In the depths of winter, the girls had their individual sleepover birthday parties, sandwiched by the family afternoon tea. The organizing and catering were less demanding for me given that the girls made and circulated their own invitations and Steve took each of them shopping for the party food. Each had Domino’s pizza and I baked some readymade garlic bread prior to Rhea’s party. Both sleepovers were at our house this year and we borrowed Maggie’s fire pit, which sat over its brick home at the corner of our now-landscaped garden and was a great spot that they all enjoyed, albeit for a short time because it was so cold. My good friend Stacey and her daughter Ellie generously helped me make the birthday cakes for the afternoon tea (a paint palette covered in chocolate icing with dabs of coloured icing and real paintbrushes).
Lara baked her own packet cake with icing and they each decorated cupcakes with their friends as part of the parties.
Most years I find June an exhausting time, though satisfying to see Rhea and Lara excited and happy. This year, I was so drained by work that I had to go to the doctor two weeks prior and get some time off for burnout, which I discovered is a medical diagnosis.
A couple of days after the doctor’s visit, I was sick with a cold that lasted the entire week. I rested in bed the whole time. Before I got too sick, I finalized a photo book for each of the girls, looking back on the last 14 years of their lives. This was their surprise birthday present, unexpected because we had told them that their Taylor Swift tickets would be their only birthday presents from us.
It was such an enjoyable creative exercise to choose the best 400 (!) photos for each and arrange them using the specialized photobook software, which were then printed, bound and sent to us as two fifty-page books. The company employee assigned to help customers put in at least a couple of hours laying out Lara’s book for me using the photos I had selected (I was slow and sought help). I tweaked this over a further couple of hours late into the night. The next day I had the confidence to arrange Rhea’s layout myself, this time placing all the skiing photos over the years on one page; also quarantining all the photos at Anglesea; all the school photos; and the Ballarat and Sea Lake family trips on a double spread.
I started both books with a photo of me pregnant with the girls and the photos when they were just born; they both had a double spread of the Taylor Swift concert; and I tried to include all of the adults who have been meaningful in their lives, both for completeness and so that if any of them see the book, they are happy that it reflects the time they have enjoyed with them. I also tried to include photos of our old house and some from our current house, and small images of other things that are meaningful to them, like scattered photos of some of their birthday cakes over the years; their hands; and each of them doing their favourite activities. There are around five photos in common. They were both happy with the cover photos I selected: one of a chubby Lara climbing some climbing equipment in a playground around the corner from us, beside her smiling face at the Taylor Swift concert; and a beautiful photo of a smiling, sitting baby Rhea, her delicate features complementing the woolen pink jumper and red clothes she was wearing, also beside a photo of her at the Taylor Swift concert, with the wind blowing her hair across her face. The photo on the back covers were Lara sitting at a carved sand table at the beach aged around eight and Rhea jumping from the tower at Canberra Olympic pool.
The girls were delighted when they opened these presents, which I think made them feel seen and appreciated. They are both currently on each of the girls’ desks.
Rhea has been spending even more time recently with her best friend Mila, who is moving to Bangkok with her family for four years on Wednesday. The twice-weekly visits and sleepovers to each others’ houses have increased. Rhea stayed in town to help Mila pack, go out for drinks and catch some art yesterday while Lara and I went to the coast for the weekend with Stacey and Ellie: beach walking, rock hopping, indoor-slide adventuring, and in the evening, relaxing in their family coast house while watching the first day of the Tour de France.
I have been back at work a week. I am getting my strength back, working standard hours instead of the extended hours I’ve worked for years now, and deliberately taking lunch breaks each day, usually a once-weekly occurrence. I am resting, enjoying the books I’m reading and the leisure time I have.
I have covered some ground this month.
