My last post was on the 12th of August, 2012… Three years have passed and not a single peep from me! Couldn’t really help it, 2013 was a big year for me and faced with a slew of life changing events, one can, hopefully, find my absence on the interweb excusable.

My second child’s birth, job redundancy and my mother’s death all eventuated in 2013. Life changing, am I right? I’d add the loss of a long term friendship in the mix, but you know it’s over when values clash and the differences call for a farewell long overdue… not much grief there.

2014 came and went… it felt like I’m an old person in a new life… But no fresh, clean slate feeling; just a sense of limbo and the need to know myself again… to know where I am and how to move forward. But who has time for that, when there are preschool drop offs and pick ups to be done, lunches to be packed and nappies changed. The seemingly unscalable Mt Laundry looms ominously as tumbleweeds scamper in the lounge room with the baby (alright, they look more like giant dust bunnies). I look back at this year and realise that I did my best as a wife, mother and homemaker… But I wasn’t looking after myself too well. I was literally a walking bag of bones. I suppose a big part of it was the breastfeeding, keeping me from putting on weight ( I am considerably plumper now, thanks to weaning and chocolate!). That was a year to reckon with, alright.

Cue 2015. Firstborn child goes to kindy. More time for Child #2… basically, a bit more time for anything, really. What I hadn’t expected was the time to face my feelings over my mother’s life and death has come. Cancer has taken both my mother and my money away from me and my family. Bereft of my mother and my finances, it was rock bottom (or so it felt like it anyway). But the light at the end of my (vertical) tunnel is visible, in the form of a visit from my dad and my sister’s completion of her TAFE studies. It was my dad’s second Sydney trip without my mom, and somehow, it does get easier and less sad. He was very proud of what my sister has accomplished and become, and he’s looking forward to visiting her in Hamilton Island where she is currently working. She’s inspired me to pursue what I am passionate about, and maybe, just maybe, 2016 will be the year for it.

The beginning of this week started off with lovely sunshine and cloudless skies… Surely, it’s an early start to spring!

Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed as strong winds battered Sydney towards the latter part of the week… Apparently, these are the strongest winds we’ve ever had in six years.  Seems to be easing though, and the sun peeps here and there though the thick grey clouds.

Oh well, spring or no spring, my husband and I are busy working on our online shop, www.summerkids.com.au and getting it up in time for warmer weather.  Summer Kids is a mini project of ours, with stylish, sun protective clothing for children on offer. We’re giving the whole website an overhaul, giving it a better look and feel. It’s been a fairly long process for us to get the shop up and running, since my husband and I both work on the weekdays, as well as look after our lovely daughter. Nevertheless, we plowed on and the site has been live and operational for some time. We’re quite proud of what we’ve done so far, but we know there ‘s a lot more to do!

I’ll have more to report next week, since we aim to complete the website overhaul (theme, new products etc) by end of next week. I am excited and anxious, it’s almost like having another baby! But that is another topic for another day.

As my very first post, I shall keep it short and simple:

Hello, world!

This does speak volumes for me, for this is a big step in the life of a self professed social media recluse. Watch this space, as I slowly share to you (sometimes, in painful increments) the story of my life.