What are you thankful for?

As many of you will know by now, I’m rubbish at keeping up with posting on my blog and need prompts to actually write something.  So, with that in mind, I found another journal prompt list.  This one is for 52 posts so 1 a week.  Should be doable, right?!?  We’ll see.  I may have to write them in bulk and schedule them a couple or three weeks in advance.  Before I start with the first post from this new list, I will say that I am still answering the questions from the 365 Questions list but a lot of the answers are very personal, or short, and I don’t want to share.

The first prompt on my new list is:

What are you thankful for?

I believe I had this question on my 365 Questions list but I won’t look at the answer before I answer it again.

I am thankful for a lot of things…

1. My family – they are my inspiration and my motivation, most of the time.
2. My house – I have a house and it has indoor plumbing and central heating.  I don’t have to share my house with anyone other than my immediate family (husband and son) and I don’t have to go outside to the loo.
3. My job – most of the time I love it and I work with some amazing people.
4. My health
5. My friends

I’m sure there are more but that’s all I can think of for now.  I looked back at my 365 Questions and I also added that I was thankful for my washing machine and dryer as well as my fridge and freezer.  Basically I am grateful for modern appliances 🙂

Advertisements

365 Questions – January Part 3

Here we go with the third and final part of January’s prompts.

22.  Tomorrow will be better because …
I will be at work which means there is not as much temptation of food.

23.  What made today unusual?
Nothing.  The only thing I did differently was getting the bus to the supermarket and then walking home from there rather than getting my usual bus home.

24.  What are you looking for from life?
To be happy.  To be able to spend quality time with my Man and Boy.  To have fun and smile every day.

25.  What is your favourite thing to drink? 
Diet coke or water.

26.  Today the temperature was … 
8°C according to York Weather Station on Twitter 🙂

27.  How much did you spend at the grocery store last time you went? 
About £10 this morning.

28.  Tomorrow will … 
be cold but I’ll still go for a run.

29.  What was your last major purchase? 
Too private to put in this post.

30.  My house is a home because … 
my family lives there and keeps it messy and lived in.  It is clean, but messy.

31.  Who is the last person to tell you they loved you? 
My husband

 

365 Questions – January 2019 Part 2

As the previous post was getting long, I decided to stop after 11 days of journal prompts and split the entries into 2, or maybe more, posts.  So, here is part 2.  Let’s see how far we get.

12.  What is making you mad?
Nothing really makes me mad but being the only person in the house who does the washing/drying of clothes/bedding/towels sometimes frustrates me.  Then I calm down when I remember that I am also the only one who works part time and the others in the house work full time.

13.  What did you have for dinner today?
Roast chicken made in the UltraPro (Tupperware).  It was lovely and so easy to clean the UltraPro too.  We also had the last of the pigs in blankets from Christmas, roast potatoes, carrots and broccoli.

14.  What did you get done?
This is private.

15.  Who last called you on the phone?
A call centre about an accident I was in.  I was in an accident?  Why did no one tell me?!?

16.  Who are you in love with?
My husband, of course.

17.  What are you grateful for?
Having a house with a toilet and indoor plumbing! Oh, and my fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer etc…

18.  The best part of today was …
getting home and knowing I didn’t have to go out in the cold again.

19.  My current favourite website is …
I don’t think I have a favourite website.  The one I visit most often is Amazon.

20.  What is the hardest thing you are dealing with?
This is private

21.  Today I wish I had more …
adventurous taste buds so I would/could have more variety for my meals.

That’s it for part 2.

365 Questions – 1-11 January 2019

I did it!  I actually kept my 365 questions journal going for the whole of January.  Here are some of my answers.

1. What is your number one goal this year?
   To enjoy it and have fun!
   I have other goals relating to family, health and fitness but I’m not going to share those.
2. What are you most grateful for?
   My family
3. Are you content?
   Yes!  Could things be better? Sure but they could be a lot worse too.  I have a job I enjoy.  I have my health with a few minor issues but they don’t stop me doing what I want to do.  I have my family.  So, yes, I am content.
4. What is your best memory of last year?
   Just one?!?  The best is probably our Disney holiday but seeing the Boy running with someone other than me or the Man and smashing the R U Taking the P? and parkrun is up there too.  As well as running sub-30 for parkrun, twice and the Man completing his first York 10K.
5. What was the last major accomplishment you had?
   I guess that depends on what you define as a major accomplishment.  I have celebrated 25 years of marriage. I graduated with a degree as a mature student in 2007.  I ran sub-30 for 5k twice in 2018 for the first time since 2015 when I only managed it once …
6. What possession could you not live without?
   Good shoes for walking.  Or clothes in general.
7. Can people change?
   Yes.  For the better and for the worse.
8. What is the last “good” think you ate?
   Yogurt and banana for breakfast.
9. What is your current favourite snack?
   Slimming World Hi-Fi bars or summer fruits with fat free natural yogurt and meringue (my version of Eton Mess).
10. What made you smile today?
    A friendly welcome and a smile at the butchers.  Walking to Tesco for the shopping.  Getting my run and shower in before going to the dentist for a scan.
11. What’s your favourite accessory?
    My watch or the Winnie the Pooh bags my mum made.  I don’t use them enough.

As this is a long post, I’m going to leave it here and put some more in a separate post.

Q&A

Becky recently answered these questions and decided that I should answer them too.  So, here you go Becky.

1. Who inspires you the most?
   I am inspired by lots of people for different reasons.  However, Becky and the Boy probably inspire me the most purely because of what they do on a daily basis.  My boss inspires me too.
2. Where was the furthest place from home that you have ever traveled to?
   That’s tricky because the furthest I’ve traveled from my current home was actually me travelling home from school.  The furthest I’ve traveled on holiday is either Zimbabwe or California.  I can’t be bothered to look up which one is furthest.
3. Which blog post gave you the most pleasure to write?
   I really don’t know.  I can’t remember a lot of the ones I’ve written.  I probably enjoyed writing ones about the Boy’s achievements though.
4. Why did you start blogging?
   I don’t really know why I started blogging.  It was a long time ago and a lot of my old posts are now set to private (Becky you should have done this instead of deleting 😉 ).  I seem to remember starting my blog as a way to keep track of how I was feeling about returning to full time education and juggling that with working part time and being a full time mum of a child with a disability.
5. Do  you have any social media accounts and what are they?
   Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.  I very rarely use LinkedIn but I have a profile on there.
6. What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
   I can’t really remember anything really embarrassing although the Man is probably responsible for a few of them.
7. What is your favourite dish?
   I have to choose just one?  No, can’t be done.  I love shepherd’s/cottage pie, steak and chips, fish and chips, sausages.  Oh and pudding/dessert.  Now that would be lemon meringue pie … or apple crumble … or chocolate fudge cake … or death by chocolate …
8. If you could ask a famous person in history a question, what would that be?
   Hmm, I need to think about this one …  OK after a few days of thought I still can’t think of a famous person in history I’d like to talk to but I’d love to have the opportunity to talk to my grandparents a bit more about what it was like growing up in the early 1900s.  My maternal grandfather died before I was born, my paternal grandfather died when I was 7 and because we lived overseas I didn’t see my paternal grandmother very much.  I wish I’d asked my maternal grandmother more questions when I had the chance though.
9. What did you do on New Years Eve 2018?
   Caught up on lots of TV while waiting for the fireworks to come on BBC1.  If I lived in the middle of no-where and knew I wouldn’t be woken up by people setting off fireworks I’d probably have just gone to bed at my usual time.
10. Do you believe in ghosts?
    Yes.

365 Questions

So, here we are at the end of another year.  I have already started a 365 day photo challenge and have also found what is supposed to be prompts for a 5 year journal.  I guess the idea is to answer the questions each year and see how much your answers, and you, change.  Anyway, I’m going to see how I go.  I have printed out the questions for January and February and am going to do my best to answer them each day.  I won’t necessarily blog about them but I will answer the questions to the best of my ability on paper, in a notebook, and then aim to transfer them into a blog at least once a month.

If you’d like to get the questions for January, you can find them here.

 

Photo Challenge …

OK, yes I’ve set myself up to fail again by admitting that I am going to try to do a photo challenge.  I’d like to post more on Instagram and never know what to post without making too much like I’m trying to sell my Tupperware.  So, I found a 365 day photo challenge on Pinterest which was posted in 2017, I think.  It looks quite fun and, rather than waiting until Tuesday to start on 1st January, I started with today’s prompt of “wreath”.  I have also posted the photo below:

When I went to get the image, I realised I’ve already included it in a blog post! 😀 😀 😀

Opening Show and Epcot

Finally, here we are with our final day – Day 9

To be honest, it’s so long since we were there that I’ve forgotten what happened and, unlike most of the other days, I didn’t make notes in a draft post on my phone or kindle.  I also didn’t take any photos!

Anyway, I know we finally made our way to the opening show at Magic Kingdom.  It was the one thing which the Boy wanted to see and we almost missed it!  We just missed a bus from the resort and had to wait for the next one, which was running late.  It definitely felt like home, lol.  Anyway, we managed to get to Magic Kingdom in time for the show.  Partly because I thought the show was at 8.45am and it was actually 8.55am.  While we were waiting for the opening show, we got a photo in front of the Castle.

After the opening show, we went into the Christmas shop to get our new tree decorations.  I think the Man would have bought more if we could have fit them in the suitcase to bring home.

As it was our last day, we couldn’t arrange for our purchases to be sent to the resort for us so I took the package back to the resort while the Man and Boy went for a ride went on a bendy bus!  I told them to get off the bus and have a look around the resort it goes to but they didn’t so they ended up back at Magic Kingdom a lot quicker than me.

When we finally met back up at Magic Kingdom we took the monorail to Epcot for lunch and a last ride on our favourite attractions.

We didn’t do much on our last full day as I needed to get back to the resort to do the last wash load and pack.

One last thing, while we were waiting for the Magical Express on Thursday morning, rather than sitting around the resort until 2pm, we went to WinterSummerland, again!  Mini golf at Disney World is a great way to kill some time, especially when it is included in the price of the UK’s ultimate ticket 🙂  The Boy, the Man and I also improved our scores each time we went too.

All in all, we had a fab holiday and are already planning our next trip.

Slinky Dog, Toy Story Midway Mania and Reflections of Earth

Sorry for the delay but here is the penultimate “holiday” post.

To be honest, I can’t remember much about day 8. I know it was Tuesday and I know we went to Hollywood Studios for what was supposed to be a quick trip to go on the new Slinky Dog ride, Toy Story Midway Mania and Rockin’ Roller Coaster. With the wait times, we couldn’t get any fastpasses, I think we were in there for about 3 hours.

I remember what we did in the morning now … mini golf, again! This time we tried the winter course at Winter Summerland.

After Hollywood Studios, we decided to walk to Epcot rather than wait in the long queue for the boat. It only took about 25-30 minutes to walk and it was a lovely stroll.

We didn’t really have a plan for Epcot except the Man wanted to see the American Adventure show so we went to see what time the next show was. As it happened we had 45 minutes to wait so, as there was a quick service restaurant next door we decided to have something to eat and then go into the show. Obviously I’m not American but I love the attractions which teach me a little bit about the history of the US, even if it is probably very biased.

After the American Adventure we went over to Test Track for a return time. While we were waiting the Boy and I went shopping. I wanted a 2018 decoration for my tree and a 2018 pin (I’m still looking for the pin). Then it was back to Test Track for a ride in the dark – awesome!

Finally, we ended the night with Reflections of Earth.

 

Christmas Is Coming!

I know I haven’t finished my “holiday” blog posts yet and for that, I’m sorry!  I promise I will finish the series (there are only 2 posts left).  I just thought I’d share my Christmas baking and craft with you first.  I got the idea from Becky’s post about Christmas Craft and thought I’d pinch the idea, and change it slightly.  These are the questions which NothingButKnit put on their post, which Becky used:

• Have you made holiday decorations for your home? What have you made? Do you have a tradition of making something every year?

• Did you craft for holidays when you were a child? Do you have a memory of something you made?

• Do you gift items that you make? Do you surprise the recipient or do they request something? How do you judge their worthiness? Have you ever regretted gifting someone?

• Have you seen a crafty project you’d like to make but haven’t?

Firstly, I haven’t crafted anything for Christmas, or any other occasion, for years.  However, this year, after visiting my parents and seeing my Mum knitting (and she gave me a hat and gilet she had knitted) and then seeing Becky’s knitting when we visited her, I bought a crochet magazine with wool and a hook (and knitting needles) because I liked the wreath on the cover.  I know how to knit but I’ve always been more of a crochet girl – I even got my knitters badge as a Brownie by crocheting a dress rather than knitting.  Anyway, I looked at the wool colours which came with the magazine and decided that they were too pale for Christmas so I went to a local department store which has a haberdashery and bought some more “Christmassy” colours.  This year I made a crochet wreath!!! 😀

The pom-poms are a little messy but as it is the first thing I’ve made, or crocheted, for over 15 years (and back then it was making cards or cross-stitch) I’m happy with it and am proudly displaying it on the back of my front door.

After making the wreath, I went on the website for the magazine I bought and found a few starter projects including a “mug hug”.  As we have a Secret Santa coming up this weekend and I need to provide 2 presents, I decided to make a couple of “mug hugs”.  I bought a couple of cheap mugs from Tesco and will put a couple of sachets of hot chocolate, marshmallows and chocolate Santas in them.

As a child we made paper chains and streamers out of tissue paper.  I used to make Christmas cards and, as I already mentioned, I used to cross stitch.  I cross-stitched designs to put on trinket boxes as well as cushions.  I haven’t cross-stitched anything for over 15 years as it takes so long and I don’t have time.  I think I still have about 3 or 4 unfinished projects which I really should get out and finish.

My main focus at Christmas when it comes to making something homemade to give as a present is baking.  I make a lot of gingerbread biscuits and will give them to my boss, my son’s carer, our butcher, take them to work and parkrun …

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!