Mother's Day

Artwork by Piers Harper

Here in the UK this Sunday is Mother's Day. 

To mark the occasion I would  like to share with you a conversation that took place between me and No.1 Son (aged 15) earlier this week.

Here it is...

WORLD BOOK DAY ...

... Or, Really?  Again already?

World Book Day - it's a laugh, innit? 

I wonder, actually, if this is - as the name would suggest - a Global Thing?  Are there parents World - Wide stressing themselves sweaty wondering how on earth they are going to fashion a Book Character Costume for their Beloved Offspring?

I know many people hate and despise World Book Day.  I was listening to one woman complaining about it yesterday morning in the supermarket - but she was also banging on about her 'fat feet' and 'this awful weather', so maybe she was just having an off-day.
I actually quite like Book Day, I love seeing the kiddies racing around the playground in their costumes - and it does seem to get them talking about books...for a bit, at least.

UN-PACKED LUNCHES . . .

...Or, Oh Sweet Lord that's Gross...

This wasn't gross.  This was lovely.
Beautifully modelled by my pal, the equally lovely Mrs B

Aaaah, the end of another Half Term Holiday (although I do believe they are no longer called that - but I'm bejiggered if I can keep up with the new term numbers) and, having spent a week rising at my comparative leisure and remaining pyjama-clad until after nine o'clock, I found myself assuming my regular position at the kitchen counter prepping the kiddies' lunches.

It was all going rather smoothly, until I asked Child No.2 to find his water bottle.

He could not.

But he did find ... this ...

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT ...

... My Kids

Could it be the fast-approaching St Valentine's Day that has got me talking about love?  It could.  But not necessarily.

Here is the first installment in a New Series of  'Things I Love' ..er.. things.

This time on the subject of my kids.

Oh yes, here I go a'sharing...

GHOULIES AND GHOSTIES AND LONG-LEGGED BEASTIES...

Or...It's Starting to Look a Lot Like Hallowe'en

 

"This is Hallowe'en, this is Hallowe'en...Pumpkins scream in the dead of night."
 
Danny Elfman and Tim Burton, eh?  You've gotta love 'em.

Okay, so it's not actually Hallowe'en yet.  But that doesn't mean I'm not preparing for it.  Because I am. 
In fact, I usually prepare for Hallowe'en from around November 1st.

DECORATING...

...Or, The Sometimes Interesting Effects of Paint Fumes

Yep, recently I have been 'decorating'.  I use the inverted commas purely to highlight the fact that it might not be everyone's idea of decorating.  No carefully selected ornaments, accent colours or wall art here.  Just everything out of the room, a couple of coats of paint on walls and woodwork, and everything back in the room. Sometimes even before the paint's dry.

It works for us.  Luckily our house is old and rustic and so can take this wanton approach.

The reasons for this re-decoration spurt ... (I say 'spurt' -  again, might not be everyone's idea of a spurt.  But two rooms in the space of a couple of months is a spurt as far as I'm concerned) ... Yes, the reasons for this spurt are manyfold.
And here (in No Particular Order, as the lovely Dermot O'Leary would have you believe) they are...

COOKING WITH KIDS . . .

Or...The Trouble with Cooking with Kids

(I am of course referring to the act of cooking alongside children.  Not using them as an ingredient).

Nothing can be finer, can it, than spending time cooking with your kids?

Well, yes, frankly - plenty of things are finer.  Earwax removal... Filing Tax Returns...Paper-Cuts....

I am quite sure there are about a gerzillion parents who adore cooking with their offspring.

I am not one of them.

In the heady days of Summer Last I made the mistake of declaring in public that I would teach each of my children to cook.  I can laugh now...

INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE...

...Or, Learning a Musical Instrument at School.

( Oooh!  Talking about music on the day that, Google informs me, would be Clara Schumann's 193rd birthday.  Spoooooky.)


The start of another school year - and once again it is time for the Curriculum Meeting with the teachers.  Just one meeting for me this year as, for the first time in about a trillion years, I only have one child at Primary School.

I quite enjoy these sessions - reading down the list of planned trips and projects I'm my daughter is going to have to do over the next few weeks,

And I'm such a nostalgist (is that a word?) I love harking back to my own projects on 'Milk' and 'Beethoven' and...actually, that's all I can remember.

EDUCATIONAL GAMES FOR CHILDREN...

Or...What I learnt about my Daughter

(In fact, should that be 'learned'..?)

Cute, eh?  So is my daughter.
Also evil.

After dinner, while still sitting around the table, I decided it would be nice to play a game together.  Mindful of the long summer holiday which has been filled with way too much computer game time, I wanted to think of something that would encourage our three children to perhaps use their brains a little.

Baby Steps first though, I thought  (also, this was the best I could come up with.  Perhaps someone else needs to challenge their brain a little, hmm?) - and with an enthusiasm in my voice usually reserved for chocolate/mallow-based snacks, I said...

IT AIN'T OVER TIL THE FAT LION SINGS...

I have just eaten a slice of toast and marmalade and am the right side of a Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows (pink and white) even though I was neither hungry nor thirsty
I am a comfort eater. 
This is not news to me.

I've just got back from No.2 Son's Primary School Leavers' Assembly. The event I've been dreading since No.1 Son's Leavers' Assembly three years ago.

I DON'T THINK MY SON'S TEACHER LIKES ME...

Our Secondary school uses a 'platform' website (I have no idea) to send email message alerts and to set homework etc.

This week I got one such alert informing me that No.1 Son 'may have been marked absent' and that I should check on the website for more details.



I found a few bits of homework that should have been completed several years ago, but could I find anything on the website about attendance?  I could not. 

RANDOM

Well it's been a funny old week, all a bit random.  So, rather than try to ravel each thread into something a bit more cohesive, I am Embracing the Random and posting it all here.

Not strictly speaking a bush, but hedge. 

Bush Feeding Lady
Okay, that could go in all sorts of directions - but here is what happened. 
Walking The Dog the other day , we lingered a-while on the bridge over the river.  We do this a lot as Dog likes to look at the ducks (and I like to look out for any scary looking hounds I may need to hide from).   Only on this particular occasion there was not a single duck to be seen. 
And yet, on the other side of the bridge (the Cyclists side, for shame!) was a lady throwing copious amounts of bread with an impressive over-arm action.
As subtly as I could (turning up the collar of my mac, whistling casually and inwardly cursing that I couldn't remember the theme tune to The Third Man) I sidled over to see what she had found to feed.
Perhaps some early ducklings? I do so love a duckling. 
But no...

ART 'N' CRAFT CLUB

Two posts on the bounce on the theme of Crafting?  Why, surely I am spoiling you . . .(?!)

Yes, after-school Art & Craft Club has started up again (I took a break after Christmas due to family commitments) and our first session was on Tuesday afternoon.

I was quite looking forward to it, a new batch of 6 victims children eager to express themselves through the medium of whatever I bung on the table.

Trouble was, this week turned out to be rather more miss than hit. 
As it was a brand new group, I decided to keep things simple so I could get a feel for the mixed range of abilities.   I had fond memories of drawing with wax candles as a child and then covering it with a wash of paint.  I still think it's epic now, watching the invisible wax drawing come to the fore, as if by magic (it's true, I don't get out much).

So off I went to school, spring in my step, song on my lips, unfeasibly heavy Craft Bag hanging from the crook in my arm...

EASTER VISITORS

Easter in our house is not a major event like, say, Christmas or the World Cup, but it is quite a peaceful time for us all to spend a few days together; catching our breath after the barrage of birthdays that befall us twixt the beginning of February and the end of March.



My Easter Table Centrepiece.
Tasteful, no?
No...I know.



Easters at Grandma and Grandpa's are a tad busier - with country walks, decorating eggs with fabric scraps, flowers and onion skins (really, the results are lovelier than you might imagine), church on Sunday and an afternoon Easter Egg Hunt - before collapsing, completely exhausted and stuffed with food.

With my default setting being 'Basically Lazy', Easter at home is rather more centred around loafing.  Indeed, thanks to the generally relaxed atmosphere on Good Friday, it was 8pm before anyone even thought about dinner - and that, in the absence of any better ideas, consisted of a bowl of breakfast cereal each.

It's Good Friday - Easter Cake Competition

I am having a proud moment, and feel duty bound to inflict it on share it with the good users of the World Wide Web.

No.3 child - the 9 year old girl one - won the Key Stage 2 (what used to be called Juniors when I was at school) Easter Cake Competition.

So, for your delight and general bemusement, I give you

The Prize-Winning-Easter-Cake

"Bunny Race"

All her own work :)







Bless her, I'm so proud

Not Entirely on Top Form

I am lagging at the mo.

No. 3 child didn't even have a school jumper this morning.  Had to retrieve one from the wash and squirt it with Eternity to reduce the mustiness.

Not sure Calvin Klein is entirely appropriate for someone who's just turned 9.

The next ad campaign?
Well it is black and white...

It's a Love Thing

Just wanted to quickly share.....

I was in my youngest's school this morning  (I was allowed, it's okay)  to watch the assembly.

A regular feature of assemblies is the Celebration Bench - where children from each year are nominated for something . . . well . . .worth celebrating. 

The categories often make me chuckle - they seem to range from 'finding the prettiest leaf in the playground' to 'fixing the large hadron collider''.

But today we had a real 'catch your breath' moment.

February the Howmany?

Aaaah....you've got to feel sorry for the kiddies born on March 1st this year, haven't you?

My Middly Kiddly is most aggrieved at having to wait A WHOLE EXTRA DAY until his birthday tomorrow.  Bless.  The rest of us (in our family) have birthdays either before, or so long after, the leap that it makes barely a jot of difference.

He's feeling it for us all.

And he won't have his ire quelled by being to told to think about the kiddies who were actually born on February 29th, who have to wait FOUR YEARS for their actual birthday.

Because, hey, what the Sam Heck does that have to do with anything?!?!

Who Turned The Lights Back On?

Anyone seen the matches?

We have, quite literally, just come out of a 2 hour power cut. 
I do appreciate this is not unusual for many people in many parts of the world, but here in ruralish-shire we tend to escape these little interruptions. 
So it was met with some excitement by Kids Nos.1-3 and this reminded me and the Best Beloved of our childhood - growing up in the long, dark, Winter of Discontent.  (At least I think that was what they called it.  That may have been another time altogether, but hey ho). 
Anyway, we had power-cuts a-plenty and they were all very thrilling for the under 16s.  Not so marvellous for the adults, who had to keep everyone warm and fed, regardless of having one arm tied metaphorically behind their back.