Babies

The show must go on! Life must go on! We are moving on!
It's no secret what a horrid year this has been but we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back to it.

So here we are again at the start of another bushfire season for Victoria - hubby has already been to several small fires and is bracing for another tough season.

Myself, I am readying myself for my last child to begin kinder next year, and my first child to begin high school. Middle child remains at primary school. What a range of emotions and hormones in this house at the moment!!! Poor hubby!

I love my children to bits and I love to be with them and I love their company. I love school holidays and I love when they have days off. I even secretly like it when they are too sick to go school. I know - I'm a weirdo!
I used to (still do sometimes) do drive bys of the school at lunchtime just to see if I could see them in the playground.

Most mums I know are gleefully rubbing their hands together at the school gate and happily waving their children off to school in anticipation of many hours to themselves. Me? Not so. I am so sad at losing my little right hand man. Who am I going to talk to? Who will I feed? Who will I comfort? Who will I play with? Who will I laugh and cry with?


Problem solved.



Meet Penny.

Approx 4 months old (515gms)

Before I had children I used to do this.
I had always shared stories with my children about the joys and rewards of raising orphaned and injured wildlife and we had always spoken about doing it again - together.
Approx 5 Months old (700gms)

About 2 months ago we were on our way to spend a couple of days in the big smoke of Melbourne. We had travelled about ten minutes down the road when we came across a large Wombat in the middle of the road. She had been hit by a car or truck and she was dead, but inside her pouch was a very cold and sad baby wombat (a joey).

We continued on our way as I frantically warmed the baby as best I could (at times like this I am grateful for big boobs!) Oh snigger if you wish - but it is the quickest way to warm them up!

We called in to the wildlife shelter that I have volunteered for on and off over the years and left this little girl with them so we could continue our few days in Melbourne.

I couldn't get this little girl out of my head. Neither could the kids. So we discussed the possibilties as a family and decided that she was a sign that we needed to take up wildlife care and rescue again. Together. Poor hubby!

So we picked her up on the way home and dusted off all the old equipment and pouches and bottles and got right to it!

Three weeks later --------






Meet Bob!
Approx 3 months old (295 gms)

So here we are now with two baby wombats who fulfil my need to feed and nurture and love at all times.

I am so in love!!

Life is good and it's getting better!


Cheers from here!

Snow Day

Gosh where to start? I'm not going to apologise again for the lack of updates, cause you know what? STUFF HAPPENS!!!! and this little ole blog here was primarily a place for me to boast and brag about my gorgeous family and the gorgeous place in which we live, and the life that we share together.

We have had a horrible year and we are slowly muddling through to some sense of normalcy, although, at times it does feel like nothing will ever be normal again.

So------ although I love that you guys come and visit and show your interest in us - I am no longer going to feel guilty if I don't post here a lot. I might post a lot! But I might not! I appreciate you staying around for us and I love that you are all still here!! Thank You.

My children tell me that I am not a normal Mummy! This could well be true and I do try to keep them on their toes. Sometimes I am a little off kilter and sometimes its hard to even get out of bed and be a Mum, but I am their Mum and I do what I can when I can in all areas of our life! And so, this blog, after much soul searching shall remain and will be updated when it is updated!!!!

It is winter here and it is very cold!!! A few weeks ago we took the kids to the snow. About an hours drive from here. It was Lil'Js first experience apart from a few snow flurries that we have had on our place that don't stay on the ground.

So much excitement. The anticipation had us all singing songs on the way. We found a nice secluded spot with nobody else around (one of the advantages of hubby working for the forestry - he knows all the back bush tracks!). The big kids took off at great speed and followed some deer tracks into the bush. Came back empty handed.
They unloaded their body boards (these are not just for the beach!!) and hauled them up to the top of the hill where they proceeded to try to slide down at a great rate of knots - not completely sucessful - but fun anyway!

Of course the obligatory snowman building and snow ball fights ensued with me yelling not to throw them at me because I had the brand new canon in my hands! Well - it didn't help. My beautiful new canon got pelted accidentally ---- and survived!!!

Poor hubby took one in the ear and Miss M and J Man surendered to the might of their father!!




Now where was Lil J while all this was happening?

When we first arrived he got out of the ute sank to his knees in the snow touched it with his hands and said "snow".
"Thats right" I said.

He ate a snowball, waded through the knee deep snow to a laden tree branch, shook it, got covered, cried, said "lets go home now", climbed into the ute with another snowball and promptly fell asleep!


So much for his first snow experience!!

We had a little fire going - we toasted marshmellows, boiled the billy and had a cup of tea. It was cold and wet but we did have a lot of fun!

The sky turned on its beauty for us as we packed up to head home!

I also had fifteen loads of washing to do when we got home, we took many changes of clothes and needed them all!

We drove through some of the areas that were burnt out by the bushfires.

We are now well and truly over the cold weather and ready for some warmer days and nights. We have replaced our pool that was attaacked by burning embers during the bushfires and now we await the rains to fill it up in readiness for summer!!! A little early I know - but it is good to be prepared!

So, these photos were all taken on the new canon - my first real try on an SLR - and I loved it! I have not done any post processing on these images they are sooc (straight out of camera).

Cheers from here!

We're back again!

This was taken (with the point and shoot) on our recent holiday to the beach.

Our family has had enough of this year.
Hubby lost his beloved big brother three weeks ago.
The kids have lost a favourite uncle.
He died of a heart attack doing what he loved on the footy field.
He was only 56.
He was fit and healthy.

So still we grieve.

There is lots to catch up on and I will endeavour to be a little more consistent.
Thank you to our faithful followers.


Cheers from here!

PS I now have my Canon EOS 50D

Did you miss us???

This shot was taken by Miss M.

We are still here.
I never realized at the time how traumatic and how lasting the effects of Black Saturday would be.
Our family (although I didn't realize it at the time) has been grieving. No, we didn't lose anyone in the fires.
What we lost was our sense of security and our feeling of being untouchable. We live on a hill with not a lot of bush around us. We have many open paddocks surrounding our house. We never, ever thought that we would be under threat from a bushfire.

Sure we were prepared and had a plan (hubby is a bush fire fighter after all) but we never thought ( hubby included) that we would need to put it into action.

A plan is a great thing and it helps everyone to know what is going on and there are no grey areas, so no accidents.

Our plan worked physically. We were unhurt.

Our plan failed emotionally. We separated as a family.
This was the hardest part to deal with.

Our plan had always been to get the kids out of danger and to stay and defend the house.
Our children haven't coped very well with this.
Miss M has had nightmares and spent 3 months sleeping on a mattress beside our bed. ( she is now in her newly redecorated bedroom)
J man couldn't look out the window as we drove around and asked us to stop talking about it.( he talks about it now)
Li'l J kept thinking the fire was still coming because the trees are still black and there is still a smell of smoke in the air from the controlled burns. ( he can now see the new growth on the trees)

Our plan has now changed. We all stay together as a family. We all stay and defend or we all go. That decision will be made as a family at the time.

It has taken a lot of time and effort to get our little family back on track. We have recently managed to have a week away together at the beach, it was great. This was hubbies first time off since one week before black Saturday.

I guess I want to put it out there that regardless of where you live and your surrounds - please, please, please have a plan that you can put into action should disaster ever strike.

Any way - the point of this post is really to let you all know that I will be back and blogging and posting photos.
Thank you to all of you who have stayed and waited for our return - we appreciate your patience.

I have put project 365 away as I am so far behind and family really took precedence in this case!

Cheers from here!

Who is Gem?

Since I began this little ole' blog here - I have had a few
questions about where my name came from!

Gem is not short for anything - it is actually the first letters of my three (yes three!) names (not including my surname).

You see when you are born into a family that is of a particular religion they give you many names - deceased saints are very popular.
I did not in any way shape or form, live up to my saintly names!!

My mother tells me that she named me these names as I was her gem - she had been told she couldn't have anymore children. - so you see I was just a big surprise!!! (10 lbs!)
And she has never let me forget that!

So even though I was born into this particular religion, I am not a practicing one - but - before you all beat me over the head for not being a believer, I do have many beliefs that I take from many different religions - that fit my life.

They just feel right - does that make sense?

Anyway - that is who gem is!

Oh and she is also a very bad blogger who is struggling to keep up with her project 365!

Cheers from here!

Day 71 - 73 - Project 365

Day 71
Saturday night scrabble with my Mum!
This board could almost be classed as an antique!




Day 72
You have met Trousers the dog, Charlie the Cat, Josie and Ossie the Cockatiels and Billy the Goat.
So let me introduce you to Rocky the Dog!
Yes - he is just as goofy as he looks!
He is the loopiest, galumph of a dog that you ever met!
And yes we do have many animals - I haven't finished introducing them all yet!





Day 73
Miss M is a senior Girl Guide this year.
Here, she is working towards her canoeing/boating badge.



Cheers from here!

Day 66 - Day 70 Project 365

Day 66
Story time at the library with Li'l J.
He had just listened to stories about music and dancing - right up his alley!

Day 67
New life is sprouting!

Day 68
How quickly things start to regenerate!

Day 69
This is a friendly elephant snail.
We met this creature on our school excursion to the beach - 1 1/2 hours drive away.
We spent the day roaming the rock pools and playing beach cricket!

Day 70

Our Mandarin tree is bearing fruit - very exciting!



Cheers from here!