Learning to Live In the Moment

I am learning from my friend.  I am learning (slowly) to live in the moment more.  To recognise and make time for what is important.  To strategically quit things that aren't.
Monday: A sewing day.  Four Kindy Space Suits mended.  One dress converted to a skirt for Maddie.  One pair of pants mended. One small girls nightie started. Two sewn through fingers and a black eye...

Maddie had a run in with Jazz and the sliding door (it does look worse than it is - it didn't slow her down for a minute!)

I managed to sew right through 2 fingers (2 separate incidents) on the sewing machine.  Do not try this at home.  After the second time (when the needle broke in spectacular style and blood poured forth and poor Nic was required to extricate bits of broken needle from my finger) Nic (not surprisingly) unplugged my sewing machine.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sunshine in Nic's warm lounge room by the glow of the wood fire, with my children coming over for regular snuggles while I knitted, drank great coffee (Nic has real beans and real froth and it is just another small reason why I love visiting her!) and ate too much beesting from the Lobethal Bakery (which is popularly believed to be the BEST bakery in the Hills)  Such a hard way to spend a Monday really! I am practising my sock knitting on two needles.  This is the easy part.  It is the heel turning that makes me tear my hair out.

Tuesday: My day got hijacked when Hannah woke up at 5a.m. crying with a sore ear.  Kindy run for Dan.  Quick trip to the accountant to sign last year's tax return (not enough of a refund for an air conditioner - sigh) Doctor's appointment, trip to the chemist etc etc. but at least the sun was shining and I managed some odd jobs at home (including a bit of decluttering)  In the afternoon Dan and I got out into the front garden while the girl's napped.  It was bliss.  I forget how much I enjoy gardening until I am out there with the sights and smells of the last days of Autumn all around.  I cleared a little patch for some lawn and hacked back the overgrown garden beds and deadheaded roses and pruned the lower branches of the birch trees.

When I turned around and saw my boy sitting like this my heart was so glad.  James' Aunt Yvonne gave Dan this birch when he was born.  She said what she wanted most for us in our then very new, just beginning, garden was to have a tree to sit beneath.  Yvonne lost her battle with cancer not long afterwards.  I think of this tree as her legacy.  It is a reminder of her beautiful garden and the earth guardian that she was.  Here we are not quite five years later and her dream for us is becoming a reality.  One of the things I love most about gardening is that a garden is always evolving and changing.  It is one of the best ways I know of measuring and marking time.

It is also one of the best places I know to get a mental health adjustment.  Half an hour in the garden and all your cares melt away!  We stayed out until it got dark.  "It's a beautiful sunset, isn't it Mummy?"  Precious time with my precious boy.

Chicken and cashews for tea (my big boy's favourite) and then Dan and I made apple muffins with two of the enormous apples from the tree in our chookpen.  Eaten warm, just out of the oven, they were delicious!

And now it is Wednesday.  Hannah is not yet back at school.  Already this morning we have had dominoes, Lego, drawing, and Little People.  There has been spilt cereal.  There has been snot on the couch.  There has been at least a few episodes of sibling discord.  Do I care?  Not a bit.  The sun is shining.  3 loads of washing are on the line.  I have lots of spring bulbs to plant.  I can watch the green grass in our backyard grow (I am such a farmer's daughter - the sight of green grass makes me smile and because our lawn has been such a long time coming it is now extra good at making me smile!)  No doubt this afternoon there will be more sibling discord, probably tears, and lots of crumbs but I am just being.  Enjoying being home with them all.  Appreciating what we have got.  If I can sneak in a little bit of crafting then I will be a happy camper indeed!

Happy Wednesday!
Nell

xxx