{Daily Life} is what we all have. The ins and outs of the rhythms of life. Sometimes they are easy days and sometimes they are not. Sometimes I wonder what I have done to deserve the good that I have and sometimes I wonder why hard things happen. Most important though I have been blessed with the gift of family and when my work week comes to an end, family kicks in. Richard is the only one at home, but the kids are close by and I love spending time with them. While I may stop in to see the grandbabies on my way home from the office, it is really a short visit just to check in and say hi.

My {daily life} starts on a Friday and just lately I have been looking after Ella all day Friday and then bringing Luka home for his Friday sleep over. He’s 4 and he loves the park. This particular week Amy had me watch Ella later than normal and so by the time we left it was already 5pm. I thought I would give it a miss. Just before the turnoff he said “park” which then had me detouring 2 traffic lights early to go and play in the park. He loves the slides and climbing and he seems to be in an “obstacle course” mode lately and so instead of climbing up the steps he is climbing up the plastic rocky facade, or the rock wall, or the actual rock climb that they have built to get up to the high slide. We probably stay about 45 minutes and then it is home to the dinner, bath and book reading time before bedtime. Saturday if he is lucky we will go to Chuck E Cheese or we will just stay at home and do pre K prep work or work on puzzles or just play games.

We’ve had some pretty cold weather for South Florida and one of the things you hear when the days turn cold is to watch out for falling iguanas. I love iguana but for the most part they are not popular down here. They can get into the vegetation and people seem to think they eat the birds eggs etc. They are not native to Florida. I have heard all the reasons. As I said I love them. They look prehistoric. They are afraid of you and will run like crazy if you get too close. However with the cold temps they go into some kind of hibernation “frozen” mode where they heart rate slows right down and they look dead. They are an easy target for predators in this mode, animal and human alike. This guy was obviously struggling. I have never seen an iguana that does not run. Clearly the cold had got to him, and he had managed to get up onto the stone outside the back patio and was obviously drawing what heat the stone had and what little sunlight there was. The first time I went out he did not even lift his head. When I went out to take the pic he lifted his head but did not move. By 5pm he was gone. We had another day of cold weather, and I hope he survived, but this is not the best time of the year for iguana. I deemed my back patio a sanctuary city for frozen iguana.

I don’t do well taking care of plants. I love my orchids but because they sit outside I forget to water them (which I need to do today). I have 3 plants in my kitchen. My latest orchid, a green creeper plant that has it’s up and down days, and this Christmas Cactus that has never flowered. I was pleasantly surprised to see flowers on it in February. Orchids and Christmas Cactus reminds me of my dad. Some days I need that reminder because he has been gone from this world for so long. So this was just a little nudge for me. Perhaps he is thinking of me, seeing this cactus finally flower had me thinking of him.

Seems like we have had a number of new babies added to our office space and this week we celebrated baby number 2. I have had fun trying to come up with different themes for the babies – 2 boys so far, but the next one is a little girl. I had not put it in at this stage because I needed to transport the cakes to the office, but behind the balloons on the less decorated cake would go a “It’s a boy” sign.

Throw into the middle of everything during the week, I ended up taking half day to head down to Miami. Back in the day, before social media and texting and WhatsApp etc., when people actually wrote and mailed letters, I had a pen friend living in the UK. We became friends around 1976. In 1987 Richard and I went backpacking in Europe for 4 weeks and then spent another 2 weeks in the UK. We spent time with Andrew in Bolton, UK. Then in 1990, Andrew visited us in South Africa and has some fun memories of elephants, monkeys, spiders and ants after our trip to the game park. In 2005, we met up with Andrew in Orlando. For the first time we met his wife and boys. Now 20 years later they were leaving on a cruise out of Miami that went via the Panama canal and down to South America. Of course, we had to go down to Miami to see them. It was fantastic to see them again and we had a great time catching up on the happenings of the years. Of course, leaving South Beach island at 5pm was neither mine nor Richards idea of fun. It took us over an hour to probably go 5 miles. Loved seeing Dawn and Andrew but Miami traffic, you can have it.

And we are right back to Friday again and a sleep over with my baby girl. She has been sick and 2 antibiotics later she is still struggling. So I watched her Friday at home and then instead of Luka coming for a sleep over, Ms Ella did. We had a good night and a fun day, although I tried to put her on the bed to sleep on Saturday and the only one that seemed to be falling asleep was me.

We ended the weekend off with a few hours at the beach. I have to be honest that since Richard was diagnosed with Melanoma in 2021, I have hardly been to the beach. It was good to get out and actually absorb Vitamin D for a few hours, as well as have fun with the kids. We rounded it off with a dip in a rather chilly pool back at the house before I headed back home. This evening I noticed that I actually got sunburned. More than I expected. Feels good to be honest.

Between work 4 days a week, the babies, my Wednesday night study group, my massage twice a month and watching Ella on a Friday, life has got very busy. But it is worth every minute of it. Being with these babies and watching them grow has been a real blessing and I am thankful for each moment that I have with them.

Thank you for joining us on this photography loop. This is a circle blog and as I mentioned, we have some very talented artists in the group. They bring such diversity to the different topics. Take some time to follow the links and see what they have for you this month. My talented friend Jan or @wiredtothemoon_  is up next. I always look forward to seeing what she has to share.

Until next time..

Stay well