This post sponsored by Nuffnang
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When Nuffnang rang me and asked me to participate in this campaign, I was happy to oblige. Of course, then I had to really think about times when something good came in a small package and that’s where I got a bit stuck.
The cliched thing of course is to talk about the children. At 7lb6 and 7lbs respectively, they were rather small, delicious and lovable. Of course, then Amy started to scream and scream, so she was less a ‘good’ thing and more of a ‘god I love this kid, but why is she the only one screaming’ kind of package.
And Isaac, well, it’s probably not fair to compare them, but he didn’t scream as a baby, so comparisons are hard not to make.
But hey they were small, cute and when I swaddled them, they looked like little packages.
Sort of.
I kept thinking and really, all I could come up with was baby animals (have you see the ducklings?!) and stuff like that.
Not exactly things in packages. I’m not married and not engaged, so I can’t tell a story of a ring in a box – well I could, but I’d be lying – although it would make for the perfect good things/small packages story.
I can’t do it though.
I think that maybe, my best good thing in a small package is always going to be a book. Inside of a book, I get an entire world, someone else’s life and a great story, all in a small package. That counts, right?
Anyway.
The point of all this?
Cottees Cordial is reducing their cordial sizes from 2ltr to 1ltr, but the smaller bottle is merely more concentrated. It all makes up to the same amount of cordial.
Now, I’ve been tempted to blog about Cottees before and just never gotten around to it. Simply put, they are the only cordial I have found that has natural colours and doesn’t send Amy off the rails. I can’t vouch for the other flavours, but the orange coloured ones are all coloured with turmeric and carmine, lovely natural things that don’t send Amy batty.
So Cottees are the only cordial I buy anyway. And now they’re getting smaller, which means they’ll fit in the cupboard better and I’ll be able to stock up when they come on special. Win win I think.
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Now comes the fun part.
Nuffnang and Cottees are offering $1000 cash to the person who shares the best ‘When good things have come in small packages’ story. Obviously I’m not eligible, but YOU are my lovely readers.
In the comments, share your best ‘Good things/Small Packages’ story and I’ll select the best 3 to go into the draw. The responses across all the participating blogs will be read and the best response will win $1000 for themselves. There is nothing random about this competition, with winners selected on how well their story is told.
I had to google the definitions of cordials because here it is normally a liquor kind of drink! I see it is a different kind of drink there. I agree tha books are my favorite type of small package. My story though is not one I received, but one I sent. Because my mother lived with me her last 28 years, I ended up with all her possessions. I have been sending out packages to various siblings and grandchildren since she died. My best package was one I sent last month. I sent her diamond wedding ring and engagement ring to my niece, her granddaughter. Her boyfriend and her are getting married. He will be the house husband staying home during the day to take care of their 2 young sons while she works. (He has various acting jobs at night) Anyway, I didn’t want her to have to buy her own ring. She can keep it the same or have it redesigned, but I know it will mean so much to her.
Little packages reminds me of engagement rings. Ralph had always talked about his ideal proposal – we were friends long before we got around to the falling in love stage – anyways his ideal proposal situation was to take the girl to see Casablanca then go for a walk on the beach after and propose. Fairly classic proposal scenario. So there we were, I’d moved from the Gold Coast to Melbourne for him, things were getting serious and he invited me out to the movies to see Casablanca. I of course instantly suspected something was up but nothing happened, it was really disappointing.
The next day I was talking to a girl friend about it and it occurred to me that there was nothing stopping me from proposing to him. So I went out and got an engagement ring for him. A week later we were out for dinner in the city and after I suggested a walk up to the Treasury Building, we stopped at a fountain nearby. Ralph sat down on one of the benches, I remember there were some tourists at a nearby bench and a wedding photo shoot happening on the Treasury Building steps. I got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and asked him to marry me. And he said yes 😀
Funniest bit of it all is, he really had meant to propose that night we went to see Casablanca, but the engagement ring (an old family ring) was stuck in his mothers jewelery box which was locked. Not wanting to tip anyone off he hadn’t asked his mum for help getting the ring out and decided not to propose that night.
Mine isn’t an entirely happy story. But growing up, I had numerous medical issues, which doctors brushed off. They said I was a hypochondriac, and a faker, and even a drug addict at some points. Nobody believed that a person my age could possibly have so many problems. I finally saw a doctor who wanted an answer as much as I did, and he sent me to a specialist.
Months go by before I get in to see the specialist, and he runs a variety of tests on me. He goes over the results of some tests, and tells me others will take longer to come back.
Just as I am once again losing hope of ever having an answer, a letter comes in the post. My small package held a diagnosis, an explanation for all of the things that were wrong with me. Something I had hoped for for many years. Something which changed my life forever in positive and negative ways.
If this was a bad thing/big packages comp I would win hands down with the tales of all the times Bug vomited right into my nursing bra’s.
But it’s not so I guess I’m out 🙁
I will, however, have a look for that cordial when we move. We’re cordial obsessed in this house, and Bug is too young for it now but she won’t be forever, and if she drinks half as much as her dad, I’m going to need all the concentratedness I can get.
The small package I’m sending you tomorrow may make you want to re-write this post.
I am going to go with the cliche.
At 428g/15oz my good thing couldn’t have come much smaller. As one of her NICU nurses said “they don’t come smaller and live” as the second smallest surviving baby born at the Royal Brisbane Hospital will attest to. We were told in the days before her birth that she had a 10% chance so we didn’t have much hope. She wouldn’t cry and she’d very likely be born blue (not breathing).
But she did cry, three tiny little meows like a kitten and she did survive. So, as cliched as it might be, my good thing definitely did come in a small package.
I don’t have anything witty, or moving to tell. But I dare say receiving a $1000 cheque in the mail would be pretty special.
We drink Lime cordial in our house, the kids won’t allow any other colour. Sometimes when we run out I try and trick the kids by putting some green food dye into their cup of water. Unfortunately for me it’s the flavour they like, not just the colour lol
During winter, someone gave us snow peas seedlings. My boys were excited, and asked me to start growing them. I just threw them into our ground. Needless to say, 3 lil plants started growing..and they are growing strong. They’ve grown so much, I had to buy extra long stakes, just for them. And then recently, my eldest’s school teacher gave us a pot of lil snow plant seedlings. I left them in the pot for about 3 weeks, until I noticed the yellowish tinge on them. I decided to plant them, proper. This second batch of snowpeas looks so tiny, compared to the first batch that were overclimbing each other. I honestly thought they were not going to make it. Until 2 days ago, it started flowering. I excitedly told my eldest son, and he got excited because he didn’t think much of them in the first place. I asked him what would happen next, and he said (he’s in year 2), they’ll start growing (snow)peas and we’ll be able to harvest them!!! Then he asked why the first batch, that was huge, didn’t have a single flower. I just said, sometimes… great things come in small packages.
Thank you for this great giveaway.
It was on a fine Thursday afternoon when I returned home from work that something on the dining table caught my eye. Housemate was in the kitchen cooking lunch when I opened the front door. He asked, ‘Have you been shopping online, again?” and I gave him a bewildered look. I gave the small parcel a quick glance. Okay, it does have my name on it but I do not remember buying anything from that brand. Hm…
Housemate pestered me to open it, as he was interested in what was inside. “Who out of your string of many admirers bought you something?” Haha, very funny.
As I peeled off the layers of bubble wrap, a purse with adorable graphics stared back at me. Aw, exactly the kind of design I love and at the best time, as well. My old purse was tearing apart! Speechlessly happy, wonderfully surprised.
I had a rough idea who the person behind this parcel was so I gave him a call.
“Was it you?”
“Huh? What?”
“Why did you buy it?”
“So you received it?”
“So it WAS you! What is it for? What’s the occasion?”
“It’s the 19th today. Just in time then. 5 months ago on this day was the day I first spoke to you.”
“So? Why can’t you wait till my birthday? It’s only two months away.”
“Cos I want to get you something else for your birthday.”
“I didn’t hear that, I didn’t hear that, I didn’t hear that.”
But deep down inside, there was that feeling of love. The kind that only special friends are able to evoke. That another person sincerely cares. I felt so lucky to have friends like him, friends who sends big surprises in small packages.
A smile crept on my face, which I tried to hide from Housemate. Hm, yes, this is definitely one time when good things have come in small packages.
My story involves a tiny cardboard box that came in the mail and contained nine packets of seeds that I’d ordered. From those tiny packages in that tiny box I was able to grow enough vegetables to feed myself, give plenty to my kids and still have enough to fill my freezer. I still have some of the seeds and just recently put some in pots and they’ve sprouted! So my small package which gave such good things is still giving them.
My partner gave me a small package for my 21st birthday and I wasn’t allowed to open it until my actual birthday. Every day I imagined what was in that box, when I shook it something hit the side of the box. I imagined jewellry, and everytime I mentioned it he seemed pretty excited about it also.
I laid in bed each night dreaming of what was in that small package.
Eventually it came to the day before my 21st and I could wait no longer. I sat up until midnight so ‘technically’ it was my birthday and I opened the small package.
The package contained two gift cards.
I went to bed slightly dissappointed and in the morning acted very pleased with the gift he had gotten me. He explained that I always complained about not having any new clothes, and the gift cards were for a clothing shop which I liked. He had also organised for my mum to go with me and we could have a fun, girlie day of spending on my birthday.
I then realised that the amount of thought he put into that present did in fact make it a beautiful gesture, and I was happy with the small, heartfelt package.
“Good things come in small packages” is the adage I have lived by my entire life. Brushing the height scale at a mere five foot (exactly) transcribes into you being seated at the end of every school photo, leaned on, laughed at and mercilessly teased. But you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure, there is the fact I have spent a small fortune on having my clothes continually altered (really ought to have learned to sew, I suppose), but if you were battling being too tall, you might find it a struggle to find any clothes to fit at all!
I’m quite partial to the description “petite” (well, it’s the section I get to all my shopping, and thank God, by the way, for its no doubt tiny inventors!) and, can chameleon like, blend into any crowd I chose to. Obviously its not an advantage at a rock concert, but I quite enjoy the anonymity of it all.
This lovely little loaded comment parcel has been unfurled and hurled out on many occasions in my world, and I thank it for always giving me a come-back retort to use whenever necessary.
I could write about the beautiful small package that was given to me 6 Christmases ago (in the form of an engagement ring), but instead I’ll talk about an even more important package. Little One.
I was only 24 weeks pregnant when the doctors put me on strict bed rest during pregnancy and at 28 weeks, Little One arrived. 3 months early. Weighing in at 2 lbs, 3 oz, she was the tiniest thing I had ever seen. She canon-balled her way into this world and has continued to demonstrate that eagerness to do what she wants to do. She is the most special little package ever.
P.S. I know I’m not eligible for the contest since I’m not a resident of Australia, but I love this post and wanted to share 🙂 XO
weights 2890 grams which we waited for seven years – yes our miracle IVF baby which came in as small in today’s standard of bubs… indeed good things come in small packages but continuosly fill our hearts with big and happy memories 🙂
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