime.

Then Three Little Mermaids was found and read and gathered around and oohed and ahhhhed over and “wait mummy go back” and “which mermaid is me” declared. Three Little Mermaids is in that special category of book. There’s rhyme – not forced rhyme, but lovely rhyme – and there’s repetition. There’s adventure. There’s a little bit of sea creature education. There’s the chance for grownups in the book to get frustrated at misbehaving children. There are – maybe I should have led with this – beautiful illustrations, that happen to be by someone Glenn knows. Whenever I come across a Lisa Stewart illustrated book, it’s an instant Yes for buying it. This one, however, Lisa sent to our girls specially with a beautiful inscription for them.

Further to the magic has been C reading Disney Princess Stories to E at bedtime tonight. So much magic in Disney! And Disney stories don’t skimp. If you are asked to read a Disney story, you are in for a lot of words. Which is great. And if the listener is familiar with the movie version, then don’t even think about skipping a few pages. It. Won’t. Work. Thankfully, C was happy reading stories to E tonight so I could do things like … type this. 

C and I are about halfway through The Secret Garden now, and C is in the stage of getting so excited about what happens in the story, and what is suggested might be coming soon, that she will kick her legs or jump like a frog or an excited kitten. We’ve also had a look at pictures of some fancy estates in England to give her an idea of the sort of neat and ordered garden is in this setting. As she is telling me how she is imagining some of the characters, I will be holding off on showing her any Pride and Prejudice until we have finished the book. I don’t want to ruin any magic.

Busy

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I have been busy. Things I have wanted to maintain have slipped a little. I have five or six posts begun but not continued. Sometimes they are begun and then I don’t get to the checking it stage before it really is too late to post it. Sometimes they are begun and I just don’t get to continue.

There has been a lot more work. This is good. This is also maybe slightly less good. Good because it reduces the financial stress considerably. Pay for me is dependent on how many words I type, so this work is not necessarily necessary but it definitely helps a lot. Pay rate for me is also assessed and reevaluated every four months, and word count is a part of that. As I only work four days, the extra work I’m getting kind of equates to an almost extra day and so bumps up my ranking. 

Extra work is maybe slightly less good, though, because I am now working a lot. C taking foorrrreeevvvvvveerrrrr to go to bed at night makes it harder, and I don’t want to keep saying “I have work to do” for her to be convinced to go to bed. Not that what I want or need makes any difference to her willingness to go to bed, of course, but language is important, and I don’t want the soundtrack of her childhood to be “I have to work”. I’m not keen for “We can’t afford that”, either, but I’ll work on phrases. More work also means less time to think and to write for this blog and to sew and to crochet. Right now the balance is in favour of work in order to relieve the financial stress but it is on the cusp.

Another big factor in reduction of my writing is children. Yes. Children. I wake at 5 for this (or work). S has been waking often just after 4 and insisting I sleep on the floor in their room which is fine but then I wake just before 5 and want to be in my bed for a bit and then I sleep right through the 5am alarm and then there’s the 5.30 alarm and E is then wanting me to hold her hand and then we’re kind of at 6am and I might have made my cup of tea by then but now E is up and wanting to either be on me and help or wanting to watch something which is lovely but distracting and often S is needing something around this time too so I am left with a full cold cup of tea and needing to go on a walk but it now has to be a short walk and should I even bother or should I try for a kettlebell workout later on. If work is due or if I have a lot of it to do, then that will win over any writing or exercise. 

Still, there is always hope. The last two weeks I have not really done any work Thursday night or Friday or Saturday and then Sunday night has been the first for some extra work and then I have slogged it out until Thursday morning. This week will be different. Small portions creates more balance. I plan on having some time not working – Thursday night was free, and Friday morning and most likely Friday night. The weekend, though, will have just a little bit in the mornings and evenings in order to keep this as a bit instead of taking over my life for four days. That’s the hope. 

Right. Where’s that kettlebell.

What We Read This Week (25/05/2025)

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Those bedtimes. Those bedtimes I go into as a fool, with the thought, “Well, she’s so tired she’s sure to sleep soon”. HA. Never. Ever. Happens. And you would think I would know this now, as I have been doing this mum-doing-bedtime-with-at-least-one-child thing for over seven years. But apparently I just don’t learn. The only time I have that thought and the child DOES fall asleep quickly is when I get the child to the bed and have to leave for some small thing and when I return, they are in dreamland already.

But that is rare. And not a guarantee, so I’m unlikely to change up the bedtime patterns for that. I digress. This week has seen a lot of the initial above thought. She’s so tired… She’s not that well so even though she napped at daycare, it was the ideal nap – early and short – so that shouldn’t affect things, should it? It does, of course. E and C have needed all of the help to get to sleep this week, and after the initial phase – into bed, do you need this, do you want that, okay off to sleep now – one of them has asked or insisted on a story. 

S is still into “my piggy book” – Pig Out – with it’s cut-out middle and squishy snout and funny-coloured animals and a hairdryer. It seems to have overtaken the Never Pop a Penguin contender for now. Yesterday she also found the “Baa baa book” – another sensory book with fluffy animals in it, the name of which escapes me and she has taken it somewhere special, I see, because it is not where I thought.

E has been really loving – again – The Very Hungry Caterpillar. In fact, loving it so much that on Friday, she put it into her “supercase” (suitcase) with her most treasured possessions – her new chew necklaces and three of daddy’s bandannas. Little Red Riding Hood has also been a favourite, and she will give tremendous spoilers on every page, as well as describe the wolf in great detail every time he is in a picture, and give running commentary on how Little Red Riding Hood’s mother must feel after various events. Honestly, it’s like she’s been to a combination pantomime audience class and spoiler academy. Her other choice this week has been Ruby Red Shoes, which is one of the best choices for bedtime for my girls. It calms them AND me. Today, as I was baking and girls were keeping themselves occupied, I heard her ask C to read it to her. C did not (cubby building was underway) so E did her best to read the story, based on her memory of it and the pictures. Absolutely delightful.

C has been independently reading everything she can, it seems, as the Premier’s Reading Cup challenge is on again. Plus, she is taking this opportunity to read all of the books we have, it seems, to her big ted, Gus. She and I are still reading The Secret Garden. This week C really started to be invested in the story, and if I dare to end a chapter and say that’s it for the night, she gets really upset to the point of a tantrum. She has definitely moved on from the stage of listening with curiosity to this story set in a strange time in a strange world, to being very much in that world and making predictions of what might be coming next and dreaming about what it is like in the garden. 

The Table

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[Trumpet fanfare]Dooo doo doo DOOOO! As mentioned in the Mother’s Day post, the cloth tablecloth has been reinstated, and placemats introduced.

Thank you.

You may be perceptive enough to realise that this is a big deal for me. For a few years, we have used plastic tablecloths and only an occasional placemat. Plastic tablecloths are fantastic. Spray and wipe clean. Ready craft area. Ready craft material, too, apparently. Girls drawing on the tablecloth? Cool, look at that pattern – and did you just draw a letter? Wow! Girls practising their scissor skills on the tablecloth? Meh, it’s fine. Gee, this tablecloth is looking a bit terrible – that’s okay, let’s chuck it out and buy a new one. 

The environmental impact of us using plastic tablecloths was outweighed by the reduction in my stress levels. It was on the same level as using silicone plates and bowls for small children, and having my hot drink in a metal insulated cup instead of a grownup lovely ceramic cup. Things change when you have kids around. They can change back, but there is a time of life when you want to be surrounded by non-breakable, wipe-clean stuff.

Given the amount of craft and colouring and especially cutting that happens at our table on any given day, it didn’t seem to be such a good idea to move away from the plastic. But. Plastic can only be cleaned so much. It starts to wear out. Cleaning the area near where S sits was getting – well, impossible to clean. And it feels like she is nearly always at least a little bit unwell. Plus, plastic tablecloths are not circular, so the tablecloth would often be pushed around as C would try to get the dangling corner to stop tickling her legs (which I totally understand).

About a month ago, I made the decision. No more. It was time for us to progress – or regress? To ditch the plastic and go back to cloth. Ahhhhh. And I wanted placemats for everyone, to have at least a little protection for the tablecloth. I could have bought some. I could have made boring rectangular ones. But I have this pattern for leaf blankets which comes in different northern European leaf shapes and different sizes. I have made a leaf blanket for each girl, and I thought doing tiny sizes would be a fun placemat idea.

I was right. 

Now we have English Ivy leaves adorning our table. I have used fabric from the extensive stash, including using shorts that Glenn has worn that didn’t last. I am annoyed the shorts didn’t last but I’m so glad I can sew and save the material. Because my plan is to definitely definitely on Sunday evening clear the table and bundle up the tablecloth and the placemats, I knew I needed a second tablecloth and placemat set. Another set of stash-busting ivy leaves were made (slightly differently this time because they’re placemats not actual blankets). A little detail that makes me smile (and C absolutely loves) is that for the first set, I machine-embroidered EAT on the leaf stalks, and on the second set I put MANGE, as C and I are learning French. For the second tablecloth, though, I chose not to get out our lovely linen handprinted wedding present tablecloth. Instead, I bought a checked rectangular tablecloth from Kmart for $10, measured the diameter of our round table, added a bit for overhang and a bit more for hemming, and cut a circle out of the cloth. Bonus: I will be able to cut another circle to fit our table out of this cloth. 

My Sunday evening plan worked. Table cleared. Floor swept. Tablecloth and placemats bundled up and into the laundry for Monday morning washing. New tablecloth and placemats on the table. Monday morning, cereal and hot chocolates with marshmallows for girls… and of course, seeing S about to knock over her hot chocolate, my brain said, “Save the hot chocolate!” Yes. I spilt the hot chocolate all over the fresh everything. Sigh. Everything was washed and dried that day, though, so now we have slightly crumpled ivy leaves on a slightly crumpled, fraying-because-I-haven’t-hemmed-it yet-checked tablecloth. 

abThis has actually been almost ready to post since the middle of the week. I really wanted to take at least one nice photo, but haven’t managed to catch any nice photos of either set. I’m going to put that in the Too Hard (for now) Basket, and promise to share them here as well as on instagram as soon as there are some ready to share. Promise.

Mother’s Day 2025

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We’ve just had How Was Your Easter. How was your Mother’s Day is really the next event that has a question posed that expects a positive and glowing rundown.  And while Easter has an expectation that the whole family or friendship group has worked together to make it an amazing four days, Mother’s Day … well, it’s different. How was your Mother’s Day expects pampering; expects sweet cards and pictures; expects the whole family to make mum feel special; chocolates and flowers and fluffy slippers and breakfast in bed.

I think it must be that way only in magazines and dysfunctional families. Not the classic dysfunctional family of split parents or addiction abuse. No, the dysfunctional family of a parent being overwhelmingly controlling to the point that everyone does what they say no matter what.

What a start to a post about Mother’s Day. Sorry. What I mean is, there’s what society puts forward as what should happen, and social media presents as amazing, and then there’s the reality of Family Life. One of my new favourite Instagram accounts shared a video to this effect. Paraphrasing a small part: Breakfast in bed, made by the kids, is meant to make me relax? Thanks, but I will be on high alert as you carry hot liquids up the stairs as I have not known you to go anywhere without spilling anything.

A lot of media brings out the old trope of mums can’t relax because they have to still clean everything because the kids and husband are useless and incapable. That’s getting so old and, quite frankly, offensive. I grew up surrounded by males – a dad, two older brothers and a younger brother. Various levels of weight was pulled at different times for all sorts of reasons, but we all are capable of cooking, cleaning and washing. Modelling is important, and this is not just thanks, mum but also thanks, dad. And I married someone later in life who was so used to doing his own cooking, cleaning and washing that both of us were a bit surprised when I moved in that someone else had done the washing or the cooking or the cleaning. We soon settled into our preferred roles within that, but I knew that when I went into hospital to have babies or because of Covid or because of an explosive postpartum infection that he would be able to keep the place and the children together.

But on a deeper level, that old mum can’t relax because the dad is useless thing just – well, yes. I accept that for some or even many relationships it’s like that. Expectations are important, and mental load for each party is important and not talked about enough. I am getting so sidetracked here. The point is, good relationships are built on love. If I love someone, I will do what I can to help them. If someone loves me, they will do what they can to help me. So yes. On Mother’s Day, I may have the option of putting my feet up a bit more, but I’m not going to be happy lounging around all day while everyone else serves me. 

Also in the real world, more and more people can’t have the whole day as a big family unit. Glenn works in retail. The retail world rarely pauses, and Glenn was working on Sunday. A relaxed breakfast would have had to have started at (doing some quick mental calculations here) um maybe 6am or so, and would not have been at all relaxing for him and therefore me if he had had girls helping him. They’re each becoming quite capable and definitely enthusiastic kitchen helpers but all at once – I know from chaotic experience that that is not going to be a relaxing start to anyone’s day. And Glenn doesn’t need any extra stress in his life, and definitely not when he’s trying to make my day a nice day and definitely definitely not before he has to go to work. Instead, he bought my favourite celebration breakfast (croissants) the day before and I organised the heating up and the cups of tea and the hot chocolates while Glenn and E organised the bandanna-wrapping of my presents.

I’m not sure if everyone is aware of just how sweet young kids can be when giving a present to someone. They are bursting out of their skin with excitement, especially if they are unaware of what’s inside, and also very much so if they DO know what’s inside. Little hands holding a gift up to your nose and saying “Happy Mother’s Day”, or in the case of S, “Happy birthday, mummy” is one of life’s sweet pleasures that I know won’t be forever. Glenn had taken the girls shopping on Saturday afternoon and apparently they were not only beautifully behaved, but also very thoughtful when choosing gifts for me. The big joke was that they would give me a hairdryer. S is in a very black and white phase right now. (“Are you a cheeky chops?” “NO! I’M S!”) After they had shopped, Glenn asked her, “Did we buy mummy a hairdryer?” And she looked at him, utterly bewildered, and shook her head. What planet was he on?! “Is it a nice pink hairdryer for Mother’s Day?” Vigorous shaking of the head. No hairdryer for me, but a number of pampering items as well as crafty things and soft slippers. This is one happy mummy.

We are finally in an era where C is old enough and capable enough and thoughtful enough to pamper me. She was rather fixated in her mind about what was going to happen, and I had to steer/direct her away from having all of us doing day spas with our feet in water in the (carpeted) living room, but we could come around to agreement. She and I stuck our fingers in little dipping pots and our feet in bowls of water on towels in the girls’ room and scrubbed and brushed to our heart’s content while having mummy-daughter chats. This is going to happen more. E came in and did a bit of wild 4yo joining in, and S came in for a cuddle. Later on, S did her own personal day spa in the bedroom and was not quite so careful with the water.

C and E helped me make the red velvet mug cake which we then had for morning tea. Girls watched movies and shows and did jigsaw puzzles and water painting and craft and the day travelled along nicely. We had a FaceTime with my mum (and dad) in which girls were lovely, and didn’t get into mischief in the background, and didn’t bicker in the background, and didn’t go crazy, but engaged in conversation with my parents and were their actual delightful selves and no-one jumped on anyone else’s head this time. 

Glenn didn’t have a whole day at work, and after prepping dinner for me, he had a rest while girls played together (I know!) and, it turns out, independently, as S turned on the water filter with no cup underneath the spout and just watched the water and listened to the sound of the water hitting the tiles until the kitchen floor was mostly covered in water before E went in and I heard “S! What are you DOING!” So yay for responsible big sisters and just enough towels in the cupboard to soak up the flood. This is why you can’t go to the toilet or do ANYTHING with a toddler around. Still, once that was dealt with, I could do some quick sewing (I know!). I was going to gush about the sewing project but it is honestly enough for its own post so suffice it to say that I made a set of placemats and we are back to using a cloth tablecloth. I brought out my special chair so we could all eat together at the table for dinner. My special chair was made by my grandfather, who was a carpenter, and it is beautiful. I explained to the girls (who hadn’t really seen or noticed it before) that it was special for me, and that my grandfather made it. At least three times a day since then, S has relayed to me that my grandpa made it for me. This brings happy tears to my eyes every time, especially as she looks most like his wife, my grandma.

So. Was I brought breakfast in bed and pampered and showered in flowers and able to relax on the sofa all day with beautifully behaved children and surrounded by beautiful extended family all celebrating motherhood? No. Would I ever want that? No. My life is not a magazine photo shoot, or a cartoon, or so self-centred that I want everyone to serve me and coddle me while I have no thought to anyone else’s comfort or wellbeing or mental state or their life at all. That’s not what motherhood is about, so a day where that is what it is made to be is simply hypocrisy. I know that next year or the year after, C will most likely have formed the idea that she must make me breakfast in bed and she must have her sisters help her, but it will be a far less stressful experience for everyone then and the idea of working together will be more important than making the day like a magazine shoot. In the long run, what do we want to remember? The stress of hearing everyone fighting over making your life perfect, or running around after you while they get stressed? No. A kitchen flood brought on by a 2yo experiencing something sensory? Yes, please. A gift that “wasn’t good enough”? Absolutely not, not ever. Cards made with love, unprompted, by children for you that you can keep forever? Oh my goodness me all of the yes. 

As a side note, I am about five days late in posting this. Not that I have a deadline or a real schedule, but there is a limit on how much after Mother’s Day one can post about Mother’s Day. The last few weeks have been wild, with at least three sick people in the family on any given day. I had hardly any voice on Saturday and absolutely none on Sunday. Nights have been unsettled, and dealing with sick children at 2am, 3.40am, 4.08am, 4.26am and 4.58am usually means I don’t wake up in time to do anything before exercising, or that I don’t even wake up to exercise before girls need breakfast. I feel a little bit smashed but here’s to getting back on track, at least for a few days.