A sense of normality

Strangely enough, even though I was very much looking forward to being back home and doing everyday things, I've felt rather out of sorts the last few days. Irritable. Stressed. Tearful. Homesick (for Holland). A larger than normal dose of PMT is probably not helping...
I suppose in a way it was to be expected. A lot has happened over the last few weeks and as soon as I came back, we went into another stress mode with the kids and me getting ill straightaway. Not a chance to catch my breath. And when I could, it seemed life threw back those events for me to work through.
The one upshot of it is that I realise why I feel a bit low, and that I know I'll gradually feel better again, given a bit of time. This realisation in itself makes it easier to bear.

This afternoon I managed to shake off the blues a little and got down the Christmas decorations. We'd bought a tree from my friend Ruth at the weekend and the corner where the tree normally goes, needed a little tidying, but after a bit of nagging the kids got on with it brilliantly and this is their result:

It actually isn't quite as bare as it shows on the photo, the lights are overwhelming some of the decorations.

I love this time of year for getting indoors, getting lots of candles lit and just feeling all cocooned. One of the things I liked in Holland was lights on the windowsills, they make houses look so inviting, so I followed suit and added a few candles to my own windowsill:


I like the way the flame is reflected on the window and back again. I light the candles most evenings and hope that it cheers passers-by.

I always know I'm alright if I feel like cooking. I'd been to a second-hand book fair in Holland and picked up a Dutch copy of a WeightWatchers book with menu plans for a year. I'd often wondered if the Dutch WeightWatchers system was the same, and you can never have too many recipes! Tonight I tried out the first recipe from the book, it wasn't a huge hit (in fact, the kids ate so little of it that I can have it for lunch tomorrow too) but not bad:


It's basically a spinach omelette, but ever so easy to make, and to make it a bit more filling I added some potatoes on the side. I will probably make this again, but then as a lunch dish on weekdays, as it's quite low in points and not very time-consuming to make.

One way to make me feel better is to eat healthily and sensibly. Something that I hadn't managed for about 6 weeks, and it was showing. Today I got out my notebook and tracked what I ate, reduced my portions and upped the vegetable and fruit intake. As per usual, I feel totally ravenous now, but at least it's giving me back that much needed sense of control and normality.