K.I.S.S: Chaos Reigns. Time to Make Friends with it.

Lately I feel as though I've been hit about the head with the crazy stick. Renovations, sick kids, parties to organise and host, the terrible twos, health troubles of my own, Sparky's insane work schedule, keeping some semblance of a social life (barely) and running the house have all left me reeling.

I figured, when this new level of crazy didn't disappear after a couple of weeks, that it must be the new kind of normal so I've decided to embrace the chaos rather than fight against it.

A clever lady once told me:

"Only be as organised as you need to be."

While another said:

"Your house should be clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be fun."

I want to simplify life, not crowd it with stress and anxiety. So I'm accepting the fact that there are only so many hours in the day and many, many things that need doing and that means something has to give. Sometimes that's housework, sometimes social engagements, sometimes showering(!) I just think it's important for me to be an active participant in choosing to do (and not do) certain things each day.

I am a worrier (particularly of what others think of me) and a stresshead by nature so I'm sure this will take some work, but I feel as though I'm making peace with the craziness that is this stage of our life. And what's more, I'm starting to like it.

Hey There, Distraction. Thanks for kicking my arse.

I whipped into my studio/storeroom just after the kids went to sleep, with all intentions of posting a quick, easy chocolate-chip cookie recipe to help use up your extra Easter eggs (cause if you're anything like us, they're still coming out the wazoo and any pleasure gained from eating them has been replaced with a bloated self-loathing. No? Oh, it's just me then. Carry on.) But I got sucked down the internet rabbit-hole and found myself reading my old jewellery business blog, Trove.

I honestly haven't given it too much thought since we closed the business down last year (a move I in no way regret. The timing was just bad for us to have such a big, involved business.) but reading over the journey Sparky and I (and Isy for some of it) have taken did make me feel...funny. I remember so many late nights, so many books scrawled with plans and calculations and figures and collections and sketches and logos, so many big big dreams. I don't think I realised until just now just how close we were to making those dreams a reality.

But that's the only bad thing about dreams becoming reality: the reality part.

The long, long hours, the crappy pay, the time spent away from the kids and Sparky, the hundreds of hours of stress and guilt.

Life is a constant see-saw balancing act, where you need to give and take to keep the overall balance there. Sometimes you tip one way, other times you lean in the opposite direction. Sometimes you even feel stable and balanced.

For us, Trove pushed the balance too far in one direction and made it really difficult to tip back. So, when I read about the excitement and promise that was in our business, I need to remind myself that this quest for a simple(r) life means there's plenty of time for everything, just not at the same time.

*And here ends today's diary entry.

Continue on for a delicious choc-chip cookie recipe, that allows you to use up your extra Easter eggs...

You'll need: 


125g butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup SR flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (I often use muesli if I'm out of oats)
1 cup choc bits or chopped up Easter eggs
a handful of sultanas

1. Melt butter and peanut butter over medium heat. Once combined, transfer to a large bowl and cool for five minutes.

2. Add brown sugar and egg, mix well. Add flours, oats, chocolate and sultanas. Mix well to combine.

3. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, place on baking paper lined trays and flatten slightly with a fork.

4. Cook in preheated oven (180C) for 10-12 minutes or until golden. (By around 12 minutes they tend to go quite hard and crunchy. 10 or 11 minutes leaves them chewy.)

Delish, and calorie free when consumed for breakfast. (Not that I ate two.)

No Angel

Tenuous photo link: I'm drinking a beer.

I'm no angel. Like everyone, I'm busy. I'm a busy mum and wife and sister and daughter and writer. I like things to be simple where possible. I like to do things efficiently where possible. I don't like making extra work for myself.

I like wearing make-up. I like having my hair done (and getting it coloured!) I like eating lollies. I am a big fan of coffee. I love wine. I shop at Target. I travel. I used disposable nappies on both my little ones until they were six weeks old and would fit into the cloth ones I bought.

If my goal was to live completely without chemicals, and in a carbon-positive way, then I would be making very different changes to my life.

My goal instead, is to simplify life.

I love that I'm learning about green cleaning because, yes, it reduces the amount of unnecessary and harmful chemicals in the house, but also because I now have four spray bottles in my cleaning cupboard, rather than the dozens I had before. Things are simpler.

I love that I use only a handful of daily beauty products and the vast majority of them are completely natural.

I love that I try to reduce our household garbage by recycling, shopping smarter and reusing more, because it means I'm more mindful of what I buy, which in turn means less stuff in general.

But I'm so not an eco-bully. Or a green-snob. Just sayin'.

xxx

Whoops! I kind of disappeared for a while...

Or more like four months. Sorry about that!

The initial idea was to get this blog up and going before the renovations started, and to have it well established before Baby  #2 arrived, but best laid plans and all that...

We have had Baby #2, now known as the beautiful Toby, and we have moved out of our house, renovated, extended and moved back in to our house. So I didn't quite get there. 

But I did get somewhere. Oh yeah, I think it was called Crazy Town. Population: me. 

I actually don't recommend doing those things together. It was madness. The builders finished on the Friday, we moved most of our stuff back into the bomb site that was our home on Saturday, my waters broke Sunday morning and Tobes was with us Monday morning. Mad. Ness. 

But I'm here now! With more well-laid plans and good intentions. So from today, we're back on the Lavender Bandwagon, with a few other interesting things thrown into the mix. Hope you enjoy.

In the meantime, please meet the newest addition to the family:

I will add some photos of the renovation over the next few days too - it was a massive job (much bigger than we actually realised) and the house is looking pretty unrecognisable. Mostly in a good way.

In the meantime, I've got a tonne of cool stuff to post so will keep at it over the coming days. Hope you enjoy it!

Brooke x