Finding joy in the everyday

I wrote a post back in 2014 about taking care of our menfolk, as for many, life has been tough recently. Many men, unemployment is real, they are seeing a decline in industries that they have worked in for decades  (i.e. the decline in the manufacturing industry) and many feel disenchanted with current politics, in fact many feel completely ignored and forgotten. They do the best they can for their families, but they are feeling the pain a great deal.  We have seen the evidence of this with the results of the current US election — of those men who voted for Trump many were white middle to older men outside of the major urban centres. These are the men who feel the most forgotten, feel as if they are no longer in control, unable to find suitable employment, having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet or seeing that their area of employment is shrinking and no one coming to their aid. They feel as if governments have abandoned them and they ha...

We all lead a very busy lives . . . I am no different  —  I seem to be always on the run, things need to be done,  grocery to buy, parcels to collect, food to cook, washing to do, things not getting done when they ought to . . you know the story . . . and for women with small children, it is even more hectic.  To add to our daily lives, we often have extra curriculum activities such as sport, crafts, reading, photography, coffee with friends etc... that chew up our time. Sadly for many women, our worldly activities can take control and we forget to prioritizing as we should. We don't do it intentionally but with all that dashing about in every directions plus our families requiring our attention we loose track of what is most important — and life quickly gets out of balance.  We need to stop and think about what is important, sadly many find this is difficult as they find themselves on auto pilot and not quite sure where the off switch is!  Fo...

After years in the workforce, most people look forward to retirement with much eagerness and count down the days until they can relax and finally put their feet up. Retirement is a relatively new concept —  when the Australian retirement pension was introduced in 1910 (paid to men from 65 years of age and women from age 60) it wasn't a huge expense to the government because life expectancy was only 55.2 years for men and 58.8 years for women. Most never had the opportunity of accessing the aged pension. However, things have changed considerably and we are all living much longer — on average, men to 80 years and women to 84, therefore many people are likely to have a number of years of retirement ahead of them. Because of this increase in life expectancy and the concern of very high costs to government, current governments have raised the pension age to 67 and wanting to increase it to 70 in Australia — not allowing anyone to access the aged pension ...

What job/task/activity do you do that you do for your husband because it makes him happy ? Mine is making Harissa.  I don't like making it, it makes my eyes hurt, I start to cough and even though I wear gloves I can still taste chilli on my hands. And, I do not like hot chillies and I don't eat Harissa. I can't even eat what I make. However, dear husband loves my homemade Harissa so I make it for him and it makes him happy. I think one of the problems with modern marriages is that many wives no longer do special things for their husbands just to make them happy.  Sadly, we live in a very selfish world where we no longer think its important to " think " of others, in particular our spouses.  The recipe I used was similar to this one, however I used many more chillies than the recipe recommends:  http://www.coffeeandcrumpets.com/harissaa-most-versatile-hot-sauce/ And like any cooking - the dishes need to be done, but at least with Haris...

A strong marriage rarely has two strong people at the same time. It is a husband and wife who takes turns being strong for each other in the moments when the other feels weak. (Ashley Willis) We like to think of our menfolk as being strong, resilient, tough, able to fight off the dragons, protect their families and when they work long hard hours we assume they will be just fine. Sadly, not all men aren't as tough as we like to think they are. Men working long hours, often  inflexible and non-family friendly  are not  doing  themselves or their families any good. I t slowly affects their health, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally . Have you ever wondered why more men die from heart attacks than women? It might sound noble for them to invest many hours in their careers (or undertake several jobs to meet the  financial  demands of the home) but it isn’t a wise thing to do and us wives  need to look out for them.  Not ...

Ronald the Salmon-tailed Catfish just after he was moved into his new home - not happy Dear friends, I thought I would give you an update on the fish following on from a story I wrote the other day. In the previous story I told you how Ronald the salmon-tailed catfish had eaten one of the other fish, or so we believed. I feel terrible—why, you may ask? On Saturday I was relaxing in my armchair and something caught my eye—I noticed movement at the entrance of our very large conch shell.  I called out to my husband in what he described as a "hysterical yell"!  He came, he looked and he agreed that a fish was most certainly stuck in the shell. It was our missing fish. No horrible acts of cannibalism had occurred at all. Now, it was clear that Miss Fish was stuck in the shell and had been there for the entire week. Dear husband lifted up the shell and gave it a shake. Nothing happened. He grabs a towel and hammer and we decide to break the shell. ...

I told a woman at work that my husband had bought me a can-opener and how excited he was at finding one that worked so well and looked so sturdy. She replied by say " I hope my husband doesn't buy me gift like that ".     I, on the other was thrilled and very touched. Whilst flowers are very nice, they die . . .  whilst chocolates are lovely, they add calories to my waistline - a can-opener, however, is very useful indeed!! I am a very practical girl. This is one cool can-opener. It is sturdy and it works.  Dear husband also made sure that it was red. I have a number of red kitchen items so this matches beautifully with everything else in the kitchen. He took great care to show me all the details and how it works.  How sweet is that.  It is when our husbands do these unexpected things, that make it all worthwhile. It brings joy to the heart.

I just have to share a story with you . . . its about a cat, a garage, the family car and a music speaker. On Tuesday evening my husband shut the garage door as he does every night.  We went inside and had dinner, watched a little TV and went to bed at 10:30pm.  Most nights Charlie (below) comes inside and sleeps in her little pink bed.  However with our warmer summer weather she has been staying out at night mouse hunting and then sleeping on the bench by the front door. When I awoke at 6am on Wednesday I opened the lounge room blinds but noticed that Charlie wasn't in her usual spot, but thinking she was still busy hunting, I went off and got ready for work. At 6:45am I took the garbage outside, still no Charlie.  I thought this was odd as she is always home by this time as she is ready for breakfast.   Whilst outside I opened the garage and out ran one very sad cat . . . DH had locked Charlie in the garage and she couldn't get out all night. So wha...

As we approach winter there is one meal I will make often as my DH loves it ROASTS. Lamb, beef or pork. He loves nothing better than coming home after a busy day at work and find a hot roast dinner waiting for him.  It is his most favourite meal.  I always serve it with a rich gravy and mint sauce on the peas with Brussels Sprouts (his most favourite veg)! What is your husband's favourite winter meal? How often do you make it? (photo link ) ~oOo~

In the past dads have passed on “male” skills onto their sons, however over the last couple of decades, fathers have become busier (or absent) and have not instilled these skills into their sons and as a result there has been a decline of “male skill” in the home. Additionally, in this era of outsourcing, men are as likely to hire a handyman or employ the services of specialist trades to get these tasks done. The loss of these male skills is a reflection of changing needs, changing technologies, redefined roles and new interests. Last year McCrindle Research undertook research to examine the decline in these male skills — below are the percentage of men under 30s who are able to perform the following tasks: Tying a reef knot: 44% Building a cubby or tree house: 46.5% Fixing a leaky tap: 55% Repairing a punctured tire on a pushbike: 60% Changing the car’s oil: 63% Lighting a wood fire (63%) and putting up a shelf (68%), were also ranked badly, with a third of the male populat...

According to a local newspaper (14.12.10) last Christmas 6 million Australians received one or more presents they never used or later gave away, a new survey by the Australia Institute reveals. . . . unwanted presents represented a staggering $798 million waste of money, time and resources. The reason why I am mentioning this is all due to DH.  At Christmas and birthdays I provide DH with a list of things I would like (options he can consider or disregard).  However DH refuses to give me any ideas of what he would like, instead he would like me to be adventurous and surprise him.  Now my DH is not into: sport (playing or watching) cars spirits or expensive alcohol clothes (he can be quite picky) reading (he likes to read, however 1 book can last all year, he hasn't read last years book!) jewellery (he doesn't wear any) As for gadgets - he loves them, however he has bought all those he wanted - leaving me with no other gadgets he would like. So . . .  w...

There are some foods my husband will not eat and there are others that are a must - to keep husband happy, there are few things I need to remember when cooking dinner and these are:   Potatoes : A meal without potatoes is not a meal . .  he isn't fussy about how the potato is presented on his plate eg the Cook can mashed, boiled, roasted, baked, stuffed but as long as there is potato dear husband is a happy man.  In case you were wondering, no he isn't Irish, he is a Welshman. Rice : Rice is NOT a substitute to potatoes, therefore a dish with rice will not be filling enough or be considered a serious evening meal. Chillies : All meals must contains chillies, however as the cook (that's me) does not like chillies, it is added later by dear husband usually in the form of a chillie sauce.  The Cook is no longer upset when her beautiful dishes are covered in chillie sauce. Pineapple : Dear husband strongly dislikes pineapple in any dish, so no pineapple on pizza and we d...