Pinch me, please. I need to see if this is a dream.

You see, me and my better/other half, Grimace, have been on a waste-reducing mission for a few years. We are obssessed with our portable coffee cups; we did cloth nappies for both kids; we have drastically reduced the amount of trash through composting; and amongst other things, we’ve had a change in approach to consumption of goods. We’re really trying to fight the good fight, and it can be tough going particularly with young kids. But, we’re really trying and have become so much more aware of our consumption habits.

Over the last few years, we’ve been fairly aware of the plastic wastage generated in relation to our food purchases, and ways we can combat some of it – taking reusable shopping and produce bags, having stainless steel straws for the kids, but what has really rocked me is the amount of inadvertant plastic a household can consume with too much difficulty – buying some pasta, dried beans, rice, cheese, biscuits – you essentially buy the food and the plastic wrapping. Now, I know that some larger retail stores accept these types of soft plastic for recycling, but then I’m also aware that there are questions raised around how much of that plastic actually gets recycled. So, what is the answer?

Well, this is where my dreams are coming true. Relax, this is entirely a G rated post. If I mention ‘Nude’ it won’t be in relation to Grimace, rather food purchases. Drum roll please:

Last week, in my local neighbourhood, Nom Bulk Foods opened – and this, ladies and gentlemen is where my Nude food obsession is being satisfied. This is the kind of store that actively discourages plastic waste and encourages you to be mindful with your purchases. You know the type: you scoop, weigh and pay – you can take your own jars and containers to transport the goods home, or of course you can use the in-store paper bags for the purchases. This is literally a business idea Grimace and I had, but for twenty seven reasons, we never got around to enacting our plan. Turns out, being lazy can pay off…someone else invented my dream, and I didn’t have to do a single thing. Well, I will be doing one thing…supporting them! And, if you know me, you’ll know I’m ridiculously loyal and this loyalty will probably mean I remortgage my house and spend it all with them, just to make sure they are successful.

Anyway, our quest to reduce our plastic waste just got a whole heap better and I’m one happy member of Theverymoodyhousehold. There are quite a number of these type of stores around the globe, if you’re also feeling fed up by the ridiculous amounts of plastic waste from your food purchases, perhaps check out if there is one close by. And maybe your Nude food dreams can come true too 🙂 xx

Twelve months ago, I was feeling lost and not really pleased with me. I had a day off work for some random reason, and I was scrolling the facebook, probably just trying to procrastinate on life. I mindlessly scrolled down, past an event that a close friend had RSVP’d as ‘interested’.

“Wait a minute, go back. What was that?” I thought to myself. Scrolling back up, I felt a jolt through my conscience. I instantly felt a belonging to the ‘interested’ event, and I challenged myself in that very moment to commit. What was it, you ask, that had me so hooked? A beginners running program, for women, in my local area, aimed at teaching you how to get running. That’s was me. Feeling stale and uninspired by me and my life, I wanted to challenge myself. I had indeed tried running, seeking the thrill of the recreational activity. But, I would lose my breath all too quickly or feel self-conscious of my jiggly bits or that people would look at me running and know I was a fraud. So, I’d just stop and walk.

It took me a lot of introspection and courage to turn up at the local sportsfield on this night, twelve months ago. I think I nearly turned the car around, then nearly kept walking when I arrived. But I took some deep, courageous breaths and urged myself to do it. I walked up to the coach, and introduced myself, only to be pointed in the direction of another lady. This athletic-looking woman I’d indentified as the coach was not the coach, just another runner. Oh goodness, why am I here again? How much of a fool will I make myself out to be? Thank goodness I don’t know anyone here…wait, hello, don’t I know you? Oh gosh…

Ha. Well, I don’t remember my first few weeks anymore, just that I had made the commitment to myself to give the program a go; turn up to the 10 sessions, and see if I could get to running 30 mins. After that, I would probably part-ways, be pleased I’d tempted the running thing, and then amble back to my world. I really had no self-belief and couldn’t really envisage reaching that 30 min goal, but the evening away from the family was proving too good; it gave me the much-needed self-care and direction I craved, plus the support from the other women involved in the running group was (and still is) unrivalled.

When I joined Serotonin Running, it turns out I’d found THE most loyal, supportive and judgement-free women. They are strong, and celebrate each others successes. They challenge each other respectfully, cheering you on, because you are there and assuring you that you’re doing an amazing thing. They pick you up off the ground (literally and metaphorically) and they do it all with an arm around your soul. Some of these women are amazing runners, some of them are just social or casual runners. But that doesn’t really matter – you see, it’s not one’s ability that gives the credit, it’s their drive to support anyone out running. I don’t know any of these women particularly well, but I feel loyal to them and their running dreams.

The coach of all these lovely Serotonin runners is one of those beautiful souls, with empathy and understanding, who empowers and gets each individual moving toward the identified goal. Without her, I doubt I would have stuck with running. I probably would have quit when it got too hot, too cold, too wet or too hard.

Tonight marks exactly twelve months ago that I started my running journey. I’m far from running my best. But, I have goals and aspirations. I have achievements and medals. I have an extended running family, and most of all, I have confidence in me. I can’t believe how lucky I was to stumble my way into this community. Turns out Social Media can be useful.

On the eve of Term 4 starting , I have joyfully been working hard to get my fridge and freezer prepped for the Lunchbox. I’ve also been using that prep time to reflect on the last two weeks, and how it was wonderfully spent – just the right amount of adventure, interspersed with just the right amount of downtime. I’ve learned it can be a hard act to balance – the joy of doing something fun and exciting can be oh so exhausting, so remembering that School Holidays can also be used to recharge one’s batteries is important. I think waaaaay back at our first School holidays, April 2018, we didn’t get the balance right, and ended up with an exhausted Giggles Magoo back at school. That made for an incredibly long second term for him, and he certainly found the term more challenging than the first.

Having a little more experience in the school holiday department these days (we’re practically pro’s) it was spent with a lot less planned activities, slower mornings (even those dastardly mornings where I’d have to chuff off to work) and of course the obligatory later nights. As we are in New South Wales, we needed to also factor in Daylight savings, or in our case, not factor it in and end up having both Giggles Magoo and Little Mate in bed well after the clock has ticked over 9pm.

The two weeks goes epically fast (particularly for me as a good chunk of it was spent in bed with The Lurgy), and I feel I need to capture some of the adventures before Giggles Magoo grows up more and doesn’t want to spend his time with us (well, me. Let’s face it. It’s my blog and all about me!). We’ve spent it at backyard birthday parties, on bushwalks and gardening in our ‘new’ backyard; we’ve been stuck inside watching movies due to incessant rain and then followed it up with a visit to the local movie theatre to keep a variety in our screen type; we’ve been to parks for play dates and bike rides in the rain because we just.can’t.stay.inside.anymore; we’ve been to the city for dumplings and dinosaurs and trams; we’ve spent it at bowling alleys, at trampoline fun houses and braved high-ropes courses;  we’ve swum and laughed with grandparents; we’ve hung out at friend’s places and even just hung out at our own. Chess and card games have become things: Uno! skipbo! Shithead (which we are unceremoniously calling ‘poohead’)! Snap! Dominos! Puzzles! Lots of my childhood school holiday memories are being re-created, and the reminiscing feels amazing.

All in all, it’s been a pretty lovely time spending it with the boys as they act out their imaginations or read books together or throw lego at one another. I should probably take this moment to insert a caveat: I do have that frazzled and completely-over-spending-all-this-time-together feeling going on, and I secretly can’t wait until that drop off tomorrow morning. But, it is also nice to just focus on the good bits and forget about the teasing and the whining; because none of that is enjoyable for anyone.

So now, I suppose I should go and do what I really love to do (and it is true, I do really love putting the food together)… get The Lunchbox in order.