Bargain in the Blood

I love buying secondhand.

I get a thrill out of finding a bargain and saving. I remember as a uni student always having nice clothes but only ever buying everything from a cheaper store, and still looking just as good. Back then I wasn't so into op shopping but now its all I ever do!

Recently I purchased something for my children that is retail $200 that I got for $30. My husband is a lucky man 💕  for getting a girl like me I think. Hahaa but seriously I have inherited this savvy way of life from my incredible grandmother. She taught me from a young age the value of money ( as well as from my dad and grandfather - they have money saving in their blood!) and how to live successfully with a business mind. Grandma will be 89 years old this month and I have been preciously blessed to have her in my life as a guide. I hope to make her proud even when she passes on. The amazing thing is she would have to be the most generous person I know. Still to this day she sends me birthday money (I'm 31 for goodness sakes) and will more then often pop a nice amount of money in our bank account "for the kids" as she knows life right now is tight. What a beautiful example of giving - I want to be like her in so many ways.

In other thoughts, I've recently introduced no more plasticware in our house for the children.  I have come to learn that having the children use glassware and crockery at the young ages of almost 6, almost 4 and just turned 2 is a really useful thing. There have been no smashes so far and its been at least a month that we've made the change. Sariah the 2 year old has not broken one thing and I give her the daily task of taking her dishes to the sink after each meal, along with her older brothers. They've smashed things in the past by accident and have naturally learnt they don't want that to happen again. I never had to yell at them or make them feel bad they just figured it out. A glass smashing for a little kid is pretty terrifying. If it was a plastic cup or bowl constantly falling on the ground that never broke they would never learn the need to be careful and control themselves. It has been interesting to watch and observe how good they are at taking care of things since this change.

This all comes from the educational background Maria Montessori encouraged and I have been testing and trialing all areas of her methods in our home for some time now. All I have is praise!

Children can do more then we give them credit for that's the biggest message. I love being a mother to my children and educating myself in how to do them better everyday, its the greatest work I can ever achieve so why not push myself.

No more plastic! But I wonder how much money I will save in the end...

😊

Lately

Recently I've been sick, and have been forced to just stay at home - like don't go anywhere with all the kids all week. That is usually not what we do here but lately I've loved it. I was talking to a school mum who has 3 kids and no car during the day as hubby takes it. I thought how the heck do you deal?? She said she loves it, everyday is slow paced the house gets cleaned and she's always baking. You really can't catch up on much if you are running around all week just to keep the littlies entertained at playgroup, swimming, shops, appointments etc.

So I've embraced it and am loving it!

This past weekend was so lovely and easy going. Friday night began with movie night of course, with Peter Pan as the screening :) they all loooooove it so much. Then we went on a beautiful family bike ride Saturday. Normally we would go local on a saturday morning but this time we went out of our neighbourhood to the coastline in town. It was amazing! The boys were so fast and john and I just cruised. Even Asher was saying to everything he saw 'everything is so beautiful!'.... we rode past some war memorial sites and explored as well as watched model aeroplanes take off and loop at the club that was on the bike path. Two happy little boys enjoyed that!

Our saturday ended with lovely friends of ours with (6 grown adult children of their own) who came and babysat for us. Johnny and I had a treat of dinner and gelato and a movie - which i fell asleep in of course... can't keep me up past 9pm these days hahaa.

Sunday we enjoyed being together at church, Asher has been trying so hard to sit still and quietly during classes which is defenitely not his normal way of life but very good for him to learn at the age of 5. He won the little class reward for his efforts and was so proud!

That afternoon daddy took the boys fishing and mummy and sariah stayed home to rest...and in such a cliche way we played tea parties for almost an hour...she just is drawn to that make believe thing with doll's and tea cups - we loved it.

In other news sariah is completely toilet trained wahoooo! I feel like super woman 😄

Such a blessing to stay home everyday with my babies and soak all of this in.

xx