Who needs a fridge? Not me.

This was this week that our fridge died. Packed full of delicious pork products, ice cream and dairy delights, that had to be tipped into the bin. Apparently expecting an expensive whitegood to last more than half a decade is asking too much.

This left us in a bit of a quandary. We are still planning on moving some time this half decade and didn't want to buy a new fridge and find that our new kitchen needed a different fridge. So, what to do? My dad kindly offered to lend me one of his and another blogger buddy offered to lend us one, too. In the end I thought: do we really need a fridge?

This morning I got up to make the kids breakfast and fetched icy cold milk from this:

I think this was designed for cabbies to keep their lunch cold, but thanks anyway
 to the kind people of Premier cabs, it's my family's new fridge!

Let's take a peek inside!

Milk is kept ice cold with a frozen bag of Black & Gold vegies
(c'mon no-one would eat them anyway, they were super frosty).

Underneath, essentials like butter and cheese. Who needs anything else?

Take that! You stupid piece of crap!

So, the point of this tale? Who needs bulky, expensive, imported, carbon-producing appliances? Not me. I can take my new fridge with me where ever I go! Can you do that with your fancy Fisher and Paykel?

Still not what I expected

I always wanted to stay home when I had kids. I imagined a life with plenty of time to do things. Play with the kids. Cook nice meals. Lunch at cafes. Take long walks at the parks. Find a new career, work on a new talent, find myself.

Some days are filled with nice things like that, but most are relentlessly busy. Five years on, I'm still surprised by it.

First and foremost, when there are kids in the house all day there is always something to clean, wash or tidy. It's like the Harbour Bridge by the time you get to one end of the house the other end needs tidying again. You've prepared and tidied up one meal and then it's time for another.

There's always piles of washing to do, hang out and put away.

Then there's preschool drop offs and pick ups.

There's always some kind of phone call to be made or chore to be done, which takes 50 times longer with a small child hanging off you.

This week there was a broken windscreen and a dead fridge to deal with.

Then there's shopping, mindlessly dull park visits, lunches to pack, bags to pack, bums to wipe, half-drunk cups of tea to clear, bills to pay, the list goes on.

The only thing I really do for me or that is solely about me is write this blog. Which is usually done while eating breakfast or lunch or, as I'm doing right now, pushing a swing (god bless iPhones!).

I don't mind this life. I don't resent it. Most of the time I enjoy it. Its strangely fulfulling. It's just I'm surprised that five years on I'm still surprised how relentless it is. The lack of time that I thought would be abundant to do things for me. Dreams of pursuing a dream or exercise or reading or anything else are still dreams. Or even to sit and dream is just a dream.

When I worked I had lunch hours or a commute to work to focus on myself. Now life is more about short snatches of time.

Life is infinitely more fun though, in a different way to I expected.

Just call me Heather Locklear...

Not because i'm blonde, super skinny and was once married to a member of Bon Jovi. Because yesterday I was a special guest star at Lil-lil's preschool.

Her preschool encourages the parents to be involved. One mum teaches German, grandparents visiting from Scotland and Bangladesh tell tales about their homeland and a dentist dad came and talked about teeth.

I wondered what interesting thing I could bring to the kids? Blogging, my time on New Idea, the best way to use Twitter, a character analysis of Mad Men? Hmmmm nothing quite cut it. In the end Lil-lil decided I should read her favourite book. She also requested I sing a song, which I politely declined.

I was a little bit nervous as I took the story-telling chair. 19 eyes peering at me as they said "good morning, Corinne!" I looked at Lil-lil staring up at me with pride. I knew I had to make the most of that moment as it wouldn't be long before she denies my existence. She was a bit nervous too, worried her classmates wouldn't find the book as funny as she does. She looked relieved when everyone laughed in the right spot.

Before long they were all off on the next activity and I was on my way home. It's moments like these that make me thankful Im at home so I can do things like this. It's small but it's so nice to share this with Lil-lil. Plus it's not often you get 19 people hanging on your every word!

Have you been involved with your kids' preschool or school?

Top teeth tips for toddlers

August is Dental Health month. By pure coincidence I booked the girls into see the dentist yesterday, August 1. How good am I? Well, not really that good as it's the first time either of them had been to the dentist.

I've been a little confused as I've always heard mixed messages about when your supposed to take your child to the dentist for the first time. From as soon as their six months old to when they're four. My dentist said he liked to wait until they're about three. At that point he takes them for a ride in the chair and pokes around and makes sure everything seems OK in their mouth and that's it. Nice and easy.

After I received this advice, I tucked it away and kind of forgot about. Until I suddenly realised that my youngest was three and neither of my kids had been to the dentist. Time to book in.

A few days after I booked the kids (and myself) in, I went to a blogger's brunch put on by Colgate. The morning was really interesting – a mix of talking about dental health, trusted brands and blogging.

For me, the highlight was a chat from the special guest – Mrs Marsh (Barbara Farrell). I mean if you were a kid in the '70s or '80s it was probably Mrs Marsh who taught you the importance of brushing, fluoriguard and 'tough teef'. Remember the chalk? It gets in. Barbara spoke to us about dental health and her positive experience of being involved with a trusted brand (Colgate) for so many years. It was really thought-provoking and could form a whole other post. I was little intimidated by Mrs Marsh, I wanted to impress her, my kids on the other hand were not so impacted by her presence. When Barbara told them to stop swinging on a chair they glanced at her and kept on going. Obviously they had no idea who they were dealing with. Maybe she's more authoritarian when she has her chalk and blue water.

Mrs Marsh

For me, the most interesting part of the day was learning about keeping my kids teeth tip-top. I haven't been as dedicated to their dental health as I probably should have been (hey, I only just took my kids to the dentist for the first time) and I think there were a lot of us who felt a bit guilty in the tooth department that morning. Especially when it was mentioned how badly tooth decay was affecting kids in Australia and how tooth decay can affect other parts of their health.

Colgate top tips
Here are some tips that were recommended and that stood out for me:

* Before your bub has teeth, wipe the inside of their mouth and gums with a wash cloth
* Start brushing with a soft brush as soon as that first tooth appears
* Start using a low-fluoride toothpaste at around the age of 2
* Don't let kids snack or graze all day, this doesn't allow the saliva time to build up and protect their teeth.
* If you're going to give lollies/treats, they're better off eating them all in one go rather than slowly over the whole day.
* Your little one should visit the dentist by the time of their first birthday.

My teeth tips
I was pleased after our visit to the dentist yesterday that all was OK. In fact, he said they had beautiful teeth. There are times when I haven't been the best tooth brusher, but the things that I've done with my kids to look after their teeth are this:

* From an early age, give them a tooth brush to "play" with and get used to in the bath.
* Let them brush my teeth while I brush theirs.
* The kids only really drink milk and water. We've never had cordial in in the house, so it's never an argument. They only have juice on occasion. The only soft drink they've ever had is lemonade and that's only a special treat.
* On advice given to me, Lil-lil stopped bottles at the age of 1 and Goosey never had a bottle at all, just went straight from boob to cup. Giving them a cup from a early age to get used to it, made it an easy transition.
*They've always drunk tap water containing fluoride, rather than spring water.

Hopefully, these things have helped keep their teeth nice. But who knows. I just hope that the girls keep smiling when they go to the dentist.

Goosey's first visit.

For those unfamiliar with Mrs Marsh, check out some of her finest work:


Thanks to Colgate Australia and Brand Meets Blog for inviting me and the kids to brunch!

Pregnant pause

This morning I ducked into Coles and saw this tired, haggard-looking woman pushing a trolley. I then realised that it was me. It was my reflection in the glass.

Last week, I had a cold was generally feeling average but thought I looked ok. I'd dressed nicely for our tribunal hearing and I was waiting on the street for Skip. A lady came up to me and asked if I was ok and could she call someone for help. Flustered I shook my head and said "no, thanks".

I'm guessing I'm not looking as radiantly pregnant as I was hoping!

On Friday, I took the girls to our local park and ran into a friend who just had her fourth baby. She asked how I was and said: "it's ok to tell the truth and say you feel like dying".

Things aren't quite that bad. But sleep is fitfull and unrestful. I'm short of breath. I'm achey.

Lil-lil told me last night she's sick of having to do EVERYTHING because I've got a baby in my tummy. I'm not really sure what she has to do besides pull the plug out of the bath for me and pick up her own toys.

I do get the feeling that the whole family will be happy when this baby arrives.

I'm just trying to focus on the lovely baby kicks, being able to sit down and not suck my stomach in, having a hard stomach (even if it's a keg) and knowing I get a wonderful reward at the end. I'm lucky that these aches and pain will end and fairly soon.

Life be in it

I love Instagram. For those who don't know Instagram is a cool iPhone app that you can capture and share photos with others. I often use my Instagram photos on my blog.

As a way to document my growing waistline, I've been posting a bump photo most Fridays.

Here's the one from yesterday. I told you I was big. I thought I looked a little like Norm, sans the tinny and couch.

I didn't really take any bump pix with the girls, so it's been kind of interesting to do it third time round. The bump has certainly been more impressive third time round anyway.

Any hoo, must stop being a Norm and get this weekend started.

Have a fab one! x

Crisis of confidence averted

This year has been hard yakka. I feel like a little mouse on a wheel running, running, running and getting nowhere. We put soooo much effort into selling our house and, yet, we are still here. We tried to go on a holiday to chill out and it turned into a debacle. Everything has felt like a challenge, nothing has felt easy and it kinda feels like I've achieved nothing, despite running my bum off. It's frustrating.

I wanted to spend time doing stuff for me and having fun and seeing more of my friends, as once little one arrives this will be difficult for a little while at least. It hasn't really happened.

This pregnancy has been hard. I've felt old, tired and fairly lacklustre.

This blog, my little spot, my happy place. It hasn't felt so happy lately. I haven't been enjoying it as much. It's felt lonely. Usually it's the one thing that I can do to make myself feel tip top and it hasn't been happening. The past few weeks I've even considered taking a break or shutting down completely.

I have fairly crap self- esteem. I've always felt like everyone else does everything better. And those feelings have exploded the past month or so. I think it's cause despite my best efforts to move forward, I've felt like I'm just standing on the spot. I've felt like I've been surrounded by deaf ears.

This week, I've had a cold and felt pretty crappy. It's been a big week with a lot on, and to tell you the truth I have just wanted it over with. I zoned out on autopilot just to get through. It's funny though, this week has surprised me, just when I'd given up on being surprised.

Firstly, the Pulp concert was fantastic. It really made me feel lighter. It brought back memories which in turn reminded me of how far I'd come. Most of all it was a lot of fun. And sometimes in life you just need fun.

Then yesterday we had our hearing with that airline. And we won! It felt like, yes, we weren't being unreasonable. Sometimes, the little guy can win. If you yell loud enough for long enough you will be heard.

Then I happened to snap the picture at the top of Goosey as she lifted my shirt to say "Hello" to her little brother. And my heart melted. I thought maybe I'm not standing as still as I thought.

My plan today was to write a "Farewell, see you whenever" post, as I didn't think I had the motivation to keep going. But you know what? I think I may stick around and keep bashing away.