A bit of Waffle - 16/3/26

We had Grandson Nathan here on Saturday morning until early afternoon which was nice.  He's started a big jigsaw so he brought that here on a puzzle board and we managed to get the edging done but he lost interest after that.  Especially once he managed to persuade Grandpa to play football outside for a bit.

Yesterday my daughter and DIL brought afternoon tea to us.  We were supposed to go there but they've had a few issues at home with a leak and now their tumble dryer isn't working so they came to us instead.

We had cream cheese and smoked salmon bagels followed by scones with clotted cream and jam plus a couple of other cakes.  I also got a lovely plant which hopefully I won't kill and some nice soap.  It was Mother's Day here in the UK.

Of course we also got a load of washing to dry in our tumble dryer.  Just glad we live near enough to be able to help out like that.

Today I've had a fairly quiet day - I submitted the plastic count we'd done last week.  It would be nice to think that a collective effort might put pressure on our Government to try and reduce the plastic packaging we get.  There is a lot of unnecessary wrapping on food.  I try to buy loose fruit and veg when I can and I have various things that come as refills for starter bottles such as washing up liquid, fabric conditioner and cleaning spray and they come packaged in cardboard that can be recycled.   There is talk that when one of the local fish and chip shops closes soon that it will become a butcher's shop.  That would be good because a lot of the plastic we bin each week is meat wrapping.   Will have to see how expensive it is though.

This was our tally sheet:

This evening I've been at the Foodbank taking in deliveries and it would seem most of the supermarkets overestimated on flowers for Mother's Day as we received lots of flowers tonight, so many we didn't have enough flower buckets to get them all in water so I now have a vase of tulips to brighten my dining room table too.  One of the perks of being a volunteer.  

Wednesday Medley - 8/5/19

The Wednesday Medley is hosted by Terri over at Your Friend from Florida.
The questions usually start with the National Day and follow on from there. No rules and there is no obligation. Link up if you want to over at Terri's site and see who else is joining in the fun.

This week Terri has gone with Mother's Day which is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of May in America, Terri's home country.  Of course we've already had Mother's Day here in the UK, back on 31st March.   Hasn't stopped me from joining in though.

1. Where did your mum grow up?
The East End of London.

2. Tell us about her siblings, if she has/had any. Did you have a favorite aunt or uncle?
Mum was the eldest of 4 siblings and was probably the most responsible of them all.  Only the youngest still survives.  I saw a lot of my Aunts & Uncles while growing up but I'm not going to upset any cousins by naming favourites!

3. What is ONE of your favorite memories you can share with us of your mum?
Impossible to name just one.  Mum and I had a very close relationship and I know that a lot of how I act today is based on her good examples.

4. Please share a picture or two of your mum with us.

5. Let's not leave out the grandmothers. Share what you will.

I only knew one of my Grandmothers (my maternal Grandmother) and grew quite close to her, especially towards the end of her life as she came to live with my parents and I was still living at home.

My Mum was a fantastic grandmother to my kids, especially when they were young but I can't leave out my Mother-in-law who was also a fantastic lady and a much loved Grandma to my 3 and the other 20 grandchildren she had.

 
6. Do you have any special plans for Mother's Day? 
This year it co-incided with Grandson Nathan's first birthday so our focus was on him.

We did have a nice family lunch the week after.

Thanks for the questions Terri.
 

Happy Mother's Day 6/3/16

It is Mother's Day today here in the UK.  It seems earlier this year but I'm not complaining.  I have two vases of beautiful flowers and some lovely chocolates, including some handmade by a local person. My youngest son also popped in to see me.  I'll catch up with the other two soon. 

It's lovely of them to remember and I do appreciate the gifts but I'm glad they don't get too sentimental about it and feed the commercialism attached to these sort of days.  I believe my children are my greatest achievements and they shouldn't need a specific day to appreciate me.  Fortunately I see a lot of them and we are in touch all the time and I do feel loved.  We have good relationships.

But days like these, especially with all the hype, must be so hard for some people.  Mothers who are estranged from their children or those where the children turn up with a card and gift out of obligation rather than desire so that the whole thing becomes meaningless. 

And what about those who would desperately give anything to have a child but are unable to do so.  I'd be burying my head under the duvet and staying there all day, and probably longer.

Then there are those who make a conscious decision not to have children.  This can be for any number of reasons but again society makes it hard for them with many people wanting to challenge that decision.

I couldn't imagine not having my children but I'm a Mother every day not just today.

And in case you didn't know, according to the National Day calendar today is also:
Dentist's Day
Frozen Food Day
White chocolate Cheesecake Day &
Oreo Cooking Day 

Well I hope the Dentists are having a good time imagining how many more visits will be generated by everyone eating icecream, cheesecake and cookies!

And just for a final point of trivia, yesterday I posted a piece called  "Is your cyber life death prepared?" as in have you thought about how to close your internet sites down after you die.  What was interesting to me was that the post attracted more page views than I've ever had.  An increase of about 600 % on usual traffic.  Weird.