Good Morning!

I thought I'd share some delicious breakfast drinks with which to start your day.

The best one of all, and my favourite, which I drink on an empty stomach, is hot lemon water. Squeeze half a lemon (don't use bottled lemon juice) into your biggest coffee cup and fill it with warm water (not boiling). Don't eat anything until you have finished your lemon water.

Warm lemon water aids digestion, cleanses your system, boosts your immunity, clears your skin, balances your pH, freshens your breath, lifts your mood and hydrates your lymph system.

The next one is watermelon juice. A combination of watermelon, cucumber and mint leaves is lovely. First thing in the morning, juices should be either warm or at room temperature to be gentle on your body.

Watermelon contains vitamins A and C, potassium, lycopene, beta-carotene and antioxidants. It's very hydrating, due to it's high water content. It's a diuretic, so it relieves water retention. It has positive effects on blood pressure and cholesterol and balances your pH. The lycopene in watermelon provides a mild and natural sun protection too.

The third drink is a cup of warm green tea with the juice of either lemon, lime or orange. This has positive effects on your heart health and it lowers your bad cholesterol levels while raising the good cholesterol. The polyphenols in green tea and the flavinoids in citrus help provide 'some' protection against 'some' cancers. Of course the citrus provides vitamin C, which is a wonderfully healing vitamin - especially when consumed in your fresh, healthful, raw foods.

Of course, you should always follow up this great start to the day by being active and continuing healthy eating throughout the rest of the day.

It seems pointless to have such a cleansing start and then filling your body with toxic processed foods and sugars for the rest of the day, which puts pressure on your digestive system and doesn't give your body the nutrients to regenerate all the bits that it replaces in time.

The cells in almost all of your body, replace themselves over time. It takes 20 yrs for your heart to replace itself, 2-3 weeks for your lungs, 2-4 weeks for your skin, 5 months for your liver, 10 years for your bones, 2-3 days for your intestines, 4 months for your red blood cells, your eyeballs (except your cornea) remain the same for all of your life, as does most of your brain. That's just to name a few.

You need nutrients in your body to replace these cells, so if you are eating junk food, or processed food and not consuming enough good, healthful, fresh foods, then your body is going to struggle to replace itself and cause you health problems at a much earlier age than someone who is providing all the necessary nutrients to their body. Long term poor nutrition means big trouble for you!

So that's your education for this part of my course. Today's lesson is over.

Nite all.  

Bad Tipping

So the first two football matches for the week and I've already tipped the two losing teams .. ugh!

I have absolutely nothing to share tonight and I am about to go to bed because I'm feeling incredibly tired. It's been a very big week and I successfully fought off this cold, and I think my body is telling me GET ME TO SLEEP BEFORE MIDNIGHT PLEASE, I NEED TO REST!

So it's good night from me.

Nite all.

Turning 30!

My youngest daughter, Bubbles, turned 30 years young today. In her own words, this is how she spent the day...

"What a long exciting exhausting day!!
Being 30 is tiring.
I had an awesome day at work,
flowers from the girls,
a cake from the guys.

I come home to find Matt had decorated the shit out of the house!
I get a lovely call from mum.
I get picked up for dinner in a limousine.
I have a beautiful dinner with awesome family.
I got SUPER spoilt.

Couldn't be a happier girl right now.
Thank you all for making my 30th a day I'll never forget!!"
♡♡♡♡

She is having a big birthday bash on Saturday night and then another one when she arrives here in two weeks. Well ... a big bash with just the four of us, but it will be special!

We've organised a theme party .. but the theme is a surprise, so you don't find out til I post photos after the event.

Adoring Husband and I spent a good part of today picking up the final goodies for the celebration.

I wish I could be there for her big party this weekend, but AH will be there.

My throat is feeling much better tonight .. I believe that I have successfully fought off the cold/virus/flu before it set in and took hold! Thank goodness!

My challenge right now is to get into bed before the strike of midnight .. I have 8 minutes!

Nite all. 

It's a hit!

I just checked how many hits I've had on my recent 'filofax' post and *oh my goodness* it's a hit! Almost 200 hits and I wonder how many of them clicked on the link to Vegan Chickie's blog.

I guess that proves what she said about there being some obsessive filofax users out in the big wide world of the web!

I'm wondering if all of you know how to answer this for yourself ...

My label would have to be something about not waking me up. I value every minute of my sleep and if I am woken up from a deep sleep for any reason except something pre-arranged, then I am likely to be cranky all day .. and I mean ALL DAY.

Adoring Husband is aware of this after being on the receiving end of my day-long wrath on a few occasions. I become totally unreasonable and my brain just doesn't see sense. So perhaps my warning label would read:

"BEWARE! CRANKY, BITTER AND TWISTED IF WOKEN UNEXPECTEDLY"

I'm fighting some kind of cold or virus at the moment. About twenty minutes into our train trip yesterday, I felt my throat beginning to feel a bit tender, which was frustrating because usually when I feel that happen, I can tend to it immediately, but on the train, I had to wait it out.

So since I got home last night, I've been dosing up on raw honey and lemon, drinking lots of water and I juiced some organic oranges this afternoon and had a couple of big glasses of juice. I sat in the sunshine this morning for over an hour and have eaten lots of green leafy vegetables today, for lunch and dinner.

My throat still feels a little tender, but it hasn't progressed any further, so I feel like I'm holding it back well.

Another good night's sleep tonight should help, but it's already after midnight, so I'd best get moving!

Nite all.

Long Big Day Out

Here we are, at the end of a very long big day out.

4am start. On the train at 5.45am. Into the city at 9.50am. Back on the train at 4.55pm. In the car, driving home from the train station at 9pm. Pulled into our driveway at 9.30pm.

I'm well and truly done for the day.

At the beginning of the day, I was disappointed that I didn't take my camera, but by the end of the day, I was glad not to be lugging all that extra weight around town.

Needless to say, I don't have any photos to share.

The psychotic dogs were very happy to see us arrive home this evening .. it's nice to get such a happy welcome after a big day out.

Thank you to Happy Harry and Lady Lynn for being our friends.

Nite all.

Big Day Out

I submitted another assignment today, that was not due until Friday, but I needed to get it out of the way, ahead of a big week coming up for Adoring Husband and I, so I submitted it at 4.30pm today and it was marked and returned to me before 5.30pm. It was my best mark yet! 100%

Very happy with that!

My next assignment is due in 2 weeks and is a video presentation. This assignment is the one that almost stopped me from doing the course .. I am feeling very intimidated by the prospect and I think my time will be very limited to get it done. Fingers crossed for me please!

This is a photo that I took yesterday morning down by the river ...

It was a beautiful start to the day and the river was looking it's finest vibrant blue, with lots of bird life in our company from pelicans to cormorants to kites to egrets. I love the river on a bright sparkling Winter's morning.

Well, we've got a big train trip to Brisbane tomorrow, so I'm off to get myself organised before it gets too late.

Nite all.

Did ya miss me?

Well, I arrived home at 6pm yesterday and had to be ready to attend a 'Christmas in July' function by 6.30pm!

It was tight.

But I did it!

Unfortunately the date conflicted with other important functions in the area, so the numbers were down on recent years, but it was a great night that raised good money for the local SES group.

The meals were well catered, the Christmas fare was delicious and I really liked the entertainment .. I even danced with Adoring Husband .. and THAT doesn't usually happen unless I've had a LOT of alcohol to drink!

It was a happy, friendly crowd who enjoyed themselves because they were sharing an evening with friends. Here are some happy snaps that I have not edited .. they are straight from the camera, so you get to see the 'before' shots.

By the time we arrived home at almost 11pm, we went straight to bed and after some debriefing of our few days apart, fell into a very deep sleep.

Some exciting news for me today! Remember the assignment that I was most worried about. The one that I really struggled to understand and had to spend extra hours on extra research for it to make sense in my head? Well, I got the results today and it's another High Distinction with 98%.

I can't tell you what a huge relief that was for me. I am VERY happy with that result and am finally beginning to feel more confident about my ability to complete the course successfully.

Well, I have struggled with this computer and the internet tonight .. what should have taken me an hour, has taken almost 3 hours. Very frustrating indeed.

Nite all.

Wind Swept

What a windy day we had today!

Chicklet and I ventured outside at lunch time today, but were home within the hour .. it was just too uncomfortably windy and there were twigs and leaves falling from the trees as we walked along. Not pleasant at all. Now, at 8.25pm, there is not a skerrick of a breeze!

We've had a lovely day today with lots of play, although a few 'manic' moments fell in there. Chicklet has had a week of visitors and I think it's all catching up with her. She needs some 'alone' time.

Tomorrow is my last day and I head home in the late afternoon.

I've taken a couple of photos with my phone, but not the camera .. must squeeze some pics in tomorrow before I leave! It may be a while before I get back and they may be living at a new address the next time I come for a visit. How exciting!!

As for my filofax post yesterday, I notice a couple of extra hits and few people went to visit Vegan Chickie's blog site .. certainly nothing to get too excited about .. however that may change during the week.

Time for bed and time for me to plug the power back in to my laptop before the battery goes completely flat.

Nite all.

Filofax!

My oldest daughter, Vegan Chickie, writes a blog.  Her most popular posts are about filofaxes. Hundreds of people visit her blog every day, to see what wonderful advice and tips and tricks she has to share about keeping herself totally organised with her amazing filofax.

She gave me one of her old filofaxes - with blank pages of course - and along with it came stickers and post its and cards and lots of fun stuff, as well as some birthdays already marked and a few reminders.

I started using it at the beginning of July, but I am a novice and not as pedantic or as organised as she is.

She is the Queen of Filofax. The Maestro. The Magician. The Leader of all Filofax users and I shake my head in awe and I wonder from which side of whose family she took the organisational genes!

I do remember her paternal grandmother (hullo grannymus!!) was always very organised with budgets and birthdays and diaries .. so I'm guessing the genes came from that side of the family.

It certainly didn't come from my side of the family, all of whom totally excel at procrastination and doing their (and my) best work under self inflicted pressure!

So this blog post is my experiment. An experiment to see how many hits I get from people who are as addicted to their filofax as Vegan Chickie and who search the internet for more and more good ideas.

To anyone who arrives here today to read my post entitled 'Filofax', I apologise for my trickery ... I've got NOTHIN'!!

But just to appease you, here is the link to my daughter's blog .. I see you quiver with anticipation!

Nite all.

Quickie

I'm off for a quickie visit to my little Chicklet tomorrow!

Woman of Many Talents is heading down that way for a couple of days and invited me for the drive, so I jumped at the chance because my visits are going to be short and infrequent in the coming few months.

So I'm off for an early night to bed for an early morning start.

Still got those sports photos coming .. after the weekend now.

Nite all.

Girl's Day Out

We had a girl's day out today and I had a really nice time.



We saw the movie "Jersey Boys"Big Screen Hervey Bay: Now Showing: Jersey Boys and then had sushi for lunch in the new Stocklands Shopping Centre and had a quick look around. It's quite impressive and will be more-so when all of the shops eventually open.



I still have Touch Footy photos to share, but not tonight, because it's after midnight .. again .. and I have a big day tomorrow.



Nite all.

Viewing Pleasure

For you viewing pleasure …

The family has gone home and we can look forward to seeing them again next year.  We had a great time with them, as usual, and they might even take some extra time off work next year so that we can have fun 'other' than the big tournament.

I spent an hour on Baker's Delight's farm yesterday to get these shots…

… and then we have the super moon shots from Saturday evening…

… and with that, I bid you adieu. Touch footy carnival photos yet to come!

Nite all.

Busy and Late

Just a couple of teasers ...

It's been a pretty big day for me and it's almost 1am, so I'm definitely climbing into bed in about 3 minutes.

I have lots of photos to share tomorrow.

Nite all.

Rain Check

I have photos .. of the Touch Footy tournament AND the super full moon tonight .. but I am exhausted and need to go fall into bed immediately.

So please take a rain check and I will make up for it tomorrow.

Nite all.

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Ok, so I know that I promised photos and something 'other' than study updates, but ...

At 11.50am today, I was preparing to type up my assignment document to submit for marking.

All of my assignments have a cut-off time of 11.55pm on their submission dates, so I assumed that the assignment which was due today, was the same.

You know what they say about 'assume'? It makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'. It certainly made an ass out of me!

When I checked the submission time, it showed 11.55AM instead of PM!!!

It took me well over an hour to type my answers into the submission document so I was more than 90 minutes late with my submission.

I was horrified that I'd made this mistake and felt sick to my stomach because I had worked so hard to finish it by the due date and I had almost lodged it last night .. but it was late and I (thought) I knew that I still had more than 24 hours left to lodge it.

I sent a message to the supervising teacher for this subject today, complaining about the time discrepancy.

I took responsibility for not checking the time myself, but questioned why it was the only assignment with a time difference.

Because these messages are public for all students doing the same subject at the same time .. I have received feedback from 5 others who made the same mistake and are also not happy.

Anyway, I have not heard back from the teacher regarding this issue, BUT she has already marked my assignment and I received a mark of 95.8% which is another Hight Distinction!!

I am shocked and amazed!

I was expecting to lose approximately 10% from my possible mark for the late submission, but I didn't lose any marks for it being late.

Whoda thunk?

The other assignment that I thought was due next Friday, is the first assignment that I submitted a couple of weeks ago, so I have a week's breathing space and two weeks until the next assignment is due (at 11.55pm!).

What a relief :)

Go me!!

Now I'm off to bed and I hope to be up early enough to go with the family to the Touch Carnival at 6.30am tomorrow .. I'm not confident .. perhaps I will make a later appearance!

Nite all.

Almost at the finish line.

I have finally completed all of the questions for the second assignment, but I think I misunderstood one of the questions, so I will have to redo it tomorrow morning and I'll submit both assignments together. Then I can then relax for the weekend .. YAY!

On Monday, I'll have to start the next assignment, which is due the following Friday and then another one is due the following Friday after that! Full on!

Our visitors have arrived and unfortunately I haven't been able to spend much time with them yet, but I'll make up for it after tomorrow.

The big touch football tournament starts tomorrow morning, so the days will be full of sports and activities.

Tomorrow, I should have photos to share and maybe some news OTHER than study stuff!

Nite all

QUEENSLANDER!

What a great way to end the State of Origin series!

My team didn't win the series this year - I should remind you that we won the last 8 years in a row - but tonight they played the final game of the three game series and won by a very large margin. The final score was 32 - 8.

Adoring Husband and I watched the game at the local pub with one of our favourite families .. my cousin Nellie and her husband and two young kids, who are here for the third year in a row to participate in a big touch football tournament that is held in The Bay.

There are something like 3000 kids from all over Queensland participating this year, so it is a very large tournament! Apparently the largest in the southern hemisphere.

Anyway, we ate dinner at the pub restaurant and then moved to the bar where we all made a LOT of noise for every one of the 32 points scored and had a really good time.

I've still not finished my assignment, but I'm getting there and I think I'll finish with time to spare ... just!

It's definitely time for me to hit the hay. I've had 6 wines tonight and although I'm not drunk, I'm feeling a bit sleepy.

Nite all.

P. S.

Despite my better judgement, I took time out from my studies to have morning tea with the girls today. It was a good start to the day and helped me start the study day nice and fresh.

I got a lot done today and the second assignment is looking good at this stage.

My reward for working hard is to watch the movie "PS I Love You" which is playing on Foxtel tonight. Adoring Husband is enjoying it with me :)

He had to take one of the psychotic dogs to the vet today, for a couple of reasons, so hopefully she will be ok now.

Harriet, the new chookie, was finally welcomed into the henhouse, so she will be warm and protected for the night.

Our visitors arrive tomorrow afternoon and we'll all be heading off to the pub to watch the third State of Origin match. Go QUEENSLAND!

Nite all.

Halfway There

One assignment down and one to go.

I don't think I'll have the second assignment finished before our visitors arrive on Wednesday afternoon/evening, but I'll give it a good go.

I think the one that I just finished was REALLY difficult, so I'm glad that I got it out of the way first. I had to do so much extra research, aside from the text book and the lessons provided, to make sense of some of the information.

I think ... or should I say ... I 'hope' that this next one is pretty straight forward. It shouldn't frazzle my brain the way the last one did.

I can only hope!

So obviously, my day has been full of study and not much else. I did cook lunch and dinner in between all of that ... mealtimes come as a welcome distraction and helps free my brain of so much intense thinking. Then I sit down to a fresh start.

Poor Adoring Husband is copping the brunt of my mad dash to the end and is doing a pretty amazing job of keeping everything else running smoothly, including the housework that I have neglected for weeks.

My one gripe with him is that he must learn to not have such loud and long conversations with the animals! It's very distracting. We have 8 animals ... 3 dogs, 4 chickens and a cockatiel, so that adds up to a LOT of distraction!

We've hit another cold snap and the nights and early mornings are so cold that it's very difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. After the sun rises, it quickly reaches a very pleasant 20+ degrees Celsius, but according to my weather app it was 3C this morning, but felt like 0.08.

I shouldn't complain though because Number One Son had to pedal to work in -6C ... yes that's MINUS 6 degrees celsius! Ugh!

Anyway, enough of this frivolity.

Nite all.

Paradise

Yes, we are living in paradise.

Another gloriously beautiful sunshiny day with the maximum temperature 21C.

I spent about 90 minutes enjoying the Wintery sunshine this morning, but unfortunately the rest of it was spent inside studying.

Study Study Study ... the story of my life.

I think that once the panic of this semester is over and I can start the new semester fresh, I will be able to manage my time in a much more controlled fashion.

My problem is that it took me a long time to find a routine and to figure out what was expected with the assignments.

There was a lot of procrastination in the first 6 weeks, which you would expect from the Queen of Procrastination!

The other thing that I've noticed, is that the content of the lessons have become more complex and detailed as we got closer to the end .. which just adds to the panic.

So my plan for next semester is to getting a running start and get as much done, as early as possible, then spend the last couple of weeks revising everything and double checking my assignment work so that I can refine and hone them to perfection by the time I submit them.

I have learned a lot during this first semester and I've learnt that I'm not as smart as I thought I was!

Anyway, this has been my break .. I now have to sneak another hour of study in before my reward .. watching the finale of 'House Rules'.

Oh, and for those of you interested, Harriet has settled into her new home very nicely thank you.

Nite all.