oh! christmas!

Excuse me, but have you ever seen a more divine Christmas setting?

I'm dying here. Dying.

friday I have sunday on my mind...

It might be friday, but I'm hankering for Sunday. On Sunday we're off for five blissful days down south in my favourite town in Australia {besides my own...}. Yep, we're hitting Burrawang in the Southern Highlands. Last year we had the most incredibly relaxing, yet fun, holiday with another family and we've booked the same holiday house again this year. The girls are beside themselves with plans and we adults are looking forward to days spent lazing, and nights spent sipping champagne in front of the fire {surely it'll still be chilly enough for a fire at night - won't it?}.

We've already got a few traditions: every afternoon the dads and the girls walk up the hill to the pub where the girls play checkers and sip fire-engines while the dads sip beers and chat. While this goes on we mums either sit in the sunroom and read - or possibly have an afternoon nap. I know - it's all too fabulous.

Of course I have work to finalise before I leave. I would also like to work out how to schedule posts so I don't leave you hanging for a week {anyone technological care to fill me in on that?}. Ah, country roads...

monday monday

After a lovely weekend it's time to start the week off. As you know, I'm no longer grumping into the week as I'm embracing Mondays, rather than huffily putting up with them.

So today, we've got guests coming to lunch - my step-dad's cousin and her husband. My step-dad's roasting up vegies for a frittata and I've put together a sour cherry and coconut loaf. Now, if it's a success I'll post the 'recipe' if not, we'll be having hot trifle with the results... I couldn't find a suitable recipe, so instead, cobbled together something - usually a no-no when it comes to baking. But so far, I like the texture, so finger's crossed it'll work out just fine.

I've got a few things on the to-do list this week, but I'm just going to slowly chip away at them. If I achieve just one decent thing each day I'm going to be mighty pleased.

what about me?

I don't know if it's just a girl thing, that becomes magnified when it also becomes a mum thing, but tell you what, how hard is it to do something for yourself? Take yesterday. We got home from a sleepover at our in-laws and I rushed to put on a load of washing, then hubby and I sat down to go through my tax {without killing each other - hurrah}, then I made snacks for hungry girls, and felt overwhelmingly tired. 

Instead of napping I thought I'd go for a walk - more invigorating. Then I looked into the backyard and realised that a few windy days have probably left the trees in the planter boxes by the pool rather thirsty, so I took myself out to water them. 45 minutes later I'm inside, and preparing dinner - no walking. 

Then, I smacked myself into some sense and realised how much I need a daily walk. I love it for the exercise, the stress-relief and the time to myself. So at 5.30, despite the darkness, I headed off to the beach and boy, was it fabulous. Sure, it was a little scary {seriously, were there more streetlights when I was a kid, or were they just brighter? It's so freaking DARK these nights!} but that just made me walk more briskly. I got to see the most amazingly full moon hanging over the ocean leaving a shimmering white path from the horizon to the shore which was pretty cool. I got to breathe in that amazingly fresh ocean air and hear waves come crashing down on the wet sand.

I came home in a much better mood, refreshed, no longer tired and capable of doing so much more than I would have with a nap. I'm now even more determined to fit a 30 minute walk into every day - seriously, if it were a drug I'd be taking it every day...

off the shelf

Hey, you know how we've been decluttering like our lives depended on it lately? Well, I kinda cluttered up again today. But in a good way. 

See, I've had a few boxes of books stored at my in-laws, and they're also in decluttering mode, so I said I'd check out what I had in their loft. Hubby climbed up and found - books. Lots and lots and lots of books. But oh, what books. 

All my old classics are there, even ones I've subsequently replaced {such as Perfume, by Patrick Suskind, love that book}. I found some gorgeous hard cover stuff, some 50s and 60s girls annuals and plenty of classic children's books that'll be just perfect for my daughter {including a 1950s hardcover version of Little Women - sigh!}.

All the more impetus to get those floor to ceiling bookshelves built. Then, I'm 100 per cent sure, my life will be complete...