Why??

Photo credit - immrchris

In order to ease myself back into blogging (if you don't use it, you lose it and I seem to have lost a few blogging muscles recently!), I have got myself tagged in a meme to make me get my finger out and write. It doesn't really help that I have quite a bit of work on at present and my head is full of other people's words as one of my assignments is typing up a manuscript over 25,000 words long.

Anyway, I was tagged by Very Bored in Catalunya to take part in this one, originating from the good ladies at Mummy Central. The idea is to turn the tables on your children, who constantly ask why (and God knows, my two do) and have your own vent.

Here goes.

Why do you wake up so early the morning after we've let you stay up late?

Why do I send you to find something, only for you to come back and say you can't find it, yet I find it straight away when I go to look?

Why do you squirrel things away in your school bag in the hope I won't notice when I can tell just from picking it up what it's got in it?

Why do you want a toy every time you enter any retail establishment, whine or stamp your feet if I say no, but if I say yes, you play with it for an hour then never touch it again?

Why can I not go to bed and sleep earlier in the night so I can get a decent night's sleep and get up at a reasonable time?

Why do you not want to hug me until I want to sit down and get on my laptop, then you insist on sitting right up close to me and lean over my shoulder?

Why, when you go out to play, do you come in and go back out again several times an hour until it's time for tea, or bath, or bed?

Why do you only want food when you don't have anyone to play with?

Why are you complete angels at school and the teachers not recognise the children I describe when I tell them what you are like at home? Why can't you be angels for me?

Why can't you learn to shut doors, turn lights off, wash hands, flush toilets and tidy rooms without me having to remind you every two minutes?

Why do I have to start every day you're at school by clearing up the mess you have made in the living room?

Why are you last out of school on the days we have to be somewhere by 4, but first out if we have nowhere to go?

Why do you spend all day complaining that Daddy is not here but once he's home, only want me?

That's better. I feel cleansed.

Do you want a go? I'm tagging a few people but *hangs head in shame* I've not quite reached the requisite 5 so I might get told off! Here are the guidelines:

1. Post your whys – as few or as many as you like.
2. Link up your post below, and it would be great if you could leave a comment too.
3. Tag 5 bloggers to keep this going.
4. If you’re not a blogger, leave your whys as a comment below. We’d love to read them.
5. Show your support by reading a few others and commenting on them.

So, my taggees are:

Sally from Who's the Mummy?

Sonia from This Mummy Loves

Rachel from Mummyglitzer

Dave from The Big Div

And if you want to be a fifth, just tag yourself. What are you waiting for?

The Olympic meme

It's been a while since I last did a question and answer meme so when Lou from Bloggomy tagged me in her Olympic meme, I had to join in. We're stupidly excited about the Olympics in this family, which is unsurprising given our love of sport.

Lou has asked nine questions for me to answer so here we go.

1. If every day tasks were Olympic events what would you get a gold medal in?
Tweeting, perhaps? On second thoughts, Hidden Talent is currently on my telly which I've found fascinating. I did some of the online tests and I got 6 out of 6 in the lie detection test so maybe I could win a gold for that too.

2. As a child (or now even) did you excel at a particular sport and if so which one?

Lord, no. I was always rubbish at sport and still am. I may be a fitness freak but I certainly do not excel.

3. Michael Phelps (swimmer) or Michael Johnson (runner) - which sport appeals to you more?

Running. I'm going to be very British here - Michael Phelps made swimming a bit boring for a while when he kept winning everything. Michael Johnson was awesome but didn't dominate in the same way whilst remaining a true champion.

4. How fast can you get out of bed and ready to go out the door if miss the alarm and sleep in?

This happened to me not long ago actually. Luckily, the children were already up and dressed but hadn't had breakfast. I woke up at 8.40 (the time we usually leave for school), jumped out of bed, threw clothes on whilst shouting the children to brush their teeth, grabbed them some fruit for breakfast, piled them in the car and dashed to school (within legal limits of course!). They walked into school at 8.54. As it takes 5 mins to drive and a couple of minutes to get out of the car etc, I reckon we got out of the house in 5 or 6 minutes. Oh, and I now set a second alarm on the phone for 8.15 in case I miss the first one!

5. What fantasy sport would you like to see made into an Olympic event?

Omelette making. I love the omelette challenge on Saturday Kitchen. It could be the 100m final of the Culinary Olympics - were there such a thing - and it would be a great topic of conversation - were they making an omelette or scrambled eggs. Imagine the controversy!

6. Claim to fame time - Have you ever met an Olympian and who was it?

Hmm. You know, I don't think I have. I have met lots of sportsmen but I don't think I've actually, knowingly, met an Olympian. Which is odd, considering so many cyclists live around here, because of our relative proximity to Manchester and the Velodrome.

7. What event in past Olympics can you remember most vividly?

I think it would have to be Kelly Holmes winning her second gold medal in Athens. Yes, I was shouting at the telly. What of it?

8. Tuning in at home, not for me or tickets clamped ready in sweaty palms?

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the football at Old Trafford. One of the sessions we picked out in May last year turns out to include a match featuring Great Britain, which is even more exciting for us all. We decided it was a trip too far to go to London with the children so the rest will be watched from home.

Edit - and our tickets arrived this morning. Even more excited now!

9. Who do you think most deserves a gold medal (any walk of life not just Olympians)?

Having just spent a long day in school as part of an interview panel to recruit a new teacher, I would have to say all teachers. They are a very underrated and sometimes beleaguered profession but they have to maintain high professional standards, have to juggle all the various aspects of their daily work and they have to jump through massive hoops just to get a job in the first place. They deserve our praise and our support but they are often an easy target.

Now I need to tag a few people to carry this on like an Olympic torch (which funnily enough, is coming to our town next week!)

They are

Kate at WitWitWoo
Helen at Casa Costello
Alice at An Essex Wife

On my birthday meme - a challenge for all bloggers!

Yes, yes, my birthday was a while back but I've had this idea in my head for a while for a meme. It was something that we did for fun when I used to post on the Handbag forums, when Wikipedia was first becoming popular and vaguely useful.

I'm kind of reviving it for the blog but I'm going to try and be ambitious for this one. I'm going to set up a linky and attempt to get at least one post for all 366 days of the year. If you add your post to it, please try to mention the date of your birthday in the link title if you can. That way, I can check through the list quickly to check how we're doing. It won't matter if we get more than one post for the same date, the aim will be at least one post for each day on the calendar.

What you will have to do is answer questions about your birthday. If you don't know where to look, the best way is to go to Wikpedia, type in your birthday in the search box and it will tell you all you ever want to know (and more) about your special day. Obviously, you can take what is said with a pinch of salt but it's mostly correct. There is also a site called On This Day which you can use but it's not as user-friendly and the lists are not as extensive.

I'm always fascinated with people and things that happened on my birthday. I'm nosey enough to want to know about all your birthdays too, and what you find fascinating about your own birthday. I'm going to tag a few people at the end of this post but don't wait to be tagged if you want to join in - blog and link up, but I would be grateful if you could tag others for me so we can spread it around a bit.

Better get on with the questions then.

When is your birthday? 6th January

Pick three people who share your birthday and share what you know about them.
My three are:
- Kahil Gibran, whose book The Prophet is an absolute favourite of mine, and I've read quite a lot of his work. He even has the same initials as me before I was married. He died before my parents were born, let alone me, so I couldn't really tell you what he was like but I bet he was interesting.
- Nigella Lawson; can you see the similarity? Whaddya mean no?!
- Andy Carroll. Oh dear.

That would make for an interesting dinner party, wouldn't it?

When I was growing up, the only famous person it was ever mentioned shared my birthday with me was Sylvia Syms. Yeah, who? Now, there seems to be a sprinkling of ageing comedian/TV presenter (Angus Deayton, Rowan Atkinson), a dodgy but loveable national football manager (Terry Venables) and a saint (Joan of Arc, allegedly). All very interesting.

Is anyone listed as being born on the same day as you (ie the same year)? If so, what do you know about them?
Erm, well, Wikipedia lists three people - an American Muslim writer, a Cuban wrestler and a Danish political scientist. Again, an eclectic mix but I've never heard of any of them ever before. I know not a sausage. I could tell you from their Wikipedia entries but I suspect you'd drop off.

List three people who died on your birthday and tell us what you know about them. 
Looking down the list, a name leapt out at me - Theodore Roosevelt, the former US president, who died in 1919. And then, in 1993, both Dizzy Gillespie the jazz trumpeter, and Rudolf Nureyev, the ballet dancer, died on the same day. Which was a surprise to me - I remembered Nureyev dying of an AIDS related illness as it was the talk of the newspapers but I don't remember Dizzy Gillespie dying at the same time.

List three notable events that took place on your birthday.
At the top of the list, it mentions that King Harold (or Harold Godwinson) was crowned on 6 January 1066. Err, yes. That ended well and was a long reign. Not. Then, a little more recently in 1947, Pan-Am became the first airline to schedule a flight around the world - yes, around the whole world! Finally, 6 January 1994 will become forever notorious as the day when the American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan got clubbed on the knee by someone paid by her rival's husband. Do you remember that? I certainly do!

Tell us about a holiday that falls on your birthday.
Well, my birthday is Epiphany and is a public holiday in many parts of the world (I live in the wrong country - I could guaranteee my birthday off every year if I moved abroad!) but it's also Pathet Lao Day in Laos and Armed Forces Day in Iraq. Also, I didn't know that it also marks the start of Carnival period which ends on Shrove Tuesday. Why did no-one tell me that another party season starts in January? We're mostly partied out once New Year has been and gone but Carnival appears to be a tradition that has passed this country by. But it would be a great excuse to start yet another party!

Finally, please tag some people who will hate you some lovely people to carry on this meme, then link back to this post so they can find the badge and link up their post once published.


I am tagging:

Ruth at Geekmummy
Nickie at Typecast
Fay at Glass Half Full
Heidi at Him, Me & Three
Angela at This is Life
Claire at CJ's Palace

Badge code is here:

  
<a href="http://thefivefsblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/on-my-birthday-meme-challenge-for-all.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjyxhv5_GZx0xYaehuzzmOFCOrmVrFNEQS5lzsKt-yqDwCMV4Cpixo-5YmVtW_3ZpU6sPfngsyZNRb5vIIbMGi4wgKTqA7FlN_ZrVFy2sIIyxPNZ_j3NKM9aXf7SbVysJHBma9ONNAFHHw/s1600/birthdaybadge.jpg" border="0" alt="On my birthday" /></a>

And linky is here. I will leave it open for over a year, but I should be able to reopen it if necessary. Get entering, people! I'm counting on you.

Paisatges

I haven't taken part in The Gallery for a while, but when I saw the theme this week was Landscapes, I thought I'd have a go. After all, I have plenty. Then, I realised that most of my photos are stuck on the laptop that I keep meaning to fix.

But, still, I often put my photos on my Dropbox account and found several on there that I could use. Even better, I had one that I hadn't used on this blog before. I think. (Someone will now find this on my blog somewhere). It is of my favourite city in the world.

Barcelona.

This was taken from the top floor of El Corte Inglés in Placa Catalunya, the main square which is regarded as the true city centre and where the old part meets the new. It's also where the Ramblas, which marches up from the sea, finally peters out. 

El Corte Inglés is a chain of department stores - which is kind of a cross between Marks and Spencer, because it has a supermarket in the basement, and John Lewis, because it's filled with designer labels.  This particular branch has about 9 floors. The top floor contains a smart restaurant where we once had the most amazing lunch - half a lobster and half a chicken with rice for about half the price it would be over there. There is also has a cheaper waiter service part and finally a self-service cafeteria where we often pop for coffee. Every time we go, we have to visitt here and I just marvel at the skyline with the Palau Nacional breaking ranks with the Montjuic hillside. 

Just looking at this photo makes me feel like I'm actually there but as it's night time in the UK and not mid-afternoon in sunny Spain, I soon snap back to reality. And then I'm wistful because I want to go there again and we currently have no plans to do so. This makes me sad. Maybe one day. 

You can find some more great landscapes over by clicking the badge below.

The ultimate Christmas meme

I can't deny I'm beginning to feel rather Christmassy, whatever that entails. With 3 days to go (I don't do sleeps), it's allowable to bang on about it in detail and not get snarled at. So, I was tagged by The Boy and Me to complete this meme, so I thought I'd give this a go.

The Christmas song I can even listen to in June is…

This one.



Hot chocolate, egg nog or mulled wine?

Mulled wine. I cannot abide egg nog, but I do drink hot chocolate. Winter pimms warmed with a star anise and a cinnamon stick and some cloudy apple juice is also very nice and similar in taste and smell to mulled wine. And if I'm being teetotal, Copella Winter Warmer and Bottlegreen Spiced Berry Cordial are suitable alternatives!

When do you put your decorations up?

We (*cough* my husband *cough*) put them up last week, somewhere around the 15th/16th. We never do it particularly early as I don't want the children to get too giddy too early, they're giddy enough as it is. I know people who have their trees up on or before 1st December. I couldn't do it.

They come down early too. My birthday is 6th January when the decorations traditionally come down. It's depressing enough, so we take them down a day or two early and we have chance to get used to it again. Ok, me, not the rest. One year, we took them down on New Year's  Eve, but we were going away straight after New Year.


What are you having for Christmas dinner?

Starter: Smoked Salmon, tho I may make something with it but it will be low effort.

Main: Turkey crown, my Dad's chestnut stuffing (it is a must in my house), pigs in blankets, freeze-ahead roasties, roast parsnips, sprouts, carrots, cranberry sauce a la Nigella, bread sauce (out of a packet, I cannot master home made), gravy. There is a possibility the kids will demand Yorkshires. I blame school dinners.

Dessert: Golden Christmas meringues from Ruth's gorgeous blog, with an adaptation for Missy Woo who claims not to like mincemeat or cream, so I'm doing a bananas and yogurt version of the filling for her) or possibly some of our Christmas cake, also from Ruth's blog with design by Missy Woo and me. D'you like it?

And I really, really do enjoy doing it. I don't get fazed by it all but I do write a full list working backwards from proposed eating time of EVERYTHING I have to do but all the peeling gets done before the big day. The last time I didn't cook Christmas dinner, I didn't really enjoy it - maybe I've got used to doing it my way.

What’s your favourite Christmas tradition?

On Christmas Eve, the children have hot chocolate before bed, husband reads them a story, and they watch Polar Express. That, or making my Dad's chestnut stuffing recipe. Or is it having Chinese on Christmas Eve? We did that as a kid and we've resurrected doing that in the last few years.

Have you ever gone carol singing?

Not actually door-to-door but I used to belong to a choir and I've done a few midnight masses at the village church and a few carol concerts. That count?

When did you discover the truth about Santa?

Well, of course he's real but one year, we had our Chinese at the International and something upset my stomach or didn't agree with me, so I couldn't sleep. I was perturbed to hear that Santa putting presents out sounded very much like my parents.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

With baubles, silly. Seriously, when I moved house in the 90s, I bought a set of blue and gold baubles. Over the years, we've now added to them - some are things made by the children, or chosen by them. Other colours have crept in and I think it looks very homely. The tree is artificial and pre-lit. What? I don't care. I don't like the hassle of dealing with real trees and the mess. There is no such thing as a no-drop real tree. And the price these days is shocking. We quite often go out late on Christmas Eve and pick up some bargains and one year, our tree was at a knock-down price in Asda. It's been going 3 years and looks like it will last for many years to come. What do you think?

All I want for Christmas is…

A KitchenAid, some form of tablet (not the pharmaceutical sort) and half the Lakeland catalogue.

Oh, to tag, it is now my solemn duty.

I tag

Claire at Ninja Killer Cat (who I still can't believe came and said hello when we were at the same event!)
Menai at Menai's Posterous
Choc at Chocolate is Therapy who needs a blogging push and anyway, she knows my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law.

but feel free to tag yourself if you want to join in and no-one else has. The above 3 saw my plea on Twitter and responded, that is all.

And if you're not around the online world over the festive season, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My awesome photo

Yes, that is the title, for that is the theme of the Gallery this week. The point is, it could be made into a huge canvas, for this is a competition.

My photography is not known for its skill and awesomeness (is that a word?) but I do have a photo on my camera which, although not taken by me, is still pretty awesome. It has featured before on this blog twice. I make no apologies for including it again because it is the favourite photo I have of one of my children. It was taken on a brilliant day for Monkey and Daddy - his second ever live game and a trip to Wembley to see Blackpool promoted to the Premier League. And yes, that still pains me to type those words.

So here it is. Possibly not awesome (although I suspect Blogger has done something funny to the photo in the upload, it does that occasionally) but I love it.

Find more awesome photos at Tara's Gallery.

My favourite Christmas song

Much as I am not into a huge build up to Christmas and I'm not happy until everything is bought, wrapped and posted, nearly every music radio station within earshot is playing Christmas songs now. I'm sure they have a mathematical formula which allows them to increase the number that they play daily until they play themselves into a Christmas frenzy by somewhere around 24th.

Anyway, Garry from The Blog Up North tagged me to share my favourite Christmas song with you. Actually, the answer to this question is on his own blog. Last year, he did a series called HUN's Musical Advent and I suggested this song and he dedicated it to me. When searching out said post, I actually found it straight away as I am such a saddo that I can even remember what day of the calendar it was.

This is the song. It's "I believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake.



The irony of it all is Greg Lake wrote it as a protest about the commercialisation of Christmas but it does sound Christmassy - and when this was released (I was 10) I was not to know that. I remember wondering why he was sat in a desert for part of it.  The words are very evocative and I always love it. It's not formulaic in the slightest and it doesn't age (unlike Greg Lake, who I suspect doesn't look anything like as boyish these days).

I think I now must tag a few more bloggers and as it's late, I'm going to have to randomly take a punt that these folk won't mind so I'm going to tag a few that like musical memes so I'm going for

Kirsty from Gone Bananas
Karen from If I Could Escape
Lynne from Honie Mummy

All they have to do is write their post, link back to me and tag a few others to carry on the fun. Peasy.

And if I haven't tagged you, feel free to join in anyway, link back and leave me a comment with the link to it.

Music Therapy

Meme tags seem to like buses - none come along for ages then several all turn up at once and you never know which one to hop on. I was tagged for this meme by both Lynne at Honiemummy (who I know in real life, I might have mentioned that before) and the ever-lovely Garry from The Blog Up North who, quite simply, is the reason I got blogging. And because they asked nicely, I thought I'd give it a go.

It's called Music Therapy and it was started by the blogger now known to all as Mammywoooooooooooo - you had to be there to understand why! I love Lexy's blog as she writes so well so it's well worth a look if you've never visited before. The idea is that you pick three songs by different artists which speak to you in some way, blog about them, then tag others to continue. As I've come late to this, I might struggle to find willing volunteers but I'm prepared to give it a go. 

Something I am proud of

Who or what makes me proud? I bet you’re not surprised to see my children below. It’s a bit of a gimme really, but I must tell you why, right at this moment, my children are making me proud.

The timing of the prompt for The Gallery couldn’t have been more apt. Two weeks ago, the children came home from school with a blank poster template. It was school council election time and they were seeking candidates. The children had to draw a picture of themselves or place a photograph in the middle and then write why they would be a good school councillor or share some of their ideas for the school council.

There are more questions than answers...

II'm regretting giving this post that title as I've been humming that tune ever since. Anyway.... I was tagged by the lovely Gemma from Storm in a K cup (more about her later) to answer the 10 questions meme. I have not done a meme in a while, if you don't count Meal Planning Monday, Life Circle or the Gallery so I thought I'd give it a go. All you have to do is answer the 10 questions, tag a few people, then return to the original post and comment so that the tagger knows you have completed your mission.

So, I'd best get on with it then!

Life Circle - Goal Setting and Week 4

Been a bit of a hard think this one, but here are my goals based on what I've learned from these exercises so far.

1. Lose weight - to reach a size 12 by Christmas.
2. Earn £300 per week within a year.
3. Complete redecoration and repairs on the house within 18 months.

They are a slight mix of things but looking back, they really reflect what I want to focus on for the moment. They are all medium term goals. I've not listed any longer term goals, because personally, I think it can be a mistake to have too many goals that you feel you're working on all at once, as there is a danger of feeling overwhelmed. I'm committed to these goals, although these goals may need some refinement.

Life Circle - The Wheel of Life

Are you ready? Off we go. It's going to be one hell of a ride! I hope this week's task was thought-provoking and useful to you. What you have probably found is that one area you're particularly unhappy with can have knock-on effects on other areas of your life, and also, that this exercise provides a focus for your thinking about what you want to change. You already know these things about yourself but they are there in the background. Most of the time, this exercise brings those issues into the foreground and they give a clearer indication of what it is that needs to change first that will have a huge effect on other areas of your life - what they call a quick win, although some solutions are not so quick, I'll admit.

Anyway, here's my Wheel of Life and some comments about the scores I want to talk about. One of my self-imposed rules on this blog is not to talk about my relationship, so I will skip talking about that on here. As I have said before, only share with your blog readers and other Life Circlers what you feel comfortable sharing. Excuse the hamfisted drawing but I wanted to use the same image! The exact scores I've given are below.

Fun and Recreation - 6. I'm generally happy with this area of my life; blogging events seem to provide plenty of opportunities to do things for me. What limits us as a family is money, so I'm sure I'd be happier if we had more disposable income and felt we could treat ourselves every now and then. When your "treat" is a coffee out, you know that you're limited in cash.

Career - 6. I started a business doing VA and business support work about 6 months ago and I've been building up working with one particular client. These last few months have taught me two things: 1) that I love doing it and want to do more but 2) I need to earn more money for the sake of our finances. I need to do more work for my existing client and find some new ones as well. I'd like to use some of the skills I learned in my 22 years in the IT sector, partly because I know that will pay more than the VA work but also to keep my knowledge current. For most of my working life, I loved working in IT - it just became quite family unfriendly when I had the children and with my husband working shifts, childcare would be quite complicated to arrange unless it was fully flexible.

Health - 7. Good but room for improvement. I'm much fitter than I was this time last year, thanks to regular exercise classes. But my goal is to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes (which are size 12) and I'm still a size 14.  I don't know how to attack this - I seem stuck but I excuse it by saying I'm having a life and not doing faddy crash diets.

Personal Development - 9. I'm actually happy with this area of my life, mainly because I feel like I learn something new every day, whether it be about my work, blogging, or parenting. I don't feel the need to go and get any more qualifications (and anyway, I couldn't afford to take on a course) and I just feel that I have a learning mentality so I will always be looking to learn new things.

Friends and Family - 7.5 I have a good set of friends. I sometimes wish I had a few more friends locally that I could meet up with more regularly for coffee and I feel I am in transition from one set of friends to another with the move to school. I have the odd issue with family that I wouldn't dream of discussing here but they are mostly outside of my control so there is no point working on it.

Environment - 6. I love our home, I've lived here for 12 years and have good neighbours. It needs a few things doing to it, but once again we are back to putting it off for lack of money. Over the next few years, we'll need to decide what we want to do about secondary schools which may involve moving. I'm not saying we will - but most of the children's schoolmates live within the catchment of a different secondary school to us. But I'm well aware things can change in the 4 years before we have to decide what to do. And I would just like the house to be less cluttered and tidier, we're overrun with toys.

Money - 4. For me, this is the key area. I've managed to spin my redundancy money out from 2009 but it's fast running out. I'm good with money so I try to budget but I know our outgoings are bigger than our income. I have everything compared to down to the cheapest going - it's not that we are excessively spending, it's just that it all adds up. I know that we cannot live on my husband's salary alone and the money has given us a breathing space until now. We still have a bit but I have one eye on it and watching my balance drop alarmingly is terrifying, for me anyway. Apart from the mortgage, I have no major debts but that could easily change if I don't start earning more money. I don't ask for much - I don't want to be a millionaire, but I feel much more comfortable when I don't have to think about every single purchase I make, which is what I'm having to do now. I'd like us to be able to go on holiday yearly, but I can't see that happening next year at the moment. And as you can see from the other scores, it's impacting on  Environment, Career (which are interchangeable really - to resolve the money issue, I need to do more work), and Fun & Recreation.

It's obvious that there's lots of things I'd like to improve but they are all in balance and I'm reasonably happy with them, but the money situation is impacting some of them and that area is what I need to focus on first and foremost to see the biggest improvements in in the short to medium term, in conjunction with developing my career and business.

So, now it's your turn. If you haven't done already, then complete your Wheel of Life, write what you've learned from the exercise, include the badge so others can find the rest of the posts in the Life Circle, publish your post then link it up below so others can have a read and offer their support. I'm hoping the Linky will stay open as long as possible so please feel free to come back to join in at any time. Don't feel obliged to leave a comment after linking up but obviously, I would welcome feedback from the rest of the Life Circle. (By the way, where it says your name, feel free to use your blog title rather than your actual name!)

If you are joining in with Life Circle, please do read some of the other posts if you can. It doesn't have to be all of them - 2 or 3 will do - but you might want to visit more for this week, in order to introduce yourself to other people joining in with the Life Circle and to get to know them. Life Circle isn't about getting traffic, it's about mutual support, so please try not to just visit the bloggers linking up first. I will endeavour to read as many posts and comment on them as possible but I may be restricted for time. The badge code, by the way, is here, but I'm hoping to place it on a page on this blog soon.

Meal Planning Monday

It's Monday so it must be meal planning time!  This week's is kind of rushed - I'd started putting together a plan on Saturday, and then on Sunday morning, I realised I would need to do the food shopping as I'm out most of the day. So, this week is slightly cobbled together as I only had written what sort of dish eg "fish" for some of the days so I had to do a hasty extra spot of planning in my head. Never good but never mind. 

So, here we go: 

The Gallery: Shoes

I don't have pretty feet. I know some people think that all feet are ugly but mine are small (for my height) and stubby, as they are wide. Wide feet are a curse as new shoes are nearly always painful for a while.

And then, at age 11, I had an operation to straighten a bent toe. This appears to have been an inherited trait as both my dad and my granddad had the same thing. In straightening my little toe on my left foot, they broke the bone and sewed it to the toe next to it. My toe doesn't look "normal" at all and I don't like the nail. So, wearing flipflops and open sandals can be a trial as said toe doesn't look very pretty. As a result, I'm not really much of a shoe person. Even winter shoes are problematic because my little toe makes my foot even wider and it can make wearing new shoes even more uncomfortable.

Meal Planning Monday

I'm back! Returned from our holiday this evening and the unpacking is done. Time to plan a week of meals for getting back into the routine. My BBC Good Food arrived and I managed to get a read of it whilst I was away on holiday and there were lots of things I wanted to try so there are a few recipes from there that I'd like to try.

Monday - Baked eggs with spinach tomato and chorizo
Tuesday - Wild mushroom and chestnut cottage pie
Wednesday - Honey mustard pork, mash and broccoli
Thursday - Pea pesto and prawn spaghetti
Friday - Sausage and bean casserole
Saturday - Onion pie
Sunday - keeping free

Seems like a reasonable mix. Two complete veggie dishes in a week and some seafood back on the menu. Sorry there are no links - either Good Food haven't added them to their database yet or they are likely to be copyrighted and not placed there, which is a shame.

Have you planned your week's meals? What are you eating next week? Why not pop to Mrs M's blog to see what other people are eating?

Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday

The Gallery - Black and White

I am not a very technical photographer. As I commented to someone only this afternoon, I probably take more photos with my phone now than I do with the camera. I like taking pictures but I am not in the finer details of it. I therefore don't do take many pictures in black and white, but thanks to the wizardry of photo editing software, I can turn anything I like monochrome. So, I've been looking through my archives, given as I'm enjoying child-free time this week and not spending too much time on the blog, fiddling with the settings and turning things black and white. After lots of messing around, I found this made the nicest picture.

Silent Sunday

Birth

As I mentioned in this post, neither of the births of my children was straightforward. Monkey's birth went on for several days, involving lots of wasted trips to hospital, extra visits for monitoring, an induction that was advised but wasn't necessary, a cervix that reached fully dilated then went backwards, a full bladder and a baby that covered everyone and everything within a 2 metre radius with poo as he made his grand entrance into the world.

So, when Missy Woo came along, I was hoping for a birth that was quicker than that, and possibly less dramatic. (I forgot the call for infant cardiac arrest at a critical moment... only to be told later that it had been a practice and there wasn't a baby in trouble at all.)