It's been a while

Hey there... remember me?
According to an online calculator it has been this long since I last blogged:

• 1 years 4 months 4 days
  or 16 months 4 days
  or 69 weeks 6 days
  or 489 days
  or 11,736 hours
  or 704,160 minutes
  or 42,249,600 seconds

I don't know who makes these online calculators but they sure do come in handy when you want to find out all sorts of information.  I came across the calculator recently when I was trying to work out how old the students in my class were... super helpful!

So yeah I'm back... and things in my life have changed a lot... some for the better... and some in 'character building' ways.  Let me just say that I feel I have enough 'character' for now and I'd like a few less lessons to be learnt in the upcoming weeks!

So what brings me back to Blogger? To be honest I don't know... I think it's the need to connect with others... and in part to give me a voice... there are people in my family that would argue that I have quite enough voice for one person LOL

It's also the desire to get back a piece of myself that has been missing for quite some time.  Even as I write this, I can feel a little bit of myself creeping back in... and quite frankly that's a good thing.

So rather than be all mysterious about what's changed I'm just going to put my cards on the table... not all of them mind... after all a woman needs to keep a little hint of mystery about her don't you think?

I've spent part of the morning revamping my blog a little bit and you'll be able to see some changes straight away.

Here's the 'before' banner:

And here's the new one:

• Michael (Mike) is no longer part of my life. Without going into detail, he recently decided that there was someone else he saw his future with and he has moved on to pastures new. That was 'character building' for sure!

• Nivea (Michael's dog) has also moved on to pastures new in the form of going to live with his mother in another town.  She is still getting out of fences in her new home so nothing much has changed for Miss Nivea.

• Toby is now an 'only child' at home once again and he is super happy about it! If you've never seen a dog 'smile' you need to see this photo:

• I have a new hobby... geocaching! I discovered geocaching early last year... in fact I logged my first find on January 2nd 2018.  Since then I've found 873 caches and had some amazing adventures. Michael and I traveled to Norfolk Island via Sydney, Australia in July 2018 and located every cache on Norfolk which I am super proud of... check out this map from our trip... all the little smiley faces are the caches we found... they represent hours and hours of hiking and exploring as well as hundreds of amazing photo opportunities!

• One of the biggest changes is that my little Doodlebug has grown up a LOT!  She's now over 18 months old and such a delicious little bundle of fun.  I get to see her regularly and we have developed a fantastic bond.  Family dinner nights are held every Monday night which gives Nana a definite night to see Miss Chloe along with her Mummy and her Auntie Krystal. She also comes to stay with me on a regular basis which is so much fun... and more than a little tiring at times.  She has so much energy!

• There have been changes at work too.  I still work for a local Special Needs school however I have changed location.  I'm lucky enough to work in a Satellite class and this year I have five boys in my care with lots of autistic needs and talents to explore and develop.

•  I have also joined the Marie Kondo revolution for tidying, de-cluttering and bringing more JOY into my home and life... and I'm a convert.  I'm not a naturally tidy person... my family will attest to that wee character flaw... but since learning about Marie's methods and actually putting them into practice I've been living with growing levels of JOY... it's a good thing!

So there's my current status in a nutshell... it certainly hasn't all been smooth sailing in recent months... and there were times I thought the oncoming lights were a train about to run over me... turns out it was more of a lantern showing me the way... and now that I'm out the other side there is a great view and more adventures heading my way.

Thanks for visiting and I hope life is treating you well xx