When you are where you are meant to be.... things flow.

Yesterday was a strange day. It was my first day after (finally) finishing the uni term, a uni term that had damn near traumatised me. Last term I took on fulltime uni as we had settled into Kalgoorlie to work for 6 months or so and Zac had just started daycare two days a week. However - that "plan" (like many, when you become a parent) was not to be.

Zac instantly hated daycare... He cried from the moment we dropped him off until the moment we picked him up. His teachers were stressed because he seemed to be the "exception" to the whole "Oh, he will be laughing and playing (and stop crying) as soon as you're out ther door", instead - he was very consistant for a couple of weeks at two days a week. We realised this was causing him ALOT of stress and his teachers were having trouble giving him the support he needed because they simply hadn't experienced such a consistantly sad child.

This led to us pulling him out of daycare, I mean - I enjoy every moment with my son. When he is in daycare I miss him terribly. I (honestly) only sent him because it is the "thing you do" but my husband pointed out that alot of our life decisions go against that grain so if I love being with Zac and dont mind having him home full time, then why send him to daycare when he clearly isnt settling in? We believe that he wasnt settling in because of our lifestyle and always moving around, as he previously LOVED his "home-daycare" he used to attend (read: this would have been an entirely different situation if he had have settled in happily - he would still be attending now).

Thus the decision was finalised, and although my time alone went down to basically zero, my uni workload persisted. This lead to a very stressful term for me! I experienced alot of guilt because there were many times I had to just give up and sit Zac in front of the TV so that I could get some work done (those who know me know that I am the kinda mum whom is ALWAYS playing with her child and teaching him things and going outdoors with him when we are together) so this all added to both of our stress levels, which then bounced off eachother even more so.

Anyway, I woke up yesterday with no uni work and was just baffled... We got up slowly and casually, I washed some dishes, tidied the van, got ontop of the washing. Then we went and caught up with some friends we have met here in Kalgoorlie, THEN we came home... and relaxed??!?!?!?!?

..... it was BLISSFUL!

We made the bed so it was nice and neat, then layed on the bed, under the aircon and played cars, puzzles, lego, flash cards, dominoes, for hours. It felt so good to just be able to enjoy Zac again and play with him with my attention all on him. Then around 5:30 in the afternoon I took him for a big walk around Boulder while the sun started to get lower in the sky. Would you believe that after all of this attention, busy day etc. he fell STRAIGHT to sleep when I put him to bed. Wow, It all just felt so right, like it is the way its meant to be for us - like everything was flowing naturally again. (the last three weeks zac has experienced a major sleep regression, thats why this sleep "thing" has been massive for us now).

I hadnt realised how much my desire to get a qualification was affecting Zacs life. I knew I took on too much but I didnt realise how much my inability to keep up with it all was responsible for all of the massive changes Zac has been experiencing lately. With this thought in mind; life feels so blissful again. I love enjoying Zac and making the most of every second I have with him, so I am so happy to get to experience that again.

Today it has been the same, a nice relaxing morning with a little bit of housework. Then the day is ours, to play and learn together, to enjoy eachothers company and experience life together. I feel so lucky to be in a position to be home with my son all the time, I feel grateful that I enjoy his company so much and that I get to really teach him the basics aswell as about life and the world.

So today I am a little "high on life", I feel really happy, relaxed, at ease and inspired. I feel energised and ready to really be the mum I always wanted to be. I know my son would be proud of me in years to come if I could stand up and say "I singlehandedly finished a FULLTIME uni degree in just a few years, while raising my child and having a husband working extremely long hours. Because of this I was able to take on a high paying job and buy my son everything he could have dreamed of", but I know I am raising a child whom would be prouder to be able to say "my mum taught me the ABC, to read, to write, to play and how to be a good person, she was always there when I needed her and my memories are of her time, not of objects".

I feel so grateful for everything my life has brought to me. There have been some substantially tough times, but they have only intensified my desire to sieze the moment, be with my husband and son and experience a simple, happy life.

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?

Little things that bring me happiness..

I like to consider myself an "easily pleased" person - a simple soul. Although I think alot of people attach negative ties to the word and concept of being "simple". I guess I should take a moment to explain that I perhaps define "simple" a little differently and in a far more positive light than others traditionally do. I suppose this is obvious from the title of my blog and the following posts that suggest I like to lead a less "materialistic" life as opposed to being a "simple"- minded halfwit.

So I figured I'd post about a few simplistic, little (I dare not write "small") things that make me feel happy. Some of these are things I do - specifically to create a few moments of happiness, some of these are things that simply happen naturally and then result in happiness and some of them just are what they are. So here goes:

This reminds me of my son because he insists that his be painted aswell if he catches me doing mine. lol (lucky for me though when we do that it doesn't spark worldwide controversy)

- Painting my toe nails freakishly bright (and sometimes mismatched) colours. I used to stick to an extremely unoriginal "red" pedicure (you know the kind, most ladies swear by it). Then one day I was lured in by a beautiful almost flurescent purple colour so I painted it on and everytime I looked down that day I felt cheerful. Today I painted my toe nails a bright watermelon-esque shade which I love to look at and smile. The only issue is that I now have about 20 very much redundant bottles of slightly differing shades of red nail varnish!

- Sunsets/sunrises make me smile, feel positive, feel happy, feel inspired. They are like food for my soul. Setting my alarm and waking up at the crack of dawn to witness a sunrise is like popping a drug for me. It 100% of the time leads to a more relaxed, positive, happy day.

- My sons giggles and cuddles, but no, I'm not sharing those! That crazy little lout and his giggle, I mean it sounds like it should have come out of a five year old girl but nope - it came out of my three year old boy. That sound just makes me pull this "overwhelmed" face. My husband and I look at eachother in amazement, everytime we hear that sound. We are both always shocked by how much happiness it creates within us. I'm still not sure if its the actual sound or what the sound represents. Afterall - for a preant there is no greater joy than a happy child.

- Music - Whether I play the radio softly in the background or plug in my Iphone and crank the volume, it always makes me happier. A few songs guaranteed to make me smile (click on the links after each song to listen to them/watch them on YouTube - you wont regret it - although some of them have advertisment videos you have to click to skip before watching the song):

*Sarah Mclaughlans version of The Beatles "Blackbird"  

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHEOGmiPXyc )

* Seeker Lover Keeper "even though I'm a woman"

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qeLI_6t6ds&ob=av2e )

* Cold Chisel "Flame Trees"
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILd1O44BDqc )

* Ben Harper "Forever" (this was my wedding song)
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzAVDg4m1Q )

* Eagle Eye Cherry "save tonight" (this is for some reason my alltime favourite song)
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTa2Bzlbjv0 )

* Cyndi Lauper "true colours"

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPn0KFlbqX8&ob=av2e )

* Everclear "Everything To Everyone" (there is a little musical add before this clip - just skip the add)

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1vQJFF2TKQ&ob=av2n )

Theres obviously a billion more songs that have this effect on me. It would take me forever to list them all! 

- just going outside for a walk in the fresh air. Works a treat, gets the endorphins flowing.

- Going swimming. I LOVE the water. Sometimes it takes a bit of pushing to get myself to get up and go swimming but I always feel wonderful when I am in the water. It could be the beach, the river, the pool... Even the shower. I love being in the water. It makes me very happy.

- Reading. I love reading a book but its almost impossible to get a quiet minute alone. A good book can take you anywhere, through any emotion any life, anything is possible. I love reading "real life" books like biographies and memoirs. Memoirs are my favourite. I love a good "positive" ending.

- Baking/cooking. That sense of satisfaction when you have somehow managed to grab a bunch of inedible ingredients and fashioned them into a feast.. Its unbeatable. Not to mention the actual amazing sensation of DELICIOUS food on your palette. Mmmm. The cleanup, however... makes me not so happy.

- Playing guitar, I rarely play guitar because my guitar is at my mums house at the moment. Occasionally I whip my husbands one out and I just dont think anything can beat that beautiful, acoustic flow. I love it. Even if I can only remember three chords at the most, they still somehow manage to blend together to create a soothing melody.

- Walking on the beach, but I wont elaborate because theres not much of that going on here in Kalgoorlie (I suggest you "google earth" Kalgoorlie, then you will understand).

- Cuddling/talking to/playing with my guinea pig. Well the "family" guinea pig, whom I tend to hog all to myself. Animals are soothing and beautiful and Pepper- George is no exception to that rule. He is a wonderful creature whom always cheers me up.

- Writing, writing cheers me up, as does reading the writing of others - especially blogs. I lov writing my thoughts and feelings and reading them back over, it gives me as much perspective as a good, solid session with a counsellor or therapist. Somtimes I read back the words I have just written and it's asif it is the first time I have ever heard them, even though my soul has been screaming them for months. Somtimes when I write things down and read it back I learn entirely new things about myself and what makes me tick, things that help me to understand what path I should be following. It may not be like this for everyone, but for me writing is soothing and brings happiness.

There are a myriad of other things and experiences that make me happy but I'd be here forever if I listed them all too. The way I see it is that the little things are as important (if not more so) than the big things. Not only are the little things easier to achieve but they also all add up to create an overall "buzz" of happiness and positivity.

Never underestimate the small, simple, things in life. Never downplay the huge impact they can make on your life. When you lose sight of how important all of the tiny, seemingly insignificent moments are, you lose sight of the big picture too. Don't brush off the little things on the way to some "bigger picture". Those little things along the way are definates, definitive moments of happiness and no matter how fleeting they are, they ARE there whereas the "big picture" may never come or may not be what you expected when it does come.

Moments... can last forever.

Tomorrow its my birthday so here are ten things I have learnt this year.

Tomorrow its my birthday, I am turning 25, a quarter of a centuary. Whoah! I find myself wondering how I got here, it feels like just yesterday I was nineteen years old and my life was dedicated to vodka and pubs and not much else. Now here I am, a mother, a student a wife, wow. Ive accomplished so much in my life and I am not afraid to say that. But I have to honestly say that I am as proud of myself for the years of letting my hair down, partying and not taking life seriously as I am for the years of having a child and studying a uni degree and loving a husband.

Its so easy to "blame" our downfalls in the past as the causers of the bad times right now. But ultimately without every bad experience we wouldnt have made it to the corresponding good experience. Both go hand in hand and I understand and respect that.

So, what *have* I learnt over the past year?

1) Tradgedy can and will strike at any time, it also may define your future, but it is certainly up to you whether that definition is positive or negative. Learn and grow from negative and traumatic experiences.

2)There is beauty in everything and every person, but somtimes you have to look a little harder than others. When you do look a little harder (and perhaps work a little harder to see it) you'll see it in an even more beautiful light than others before you.

3) Children. Know. Everything, they truly do. I mean - everything about how to be happy. If your a mother an aunt an uncle a grandparent - WATCH and learn from the juniors. They can teach you so much about the beauty of the world and finding simplistic joy even when everything seems bleak.

4) No matter how hard you try to be original, you will always find someone just like you. Thats not a bad thing and thats not somthing that you make you "try harder" to be different. You should take comfort in sharing your interests with others.

5) Your family, although you are genetically programmed the same as them, you WILL grow into your own person. You will end up making choices they dont like and vice versa. There comes a point in your life where you have to actively choose to accept or reject them and when you make that choice you must be prepared to live with the consequences and take the good with the bad. Regardless of which option you choose.

6) We should let children, be children, why they are still children. We all grow up so fast and once your childhood is over it really is. I understand that decisions we make for our children now COULD impact there future in all sorts of ways but if every choice you make for your child is born of love, compassion and keeping them safe - you really cannot go wrong. Let children be children, dont push them and frighten them. Let them enjoy those 15 or so years before the *real world* starts.

7) My husband will always do things that piss me off. Its upto me to choose which ones of those are worth arguing over - otherwise we would always be arguing. This year I have learnt ALOT about how it isnt always best to get my own way. I have learnt alot about stepping back and letting others make the choices and pave the way. Ive learnt to let things go, small things like the washing ending up next to, as opposed to IN the basket. Who care's?. Once I almost left my husband over him not washing the dishes, honestly. I made it such a big deal in my head "he isnt washing them because he doesnt love me" (somehow I moulded it back to that idea. Honestly, how would one explain that kind of a decision to their child down the track? Especially considering I love pretty much everything about my husband and Ive never met a person Ive had more laughs and fun with. Gosh, let things go. Let it be.

8) There is so much more to life then dollars and cents. My husband now works entirely to save enough so we can then (not work) and live poor, in our caravan, by a beach somewhere. We always have enough saved for emergencies, for our son, for our bills etc. Thats all we need. If you consider every moment your partner misses out on with his family (or perhaps every moment you miss out on) because of work commitments, consider each moment as a dollar. Then you will spend your dollars alot more carefully. Stand at the register and look at that set of candle holders in your hand and think "These may make the mantlepiece look pretty but nothing is quiet like listening to my husband giggle in the backyard with the kids".

9) You always have to miss someone to have what is RIGHT for you. It will hurt, leaving people and watching people leave you but you cannot follow someone elses journey or stay behind from your own just for the people you will miss. It hurts us, alot, being away from our families year round, but this journey is what we want and we have to focus on that. We also are liberated by the fact that we have the ability to hitch the van on the back of the ute and drive to where they are for a few weeks if we really need to see them.

10) Life. Goes. By. FAST. with every birthday I am baffled at how fast that year came around. You cant stop it, you cant slow it down. All that you have the ability to do is to fill each minute with more joy, each hour with more fun and each day with more love. The more you utilise those moments the less robbed you will feel when another year has passed by. Make the most of every moment. In big and small ways.

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.

The spirit of Australia.



Our very first sunset on the road (at the start of our trip around Australia with our caravan)



We have wanted to live this way - in a van travelling Australia - for quiet a while before we actually managed to get there. We day dreamed about it, talked about it, planned it, everything. But nothing can truly prepare you for the way you actually feel when you attach that van to the back of your car for the first time and head off into the unknown.

The way the endorphins flow, the way every teensy thing you see, hear and feel brings you intense joy and excitement. It's the kind of therapy no counsellor can provide. It invigorates you and brightens your soul. It makes you experience this deep, intense sense of positivity.

Before we left for our new lifestyle, we have nothing. I'm not exagerating. We slept on a mattress on the floor in a spare room in my brothers home (Zac had his own bedroom and bed). We never purchased anything that might potentially be big enough to "hold us back". We made sure we were ready to leave at any point. Like I said - we lived and breathed this dream of travelling Australia.

A camel, in the wild in outback Australia. Such an unreal sight.

However, when we did it, when our day came... The internal feelings were indescribable (but I'll try to describe them). My husband (whom isnt generally one to blabber on about "Senses" and "feelings", couldnt help but describe the experience as overwhelming. Everything we saw, everything we did seemed to have this second, spiritual presence. We were seeing such beautiful landscapes and interesting historical artifacts but everything touched deeper than our eyes and our brains. The history and culture seeped in deeper.

Nothing can prepare you for the spiritual aspect of travelling this beautiful country. No amount of grocery shopping or mapping can prepare you for the sight of the sun setting over the beach after travelling from Port Augusta (at the bottom of SA) straight up the middle (or "Red centre") of Australia to the opposite side of Australia - Darwin.

One of the first times we looked in every direction and realised there really was nothing and no one nearby.

Your endorphins flow, your heart races, the air feels different, smells different, is different. The sun sets over the waves. The beauty and spirituality of it will stay with you forever but will shock you everytime you feel it.

Positive thinking by seeing the world through the eyes of a child.

I was walking on the beach with my two and a half year old son this morning. We were wandering around sifting through the sand for shells. I would search and search to find the prettiest, most perfect unbroken shells then I would pick them up and show them to him and talk about how beautiful they were, their color, shape and size. Eventually he began picking up shells too and genuinely exclaiming over their beauty, describing their colors and talking about how special he thought they were. He seemed in awe of the shells and their beauty, which was wonderful.


Then came an extremely humbling realization, all of the shells he picked up were broken, faded, cracked or simply just tiny fragments of what I am certain would have been magnificent whole shells prior to them breaking down. Yet to this small boy unaffected by the emotions and opinions of the adult world, these fragmented shells were of extraordinary beauty and were just as special and worthy of collection as any of my perfect handful that I so carefully selected.

 I know it's a completely unoriginal idea to try and asses your surroundings, the world you live in through childlike eyes with only childlike opinions but I have to say, to me, this was the most clear example of that concept I could ever have experienced. To me this was not just a beautiful moment but a fundamentally important life lesson. A lesson about the obvious need to slow down and really experience the world. It was also a lesson about allowing yourself to soak up beauty in all of it's natural forms not just the refined images presented by the media.

When you look at the world through childlike eyes and you process it through a childlike mind it's like attaching a sieve to your brain, the horrible things, the problems, the constraints of time and financial obligations cease to exist. Suddenly stopping to smell the flowers along the side of the pathway becomes more important than than arriving at your destination on time. putting chocolate cake mix on each others noses and licking it off through fits of giggles becomes more important than baking the perfect cake and eating it after you have finished all your vegetables. Suddenly the concept of fear of death or illness dissipates and you begin to experience the rejuvenating feeling of childlike energy and young blood pulsing through your veins.

  

You let go of all the pain and sadness and even though it's momentary, it's blissful and reassuring. Faith is restored and subconscious storage areas within your being are topped up with love and excitement and positivity. Your dormant imagination is slowly ticking back into action and even though the cogs are creaking the motions are taking you further into a captivating world of innocence and fun.

Exploring the world and accepting it into your mind with childlike innocence seems so foreign and difficult to many people, and even to those who see it as simple - implementing it into their lives rarely proves as simple as it seems. Were naturally inclined to over think things especially when we know they have the capacity to change our lives for the better. But as with any healing or enlightening change, you should allow it to naturally flow into your life. Don't try to remind yourself to focus on adapting the changes into your life. Don't think at all, just slow down. Walk a little slower, look a little wider, hug a little longer and chat a little 'sillier'.

frugalise it!

I've been really full on with my "penny pinching" techniques lately. I have to honestly say this is the best effort at sticking to a budget I have ever made. In all honestly, it's actually the first time in my ENTIRE adult life I have ever been able to stick to me self imposed budget. I'm feeling pretty proud about it and for the most part its been quiet easy.

I have picked up ALOT of "penny pinching" techniques from different online forums and just general common sense. Some of the things I have been doing?

- I bought 12 white facewashers, 12 brown face washer, a big (homebrand) bottle of nappysoak and two small buckets. Now I use the white washers to clean up my son after meals (instead of baby wipes) and the brown washers are for cleaning benches/floors/walls etc. Whenever I finish with one I pop it straight in the bucket to soak then every few days I run them through the wash.

- only using half the amount of products like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, washing powder, dish washing liquid, spray and wipe, hand wash, etc. Essentially this means all of these products WILL last twice as long so I will go from buying them once every six weeks to now buying them once every three months. (therefore 4 times a year instead of 8 times a year).

- cooking EVERYTHING at home, from scratch. Buy doing this I have eliminated MANY prepaged/jarred foods some of those are - variety pack chips, spaghetti bolognaise sauce jars, macaroni cheese sauce jars, curry sauce jars, stroganoff sauce jars, apricot chicken sauce jars, gravy (gravox), white sauce, cheese sauce, cakes, muffins, bread, biscuits, flavour sachets (eg. taco seasoning) and MANY other snack foods. I now make all of my husbands work snacks (such as meusli bars, cocnut slice etc) rather than buying pre-packaged snackfoods for him. We also have not been having ANY takeaway/takeout nor have we been out for a meal other than packing our food and taking it somewhere for a picnic.

- Three of the big things we spent money on were A) buying drinks at the service station. B) buying magazines (think: celebrity gossip/health magazines/etc). C) late night junk food cravings. We decided to elimenate ALL of these by A) buying the types of drinks we would impulse buy - with our groceries (they are WAY cheaper in 4 or 6 packs from the supermarkets, plus if you go in when they are on special you can get TWO 24 packs of cans of diet coke for $30 instead of for about $48. We then put a few in the fridge each week and grab them as we are running out to leave the house. B) I now get ALL my celebrity gossip fixes, health tips etc from the internet, duh! Its free, its accessable 24/7 without leaving your lounge/bed. Too easy! D) I learn a little recipe called "cake in a mug".... I ALWAYS have the basic ingredients needed for it so if im desperately craving chocolate I make one of these (but leave it slightly undercooked and gooey) and hubby and I share the one. It literally takes three minutes from pantry to mouth and tastes amazing (especially if you use brown sugar instead of white). (Cake in a mug recipe -

http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/05/29/the-five-minute-chocolate-mug-cake/ )

We have many other changes too which I will outline further down the track but right now I can honestly say that just these few simple changes have made a MASSIVE change in our weekly finances. Cooking everything at home can save you so much money and cooking everything from scratch puts yet another noticeable dent in the grocery bill, you will be amazed. I feel like these changes are such a small sacrafice in the grand scheme of things.

I basically think about it terms of how much time my beautiful husband has to spend at work. Every minute is a dollar and if we are spending them as fast as he is making them then he wont be leaving anytime soon. I'd much rather park our caravan at a beach somewhere and spend every moment having fun in the sun with Brent and Zac as opposed to having takeaway food regularly. Ultimately I nearly always either feel sick after takeaway OR dont *actually* get given what I ordered. I could honestly say that about 95% of my "takeaway food experiences" have left me highly dissapointed aswell as shocked at their cost (upto $50 for one nights worth of dinner).

So the more I penny pinch the less he works - the more time we have together, as a family and as a couple. Sounds blissful to me.

Why in the world would I want to miss beautiful moments like the photo above which is of my husband and son on the beach at Lee Point in Darwin during sunset. We only live one life and I hate wasting moments.

Have a beautiful evening everyone.