a virtual coffee & thoughts on happiness...

i'm a day late...but i am soo ready to stop...sit...chat & listen...
virtual coffee...
i don't know about you all out there...
but i love these virtual coffee's...
a weekly *round-up* of thoughts...idea's...sharing...
just as it would be if we were really meeting for coffee...
a moment out of our day to see how each other is travelling...

so...if we were really meeting for a coffee today...
i'd be popping you back on the pink chair...by the window...but outa this wind!
we could still see the front garden together...but we wouldn't mess up our hair...
the poppies, the irises, the roses that are all beginning to bloom...
it still makes me smile- big with a lot of hand clapping much to the amusement of the kiddos- when i see our garden coming to life after a long winter...
for an aussie gal in this gorgeous english countryside, these will always be storybook moments...
for my kids- who are now au fait with life in two countries, on opposite sides of the globe, these moments are totally taken in their stride...
a garden of wonderful succulents & sandstone on the beaches of sydney...
&
a lush green garden of roses & ever changing flowers in the english countryside...
whatever!
part of me wants them to sit up & take note of the differences...
but the bigger part of me is soo proud of them...
they have adapted to life in two countries as only children do...
& at these moments, particularly, i feel blessed to be their mother...

so...if we were really meeting for a coffee today...
i'd serve it to you with a crusty baguette & fig jam...
i'm just back from shopping...i need the energy to now unpack the haul into the pantry...
&
Sainsbury's, according to my daughter, makes baguettes just like in france...
crusty on the outside...soft on the inside...
she'd like to be a leetle bit french...
we'd all like to be a little bit french at times...
i'm sure those french gals can eat basket loads of baguettes without having to walk it all off later...

& if we were really meeting for coffee...
i'd run this thought by you...
are you happy?
i don't mean happy with the minute details of your life, but just happy by nature?
do you look at the glass half full, or half empty?
have you reached that spot in your life that makes you realise that you are actually exactly where you want to be...?
not physically...but emotionally, confidence wise, career or creatively wise?
i had a gorgeous cousin of my husbands, whom i adore, ask me if i "ever have a s****y day"...
yes Em...i'm talking about you...
i had a giggle, as she has seen me through some pretty long lunches with three little kids as we lived a  beach apart in sydney...
had she forgotten those times of comparing, analysing & bemoaning our lack of sleep?
she too, has three little ones now...& i know she's where i have been...

so...i got to thinking...really thinking...
& i am in that great place...
i really know i am...
yes things totally bug me everyday...
the weather...
the kids leaving their school shoes in the rain on the trampoline...
the ironing pile staring at me, & it seems only me...
the lugging home of shopping bags only to have to then unpack them...
the list is long & very boring...
BUT
i am intrinsically happy...
i love where i am at in my life...
i like who i am...
i've worked pretty hard to get to this point, we have done more in the last three years than some do in a lifetime...
i'm not judging anyone else...not at all...each to their own is an important lesson to embrace...
but...
i've always wanted to do something bigger than i thought was possible & fortunately i fell in love with someone who, for his own life, had always wanted the same...
this life abroad has been the final piece i was looking for to making me feel happy with my days...
we will, one day, be returning to the beautiful beaches of sydney...
& we will be returning with a true sense of our happiness...
there will still be the everyday that bugs me of course but real happiness is not, for me, based on those things but on the experiences of life...
what you make of it...

if we were really meeting for coffee in my front room, you all cosy on the pink chair...
i would be watching your face whilst i shared with you this pile little mountain of thoughts...
i would be hoping that i see a flicker of recognition in your eyes...
an *i-know-what-you-are-flapping-on-about* sorta look...
any thoughts on all that?
i know, i should have warned you of a big blurb from me & made us stronger coffee's!


& if we were really meeting for coffee...
i'd ask you to recommend a new blog to me...
one that you have stumbled across this very week that makes you wish you'd found them a year ago...
i have one...not from this week, but a blog that always makes me smile...
it makes me so thankful to have children...
it makes me wish i'd home schooled somewhere along the line...
{i like to think we sort of do...you know on the weekends...challenges are big in our house!}
i'd tell you to go visit my lovely friend Alicia at *la famille*
she's just a breath of fresh air...a daily read for me amongst my faves here in this bloggy world...

anyhow lovelies...

i have shopping bags staring me down from the kitchen...

the coffee machine still humming away...

& beds to make...

so thanks for dropping by...

see you next week...

grab a rose or two off the bush growing up the front door on your way out...

&

thanks as always for listening...

xxx

as always...go say *g'day* to our host Amy {here}
tell her i'm the reason your late
:)