I was telling someone today that I used to come down to Mr Henderson at Sandgate, back in the day (last year and the year before) on a Friday afternoon, order a Diablo Ginger Beer and blog in the sunshine. And the thought of that sounded too delightful to resist, so here I am, once again, on a Friday afternoon, blogging, not quite in the sunshine because MAN IT’S HOT!!! The guy who owns this place actually lives in my street, and he asked how my day is going.

“So great” was my honest answer. And it has been a good few days. Sure, there have been ups and downs, some more up and down than I have felt in a while, but I keep coming back to a middle ground, where I am genuinely happy and present, and that is a good thing for me right now; to know that I can see the good in things and come back to a happy place.

I’ve never been very good at formally practicing gratitude – whether it be via a journal or app or meditation, but I know that I am very good at practicing it informally, every single day. In my interactions with the school mums, with my kids as we are debriefing about our day, at the end of the day when, yet again, my kids have all gone to bed happily with no fuss by 8pm and I’m on the couch, breathing a sigh of relief that the kitchen is clean, the fridge is full of good food, the lunches are mostly made, and the house is quiet….

Who am I kidding. The house is never quiet.

….. and my music is playing in the background, and I know that I’ll get a few hours break from listening to Gangnam Style, Seven Nation Army, and Dear Future Husband.

So I am grateful. I’m grateful for the supportive and reliable people in my life who can pick up the slack when I need a break; I’m grateful for the experiences I have had – the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright horrendous. They make me who I am and they reassure me that, with help, I’ve got this.