Roll Up, Roll Up, 2013 is here!

We kicked off 2013 with a trip to the Moscow Circus

Happy New Year!

I don't know about you, but for me 2012 came and went like a smoke ring in a stiff breeze. That tends to happen when you jam quite a few major life events into 12 short months. There has been a lot of change. A lot of newness. A lot of wonderful things. A lot more ups than downs this year. With so much going on though, I did get to the end of the year feeling very much like the clowns in the above photo - my head spinning from side to side with an incredulous and dazed look on my face.

A brief recap of the year gone by:

After 18 months in Sydney, we packed up our life to return to Tasmania.

We had "The Big Adventure" - the 3 month trip-of-a-lifetime caravan trek around the country.

We moved back to Tasmania.

The Kids changed Schools, our second child starting school for the first time.

The Pianoman bought into his own business - a dream of working for himself has been high on his agenda for a long time.

We added a menagerie of animals to our farm - the Chooks, a couple of Indian Runner Ducks and 2 pet Lambs.

We started raising sheep for the plate.

I started knitting again.

I learnt to crochet.

I'm learning to spin on a wheel (there's a very good reason I haven't posted my attempts!)

We started our rather substantial vegetable garden.

We enjoyed our 10 year anniversary trip to Vietnam.

I was pregnant (and spent most of the 9 months feeling rather ill and debilitated)

We started to renovate the house and I use the word 'renovate' very loosely.

We celebrated 6 more birthdays and our 11th Wedding Anniversary.

And finally, and obviously the most wonderful life-changing event was the birth of baby Flynn. Those kids bring so much joy and make me proud every day.

And here we are in 2013. I love new beginnings. If it's been a wonderful year then you can start the new year feeling positive about the year ahead and if it's been a not-so-good year then you can start the new year on a clean slate. There is no question that 2012 was a great year for our family where we are finally continuing on with living the dream we started 6 years ago when we bought this little patch of earth after years of dreaming, saving and searching - the dream being to raise a family and live a simple and more sustainable life in the country somewhere.

I have no resolutions this year. I'm just looking forward to 2013 being a year of consolidation. I do love change but even good change can be exhausting. I'm looking forward to being a little more like the Echidna in my Blog banner above and less like the clowns. The Twins will be starting Kindergarten this year, freeing up a few days a week just to myself (and Flynn). I'm looking forward to some more hours to potter in the garden. I'd like to do more knitting and crocheting and learn to sew. I'm mostly hoping to get some more sleep and to put more organisation into the chaos part of "Organised Chaos".

Whatever 2013 brings, and it is sure to bring some surprises and challenges along with some good things, I'll be mindful of the following quote by Buddha:

"Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all"

In other words, I'll try to "roll with the punches". What about you? Any burning resolutions or dreams for this year? Are you a "roll with the punches" kinda person?

Hope 2013 is a wonderful one for everyone.

Mel xx

The "Paris" Trip

Not Paris but who cares.

For those who have been following along for a while, you may recall last year when, after 18 months of living the fast life in Sydney, we made the decision to bring the family back to the simpler life we had spent the previous 10 years building in Tasmania. We thought it would take 6 to 12 months to make it happen.

However, instead of doing things like a 'normal' person and finding a new job before leaving a current one, in true mid-life crisis fashion, The Pianoman ditched the big corporate job and with no job keeping us in Sydney we sold most of our worldly possessions, bought a caravan, packed up the house, the Kidlets and the Whippet and less than 3 weeks later we were travelling around Australia. The money would last around 3 months and we hoped that would be enough time to find another job while on the road......it was and looking back it was the best decision we could have made.

The only little thing was that on our fridge were 2 return tickets to Paris which were booked for our 10 year Wedding Anniversary last December. This is a trip that we have been planning for around 10 years. It had almost become a bit of a joke among our friends. If one of us had a bad day we would get "don't worry only 6 years until Paris isn't it Mel!" or when I had done nothing all day but breastfeed the twins around the clock and was up to my eyeballs in nappies I would joke "it's OK, only 4 years until Paris". The Paris trip was symbolic of the desire to spend some decent quality time together without the children - something we haven't done together in our 8 years of being Parents - and to celebrate the end of changing nappies every single day for a period of 7 years, 4 months and 8 days.

The destination was really secondary to us being together. I still maintain I would be perfectly happy being on a plane for 24 hours and simply enjoying reading a magazine from cover to cover and sipping on champagne without anyone sitting on my lap. Bliss! We do go out together and have had weekends away individually so we do get a little break from time to time while the other one stays at home with the Kids.  But aside from Weddings or Funerals, the only time we have been away together just the two of us without Kids was a 2 night camping trip 5 years ago. On that trip I think we were so unaccustomed to finishing a sentence without interruption that my body went into shock and I came back pregnant with Twins. I'm already pregnant now so I can't really get myself into too much trouble with another trip sans Kids.

When The Pianoman left his job in Sydney, what we really needed was to have time together to decompress and 3 months travelling around the country trumped 10 days in Paris. We couldn't get a refund on the tickets but vaguely thought we could postpone it for a year.

So I recently enquired about said tickets and was informed by British Airways that the tickets had to be used within 12 months of the date of purchase. We bought the tickets last July. It was now June. Oh Dear! So it seems we have to go on a holiday by NEXT WEEK (cue the mini-violins!).

We were also informed that we couldn't get to Paris anyway because the tickets we purchased were low season December tickets but we are now in June which is double the price being peak season. We actually don't have the time or the money to spend on a trip right now so we can only go as far as the credits will allow. And somewhere cheap. We also had to fit a potential trip around the in-laws, who were all set to look after the Kids last December while they were on school holidays themselves from the jobs in the teaching profession. Fortunately, they are on school holidays now and are making their way from Alice Springs down to Hobart as we speak. It's a big ask and we are so grateful for them for allowing us this little indulgence.

So the Paris trip is now the "Paris" trip.

We are actually off to Vietnam this Friday! Nothing has been planned because that's just how I roll and you probably also know by now that I don't like to plan things. Planning takes away all the fun for me. I didn't want to cause the in-laws any angst though so the flights have been booked.

Anyone been to Vietnam? Or Paris even? Did you love it? Have you done a "Paris" trip or have one on the horizon?

The Big Snip

I am of course referring to my new "Do" as opposed to the procedure awaiting The Pianoman down the track.

So I finally went to the hairdressers asking for a little trim of my neglected long blonde tresses and somehow came out sporting a Mocha Concave Bob and became 5kg lighter in the process.

It had somehow been 6 months since I'd been to a hairdresser and while it was absolute bliss having someone play with my hair I did have to die a slow and painful death listening to the young girl continually address me using the "Royal We". I think it was her way of softening the barrage of criticisms. 

"How are we today? Oooh it's been a long time since we've been to the hairdressers hasn't it? Those brassy blonde tones aren't doing us any favours are they. Yes, I think we'd look much better with a Mocha tone. No, I don't think we'd suit a fringe. And how will we be paying today? What do we think of the new look?"

Um yes, we think it's great thanks.

Linking up this week with Faith Hope And A Whole Lotta Love for Snap It {Self-Portrait}

What do the kids really think?

We are excited.

The kids are excited.

Our Tassie friends are excited.

To be honest, we haven't stopped banging on about our beloved little Tassie since we arrived in Sydney 18 months ago and so our Sydney friends and extended family are happy for us too.

Miss Fancy is looking forward to being with her old friends and having space for animals.

Blue Eyes is mostly looking forward to the dirt hill. I'm sure we could have arranged a pile of dirt for him in the backyard here at a substantially cheaper cost than an interstate relocation but I understand what he means. Lots of space with dirt, rocks and trees is the ultimate playground for boys.

The little boys were 18 months when we left so I doubt they would remember any details but I know they will love being there.

But it got me thinking. Now that reality has set in and the cardboard boxes are being filled with all their possessions, what do the kids really think about leaving the life we have had here for 18 months. We have made some wonderful memories here and to them, 18 months is a huge chunk of their life. It's a big call to uproot them even though I know it's the right decision for us. They have become quite attached to their little friends, cousins and extended family.

I think kids can be good at keeping up appearances. Even the resilient ones. Especially when asked direct questions by adults like, "So, what would you think about moving back to Tassie?" or "Are you excited about moving back?". They feed off our excitement and intuitively know that we would want them to be excited too. These sorts of questions don't really provide little children with the space to really consider what they think. These types of questions are almost more of a statement than a question. I do genuinely believe that the kids are excited about this new chapter but despite my best efforts to find out what the children are really thinking, I've been on the lookout for other unprompted clues.

And today, right there in black and white is the clue I've been waiting for. A picture from our 7 yr old spontaneously shoved under our bedroom door. No questions. But a big answer. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful cardboard box free weekend!

Wednesday Wafflings

With such a monumental move like moving to another state with 4 kids and the Whippet, and all the ‘big picture’ logistics that go along with that, I am becoming extremely irritated by the little picture stuff that still needs to be done on a daily basis.

Take the never-ending battle of the folded clothes for example. You would think after being in this gig for almost 7 years I would have mastered a proper system. Not so. You see, the washing of the clothes is not the problem – push a few buttons and it’s done. Even the folding of the washing isn’t causing my hair to turn grey. It’s the putting away part that I struggle with. It all gets put into neat piles on top of the Piano where it pretty much stays until all the clothes have been used up. I know this isn’t a very domesticated system but there really does seem little point moving the clothes from the piano to the kids drawers to have them taken out of said drawers the following morning and brought to the Piano area for dressing. I like to regard myself as practical rather than lazy :-) Maybe as the kids get older they will actually dress in their rooms, but at the moment they all prefer to engage in a more communal form of dressing. Perhaps I relocate everyone’s drawers to this central locale. I really don’t like seeing the Piano subjected to this kind of abuse. Does anyone else have this problem? What does everyone else out there do?

The Piano does regularly get a work-out but the piles just get put onto the floor. No problem, even easier for the kids to access their clothes. The other bonus of my system is that when someone ‘can’t find’ an item I can simply point to the Piano instead of having to physically go to their rooms and hunt the item down – that can be quite time-consuming when you have 4 little souls spread across 3 rooms. Again, I like to think myself as practical rather than lazy :-).

So, while I am contemplating the Big Move I’m hoping someone can shed some light onto this little annoyance of mine.