#1812 The countdown is on

It’s already begun.

I realised with extreme sadness this morning, as we got ready to go to my parents house, that it would be the LAST TIME EVER Hubbie went there.

I started to cry.

Oh the memories. The memories. I can’t even begin to express the breadth and depth of emotion when it comes to the memories.

In some ways, I am feeling more for my parents leaving this house, then I did for Hubbie, baby girl and I moving from our first home over 4 years ago now.

4 years, versus 40 years. There is A LOT of difference there.

I even cried when we were at the front of the house today, Hubbie filling up the car with stuff to move over to their new place. I sat on the big pillar that serves as a mailbox, remembering how I sat there with my neighbours, over 25 years earlier.

I walked up to my former friends’ houses, noticing how I hadn’t done it for decades… and knowing that it had been different for just as long.

It’s hard to remove yourself from the place where you made so many memories. It’s hard because a piece of you stays there forever.

Sure, many of the people in those memories have moved away and are gone… but I was always able to visit the my parents house, my old home, and reminisce about the way things used to be.

Today I stopped and stared a lot. Looked around my parents back yard. Their enviously luscious green back yard. So abundantly healthy and blooming in all life forms of nature. Several times I went past the pear tree, and as I lifted my head, the fruit actually bonked me on the head, hard.

I had to laugh.

I know the memories will come with me. I have been preparing for this moment for so long now. But until the day of goodbye comes, I will keep staring at that beautiful green, drilling it into my memory for all of time.

As if I could ever forget. 💖💖🌳🌳

#1811 Flashy lobes

My baby girl got her ears pierced today!

Can you read upside down? 🙂

😮😮😍😍

I always wanted her to be ready, and ask me before doing it. But at the same time, I kinda hoped it wouldn’t take too long, and that she might take a similar path as I did when I was her age…

I was 6. Today, at the age of 7, we walked into the beauty salon.

She was excited the whole time, ultimately tentative when it came to sitting on the bed, and then the two girls came from either side of her to hold against her ear what could only be described as a type of gun… and then at the critical “1, 2, 3” moment, her face did register shock, maybe even sadness?

Oh, my girl. 😭

But she was okay, and in a matter of moments, all was right again. A spray of the earlobes, here and there, and she was rapt!

She truly loves them. For someone that is actually pretty squeamish when it comes to any kind of doctor-related stuff, she has gone into this decision, and come out, so courageously. I actually can’t believe it, and Hubbie and I didn’t actually believe it would happen… until it did.

Only hours later, and she said to me “when I’m older, I wanna get another one here (the top of her ear lobe).”

Here we go.

#1810 Weird but beautiful gloom

I found joy in a really simple thing today.

I had just made myself a tea. It was raining outside, no wind. So it was the type of rain that I liked… already a plus. 😊

The steam from the tea rose up past my monitor as I sat back down at my work desk.

I lit a candle, and watched the area around me, GLOW.

And with it, so did my heart.

Suddenly I was happy.

I was grateful for this feeling. I had been counting all the things I wasn’t happy about, for weeks now… so this simple act and subsequent feeling came as a pleasant and heartwarming surprise.

All from steam rising.

A candle wick glowing.

Rain falling.

So so gloomy… yet I felt anything but.

Allow yourself to be surprised by the little things.

#1809 Reflections on numbers

We went 3 different ways today. Hubbie and I at our respective places of employment, baby girl at school.

Ahh. Grade 2 has begun.

Where has the last 2 years of primary school go? How is this the 3rd year already? How am I becoming a well known feature at the school, watching the oh-so-obvious new kids and parents step tentatively through the gates?

Grade 2 was such a good year for me. I had one of my best teachers then.

Actually, I had her twice. In grade 2 and in grade 5.

I was in room 16. One of my favourite numbers.

I look at baby girl now, and hope her grade 2 year is just as great as mine was, and brings her even more good times and memories.

Actually, I wish all her years were like grade 2.

Here we go again.

#1808 Indoor greenery

I was so excited to get indoor plants today, YAY!

I am sooo adult, it’s not funny. 🤣

I’ve been wanting to inject more greenery into our home, and I tell you, it is worth it. We only got 3 plants today, but OMG are they divine… I am already looking around the home, wondering where to put more, what types of plants can go where, and imagining up planti-ful scenarios…

Tee hee hee.

Even baby girl got in on the act, and insisted she too, had to have one in her room. So of course, we obliged.

A plant in a child’s bedroom is actually really pretty. It’s given me motivation to purge her room of a lot of stuff, because the simplicity of the plant, just there, is – WOW. Just WOW.

And anything that gives me mojo for clearing out rooms is a good thing in my book.

Loving the plant life so much right now. 😍🌿🌱☘

#1807 Restless day

Today I was incredibly restless.

It was grey, there was wispy rain. Some of it may have had to do with the interrupted night – a man actually died in a horrible crash outside our home last night. There were emergency services everywhere past midnight.

The low mood carried into the day.

We didn’t want to do anything… yet being free, off work, together, we felt we HAD to do something.

Yet we couldn’t be bothered.

Look at this precious life we are granted! And to waste it away on days, doing nothing, lounging around, yawning, and crying “bored,” when we have just been privy to another life being snatched away?

But that’s assuming life is meant to be busy. Full of stuff. Running around.

Life can be just as beautiful, and just as meaningful, by enjoying the things around you. Taking a pause. Breathing in deeply. And respecting our earth.

So we took a walk. To clear our heads, process our thoughts, and connect ourselves to the ground on which we walk on every day.

The water was there too. We may not have touched it, but we felt the force of the wind as it rippled across it, smelt the sea air, and knew that no matter how beautiful it looked, those waters were merciless.

The danger is so far, but a wrong step from the lookout, and it can come running up to our faces with a loud smack.

Life can change so easily my friends. Take care out there, and enjoy whatever it is that makes you happy… yes, even if it means lying on the couch.

Sometimes we need that too… only as long as we get back up again. 💪

#1806 Easing back into work

Today Hubbie and I went back to work.

You know what the best part of it was though?

Knowing I have the next 2 days off!

1 day on, 2 days off…

Tee hee hee.

But, wait for it, you know what’s even better?

Finding out today that Hubbie also has the next 2 days off!

1 day on, 2 days off!

And baby girl’s not back ’til Thursday!

But hold on, she’s been on holiday for 5 weeks now… 🤔

Never mind. Mini family time again… holidays aren’t over, not quite yet. 😁😁❤❤

#1805 Reasons why I love living near the beach no. 3

I feel like all my ‘reasons why I love the beach’ posts have to do with the same thing – convenience.

But it is soooo true.

Today, after the Saturday we’d had, we all kinda couldn’t be stuffed doing anything. Even baby girl didn’t jump when immediately presented with the beach idea.

But realistically, with work and school starting this week, as well as that highly predictable unpredictable Melbourne weather, today was the only good day we could go.

We said an hour, tops.

The water was so nice. The air was still, and so the refreshing water was a beautiful contrast to the warm, humid atmosphere.

It may have even been 50 minutes… and then we were home again. 💖💖

#1804 The overdue catch up

Today was a freaking great day.

It was a well, long, severely overdue day… because we hadn’t seen some of our besties, Best Man and Fam, for a whole year.

You all know why. Hey, the whole world knows why.

What made it even better? Well, my sis and bro-in-law were invited too ❤❤

Other things that made it beautiful?

The perfect blue sky…

The sunny weather…

The amazing food…

The special cocktails…

The diverse music…

But most of all? The best company 😍😍

#1803 The overdue playdate

How is it nearly back to school time ALREADY?

So I worked leading up to Christmas… then there was Christmas…

Worked some more… then New Year…

A playdate here and there, an outing, bit more work…

Then HOLIDAYS! Getaway, wedding, day trips, go go go!

And here we are!

A week away from starting back… 🤔

I wanted to have baby girl’s school friend over way earlier in the holidays, but alas all of the above, so she came over today, finally.

I think it’s really beautiful to see her find and make friends that she genuinely enjoys spending time with, and more important is for me as a parent, nurturing that connection, and creating opportunities outside of the home for them to bond.

Which is what they did today.

But everything was like, a 10-15 minute activity, so excited they were to just be having fun together in a place other than school.

Checking out our house and all the rooms… 10 minutes.

Jumping on the trampoline… 10 minutes.

Playing dress ups… 15 minutes.

Watching Frozen 2…. 10 minutes.

Playing with dolls… 10 minutes.

Playing with shopkins… 10 minutes.

Writing each other notes… 10 minutes.

Sitting down on the couch to watch something on youtube… 25 minutes, but hey it was the end of the playdate and they were pooped. 😂

Then the Mum came over for a coffee, and the kids got their second wind, making lego tracks all over the floor, doing a speed-run of dress-ups again, eating cupcakes galore, and just screaming and piercing our ear drums.

Finding friends is kinda easy… keeping them is super hard. As I say to baby girl all the time, finding a good, true friend, is so so rare…

Look after your friends, your friendships. The true ones are like diamonds in the rough.

I should know. 💖💖💖💖💖