in the nick of time....

I really want to rename my blog "Adventures in Poo Knives" {if you've just stumbled upon this blog looking for the Rainbow Cake recipe, I apologise.  Here's the recipe....on the other hand if you want to know what a poo knife is read here.  I promise it's a metaphor.  Other than that, I promise nothing.  This blog has no theme or agenda.  We could end up anywhere from here people.}

As you were.

So, in the past we've firmly established God has a sense of humour, right?  As luck would have it, the Monday after the Mother's Day that has already been written into family lore, Dave and I had an appointment to view some family photos we had shot a few weeks ago.

If you ever doubted the existence of guardian angels, this might just change your mind.  These photos have extended the children's life-under-our-roof expectancy significantly:

Look!  They actually DO like each other.

We have photographic proof!

Dave thought the photographer was being too gentle in throwing pebbles into the dam to get them looking the same way.

So he picked up a boulder.

And threw it.

It was hilarious.

They couldn't believe he would go through with it.

But really....they know better.

This is a classic family dynamic of ours.

This is going in a triple frame to be hung in our new kitchen as it captures the essence of our family the most succinctly.  You can even see Hamish on the left shaking his hand at Daddy yelling out his favourite threat "I'm going to kill you to death!". 

Gives me the warm and fuzzies.

See? We look like a completely normal family.

Who'd have thunk it?

They are actually, fun and lovely kids.

But they're a work in progress, as are Dave and myself.

The weight of responsibility to raise them to not only look after themselves {a trained monkey can do that}, but to be capable of and interested in looking after others, feels overwhelming at times.

I want them to know that they do not walk alone.

That they have two hands, one for helping themselves and one for helping others. {thank you Audrey Hepburn for that thought}

That God is with them always and he expects a certain level of dignity, compassion and energy from them.

I'm also trying to convince them that God loves a well packed dishwasher and bath towels hung on hooks.

Will try and post more frequently - lots happening.  Lots of decisions being made regarding our work/life balance and the way we are choosing to spend our family time.

Big changes afoot!

Love you more than Le Creuset full of beef stew on a winter's night,

Meredy xo

holding up the broken pieces

Worst.Mother's.Day.Ever.
Seriously.
I was in tears by 8.30 in the morning.

A mixture of frustration, exhaustion, sadness and disappointment.
In fairness it had been on the brew for a while and all it took was just one too many fights between the kids and display of disrespectful attitude towards Dave and I.
This Mumma cracked it.

No stoic martyr's tears or stiff upper lip from me, oh no....

I do the whole "I can't believe I've raised such revolting children/what did I ever do to deserve this/you are the most ungrateful children in the world/don't you know how hard Daddy works and what we sacrifice for you?" routine.

And then I cry and don't stop until I'm done.
Which in this case was about three hours later.

As usual, in my inadequacies and flaws and feelings of hopelessness God showed up.
I kid you not.
Dave and Jack had to go to rugby on the other side of the planet
{Rugby - Making Mother's Resentful since 1823}
The best thing to do, I decided,  would be to put the kids in the car and drive to Bobbin Head {gorgeous river system and bushland in the National Park}- I felt an overwhelming need to submit myself to God's guidance in the middle of His glorious gifts.  I had no sooner driven out the driveway with tears pouring down my cheeks feeling like an abject failure than this song came on the radio:





Meg, our 11 year old, started crying.  She turned to me and said "I know why you're crying even more Mummy.  It's because of this song isn't it?  You're wanting to hold up all your broken pieces for fixing aren't you?"

What I can tell you is that in that moment, I mentally held up the broken pieces in my life and said "Please. Just fix them.".
I'd love to tell you that I stopped crying and felt completely healed, but this is the real world.
I kept crying and feeling pretty bloody awful.

Then, fortified with a takeaway coffee, my bible, the kids and an ironically glorious sunshiney day, we set out for a walk along the mangrove boardwalk.  Reaching a rocky outcrop overlooking the river we chatted, said a couple of prayers and let the sun soak into our souls.

Then I told them a gross story that I'd heard the night before which made them all gag, but it sent a great message.

This story is from Wade Davis - apologies for my inadequate re-telling:

The Indigenous Canadians {Inuits} are people of ice and snow.  However, way back in the days of colonization,  the Canadian government were rounding them up into reservations {for various horrific reasons which governments have been guilty of doing to indigenous populations all over the world}.  Anyhoo, one of the Inuit elders deciding he could no longer live in captivity planned a daring escape.  In the middle of a snowy evening he went outside, dropped his caribou pants and defecated into his hands.  He then fashioned his defecation into the shape of a knife and let it freeze.  Taking a dribble of spit and letting it run along the side of the knife, it then froze into an edge as sharp as glass.  Using this knife implement that even MacGyver would be impressed with, he killed a huskie and used its bones and skin to fashion a sledge.  He then caught another huskie {Wade tells how....it's complicated} and then hitched that to the sledge and sped off into the night.  Presumably yelling "See ya suckers!" to his captors.

After the kids had stopped gagging and rolling around on the ground clutching their throats, they agreed that it was a "wicked awesome" story.  Gabrielle, the wise sage, said solemnly "See, Mum?  You should never give up."

So here I am today, making a metaphorical poo knife for the journey ahead.

Wish me luck.

Love you more than a pair of disposable gloves,

Meredy xo

pottery barn favourites in australia...

Okay, work with me friends:
Building delays....
Pottery Barn Australia just opening.....
Equals inspiration to reimagine some design aspects and accents in our home
Coincidence?
God really did open a window!
Bahahaha!
Joking of course, but my it's all so visually exciting and unexpected in the overpriced homewares hijack currently experienced in Australia.

If nothing else, the Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma/West Elm lovely new websites have provided a delightful diversion whilst awaiting on the council landscape & hydraulic engineering team to get their sweet act together.

Here are some favourites:

These Mason jar mugs are a definite must have for the new house. 

I used to have a wooden one of these which broke, but I loved it for carrying multiple bottles of drink to the outside table for a BBQ.  

Love these for summer.  I already have a couple of similar ones and when trying to entertain rugby or cricket teams, you can never have too many.

Love these for water glasses.  The right amount of heaviness in the hand and elegant to drink from.

One in each colour please!

Love this coffee table to bits!  This might be the one splurge item for which I would gladly sacrifice my takeaway coffee habit.

Okay, I know I would never use it effectively and it would end up looking like a dog's breakfast with school notes and newletters piling out of it, but I can't help but admire wistfully.

Yes!  Finally!  Lovely muted shades and non-RSL-poker-machine-room geometric patterns in a mid-priced rug.  

Gorgeous!

Love.It.All.

A few of each?

Lots and lots of coastal bits & bobs.
Their "coral" is made from acrylic and is actually reasonably priced compared to the outrageous amounts asked for in other homewares store in Australia.  I looked at one recently which was priced at over $300!  PB's is $48.  High five PB!

Anyway, best go and do some actual work now.

Hurumph.

Might squeeze in a post about West Elm and Williams-Sonoma also.

Although, I don't know if my adrenal system can handle the excitement.

Sometimes my shallowness surprises even myself.

Love you more than an hour of cruising Pottery Barn online,

Meredy xo

p.s. thanks for lovely, lovely comments re our building delays etc.  You guys make my day. M xo

changing plans

From the very start, this project has been prayed over.
We prayed that every aspect from design to completion would be in God's hands.
I know that probably sounds flaky to some.  But, hey - I know my limits and my weaknesses.
We've hit another stumbling block in the last few days re the trees on the property.
An arborist had submitted a report stating that a particular tree absolutely had to go due to disease.
Now the council arborist has said "Hmm, not so sure.  Maybe just a major prune would do."
That tree currently sits smack bang in the middle of our would-be rumpus room.
It's a fairly integral part of the design and therefore a major hiccough.
Either way, on top of the added expense of hydraulic engineering and escalating building costs, a complete re-design is in order.

{I find this arrangement peaceful....a reflection of how I'm feeling right now.}

I'm absolutely ok with this.
Weirdly.
It's not that I'm not disappointed, I am.
But I have every confidence that God's hand is over this project and he is protecting us from something that perhaps we don't yet understand.  It could be that financially, it would be too much of a burden.  Perhaps the new design will incorporate some beneficial aspects that we will need in a future not yet imagined.

{Can't help but think of the old chestnut "When God closes a door, he opens a window".  

Apologies for cliche.  But it's a cliche for a reason, right?}

Get this -
Gus the Gorgeous Architect has offered to do the new drawings for free.
Is he not heaven sent?
Gus has been such an incredible blessing to our family.
He's already overseen two projects of friends of ours which have turned out beautifully, with our friends singing his praises from the rooftops.
We've said to him, as long as we keep the "great room", everything else is up for grabs.

In a nutshell, Dave, Mum and I are completely at peace with whatever comes next.  God has has eye on the sparrow, and he definitely has his eye on us.  Hahaha...listening to this song a lot!

Without a doubt, if I was trying to attempt this project 10 years ago I would have been a jibbering mess.  I love that I've experienced loss, disappointment, doubts and fear in various forms over the years and come out the other side knowing that love conquers all, relationships are the only thing that matters and that we are never alone, even in the depths of despair.  God rocks like that.  He just loves to show up and show off when you're at the end of your tether.

A house re-design?
Big deal.
First world problem, right?

Bring it on.
It's going to be amazing.

Love you more than you know,

Meredy xo

house update...

I've got two words....Hydraulic Engineer.

Yawn-a-rama.

Just when I think we're over the line, we somehow seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Local councils specialise in it I'm sure.
The senior town planner in his hand-knitted vest came to visit last Friday and hummed and hahhed and eventually said the two words I really didn't want to hear. "Hydraulic Engineer".
What I really heard was "Ca-ching, ca-ching" falling out of our budget.  Boo hiss!

The reason for our annoyance is that we had already included all sorts of water detention pits and rainwater tanks and the first town planner said to us "Oh no, you won't need those, take them out of the plan."  So we did.  Hurumph!  Of course, if there is a genuine water issue it needs to be dealt with, but I really wish they'd got their story right in the beginning......in January.

Perhaps I'd had a too big cup of coffee that morning but I did let rip every so slightly.
With great restraint, through gritted teeth and barely veiled sarcasm I asked why this wasn't raised four months ago and asked him to promise me that once this is rectified to their satisfaction it will be the last hurdle.
Poor Gorgeous Gus the Architect has never seen me in like that before and was looking a bit frightened.  

Anyhoo, here's a lovely cushion to cheer us up:

{From my cushion pinterest board.....what? Doesn't everyone have one of those?}

Lucky I really, really love our house plans otherwise I'd be tempted to give up.

I'm learning all sorts of life lessons at the moment.  Fortitude, perseverance, how to pack nine people, two guinea pigs, a rabbit and a dog into a small suburban home.    

Please pray for my poor Mother as she puts up with us all in her once neatly ordered home.  She is incredibly kind and patient and deserves the Medal of Bravery.  I can't wait to repay her by looking after her in newly renovated and beautiful surroundings.

Somehow, we're having an 11th birthday party for Meg tomorrow.  A "Spa Day".   The three eldest are away at a church camp at the moment so it's actually pretty good timing.  Just need to make a cake.  And a homemade face mask.  And clear some space.  And hold on to my sanity.  

Love you more than the Town Planner, that's for sure!

Meredy xo

i fed my children devon sandwiches....

I went the whole hog.
The devon was cut from a sausage shaped roll wrapped in plastic from the deli aisle at the supermarket.
On fresh, white rolls.
With margarine.
Topped with a squeeze from the tomato sauce bottle.

It was very liberating.

It's the last day of school term today and I just couldn't whole food it for one more day.
No doubt it will be their favourite lunch all term.

I feel much better now that I've confessed my wicked mothering ways to you.
In reality I think I've had a knee-jerk response to the release of Gwyneth Paltrow's new cook book "It's All Good" and her Marie-Antionette "let them eat quinoa!" ways.

That's all.
Just had to tell you.

{I did draw the line however when Angus grabbed the roll of devon from the bench and tried to bite off a chunk.  One still has standards you know.}

Look - here's a picture to make me feel guilty!

Nup.
Still feeling grateful for giving myself a free pass today.

Love you more than a bento box full of rainbow vegetables,

Meredy xo

builders...

Who could have guessed that the whole quoting scenario would turn out to be such a palaver?
All the builders have been completely lovely {aren't they always at this stage??} and I have to say, each one I meet I feel guilty about the other builders I'm "seeing".

I feel like I'm cheating on them.
This will simply not do.
My people-pleasing ways will have to be put to one side if I'm going to survive with my dignity, sanity and finances in tact.
But still.
They've been lovely.
And I can't seem to stop making them cappuccino's.

Luckily we have Gorgeous Gus the Architect to navigate the minefield for us.  He's so incredibly gorgeous, but as tough as nails  - luckily for me as I keep on wanting to be the builders friend.

Anyhoo, just wanted to pop by and tell you why I haven't been blogging.
I've also been focused on cornices and skirting boards.
Which is more fun than it sounds.

Blogging is on the back burner unfortunately.
Has anyone else noticed the blogging world has become ridiculously commercialised and competitive?
I feel less and less competent the longer I do it.
Sort of like motherhood!
Admittedly I have been distracted, so I'm probably just feeling a bit out of sorts or something.
Never mind, I'm only in it for the vent space and the lovely friendships.
Still, I best pull my socks up and organise a giveaway of some description if I'm to hold my head high.

Love you more than ugg boots,
Meredy xo