Mums United and a healthy heart challenge

Life, in the most part, has been overtaken lately with a flurry of fabric, needles and thread. Miss Goodie Two Shoes has been a life changing and exciting challenge, but as my business has evolved my healthy living has been the first to drop off the list. Gone are my early morning walks and weekly sessions at the gym, to be replaced with bleary eyes, a strong coffee and evenings spent sewing arms and legs. Healthy lunches for the family have been slowly replaced with muesli bars, peanut butter sandwiches and arrowroot biscuits... beans and spaghetti have featured on the dinner menu more often then I would like to admit. With the weather warming I have been promising myself a return to healthy eating and daily exercise, but where is the motivation and enthusiasm when bedtime is rarely before 1am?

Then came a very exciting offer from Soup Marketing to take part in an exciting new challenge hosted by the Heart Foundation. Mums United is encouraging Mums across Australia to unite in their quest to raise a healthy, active family. Through my project with Soup I have been asked to set some healthy living challenges and to report on my progress, the perfect opportunity to remain motivated! We got off on a good start today, replacing our usual sugar laden morning tea with some sliced fruit and these delicious raspberry muffins from the Heart Foundation website.

Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup blueberries

60g (1/4 cup) margarine spread, extra

1 cup (250mL) reduced fat milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a 12-cup non-stick muffin tin with muffin cases.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Mix in sugar and blueberries. In another bowl, combine margarine, milk, egg and vanilla. Mix the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined, using no more than 16 strokes. Spoon mixture into prepared tin. 

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out cleanly. 

I hope you too are having a healthy start to the week. Be sure to keep an eye on my blog for details of how you can join me in Mums United, and be in with a chance to win $350 in Myer giftcards thanks to Soup!

The night owl

I'm yawning, I have bags under my eyes, I'm onto my second coffee and I should have been in bed hours ago. So why am I still awake? 

I'm a night owl.

Despite needing every ounce of sleep I can get at the moment, I just can't seem to get to bed earlier then 11pm. And that's an early night! Before babies, my late nights were simply about not being able to sleep. Now they're about savouring as much 'me' time as I can before a new day dawns. 

There is also something incredibly delicious about sitting alone in a house so quiet you can hear the crickets chirping, the fridge whirring and the ringing in your ears. I love being able to blog without interruption, shop for gorgeous new delights, and the past few nights I've been giddy with enjoyment as I sew together my little creations.

Sure I might be a darn sight more tired during the day, but I'm a lot happier. And for me, its the little things that make a whole lot of difference!

I hope you're enjoying some time alone tonight, and if you've already retired to your comfy pillow, sweet dreams xx

Isn't the little owl pic cute? I found it at We Heart It

The smell of fresh coffee

Good morning!

And what a lovely morning it is, waking up to the divine aroma of a coffee from my new Nespresso machine! You really can't beat the smell of freshly brewed coffee. And just as I'd hoped, my morning latte tastes just like it would from my local coffee shop.


As suspected, it almost makes those two hourly wake up calls bearable. Thank you my gorgeous hubby, I love you xx

I hope you're having a lovely morning too.

 

Growing pains

My apologies if this post is peppered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. It may not even make a lot of sense, but I'll try my best. You see I'm tired. Oh so very tired. In fact I'm exhausted. For the past week Mathilda has been waking every hour, sometimes if she's kind she'll make it two. A quick feed and she's back to sleep, but that doesn't make my broken sleep any easier to deal with.

I need my sleep. Before babies, I would sleep 12 hours a night, and then on weekends sneak off at midday for a delicious three hour nap. As a teenager I'd sleep all day, sometimes not appearing until 3pm... or later. Without a sufficient number of hours sleep I get very cranky, emotional, irrational, clumsy, forgetful and I lack the saintly patience required for dealing with a very demanding 2 year old.

Previously Mathilda's frequent night wakings have precluded a growth spurt, and thankfully have only lasted a week or two. As Mathilda approaches six months I'm hoping that the introduction of solids will help to combat those late night cravings and allow us all a better night sleep. In the meantime I'm surviving on several cups of strong coffee and a quick snooze on the couch when Ossie has his afternoon nap.

Understanding my love, and now need, of a good coffee, my darling hubby is looking to accessorise our kitchen with one of these. Kudos to my sister Kate, who did a fabulous job of convincing him a good coffee machine is a necessity.

Oh how I would heart a Delonghi Nespresso machine!

I hope you're getting a good nights sleep, and if not let me promise you you're not alone!