I wanted to post about a little bit of Christmas-craft-advent-calendar-making we’ve been doing in a more timely fashion, but the truth is I was running a bit late with it and I only just finished it yesterday, even though we should have started on our Christmas countdown on 1st December.

The kids liked the fact that they got to catch up on 3 days of advent treats though.

I found the tutorial and template for this advent calendar here (great new blog find!), and it was very easy to make - just print out, fold and cut to make the boxes, then fill them with whatever treat you like (in our case some Christmas stickers and a small choccy).

I decided to line ours up on the mantelpiece, rather than hang them up, partly because the choccies are a bit heavy (didn’t think that through properly!) and also because of the propensity for little fingers to grab and pull in our house.

I love these little boxes, I think I’ll use them again. How cute would they be as lolly bags for a party or place names on the dinner table.

Oooh, that’s just given me an idea for our Christmas table decorations!

Can you guess what this is a photo of?

If you’re in Australia and reading this at the time of posting (about 10:30pm WDT Monday night Australia) then stop now and go outside and look at the moon.

Isn’t it amazing?

If you’re reading it later, then here’s the explanation. This is a photo of the crescent moon aligning with Jupiter and Venus on Monday night (straight out of the camera photo - completely untouched). In the Western Australian night sky the planets and moons are really close together so it looks like a smiley face.

Apparently in the US the moon is inverted so it looks like a sad face.

Did anyone else see it? Apparently it won’t happen again until 2052.

who helped me through NaBloPoMo 2008.

I made it!

There were a few times I thought I might falter and I did whinge a couple of times, but looking back on it, it actually wasn’t that hard and in the end I really enjoyed it. I think one of the reasons people do NaBloPoMo is to find new readers and new blogs to read, which I did get a little of, but the main reason I did it was to break out of my blogging slump and get back into a regular routine of blogging.

I don’t think I’ll be keeping up the every-day blogging thing, but I do like the habit I’ve got into of drafting a post in the evenings for publishing first thing in the morning. Forcing myself to blog every day has gotten me back into the habit of noticing blog-worthy happenings everywhere around me, taking more photos and thinking of ways of making the trivia of the everyday interesting.

I couldn’t have done it without your support and comments though, so I thought I’d do a little linky-love thankyou to everyone who commented this month.

Firstly an extra special mention to the other girls out there doing NaBloPoMo with me - well done! Let’s all have a virtual champagne to celebrate.

 *clink*

Fe, M, Trish, Lulu, and Ali

Secondly thanks to all my commenters and to the few new readers in there - welcome! It’s always lovely to meet new people and I’ve enjoyed discovering your blogs too.

A
Amanda
Anil
Aussie Detox Blogger
Bettina
cait.in.texas
Dina
Fairlie
Frogdancer
Georgette
H&B
Jayne
Jeanie
jen
John Lampard
katef
Kin
Kirsten
Leigh
Lightening
M & B
Michãel
Misschrisc
Planning Queen
Prizetastic
Rhubarb Whine
Super Sarah
Tiff
Vanessa

Thanks again. I’ll still be around pretty regularly, just not every day, I think.

As much as I miss my babies when they’re away, having a weekend to myself is pretty relaxing.

So how do I spend the day?

Photoshopping the photos I took of them this morning in their matching outfits (oh and also running errands, buying a Christmas tree and visiting Bunnings…)

I’m in 2 minds about matching outfits. I usually resist it, but Guerita loves wearing the same clothes as Chiq. I can’t decide if it looks cute or naff.

When they do this, they look cute no matter what.

P.S. Must remember - not a good idea to watch Sex and the City on a night home alone. How much relationship drama can you pack into one movie? I’m a softie for a chick-flick at the best of times, but all that cheating husband, left at the altar drama was a bit too much for me.

P.P.S. Last day of NaBloPoMo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been thinking about it for a while, wondering if I was ready and feeling a bit scared about it but a few days ago I decided it was finally time to take my wedding ring off.

A few people have asked me recently why I was still wearing it, and the reasons are different from what you might have thought. It had nothing to do with hanging on to the marriage, nothing even to do with that relationship, even though the ring was supposed to be a symbol of the eternity of our partnership. I certainly wasn’t keeping it on out of some lingering hope of reunion.

In actual fact, I think I was still wearing the ring for 2 reasons. Firstly as a type of security blanket, a shield, I guess to the rest of the world. I wasn’t ready to announce to everyone that I was single. There’s something very vulnerable about not wearing it, after nearly 9 years with it on, and nearly 14 years since I was single. Even now, 6 months after discovering everything that had gone on (can’t quite believe it’s been 6 months) it’s hard to take it off.

Now that I have done, I feel exposed; naked. Like everyone will notice that I’m not wearing a wedding ring. That I’m a single mother. I guess that’s just something I’ll have to get used to.

The second reason is because of the kids. I am still finding the hardest thing about all this is the guilt and sadness I feel that their childhood dreams have been shattered. I hate the fact that sooner or later Guerita will notice that I’m not wearing my ring and I will have to explain to her that not all marriages end in happily ever after, and that the reality of life is that some don’t last.

I never wanted to be a cynic about marriage and love. I still don’t want to be, but I’m not sure how I could possibly cling to my original ideals. I hate that Rocky might turn me into someone so realistic and pragmatic about love that they never truly let anyone in, always protecting themselves from real hurt by holding back.

I don’t want my kids to be cynical about marriage. They are too young to stop believing in fairytales. But how do I preserve their youthful fantasies, all the while explaining why Daddy doesn’t live with us anymore?

So, these were my reasons for keeping it on this long. I’m pretty sure I’m ready now to go out bare-(left)handed.

But it feels weird and scary and sad.