Seasons of Joy

Welcome to my Seasons of Joy post, where I write about this and that, celebrating life just where I am and celebrating those people I share this journey with.

Wibbly, Wobbly Weightloss

I have finally figured something out.  It is not the big statement changes which make the difference in this weight loss journey; it is, instead, the small changes I make and stick at day in and day out.  I have noticed something over the past nine months.  My weight does not fluctuate so much anymore.  I have only lost a tad over ten pounds since January.  It is very little week by week but it is something and it rarely fluctuates.

My latest small change has been to walk around the block at half past ten each morning.  It is perfect for increasing my steps for the day, takes a very quick ten – fifteen minutes and relaxes us all after the hour and half of maths.

I still haven’t found a breakfast I like.  After years of not eating breakfast I try to force down and egg or a slice of toast, but I definitely know I can do better in this area, in terms of health and enjoyment (very important if it is a change I wish to keep in the long-term).  Also I hoping if I find a filling, tasty and healthy breakfast for the children they will not need a large snack at ten.  Charlotte has some inflammation in her knees (she had them x-rayed), which causes them to hurt, so we are looking at encouraging her towards healthier, nourishing food…but less of it, with the hope it may help her knees a little.

Inside my home…

I have been perusing the web for ideas to neaten up and organise my herb jar shelf.  For some inspiration feel free to take a peak at some of the pins I saved:

I really liked the idea of making it look a little less commercial and a little more home-made.  I just love the home-made look!  I found some black labels, the jam jars I have been saving for just the occasion and got to work.  A few days later I was so pleased by what I had achieved (using the word achieved lightly here, all I did was stick a few labels on a few jam jars 🙂  ):

I am celebrating…

Underneath the herb shelves were some hooks which I think may have been painted on because we can not remove them for love nor money.  No matter, they are pretty and fit in well with the kitchen.  When we first moved here we used them for coats but they caused damp and mold to grow.  So we washed, painted and cleared them, deciding instead to use them for aprons.  This worked well for the little ones’ aprons but they were not high enough for the adult aprons which used to drag on the floor and get grubby.  Not great for aprons which are used in food preparation.  Over the summer Gary put up some hooks just outside the kitchen, some high and some low, which were perfect for the aprons:

This left us with some hooks.  But what to use them for?  And then I had one of those rare organisationally genius moments (really, very rare for me).  I had been keeping my shopping bags on the radiator in the bathroom since we had removed the huge cabinet from beside the bath and replaced it with a much smaller one.  These bags kept falling off said radiator and littering up the bathroom floor.  So I have begun hanging them on the hooks by the door:

Why had I not thought of this before?  It was the perfect place to keep them, as we are more likely to remember to take them if they in plain sight by the door we need to go through in order to get to the shops!  Hurrah for organisation.  It’s the little things in life….

I am Reusing/ Recycling…..

We finally got round to asking the council for another bin, as ours is forever crammed full of black bags.  Very sensibly they decided to give us another recycling bin to encourage us to throw away less.  My mother is obviously having an effect on my younger daughters because I was given a right telling off for daring to put the loo roll in the bathroom bin instead of the recycling.  It really made me think about how absent-minded I am about rubbish and recycling.  So I have tried to be a lot better.  Let’s just say I’m a work in progress….

In the Garden….

Our two yearly apple harvest is ready for picking and we began this week.  We pick, core and peel, cut up and pop in the freezer for later in the year.  It’s a very heavy crop this year:

Even the new tree we planted a couple of years ago has sprung up this year.  I do love growing things which require absolutely no effort at all 🙂

Outside my window…

We’ve also grown a bumper crop of berries this year.  Not to eat, just to look at.

We are trying to figure out what the berries are.  We planted honey suckle and clematis over the trellis.  The red ones are definitely from the honey suckle, but we are stumped by the black berries.

Anyone any idea?

In the schoolroom…

I shared all we have been doing in our school yesterday, but I have to say, this week has been simple, easy and very stress free.  I am loving learning all about endangered animals alongside my A8.  I’ve never covered this subject with my older ones so I am new and fresh to it all as well 🙂

I am thankful for…

My husband, who works so hard and without complaint.  He has been up at 5am and coming home at between 5 and 7 all this week.  It is the autumn program fortnight, so he always needs to work these hours each year at around this time, but he never complains and is still an attentive father and husband.

I think I might be in love….

I am creating…

Another pair of curtains.  This time they are for the upstairs toilet.  I have made them out of some white material I bought inexpensively from Ikea.  We have not done anything to the littlest room in the house since we moved in so a spruce up is very needed.

I am enjoying…

Parenting teens.  I love my children and have enjoyed every age.  But there is something very special about parenting teens.  They are kinda complicated sometimes, and their friendship is not always a given so  I feel so incredibly blessed to be as close as I am to all three of my teens.  I love that they consider me not just their mother but also their friend and confidant.  I am thoroughly enjoying the transition and the depth of relationship it brings.

And, oh my goodness, they are so funny!  Having grown up in a house where stony silences and much tension were the norm, I doubly appreciate the loving, friendly, easy-going and fun atmosphere of our house.  We have had a few tricky situations to deal with over last term but they have brought us closer as a family, and just because of that, were well worth going through 🙂

I am reading…

I’m not reading it yet, but I sent off for a copy of Monica’s Slow Lane:

I can’t wait for it to arrive!  I sneakily bought it ‘just in case’ someone in the family wants to gift me with it for my birthday 😀

I am listening to…

Casting Crowns.  I am always listening to Casting Crowns.  They bring nourishment to my soul.  Oh and another favourite YouTube video I watch at least once a week is How Great is Our God sung by worship artists all over the world:

It gets me every time I listen to it.

One of my favorite things…

I want to remember…

B5 running into my arms each morning, so that the first thing that I do is engulf her in a warm, just out of bed cuddle, as she tells me she loves me.  Every morning.  Does life get any better than that?

Well, that’s it for this week.  How have you made your life more beautiful recently?