Christmas .... in 19 words

Christmas in 19 Words

Food: turkey, rumballs & trifle.

People: family, peeps & friends.

Heartstrings: savouring togetherness.

Remember: nativity & God's love.

Prayers: Peace, Hope & Joy.

Okay, I am going for a triple bunger link-a-do thing here... Are you ready?

Firstly... I love Christmas and am thankful for it. So I am linking with 'Thankful Thursdays' over at 'Kate Says Stuff'.

Secondly, I am linking in with '5 sentence fiction' with 'Lillie McFerrin Writes'. I chose to write five sentences, with the theme '19'. I chose to use 19 words in response to the prompt. {This is so writerly geeky!}

Thirdly, I am using some happy snaps I took on my iPhone from the Christmas lights display we went to the other night with the kids. So I am linking in with some iPPP over at 'A Belle A Bean & A Chicago Dog'.

Being At Home Is Cool - Thankful Thursday + iPPP

I am really beginning to embrace my staying-at-homeness lately. I have fought it for ages, thinking it was so dull and boring and surely there are people out there leading far more exciting lives than me. But - you know something..? It is nice being free to potter about and do nice things that I won't be able to do when I am gainfully employed again {the dream is to become a famous blogger/writer and haul in loads of cash and be able to maintain a hideously extravagant lifestyle that is the envy of the likes of Paris Hilton}.


It is nice to have my own schedule that I can adhere to...or not. Nice to go to the park, make grocery shopping a learning experience, read books, make proper dinners and enjoy hot chips for afternoon tea with the kids. These are {some of} the things I will miss when I have to do some teaching again. 


But for now, I am thankful for the time I have to do some of these nice things....


Like... going along to Kindy to decorate gingerbread men for a Christmas craft. Miss Z was so thrilled to have me there!

I made the gingerbread last night and have mini m&ms, cashous, sprinkles, marshmallows and some other sweets to plaster on to them. 

The kids had a ball!

Let us not discuss food hygiene, etiquette or design skills though. Let me just say the kids had a great time and it was really nice to do some 'teachering' again - I do love using my teacher voice!

Tomorrow I shall post the recipe for the gingerbread men - because that is what we stay-at-home mums do - we share recipes. 

I love linking up with Liz from 'A Belle, A Bean and A Chicago Dog' for some iPPP and Kate from 'Katesaysstuff' for Thankful Thursday.

     

iPPP - Displaying Photos - 1

I am linking up with Liz from, 'A Belle, A Bean & A Chicago Dog' today for some iPhone Photo Phun.....

I am not the best decorator. I want to be. I really do. I love looking at housey magazines and flicking through Pinterest boards, and I think I have really good taste. But, something happens to my brain between the looking and the doing. I have good ideas and sometimes even follow through with them.


A few years ago, I bought two boxes of black frames totalling twenty frames that I was going to make into a photo gallery in our hallway. But, then we were getting our bathroom renovated, so I didn't want the builders to knock the pictures off the walls, so I put it off. Then Mr Cool and I couldn't agree on the spaces between the frames and then I lost interest. So I boxed up the frames and banished them to the 'shed'. 


Mr Cool and I were looking through some photos the other day and commented on how beautiful our children are. Then came the questions, "Why don't we have more photos of the children on display?" and "What ever happened to those black frames?" and THEN "Remind me why we didn't ever get around to hanging those frames?". Sigh.


Mr Cool's mum often asks for photos of the kids, and I just never get around to printing them off for her {or us}. She mentioned just last week how I am not so good at the keeping up to date with photos in frames thing. She has a point, there is only one photo of our soon to be 4 year old on display, and Mr Cool's mum gave us that. Sigh.


We have lived in our house for nearly six years. We have two sliding doors that go between the front room and the kitchen or the hallway. Above the door is a white board that hides all the mechanics of the sliding door things. I thought it was just that, A board. But... would you believe it is a ledge? I know - I too was AMAZED! How could I not know that after living here for SIX years? Terrible. Terrible.


I then had an epiphany... Watch and learn.


Yesterday, Miss Z and I got the frames from the shed {I even used a ladder - eep}, cleaned the ledge {oh the dust, I am ashamed of myself!} and put the frames up there! I think it looks great! The room feels more alive already!

I figured I would put the frames where I wanted them and then order photos in the exact size and layout for the frames. That is next week's job - I had better strike while the iron is hot so they say.


When we had them all lined up, Miss Z and I stood back to admire our handiwork. I asked if Miss Z like the frames up on the ledge, she replied with big eyes and an excited smile, "Yes! And it is so lovely to have that other family's photos in them too!"


How cute! She did seem a bit disappointed that I am planning to put photographs of US in the frames, it is a very good looking family... 

When I have put the photos of us in the frames, I will do an 'After' shot. Our family is pretty good looking too!

Thankful Thursday - A Letter To Dear BabyCool

  
I am linking up again with Kate at 'Kate Says Stuff' for 'Thankful Thursday'.


On Sunday, BabyCool turned one. Isn't he the cutest thing you ever did see?

Dear BabyCool,


Oh my goodness, I cannot believe you are one already! What an amazing year it has been. I am so thankful for so many reasons....

• I am thankful that you are here, your delivery still gives me chills.
• I am thankful for your loving nature, it melts my heart, every time.
• I am thankful for your love, it is so complete it hurts my heart {in a good way}.
• I am thankful that you sleep in your own cot, it wasn't always like this.
• I am thankful that you don't seem to remember how cranky mummy is when she gets woken through the night.
• I am thankful for the love you have for your sisters, it is so great to see you all playing together.
• I am thankful that your burns have almost healed completely and you will not have any permanent scars.
• I am thankful for your 'Koala Cuddles', you hold on so tight and bury in so deep that is both physically and emotionally hard to put you down.
• I am thankful that you are you, you are inquisitive, adventurous, stubborn, gentle, loving and oh so cuddly.

Happy birthday my little man, we are so glad you are part of our family.

iPPP - Toenails & Motherhood

Today I am linking up with the lovely Liz from 'A Belle, A Bean & a Chicago Dog' with her iPPP link up... 

So... when does a mother remove her nail polish?


Perhaps when her toes look like this?

Notice the great chunk out of the side?


I only noticed this other day when I was chatting to someone.


When did I kick my toe hard enough to knock the corner off my nail? You would think I would remember when this happened, surely! But I have no memory of it. 


Being a mum is a tough gig. There is no time to even assess an injury! It is so full on! I never realised that there would be such time restrictions placed on me. Or the ramifications of these time restrictions. For example: I have to schedule things like leg shaving because I can't wear my skinny jeans if my legs are hairy, it hurts. But, if I want to wear my cute new stripy t-shirt I need to ensure that the legs are shaved so I can wear the cute jeans to match. In all my wildest teenage dreams, this would never have been something that would have blipped my radar.


I don't paint my nails very often because I know that I will then have to find the time to remove the polish when it looks like, well, like the photo above. Gross. I think natural nails are a bit easier to maintain. Just not as pretty. Sigh.


Do you paint your nails? How often? How long do they stay looking delish? Sorry male readers... :0)

Life is Cool: Lessons learnt from a car key (iPPP Link)

Mr Cool drives a very sporty BMW. It is very cool, very stylish and suits him really well.


Occasionally I drive it. It is a fun car to drive, it corners really nicely and accelerates quickly. I think in a past life I was a race car driver. Not many people beat me across intersections, I like to really gun it to get a head start at traffic lights. I hope no Policemen are reading this, or I may be seen as an easy ticket!


Anyway, I digress.


Whenever I drive Mr Cool's car I struggle to lock/unlock it. This is what the key/remote locking thingie for the car looks like....

I am not sure if it is clear, but the big button at the bottom is for 'Lock' and then the little buttons at the top are for 'Unlock' and interior 'Lights on'.


I have thought about this key for a long time... It is a good metaphor for life.


I see that people are a lot like this remote locking device.


I know that my 'Lock' button is really prominent. Is yours? I find it hard to let people in. I find it takes a while to get to know them before I start telling them anything really deep about myself. I know it is important for people to get to know me and I know it is important for me to get to know other people, but... you know... sometimes I want to get a vibe about someone before letting them in too far. Before I let them grubby the floor mats.


Sometimes if people get too close too quickly I hit the 'Lock' button and hunker down inside myself to stop people from getting to know parts of me that I would prefer them not to. I hit 'Lock' at times when Mr Cool and I have a disagreement. And when friends tell me something I don't want to hear. Or when someone says something that upsets me. 'Locking' myself gives me space and time to think about the situation.


When I look at this remote, I marvel at how small the 'Unlock' button is. Isn't UN-locking a car so it can be driven more important than LOCKing the car? It seems counter productive to me. There is a beautifully crafted piece of German engineering genius that is hard to UN-lock? What is with that?


But, as humans it can be hard to un-lock each other to let others in. The conditions need to be just right.


The other button is for turning on the interior lights. We are not quite sure why this feature was seen as important enough to put onto the locking device, given that un-locking the car puts the  interior lights on, but, there it is. I think this too is an important human characteristic. It is helpful to be able to shed light on things. Some really uncomfortable things have been happening in my circles of friends. The ripples have been crashing into each other and it has been a really bizarre time. A few situations have meant that I have had to have some hard conversations. Conversations where I have had re-state my views and back track to where I said what to who and when and why. I have also had to hear some pretty hard stuff about some pretty lovely people. But, having the lights put on these situations has helped. I can see that I have grown and I have seen that I am okee-dokee-just-being-me-thank-you-very-muchly.

So... do you have a strange item that you use that could be a metaphor for life?

PS - I am feeling a bit smug - Mr Cool had no idea what the 'Lights on button' did! Yip yip for B!

iPPP - Bumps in the Road

I am linking up with the lovely Liz over at a belle, a bean and a chicago dog for some iPhone Photo Phun.



The last ten days have been unprecedented in my life time. Oh my goodness. All of my kids were either sick, injured or in line for an operation. Add to that a planned holiday and 3 trips to a burns unit in the Big Smoke close to 2 hours away - and you have the recipe for some kind of nervous tick development potential. Thankfully, sugar, coffee and saturated fats came along to save the day!


Last week we drove to the Big Smoke to take our baby to a specialist burns clinic. We had to be there at 7:30am - which meant we left home around 5:20am. Don't even let me tell you what time that meant we had to get up.... However, we are all about enjoying the journey...

The sunrise was amazing!

A lot of our state has been either doing some planned burning prior to bushfire season, or on fire before the planned burns. Our sunrises and sunsets have been pretty amazing with all that smoke in the atmosphere.

We hit a section of the highway where the mist rising up from the ground and the smoke in the air from a brush fire mingled to create this eery landscape.

On either side of this little section we had clear blue skies... It was quite amazing.

When we arrived at the hospital I had a quick flick through the photos I had taken. Check out the photo below. This is not doctored or edited in any way.... 

It has a weird kind of Salvidore Dali feel about. Obviously we had hit a bump in the road just as the shutter on my iPhone was open.

It did not escape me that this is a great metaphor for the kind of week we have had. We have had metaphorical blue skies riding into this week, then we hit a bump. A baby was hurt. We didn't get the relaxing holiday we hoped for. A three year old came down with a roaring ear infection. A six year old headed into hospital for 'routine surgery' - that is still scary. Bumps.

But blue skies are coming again. Healing is a wonderful thing. Watching my little boy crawling around happily is so reassuring. Miss Z responding to antibiotics and realising she can actually hear again is a relief. Miss A recovering remarkably from surgery is amazing. Blue skies. 

I know more bumps will come our way. But, when the skies are blue and free of mist and smoke - we will remember these as sweet  days. Days that will get us through the bumps.