#2425 Sunset musings

The sky looked pretty and bright this evening.

I reflected a lot during the day and then at night.

I spoke out loud, my hopes, my fears. Sometimes I can’t believe where I’m at. It hit me today, a few times.

“If I am sleeping let me never wake up.”

For the most part I am one with reality, it has sunk in. But then I buy another baby outfit with baby girl, some maternity wear… she laughs at me when I look at yet another onesie, but then she too coos over a cute neutral number that boy or girl can wear.

So we buy it.

We aren’t finding out the gender. I love people guessing. I love guessing. We can make a game of it. People get awfully heated too about their opinions of how you carry, while I just laugh and laugh.

I love it.

When I was pregnant with baby girl I had one friend tell me there was no doubt I was carrying a boy – everything about my tummy pointed to that. And yet when baby girl came out, they put their hands up in defense – “you’re proof the old wives tale is wrong!”

At this rate I’m collecting more clothes than baby will wear. I’m excited. I’ve earnt the right to feel this way too.

I am still craving juice. Juice juice juice. Boost juices have replaced my coffees, and I honestly don’t even miss that caffeine.

I’m not looking just bloated anymore. There is a definite bump. My tummy is stretching constantly, moving and shifting and giving me feels I have never felt before. It makes me feel like this is the first time, though my precious baby girl who kisses my belly nearly every day is proof that it isn’t.

I look out at the waters before me. They sparkle. Spring is coming. Will baby get to step into those waters next Summer, or will they be just a tad too small?

Maybe we can hope for an Indian Summer.

It makes sense. I’m having one in my own life right now. 😉🙏🏖️🩴

#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…

🤦‍♀️🤣🔥🔥

#2316 Front seat girls

I have a secret.

Don’t tell baby girl.

Some time ago we removed the car seat from my car. She is getting older, and besides that, she’s a very tall girl, so it was becoming redundant anyway. From what I’ve read, the ‘loose’ law is that children must be 145cm before they can travel without a child seat in a car. I say loose, because I believe in Victoria anyway, it’s not enforceable, it’s just recommended.

She is 140cm.

She is sooo close. Still we don’t mind, and we know plenty other kids (one of her friends is over a head shorter than her!) who are already travelling without a child seat. 😏

She is so excited to be out of it, but more often than not she wants to sit up the front, next to me. Now, I tell her firmly, until she is 145cm, or until her next birthday, she has to sit in the back because it’s safer for her full stop… that is my rule.

And yet she still somehow gets her way.

She’s suggested that on Fridays she can travel up the front with me, and I’ve agreed. And then there are days like today after school, where she asked if she can jump next to me on the way home from school…

And how could I say no?

So here is my secret… that I can never tell her…

I actually really love having her up there next to me. 💖😁

It’s so much fun, me and my buddy, my mini me, sitting side by side. She changes all of the stations, because she can, and always needs to put the window down too, in cold weather and all.

I can’t tell her though, or else she will never sit in the back seat again!

Today she turned it to my ipod, and we were just cruising there along the Esplanade on the way home, and some perfect pumping tunes came on so we turned it up.

Me, my princess, the water, the sun and the music. It was bliss. 🙏💞

#2272 Sprinkler time

I really wanted to go to the beach today. I even told baby girl we would go, which I NEVER do unless I am absolutely certain we are going, for fear of disappointing her sweet heart if plans change.

But I was tired. Yesterday was a big day and I was still getting over it. Also, I had loads of washing to do. Like LOADS. I had to organise myself, the family, for the week ahead, do groceries, tidy up…

Suddenly, it felt too hard. Even with a beautiful still 27 degrees, it felt like it was too much work what with all of the above.

So instead, we brought the beach to US. Kinda.

With the sprinkler.

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With the water winking at us on the horizon, we set it up in the late afternoon. It had the desired effect on baby girl, as she squealed and screamed repeatedly, so happy with the water spurt set-up.

In the first photo she is clothed, but obviously that didn’t last running through water, so she changed into some bathers, in photo two. 🤣

I even ran through with it with her… and I have to say, there’s no wake up call quite like wearing a dress and running over a sprinkler! 😬🤣💦💦

#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.

Morning walks

Notice the sun shining a halo on the water?

Tonight’s sunset

#2148 Going with the flow

I love going with the flow.

It’s easy in summer. Holidays, warmth, everything is EASY.

Going with the flow imitates the waves of the bay, and that is a great segue because we met up with one of my oldest friends and her fam at the beach today 🤣

You’re always learning in life, and I really have loved how things are so easy during the holiday/summer season. It’s definitely something I want to emulate and incorporate into my everyday life when the ‘normal routine’ resumes in about a month.

We gotta live life in the moment, and that means making the most of opportunities that pop up last minute, like a last-minute event or a friend coming to town. 😉

And if we keep life light, interesting, entertaining, and full of love and beautiful people, these are the things that will make our souls light and keep us fulfilled. 💖💖

#2084 When it rains ’til 2am

You know those sayings, when it rains it pours?

Or you know, analogies likening a dam bursting suddenly and all the water rushing forward? (Both water sayings, I realise).

Well we kinda did that tonight with our visitors post-lockdown.

Because we didn’t just have visitors over…

We had visitors over, singing, shouting and carrying on, ’til 2 in the morning!

And when you have these bad boys assisting, you can be sure the night will be long and with high-energy!

#2025 Alive again

Once upon a time there was a little girl.

She wasn’t a baby, but she wasn’t yet grown either, far from it.

She was in that beautiful in-between stage, of growth, of wonder. An abundance of delicate naivety followed her wherever she went.

She was a friendly, happy girl. She talked it up without hesitation amongst adults, and yet played up a storm with her peers, creating magical worlds, chasing each other around the yard, and racing through the playgrounds, side by side.

She was all light, all magic. She had a deep drive for adventure, with an innate desire of curiosity shining from her eyes.

Then one day, a virus came.

It came seemingly out of nowhere and spread through the world.

Lockdown, after lockdown, after lockdown.

After the 6th one, it started to catch up.

It started to catch up to the girl.

The things she used to love, she did no more. She didn’t want to go out. Home, home, home and that’s where she wanted to stay.

She used to beg to accompany her parents on the grocery shop trip – she no longer cared.

When her neighbour called her to come out… she said she was busy.

She was tired, flat. She wasn’t herself.

Her Mum noticed. She mentioned it to a health professional, who concurred –

“She seems sad. She’s withdrawing.”

The course of action? Getting out of the house more. What she always used to do.

Her mum suggested a beach walk.

But the girl rejected it.

This former lover of sand and sea, said she didn’t want to put on sunscreen.

But… she came around.

And they went to the beach.

And the girl… became alive again.

The sea air, woke her up. The cold snap of the ocean shook something within her soul. She was scavenging for rocks and shells, dipping her body in the water, and laughing like she hadn’t in a long time.

She had found happiness again.

They went home, and her Mum told her Dad… and her Mum cried. She cried because she saw how close her girl had gotten to getting sadder, and sadder, and sadder.

That Mum is me. That girl, is my girl.

My baby girl.

This virus is taking lives, as well as our wellbeing.

But let’s not forget the other virus. The silent one.

The one that infiltrates our thoughts. The one that removes all sense of joy, of purpose, and of passion.

That is the dangerous one we must look out for. We must keep our children’s wellbeing in full view, and keep a close eye on them.

Sure, stay safe from the virus. But we need to keep them safe from dark thoughts. 🙏💖

#2021 Reasons why I love living near the beach no. 5

Reason number 5 is…

Because the beach is within our 5km radius, and most of these lockdown rules (sorry, ALL of them) suck.

But the beach makes it all that much easier. Less sucky.

After lunch we went to get a coffee for me, an ice cream for baby girl, and then we sat on a grassy patch temporarily to consume our yummy goods…

Before making the short walk down.

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• 

There were quite a few people there, and I don’t blame them. It is so hard to stay indoors when it is so beautiful out, and when the water is literally right there in the distance, shimmering and winking at you, how can you say no?

Plus, it’s EXERCISE.

There are some exceptionally sunny days coming up, so I think I will be doing plenty more exercise by the water… 🌊

#2018 A health anniversary

Recently I hit an anniversary.

Kinda a bad/good one, but I’m hoping the fact of it being 365 days later, means it’s coming to an end.

Because it’s now been a whole year since I unfortunately embarked on a very chronic and painful health issue.

Approaching this day I was freaking out a bit, anxiety taking hold, thinking of what I’ve gone through, and weirdly, would it happen again, on the exact same day? It may seem silly and highly unrealistic, but the mind goes to bad places when it’s been given not-so-nice surprises.

But, I survived, as I have the whole year.

I gotta say, I’m not too much smarter than when I started. Maybe only slightly.

I do however know a lot more about holistic and alternative health, and I know for sure that it’s a life-long journey, not a one-fix treatment thing either.

Mostly I’ve learnt I’m resilient, more so than I ever thought possible.

Still, I feel like this year passing, is a full circle moment, where I’m finally putting a lid on, closing the case of this truly uncertain and horrible time of my life where it felt as if I was thrown into the middle of a cyclone.

I much prefer still, clear waters, and know I’m going to have to meditate on them to make sure they are always near.

🙏💖

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