The curve ball...

Ever had one of these thrown at you? I have. A big one was lobbed at me about three months ago, and I'm still reeling. Right when you think life is rolling along just fine, the universe decides to rock the boat. Don't you hate that?

I guess you're all wondering where I've been and why I haven't been posting. If I told you everything though, I'd be writing a novel. Or maybe a screen play of Day's of Our Lives proportions. Seriously.

Life has always been kind to me, and I've never been one to wallow. I know that change is good, and things definitely don't happen just by chance as there is always a higher purpose. Sometimes it's hard understanding just what that purpose is, but the finding out certainly makes for interesting times!

When things seemingly come out of nowhere, you have to sit back and take them all in. Embrace them and just roll. So that's what I did. My husband and I have separated. We are still best friends and always will be, but there comes a point sometimes when it's best to move on. It's nobody's fault. It's just one of those things. One of those curve balls again, and while it was something that had been simmering away in the background for a while, neither of us really saw that ball flying through the window.

It's going to take time to adjust to this new life, but I'm ready. I have so much love from friends and family and the support I've been offered has been quite overwhelming at times. I have a wonderful network of people and I want to thank you all. On top of all of this, I've also been blessed with the love of someone special, but that's a whole other episode!

So there you have it... This Everyday Mum might not be so 'everyday' after all!

Points for trying

Here is my oldest son. His hero is Bear Grylls. He lives and breaths adventure at the moment, and is literally counting down the days until he is 18 and can go and discover the big, wide world. The entire schools holidays were spent pouring over his survival guides, watching Man vs Wild, packing, and re-packing his backpack. He has drawn maps, written lists and planned every adventure down to the last detail. He even made a raft out of old pieces of wood from the yard, and plans to use it to sail to England. Oh yes... he is THAT keen!

This particular night he decided that he was no longer satisfied with sleeping in his tent on the back deck, so he rigged himself up a hammock out of an old bed sheet. He tied the knots, tested them for strength, and kitted himself out with torches, books, pillows and blankets. When night fell, he couldn't wait to get in it and sleep.

We humoured him of course, and made a bid deal out of how clever he was, and how proud of him Bear Grylls would be. He read by torch light for a little and then prepared for sleep. He lasted about 30 minutes. Apparently the mosquitos were bothering him too much. We gave him plenty points for trying though, and off to bed he went to dream of far off places.

A gluten-free experiment

My new naturopath-enforced diet says that I can't have any bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and obvious sugars. The first four are proving to be ok, but my sweet tooth is starving!

I decided today to make a banana cake that is as close to what I'm allowed to have as possible. I combined a couple of recipes and tweaked it a bit due to ingredient availability. I'll need to use an different loaf tin next time because the one I used today made it a very flat loaf! Taste wise though, it was really, really good! And the kids like it too - WIN/WIN!

Sliced and served with butter, it is going to satisfy my night-time lolly pangs quite well, I think.

Here's the recipe -

Gluten and Sugar Free Banana Loaf

90 grams butter
1/3 cup honey (or sugar, if you'd prefer, but then of course it couldn't be called 'sugar free')
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 large banana
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 ¼ cups of gluten free self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup plain yoghurt (I only had a tub of Vaalia French Vanilla, so I used that)
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts (I didn't have them, but they would be a great addition)

Beat the butter and honey together until light and fluffy. Add lightly beaten eggs, the peeled, mashed banana and the lemon juice. Fold in dry ingredients and yoghurt. Stir in half the chopped walnuts, mix until smooth. Spoon mixture into greased and greased paper lined 25 cm x 8 cm (10in x 3 in) bar tin, sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Bake in a 180 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy!

The Grateful List

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie

There's a lot to be said for gratitude, and it's a virtue that's getting a really good wrap lately. Earlier this year I caught the tail end of a radio interview where the announcers were discussing Oprah's gratitude journal. I filed it away as something to look into later on, but I didn't think of it again until I was playing around on my iPhone and came across a gratitude diary application. Curiously I downloaded it, and quickly got into the habit of listing at least five things I was grateful for each day. It wasn't always easy though. It took me a while to change my mindset from searching for the big things - the 'meaningful' parts of my day. However each evening as I broke down my activities, it became clear that it was the little things that made it memorable. Things like getting all the green lights on the way to work, or the extra hug from my son after I'd already started walking through the school gate. It's those little things that create the big memories. They keep us humble and they open our hearts to receive love.

When we are grateful for something, we instantly change our energy into a positive vibration, and as we increase our acknowledgement of things to be grateful for, we automatically start to see and create more of the same. We experience more happiness, more abundance, more prosperity, more well-being, more love, more joy and everything else you have chosen to be grateful for. It all boils down to something I'm utterly passionate about - The Law of Attraction. What we focus on, expands...

Recently my co-worker decided to post only positive status updates on her Facebook profile, and so begun her daily dose of gratitude. It caught on, and pretty soon her friends - me included - joined in on the act. On the weekend Mandy took it a step further and has now created The Grateful List as a community page on Facebook. Now we have a wondeful place to share gratitude, and to admire and inspire each other.


Gratitude is my heart's response to something that has moved me, and the act of being grateful has now become an intentional ritual in my life. It has transformed the way I live, the way I think, and the way in which I respond to others - for that I am thankful.

What are you grateful for today?

Real food....

As my husband just pointed out, the term 'real food' means different things to everyone. To us it means food in it's most purest state. Dr Tickell often talks about the HI factor of food, and recommends that we eat food that has the lowest HI factor possible. HI meaning 'human influence'. For example, food with a low HI would be organically grown fruits and vegetables, and on the flip side, food with a high HI would be something completely processed such as soft drink, or a fast food burger. This kind of food is not appetising to me at all these days! Especially not after watching Food Inc the other night.

Tonight I collected my first Food Connect box, and I am impressed! I opened it and laid it all out on the kitchen bench, and my kids went crazy! Cherry tomatoes, strawberries and pecan nuts disappeared before my eyes, and my oldest son told me that we needed to make sure we bought this 'farm stuff' every week! I tell you, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing your children get excited over such wonderful things. This is 'real food', and just as importantly, this 'real food' comes from farms within a five hour radius of Brisbane. This means that not only are we supporting local business, but we are able to eat food that is FRESH! If you care about what goes into your mouth, and into the mouths of your children, you really should check out their website. They don't just supply fruits and veg either. You can buy raw milk (I can't wait to get some of this!), organic sour dough breads, cheeses and an array of other delicious things.

Check out what was in my box tonight. All this for $48. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am pretty certain that you would not get this for the same price in a supermarket!

Awesome, hey?

Together for Humanity

I just watched 7.30 Report on ABC, and feel really hopeful.

The story that warmed my heart was about a not-for-profit organisation called Together for Humanity. They are a group made up primarily of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Indigenous Australians, and their mission is to "teach children and adults to replace prejudice, largely religious and cultural, with mutual respect and cooperation".

They travel throughout the country running school workshops about religious and cultural tolerance, and together they openly answer questions about their beliefs, their faith and their lifestyles. Despite their obvious differences, the workshops focus on the similarities they each share as part of their common humanity, and they have had huge success in reducing things such as bullying and racial conflict. Their aim is to reduce fear, and to replace discrimination with understanding.

How wonderful! And how refreshing it would be to be able to bring up a generation of children whose internal moral compasses have been tuned to tolerance and acceptance!

This is the kind of program I would love to see implemented by all schools, as this, to me, is education of the utmost importance.

What do you think?

A Monday moment....

The concentration and dedication to task, followed by the
satisfaction of doing it 'all by herself'.

Nothing tastes better, does it?