The Gift of Daughters and Birthdays #WOTY

Hello and Welcome to Deb’s World

As you know my 2022 Word of the Year is Gift. I’m thoroughly enjoying the various ways I’m seeing the word show up in my everyday life. I’m truly living it and loving it!

Birthday time for my daughters

As I’ve written about before, for some unknown reason I thought it was a good idea to have my three daughters within a 5 week period – spread out over 5 years.

Early May, late May and early June, at least all the girls’ birthdays were out of the way together with me in December and the Mathematician in January. It worked well when they were younger and it’s still fun getting their presents for the ‘birthday’ weeks – hectic at times but fun!

Quite a few years ago, my youngest daughter Eliza, wrote an unsolicited guest post for me to use on my blog, and it was a lovely tribute which I cherish to this day. A real gift thank you Eliza!

A special Guest Blogger – my daughter wrote this for me, about me

I wanted to write this ‘blog’ as in most of my Mum’s stories she talks about her children, her husband, her parents and I really wanted to write about her as she is a very special person to me, my family and many of her friends.

I have been told by several of my family members that I am very similar to my Mum, in looks and mannerisms. So now I get to write about how awesome she is (and me as we are quite similar).

Eliza – read more here

They’ve well and truly been gifts over the years and continue to be so. They’ve allowed me to share my Mother of the Bride moments, share photos, stories from their past and best of all, they’ve given me four beautiful grandchildren to love unconditionally and given me the gift of being a hands-on Granny!

Travel Loving Parents

This year our eldest, Melanie, of Dottie Wombat fame, turned 39 – how is that possible? It seems like yesterday that I gave birth to her and we started our parental ‘journey’.

All three girls now have babies of their own but to me they’ll always be my ‘babies’.

Melanie wrote a post on her previous blog, The Wandering Darlings back in July 2017, all about her travel loving parents – A Letter to my Travel Loving Parents. I found it while looking through past posts and it was a real gift to read it again.

I’m sure you’ll agree, once you read it, that it is a real gift!

A letter to my travel loving parents,

Being the offspring of such inspiring, caring, empowering, sometimes cringy, overly energetic, life loving parents I wanted to write them a little letter…

As I sit here in my lounge room on the other side of the world from you I think about how I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. Not because you created me (ew that’s a bit weird) but because you brought my sisters and me up to be adventurous, fearless, inquisitive life loving women and more importantly you brought me to this little village that I now call home all those years ago. You set my path in motion over 20 years ago and none of us would have ever expected the decisions you made then to have had such an impact now.

You took us overseas before we even knew there was another side of the world and although you had to wait till your 30s to see outside of Australia we got to see it before we even hit our teens. We now know to do this you needed to sell the house, that the opportunity to do it happened at a really unideal time and that you were both scared about having to leave your families behind with little to no way to contact them with three temperamental little girls. The world was a different place then and it was either too expensive or the technology hadn’t been invented to keep in touch like it is now.

In doing what you did then and what you continue to do now, you taught us so many lessons. Seeing as you both are teachers seemed kinda adapt. Lessons such as an awareness of other cultures and religions, how to get to the airport way too early, how to not tackle roundabouts when driving on the opposite side of the road, how to be respectful of others beliefs, random acts of kindness especially when travelling speak volumes, how to be polite when eating new local cuisines, how trying to speak a different language with a thick Aussie accent is extremely hilarious and how to enjoy and relish the moment of being somewhere new.

I want to thank you for bringing exchange students into our lives. From our ‘sister Sophie’ when we were much younger to our ‘brother Hannes’ who helped fill the void for you when we all left home. We learnt about the world and other countries from having them in our life. We not only had them become (and still are) part of our family but we also became a part of theirs. I love how you are actively involved in rotary exchanges to help give other young adults the chance to explore a different culture and way of life. The way you help others is so inspiring and I only hope I can do something similar if I’m fortunate enough to have children.

For always having a camera on hand to capture our moments and filling the spare room with more photo albums you could ever imagine. My obsession with photos started from you Dad! As much as we joke and laugh that you’ll make a ‘blurb book’ when you get back from a trip we know the value of having those photo books and love the stories they’ll continue to tell years from now. Mum, you have always been my biggest blogging fan you helped me, critiqued my posts, liked my photos, fixed my spelling and guided me on my own corner of the internet.

Thank you for being the type of parents that my friends make comments like ‘ can’t your parents just have a relaxing holiday’, ‘your parents go to amazing places’ It gives me something to aspire to. You don’t sit still you keep going and keep pushing to see more of the world.

Thank you for the long drives to Grandma and Grandpas every summer holidays, the long camping trip around Europe when all we wanted to do was stay at home with our friends. We learnt the joys of ‘boot picnics’, how to make friends and communicate with other children when we didn’t speak the same languages and that you don’t need to always get on a plane to have an adventure.

For making friends wherever you go and then actually keeping in touch with them. You did this long before Facebook and email were around to make it easier.

For having the type of holidays that push you outside of your comfort zone. Hiking in Nepal, exploring India, cycling through Croatia, solo travelling to England. You’ve shown us that you’re never too old or too scared to give something a go.

Thank you for not stopping my sisters and me when we got on all those many planes taking us away from you to let us continue our next steps in the world. I now it was and is still hard but thank you for being the parents that know you raised us to make the right decisions, to learn from our mistakes and to know who we are and that it’s ok to be whoever we want to be.

Thank you for now not crying until I’ve gone through the departure gate when we say our farewells. It’s funny how saying goodbye never gets any easier even though we have done it more times than I can count. The horrible goodbyes make the G’days so much sweeter.

For helping at times to fund our travels but also saying no and making us work 3 jobs to make the money ourselves. We know to have and enjoy something we need to earn it. Travelling isn’t an expectation or right it’s a privilege and that is a lesson I will always be thankful that you taught us.

I am who I am because of you and I am where I am because of you. For sacrifices, you made years ago and sacrifices you still make now and for that, I will always be so very grateful.

You are the best role models a little traveller and young (well kinda still young) woman could have.

‘At rejse er at leve’ (To Travel is to Live – family motto)

Much love,
Your favourite daughter

Me: I’m not crying you are!!!!

I couldn’t resist going looking for a photo of me when I was 39 – a mother of three daughters aged, 16, 14 and 11 – quite different to the life my 39 year old daughter is living. And that’s the way it should be!

It’s not always been easy having three daughters, if I’m being honest, but it’s finding things like these, lovely words from my daughters, that make it all worthwhile and I alternatively smile and cry when reading them.

Although I may have given my daughters the gift of life all those years ago, the way I see it they are the ones who continue to be gifts that keep on giving. I couldn’t be happier to share these thoughts with you.

Debbie (proud mum)

Other Gifts this month

• Mother’s Day
• Author’s Chat
• Sunday FunDay with friends
• Science is child’s play a day out with grandchildren at Questacon
• Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail
• Autumn colours

What does the word GIFT mean to you?

Have you received or given any gifts lately? I’d love to hear from you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my end of the month post sharing some special gifts from my daughters. My WOTY is a gift that keeps on giving in so many ways!

Thanks very much for stopping by and for making me smile. I always appreciate your visits and any comments you leave me 🙂

You can find my co-host’s WOTY posts here – we’re hoping you can join us! If you have a Word of the Year and have written a post about it, this is the place to share.

• Jo from And Anyways
• Donna from Retirement Reflections (Donna is away hiking at the moment)
• Sue from Women Living Well After 50

Deb xx

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You’re invited to our link party! So what’s it all about?

This year I’m joining co-hosts Donna, Jo and Sue, to provide a link party for anyone who also wants to write a monthly update to help keep the focus on their WOTY. We’re hoping you can join us.

What: 2022 Word of the Year Link Party #2022wotylinkparty

When: Last Thursday of the month PM (Northern Hemisphere)/ Last Friday of the month AM (Southern Hemisphere). The link will be open for 3 days so you’ve got plenty of time to join.

Why: To encourage us all to keep the focus on our chosen WOTY.

Where: Link Party, Blog, Blog Comments, Instagram or other Social Media.

Who: This linkup is open to everyone.

How: You can share in the comments, with a blog post, or on other social media of your choice. Include the hashtag #2022wotylinkparty so that we can find you and include your link in our posts. Whichever way you choose to share, don’t forget to leave a note in the comments so we can find you.

We’re live at 9am (AEDST) on the last Friday of each month and if you’re linking up a blog post you can do so by clicking on the blue link below, it’s open for a few days so don’t panic! Take a look at some of the posts to see how others are managing their WOTY in 2022 – there are some great words out there and creative people!

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