Nov 20 - Happy Reflection

  There wasn't really much on today again.  There is a buzz of anticipation within me, the taste of the freedom that next week brings, but nothing much of note for today so I thought I'd share an old photo that my dad took on one of the many bushwalks we did as kids.

  From left to right, that's me, Bertie, Gub and BaconBones looking a right goof.  Actually, all four of us look pretty goofy.  My mother described this photo as 'what happens when you let four children dress themselves' and while she's certainly not wrong, I prefer to think of it as us having been allowed to develop our own senses of style and individuality.
  Mum and Dad were always pretty casual about parental control.  I don't mean we were allowed to run riot, we were expected to be polite, eat meals put in front of us, help with chores and attend school etc. but I don't feel they ever tried to stifle us.  We were always free to choose our own path.  We dressed ourselves, made our own lunches, chose the books we read, decided what was important to us and what wasn't.  I look back on it with adult eyes and see the vast freedoms we were afforded compared to some of our peers.
  Dad has said, I think in his speech at each of our 21st birthdays, that it was a bit of a shocking discovery for him, to realise that we would be who we wanted to be and that we would not necessarily aim for what he had hoped we might.  The funny truth in that is that ultimately he and Mum are responsible for us being who we wanted to be.  Although they may not have realised it at the time, they were preparing us to be ourselves from the day we were born.  They taught us how to think rather than what to think, and that's really all you need to do to be sure of a unique individual.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was yoghurt, berries, Fibre Toppers, sliced almonds and pumpkin seeds.
• Morning snack was 50g of Yumi's Hummus with a carrot cut into sticks and five orange cherry tomatoes.
• Lunch was a Mission Wholegrain wrap spread with Rosella Reduced-Joule Chutney then topped with baby spinach, a slice of Bega So Light Tasty Cheese, 116g of double-smoked ham and another slice of cheese then toasted flat in the sandwich press.  I served that with some cucumber sticks and five more cherry tomatoes and also ate my nectarine and banana.  I was rather hungry this lunch time!
• Afternoon snack was a Royal Gala apple, cored and sliced..
• Dinner was a homemade salmon pattie served with 110g sweet potato fries and a third of a Moroccan Salad kit from Coles.
• Dessert was 20g of Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate.
• Exercise was 40 minutes of surreal Buffy action on the cross trainer.
• Blood sugar reading tonight was 5.6

  It's been an odd evening.  One of those nights that I would describe as 'oppressively quiet'.  The house is lethargic and silent and even with music on in the background and my fingers swiftly clicking over the keys, things seem somehow still.  It's a warm night which could be contributing.  It seems to make the air listless, though it's been heavy with the breeping calls of cicada.
  That aside, tomorrow afternoon it is my internal audit and I feel entirely too unprepared but there is not much more than I can do now.  Only whatever I can get done by lunchtime I suppose.  I do feel pretty good about my preparedness for my holiday though!  The tasks that need to be done while I'm away have been appropriately assigned and I've done as much as I can.
  Only four sleeps to go!
  Jess