Today I Am Grateful For...

Tour de France Although it's later this year than usual, and there are fewer spectators, it feels lovely and familiar and I love seeing the highlights in the morning, and watching the coverage in the evenings. I always find watching the riding really mesmerising, and I'm fascinated by the scenery and the townships.

Rest I'm still quite out of condition at the moment and get tired easily. I love being able to sit or lie down when needed, and take a bit of time to recover before I move on to doing something else.

 Having a car. My car is at the mechanics for about a week, and although I'm not going out much at the moment I do like the safety of knowing there's a car here if I need it - Dad lent me his car until I get mine back and it feels great to know that I can use it if I need it.

 Electricity After losing power tonight during a massive wind storm, and not being able to cook dinner, boil the kettle, charge our phones, turn on the fan for the fire, watch TV, do the dishes, flush the toilet - all things we take for granted every day (and having to rummage in the camper trailer for lights, while out in the wind and the rain), I am super grateful to have electricity to the house again and I appreciate all the way it makes our life easier

 Ducklings Liam and I saw a mummy duck with about 6 ducklings on the dam - she ushered them into the water as we walked along the dam wall and they swam away from the shore, all trying to stay as close as possible to her as they swam. They were so incredibly cute!

Card games I love playing card games of almost any type (although team games less so). Patience/Solitaire - I know and enjoy so many variations, and I love playing games with the kids (and with their friends, and my friends, when we're allowed to see people). There's something soothing and fun and ordered about card games.

 Sharing the hot chocolate festival with friends even though we had to do it remotely. We ordered our special hot chocs and the boys prepared them together while video chatting on Doscord, and I talked to my friends while I drank mine, it was awesome.

 Multi-player Video Games the kids and I have played Monopoly on the Xbox a few times lately - way more fun and less stressful than playing it as a boardgame, somehow. The kids are all playing various multi-player games with their friends online, while chatting on the phone or Discord - it's such a great way to stay connected.

 Aldi in Healesville. I'm so glad that Healesville Aldi has opened - with Stage 4 lockdown there's no way I could have gone to Lilydale to get our groceries, and doing everything at Coles or IGA is way more expensive. My shopping trip this afternoon was soothing and familiar and now we have most of the food we need.

 Wine It's nice to have a supply of wine available - I don't drink it every day but there's always some there when I want it. Tone brought out some Noble One tonight which was an added bonus.

 Baths I had a lovely long bath today when I was feeling down, and it helped relax and sooth me. I read my book and drank hot chocolate. Earlier in the week I had a bath and lay and listened to music. The warm water always helps me feel better.

 Trampolines. I was watching Amelie on the trampolines today, she spends so much time on there and has so much fun. She jumps and practices flips, she plays games with herself and with her Pokemon and with Luna, she chats on the phone - she's so happy there and it makes me happy too. I also like to lie on them to chat on the phone, and I was jumping on them earlier in lockdown, I might get back to it. The others jump occasionally too, I am so glad we have trampolines (yes, more than 1 - 2 bigs ones and 2 mini tramps)9( (Amelie also uses Luna's bed, and the couch, as trampolines....)

 Video Calling. I had 2 video calls with friends/family today and it's such a great way to connect, especially since we can't see people in person.

 My puzzle books. I've been doing lots of number and logic puzzles over the last week - I enjoy the challenge and I always love playing with numbers. Amelie and Liam have been doing some with me as well.

 Sunny Days We have had SO many clear, sunny days in this lockdown and the last one. It makes being stuck at home so much easier when it's so beautiful outside

 Family time. It's been really lovely watching Ninja all together, all 5 of us, over the past few weeks. Occasionally we're all in the lounge room together at other times, but it's pretty rare. I always savour the times when it happens

 Having energy It's so great after weeks of feeling drained and not being able to do much, to have enough energy to walk and do things around the house and sit and play games etc

 Old friends. It's so great to catch up with an old friend (like I did today) after several years and just pick up where we left off last time

Our fireplace It keeps our whole house warm and cosy and it looks really cool as well

Snow I love snow. Lots of my friends had snow at their place yesterday so I saw lots of beautiful photos and videos. We could also see it from our yard, up on the hills beyond Toolangi - so very exciting.

Messaging I love being able to easily communicate with my friends through text messages, Messenger etc. I talked to 4 or 5 people today from the comfort of my couch, just little thoughts back and forwards, makes Lockdown a lot easier to have that contact

Cups of Tea I love a cup of tea at pretty much anytime, and lately Liam and Tony (and sometimes Caitlin) have been making tea for me - makes it even better

New Sheets. Tony put new (brand new, never been used before) flannelette sheets on our bed a couple of days ago - they are so soft and comfortable and I love getting into bed

Milk from the dairy farm The farm milk we buy is so creamy and delicious and every time I drink it I feel happy and so lucky that we are able to buy such a great product so easily