Easter & Grandchildren

I've been planning on writing/posting this for a couple of weeks and soon some of the pictures will be out of date so I thought I'd just post all the pics and then write a little bit at the end.

~  E A S T E R   2 0 1 7  ~

 ..pretty miniature daffodils ...

 ~ afternoon snack..mmm, freshly baked bread

My usual lunch - a tuna salad

 ~ Tan Finger Slice - Caramel Gooey-ness ~

 . Granny Smith Apples just hanging out in the backyard :0) 

  Mock Orange Blossom ~ so fragrant 

  ~ Wild Rose - 

  Down the back garden, our son Louis put up a swing this summer. It swinga big and wide - All the grandies enjoy it !! 

Tomatoes are all withering away by the shed, but the Chrysanthemums are providing some pretty Autumn colour in the garden and something for me to pick to decorate the house. 

     ~beauty unfolding ~ 

 Pears - despite the leaf blight stuff, they taste lovely

  I took some photos of our sweet grandaughters..Lily Elizabeth, Poppy Mae & Kora Grace last week. just while they were running around outside at their house.

 ~ Sisters ~

 ~ Little Kora ~

 ~ Sweet Lil Poppy Mae ~

 The joys of childhood - running barefoot

I can't even believe its Easter already..it seemed just yesterday it was Christmas !!!! truly, this year is motoring along...zoom
but I must say I had a truly wonderful Easter :0)  It started off sunny on Good Friday and Bruce and I went on the Cross Walk. All the churches in our small town are invited to participate in the walk, taking turns carrying the heavy cross around a prescribed walk, that is pretty much the same every year. There's always only a few people from each church that come, but its about the only time in the year that we gather 'as one' united as Christians. At various points on the walk we stop, sing hymns, read scripture, pray etc. Its a lovely time of reflection, a little bit somber, but in a good way to pause and remember all that Christ went through and has done for us. After that lovely spiritual morning, we headed to Katies to catch up with family..and our oldest son Max who had come down for the weekend, with our grandson Flint. It was so great to see them again. I did miss out on the Sunday service and  lunch though (Roast Lamb cooked by my daughter Katie ), as I spent Sunday in bed, with a very bad migraine and an upset tummy.
Apart from that I still managed to enjoy plenty of family time, chocolate eggs and spicy hot x buns. Some years I've been so obsessed with watching my weight that I hardly dared enjoy the eating side of Easter, but I find now that I've crossed over into my 50 yrs...I'm kinder to me and just not as anxious about a whole lot of things that I once was.

Last weekend I was doing a little bit of weeding and just looking around the garden, reflecting on the changing seasons, leaves falling from the plum trees and apples waiting to be picked. I was digging out corn stalks and various plants that had finished offering up their gifts and now will go to nourish the compost heap...which is really more of a decaying mountain we just throw green waste onto lol. Every couple of years we dig into it and disperse it around, but its not a proper compost heap that's turned and fiddled with. Our lives seem too busy right now for all that. Every Spring I just buy new bags of compost and disperse that between the various garden beds.

What I have been doing, is lots of cleaning !! I just got to the point where I wanted a very clean house..like pulling out the couch from the wall and vacumning behind it kind of cleaning...along tops of curtains..windowsills, all that sort of thing. When I got very sick/burntout before Christmas...I really seemed to go through a sort of change in focus..in priorities..all sorts of things. One of things I wanted was a really clean, fresh house with flowers, more time to help my daughter with the grandchildren and less 'manic-ness' in my life. Life had got so busy I no longer baked bread, and more convenience foods were appearing..etc. But this year things are looking up. I am no longer working at the childrens daycare centre...(too physically demanding). I now help my daughter 2 days a week..which is wonderful. I'm back to baking bread and I just feel more on top of my life, rather than it on top of me. The worse thing was I was the one who had created the busy life monster. I made my life too busy..with fingers in too many pies, too many new projects and I was the only one who could change it..so I have :0) so far so good...thats all for now.

 I hope everyone had a lovely, blessed Easter too.