After my previous blog post about using my best first aid skills…check out what came up in one of my social media feeds…

Hilarious! They’re always watching, right?!

In the last week (more specifically, two days in a row), I’ve found myself using my best emergency situation skills. Both incidents were fairly minor in the end, but I like to think of myself as a (super) hero, so I channelled some calm and rational thoughts to help avoid too much drama.  

On Wednesday, Giggles Magoo and I were in an appointment with a health professional when what seemed out of nowhere, the health professional started seizing/fitting, collapsing to the ground, hitting her head quite badly in the process. Pretty random and unexpected and my first aid skills definitely came into practice. I was holding a fearful Giggles Magoo whilst somehow managing to turn the poor professional into the recovery position. When I yelled for help, I did my almighty best to sound urgent, but not panicked. Turns out, I scared everybody else in the building (including a whole heap of new mummas clutching at their newborns) while yelling out for assistance. Oops – when others arrived and the time was right to leave, I quietly took Giggles Magoo out of the room and we sat for a while, him snuggled in very closely stating “I want to stay out here with you forever”. His snuggles soothed my shaky nerves and gave me the courage to talk with him about what we saw. I won’t cover the discussion, but I’m pleased to say that the conversation we had proves be is turning into a sensitive, thoughtful and caring young fella. Proud much?!
(UPDATE: Turns out the health professional is ok and has returned to work)

The very next day, I was tapping away on the keyboard at work and audible gasps were being thrown out all through my office…someone had spotted in the apartment building across from us a full clothes-horse on fire. I could see quite clearly that it was an unattended fire, so I placed a 000 call. On closer inspection, the occupier of the apartment had set up a heater underneath the clothes horse and in the epic winds that swirl the wind-tunnel street, said heater had overheated and blown flames onto the clothes. Needless to say, the firies arrived, did their thing and chaos was averted  (well, the apartment occupier came home to a clothes-horse free of clothes and a ruined heater…DISASTER!).

While having training in both experiences (I’m first aid trained and a fire warden at work), it was the first time I’ve found myself responding to a completely random situation whereby I had no direct connection to any of the parties requiring assistance…and I have to tell you, it was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I’ve had plenty of talks with my loved ones about both situations, and it is truly amazing the topics you can cover! Think stranger danger/tricky people; what to do when you’re unwell/lost; what to do when someone you don’t know is unwell/lost; personal information; being brave; how to ring for help; where an ambulance is parked; what a uniform is etc etc.

The weekend was spent discussing a lot of these concepts with Giggles Magoo; it is just lovely to spend time discussing life from a four year old’s perspective – we spent some “spesh mum/Giggles Magoo time” riding our bikes covering all of the above:

Grimace had been away in Melbourne doing some worky-things for the back end of the week, so the three of us pounced on him the minute he touched down at the airport. Off the back of one of our discussions, he was greeted with;

“Daddy! Daddy! Did you know mum saw fireman sam?!”. Love a four year old’s thought process.

Just to finish off, thought I’d let you know the Music that has soundtracked my introduction to the week: Camp Cope . An excellent all-female band from Melbourne that Grimace took me to see a few months back; I’m not usually captivated by all-female bands, but the vox of Georgia Maq has really grabbed me – her topics are raw and beautifully backed by some strong rock/acoustic sounds. Check em out to get you through the week!

I hate the way a conversation will sometimes go…

Person: “Hi, how are you? What have you been up to?”

Me: “Hello! I’m good thank you.  Not done anything super special, I’ve just been the usual busy busy busy. How are you?”.

Don’t get me wrong; I love saying hi and enjoy hearing their stories and experiences. I relish their anecdotes or fun places they’ve been. The stories keep me open to new experiences; keep me up to date on the occurrences in the life of those I love.

What I’ve realised though, is that I quite often expect the other person not to be interested in me and my world or what I’ve been up and I quite often don’t share. But here’s the thing… most people are genuinely interested in other people and by default, that means they are interested in what I have to say – it’s just taken me a while to realise it. Sure, the old “hi, how are you?” Or “hey, how’s it going” can be just a passing thing, but, more often than not, people want to know what others have been busy with.

In a concerted effort to be more present in conversations I have with friends / family / colleagues / acquaintances, I will genuinely try to bore you with the happenings of Theverymoodyhousehold. 

I’m aware I’ve been pretty quiet on the (not very) old blog. So here goes:

I’m guessing you probably don’t  want to know about Giggles Magoo and Little Mate having their 4 year and 1 year health check ups or that swimming lessons are going well; You may be a little more interested in outings to the beach with their beautiful cousin who was in town from Switzerland. Or, the fact that I’m finally going to learn how to ride a motorbike (one can’t really be married to a family who sells motorbikes, and not be able to ride one!) Or that Grimace and I finally got around to seeing some live music together again – my ears are still ringing from A Wilhelm Scream .

The last few weeks/months have been a very fun and busy time for Theverymoodyhousehold, making lots of forever memories. We’ve missed out on some social opportunities I dearly would have loved to get to, but coupling together the normal day-to-day boring things (intensity of workload for me due to an impending nation-wide event / household chores and boring mature person things like washing, meal planning ill-health etc etc), with some extraordinary ‘play time’ have meant that life is as chaotic as its ever been.

I previously mentioned that early May was like a new Christmas day for me… my two sisters and partners along with sister in law and niece all descended in Sydneytown on the same day. After months and months of time apart, we wanted to take advantage of the time they could dedicate to me and the boys…and didn’t we just! We had so much fun filling our spare time with adventures… think beach outings, wildlife park visiting, national park visiting, delicious bar and restaurant visiting, bike riding, city visiting, birthday parties etc etc. Maybe I should let some photos do the talking:

All in all, I feel incredibly lucky to have the family that I do (immediate and all the partners/ring-ins). I miss them all dearly when they’re not around. I had written a really long blog post waxing lyrically with the things I should have said to them as they left to go back to their respective lives, but technology worked against me and deleted the post… be aware siblings, feelings and mushy intent publicly coming your way soon!

I am looking forward to settling back into the normal routine Theverymoodyhousehold has (including go-slowday Wednesday), mostly as I don’t think my mind/body can keep up with the work:play ratio March/April/May threw our way. On Sunday night I had a little overwhelmed moment that included a lot of tears in the shower (obviously the best place for it), but after a few good night’s sleep, I feel a little more like life will one day slow down (or maybe I’ve just become a little comfortable with the chaos).

So, next time you ask me how I am, be prepared for a real answer 😃😃

Happy Tuesday xx

Ps. Music that got me home today… A Wilhelm Scream, Cerebral Ballzy, Turbogeist (thank you HBO for Vinyl), The Bouncing Souls and The Bronx.

Today, the second Sunday in May, is a chance to celebrate all the mother’s in your life. All the women who work hard to help shape our future communities.

I wanted to do this post and celebrate all the loving mummas in my life, but also those in each and every mother’s community who strengthen their identity as an individual. It is one’s inner strength and knowledge of self that will go far in raising the future community members, whomever they turn out to be. Here’s to all the loving mummas; past, present and future.

Dear Mummas,
Your resilience knows no bounds.
Your patience is astounding.
Your ability to adapt is inspiring.
Your intuition is important.
You will always shine the light.
You will always know how to solve the problem.
You will always know just what to say.
You will always show the love.
You. Are. Simply. Beautiful.
Love your fellow Mumma, Theverymoodyhousehold Mumma xx

PS. I had simply the best Mothers day – a relaxing breakfast (complete with pastries and delicious, strong coffee), a game of cricket with Giggles Magoo, lots of cuddles with Little Mate, a bike ride with my beautiful sister and two lively family do’s.

PPS. I feel a million miles from the overwhelming chaos Saturday threw my way.

PPPS. I’m incredibly thankful and aware of everything Grimace does to help me be the person and Mumma I am. I am incredibly proud of our boys and our verymoodyhousehold xx

Dedicated to my own inspiring mother. Happy Mother’s Day Gra. The world is certainly a better place with you, your smile and guidance in it.

I owe my current state of whelms to three very important people:
1. My superhero mumma-best friend who took Giggles Magoo to celebrate a dear friend’s 4th birthday
2. My coffee guy Will (or kevin as we call him… he looks remarkably like Kevin Bacon) and his Large FW
3. Dan Andriano and his acoustic album: Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room- Hurricane Season (check him out through the internets or a streaming service)

Combine these three factors with a sleeping Little Mate and I was gifted a 15 minute blissful seat on my back steps in the sun. The perfect amount of time to reflect on recent activities and those coming up. I felt the chaotic pace of life slow right down, and I felt really centred again.

The last few months have seen Theverymoodyhousehold on the go. Very busy work days for both Grimace and I, a few interruptions by lurgies/infections, lots of birthdays and celebrations, throw in a few trips away, public holidays, fantastic visits from family and you’ve got a recipe for disaster (or just a change to the usual pace of life).

All of the things I listed above, with the exception of the sickness part, are things I look forward to. I love taking advantage and creating experiences and  memories, but I’ve found the trick is to intersperse some down time to keep a little balance in life. A walk in the bush. A bike ride. Some time to sit still/quietly without any interruptions (or phones on hand). These down times create space in my life and help me to keep in touch with how I’m feeling. As we’ve been so varied in our activities and pace of life recently, I’ve found it really hard to find this space. Today I was definitely feeling a little overwhelmed at the thought of fitting everything in on my day’s to-do list.

I mentioned in my last blog post that my siblings were all arriving. It has been just wonderful to spend time with each of them, but of course the time I spend with them cannot magically appear – it needs to be taken from the times where boring household things are done… cooking, washing, nappy folding, etc. It just all eventually catches up… and that was this morning. While there is no epic breakdown story to be told, there was recognition that I needed to slow down.

It was amazing how good I felt after my little breather. I felt all set to tackle what life threw at me.

Fast forward 3 hours and whilst not overwhelmed, a little underwhelmed describes my state of mind a little better…  thanks to a gastro bug, theverymoodyhousehold is now laid up at home instead of cheering on the red and white with a few favourites. And my coffee grinder is broken. Happy Saturday

Ps. I should also mention a small phone call/counselling session with Grimace also helped the perspective.

I’m feeling the excitement, the buzz you normally only have for Christmas eve. Most of my siblings have been living far, far away for a while now and for whatever reason…. they are all converging in town today – well, all except my bro (I’ll sadly miss him; although he snuck a visit a month or so ago).

The excitement is intense. I was lucky enough to sneak a coffee date with two of the special souls this morning, which has only added to the anticipation.

I’m. Actually. Going. To. See. My. Family.  Like, real actual face-to-face, not through a computer, family time. The buzz is real!

Work was insanely busy today (including a finger/staple injury to my colleague), and I am incredibly grateful to be given some time (even if it’s only an hour early mark) to spend with them. We’ll pick up Giggles Magoo and Little Mate for some Aunty/Uncle cuddle time, and tomorrow we’re planning on overcoming their European winter by visiting the beach. 

Impending adventures mean I’ll surely have another #familyfunday post to come.

Welcome home xx