Lazy.

I feel like I am only just getting my grove back. Allister is now 5 months old, and I feel like since the last trimester of my pregnancy I got lazy. Not completely lazy, but I dropped my standards on things that are important to me. Things that made my life easy while heavily, uncomfortably pregnant, and having a newborn and a 2 year old. But now I want to try and get back to how it used to be.

The main areas I have slacked in are food and TV.

Food

Ive been buying chicken nuggets! The good ones, yes, but still, I can make them just as easy without all the crap in. And there's no excuse as Harrison will eat anything I put in front of him, the good stuff and the bad. When Harrison was a toddler, and generally for Matt and, we rarely ate processed foods. I made as much as possible from scratch, and I enjoy it. It's better for us and I want to be that kind of person. I don't want to be a Mum who gives her kids chicken nuggets and processed foods all the time. Have you seen the ingredients in that stuff? Heck, I cant pronounce half of it, and instead of a list that comprises chicken, bread crumbs, and spices, there's a whole list of stuff. I want to get back to basics! I want to get back to cooking, I love to cook! I have been experimenting with menu planning and new recipes lately and really enjoying it. We have also been eating more vegetarian dishes as a family, more grains and less of those (sugar laden, starchy yummy) potatoes.

I think, even now in my lazy phase, I cook from scratch more than many people. But I want to do it more. And I am going to make my own chicken nuggets and tatter-tots, my own pizza crust, maybe even my own crackers! I'm not sure where I am going to get all my free time from, but I am hoping with Harrison out 2 mornings a week I will have a little more free time? And now he is napping again, I'm catching up and getting the house sorted again, a few weeks of letting it slip and the house looks like its not been cleaned forever, at least to me! And the basement, well, I wont even go there! Harrison is even at an age where he will enjoy cooking, and he can help me too. Ive been reading a lot of food blogs, and they have inspired me to get more healthy food wise. There wont be an overnight ban of all the processed stuff, but slowly I will try and introduce more completely home made foods, and when the kids are a little older and at school I hope to have more free time to maybe take it a step further.

Of course we will always eat take-out pizza, chips and chocolate, and nothing will ever be banned food wise in this house, but If the kids get used to less of the bad stuff, and more of the good stuff I hope they will be able to make better choices later in life.

Ill keep you posted :)

TV

We are working on watching less TV. Its very hard! Once you get used to it anyway. Again when Harrison was little we didn't watch TV. He didn't watch an TV till he was a year old, and even then very little. And then I got pregnant with Allister. And I felt sick, and tired, it was easy. You switch it on and it entertains them, and you can slob on the couch and feel better about yourself and worse about your kids! Don't get me wrong, I don't think TV is all bad. Especially the educational stuff. Harrison knows at least half of his alphabet thanks to Word World. I love that show! He may even spell a word soon. But again, I don't want the TV to be a baby sitter. That's my job. Sometimes the TV is the only thing that will keep a toddler still, and entertained long enough to get a job done. But sometimes, I'm learning, that job can wait. I'm enjoying playing with the kids more again. Harrison will come up to me and say

"Mummy play cups!" His new favorite game, we stack them, make them into "Castles" and play hide the man- Harrison has to guess which cup I place his little man under.

Instead of being too busy, cleaning or doing laundry I stop, and we play. These days will be gone so quickly, before you know it he wont want to play with his mum anymore, and there will still be laundry and cleaning and ironing to do tomorrow! I find it hard to leave that stuff, but, no matter how much cleaning and sorting I do I still always feel like my house is never as clean and organized as I would like! So why get all hot and bothered about it!

Matt and I are also working on Family time. Harrison is forming memories, and we know how fond those memories are later in life. Its funny how much stuff comes back to you, from your own childhood, when you become a parent. I get flashbacks. I sometimes look down at my hands and see my Mums, seriously, I have her hands! And I hear her voice in mine, and when Harrison is riding Matt like a horse, or running around in the park I see my Dad.

Being a parent is such a big responsibility, and I think we all mess it up in some way. We cant do everything right, but if we think very consciously about what we are doing, we can do our best to be the best we can be. Like shouting, its so hard not to shout! I have very little trouble not spanking, its just something that's not for our family, even though I have weakened once or twice, I am ashamed to admit! But it is very hard, with a mouth like mine, not to shout. I actually think I do a pretty good job of not shouting! But shouting doesn't get you anywhere, it becomes more and more powerless the more you do it. And you don't want your kids to remember your yelling and screaming at them, its no punishment, and it has no more power or effect than saying the words. But it sure does get out your frustration! That's why its so hard. Sorry, this post has gone off on a tangent and gone all serious! That wasn't my intention!

Anyway, eat healthier, watch less (and less) TV and no shouting.

That's my new rule!

I'm off to vacuum and make baby peaches, yummy!