Last Day of Winter

And while I am not one to wish my life away I am glad to see it end and a beginning to warmer weather.  I have been sleeping really well lately, keeping to regular hours, asleep at ten and up at six but last night I didn't have the best night, felt a bit achey and uncomfortable for some reason.  I haven't changed my routine so not sure what's up with that, also noticed a bit of anxiety last night that hasn't been present for a while and for no reason I could figure out.  Since the drama with Emily in June we've kept pretty much to ourselves, just the four of us, as we regrouped and worked things out, and yesterday I Skyped with my sister and brother in law who are overseas, they're in Scotland right now and travelling around Europe, and last night I had the misfortune to anwer the phone to my mother in law who called to say that Phill's sister, who has cancer, had taken a turn for the worse and is in hospital.  I made the appropriate sympathy noises and handed the phone to Phill then went back to the bedroom where I was watching tv.  Later when I came out to get something bugger me if the bloody phone didn't ring again as I walked past it,  and it was her saying there was a garbled message on their machine and she thought it was me.  She's a head game player so not sure what that was about.  So perhaps it's just the filtering in of the outside world and their problems that made me feel uneasy yesterday.  Anyway today is another day and a lovely morning it is.  So much has changed for me and I am still learning new ways to process and deal with things and it's a work in progress and probably always will be.
Phill and I went to Wagga to look for a coffee table for this room planning to put this one in the family room.  I got some cushions and a lamp but we came home with no table, although we chose our new outdoor setting, just have to go back in there with the trailer to get it.

Nice what some cushions and a throw can do for a couch.  It's really cosy in there now, more so than this room actually and the kids have been using it every night to watch movies and play the Wii and PS2.  Together, which is nice.

We came home from the shops to find this on the front door.

Funny thing she is.  They went to the park and for a long walk in the bush, which is something they haven't done for ages and it's great to see them getting outside again.

I finally threw away my slow cooker.  I only bought it a few years ago, the first Winter we were back in Junee, and had to get a dodgy brand as they were like hens' teeth at the time.  It was never right, always seemed to cook hotter on one side of the dish and when I made the chilli the other night it actually started to burn even on low.  I've been wanting one of the new ones that you can put on the stove to sear meat etc but couldn't justify getting rid of one that worked, albeit imperfectly.  But after the chilli incident I'd had enough, I use my slow cooker a lot especially in Winter so yesterday we went up to Young, still hunting for the elusive coffee table and got a new cooker.

And got these for free!

The instruction book has some good sounding recipes and I'm looking forward to trying some.  The bowl can go in the oven with the lid which is great too.

Half a day to myself today, I'm like a kid in a lolly shop, can't decide what to do!  I have plenty of work in the house to catch up on so I won't be at a loose end.  But I might go shopping, Phill went out to get supplies yesterday afternoon, went for a quick beer and came home almost a thousand dollars richer after putting $20 in the pokies.  He took some out for his lunch and to get pizza last night and gave the rest to me!!!