#Jusjojan & #SoCS 27/1/18

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: movement. However, don’t use the word “movement.” Choose some sort of movement, and base your post on that. Enjoy!  

Click here for the details and where to leave your link.

We're all slightly obsessed with baby movements around here at the moment.  Two of my DILs are expecting babies in June so they are just reaching the stage where they will feel their babies moving although both of them had scans this week and have seen their babies moving around.  Very reassuring of course.  

The grandson who is already here is beginning to co-ordinate his movements.  He has learned to clap and takes great delight in doing so.  He's also nearly rolling over and he can sit up fairly well now without the fear of him falling over although he's not secure enough in that to remove the cushions around him just yet.  We're also obsessing over his top two teeth to watch for any movement through the gums - almost there but not quite.  And of course when he's asleep we are fixated on the baby monitor to check whether he's still asleep and praying that any movement is not a sign of him waking up.  And oh is his chest moving as in is he still breathing?

And me, well I'm definitely not moving enough because the scales are turning way too far for my liking.  A while back I tried to do a Couch to 5K app but my knees protested.  Now I'm feeling more like a couch potato.  Winter, January especially, has that effect.  Roll on Spring!

Friday's Fave Five - 26/1/18

Friday's Fave Five is hosted by Susanne over at Living to tell the Story.  Pop over there to check out the guidelines and to visit other participants. 

Basically this is about finding 5 good things from the week just gone.  Here are mine:

1.  A get together with family members last Sunday.  Quite a few of us attended Mass together as it was the 2nd anniversary of my Mother-in-law's death.  Those two years have flown by.  After Mass one of my sister-in-laws kindly provided bacon sandwiches for us.  It was also an opportunity for us to browse through a pile of her books that she is looking to get rid of.  Despite my TBR pile being huge I still couldn't resist picking up a few books to bring home!

2.  Time with Nathan!  I popped over to see him Monday afternoon.  The first time in almost 3 weeks.  He is looking so much better but he is a bit clingy.  On Wednesday my daughter rang to see if she could come here as the weather was horrible and she didn't want to be cooped up inside all day.  Fortunately Nathan slept both ways in the car - sometimes he just screams - and it made a break for Rebecca.  On Thursday Nick and I went over in the afternoon and stayed for dinner.  We were able to get a few jobs done for them including putting their Christmas tree etc back up in the loft.  Neither of the girls like getting up into the loft as they hate spiders.  The loft is actually easy to get into and spiders don't bother me.

3.  Both my pregnant DILs had their 20 week scans this last week and both babies seem to be fine.  Always a relief for Mums to be able to see their babies  and that all is ok.

4.  A plumber in the family.  The electric shower stopped working while we were in Australia and the main shower was being a bit temperamental.  It was okay if you enjoy a hot shower but had become difficult to adjust.  My brother-in-law came over on Wednesday and fitted a new electric shower and a new part into the other shower so now both are working properly again.

5.  Converting my hubby to a smart phone.  Well I'm working on it.  Our DIL has upgraded to the latest iphone so has passed on her old phone to Nick.  It's so much more advanced than the phone he had which was really only good for making calls and sending messages.  But of course he's having to get used to all the new (to him) features.  I'm getting a lot of questions!

Lots of good things there but catching up with this cutie was the best!

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge 24/1/18

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at

From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

1. January 24th is National Compliment Day. Is it easy or not so easy for you to accept a compliment? Share a recent compliment you've given or received.
I’ve never found it particularly easy to accept compliments.  I’m trying to get better at it.  I was complimented on my hair at the weekend which was nice as I had just had it done.
2. Ten little things you are loving right now.
Sunshine when it happens.  Nathan.  Reading time.  Catch up TV.  Nathan.  Clean sheets on the bed. Nathan.  Cookie dough & ice cream.  Watching puppies on TV oh and did I mention Nathan?  I got to see him on Monday after almost 3 weeks.
3. Would people describe you as a positive person? Do you see yourself that way?

I think people might think I’m positive or certainly capable but that’s not how I see myself.

I read here  a list/description of eight things positive people do differently-
Positive people find something to look forward to every day, they celebrate the small stuff, they're kind, they stay busy, accept responsibility for their actions, forgive themselves, know when to move on, and resist comparisons

Which action on the list would you say you do regularly? Which action could you add to your life to give you a more positive outlook? If you're a positive person, what's something you do regularly that's not on the list?

I’m trying to be more positive.  I do some of those things particularly being kind and keeping busy.    I know I definitely need to do more and seeing the positive in things is a good way to start.

4. Homemade chicken soup, beef stew, or a bowl of chili...what's your pleasure on a cold winter's day?

Homemade chicken soup.
5. The best part of my day is....

that’s hard to determine when days aren’t always the same or don’t go to plan.
6.  Insert your own random thought here.

These questions were a good reminder about being positive.  It’s been a bit hard the last few weeks when I was unwell and unable to visit Nathan but I saw him on Monday and will be going again on Thursday.  In the meantime I’ve had some lovely videos and photos to keep me cheerful.

He does love his food!

#Jusjojan 23/1/18 - Colour

Your prompt for January 23rd, 2018, brought to you by the kind, considerate, and eloquently snarky Supernatural Snark, is “Colour.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Super at her blog, “Supernatural Snark” to read her post and say hi! Here’s her link:  https://supernaturalsnark.wordpress.com/

If you're playing along with #Jusjojan go here to host Linda's site for rules, prompts and other participants.

I was looking through my wardrobe earlier and realised I could add more colour.  I have lots on clothes in the same range of colours which is good when it comes to co-ordinating outfits but not so great if you want to stand out from the crowd or look a bit more individual.  As I'm not usually comfortable like that maybe I'll stick to my colour scheme.

I was really pleased though when I saw today's prompt.  Many of the bloggers that I follow are American so usually colour comes up as color.  I can be a bit of a pedant when it comes to spelling and grammar (although not as bad as my hubby) and if I copy a meme with American spelling I find myself changing the offending words.  Although of course it's my UK English spell checker that usually does it for me and stops me seeing red, especially as my colour scheme seems to be blue!