back in action

OK I have been out of action for over a month now and loads has happened.

In short the last month has consisted of a holiday to Victoria, purchasing an Avocado farm, starting a small business with a friend and moving house twice.

The holiday was great, Melbourne was fantastic, however, Dan and I have vowed to go back there alone without the kids and experience the little coffee shop/restaurant lane ways, shopping and galleries without the kids. I don't really care what anyone says but taking my two boys for coffee and shopping is just not that enjoyable and they weren't particularly interested in the 18th century art at the gallery either. However, I must give a memorable mention to the excellent playground equipment at the galley that kept them amused for ages. All they wanted was parks, large areas to run and shout and all mummy wanted was a trip to the shops without a shop assistant having a mild anxiety attack about my kids getting behind the "precious clothes". So thankfully, after a day we set out from the city and hit the country to visit Daniel's brother who lives about three hours from Melbourne. It was so nice to get into the country, have loads of space for the kids to play, go four wheel driving around a farm, see koalas three feet away, pat a sheep, a rabbit, and a horse and run in paddocks with other kids - and just be wild. Also it was so nice for Dan and I to be a bit wild and catch up with his brother and partner - who are inspirational in so many ways. They are "life is to short to just sit around and think" type of people and I admire them so much for that. We had such a great time and even the cold weather was so nice, we had a fire going every night and snuggled under rugs in front of the fire each night. I was so inspired whilst I was there I even started a joint painting with Lisa (a masterpiece waiting to be finished I'm sure) and have begun painting again since we came back.

OK so piccy's for this month are as follows:

Melbourne (just before we venture into the art gallery)

a glimpse of 'the farm'

some new pants for my boys

And so much more......

parties, organisation and ramblings

This weekend we went to a beautiful fairy party for our niece - Ava. Whilst leaving the house in our usual fashion - in a mad rush, with Daniel deciding he needs to go to the toilet just as we are about to get in the car, Myles not finding his shoes (because he's to busy kicking a ball), Fynn following me from room to room wanting to be picked up and share the toothbrush that is hanging out of my mouth as I attempt to pack a bag and at the same time yell at everyone "where's the sticky tape", I realised how disorganised I was. Once again I had left the present shopping to the last minute and we had to stop on the way to pick up a gift - hence the need for the sticky tape in the car. As much as I try and think about getting organised I just seem to get distracted by other things. However, this weekend in the car with tension mounting we decided to just accept that this is what happens, accept we were going to be late and hence we all relaxed and the tension between us all fell away. So I'm going to accept that I'm a disorganised person and see what the universe does.

Anyway, whilst getting the kids dressed for this fairy party it reminded me of a fairy party Myles went to when he was one and the huge effort Dan and I went to to make Myles a elf costume. We sat up till the wee hours of the night and hand sewed him a little costume with buttons, pockets, bells and all. He looked so cute. Unfortunately there was no late night costume making this year - just sleep catch up.

The sewing machine emerges

Last weekend, my sewing machine emerged from the deep dark depths of my wardrobe, a place where life hasn't been in some time, a thick layer of dust covering everything and forgotten goodies rediscovered by exploring little fingers. A couple of hours later and a lot of deliberation about material selection my beautiful nieces and I have sewed two little bags to take on their journey to a new home in Dubai. Filled with their cameras, journals and pencils to record new magical places, people and adventures, they set off on Wednesday with their mum (my sister) and little brother (bags over shoulders).

A day of mixed emotions - lots of tears and many thoughts reminding myself it wont be forever.

A Crazy Week

This past week has seen the wheels well and truly fall off. I love this photo of Dan whilst he was doing some crazy dancing with the kids - his face so perfectly sums up what a crazzzzy week we have had. Myles is not recovering well from the Scarlett Fever, (which has sent me into a mild panic with my imagination working over time as to whats wrong with him), we have all had the dreaded cold that seems to be gradually spreading through everyone I know and Dan has been working weekends on the house for what feels like an eternity. So in an attempt to get some colour back into Myles' face and get him and myself outdoors and off the lounge we set about picking the fresh beans our beautiful bean vine has given us this season.

Whenever the wheels fall off I seem to retreat to the garden for some time out. I can lose time in the garden, the ramblings of my mind get dug into the garden and all I think about is our mini vege garden and try and work out why some plants grow better in one spot and not so good in another, water beading on leaves, how a pumpkin leaf looks just like a huge funnel, and watch the bugs do their thing as they pollinate our flowers.

Fynn has managed to keep us all smiling with his recent toothbrush, shoe and hat obsessions. He has such a great sense of humour, is so cheeky and such a comedian.

I decided to take on Tracie's tag challenge and write 7 weird facts about myself - so here goes:

1. I love eating ice cream in a cup with a tea spoon and have a love of ice magic (that delicious chocolaty stuff that goes hard on your ice cream);
2. I love to sleep in late;
3. If there is a candle burning in front of me I 'have to' play with the melting wax;
4. I wish I had been an entomologist (someone that studies insects);
5. I hate cleaning with a passion - ironing infuriates me, come to think of it I actually I don't even know where my iron is;
6. I wish I could make more time to paint, do craft, garden, paint my toe nails, do my hair (actually some days I forget to brush it and it goes straight up in a pony tail), get a massage, do yoga, and meditate everyday;
7. I cant sit at my desk with my feet on the floor. Either one or both legs has to to be tucked up under my bum.

An eggy kind of week

More eggplants from the garden today.

This week we all tried to get back into the routine of things after the past couple of weeks of sickness. I attempted to be a 'domestic goddess' in my half of a house that seemed to have a steady flow of workers through it, tools laying all over the place, and tiles falling through roof as a new roof was put on. However, after asking Dan if it was safe to stay inside and being told sarcastically "yeah honey you and the kids just sit under the dining room table for the rest of the day" - I knew I would have to abandon the goddess within - the cleaning could wait (hooray), cookies would be bought rather than baked, and instead settle for a week in parks, at mums and at any ones house that would have us.

Fynn decided this week that he would like to begin his day at around 1am. After attempting to persuade him otherwise and miserably failing to get him to sleep after 2 hours last night I contemplated starting my day at 3am, blogging, reading the rest of my book, maybe cook some pancakes or even take the dog for a walk why not even wash her I thought. It all seemed quite do-able at the time until I started to think about the very long day ahead...dealing with Myles' crazy Saturday mood, dance class, a 5 years old party I had to go to, Myles' after party sugar highs and lows, and a very tired Fynn. So I just decided to give in and give him more milk and get some more sleep. Thankfully he went back to sleep and so did I for an hour or so until I was awoken with what I thought sounded like someone whipper-snipping the edges of our lawn at 4am. I nearly got up to investigate who the hell would be doing such a thing at that time of the morning (perhaps another mum with a child that doesn't like to sleep) until I realised it was actually Dan snoring.

I think I'm just staying up late tonight because I'm scared about the night ahead, I know it doesn't make any sense to stay up late and I should be getting all the sleep I can before he wakes up but I seem to get a second wind at about 7pm and get motivated to do all the things I cant in the day and nothing ever makes much sense when your sleep deprived.

So if I have to start the day at some ridiculous time tomorrow morning I think I'll look up some eggplant recipes - "how to cook eggplant seven different ways".

A Girls Night Out

Friends......Meg, Karen and Me.

This week I had a girls night out , a night away from home, the kids and the hubby, in the big city to do a spot of shopping, see a band a do lots bonding as we girls do. It was fabulous, the band"Kings of Leon" was great, even though I did have a slight toe bleeding incident from being to far up the front amongst die hard rocking fans and getting my feet jumped on. However, once I moved back a little from the front, (after realising I was not up for being amongst "the pit") I enjoyed a night of dancing, sweating and jumping up and down like a mad woman.

More than anything though I enjoyed spending time with my girlfriends whom I love dearly, and don't get to see enough. However, I know it is a great friendship as we can not talk to one another for extended periods of time and when we do get back in contact its just so natural, no bullshit, and I can feel totally myself.........I love them.

Thankfully though we now have a permanent night organised each month to have dinner and catch up - it is one of those essential things in the routine of my life I need, enjoy and love to do. I think time to do things like this is so important in keeping your sanity sometimes.

Stuff

My beautiful friend Meg holds a free meditation class that I try to go to weekly. I haven't been for a couple of weeks and went back this week and had the most beautiful experience, I didn't want it to end. I always come out feeling so refreshed and energised ready to travel through the week in calmness, mindful of the beautiful simple things that surround me and most importantly to breathe. Sometimes I feel like I'm caught in a whirlwind, of going here, having to be there, nothing makes much sense especially amongst work, renovations, the screaming, crying, whinging, feeding and wakefulness of two children and my own sometimes unrealistic expectations of how things should be. I'm finding that the meditation keeps me mindful - to be more present in each moment, slow things down, take joy in the simplest of tasks like stirring porridge in the morning, hearing and enjoying the laughter of the kids about the most silliest of things that only a child like mind can, and being mindful of all those external influences that can make me, Dan and the kids a bit crazy in this fast paced world we live in. (However, it has yet to have helped with Fynn's constant waking throughout the night). I have realised lately (after my mind being in a cloudy state of sleeplessness and work...etc...) the importance of being silly....giggling a lot, laying on the floor and letting the kids crawl all over me, having pillow fights, dancing and singing as loud or as crazy as you want in the car/shower/ or whenever the impulse strikes, tickling till you nearly cant breathe and not caring so much what others think. The other morning after getting woken way to early by Fynn (5am) and realising the long day ahead, I had the kids fed and packed in the car (Fynn still in his P.J's, Myles in his undies and singlet and no shoes for anyone), with Kooly (our beautiful dog) and went to the beach. It was so lovely, and so simple. I didn't worry about changes of clothing, nappies/wipes/food and all the palaver that goes along with outings and just enjoyed that time of the morning that Daniel always tells me is the best time of day and have always strongly disagreed with (being a night owl) and.......enjoyed it so much. I think this needs to be a new morning ritual (with a coffee at the end for mummy).

Even if it is once a week that going to meditation reminds me of all these things and three days later I've forgotten, I'm still thankful.