Table for 3

It was my birthday yesterday and my husband leaves for Canberra tomorrow......so today, I insisted on lunch. A really spesh lunch! We went to, what we consider to be, the BEST restaurant in all of SE Queensland. Songbirds Rainforest Retreat. I'm drooling thinking about it.



It was supposed to be a quiet lunch for 2 to celebrate my birthday, Steven's fabulous new job opportunity and his somewhat bittersweet farewell. Only bitter because it means being temporarily separated but oh so sweet because it has finally signalled a change in our fortunes.



Ayla is normally at Kindy on Fridays, hence the quiet lunch for 2. Nuh-uh.....Ayla's support worker was sick today and the kindy is in the middle of a huge 3 year audit. There were no spare hands to help today. So, Ayla joined us for lunch. Which was just perfect. Despite being well overdue for her own lunch and it being waaaaaaay past her nap time, she was quite the amazing dinner guest. And I am so thankful that Kimmy (her support worker) was sick today because I was able to get these beautiful shots of Ayla with her favourite person in the whole world. These photos will be something for all of to cherish in the coming weeks.



And Shan...thanks for the skype suggestion. I don't know why we didn't think of it before. Steven is currently at Dick Smith buying a webcam and headset.

And so it begins....

Far out....time really does fly. It's only 4 days now until Steven leaves us and moves to Canberra to start his new job with the Public Service. Did you notice how I said "Steven leaves us"? I think I'm starting to freak out about it :). I've never looked at it like that previously.....but I am now.

We don't know how long it will be until Ayla and I can move down and join Daddy. It could be 2 weeks or it could even be 12 weeks. The worst part is that there is no spare cash for us to see Steven even once during that time.

Ayla is Daddy's girl through and through and I think she will really miss him terribly.

*sigh*....will let you know how we go saying goodbye on Saturday.

Picked it up at Kindy.....

I think we have our first 'picked it up at Kindy' illness. Yay us!!

We have been up several times during the night with Ayla due to vomitting. Ugh. Poor Steven had only just walked through the door after finishing work at around 1 am and found Ayla in the bath and me cleaning up vomit. We were up again about 30 minutes later doing it all again. I even had to have a shower. You know that feeling that you have vomit in more places than just your hands? No amount of handwashing is going to get rid of those other vomitty bits, hence the shower.

So here I am, in the early hours of the morning, and we have just finished another vomit clean-up session. What else would you do??? Blog it, of course! I think I am just too tired to go back to sleep, only to be woken again. Doesn't matter. It probably won't last long.

Ayla has been such a little champ all through the night. No crying. You just wake to the sound of vomitting and her little sounds of ultimate disgust in what she is lying in. The bath makes everything better. She was even giggling while she was in there.

Clearly, the photo at the top has NOTHING to do with this blog. I was fairly sure you didn't need a photo of vomit :). I took this photo at Kindy on Friday morning. The lady in the photo is Kimmy. Ayla adores her. When we arrive at Kindy, Kimmy comes up to us and Ayla literally jumps out of my arms to her. It's so nice to know that she loves Kindy and even the person that is responsible for caring for her. This is one of the things that I am very sad to leave behind.

This Nourished Home

Breakfast at Our House (photo courtesy of Nourished Kitchen)

For the past 28 days our little family has been taking part in a 28 day Real Food Challenge. That kinda sounds like we suddenly and drastically changed our diet for 28 days and now we're going to revert back. In actuality, we have been eating like this for years....well, at least Ayla and I have. This was an opportunity for me to expand in my knowledge of nutrition, expand my recipe repertoire and learn to be more organised in my food preparation....sometimes days in advance, and also an opportunity for Steven to play along with us. I can honestly say that we do not have 1 pre-packaged item of food in our pantry that contains more than 1 ingredient. We have bottles of herbs and spices, olive oil and balsamic vinegar....but that's it. The rest of it is gluten free grains, home-milled flours, dried legumes, potatoes, onions, garlic, celtic sea salt, and some dried fruits. It is really very liberating to know that I am no longer a slave to the food giants and that my family is happy, healthy and eating real food that nourishes our bodies and our minds.

I have been feeling just a little shy of bloody fantastic of late. Despite my healthy diet of the last 8 or so years, I often felt tired (no, exhausted), down in the dumps, unable to cope with much of anything, lethargic....I'm not going to go on because it's even boring me. I'm not saying that I am bouncing out of bed in the mornings.....actually, now that I think of it....I am! I am up between 6 and 6.30 each morning, no alarm, Ayla still asleep and ready to face the day. Wow! That was something that I hadn't thought of until just now. I haven't had a truly down, negative and 'oh poor me' day in weeks. I am putting this all down to the real food challenge and learning (once again), exactly how important it is that our grains, nuts, seeds and legumes are all soaked and/or sprouted before being eaten. That all of the delicious and health giving fats like butter, olive oil, cream, egg yolks, bone marrow, fish eggs, and whole fresh raw milk are absolutely ESSENTIAL to our health and well being....despite what the diet dictocrats try to 'teach' us. I haven't taken a supplement of any kind in 4 weeks. I usually live on Adrenoplex to prevent me from crashing in a big blubbering heap. I breezed through my last menstrual cycle! I feel really great!

Steven says he's a little hungry but I think that is because he's not quite grasping that his meals and snacks need more preparation....there is no quick packaged snack that he can eat right NOW. Waiting until you feel hungry is going to leave you....well, hungry. Once you have reached that point, you're just looking for a quick fix of something resembling food. Eating real food does require planning and cooking ahead.

Ayla seems to be doing well on it. Most of the new recipes we have tried, she likes/loves. Some she's not so fussed on. They're usually the foods that contain fruit! I give up...the kid doesn't eat fruit....alright, I get it! The last week has been a super challenge with Ayla. At first we thought she may have been getting sick. Refusing to eat dinner (unheard of), crying in the bathtub (I know you don't believe me), crying all through book reading and not letting me leave her to go to sleep by herself (yes, I'm sure she hasn't been swapped with an alien). As I said, we thought she might be getting sick. But she's not. No signs of illness at all. Sunday night (day 6) I started to realise that it was actually behavioural and she was trying to tell me something.....I still don't know what! Does that make me a bad mother??? Anyway, on Monday she had a 4 1/2 hour nap.....I think she is just plain exhausted. She has a massive day on Tuesdays at the special ed unit. They work them really hard all day and then at the end they do hydrotherapy. She leaves at 8am and doesn't get home until 3.30 - 4.00pm, eats and goes to bed for the night. Then on Thursday and Friday she has Kindy all day and sometimes without a sleep. Add to this all of the ABR that we have been so desperately trying to keep up with.....The kid's tired! I stopped all ABR on Monday and Tuesday and we have mildly better afternoons and evenings. We have only done 1 session this morning and I will do 1 more this afternoon and see how we go.

Anyway...this has turned into quite a lengthy 'novel' and if I keep going I will have nothing to share with you later :)

Choice

I have been wanting to get on here and share something ALL day....ever since around 6 am in fact.

I woke this morning and did my usual rounds of facebook, entered some stuff into Etsy, checked my email......Checked my EMAIL!!! I WON!!!!! No, it wasn't one of those Nigerian Lottery scams. I actually won something. I never win anything.

Do you remember last year....November to be more precise.....we officially switched over to this 'all shiny and new' blog so that we could take advantage of a 10% discount off our ABR machine hire each year? If you need a refresher, just click HERE:) Well, I have been steadily blogging away and I received my 10% of machine hire at the last workshop. But I had been enjoying the cathartic nature of blogging so much that I had completely forgotten about this little gem:

In this 'blogging campaign' that's being undertaken by the parents there is an opportunity to win our machine hire FREE for 3 months!!! That's the incentive we are all going after I'm sure. It's worth $1086AU, and when you're paying up to $25 000 per year for a therapy (including flights and accommodation), that really is worth blogging about.

WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! I nearly fell off my chair this morning, when I read that message. Do you wanna see it? OK!

Hello Families!

I hope everyone is doing well and practicing your new exercises! Everyone has been working hard on their blogs, and the results are really showing. The time has come to announce the winners of our first bi-annual blogging campaign competition! As everyone knows, the winner of this bi-annual blogging campaign competition will receive 3 months of machine rental for FREE. But we have a surprise for everyone! Everyone worked so hard on their blogs, so we decided to give out ANOTHER award! This award goes out to the most progressive blog-- the blog that has gone above and beyond to try and make their blog successful. The winner of the most progressive award will receive ONE month of machine rental for FREE!

The winner of the BEST blog is Melissa and Ayla Luxmoore!

And the winner of the most PROGRESSIVE blog goes to Jenny and Kirrily MacMohan!

Congratulations to the both of you!

As for the rest of you, don't be discouraged! As long as you kept up with the blogging guidelines, you will receive the 10% discount off for machine rental for each month that you participate in the blogging campaign! Great job families and keep working hard on the blogging campaign! The next winner will be announced in October! I look forward to reading more of your blog posts. :)

--
Cheers!
Rachel

YeeHa! I can't believe that all of my public whinging and whining (ahem....sharing) has saved us $1086! As our Kiwi cousins across the ditch would say....Choice!

We Have News.....drumroll please.....

Ok, so Steven has told me that I can officially start telling people our news! Woohoo....how about we make it a guessing game?



We're starting a botannical garden???.....aaahh....No. How about this one?



Going on Holidays? ......in my dreams!

Ok, this one should get you closer.....



Yes, it's Canberra. No, we're still not going on holidays. Actually, WE'RE MOVING!
Yep, MOVING!

There, I said it....now you all know our news :). Steven has taken a job with the Public Service and Ayla and I are so very proud of him. He has been so patient waiting for this to come up. His first application was exactly 2 years ago and it has been a very long and frustrating process. I think he has enjoyed the simplicity of working in hospitality for the past couple of years and its close proximity to home but he's totally done with it now and ready to go back to a profession.

You're probably wondering how I feel about it....Excited! There are some parts of me that are a little nervous (mainly about the move itself) and a little sad about leaving the familiarity of an area that I have lived in for around 13 years. Sad about moving away from friends, old and new. I'm also a little nervous about having to start all over again with Ayla's schooling and friends etc. The older the kids get, the more questions they ask and the more capable they are of forming judgements. But, all in all, we are very excited....especially about the possibility of getting on a snowboard again and taking Ayla toboganning (spelling???).

Steven leaves on May 29th (yes, less than 4 weeks away) and we will follow him, hopefully, 2 - 4 weeks later.

That's it for now....I feel much better now that you all know!

Big Brunch and the Red Hen

No, we didn't eat the red hen for brunch.....We went to the Red Hen for Brunch with some really special friends this morning.

We haven't done this in aaaages....let's face it, we're not exactly flush with cash lately. That is hopefully about to change.....oooo we have news.....can't share it yet....soon though.

Anyway back to my brunch story. This was brunch with some very special friends who we have been through some times with. Our kids have completely different conditions, completely different stories, completely different futures.....and yet, our friendship began with something we have in common. A little ole school called Xavier. Xavier Special Ed was where we all met each other and forged a beautiful friendship of love, laughter and understanding.



The other little girl in this photo is Ayla's friend, Lucia (and her daddy, Tony, in the background). Lucia has a VERY rare condition called Netherton Syndrome. There's a little linky there if you would like to read about it. Some of you may remember Lucia from some very early blog posts as she and her family were about to set off to Austria to teach Lucia how to eat. Long story but in a nutshell, Lucia basically had a medically induced 'eating disorder' due to needing to be fed through a 'button' that delivered food straight into her stomach. The result was that she was completely terrified of swallowing food. Capable but terrified. As you can see in the photos.....she's now woofing down anything that looks delicious! She even shared some of her brunch with Ayla today....Ayla gives her a pretty good run for her money.



So we all caught up at the Red Hen for a gorgeous brunch. Ayla managed to devour half of mine, half of Steven's and a few tidbits from Lucia's plate too. It was almost like old times. Ayla used to steal whatever Lucia wouldn't eat at school....which was all of it :).

So, I guess this is just a post to say we had a really lovely day with some really lovely friends and some really beautiful little girls.