Ten Things of Thankful #75

Come in, come in, my Lovelies – step aboard this magical ride and sit yourselves down. That’s it; seatbelts on and buckle up. We’re going BACK IN TIME!

No, really. Because as I write this, it’s WEDNESDAY EVENING (I know, right? Week’s barely half over – what can I POSSIBLY have to be thankful for so EARLY?!) but I have an entirely plausible excuse valid reason for doing this. And that’s that I’m not here.

Well, I am HERE, I’m just not…yaknow…*here*

Let me explain:

What with one thing and another, and the everything and in-between of being a single parent and raising two such rambunctious young hooligans delightfully-behaved youngsters as Niece and Neff, my dear Sis tends to find herself busy ALLTHETIME and as a consequence, she and I don’t get to spend a lot of quality sister time together. So when I heard that she had an evening to herself, sans kiddies, I jumped at the chance of meeting up with her and invited myself round for dinner. I did at least offer to bring dessert (lebkuchen, if I can get my arse in gear and make them tomorrow night (Thursday, or…a few days ago, as you read this – don’t you *love* time travel?)). (Things #1 and #2 (FURTHER TO THING #2 – LEBKUCHEN HAPPENED – THEY’RE INCREDIBLE! COME BACK SATURDAY FOR THE RECIPE)

Then there was today, when I arrived home to a fascinating package from ‘murica, which contained a Get Well Soon card (how did she KNOW?!) and a beautiful picture drawn by a gorgeous five year-old Indianan, and some fabulous shells collected from their recent holiday in Florida. So Christine pretty much made herself my favourite of the afternoon, because the shells delighted my heart, and I *loved* reading her card (which wasn’t REALLY a get-well-soon card, but a USING a get-well-soon-card-card and then I get to save it til I’m sick and give it to myself again). (Thing #3)

[The posting of this photo on Facebook and the ensuing conversation then led to my being messaged by a bona fide Princess, who is going to send me some shells from California in exchange for some shells from England, and who also let me know that I won a giveaway she was hosting, so YAY! (Thing #4)]

Then there were various chats with various other friends; the exchanging of jokes, hair-dying stories, plans for writing, explanations of current writings, all manner of things under the sun, whether profane, mundane or profound – all delightful connections and moments enjoyed thoroughly. (Thing #5)

Further back, further back – there was the weekend, when it was my Sis’s birthday party and we all watched a movie, ate good food, played pass-the-parcel and I got thoroughly jumped on, pummeled to pieces and otherwise thoroughly (and incredibly rambunctiously) loved by Niece and Neff. I discovered that the perfect way to make a seven year-old boy dissolve into giggles of delight and hilarity is to whisper, very gently into his ear, the word “Boobies!”, and then I discovered (related) that at the ripe old age of 31, I am NOT beyond being told off by my mum. Or my sister. Or my WonderAunty. Or all of them, all at once, as Niece and Neff go completely wild and beat me up and scream and shout and be silly and somehow it’s *my* fault *makes innocent face*. Still, fun was had by all, and it was a gorgeous party. (Thing #6).

Previous to that was the sheer, incredible JOY of finally receiving a copy of JESSICA in the post. It’s not a copy that I get to keep, because magical special things are happening to this one before it returns to our favourite Dilettante, but I can tell ya – I HUGELY underestimated just how amazing it would feel to hold an Actual, In Fact BOOK in my hand, with my name on the cover as a contributing author, and to see my words IN TYPE, published, inside it. For fiction what I made up with my head. (Thing #7 (which counts x 1000))

UH-MAY-ZING. I thoroughly recommend it, and to all my aspiring book-writer friends out there (most notably my gorgeous BlogWife, Beth, whose novel is getting excitingly close to its final stages) – KEEP GOING! And one day I hope I shall join you as sole author of my OWN book (Mandi, I promise I will do my very, very best).

Then there was my BlogWife herself, who plotted and schemed with me to pull off a fabulous glitterbomb surprise over in the states, and who stunned me completely by taking actual, in fact time out of her weekend to make the glitterbomb happen FOR REAL. And that humbled and amazed me quite a lot, and really underlined for me that yes – friendships online can be REAL, and they REALLY CAN make a difference and are TANGIBLE. So I was rather bowled over by that, and HUGELY thankful (#8).

And then (in not unrelated news) there was my latest #KickCancersAss piece (for Beth (who all of a sudden seems to be taking over my post)) which was meant to be a poem, but somehow turned into a drawing, and fortunately my lovely BW was cool enough to roll with it, and generous enough to be pleased when I suddenly changed the plan I had originally agreed to. (Thing #9)

Finally there has been a jumble of items which can (collectively) add up to one BIG GINORMOUS tenth Thing: I got better enough from my cold to return to boxing; I met with my pilates teacher (she of the beautiful soul) and she put some information my way about how Husby and I could reduce our utilities expenditure; I had a fabulous week curating at SisterWives (where I’m a contributor and one of the founding members, doncherknow) and shared a gorgeous couple of submissions on parenting; I had a piece of my own published over at the Mom Cafe, which went a little into where my heart’s been at lately; I’ve been having some of THEE most delightful email conversations with my lovely, sparkly artist friend TJ Lubrano; and I have plans for this weekend to go to the BEACH with Niece and Neff and Husby, and have a car picnic and find shells (and hopefully no more death!); and there is WRITING TO DO!

BOOOOOOOOM! (most definitely Thing #10)

Your turn 🙂 What’s been sparkling all up in your world this week?

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