I'm late once again with the blog, but for a good reason this time! Last night the kids and I spent the night at Opal Cove Resort. Jeffrey's friend Gilbert and his son came to Coffs for the night, so they stayed over and had a boys night while the kids and I got away for a mini-vacation :) We went to the resort early so that the kids could spend more time in the pool, and Jeffrey came too. They had a blast. Then Jeff left to spend his night with Gilbert, and the kids and I went to the gym, the arcade room, relaxed in the hotel room, and then went to the restaurant for dinner. The kids were very chuffed. After dinner they watched a movie in the hotel room while I got a bit of work done. And then I spent the night getting whacked and kicked by Arley who I was sharing a bed with! He was so happy to be in my bed that he had to sleep right up close to me, in the middle of the bed. It turns out he is a restless sleeper, and I spent the night clinging to the edge of the bed with a wall of pillows between us to protect myself! This morning the kids didn't want to leave, but we did, just in time to make the homeschool tennis group.
Halloween came and went. The kids were SO excited, have been for weeks. Arley dressed up as a zombie, Carmie as an angel, which is rather fitting, really. At first we thought the night was going to be a bust, because the first few houses we went to had nothing, but then we found a few neighbourhoods where we could park the car and walk around and the kids got loads of candy. Afterwards we took the kids out to dinner, still wearing their costumes, and they looked so cute, and received many compliments. We had decorated our house too, but we hadn't put it on the Facebook list of houses for Trick or Treating (yes, that's a thing here), so no one came to our house, which meant that not only did the kids have all of the stash that they had collected, they also had all of the Halloween stash that we were supposed to give away! It is ridiculous how much candy they each have now, and it is actually giving me anxiety!
We went exploring this week, up to the Promiselands, just outside of Bellingen. We went to the Never Never Creek, and it was BEAUTIFUL. We had the best day there, so much so that Carmie declared three times that night that she had a great day. We waded in the river, the kids swam, we had a picnic, went exploring, played with river rocks, and tried to build a dam. We took Bella as well, and she was almost crippled with exhaustion when we got home. I simply cannot believe how many beautiful places there are up here to visit!
On Wednesday we met the Nambucca homeschool group at Urunga, and it was a perfect day. The weather was beautiful, the kids all went swimming, they jumped off the jetty and the pontoon, climbed trees, rode scooters, played at the park. It was brilliant, and us mums got to sit together on the grass and chat the day away. It's a really lovely group of people, and we are fitting in quite well now.
The kids and I had a night time scoot and park play, which they just love. Another day we met up with Will and Charlie at a park in Coffs. There was a little drama between them all that day, but they were right as rain when we left. After tennis this morning Charlie and Will were begging to come over again.
We've had the usual struggles with Arley this week. He has a paediatrician appointment in two weeks, and I hope we can get him some help. His intense anger is very hard to live with, and all we can do is pretty much ignore it. But it really weighs on all of us. And poor Arley just berates himself.
And as for me, I've been working hard. About a month ago I decided to start a new business on top of ND Renegade. It's another t-shirt business called Epic Earth Co. I did the logo and all the designs, built the website, created an Instagram page, and then realised I am spread far too thin! It was really stressing me out, so I put it on the Shopify Exchange Marketplace, and sold it the next day! So I am feeling very relieved that I only have the one business to run again! I don't know what I was thinking. I will, however, be crazy sad if Epic Earth Co is a brilliant success using all of my designs!!
