Saturday, November 7, 2015

At My Table and on My Plate

 welcome dinner

Dining table photos are some of my favourites. They reflect both our family ethos and also the people that we share our lives with. 
We have been pretty busy lately. Pretty much since we took Will out of school and started to homeschool him. In the last few months my cousin, Danny, arrived in Perth and has had a fairly big impact on our lives, our time and our home.

 (last supper before the baby)

The biggest aspect of this was his partner Layla coming to stay with us for around 6 weeks. And the birth of their baby which I was super lucky to attend- it will go down as the most stressful day of my life. Talea was born safe and well on the 5th of October a whopping 4.2kg and came home a few days later. That was followed by the arrival of my aunty, Danny's mum, Lyn aka Auntie Bracey for a very short but full six days.

(aunty in the house)

 In between all that there has been; Homeschool, Kieran finishing school and two sets of exams, school holidays, Merenia working, a job interview for Les, Kindy, Rugby World Cup, some health issues and a rental inspection, among other things. Our days have been full and at times quite stressful. But it's been mostly good and I feel we've made a valuable contribution to the safe and happy beginning of a new family.

 (mini Christmas dinner- Braces last night, Merenia was at work)


Now we are back from, at times, 10 people in the house down to the usual six. Everybody is back in a room of their own and the boys are slowly settling back to normal. It's a new normal though with Kieran finishing up the last of his exams and being around a lot more. And we're still waiting to hear from the ADF about Kieran's future and also the results of the job interview. Plus we're making some changes to the way we eat.

I'm looking ahead to Christmas and what needs to be done before then (a lot) and beyond to what next year will look like. What's working, what's not. Where will the boys be educated and how. I'm thinking about my word for 2015 (Together) not given the attention it deserved and my word for 2016- elusive at the moment. I'm thinking about the way I work with photos, the boys, the computer and this blog, and the huge unread pile of books and magazines I am yearning for the time to read. I can see some changes ahead and maybe that's what 2016 will be all about... but I'll just have to wait and see. 

In the meantime I have spent today loading up a pile of posts, of our adventures and some moments, that span all the way through the middle of December and I'll be pretty much taking a blog break for the rest of November so I can get stuff done and also take some moments to savour life as it is right now- before the changes really start and life flips again. Spending time together in anticipation of a year that may see a lot more time apart for some (and together for others).

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