Hello August, it's me!!
The last few months have been quite the whirlwind! I feel as though the weeks and months seem to just merge into one another. I feel as though June slid straight into August...I know we had a number of events and things to do in July, but I'd only be able to tell you what they were if I went to the calendar. Time stands still for no one. Only a few days ago,10th August, the school marked 100 days left of grade 12 for Nell and her friends. Obviously a few days have gone by so as of today (15th August), we are left with 95 days till the very last day of school, and 94 days till the formal.
Today I was told there are 19 weeks till Christmas. I have decided not to worry about that right now though, because I'm pretty sure we are buying everyone a fire extinguisher for Christmas this year!
I didn't realise the last time I blogged was in March, when I told you about our house fire.
Goodness me, A lot has happened since then...
In summary, between the 20 February and the 9 June, we moved house five times. Five!!
We have been back home for a couple of months now, and I while it's nice to be back home, I will admit that coming home has been a little trickier than I expected it to be.
First of all, I fell madly in love with the Golden beach airbnb home we lived in for the last six weeks of our 'fire adventure', secondly, it's not easy going back to live in a home where there has been a fire. And thirdly, the girls are back sharing a room, which can be quite difficult considering we have a baker who is a shift worker, and a year 12 student who both need their room to be a sanctuary of sleep, and a place to study and work on assignments each day. Meeting the needs of both girls each day can be quite difficult. Our airbnb home in Golden Beach was a five bedroom home where each of the kids had the opportunity to spread out and get comfortable in their own rooms. I fell in love with this home for so many reasons, but the kids having their own rooms was amazing. I have decided that one day it would be wonderful to live in the Golden Beach area, there is something incredibly quaint and special about the area, and I can see myself living in the area of Golden Beach till I'm old, with my love. I'm not exactly sure what is happening to me right now in my life, but I'm also planning on buying a porch swing for our home in Golden Beach.
Since being home, school holidays came and went, we all got colds and recovered from the colds; many hours have gone into unpacking the storage container, emptying boxes became our reality. The tradies have all left us now, and we are very close to the whole 'fire adventure' being over - the storage container was picked up late last week. I'm looking forward to the end of the 'must do' 'to do' list. It is getting shorter as we speak, but it is still taking more time than I would like to give it.
While I believe we have travelled the road back home with some style and charisma, I will tell you that it has also been a challenging road back home. The one thing I wanted for our family during our ordeal was to go on with our life as normally as we could make it for each person in our family. It was important to us that our kids didn't see us throw our hands up in the air and give up when something bad happens. We don't have the right to fall in a heap, because it teaches our kids to respond to bad things (or not so good situations) in the same way. I am very aware that kids mirror us, the good, the bad and the ugly. We have to brace ourselves to weather the storms as gracefully as we can despite the circumstances. We have to set the example.
I feel as though our situation has helped grow our family resilience muscles. We are stronger for having gone through this process. We are thankful for what we were able to recover, and we've said good bye to those things that we had to throw away. Overall, we are thankful the situation wasn't worse than what it was. When we put things into perspective it helps us deal with all the issues that present. The fire was a bad day, but more like a bad morning. It caused some damage to our home, and prevented us from living in the house for a period of time, but walls can be fixed, and things can be replaced. We are so thankful that our fire wasn't worse than what it was, and that our insurance company helped us through the whole ordeal.
Keeping our lives as normal as possible was important for us all for all different reasons. The Kids attended school as per normal, parent/teacher interviews were attended, school leadership events, book week events, gymnastics, jobs, driving lessons, driving tests, formal dress and shoe shopping were all achieved and checked off through the last 6 months of our year, not to mention birthdays celebrated and parties were held. While there are a few things we would have liked to have accomplished in the last 6 months but didn't get too, I feel that we did the best we could have done as we watched our home being rebuilt and put back together.
Now all we have to do is finalise our to do list so that we can finish off a few organisational issues so that we can start really living our life again properly. We are looking forward to inviting family and friends over again. I am hoping we can be done before the 1 September. There is something about being done for Spring that feels important. Maybe it's just because it's my favourite time of the year? All I know is that I want to be completely done by the 1st September. In many ways this is an achievable goal, but for the sake of being somewhat dramatic I will wish us good luck!?!
Is there anything you would like to achieve before the 1st September?
Till next time,
XO
