For one thing, I’m still alive.

Which is the main thing, I suppose. Alive and slaying even though I haven’t been posting much updates, if at all, on social media to legitimately validate my existence.

But, yes. Here I am and all is well. Couldn’t be better.

For starters, we’re done with the comps. Like, finally! As proud as I am of my daughter enjoying and excelling at gymnastics, I don’t have to worry about early morning starts and cartwheel-proof hair buns anymore.

Until the next comps season, that is.

But, yeah, we survived. Even better, Raven did so well at the final competition that she asked for a prize because she felt that she deserved it. Of course she did. So I gave in and got her a set of Lego Friends which we played with later that day. Because we’re back to playing Legos again, her and me. I resurrected my Lego character, Lukingking.

Book Week, a school event where students are asked to dress up in their favourite book character, was relatively smooth. She wanted to go as Anya Forger from the ‘Spy x Family.’

Nevermind that she only gave me four days to get her costume sorted. I figured it was an easy DIY, anyway. All I did was sew a bow on an oversized black shirt, courtesy of a YouTube tutorial that I found. Raven made the horns out of cardboard.

The challenging part was the pink hair. Two days before the event, I spent my day off walking around the shopping centre looking for pink hairspray before finally finding one at the $2 shop and then buying a more expensive, creamy kind of washable hair dye again the next day because I didn’t quite trust whatever chemicals were used in that can of $6 hairspray.

And because life is a never-ending series of challenges, come Book Week Day, I was there in the bathroom in my blue scrubs and disposable gloves slathering pink dye on her hair as best as I could while keeping an eye on the time because I still had to go to work.

Her hair wasn’t as pink as the character’s but thankfully, she was happy with the outcome. That was all I needed to hear to get on with my day.

With the sunnier (and sometimes warmer) days that we have been getting, I am pleased to announce that this year, our lotus magnolia tree decided to bloom in the most spectacular way!

She is such a beauty. Truly a showstopper. I fall in love with her each and every time.

A bit of op shop haul. Something I haven’t done in a while. Not that I have been op shopping much lately. But for the record, I’m currently into wide leg denims and button down shirts. Gen Z’s are definitely on to something as these pants are way more comfortable.

Jeff bought me a couple of records. He knows my taste in music. What he doesn’t know is that I’m not really a big fan of live music because it low-key annoys me when artists veer off from the studio version that I know and love. It’s silly, but that’s just me. I will give these two records the benefit of a doubt, though. That’s for sure. The last time I did, it was Lana del Rey’s then-completely-unkown-to-me Honeymoon album and that turned out to be my most played record.

In this house, we’re all about K-Pop Demon Hunters. We watch that movie on repeat and sometimes I wake up to Golden playing in my head. My favourite song is How It’s Done, although I don’t mind the rest of the soundtracks as they’re all very catchy.

Yesterday we went to Hoyts Cinemas at Eastland Shopping Centre to watch K-Pop Demon Hunters Sing-Along together with Raven’s friend. A one-weekend-only event that featured on-screen lyrics and a movie party atmosphere.

The “party” started at 10:15am.

Nevertheless, the girls enjoyed running to the “dance floor” in front of the screen and singing to all the songs I reckon, by now, they know by heart.

*Raven at 9 years old