Happy Families

Well, actually, girls, my house is sparkling! But thanks for asking- it was inspired by you that I filled my squirter with vinegar and water, scrumpled up Tuesday's papers (pausing briefly over the picture of Patrick Swayze), and cleaned windows throughout the land. This having cleaned all the floors of the land, washed dishes, fed two small boys, collected a bigger boy, and listened to four boys play slightly unsupervised in the garden!




And did I mention that I also made it to the Bean- recently discovered but increasingly beloved coffee shop in a garden village- for an hour's green tea break with its regulars. Oh and homework is done too; ode to joy!

A day of happy, after two and a half weeks of unhappy, slowly readjusting to routine, families.

I'm just off now to cook from scratch... Who knows what tomorrow holds?

1. The Defender of the Weak
2. My mother's little envelopes
3. Good enough teachers
4. A job!
5. Colin and Anne Welsh and their piano
6. New friends
7. Old friends
8. The jagged humour index of five year plans
9. Suns with all their scramble
10. Prince Charming

Scrambled

It's been a scrambled day today in the Land of the Strawberries. In France scrambled egg is served as a sophisticated starter, with much aplomb, and is certainly never cold by the time it gets to the table!

Here for Sunday tea we serve up the remnants of a cracked and whisked up day. But at least, at Jojo's insistence, the nearly seasonal plate hides the ghosts for a short time...

Motherhood I know in my head to be a long-term process, as I know that to make an omelette... But I've only got one basket for these eggs, and sometimes it gets heavy!

Catching up: Retail Therapy or Both Boys Go To School

Imaginate or fictionalise?

With credits to Crafting Catherine for the splurge incentive and C for the philosophical conundrum...

Stars

Thank you, Sarah, but the star is all yours!

It proves that very little encouragement goes nonetheless an extremely long way. A pat on the back for all those high-achieving academic teenage girls who don't believe in their power.

Seek and find

You can take Hide and Seek with you to any location,



find some sun as well, if you're lucky,

and even some partially hidden meaning in Ulster-Scots!

But you'll easily spot the biggest aeroplane* in the world as it flies twice over your head! Four huge engines roar a Fanfare for Autumn.

*Aeronautical engineer/PC points out that it is actually the world's biggest commercial aeroplane. We stand corrected, but no less impressed!

First Conker Hunt of 2009

Off we went. Two responsible (?) adults and six assorted children. And two bikes. Conker sites separated by a very busy road. I'll say no more; the mother of one child reads this blog! Same child declared "This Conker Hunt is the best ever!" I learnt that early conkers are silky white pearls- when you stamp on the shells to squeeze them open...