The Things That Make Me Happy

Hi all, it’s nice to be back.

The last eight weeks have been quite strange as we have had the builders here, converting our back room and kitchen into a kitchen diner.  It is nearly finished now, apart from a few little bits and I am hoping to show you some photographs on Monday.  I have just started the process of bringing all my pots, pans and baking equipment downstairs and putting them away in their new places, but I’ll tell you all about it on Monday.  Before then, I thought I would share something with you that happened to me at the end of last month:

Just after I wrote my blog on the 18^th October, I went to see my doctor as I had been suffering with stomach pains for a week, which in the end turned out to be IBS.  However, while I was there the doctor examined me and found a lump around my ovaries and she sent me for blood tests and a scan to establish what it was, especially as my grandmother (on my mother’s side) had ovarian cancer when she was younger than me.

Thankfully it turned out to be nothing serious and was thought to be due to damage caused by child birth, as I had a rough time when I gave birth to my eldest daughter.  My blood tests also came back fine and my stomach pains disappeared soon afterwards.  I have got to say though, while I was waiting for the scan date to come through, I felt like my world had been turned upside down and I went through a vast array of emotions.  They told me at my scan that it definitely wasn’t ovarian cancer and I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear this.

While I was waiting for my scan and feeling quite low and poorly with my stomach, I sat and wrote a list of the things I love to cheer myself up.  It wasn’t until after my scan that I went back to my list and read it again and found that none of the items on my list were material things.  I wondered if any of you out there reading my blog, could identify with some of the things I wrote on my list, so I thought I would share it with you:

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Things I love:

Holidays with my family – Cheap but wonderful

The dawn chorus

My girls laughing

The leaves falling off the trees in autumn

The smell of newly cut grass

A lawn when the edges have been cut

The seaside

The wind blowing in my face

The excitement leading up to Christmas and Christmas day

The thrill of seeing a seed I’ve sown germinate

Flowers that look beautiful and attract insects too

Hanging washing on my washing line and watching it blow in the wind.

A clean house

Getting into bed after a bath, with a clean nighty and clean sheets.

The feeling of satisfaction I get when I cook a meal from scratch using vegetables that I have grown.

The feeling of satisfaction I get when I pass on the skills that I have learnt by writing a blog post.

The nice warm feeling I get when my daughters friends come for tea.

The smell of a Christmas cake cooking.

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Things I am so grateful for in my lifetime:

To have been able to stay at home with my daughters and see them grow

and

Meeting my husband.

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I would really like to hear about some of the things you love, that cost little or no money, but make you happy.  Please leave your comments below.

Thank you for reading my blog today.

I will be back on Monday at my usual time.