Category: Happiness

Sydney bound

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Hubs registered for a course in Sydney a little while ago, and as usual, I made all of his arrangements. Not because he can’t, but because I love that kind of thing. I love booking flights (even if they are not for me), I love researching accommodation, and I don’t mind that he gets a week “off” from family life, because I know that at the end of the day, he always misses us and would rather be at home.

Then a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, one of my friends in Sydney told me that he and his partner are moving back to the UK in May, and if I was going to be in Brisbane sometime before then, he’d love to come up to catch up.

So I did one better and, to cut a long story short, told him I’d see him in Sydney! The long story is that Hubs obviously thought it was a great idea that I come with him, and after umming and aaaaahhing about taking either one, two, or three of the kids, I decided to take none. Well, just the one. The last time I was in Sydney, I was pregnant with Darby! Has it seriously been almost 3 years??

Because I have the world’s best parents, they will be making the trip up here this Saturday, to spend a few days up here looking after the kids. Hubs and I leave on Sunday morning and I fly back Wednesday midday, while Hubs doesn’t get home until the Friday.

I have two very very dear friends in Sydney, and their wonderful partners, and even though the city doesn’t exactly do much for me (too big!!) I can’t wait to catch up for coffees and brunches and all good things. Hubs also has one of his best mates down there, so it’s going to be quite a lovely few days!

I might even sleep in a little…

Looking forward but not wishing away

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Don’t wish it away; Don’t look at it, like it’s forever.

I’ve heard the song “I guess that’s why they call it the blues” a hundred times or more over the years, but isn’t it funny how you really hear lines of songs when they reflect your life?

A few months ago I was feeling like I couldn’t wait for the next phase of a particular part of parenting to begin (I can’t remember what it was specifically). Then I heard that line and it really hit me.

It won’t be like this forever. And that can be a happy and a sad thing. It’s pretty cliché for mums to say how quickly the years go by and to urge other mums to enjoy their young children. And I do feel like I make an effort to do this but every now and then things pop up and I wonder how it will be in five years time.

Like watching movies with my kids at home.

I don’t like to just put a movie on for them and leave them to it. I love watching with them. But when I do, all they do is climb all over me and ask me for food. And it’s no fun for any of us! Well not for me anyway. It’s mostly Darby (climbing over me) and Quinn (asking for food) and Chance often just wants to be as close to me as possible which I can’t really complain about. I know I’ll miss that when it stops.

So I guess I just have to keep reminding myself that in five years time, things will be completely different, as they were five years ago when all I could think about was trying to get Chance to sleep for more than two hours at a time at any time of the night or day.

So much to enjoy in this phase of our lives.

What did we ever do without it?

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Our deck I mean

Hubs and I were lazing around drinking our coffee together when I said to him “seriously what did we used to do before we built the deck!?”

We would carry our coffees downstairs like chumps and sit in the yard and look up at our house and say “we really need to get that deck built.” That’s what we used to do.

Now we sit up on our deck, looking down at our yard and say “We really need to get rid of all the crap in the yard.”

It’s never-ending.

Parenting is…

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…when you have hung out three loads of washing and the kids are upstairs playing with Hubs and you realise you could get away with sneaking a chocolate Paddlepop ice cream from the fridge downstairs and take 5 minutes to sit down and enjoy it, only to hear your daughter calling you when you’re halfway through it and she comes downstairs to find you so you have to gulp down the second half of said ice cream and give yourself a brain freeze in the process.

It’s also giggly cuddles with this guy

It’s learning how to braid hair and finally starting to get the hang of it

It’s feeling your heart burst when you watch your oldest looking out for his sister and brother

There’s absolutely nothing that can prepare you for parenting. No books, no warnings, no friendly advice. It’s not until you’ve experienced the utmost highs and the deathly lows that you really get what is it all about. Some days I just want to hide away and not deal with the kids at all. But honestly every single day I can look back at at least one joyful thing that happened. Even if it only lasted a moment.

Today’s thing was reading to the kids at the end of a huge day/weekend. Quinn took herself off to bed after the first book. Then Darby fell asleep in my arms while Chance and I read a book together. That moment with just the two of us (and a snoring Darby) was quite lovely and definitely something I soaked up.

That and the chocolate Paddlepop.

It’s the little things.

S05E14 Leslie and Ben

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Aw my gawsh. I know I was a little late coming to the Parks and Recreation party but better late than never. I just watched The wedding episode and teared up more times than I care to admit! I’m so in love with Leslie and Ben! Seriously too gorgeous!

I think about weddings a lot, sporadically being in the business and I came across this article today that honestly made me seethe. The upshot is that brides are being “forced” to spend up to $150,000 on their weddings to keep up with the “demands” of social media.

Give. Me. Strength.

The bride to be in this article is spending $24,500 on her flowers for goodness sake! My flowers cost a total of $500 and that included me and Hubs, four maids and groomsmen, and our grandmas and maybe even our parents!?

What the actual do you get for the extra $24,000???? Who the hell are these people!? And don’t even get me started on the $15,000 dress.

I honestly just don’t get it. I mean each to their own but going into that much debt for one day seems absurd to me. Maybe Daddy is paying for the whole affair – who knows. Not once was the groom mentioned by the way.

I get that different people want to do things their own way. I’m sure there were some people who thought our wedding was huge (170 at the reception) and compared to many it was big but I can assure you it didn’t cost anything close to $150k. We did a lot of stuff ourselves and really didn’t splurge on anything too crazy. And it was such a great day and night.

Hard to believe it will be 10 years ago this December. I’d better get Hubs thinking about some ideas early. Ha!

And of course here’s some wedding photos just because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want.

Tiny pre-baby waist! Ha Ha

Ah what a good looking bunch. Still in touch and in love with them all xxx

A dread-less Hubs! Not seen in 9 years this Easter. Good times. Good times.

The new face

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In case you have been living under a rock and you didn’t know, our 2 year old son Darby is a clown.

Seriously.

Such a clown. He does things for the sole purpose of getting a laugh, and when he does, he repeats that behaviour.

Behold “Darby Eyes”

This look has had a lot of air time. Pretty much any time I would pull my phone out to take a photo, I was met with this face. It was hilarious because he couldn’t hold it if he started laughing so you could see him really trying to keep the straight face.

Then there was this face that he tried out for a couple of weeks but it didn’t quite get the desired reaction so it got dropped from the repertoire.

Both of those have been replaced with this beauty. It may not look like much but I’ll explain below.

It’s kind of a mix between when you tell a kid to “freeze” and they open their eyes really wide and grit their teeth in a smile. He does it when he knows he’s doing the wrong thing and we tell him to stop. Like yesterday morning when he was putting a comb in the pedestal fan blade protector while it was running. Every time we’d tell him to stop he would pull that face.

He was also doing it while we had the neighbours over for dinner and he kept throwing his cup off the deck and then saying “cup fell off”.

He is just such a clown.

Naked downward facing dog on the deck? Why the hell not!?

What a cutie.

This book

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About a year ago, while I was in a tiny little cafe in Paddington (Brisbane), waiting for my takeaway coffee to be made, I picked up this book and started to flick through it.

I added it to my ever expanding gift ideas list that I keep in my phone, in case I ever thought of someone to give it to. A year on, it’s still on the list and when I’d see it, I’d remember I really liked it but couldn’t remember anything about it or why I loved it so much!

Then I happened to be at my neighbour’s house this afternoon, enjoying their air conditioning (thanks guys!) when I spied it on their bookshelf! The kids were playing happily so I plonked myself down on their couch and started to read. (That’s when I took the above photo.)

It’s just full of sweet little anecdotes about finding out what’s important in life and letting go of the rest.

Here are a few of my favourites.

This is so me and Hubs. I always get him tea when I’m feeling helpless.

Ooooh I’ll be the coolest cat on the block!

And this is absolutely me right now. Always in such a flap, too busy to stand still, and wondering why I can’t find calm.

There were so many illustrations that reminded me of family and friends and Hubs and myself and just LIFE. So much read-nodding. I would love to see if these come in card form because they would be perfect to send “just because”. If you ever see it lying around, pick it up, grab a coffee and get ready to smile.

Happy Birthday Quinn

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Wow wow wow. My baby girl. You are just the sweetest, sassiest little miss in town. So much spunk and independence, with so much love and compassion.

You went through a phase where you refused to smile for photos, or even have your picture taken. I’m so glad you’re over that now.

I know you so desperately want this baby in my uterus to be a girl so you can have a sister, but I also watch you with your brothers and know that, no matter what, you are going to adore and look after your new sibling when he or she comes along in a few short months.

We love you Quinny. You are such a bright star and we can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve this year.