Phew ... Just made it!!

And by it, I mean I have just managed to write a post for February. I know! I am slack. This is what happens when I bragged about how good I was at posting last time.

I have a couple of things to add to my "List Of Things That Just Make Me Happy". Gel pens - they are just fun and pretty and they are nice and smooth to write with (actually having some where they are supposed to be rather then being stolen by my daughters would also make me happy but let's not go there!). Fireworks - we went on Australia Day. I have no real reason for this one. I just think they are fun! Birthdays - I have no problems getting older and I had the most perfect birthday weekend for my 30th!!

I am also happy to report I have made two new salads. I was given a salad cookbook, servers and a salad bowl for my birthday. They were a present from friends I had shared my NY resolution with. The bonus is because they were a present, I made sure I used them (and twice in less then two weeks too). So far I have made a waldorf salad (by request of the ex - who was a little impressed when I actually did it. It is it too childish to laugh at him?!) and a watermelon, watercress and fetta salad (I am also proud of myself for thinking to do this when I realised I had a watermelon I needed to use).

PS I am super proud of myself for working out how to add photos to this! Oh have I mentioned I am technologically challenged as well as domestically challenged??? The Honey Joys in the pic are from my birthday. The girls and I added them in honour of a friend who was interstate on the day! I did manage to burn myself while making them but they were yummy!

Things That Just Make Me Happy

I think "Catherine is adding X to the list of things that just make her happy" is one of my favourite facebook status updates, regardless of the fact that I don't actually have a written list! Or even a consistent mental list.

So this is me at least starting some sort of written record of things that make me happy enough to want to write about them!!

Outdoor cinemas I have decided is the first one of these! I have been twice in the last couple of weeks and they are so much fun. Affordable when you are taking three kids (less then $50 for all four of us and that is including buying chicken and chips for dinner). The one I have been to also donates all profits to charities (so I can feel good about that too). We've taken dinner, caught up with friends before the movie has started then all cuddled up under a rug to enjoy a movie. That's right even in the heat we have been having it is still cool enough in the evenings to do that when you are right by the river. My only complaint is that I forgot the mosquito repeallant last night and that Aimee is the wiggliest person EVER!!! Other side benefit is I have got some really nice photos as a way of killing time before the movie has started.

PS I have just realised my last post was actually on New Years Day and I have decided I am fairly impressed with myself for that one!

New Year, New Decade, New Beginnings

Oh ... and yes ... recycled resolutions! Yes I am going to "reuse" mine from last year. I like them and I think they are still things I would like to do. However to list I am adding working out to use this blog properly (including adding pictures!) and working out how to use the WiiFit ... oh and the Wii in general!! The entourage was excited about New Years resolutions, in particular Erin. You will be pleased to know my "public" resolutions have passed approval. I strongly suggested that Reanna and Erin made their resolution to stop fighting! And that Aimee start sleeping in her own bed. My suggestions were not necessarily met with great enthusiasm but you can not blame a girl (or a mummy!) for trying.

I am excited though! Only six weeks until I turn thirty and it is a new decade. I am ready to take the challenge, to grow and to see what happens. Well I hope I am as it is clearly going to happen regardless.

My challenge for 2010, and one of the reasons I first decided to blog ... this one will have to wait until next time!

Resolutions

Well, the Christmas countdown has begun and naturally after Christmas comes the New Year and of course New Year's Resolutions (NYR). For 2009 I was determined to make resolutions that were realistic and something that was actually achievable. I decided I was going to learn to make interesting salads and to start sending cards to people at random times. My rationale? Salads - basically I just likes salads and I like entertaining but I really only know how to make the usual type ones. Cards - I have a few wonderful friends who are good at sending cards just to let you know they are thinking of you and it is just such a wonderful thing. Plus I know I suck at sending things out on time, but thinking-of-you cards are for any time.

How did I go? It was a big FAIL for me!!! I have not done either. The ironic thing is though is that I have actually achieved so many of the "big" goals that people often do actually set as their NYR. I have lost a size and a half clothes wise (due to stress more then anything but that is not the point). I have done so much around the house it is unbelievable and I am really getting to a point where I am happy the house could actually be classified as 'organised' (please note, not there yet but getting there). I have finished an award I have been working on for 7 years including actually going on stage (huge thing for me). Finally, thanks to this blog I have begun writing more, and I am really enjoying it and begin to write more creatively as well.

So while on the surface, my NYR are a 'not achieved', but has the year been successful? I would say yes! New things tried, goals reached. The final bonus? I really like my NYR from last year, so I think I will recycle them for 2010!!

One final thing, since my last post I posted a facebook status noting I had had dinner with my family three times in a week. Yes I did mean my parents and sisters etc, and yes I did have to explain to people I did not actually mean dinner with just my girls! Oops!

Family Ties

People are often defined by their relationships. Whether it is by themselves or by others .... whether or not it is their choice. How often do you read in the paper "mother of two" as a description of someone? Or "local grandfather"? Or words to that effect. Relationships with others are part of what makes us people.

It was my mother's birthday the other day and so we all went out for dinner. It made me think. Despite the fact I have lived out of home for more then ten years, been married twice and have three children if someone asks me who is in my family I still list my parents, all my siblings, my children and my niece and nephew. In my head "extended family" includes my in-laws and cousins and people like that and my children are too closely a part of me that I don't need a separate term to define how they belong to me.

Similarly the term "mother" I find hard to place. I have never once put "mother" or "domestic duties" as my employment. I have always been a "student" or been in paid employment as well. This is not to say that being a mother is not the hardest job there is! Please don't get me wrong .. but for me it has never been my "job". I just don't think of it the same way I do as my paid employment or the various volunteer roles I have done.

I have been asked recently but a 16 year old friend what it is like to be a mum. Do you think I could answer? Instead I stared blankly. A girl a met at uni this semester found out I had school aged daughters was genuinely excited that it meant I got to do things like make school lunches. One comment that has always stuck in my head was at a party and someone saying to me it was good I could talk about things other then my kids because so many parents couldn't (don't get me wrong ... I still talk about them a LOT). I studied the full time through my first two pregnancies and part time through my third and over the years have spent so much time justifying my decision to work or to have kids to different people depending on what they thought I should be doing with my life ... or what they thought a "good" mum should be. I've done the juggling act and made changes as our needs have changed - mine and theirs - and most definitely had my fair share of guilt about the choices I have made. My babies are the centre of my universe, but I am not ashamed that they are not my entire universe. I am a mum, but I am also a friend, a sister, a daughter, a student. I work, I go out, I make choices, I make mistakes .... and finally, in the last few weeks I think I have come to a definition of what being 'mum' is to me .... for me (and this may not be the best definition for everyone) but for me being a mother is not my career, it is not my 'label' .... I would consider it more of a lifestyle choice .... and from now on I think that is what I will tell people... if nothing else it might help them think about what their concept of a being a mother (or indeed a parent) is .... and did I mention I wouldn't have my life any other way??

Now ... I have no intention of spending all my time writing about various relationships ... but if this is about me writing about me and my life it sort of becomes relevent by default. That said I promise I will write about something more interesting next time .....

It's All About Me

Defining yourself in a few easy words to people who may not know you is hard. Defining yourself when people do know you is perhaps even harder. Those are the people who know you and think they know how you view yourself ... and the question then is do you want to change that perception? My 'problem' with this is simply that with a blog I have realised I am writing to an unknown audience and this is one of the reasons I have procrastinated for so long about doing this. (Although in all fairness not the only reason! Mostly just procrastination for the sake of procrastination).

So why now? I have been meaning to do this for ages and decided now is the time. I went and saw the movie Julie and Julia (apologies if that is the wrong name!) and when everyone else left wanting to cook ... I left wanting to finally start a blog. Clearly I do not have a domestic side!

I am almost 30 and excited about this next milestone in my life. It seems to be a new beginning, the beginning of the next stage of my life which is full of opportunites and I am excited to see what is waiting for me around the corner. I am doing the single-parent thing for a second time and so very, very proud of my three beautiful daughters, studying a course I love, working a job I enjoy and am (mostly) at a stage of my life I am happy with.

My own little universe centres around my girls. They are the centre of it. Not my whole universe, and I am not ashamed to say that, but most definately the centre ... but my feelings on this one can wait until next time ......