Who are you?

Sarah entered a competition at the recent Home Show and yesterday received a pair of 'Rams' slippers - she was so excited. But, the funniest was still to come. Bella didn't know who these two new friends were and was very curious everytime they moved.

Who are you?

Mummy, who are these new friends?

Let's play.

The funniest is that she hasn't bitten them, but keeps pawing at them and sniffing them, they smell of sheep skin of course, so must smell good to her.
Sarah will have to make sure she doesn't leave them lying around.

Wow what a look!

Short and Sassy

You are gorgeous girl!

I love this beautiful daughter of mine - She came alive when her hair was done, stood taller and just glowed.

Door is up

Nearly finished!

Does it fit?

It closes and now we can fill in the top

Stop taking photos and hand me the hammer :)

Looking good.

The door is up and working. Dad and I have framed the top and sometime this week, will go out and get the matching cornice. Today we are doing the face frame/architrave around the door and very soon it will all be done.

My Dad is so clever and amazing, he has never done something like this, but with ingenuity and intelligence he has put the whole thing up. It has been such a wonderful experience, to share in his knowledge and help him.
Thanks Dad.

Paintball fun

Matthew celebrated his 17th birthday with 5 school friends yesterday. It was a great day and the boys came out with the appropriate number of bruises.

Looking cool and collected, ready to do battle.

Hot, sweaty and tired after 3 hours

Just one of many bruises - I think this one is going to be a beauty.

It was three hours of fun in the bush for the boys. I sat quietly and enjoyed reading my book and supplying them with cold drinks between games.

Happy birthday Matthew for tomorrow 29th March.

Priorities and happiness

I am reading an excellent book called 'How we choose to be happy' by Rick Foster & Greg Hicks. It is all about intention and the 8 secrets of happy people. I have realised that one of the reasons I am a happy person is that I have chosen to be happy.

Now along with this, I also have a strong drive to choose my path in life. For the past 2 years I have chosen to attend university - it has brought me satisfaction, pride and fulfillment. From the beginning of this year, it did not bring me happiness. I have been conflicted all year.

The reason: it is conflicting with my priorities in life:

The one thing that makes me happy and has always been my top priority is my family. I have wanted to be a Wife and a Mum for as long as I can remember - it is who I am.

As I have progressed along the path of student, this has been in conflict, especially with the issues that my children have faced over the past 2 years. So I have made a decision:

I am putting my studies on hold. The knot that has sat in my tummy for months now, dissipated - I felt at peace and I smiled. I am going to miss it, I am still grieving for the attention and accolades that I get for being a good student, but . . .

all of these things are external and 'happiness' is internal.

So, I am back to being a full-time Mum, a wife and a housewife.

Sarah is going to home-school full-time with me for this year. I will teach and nurture her and get her back on the path of confidence and success. My home will be a place of pride again and I will be able to have the time to enjoy my marriage, my hobbies and my life . . . and yes my writing (in all its forms).

I am blessed that I can make these choices, but most of all I am blessed that I know what makes me HAPPY.

I feel complete

As many of you have followed the saga of my wedding ring loss - I thought I would share my joy with you.

My beautiful husband, today took me to the shops and bought me a new ring. It is very, very similar to my original ring - perhaps a little wider - but oh so pretty!

I didn't want to wear it from the shop, so we drove to our local church - St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Ipswich and in the grounds, near a beautiful yellow rose - Ivan placed it on my finger. We had hoped to go inside together but, like so many churches nowdays it was all locked up.  So we stood in the drizzling rain, and shared a very private special moment.

I feel complete again. My nails which have all been broken since I lost my ring, will re-grow back and I feel a sense of peace and joy.

Mid-week

Yesterday Ivan and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary - it feels like yesterday and also a lifetime. We took the time out to look back at our wedding album and laughed at how thin we both were - of course the very large glasses also brought a few laughs.

It had been our intention to go out to dinner together, but Ivan's heavy work schedule at the moment, both our tiredness, and a diagnosis from my foot x-ray of a rather nasty 'heel-spur' and 'planter facitis' confirmed that walking around is not a good idea for me. So instead we picked up yummy Thai take-away and shared a lovely evening with our 3 wonderful children. This is what 22 years have done for us - a night at home is much more desirable.

So mid-week, I am planning an afternoon at university today and tomorrow and the usual housework. Life continues as always - even if it is 22 years on - I LOVE IT!

Acceptance

First of all thank you all for your lovely supportive comments about the loss of my wedding ring. Yes, it is unfortunately still lost!

I have accepted that I am not going to find it in the short term, if ever; so need to let it go and move on. I still feel a sense of sadness that something I have treasured for so long has gone missing, but I still have so much to be thankful for.

The first and most important thing is my husband. Twenty-two years ago tomorrow, Ivan and I exchanged wedding vows and became husband and wife.

It was a moment in my life that has brought me more JOY than anyone deserves. I am more in love with this amazing man, than I was 22 years ago and each day that we wake up together, I thank God for him.

Whatever, replaces my wedding ring is going to be a symbol of both our past and the new future that we have together. I have this wonderful feeling that we are on the verge of a new beginning. so many changes are on the horizon, children growing up, my studies, our lives together. So as I faced life 22 years ago as a very young bride, I can now face life as a 'mature-age' woman still in love with an amazing man.



This is Me, wearing my wedding ring, and ruby/diamond ring - that I still have!
15th March, 1989



An Update

My rather dramatic post about the loss of my ring, was an outpouring of the despair and grief that I have felt at its loss. And yes, it is still lost.

It has been a strange experience, to feel so devastated over a material possesion is something strange and new to me. I have always worked on dealing with breakages and losses in a positive and sensible manner. There are few possessions that I hold so dear, rather they are memories and experiences and people that enrich my life.

But, my ring was the symbol of the success, joy, love and longevity of my marriage. My beautiful husband Ivan, is and has been the love of my life for over 22 years. He came into my life at a time, when I no longer believed in myself and through him I have grown into a person I like and am proud of. He is my anchor, my shield and my partner.

So thank goodness it is not losing him, but just the ring.

Four days after my initial realisation, I still can't find it, so am thinking that for now it has gone to another place. Is there a lesson for me to learn from all of this, I think there is. To be grateful for all the wonderful things that I have and most importantly to recognise the amazing love that surrounds me.

I lost it!

Loss and how it affects us all, is something very much on my mind at the moment.

I have 'lost' my wedding ring :( I am totally devastated about this. In fact I have fallen into a state of despair similar to the loss I experienced at my first miscarriage. I know this sounds so dramatic for a small, little ring of gold metal, but I feel as though a significant part of me is missing; and like the loss of my first baby - I keep thinking of all the things that I could have and should have done.

These feelings are exacerbated by the thoughts that it is not lost, but just misplaced and if I look hard enough I will find it.  I first noticed it missing on Wednesday as I was about to leave for University and delayed my departure by 30 minutes to search. My search continued on Wed night for hours, it kept me awake all Wed night and took up all my thoughts yesterday.

My wedding ring is one of, if not the most precious possession I own. I realise that it is not my husband, it is not our love, but it is my ring. Next week we will celebrate 22 years of marriage and for the first time - I will not have my ring on my finger. I do not know how to deal with this overwhelming sense of loss.

So as I spend the weekend, having 'another' look for my ring - I will face the fact that I may have lost something very special to me. Isn't it strange to think that the loss, of the ring that I have worn everyday for 22 years, that I have almost taken for granted as it is such a part of me, would affect me so. But it has.

Celebrating a birthday

As you will have seen on my previous post we celebrated Sarah's 13th birthday yesterday.
In the morning we had a cooked breakfast.

With her gifts this year we had a surprise for her, tickets to the theatre production of 'WICKED' - I had bought the tickets back in November and kept is a secret all this time. She was thrilled, so we all dressed up and headed out for an afternoon show - which was amazing.



Tickets for Wicked!

 It is the first time we have all been to the theatre together and I had managed to get great seats. Elizabeth and I had seen the show in London, but we both thought that this production was in many ways better. Especially the voice of the 'Wicked Witch'.

We then went and had a lovely dinner together finishing off a special birthday.

Happy 13th Birthday

Welcome to the world of the Teenager - my beautiful Sarah

Wearing the Necklace Elizabeth gave you

Look at that figure - Dad where is the shotgun?

I hope you have a fantastic day and an amazing year.

New Blog

I have created another Blog - yes another one.

This one is for university and my course on 'The History of Western Magic' - it is called MagicAngel and will have posts on my studies - weekly/daily reflections about my learning in this subject.

As part of our assessment we have to produce a 1000 word essay on the personal nature of our 'education' through the semester. Now Rick my amazing lecturer is open to learning rather than education and when I ran the idea by him of keeping a journal or a blog - his words were 'go for it'.

How cool is that?

So MagicAngel will reflect my thoughts about my course - please feel free to come along for a Sticky-beak and comment - maybel we can all learn together.

New Courses

Day Two and I am excited - I have completed my first week of the semester.

Gothic literature yesterday was FANTASTIC - our lecturer is cool, so funny and interesting, going to be great, especially as I have read 90% of the books already; so will have time for the supplementary reading.

Today was 'History of Western Magic' - I remembered why I love studies in Religion - it is intoxicating, especially something as different as this and to do it academically is FANTASTIC. 

I am inspired and back in the swing of things already - so here goes the ironing, washing, cleaning, cooking, and all other mundane things in life - I am a student again. Will fit those in when I get time.

A new blog to follow

My wonderful friend Julie (from Canada - who I met in Australia and knew in Salt Lake City) has started a Blog.

It is called International Departures and if you want to read something completely different, inspirational and interesting I highly recommend you add her to your Blog list.

Julie and her lovely husband Chelvan are part of the international mining community (which we belong to). We met in Melbourne nearly 13 years ago when Chelvan joined Ivan working for Rio Tinto - we developed a wonderful friendship and when they left for the USA - Salt Lake City we were invited to join them on secondment.

It was the most amazing 3 years - together Julie and I had so much fun. She taught me to be independent, to embrace confidence and to live life to the full. 

Julie is an incredible human being, who I am honoured to call a friend.

Her recent sojourn has taken her to Outer Mongolia and with her new Blog I know she will share some amazing photographs, experiences and writings. 

Julie, so glad you are blogging, can't wait to read the posts.

Hugs
Beverly

A gift to inspire

Mom gave me this lovely book today - it is filled with inspirational notes from writers to writers.

I will be quoting extensively from this over the next few weeks and months on my blog VestaLife if you want to follow along.
Hopefully, with these words we can all be inspired to do the one thing that writer's are supposed to do - and that is to write.