Weekend Recap

I needed a restful, enjoyable weekend, and that's mostly what I got. The rest of my week after I returned from my interstate work trip was pretty frantic - it involved an important work meeting (20 minutes after walking in the door from the airport), some media interviews about some news relevant to my research area on Friday, dinner at mum and dad's on Thursday evening, E needing to bring show and tell on Friday (there are specific guidelines and trying to settle on the right item involved some debate with E and creative thinking! ) We landed on her new light up speaker and telling about how the LED lights work which light it up (it involves electricity and a microchip, thanks google for the info!). This is also WEEKLY for the entire term - 8 more weeks - argh.

E’s light up speaker she brought for show and tell

One highlight of my Friday, receiving this gorgeous postcard from Elisabeth. So unexpected and fun to get something lovely in the mail (all the way from Canada, no less!).

Of course it has a light house- how beautiful

Anyway, I had a plan for dinner on Friday night, but by the time 5pm rolled around, I was DONE! So we ordered pizza and had a glass of wine, and I read more of Meditations for Mortals while the kids had some screen time. We did turn the screens off at 7pm, and I was SO tired I attempted to put the kids to bed before 8pm. We did our usual reading, chatting, but when the lights went off, they weren't tired. In fact, they were hyperactive. Noooo! I give the kids a 5 minute cuddle each in their beds (they share a room), and usually they are close to asleep by the end of this, but Friday night O kept getting back up and playing, E was getting up to "check" on things, and I was getting more and more angry. Then O for some reason started to call me a "grumpy dino", which E thought was hilarious. Finally I gave up, Al got the kids back up for an hour while I went to sleep in my bed. Which was OK except then the kids eventually wanted to sleep in my bed with me (Al's had back issues so has been sleeping on the couch), so they woke me back up finally falling to sleep at 9.30. Al put them into their own beds once they fell asleep, but then O ended back in with me at 3am and was upset for some unknown reason and very loudly let us know about it until he finally fell back asleep. So I was tired come Saturday morning!

But luckily Saturday didn't have much on the agenda, other than fun! Al cooked us his usual French Toast (I had it with banana, bacon and maple syrup, the kids had it with Nutella!), and then headed off to work. The kids and I had a relaxed couple of hours, them playing, me pottering, drinking coffee and reading. Then we met my parents at a community markets about a 15 minute drive away that we had never been too. It was so cute, not too busy, and a perfect (small) size for navigating with young kids. O got a little knitted chicken in an egg, E got a secondhand book for a friend (so sweet), I got some relish, pickles, salami, and free range eggs - gourmet market food is my happy place!

Then we headed to a local historic farmstead that I've wanted to visit for a while (E loves the "olden days", and my parents like history, so it was a good option). Its lovely because its really well done and they offer free guided tours. Now, in Australia, "historic" means 1800s (when we are talking about white settlers), which is probably laughable to many places in the world - but we enjoyed the walk back in time. It was super interesting - the only mildly stressful thing was O wanted to touch everything, and being a museum you are clearly not supposed to, so I ended up carrying him through a lot of the museum, or ushering him away from things. I was reminded that these kinds of outings will be more relaxing once O is a couple of years older.

View from the historic farmstead.

Lunch was at a local tavern - one of our favourites which has a covered beer garden with a kids playground next to it, so you can sit and have a drink while supervising the kids playing. Which is exactly what we did. The kids were pretty great - they played and did colouring in, and O only asked once for a screen towards the end, which I said no to, and he then went back to playing. I'm reminded that eating out is getting easier all the time, now that the kids are a bit older (we no longer have any toddlers to wrangle!). O even disappeared at one point and I realised he'd taken himself to the toilet! (Obviously I then followed him to supervise, but he honestly didn't need help, other than locking the door behind him which he'd forgotten to do).

We headed home about 2 for some downtime, which was much needed. The kids had screen time, I had a nap, and then decided that other than some laundry and a few other essential house tasks, I would relax for a couple of hours. I read more, and then ended up on Youtube watching a very calming set of videos from a Channel called Early American, of a lady, dressed in early 1800s clothing, cooking real meals from the 1800s. There is no talking or music, just the sound of the crackle of the fire, the sound of chopping etc. At the end she shows the original "receipts" (recipes) from the time. I am strangely addicted (and relieved that of all the things on Youtube to be addicted to, this is not too bad).

Al got home about 5 and cooked us fish for dinner, which I was grateful for, as was still feeling tired and not in the mood for cooking. We had no TV in the evening which was nice, O played, and E and I played in our planners at the dining table - (I had my new Curation planner which arrived last week, E had a notebook she stuck stickers in - so cute). The kids had an early night and fell asleep within minutes (hooray!). I read for a bit longer and was asleep by 9.30. Everyone slept through - hooray!

My new planner and E’s “planner” efforts 🥰

I woke up on Sunday refreshed and full of energy! I had my coffee, read more of my book, chatted with Al and the kids, and then walked up the road to the supermarket to pick up a few things for dinner later (my way of getting my daily walk in when Al is working and I have the kids). Al headed off to work and the kids and I were having a home day (no plans until 4pm), so I was looking forward to getting some jobs done. Which I did! The day involved:

• Fry up for breakfast (eggs, tomato, mushroom, bacon)

• Deep clean of the kitchen

• Decluttering the kitchen benches

• Cleaning out and reorganising the medicine cabinet

• Two loads of washing and drying

• Adventures in our (very large) front yard (and across the road where we have a duck pond) with the kids

• Craft activity (making fairies) with E

• Pre-making the dinner - sausage and veggie bake, ready to warm up later

• Made the weekly plan

The kids also work up refreshed and happy on Sunday morning!

The kids and I then went over to our friend's house for a catch up/play date at 4pm, and it was a little chaotic (kids were all a bit hyperactive), but fun. There was lots of craft and puzzles (it was wet outside), and running around of course. My friend and I had a glass of rose, and then cups of tea, and it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon (knowing the dinner was already cooked).

Finally we headed home at 6.30, had our warmed up dinner, kids watched a few episodes of Bluey, Al and I chatted, and then at 7.30 kids got ready for bed. They fell asleep pretty easily, and so did I. I slept well and was up early enough this morning to write this long blog post! Hooray! Now its 7am and time to start the morning routine. Another week has started!

What have you gotten up to for the weekend? Happy Monday everyone.