Three in a Row

For the third day in a row, BGWLBH and I drove into The Bay.

Tuesday was movie day, Wednesday was her birthday and today, she worked at Crafty Bee and I shopped til I dropped.

I purchased some patchwork bib and brace overalls, a grey tiered top and a light zip up jacket.

The lady who owns the dress shop gifted me a bracelet and necklace for Mother’s Day.

I made her feel sorry for me because I don't receive gifts from my kids on Mother’s Day. 🤪

Honestly, we all know that Mother’s Day is a BS commercial con to guilt people into spending money that they don’t need to spend and my kids and I are in agreement to NOT do that.

The lady’s response today, is perfect proof that the conditioning is strong.

Nevertheless, I felt grateful for her generosity 💕

With Adoring Husband’s help, I cooked a lamb and rice dish for dinner and we had some of the leftover birthday cake for dessert.

We played trivia and were all in bed before 7.30pm!

I took this week as my Joker round in the footy tipping comp, which means I get double points this weekend. I tipped the first game correctly. Fingers crossed I do well for the rest of the weekend.

I did some washing this afternoon and some gardening, so I’ve been quite productive for the day.

Now I need to sleep because I have a ZOOM meeting at 9am tomorrow.

Nite all.

Birthday Girl

Today was BGWLBH’s birthday.

After a huge production of opening many many birthday gifts, she decided that she wanted to head into the bay, so we made ourselves presentable and off we went.

We spent some time at Stocklands renewing our lotto tickets, visiting the bank and browsing some fashion stores. 

We dropped into the RSL for tea and cake and a little flutter. I won $80 on the keno! Go me!

The butcher was our final stop before returning home, where I immediately hit the kitchen to bake a birthday cake (with cream cheese and passionfruit frosting), stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, roast pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad and a garden salad with pomegranate.

That’s what Adoring Husband and BGWLBH had for dinner. I had panko prawns.

We played trivia before dessert and the “happy birthday” song.

All in bed by 7.30pm!

Nite all.

Movie Date

The Devil Wears Prada 2 was a good movie.

We attended the 9.30am showing, along with 35 others, including a large contingent of ‘over 70s’ women, a couple of young ladies who scoffed a giant tub of popcorn each and an enormous soft drink, a gay couple, a single white haired male and two women who live up the road from us.

I enjoyed watching the original cast. I did NOT like Andy’s love interest, who was played by an Aussie, Patrick Brammall (also known for ‘Colin from Accounts’). He was a pointless, dull character.

There were BIG names like Lady Gaga, Lucy Liu, Donatella Versace, Justin Theroux, Rory McIlroy and his wife, Marc Jacobs, Heidi Klum, Kenneth Branagh, and of course Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.

The music was fantastic too.

It was 1 hour and 50 minutes well spent.

Afterwards we did some grocery shopping and visited the butcher before grabbing some juices and heading home.

We had an early dinner of last nights leftovers, played some trivia and came to bed early.

It’s BGWLBH’s birthday tomorrow (6th) and I’ve spent a good portion of the evening gift wrapping and writing in the card until my back ached.

I’m not sure if she wants to do anything for the day. I guess I’ll find out in the morning.

For now, it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

An Early Start

I was asleep by 10pm Sunday night, so when I woke up at 4am on Monday, I was wide awake!

Instead of getting out of bed, I turned on the TV and watched the end of the final round of the Cadillac golf championship.

An American, Cam Young, was the winner, but the Aussie, Adam Scott, played incredibly well in the final two rounds and came fourth. His final two rounds were super impressive, it’s just a shame that his first two rounds were so poor.

I actually got out of bed at 8am to the sound of shocked gasps from Adoring Husband and BGWLBH. The only reason I usually get out of bed this early is if I’m going somewhere!

It meant that I had an extra 2 hours to fill for the day.

I’m sure you’re not surprised when I say I did nothing productive in that time. A load of washing, some gardening, Harley play and I cooked some prawn and rice noodle soup for my lunch.

I watched a Foxtel movie that I can’t remember the name of and by 2pm I was ready for a nap, so I took Harley with me to the bedroom. He harassed me by laying across my chest and nudging me with either his paw or nose, so I didn’t get any sleep at all.

At 4pm, I decided to start dinner. Chicken Saltimbocca with mashed potato, green beans and snow peas. Always delicious.

We played trivia for an hour before watching some TV comedy and I came to bed at 9.30pm.

I will be falling asleep to the sound of Kevin Costner’s voice in The Bodyguard.

Tomorrow, BGWLBH and I are going to the cinema to watch “The Devil Wears Prada 2”. I’ve read some disappointing reviews tonight. I hope we are not disappointed too.

Anyway, time to sleep so that we can leave early.

Nite all.

Weekend of Ease

Saturday was a partly productive and partly lazy day for me.

I had a late start to the day and because of some scudding showers, Harley only had a short play before we had to escape the wet stuff.

Key Lime Pie was on my baking list for the day, but I wanted to try a different recipe so I made myself comfortable on the family room lounge and began searching YouTube recipes. I found one that included sour cream in the ingredients, which is quite ‘different’ so I spent an hour in the kitchen and the pie was delicious!

I made a separate spongey meringue to cut up and serve on top of each slice which balanced the tartness perfectly.

I made myself some sourdough toast with fresh tomato from the garden. OMG delicious! 

There was an old Elvis movie on the Classics channel called “A Change of Habit” with Mary Tyler Moore which was easy to watch (mostly) and then three games of football.

For “fend for yourself” night I made Tom Yum Goong soup with king prawns and fresh beans from the garden.

It was a restless night of sleep on Saturday night and in the hours that I was awake, I watched the PGA Cadillac Championships golf, which was easy to fall back to sleep to.

I didn’t get out of bed until 10am today.

Thirty minutes play time with Harley, followed by over an hour gardening, thinning out the tomato plants and planting some of them in the new pots that I purchased on Friday, covering the dirt with sugar cane mulch and giving them all a good soaking with water.

I picked fresh beans and covered my new Roma tomatoes with bug proof bags.

Surprisingly, I was exhausted after that! So I made my famous turkey, cranberry, goats cheese and sprouts sourdough for lunch and returned to bed where I watched an Australian Netflix movie called “You. Always”. It was okay.

Football all afternoon.

Spaghetti bolognese sauce out of the freezer for a quick dinner followed by key lime pie for dessert.

My footy tipping was pretty average this week but I’m still holding second place on the tipping ladder.

The final round of the golf starts in 30 minutes, so I’ll have something soothing to fall asleep to.

Nite all.

Another Week Bites the Dust

What was supposed to be a quiet day at home baking, turned into a day in the bay … again 🫤

Adoring Husband was picked up by a mate and they drove to Maryborough hospital to visit a sick mate. Actually I’m not sure if it was Maryborough or Hervey Bay, but hopefully, by the sounds of it, the mate is improving slightly and they are feeling hopeful.

BGWLBH has had orders come in for her painted rocks so she needed to visit Bunnings to load up on her rock stocks.

She invited me along and I needed some new pots for my excess tomato plants, so I accepted her offer.

Needless to say, no baking got done and we had a very early, very easy dinner of sourdough with avocado, goats cheese, cranberry jelly, green sprouts and turkey breast. Always delicious.

I had a terrible nights sleep and was awake until 4.30am and slept until 8.30am. By the time we arrived home from the bay, I was feeling very weary and dozed a little on the couch during the afternoon.

I’ve watched the footy this evening and so far have two from two correct tips. A nice start to the weekend.

My gut issues have been much better today.

Now I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Home Alone

I enjoyed 3 hours of solitude today while BGWLBH worked and Adoring Husband played golf.

It was bliss.

I ate the last of my home made sausage rolls for brunch.

I watched the newest episode of Jet lag The Game and then searched for recipes on YouTube.

I made bacon wrapped stuffed chicken breasts with roast pumpkin and spinach salad and fresh green beans from the garden.

Excellent reviews and placed on the ‘favourites’ list.

It seems that the NSW women defeated QLD in the women’s State of Origin. Bugger.

I napped on the couch this afternoon so I’m late for sleeping tonight.

My second parcel finally arrived for Hazie’s birthday and she was excited to receive her new doll, who she promptly named Hazie Junior! 

Now it’s time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Shoulda Stayed Home

I was feeling much better this morning … until I wasn’t 🫤

BGWLBH and I drove into the bay.

We had morning beverages at the Jam Jar Cafe. Mine was a green juice. BGWLBH had a jumbo coffee.

She went for her nail appointment and I walked half a kilometre to the newsagent to refresh my lotto tickets. That was when I started to feel less than great, but I found a seat for ten minutes and I was good to go.

I browsed through BigW and purchased a couple of bras and a couple of t-shirts.

I checked out the new stock in the lady’s boutique, but nothing took my fancy.

I did some grocery shopping and needed to sit three times! So I walked over to the RSL Club and found comfy seats to have a cup of tea. I felt better after that.

We left there and found our way to Farmgate to get some fresh fruit and veg, the bakery for sourdough and Woollies for what I couldn’t get in Coles.

It was 2pm when we arrived home and once again I needed to sit while Adoring Husband unpacked the groceries.

I made fried rice with the leftover boiled rice from the night before and I shredded the leftover chicken and heated it up in the apricot sauce.

We played some trivia and now I’m in bed feeling quite weary.

Nite all.

To Meditate or Not?

I did not attend meditation this morning.

While I was feeling much improved from the last couple of days, I felt like I needed an extra day of quiet solitude to properly heal.

It was 10am when I reluctantly left my bed. I took Harley to play for 20 minutes, tended my garden for ten minutes, prepped apricot chicken in the slow cooker, made my breakfast and watched a movie called “Angry Angel” on Foxtel. It was a light, easy to watch, made for TV movie. I quite liked it.

At 3.20pm I withdrew to my bedroom for an hour.

All that was required for dinner was to boil some rice to have with the chicken.

We played YouTube trivia before all retiring to bed at 7.30pm. It’s my favourite time of the day 🥰

BGWLBH and I are heading off to the bay in the morning so it’s sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Slowly Does It

I found this today and I use magnesium oil with frankincense on my belly every night. It stops cramping, eases internal pain and inflammation as well as helping me fall asleep and stay asleep.

I thought I might try this recipe because I also have this exact magnesium oil in my collection.

Magnesium Body Balm (author unknown)

I finally got around to making this magnesium body balm. It's a mix of coconut oil, cacao butter, magnesium oil and a few drops of lavender oil.  D asked me why I smelled like chocolate, so if you want to cut back on the cacao butter you could use Shea butter or a mix of the two! I don't eat much chocolate any more so I'm loving the smell! 

So why add the magnesium oil?

As we all would know, our soil is deficient in many important minerals which means are food is lacking and cooking and processing also further depletes it's mineral content. Dr Carolyn Dean, author of Magnesium Miracle estimates that 90% of the population is deficient in magnesium! Not only are most of us deficient but foods like sugar, coffee, alcohol and grains all pull magnesium from the body. 

Because magnesium is needed for the function of every cell in the body, the implications of a deficiency can be wide and varied and form a list a mile long! 

Some of the most common benefits of magnesium are:

• enhances sleep 

• prevents headaches/migraines

• improves digestion

• calms the nervous system

• assists with anxiety and depression

• alleviates muscle cramping/spasms

• decreases high blood pressure 

• reduces menstrual cramping 

and the list goes on...

When I began supplementing with magnesium over 18 months ago I noticed immediate improvements in sleep, digestion and overall calmness. I love it so much I won't go a night without it! 

Do you use magnesium? What improvements have you noticed? 

Recipe for Magnesium Body Balm

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup cacao butter (or mix of Shea butter)

1/3 cup magnesium oil

a few drops of your favourite essential oil

1. Melt down the cacao butter and coconut oil

2. Allow to cool and almost set again

3. Add butterfly to thermo and whip until combined well

4. Keep on speed 4 and slowly add magnesium oil and essential oil until all incorporated.

5. Store in a glass jar in the fridge or if cooler weather, leave out. 

I had another day in my bedroom today. My gut issues again so I needed to rest up.

I reluctantly got out of bed to make dinner. A creamy, cheesy, garlic chicken, mushroom and bacon pasta served with a salad. It took 30 minutes and was quite tasty.

I’m not sure if I’ll attend meditation tomorrow. I’ll see what my body thinks in the morning.

Nite all.

Easy Breezy

He raised them. He trained them. He watched them dissolve and rebuild inside a chrysalis. Then he watched them remember.

Jo Nagai trained swallowtail caterpillars to associate lavender scent with a mild electric shock. After complete metamorphosis 70 percent of butterflies still avoided the scent. Presented at the 2024 International Congress of Entomology his results also suggested the learned response was passed to offspring indicating possible transgenerational memory inheritance.

Shared for informational purposes only.

Source: International Congress of Entomology / Radiolab / Dr Martha Weiss Georgetown University (2024)

How cool is that!?!

I’ve had a pleasant Sunday.

I only missed one game in the tipping comp so I’m happy with my progress.

It’s been a weird day with the weather. Crazy heavy scudding showers that last about three minutes followed by sunshine.

Harley got to play. I tended my garden and picked some beans. I cooked a big batch of spaghetti bolognese which fed AH and BGWLBH tonight and I froze enough for three more nights.

I had a laksa with prawns and fresh beans from the garden, which I ate an hour before the others.

Now it’s almost midnight so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.