#2589 9 months between views

This morning I came back to sit on this bench.

I had sat here last time 9 months ago, either recently pregnant, or on the verge of becoming pregnant.

I was thinking death. I was thinking life. I was thinking a lot of things.

Today, I was thinking LIFE.

Strength, serenity. The power of Mother Nature and all that she goes through to return to a state of peace, such as what I saw today.

Beauty. Grace. Poise.

I thought of what lay ahead for me. What I had to channel. And how through the most difficult of storms, equilibrium is returned.

The Bay is shining again.

I thought of all of this and took it in.

Breathe in… breathe out.

Trust in the Universe. Trust in Life. Trust in Mother Nature.

Be reminded of her ancient wisdom. Everything will be alright. 🙏💞

#2584 If I could bottle this moment

If I could…

I would bottle the feeling of leaning forward, and how you push forward with me as if you are trying to break through my skin.

If I could…

I would bottle the feeling when I walk, and I feel you move and shift inside me, throwing me off balance and making me move slow.

If I could…

I would bottle the feeling of your hiccups, and how when they jump out at me low and deep, my whole tummy moves, a quick left to right in each jump.

I would bottle all of this, because I know, soon it will all be over.

And that will be that. I won’t feel you within me, moving about, wondering if you like what I just ate and just what it is about fruit that gets you going so?

Instead, I’ll be able to hold you.

Settle your hiccups in my arms.

Watch your face as you try something different.

Listen out for your movements and discover what it is that you like to do.

I’m looking forward to meeting you… but I’ll never forget this beautiful, brief moment in time.

When you were all MINE. 🙏🤰🥰💖

#2576 Kingdoms and dreams in the sky

I haven’t posted a sky pic in a while.

I guess I’ve been very caught up in more pressing matters. 🤰But tonight I saw this sky, and I just loved the spotted purple clouds, reminiscent of faraway places and kingdoms where dreams and fairy tales come true on the daily, the immediate blue of the sky making way for the colours to turn to lilac, then pink, then peach… and then the horizon of a deep purple ocean.

It really did look like a fantasy. Then I realised, it was, and it was real. I was seeing it with my own eyes.

Those fantasies and dreams are as true in real life as they are in the fairy tales.

Pinks and blues, pinks and blues. 🥰😍

#2570 Beautiful bubbles

I have a lovely vision in my mind.

It’s of arriving back at my family’s house after my chiro appointment today.

Endless green grass, sun shining from above.

My sister and baby girl chatting and laughing in the yard…

And dozens upon dozens of bubbles in the air.

My sister was keeping her occupied (and happy) by bringing many different bubble wands and sticks out to play, and there were long bubbles, clusters of bubbles, little bubbles, all shining and glinting, transparent and iridescent in the sun.

It was a poignant reminder as I am heavily preoccupied with the beauty growing inside of me, that the beauty still well and truly exists in the people I love around me. 🥰🥰

Photo by Victor Freitas on Pexels.com

#2513 Girly shrieks and rosy cheeks

In amongst our many jobs today, we managed to head down to the main street to vote early at a local voting centre before Saturday’s state election.

It was really close to baby girl’s school, so seeing as it was the afternoon already, we decided to park in our normal pick-up spot, walk to the main street, do the voting, plus tend to other random things before getting her a couple hours later.

We only realised as we parked that it was lunch time at her school! Of course. I was like “let’s walk along the school gate in case we see baby girl playing outside.” Now the school is big, it’s not like the only play area is the street we were on. My hopes weren’t high, especially as we first went by the canteen and basketball court with so many kids with senior school tops on (not baby girl’s year for a couple more years).

We kept on walking, keeping an eye out, and then suddenly Hubbie went –

“Look, there’s baby girl!”

Sure enough, there she was! Running! School hat on, shrieking, clearly playing some kind of chasey game, the red pipe cleaner and red string she’s attached to her school hat hanging behind her. Hubbie called out her name and she looked over and saw us as she ran, and kept running! 🤣

5 seconds later, and she’d lost whoever she needed to and run to greet us at the fence. A beaming smile, her eyes wide, cheeks flushed. She grabbed my hand, and we told her where we were going and what we were doing. Her old friend was there, friends since kinder days, chomping on a vegemite scroll, and we said hi to her while another newer friend asked, “is that your parents?”

Soon, the game began again and she shrieked once more, all the girls dispersed and ran off, chasey commencing again.

Oh, my heart. 💖

It was the best thing to witness, because I am asking her every day who she plays with, what she does, and her answers are cagey and vague in their lack of descriptions. 🤦‍♀️ Kids, right? Also, I’m always encouraging her to cast her net and play with different people, not just the same 2 girls. I saw about 4 girls there, and even 2 boys, which I think is great! I think it’s great to break that gender gap and have girls and boys playing together from young, knowing they can be friends with each other as much as girls and girls, and boys and boys can be.

I know she is my daughter, and she is always beautiful to me… but she looked so beautiful in that moment. Eyes sparkling. Laughing. Rosy cheeks.

She looked beautiful, because of all of that, but mostly because she was so happy. 😍😍

And there is no better feeling in the world than seeing your child happy. It made my day. 🥰🥰

#2444 The sunset that wouldn’t give up

I have a lot to be grateful for.

But even so, the clouds were heavy today, and they seemed to weigh on me so much that I just wanted the day to be over.

It was gloomy, it was weird. I was crying out for sunlight.

But then something happened.

I snapped this photo in the evening.

And it reminded me of something I really shouldn’t have forgotten, because I should know better.

Can you see the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds, creating pools of light on the water below?

I remembered that the most beautiful things often come out of the most darkest times.

Those rays of sunlight would not be as beautiful if they hadn’t fought their way through the clouds to break free.

And when the clouds cleared even more, further beauty was waiting.

Even nature knows, not to give up. 🙏💖

#2436 Feeling it, seeing it

Today was Wednesday, and a gorgeous one at that.

We went out to brunch and then because Winter was officially over, we were able to walk down to the beach.

For the longest time we’ve both had no time, and the weather has been truly horrible. If it were at least still, even being icy cold, we could have had a walk on the beach. But it was always icy, always windy, always rainy.

It really wasn’t very nice beach-walking weather.

Today was the total opposite. Sun shining bright. No wind. A gentle warmth in the air.

It was magic. ✨

We headed on down to Mother’s Beach, then walked across the sand some distance before we made it to another lot of stairs, leading back up to the main road above.

After walking up some of the steps, there’s a platform where you can look at the beach around and below. We paused here for a few moments, taking in the beautiful view, and I even took a few photos.

Then it hit me.

I remembered being at this exact same outlook with Hubbie almost two years ago. It was a beautiful sunny day. And my mind was being ravaged with dark, sad, scared thoughts.

I was worried. I was emotional. I had a procedure coming up, and I had no idea of what the future held. Feeling extremely uncertain and out-of-control in your life is an incredibly hard place to be. I remember being emotional, a bit teary, and just staring out the beautiful waters before me, Hubbie by my side, as always, the gorgeous vista definitely not reflecting the woes of my mind.

I recounted this memory to Hubbie, and I immediately grew emotional. Not only had I learnt a massive lesson after my procedure – that everything was ok, to some extent – but I also learnt most importantly, that I was stronger than I ever believed possible.

That was a huge, huge takeaway for me.

I had survived that, and now, after all this time of woe and frustration, I had a miracle growing inside of me.

How could I not cry?

To be on the other side, as I’ve mentioned so much lately, is a beautiful thing. I was saying it to Hubbie the other day as well. For so long I longed and wondered how it would feel like to be excited to be expecting again, to have our loved ones happy for us and planning as much as we were, and now, we were here.

We were living it. All the happy things, were actually happening.

I was overcome with emotion. 🥲🥲

But then, something even BETTER this afternoon. I was at my monthly acupuncture appointment, and my acupuncturist left me with pins all over to rest in a half-sleep state in the dim room… but someone else had other plans.

Baby. Baby started moving. Now this isn’t anything new. I’ve felt movements now for 3 weeks, and have felt more and more sure it’s baby as we’ve gone on on this journey.

But it was strong. It was specific. It was almost, like a pulse.

Curiosity got the better of me. I opened my eyes, lifting my head forward so I could look down at my belly.

Two pins on my exposed belly. One, two. I focused on the left of my belly, waiting, waiting…

Kick. Kick.

Wait, what? I just saw that!

Kick!

I could see baby kicking!

OMG. I couldn’t believe it. I saw a few more movements, before lying my head back down and closing my eyes in disbelief. I questioned myself, wondering if I had in fact seen movement in such a dimly lit room?

5-10 minutes later I was feeling it again. I opened my eyes, checked again, and there it was again!

Kick, kick, kick!

WOW! I told my acupuncturist when she re-entered the room, and she said with a big smile that that happens very often with her pregnant patients… the acupuncture triggers the parasympathetic nervous system to relax more, and somehow in doing so everything goes still and gives baby room to move more freely and do somersaults!

I was astonished, yet so, so happy. I told Hubbie and baby girl repeatedly at home. I even waited for baby to reappear with kung fu action, but alas it seems baby was asleep for the day. 😂

So, next time. But, it was still a beautiful day. To feel. To see. 🌞🥰

#2435 A French sunset

Excuse my almost-French, but look at that f#*king sky!

No filters. No special effects. No fanciful stuff. Just a basic 3-year-old phone and gorgeous Mother Nature strutting her stuff, doing what she does best.

Let’s zoom in just a little.

Ahhh. Just truly amazing! This might have to go in the best ever photo file. 😉

#2431 Fiery sky

The sky was on fire tonight. 🔥🔥

You know it’s getting harder for me to run up and down the stairs to catch the right shot, what with my growing bulging belly. 😂 I may just need to be more selective with future photos in that case…

But for now, enjoy the fiery sky on a Friday night.

It’s dark, mysterious, magical and natural… just the way I like it. 😍🌅

#2417 Funny story at the blowhole

Today while wandering about town, we decided to check out the Hepburn Springs blowhole.

There was meant to be a path, or a few to get there, and there was water gushing out of a rock? Also baby girl’s teacher who had lived in the area years ago, recommended it as a good place to sightsee.

That is all I really knew.

We were the only ones as we arrived there this afternoon. Sure enough there was a proper walkway path, that had steps winding and leading down to the gushing water below. We took the shorter path, and as soon as we got closer to the roaring sound of water, reached a landing that showed us what this blowhole really was.

It appeared like the water was coming out of a cave area, between rocks, and gee was it strong. The sound was immense, and although it looked scary, like all of mother nature, it also looked beautiful.

Hubbie and baby girl kept on heading down to get a closer look, while I lagged back doing what I do best, videoing the scene and taking photos. 🤣

A view from the immediate landing above

As I finally caught up to them, it appeared from afar that baby girl had walked over some shallow watery area, over rocks. I figured it must have been ok, must have been safe… until I got there.

She had walked over it, but there was a fair bit of water too. Part of her shoe had gone into the water, and she was now on the other side saying, my shoe is wet!

Hubbie stood on what was a kinda safe, wet rock (let’s face it, no wet rocks are safe!) and told her to come closer so he could grab a hold of her as she tried to make her way back, again stepping on wet rocks amidst shallow pools of water. There were marshy grassy bits, but you couldn’t tell if they were just wet grass, or parts that would submerge a little if your foot pressed into them.

He was balancing as best he could when she came over, but still, she wobbled a bit and lost her balance, one foot sploshing a whole foot deep into the water as she jumped toward me.

Now she was properly wet.

I was shaking my head at her, like, why did you go and do that? What possessed you to walk over that watery area? She went to the stairs to take that runner off, even though the other foot was also damp, as I tried to take some more shots from ground level, knowing full well that we wouldn’t be there long now that she had damp feet. 🤦‍♀️

So guess what Hubbie went and did as I was taking these shots, baby girl holding her runner upside down in an effort to dry it on the stairs behind me?

He went and walked over another marshy/shallow area to get to the other side. 🤦‍♀️

Would you try to walk over a shallow area of this?

I don’t understand these people. 🤷‍♀️ Frankly, I ignored them, knowing full well there was no chance I was going to be silly enough to walk along wet rocks, an unknown unofficial path/clearing to the other side, especially with baby inside me now.

In fact, I actually recorded, with amusement, Hubbie trying to come back to our side, narrating for the camera “let’s see if this guy is going to be successful, let’s see if he also falls.”

One step, two step, wobble and wet, splash! I caught it all on camera. Then I laughed and laughed as I shifted the camera view from one person suffering from wet feet (baby girl) to Hubbie shaking his head at himself.

I just don’t know. 🙄😆

Driving home I said “you guys literally wanted to dip your feet into it!”

Too early while their feet were still cold?

At home they washed up, then we watched back the recording, laughing at their silliness, my mocking words, and the whole scenario.

It wasn’t too early after all. 🤣🤣

Check out what was drying by the fireplace tonight…

🤦‍♀️🤣🔥🔥