Appreciation..

Lynne over at Lucky Snapping here has set us a lovely prompt today and I am going to get ahead and give you my ten penneth on a Monday for once!

She has asked us what we appreciate, basing this on Voltaire's quote :

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well...

I think the thing I appreciate most of all is health., whether that is mine, my family's or good health in general. You just don't appreciate how great it is to be well until you have an off day or hurt yourself and all your plans are in turmoil. Similarly how hard it is to see the people you love suffering, whether it is something small or having to deal with the emotional fallout of an issue as much as the physical.

Then there is family..

 Yesterday was my brother's 64th birthday and we spoke on the phone for the first time in ages. Not that we had disagreed on anything, life just got in the way and we hadn't made time for it...not that I hadn't thought almost every day that I must call him soon!   He sounded great and says he is still fishing, a trip every couple of weeks, but he doesn't have to do too much manual work now, he is the skipper and 'find them the fish', the best use of all his experience, all 50 plus years of it I'm sure.

Our dad died at the age of 47 and a few days. My Mum was only 44 at the time and many a day I ponder how she must have felt and how grateful we all should be to have our health and consequently our life and loves for so many more years than they did.  Ken once said he thought he wouldn't be old but hey compared to Dad he did great already!

We talked a lot, caught up on the latest news, those 'hatched, matched and dispatched', as you do when you see friends and family after a while. We have 13 children between us, so Mum and Dad did well having the only two children from their direct families and us giving 13 grandchildren!  We agreed that is is quite special having a houseful of children, all those personalities and possibilities for the future.  My kids tease me about who is the favourite, like one of them may be loved more than the rest, but the best bit about having a big family is that each one brings more love and its not about sharing out a limited amount amongst more people!


I really like living close to where I have always lived, knowing that I don't have to go far before I meet someone who even if they are not a close relative, they may have shared some common history and perhaps loved and appreciated the same things.. there I go again, playing that nostalgia card.. 

.. I will add some more appreciation thoughts later in the week.. 

.. and send loves to Zac if he reads this from the bridge of the Star Princess out off Alaska somewhere!

Before I go.. I think we all appreciate massively, yet take for granted sometimes, the huge and fantastic advances in technology that have moved my life from writing copious pages of family news and sending out with Mr Postie in the hope it will not pass the recipient as they travel home..to the email / Facebook / Blogger friendly world we live in, instant notes that have made the world a so much smaller place, letting our lad be on the opposite side of the world to us yet able to feel 'as close as the phone.. well Facebook or Blogger!'

Well my bum hurts sitting on this wooden stool so I am going in search of a laying down place!

Oh dear... late again said the White Rabbit!

... and so here I am very very late and two weeks behind on my challenges.

Suffice to say I shall just have to give you all some pics for thought and see if that works.

Lynne's week :

“ Make rest and refreshment a necessity, not a luxury”

Ahhh a few weekends ago our 21st Wedding Anniversary was coming up and Col made me the most gorgeous meal... a nicoise salad with eggs, anchovies and fresh tuna, followed by Eton Mess with my favourite passionfruit, raspberries and strawberries.. he certainly ticked all the boxes! Oh and Ferrero Rocher (with dark and coconut ones too) for extras!

 

We bought a new trampolene, always a hit with the kids of all ages and Kate and the girls will especially 'rest' a bit and enjoy that!

I have been taking Lyla to 'Toddlers Stay & Play' the last few weeks and it made me smile seeing the array of drinks containers we used in the garden! Something for everyone!

Zac came home for almost a week, his course is getting less busy and he had several free days working up to last weekend..he and Col are so alike, I wonder if Zac has 'Colin' written through him like a stick of rock!

Col & I had been away a couple of nights (he had a trip so I ran away to meet him.. the kids are getting real good at managing a night or two without us!)  It certainly has been doing us good, one of the kids commented that it's nice we still have something to talk about now they are all busy!!

So we got back Sunday afternoon and chilled in the sunshine with Zac..yes, even me!

Birthdays:this was April's choice for last week's prompt.  We have got birthdays most months around here, July especially!  Colin is 50 in June so there will be lots going on for that, partayyyyy! Jordan will have finished college by then, barring one exam so she will be on cake making mode.. here's a snippet of her one she made for April last week...xxx

Mornings..

Ross should be a Gemini! Come the morning he is either dead miserable, taking a good while to 'come to', we call him Cornflake Man, you know the one who is like a caveman growing more like us as he eats his Kelloggs... or he is so perky he makes you want to lamp him!

I came down yesterday morning and he was on perky mode; to be fair he has been this way since he started his school job, it is a half hour drive in and he likes to be on time, so he gets going early...unlike the rest of us..urghhh,especially when you have had a late night over the weekend! Kate in particular isn't great in the mornings, school days especially, so tMonday she was chasing Ross about giving him grief for being so awake!

Famous for her dry sense of humour Kate observed as she was eating breakfast..

'if Monday were a pair of shoes it would be a pair of Crocs!' 

(Now I know they are very light, very versatile and an addiction once you have some..I may have alienated myself from half my 'readers'  but you have to admit it was funny!,)

I think they take after me, I never was a morning person, always got in trouble with Mum for saying some of the words you shouldn't say when we overslept and I was grumpy!

This morning I woke early, unusual for me, but it was a lovely morning, lovely enough to take this picture across the yard..I made a coffee and went back to bed for half an hour, suddenly I get why people like waking early.

This is the view from my other bedroom window, down into the extension. Concrete for the slab arrives Thursday and you can just see the utility around the corner..can't wait.. well, yes I can.. that's something I have learnt about myself., that whilst I feel nervous and excited about something and think that maybe I just can't do it, (childbirth, moving homes, dentist, anything which gives you that unknown pit-in-your-stomach kind of feeling), but when the time draws very close a kind of composure sets in and I can !!!                                                                        

                    

Impossible?...yes, on reflection!

Well over at Lucky Snapping Anne has asked us to reflect on something which seemed like an impossible task.. Just over here!

I was a little late getting my views posted for week 1 of February and you may have missed it, I'm not sure, but it is here, I promise.. oh, yes, well.. it's here..! 

And now here I am on Thursday wondering about 'the impossible' .. but worrying that I am starting to be late with my posts all the time... ahh being late!...can you see the thoughts growing?....that's me.... always almost late.... and consequently that makes 'being on time'.. impossible!    Maybe it was because I was over two weeks late being born, it continued then when I had all my brood, Ross was two weeks late and the others all a good few days.  The concept of having a baby early did not come into it.

It's not that I am very late, in fact sometimes I am even running on time, or perhaps a little comfortably early.. but that means there is an extra few minutes to ... dry my hair, nip back indoors to collect something, do the dishes before I leave.. or most probably just lie in bed the extra few moments which will start off the lateness before the chance of a rogue moment of earliness is even allowed to peek..

When Col & I married we drove in our car to the Registry Office, we got there after our friends.. and that's not really fashionable at that kind of wedding. The children have grown to expect it, they have a kind of 'Mum's timing' thing going on, take the time I said and add ten minutes, so you see, it's not that late, not hours, just fashionably not on time!  ;-)

Going back to 'impossible' I have given this a little thought. I don't think I think of things happening that had 'impossible' feelings at the outset, I guess I wouldn't even embark on something if I felt like that about it... oh, but when it's done, when I am sitting here pondering back over things, so so many things we have done look NOW like they must have seemed impossible.

In 1997 we were parents to five children under 12, the baby (Kate) was three months old and we had been quietly thinking of moving house. Col was working on civils dive work which had become very weather sensitive and every job had to be a success, he was looking to do something else...we needed somewhere he could have workshops and have some scope..

Col's folks were interested in buying somewhere with us, a place of their own but alongside us, to be good for us at that time and good for them later when maybe they would need us.  We had looked at one place, a farm with farmshop on quite a busy road, it was okay, food for thought, but it was digested and spat out as not the one!  

A few weeks later I saw the details of a old ivy covered farmhouse with lots of outbuildings and 9 acres of land.  We went out to drive past it, we had only been through the village a few times before, but we were pleased to see it was at the start of a lane just on the edge of the village, so it was good for a wander to the shop, but not too far for the kids that they couldn't go on their own.  It was only five miles from where we were and we ... well I.. fell in love. I think Col saw the potential too of course, probably from a getting away from the crowds point of view (the place we lived in at the time was getting a bit built up)... so we showed some friends and our folks.. 

Gran's annexe will go here!

The front garden with it's very mature rose bushes and monkey puzzle tree was just fabulous, many a child could be reared there ... little did I know that the front path would be dug up for new water and power supplies, that the roses would be taken up as they were so mature the thorns were like wooden spears, not child friendly at all!  Only that monkey puzzle really survived the practical ideas Col had to make the place easy to maintain, gone were my secluded Victorian pathways and overgrown hedges.. but I'm cool..

The house was.. a disaster.. wallpaper peeling off the walls, asbestos panels to remove, a fire damaged floor, no plumbing or heating in the main house and that was just the obvious stuff!

But we quite fancied it.. there were two barns, one for his folks... and.. hey wait a minute.. if we move I will still spend a lot of time toing and froing to my own Mum.. lets get her to come too!! So she did! To be fair she had a nice bungalow in our old village and would probably have been fine there for a few more years, but it was going to be easier if she came along....

.. so they came along.. us 7, Col's M&D and my Mum. We sold our houses and rented a 4-bed bungalow for three months while we did a gut and make-liveable job on the 'big house' as Col's Mum named it.  Ahhh and here's the rub.. Mum and his folks got caravans and lived in them in the field alongside the barn for up to two years before they moved into their places...summer 2000 Mum moved into her annexe and we were finally all sorted, ...well it's still a work in progress but aren't most homes. 

Where the workshop joined the barn (his folk's house!)

The story goes that Jean and my Mum used to sit in the caravans over in the field, looking back at the delapidated farm buildings, big digger trucks, old farm detritis and so much work that needed doing and they would ask each other just what we had done..!! 

I think they thought it was an impossble task.. but like us they must have not really thought so because they came on the journey too.. takes quite a person to live in a caravan for almost two years when you are in your 70's, especially by choice! 



Caravans just on the right in the field!

But those days of kids playing in building sand and Kate (with two bottles, one in her mouth and one in her pocket) crawling across the wooden planks to Jean's caravan are all the things memories are made of.. just like the impossible tasks!

I must just add here one of Colin's favourite quotes ..

'If at first you don't succeed.. get bigger kit!'

We were storing this big swingshovel at the time and got to use it for the demolition work.. only trouble was it had some faults, it had an inclination to swing to the left, so you had to be careful you didn't wipe out a building when just trying to make 'improvements' !!!

Happy? Busy? Mmm, that's me!

Well it's been a busy few days. JB, April & I have been minding Lyla between us for a few days and I have been on the school run a couple of days. Things are going great with the baby and Lisa is amazingly well given how grim she felt after the c-section, though we do think it was more about the comparison to having Lyla so quickly on the front seat of the car outside maternity..than the actual birth being bad itself, in fact it sounds like it was quite routine and no probs.

(Climbs on soapbox for second.. aside from them doing great..I cannot believe that there is such a shortage of midwives. They wanted Lisa to go to the surgery for 5 day checks, saying they do not have enough staff to travel out! But how can self-employed people get there if the men work and the new Mum is told not to drive.. and in the snow....

What happened to the old fashioned period of 'confinement' and the daily visits from the same (fantastic) local midwife when I had mine?  Lisa luckily had great staff on a quiet D-day last week but the following day all hell broke loose, no-one to help post-op women get their babies, no bells working so another lady got out of bed and ripped her wound, why don't they have some nice ladies in to help new mums, just to sit, hold their hands as they take those scarey steps into motherhood.  it incenses me when they talk on breakfast TV about the new maternity services they are planning.. hello..hello?!.. they were what we had all sorted 25 years ago!!! 

... off soapbox but carrying it with me just in case.. midwifery, childbirth and breastfeeding are my specialist rant subjects in case you hadn't noticed.. ;-)  )

This week ..

Work has been busy. Col is quite proud of a new composite block handler he designed.  The company have had a few clever units from us and called him in to sort this one.   Even our design guys didn't think it would work...but Colin did! He has a new Einstein quote he is proud of too, it so suits him as he has so many great ideas and doesn't need a batch of qualifications to know if something is do-able or not..

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

-Albert Einstein

We went to look at a house with the new baby and M&D. It wasn't really suitable , too much work required but lots of space if it had been good.. back to plan B, C and maybe D, but you have to start looking don't you.. and get away from renting when you can.

We had a builder over yesterday and he is starting on our extension in about five weeks. We have an old lean-to that was a kitchen before we came here. It was due to be knocked down to please our mortgage company but we just moved the kitchen indoors and kept it as a porch...It is a grim site, built half covering my hall window, so as soon as it is gone, even before my new room is done I will have more light into my house through the hall window.. yay!

Then there is the office extension and possible new building being contemplated so you can imagine we are mentally dead beat by bed...mind you, I'd rather be dead-beat than bored.. yeah, I am not happy when there is nothing going on, in fact when things are ticking along just fine I don't like it...

Thinking about the happy prompt this week...I like the ups and downs, maybe like Anne says you have to have the downs to really enjoy the ups.  It has never appealed to be too routine and prescribed, I like the unexpected, the rush, the chaos.. maybe because it is better to feel something (whether it is stress, panic or euphoria) than not much at all!

Zac has driven home this afternoon, he had a college half day and free tomorrow so we will be chilling out and maybe doing a few things over the next few days.  the girls got the house tidy and we had a lovely curry for tea, everyone was busy talking and I was just enjoying listening.

It reminded me of how Mum didn't always have a lot to say as she got older and all the family would be round the table.  Maybe she just liked hearing all her family swapping stories and getting along, there isn't the need to say much when you are content letting the world go by and your kids are your world.  I guess she probably hoped me and Ken would get our families together more, but we are so different and so far apart years wise (he was past 11 when I was born)... we have 13 children between us but his were having children of their own almost as soon as I started, so the generations are kind of out of synch.

Am I ever happy for no reason at all?...yes.. not sure why, guess that's because there is no reason! But it is nice to feel the sun, a good track on the radio and be near the sea.  The alternative is a grey day, Cornish mist and a dreary politics chat show and that isn't conducive to 'hapy' is it.

Do I demand my own way like a child?  Mmmm depends who you are asking! I would say no, that I am pretty easy going and not a shouter or a stamper of feet... but if I am honest I do hear myself sometimes hinting that I would like a job doing, or 'when we have time' or 'could you just'... so, maybe just like a child I use that wearing down tactic to keep my requests on the agenda!

And this is a secret ... shhh.. I think I have got better at getting round Col. Maybe we are both getting older, maybe both wiser to each others ways... or maybe he just got tired and gives in sooner.. I'd like to think I just know how to work him better, when to ask, when not to nag, when to make him happy and then just quietly mention it... ahh I must be learning from my teenagers.. it's all in the timing!

To finish the post, here's a bit of what we have been up to this week..

Lyla at only 22 months is adept at working a cameraphone with her fingers to swipe and tap. She likes playing faces in the camera and loves browsing videos of what we have done..a child of the century.

Amazing, she may never have to learn an old fashioned keyboard if tablets and pads keep changing so much..

I read a quote which applies so well to learning and children these days :

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
  .....by writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, creator of Future Shock

Oh and baby Annabelle, I haven't seen her properly awake yet.. and see Lilly there in the bottom corner.. what a sweet pea..not missing a trick, I didn't even know she was there xx

This week's challenge..

...from LuckySnapping is happening over here!  Lynne has set us a nice thought provoking prompt for the week :

“There are 3 things that a child can teach an adult

To be happy for no reason

To be always be busy doing something

And to know how to demand – with all one’s might- what one wants” ~ Paulo Coelho

My questions to you

What makes you happy? Are you ever happy for no reason? Why?

What are you busy doing this week?

What do you want, wish for? Are you good at demanding what you want like children do?

So I asked my family, an amusing bunch and this is what they said :

What makes me happy?..When you have fed all your family and someone else does the dishes.

 Am I ever happy for no reason? Yes...

Why?... Generally because you have had three or more ports!

Thanks guys, but I cannot disagree.. more sensible thought out offerings will come as the week goes by!

.................................................

This is the view I had as I left my bedroom and looked out to the front garden this morning.. a sweet frosting of snow!  Later the view from my kitchen towards the yard, where my new extension will be ..sooooon!  (the builder is coming to see us Wednesday.. yay!)  

and this is the view out of my front door.. April who has joined the blogging crew, taking her revised 'snow' January view..

Work today and Lyla stayed home as poor Lisa lives about 5 miles higher than us, the snow was thicker and the roads are all downhill, so they enjoyed an extra weekend day. (btw the girls have been brilliant with Annabelle, Lilly even watched a whole film sitting holding her.. awhhh)

Col & I had a great surprise which was being kept from us.. Jordan got her braces off her teeth.. after almost three years of treatment, revealing and removing hidden teeth.. oh what a fabulous job they did.. .. ..... she hates today's picture as she says she looks spaced out, but hey, look at those pearly whites and I think she looks like my niece Jana, her cousin and I haven't seen that before!

365/331 Lonely

What weather! It has rained and blown a gale all day, it has hardly come to full daylight and as I drove this afternoon I felt like I was towing a large grey cloud above me!  I was happy to go out though, to collect Lilly and save her mum from going out in this weather.. the driving is horrible, huge puddles everywhere.

Oh but what a joy to spend half an hour with Lilly, and her priceless comments! 

We drove past Kate's school and a conversation ensued about whether Kate was a grown-up girl or a grown-up per se.  I thought we would find no common ground until Lilly asked this simple defining question...'is she allowed to use big scissors?' 'Yes' .. 'so she is a grown-up'

And then, just to clarify she asked me if Kate is allowed to do jobs 'up ladders'  I replied that she probably was but most jobs up a ladder were boys jobs.  Lilly did not agree as she felt girls should also be allowed up ladders, but we had proof then that Kate is grown-up (well by Lilly's definition anyway!)

We picked up some chocolate bars and against my suggestion that perhaps she save one half of the Milky Way for mummy, Lilly decided to eat them both.  A less excited expression later she said....'mmm I think maybe I ate too much of that, when I get in I shall have something healthy instead..'   Not sure if I won or lost that one as she did eat both.. mmm x

All is going well with the baby, I made a slip today and referred to it as 'she', really not sure where that came from, it is quite exciting not knowing what little person is going to come say hi mid January.. I can't wait.. well I can, let's get Christmas out the way first!   With grandchildren life is anything but lonely!

.. writing from the office and found this little one of Lilly at 16 hours old.. awhhhh xxxx

365/235 Star...no.3

Instantly I saw the prompt I smiled. We have a story in our family which makes us all think the same phrase.  Years ago when the three youngest were still at Primary School they did a Christmas play called The Christmas Star and every time the little star helped out they said (in unison) 'You're a Star you are..you're Special'  After about thirty renditions of this phrase it has stuck with us, so if we ever call someone a star you can hear the echo 'You're Special' somewhere in your mind!

I have so many stars in my household I don't know which one to choose..Col and I were only saying last thing yesterday what a joy the grand daughters are, Lilly so entertaining and Lyla really getting a bolder persnality and sense of humour.. it doesn't seem long ago we were getting used to the idea of a baby in the house.. and now Lilly is four! .. and Lyla almost 18 months.... perfect timing to announce that they will be adding to their numbers in January... awhh yes, we are so excited, even at number three, more so really as we had our three little 'uns in very similar time frame..

Descendants.

Sometimes at the weekend we try to get to see a film, it's generally on a Sunday evening, in a rush to fit it in before the week starts again, but today I suggested we went in the afternoon, then we would still have time for relaxed tea and for Col to get ready for his week's trip away...so off we went to see 'Descendants' starring George Clooney. He is not on my 'laminated list' (Friends fans will get that!) but he could well be a reserve..mmm, shall have to firm up on that list one of these days..hahahah

So, how was it?... we actually really liked it, a good film, a mix of sadness and well placed humour which appealed to us as parents of growing kids I think, and best of all there was no CGI. Unless of course they weren't really in Hawaii!  Of course we were slightly extra interested as Zac will be in Hawaii next week.. typically island windy but more built up than maybe I expected, but some spectacular scenery too.. and oh, the warmth..x

One of the interesting comments that was made we liked.. give your kids enough to be able to do stuff, but not so much that they can do nothing.... good one..x

51 is the new 50 . . ?

Whilst I can hardly say my 50th birthday went past unnoticed the fact that Zac and I spent half the day on trains to and from Cardiff meant we had a kind of wearied celebration on our return. Col and I went away later in the year but I have always kind of felt like I should have marked the passing of 50 years with a more family gathering kind of occasion.


Well as those of you who really know me can vouch, I am not an early kind of person and perhaps in this case a whole year behind!  A few weeks ago Colin's Uncle Bill said he was going to be in the country and hoped to come visit, and sure enough it was over my birthday weekend!  I didn't make much of a deal of it, kept it kind of low-key and amazingly the last few days have been the perfect kind of family weekend. . a kind of Cornish equivalent to an Indian wedding I reckon!


Lisa and her family were going to a wedding so they came by Thurs eve, introduced their latest addition and generally hung out . . I had some great gifts, books and DVD and also a trip to see the Vagina Monolgues with two of my girls. . our first family girlie event really ... my they are all growing up. . proper presents and everything..love you xxxx


Well last eve Col's brother and co. came down to see Uncle Bill and we had a big curry night. . Iwas aided and abetted by Ross' April who has recently had the Jones family 'baptism of fire' and appears to have come through unsinged... though onion chopping brought a tear to her eyes!   Then we had cake from JB and I got a clutch of great pressies. . a set of luggage? No, it was a very cool black craft baggage set and inside some great papers, letters and plenty of inspiration. . it seems Uncle Bill took pics through the whole purchasing event so there's a layout or two in just that. . .. and as they say it is the day to day moments you scrap whch make it so special.

Bedtime, late on at 2am was also a nice surprise.. go on.. guess.. No!... My Col bought me Samsung tablet and I wrote this entry on it.... while listening to the Top 30 from September 1973.. everything from 'All the Way to Memphis' and 'You Can Do Magic' !! (a momentous year, my last summer in Penberth and 13 years old, a real right of passage..

(mmm, Mandy, looks like I'm a lucky little Princess too!)

..no doubt Uncle Bill has pics of this event to follow!

PS Most amusing gift.. a plaque from Jordan...

'Remember, as far as anyone knows.. we are a Normal Family'

PPS Have had great calls from Zac too, sounds like he's having a great settling in time, and we'll see him soon.. if all the excitment of the Boat Show, ship visits and paintballing allow!

Enigma.

Quote of the week goes to our Lilly aged 3.  Travelling home from Tesco, we passed a girl who looked a bit like Kate, just a younger version, with her friend, on the street walking along.

'I just saw a small Kate' said Lilly.

'A small Kate' I asked?

'Yes, I think it was looking for it's Mum and Dad' said Lilly.

Got me thinking.. teenagers.. a law unto themselves and sometimes in a seemingly parallel existence, all of their own.. not a kid, not a baby, not an adult.. just an entity...... 'a Kate'

.. love them both to bits!

P.S..on yesterday.

Kate's beautiful self-depracating humour rose to the surface this morning.

Nicely tanned overnight she came down for school and looked even browner with the white shirt. (Lucky it has few days to wear down before Sunday's model day...)  Jordan observed that Kate's shirt was inside out and then a little later I noticed her strap top underneath was also inside out...'Oh hell,' ,she commented..'I've really turned into an Essex girl, my brain has just cratered too..'

...ahhh, the powers of televison and the old jokes, always the best. (and apologies to those who may hail from Essex, almost made a life there myself once!)

Best blogging..

... is generally done after a few glasses of wine and some chocolate!

Jordan, Kate and I are here making short work of a packet of Viscount chocolate biscuits...on a bit of a feeding frenzy and quite hyper.

I just mentioned to Jordan how well the orthodontic work is going on her teeth.... she had four teeth out and one 'revealed' back in the autumn, quite an ordeal and already the new tooth has taken pride of place in the line-up.  Just a little tweaking and securing for a year or so and she can show us the sparkley whites and I can post a picture!

'Ahhh, they make me look normal',  Jordan commented... followed by 'now all I need to do is act normal'!!

She's so cool.....xxx

..and here's those pics of her Graphics project...Murder at the Mall.

Spring!




Spring!

 I was going to leave this as a one-word entry, but then I saw today's quote and it cannot go un-noticed as it so suits little one:

'Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.'

Albert Einstein

Living with a leggy teenager..

Late morning today and I was having a quiet coffee whilst waiting to take the girls to town. Kate had an acrobatics class and was getting ready (that generally means a protracted episode with make up, hair straighteners and a number of household mirrors)

As she was cleaning her teeth I heard a bump...now in our house, that's a common occurence.. Jordan has been known to fall up and down stairs and once tried to take the door frame into the room with her...Ross for his sins managed to break a newly installed stair gate the first time he tried to vault over it...

...'You okay Kate?' I asked.

'Yes, it was my toe...' ...'on the ceiling'

That's 'Life with Kate.'

Kids say the funniest things..

Yesterday we had the onslaught otherwise known as Lilly! She is so busy, luckily whilst with her, she seems to create energy in me.. but when she's gone...well, the usual grandparent recovery thing!

As we walked across the yard we met one of the guys from our workshop, 'Look, here's Maurice' I said..and Lilly promptly ran up to him professing 'I've really missed you, Maurice'  Maurice and I looked somewhat surprised and bemused as she has probably only seen him once or twice before, but she sure was definite about how much she'd missed him.

As we left Maurice to go back into the house, along came Joey, Lisa's cat, twelve years old and the fat cat of our yard (he ran two tiny kittens out of town a couple of years back, despite him being spayed and also them being Queen kitties!)   'Ahh, here's Joey' I said.  To which Lilly added...'hello Joey, I've really really missed you...'

Kind of put her greeting to Maurice in perspective!

In the evening we went to see Sanctum, a James Cameron film (he of Aliens, Titanic and Avatar fame) in 3D.   Interesting, and good first 3D film to see, especially if you're not a big animation fan.  I think the story was slightly predictable and not very deep but the underwater scenes and some of the 'look-away-now' kind of moments were really good.  (Even in the opinion of our resident underwater expert.. xx)

PostSecret goes Scrapbooking!

A friend of Ross' introduced me to a website called www.postsecret.com which is updated each Sunday evening with a batch of secrets which have been received either on postcards, or by email to the guy who runs it.   It is a big thing in the US and he does books / motivational talks etc and has lots of followers.  Some of the secrets are funny, some sad and many very personal, perfect for the voyeur in me...and it would seem lots of other people!

Well this week scrapbooking has featured.. there is one postcard where someone writes that they're going to get high and scrapbook, a perfect Monday evening.... and an email which says ' I'd rather spend twenty bucks on craft supplies than three grand on a shrink.'   My sentiments exactly.. except in my case it's blogging which also helps, though my scrapbook pals have also been great friends to me, and I'm sure they'd like to charge me a little?!

Quote today..

.. on this blog reads :

'There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves'

written by a hungry man?