Friday's Fave Five 28/10/16

It's Friday  Saturday so it's belatedly time to join in with Suzanne's Friday's Fave Five.
 
It's a place to come on Fridays and think back over your week and just post about 5 favourite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favourite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

If you want to take part or visit other Fave Five posts, click on the picture above to go to host Suzanne's site and check out the linky list.

Here are mine for this week, a day late as I was quite busy yesterday and then my son and DIL arrived for the weekend:

1. Last Saturday the son who lives with us and his wife made us a lovely cooked breakfast.  It's nice to be waited on.

2. Our niece's baby, Poppy, has her nasal feeding tube replaced with a permanent tube directly into her stomach through her tummy.  This was a worrying procedure for them as it involved a general anaesthetic and there were concerns over her heart when she was previously poorly but all went well.  This will make their lives so much easier.

3. On Wednesday we saw a play at our local theatre.  It was a modern day adaptation based on Chekov's The Cherry Orchard.  It might have helped if I'd done my homework beforehand about that story.  We've seen great plays and musicals at the theatre which I've been happy to recommend.  I can't say the same about this play but it was nice to have a night out with hubby.

4. Moving - it looks like two of our children will be on the move.  Our eldest son and his wife have put an offer on a property in Nottingham where they are based.  It's been accepted but not they have to get all their paperwork etc in order so will keep our fingers crossed on that one.  Our daughter and her wife, for various reasons, have decided not to continue with the purchase of a flat they were interested in.  Instead they are going to look to move from their rented flat to a rented house until they can afford to buy a house.  Our DIL has just become self-employed so her earnings won't count towards a mortgage at the moment which limited their buying power.  Hopefully in a year or two when she can show evidence of earning they will be better placed for a mortgage.

5. We've finished painting the spare room!  Yay! The carpet is due to be laid on Monday and hopefully everything will be ready for Thursday when guests arrive.  We might not have new curtains by then but the old ones have been washed and will at least provide privacy for now.

Hodgepodge on a Thursday! Time is flying.

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

Have fun!

I'm a day late this week as I was busy decorating yesterday and then in the evening we were at the theatre but here goes:

1. Besides your very own house, describe a place where you feel most 'at home'? 

One of the places I regularly walk through is our cemetery.  I love walking through there – my maternal grandparents are buried there and my parents ashes are in the rose garden.  Most times I just walk through giving a nod in their direction but sometimes I take the time to sit and think, and talk (in my head!) to them. 

2. When did you last 'hit a home run' with something? Explain. 

Well we are on the home run with decorating our spare room. 

3. Tell us about something you love in your house or kitchen that is 'homemade'. 

Umm struggling to think of an answer for that.

4. 'A man's home is his castle'...which of the world's ten most captivating castles (according to The Travel Channel) would you most like to visit and why-

Mont Saint-Michel (France), Edinburgh Castle (Scotland), Neuschwanstein Castle (Germany), Glamis Castle (Scotland), Windsor Castle (England), Chateu de Chambord (France), Hampton Court Palace (England), Prague Castle (Prague), St. Michael's Mount (England), and Leeds Castle (England)

Well I have been to Mont Saint-Michel, Edinburgh Castle, Windsor Castle and St. Michael’s Mount.  Of the others I’d like to visit the French Chateau, mainly because we’ve been to France quite a few times but never been to visit a chateau.

5. What's a recent or upcoming plan or project that's required you do a little homework before getting started? Did the homework cause you to abandon your plan or adjust it in some way?

I’m already thinking ahead for the A-Z blogging challenge.  That definitely requires some homework to avoid being stressed out and panicking about getting blogs posted on time.  Nothing is set in stone yet so there probably will be some adjustments.

6. In your opinion, is homework an unnecessary evil or a valuable practice? Should schools be done with homework? Why or why not?

I think homework can be a valuable practice but it shouldn’t just be done for homework’s sake – i.e. if it’s done it needs to be marked.  Given the way our current primary education is going where the main focus seems to be on getting kids through the various statutory tests I think it would be good if homework took the form of investigative projects that might help cover some of the stuff that’s taking a back seat such as geography and history. 

7. Share a favourite memory of your childhood hometown. 

One of the things that stand out was the town show.  This is still held each year.  I haven’t been in years but I can remember attending as a child.  There were stalls and entertainers etc. and it was a fun day out.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

Our niece’s baby, Poppy, had her surgery today to insert the permanent feeding tube into her stomach which means she no longer needs the nasal tube.  Surgery went well and hopefully they will be going home tomorrow.  Thank you to all those who’ve had Poppy in your prayers.  I’ve had various bits of good news this week which I’ll share in due course.

SoCS 22/10/16 - Holiday time!

This week's prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “ho.” Find a word with the two letters–“ho”–in that order, and use it in your post. Enjoy!


If you want to join the fun link your post  HERE at this week’s prompt page either by pingback or posting your link in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
Full rules are listed at the bottom of this post.
Thanks to Linda G. Hill for hosting.

It’s holiday time.  Well a school holiday anyway –it’s half term break here in the UK.  I used to live my life around school holidays, wanting them to come and then sad they were over and already looking forward to the next one.

I don’t have to do that anymore but having a teacher in the house (my daughter-in-law) I still know when it’s holiday time.  Her mood lifts for starters (although she’s usually quite an upbeat person anyway), we get offers of cooking, (we had a lovely big cooked breakfast this morning) and there’s usually a frantic clean up of their bedroom. (The dust has been flying today too.)

It’s sad in a way that we seem to wish our lives away especially as it’s not like she doesn’t enjoy her job.  I enjoyed mine too but we did seem to cram at least a week and a half into every week so by the time the holidays come around you feel exhausted and ready for the break. 

What’s really scary though is the next holiday will be the Christmas break.  I’m feeling more in control of that now I’m not working but it’s still coming around faster than I would like.  I’m not prepared enough yet to be in Ho Ho Ho mood.



Thanks for reading.  If you want join in  here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
8. Have fun!

Friday's Fave Five 21/10/16

It's Friday so it's time to join in with Suzanne's Friday's Fave Five. 
 
It's a place to come on Fridays and think back over your week and just post about 5 favourite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favourite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

If you want to take part or visit other Fave Five posts, click on the picture above to go to host Suzanne's site and check out the linky list.

Here are mine for this week:

1.  Moving forward with decorating our spare room.  It's still a work in progress but we're moving in the right direction.

2.  Catch up TV - I love being able to catch up on things I've missed. (And having the time to do it.)

3.  Parking zone.  Our street is soon to be part of a parking zone - they started painting the lines on the road and erecting signs this week.  Since another zone was introduced near our station we've had lots of extra cars parking in our street.  Making our area a parking zone should make it easier to find a space to park.  We will need a permit for our car but the first permit per household is free so there will be no cost to us.  We will have to buy visitor permits for when we have visitors but I think overall it will be better.

4.  Lunch with friends.  It was Ana's turn to host today and she provided a lovely lunch - winter soup to start, followed by a pasta dish with salad and then a lemon drizzle cake with blueberries, raspberries and a salted caramel sauce.  It was all delicious and washed down nicely with a glass (or 2) of wine.

5.  Some lovely family news - our niece's baby, Poppy, who has had a nasal feeding tube for a while now, will get a permanent tube fitted directly into her stomach next week.  This will make things so much easier for them, especially as Poppy is becoming an expert at pulling the tube out and that means a trip to the hospital every time to get it reinserted.

Have a good weekend all.

Time for Me! 20/10/16

Well I did eventually put my underwear on today, and top clothes, (I needed to get out and shop for dinner) but I decided that today was going to be a "Me" day.
We've been decorating on and off since Saturday, 2 coats of paint on the ceiling, 2 coats on the walls plus popping out for more supplies and ordering the carpet.  Tiring work when you've not done it for a while so today was designated as a day of rest and just pleasing myself.

Of course it's hard to completely rest when you realise the laundry basket is rather full, and the dishwasher needs emptying and oh there's some rubbish to be cleared up.  But there were breaks in between for blogging, reading etc.

We'll resume painting at the weekend.  I'm aiming to get it finished at the weekend so the paint has plenty of time to dry before the carpet is fitted.

I'm fortunate that I have a hubby who likes shopping.  I don't have to drag him to the shops.  In fact he'll often go off to do shopping on his own.  We even managed to agree on some carpet fairly quickly.  Just curtains and bedding and accessories to go!

The carpet is due to be fitted on 31st October and our first guests arrive on 4th November.  Sounds like I'm opening for business but of course this is just for friends and family but these first guests are actually friends of our son and daughter-in-law so I do want things to be as nice as possible.  We will also be welcoming DIL's Aunt and Uncle from America here in April next year so no pressure!

I spent part of today trying to find an anniversary gift for my daughter and her wife.  It's their first anniversary next week.  Their first year seems to have flown by.  Finding a suitable gift proved difficult.  I found a lovely record book for anniversaries that I thought would be a nice thing to keep but, fortunately, I spotted that on the page for recording things like where they met etc. there was a reference to "her" version of how they met and then "his" version.  Hmm, perhaps not such a good idea.

Thankfully I did find a site that had quite a few gifts suitable for same sex couples and hopefully the gift I've chosen will be delivered in time.  I also got a few ideas for Christmas presents so not totally a me day after all.  Actually, once you're married and have a family I think it's hard, but definitely not impossible, to have a totally "me" day.  It just takes a bit of planning and probably works best when away from home.

Wednesday Hodgepodge 19/10/16

Wednesday's Hodgepodge is brought to us courtesy of Joyce at 

 From this side of the pond

 Pop over there to see other posts and if you want to join in add the link to your Hodgepodge blog post to the Linky List at the end of Joyce's post and don’t forget to visit at least your neighbours on the list.

Have fun!

1. What would you say is your strongest sense?
I think I would have to say sight.  My husband will claim I don’t listen, my sense of smell is pretty average, I’m definitely not a food connoisseur and I’m not particularly touchy feely.  But I am quite observant and having 2 close relatives who are blind has made me realise how much we take for granted sometimes.

2. Do you believe in the idea of a 'sixth sense'? Why or why not?
Not particularly.
3. When do you most feel like a slave to time? Explain.
Mainly if I’m working against a deadline.  Fortunately, as a non worker, most deadlines these days are self imposed so they are easier to adjust!
4. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? How would you rate the experience? If you could own a restaurant what kind would it be?
The nearest I’ve come to working in a restaurant was working on a food stall at a major football ground.  I don’t think I’d want to own a restaurant – the hours can be pretty hard.  I’d prefer a tea shop with lots of yummy cakes on hand.
5. Ever traced your family tree? Share something interesting you learned there.
The family tree on my Dad’s side is a bit complicated.  When his parents split up he went with his Father to Yorkshire, his Mother stayed in Wales.  His father subsequently remarried and there were step-siblings and half-siblings brought into the equation.  We knew his half-siblings but his step-sister had a rather chequered past and contacts were severed with the welsh side of the family.

Unfortunately I was only 22 when my Dad died so we never spent much time discussing it.  Part of me would like to research this, but part of me feels that maybe it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie as this early part of Dad’s life was not particularly happy – he was working in a coal mine at 14 with his Dad and joined the army as soon as he could to escape that.  Then WW2 broke out and he was one of the soldiers rescued from Dunkirk.

6. What did your childhood bedroom look like?
I had a thing about purple and Donny Osmond.  I’m sure you can conjure up a picture of it!
7. Anyone who knows me knows I love chocolate.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Well I’m a slave to time at the moment – we are continuing with the redecoration of one of the spare bedrooms.  It has to be ready for 4^th November when we have guests coming to stay.  I should be putting a second coat of paint on the walls today but I seem to be blogging procrastinating! (I'm good at that.)