Painted toenails

Did not achieve much at all this weekend. Sometimes that's just the way it is, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Most weekends we do something nice, go for a long walk or something, or just spend some good time playing. But now and again I'm a little burnt out, and I just have a lazy couple of days. When Kev came home from work on Saturday Thomas dobbed me in:

Kev: What've you been doing today?

Thomas: Well, actually, Mummy's been pretty lazy.

Kev: Oh yeah?

Thomas: Yeah. She stayed in bed until lunch time, and we were starving, and didn't have our lunch until tea time.

Kev: (stifling a snigger!) Oh, right.

I must just say that I did not stay in bed until lunch time. That would be neglect, I think. No, I stayed in bed until half past eight, and then got up and spent a lot of the day cleaning up my children's mess that had been created in the half hour before I got up. But I did sit down for a couple of hours and watch Billy Elliot with them. But he's a cheeky chuff that young Thomas, because we played some nice games together. We played Usborne football snap (this link won't last forever because it's from a shop, so click on it now if you don't want to miss it!), and we played in the garden a lot, doing much wrestling and chucking of the giant birthing ball!

This is not me on this particular birthing ball! This is just a picture from Google. Our birthing ball is blue, and it lives in the garden, and it was never used for 'birthing'! But it has been worth its money, because it has been used as a marvellous giant ball for throwing and catching, and also for knocking people over in a hilarious and non-hurting way :) James loves it the most and spends a lot of time asking for it to be thrown at him, and he fends it off using various karate moves that he has learned from watching Karate Kid, and Kung Fu Panda!

Oh, I did not explain my feet photo! That is a photo of my feet, yes. I'm brave to upload that photo, because I don't really like feet. I think I have quite nice feet myself, but I don't really like looking at other people's, even if they're nice. Feet that are horrid make me shudder*. If you ever see me shudder after I've just looked at your feet, please, don't take it personally, it's completely involuntary and it doesn't mean that your feet are hideous, it's just an irrational fear that I have! I don't know what it is that I think your feet might do to me, but I am afraid of them. I can handle mine and my children's, but that is all.

But I put the photo there anyway, because this is one thing I achieved this weekend - the painting of my toenails! Personal grooming is not something I take at all seriously. As long as I'm clean I'm not really bothered about any additional stuff that I should be doing. I'm too lazy. But I do like to keep my toenails nice when it's flip flop weather, and since I have these lovely new red Reefs I thought I should compliment them with some nice silver varnish. And of course, whenever I get the nail polish out the boys swarm around me and threaten to blob and smudge my nails until I promise to do theirs too. So Thomas has gone to school with silver finger- and toenails, and Matthew has gone to nursery with his done as well. James wanted to wait until another day, I'm not sure why. Thomas said that he wasn't bothered if his friends at school called him a girl because he's used to it. Fine. Good.

So that was really all I managed to accomplish this weekend. Oh, I did manage to achieve non-grumpiness for the whole two days :D Yes, that's a major achievement, and I give myself a pat on the back for that one. And we managed to achieve, as a team, the getting of nice presents for Kev for Fathers Day :) We got him a Wii game, a DVD, and some flowers! The flowers were Thomas's idea, and he was very pleased with himself :) What a fab little boy he is. The way he sees it, mums get flowers on Mothers Day, so dads should get them on their day too. Quite right. More men should receive flowers. I will put that in my manifesto when I run for Parliament as an independent candidate!

Here's to the start of a lovely week - cheers.

*shudder |ˈ sh ədər|verb [ intrans. ](of a person) tremble convulsively, typically as a result of fear orrepugnance : he shuddered with revulsion | [with infinitive ] figurativeI shudder to think of retirement. See note at shake .• (esp. of a vehicle, machine, or building) shake or vibrate deeply: the train shuddered and edged forward.• [usu. as adj. ] ( shuddering) (of a person's breathing) beunsteady, esp. as a result of emotional disturbance : he drew a deep, shuddering breath.nounan act of shuddering : the elevator rose with a shudder | figurative the peso's devaluation sent shudders through the market.PHRASESgive someone the shudders informal cause someone to feel repugnance or fear : it gives me the shudders to hear you use words like that.DERIVATIVESshudderingly |ˈʃəd(ə)rɪŋli| adverbshuddery |ˈʃəd(ə)ri| adjectiveORIGIN Middle English (as a verb): from Middle Dutchschūderen, from a Germanic base meaning ‘shake.’

Are girls actually more breakable than boys?

I was wondering about this, after a little thing that happened at The Zone the other day. I sometimes think my boys are little softies, lol, but essentially I know that they're really quite tough. We love nothing more than a good fight in our house, from time to time. You know the kind when the kids get chucked around the living room and leap off the furniture and roar and laugh their heads off right up until the point when someone cracks their head? Well, we like a bit of that :)

Anyway, when we were at The Zone, I found this teeny little girl right at the top of the soft play structure thingy. She was on her own, and looked absolutely petrified. She wasn't speaking - out of shock I think - and was just looking at me as though she was about to cry, bless her. I helped

Matthew down first, and then asked if she'd like me to help her down. Bless the little wee thing, she held her arms out to me. If I'd known her I would've immediately just grabbed her and chucked her down after my lads - but I had to have a look about first to see if there was a parent about who might be looking for her (you never know if you're allowed to touch other people's kids these days, do you?!). There was no-one around, so I hoisted her up onto my hip and took her down to the level below. When I lifted her up though, I almost laughed out loud, as I must have just picked her up as I do Matthew - she looked even more terrified, if that's possible, and threw her arms around my neck. I plonked her down when we got down the ladder, and she looked completely shocked again. I'm absolutely positive that it was because she'd never been chucked about like that before. It was so funny. I'd never really realised how rough we are in our family, but this brought it home to me - in a nice way :) But anyway, I took her right down to the bottom and her mum was there waiting for her - why her mum wasn't in there playing with her, I don't know, grrrrrr! Anyway, it all made me wonder if people generally treat girls and boys differently. If I had girls would we still have our mad half hours, or would we sit about doing girl things instead? Urgh! I suppose I know the answer to that one - I'm a girl myself, after all, and I don't really do girly stuff. If I had a daughter she'd have to put up with being roared at and hurled about the room for a laugh if she was to fit in with the rest of the family!

But what about other people? Do they treat their girls and boys differently? I have no idea. I see lots of girls dressed in pink and dresses all the time and worry for them - worry that they don't get to be boisterous and rowdy! I hope they do :)

Oh, by the way, today's pictures were Kev's idea. Last year I wrote a short story about a couple who decide to separate, but the fella decides to do his missus in at the last minute, and hits her over the head with her favourite Tiffany lamp - our pictures are a representation of that story :D I'm not sure what the ketchup was for!