Ten on Tuesday

Back from Christmas, New Year and a lovely break in Devon, with a Ten on Tuesday...

1. We now have a lovely floor in our kitchen and hallway.  The hall floor was taken up over 3 years ago, and the kitchen was an attractive mix of bare concrete and black polythene for a couple of months. It's amazing what you get used to, and it still takes me by surprise when I catch sight of gleaming laminate each morning. The process of getting it fitted was mildly traumatic, involving keeping two small children away from the house from 9am till 6pm on a drizzly December Monday on 3 hours sleep with an injured ribcage.  Thankfully the results were worth it.

2. I had planned to make stained-glass-window biscuits for the lovely staff at Westboy's nursery (I have no idea what the etiquette is for Christmas presents for nursery school staff.  Any ideas anyone??). I set off to buy the ingredients for the biscuits, and discovered that boiled sweets are almost impossible to find. Even with suggestions from Facebook friends I drew a blank. I ended up using Asda's 'Rosey Apples', which I'd bought just-in-case I couldn't find anything better.  Fortunately they worked brilliantly, even giving an unintentionally Christmassy red and green colour scheme to the biscuits.  (The original plan had been to involve Westboy in the baking of the biscuits, but it ended up being a tokenistic sprinkling of sweets, as we were under time pressure and my perfectionist tendencies kicked-in. Sorry!)

3. My other Christmas present creation was biscotti. Mostly Almond & Cinnamon flavour, but a couple of batches of Ginger, and one Ginger & Dark Chocolate. MMmmmm. I kept some for myself too. I really hope that noone has broken any teeth on them though. That would not be such a good Christmas present.

4. Westboy took part in two nativity plays: one as a shepherd, one as Joseph (the benefits of a small church). It was heart-meltingly cute to see him up on a stage, with an element of breath-holding-danger, because he might've done pretty much anything while up there (thankfully he didn't).

5. Westboy took up birdwatching while we were staying with Granny & Gramps.  He was really hoping to see a woodpecker or an owl, apparently.

6. We didn't see any woodpeckers or owls, but saw some stunning beaches and rainbows while we were down there.

7. Westbaby had his first birthday while we were in Devon. It's been a wonderful year, but I'm really glad it's over. Reflux, recurrent mastitis, chicken pox, wisdom teeth removals, and a plethora of coughs, colds & tummy bugs make it one that I'd rather not repeat.

8. Both boys are turning into climbers. It's one of those sights that provokes both terror and pride. 

9. I really like this article, reminding me to savour the best moments of being a mum rather than expecting to 'enjoy every minute' of it, and this article on the importance of boring unglamorous callings (I think being a mum qualifies as that!). (Yep, I'm blatently just using my blog as a dumping ground to bookmark articles that I'd like to be able to find at a later date...).

10. Today I've been filling out my tax return while listening to this.

Linking up with Sarah, Jo, Lucy & Hannah.