Choosing Names For The Fourth Time

No, I'm not pregnant!!!

Jeff and I need your help!

Though Jeff's primary occupation throughout our exceedingly blissful marriage has been isowean farming, home construction and finishing runs in his blood.  Before we were married, and for a time after, he was a full-time, self-employed framer. He framed up his first house by himself when he was 19. We have built one spec house and one custom home together, and have really enjoyed the process.  Over the past few years, with the, er, "diminishing" hog industry slowly nudging us towards other vocations, it has felt pretty natural to move back into the home-construction industry.  He has spent the last few years installing tile, laminate, hardwood, vinyl and carpet in homes from here to Timbucktu.

For the past few months, we have been throwing around different business names for the work Jeff does.  We are looking for a name that could encompass more than just flooring, but stays in the home contracting line of work. Though we've come up with a whack of names (Cutting Edge, Clean Cut, True North, Core Focus, to name a few), two have stood out as potential winners.

Which leads me to my big question.

Will you help us by voting for your favourite?

Name Option #1:  Frontline
Now, it could be Frontline Homes, Frontline Interiors, or just Frontline, but what do you think about Frontline?

Name Option #2:  Footprint
This name suggests flooring, but because all homes have a footprint (the physical space they take up on the land they're built on), Footprint may also be appropriate for a more all-encompassing home-construction related business.  Hmmmm......

So, these are the two options being looked at right now.  If you think these are laughable, and have a better idea, feel free to leave a comment.  Better to be laughed at now than when we have a  4' x 11' decal on the side of the trailer!

We are asking all who are interested to leave a comment, voting for your favourite name (please be interested!!).  If you select "anonymous" when posting your comment, you can maintain your privacy, if that's important to you.  Thank you for your help in this!  I'm so excited to see what your thoughts are!

At this moment, I am...

happy - with how much accounting-related stuff I got done today. Tax-time is approaching, and it always feels good to kind-of/sort-of/in-a-way be ready for it.

smelling - the lasagne heating up in the oven and the red onion and garlic of the Greek Goddess Salad  I just made (yes, it's really called that).

hearing - the sounds of my kids having their after-school fun - pages turning, paper airplanes going "weeeeee" , marbles rolling across the hard floor, humming, giggling.

waiting - for my hubby to walk through the front door.  Since coming back from Australia, the days feel so long without him around. 

grappling - with the idea of change, and realizing that I am more adaptable than I used to be.  I'm, by no means, ready to become a mechanic in Antarctica, but I feel more capable of handling small changes that happen in everyday life. I think.  Just don't test me on that!

wondering - what God's plan is for us, and when He will make it more clear, or if He will always choose to show us just the next step.

pointing and laughing - at every airplane I see flying above.  "Ha ha, I'm not in you - I'm so done with you for now!"  All those poor, dehydrated, recycled-air-breathing passengers!

pushing - the limit on how many days my family can go without having a laundry day.

contemplating - on starting a "1000 Things I'm Grateful For" list.  How long would that take?  I wonder what would it look like?  After listing "health, kids, husband, warm house, and free country", I'd have to get creative.

excited  - about spring, but am doing my best to embrace the last of the cold winter days.

frustrated -  at the sounds of arguing and antagonizing that I'm hearing now.  How did that happen?!  Wasn't I just writing about happy sounds???

It's The End Of The World As I Know It

I can't put it off any longer. 

I've now had one week of excuses for not pulling my weight around here.....I've spent most of that time sleeping at strange hours, eating strange things at strange times (like supper when I wake up in the middle of the night, and breakfast at supper time), playing Sudoku, feeding my family freezer meals that didn't get eaten while I was in Australia, and relying on my generous husband to parent our tribe.  I don't think I've made anything more complicated than toast.  I've done no accounting work, and, for the most part, have avoided housework like Jerry avoids Tom.

But I feel this utopian existance coming to an abrupt halt.

I'm reluctant to replace sleeping in, self-declared PJ days, and late nights by the fire with "to-do" lists, meal planning, and grocery shopping.  But there seems to be no turning this thing around.  Jeff is back to work full-time today, the kids have a 4-day school week, with the day off behind us, and the freezer will soon cease to give up its treasures. I remind myself that it will feel good to get back into the swing of things.  I am, by nature, a do-er.  And, yikes, the life of a mom involves lots of doing! And I really enjoy my life, and all most of its tasks. But in the past three weeks, I have been anything but a do-er.  And, let me assure you, it has been great!  I'm a little hesitant to fall back into my old patterns.  I'm wondering if I could be different.  I'm not sure.  Can a do-er become a part-time doer, with lots of non-doing time?  Does this do-er even want to become less of a do-er?  Is it even realistic?  Does the life of a do-er, or a non-doer look different from the outside?  Or is it more of an internal state of mind?  Is chocolate healthy? Ah, the questions.....

In the meantime, time keeps marching on.  Today, my list includes grocery shopping, watching/volunteering in Mason's class during swimming lessons, making supper, working on some accounting stuff, and two loads of laundry. Plus quality time with Taelyn, which may include reading books, making bookmarks, playing Twister, and getting whooped at The Memory Game.  Nothing over the top, but after three weeks of  "sleep in, go out to eat, watch waves at the beach, sit by a fire, play games", this seems like a bit of a shock.

It reminds me of the Peninsula Hot Springs we visited in Australia.  There were several natural pools of  hot water, and beside one of them was a tiny plunge pool, about six or 7 feet deep, filled with freezing cold water.  The water may not have been any colder than the ocean water we had swam in the day before, but after coming out of the hot pools, entering the plunge pool was, um....something to get used to.

Today, my life feels a bit like a plunge pool.

So, to ease my pathetic, lazy self back into my normal routine, I'm going to make myself a cup of tea.  And maybe, while sipping it, I will google "how to do less and still get everything done", followed by "vacation deals", unabashedly followed by "how to make your own cucumber mud bath with ingredients found in your kitchen".

Capturing Australia on Camera

I'm reporting live from my home office at 3:30am, 27 hours after returning from Australia. Clearly, I am suffering from jetlag and "I-don't-have-any-idea-what-time-zone-I'm-in" syndrome.  Although I'm sure I'll have future (perhaps even coherent!) reflections of my time in Australia, here's few images capturing some moments.

I can't show pictures of Australia without showing some native wildlife.  This particular koala bear was fairly energetic and showed us how it could run up trees in seconds.

I had my first experience on a city train.  As it turns out, it makes me carsick, just like nearly every other form of transportation, but it was another thing to add to my list of experiences.  Bec, Earlene and I took the train to Melbourne for a fun day of shopping and girl time.

I couldn't help but feel I was visiting a food market in Paris with merchandise like this.  My beautiful sister-inlaw, Bec, bought one of these for us to share at the Victoria market in Melbourne.  Fresh bread filled with chocolate chips?  I'm in!

So this is what I'd look like with long, straight hair.

The Australian answer to America's burger and fries .  Every town and city street corner seems to have a bakery selling a huge variety of fresh meat pies and croissants.   Farewell, good intentions and hello to buttery pastry and gooey cheese! 

This was the first time meeting my GORGEOUS nephew.  He is simply so stunningly beautiful, and has such a sweet personality to match.

  

My first official seashell picked up out of the sand along an ocean beach.

I was greeted at the airport with signage and huge hugs by my niece, Piper.  She is six, very soon to be seven, and simply cannot wait for her birthday.  Once she turns seven, she claims she'll be able to go shopping whenever she wants and watch TV without asking her mom and dad.  She has a unique capacity for loving openly and completely and feeling deeply.  At the beginning of our visit, I told her I would probably need lots of kid hugs to alleviate my loneliness for my family.  She took her job seriously and gave me tonnes of hugs and cuddles.  What a sweet girl.

A great memory of Gord in our younger years (some would argue we're still living them, but just hear me out) was hearing him play guitar and sing.  And the guitar seems to continue making an appearance when we see eachother.

Aussie surfers out for a casual, relaxing day of risking their lives battling relentless, dangerous waves and unpredictable riptides.  Maybe that's just my fear talking.  It was my first time watching surfers, and it actually looked like a lot of fun, though I can't see myself ever having the courage to try it.

Piper and Jasper hanging out at Gunnamatta Beach.  Note the two heads in the top right-hand side of the picture.  That's me and Gord wave jumping.  I must admit, though it freaked me out going into the waves, it felt totally exhilirating, and even better when I was back on dry ground.  It's not quite surfing, but it gave this ocean-rookie a rush, nevertheless.

Earlene (left), Bec and I on our last evening together.  I feel so blessed to have these two beautiful, insightful and gracious women in my life.

See these waves?  My goodness, I could watch them all day.  Each one is alive and different from the previous one.  When we were at the beachhouse for three nights, I fell asleep with images of ocean waves in my head.  Pictures simply do not do this amazing force justice.

Sigh.  Other than the fact that I look like I just woke up, this picture, and others like it, remind me how lucky I am to have this guy in my life.  Though he frustrates the pants off me some days, he is fun, tender, compassionate, and generous and I feel so fortunate to have such a good relationship with him.  Saying goodbye to him is never easy.

On that note, I'm going to go to bed now.  My Aussie family is just considering going to bed now, my Canadian friends and family will consider waking up soon, and my body seems to have no idea what just happened.  Good night and good morning!

Cuppas, beach houses and waves - it all sounds good to me!

Before embarking on this journey, I was unsure of my expectations of this adventure.   I wasn't sure if we'd be engaging in the itinerary of a tourist, or if we'd be hanging out with Gord and Bec at their house much of the time.  And, quite honestly, thoughts of leaving my family quickly overshadowed those of my holiday agenda, so I didn't give it too much consideration.  Now that I'm here, however, I've really been enjoying the mix of things we've been doing.  My initial purpose for coming here was to hang out with my brother and his family and experience their lives in a way that's not possible from across the world.  So the time we've spent sharing meals, making apple pie (ok, so Bec made 99% of the pie - all  I did was hold the wax paper in place while she rolled out the dough), and having  "cuppas" (Aussies love their cuppas!!) have been really meaningful for me.  I've enjoyed the conversations that have occurred spontaneously as we hang out in normal, everyday spaces.

That said, we've also done considerable amount of touristy things, as well.  At the time of this posting, I'm sitting in a holiday beach house near Rye, a town right on the ocean.  We went down to an unsupervised, natural beach where the ocean waves were crashing in with amazing force.  Of course, the locals would perhaps describe the waves as normal - same as any other day - but as someone who doesn't see that power everyday, it's spectacular, breathtaking, and dangerous, all at once.  I simply do not tire of watching the waves come in.  As I stood there, with the salty water swirling around my legs,  I was reminded that I had stood in those same waters 10 years ago, and had made a mental resolution that the next time I would see these waters, it would be with Jeff at my side.  Hmmmm....  perhaps that's why I missed him as I stood in that space.

Tomorrow, we intend to spend some time at the swimming beach, and then head over to the other side of the peninsula on a ferry to check out the touristy town on the other side.  We'll look at some shops, and perhaps spend all the money my husband is making, and no doubt have a cuppa or two!!! I'm keenly aware that my time here is half over, so I'm doing my best to stay in the moment and absorb everything this beautiful country has to offer.

G'day, mate!

Our first glimpse of Australia...

Well, we made it.  Our flight to the great Down Under was uneventful, in the sense that we didn't need to use our life jackets or the oxygen masks provided on each of our aircrafts.  It was eventful in the sense that I watched more movies than I have in the last year, traveled further than I have since the last time I was here, and ate meals at strange times (like when we were served chicken and rice dinner at 3:00 in the morning, Canadian time).  A highlight during the flight was being paged twice at the Sydney airport - apparently there were some security issues with a chainsaw we were trying to bring into the country - go figure.

My time here is precious, so I will be spending little of it in front of the computer.  I'm currently missing a great conversation.

It's Time...

My Life Right Now in Numbers

5:00am - The time we received an automated phone call yesterday, telling us our flight to Chicago was cancelled.

70 times 7 - the number of times I tried to give it to God before finally getting up.

1 time - I was assured by the Expedia agent that our flights were not cancelled.

3 websites - I checked (that confirmed that all flights to and from Chicago were cancelled due to bad winter weather) before concluding that the Expedia dude must have missed a memo.

3 itineraries - that we've had for this flight, thus far. 2 days ago, we were flying to Melbourne through Chicago and Los Angeles, yesterday morning, were were flying through Toronto, and as of 7:00 last night, we are flying through Vancouver.  We hope the third one's a keeper.

4 hours - spent on the phone in total, figuring out how we would get from point A to B.

3 kids - who have firmly lodged themselves in my heart, and show no signs of leaving.

2 great sets of grandparents - who will, lovingly, be taking care of our sweet ones, while dad's at work.

1 husband and best friend - who will be orchestrating kid's schedules, and loving the kids double time.

3 hours - till we leave for the airport.

0 things - that NEED to be done on my To-Do List.  Approximately a million that could be done (including helping my hubby paint - yes, as I write this, he is in the process of purchasing our 4th can of paint in 3 days.  Our basement lies in shambles.)

6.5 hours - till lift off!!

5 people - I can't wait to see on the other end!!

1 more day- till I get to see them!!  They are so worth all this effort.