#1447 Me Time no. 1

I can just as easily have named this a ‘reasons why I love living by the beach’ post with the water being a theme and all once again, but the true intentions of my writing and where I am coming from are so different this time.

Sure, it was hot.

Sure, I wanted to make the most of Summer.

Sure, I wasn’t passing up a hot day offer from Melbourne even if it meant I was alone.

Especially because I was alone. 😉

But I’ve been in a funny space lately. Neither here nor there. Thinking about life, wondering what to do, in this odd middle-ground of nothingness, where nothing is the only thing that actually happens…

Just a whole lot of thinking instead.

I’ve been coming to grips with this weird phase, reminding myself that we all go through it at certain times of life and it’s part of the whole cocoon process in becoming a new person.

To become a butterfly we must shed our shell. But we must hide out and hibernate first to do so.

Part of my quest this year, the year of balance as I’m calling it, the ‘2020’ year, is to find more time to make me happy.

You might think that is SO easy given I don’t have a job. I have plenty of time, right?

Time doesn’t necessarily equate to heart and purpose though. And it’s awfully hard to find motivation when the car that is your life stalls and has to change new tyres, and you suddenly don’t know where the tyres are coming from. And then someone tells you to not stress, and relax.

You try relax while waiting for a tyre change.

So in the meantime, I really have to do things for me.

Things that fill my soul with purpose.

Things that make me smile.

Things that I miss doing.

Things that I always put on the backburner because I need to cook/clean/make phone calls/do washing/a billion other things on my to-do list.

Going to the beach on my lonesome is just one of those wonderful ‘me’ things.

(the seagull had to photobomb my solitary beach photo!)

Firstly, when alone at the beach, I have no one in tow, and no one to answer to. I decide when I come and go. I sit on the sand for as long as I like, and I sit in the water for as long as I like.

And today, while sitting in the water and having waves crash over me… well it truly reset my car battery. 😉

I’ve written a little story about it on Instagram, about waves and life and letting go, so I do hope you check it out… you can find me under smikgwriter so give me a yell if you’re on there too. ♥

 

 

#1446 Reasons why I love living near the beach no. 2

So this is similar to my number 1 reason from an earlier post, but… I love living by the beach because…

We can go after work.

Hubbie’s work, that is. Having a peak temperature day of 37 in our neck of the woods meant that it was likely to still be hot later in the day.

This was perfect, as it’s not generally favoured amongst bosses and teachers that employees cancel work and students wag school to hit the sand and water.

But living by the beach, you can just go after work and school!

Visits like this aren’t for long. We grab our towels, our belongings in one bag, our thongs are on our feet and swimwear is ready, as baby girl drags her body board behind her.

That’s it.

An hour maybe, tops.

Short and sweet.

And we end up having the best time ever.

We had the best time ever. ♥

#1445 The ‘1’ first day

I’m grateful we are here.

I’m grateful she was happy.

And I’m forever hopeful.

Here’s hoping baby girl’s school year is as rich in hues, bright in contrast, and stunning in beauty as this sunset.

Made even more beautiful because she took this photo. 😍

#1444 Reminiscing yet looking forward

I know there are so many parents out there counting down the minutes until their brood is booted off to school for another year.

And as much as I fall into this category many times during the year, a part of me ain’t feeling it tonight.

We had such a great summer.

Today was so bittersweet. I was thinking of all the routine, school lunches, rushing out the door, urging baby girl to GET OUT OF BED, and then oh God, those Winter mornings… so far away and yet so INEVITABLE.

Ugh.

Baby girl and I enjoyed a babycino/coffee break on the balcony today, which seemed like a fitting holiday send-off before a new school year.

And then tonight, after we checked her uniform and got her lunchbox requests sorted, I spotted the remnants of a stunning sunset.

A truly beautiful sky. Wisps of barely-there clouds floating through the middle, seemingly connecting the heavens to the earth…

Our dreams and wishes to us mere mortals?

Here’s hoping for a superb year that is more sweet than it is bitter. ♥

#1443 A drive to the other side

We try make the most of every free moment we get together as a family.

And in glass half-full spirit, when Hubbie came home today from work on a public holiday at 1pm, it wasn’t –

“boo, you worked today” – 

it was –

“what are we gonna do now?”

A drive to the other side of the Peninsula it was. 🙂

Some surf beach explorations at Pt. Leo…

Before making our way to Flinders…

For a coffee break, walk, park visit and a spot of ice cream from their famous ice creamery!

I love how we drive to the other side, and immediately feel like we’re a world away.

But we’re not. And that’s what I love MOST. ♥

 

#1442 The babycino

Looking at this today all I can think of is that Paul Hogan line…

“That’s not a knife… that’s a knife!”

And that’s a babycino!

#1441 Going out when you want to

Being on holiday is great and all, but have you ever noticed that sometimes when on holiday you don’t feel like doing holiday things ALL THE TIME?

I came to this observation when Hubbie was home with us not too long ago. We had many days in a row where we’d paint the Peninsula blue, white and yellow…

And then others when we’d stay at home all day.

Sure you need balance, and that sometimes means down time. But it showed me that holiday time doesn’t mean holiday vibes… 24/7.

So we decided. A new rule.

Too often in life we wait for holidays, wait for the long weekend, wait ’til our days off, to have fun. To live life. To do what we really wanted to do… 5 days ago.

Why do we wait? Why do we put off our happiness and satisfaction for a supposedly more convenient time and day?

We’ve decided that when we want to do something, rain hail shine, summer winter autumn spring, work or no work, time or no time…

We will do it.

Because you get the most satisfaction out of doing something when you really want to, right?

So tonight, we went out.

It doesn’t matter that it was the long weekend… we would have gone anyway.

Because we wanted to.

Look at that sea view. 😍🌅

 

 

 

#1440 Our matching mannerisms

It was a family kind of day.

I was on the other side of town with baby girl, meeting sis there too as we caught up with our parents.

And while the family time, café lunch, backyard musings and loads of watermelon and pineapple were wonderful, there was one moment that stood out to me.

Mmmm. “Yeah Yeah.”

Sis and I have the same mannerisms when we talk. We know this. People have pointed it out to us. And once again the mannerisms reared their funny head and we were in stitches this afternoon.

Sis is too kind. She said after we realised what was happening that we had the same expressions…

We DO, but I don’t know whether it is in-built in our family sister gene, or whether it is her huge influence on me growing up that influenced me to take on things that she said and did, without even realising.

I really do believe that to be the case. She was such a massive role model for me growing up, and not to say that she isn’t anymore, it’s just that looking up to someone as a child and then an impressionable teenager, makes a long-lasting impact.

Even down to the smallest most sub-conscious level… even the “mmm’s.”

I was completely oblivious to the symmetry playing out today. Mum was saying something to us around the old circular kitchen table, and I reached for my phone to glance at it, going “yeah yeah” in response without even thinking.

Soon sis was telling me that we did the ‘yeah yeah’s’ to Mum at exactly the same time, and we burst into fits of laughter.

I held my hand over my mouth, because I knew what would happen next.

It’s happened so many times before. We’ll realise we’re making the same “mmm” sounds or doing that “yeah” followed by a big sigh thing that we do, laugh insanely about it, and then as we finish laughing go “ahhh” at the same time followed by a sigh AT THE SAME TIME, and start laughing all over again.

I swear I felt the “mmm” and sighs and “yeah’s” building up as my hand held my mouth closed, just knowing we would do it again, letting sis laugh and do them on her own.

🤦‍♀️

Gee we are hilarious.

Whether I’ve learned it from her, or it’s some innate freaky sister similarity, when we do our little sighs and “yeah’s,” I’m glad to be sharing such a little, but so telling expression, with her.

It’s all in the details. 😉

Yeah.

#1439 The toy clean-out

Can you believe from the hours of 1pm to almost 6pm, with two breaks for lunch and coffee, I spent the time cleaning out and sorting baby girl’s toys?

Ashamedly, not even all of them. Today we tackled the area called the family room – it has the second ‘kid’ TV, my computer and desk where I do ALL my writing, and to the side of me, her ‘small’ play area.

Only it wasn’t so small when we started today. It had grown huge and out of control.

Baby girl was fabulous. Funnily enough, culling toys and taking everything out of boxes to reassess and work out if it needs to go in the throw, keep or donate pile, is actually a fun task for kids when you get them involved… they end up discovering a whole lot of stuff they’d forgotten about. Throughout the day baby girl ended up playing with new and re-discovered toys constantly while I kept interrupting her with “hey, focus… keep or throw?”

I kept her involved, because I like to keep her happy.

But when she goes back to school, I am going to focus on the out of reach spot in her cupboard and those A-Z drawers in her room that she isn’t as well acquainted with…

And cull it all. Mwa ha ha.

Today she was absolutely brilliant in her brutal ability to say ‘throw’ for things that honestly, I hesitated and asked “really?” about too many times that I care to admit.

And to have gotten rid of so much stuff is honestly liberating… and now, EXHAUSTING. 😴

 

 

#1438 Everything you want

If you read my blogs closely you will know that yes, I love George, but this post is not about our Flawless Mr. Michael.

😉

Rather it’s how we have everything we want down our good ol’ Main Street.

Hubbie had suggested today that we go to a shopping centre 20 minutes away…

My answer was: WHY?

Instead we hit our lovely abode.

We had coffee at a fabulous café…

walked around and headed into one-off boutiques, clothing and furniture shops…

Even found the ol’ faves like Cotton On, and ooh ooh, a pop-up Country Road shop!…

The best newsagency for MILES as there are possibly 300 different magazines on offer (not even joking) a goal-mine for this aspiring freelancer…

And then Hubbie wanted a hair cut.

There is one on almost every corner. He was neither here nor there, for AGES, but when we happened past one of those drop-in-and-get-your-haircut-done-for-$20 type places, he popped in to give it a shot.

He was really happy with how his hair turned out. Quick, cheap but good!

But then we had a slight problem. Someone else wanted to get their hair done…

Baby girl. ♥

She was actually due, I just hadn’t yet booked her in at Amazing Toys where she last got it done. But we were there, she was telling me she wanted a big girl hair cut in a big person place, and I was like you know what?

Let’s do it.

No fuss, no getting her in somewhere else, no extra driving required.

We were there. It made so much sense.

She even got a pink apron and had her hair brushed with a massive glittery pink hairbrush.

Don’t my loves look great?

We have all we want. ♥♥♥♥