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!!

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
• interactive
• powerhouse museum wiggles

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?

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.

This time last year a number of Aussie bloggers were in a mad flurry organising last minute gifts and funds to send to the children on Christmas Island. You can read about what happened here: Christmas Island

We spoke with the organisers on the island this year about getting involved again however, this year the facility themselves will be putting on Christmas for the families in detention. You can read more about it here: Santa Will Make It To Christmas Island

This warms my heart.

May the energy and opinion of so many Australians who want to recognise the humanity of the asylum seekers coming to our shores continue to grow and change both policy and hearts in this county.