Kicking Back

Thanks for another 'average' Saturday morning in the shop.

Thanks for allowing me to close on time - with Adoring Husband's help.

Thanks for giving me quiet time to put my feet up and relax.

Thanks for the perfect afternoon for swimming in the pool.

Thanks for delicious food - duck breast, coleslaw, roast pumpkin & spinach salad, blueberry/pineapple/banana fruit whip with toffee nuts - to nourish our bodies.

Thanks for a great evening for movie watching - The Book Club.

Thanks for a comfortable bed to welcome a long Saturday night of sound sleep. 

Thanks for a whole bunch of fabulous quotes to fill my blog post so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Nite all.

Fab Friday

I had a slow start to the day and didn't even get out of bed until 7.30am.

'Time efficient' is a good way to describe how I spent the hour to get ready for work and I was pedalling down the driveway at 8.30am.

This gave me plenty of time to stop and buy a take away coffee before going to work and the doors were open and I was ready for customers before the clock struck nine.

It was a steady day and sales were the best for the week.

I had a visit from The Brains Trust who delivered some produce from her garden.

I had a visit from The Motivator before she embarked on her camping trip. She was looking very relaxed and chilled.

I had a visit from Adoring Husband after he returned from The Bay, with stories of his purchases, which included a big bowl for the garden and my crystal rocks. Photo tomorrow.

I had a visit from a couple of ladies who attended the lady's lunch last Wednesday.

I had a visit from another local business owner who needed a special gift for a special person.

There wasn't a lot of spare time to complete any chores.

Adoring Husband returned to the shop at 3pm to help me close the doors and bring in all the paraphernalia so that I could leave on time.

I sat for half an hour to relax and unwind before getting ready for the usual Friday night at the club.

I had a lucky night on the pokies and only one other of our group had a win.

There was just enough room on the bus for me to squeeze in to come home.

AH had the usual dinner ready when I arrived home and we watched a silly movie.

Now it's time for bed - because work tomorrow!

It's going to take me twenty minutes to clear all the shoes, shoe boxes and clothes from the bed - I made a bit of a mess getting ready for the club. 🤪

Nite all.  

Blue Rock

Adoring Husband and I left home at 8am.

During the drive into The Bay, I wrote our 'to do' list.

First stop was Tinkerbells where I purchased this ...

It's a blue kyanite rock to go in the garden with the rose quartz rocks and I intend to get a couple of selenite towers.

I'm looking for a large shallow bowl approximately a metre in diameter, perhaps 30cm deep, to partially fill with sand and then strategically place my crystal rocks. Something like this ...

From there we

• restocked our raw nuts supply at Nana's Kitchen
• made a stop at Office Works which we left empty handed (unheard of right?!)
• visited HBW where AH was hoping to acquire some work related items but was unsuccessful
• stopped at Stocklands for a haircut, optometrist appt and food shopping
• looked for a mini outdoor coffee table at the clearance centre - where the 50% off prices are more expensive than Harvey Norman's full priced items
• Harvey Norman was next, to price their small TVs because the one in our outdoor area has had the royal order. No purchase was made.
• the final stop was at the butcher and Foodworks at home 
• it was rapidly approaching 4pm when we finally arrived home

We unpacked the car and packed everything away, fed the dogs, then just as we sat down to put our feet up, The Friendly Truckie pulled into the driveway. I had forgotten about the invitation I offered him when he needed help with some settings on his community Facebook page.

We showed him the pool and chatted for a while before we got down to business. This Facebook lesson took all of ten minutes, but by the time he left, it was time to cook dinner.

I made some sweet potato/pumpkin fritters which were delicious and we had them with lamb rack and coleslaw.

It's now well after 11.30pm so I'd best get to bed. I'm exhausted! I thought we'd have all our errands complete by midday, so it was a much longer day than I expected.

Happy Friday to you!

Nite all.    

Oh My Day

I thoroughly enjoyed my day, from beginning to end ... even though I'm not quite at the end yet.

I woke up at 6am excited to go to meditation and again there was a full house. Everybody was feeling the love and willing to share and there was laughter as we all related to each other and our stories. In the final meditation of the morning I felt myself sitting in a glowing golden light. The perfect way to finish the class.

I had booked myself in with The Gypsy for a treatment immediately after meditation.

Sorting through all of that paperwork in the back bedroom and in the drawers of the side cabinet, gave me a repetitive strain in my right shoulder. The pain was in it's second day today and I wanted to get rid of it before going to our lady's lunch.

The Gypsy did an amazing job and I felt no pain all day. It began to twinge a bit this evening so I did the stretches that she suggested and will do them again before I go to bed. She's a little marvel.

I got home from the treatment with just enough time to have a quick shower and get dressed for lunch. The Old Speckled Hen was picking me up at 11.30am so had an hour to play with.

Lunch, at Goody's, just fifteen minutes from here and with a beautiful view ...

I ordered GF salt and pepper squid with sweet potato fries and salad served with a spicy aioli. It was a huge meal and try as I might, I could not finish everything on my plate. I wish I'd taken a photo of the food!

Even though I was full and unable to finish my main meal, when they brought the dessert menu and it contained one GF option, I lost all self control and ordered it! It was a huge warm chocolate brownie swimming in a hot chocolate sauce with side serve of pouring cream.

I ate half of it and it was divine! It was my first off-paleo meal for the year and even though it tasted so delicious, my body was not enjoying the after affects of so much sugar and other less healthful ingredients.

Sometimes it's difficult to weigh up the benefits - is it worth the ten minutes of pure pleasure against the hour or two of discomfort that ranges from mild to intense?

I was home before 2.30pm and I made my way straight to the recliner and lay back to stretch my body so that the food had an easy pathway during the digestive process.

I watched a movie.

Adoring Husband was cooking a lamb rack on the barbecue for his dinner, so I made him a salsa salad and he had leftover coleslaw with his protein.

I declined dinner but just before 8pm I ate a mango and a handful of blackberries.

I texted my sister, Squirt, to find out how wet she was up in Magnetic Island. They've had 360mm this week - but only 78mm today.

The other big news in town was an accident last night where the Care Flight helicopter had to land in the Lions Park carpark to take an injured man to Brisbane. He had been hit by a car driven by his mother - the TV news claimed that she had dropped him home after a party and as she did a U-turn to leave, he jumped in front of the car.

He is in a critical condition.

He was living in the house next door to The Happy Abode and helped me carry our heavy sign a couple of times. He seemed like a nice friendly guy - rough around the edges, but nice enough.

Very sad.

Right now, I'm worn out after a great day. Adoring Husband and I have plans for heading into The Bay early tomorrow, so an early night is on the cards.

Nite all.  

Half On. Half Off.

Not a lot to talk about today.

Morning coffee with the girls was fantastic and the last to leave, The Brains Trust, walked out the door at 11.15am.

I only worked until 12pm so I had just enough time to change some payment information with our bank account and then create a quick flyer for my photography workshops.

The Motivator arrived right on time and we chatted for ages before I left for home. I rode up the driveway at 1.20pm and Adoring Husband announced "You're early." as I walked in the door.

"Actually, I'm late because I told you I'd be home before 1pm!"

Doofus.

I mashed up an avocado and took a punnet of blackberries out of the fridge and headed straight to the lounge room to park my butt on my recliner chair and kick back and relax.

AH was busy at his laptop doing SES business while sitting at the dining table.

I found a movie, "The Guardian" and put my feet up to enjoy Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher.

Adoring Husband left a bit after 3pm to attend an SES meeting in The Bay, so I watched my recording of 'Married at First Sight' pausing it every so often to prepare dinner.

I made a different version of Hainan chicken which was so delicious that I had to have some myself!

That's it for my day.

No swimming today. No decluttering. No washing. No studying. No stripping the bed.

They are all the things that I planned on doing before I arrived home, but my brain switched to 'shut down mode' as soon as I walked through the door.

It's already 9pm and I think I'll go to bed for an early night so that I can rise early for meditation on my day off.

Nite all.

Productive Day Off

I wasn't productive ALL day because I stopped in the middle for a swim and a relax and lunch around the pool.

Adoring Husband brought my morning coffee into the bedroom at around 8am.

I attempted to print a small booklet on our printer, but unfortunately a paper jam meant that I had no choice but to get out of bed to get that sorted.

I figured that while I was up, I should make a start on decluttering the back bedroom in preparation for Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armor's visit next month.

It't the room that AH likes to hoard every piece of paper that comes into the house. You know, when you have to clear an area quickly, so you pick everything up and dump it in another room 'temporarily'? Well that's the room where all our paperwork lands.

There were many mixed piles on the bed, so I sorted through each one and made new piles.

• SES paperwork
• Business paperwork (Grass Converters)
• Barry's medical paperwork
• My paperwork (surprisingly little)
• Our joint paperwork
• A pile of paperwork with ??? (meaning I wasn't sure whether to toss it or keep it)
• Junk pile to definitely chuck

I cleared other stuff from the room as well, so it won't take much to set it up for the kids.

I rewarded myself with a swim in the pool and then lay on the lounge in the shade of the umbrella while AH cooked steaks on the barbecue and served it with the leftover home made coleslaw. He followed that with sliced watermelon and mango.

Perfect.

We returned to the house and I watched four episodes of the Marie Kondo decluttering show on Netflix. I was disappointed. All of the people in the show got rid of a lot of stuff, but they still had a lot of stuff cluttering up their homes and not once did I think WOW what a difference!

I do decluttering better 🤗🤩🤪

So I turned off the TV and made the decision to start small and clear out the four drawers in the side cabinet. There was a LOT to throw away and now the drawers each have very little in them.

I didn't overdo it and I think it was a well balanced day with plenty of self care in the mix.

Dinner was beef casserole out of the freezer, so it was easy. That's enough red meat for the week, that's for sure!

MKR started it's tenth season tonight - looks like another interesting series. I've recorded 'Married at First Sight' to watch later.

I work for half a day tomorrow and then I'm off for 2 1/2 days! I expect to get lots of decluttering and lots of study done - except when I'm at the lady's lunch on Wednesday!

Anyway, enough of this frivolity. I need an early night.

Nite all.

Sleepy Sunday

It was not a sleepy Sunday for me, but I probably could have had a nap at work if I'd wanted one.

Even though there were not a lot of customers, I got quite a bit done as far as tidying and cleaning go.

Lots of dusting and rearranging and display changing and jewellery cleaning, so by the end of the day I felt like I'd been productive enough.

I closed the shop a little after 1pm and bought my coffee for the day before pedalling home.

Adoring Husband arrived a little after me and we sat down and ate a big bag of green grapes together while watching the remaining episodes of Grace and Frankie.

Dinner was prepared very early because it was too late for lunch and we were both starving. I did maple/thyme chicken drumsticks with coleslaw and sweet potato salad. I think we sat down to eat at about 5pm.

I made a fruit whip ice cream with frozen pineapple, blueberries, papaya and I added banana and mango, coconut cream, maple syrup and Himalayan salt.  I also did up a tray of toffee nuts.

After we filled our bellies and before the tennis started, I changed into my swimmers and slid into the pool. I mostly just floated around for about half an hour and as darkness fell and Adoring Husband complained about getting eaten by mozzies (he didn't come into the water), we decided to go inside.

The tennis had already started, but it finished pretty quickly! Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal very easily and very quickly. He was my pick, but I expected Nadal to put up a much better fight than he did.

Now I'm watching Netflix.

"Tidying Up with Marie Kondo"

I've lost count of how many people have recommended Marie Kondo's book and TV series and she's even recommended in the course that I'm currently studying. So I've just switched her show on and now I'm leaving you so that I can focus.

I hope she can perform miracles and teach me how to declutter with a vengeance and keep my life uncluttered.

Not like this ...

On that note ...

Nite all.