Ten on Tuesday: Dragons & Popcorn

1. I'm starting writing my ten on Saturday this week, rather than waiting until Tuesday night and ending up with a late late night. I've been thinking about how to not just manage my time, but also my energy. I start Monday with patience and enthusiasm, and get to Friday with an over-reliance on caffeine & Beebies. 

2. I enjoyed the Chinese New Year parade in the city centre *SO* much. There are all these amazing things going on in this city, and I often think I should go to them but then don't, so it was great to be there. We managed to stand in just the right spot at just the right time to see dragons and firecrackers, which was fantastic. It reminded me of one of my favourite children's books: "Wow, City!" by Robert Neubecker, which has beautiful illustrations about a little girl's trip to New York with her Daddy.

3. Our favourite emergency pudding at the moment is popcorn with cinnamon sugar. Tom's warned me not to make it too often though, as it'll stop being a treat. As if there's such a thing as too much popcorn?!

4. Westbaby loves helping me with housework. Occasionally he is actually helpful, but mostly it's more of the clean-laundry-in-the-bath scenario. This week it was putting the dustpan & brush in the washing machine.

5. The boys have a new favourite game: carrying all the saucepans & lids to the opposite side of the kitchen and 'arranging' them. Westbaby is the instigator, his older brother assists. I think it may be an art installation (which Mummy keeps disrupting by tidying away...)

6. I made this heart banner. I think I've been reading too many American blogs and have started to think that decorating for Valentines day is normal here too... 

7. I feel like I've been doing a crash-course in speech therapy, while waiting for Westboy's referral to materialise. Urgh. It's very interesting, but I'd really rather not have to know about these things.

8. Laura Marling playing in my car this week. I especially like the times when I start the engine & hear birdsong.

9. I find going to our local library pretty stressful. It has automatic doors that open onto a busy road, and my boys seem to shoot off in opposite directions and start pulling books off the shelves as soon as we're there. As a result, our trips to the library tend to be very quick and purposeful, and my book selection is impulsive and often pretty random. This time we seem to have done well though. The favourite, which is being requested repeatedly, is "The Troll" by Julia Donaldson.

10. These Tupler technique exercises are amazing, I lost 3 inches from my waist in the first 3 weeks of doing them, but... erm... they only work if you actually do them. I injured my ribs in mid-December, but think I've recovered enough to start again. So this is a bit of blog-accountability to get me motivated.


The other ten-on-tuesday-ers are here: Sarah, Jo, Lucy, Hannah & Britgirl.