Birthday's and Back to School

Mo turned 14 today, I can't quite believe that.  I still think of her as my little girl.  She has always had a pretty strong personality within the family unit, but is quiet as a mouse to the outside world.  the control freak in her has reared it head over the last few months.  Genetically she has got a double dose of it so it was bound to come back and bite us sooner or later.

The Vegan experiment comes to an end when she goes back to school, but she is still going to avoid red meat and probably dairy to a certain extent which is ok with me, the fact that she will be introducing a bit more protein into her diet will be good.  

I am amazed at the variety of food that she has added to her menu in the past couple of months.  She didn't eat a big variety before and would never eat tomatoes (except on pizza).  She has even tried a red sauce on pasta but she said biting into a tomato still makes her want to vomit.  We were having hamburgers one night so she made vegan patties from black beans, I had one and I enjoyed it better than the red meat hamburger.  The great thing is that she is trying lots of different foods and eating whole foods and has cut out a lot of the processed stuff so at least she is eating healthy.

We went to lunch yesterday to Veggo Sizzle yesterday in the city and had a Vegan lunch, it was a bit of a wait for our meal but all the dishes were lovely.  Today she made us Vegan pancakes for breakfast and her birthday cake was a vegan cheese cake which was really yummy.

Poor hubby is spending between 6 or 7 hours every day at the hospital with his mum this last week and although she is starting to move around, the general anaesthetic has had an effect on her dementia and conversations are repeated every 20 minutes or so.  The boys are now seriously thinking about a nursing home as BIL probably isn't going to be able to look after her at home to the extent that she now needs.

School starts back on Monday so we will be back to routine and running around.  It has been nice to not worry about having to be anywhere at a certain time for a few weeks but all good things have to come to and end sooner or later.

Lowering Expectations

My favourite author has a section in her newsletter called lowering expectations, which lists when her books are to be released and changes that may affect those releases AKA life.

Well life sent us a curve ball on Friday night, though it was really only a matter of time with the number of falls she has had, my MIL fell getting out of bed and broke her hip.  Poor hubby has been going backwards and forwards to the hospital which luckily for us is only a 5 minute trip.  I think we are just hoping they don't discharge her too soon.

Back to lowering your expectations.  Centre block for Celtic Tree of Life is well on the way, however, well on the way is still a bit of a long way away as the tree is going to be quite involved.  Though I have just had a thought, if I can get the actual tree finished by the 15th I might just release the templates for that and then once all the critters and leaves are done release those next month, this way I won't be so under the pump.  I stitched for 2 hours straight last night and can't say I made much of a dent.  So I will soldier on.

Block 6 Celtic Tree of Life

Here are the blue banded bees all finished and the pattern can be downloaded from the Celtic Tree of Life Page.

Next months pattern may be a little late, I will be working on the centre tree block which is going to be pretty large and the tricky bit is going to be preparing the templates for you.  It will probably incorporate some of the critter templates already shared and I see a few different variations of them as well coming into play.

Follow my instagram feed and Facebook page and I will keep you up to date on progress.  Once the centre block is done I will have a bitter idea how the quilt setting will finish up.

Bookish

Of course I have been doing lots of reading over the break.  Before kids, I use to read books on my own never talking about the books I read because lets face it I read Sci Fi Fantasy books and nobody in my circle read much or read these types of book, others just look at you weird.   I now read lots of different types of books, lots of romance,  Sci fi Fantasy,  paranomal, the occasional thriller, classics and historical fiction, but I have never been involved in a book club.

I'm actually quite an introvert so a face to face book club is probably way out of my comfort zone.  However since discovering reading again, with new genres and new authors and now reading with the added connection of social media and all the lovely links that you find in the back of ebooks you can actually interact with authors like never before and as an extension of that join reading groups online which is pretty fun.

One of my favourite author's reading group (Penny Reid)  started reading one of her novels today.  I've read the book a couple of times so its no biggy if I don't read along but its fun to interact with other readers give your opinion.  Of course there is no obligation to say anything and you can just read all the feedback and how others view the various characters if you want.

Some of the groups are reading groups and only open up to discussion when they are going through the book, like Penny's.  Others are for a specific type of genre or just one author's books with lots of discussions about all their books with read alongs thrown in along the way.  

I'm in a one dedicated to a group of male romance authors which is a lot of fun they have video read alongs every week and various video discussions.  Only problem is I am usually at work when these are on and some get a it naughty so probably not good at work listening.  A couple of the authors get a bit excited when reverse sexism comes up in the press, or stuff about indie writers not being proper authors etc so you get the occasional rant which is fair enough as it is the way they make a living.   But the guys are great writers and they can write from both the female and male perspective and their books cover a broad range of genre's and subtypes and they constantly interact with their readers.

Another great thing about following authors is that they all support each other, cheer each other on and promote and share good books they have read freely, introducing you to new authors along the way.

So it isn't hard to understand that my TBR list is a bit out of control at the moment and doesn't show any sign of getting any smaller in the near future.




 

First Day Back at Work Mehh

Had to get up this morning while the rest of the family slept in and trudge of to work.  At least it wasn't quite the disaster I was expecting mainly because the boss is still on leave and he must of had his phone off today... maybe his wife has put the foot down 😡 which I wouldn't blame her in the slightest.

Its been a lovely couple of weeks off with no schedule though the excessive heat at the end of the last week could have not happened.  There was some mild nagging from DH to plan something for each and every day which I quietly resisted, but we did end up doing stuff even if it was just a walk on the beach, movies, walk down and up Mt Lofty.   On the Mt Lofty trip I  failed miserably and had to turn back, however the other 3 managed it.  DH looked a bit worse for wear and has sworn never to attempt it again but  Mo did't even look like she broke a sweat (we have decided she is a machine).

Mo is running 5km a day on the treadmill and the vegan experiment is going strong.  She is trying lots of different foods and recipes though shopping with her has become a marathon experience, I'll be glad when she is back at school and just leaves me a list.   She says it is a lot of work to research and ensure she is getting enough protein and she wishes someone can just do it for her but it is keeping her busy in the kitchen and at least she isn't cooking cakes anymore which is helping me.

Sewing has been a bit slow over the break, normally I work on a few projects while I am home but I really just lacked motivation, the heat probably didn't help. Block 6 is nearly finished just have to add antenna's to the bees and she's done.  I think I seriously need my eyes tested as I was really struggling during the day now and reading labels have me wondering if my arms are long enough for me to focus.  Joys of ageing.