A visit to the mountains....

On the weekend we took a little trip up to the Blue Mountains which are a little inland from Sydney. Well, a long long way from here! We had plans to meet the new inlaw's for dinner as they were taking a little holiday up there, so thought we would go a little earlier and have a look around.

We ended up at Echo Point, famous for the view of The Three Sisters. We had visited once before when the boys were quite little and they did not really remember much of it. We thought we might go for the trek down but the boys were not up for that idea so after consuming a ridiculous amount of salty hot chips, we ended up just admiring the view while we shivered a lot and took some pictures.

Somebody thought hanging over the edge and looking down was a great game. Of course he was not convincing me at all. And if you are wondering where my other boy is in all these pictures, you can be assured he is quite safely hiding behind his mama as he suffers from the same affliction of height woozies!

Yeah you can dangle my coffee over the edge all you like, I will not be getting any closer thanks. Well actually I did take a quick peak but I backed off pretty quickly. :-)

In between each picture......Zak had some fun with his photo bombing expertise..... I think we have more pictures of Zak than we do of all our other kids put together. He makes sure of this.....

Ahhhh so pretty.

Of course I had to get right in amongst some trees..... hey it was a bit crowded up there in the touristy bit. I needed to breathe.....

It was decided that we better get a picture with me in to prove that I was actually there and of course because I was dressed so out of character......I am not the biggest fan of black, yet here I am, all rugged up in my black woollies and looking a bit like an eskimo.......and wearing shoes too....although I had to switch my slip on ones for these joggers as my feet were too cold.....

There is quite the funny photo shoot of us two... someone was a bit trigger happy with the camera, I think he took pics of the whole conversation. And just when we thought we got Zak out of the way..

Along came this lady and her friends. Looked at us, looked at the camera and walked straight in front of it. I could not help myself. "Thank You... so considerate!" We started laughing so she did too. Thanks for the giggles lady and welcome to our blog! Sorry if you don't want to be here but you walked into a picture so here you are! 

Walking back to the car we stopped to play in this little shelter which made us feel just a little bit witchy.....it just needs a cauldron and a fire and we'll be right.....

Seriously! I would love to have one of these in my garden.

Mr cool and composed......

Here is a monument depicting some convicts, aboriginals and early settlers along with some info. And what did my lot get out of this? Mum Mum, look he has a penis. Take a picture of the aboriginal.... Really? Teenagers! Yeah I don't think so.

Now although I had been informed there was a wool shop closing down just down the street, we could not see it on the way past and it was so crowded, so we went ahead to Leura where we walked around all the little shops selling their wares. I was more interested in the buildings themselves than what the shops had to offer, although they were more interesting than your average mall shops. Very chic and quirky however putting us in mind of way over priced Op shops. Some were not too badly priced but others were a bit much.

There is one shop that you can walk down into all of the rooms and its still set up in the original form. I loved it. The boys were not keen on this form of entertainment though, and we had to warn them several times to keep their elbows in,  so Gemma and myself decided we would have to come back sometime on a girls only trip. Gemma scored herself some little goodies and the boys scored some candy from the expensive sugar shop and then we headed off to check out the Fairmont where they were staying and head off to dinner.  I will post some pictures of that a little later on.

For now I am off for a beach walk and a bit of sunshine in the freezing cold. Yes its seems to have followed us home. Hmmmm. Zak is spending a few days with his sister in Sydney so I should have time to write up a couple of posts.

Take care everyone. Hugs and smoochies xoxoxox

Beach School at its finest........

Today was one of those days where we got up, gathered our wits and just took things a little bit cruizy. 

First off we planned Math, we talked about Math and he even attempted to get stuck into his Math book ...but then we looked outside and went "Well its looking a bit too lovely to stay in doors, lets go to the beach for a bit". 

Although I suggested he might like to bring his Math along, he refrained and bought along his Ukulele instead. The Uke has been very popular this week, with the boy practicing so much that he has almost driven his siblings nuts. I'm pretty sure I heard on more than one occasion, some pretty nasty descriptions of where it was going to be shoved if he did not take a break! 

For the most part it has not bothered me as he has come along so much with his self taught playing. Practice makes progress. And gee how else is he going to learn? So today as I sat in the car for a little while looking at the ocean, hooking up a little of my shawl I reminded myself of this as he loudly played along in the back seat. He has perfected Over the Rainbow so it was not too terrible, just a little off putting when one is seeking silence and maybe the glimpse of a whale on the horizon. 

Of course when he finally shut up we decided to get out and have a little look at the beach and see what all these poles were about. 

They are finally putting in some new steps in front of the surf club. Thats been a long time coming. But hang on...whats going on down here? 

We decided to go and take a closer look.......

Oh dear! We don't see this everyday around here. Somebody was taking a nap on the beach and appeared to be a little bit hurt. :-(  At first we were quite worried but then she started rolling a little and looking at us. 

So while Z insisted I take pictures...I decided to do what I do best and quietly began to send a little healing to the poor girl. She had gashes under her neck and down the side too. Rolling over required a bit of effort. 

After a few minutes we decided to go and check out the sign and read all about our little visitor. Zak then checked out her colouring and markings and decided she was an Australian Fur Seal. 

Everyone was quite excited when suddenly she decided to make a move. With a bit of struggling and heaving she turned herself around and slowly...very slowly... headed towards the water.....

She managed a little bit at a time and then would lay down a take a little rest.....

Then off she would go again.....

It was very hard work.....

But with all that effort, she made it.....

And into the water she went....

She rested at the front for a few minutes and then headed off into the water.....where the surfers all gave her a wide berth till she got on her way...

Safe journey sweet friend. I hope you feel better. 

Once she swam off, the marine rescue fellows packed up and everyone went on their way. 

How was that for an unplanned lesson? We loved it! 

When we came home we decided to have some lunch and watch a movie. Then Z went and played Minecraft (as one does). 

Now its time to make dinner and then time for youth group. 

Have a great weekend all.

Hugs and smoochies xoxox

News on the home front....

Wow its been a busy couple of weeks. I know I promised a few more of the holiday snaps but thought this news was just a tad more exciting.

Take a couple in love......

And a beautiful ring .........

And what do you get?

A whole lot more busy is what. And a youngest daughter beating the older ones to the alter. LOL Engagement party along with 21st birthdays to plan and of course a wedding, hopefully next year. Its all been very exciting round here lately.

Love and hugs xoxox

Fish and Rocks...

Last week we went to Port Stephens for a bit a a joint family holiday.  We visited lots of different bays and beaches and Zak took the time to do a little fishing with his uncle.  They did a little beach fishing and a little rock fishing. They did not have a lot of luck on the rocks. 

Zak bought home one fish and we were not quite sure what it was or whether it was edible. Not having our computers handy we managed to download a book about onshore fish from the phone and he spent ages going through it trying to identify his fish to no avail. 

The next day a local fisherman enlightened him. The fish is called a Parrot Fish. I was not entirely convinced. There are so many kinds and they all look different. It was black with red fins. This sparked another investigation when we got home. Still can't find another one exactly the same. Hmmmm

On the day they went rock fishing. We decided to wander down and see how they were going. Unfortunately they were not fishing here......where I thought they were....

No they were fishing right around the other cove, (see that big rock across the water to the right?)  so a bit of rock crossing was required. This was quite an experience for me as I have arthritis in my knees. So with each un even step it felt a bit like a knife was being stabbed into the joints. Every now and then with a nice twist to top it off. Ouch.

Stubborn as I am, I of course went for it and even had a bit of fun...... Go me! LOL

Needless to say, these two were long gone by the time I got there and back. But Oh well, it was an adventure! 

Now,  I am off to do a little crafting. Have a great weekend all. 

Hugs, Love and Light to you xoxox

A Homeschooling Update

Or should I say an Un-schooling update? Either way I thought I better write something lest I give up on it all together. Sigh.  Its all a bit repetitive really, isn't it? I find myself less and less enthused as time goes on with writing up every little thing we get up to.

After two complete terms of sticking to plans and curriculum and trying to keep up the whole "school" thing. I find we are naturally flowing back into our patterns of just letting it go. Its a bit of an on-going debate around here, what we should or should not be doing.

 Either way the year is half over already and soon we will be up for re-registration, so we need to get our records in order. On the one hand it does not bother me but on the other it seems so many people are complaining about the lack of understanding towards un-schooling that one feels obliged to come up with something and stick to it.

Easier said than done around here. Z runs to his own agenda at the best of times. Take today for instance, I suggested he sit and work on a little English, he on the other hand decided to practice Ukulele, browse the internet for some new songs and try them out, gather together his motor cycling gear, set up the go-pro and varying gadgets ready to head out to a friends farm to ride and film himself.

Two days ago, I went out for the day with my mum. Again I left him some academic type work to do. He instead spent hours with his dad building a motor cycle trailer. Took it for a spin to make sure the bikes were secure and then spent his afternoon playing Minecraft. Priorities!

Yesterday afternoon he spent over an hour trying to extract his brothers soccer ball from beneath the road. He had lost it on the way home from school, down the drain and given up on it. Zak being the stubborn  one, built an extremely long pole and got in there from varying angles. Did not manage to get it but had a damned good try. He has decided that it needs to rain a little to budge it. It is sitting exactly in the middle of road.

Now while I can see the learning in all these endeavours, trying to spell it out for others can be taxing on the patience. Some people just don't get it!

Now not to say that we did not do any school work at all. He did do some work on Percentages over several days from his work book and he did do some Reading, Comprehension and Vocabulary and made a bit of progress with his learning about Ancient Rome. I just have not been keeping tabs as much.

Maybe instead of trying to do weekly reports which obviously did not work for me. I will just update when I can about the more interesting stuff. Last week was a rather interesting week. Fishing, bowling, quad bike riding, picnics, dolphins, whales.............. I shall try and post some of our adventures as time allows it.

Take care lovelies.

Love and light xoxoxo

Acknowledging Anger.....from a meditative perspective....

Are you an angry person? Do you allow anger to over rule your emotions and take you down into the depths of despair when things don't go the way you want them to? When anger creeps up on you, do you re-act by expressing your feelings loudly or do you seethe and boil like one of those pressure cookers on the go, ready to erupt at any given moment when someone or something tips the balance? One too many bubbles erupt and there goes the lid.

No? Maybe you are the opposite, maybe anger does not even come into the equation for you at all. Is that possible do you think?

Today I would like to share a little of my journey with you regarding anger and what I personally learned through meditation and facing this little emotion head on. I am not going to say it was fun. Interesting? Extremely! Emotional? A bit like that reference to the pressure cooker up there. My lid did fly off my friends but really that was not such a bad thing.

So here is how it happened.....

Background noise: (Meeting the inner selves, Father, Mother and Child: Turns out the inner mother in me pretty much over-ruled the other two, to the extent that the father did not really exist...but thats a story for another day).

We find ourselves in meditation being forced to confront and acknowledge the benefits of feeling anger. This came about as someone in the group was really angry at men in particular and laying the blame on them for the woes of society in a certain country, strangely enough it was in fact a man). The purpose of the meditation was in fact to confront the feelings of anger, and learn how to accept our feelings and learn from it). What went on in my head however, was a little bit different.

Why? Well, imagine there are two of me standing there. One extremely feminine, calm and composed, smiling and happy, completely centred and sure of herself. The other one, the male version is trying to convince her that being angry is ok. In fact it is necessary to sometimes feel angry for us to be complete.  (going to have to go with the he and she when in fact we are really talking about me LOL)

She: "Anger is not conducive to our being". (Can't remember the whole monologue but she basically suggested that getting angry was a complete waste of time. It just upsets ourselves and others to boot. Why even bother with it?)

He insisted over and over that we need to feel and express anger. If we did not we would not be able to appreciate happiness or right wrongs etc etc. Feeling angry is normal, just like feeling happy or sad!

It went on in such a fashion to the point that I was unsure if this meditation had made any difference to me at all. We of course did some work around this and then all went home to our own lives where over the next few weeks I was quite amazed at the difference in my moods.

You see, suddenly, I started to feel angry about things where previously I may have just felt a little sad. OMG I am feeling really pissed off with you right now. Where did that come from? It was a bit like being burned really. That initial pain, followed by a bit of shock, then that moment where you think, how will I deal with this? And you take action either way very quickly.

Am I going to keep the lid on or let it out? Well, I decided to do a bit of both. Each time it happened, (and it happened quite a lot for a week or so) I went within myself and first acknowledged my feeling. OK, I'm annoyed, in fact I do feel angry. Why? What is the purpose of this feeling? Am I angry because of me or because of you? Hmmmmm

I accept that I am angry, its OK to feel angry and now I am going to re-act to this accordingly. I often found myself laughing at the whole process as I was doing it all backwards. While others were dealing with their anger issues and how to re-act, here I was learning how to feel that anger and accept it first and then go back to the reaction bit. As opposed to feeling sad which I suddenly learned I was using as a substitute.

And really my friends, this was no laughing matter. It was serious business. I think what I learned from it all was that yes, anger is an important emotion and its is ok to feel angry when someone pokes you where you do not want to be poked.  I learned to express this by telling those who made me angry. Hey, I am not cool with this. I feel angry! GRRRRR! And at first I think they were a little shocked. Well, some were rather amused. LOL. I learned that while I am not really an angry person, that sometimes I should feeling angry lest I get bogged down in sadness or disappointment in others.

Because over the past few years there have been situations where I should have been angry and I simply felt sad and/or disappointed. And we all know that sad can become a heavy burden to carry indeed.

And funnily enough several months later I found myself in class and we were doing a group exercise where we had various words and we had to place them on a scale as to what is less good for us and most good (closer to divine).  I found myself arguing (yes me) with my class mates as to where on the scale ANGER should sit. They all wanted to place it right down the bottom. I on the other hand wanted it up higher. In fact a little higher than halfway would seem about right to me. Of course they did not agree with me. They were right where I was previously. Anger is not nice! NO NO NO. In the end they met me half way. And lo and behold they were shocked when my choice was the right one. It was one of those times where you don't really want to be right but you know you are.


While I do not personally have much need for Anger, I certainly acknowledge it and intend to allow it to emerge when be. I also acknowledge that I don't like the feeling therefore I was refusing to allow it to be a part of me.

I have been learning to speak up where before I may have kept silent. This has been a big step for me.

I am learning!


Love and Light to you my friends, may your lives be filled with Peace, Joy, Love & Happiness

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

Bush Tucker.....a little history lesson......

While most of the kids in NSW are on holidays right now. We were up in the bush learning a little something (as one does). Take a little history, science, Humanities, religion, Food Tech, Survival skills and an Indigenous Bush Ranger called Gary to guide you and what do you get? Well a whole lot of FUN...and of course a great deal of learning (shhhh don't tell the kids). 

We began our little trek in amongst the pines which is a bit like a mini rainforest in the middle of the national park. It was wet and mushy and there were a lot of leeches around despite the fact that they do not usually frequent this area so much.  Lucky for me, I had something on my feet for once. (I would like to thank the local parcel delivery guy for that one. He told me about the leeches and suggested I be wary, so I borrowed Gemma's gum boots and was so glad that I did). 

Before we got walking though. Gary gave us a bit of a history lesson about the Awabakal people who were the true custodians of this land. Now there is a bit of a dispute about that around here as the Darkinjung got their claim in first and are recognised legally. We won't go into all that but Gary enlightened us to the truth and then told us all about the culture, the traditions and customs of local tribes and also embellished with some wonderful stories to keep us all interested. 

He introduced us to all we would need to survive in the bush......and some little luxuries too....

Did you know that with just one stick you can make fire, hunt, fish, and even mend it if it breaks using tree resin? He told us how to make these tools, what they were for and even how to use them. (Although we did not go ahead and hunt on this occasion. We were too busy learning about the plants).

Next he took us for a wander, "Remember to watch your step and be aware that deadly brown snakes live here" (Why thank you for that advice while you have us walk straight across this perfectly camouflaged area! Really!) Of course snakes were soon forgotten when we started to see those blood sucking leeches jumping up everyones legs. There were lots of squeals and jumping about by people as well. LOL The kids on the other hand were quite enjoying the leeches and comparing how long they could stand having them suck their blood before pulling them off....EWWWWWW...

Now of course we were not just taking a walk we stopped every few steps and he pointed out a useful plant which could be used for food, water or even for medicine. Personally, I could have stayed all day and would loved to have had a private tour so I could take notes. LOL However, I did manage to observe quite a lot and remember a fair bit of it. And Zak absorbed far more than I thought he would too! (Mission accomplished :-)). 

Fern......its everywhere around here......did you know that the leaves are a natural insect repellent. You can crush them and rub them on your arms to ward off mozzies and flies. You can also use it after the bites to help stop the itching. The roots and seed pods are edible provided you soak them in water for a few days first. 

Here we have a paper bark tree. The powder from the dryer parts is used to dry an open wound. You can then take a larger piece from near the bottom which should be a little mouldy and wrap it around the wound. (Natural penicillin) finally you take some larger dry sheets from the top and wrap to form a bandage. 

Got a headache? No worries, just chew some of this......

We slowly made our way through the trails....

Through the pines .......

Jumped across a stream...

And up the hill...... through the shrubbery......

It was about at this point that my camera battery died. Argghhhh. I had taken my little camera which I have not used for ages and the battery was obviously not up to it. So I took a couple of shots with my phone.  We emerge to the bush that is more like home around here. 

Lots of gum trees....

Gary told us stories from the dreamtime, talked about sacred sites and gave us quite an impression on his political views too. Would love to catch up with him sometime again. He was a wealth of interesting information. All in all, a very educational experience and a wonderful time in nature for those of us who are that way inclined. 

The kids are keen to go camping up there in the near future. Sounds like a great idea to me! Although its getting a bit nippy at nights now and no fires allowed in the national park. Maybe in Spring. 

Love and Light to all xoxox