I absolutely LOVE this picture.

For the peace, and finding 'another world' of love - in the midst of a storm.....


Stolen from here.

Read the story and look at the pic for a bit - then tell me what you think....

Thankful Thinking.......

You know, life, even at the best of times - still has some sucky bits.

Lately, I've got a bit tired of listening to moaning.  I've got to confess, I've been a bit moany myself and the listening to moaning is only making it worse.

One thing I like to do, is think about someone elses difficulties/problems etc for a while.  Nothing like a bit of perspective to make one moan a bit less.

The other thing that often works - is being thankful.  Sure life is hard at times, and we all need people we can talk to about our difficulties - but our focus needs to be shifted if it's about us all the time.  We weren't put on this planet for ourselves.

So, just a random post on some things I am thankful for - might become a regular:

• health - even though this is an ongoing battle for me - 13 weeks on from being close to death, I am alive, and mostly well.  And I am greatful.  I even got told today that I am a miracle - for my "wellness".  Thank you God.
• my family - my princess A who is so delightful at the moment.  My hubby who is a real treasure.  The wider extensions who all just add that bit extra to our lives.  The little man who I am longing to meet.
• our vehicles - they are old and shabby in places, but we have two of them (which makes life WAY easier) and they both still pass their warrants with minimal work required.  I often think how I'd like a "better" car - but at the moment, they are doing us just fine.
• our home - we have worked hard to renovate it, get it nice and make it ours.  It is a stepping stone - but it is a blessing.  We are beginning to reap the rewards of our hard work.
• friendship - I like to think that there are many different "shapes" and "colours" of friends.  Some fit better together than others - but they each add their own bit of colour to life.

In all of the above things, I could very well find things to moan about.  But I'd rather live happy.

What things are you thankful for?

Things I'm Loving

Just a wee bit of home-made gourmet....

Seeing as getting the real thing from any store here is nearly impossible...

Felafels.  Pretty cheap to make too.  And tasty (maybe not for a 2 year old)...

Garlic hummus & youghurt piled onto lebanese bread in very generous proportions...

Toppings....

Ready to roll....

Yummo!

On that note - there are some other things:

• looking forward to some kind of middle eastern trip in the very distant future - so we can taste the trueness of these delish cuisines!
• in the nearer future - perhaps paying a visit to an amazing turkish cafe in greenlane - where we shared the most scrummy food during our honeymoon.  We haven't been for over a year now.
 
• Having only 9 and a bit weeks to go in this journey called pregnancy #2.  There have been a few times in the last week I've thought I might just end up with a premmie. 

And lastly -

These two.  They are some very LOVELY friends.  (excuse the quality of the pic - I stole it)

We get the privelege of being almost neighbours.  Princess Adelaide gets the privelege of having them as a very hands on adopted aunty and uncle.  Might I say, she absolutely adores them.

They have dedicated their Thursday nights - every week for seven weeks - to us.  So we can go to a marriage course and invest in our relationship.  They come to our house, and look after our 42" tv our precious wee girl.

We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

Have a glorious weekend everyone. x

Ti-GG-er cake....

A certain Princess Adelaide turned 2 last Friday.

My week was manic.  In between hectic schedules - I baked a heap of mini-cupcakes for playcentre on Wednesday, a cake for a coffee group for Friday (jaffa snake cake - orange cake/choc icing and a packet of snake lollies piled on top - easy peasy), and then I had to master the real cake for her party on Saturday (as well as other party foods). 

I also juggled several melt-downs of my own from feeling WAY too overwhelmed.

Here's what came of Mr Tigger....

And this is what he looked like top down....

This was my first real attempt at such a complicated cake - last year she had a butterfly.  I made a guitar cake for my brother's 21st, but this was rather interesting and tricky to make.

I hired  a tin from the local cake tin hire (which is well worth doing).  It came with instructions on which parts to ice first etc - which made it way simpler.  Made a lemon cake - as thought all that icing needed some balancing out!

What I didn't know - was just making the icing and mixing the colours took an hour and a half! 

Icing the cake - well, it took 3 hours.

The lovely lady from the hire shop told me it actually takes her 3 hours to ice one of these sorts of cakes too - so that made me feel a bit better (seeing as she's made a tonne of them).

The party guests were all family members, with the additon of two of our closest friends who are just like her aunty and uncle...

Gotta recommend these - Pam's giant jelly beans!! YUMMO!

We had some of these too....

And these - just for my wee princess who has an obsession with them on each supermarket visit...

I made some other healthy snacks (seeing as several of our guests were dieting).  Once the party started all my stress melted away!!

Miss PA was very spoilt and loves all her new toys etc.  The thing I found the most interesting - was I discovered that she really LOVES cards.  She went straight for them with each present and spent a good deal of time looking at them (just like her mummy).

Happy birthday my beautiful girl.

x

Random Ramble....

This is my dog.  Well, our family dog.  He lives with my parents.

He has a complex....

He slept in one of these when he was a tiny puppy.  My mum still uses them as her laundry basket (one of the sturdiest she's ever had) - any time one is opportunistally left on the lawn, guess who jumps in.

It is WAY too small now, but I guess this box is a source of security and comfort to him.  Something he knows well, is used to - and even though the fit is awkward, he'd rather squeeze in his old box than find a new, larger one that fits him now.

Which leaves just one thought - what's stopping you from getting out of your box?