• illuminated string light bulbs on campervan
    2024,  family friendly,  family fun,  Things I like,  Things to do

    Wanting the Van Life

    Something has happened to me over the last few years……the long and the short of my story is that I would love to sell up and live the van life. I know that technically we aren’t ready as a family to do that. I think the kids would malfunction in a van, 6 sardines in a van really would not work very well, so its probably not a dream that can even be considered till the kids are off doing their own thing. Nonetheless, I am very much addicted to seeing what is available on Facebook marketplace. I am interested in a Mercedes sprinter van or a cute little boho…

  • white clouds
    2024,  Family

    Change is Inevitable

    So far I am pretty disappointed with 2024…. It’s not the year I hoped for after our chaotic and incredibly crazy 2023. Don’t get me wrong, outside of the fire, we had some amazing moments in 2023, but it was a difficult year for so many reasons, and I have to admit that I was looking forward to the idea of a brand new year as we reached the end of 2023. 2024 had a lovely ring to it. There is something nice in knowing that the incoming ‘new’ year had no marks on it yet, no spoilers, no mistakes, nothing to fear. This thought reminded me of Anne of…

  • glass of champagne and christmas balls
    2024,  24 for 2024,  Family

    The plan for 2024!

    January is a great time of the year to start thinking about 2024, and what I/we would like to achieve this coming year? What relationships do I/we want to strengthen? What habits do we want to let go of? What skills would I like to learn? What areas of our lives would we like to improve, and what things would we like to stop doing in our lives? What I love about this time of year is anything and everything feels and seems possible. January is the month of new beginnings. It’s a good time to look forward and plan for all the amazing possibilities that a new year can…

  • boathouse on end of wooden pier
    2024,  home

    A Glance Back on 2023

    If I were to choose a song that represents the year 2023 for me, I would have to probably start with songs like ‘I’m still standing’ by Elton John, or maybe ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’ by Diana Ross. The song I probably turned on to listen to the most this year is Phil Wickham’s acoustic version of ‘Battle Belongs’. This year I felt that this song brought a sense of calm to the chaos that was happening around me. When I closed my eyes and let the music wash over me, it was evident that despite what was going on in my world, I felt relatively calm. 2023 has…

  • close up photo of monopoly board game
    2023,  family fun,  Sunshine Coast

    It’s Christmas Holidays and there’s no money for Fun….What to do??

    The Christmas holidays are here. I love this time of the year. In fact, I consider it the best time of the year. It’s Summer, the days are longer, the kids are on holidays, and Christmas is just around the corner. It’s a great time of the year. The tree is up and the lights are bringing joy to our lounge room. I’m one of those mums who love school holidays with her kids and want the holidays to linger for as long as possible. This term has been enormous for us with an unexpected graduation dinner for our Beps, and then the year 12 formal and all the trimmings…

  • photography of people graduating
    Family

    Graduation!

    We actually had two Graduations happening in our household this month. I’ll firstly tell you about Beth’s. Bethy was feeling a little blue about the process of her finishing her apprenticeship this time last year. While we as a family celebrated her success of finishing, Bethy felt as though it was a little bit of a let down that there was no real celebration for her or any of the others who were finishing at the same time as she was finishing, but then we got this email in late October to say that on the 1st November, we (anyone who wanted to pay for a ticket) could go and…

  • a woman writing numbers on sand with her hand
    2023

    Oops! My 2023 Goals were Drafted

    Every year I like to do a list of goals for myself, and I will admit that I did do them for this year, but unfortunately for whatever reason, I didn’t press the word ‘publish’ when I finished the post. Instead, I must have saved the draft and hoped I would come back to the post for a final look before I published the post. Well, this is the post. I have edited the post in some ways, but I have left the actual ’23 for 2023′ items alone. I really wish I had of posted this one back in January, but it didn’t happen, but we just have to…

  • beach clouds coast dawn
    Family

    Goodbye, September Holidays!

    I am one of those crazy mums who love school holidays with the kids. I am never in a rush to send kids back to school, so I will admit that I am not that thrilled the school holidays are now officially over. Now the kids are all older, it’s not as easy as it used to be to organise activities with the kids over the holidays – jobs, assessments due after the holidays, external exams looming, and friends to catch up with, means that mum needs to book appointment times now with the kids over the holidays. For the majority of the September break, we had beautiful blue skies…