Family Life

Happy Wednesday Everyone! This is my very first link up and I’m linking up with Sheaffer and  Shay I’m excited to share a mixture of things from what I’ve been eating, What I’ve been reminiscing about lately and what I’ve been watching etc. So here goes…. What I’m eating… All the soups and comfort food. Yes sir! It’s winter here and SO cold! I’m not a huge fan of the cold weather but I do love the casseroles, soups, and all the carbs! Yum!   What I’m reminiscing about… Up until a few weeks ago, we had zero COVID cases here in Sydney Australia. Everything felt “Normal” again. We were mask-free, going about our day-to-day, eating out at restaurants, and having family gatherings. Of course, we still maintained hand sanitizing, QR check-in, and other safe COVID practices. But then we had one COVID case which then rapidly grew to many many more and once again we are in lockdown for two weeks until 9th July. I know we have been incredibly fortunate to have been so safe here and I know that most of the rest of the world has had a terrible time and continues to do so. But it was a huge wake-up call to every single one of us. Just a week before COVID hit us all over again, my Aunty had a party to celebrate her 60th. We ate and danced so much! It was a really fun time.   Then two weeks before this we were able to celebrate our beautiful Niece’s Engagement party! What I’m dreading… I’m not really dreading anything thankfully. I’m on two weeks end of term break. My friend from work and I had a list of fun things we wanted to do in the holidays. But instead, because of lockdown we’ve been playing Words With Friends and chatting on Messenger a lot. What I’m working on… This Blog! I’ve only just started and after three months of navigating the whole setup process, I think I might just be getting the hang of it. Whoever said “you can make a blog in three minutes” was clearly deluded. It’s been fun though and something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’m still learning and it’s definitely a work in progress. What I’m excited about I’m excited about being on holiday. (even though we can’t go anywhere) I love not having to rush, make school/work lunches, do the housework at 6 am so I can be free on the weekends. It’s pyjamas till 11 am around here at the moment. What I’m watching… Years ago I started watching the show “Parenthood” and I loved it. I wanted to be part of the Braverman Family, it was such a relatable show. I got to the end of season 4 and for some reason, the network that showed it at the time decided to ruin my life and changed the time slot. I completely lost track of the episodes and gave up. This was before catch_up TV etc. Now that it’s online I have been binge-watching it from the beginning and I’ve just finished the end of season 4 again today. So I am excited to finish the last two seasons (I’ll be sad when it’s over). It’s just been the best show! What I’m listening to… Hmmmmm nothing in particular other than the radio. I like listening to Jonesy and Amanda in the morning on 2WSFM they always make me laugh. Other than that I’ve just been listening to Chill Out on Spotify. My husband can’t stand Chill Out, It stresses him hahaha! He’s into Midnight Oil and Neil Diamond. What a combination! What I’m wearing… PYJAMAS at the moment and tracksuit pants! but before this, I was enjoying getting a bit dressed up.   What I’m looking forward to… It’s the middle of winter but I’m already looking forward to summer or spring at least! That’s about all I think. It’s definitely, the longest post I’ve done so far. Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a great week xxx…

How to find the right cat- Adding a beautiful cat to our family was one of the best decisions we ever made. She has brought us so much love and companionship and she is such a treasured member of our family. We just love her so much! She is such a funny little thing. She loves to cozy up to us and is so friendly to anyone who visits. She can even high-five. How clever is that? Here are just a few things I found helpful when it came to finding the right cat. I hope you’ll find them helpful too.   This is our girl “Sushi”. My oldest son Luke named her that because he decided she was all black and reminded him of a Sushi Roll. Isn’t she cute? How To Find The Right Cat Kitten Or Cat? Nine years ago we all had our hearts set on finding a cat to join our family. The first decision we had to make was “Should we get a kitten or a cat?”. I think that was a good place to start. We had to take into account that kittens require a lot of time and care while adult cats can provide love and companionship but with much less work. We decided on a kitten because let’s face it, they are unbelievably cute! and I had my heart set on a girl as I was the only girl in the family We were coming up to the end of the school year and into the summer holidays, this meant that because I work at a preschool I too would be home on holidays with my boys for about eight glorious weeks. This gave us a nice amount of time to focus on looking after our new kitten and litter training her.                                                  Look how small they both were. Sam is now 16 Finding The Right Breed My goodness! This was interesting. I had no idea there were so many breeds. I think I did some sort of “What Cat Breed Should I Get” test on the internet and in the end, after my head was spinning I decided on keeping things simple and go for a short-breed domestic Cat. In other words a Moggy. Moggy cats are low-maintenance, friendly, and generally pretty healthy. Plus I also read online that there were ethical considerations with some breeds as well as health issues to consider. Indoor Or Outdoor Cat This decision was easy to make. As I said before we live in a villa and part of the strata rules is that if we keep a cat it should not be allowed to roam around on the common property. (Except for my neighbours, they let their cats roam around). But anyway I like that our cat is an indoor cat as I don’t need to worry about her well-being. While some believe that letting cats outside gives them a better quality of life, keeping cats indoors is definitely a healthier choice. I also read that indoor cats live much longer than outdoor cats. So there’s that. Our girl gets the best of both worlds as she can spend time lying in the sun safe in our enclosed courtyard.                                                   She just loves to roll around in the sun Choose A Cat With A Personality You Like I know this might sound really ignorant of me but I hadn’t really considered that like humans cats have unique and interesting personalities. While doing some research this became something that we really needed to think about. We all wanted a cuddly cat. I wanted a calm cat. After being at preschool all day the last thing I wanted was a hyperactive cat! When it came time to choose our cat, I spent time watching how the kittens all interacted with each other. Honestly, it wasn’t that different from being in the classroom at work! There was the “Can’t keep their hands to themselves” kind of cat. There was the “Don’t touch/look at me/come near me” cat and there was the “Impulsive watch me jump” cat. Then thankfully there was the ” Calm well behaved” cat. Yep, I went for calm. Cat on a Hat               She always tries to pack herself into the nearest available backpack Bringing Our Kitten Home Before we brought our kitten home we made sure we set up a special space for her. We got a litter box, a scratching post, a comfy bed, a feeding station, and some toys. I was a little nervous. No, I lied, I was a lot nervous. She was just so tiny! I was afraid we’d step on her. Well, we didn’t but we sure were careful and very very gentle. We had to keep in mind that she was coming into a totally unfamiliar place so we made sure that the space we made up for her would help her get comfortable and feel secure and familiar. Phew, I was relieved when she got bigger. Like I said before she really was tiny. Haha, always likes to be in the middle of everything! Well, that was fun going down memory lane, and while by no means does this post cover everything about how to find the right cat. I think I’ve been able to look at some of the things that stood out in my mind that were important when it came to finding the right cat to join our family. if you do a Google search you’ll get an incredible amount of helpful information. Just remember that having a cat will bring unconditional love to your life, companionship, and fun!