A bit of Christmas camping

For the first time in almost two years, our hugely expensive (and literally huge) tent made it out of its bag AND we actually set it up AND we slept in it - the four of us ALL NIGHT LONG!

Our friends arranged a pre-Christmas camping trip to Bonnie Vale in the Royal National Park. It's a great family camping spot right on a protected section of beach, perfect for young kids.

Last time we headed out for a camping trip our boys were 5 months old and happily contained in their bumbo seats or asleep in their pram.

Since then we had been more than hesitant to take first crawlers, who eat everything in their path regardless of whether it has food status, and then completely insane toddlers, who run in completely opposite directions for no apparent reason, camping with so many temptations. Granted Bonnie Vale is kinda cheating seeing as it is located right next door to Bundeena and civilisation, but it works for us right now.

We had a great weekend of swimming and climbing trees and chasing birds. We discovered our boys are not so fond of a dark tent, but glow sticks work a treat, as does the "blow out the torch like a candle" game invented as a quick distraction from the dark.

Apologies for the delay on this post, it was written 3 weeks ago and the Christmas happened and I never got to hitting that "post" button.

  

Decisions decisions decisions

So right now I am seriously thinking about a part time uni course, starting next year. I am painfully aware of the fact that I need to start preping myself for returning to work once the kids are at school AND prep myself for finding a job where I can still be around to pick my kids up from school AND chauffer them to after school activities AND help them with their homework AND get a good nutritious meal on the table for dinner, because I really do believe in eating well even though I don't necessarily practice this myself at times.

Anyways, so I've been looking into an online course majoring in internet communications with a touch of marketing thrown in. I figure from this I could potentially work from home or at least have flexible hours. BUT, I'm not sure how I'll fit it in. I keep thinking, somethings gotta give, I have to drop something to fit this in and that 'something' cannot be time with our rapidly growing boys. We only planned on having two children and we got them in one hit, so I don't get another shot at this. I don't want to miss a moment of them growing up, it wouldn't be fair on them and defeats the purpose of me staying home with them if all I ever do is use the TV as a babysitter while I "just get this one more thing done."

I think this blog post by Confessions of a Stay at Home Mum sums it up nicely: http://www.moderndaydonnareed.com/2011/06/what-she-doesnt-know.html#.UqQ-8-LNCaM

And this article on Huffington Post reduced me to tears, but slams home the fact that the most important "job" I have right now are those boys and the thing that scares me the absolute most right now is the possibility of not being there for them: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-macy-stafford/taking-off-the-ticking-clock_b_4306552.html

So what on earth do I drop? How do I fit it in? I have not a clue yet. Unless I find something of a self-paced nature which I doubt very much exists - but I can dream.

How'd I go?

One month later and here's where I'm at with the strength training stuff:

Squats - 49 (30/10 - 38)
Push-ups - 45 (30/10 - 35)
Bent-over row - 59 (30/10 - 32)
Military Press - 47 (30/10 - 24)
Upright row - 45 (30/10 - 31)
Triceps kickback - 54 (30/10 - 28)
Wall squat - held for 60 seconds (30/10 - held for 30 seconds)
Biceps curl - 61 (30/10 - 33)
Leg curl - Swapped this to a reverrse bridge and held for 60 seconds
Lunges - 32 oops (30/10 - 33)
Step-up - 54 (30/10 - 30)
Crunches - 36 (30/10 - 31)
Raised feet crunch - 28 (30/10 - 26)
Bent leg knee raise - 28 (30/10 - 23)
Pulse-up - 26 (30/10 - 25)
Oblique V-up - 33 left, 30 right (30/10 - 34 left, 22 right)
Saxon side bend - 32 (30/10 - 32)
Bridge - held for 40 seconds (30/10 - held for 30 seconds  )

I did have to stop everything for about a week and a half because I really honestly did not have time. And it seems my core suffered the most from that break. Otherwise, I can see some definate improvements. Stay tuned for my December plans.

SUP Dude's

Yep yep, I FINALLY went stand up paddle boarding!

After complaining last year that I never get to do anything new or exciting (and that my mid-section was far too flabby), I was given a voucher for a stand up paddle boarding lesson. It then took me almost 12 months to arrange babysitting and actually use said voucher. But I finally got around to it and enjoyed it thoroughly, despite spending most of the time petrified I'd fall off into the cold water... and injure my already fragile pride.

I was the last in our group to actually stand up on my board, but once up and balanced it was quite relaxing... all the while working my core and my legs. Although I later found out that my legs shouldn't have been shaky afterwards and that maybe I was just a little tense - and unbalanced. Shaky legs aside, I enjoyed it and yes I would go back for more. If we could fit a board on the roof of the car I may even consider purchasing one.

Matey visits the underworld

When your 2yr old starts screaming in terror you drop everything and run to their aid. When that cry of terror includes "oh no, Matey" you change direction and head for the car keys. You need to go re-purchase the beloved Mater matchbox car that's been fondly named Matey before all hell breaks lose upon realisation that 2yr olds twin brother still has his Matey.

Yesterday Matey visited the underworld via the water well left by the hole in the ground where the clothes line had been. Let's just say I am very glad Daddy was home to retrieve it.

Impromptu baking

We braved the rain, went to the Cops and Rodders show, got caterpillars painted on arms, saw a helicopter land and got thoroughly drenched!

So after retreating home with a dvd rental what better to do on a rainy Sunday than some impromptu baking of banana and chocolate muffins!

Just a little bit of an ego trip

Yay Me!!!!!

I ran this morning. Despite the smokey air, the slightly too warm air and the general laziness that was begging me to just chill out at home or just use the exercise bike. And you know what pushed me out the door in the end, I said I would go for a run on the weekend in a previous post. So my dear blog, you made me keep my word.

October FMS photo a day challenge complete!

October challenge complete! I missed a few days here and there, but that's ok, I'll consider this my warm up month, especially seeing as I only came into the challenge half way through the month. It's been really fun though. Here are some of what I believe to be my better pics, not always because of the quality of the image but because of the story behind it:

You can check out the rest of my pics here: http://instagram.com/lyndall31#,

Finding a little piece of a lost me

As previously mentioned, there was a time in my life when I was super fit. That time is long gone and while I know it may come again one day, I also know that day is a while away... more than likely not going to happen till the boys are in school/capable of riding bikes alongside a jogging Mum. You get the picture.

I can however begin the journey towards feeling strong and reasonably fit again. I guess that is the main thing that bothers me about my current level of fitness, I don't feel strong. Not Super-Mum, lifting cars off of babies type of strong, just strong enough to push through whatever life throws at me - like zombies, did you know about the rules for surviving a zombie plague (I threw that one in just for you Aunty Mugs and Crazy Aunty Kaz).

Anyways, a few weeks back I re-started my twice a week, squeeze it into 30mins of boy nap time, pilates routine. Late last week I started back on the exercise bike. I plan to go for a run on the weekend. But tonight I threw in 30mins of strength intervals. I know 30mins doesn't sound like enough, but it's all I've got so it just has to be an intense 30mins. So tonight I used a set of exercise cards I got from a magazine, but instead of doing the reps suggested I did as many of each exercise as I could in 60 seconds and recorded my results so that in a months time I can re-do my "test" and see if I've improved.

And so I can't lie to myself, here are my results:

Squats - 38
Push-ups - 35
Bent-over row - 32
Military Press - 24
Upright row - 31
Triceps kickback - 28
Wall squat - held for 30 seconds
Biceps curl - 33
Leg curl - 34
Lunges - 33
Step-up - 30
Crunches - 31
Raised feet crunch - 26
 Bent leg knee raise - 23
Pulse-up - 25
Oblique V-up - 34 left, 22 right
Saxon side bend - 32
Bridge - held for 30 seconds 

NB. I didn't have dumbbells so I used jars of flour.

Toot Toooot!

We had an amazing time this weekend at Illawarra Live Steamers with the multiples crew. The boys loved it as evidenced by the jumping up and down in the line shouting "twains, twains," trying to climb over the fence to get to said "twains" and falling asleep that night muttering "toot tooooot."

They crashed hard in the car on the way home after so much excitement riding trains and chasing seagulls.

Pictures courtesy of Hubby, if you want to see more of his stuff, check him out at http://www.redbubble.com/people/gjnairn

Flowers

Today my lovely boys presented me with flowers.... hand picked from the weed patch! Love em :)

Judgement

I need to exercise.

I don't anymore, ever. There was a time in my life when I'd be participating in high impact sport or high intensity exercise five days a week. Now I can barely find the time for 30mins a day. I've been looking at ways I can group activities or "multi-task" so that I can cram more activity into my days and I thought I'd come up with a winner: during park visits with the boys I can use the time, space and play equipment for a kind of cross-training session.

Then I began to doubt myself. I'd feel silly. You see, all my life I have felt like people were watching me and judging my every move. I am paranoid that someone I know will see me and judge me. Hell, I am paranoid I'll be judged by complete strangers!

The birth or our twins gave me the opportunity (and a reason) to begin overcoming this affliction. I realise that this fear of judgement is very possibly what has held me back from accomplishing pretty much ALL of my life goals and I don't want my boys to grow up with this same fear. So I can't let them see my paranoia. I joined our local multiple births club and took on a couple of volunteer roles that have a somewhat public face... albeit from behind a computer screen (social media is a haven for people like me, who want a voice, but fear the consequences).

Almost a year down the track and I now actually participate in committee meetings (rather than just sit and listen), I had the confidence to join our local playgroup even though I knew absolutely no one there, I post to social media at least four times a day (personally and as a volunteer) without scrutinising every single minute detail of said posts, and every month I team up with a fellow Multi-Mum to produce a fifty plus page newsletter that reaches around two hundred families and businesses, all without really stressing toooo much about the potential  for negative feedback.

BUT

I am still hiding behind this computer screen!

So I hit the park this week and had a go anyways. I tried jogging laps, tried some step ups, tried some pull-ups, kicked a soccer ball around with the kids.... and felt ridiculous!

I feel like I have failed. However I know that I have not failed yet. The fact that I even forced myself to try was but a small step towards overcoming my stupid fear of judgement.

FMS photo a day

A week ago now one of my fellow multiple Mum's began posting pictures to her Facebook account with the tag #FMSphotoaday. For whatever reason, this caught my attention so I googled it and found out about this cool photo a day challenge. You can read more about it here: http://fatmumslim.com.au/how-to-play/#

I felt this may be a really good way to help get the currently dormant creative juices flowing and give me some inspiration to use some of the photography knowledge I picked up on a course last year. I've missed a couple of days already, and only a week in, so not a great start, but anyone who has read this blog from the beginning will know I'm not great at starting things :) 

Here's my first few shots:

Day five - Afternoon.









Day seven - What you saw

Day eight - Corner

Day nine - Pink

I'll be posting my pics on Instagram, you can follow me at http://instagram.com/lyndall31#, but I will share some of the better ones on here too.

Where'd I go?

So I took a break from this blog, even though it never really got started. You can blame Channel 7, they ran a segment about whether you should post information, stories and pictures of your kids online because once out there, you can never take them back. That got me thinking and I decided that it wasn't fair on them to plaster their life on the internet. So now I am taking a different approach. You'll still see the odd picture and read the odd story, but I'll be keeping private their lives and anything that could potentially be embarrassing for them later on.

Here's hoping I actually do keep this up from now on.