a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

It was mine and Hubs' wedding anniversary yesterday. 4 years ago, we committed our lives to each other and it has already been quite a journey for us. We have moved house 4 times, have met dozens of new people, made many new friends, and have grown in our love and respect for each other. Oh, and have had a little baby, which is kind of important to mention :-)

We still reminisce about our wedding day quite a lot - it was the best day ever!

The only thing that's missing? A wedding album. But we'll get around to that someday, right Hubs? Looking forward to many more wonderful memories to be made.

Posted by Renae at 11:03 AM Comments

To say that Hubs loves scones would be an understatement. He loves scones. When our lovely neighbour made some the other week, Hubs devoured them and claimed they were the best scones he'd ever had. So when we had said lovely neighbour over for dinner last night, I asked what her recipe was.

She reminded me of Nanny when she told me she had to recipe. You just start with about 2 cups of self-raising flour, and add the right amount of butter, a couple of spoons of icing sugar, an egg, some very cold cream and chopped dates. Her tips were to just use a knife to stir (handling as little as possible) and use a very hot oven - about 240 degrees. Also, if it's an electric oven, cook the scones on the bottom shelf, and if it's gas, cook on the top.

Seeing as how I'd never made scones before, I thought I'd give it a go, as Hubs has his first exam this week and I wanted to do something extra nice for him.

I didn't have dates so I substituted with craisins. That reminds me of one of our favourite moments in the TV show My Family, where Susan is cooking dinner (she is not known for her skills in the kitchen) and she says "I'm cooking Duck a l'orange. But I didn't have any duck so I used mince. And I didn't have any oranges so I used pears." Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Anyway. Back to the scones. This is how the mixture looked:

It wasn't until I had put them on the tray that I realised I'd forgotten the egg. And the icing sugar. But I figured they looked pretty good, so I'd give them a go. What do you think?


They were very very light and fluffy and quite delicious, even if I do say so myself! We had them straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and a cup of coffee, sitting on our deck. Chanbe even liked them!

As I was sitting there, enjoying our view, I thought to myself once again how lucky I have been to have had Hubs around so much in the last 12 months. A lot of people say to us how hard it must be with Hubs studying full time, and not having an income. And as much as it sucks not having money most of the time, having Hubs around to see Chanbe's first year, and to give me sleep-ins and a cooked breakfast a few mornings a week, and to be able to have 3 meals a day together a lot of the time, and and and and... well it's worth being broke for a while. Hubs has 1 more year of full-time study, and then it will be a totally different ball game. But I'm looking forward to the challenges that will bring.

Posted by Renae at 10:39 AM Comments

Here's cheers to the first year of parenthood! It gets easier from now on, right? :-)

And here's cheers to my 600th post! I'm currently trying to make scones for the first time ever. And I just realised I forgot to add the egg. Oh well! We'll see how they go...

Posted by Renae at 9:16 AM Comments

No, it's not a new fragrance coming out, just in time for Christmas. It's this photo:

This is my son. I look at this photo, and I see him. I really see him. The smirk, the look in his eyes, the fact that I can see him as a teenager. I see his soul in this photo. I can't stop looking at it. This is the first time I've really realised who this person is, and who he is becoming. It's quite a revelation for me. We have so many more good times to come.

Posted by Renae at 9:43 AM Comments

(Warning: This post may contain clichés.)

Chanbe turned one yesterday. Where has the time gone? (I warned you!) Actually, I know exactly where it has gone, and we have enjoyed it so much. Chanbe woke up at 6am yesterday - we all wake up early on our birthday, right? - but I wasn't quite ready to get up so we had a play in the spare bed and by 7 he had drifted back to sleep! We didn't get up until 8:30 so we were all rested for our big day to come.

Chanbe had a birthday breakfast of home-made (of course) berry pancakes.

We then headed to church for lots of cuddles and kisses and birthday wishes. And then it was time for the party! Well, just a small BBQ with a couple of families from the medical centre where Hubs works. It had been raining all day Friday and Saturday (and most of the night too!) but Sunday was beautiful. The kids played in the playground (and the mud) and it was so nice to be outside after being couped up for 2 days.


Not my best effort, but the cake was delish! We had a gluten-free requirement, so it's a flourless chocolate cake. Really quite delectable. There were no candles, but there were kids and party hats so that more than made up for it!

Posted by Renae at 8:50 AM Comments

Last time I blogged, I was listening to my baby scream while Hubs tried to settle him, without me intervening with a feed. So many times I nearly went in to "help" but I knew this would just mean a step back in our progress. I lay in bed, reading my Australian Breastfeeding Association book, telling myself that it was going to be okay. I finally tried to go to sleep, with a pillow over my head and was dozing off when I heard Hubs come into bed.

It was 12:30. Chanbe was crying for 2 hours. It was so hard and heartbreaking, but we're just getting so desperate.

Then last night he was really tired when we put him to bed, and he went down quite easily. We heard him wake up at 9:30pm and Hubs went in. I was ready to go the long haul again, but Chance settled straight away and Hubs was back out in 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES!!!! I know I know. I shouldn't get too excited. Shouldn't get my hopes up. But it really was exciting.

Then nap time came (very early) this morning, around 9:15am. He'd been up since 6:15 so it was understandable. It took me 20minutes of wrestling and rocking and patting and singing, but I did it. I was very proud of myself for being so calm.

It's now 11:25 and he's still asleep. This is a very good start to the day.

We are heading to Wang tonight til Thursday, then we'll be in MB for the weekend (Chanbe's birthday on Sunday!) and all next week, and then we have a bit of to-ing and fro-ing to do before we leave for our road trip to Brisbane on Wednesday the 7th December.

Oh, and Hubs has 2 exams and a presentation to do as well! It's going to be crazy busy, and it'll be interesting to see how the sleeping goes while we're away, but we can only try.

Update: Chanbe slept til 11:55! Woo hoooooo!

Posted by Renae at 9:55 AM Comments

Yes this is a post about breastfeeding. And lack of sleep. Just letting you know.

I have successfully weaned Chanbe off his daytime feeds, with only his post-dinner feed remaining. Night-time feeds, however, have been a bit trickier. He's used to waking up, getting boob, then going back to sleep. It's worked for him for almost 12 months now, so why should he expect any change?

Because Mama needs more sleep, that's why.

I've been able to put him to sleep during the day a couple of times without having to resort to a feed, which I've been really happy with, but when he wakes up at night, (ie 11pm, 1am, 3am, 5am etc) it's a different story. So far, I haven't even tried dropping those feeds, as it would just mean lots of tears (mostly mine) and too much of a disruption to an already crazy routine. The theory is, there will be 3-7 rough nights, but then they learn that they don't need boob to go back to sleep, and they start to "self settle".

It's those 3-7 rough nights that we haven't been able to commit to as yet.

I just spent 15 minutes trying to settle Chanbe by rocking, singing, patting etc, but he knows what he wants, and doesn't understand why, after having it for so long, he's suddenly being cut off. Hubs came to the rescue, and I can currently hear the whistle from the Sleepy Train starting off. I'm really hoping it works, as Chanbe is getting himself into quite a state.

I'm not a fan of controlled-crying, but somehow this is supposed to be different - you're with them the whole time so you are able to comfort them, but it still breaks my heart. We have committed ourselves to the 3-7 nights once we arrive in Brisbane and have settled in for a few days. The idea is, that Hubs tends to him during the night, and when he realises there's no boob to be had, he won't wake up anymore. The reason we can't do it now, is that Hubs is coming into exams and really can't afford to lose the sleep.

So the question is, does this really work? Or, more importantly, after a year of interrupted sleep, will it work for us!!??

Posted by Renae at 10:44 PM Comments

Ha! As if my life resembles any type of normality!

Mum and Dad left 2 hours ago, and in that time I've had to do things I haven't done in 2 weeks, like get up before 10am, do the washing up, put Chanbe to sleep, get the washing in...

Now don't judge. I'm not entirely lazy or useless, except when my Mum is around. I think since I've had Chanbe, whenever Mum is around I digress back into being the child (not "a" child :-)), wanting to be looked after. And Mum and Dad do that so well! Since they arrived, they have been doing pretty much everything around the house - cooking, washing, cleaning up, getting up to Chance in the morning, feeding him his meals, changing nappies, putting him down for naps etc etc.

I don't just sit around taking advantage of their generosity, obviously, but I certainly have time to rest that I don't normally have. And they insist! I guess I get a taste of what it's like to have family around when you're raising a family, and it's nice. Really nice. I have been feeling like my old self again - rested, relaxed, not so stressed.

It was hard to say goodbye this morning, especially seeing the look on Chance's face when his Gran and Grumpy drove away, but we'll be in Brisbane in 3 weeks so that's something to look forward to.

I really do hope that we settle down one day close to family and friends.

Posted by Renae at 10:22 AM Comments