Just to get it all out, what’s in my head

Tbh there’s too much in my head right now to get it all out, but we’ll give it a go, shall we?

It’s week 1 of the VM Book Club, and I’m halfway through M Train already. I fucking love it. I’ve made so many notes and dog-eared pages (I’ve decided to be ALL IN when it comes to books, and love them like I mean it. These books are getting read, yo), even though I was a committed holy-book keeper for years. No marks, no creases. Not any more!

Oh man, I love it that much. I’ve never wanted to eat Tuscan Bean Soup with brown bread and olive oil so badly? Praise be to Our Pats.

I’m just about to announce the book for March (yes, really, we all need time to find it!), and I can’t wait.

The first meeting of the Stitch and Bitch Club was er… quiet! but Lisa and I had a blast getting to know each other, eating fries and soda, and getting our respective crafts done. I’m working on a blanket for the book, and she was doing THIS AMAZING EPIC CROSS-STITCH:

I mean really! So great! And if you’re in the area, we’ll be hanging out at Juanita Peaches in Brunswick, March 4, from 6.30pm. Join us!

On the home front – look, it hasn’t been great. We lost a dear friend suddenly and it knocked us all around quite a bit. We are heading up to Queensland at the end of this week for the service, but it’s hard to make sense of it all.

The final days of school holidays were perfect, though. I slowly got back to work, we made the most of the weather, and school started just as the girls were probably chafing at the bit for some more daily structure and a smidgen of time away from each other.

School-wise, young Smalls has taken to her new routine like a duck to water. She had no qualms wandering in on her first day, and has been stoked to go every day since. It definitely helps that she has roamed this campus for the previous two years at pick up and drop off for her older sister, has plenty of friends, and is a happy little sausage in general. Seeing her in her gigantic school uniform and obligatory massive hat is nothing short of perfect. She’s so cute.

I sent her off with a little crystal in her pocket that I said she should hold if she felt sad or nervous. She told me later on that the only time she did so was at lunch when an older group of kids were playing a game she wanted to join, but she didn’t know what to say. MY HEART.

For all of you asking (so many folks checked in on me on the day – thank you! I got pulled up at the school gate about 12 times, too – I loved that), I did really well. I wasn’t sad or anything, and the only time I cried was when I caught sight of another little preppy sobbing and clutching at his mama. Oh that hit me hard! But I only felt happy for me + mine, and it’s been a week now and everyone’s pretty chill about it all.

I guess I had processed it all before the first day arrived, and had arrived at a place where I was (mostly) accepting of this stage in my life. Truth be told, I do have a multitude of ideas of what I want to do with myself now, and having the time to explore that is rad. I’ve been busy every day since. But tbh you know I could have 12 kids and run away to the country and homeschool them all forever, so there’s always that!

Over the Triple J Hottest 100 weekend I had my brother and sister in law down for an epic sauce/jam-making day (more on that later), so we bought some cheap tomatoes ($1.49 a kilo) from an Italian grocer, some chillies and onions and went to town. We also headed out to Blue Hills Berries and Cherries and picked our own fruit for jam, and the drive home coincided with the first hour of the Hottest 100. Perfect.

We made: tomato sauce, tomato relish, barbecue sauce, chilli sauce, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, mixed berry jam, and capsicum jam. Which I’m not sure is quite right, but is easily fixed when I need to eat it. I was paranoid about making it dry, so I think I actually undercooked it a little. Anyway! Will address that in another post, as I’ve been asked quite a bit about what I did and the recipes I used, etc.

Sunday was obviously the best day, when I got to sit around and listen to the replay of the Hottest 100 from 1997. so much Faith No More! SO GOOD!

On that note, I’ll catch you tomorrow for some podcast fun. BYE!