Live Below the Line: Team LoveLifeLuke

Hello friends,

Here's a picture of me in a Hoodie hiding most of my face due to coming down with my yearly Autumn snuffles and looking gross. But really, don't pay any attention to my hoodie, pay more attention to what I'm holding. 

From May 6th to 10th I will be living below the poverty line on $2 a day. Yes, that means my daily coffee of $3.50 will have to cease for 5 days.

Live Below The Line is organised by the Oaktree Foundation to fundraise funds for extreme poverty in unreached places, as well as raise awareness about how we spend our money and how much we have to be grateful for. I'll be tackling this by meal planning (because that's my thing now) and, yes, you will get the recipes I will come up with - Take that Curtis Stone, and your 'feed for your family for $10'.

The inspiration came from not only picking up this postcard as I was roaming around like a snot bag in the city on Saturday, but also because I feel incredibly passionate about this. My passion for social justice on a world wide scale has been driven by a book I'm reading and a journal I'm reflecting on and seeing that I don't have the resources to be physically making a difference over where it's needed, I'm going to do what I can with what I have. I also want to make a value out of this that I can pass on to my kiddlets as they grow older.

And here comes the next bit - I want you to get involved. I have set up a team called LoveLifeLuke. You can get involved in two ways:

1) You can donate to our team - who get's none of the money by the way - it's all for the people who NEED it.
2) You can become a part of our team.

Anybody who becomes a part of our team, or donates any amount of money, be it 50c or $500, I will personally POST you a thank you given that you supply me with an address anywhere in the world. Promise!

Our target is a humble $400. Can you help? Will you take the challenge with me?

The girl who never got sick.

When God made me, he knew that I would be the biggest sook in the world. So he made me with a good immune system.

Here is my confession: I can't swallow tablets. And I put this down to the fact that I've never really ever been sick enough to take tablets. The first time I was faced with them was when I was 16 and going to Indonesia. I didn't have the courage to swallow them whole, so I recall crushing them with banana which made me dry reach.

And then at uni I had to go on some medication for a little while - I would get dark chocolate and chew on the tablet. The dark chocolate was bitter like the tablet.

One time when I actually had to take an antibiotic, I took the capsule apart, and poured the powdery contents onto dark chocolate moose.

When I started work I wanted to take Evening Primrose and Fish Oils. I conquered this by using a fork to pierce the gel-like skin and squeezed the contents into a shot-glass with orange juice and took a swig.

I only take dissolvable Panadol or Aspirin when I really need to. I've probably been on anti biotics three times in my life.

The night Luke was born the midwife offered me a Panadol and I refused. I asked if they had any dissolvable Panadol because I couldn't bring myself to swallow the tablet. She looked at me, looked at the newborn snuggled up in the bassinet, and looked at me again.

"You just gave birth to THAT," she said, as she pointed at Luke, then pointed at the tablet in the little plastic cup that could pass as a shot glass, "and you're afraid of THIS?"

And the stupid part about it was, I was, and still am. It's a pretty ridiculous fear that I probably need some kind of therapy for.

But the good reality of having this phobia is that it means that I am rarely sick, (except the 6 months of my life when I threw up every day when I was pregnant, oh and that terrible term of sickness when I just couldn't get rid of a prep-teaching induced cold). In fact, I recall my Dad being angry that at age 6 I didn't know how to blow my nose, because, well, I was never sick so I never had to know!

This morning I woke up feeling under the weather. When I feel like this I know I need to act fast. It's going to be an interesting day as Luke is crying every time I blow my nose.

I have a simple strategy I go to for dealing with the initial 'sickness':
1. 2 dissolvable panadol or asprin
2. Spring Valley Orange Juice. It must be spring Valley and it must be Orange and it must have a 'liddle fact' on the lid.
3. Extra sleep (ha!)
4. THIS CHOWDER ... with extra extra lots of garlic!

Now, because I never get comments it would mean the world to me if my readers (I know people read this blog!!!!) could leave me a comment telling me:

1. Do you get sick often?
2. What do you do when you get sick?
3. At what age did you first learn how to blow your nose?

(Also, any strategies to overcome my tablet taking fear are welcome!)

Addiction

Before I had my baby I was convinced that I would use cloth nappies in order to save money... eventually. I started out using the disposables until I could work out what I was doing with this whole new parenting gig (turns out I'm still trying to work it out). My Mum had bought me a whole heap of terry-towling squares as that's what she used on me. However, neither Mum nor I knew that things had definitely moved on from there.

I was lucky enough to win lots of nappies - 720 in fact - from Huggies. They lasted me roughly 6 months, which was a real blessing, but also put me off learning to use cloth nappies.

The one time I did try to put a terry towelling nappy on Luke 'just for fun' I got it 'locked' on him because I couldn't get the stupid K-mart safety pins to unlock. When I was initially putting them on him, in fact, they drew blood. So much for safety. I recall having to get the garden secateurs to set Luke free. It didn't help that Luke had done a big poo (this was pre solids, so pretty runny, too) that had leaked all through the cute onesie I had also tried on that afternoon.

I then thought that cloth was going to 'just be too hard'. The free nappies lasted so much longer than I thought. In fact, I ended up giving away the last three packets because they didn't fit Luke anymore. Then i saw the price of nappies, that we hadn't been paying for in the last 6 months apart from a packet of our favorites for night time every now and then. No way was I keen on paying that - looks like I'd better get those terry towlings out and learn oragami!

I bought some 'snappi' things so that I wouldn't have to bother with those silly 'safety' pins and watched YouTube videos about how to fold a nappy. There was one thing, however, that wasn't the same as when I had tried it before. Luke wasn't a placid baby that liked to lie around with his nappy off. He was now into rolling around and despised nappy time. Trying to fold a nappy, wrap it around him and pin it was near impossible. I even tried sewing a nappy so I wouldn't have it unravelling, but it still just didn't work.

People kept talking about these 'modern cloth nappies' and I thought they were up-market hippies. I thought that they would be really expensive until I found that I could buy one for $7 on ebay. I bought one with a fancy jean design and waited anxiously until the postman delivered it. It was incredibly fun and looked so adorable on Luke to the point where I made high pitched girly screams. I proceeded to go on ebay and buy many more of various brands. I also went to a shop in the Eastern Suburbs and bought another four. How could ANYONE use those towel things? They're nowhere near as easy as these - and you don't even have to soak them! Plus, with how gorgeous they are, you seriously don't mind cleaning them, no matter how bad they smell. I am the only one who washes them, in the fear that my husband will not do it correctly (I'm getting a little OCD about them).

But with all this comes a problem - and as I've joined a few Facebook groups, I realise that this isn't uncommon. I'm addicted. I'm addicted to these nappies to the point where I want one in every colour including pink. I'm a part of the 'MCN buy swap sell', 'MCN pretties', and 'MCN addicts anonymous' groups on facebook, where I scroll through these pretty items for my sons bottom day and night and read of housewife confessions that they can't admit to their husbands that they've spent so much money on cute nappies. I feel like I want to buy more and more. I feel compelled to have the more expensive brand just because that's what cool, hippie mums do.

But much like being in Fountain Gate (which gracefully has NO nappy stores) I feel compelled to buy Luke expensive cute clothes that he doesn't need considering he already has more clothes than Hendrik and I put together. I'm starting to see that my son is better dressed than I am. I care more about what he wears (on his arse as well as everywhere else) than what I do.

So, hear me, I'm addicted to this MCN thing. Help.

Post Logies Post.

This is probably more watched than television in our house

So the logies are over for another year. I love watching them, even though I don't watch a lot of TV.

Okay, so let's start with the dresses.
I think the first thing I said was, OMG is that Rhonda? As in - Eyes on the road Rhonda, Rhonda...? (Because let's face it, nobody knows her as Mandy). Wow, she was looking smoking hot. Although, she kind of reminded me of Jessica Rabbit. On the flipside, and contrary to many peoples opinions, I didn't really like Carrie Bickmore's outfit, yet today the herald sun gave her a ten out of ten. The big hair and the peachy dress just didn't do it for me. Asher Keddie's black and white number was nice, but I think she could have gone for something a bit more glamorous (and made an effort with her hair). Michelle Bridges looked a bit scary, but I guess that's fitting of her personality. I think that there was way too much chest emphasis there, needed a necklace to detract from all that bare skin.

All this
said I'm not all that fashionable myself. And bed hair is my natural state of going to Fountain Gate. My favorite would have had to be Rebecca Gibney, with her modest black dress and lovely hair style. In addition to that - how lovely that she brought her son!

The entertainment
I wouldn't be the biggest Bruno Mars fan (I don't hate him either) but I thought that last night's performance of Locked out of Heaven was rocking. The dance moves made me want to get up and dance along. What I loved was the whole band was in sync. I think the song was also a bit faster than what it usually is.

Another worthy mention was definitely the Melbourne Gospel Choir which included the lovely Lucy Holmes from Light FM. That lead singer has amazing vocals!

The awards
I wish I had seen some more of my favorite actors and shows get awards, but I think that my favorites Winners and Losers and Packed to the Rafters have had their time to shine and now it's time for someone elses. I am sure the that there were worthy winners last night. Honestly, I had never heard of some of the programmes that were nominated and got awards -  but some, particularly the indigenous ones, looked like they were worthy viewing. And wow, wasn't Benna Harding adorable with her sobbing. I just wanted to give her a hug and congratulate her.

The spill
Lhemo (claim to fame: from my home town, his mum taught me piano!) tweeted before the logies that he wasn't allowed to live tweet. Fair enough, and for obvious reasons. Nobody like's a spoiler. Like many viewers I went to Twitter to tweet with fans and stars alike. The logies are delayed by half an hour (I would argue more). The Australian tweeted that Offspring star Asher Keddie won the gold logie by about 10pm. Googling 'logies spill' I found out that this also happened last year. I decided at about 11:30pm there was really no end in sight and it was way past my bed time. We all knew who would win the golden logie anyway. Congrats Asher.

Post Easter Post.

Easter has been and gone for another year. Good Friday Eve I found myself at the Coles chocolate aisle just as school broke up for the holidays. There were children (and adults) everywhere getting their last minute chocolate flavoured eggs and bunnies.

Last year we had a not-so quiet Easter at home with a colicky baby. The year before we were on our way home from our New Zealand honeymoon. The year before that we went back to my home town and this year did that again.

Easter always holds a special significance for me as I used to go on an Easter Camp, and when I was 15 I took the true meaning of easter into my heart and became a Christian. Now, over ten years later, I married a Christian man, and we have a son - so this year, funnily enough being Luke's second easter, but one which I wanted to reflect on so much more than last year, I had to ask myself, what will Easter mean for us?

I love chocolate, don't get me wrong. In fact, I love it a bit too much. Although Hendrik & I didn't really want to buy any for a number of reasons. We came home with an abundance of assorted shaped chocolates filled in what was once a carton of beer. The problem with this is that it is three peoples worth of easter eggs, and that being Luke not really eating chocolate because of only being one, and also because he doesn't really like it. His father wouldn't be a chocoholic, yet me, I could eat it all day every day, which is a problem. For this reason, I like to not have chocolate in the house because I stumble on the temptation which jeopardises my getting fit and healthy thing I'm trying to get going.

There was only one option for church in my home town on Easter Sunday, and that was a dawn service at 6:30am. I thought that it probably wouldn't suit with Luke so I didn't push it. Yet 5:30am Luke was ready for the day. We went to church.

After Church, I sat Hendrik and Luke on the bed and handed them each a smaller-than-the-larger-size Cadbury hollow easter egg. Luke held it in his hand, smiled and made excited noises. I explained to them that I wasn't going to buy them an easter egg, but I wanted to as a symbolic thing, the symbolism being the empty tomb on Easter Sunday after Jesus rose from the dead. I remember my Gran telling me this many years ago. Luke proceeded to chew the foil off the egg, which followed by Hendrik holding him upside down as I stuck my fingers in his mouth to get any loose bits that hadn't been swallowed.

I believe that kids are very kinaesthetic and visual. I think that by making this connection each year is something that he will remember. I don't believe that I am brain washing my child, but I do believe that it is my duty as a Christian parent to at least give my son the opportunity to learn about his parents faith, that I hope and pray he will also follow when he gets old enough to make these choices. There is a deeper meaning to Easter, and I think that it's okay for kids to know it - even if they don't want to believe in it.

Meanwhile, I'll leave the spoiling of the big chocolate bunnies to the grandparents!