Jules Sebastian cannot wait for her kids to go back to school.
Speaking to Now To Love on her last day of home schooling before her two sons, Hudson, eight, and Archie, six, are allowed to return to their classrooms as social distancing rules relax around the country, Jules’ excitement levels have her feeling “like it’s Christmas”.
“I’ve tried to become a teacher, but I’m finding it so hard,” Jules told us.
“They’re so little. Archie has just started school and he can barely read and write, so he can’t read the instructions. Hudson is in year three and he has a question every 35 seconds. It’s been testing!”
But when the books are packed away for the day, the stylist and host of Tea With Jules, and the wife of singer Guy Sebastian, has been enjoying the chance to spend more time with her family.
“I think it’s been a good lesson in embracing the chaos. We’ve been trying to keep it light and fun,” Jules said.
“Tik Tok has been the funniest thing ever. I’m loving doing all of these stupid videos. We learn the dances together and everyone gets so excited that they’ve got the moves. It’s been really nice to do together. “
On social media, Jules 156,000 followers have been inundating her with requests: Where is your jumper from? Big W. How did you make that cheese platter. Here’s a step-by-step video. How do you get your hair like that? With one curling wand and two different hair products.
“All this stuff that I thought wasn’t that interesting, because it’s just our general, normal, everyday life, is apparently interesting. There’s question, after question!” Jules said.
“Even that cheese platter… the amount of platters I make in my life, I just throw it all on. But people really want to know how to do it. It just cracks me up, it blows my mind.”
Guy and Jules are famously super fit – remember that time they both embarked on major body transformations? – so with gyms and fitness studios closed for now, they’ve been staying healthy by doing couples workouts together in their backyard
“We do have a gym, but we’re doing more stuff in the backyard. We’ll take the equipment outside… Guy fancies a bit of himself as a bit of a PT, so he’ll take it on himself to create a circuit for us, a mixture of cardio and weights a he’ll put the timer on. I just do what he says most of the time and then I can’t walk the next day!” Jules laughed.
“And we’re walking the puppy and getting the kids out on their bikes, adventuring down to the beach.”
She’s also doing group Zoom fitness classes held by her sister-in-law.
“A bunch of us will jump on during the weekend and she’ll take us though something she’s put together. Everyone is together and the kids are coming in and out and asking for snacks. It holds me accountable because I always show up, I think ‘I can’t let her down!'”
READ NEXT: Inside Guy and Jules Sebastian’s love story
And with domestic violence advocates reporting a massive increase in demand during this crisis, Guy and Jules’ charity, The Sebastian Foundation, has partnered with Cadbury to raise funds and awareness about Australia’s awful family violence problem.
“They’ve been so generous in donating $50,000 to The Sebastian Foundation and we have been busy working wiht lots of different refuges and shelters across NSW over the last couple of years,” Jules explained.
“This donation is going to towards building a kitchen in one of the shelters that can service about 40 people at a time.”
“It seems to simple, but we know that your home is your haven and it should be a safe space, but for a lot of these women it’s not. So we wanted to help make that experience a little more comfortable.”
WATCH BELOW: Guy gets real about his relationship with Jules. Story continues after video.
Jules Sebastian’s super easy lockdown meal ideas
When it comes to cooking, “I need easy”, Jules says.
“I normally buy the standard meats like mince, chicken, sausages and a roast. While I’m standing in Woolies, I look up recipes on my phone, like I Google chicken recipes and then I look for the easiest, simplest meals. I don’t have the capacity to invest in two billion steps. I just can’t do it.”
Here are some of Jules’ go-to dinner suggestions …
Lamb shoulder: “I literally just finished a lamb shoulder on the slow cooker. It’s a Donna Hay recipe with maybe nine ingredients and it is the simplest thing you’ll ever do. It goes in the slow cooker for five hours and you pull it out,make tzaztiki and a salad and that’s it.”
Butter chicken: “I made an amazing butter chicken the other night in the Thermomix. It is genius. it can really do some serious stuff with that thing. Hudson smashed his whole bowl and said ‘Can we have this two times a week? It’s so good, this is your best cooking!’ I was nearly crying from joy over the compliments. I said ‘You guys have made my day!'”
Spag bol with hidden veg: “I’m always trying to find new and intesresting ways of hiding vegetables in meals, so the kids will get their serving. I whiz things in. For spag bol, I whiz carrots, onions, capsicums and mushrooms, so they can’t see it and they are eating it blindly.”
Chicken schnitzel: “It’s easy to buy it pre-crumbed, but I try to go to a bit of an effort to make it from scratch, put some panic crumbs and other spices and salt to make it a little more my own.”
Raw veggie sticks: “They also like eating raw vegetables, so I’ll just slice up carrot and celery sticks and cucumber and I literally serve that with everything.”