new neighbours

They're new neighbours but they have been in the neighbourhood for a while and anyway, it feels like we have known them forever.

There is an ease in the ebb and flow of life living next door to this beautiful little family of three.

The side gate is open and a precious two year old tinkerbell tiptoes in to our backyard now and again to steal a jump on the trampoline or five minutes playing trains with our boys.

A big black dog has been well and truly adopted and hours are spent patting.

The spoils of cooking and produce are shared and containers of deliciousness are passed across the fence and back again.

The difficult hours of dinner, bath and bedtime are easier when you can call out to someone else facing the same trials next door.

Having new neighbours, might seem like a relatively small thing in the grand scheme.
Small or not, it feels like I have won the lottery.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

You never know the impact your blog post will have

I read a lot of blog posts. Loads of them.

I love being able to be a little inside the minds of others. I love to read about what happens in their worlds and draw inspiration from their insights. I hope too, that ocasionally I can offer insight back in return.

As a parent, and particularly as a parent of a child with special needs, it is an absolute gift to have access to the often wise words from our global internet village of mums and dads. Parenting can be an isolating gig and sometimes it strikes me as a wee bit sad that the actual, real life village is often not there and for many of us, there is this, blog and social media land, to make these connections. But no matter because I reckon the universe gives you what you need when you need it. Perhaps where it comes from is not important.

Every now and then, I read a blog post that literally shifts something in me. A post that connects with me, speaks to me, takes some issue I have been struggling with into a new paradigm. That happened to me the day before yesterday when I came across this post. Ruth from Gourmet Girlfriend writes sagely in the post about fussy eating and her approach to feeding her kids - and when I started to read, I sat up and really took notice. She knows stuff - she has five, yes, 5 boys. So run away now and read the post and come back if you like...

I cried when I read it because I realised just how much I have been beating myself up about what the Batsman and the Bowler will and won't eat. The Batsman's sensory sensitivities (thank you autism, not), add a layer of complication to the eating caper that at many a dinner time has figuratively brought me to my parenting knees. I'm not going to air that pain here because I just don't want to give it any more power.

So I read Ruth's post and since I did I have been:

• reading cookbooks and food magazines and getting re-inspired about things I can cook for us to eat as a family.
• consciously reminding myself to let go of the stress and self flogging that for such a long time has gone with feeding the boys.
• feeling freed up
• going back and reading the post a few more times!

Something has shifted in my mind about this whole issue. It feels great.
Tonight, for the first time ever, yes EVER, the Batsman ate pieces of chicken breast that hadn't been chopped, minced, hidden or otherwise kitchen modified. He ate beautiful, crumbed and seasoned chunks of chicken breast. He chewed and chatted and swallowed without angst or upset.

It was amazing. And I can't help but think that perhaps Ruth's post had more than a little to do with it. The universe gives you what you need.

And what I want to say most of all is that we all have this most amazing opportunity when we blog, to put words out there for others to read and be inspired by. You never know the impact your blog post will have.









Image via we heart it

In a split second (reality)

"Because in a split second. It's gone." - Ayrton Senna


We had a bit of a close call here this afternoon.
Dont freak out. Keep reading. Everyone is ok.
But it can happen in a split second.

The Captain was mowing the lawn in our front yard this afternoon.
I was inside cooking, talking to a visiting friend and looking after the Batsman and the Bowler.
The Batsman was watching the Captain through the front window, the Bowler was there too.
I could hear them.
I heard the front security door click and assumed it was the Captain coming back inside.
Wrong.
The Batsman had opened the door to "go and see what Daddy's doing" and in the process our almost two year old Bowler had slipped out the door, off the porch, across the driveway and onto the footpath in front of our neighbour's house.
Thankfully, the Captain was still at the side of the house.
Thankfully, he heard the click of the security door.
Thankfully, he turned his head in time to see the Bowler walking away and could scoop him up before he got closer to the road.
It scared the hell out of us.

Whenever I have heard in the news of a young child being run over by a car, the thought that has often come into my head is "How can that happen?". But probably what I meant really was "How did they let that happen".
Now, that feels like a totally arrogant and judgement laiden thing to have said or thought. Because now I have seen, with my most precious almost two year old, that it can happen in a split second. A moment of inattention, circumstances aligning in a way you don't expect and it can happen so easily.
I'm beating myself up about this tonight.
I feel like I didn't do my job properly.
I know he is ok and nothing bad happened to him. He is so very peacefully asleep in his bed, oblivious.
It still feels awful that he was only a metre from the road.
I know this will feel a little better after a big sleep.
It just felt close. Too close.


Have you ever had a close call like this?


Image courtesy We Heart It