Month: August 2021

#2023 Still getting there

As we almost close the book on August, I’m both happy and sad.

Happy that Spring is so near, as evidenced today with the sun shining through the windows most of the day, and Mister F finding a lazy spot to rest his head while basking in the light.

But I’m sad, because all that we wanted for this month has been lost yet again, and once again the month is over.

There’s a lot of letting go, and yet there’s still hope. As the warmth becomes more constant and familiar, I hope it takes away all of the uncertainty, the frustration, and the pain, replacing it with only…

LIGHT.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

#2022 The box cake

Hubbie had a great family idea for us to do today.

I got the supplies accordingly at the supermarket yesterday, but to be honest I didn’t need a lot.

And after lunch today, we all got together to make…

A CAKE.

But… it was one of those super easy, boxed ones. 😉

He thought it would be a good thing to do, minus the 17 steps I usually take when I get motivated and creative to do something out of a Jamie or Nigella book, or as is the case recently, Marion’s socials.

And had we gone that path, I know my OCD would have kicked in majorly, and I would have been bossing them about and then ordering them out of the kitchen like nobody’s business.

But I let go, and let them decide. This was literally 3 steps.

We all took turns adding the bare basics ingredients to a bowl… mixing them with electric beaters… then pouring it all into the pan to bake.

That’s it!

Less than an hour later it came out of the oven, icing was provided, and baby girl went on a frenzy applying sprinkles.

The end result:

TA-DA!

I thought it might be heavy and sickly sweet, but surprisingly it wasn’t, and tasted quite good.

The only problem now is we have all this cake, and no one to share it with!

Anyone wanna move in next door? We can trade food over the fence. 🤣🍰

#2021 Reasons why I love living near the beach no. 5

Reason number 5 is…

Because the beach is within our 5km radius, and most of these lockdown rules (sorry, ALL of them) suck.

But the beach makes it all that much easier. Less sucky.

After lunch we went to get a coffee for me, an ice cream for baby girl, and then we sat on a grassy patch temporarily to consume our yummy goods…

Before making the short walk down.

There were quite a few people there, and I don’t blame them. It is so hard to stay indoors when it is so beautiful out, and when the water is literally right there in the distance, shimmering and winking at you, how can you say no?

Plus, it’s EXERCISE.

There are some exceptionally sunny days coming up, so I think I will be doing plenty more exercise by the water… 🌊

#2020 I love Main street, and let me count the ways… no. 5

The savior of this lockdown number 6 for us will be, coffee, cake, and walks.

I felt like a semi-trailer rammed itself into my head today. All of a sudden after breakfast, bang.

I felt flatter than a pancake.

The feeling of sadness just overwhelmed me. All that talk yesterday about taking a path less travelled to feel better?

Well I had no motivation to get up at all, much less follow a different route.

The day was grey. I am 100% certain that there won’t be any lessening of restrictions next week, which leaves me to ponder, how much longer can we live like this? How much longer can we take?

Then there is the book I’m reading. Without too many spoilers (I will post a review in due time) I am charging through it, both because I really want to know what the big horrible secret is, but also because I can guess at it and it’s so traumatising that I must finish it quickly.

All of this was really messing with my head, truly.

After lunch, feeling some mojo start to come back, I insisted on leaving the house.

Baby girl and I walked the Main Street, where she had ice cream, and I got a big cappuccino and cookie.

And we just walked. There was nowhere to go, no shops we could enter. We bumped into her school friend, and it was SO NICE to see someone we knew. I started a full on conversation with a man as we were waiting for our coffees, so strong is my desire to connect and talk to people, even if I’ve never met them before.

He responded happily. He is feeling it too. We all are.

The house is wearing me down. It’s my solitude at night, but during the day, I can’t take it.

I need to get out.

The gentleman I spoke to told me his daily ritual, and I have to say, he’s got it spot on. We gotta do what we gotta do, even if it costs money, even if it puts kg on our bodies, even if we get super cold…

But he’s been getting a coffee in the afternoon, a cake, and then heading down to the local beach (also our local beach) to watch the seagulls.

Huh. There you go. A pretty cool ritual if you ask me, seagulls and all.

My kinda different path today, led me to a different person… that makes me think I must speak to strangers more. 💖

#2019 We took the path less travelled

Two quotes come to mind about what I did earlier in the day.

The first is the classic usually attributed to Albert Einstein.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

The next is a section of a poem by Robert Frost, and I really encourage you to look it up because it is a beautiful one. But it’s the end section, which goes like this:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Their similarities lie in doing the ‘other,’ in not doing the expected or same thing, and taking a risk I guess in whatever it is you feel bound to choose between.

Very simply, I took a walk with baby girl this morning. It was late morning, close to lunch, but we wandered to our little local cafe, got a cappuccino and babycino, she got a cookie, and instead of the normal, ‘straight’ route home…

I asked “do you wanna walk a different way home?”

It was twisty, it was turny… I had to check the maps on my phone just to see that we would in fact still end up on our street eventually!

But we saw different houses, encountered different birds, and amazingly, even bumped into baby girl’s school teacher who was walking her dog!

It was honestly, a breath of fresh air, and all it took was going the other way.

I guess at this time of frustration and same-old-same-old routine, we can’t expect to feel any different if we are always doing the same things, and following the same paths?

Change it up a little. Even if all that means is, another way home. 💖

Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com

#2018 A health anniversary

Recently I hit an anniversary.

Kinda a bad/good one, but I’m hoping the fact of it being 365 days later, means it’s coming to an end.

Because it’s now been a whole year since I unfortunately embarked on a very chronic and painful health issue.

Approaching this day I was freaking out a bit, anxiety taking hold, thinking of what I’ve gone through, and weirdly, would it happen again, on the exact same day? It may seem silly and highly unrealistic, but the mind goes to bad places when it’s been given not-so-nice surprises.

But, I survived, as I have the whole year.

I gotta say, I’m not too much smarter than when I started. Maybe only slightly.

I do however know a lot more about holistic and alternative health, and I know for sure that it’s a life-long journey, not a one-fix treatment thing either.

Mostly I’ve learnt I’m resilient, more so than I ever thought possible.

Still, I feel like this year passing, is a full circle moment, where I’m finally putting a lid on, closing the case of this truly uncertain and horrible time of my life where it felt as if I was thrown into the middle of a cyclone.

I much prefer still, clear waters, and know I’m going to have to meditate on them to make sure they are always near.

🙏💖

Photo by Anastasiya Vragova on Pexels.com

#2017 Pizza/pjs/couch

What could be better than grabbing a takeaway pizza to eat for dinner while sitting and watching TV on the couch?

Why, that would be grabbing a pizza then getting into your pjs, before sitting on the couch to eat said pizza!

😁

It was a long, relaxing night.

Little to no dishes.

Major ass-planting on the couch.

Laughter, talking, and lotsa channel surfing.

The heater blasting.

Mister F sleeping happily in his corner.

All is good in the world.

And to that, a goodnight. 😴

#2016 Simple laughter, simple things

I felt a familiar lockdown feeling wafting over me today as the sun shone through the window, and I set off to work from home yet again.

It was this flat, gnawing feeling of unsettledness. Of unsatisfaction.

I did my best to remind myself that all was good in my world, and even argued with some of my thoughts. I reasoned that it was lockdown blues, yet again, making their presence known.

I’ve grown to get used to their presence, and even allow them to pull up a chair at the table.

Just as I finished work, I came across a hilarious Sooshi Mango video. If you haven’t seen these guys and you’re of European descent, you MUST check them out. Anyway I watched this latest vid, gasping from breath and nearly crying, and quickly went to share it into the messenger group chat of the Sooshi Mango fan club.

Otherwise known as, me and my four friends. 🤣🤣

I had to share the joy. It was a quick share, a comment here, comment there… insert some laughing emojis, some OMGs, and all was good.

All was good in the world.

And it had me thinking… how lovely it is that I have this group with my friends, where we just come and go, drop in random stuff about our lives, share memes and jokes and more personal stuff, and some of us comment, some of us don’t, but you know what?

It’s all ok. We move on. We don’t take it personally.

You know those people where you feel as if you are walking on eggshells constantly? You need to watch what you say, how you say it, and then you need to check in, ALL THE TIME. If you haven’t spoken to them, you need to justify why, and I HATE justifying.

Like, life, that’s why.

That’s what I love about this messenger group we have, and that’s why I love my friends. We are bloody mature people. There are no freaking games and bullshit.

We drop in, we laugh, we comment.

We move on.

And then the next day/week, we pop in again, and it’s like the conversation never ended.

I was thinking all of this, feeling super proud of us, and then I realised…

I had a lot more to be grateful for than I first thought.

Those lockdown blues, I chased them away. 💖🥰

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

#2015 Back to the footpath

When baby girl asked me to draw with chalk with her on the driveway, initially I was thinking only suns and rainbows.

But then something struck me.

I was thinking of something friendly to write for all those that would walk by, initially chalking up a yellow “Hello!”

But then I realised, I had done this before.

Thought of something inspirational that would be chalked up. 😊

So I went there again. I took one quote from my inventory of rainy day quotes, and on this spectacularly Spring-like Winter’s Day, wrote the following:

“Natures shines brighter after the storm.”

I took particular pleasure in seeing people bend their heads down to read what I had written at the bottom of the driveway, and one girl even passed our house, got to our neighbours, then made the effort to come back and tell us she loved our work!

Awwww.

I know there is rain forecast tonight, so it will most likely wash away…

But I’m used to things like that. The intent is still there. 💖