Somewhere really beautiful

We spent our holidays this year in Galicia - more specifically the Rias Altas of the north coast. The area is peaceful, non touristy and truly beautiful.

I very rarely want to go back anywhere but I can't wait to go back there again some time soon.

Four Goals

Inspired by a post on Elsie Flanagan's Blog, I think four goals might be just amount manageable by the end of the year.

So here are mine:

Goal 1: Knit a pair of socks.

Goal 2: Scan the photos of my grandmother and scrapbook her life

Goal 3: Exercise much more regularly including getting on my bike!

Goal 4: Make Sticky Toffee Pudding with my son.

Long time, no write....

Well , there's an easy explanation for that - our old computer was dying, and going so slowly that it really wasn't worth spending my life waiting for it to catch me up and let me post - so I didn't.

Add to that the busiest year of my life - how can it be that nothing has fundamentally changed, but I seem to have loads more to do?

But here I am again, and I'm going to try to keep this going over the summer just to see what I've been up to, what's getting me up (and down) and some of the highlights of my life and craft.

Lots of the girls at my crop are starting blogs so I've caught some of their enthusiasm to blog again, with my shiny fast computer which lets me do things instantly!

So what's going on? I picked up Adam from his work experience in Wiltshire yesterday, bought some of the produce he's prepared in the farm shop, and some other yummy stuff that took my fancy. He's back next week, so I guess I'll be tempted some more !

Looking forward to 4th July bbq on Sunday with my crop friends and their families - and fireworks - how exciting for us Brits who only have fireworks in November or New Year. It will be lovely not to be cold while watching.

Just admiring the new Echo Park papers and have joined their Facebook page for updates and inspiration - I love new things, but they're the scourge of my bank balance, predictably.

How much TV can they watch?

Having grown up without a TV I'm quite restrained in the way I watch TV. I never have it on as background noise - radio? oh yes, but never TV. I only have it on if I'm watching something and I rarely scan the channels looking for something to watch.

If I do it tends to fall into the documentary, film, home, craft or news formats.

My two youngest children however are screen freaks, they seem to be unable to function without sitting like blobs in front of a screen of some kind. Suggestions as to whether they could possibly do anything else meet with:

"I don't know what to do"
"I haven't got anyone to play with"
"I don't like my toys"
"I've been outside for AAAAGES" -usually all of 10 minutes.

Unless there is organised activity, usually involving having people over or going out and spending money, they simply default to the sofa and a video/DVD/junk TV programme, or computer game - AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGH!

Drives me nuts!

After the Mud, the chores.......

Well, the muddiest ever week in Somerset, New Wine positively flowed with silty water, but while the camping was hard (pictures to follow) the fellowship, teaching and most of all the worship was just awesome.

Venue 2 just rocked with praises, great sound and atmosphere and really released something in me that's been tied up tight for a long time. Some seminars carried on the healing and I feel like things have come out of the stagnant stage I've been in for such a long time and although I'm no clearer about my future, I feel a lot of the cynicism has been uprooted from inside - it's very liberating.

After coming back from such a high, real life kicks in hard - not only the Awards deadline of Monday morning (I made it!), but the dentist, clearing up, mountains of washing, childcare, shopping etc etc etc.

Adam had his braces off today - all good, looking fab, he even let me take some photos! And today I'm clearing up the back of my desk, a bit of a dusty task but hopefully at the end of it will be beautiful clear carpet and a lot of things put away, filed or just chucked out. Wish me luck.

Sickness!! the Plague and other stories

Well as the swine flu net draws in (it's got to school) and possible Nathan's class already, we are perceiving a siege mentality as we wait for its inevitable arrival at our doorstep. Should we get it now it will mess up our end of term and holidays, but there will still be stocks of Tamiflu. If we wait (like we have a choice) then there may be a vaccine but it could have mutated into something worse! Such a difficult choice!!

In the meantime I have been feeling very rough indeed - I have had an inhaler prescribed, a chest X-ray, blood tests galore and mega antibiotics for a week. I do feel better, but not better enough for my liking so hoping there is nothing underlying, I hate being ill in the summer, it just seems so unfair, and yes, I am whinging and I'm fully aware that there are many people much worse off than me!

Finally Adam had developed a high temperature post DofE expedition. Not sure if it's too much sun and not enough sleep or something more sinister but he's missed a couple of days of school which is not like him at all, especially as things wind down for the holidays. Hope he gets better soon.

The good news is that I did do some scrapbooking this weekend - finally!

Hey, we're having a summer!

After two years of grotty grey summers, it's a bit of a shock to have a real summer for once. We have been stifling this week, hot and humid, although a tiny breeze has made it better at night than sometimes, and even Wimbledon has gone ahead without rain interruptions - they should have built that roof before!

So despite planning a barbeque 3 months ago to have with friends, we are not hurriedly making rain delayed plans, but actually going ahead, food bought, puddings prepared and barbeque ready to go.

I don't like the humidity, but I'm definitely not complaining about the summer weather - it's wonderful, and the chance to sit outside, cook outside and eat outside is enough of a novelty to make it even more appealing than usual.

Happy 4th of July everyone!