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Gratefully Grateful °2°

17 Jan

Is it Friday already?  Did this past week fly by for anyone else as well? The week was a blur of activities, appointments, organising the house, long chats with friends and even a shopping trip to check out the sales (which only happen twice a year in Italy…in January and July).  I love being busy and having lots to do but I’m looking forward to a nice quiet week-end with my family.   Our traditional Friday night ritual of curling up on the couch under a thick blanket with the fireplace burning and a big bowl of popcorn just might be my most favourite thing ever.  Add in a little Master Chef and I could stay there forever.

It’s week 2 of my Gratefully Gratefully series for 2014.  I love how doing this series makes me look for all the wonderful people, places and things I’m surrounded by.

I am grateful for…

DSC_0160…colourful washing lines on grey days.

IMG_2857-001…that I can wait in places like this while my daughter does her guitar class.IMG_8642…my kid’s love of Pasta Con Broccoli.IMG_3892…my daughters’ taste in shoes.

Anything that you’re particularly grateful for this week?

(Gratefully Grateful °1°)

A Kid’s Life: Melbourne, Australia

14 Jan

Hello everyone.  Time for a new interview in my A Kid’s Life series.  I have to admit that I’m really proud of this series and all of the great interviews I’ve had over the past few years.  I’ve loved “virtually meeting” every single one of these families and luckily enough I’ve kept in touch with them all.  These families have been warm, friendly and open to share the details of their daily family grind.  I have big plans to meet them all in their native countries in the coming years (don’t worry, I won’t show up unexpected on your doorsteps!).  But what a great excuse to travel around the world!  Here are the previous interviews in case you missed them: Italy, Japan, USA, The Philippines, Tasmania, Canada, BelgiumNew Zealand, Holland, Germany, Colombia, France, Switzerland, South Africa, India.

Today we get to hear from Bron and her family who live in Melbourne, Australia.  I thought it would be interesting to hear from a family living on mainland Australia after reading all about family life in Tasmania in a previous interview.  I was curious to see if there were differences between the two.  So far I’ve noticed that more languages are offered in Tasmanian schools, both love to eat Weetbix for breakfast and dinner is eaten at about the same time that Italian kids eat their afternoon snack!

Bron contacted me last week about participating in the interview and after hearing her family’s story and feeling her energetic and positive energy just by reading her email I was excited to read all about their life.  Bron and her husband Andrew have three kids.  Their oldest son, Cooper, has Cerebral Palsy (Dystonic Quadriplegia) as he received a brain injury due to lack of oxygen during the birthing process (read more here).  What this means is the damaged parts of his brain can’t communicate properly with the muscles all over his body.  His whole body is affected including his arms, legs, trunk and mouth.  He is cognitively a typical 8 year old boy who loves cricket and Lego though!

Last year Cooper started a fundraiser which involved him walking for 1km using his walker.  He ended up raising $15, 000 AUD to help build a kindergarten in Cambodia.  The family visited the school several times and were overwhelmed with the reception and gratitude that they were shown (especially Cooper).  

Is this not an amazingly inspiring family?

Bron writes a blog about her family life in Melbourne, Cooper’s developmental accomplishments and their travel adventures.

And now let’s hear what they have to say about daily life in Melbourne, Australia…

Sihanoukeville in Cambodia

Sihanoukeville in Cambodia

What country do you live in?

We live in Australia, in the state of Victoria.

Are you and your husband the same nationality?

Yes we are both Australian born in different cities/states.image-4

Do you both work. Or does someone stay home?

Andrew works as an arborist and I’m a stay at home mum.

How many languages are spoken in your house?  Which one(s)?

We speak English.  We also learnt a lot of sign language and gestures before our son began to verbally communicate.

How many kids do you have? What are their ages?

We have three kids.  Cooper is 8, Pepper is 5 and Elwood is 2. Continue reading

Gratefully Grateful °1°

7 Jan

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!  I still can’t believe it’s 2014.  Wasn’t it just 1986 and we were all hanging out listening to Manic Monday by The Bangles in our Benetton rugby shirts, teased bangs and frosted pink lipstick?

Sometimes I still can’t believe I am a wife, a mother of three and….a grown up.  An almost 40 year old grown up.  Almost.  I’m going to enjoy my last months of my 30s like you wouldn’t believe.  Then I’m going to enter my 40s with flair and enthusiasm and a positive attitude about ageing.  Hold me to it.

I’ve been pretty much off the grid the last months (except on IG – I love that community so much) and I’ve really missed writing and posting here in this little space of mine. As I mentioned in my last post we went through a hard time this past fall.  My daughters lost a very good friend to cancer.  It was so deeply sad for us all.  Seeing and helping my daughters grieve while trying to deal with my own grief was one of the hardest things I’ve been through. I was in survival mode and there were moments when I thought I was going to crash.  But we made it through.  And although we miss our little friend every single day and think about her often life has continued.  We have so many beautiful memories of her and those memories are making the pain of losing her feel a little bit softer every day.

So to get a positive start on the New Year and to motivate myself to get back to this space I’ve decided to start a new  project.  I’m going write a weekly post about things I’m grateful for.  After everything we’ve been through that’s what has touched me the most.  The fact that I have so much to be grateful for (I know it sounds cliche and cheesy but it’s true!).  And to go a bit deeper, I’m really grateful for being grateful.  There were moments in the last months that I couldn’t get past the low feelings and emotions to see all those wonderful things I have in my life.

So here’s to picking up my neglected (but much loved) camera again.  And to seeing the world through rose coloured glasses.  If you want to join me in this project I would be ecstatic.  Just leave a comment with a link to a post or photo or whatever else you’re grateful for.  And hey, why don’t we even create a hashtag as well!  #gratefullygrateful14 would be perfect.  So here we go!

I’m grateful for…IMG_3014-002

…my kid’s artwork.  It just makes me smile a lot.


…the coloured houses on the island of Burano.
IMG_3452-001

…people who paint multicoloured chairs.DSC_0126-001

…kids who photo bomb my shots of decrepit walls.IMG_3177

…fountains such as this and seeing my kid’s reaction when they figure out where the water comes out.

Enjoy your day everyone!