Loving *Lots* of Stuff

"I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is" .... linking in with the lovely Paisley Jade with things I am loving this week. Actually because I missed last week's link I am loving lots of stuff this week because I have been adding to this post for a fortnight now!



Tacos: We are living on them at the moment! Seriously, minimum of once a week and now I have worked out there are chicken kits as well often twice a week! They are easy, the girls eat a tonne of salad with them, I can make a lot of it in advance so they only take five minutes to get ready and with the Vegetarian One (aka Aimee) it is easy to do an option for her too!
2 minute  noodles: I haven't had these in forever and suddenly I have rediscovered them. Yummy and easy (are you sensing a theme). Although I would like to know if anyone actually adds in the vegetable sachets?
Mobility: After spending so much time lying with my sore back I am massively appreciating being able to move.

Walking barefoot through the grass: Because this is just awesome. And it is perfect weather for it now the ground is not so hot after you walk off the path. I do love Autumn.

My nieces and nephews: Did I tell you I am getting another one? My sister has fostered a second little boy. He arrives today :) They live too far away for me to see him, but this is not the point! I am so excited about this!

Rainbows and leprechauns and other green stuff for St Patrick's Day: Enough said!

Any random celebration: Pi Day! St Patrick's Day! Harmony Day! Celebrations are awesome! Not only are they fun, they are great ways to discuss different things with the girls. And eat and drink nice stuff. ie lemon meringue pie for Pi day, Irish cider for St Patrick's Day (obviously not the girls!) and the girls had all sorts of international stuff at school for Harmony Day!

Googling random things that I could study if I won lotto and could spend the rest of my life learning things instead of working: So I might have issues, but this is what I would do!

What are you loving this week? Click here to join in!

Did you miss me?

I was sort of wondering how I managed to go for almost a week without posting. Then I thought about it! It has been a little busy. Nothing bad. Nothing amazingly exciting. Just life. And nothing seemed to jump out at me at as a post. So if you are interested in reading about our adventures in the past week, please keep reading. If not, please pop back soon!

Work has been busy. Nice busy, not horrible busy. The girls have had their usual dance/Guides/soccer/school life. One slight change was Reanna swapping from contemporary ballet to classical ballet. This has meant she has gone back to Guides and Aimee and have a dedicated 'study' night at Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King). She is very excited about this. It is super cute. It saves me about an forty minutes of driving so definitely is working well so far.

Awful, awful photo of me. You can see how tired I am, but you can also see how excited Aimee is about our 'study group'.

I took Erin and Aimee to the beach and we saw the 'Sculptures by the Sea' exhibition. It was great! The girls absolutely loved it! Massive sculptures (I think there were between 60 and 70) all down one of Perth's beautiful beaches. Erin took so many photos. 

I even squeezed a night out in there. I think the last time I went out for St Patrick's day was when Aimee was about two and I definitely made the most of this night. I would like to complain about being asked for ID though. Seriously, I am 32. And it wasn't like they were asking everyone! Maybe I just looked a little too excited? Hmm ... maybe I should work on this?

Check out the proof of my big night out! This is your warning about halter necks ladies. Well least those of you who are well endowed. Was it worth it though? Yes! The top looked awesome!  And don't worry, the girls wore green and had their own celebrations during the day and had a fabulous night with my parents and various sisters.

Massive excitement of the week has been one of my closest friends graduating uni! Exciting on so many levels. I am excited for her. I am excited because it means the end is in sight for me. I am also very excited because it has meant she has been visiting Perth for her graduation ceremony!

Um ... what else? It has been study week at uni so no classes (yay! Please do not ask how much study I have done. I have caught up on some housework though. This counts right?). My back is finally better I think. 

I missed you all despite my slackness and I am very much looking forward to catching up on a week's worth of other peoples' lives! Happy Hump day everyone and enjoy the rest of your week :)

Science v Art

Today's post is dedicated to International Pi Day. The one day of the year I embrace my Mathsy genes (and my love of pie).

Yes I am pretty sure I have Maths genes and I am pretty sure in my case they are very well hidden. My Mum's official title is "Post Graduate Research Fellow". In actual terms she does statistics for some medical research. It is what she did her PhD thesis on, but that is all I can tell you about it. I do actually own a copy of her thesis and it sits very proudly on my bookshelf, but in all honestly the only bit I understand is the dedication (which I helped write) and the acknowledgments which from memory I proofed. Dad lectures in Maths at uni and has a partially written PhD  floating around (I really have no idea what his is on). Sister #2 (who is three years younger then me) just finished her Maths degree. Mum and Dad were mature aged students so I feel there is some excuse for them, but I am not so sure about my sister! It is bit odd being in a family where being half way through a law degree is a bit of a let down ;)**

Law, I feel, is one of those subject areas which clearly divides those who are science students at heart compared to those who are arts students at heart. You can pretty much tell this, but which subjects they like. Hard and fast statue based classes = science. Lots of discretion = arts. Just in my humble opinion, but it really seems to be the way it works. This is backed up by (a) what they are doing in their other degree; or (b) what they did in their first degree; or (c) what their favourite subjects were at high school; or (d) all of the above.

In high school my TEE (tertiary entry subjects) were a fifty-fifty split. But the subjects I aced were History and English Literature. The double Maths was mostly because my parents assured me they would be easy marks (see how naive I was?!). It wasn't, just for the record.

To this day I still don't know what fish breathe out and why (in my head it should be Hydrogen and I can't work out why not? This has been confusing me for seventeen years now). And don't ever get me started on imaginary numbers (I know they are the square root of negative one but I am sorry you just can't make up something to make things work I don't care often Mum assures me you can). Admittedly this is probably more proof that I need to get a life then anything else!!!

But in my home we like to celebrate all sorts of things! And I do like to prove to my parents I am expanding my children to all sorts of things not just artsy stuff***.  So Happy International Pi Day everyone!!!

Our International Pi Day dinner. Homemade (aka heated) with love! We did also discuss 'Pi' as opposed to 'Pie'.



** Just in case anyone is worried about my self-esteem, this is a joke! They are all very proud of me.
*** Not that they are against artsy stuff. They are the ones who taught me to love reading and history!

Two days, two traditions

Yesterday, as I am sure everyone is aware was Shrove Tuesday. Our own family tradition of hotcakes at McDonald's was enthusiastically exchanged this year for pancakes at home. Monday night was the girls night to spend with their dad but he very kindly brought them home for breakfast and he cooked the pancakes! He isn't too keen on McDonald's hotcakes.

(I just managed to sneak a quick picture in before he started eating)

The chocolate icecream is particularly significant as I give up chocolate for Lent. I did enjoy finishing off all the chocolate in the house though. We all spent some time discussing the reason for abstaining from something for the lead up to Easter and what things the girls might like to give up if they wanted to join me this year. I don't think there were any firm conclusions.

I love traditions and I love celebrations. I love that the girls love them as much as me!

Today is Thinking Day. Girl Guides and Girl Scouts all over the world remember their sisters and take the time to reflect on what Guiding has done for them. I take the time to remember how lucky I am that hundreds of volunteers have made it possible for me  to have experienced 24 years of fun, friendship, adventure and challenges ... and how lucky I am to have been able to help offer those same experience to hundreds of other girls. Some years the girls have worn their Guide uniform to school. Or just their Promise the years that hasn't been allowed. I wear either my Promise badge or my World badge to work. It is also a time to reflect on the status of women and children not only in Australia, but around the world and to think about the part we can play in improving it.

Today however we didn't participate in any of our normal Thinking Day traditions. Today we have been at home being spotty. Well, three out of the four of us. That is right, I am spotty too. This is making me a little suspicious about the chicken pox diagnosis as all four of us have had it before and had it badly. But regardless, there is spots and there is itching. Luckily not much of either. So today we are celebrating Thinking Day with a Guiding spirit and trying to make the best out of it! DVD marathons, board games and some extra housework and study time for me! We will be at home for another few days at least.

Oh and we got sundaes from McDonald's to help cheer us up and I did remember to get caramel in place of my usual chocolate ;)

V Day

All the posts have made me laugh today. It has just been one of those times that I am reminded I am a historian. Every time I read 'V day' my first thought is 'VE day' and worse, every time I read 'VD' my first thought is venereal disease. Now I sound like I am totally insane, you need to read my next paragraph (or two if you want the extended version).

Short version: I did my Honours thesis on the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts in England in the late nineteenth century. A lot of the readings used VD as an abbreviation for venereal disease.

Extended version: Why was that my Honours topic? I wanted my History thesis to sound sort of legalish (because my other major was Legal Studies). I  also wanted a particular supervisor who specialised in women's history in Europe. With the benefit of hindsight I should have scratched the legal component! Although I finished (despite Aimee arriving in the middle) and the BA (Hons) does look pretty after my name on the odd occasion I get to use it so I won't regret not thinking of an awesome topic too much.

In other news, I had a truly lovely birthday. The girls made me breakfast in bed. Work got cake for morning tea. One of my friends came around for dinner. And my boss is taking our team out to lunch tomorrow! I have also got non-stop messages all day. Having your birthday on Valentine's Day when you are in a relationship may not have major benefits, but when you are single you are still bombarded with love :)

Hope you have all had a lovely day and have reflected on all the important relationships in life. 'Love' just doesn't mean romance :)

Bittersweet

It is my birthday tomorrow, but this is not the reason for the slightly melancholy title!

Friday night our budgie died. For those of you who regularly read my waffle, you may remember earlier posts I have done about how the pets are not mine. They belong to the girls (and in the budgie's case, the ex, but that is a whole other story). But I am sad. Actually very sad. Sad for the girls who are truly devastated. Sad for their dad who was away at work and the girls were crying so much it took them an hour to be able to talk to him. Sad for me, because I am really going to miss his chattering. I already do. Grief and mourning for the loss of a loved one is an important part of life and I think losing a pet is an important part of growing and learning, but it does not make it a fun lesson. It also scares me about life events that this lesson might be preparing us for.

Saturday night was a celebration for my birthday. This was the fun part of the weekend! I insist on calling it a gathering. I am always too scared to call it a party in case no-one shows up or if people do and it is boring it will make it a bad party. I just feel that calling it a gathering puts a lot less pressure on me! (Paranoid much?!). And just in case you are concerned, people did show up and I had a fabulous night. I feel very loved and very looked after.

I do have a funny Aimee story to share from the weekend to end on a happy note. I had a Board meeting Saturday morning so one of my friends came to babysit. The girls decided to decorate the house while I was out and just as I was leaving Aimee asked could she decorate the balloons. This bit was no problem. However, she was entirely disgruntled with me because my birthday was not for another few days. Apparently this meant she couldn't write "32" or "32nd Birthday" instead she decorated the balloons with the words "32 on Tuesday". Accurate I suppose!

So this is officially my last post at aged 31. Next time I write I will be older and I am keeping my fingers crossed for wiser. Please note, just my fingers crossed, not holding my breath. I am not that optimistic!

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Oi! Oi! Oi!!

For all of you who live overseas, today is Australia Day!! And we have had a fabulous day :)

We stayed at my father-in-law's last night (after a late night dessert of pavlova) so we could get up and go to the Big Aussie Breakfast put on by his local shire. Lots of the shires/councils do them, but he has been a councillor for the last few years so going to support him being a part of the community has turned into a bit of a tradition for us.

Lazy day at home. With it being over 40 degrees Celsius , this seemed like a sensible plan. Then we cooked up hamburgers with patties in the shape of Australia and went to the fireworks. Complete with Australian t-shirts, tattoos and glow sticks of course. It is one of my favourite days of the year. It isn't always the same, but is always filled with catching up with friends and family and is a chance to remember how lucky we are.

So why the mixed feelings?

A very short legal/social history: 26 January is the date that Australia was first claimed as terra nullis, an empty land. A claim which totally ignored the Aboriginal people and which was later found to be invalid by the High Court of Australia (which has impacted on land rights, but that is a whole other story I am not going into here!!)

A lot of Aboriginal people feel Australia Day is really invasion day. I can't say I blame them. There is a lot of bad history about how Aboriginal people were treated once Australia was colonised. Some of which occurred during living people's memories.

This year there has also been media stories about correlations between people who fly the flag on their car and people who are racist. Sensationalist journalism, but of course it has sparked a whole heap of racist and offensive posting on facebook about migrants (and really at the end of the day we were all migrants or convicts originally) and refugees.

So mixed feelings. I have to admit I would celebrate with cleaner conscious if it was on a different day. That said, I use today as a time to talk to my girls about our past. And a day to talk with them about some of the less pleasant aspects. Also of course some of the nicer parts! Why my family came to Australia. Well my mum's side anyway. We don't actually know when or why my dad's side came to Australia. Last year we watched a Citizenship ceremony which I think was a good experience for them.

All this Australiana brings funny moments too. We were singing Australian songs today. One of them, which they all do know, was 'Waltzing Matilda'. The song has some very old Australian words in it which do not come up in everyday conversation. Ok really most of them don't come up in conversation ever and we mustn't have sung it in a while so they asked for a translation of what it all meant. Basically it is about a sheep stealer who jumps into a lake and drowns rather then be arrested. There was a long pause at the end of this. Followed by the next song request!

Clash of the seasons

The Christmas tree and all the decorations were put away today. A little late I know, but I am still sad that they are gone. I try and celebrate Christmas for the entire Christmas church "season" ie the tree goes up on the first Sunday in Advent and goes down on 6 January. Obviously this year it did not happen! But we were a week or two late putting it up so at least we are balanced.

However we went to the shops today and they had hot cross buns. Really? In January? I told the girls no hot cross buns until Lent starts! It isn't Easter yet!! We did buy Australia shaped meat patties though. Australia Day is 26 January so I thought this was a reasonable compromise and luckily Aimee didn't click that there wasn't a vegetarian equivilent and by the time she does I am sure I will be able to do something for her.

And just to prove that I am all for celebrating any given opportunity (as long as they are seasonally appropriate) we had (icecream) spiders tonight in honour of Friday the Thirteenth.