Breathe...

The skill of breathing is highly underrated! Today is the 1st of December, meaning Christmas is upon us.  To help ease the stress, we have decided to not be home for it.

Bucket List - Tick

It is funny to think that at my "young" age I need a bucket list, but I think everyone should have one.

Go to BIG concert, tick!

I went to U2 last week , I think that qualified, yah no longer concert virgin!

It was totally awesome, completely blew me away and was so worth it.  I even managed to sit through Jay-Z, can you guess I am not a big fan...  Would probably be fairer to say, NOT a fan.  I am sure he is a nice person, but I didn't hear music, just noise, loud noise.  Probably the funniest part of the whole experience was going to the bathroom while Jay-Z was making noise, and it was so loud the toilet was vibrating! :)

I am so lucky that I got to stay up there the night and go shopping the next day, only problem was not being able to show off all my good stash when i got home, they were all Christmas presents.  Oh well, they will be seen soon!

Good bye year, hello crazy season, Christmas.  I need a body double to attend all the end of year stuff for the kids, let alone my end of year stuff!

Old friends are good friends

Today I took a journey to a part of the country I don't normally stop in, I just drive right through. But today was different, I was meeting a friend who had moved to another part of the country (even further away) and was there with family.  This town is notorious for all the wrong reasons, I normally don't even toilet stop there because I don't feel safe!

But, because my good friend was there I went.  I love it when you can not see someone for ages and then meet up and just sit down like it was yesterday and carry on.  There is something about familiarity that is comforting and reassuring (we try to make sure it is not downright creepy!).  This friend, unbeknownst to me is also going to the "big smoke" for an awesome concert in a couple of days, how funny is that, we are in sync even when we don't see each other.

So although we left the park for fear of being new "meat" for the locals, it was a lovely day, especially in the warm safe confines of her family's home!

Blessings don't always come in nice packages

I have been contemplating my existence in the last few weeks.  My ability to cope with an extraordinary amount of stress has been sorely tested.  Speaking my mind has been always been easy, it has been learning to keep my mouth securely closed that has kept me occupied recently, not so easy.

Keeping my mouth closed has been like pulling an emergency brake on a bullet train!  The result so far has been that my point seems to get across anyway, I big shock to me.  In fact, shutting up seems to be speaking louder than words...  more pondering required me thinks.

Why is it that men have a way of speaking that immediately puts them in the right, we need to teach this to our girls.  Z6 has just received the Principal's award, only she has no idea why.  She is quite confused about this as she was one of only 3 in her class that got one, leading to my confusion.  I have a vague idea, but have no concrete explanation for her.  She was so excited, but mainly because I stayed to see her receive it, nothing like having the people that love you the most to be by your side encouraging you all the way, I see myself as a kind of cheerleader?

To get to the blessing with not so nice packaging...  Having someone else have a crisis that is worse than your ongoing crisis is great for putting your stress into perspective.  Our neighbour has just lost her husband as she knew him and has been left with a shell that doesn't recognise her, and all because he got drunk and walked home...  Alcohol has a lot to answer for in our society, we need to stop pussy footing around the issue and stand up for the health and welfare of the next generations who need to know that they are not indestructible... 

Right now I have three happy healthy children and a husband with a job, I am blessed.

Birthdays

My little girl turned one today!  She has been sick all week but today she rallied to stay awake long enough to see her Dad at the end of the day and open her presents and have some cake.

The other two make me laugh, as they had more fun with the toys than she did :)

The children who normally shower decided to bath to play with their little sister's new bath toys, then went back out to the lounge to check out the other toys!

I am grateful for small mercies, like her nana remembering the little one's birthday, even if only two other people did.  Why is it with your first child you give a party with 50 attendees, the second child a party with 20 attendees and the third one hasn't had a party at all.  Must remember to try and make up for that at some point...

Blessings

I have been blessed in so many ways this year I decided to post about them instead of the negatives in life.

So far today I have three blessings:

1. Three healthy happy children

2. A happy husband

3. Friends who know when I am exhausted and take boisterous children off my hands for the morning!

And today, I also have the honour of being free from a long overdue tax debt that was sinking my will to live.

I am truly blessed...