#2595 10 minutes outside

Since I came home with baby boy 4 days ago, I’ve been outside once to throw out the rubbish.

Today was a nicer reason. I’ve been a slave to my little one’s milk demands all night and day, and so when they fell asleep for a little longer, after trying to do some things I’ve been trying to do all day, I went out.

Everything looks different after you’ve gone through something as significant as birthing a baby. I walked our front path, the one I had gone down days ago when I was bringing a new baby home in my arms. I looked at our plants. The new buds on the rosebush. The sun shone on my face and I squinted into the horizon and the glistening waters that lay there.

10 minutes. I had so many other things I could’ve been doing, but I needed time out. I needed to breathe the outside air and remind myself of that quote:

“The nights are long but the years are short.”

Well, we’re not up to years with baby boy yet, but we are with baby girl. With him, the days are short. Day 5 today will be a month tomorrow. It feels so long right now, but all I need to do is look at baby girl to know that all challenges pass.

10 minutes of me time therefore, is not much in comparison. But the act of stopping, means the world. 🙏

#2548 The baby wardrobe

It is HEEEEERRRRRRRREEEEEE-YYYYYAAAAAAA!

I am sooooo very excited that today, we finally purchased the baby room wardrobe!

Everything else we have… it either has to be cleaned, washed, looked over, or installed… just the wardrobe was the big question mark, until today that is!

The room that will be baby’s is more of a study type room than a bedroom, hence the small size, but it’s small size is actually quite perfect for a nursery, we just had to have a barn door installed (coming soon) and a wardrobe put in.

Having gotten this today is that final check off our list. Sure we still need to get the door in, and sure, we need to actually assemble the wardrobe now (Ikea, right? 🤣)

But just knowing that all the big things on my baby to-do list are ticked off or accounted for, omg…. the nerves, the excitement!

THE NERVES! THE EXCITEMENT! 😁💖🤰🥰

#2528 Menial task day

This is the most boring of boring posts.

But it’s given me such satisfaction to know that I had one of those days…

You know the day where you sit at the laptop and go through emails?

Where you begin claims?

Where you need to chase information, either via email, phone, and just sit there waiting for a response?

Where you sit and have a telehealth?

Where you do washing, and put away washing?

And dishes upon dishes?

Where you put away stuff that has been just sitting in a section of the house for WAY too long?

Yeah, one of those days.

Last week was so busy, and the weeks leading to it were so busy that I’ve been letting so much go, and not in a good, Elsa ‘Let It Go’ way either.

But today with an additional day off this week, I was able to just get stuff done, stuff that is very necessary, but also very boring, because you have to just, like, SIT THERE.

But oh my God. The satisfaction of just sitting there and getting stuff done, after weeks of running around and living off adrenaline, it was insanely good!

Yes, and that was my boring yet extremely rewarding day that I’m oh-so-grateful for. 🙏🤣

#2517 The barn door

A lot of things have been troubling me lately, and none more so probably than the bloody barn door.

It’s a super busy time of year, made more so by certain get-togethers, baby prep and planning, and then of course normal life is enough to throw us completely off the loop… and then throw in this most festive time of year, Christmas! 🤦‍♀️

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas. I’m just finding it super hard to dedicate time equally to all the things right now, that’s how full on it is.

However, something big happened today, well it’s big for me, and it’s lifted a load and a half off my chest.

We finally booked someone to do our barn door.

This door has been the bane of my existence since we moved into this house. The room next to ours has always been planned to be the baby room, we just needed a baby, first…

And we also needed a door.

I guess they sold it as a bit of a study room when we bought the house due to its doorless entry, but it’s also a perfect nursery, being right next door to our bedroom, and also being a small, nice size for a baby.

We had actually looked at getting a barn style door for this room years ago, but not only did we not have another baby on the way yet (one big thing to halt the process!) but we also got an astronomical quote for the door, which we thought ‘hell no.’

So it was put off indefinitely… until we fell pregnant.

And then the race for the barn door was on.

We got a couple of quotes, and after today querying Bunnings who could not do a custom door in our height and extra wide size request, it sealed the deal.

We knew who we would be booking.

So that’s it. It’s perhaps a small thing, but just knowing this guy is going to fit us into our schedule so that we can get the door done before baby arrives, is just the greatest gift ever. 🙏🥰

#2516 Finding calm in Christmas

Imagine being overwhelmed with a zillion tasks, little time on hand, and then pregnancy brain as well.

This has been me this past week, on TURBO.

I had the whole day off today, and I had NO IDEA where to turn to first. You know when you have a chance to finally catch up, but your to-do list is so long that you have no idea what to do first?

I was a bit like that, a chook with no head, going around in circles and circles until I managed to find some purpose.

I feel like I don’t have a clear head. I can’t like, manage things in my head, even though I have it all written down… it’s all in there, random things and jobs and bits and pieces jumping out at me and distracting me big time.

But one of my jobs was to finish decorating the house with Christmas, because ever since I posted last week that I had done the bare bones of the tree, well that was it. It was just the tree, there, bare, for days on end.

It was funny because I ended up inspiring other people around me to do their Christmas tree and decos… and meanwhile I was here, with all my Christmas decos and boxes and bags gathering dust in the corner of the room.

So after some other jobs, I started this job… which wasn’t really a job. It was a task, but it was a really fun one. On went Michael Buble, and I wandered around the house putting this here, that there, on and on until seriously, all I have now are just the outdoor lights left!

And now the house is looking super festive. Also, I found it the perfect activity to calm me down and relax me, even with all of the to-dos on my list… it made me feel present in the moment, and for that I am grateful. 🙏

#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. 🥰🥰

#2511 1 hour

I’m now properly sick.

Of course I am. EVERYTHING has caught up to me.

Cold air. Hot air. Cold air. Hot air.

Cold air. Walking in gusts of wind after the car broke down yesterday. My nasal passages and head searing and pulsating in pain.

Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold.

Jobs in, jobs out.

To-dos, to-dos, to-dos.

Money in, money OUT.

Responsibilities IN… responsibilities IN.

More to-dos.

Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold.

Stress in, stress in!

Also, pregnant, and needing a f*&#ing break.

This afternoon, my body had enough. My head was going to explode. After all today I woke feeling worse than any other day. Still had to go into the cold to see baby girl off for school (Hubbie took her) then later on went outside to see the tow truck take away our car, but of course this was EXACTLY when blistering arctic winds came and decided to pelt down around me.

Right at that moment.

So of course I’m sick. I reached a point of no return this afternoon, and I lay on the couch.

One hour. First pain, then relaxation. Hubbie came home early. Started dinner. I lay there. The house warm. The wind still whipping and howling the bricks outside.

I lay there for about an hour.

Even in pain, you can sometimes find bliss. 🙏

#2506 Sweet break amidst the busy

Today wasn’t one of our normal Wednesdays together, because we were on the other side of town tending to a couple of those annoying but necessary jobs.

We missed our usual brunch, even our usual coffee (BOO HOO 1st world problems I know) but our bodies are in such routine we were starving and cranky!

So we managed to find a nice place, um, once we got it all done, and kinda made up for it?

🤦‍♀️😬🤣🤣

So I was only meant to have ‘one bite’ of that chocolate freckle pancake stack, but of course, it’s really, REALLY hard to hold back when you taste some very delicious melted chocolate, mmmm.

So I only had two bites. Kinda (not really). The coffee was great, I didn’t even need to add a sugar (for all the other sugar!!) 🤣

#2495 Coffee time with my girl no. 5

Today was one of those great Saturdays where I got a lot done at home, but then a lot done while also out, too.

I had a good sleep in, the sun was shining, and though things weren’t ‘perfect’ (baby girl and Hubbie both a bit under the weather) we all made do, and got on with it.

For me and baby girl, in between all the home stuff and out stuff, I took her to the Main Street for a coffee date.

We actually haven’t done it for a while, just me and her, and so it was really beautiful to head out for a quick 20 or so minutes in between the busy day that was.

It was a bit breezy at times, so she wrapped herself in a throw the cafe provided on their chairs!

Just a little mummy and daughter time to punctuate the day. 🥰😍☕

#2465 Marvelling at where we’re at

It’s been a quiet week work-wise.

I’ve been using the spare time to do EVERYTHING else.

I make appointments. I go to appointments. I catch up on washing, cleaning, writing.

I think of my passions. I try to fit them in where I can. I write to-do lists, things that need to be done soon, things that need to be done before baby comes.

Baby. I massage my belly with creams. I look at the new baby clothes I have. I step into the nursery and just look around, marvelling at it and where we are and all of life at the moment.

I’ve felt life’s lows, and now I’m feeling life’s highs. 🙏

Baby girl has had a good week too. It’s amazing what a missing person in the friendship group can do. It shakes things up. She’s been playing with heaps of new friends, and I’ve used the opportunity to show here that she has many friends, she doesn’t just have to stick to what or who she knows, especially if respect fails to show up.

I buy presents. For others, for us. I plan outings for the future. I message, and call and email.

I get excited.

It is Spring after all. Now IS the time to get excited. 😁😁