Fruit and Veg...

So for a few years we travelled out to the markets, bought boxes of fruit and veg, divided them up in to 12 boxes for 12 families and then delivered them in localish areas. We did this once every 3 months. The other weeks another family made the journey. For $10 a week we got a box delivered to our door.

Saturday sport entered our lives and I was the co-ordinater and both were making it tricky to be part of the group any more. Especially as I  was needed to top up each week anyway with more fruit.

Enter Harvest Hub.

A mum from school would bring the large blue cooler bag to school for me, full of my fruit and veg. For $30 a week I get everything I need and it is all fresh, local produce. And we get to say 5 things we never want to see if our bag - no more green capsicums for us! Easy.

But she is moving in couple of months so arrangements has to change.

I decided to become a 'hubster'. In return for the fruit and veg for my area being delivered to my house, me dividing it into the cooler bag and people collecting it from me (max 12), I get free fruit and veg.

Sounding pretty good! Will see how it goes.

About to go and walk to the streets to see if I can find some members to get it all started....

Visit - www.harvesthub.com.au for more information.

23rd July....

Five years ago today my mother had just died. My brother walked into the room and took his place beside her with my Dad and myself and she took her final breath, with all of us together. The couple of weeks that followed were special. My family and I entered a bubble for a time and there was something very safe and secure about being together. Remembering the joyful times and rejoicing that Mum was no longer in pain and in heaven happy. There was sadness but hope.

The last five years has gone quickly but also feels like no time at all. So much has happened and changed. Four new grandchildren for a start. I often wonder what would have been different had Mum still lived up the road. Would I be different? I think I would have to be. I don't think you go through grief and not come out on a different path.

Time does lessen the pain, although when I think back to the last few weeks I can not help but think that this impending date has not contributed to things not working.  JJ often scream and pulls on my leg until I pick her up and cuddle her. She smiles and give me a (snotty) kiss, happy, content and quiet. Sometimes we just want our Mums, their cuddles make things better. I still want my Mum. I don't think that will ever go away. I have just learnt not to scream and don't have a leg to pull on. But I have all the things that she has taught me and that is a good thing.

The history of a great love....

It started with Sesame Street and Big Bird, I was hooked, enamoured.

Young Talent Time was a could not miss in my primary school years. I did admire the people close to my own age who were so confident and talented but really I just enjoyed the singing and dancing.

Press Gang was part of my early teenage years. British kids running their school paper but uncovering crooks along the way. My brother gave me a copy of all the seasons a few years ago and it was great going back and watching it again. Maybe I saw a bit of myself in Linda. She was intelligent and organised but didn't always know how to communicate well so came across as bit bossy. And of course there was the Spike and Linda romance ... will they, wont they?

I had long discussions with my parents about how I was being left out at school because I didn't watch Beverly 90210 and couldn't contribute to the lunch time discussions. Eventually they relented and Dylan and Brenda and the gang raised topics in my teenage head that I hadn't thought about and started pondering.

Felicity and I entered university at about the same time. There was something reassuring about hearing her thought processes. She too was unsure of her decisions. My brother and I would often watch it late at night together.

I began to think in the unique way that Dawson, Joey and Pacey talk after the birth of MiniMe. A friend lent me Dawson's Creek on DVD while I was breastfeeding so I entered the make believe world of Dawson's Creek for few months.

When Mum was sick U2, my brother and I watched lots of Scrubs together. In Mum's final days it  must of looked strange to the nursing staff that we sat in front of the portable DVD players whilst Mum slept watching a show that made light of hospitals and laughed at Dr JD and Turks antics. But it helped, laughter is good medicine.

In the time after Mum died I ploughed through Gilmore Girls, a story of a mother and daughter. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to name my next daughter Lorelei! It made me thankful for the mother/daughter relationship I had and contemplate the ones ahead of me.

There have been many more shows that I have been addicted enjoyed. I was loyal to All Saints till the very end. Grey's Anatomy, Biggest Loser, Masterchef, Private Practice, briefly Home and Away, Parenthood, Brothers and Sisters, Glee, that 70s show, How I meet your mother, Packed to the Rafters and many more have stolen many hours of my days and nights.

Lately it has been Offspring. Something about it hits the right note. In some ways it feels a bit more like reading a book when you can hear Nina's thoughts too, you know more about her. And she too is fraught with indecision.

But I feel like the love affair is coming to an end. Now that Offspring has ended for this season, Masterchef is almost over and Packed the Rafters has gone AWOL I am left to decide what I will spend my time on in the evenings and surprisingly the thought running through my head is to give up the beloved  box. My time would be better spent and better enjoyed elsewhere I think. Books, crafting, sewing, phone calls to friends, blogging .... the options are endless.

What is your relationship to the box? Could you go without it? What would you miss?

Made it monday .. more cushions..

The front

The back

What to get my 17 year old cousin for her birthday?

What is becoming somewhat of a regular gift from moi?

A cushion.

I spotted a barren chair in her room and thought this might spruce it up a bit and help add some comfort to those long nights of study.

PJ's and painting...

Goofy's attire for the day.

Last night I declared that today would be a PJ day (we were having a home day). The girls have loved staying in their pyjamas all day.

At breakfast I told them they could open the finger paiting MiniMe got from her birthday from SIL. Something to look forward to when JJ went to bed after lunch. It was a hit.

They were happy (on the whole) today. They didn't ask for the TV to go on. They found things to do. One activity was cleaning the dining table for me - they scrubbed and scrubbed and enjoyed doing it.

I am not sure what it was that changed. Maybe it was talking to SIL yesterday afternoon. Maybe it was going to pilates last night after the girls had dinner last night and then having dinner for two with U2. Maybe it was deciding to do some entertaining on the weekend. Maybe it was sleeping well. Maybe it has been getting rid of some of the clutter today.

Whatever it was, I am thankful that things are working better today.

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Something is not working...

I am on the edge. Goofy and JJ have both been serenading me with that high pitched demanding cry for

 what seems like weeks now. I got to the point today where I jovially told Goofy my head was going to explode and what did she think that was going to look like. She smiled.

I feel like I am missing something. Something has changed in our house and it has caused a domino effect of sadness and crankiness. I just wish I knew what had made that first domino fall so that I could go back.

JJ has suddenly become difficult to go to bed at day and night - teeth, separation anxiety, developmental changes? Goofy cries at the drop of a hat - the prerogative of an almost four year old? MiniMe is grumpy and at times is showing quite an attitude - mid year kindy crankiness? Mummy's reserves are running low.

We went to the park today and I don't feel like I had a single conversation. Between Goofy crying because she wanted to go home (and then crying because she wanted to stay!) and JJ wanting to be carried or crying because she had fallen over I wondered why I had gone out.

Now I realise I am probably sounding like my children. If I was saying this out loud I would also sound cranky, sad and annoying. Maybe this is where the problem lies. I think I need some better strategies up my sleeves to deal with life when the crankiness of others is hitting me on the head like a toddler who wants a biscuit from the pantry. I need another strategy - because hitting back ain't working! (and I mean that figuratively not literally!!).

How do you over come those tougher parenting periods in life?