Safety in numbers

I bet it doesn't come as a surprise that I like doing things with a group. And that I like progress with ... um ... not exactly reward but ... acknowledgement? A sense of achievement? People to celebrate with? Admittedly, I also like the idea of being accountable to other people. Letting down yourself is one thing, but you can't let down your team.

I am part of several "groups" at the moment. Collectively a few girl-friends and I are on a mission to lose some weight, but more importantly to improve our fitness and get healthy. A different friend has also started a book club. We have our first get together on Sunday. I am a little excited about this one.

However the group I am so very, very excited about is a new investment network Lela and I are a part of. A group of women with different backgrounds, pooling our collective financial resources and skills and knowledge to get together and purchase shares. How can this not be exciting?!

This is the second investment network that we have been a part of. The first one was very successful money wise. We got a nice little return at the end of it. We also learnt a lot about running a group like this the first time and we are looking forward to the second generation. As much as making millions would be nice, more importantly it is a way of learning about a whole new area, meeting some new people and taking a little bit of control about our financial future. And who knows?! Depending on how things go, it could end up being a major source for financing our ultimate TMD adventure!

If you have been a part of something like this, please feel free to share any advice with us!

If the mountain won't come to you ....

.... you must go to the mountain.

Today we enjoyed an 'incursion'. (In case this is just an Australian thing or in case you do not have primary school aged children, an 'incursion' is where the performance/activity/thing comes to the school rather then the class going on an excursion. This may have been self explanatory, but it took me a while to catch on. Either that or my daughters may not have been explaining it very well).

After church this morning, Lela very kindly invited us around for lunch. Admittedly it was lunch with a purpose. Lela runs a business from her home and I had offered my services to help out with some bits and pieces. I had so much fun labelling and hole punching and cutting and tying!

So our afternoon: seven ducklings, working, virtual tea (it was too hot for real tea, plus I don't like it!) and pink fairy biscuits. Catching up and working at the same time. We are mama ducks. We are good at multi-tasking.

Just because

You know how sometimes things are just all higgedly-piggedly? And you can't work out why? I feel like a little kid who has just been given the answer "just because". It is not a very good answer. I am just saying.

Today I am feeling that the answers "one day" and "be patient" are also in this category.

I am contemplating stamping my foot, but I am pretty sure that because I am in the real world this is not that acceptable. Especially because in the real world I am the mama!

Baby steps! One step after the other. And I am off to put some change in my change jar and know that however long it takes I am heading in the right direction.

And you thought we had been doing nothing ....

I would just like to say that just because we have not been blogging (either on here or on our respective personal blogs), it does not mean life has not been busy and full of adventuring! But busy or not, we still have had time for some Two Mummy Ducking. In all fairness, this is made easier when clearly everyday stuff comes into this category, but let's not focus on this! Real life is important too ;)

One of my favourite TMD adventures was an outing with five of our seven ducklings (my three and Lela's two girls). We took them to the theatre to see a musical version of "Little Women". It is one of my all-time favourite books and my big two girls (aged 12.5 and 11) have read it and loved it too. I have to admit I was a little sceptical about it being turned into a musical, but I really liked it! Most importantly the girls all enjoyed it and all five of them were so good!

I love amateur theatre. It is a cheap night out (usually less then a movie ticket), you are exposing your children to ideas and concepts that they may not usually get and you get to support your local community. We are very spoiled to have a few amateur groups in Perth that perform to professional standard, in my opinion anyway, even if the stage and sets etc may not be as grand.

Definitely worth checking out in your local area!

Happy New Year!

And welcome to 2012 ... year for change, a year for planning, a year for inspiration and a year for achievements. You may be asking yourself what I am basing these brilliant observations on. Actually not much. Other then faith and determination and an unfailing belief in self-fulfilling prophecy of course! 2012 is going to be wonderful because we have decided it is going to be!

Looking forward to reading about other people's dreams and plans for 2012 and beyond!

Catherine
xx

PS I know this is tagged as 'Monday Musing' and that technically it is a Tuesday, but yesterday was a public holiday. This is my excuse and I am sticking to it.