Hello Monday

Hi friends it’s good to be back for today’s Hello Monday link-up with Holly and Sarah. We have two more weeks and then it’s Spring break. Yay!! I’m so happy to report that we enjoyed a very sunny weekend and I am looking forward to many more. A Fun Spring Fair On A Sunny Weekend I had a great Saturday with my lovely fun bestie. We went to the Spring Fair at Cronulla which is now called Cronullafest. Cronulla is a suburb in Sydney which has many surf beaches and enclosed pools. And it is only about 25 minutes by car or 50 minutes by train from my house. I rarely go to Cronulla as I am not a beach person. But it is a lovely suburb and popular not only with Sydneysiders but with tourists as well. We enjoyed looking at all the stalls at the fair and even though it was early we tried a tiny bit of Rosé. Then we walked further along until we got to the beach. It was such a gorgeous sunny day. After Saturday’s visit, I am actually looking forward to going back and walking on the beach. I may even take my shoes off and go in the water. (But only up to my ankles hehe). After our walk, we went to a place called ‘Emu’s Burger Joint’ for lunch. Yes, they do have emu on the menu! But I just ordered the beef brisket burger which was really delicious and a nice change from the usual beef patties. After lunch, we made our way back to Cronulla station but stopped at a few shops along the way. There were lots of books and clothes shops. But I like the homeware and fine food shops the best. In the evening I watched the proclamation of King Charles III. It seemed so surreal to be watching such a significant moment in history. For Saturday night dinner we had enough leftover spinach pie I had made on Friday night but I had a real craving for two-minute noodles. I know that they are not the healthiest option but hey it was the weekend! I threw an egg in it and it was so yummy. Stranger Things Season 3 My cousin Ben has been encouraging me to watch Stranger Things. He is around the same age as my oldest son and every time I see him he asks me” Have you watched Stranger Things yet Ruthie” (My family and many of my friends call me Ruthie). Sam and I had watched seasons 1 and 2 but only a couple of episodes of season 3. Then he got busy with school etc and we stopped watching. I picked it up again on Saturday night. Oh my goodness I can see why Ben had wanted me to get back into it. It is so good and now I’m binge-watching it! I was gasping and making noises and covering my face at the scary exciting bits. Sam came out of his room where he was studying and laughed. Now he’s keen to watch it after he finishes his exams. Sunday I went to church in the morning while Steve slept as he got home in the early hours of the morning after a very long shift. Sam has started going to the evening service which I am very happy about. Covid messed up our church-going routine. Anyway, the evening service is mainly for the youth and I hope he gets back into the habit of going along. He did say it was good and that he enjoyed it. I got home from church around midday and Steve’s best friend Scott (who is more like a brother to him) came over for lunch. My lovely cousin came over too and so did Sam’s girlfriend. I threw together a simple lunch and we had a really nice time. Poor Steve misses out on a lot of family dinners and get-togethers because of work. That’s the real downside of working in hospitality. In the afternoon I hit the shops for a little while with my cousin. She needed a couple of things for her new place so we went to TK Maxx, Big W, and K-mart. I picked up some keratin deep conditioner, I’m still using my egg remedy conditioner. But I thought that I would give this a try too. I have been changing my wire hangers and using these flocked hangers instead. They are much kinder on my clothes. Then in the evening, Steve surprised me by coming home early from work. We have started watching ‘All Creatures Great And Small’. It’s a really sweet show set in the late 1930s about a Yorkshire vet. We watched one episode and then called it a night. It really was a very nice sunny weekend that went by way too fast. What did you guys get up to? I hope it was a good weekend for you all. Happy Monday! Sharing on                        

Hi, friends welcome back to today’s Hello Monday post where I am linking up with Holly and Sarah. I really hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are feeling recharged and pumped for a brand-new week. It was the first weekend of Spring and it was full of family fun, just the way I like it! A Fun Family Get Together We started the first weekend of Spring with our monthly family dinner. We have officially given our first Friday of the month gatherings a title and it is now called ‘Cousin Connect’. My cousin Jessie came up with this name, and it fits like a charm because we are all cousins. Sure we are all related in different ways but ultimately we are all cousins. We had such an amazing time and I always leave these dinners with a sore face from smiling and laughing so much! I love that we can talk about anything. You name it and we can discuss it whether it’s politics, current affairs, or anything. The hot topic for this ‘Cousin Connect’ was sausage rolls vs meat pies. Just in case you might not know a sausage roll is sausage meat that is wrapped up in puffed pastry. I’m not quite sure of its origin but it is a popular Aussie food and we eat them as a snack or for lunch. And a meat pie is, you guessed it a pie with a meat and gravy filling. Well, we were all in hysterics over everyone’s preferences and their reasons as to why they were either team sausage roll or team meat pie. The arguments were just so funny and I couldn’t pick a side. I love meat pies and sausage rolls the same! Two Birthdays For dinner we had some really delicious Thai food and then for dessert we had not one but two birthday cakes. Two of our cousins share the same birthday on the 5th of September. So it was a perfect night to celebrate as we were all together. Ikea Festival To celebrate the beginning of Spring. Our local Ikea store held a festival! My cousin Terry and I went along and we had the best time! There was a DJ at the entrance and he was playing some really great music. A nice Ikea lady was handing out some scratch and wins. Terry and I scratched and discovered that we had won a cinnamon roll. But I get the feeling that everyone was a winner that day. We tried some veggie balls. There was also a nail salon. But the queue was a bit too long so we gave it a miss. We stopped for a snack in the cafeteria. Then we watched a demonstration which was all about how to build your own terrarium. Terry has recently moved into a new home and she needed some storage containers. So she found some that she liked and I also bought a few bits and pieces. It was a really fun morning. I love spending time with my sweet cousin. Father’s Day Sunday was Father’s Day and we had lunch with our boys to celebrate. Steve had to go to work in the late afternoon but we were happy that we were able to spend some time together and enjoy a delicious lunch. We started with some of Steve’s favourites. Smoked salmon and prawns. Then we had some roast beef, chicken skewers, salad, and roast veggies. YUM! I made Steve a personalised Father’s Day card. He was chuffed that I put his photo on the back. Here he is holding the beloved trophy that he won at his swim club earlier this year. We gave him a polo shirt and sandals that I bought last week during my shopping trip to the city and a couple of Krispy Kreme donuts. After all the fun Steve had to go to work. Luke and Sam went off to play ‘Pokémon GO’ for a bit. Haha, yep they are both Pokémon fans. It was so nice to see Luke and Sam hang out together. There is a big eleven-year gap between them and Luke lives about half an hour away by car. So because everyone is so busy with work and school etc. We only get to see Luke and his lovely fiancee a couple of times a month. They both came home after about an hour of catching some rare Pokémon and we decided to watch a movie together. I made some microwave popcorn. Then we flicked through Netflix and we all agreed to watch ‘Fight Club’ because we hadn’t seen it before. Oh my goodness what a weird movie! None of us really enjoyed it at all.  But the three of us agreed that we were glad to have finally watched it. Mainly because it’s one of those famous movies that is often quoted in popular culture. Afterward, we were all keen to watch a feel-good episode of something so that we could erase the memory of the movie. Haha! Anyway, all in all, the first weekend of Spring was a really fun one! I was so happy to have spent so much precious time with my family. Thanks so much for stopping by today and I really hope you all have a fantastic week. Happy Monday friends! Sharing on    

Hey everyone, so good to be back again for this week’s edition of Hello Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that you are feeling refreshed and ready for a new week ahead. I’m happy to report that we all enjoyed a cold but very sunny weekend. It’s the second last weekend before spring and I couldn’t be happier about that! Thanks so much for reading along and letting me share with you a few things that we got up to this weekend. Friday! When I got home from work, I made sure to get right into my usual cleaning routine. I find it so tempting to forget the usual chores on a Friday. But I know that if I don’t get them done then I’ll be playing catch-up on Saturday and that is no fun!! I was really pleased with myself when I got everything finished and it really didn’t take that long. Then I knew I could spend the rest of the evening relaxing. Yep, I was home alone for most of the evening as Steve was at work and Sam went out with his sweet girlfriend. So I had some pizza, and ginger beer while I binge-watched some more Doc Martin. On Thursday I blogged about some fun things you can do when you are at home alone. Having dinner while watching a favourite show is most definitely on my list of fun things to do! Saturday Saturday morning I was up nice and early. It’s so much easier getting out of bed when the sun is shining. I’ve noticed that not only are the evenings getting darker later. But the mornings are now getting brighter much earlier. I’m all for that!! Steve and I went out for breakfast to our local Westfield. There’s a nice cafe there where they make amazing eggs benedict. They give you a choice of having the eggs with bacon or salmon. I love bacon but when it comes to eggs benedict, Steve and I are both on team salmon! The last time we were at the same cafe for breakfast, which I think may have been about a month ago. We were lucky to find a table as it was so busy everywhere. The shops and cafes were really bustling. But not on this Saturday, it was surprisingly quiet. We finished off by sharing banana bread with our coffee. Everything was so delicious!! We didn’t hang around at the shops but went straight home instead. We snuggled up with cozy blankets at home to watch an episode of Line Of Duty. Our cat Sushi joined us for a snuggle too. I feel like we have been watching this forever. This is because Steve and I don’t have much free time together during the week. So we can only catch an episode here and there. Anyway, we are on the final series now and I’ll be sad when it ends but I also want it to end because I am dying to know what happens! Filming! Just before midday Sam and I went to our friend’s house so that he could finish filming his HSC drama video. He needed some more actors and a different location. So I enlisted the help of some kind friends. I know Sam was a bit stressed about directing everyone. But he did great! He also had to do some more filming on Sunday as well as loads of editing. It’s a big project and I’m sure that he will be relieved once it’s all over. I know that I will be!! Saturday Evening I finished season nine of Doc Martin and now I have to wait for the tenth and final season ever. Not sure when that is coming out as I heard that they started filming in February. I absolutely love this show. After Doc Martin, I felt like watching a movie so I switched over to Amazon Prime and watched ‘House Of Gucci’ If you haven’t watched it then I don’t really recommend it. The movie was so disappointing and I found it really boring. I only got about halfway through before I gave up and went to bed. Sunday Sunday morning was cold but again very sunny. I went to church and then after the service I had a quick chat with a few friends over morning tea before I went home. I got there when they were doing the kids’ spot. Once the children all went off to Sunday school or Kid’s church as we call it then I found a seat. We have been learning all about the book of Hebrews. Later in the afternoon after lunch, I went for a pedicure, grabbed a few things from the shops, and had a coffee. I always say my name is Sam when I order a coffee. Haha! It’s just easier. In the evening I needed to take care of my grey roots!! My hair always feels soft and shiny after I colour it. I don’t enjoy the process of colouring it at all!! but I always feel happy with the results. I used to get my hair coloured at the hair salon but it always took so long. I prefer to do it at home now especially since I seem to have to take care of those greys more often these days. Sigh!! I use this Olia hair colour in light brown. Sunday Evening Sunday evening I did some meal planning and then I cooked some chili con carne. I think it’s just called chili in America but here in Australia, we call it chili con carne. Then I sat down to watch this season of The Block. It’s an Australian reality TV series in which five couples compete against each other to renovate houses. Then at the end of the series, all the properties go up for auction. The winning couple are the ones who sell their home for the most money. It’s a great show and I love following

Hi friends! Wow, didn’t the weekend just go by in a flash! It’s like I blinked and the weekend was over and here we are again to welcome back Monday. As usual, I am linking up with Holly and Sarah for today’s Hello Monday post. If you read my Friday post I was telling you guys that I had nothing planned for this weekend. And I honestly thought that I would just be pottering around the house and watching some TV shows. I also believed the weather forecast which said that it was going to be cloudy and rainy. Nope, I ended up having an unexpectedly busy weekend. Fun but busy, oh yes and the sky was a brilliant blue and there wasn’t a single raindrop. Haha!! Friday night I just love Friday nights!! While I was cooking dinner my friend rang to ask me if I was free on Saturday to go shopping at Ikea with her and another couple of friends. I said yes straightaway! I sure love going to Ikea whenever I get the chance and so I was super excited to go! One of the things that I love the most about Friday nights. Is that I know that I can stay up super late and not worry about having to get up early the next day. So I did just that and I waited till Steve got home from work after midnight. We watched some TV and ate sweet and salty popcorn which was really good! Along with some other yummy snacks. It certainly was such a nice way to end the working week. Saturday We all enjoyed a lazy and very slow morning. For breakfast, I had some sourdough toast with avocado and feta cheese along with a nice steamy cup of tea. Then we started watching the final season of Line Of Duty. In the afternoon Steve went to work and later on my friends came to pick me up for our trip to Ikea. We got there at around 2.30 pm and didn’t leave until around 6.30 pm. We did stop for coffee and muffins along the way. Shopping with friends is so fun and we chatted until we almost lost track of the time! After coffee, we kept on browsing as we made our way around Ikea. I picked up a few things from the marketplace. I needed new squeegees for the showers. I picked up this cooling pad for Sam. Even though I get super excited about warm weather he’s not a real fan of summer. He gets too warm when he’s in bed even during winter sometimes. So I thought that this might help to keep him cooler. A new toilet brush! Then afterward instead of going home, we all agreed that we wanted to keep hanging out. So we stopped off for some dinner at St George Motor Boat club. We shared some sweet potato fries, pasta, and pizza. In the end, I got home at around 10.30 pm. It really was such an unexpectedly fun way to spend Saturday. Sunday Oh my goodness! Will our car troubles ever end??? Poor Steve had to Uber it home because my little Suzuki that he has been driving wouldn’t start after he finished work at 1 am on Sunday morning. We just had the battery changed after he got stranded a couple of weeks ago. The car was serviced only last Wednesday! Ugh, so annoying!! Anyway, we called the mechanic and he installed another battery. Fingers crossed this doesn’t happen again. We have decided to just stick with one car until November. Hopefully, the car market will improve by then.  Shopping For A Birthday Present Sunday afternoon Steve went to work and I walked to the shops. We live in a suburb that is super close to a small Westfield which is so convenient. It took me about twenty minutes to walk there and I felt good about getting in some steps too. It’s Steve’s birthday this Wednesday so I went to get him some presents. I was going to order online but time just slipped away. I found some things that I know he likes and I am going to put them together in a hamper. Birthday shopping for him is a bit tricky. He’s a real minimalist and doesn’t ever really ‘want’ anything. So what I tend to do is just get him a few things that I know he needs and he’s always happy with that! I left the shops at around 5 pm and I was so excited that it was still very much daylight especially since I was walking back home. Spring is on its way and the evenings are getting darker just a little bit later than they were only a few weeks ago. Yay!! Sunday Evening For Sunday night dinner I marinated and baked some chicken thigh fillets and we had them for dinner with rice and roast carrots. In the evening I did some blogging and then watched Doc Martin. I have been dying to watch season 9! I totally recommend this British comedy-drama about a surgeon who develops a fear of blood. So he leaves London and moves to a small sleepy village called Portwenn to start his own practice. It is hilarious!! The show is full of lovable characters and the scenery and music are just perfect. I love this show and I can’t believe that I forgot to include it in my list of shows that I binge-watch. Anyway, we signed up for a 7-day free trial of Britbox so we could watch the final season of Line of Duty. Seasons one to six are on Stan which we subscribe to but the final season isn’t. But now I’ve discovered that Britbox has so many great shows like the latest season of Doc Martin as well as so many others. So now I’m not sure that I really want to stop my subscription after the free trial. If

Hi friends I hope that you are all well and have had a nice weekend. I’m happy to be back here today for the usual ‘Hello Monday’ link-up with Holly and Sarah. Also sharing today’s post with ‘Monday Morning Blog Club’ on Sticky Mud And Belly Laughs. Like I always say…the weekend sure went by super fast!!! Friday Night My Aunty messaged me on Friday afternoon and asked me over to her house for dinner. Impromptu dinner invitations are always so fun!! Especially when I was going to be home alone Friday night. Steve was at work and Sam went to his first real concert to see Tyler The Creator. I had never heard of Tyler The Creator before so I googled him and apparently he is a famous American rapper and Sam is a big fan. I don’t mind spending Friday evenings alone anymore. It felt a bit strange at first but now if I know that I will be at home alone then I will make sure to plan relaxing things to do. I think that I might do a post soon about fun things you can do when you are home alone on a Friday night! Anyway, I had a wonderful time at my Aunty’s and she cooked THE most delicious dinner!! I really wished that I had two stomachs so I could have kept eating!! It was amazing!! Then we spent the rest of the evening chatting. My lovely cousins were there so it was really nice to catch up with them too. Saturday I had a nice sleep-in on Saturday and a lazy morning. Later in the afternoon I still had a few household chores that I needed to do. I have this fantasy that if I do my housework and washing all during the week then I will have weekends free. Ummmm…….nope. But I’m sure that if I didn’t have a Monday to Friday cleaning schedule then my weekends would be a total nightmare. After dinner, I sat in front of the TV with some yummy chocolate-coated peanuts and my weekend ginger beer. I watched a couple of episodes of ‘Stranger Things’. I’m up to season 3 and I am really loving it! Oh yes, I also sold my Mum’s orthopedic chair on Facebook Marketplace on Saturday. I bought her the chair after she had a horrible fall way back in February. She only sat in it for about 2-3 days before she went back into hospital and then very sadly passed away. I always want my blog to be a happy place but I also want it to be authentic and honest. So I have to tell you that selling her chair was very hard. Lots of tears hard. Grief is such a weird journey. Some days I find that one minute I’m ok and then the next I’m really not. I miss my Mumma. Sunday On a brighter note, we had a lovely Sunday! My friend celebrated her birthday at St George Motor Boat Club with a big party and we had a fun time! Here I am with Steve, the poor guy only stayed for a short while, and then he had to go to work. That’s the hard part about working in hospitality. We had such a delicious lunch! There were platters of antipasto with pita bread to start with. Then for entrees, we had chicken skewers with tzatziki or tortellini with pesto. The mains were juicy steaks and creamy mash with a red wine jus and corn on the cob. Or tender juicy chicken with potatoes and broccolini. I had to make sure that I ate my corn in a delicate lady-like manner. No fingers!! I was also very conscious of being extremely careful when I was cutting the kernels off the cob with my knife. I didn’t want the whole corn to slip and go flying off my plate. Yes, this has happened to me before in public and it was a very traumatic experience! 😂 Steve and I shared all our dishes. For dessert, I had the pannacotta and Steve had gone to work by then so he missed out on his sticky date pudding. Sadly I was way too full to eat his dessert too. My weekend was a mixture of finishing off some housework and doing a bit of reminiscing. It was also sprinkled with some fun moments too. So I have to say that overall it was a very nice weekend indeed! Anyway, I really hope that you are all well and that you have a great week. Thanks so much for stopping by to have a read. Happy Monday dear friends!

Hi, friends, and happy Monday to you! I was super happy to see the end of last week. It wasn’t a great one for a bunch of reasons. But I think that the first week back at work after the holidays is always the hardest so by Friday I was done and so excited for the weekend! I really hope you all had a relaxing weekend and are ready for the new week ahead. As usual, I am happy to be linking up with Holly and Sarah for today’s Hello Monday post. And excited to share with you a few things that I got up to this weekend. Still Doing Lots Of Walking A little while ago I shared with you that Steve crashed his car into a small wall trying to avoid two cats sitting in the middle of the road. Well, on Friday our insurance company confirmed that Steve’s car is a write-off so we will have to get a new car. We’re both very excited about getting a lovely new car as we’ve had the old one for a long time. Now we just have to find the time to go looking for one. For now, Steve is squeezing into my tiny Suzuki Alto and driving it to get to work. Being over 6ft tall can have its disadvantages haha!! I’m really lucky that I’m within walking distance to my work so that’s a huge help and I have honestly been really loving the walk! Luckily there’s a fruit shop along the way and a few petrol stations where I was still able to pick up some Friday night snacks! It’s been raining this whole week and the other day I heard that it will be like this until November! WHAT!! I took this pic on Friday on my walk home. See the grey sky? We are usually so spoiled with brilliant blue skies in Sydney even during the winter. Saturday I had the best Saturday and I think that I appreciated it even more after having had such a busy week. Steve and I headed to our local Westfields together. He went off to get a remedial massage and I went to a nail salon called Nails Boulevard to treat myself to a pedicure. I think that I got the better part of the deal because I’ve had a remedial massage before and they hurt!! They’re very effective but I don’t find them particularly relaxing. A Yummy Brunch Steve and I met back at a little cafe after his massage and my very relaxing pedicure. We had a really delicious brunch and enjoyed a much-needed catch-up. His evening shifts and my day shifts mean that we don’t get to spend a lot of time together. So it was really lovely to enjoy some time eating and chatting. We’ve been married 32 years and he still makes me laugh a lot with all his funny stories about his workplace. I had a lovely frothy cappuccino and THE best eggs Benedict I have ever had! The eggs were poached to perfection, they came with lots of delicious smoked salmon and the Hollandaise sauce was divine! Steve had a Chai latte and the big breakfast. He said his was really good too. Saturday Afternoon I painted my nails in the afternoon. I didn’t get a manicure at the nail salon because working in preschool means that a manicure just doesn’t last very long. I’m constantly washing my hands and just too involved in cleaning up after fun messy play. So I’ll wait until the next holidays and get a manicure done then. Meal Planning I also finally did some meal planning. Hooray!! I used my meal planner from Kikki. K and decorated it with some cute stickers. I’m thinking that if I make it pretty then I might do a better job at sticking to it. Here’s hoping!! Sunday I was so excited to wake up to sunshine and a glorious blue sky on Sunday morning. So I made a quick trip to Bunnings to pick up some plants. I’m just hanging out for spring and I had a real urge to add more greenery around the house. I bought a couple of plants with some pretty colour for the courtyard. I also bought a pot with this cute hanging green plant that I have put on top of the cabinet in the dining room. Can you tell how clueless I am when it comes to what these plants are actually called !! In the evening I made some tortellini for dinner with salad and garlic bread. Then after dinner, I plonked myself in front of the TV to continue watching “Cold Feet”. I’m up to the latest seasons now and I just love this show so much I’ll be so sad when it ends. If you haven’t watched it you totally should it’s so good!! Well, I guess that wraps up my really relaxing weekend after my first week back at work. What did you guys get up to, hope it was a great one! Only nine more weeks until Spring break for us. But who’s counting. 😉 Happy Monday friends      

Hi friends! So good to welcome back Monday for this week. Especially as it’s my first Monday of the winter holidays!!! I’ve got a few things to share with you on this dreary, rainy Monday. First of all Happy 4th Of July to all my lovely friends and family in the USA. Hope you are having a wonderful long weekend. Getting My Steps Up! Indeed I have been doing a lot of walking last week and I have even closed my rings a couple of times or gotten really close! Go me!! But first I have to admit that the reason why I have been doing more walking is that we only have one car at the moment. Poor Steve was coming home from work in the early hours of the morning last weekend. There were two cats in the middle of the road and he swerved to avoid running them over. But then he hit a low brick wall. He was fine, the cats were fine but the car wasn’t and neither was the wall. So now we are waiting for our insurance company to deal with everything and Steve is using my car. Luckily I am within walking distance of my preschool. Friday Family Dinner We got together for our usual first Friday of the month family dinner and although not everyone could make it. We still had a blast and ate some yummy food too! Cold Feet I have been binge-watching this very funny British show over the weekend and I am loving it!! When it first aired back in the late ’90s or early 2000’s I think that I started watching from season five. So I kind of know what happens but it’s been great to start from the first episode. I’m into season two and I started late on Friday night. Oh, the joys of school holidays. Binge-watching guilt-free !!!! Tea!! I have been having endless cups of tea to keep warm. I usually have my hot drinks from a mug. But on Saturday I was so sick of all the rain and cold weather, so I cheered myself up by having my tea in this fancy tea cup and saucer. Bunnings I could use the car in the morning before Steve needed it in the afternoon to get to work. So I made a quick trip to Bunnings to get some paint and a few other things. I really want to get stuck into painting my bedroom. It’s the prep work that doesn’t excite me though! I also bought a new toilet seat that I am going to try and install soon because the old one is broken. This toilet seat has got weird bolts etc that I know I am going to have to wrangle with. Dinner With Friends Even though it’s blowing a gale and raining so heavily. I am still going out tonight for our monthly catch-up with friends at our local club. We always have a fun time eating, chatting, and drinking some really nice bubbly. But first I am going to try and get that new toilet seat on!! So I’m going to sign off quickly today. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Monday!

Hi friends, I hope you are all well and were able to enjoy a great weekend. They always seem to go by so fast, don’t they? I am happy to report that I am feeling well again. The antibiotics have done their work and my sinus infection is gone. My head feels clear and I no longer need a tissue box stuck to me. Yay!! I felt so much better on Friday and I was super relieved that I didn’t have to miss out on a few fun events that we had planned for the weekend. A Trophy! Ha! not a trophy for me but a trophy for my husband. From October to March, he swims with an amateur swim club. This year he won a trophy for the 50m freestyle championship and the presentation night was on Friday night. Because Steve had to work he wasn’t able to go so I went to collect it on his behalf. He was relieved that by Friday evening I was well enough to go to the presentation night. He was just itching to get his trophy home and place it in his special trophy cabinet. Yep, he has a trophy cabinet. I have never won a trophy in my life and if you know me you’ll know that I am the least sporty or competitive person ever. Steve is the complete opposite, hence the trophy cabinet! Anyway, it was fun collecting it for him.  Two Birthday Parties on Saturday! My Uncle’s 80th Saturday I was so happy to go to my uncle’s 80th birthday lunch. Although we are not blood-related, my uncle’s mum and my grandmother were besties all the way back in the 1930s.  The bonds of friendship have lasted down three generations and now we regard each other as family. He and his lovely wife who I refer to as my aunt have children around my age and we all call each other cousins. My uncle is such a sweet, kind, and gentle man. So it was really lovely to be with the family and celebrate. My aunt is an amazing cook and so we had a really delicious lunch! We finished off with a really yummy birthday cake filled with caramel and fruit. My Aunts Birthday After my uncle’s party, I raced home and quickly changed for the next party which started in the evening. This party was to celebrate another aunt from another side of the family. Again more fun, more food, and more cake! I really should have fasted for three days before so that I could have eaten more!! This aunty loves to dance and so that’s what we did for most of the night. We danced until my feet were sore and it was such a fun night of salsa and conga lines!! I wish that I had remembered to take more photos. We stayed until almost everyone except the immediate family had left. We pitched in and did a bit of cleaning up and then didn’t get home until 1.30 am. Sleepy Sunday After such a festive Saturday we all just slept in. I got up a bit earlier than everyone else and did a few chores. With such a busy couple of days, I hadn’t done much laundry. So I got onto that because I’m sure you all know that the laundry can quickly snowball into a huge mountain if you miss a couple of days! Here was one of my big piles that needed folding. We skipped breakfast like we sometimes do on a Sunday and I didn’t make it to church. But we enjoyed lunch together and then Steve went to work. Sam did some school work and I pottered around the house doing a few things. In the evening I made a beef casserole for Monday night’s dinner. After a big Sunday lunch, we didn’t feel very hungry for dinner so I just made ham, cheese, and tomato toasties. Yum, a hot toastie is always so good on a cold night! I am so happy that I made the beef casserole and won’t have to cook on Monday night. I feel like a hero when I am ahead with a meal!! My meal planning has completely gone out the window! I started off strong this year then life went haywire and now I’m off track. It’s my goal to get back to planning my weekly meals because it does make life so much easier! ********* That’s All Folks Well, that wraps up my weekend. Saturday sure was a fun one!! We have two more weeks left of preschool before the winter holidays. But who’s counting? 😉. I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for a brand new week. Thanks for stopping by to have a read, I always appreciate you taking the time to do so! Happy Monday friends! Linking up with Sarah and Holly

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