Ghost from the past

Hello old friend,

As a woman, mother, wife… human, I have experienced many cycles in life—the good, the bad, the difficult, the rewarding, and the downright ugly. The period of 2023–2024 was particularly hard and painful. I was far from the best version of myself, I lost my sense of self, and as a result, it had a major impact on my marriage, my children, my family, and my friends. While some amazing things happened during that time, they were often overshadowed by the weight of the negatives.

Looking back, I wish I had been blogging or journaling through it all. It probably would have helped me process my emotions, reflect on myself and my circumstances, and maybe even navigate things differently. Hindsight can be beautiful, but more often, I find it to be a bitch.

Now, don’t get me wrong—if I had documented everything in a raw and honest way, reading back over it now would be painful. Witnessing the person I was and who I was becoming during that time would be confronting. But at the same time, it could serve as a reminder of how much I’ve grown and how far I’ve come. It also saddens me that I don’t have those records to look back on, to celebrate the wins we had as a family, however small they may have been. For that reason, I will be dedicating a separate entry to reflecting on those years and the experiences that shaped me.

Now, I stand on the other side of that dark and difficult time, at a crossroads. I want more. I want to be better. I want to improve in all areas of my life. I want to create a better future for myself, my husband, our children, and those closest to me. I want to truly live, to stop taking this life for granted, to appreciate the blessings instead of letting the negatives weigh me down to the point where I can’t enjoy the simple, beautiful moments that make life meaningful. I want to be open, honest, and accountable for my thoughts, actions… and inactions on this journey back to myself, to self-love, and to a life I genuinely enjoy. What better way to do that than to return here and document it all?

Right now, I’m off work, unwell, dosed up on cold and flu tablets, sitting in a room that desperately needs cleaning, surrounded by piles of washing I should be folding and putting away. Procrastination and avoidance—two big things I need to work on. And I will… after this. Maybe.

I know I have a lot of work ahead of me. I’m the queen of wonderful ideas and best intentions, but this time, I’m asking the universe for the strength and motivation to act. No more wishing and hoping. No more endless lists of changes I want to make. It’s time to do.

Moodi Mumma x

Soup and sickness...

I don't know if it's just because I'm sick, but I have had the hugest craving for chicken and corn soup. Knowing that my wishes for someone to whip up the best ever chicken and corn soup and bring it to me weren't likely to be granted, I settled on making a quick and easy batch.

Now I know this recipe isn't the best ever, and that a really good soup takes a bit of work. BUT... I can tell you that this soup did the trick, quenched my cravings and made me feel just that little bit better :)

While hubby was dropping Loo of at dancing I text him through a shopping list, and being the gem he is, brought them home for me.

A BBQ chicken - I used half
1 x ltr of liquid chicken stock
1 x can corn kernals
1 x can creamed corn
1 x packet 2min nodles - I used two thirds
2 x tbl spoons of soy sauce.

Essential ingredient for me was a crispy bread stick, sliced and buttered :)


Pretty much grab a pot, pour your ingredients in (shred chicken and crush noodles 1st), put on medium heat and stir. Within 20 minutes I had a yummy soothing soup.
Thought I would share for those times when you need some yummy goodness but have little energy to make it.

Enjoy x

A crazy day in the life of this Moodi Mumma....

Yesterday was one of those days where you wake up dreading it from the get go. Actually I probably went to sleep dreading it. You see Hubby is on afternoon shift, I'm sick as a dog and the kidlets have their school Disco on this evening.
 
Hubby got the kids off to school despite being sick himself and working his 3rd 12 hour shift, which was a huge blessing as I had been up sick all night. After doing the normal mundane housewifely chores, Hubby and I headed off to the Dr. It turns out amongst other things I'm fighting a chest infection and tonsillitis and have been for over a week.. So armed with antibiotics I kissed Hubby farewell and headed home for the afternoon school pick-up.
 
As usual the school decided to give short notice on the theme for the Disco, so once I picked up Moo, Boo and Loo we headed to Target to see if we could find any red clothes at their clearance sale. We were out of luck, and instead of scouring other stores for red clothes I decided that their Christmas shirts will have to suffice! Luckily the girls put up no fight on this decision :)
 
We then called into Coles to buy provisions on an easy meal to make in amongst the evenings madness (although I really shouldn't have bothered as we didn't have time), and to pull out the cash for the disco..... $4.00 each!!! At the girls last school the disco was a gold coin!! We then raced home, got the girls dressed and ready for the Disco.
 
We took Loo first as being in Kindy her Disco was from 5-6pm, the twins have just gone up a stage being in year 3 and their Disco was from 6.15 - 7.30, pain in my backside!! We stayed for a little while to get Loo settled in and make sure she had some friends to leave her with. It was really stressful as it is her 1st time and I really didn't want to leave her there, BUT we had to go pick up SL from Daycare before they closed at 5.30. Not wanting to deal with SL being tired and cranky after school and dragging him from pillar to post, I decided to leave him there as late as possible. In hind sight had I picked him up as normal, I would have been able to stay for Loo and prevent a LOT of dicking around!!
 
We picked up SL with the intention to head straight back to the Disco and stay until the twins went in..... But Moo realised she left her Disco money on the bench at home thinking we were coming back. This also made me realise we had run out of time for the twins to have dinner before their Disco, and the ever hungry SL was constantly asking me "What's for dinner Mum?".
 
SO after collecting the money we raced to McDonalds where I got the kids a burger each and raced back to the School in time to collect Loo! It was now that we realised that SL didn't have a nappy on but undies due to a good day of toilet training at school - High 5 SL - so the twins took him to the toilet before we left them to their Disco.

I now had an hour before needing to come back and collect the twins and decided to get Loo dinner at McDonalds and give her and SL a play rather than going back home. I thought this was a much more relaxing and clever option than going home, only to head back out again 30 min later.
 
WELL.... SL had different plans and despite my taking him to the toilet again only moments before.... decided to do a lovely runny poop in his pants whilst playing in the Maccas playground! Oh the joy! So now with 20 min until the twins pick-up time I had to race home anyway, clean up and completely change SL before racing back to collect the twins!!!
 
Needless to say the kidlets completely unaware of the challenge the afternoon/evening was for their sick Mumma, had an absolute blast. And despite everything that is all that really matters and why and most mums out there do what we do :)
 

Sunset taken amidst the madness :)

 

 

Meet Stuart Little.....

Image borrowed from here

We began the process to become a Foster Family in early 2013. Before we were fully accredited we were asked to consider taking on a little 2yo Boy that would be with us until the age of 18. This was a huge decision as we were only just finishing up training and thought that we would start off with Short Term placements, as is the normal introduction to Fostering. We knew though that our plans  were to eventually do Long Term care and decided that we would just take the leap!

In August 2013 we met the most gorgeous blue eyed, blonde haired, glasses wearing, pocket rocket of a little boy. After a process of getting to know him and he our family, he came to live with us in September 2013 and has since been lovingly dubbed a mini George Little from the Stuart Little movie. And so for the purpose of my blog I will refer to my little man as SL = Stuart Little.

Mumma loves you baby boy, we are so blessed to have you as a part of our family xox

Flashback Friday ~ CMC ROCKS THE HUNTER 2013

Back in March Woodi and I went to our 2nd CMC Rocks the Hunter, we had such a blast the year before and booked my parents in to have the kids again straight away! This year we had our friends Kim and James join the four of us (Stacey, Aaron, Woodi and I) that went last year.

Two days before we left Stacey found out that she had won 2 VIP passes to the CMC Music Awards held the first night and she asked me to join her..... Drinks, Canapés, Mingling with the Artists and watching the awards....WOW.... Yeah ok, I guess ;)

We dropped the kids at my parents on Thursday night, and were all packed up for the 6am meet at house the next morning. Without the kids there and no real close neighbours we put CMC on TV and were all pumped getting ready and waiting for our friends to join us.

We got to Hope Estate pretty early, beating the mad rush we experienced the year before, picked the ideal camp spot (knowing the lay of the land from the year before) and set up what we think was the best site there :)  After a bite to eat we grabbed some drinks and headed on down to the festival grounds and marked our spot for the weekend.

Stacey and I went to the awards night later that afternoon, enjoyed the wine and nibbles and were a bit awe struck by all the artists right there in the room with us... Just casually standing around, drinking, chatting, getting photos with people... It was amazing. We decided to get in on the photo action and then stood right up front to watch the music Awards.

After the Awards we went back down the hill to join our group on the grass watching the performances on the Main and OzArtist stages. It is wonderful sitting/standing amongst a massive crowd of laid back people all there to listen to and enjoy the same music as you, while the artists are up on stage playing their hearts out to the masses spread out on the hill of Hope Estate. Their music travelling across the wide expanse of land, and fading into the surrounding mountains as the sun goes down behind them and the stars start to dot and dazzle the sky.....Beautiful, my kind of festival :)

We had an amazing weekend, Monday came around and whilst we were all looking forward to seeing our kidlets again decided that we were on again for next year and it couldn't come around soon enough. Can't wait for CMC ROCKS THE HUNTER 2014, my parents are already booked :)

Flashback Friday ~ Birthday Sunset 01/05/2013

On my Birthday just gone, Woodi was on afternoon shift, I was in the kitchen cooking and waiting for my Mum, Brother Franky, SIL J and Nephew Lil D to come join the girls and I for a Birthday dinner.... Boo thought she heard a car and asked to go look. "Mum!!! You're gonna want to see this.... Bring a Camera!", well naturally I ran outside before hearing the camera comment thinking something was wrong. Instead I was blessed with this beautiful sunset, ran back inside to grab the camera and call Moo and Loo out to see it too.

It was a beautiful Birthday gift, as was having my family over for dinner to share my special day :)

Thankful Thursday

I am joining six by the bay for Thankful Thursday :)

Today I am thankful for:

• Finding my way back to blogging
• My amazing friends and the wonderful day we shared together today
• Well behaved and beautiful children... Loo was dragged out shopping and made to sit for a long lunch in a restaurant and was so well behaved, like she always is.....proud Mumma
• Having my husband home for the afternoon/evening after 3 days of double shifts where Woodi was gone from 5:30 am until anywhere up to 10:30pm
• Feeling better after 2 weeks of the most dreadful flu
• Being able to spend a little on myself today and treating Loo and I to a yummy lunch
• The beautiful smiles, big hugs and kisses all of my girls always bless me with after a day spent apart :)
• Woodi being such a wonderful husband and always helping out around the home when he can

My list could honestly go on and on right now, which is a really nice treat for someone who has spent years seeking the light in dark tunnels.

What are you thankful for today?