Hi!

Hi everyone :)

So, this is me. I'm Lia. I'm a mummy to 2 beautiful little girls (K and B), I have a little boy on the way (C), and I'm trying to sort out the mess that is currently my house...and my brain. Maybe along the way I can sort out the other half (D)
I figure this way I'm accountable to the world, even if the world is only one person lol

I'm going to use this space to post about my plans for the day, which may sound incredibly boring, but hopefully other mums can get some ideas and maybe some motivation, which has been something I really lack, as my girls play so nicely with each other and it's really tempting sometimes to just sit down with a good book for a couple of hours.

First things first...These are my New Years Resolutions, the first ones I've really made, as I'm not very good at keeping to them. Again with the accountability.

• Make time every single day for an activity with the kids. This means actually DOING the activity, not just setting it up and spending a few minutes showing them how to do it.
• Get organised. No more missed free-dress days, or last minute trips to the shops for something to take to a party. Or forgetting the party altogether..
• Become 'domesticated'. Keep a clean and clutter free home, spend the extra time making muffins, cooking things from scratch (which I love to do anyway), and involve everyone.

Basically, this year I want to become supermum.

So far we're not doing too badly. I started getting the house sorted out before the New Year started, and I've got myself an awesome organiser to hopefully help with all the stuff I generally forget. It's called a Baby Brain and has entire sections dedicated to baby routines, cleaning, immunisations, and a section each day for meal planning, reminders, and the like. It just arrived today, so still a novelty, but so far... LOVE it!

I've fallen off the wagon a little the last couple of days due to being busy and not being at home, but tomorrow is a new day, and the plan is to keep up at the pace I started, and have an organised home by the end of January. they say it takes 21 days to break a habit, so here's counting!

Tomorrow I'm going to focus my energy on little bits of cleaning throughout the whole house. Starting with 10 minutes in each room, no more, no less, and writing notes of other things I'd like to achieve if I have time. I also need to clean the bathrooms. I'll post later a daily routine when I've actually worked one out. I find I spend a lot of time wandering around doing not a lot of anything, so this may be a good thing!

The activity of the day for tomorrow will be water play, since it's going to be hot. I'm going to freeze a couple of balloons tonight, and add them to the shell wading pool so the girls can play. I'm going to aim to spend at least 15 minutes in there with them, playing with food dye so they can see any patterns, etc that may appear. Here's hoping it works.

I'm having Pumpkin and Broccoli Risotto for dinner. For those interested, here is the recipe. It serves 2 adults, 2 growing girls, and there's usually enough leftover for D to take some to work for lunch.

Ingredients

• 1 large chicken breast fillet, skin removed and diced
• 2 tbsp butter/margarine
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets
• 3/4 cup frozen peas and corn
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1L chicken stock
• 1 tsp chicken seasoning (any brand will do the trick)
• grated cheese (optional, but yummy)

Method

• Toss the chicken and seasoning together in a bowl until the chicken is coated
• In a large frypan or heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter. Add the chicken, and cook stirring for around 4 minutes
• Add the garlic and onion, and cook until the onion is translucent
• Add the rice, and stir for 1 minute or until the rice is coated in the butter
• At this point, add the stock, gradually and stir.
• I usually add the pumpkin and broccoli at this point as well, but it depends how well cooked you like it (I like mine almost dissolved as it hides the veg from the kids)
• Once you've added about 1 cup of stock, pour in the rest, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally
• Keep a kettle handy as you may need more water depending on the rice. Add as needed.
• Once the rice is almost cooked, add the frozen veggies, and stir well.
• Continue to cook for about 3 minutes, and then remove from heat and stir in the cheese.
• Serve! It may look like a dogs breakfast, but is at the top of our list for favourite dinners

I've also been known to add zucchini, capsicum, celery, carrot, and eggplant to the onion and garlic mix.

So that's dinner.

As for de-cluttering, tomorrow I'm going to continue my efforts in my bedroom. We've recently switched rooms, and I need to organise C's baby clothes, pack my hospital bag just in case, and move all the assorted stuff that's been tossed around, and find a home for it all.

Hoping to get my license on Friday as well, which will make taking clothes etc to the Salvos a whole lot easier.

Well that's it from me for now.. I must try and work out this routine, if I succeed it may be up later tonight or tomorrow.

Hope to see you back soon!