Summer of Love

Anyone who has sisters know what kind of special bond you have with them. You can get angry, and then laugh joyously. You can cry together. You support each other. As you grow up, the sisters you fought with tooth and nail as a teenager (yes, we did) become your very best friends and allies in all the world. They would do anything for you, any time. And you know it.

I'm lucky to have 2 sisters. And while we are different and similar at the same time, we each know for a fact that there is not a thing on this planet that can keep us apart. As much as we annoy the crap out of each other, that fierce and unrivalled love and loyalty towards each other will never, ever be broken.

My family are the centre of my universe. My sisters are like my sun, always guiding me in the right direction. I bounce ideas off them on a regular basis. I share everything with them. They are my best friends. I feel so lucky that Mum and Dad had some kind of weird girl gene thing happening. And as much as I wanted a little brother when I was growing up, there is not a damn thing in the world that make me trade any part of the family I have.

After Emma spent the night here on Monday night, both her and Elliot went home to her house for a sleepover on Tuesday. Which meant that when her mum and dad and brother came to pick them up and have dinner it was a rather lively and chaotic affair. I always start to feel a bit claustrophobic and panicky when our house is full of people, because it's quite a small living area and also quite closed off. Add to that 4 kids pulling out every toy in the house, then yes, the jitters start to set in. Where Emma is quiet and studious, her little brother is a destructro-bot, a loud bundle of energy and laughs. At one point it all got a bit too much for Ivy too, and she started throwing a tanty about something (not unusual) and pulled her standard cranky face at us. When all the other kids joined in, it was too good a photographic opportunity to pass up. So even though the photo is crap, using onboard flash etc, it's pretty much a perfect moment to me.
And that, right there, is Ivy's ANGRY FACE.

School holidays usually heralds some kind of catch up/sleepover with Elliot and Ivy's big cousin Emma. Emma is a big school girl, so often the activities that the kids engage in are a bit more grown up than what they are used to, and almost always involve "a Show" at some point. Rigorous planning goes into every detail: making tickets to sell, setting up a shop to sell flags and badges, as well as the cafe where you can buy food for the show. The one thing that is almost always unplanned is the show itself. Which means that by 7:50pm when the show went LIVE, they just ran around like goons.

One of the other games that Emma quite likes is playing school. I remember doing that as a kid too, and I wonder if it's a girl thing? Anyway, Elliot quite enjoyed it too, he was the PE teacher, teaching the kids how to kick goals ;-) and then marking them off on his sheet. Suits me down to the ground when they play schools, as it usually means they are quiet.

So, I guess I should have known that $5 shoes, that have a wooden heel, and are basically a plastic upper, would be like death to feet. Probably. Any normal human would know that, right. But sheer vanity and photographic willpower made me wear them on Sunday and I traipsed from one end of Melbourne to the other and back again in them, all in the name of awesome photos. (I just googled it, it's a 5km round trip.)

So the reason I did this insane amount of walking in ridiculously cheap and uncomfortable shoes? Some time ago, this awesome chick and I used to do some 2nd shooting for another photog. Hannah has her own photography business and resides in Sydney, so since we stopped working together on a semi-regular basis we don't get to see each other anymore. So when she came down for a little visit and asked if I could take some new profile photos for her I was thrilled and jumped at the chance. And then she offered to reciprocate, and I was thrilled and I jumped at the chance lol.

We each had our own ideas of what we wanted, and we worked really well together to find locations, get the shot, and find some time for gasbagging and a catch up as well. All in all I certainly had a most fab day.

So even though my feet felt like worn down stumps by 7pm when we called it a day, it was worth every single second, to hang out with this gorgeous lady, and photograph her and be photographed by her.

My hubs does a lot of things that drive me crazy. Like cleaning the toilet when we need to go out somewhere and we're running late. Like folding the towels in a way that makes them not fit in the cupboard. Like getting angry at inanimate objects. Like vacuuming at 10pm. Like not knowing how to buy things online or pay a bill. And he doesn't call his family enough.

But who's husbo doesn't do things that drive their wives crazy??

I don't complain too much or too loudly, because for the most part he's a pretty awesome dude. He's a loving and attentive dad. He's tidy and clean. He's a doer and if he can't do something he'll try (except for paying bills online). He cleans my house better than I can. We have a cleaning arrangement... he does the vacuuming and bathrooms and I do the cooking and the washing. But it's more than just "my jobs and your jobs", he picks up my slack OFTEN.

And he mows the lawns when I promised 8.5 years ago that I would. And that is the blessing of today. Because there is no way on earth I'd be wanting to push the mower around in the heat up and down the hills. Not a chance.

Thanks pish. Love ya a million x

With the insane amount of wet weather this whole country has had, it goes without saying that I'm getting a bit of cabin fever. The kids are happy just veging out in front of the telly, and for the most part I'm happy for them to do that too. But yesterday enough was enough. The BOM radar said the state was covered with rain, it looked set in for the whole day, so I bundled the kids up and we went shopping. Big deal you say? Yes, it most certainly is a big deal for me. Elliot hates shopping. And Ivy is toilet training... Big. Deal. We had lunch and a general wander around at Norfies for a few hours... And when we left the shops to go home the sun was shining. And that made me happy.

Crappy phone photo today. But I think you'll agree it's still pretty special ;-)
(At Typo. One of Mummy's favourite shops. And apparently now Elliot's because he can use all the textas and pens!)

We're on a toilet training mission. After a couple of pretend attempts and sometimes wearing undies and sometimes not, I decided that this week was as good as any to attempt the inevitable for real. So Monday was "the day" and we had a pretty average day. Most misses, and I think one hit. Then I went to work and Matt took over the shift... Ivy christened him with a poo from one end of the house to the other. And I was stuck at work and couldn't help, more's the pity.

But day 2 was very good, just one miss, including being out for dinner, so that was super.

Day 3 and she's nailed it, for sure. No mishaps at all, as well as a poo! My little superhero. We're up to day 4 now and I feel like I can relax a bit, and not have to count what she's up to. She's quite amazing really. And I'm so so proud of her.

So everytime she needs to go to the "tor-wet" we have a superhero run up the hallway all the way to the loo where she proudly exclaims that she can do it herself, wiggles onto the seat, does a wee and we cheer like mad things. Then she gets a star sticker.

She's my champion. She's so clever. And I love her squishy nappy-free bum.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that the little things beneath our feet and in our plants are living, breathing, feeling creatures. As a vegetarian, I do try to be mindful for my impact on the animal world. I'd rather shoo a fly out the door, or catch a spider and release it, and use humane traps for mice so I can release those too (except for mosquitoes, they can die). I try hard. In this weather we've had a lot of snails on our front path, and when I walk on the path at night, in the dark, sometimes my big ugly feet are just not able to avoid them. I try as I hard as I can to miss them, but sometimes I just don't. And I always feel terrible afterwards.

Yesterday for my birthday, I was given some extension tubes to turn my normal lenses into macro lenses. I don't do a heap of macro photography, but sometimes I do get the urge to do a close-up of something, and it frustrates me no end that the lenses I have are completely incapable of capturing those images. So the extension tubes are a relatively inexpensive way for me to get my fix. Today I thought I would test out my new toys on some little snails. When I first went outside there wasn't one to be found, which is ODD because they are everywhere at the moment, and then eventually I saw one meandering down the path.

I didn't know snails were see-through-ish. Or had eyeballs on the end of their antennae things. Their shells are very intricate. They are actually kind of cute, in a slimy way. They're alive. And the only hardship they bring to us humans is to nibble on our plants. So we squash them, or poison them. How sad.

Take a vow, that tomorrow you won't harm a living creature. You won't kill the fly. Or the spider. Maybe you'll have a vegetarian day? Don't squash the snail. Be kind to yourself and your planet.

Yeah, the photo-a-day in January always includes a post about my birthday. Can't help it. But yes, yesterday was indeed my birthday, 11/1/11. Which is a truly awesome date, it has to be said. BUT, my niece gets an even better birthday date this year, 11/11/11. Yay to us!!

I was spoilt. And I loved it. We went out for dinner with a few friends and family. And I loved it. We ate Thai food until we almost exploded, and then forced down cheesecake for dessert. And I LOVED it. It was an ace birthday.

Thanks everyone for the wishes and love. It means more to know you were thinking of me yesterday than you'll probably ever know. I took your energy and flew high on it yesterday, and felt every loving thought. And I loved that too.

xox

So, 10 days in to my photo-a-day and I actually kinda forgot to take one. But that's ok. It's not a drama. We'll just roll with it.

I had a young chap at work say a profound and resonating thing to me, and I'm sure he didn't even realise how special his words were.

He finished work at 10pm and said he needed to catch a bus home. I asked him what time the bus was, and he said he wasn't sure, so I suggested maybe taking off a few mins early as it was quiet. And he said to me "it doesn't matter if I miss the bus. There'll always be another one."

In our rush rush lives, where we are always on a schedule and have routines and to-do lists and appointments, do we ever really slow down? Take the long way home for a change. Take the 2nd bus so you can just sit still at the bus stop for an extra few minutes. Catch your breath. Watch the world pass you by, just for a moment. There'll always be another bus.