I am a mum of four daughters, a position in life I will never take for granted, nor will I diminish by saying “it’s just a job”. I feel extremely blessed to be given this opportunity, a chance to raise four strong, independent, self aware, confident, young women who I am hoping, will hold the utmost respect for themselves before anyone else.Every day I strive to put my best ‘female’ foot forward. I am always conscious of leading with a strong healthy attitude towards life, and constantly engage in conversations promoting the importance of self-worth. My girls are told every day that they matter, and they do – no more or no less than your daughter.I often find myself thinking about where this passion for self-worth comes from. I don’t remember mum ever telling me she was off to burn her bra, nor do I remember any occasion when the woman’s movement held a meeting at our house – yet somehow I became very “at peace” with myself from such an early age in life. A quality I am so anxious to pass on to my girls.For me to gain more of an insight into how I evolved to this level of thinking/feeling, I find myself reflecting on the female role model I had and still have, my Mum!Never did I see my mum pause for more than 5 minutes in front of a mirror, she looked turned sideways, glanced again and then left, (looking as gorgeous as ever.) Never did I see my mum apply more than face powder, lipstick and hair spray before she walked out the door. Never did I see my mum stand on the bathroom scales and highlight to me that she was unhappy with her weight (even if she was) Never did I hear my mum tell me I had ‘let myself go’ and needed to lose a few pounds (even if I did) Never did I see my mum flick through a magazine in the hope to find inspiration from the pages within. (And for the record at 76 my mum can still “rock it” with the best of them!)It is my belief, that my mum leads her life with the greatest sense of authenticity a soul could have. Mum unknowingly led me on my own journey towards self-worth through her everyday actions – a footprint I am hoping to leave on my girls. So away with the scales, no time for the mirror and yes I will have that second TIM TAM thank you. It is an age old saying that will ring true always – “Actions speak louder than words” – Our girls are always watching, so lead with your best most positive ‘female’ footprint you can, your daughters will thank you for it in time to come.So let me ask you again, where do you keep your bathroom scales, (out of sight I hope?) HAPPY MOTHERS DAY 2012 MUM – I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Goldcoast Queensland 1988 - The start of my journey to Canada
Hubby’s work may have taken us there, but it was my dreams and premonitions that made it possible, I’m sure of it. For the longest time I had always known that someday, somehow I would live in Canada – I just couldn’t put my finger on the when and the why.In my early teens I think it had to do a lot with my infatuation with Michael J Fox and how I had managed to convenience myself that even with the 10year age gap once we found each other, we would marry.(insert sigh here!) Oh well, at least we are both happily married. Michael if you are reading this – call me: 555-3121Still, that niggling feeling never went away. I remained consumed with all things Canadian. If there was a Contiki tour in town and they hit our local ‘haunts’ I could sniff out a Canadian in a matter of minutes – and better still, I could identify who was the Canadian and who was the Yank – I made loads of Canadian friends this way.1992 saw me head off for a US/Canada fleeting visit. Only got as far as Edmonton, when my sisters friend offered to accommodate me for a short while – thinking maybe I was going to meet my husband during my travels, I took her up on the offer. Unfortunately all I ‘picked up’ was a bad case of homesickness and a stamp in my passport.Life moved on, I got married, (to an Australian) had kids and got a bigger car. But I never stopped thinking about a life in Canada. Then at the age of 37, hubby comes home and says he has been offered a job in Toronto Canada – do you reckon I had to think about my answer!We arrived safely, we blended into the community, we found friends (amazing friends), I navigated around the streets and road systems like I had lived here all my life (even on the ‘wrong’ side of the road). Whenever I saw a flag flying high, I had to pinch myself I was living in Canada. Everything about me living here felt so right.Now that my time left in Canada is coming to a close, I have forced myself to reflect on the ‘why’ – maybe it’s a little too early to determine those reasons yet, but I know for sure that it was meant to be and I am most certain that my memories, along with my friendships will stay with me forever. Thank you Canada, Thank you friends! Cheers,SorrentoMoon
Life at the moment is in full swing – winding up all things ‘Canada’ while simultaneously engaging in conversations surrounding a new life in Santiago Chile. In less than 3months (all going to plan) life as we currently know it, will be looking and sounding rather different to today, and surprisingly I think I am ready for it.Whenever we move house (8 homes in 11 years) I have this pre-moving ritual I do to remain focused and in a Zen type state, along with drinking copious amounts of green tea (doesn’t always work, but at least I try.)Four out of the eight moves we added a new child to our family so my pre-moving ritual has had to evolve and adapt to accommodate all the extra kids and ‘stuff’ we acquired along the way.Below I am offering up my 9 simple steps I use to make my house move a calm and peaceful event for all involved. I share them in the hope someone somewhere might just avoid the ‘moving house meltdown’.
Gathering up all my ‘top draw stuff’ from the kitchen, study & bedside tables into smaller Tupperware containers is paramount – this process reduces the stress of finding bits and bobs in numerous boxes at the other end.
And while we are on the topic of Tupperware, another thing I find extremely helpful for the unpacking side, is packing and stacking my Tupperware/plastics cupboard. When I have gone to the trouble of stacking all my smaller containers into my bigger ones the results at the other end is by far a massive timesaver, not to mention this process reduces the number of packing boxes used. (cost saver)
I even pack my utensil drawers into a container for ease of placement in the new home. I soon realised how much time and energy this saved after our second move when I found a soup ladle in with my office supplies and the BBQ tongs with my make-up and feminine products – go figure!
Next I take all my prints and paintings off the walls and put them altogether in one room – heaps quicker for wrapping and packing into boxes – this too assists with organising and arranging in the new home.
Same goes with all the photo frames around the house and in bedrooms. Helps eliminate finding them in a range of different boxes when unpacking – This also inspires me to rethink displaying the same photo’s in different areas of the house, when we start life in our new home.
Something I find very therapeutic is going through the children’s bedrooms and wardrobes. I force myself to reduce the clutter and unused clothing which allows me to create a donate pile or pass on to family and friends – If you are paying to have a removal company move your things, better to condense before the move as this will decrease the time and energy packing things you didn’t even need and most importantly reduce your overall removal costs.
While you are de-cluttering the kids room, stay on a role and hunt around the house for stuff/boxes you may have moved previously and haven’t touched or opened. Now is the time to rid yourself of unwanted things. Sell, donate, dump or pay it forward to a family in need.
For those of you who are a little on the OCD side (like moi) I take photos of inside my display cabinets and side boards and my bookshelves from the lounge and dining room – Having the photo’s is a great way to assist friends or family members that are helping with the unpacking. Hand them off a photo and they can work faster with how you like your ‘stuff’ displayed. This really cuts down on you having to micro manage the helpers in your home.
Another one for my OCD friends is having the bed linen and towels in arms reach on unpacking day. I know it’s been well documented to have your ‘survival box’ packed for the day you arrive in your new home, (kettle, toaster, coffee, mugs, tea and sugar etc)….and that box is great and all, but for me it is all about knowing where the bed linen box is. It is what I call the last on first off box. On unpacking day you are not normally thinking about ‘bedtime’, but believe me when ‘bedtime’ rolls around (later for some than others) Having a well made bed with matching linen and all familiar pillows and soft toys turns a somewhat nightmarish event into a calm and peaceful occasion – especially when young children are involved. A sense of familiar smells and bed linen can make all the difference to a relaxing night sleep (or flop into bed for some of us that can’t stop til it’s all done)
Overall I find spending a little time organising and arranging a few things on the packing end helps immensely when it comes to unpacking, finding, locating and arranging at the other end.So off I head to start my pre-moving ritual for our 9th move in 14 years. I just need to put the kettle on and have me a green tea. Wish me luck!Do you have any ‘pre-moving’ rituals you do when moving house, I would love to hear about them.Cheers,SorrentoMoon
When we left Australia two and a half years ago, we knew that Canada would not be forever. We knew when we arrived there would be a departure date, we just didn’t know when that would be.
Well, our time in Canada is coming to a close and as of last week we have started the wheels in motion for our next adventure.
Yes it is now official, this little family of six is heading off to Santiago de Chile, South America. Woo Hoo!!!!
At this stage we are working towards an end date in Canada of Week 3 June 2012. The commencement of the new school year for the girls starts on 30th July and we have ‘sweetened’ the deal with our girls with a trip to Disney World in Florida (we are headed South anyways, what’s one more stop off).
For the most part everyone is pretty excited. Child #1 flip/flops back and forth about whether she is sad or happy. #2 is excited about living in Chile, just doesn’t want to go in a plane (not sure what we are going to do there) #3 is not keen at all. She needs to see photo’s of Chile and photo’s of the school and where we might be living. She is very visual like her mum. #4, (only 3years) well she won’t get it til much later I guess. Hubby is so excited to get down into Chile and help with the business down there.
Me, well I am excited about having to learn a new language (Spanish) at the age of 40, get my brain working again.
“Governor’s Walk”
Hubby has been keeping a crazy work schedule of late, so with a long weekend upon us we decided to relocate the family for 2nights and spend some quality time together in a beautiful part of the world – Niagara On The Lake, about 15minutes from Niagara Falls (Canada side)
Using a fantastic website www.vrbo.com we organised this adventure less than 36 hours before arriving, and can I say the booking process was extremely easy. I highly recommend you consider this website when searching for accommodation – It is Vacation Rentals By Owners (world wide) and because you are dealing with the owners (90% of the time) the properties are well cared for and well loved, so you get that personal touch you sometimes ‘miss out’ on from hotels, motels, and agency owned apartments. We have stayed in many places booked through “vrbo” and to date have been 110% satisfied with all our bookings.
Which brings me to our latest booking at Governor’s Walk
We arrived earlier than scheduled, place a phone call to the owners and within 10 minutes they were there to greet us, give us a brief tour of the house, then off they went, leaving us to enjoy our vacation rental.
And what a home away from home it was. The pictures and description of Governor’s Walk from the website were ‘spot on’ Spacious, clean, charming, great location and extremely comfortable for this family of six.
This is a gorgeous part of the world, Governor’s Walk is a wonderful place to stay and retreat to after enjoying many exciting activities during the day. I highly recommend Governor’s Walk if you are considering visiting/staying in Niagara On The Lake for your next holiday.
If you are wondering I haven’t been offered any incentive for this review, just offering up my humble opinion in the hope of making someone else’s accommodation decision a little easier.
Cheers,SorrentoMoon
Standing on the shore at Niagara On The Lake, looking across to the American side….
The dynamics of my family are pretty traditional – Hubby goes out to work and I stay home. Hubby is a travelling dad, and has been for the most part of our relationship. Before children, hubby’s work required him to be on and off planes quite regularly. (no he is not a pilot, just a busy business man) So when I started bringing babies home, it was nothing new to find myself having to ‘deal with’ life and kids by myself.I actually didn’t think anything of it – I just got on with it, and battled each task at hand. I say that more so to explain, I am not looking for praise or a pat on the back, as I relished my role and enjoyed being “at home” with our children. (I still do!)I secretly think I enjoyed having hubby ‘consult’ me with all things regarding our children. It made me feel important and needed, especially when they were babies.Well, baby number four is almost school age and our three bigger girls are evolving into wonderful young girls with ‘oober’ strong and independent personalities. Being at home with the girls every day I have the added benefit to see how my role as the mum is beginning to change and develop into something different. But what about Daddy? Things really haven’t changed, have they? He still goes to work, he still pays the bills and he still has 4 extra mouths to feed. So when he raised the topic the other day – “I feel like I don’t fit in anymore” my heart just sank into my toes.Hubby went on to explain, and soon enough it became quite clear just how tricky home life has been for daddy lately. Even though he tries to spend as much time with the girls when he is home, he feels it is taking him longer to re-connect with them and finds it easier if he just sits back and ‘watches’. And it is true; we have our routine when daddy’s not around. Everyone has a role to play when he is travelling and perhaps we forget to alter our roles when daddy gets home. It must be difficult for travelling dads to find their place within their ‘homelife’ – They can master their business world with such talent and control yet feel like ‘wall art’ inside their own home.
What to do and how to cope?
This story is a work in progress, if you can offer up any suggestions or ideas on how Daddy, the girls and I can better re-connect after he returns from travelling we are happy to listen.In the meantime we will try and remember to ask daddy if he wants to play too!
We love you daddy, we just forget to show it sometimes.
Cheers,SorrentoMoon
Should a public figure been seen promoting violence against others?
Recently I viewed a YouTube post that Mr Donald Trump has recorded commenting on his thoughts about how he would have ‘dealt’ with the incident between Sacha Baron Cohen and Ryan Seacrest last Sunday on the Red Carpet at the Oscars.
While I have no opinion about whether the whole incident was ‘staged’ or just ‘stupid’, I do care that a public figure has gone on record to encourage violence as being a way to respond to Cohen’s antics.
It just so happened that I spent the day at my children’s school listening to speakers discuss with the kids how to live a positive life – free from bullying within our schools and society. (Pink Shirt Day)
Then on the flip side I find a man (using the media) advocating violence towards another man.
How can we continue as a society to tell our children that this style of behaviour is not acceptable when the adults in their lives are not leading by example.
Don’t these people realise the magnitude of audience they can reach via all the social media avenues! – Of course they do and yet there appears to be no cause for ‘pause’ towards how this style of communication will appear to the younger generation in our world.
I’m sorry Mr Trump you are a bully existing in the business world and that is no less dangerous than a bully in our school yard. You should be made accountable for your actions!
Redeem yourself Mr Trump and apologise for your words. Tell our children that violence does not solve anything. It’s not like you are seeking 15minutes worth of fame – why say it in the first place.
As we all know Whitney Houston left this world suddenly on Saturday 11th February, 2012 age 48.With the rise and fall of someone playing out their life through the lens of a camera, I sense it gives people ‘free reign’ to randomly ‘weigh in’ on how she may or may not have lived her life and perhaps what she “should’da – could’da” done differently. Is this OK? Why do we need to surround this story with speculation, innuendos, drama, lies, etc….A mother, a daughter, aged 48 died. FULL STOP! Why can’t the story end there? Why does there have to be a back story? Why does ‘world news’ continue to report that she may or may not have had a “drug addiction”. How does this constant stream of updated information effect us with our day to day living and most importantly it will never change the ending? If we as a society are suppose to be the driving force behind what makes ‘something/someone’ news worthy – I think we need to step it up a notch and begin to feed it back to the ‘movers and shakers’ that on a whole the greater populace does not want to buy into this style of reporting. Report the truth and then “move on”, not “run with it”.It is my belief, that too much of what is out there is full of false, inaccurate, embellished reporting – and people are not held accountable or stopped for this misleading (some say ‘nasty’) information being ‘published/documented’. I think we may be forgetting that this is the ‘efootprint’ we are leaving our children, this is what we are expressing to them as ‘the normal’ – Knowledge is power and it is what we do with that knowledge that makes for the next generation to be stronger, better, wiser than us – How can this be if we are filling our ‘eworld’ with ‘dribble’ and not providing a solid foundation for our children to build from. I am sorry that Ms Whitney Houston died suddenly aged 48. Many die suddenly every minute of every day, their stories hold no less or no greater value than this one. So don’t ‘clog’ up our ‘ewaves’ and get on with the job at hand, tell/write stories that will make our society better off for knowing.
It would be remiss of me to neglect the obvious and begin writing without acknowledging that we have made it into a new year.
Welcome everyone, welcome to 2012. The Chinese year of ‘The Dragon’. (The family and I went out for a Chinese buffet dinner tonight and it was on my placemat. I normally don’t remember that sort of stuff.)
I have a really great feeling about this year, something in my bones is telling me that TwentyTwevle is going to be my year of extreme personal growth and I am so excited to embark on that journey. (or it could be arthritis starting to kick in!)
Ok, so now that the housekeeping is out of the way I will bring you up to speed with my Aussie adventures. From my prior posts you would have gathered that I was extremely homesick and at one point madly counting down sleeps for our Christmas New Year visit back home. Well you will be happy to know that we made it, we enjoyed it and we savoured every single moment.
In a nutshell:
There was long exhausting flights, vomiting children in customs lines, a photo opportunity with home grown ‘star’ Jamie Durie, a fender bender in our rental car, catching up with everyone, yet feeling like we still missed people, condensing 12 months worth of highs and lows into a snap shot in time, many strolls along the beach, Christmas day spent with family, lunch with old neighbours, dinners with uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, big cousins and little cousins, coffee on the beach with old school mums, early morning jogs and uninterrupted lattes with my hubby, madly dashing around the shopping mall organising the Santa sacks, quietly holding my mum’s hand on the 9 year death anniversary of her son, my brother, clinging on to only four hours with my best friend and realising that has to get us through another 12 months apart, celebrating our baby’s 3rd birthday, a day spa and a massage spent with a sister and a lunch spent with my mum and a sister (no kids allowed, priceless!), rainy days, sunny days, fish and chips, the unforgettable smell of the Australian Aerogard (fly repellent), an opportunity for my sister to show me her new home and actually sit in her space and enjoy it with her.
Finally, there was all those unspoken moments, like sitting at the breakfast table with my dad and sharing his morning fruit with him, mum talking with me while I was hanging out the washing, having a ‘cat nap’ just before dinner and realising that my kids would still get fed if I slept right through. (thanks Mum) Whatever the moment and whoever I was celebrating it with my time spent in Australia with family and friends was well worth the wait and I am already looking forward to meeting up with you all again sometime in our future together.
Thanks for the memories, oh and by the way, Happy Australia Day for the 26th of January.
Okay so it’s pretty clear that I had a birthday coming up, it’s pretty clear that I was excited to be celebrating my 40th and it’s pretty clear that I wanted to make this week ‘all about moi’ Hubby arranged a romantic getaway in a gorgeous hotel downtown Toronto. “Just get the kids looked after, so you and I can spend the weekend together, I’ll take you out for a lovely dinner so we can mark this special occasion”That’s what hubby told me back in September. So you can imagine how excited I have been since then.“Your birthday will be all about you. You won’t have to do a thing I promise” says hubby.I think he felt compelled to mention that because my actual birthday fell midweek and his birthday was the Saturday night he booked our getaway for. So he was reassuring me that he would down play his day for me. “oh gee, thanks hun!” (goes without saying really)Well, he did good (not!) he did make it all about me!Me cleaning up his 2am mess that didn’t even come in ‘KooWee’ of the bathroom – the results of a ‘few quiet bevvies’ with the boys to celebrate his birthday the night before our grand planned weekend away. Hmmm, great timing dear! It was still all about me at 3:30am and 4:15am and again at 6:20am when I had to listen to the awful noises coming from someone who was attempting to expel bile from their belly. “Yuk Yuk Yuk!”To his credit it was still all about me explaining to our girls why daddy is still in bed at 11am on Saturday morning. Still me, that now has to run the girls across to friends for their sleepover because hubby is unsure whether he was safe to drive and finally still me who has to drive into downtown traffic because he is still feeling a little shall we say ‘seedy’.You will be happy to know that I did make it to the hotel, I did have a lovely evening (I went shopping!) and I did enjoy my weekend away.Anyways now that we are on the other side of my birthday celebrations I have managed to forgive him for choosing to celebrate his birthday in such a fashion that upstaged my birthday and I can even see the humour in the photo’s he kept sending through over the course of his evening with the boys. Note to self, next time I want to mark my birthday with an occasion, do it the weekend before hubby’s!Cheers,SorrentoMoon
