The Best Way To Enjoy Music...

...is most definitely in the outdoors, with a blue sky overhead, surrounded by trees gently waving in the wind, in the most excellent company of my three main men. Yes, this weekend saw me, Dad, my brother and Bertie at Kenwood for the Classical Prom. What a great night! Any concert where you can eat, drink, laugh, chat, film and do more or less what you please rates highly in my book!
We watched the weather with anxious anticipation all week and were delighted to see that once again BBC 5 day forecast could be relied on to get it wrong - no light showers, just a fine evening.

The highlights:

The music (well of course!)
MJM trying out the contents of the freebie bag – poncho and fan (fortunately neither were required!)
A rather tasty picnic (prepared by yours truly)
Baby JoJo sleeping peacefully through the first half, then bopping through the second
Being able to walk home
Very pleasant free cider
A lady with huge feathers on her head (happily not sitting in front of us)

Thanks to Mum for babysitting and I look forward to listening to the CD Dad got in Guadeloupe when I am feeling homesick for the Heath...

Farewell To My Spiritual Mentors

One of the highlights of my week for the past four years has been the Thursday morning Bible Study I go to. Made up of mums, mostly stay-at-home ones, it has been such a wonderful place for delving deeper into the Bible. Us mums have difficulty getting to hear an entire sermon (or even any of it!) on Sundays so the spiritual refreshment this group provides is invaluable. It is not only a wonderful place for getting tons of practical advice on applying biblical principles to life as a mum, but also for gettng tips on potty training, weaning, what toys to buy...oh the list is endless! And as some of the mums have older children, it is great to listen to the advice for what lies ahead...

As all you other stay-at-home-mums know, it is particularly encouraging to have other folk in the same position as yourself, reminding you that you are not so odd after all, and that your answer to that constant question "So what do you do?" should NEVER be, "Well, I'm just a mum..."

So a great big THANK YOU to all those who have made it such a delightful and beneficial place to be in so many ways! Particularly of course our wonderful leader and hostess (also the best cake maker I know!)
This year we were particularly blessed to have a dedicated Creche Manager, allowing us mums to devote ourselves to the unravelling of Jeremiah, 2 Timothy, spirtual disciplines...Thank you so much! And here are some more of our lovely members and children

Hug A Hoodie

We are all for obeying our leaders, so when David Cameron told us we should hug a hoodie, we decided to do just that!

Hmm, not sure that the hoodie was mightily impressed!

Thanks to Eline for the lovely outfit!

Baking Fun

Yesterday we had a great afternoon of baking and things. First we started by making raspberry jelly with mandarins - ugh, not a combination I would recommend but the girls loved it! Then we got on to the more serious issue of Grandma's belated birthday gift.

Our Mission - to bake some ginger biscuits and put in a pretty tin for her. So here we go...

Find the right page, check through the recipe, oh yes, sitting on the chair like that will be ever so helpful to our baking CassCass! Start weighing masses of flour - 300g seems quite a lot - check the recipe and realise you are baking 60 biscuits! Wow! Pour the flour in the bowl, then add the bicarbonate of soda and the ginger powder and grate in plenty of fresh cinammon from the West Indies! Now time for the marge, then the sugar...uh oh, we don't have enough! Scrape every last grain of sugar left in the house (3 varieties!) then realise you were supposed to keep some for the end. Oops! Doesn't matter, says LissaLou (her favourite saying!) Time for her favourite part, cracking the eggs! Into the mixture it goes, then goes in the gooey sticky syrup before squeezing in some lemon. Get LissaLou to photo me pouring the dry mixture into the moist...oops, where did that mixture go?
Ah, thanks for the lovely shot of mummy, LissaLou! Hey, here's CassCass come to give a helping hand! (Can you tell she has no clothes on by this point?!) LissaLou gives us her imitation of a pig, then gets back to the serious job of mixing. Now we're nearing the end - butter the baking tray, Put on dollops of mixture, pop them in the oven and...hey presto, look what we have! Add a bit of tissue paper to the tin and it is a present fit for a Queen! (Didn't quite make 60 in the end, perhaps 45? And as I was baking 6 at a time it took quite a while!)

Well, that was such fun, we thought we would move on to some more cooking. Baby JoJo slept all through this activity and CassCass played beautifully with Happyland.

Right, this time our job was to make some Bang Bang Chicken, as found in one of my favourite children's cookbooks by Annabel Karmel. And just why is it called Bang Bang, I hear you ask? Well, that's because you begin by giving the chicken a real good thumping!

So once that is accomplished, prepare the way for the dunking... Flour in one bowl, egg in next and breadcrumbs with parmesan and parsley in the final one. Then in those battered bits of chicken go from one bowl to the next! That's right LissaLou, give them a good swish around in those breadcrumbs! Oh, and just look at those messy hands! Then it's time to fry them in some oil before serving up with new potatoes and salad. Umm, yummy!
Or so you would think. Unfortunately LissaLou didn't even like them after all that hard work! I thought they were great, but not quite as good as my friend Emma used to make...ah well!

Going, Going...Gone?

Here are things that we are giving away - let me know if they interest you! Scuse the mess - tidying up is not my main priority right now...

Kettle
Toaster
Chest of drawers
Bedside cabinet
Bookcase

Sideboard Lamp

Groovy chick ironing board Hoover
Green sofaSmall bookcase
Bathroom stand

=

Away In A Far Land

SisterEvs is celebrating her birthday! Happy Birthday Evs! Sorry we aren't with you to celebrate but we just bellowed Happy Birthday out to you in South Africa - hope you heard!

Uh Oh, Two Weeks To Go...

LissaLou asked today how long till we set off, and on hearing two weeks replied, that's a long long time! Oh, to have the perspective of a four year old! Still, I have upped the tempo a bit and the list is shrinking rapidly, hurray! It has been helped by the continuous rain which has made the distractions of the outside much less distracting!

Achieved this week...
Change of addresses all completed
Starting to cancel some direct debits (there's a nice feeling!)
Some toys for journey purchased
Some reading material for my year purchased (an even nicer feeling!)
Boxes ordered - they just need collecting next week
Suitcases picked up from parents
Started distributing the bags and bags of children's clothes scattered around the flat
Nice colourful countdown poster on the fridge
Reunited items with their original owners

We also took CassCass back to the dentist for a check-up - it looks like her teeth are fine, and in fact the one that got pushed in seems to be coming out again.

Still to do...
Packing! This will require several lists (I love it!) for
1. Entertainment and kids' stuff for our train trip
2. Clothes etc for our stay in Paris
3. Suitcases going to Guadeloupe - if I am really organised we ideally won't then need to open them in France!
4. Box up stuff to ship
5. Box up items to leave at parents
6. Offer around to all and sundry our wordly goods
7. Chuck
I have to say I am looking forward to this decluttering, as I often feel overwhelmed by all our stuff in our little flat! Simplicity is the word...
Car - we will leave it to our church for general use so we have to sort out insurance and change the registered keeper
Keep on cancelling direct debits when the final payment has been made
Buy some summer clothes
Buy colouring books etc for the journey
Baby JoJo's final immunisations

This weekend we have Baby JoJo's dedication (combined with the AGM at our church which starts at 9am!! Eek...) and ever the hopeful, I have organised a picnic at the Heath. Unfortunately, for the last few days it has done nothing but rain rain rain. Oh dear! BBC 5 day forecast has given me hope, with a bright yellow sun for Sunday. But when is that ever accurate?! Watch this space... or rather watch the grey skies!

Oh, and you remember how I mentioned that everything in our flat is falling apart? Well I really wasn't exaggerating! Our landline has been the latest victim, with no tone. BT couldn't say whether it was an internal or external problem, and could only offer to send an engineer round to check - for the princely sum of £115 if it is an internal problem! Pay such a sum for a working landline for 2 weeks? I think not... So please don't be offended if you have left a message and I didn't get back to you or you ring and it always comes up as engaged. Just use the mobile - or leave a comment!

And finally, thanks to my big bro I have got SiteMeter working for the blog - now I can see again just how many of you are so kindly visiting...and start wondering again just when someone will comment...!