Thankfulness

The weeks are rushing by way to fast. It’s already October. In other words, it’s nearly the end of the year. Wow.
I was gently reminded by my favourite elder sister that it’s been eight weeks since I posted here and that I neeeed to update.
A lot has been going on here. Some things have been difficult and draining and hard to cope with, others have been lovely and joyous.  As always I don’t know where to start when I’ve been absent for so long so I thought I’d make a random list of things I’m thankful for at the moment.

• A new oven! After having our other oven blow up on us over a month ago, we are glad to have a new (even nicer) one! We are thankful for our convection microwave which has been a life saver over the past month or so but cooking in the new oven is like a dream.  It has a light that works and the fan comes on at only the requested times and it’s quiet and has a digital thermostat so is very very accurate, and it has three shelves and and and as a result we have far too many home baked goodies in our house and I can almost feel myself gaining pounds…I will have to jog consistently next week!
• Also new–a rangehood. Our range has been out of action since we moved here over three years ago, so when we went oven shopping we picked up a Robinhood. The fact that it’s a robinhood also makes me happy, as Sam’s grandparents founded the Robinhood company, and even though his grandparents have now passed away and the company is no longer in the family and Robinhood is not even Australian made anymore, I somehow feel loyal buying this brand.
• School holidays. I did not achieve many of the things on my holiday to do list, but we had a lovely break. I love to be able to go to town in the morning if we so decide, rather than waiting til school is over, then having to wait til the toddler wakes up. We can just go! I did some sewing, the children did some painting, collecting snails and arranging homes for them, as you do! We made playdough, and did more cooking together than we usually have time to do, and the children played Lego in their pyjamas til lunchtime. I do like holidays.
• A cream coloured kitchen.  The cool thing about that is the fact that my kitchen is not bright green anymore…that’s one thing that occupied a few days during the holidays and it was well worth it!  I love the way it feels so fresh and I probably didn’t even realise how much I disliked the green until it was gone.
• Sunshine. There are so many things that are wonderful about sunshine and some of the main ones that I appreciate are — warmth, and the end of bitter cold winter, getting the washing dry on the same day that it is washed, the children being able to enjoy the outdoors, green grass and spring blossoms.
• Good health.  We had our healthiest southern winter yet (apart from Daniel’s little episode which I’m not counting in the general family sickness category) which was such a blessing but then Spring arrived and Sam and the kids came down a couple of times with colds and temps, and after a fortnight of sick family recently, I again have a strong appreciation for good health!

And because a blog post is not a blog post without a photo, here I am as I write it.  🙂