Hello from the midst of the school holidays, in our little part of the world. We hope you and your families (and friends) are enjoying the bit of warmer weather at present (is always colder after Anzac Day); at least we have had no rain for about two days (not that we don’t like water from Mother Nature- but not all at once!). We are still thinking about all of the communities that have been affected by the recent floods, up north NSW and South QLD way; we hope you have been able to find some long-term comfortable accommodation close to family and friends, while your properties are being assessed and or repaired- our hearts are still with you over this difficult time. Speaking of house floods, I am (very) pleased to announce, the replacement flooring downstairs at our place is now completed (phew!); with help from Mister C and the girls (Husband away again for work), we have nearly completed building the remaining ‘Ikea’ storage and wardrobe items. When this final work is all done, I will no doubt fall in a tired heap or jump for joy-either way, it will be done and we can start to move forward and start living life again (more so than focusing on the house repairs constantly!).
Mister C has been very busy creating these past few days, making and decorating 3D robots out of some of the old ‘Ikea’ boxes (there were many!). He sighed and stopped what he was doing yesterday morning, then moaned, “Mummy, I need MORE coloured tape to make my creations work, please!” I responded and agreed to take him to ‘K-Mart’ (love it) to get some more colourful creative tape, to make his crafty and unique little robot friends (out of Lego bricks covered in tape mind you). I think I must have picked up several metres of tape from around the house (is very stick too) over the past few weeks, off furniture, the floor, clothing, shoes and the side of cups and crockery (goodness Mister C!). We all love a bit of creativity, but lots of tape stuck everywhere does get a bit annoying after a while (whatever works really?). The girls have been enjoying some down time after the busy last week of term completing all of their assessment pieces (well done!). Flossy has been coming with me to my book events, for lots of walks with our cute doggies and chilling out in her room. Widy has been working many days this week and is working towards paying for her car registration, green slip and new tyres (with our help)- well done Widy!
As you may have seen on local social media, it was our fantastic Book Fest and Author Alley events at our wonderful local library last weekend. I was so thrilled (and honoured) to be a part of these events; to admit, I was a little nervous too, after the last Book Fest event was sadly postponed due to the Covid lockdowns back in March 2020 (quite a long time ago now). It was wonderful to attend the event and to meet some amazing local authors from our town and surrounding areas such as ACT and Crookwell. It was a particularly special day too, as Me and Mister C also released our fifth book on the same day (so great). Flossy came with me to set up our stall table and decided to stay the whole day (thanks so much, sweet young lady!). It was a wonderful day (but quite a long day), I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with the other local authors and meeting some amazing local people and families, who attended the book events throughout the day (we even sold quite a few books too- thank-you!). When we arrived home, I felt quite overwhelmed, but really content about the day; all our hard work and my long hours writing and illustrating had surely paid off. We wanted to send a big shout-out to all the wonderful librarians and assistants who made the day flow and helped all of us authors. What a great day had by all! The following day, Husband and I attended the terrific Panel Discussion event, at the newly refurbished Goulburn Performing Arts Centre (what a wonderful facility); it was so great to get to meet and hear nationally acclaimed authors (and internationally) such as Jackie French, Judy Nunn, Tom Keneally, Bruce Pascoe and Candice Fox chat about their writing, ideals and all things Australiana (thank-you!). Husband commented, “I was grateful to be able to come along for a little while and bring my “main man”, Mister C with me; but was frustrating when Mister C wanted to spend most of his time under Mum’s book display table!” …
We also hope you have a peaceful and restful holiday break for Easter celebrations (and the Greek Easter the following week too) coming up over the weekend (if you celebrate this particular event); for other families who celebrate other wonderful events, we hope you have a good break and some downtime with family and friends too. As our children grow older, some new ideas from school and such conversations can be difficult, especially when it comes to subjects about whether the Easter Bunny is real or not or if Santa writes those cards for the gifts or not. As a family, it is really important to chat about these new ideas and for children to make up their own mind about what is real or not real to them. I recall, when I was a young seven-year-old, my sister who was eighteen months older (love you), looked at me while we were decorating the real (smelly) Christmas tree and blurted out that, “Santa was yukky and wasn’t really real.” Hearing these words did break my heart (I did forgive her many years later), being an emotional (and spirited) child, while also not having the right someone to chat and confide in about my own world of imagination and ideals, I had to form my own mind up about all things Santa and Christmas.
Here’s another (quite fitting) word from Mister C to end this week’s blog…
Mister C was sad after coming home from school one day before the term ended; he wasn’t his usual chipper self, but sat gloomily on the couch for an hour or so. I realised he was not himself and asked whether there was something worrying him or something happened at school; his first reply was “Nothing, Mummy. I’m okay.” Mister C still sat gloomily on the couch, I managed to get a smile out of him, with a sneaky tickle under the armpit and passing him a little ‘choc frog’ to eat. Later that evening, while at the dining table chatting about Easter and the Bunny, Mister C sighed and said, “Well the Easter Bunny isn’t real, Mummy! A friend at school told me and that made me feel really sad, do you know?!” We all looked at each other and I sighed, “I’m sorry your friend said that to you, my son,” giving him a big hug. Husband also sighed and said, “Remember, the Bunny is who you want it to be, never stop believing what is important to you, my son.” Both girls nodded and Widy replied, “Don’t worry about what your friend said, he’s a non-believer and that’s okay too.”
A Word from Mister C
I was attending my karate session last year, with Widy at our local Dojo (masks on). I had asked Flossy to help finish making tea for Mister C and herself. When Widy and I got home Flossy laughed and said, “Hi, Mum. I made Mister C some sock ice-cream for dessert!” Looking surprised, I answered, “Oh, right, that sounds delicious, my Floss!” Both laughed, Flossy replied, “Yeah, Mister C forgot his socks and asked me to get a pair for him from his room; I threw the pair down the staircase and it magically landed in his bowl of ice-cream!” Mister C then called out from downstairs, “Hey, that was a good catch into my bowl, Flossy! Wow, Mummy, I had sock ice-cream for dessert!” We all laughed…🧦
Stay tuned…
I just wanted to personally thank everyone who joined us over the weekend for the Book Fest events; thank-you to my family and friends for putting up with me over these past weeks (it has been a bit crazy). I feel so honoured to be able to create our children’s books to share with everyone; thank-you for this privilege and for trusting us with this vast responsibility. We look forward to a bit of a rest and let the next story book begin (soon!)… 🌈
