Breathing Life In...A Book Review of sorts.....

Tuesday, I shared THIS with you, and said I would be back to divulge more.  Here I am.  Still in a post-long-weekend-daze.  I spoke to my Mum earlier and she actually got choked up, talking about all the photos she had seen on Facebook, which displayed my weekend's antics.  Said she had not seen me smile so brightly in a while.  I agreed!  I relayed all the tales I had gathered, from all the familiar names she knew.  It was lovely to share.


She's SO right.  I have not been as happy, so blatantly cheerful, in quite some time.  I described it yesterday to work colleagues - I had time to BREATHE.  I'm tearing up just remembering.  I AM generally a VERY happy person.  I'm pretty certain most of my friends will tell you this.  But having the chance to just "BE" for four whole days, was one that has left me reeling.  Why?


I started Friday morning off with the usual school and creche run.  Popped in to the shops to grab a couple of things for the kids they needed, and then headed home to finish packing.  Mum came past and picked me up, for the trip to the airport.  Once safely inside the terminal, I pulled the book out of my bag that I had so patiently waited to open.  "50 Shades of Grey" stared up at me.  And so I began reading.....


Basically, I have not enough words I could pull from the thesaurus to give this novel the description is really deserves.  "Erotic Romance" is the class it has been slotted in to.  I have found it to be so much more.  I will sound like a typical guy who reads "Playboy" for the stories - but apart from the absolutely freaky, erotic, mind-boggling sex in this novel - the story really is great!  I couldn't put it down.  Didn't even realise I had landed in Queensland.....


This novel opened up many a conversation over the weekend.  With my closest of friends, whom I really have never spoken to much about sex.  Needless to say, the conversations were riveting.  But it also opened up the flood-gates.  Talking about our lives as a whole.  How we are women first and foremost, and then wives, mothers and friends.  How our marriages/partnerships should still be up there on the top of the priority list, but also, why they aren't at times.  It's because we are all so busy.  And not breathing.


Each of these beautiful women now have copies of the book, and its sequels.  Yes, there are three provocative, naughty and no-holds-barred books in the series.  I am almost finished the second (The husband bought the other two books for me whilst I was away!).  Eager much?


I sent my ever-patient husband a text today.  I told him I wouldn't be censoring my thoughts anymore.  He is FAR from concerned, I think he's revelling in it.  I'm breathing again.


So - I guess you could say this is my first ever "Book Review"?  Ummmm........just get it!  I guarantee it will open your eyes!


Do YOU read?  Do you take the time to catch your breath?

To Friend or Not To Friend?

I have always told people that you only get out of something what you wish for.  Especially in terms of that little social media "club" - Facebook.  I've had many a conversation with others over their dislike of FB and removal of their profile because they found it bitchy or that too many people came out of the woodwork to snoop in to their lives.  But my answer was and is ALWAYS that Facebook is what you want it to be.  If you want to use it to snoop on other people, it will get you in trouble.  If you wish to use it to keep in touch with people you like and whom you trust, then you will enjoy the ride.  I choose the later....


Every day when I log in to see what is happening in the world, I read countless cryptic status updates.  They amuse me, confuse me or make me curious.  I make a conscious choice NOT to read in to them, basically because I know that when I am being cryptic - on purpose or not - it could apply to so very many circumstances!  And my REAL friends would know that.  It's the not-so-real friends who may choose to apply them in a way that suits them.


I've decided I would like a new rule brought in to MY Facebook.  This is how it would read, if I could be bothered to write it:

Dear friends,  

If you are only here with me on Facebook to scrutinise my every word, and turn it in to something that it is not, please do me - and you - a favour, and click on the "Unfriend" option.  If you wish to stick around as my friend, please do so with an open mind.  Please understand that my life has many facets, and that not all of my status updates relate to one little part of my life or You.  I do not use my FB account to hurt other people's feelings, so please 
do not do the same.

Thanks.

I am not a game player.  Not literally or any other way!  And I'm finding that the older I am getting, the less patience I have for them.  This was confirmed this week after I worked out that someone on my friends list uses their FB for different reasons to I.  It lead me to many conclusions.


1.  If I am worried about writing something that someone may mis-interpret, then we mustn't be very good friends.
2.  If I am questioning my trust in someone, then we mustn't be very good friends.
3.  If I don't think we are very good friends - then you should not be on my friends list.


My "Voice of Reason" - aka Andrew, is also my moral compass.  When I am angry about the way others are behaving and choose to deal with things, he reminds me that I am not them.  That I should not lower myself to their level.  I thank God someone that I have him every single day!


How do you choose your FB friends?  And how do you un-choose them?

I'm not Game

I have Cadyn home sick today, again.  Just like yesterday. And it's hard because although he's sick on the "inside" (he has crackly lungs) he's fine on the outside - so has continued with his usual routines.......

Putting his brand new footy boots on, and running up and down the hallway - on the floorboards.

Getting his cricket bat and swinging it like he's facing Shane Warne.

Asking me relentlessly to play games with him.

It took me an hour of "No, I'm  not playing games with you", to come up with a compromise.  I told him after lunch I would play A game with him.  BUT NOT MONOPOLY!  So I've spent the morning sewing,  then took him back to the Doctors.  He confidently said to me that when we returned home I was to make him lunch and then we were playing a game - of Guess Who?   So I confidently replied that "after lunch" meant some time between Midday and 6pm......

I don't know what it is.  Growing up, we didn't have board games.  We had Backgammon.  Not so popular amongst the kids.  My sister and I laugh about how much we wanted board games when we were kids, and now that we have kids ourselves - we are both "non-gamers".

My husband is a HUGE gamer.  He spends hours on various different on-line games, as well as PS3 and a variety of other mind-numbing activities.  I, on the other hand, have killed my Farmville plants, sent my Cityville town broke and ravaged with crime, and no doubt could never return to Yoville from fear of retribution from all of the virtual people I have left hanging in there.

My children know that puzzles are for Nanna to do with them.  My husband spent a couple of hours playing Monopoly with them a few weeks ago.  I sewed.

So it is with great pride I announce to you - 

I played ONE game of Guess Who? with Cadyn today!  

And he only had to wait until 1pm.....

Am I a bad Mother (again) or are there lots more of you non-gamers out there?