Musings on nothing particular

I have just spent twenty minutes or so racing around after Isabella, she trying to catch me and I trying to catch her in turn. Our little house was full of the most gorgeous giggles as her chubby legs seem to fly over the floorboards in her eagerness to get away, her crazy hair a mass of tousled curls flip-flipping this way and that as she ran. What could be better than these impromptu games with my twenty month cherub?

The other children/adults are at work or school and we have the house to ourselves for the morning at least. Isabella sits now in her highchair with an enormous bowl of porridge carefully trying to spoon it into her mouth, sometimes managing, sometimes delivering the gloopy mass into her lap. I knew I should have put her bib on. I sit at the computer where I have not long posted a business blog and am now nursing a coffee while answering emails - and checking out blogs of course! Later as she settles for her sleep I shall return to my sewing and listen to the radio which is always set to Radio 4, and when she wakes we will start the evening meal before collecting Sam and Lucy; another busy evening will begin.

Isabella has discovered the delights of cooking with Mummy which involves much stirring of eggs and shaking of flour while perching precariously on the kitchen chair. I have half an eye on her waiting for the moment when Mrs Independent will slide towards the edge and half an eye on the ingredients as she hurls them around in gay abandon. I need to make her an apron which will be able to hang on the back of the kitchen door with Daddy's and Lucy's, but goodness only knows when I will get round to it. Their's were made before I got quite so busy.

Looking out of the window I can see four beautiful snowdrops and a sea of golden crocuses, their pretty cups wide open despite the fact the sky is leaden. It is a mess out there and I am desperate to get outside, to feel the air on my skin. I want to sort the paths and rearrange the hen pen ready for the new batch we are getting soon, but the dull day does not inspire me any more than the shouting of the ducks who seem to have become noisier with age. No, today the warmth of the house and the train set Isabella has emptied out of her toy box seem far more appealing; the garden will have to wait.

See you soon xx

Caught!

A very quick post today to warn you of the dangers of blogging - while I was posting on my Pipany blog earlier today someone was busy elsewhere! Isabella discovered where I had hidden the brownies and decided to get her own breakfast; witness the guilty look of one caught red-handed. Ah well, better bake some more I suppose.

Have a good day all xx

Feeling happy and homely.

The New Year is here - as I'm sure you have noticed! - and I am pleased to report I have my usual New Year frame of mind; I'm feeling happy, positive, homely and nesty, enjoying challenges and enjoying my family. Will it last? Er, probably not but its nice while it's here!

I made a few revolutions (a Lauren-ism from her toddler days)as I always do; some were for my business aspirations and so I posted them on my Pipany blog, but here are my more general ones:

* To get outdoors more - I sort of became sewing room based and almost forgot what the great outdoors looked like, so I have been going for walks again over the Christmas period to get back in touch with this beautiful county I live in.

* To smile!!! - I always think of myself as a smiley person but I keep catching sight of myself in windows/mirrors and the frown is a more permanent fixture! I am now smiling whenever I think of it and it actually becomes quite addictive. People smile back and I feel quite a chirpy soul - obviously I look slightly insane and that is why people smile back (you know, that sort of Dickensian 'tip her a nod' thing!)

* To take on any problems which crop up with a positive attitude rather than an oh no, what now? kind of Eeyorish manner which inevitably makes me feel unable to sort anything and saps any energy which I may have got from going for a lovely walk. I really quite like problem solving and so why do I instantly moan before I do anything else?

* To sort my erstewhile beautiful garden which has become a digusting quagmire with little to draw me out there. We used to all spend hours out there with Dave and I gardening while the kids played boule or chased hens and ducks around. Somehow we created more and more beds (plus a flipping enormous pond) and lost the grass areas. So.... we are going to recreate some grass bits, tidy up our campfire area and replant all the things we move; also put the honeysuckle arch back up instead of leaving it where it fell over a year ago.

Well, there's a few to be going on with.. no doubt more to follow. In the meantime the decorations have gone for another year; Twelfth Night was spent doing a reading of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with a friend who came for dinner (and which dear Sam joined in with even though he is 18); the garden remains a quagmire and I have made a huge batch of sticky, fudgy brownies and delicious shortbread so I am off for a cuppa.

See you soon xx