The life and times of Libby Withnall

It’s been a pretty good year for me. Lots of great memories, lots of things done with my family. However, personally I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much. I weigh more now than I did at the start of the year, I didn’t get to as much scrapbooking as I usually do and besides making slight progress with my photography I didn’t really make any progress with my hobbies. Some goals were achieved, but more weren’t

PERSONAL

**** Blog EVERY DAY (where possible)    Pretty much – most months had around 30 posts with a low in November of 15!

Take a digital scrapbooking class – already enrolled  Completed, but have already forgotten EVERYTHING and need to redo the class online

Look for some volunteer work (there must be something out there I’d enjoy doing)  NO

Less time on the computer (a tough one for sure)   NO!!!

Complete Project Life (daily photograph)   NO – only got up to April this year but I’m planning to go back and catch up

Develop crocheting and sewing skills   NO but I’ve recently bought some books to help me along

Make more homemade gifts (or buy homemade if necessary)   Didn’t make many homemade gift but I did buy quite a few from Made It

Read more books on simple living, homemade craft, cooking, etc    Not really, though I did do a vegetarian cooking class

Have a fabulous – no regrets – trip to the UK!!!    YES! YES! YES! (even though I wasn’t the weight I had planned to be)

HEALTH/FITNESS/FOOD

Start and Complete the Diamond Club with Valerie Waters Started, not completed

Make at least one new recipe each week   Progress here, definitely getting more adventurous in the kitchen

Get back to menu planning   Somewhat, still need to work on this.

Focus on healthy foods for the whole family   Mixed bag – made great progress with Christy’s eating this year

HOME

Work on making my home more “homey” with craft and handmade items   Yes – still a WIP

Incorporate detailed cleaning into my weekly routine  Did great with us until our trip

Develop veggie garden    Yes, this years is one of the best we’ve had

Try to have fresh flowers in the house most of the time   Yes, and it’s made me so happy

FAMILY/FRIENDS

More one on one time with all family members – make dates if need to.   Yes, but still room for improvement

Spend more time with friends   Besides the Powells no – I’ve become much more reclusive this year now I don’t go up to the school at all.

Monthly family day out (we all loved this when we were doing it)   Mixed bag – I think we mangaged most months

Help Christy with her reading and spelling   Yes, and the results were shown in her school report

Weekly game/movie night   NO

My bloggy friend Heather of Little Tin Bird has been having list week over on her blog and I’ve been inspired to join in with a list about things I’ve been up to this week.

1. Cleaned my house from top to toe.

2. Took Amy to her High School Orientation Day

3. Lamented my fairly new and expensive food processor not working properly.

4. Was thankfully my Mum is right next door so I could borrow her processor to finish making my date & coconut rolls.

5. Took the dogs for lots of lovely sunrise walks.

6. Patted one of my chickens – usually they don’t like to be patted.

7. Planned and prepared our house for visitors.

8.Picked the first zucchinis from the vegetable garden and made zucchini slice.

9. Had a nice lunch with my parents and their friends.

10. Watched Christy riding her brand new bike – her first bike that was not a hand-me down from Amy.

11. Filled uniform orders up at the school.

12. Watched the Hawks beat the Sydney Kings (our arch rivals) by over 20 pts !!!!

13. Attended Amy’s AG Presentation Day

14. Went to the post office to a pick up a parcel that they supposedly tried to deliver …. when I know I was home.

15. Was thrilled with the parcel – two gorgeous aprons and some new placemats that I had ordered online.

16. Drank lots of tea in my Christmas cup.

17. Put out some more Christmas decorations and listened to Christmas music.

18. Started putting a few things together for a Christmas giveaway on my blog (details coming soon)

19. Discovered a new (and wonderful) cooking magazine – Easy Food from the UK

20. Took a trip down memory lane (and got all teary) while listening to a CD I bought in Scotland, by UK band The Munros

21. Took the girls to Roller Skating lessons

22. Had my car washed by the girls and their friends.

23. Received a lovely surprise in the mail – a lovely ball of wool bought my bloggy friend, Chantel.

24.  Managed to drop a mostly empty container (out of the freezer) on my toes and could not believe how much it hurt

25. Had a fantastic day with our friends the Powells and loved hearing all about their trip to Disneyland.

26. Went on another family bike – this time to the local shopping center.

Okay, so I didn’t even know who Michelle Bridges was before Saturday when I signed up for her transformation challenge but I was lucky enough to get to meet her and hear her speak last night. I only found out on Tuesday that she was coming to Wollongong on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure about going until a new internet friend, LanB, who is also doing the challenge, said she’d met with me beforehand. I’m so glad I went. Mish spent quite a bit of time talking to just the two of us (we were half an hour early ) as she knew we were doing the 12WBT. Her talk was inspirational and motivational. And the woman is simply stunning in real life.

Last night certainly helped make for the fact I was unable to attend Valerie’s Red Carpet Beauty and Fitness Summit in LA this weekend .

Thanks to my wonderful blog readers, many of whom sent helpful, caring comments in response to my last post. Many of you suggested getting out for a walk and taking the attitude of “just do it”. So I did. I got myself dressed and out the door before the sun was even over the horizon. I’ve had to stop my walks with the dogs while they were undergoing some training so today was my first normal walk with them – and they were perfectly behaved. Which means I’ll be able to get back to walking them in the morning. I’ve missed our early morning walks. And I’m sure doing them again will help set me up for a happy day.

I was so loving my everyday life before the trip and I did not expect it to be so hard settling back into routine. Hopefully the worst is behind me now. I’m going to work on sticking to my daily routines as well. When I did that the week before last I had a good week. A few of you also suggested I really focus on the positives in my life – and there are so many that it shouldn’t be hard to do . Working on more blog posts should help with that too.

Thanks again. I’m feeling much more optimistic and positive today and am sure I’m going to have a fantastic week.

I’ve been feeling down/ flat ALL this week and I’ve had enough. Not sure what’s going on, though I suspect it’s still travel related . I’ve been working on scrapbooking my photos and I just want to go back in the UK on holiday with my family. This is definitely the hardest I’ve had adjusting after a trip – but I guess it’s also the longest trip we’ve ever had. Last week I thought I was back on track but it wasn’t too be.

The worst part about feeling this way is that I’ve

- not been eating well

- not been exercising

- not wanted to do anything or go anywhere

- not been motivated to blog

- been feeling like a big failure

All of which, does NOT help me get over this funk I’m in. Today I’m supposed to go to my book group and I don’t want to – but I’m planning to make myself go. I know I’ll have a good time once I’m there.

I’m hoping the weather will warm up soon (it’s been cold) as I’m sure that would help my mood. In the meantime I need to get myself excited about things that are coming up – like our Halloween party, being able to plant our vegetable garden, getting back in the swimming pool, etc.

If anyone has any great tips for getting past this sort of feeling please share.

Todays “baby” cow photos were taken at John O’Groats in Scotland. And I’m pretty sure cows never have a down day….. except maybe in Winter when it’s cold and they’re shut inside

I’m feeling a bit out of sorts this afternoon. Not really sure why. I think it’s partly to do with having so much I want to do and not enough time to do it. Plus it’s just 3.5 weeks until our trip so I have limited time to get done what I want to. It’s probably also partly to do with the fact that weight is not coming off as quick as I’d hoped (though it’s been a good rate) and my jeans still don’t fit!! Hoping I’ll be over it in the morning. So this post isn’t all doom and gloom here’s  some of my recent favourite flickr photos.

Okay, I’m sure there are lots of problems with me but today I wanted to talk about the fact that even though I’m at home a lot I still don’t have time to do all the things I want to do. I have all these ideas but when I have the time I forget what I wanted to do. I blame this on one thing – TOO MANY HOBBIES AND INTERESTS!!!!

Today I planned to do some scrapbooking (for which I been suffering big time scrappers block) after cleaning the house this morning. I stopped at 1pm and had lunch which watching Cleanaholics – which of course led to a few random cleaning jobs after lunch, ‘ washing, some time on the computer, making brownies (Amy invited a friend for a sleepover at the last minute). It’s now 4.45pm and I don’t feel I have gotten anything done this afternoon. Certainly no scrapbooking – in part because the girls took over the scrapbook room. But I could have done something else. This isn’t just an isolated incident – it’s been happening a lot over the last few weeks. I tend to jump from one thing to another. Things I think about….

* catching up on my fav. blogs

* organising my flickr photos

* getting up to date, or finishing, the 4 online scrapbook classes I’m taking

* actually doing some layouts

* working on plans for our upcoming trip

* tidying or sorting out somewhere in the house

* sewing projects (haven’t sewed in months)

* crochet and knitting projects

* new, healthy recipes to try

* time to read books and magazines

* how to deal with two children who don’t like each other very much at the moment

* how to be a better wife, Mum and friend (definitely failing at the friend thing of late)

* and the list goes on.

On top of this I’m about to learn how to use a Digital SLR and possibly do a course at TAFE on backyard gardening!!!!

I know spending less time online would free up more time. I’ve been doing this but it hasn’t really helped. I could never go cold turkey as I get so much inspiration and encouragement from the blog world.

So I ask you, my blog readers, how do you manage making time for all the things you want to do? Do you make lists, draft a timetable, drop some hobbies? Any ideas and suggestions are most welcome as I’m getting rather frustrated with myself.

Today I went to see a natruopath. I’ve never done anything like it before but am desperate to find some relief for the swollen hands & feet I’ve been dealing for over 5 years. Each Summer they get worse and worse and I’ve just had enough. Specialists have ruled out carpel tunnel and arthritis and my doc told me I’d just have to live with it!!

The naturopath was a little bit woo woo for my liking but everything he touched on was along the lines I was thinking from my own reading. Basically he said I need to eliminate wheat and dairy from my diet. Plus take the supplements he has given me. I will definitely give this a good go – but I told him I’m not starting the diet until AFTER Easter .

I don’t think wheat will be too much of a problem as I can still have spelt and rye, and dairy as far as milk goes will be okay…but cheese….I LOVE cheese…..hope soy cheese tastes okay and works in our recipes . Ethically and health wise I think giving up dairy will be a good thing and it’s something I have been considering for a time. Let’s just hope this gets some results.

1. South Esk river, Braedownie, 2. Fields of Gold, 3. Worth the wait, 4. Let’s see who gets it first, 5. La Jolla Sunset, 6. Untitled, 7. reflection, 8. Poolside, 9. bend, 10. Untitled, 11. T.4.1, 12. My kitchen corner

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

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Where do you all find inspiration? Inspiration to live a full life, inspiration for craft, inspiration for your home, etc?

These days I find much of my inspiration in my computer .

My main source being the blogs that I follow. All my very favourite ones are listed on the side bar but there’s a few I find especially inspiring that I’d like to share with you.

Beauty that moves

Sunlight and Simplicity

Happy Jansens

Molly Irwin

Attic 24

Then of course I get loads of inspiration from Flickr.

Away from the computer I find inspiration in nature…

and in my favourite magazines…

and catalogues from shops like Target and Pottery Barn…

There is inspiration all around if we look for it. I’d love you know what inspires you – especially any blogs for me to check out .

1. I am so looking forward to seeing my Mum on Saturday.
2. Why is it whenever you ask kids to do something the answer is always later.?
3. When you get the urge to exercise try to do it right away before the urge goes away..
4. The internet is a big part of my life.
5. If you need anything from the shops please let me know before I go, not after.
6. Kevin is away this weekend on a trip.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to staying up late and watching the Hawks play in the last championship game, tomorrow my plans include visiting my Mum in hospital and maybe shopping or a movie and Sunday, I want to scrapbook and work on our UK trip plans!