Giving so much yet receiving even more.

I have found myself thinking alot lately about people less fortunate than us. I hate the thought of people 'going without' when my family has such an abundance of 'things' (despite living in a caravan).

Where am I going with this?
I took some time this week to go through our caravan. I somehow managed to find an entire box of books, close to 6 bags of clothing (mine, Brents and Zacs) and a few toys, houshold items etc. I put it all in boxes and donated it to a wonderful local woman whom distributes the good she recieves among local, struggling families, nearby aboriginal communites and multiple charities.

This got me thinking about what we need V's what we dont need
I realised that my son had draws of clothes (two VERY deep draws and the top half of a wardrobe, to be exact). He has this same amount (and somtimes more) every year (for every different size) and for the warm and cold seasons. The more I thought about this the more excessive it seemed to me. I mean, he barely even gets to through the top three items of each pile and they are all at least ten, maybe fifteen items deep.

Yet there are children out there with hardly any clothing
There are so many children I see around from families whom struggle to make ends meet, from local aboriginal communities and children that have runaway from home, or young teenagers whom have children and also struggle to make ends meet. Yet my son, Brent (my husband) and I, have wardrobes full of clothing we dont even wear one tenth of.

What can you and your family do without?
Im sure you have things in your home you could do without. Things you dont use anymore or things you bought "just incase" but know you wont use. Things that were given to you as gifts or given to your children but are no longer used. These things not only take up space in your house but owning them takes up space in your mind (remember, at any given time you can respond to someone if they ask if you own a particular item, even if its out of your sight or hasnt been used in years, this means that all of those bits and pieces laying around in your house are taking up precious space in your mind, being stored up there so you can remember them if you ever need to reference them or use them).

Getting rid of these items, downsizing your childrens toys, your wardrobes, the "bits and bobs" in your numberous 'junk draws', wont just free up space in your house, it will take away some of the clutter from inside your mind. Why do you think it always feels so great when you fill a trailor load to go to the tip or fill the back seat of your car with items to go to charity? Those items are no longer needing to be organised and retained in your mind.

Books and toys
Our children accumulate so many books and toys over the years. They get more of them for Christmas and birthdays yet the old ones stick around too. So many children go without gifts, go without toys and books. These small, seemingly 'silly' items can bring so much joy to children experiencing adverse living situations or tough times financially for their family.

Clear out before santa comes
Have you ever thought about clearing out before santa comes? Rather than keeping all of the older, outdated, no longer used or no longer age appropriate books and toys can create more room. I make a point of going through my sons toys for items that are no longer age appropriate for him. These are the type of toys that are made for children a little younger (like he was when I bought them) the kind of toys that are find for a small, less coordinated two year old, but a rowdy three year old will simply break as opposed to enjoy. I take these toys out when the new, more grown up toys come in at special times of the year. Then I can donate the no longer age appropriate toys, to other children, still in great condition.

This means that other children are able to enjoy them, I have recycled, I have potentially given children gifts whom may not have recieved them (and therefore put a smile on their face), ive taught my son about being generous and humble and I've also create room in our home, lives, time, and minds for new, age appropriate toys and books.

What about all of that food?
We all have them... Those various, random jars and tins at the back of our pantry. The items we bought on sale when we seen those alluring yellow signs stating "two for one" and so on. I had so much food in our van that I not only had a full pantry with jars and packets of food (aswell as overhead cabinets full of baking ingredients) - I also had a 55 litre plastic tub (or two) in my annex full of food. I went through and donated all of the excess items. They were being wasted sitting there, they were things we had bought incase of needing extra food one week, but had never used. There were tinned versions of items we are able to afford to buy fresh, there were tinned soups but now i have learned how to make my own, there were graxy mixes (but now I make my own from scratch) same goes for spaghetti sauces, pasta sauces, prepackaged flavoured pastas etc. All of the things I have learned to (and now prefer to) make myself, from scratch.

So I decided to donate them all to a local food bank. I donated an entire 55 litre tub and I was informed that it was promtly delivered to a family who honestly didnt know how they were going to eat that week. They had small children and like all of us experience at some point in our lives - were struggling financially. These items would have sat in our pantry, even though we already had enough food to last weeks, maybe even a month or two. While a family could have been sitting at their table wondering how they would feed their children.

You may not having any items to give?
How about your time? Its true what they say - time is precious. If you have a few hours to spare why not donate them to a worthy cause. You can search (online or locally) to find somthing that suits you, your age, your capabilities, your time, commitments etc. There is a charity option for everyone. You dont have to give items, you can give a helping hand. You can volunteer to help young mothers learn domestic skills, to teach craft to aboriginal children in outback communities, to read stories to children, to have a chat with the elderly, to plant trees or care for animals. There are so many ways to give back to the community that gives so much to you.

The emptyness makes me smile
I look around our caravan and our wardrobes are no longer overstuffed (they are infact half empty), yet we are comfortably clothed, Our kitchen cupboards and draws are no longer jammed with unused utencils and food items but our stomachs are full. My son isnt lost in a sea of toys, yet he is entertained and content. All of the things we have given away have not taken a thing away from our life but have potentially brought some joy to someone elses.

Dont hold onto it

Why sit there, with all of these unused items, for no reason, when they could bring joy and comfort to the lives of others. Knowing you have helped people can also bring joy and comfort to your own life.

Christmas is a time for giving, what can you give?

Budget friendly Christmas Craft for kids

I try to do an art or craft project with my son (Zac) every day, sometimes they are as simple as drawing with pencils/painting and other days we make collages with things like leaves or different items from our craft kit. I absolutely love craft (probably more so than my son) but not the “adult kinds” like scrapbooking etc. because I am far too messy to make anything that is actually presentable or even remotely artistic. Craft is a brilliant activity to do with your children, even just once a week or whenever you have time. It allows them to explore their imagination, learn new skills and ideas, develop their fine motor skills and it also gives them valuable quality time with you.

For Zacs birthday I made him a “craft box” I simply bought small bits and pieces (mainly from cheap shops like “Crazy Clarks”) like paints, feathers, sequins, glue, texta’s, paddle pop sticks, googly eyes and anything else I could find. It didn’t cost much and it’s a great gift for family and friends to “build on” for your child’s birthdays and Christmas. We have built his “craft box” up over the last year and a half and it now takes up an entire 55 litre plastic container (and gives us hours of enjoyment). But you don’t have to have a lot of craft supplies to be able to make amazing creations.

We ended up finding these nifty little cases for quite cheap at Super Cheap Auto so we bought two of them to house the “collage items”. These cases make the items far easier for Zac to look over and make his own choice about what he would like to work with. They are a great way to organise your child’s craft supplies.

Today we decided on some “Christmas craft”, we decided to make our own Christmas decorations. I googled recipes for dough that could be cooked (and solidified) then painted and it came back with this recipe:

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons oil

4 tablespoons cream of tarter

1 cup of water

We threw it all in together (adding extra flour or water when needed) mixed it up, rolled it out and then ‘went to town’ with our cookie cutters! Once Zac had cut out all the shapes he wanted, we poked holes in them (for the ribbon) and put them on a baking tray in the oven set to 180 degrees until they were brown/solid.

We then painted them all with beautiful colours and decorated them with glitter and sequins in the Christmas colours, then added the ribbon. Try to excuse the white "glue marks" all over them as I took this photo before they had dried completely. We are going to send these out with Zacs framed Santa photo to Zac’s grandparents and aunts and uncles. They are a simple, cheap gift that you could give out straight from your child! My sons  only three but I am sure that your older children could do alot more intricate designs and you could always seal them with a quick spray of clear coat to make them last for a long time.

The decorations pictured above are some we made a few weeks ago, they are simple and very budget friendly. All we did was paint pictures using mostly Christmas colours, let the paintings dry then cut out Christmas ornament shapes. We then glued glitter and sequins on and used a sparkly pipe cleaner to hang them. You could use chopped up bits of paper from magazines/packaging etc to decorate them and leftover ribbon to hang them.

Another budget friendly craft project we did recently was this nature collage. We “made a day” out of this one by spending part of the day walking through gardens and bushlands near a local park, collecting leaves, gumnuts and dirt. We then went home and cut out the backboard from the side of a Froot Loops box, we covered the cardboard with PVA glue and Zac stuck all the different nature items onto the page (while we talked about where they came from and what they were).

Another of our budget friendly craft projects involves a lot of cardboard boxes. I collect EVERY cardboard box (all shapes and sizes) from any grocery items, tissues, toilet rolls, egg cartons, gifts etc. then once we have a big collection we will spend one day assembling (with masking tape) robots, cars and anything else we think of. The next day we will paint them all. Then on the third day when they are all dry my son will spend the majority of an entire day playing with them. That’s three days worth of exciting activities for the cost of a little conscious recycling!

Children can learn so much from simple craft projects and there are so many different ways to enjoy these activities with your child. There is a craft activity for every budget!

Just a few thoughts on positivity and nature.

Before we began this adventure we were different to whom we are today. There is no denying that living on the road promotes a lot of personal change and growth, as does any dramatic change in your life. We knew there would be changes, well we hoped, but we didn’t realise they would be so dramatic.

You can easily account for all of the physical ways your life will change but there is no way you can prepare for how much that will spill into the mental/emotional aspects of what makes you, you. You discover new (and sometimes old) things about yourself, you reignite passion that had been lost in routine and you let go, of many negative past experiences. I like to consider myself a spiritual or thoughtful person so read on for my interpretation of the change and growth I have experienced as a result of this adventure.

'Let it go'

For me, the “letting go” has been the most dramatic change. I was an extremely “hardened” person due to being let down by the world, many times in my short life and never truly understanding why. For someone of just 25 years of age I had experienced enough loss to last a lifetime, enough emotional and physical pain to really start to feel that the world “had it in” for poor little me (don’t we all feel that way sometimes, though?). I didn’t understand all of the bad things that had happened and I gauged my self-worth, and ability to be happy based on the negative experiences of the past.

This kind of mindset had fashioned me into a stressed, over-emotional, pessimistic shadow of the woman I hoped to be. It dictated my days, my relationships with others and my passion for life, in subtle and overwhelming ways.  Even when I was happy and content ‘in the moment’ I was aware and held back by the fact that it could all be taken away at any second and nothing was within my control.

When we moved into our van and began travelling I didn’t necessarily gain a massive amount of control that had been missing from my life. I gained an entirely new perspective and emotional response to my past. I gained the ability to “let it go”. I’m not 100% sure of what aspect of the adventure facilitated this element of growth, whether it was the actual act of downsizing and leaving everyone and everything we knew. Perhaps it was seeing a new place every day or meeting new people or all of these things combined? I know it certainly had something to do with being so close to nature.

I tend to harp on a lot about the healing power nature possesses, because I genuinely believe it played a role in my personal growth. Immersing yourself in nature is not only reaffirming but the minimalistic non-material aspect of it makes it something you can subconsciously depend on when other resources may dry up. You don’t need to control nature yet you don’t feel disconnected from your own future when you immerse yourself in it. Being able to seek out nature (by going on camping trips or picnics or even travelling Australia in a van or tent) and wander through a forest or watch a sunset over the beach provides the most simplistic form of joy and happiness.

What do you see when you look at this photo? Nothing? The outback? I see "Mundi Mundi Plains" a place where the flat lands stretch out so far that you can actually see the curvature of the earth. Seeing somthing like this certainly gives you a different perspective on the world.

For me, enjoying nature and the outdoors has been fundamental to growing as a person. When I sit on a beach and watch the sunset, or let the red sand of the dessert sift through my fingers I experience optimistic emotions and a vigour or passion for life. I feel inspired by nature and its beauty. I let go of the past and relax, physically and mentally, into the woman I am meant to be. My family and I relax and we are flooded with endorphins and energy to conquer any emotional or physical barrier. Never underestimate the positive effect that getting outside and immersing yourself and your family in nature could have on your life, your relationships and your overall happiness.

Sometimes life on the road can be lonely.

The isolation of living on the road

Living on the road can result in feelings of isolation. You discover really quickly how much harder life is without a support system by realising all the little ways you depended on it.  When I lived in towns close to family and friends I still considered myself mostly independent, so obviously I was shocked when I realised how complex life can be without the people I am close to.

After a few months of being on the road it finally clicked

I realised that it’s not about what your support system do for you, it’s about knowing you have them, knowing they will catch you if you fall. When you take that away, even though you aren’t actually taking away regular “physical” help, you are taking away this unconscious fundamental part of your psyche. The part of your mind that  pushes you to challenge yourself under the pretence of your subconscious being able to instantaneously assess what sort of help and support you will have in the event of a failure.

Overwhelming moments

Once you’re on the road and “on your own” and you challenge yourself you can sometimes find yourself becoming very overwhelmed at things that may not have previously overwhelmed you. On the flipside you may also find yourself taking on greater challenges as your confidence soars as a result of being on such an adventure. Sometimes I feel as though I become more overwhelmed by tasks because I know that it’s all “on me”, I can’t phone a friend to race over and assist with babysitting duties.  When these moments strike I have to try really hard to focus on the positives of our situation.

Thats our van on the left. This is how we camped at Douglas Hot Springs and ended up having a wonderful night by the fire in the centre of the three vans, with both our neighbours. We told stories, toasted marshmellows and enjoyed a few drinks. The man in the van on the right was an author, travelling Australia selling his book so he was extremely interesting for a chat!  

We’re all in this together

Although it is hard being away from your friends and family for the most part of the year, not knowing anyone and not having any support, this lifestyle still brings a lot of joy. For every close friend or family member I don’t see every day I meet a beautiful new person, even if sometimes it’s just for a few hours or a few days. Everyone on the road is in the same situation and because of this “we stick together”.

Quality time V quantity of time

This is especially relevant when camping in more remote areas and at road side “free camps” (rest stops). You spend a lot of quality, uninterrupted time together with people in a short time frame and because of that you get to know them really fast.  Everyone is very relaxed because, ultimately, they are all on holidays.  There is no T.V and mobile phones, you all just sit together by a camp fire and talk about the places you have seen and life in general.

How can I help you

One of the greatest things about being on the road is the way that everyone has something they want to give to others whether it is a message, a lesson or an actual item. Everyone has something to share.  This kind of sharing and giving fills the void of the moments and support your friends and family “at home” bring to your life. Along the road you will have many experiences where you will be having a “down day” and someone will come into your life in a seemingly insignificant way or maybe a big way, but it will bring something to your day and fill the void for the time being.

 For example: we met a young family at one point along the way and ended up spending time in two towns with them. Once we moved on from there (in a different direction to them) we were feeling a bit down and disconnected due to not “socialising” with other people for a few days. We ended up finding a motorhome broken down on the side of the road. They were absolutely destitute and the sun was setting. They had run out of fuel. We ended up giving them the contents of our Jerry can (which luckily was enough to get them to the next service station). We said they didn’t have to pay us but they gave us $50 for about $25 worth of fuel (refused to give us any less). This little stop with these people, which allowed US to help them made us feel refreshed and useful and connected. As we got in the car to drive away the man ran back over and handed us a lovely bottle of wine from his own winery, as a gift of gratitude. We ran into them at the next town and it was reaffirming to see a “familiar face”.

A bit of Zen

I believe that everything in life (and hence everything on the road) is a complementary process. For every negative there comes a positive, it’s not always enough to balance out the magnitude of the negative but it’s a reaffirming experience to say the least. When you have a bad day, spend the next day looking especially hard for the positives, they ARE there.

We all have something special to offer

I can guarantee you that when you are on the road, for every person you spend your days missing you will meet someone that brings something to your life – whether it is a beautiful story, a shared meal, a bottle of wine or a chat by the fire. There’s something humbling and reaffirming about connecting with a stranger along the road and I’m sure you will bring something special to their day too. After all, when we are feeling lonely, at least we are all lonely together.

Procrastination.... and motivation tips.

This is somthing I am far too familiar with, I do it everyday and funnily enough I am doing it right now. I am currently procrastinating from working on an assigment that is due on Sunday, yes... the Sunday that is about 48 hours away. Most of my procrastination comes back to uni related tasks, coincedence? I think not.
Lol.

I look for any excuse to procrastinate from doing my uni work until the absolute last minute. The only bonus of this is that my home (caravan/annex) is nearly always spotless during the "school term" because I EVEN choose cleaning over uni. My fridge and freezer becomes topped with baked goods, our linen is all fresh as a daisy and cleaning my floors even miraculously makes its way to the top of my "to-do" list.

Don't get me wrong, I stay up to date with my work every week, its just the assignments that I put off until the end of the day, every day. I work on them when I have absolutely run out of anything else to use to procrastinate from them. At this point my husband and son are tucked into bed (bellies full of intricate dinners and baked goods that "coincedently" took all my uni hours to make). Then I sit down and admit defeat! Its not that I don't love uni, I really do. I love what I am learning about (Bachelor of Applied Social Science - a counselling degree) but I can't work on it unless it is my only focus and I know I wont be interrupted, so until that point of the day, I avoid it.

I've been looking online for some "motivational tips" so I thought I would compile a list of a few I have thought of and a few I have found. If you're anything like me and always seem to be procrastinating these may help you:

Motivation tips

Up and At 'em:

Hop up and go for a quick walk around the block, a bit of fresh air and free flowing endorphins might help a little. This also clears your mind and "refreshes" you. This one is great for people who are studying and have spent too many hours on the one thing and need to see the content with "fresh eyes".

Move to the beat:

Wake to a motivating sound. Use a clock radio or timer on a CD player or computer so the first thing you hear is music or an uplifting song. Or you could use music to motivate you during the day by playing the radio. I love music and nearly always have the radio playing in the background so somtimes I will gie myself a challenge, like "for the entire next song, sweep the floor". You could also use this for exercise motivation - do a different type of exercise for each song (eg: star jumps for the first, squats for the second and sit ups for the third).

Give yourself a reward:

Perhaps even "bribe" yourself with the promise of a reward. For example: When I get all of the floors swept and mopped I will sit down and relax with my book for half an hour as a reward.

Catch up:

Ring a friend, family member etc. Whenever I ring my mum (we talk for hours somtimes) I will find that I potter around while I am on the phone. I pick up random bits of washing and put them where they belong and just keep pottering until I hope off the phone. Usually by the end of the conversation the place is quiet tidy. If it doesnt work that way for you, simply having a nice conversation with someone you love might give you a little kickstart to get stuck into things when you hope off the phone.

To do or To dont:

Write out a "to-do" list the night before. Write all of the items on it in order of importance and sit it somewhere you will see it first thing in the morning. While you eat your breakfast/drink your coffee etc - read over the list. For some people watch the list shrink in front of your eyes as you cross items off it is enough motivation, for others just having it all there making you feel even guilter about not having done it, can be effective (lol). Whatever works for you..

Have a shower:

I find that on the days I get straight out of bed and into a refreshing (hot or cold, dependent on the season) shower, my motivation levels skyrocket. I suppose that physically it's like a "jolt" from zombie-land waking you both physically and mentally. By the time I get back from the shower I feel ready to have a crack at the day. This one is especially effective on those days where you REALLY feel like you'd rather stay in bed for a month than get up and make breakfast for the kids.

If All Else Fails:

As a last resort I turn to a caffienated drink eg. Diet coke! Somtimes it's just what I need and because I dont drink it very often it has a fairly strong effect on my energy/motivation levels.


and then some days..

Id love to share with you a wonderful and article I found on self motivation, follow the link for a brilliant inspiring read.

http://sidsavara.com/personal-development/how-to-get-motivated-tips

When I stop matching and I let some colour into my life.

Ive always been a big fan of "matching" outfits perfectly. I like to make sure everything flows perfectly. I was basically anal about it. This included jewellery being the same colour/pattern etc and even small accessories like belts and things had to mesh with the outfit perfectly.

Since we began our trip around Australia I have relaxed a LOT, not just generally relaxed (because, yes, this trip has given me alot of opportunities to relax and do nothing) but actually relaxed my own views on things. Ive also relaxed my stress levels a hell of a lot.

Take some time to relax and remember who you are. You may feel like you're meeting yourself for the first time.

Ive notice that slowly but surely my clothing regime has relaxed too... my matching isnt so full on anymore. I was thinking about this today because my mother in law bought me a Pandora bracelet, for my 25th birthday. I looked at the myriad of different beads witht heir alternate coloured metals, resins, diamantes, etc. I thought "What theme will I choose"?. Then I decided on none. So today for my birthday my husband bought me a blue charm, for christmas I'd like a purple charm, I already have a couple of silver charms and my sister has bought me a gold one for christmas.

(This isnt my bracelt, I'm only upto five beads so far!)

This kind of non-matching-ness would have caused me... incredible amounts of stress in the past - to the point of me not even bothering to wear the very expensive gift. However now I look at the beautiful mixture of colours and metals and I feel happy. They are like a rainbow of heart warming trinkets in soul lifting rainbow colours.

You could add a little colour or alot of colour.

Colour makes me so happy these days. I understand why "hippy-esque" people surround themselves in tonnes of different colours and patterns, it makes you happy. It's as though the colours can actually lift your mood, ,which can genuinely change your level of positivity and thus can have a phenominal effect on your day. Its unreal. A colour injection is almost like a positivity injection.

Even hanging a few of these babies around your patio with twinkling candles (or battery operate candles) inside them, would add a colourful touch.

injecting a little colour into your surroundings, your life, your wardrobe or even your jewellery can really have a mood lifting effect. I think thats why I feel so cheerful when my christmas decorations go up. I know theres the notion of the "christma spirit" which is meant to sort of "click in" when the jolly time arrives, however I put my decorations up on the first of November (eager beaver). The second they went up I felt cheerful. Every time I walk out into the annex (especially at night with the multicoloured twinkling star-lights I put up) I feel cheerful and breezy and relaxed.

Beautiful colours..

There are so many wonderful ways to inject a little colour into your life. You could even just switch up the wardrobe you already have to wear different things together. You could "craft" up your own ornaments or decorations to go up in your home (christmassy or non), pick some colourful flowers from your garden or pinch them from your neighbours (just kidding!). If all else fails - go to the opshop and buy one of those crazy technicolour/multicolour tye dyed satchel bags you see frequenting the Byron Bay region. They are cheap and I can guarantee all you have to do is hang the thing from the corner of your bedroom door and looking at it will ignite a little spark, even if you dont have the lady-balls to wear it up-town.

El-cheapo food.

My husband works seven days of day shift, then has four days off then works seven nights of night shift then four days off (over and over). So in order to keep our grocery budget as low as possibe I've developed a "fail proof" routine.

Grocery shopping, ARGH!

I grocery shop in his days off before he begins the week of dayshift. Once I get all the groceries home I bake him a batch of muffins for the week, some sort of a slice and I make a ginormous batch of "chilli con carne" style mince (with lots of red kidney beans and tomatoes) and cook it into single sized pies in my pie maker. Each day that week he takes a piece of fruit, 1-2 pies, some slice/cake 2 and a few ham and salad sandwiches or rolls. Then each of those 7 nights of his dayshift week when I make dinner I freeze the leftovers (which can be anywhere from 1 - 3 serves) in containers that he can take to work and put in the pie warmer on his night shift week. So when his night shift week comes around I dont have to do ANY cooking for meals (I make myself simple, single serve meals each night like omelletes, toasted sandwiches etc). So right before his nightshift week starts I will bake another big batch of snack food (slices/cake etc), more savoury muffins (or whatever else he wants that week) and a big batch of homade sausage rolls. Then for that week he will take a pre-made meal, a sausage roll or two, and the snack food and a piece of fruit. Its really simple.

Sausage rolls are cheap, easy and freezable. I also find that rather than buying the tubes of sausage mince for them it is cheaper to buy a 2kg packet of bulk sausages and just remove 50% of them from their cases (mix in a bowl with a couple of cups of breadcrums, some garlic, herbs, sauces etc) and then freeze the other 50% of the packet for your "sausage meals".

This means that  I shop for a 18 day period at a time. Which generally costs me about $300 - $350 (which includes $50+ to use halfway through that time period to restock fresh vegies, milk etc).

Make taco mince go further with red kidney beans you could even use this to make the meal cheaper so you can afford to buy the "heart smart" or "healthier" mince instead of the normal, fatty mince.

It also makes life easier for me as I only have to cook for about ten of the 18 nights. I also will buy things like (for example) two "Taco kits" (boxed kits to make tacos for dinner). Each kit is supposed to take 500grams of mince but on the first night that we have tacos (generally on my husbands "off work" nights) I will fry up ONE lot of 500grams of mince with the seasoning and add a VERY cheap can of red kidney beans. Then when the meat is cooked I can split it into two, use half for that nights dinner and freeze half so we can have it for tacos the next week. This saves money AND once again saves time because all i then have to do the next week is pull the mixture from the freezer and defrost/reheat it.

Red kidney beans are a brilliant resource for making your mince go further and you can put them in pretty much any of your mince based dishes from tacos to pies to spaghetti bolognaise and they will make it last an entire extra meal.

Introduction and "About me".

The red line is our trip so far over about an 8 month period

Hi guys (or "no-one" considering no one knows about this blog and I've just made it, lol).

This blog wont be about much specifically it will mostly be about everything and anything to do with my life.

Sometimes I will post weird, seemingly "hippy-esque" posts about positivity and mindfullness. Other times I will post things about domesticity, budgetting and cooking. There will be alot of times when I post about simplifying your life, getting rid of things and downsizing. There will be a heap of stuff about my simple life - living in a caravan with my husband and our three year old son, travelling Australia slowly. Occasionally ill post about my never ending quest to lose weight. Some days I might feel like writing about my pet guinea pig and other days I might feel like writing about my family. Either way - there will be somthing for everyone but everything may not always be "your thing".

A bit about me?

Okie doke;

My name is Mel, I'm 25 years old I'm currently studying a Bachelor of Applied Social Science, to become a counsellor. I live in a caravan with my husband, Brent - whom I have been with for over five years and our three year old son Zac, Oh, and our little guinea pig "Pepper George". We moved into our caravan nearly a year ago after my husbands lost his father and younger brother to a fatal car accident. We realised life was far too short to sit around waiting for the right time to do take this adventure. So far our trip around Australia has been a healing, reaffirming and downright fun experience but we still have alot left to see.

Every day we spend on the road makes us more certain that we never want to give up this lifestyle, so I really cannot see us "settling down" indefinately for a long time. We are currently stopped in Kalgoorlie (central WA) for 6 months to a year to save so we can travel for another 6months (possibly a year) and after only two months of being here we are already super keen to get back on the road and see some more of this beautiful country.

I am a fulltime "Stay at Home Mum" to our little boy, as well as a full time student (via correspondence) I also endeavour to cook everything we eat from scratch and avoid takeaway and eating out as MUCH as possible. My husband workd 7 on 4 off and while he is at work for the seven days he does 84 hours of work. So we are both extremely busy and active. I have recently become an avid budgeter and am trying to "frugalise" our lives as much as possible in an attempt to expand our savings as MUCH as possible (and as fast as possible) in order to extend our time on the road without my husband having to work.

I will include a photo that explains our journey so far which was done in a VERY fast 8 months, so obviously we missed alot and have alot of plans to travel and retravel AND retravel again alot of the same places to see things we missed and to re-explore things we loved. The red line on the image is our trip so far.

My husband and I at Ayers Rock in N.T

Also this link ( http://feelingasfreeasabird.blogspot.com/ ) is for our "travel blog" the blog we updated on our way around Australia. It did however end just before we arrived in Darwin, as the second part of the trip was done extremely quickly so I do have a few updates to add. I will add the rest of the trip from Darwin to Kalgoorlie once I go onto uni holidays and have a bit more time on my hands, until then anyone interested is welcome to go there and read back through the entries and look at the photos.