Today was over 30 degrees.
30°. October 31st, Halloween night, and the air con was on, windows and doors wide open, and the promise of a long and hot summer, with such a hot summer day already in mid-Spring, on the back of other already hot days this month…
Well, the forecast, is good. 🌞
It ain’t Summer yet, but the weather is definitely warming up, making it the perfect time to start making fresh, healthy and inciting meals that take stock of some Summer staples.
The ‘salad’ I made today could well be a meal on its own – and why not? On those hot days when you just can’t be bothered turning on the heat, well this recipe uses minimal, and combines a lot of great flavours, all fresh and warm and contrasting, so that it really equals a surprisingly filling yet healthy meal.
Oh and there’s coriander. There are some people that hate it… but we are not those people.
Hubbie LOVES coriander. And I gotta say I enjoy the fresh and mild flavour it gives off too.
Looking forward to a hot summer, with some stunning salads, like the above 😉
How often do you get things done earlier in the evening…
Dinner earlier?
Clean up earlier?
Get ready for the next day earlier?
… so you can just sit, and do nothing?
Or maybe, sit and relax. 🌅
I didn’t even do everything earlier. The cleaning up and getting ready for the next day was postponed. After our early dinner, we went outside immediately to revel in the sunshine bathing our front porch.
When you sit outside your house, there isn’t much you can do… but sit. Maybe watch your cat rolling in the grass. Your hubbie and child running after each other, flip flopping in their thongs.
And then upstairs, we watched the sun disappear beyond the horizon.
We took in the moment of being, and just breathing, something we don’t stop to do often… but we should.
And with a sky like that, well…
❤
I looked at the hand resting on his leg. Glanced at his other hand, holding the steering wheel.
Both his wedding and engagements rings were missing.
And something else was in its place.
I think it speaks volumes for Hubbie that he has a better memory of this than I do, the giver of the rings… but that’s just what I did. Years and years ago when we were still ‘boyfriend girlfriend,’ I gave him a couple of rings.
They weren’t rings that I had bought specifically for him… they had been my rings. They had been wrapped around my fingers for years, and then one day, I decided I wanted him to have them.
My rings.
I am honestly surprised I ever did this. More so because I am a hoarder and keep a lot (sorry Marie Kondo). I’m guessing I gave them away because he bought me rings to wear, from him…
I am also guessing, that I was feeling a lot of love when I gave him something that was so precious to me.
And when I look at those rings today, I feel it even more.
Because a while ago, he went out on a mission to find them. Back at his parents’ house, he found the two bands I gave him when we were still in our teens, and since that discovery has worn them on his fingers ever since.
One of them I think I recall buying myself. It is silver or something like that, and has about 6 hearts in a row, in a right-side up and upside-down pattern.
The other ring is possibly decagon shaped. It is super thin, also silver… and I think someone bought it for me. It may have been a cousin from overseas, but I’d be lying if I said that was the truth…
And he wears both, on his pinkie fingers.
I noticed it again today. We were in the car and I noticed that his $$$ wedding and engagement bands were gone… instead replaced with those old silver pieces that wouldn’t be worth much together, let alone on their own.
And I smiled. He wore those, because they meant more to him. They mean more to him.
Those rings go back, to the beginning. ♥♥
“Miss Mary mack, mack, mack
All dressed in black, black, black
In silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back…”
Do you remember this clapping nursery rhyme?
You start by crossing your arms over your chest – “Miss…”
Clap your hands down on your thighs “…Ma – ”
Clap your hands together ” – ry…”
Then your right hands claps out to meet your partners right hand, before meeting back in the middle where you clap yours together. Every clap with your partner is a “mack.”
So it goes like this:
“Mack!” clap. “Mack!” clap. “Mack!”
Before you repeat the whole thing all over again for the next line.
Confused? It makes a whole lot of sense when you see it for yourself. 😉
I showed baby girl this clapping rhyme when she started telling me about some song she learnt in school. I asked her about “Miss Mary Mack,” because to be honest it’s the only one I remember…
She didn’t know it, but when I showed her she LOVED it. The first time we did it we were on her bed before sleeping-time, sitting cross-legged facing each other as I tried to coach her through the actions and the words.
The third line mentions “Mary’s” silver buttons, and baby girl lost herself silly with laughter each and every time I sang it. It made me erupt in laughter too, and we never actually finished the song, she was cracking up so much.
Today was much the same. She started singing the rhyme and so I tried to show Hubbie the rhyme. I got to the buttons part again, and –
UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER.
I have to say, I don’t know why it is so funny. But when I see my baby girl doubled over in laughter, absolutely pissing herself in amusement, it totally makes my day. I end up cacking it up with her.
Just to get that reaction, I will sing about buttons, ALL the days 🙂
Does anyone remember any more of these primary school sing-a-longs?!
‘Quiet,’ and ‘Birthday,’ aren’t synonymous terms in our family dictionary.
And yet they coincided today… for hubbie, no less.
We may not have had a big hoo ha for his actual birthday today, but you can be sure I made a fuss when he came home for lunch…
Balloon, and Beer.
Throw in some colour, and a gift that was a sure winner, and I had a pretty happy hubbie. 🤩🎁
I then made a round of nutella-centred baked doughnuts for my cinnamon loving man, and we capped the night off eating at our fave family restaurant, playing games at the game centre and then finishing it all off with some ice cream.
A very simple, but truly fun night. I guess we’re not fussed it wasn’t a big one, since today’s howling wind didn’t make for the most inviting and party-inspired day…
But maybe it’s because… we can always celebrate BIG another day. After all, the sign of Scorpio has only just begun…🦂♏
😉👍🍺
Let me start off by saying I am definitely a cat person.
I say this because despite that fact, over the 6 months that we’ve had Mister F, my relationship with him has been kind of complicated.
I love him to pieces. Really I do.
But he scratches things he is not meant to.
Goes into rooms he is not meant to.
His fur drops around everywhere.
And there I am, scolding/blocking/picking up after him wherever he goes.
I follow him around so much to make sure he is not getting into trouble, I often feel like his personal bouncer. Only I am directing him out of the club, and not to the private room.
And yet again, despite all this… I was so happy to have him home today. I patted the couch next to me after he had settled a bit after his overnight vet excursion. Mister F had complications days ago and wasn’t well – the vet settled all that, hopefully forever… and when I showed him the spot next to me he happily jumped up on the couch.
He lay there, the sunlight streaming through the window, white socks resting on the couch, his eyes closing slowly as my hand stroked his head, scratched his neck, and combed down the rest of his coat.
I know he is family now, because he pisses me off… but I still love him.
Welcome back home Mister 😉
Don’t worry. We knew what the forecast was going to be for today when we planned our after school activity.
I picked up baby girl from school this afternoon, shielding myself from the heavy sun, waved to the Mum of baby girl’s school friend… and then 10 minutes later we were parking alongside each other on the other side of the main street.
Our destination? Ice cream!
The girls took each other’s hand and walked down the lane way together. My heart was going aww aww aww and had ALL the feels.
And in no time: this.
Everyone had the same idea. People were arriving at the ice cream shop left right and centre, and just as well we came when we did and nabbed a table, because soon the shop was PACKED.
IT WAS HOT.
I had my most finest parenting moment. Ever. IN THE WORLD. Baby girl started licking her ice cream cone after receiving it, and as I stood there placing my order, her ball of ice cream fell… onto the counter.
She had just gotten it. Just 30 seconds earlier. I stared at the ball of rainbow covered in hundreds and thousands… and plopped it back onto her cone.
But that’s not ALL. No. Outside it happened again… her ball of ice cream fell onto the table.
Again I sighed… paused… and then plopped it back on.
I knew the posh granny on the opposite table was looking at me. I could feel her disapproving eyes on the side of my head.
I ignored her. It’ll make baby girl tougher, after all.
I even told the other Mum there, what I had done… I was thinking, sure this is enough to gross her out of any future contact with me or baby girl. Eating ice cream off the table? What do they live in a tent? Eat off the floor? Drink their own shower water too? (Ewwww!)
But we are already talking another play date… so, phew.
Next time though, cup not cone, ALL THE WAY.
After school drop off this morning, Hubbie and I made some new friends.
As I enjoyed a delicious cherry pie with my coffee, a couple of cute someones popped on over…
They wanted some leftovers.
Aren’t they cute? I positioned my plate closer to the edge just so the birds could grab it easier from their landing post on a nearby chair. And then as I was snapping away trying to get a good shot, I caught one of them, in mid flight…
How cool is that? Well that’s one way to make new friends 😉
This is my cat, Mister F.
Baby girl will argue that he is her cat and he loves her more, but lets face it, if it weren’t for me being a cat person…
We wouldn’t even have a cat right now.
In the picture above, Mister F is being Tarzan, balancing the fence and weaving between the giant leaves of our neighbours fig tree.
He is hilariously clumsy. Moments before I snapped this photo he almost slipped off the fence – like, you are a cat. If you can’t balance on a fence, no one can!
I love his awkwardness. Amazingly what I am loving about him lately is his coat… rather, the cuddly coat.
Hubbie calls it his leather jacket. So black and shiny and smooth. He’s a medium hair so a fair bit of fur still finds its way wafting through our home… which I can’t stand, since I’m the one that cleans it.
But he’s sooo soft. Like today when he wandered into a room he wasn’t meant to go into, I scooped him up flat like a pancake (the way I used to do with my old cat) and hugged him against my chest as I carried him downstairs.
And Mister F? He was totally cool about being a pancake. He looked around curiously as I held him close to me in a hug, and didn’t try to escape even once.
He lets us get away with almost anything… don’t feel sorry for him though… He has a butcher as an owner.
Sardines for dinner? His favourite ❤😻
carcrashgratitude 