Happy Christmas/Boxing Day

What a strange Christmas!

I received a call from Number One Son at 7.30am.

I don’t even remember what time I got up ... maybe a bit after 8am?

I made us a smoothie to start the day - pineapple, apple, raspberries, pear & coconut water.

We all sat down to finish last night’s Trivial Pursuit game. Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair won.

We started another game but at 9.30am I decided it was time to start preparing lunch.

With BGWLBH as my assistant, we made roast pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad, sweet potato salad, coleslaw, thyme lemon and honey chicken drumsticks, thyme and lemon zest chicken balls, grated fresh beetroot and carrot and finally, a mixed salad.

We had ham, prawns, sand crab and Adoring Husband cooked a roast pork on the barbecue rotisserie.

So much food! It took us three hours to prepare and fifteen minutes to eat!

We then opened our Christmas gifts.

At that point, 2.30pm, we decided to have a little rest and join together later in the afternoon.

I lay on the bed and promptly fell asleep.

I heard the home phone at 5pm but couldn’t get up fast enough to answer it. Vegan Chickie had been trying to contact me all day, to no avail.

AH had climbed into bed at about 4.30pm and that’s where he stayed, sound asleep until after 7.30pm.

BGWLBH put together some leftovers for her dinner but I was still sated from lunch. While she ate, I attempted to put together my new water filter but I discovered that the whole process takes about 48 hours so I didn’t get very far.

BGWLBH suggested that we walk over to Cheelii lagoon with our cameras to capture the sunset. Great idea until I discovered that my battery was flat! I used my phone to take these ...

Then the bats put on a show ...

When AH finally appeared, we sat down to finish our trivia game. AH was winning comfortably when he gave up and sat in the lounge room. BGWLBH and I finished the game and she easily won again. I told her that the greatest gift I could give her was the gift of winning.

I’m not sure what our plans are for tomorrow but it’s time to sleep for me now.

It’s on its way to midnight!

I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas Day. For the first time, we had noisy neighbours on both sides of the fence so we remained indoors.

Nite all.

Tired

It’s been a long day.

9am - 5pm at the shop.

Great sales but not record breaking.

With Vegan Chickie’s permission, we opened the Christmas gift that she sent us, which was a big hamper of GF goodies from Byron Bay. Lots of deliciousness inside that box! 

Started a game of trivia before dinner.

Paused trivia for dinner.

Watched “Love Actually” with Adoring Husband and Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair in our lounge room and Vegan Chickie, Mr Perfect and Mama Perfect in Mama P’s lounge room in Victoria.

Vegan Chickie created a group chat page so we could all comment at the good bits through the movie.

Afterwards, BGWLBH, AH and I continued playing the trivia game we’d started, but couldn’t finish because I was too tired. We paused it again and will continue tomorrow.

It’s almost 11.30pm and I am absolutely exhausted!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas Day and that you feel some love. 

Nite all.

New Records

It’s been a day!

Adoring Husband is still not back to his usual self so he remained at home this morning and Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair drove me to the shop.

I had no sooner opened the door when people started walking in to make their Christmas purchases.

It was another record breaking sales day!

My final stock order arrived and in between customers I was frantically unpacking, checking the invoice, pricing the bags and finding somewhere to display them all.

While BGWLBH and I were attempting to close the shop at 3pm, a couple of customers pleaded with us to NOT close yet, so I remained open for them. While they were selecting their purchases, another customer came in and spent up big, so it was definitely worth the extra hour.

I’ll stay open til 5pm on Christmas Eve.

I arrived home, changed my clothes and began preparing our baked chicken dinner. Sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin, garlic asparagus and broccoli with home made gravy.

While it was cooking, BGWLBH drove me to do AH’s cleaning job.

Dinner was delicious - even if I do say so myself!

BGWLBH was kind enough to clean the kitchen so that I could put my feet up and relax.

We both did the Pop master quiz at 8.30pm and I came to bed straight after that.

I’m so tired and distracted, it’s taken me over an hour to write this post.

It’s time for me to sleep. I have a BIG day ahead of me!

Nite all.

Alive and Well

Today, after three days in hospital, Adoring Husband came home.

Obviously he is much improved from Saturday when he was delirious and agitated with a raging temperature.

He still has that nagging cough, but at least all of the tests they did revealed nothing sinister, so hopefully the medication that he’s been given will clear it up. The UTI seems to be gone so it should be all good from here.

I broke all the sales records today!! It was amazing and busy and joyous all day with very happy people excited about the festive season. I even had a few men purchasing gifts for their wives. It was a great day.

Beautiful Girl With The Long Blonde Hair drove me to work and helped me open the shop this morning and this afternoon drove me into The Bay to pick up AH from the hospital. She drove me to do AH’s job and sat in the car waiting for me to finish, helped me prepare dinner and then drove us all around town looking at Christmas lights.

She is my champion and I’m not sure how I can adequately thank her for all that she has done and is still doing for us.

It’s 11pm and I’m exhausted so it’s sleep time for me!

Nite all.

Sleepy Head

It was after 1.30am when I fell asleep and 5.22am when I woke up.

Even though it was short, it was a sound sleep.

I phoned the hospital early to ask what was happening with Adoring Husband, to be told that the UTI he had been struggling with for the last 6 weeks had taken hold and that he was now on an IV drip of antibiotics to  nip it in the bud. They said he would be in hospital for at least another night.

Beautiful Girl With The Long Blonde Hair went for an early walk so when she returned I filled her in the news. She was shocked that she slept through all of that!

We made smoothies for breakfast, went for a swim and at 9.30am we drove into The Bay with AH’s toiletries. I tell you it was a drama trying to find him ... or even someone to ask where he was. Eventually we discovered that he was being held in isolation because there were no beds available in the wards.

They led me to his bed where he was sleeping flat on his back. It didn’t take much to wake him though and he explained, with very little detail, what was happening.

I’ve spoken to him again this evening and they are conducting all the same tests that he did last week with his own Dr and he may stay in until Tuesday!

BGWLBH and I did some fresh fruit and veg shopping before we came home.

All day we have filled our bellies with giant salads and smoothies packed with nutritional goodness. 

Now it’s 9.30 pm and I am struggling to stay awake, so I shall sign off here and catch up on some much needed sleep.

I can’t stay awake for another moment.

Nite all.

Extremes

What a day.

I woke this morning and realised that my fridge desperately needed cleaning - especially because Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair was arriving today. So I climbed out of bed early and took almost an hour to pull all the food out, wash all the shelving and drawers and replace the fresh food and toss the old stuff.

I got to work and sat for 90 minutes before a customer walked through the door! I had to speak very assertively to the universe about providing some customers for me and thankfully, I received an excellent response.

It was a good sales day!

BGWLBH surprised me by bursting through the door at about 11.45am. Hugs and happiness all round!

Adoring Husband surprised me by phoning at 12.30pm to tell me he was not well after mowing the lawn and couldn’t come to help me close the shop.

BGWLBH helped me close the shop.

We arrived home to find AH in bed, in pain and cramping badly all over his body. His tremor was dreadful and he was incapable of getting out of bed.

I gave him fluids and painkillers and let him sleep for a while. When he woke, I gave him a small tuna salad which he ate. He slept some more.

BGWLBH and I went for a swim and sat in the Bali hut catching up on some of our news.

She went for a walk and I cut up some watermelon and pineapple for AH.

I prepared a dinner of curried chicken and vegetable soup which everybody ate but soon after AH began cramping again.

He was in a lot of pain. He had a temperature. He became agitated and confused. He couldn’t get comfortable in any position sitting or laying on the bed. He asked strange questions, couldn’t find the light switch for the light and his tremor was off the charts.

I asked him if I should call an ambulance and he asked me why?

I called the ambulance at 10.30pm.

They have taken him to hospital.

I suspect he has heat stroke or sun stroke. 

BGWLBH is sleeping after two days of intense driving and doesn’t know what transpired here tonight so I won’t disturb her until I hear from the hospital or from AH because we will have to pick him up.

*sigh*

So it has been a day of extremes. I’m exhausted. I’m also worried about AH being in Hervey Bay hospital but beggars can’t be choosers and I have to trust that universe is supporting us well. I’ll be happy to get him home.

Tempting to partake of a beverage about now 😳

Nite all.

Turnaround

Today was one for the books.

My busiest time at the shop is usually between 11am - 12pm-ish.

People rarely come through the door after 1pm.

Today my busiest time was between 12.30pm - 2.30pm.

It was a very good sales day and FINALLY the linen clothing arrived!

The Motivator was working in the treatment room today and after her morning appointment, we chatted and caught up with our news.

I sold some more of my art! Wahoo!

We locked up the shop at 3pm and I pedalled home in the heat to find Adoring Husband doubled over the dining table with severe cramps in his hands! So my first job was to massage his hands and forearms.

He had SES tonight but his constant cramping prevented him from attending.

Chicken and salad for dinner, followed by a couple of cheesy Netflix Christmas movies.

Now it’s time for bed.

But first, I’m thinking these might be fun for Christmas!

Nite all.

Hump Day

No meditation today so it was an easy and slow start to the day.

I fell asleep at 7.30pm Tuesday night and not surprisingly, I was awake at 2pm! I got up for 90 minutes and then climbed back into bed where I slept for another 90 minutes.

It was a good day of sales with the added bonus of a visit from Aggie. 

I did some tidying up in my office area and decluttered a touch, did some rearranging in the drawers behind the counter, took some stock from the storage drawers and displayed it in the shop.

My new stock STILL hasn’t arrived and that ticks me off! The couriers are all very inconsistent - some of them are ridiculously fast and some the total opposite!

I hope it arrives tomorrow.

It’s after 10pm so it’s time to sleep for me.

Sorry about the shortage of words!

Nite all.

Jump In

I jumped into the new week big time.

I was hoping to get in to work really early to clear the training room but the morning moved a lot faster than I expected and by the time I was ready, it was already 8.20am.

Some of the paintings were still wet so we left a table up to accommodate them until they dry.

We set up the small table for morning coffee before opening the shop.

There were six of us at the table but the energy was muted and I think all my girls are exhausted from caring for sick husbands as well as dealing with their own health issues. It’s been a draining year - even without taking COVID into account.

I think we’ve all coped really well until now, but we are feeling fragile and desperately need some self nurturing.

It was a very slow sales day and my delivery of lovely linen did not arrive as expected.

This afternoon was the final journaling class for the year which meant drinking beverages - I tried Pear Cider for the first time which was quite nice. Not something I would drink on a regular basis. We each brought a plate of nibbles and while we did discuss journaling for a while, we spent more time talking memories - which really is what journaling is all about.

I enjoyed that couple of hours very much.

All those nibbles filled my belly enough that I didn’t want dinner. AH also passed on dinner so it has been an easy afternoon.

It’s now 7pm and we are packing up and heading to bed already.

I am open to the universe providing abundant sales tomorrow, Wednesday! So I will sleep and build enough energy to cope with such abundance!

These are my new hippy pants that I absolutely adore! 

Nite all.

More Nurturing

It has been a wet and windy pyjama day for me.

I finished the 3rd series of Good Girls.

Now I will attempt The Witcher. It doesn’t look like my kind of show, but it has been highly recommended so I figure it’s worth checking out.

Today’s plan was to decorate the tree, wash some windows, clean out the fridge and do some art.

None of those things happened and I don’t even care.

Duck with avocado, cucumber, mango and onion salsa + sautéed mushrooms for dinner.

That was my day.

Oh and we were supposed to go to the shop to clear the art mess away and never got there either. So that means going in early tomorrow morning. 

I guess that means I should get some sleep.

Here are some of Saturday’s art pieces...

Nite all.

R & R Sunday

I have nothing much to report except that I’ve been lounging in bed binge watching Good Girls most of the day!

The wet and windy weather has been very conducive to staying indoors.

We changed the bedding mid afternoon and put the new new doona cover on the bed - the doona is actually going in for dry cleaning this week, but the cover is spread lovingly over the mattress ...

I washed the bedding, made Adoring Husband a tasty juice of pineapple, mango, banana and pear with coconut water and reheated last night’s leftovers for AH’s dinner.

AH was feeling much better during the day but as the afternoon wore on, his pesky cough gained momentum and he’s been struggling during the evening.

Today was just what the doctor ordered. Very restful and self nurturing for me.

It’s now 9pm and we are both in bed watching First Dates. I think I’ll get back to Good Girls shortly.

Nite all.

Where to Start

I fell asleep at 1am.

Self inflicted because I was watching something that I needed to see the end of.

At 4.30am I was woken by Adoring Husband’s very loud alarm. He was not in the room at the time but I heard his heavy footsteps as he realised what was happening.

Unfortunately, he was in a very bad way this morning. We are having a rerun of a health condition that started a month ago, and for which he took 30days of antibiotics, but now with a few added extras including exaggerated Parkinson’s symptoms, dizziness, disorientation, weakness and lethargy.

So he drove me (he shouldn’t have driven, but insisted - next time I will insist on riding the trike) to his place of work and I made him sit in the car while I cleaned the loos.

From there we drove to get his coffee and then home.

I prepared myself for work, loaded up my trike and off I pedalled.

Before I opened the shop, I made myself a cup of tea and sat quietly at my desk for 20 minutes.

I set out the flags, chairs and signs and turned everything on inside, including some uplifting Christmas music that I could sing along with.

At 9am one of my class arrived to help set up the training room. This was lucky because I got busy with those pesky customers who kept me on my toes for the next two and a half hours! 

Another of the girls arrived 30 minutes later to help finish up. They were amazing.

Last week, there were 13 people booked into the art class. During the week, two pulled out. During the morning another six pulled out leaving five for the break up party 🎊 + me.

The five remaining were my favourites so it turned into a great afternoon with some successes and some fails. We drank some champagne and ate some fresh fruit and made a big mess.

They all helped clean the mess afterwards and were, once again, amazing.

At 4pm, after a great day of sales and great fun making art, I loaded up my trike and pedalled home in gale force conditions to find AH, having just woken up, sitting on the edge of the bed and still not feeling good at all.

I handed him his usual drugs, some painkillers and some watermelon.

I took washing off the line and hung more washing out, fed the dog, emptied my bags and sat in the lounge room with AH for a little while until it was time to cook dinner.

Chicken, mushrooms, onion, garlic, fresh thyme, lemon juice, plain coconut yoghurt, maple syrup, Himalayan salt, white pepper and home made broth - served with rice. That was for AH. I had two mouthfuls of the chicken mixture and a mango.

After we finished eating, I cleaned the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher.

My body is feeling every bit it’s 60 years right now and I’m looking forward to having a quiet, relaxing Sunday lazing about and doing whatever the hell I choose to do - in between caring for my poor decrepit Adoring Husband of course.

It’s already 10.30pm so I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Bingeing

I forgot to do my blog post last night because I was binge watching ‘Good Girls’.

I was binge watching ‘Good Girls’ so that I can begin binge watching ‘The Witcher’ as recommended by The Motivator.

It’s very difficult to binge anything with so little spare time... especially when Adoring Husband is not into that particular series.

Thursday was a good day. Sales were a bit above average and I got to spend some time with The Motivator. I slept well after my bingeing but because I went to bed so late, there weren’t enough sleeping hours remaining, so my brain was a bit fuzzy all day today.

Having a fuzzy brain is not good on such a busy day as today. It was almost record breaking and in between customers I was trying to set up for Saturday’s art class.

Luckily I have a couple of girls from the class coming in the morning to help. 

I’ve mixed the white paint, set up the tables (thank you Adoring Husband), filled the floetrol bottles, found the straws/spoons/sticks/cups/pins, table protectors ready, canvases ready, coloured paints laid out, party hats and balloons ready for a participant’s birthday, Christmas tinsel ready to be hung, 5 water buckets ready to be filled, bin buckets ready to be lined, silicone mats ready to be distributed, cups counted, gloves out and food corner set up for Christmas break up ... and more.

Now you know why it usually takes me 3 days on my own to set up between customers!

Needless to say I’m feeling a bit weary this evening and I’m planning an early night.

I have mailed off ALL of my family Christmas gifts so I have been very well organised and efficient this year!

Our Christmas tree has been sitting naked in our lounge room for a few days while we search for the energy and motivation to dress it up. We’ll get there eventually.

In just over a week, Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair will be here, so what little energy and motivation we have is being used to clear the bedroom (usually used for ironing and storage) in preparation for her arrival.

We are excited to see her.

Right now I need to prepare for tonight’s pop master quiz so I’m going to make myself comfortable in bed for that.

Nite all.

Out of Sorts

I am feeling very run down.

My body hurts all over and all the nerves feel like they are on the surface of my skin, I had no energy and no motivation for anything today. Even meditation was hard going for me.

I slept poorly last night too.

It’s now 8.30 and I’m in bed waiting for the BBC2 Popmaster Quiz so that I can go to sleep.

It was an average day of sales and Adoring Husband and I had to go into The Bay this afternoon so I planned on closing 15 minutes early. Wouldn’t you know it ... right on 1.45pm, in walk ten people! They hung around for 15 minutes and spent a whole $10.

Pesky customers 😜

We had many stops and lots of walking in The Bay.

The first stop was to pick up the FROG box then on to Truckloads, Kmart, Target, Sussans, Chemist, Coles, Spotlight and eventually back to my shop to pick up the money tin and laptop.

I can’t even explain how exhausted I feel right now.

Sleep will be welcomed and hopefully it will be a sound sleep.

Nite all.

Transformation

The artwork is finished and it’s name is “transformation” - I have to add that word to the bottom of the painting. 

The recipient is pleased.

I had a nice time with the girls at our coffee morning, followed by a busy morning of sales.

I created the journaling lesson and printed it out ready for the class.

The class was great. It always is. It’s funny how much healing can be done simply by discussing past life events in a safe space. No judgement.

Adoring Husband and I cleared the training room ready for meditation in the morning and set out the chairs. I vacuumed the entire shop.

My new Lorraine Lea linen arrived today. Two charcoal coloured foam bath mats, an oyster coloured body pillow case and a beautiful Miami style bedspread. 

I’m hanging for the new linen pants from Jenny Jazz to arrive at the shop and I have customers waiting too!

It was nice to have the cleaner in the shop today because the gale force winds brought plenty of dust as well as ash from the fires on Fraser Island and Woodgate into the space. She saves me so much time in my week.

We had some nice rain from the storms last night. There was 15mm in the gauge and the pool filled up nicely. Some follow up rain would be nice though.

Time for sleep. Early meditation and AH and I need to drive into The Bay after work so it will be a big day.

Nite all.

Healing Hands

I woke up this morning feeling much better. 

The pain in my shoulder had reduced considerably and I was able to move freely. Just a little niggle.

I was awake at 5.30am and up out of bed early for my day off. 9am!

The washing machine got a good workout today.

I finished the art piece. I’m not happy with the changes, but it’s what he asked for, so as my wise daughter suggested, I have to rise above my feelings about it and accept that I provided what he wanted.

We drove to the shop and cleared the vision board mess that was in the training room, then set up for morning coffee and journaling.

I packaged up and addressed all of the wrapped Christmas presents and Adoring Husband took them to the post office to send them off. $67 later ... 😳

There are still two more parcels to go yet but I’m pretty impressed with how well organised I am this Christmas!

I did lamb shanks in the slow cooker for dinner with mash and broccoli and mushroom gravy. Real comfort food.

It has been incredibly windy here for the last couple of days ... and hot! That has all built up to create some big storms currently passing over us. The rain is heavy and the thunder is loud. Hopefully this rain will reach Fraser Island to put out the dreadful fires that have been burning for over a week.

I think it’s time to sleep. This day has been full and productive and tiring.

Nite all.

Shouldering the Load

Last Thursday, we replaced our 8 yr old broken Bosch dishwasher with the latest model of the same brand.

We brought it home, which was easy because the big strong man at The Good Guys simply picked it up and slid it into the back of our car.

Trouble was, the big strong man didn’t come home with us!

As Adoring Husband and I slid the dishwasher out of the car onto our wheeled trolley, I jarred my shoulder. It hurt at the time, but the pain disappeared quickly and I thought nothing more of it.

Until today ... the pain returned. Ouch.

I feel a touch incapacitated and I can’t seem to find a comfortable position.

I’m hoping that a shoulder rub with some DoTerra Ice Blue followed by a good sleep will see me wake up as good as new tomorrow.

Needless to say, my Sunday was full of nothing except movies and uncomfortable squirming on my seat.

AH put the Christmas tree up, but we haven’t decorated it yet ...

Now it’s bed time!

Nite all.

Freaking Me Out!

I’m filling my weeks with so much stuff.

It’s all stuff that I absolutely love.

But it’s wearing me out!

This week I had to be at the shop on Monday to partially clear what I could from the art room.

Tuesday morning was coffee with my girls. Lots of regular possums away, but lots of the infrequent visitors turned up. It was loud and fun and giggly and it was almost 11am when they all left.

It was a big sales day followed by the journaling lesson which had two extra people join in for the day. A different energy, a lot of fun but very tiring.

That was followed by more work to clear everything from the training room and set out the 17 chairs ready for meditation the next day.

Wednesday was meditation, time alone with The Gypsy, morning coffee with the meditation ladies and a busy sales day. The treatment room had to be cleared in readiness for The motivator the following day.

Thursday was time with The Motivator, average sales and then a trip into The Bay to accompany AH to visit the doctor.

Friday was average sales but setting up and preparing for the vision board workshop that afternoon, which went for 4 hours! Pretty average for vision boarding to last that long.

Finally today (Saturday) which ended the week with a very quiet sales morning - the Howard Markets were on today so that usually lures people out of our town.

I got ALL my Christmas gift wrapping finished and I’ll mail everything on Monday.

I started AND ended my day with a dip in the pool, and now it’s 8.13pm and I can hardly keep my eyes open.

In the next week, all of the workshops and classes will be winding down for the year. I’ll have no classes between 18th Dec and 5th Jan and no meditation between 10th Dec and 27th Jan!

Right now, I need to sleep 😴 

Nite all.

Blacked Out

It’s 10:38pm as I type this in the dark.

We’ve been blacked out for almost four hours because of fallen power lines.

💡Power outage - update 💡

🔹 Customers affected: 1,949

🔹 Start time: 6:56pm - 03 Dec 2020

🔹 Est. fix time: 12:30am - 04 Dec 2020

🔹 Reason: The loss of supply is due to fallen power lines.

🔹Status: Crews working on-site

It’s a very hot evening and the house began to warm up after an hour of no air conditioning, so I decided a swim in the pool would be appropriate.

It was delicious in the water and floating on my back staring at the stars was the perfect way to spend 30 minutes. My ears were under water so there was complete silence and sometimes it felt like I was actually floating in space.

There was a slight breeze, so after a while I began to feel a bit chilled. 

I came inside, changed into my pyjamas and at 10pm we were sitting in the lounge room eating vegan ice cream in GF cones. Very indulgent for so late at night, but we are grown ups! We can do anything we want!

I had a nice day at the shop with The Motivator and thanks to a busy final hour of trade, my sales were good.

Adoring Husband had an appointment with his Dr to get some test results, so I decided to accompany him. He was concerned that the results would not be good and wasted much time worrying about something that might not happen.

His results were good. No sign of cancer and there were even improvements in some markers.

See? Wasted energy worrying!

The Dr seemed a bit put out (it’s been 5 yrs since I accompanied AH to his office) by my questions and concerns regarding another matter, but we left with some helpful advice that we will try and at least he knows that I’ve still got Barry’s back and I’m not going to let him get away with anything that I disagree with.

After that appointment, we stopped at Tinkerbells but they have new opening hours and they close at 3pm! How rude!

We did a grocery shop at Stocklands and stopped at The Good Guys where we purchased a new dishwasher to replace the 8 yr old Bosch that just died. 8 yrs is good going for a dishwasher that gets used every day.

We had to stop at my shop on the way home so it was 6pm by the time we pulled into our driveway.

I bought a cooked roast pork at Coles which was still deliciously warm when we got home and we ate warm roast pork sandwiches on fresh low GI bread for dinner. Melt in your mouth delicious!

So I didn’t make up for last nights lack of fruit n veg and I wont be making up for it tomorrow night either because I have my vision board workshop after work and won’t be home til 6pm again! AH will provide his usual Friday night chicken wing dinner.

What a busy life!

It’s now well after 11pm so I guess we should attempt to sleep in our very warm house. I expect the house will be humming and buzzing when the power comes back on in the middle of the night.

Nite all.

Emotional Hit

For the second time this year, I had to put the “class full” sign on the door and turn people away from meditation!

There were four men in attendance (very unusual) and two of them went out of their way to speak to The Gypsy afterwards. One of them said “Who knew we would find a shining diamond in a place like Burrum Heads!?”

It was an emotional class with some silent tears flowing as we discussed The Power of Self Respect.

There was something about The Gypsy today that was special. She had a loving aura that touched us all.

The usual ladies stayed for coffee afterwards but I didn’t get much time with them because of those pesky customers.

It was a good sales day.

I ordered some gorgeous linen pants and silk tops which are guaranteed to be here before Christmas - I can’t wait!

A big box of snap buttons and snap jewellery finally arrived! Really nice buttons too!

The trays of paint were finally dry so I peeled the sheets of dry paint off the trays and lay them flat on top of the training room cupboards ready for their owners to claim next week.

We cleared the treatment room ready for The Motivator tomorrow.

I rearranged the furniture behind the counter to make more room to move.

It was stinking hot all day and I pedalled home in the heat. My only option was to get changed and jump in the pool!

I swam ten laps, stretched, danced, floated and got the inflatable bed out to float some more. It was pure delight! I listened to 80s music and sat in the Bali hut for half an hour thinking “how bloody lucky am I?”

I made king prawns on toast for my dinner. Adoring Husband made chilli mango chicken wings for himself - a fruit and veg free night. We’ll make up for it tomorrow night.

I’ve just played my BBC2 pop master quiz and now I’m ready to sleep.

Nite all.

De cluttering Of Sorts

I was told that shaving your legs is a form of decluttering.

The act of shaving your legs washes away the old, making way for the new and works in a positive way to bring abundance.

So this morning I gave myself an extra 15 minutes (I haven’t shaved my legs since March so it wasn’t going to be quick job!) to get ready for work and I shaved, all the while telling the universe that I was planning on a bumper week of sales in the shop and bringing financial abundance.

Of course it’s only day one of my working week, but today was a blinder! My coffee girls kicked it off with a bang and the day continued along that vein. 

The day was pretty crazy!

The art from the weekend was dry but the silicone trays were still full of wet paint which was problematic because there were so many of them!

I found corflute signs that could be used to hold the trays which are now lined up along the wall in my office area, as well as atop the tall display cupboards. Some are also in the kitchen.

As planned, “Happy Gal” arrived an hour early for the journaling class, to help me clear everything from the training room and set up for journaling. 

I’m feeling incredibly grateful for the women who have become part of my tribe and who have really begun to step up to the plate and make my life easier, by helping set up for classes and then clean up afterwards.

I had two extra ladies in journaling today and they really brought a lot to the class. A nice change of energy. One is on holidays so she’s only here for one class and the other is from The Bay. She plans on joining us on an irregular basis.

After the girls all left, Adoring Husband and I cleared the tables and set up for meditation in the morning.

It was after 4pm when we arrived home to discover ... no power. We still have no idea why there was a blackout, but thankfully the power returned within ten minutes of us coming through the front door. 

It was at the front door where we found a missed delivery ticket! If not for the blackout, we would not have found the ticket because we don’t normally use the front door!

Because I’d washed my hair this morning, I chose not to go swimming. Instead we had an early dinner and came to bed at 8pm.

As you know, tomorrow is an early start, so it’s sleep time for me.

I’m done for the day!

Nite all.

Found It

I found my motivation today.

I was awake at 6am but it was 9am when I got up, changed into my swimmers, made some tea and breakfast, took it out to the Bali hut and enjoyed a very relaxing half hour eating before stepping into the pool.

The water was perfect and I swam some laps and stretched and floated. I remembered the new air bed that Adoring Husband had inflated last week and had stored in the pool storage room. He fell off it twice while struggling to balance. I had no such trouble.

I floated on the air bed and parked it so that only my legs were in the sun and the rest of my body was shaded by the umbrella.

Eventually I forced myself to come inside to get started on the many items on my list.

It took me over two hours to clean the bathroom thoroughly. Emptying the drawers and cupboards, tossing old make-up and shampoos and face creams - 2 bags of rubbish - reorganising the drawers and leaving one empty for Beautiful Girl With Long Blonde Hair when she arrives in less than 3 weeks!!

I scrubbed the tiles and floor, sprayed oil of cloves on the grout in the shower recess, scrubbed and polished the glass in the recess. Dusted the shelves and everything on them. Replaced the towels and floor mats.

Well, you know the drill.

I did two loads of washing.

It was then time to sit down and begin typing out and printing the journaling lesson for tomorrow. I worked on that for an hour but had to set it aside so that we could drive to the shop and clear the training room as best as we could.

Most of the art wasn’t dry yet and the silicone mats were full of very wet paint.

We did our best to clear enough space for morning coffee and hopefully another 20 hours will be enough to dry off the art. I think the silicone mats will take a couple more days to dry.

Returning home, we prepared dinner of pork sausages on the barbecue with a fresh salad.

Then it was back to the drawing board for the journal lesson. I’ve completed the next two lessons now.

There were two things on my list that didn’t get touched. My monthly newsletter is due tomorrow but it will definitely be a couple of days late. The art piece didn’t get touched either, so that is now my priority.

It’s almost 11pm so it’s time to sleep.

I feel much better at the end of today, than I did at the end of yesterday!

Nite all.

Unmotivated

I think the week took a lot out of me.

Believing that Adoring Husband and I had an appointment in The Bay on Monday, I’d made a small list in my head of things I wanted to do around the house today including cleaning the bathroom, doing some washing and finishing the commissioned art piece. 

I also wanted to swim in the pool.

At no point during my day in bed, did I feel remotely motivated to do anything at all. It was even a chore to get out of bed and walk to the ensuite to pee!

AH brought me a cup of tea followed by some bacon with honey on toast - my first bread in quite some time. I’ve lost 4kgs since cutting bread, potato and rice from my kitchen. Having said that, I’ve eaten all three of those things this weekend ... could that have anything to do with my mental state?

I DID write my next two lessons for journaling, but did NOT create the lesson sheets to print and issue so I still need to do that tomorrow.

Between naps, I spent hours watching videos of Natalie Angel “letmetrybeforeyoubuy” on Instagram. She is an average sized woman who tries on and models different brands of clothing. She tells us if the sizes are true, the quality is good or bad, shows us how to style different items, gives us prices, available colours and the corresponding websites or shop names.

The videos are quite short (around 13-15 mins) but they all roll one after the other so before you know it, a couple of hours have passed. Well, more than a couple of hours actually.

I got out of bed at 6pm and made myself a bowl of food - avocado, tomato, cucumber, onion, mango, watermelon and chicken with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was delicious!

I’ve been informed that we don’t have an appointment in The Bay tomorrow so that means I can do all the things that I didn’t do today.

Right now, it’s time for bed ... again!

Nite all.