Oct Hols and 10 things...

Wow these holidays have flown by.  We have one day left then the weekend and back to school.  No INSET/Pupil Free days this term, just straight back to business - pheew!  I do love my Mondays to myself.

Since we last spoke there has been the usual beach action, a visit to Newcastle Museum, a good spring-clean, we survived the first week without Husband, hanging out with friends and a trip to watch Mary Poppins in Sydney.  If you live locally, own a small girl, love musicals and haven't been you really should try to get hold of some tickets.  It was fabulous.  It was Miss M's rather belated birthday present but well worth the wait.  We watched the film again the next day and she decided that the play was definitely her favourite.

I received an email earlier in the week from Cheryl at NUMBER FIVE to invite me to share in a wee link up to share with you 10 Things You Didn't Want To Know About Me...  Well, in the interests of general nosiness, here goes.

1.  I'm a fast food Nazi.  My children have been successfully brainwashed to dislike the Golden Arches and their unpleasant friends.  I can whip up a healthy pasta dish in 15 mins so why bother wasting money on food that doesn't fill them?

2.  I cried until my 20 week scan when I found out we were having no5!  People started to avoid me when they saw me coming!  I was all set to start applying for my Masters and was devastated.  His was the hardest labour, I had terrible mastitis, until I begged my GP for the drugs I had found online that she had to then order specially, but I am SO glad to have him!

3.  I get extremely cranky if I don't get enough sleep.  Unfortunately Smallest still thinks that it is his responsibility to climb in and "keep [me] comfy" at 2.30am.

4.  I am a Boys Mummy.  Obviously I have a daughter and I am a girl, but I find boys a whole lot easier to understand and deal with.

5.  I am hopelessly untidy and love having 5 slaves to tidy up for me!  Bribery and corruption works every time.

6.  Since having children my brain has turned to mince.

7.  I regularly fall asleep on the sofa and miss the last crucial 5-10mins of tv programs.  Thankfully we now have a T-Box which has a rewind function.

8.  Since I got my lovely DSLR camera nearly a year ago, I have taken to date 7422 photos.

9.  I really don't understand Twitter.

10.  I am very easily distracted and have far too many WIPs, books and projects currently on the go.

There.  Now I am to ask 5 of you to join me, so over to you

Jules at Little Woolie
Emma at Emma Varnam's Blog
Janette at The Green Dragonfly
Louise at Tea at Weasel's
Kylie at Blue Teacups

Counting Your Blessings

My Mother used to sing a little gospel chorus to my brother and myself when we were little which started like this "Count your blessings, name them one by one".  I was humming it to myself in the car earlier today as I thought how 'blessed' I am.  I am very fortunate in that I tend to be a cup-half-full type anyway, but every now and then I like to remind myself to "Count my blessings" and try and remind myself to be a blessing to others in turn, "Pay-it-Forward" style.     

It was my birthday last week and I was reminded that I have people I can call "Friends" all over the world, literally!  I have been blessed with good friendships in all the different places in which I have lived.  Part of that is due to the fact that I tend to just butt in to people's conversations until they give in and include me!

I live somewhere near beautiful beaches, where the sun shines a bit more than it did in Edinburgh!  Beaches aren't everyone's cup of tea, Husband for one, doesn't get the fascination, but I love them.  I'm not really one for lying on them, but walking by them, having a coffee with friends at them, watching the power of the waves, swimming at them are things I love. 

My kids drive me demented.  I'm not the chilled out Earth-mother type I always hoped I would be, but sometimes (!) they are great!  They have always had a very dry sense of humour which Smallest Boy (2)already demonstrates.  This evening I asked him which was our car as we walked back with our shopping bags, and quick as a flash he pointed to a red car a few spaces away from ours and said "Let's take that one" with a totally straight face.  When I laughed and said he was funny, he replied "I know"!  They have endless energy as demonstrated by this trampolining and 2 lots of tennis lessons this evening.

We have a roof over our heads.  Ok it's really about 4 rooms too small for us and we only ever meant to stay for 6 months, but it's convenient, our Landlord is great and we don't know what the future holds.

Whether or not it turns out to be the best move, we have had the fantastic opportunity to expand our horizons and move, albeit temporarily, to the other side of the world.  What a great experience for our kids (and us too) to see other parts of the world, hear different opinions, try new things,  all of which will help to form the people they will become, hopefully open-minded, understanding, caring individuals who are confident and brave.   

Family that I love and miss, but who still bother to Skype with me regularly and abuse me on Facebook!

That's probably enough for today, I had intended to mention some Crochet, but I'll keep that for another day.

Give it a go - Count YOUR Blessings, I dare you.