A few weekends ago, I was invited to a designer warehouse sale. Most times I would have ummed and ahhed about whether or not to go. Especially since I was trying to save money.

But I love unique shopping experiences! And this event caught my eye - the proceeds were going to a charity organisation, The Breast Cancer Foundation of WA.

The event was massive! The place was completely packed. There were so many people, and the queues stretched from one end of the hall to the other. The selection of clothes from WA designers were all really, really impressive too. I couldn’t believe how much stuff there was.

The woman behind the event was Alison Cotton. A West Australian fashion designer, creator of the gorgeous fashion label, Joveeba.

On the day of the event, I was quite surprised to discover that the “staff” working in the hall were actually Alison’s friends and family members. They handled hundreds of garments, sorted, tagged, boxed, transported, sorted, hung them all, stood behind the counter, worked the sales floor. It was a huge job. All done by unpaid volunteers.

And she organised it all by herself!

Here was someone who was courageous enough to do something a little different, driven enough to inspire the people around her to contribute to a cause, and motivated enough to do something significant.

I was truly inspired by her.

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The other day I drove the kids to my mother’s place for a swim. Upon arrival, I discovered that I completely forgot to bring the swimming clothes bag that I had packed. Ugh.

Not to worry. I have a bag of spare clothes for the boys that I leave at my parent’s house… so the boys can swim in their t-shirts and underpants.

But what about me? I sheepishly asked my mother if I could borrow her swimsuit.

Now. My swimsuit is a plain, black, two-piece. I admit it is BORING.

But. It is made from industrial strength, chlorine resistant, lined material, with an SPF rating of 50+. It cost me something like $150 and it has lasted 6 years of swimming with children in icky, super-chlorinated, public swimming pools.

It has not faded, stretched, nor is it saggy in the butt! It’s boring, but it’s functional. And it has saved me money, time and effort every summer (that I would have wasted on looking for a new swimsuit).

My mother’s swimsuit turned out to be a blue hibiscus monstrosity. Like a Hawaiian clown threw up on it. Like the manufacturers ran out of swimsuit material, and used some hideous 1960s curtains instead.

I put it on and I instantly felt like a 50 year old woman. (Not to insult my mother, for she is 60 with an excellent figure for her age.)

My sons baulked. It didn’t help that they kept saying, “Hee hee! You don’t look like mummy! You look like grandma!”

But the final stroke was when they said, “You should just stick to your boring black swimsuit mum.”

So after I deliver my third baby. I swear I’m going out to buy a hot-looking, coloured swimsuit, and my sons can eat my shorts.

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It’s funny how you desire things you can’t have RIGHT NOW.

I’m a third of the way through my pregnancy! My belly is growing day by day! And I’m seriously hankering for a new swimsuit!

Here’s me eyeing some super-cute, yummy pieces from Seafolly.

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My 5.5year old son did a painting at school. The teachers framed it up and he gave it to me for Christmas.

My heart stopped when I saw it. It was titled “My Family”. Goodness, it was so cute.

It just glowed with that beautiful innocence and plain acceptance, that can only come from a child’s heart – we’re having a baby, and it’s going to be part of our family.

After a few minutes of gushing, my husband teased him – “Hey Callum, what’s that on the ground? Is that a dog? We don’t have a dog!”

“IT’S THE NEW BABY SILLY!” he retorted.

I asked my son why the new baby was wearing RED.

He told me that RED was a boy or a girl colour. And that he’s happy to change the colour when we find out the baby’s gender.

Things are pretty much the same with my younger 3.5yo son. He drew this picture of me, wearing a spotted dress, with a baby in my tummy.

I asked him what happened to my hair. Apparently I have it tied up in a ponytail, so we can’t see it.

My son will talk excitedly about all the stuff he’s going to teach the new baby. How cool and fun it’ll be. How the two big boys will have to talk in baby language so the baby can understand them.

I love it that my kids are so excited about our new life with a new baby. A party of five. I can’t wait!

…
Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3.

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I don’t think I’m a naturally disciplined and focused person.

I’m more of a “all over the place person”. I have so many interests and passions, that I often find myself losing focus.

I get easily distracted by problems and projects. I get side-tracked by interesting projects that pop up. Or I have little flits of inspiration that take up large amounts of time.

I think if I didn’t practice any self-discipline, I’d find myself 5 years down the track, thinking, “Huh? Where’d my life go? What did I do with my time?”

So I believe in setting personal and life goals.

Throughout 2008, I’ve made it a point to reflect and work on them every month. And I must say, I’ve found it to be very fulfilling and rewarding.

My goals for the new year are [still] very simple.

Take care of myself. Eat well. Live well. Exercise. Have time for myself. Balance my activities. Manage my stress and anxiety.

Take care of my marriage. Love my husband. Make time for him. Talk. Laugh. Be honest. Men need affection, consideration and alone time too.

Take care of my children. Have alone time with each of my kids. Talk to them. Listen to them. Enjoy them. Create happy experiences for them.

Be part of my community. Make time for friends. Give my time to helping others. Organise gatherings.

I do have a few more ambitious goals. But these take second place to the ones mentioned above.

1) Deliver my third baby naturally, and recover a life of normality in a timely manner!

2) Develop and dedicate a bit more time and energy to this blog. Hopefully it will become my part time job soon!

3) Run in a marathon of some sort.

4) Learn how to play the piano.

5) Learn to speak Chinese.

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The other evening I happened to watch a 5 minute special news feature – a video compilation of people and events that defined 2008.

There were earth quakes in China. Bombings in India. War in the Middle East. Terror. Floods. Famine. Disease. Financial Crisis.

Then there was the Olympics in Beijing. Reconciliation for Indigenous Australians. Presidential election in America. And so much more.

I must admit, I was moved. By it all. The good and the bad.

I was struck by a phenomenal amount of sadness. Yet I was filled with a deep sense of hope. 2008 has been quite a year for the world. For everyone. For me.

My heart goes out to all my readers. May you find hope and happiness, in this new year.

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My 3.5yo son can now ride a bike without training wheels! He’s been riding a bike with trainner wheels for about a year before now. But now, he can balance it as well!

We didn’t really pushed the idea on him. We just waited until he showed some interest, and asked to ride “the wobbly bike” by himself. He did so well on his first go! Yeeps, I’m gushing with pride!

On reflection, as a parent, I actually believe these experiences are better the second time around.

Of course, his big brother did the same thing 2 years earlier. And of course I was gushing with pride then. But I distinctly remember being completely intoxicated and floored by the whole NEW-ness and FIRST-ness of the event. I was bubbling over with excitement and terror.

And after you’ve experience that feeling, I guess, there’s always that little speck of fear that these kind of childhood milestones might lose their charm after you’ve seen it once.

This time, with my second child, my perspective was much different.

This time, I was struck by how this achievement made my son feel. I saw how excited, confident and proud HE was.

The fact that he had done this “big boy thing” made him glow with inner strength. He knew he had conquered something difficult… and man, it made him feel good.

The joy was all over his face and it just made me fall in love with him all over again.

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I’ve got a serious case of baby brain.

I’ve been doing the STUPIDEST things. I’ve left my credit card with cashiers. Put my keys in the wrong places. Done, and said the dumbest things.

Sometimes when I’m talking to someone, my brain will have a hard time processing the conversation. I can feel it chugging along slowly, stopping, restarting, then push along again. Slowly.

Sometimes I will think of a question, begin to ask it, then realise that I have forgotten my question… so I fumble around with my sentence trying to recover it. Only to then admit that I’ve lost my train of thought. It’s very embarrassing.

But the most problematic setback I’ve found, so far, is being unable to multi-task.

Usually I can juggle at least 4 jobs at once.

I can turn on the washing machine… then while the machine fills up, I can start baking a batch of cookies. On my way back to the laundry, I can defrost dinner from the freezer, throw the rubbish out, swing past my son’s room to help him with something, cut the cookies, throw them into the oven, wipe down the kitchen bench top and dinner table, turn on the sprinklers, hang up the washing, turn off the sprinklers.. etc etc etc.

But with BABY BRAIN… I have to do ONE THING AT A TIME.

I can’t cope with anything more. One task. Then another.

It’s so inefficient. Now I know how it feels to be a man!

If I try to tackle anything more, I’ll mix everything up, and I’ll end up slumped on the floor crying at my own stupidity – like putting a plastic bowl in a hot oven, or pouring fabric softener in the cake mix.

I am absolutely frustrated with myself!

WHERE ARE MY BRAIN CELLS??

…
Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3.

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I remember being a kid during Christmas time. The weather used to be BAKING HOT. All we wanted to do was pour iced drinks on our heads and jump into the pool to cool down.

We hung around in our bathers and bikinis all day!

This year, the Christmas weather has not been so ferocious. It’s been hanging at a GORGEOUS 28-29C. So it allowed for a bit more formal attire during the Christmas festivities.

I thought I’d wear my red dress and silver shoes again. Coincidently, my two good girlfriends turned up wearing almost exactly the same thing! We thought it was quite cute.

On the more casual side of things…

This is me on Boxing Day, in my festive, spotty green, baby bump.

This year, I thought I’d create a new tradition:

The Boxing Day Left-Over Party!

I invited a bunch of friends, with their kids, to bring all their left-over turkey, ham, seafood, salads, shortbread and chocolates for lunch.

We had a play in the garden with bubbles, bikes, scooters, sand pit, water, balls, and totem tennis!

The kids had such a great time.

I was planning to whip out the paddle pool, but the wind suddenly picked up, and everyone got hungry.

Basically, everyone hung around for hours, with no actual agenda, just lazily lounging around, chatting, talking, playing and assembling Christmas presents.

It worked out really well in the end, I was really pleased.

We still had so much food left over!

(We had to have ham pizza for dinner.)

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This Christmas, I’m feeling as happy and content as I’ve ever felt in my life. I’m not sure what it is. I’m just so relaxed and quietly satisfied about everything.

The last few days, we have been visiting zillions of friends and family, and I feel truly blessed to know all these people, and be part of their lives somehow.

We had my side of the family come over for Christmas Eve dinner. There were 7 adults and 4 little kids. We ate a delicious meal, and there was much merriment over presents and dessert.

On Christmas morning, we went to church. More food, more presents, and more chatter and merriment. We zipped home for a nap.

Then we were off again to dinner with my husband’s family – where there was even more delicious food, more presents, a Christmas pinata, and more family merriment.

Amongst the craziness, there was a moment where I sat back in bewilderment.

I looked back at all my other Christmases… where, sure, the format has been pretty much the same. There were the same people, the same frills, same events, same busy activities, same food and same indulgence… so what made this Christmas so special? Why was I glowing with happiness?

Perhaps I remembered that all these Christmas festivities are not meant to be SPECIAL in themselves.

The special-ness came from within.

And everyday gives us the opportunity to look for this special-ness, and then choose happiness.

…

So here’s me, wishing you all a wonderful time with friends and family.

I really hope everyone manages to find a moment this Christmas to sit back and discover happiness all over again.

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