Silppers and Socks

Not really a heading that has anything to do with anything but it jumped into my head so there it goes.

My life is getting more and more busy with a thousand and one things always on the To Do List. 

Actually, that makes me think it may be time to write a list on all the things I need to get done.

I have found my blogging journey has changed quite a over the last couple of years.  It used to be my every day thing, had to write, had to dish out my opinions and musings to those who dared listen.  I had to read other's blogs all the time, it was like going to the pub without the beer and singing along to the juke box.  The advent of Fakebook probably had a lot to do with my downturn in literary spoutings.  It's the "instant gratification" buzz of having someone respond so quickly without much effort on my behalf.  Which last night got me thinking - do I even talk to many people at all any more? Do I visit or phone anyone?  When did I last write a bloody letter??  After much thought and self analysis I came to the conclusion that life has taken a bit of a downward spiral in the communication stakes.

I used to pride myself on my use of the English language, my ability to keep in contact with people and my track record of maintaining old friendships.  Now, if you're not on Fakebook or texting me back, then we probably haven't been chewing the fat for a long while.  Even emails seem too much hard work.

So my goal for the next week - amongst catching up on four assignments, getting started on another two, exercising, mothering, farming, learning off of my endurance mentor, cleaning and my Board of Trustees duties - is to write a letter to an old friend and, here's the big challenge, ACTUALLY SEND IT.

I challenge you to do the same, comment and let me know who you are going to write to and why and a bit of the history.  I will give you the same courtesy - I will be writing to the lass who read a reading at my wedding and then proceeded to fall asleep on the toilet at the venue later on in the night and get locked in after everyone had left.  Those are the mates you should never stop communicating with.

Buddha Arse

That's me at the moment. I am sitting at the computer looking at my reflection in the window and I'm looking awfully like a buddha, except there is no gleeful little smile on my dial.

So what has happened in the last four months??

Sian has spent another two nights in hospital, going by ambulance both times for her asthma. The last time was at 2.30am in the morning and when the ambulance finally made it all the way out here her oxygen stats were only 77!! I was very scared - it's a long 45 minute drive from here to Christchurch Hospital and she was on oxygen and ventolin by nebuliser the whole way there with the oxygen stats not even lifting that much...

She seems to have come through the other side of it though and just went through a really bad flu without having to be hospitalised which was a great bonus.

Now she is back at preschool three days a week which is brilliant for me and my study.

I have been very busy with my Naturopathy units and have a couple to get in before I finish Module 1 of 7. Took me a while to get over the fact that I had to redo a lot of the units that I have already passed and have NZQA recognition for but once I got there eventually. Sometimes you just have to let things go....

Anyway, my new motto is:

We can not become what we need to be by remaining what we are - Max Dupree

Wherethefuckareyou???

Wow, how time has flown when life is hectic and crazy.

Sian has been very sick with asthma for the past 5 weeks and has been on prednisone for 4 out of those 5 weeks. Ended up in hospital again and it's just been one thing after another.

And then a very special wee friend of ours died tragically just over a week ago.

You can read about it here.

If you watch the video, Blair is the pall bearer at the front left, with the glasses on.

Sophia was very special to our family, her grandparents are two of our closest friends and she called us Aunty and Uncle. She was a dear friend to our kids and they shared a special bond. I spoke at the funeral and read this poem that I wrote quickly the night before:

Soar now beautiful girl
On to your next journey
Plenty of adventure before you
Heartbreak and sorrow left behind
Indigo child set free to find
A fresh place to cast your spell

Perfectly you were presented
Euphorically received
Nan and pop amazed by your fire
Dragon all the way
Ropes would never bind you
And no limits would you accept
Gutsy and determined
One mission at a time
New mates around every corner

Would this social butterfly find
Accepting of all our flaws
Loving unconditionally each one of us
Laughing infectiously , spontaneous
Affectionate with those twinkling eyes
Can’t imagine life with no Boo in it
Even as I tearfully say my goodbye...

so I plead with you to make the most of the time you have with each and every one of your special friends and family, you just never know when their time is up..

Whom I Be Rolling With #3

All the old time readers of my intelligent and witty musings will perhaps recall when I did a little thing on the odd occasion called "Whom I Be Rolling With".

This was what the overall gist of it was:

Now you all know what I blog about, from the comments you can see who is reading and commenting. So I thought, to let you into what I enjoy, I will give you an insight into what I enjoy reading.


There will be four categories:


Mod Cons: Blogs that I am just starting to enjoy.


Faithfuls: My favourites, the girls or boys that are my comfort, my ears, my daily reads, laughs and from whom I take the most life lessons from.


Antiques: Those that have gone, maybe to come back, maybe not, some missing in action.


and


The Secret Drawer: The password blogs. Those that I have the privilege of being invited to read.


Now I have titled them all based on household items, I don't know why, I just have.


The Mod Cons are the new gadgets, the little things that you're glad you have discovered to make life easier or better.


The Faithfuls are the comfort blankets, the old cushions, the favourite chair, the best place in the house, life would be hard without them.


The Antiques are the old treasures in your house. They timeless, valuable yet you don't use them anymore...


and the Secret Drawer, well that's where you hide the vibrator!!! The good things that for whatever reason aren't left on the kitchen table.

So those were the rules

So here we go again:

My current Mod Con is Irish Daughter. This woman is a salt of the earth lass with much to offer our blogging world, she has only recently started and has not blogged for a bit but she is so dear to me that I have to have her as my mod con. She is doing it hard raising three young ones on her own. Go give her some support. Tell her I sent you.

My Faithfuls, so many of you. Who has touched me this month of March? I would have to say Memphis Steve, for kindly sharing the link to my post about my fallen pal. Steve is outspoken, (pot - kettle - black) but has a heart that is open to one and all. He sure knows how to get a contentious issue going and for that I love reading him. He has a soft spot for the beautiful Aussie girls and is not one to back away from any issue. Go have a read, tell him the Kiwi girl sent you.

The Antique, and god do I miss her, is Steph at Much Ado About Sumthin. She went missing a while ago, came back, went away again, and lately her blog appears private so I don't know where my antique has gone, maybe one day she'll turn up on Antique's Roadshow??

And hiding in the Secret Drawer is ..... Wanna B Slim, one crazy Tazzie girl who loves to ride her bike and drink scotch. She hasn't posted for a while but she better start again or I'll have to come and kick her arse. She is a battler and a great mum and is so great to have as a blog friend and she sends the best homemade Christmas Cards ever.

Anonymous My Arse

Firstly, new post at Destination Goddess for those that care..


Last year I lived nearer my parents.

Surrounding us is a leased farm that is run by my new neighbour's friend.

Today we had a yarn, nice bloke, although the quickly bought to my attention that he knew that I had complained about him dumping truckloads of pig effluent on his paddocks a couple of times last year.

He was right, I had, the stuff was disgusting and he was dumping it 22 times a day for a while there....

The thing that bloody gets me is that I was repeatedly told that the complaint was anonymous, so were my neighbours. And yet Ecan decided to give him a copy of all the people that had phoned and complained about him, how many times and when. Fuckers.

He was pretty good about it considering he had to pay a $1,100 fine to attend a meeting about it....

Still

First Week

The first week weigh in result is over at Destination Goddess.

Celebrating Difference

I have just read a beautiful post over at Jimmy's place, this man always has the most amazing power with words.

In his post he mentions a wee girl with a lazy eye. Now, when we are kids, and more likely than not into adulthood, we always have something that we don't like about ourselves. Something we feel hinders us in the popularity stakes. I remember a ginger haired lass at my primary school that had cheeks that were just so white and round that I used to have daydreams about stabbing them, I don't know why. Admittedly, she pissed me off no end, she was one of those "I'm so much better than you" types.

There were kids at school who had all sorts of inflictions and mine was a lazy eyelid. I still have it. At four it was quite obvious:

My left eyelid just doesn't like to rise up to the occassion. It was pointed out in front of me a hundred times as a child, maybe that is where the insecurity about it stemmed from. I also had a great lisp, which a year of speech therapy corrected, apart from when the wines or vodkas or rums have been flowing. Funnily enough the eyelid gets lazier when those thirst quenchers have been flowing too. I imagine I'm quite the hottie after a session - one eyelid nearly shut and lisssssssssping my arssssssssssseeeeeeee off.

The whole point of this inane rambling is that we all have something that makes us feel a bit different, a bit left out, a bit strange... My immediate family all have something. Blair has psoriasis, he hates it with a passion, it stops him wanting to wear shorts in public in summer, it is a terrible thing for him. Peta (12) has glasses, a ski jump nose and her right eye is twice as blind as her left so as soon as she takes her glasses off it turns inwards (eg in the swimming pool at school). Ben (10) has a port wine style birthmark that runs up his right leg from his little toe all the way to his bum cheek. Phoebe (5) has food issues and also has an incontinence problem, poor wee thing, and finally, wee Sian (4) - bless her cotton socks - has big ears, they stick out and she will undoubtedly insist on hair covering her ears when she is older.

When I think of most people I know we all have something that is considered abnormal. So what is normal? No one is normal. Not bloody one of us is considered normal yet there is a constant push for everyone to look and act "normal". I say it's time to celebrate our differences and realise these little things are what makes us all unique. New York.

What makes you feel abnormal?