Missing all the great weather

I spent the best part of last week in bed with an awful flu bug that really floored me, I guess all the stress lately has left me slightly run down.

During the time I was ill Cameron was a little poppet. He entertained himself very well. He got the air drying clay out and made a series of Ben 10 action figures, read a lot, made comics, made a mask and claws inspired by X-men (Marvel characters being one of his new interests) , I'm sure he did a lot more that I have no idea about! He was very attentive and offered to get me drinks, laptop, boxes of tissues, blankets etc. (hopefully that isn't classed as domestic servitude!). He was slightly miffed that we didn't get his Beano on the day it came out but didn't moan too much!

I was so cross that I had caught this bug as we were just starting to get back into a nice calm rhythm when I last posted and the weather was so gorgeous. I'm bouncing back this week though, easing into a gentle daily rhythm, no rushing, treating myself kindly, getting back on the yoga mat and hopefully getting back to full health.

While the weather is so glum I intend to cook some meals to put in the freezer, I got caught short when I was ill and we had to survive on a less than ideal diet (much to Cameron's delight!). I want to be prepared in case it happens again with something healthy but easy to prepare sat waiting in the freezer to aid recovery.

Right now we are both quite excited about a new project Cameron is working on. He has been desperate to be featured in a book (even thinking up crazy ideas to get in the Guinness Book for records - don't even ASK what he was planning for that!) and so I have been looking into self publishing sites. We have budgeted so that we can afford to publish a book that he makes, just a small amount of copies. I thought this would be a really fabulous idea for Christmas presents for family this year too. Cameron is busy working away on stories, illustrations, story ideas etc. He's extremely excited and it's lovely to see.

Beautiful Day

Cameron and I spent the most part of today out in the woods searching for a little spot to call our own over the warmer months. We found a nice little area off the path by a little stream of water. It will be quite private when the trees are fully in leaf.

We sat in glorious sunshine and ate our lunch and then spent some time building an improved stepping stone bridge across the water, which was very low today. It was so calming, only the bubbling sound of the water and the birds singing.

As we made our way out of the woods Cameron said "I've got 2007 fever" (2007 was when he came out of school) "I feel more alive than EVER!". Words to warm this Mother's heart if ever there were some, it was a very reassuring moment for me.

We stopped off at the ice-cream parlour on the way home, Cameron's choice of flavour today was mint choc chip.

Tubey the Amazing Escapologist

I woke suddenly from a really awful dream at 3.30am this morning hearing a loud rustling noise and automatically thought we were being burgled. We have been burgled three times since living in this area (despite it being quite a good one) so I was absolutely terrified to be checking the house in the middle of the night on my own.

I went round the entire house and the doors and windows were all closed and locked, nothing appeared to be missing. I had a drink, went to the toilet, told myself it must have been part of my bad dream, switched the lights back off and heard the rustling noise again. I turned around and saw Tubey, our hamster, scuttling out of the bathroom and onto the landing like this was a regular occurrence for him!

It took me about half an hour to catch him and get him back in his cage. Cameron woke up and owned up to having left the cage open earlier on whilst giving him some extra bedding.

What a drama! Needless to say I didn't get a very good nights sleep.

We have no idea how Tubey managed to get from his cage, which is quite high up on a shelf, and all the way up the steep stairs. He had a massive drink when he got back into his cage and has been asleep ever since - it must have been quite the adventure for him.

Easter continued

On Good Friday we planted potatoes and sunflowers as is traditional. We are trying three different varieties of potato this year and red velvet sunflowers for a change.

Saturday was a quiet day of waiting. We finished decorating our eggs for the all year round ring and Cameron has been making himself at home in the attic which, when decorated, will be his new playroom.

Today we prepared an Easter feast. It's amazing how a simple white table cloth and a few candles can transform the kitchen table to make a real sense of occasion, even the sun came out to help us celebrate. Far away from the snow of last Easter.

We baked some exceptionally nice fluffy bread today, so simple yet had such a presence on the table.

Wishing you all a happy Easter, however you celebrate :o)

Maundy Thursday

Bread cockerels and green soup to mark Maundy Thursday. We used the broccoli soup recipe from Apples for Jam but I think herby ones are more traditional.
We had fun trying to make the cockerel shapes out of bread dough whilst discussing how funny it would be if the English monarch still washed the feet of thirteen people on this day each year!

Preparing for Easter

Over the last few days, the mood in our house has been slowly but surely transitioning to a calmer and more happy vibe. We are starting to look towards the future, make plans and open up about feelings we have been keeping to ourselves.
Preparations for Easter have begun - the nature table is changing, eggs are appearing on the all year round ring. We are looking back on our celebrations from last year and repeating the parts we enjoyed.
Yesterday we blew some eggs to decorate, when we looked back at pictures of this from last year we saw that Cameron had chosen to wear the exact same top for this activity (although it's way smaller on him now)!


I have been trying out some decoupage eggs, inspired by this article in Martha Stewart Living Magazine. Cameron has been using felt tips (I'm amazed we still own some of these, we never use them) to make red and black menace striped eggs. I think he might try stripy menace eggs using tissue paper to dye them too.
With the eggs we made a bread and butter pudding using some leftover banana bread which was really yummy.

Today I also wanted to link to a post on the Blue Yonder blog. It seems really relevant to a lot that's going on at the moment. It isn't aimed in any one particular direction, I just found it a useful reminder for myself and wanted to share.

101 Things #34

Clear credit card balance

I've excelled myself with this list item and managed to clear both my cards which is a big accomplishment for me, especially after a birthday. My goal with this now is to keep the balance(s) at zero.

Sunshiny Days

I hope you're all enjoying the beautiful weather as much as we are!

Nine

We celebrated Cameron's ninth birthday this week. Nine already - where does the time go?

My brief for the cake this year was menace stripes. We substituted the black stripes for tastier chocolate ones and I used some proper professional food colouring for the icing which I've been reading about in The Gentle Art of Domesticity (see side bar for details).

This years presents included a fabby wooden tree house for playing with his Gogos Crazy Bones, a whole family of hoobs (including a new Baby Tom as the old one is falling apart) and books galore. I made him a home made Dennis the Menace card as I couldn't find one in the shops and a comic which was on my list of 101 things to do. The most played with things of the day though, were balloons and blowing bubbles!

We had cinnamon buns for breakfast and a pretty quiet day at Cameron's request. Mango smoothies from Cameron's favourite cafe, a trip to the park for a run around, cake and chinese food. Cameron kept thanking me for the best birthday ever - such an improvement on last year.