Little holiday by the sea

We have just returned from a lovely little holiday by the seaside, where we. . .

. . . went beach combing. . .

. . . made sculptures. . .

. . . returned a starfish to the sea. . .

. . . admired the lights and the creatures at Brighton's Aquarium. . .

. . . ate lots of these. . .

. . . and even more of these. . .

. . . and a few slices of this!

Hope you had a lovely half-term too.

It's Valentine's Day . . .

. . . and we went from this. . .

 . . . to this. . .

 . . . the little boys got these. . .

 . . . and I got a beautiful heart too. . .

Happy Valentine's Day

Wherever you are x

This week. . .

This week one little boy has been poorly and in hospital. . .

(The bars on the cot are up because he kept insisting they were raised so he could 'hide' from the doctors and his medicine. . .)

But today coffee/squash and chocolate biscuit hearts in our village teashop made us feel much, much better.

Singing in the Rain

 

It's very difficult to keep singing in the rain this week.  With two small boys who need at least six miles of exercise a day, it can feel as though the walls are closing in on us after a while.  It's all very well having the right gear for spending time outdoors, but when it's wet and there's an icy wind, it's just no fun for anyone after about half an hour.  Still, our home isn't flooded and our river has only burst its banks where it should (the water meadows).

I'm not sure in which direction to take this blog; I suppose I'm still finding my voice.  Should I talk about domestic details and my family, or post about craft projects, or other things entirely?  Should I be funny, or serious, or both?  It seems everywhere I look someone has done it before and is doing it so well. But who cares about that?  Well, I do.  But I'm going to have to ignore those feelings of inadequacy and just keep going.  I will keep singing in the rain. Till I feel happy again.  Ha!  

(Picture above is of a work of art, called, I think The Blackbird Sings.  Follow the link to look at the artist's work.  You'll be glad you did.)

Special birthday

We thought long and hard about what to get my mother-in-law for her 70th birthday. In the end, her three sons and their families all bought her different things instead of one big present.  However, we also wanted to give her something special together to mark the occasion when we celebrated over afternoon tea.

I came up with the idea of a jar that we could fill with reasons explaining why we loved her, one reason for each year of her life.  This isn't particularly original and I have seen it done in different ways before.  However, it was simple and inexpensive and she was overjoyed with it.  The reasons weren't all incredibly meaningful either; some were light-hearted and funny and others reminded us all of things from childhood, which seemed so small at the time, but are ever so important when you look back on them.

All you need is a jar, some ribbon, a printer, a pencil around which to wrap the strips of paper with each reason on - they curl nicely this way and look better in the jar - and a glue stick.  Of course you need to come up with the reasons as well.  That was the fun bit.  And it's never a bad thing as a daughter-in-law to concentrate on all the reasons why you really do love your mother-in-law!