The House I Grew Up In

I must admit it is always nice to go back 'home' to where I grew up and where my parents still reside. But if moving away has taught me anything, it is the fact that home will always be where my parents live at the time, not where abouts they live. Does that make sense?

My parents live in a little town, about an hour and 40 minutes away from Melbourne city. And their garden is huge and has always been a fun place to play in. Especially when you are just about 3. Just ask Monet.

Each morning Monet would help my mother feed the birds, after being wrapped up head to toe against the cool Artic wind! My parents garden is a mecca for native birds and my mum makes sure she keeps them well stocked up with food during the winter months.

There is lots of little garden paths Monet liked to roam, with lots of little things (such as frog statues for example, discarded fishing lines, old riggity gates - you get the picture) to discover. Given half a chance Monet would have played in the garden all day, but the weather wasn't too kind to us, so that was out of the picture. I'm not one for gardening I'm afraid, but I will admit it would be lovely to have a small garden for our child to roam. One day maybe.

Monet ruled the roost (it seemed) at her Grandparents place. She sat in Grandad's chair, she sat on Grandma's Kitchen stool and she got to watch what she wanted on television and my mum would make her ham sandwiches at 10am if requested. Typical eh?

I had use of my dad's car so, we spent quite a bit of time going to Lyndon's parents (who live in another town, about 10 minutes drive away) and to his sister's place, so Monet could play with her only cousins, Jess, Heidi and 'Cousin Liam'. It was nice to be able to do this and Monet seriously loved spending time with her relatives.

Our time in country Victoria was good fun all up. It was nice for me to have time out from regular life and not to be constantly amusing Monet. We live a long way from 'family' and we don't mind because we cope. I might not live anywhere near the house I grew up in, but the most important factor is keeping in touch with family and feeling welcomed where they live.

Thank you to my mum and dad, Lyndon's mum and dad and Lyndon's sister Sarah. Thank you.

BTW, we're off again on a little holiday tomorrow so I won't be back posting until late next week. I apologize in advance if I don't drop by your blog until then. And where are we going, you might ask? Well, you are going to have to wait and see....