Beyond the Edge of Adventure

We are very blessed to have a new car sitting in our driveway for our use. We farewelled our trusty Hyundai iMax a week ago and we're now in the possession of a Volkswagen Caravelle. Given that I've always been a bit of a car buff, I thought I'd offer my opinion on what we've found useful for our family. There are general car reviews - usually written by men - but there's a whole new world of potential and mystery surrounding the family car that mothers can shed light on. So, here goes. The inside of our iMax, just after we purchased it. The Hyundai iMax is a great family car! It's very popular and prior to us purchasing ours in 2012, it had won RACQ's 'Best People Mover' for four years in a row. As a hard-core Ford-Holden-Mazda-Mitsubishi-type girl, I struggled with owning a Hyundai because of their reputation for cheap, plastic cars, but the evidence was clear: we needed an 8-seater van that was economical, safe and roomy and the iMax m...

Walking inside the conference room at the Mantra, there was a soft gold glow in the atmosphere. It was immediately soothing. Each table had a gorgeous shabby chic red-and-white lighthouse in the middle. In the top of each lighthouse was a tea-light candle. It never ceases to amaze me how much serenity candlelight emits, no matter how few of them there are and no matter how big the room is! Around each lighthouse was an array of shells and there were two sweet sailing ships made from a stub of stick, wire and newspaper. I was also rather pleased to discover that there were Mentos in dishes, too - perfect for the post-lunch-session-pick-me-ups.     The whole effect made me feel like I was drawing into a safe harbour with a lifeline. The rush of the previous 12 hours slipped away and a great sense of safety and calm flooded my soul - I was with people just like me and I knew that I would receive nothing but good advice and encouragement to re-stock the cargo on my pat...

Seriously, if any post has a foul swear word in it, especially from a mum - it's not going to be worth reading. Just in my humble opinion. I was shocked and saddened and angered to read a post shared by my friend on Facebook this morning. A mum was having a bad day and it involved some pretty serious stuff like accidentally breaking her finger and very ungrateful children, but it also involved some pretty shocking parenting. Yep - I just wrote that. Call me judgemental, but that's what I think. She's clearly a parent with less-than-average skills who's swallowed the line that the children are in charge and she's just hanging on for dear life as they roll on their merry way. Well, sorry. I'm calling it. I'm tired of foul-mouthed, weak parents who refuse to take charge of their own children and attempt to work on various strategies with the behaviour, attitude or whatever the issue is until it's fixed. Good parents don't stop until the issu...

Lately, the sea of wife-ing, mothering, homeschooling and Maya-ing has been tempestuous around me. Clinging in my little dinghy (or it seems like a dinghy, but with the amount of washing and toys in here, it's really probably a ship!), I've been battling a headwind of anxiety that's slowly increased from gentle breeze to gale. The sun's shone in most parts and I've enjoyed the refreshing squall of finding out that we're expecting another baby to join us in December. It gave me the chance to stop in surprise and enjoy a sudden change! I've been battling massive waves as well - swamping, swallowing waves that have crashed into my vessel. Homeschooling keeps me on my toes, constantly adjusting to the rolling deck, but combined with the crashing waves, I've spent a lot of time clinging to the mast, wet through and simply unable to do anything more than mumble prayers! Let me tell you about those waves that have crashed into me lately. First, my Dad pas...

I've emailed my local State MP this morning. Contrary to popular belief, I don't email MPs often! However, this time I've heard that Rob Pyne, MP is going to introduce a bill on Tuesday this week (May 10th) to legalise abortion in Queensland. Of course, it has to be stopped. There are many misconceptions about abortion in Queensland, firstly being that abortion is illegal. It's not. Before 12 weeks gestation, any Queensland woman may obtain a chemical abortion via the RU-486 pill. Furthermore, after 12 weeks a woman has to obtain the approval of two GPs to access an abortion. So, clearly abortion is legal in Queensland already. Secondly, the common belief that abortion should be 'safe, legal and rare'. a) Safe - RU-486 is a 'do-it-yourself' abortion pill. It's really dangerous because not only is it very strong ingredients designed to kill a human being (!), women take the pill at home and wait for a heavy period, pass the foetus and carry o...

*This post contains one example of soft-porn. Please make sure no children can see it as you're reading this post. This morning it was nice to see the early morning for a change! Normally, I drag myself out of bed at 6:45am, stumble up the hall to wake everyone up for their quiet time and lay in bed for a while, doing my own quiet time. Not today - today I'd decided to attend a breakfast organised by City Women about the link between pornography and domestic violence. For years, I've been really busy - and with pretty important things like having babies and raising a family! - but I'm really tired of sitting on the sidelines. Plus......y'know.....breakfast cooked for me.....sitting in one place for the entire meal.........no-one calling my name every five seconds.........who's going to pass that up? Melinda Tankard Reist (MTR) is a blogger, author, advocate, co-founder of Collective Shout and media spokesperson on issues about sexualisation of women an...

We are happily at home more now......and have significantly fewer stressful times in our family. Hence, my need for my trademark Nanna Nap has dropped slightly. To fill the gap because of course, I need my children to have some time apart quietly for an hour a day given that we're now together most of the time, I've taken to reading novels during rest time. The local library is a great place, but the books that fit my criteria are far and few between on the shelves there. A fellow book-addicted friend told me about 'Book Bub', which is a system you can subscribe to by email that sends you a daily list of low-cost or free e-books. You can manage your preferences so that only genres you are interested in will be sent to your inbox. It's fair to say that I've been giving it a fair workout to feed my reading addiction! Here's a list of books I've recently enjoyed on my kindle. Most were free, some I paid for - but never over about $1.50! 1. Port ...

I guess the biggest change for our family this year is not the normal big news that we have in our family - a new baby is usually the first thing people think of when we say we have news! (and we have no news of that sort, thank you very much!) 2016 is our first year of home schooling! It's a common misconception that if you're a home schooling family, then you don't like mainstream schooling. That's just not true. We love our former school and are still members of the association there. We realise that home schooling is not for everyone - just the same way that mainstream schooling is not everyone's cup of tea, either. My husband as Long-Service Leave (LSL) coming up and we're blessed to be able to take a fairly decent chunk of time off from his job. This led to a discussion between us about what to do with that time - what does one do to keep a highly intelligent, go-getter man satisfied and challenged during a four-to-six-month break of.....nothing? ...

  There has always been a fire in my heart for children and women. When I was in primary school, I was always in trouble for hanging around the little children in younger grades - we had segregated areas for different grades and I loved being around little ones, helping them play and get along together. My only real focus in life when I was a young girl was to get married and have babies, everything else was a peripheral goal. As a teen, I babysat and did one year-long practicum one day a week at the local Pre-School in Grade 11. I just had a soft spot for children and their interests, plight, sufferings and joys were mine as well. Nothing has changed with marriage and motherhood. If anything, it's intensified that fire in my heart. I'm a firm believer in healthy, well-adjusted children making healthy, well-adjusted adults. Sadly, even though I was someone who loved children, I didn't give much thought to unborn ones. I had heard bits and pieces about abortion and ...