… or you could try these – Tear Fund, Compassion, Kiva or Good Gifts.
Getting There…
On the home stretch to Christmas, and stuff to do before I can sit back and chill for a week… there’s been a lot of end of year deadlines to complete. Sweetest Bean has finished the school year, and done so well – I’m so proud of him! ❤ We went to the art gallery last Friday before the awards for school. This was Sweet Bean’s Lego creation (it ran well, too)
Here he is receiving his awards –
He’s off camping with friends at the moment, having a great time.
Miss him, but glad he’s having fun!
Hubby is working now (yayy!!), which is wonderful, although he’ll be working over Christmas. We have had blessings coming already. One of those is a prize I won, which just came in the mail today. It’s a sample pack of natural perfumes – this is how it came, and the goodies inside…
They are supposed to evoke certain qualities – I was both beautiful and intuitive today 😀
I am very tired right now, but quietly hopeful of getting it all sorted by Christmas.
Let the countdown begin!
Catching Up…
…with assignments, with my spirit, with other things…
Isn’t it a beautiful day today? It’s grey and gloomy and cool, and I have been revisiting songs that I love. There’s still a lot to do, but I’ll get there.
I do like rainy days. They’re quieter. And softer. If you’re feeling a bit too gloomy, though, here’s some colour 🙂
Yes, they’re real, although I don’t know how they got the colour in there – I would think it’s something to do with dye and split stems…
The end of the year is coming, and all the “have to” deadlines seem to be hammering on the door. I got some hours done last weekend for my course. It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it might be, and I got to meet wonderful people – even had a cuppa together on the last day. One of the things I miss with online study is input and encouragement, given and received, in actual classrooms. I got some of that last weekend, and it was invigorating… hasn’t yet translated into actually finishing work (but there’s still time!) 😀
The Sunday was all about case-taking, which I felt I’d already done by the time I got in. I sat down on the train, which was mostly deserted, and inadvertently caught the eye of an old bloke sitting three seats away. He started talking and didn’t stop until we got to Roma Street. I could tell you his life story… He was on his way to Dreamworld last week, but seems to have had quite an interesting life. People are, on the whole, lovely. And quirky, surprising, and fun.
Yesterday I didn’t make it to church, but I watched some stuff on TV/DVD, and sat on the patio listening to God songs. Sometimes you just have to stop and breathe.
Went to the markets at church Saturday night. My regular chauffeur wasn’t available (he was in Brisbane with Sweet Bean for a seminar) so I took the bus – more walking than I’m used to, but fun. Got a stack of Christmas shopping done, and got to try gluten free doughnuts (yay!). Lovely, but why does gluten free often also mean extra sugar (and oil, in this case)? Glad I could try one, though – I had “Paris Time” flavour – lavender, pistachio and vanilla bean.
What else have I been up to? Went to a cafe a couple of weeks ago…
And it was in a book shop! What more could you want?
Went for a walk yesterday and came across a garage sale. There were two tables of freebies, and I got a stack of sale stuff for $5, including a body pillow and case. Took it home and put it through the wash, came out good as new.
Still grey outside. Here’s a sunny day flower…
…and a hopeful song.
‘Tis The Season…
…no – not that season! It’s the season of renewal – flowers budding and new growth. And rain.
I’ve been sitting here today, either listening to the rain or enjoying the all-enveloping greyness of the weather. I’m even in my dressing gown!
I haven’t been able to go for my walk the last few days. The last time I went I took some photos of the flowers I saw – they were opening up with the sun, looking forward to the summer.
These lovely sweet smelling white flowers are just about to bloom en masse. Even my onion for lunch was showing me love. 🙂
A couple of days ago was Hubby’s birthday. We had a low key day – went to Bunnings to pick up some herbal tea plants.
From top right – pineapple sage, chamomile, lemon balm and peppermint.
We got them planted out before the rain, which they have appeared to enjoy.
On our way home we stopped at the Japanese Gardens down the road, and sat by the teahouse for a while. Peaceful and dreamy – not a lot in the way of dragonflies and butterflies, but lots of new flowers.
My spring has long gone – I’m somewhere in the summer of my life. This was brought home to me again the other day when I watched a YouTube clip of a recent acoustic version of A-Ha’s “Take On Me”. That was not originally one of my favourite songs, but I felt a bit nostalgic, especially with the shots of middle-aged women singing along… I think it sounds good as an acoustic song. Probably the first time I’ve been able to understand the words. Here it is, for your enjoyment…
Enjoy the rain. Enjoy the flowers. And enjoy whatever season of life you find yourself in! 🙂
Back To Real Life…
The holidays are over, the last term of the year has begun…
It’s been so hot these last couple of weeks! We’ve felt lethargic a fair amount of the time, and haven’t really strayed far from home. I’ve managed to get some assessments nearly finished, though.
The rain has been welcome. Today and yesterday was lovely and cool. I went for a walk yesterday, before the rain came. The flowers were waiting, shining in the gloom…
These were powering down for the night – closing up before the rain.
I’ve enjoyed the steady rain, but I could still enjoy a bit of sun with the photo I see on my desktop when I switch on or off 🙂
Not one of my photos… This comes from a site for free images called Pixabay.
Part of our routine in the holidays has been my boys coming in to chat after breakfast. We cover all sorts of interesting topics… Biggest boy shared a “heavy metal” version of “The Wheels on the Bus” with me.
I shared an Indian version of the Sherlock theme with him (I’ve finally got around to watching the 4th season!)
Not the official version – the hooping is extra…
Back to reality again… plenty of time for good things to happen! 🙂
Contemplations And Acquisitions
I’ve been walking more frequently lately, contemplating life and enjoying the warmer weather. This is a tiny flower I saw the other day, peeking out towards the sun.
It’s been the first week of holidays – gone fast! Sweet Bean is at camp at the moment, so we had the chance to go out after dropping him off yesterday afternoon. It started off sunny, with the river sparkling so much it was hard to see to take the photo…
It wasn’t long until dark clouds came barrelling over…
It didn’t actually rain, in the end. We enjoyed our time out – chai latte for me and a choc-mousse cake to share.
As for our acquisitions – if you’ve visited us in the past, you will have noticed that our futon sofa has not been in the best of repair, or comfortable, lately. Very lumpy, and bits of foam spilling out everywhere. I patched it, but there’s a point where that just doesn’t work anymore.
We had a look at Lifeline last week, and found a nice, sturdy sofa, bought it and arranged for delivery the next day. We received a phone call later that day – it had been damaged while being moved – did we want to have a look at it? The tone of the call made it seem like the whole side had been ripped off. We were offered a good discount when we got there, and a free bit of material to patch it up. It ended up just being a rip across one corner, which I sewed up when we got it in the house.
Behold – the new sofa!
🙂
What else have we acquired? A new laundry basket! How exciting!
The old one’s been disintegrating for quite a while now. Can’t wait to use the new one!
23
It’s not that far off midnight, but I still have time to talk about the day…
Our anniversary today – twenty-three years today! ❤ We just had a quiet visit to the cafe, and snuggled on the “new” sofa watching a DVD this evening.
My hot chocolate – hearts! Yay!
We shared some cake – chocolate orange cake.
This is the one we brought home to have while watching “Bridget Jones’ Baby” – Rosewater and pistachio cake (gluten and dairy free).
A new mural on the wall in the parking lot behind the cafe.
…and some flowers near where we sat to eat.
Both were plants we had in the old house, and both smell sweet.
It’s been a good year.
Time to dive in to the next one.
A Bean Grows In Ipswich
Sweet Bean turned 14 yesterday. He seems to have been growing up so fast lately, to the extent that he is noticeably taller than me (and, indeed, is the tallest in the family now!) He has not only grown physically, but has also grown within himself, achieving some firsts this term, and pushing himself to do things he would not have considered before.
His first triumph was to design, perform and present a science experiment for the Science Fair his distance education school put on this term. He chose to find out if the sun and a magnifying glass could be used to focus heat on rope in order to burn it (as seen in many films). Here’s his presentation –
We were so proud of him! It was hard to believe that he had never done a presentation before. He won second prize overall, which was lovely, but the best part was seeing him so confident (and brave!).
His second triumph was performing in the Homeschool Learning Day’s performance. He played a Roman soldier (it was a time travelling plot), and we helped him create a costume as well. Another brave move for him – last year he wouldn’t even consider getting up on stage.
The whole performance was wonderful. I love to see kids of all ages having the chance to get up on stage, and stretch themselves in new directions. There are always moments like someone finding they had a talent they didn’t know they had, or having fun with a group of friends… or just losing themselves in the moment and the music – magic! 🙂 Here’s Sweet Bean’s performance –
His birthday was relatively quiet, with presents, french toast for breakfast, and cheesecake with Grandma in the afternoon.
Steampunk goggles!
Steampunk gun! …and old watch (not working)/new watch.
We took him to Sizzlers today for his birthday meal – what better way to celebrate than with lots of food?
Cheers – for another great year! ❤
Jumping In
It’s been a while since I’ve been here – I’ve been such a procrastinator lately… today I got some note-taking done, and have been working my way through textbooks, but it’s been very slow. There’s not really enough time to lose! Nevertheless, I’m bingeing on Antiques Road Show at the moment… pleased with the work I did today, though.
Loving my breakfast! 🙂
I’ve been overhauling my eating patterns lately – problems with gut health, mostly by slipping into lazy eating with not enough nutrients and too much sugar. I’ve been enjoying sauerkraut, and substituting milk when I can. More veg, trying for gluten free – seems to be working…
Overall, my health seems to be on an upward turn. I went to a healing meeting at church a couple of months ago, and have since had substantial relief from the chest pains I’d been having over the last year or so – yay! That is a huge benefit, which I am grateful for – I have whole days where I just revel in feeling well, and have started doing exercises again. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it seems doable now. Sometimes, the state of my health feels like this…
… only not as cute.
Trying to get out and about more. We went to our favourite cafe, where they do a great range of gluten-free (and often dairy-free) food.
The chai latte was made on almond milk, which I found a tiny bit “thin” in flavour for the spices.
The views from our table –
It’s generally peaceful there, but more so this time, as we were the only customers for a while.
So – onward into the rest of the term. Hopefully full steam ahead!
Coming Up Roses
Aren’t they beautiful?
I got them at church a couple of weeks ago, and they were just the sort of cheeriness I needed! I don’t usually like pink and orange together, but these just looked right.
Here’s a close up.
🙂
Here’s another couple of photos taken later in the week, when the roses had opened out more.
I’ve been meaning to write for a while, but haven’t had anything much to say… I’ve just finished an assignment, though, so I’m feeling good! Most of this last week I’ve had more energy and less pain than has been the case for a while – I’ve done a bit of walking and other exercise, and I even did both a load of washing and folded it with no major problems! I’m off to a healing meeting at church tomorrow night, so feeling hopeful about that…
Still, my life has a lot of roses, even if the thorns can crop up unexpectedly.
One of the nice parts of the week was going out for a coffee.
Citrus cakes – dairy free and gluten free. Yum!
Here’s to the flowers, sunny days, and opportunities to grow and bloom. 🙂
