Recent Things: Productivity Hats, Game Nights and Random Eats

Hey sweet things! We're now into the second week of January and I have to say, it's going pretty well so far! Jesse's brother is now back in Louisiana and we're starting to get back to our normal life and I have to say I'm actually loving getting back to a routine - and it's only been one day.

We've been doing a lot lately - and have heaps more planned for the weekend before starting back at work on Monday, so let me share what we've been loving and doing recently! >> 

Recent Productiveness: Yesterday we put our productive hats on and got to work on redoing our bedroom. We used to have an old ugly bookshelf by our bed which, to be honest, was filled with junk that we no longer needed - so I decided to buy a new chest of drawers to solve our wardrobe dilemmas (read: we were stuffing our clothes into the wardrobe and drawers like a Christmas turkey). 

But not only did we put together the chest of drawers - we went on a productive rampage and did all of the odd little jobs that we've been meaning to do for ages but just didn't have the time to do.

We sorted out all of the shelves in our room, took the old sound system out which no longer worked and replaced it with our other more compact system which we'd been using anyway (which cleared up a whole heap of space), reorganised our wardrobe so our clothes are now neatly tucked away and organised, got rid of some random extension leads that were laying around the room (as our bedroom only has one power point, so we've always had cords running along the walls) and then gave the whole room a deep clean - vacuuming and washing the floors, dusting everything off and putting new sheets on the bed.

Jesse even installed a light switch in the headboard of our bed which apparently he's been wanting to do for agesssssssssssssss but never thought I'd let him - so he put up with our weird floating light switch instead.

It was so nice to go to bed last night and watch tv in our clean, organised room with candles lit and our fairy lights on (we may have gotten rid of all of our Christmas decorations - but the fairy lights are staying!)

 

Recent Fun: Jesse, Katrina and I all love board games and whenever we have some free time we usually like to have a game night. Recently we've been loving The Logo Quiz Board Game (where you have to identify logos/brands/sports teams etc), Jenga Boom (which is like regular Jenga on steroids as you're racing against a ticking time bomb - trying to pick your piece before the detonator goes off and knocks the entire tower over) and Cards Against Humanity (which is seriously, hilariously messed up and politically incorrect - whoever came up with that game has a sick and twisted sense of humour).

I am seriously good at The Logo Quiz Game as I have a photographic memory - so that's probably why I like it so much - and it's fun seeing how Jesse's picked up on all of the different Australian brands as a couple of years ago he wouldn't have had a clue what any of the logos were.

And whilst hanging out at a friend's house last week I helped them put together this puzzle which they'd gotten for Christmas (which was a perspective puzzle - you create the opposite view of the picture on the box and have no idea what the image will be until you finish) and now I think I really need to buy a big ol' puzzle to do.

Recent Random Eats: Red meat! I'm not much of a meat fan at all - and I haven't eaten red meat in at least five years (just because I hated the taste) - but recently I've been on a mission to try different foods, particularly meats, in an effort to both increase my iron intake (in the hope that my body might somehow absorb iron) to try and hold off my iron infusion as long as possible and also to test my food intolerances now that my stomach is healing. 

In the last couple of weeks, I've found I can now eat onion, cherries and mustard - and I've found that I actually don't mind red meat now. Pictured above is a (awfully photographed in our horrible kitchen) Lean Beef Burger which I had the other night which wasn't actually undercooked (when I say horrible kitchen, I mean horrible lighting - clearly) as it looks in the photo but was actually delicious. It was a simple burger with just lettuce, mustard, mayonnaise (Jesse's suggestion as I can't eat ketchup/tomatoes yet) and a lean beef burger patty.

Now I just have to send that photo to my haematologist who thought I'd never eat red meat ;P

Recent Adventures; On Tuesday, whilst Josh (Jesse's brother) was still here, we headed down to Kiama for the day. It was a gorgeous day with bright blue skies (though no wind to get the Blow Hole going) and we enjoyed a pretty relaxed day looking around town and heading to different lookouts before heading back towards Woolongong to have lunch at the Scarborough Hotel (which is gorgeous - especially if you sit outside looking over the coast!) and then headed home via the scenic route through the national park.

We also went up to Saddleback Mountain Lookout (view above) which Jesse and Dad randomly discovered one day whilst in Kiama for work - and the view was incredible. Seriously worth a visit!

Recent Plans; We've got a jam packed weekend ahead of us with lunches and dinner with friends and family, church, babysitting and a whole bunch of things - but I'm hoping to take some time out next weekend for a beach picnic with my husband! My Mum and Dad got us a picnic set for Christmas and we're planning on taking that and the LAGU to either Cronulla or Wattamolla for a relaxed picnic.

We used the LAGU briefly whilst at Cronulla last week and I'm obsessed. We've had dozens of beach and picnic blankets over the year but the LAGU is desired to REPEL sand and it actually does. As if that's not a superpower? Not only does it mean you're not sitting on a pile of sand whilst sitting on your beach blanket (because seriously, if you wanted to sit in the sand you'd just sit in the sand - right?), it's also allergen free and quick dry - so wet feet aren't an issue and it doesn't smell awful in the car on the way home.

If you're a beach fan, I cannot recommend LAGU enough. They've just launched in Australia and you can buy them at their online store or at Manly Markets!

But tell me, are you a board game fan? Or do you prefer video games/no games at all? 
I definitely prefer board games over video games - especially because you can play them with friends! Our friends Craig and Larissa have the best board game collection (I don't think I've ever played the same game twice at their house) and now I'm on a mission to have an awesome board game collection once we have our own house.

And how has your week been? Have you been up to anything exciting or eaten anything particularly delicious/out of the ordinary?