I have finally found the thing I am good at.

I have never thought of myself as being a high achiever, but I think I have finally found something I truly excel at. I am pretty damn good at being a stay at home mum. I am kicking goals all over the place. And I have only been at it for 4 days.

I had an inkling I was good at it when I dropped my daughter off at school while I was still wearing my pyjamas. Yep I just popped on my ugg boots and grabbed my sunnies and off we went. And then this afternoon I finally knew I had it covered when I found myself yelling at Steffy on Bold and the Beautiful. (Yes Ally was nuts but she still did kill her, so I don't think Ivy is being unreasonable).

I am finding it a bit weird though because I am having trouble slowing down. I am used to having to do everything at break neck speed- so on Monday morning I made the fatal mistake of getting all my jobs done by 9 am. I had done the washing, vacuumed and mopped the floors and dusted so I had then left myself nothing to do on Tuesday. Then on Tuesday night I put on the washing  and then I realised I had just done Wednesday's job. I filled in Wednesday by having coffee in the morning with my mum and dad, and then when shopping and having lunch with my son. And let just say dinners have never been better (my son keeps asking who is coming over), and don't get me started on the lunches I am making the kids. 

I am also finding I am becoming a bit of a chatter. A chatter with shop assistants and strangers! The pharmacist and I had a lovely little chat about New York today, as did the lady and I in the bank. And today I even smiled at a baby. Yep. A real life baby.

Can I also tell you about my parenting. I have been walking my daughter to and from school most days (well apart from pyjama morning) with the dogs, although that nearly ended as soon as it began when she spent the whole walk home being moody with me because she wanted to go to after school care.  I took her to the bank to cash in her money rather than making up the normal feeble excuse that banks shut at 3pm.  And yes I even let her put the shopping through the self service checkout without getting frustrated once for putting the cold stuff in the same bag as the pantry stuff.  Because lets face it- I'm in no hurry. No hurry at all. And having to sort the groceries out at home will give me another job. 

So lets just say so far this staying at home thing is pretty good. Apparently I will get bored soon, but that can wait until I get back from New York. In the mean time I will just look around my spotless tidy house and play with the dogs. 

A post about favourite Favourites.

A serious issue has just occurred in our house. I didn't really notice it at first, but when I worked it out.I wasn't happy. My youngest daughter and I both have the same favourite in the box of Cadbury Favourites. The Moro.

Mr Cadbury- why can't I buy these individually?

I think I may have talked about this before - but there is nothing like a box of Favourites, because everyone has a favourite. In fact I think it is perfectly reasonable to make friends according to their favourite Favourite. Under no circumstances should two members of a family have the favourite Favourite.

I not sure about you but this is my process for eating Favourites (I have routines for eating most foods- like get piece of pizza, take all the topping off the pizza, eat it, then eat the crust. Eating a pie- take the lid off, eat the lid, fill the inside with sauce, eat the inside with a fork, then eat the pastry.) 

1. Open the box
2. Empty all the Favourites onto the bench
3. Put the ones you hate back into the box ( Cherry Ripes, Caramello, Dairy Milk- which lets face it is a waste of time- just buy a block and Flake)
4. Take one of all your second favourites- (Picnic, Turkish Delight, Dream and Mint Aero)and put the remainder in the box
5. Hide the Moro's so no one can find them, so you can eat them slowly by your self.
6. Leave the rest for everyone else.

So on Friday night, my reflex's slowed by a celebratory bottle of wine, my daughter upset my routine. After I dumped the Favourites on the bench, she was in. It was like playing a game of Hungry Hippos. That I lost.

All I got was one damn Moro. Doesn't she know that you only have kids so there is someone to eat the chocolates you don't like?

So lesson learnt. From now on the Favourites will be opened in private. I will remove the Moro's and then reseal the box. Or get better at playing Hungry Hippos.

I am not a machine. I am just a very mediocre runner

I know that some people are under the impression that I am an amazing athlete. This could have something to do with the fact that when I am talking about my marathon running and people ask how I do it I usually reply with " I am a machine."

Well I'm lying. I am so far from a machine it is not funny. I am actually extremely mediocre. And I believe there is nothing wrong with being mediocre, but that is a whole blog of its own. The key to my success is that I just do it. That also does not mean I enjoy it, but I set myself a goal, tell lots of people and then I have to do it.

So in order to make you all feel better about yourself I thought I would share with you yesterdays run. Or as I like to call it- " the run that failed at every km."

So it was a biggie. 28km. Yep, big, stupid and long. Now for some reason I either completely underestimated the distance or I overestimated my ability. I am strongly suggesting it was the later. Because I actually hate running long distances I knew I just had to get it done. In a normal world I would be prepped for this, but my prep for this long run was 4 days down south with lots of wine and champagne. Mmmm first mistake. My carb loading the night before was brie and crackers washed down with a bottle of champagne, my pre run breakfast was a slice of toast and a caramel latte from Macca's. My pre race lunch was 4 pieces of sushi and a sugar free red bull. Mmmmm second mistake.

So off I set at 3pm, when it was still 25 degrees. Mmmmm 3rd mistake. So there I was hot, nowhere near fuelled enough and very dehydrated. Oh did I mention that the sea breeze was in, so I was running against the wind the whole way? So lets break the run down into the highlights.

1. Getting chaffing under my arms at 5kms.
2. Having to have a carb shot at 7km.
3. Having a baby vomit at 8km from said carb shot at 7km because I couldn't find a drink fountain to wash it down with. Lets just say Gu's are called Gu's for a reason. They have the texture of Gu.
4. Finding a drink fountain at 9kms and drinking so much I got a stitch.
5. Wanting to stop running at 11kms, and then realising I had 17kms to go.
6. My tummy deciding it needed to "expel" all the cheese and crackers I had the night before at 15kms.
7. Nearly tripping over a dog at 17kms, and then realising there was no drink fountains until I got home. 11 kms away.
8. Realising I had a wedgie at 20km. I realised this because I now not only have chaffing under my arm, I also have chaffing on my butt cheek. It was also at this stage my watch told me it's battery was low. So was mine.
9. Crying at 25kms because I felt like vomiting, my tummy still wanted to poop, my chaffing butt and arm and now tummy were  all hurting, I am still 3 kms from home AND I didn't have my phone so I couldn't get anyone to come and pick me up, my shuffle was stuck so it was only playing three songs... and let me tell you Eminem I was going to also have vomit on my sweater and it wasn't going to be mum's spaghetti . The only thing keeping me going was knowing that I was 3km away from my epsom salts bath and a Gatorade.
10. Finally I got home to find the flame on the hot water system had gone out and there was no hot water for me to have my bath, or a warm shower. I had to stand under a cold shower to wash off the sweat. 

Yeah so next weeks is 32km. I can only guess how that is going to go....