The lunch box trial

Introducing the Goodbyn lunch box - my newest friends in the Tupperware cupboard and hopefully the answer to my after-school washing-up woes! NB. This is not  sponsored post.

It's back-to-school in a couple of days, so we trialled our new lunch boxes just to be sure they measured up. They arrived in the post on the final day of school last year....Till has been taking hers out of the cupboard to admire it all through the school holiday period.

Want to see inside?

Cool hey. I did some research to get ideas of what to fill them up with (can you believe there are whole blogs dedicated to the multitude of ways you can pack these lunch boxes?). Whilst I found some pretty inspiring lunch ideas out there, I intend to keep it simple most days. Obviously the big aim is to fill those individual compartments with fresh, unprocessed, sugar-free, home-made morsels. Lots of wholesome 'nude food' so that Harry and Till have no litter to throw in the school bin!!

OK. Trial complete. So how did they measure up?
Hold enough food? Yes.
Easy to get the lid on and off? Yes.
Fits in the school bag? Yes.
Easy to clean? YES (and dishwasher safe).
Safe? Yes again (BPA free plastic)
A successful Lunch Box Trial. They certainly get the Harry and Till seal of approval.  
And an added bonus, they like the bags I made to keep them in too...

 Note to self: Don't boil the eggs straight from the chook house - the fresh ones are IMPOSSIBLE to peel!

PS I bought our lunch boxes here.

Washing-up Jenga

Given our family's self-imposed 'nude-food' lunch box policy, on most school afternoons our drying rack looks something like this...

In fact, most days the pile is even BIGGER than this one. But not this new school year...no-siree...I'll reveal all tomorrow!

Friday Favourite: Buddies

Here's my favourite photo taken this week month. I'd love it if you'd share your Friday Favourite too, just add a link to yours in the 'comments' below. 

NB. This was taken a few weeks ago. Seems I've lost my blogging and photo-taking mojo of late!

Crystal Pool craziness

We have ventured down to Crystal Pool before, but never to swim. We'd heard tales of big waves crashing into the pool which in turn have washed peeps out to sea or smashed them up against the rocks!!! They may be exaggerated tales but the fact is the swell can be pretty unpredictable. But when some local friends said they were making the trip down the cliff because the conditions seemed favourable, we enthusiastically jumped on board. It felt safer tagging along with people who are in tune with how this environment works and I've desperately wanted to swim in Crystal Pool since we moved here. After the precarious climb down (it's steep, slippery and involves gripping a rope), we arrived to find a big crowd of locals, most of whom were jumping off quite a high rock wall into a very deep pool below. Somehow snorkeling lost it's appeal as we all got an urge to test our inner daredevil. Till was the first of us to give it a go. I thought I'd stay safely tucked up behind the camera lens, but in the end I thought what the heck, if a 7 year old can do it, surely I can too!

Harry leaps!

Till flies!

I'm the 'nose-clamper' -  no grace I'm afraid!

Sadly these photos are very ho hum indeed. I've been experiencing a few camera glitches of late! Over the Christmas period many of my photos turned out ghastly due to me unknowingly altering the ISO setting. Then today I got this nostalgic idea that I'd use one of my old lenses from a Pentax SLR I no longer have. When I uploaded my photos I was really disappointed - thankfully I have Picasa to play with. Clearly my old lens should just be remembered for it's performance in the pre-digital days!

Kristy and John take the leap - this photo gives you a sense of how high that rock wall is!

This is Crystal Pool - and the water really is crystal clear!!

A holiday at home

Before we moved to Norfolk, every January we packed up the kids and all manner of beach paraphernalia and drove nearly 5 hours to the South Coast for a two week sea-side holiday. Now we pack the car (ie "quick kids, swimmers on, cream-up, grab your towels and hats") and drive 5 minutes down the road! Lucky huh? And luckier still that whilst our family and friends in Australia have been suffering horrendous 40 degree plus temps, we've barely had a day that's cracked 26!! Heaven.

This is Bumborus. Cool spot hey! The snorkeling in that little pool was something else. Watching the colourful little fish darting in and out of the rocks was truly captivating. The trick (we assured those wiggly kids) was to stay really still and wait for the curious fish to swim out from under the ledge. If only I'd packed the under-water camera. I might just have to force myself to return. Oh poor me.

Friday Favourite: Big Day Out

Here's my favourite photo taken this week. I'd love it if you'd share your Friday Favourite too, just add a link to yours in the 'comments' below.

Guilt Free in 2013

I ended 2012 with a wardrobe clean-out! Several large bags and boxes of clothes and shoes found their way to the op shop - many of which I hadn't worn for years. I love a good declutter at the best of times and this felt like a super cleansing way to start the new year. 

Looking back, 2012 was a great year. I set goals and didn't achieve them all, but I'm not losing sleep over it. I achieved things I didn't even set out to do and they turned out to be the best experiences of all. 

I've got a good feeling about 2013 (in our family, 13 is the luckiest number around) and I'm determined to make this 'The year I ditched guilt'. No fancy pants resolutions (I'll just end up feeling guilty I didn't see them through)...just a philosophy I aim to stick to. You see, I carry guilt ALL THE TIME! Guilt that I was unable to birth my babies naturally, guilt that I've chosen to live 1600km's away from family, guilt that I'm a working mum, guilt that I don't wash the floors enough, guilt that I contribute to global warming, guilt that I don't prepare all our food from scratch, guilt that I intentionally make those around me feel guilty (the man who means more to me than anyone else on this planet cops my guilt mind games the most), guilt that I spend too much time reading blogs, writing a blog, comparing myself to all the other super Mum's out there in blog land who in my mind appear to being doing a much better job caring for their families than me (even though they probably suffer the same guilt I do), guilt about....gee I could write a list that goes on and on for days. You get the idea, I'm guilty! But not this year. I'm cutting the chain on this useless, pointless emotion we call guilt!

Happy New Year folks! 

May 2013 be guilt-free for you also!

xxx