Category: The Spirit

6 months ago…

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… I wrote this post. This post was about changing a few things in my life that I felt were holding me back and getting me down. I had a good attitude and was motivated to make those changes.

2 weeks later, I broke my foot, and everything kind of turned to crap. I couldn’t exercise, and I continued chewing my nails out of frustration and anxiety. The good news is, my hair is getting nice and long (which means I want to cut it off again!!!) and one of the “other things” that I was hoping would happen was that I’d be pregnant, which I am. The faith thing is still somewhere in the middle, but I’m getting there.

The only thing that I feel is still really keeping me in limbo, is not knowing where we’ll be next year, but as I mentioned, we’ll know that very soon.

I know I’m definitely in a better place with how I feel about my body, especially now that I’m in my second trimester. I feel stronger and (ever so slightly) fitter, and know that the more exercise I can fit in, in the next 6 months, the better my pregnancy and recovery will. I know it will also help me to prepare for our new life next year – the move, the baby, the settling in – our life certainly is never dull!

So. That was my last 6 months. Let’s see what the next 6 months has to offer!

Waiting for my real life to begin

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Ever felt that way? Like you’re waiting for all the busy-ness and craziness to “settle down” (there’s those words again) so you can just get on with things? I don’t know if you’ve heard this song by Colin Hay, but if not, it’s worth a little listen. The song was used in an episode of Scrubs so you may recognise it from that.

I listen to this song (a lot), not with feelings of wanting or wishing, but of nostalgia and excitement. I know that the life I am living is great, I just know that it will also get even better. In a month’s time, Hubs and I will know where we will be spending his intern year, and perhaps his first year as a resident. And after that, even though I know it’s going to be a hard slog, the world is our oyster.

And you say “be still my love”
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
Don’t you understand? 
I already have a plan
I’m waiting for my real life to begin

Taking deep breaths…

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…and knowing that we’ll be settled in to our new place 2 weeks from now. But for now, the chaos continues. We have to be out of our current place tomorrow, and we only just found out a few hours ago that we can’t move in to our new place until the 13th of April. Which was the original date they told us, just before telling us that the current tenants want to leave earlier so we might be able to move in earlier. I’ll admit it. I got my hopes up WAY too high on that one. I was convinced that we would get a phone call last week saying “you can move in over the weekend” and everything would work out a little too perfectly.

I know that this isn’t a big deal, and we have had 3 offers to stay with people here in MB in the interim which is so generous and lovely. It’s just not what I had planned in my head. But life sometimes throws us these curve balls and you’ve just got to roll with the punches. (anyone for a cliché sandwich?) It will just make moving in to our new home all the more sweeeeeeet…..

In 6 months time…

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I’m currently looking at my life, thinking “things will be better in 6 months time.” There are a few things that are getting me down at the moment, that are completely in my control to change, that I would really like to change gradually to make them stick.

You see, I’ve put on a few extra holiday kilos (actually, they started creeping on well before we left MB) and it has been a very long time since I have felt this down about my body. A comment from a (I hope) well-meaning relative back home didn’t help things at all. But that’s okay. I have a game plan and my first day (today) went well. It’s going to be a long journey, but I’m committed. I have to be.

Also, I don’t really like my hair length at the moment – I want it long. I know that in 6 months it will be a great length to tie back and put cute little clips in.

Oh, and my fingernails. I’ve been a chronic nail-biter since I was 5 years old and the only thing that used to make me stop was $20 bribes from my aunty. Once I got the cash though, it wouldn’t take long before I was back into the nasty habit. I’ve actually been mainly not biting them over the last 10 or so years, and the most recent massacre was when I was driving behind Hubs when he had just picked up his new motorbike. It took about 300km before they were all gone again, and I haven’t given them any chance to grow back. But I love having fingernails (and hate hate hate the look of my chewed nails) so I have set myself the goal of growing them nicely for a couple of weddings I have in March.

The other, probably most important thing, is that I haven’t felt like my faith is getting much of a look in these days, and thanks to my good friend who gave me a daily devotional for Christmas, I can re-connect which always seems to make the rest of my life better and easier.

Hmmmm… what else? There are a few other little niggly things that I might share at the 6 month mark. Wish me luck!

Goodbye Grandpa

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Grandpa passed away yesterday. He hasn’t been doing great for a while now. Nanny and Grandpa had been together for over 60 years, so it’s understandable that he couldn’t live without her. We’ll be saying our goodbyes next Thursday. He was 93.

Keeping up with the Joneses

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I’ve been wanting revamp my blog for some time now, but there are just too many options out there to choose from – so many formats, fonts, colours etc.

I’ve also been wanting to finish unpacking our place in Mt Beauty – I’m still looking for my jewellery.

I’ve also been wanting to send very belated birthday cards from as far back as July.

Oh! And I’ve been wanting to “organise” our house so I can actually find things when I want them, not 2 weeks later after I’ve bought a replacement.

You see, I’m having trouble keeping up with life at the moment. How do people do it? Especially with more than 1 child? I “joke” about having 5, but in all seriousness, I would love to have 5 children. I just don’t know how I would keep up with them all.

I feel like this is all I’ve been talking about on my blog lately – blah blah blah I can’t keep up – but that’s what my life consists of at the moment. This is what I’m living in, and I don’t know when I’ll find a way out. Every time I walk into our house, I feel like it’s a holiday home – like it’s not our home.

And being in Brisbane has just confused me even more. I seriously have to think to myself sometimes “where am I??” Thankfully, since we have had some sort of normalcy the last 2 weeks, Chance is actually sleeping through and even though I’m still pretty tired all the time from the 5am wake ups, I’m so glad he’s sleeping better. I don’t know how I feel about next year, knowing we’ll be moving twice, but I just have to go with it. Embrace the chaos and know that no matter what, we’ll get through it.

2012, here we come.

Christmas eve

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‘Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Not even… Chanbe…

It’s Christmas eve and I feel weird. Normally we’d be sitting down at Nanny and Grandpa’s dining room table, and would probably even be onto our 2nd course by now. We would have had a few glasses of wine and whatever brew my brother had brought along to share. We would have eaten fresh prawns, turkey, chicken, sausage, pierogi, potato salad, veges, salad etc etc etc. And we’d have Christmas pudding and Nanny’s brandy custard to look forward to.

And then it would be time for presents. Nanny and Grandpa had taken to giving us money in an envelope the last few years, but would also give us something else that we could unwrap. Hubs would get a business shirt of some sort, and I would get some soap and/or a towel and/or a nightie and/or something for the kitchen. Nanny would say to me “be careful with the envelope”.

And then we would give our presents to them – usually a photo or series of photos, and they would have their place in the loungeroom, or “hall of fame”, by the New Year.

And then we would sit and chat and laugh and Nanny and Grandpa would look around and enjoy the banter. We have so many wonderful memories of Christmas eves, and although it’s sad there will be no more at Nanny and Grandpa’s, we look forward to starting our own, new traditions. Like this year, we are sitting here at the house at Woody Pt, with our friend Ben, having a few drinks and enjoying the cool breeze and the intermittent rain.

I wonder what next year will look like…

Sconnoisseur

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To say that Hubs loves scones would be an understatement. He loves scones. When our lovely neighbour made some the other week, Hubs devoured them and claimed they were the best scones he’d ever had. So when we had said lovely neighbour over for dinner last night, I asked what her recipe was.

She reminded me of Nanny when she told me she had to recipe. You just start with about 2 cups of self-raising flour, and add the right amount of butter, a couple of spoons of icing sugar, an egg, some very cold cream and chopped dates. Her tips were to just use a knife to stir (handling as little as possible) and use a very hot oven – about 240 degrees. Also, if it’s an electric oven, cook the scones on the bottom shelf, and if it’s gas, cook on the top.

Seeing as how I’d never made scones before, I thought I’d give it a go, as Hubs has his first exam this week and I wanted to do something extra nice for him.

I didn’t have dates so I substituted with craisins. That reminds me of one of our favourite moments in the TV show My Family, where Susan is cooking dinner (she is not known for her skills in the kitchen) and she says “I’m cooking Duck a l’orange. But I didn’t have any duck so I used mince. And I didn’t have any oranges so I used pears.” Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Anyway. Back to the scones. This is how the mixture looked:

It wasn’t until I had put them on the tray that I realised I’d forgotten the egg. And the icing sugar. But I figured they looked pretty good, so I’d give them a go. What do you think?

They were very very light and fluffy and quite delicious, even if I do say so myself! We had them straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and a cup of coffee, sitting on our deck. Chanbe even liked them!

As I was sitting there, enjoying our view, I thought to myself once again how lucky I have been to have had Hubs around so much in the last 12 months. A lot of people say to us how hard it must be with Hubs studying full time, and not having an income. And as much as it sucks not having money most of the time, having Hubs around to see Chanbe’s first year, and to give me sleep-ins and a cooked breakfast a few mornings a week, and to be able to have 3 meals a day together a lot of the time, and and and and… well it’s worth being broke for a while. Hubs has 1 more year of full-time study, and then it will be a totally different ball game. But I’m looking forward to the challenges that will bring.

The essence of Chanbe

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No, it’s not a new fragrance coming out, just in time for Christmas. It’s this photo:

This is my son. I look at this photo, and I see him. I really see him. The smirk, the look in his eyes, the fact that I can see him as a teenager. I see his soul in this photo. I can’t stop looking at it. This is the first time I’ve really realised who this person is, and who he is becoming. It’s quite a revelation for me. We have so many more good times to come.