Grateful spends a Day in the Life

Kymmie at A Day In the Life of Us is hosting us this week.



There she is up there in all her fancy-pants gorgeousness, say hi, Kymmie!

Pop on over to link up your grateful post and remember to say good morning to at least one perfect stranger.

Grateful holidays at The Beetle Shack

Emily over at The Beetle Shack is kindly hosting Grateful for us this week.

See, there she is up there with her lovely family - go on over, you'll really love her.

Grateful, Em, oh yes I am. x

This week I'm grateful for... play dates

Unsurprisingly, a couple of people unfollowed me after yesterday's post. I'm not supposed to know that, am I? I'm not even supposed to care, right? Okay... moving right along...


This week I'm grateful for...


169. Play dates - I do love shuffling mine off to someone else, but I especially love having the players at our place. The privilege of watching what my Tsunamis get up to with their friends is one I relish. So, yes, I am a Spy Mum (but apparently not very good at it according to Cappers who caught me lurking!)


170. Takeaways - We like a trip to Maccas as a treat (mandatory when we are on the road to Gran and Pops, apparently) and LOML and I enjoy a home delivery from a favourite restaurant most weeks, but that's pretty much it for us and takeaways. But tonight we're off to a mate's place for takeaway pizza and it's just such an easy, welcoming way to entertain that I can only say 'more please!'.


171. Childhood - for the reasons above and all the rest of the reasons that make my heart swell. Watching our children find their place in the world is magic. I recall being considerably less concerned about my own childhood than I am about my children's... there's something in that...

So, what's making you smile today? Add your Grateful post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is one about being grateful, not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to the list. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.



[Image by Anna Moller and found on Momfilter]

This week I'm grateful for... ribbons

Cappers Kazoo finally consented to a hair cut a week or so ago. About half her hair got lopped off and it's changed my life. Time in the morning that I used to spend hair wrangling I now spend making intricate works of art out of clay and wire. Well, not really, but I no longer feel quite so guilty for spending an extra 10 minutes in bed. A couple of brushes, a ponytail and out she goes.


So, this week I'm grateful for...


166. Ribbons - I've come to realise that there isn't a knot in existence that a sweet little ribbon can't deflect. A little girl with a ribbon looks cared for.


167. Two Minute Noodles - they might actually take more like four minutes in the microwave on high, but they're just really yummy, especially if you melt some cheese on them to really amp up the fattyboomsticks pleasure. Maybe it's 'two minutes to finish eating them' noodles?


168. Fattyboomsticks - it's just a really great, almost onomatopoeic word.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your Grateful post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is one about being grateful, not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.


[Image found here]

This week I'm grateful for... near misses

It was a week of near misses for me. Some minor (I did that 'leaping through the closing doors of the train thing' on Thursday); some major (hellllooo Cappers, the Trampoline and the Ankle).


Gets you thinking, that does.


So, this week I'm grateful for...


163. Near misses - 'what could have been' is always a moment that makes me question the role of fate in our life. It's a shame I get a bit queasy whenever I see Gwynnie these days as I have a sudden urge to watch Sliding Doors again!


164. Being spoiled - such a lovely birthday week for me. That LOML of mine, he sure knows how to treat a girl. A little pile of Tiffany boxes, pictures he framed himself and a surprise afternoon tea. I love that husbie of mine all the way to Mars and back to Venus. I cannot get enough of him. 


165. Riding the gravy train - can you believe there is another restructure at my work right now? This is number four in nine months. Madness! Luckily I am a very adept corporate passenger these days and I'm just looking out the window, enjoying the changing viewpoints.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your Grateful post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is one about being grateful, not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.




[Image found here]

The trifecta

Thanks everyone for your lovely hurrahs on my birthday yesterday. I had a fab day and was spoiled suitably rotten. The best bit is that with my party months away, this birthday feeling can last for ages! I highly recommend this approach.

Well, I'm forty now, and it ain't no different to 39, which wasn't all that different to 38, which seemed remarkably similar to 37... well, you get the idea. All the way down to about 18, I think. Which means we're all just adolescents at heart. But still, forty seems... milestoney. Like I'm crossing over a line.

I was bemoaning being moaning... sorry, start again... so I was bemoaning turning forty this weekend to my mate the other day and she said, "At least you've got the Trifecta."

"The Trifecta?"

"Yeah, career, husband, babies - the Trifecta. It's what women everywhere want to achieve by forty."

Really? What an odd thing to even think about let alone see as an 'achievement'. I suppose mainly because the career thing happens through sheer hard work and a bit of luck, the husband thing happens through sheer hard luck and a bit of work and the babies are just plain work.

But then, I happen to know that my friend (who I know from work, so tick one box) didn't meet her man until she was about 42 and has been trying unsuccessfully to have a bambino with him ever since. So, I can see how the trifecta is something that she might be a bit wistful about. Forty does seem to be a fairly solid cut-off point for the baby bit.

And there are lots of mummas I know who had to give up a pretty sterling career in order to raise their bubbas in a way they were happy with. So, they're forty and wondering if they'll ever get back into the workforce when it's time for them.

Still others whose husbie's are useless, absent or long gone. They're forty and wondering when their husband is going to join them in growing up...

So, I'm going to shut up about what I may or may not think about this 'trifecta' business and the ridiculous expectations placed on women of today and just be grateful. Grateful that I reached this milestoney age and things seem pretty much on the up for me.

I'm going to be grateful that my work offers me the kind of trust and flexibility that I wish was available to all working mothers.

I'm going to be grateful that my husband offers me the kind of help and support that I wish was available to all wives.

And I'm going to be grateful that I have three cheeky, healthy and loving children that I wish were available to all women (we could raise them together, Big Love style?) My three beautiful Tsunamis are the only trifecta I really care about winning.

See, all that and it's not even Saturday...

Had you heard of the 'trifecta' before?

[Image by Natalie Haywood]

This week I'm grateful for... birthdays!

It's my birthday today.* I'm older than yesterday. All my friends are coming over to play and they'll all sing happy birthday.

And then give me 40 freakin' claps with one clap for 'good luck with that'.

Yep, the big 40-0MG.

I've been growing up for 40 years and I still don't feel like a grown-up. I am beginning to suspect that there is no such thing. Mind you, was it my mother who said "It's only your generation that thinks 40 is still young" (yep, that sounds like Mum). She has a point... only a generation ago you were basically given permission to let it all hang out past forty. No need to maintain an illusion of youthful trendiness because basically you're older and wiser and you know comfort should really be the priority. Wouldn't that be nice? Slippers. Terry toweling dresses. Pottering. Bedtime at 8pm.

Yikes. That all sounds so tempting I'm scaring myself a little bit. And I will spare a thought today for my dear Mum who must seriously be feeling every one of my 40 years right about now. If it's freakish being a 40 year old, imagine being the mother of a 40 year old. That's a right mutha, that is.

So, this week I'm grateful for...

160. Birthdays - I like to make a whole year out of my birthday.

161. Parties - oh, how I love to plan and play at a party. To make up for the fact that I didn't have a 21st or a 30th, I'm having a BIG party at home in November instead of August. Weather and all...

162. Balloons - they're not seen as cool enough to decorate many parties these days, but a balloon still makes a gal feel very happy on my birthday.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your Grateful post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is one about being grateful, not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.

* Well, technically tomorrow - 6 Augie.




[Image from here]

This week I'm grateful for... advice

Time away to just ponder is so necessary, don't you think? When I set out on my big truckin' adventure (honk, honk) the rain was bucketing down, I got stuck in gnarly traffic jam 15 minutes from home and I did find myself thinking "what the farm am I doing?" But then as soon as I left the city the rain lifted and the most magnificent rainbow was suddenly before me - arched across the road such that I had to drive right through it to be on my way. A sign, surely a brilliant sign.

I did a lot (a lot) of thinking while travelling solo. Many of the ideas and directions I came up with were good ones, some were not.


So, this week I'm grateful for...


157. Advice - a caring, careful sounding board is a blessing indeed.


158. Pondering - what a great, meaty word that is. What great, meaty ideas come as a result.


159. Riding solo - turns out I'm actually pretty easy to get along with.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your Grateful post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is one about being grateful, not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.




[Image by Ahndraya Parlato]

Pause: grateful

This week, I'm grateful for 154. exploring and 155. wondering and 156. solitude.

And I'm grateful to my friend Beth at BabyMac for hosting us this week. 

Click here to visit Beth and join in the linky.

Enjoy your week!

x

[Image via westoleit]

This week I'm grateful for... books

Aunty Al and her two junior burgers have been up to stay with us this week. What a laugh we all had - especially the children as the five of them tore through the homestead, breaking everything in their path. Yep, that was pretty funny indeed. Aw, what does it matter when both the destruction and  noise levels are so high that you just know your children are writing the story of their childhood. When I was young, our cousins would come to stay and we would...

So, this week I'm grateful for...

151. Visitors - I make no secret of the fact that I'm not a big fan of routine. What better way to spice up the week than have fun (and funny) people to stay?

152. Books - Even better when my guests love books as much as I do. Al, Aunty Coo and I decided that what we needed more than a night on the tiles (sorry Woogsy) was a night perusing cheap books at the local Lifeline book fair (as you do). Open until 9pm, by the time we settled the kids, ate some dinner and found the darn place we had all of 27 minutes to snap up approximate 53 children's books each. It was a book buying frenzy, let me tell you. And I'm still recovering from the bizarreness of the Lifeline staff... but that's another post entirely.

153. Little gems - And would you believe that among my 53 snapped-up-in-seconds books was a little gem of a children's book called The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit written by Sylvia Plath and published posthumously in 1996. Sylvia Plath does children' books! How random! I do love a book fair!

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 

[Image by note.worthy found on Flickr]

This week I'm grateful for... my mental health

It's not my story to tell, but a situation has erupted for a family dear to me this week, and it's meant that my gratefuls this week are a lot darker than they usually are. Sometimes the things we are grateful for carry so much weight that you can barely shoulder them and that's me this week.

Again and again all week I have been thinking that I am ever so grateful for...

148. My mental health - my mind is rational, clear and disease free. I think straight, I act when I need to act, I make well-thought out decisions that are balanced and true. I'm not depressed, I'm not anxious, I'm not psychotic. I am healthy and shedding tears as I write for those who are not.

149. Safety - I tuck my children in every night with a little rhyme that says "Safe and warm in your bed, peaceful dreams my sleepy head". And there they are, snug and safe until morning.

150. Action - sometimes all the talk in the world does nothing. Sometimes you need to abandon all the maybes and just get in there and act. Stand up and scream about it; even when everyone else is seated, when everyone else is silent.

So, what's making you pause today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little gratitude.




[Image found on weheartit]

This week I'm grateful for... the week that was

I started 'Grateful Saturday' in order to take a moment every week to reflect on the things in my life that were positive and appreciated. It's a grounding, important thing in my life and I am convinced that it helps keep me looking for and focusing on life's positives.

I've always done 'three things'. Who knows why three, but three it is.

I've had a HUGE week in blogging land this week. Really awesome support and love coming at me from all angles and I'm positively overwhelmed and so very grateful. Thank you to everyone. I stand behind the fact that I think blogging makes us nicer people. I really do.

It's been so hard to stick to just three things, but, this week I'm grateful for...

145. Companies that 'get it' - Elk, Leona, Prey, I love that you got a random email from some chick with a blog and you ran with it. You didn't try to 'corporatise' me or go on and on about your 'brand'. You didn't have lots of rules and regulations... in fact, you had none. You just got that blogging is about having a conversation with a friend and you pulled up a chair. Are you listening, Ford Territory???

146. Shiny Tim - again. I know. It's boring now. But I'm just so darn grateful for those captured family moments, I really am.

147. Bloggers - Lots and lots and lots of bloggers. I'm probably running out of ways to say I'm grateful for our little community, but again, I am just so happy with the lot of you that I'll repeat myself again and again and again. And again. Thank you for joining in with Grateful Saturday each week. It means a great deal to me.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 

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Enter our party giveaway by clicking on the image!

[Image by Tim Coulson]

This week I'm grateful for... photography

I've had an ear infection. Yes, I feel like a two year old. An excruciatingly-in-pain two year old. I will never again be intolerant with an ear infected child... that mo fo hurts like... well, fo!

We have Mr Timothy Coulson coming around super-early tomorrow morning (Saturday) to take our pictures. How cool is that? Only it's not cool now because I've been laid up with the ear-thingy for a few days and haven't 'done' the house. So Tim - who likes to take 'real life' images of family living - is quite possibly going to get more 'real life' than he bargained for.

But I'm not even worried about the house...

I'm having my picture taken. I don't really like having my picture taken. I'm about as photogenic as Brynne and I don't have the distractaboobs. Eeeek... Plus Maxi-Taxi is being a real pain in the ear whinging about having his own picture taken, so Tim's bound to appreciate the 127 images he captures of the back of my first-born's head. But not to worry... check out the gorgeous photo shoot he did with Beth's fam and the one he did with Emily's fam. See how lovely my house and family are going to look? Oh, wait, that's just Emily and Beth...

ANYWAY... this week I'm grateful for...

142. Photos - I might not like being photographed, but I'm so glad that over the years I've just leaped in front of that lens regardless. We are a very lucky generation to have our lives on film. Our up-and-coming generation (who are pretty much living out their lives for the camera) may beg to differ?

143. Light - a photographer's light, that is. I'm thinking that the ability to capture light is crucial in this image-making business. I'm hoping that Tim's mastery is going to make all those cobwebs and all the chocolate stains and all that can-never-be-removed Weetbix-glue look amaaaaazing...

144. Penicillin - thank you, thank you Mr Fleming. Without you the shoot would be shot.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 

[Image is snaps from Emily's shoot with Tim Coulson. Gorgeousness.]

This week I'm grateful for... oranges

Fruit and I are wary of each other. Every time I start to think I kinda like it, it tosses me a frigid manadarin or a wanton pear. When it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad it is just so darn awful that I start to realise that the thing about a Snickers Bar isn't that it's convenient or addictive 'cos of the high salt/sugar/fat combo... no, it's successful because you always know what you're going to get.

Fruit isn't like that. Yuuuummmmm.... Snickers Bar... sorry, where was I?

But, this week I'm grateful for...

139. Oranges - sorry, Ms Winterson, but they actually are the only fruit that seems to be tolerable most of the time.

140. Baking - flour puffs, oozy dough, greasy hands, fragrant warmth, spoon-licking goodness. Substituting wholemeal flour means it's all good for you, right?

141. My pathetic little heater - yeah, yeah, I know I said last week that I really love the cold. But that was cold days. Not, you know, later at night when you're freezing through your four layers and your feet just won't warm up without a little help. Not then. So, we thought about getting ducted reverse-cycle air-con and I got it costed up and then I realised that my pathetic little radiator heater wasn't as bad as I thought...

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 





[Image from How About Orange - another fabulous orange that I love to indulge in as often as possible! Thanks Jess!]

This week I'm grateful for... deadlines

I've written many times about my tendency to procrastinate (procrastination even has it's own label on my blog). I'm actually one of the world's most lazy people, a fact that I hide beautifully by keeping myself incessantly busy chasing one deadline or another. Shhhhh... don't tell anyone, but I'd really rather be lying down with a bowl of chocolates and a good book. Or just plain lying down.

Either way, this week I'm grateful for...


136. Deadlines - I think I know why they're called deadlines. Without them, I'd probably be dead from eating too much chocolate and lying down on my enormous arse all day.


137. Busy work - Another tactic for pretending I'm not bone idle. I have missed having a party to plan for this week. I even found myself contemplating adding a stitch or two to my seven year knitting project. But I just couldn't find that darn scarf.


138. Cold days - I live in Sydney so I know I don't know what cold really is, but I did live in London for years and I miss that COLD cold. It makes me feel rejuvenated and alive. We're off to Canberra today (I'm going to Shop Handmade! Yes I am!) so check in with me on Monday to see if I still feel this way!!

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 





[Image found here]

This week I'm grateful for... trying

We have a saying around our house: "Don't say can't, say I'll try". It's a necessary saying because if a child has ever uttered the words "I can't" more than Maxi and Cappers, I'd like to meet them. Every time they say I can't, I bang on with my favourite saying and 9.9 times out of 10, they'll give something a go (the other 0.1 times they moan something about 'not that again, Mumma').

I like to think that I'm a trier myself. I hate to think that I'm a can'ter, that's for sure. So, when I stepped out last Saturday with the intention of walking for the duration of Maxi's OT session (45 mins) and found myself running the route instead, well, I felt like I was walking the talk, that's for sure. As a matter of fact, I was running the talk and that's even better.

So, this week I'm grateful for...

133. Trying - just getting in there and giving something a go. Like we remind our kids 27 times a day.

134. Running - for the first, oh, five minutes I just had the biggest grin on my face. It had been such a long time since I'd run at any kind of pace and the feeling was absolutely joyous.

135. Rest days - after those first deluded minutes, I really had to drag my sorry self around those mean streets. And the next day, sheesh, why on earth were my inner thighs in agony? I must have such a weird run to make that happen. In my head I'm smartly running along as if I should be wearing lycra. In reality, it's a very good thing I'm not.

PS - It's the Badoo's 3rd birthday party so I apologise in advance that I won't be around much to visit you. I'd love it if you'd visit one extra Grateful blogger on my behalf today, just to show we care. I'll post about the Pink Party (yes, she just wanted 'pink' - how's my life?) on Sunday! x

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me. Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine.





[Image by Brittney T via Flickr]

This week I'm grateful for... the laughing cry

Some days you've gotta laugh or you'd cry. I like to do both at the same time.

All week I've been mental at work. I'm making approximately fifty five decisions an hour and everyone wants a piece of me. Just so busy that my head spins.  I'm getting through it on a carefully planned schedule and good old fashioned humour. So, don't fret, I'm okay.

But this morning my work crisis went straight out the window.

The Badoo's usual Friday routine is that LOML drops her off on his way to work in the city ("Dad", as she calls him, never "Daddy" or "Dadda" as the older Tsunamis do) while I do the school run because I work from home on Fridays, but today we only had one car, so it was me.

On the school run she seemed a little quiet, she complained of a sore tummy. No, she didn't want to go to the toilet, no she wasn't feeling sick. She wasn't hot, she wasn't miserable, just 'sore'. So I decided to drive her over to Nonno's on schedule and maybe I'd still make my 9 o'clock meeting.

By the time we arrived, she was miserable and crying from the pain. She indicated that she was 'really, really sore' lower in her abdomen. I freaked out (as you do). I thought 'something she ate', I thought UTI'.

I really thought 'appendectomy'.

I gave her a hit of Panadol to help quell the pain and drove her to the medical centre. I made calls on the hands free all the way there to rearrange my busy working day. Little Badoo was crying out how much it hurt by this stage and I thought 'maybe they'll see her first since she's so little'.

I really thought 'Emergency, stat'.

By this stage, everyone in the waiting room was freting for this poor child who was obviously in incredible pain. I had already mentally rearranged the next week of my life ready for the hospital stay. A number of kind people came over to us to say that the Badoo could take their place if they were up next. I was beside myself with worry over my darling little Badoo who was by now a huddled, cuddled mess in my lap. Then she sobbed, "I need the toilet".

I raced her to the toilet, ready for the projectile vomit of blood and almost in tears because I should have taken her directly to the Emergency department for her apendectomy requiring a week's stay at the hospital.
Then she weed. And weed. And weed. And, dear god, weed some more.

When she had finished pissing Niagra Falls, she said, "I'm all better now." And smiled. And skipped back to the waiting room where the doctor came out immediately and called "The Badoo". Of course she did.

Surprisingly, there is no treatment necessary for a child needing to do a wee. The doctor humoured me by performing a tummy squeeze here and there, but with the Badoo singing nursery rhymes at the top of her voice and giggling because the doctor was 'ticking me', we both knew there wasn't really a whole lot to say.

So, this week I'm grateful for...

130. The laughing cry - those silly moments when life is just so superbly sweet and sour all at the same time that as much as you want to cry, you simply have to laugh.

131. The crying laugh - when you are laughing so hard that the tears are streaming and your laugh rattles your bones. My favourite kind of laugh.

132. Any old laugh - the more then merrier. How else are we ever going to get through it?

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) andpretty-please add a link back to me.  Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 

You can also link up with our British cousins over at Michelle's Reason's To Be Cheerful and maybe make a new bloggy bud. They're doing 'new blogs to find' this week too, always fun.

[Image via weheartit]

This week I'm grateful for... reflection

I've had a week of quiet contemplation, one way or another.

Firstly, I had to really get a grip on myself earlier in the week because I was spazzing a bit about the Kidspot Top 50 Bloggers comp. Seriously, how many shades of sad and needy can I turn? Don't worry, I slapped myself around the face and I woke up to myself and I wrote this post and I feel much better about the whole darn thing.

Secondly, I've been reassessing those juggling balls again this week. I'm taking on too much again and it's eating into my important sitting down time.

Thirdly, a few work things have been shaken up a bit and... I'm shaken up a bit. Rolled, but not rattled, so to speak. All is well, but I'm having to find my feet AGAIN and it's getting harder and harder to roll with the punches, to be honest.

And just today, a blogger that I love included me in her post in a way that I am very comfortable with, but... it's made me think once again about the heavy power of words.

So, this week I'm grateful for...

127. Reflection - taking the time to stop for a minute and think about the way things are.

128. Expression - I am so glad that I seem to be able to express my true meaning and have others understand what I am trying to say (for the most part, god knows there are some doozy exceptions!) Many people struggle with this so much so it's an ability that I am very grateful for indeed.

129. Remembering - where we've come from, what plans we had, the map we followed and how far along the road we are.  My sister has a linky on Saturdays that perfectly reminds us to do this with our blogs. Come join in!

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) andpretty-please add a link back to me.  Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 



[Image by Rebeca Cygnus - you must check out her amazing, dreamy, lush work!]

This week I'm grateful for... Monday night drinking

Aha! Blogger is back!

So, where was I? That's right...

I can’t remember the last time I went out drinking on a Monday night… maybe I’ve never done it? Monday drinking just seems so… committed. And foolhardy. That’s certainly how I felt when I woke up on Tuesday and realised that I’d somehow come down with a terrible virus overnight. Isn’t it funny how that happens? And then the realisation: oh my freakin’ god, it’s only Tuesday.

Of course it was the crazy, social world of blogging that had me out on a school night. For the first time ever I mixed my URL with my IRL* and met a whole bunch of bloggers at the Kidspot Top 50 Bloggers** launch party.  Highlight was definitely knocking back a couple of contraband ciggies in a back laneway, in the rain with Woogsy, BabyMac and Lori. Hardcore. Felt like I was eighteen again. There were so many fabulous bloggers there that I can’t mention them all, but a quick shout out to Chantelle, Kirrily, Fox in Flats, Kellie  Kerri, Farmer’s Wifey, Clare, Caitlyn and, of course, that gorgeous gal PPMJ.

So, this week I’m grateful for…

124. Monday night drinking – ‘cos it’s just so great to invest in shaking things up and doing new stuff, even if you have to pay for it the next day. I actually think the majority of my hangover was mainly due to the 227 cigarette I smoked (I haven’t been a ‘smoker’ in about eight years!) and the 1768 shelled peanuts I ate at the laneway bar we washed up in. Couldn't have been those,oh, 3 wines I drank... right?

125. IRL – I’m so glad I now know some of our lovely bloggers IRL.

126. URL – But I’m equally as glad that I still love them (and so many, many more) in URL.

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) andpretty-please add a link back to me.  Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 

Happy weekend to you!

* This rather magical term was coined by MultipleMum at the AMB. Love your work, Aunty Coo.

** You can vote for me here. Don’t be shy

[Image via weheartit]

This week I'm grateful for... moments

My boy turned 7 today. SEVEN. How can it be seven years and 2 days since I first went into labour? Yes, you read that right; Maxi took a looooong time coming into the world.

He was probably too scared to come out.

That's my boy, a little bit scared of most things and absolutely petrified of sleep from day one. But each and every year he gets braver and sleepier and more and more gorgeous. He's just a bundle of yum. I am very surprised he made it to seven without his mother eating him all up.

So, this week I'm grateful for...

121. Moments - that moment when I first thunder-clapped eyes on my very first baby.

122. Enthusiasm - if there is one word I would use to describe Maxi at Seven, it would be 'enthusiasm'. It pours out of him like a stream.

123. Reading - and watching my child read his birthday card message all by himself.

PS - Some bike-loving dude won the People's Choice award over at the Sydney Writers' Centre. I can't compete with motorsports. Thanks for voting for me!

So, what's making you smile today? Add your I'm Grateful For post to the list below (and please, we love you, but it really does matter that your post is a Grateful one and not just a random), add the button (grab the code from my sidebar and paste it into your post) and pretty-please add a link back to me.  Then pop over to visit other bloggers who are spreading a little sunshine. 

Happy weekend to you!