JaM-The week just gone.

JaM-taking Just a Moment to gather & share the things you have noticed, consumed, created &/or bought during the week.......

Monday last week seems like it only happened yesterday, the week really has gone that fast. I was hoping to have good news this week but unfortunately I didn't get the job I had an interview for last Monday night. And that is despite the fact that I had people all over Australia crossing all their bits for me! Obviously the fates have something else in mind for my future...........

 

We have two more Rats in the house now that Ben has brought his two little men home. At the moment they are camped next to the fire in the lounge room but I am planning to move them from there very soon. My little dog has found out that even though they are in a cage they can still draw blood if she stirs them up enough. 

Our Carpet Bowls break up was on Friday night and was a really good night. The table groaned with all the Supper everyone brought. It was definitely not a good place to be if you were watching your figure. (No this isn't it, just an idea of what it looked like.......just triple what's here!!!)

http://www.stressedoutbridessurvivalguide.com/guide.html

Due to Government Funding cuts to TAFE (which I could have a tiny rant about, but I won't) I have had to sign up to the second certificate course I wanted to do about 6 months earlier than I had planned. If I wanted to do a $2500 course for free the sign up was to happen by the end of this week. It is going to be interesting having two on the go at once but I think I will manage.

And finally, Fifty Shades of Grey has come up in several conversations I have had lately. All I can say is "I don't understand how seemingly intelligent people can read this stuff" and yes Helen, I am still looking for a riding crop for you!!!!
To see what everyone else has been up to pop over to visit Jody.

Sweet Little Things About Me-My favourite Holiday

Remember my post the other day about a favourite place to visit?  It is the place that I had all my favourite holidays and I think the absolute best times there were when the kids were little. Every March we would go camping there with my Mum and Dad for a couple of weeks. All of my kids were only babies when they first started camping at the Slips. Days of sunshine (and pouring rain as well) spent fishing, swimming, making sandcastles and letting the kids run wild.  Meals cooked on the campfire especially fish that we had caught only hours before. The children all have special memories of those times and when they go to Mum's they always try to go to the slips and make sure it is all as it should be.

 After we came in from fishing everyone helped to clean the fish. The kids loved watching the Pelicans feeding when they were thrown scraps.

 Every night there was time spent sitting around the campfire talking about our day and cooking dinner. It was lucky these two were small and Pa had room for them both. 

 And Nanna didn't miss out either. I remember how wet this trip was and there was never a clean child to be seen, but they had so much fun. 

 I'm not sure who had the most fun on the beach building sandcastles. 

Everyday we would pump sandworm to use as bait when we went fishing. Eventually the littlies had to stop helping Pa because all their running around sent the worms too deep in the sand. They didn't like touching them anyway!

 Beach babies, cheeky ones at that!

Another favourite part of the holiday for the kids was the boat, how cute were they in their little life jackets?

Another holiday over and all packed up ready to go home.
Do you have a favourite holiday? Share it here with Lisa. 

JaM-Catching up with old friends.

Jam-taking Just a Moment to gather & share the things you have noticed, consumed, created&/or bought during your week.........

There has been lots happening here in the past week with more days playing with the pretty things in the shop.

Lots of study and lots of assessment tasks but moving along with it at a reasonable pace.  I thought I might start getting a bit slack with it at this stage but I am still managing to stick to a reasonable study routine. 

More things have been happening to confirm my belief that when you start changing things in your life it starts a roller coaster and new things present themselves to you just because you started doing something. Next week I hope to have some more news on that but you will have to be patient.

The nicest part of my week was spending time talking to my best friend on the phone. We really are very slack at keeping in touch but when we do, we just pick up the conversation from where we left off, whether it was a week ago or a year ago. We have been through many adventures and life experiences together, some amazingly good and others not so good but we are always there for each other no matter what. ( I will probably get a phone call for putting her photo up here but eventually she will forgive me. )  We all have lots of people we call friends but there are only a very small few that are more like family than friends. When I have big news to share there are two women in my life that I instantly share it with . I count myself lucky to have these women in my life as my 'sisters of the heart'. 

Share your week with us and read more JaM post at Jody's

My Place and Yours-A Favourite Place to Visit

The theme for My Place and Yours this week is a favourite place to visit.

I go over to the coast at least twice a year to visit my Mum. It is definitely because I enjoy spending time with her but the added benefit is that she lives on the coast. Being born a beach baby it is a huge bonus to be able to breathe the sea air and get sand between my toes for a little while.

 Just a short drive from where she lives now is where we spent most of our child hood . We call it the slips but it is Corringle near Marlo on the Victorian 90 Mile beach. We learnt to swim, fish, cook, build cubbies in the trees, run full pelt down massive sand hills, go tiddler fishing off the jetty and so many more things, with a freedom very few children get now days.

We had a beach shack here when we were kids but it was pulled down nearly 30 years ago. Every year after that we would pack the camping gear and go back. Then, from the time our children were babies we would take them  and give them the chance to have the freedom and experiences that I had as a child. I rarely get back here anymore but when I do it is with fishing rod in hand and a day filled with happy memories.

A Jumble of Memes

The Memes I join in with all happen about the same time of the week and I am getting hopeless at jumping in on the day, so bear with me while I join in with all three right now.

My Place and Yours-Boots (not under the kitchen sink!)

Cherie gave us a choice this week and I really am not brave enough to show you under the kitchen sink so here are my boots. 

These are the boots that get the most wear around here. My Blunnies for when I go out in the yard to garden or the woodshed to get yet another load of wood for the fires. They are in need of a bit of cleaning and a rub with some Dubbin at the moment.  My pink gumboots have been a necessity this winter as the yard has been a swamp for weeks. I do have nice dressy black boots for going out in public as well but they have nowhere near as much character as my working boots.
Join Cherie here or just pop over and see what boots the more fashionable of us are wearing.

Sweet Little Things about me- My favourite Board Games

Lisa  wants us to share the board games we played as children and I can remember playing Yahtzee and Monopoly although it all ended in tears 90% of the time. 

What I remember playing the most, sitting around the table in our beach hut with the kerosene lantern burning was 500. Mum and Dad were keen card players and we often went to friends houses and while the grown ups played cards we played outside in the dark. Lots of Hide and Seek and Chasey.  We also played a Dutch game with cards and there was a homemade board with something on it. We made bets with matchsticks. We would play whatever this game was in the loungeroom with out cousins while our parents played 500 in the kitchen. I wish I could remember more of that game, but it was a very long time ago.

Do you remember the board games you played as a child? Come share them with us at Lisa's

JaM- Sunshine and a hint of the season to come.

I am taking a moment to join with Jody and sharing a little of my week with you. We have had sunshine, warmth and washing drying on the line! It has given all of us a lift and things just look a lot better when there is sunshine.

The daffodils are opening, there are new leaves on the roses and a hesitant feeling of spring in the air. 

Working? I don't think so.

This is HayCrafts Country Homewares, Gifts and Flowers.

Yesterday I spent the day here looking after the shop for Kerry.

As you can imagine, it was such a lovely day!

The trick is, when working in a place like, this is not to spend your pay on all the gorgeous things. 

I was very strong this week and didn't pop anything away that I couldn't live without but I am going back again next Thursday and I'm not sure I can be strong a second time around!

JaM and Sweet Little Things about me.

JaM-The little things that brighten my day......

Last week was a good one for me with lots of things happening to make me smile or more. I passed my WPM and accuracy typing test for my Tafe course, which for an until recently two fingered typist is a major achievement.
My first Daffodil bloomed. My great big youngest son has learned how to hug me every time he leaves to go back to his place. 
I have had lots of wonderful emails from everywhere when I put the Closing Down sign on the door of my Web site. So much encouragement and support can be very overwhelming and will always make me smile.
I have a couple of days work coming up in my very favourite gift shop in town which I am really looking forward to, the trick is not to spend all or more of my pay in there.
It has really been a good week and I'm hoping that the changes I am slowly making in my life will bring a lot more little things to brighten my days.
There are two quotes that I have printed out and put where I can see them everyday:
You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think - AA Milne

and-          By changing nothing, nothing changes. - Tony Robbins

 It seems like I am moving on to the next phase of my life!

Visit Jody for more Moments 

Sweet Little Things about Me-If I could go to the Olympics

Lisa of Sweet Little Pretties  asks us this week what sport would we like to compete in if we could go to the Olympics and of our memories of  the Olympics when we were growing up.

I don't remember the Olympics being very prominent in my life at all when I was growing up. I can't remember any special activities at school (although it has been a while since I was there)  If I'm really honest they don't hold that much interest for me now, I'm just not a watcher of sport even if it is the Olympics. I admire the dedication and abilities of the athletes and think in theory that it is a good way of promoting world peace and equality. 

This year all I hear is how badly we are doing, that there is still only one gold medal and  "What is going on with our swimming team? They are letting us down so badly"  What I don't hear is what a major achievement these athletes have attained by being chosen to attend an Olympic Games and how hard they have worked for years of their lives to get there. How on earth will our children and future champion athletes learn about being a good sport win or lose if they see the way people are treating out Olympic Athletes?

So if I could go to the Olympics it wouldn't be to compete, it would be to cheer our athletes on and tell them not to mind if they don't win as long as they did their best,  then that is good enough.

Taken from the Olympic Creed:

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

My Place & Yours-Keys

MPAY this week is all about your keys. I look at my children's keys and they have one for everything, to the point that I warn them about the damage they do to their ignition with all the weight of their key rings. They live in rural cities where everything has to be locked.  My key ring has my car keys on them and that's it. The house does get locked when there is no one here but there seems to be someone around most of the time. The sheds are usually open and very, very rarely are they locked up.  Hanging up there are the back door keys (those big ones on the end), a collection of keys that only the man of the house knows where they belong and keys to my neighbour's house so I can check on him if he doesn't turn up with my paper at 6am Saturday morning.  We live in a small country town where it hasn't reached the point yet where we have to lock everything away all the time and I am glad it's like that.

Letting go and Moving on...........

I am terrible at making decisions about the big things in my life that will have an affect on my life, either good or bad. I will dither, hem and haw, um and ah and generally procrastinate until one day I just tell myself that this is the day to decide.
So.......this is the day I decided once and for all to finish something that has been around for the last four years.  I have hung the Closing Down sign on the door of my website and at the end of this month it will be done.
It is time to move on to other things, new adventures and a time to embrace the fact that our lives can move in different directions no matter how old we are or how established we think our lives have become.
For good or bad it is done and I know it won't be something I will regret.