018: the most important thing

Today I am throwing out something that you can't see - you may think I am cheating here (I am the one making the rules on this decluttering thing for myself) but I have decided to toss out my ideals of being a mother. You see about 2 or 3 days ago I found myself sitting, talking to God about how I felt I had failed as a mother, (I'm sure this isn't a new concept to some mums - if not all) but after a good chat with a few close sistas tonight I can see that I am actually not such a bad mother after all, or at least not as bad as I originally thought. If you are a mum, you will know that being a mum is not the easiest job (as some who aren't mothers might think). High stress, no pay and the rest! But it is probably one of the most rewarding (at times). So, today I throw out the negative ideals I have about being a mum and am simply going to do it the best I can - I mean, seriously, that is pretty much how mums have always done it. I will no longer try to be the perfect mum, but I will try to be the most loving, encouraging and forgiving mum!

On that note, of not throwing anything out except ideals, I must tell you that I added objects to my life today -ok so not always a bad thing but this was for Asher! We spent the morning in a local thrift shop - Asher playing with a car he found in the toy section and me perusing children books! As it turns out there are some great books that people don't want anymore. I ended up buying 5 books for $2!!! I got him some great classic books - which he loves! I figure when it comes to books - you can never have too many for kids!

We also stopped by a Toy Factory Outlet and I got a few musical instruments for under $3 each, some cookie cutters (both for Christmas) and some new crayons. Then we came home for a nap and then it was off to the beach for the afternoon for Asher to ride his bike along the paths there for the first time!

Today I was grateful for time alone with my son. Although I get it often, for some reason today I appreciated it more! Which really is the most important thing.

P.S.

About motorbikes. Ok, so I don't really like motorbikes and have never really been interested in them at all! In the past my friends and even my little brother have bought motorbikes and I have looked at them and thought "whatever"! BUT... I have to tell you, my youngest brother Steve brang his new bike over tonight to show us and I have to admit I was a little "ok, here we go... better admire this new thing..." but I was taken aback a bit when I realised just how cool it is! It is the first motorbike that I am kinda jealous that I don't have one the same! Good work baby bro!

007: trash, trains and treasure

We had been out all day today from pretty much 9am to 5:30pm. Then I had my bookclub on tonight so didn't have time to really suss out something to throw out - BUT - thankfully because this month in bookclub we were all bringing a book to swap with someone else (just to mix it up) I was going through some books and found 3 to get rid of!! 1) a McDonalds toy book that never gets read and is just taking up space, 2) a calorie counter book that came with a magazine, which honestly I will NEVER use, even with good intentions, and 3) a book called "A Child is Born" which someone gave Brad before I had Asher, which is extremely graphic with pictures of babies being born, written in a time before women even thought to have bikini waxes (if you get my drift).

As I said, today we were out all day - I, along with my friend Alicia from "Notes from DownUnder" took our two little darlings for a long train ride into the city! The kids loved the train ride and particularly enjoyed the fact that they were so clever to be able to stand up and hold on to the yellow handles. We went to the State Library where they have a fantastic kids section for them to play with hands on things from reading books, playing house, exploring the window display and singing songs and then list goes on... With all these amazing things that we wanted to expose our cherubs to they both just picked one activity each and pretty much stuck with it. Sophie danced, whilst Asher played with a few cars on a little wooden carpark. (To Alicia's credit, Sophie also got a bit of craft done to!)

We then headed over to the museum to see the dinosaurs - a big hit with them both and then we had a little run around (the kids not us!) at Southbank. Very tuckered out!

I am so grateful for fun places to take kids, as I miss Melbourne and the different stuff to do there, finding little treasures in Brisbane takes some work but am slowly finding my way.