Yesterday I decided to take a walk in the afternoon with my two little ones and look for pine cones and acorns to make fairy hats and christmas trees for decorating. we walked up the hill behind our house, up an old fire road lined with ucalyptus, shrub oaks, blackberry brambles and pine trees. We found lots of ucalyptus which would work fine for fairy hats and chairs and some pine cones for making trees and funny animals for Christmas decorations.
When we got up the hill and I had pulled them up the side to the top where there was a little park we walked further up a narrow path and we saw the m ost amazing sight! It was a bright red ball with white spots on it, and as we came closer we saw that it was a toad stool very much in the nature of a fairy toad stool! I’ve read that red mushrooms with white spots can be quite poisonous, so I warned the kids away, but could not help but to take a few pictures with my camera phone. As we looked further, we saw there were quite a few fungus types growing nearby so we took photos of those as well. What we are wondering is if anyone knows what types of fungus these are??

I mentioned in some previous comments that I’m always amazed and how people get fixated on “me” time as if it is some selfish thing that we are doing or should not need. As I ponder this, I wonder is it because it has the word “me” in it? We are not allowed to think of ourselves as anything but mothers, wives and, as in the case of my writer, workers. I’m born first an individual, if I’m lucky enough to have a husband than I can add the title of wife to that, and if we’re lucky enough, we have children and can call ourselves mothers. It’s important to nurture all of ourselves, because it makes us happier individuals with more to offer our families, our jobs and our friends. Our better education offers more to our children and families. People who fail to continue to educate themselves and develop themselves, often find themselves at a loss when their children grow up and they look in the mirror or into their spouses eyes.

In this thought process, and to make it less offensive, should I change “me” time to “personal” time or self-development time, or…? It’s all semantics folks, call it whatever you want. What it is, is time to think or do something for some period of time without an interruption every five seconds. (Some of us could accomplish this by stopping our TV watching…ha ha, commercial, commercial, commercial). There is a way for everyone.

The premise is this, we all need to revitalize ourselves. When we exercise, meditate, read a book, contemplate a cup of coffee or tea, we regroup and refocus so we can put our best foot forward. Every one needs personal time whether they want to admit it or not….and most likely those in denial of it are getting by some other means anyway.

And then there are those of us who think our children are so well behaved that we don’t need personal time. I wonder, are they raising robots? Or are they so consumed with the child, doing their homework, and driving them to activities, that they are reliving the childhood they left behind? I’d rather have the fire of a child who has opinions, personality and energy than a child who acts like a mini adult going along with the program….and believe me, I’ve seen both. A child is not an adult and should not act like one. Rebellion is part of learning and will determine your childs drive for whatever they decide to do in life. No drama, or as I interpret that, disagreements, is a strange family indeed. I prefer real humans who challenge me as a mom and as an individual. And I’ve got that times 6 when you add my husbands and my kids combined, and I’ve got nothing bad to say about it because they are all great and I’m blessed to have kids who have values and ethics.