Why I blog

Yay! Look what season it is, Peonies! which means I've been writing consistently on this here blog of mine for well over a year. It's been lovely looking back, reading and seeing moments that I know I would have forgotten otherwise.  I still get embarrassed telling people I keep a blog.  That I am indeed one of those strange individuals who likes to loose themselves in blogland or worse still that they think I fancy myself a bit of a writer waiting to be discovered. The truth is I blog as a way of journaling. I like craft but this blog will never be about crafting, I like fashion and food but this blog will never be about those either. It's only purpose is for me to diary the days that make up our lives. The fact that people read it, are sometimes encouraged by it is great but that's not why I do it. It is a record for my kids, so that they know the things their mum cared about, worried about, prayed about and learnt from. I write to tell of my journey and  a small part of their journey through this life.

As a treat to get me through our first open home on the weekend, I brought two bunches of these beautiful blooms. Fresh flowers are expensive so I won't be indulging myself every open home, in fact if you are a friend with flowers in your garden, I may just be paying you a cheeky visit.

Fresh flowers in the home are one of the only nice things about putting your house on the market. That and the home baking  that gets done to make the place smell homely and the fact the place gets cleaned top to bottom at least once a week. Those are the good parts. Mostly I just feel sick at the thought of strangers in our home, critiquing it, judging our decor decisions, whether it's worth what we are asking for. Argh, this home is such a huge part of us that it's so hard not to take comments personally, which is stupid. In my head I know it's only a house, bricks and mortar but  I feel in my gut all the blood, sweat and tears that make up this place too.

Anyway the open home went without a hitch, people came and went and I was relieved when it was over. Climbing into bed that night, into crisp washed linen, looking up at the freshly cleaned ceiling, and still smelling the faint sniff of recently washed carpets and window spray I was thankful and enjoyed going to sleep knowing the house was the tidiest and cleanest it had been in years.

3 hours later I was awoken to the sound of Oliver coughing and yelling ever so politely "EXCUSE ME, EXCUSE ME, I DON'T FEEL WELL!"  He had spewed all over his bed. His second time ever vomiting.  After throwing him in the shower, I striped his bed, stood over the laundry sink, washing spew chunks down the drain. This process was repeated  less than an hour later. Then at 4.50am his stomach empty it was time for his bowels to empty- diarrhoea like I have never seen all over his bed, pillow, duvet.  With Oliver in the shower for the third time that night I stood in the laundry, amidst 3 loads of washing, scrubbing at the poo, gagging but smiling.  Better add spew and poo to the blood, sweat and tears shed in this house I thought.

So there I was knee deep in it and I was smiling because I felt so thankful.  Thankful to be living in this house with a laundry and not in the third world dealing with spew and diarrhoea on a dirt floor. Thankful for little Olli's manners as he yelled out mid spew.  But mostly so grateful to have the job of mothering, to be the one to clean up, comfort and make right in this little family of mine. Gratitude felt good and strange as it is, with poo flicking up in my face at 5am there I was  bursting with it. I didn't want to be anywhere else.

Some side notes- Those are the same bunch of flowers in each photo. They have changed colour, a little each day as they've opened up. Very very cool. 

I wrote this last night but haven't got around to posting it till now. Since writing this, every single person in this family has fallen victim to the same bug as Oliver. Everyone except me and that makes me even more grateful because cleaning up after everyone is a full time job and God is good to have spared me from it so far. It has meant though that I've had to cancel a little overnight trip to Auckland I had planned to visit my sister.  I'm meant to leave tomorrow at noon which obviously isn't going to happen so if anyone else wants my flight let me know.