Reasons to be Cheerful

Florenceem

Lovely day here.
Mr F didn't wake me up until nearly 10.30 and we had to be at the SA for 11. Had membership class, lunch and Bible study with lovely people. My cakes were appreciated - we did a taste test last night.
Easy dinner tonight - Frikadellen burger and roll - FF + pots and chestnut mushrooms.

YorksLass

The sun is shining and it's forecast to stay around for the rest of the week too, so I'll be feeling more energised even if it does mean I can't ignore the dust bunnies!

Yesterday I bought a ys half leg of lamb reduced to half price.  We love lamb but don't often buy it as it seems so expensive.  It's been cooking slowly in the oven today and I'm just waiting for it to cool down so I can slice/freeze it in gravy.  It will do us a good few meals and any end bits will make a filling for a couple of lamb. mint & chilli pasties so there'll be no waste.  Even the pastry trimmings will get used up for jam tarts or sesame seed topped rounds to have with soup.

I've made full use of the oven space by baking a coconut cake as well.  I just need to add some lemon butter cream in the middle and then I'll cut it into 12 squares, some for now, some for the freezer.  DH says he doesn't have a sweet tooth but, by golly, can he shift cake!  The remaining space was filled with tonight's liver, bacon & onion casserole.

This month's gas/electricity bill arrived this morning and it's a little over £20 less than last month so it's going in the right direction - a combination I think of milder weather and consciously trying not to use as much.

As others have said, it is hard sometimes to find the good things in life when there's so much awful news around but I try to remind myself of what's important and concentrate on what I do have rather than what I don't have.  There are others in this world who are far worse off than I am, so I'm grateful.

newlywed

I live with someone with depression and negative thinking… makes focusing on the positives trickier some days.

a lovely dinner of leftovers with reheating and little effort
kitchen cooker hood fitted by oh today
couldn’t do much work this morning due to tech issues and tried to not stress and went with the flow and concentrated on my coffee

Bluegreen143

Today my reasons to be cheerful are:

1. The beautiful weather has been meaning we can walk the morning school run most days instead of driving - starting the day with an hour of fresh air and exercise (for me - the kids obviously only have half the distance!). Frugal, green, healthy and makes me feel better. We still need to drive the afternoon run, and I need to drive both ways on office days, but I’m aiming to walk three mornings every week from now. 

2. Paid the remainder of our caravan costs for our long weekend in June. Very cheerful to think about relaxing in the beautiful Highlands and getting that precious family time in.

3. Again because the weather is nice, we spent over an hour in the playpark after school/nursery today. The kids had fun and I spent most of it befriending a fellow nursery mum.

LittleMissDetermined

Good morning, it's forecast to be a lovely day weather wise and I am off work as it's my birthday. I have plans to meet friends for lunch and I'm very much looking forward to that.
I've already been watching the birds and squirrels in the trees and they always brighten my day.
LMD x

London_1

Happy Birthday to LittleMissDetermined, I hope you have a great day and a smashing lunch with your friend .

1. Again an absolutely gorgeous morning, bright sun and blue skyies that alone is enough to make anyone smile.

2.Just sitting here drinking my first cuppa and watching a pair of birds in the tree in my garden busily finding nest building material, hopefully there will soon be some little ones learning to fly.

3. Clocks go forward this Sunday, so lighter evening at last ,that always help dispel some of the doom and gloom of winter

4. Going to make some Melting Moment biscuits today, as my eldest DD is popping in after work for coffee. She is hoping to be able to fly off this Saturday to New York visiting my eldest grandson who lives there with his wife. All depends on her test results as her boss has just gone down with Covid  so fingers are tightly crossed here.

Well its so nice to see that folk are doing their best to keep cheerful, its the Spring Budget today so who knows what that will bring  But watching whats happening in the tree in my garden far outweighs anything politicians have to say for me I forcus on things nearer to hand and at the moment watching the duck on the lake at my local park cheers me up ,or seeing the two blackbirds busily making their home is a lot nicer than listening to the braying and shouting in parliament

Have a great day everyone and I hope every little positive will outweigh the negatives today

Cheers JackieO xxx:)  

Florenceem

Lovely day here.
Been to volunteer at the SA - lovely to chat with those who live on their own and enjoy the time together on a Wednesday. I escort oldies to the car taking them home and help them into the seat.
We had a minutes silence for those lost in the last two years. We are going to a service at 6 pm of reflection.

London_1

As hard as it is this morning after watching and seeing what our Chancellor has do with the Spring Statement I am still fairly optimistic.

Ok so we didn't get very much at all a case of live today and maybe jam in two years time with a penny of income tax thats really going to make a huge difference to us all isn't it NOT

But again the sun has come up, and its shining, the sky is blue, and I'm still alive and kicking

1.My second eldest grandson ben  has texted me to say he is coming down on Sunday from north London for Mothers Day to surprise his Mum. he's not been home since Christmas so she will be really pleased.

2. His brother Jack who is doing his teacher training has just finished his second placement and is really enjoying it. 

3. His next brother down Henry has managed to get extra shifts in his part time job in Colchester as he has got his dissertation finished so extra work means he will eat a little better.Its in a cafe aand he get his breakfast free Bless him he only had three more months at Uni then he graduates.

4. And the baby of the band of brothers Michael has his Zoom call later today to get his passport. You have to have an interview in London for your first pssport but now it can be done via Zoom so thats saved him about £25.00 if train fares from going up to London from where we live.

So all four of the boys are happy young men today,which in turn cheers me up I have virtuaally helped bring them all up for the past 17 years as both their parents have to work so I am quite close to them all. 

So although life isn't handing out many monetary gifts my family are all OK which in turn keeps me hapy as well 

Have a good day chums what ever you are doing enjoy the sun ,plus the clocks go forward saturday night so we will all have an extra hours light 

Cheers JackieO xx

newlywed

The sunshine meant three lots of washing done and dried outside.

notification of a pay rise from next month, more than expected - not that it covers all the increases but I know many employers have not given any increases, so am pleased with anything.

brain cells seemed to be working better today and got quite a bit done work wise so feeling less stressed for today at least!

Florenceem

Grateful for sunshine and being able to dry washing outside.
Blessed that I had a free Optican's appointment.
Great to get 5 good books to read at 20p each from a charity shop.
Being able to afford to buy Easter craft goodies to put away to use for next year's fund raising.