Family Archives - Not another slippery dip

Hosting Christmas: for 45 people!

January 3, 2016 By Michaela Fox

A sit down Christmas for 45 !

It’s taken me over a week to start this post as I’ve been recovering ever since I hosted Christmas lunch at my place! Because it wasn’t just Christmas lunch for a dozen people; we hosted Christmas lunch here for 24 adults and 21 children, and even with my poor maths skills, I can conclude this amounts to 45 people!! In keeping with tradition we all sat down to lunch. For the first twenty years of my life my nana hosted Christmas lunch at her place. But as she got older, and the family grew larger, my auntie then took over and for the past 19 years we enjoyed the most fabulous feast at her place. Sadly she passed away six months ago and so Mr NASD and I put up our hands to host Christmas at our place and ensure the family stayed together for such a special day. It wasn’t the same without my dear auntie, and her absence was deeply felt by all, but we did our best to put on a great day, and by all accounts we succeed. I am going to let the photos do most of the talking. Here is how we hosted Christmas for 45!…

Kids make mess. THIS is how you control it.

July 14, 2015 By Michaela Fox

Mess Buster

Mess. It comes with raising little people. Only you have know idea how much mess they are capable of creating until you’re in the thick of it. With three children six and under I am, most definitely, in the thick of it!

In the early years I tried to maintain some control over my home. When I just had a little baby, I thought SHE generated a lot of mess. How wrong I was! When she became mobile, right about the time my second was born, I relinquished all control. I thought two kids made a whole lot of mess. Wrong again. The real mess was yet to come. When my third little one arrived on the scene my older two became interested in craft (read: MESS). Scissors were Miss A’s exciting new toy and cutting up sheets of paper into tiny bits of confetti was her favourite activity….

How to create fun and fabulous photos

June 4, 2015 By Michaela Fox

Fun with photos

When I was 15 I did work experience at a trendy photography studio in inner Melbourne. The studio was surrounded by fashion boutiques and I confess I was more interested in the retail offerings than taking photos. At Uni, I dabbled in a few photography subjects and enjoyed the magic of processing film in a dark room and seeing my photos come to life in front of my eyes. It was cool. And then, in my 30’s, digital photography took off and it has changed the amateur and professional photography landscape. Photography used to be an expensive hobby. Today, however, you can take as many photos of your baby crawling as you please, because storing them on digital memory cards costs next to nothing….

Fussy eaters: How to avoid food fights with your kids

June 1, 2015 By Michaela Fox

: No more fussy eaters

I am thrilled to bring you this guest post by Jessica Donovan from Energetic Mama. Jessica is passionate about educating parents on nourishing their children with real food, helping to boost their health and heal naturally. It was 6pm on a weeknight. I had been in the kitchen from the moment we got home from school. It wasn’t intentional but I am sure you understand how easily the kitchen can swallow you up as soon as you set foot in it. So I had emptied lunch boxes, unpacked the dishwasher, done a load of dishes and because the kids were happily playing I took the opportunity to pack tomorrows lunches and get started on dinner. Well the next minute it was dinner time and I simply asked Mr 7 to feed the dog and Miss 5 to set the table….

How you can ‘Make a mum smile in May’ & fab giveaway

April 27, 2015 By Michaela Fox

Make a mum smile

May is a great month. Smack bang in the middle of autumn (the Fall for my northern followers) we celebrate Mothers’ Day (Sunday, 10 May). This significant day allows us to celebrate and appreciate the mums and mum figures in our lives. But this year, I want to think beyond it being just one day.

I am dedicating the month of May to kindness. I am dedicating the month of May to celebrating mothers. I am dedicating the month of May to acts of compassion. I am dedicating the month of May to….

‘Make a mum smile in May’.

…

7 signs you are an over-thinker, like me.

March 24, 2015 By Michaela Fox

A mind that doesn’t stop

If the headline of this piece grabbed your attention, there’s a good chance you identify as an over-thinker. Well, welcome to the club! I am a chronic over-thinker. I over-think, well, pretty much everything. In fact, I over-thought his story for so long, I almost didn’t write it. Procrastination is a by-product of an over-thinking mind. Over-thinkers tend to over-exert the brain and consequently we over-analyse EVERYTHING. Interestingly, if you’re an over-thinker, you probably won’t have to think too long to relate to this.

Here are six signs that you’re an over thinker:

You suffer from Decision Anxiety

No decision is quick for the over-thinker. Over-thinkers micro-analyse every possible aspect of a decision, rehearsing potential scenarios and calculating outcomes in their head. The over-thinker is often burdened – actually make that paralysed – by indecision. Being an experienced chronic over-thinker myself, eating out presents major challenges. The longer the menu, the more difficult my choice. I will agonise over the options, mentally weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of each dish. And when finally I come to a decision and order the mushroom risotto, I take one look at it and immediately wish I ordered the fish. Disappointment and “buyer’s remorse” inevitably follows whatever decision I make….

Simply Scrumptious Coconut Cake

February 22, 2015 By Michaela Fox

Coconut cake

Sunburst Coconut Cake: a beautiful moist cake infused with coconut.

If you’re after a quick, simple, delicious cake that the kids are guaranteed to love, look no further. I have the perfect recipe for you, courtesy of Sunburst. This scrumptious coconut cake ticks all the boxes: – It’s moist, yummy and doesn’t need an icing so in my books that makes it healthy 🙂 – The recipe has only a few ingredients, making it affordable and simple to follow. – Degree of difficulty is ‘EASY’. That’s a win! – The kids can easily help in the kitchen. – The sunburst spread is palm oil free so that’s good news for the orang-utans. – 5 cents of every purchase goes to Orangutan Foundation International Australia….

Christmas gift ideas for teachers & childcare staff

December 10, 2014 By Michaela Fox

Christmas gifts

There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about whether parents should give gifts to school teachers, childcare staff and preschool educators. Some argue that the staff get paid and therefore a gift is not really necessary. I disagree. In my mind they deserve GOLD on top of their salary for caring for our little ones. But, gift giving can get expensive, especially if you have more than one child and multiple staff members looking after them. In my mind the most lovely gift you can give is handmade card. Nothing else says “thank you” like a gorgeous card hand drawn (or scribbled) by your child.

Last year I made Christmas Rocky Road, which we displayed in glass mason jars and tied with a ribbon and a Christmas decoration. This year, we baked White Chocolate and Cranberry cookies to give to Childcare and Kinder staff. We also bought some beautiful Christmas tree decorations so that they have something that lasts as the cookies certainly won’t!

Here is how we said THANK YOU to the wonderfully patient, kind and caring ladies who have looked after my three girls this year….

Linguine with fresh tomato and tuna

December 7, 2014 By Michaela Fox

Fresh tuna pasta

This is one of my favourite pasta recipes. It’s simple, fresh and tasty. PLUS all my kids eat it. They don’t even realise I put a few sneaky anchovies in it. If you’re not a fan, leave them out. The best thing about this recipe is the sauce same cooks in the same time it takes the pasta too cook. So dinner can be prepared, cooked and served in about 20 minutes. My kind of dinner! Put this on your weekly/fortnightly rotation….

How to set up the perfect Nursery & coolest bedroom

November 30, 2014 By Michaela Fox

A mobile is a must

When I was pregnant with my first baby we were living in a small, two-bedroom terrace house in the inner city. It was a gorgeous house but there wasn’t much space. Our would-be “nursery” was a multifunctional room (read: spare bedroom, study and junk room all in one). We planned on having the baby in our room for the first few months, only it was so small that we couldn’t fit a bassinet or cot in it. Poor Miss A spent the first few weeks of her life in the pram bassinet, half in our room and half poking out in the hallway! It wasn’t sustainable. So, off to the spare bedroom/nursery/junk room she went. I never really got to set it up as a nursery as when she was just 8 months old I fell pregnant again and we decided to farewell our inner city pad and move out to the burbs where grass and space were aplenty….

‘Make a mum smile in May’.

Sunburst Coconut Cake: a beautiful moist cake infused with coconut.

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