A poem...

Now, everybody gives each day, our work is very tough,

Through volunteering, jobs and tasks… at dusk we’ve had enough!

Then your shift ends, you say goodbye and to your home you go

To put your feet up and have a drink, and deservedly so!

If your lucky, dinner’s made by your Mum or loving Wife,

You sit down for the evening news, aahhhhh isn’t this the life?!

A cup of tea would be so nice, you say with no ado,

So while you’re mopping up in there flick that kettle on, would you?

Some days you really want to help, like you’re about to burst,

And then you glance towards your wife, do I get reimbursed?!

But today it was one of those days that you’d rather just forget,

Thank goodness you’ve got a place to go relax with no regret.

What if you were stuck at work all week and on weekends too?

A bed set up, your boss always there to tell you what to do.

What of holidays? Well, imagine this: your boss must come along,

You want to chill and rest but can’t, there must be something wrong!

Say what you want but I tell you now I’m luckier than you

Because your boss is old and grumpy, and mine is too good to be true!

Those eyes, those giggles, the stories they tell melt my heart every day,

I have 3 fabulous bosses, although demanding, that I love in every way!

Some days I want to curl into a ball and tell them all to go away,

Please God just give me some time to myself I continually pray!

When those days come, and come they do, I have one simple request:

A cuddle, a kiss, a reassuring word to say I’m not that bad I’m actually the best!

You could be a husband, a partner, my mum or dad, my bestie, an angel, my neighbour,

I just need a ray of sunshine sometimes to brighten up the darkest corner.

This simple ray of sunshine fills my tank and gets me ready for the day ahead,

To know I’m loved and appreciated means so much more when it is lovingly said.

A Mother’s needs are simple, and few and far between.

To give so much, and all the time, is wondrous indeed.

Fill her with sunshine and let her loose like an angel from heaven above,

She’ll conquer the world and so much more, and she’ll do it all with Love.

Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, God Bless

Emily xxx

Reflections of a tea-infused mind

I sat down on Sunday morning to write yet another GREAT BIG LIST in an attempt to over-organise this seemingly messy life of mine. But then I thought, do I really need to be so pedantic? I looked out the window of my in-laws house and all of a sudden felt compelled to write. This world had suddenly captivated me. So I wrote this instead.

The winter sun is beaming through the huge dining room windows in all its glory and I can't help but sit back in my chair with my hot cup of tea and marvel in the wonder of everything around me.

As I look out into the world from my warm cosy chair in this warm cosy house, I see tall gum trees with a fantastic array of birds coming and going at their leisure, accomplishing tasks and living their lives without lists, routines or doubt. They simply use their pure instinct. And it is wonderful to watch.

Our dog has taken up residence in the garden bed near the roses, carefully selected I’m sure as the best spot outside to bask in the golden sunshine.

A Willy Wagtail hops between the rails of the front door ramp, the leafless grapevine twigs and the thorny rose bushes, and I can’t help but marvel at the amazing skill this little fella has that prohibits him being injured from moving so incredibly quick.

I wonder at the slimy little earthworms in the rich soil, and how such a miniscule and seemingly insignificant creature can be of such importance to the world in which we live. It makes me happy to think that my composting efforts do not go unnoticed.

The rays of the morning sun make all of the webs in the garden sparkle like diamonds, and the gentle breeze moves them like graceful dancers in a ballet. I wonder what it would be like in the world without our 8 legged friends and their sticky homes, and I instantly find my respect for them and the role they play increase tenfold.

The breeze is picking up a fair bit more now, and I can see every single little leaf on top of those big gum trees swaying together, but somehow busting their own moves at the same time as if to say “I’m my own leaf!” And I find myself smirking as I imagine each tree as a great big freestyle dance club, waiting for the right tune to float by on the breeze.

 I wish I could hear what they hear.

What a world.



Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, God Bless

Emily xxx

ps - My photos are: The one of the river and gum trees, and the one of the Orb Spider (her name was Charlotte, and we fed her bugs!). The others are courtesy of the World Wide Web!

A TRIBUTE TO THE SUN!!

We interrupt your local blog broadcast to bring you this special Sunny bulletin…

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows”

Helen Keller might have originally said it, but I know someone who is living it right now. As much as anyone can.

As much as any other mother can, if they wanted to.

If I wanted to.

To keep my face to the sunshine, that is. And I do want to.

But I never would have known what direction to face in order to find happiness if she hadn’t come into my life (through my screen!). Truly a gift from above, and a blessing I didn’t think I deserved at the time, I began my journey on the long road to happiness because a fellow mother decided that it was more than ok to put herself first. That to be truly happy she had to look after herself first, in order to look after her family best (I just LOVE that quote!). And that that was more than ok, it was absolutely essential. Not only that, she had the desire to help other mothers see her logic too. Oh yes. Not content with just looking after herself, she endeavoured to look after every mother in the country – and thank goodness she did, because that’s when I found her blog. If you only read one blog in your life, then stop reading mine, and start reading hers.

Who the heck are you talking about Em?

I’m talking about Stacey, the Original Sunny Mummy, who sees the sun in absolutely everything she does, and who I feel deeply indebted to for creating a community that has been my saving grace while on my motherhood journey.

I began having children early, after marrying a man who made me smile in so many ways and whom I loved so very dearly. Creating life was the perfect way to express the amazing love we felt for each other. We didn’t take much time to get to know each other, we got along so well as mates I guess you just figure that whatever happens, happens and you’ll be able to handle it together.

How wrong I was.

With my hormones, I might as well have painted myself green (a la The Incredible Hulk) and gone on a rampage every day. I had no idea why I felt the way I did, so there was no hope in communicating it to my poor husband who had no idea either. 3 pregnancies in under 3 years all with their own unique stories (as we all have with our precious children) which produced 3 healthy children (to which I am supremely grateful for) and I am still trying to figure out why I cry for no reason, why I lose my temper all the time, why I blame everyone else, why I want to run away from it all and never come back, and why the sunny, happy, energetic old me was replaced with grumpy, frumpy, angry, shitty, sooky, sleepy… and Doc (yeh, my own 7 crappy dwarfs)… me? Everything I did was wrong, not good enough, and I was the only mother in the world who felt like this. Everyone else just seemed so effing happy. Why couldn’t I be happy? What was wrong with me? I felt no joy, no sunshine, undeserving.

Then I found Sunny Mummy on facebook, and through that, Stacey’s blog.

I cried when I read what she had written, and not because it was shit (!!), but because it struck a chord with me. My deep, dark hurts received a ray of sunshine… a ray of hope. What I had found difficult to articulate before began to make sense, and what’s even better is that once I started to know what it was that made me feel the way I did, I could embark on a journey to change it! Stacey isn’t a shrink, but when she writes she has a way of connecting with me (and I hope all her readers!) that makes me feel she is sincerely concerned for my wellbeing, it gives me things to reflect on, and her happiness seems to be infectious! You can’t avoid it, even if you wanted to! I found that not only is it more than ok to feel the way I had been feeling, I also had the tools within me (and the AWESOME planning tools available that Stace has created) to create the type of person I truly desire to be. AND I also now have the motivation and support to really SHINE, and BE AMAZING!

Within the Sunny Mummy Sisterhood is 402 other mums (tally correct at time of typing!!) that I can talk to whenever I need to, about anything, with no reservations. I have 402 other mums who support me and send their love and sunshine to me whenever I need it. I have 402 other mums who, when they need me, I am there for, supporting them in any way that I can be it with words, hugs, sending things, phone calls… I have 402 other mums who, at this point in my life, I need, who make me laugh, who help me cry, who mean so much to me that I feel I have 402 more sisters than before!

Stacey created the Sunny Mummy Sisterhood for mums to have a safe place to go to bask in the Sunshine. What a wonderful place you have provided!

From the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my soul, I can’t thank you enough Stacey. I feel so different, and I doubt that I would have found the same results anywhere else. You have given hope to me when I had none. You have shone your light in my darkness, and made me Sunny again. And I see this in all of our Sunny Sisters, because of what you created.

Thankyou xxx

Music Monday!!!

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Woohoo!! It's here again!! Sure to become an instant weekly classic, here is another instalment of Bless My Soul's Music Monday.

So, yesterday started off normal enough. The family ended up at Bunnings yet again, perusing the aisles finding all sorts of things we never knew we needed. The kids (I have three little dears…) ended up with a new kids sized shovel each, I found purple sprouting broccoli seeds, swede seeds, turnip seeds, English spinach seeds AND seed potatoes (so that’s an EPIC win for me), Paddy found all the things he needed for his latest project, AND we bought a 20kg bag of firewood.

Stay with me, this post IS actually about music!!

Off home we go, and I start up a fire in one of those cast iron fire pit things (also, funnily enough, from Bunnings) in our backyard. Pretty soon it gets going, and I start to educate my children (who are all under 6) in the culinary art of marshmallow roasting. They showed some good signs, but still have a lot to learn! What followed was a BBQ, and a salad making session where everyone helped, and sampled, a fantastic rainbow of veggies – and of course cheese, because everything has cheese in it at our place! Afterwards, we had a jump on the trampoline in the dark, counting stars to which my eldest yelled out

“Mum there must be at least a hundred stars up there! Aren’t they beautiful?!”

What an angel he is.

We also found a huntsman on the trampoline, which we caught in a jar, all having a good look at him and his boogily eyes (we called him Harry!) before letting him go in the Veggie Patch. We lit the tops of our roasting sticks until they glowed and waved them around in the sky so they looked like red hot fire flies. And when the kids got tired, we went inside and had a hot bath, a story and a kiss goodnight.

What made that afternoon and evening even more perfect was the soundtrack. One of the first things I did after returning home from Bunnings is get the iPod and dock out and plug it in outside at the powerpoint in the carport. I’ve made up a playlist called “A Whole lot of EVERYTHING” and here is a sample of what is on it:

·         Fingerprints – the Best of Powderfinger

·         Sultans of Swing – The Best of Dire Straits

·         Listen to the Music – The Best of the Doobie Brothers

·         The Very Best of The Eagles

·         Echoes – Pink Floyd

·         Rearviewmirror – Pearl Jam

·         Bat Out of Hell – Meatloaf

·         Greatest Hits – Little River Band

·         All The Best – Paul McCartney

·         Forty Licks – The Rolling Stones

·         Glittering Prize – Simple Minds

·         Achtung Baby and 1980-1990 – U2

·         Greatest Hits I and II – Queen

·         Supernatural – Santana

·         Selections from the 4 disc box set of Led Zeppelin

·         M.U. – Jethro Tull

·         Greatest Hits – Fleetwood Mac

·         The Ultimate Collection – Electric Light Orchestra

·         And then a whole mix of songs from the likes of: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Eric Clapton, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Billy Joel, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, ACDC, The Easybeats, Billy Thorpe, Bob Segar, Bon Jovi, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Eskimo Joe, Mika… this list could seriously go on and on and on… it’s only a sample of the whole thing…

This playlist was put on shuffle. And from about 330pm to around 645pm we were listening to this sort of music. Here is why music brought me joy yesterday.

While waiting for the fire to settle a bit, Good Vibrations came on. My 2 year old hopped up off his chair, walked over to the iPod and put his ear to it – which was considerable loud. After about 5 seconds he decided it was a good song and started dancing around in the best way a 2 year old knows how, by spinning around, jumping and swinging his arms!!

As my eldest is named Jack, he asked me to put Jumping Jack Flash on, which is his official theme song, and we all commenced to dance to that, pointing to Jack at the chorus when it sings “Jumping Jack Flash, it’s a GAS GAS GAS!!!”

My daughter loves Burn Your Name by Powederfinger, and I’m Yours by Jason Mraz, so they both went on and she (who is 3 years old) proceeded to sing both the songs and dance like a ballerina!!

And all three of them would randomly get up and start dancing around when something came on that inspired them!

When the kids see me bopping my head to a song or doing one of my infamous interpretive dance routines (see my post on laughing here), they join in. And they’re smiling while they do it. This is exactly how I developed my love for music as a child. Seeing my dad and my uncles finding the sheer joy in the music they listened to, bonding over amazing albums like Dark Side of the Moon, and Back in Black, encouraging us kids to be ourselves in the way we danced, sang and socialised with each other by always having music on, always associating this sort of music with our BBQ’s, our camping adventures, our parties… my greatest memories of childhood come with the greatest soundtrack imaginable.

I Love music. It brings me great joy. And nothing makes me happier than to see the kids enjoying themselves, as they did yesterday, through music. I can honestly say I know exactly how they feel and, yesterday, I felt I was doing a really great job being their mum.

So thankyou to my family for giving me the gift of music appreciation, I Love you guys with all my heart xxx

Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, God Bless

Emily xxx

Mission: Impossible (Part 2)

MY EPIC ADVENTURE IN THE LAND OF CLUTTER

The trek to the summit of Mt Soul-Clutter

I learned two very valuable things today, and I’ll let you know them in just a sec...

but a more pressing issue is at hand. Now that I've learned these precious things, what the living heck am I going to do about it??

Certainly not the same thing that I’ve been doing each and every time I’ve felt these familiar feelings.

Experiencing something is one thing, learning from it is the next... but that's all in vain if I continue to ignore the whole point of these things / hardships / trials / tribulations that seem to keep coming up again and again and again,

the same experiences,

the same lessons,

the same feelings,

I don’t seem to be taking the next step of applying these things, not just learning from the mistakes, but making sure I don’t do them again and MOVING THE HECK ON! And that’s why they keep coming up again and again, isn’t it?! You can go through some pretty tough days, and learn some pretty valuable lessons from them, but then what? After all, you might learn something, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get it right in the test. You have to remember to apply what you’ve learned when the time is right. And that’s hard. But it’s not impossible.

It’s a challenge, we’re all on our own journey and we’re all being challenged every day in our own ways. And we’re all at different points in our journey, which is different from any one else’s journey…

so the points are different, and the whole journey is different… so there’s no bloody reason to compare yourself to anyone else either!! Is this making any sense?!?!??!?! I hope so, but I’ll press on anyway!

Here’s what I learned today:

1) It’s more than ok for me to cry, to feel overwhelmed, to feel despaired.

2) Its not ok for me to cry, to feel overwhelmed, to feel despaired, and then give up.

I used to hate crying, and feeling overwhelmed. I would really give myself a hard time about it. “What have I got to cry about? I have 3 healthy kids, a hubby who loves us all dearly, I have my health, friends, family… I’m by no means swimming at the bottom of the pool. So stop crying then, and don’t be so ungrateful.”  And I’m pretty certain I’m not the only person out there who gets like this sometimes. So, I get upset for whatever reason it was, I then tell myself that I shouldn’t get upset, call myself all sorts of names and say something like “C’mon, snap out of it. Write a list to get yourself focused again and you’ll be right.” The list gets written. The list sits there, and possibly gets a couple of things crossed off. But I should say, when I write lists, they’re usually worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest and most unfinishable and unrealistic list (I’m fully aware that unfinishable is terribly bad English…). So, realistically, crossing a few things off it is a pretty good achievement. But not for me. Nothing seemed to be good enough. Completely overwhelmed, despaired, and sad, I’d give up… chuck my list away and say…

“I”LL START IT AGAIN TOMORROW.”

Then, when tomorrow became today another list would be written, begun and given up on.

“I”LL START IT AGAIN TOMORROW.”

When tomorrow came, I didn’t even bother writing a list… but I still said:

“I”LL START IT AGAIN TOMORROW.”

I’ve been STARTING AGAIN TOMORROW for 5 and a half years. Motherhood seemed to hit me like a freight train and somewhere along the line (I’m thinking it’s back at the start) I lost my sunniness. My happiness. Thank GOD I found Sunny Mummy.

Stay tuned for a Sunny Mummy post soon… coming to a Bless My Soul outlet near YOU!

My problem was not only in abandoning my tasks and not learning from my experiences, but it was also in thinking that it’s not ok to feel the way I did. So, in response to the two things I learned, I would like to tell you this:

However you feel is OK. If you have someone in your life who tells you that your feelings are not warranted, unacceptable, and WRONG, then you give them a good solid size # (insert your shoe size here – for me it’s a good SIZE 9!!!) up the clacker, they can shape up or ship out. Surround yourself with people who bring you joy, love, sunniness and happiness. Feeling good and feeling bad is normal, and a part of every person’s life. We should celebrate the good, and support others in their time of need. Thanks to some very special people in my life, and I’m certain they know who they are, I now know that whatever I achieve in the day (and some days it is simply surviving) is amazing and I should be intensely proud of myself.

The grass could possibly be greener on the other side but, for me, I don’t want grass. I’d rip it up and put veggies in!

I sat down tonight and wrote another list, after using my Sunny Mummy Assistant, and this is what it looked like:

I think I may have just conquered the summit, TAKE THAT MT SOUL-CLUTTER!

Emily xxx

Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, God Bless

Mission: Impossible (Part 1)

MY EPIC ADVENTURE IN THE LAND OF CLUTTER

Where on Earth did that giant pile of magazines come from?!?!

Now, I’m not the gossip mag type… when I buy magazines (which is a lot, apparently! Who knew?!) I like to get ones about home furnishings, gardening, cooking, scrapbooking, etc, ones that can supposedly serve a practical purpose in my life. So I can justify the spend. And instantly fill a void with glossy papered goodness. Too good to be true, really.

Any good de-clutterer (yep, I just made that word up) will tell you to throw that crap right out the door, when was the last time I read any of them anyway? They look DREADFUL on the shelf, AND there’s no space for them in the cupboard (I’m determined to not put any dust collectors back in there anyway…) AND you’ve survived this long without even giving them a second thought AND you just don’t need them at all.

So chuck them out already… what are you waiting for?!

ARG!!! I JUST CAN’T DO IT!!!!!

I LOVE my magazines, they are so pretty and there are so many ideas in them that I want to cut out and put in a safe place until the time will come when I say “aahh yes that is exactly what I want! Thankyou, Better Homes and Gardens / Scrapbooking Memories / recipes + / etc, I knew you weren't a waste of money!!”.  And then that de-cluttering voice comes back:

“You friggin idiot! You can’t have it both ways! The sooner you chuck those old crappy magazines out, the happier you’ll be! Less really is more, can’t you bloody see that!!”

She’s really quite rude, isn’t she?

I have to find a compromise. I need that shelf space for other things (that come from the “don’t you dare chuck this out” pile). What is really important?! Why did I even buy those magazines in the first place? WHY?!!!

*Thinking*

There was something in it that I liked, wasn’t there? Something I either wanted to cook, to make, to scrap, to read… something in it caught my eye while waiting at the checkout in between saying no to the kids to buy whatever rubbish they had in their hands, and yes to whatever rubbish I had in mine. And I have to say, I haven’t succeeded in many of those tasks really… I bought it, so step one is complete, flicked through and earmarked what I wanted out of it, that’s step two, but then shelved it… and what I wanted to accomplish was never accomplished. The thing that’s stopping me from an express-chuck-out is that I still want to accomplish those things! So here is the compromise:

On top of the pile was my Scrapbooking Memories magazines. So I opened up the first one, and my eyes lit up! I just remembered why I love craft so damn much. Every page was covered in wonderful creative ideas, and I couldn’t possibly cull these. One of the best things about de-cluttering is realising what you LOVE doing, and NOT de-cluttering that stuff just for the sake of it. These Scrapbooking magazines weren’t going anywhere.

Next in the pile was a whole bunch of Better Homes and Gardens magazines. You know you’re domesticated when your Friday nights are taken up by an hour of great ideas with that show, followed by Friday night football. Yep, I’m livin’ the life. I see something on the show that interests me and it usually ends up with a trip to the shops to pick up the latest edition. Sucker!! I’m proof that advertising works. So I’m usually only interested in a couple of articles from each one, and yet there’s a ginormous (there’s that word inventing again!) pile of useless goodness sitting there staring at me. So, as I did with my scrapbooking mags, I got the top one down and started to flick through.

Crap, crap, crap, nuh, nope, no deal, nada… oohh this looks good… RRRRIIIIIIPPPPPP… crap, rubbish, gross, crap, crap…

 I think you get the idea! A few projects from each one, and some select pictures to go in my “Ideas file” (because I’m an Ideas Man! AND I refuse to change it to Ideas Woman, because it just doesn’t have the same effect!), and the rest was recycling.

The rest of them are those GLORIOUS cooking mags: Super Food Ideas, Good Taste, Recipes + and all those free ones from Coles and Woolies (PLEASE take one, they say to me… although I did discover I had taken 3 or 4 over the different shopping times!!). I can afford to be a bit more merciless with these ones, because I have that many cookbooks, and access to so many recipe sites online that only the best recipes from within the pages will make it out alive. Out of a king-sized pile, I’ve narrowed it down to about 30 or so favourites (single recipes that is, not whole mags!), and they’re going to be written up in my lovely recipe book and then THROWN OUT!

In place of the three piles of magazines that were on the top shelf in the office, is a small pile of Scrapbooking Magazines sitting on top of my Cardstock collection (paper for scrapbooking, absolutely essential thankyou very much!), and in another pile is the album I am currently working on, with my box of ribbons, embellishments and letter-writing packs on top. From what it was before, I think it looks amazing!! And besides, I have to start somewhere, it’s the little things that make a big difference after all…

Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, God Bless

Emily xxx

I wanna be seen with McQueen!



The last time i was this excited about an animated movie coming out was for Toy Story 3, which I'll grant you wasn't that long ago, but before that I could happily bypass the cinemas with the kids and see how long I could stretch it before they really knew what was going on in there and started begging me to go and see whatever new cartoon was out. The kids were just that little bit young, too, when Toy Story 3 came out to actually sit in a cinema without climbing on the seats and running in the aisles...

And then I saw it. An ad for Cars 2!! I was so excited for the kids, heck I was excited for me too!!

You see, we have a pizza and movie night at our place (usually once every couple of weeks), and Cars is the usual re-offender of the night and preventer of arguements. We spend the afternoon preparing our dough and whatever we want on our pizza, and making an awful mess while we're at it, and then the debate about what movie to watch comes up...

Miss 3 says "I wanna watch Care Bears".

Master 5 says "No, Care Bears are for babies. Let's watch Jumanji!" (knowing full well that it scares his sister, so he says it with a big grin in her direction while she has a mini meltdown...).

Meanwhile, Master 2 is pulling all of the DVD's out and putting them in a pile so he can look at the pictures, and show everyone which Wiggles episode it should be.

You'd think it would be impossible to find a compromise, something that we all enjoy watching without us parents ripping our hair out in boredom...

So I say, "Ok then, what about Cars?"

And they all stop and have a think about it. I get up and put "Life is a Highway" on the iPod, we have a bit of a dance and then I go into quoting all the funny lines, voices and all, while chasing and tickling them. We all agree that Cars is the way to go, and once again good old Lightning McQueen and Mater have saved the family!!

Now they've made another one!!! We'll have more choice!!

Disney Pixar have done it again. This time, McQueen and Mater are heading overseas so McQueen can race in the World Grand Prix which determines who is the WORLD'S FASTEST RACECAR! While McQueen is busy preparing for his race, Mater becomes involved in an hilarious adventure of his own full of spies, secret agents, villains and taking him all over the world!!! Phew!!

Check out the awesome trailer for it here:

To say the kids are excited is a gross understatement. This is going to be a true event. And, thanks to Nuffnang, our family is getting free tickets!

That's right.

To help promote the new Disney Pixar movie, Cars 2, Nuffnang are giving away free movie tickets! Every blogger who enters recieves a free family pass!! Check out their site and see how easy it is for yourself :)

I can't wait. This is going to be AWESOME!

Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, and God Bless

Emily xxx