Wordless Wednesday - Baking

Today the little one and I are cooking up a storm.

Actually it is more of a super secret surprise full of awesomeness.

So hard not to spill the beans.

Make sure you check back tomorrow for my Healing Foods series kick off.

For now though it is back to the kitchen for me as I get my bake on. Don't worry though all will be revealed Friday so make sure you pop back then as well.

Till then,

Healing Foods

It is no secret that food and diet impact our health and well being. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to at least vaguely know a good and bad difference. However, how do you know what food is more beneficial for a particular problem?

Well unless you are some dietician and nutritional expert you probably won't. Unless of course you like to keep  your finger on the pulse and do a bit of light reading on a range of topics. Like my real life Bestie who reads all kinds of amazing books just because she wants to learn more and look after her body as much as she can.

Thankfully for me I have her and she is only too happy to pass on any important tidbits that she thinks I might be interested in. Which is great because unlike her there is no way I can find the time to read and raise three children and keep house. Mind you she does not have distractions like a blog or Facebook to rudely chew into her precious time.

Back to the point though.

One of the books that she raves on about most is this one

Healing Foods by Miriam Polunin can be found here
No that is not an affiliate link
I just thought I would be helpful to those interested in more info

While it is only listed on Amazon for a couple of bucks it is more than I am prepared to fork out in this super tight economic situation, only a few short weeks away from the highly anticipated #DPCON13.

Plus why buy it when I can just ask Bestie to check it out for me?

Inside this wondrous little book is information on fifty foods and the fantastic things that they can do for your health. There are also a bunch of yummy recipes to help inspire some new dishes to your table.

Sick of me always asking her to look something up Bestie has left her book with me for a few days so I can absorb some of the information within it's covers for myself. Being the kind and sharing gal that I am I thought I would also share that info with my lovely readers. Plus it means when I give the book back I will still have something to reference.

Mind you working out which bits were the most important to remember and write about was no easy feat. Even though there are only 160 pages in the book, there is a lot on each page. As such I have decided that I will do a bit of a series about it all. I can hear you all cheering from here.

The whole series thing will also give me a chance to schedule posts for while I am kicking my heals up at the afore mentioned #DPCON13. Have I mentioned how excited I am about it?

Make sure you pop back soon for the first instalment, around Thursday. Better yet head over to the side bar whip in your email address and then have each of my awesome posts sent straight to your in box.

Could life get any better or easier?

Joining Jess and the gang for IBOT

And of course feel free to share all over the place. Plenty of buttons below to help you out there

I must confess I failed miserably

Miserably failed I tell you. Just miserably.

Remember last week when I confessed that I would be taking a step back from the whole linky party thing?

Yeah right. So didn't even come close to happening.

Even as I was writing the post I knew that I would be joining in with the wonders of IBOT over at EssentiallyJess on Tuesday. As a proud member of TeamIBOT, how could I not? Plus the week before I had promised a bit of a button tutorial so I couldn't not share that.

Image found here

Wednesday was the only day that I was able to stick to my resolve not to link. While I did post a Wordless Wednesday post I didn't head over to the lovely Trish to join her linky. Which kinda made me a bit sad for a couple of reasons. 

The first being because I do love Trish and it has been ages since I have actually participated in WW, but there are just so many other posts to share the love with. I just knew I didn't have the time. The second is more self centred and revolves around views. Or lack there of. No more need be said really.

When I confessed on Monday I had totally forgotten that it was the week my fellow TeamIBOT member over at always Josefa was hosting her monthly #convocoffee link up. This month the conversation was about hairdressers and I just couldn't miss out. My hair experiences were guaranteed to make you giggle.

By the time Friday rolled around I was adamant that I would be able to return to my no linking resolve. That was of course until I saw Samuel Johnson on the Today show and I just had to share all the things I knew about breast cancer. Which then just had to be linked up as much as possible all over the place to ensure maximum exposure.

At this stage I was certain that I would be able to walk away from linking for a while. Till I remembered that Mum Talks Autism hosted Blogs I Love on Saturday. There were so many wonderful post out there I couldn't help but share them.

This tweet from Jenn confirmed it was the right thing to do

So until I posted this photo I didn't actually realise it said test rather than tear!

As much as having a post out every day in January drained me, it was also a very positive experience. One I want to replica again. I need to make sure I keep on writing. Sure I won't be beating myself up too much if I don't get something out every day but I certainly will be rejoicing the times that I do.

After all the only way to be a writer is to actually just sit down and write.

Image by nkzs and found here

Sounds so easy when it is said like that doesn't it?

More on the whole #fwbk thing

As it stands I have already written two blog posts today, so no doubt this will be scheduled for some time in the future, you know like tomorrow. All this writing comes at the end of a week that saw me getting something out every day. Which always makes me happy. And really it only makes sense to do things that makes one happy.

There are a whole range of reasons as to why posting regularly makes me happy. One of the biggest is that it generally means my hits will increase at slightly greater knots than what it other wise would. Call it egotistical or whatever you will but I really really like knowing that people are reading me and I like it even more when I know those numbers of people are steadily growing.

Having said that though there are many a ramble, much like this one, that perhaps are not quite worth publishing. After all it is quite feasible to think that people have better things to do that read the inner monologue of my being. Regardless of how entertaining that may or may not be.

Still write I must.

Image from here

Yesterday I wrote of fairy wishes and butterfly kisses. In fact I even went so far as to slyly slip a hash tag into the heading. I want #fwbk to become a caring love sharing kind of movement that slowly seeps through the world at large. 

Eternal optimist that I am.

For a long time I have felt a fairy presence in my life. Recently I have felt it grow stronger and it is something that I want to nurture, encourage and grow. All in good time though. It is almost like it is a lesson in patience at the same time. Something that I desperately need.

Every where I go I see messages and signs. Little dots that slowly seem to be connecting things that I never imagined could be connected. It is not always easy to just sit and watch it all unfold, but that is what I must do. 

At least for now while I still work out what it is I need to do.

I can't help but notice how the colours on the image that I used on the fwbk post came so close to matching my new look. All purely coincidental I assure. Much like why I went looking for that old post on today of all days. 

Exactly four years after I first wrote it. 

Bizzaro or what?

Fairy wishes and butterfly kisses #FWBK

On this day four years ago I wrote this post

I have decided to make the above my personal catch cry. Keeping up with modern day desire for abbreviation it can be displayed as ~ fw&bk ~

As you can see I am working on a possible logo sort of thing but obviously it is still very much in progress.

I guess if I had some sort of prize I could hold a competition... of course then I would need to find people interested in entering so it is all starting to sound a bit like hard work! Not that I am adverse to it, hard work that is but I have plenty of other hair brain ideas that I need to follow up before I start on any more.

Anyways chances are you are reading this post because I left you a link somewhere in this crazy cyberspace world that we seem to exist in. Well I just want you to know that I hope life is treating you well. May the sun shine down rays of happiness onto all that surrounds you.

It was published on my now defunct Fairy Garden site. A place where I let my inner fairy out. Or at least tried to. I shut it down a while a go when I realised no one ever really went there. I don't know why one way or the other now behind it all.

The idea behind this post was to create awareness and help spread the love that comes with fairy wishes and butterfly kisses. Back then I was even lazier than what I am now and couldn't stand the thought of actually writing out all the words that were fairy wishes and butterfly kisses. I thought I could just type #fwbk and have an instant link back here.

Of course my little brain never quite got around all the extra coding that would be needed to include a link back. So I packed it all in on account of being a bad idea.

Trying to think back I am unable to recall as to why I decide to take My Fairy Garden offline. I think there was a part of me that was worried people would ridicule me or make fun of my airy fairy beliefs. Again the ins and outs of it all are a blur to me and I can't pinpoint or locate any reasons for a whole number of things that I have both thought, felt and even experienced. Some parts of life are perhaps meant to remain a tangled web of confusion?

Four years on I am somewhat wiser and a lot more comfortable with myself.

I proudly declare my love of fairy wishes and butterfly kisses every where I go. So much so that people now send them back to me. In fact some people just randomly send me fairy wishes and butterfly kisses when I least expect it. Which just warms my heart no end I tell. The only thing left to do is see someone else send some fairy wishes and butterfly kisses to someone else again all of their own accord.

This is Rayisa. Oh how I love her

There is no rush though, all will happen on it's own accord and in good time.

I realise that now.

It hasn't been easy all the time, but I am slowly coming to terms with the beauty that is organic growth. That slow beautiful growth that comes with connecting with real readers.

It is a wonderful feeling.

Today I found myself ending a few tweets and comments with #fwbk knowing full well the recipient would know what I meant. That was a beyond wonderful feeling.

Today is exactly three weeks till my birthday. It is hard not to let the excitement override me. Three weeks is still a long way away.

With each day that passes I can feel my connection to the fairy realm growing stronger. My trust in sharing my thoughts gaining confidence with each moment that slips by. It is like I have a heightened awareness of just how magically magnificent life can be. If I let.

Having a faith that you can strongly hold onto in order to sail through the roughest of seas is very special indeed. That just knowing and trusting that in the end all will be ok. All will work out as it is meant to, for the very best.

I love lots of blog posts this week

Since the whole not going to linky parties hasn't really quite worked out as planned I thought that I would share with you a few of my favourite blogs this week. A rather lovely little linky hosted by Mum Talks Autism, if you haven't already I strongly suggest you check her out.

Now I know that the whole idea of this meme is to share the bloggy love and talk about other bloggers but this week I wrote three rather awesome posts that I just want to check that you have read them.

Kinda like a community service really.

First up I showed how easy it was to create your own blog button. Then I shared my hairdresser, or rather lack there of, experiences. And last but certainly far from least, in fact never have I longed so much for a post to be shared, on Friday I wrote about some of the things I know about breast cancer and the awesomeness that is the Love Your Sister movement.

Now that is all out of the way let's get to talking about other blog posts that I have just loved. This week has seen a range of fantastic blogs all over the blogosphere. It is hard to decided exactly which ones I love the most.

I think the blog post that got me most interested in a blog this week was one I found during my IBOT reading. Though I have also stumbled across this blog via FYBF over at With Some Grace.

Now I am not sure why but for some reason I keep thinking this is fiction. I don't know why it is hard for me to remember that this is someone's life but it is. It would certainly make a great work of fiction. Whoever Eve really is, she has a wonderful way with words.

Of course I am talking about

Forbidden Fruit

Seriously the other night I sat there and read through every post on that lovely little blog. Granted it is still new and there are only 18 posts but each and every one of them was fantastic edge of your seat reading. Perhaps I am so enthralled because there is a part of me that think if I had of acted differently at times her story could be mine. Which perhaps is why I think of it more than fiction.

Anyway regardless of whether it is true or not I will be going back for more. In fact more can not come out quick enough for my liking! Eve if you are reading, please get writing!

Other great posts that get a mention this week include the Feb Fast wrap up over at EssentiallyJess. Jenn shared her thoughts on telling children about past relationships while the beautiful Heart Mamma was shared the ups and downs of parenting with the most beautiful words ever.


Now I know that there are lots of links here for you to go through but I assure you they are all worth it each and every one. Make sure you book mark the post to save for some rainy day reading.

Things I Know About Breast Cancer

Happy Friday beautiful people!

I know that earlier on this week I said I was stepping back from the whole linky party thing for a bit but I could no more miss sharing the things I know than I could blogging on a Tuesday.

So here I am.

Though there was another reason that compelled me to put fingertips to keyboard today. Funnily enough it was stupid* Karl Stefanovic on the Today Show when he was interviewing the rather lovely Samuel Johnson.

As you may or may not know the incredibly wonderful Samuel Johnson is riding his way around Australia.

On a unicycle no less.

Image via the Love Your Sister Instagram feed

Why is he doing that I hear you ask?

His sister Connie has terminal breast cancer and this is Samuel's way of raising awareness and vital funds for this terrible disease. According the Love Your Sister website it all started as a joke in the kitchen but turned into a promise.

I know that the Love Your Sister campaign is beyond awesome. If you haven't already head, over and check out where Samuel is. And if you have some spare cash, there is a donation page there as well.

I know that I am hoping to get the opportunity to talk the man himself. If you have any questions you would like me to ask then send them through.

I know that breast cancer affects far too many women. In 2008 there were 159,649 women alive in Australia, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous 27 years.

It is estimated that in 2013 14,940 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. That works out to approximately 40 women every day. That's right it is expected that every day this year 40 women will discover they have breast cancer. Crazy huh?

It is also estimated that this year 2700 will lose their battle with breast cancer. That is on average 7 women a day dying as a result of breast cancer.

On the upside though there are also a whole heap of statistics to show that the 5 year relative survival rate from breast cancer has increased significantly in recent years.

If you would like to read more about these check out here, which coincidently is where I got all the above info from.

I know that one of the main messages Connie and Samuel want to put out there is the importance of early detection. There is every possibility if Connie had been diagnosed earlier the story would be different.

Be breast aware peoples. Be. Breast. Aware.

Self check regularly. If you don't know how to self check make an appointment with your GP and get them to show you. While you are at the GP though get a pap smear as well. You can also check here for some more info on self examinations for breast lumps.

I know that all cancers are best fought with early detection. If you have a family history of cancer make sure you regularly check in and get tested for what you can.

I know that while writing this I have decided to that I will also Flog it With Some Grace, because the more people that read this the better. Please do your part and share, tweet and like. There are plenty of buttons below to help you.

*Karl just in case you read this I actually think you are more annoying than stupid and this is based mostly on the fact of your job. I am against all morning show hosts. I find them all annoyingly stupid. I fail to see how anyone who gets up at the ridiculous times they do can be as chipper as what they are. All the time!

Conversations over coffee - Hairdressers

So far my whole no linky party resolve is not working out quite as planned. Though I did manage to refrain from linking up my lovely flower photos. Which by the way I noticed that so far practically no one has bothered to look at. Which is kind of ok I guess cause it shows my readers are here to do just that, read.

Anyway, the very elegant always Josefa opened her second ever link up today. 

It is a once a month special occasion, though it's open for few days if you want to join in.

Sadly I missed out on last month's conversation about a first love. Some time ago I wrote about a life of lost love. Even though it was twelve months ago now, it wasn't some I wanted to revisit just yet. Especially since I said it so beautifully (evenifIdosaysomyself) the first time. Plus it didn't seem right to just link up a twelve month old post.

Only it wasn't that long ago that I gave great thanks to my newly found and incredibly awesome hairdresser. Sadly I haven't had a chance to get back to her, though hopefully that will all change before the big trip to Sydney in a few weeks. Luckily though I do have a story or two to tell about some other hair experiences I have been through over the years.

So grab a cuppa and read on.

It's alright, I'll wait for you while your cuppa brews

As a child I wasn't allowed to get my hair cut very often. My parents were some what traditional with the whole girls should have long hair thing. Well that and the fact my hair took so long to grow in the first place, that there was just no way my parents, particularly my mother, could bring themselves to get my hair cut till I had lots and lots of it.

My hair was thin and fine and wispy blonde for nearly four whole years. At which point it darkened, thickened out and became this beautiful multifaceted shimmering and glossy brown that my mother ensured no one called mousey.

Because apparently mousey brown hair is the worst, or at least one of the worst, things that can be bestowed upon a young girl.

By the time I reached high school I was desperate to make changes to myself and my hair seemed the most logical place to start. Naturally my mother thought otherwise. Being the good dutiful daughter I was, I accepted her denial of what I thought was my right to cut and colour my own hair.

Well intermittently at least.

Every now and then I would take up the cause again and resume my pestering regarding a desire to change my appearance. Eventually it all paid off.

One day when I was expecting my mother to be plaiting my pony tail, she just snipped it off. Yep you read right. One day my mother just picked up a pair of scissors and chop!

Gone were my locks.

I was beside myself if excitement and joy. I could not believe my dream of a new looking me had finally come true. For the next few days I was fixated to the mirror and admiring my new do. Suddenly my mother had elevated herself to coolness and in doing so took me with her.

Sadly it was short lived and before long I wanted even more change. I wanted to brighten up my mousey brown (that I apparently didn't have). I must have been about 14 when I had convinced my over protective mother that I could catch the bus to the local library with my friend from school. It took a bit of convince but I assured her all was above board and there was no need to question my trustworthiness.

Sure my study buddy was the least studious person I knew, but she was certain there must be a few good looking nerds doing their homework at the public library. We both felt our school was lacking in good looking boys.

As it turned out there weren't any hunk a chunka studs for our little innocent year nine minds to look at. So we decided to take apart our red textas and see if we could colour our hair. Ingenious huh?

It worked. Sort of. At least till we had a shower.

To say my mother was not impressed would be an understatement. I was never allowed to study at the public library after school again. And as for my friend, well needless to say I was advised not to spend any more time with her.

Pretty huh?
Not wanting to be a fun stealer like my mother,
this is the henna Miss 11 put in her hair recently.
I find it interesting that she now wishes she
didn't. But that is all a post for another day.
Sadly for her it seems to be staying for a while
longer than what I was expecting. Whoops!

It wasn't long after this though that my mum buckled and got me a henna rinse which put the most loveliest red shine through my hair. Making me the most happiest girl in year nine. Well until I got caught playing in the rain and the dye leaked out all over my lovely new white bodysuit. (Ssshh it was the early 90's ok, body suits were what all the cool kids wore)
From here my hair just got shorter and shorter. Each time my mum pleading me that it be the last for a few years. By the time I was 19 I had no attachment to my hair at all. I would hack at it myself on a regular (read almost weekly) basis. If I went out and I couldn't get it to sit how I wanted I would just cut the offending hair. I still liked to keep up the 'natural' henna red though.

I was at a time in my life when I had little to do with other females. I loosely hung with a few girls from work (the local and only surf shop) but most of my free time was with my boyfriend and his mates. Ironically he had the most beautiful long hair I have ever seen. His buddies were all shavers though and one night while they were passing the clippers round I somehow found myself in the hair removal chair.

Best thing I ever did.

I think every woman at some point should shave her head. There is something to be said about the whole shake and dry kind of style that comes with only a few millimetres of hair. After this though I decided to let it all grow for a while and my next hair cut was not for years.

Having said that though I think it is fair to say that my hair has probably spent more time short than long though for the most part I have taken care of it myself. Which is silly because the hairdresser naturally does a much better job.

Me in 2004 with a lovely short do.

Me not looking all that different in 2012

But in between all of that in 2008,

I would be lying if I said this was the *only* picture of me with long
hair. It is the only pic of me with long her and a celebrity though.

I hung out with Chas and had really long hair!

What type of hair affair do you have?

Make sure you head over to always Josefa and share in some of the other hairdresser conversations

Wordless Wednesday - Frangipani Flower

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

Not these buttons.

You will be forgiven for thinking that I have gone button crazy. I know there has been lots of button talk going on around here lately but I just had to share my new found knowledge.

Last week for my most favourite linky ever I shared just how easy it was to modify and add social media buttons to your Blogger blog. What I should have mentioned though was that there is actually very little difference when doing it for a Wordpress or any other type of blog. But never mind, now you know.

This type of button

While I was busy making lots of pretty new stuff for myself, I also whipped up a blog button for the lovely Kirsty over at My Home Truths. Though really all I did was organise some code for an already existing image. And when I say organise some code I just copied and pasted a few different links into this rather awesome site that did all the work for me.

Anyway as you can imagine Kirsty was just a little pleased with her spiffy new button and code to share with all her link buddies that she asked me if I would ever do a post about making your own blog button.

Well hold the phones lovely, all your dreams are coming true and here is how to make your own blog button according to me. For the second time. When I first discovered this site way back in December 2011 I posted on how clever I was and how clever you could be.

I did think about just directing Kirsty to it, only really there is not much detail and I neglected the whole where to save your image which is kinda important. Plus, nothing like a free post idea is there?

So first things first.

Your image that you will use for you button needs to be saved somewhere online so it can have a URL. This is very similar to what is needed for when we created the social media buttons I like to use somewhere like Photobucket. Actually I don't just like somewhere like Photobucket, I actually use it, but I am sure there are plenty of other similar ones if you would rather, tumblr, flicker etc.

Anyways, if you are using Photobucket you will see that there are a whole range of URL options to choose from.

Yep that's the URL stuff I was talking about.

Once you have your image URL head to here which is the "Grab My Button" code generator site. 

It looks a bit like this

It really is as easy as filling in the blanks. Just copy and paste.

Now I have never really bothered changing the container's border or background colour. If you know what colour you want and have the right combination of letters and numbers for it, enter it in the boxes.

What I do really recommend doing though is setting the width of the code container. I like it at about 125 pixels. Most buttons these days are 150x150 pixels so setting the code container box to 125 keeps it all neat and tidy. Plus it makes it easier to fit into your side bar.

I also like to have my button links open in a new window, but that is just a personal preference and I don't even know why that is. You can decide for yourself whether you tick the yes or no button on that one. Once you have entered all the details click on the preview button and a new little box will pop up with code for you to copy and paste into where ever you want.

The code will look a little like this

<div align="center" style="padding: 5px;"><img src="http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z380/lourhi/I-Must-Confess-Button-150x150_zpsa33b2bb0.jpg"  title="My Home Truths" alt="My Home Truths" /></div><textarea style="background:#f0f0f0;border:solid 1px #cccccc; color: #777777; font-size:100%; height: 50px; margin:auto; text-align: left; padding: 2px 0 2px 5px; display: block;  width: 125px;">&lt;div align="center">&lt;a href="http://myhometruths.com" title="My Home Truths" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z380/lourhi/I-Must-Confess-Button-150x150_zpsa33b2bb0.jpg" alt="My Home Truths" style="border:none;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div></textarea>

Which then magically turns to this when entered in a HTML box

<div align="center"> <a href="http://myhometruths.com" title="My Home Truths" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z380/lourhi/I-Must-Confess-Button-150x150_zpsa33b2bb0.jpg" alt="My Home Truths" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Then all anyone needs to do is copy and past the code below the button and voila, your button is now on their blog! Awesome huh?

Sharing this handy button information with all those who blog on Tuesday with EssentiallyJess and you should share it on Twitter, Google or Facebook (or all three) There are buttons below.

I must confess I can't do this any more, well at least for a bit

Today's post was supposed to be joining in with the lovely My Home Truths for the weekly confessional that Kirsty hosts. I was going to confess how for the next few weeks I would be neglecting my regular linky posts.

Sigh.

With the highly anticipated #DPCON13 literally just around the corner, there is much to be done around home to ease the burden of Mummy Guilt that I will inevitably hurl upon myself for leaving the children to the perils of their father for nearly one whole week.

As such my blogging time is going to be slightly impeded for pretty much the next month.

Double sigh.

Which means that even if by some minor miracle I get posts out I seriously doubt my ability to go around commenting as much as I think is appropriate when joining linky parties.

Triple sigh.

In between all of that it is my birthday soon. Actually it is just under a month to go but I am super super excited about it this year. Well at least for the moment I am. No doubt there will be some point in the coming weeks that will see me crumble under the realisation that at thirty five I have very little to show for myself other than an awesome husband and three awesome offspring.

Which of course is awesome but not exactly the nobel prize for literature that I was expecting to have by now. Mind you I was also expecting to skip a few years of high school and university. Not to mention a call from the lovely folk at Mensa asking if I wanted join their special little club. Oh the delusional mind of a early teens.

Where was I? Oh that's right, confessing I am holding off on joining in on all my favourite linkies over the next few weeks.

Original image from here and then
adapted by me

I know hard to believe but I don't think I have any choice. Plus I am kind of hoping that I have enough regular readers I won't notice any difference.

Ok so maybe the delusional thing was slightly longer lasting than early teens, whatever

Mind you since I do kind of have a confessional post here I guess it wouldn't hurt to just link up...

It's all about choice.

The week just gone feels like it has been a long one.

I don't like it when they feel this way.

I don't want life to be a chore. Where each day drags from one to the next, filled with nothing more than monotony and boredom. Where every little thing seems to just drain your already depleted self, leaving you wishing that you could stay in bed. Indefinitely. Perhaps even longer.

That is not the life I want.

That is not the life that I want to show to my beautiful children, with whom I am bestowed the privilege  of informing, educating, moulding and creating if you will.

That is not the life I choose. I refuse to.

The other day I wrote a post. Just a quick one, I didn't have much time and turning on the computer at that time of the morning really was a wrong thing to do, but the atmosphere for writing was just too great to dismiss.

It felt wonderful putting writing above all else for a change.

Something I need to do more often

At the end of the post I wrote that we ALWAYS have a choice. Always. It is something that I need to constantly remind myself of at the moment. There have been too many days of late where I have not remembered that my attitude to my situation is my choice. When the days are dragging on for much longer than they should I start to feel as if my choices have been removed from me and I shouldn't. Because regardless of all else, how I handle a situation will always be my choice. Always.

There are some big things going on in my little neck of the world. Some of it so big that my pretty little head can not even begin to compute it all. I don't even know how to go about tackling it all in a blog post either. 

All in good time I guess. For now I will stick to thinking about the choices before me.

One of the choices I have made lately is to have a good hard look at me and all that I do and am. In four short weeks I will turn thirty five. Which I am kind of excited about. I also have a few reservations about it all as well.

Like, have I really made the most of my life and the opportunities presented in it? Am I being the best role model for my children that I can be? Or more to the point am I being the best me I can be? All that kind of deep philosophical stuff that seems to frequently coincide with birthday self reflections.

At the end of the day, if I am truly honest with myself, I could choose to get more out of life.

From here on in I want to choose to put more into life.

I choose to make the most of each and every day.
I choose to stop the waste and dreariness that seems to infiltrate my being much more than I care to admit.
I choose to make a change and take charge of my life.

The choice to tackle every day and get the most out of it, is mine and mine alone.

I choose to greet the day with all that I have and not let it wear me down. Well at least not as easily.

What big choices do you need to make?

It's my birthday

Image from here

Well, this time next month it will be.

You could say I am just a little excited about it all.

Image from here

Actually in many ways I am super excited about it because this year I will get to be with my sister on our special day and it will also mean that I have survived the fun and excitement of #DPCON13.

Plus who seriously doesn't love their birthday?

The fact that thirty five is a seven birthday just adds to the excitement of it all. All this excessive and over use of the word excited it testament to just how excited I am.

Seven birthday's are my favourite because life moves in seven year cycles. Or at least I like to think it does. I am more than ready to be entering a new cycle. My last two cycles have been very birthy/child creating focused. I can feel that is now at an end and a new cycle is ready and waiting to begin.

Of course this new cycle is still strongly child focused, just not so much in the actual creating of them in the first instance. This new cycle I am preparing to embark on is more of a growing, developing and shaping what I have already created. I have a feeling that it is also about some growing and developing for me as well.

In preparation for all of this of course the house needs a complete overhaul. Only compounded by the new (to us) furniture that we came across today. Let's just say that my new computer area is looking very flash indeed. Mind you sorting through all the mess created as we made room for our new acquisitions is not all that appealing, but I guess you can't win them all.

So on that note I guess I best get to it.

Do you like to spring clean before your birthday?

Have you heard of the seven year life cycle stuff or is it just something in my head?