Good Things Friday

Weekend @ Pt Lonsdale

It was a long weekend last weekend and we spent it down at my parents’ place with a selection of my siblings and their kids. It’s good just to hang out and spend quantity of time together. My dad’s ankle is healing well, he has another ten days with the lighter plaster cast on and then he should be right for a moonboot.

A Beach Day

The long weekend was hot. 40C on Saturday and 39C on Sunday. Saturday afternoon I had a nap and then it was too close to dinner to head off, but Sunday my daughter and I got down to the beach in the afternoon. I was expecting crowds but there were surprisingly few people there. I guess they were all hiding inside. There is a very large dune to climb to get to the back beach. We stayed for about an hour, with most of that time spent in the water. The tide was only partially out which meant there was a long swim over the rocks to get out and back to the sandbar. I tried to catch a wave back in to lessen the swim but pushed off and got cramps in both my calves. By that time it was too late to pull back and I found myself on the top of the wave with no speed, about to be dumped. So, I had a nice washing machine experience and still had to swim most of the way in.

Getting my long run done early

I grabbed the very small window of non-scorching temperatures on Saturday morning to get my long run done. It was still warmish and a bit humid but the hottest temperature while I was running was 23C and the humidity dropped as I got further into my run. I ran 24K up the rail trail which is always lovely.

Art

While we were in Hobart we had a wander around some art galleries. One gallery was having an exhibition of works by Melissa Smith which we loved. Our favourite was sold but G saw that she is also represented by Queenscliff Gallery so while we were at the beach on the weekend we dropped in there and bought a piece for our dining room. We dropped it at the framers on Wednesday.

Small Group

We got back into small group properly this week. We’ve met once this year for supper but this was our first meeting for study and prayer. G and I were a little late getting our runs/gym finished and I had just dished up my dinner when people started arriving. For much of the night it sounded like a party, which is a good thing, signifying that this group of people really do enjoy each others’ company. They certainly feel comfortable with each other. It does pose a bit of a challenge for me to reel everyone back into the group discussion and prayer but that’s a good problem to have I think?

Time with our son

For a few reasons our son has been home a bit more since we’ve been back from Tasmania which has meant more dinners together and more time to chat which has been great. We’ve also started a weekly catch-up of his life chores. We sit down for a few hours, once a week to walk through his personal admin etc, the goal is to build his organisational muscles and support him as he works out some strategies to minimise the negatives while taking advantage of the positives of his ADHD.

Bonus Good Things

• My sister told us about Brendan Pang’s Dumplings while we were away at the weekend and of course G had to try them this week. They were good.
• I made this Curried Thai Beef with Peanut Sauce and it was good. I served it with a mix of brown and black rice because that’s what I had.
• We’ve been watching Mr and Mrs Smith and enjoying it.
• My kids watched all the episodes of the original Avatar: The Last Air Bender. As a result, I also saw a fair bit of it as I pottered around doing my jobs while they watched. Our eldest was so excited for the new netflix series and it hasn’t disappointed. She insisted we watch it, and I feel like it has managed to capture the feel of the original cartoon series.
• Ethical Fashion Choices

How about you? Have you had some good things in your week?