Recent Things: Back to Reality (RT#1)

Why hello, m'dear! As you might already know, we're back from holidays and have returned  to the real world. Have you been wondering what we've been up to?

The truth is, not much... we're kind of really boring... but there are a few recentlys I want to share with you! See this way, our super boring life is a little bit more interesting :P  If you'd like, we're thinking making this a regular series - basically a bit of a random mess of what we've been up to lately - what we're loving, what we're doing, what we've learnt etc. 

Let's look at what life has been like in the SIL world recently...

What Chanel's been doing recently?

Sleeping... does that surprise you? This dog can sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Then you put her to bed and she sometimes decides at 1am it's time to part-ay. You ask why we don't need a baby? Look up, my friends, look up :P 

That said, she does sometimes do things other than sleep - like go for a walk. This morning I took her for a walk and then had her happily follow me around the house with a happy wagging tail and a happy face, looking at me as if to say "Thanks! That was awesome - let's do it again!" 

Then the extreme happiness wore off and she returned to her slumbers :P 

Recent Discovery?

Well they say you learn something new every day and recently I learnt that you can peel a mango with a vegetable peeler. Seriously, why didn't anyone tell me the easiest way to peel a mango?!?!?!! 

SIL Mama looked at me like well duh when she told me I could just peel the mango with a vegetable peeler instead of massacring it with a knife.

So, if you wanted to know how to peel a mango easily? There you go, my friends - you won't find me peeling a mango any other way from now on :P 

What Kristy and Jesse have been doing recently?

Well, we've settled back into work - I've been working on lots of freelance writing work and some very exciting recipe development and food photography assignments. But we got to do some fun things too! 

On Saturday we went out to the movies and saw The Hobbit. Jesse had been desperate to see it and was going to go with Katrina, but that had yet to work out so I decided to go and see it with him (even though I'm not really a fan of movies like that). We actually got to the cinemas super late. 

The session started at 12:45 and we didn't get there until 1:00pm. I asked one of the employees about how long the ads run in the hope that we might be able to make it, or only just miss a few minutes (rather than wait an hour and a half) and he said they run 25 minutes of ads from the session time. 

We got our tickets and got into the cinema the guy told us to go too and people were way too chilled. The lights were on, nothing was on the screen and I had a feeling we were in the wrong theatre, so I checked our tickets and found the guy was wrong and we ran to the right cinema - STILL with time to spare before the movie started. 

We found our seats, sat down and then waiting until the movie started - and here we were 15 minutes earlier worrying that we'd completely missed it. Thank goodness for advertising - and now, we're planning on getting to every movie late :P 

We also went back to our church on Sunday after being away and it felt so good to be back! It's crazy how quickly we've made friends and settled in. We're also back to loving our bikes and have been riding around the park together.

Let me just say, I am not a cyclist in the making. How do people ride bikes for hours and hours? I can walk for miles but riding a bike? Likely not... plus... I'm terrible at corners :P (never did learn that very well) 

Recent loves?

My cawfeeeeee machine! We returned home from being away and one of the first things I did after getting in the door was run to my beloved Dolce Gusto. The girl who couldn't drink coffee for years is making up for lost time. Current obsessions? Cafe Au Lait - it's smooth, creamy and deeeelicious... and I'm also loving black coffee which totally grosses Jesse out. 

And yeahhh... I'm still drinking out of a Christmas mug. What do you mean it's January 14th?! This Christmas Tweets mug is way too cute to put away. So far I've put away 3 Christmas Bowls and 1 Christmas Plate and I'm still using my mug and one Christmas bowl that I'm saying works for the rest of the year as it just has a cute little bird on it.  

I'm also in love with our gorgeous frangipani tree! Years ago, my Dad got a frangipani cutting from a friend and planted it as he knew I loved frangipanis (not hard to guess when our room is that exact hot pink with the same orange/yellow as the feature wall behind our bed - and my bed spread at the time was pink frangipanis... and I had frangipani everythings). 

Last year and the year before we'd been away from home well into January so we didn't get to see it bloom for very long (and it wasn't a good year for the tree) but now it is truly blossoming! Not to mention they smell absolutely divine.

Recent things I should be doing?

Folding washing. Ugh, I don't know about you - but I hate folding washing. It wasn't so bad when it was just my washing - but it's especially annoying when Jesse doesn't know what folded washing is. You see, my lovely husband just squishes clothes or lays them out on what once was the armchair in our room.

The easy solution would probably be to not fold his washing.. but I still torture myself and do it anyway. Why? I don't know!

I also need to go to the doctor but keep delaying it. Lately my fatigue has been getting worse and worse so I think it's time for a vitamin check and bloodwork. As a coeliac, I have major problems with vitamin absorption - and I'm allergic to iron supplements whilst also suffering from iron malabsorption issues. That means my body doesn't absorb enough iron through food - but I can't take the iron supplements needed to fix the problem as I get incredibly sick. 

Recent Reads?

Jesus Calling, every day. It's part of my morning ritual and I couldn't be without it. 

I've also finally started Mitch Albom's First Phone Call from Heaven and have gotten about halfway through. I can't say I'm loving it as much as some of his other books (The Five People You Meet in Heaven is my all time favourite - closely followed by Tuesdays with Morrie and Have a Little Faith) but that's just because the story is a little far fetched. 

Whilst The Five People You Meet in Heaven is fictional, it's still believable to a point and has some really strong messages. I'm hoping the messages come out in this book towards the end, but I'm still loving it nonetheless.

Recent Win?

Miss Black Thumb managed to keep a plant alive!!! AND she managed to keep them alive whilst being away for 2 weeks during quite a hot dry period. WIN! 

Before we went away, I put my precious mint plants (which I haven't actually planted yet.. but let's not go there) into a bucket with some water on the bottom because, in my mind, that would keep them alive. Then they were self watering, right*? SIL Dad told me I was going to either stew the plants or make them rot and I'd come back to dead plants - but instead, I came home to a bucket of overflowing minty goodness!

*Disclaimer: please, no one rely on my gardening advice because your plants may die. This was probably a fluke :P 

Recent fun? 

Now, I'm never going to be a gardener but I am growing something else at the moment. My Dad bought me these silly little ItzaBot things for Christmas as I always wanted a chia pet when I was a little girl. I grew my first one and Jesse got totally jealous so stole one of my other ones so he could have his own little robot. Jesse's is currently stuck in it's "greenhouse" (and no, this isn't another Kristy gardening tip - just following the instructions :P) until it begins to sprout whilst mine is growing like mad! I'm excited to play hair dresser on my little friend. 

And you know how when you're a coeliac/gluten intolerant you find gluten in ALL THE THINGS? These little guys are gluten filled too because they're barley grass. So, you can be sure, I will not be using this little guy as any type of food source :P 

But tell me! 

What's one awesome thing that's happened/you've done recently?

What's one thing you should be doing right now?

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