Productivity

Once again, I'm exhausted and ready for bed.

We left the shop at about 1.30pm and I did some grocery shopping so that I could do what I've been planning to do for the last 6 weeks, but haven't!

I planned to grocery shop every Friday so that I could bulk cook on Sunday and have all our meals prepared for the week.

But I kept missing the butcher - until this week!

So this afternoon I've prepared spaghetti bolognese sauce (which we will eat with zoodles instead of pasta), Hainan chicken and a beef casserole. That will help next week when I don't feel like spending time in the kitchen.

Since I made the decision to go into business with The Motivator, my eating habits have gone to pot.

My diet now includes hot chips, potato chips, rice, bread and GF desserts full of sugar, oh and too much coffee!

My energy levels fluctuate ridiculously with so many carbs and sugars going through my system and I'm not sleeping as soundly as I did before.

So I've decided to get back on the Paleo wagon - and I'm announcing it here to make myself accountable.

While my mental and emotional health is thriving in our self-made little slice of heaven, my physical health is slowly sliding downward and I want to feel physically strong and healthy again. I don't like feeling exhausted and unmotivated at the end of the day. It reminds me of when I used to fall asleep in the afternoons while I was playing with Chicklet. I need to feel Paleo fit again so that I can outlast everybody in the day.

I also need to be energised for the road trip next month!!

I'm a bit excited about the road trip.

The remainder of this year is going to be hectic and amazing and fabulous!

I can't wait to see all three of my kids, BGWLBH, my brother and my niece who are all coming for Adoring Husband's 60th birthday bash. Their visits will all be staggered over 3 or 4 weeks and following their departure, BGWLBH and I are off on our road trip, it's going to be epic!

In the meantime, I need to put all of my prepared food into the freezer and head off to bed.

Nite all.

Week's End

Here we are at the end of another great week and I'm feeling very tired.

So it's after 11pm and I'm off to bed.

I had a nice night at the club tonight and won a chook in the early bowler's raffle followed by a bit of a win on the pokies later in the evening.

Our table was light on friends with only 8 of our possible 18+ in attendance and none of us was lucky in the raffles. At the end of the night as we filed outside to catch the bus, we were disappointed to discover that it had left without us!

This meant hanging around for another fifteen minutes until it returned to get us. Not such a bad thing on this mild Spring night with a perfectly delicious breeze blowing in our hair.

I whipped up a quick dinner with a few leftovers that were in the fridge and then watched Graham Norton while I contemplated my possible early night ... until I was reminded that I had promised to iron Adoring Husband's official uniform for his big SES event tomorrow.

So having fulfilled my promise, I am also whipping up a quick blog post so that I can climb into bed and fall into a deep slumber that will hopefully take me through to a bright, early and happy Saturday morning.

Thanks for reading and have a happy Saturday!

Nite all.  

In Love

I am in love.

In love with my workspace.

(and Adoring Husband of course lol)

As far as sales go, it was a very quiet day. As far as visitors go, it was a very busy day! Not only friends, but previous customers came in, just to say hello! Which was really lovely and made the day go very quickly.

Mrs Bucket was the first through the door and it was a good visit with her. We had some real D&M time which was interesting and nice.

Today is pension day for a lot of the town locals, so they head into The Bay to do their grocery shopping. Originally, I thought pension day would be busier in the shop, but it's The Bay that gets busy on this day, not us.

A delivery of stock arrived and it was fun opening the box to see what was inside. I can never remember everything in the order, so it's like Christmas opening the packages.

The man finally arrived to assess the flood damage. It seems we will be getting a new roof, but it'll take 6 weeks to organise and who knows how long to actually replace. It's a big job, but meanwhile, this gentleman says that he will fix the back wall so that water doesn't seep through in the next downpour.

For now, I feel better having discussed the possibility of fixing the problem.

When there was no-one in the shop, I fluffed around and moved some stock, rearranging things here and there.

Tomorrow, I'll order some more snap jewellery. It's so popular, and since it takes 30-60 days for each order to arrive, I need to make sure there will be enough here for Christmas! (Yes, Christmas is less than 12 weeks away!)

Adoring Husband took delivery of some decorations and tablecloths for his Rock and Roll party, so things are looking good so far for the Big Bash.

The Motivator took the day to spend quality time with her niece.

Right now, Adoring Husband, having spent the night on SES duties, is snoring in his chair and the 2009 version of the movie 'Astro Boy' is on Foxtel. As interesting (not) as it is, I need to get some sleep. I've had a mild headache itching to take hold all afternoon and evening. I think a good night's sleep will kick it to the curb.

Nite all.

Almost Dry

All of our carpet, except in the training room, is dry.

The water is obviously still seeping under the wall in the training room because it's not drying at all and it's beginning to smell. Ugh.

Someone was supposed to come inspect and assess today, but they hadn't arrived by the time I left at 4pm. Maybe he arrived after that. I hope so.

The Motivator returned to work with her niece, Ruby Red, in tow, who helped out with a few chores and we asked her to give us her youthful advice on some bags, but she is obviously a different type of teenager to the ones we have visiting our town because she didn't like any of the bags that we normally sell to young women and teenagers!

We had some lovely new customers today and some returning customers as well. It was a good day.

The Motivator left after lunch for a work appointment and I spent a quiet afternoon replacing stock on shelves and making order selections for more stock, as well as sorting through some of the paperwork and office paraphernalia that I brought from home on Tuesday.

Adoring Husband took Colli, one of the psychotic dogs, into the groomers first thing this morning ...

From what I understand, she was quite well behaved and I almost didn't recognise her when AH brought her into the shop to show her off.

A H prepared his own dinner tonight. I'd eaten a big lunch, so I didn't need to eat dinner.

We picked The Blonde Bombshell up from her place and drove to the Bowls Club to meet Tweedle Dee and the Green Thumb for the trivia night. We did incredibly well and came 2nd out of a very large number of teams.

I didn't count them but I think there were about 12 teams tonight. We had one perfect round and came second by three points!

There were a lot of familiar faces there tonight, which made it even more fun and the competition was fierce! We won two of the rounds, which meant we were given a big bag of lollies for each of those rounds - woot woot!

So it's ended up being a late night for us and it's already 11.30pm, so I guess I should sign off and drag Adoring Husband, who is snoring his head off in the lounge chair beside me, into bed.

Having not had any dinner, I'm feeling a bit peckish now. Nothing that a big glass of water won't fix until tomorrow.

Nite all.

Tired Az

I'm a bit exhausted.

I think the drama and worry of the water inundation in the shop has taken its toll.

The dogs waking me up twice for toileting during the night also didn't help.

Nor did the 6 hours clearing the back room yesterday!

I had a shop full of men and women in SES uniforms this morning assessing the damage, checking out the roof and giving me some helpful advice, as well as cleaning out the gutters and talking to the agent in charge of the rental property.

Luckily the forecast storms amounted to nothing, so we didn't have to worry about more damage and there should be a gentleman coming tomorrow to work out what needs to be repaired and hopefully get started on those repairs!

The Motivator returned from Sydney and also came to inspect the damage this afternoon. As she arrived, the Real Estate Agent met her at the door and came in to have a look as well.

Now that I think about it, there was a steady stream of people coming through to inspect the damage all day!

Morning coffee with the girls was lovely, with Mrs Bucket joining us, having arrived yesterday for a few weeks holiday.

There were a lot of customers during the day with more good feedback.

Ted, a local indigenous man, dropped by to ask if we'd be interested in selling his aboriginal artefacts. His work is beautiful and we are strongly considering his offer. We also discussed the idea of having him do workshops and/or talks on aboriginal culture and beliefs. He has lectured at universities and is a very interesting man.

After my fights over the phone, on three different occasions, with 3 different Telstra officers last week, I received a phone call today from the complaints/appeals department. I told him my story and explained why I disagreed with the account AND with the the previous three decisions over my complaint.

This gentleman was far more amiable and prepared to listen and compromise with me. In the end, our bill was almost halved and we are much happier with this outcome.

So my day has been very full and I think I'm pretty much done.

It's an early night for me.

Nite all.

Rain Rain Go Away

I know that we need rain.

We desperately need rain.

The whole of Queensland needs rain.

But our shop doesn't need any more rain!!

I've spent the day in the back bedroom attempting to clear out some boxes that we've had stored in another bedroom for ten years. It's been a journey back in time with some interesting memories triggered.

I was brutal and culled so much paperwork and old photos and jewellery and old purses and birthday/christmas cards from years ago. I stood at the shredder for ages shredding old bank accounts, pay slips (and we all know how many decades ago payslips ceased to be a thing), work reports and assessments, tax notices, superannuation papers, medical certificates and return to work plans.

The list goes on and on.

It took a long time because the stoopid shredder overheated every 5 minutes and needed to rest for 10 minutes before it would work again.

I did this through a wet, windy stormy day.

This evening, just before dinner, Adoring Husband suggested that he go check the shop. We were told when we first moved in, that there was a  problem in the ceiling during heavy rain, but nobody knew where it was coming from.

Well, tonight, there was no problem where they initially pointed it out that day.

But every outer wall was leaking from either the ceiling down the walls or through the floor under the walls. It's a disaster, but luckily we got to it before any stock or furniture was damaged and I lay  towels where it was leaking the heaviest, so now that the rain has stopped, there shouldn't be any further problems.

I'll be straight into the real estate office tomorrow morning to make sure they get someone out to do something about it quickly.

... and this was after I inspected the damage!

Now it's almost 11pm and I need sleep. It's been a big day with emotional memories and stressful water problems. I'll have to mop up the mess tomorrow.

Nite all.

Footy Finals

I'm sitting on my couch watching the NRL Grand Final between Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys.

It's fast and furious and sadly, there has already been a serious injury that held up the game for 15 minutes.

I can't decide who I want to win this game.

Melbourne Storm are an amazing team full of stars. The difference between them and any other team full of stars, is that they play as a team. None of those stars try to be heroes on their own. They know that they need each other to win tight games and they are impressive both on and off the field.

The North Queensland Cowboys are the underdogs. It was sheer luck and only because of the result of another game that they even got into the top 8 to make the finals. They are fighters. They play smart and hard and they never give up. They well and truly earned their spot in this Grand Final.

I know they have the heart to win, but I just don't know if they have enough in them to do it against Storm.

We are only 20 minutes into the game and Storm are winning 6 - nil.

I've had a fairly productive Sunday, waking with more energy than I did last Sunday. I spent two hours in the back bedroom and removed a mini suitcase full of paperwork which needs to go to the shop and a couple of bags of magazines, books and stock which we took to the shop late this afternoon.

There was also 2 bags and a box full of rubbish removed.

I estimate that I probably have another hour or two to completely finish the job.

I baked a chicken in the oven with some sweet potato and beetroot. I served that with a delicious home made chicken gravy for a late lunch.

From 2pm onward, I relaxed on the couch and kept an eye on the BOM because SES have been issued warnings for heavy rain and storms in our area. They seem to be very slow moving and I doubt that anything will happen before tomorrow, probably early morning.

If it's raining tomorrow, I probably won't open the shop. The rain will keep the locals and the tourists indoors, so being at the shop will be pointless.

Anyway, I'm off to watch the footy.

Go Storm!

Go Cowboys!

Nite all.