Morning Productivity

I don’t know where the energy came from, but I was feeling motivated enough to get shit done this morning.

It started in the pool area while I was playing with Harley.

Adoring Husband was working in the garden, mowing and blowing and generally making a lot of noise, but he stopped while I played with Harley because he knows it’s my quiet time.

I decided to lend a helping hand by cleaning the leaves out of the pool and weeding the back corner under the soursop tree.

After I finished playing with Harley, I decided to give the fridge a complete cleanout and clean the interior and drawers. It took over an hour, even with AH’s assistance emptying out the containers of old food.

From there, I took my clothes off the line, folded them and put them away, which triggered my need to tidy up the floor of my walk in wardrobe.

By then, I was done.

Far too much productivity around the home for this little old bird!

I baked a chicken and vegetables for dinner and made a mixed berry roulade for dessert.

Tonight was a BBL match between Brisbane Heat and Adelaide Strikers. It’s close.

It’s not even 9.30pm and I’m all curled up in bed.

Time to sleep.

Nite all.

Weekend Bliss

I bought a box of 24 Bowen mangoes for $28 on Wednesday.

They are the sweetest, juiciest mangoes full of flesh - just as I remember them as a kid.

Today, I cut the cheeks and bagged them for freezing. I had eaten 3 whole mangoes prior to today and I made sure I gnawed the remaining flesh from the skin and the seed of each piece of fruit today. 

All the juice was dribbling down my arm and dripping off my elbow - THAT’S how a mango should be eaten!

There were 12 ziplock bags to freeze.

We finished off the passionfruit/mango cheesecake that I baked yesterday.

It was a lovely day with no rain, a nice breeze and plenty of sunshine, so I did all of my washing, including my large travel make up bag, my fold up shopping bags, a hand made bag, an old ‘Roz’s Happy Place’ bag + 3 loads of clothes.

My beautiful linen sheets that I’ve used on my bed for 7 years have finally given up the ghost. The fitted sheet is now threadbare with a couple of small tears, so sadly I have to toss it. Also sadly, Lorraine Lea no longer stock them, BUT, happily, I found a website that sells the same linen in the same sage green for almost half the price that Lorraine Lea sold them!

I’m happy now.

The cricket has been on ALL day.

The women’s ODI match in Wellington NZ between New Zealand and Australia. Aussies won.

A BBL match between Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers. Hobart won.

Right now, Sydney Sixers are playing Sydney Thunder. It’s close!

Time for bed.

This is me!!

Nite all.

Kitchen Time

I baked a passionfruit/mango cheesecake this morning. There is only half of it left. Delicious.

I cooked up some Harley meals.

I used up the leftover lamb and pork mince on a spaghetti bolognese sauce that smelled so good, Adoring Husband decided he wanted it for dinner instead of the usual Friday night fare of chicken wings.

AH and I watched the Big Bash cricket tonight.

My Christmas parcel arrived at its Melbourne destination.

Who knows where the Perth parcel is? Hopefully Australia Post know.

All parcels sent.

All gifts wrapped and under the tree.

Will do a last minute food shop on Monday.

No stress Christmas.

Now I wish to sleep.

Nite all.

Closer to Xmas

We had another 60mm rain yesterday (Wednesday) and it was all after 8.30pm. It pelted down.

Right now, there are helicopters overhead, still searching for a 77yr old man with dementia, who has been missing from a holiday home here in town since Monday afternoon.

Adoring Husband played golf today and had to walk the course because last night’s rain made the ground too wet to allow buggies. His Fitbit showed almost 9000 steps! That’s what it should show every day, golf or no golf!

One of my parcels arrived at its Sydney destination today (3 days earlier than the original tracking info indicated). The Melbourne parcel is in Melbourne, but not yet delivered. No idea where the Perth parcel is because tracking hasn’t updated.

Tonight, I cooked these … https://www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/recipe/baking/lamb-eggplant-haloumi-sausage-rolls-32790/

They were delicious. Everyone went back for seconds and then later back for thirds! I used pre-packaged GF puff pastry so it took 45 minutes (which includes 25 minutes oven time).

I watched a movie on Netflix called “Carry-on” which I enjoyed. It’s not my usual type of movie and it had me on the edge of my seat a few times. I recommend it.

Had a big day in The Bay yesterday. Bought myself a couple of tops and one more gift to put under the tree for AH. Of course the usual places for food, fruit n veg, lotto, Harley bones etc.

Time for me to sleep now.

Nite all.

Rain on the Roof

The last three readings in our rain gauge were 80mm, 80mm and 90mm.

That’s a LOT!

Apparently there is more to come.

The temperature and humidity have risen considerably and it’s quite stifling and muggy.

Ugh 😩 

Anyway … an interesting experience last night.

The batteries in both of our smoke alarms lost enough charge to set the alarms off at about 11.30pm.

BGWLBH didn’t even wake up!

Luckily for me, Adoring Husband woke up and came to the rescue with his trusty step ladder.

We didn’t have any new batteries so we were without working smoke alarms for about 8 hours.

Even after AH removed the old batteries, the alarms kept setting off short bips every two minutes which distressed Harley no end.

He had frantically pushed open the gate to to his bedroom cage when the alarm initially went off and he ran around the house crazily with his ears back and his tail down.

Not happy, panting heavily and very restless.

Even after the noise stopped and I put him back to bed, he tried very hard to break free from his cage. He wouldn’t eat the liver treat that I put in his bed and he looked at me with pleading eyes to set him free.

But I was very firm with him - no molly coddling from me. I stood in front of the cage and blocked the gate so that he couldn’t get out and firmly told him to lie down and be a good boy, every so often giving him a firm pat on his head.

He gradually relaxed but it was 40 minutes before he ate his liver treat and another 10 minutes before he actually lay down, stopped panting and fell asleep.

So it was 1am when I could lie down in bed and another 45 minutes before “I” could relax enough to go to sleep!

Just a teensy bit traumatic triggering memories of when the tornado hit 12 yrs ago and we had to rip the smoke alarm out of the ceiling because it was going off and we couldn’t remove it the normal way!

All good now because AH purchased new batteries this morning and set everything right.

I had a 2 hour ZOOM chat with The Gypsy today. She is returning from a retreat in Leura in the Blue Mountains, staying in Coonabarabran tonight, so we had a great catch up.

The result of our chat was me creating a “Thank you Roz” journal - to thank myself for the good things I do, the positive changes I make, the recognitions I acknowledge and the work I put into my personal development. 

How many of us ever thank ourselves for anything? It’s a nice cozy feeling. 

I have a lot journals on the go …

• Gratitude journal where I list 3 things that I’m grateful for each day.
• Things I’m proud of journal listing my yearly achievements - even the small ones.
• Goals and dreams journal.
• Daily personal diary.
• Food journal.
• Health journal.
• Art ideas journal.
• A Number One Son journal
• A Vegan Chickie journal
• A Bubbles journal (these last 3 are for my kids telling them how I feel about them, reminding them of good times, apologising for my mistakes etc)
• A “to do” list journal - small and big things I want to get done but rarely do haha - probably because I don’t have time after writing in all my journals!
• A meditation journal.
• A Women’s Retreat journal.
• An intuition journal.
• A travel journal.
• A Personal Powers journal.
• An “Ideas” journal (creating websites, creating online courses, art classes etc)
• A “reviews” journal (reviewing products, websites, apps, streaming platforms etc. I originally started it for my first website)
• I guess my blog is an electronic journal!

Off the top of my head, that’s all I can remember. I work on three or four at a time, but there are more than I’ve mentioned here.

I love writing. I love the feel of ink on a fresh page. I love cleansing my mind by putting my thoughts into words on paper. I love journals and diaries. 

This is my “Thank you Roz” journal …

It’s almost midnight and I have a day in the Bay planned so I’d best sleep.

Nite all.

Still Wet

At 9am today, we had 80mm of rain in the gauge.

It has rained quite steadily for most of today so I expect another 40-50mm.

With the rain came a nice temperature drop and a beautiful cool breeze from the south. We didn’t even need to turn on the air conditioner all day!

Adoring Husband suggested that we spend the day playing games like Scrabble, but I wasn’t in the mood for anything that required brain activity, so I spent many hours wrapping Christmas presents to send all over Australia.

I still have to wrap more yet 🫤

Harley got to play when there were a couple of rain breaks, so he was happy.

For dinner, I did a lamb, rice, leek and tomato dish served with snow peas, green beans and zucchini.

AH and I watched the test cricket between India and Australia, followed by the BBL 20/20 match between Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars. Perth won.

A very sporty day.

It’s after 11pm now. Tomorrow will be spent packaging up and addressing the parcels to send off in time for Christmas.

Also more cricket!

Nite all.

It’s Mighty Wet

It has been raining since about 3pm..

It is very steady and sometimes heavy enough that I need to raise the volume on the TV.

Harley and I came into the bedroom at about 1.30pm and after some colouring in on my app, I decided to nap. It only lasted 20 minutes but was just what I needed.

There was a 15 minute break in the rain at about 4.15pm which Harley and I took advantage of and I tossed the ball around the pool for a while.

Just as he was ready to jump in the pool, I called out “no” and he stopped. I said “Let’s go get your bone” and we left the pool area.

He’s a good dog.

While he chewed his bone, I climbed back into bed until Adoring Husband called me for dinner - the usual Friday night fare.

There’s nothing nicer than listening to the rain while snuggled down in bed. Day time or night time.

After dinner, we all played trivia for a while and I came back to bed at 7.30pm and have been journaling tonight.

BGWLBH and I had big plans for the markets and shopping tomorrow morning (Saturday) but I think the rain will put an end to that. The forecast is not good.

But I will get some sleep, just in case.

Nite all.