Week in Review

In an effort to ease back in to blogging, I have decided to have a go at a ‘Week in Review’ style post. I’ve had a crack at a few different styles of these over the year, Taking Stock, A Cup of Tea with Me, Weekly Wrap Up to name a few. They all have one thing in common, to get me back in the saddle writing and to be a bit of a brain dump for me.

So, without further ado, here is a wrap up of some of the interesting bits and pieces I have come across or thought about during the week. I’m not sure if anybody else will get anything from my musings, but it will be a nice record for my grandkids of the things I was reading, doing, thinking, discovering, wanting and wearing.

Want: I’m wanting to read a really good book! I’m a bit behind in my 52 books for the year Goodreads challenge I have set for myself, but the last few books I have read have been pretty ordinary. Can anyone recommend something amazing for me to get me out of my slump?

Need: This week I have definitely been feeling like we need to get back to our routines, especially our 5am wakeups and exercise habits. Since the school holidays and winter has set in with colder and darker mornings and evenings, I have become very slack! Whenever I sleep in the day always seems to go wrong. Take Monday for an example. I slept in until 7am and none of the kids were out of bed by then either. We then rushed around to get everybody off to the bus, only to have the kids come back at 8.10am saying the bus didn’t come, so we then madly jumped in the car to get everyone to school and me to work on time, only to find the car has a flat battery – gah! We all got where we needed to be eventually, but not without a lot of grumping and rushing, needless to say, Yoga is booked in this week and the alarm is set for 5am Monday – no more slacking!

Wear: In June I had a lovely girls weekend away in Port Douglas with my friends from my primary and high school days. We started this tradition last year for our 40th birthdays and I am so pleased we made it happen again this year. Anyway, my friend Rachel recommended ‘BB Cream’ as a fantastic little makeup trick for those that never have time or inclination for makeup and I now love it! I picked up a tube on special for Coles – super cheap at $8, it has sunscreen in it and is a great foundation type cover up. Combine with a bit of lip gloss and I feel a million dollars for work hehehe. Definitely worth a try if you are late to the party like me and have only just discovered this magic.

Read: I read this and shared on Facebook this week. I love it as I often worry that I only share the best bits of life via our blog and social media etc, but it is very hard to share the messy bits too. It is a good reminder that the grumpy, ugly times are still there, along with the fun, beautiful bits.

“Before all the photos of my family vacation pop up in your newsfeed, there’s something you should know.
You’re going to see lots of smiling faces, beautiful sunsets, a white sandy beach, and all kinds of family bonding. You’re going to believe that we had a wonderful week filled with togetherness in a beautiful place — and we did. But you need to know that these pictures only show one part of our week.
What you won’t see in those photos is my kids fighting over who had to sit where in the car. You won’t see anyone arguing over who got to shower first when we got back from a day at the beach, or complaining about how much hot water was left. You won’t see that on our last full day my husband and son got into a big fight, I cried and declared I wasn’t going to the beach with them, and when we finally did make it the wind was so strong the sand stung our legs and everyone was kinda over it within an hour.
Nope, you won’t see any of that, because no one stops to take a photo of the messy parts. No one shares the ugly bits. It’s all smiles, and tans, and beautiful scenery. That’s what we capture and it’s definitely what we share.
And it’s fine, except when we look at everyone else’s beautiful family vacation photos and think that is the whole picture.
We think their family is happier than ours.
Their kids get along better than ours.
Their days are sunnier, more adventurous, more fun, more exciting than ours.
And we let it steal our joy. We let ourselves believe the lies that our family is less than, our life is less than.
Because we are only seeing bits of everyone else’s life and comparing it to all of ours.
So you need to know, as you look at all of our lovely vacation photos, that we had a wonderful week in one of our favorite places in the world. But it wasn’t perfect. Because no one in my family is perfect.
We can be messy and selfish, short-tempered and ungrateful.
Going on vacation doesn’t change that, it just gives a chance to be messy, selfish, short-tempered, and ungrateful in a different location.
But those things also don’t take away from the fun, the laughter, the togetherness, and the love we shared.
Because we are both.
We are messy and lovely.
We are selfish and generous.
We are short-tempered and abundantly patient.
We are ungrateful and so thankful.
We are all of those things. We are real.
And there is so much beauty in the real.”
Shared with permission from Neither Height Nor Depth by Jelise Ballon

Watch: “Sherpa” – Filmed in 2014, this riveting documentary tells the lesser-known story of Himalayan guides who risk everything to support climbers on Mount Everest. It was a great, unexpected watch this week that Matt and I found on netflix – an old documentary, but super interesting all the same – give it a go.

From the Farm: Loving that Kipp is now confident and enjoying riding his motorbike around the farm. There have been a few stacks – eek, but no major damage – phew!

Laugh: The best laughs I had this week were on a lovely evening with my awesome Bookclub ladies here at Blue Sky. We were celebrating a few special birthdays and did so with a fire and finger food, with lots of chatting and cackling. It was the best!

Buy: I have been searching forever for a solution to storing/displaying my earrings which currently are scattered all over my dressing table which means they often get dusty, rusty and lost, or I just can’t see them, so end up wearing all the same ones over and over (such a first world problem, I know). Anyway, I found this hanging, adjustable earring holder on Etsy this week and ordered it. I can’t wait for it to arrive! What does everyone else do for earrings?