Great Quote

I stumbled across this quote today:-

Sometimes in life we have to become less to be more. We become whole people, not on the basis of what we accumulate, but by getting rid of everything that is not really us, everything false and inauthentic. Sometimes to become whole, we have to give up the Dream. > Harold Kushner

That pretty much sums up my life over the past few years.

I had to give up ‘the Dream’ but in doing so I’ve discovered so much more.  I really feel like I know myself and have discovered so much about myself – perhaps even “found” myself, although I didn’t know I was lost! I’m not really bothered about where I’m heading, rather just enjoying the journey; walking close to God and trusting in Him, and it’s a truly wonderful place to be.

I’m reading an interesting book at the moment “The Pressure’s Off” by Larry Crabb.  It’s really been challenging me a lot; how I view God, what I expect from God … thought provoking stuff.

I hope you are having a great week – wherever you are.

Fee x

Family …

This is my beautiful niece Mandy … she turned 21 last week. This was her reaction when the Band in the Jazz Club played her happy birthday! 

I FLEW to Perth (on my own, with NO kids – which meant nobody to argue and squabble on a 5 hour car trip ONE WAY … which meant nobody to argue and squabble on the way back either – oh ’twas utter bliss).

Anyhoo – Mandy had her 21st at a Jazz Club.  The entrance to said Club is through a phone booth – how cool is that?!  The Club is certainly not somewhere to go if you’re looking for upmarket ambience – but it was just such a fantastic evening.  Great music, Mandy surrounded by her friends and family.  They all danced the night away and had a ball.  Sadly I was under the weather with a nasty cold/flu thing, and whilst I dosed myself up on cold/flu tablets – I wasn’t really in a dancing mood.  Maybe next time.

Mandy, my sis-in-law Lynda and I.  She had a 1920’s theme so we decked ourselves out in flapper outfits with beads and feather boas.  It was great fun.

Da Family.  My brother Paul and nephews Andy & Matt.  Telephone booth just visible in the background.

Crowd shot/inside of the Club.

Now … saving the best until last.  I missed my flight home!  I blame the cold/flu tablets and/or my fuzzy head.  It didn’t really matter as I got to spend an extra night with Mandy … thankfully I did make my flight the next morning though.

Sorry I’ve been a bit neglectful of my blog – but things have been hectic this week with the kids back to school and me back to work.

The holidays were wonderful, just went by far too quickly!

Back soonish.

Fee x

Special Memories

You may recall me mentioning before Christmas that my god-daughter Ali was coming over from NZ for a few weeks to spend time with us?  I hadn’t seen Ali since she was about 10 (and only then, quite briefly) so it was lovely to have her come for a visit.  Here are a few of my favourite shots of her with us as we showed her some of the sights in our little home town….

Ali and I at my birthday bash breakfast!

Having a tea party with Miss Bella, and Winnie the cat had to come and check out the action too.  Please note that I had to get out the curling iron to give Miss Boo curls “just like Ali’s”! 

With the kids at the Marina at night.

At the Sydney Memorial (more of this in a future post).

Thanks for stopping by.  Oh, and for the record, it was 46 here on Monday, not the forecast 43!  Ack.  Did I mention I HATE hot weather, and I especially hate weather over 40.  However I would rather be hot than cold, so I’ll stop complaining now!

Fee

What I did on my holidays!

Well as promised, here are a few pics of our recent holidays.  It was 44 degrees today, 45 expected tomorrow, 42 Monday.  Ack – I HATE hot weather.  Thank goodness for airconditioning is all I can say. 

First random image – a redback spider on our side fence.  This little lady wasn’t a bad size either and had a VERY bright red stripe.  Warning Will Robinson!

Bella with her favourite Christmas present – a baby born doll.

My niece Mandy with her very groovy new bike.  This gorgeous girl turns 21 in 2 weeks time.  She was 2 weeks old when I got married.  Do I feel old?  The answer would be YES!!

Angus with his favourite Christmas present – a new skateboard.  Apologies for fuzzy photo.  Note to self:  don’t play with camera settings when you want decent photos!  [p.s. nice eyewear goes with new Nerf gun!]

George with my nephew Matt.  We made the Christmas crackers because we couldn’t find any others (last minute – of course!).  Actually it was fun putting them together and they all banged rather well when pulled!

This would be my favourite shot from Christmas day.  Bella LOVES her big cousin, and we all went out the front of the house to try out scooters and skateboards and bikes.  It was a hoot.

After many years of doing our own thing, it’s so special having our family nearby to spend Christmas with.

I’ll post more holiday pics in a few days.  I’m photo-ed out for now.

Fee

Elmo!

So, how’s this for a cute factor?  Meet Elmo … the newest member of our family menagerie!

He’s 7 weeks old and just the cutest little guy you could ever hope to own.  Full of beans and mischief, receiving lots of hugs and cuddles (and being argued over more times than I care to mention/referee!) but very much loved and already well and truly a part of our family.

Needless to say Winnie, our other cat, is none too impressed about this little whippersnapper invading her space.  He’s claimed the inside domain, she’s outside – and we’ll keep it like that … for now at least.

Back soon with holiday snaps.

Love,

Fee x

p.s.   Did you know that Elmo is of Latin, Greek and Italian origin, and its meaning is “to live; God’s helmet”?  It’s the Italian form of Anselm and a short form of Erasmus, the name of a fourth-century bishop-martyr who is patron saint of sailors.  The electrical phenomenon sometimes seen in the rigging of ships at sea is called Saint Elmo’s fire.  And it’s also the name of a furry red toddler-monster on the TV series “Sesame Street” (nah, you don’t say?!). 

Happy New Year, and all that Jazz!

Greetings my long-forgotten blog buddies and a Happy New Year to you all.  I’m now a year older than when I last blogged.    I still really don’t like the fact that I celebrate Christmas and my Birthday all within a few weeks of each other.  I would put a complaint in to somebody who cared if it were possible (Mum, are you listening – heh heh) but I don’t think it would do much good.  I did manage to celebrate with friends for breakfast on the weekend, then 3 different celebrations on my actual birthday … so I don’t think I’m doing too badly really.  I just enjoy a moan every now and then!

Well we survived the travels to and from Perth over Christmas and enjoyed catching up with my brother and his family.  I collected my god-daughter Ali from Perth airport on Christmas night and we’ve had a great few weeks spending time together and seeing a few of the sights in WA.  Unfortunately I woke up with a tummy wog on the morning of our planned visit to Adventure World, so we’ve rescheduled it for this Sunday and are very much looking forward to our trip there.  It might have been just as well I was sick on the original date as the temp was over 40 degrees and likely to have been a touch too warm for frolicking in the sun all day (although admittedly spending the day at a park with lots of water features would seem to be a good idea?).  We had 44 degrees a few days later in Gero – and I was so glad when the temperature finally dipped back below the high 30’s.  I am definitely not a hot weather lover!

I will post some pics next week of different things we’ve been up to.  Yesterday was a visit to the local Wildlife Park which is always good fun for the kids.

Thanks for stopping by …

Love,

Fee x

Merry Christmas, and adieu

Well only 2 more sleeps until we make the long(ish) drive to be with my brother and his family for Christmas.  I bought a new car earlier this year and have gone from a (large) station wagon to a (smaller) sedan.

It has a reasonable sized boot – but even I’m realistic enough to know that it’s going to be challenging            s-q-u-e-e-z-i-n-g everything in.    Thankfully G is driving down, a few days after us, in the aforementioned (large) station wagon, so I can load him up with all the stuff that won’t fit in my car.

I have to work tomorrow, then I have a WHOLE WEEK OFF.  Yippee.  I’m sooooo looking forward to a proper break where I don’t even have to look at a computer.  We went to the library the other day and I chose myself a couple of books to read.  What a luxury.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas with your nearest and dearest.  And I will be back blogging in the New Year ….

Blessings,

Fee

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year ….

Bella’s Graduation

Miss Bella graduated from Pre-Primary the other week.  The Teacher and Aides did such a great job with the kids.  They put on a Nativity Play for us, and sang a song, and were all just generally very cute!  They even gave us a nice lunch afterwards.

Bella was the “C” of Christmas – so the first on stage!

Looking a bit serious here … see the colourful things hanging above the kids’ heads?  They drew those designs themselves onto fabric, then their teacher sewed them into cushion covers.  They all had a “rest” every afternoon, and lay down with their pillows.  The cushion covers came home at the end of the year.  What a lovely Pre-Primary memento.  Bella’s cushion cover is the second from right – yellow fish. 

With her Certificate.  I still can’t believe she’ll be a BIG Year One girl next year…..

Well major doings in our house today – we tidied the boys’ room.  And when I say tidied – I MEAN tidied!  We took everything out of the room, put their beds down as normal beds (they have been bunks for ages), put a smaller computer desk in their room, and generally just had a good dust, vacuum, and clean (and didn’t put everything back in – I actually managed to get them to cull a few things)!  It looks amazing.  If only it would STAY like that!  They both kept walking into their room and saying “it looks so clean and fresh Mum”. 

Next on the list is Miss Boo’s room.  We are about half way there after sorting out dolly things this afternoon and making a quick trip to Crazy Clarks to buy under-bed storage boxes.  They had some good ones today which have dividers inside the boxes – perfect for a little girl with lots of “treasures” to keep tidy!  In fact, I’m going to go back tomorrow and buy at least one more for the little girl, and a few for under the big girl’s bed too!

The lady who wrote the Messy Manual my Mum sent me would be very proud if she could see our efforts today.  Here’s hoping I can sustain it enough to do my bedroom and our terribly messy back room as well.  Wish me luck …

Fee x

Oh Christmas Tree

Well, finally, we managed to get our Christmas Tree up and decorated today.

The kids really enjoy doing it and it has become a lovely family tradition to put the Christmas Carol CD on the stereo (loud) then busily decorate the tree and sing Carols together.

We only had one fatality this year in the way of a smashed bauble, which is pretty good.  It was actually me who dropped it, after busily telling the kids to be careful when handling the ornaments! 

It was Angus’ turn to put the star on the top of the tree.  The really scary thing for me was watching him do it without a) having to be held up by a parent (just as well on that score!) or b) not requiring any assistance by way of chair or stool.  Eeeek.  He really IS getting big!

Now … this collage I love.  I decided to try and set the camera up on a shelf in the lounge room so I could use the timer and get a photo of the 4 of us together.  I had my back to the kids and was busily snapping shots to try and get the camera in the right position and I wasn’t paying attention to what the camera was capturing.  When I downloaded the photos, I was thrilled to find all these candid pics of the kids being silly, annoying each other and generally just behaving like kids do!  I’m happy with the shot we eventually got (in the centre) and think I’m going to print this collage to put in our scrapbook to give us some giggles in the years to come as we look back on our Christmas memories.

I hope you are having a great weekend?  It’s been hot here.  We’re off to Carols by Candlelight tonight, so I hope it stays warm.

Thanks for stopping by my little (Christmassy) corner of the World.

Fee

Fighting Exhaustion

I’m seriously strung out at the moment.  The kids finished school on Tuesday, I have at least 3 clients who need me to complete work for them at the moment, plus Christmas presents to wrap and send overseas (which probably should have gone last week), no Christmas tree up yet, a Memorial Service to attend on Saturday for my beautiful friend who passed away earlier this week, muffins to make to take for the morning tea after the Memorial Service, working at the church tomorrow filling in for someone away on her Honeymoon (lucky duck!) … aaarrrggghhh.  Head explosion coming up!

I went to bed at 11.30pm last night, after doing some typing plus a few jobs which I didn’t get to during the day.  Then I was awake at 4:50am this morning, my head whirling with all the jobs that need attention today – so I figured I might as well get up and get cracking, rather than lying in bed stressing about things.

So I’ve just done an hour and a half’s legal transcription.  Thankfully the kids are all still slumbering after (another) late night.

We are going to visit our friends on the farm today.  I can’t wait to be somewhere where my mobile phone doesn’t work (seriously considering a move to the country – heh heh – just kidding) and being able to kick back, and drink coffee with a dear friend, and not THINK about all the things I have to do.

I know, I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to taking things on over and above what I reasonably can achieve in a given time period, but sometimes that’s just life isn’t it?  We have busy periods when we know things are going to bottleneck a bit – but I’ve decided that the kids come first, and fun comes first, the rest of it will get done – eventually (I think!).

Well I’d better get on with it.  I hope y’all are having a more peaceful, restful week than me?

Love,

Fee x