I'm a little bit late with this week's happy post but I have been counting my blessings a lot, with plenty to make me smile:

• I have finally got a new car! Mine has been temperamental for a few weeks now and although we thought it was fixed it started to have problems again. The thought of breaking down on my own with the girls in the car filled me with absolute horror so we decided it had to go. We are picking up a Ford Galaxy on Monday, I can't wait! Sounding like a true girl, I have no idea about the engine, mpg or spec but am especially happy that it is black (I've always wanted a black car but never had one). 
• Halloween – the girls had a lovely time trick or treating, and there was such a lovely sense of community with lots of families all out together, everyone happy and smiling and lots of people making a real effort for the trick or treaters. Tinker has been looking forward to it for a whole year, and already asked is it a long time till next Halloween, bless her! Though if you know anyone that requires a year's supply of Haribo, lollipops and chewy sweets, please send them in my direction, we definitely have some to spare!! 
• Tinker's reading – I thought she was going to find all her school work a breeze, but in fact she has struggled quite a lot with learning all the words on her 'word wall' (a list of basic essential words that she has to learn) but finally this week it has all clicked into place. After frustration all round because she just couldn't learn 'is', 'his' and 'at' the last 3 words on her word wall, she suddenly had a lightbulb moment and just got it and has now progressed to word wall 2 and even though it has trickier words she can read them all straight away! I'm still not 100% sure that she wasn't just being stubborn about it all along! But her reading practice every night has suddenly become less of a chore and more like fun again, so I'm very grateful for that! (I still have emotional moments when I just can't believe she is a fully fledged school girl, seriously how did that happen *sobs pathetically*) 
• My job – yes, I know it's a bit unusual to feature work on a happy list, but after what has been a very busy couple of months at work I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel! Finally finished a project that has been very time consuming for the last few weeks and hopefully this coming week will give me some time to catch up on the rest of the work I've had to neglect.
• Also work related – two weeks ago Matty gave up his job at Wetherspoons which had seen him through his student years and started his first 'proper job', an apprenticeship at BT and he is really loving it. It's really nice to see him starting out in a career and he seems to be doing pretty well, so I'm really happy and proud. 
• Yet another work related one, Milly got her first Saturday job and started work in Primark today which she really enjoyed. I say her first job, the truth is a few weeks ago she started working at KFC but hated it so much she quit after 2 weeks – so it doesn't really count, does it! She sometimes lacks confidence and I find myself thinking of her as more fragile than the others and I worry about her a lot, so it was a huge relief when she texted me at lunchtime to say it was going well and was a million times better than KFC. 
• It's November – which means it's almost Christmas (sort of) so lots of festive cheer will soon be surrounding us all. Yay! We have been scoffing mince pies in secret since September, but now it's November it's a lot more socially acceptable to eat them, in fact it's expected! I have made a bit of a start to the Christmas shopping but really need to get on with it, after all I have quite a lot of people to buy for. I do really love buying presents though, especially finding things I know they will absolutely love. 
• Last Sunday we got up early and spontaneously decided to head out for a walk and headed to our local water park (not a swimming pool with lots of slides and a wave machine, just a lake to walk round with plenty of ducks, just in case there was any confusion!) Tinker took her scooter and for once didn't complain about her legs being tired after 3 seconds (I swear that girl is the laziest child ever when it comes to walking) and managed to get all the way there under her own steam, with no moaning and no going on the buggy board (it's about a half an hour walk so I was impressed – it might not sound all that amazing but seriously, for this lazy girl it's a MIRACLE!) Tinker and Totsy had a great time feeding the geese and ducks (even though the geese were clearly starving and crowded round us a bit too much, which is always slightly unnerving) and running around in the leaves. We ended up being out for over three hours and it was just a really lovely relaxed morning, unremarkable in a lot of ways but one of those happy times that you remember for a long time.

Keep smiling x