Random edition. I was going to blog about something else but then I saw it was the 10th so decided to do a bit of a catch-up on all the things! This was my wonderful start to the day, and it just got better from there!

1. It’s Marty’s birthday today. We celebrated Friday night, Saturday evening and yesterday morning, but I’m still a bit sad that I’m missing his actualy day. So grateful to have had the whole week together last week though.
2. The kids played amazingly all afternoon out in the yard with the guinea pig we are currently babysitting, and in the shed where we have an air hockey and pool table (2-in-1) which just filled me with joy. We are looking after our friend’s guinea pig for a few weeks and I’m not going to lie, I’m kind of hoping it will convince Quinn that she doesn’t want guinea pigs, but so far the cute and fun-factors are outweighing the gross cleaning out the hutch, which she is doing with the help of Julius!
3. Dinner time was wonderful tonight. I still haven’t blogged about the huge turnaround we have had with dinner time, occurring about 90% of the time. Tonight Darby actually asked for grated carrot, as well as cheese on his chicken wrap instead of just wanting the chicken and the wrap on their own. This is kind of a big deal…. 🙂
4. Speaking of Darby, he comes up with his own riddles and jokes almost daily. Some of them are absolute crackers, and tonight’s was an absolute gem. He came up and said to me, “If you were looking for treasure, what would you start with?” To which I responded “a Treasure Map?” and he looked up at me and said “I would just have to look right in front of me, because you’re the treasure.” Oh man I’m getting teary just typing that! So lovely.
5. Darby and I had our time together after Julius went to bed, and he’s been wanting to play the older version of Sequence and I had been saying no as I thought it was a bit hard for him, but tonight I said yes (how could I not??) and he ended up beating me!
6. As I was walking down the hallway to have a shower, Quinn called out “Mama, don’t forget to wake me up at 6am tomorrow.” I assured her I would, and I heard Chance call out “Mama, don’t forget that I love you.” Oh my heart!!!
7. We had a wonderful two weeks of school holidays and last week Marty and I even had a couple of kid-free nights, including going to see Moulin Rouge and having a night in at South Bank, followed by a fabulous night with friends on Saturday night with great food, nice wine and a warm fire. What a treat!
8. Chance had a speed cubing comp to go to on Saturday which happened to be at Brisbane State High, just a short walk around the corner from where we were staying so we went to watch him. He got a PB for the 3×3 but wasn’t happy with his times in the 2×2 and wants to improve on them. Still blows me away!
9. Life is currently hectic with Quinn in Creative Generations which means trips in to South Bank every day this week, with two 11 hour days in the mix, plus we are 20 days away from the local Sandgate Festival, Einbunpin, where I’m helping to coordinate the famous Nashville SS preserves stall where we make and sell over 1000 jars of jams, marmalades, chutneys and relishes and it is pretty intense! Lucky the village is in full swing and doing all the things that need to be done! Come along if you can – Sunday the 30th July from 9am-4pm!
10. I was going to blog about something else tonight, then I lost my mojo and was just going to have a shower and sit in front of the TV before I rang Marty for our nightly chat, but after Chance threw that beautiful moment my way, it made me realise how many wonderful moments my kids gave me today, and give me regularly, and I wanted to share that.