Outside my window… it’s late at night, out in the bush it’s totally dark and quiet, blessed to live in the bush I am thankful… for my husband, madly in love with this man, every day I wonder ‘how did I get so lucky?’ really I am so blessed. We celebrated our birthdays last week, two days apart, and spent the night away in our nearest Beach City. Two days to enjoy eating out, wandering the shops and just time together, uninterrupted.  Though sometimes you have to laugh, there we were thinking no children, no teenagers only to discover our resort was booked out for the AFL matches, we were surrounded…

Outside my window… the children are playing in the pool. We put up a small, only 84cm/33in tall, above ground pool for Christmas and it has been immensely popular, hours and hours of waterplay I am thankful… that we had all our children home for Christmas, it’s always a blessing when we have a full house. It was Carpenter and Rose’s first, and last Christmas as an engaged couple, next Christmas they’ll be married! I am thinking… it’s not long until we ‘launch’ Princess (17) into the world. It’s her last academic year at home and part of her transition will include Tafe, contemplating my tick boxes, all the skills…

Outside my window… the sky is slowly lightening, sunrise comes later now as we move further into autumn I am thankful… for my children. Bass said to me in a serious tone this week, “Mum, you and Dad are so lucky! ‘Cause you have ten children!” Yes Son we are indeed incredibly lucky 🙂 I am thinking… about Bass’ excitement as he learns to read, he is just zooming along, I’m rather excited myself. Teaching my children to read has consumed vast hours of our homes education journey, and yet I love it, I’m rather sad that this is my second last time to have the privilege of teaching one…

Outside my window… All is still, the chooks (chickens) free range in the paddock nearby where the kangaroos normally graze each morning I am thankful… for my husband and children 🙂 We recently enjoyed a week together on our family holidays, my heart just swells watching our children all together, interacting, loving. We enjoyed at week by the lake, only a 5-10 minute drive to several beaches; kayaking, rafting, snorkeling, swimming, surfing, digging in the sand, card and board games, dancing, ninja and daily runs for some were the rhythm of our days. We saw plenty of whales, dolphins, sharks and jellyfish, the latter two a little too up close…

Can hardly believe two months have gone by since my last post! In over eleven years of blogging this is the longest I’ve gone without writing, I thought a Daybook would be a good way to break the ‘blogging drought’ 🙂 Outside my window… the rain is still pouring down, it has been torrential for days and is forecasted to continue raining for the rest of the week. Towns only a couple of hours away are on standby for floods yet once again, whilst they are still recovering from recent devastating floods I am thankful… for a huge house, when children are kept inside by rain for days on end, a huge…

Outside my window… it’s dark even though it’s after 6am. Autumn has begun strongly and the days are already much shorter I am thankful… for our two new Parish priests, they arrived in late last year full of ideas and enthusiasm which are now being enacted upon. Lots of energy is being focused on our Parish’s Youth Group which is now meeting weekly with a much bigger component on spiritual and knowledge and less on just fun. Construction on re-constructing our Church Sanctuary is to begin at the end of the month, essentially the altar will go back up to the central position of the church and the tabernacle will…

Outside my window… summer days are blazing. Today the temp is 31C/88F and we are so, so grateful for the cooler weather after the weekend’s heatwave. We experienced two days of record breaking heat with the temp in our area at 45C/113F and even hotter in other parts of Australia, around the nation bushfires raged and some townships were sadly lost I am thankful… that my husband and I were recently able to get away for a weekend together, yep just us and it was wonderful! We love our precious children but we try to go away together occasionally, usually about once every four years, to spend quality, uninterrupted time with…

Outside my window… it’s early morning, enjoying the soft light of the sunrise as it filters across the paddock. Appreciating the morning coolness before the day heats up, it’s going to be an another scorcher of a day, temperature is set to rise to 38C/100F I am thankful… that our boys were able to spend Christmas and the following two weeks at home with us this year. So delighted in having all our children together, watching them interact with each other, spending time with both of them, treasured memories.  Admittedly we didn’t do half of what was on our ‘entertainment’ list the heat wave scorched those plans, though we still managed to fit…

Outside my window… it’s a quiet summer morning, I’m up early before my family arises as it’s the only time I can concentrate when writing 🙂  Temperature is predicated to rise to 35C/95F today so enjoying the cool of the morning   I am thankful… for my husband, this man, this life, so blessed to be married to my soulmate. We celebrated our Wedding Anniversary this week, twenty four years of married life, we’ve packed so much living into these years, it’s been an adventure. Giving thanks to Our Heavenly Father I am thinking… Christmas shopping; shopping for eleven children, my husband, a couple of sibs and grandmothers takes time. I’ve done…