Just a taste

I was feeling quite enthusiastic today by the prospect of writing a new blog: It’s been a while (but thankfully not quite as long as I thought); I’ve finished my most recent read (coincidentally the book from my last posts to read read list!); we’re running out of data so best to give my newly acquired Netflix a break and it’s been a good week, so I thought that would be nice to share. But of course now I’m sitting here, I’m feeling tired and a bit clueless for direction.

However, some recent feelings:

• delighted at how relaxed I feel these school holidays compared to the last
• Grateful to live in South Australia which has consistently stayed COVID free
• Motivated by my latest read to keep learning about Australian politics
• Nostalgic watching my favourite childhood series return to the screens on Netflix, yay The Baby-sitters Club
• Excited that my small counselling business is getting off the ground
• Content with my relationships
• Happy to be home with the kids
• Busy with my various roles but also relieved I shelved one responsibility a little bit

And now I think I’m ok to leave it at that, short and hopefully sweet 🍓

Happy Friday All 🙂

How have you been feeling lately?

SPECIAL BLOGGER AWARD

Big thank you to Dragon Warrior for this awards nomination and your kind words. Dragon Warrior is wonderfully engaging and I love the conversations we’ve had.

Award Rules:

1. Thanks the blogger who nominated you (as above 🙂
2. Answer the questions you are asked ( if you’re comfortable doing so!)
3. Create 10 questions for the bloggers you’ve nominated.
4. Nominate at least 3 bloggers for the Special Blogger Award.
5. Comment on your nominees most recent blog post to let them know you’ve nominated.
6. Have a fun

Answering Dragon Warrior’s questions:

1. What is your favourite hangout place in your town?

Probably my Mum and Dad’s house. I live a half hour from town, so being able to hang out at their place, my old home is a real blessing. I also love checking out the library, although it’s been a long time since I’ve really allowed myself to enjoy it properly (normally rounding up children!)

2. What is your favourite weather and season?

I tend to love whatever season it’s not! Lol the age old ‘grass is always greener on the other side’ but for this reason I think I like the changing seasons best with Spring being my favourite, coming into warm weather after the cold is such a joy and Down Under it always also has a feel of Christmas fun

3. Favourite travel destination?

Hmmm my dream travel destination is Paris but I havn’t got there yet. I love visiting family and friends and have really enjoyed exploring the Eyre Peninsular in South Australia since a sibling has moved there.

4. Do you watch cricket? Any favourite cricketer?

I do! The Ashes Test of 2006 being my most memorable and I don’t seem to have watched as closely since then but still check in with most results, including following Australia’s Big Bash. I was a Ricky Ponting fan, along with Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer. I really need to get to know some of the current players!!

5. What is your favourite river?

Australia’s Murray River, it is the lifeblood of so many communities. As a child I remember being fascinated by the Nile River

6. Do you like sunrise by the sea? Any special memory related to it?

Who doesn’t?! Sunrises and sunsets are always beautiful – a true gift of God’s creation. Must confess I havn’t seen all that many sunrises though!

7. Favourite thing about your culture?

So many things I love about Australia – vegemite, BBQ’s, fair go, supporting the underdog, celebrating diversity – let’s pick summer cricket!

8. Do you like parties?

Yes and no! I love opportunities to catch up with other people but I also often find socialising stressful.

9. How do you celebrate your birthdays?

Cake! And messages of love. If i’m extra lucky maybe a present or two.

10. How was your school days?

On the whole I enjoyed my school days, especially time spent with friends and special achievements but it was in no way all easy.

 

My Questions:

1. How often do you blog and what motivates you?
2. Favourite author and/or book?
3. Do you support abortion?
4. Where would you like your next holiday destination to be?
5. If you were to start learning something new tomorrow what would it be?
6. What do you do to de-stress?
7. What is your favourite sport?
8. Beach, lake or river?
9. What country does your family originate from?
10. What’s been the highlight of your year so far?

 

My Nominations (with zero pressure attached!):

1. Fractured Faith Blog

Stephen has recently published a book AND does an amazing job on his blog, he might not have time with all his regular posting but he is definitely deserving of such an award

2. Brizzy Mays Books and Bruschetta 

Brizzy May is a wonderfully supportive blogging friend, I love following her reading and travelling adventures.

3. Roth Poetry 

Dwight is continually coming up with interesting, beautiful, thought-provoking poetry, often accompanied with his own photos and paintings.

 

Thank you to these three bloggers and Dragon Warrior for providing me with ongoing inspiration and Happy October to you all 🙂

A Quick Hello

Just to prove I was thinking of you all during my hiatus, somehow this blog didn’t quite make it to click publish button!

Hello

Life is good at the moment, and busy. I am continuing my study, placement, looking after the kids and indulging in games, tv and at the moment just the occasional book.

It’s lovely to see people continue to visit my blog-home despite my inactivity here. Despite my goal to write once a month, I think I’ll be missing for awhile yet as I finish off my degree – the end is in sight and almost touchable!!

A few topics worthy of mentioning before I go to bed ready for the start of another week….

1. The drought 😦
2. The election 😐
3. The shave 😀 we raised nearly $2000 for the Leukaemia Foundation this weekend

Happy Mother’s Day….Hmmm Happy we’re over Halfway through School Holidays Day??

Further Updates:

• Placement hours slowly getting ticked off, not in any real rush though
• Have enjoyed reading Jane Harper’s character Aaron Falk
• We have had rain!! Indeed it’s been sprinkling the last few days (probably not a lot worth measuring but still wet)
• A lot of un-edited posts were published recently I think when I accidentally deleted the WP app from my phone, oops and oh-well.

 

#4 Sunday ABC

I had so many thoughts for blogging this week and now that I’m finally sitting in front of the computer, it’s sadly quite a chore. But writing posts in my head is therapeutic, reading others words often inspires and connecting can turn a day around, so here’s Round 4.

Please feel free to join in with your own responses either in the comments or as your own post 🙂

My week in a nutshell – I’ve been flat and then productive and now tired and worried. My husband  has injured his foot just as we start harvest and I’m fairly well the worst nurse-wife ever.

A is for Affirmation

My motto for the week is to ride it out…..maybe not quite like this fella :p

B is for Best, Worst and OMM

Best – Coming through a fog of flatness and the gratitude of feeling energetic again. enjoying some favourite episodes of Grey’s

Worst – Seeing jobs that need doing and having no desire to do them

OMM – (On my mind) How I will cope doing all the cooking and supporting my husband who will understandably get frustrated as he heals.

C is for Community

Katie from How I Killed Betty wrote two blogs this week that really hit home for me.

Attacking Life, or Running Away

and, What do you do to combat depression and/or anxiety?

She describes her blog as a diary on how to tackle depression and anxiety and it definitely helps me to have others share their journeys, ideas and challenges. Sometimes it can all feel hopeless or just hard work but when the skies clear…..

You know it’s worth pulling through and that you can do it, time and time again.

 

 

Your Sunday ABC

I’m contemplating starting a regular (most likely irregular) feature on my blog, and would love your feedback.

I’ve always been a fan of blogs which give you a chance to share an update on your life. I first experienced this on Mamamia an Australian women’s website which started small and intimate and has grown big and commercial. I admire the creator Mia Freedman and all she has achieved but sincerely miss the days of the Best and Worst. It was a true God-send in my early parenting days, keeping me in touch with the world and other people.

More recently I have been following Sammy Hope whose blog covers her three big passions of beauty, mental health, and self-improvement, including a weekly Friday check-in. Sammy, I most certainly leave your blog feeling encouraged – thank you.

I’ve also been reflecting on my new years goals (yes mostly forgotten lol) and remembered that I’d talked about how community is super important to me. To build on this my new feature is going to be the Sunday ABC (along with continuing my spotlights)

So how I think this may work (did I mention anything about feedback?!?):

A is for Affirmation

(from a church hymn this morning)

B is for Best, Worst and OMM

Best – I’ve had a great weekend (finishing a book, starting another, out for tea with friends, games with the kids and a nap with hubby) PLUS school’s back tomorrow

Worst – I think this week it goes to the refugees in particular the children on Nauru kept there by the Australian Government despite diagnosed mental and physical illnesses.

OMM – (On my mind) Mental Health – I’ve just been link following from http://samentalhealthcommission.com.au and a guest post by Matt Ball 2017 Mental Health Nurse of the Year who has experienced psychosis. I’ve also thinking about finances as I’ve started Scott Page’s The Barefoot Investor and hoping I can convince my hubby to book in a Barefoot Date Night 🙂

Lastly….I did have something for C before I had something for A but unfortunately somewhere in the tea, bath, bed routine I lost it…ahhh wait

C is for Community – where we can share a favourite post or two from the last week.

Oh gosh there were too many good ones this week, stop being such good, interesting writers y’all :p

I’ve chosen this one though by Max The Confidence Problem , which included this great quote “Confidence comes from being okay with being imperfect. “

I hope you all have a perfectly imperfect week and of course please feel feel to join in with all or any of the ABC’s

God Bless

GJ

Holiday Reading

I was so excited about the interactions on my last post I forgot to get writing again…oops, and suddenly a fortnight has almost passed!

Truth is I’ve been busy spending time with the fam bam – we got back yesterday from a week interstate with friends. Lots of fun, laughs, tears and tantrums – don’t you just love holidaying with kids :p All in all however it was a great time away and we kept very busy, in fact I only finished my holiday book last night back at home! Indeed 20 days into January I have only finished 2 books (oh wait 3 – bcb*). I normally go into a reading frenzy during the summer holidays but this year I’ve been spreading my spare time between books, puzzles and tv. I’m finding lately after working on a computer, studying on a computer and catching up on so many awesome blogs my eyes have had enough reading. Anyone else have trouble balancing their reading choices?!

That said the two books I have finished are well worth sharing about:

Wish You Were Here by Sheridan Jobbins –

I loved that the author was Australian. I loved her honesty and reflections (even if at times they seemed to go round and around in circles), I enjoyed her adventures, I loved her car and the new man. In some ways a bit of a cliche post divorce memoir in others completely unique. I loved learning more about America and the life of this interesting woman.

The author herself described it as “basically a rom-com memoir” about how she met her husband. “After leaving my first marriage, I decided to buy a big red car and drive around America, I would spend six weeks driving one way, and six weeks driving back,” she said. “Halfway through I did a stopover in London to visit a friend whose husband had been sick. My friend was studying with this boy and we started to have a fling. It ended up in a bit of a misunderstanding, I thought I was saying ‘I like you’ and he thought I was saying ‘join the trip’. So our third date was four weeks in a Chevy Camaro and a tent arguing across America and that is the bulk of the story.”

Definitely a good holiday read.

Secondly, The End of the Road: Becoming a Mallee Wife by Deborah Hyde –

As a fellow farmer’s wife I really enjoyed relating to much of this memoir and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about this way of life!

I’ve also watched Big Little Lies the HBO tv series which unfortunately was a bit disappointing. It wasn’t the bits cut or added, I think it worked quite well. I don’t even really care about the ending. It just all seemed so slow to me, a lot of angst and not much action. I think having read the book ruined the build up of tension for me. Good news is that hubby enjoyed it, yay for a accurate recommendation for him!

We have one more week until school goes back but with work, meetings and school book pick up it feels like things will be back into at least half swing. Fortunately I have book club this week reviewing Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a novella (*bcb).

Before I sign off I would like to say a  big special thanks to the FOUR beautiful bloggers who commented on my last post. Even without new content in the last 2 weeks I’ve been feeling super connected. My Spotlight Blogger for today is for “Bryce Warden” who was the first to comment last time. You can find her at  https://wasthatmyoutloudvoice.com – be ready to laugh out loud and experience some warm fuzzies too. She is a busy Mum of teens, business owner, hospice and charity volunteer. She likes mystery novels and lives in the USA experiencing the cold while I am once again sweltering in 40+ degree weather. She’s been a recent find for me but I am very much in love.

I’d love for Bryce (and YOU!) to share, if you wish, about your favourite things to do in your spare time?

Happy Reading!

Priorities

The temperature in my part of the world is going to reach 45 degrees today. So I’ve done something ‘amazing’. To make sure I don’t miss my third day in a row of going outside, I’ve cleaned house and walked the bin over to our on farm landfill (a couple 100 metres).

So it’s not much, but what a great start to the day, especially when it’s already HOT out there :p

What are you prioritising today?

The other New Years resolution I’m going to work on today is connecting. I really want to get to know you all. I have no idea how best to do this….any suggestions?!?

I’m going to try and do a spotlight today on one of my newest likers – Amanhimself.

Stalking his Bio page I’ve discovered his name is Aman Mittal and he is the well published blogger at Confessions of a Readaholic. He lives in New Delhi, India and adores books – so do I Aman!! (Indeed I’m pretty sure that’s how we discovered each other). I also discovered this quote on his page:

And this exactly summarises my blogging goal for 2018 – to actively engage in this conversation. So if Aman doesn’t mind I’m going to ask him a few questions, perhaps you’d like to answer them too:

1. What is your all time favourite book or genre and why?
2. Tell me something cool about where you live?
3. Do you have a blogging quirk? I’d love to hear a fun fact about how you read or prepare your own blogs?
4. Have you got any top priorities for 2018?

Thank you Aman for visiting my blog – I hope to continue conversing with you for a long time to come 🙂

Off to a good start

This past Christmas week has been full of the highs of festivities with friends and families but also lows of feeling flat, dealing with children and a lack of motivation/direction. The lows culminated in a head cold which thankfully gave me an excuse to lay low. An excuse also helped me build a fighting spirit and I finished off the week ready to bring in the New Year.

It can be tough when you finally reach the much longed-for break at the end of the year. My husband and I of course struggle with different expectations. I’ve generally already had a few slower weeks and am ready to, or at least wanting to be ready to, start doing some jobs together but he’s only just getting a chance to stop and generally still has a few daily work things that need seeing to.

Today on the first day of the year I’ve been productive and bright and hopeful and just HOORAY! As I always say on the flipside of a rough day or two – the hardest part about is not knowing how long it will last. This blog is an amazing reminder that it does always pass, generally much quicker than it feels.

Although not big on New Years resolutions I still think they have a place – I need something to aim towards, particularly this time of year when I actually have time. Last year I had a lot of goals for this blog which really didn’t come to fruition. I was going to do:

• weekly Gratitude/Positives of the Week Post
• WWW – Wednesday + When are you reading? challenge
• fortnightly issue post
• random regulars
• 2+ weekly posts?!?

I did say it was wishful thinking at the time LOL

This year I’m focusing on personal goals:

• Spend 5 minutes outdoors every day –  I’m hoping it will be 5 deliberate minutes and maybe even involve a bit of mindfulness and fitness too.
• Keep working on my marriage. I made a casual suggestion today at morning tea that we should have a night each week where we discuss the week ahead which wasn’t received well – all suggestions seem to be work to him rather than opportunities. One relationship theory I studied last year by the Gottman’s was called Sound House Relationship – I’m really wanting to work on Building Our Love Maps and Creating Shared Meaning together – the other levels I hope I can strive for myself making a positive impact on my loving man
• House goals – work towards getting a patio built and changing our lounge room carpet/set up (I’d love to take out a wall!)
• Continue my slow journey towards decluttering – I’m happy with my pace and progress. I actually think my Fly Lady routine of ‘a load a day, keeps chaos away’ has changed my life!
• oooh and study I want to start preparing again for that…….especially PRAC (eeek/:D)

Blog wise my brainwave today was to try and learn about my followers. It truly amazes me that 156 people have clicked that follow button. I know it means different things to everyone and I’m nowhere near 156 likes but WoW. I reflected recently that I’m not really a writer but community is super important to me. I think one of things I learnt about myself in 2017 is that I struggle socially out and about but I love reading and feeling connected, even if I can’t manage it all the time!

I’m back to writing down lists to do and feeling positive about 2018. I pray you are too,

God bless.

Dear Lord, give me wisdom and guide me to the choices You want me to make. Amen.

 

 

How to be Happy

I feel like lately  my posts have had a negative vibe. I tend to turn to WordPress and blogging when life is throwing me lemons. It’s my anonymous outlet to share and process. I think that’s healthy, but I also feel it’s a bit dishonest. Just as social media can be guilty of being a disproportionately positive view of our lives, WordPress might be the flip side of that for me.

Last night I finished a truly beautiful book ‘How to be Happy’ by Eva Woods (also published as Something Like Happy), it followed an unlikely friendship on a journey of 100 days of happiness and some truly life-changing experiences. One of things I enjoyed about this book was how it touched on a number of issues without delving into unnecessary depth, they were simply there, part of the story – syrian refugees, gay relationships including an orthodox greek gay christian and cot death. Cancer and death was a large part of the novel and I felt realistically portrayed.

Today I’ve started reading Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night which I’m enjoying particularly the writing style and characters but I’m also a bit sad as Louis and Addie share about their past marriages which left much to be desired. That is a big part of where my marriage is at, much to be desired. With our kids getting older, my mental health a lot more stable and future dreams starting to take shape I’m ready to dig deeper into our relationship and strive for true intimacy. My husband however is still happy with where we are at, maybe too busy with his own work.

I’ve also been reflecting on my desire to write. I’ve had more time since study finished for the year but it’s never reached the top of my ‘to-do’ list. I don’t think I’m much of a writer actually. I like to share my thoughts but the process of writing them down often feels too laborious. I think what I want to share today is not (unfortunately) how to be happy, but that while I love this WordPress community I don’t think I’ll be writing much in the New Year. I’m going to keep reading though! Thank you to people who do follow and connect with me, and to those I follow and (I like to think) know me – I love this journey we are all on.

Merry Christmas – may God bless your celebrations at this time of year.

 

ps This will be my 100th post!

Just saying G’day

Would have really liked to do a post this week but alas the weekend is almost over and I spent my evening watching and reflecting on an awesome Australian Survivor episode :p

Things have been pretty tough in my marriage lately. In lieu of a post I’d like to share this poem from Pleasant Street at Are You Thrilled which really struck and resonated with me:

No man’s land

I set up camp there
when my world is too much
and yours is unreachable
I build my safety net there
even though you never
asked me to

(your claim is full disclosure)

What do I need?
I don’t remember, as I have
learned to do without
this ground
with its rotting and wounded
feels oddly safe

Affection would be nice
after all this time
but I can get myself off
like any other day
and I hear you say ‘no’
not that kind of touch

The touch of lips on a heart
injured and bleeding

(no man left behind?)

 

If you are the praying kind please consider a prayer for my husband and I, and our two beautiful living children, that we can continue living faithfully together as a family.