It’s 5am on Monday 28th January 2013. We have officially been disconnected from the world for a total of eleven hours. We first noticed it when the TV went off at bowls club around 6pm on Sunday and then just a few minutes later the eftpos machine couldn’t find a connection when I went to pull out money to pay for some chips for dinner. Luckily we had just enough coin in our pockets to pay for our chips and returned home.

Upon our arrival at home I noticed something wasn’t right, the kids had just turned off their movie in the spare room and were starting to surface while my husband sat frustrated on the couch playing with his iPad. He mentioned something about some of the channels not working on the TV and then said..I don’t think the Internet is working. I walked to the kitchen and looked st the little black box that powered so much of our lives, our down time, our freedom and that’s when I saw the flashing red light. His suspicions were correct, the internet was not working.

I didn’t stress as hubby had moved from the couch and was bringing in dinner from the barbeque so we dished up and sat down at the table to eat. We opened a bottle of coke {such a rare treat for this little diabetic} and enjoyed a peaceful family meal.

After dinner we bribed the kids with a new movie and while they ran around getting washed and dressed I picked up the home phone and it still had a dial tone so I put it back down and I instructed my husband to check the signal on his phone, next picking up mine. We looked at each other and at the same time repeated SOS, we were cut off.

It has been raining for days and although the weather had died off it was now affecting the lower part of the state but we couldn’t figure out how that would be affecting our local signal. Either way there was nothing we could do about it so once the kids were ready we all got cozy on the couch with a bag of maltesters and watched our movie.

It felt like ages since we had all sat together and just chilled together, the five of us. My parents had been here a month and it has been a huge help in the evenings. I guess it’s easy to give in to helpers and for hubby and I to soak up the alone time before this new baby arrived. Violet moved closer for a cuddle and I looked up at the TV thinking..at least we have power, thank god for air conditioning.

Which brings me to now. 5:33am on Monday morning. I lay awake, still pregnant and not able to sleep in bed, absolutely bored. I would usually roll over in bed and reach for my phone finding myself online flicking through social media sites or looking up baby names. But today I lie here in the dark, waiting, hoping that all is right in the world and if I can really be bothered to move to the lounge room and retrieve my laptop to watch a movie.

Fingers crossed we are connected again soon and the balance is restored. I fear we may have to leave the house at some point today as I only have chick flicks left on my laptop.

Over and out.

*update*

My parents arrived home at 2pm to inform us Mackay had been cut off all evening too. They had decided to escape for the weekend and were worried they couldn’t get in contact with us so they took a detour on the way home to make sure we had not checked into the hospital for an early arrival. It’s safe to say they were very relieved to find us sitting on the couch watching a movie when they walked through the front door. 

The power came back on later this afternoon around 4pm, almost 24 hours after first being disconnected.I logged onto facebook to see that friends from Mt Isa to Rockhampton had also been to cut off and were missing their daily addiction to the online world and while this may seem so trivial to what is happening in the lower part of the state right now I take comfort in the fact that this is what we know and right now, all we can do is go at our own pace and hope the rest of the state pulls through safely. 

A few weeks ago while we were on holidays I had a moment of weakness while shopping with my sisters. They were all in the change room trying on new swimmers and I thought to myself why am I trying to squeeze into this ugly maternity swimsuit when I could spend the next few weeks looking and feeling good in something fabulous. I called the shop assistant over and we walked around gave her my requirements {big boobs/ good support, transition from maternity to breastfeeding, good quality} and then walked around the shop picking a few different styles in different colours. Ten minutes later I walked out of the shop sporting a brand new bikini with my wallet feeling a hell of a lot lighter.

I’ve had a funny feeling about this week. That this journey is coming to an end faster then we realise and I just knew deep down this week was going to creep up and kick me in the arse and Oh boy, has it done just that.

I really wanted to capture a few raw images of my belly, bikini and all before this pregnancy comes to an end so earlier in the week while Mum & Dad were entertaining the kids I snuck off to one of my secret spots to do just that.

My belly just seems to be getting bigger and bigger and it’s all baby, there is seriously nothing else to me and I have no idea how this kid can just keep on growing but each day it just seems to keep on going. I really wish I’d got my act together and taken these photos last week because this week pregnancy has really hit  my face is starting to look a little tired, my legs have doubled in size and my ankles are disappearing fast, the joys of pregnancy. At 37 weeks I guess I can’t really complain can I.

The girls brought me this dress for christmas and it’s so light and comfortable that I bribed my sister to tell me where it came from and I seriously could have found the motivation to walk down the hill and buy ten more.

In this moment of peace I wonder about our journey and how this pregnancy really has stretched me to my limits in more ways then I thought possible and how the arrival of this new baby will change our lives and do we know exactly what we have got ourselves into.

I bump into people on the street and they talk about how hard life is going to be and how crazy life with four kids is but I honestly have never felt that with any of our kids and truly believe it comes down to your temperament and your form of parenting style. If you are a cool, calm and collected person that is exactly what your children are going to pick up on too, if you stress about every detail and focus on all of the negatives in life then it’s not really anybodies fault but your own.

 This year I’m discovering more and more that life is about balance and how you control it. Balance in your home, balance in your marriage and balancing the world around you and if all else fails..the land of wishful thinking is a magical little world to live in, right?

FYI – The swimmers were totally worth the investment.

The other day the kids discovered a bag of water balloons while we were packing up the house. They stood in front of me and said Mummmm, please can you fill these up for us, PLEEEASE! So I did. I spent 30 minutes sitting at the sink filling up these water balloons and then we carried them outside. There was squeals of delight and happiness and laughter and two minutes later the water balloons were gone and the girls moved onto something else and me, well I was left with the mess wasn’t I.
At the end of the day somebody always ends up naked in the pirate ship and we all live happily ever after.

There is no denying it technology is changing our lives everyday. Every. Single. Day. It’s in news, it’s in the papers and how you choose to use them effects your life in so many different ways. Every member of our family {over the age of five} owns at least one I device. In fact some of us own multiple devices which we utilize everyday. Hubby uses his for relaxation, mine is used to share our life with the world through this blog, Effie uses her for a multitude of reasons from games to research for her latest school project and right at this moment as I write up this post I can see Josceline in my bedroom dancing around taking her very own selfie. Perhaps I’ll share them later when she’s not looking, she’s a little bit camera shy {publicly}.

For us it’s all about using technology in moderation and making sure we have a life outside of all of these wonderful new gadgets. Take today for example, while Violet went down for a nap the big girls snuck off the sanctuary of Effie’s bedroom while I ate a peaceful lunch, took in a quiet moment in the last few weeks of my pregnancy and found my own escape path online. That to me is the perfect balance of technology and one I was grateful to have.

So tell me, how does technology work in your household?

I’m not the kind of mother who lets who kids willingly jump from the couch on a daily basis. In fact a little incident I was involved in when I was younger resulting in two broken legs means they very rarely do it at all and it’s never something that is aloud to happen. We live way too far from the hospital for that sillyness and Violet already greets the local ambulance lady with a smile like they are old buddies. So they will not be none of that happening in this household.

The other day I turned the tv on while I prepared to mop the floors and I told the girls if you insist on staying in the lounge then I suggest you do not move from this couch or you will be in big trouble. I came back a few minutes later to find they had discovered their own fun on the couch that didn’t involve the tv. Who knows, they probably saw it on the tv. They were laughing and giggling and looked so happy, I couldn’t help but pick up my camera and join them for a minute or two and capture the moment.

So I let them have their fun. I let them jump on the couch, just for a minute or two and then I kicked them outside where all good ferals belong to burn off some steam before dinner before any broken bones occurred.

On Christmas day we woke early. Like 5am early in order to get ourselves up and dressed, presents opened, breakfast done and onto a bus for a very exciting Christmas day adventure. Because today we were sailing out the great barrier reef for a day of swimming, snorkelling, good food and exploring the reef.

Being so many of us we got to sit in the private section of the captains deck. Which I was forever grateful for as the sea and I do not mix very well and I was more then happy to have a permanent seat inside.
It was a two hour journey out to the pontoon so after exploring the boat a little Violet did what she does best and had a nap while the rest of us chilled out, looked at the ocean and my brothers waited for the bar to open, it was christmas day after all.

Stay tuned for part 3  coming soon..Part one can be found here

Credit: Some of the photos above belong to my sister Clare