A Sad Day turned to Smiles

Today hasn't been a very good day. I just woke up after only 4 hours sleep feeling blugh! A guy I used to go to school with, his little sister tragically took her own life on Sunday. My mum taught her only a couple of years ago and I used to tutor her friends so my heart has just been aching for them and her family all week. It tears me up inside to think that young girls her age are just so sad that they feel they have no other choice but to go. I pray that her family and friends find the strength they need to get through this terrible time! The funeral is tomorrow and I will be thinking of them all, especially my mum, she is quite upset but is being so strong and such an amazing support for all the girls. the teachers and the school community. Today is also 1 year since my Grandpa passed away! I am not sad by this as I know that he is in complete peace up there in heaven. I am sad for my Dad and Grandma though as they miss him dearly. What made me the saddest today was I was doing my works grocery shop and there was an elderly couple outside Coles. She was saying John John are you ok? and he was just staring saying nothing, I walked passed but her frail voice was loud and clear in my mind so I dropped my shopping and went to help her. As I got to her, her poor husband started vomiting everywhere and she was trying to clean it up yet still holding him up. I just held her - I knew she wanted to be there for him so I didn't dare take her away from his side but I helped them both to the doctors surgery to get him in immediate care. When they took him in and his back was facing her she started crying and was so upset my heart just absolutely broke. She was worried about him but was also worried about her shopping so I told her I would take care of it and I would take it to coles and they will put her cold stuff in the fridge. I told her it was all ok and to go be with her John. I didn't go back to see if he was ok. I know I had done all I could. I knew he was in wonderful hands and the dear lady was by his side. That's all that matters! I then headed home to my daily Thursday chores of washing, ironing and cleaning the toy room. No smiles and cuddles and plays from the kids to make me feel better however when folding the washing I came cross these cuties that put a smile on my face...

and then when I was cleaning the toy room I came across this LITTLE classic...

~ beside my phone for size comparison - isn't it just gorgeous ~

A few more 'specials' that made me smile today...

~ Super cute tissue box that can fit in your cup holder ~

~ a little present from Miss 8 from a charity stall at school ~

~ my new wallet ~

~ my dress and bracelets for a wedding on Sat - IMPULSE BUY...woops ~

~ my precious playing in her box (fruit box with a hole cut out) She's like her mumma -

she likes the simple things ~

It started off as a gloomy day and just when I thought I couldn't shake the sad mood I was in I looked beyond the obvious and found beauty in the little things. Such simple things can be so special and definitely made me smile today. It's not always about achieving greatness or excelling in projects or creating a master piece. It's about appreciating those small things that make life grand...especially on days like today!

x S.K.K x

Wordless Wednesday

Discover more 'Wordless Wednesdays' over at Faith Hope and a whole lotta Love

Beautiful Day

Life is a journey,

Not a destination,

There are no mistakes,

Just chances we've taken

Lay down your regrets cause all we have is now

Wake up in the morning

And get out of bed

Start making a mental list in my head

Of all of the things that I am grateful for

Early in the morning

It's the dawn of a new day

New hopes new dreams new ways

I open up my eyes and

I open up my mind and

I wonder how life will surprise me today

Early in the morning

It's the dawn of a new day

New hopes new dreams new ways

I open up my heart and

I'm gon' do my part and

Make this a positively beautiful day

Life is a challenge not a competition

You can still smell the roses and be on a mission

Just take a moment to get in touch with your heart

Sometimes you feel like you've got something to prove

Remind yourself that there's only one you

Just take a moment to give thanks of who you are

Early in the morning

It's the dawn of a new day

New hopes, new dreams, new ways

I open up my eyes and

I open up my mind and

I wonder how life will surprise me today

Let's make this a wonderful

Let's make this a powerful

Let's make this a Beautiful Day

It's a Beautiful Day

This gorgeous song is called Beautiful Day and it is by India Arie

 This is how I want to believe, feel and think everyday I wake up

These words are so precious and true

It is my new anthem

~ Make your day BEAUTIFUL ~

x S.K.K x 

Kreativ Blogger Meme

I am very new to the wonderful world of blogging yet I am totally addicted to this crazy little online world! I read blogs for a few months before taking the leap and starting one of my own! This is my own little 'haven' my own little space where I can laugh, cry, share, read, learn and experience with a beautiful bunch of blogger's! I love reading other blogger's experiences and special moments and being allowed a little peak into their beautiful journey of life!

One of my favourite blogger's that I love to read is Claire over at Scissors Paper Rock I love reading about her journey, her family and her booming business! Her thoughts and writing are so truly beautiful and unique and leave me feeling inspired to smile every day! I was so surprised when the beautiful Claire had passed on the Kreativ Blogger Meme to me the other day and was so excited to receive this and join in the fun! 

As part of this honour I am to share 7 random facts with you all. As I am quite new to the wonderful online world of blogging I though this would be a wonderful chance to share a little bit about me and the person that I am. Even if they are only 7 random facts I hope you enjoy learning a little bit about ME :)

ONE

I have not had a full nights sleep in over 2 years - In August 2008 I had surgery. I went in to get my appendix out but when on the table they found a large tumor (non cancerous) on my bowel which they had to remove. I went from an hours surgery, an over nights stay and a weeks recovery to a 5 hour operation, a weeks stay in hospital and 2 month recovery. I haven't slept since! 

TWO

I do not drink Alcohol - I don't have anything against it or people who do (my husband, family and friends all do) it's just something I don't believe in and I believe my body is better off without it! Don't get me wrong I have drunk in the past but I had my indulgent stage and then got over it! 

THREE

I don't drink coffee or tea or energy drinks - My addiction is Chocolate and it gets me through the day! 

FOUR

I completed 80% of my teaching degree and then quit - All my life I wanted to be a teacher - primary - I lived for it and couldnt wait to have a class and classroom of my own - I competed all pracs and achieved the highest possible marks however in my last semester something changed - I couldn't do it anymore - I had the passion and I will make a wonderful teacher one day I just felt I needed to experience more of this world - learn more see more before taking a child's education into my own hands. It means more to me than just a degree and I feel I couldn't give them the education they deserved without experiencing life. 

FIVE

I am totally addicted to the television show 'The Secret Life of the American teenager' at the moment. I watch an episode every night before bed :) 

SIX

I collect books - As I buy a new book I write the date and what is happening in my life at that time - I can not wait until I am 60, sitting on my porch with my grandchildren, reading through each one and remembering and sharing my special journey with them. 

SEVEN

I want to be a mum more than anything in this world - I just can't wait to create a gorgeous new life with my Rob and show them the wonders of this world. It's hard for me at the moment as everyone around me is having babies and I know we could have one at any time but we want to wait and be emotionally, physically and financially stable before we start trying! Even though it's hard waiting I know it's the best decision for our baby. A quote I have to keep reminding myself every day is "The most important part of parenting are the decisions you make before you are pregnant" This is written here beside my computer and every time I want to throw caution and planning into the air and have a baby I remind myself that we want to do it OUR way. And when it happens it will be so magical! 

That is ME - raw, honest, true - you may agree or disagree with my beliefs, ideas and plans but that's ME :)

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about the person I am. 

I now pass the ever so wonderful Kreativ Blogger Meme onto my favourite bloggers! 

Hayley at Our Unique Journey  

Sarah at One Perfect Day

 

Jess at Lifes Little Whispers

Cat at Raspberry Rainbow

LJ at With my own two hands

If you choose to follow for a bit of fun, the “rules” are:
- Copy the award to your blog
- Insert a link to the person who nominated you
- Share seven things about yourself that you haven’t told us before.
- Nominate other bloggers for the award – share the love
- Link to their blogs.
- Tell the nominees about their award.

I am learning, growing and changing in this world and I am so lucky to have found a safe place where I can speak and be heard.

Thank you for sharing my journey.

x S.K.K x 

Week-a-Boo

How was everyone's weekend? I can not wait to read all of the Week-a-Boo's over at

Scissors Paper Rock

It is my perfect start to my week! 

I had a wonderful weekend celebrating with loved ones and visiting friends

~ Saturday - Rob and I decorated the area ready for the party ~

Saturday was Mr 5 (soon to be 6's) birthday party! His birthday is always in the September holidays so he has his party with his school friends before break up! It was a simple party at the park with his class! Rob came along with me (celebrity guest as we called him as ALL the boys love him) so it was a fun afternoon playing with all the kids and sharing it with my husband! 

~ Road trip - Mooloolaba ~

Straight after the party we hopped in to the car and headed up to Mooloolaba to visit friends who were camping up there! It was a lovely drive up there and we arrived just on sunset! Gorgeous! 

~ Mooloolaba sunset ~

We had a fun night catching up with our friends and playing board games and falling asleep listening to the waves crashing on the shore line!

~ I LOVE his freckles ;) ~

Sunday morning before heading home Rob and I took a nice walk along the beach and soaked up the sunshine! I may have soaked up too much sunshine and got my first burn for the season :( 

I hope you all had a magical weekend with your loved ones

x S.K.K x

Pizza Making!

"Pizza Pizza Pizza it's lots and lots of fun"

On Friday I went to school with Miss 8 and was a helper in her classroom with their pizza making activity. They are studying 'foods of the world' and last week was Italy and all of it's national foods. So on Friday a few mums and I went in for the day to helped the girls make pizzas from scratch. It was definitely a learning curve for me! I was very proud of myself and my group! We had a shaky start as our dough was in stringy pieces and terribly dry as the girls could not grasp the concept of kneading but we pulled together and took turns of kneading and dough turned out beautifully! I was very proud of the girls as they listened well and took turns without arguing and they just had FUN!

~ My set up waiting for the girls ! ~

Here is the recipe for our Pizza Dough

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 teaspoons of dried yeast

* 1 cup of lukewarm water

* 3 1/2 cups of plain/strong flour

* pinch of sugar

* 1 teaspoon of salt

* little olive oil to grease bowl

Method

* Warm a small mixing bowl by swirling water in it. Drain

* Place yeast in bowl, add sugar and add half of the warm water and mix with fork until bubbled

* Pile the flour and salt into the large bowl. Make a well and add the yeast mixture.

* Working from the middle outwards mix the yeast into the flour until it is absorbed. Add the remaining water to the centre and gradually incorporate the flour. 

* Place the dough on a bread board and knead the dough until it is pliable (elastic-like)

* Form the dough into a ball and place it into a bowl which as been lighted oiled. 

* Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to 'rest' (double in size)

* Knock down and leave for 10 minutes. seperate into two balls. 

* Roll each ball from centre outward with a rolling pin to fit tray. 

* Spread with sauce and add toppings to taste!

Bellissimo!!!

x S.K.K x

Birthday Girl

Today was Miss 7 Miss 8's birthday!

Celebrations all round at work today! I didn't get to see her before she went to school and I told her to ring me if she had a spare minute, but didn't get the call so she was obviously very busy with special pancakes for brekkie and opening up all of her birthday presents! Thursday's all the kids are at school so it was my job day so I had a little bit of extra time to set up a hunt for her birthday present and make her favourite afternoon tea - avocado dip with crackers! 

The 'crystal mining' present was a HUGE HIT! Miss 7 Miss 8 is totally obsessed with crystals and gems at the moment and has a big collection. This pack has a big large rock and they get archeological tools and they have to chip and cut away at the rock to reveal the gems! Awesome! She loved it and sat for an hour playing it after school! I searched through toy stores and the toy aisles at the big stores but all of the toys these days are so generic and just didn't grab my attention! She is very mature for a 8 year old and barbie just didn't cut it this year! So after searching through the usual shops I went straight to the Australian Geographic Store. I don't know why I didn't go there first! Whenever I need a present this will be my first stop! The 'toys' and presents in there are so much more educational and fun! I enjoyed shopping for the kids there! I also got Mr 5 who is turning 6 in 2 weeks a similar present except instead of gems they are dinosaur bones and at the end they make a dinosaur! Perfect!

Being the birthday girl Miss 8 got to choose where she wanted to go for dinner! of course she chose the most amazing restaurant SONO which is a Japanese restaurant down at the port side. She asked me especially if I would join them for dinner as part of the family! How could I say no! oh my goodness the restaurant was so divine. I wish I could have taken photos for you all! The table and decor and atmosphere was amazing and the food was to die for! We had Teppanyaki and it was so much fun! A wonderful night was had by all...especially the birthday girl! 

Tomorrow I am off to her school to make pizzas with 40 grade 2's for 4 hours! Can't wait! I have my apron and kneading hands ready :) 

~ Have a lovely Friday everyone ~

x S.K.K x

Wordless Wednesday

For more 'Wordless Wednesday' fun head over to Faith Hope and a whole lotta Love

At My House

~ My own little twist - at my work ~ 

Swimming was canceled this morning so Mr 2 (3 next week) got a special big play in the pool with mum this morning with dolls and boats - bit chilly but the sun was shining so it made a wonderful morning! While he had his daily sleep I set up a few play stations for us to play in the afternoon - 2 oldest kids had appointments so it was just us! He is OBSESSED with tools and building at the moment and that is all we play so I wanted to put out some different games and activities today just to mix it up a little bit! We had a fabulous day and a lot of fun!

~ We played on the car mat - with lots of crashing ~

~ with the train set - the cars had to help the crashing trains - is there a theme here? ~

~ We also worked on our numbers - Very Clever! ~

~ We ended the day off with a special blue bath ~

- A wonderful day of play at my house work today -

I leaned today that eating nutino straight out of the jar is not as good as nutella but is so yummy on bread! :P

I enjoyed a beautiful dinner out with my special friends tonight - I have not seen them in SO LONG because of my hours at work but it was so lovely to spend a few hours eating yummy food and catching up! They are expecting their first baby in January so its all very exciting!!!

What happened at your house today? Pop on over to Lou's and join in the fun! 

x S.K.K x

Week-a-Boo

What a special weekend I had!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and we all piled into my dads patrol and headed off on the 4 hour road to trip to Hervey Bay - my favourite place in the world! We were heading off for my cousin Jay' wedding - He was marrying his long time girlfriend and mother of his 2 children. The ceremony was held at the Botanical gardens followed by the reception at the Boat Club! It was a beautiful celebration!

Here are a few photos for you to enjoy!

During the wedding the bride and groom had a sand ceremony where they both poured different coloured sand into a vase to symbolise their two lives becoming one. While they were signing the register they asked that each of their guests also put a spoon of sand and make a wish for them. I thought this was such a beautiful touch!

Another special detail during the wedding was the guests blessing...however it wasn't your ordinary blessing...more of an oath, we had to repeat after the celebrant and the passage basically made us promise that we were going to celebrate the whole day and make sure we make a new friend and we must dance to at least one song and smile the entire night and if we didn't the bar tab would be waiting at the end of the night for us! I thought this was hilarious and really added that special, unique and fun touch to the ceremony! 

We were all given a special surprise this weekend! The grooms sister, my cousin, flew all the way from America to be here for his special day! No one knew and she just turned up at the wedding! We were all in total shock to see her and it just made the wedding so perfect!

 ~ Cousins - we haven't seen Stacey (middle) for 15 years ~

The groom and I are the same age and we were quite close growing up! Congratulations to 'My Jay' I am so proud of you!

 

 ~ Then and Now - Jay and Sarah ~

Fathers Day

  

We got to celebrate fathers day with all of our family and with one special man who is the rock of our family! Our grandpa! It was so special to be with all of my cousins and aunty and uncles and to celebrate it with him! This is the first time we had all been together in 15 years! 

 

~ It was a weekend that I'll remember forever ~

 x S.K.K x

Friday Fun

 Eeeek tonight I did the unthinkable! I dyed my own hair! Does anyone else use store bought dye and do it themselves? I have a wedding tomorrow and I am in DESPERATE need of a hair colour so I quickly ducked into the chemist on my way home from work. I scanned the LARGE range of hair dyes and saw one which said "100% grey coverage and 10 minute process time - perfect for me - that had me sold! and yes yes I can see you all sitting there reading this saying pfft she's young she doesnt have grey hair...unfortunately this is not the case! I have the bad genes from my father and have been grey since age 17 BOO!!! so every 4 weeks on a Saturday at 9.00am my hairdresser comes to my house and colours my roots! This has been happening for years, however I missed my last appointment and its been 7 WEEKS since my colour so I have about an inch of grey regrowth which desperately needed touching up for the wedding tomorrow! So anyway I bought my hair dye which by the way was $15.99 which is a huge jump from when I used to buy it a couple of years ago for $8 - $9 ar the joys of inflation. Hair is still wet so fingers crossed it looks ok in the morning! Do you dye your own hair or go to the hairdressers?? I'm thinking about sticking to dyeing my own...a lot cheaper and I can do it in my own time! I wish I could leave it and keep it natural :( Don't think grey is a natural colour for a girl my age though ;)

I had a good day today! Tomorrow night in our city we have Riverfire where they line up the bridge with fireworks and light up the sky. They also have the jet planes fly over which are very very loud! I've never been but there was a huge buzz amoungst the kids in the city today! Each Friday before the event the jets have a practice! This year it was at 2 o'clock and as the house I work at is right on the river I was excited to show the youngest the planes! We waited and waited at 2.00 but unfortunately the jets didn't pass us and we didn't even hear them! They must have not come our end of the river! At least he will get to see them tomorrow night! He is very excited and really understands it this year! I hope he doesn't get scarred!

I am staying at my parents house tonight as we are getting up bright and early for a road trip up to Hervey Bay! My favourite place in the world! My cousin is getting married tomorrow so we are going up for the weekend to celebrate their special day with them and visit all of my family! I haven't been up there in over a year which is a long time for me so I am super excited to see everyone and the bay! I also get to see my wonderful grandparents who I am extremely close with! I can not wait for my big cuddle! I am never too old for my grandparents hug!

~ I hope you all have a beautiful weekend filled with sunny skies and smiling faces ~

x S.K.K x

Spring

~ I want to celebrate and live my life ~

 Spring is here and I am going to use this new change of season to shape up…on the inside. Throughout winter I find that I get comfortable…too comfortable. I settle into life, I settle into my routines, I actually think I get into a little bit of a rut. I keep to myself I go where I need to and keep to myself and my computer and my couch. I think now is the time to give myself a swift kick up the but and get back into living this beautiful life I have. I found myself being a bit negative over the last few months. Yes it has been hard with my husband’s car crash and then loosing his job but I am so thankful that he is still here with me and in perfect health and that I have a wonderful job that has kept us going through this ordeal AND he has a job interview tomorrow (yay) so fingers crossed we are off to a new start.

So it’s time to snap out of it, embrace the new season, and enjoy the sunshine, the new colours, the breeze, the flowers and the smells.

This week I have been sitting back and just watching the world pass me by. I have been watching friends, strangers, loved ones and how they act, interact and deal with this crazy world we live in. I consider myself a very friendly person; I take the time to listen, to be there for people, I feel a simple smile can brighten anyone’s day. While I was in my ‘rut’ it actually gave me time to sit back, observe and think about our lives. Unfortunately by watching people I found that too many people seemed to be very busy, too busy, and are letting their worlds pass them by. People are in such a rush these days. They have meetings to be in, appointments to take, and deadlines to meet. They walk 100 miles per hour with their heads down or their phone glued to their ear. They speed in their cars, honk their horn when something doesn’t go their way and even yell abuse. In my own negativity I found that I became more aware of the negativity in our world. I guess this was my big wakeup call which showed me that life is too short to not smile and celebrate my life every day.

Thank you spring for opening my eyes and allowing me to breath!

x S.K.K x

Wordless Wednesday

For more 'Wordless Wednesday' fun head over to Faith Hope and a whole lotta Love