Today marks 5 years of blogging! I can’t quite believe it. In that time I’ve written 886 blog posts with 7349 comments on them. Whether you’ve read one post or hundreds, thank you so much for joining me on the journey!

Here are some of my favourites from the years gone by…

I started this blog pre-children, and it was very boring. Occassionally I wrote about things of value though, like this post about Patience, Gentleness and Humility.

In 2008, 4 days before Bliss was born and while I was overdue we bought a house. It was a stressful time! This is a house we didn’t buy but it still made for An Interesting Morning.

After Bliss was first born I wrote a number of silly little ditties…I’d forgotten about this one but maybe I need to (rework it) and revisit it…It’s called You’re Just The Way You’re Meant To Be

In Feb it will be 10 years since I left my hometown of Sydney and moved to Melbourne. During that time I’ve had to start all over with friendships and it’s been quite hard at times. Becoming a mum was quite a turning point as I thought about What Makes A Friend.

In 2009 friendships got hard and I may have had a little meltdown about it… the blog also slowed down. I shared a bit about my experience with the Baby Blues and most fun of all, we went to Vietnam for 3 weeks!!

2010 and Little Bear came along…watching the kiddos build their relationship has been beautiful! I thought a lot about whether We Can Really Have It All and the blogosphere achieved something amazing with Christmas Presents for Christmas Island!

Phew! What an amazing journey. Thanks for joining me on it – bring on 2012!!

This is the 268th blog post I’ve written this year, yikes! Of all of them, I’ve pulled out the 11 most popular, according to Google Analytics…just in case you’re looking for something to do this NYE ;)

Open letter to Jackie O
The response to this post was incredible! Viewed over 5000 times, shared over 300 times on Facebook and 500 times on twitter, I was amazed and heartened by the response to this.

Rainbow cake
Rainbow cakes are all the rage, here I share my tips and recipe for the ultimate rainbow cake!

How To Throw A Circus Party
Ditto above! Throwing a wonderful party doesn’t need to involve the perfect lolly table, it can be colourful and loads of fun much more simply.

Me time
This post shows up very highly for search terms like “I’m cheating on my husband and I don’t know how to tell him.”

Nudity is good for you
How old is too old for a boy to be in the women’s changeroom at the gym/public swimming pool??

Jacinta Tynan and the Happy Mum
Being a Mum is easy peasy and so is sleep deprivation. Unfortunately I didn’t get the memo.

Unwelcome
Bullying is a sad reality and has long term effects, I was saddened by how common this experience is.

Battle of the Baby Butt
I find this hilarious as the reason this post is popular is because of the image – you’ll have to take a look to see what I mean!

Drinking at home alone with kids
I got thinking about whether it was responsible for me to have a couple of glasses of wine when I was home alone with the kids. The comments were fabulous!

Help I don’t know what to do with my 3yold
We went through a rough patch and I didn’t know how to cope – I mention giving Bliss a smack and it became the focus of the conversation.

Smack down
The conversation about smacking kept going here as I realised I’d inadvertantly opened a can of worms.

Honourable mentions:
Blogging, Popularity and Community (How not to blog)
Follow your heart – love, marriage and Kim Kardashian
Looking In The Mirror At 30

Do you have a favourite post that you have written or read this year? Let me know in the comments below.

The next time someone in Sydney comments on Melbourne weather they may be in for it! For at least the past 12 months and maybe longer every time we’ve visited in Syndey we’ve left behind quite lovely weather in Melbourne and arrived in dreary Sydney. I don’t really mind so much as I find the humidity exhausting and crankifying but I think The Architect was hoping for a bit more beach action this week!

Thankfully Sydney is home to many an indoor activity so before the sun came out yesterday, we’ve been exploring. The Powerhouse Museum was the first stop on our list and we had a great time.

Bliss and Bear spent a good morning exploring the trains, lace and space exhibits, took in a science experiment in the flesh and finished off the visit in the totally amazing Wiggles Exhibition!!

There are interactive stations, a Big Red Car, Dorothy’s house, a stage show, and iPads! It’s truly amazing and the kids just loved it. We spent a good morning there though older kids might last longer, the rest of the Museum is still good so we wandered through all the other exhibits and got to The Wiggles last – I had a sneaking suspicion that once we’d been to it then kids wouldn’t be so interested in the rest, and I was right!

Children under 4 are free and adults are $12 each – pretty good value! Children 4-15 are $6 and family passes are also available. You can find the details all here: Powerhouse Museum Hours and Charges. The Powerhouse is also in the Entertainment Book if you have one of them.

Hot tip: go early (as with any museum really) and buy your ticket online beforehand to avoid the queues (esp if you are going to head in later in the day).

What’s your favourite thing to do when it rains on holidays?

Incoming search terms:

• the wiggles exhibition
• wiggles powerhouse
• wiggles exhibition
• stage show kids
• wiggles exhibition powerhouse museum

I’ve discovered an amazing beauty secret over the past week and had to share. For some of you this will be old news but for others it might revolutionize your summer like it has mine.

Ok, that’s possibly overstating things but nevertheless…

Bright nail polish works on people with short nails!

It’s true!

I have man hands – horrible knuckles, stumpy fingers and a true inability to grow my nails. My husband has better hands than me!!

Last week I took the plunge and this was the result…

See?! It actually works!

I’m using Revlon 220 Bubble.

Go on, give it a shot. I dare you!

Have you got a beauty secret to share?

Incoming search terms:

• simple summer nails
• i have man hands should i paint my nails?

In the midst of the

food

family

presents

napping

laughter

drinking

celebration

May your tomorrow be a wonderful reminder of all that

you have

and all that

you are.

May you know that Christmas is not

just for children

but for everyone.

A baby born,

alomst 2000 years ago

for you

to bring you into

His family

for now, and always.

With much love,

Louisa

x

I’m tired. So very very tired.

I want to blog, I have some great posts lined up but I am just spent.

Because I’m spent, I’m emotional – everything feels a bit hard, and a bit overwhelming and a bit self-indulgent. I know no-one really wants to hear about that but I’m sorry, it’s all I’ve got right now.

That, and these super fun photos we took at my cousin’s wedding on the weekend.

Maybe tomorrow.