The thought stuff of a sleepless mum.

Aussie country mum. Spends her days avoiding housework, wrangling kids, digging in the dirt, being ignored by her teen, and killing monsters on her MMORPG of the hour.

[kittymenace]

When your workplace adds loaded fries to the menu 😍 . . #loadedfries #happybellyburgers #yum #freshfoods #healthyfood #takeaway #bestfood #ovenbaked #nofriedfood #nofilterneeded #spicy (at Whittlesea, Victoria) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByaMiDrFrVf/?igshid=s9tye3wh5d2f

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Almost ran over this poor little legless guy in my driveway. Obviously had one too many run ins with our local bird population. . . #grasshopper #farmlife #victoriaaustralia #countrylife #insects #australianinsects

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It came!!!! . . #unstableunicorns #newgame #muchfun #manyneigh #cardgame #gamenight #kickstarter

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Tunnel snakes 4 lyfe! Yo! . . #fallout3 #fallout #bethesda #lootcrate #falloutcrate #hoodie #loveit #finallycoldenoughtowearit (at Vault 101)

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How we sent off the new year and an old friend. Great fun for everyone :-D , Happy New years! . . . #newyearseve #painting #cars #artists #drunkpaint #somature #loadsoffun

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And here we have the 'finally with running water' 'almost finished' bathroom . The house is starting to come together. . . #newhouse #bathroom #whitedecor #greatview #notquitedone #showertime #justintimeforguests

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Cooking a #mexican / #italian mashup for the NYE dinner party. Time to break out the 'mexican' apron. . . #lospollos #lootcrate #geekkitchen #dinnerparty #fusionfood #breakingbad #butfixinggoodfood

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Sneak peek! Shhhh. . . #NYE #dinnerparty #mexitalian #mashup #dessert #italian #tiramisu #newrecipe #nevermadeitbefore #favouritedessert

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Media room finally done! Loving this room so much!. . . #newhouse #geek #tv #mediaroom #books #collection #games #consoles #thefunroom

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Craft room/guest room finished. That's the only room that matters right? . . #newhouse #movingin #craftroom #crafty #sew #crotchet #knit #mumsroom #guestroom #craftroom #lasttimeitwilleverbeclean

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#goodmorning this is your wake-up call. Get up before I dive bomb your head! . . #cat #catsofinstagram #livingwithcats #wakeup #getup #dangerzone #ceilingcatiswatchingyou

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Aussie-American-British translation. (see- confusion)

disclaimer: posted in humour, so read it in humour. Any mistakes are purely mine, and translations are based off living up and down the east coast of Aus, and interaction with American friends, and British friends and family, and from reading, you know, actual books and stuff ;) if you disagree, go get rooted :-D Word/slang translation of the day. "root" - rooting, to root for, rooted. In America, to root for, or rooting for, or having rooted for, means to cheer on your team, or to back someone up, cheer for them. Dear Americans. If you're talking to an Aussie, the term is 'barrack' ... You 'barrack' for your team. If you use the aforementioned 'rooting' for your team, be prepared for a lot of immature sniggering and outright hilarity... At you. (sorry) . This is why. In Australia. Rooting, to root, rooted, means to engage in coitus with something or someone (no judging here :-D) known in England as 'shagging' (not to be confused with the shag rug, though that's probably where the term originated, you dirty poms* ;) ) To be rooted, can also mean tired, broken, exhausted. Depending on the context. (mate, that barbie's rooted, she's not gonna fire up, does not mean someone had engaged in coitus with the barbecue* , though maybe it does, as I said, no judging here :-D ) *pom - an affectionate (mostly) term used by Aussies when talking about people from Britain. * a barbecue, or BBQ, or Barbie, is also know as a grill in USA.** ** interesting fact (that i didn't know before coming here) what we Australians would call a grilling, here is called broiling. So if an American recipe calls for something to be 'broiled' then likely, you're going to bung^ it under the grill. ^ bung - throw, toss, put, place ¿ ¿ I could keep going for bloody ever.... <⊙> Bonus translation. Mate (Aus) - buddy, friend, pal. when stretched out and said by itself in the following format , "Maaaaaaate", can convey that the speaker is impressed, disgusted, proud, or amazed by the person they're talking to (depending on the inflection and accompanying facial/body language). But not annoyed, to convey annoyance, mate is usually snapped out quickly, by itself, or tag lined at the end of a sentence like, "I'm gonna thrash* you mate". (again with accompanying facial/body language) 'mate' is commonly used to convey a wide range of things depending on how it's used, because, (if you haven't noticed from our cultural chronic inability to say full words), we're not generally a talkative lot. :-D *thrash, to beat up, punch, hit. Can also mean to run a vehicle hard to the point of breaking it down, "you've been thrashing your car mate!". (Could still keep going, and this stuff is just what I'm thinking off the top of my head) To be continued...

[kittymenace]

On religion - Midnight Musings.

Disclaimer. People with strong religious beliefs and lack of acceptance for the validity of differing views may have issues with this post. You may want to go read something less likely to either annoy or bother you. Fair warning. A big thing in society, religion. The (blamed) cause of bad things, and good things. The cause of many arguments (both drunken and sober of course), it's something that's always fascinated me as a side thing to ponder and intellectually dissect. (my brain tends to wander in quite moments). Let me just start this by saying, I am not looking to cause an argument. I'm not looking to push my views or beliefs on anyone (though I may make a few suggestions, I'm only human after all). I'm not here to ridicule or belittle anyone's belief, just to explain a viewpoint from the corner of the world my brain sits in. Religion has no right or wrong answers, only belief and faith. Just because John's beliefs are different from Jane's, does not make either of them right, or wrong, though some are less kind than others. (And apologies for any spelling, and or grammatical/auto-correct errors, this is being written on my phone, in an effort to get it out of my head) We're not hugely religious in our household. My husband and I hold differing beliefs (and we're ok with that), neither of which call for overt religious activity. Our children are taught right from wrong, and to be polite and kind. Any further religious beliefs will be between them, and their deity (or non-deity) of choice. we don't feel we have the right to impose our beliefs on them. If you manage to get through to the end of this long ramble, you may understand why. Religion was always there in the background of my childhood. I had grandparents who were devout Christians, parents who were sometimes devout, sometimes not as much. No judgment here, just fact. I was told that God was there, listening and watching and judging the naughty things I did. I was a (relatively) good Christian girl. I went to church (when I was taken) sang the hymns, said the words, tried to make sure I said my prayers, tried to believe. But it never felt 'right', and I never felt like I had a choice in the matter, it was just what I was told was the only right thing, so I kept trying. It led to many bouts of anxiety and internal arguments over the years for me. In my late teens, I finally had my first epiphany. The world of alternate religions appeared in my intellectual radar. (they had appeared before, but as examples of 'wrong', not as viable belief systems.) I started researching religions and religious practices around the world, desperately searching for something that made sense to me. Something I could believe in. Something that felt 'right' to me in the way that Christianity did not. I dabbled in a few different religions for a while, until I came across spirituality. A 'religion' (I use the term loosely, because it isn't really a structured religion), that seemed tailor made for me, because it was. Spirituality is what you make of it. The basis of it (to me) is being kind, living life gently, being aware of life (and sometimes non-life) around us. Keeping harmony. But the bits, the gods, the creeds, the belief systems, are what you believe. Two people who class themselves as spiritualists may believe completely different things. But that doesn't make either of them 'right' or 'wrong', and that's ok. The biggest thing here. It's OK. One thing that always troubled me, when I called myself a Christian, is the mentality of 'we're right, so everyone else must be wrong'. It's not just a Christian thing, many religions the world over create that state of mind. So why? If you look at religions the world over, the similarities are astounding. The presence of higher beings (most) , the idea that following certain practices mean the afterlife (or new life) of choice. The , for the lack of a better word, rules and regimine and expectations placed on the religious followers may be different, but they're always there. So why, in all this similarity, is there so much intolerance for other systems? Why is 'his god' wrong and 'her god' right? Simple answer, they're not. Humans are complex creatures. We have such a diverse range of thinking on 'everything', so why is there so much pressure to believe one thing over the other? I know that some religions dictate that if you don't believe in them, you go to a bad place when you die, so some people pressure others out of a sense of concern and responsibility. But why should they have to? This thought came about when, as an adult, I finally 'came out' , in a sense, to my grandmother (A devout Lutheran). I felt horrible, like I'd crashed her world around her ears. But it couldn't be taken back and it couldn't be hidden anymore, and I don't understand why it should have created such anxiety and stress, instead of being a beautiful moment. The moment when I essentially said, 'I'm an adult who's gained confidence in myself and my place in the world. A person who has found that little place of peace we all have inside of us just waiting to be discovered'. Instead it became horror for her (because it means I'm not a 'good Christian girl'), and awkward anxiety for me, (because as much as she can be a thorn in the side sometimes, who isn't? She's my grandma, and I hate to cause her distress). But why does it have to be such an issue? (as of right now, we have a truce. We don't discuss religion much anymore. Though she still, in her fashion, tries to push little religious tidbits my way. It keeps her happy and doesn't hurt me any, so I let her) A really good friend of mine once said offhand in a midnight rambling conversation, 'God is an imaginary friend for grownups'. (he's going to be shocked that I still remember it, but it's something that came through as another epiphany moment for me, so I doubt I'll soon forget it). My first thought was, 'It is!' , followed by a 'what the crap, I don't even....'. If this was clickbait it would say something like, 'she heard someone say this about God, and it literally blew her mind!'. Because it did, and it still does. 'cue the internet warriors, and their swords of scathing remarks and long explanations of religious ideology' (As a little side note here, and before anyone gets their undies in a wedge, it was said in humour, and taken in humour, I live my life laughing at almost everything. It's really quite enjoyable, you should try it sometime. This particular friend and I generally engage in conversations where little gems like this appear. Our brains are weird, and we're proud of it!) It's not meant as a belittling statement, but as a different way to look at things. A step towards explaining religious diversity and maybe building a bit of tolerance and acceptance. (I can hope, can't I?) I don't have a cut and dried answer to religious diversity, I wish I did. I wish I had the answer to life, the universe and everything. It may as well be 42 (as the great book said), it's as confusing and non-answering an answer as any other. I have 'theories' which is what this was originally about, but I got sidetracked. (sorry, the trials of reading the blog of midnight rambles). My theory, is that religion is not a set thing. Different things make different people happy. Different beliefs, give different people peace with their lives. Which is what it's all about. I believe in what brings me the most peace, what makes the most sense to me, what feels 'right' to me. But just because it feels 'right' to me, doesn't mean it's going to feel 'right' to the next person. Which is OK. They believe in their thing, I believe in mine, we discuss it like rational people, no one pushes and argues with the other to make them believe theirs is the only right way, (I have actually managed to achieve this with some people, but not yet all). That's it. Simple. Not so simple in practice as is theory yet, unfortunately. But the more we practice, the easier it gets. Diversity is a real and wonderful thing. Something that should be embraced, not villified. No one is exactly the same, and no amount of trying will make it that way. So why try? That (to me) is a long hard path of disappointment and discontent. I'd much rather enjoy my differences and use them to keep life interesting. Wouldn't you?. As a little p.s here. I understand that religion is a argumentative topic when opened up to general opinion. So I expect to get 'you're wrong!' Or 'that's offensive' (there 'was' a disclaimer at the top people!). But please, keep it kind. You're talking to real people, not a computer. Keep it rational and I'm quite happy to discuss life, the universe and everything. Blatantly unkind comments will be summarily ignored. in the words of an internet meme, "Ain't nobody got time fo dat!" If you enjoyed the post, or it made you think, and is something that perhaps you want to discuss with others, please share. And stay tuned for future rambles on a whole range of topics, because that's how I am.