I absolutely LOVE being on Maternity Leave. You would’ve thought it would be hard to fill up my days – oh it is quite the opposite. With all this TIME I suddenly have available, I have pretty much filled up most of my days with activities and being quite productive. I go for a swim 3 times a week, I organise lunch catch ups with friends, done some Christmas shopping, up to date with my laundry, house is reasonably tidy at all times, and of course kept up with my medical appointments which are becoming more and more frequent now that we are nearing D-Day.
Of course, every now and then I have my lazy and “can’t be bothered” days.. like today. I just didn’t feel like doing anything. I felt almost depressed, although I know I wasn’t really depressed – I just didn’t feel like going out of the house and felt quite happy to “hide” within the comforting walls of my home and not face the world. That stage is over now, it’s almost bedtime and I look forward to getting on with my day tomorrow – starting with a trip to Officeworks, then swim, then Physio appointment, then have Growth Group come over for our regular Tuesday Night Bible Study.
Anyway, here’s a run through of what I’ve been up to the past couple of weeks:
29/10/2011: Attended a Wedding
Hubby and I drove over an hour to our destination – Neerim South / Drouin – and attended a lovely wedding and I not only survived the whole day, but also really enjoyed it! I wore really sensible shoes so my feet were not sore at all, and got all dressed up in my red dress and even got up on the dancefloor a couple of times during the reception. We left at a reasonable time (just after 10pm) and got home just after 11pm so I had a restful sleep afterwards.
30/10/2011: Attended Hubby’s Parents 60th Birthday
The next day, again we drove an hour to our destination – Werribee – for hubby’s parents combined 60th Birthday Party. It was an afternoon tea and the sister in laws did a lot to help out e.g. made beautiful slices and cakes, etc and organised activities – I didn’t really do much except for maybe help out a little in the kitchen to serve up the food. It was a bit more difficult this time around as they weren’t really a lot of chairs available, so I occasionally sneaked out of the party to have a bit of a rest at the house. Overall though, it was a lovely afternoon and yes I survived again!
31/10/2011: Ramen & Karaoke in the City
The next day, AGAIN I travelled over an hour (by train) into the city to catch up with my food bloggger friends – we had ramen for dinner and had lots of fun karaoke-ing. I was sensible enough to leave just after 10pm and got home just in time to have a long, deep sleep. The next day I was supposed to “party on” again at a Melbourne Cup Lunch, but fatigue kicked in and I chose sleep.
5/11/2011: Attended a Breastfeeding Education Class
I not only attended this class, which was great to learn all about breastfeeding and meet new mums, etc.. but I also signed up to be a member of the Australian Breastfeeding Association. Great to have a support group and yes, I am officially becoming a mum and being part of a Mothers’ Group of various types of interest and activities, etc. Gee – wait til the baby gets here – I just wonder how much busier my weeks will be with the addition of Play Groups, etc. Busy life of a mum!
8/11/2011: Baked some Cupcakes
I thought I’d mention this just because it is so RARE for me to actually bake.
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| Chocolate Banana Cupcakes – recipe available at http://www.kimbaskitchen.com/ |
12/11/2011: Had a small Baby Shower / Lunch Gathering of a small group of friends
I did not end up having a BIG Baby Shower (where I originally invited over 60 people, which was a crazy idea then it got too hard to organise so I cancelled it) but we did decide to have a small gathering of close friends over for lunch – and that was my Baby Shower. It was a special afternoon. Lunch was fairly simple to organise – I made Nachos as Entree, then I just chopped up a whole lot of carrots, cucumber, capsicum, spring onion, tomatoes, salad leaves, hard boiled eggs and cooked up some chicken – and then just got people to make their own wraps. My dear friend Leah made a GORGEOUS cake and made some lovely “cake pops”. My sister in law Hannah organised some games & activities – Guess The Baby, Onesie Decorating, Pop the Balloons – and hubby got the guys to do “guy stuff” for us, hehe, a flat pack shoe cabinet was assembled and our brand new Baby Jogger pram was put together.
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| Gorgeous Ladybird Cake made with love by my dear friend Leah |
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| Even came with an Icing Jar of Cream! |
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| Leah also went the distance and made these AMAZING cake pops! |
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| Decorated Onesies! |
We had plenty of food leftover – so the “party” continued as some friends stayed for dinner and we also had some family over for dinner. By the end of the day, I was utterly exhausted. It was great that we had just the small group of people there though, if we had ALL of our friends there, yes it would mean a lot to us that they were all there, but it would’ve been too difficult to manage! So, I’ll have to catch up with various groups of friends individually at separate lunch / dinner sessions.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has given us baby things whether they are hand me down clothes, toys, sheets and linen, furniture, accessories, baby daily essentials, pregnancy tips, advice, books, gifts or anything baby related – THANK YOU so much for your thoughtful gifts and making this whole experience so much easier and less overwhelming for us. You know who you are, if you are reading this, we are really grateful for your love and support for us and our baby. We are truly blessed to have family and friends like you.
Kimba's Living 