Time trickles away...

Sometimes the words just don't come. They ramble around for hours, days, weeks and even months (eeek) before the urge to purge is so great I have to abandon all other very pressing matters and sit down and just WRITE. That, or the fact that it is fast approaching Sunday evening, the whole weekend is gone and there is a growing mountain of unorganized (but clean and dry) laundry making itself known by its sheer size and volume.

I always feel like looking at current or past photos of either food or family will help encourage the flapping of jaws but this time instead of the photos encouraging me to write or share, they just made me cry. The first photo with the kids at the cool old knobby tree was taken by my Mum (Catherine) on her shwanky new iPhone. I hate that she advanced to the 'technologically' kitted out MORE than me. BUT I love that she captured the sugar-high she gave them last week at Barna Woods. You can feel their  happiness looking at this photo.

Sigh..........

This is where the tears start. What on earth has happened to my baby girl. Was it not yesterday she was just a little 5lb bag of sugar in my hand, snuzzling in between the Chef and I and sleeping her days away in the bassinet under the bar at Rondo's? Now, Ms. Rory-Belle is almost 8 years old. She is turning into the cutest little lady. She is funny, book smart, spiritual and wants to be a Vet. And, I might as well mention that she is pretty darn gorgeous to boot.

Sam, Sam Sam............

Wow. I had to pull some old photos from when the girls came to stay with us last May (2010) and was just shocked at the compare and contrast. I have not uploaded the photos I took from their first day with us, because even for me to look at today it was a little daunting. Sam, we were told, would 'never progress academically'. She ended this past week getting all her Irish and English spellings tests 100% right and her Maths test 100% right. Her feet have not touched the ground since Friday. Needless to say, her confidence is improving and I am a firm believer that beauty comes from within. I am fearful for the teen-years when the above two get going and we will have a whole world of other problems to deal with. 

Jack the (only) Lad...

My little man will turn 6 years old in just a few weeks. I am filled with this horrible heartache when I think back to that first year with him. Oh, how he screamed and cried. He could not be held or put down. He could not eat, or go hungry. All he wanted was his Mama and his Mama almost lost her marbles trying to be everything he needed. Thankfully, the Chef, my Mum (some pretty hefty phone bills that year I reckon) and our amazing babysitter (Erica - who we still miss sooooo much) dragged me through that year and we all survived.

And our youngest little one - the Lovely Lulu.

But by no means the Baby of the bunch. Lulu is the meek and mild child. She has had the roughest time and transitioning to a new home has been harder for her than for Sam. To see an earlier photo of Lulu taken last summer -- click here -- there is a lot of sadness in her little face. I think that Lulu could be the poster child for 'Feed 'em, Love 'em, Watch 'em Grow'. She knocks my socks of almost daily now with her stages of development. She is finally (aaaahhhhh finally) making some progress. She just got 'Gaelgoir na Seachtana' which is an 'in-class' award for the most Irish spoken in class. We have never seen a prouder little kid. What a little star.

The Chef's birthday was last week and one of our favourite little Sushi restaurants decided to celebrate the owners heritage and have a 3-day Korean festival. OH.MY.GAWD. The food was as authentic as it gets and we had a hard time, well, going home. We had to though because it was a school night and we had already kind of celebrated his birthday the weekend before with all our friends..........but we are hearing rumours that they might do a Korean menu once a month so for those that are local to my neck of the woods - stay tuned and next time we will have a bit of a hoolie!

Ok, so to sum it all up and not stray off topic, all is going well in the Wise family household. I am slightly buried under assignments but have only a few more months of school to get through before I am off for a nice long summer break. 

Due to another visit from Mr. Fox, the Chef and I are looking at building a new fence so our hens and ducks can roam free-range safely whilst we are at work and school. One of our friends, who is as nutty as we are, recommended we look into getting a Goat fence because if you can keep a Goat in, then there is no chance of a fox being able to get in to kill our feathery friends. 

So, when it is all said and done, if one builds a goat fence to protect ones flock, then would it not makes sense to have a few goats?

Please tell me you honestly do not want one. Stay tuned folks. After exams, I have a feeling that there will be some goats milk on the table!

And finally (the crowd goes wild with relief) to add to all my sadness about the kids are not being babies anymore and I am getting old and crabby, my (MUCH OLDER) sister sent me this video from when I was a child and Rory was a baby. (I cannot believe the Chef got away with marrying me when I was like only twelve).

Life is good folks. Tune out the election and turn of those damn TV sets. Play with your kids, get out and go for a bike ride or a walk. OR, get out there and help a child in need. You can do so much more than you 'think' you can.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Dining out in Dublin

A brand new Dublin foodie-rag hits the streets this week and I have to say it is pretty nifty. The reviews are believable and the foodie-photos are not too shabby.

Check it out when you have a minute esp. towards the last few pages where you may see a few WiseWords - look for the page that says 'Munchies Anyone?'

WiseMóna

Open publication - Free publishing - More ba

I'm so lonely I could cry

Oh woe is me. I am only three days into the second semester and I want to run home crying. And stay there. I cannot say I have felt this way about 'being in college' since making the decision two years ago to get myself an education. So, maybe this was bound to happen sooner or later, I don't know.

This is a week of change for all students. Most classes are in different locations, at different times and with different teachers. No worries here. We are in college to learn for gawds sake - change is good, right?

Well, maybe it is, but here I find myself racing around the campus trying to find all these classes and feeling like a...well, feeling like a first year. I have umpteen 'class clashes' and now every department head knows full well who this 'WiseMóna' is because I have had to go cap-in-hand asking for special permissions to get into a new times slot or out of an existing one. 

To add to my level of insanity and to explain the title of this blog post, ALL my friends are off doing other subjects and other modules, so I have to sit in class with no-one to talk to. 

SAD.com, I know. But, in saying that, I am making no effort to recruit new friends either. I do not have time to nurture and grow a new gang of friends, especially since I cannot find time to maintain the relationships with the ones I already have! 

So, with all this doom and gloom (and I should mention it is bucketing down rain outside too) how can we find the silver lining on the cloud? Well, I have a little silver lining stashed away and it is all I need to motivate myself to keep plodding along and get through the next twelve weeks before I have my lovely long (four months worth) of summer holidays.

Silver Lining Project = 3rd year of College

Shocker, I know. Here I am complaining about being back in college but cannot WAIT to get started on 3rd year. Why, I hear you ask?

This creative writing degree course I am enrolled in is fairly new and fabulous. The classes are teeny tiny with only 15 students so we develop a great peer group to work within. Each of us have the option (September 2011) to 'Live the life of a Writer' and swan off into the sunset and write our novel.......editor provided and paid for by the university. It is a pass or fail class. 

You pass if you write your book, work professionally and proficiently within all the guidelines and deadlines your editor gives you and finish the book. 

You fail if you do not. 

NO PRESSURE HERE!

Of course, if you are just not ready to swan off into the sunset and write your novel, then you can enrole in a few film production and screen play writing classes right here on campus at NUIG and who would not want to take advantage of that?

Right before Christmas, if you were serious about the swanning off to write your book part, then you had to turf up a good 3,000 - 5,000 words of your book showing the outline and concept of said book in order to convince your teacher you 'had what it took' to go it ALONE for 3rd year. 

So there you have it guys n' dolls. I am going it alone. I have a decent chunk of the book already written and am bursting at the seams to get stuck in and just WRITE. OK, that might have been a slight exaggeration considering all I really have are a bunch of really cool food n' farm pictures and some recipes thrown together in a very cool PINK folder. 

I do not care. 

I AM VERY EXCITED. 

I am also terrified. 

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna