Are you experienced?

I was stumped by Jamie’s wish prompt this week:

What do you wish to experience?

So I asked Ryan.  Ryan wishes to experience swimming in chocolate, and when he’d thought about it for a bit, a good shower afterwards.  His final thought was that the chocolate should be molten, but not too hot.

I’m glad I married a man willing to discuss the logistics of chocolate swimming.

Now I can’t follow chocolate swimming with a serious wish.  But I could follow it with more food…

I wish to experience an absolutely amazing post-pregnancy meal.  Something with blue cheese and red wine and sashimi and all the yummy stuff that pregnacious people aren’t supposed to eat.  I know I’ve got a couple of months before this wish could come true, but in the mean time, we can all wish for a swimming pool of chocolate.

Gems of Joy

Goddess Leonie has had a week of weird… and not in a good way.

So if you’d care to, head over there and tell her what brings you solace and joy.

In the mean time, here’s my list for today:

• Julie & Julia.  We just got back from the movies, and I LOVED this.  Look what happens when women follow their passions… oh, and just imagine all that wine and butter!
• Calling home.  My mum, my aunts, my sisters, my dad… even my little brother.  Speaking to each of them helps in a different way.
• Sharing books.  I think everybody who has visited me lately, has gone home with one.  I think books, like good food and good stories, are best shared.
• Listening to the rain.  I think I’ve mentioned this once or twice.  I haven’t figured out how it can be so soothing and energising at the same time.
• Afternoon naps.  Especially while listening to the rain.

I hope you’ve found joyful things to do with your Saturday.

The silver lining

We just moved to our new home, and we’re elbow deep in project to make it feel ‘ours’.  It’s very different from our little garden flat, and there were some things that I thought, well, I was just going to have to get used to.

One thing about this new house?  It’s a lot further into suburbia.  And while I’m still working, that means a lot more driving.  I shouldn’t complain really – I’ve only got a 30 minute commute.  It’s just that I used to have 5…

Anyway, the commute, and the traffic, were things I was quite anxious about before the move.  Having to get up half an hour earlier didn’t sound like fun.  And my greenie credentials are slowly going down the drain – or at least out the exhaust.  Our car is efficient, but I’m still doing more than double the kilometres I was before.

However, now that I’ve mastered the crowded double-lane round abouts, and I think I’ve figured out the smoothest way home, I’ve found the silver lining.

Everyday, I get to travel on two roads that give me spectacular views of the mountains.  Canberra sits in a basin, something I’ve always loved, but now I get to say hello to the hills twice a day.  I’m getting to know their moods and their colours.  Sometimes the skies are super clear, and the mountains are brown and green and close.  Today was hazy, with everything in greys.  The hills became layers of sillouettes, back-lit by cloud.  The effect was like a delicate Japanese screen.

Being big and balloon-like right now, I’m not getting out into the bush as much as I’d like.  But I get to see it every morning and every evening.

So I guess it’s not so much a silver lining, as a silver back drop to my day.

Happy Thursday!

Treats

I have opened up the house to listen to the rain.

A parcel arrived in the mail.

The baby is wriggling about like a curious puppy.

I have my feet up.

Ryan is coming home to cook me dinner, and he’s bringing paint for our next home project.

What else could I wish for?

I wish my sisters could come visit.

Somebody who writes beautifully about treats is Clare at Three Beautiful Things.  You should go visit.

Lessons Learnt from returning to study

I’ve just handed in my final assignment for this year.  It feels like an achievement, but it also felt like a lot of hard slog.  Mostly it feels like a relief to have it done.  Magpie Girl has taken *8Things on vacation this week, but here’s *8Things I’ve learnt from returning to study:

1.  You can study, work full-time, keep house and keep healthy, all at the same time.  You just can’t do them all well.

2.  As a mature-age-student (what do they call them in America?), I find I value learning over marks.  I care more about what I think of my work, than what my teachers think.  Who’d believe it?

3.  In first semester, I took time off to study.  This semester, I couldn’t.  Not having time to digest my learning took all the fun out of it.  If you are going to go back to study – make a proper time commitment.

4.  Being in a graduate class rocks.  Everybody there is passionate, and making time in their busy lives for this subject you all care about.

5.  Perfectionism goes out the window with hard deadlines.  This is both a blessing and a curse.

6.  You can learn as much from your fellow students as from your teachers, if only you choose to engage.

7.  You won’t learn what you think you will.  I started this course on the assumption it included a lot about freelance writing and maybe basic journalism.  It’s actually much more focussed on fiction, poetry and creative writing.  While it’s definitely a detour from my original plan, it’s worked out well so far, so I’m rolling with it.

8.  Ask questions.  This should probably be the first point.  Being a grown-up now, instead of a timid undergrad, I’m not in awe of my teachers.  This means I’ve asked a heap of questions, not just about the course and their expectations, but also about their philosophies of learning and their experiences in writing and publishing.  Much more fun than the course materials.

Just say yes

Did I mention I am sick?  My body rebelled against business-as-usual.

‘You are big and pregnant!’ said my body.

‘But I feel good’ I replied.

‘You must rest!’ it demanded.

But I didn’t listen, so now I say ‘yes’ to four days in bed, coughing and sneezing and snoring and generally being delightful.

So Jamie’s wish prompt has come along at just the right time.

I wish to say yes to the demands of my body, and remember to be gentle with my ballooning self.

I wish to embrace and say yes to all the demands of motherhood, which are barrelling towards me at an alarming rate.

And finally, I wish to say yes to my teacher’s challenge, that I must keep writing through all this next phase brings.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take my lemon and honey and go back to bed.

In Threes

(Photo of us from the gorgeous Goddess Leonie)

We’ve been together for nearly nine years.  Three lots of three.

I could (and did) write this post as a list of all the amazing things we’ve done in the last three years, and all the hard stuff, too.  But in the end I decided

the shorter Dr Seuss version was better:

I love him.

He loves me.

Soon we’ll be three.

Happy Anniversary.

I love you Ryan.

This mama

I have started bumping into things with my bump.  I feel like a mama hippo.  I feel like a blimp.  I feel like a mama rhino – better not get in my way!

But mostly I feel like a turtle, with a big tummy and big shell, my little arms and legs waving in the air.

I talk to my body all the time.  I talk to the tiny body bumping around in my body even more.

I rub my tummy.

I miss climbing, gin and tonics and sushi.

I eat my greens, I read about cloth nappies and I do yoga with other pregnant women.

I sleep a lot, but badly and at odd times.

And this is just the beginning…

Human Being

It’s the beginning of October and by rights there should be a dream board.  But my craft stuff is spread among several boxes, and I don’t have a desk, or even a table, so we’ll have to live without one.

If I made a board this month, it would say  ‘be where you are’.  I’m sitting on the couch feeling the baby wriggle in my tummy.  I don’t think it’s kicking.  It feels more like somebody uncomfortable in their sleeping bag, trying to change position.  I hope it’s got a good pillow.

Apart from feeling the baby, I’m slowly watching the afternoon turn to dusk in the garden, and I’m listening to the birds.  The birds are loving the rain showers and putting on a show.

I am a human being, not a human doing, but I forget that sometimes.  Pregnancy has reminded me in the most physical of ways.  My body has forced me to slow down and pay attention.  I am learning that preparation is not always relevant, that things will happen as they will, and we will be ready enough.

I hope you get the chance, on this rainy Sunday afternoon, to toss the to-do list and spend some time just being.

Seasonal Gratitude

My spring notification is the sniffle in the back of my throat.  Allergies sap my energy and short-circuit my brain box, not to mention being woefully unattractive. I have had years when the hayfever came with the spring, and didn’t leave until autumn.  I am hoping against hope that this year is easier, because pregnant people aren’t supposed to take antihistamines…

Rachelle is having similar seasonal grumbles on the other side of the world.  She is trying to find ways to celebrate and enjoy autumn.  I am matching her *8 things to celebrate about autumn with my *8 things to celebrate spring.

1.  Being woken by the sun, instead of the alarm clock.  I love that lazy feeling.

2.  There is light enough for a walk after work.

3.  I’m no longer worrying about frost on the car in the morning.

4.  Cherry blossoms, apple blossoms and wattle trees light my path to work.  I amazed by the over night changes I get to witness here.  I just wish I could leave my nose at home.

5.  Sitting in undiluted sunlight with a coffee and my notebook – no shivering or polar fleece required.  No sunscreen or shadecloth required yet, either.  Just tissues.

6.  Opening up the house and letting the fresh air in.  Even with all the pollen, there is such gratitude in this act after a winter of closed up, closed-curtained heating.

7.  The farmers market fill up with greenery!  Just when I’ve seen enough beetroot and pumpkins for a year, I suddenly get asparagus, six sorts of lettuce and an abundance of berries.

8.  Bare feet on the grass.