Have I mentioned before that I was inspired by Elisabeth identifying her “Happy Things Friday” posts as a “Sabbath practice” to regard these posts as my own Sabbath practice? Wirzba’s emphasis on delight in his book Living the Sabbath prompted me once again to think about these posts in the context of Sabbath living, leading me to embark on a little experiment with the format. I’ve tended to start these posts early in the week and add to them as the week progresses, which stretches out the feelings of gratitude, so I’ve decided to double down on this and make it a daily log of good things. Anyway, on to this week’s good things …

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Fri 14.6.24

• As I shared last week, my foot had progressed enough to be able to wean off the boot. That meant half the day in and half out, although if I had longer/uncertain walking, I needed to wear it.
• G and I went into the city for a date night. We caught the train into Flinders St and had an early dinner at Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters. We hadn’t been to this farm-to-table style restaurant before. I had been to their rooftop bar in Exhibition St with my daughter for an afternoon cocktail a few years ago. On Friday, G and I decided to go with the chef’s menu, and this time, I remembered to take a photo of the menu so I could remember what we ate (no photo of dessert, sorry)

TO START
Cobb Lane sourdough, Coldermeade Farm cultured butter
Hot smoked Goulburn Valley trout, beetroot relish, mustard
Grilled mushroom, fresh cheese, radicchio, black garlic

TO FOLLOW
O’Connor beef striploin, chimichurri, hollandaise
Spud sisters hand cut chips, green mojo mayonnaise
Ramarro Farm salad, Meredith goats cheese dressing
Wood roasted beetroot, creme fraiche, pepperberry

TO FINISH
Cuvee white chocolate panna cotta, citrus salad
Floating Island, macadamia, chocolate custard

• From Fed Square, we walked up to the Regent Theatre to see Wicked. I had not seen it before and didn’t know any of the music or the story … apart from knowing it involved the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz. I can’t tell you how scared I was of the Wicked Witch and those flying monkeys when I first watched The Wizard of Oz as a child and the monkeys are still pretty freaky, even in the musical version. We both really enjoyed our night.
  
  
  
  
• An added, unplanned part of the night was that Rising Melbourne was still on, so Flinders St Station was beautifully lit, and we also saw some outdoor art installations by Aboriginal artists in Fed Square.
  
  
  
  

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SAT 15.6.24

• After going to the gym on Saturday morning, G and I picked up our son, and we went out to brunch at Jerry’s Milkbar. I made sure I got my protein in with a Mr Peanut smoothie and breakfast tacos. Our son is often out working or with friends, so it was good to be able to catch up with him.
  
  
  
  
• An afternoon nap
• H is back from her holiday with my parents in Noosa. She came straight from the airport to our place for dinner. We gave her a 4000-piece jigsaw puzzle for her birthday, which we started. We just need to add a bit to the puzzle board to accommodate the extra length.
  
  
  
  
• I took my lessons from a couple of weeks ago to spend my time cooking leisurely, including baking and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to use up the egg yolks in my fridge. The egg yolks had been building up because I’ve been adding egg whites to my porridge to boost the protein content. The cookies were extra rich due to the six egg yolks. I sent some home with the girls.
  
  
  

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SUN 16.6.2024

• Hours free to read and write while Hubby went on a super-long run and then watched the footy.
• Birthday dinner with the kids(+1) for our eldest’s 25th birthday. We went to Vaporetto—a good Italian restaurant, back in the old neighbourhood. We picked it because it was close to the girls place which is midway between our place and our son’s girlfriend’s place. Once there, we reminisced about getting Vaporetto’s Sunday lunches delivered during the pandemic and about our time in Venice with our daughter when she was in year 11.

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Mon 17.6.2024

• Today was the birthday of my mainly music co-leader. One of the children brought a party hat for her to wear, and we sang happy birthday.
• Running errands without taking the boot on and off everytime I get into and out of the car.

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TUES 18.6.2024

• Finally, getting back out in the garden. I hadn’t been able to do it with my boot, but it was good to get out there, even if it was running amok. The broad beans have spouted and were ready to mulch, and I got to work pruning and weeding the garden around the pond.

• Similarly, with my boot off, I could once again do errands on my bike. I kept it close to home with a trip to the bulk food shop in Elwood.
• Our finger limes have fruit. In fact, the small tree is covered in them, which is exciting. I had to Google how to tell when finger limes are ripe, and apparently, I wait until they come off the tree easily. One site said to look for the first one to fall on the ground.

• A short article on Embracing Local Photography.
• The Bible Project podcast discussion on daily bread: “There’s something about that mindset [of a beggar or day labourer] that will keep you in a space that Jesus wants His followers to never leave, which is a radical, in-the-moment trust and dependence on the generosity of God …I need to find more creative ways to weave this into my actual patterns of living.” The first bit was good, but it was the last bit that connected with some of the things I’ve been considering in regards to renewal and building routines, rituals and exploring various spiritual disciplines. I think a large part of building and maintaining routines and rituals in our lives is to bring our values, ideals, and what we believe it means to be human, into our lives in a real, tangible, bodily way.
• G had a meeting after dinner, so I binge-watched three episodes of Bridgerton. I have the final episode of the season still to watch.
• I made Jamie Oliver’s Eggplant Dhal with Handmade Chapatis. This is a yellow split pea dahl, which I hadn’t had before. Not one for getting dinner quickly on the table—you have to roast the eggplant first, then the split peas take 1 hour and 20 minutes to cook—but if you’re home in the afternoon, there wasn’t a lot of hands-on work. The recipe will be going in our Family Recipe Book, which is an Evernote notebook in which I save the recipes that are worth cooking again.
• If you are parenting boys this is a really thoughtful interview of Ruth Whippman. “As feminists we should be selling “smashing the patriarchy” as a liberation to boys but instead we are almost selling it to them as a punishment.” and “actually boys are more sensitive and emotionally vulnerable than girls on average” There are also some really interesting thoughts as she digs into the complexities of gender, masculinity and feminism.
• Our son rang me excited to tell me that he will be doing tech for three months of the next Red Hot Summer Tour. This is so exciting for him, and I’m so happy that he rang me to share the news.

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Wed 19.6.2024

• I was dead tired after the gym this morning, but I was fortunate to be able to fit in a little afternoon nap, which stopped what felt like a building migraine.
• I’ve been reading The Art of Prayer in the mornings. It’s a compilation of writings on prayer from Greek and Russian sources, I’ve amassed a heap of highlights that I need to revisit … from today: “You regret that the Jesus Prayer is not unceasing, that you do not recite it constantly. But constant repetition is not required. What is required is a constant aliveness to God-an aliveness present when you talk, read, watch, or examine something. But since you are already practising the Jesus Prayer in the correct manner, continue as you are doing now, and in due course the prayer will widen its scope.”
• I got out into the garden again. Cutting back my prolific everlasting daisy bush, I uncovered the banksia, which had three flowers. They are dried now, but still beautiful.

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THURS 20.6.2024

• Cal Newport draws the analogy between ultra-processed food and social media.
• I had lots of getting back into things this week after getting out of the boot, and today was my first walk of Riley doubled up with my first walk to the beach … 500m, but it’s something.

How has your week been? Have you had the experience of appreciating things more after you haven’t been able to do them? Do you keep your own version of a good things log?