I've been super quiet for the last few months. There are some great reasons for it and some especially crap reasons too. I’ll start with the crap stuff so we can end on the good and I’ll include a bit of deliciousness along the way.
I've shared a lot on social media how my life, like everyone's (yep, everyone's) isn't all kale chips and sunshine .I lost my sister-in-law's brother (a tad complicated to say) to bowel cancer last year, at the tender age of 29. It rocked me. We were all very close and it and was just such a senseless waste of life. He was an amazingly generous and fun-loving man, truth is I’ve found it very hard to heal from and carried the pain of my family’s loss with me daily.
Just a month after we lost him, one of my very best friend’s husband was diagnosed with very aggressive bowel cancer too. He was a top-notch husband to my beautiful friend, a bloody brilliant father to their two tiny babes and a great friend of mine for well over 15 years. He fought so hard and with such dignity, determination and love but unfortunately, lost his battle six weeks ago. His loss has really, really affected me as well as every single person that had ever met him. He was such a great guy and is gone just so unnecessarily. A big middle finger to you cancer.
I know that in time I will heal and already the days are a little brighter. I want to be super honest though because if more people were, it wouldn't be so taboo – I went and had a chat with someone to make sure I had all the tools I needed to deal with the pain. The lady that I spent an hour with was amazing. She was so kind and gave me the permission I wasn't giving myself to be sad. That's the thing, so often we are told that it will be alright and that all will be okay (blah, blah, blah) but few (including ourselves) give you the permission to be really sad. She told me to feel every emotion as it was happening. She told me not to suppress it, to speak my truth and that only after that would I be ready to heal. I followed her instructions to a tee and I can honestly say it's helped so much – every day is getting easier and easier.
Now the sad stuff is out I want to tell you about all of the amazing happenings as they sure will influence www.staceyclare.com in 2016. After seven years in a tiny two-bedroom apartment with two little ones added in, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!! It totes deserves that many exclamation marks and the capital letters too because it's so damn awesome. We're still in the inner-city of Sydney and we bought a place that needs A LOT of work but it's ours (well, the bank’s) but we will take our time and keep chipping away at the renovations. So far we've built and installed a kitchen (many blog posts to come about that one my loves), painted bright red walls a much calmer soft grey, fixed leaks, pulled up a stack of pavers and cement to lay grass and built a great big veggie patch. Here are a few photos to show you just how crazy it’s been.
I deliberated a lot about this post, wondering whether you would want to hear all this stuff. Surely you just want recipes from me, right? Well all I've ever wanted to do with www.staceyclare.com is to show other mummas how to be healthy too, and health is far more than just food. I hope that by sharing my story, next time you see a mumma at the park looking a little tired and run down that you walk over, say hi and check in that she’s ok. I hope you’re brave enough to put your hand up if you too need some support. I hope that you don't beat yourself up if dinner isn't mung beans and kale because let me just tell you we all eat crap every now and then. My then was renovating, wowee it was bad. The burgers aren't better at Hungry Jacks, and there’s a reason I haven’t been to McDonalds in 4 years, it's just wrong. It was a happy moment went I found my beloved slow cooker (and got the electrician in to install power points so the damn thing could be turned on).
Be easy on yourself beautiful one,
Stace x
PS. I'm so excited to share some awesome Christmas posts with you over the next few weeks… How to cook a Christmas feast for under $100, my gift guide for other healthy mums and a few round-ups of the yummiest Christmas recipes about, including a bunch that can be made in the slow cooker. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter list so you don't miss a post.