Grateful for gazing and glimpsing

On my Saturday morning pilgramage to meet Saint Mike and the KATs at the pool, I get to wander through some of the most gorgeous streets in Sydney....today I'm grateful for the glimpses I get to enjoy and the gazing that makes my walk one of the highlights of my week :))

I'll let the images speak for themselves in this post.....

this house is high on the hill and faces directly into the morning sun.........sublime!

I adore the detail of the architecture of this old beauty :)

some more majestic old architecture

how gorgeous is this ironwork!!!

takes almost an hour and then I get to gaze at this!

our home away from home

Thanks Bron for reminding me to be grateful....for more Grateful posts pop over the Maxabella Loves and make some friends :))

Daring doings and audacious acts



This quote from pinterest immediately resonated with me. 

The urgency with which I attempt to quash the panic that rises up like a volcano when I'm in a situation that's out of my comfort zone.  Call this imposter syndrome.  Call it whatever you want.  It is overwhelming and has stood in my way on many occasions.

My objective in 2012 is to challenge myself to be more than I think I can be.  To do this, I'm going to need to be daring.

It will take daring to keep my weight-loss moving in the right direction.  I will need to keep challenging the voice in my head that says I haven't got what it takes.  I will need to accept that the voice will never go away, but I can adjust the volume control!

I will be daring myself to try new things in 2012.  I would like to jump out of a plane.  I would like to learn how to paddle-board.  One of these seems inordinately less confronting that the other....will be interesting to see which one is achieved first!!!!!

It will take daring to make my new status as a freelance copywriter bear fruit.  This will come as a surprise to you guys as I haven't blogged about it (naughty of me...keeping secrets!!!).  

I resigned from my permanent part-time gig as of the end of the school year and intent to pick up contract work from my old employer and hopefully new clients in 2012!!!! 

Why did I do this?  Because my status as permanent part-time just wasn't working for me - I hated not having a choice with respect to when I had to work and where I had to work....and it took daring on my part to be willing to look the permanent part-time 'gift horse' in the mouth and resign. 

So there you go, 2012 will be an interesting year to say the least!!

Sorry if this post is a bit choppy...Santa bought me an iPad for Christmas and I'm still getting the hang of blogger on the darned thing....but I suppose this is another chance to be daring...in the face of technology :)

 

 

Grateful for my First Mate

The truly divine Ms M has launched her bid to conquer the world of Kidspot as of next week....so I am soooooo pleased to do my last Grateful in the hallowed ground that is Maxabella loves :)

For my contribution this week I am once again going to wax lyrical in praise of my very own Captain Von Trapp (AKA Saint Mike). 

Today's post is putting the cart before the horse though because I know that tomorrow I'm going to be blogging about my "word of 2012" along with all the other devoted subjects of Maxabella loves.....so you shall have to click back in 24hours to put today's post into context!!!

I am terribly, utterly and entirely grateful for the support of Saint Mike. 

If I have any hope to make 2012 the year to be daring and audacious I need to know that I have a safe pair of hands on standby for those times when I am sure to stumble.

He was willing to take a risk on me when we met and he continues to take a risk on me and my choices every time he's asked to.  He is a fantastic First Mate on my voyage through life....although I think he secretly considers himself the Captain of our vessel!!

He endures my financial ineptitude, my inability to stick to a budget and the perennial black hole that is my bank account.

He supports me in my numerous dalliances with depression in the last ten years and whilst understanding my desire to withdraw from the world to a certain extent, never allows me to withdraw from "us"....because maintaining that connection and reminding me how important I am to him and to our girls is what has kept me tethered to life at those bleak times.
His unwavering loyalty and confidence in me gives me the freedom to make choices in my life that I may otherwise be unable to even consider.

It is fitting therefore that my first grateful post for 2012 is dedicated to him. 

Thank you my darling husband :) 

Grateful for my staple gun

My staple gun probably outranks my laminator machine as my favourite 'tool' at the moment.

Isn't that sad...I just used the word 'tool' and it's got nothing to do with sex...shows what my life has become!

Originally I had a 'manual' staple gun....but a while ago I upgraded to a whizz bang electric version...boy does that thing pack a punch.  I reckon I could definitely use it in a home invasion if push came to shove!!

In my 'Favourite Things' post a few weeks back I included a shot of my 2nd hand patio setting.  My sister started the ball rolling on the 'what were you thinking' remarks...and when I asked for opinions from Blogland...the never one to be backwards in coming forwards Bron made her derision clear!!!

So, in honour of Bron and the irony that I get to post this as a Grateful Saturday entry...here are the before and after shots....I am no longer interested in feedback....I love the new oilcloth cover and since I stapled away an afternoon recovering the stupid thing, the rest of the world can take it or leave it :))

Patio setting with it's 'original' covering (and fringe) in all it's olive glory!!!!

To save you scrolling to the top...here it is in it's more restful hue of blue and white....

Have a great rest of the weekend :)

Grateful for our neighbors

We've lived in our current house for nearly five years. 

When we moved in, we were new to the suburb and had made the big leap of moving 'over the bridge'...that would be the infamous Spit Bridge.  Famous in Sydney for it's narowness and tendency to be a huge monster of a bottleneck!

Our immediate neighbors on either side of us were quickly befriended...they are both older couples with adult children.  They have been in varying degrees substitute parents, grandparents, friends, helping hands and great BBQ companions over the last five years.

The suburb has also experienced an influx of young families and had a baby-boom in the time we've been in residence so we're fortunate to have met neighbors a bit further afield...over the back fence and to the right type of distance or just around the corner.

I am so grateful to have met so many lovely neighbors and try to catch up with them as frequently as our busy schedule allows.  Last night, one of our neighbors hosted a ladies evening at her place.

She wasn't selling anything, she had no hidden agend...it was just a chance to catch up over a glass of bubbly and copious amounts of wicked chocky and shoot the breeze.

We had a lovely evening and the conversation traversed many and varied topics from books, TV shows (The Slap got a mention of course!), babies, children, schooling, husbands, labour experiences (always a huge hit) and everything else you could imagine we could share.

As I am still rigidly sticking to my Siberian diet my contribution was 'in that spirit' but a little bit wicked nonetheless - Pineapple with bashed mint and caster sugar and Strawberries with balsamic drizzled over them...plus a bowl of yummy blueberries unadorned as they were delicious on their own (and I couldn't think of what to add to them except chocky!!!!)

There are times when I feel incredibly lonely without having my family and friends that live interstate around.  But then I am buoyed by the fantastic neighbors that I am surrounded by and I feel comforted and 'at home'.

So thanks to Maxabella and her Grateful Saturday for forcing me to reflect on something like this that I am truly deeply grateful for :)

grateful to be counting down

Grateful is taking a blogcation over at Jody's at Lemon Rhodes (what a gorgeous blog it is too!)  I'm grateful for the countdown this week.

24hours to go til daddy comes home!!

24hours more of doing it on my own.

How single mothers cope is completely beyond me.  I'm exhausted, completely spent.  The upside is that SM will come home to a wife who is 6.7kgs lighter than when he left!!!!!!

We've missed SM dreadfully and will be so excited to welcome him home tomorrow.  In the meantime it's a quiet morning of TV viewing for the KATs, some computer time for me and then off to the beach to make the most of the sunshine before the clouds descend.

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Grateful for SM as opposed to S&M

Apparently I've been misleading.

According to one of my brothers (hello if you happen to read this!) I've created the impression that I'm not adverse to a bit of titillation in the 'spicing up your marriage' department.

Yes, my brother has been getting a chuckle out of my references to my husband as "SM"....and the fact that in my sidebar I make mention of the fact that this is a "private joke" between him and I!!!!

He actually suggested that I might have adopted this term as a strategy to attract viewers to my blog!!!!

Would that be a first in the world of mummy bloggers?  Toss in a few references to plastic fantastic and fluffy hand-cuffs in the boudoir and see how Googles SEO (search engine optimization) latches onto that!

Clearly I have not reached this point of desperation quite yet :)

Therefore, in the interests of clarification, I shall make it clear (as it obviously wasn't) that my term of endearment for my long suffering husband is SM, that would be upper case 'S' for Saint and upper case 'M' for Mike (there the secret is out).  There is an never has been an ampersand in the middle!!

Saint Mike may one day speak for himself as to why he has been tagged with this name...you can read my post here to give you some idea of why he is deserving, in my opinion of saintly reverence  (when his halo isn't falling down around his neck and strangling him!!!!)

I should also clarify that whilst our nocturnal activities aren't quite as salacious as my brother would like to think, we're QUITE HAPPY THANK YOU and have mastered the art of medicinal sex (that's definitely a post for another time!)

I'm quite pleased with myself for being organized to do this as a Grateful Saturday post. 
Today they're being hosted by Kymie over at A Day in the Life of Us.

Swing on over (okay couldn't help myself) and check out some of the lovely grateful posts here

image from here