Thursday, October 8, 2015

Dusty Feet

The thing about living in the Outback is that there is a lot of dust.  Another thing is that wearing shoes is not expected.  People walk around town, even in the shops, with bare feet.  Seeing people walk through the grocery store with bare feet does take a little getting used to, but I admit that watching my little ones run around outside in bare feet makes my heart rather happy because somehow it seems to capture exactly what childhood should be.  They come home with dirty feet that mean they were out experiencing their world, breathing in fresh air and feeling the dirt between their toes.  Those dirty feet mean they had a carefree afternoon, but were getting tougher as they bravely ran over the pebbles and rocks that line the streets and yards of our neighborhood.




sweet sister, best brother

 Darcy is very full of it!  Full of sweetness and full of spunk.  She is very loving and often shows love and concern for others.  She is also very independent and, how should I put it?  She can be a tease and also a bit willful.  Derek is very loving and kind and is always quick to share whatever he has or help out when asked.  He loves Darcy and is usually great about playing with her, helping her, and loving her.  The problem is she has already figured out how to tease him and has occasionally made him cry.  Even so he loves her dearly and she is very lucky to have him watching over and helping her.  





Rugby Playoffs August 29 2015







Lucky to be in love

Jason Mraz is my latest favorite music artist and his song "Lucky" has pretty much been my theme this week.  We celebrated 17 years of marriage.



A Day in the Life

So I am not a naturally organized person. I can't look at something and immediately see how or where things should go.  Yet I thrive on having a plan.  Once I have a system I function really well, but it takes me forever to get that system in place, and that is probably the number one reason that moving is so hard on me.  So this last year my life has felt very out of control, and I have struggled.  But, I think I am finally figuring out my system and so (while my house organization still has a long ways to go) I have at least mapped out my time management system.  I typed it all out last week and I have to say this week has been really good.  Last night and this morning were the exception and the reminder that no matter how well I plan, things happen and that's ok.

Last night we had a youth activity at the Alice Plaza which I was in charge of.  I am the secretary in our branch Young Women's Presidency (I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and as such am not expected to go to all of the activities (especially because Jeff is the Young Men's President and it can get difficult with both of going and dragging Derek and Darcy along), but because I was over this one I kinda had to be there.  We did a modesty fashion show at the Alice Plaza and Derek was so great to watch Darcy.  But still that girl is super high energy and was all over the place, climbing, crawling, running, jumping on the floor, the chairs, the table, the stage, the play equipment, the push cars on display outside the store, the play sand on display inside the store...  By the time we got home she was pretty filthy, but it was past bedtime so I skipped the bath, quickly gave her a snack, got pajamas on and teeth brushed and whisked her off to bed.  Once Derek had his pajamas on, teeth brushed, and was ready for bed we called Aubrey in for prayers and then sang a hymn in place of scriptures (yes I do that sometimes when it's late; especially since we read quite a few scriptures and talked some doctrine at the activity).  Anyway, by the time everyone was in bed I just wanted to go there myself so none of the next day prep happened.

So this morning, it was a bit of a rush getting everyone dressed and out the door.  I did get Darcy (and myself) changed out of our pajamas, but her hair was a tangled mess and I didn't notice until we got to the grocery store, but her face had dark smudges and her fingernails really needed a good cleaning.  So I fixed her hair as best I could with no comb, and cleaned her face as best I could (thumb and tongue style) and we hurried to get our shopping done.  The light is out our hallway bathroom, so lightbulbs were on my list, but of course they didn't have the kind I needed at the grocery store so we had to go to the home improvement store.

When we got home Darcy was starving so I gave her some fruit cocktail while I put away groceries.  We finished about the same time and I looked over to see she had not just planted her face in her bowl, but her whole head, so now her tangled hair was also a sticky mess.  Off to the bath while I did dinner prep.   After her bath it was lunchtime.  Part of lunch was cream cheese with crackers.  I got up to get her water and when I turned around she had her face in the whole block of cream cheese (including hair) and was happily chomping away.  When she looked up her face was just white, and I wondered why I had bothered with the bath?

But here's the thing.  Life is about living and living means getting dirty, but it's also.  It's also about doing and doing often meanand getting clean.  It's an important and necessary process.

Pretty

Darcy loves pretty things and insists on wearing a pretty dress everyday.  She found this headband in Kmart and had to have it. It was so cute on her that I decided she was right and got it for her.  Sure do love my precious pretty girl! 











Home from exchange!

Aubrey was able to go and stay in Melbourne for a couple of weeks through St. Philip's exchange program.  She stayed with a family there and attended school with their daughters (they have twin girls Aubrey's age).  Then in a couple of more weeks we will have one of the twins (Bella) come and stay with us.  It was a good experience for her.  She got quite homesick, but overall had quite a good experience.  We missed her and are glad to have her back!




Saturday, August 22, 2015

Health Club's 1st Birthday Party!

  One of the best parts of coming here (for me), has been working at the Health Club just down from our house.  It's been a way to share something I am passionate about (particularly yoga, but also health and fitness in general) and a way to pull me out of my introverted shell and integrate into the community.  It's helping me to develop talents and overcome weaknesses and it was truly a huge blessing that it opened up just a month after we moved here.  So as staff members (Jeff teaches a HIIT type class once a week) we got to attend the big birthday bash for free.  Since shopping is limited here, and I was nervous to order a dress without having tried it on first, I asked my mom to send me a dress I found in her storage closet while I was there visiting in April (she made it herself and wore it back in her college days, circa 1968).  She was happy to send it as long as I took lots of pictures to send back to her.  So the dress made it in time and worked out great but the pictures aren't so great (sorry Mom!).




When I came out after getting ready Darcy walked up to me eyes full of wonder and said, "Wow.  Pretty Dress," and kept stroking the skirt and my nylons.  She is so into pretty princess things right now, insisting on wearing a dress everyday and walking around in princess play shoes that Daddy brought her back from Utah.











Ok and just as a side note, back in July I took on a cardio class in addition to the 3 yoga classes that I'm teaching.  So I walked into the health club a couple of weeks before my class was supposed to start up and saw these posters on the message board and in front of the studio entrance.  I almost laughed out loud it was so unexpected.  It is a super fun place to work though.  The other staff and the members are awesome!