Happiness. Date Night. The Hunger Games and more Ninjago...Day 16

So day 16 of my challenge is upon me and I am happy that it's crazy!

I just got home from date night with my son after what has been the most excellent of days and a brilliant beginning to a long weekend.

So let the gratitudes begin!

Gratitudes:

• I am so grateful to be finally making some headway on my Toowoomba Project. We visited the police station today to lock up my son submit my police certificate request so that is now out of the way. I've been also making lots of lists of things that I still need to do so whilst there's heaps there I'm feeling much better organised and like I have some direction. Small blessings. I get my boxes from dad on Monday so packing and sorting will begin in earnest then.
• I say this a lot but Elijah is quite simply the light of my life. He has the craziest sense of humour and is forever running into me to tell me this nutty story or that...he has me in stitches daily and is turning into a right little character. Me being me completely encourage him to embrace his nuttiness individuality and made him go and change out of his boring blue shirt into his fangs one. His enthusiasm for our move is making me even more excited. I think if he was really against moving I would seriously reconsider as he's quite a wise little soul underneath that crazy persona.
• Lastly I am grateful just simply for the most perfect day. We woke up reasonably early and went and had breakfast, haircuts, did a bit of shopping and then came home for a lovely relaxing afternoon followed by date night. Everything was just perfect.

Journal:
So I surprised E tonight with tickets to see The Hunger Games. We saw it a few weeks ago and loved it, but I was so focused on matching the movie to the book and trying to remember what came next, and REALLY REALLY hoping it wouldn't suck to watch it in detail. I felt kind of like a third party observer rather than getting absorbed in it. So I really wanted to see it again to just really sink into it and WATCH.

And it was even better the second time around. Going in knowing it was going to be good allowed me to really get into it and appreciate the nuances of which the movie is full of. I know all the critics have said this, but Jennifer Lawrence is quite simply brilliant. She has captured the spirit of Katniss and played her with depth and feeling, I really don't think any other actress could have topped her performance. She WAS Katniss. I'm a big fan of a fabulous strong female character (see previous Scarlett O'Hara admiration post), and no-one who's read the books can doubt this woman is one. However, I was really afraid whoever won the role would just play her as a straight out badass without really capturing the emotional backstory that brought her there in the first place. Watching her quite literally shaking in her boots just as she was entering the games was worth the price of admission.

I cannot recommend this movie or the book highly enough. If you haven't read or seen it yet, then what are you waiting for? I've asked E to write his own review on the movie and I will post this as a comparison to mine (I'm sure his will contain an overuse of the word 'RAD' - just saying).

Check out the link to Amazon at the bottom of the page if you want to get your hands on a copy - I promise you'll be just as hooked as I am. Just a hint, the second book is even better than the first and you CANNOT imagine how much I'm anticipating that movie!

Random act of kindness:
There's been a few today and all centre around E. I just love to surprise and delight him because he gets so excited and it's just infectious. We went browsing through Toyworld and of course Ninjago was the hot topic of the day (for the uninitiated, see my post I don't speak boy). Some of the spinners, whatever they are, were on sale for half price so I let E get one. We had to toss a coin as he couldn't decide between two, and don't ask me what they were due to the language difficulties experienced when speaking Ninjago (all I hear is blah blah blah). Crazy how a $9 item can make you feel like the best mum in the world. I followed this up with his favourite breakfast and then The Hunger Games tonight, so all in all, my son has gone to sleep with the biggest smile on his face and his parting words of 'this was the best day ever'. Job done.

Meditation:
I am either getting better or worse at this, I always fall asleep during the process but am sleeping so well lately that I'm clearly very relaxed. And despite the millions of things running through my head of all the things I have to do (two weeks...eek!) and the copious quantities of caffeine I consume right before bed, it doesn't seem to stop me from dozing off really quickly. So despite the niggling feeling that I'm doing it all wrong, I'm pretty cool with it all.

Please let me know what you thought of The Hunger Games! I am pretty damn obsessed with this series and despite having read the trilogy three times now am already itching for a fourth go-around. I can't decide if I'm on Team Peeta or Team Gale. Obviously Gale is Thor's bro, and seriously hot, but then again he's dating Miley Cyrus so there's your downside right there. Peeta on the other hand is kinda dorky but so sweet without being sickly that he's kinda winning me over too. Torn.

Twilight who?

Would love to hear your thoughts on the books, how they compare to the movie, did you love, hate or meh?

xx

Date Night - The Hunger Games