A Matter of Choice

The last couple of years haven't always been the easiest of times, especially when it can be hard to shake the idea that 'we are living the dream' Aaron, the eternal optimist powers through convincing me it will all be fine, and eventually a whole lot more than just fine while I can find it hard to focus on the end of the week let alone any further than that! Don't get me wrong, I have (usually) tried to look on the bright side but often have failed to find one despite the blue skies and sandy beaches (I hate sand anyway!) so being consistently happy is something I have to actively work at. There has been a change this year, despite many of the existing problems still ongoing but it's still worth while realising there is always something, no matter how small to be happy about. A fellow blogger, Karin ( Cafe Bebe) is trying to help us all remember this, and is doing a very good job! After joining in with #3goodthings for a while on Instagram and facebook...

For the first time in forever, I am more than 'just a Mum'  For the first time in forever, I am busy, having fun! and I know it's totally crazy to think I wasn't 'me'  but for the first time in forever it seems I've found the key! Looking back, I can't really think of a time when I was 'busy', before Leo was born I worked but I finished at 5pm on the dot, never took work home with me or gave it a moments thought once leaving the office and did as I pleased in the evenings and weekends. Never chock a block with social arrangements or struggling to fit things in, always free for any meet ups or last minute plans. For the last five years I've been lucky to be a stay at home Mum, and I've spent a lot of time being busy doing nothing,   'nothing' being washing, cooking, cleaning and general housewifey stuff and looking after one, then two children, which of course isn't nothing at all but often feels like it! I'd arra...

After my 'Leo loves' post   which was inspired by 'Real Housewife' Lauren  I decided to create another one for me,  however it seemed that most of the things that came to mind were things I couldn't do / have at the moment!  I was finding it hard to get past rare steak / blue cheese and cold beer so then I thought I'd do a more topical one and remember the things I am loving about being pregnant.... yes there actually are a few things! 

Happy Birthday Leonidas! It only seems like a matter of weeks since I wrote to you on your  1st birthday  and again on your 2nd birthday one whole year ago but already you are celebrating your 3rd birthday. You've changed so much this last year and have become a proper 'big boy' now, able to do lots of things yourself and usually insisting on doing them yourself even when you can't quite manage it yet.  Last month was a big milestone as you started wearing your 'big boy pants' and you have done so well at using the toilet . You love lots of different programmes, and you chop and change through different favourites each week from Shrek, to Toy Story, and Cars to name a couple but nothing comes close to how much you love Thomas the tank engine! You play with your tracks and your engines every day and astound me with your knowledge of them, now you can name almost every character there is (there are about 65 I think!)  and give us random bits of info...

As part of my 101 list I decided I would make a list of 101 things that make me happy. I started making the list back in July last year and although most of it came to mind pretty easily I soon got stuck, I was determined that it wouldn't beat me though so I saved it and have been coming back to every now and again.   Of course, now I've finished it I'm sure a load more things will pop into my head that should have gone on the list! I'm also cheating a little and linking this up to 'Reasons to be Cheerful' this week over at  Bod For Tea  as although I've not been the most cheerful person this list reminds me of many reasons to be! Being Mum to Leo Being married to Aaron Sunshine Good friends Losing excess pounds The view from my balcony Photos Good music My parents Dancing Making lists Floating on a lilo Leo laughing Not being in debt Tidy apartment Drinking with friends Weddings Sleeping in late Reading  good books BBQs Talking ...

There are hundreds of random happy moments in life, some are very obvious like a blowing out birthday candles or attending a wedding but some just pass by in the blink of an eye without really being recorded to memory to look back on in later years. In 1995 I was 17 and didn't always realise how happy I was, I left college and didn't have any sort of plan. I worked in a supermarket and spent many hours with my friend Sarah sitting around chatting, often moaning about our un-exciting lives and trying to come up with a plan or find some nice men.  Ideas we discussed (with no real plan of doing them) were going to America to be au-pairs or getting a job on a cruise ship! Of course we did neither of those things, we continued going to the pub and generally being bored. I've said for years that looking back 1995 was one of my favourite years, we had no responsibilities and we didn't go to college much so we pretty much just faffed around. I didn't appreciate it...

I've not joined in with this great link up for a few weeks but despite the rain (Come on Cyprus, it's April now, stop with the wet stuff already!) I am feeling very cheerful. 1. It might still be raining often but it's much warmer now, and we haven't had any heating on for a few weeks now which means our usually HUGE electric bills should be reduced for a while during the nice bit between heating and air conditioning! 2. The summer season has started here in Cyprus and all the resorts are coming to life. My favourite restaurant and bar are open again and I'm looking forward to going back soon.  3. My parents have finished their garden so Leo can now run around like a mad thing without getting covered in mud. 4.One of my best friends is coming to see me next week, AND she's having a baby . 5. I am looking forward to going out on Saturday for "Pool presentation night' AJ's pool team the 'Kings Sword A' have won the lot and will collect 3 tro...

Life is full of simple pleasures, even though I have been guilty of not always appreciating them. I am getting better  with age it seems, you know 'older and wiser' and all that, or maybe it's having less money so I'm looking for them more! There are many simple pleasures that I love Getting up at 7am (yes I did say 7am, when Leo usually wakes at 5 or 6am it really is a pleasure! Watching waves crash on the rocks Sunset (and sunrise but that means I didn't sleep till 7am) Cake,   need I say more! All the many amusing/cute/clever things that Leo does. and this...... The view from my bedroom window, taken at 7am in the morning one day last spring. We are just approaching the same time this year, there are not quite as many flowers yet. This post was written as part of this weeks Gallery, the prompt was  Simple Pleasures

This weeks  Gallery  prompt is Emotions . They have also joined forces with the Writing workshop at  Sleep is for the weak  something which as yet I've not been brave enough to attempt! For years I've wanted to swim with dolphins, I can't remember when I first realised it was something you could do, it was certainly before going to the Caribbean for a holiday rather than the "Med" seemed like an option open to "normal" people   We went to Mexico for our honeymoon in 2004 and one of the organised trips you could go on was so swim with the dolphins. It was an amazing experience. The part I was most looking forward to was the bit where the dolphins pull you through the water whilst you are holding onto their fins, everyone lines up on the floating platform and one by one you enter the water so the dolphins can take you the middle of the water.  Once everyone is in the centre they have a play, the trainers get them to jump and swim amongst everyone, ...

Happy Birthday Leonidas, You are one whole year old today! I don't know where that little baby (you were never tiny being born weighing 9lb 9oz) went, you were born with a mop of dark hair which disappeared as you rubbed your head on the cot every night, in fact I used to have to hold your little hands onto your chest to stop you fussing with your head. Your hair came back much lighter and now we spend every day in the sun you are going a lovely shade of blonde. You still have "happy feet" you used to lie on your playmat and kick your feet around with such enthusiasm, this has now been replaced by your foot clapping that you love so much - and making "sand angels" with your feet in the sand. You love to talk, (you definitely got that from me) you say Mum mum a lot but I'm not entirley sure it is directed at me. Your first sound was Daddaddad but you often forget to say that for several days at a time. The saying has stuck and I think your Daddy will b...

Wow, we've been in our new home 6 months already! Time confuses me, how can it seem that we've been here forever as well as feeling like it's happened in the blink of an eye? It doesn't really feel like 6 months since I've not seen people I saw every week but I can hardly seem to remember being anywhere other than here! I love it here, both our home and our adopted country. It took me longer than AJ to get it, it was a bigger change for me though once he started work. I went from being surrounded by people to help with Leo and friends I could ring and visit when needed, to having no car, no friends nearby and dealing with a baby for the first time on my own in a country I'd hardly spent any time in. AJ on the other hand was going to work and playing pool on a Wednesday with the boys and living in his own place for the first time in nearly two years. I did have a few low days, no regrets though even at the time, I knew I had to give it time but the days can ...