I love my new (to me) rocking chair for the baby’s room, with its mid century lines. The cute older couple who sold it to me said they bought it for their first baby, 45 years ago.

Broccoli soup is so fantastic that I made two pots in the last week.

Booked our “babymoon!”

Discovered Nashville episodes are a great way to procrastinate and get REALLY behind on your uni work.

Over the weekend: went to my friends’ Willy Wonka themed engagement party, caught up with another friend for dinner, bought more baby things and led sunday school.

My mum on Mothers Day – photo stolen from my brother’s Facebook page.

• Have just put flannelette sheets on my bed, making it my favourite place in the world.
• Starting to get stressed that I have less than five months until I start maternity leave and a bazillion and three things to do in that time.
• Crammed two mothers day celebrations into last Sunday.
• Got my first mother’s day gift from the husband… diamond earrings! Very spoiled.
• Behind on uni work and only making things worse for myself.
• Excited to start ukulele lessons soon.

I was fairly sure that I was going to give up this blog.

I hit November last year and ran out of things to say – I couldn’t think of anything worth blogging about, so I stopped. I never wanted my blog to be something I forced myself to do and when it began to feel like a chore more than a creative outlet, it was obvious that I needed a break.

I logged off and didn’t give it another thought.

4 busy months passed (big projects at work, Christmas, starting my Masters, holidays) and then we got some big news… we’re having a baby! Since finding out the news and beginning to prepare for a new addition to our family, I’ve found myself wanting to document this journey for the friends I have overseas.

So, I’m resurrecting this blog as now I have something to talk about!

Today, rather than just going through the motions, I’m going to celebrate by saying out loud “hell yeah, it’s awesome that I accomplished a whole bunch of tiny things today.”

I’m celebrating that….

The annoying leaf that was stuck under my windshield wiper, and was obstructing my view in pouring rain, flew off half way down Canterbury road.

I remembered to take my umbrella on above mentioned rainy day.

My tickets to Melbourne are booked and I even have a packing list planned, to maximise my 10kg of luggage space.

I figured out how to change my voicemail on my work phone. I only had to re-record three times before I stopped saying ummm and leaving large awkward pauses.

Elisabeth texted me. Any Elisabeth text is always worth a celebration!

The large pile of dirty dishes and the extremely large pile of dirty clothes were sorted out before work.

This weeks’ shopping list for groceries looks like it will come under budget.

I crossed some things off my “to do” list at work.

I returned my library book on time!

So, we moved. And in the process of moving discovered we have a lot of stuff (ahem, crap). Just another example of the ways in which Tonga has changed us; surrounded by boxes and boxes of goods that were deemed to be totally necessary before and were giving me the stinkeye now.

I had predicted that the movers would only take, maybe three hours, because honestly, we didn’t have that much stuff. We’re only two people. We had a small unit before. But on moving day, after 5.5 hours, there were still some boxes to go.

Yeah, we have stuff. (Ahem, crap).

The thing about being surrounded by all this “stuff” was that it didn’t feel like these things were adding to my life. Having so much didn’t make me feel any happier and didn’t make my life any easier. It was totally the opposite.

The stuff was taking away from my life, causing me stress about where to store all this stuff and making me wonder why on earth I had bought so much to begin with. Plus we would have had to buy more stuff (bookcases, shelves, chest of drawers) to store all our stuff. Hello, first world problem!

All the clothes I had completely forgotten I owned.

There was a simpler solution. Give it away.

Being inspired by our edited lifestyle in Tonga, I immediately started separating things into piles to be donated, to be given away and in some cases of extreme junk, to be tossed. I found bags upon bags upon bags of clothes, shoes, accessories, books, household goods and kitchen appliances that could find a new home.

It was freeing. It felt great to give things to people who might actually need them or use them. Try it sometime.

In having less, it means you are less likely to buy ”stuff” and more likely to spend your money on things that have true value. And trust this wannabe Tongan when I say that having less means you rely on God more.

Our simple, decluttered lounge room. Did you notice what’s missing?

Yes, we don’t have a Tv. It means I do crazy things like read a book and talk to my husband.

Lots of good coffee and discovering that I don’t handle strong coffee anymore. I’m hanging my head in shame…

Shopping with Mum.

And buying her coloured skinny jeans.

Treking into the city and realising that I’ve forgotten how to navigate Sydney.

Recieving an amazing package from my husband’s new job, as a welcome gift.

Which included a bottle of fancy french wine! I think we might be popular dinner guests now as McWilliams is very generous with the products it makes available for staff. Husband starts his new job this morning, which is such an answer to prayer and only a half hour commute. This is extra incredible in Sydney!

Seeing my brother’s band, White Picket fence, play for the first time. He’s the one with the blue guitar.

Catching up with Sarah, a fellow Tongan volunteer. Miss her now that she is back in Melbourne and we’re in Sydney.

It’s not possible to sum up all the ways I have been changed over the past year, the blessings I’ve been given and the lessons learned.

Tonga, you seem to get under people’s skin and endear yourself to them. You became my adopted home. You frustrate and delight me equally on most days.

Tonga, you don’t do things by halves. You either don’t do them at all… because you are too busy sleeping or kava drinking or coconut tree climbing. Or you do them big. You do them dancing, hip swaying, ass shaking, marching brass band big. You do them with your Tongan pride.

And Tonga, I have endless thanks for the gifts you have given me. Thank you for…

The friends; Elisabeth, Vill, Katalina, Polly, Jasmin, Gina, Sarah, Ben, Kate, Anthia, Vivian, Melissa, Belinda, the other AYADs, Saiah, Tivi, Siulolo, George, Nessie, Lynn, Ale, Fungani, Afolau, Inga, Aioema, Feleti, Mark, Elena and all our church friends.

Bible Study. My puppy Piko.

The crazy street parades. Hip Hop songs about drinking rum and dancing “zoom zoom.” The best pineapples, coconuts, bananas and watermelon. Swimming with whales and turtles.

Beach days. Saturdays at the fair. Afternoon bike rides down Vuna Road.

Thank you for the stress free, “sai pe” atmosphere. For the patience I learned. For the random moments… the spontaneous weddings that interrupted my training workshops, for dance competitions with navy guys. For small achievements at work (clients who now have case plans) and big achievements in additional projects (a new Tongatapu wide accidental counsellor program that I started).

Thank you for all the spare time to just learn to relax and “be.” Thank you for the news skills in teaching, training, supervising and program management. Thank you for showing me strength I didn’t know I had.

Tonga, thank you for 365 days of life lived to the fullest.