mum and son in ocean - greatful love

A Grateful Beginning to 2019

It’s day 3 into 2019 and I’m feeling great. My goals are being ticked off. 

  • Blog posts have been written.
  • I’ve visited the Burmese family
  • Done my first run for the year (8kms and I’m tired from it!).
  • Stayed alcohol free (since Dec 29th).
  • Practiced gratitude daily. 
  • Still haven’t purchased something ‘new’.

Life is pretty good. My little one (now just 9yrs old) lost patience with waiting for me to get up by 9am so he came to lie next to me and chat. He loves to talk. This morning it wasn’t about anything in particular. He really just likes to ramble on about anything that’s running through his mind. We’ve been spending some quality time together lately, playing Pokemon Go so there’s a lot of talk about Pokemons. Whatever makes him happy. He’s telling me jokes but I’m laughing mostly at him thinking that his dry jokes are funny. In this moment, while he’s lying next to me rambling on, I’m feeling really grateful for the healthy, happy child that I have.

The Burmese twins, who I went to see yesterday, are 2yrs old now. They have a genetic condition which affects the development of their muscles. They’re still not walking, or even crawling. They’ve just started to get stronger with their sitting. Both looked like they had slept well and were very happy watching their kids shows, bopping and singing along. I sat down next to Joshua (as he’s warmed to me more than Joel has) to crack open sunflower seeds for him. Before long, little Joshua has his little hand on my leg, then eventually his head laid in my lap as he got tired of sitting. My heart melted at this stage and I see his mother feeling so grateful that I was there playing with her beautiful boys. Each day is pretty much of the same for this family. They don’t get out much, apart from hospital and physiotherapy trips for the boys, and so a visit from me was a nice interruption. I can see mum, dad and big sister totally doting over the twins. Ethan comes with me on these visits because they also have a 10yr old girl which he can chat to. Taking him with me on these visits is my aim to teach him gratitude. 

My children have everything they need and more. It’s a very different upbringing to what I had as a child. Even though we didn’t have much when we were young, my parent’s priority was keeping their children happy by spending time with us. Admittedly, we have given our children an excess of stuff. Whether it be toys or clothes or electronics. We’re realising it more as they get older and seeing our house is becoming just too full of ‘stuff’. It’s time to declutter and cut back a bit. Our focus is shifting more to what experiences we can give ourselves and our children. We’re looking forward to planning some adventures for this year, within Australia and abroad. Along the way, we’ll take time daily to take in all that we have and be grateful.

There’s thousands of photos in our archives of previous holidays together which I’ve forgotten about. They’re too nice not to share. They’ll be wonderful for our kids to look back on and remember what fun we had. These photos are of us frolicking in the sea during our holiday in Mallorca (or Majorca) in Spain a few years back.

mother and son in the ocean walking along some yellow and orange buoys - happy beach llife boy swimming in the ocean with colourful (yellow and red) buoys playing beachside - travel adventures for the family fun in the ocean - girl getting splashed by little boy - swimwear - ocean - fun - happy orange and yellow happy child in ocean laughing healthy kid swimming girl in swimwear gets splashed by kid