May 2022 - PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

Refreshed And Ready

Hi friends hope you all had an amazing weekend and are refreshed and ready for a new week ahead. As usual, I am linking up with Holly and Sarah for today’s Happy Monday post. It was a great weekend and I was able to enjoy some really fun times. But it wasn’t super busy so it was a great opportunity to do some things just for myself. I think it was a perfect balance for me this weekend. Friday Night I made some fun Friday night plans for myself and I think that I will do that from now on. Over the last couple of months, I have kind of felt a bit lost on Friday nights. I’m happy that the working week is over but then I start to feel melancholy because I usually find myself home alone. Sam is often out with his lovely girlfriend, Steve is at work and I miss my Mum. On Friday nights we would often watch something on television together because I was less busy. Anyway, this Friday my plan included a shower by candlelight! I know, I know!! I should have had a spa bath but I just can’t quite bring myself to sit still for that long yet so a shower it was and it felt great. Then I had dinner by tealight in front of the TV. It was a cold night and I really enjoyed my pork knuckle roast, mashed potato, veggies, and gravy. With a fancy can of coke of course! While I ate I watched “The Devil Wears Prada”. Such a fun movie that I have seen before but not for a while. I love Meryl Streep in every movie and this one is no exception! After dinner, it was time for a steamy cup of hot chocolate with a pink marshmallow and a cream biscuit. Oh so delicious! I finished off the evening with a face mask in bed while I did a guided meditation on Youtube. Ha! I felt like I had a date with myself on Friday night! Saturday Saturday morning I woke up and there was my little cat looking at me! She was hungry for her breakfast. At midday, I headed out to my lovely friend’s son’s birthday party. He turned four and he had his party at a play centre near my home where my own kids celebrated some of their birthdays when they were little. It was all about Spongebob and my super clever and creative friend organised THE BEST party decorations I have ever seen!! She transformed that party room into something truly spectacular!! Look at these amazing party favors!! If I was four and received one of these I would have just about lost my mind with excitement!! There was even some delicious food for the grown-ups and I seriously could NOT stop eating!! I love these two so much! Here I am with the gorgeous birthday boy and his sweet sister. It was such a fun party and I had the best time. Saturday afternoon I dropped in to visit my aunty and we had a chat over a cup of coffee and some wafer biscuits. Then I went home to make some chicken schnitzels. I pounded the chicken and was about to organise the egg, flour, and breadcrumbs. But when I went to the fridge there were no eggs. Not a single one. Sigh!! I quickly drove to the local petrol station and picked up some eggs. Isn’t it annoying when you are committed to making a dish and then you find yourself short of an ingredient!! Grrrrr !!!! Anyway, it was worth it in the end. The schnitzels were delicious but they were a lot on the chunky side. I need to pound much harder next time. Sunday Brrrrr I woke up on Sunday and it was really chilly. The sky was a beautiful radiant blue but it was so cold and windy. I went to church for the 10.30 am service but I didn’t get home until 1 pm. It was such a lovely morning and so I just stayed chatting for ages. I got home and had lunch with the family, then Steve and I watched an episode of “The Office”. We are up to season 8, It’s still funny but I miss Steve Carrell in it. Steve went to work and I tackled this mountain of folding before heading out for a pedicure. I have only had three pedicures in my life but now I am completely hooked. It’s such a treat!! I got home at around 6 pm and then my Woolworths shopping arrived. I packed it all away, had dinner, and watched the final two episodes of “Anatomy Of A Scandal” Are you guys watching this? It’s really good and it has such a cool twist that I did not see coming. If you haven’t watched it yet, you really should! I guess that just about sums up my fun yet relaxing weekend. Thank you so so much for stopping by to have a read. I really appreciate it! Hope you all have a fantastic week. Happy Monday Friends! Sharing on

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Beauty Products I Use

6 Comments / Beauty and Self Care

Hi, friends thanks so much for stopping by to have a read. I thought that it would be fun to share with you some of the beauty products I use either daily or regularly. When it comes to beauty products I like to keep things super simple. I don’t wear a lot of makeup or anything like that. I just do the basics so that I feel ok about myself. And I like to make a bit of an effort just to make sure that I don’t scare the parents or the children when they see me at the preschool where I work. 1 I like my face to be squeaky clean before I go to bed. So I have recently started using this Neutrogena cream cleanser. When I was younger I would just use soap and water, but that is a big No-No!. Now that I’m getting older I am much more careful and have switched over to gentle cleansers like this one. I just keep this tube of cleanser in the shower and wash my face with it when I have my evening shower. Easy Peasy. 2 I have been using this Sukin night cream for a few months and it works well. My skin feels hydrated and the great thing is, that Sukin is an Australian brand and their products are 100% vegan and cruelty-free. The company is also certified carbon neutral and to top it off all its packaging is made from recyclable materials and is also recyclable. 3 I really love this Garnier Micellar water (oops I dropped the bottle recently and the lid snapped off). Anyway, it is absolutely fantastic for taking off eye make-up or any make-up in general. It is so gentle and leaves your skin feeling nice and clean. I just pour some micellar water onto these cotton pads and wipe gently. 4 I’m a big fan of face masks. I’m not particularly fussy about what brand I buy. I usually go for the ones that say firming and age-defying on the package, haha we can only hope! Oh yes and I like to buy the ones that are on special too. Face masks are fantastic and I probably should use them more often than I do. They’re really great because when I put one on it means that I have to lie down for at least 15-20 minutes. So I use it as part of my self-care routine. But I have to admit that when it comes to self-care I am a bit on the inconsistent side! 5 In the mornings I splash some cool water on my face and then apply some daytime moisturiser. The one that I use is also from the Sukin range. Then I just apply some of this BB cream. I know BB cream also has a moisturiser in it but my skin needs extra. I really like BB cream for a couple of reasons. Number one it is really fast to apply, Secondly, it gives me a nice sheer cover so my face doesn’t feel heavy as it does with a regular foundation. And lastly, it gives my face a bit of even colour. I get this BB cream from Aldi and it feels great, it’s super inexpensive and it matches the colour of my skin. 6 This Thin Lizzy Professional Loose Powder is great. It suits any skin tone and you can use it as a blusher, bronzer, eye shadow, face, and lip contour. I really like using it on my lips and then adding a bit of lip gloss for that natural look. 7 I like this concealer from Chanel and I really need to get more as this one is nearly finished. I have these weird liver spots on my face (what an awful name) and I use concealer to cover them up. 8 This Clarins Instant light lip perfector is really nice as it is a lovely lip gloss with a touch of pink. 9 My favourite lipstick and the one that I wear all the time is this Chanel Rouge Allure No 34. It’s a lovely matt colour that is not too red or too pink. I hope this colour never gets discontinued because if it did I would be devastated! It has taken me years to find a colour that I am truly happy with. 10 This mascara is also from Chanel and gives me just the right amount of thickness for my lashes. It’s not clumpy and best of all it doesn’t run. 11 I also love my Chanel eyeliner. It glides on really easily, but I try not to be too heavy-handed with it otherwise it looks a bit too harsh. These are my 11 favourite beauty products! I use the cleanser, moisturisers, concealer, lipstick and BB cream every day. The rest like the mascara, eyeliner and Thin Lizzy powder I will usually only wear when I go out somewhere special. I like to keep things simple when it comes to beauty products and skincare. But these are my go-to favourites that I use the most often. A while ago I did a post on 10 Simple Things You Can Do To Improve Your Skin. Here you can find some useful everyday tips and suggestions about things we can do to keep our skin looking healthy and full of natural glow! Linking up with Andrea and Erika Sharing on Create With Joy

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May Recap

3 Comments / Family Life

Hi Everyone It’s so nice to be back for today’s What’s up Wednesday post. Hope you have all had a great month. It’s so fun to peek into what people have been eating, watching, reading, and doing. I always enjoy reading these posts. As usual, I am linking up with Sheaffer and Shay. So let’s just jump right in and start with….. What We’re Eating This Week Being at work means salads on repeat for lunch. I jazzed things up a bit and instead of my usual salad with tuna, I made a really delicious marinated chicken breast instead. I cooked it on Sunday night then I chopped it up and portioned it out so that it would last me a for a few days. It was a nice change. This week we also had some delicious burgers. I used turkey mince instead of beef mince. My whole family loves the turkey as it is super juicy and tasty. It’s been a real winner! Monday night I made Paella. It turned out very tasty and the family enjoyed it. I made a cheats version which was super easy! I also made banana bread. It’s the first time in ages since I have baked anything. The cooler weather makes baking much more inviting. What I’m Reminiscing About Well, a lot of things that make me sad. I miss my Mum. What I’m Loving This big, long, warm jacket! I think that our playground at preschool might just be the coldest place on earth. But in saying that, I have to admit that I feel the cold extremely easily. I wore it for the first time last week and I felt like I was wearing my big warm cozy quilt. What We’ve Been Up To I guess we have just been up to trying to get back to normal life. Steve is working crazy, long hours and I am back at work. Sam is super busy with school work. He is doing drama as an HSC subject and so he has been busy filming. I have a starring role in his film. I have no real clue what it’s all about, but I just say the lines in my best creepy tone. Haha….apparently I do creepy well!! What I’m Dreading Thankfully nothing really. What I’m Working On I am painting the rooms in the house!! Well, I started strong when I was off from work. But now that the busyness of everyday life has taken over, I haven’t done much. I will definitely be getting back to this project during the next Term break which is only five weeks away. What I’m Excited About Cozy warm nights with candles, hot drinks, and fluffy blankets. I love Summer, but now that I have this issue with hot flashes….cooler weather is much more appealing. What I’m Watching I watched “Inventing Anna” which was very interesting and I just love her accent! I also watched “The Thing About Pam”. It was quite intriguing, but I didn’t love it. My sister-in-law recommended “Why Women Kill” so I gave it my ten-minute test and I was completely hooked! I watched the first season in a flash! The second season was good too. What I’m Listening To A lovely friend recommended a great podcast called “Separate Bathrooms”. Cameron Daddo and his lovely wife Alison talk very candidly and honestly about marriage. Camero Daddo and Alison Brahe were the “It” couple back in the late’80’s and early’90’s here in Australia. They were both involved in show business and modeling. They moved to America to make it big in the acting world. But… things didn’t go as planned. There was infidelity, bankruptcy, and a whole lot of other issues. They survived it all and through lots of therapy, they managed to stay very happily married and have raised a beautiful family. Their podcast addresses all these issues and I find their honesty so refreshing and inspiring! Highly recommend this podcast! What I’m Doing This Weekend I have just been invited to a birthday party! My lovely friend’s little boy is turning 4 and he is having his party at a play centre. I love her little boy and I am beyond excited! It’s been years since I have been to a children’s party. My boys are all grown up and I miss those fun days. What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month Next month is The Queen’s Birthday long weekend on the 13th of June. I love three-day weekends. ******* Thanks so much for joining me today for this quick May recap. I really hope you have the best Wednesday!

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Grateful For The Weekend

4 Comments / Hello Monday

Hi everyone, as always I am grateful for the weekend, especially after such a busy working week. But this weekend went by super fast! My wish for time to slow down did not come true but that’s ok. I’m happy to be back for another Hello Monday post where I am linking up with Holly and Sarah. Friday Night Friday night I was done! So exhausted that I could hardly move. After work, I did manage to do some chores though because I know that If I don’t get onto them then they will just snowball into the weekend. It was so cold on Friday night so I made a delicious cup of hot chocolate. I was really craving something super sweet so I even added more sugar to it! (I know, I know) I wanted to watch a movie but because I felt so tired I made sure to watch something that I had seen before so it didn’t matter if I fell asleep or not. So I picked one of my very favourite movies “Footloose”. I have watched this movie so many times and I never get tired of it. I had such a huge crush on Kevin Bacon when I was a teenager! Anyway, I had just started to watch it and I was about ten minutes in and my son Sam came out and joined me. So I started the movie from the beginning, made some popcorn and we watched it together. By then I was wide awake and Sam enjoyed the movie too. Now we’ve made plans to watch “The Breakfast Club” soon. ’80s movies are the best!! Saturday Saturday morning I had a nice sleep in and then got up to make breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, fried tomatoes, and toast. I like to use a non-stick pan to make the scrambled eggs otherwise it’s just a big old pain in the neck of a mess to wash up if I use another pan. I also use a spatula instead of stirring the eggs while they cook. They turn out so yummy and fluffy this way. Hmmm, enjoying a steamy cup of Tetley tea in my new favourite mug! Saturday Night Saturday night I made a quick trip to Ikea and picked up a couple of things. Just a super cheap couple of LACK tables for the new “Hang Out” room. I also picked up these cute tea light holders. I love tea lights, especially on cold evenings! Feeling super motivated I put together the LACK tables and a simple desk for Sam’s room that I bought. Lucky I found this drill tool thingy we had at home which made the whole process of putting things together much easier and quicker. Sunday I skipped church on Sunday and I had a big sleep-in because I had gone to bed super late. Sam had a bad earache late Saturday night. Why do these things flare up at night? We did have a telehealth consult with a doctor on Saturday and she gave him a script for antibiotics. I ran out to get the script at the local pharmacy which thankfully was still open until late. I didn’t get to bed till after 2.30 am. A Delicious Lunch With My Family My Aunty and Uncle invited us over for Sunday lunch. I went by myself because Steve works weekends and Sam was sick. My cousin was there too and I had the best time. Nothing beats a great conversation with family after a yummy lunch. I love my aunty, uncle, and cousin so much. They have been so supportive over the last couple of hard months. When I got home Sam was still not feeling great and he had bleeding in the ear! So we headed straight for the after-hours GP at our local private hospital. After a two-hour wait, we saw the doctor. Lucky I took my computer and did some blog work while we waited. Sam took his computer too and did some school work. The nice doctor confirmed what Dr. Google had said….he not only had an ear infection but he also had a ruptured eardrum. Sigh!! Sunday Night We headed home after the doctors but stopped at Kmart first. Sam had to buy a tripod for his school assignment. He has chosen Drama as one of his HSC subjects and he needed a tripod to film something that apparently I have to be involved in too??? He didn’t feel well but these things need to be done because it’s his final year of school and this film he is doing needs to be submitted by Wednesday. Praying for miracles!!! After we got home I marinated and baked this chicken breast on Sunday night. My plan is to chop it up and add it to my salad for my work lunches. I am a bit tired of eating canned tuna every day!! So happy with how it turned out! I will make sure to share this recipe for the marinade soon. *********** I guess that wraps up our weekend. It wasn’t great because poor Sam was so unwell but it was still sprinkled with lots of special moments. And for that I am grateful. I really hope you all had a fun one! Happy Monday friends!!

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Getting Back Into Routine

7 Comments / Friday Favorites

Hi friends, I really hope you all had a great week and are as excited to see Friday as I am! For me getting back into routine again and being back at work means that the days just seem to fly by so fast. Seriously feels like it was Monday only five minutes ago! I just hope time slows down over the weekend!! #1 I’m actually happy to be at work and back into a routine again. Having had so much time off from work during term one meant that I hadn’t met some of the children in my class yet. Others I had met briefly only for a week or so. Anyway, it’s been really nice to get to know all the kids during the last couple of weeks. #2 It’s been all about this super fun sensory activity at preschool this week. Our classroom teacher programmed slime as one of this week’s activities and I found a really easy recipe. All you need is cornflour and handsoap! Smells so good and a lot of the kids have had the best time playing with it. It’s funny, some kids stay far away and can’t stand the mess. Others love this activity and can’t get enough of it. We had one little boy get so excited while he was playing that he started shaking his hands around making big slimy swirls in the air. Well, you can imagine what happened next…yep it went everywhere. The walls, the floor, one of the teacher’s hair! EVERYWHERE!! Haha. Look at my pants and shoes!! You should have seen my colleague’s entire black outfit. She was covered in white blotches. I meant to take a photo but we were so busy I forgot. We both had a good laugh though! #3 Another huge favourite of the week is this hair care remedy. I caught up with a friend one afternoon and I commented on her beautiful glossy hair. She really has the best hair! So she put me on to this egg remedy by “too cool for school”. If you have been reading along you’ll know about my constant battle with frizzy hair ugh!! I have tried many different products for frizzy hair with varying degrees of success. Anyway, this egg hair product smells really nice (not like egg at all) so I am giving it a go. So far so good, but I have to say that we have recently had some very sunny dry days this week. So my hair has been behaving itself because it hasn’t been very humid. But this weekend we are back to rainy miserable weather again. Hopefully, this new product will work a miracle. Watch this space! #4 I have been loving my lunch box from Kikki. K!! This gorgeous lunch box was in a beautiful care package that I received from my lovely work colleagues. I have really been enjoying eating my salads every day at work in this cute bento lunchbox! #5 My thoughtful, kind cousin gifted me this lovely pink mug from one of my favourite clothing and homeware stores, Country Road. It was a Mother’s day gift for me. She knew this year’s Mother’s day was going to be tough. So she dropped in with her lovely family and surprised me with this lovely gift a couple of weeks ago. It was so great to see them and they really cheered me up. I used it for the first time on Tuesday night and enjoyed a delicious steamy Moccona cappuccino coffee. #6 I enjoyed meeting up with my Gospel team on Wednesday night and our group leader made us these bible verses. I’m going to cut them out and stick them in my planner. #7 Another big favourite is this… I finished painting my Mums room and we have now converted it into a fun spare room where Sam can hang out with his friends. It’s not a very big room, and I guess you could call it cozy. But He’s super happy and I am too. It’s so much better than having the door closed all the time. I just felt so sad every time I walked past it. Now it feels like a whole new space and that makes me feel better. #8 Seeing the sun has been absolutely glorious!! We’ve had endless days of rain over the last few weeks. This has meant that at preschool we’ve been stuck inside all day with the kids. However this week we have all been enjoying the sun in the playground. Recently the weather has turned super chilly and I can definitely feel that winter is coming. But it’s been lovely to have the sun shining brightly for at least a couple of days this week. I guess that’s it for this week’s Friday favourites. I am so tired, it’s like my body has to get used to being back at work full time again. Wishing you all the best weekend and I look forward to “seeing” you back here on Monday! Happy Friday! Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post

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Visiting Beautiful Sydney

11 Comments / Discovering NSW Australia

Hi friends I hope you all had a great weekend and Happy Monday to you!! I had a lovely weekend but I really didn’t get much any house painting done as I had hoped. I did spend most of it relaxing which was good and very much needed. Trying to stay busy as a coping mechanism does have its downfalls. Exhaustion is definitely one of them!! The weekend before I went back to work in late April, I spent the day visiting beautiful Sydney with my lovely friend. It really was such a fun day and we were blessed with an absolutely glorious warm and sunny Autumn day. It’s fun being a tourist in your own city. So I thought I would share this day with you. Visiting Beautiful Sydney The Queen Victoria Building or QVB This was our first stop and I have mentioned this gorgeous building in previous posts. It’s beautiful and was originally built in 1898. Thankfully the QVB as we call it was restored to its former glory back in the mid-eighties. Before this, it had been run down and was almost demolished. Now it is heritage-listed and home to restaurants, cafes, and fashion boutiques. This is the view looking down from the third floor. The building actually has five levels. Look at this spectacular stained glass window. Isn’t it beautiful!! This is a small black wrought iron staircase that looks like it leads to nowhere. But I think it actually leads to a space between the stained-glass dome and the outside copper dome. A Yummy Lunch My friend and I browsed around for a while and then we headed over to a cafe called Wholegreen Bakery. They make delicious gluten-free baked goods and It’s become one of my favourite places to go for lunch when we are in the city. I can eat gluten all day long but my sweet friend is gluten intolerant, so this place is perfect. They have really delicious salads, wraps, pies, and other yummy pastries. Oh yes, and did I mention they sell wine too. I indulged in a glass with my lunch. My friend had a vegetable quiche with salad and a side of pesto I clearly couldn’t wait to tuck in! Lucky I remembered to take a pic before I inhaled my pie. It was a scrumptious chicken and mushroom pie with salad and a tomato chutney side sauce. We shared a pretty lemon meringue tart. The Rocks The Rocks, Sydney is where the European Settlers first arrived in 1788. This is where the convicts set up homes and shops. It is full of history and really is a must-see destination if you are ever in Sydney. Fun fact-It’s called The Rocks because the old buildings were made from sandstone. The Rocks are full of historic buildings, museums, galleries, laneways, and cobbled streets. You can also do walking tours which I have never done but I am keen to do one day. On the weekend you will also be able to visit the open-air markets where they sell street food, handmade jewelry, fashions, and art. I took a photo of this crystal gem stall because when my oldest son was little he loved collecting them. If he had come across this stall twenty years ago, he would have probably lost his mind with excitement! The Ken Done Gallery We kept wandering along and we ended up at the Ken Done Gallery. Ken Done is an Australian artist and his designs were hugely popular in the eighties. He had a range of clothing and homeware designs and I had a Ken Done quilt cover on my bed when I was a teenager. It featured the Opera House and I looooved it! As my friend and I wandered around the gallery we enjoyed a trip down memory lane but to be honest we were a little surprised at some of his latest works. A few of his latest paintings were quite unusual, and extremely pricey, like in the thousands pricey!! The Beautiful Opera House The weather was so warm and beautiful Sydney turned on its brightest blue sky so we just kept walking. We walked around to the other side of The Rocks along the foreshore all the way to the Opera House. The Toaster See this building next to the Opera House… When it was built in the nineties, Sydney was horrified! Most people hated it and it received heaps of criticism for its design and the fact that it blocked historical sights. So it was dubbed “The Toaster” because that’s what the people of Sydney claimed it looked like…. a big ugly toaster! There are actually three buildings and they are made up of residential apartments named The Bennelong Apartments with restaurants along the bottom level. I personally wouldn’t mind living in one of the apartments as the views would be spectacular. The penthouse was sold for a cool $22 million back in 2015 so I really don’t think I will be moving there any time soon. A Super Long Walk My Apple watch was going bananas that day. It kept buzzing with excitement because I had walked so many steps while visiting beautiful Sydney. The last thing we did before catching the train back home was to stop for a much-needed rest and a drink. We went into a restaurant called City Extra. This restaurant has been in Sydney’s Circular Quay for about 30 years. I have never eaten there but it’s on my wish list because it’s such an iconic place. It was so funny because my lovely friend and I studied the menu intently, and then all we ordered was a pineapple juice each. In reality, all we wanted to do was sit, rest and chat. The juice was nothing spectacular but it was refreshing. And that’s how we ended our fun day visiting beautiful Sydney. There is way more to see and so much more to do. I look forward to hopefully many other weekends

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This Weeks Favourites

10 Comments / Friday Favorites

My goodness, it’s been a long time between Friday favourites for me. But I’m happy to be back again. Really hope you are all well and thanks so much for stopping by to have a read at some of this week’s favourites! As usual, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s fun post! #1 Let’s kick off with favourite number one!…….. I’ve decided to paint the house!! I started off by painting what used to be my dear mum’s room. It was a grey colour with a slight blueish tint. I desperately need to keep busy to stop my mind from wandering to sad places. My husband thinks I may be a bit nutty to want to take on this task as I already work full time. He wanted to pay for the house to be painted professionally. But after he realised how keen I was and how well the room I painted turned out, he was happy to give me the gig! Haha!! Our house is not huge and I will take my time painting it. But I’m super pumped that I will have an ongoing project for a while. At the moment the house is painted in a colour called “Grand Piano” But I’m thinking I might continue with the white. I’m a huge fan of neutral colours and you can’t get more neutral than white. But seriously who knew there could be so many shades of white!!! #2 I went to visit a very dear friend who lives at Avoca beach. It’s a beautiful part of the central coast region of NSW. Luckily the weather was beautiful when I visited last Saturday, it’s been absolutely miserable lately with endless days and days of rain in Sydney. I went by train because I’m too chicken to drive so far. But I really enjoyed the relaxing train ride and I even had a bit of a snooze on the way home. It was a two-hour train ride but as I got further and further towards the coast, the views were really quite lovely. My friend made a delicious lunch. We enjoyed ravioli, salad and a glass or two of Pinot Noir! We then went for a walk, it was just so nice to catch up with her. I had the best day and the time just flew by so fast. My friend has invited me to stay the night next time I visit and I think I will take her up on that offer. #3 Have you tried this delicious Taramasalata dip? It’s a Greek dip made of fish roe, as I type this it doesn’t sound great but trust me. It really and truly is yummy!! I was at Costco with my Aunty the other day and I picked up this large tub which lasted about five minutes at my house. It’s my son who especially can’t stop eating it and it’s most definitely a huge family favourite! I went to have some the other day and found this in the fridge… Seriously! does anybody else have a teenager who does this?! It reminded me of how my oldest son used to change the toilet paper when he was a teenager and living at home! I took this photo in 2013 because I walked into the bathroom and couldn’t believe it. Makes me laugh now but not so much back then! #4 Speaking of Costco, I love going to Costco! This amazing superstore only came to Sydney in 2012 I think. I am not a member because our closest store is still too far from where I live. But my aunty is a member and so is my cousin. While I was off from work last term, I enjoyed a few trips to Costco with them. I picked up this huge container of peanut butter pretzels. Soooo good!! The thing with Costco as you probably know is that everything is HUGE, and we just don’t have the pantry or fridge space in our house. So I’m careful with the number of things I buy and limit myself to things that I wouldn’t normally find in my local supermarket. These peanut butter pretzels are one of them. I also love the hot dogs we ate after our shopping trip. Hmmm diced onions, relish and tomato sauce!! Ha! I’m sure most of the world is used to Costco and it’s not a big deal but for me, it’s a novelty and a fun day out! #5 This is a favourite from last month, but I thought I would share it anyway because I haven’t posted in a while. Last year we got some tickets to see Crowded House for March of this year. When we got the tickets I couldn’t ever have imagined how my world was going to be turned upside down this year! Anyway, my husband and I went along and it was such a welcome relief to do something fun together. The concert was amazing and we had such a great time. I loved that we knew most of the songs and I felt like an eighties teenager again for a couple of hours as we sang along. #6 My lovely kind sweet friend bought me this gorgeous climbing plant that flowers the most beautiful red flowers. It had been sitting in its original pot for a while. So a few weekends ago I planted it in the front garden. Looks so pretty, doesn’t it? I can’t wait until it wraps itself around the verandah and flowers more. #7 I’ve joined a bible study! Our church actually calls them Gospel Teams and they run a whole heap of them on Wednesday and Thursday nights in different homes. I never had the time to commit to one. I tried to in the past but always ended up having to give it up because I just had too much going on. There are about 13 of us in the Gospel Team I have joined. I’ve been

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I’m Back

26 Comments / Hello Monday

Hi friends Wow, this is a hard post to write. Firstly I have to start by saying that I have really missed you guys and I am starting to feel better about slowly getting back to blogging. It feels like I’ve been in limbo and the last few months have been so hard. I have missed joining the regular fun link-ups and writing some of my other articles. Please know that I always love and appreciate you stopping by for a read and your comments always encourage me so much. Sad News My beautiful mum passed away on the 19th of March. Only three weeks after she was first diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. This was so unexpected as she had initially gone into hospital as a result of a nasty fall. She recovered from the fall like a champ! But while she was in the hospital the doctors ran a whole bunch of tests and made this horrible discovery. As a family, we spent every possible moment with her and we were all with her when she took her last breath. I wish you could have met my mum. She was very funny and extremely cheeky! Although she didn’t have an easy life I have to say that she always liked to be happy and was up for a chat with everyone and anyone. She often spoke Spanglish and was sometimes hard to understand. Her ability to mispronounce words often had us both in stitches. She loved bright colours, fashion, Fuschia lipstick, and disco music. She lived with us for eight years and I really miss her. Back To My New Normal After taking most of the first Term off from work I have now gone back. Initially, it was really tough getting used to my new daily routine without my mum. But it’s been good to be back at preschool with my lovely work colleagues who have been so kind, supportive, and very understanding. Extra Thankful I am also extra thankful to be back at work with my little preschool children. I really missed them while I was away! It’s interesting how after going through such a great loss I find myself appreciating EVERYTHING so much more. I am also beyond grateful to have many really wonderful friends and family! So many reached out via phone calls, texts, messages, and visits. I had flowers, care packages, and dinners delivered to my house. My friends and family were there for me on the days I was a blubbering mess and could barely put one foot in front of the other. I have also reconnected with many old friends too and I am determined to keep these connections ongoing because hey, life is so short! Faith As a Christian, I know that I will see my mum again as I have hope in eternal life through Christ’s death and resurrection. I know that she is in Heaven with God, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I would much rather have her here with me. A New Normal Some days are better than others. Getting used to life without my Mum is going to take time. I know that I will never stop missing her but I also know that there is healing and eventually my heart will stop feeling so desperately sad. “After the rain, the sun will reappear. There is life. After the pain, the joy will still be here” Walt Disney

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