{quilt} while you're ahead

11**2013

Today we woke up to this:

No this is not my house, but the local architecture is even more beautiful in the snow.

This is my driveway

Slowly we went from this

to this

(I know different bush... but I had my slippers on at this point and didn't want to get my feet wet!!)

So I dressed the boys (no school today)

and chucked them out...

the little angels...

Not.

I watched them from the window,

of course that was to encourage independent play... it had nothing to do with the blizzard like conditions and the mug of Assam tea with vanilla in my hand.  Of course.

After a while my guilt inducing Catholic upbringing won over and we headed to the park.

Sigh.

For a sledging session.

Or so I thought.

 

Sitting down on sledges is sooooooo last year.

142//2012

- What a week. 

- I finally went to see 'Breaking Dawn, part 2'.  Awesome.

- I'm re-reading the Hobbit.

- No 2 and I went to see "The making of Harry Potter/Warner Bros Studios".  Absolutely brilliant.

(he walked around with a grin the whole time.  His cheeks were sore at the end of the day!  The real sets are there... totally worth it if you're a fan)

- And totally in tune with his personality he agonised on which wand to purchase: Dumbledore or Voldemort?  He who mustn't be named lost by a tiny tiny tiny marging and the 'good' elderwand' came home with us.  Phew.  (This won't make any sense at all if you're not a Harry Potter fan, I apologise)

- I ought to get back to real life now.

- No 3 was the only one left at home on Tuesday and when I asked him what he wanted to do he said "I want to go to a museum"

- ?!  (be still my heart)

- So we went to "the folk museum" in Gloucester.

which is lovely and quaint and very interesting.

- I found a beautiful old cross-stitch pattern I'd like to try making

- Last night we had a family trip to here to see this.  Really good.

- And now we have another doctor appt for No 1 whose cough is not going away...

- and then we're going to flop.  Totally flop.  Completely flop.  Like the floppiest flopping floppers you've ever seen.

- I'll try popping over here in between flopping... but don't worry if you don't see me... 

- Merry Christmas.  Be good.  Enjoy.

139//2012 {{No 2 writes a poem}}

By No 2:

 

"Sparkling light"

Argos the snail

Balanced as a fox's tail

stuck in the universe core

 

Argos the snail dodges

the North Arrow

Shot by Sagittarious the archer

 

The arrow

goes as fast as the speed of light

as it flies across the sky

 

The arrow 

as sharp as a sword

slices glistening in the sky

 

Move over Baudelaire, you're soooo last century.

137//2012

..." tell me why I don't like Mondays... I want to shoot the whole day down..

- Yup, here we go again.

- I'm not enjoying playing Father Christmas: No 1 has outlandish desires and wants of the 'over my dead body' variety.  No 2's list could be enough for the next 5 Christmases. No 3 doen't say much "because Father Christmas knows anyway"... oh no she doesn't my son... if you only knew the risky game you're playing...

- Exhausting.

- on the plus side the kitchen smells deliciously of hyacinth

- and the orchid is in full bloom

- On Sunday morning I spent two hours in below 0C temperature watching grumpy kids playing touch-rugby on frozen ground.  I'm starting to defrost now.

- On Sunday afternoon I spent two hours trying to convince two frozen and grumpy children that not doing homework 'because they don't feel like it's not an acceptable mode of behaviour.  And if that was the case I didn't really feel like cooking dinner at all either.

- We made a deal.  They produced uninspiring homework in exchange for an uninspiring meal.  The big circle of life.

- On the subject of homework: you can never predict what they'll find to distract themselves:

- Please tell me I'm not alone here.

- The Christmas mugs have come out of the cupboard:

- No 1 left for the school bus slamming the door behind him this morning.

- I picked up 13 paper airplanes prototypes off the floor.

- And Mr M is in New York for work.

- Happy Monday to you too.  

 

 

 

136//2012 {{Boys' Advent Calendar)

This year I've taken a slightly easier option:

(yes, the dresser is chipped... let's call it 'shabby chic', please?)

The gorgeous paper bags are from IKEA.

Inside there are chocolate things and sweets and small little presents, the odd coin, all time three of course.  One for each of the boys.  They take it in turns choosing a random bag, but I couldn't face arguments first thing in the morning (yeah, shocking, my boys do argue sometimes!) so everybody gets the same.

And then the teachers can deal with the 9.00 sugar high.

Ha.

Actually I don't believe in the whole sugar high thing... mine are bonkers all the time anyway.

Have a good weekend and wrap up warm.  It's incredibly cold out there.

134//2012

No 3 lost his second tooth the other night.

This is the note he wrote to the tooth fairy.

I'd like to inform you that Flossy did not pay out the suggested amount.  An agreement was reached however that was satisfactory to both parties.

132//2012

- Monday morning. Again.

- I'd love to tick off a lot of things off my list this week... but it's a little daunting... over-achieving has never been my forte so I know I'm setting myself up for a spectacular failure.

- Maybe I should just go back to this:

(don't ask me why I took a photo of my bedroom at night... I don't know)

- Instead I must try to keep under control the boys' bedrooms.  Last week, I discovered No 3 had built a "No 3's museum" in his own honour, instead of tidying up his desk (too scary for public viewing):

- and he'd hid this note under his bed:

(we operate a strict policy of zero tolerance on swearing in this house... and I guess he just had to let it out somehow... on the plus side the spelling is correct!)

- No 1 missed a couple of days of school because of flu.  He must have been really ill because not once he asked to play on the computer.  

- No 2 had an athletic competition this weekend.  When Mr M asked him if was ready to compete in the morning (the slumped, still wearing pjs, sleepy look frankly suggested otherwise), he replied "Dad, I was born ready".

Ok, no need to work on the self-belief there.

- Whilst he was wrapping himself in glory I had one of the worst coffee of my life

I had to use the handle of my crochet hook to try to dissolve the 'mud' (I swear it wasn't coffee) at the bottom of the cup in the melting-lava-hot-water.  The 'foam' must have been made with some sort of silicon based compound too.  It just wouldn't melt.

- On the plus side I finished another present and I'm up to date with the wrapping of the bought ones.

(do you find it's difficult to photograph red things?)

- There isn't going to be a late stint of wrapping of Christmas eve this year... ohhh noooo.

- Although... where do you hide the presents?  I might have to start a spreadsheet to remember where everything is!

- We have had terrible problems with Larry and Barry.  Cute Larry reached dwarf Russian hamster maturity and his testosterone level shot sky high.  He decided his mate Barry wasn't a mate no-more and tried to kill him.  Nature ain't always pretty and fluffy.  Territorial little beasts they are.

- This is Barry:

and this is all Barry wants to be left to do... 

- They now live side-by-side in different cages and peace is restored.

- And now I must go and work-out why the washing machine refuses to drain... sigh. 

113//2011

It happens every once is a while... I get sooo bored of cooking the same food, sooo bored of eating the same food.  Bored of shopping for the same food even.

So when it happens, out come the recipe books and the conflict management manuals (the boys are not adventurous eaters and the dinner table turns into a negotiating table... the Middle East problems pale in comparison to trying to convince my children to eat something with 'mustard' for example.  Blackmails, monetary and time on the computer incentives are common currencies.  Sometimes threats if I think that a new level of ridiculous excuses has been reached.  Never actual physical violence... yet.)

Seriously, how hard must it be to like 'chicken soup'.  Ok, the dumplings might not be for everyone... but chicken soup???

No 1 ate the chicken only, no soup or dumplings.

No 2 ate the chicken and the dumplings but not the soup

No 3 ate the chicken and the soup but not the dumplings.

(Mr M ate everything, he's learnt what's good for him!)

Sigh.

The recipe was from "Mad Hungry, feeding men and boys", by Lucinda Scala Quinn.

Two days later I went on the attack again: we had chicken and bacon pie (ok, ok, I realise it's chicken again...).

No 1 loved it. Miracles do happen.

No 2 complained and ate it begrudgingly - I suspect it was hunger more than anything else that made him.

No 3 didn't like the sauce (!!) or the puff pastry (!!).

Mr M is on schedule for a big Christmas present because he ate it all once again.

 

I ate the leftovers for lunch with green beans. Delicious.

The recipe this time came from "Pieminister, a pie for all seasons" by Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon.

I am not giving up my campaign... their taste buds will be trained.  

I'm thinking 'chilli' next... any good (easy) recipe I should try?

109//2012

The ebbs and tides of life...

... the high

two very excited boys started school today

... the low

I was left with thirty single socks.

Houston we have a problem.

 

97//2012

Boys boys boys.

and parks

and bikes for them

and benches for me.

We have ten days together before they fly to Italy and end the summer with nonno and nonna on their own.

We're keeping busy.