I love it when the heat strikes hard and my appetite scuttles away. That is until a strong cool breeze hits a couple of months later and I’m back to thinking of steaks and gravy. I always feel healthier, if you will, in the summer. I make better eating choices and am more active with a mind focused on nothing apart from making memories with my family, being outside, among the waves and living life.
1. One of my all-time favourite TV shows that ended this year. I remember watching it throughout my pregnancy and after I had given birth to Georgie. Mad Men was my breast-feeding companion.2. My beautiful darling girl.
3. Georgie received an absolutely amazing gift from his Thia Alexia. We’ve read The Magic Finger, we’re halfway through the BFG and in my free time I read Boy, Roald Dahl’s autobiography which is also part of the collection. Thank you!
On Saturday afternoon, after we celebrated my mum’s 60th birthday (Happy birthday mum!) papa had some business to tend to so Georgie and I made our way to the beach. Not a good idea. It was so windy I could barely hear my own thoughts and I actually felt quite cold, literally regretting taking out all those cardigans I had in the car. So there I was expecting it to rain at any moment when my son came running towards me for the millionth time, telling me how much fun he was having. Kids+water+sand=Quiet time for you and me. But to make the most of this time, read through this list of easy beach activities and games, show, teach and demonstrate and then RELAX.
I stared at three boxes of organic strawberries sitting on the kitchen table. Georgie was halfway through one of them when I grabbed them. ‘How about we turn them into ice lollies?’ I said to him.
It didn’t take long to find a super easy ‘recipe’ on Pinterest. And when I say ‘easy’, I mean it! These lollies consist of only three ingredients that I will assume you already have at home. Now get the kids involved. Let them throw everything in the blender, let them watch as the mixture sloshes and churns but warn them that they will not be ready until later. Kids don’t understand time and will not understand that lollies need to remain in the freezer until several hours later, and the last thing you want is a tantrum, so it is a good idea to prepare the lollies and then move on to something else. To Georgie I explained that after he could help me cut up the bananas and place them in a ziplock bag in the freezer, we would whip them up in the morning before school and by the time we come back in the afternoon, they’ll be ready.
One of my favourite things to do on a quiet and uneventful Sunday is go to the market in the Livadia area. My parents, avid market goers, introduced me to this impressive set-up of stalls over a year ago when I was on the hunt for ‘special’ pieces to add to our new house. I remember the first time I went with them. My dad made me laugh when he warned me: ‘This is not Portobello market, ok?’ Of course I knew it wasn’t because I have been to my fair share of markets in Cyprus (even attending a few as a seller) therefore I know how extremely rare it is to actually find a special kind of gem.