Friday's Fave Five - 7/7/23

How can it be Friday again?

Time to look back on the week and list the good things.  Susanne is the host for this and you can find her blog here.  These are the things I'm thankful for this week:

1)  Family time last Sunday - we had both our daughter and our younger son here with their families.  A bit hectic but the cousins do love to get together.  A challenge preparing a roast dinner while keeping the kids out of the kitchen lol.

2) 1:1 time with Rory on Monday - he school was closed for staff training so he came here.  He's really good at amusing himself but we also played a lot of games including Kerplunk and Junior Monopoly.

3)  We had some much needed rain but also quite a bit of sunshine this week.  Today has been really warm again but I've managed to get out every day for a walk, even if just a short one.

4)  A trip to nearby Epping - we got the bus and then the train and then took a slow walk up and down the High Road, exploring the various charity shops.  I found a "Guess Who" game which is another one I'm sure the grandkids will enjoy playing.

5)  Keeping up my motivation for improving my health.  As mentioned I've been out for a walk everyday and I'm still keeping up my exercises for my back and hips.  The pain is definitely less but still not gone completely.  I'm also drinking more water and trying to keep to healthy meals.  Not 100% - for example we should have had a HelloFresh delivery on Tuesday by 7pm.  By the time it arrived at 9.30 pm we'd opted for a Chinese takeaway!  But I have kept away from the chocolate and biscuits and I've also eaten more fruit.

Bonus - it was Knit and Natter on Wednesday evening - I'd missed the last two so it was good to catch up with everyone.  

We have a fairly quiet weekend ahead although we are babysitting Nathan and Ella tomorrow evening.  Hopefully we'll get them to bed but at least it's Saturday so if they stay up late there's no rush to get up the next day!

Have a good weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five (on Saturday!) 30/6/23

Susanne keeps us on our toes reminding us to look back each week and think about the good things in our lives.  You can find her blog here.

Here are mine for this week:

1)  Another birthday!  Always good to make it through another year, especially as I get older.  It was a very quiet day - I had my first Diabetic Prevention session on the day (Monday) so we didn't make any plans to eat out etc.  The session was from 4-6pm and it took about 45 minutes to get there on public transport so a 3 1/2 hour chunk out of my day.

But hopefully it will be worth it.  I've already lost a few pounds and I'm definitely eating better.  I'm also trying to be more active.

2)  The pain in my hips and back is definitely easier.  I'm still doing exercises everyday as prescribed by the physio.  Hopefully some weight loss will help with that as well.

3)  Lunch with a friend on Wednesday.  This was a former work colleague of mine who unfortunately was widowed early last year.  She wanted some help with probate paperwork so I was happy to do that and she insisted on providing lunch which was lovely.  We also got to do a good catch up on what our families are up to etc.

4)  Lovely flowers from my daughter and her family:

Plus a new container for future use!

5)  Cooler weather.  The heat a couple of weeks ago was really hard to cope with but this week has been much cooler.  Not as much sunshine though but at least I've not been panicking about watering the plants every day.  Although I have watered the tomato plants every day and most of them have flowers on them so hopefully we'll get some home grown tomatoes!

Have a good weekend all.  Happy 4th July to all my American friends.  We have my younger son and my daughter here for dinner tomorrow with their families.  Love getting them together.