October Round Up

List of what I’ve watched, read, and/or listened to in the past month:

Facebook - was the only way I could communicate with people back on while on holidays. I also uploaded photos of our trip to share with everyone. When I got home I was very excited to read about "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" . Darren was away at The Mont with the boys so I spent all weekend folding T-shirts the Japanese way.


The Block - Glasshouse - The series finished while we were away so after I decided not to go back to TAFE I spent my first week catching up on the episodes we missed. I was devastated to watch the Auction and see that Dee and Darren and Carlene and Michael only made $10K each. I just loved their apartments and will use them as inspiration for my own renovations.


YouTube - I have enjoyed catching up with my favourite people, Libby, Pinksofoxy and Catherine Staat.

Blogs - I was devastated to see one of my favourite blogs, Young House Love, had decided to move onto other things and no longer post. I have read their home improvement blog for around 5 years. Hopefully they will keep their content online so I can refer back to it. I still enjoy reading Elise Blaha Cripe's blog and especially loved her capsule wardrobe post.
Music - Darren loved to have the 80's radio stations on in Florida and we loved singing away to songs that the boys hadn't heard before. When I got home I was straight back into my UK Top 40 playlists in the car and on my iMac while cooking dinner.

Florida Lonely Planet - this was especially useful on the Miami section of our trip as I had not fully planned out what we were doing.

What fun things did you do with friends and/or family?

Coffee with Darren - Darren had the day off after we got home from our trip so we went to the newly opened Wollongong Mall to check it out. 

The Mont - Darren took Riley and Nathan down to The Mont 24 hour bike race in Canberra. The race was supposed to be on earlier in the year but heavy rain meant it had to be rescheduled. Darren and Nate went down lunchtime Friday and Riley tagged along with Shan and his cousins as he wasn't allowed to miss anymore school. The boys enjoyed the weekend riding around the track and playing their iPads with Rhys. Darren's fitness was pretty poor after our trip so his lap times were pretty slow. He was shattered by the time he got home on sunday night.

Card Games - Nate and I enjoyed playing Egyptian Ratscrew and Go Fish.

Monopoly - Cooper and I played many games of Monopoly, especially while the boys were at the Mont.

Lunch with Friends - I love to have lunch with my friends and this month I had lunch with Kay in town, lunch with Rebecca at Figtree, went shopping in Wollongong with Libby and took Hel out for her birthday to Wollongong.

Dog sat Goldie and Fluffy - Cath went away for the weekend so we fed the girls, Riley brought them over to see Victor and Molly, Jared's dog.

Minnamurra - Kay took Riley and Nathan down with her to Minnamurra to go swimming/fishing/canoing with Dylan and Jared. She texted me when she got there as it was a beautiful spot so Cooper and I went down there as well.

What milestones occurred? Any holidays or celebrations? How about special events?

USA Holiday - this obviously was the biggest event this month, at the start of the month we were on our Caribbean cruise on The Freedom of the Seas, our stops were Nassau, The Bahamas, Falmouth, Jamaica, George Town, Grand Cayman and our final stop was Cozumel, Mexico. After the cruise we headed to Miami for 4 nights where we had day trips out to The Keys and The Everglades. We then flew back to LA for three days before flying home, our day trips from LA were San Diego and Thousand Oaks/Malibu.

Brunch in Kiama - Kay and I took Dylan, Jared and Cooper down to Kiama for brunch as a way to celebrate what would have been Mum's 75th birthday. We had a buffet breakfast at The Sebel hotel overlooking the harbour. It was a lovely view and it was a lovely time to remember mum, she took the boys to Kiama habour on many occasions.

Nathan lost a molar tooth - it had been giving him trouble as he wasn't able to chew properly. It came out at school and he brought it home all nicely wrapped in a tissue.

The everyday and routine bits of life in the past month

Spring Cleaning - I am in major spring clean mode, there are bags and bags in the garage waiting to be handed to Kay for the Rotary garage sale.

Less iPad time - the boys are so obsessed with their iPads so I am really trying to limit the time they spend on it.

Homework - Arg I think the boys are finally back in the routine, it has taken almost two weeks.

What good stuff happened? What were the hard things? Anything unusual?

Victor barking - He has been barking really early in the morning, the last two mornings were before 6am. Darren gets up and brings him inside.

Mum - I found it really hard being on the cruise, there were lots of ladies on the cruise who reminded me of mum. Also I kept thinking of things I would tell mum when I got home. It was nice though telling the boys all the cool things I did with Grandma on our holiday.

Riley - he finished his science assignment before it was due so he could go to the mont with Darren. He didn't rush it and spent a lot of time on it, he had to do a presentation on sea otters. He has also been working diligently on his maths and was rewarded with a test mark of 88%.

TAFE - I knew before we went away that I wouldn't be returning. I just didn't like the politics of it and I missed doing the normal things during the day, like cooking dinner, being home for the boys and catching up with my friends.

Report on the progress you’ve made toward your goals or list any new goals you have set

Spring Cleaning - The house was so gross and dirty when we got home from our holiday. I have cleaned out my wardrobe and also cleaned the dining room from top to bottom.

Weight - I put on 3kgs during our holiday and have managed to lose 1.7kg.

Meals - I have been very good and cooking and planning our meals, Darren brought home take away noodles one night, I have cooked all the other meals.

Gardening - I weeded two of the garden beds out the front, Darren mulched them with cow manure and also started digging out the agapanthus beside the driveway.

The Extension - As soon as I walked back into the house, after 4 weeks away, I knew we didn't need to make the house any bigger. I would rather spend our money on holidays and education for the boys than go into debt for a bigger house. My plan is to remove the wall between the laundry and kitchen and then replace the kitchen and floors.

Hawaii - The lack of waves on our recent trip to the US had me dreaming of a beach holiday. At LA airport I bought the Hawaii Lonely Planet, the first few pages had me hooked. It is at the top of my bucket list and as soon as we got home I was looking up flight prices. July 2015 is when I want to go so we can go for 3 weeks without the boys missing any school. I have set my price for the flights of $6K so we will see how we go.