Fab Feb - Fab Family

Nanna and Grandma, with me!

❌Fitness 

❌Free of Alcohol

✅Family

✅Finished Season 4 of 'Better Call Saul'

Even though the house was quite clean and tidy due to preparation for yesterday’s Open House, there was still a bit of an effort required today, since my in-laws were coming for dinner.  All day the beef stroganoff aroma wafting out of the slow cooker made me hungry. The three main meals today were based on the #28bysamwood program but when the in-laws came, we had cheeses and crackers before mains and mango with ice-cream for dessert. Simple but yummy. Reasonably healthy, if you ignore the champagne and red wine also consumed. It was our second and last day of alcohol for the week, three days into #FabFeb. In my mind, February consisted of four weeks, the first week being 1-7 February. However, John is arguing that a week is Monday-Sunday so the week resets tomorrow. This feels wrong but suits me, due to theatre plans coming up on Tuesday night. And of course, at the theatre there must be drinks.

This, I’m finding is a problem. I associate wine with events and foods. Cheese is a particular downfall for me, the cheese itself being so appealing, let alone the wine of any variety that must accompany it. My in-laws have become much more healthier than they used to be. Barely any cheese was consumed, so the King Island Seal Bay triple cream brie and Mersey Valley sharp and crumbly cheddar will remain in the fridge until they leap at me as a solution to pangs of hunger. Tonight I consumed a bit of the Mersey Valley with dried apricots, patting myself on the back because I considered the apricots to be healthier than water crackers and the cheddar healthier than the brie. I also congratulated myself for not finishing the generous serving of mango and ice-cream. Progress, not perfection, they say.

We used to go to the in-laws every week for dinner. My mother-in-law is a fabulous cook and at her house there is always copious amounts of wine on offer too. It was a highlight of the week and nice to know there was always one night that I didn’t have to plan. The weekly routine ceased once the youngest graduated from high school, and now I’m well on the other side of 40, I thought that perhaps I should start returning the favour a little more often.

I have been thinking lately about how the dependency relationship between my generation in the family and the one above is beginning to shift. I’m often ashamed that at my age I am still dependant on parents for some things. I still call my Mummy when I’m upset over something, although those type of phone calls are becoming rarer and are instead more about checking in on them, less about being a needy child. I am also consciously taking up a bit more of organising and hosting family gatherings. Plus, the house we are in the process of buying has a self-contained area which will be a man cave at first but possibly down the track, a granny flat.

That said, both John and I come from a legacy of long lives. When our first child was born, she had five living great grandparents. There would have been six, if my paternal grandmother hadn’t passed away just a few months earlier. The last great grandparent, my maternal grandmother, Nanna, passed away at the age of 102, just six months ago. It also helps that there are a number of first-borns in the lineage, who started their families quite young. I was just two days shy of 27 years old, very young for the ‘north shore’ of Sydney. (I put ‘north shore’ in the inverted commas because we are not near a beach or on the side of a river so the area we live in being referred to as the ‘north shore’ has never sat well with me.) It’s comforting that Nanna ate loads of sugar and salt and never exercised beyond her beloved kitchen and a bit of housework. Still, I am aware that I shouldn’t follow her example to maintain a healthy life. Besides, I want to feel stronger and have more energy, as well as look good and live long.

So, Monday will start the new week (yes, John wins). Monday will be about clean living, no cheating, doing some exercise, expelling the alcohol from my body. Wish me luck!