The joy of pottering

 If pottering was a paid job, I would be able to retire by now....I do enjoy just bumbling about the house, moving things from one place to another. Someone once told me I am always searching for a visual harmony .... I do like things to look just right.

Today I glued a vase from Hong Kong and filled it with roses in the guest bathroom:

I unpacked some more silverware from my parents house and polished it:

I finished my pheasant feather wreath and hung it up:

(side note, the display is not finished, I'm thinking about adding some airplants...)

I repotted the cheese plant and staked it so that it is now vertical rather than horizontal:

And randomly took this photo just because:

(the carriage clock is not actually skew)

and after all of that I took my book to the garden and read in the hammock whilst the house sparrows fought over the perch on the bird feeder.

How was your day?

Lessons we learn from our children

Oh today was a glorious day, the sun shined, the sky was blue and I took myself and my big girl camera off to see some tulips. I spent two hours absorbed in beautiful flowers, and colours, and smells....I also made sure to send my sister lots of photos whilst she prepares for winter down in the Southern Hemisphere. When my phone chirruped at me, I thought it was her again telling me she hates me with all my tulips; it was however, one of Miss Mouse's friend's mom. This friend visits us every Monday after school to play, have dinner and then the two of them go off to Girl Guides. But today she wasn't coming. She had had a playdate with Miss Mouse's bestie over the weekend, and said bestie got caught up on the moment and felt it was very important to tell this girl all the bad things Miss Mouse might've said about her. This friend's mom was very mad. Bang! went my day as immediately I had awful flashbacks to my school days and being ganged up on - oh these tween years are just a nightmare. My stomach was in knots and I felt miserable for my girl.
I went in to fetch Miss Mouse from school with such trepidation. Angry Mom was there, she avoided me and left swift after I arrived...and Miss Mouse came skipping up to me completely carefree. Nothing had happened. No words had been said, she was oblivious. And I had to break it to her.
She was devastated for two reasons.
1. Her bestie had gone behind her back
2. She knows she didn't really mean what she said, and hurting this girl was not something she would want to do.
We found angry mom and her daughter in the carpark, and Miss Mouse immediately apologised, they hugged and giggled and tonight they spent the evening at Girl Guides happily with each other.
It's done....for them at least.....for the two moms involved, not so much. I can see this other mom is angry, and she is the most placid, lovely, kind lady...so for her to get in touch with such a direct message to me today tells me this has hurt her. And for that I am so sorry. If the roles were reversed I would be the Angry Mom. I avoid confrontation like the plague, but if my kids are involved then I will come at you like a lioness on steroids. I am hoping this mom will see that her daughter has forgiven Miss Mouse, and she can too.

Mr. A took the stance of "if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all", and to a degree I completely agree with him, but it is so easy to get caught in a moment. You are chatting with your friends and bring up a third party and sometimes things get said. I am not sure there is one person on this earth who can stand up and say they have never said hurtful things behind someone's back.
It happens, and then sometimes you are called out for it. And I think this is where your true colours show, because if you should take responsibility, and say "Yes, I said it, and this is why" and live with the consequences. And this is what my sweet girl did. She went straight over, said sorry and asked to be forgiven. We don't know what was said, but is it actually worth finding out all those nitty gritty 'he said, she said'? I don't condone Miss Mouse's behaviour with her bestie in the first place, gossiping and spitefulness are not traits I wish to cultivate, but I am damn proud of her for how she handled it....I think she might've just taught me a lesson today.

Chicken of the sea

so many years ago, Jessica Simpson proved herself undeniably blond when having a conversation about tuna....it's worth the google. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=k2h72aXVP8o .
It's like one of her most famous bloops.
anyhow, cut back to present day and I thought I was being THE BEST MOM EVER by buying a fancy chicken instead of a normal chicken for our roast dinner. I mean, who needs a common, farm chicken when one can have a chicken fed on a diet rich of omega 3's? Not only am I giving my kids some good lean protein but it will be infused with those yummy oils that taste like a salmon farted in your throat right? ....but it's chicken so you won't even taste it. Um, no.
So I lovingly prepare it this morning, Gwyneth Paltrow rotissarie style, and put it to slow cook.
I was excited about this chicken, and made all the trimmings - potatoes, broccoli, spinach salad, Yorkshire puddings, about 1/2 cup of gravy as I had run out of granules...but the scene was set.
Took the chicken out and put it to rest, and licked the oils off my fingers that had accidentally spilled and thought that it tasted kinda odd....took a good sniff of the baking dish and I was seriously concerned - was my chicken off? Tasted a little bit - no it was okay, so I happily proceeded to serving it up to my two scrumptious girlies. Now my Miss Mouse, she loves chicken, was halfway through when she eyeballs me:  "Mom, this chicken tastes weird - what did you do?"
Don't you just love A. the trust in me and B. the accusing tone? sadly I could not deny it, as it had dawned on me as I had started my own plate that this is super duper Omega chicken literally tastes vile.....I came clean to the girls hoping they would tell me I am indeed THE BEST MOM EVER, and I have been so thoughtful and loving to think of all the dietary needs. Instead I got " Mom, this tastes like bad tuna."  ( secretly I totally agree.) but in good mom fashion I told them not to be silly and eat it in a mix with as much gravy as 1/2 cup of gravy would allow.

I don't know about you, but I reckon if I sent one of these chickens to Jessica Simpson I just might blow her brains.......
And if you feel the need to eat your own chicken/tuna combo, then follow this link:

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-omega-3-chicken-wholebird/622833-507898-507899

snake's head fritillary

Tissue Flowers

Christmas love

"I think as you grow older your Christmas list grows shorter, as the things you want can't be bought."

Merry Christmas to all today xxxx

Christmas Eve

With Mr. A away for Christmas, I whisked the girls away......we are cozy and Christmassy right next to the beach. Something about hearing the waves crashing just soothes my soul.
















The girls insisted that we had to bring at least one tree with us, and we have spent the evening making paper chains. There is nothing like snuggling in and enjoying my girls whilst they remind me what the magic of Christmas is about.

Ghostie

It's a coming of age thing....when your big sister scares the living bejesus out of you by telling you about ghosts and monsters.
I blame my intense fear of the dark on my big sister who waited until the lights were out to "woooooo woooooo" like a ghost and then go "WHAT'S THAT!!!!"
In my childish brain I knew it was her, she knew I knew it was her but she would never admit it, so I could never be comforted and therefore am scared of the dark and the 'ghosts' therein.
Miss Mouse has initiated Baby Mouse into the realms of monsters. I caught her the other night scaring the pants off Baby Mouse. I was so incredibly unimpressed with her, and told her if she did it again I would make her sit in the downstairs loo alone for ten minutes....in the dark.....which would be pure hell for me.
However, it seems Baby Mouse is not bothered by ghosts and made this one yesterday. She is perfectly chuffed with it and I am surprised it is still in one piece considered how it was lugged around by her.








- Posted by iPhone

My name is Nola and I am a bad workman

Yesterday when I fetched Miss mouse from school, I happened to notice she was only wearing one sock. Odd. However, I knew it had been a PE day so figured it was in her PE bag. I still asked her why she only had one sock on and she told me she didn't have time to put it on. Needless to say, it wasn't in her PE bag, or on her hook, or in her classroom, or the hall, or the music room.....it was poof! gone.
Then, in front of her teacher she angrily told me it was her PE teacher's fault for not giving her enough time to change, then it was the socks fault for being "grippy". I was really taken aback, Miss Mouse has never openly blamed anyone/thing before like that. I left it and we discussed it at bedtime - we talked about taking responsibility.
It gave me food for thought because Mr A. and I don't blame external forces for our mistakes......do we?
Fast forward to this afternoon, I was hurrying to get dinner on the table and grabbed the juice bottle....the lid wasn't on properly and it slipped and messed some juice "argh, you girls are in my way!"
I also had to make a cake for bake sale at playgroup tomorrow morning - made a lovely plum cake....with the last of my flour, vanilla essence and oil...taking it out the oven, it slipped off the cake base tin and landed upside down on the counter. Instead of calmly and rationally trying to figure out how to  flip it over and onto the cooling rack I just grabbed at it and, of course, broke it into five big chunks and in my head thought " *^&^**%, if only Gigi weren't distracting me with her twittering in my ear!!!"
-aside: Gigi is our lodger - she came with the house and was meant to stay a month....three months later she is as firmly ensconced in her bedroom as a pig wallowing in her mud....this is going down like a lead balloon with me but it's a long story.

I actually stopped with a start. Oh my, oh my, oh my. Guess where Miss Mouse has  learnt to blame her tools.
It is so easy to think our own behaviour is exemplary....hahaha did I just say that?!? let me rephrase: it is so easy to think our children do not learn their more trying behaviour from us, but nine times out of ten, when your kid is being a bit obnoxious, perhaps a look in the mirror is in order....

home remedies

Found such a great little website today - how does she......do it?
This post particularly caught my eye, 7 home remedies by Emily. They are tips for when your kids are under the weather - some great ideas, some I knew, some I needed to be reminded about, and some new ones to store in the old grey matter. So if you need help with:

1.diarrhea
2. constipation
3. burns
4.ear infections
5. headaches
6.teething
and 7. sore throat

then go see her post: http://www.howdoesshe.com/7-secret-home-remedies/

pink owls

I've been painting and sewing. I saw some owls made into bunting and knew something along those lines would be great in Baby Mouse's bedroom. I have been meaning to take some 'artful' photos, but our camera has died....so here are some iphone ones instead. I promise I will take proper ones, at some point! I also painted the chimnet breast in Miss Mouse's room - so much nicer than the previous chocolate brown!

champagne lifestyle on a cider budget

Sometimes a blog comes along that is just worth bookmarking....after all you never know when you may need to make some home shower vapour discs

Sarah reminds me of my eldest sister, they both have a knack of making one dollar / rand last the equivalent of ten.
Me on the other hand, for some reason my ten pounds lasts about as long as a quid.
*sigh*

but head along to Sarah's blog. She has some great and cheap recipe ideas among other things...
http://beingfrugalbychoice.blogspot.co.uk/

amazing blog find!

what a beautiful blog, follow this link!

true food

true eating

amazing photographs

I am reading a lot about nutrition and wellness, for me and for the Mice Girls. (Oh and Mr. A)

I really loved this blog, Megan just makes her food look better than a million chocolate cakes.

I mean, how amazing is this photo? those figs are dying to be eaten.

having this for breakfast?

yes please.

start as you mean to go on.