Thursday 26 March 2009

Need not Want

It's official, I need a swift.



-- Post From My iPhone

Uniform

This is my first weekday home with Foxy -- not ill -- in a long time. So glad term is over, these days are fab. I have a weekend uniform that I am wearing today too. It makes me feel Mumsy in a good way and has really useful pockets at the front. I want more of these pinafore dresses!


-- Post From My iPhone

Wednesday 25 March 2009

I'm Back!

What a difference a week makes. I am feeling FABULOUS. Not only is term over, but I had a lovely weekend away with my Mum. We went to the Earnley Concourse. Mum did a course on short story writing. She was a hit! The other folks on her course kept grabbing me and telling me what a clever Mum I have, and how great her stories were. I did, well, nothing. It's not the done thing, but I knew I'd have very little energy, and nothing took my fancy enough to be worth it. I loved every minute of it.

It's a beautiful place with lovely grounds:



I tried to get a nice picture of Mum, but she pulls odd faces. Fortunately she suggested that we take pics of each other taking pics:


It was absolutely perfect Spring weather.


And I excelled at doing nothing.


Seriously, in two days all I managed was to turn a couple of heels and listen to the whole of Freakonomics (LOVE popular social science), and the start of A Tale of Two Cities thanks to Heather of Craft Lit. This is something I would NEVER manage to plough through on my own. Heather cuts in during the first couple of chapters and explains what in heck is going on. Now I'm hooked. Who knew?

All this was interspersed with PLENTY of yummy, if slightly institutional, food:


This place attracts a certain clientele.

Lovely people. I'm not dreading retirement.

Monday 16 March 2009

Short Break

I'm taking a short break from blogging. Just a week. Foxy was ill last week, but fortunately was back to his old self on Saturday. Sadly it didn't last. He's ill again. So we shall be juggling work & child care again this week. Luckily, we are not as busy as we were last week, when poor Mum came down to look after Foxy and then got ill herself :-(.

It's the last week of term. I can't wait for it to be over, but I do have a list as long as my arm to get through. Then I have a marvelous weekend away, which I shall blog about on Monday.

Till then. Have a good one.

Monday 9 March 2009

Budget Game

I'm the one who deals with the finances. It's tricky when I get asked things like, "Can we afford to go on holiday this summer?" I mean, how do I answer that? So, I decided that Nearest & Dearest needed to become INFORMED and INVOLVED. Obviously, I turned it into a game.

Preparation. I went through the last four months of bank statements, and figured out what we have been spending our money on. Next, I found a web-site where I was able to download monopoly money to print out. FInally, I wrote each category (e.g., water bill, electric, mortgage, food, etc) on index cards.


The Game. Part 1. Nearest & Dearest took a handful of the monopoly money and had to guess how much we spend on each category per month. There were some clangers, if only council tax were only £90! And thank goodness home insurance ISN'T £130. After some corrections, we moved on to...

Part 2. We each took turns "saving" money by taking money away from various categories. Our different choices were interesting. Luckily, we agreed that we would rather eat rice and beans than give up the cleaner. In the end, we compromised on ways to squirrel away around 10% of our income.

A whole evening's entertainment, and I feel a weight has been lifted. All good.

My Mirror

The last few weeks have been busy. I've been stressed, rushed, and grouchy. To top it all off, Foxy has been BITING, whiney, and grumpy. It's been ok, but kinda hard going.

Then Friday. I was so happy about the upcoming weekend, so calm, so cheerful, so patient. Voila, Foxy has been a joy. The boy is my mirror. Uncanny.

Anyway, we had a great weekend. Pretty low-key, and Grandma P was with us which is especially nice for me coz I get some guilt-free me time. The highlight was a day-trip to Park Barn Farm. Foxy's just getting old enough to enjoy such things. Hurrah!




Sorry, love, my photography skills are still pretty crap:

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Breakfast in Bed...

is something that Nearest & Dearest and I used to do almost daily. Nothing fancy, but it is such a nice way to start the day. Obviously things have changed. But this morning, N & D was awake first, and announced that she would bring us breakfast in bed. Fabulous. The Foxy woke up. Undeterred, she brought up a cup of milk and banana for the little guy.


He was bemused, but thought it was ok. No lounging for this boy, though. He was most anxious to get downstairs for his second course.