The Magnificent Seven

My name is Catherine, and it has been 7 days since my last blog post.

Last weekend I was busy enjoying the fabulousness of life. This week I have just been busy.

As it has been seven days of not blogging, I thought I would share seven lovely things from the last week.

Lovely thing 1

My baby sister turned 21! And even though I say my baby sister she is the third youngest. All three of the little ones are referred to as my "baby sisters" to distinguish them from my "adult" sisters, plus I am their big sister so I can call them that if I want to.

... 21 ...

21. It still doesn't seem possible that the baby I carried around, and played with like a living doll, and taught her colours using M&Ms, and the little girl who took her baby nieces to school for news, is a a total grown up.

My next youngest sister turns 18 in December. This is even freakier because the next 18th in the family will be Buglet (she is older than my youngest sister by 10 months).

But back to Miss 21. She is kind. She is fun. She is beautiful. She has grown up to be a thoroughly gorgeous woman and I am so very proud of her.

To me she is also my measure of pure happiness. When I think about how happy something makes me, I compare it to the look on her face when I used to hold her upside down as a toddler. It was pure joy. I am smiling just thinking about it. If you ever find anything in life that makes you this happy, hang on to it! Interesting she's grown up to be a gymnast, and a teaches little kids. Happiness should last a life time, and I think this is where it all started ....

Cos this is how all the cool kids hang out :)

Her party was fun. She very cleverly had the family from 5pm - 8pm, and then her friends from 7pm. Just enough overlap to share cake. She is smart too. She gets that from me. Pixie thought this was sensible too. She was worried our family was a bit intimidating to others. We do sort of have the force of a small(ish) tornado when we are all together.

Lovely thing 2
I love catching up with people. I also love breakfast. Going out for breakfast is one of my most favourite things to do. When you get to combine the two and it is with super awesome friends who you haven't seen in forever it is even better. Plus I came home with beautiful artwork.

Collective artistic effort

Parenting tip: While you don't need to keep every picture they give you, value every picture they draw you, they stop drawing them way too quickly.

Lovely thing 3
The Princess Bride if you have not seen this movie you are either a totally different generation to me, or you as oblivious as my sister. She insisted she had never seen it. I know she had seen it. She is only 3 years younger than me and I know we used to watch it. Before you are too concerned about this obvious amnesia, I bought her the dvd and gave it to my niece and nephew last Easter. Tink has informed me it is one of my nephew's favourite movies now. Go Auntie Cath! Who said I wasn't useful?

I randomly bought a copy for us on a late night emergency trip to the IGA. It was a perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

As a side note, this is one of the few books I have found where the movie is better than the book. I do own the book though! I was given it as a 30th birthday present!

Lovely thing 4
I had a dentist appointment on Monday, (this is not the lovely thing), so I was home mid-afternoon and managed to get some gardening done. I am plodding along slowly, and I am totally talking myself up about every single little thing in the hope that I actually keep myself motivated.

Unfortunately it lead to this:

Me: I am really sorry I was late. I was gardening and I thought it would be dark by six. The sun isn't going down as early as it used to.
Pixie: I think we should name the sun. He shall be called David. Then Buglet can tell [the dance teacher] that she is late because David wouldn't go down.
Me (praying I didn't hear giggles from the backseat): Don't ever say that again!
Pixie: Why?
Me: Just don't, ok? It is not good for my emotional health and well-being.

When I told the dance teacher later there was so much laughing (waves at her!).

It was worth being late to pick up the girl, and the few hours work that evening to know that I had actually got something done in the afternoon. I had scheduled in a gardening afternoon on Sunday but storms changed that plan. The girls were not disappointed.

This weekend .... I mulch!

Lovely thing 5
End of term at Guides. We had a party with party games. These included Pass the Parcel with challenges in each layer; one of which was to list three things you have learnt at Guides this term. Massive fuzzy feeling that they have actually learnt something.

We also had "egg" on spoon relays. I was on Pixie's team. She named our egg aka a malteaser "Stanley". She is not normal. It was very funny watching her freak out every time she dropped him though. At one point he was officially declared dead which considering how often he was dropped was probably a fair assessment.

I also got a message from one of our Guide parents saying thank you for what we have done for the girls this term. It made a massive difference to how I felt.

Warm fuzzies all around, and go Team Guide Leaders!

Awesome people tip: Saying thank you and acknowledging the work people do really does make them feel good.

Lovely thing 6
I have been going on a bit of a re-reading binge. For those of you read my post on my favourite books you would have noted that I struggled to find favourites. This week I have re-read Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth (a story about an Amish girl accused of infanticide), and The Storyteller (a story about forgiveness, the Holocaust, and perceptions on oneself with some interesting Polish folklore for an added bonus). I think these two are my favourite Jodie Picoult books along with Nineteen Minutes. If you ask me again in a few months this may have changed, so I am not being held to this.

Lovely thing 7
I have a new nephew!! I saved the best for last! I haven't seen him in person yet, but he is gorgeous and we are very much looking forward to meeting him.

My brother-in-law is Danish so we won't find out his name until this christening. Pixie is absolutely adamant that he is going to be called "Simon, because it is a good Danish name." This Little One's mind works in mysterious ways. My official guess is Kayden. No reason except I am expecting something a little less common. If either of us are right I will be buying a lotto ticket!

For those of you keeping count ... yes this is four new nieflings in four months, the loveliest of lovely things.

So they were the lovely bits of my week. There have been some not-so-lovely bits with all three girls being sick with man-flu (definitely man-flu based on the bickering, and the whinging. Is it really bad that it is making me a lot less sad that they are going away with DB this weekend?), and Flip-Flop who has decided sleeping is not on the agenda this week, and a super busy ... but overall it is has been a pretty lovely week!

There will be no blog posts this weekend. This weekend is dedicated to domestic goddessing. If I blog, this means I am distracting myself and this is not allowed. There will be a brag post early next week, with pictures. You all have to be impressed.

Happy Friday everyone xx