In this family, we all turn to the sky.
😍🌅
#2245 Family sunset love
Month: February 2022
#2244 Things that help
On a day when my mind went round and round in rumination, I had little to give me a reprieve.
Or, so I thought.
I found little, oh-so-little things to help me out.
First, a good cry. 😢
Second was finding the will for a walk around the block. 🚶🏽♀️
Third, was pruning some weeds at the front of the house. On a day when I had motivation for NOTHING, when I started this therapeutic job, I actually couldn’t stop. 🍃
Fourth, music. 🎶
Fifth… a 10 second hug. 🥰 It’s apparently meant to last for at least that long for your body to let go of stress and realise its in the presence of love and support. 🤗
Nothing is magically better at the end of the day, of course, but somehow, all of these things lifted me, and will take me into tomorrow with a bit more hope.
🙏
#2243 Fam at the beach
The beach is free, open access to all. And yet when it comes to showing our favourite stretch of sand to our friends and family, honestly, really truly, I like to save that for the people that really matter.
True story. If I want you to see where we sink our feet into the earth, or to share the waters we walk shallow into for ages, well that means you are really something.
We’ve had friends come here, we’ve had friends and their kids, we’ve had friends and their partners…
Tonight, it was sis and bro-in-law’s turn. 😁😁
Sure, it was a touch windy, but it’s still summer, the waters grew accustomed to our bodies (😉) and most importantly, it was Saturday evening.
A super perfect way to spend it too, if you ask me. With those most dearest to you. 💖🥰
#2242 Accidental anniversary
OMG, so I just stumbled upon a discovery.
You know when you stumble upon a realisation that you honestly had no idea of, but it’s like something is silently whispering into your ear and then, you search and you… REALISE?
So this was the timeline of my realisation only moments ago.
Hmm, I think I’ll write about editing my novel. Yeah I enjoyed that today.
I mean I could write about that today… but like, I’m not editing for a publisher. Maybe I save it for when I’m with publisher. 😉
But I have nothing else to write about really… hold on. I mean, I have done a lot of these gratitude posts. Let me look at how many…
Today is #2242.
2,242 days of gratitude. Wow. I started in 2016. I won’t forget that year.
February 2016, that’s right. That ill-fated day.
Hold on, isn’t it my carcrashgratitude anniversary at the end of this month? Let me have a look…
My first post occurred on the 24th of February 2016!
Guys, I have been doing this for 6 years and 1 day! 😮😮
And that’s how I came to my accidental discovery today. My blogging anniversary with this blog was yesterday and I didn’t even know it.
Happy gratitude blog day to me. 😁🥰
#2241 Our reading time
I’m currently thinking about trialling a timetable, where I schedule reading time.
Yes, you read that right. I don’t read enough, and I need to book it in like a freaking appointment. 🤦♀️
And while I weigh up all of my priorities, responsibilities, passions, wants, needs, and then all the other day-to-day routine stuff, I realised today that I was getting in reading time without even knowing it.
With baby girl. 💖🥰
Because she brings home classroom and library books from school, and a couple of weeks ago she brought home a Roald Dahl classic – Fantastic Mr Fox.
I read a fair bit of Roald Dahl growing up. Although one of my favourites was a classic for everybody – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – probably my most favourite of his works was The Witches. I remember both reading the book and then watching the 1990 movie, and me and my neighbour would closely watch older women as they walked by our houses, convinced we were spotting real-life witches with supposed wigs and square feet.
That is the power of stories, of books. Although silly and irrational it may seem, it opened up our minds to imagination, wonder, curiosity, and its a memory that has stayed with me all my life.
So when Fantastic Mr Fox came home with baby girl, I had an idea.
“Let’s read it together every night.” Their library holds are 3 weeks long, so I knew if we did a couple of pages every night, here and there, we would make it.
And tonight, we did. A couple of pages and chapters read by me, and her, and also Hubbie some nights, and we closed the page on this adventurous and cheeky children’s book written by a classic author of the genre.
And rather by coincidence, in doing so, I have added another book to my list of to-be-read books.
Tick. ✅
My review of it?
Oh you know… it was Fantastic… in the most childlike way.😁
#2240 All about the water
I take photos of it constantly. And how can I not, when it is so damn beautiful?
Calming. Serene. Healing.
And you don’t need to do anything, but turn up at its doorstep.
As we did today.
Here are some snaps of the day. You can guess the theme.
#2239 Spoiling our princess…
…With very, very simple things, but still they make me happy.
And it wasn’t even me, or us spoiling her.
It’s…
Overhearing a conversation between baby girl and her big cousin over the fence.
Finding out she had a special babycino-coffee date with her aunty.
Being told about her smorgasbord of pasta bowl with butter served by Baka!
I know when she is with my parents, sis and fam, that she is spoiled, but most of all loved.
And I 💖 that.
#2238 Small steps to manifest
I took a tiny step today, but it was still hard.
I’ve been talking about steps lately. I’ve been reassessing things, reassessing life.
Often we grow accustomed to the same-old same-old and remain in routine, staying stuck instead of pushing ourselves beyond what we think we can do.
I had an opportunity today to do something extra. Put myself out there. Take a small step.
Sure, it was hard! Actually scary too, despite it being a minor thing… for many others maybe.
Not for me.
But I gathered up some strength. I asked what I want to be, what I want my life to become.
What am I working towards?
I also comforted myself with fact, often a great help when it comes to wild doubts and irrational fears.
I said to myself:
“Things are better.
You can change your mind.
You have the emotional capacity for this now.
YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND.”
Ahh, the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card, the change mind number. But it’s true.
We can all change our mind, any moment, any day, whenever.
All this planning and stressing and thinking for a little thing, is it too far fetched?
Do you know what tomorrow is? It’s a hugely momentous day of synchronicity in the form of numerals, and a massive day for manifestation.
We are living in a time where it is quite normal to be looking at your life and reassessing, planning, thinking…
If you are thinking of lots of things, even seemingly minor things, well there is a reason.
Watch your thoughts now! Be careful, for in the words of Talking Heads…
“Watch out! You might get what you’re after.”
#2237 Little step by little step
I’ve been slowly coming to a conclusion for a while now, and when I said it out loud today I realised it had culminated in an awakening of sorts.
We lead busy lives. We want to work and make money, but we want to play. We want to go out, be social, have a life…
But we want to cook healthy, home-cooked meals and eat the good stuff as nature intended.
But then we get tired and bored and want to splurge on takeaway and nights out too.
We want more than what we had for our kids. We want to encourage them at school, work, after-school activities… yet they must have EVERYTHING at home too. All the gadgets, the games, the clothes, the toys. All of it.
No wanting is allowed. Not for them, not for us. We are an instant, wanted-it-yesterday society, and we are spreading ourselves THIN.
How then do we achieve anything, and maintain any kind of work-life-EVERYTHING balance?
The answer is boring, but so simple:
In really, really small achievable steps.
I was having this talk with Hubbie today. There is lots we want to do with our house. Little and big renos, here, there and everywhere. Some we must outsource… others we can do ourselves.
And it was here that I was breaking down how to tackle one such task:
“First we get the sample paint.
Then you sand the window frame. Just a tiny section.
We’ll test it first, take a step back and see how it looks.
Then we’ll paint the whole frame.
Then we’ll paint all the windows, but one at a time… when we feel like it.
When the mood strikes.
When we have TIME.”
Ahh, that all allusive mother f*&^er, time. Yes, we want to do it all, and so our pockets of time aren’t big chunks, rather little itty-bitty pieces that we must work around and adapt to, to make anything work.
My gratitude today is realising how to achieve this.
Not by wishing for grand stretches of time to achieve massive jobs.
But by identifying the little pockets we have, squeezing what we can into then when possible, and following through.
Whether that be a home reno.
Whether that be researching for a new home.
Whether that be getting fitter.
Whether that be writing a book!
We can’t make these things happen overnight.
We have to first accept that
1) it will take time, and
2) we must make it super-duper manageable, and put it into little itty-bitty baby steps.
Then we can achieve it ALL.
But slowly. Oh. So. Slowly.
That is the ride that’s called LIFE.
#2236 Fave noodles
I’ve been waiting… for noodles like you.
😂😂😂😂
OMG, I love these noodles, and I’ve been longing for them for over a month at least, but you know how it is when you have a family…
Everyone wants something different on takeaway night, and so heaps of times I’ve gone along with other ideas, other than demanding we make like, 3 stops for dinner instead of just 2. 🤦♀️
But tonight I got my way! I had my noodles, my dumplings, had a glass (or two) of wine, and…
CHEERS! 😋🍷🍜
carcrashgratitude 