Birthdays, beach and busy (still)

The last few days have flown by so fast!! Our son flew back to the South Island this morning. Phew!!!! Was so good to see him and hopefully it won’t be so long until we next catch up with him, but I feel like I’ve barely had a moment to spare! Friday we went to the beach, our son followed along with a couple of friends. The following day his friend’s parents arrived for the night (they are old neighbourhood friends of ours so was a lot of fun having them there).

The weekend was lovely even thought the weather was cold and with occasional rain. We arrived and went to the local pub and watched the Hurricanes – well the rest watched, I had left my glasses behind so it was a bit of a blur for me! Everyone opted for bar meals so I had a hamburger which was delish, (no chips) Saturday night we had a BBQ – cooked out on the decking with the doors open and the fire going inside – LOL it looked funny. We played Cranium again which always causes a few laughs, also played cards. Even though it was a very social weekend – I did it! I kept walking and hit 30,000 steps over the three days (just!) Late Saturday afternoon I was under 3,000 steps for the day, the other two women staying were settling down with books and magazines, I knew the pre dinner drinks were going to happen soon - so I got of my butt and said I was going to buy a newspaper first – they didn’t feel like a walk but I took off and clocked up closer to the 10,000 for the day, then I came home and relaxed alongside them!

I rediscovered something that I have avoided over the past couple of years! Butter and salt! For obvious reasons I don’t have butter and because of my high blood pressure and fluid retention I’ve cut back on salt. I don’t really miss it as I use lots of other seasonings but I got the taste back over the weekend! Our son is a chef (although always a bit of a reluctant one when on holiday), he did cook two beautiful brunches, one meal included scrambled eggs with butter - and he’s a pretty heavy with the salt shaker on everything he cooks, I loved it though. Also the pumpkin soup I cooked he added piles of salt to it, and once again I loved it. Not to say I’m going to follow and keep adding it, but it does make a difference. Does make you think about the unknown ingredients in some restaurant meals….

We arrived back home Sunday afternoon and two more of our son’s friends arrived to visit for a couple of days. (The other's had gone on home) We always encouraged the kid’s friends visiting when they were younger but didn't think it would be still happening! Off out for another meal to celebrate our son and daughters birthdays (twins). We went to a Turkish restaurant which was OK. Average food but tasty. I had a chicken dish with yoghurt, pita bread and salad. Our kids together are quite mad, they argue constantly, well play fight, it can sound serious but it’s not and to start our son’s friends weren’t too sure how to take them! Quite entertaining. Yesterday after school I picked up Devin and went into town and caught up with our daughter (Devin's mum )in her work break for a cappuccino as it was her birthday. Hard to think yesterday that this time 31 years ago I was in shock after unexpectedly having twins!!

Last night for dinner I cooked roast lamb with all the trimmings. I’m a bit of a reluctant chef as well when cooking for two chefs! But it turned out perfect. If anyone loves roast veges, try cubing parsnips, pumpkin and kumara (or sweet potato) just add a dash of olive oil, ground black pepper, rosemary and cook, then about 10 minutes before they are ready throw in quartered red onions, point friendly and really delicious! The lamb was tender. We had potato mash with garlic and parsley seasoning (packet one!) brocolli and peas with it as well. Son and friends packed up this morning, son to fly south and the other two driving back up north. Our house is ours once more!!! What’s that saying? Nice to see them, nice to see them go! We are back to normal again. The grand kids loved seeing their Uncle again and he thought they were all quite entertaining and a lot of fun.

The past weekend has been not the easiest one for me food wise, even though the point counting went a bit astray at times I’m happy that I still made the best choices I could. I kept active and achieved an average of 10,000 steps a day. I got quite determined to do that this weekend and I did it! So I've figured out that when faced with challenging situations I can find a balance and cope, rather than just break out and completely lose the plot. Ideally I want to be totally in control of what I eat so I can really try to lose the persistent weight that sticks with me - it will happen but it's not at the moment!

Life is full of challenges and I have another two this week to cope with but enjoy. We have a friend’s birthday party on Friday and another on Saturday night. Two milestone birthdays! The one on Saturday sounds interesting – Venue: Wait and see (more info closer to time) wear black and white, casual clothes: We’ve tried to get more info but our friend just gives us a bit of a knowing grin.

Thanks for the comments about my car crash! It made me feel a bit better. Can’t quite believe one car only needed a $40.00 light to fix and the other had over $600.00 damage!! You can barely see it! Devin loved Nana pulling up to school yesterday in the replacement car the garage has lent me, painted bright yellow with lots of sign writing on it! Wow – that’s a cool car were his words!

Hope you all have a great week.