My last blog post was in March and as the kids are grown up and not home much my life has definitely changed and I miss the good old days of afternoon tea at the bench after school, spending weekends with them and hanging around at home making pizza's and watching movies. Life just goes by so fast and I honestly wish I could do it all over again. Although as hard as it is being a single parent, being a stay home Mum to them is my greatest joy and accomplishment.
It's Queensland School Holidays here at the moment and although I don't have kids at school it means my friends are away on holidays and Billy [the dog] would normally come to stay at my place. Having both Billy and my puppy Teddy over Easter for 10 days it was too much for me as Billy is an older dog and chill and Teddy is a puppy and full of energy and so Teddy annoyed Billy a lot and I was up and down sorting them out. It didn't help that they were both inside for 10 days as it rained the whole time. Teddy is just too young at the moment so Billy has gone to stay with a relative this holidays.
I still feel a bit lost, because for the last 20 years I have been Mothering giving me my sense of purpose. Also my photography bought me so much joy photographing our lives so I had the best of both worlds documenting our day to day and my passion for photography. I don't even pick up my camera now which makes me sad and I'm not sure what to photograph that would bring me joy. I haven't worked out my new life so to speak but lately I have been going over lovely simple living blogs and all the things that brought me joy for years. I need to get back into growing veggies and weed my garden this week because picking home grown fresh produce brought me joy and even though the two beds are quite small 1.3m x 1.3m I know I really enjoy it when it's planted out. I'll need to put the nets on both veggie beds otherwise Teddy will get into them.
Both my kids are going overseas on separate holidays to different countries in the next week and I couldn't be more proud of them. I have to say I'm so proud of the way I raised them both and the life skills I taught them about saving, spending, baking, crochet, sewing etc. they are both well rounded amazing kids. When my 20 year old son makes home made Turkish Bread to take to his friends place to have dips with, it brings me joy knowing how skilled they both are. To be honest I don't think any of my friends 20 year sons would be doing that and that's where I see all the "life skills" I taught them shining through.
I hardly ever get sick anymore however for the past week I've had a virus [coughing, sneezing, runny noise] but it's going around and even my sister in Perth had it for the past 2 weeks. I've had it for 8 days now but I'm on the mend. The last time I was sick was with "C" back in June 2022.
On Channel 9 TV there is a 4 part television series called Do you want to live forever. It's a 12 week experiment with 4 sets of people with varying ages and they take them through things like stress levels, sleep, diet, exercise etc and see where they are now and give them a biological age vs their actual age. All the participants were much older than their actual years and the idea is that they will reduce it to get back to their real age. I love watching these type of shows as it's a reminder of your own health. Health is Wealth as without it, nothing else matters. They also go to Japan and explore "IKIGAI" and find out there is over 1000 centenarians living in Okinawa. I wrote about "IKIGAI" in this blog post.
Another series I loved watching on NETFLIX was called "Live to 100 - Secrets of the Blue Zones" it's all about living well into later years not just being alive at 100. It's about being fit and healthy and of sound mind which as we age it becomes very important.
Since I haven't taken any new photos I thought I would randomly post some old pics.
The kids and I at Redcliffe, Queensland.
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Well I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane as much as I did. I think that's what I'll have to do from now on revisit precious memories of the past. Have a good week.
