Woo Hoo

Summer is a time for many things: boots going away and shoes and sandals appearing, flip-flops replacing slippers to facilitate frequent treks between the house and the garden, a renewed interest in outdoor pursuits in general, barbecues, and most importantly - summer drinks. Pimms has got to feature large, of course, but my own personal favourite - shared with many friends - is a woo-woo. Heavy on the peach schnapps and cranberry juice, with a good dollop of vodka, it's the summeriest of cocktails in my opinion and has the added bonus of tasting really quite healthy.

So, here we go with a recipe for the perfect woo-woo. Accept no imitations!

- one measure of peach schnapps
- one measure of vodka
- two measures of cranberry juice

Serve long, over lots of ice. For an afternoon drink with just a hint of a kick, double the cranberry juice quantity, or add two parts of lemonade to the original recipe.

My Handbag

Here we go! Having been tagged by Snafflesmummy with the handbag meme, it's time for me to face up to the truth of what lurks in the depths of my handbag.

Actually, it's not too bad at the moment. I'm a bit passionate about handbags, and swap from bag to bag fairly regularly, so I have a bit of a clear-out when I do. At the moment I'm travelling light, without my organiser or make-up bag, so this is what's in my handbag as of this morning (photographed on my grotty office carpet!):



From top left we have: a pair of gloves (not needed now it's suddenly nice and warm!), my trusty iPhone in its turquoise case, my large zippable purse (stuffed full of receipts and other useless things), some antibacterial hand gel (essential in both my paid job and my mummying job!), some knitting wool and needles (you never know when I'll have a moment spare), a few letters from the kids' school that need replies sorted out today, my Wonder Woman compact mirror (a lovely gift from one of my best friends), my car keys and a pen. I think that's quite good - I was very honest and photographed absolutely everything in the bag, too. I have to admit that some weeks there would be a LOT more junk than you see here...

And this is my bag itself:



It's a gorgeously soft Mulberry Araline in forest green nappa leather. I love the tassels! Mulberry bags are my weakness - my friend L is addicted to Louboutin shoes and lusts after those, and for me it's Mulberry bags. I think I'm recovering, though - I managed to go into the outlet store in York last week without buying so much as a keyring!

Threenager

One of the reasons it's been such a long time since my last blog post is the presence in my life right now of a Threenager.

Tig is three, and she absolutely hates the fact that she is a) smaller than her siblings and b) less able to do things as a result. This means that life in the Piggies household is very far from calm at the moment and the air is often full of enraged squeals as she stamps her feet and pouts.

Let me give you a list of things that enraged Tig this weekend:

- being unable to tidy the playroom on her own
- her brother and sister being able to run faster than her
- the fact that she had spent all her pocket money and didn't have enough left for a Princess magazine
- the fact that even standing on a stool, she's not quite tall enough or strong enough to help me switch the cake mixer on
- the fact that her hair is not quite long enough for bunches

I could go on. Each little frustration tends to result in an outraged screech and often a stamped foot or pouted lip for good measure; she has recently learnt to scream "SORRY!" even as she is stamping, because she knows she's about to be told off!

On the flip side, there are some absolutely wonderful things about having a 3 year old girl around the house. I need never lack in self-confidence; every morning she tells me I'm beautiful and gives me a tight hug with lots of kisses. There's no shortage of laughs (secret ones of course) as she misquotes things she has heard or practises her "ballet" when she thinks no one is watching. And she's becoming a little person that I can talk to - she thinks and plans ahead and is considerate to her friends (Snafflesmummy's Snaffles being a particular favourite at the moment, she is constantly urging me to think what we should buy him for his birthday which isn't happening until 2011). I'm hoping that the tantrums will decrease and the sunniness increase as she gets closer to the landmark birthday of 4 in July and starting school in September.

The photo is of Tig with her kitten, who never seems to make her cross...

A letter from The Boy

Eeeeek. It has been a significantly long time since I updated this blog. I must do better! Every day I get an idea that I think I must blog about, but then things like cooking the dinner and sorting out homework take over, and then I'm all tired and just laze around reading other, more organised peoples' blogs.

Let me provide a bit of background to this post. My son, the Boy, has Issues with weeing. He does have a longstanding kidney problem, but the doctors assure us that this wouldn't affect his bladder control, so basically he's just lazy about going to the loo in time and very often ends up with wet pants. This is uncomfortable - especially in this weather! - and, not to put too fine a point on it, it makes him smell horrible. So The Husband and I have been desperately offering bribes and rewards recently in a vain attempt to help the Boy sort out his wet-pants issues.

Monday's bribe was the promise of half an hour on the Wii Fit if he kept his pants dry at school. Off he trotted through the gates, confidently promising us that he'd stay dry all day...and out he trotted again at home time, damp and stinky. Of course, I calmly said that it was good that he'd tried but he hadn't earned his Wii time. The Boy was very disappointed, and slunk off to his bedroom, while I emptied lunch boxes and started the after-school tidying up operation. A few minutes later, the Boy ran into the kitchen, dropped a piece of paper at my feet and dashed off again. This was what he'd given me:




It reads: "To mummy I am hiding some where in the house intill I can go on the wii today I am sorry I wet my self I must of not gone to the toylette untime".

What mummy's heart could resist it?! I sneaked upstairs and discovered him hiding in the airing cupboard. After a big cuddle and a chat about trying harder the next day, he was allowed some Wii-time (ten minutes). And I don't care if that makes me a softie!

My 2009!

Inspired by Snafflesmummy, I'm doing my 2009 roundup.

It's been a lovely year, all in all. Highlights have been:

- weekends away with friends for their birthdays (in April and in November) at which lots of laughter, shopping and dancing was done;

- seeing Tig graduate from toddler to little girl, complete with full potty training (in July);

- turning 29 and marking the event with weekend-long celebrations which included a trip to Go Ape, a morning at a spa and a party night out;

- my eldest daughter, Egg, passing her 11+ exam (in September), just adding to the huge pride I feel for her;

- watching The Boy develop at school from a shy boy to a confident one, and seeing his academic skills improve exponentially;

- a lovely family holiday in Cornwall (in August) full of sun, happy times and of course a little bit of shopping;

- running a half-marathon (in September), which is something I never thought I would manage - I ran the whole thing, no walking breaks, in a respectable time of 2 hours 24 minutes;

- seeing my brother-in-law and sister-in-law get married in a beautiful ceremony, shortly (but not too shortly!) followed by their exciting pregnancy news;

- seeing one of my best friends meet the man of her dreams and subsequently announce the wonderful news of her pregnancy and engagement;

- and finally a lovely Christmas at our house - which is rare, we usually go to the inlaws'! - which, because of the recent snow, was a perfect picture-book white Christmas. I'm sure the day will go down in the childrens' memories as "the White Christmas" and that just adds to how special it was. We also had a personal visit from "Santa" this year!

Over the year I have been lucky enough to have the support and friendship of my lovely friends, and really they have made the year for me in so many ways. Thank you L, D and J! I'm also grateful as always to my wonderful husband and children, without whom my life wouldn't be my life. Here's to 2010! I hope it has lots of new babies and pregnancies in it (for my friends, NOT for me, oh definitely not for me!) and I plan to do a lot of knitting, running, sewing and baking.

Look look look!

Isn't it lovely? This is my Christmas decoration from Snafflesmummy's Secret Swap. It arrived this morning, and the children couldn't BELIEVE that I had a present all for me (apparently Christmas is all about them, who knew?!). Anyway, it's from the lovely skirtsandwellies (http://skirtsandwellies.blogspot.com/) and it came jam full of little deer and chocolate Santas! Anything that involves chocolate is fabulous in my book.

Speaking of which, this is a very unfortunate time of year for someone such as I, who may or may not be attempting to eat in a low-GI kind of a fashion. Breakfast is normally a beautifully healthy bowl of porridge with grated apple, but by mid-afternoon I'm snarfing the Celebrations and Roses. It's an affliction! I've just had a few more Celebrations, because, well, it's the weekend and I went for a run this morning so I pretty much earned them. Or so I tell myself.

In other news, the Christmas tree is up, and the children are bursting with excitement. As am I. Excitement and chocolate.

Sibling rivalry

My children are going through a Fighty Phase.

Just before I sat down to type this, I heard an almighty roar from Tig. She was screaming because the Boy had turned all the lights off while she was sitting in her high chair at the dining table, leaving her in complete darkness while he scuttled off giggling into the playroom. I bashed my ankle very hard as I crossed the pitch-dark kitchen to find the light switch, too, so THAT didn't help the Boy's cause. Meanwhile Egg finds every possible opportunity that she can to remind the younger two that she is a LOT older, "practically an adult", and sneakily teasing them when she thinks I can't hear.

My punishment for the Boy for switching off the lights was to tell him that he won't get his long-awaited pack of Toy Story 2 stickers, which the Husband is bringing home for him tonight. He can have them tomorrow when he's demonstrated some good behaviour. Surprise, surprise, the reason I can type this in peace is that he's now being the Ultimate Big Brother. I can hear him saying "Shall we play with your babies, or shall we do a puzzle? You choose, Tig. We could play in your room!" It's all very sweet, but every so often he turns to me with a beatific toothless grin and whispers "Will I be getting my stickers now?". Little imp.

They'llbefriendswhenthey'reolderthey'llbefriendswhenthey'reolderthey'llbefriendswhenthey'reolder...And breathe.