Love, bubs and life on our little farm

Not sure what you are planning to do Friday evening but in case you havent heard (!) there is a royal wedding happening. And pro-republic as I am, I still am fascinated by the Royal family - just as I am by the Danish Royal family and so on. So although I understand that many people want to hide under their pillow and hum loudly until the media decides to find something else to obsess over, I am very much looking forward to settling in to watch every slow, stilted moment.

I can remember quite clearly being allowed to stay up with my Mum at the grand old age of five for Fergies wedding (I was too young for Diana's) and I loved every minute of watching a princess in the making (hmm no comment on how the marriage went!). So Elka is going to stay up and watch with us. I am cooking an orange spiced rice pudding and we have a yummy bottle of dessert wine picked out and I can't wait to setttle in on the lounge and watch the fanciness.

Do you have plans?

Might be the third glass of red wine I have had tonight and the fact that Bronte is obsessed wtih grapes at the moment but I liked this.

From here thanks to Tina Fey's book Bossypants:

Tina Fey’s prayer for her daughter

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her
When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen.

Not big Easter celebraters here - not religious and we dont eat much chocolate. So we have the obligatory purchases for the kids and some lollies and plastic eggs to set up a scavanger hunt with the family and we are simply heading to our beach house on the Tweed Coast to relax and have swims and walks on the beach. Jase and I don't buy each other anything as it just sits in the fridge or pantry for months afterwards... so instead we are just hvaing dinner out at our favourite resort where there is a great kids play area so we can have a wine in relative peace. My parents and brother are joining us on the Sunday for the scavanger hunt and a roast lunch. Should be low key and nice.

I am looking forward to the time off - we have a lot of farm work to get through when we aren't at the beach... life has been dominated by work and work trips for the last month or so and its about time we dedicated some time to our other "job" of looking after farm animals, paddocks and fences. I have a long list of jobs!

But I did spoil Jase in the current Oroton online sale, buying him a gorgeous chocolate leather briefcase he has had his eye on for awhile. His leather work case I bought him in Florence Italy has finally died so its perfect timing. And this little number just had to be bought for me at the same time ;)



Its exactly what I have been searching for in a new handbag for the last 5 months or so and it was marked down by $380, how could I resist!

So happy easter to me! The bubbly is chilling in the fridge, Jase is on his way home for an early afternoon and the deck is looking perfect for watching the suns rays grow dark gold through the gum trees while the girls play on the grass. Bliss, I mightn't be religious but I know I am blessed.

May you and yours be happy and loved this holiday weekend xoxo

The lovely Chelle over at Gee You're Brave has inspired me to play along with Meet Me Monday.


Questions:

1. Caesar Salad or Garden Salad?
2. Will you be watching the Royal Wedding on April 29th?
3. Last thing you spent lots of money on?
4. Window seat or aisle seat?
5. Do you know your blood type?



1. Caesar Salad or Garden Salad?
A garden salad with baby tomatoes, fetta and olives (OK so really a Greek salad!)

2. Will you be watching the Royal Wedding on April 29th?
Yes! I hate all the press hype but deep down I can't wait! I find Catherine intriguing and I am fascinated about what she is taking on as her life. I also love her fashion sense and can't wait to see her dress - I am hoping for elaborately understated and elegant if such a look exists.

I can still remember being allowed to get up late at nigth to watch Fergies royal wedding with my Mum and my teddy. It was very special and I am happy for Elka to stay up and watch this royal wedding with me.

3. Last thing you spent lots of money on?
Ohh gosh that is tough because scarily enough I spend lots of money all the time! (own horses - you will understand!) Last things i bought were over $200 worth of new rugs for my competition horse and a night in a 5 star hotel for Jase's bday last Friday night, oh and a very delicious romantic 3 course dinner out in Broadbeach that night for him. All very worthy big spends!

4. Window seat or aisle seat?
Window seat as most flights out of Brisbane actually end up flying (very high up) over our rural area and I am always straining to see our place!

5. Do you know your blood type?
Yep thanks to having two kids, I am O+. I am keen to get into donating blood now that I am no longer breastfeeding but keep missing the blood van at my work... its on my to do list!

As a molecular biologist, I often marvel at my kids from a genetic point of view. The lovely shuffle and mix up of my genes and Jase's genes that have by random created such wonderful little individuals. How one looks so much like Jase and one so much like me and yet be so similar to the other parent or so completely different to everyone in another way.

My mother sent me this quote the other day and its just beautiful in the way it reminds you that you are so unique and special and nobody will ever again be just as you are.

"At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time." -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

After eight days of living out of a suitcase, flying a thousand kilometeres and then driving a 1400 kilometer road trip, I couldn't be happier to be in my beautiful home with my gorgeous little girls tucked up in bed and my lovely hubby watching sport in the lounge room. I am a big believer in taking a little space to make yourself a better mother, and I think nothing makes your heart swell with love like seeing your childrens faces so achingly familiar but made extra dear by their absence from your day. I am thoroughly enjoyed my time for my career and my getaway with a friend. And I love that I am refreshed as a mum and a wife and have had time to step back and reflect on how I want to be and behave.

I have direction and inspiration and also appreciation for how blessed our life is here with our relationships and golden sun filtering through the gum trees. I am so thankful that my parents are such amazing babysitters that I can leave the girls and know that they are having the most wonderful time (Elka didn't want to come home!)

On the light side, Bronte is so close to takingng her first steps! It's so gorgeous to watch her excitement at figuring out this whole walking thing.

Oh and after being on the road for so long, I have to say I am in love with dry shampoo! Its brilliant! Ad it also adds texture and volume to your hair, I am sold! Saved me a few times on this busy trip!

Now to return to work, appointments for Bronte and to prepare for Jase's 30th, its going to be a fun week!

So I am an infectious diseases scientist and I have spent the last four days at a Communicable Diseases Conference, listening to our national experts. The swine flu pandemic was discussed in detail so that we can learn and improve from it, we learnt that the massive amounts of Australians that love to visit Bali are bringing back lots of exotic diseases for us to deal with here more than ever and we looked at our vaccine successes and failures.

But there was a clear consensus that we need a national centre for disease control, much like the American Centre for Disease Control. It would provide standardization, central coordination and communication. There would be some clear advantages. However the governement made it pretty clear in it's response that because the majority of it's health funding is required by chronic disease, most caused by the obese population (hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes etc), that the infectious diseases area should just be happy with the status quo.

Very frustrating.

So our population is eating and not exercising itself into chronic disease. What I find frustrating was that even at the conference, highly intelligent health professionals that should know better were overweight and stuffing themselves from the buffet tables at morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, ignoring the bowls of fruit and fresh sanwiches and diving into the cupcakes, slices and pastry savories. The same people that want the government to spend more on infectious diseases aren't doing anything to lessen their own obese load on the health system, so that spending might be able to change.

Perhaps the battle should start at home, health professionals..

Life has been full and distracting and I haven't had the energy to lift the lid on the laptop and type anything.

But tonight I have a glass of wine and a quiet bedroom to sit and reflect and update.

First of all - check out Miss B on the move and into everything! Gosh can't believe she is 10months old and I have to start planning her first birthday!


We have been primarily fixated on hosting our combined 30th birthday party. Which was lovely - we were blessed with special old friends who put in the effort to fly interstate to celebrate with us. The weather was great, our extension the perfect place to host a party and everything went smoothly. It was fantastic to celebrate and strange in some ways to have so many new and old friends all there at once.Once I got Bronte to sleep and some of the millions of kids had left, I got to relax with plenty of bubbly and enjoy the antics of karoke (from everyone else). I paid for the lack of sleep the next day but was oh so worth it.

This was quickly followed by a crazy week at work, Jase heading off for most of the week on an interstate trip and me juggling the two girls including Miss B with a throat infection. I decided to head down to the family beach house, which sounded like a great idea but proved to a fair effort as unlike a lot of people, having a farm full of animals, you have to make sure all the animals are stocked with feed, water and safe beds if you are leaving them. All good and well except when you are juggling two kids, inclduing a sick clingy little one and also have all of their junk to pack (seriously how much stuff do kids need for a trip away! And you need pack almost as much for one night away as you do for a week!). But I made it.. and it rained and rained and rained. So we did some pretty damp shell collecting on the shore, played in the park with a towel to dry everything off and spent more than our fair share of time shopping (post on purchases to come).

We have enjoyed one lovely sunny peaceful day back here at the farm with Jase, before I have to drag my sick sorry self (thanks Miss B!) down to Canberra tomorrow for a four day work trip. Jase gets to discover the joys of being the spouse stuck at home trying to work and look after the girls whilst the other partner is wining and dining on a work trip. I get back Wednesday night and then have to load the kids into the car on Thursday and drive them the 2 hours to my parents to leave them for Friday-Sunday whilst I drive the 5 hours to Tamworth to visit my best friend. Which of course I am very much looking forward to - we have a girls night planned as well as some hours in shops. At the same time, Jase is back in Sydney for another trip.

After the 7 hours of road trip on the Sunday, I have the joys of work to look forward to, but the end of that week will be fun as the Friday is Jase's 30th Birthday and the girls and I have some pretty big (surprise) plans for him. He has the day off work and has no idea what he is in for (and no clues here since I know he reads!). Then his parents arrive on the Saturday to spend the weekend..

I am looking forward to the weekend after that, as it is the Easter long weekend and we have no major plans besides the beach house, so we can finally spend some relaxed time together as a family.

Busy times in this household. Hope your April is going to be a good one!