Today felt difficult. Mainly because it was.

Parenting toddlers is difficult as it is. Sometimes, it is absolute bliss - the stars align, and everyone is happy, laughing, playing games and you are just in complete awe of the little humans you created, and wondering how you could possibly love them any more.

And other times, it's an absolute shit show. And today felt like a bit more of that.

I think that children are generally incredibly resilient - more so than we give them credit for. Our kids lives are in a constant state of flux - we are always on the move, packing up, in the car for long drives, setting up, no kids to play with - and in between they get periods of being settled when we are able to stay still for longer than a few days, and hopefully make a few friends along the way.

We had planned to stay still for a little while, close to a week, in Streaky Bay and move down the road to Perlubie next weekend for a beach camp. However, the weather and our new camp site had other ideas. The private camp we moved to yesterday, while in quite a lovely spot right next to the beach, had bindis all over the ground, so Charlie (our Golden Retriever) looked like one giant bindi with them all stuck in his coat. The next issue was the weather - it is mid March almost here in Australia, and that means that Autumn has just started. March has the potential to give you one last kick in the head with a burst of summer heat that melts your face off - and true to form, we've copped a few close to 40 degree days in a row, which we weren't expecting, and make life living off grid in our caravan quite uncomfortable (have I mentioned that a caravan is essentially a metal box with a tiny bit of insulation?). And to top it off - its a long weekend here in South Australia, so every caravan park appears to be booked out - and the caravan parks have those magic things called power points where you plug your power lead into and get that magic thing called electricity which lets you run the magic thing called an air conditioner which helps to cool down said metal box (I'm glad you followed all that!).

With that being said, after 167 phone calls this morning to every caravan park within 2 hours, I managed to jag a site at a small park in Smoky Bay, about 50 mins away. So again, we pack everything up, hitch up, duck into town to grab a few supplies, and head out to Smoky Bay to hit the caravan park and that sweet power.

Then, of course, after an hour of being set up, plugged in, and air conditioner blasting - the power dies. Grid issues (for the second day in a row apparently) due to the heat and apparent strain on the grid. Lucky for us, it came back on an hour later and there have been further issues since.

In between all of this packing up, travelling, setting up, blah blah blah, we are trying to keep our 2 young babies happy. Anyone who has parented toddlers will know this can be a task at the best of times, but when everyone is cranky from the heat, the travelling, the constant moving (anyone else sensing a need for us to slow down?), I am finding my fuse is getting shorter and shorter, which means I'm not giving my children the patience and chilled out parent they need, but a more aggravated and easily triggered version. This meant I lost my cool a few times, especially when the bedtime routine turned into an absolute circus of fighting and screaming, mainly from our youngest Piper - and I didn't handle it the way I would have liked. I feel like parenting is a constant reflection on the things you didn't do well and want to improve on, well it is for me anyway. I sit down at the end of the way and always think about the situations I handled poorly, and how I can do them better next time - most of the time to react the exact same way I did previously. It's tough, but I will strive to keep improving to be the best version of the parent my girls need.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I plan to take advantage of the public holiday and get in a solid run first thing tomorrow to start the day on a strong note - and hopefully set myself up for a good day mentally.

See you tomorrow.

Adam

day5

P.S - In the last 3 day I've managed to destroy my phone, break the coffee machine, and lose my thongs. Believe me, I'm not in the wifes good books.