Bliss and Mayhem

 There is such a huge lead up to Christmas. With all the hustle and bustle of the shops, pressies galore and making sure that supplies are in check because my goodness the shops are going to be closed for ONE WHOLE DAY!  My side of the family always celebrate Christmas Eve, a Polish tradition which actually suits us perfect as our Christmas day entails, opening more pressies at home, Ethan going to spend Christmas day at his dads and after that our house is open to whoever wants to pop in for some Christmas cheer aka food, wine and music!   It was my little niece’s first Christmas and as we are quite a loud bunch, poor Bonnie had no chance of sleeping. Especially with her cousins (my boys) running mad around the place, people talking, eating, drinking and having a great time. I tell you what, I take my hat off to my little sister, 4 weeks ago she had a baby, and rocking up to Christmas , presents in tow and looking so fabulous - I know I wouldn't have been able to be so organise

 It’s so important to take a little time out, especially when you got a couple of kids in tow…time is never enough and time out for the parents comes far and few for us lately.   So with the opportunity of going for an afternoon to check out Jimmy Barnes, The Living End, You Am I and Mahalia Barnes, at the Rochford Winery   for A Day on the Green   was like “whoop! Date time with the husby”   If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of the events, I totally recommend it! Especially when the weather was like it was yesterday… perfect! The day on the green is held in wineries all over the country, a perfect backdrop to roll out the picnic rug, dips and crackers, enjoy a few drops of the local wine and listen to some fabulous entertainment.   We love Jimmy Barnes  and Steve does especially from the good old Cold Chisel  days. Man he can still belt out the tunes… going song after song with no break! The guy has gone through some big ups and downs through the years and still keep

 I wouldn’t call myself the Christmas Grinch, but perhaps I would be close to it. I have never really been a massive fan of the silly season, where you see severe over – spending, people in the shopping centres going absolutely nuts buying up, scrambling for the last presents - it really does bring out the dog eat dog scenario for some.  I do however, every year, pull out the Christmas tree from the cupboard or in some recent years, spent ridiculous money for a real one, and over an hour, Ethan and I would stand a few metres away from the tree and literally throw the tinsel on, place the decorations, no order and “prettiness” to it – Our Xmas tree would be a McLean shambles! But it was ours and would stand there in the corner of the lounge till Boxing Day.  Because of Ethan’s Autism, for many years he did not have any real concept what Christmas was about, who Santa was and the like, and I guess that also added to the care factor for me around Christmas.  But since little Jack has

 I’m sure we have all felt like this at one point or another. I mean, sometimes all your need is someone. And that feeling was at its peak 8 years ago. We had started to look at rentals to move to a new area. We wanted to be closer to work, which would mean less travel time = less road rage.  Not me, I mean the husby.  A major stumbling block though was Ethan’s childcare. How the hell were we going to find somewhere that would be sensitive to his needs, understanding of his Autism and could he really handle a change like that.  I LOVE my children, everything about them. But the first 5 years old Ethan’s life was some of the most exhausting, emotional, { I have no idea what the fuck I was doing}, times of my life.  This kid, as gorgeous as he was/is, screamed for up to 8 hours a day, had close to no verbal communication skills, spontaneous nose bleeds, head banging against walls, ubber sensitive to noise and touch and would spend hours obsessively spinning wheels of his toy trucks a

  See that moment right there? It felt magnificent. My toes squished into Legian Beach watching another gorgeous sunset over Bali. The warm air, slight breeze, sound of the ocean enjoying a week with Steve and our guy Ethan on his first trip here.  This was my view when the above photo was taken at Taris Bali . If you look closely... you can see Steve taken a photo of me {top left hand corner, the guy holding a camera} Ethan, had an absolute blast on our trip! First trip overseas, new culture, humid dry weather and the traffic, brought out Ethan's autism in a massive way - we saw behaviour and ticks that he hadn't done since he was really little. It was a massive shock to the system for him but after 3 days, lots of talking and explaining, he started to relax. This gorgeous boy, my gorgeous boy soaking in everything that Bali had to offer. I drank lots of these! I mean, when in Bali - Mojito's and Bintang's are the way to go!   We stuffed our faces at  Naughty N

 Hello! How are you? My name is Cheryl, and I blog here {did blog here} on a bit of bliss and mayhem. I thought I had better reintroduce myself as it feels like an age since I came on here last and wrote a post.  Truth is, I lost my mojo for it over the last few weeks - on top of sick kids, work and everything else in between I just couldn't find the  inspiration to write, let alone anything that I would have written, would have been boring as fuck.  Sooooo... what's been happening with you? I haven't had a free weekend in FOREVER and am looking forward to our break to Bali in 11days, 19hours and 12minutes....just saying. And my melancholy seems to be lifting due to the Spring weather that has hit Melbourne. Thank god for SUN! I seem to function better with better weather. When winter hits - I seem to hibernate and my tollerance level is way down. I think I'm getting old.   So what's been happening with me? Heaps and nothing and all the in between. Now just im

  {image courtesy Pinterest} I'm sure all of you have got a few of these.  You know, those people that you could probably count on one hand that just are there no matter what?  Ok cool, so you know what I'm talking about now.  Well I'm pretty lucky on that front, as I have a handful ( about 4) of those people and believe me when I say it, THEY ARE A RARE FIND. {image courtesy Google} I've known her for nearly half my life - we met at work and from the first moment we started chatting we just clicked - you know that feeling that you've known eachother forever?  Yep, one of those moments. Well, she nearly died last week - Nearly FUCKING died! It felt like I had been punched in the stomach when I heard today. I started crying, feeling completely helpless as there was nothing that I could do.  Her husband and little kids must of been out of their mind watching her go into the back of an ambulance off to hospital -  REALLY REALLY SICK. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! She