Hug a Little Tighter

Hug your family tighter.  Time is fleeting and you never know when things could change.  Love one another. 

Laugh together.

Remember to enjoy the small things, they can pass all too quickly.

I am a lucky woman.  I have two beautiful girls who make me smile and a wonderful husband.  Life is good.  The girls are growing strong (and fast).  Miss Barry is four months old and exploring more and more of the world. Miss Squid will be three in little more than a month. Time marches on and life is good.

Christmas is next week and I'm looking forward to enjoying it with our family, especially as Miss Squid is starting to comprehend a little more about it and anticipate it.  Last year she only just started learning about enjoying the idea of presents.  I am looking forward to seeing her realise that there is a group of presents for her.

Mostly, I will appreciate my good fortune in having a happy and healthy family.  I have heard too many stories of loss of a loved one, even children.  Today, I will try to live life for today and take as much enjoyment as I can from each moment.

I Bet You Weren't Expecting This...

Another post... in recent proximity to the last two!

It is amazing what some sleep can do for one's energy levels.  Miss Barry is being an absolute gem and allowing me to get some decent uninterrupted sleep blocks and it is doing wonders for my enjoyment of life.  (Writing this down, however, could be the kiss off death to this good run of course!)

I'm feeling happy, relaxed, energetic and inspired.

I've even been able to focus on myself a little bit and have been exercising, eating better and setting goals. These things have had flow on effects to make other parts of life easier to deal with too.

Life this week has been quite enjoyable. 

Now, on to some planning for Christmas...

My Bucket List

I thought I'd start a list to record & track a list of "I want to do some day" things. 

This is a post I plan to update and re-visit periodically.

• See Aurora Borealis
• See Aurora Australis
• Host a 3 course dinner party
• Visit Japan
• Go on a helicopter ride
• Maintain a vegetable garden for a full year
• Take another cruise
• Spring clean the entire house before spring ends
• 
  

Remembering Me

Hi there,

Remember me? I used to write here a lot more. Then I had children and they took up most of my "spare" time.

This morning I had an epiphany. I need to create, and children are too damn expensive as a creative pursuit despite how well those collaborations turn out.

I have decided it is time to prioritise some time regularly for creative endevours. This might be blogging, card making, painting, sewing or other randomness. I might even showcase some of my efforts on the blogs. Mostly this is a commitment that I will write more often (feel free to hurry me up if you actually read and I haven't posted in a while), but for now I have to return to trying to get Miss Barry to go to sleep.

Never Dull

Life has been interesting, certainly not dull the last few weeks. Many many dramas, some of my own making, some of my family's.

It's consufsing and stressful.

I guess though, there is a status quo in that though and at the very least it is getting a bit harder to keep my head up my own bum. Drama and crisies make it harder to indulge one's own self importance/indulgences. I probably needed that about now. A shift in focus, away from the minutae of my life.

Miss Squid continues to be the shining light in my life, she is chicken soup for my soul when I let her be. She is art, beauty, love, innocence. She inspires me to be better than I am.

Nearly half way through as Barry's host, we find out next week if indeed it is a Barry or a Barry-ette on board, if they care to share with us. I think I have felt Barry move a bit in the last week or so, but nothing super definitive yet. The blubber and the anterior placenta make it a bit hard to tell.

It's dark, only slightly earlier than alarm time, on my day off. I think it might be time to have a cup of tea and enjoy the solitude.

Motivation, My Fickle Friend

Today I feel motivated which makes a really nice change from where I've been very recently.

Maybe it is the effect of trimester 2, although I still tire easily so I'm not really sure. Yesterday and today have been quite productive. Let's hope I can maintain it for long enough to get some stuff done!

Miss Squid is distracting me in the most delightful ways, she is growing so fast and so wonderfully. She is easy to be with and has magical giggles.

I must away, to make the most of my visit from my fickle friend!

The Best of People

Its been a stressful week.

One story that made my day was recounted to me by our neighbour yesterday.

He has a business in the Albion region that was under threat from flood water. He was at the shop with his business partner as they watched the water lap at their bottom step before it receded. The businesses on the other side of the street were not so lucky.

Down the road from his shop were two antique shops, side by side. One shop owner had built a mezzanine floor a couple of years ago and moved all their stock to the higher level as the threat neared. The other shop had a huge shop full of stock that could not be protected in the same way. The owner was staring down the barrel of losing it all. Then a truck arrived.

It was a competitor from the next suburb up the hill's truck. They offered their empty warehouse and truck to help move all the threatened stock. The truck went back and forth before they finished moving out every piece at midnight.

That people are so generous with their resources, time and energy in the face of adversity makes me very hopeful for the world in which Miss Squid lives.