We had just moved to Frenchs Forest and I had just started another full time job.
The children moved preschools/long daycare and we didn't realise how much work a house with a garden took!
No wonder I stopped blogging! I think I was barely staying afloat.
Lets talk about Frenchs Forest first. What a beautiful neighbourhood. We are so lucky to have been able to have moved here when we did. Had we left it another 6 months, I doubt us being here. We are so lucky that our neighbours are beautiful. We live on a battleaxe, sharing a driveway with a lovely lady and her beautiful sausage dog Jake. How the kids have become fond of Jake. Every opportunity to pat and play with him, they do. The kids have not had the opportunity to be surrounded by dogs so having Jake enables to build their confidence around these lovely animals. Another next door neightbour has a pool - and oh do we have pool envy over the summer! Just as well the kids have their paddling pool which keeps them happy, but sadly not really made for adults, or is it?
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| Wonder if the neighbours have pool envy too?! |
Over the last 2 years our street has hosted two Christmas in July street parties. These parties have allowed us to meet our neighbours and somewhat get to know them. The last party, a neigbour opened their home and spoiled us, including providing sparklers and loot bags for the children. How lucky are we to live in such a wonderful community.
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| Some of the older street kids 2015 |
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| Some of the younger street kids 2016 |
I am interested to see what is ahead for Frenchs Forest but that is another story to tell.
Work! I work for Landcare Australia, which is a not-for-profit land and water focused organisation. I am with their partnerships team, responsible for bringing corporate revenue in. NOT THE EASIEST ROLE!
There are many things I love about my job, but sometimes I wonder how I ended up there. I still laugh remembering when I first told my brother that I was working for an environmental organisation. He distinctly said "You, environment, are you serious". Ha!
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| Getting my hands dirty! |
Well Landcare has definitely taught me so much more than I ever expected. Today, I know what biodiversity means. I know what corridor links mean. I know what citizen science is. I know why it is important for each of us to support our local farmers. I know why it is important for our children to learn about where our food comes from. I know why our kids need to get their hands dirty. I know the value of volunteering your time and your energy, and of community education and engagement.
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| Noah and Eliza learning about soil health from Costa G. |
Yes, me and the environment! Who would have thought?!
In the 3 years that have passed, Noah attended an amazing preschool for a year and has been at OLGC, our local Catholic primary school for 2. I am so grateful that we found Little Bloomers, the preschool that Noah attended. I came across them through asking a Mums facebook forum. Thank goodness one of the mums told me to Go fot it, as we did and haven't looked back. Eliza ended up attending Little Bloomers herself for almost 2 years! Thank you Caroline xo
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| Noah and Eliza at the Little Bloomers disco |
I have to mention the first long daycare Eliza attended after our move. Since you needed to be 3 years old to attend Little Bloomers, we had to find another place for Eliza. We found a lovely place in Frenchs Forest bordering Allambie. While the place was lovely and caring, it was the worse year EVER. I would say that the place is no more than 3 kms from our home. 3km, on weekends, take no more than 5 minutes. On weekdays, it takes up to 45 minutes one way! 45 very painful minutes especially when I know that I still needed to park the car and get the bus to work. The day Eliza moved to Little Bloomers, the weight of being stuck in traffic was lifted off my shoulder. I seriously have not experienced wasting my time sitting in the car, on a daily basis, until we needed to do that routine. No wonder I kept away from blogging. I would have just been a miserable dried prune.
Homeownership and homekeeping! Oh my goodness.
So we bidded for our house the first time we saw it. We had been looking for a house for about 4 months, taking the children with us every Saturday to open houses. Tim and I fell in love with our house immediately. While we had to compromise on some aspects, we knew that we had found our home, possibly our forever home. Little did we realise that owning our own home equated to a whole new level of responsibility. While Tim and I have both owned our own homes, we have owned units - where we were only responsible for our 4 walls. This time, we were not only responsible for our 4 walls, but we were also responsible for the garden, the trees, the fences, the roof, the gutters, the drains....EVERYTHING!
I remember distinctly that within the first 6 months of home ownership, Tim and I decided to have our trees trimmed. We live in Frenchs Forest, and we literally have a forest in our garden. That initial work cost us almost $2K, and I remember asking the tree lopper how often we would need to get the trees trimmed. Every 18-24months at least he said! Who would have thought we needed to budget for that?!
Early last year, we decided to have 1 of our 4 big trees cut. A $4K exercise! Sigh!
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| 1 out of our 4 big trees |
Just as well Tim (and his helpers) enjoy gardening so there is no need to engage a gardener to help us keep on top of our garden.
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| Thank goodness that even princesses help in the garden |
We are giving our local plumber plenty of business though!
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