Today, at 6 months minus 2 days, we introduced some food to baby boy. 🥰
Sweet potato. 😋 Mashed it up, popped him in the bumbo chair baby girl used to eat from, and gave him a little on a spoon…
He loved the rubbery spoon! He could chew, suck on it… but then, what’s this, taste? Confusion, scrunched up face, not sure… let me swallow… okay…
Baby faces are the funniest when new foods are involved. Another exciting stage begins. 🥰🥰❤❤
Elated. Relieved. Over the moon.
And so very, very tired. In the best way possible. ❤❤
We met our little prince today.
Meet, baby boy. 🥰🥰😍😍🥲🥲🙏🙏
Baby girl was so excited for the start back at school today. I usually get her up for school, but this time she found me upstairs, brushing my teeth, happily telling me she would not go back to bed – she was just too excited!
It warmed my heart. My girl needs focus, something to do, to look towards. That is just her character. She’s in grade 4 and she loves learning, coming home and telling us things (but it has to be on her terms, if we ask too much she closes up) and randomly telling us tidbits of things she’s seen and heard, whether it’s been from school or somewhere else.
I can see her growing, learning, maturing, before my very eyes. I catch these moments and try to hold onto them, bottle them for future use so that I can call back upon them when I need. 🙏
Something else growing? My belly. For some comic relief, here was the state of my bladder and pelvis today…
Yep. Under pressure! Today must have been one of those growth spurts for baby, because I was in Struggle Street big time. Struggling to move, walk, do much of anything really.
Or if it wasn’t a growth spurt, maybe it’s baby getting ready and rehearsing for their main appearance, the big reveal… 🥰🤰
Despite all of this recent crap Wintery weather, in Summer of all seasons, Hubbie and I had plenty of reasons to be excited and anticipate the arrival of today.
And no, it hasn’t got anything to do with baby (although that is a blessing in itself, every moment of every day🙏)
No, this was about baby girl. 🥰
Today was school transition day, the day they found out who their teacher would be next year, and also, who they would be with…
This year has been an interesting one to say the least. A couple of friend troubles have popped up here and there. And despite things mainly looking to be smoothed over in the last couple of months, the inevitable happened today.
The little friendship group she’s been a part of has finally been SPLIT UP.
This has been the same group since prep. And as of grade 4 next year, it will be only her and another old friend, but not the other one.
She is really happy. Not for the other friend going elsewhere, I don’t think so anyway… but she is excited. She is rapt with her teachers (she has two sharing the teaching load next year) and her one friend who she is with.
I think this is a good thing, for ALL of them. As I said to her, it doesn’t mean they can’t hang out during recess and lunch, or see each other outside of school, have play dates, etc. It might even make their friendship stronger… absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?
I was never with a friend for so long in a row at school, for 4 straight years. She’s had that with both of them. I think it’s super healthy to make a bit of a break, albeit with one of them, and make some new friends, give themselves an opportunity for new relationships, see where it can go, and see what else is out there!
And if they find their way back to each other, all the better for it.
I am looking forward to a happy, healthy and productive 2023 school year for baby girl. 🙏💖
Today is the shortest day of the year, and I love it even more because it’s our engagement anniversary, AND also the Winter Solstice (which is what the shortest day is), being the beginning of the potential of great new beginnings, new adventure, cleansing ourselves of the past, so on and so forth.
Also, my daily calendar provided a very simple quote today, which I also loved:
If you want to learn more about the shortest day/Winter Solstice, you can click here or here or here, because basically I love this day so much, being a metaphor of greater hope and literal meaning of longer and warmer days, that I have written about it so many times before, of course.
Happy reading. 💞
Today was that perfect kind of still day to potter about in the garden.
I hadn’t really intended on it. I followed Hubbie outside, and then remembered some orchids which we’ve had for years and years in the same pots, flowering beautifully…
Only this year was the first year they HADN’T.
Looking at the leaves and roots it was easy to see why. They had completely overgrown the pot. The roots appeared dried and cracked, overflowing from the inside out.
It was a job and a half, which is why I nicely begged Hubbie to do it, which he did. 😁
We’ve since heard that orchids don’t like being in ‘free’ soil, and prefer pots… so please, if anyone knows any better, clarify for us. 🙏🤞
But after that I remembered the tulips I had in hibernation in the garage, and so then I put those in a pot too.
Hubbie had already moved a rose bush to a more favourable position in our front yard earlier in the day, and he was amazed at the hardiness of the plant when he dug it out… the roots were tight, all wrapped around each other, sustaining years upon years upon decades of being subject to soil that was clay-like.
And still, they grew. Imagine what they can do in soil that has nutrients. 💖
And so I wandered around, looking at all we were doing, all we were helping, and all we were trying to help grow. Plants that had made a new home. Plants that were doing just fine where they were, and blooming.
It’s definitely the season for it. 🍃💖
I’ve had a pretty crazy day.
Two appointments on the other side of town, visiting my parents and sister and fam in between that, and then a big writers meet-up at the end of the night back home.
It’s been a lot.
It’s been a day of a lot of things. Hope. New directions. New people. New plans.
I’m a glass half-full gal, and things are starting to feel right. That glass is filling up again.
With HOPE. 🤞
I’m going on, rambling a bit, I know. I just don’t really know where to rest my creative mind, to release these thoughts from, what to centre on when much has given me happiness today.
But I will talk about nature, because it inspires me.
Specifically, my parents and my sister’s backyard.
I used to love spending time in the backyard of my childhood home. All those memories, all those fun times, so much joy within those trees and the shady spots. I was amazed and surprised then, when I found myself loving my parents’ NEW backyard, finding beauty in little pockets of grass, verdant greenery full and lush underneath your feet, life brimming and blooming from the smallest spring of herb, to a wide-reaching leaf of a fern.
That beauty extends equally to my sister’s backyard.
I was admiring this gorgeous tree, sprouting golden Autumn leaves. We were in her backyard sitting and talking, and so many times I was accidentally witness to a yellow leaf floating easily to the ground.
Before my very eyes.
It was a magical sight.
And I realised later when I headed off, how I find beauty in both of their backyards, and how that must mean something more… for those we love, we find the beauty inherent everywhere, all around them, because they are love.
We are doing renovations at the moment… small ones, yet they will hopefully be long, beautiful and lasting.
(On us, or our backyard do you think????)
One day I hope, someone will look at our yard and see the beauty lying in wait, wanting to be found.
I hope we find it there too. 💖💖🌳🌳
I’m grateful for the peace I get when the house falls asleep at the end of the day.
The quiet. The pause.
The chance to regroup, plan for the future, collect my thoughts, and realise that I’ve been doing this, for so so long.
The ‘keeping on going.’ The ‘getting there.’
The peace helps you achieve that. One foot in front of the other.
One more second. One more hour. One more day.
And on and on and on.
The peace helps.
Today was an exciting day in that we made NEW memories.
We went to my parents new house… and we were ALL together for the first time.
YAY! Happy dance.
As I walked the path between my parents’ house, and my sister’s house, along this cute, tiled path that crossed the fence line, I couldn’t help but think of that The Simpsons episode…
The one called ‘Bart versus Australia,’ where Homer learns that the American embassy, even if located in Australia, is still considered American soil… and so he does this:
It’s a funny memory that has stayed with me since I was a kid. Well I did my own Homer today…
One foot in sister’s territory… and one foot in my parents’ territory!
Parents’ house.
Sister’s house.
Parents’ house.
Sister’s house.
This is going to be FUN! 🤣👍💖😁
Phwoar. What a day.
Today was the day that we said goodbye to our family home.
The home that my parents have lived in for 40 years.
The home that my sister spent growing up as a teenager, all the way until she got married.
The home that’s the only childhood, family home I’ve ever known… that I lived in for 25 years until I got married.
Goodbye, number 14.
It was an emotionally bittersweet day. Emotional because oh God, all of the above! So many memories are in every inch, every corner, every crevice of that house.
Through the rush to get everything out of the house this morning, I tried to pause every so often, look around, take a breath, and say a personal thanks to the house that made my years growing up, the best in the world.
Here is the emotional part.
I was reflecting on my life spent there as I walked around the empty rooms, a bit taken aback by the hollowness of it all. The furniture, furnishings, and all the photos and trinkets that made it such a loved home, were all gone.
But oh, those walls. If those walls could talk.
Those walls would speak of happiness, of laughter. Of sadness and shock, family coming together, and family celebrating to make the most out of life.
And love. SO much love.
Memories hit me as I walked into rooms, turned corners. Looked this way, that. People from the past resurfaced, along with people from the present.
In the lounge room, I saw myself sitting on the floor while my parents watched footy on the TV.
In the kitchen I saw my Mum cooking up a feast, our family sitting down to eat at the small round table, perfect for us in size, so perfect, to keep us tight and close together, as always.
In the garden I saw happiness. Friends, cousins, brimming around, enjoying a drink on a hot Summer’s day, folk music from the garage wafting over and adding to the festive atmosphere of it all.
The garage, ohhhh, the garage. Where so, so, so many parties and events were had. Birthdays. Milestones. Weddings. Day after weddings! New Years. And all of the Christmases that Mum cooked up a storm, catering for over 30 people like it was an absolute breeze, even though it wasn’t.
She made it look effortless.
Those were the days. Those were the BEST days.
The park next door. Hearing the squeals of happiness from our younger cousins as they took advantage of the play proximity.
At the front door, I saw my sister being led out in her wedding dress by my parents… then I saw myself, doing the same.
Deep breath.
The dining room showed me all of us, our big family, as we are now. The original foursome, us, being my parents, sister and I, but now with our Hubbies and our kids, filling up the table, eating heaps, drinking more, and playing music off of youtube on the mobile until the late hours of the night.
In my bedroom. The bedroom that I spent 15 years of my life sleeping, dreaming and hoping in. I had another room for the first 10 years of my life, but I claimed this one, sister’s one, after she got married and moved out.
It’s always been the better room.
I sat in my old room. Took some photos around me. And then here, I began to cry.
I remember watching Video Hits for hours on weekend mornings.
My childhood cat scratching at my window, wanting to be let in, and then me opening the window to shoo her, upset she had woken me… but when she jumped down from the window sill outside, I thought stuff it, you’ve woken me now… and so I would call her back in (she must have thought I was a crazy bipolar cat owner) and she’d snuggle up next to me as I slept a little more.
I’d open up that window, and talk to friends through it.
I talked to SO MANY people, through it.
I listened to music for hours on my bed.
I had sleepovers in that room.
I had sleepovers in that house! On the lounge room floor, covered in blankets and sleeping bags.
When Croatia played Australia in the 2006 World Cup, Hubbie-then-boyfriend and I watched it, me running around the house with a Cro flag when Croatia scored a goal, and Hubbie running around the house with an Aussie flag when they scored a goal.
I don’t remember who won that game. All I remember is the memories.
All the people who came, and went from that house. It would be in the hundreds. Friends, family, people who I grew up with, grew apart from, so many people have touched base in that house, shared a laugh, a dance, a drink, and made a memory.
Even baby girl. It was the first place that she ever visited, after her own home.
Speaking of baby girl… My waters broke in that house! And my own Mum’s waters broke in there, when she was pregnant with me!
Both sister’s Hubbie, and my Hubbie, met my parents for the first time in THAT lounge room…
News broke. Secrets shared. Heavy discussions were had. Tears shed.
People were welcomed. People were greeted.
People came in, and immediately knew that there was love. They were safe. They were in a memorable place.
…
And so today, the time came. We walked through the house. We took our final photos.
And we drove off, for good.
That was seriously bitter, right?
Where is the sweet?
Well, it comes with the choice. How blessed are we that this was born of my parents decision to move closer to me and sis, and not because of a bad circumstance.
How lucky are we that we get to say goodbye, together, in the best way possible… and how lucky that we still get to take ALL the memories with us?
Including most importantly, the people.
I am so looking forward to making just as many happy memories in their new abode. 🏡🏡
But my heart will always hold a very special and dear place, for number 14.
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
carcrashgratitude 