Packing Family-Friendly Travel Snacks

Arriving into Abu Dhabi airport at midnight with two snackish children in tow, I was relieved to not be reliant on the questionable options on offer. Having a child with special dietary needs (Lovely is glute-free) is occasionally a good thing for everyone. Namely when Mama has packed snacks :)

Dry roasted almonds. Yum. Substitute with any nuts of choice for an easy protein hit. We also stopped at Burger King for water, and T may or may not have purchased fries. Cough. #notpartofmyhealthyplanning!

While aimed at the baby 'market' I personally think these handy sachet-style snacks are a good travel option for everyone. This Bircher Muesli is gluten-free and filled hungry bellies.

Corn Crunch. While I usually try to minimize packaging by steering away from individually wrapped serves, there are moments in life when it does make things easier. Like not asking jet-lagged children to share. 

My boys don't like these Raw Food bars as much as I do (yum) but I think they're a great pick-me-up for weary travellers.

Obviously, when you're flying you don't want to bring more than you'll eat in transit or you risk having to declare it with customs at your final destination. But having a few decent snacks on hand is always a good thing. If I'm packing snacks for a road or train trip I'll generally also include fresh fruit and crudités, plus maybe hummus and some crackers.

What are your family's favourite travel snacks? 

On The Road (Squeeeee!)

Sept 16. 2013 ❤ The day I had daydreamed about for years... the day we were FINALLY back "on the road" with our munchkins!!

Brisbane - Singapore - Abu Dhabi - London. Erm, I pretty much don't recommend flying that far without a stopover. #crazy. Luckily, the boys thought the in-sky entertainment system was the best thing. Ever. Particularly the retro game "Pong". 

First stop Singapore. Can you tell they also thought the airport shops were awesome? Lol. 

I may or may not have been more fixated with the orchids :)

T checking email at midnight in Abu Dhabi.

Lovely riding a brass camel. Err, sans teeth.

Loving the arabic text.

C'mon Mama. We've got a plane to catch...

London here we come!!

Packing up & hitting the road!

Packing your bags is a lot more fun than packing up your house!
Believe me. I speak from experience ;)

Today was a million-appointments, finalising design jobs, sealing last-minute boxes, phone calls to the utility companies and banks and cleeeeeaning.

But, wow. 2 days / 3 sleeps to go. I'm in that utterly surreal phase right now where I am doing all the things that need to be checked off the list but I really can not fathom what we are about to undertake...

Like, really - we'll be getting on a plane on Monday morning? Seeing a performance of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Globe Theatre in London next Thursday? Celebrating Hug's 10th birthday at Legoland Windsor 2 days later? No way that can all be true.

But... maybe it is :)

Oh.
My.
God.

Squeeeee! *insert exhaustion-induced hysteria*

Everything we have been working towards and thinking about and dreaming of for so many weeks, months, (years even!) is about to kick off. Feeling so blessed right now!

A. XO

When things don't go as planned...

I've been MIA.

All my best laid plans - my juice-healing, our travel planning and house pack-up, my camera repairs, my blogging, even school... EVERYTHING - has been on hold because Hug continued to be unwell.

No measure of optimism can sway things sometimes. 

Some things just don't go as we planned.

It's been four weeks since he started feeling bad (primarily it's excruciating stomach pain). After a myriad of doctors appointments and rounds of tests we ended up spending four nights in hospital, finally coming home last night.

I am forever grateful to the people who choose to work as doctors and nurses (and all of the other varied but no less important roles) on a children's ward. It is a hard thing to let someone else take a portion of responsibility for your child's health into their own hands but even more amazing that people are willing to accept that grand responsibility.

And, as hard as this has been for our whole family, I have been completely humbled in this experience by the knowledge that one of closest friends is also nursing a very sick child right now - a little girl who has been far sicker and has a far greater recovery to make than Hug. I am in awe of their strength and the perspective that this has brought me.

So, we are home. And we have 5 days til we fly. 

Oh man.

The house is a disaster-zone (though I have to give thanks to my own mama who came and helped pack up some boxes in the kitchen today!) and I still have a design job to finish (eeeeek) and to be completely honest I'm a bit frazzled... I just burnt the soup I was reheating as I type this. Whoops.

But, what can I say... Hug is starting to feel better! And that's my number one goal. He's not back to his usual robust self yet, he still has some pain and is a bit miserable, but I think he's going to be good. We've had the all clear to fly with him (even yesterday I wasn't sure that was going to be possible) and I'm guessing my wildly optimistic and busy plans for our first two weeks in London may have to be dampened but this is certainly the best-case scenario right now.

A big thanks to everyone who sent love and good wishes on my FB page. Your kindness filled my heart even in the most frustrating moments.

So, here's to acknowledging that the universe is bigger than we are. 
And to brighter days ahead! 

I'll try and post again in the next fews days but otherwise I'll see you in London :) A. x

The Importance of Keeping Mama Well | Juice-Healing

If you follow me on FB or instagram you will probably know that I'm doing a 5-day liquid cleanse at the moment.



On the back of taking care of my poorly boys (even T came home from a work trip to Melbourne with a cold) I started to feel a bit average.

Nooooooo! 
Mama isn't allowed to get sick!! (says me and I'm guessing all mamas worldwide).

I ended up in bed one afternoon at 3pm. Slept 11 hours. And woke up the next morning knowing that some serious juice-healing was in order.



I'd already been dabbling. But, with our big trip looming closer by the day, I felt like I needed to shift things fast. A facebook friend had been raving about a cleanse she was doing with Gemma at Naked Treaties in Byron Bay & even though my intention was healing not detox per say I just felt it was right & immediately committed to their 5-day Cleanse.



So, how do I feel now?

Well, tonight I'm 4 days down, rather pleased with myself to be honest, and feeling brilliant! I have been drinking 2 green juices, 2 über-pumped dairy-free smoothies and a raw soup each day. Day 1 I was still feeling a bit blerk and didn't notice the lack of food too much. Day 2 I was pretty hungry and looked forward to each drink with gusto! About the same for day 3 and today I didn't actually have all 5 serves (but have been drinking lots of water) because I was busy and - amazingly! - not very hungry.

The last time I did a detox (about 6 months ago) I experienced bad side-effects. A killer migraine and really painful sciatica. And I REALLY noticed the caffeine & sugar withdrawals. Yuck.

But it's been a much smoother ride this time and I can only assume that the mega-nutrient-hit of good juice; vegetable-dense to balance out the fruit and organic with a bunch of additional nutrients thrown in (to the smoothies) like raw cacao and macca, has been the secret.

Everyone else is finally getting better too. T joined me on juices over the weekend and the boys slurped at will. Lovely seems pretty well now (hooray!). Hug is the last one to recover and is still not a hundred percent unfortunately but my fingers are crossed he feels more like himself when he wakes up.

And I'm back on board with the energy I need to get us ready to go! 3 weeks and counting!!
What are your favourite mama-healing remedies? x

Gratitude | Our Children's Health

My boys are both sick.

Which is really unusual. They are a pretty robust lot, aside from a few gut health issues, so I'm finding this sickness business rather confronting.

Midnight and 4am hospital visits? Not on our usual schedule.

And not fun. Obviously. 

But, at the same time, there is nothing like mild sickness to bring great gratitude for the health that your children generally enjoy and that you realise you take for granted. 

Today I feel humbled. And grateful.

Grateful to have two strong boys who usually fly through the house full of energy & bounce off the walls and each other. Strong-wills and strong-emotions and strong-bodies. Who challenge my mind and my heart and my sanity (at times ;) but who have the world at their feet and their good health to take them on the journey. 

And I'm grateful for a public medical system where I can take my children to the emergency department in the middle of the night, see a doctor immediately and know that I won't be receiving a huge bill at the end of the visit. 

I'm grateful for my family and friends who have gone out of the way to be there for us at odd hours and with odd request and who have extended their love.

I feel grateful for my husband and the life we have created together. The family we have built. 

I am lucky. My boys will be okay. They both have a virus but it's playing out a bit differently for each of them so they have conflicting issues but hopefully we're through the worst of it.

Being a mama is amazing.heartbreaking.hilarious.hard.beautiful.exhausting and a million other adjectives that my sleep-deprived brain can't come up with right now. It is ever-changing. It is love in motion. 

To all of the mamas and papas and families who are struggling with their children's (or their own) health right now, in both big and small ways, I send you love, strength and compassion. May we all find a moment to stop and feel gratitude for the small blessings, honour ourselves, and then share our love with those who need it. A. x