Life

Yesterday I started the day cooking pumpkin risotto at 8am. The boys poked their heads into the kitchen to see what was for breakfast...

'Yumm, what's for breakfast' Max asked sniffing the butter, garlic and onion combo sauteing on the stove.

'Cereal was my reply.....and some toast if your lucky'. 

You see I was running behind schedule for my TVSN shoot and because it's live filming I know I am not allowed to be late! 

For those of you who don't know what TVSN is, it's the selling network on Foxtel. It's where I get to have a play with KitchenAid pots and pans for an hour enticing people to buy the cookware and enjoy playing with it as much as I do, and now that my nerves have settled I really love doing the show.

With the risotto made and other ingredients shoved in bags, I flew out the door ten minutes behind schedule and still had to pick up some milk on the way as I completely forgot I needed it for the homemade custard I was making?!

Minutes to spare I managed to pull it all together and we had a fantastic show. The host was awesome and a lot of fun was had, so much so that I felt like I needed to cook something a bit special for my family for a change.

Of course there was nothing left in the fridge from the following week so I needed to do a big shop before I was cooking anything yummy.

Rhubarb was on special, two beautiful, young bunches for $5- bargain! I knew I had some left over pastry in the fridge so I grabbed a few green apples and decided on apple and rhubarb galette for the evenings dessert.

After roasting the rhubarb with a little brown sugar, knobs of butter and some lemon juice, I added slices of green apple, stirred it all through then let it cool before wrapping it in pastry and popping it in the oven.

The day went on with the usual events. When I have the time I love to hop on the net and read up on what is happening in my friends lives via the blogsphere. This week I have been very worried about a friend of mines little boy as he has been very sick. Lisa was a friend of mine back in high school. There was a group of us that knocked around, hanging out at the basketball courts, gossiping, laughing and even playing the odd game of basketball when no one was looking. Actually all the girls I hung around with were very good basket ballers, I on the other hand was tall and lanky with no basketball ability except to catch the rebounds and pass them off quickly before I ruined the entire game. I'm sure I was only invited to play purely because I was their friend.....and I was grateful for that.

As life moved on and college started our little group of girls slowly broke apart. Lisa and I started at the same college in Devonport with a few other good friends of ours while the other half of our high school bunch decided to go to school in Launceston (about an hour and a half away from Devonport). We all started becoming interested in things other than our small country town and basketball. 

I think I started getting itchy feet as soon as I saw a way out of our small country town and was probably one of the first to jump ship and discover the big wide world. 

My dear friend Rebecca (Bec) always kept me up to pace with what the girls were up to over the years. I always knew when someone had a baby, got married or moved away. Although I never kept in touch, I always liked to know how everyone was doing. All our lives were full of adventure and progression however, it wasn't until I came back from the US that I got back in contact with Lisa via her blog (and via Bec....or was it Lisa who got in contact with me? this sound much more likely).

Lisa writes about her family, I started reading about her life and it started to fill in the blanks from the bits and pieces I had heard over the years. I liked the connection, it reminded me of life before responsibility, marriage and everything else that comes with being an adult. I liked that I knew her before we really grew up and to read about her life now and to see what an amazing job she is doing raising her family of boys with her wonderful husband just makes me feel happy in this crazy world we live in.

Last night Bec continued to keep me updated, she told me Lisa's son Noah passed away after they had to make the decision to turn off the ventilator that was keeping Noah breathing. Uncontrollable tears fell from my eyes and my heart swelled with hurt and pain for Lisa and her family. I know they are surrounded by family and friends and I am also grateful to have found an old friend and to know her story this far. 

As I sat with my piece of rhubarb pie and tears stinging my eyes, I know why I write my blog. It is something I want to share, something I want my boys to have to read back on when they are wondering why there are the men they will become. It is my piece of the blogosphere where I get to tell my story and it is nice to know there are other people out there willing to listen, after all, we are all just trying to make the most out of this crazy, yet wonderful life we have all made for ourselves.