Spending time

Mmm? Oh yes, cakes. We made them, me and the boys, a couple of days ago. What's that? Oh no, I'm sorry, they've all gone. If I'd known you liked cakes I could have saved one for you. Sorry. Maybe next time.

Sorry, what was that? Were they good, did you ask? Oh yes, they were delicious. Very light, and moist, with very fine frosting on top. And the Skittles were just the perfect fruity finish.

Pardon? Oh, how did we make them without the aid of a food processor, because our food processor is broken? Oh, well, we made them the way we usually make them because I don't like the food processor anyway. We made them the lovely old fashioned way, with a wooden spoon and a big ceramic mixing bowl. Good for the biceps. So you burn off some calories whilst mixing, and then you don't have to feel guilty about eating the cakes. Perfect.

We're going to make some more in a few days. If you pop in for a visit, you may get to sample one, with a cup of tea :)

Yes, I thought it was about time we stopped turning the telly on when the young ones come in from school and nursery, and actually do something productive and fun with our time. I've been in one of my lazy spells for a few weeks, letting the kids convince me that watching telly was a good idea on week days because they were too tired to do anything else, thus leaving me free to ignore them and read my book! Terrible, terrible! Guilt, guilt - I'll get over it quickly though, I'm not the type to dwell on my bad mothering :) Once I've realised that I'm not performing at my best, I much prefer to put my energy into getting on with something fun and educational to make up for being a lame mother, rather than wallowing in a slough of self-flagellation and still achieving nothing.

So this week has seen the return of Super-Mum. She hadn't gone as far away as she had when I was reading Twilight twice over for three weeks! She'd only really gone to the end of our road, so she was still really within earshot. I shouted her back on Monday morning, and she came quite willingly. Since she came back, James and Matthew have produced a whole gallery's worth of drawings. James has really got to grips with writing his name, and he's also able to write the numbers one to five, in figures. Matthew is trying to copy, which is just marvellous - he'll be writing his name way before he goes to school if he keeps up this level of interest. Super-Mum also made plans for beautifying the garden, with plenty of jobs to keep the kids interested and happy. She bought a little green house yesterday, and the kiddoes helped to assemble it, by running around the sunshiney garden with the poles, pretending to be skiing. Super-Mum still needs a little time to get going properly, as she's had to sit down for a few cups of tea (with cake!) this week. But next week should be great - there might even be some story time, and some time for playing games, and maybe even some going out on bikes time.

Have a good weekend, all.

Super Mum, where are you??

I've just realised today that I'm going to be on my own most of next week, with all three kiddies most of the time. Kev's been warning me that a little work trip is approaching, fast followed by a week of nights. It has only just dawned on me that it's next week! Idiot. I'm not worried about it at all - it's something I kind of look forward to. Nothing to do with Kev not being here - ha ha! No, but it's good to get organised. I usually find that, for some unfathomable reason, I turn into Super Mum when Kev spends any time away. The house is always very tidy, the kids are always well behaved, I always have an endless supply of patience, and the boys are always in bed by 7pm, well-fed, well-tired, and well-bedtime-storied. And then I usually get lots of my own stuff done in the evenings too. I don't know where Super Mum goes when Kev gets back - weird. Lazy and Shouty Mum comes back, he he. But anyway, next week will be lovely. We'll still see Kev a bit, before he goes off to sleep - oo-er, hope it's nice weather so that we can go out and not keep him awake with our raucousness.

Only got nine days of the holidays left, and I'd like to get out and do some fun stuff with the kids, because we've not done much in the past few days. I took them to the Stone Jetty at Morecambe yesterday afternoon, and that was great. It's funny that some stone benches and platforms can induce so much bounciness and hilarity in three small boys. All we did was walk up and down the jetty, but they had so much fun, it was lovely. My back had had it by the evening, from carrying them from bench to bench in turn, as they pretended to fly through the air, stretched out in various poses such as Superman and Ironman; it started to get very silly very quickly, as Matthew wanted to be carried across as a sheep, then a donkey, then a piece of cheese, a stick, and so on. It was very funny.

Productive day today? Nope. Had the morning all to myself, and spent it reading! Didn't even pick up a pen - just waited for Kev and Thomas to go off to golf, then rushed upstairs to snuggle up in the comfy chair in the bay window, in full glorious Spring sunshine, reading the second book of the Twilight Saga. Sad, so very sad. I've become a seventeen-year-old again :) Pah! Well, what's wrong with that, eh? I'm enjoying myself. And as soon as I've finished blogging I will unashamedly get back to my book, ner ner ne ner ner!

(I'm actually looking forward to finishing this little series of books so that I can get back to normal, and stop thinking about beautiful vampires!)

Well, I've nothing left to ramble about right now. So I'll be off. (Sometimes I wish I knew how to spell certain sounds so that I could write them in properly - like, how do you spell a whistling sound? Or a tut? Those kinds of spellings would come in handy sometimes, you know?)

Night.