My husband is awesome, so for Mothers Day he got me a new Surface pro. And as I was an idiot when I logged into things on there, various items decided to sync. Cool right? Except then I had multiple copies of EVERYTHING so I just started randomly deleting things and cleaning up my folders and having a grand old day. Come Monday I jump on here and everything's a little off but I had a two year old screaming about Paw Patrol and an almost three year old arguing about which iPad was hers so I just put it down to my computer not loading fully and off I went. 

Well it finally occurred to me that the screwy thing in my life is me and I've moved or deleted a lot of my blog images and icons. And since I have been saying for the last two years that I wanted to change things and freshen everything up for a while I figure now is the time to do it. So I apologise for the screwyness of things right now but soonish (probably not that soon honestly, it's going to take me a week or two) it's getting a face life. Hope you like the new look (when it gets here) and if you've got any suggestions, or things you like or hate about this one, or in general in your blog reading life, let me know.

And normally I don’t put my personal stuff out there because really who cares? Everyone has their own things going on and there’s nothing that's super special about mine that anyone would find massively intriguing but this year I thought I would start with a little about me.

Partially because I am hoping to have a little time to give my blog a makeover this month, maybe. And as I explain you will see why this is huge but also a maybe.

But first I should explain I really enjoy blogging most of the time and I really do just do it for me. It took me until I got an amazing teacher when I was 8 who didn’t just teach me to read, she taught me to love it. So to say I have always been a reader is an understatement. When I was younger I read horror and crime but as I got older and life got real with bills and responsibilities and other such real life horrors, I started leaning more towards romance.

And since I generally can sit and read a book a day I discovered that my old second hand book shop sold boxes of old Mills and Boons for $2 so then I really got even further into romance as that was about all that fit in our budget back then. But then life took over and I stopped reading for a while, with 4 kids under 5 and our youngest being autistic and having our own business I just never had the time or energy.

But then several friends who knew hubby and I well, basically made me read 50 Shades of Grey and BAM book obsession hit overdrive. I found GoodReads, I made some amazing book friends and I found people I could talk to about books and I discovered this whole new world. And I dove into it hard, as is my obsessive personality, and to be fair hubby pushed me into it just as hard because I was so passionate about it all and he got a break from me trying to talk about books to him. P.S. hubby is a huge jock and the only thing he reads is ….. Ok so hubby doesn’t read shit except the few absolute smut books I forced down his throat, two of which he actually reviewed. I will add the link to the bottom for you so you can see how truly awesome hubby is.

Anyway squirrels ran off tangent for a bit there so back to the blog getting a face lift and why finding the time for that is huge. We have 8 kids. And don’t worry that number sounds crazy to us too but here’s how that happened. We had 4 kids for 10+ years when daughter at 16 starts nudging very unsubtly for us to have another. To which hubby and I respond with outright horror as we are already counting down to being childless and being able to have naked fun time without having to be quiet and lock doors and sneak around like thieves without the eww gross and disturbances and such.

So daughter decides we will foster. Fast forward a year and oops I wasn’t just tired and run down from a 9 week emergency respite I went away to do, turns out on one of those few times hubby and I connected over that time baby number 5 was conceived. Then we took on 2 little boys with behaviour issues and PTSD and GDD and possibly ASD, FASD, ADHD and various other alphabet soup issues for a 2 week respite and a newborn baby for a month and here we are 17 months later and everyone is still here.

So spare time is kind of a joke and for a while there my blog was completely neglected and I did plan to just give it up. But hubby talked me out of it and we all settled into our new normal and the babies got a little older and the boys behaviour issues got a little better or we got a little better at managing them and I slowly got back into it.

So here I am back again. I would kill to have someone or a few someone's work on this with me but for now it’s just me. And some days I miss posting something I signed up for because we have a bad day and I literally can’t find 30 minutes to get it on before I fall into bed with my eyes already closed. And after I beat myself up about letting people down I build a bridge and get on with it because sometimes we have to prioritise and family will always be first to tenth.

But come the end of this month and son number two has a basketball competition on the other side of the country for 5 days and hubby has insisted I go and have a break from our crazy and now the idea has become an actual plan damn am I looking forward to it. In my head my bags are packed and my blog is half designed. In reality I am there to support my amazingly talented son and I have several friends going to support their children who will be expecting me to be social so as to how much time I will have to actually build my blog I don’t know. And before you think son is being neglected I am going as a spectator and he is going with the team.

I don’t think people understand how excited I am for alone time. The only thing better would be alone time with just hubby. Because as much as I love all our kids damn it would be nice to use a toilet or have a shower with actual hot water without there being an 18 month old knocking on the door or a 9 month old screaming just because she can make that sound now or a 6 year old hitting a 5 year old for his turn on the ipad or a 12 year old looking for mum to ask if he can buy something on his fortnite game or a 13 year old wondering if he can go to a movie or a 16 year old coming home with half a dozen mates to jump in the pool or a 17 year old racing around fixing all those problems but judging us when we get out because for some reason hubby followed me in because everyone was settled for that second between me leaving and him following and maybe we are a little co-dependent. So yeah I have wine and bath bombs and my laptop and headphones and kindle and chargers mentally packed and just maybe I might get some free time to rebuild my blog.

Then again maybe I will just wear my team shirt and cheer on a heap of basketball games then have a few drinks with some other parents and rinse repeat for 5 days. Guess we will see. But now you have a little insight into what the plan for my new year is. Hopefully yours is awesome and safe and filled with loads of great books. And please don’t hesitate to recommend those great books to me because I am sure about a quarter of my free time is spent trying to figure out what the hell I feel like reading now and freaking out that I am missing out on my reading time looking for a book to read.

And on that note miss 18 months is knocking on my door and her 9 month old sister is chanting bub bub bub next to her so I guess my time is up. Hopefully I find the time to actually post this before it’s irrelevant (happens more often than I like to admit). 

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."