Melbourne Newborn, Baby, Engagement and Wedding Photography in Melbourne.

Yesterday was my birthday.  As a special treat I was sent to the local Endota Spa for a few luxurious hours that just weren’t quite long enough.  I lay there, somewhere between pleasure and pain, as the knots buried across my shoulders were cajoled out of hiding and dealt with, and I realised how little care I’d been taking of myself.  And not just because the muscles in my back were so tightly strung my one hundred and seventy pound husband could have walked across it and not caused me to flinch. 

Admittedly, for my complete lack of, and even distaste for exercise, or anything remotely healthy, I look deceptively fit.  I can only attribute it to my 12 years as a gymnast.  So I guess once apon a time I was fit, but certainly not anymore.  Believe me – we currently have a home gym downstairs in our garage, and I’ve sat on it less times in eighteen months than I have fingers on one hand. Even if I lost a couple in a typing accident.

It bothers me, this not looking after myself thing. I mean, I’m always moaning about how I don’t have enough hours to do the things I need to, or how I never seem to make it to bed the right side of today. And then having to get up again long before I’m ready. Or how I snap too easily at the kids when they don’t behave the way I think they should. And the list goes on. But for the most part it’s all my own doing, and as I lay there being massaged it was like being tortured (in as nice a way as possible), and I felt like I deserved it.  And I decided it was as good a time as any to change and I started, right then and there, to make a list of ways I could take care of me.  And this is what that list looks like:

Get more sleep.
Go to bed earlier. Much earlier.
Get up before I have to be dragged out from under the sheets.
Use the extra time each morning to get the day off to a good start: think about what I want to achieve and what it will feel like when I have.
Spend some time praying.
Eat better.
Drink more water.
Read more.
Walk more.
Stress less.
Stop worrying about things I can’t control.
Dream. Big dreams.
Laugh more. Out loud.
Frown less.
Stop worrying about what I can’t do and focus on what I can do.
Actually use our home gym, at least three times a week. For no less than a half hour at a time.
Let the kids decide what we do, as much as possible and practical.
Have more girls nights out. Have girls nights out.
Be happy.
Live joyfully.

These are all things I can decide to do. And they’re all pretty easy to achieve really.  So look out for the new improved, looked after version of myself coming your way soon.

And because I’m currently redesigning my blog and a new website I have a few new photos of me floating around.  I kinda like this one, apart from all the freckles.  But I’ll always manage to find something I don’t like when looking at myself.  Something else to work on.

Narrelle x

Jaedon, in response to my dismay at the overgrown pile of laundry now waiting for me,

Don’t worry mummy (said while patting my back) – maybe it will just get clean tomorrow.

Now to give him  my magic wand and hope for the best.  If only it were that easy.

Narrelle x

Last night, as my head hit the pillow, I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the quiet stillness. I could have been right where I was the night before, in our penthouse apartment in Cairns, if it wasn’t for the absence of ocean waves pounding the shore, just a few short meters from our bedroom window. Or the whir and hum of the air conditioner, which I would have continually moaned about if it didn’t keep us so deliciously cool as we slept off the heat of the day. Even now, as I close my eyes, it feels like a dream. And I wonder if I’ve walked through my own sliding door, Gwyneth Paltrow style.  In one life line I am still in Cairns, stretched out on our balcony, midori and pineapple juice in one hand and a good book in the other. In this life I am simply sitting in front of my PC, both hands on the keyboard, and nothing to quench my thirst.

This was our first ‘proper’ holiday in nearly three years.  You know, the kind where you don’t stay in something that can’t be attached to the back of a car, or packed in the boot. And the kind where someone else tidies up our mess, and makes our bed.  And greets us poolside with a towel as we slowly surface, cool enough to have Ursula Andress and Daniel Craig wishing they looked like us.  OK, truthfully, we had to dig around in our bags for our own towels, and we looked more like drowned, wrinkled rats than 007 pin-ups.  But you weren’t there so I can make up anything I like.     The rest is true though, which is why there’s been nothing but the sound of crickets here for the last week, while we’ve been listing to the sound of frogs, geckos and tropical thunderstorms. Along with the whir and hum of the air conditioner.

I’m back now. Feeling refreshed, and totally amazed that I lasted one whole week without the internet. What a buzz – I can survive the day without logging on as soon as my feet hit the floor each morning.  Here’s to lots more days like that.

I have me some Gregory House to watch now, which means all the photos and lists of highlights will have to wait until another post.  It will come – don’t you worry.  In the meantime, here’s just a couple.  Don’t be too jealous.

Narrelle x

For everyone who sent in the top ten reasons why you love your lover – thank you so much.  I had such a wonderful time reading them all, and being immersed in all the love.  I just want to give every one of you a hug now, and show my appreciation for sharing the things that matter to you. Unfortunately I didn’t think hard enough before declaring that I’d choose just one – boy was it a tough job! I did keep coming back to once particular reply though, and thought it very deserving of a loved-up session together. So without dragging it out any further, that person is Erica W.  Yay!!!  I’ll save her response though until I check with her that it’s ok to share.  But I’m looking forward to the shoot already (I’ll be in touch very soon, Erica…).

And because I thought it only fair, I’m about to share 10 things I love about My Love.  Don’t hate me if I get too sentimental. But I’m like that.

1. He thinks I’m beautiful, even on the ugliest of my ugly days.  I’ve never had a lot of self-confidence regarding my appearance, so I still can’t quite get over the way he looks at me, and how that light in his eyes shines just as bright, even after 10 years.

2. He is completely selfless, and never hesitates, even for a second, to put my needs before his.

3. He is a gentleman. All the old ladies love him for it. I even have a good friend who’s mother has a crush on him.

4. He believes in me.

5. He doesn’t ask me what I’ve been doing all day when he comes home to a house that looks like it’s been built to contain a nuclear explosion, and has just gone through a round of tests.

6. He cooks. And much better than me. And he takes the rubbish out.

7. He loves God.

8. He dreams.  There is a world of possibilies out there and he isn’t afraid to chase them.

9. He’s an amazing father. And he still sees me as a woman, not just the mother of his children.

10. He chose to spend the rest of his life with me. Me.  Me.

Narrelle x