Around here - July 2024

Around here I've been thinking a lot about simple living and I've mentioned before how my Mothering days are very different now with the kids leading their own lives. They are both overseas at the moment in different countries one in Japan for 2 weeks and the other one in Europe for 3 weeks holiday.  I honestly am so proud of them for being confident to explore different countries and saving for their holidays.

I've been looking through old blog posts and I know that everything I did teaching them to save money, op shopping [they buy new things to but love an op shop bargain] cooking, budgeting, growing veggies etc. this is what shapes young adults.  I've mentioned that my son has been making his own Turkish Bread to have with dips and drinks for a cheap date night.  My daughter is a great cook also, great at sewing, crochet, knitting and they both have a great work ethic.

Here's some old blog posts with cute photos:-

Home made dumplings.

Home Made Vanilla

Planting veggies - 8 years old

Veggie Garden in 2017

Enjoy these old photos below.

Fresh picked sugar snap peas.

Home Grown Sugar Snap Peas.

  Country Fair.

School holiday camping in the family room.

A photo my daughter took for me which we both loved.

We used to walk up to the main road to the one tree that dropped leaves each year to take photos.

She was always busy with her hands.

He was amazing at the Rubik cube even doing it blindfolded by learning algorithms.

Family pic while bush walking.

We loved this Farm Stay at Blackwattle Farm back in 2017.

Hope you all have a great week.

Around Here - June 2024

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.

Yummy Fish & Chips at Doug's at Sandgate, Queensland.

Back in 2011 when we moved into our house planting some flowers.

Sienna found a penny turtle in the local creek and cried all the way home

because I wouldn't let her bring it with us.

Sienna loves insects and she found this big earth worm while we were camping.

Sienna always had insects in her hands.

James after he went over on his handlebars of his bike on the way to school.

James teaching himself guitar.

Sienna learning the flute at school.

James AFL club where the half time entertainment at one of the Brisbane Lions Games at the GABBA.

Sienna loved her loom band making bracelets.

One of my all time favourite iPhone photos taken in the kitchen in our pj's.

Sienna was always crafty so she made herself an indoor fire so she could toast marshmallows.

Always doing handstands.

Our lovely veggie patch with Sienna getting some snow peas.

I took the kids camping to Thunderbird Park years ago.

They did the high ropes while we were there.

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.

Around here

It's March already and the mornings are getting a little cooler here but the days are still hot.  In a few weeks it will be Easter and the weather will be not so humid [fingers crossed].  Not too much has been happening on the home front as the kids are hardly home so it's me and Teddy who right now is still a "toddler".  He is very exhausting because he wants to get into everything so I'm up and down all day long.

My daughter turned 18 a couple of weeks ago and we went out and had a lovely breakfast and took Teddy with us to the cafe.  I can't believe my kids are now 20 and 18 as time goes by so fast. I'm so proud of both of them and it's hard to believe we are here in 2024 and my days of mothering little kids are over [I'm still missing that and not over it] but they are both thriving and doing well.

I bought myself a little printer to print out little iPhone snaps like the old school polaroid's and have been having fun with that.  I bought the kit which came with the printer, cable, 10 Pack of Black Frames and a little photo album.  I also bought a 40 pack of White Frames at the same time as it only comes with enough for 10 prints.  They work out to $1.25 a print so it's expensive so I just print a few favourites at a time.  It's so important to have printed memories as so many of our images are stored on our phones and computers.  My childhood memories are printed photos and you can sit down and pick them up and go through them.  My kids generation is so different, because of technology, they take so many more images than we did however no one really gets to see them beyond the initial show and tell.

I was on the pre-order for Nicole's book from "Simple Home Edit" which arrived two weeks ago and I've already made two recipes from the book.  She has loads of free recipes on her website and some of them are in the book.  She's all about the simple weeknight dinners as a busy Mum.

My sister and I took Teddy to the beach at low tide and it is an off leash beach however he didn't have a name tag [which I promptly ordered] even though he is micro chipped.  This was his first time to the beach so I just used the 5mt lead.  In front of him is hundreds of soldier crabs which run away as soon as you walk towards them. 

Yesterday I made some Fruit Toast which I had for breakfast today and it was very nice.

Around here

Around here we are into the second month of the year, how time flies.  It has been so hot and rainy in Brisbane and my air conditioner has been going around the clock to cope with the humidity.  The humidity has been the worst making it feel a few more degrees hotter than it actually is.

We have no school this year and Uni is about to start in a couple of weeks so getting back into routines for the start of the year feels like February is going to be the new January.

Teddy had his first appointment at the groomers got and he looks so cute and I can now see his eyes after his shaggy hair grew so fast.  He is bringing me great joy and he loves people.

I had some family over for Australia Day and I made a Pavlova which was delicious.  I haven't made one in years so I really enjoyed making and eating it.  Hope you've had a great start to 2024 here's a few pics so far.

Happy New Year 2024

Here we are at the start of a fresh New Year again and 2024 is the first year without any of my kids in school.  They are both young adults and amazing kids, life as a Mum is very different now to ironing uniforms, covering school books and making school lunches.  I find myself alone a lot of the time as they are out working, socializing and living their best lives which is what it's all about.  Raising them to be independent confident young people and I have 100% done that and am very proud of them.

Teddy my puppy is keeping me very busy and to be honest totally exhausted as I ended up with sciatica which is very painful.  I believe it was caused by the 101 times I was lifting Teddy up out of the fenced in play area bringing him inside and outside etc.  It didn't help having sciatica while I had to get the house ready to host 13 people for Christmas Day however this week is the first week it's been a pain level of about a 2 out of 10 whereas for the past 3.5 weeks it was like a 15 out of 10.  Health is wealth and this year it's the one thing I'm going to be focusing on to get fit and healthy.  Walking Teddy twice a day will be a great start.  Today he is going to the groomers for the first time so he will look very weird as his hair is very long at the moment and he'll look a lot smaller without being a ball of fluff.

The other day I watched "Bitconned" based on a true story of 3 guys [but Ray Trapani is the main guy]who wanted to be a career criminal and set up a company to provide a Visa Card that used Bitcoins. OMG it's crazy to think how long they got away with it.

"Bitconned" a 2023 Netflix documentary, delves into the captivating and scandalous world of cryptocurrency fraud, primarily focusing on the rise and fall of Centra Tech.

Here's a few photos of the beautiful sunset the other night.