This Crazy Life....

Life has overtaken blogging for me lately. I wish life would slow down a little so that I could smell the roses. The last few weeks have been a blur of school holidays, various doctor's appointments for tonsilitis and stuff, family outings, finishing baby quilts etc. This week I have caught the girls' post tonsilitis cold, been to the funeral of a dear friend's father, had deadlines to meet at work and now we are anxiously awaiting a phone call to say my brother's baby boy has been safely born. Come on little Christopher! We can't wait to meet you. Today was also my mother's birthday so I have been rushing around like a mad thing. No different to the lives of all my bloggy friends. When did things get so crazy?

I also managed to catch up with a great friend from my days as a single twenty-something....Le. She was visiting with her family from way up in remote North Queensland and we spent a lovely Saturday night sitting on a verandah looking over a park, eating a yummy homecooked dinner while the husbands looked after the children and chatting with another friend the way women do about life, men, children, work and the funny side of it all. It was so great to relax, laugh and enjoy the company of women without the sound of little voices (well those of my children anyway) constantly needing attention. If mothers could have a couple of hours like this every week, we'd all be so much more sane and enjoy the many hours we spend with our children even more. Thanks for a lovely night, Le.

I have been reading a wonderful book called "The Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv which has hit such a nerve with me. He argues that the majority of the current generation of children in the west are having very little contact with nature with increasing urbanisation, growing fears of traffic, strangers and even nature itself, the obsession with TV/computers/Nintendos etc and lots of other factors. He cites a great number of studies that reveal the many many benefits of contact with nature (especially in an unstructured way where children are free to dream, roam, build cubbies, chase lizards or whatever). The book has inspired me to encourage my girls to have more exposure to the natural world so we went paddling in a river after school last week as well as squeezing in an extra outing to the beach one afternoon over Easter. I'm really committed to making sure we all get a dose of the beauty of nature at least once a week and really want to take the girls into the rainforest again soon. (See post about Mount Tambourine from Dec last year). Well.....enough ranting on that topic.

No photos to liven this post this week as Scott took the camera to work and it hasn't come back yet.

Have a great week, my bloggy friends.