I met a lady in the park yesterday....

And she had a boy and a girl. Same age difference (give or take a month) that I will have. And she was soooo happy! She admitted that her son (the elder child) was 'a full-on boy' (ditto) and that he did make it hard sometimes, but that all in all, she felt "blessed".

I love it when people use the word 'blessed' when they're talking about ordinary things. Not religious people, talking about the gifts from their lord or god, but ordinary people, with no obvious religious armour or agenda that see themselves as lucky enough to be in a situation where something happened outside of their control that turned out to be a significant and amazing thing for them, a life changing event that made their lives Better. Blessed. I love it.

It got me thinking about how my life has been pretty lucky, especially since the last 9 or so months have ticked over so quickly. We often find ourselves in a money panic, because of the whole big mortgage/old car/kids/one income combo, but so many people out there remind me very often that we are indeed lucky. My partner has a good job - no, an amazing job. He's one of 'those' men that is known as a great worker and although just before our son was born he was made redundant (along with a plane load of about 100 workers), he was the only one on that plane owed a pay-out, and shortly after that he was offerred a job with one of the biggest mining companies in Australia. He was no longer a contractor, he was employed by the actual mine company that owned the whole kit and caboodle. We thought, when he lost his job, that we were in all sorts of strife, and now, looking back, it was the best employment outcome that could have happened for us, and has continued to serve us amazingly well.

We have a school locally that I am in complete love with, and all things going well this term Ethan will be attending next year. Our timing with the new baby can be seen two ways - I've been asked 'what was I thinking' by those of the mindset that once your kids are at school you are 'free' to do what ever you want, and I've also had discussions about how with a new baby on the way, Ethan will be very blessed to start school, expand his social circle and his learning, only about 12 weeks after the baby comes. I like to think that he's going to love having a baby around, but I know that the things that 'tied me down', so to speak, when he was a newborn, will bore a three year old no end! So with this timing, just enough to get the baby started in life, and get myself practiced in to a routine of getting ready for school, I feel so lucky that he will be finding the most amazing new things in his life at school at such a time as he is going to need people to show him.

And as for me, well. I'm sometimes very aware that my level of luckiness is just a bit silly really.

I am lucky enough to be in a relationship that is real - no drama, no carry-on, a settled in, well worn and well known partnership that both parties are used to, AND enjoy. It hasn't been blind luck - we've worked very hard at our relationship and we've had long breaks in the past that have helped us both develop in to the people we really needed to be. But here we are, ten years later with our second child on the way and the adventure is no where near the end.

In work I'm lucky enough to be able to take time off if I need (or have to!). To take care of our family in aspects such as finance, organisation, nutrition and the like, is the thing that I like to be employing myself in. It's pay-less in cash, but my family are benefitting every day with the new things that I help them do, discover as well as the routines that are in place to help us be together as a group. Even when I'm having a nesting day and cleaning the grout in the tiles, the benefit to the family isn't just that our home remains clean and tidy, but it also helps us retain the value of our home. I could go on....but Ethan is standing here and telling me that my one minute on the computer is up, and well, he is the foreman of the job I guess!

Have a great day, enjoy the work that you find yourself doing, and if you can't enjoy parts of it then enjoy looking forward to the days when those aspects will be gone from your day and you'll be able to do as your foreman tells you to, too!