Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Life is just stupid busy as always - Jase and I have our tag team parenting down pat. We compare our diaries and bargain for late nights at work or work trips interstate versus picking up the girls from daycare and putting the animals down for the night. We sit next to each other keeping each other company as we tap away on our laptops until late in the night getting extra work done, so much less of a chore when you have company. We order our groceries online, have a cleaner to help keep the house sparkly and swap weekend minding duties so that we can enjoy our own time for me to horseride, see friends or have beauty treatments and for Jase to work on the gardens, read the newspaper and so on. Its a great balance and we have it sorted.

But.... every now and then, the wheels can fall off the wagon. For me it has been over my best friend. We talk once a week on a Thursday evening - well, I have gotten to Saturday and all of a sudden realised that Thursday has been and gone and I have not phoned my friend, totally forgotten her in fact. Urrghh, not great. But not the end of the world, right? Well I have done it three weeks in a row. Each time assuring her that I will ring. Bad friend badge for me please.

It is quite a sickening feeling, when you realise you are so busy that you have lost track of two days of the week and all of a sudden Thursday lunchtime has become Saturday. Not only that, but you have totally forgotten someone dear to you.

So I remind myself that life is rich and full and every minute is packed with learning, laughs and challenges and dropping the ball is only human. I would take my busy life over the inanities of a hundrum quiet life anyday so its all worth it. Now to set my phone alarm for next Thursday....

Change was in the air in the last few days, or so it seems. All of a sudden, the days are getting longer, the air is warmer and I can feel the winter gloom lifting.

Both Elka and I seperately decided it was time to for a style update.

Elka's came first - she spotted a hairdresser whilst we were at the shops and she demanded a haircut. A short haircut. Now she has the most stunning long hair - tresses that people never fail to comment on, so thick and so long it reaches right down her back. Admittedly it is a nightmare to care for and she hates having to stay still while I tend to the knots and food caught in it and try to tame it into something presentable. I hesitated, does a three year old have the say over what her hairtyle should be? As her mother, I loathed the idea of cutting of her gorgeous hair, but was it my decision? She picks her clothes,her shoes and how her hair is worn every day anyway...

I decided that it was her call and we headed into the salon. Even the hairdresser was sad to have to cut such lovely hair. But Elka was adament and sat perfectly still for the 15 minutes it took. She loves it and hasn't complained once since. I must admit, after her swimming lesson today, there was no snagged long hair to brush out and she looks tidy and groomed.









Not to be left out, I decided for a change today when I got a few hours of pampering. My wonderful hairdresser who has spent the last few visits patiently lightening my hair from chocolate brown to honey brown, managed not to look put out when I said I wanted to do an about face and make my hair red. And did a wonderful job. Alas the picture doesn't do the cut or colour justice but you get the jist. I love a new hair colour, all your clothes look different and you embrace different colours!

Jase is acting in a pretty important position for work currently - so he spent Sunday morning in the office. The girls and I tagged along for a free trip to the city and we spent Sunday morning in Myer ;)

Made me feel a bit like a kept woman really - him working, me spending. Except as anyone would know that reads this blog - I also plug away hard at my career and in fact had only arrived home late Friday night from a work trip to Sydney. But anyway I lived the fantasy for a few hours.

It was close to a perfect shopping experience - the girls were angels in the double pram, happily sitting for two hours whilst I did circuits, the sales were incredible and I found clothes that I wanted and even better in my size! I had spent a long plane trip pouring over my latest Shop Till You Drop magazine so I had some strong ideas of looks I wanted to achieve for this transeasonal time (Sorry colder parts of Australia but here in Qld I am already moving into my late-winter,early-spring mood).

Some of my inspiration currently is drawn from the dancer trend

The skater style shirt skirt worn with oversized knitted see through jumpers is something that I wanted to try.... and I found the perfect jumper in a lovely dusky pink. I saw plenty of skirts too but none that were quite right yet.

I grabbed a great navy and white striped cotton scarf with a bow pattern printed over it - I am such a sucker for bows! Very classic but a little cute too. I got a great thin material bomber style jacket in dove grey and splurged on a really elegant chocolate brown blouse for work as I have a talk to present on Tuesday and thought it would look great with my black pencil skirt for a bit of a confidence boost. And I finished by uhming and aahing over a Wayne Cooper race back satin singlet in plum - it fell beautifully but does draw attention to the fact that I am yes slim but no not *cough* blessed with any womanly curves. But I decided at that sale price I could work that out later!

But the clothes will come in handy in the next few weeks as I have quite a few things on such as High Tea and a girls night out..

This has been the view from my apartment for the last week. Tough hey?! I have been in Hobart for the annual national Microbiology Conference. Fascinating and inspiring, sometimes daunting and discouraging but a great meeting of the minds and very useful for networking. I have more meetings, potential collaborations and possible research students now than I will ever have time to balance!

It was my first time to Hobart and I loved it. I spent seven years in Canberra so I am some what accustomed to cold (but still detest it). But it couldn't have been a colder time to be there according to the locals and as you can see by the snow, we really got to see the town at its most wintery. However, the devine stone restaurants harbouring log fires and live music and perfect wine and food were made so much the nicer for the fierce snow winds outside.

I enjoyed my time away from my little ones - there was no washing to do, no cleaning of yoghurt off hands and floors, no rushing them out the door before 7am and the ability to have a few glasses of wine and "sleep in" until 7.30am in the morning! Bliss! But of course I was moping and missing them by the end and gazing longingly at sweet toddling babies and cute little girls by the time I was waiting at the airport. The big cuddles and huge smiles and giggles I got when I picked them up from daycare was one of the best parts of the whole week.

And now.... I am trying to get my head around our next couple of weeks. Jase is acting in his bosses position, which without much detail as he won't like that ;) is pretty umm *cough* high up and the type of role where you are required 24/7 - I won't be getting any help with the kids for the next few weeks, let alone seeing him much as he will pretty much be coming home to just grab 6 hours sleep and get up and go again. So proud of him but at the same time - uurggh! Add in the fact that my parents are still overseas so I am still minding their horses and cat on top of all our animals, that my job is only getting more and more demanding with work trips/research students/lecturing and a lot of stress with deadlines, that Bronte has a heap of medical appointments that I have to take time off for (including a CT scan under general anaesthetic that I am DREADING) and I have a number of horse comps with my new competition horse who is totally green coming up the next few weekends.... well I can't shake that uneasy feeling that this month is not going to be very fun... am hoping to be proven wrong.

Oh how I can't wait until my parents return and they shower me with gifts from America ;) and offer to take the girls for a weekend so Jase and I can have a few precious moments. That is my light at the end of the tunnel at the moment...

Bound to irritate a lot of people but its been on my mind. I think I missed out on some Mummy genes. Time and time again, my real life Mummy friends and online Mummy friends all do things that just don't register on my radar and I find myself wondering how I missed that page in the Mummy manual...

- I just don't get the mania over the toy sales. I don't even look at the catalogues and I couldn't think of anything worse than piling into the shops with millions of other parents to rummage around plastic fantastic toys. I dont get shopping for Christmas when its not all nice and Christmassy and how am I meant to know what my kids would like 6 months out? I don't know what I want 6 months out, let alone the changeable fickle beasts that are kids! I also have never laybuyed a thing in my life... no not quite true, I laybuyed a saddle once as a 16yr old and convinced my mum to pay it off within two weeks so I could ride in it. But cue this time of year and all I see on facebook is Mums posting excitedly that it is toy sale time!? Yep definitely missed out on the Mummy gene for that one!

- I don't get parents that make their little kids hug and kiss everyone goodbye. I like your kid but I don't want to get his snotty nose rubbed on my cheek, thanks. As an infectious disease scientist I am not a fan of unnecessary close contact, particularly in Winter! (sound like a ball of fun don't I!) I also feel for the little kids that are reluctantly pushed over to all these almost strangers and conjoled into giving them kisses. But this is probably more my issue - I don't tend to give my babies/kids to others to hold etc unless they ask so maybe I am just more standoffish than most?

- I don't get making facebook status updates about every inane detail of your kids toilet training etc - but thankfully I am not the only one there - STFU Parents is one of my fave blogs as it makes me feel less alone!

- I don't get spending ridiculous amounts of money on your kids clothes or the time and effort some Mums put into dressing their kids. Sure I love spending ridiculous amounts of money on my clothes hehe but I don't tend to smear food on them, roll in dirt or finger paint as much as the average toddler. I don't do brand names for kids, in fact half their clothes are hand me downs from my best friend. Maybe its living on a farm, maybe its the fact I have better things to do than sit on the internet looking at kids clothing websites (boooring) but meh I do a trip to Target every couple of months, buy some staples, grab some shoes and Mum makes them some cute party dresses... done. Elka invariably picks her own clothes which are guaranteed to be the oldest most hideous items in her wardrobe. Every time I have bought her something a bit fancier she has flat out refused to wear it to the chosen event, demanding her $10 fairy skirt or a pair of satin boxer shorts that somehow made it into her drawer and I keep forgetting to sneak out again instead...

and last but not least - I completely missed out on the pram gene. I have owned one pram, zero strollers and have no desire for anything else. I did my research, found a pram that would accomodate two kids because I knew we would be having two in close age and that could negotiate paddocks and our gravel driveway and bought it, it cost more than what I thought a pram really should but was still way less than most of the fancy pants ones. Job done. I am constantly amazed at how many prams other parents go through and the money that they cost. And most of those people just want it to push it on flat concreted ground at the shops! Am sure everyone has their reasonings but I always wonder why as someone that loves shopping and fashion I am so uninterested in what my pram looks like...

That is my list - what Mummy things do you find that you are immune to?

Big thanks to Mamamia for doing a spread on Kate Moss due to her wedding. I have adored her and her fashion sense for so long.
She just has a nack for looking boho and super cool whilst also looking elegant and never try-hardy. Looking through the collection of photos on the website, I can't help but notice she doesn't wear alot of jewellery - she really lets the clothes or hat or belt or shoes do the talking....

Some of my fave looks of hers: