I am always running around the day before people come over, but in some weird way, I think I love the madness.
The rush to clean, buy things, cook things, get things ready… I am flat off my feet, usually spent by days end and with barely no time to even sit on the couch for 20 minutes, but I do it, again and again, so either I am a sucker for punishment, or I just forget easily… 🤣
OR, I like to do this. 🥰 Also when it’s for people you love, the madness comes more easy. 💖💙
I was lucky today to have many things to write about that I was grateful for. 🙏
I could have written about the chocolate fest late morning when we had coffee and pancakes/waffles at Max Brenner. 🤤
Or our shopping trip where we finally hit the shops and actually bought stuff (not just chased after baby boy).
Or the fact that I had prepped baby boy A WEEK just so that he could wake today at his normal time, NOT an hour earlier because daylight savings had ended. (Pushing his naps and bedtimes back later and later each day).
BUT.
The best part of the day was this evening, where baby girl and baby boy were laughing at each other from across the coffee table, running around and literally going hysterical with shrieks of laughter, and I called out to Hubbie “that’s it, they’ve lost it, they’ve both had caffeine.”
And on and on the laughter went. 🤣😁🩷💙
Sometimes photos can tell you more, more positive things than words ever can.
So here are two such things from today:
A quick coffee this morning before work and life craziness began.
And a portrait of myself, drawn by my darling daughter. My eyes are like that because I’m looking down at my computer (I was working when she drew it) and I have no nose. 🤣
🥰💖
I am so damn busy I won’t even proof this post.
But it’s been a mad, mad day. I was earlier snapping it a bit at my family at home, rushing to do this, rushing to do that… why wasn’t this done earlier, why do I have so much left at the end, etc etc etc.
Breastfeeding is a beautiful thing, if only for the fact that you must STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING and feed your baby. I was doing this at his bedtime, momentarily paused from going mad, on my phone at the same time, and something jarred me.
Someone on social media had posted a sick photo of their niece, asking for donations for the sickness.
She was a year old.
My heart dropped. Everything fell into place. All my running and whinging and complaining and stressing, ALL of it, felt so very insignificant.
Suddenly, I was like, let me rush.
Let me be late going to bed.
Let me run around like crazy tomorrow morning.
Let me feel this crazy spell we’re under, because we are celebrating a beautiful thing tomorrow, our son’s christening. Something that at many times in the past, I seriously doubted I would say.
I am blessed. We are blessed. As long as we are healthy, and have each other, that is enough.
Stuff the details. The insignificant crap.
Tomorrow we are celebrating the most joyous occasion ever with our loved ones, and I for one can’t wait.
🥰🥰🙏🙏
I don’t spend a lot of time on our balcony lately, nor do I get a chance to just stare out our windows at the watery horizon beyond.
And this week is a hectic week for us, the week leading up to baby boy’s christening. Things are crazy busy with an 11 month-old and10 year-old, without throwing a special once-in-a-lifetime event like this in the mix (because whereas other things happen time and time again in a lifetime, a baby is christened only once, you see).
So it wouldn’t surprise you that I have been trying to pack up Christmas stuff for over a week now. 🤣 I always wait until after Orthodox Christmas, but I have waited extra (accidentally, lol) and today I finally got everything packed up and away, yay!
One of the last things to go was the outdoor lighting. I have lights hanging off the balcony, and following dinner I went upstairs to sit on the planks and de-thread them from the balcony wire.
Baby girl, Hubbie and baby boy joined me there, and were even talking to me from ground level below. They were pointing out the water, the sky, the sun reflecting off the water… even though I was busy busy busy, I stopped, for only a second.
It sure was beautiful.
And no, I have no picture, (I was too busy, remember) the picture is in my mind. A partly cloudy/sunny day, the sun directly shining on the water, summer in the air, and ease all around.
I love this place. I will always try and enjoy it, even when I’m crazy busy like today.🙏🌅
Tonight, it was:
Hubbie vacuuming around the house
Me following with the mop
Wiggles blasting full volume on the TV
Baby boy crawling around following us, also trying to attack the vacuum by eating it
And then baby girl picking him up and bouncing him to keep him happy.
It was loud. It was busy.
It was beautiful. 🥰🙏
It’s been one of those days.
I’m not sure whether to be grateful or stressed over things.
Stressed that I was cleaning and washing so much today.
Grateful that compared to months ago, I could clean and wash so much.
Grateful for the beautiful sunny day.
Stressed that we need such routine in our lives that I didn’t go far beyond our home on this sunny day.
Grateful that I’m getting stuff done, slowly.
Stressed that I’m getting stuff done, SLOWLY.
It’s a list of pros and cons, they are all the same, and I guess it’s the way you look at things, your perspective, that changes how you feel about them.
I remind myself this is a part of our lives… we are in a stage. Hubbie reminds me, we are in a stage.
It doesn’t make me feel a whole lot better when I am tired, and lacking sleep.
So where I feel lacking, I try to remind myself where I have gained, especially in reference to the past year.
8 plus months have passed so quickly. I need to remind myself of this fact, and how well I’ve done in the face of repeated sleep deprivation, tiredness, all the tears (ALL THE TEARS) and the iron-clad routine we must adhere to, removing all sense of freedom from our lives. 😅
Here’s to the crazy cleaning days.
It all happened this afternoon.
Mister F needed an urgent vet appointment.
Baby boy needed a contact nap after not sleeping enough for lunch.
We had to do early dinner for baby girl who has gymnastics on Mondays.
Then there was dishes and dinner and phone calls and messages and balancing it ALL.
Hubbie had to leave work early, and so we began the juggling, shuffling and balancing act that is family life.
But there was a moment amongst it all, when Hubbie and I seemed to be managing it well, and I looked at him and said “I know tonight was crazy, but I enjoyed this family craziness tonight.”
And if you can enjoy the crazy family days and nights, I think you’re winning at life. ❤❤
I’m grateful that despite so much shit and unsettledness, I’m still hopeful and planning things for the future.
You only live once, right? But am I biting off more than I can chew?
Am I grateful, hopeful, or crazy? Time will tell.
I’m going a bit stir crazy.
A very fresh newborn, sleepless nights, cluster feeding, and living and breathing within the same walls is making me go a bit nuts.
With such a beautiful sunny day, all four of us (👨👩👧👦) went for a walk.
Baby boy got to test out the pram for the first time, while Hubbie stayed close to baby girl who was on her bike.
At first baby boy was fussing, and I did turn around and start heading home. But then, whether he got used to the rhythmic movement of the pram on the footpath, or something else entirely, he settled and fell asleep! And I was able to follow my family around several blocks, using the pram baby girl had used, pushing a baby that I had dreamed of.
Little things. They’re actually big. 🙏💞
carcrashgratitude 