Arrived from Amazon.

I love it when little brown parcels arrive through my letterbox.
I keep promising myself that I will start sewing. Hubby has got my sewing machine down from the loft... and that is as far as we have got. My mother-in-law has now given me 3 sewing boxes! What is she trying to tell me? So really I have no excuse not to get started. (Apart from running around after 3 children and not being able to keep my eyes open when they are finally in bed and the housework is done!)
Honor-May is very fond of the clothes worn in films like The Railway Children. She has been asking for a pinafore dress or smock like Bobby (Jenny Agutter) wears. I've tried to find them ready made but not much joy there. Then I came across this book - 'Carefree clothes for girls'. It arrived this morning and looks like the kind of thing Honor will like. Not all the reviews on Amazon for this book are complimentary. One customer thought the clothes were tatty looking. But, I think, this is the look we are after.

I might even make something like this for myself.

The 'Carrie's War' dvd also arrived.

And, after seeing how much Honor-May has been enjoying filling in her 'I-Spy' book, I had a look to see what else was available. There is a vast collection of titles, now and suitable for different age groups. Our children were recently invited to my friend LTG's twin boys birthday party. I couldn't think what to get them. Now I have bought them each a large, hardback 'I-Spy' picture book - one is called 'Extreme Challenger' and the other 'A Spooky Night'. The idea is to find the objects mentioned in the rhyming text in the picture... and it is not as easy as it sounds, as Hubby found out.

I am still going for 'adventure walks'.

These pictures are from Herne Bay.

From the bookshelf...

I thought that this morning I would post about what we are reading at the moment, starting with me.
I have recently written about my recent discovery of Dr Kevin Leman and his very witty, entertaining and not to mention practical books about parenting. (In fact he also writes about marital relationships and step families if anyone is interested.) At the moment I am reading 'Making children mind without losing yours'. A well used quote from his writing is 'pull the rug out and let the little buzzards tumble'. Sounds harsh doesn't it? Well, no, not to me. I'm more than ready to let my little buzzards tumble! They've been tripping me up for the past nine years! But really, it is not as harsh as it sounds. He explains about the 2 bad parenting habits most of us slip into: permissive and authoritarian. He explains why they don't work - seems so obvious when you read it - and then shows us how to become an authoritative disciplinarian. (Note the different endings in those words). This is done by letting reality be the teacher in a child's behaviour. I don't want to try and sum it all up here. But it is a great read and worth a few quid, I think.
I have put Kevin Leman's book next to the good book - The Holy Bible. Now. I have a bit of a confession to make. Despite being Catholic, I haven't made much time for reading the Bible during my adult life other than reading the usual stories to children at school and home; but not for myself. I recently found myself in an uncomfortable spot when the Jehovas arrived at the front door to discuss armaggedon. I thought that informing them that I was Catholic would be enough for them to leave me in peace, but no. The very glamourous lady began talking about the different types of Bible (what? - thought there was only one!) and she said 'I expect you have a such n such bible indoors' (Can't remember the word she used). I tried to look like I knew what she was talking about but was thinking 'it's a blue one, innit?'
Anyway. Kevin Leman talks about the Bible a lot in his book. I have been kind of introduced to Ephesians 6:1-4 that begins 'children obey your parents; this is the right thing to do because God has placed them in authority over you...' If this was a Facebook status I would click the 'like' option and for the rest of the quote. Leman explains what he thinks this means and it makes good sense. I've started looking to the Bible a bit more to help us in our family life. But just let me reassure any non-religious readers... both books offer very good advice, in fact I'd go as far as to say that the latter is probably the best self-help book ever written!

Now for the kids.
I discovered these books on somebody else's blog (but I can't remember whose).
They are nice picture story books that incorporate a bit of maths reinforcement. Penrose (above) isn't really a story, though, more like little math adventures/lessons.
The other stories are great though, bringing a new element to mathematical understanding.


I read 'Sir Cumference' to Honor and Henry last night. It is an entertaining story with very nice pictures and will hopefully help the children to remember the meaning of the terms circumference, diameter and radius. I'm gonna test them later to see if it worked!
(And I got the books from Amazon.)

Ash Wednesday and today...

I didn't get a chance to sit down and post yesterday so I have some time this evening, now the kids are in bed and Hubby has popped to Tesco to get me some paper plates, to write about the last 2 days. Of course, being Catholic an' all, we got ourselves off to Mass at 9.30am. Honor did the Offertory Procession with her Grandma and I quietly prayed that she wouldn't drop anything. I've never seen anyone do that but it would be my kids to be the first. I should have more faith! She did a good job.

Here she is doing another good job, helping Brown Owl provide the Lenten Lunch at the Village Hall. The soup was great! I had 3 bowls! So much for fasting and abstinence.

Hope enjoyed it too!

And it was a beautiful sunny day. Later that afternoon we visited Supernana's grave at the cemetary as Mum had some peach coloured primulas to plant there. The kids brought their gardening aprons and tools that they got for Christmas and helped out.

To finish off, Honor and I practised some fractions (hee, hee) then snuggled up in bed together and watched Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers. She is very keen to have her own little area of garden to grow her vegetables on. We liked the look of rainbow chard, so we'll try and get some seeds for that.

Today Hubby had a day off. The weather, unfortunately, was miserable and we had trouble making up our minds about what to do. We all had a wander round a garden centre and
ended up buying a selection of vegetable seeds costing around £17. So we need to make sure we get a good return on that little investment!

This afternoon, I went out with my Mum, HM and Hope (the girls!) to Waterstones while the boys stayed at home and put together some flat packed furniture! Inspired by the Percy Jackson film that we saw on Tuesday, HM bought these 2 books from the series. I've just been up to see her ('cos she's in bed) and she has already read a few chapters of the first one and is loving it!

Hubby has just returned with the paper plates... and a chocolate sundae. Mmmmm. So, I'd better go. Bye!

Lunch time.

Well, it's not quite 'snowmaggedon' out there yet. I made it to Tesco by myself (and baby). I had quite a lot to get so I was hoping that the cashier would say to me "would you like any help with your packing?" like they usually do, and I always say "no". But not today. I was feeling very restricted, wearing about 10 jumpers and having the baby strapped to me, so a little help would not have been turned down. Unfortunately all she said was "do you need carrier bags?" and then looked very disapprovingly at me when I said "yes".

Anyway. It's nearly 2pm. Baby is having her nap so I'm going to have a break with this lunch: ham, tomato, onion and mayonnaise roll, apple and coffee and browse through this reading material. Yes, I bought 'Have a new kid by Friday' from Amazon and it arrived this morning. I think I first saw it recommended on one of the Faith and Family forums. Hubby and I have watched a few Youtube clips of Dr Kevin Leman. He is very entertaining and we've already tried out some of his suggestions. So now we can read it properly.

Nice and warm now. Mmmmmmmm