What a week!  One I would rather forget.

I don’t exactly know what caused it, but I was in a funk for most of it.  I needed a pick-me-up.

By Thursday I knew that something had to change if I was to snap out of it, and that I needed to do something that I enjoyed for the entire weekend.

I had a chat to Kim and asked her to help me organise a gathering of a few good friends to share pizza on Saturday night.  Then, I wanted to visit a farmers market, so we had to find near.  Riddells Creek was close by so we locked that in.

Finally, Kim wanted to make some more soap in preparation for our Advanced Soap Making course in two weekends time.  I really enjoy being her chemist, so that was added to the list.

Excellent.  Lots of great stuff to do all weekend.  This had to work.

It all panned out as planned.

Ben and I visited Riddells Creek farmers market early on Saturday morning.  There were about 20 stalls, and besides the two butchers, every single vegetable or preserve for sale was already available in my garden.  Well, maybe not all, but felt surreal, as I suddenly realised that I had my own little farmers market right in my very own yard.

I bought a loaf of organic sourdough rye bread as a treat, and Ben and I grabbed a sausage in bread and then headed home.

On the way home, we picked up a few things for the pizza evening as we were going to prepare everything before our guests arrived.

At 2.30pm I lit the fire for the clay oven, and cleaned up under the veranda.  Amy turned up early (at Kim’s request I think) and she kept me company all afternoon.  It was delightful to spend some quality time with my daughter and relaxing whilst feeding the fire.

At 6.00pm the remainder of the guests turned up.  We had some delicious pizza, a few beers, and lots of laughs.  Just what the doctor ordered.

This morning we slept in until 8.30am.  Amy slept over so I made everyone breakfast.  Fresh eggs from the chooks, some free range bacon in rye bread toast, and freshly brewed fair trade coffee.  We talked about stuff until 11am which was lovely then Amy headed home.

Kim and I then proceeded to practice our fancy soap making skills.  We made 4 kg of soap using different techniques like layering, confetti, and swirls.  It was great fun.  I promise that there will be photos in a post sometime this week.

Then for dinner we made a chicken casserole using some organic free-range chicken thighs, potatoes and broccoli from the garden and some other veg brought from the green grocer.  Slow cooked in a low oven for a few hours, topped with homemade dumplings.  Comfort food at its best!

So, all in all, a very rewarding and relaxing weekend which broke me out of the funk I was in.  Sometimes you just have to turn inward, listen to your body, and do the right thing by it.  Mine was telling me to slow down a little, relax, and laugh.

And the cure?  Well I think I have to stop paying so much attention to the media and all the lunatics that are running the asylum, and just focus on what is important to me and my family.

After all, if I don’t look after me, who else will?

Same goes for all of you out there.  Don’t forget to take the time to look after yourselves.  It can creep up on you, and before you know it, you feel terrible.  Take action before getting into a full-blown funk.

Do something you really enjoy doing and give yourself permission to laugh!  It certainly is the best medicine!