BFF

Move over Mum and Dad - Miss Moo has a new BFF....in the furry kind....and perhaps the most loyal kind too. 

We are not too sure whether poor little Milly was quite aware of what she was coming into....but she is being loved by our little Macie.....I mean really really loved! 

With the endless cuddles, kisses and giggles - Milly is unconsciously teaching Macie some really important lessons.  Things like "Be Kind'....."Be Gentle"...."Share" ....and...."Quiet time - Milly is sleeping". 

They really are such important life lessons.  The kind of lessons that I hope and pray every day that they will be embedded in Macie's personality and she will learn that with being kind, considerate and gentle with her friends - that she will get nothing but loyalty, happiness and friendship in return. 

Needless to say - we are still working on these little lessons - with a few tears, dramatic tantrums and naughty stand-offs....but I know with a bit of reassurance, gentle guidance and love - that it will all just come naturally and it is slowly....with gentle cuddles and careful holding...we will get there. 

As for now....I am just enjoying watching a beautiful friendship between the little darlings.....the two little darlings that I know will be Best.Friends.Forever. 

I Heart Faces - Best Face Photo from May 2011

This is hands-down my favourite picture I have managed to capture of my darling Macie.  The world is her oyster.....and her dreams are just beginning as she looks over the horizon.

Join in on the fun over at I Heart Faces and enter your Face of the Month of May photo!

Instinct.

Instinct is powerful...there are no other words for it....no way of describing it....and I find myself constantly underestimating it's ability to restore my faith in humanity.



Over the past few weeks, while life has been hectic and busy....I have found myself completely stopped in my tracks.  Not by all the awful things happening to people....but more so by the amazing things happening in these situations.  The kind of situations where good comes from bad....and my little glass of Faith is slowly refilled. 

I knew a Mothers Instinct was an imaginable force.....but words really can't describe.  It's the kind of instinct that gives you the power to just 'know'. 
It allows you to just 'know' by watching your child grow, learn and play....that you 'know' them inside out.  That you 'know' when they are near, when they are far....when they are in trouble...or when they are perfectly safe. 

Like when a new mother asks another mother "How do you know all these things - how am I going to remember?".....and the response is always "You will just know".  It's a mother's love combined with a mothers intuition with a double dash of magic.....and there you have it....a strong healthy dose of mother's instinct. 

The very kind of instinct that makes a beautiful young mother wake up from a deep coma on Mothers Day to hold her baby girl for the first time in 8 weeks.....now that is just enough to make my Faith glass overflow. 
Then you have the everyday instinct.....

The instinct to introduce a new member into the family....in the furry kind of way.  Milly has been assigned the job of Moo's protector....and it's my instinct to bring her into our family....all for HER instinct....the very instinct that can detect snakes and protect my family....and be the very best companion for Miss Moo. 

Or the kind of instinct that just tells you to go and spend an hour on the tractor with the husbo.  The smile on Macie's face assures me that she loved that special time with her Daddy and the kisses from the husbo are all worth it. 

And then it's the kind where you just find yourself picking up the phone and calling your loved ones.....just to simply say "I miss you".....and you would be guaranteed to bring a smile to the face on the other end.
It's powerful and it's majestic.....

Never ever underestimate it....and always trust it.....because you will find that it may just refill your glass....and more importantly, restore your faith in humanity. 

plus one

Mother Nature is throwing us some beauties at the moment....the frosty kind of mornings that transform into the warm, toasty, bathe-in-the-sun kinda days.

Macie is throwing some beauties too at the moment....the teething-and-i-feel-miserable kinda mornings and the cuddle-me-forever kinda days.

The kind where one moment it's all sunshine and smiles....and then it's the show-stopper....the performance that even makes me stand up and applaud - so theatrical and dramatic.  No tears - just temper...boy is she cranky at these teeth.  It looks like she is going to get all four eye teeth at once....yay for us.  Not.


But with teeth comes long, snuggy day sleeps where she hits the land of nod and forgets about the troubles her mouth is causing her....and it's where I forget the show-stoppers....100% cleared from my memory.

 
But back to the sunshine....because it's the very sunshine that brings smiles to the cranky one's face.  And it is very thing that gives this Mama the chance to lie on a rug, in the middle of the yard and bathe in it's glory....all while watching Macie play....being her little Miss Independent-self.


It's also the beauty that streams through the dusty and dirty kitchen window and illuminates hidden love messages from the husbo....

 It's an old tradition which started right back when we first said those three little (yet so big) words to each other.  Nearly ten years ago...not long after we met....because we just 'knew'.  It is then when we would compete with how much one loves the other more...more than the universe, more than my spaghetti bol....and Heath would just simply reply...'Plus One'.  Anything that I described....he would love me plus one. 

Even to this day....he still tells me.  With love notes that surprise me when I least expect it.  He really is one of a kind. 


I was recently told the other day that people are amazed with how much ''in" love we are.  They couldn't believe that we could talk about each other with such love, adoration...and most importantly - respect.  That they couldn't remember ever being so blissfully happy - just with each other. 


And then recently, while sitting on the steps of the cottage with his Mama - she turned to me and said 'He really loves you - you know that right?'


And I do.  I love him more than life itself....


Plus one. 

creating magic...

Today was one of those days.  

It was one of those days where I craved the extra 5 minutes sleep and cursed at the sunshine beaming in my room declaring it's beauty. I felt like a hypocrite - only days before promising myself that I would treat each day new - with a skip in my step and a smile on my dial. I am not perfect....I am human.  And saying that feels refreshing.  

It was the kind of morning where I couldn't even imagine my head functioning without coffee. The hot, strong, steamy type in an over-sized mug.  Where I find myself waving goodbye to my beautiful husbo out the window, coffee one hand acting as temporary heater and the other covering the hole in my pyjamas - the hole in the rear....all while looking for that little bit of inspiration....just a sprinkle - to get me started with my day.

It is then in that very moment - that I declared that something extra would have be done today. The magic, inspiration and beauty of the freezing cold winters day wasn't coming by itself...so it's up to me to create it.

shower, kitchen clean-up, fresh new clothes and...

a kitchen table, 5 sheets knotted to the curtain rods, a few chairs, a few pins, 2 heavy books, blankets, special bears and reading books = MAGIC....in the under the kitchen-table-cubby-house-kind.  

I forgot how many times we hit our heads on the kitchen table but it was fun.  

We played games, sang songs, had a Teddy Bears Picnic, read books, and created our own very own magical day. The kind of magic where it beams and radiates from Macie - the kind of magic that creates memories. Sometimes I wonder if she is too young to remember things like this...days like today....and then I smile - reminding myself that I am allowed to bathe in the glory of memories....like they are the secret to a long and happy life.

To add to the magic, we went on a drive - I have fond memories of going on afternoon drives with my family. The type where we weaved the streets of suburbia, admiring houses, visiting family and enjoying the time together. We don't have the luxury of having suburbia here on the farm...we share our road with some of the biggest and longest road trains ever.  Some of them who are much more impatient than others....

 and if it's not the highway....it's beautiful dirt roads where the shadows from the trees act the part as your traffic and the dust dances around your car....

But we do have one of the most beautiful views from our car windows.... 

Sorghum crops on one side of the highway slowly ripening off to the winter sun - craving more heat to show it's full potential. The crops being a constant reminder of the long, wet and awful season the district has endured...and praying that they are all given a break - with rain when needed, pristine conditions and NO plagues.

  

It's along the highway on the way to our sleepy little 'corner store' town that you realise the dust that is filling the air from the surrounding farms. All from the tractors and planters in the paddocks planting their wheat for their winter crops...especially on our farm. With each and every seed, there is a dash of hope and a little prayer - 'just enough rain, good conditions, no mice and no plagues'.  Simple request really. Let's hope Mother Nature listens and magic happens...the magic that makes the farmers smile.

And now as I write this post, I listen to the singing and dancing coming from Macie's bedroom as the day ends and the sun begins to set.  The squeals of delight leave me wondering what she imagining in those deep eyes of hers...  

But by the sound of those giggles....the magic that we created today....will surely be with her in her dreams for the night to come. 

Magic comes in so many different ways....

and for that I will be forever grateful. 

PS.  I will be without a laptop over the next few weeks so blogging may be somewhat quiet.  Please bear with me!  x  

never ever...

The nasty winter cloud has worked it way up from the southern states and it is bitterly cold here.  An early winter with the icy winds that make your eyes water and lips sting....making you curse the season change even though all during Summer you declared how much you just wished it would be Winter already.  Seasons are so dramatic in our little corner of the country....the 'melt-me' kind of summer days to the 'never-leaving-my-bed-EVER' kind of winter nights. 

Where we dig deep into our cupboards for our beanies & trackie-daks so we can still go for adventures outside....the kind of adventures that Macie craves and I secretly enjoy.  It gets me away from the constant pull of the laptop and sewing machine and it satisfies Macie's adventurous streak....and saves our cottage from being made a war zone.  It is outside where her mind goes wandering and sets her little legs moving....all while I just quietly follow her and top-up my heart with her youth and my photo fix.  

I never imagined to be raising my children on a farm.  That I would eventually marvel in the beauty of the land like my husband did as a child.  Or that Macie would see the land through the eyes of her Daddy - a big playground with hidden treasures wherever her imagination leads her.  How I would see the benefits of letting our children roam, explore, imagine and get dirty.  No fences, no boundaries - just the wide open spaces with the sorghum crop serving as a temporary barrier.

Never did I imagine that instead of having a puppy as a pet - Macie would have 11 chooks, Bruce the Rooster and "Olivia" the pig to call her own.  That she would walk around the yard while having her 'Ladies' affectionately follow her and that she would get right down to eye-level to speak with them....as if she is the "Chook Whisperer".  That she would recite the cartoon-like-Olivia song over and over while walking over to say "Hello" to her little piglet - in that high-pitched tone - the very tone that makes even the hardest and strongest of men drop to their knees and join in on her antics.

That we would collect rocks, admire sunsets, walk along dirt roads and cringe at the sight of a snake track.  That she would learn to clap her hands to scare the naughty Galahs off the crop and then if that doesn't work, without hesitation she would walk up to them to ensure they flew away....and then walk back to me with a smile on her face....that satisfaction smile....the one that makes her eyes sparkle and says "I did it Mummy!".

That she would love to sit on the farm mule (imagine a golf-cart) and pretend to drive with one hand on the steering wheel with the other hand on the UHF radio hand-piece - all while getting annoyed that no-one is answering her calls....Hello?  Helllloooo?  It's these moments that I never imagined....but the very moments that leave me smiling and crooning over the little girl that has stolen my very heart.

But most of all, that together we would search for and pick wild flowers and pretend how pretty they smelt.  That she would be so excited to find this burst of colour in between the drying winter grass....as if she had found her treasure...and how I would marvel that my very on daughter teaches me daily lessons.  Today's lesson being 'Stop, Slow Down and Smell the Roses'....

She fills my heart, 
She fills my soul, 
All without realising.....
never ever did I imagine that.  X  

a mothers love

I headed home for Mothers Day….the place where my part of my heart still lives after all the years being away. I love home at this time of the year – the air cools instantly as soon as the sun hides behind a cloud and the kaleidoscope of colours in the trees as the leaves start to turn to the Autumn sun. I love the cold, rainy mornings where you can’t imagine popping your little toe from the covers….and I especially love the long hot cuppas and complimentary conversation with my gorgeous family….actually that is what I love and miss most.

We spent the morning playing in the park, sipping on coffee and indulging on cake....all while watching the young ones play on the swings and listening to their hearty giggles fill the air. I always find it so humbling to see all my family just swoop Macie up in their arms like she is theirs....even if we haven't been home for months. She thrives on it - the attention, the love and the fun.

I always find myself deep in reflection on the drive home after my sad goodbyes and lingering hugs with my family. While Moo slept so peacefully in the car – I found myself so deep in thought – reflecting on the beauty of motherhood and how no-one ever warned me about the love that would be so deep and powerful.

I had plenty of warnings while pregnant from friends, family and even strangers about the horrors of being a Mum. All of which left me feeling completely terrified about what I had got myself in for. Warnings ranging from the simple fact of leaking nappies (I know you are all nodding!)….to the myth of the “Arsenic Hour” where as the clock strikes 5 – our children turn into monsters and will endeavour to make us all turn insane before bedtime……apparently.

But with all these stories being told to me over and over….not once was I warned of the strength of a mothers love. How I would turn into a Lioness protecting my cub as soon as I would hold my darling girl. How I would roar at anything or anyone who even looked to cause her harm. How this tiny little human being would become my world.

How within days, I would be able to decipher the difference in her cries, that I would yearn for her touch and marvel at her developments. How I would find myself talking baby to her to the response of smiles and that I would tell her each and every day how much she has grown in just a few hours.

No-one warned me that my relationship with my own mum would deepen and an understanding would form between us both where we would just ‘know’. That she would just know when I needed a chat, a cry and a hug. Know without words – how I was feeling. My beautiful Mum has moulded me into the Mum I am today….loving, strict and playful.

Or that I would have a new respect for my mother-in-law…the beautiful lady that can put a smile on her face even though she faces her own hardships. She has raised such a beautiful son…one I am so very proud to call my husband. For that, I am so grateful.

Motherhood is a secret potion which keeps us going when all we crave for is an extra 5 minutes sleep or an uninterrupted cup of coffee. It’s the potion that fills your heart when you run out of steam or that clears your head when the dark clouds start to follow you….those clouds that question ‘Am I doing enough?’.

It is a secret potion – filled with love, joy and youth and most importantly….memories.

It’s magic…. that lives in the hearts and souls of our darling children.

The ride of life....

In the last few weeks, I feel like I have been on the "Rollercoaster of Life" with my beautiful family being sick, having to spend Easter playing nurse to my husbo, loosing my engagement and wedding rings (and crying for days) then up we go for a beautiful few days away while our darling girl had a mini-holiday with her grandparents and now we are back home to reality.

Highs and lows - tears and smiles - laughs and temper tantrums - more tears.  

It's funny how life lets the storm clouds roll in and gives you that un-welcomed ticket for the rollercoaster.  How it has you believing that you are cruising along just fine and then WHOOSH - down you go with your stomach in your mouth - all while screaming "GET ME THE HELL OFF THIS THING" and coming in for a soft and safe landing.  It's like a metaphoric kick in the ass to make you stop and slow down....to take the time for yourself and your family...and to take a step back from your life and take a peek through the windows of your life....and wonder what lessons are to be learnt...lessons that haven't been learnt before.  

Lessons like.....learning that your children will inevitably become sick and there is nothing you can do about it. They will poo on you, vomit on you, make you cry to see them in pain and then they will bounce back within hours.  Back to their active and smiling selves....all while their Mama's will be left seriously sleep-deprived and emotional drained....but secretly jumping for joy inside like it's 1995! 

Or when you have lost your most treasured engagement and wedding ring after searching the house high and low for hours, and falling into a emotional heap....only to find your beautiful husbo hugging and reassuring you that the world isn't going to end and at least we are all happy, healthy and safe.  It's moments like that when you just go....'Yep,luckiest.girl.in.the.world'. 

Or learning that no matter how much you say that you can't wait to get away for a couple of days "kids-free"....you will spend the whole time texting, calling and checking your phone to ensure that nothing has happened and your daughter hasn't declared war with her grandparents!  You will run to pick her up from her cot even though it's the middle of the night and you will soak up the little things....like the smell of her hair and the way she nuzzles into your neck when you cuddle her.  

But the biggest lesson and one that I always need to be reminded about is....that sun will come up tomorrow.  It may be a rainy morning or a morning where the sunshine seeps through your windows and bathes your bed in golden magic....either way, it will be there and it will remind you and rejoice "TODAY IS A NEW DAY".....and it is then....when you open your eyes, that you declare that you will greet, love and cherish this day like no other.  

So next time life gives me an unwelcomed and unwanted ride on the "Rollercoaster of Life" - I will be armed and ready....I can't guarantee that there won't be any tears and tantrums....but I can guarantee that when the ride ends and the safety harness is lifted....I will say...

 "That was one hell of a ride"

Wordless Wednesday....

I am new to Wordless Wednesday but absolutely love the concept from the blog - Faith Hope & a Whole Lotta Love....

Just a few happy snaps from our Weekend Getaway to Townsville for a wedding....it was beautiful, refreshing and FUN!   

Go and join in the fun over at Faith, Hope & a Whole lotta love!! X