It’s been a while since we have shared some of our lives with those who share so much with us, so here we are for an update, starting with me, Beej.
The last you probably ‘saw’ of me was my maternity photos with Jade, before the arrival of our wonderful Ellie Grace in May last year. What an adventure it has been! She is now 10 months old, which I think is a brilliant age – eating messy foods, speaking a few ‘words’, pulling her silly face, trying to crawl/climb/walk, throwing the odd hissy fit and learning so much! I could (and would quite happily) share with you the full blown account of how I struggled in the beginning with anxiety, and was one of the fortunate ones to seek help early to be out of the dark by around the 3 month mark, but while we can reflect on the past, I am keen to celebrate the present and the future!
We have made the (100m!) move into the bigger house on the farm, which has been a huge change in space, and a challenge in Internet reception! I have been back on deck with Jade for quite some time now – I enjoy the work, the challenge, the creativity, and the feeling of productivity. I am very blessed to be in the position I am and to in some way share in the beautiful weddings Jade photographs. The thanks received for the job by Jade and clients alike makes it worth it!
I listen to a LOT of ABC kids TV. Giggle and Hoot is Ellie’s favourite, but I’m a fan of Charlie and Lola – maybe because of their accents. I can sing the Timmy Time song to you, and I know the difference between Sarah and Duck (Quack!) and Peg and Cat (‘we’ve got a REALLY big problem!). I definitely like the episodes of Play School when Hugh Sheridan is hosting.
My husband Luke had a knee recon when Ellie was just 6 weeks old – this really sucked for him (phewph for Health Insurance), but lately it has meant I’ve had a guaranteed babysitter for tennis and netball preseason which I’ve really enjoyed because they are my ‘me time’ moments. We have busy weeks at the moment and Ellie is just one baby under one! Juggling working, studying, swimming lessons, mums and bubs gym and coffee, kindergym, cleaning, cleaning cleaning, social life, married life, reading, parenting– the list goes on and on! It can be a trial sometimes, that’s for sure, but we have a lot of fun, deal with the challenges, and sleep (mostly!) well at night. We’ve been blessed with a cheeky, happy and healthy child and we can’t really ask for much more than that.
On a lower note, I attended six funerals in three months last year. Six. It certainly made me appreciate and be outwardly grateful for everything that is good and wonderful in my life (but I still let the verbal appreciation fall to the wayside too often). What I wanted to scream to people each time was – TAKE PHOTOS AND MOVIES – sometimes in these moments, it becomes all we have left. It also made me realise how little we know of our parents pasts, compared to what they knew of theirs. Do we not talk the way people used to, or did we not listen as kids? How do we start to learn?
I’m a slight hypocrite though when it comes to preaching about taking and print photos. I’ve got a tonne of photos on my computer, neatly in folders and backed up to my hardrive, but it’s only this week that I’ve gotten over 200 printed for Ellie’s album, I’ve just hung 3 photos on the wall, and I need to still get her newborn photos blown up – now we are in ‘the big house’ I’ve got so much more wall space to play with! I refuse to be that person that loses all their photos one day on a broken phone, or whose photos are only in the digital realm – I love to flick through an album of photos and there is a lot of joy and many memories in the photos on display in our house.
I’m hanging for a tropical, silver service holiday and seeing the cruise ships in the bay of Port Lincoln only fuels that flame further, but I’m excited about our first family camping trip to the Riverland for Easter this year – keeping up my old traditions and starting the new generation of Easter campers! I’m still fighting that baby bulge, but not very hard (apparently!), and working out how to do it all, and not do too much. Every day I am finding something to be grateful for, even if sometimes that’s sitting down at the end of the night in the silence, everything done, and something good on TV.
I feel like I’ve written an essay and not even told you the half of it (OMG I conquered making cold rolls/has Ellie really grown out of another size?/I can’t believe we’ve raised that much money for a new clubrooms/I gave up on C25K again/I just bought a dishwasher, hooray!), but these days in my house, it’s work tools down at 5pm and time to get tea for a little girl ready (anyone got any ideas??), so that I take the time to unwind from the mental work, maybe read a book or mop the floors (how opposite) and right now, join Luke and Ellie in a giggle fit on the floor. Til next time when it’s nose down bum up – Ciao.
Some cracker snaps by Beej of her gorgeous family…
