My Week

It’s been a dark week hasn’t it? In every sense of the word.

I don’t tend to mention politics or what’s happening in the news on my blog. It’s my own cosy, cocoon-like world. However, I can’t not mention the sad events in Paris last weekend. I’ll be brief: I feel shocked, saddened and fearful.

Partly in response to this, and also because my youngest son has been poorly, we’ve been hibernating this week. The hatches have been battened down – both physical and emotionally.

Like most people, we’ve been hiding from the wild weather and finding pleasure in the simple and small things:

Eating our box of American mac and cheese. It was so much nicer than I imagined. We ate it with chippolatas, roasted onions and salad. Of course, we’re now wondering where our next box will come from. I need to find a UK source! We also tried the pancake mix, also very nice – especially with the maple syrup.

Watching Great Canal Journeys on Channel 4. Surely this must be the most calming, serene programme on television? We’ve watched a fair bit of news this week and this has been the perfect antidote. Every episode is basically the same, and there’s a good chance you might fall asleep. But that’s part of the appeal, surely? One day we’d love to have a go ourselves – the boys are keen too, although they really need to learn to swim first! Catch up on Channel 4 on Demand now.

Reading an old favourite. I love delving into our bookshelves and finding something to re-read. It goes some way to justifying keeping so many books in our house. This week I’ve really enjoyed re-visiting The Choir by Joanna Trollope. It’s all about a small Cathedral city (very much like the one we live in) and is so very readable. If you’re never tried Joanna Trollope before you should definitely give her books a go – my absolute favourite is A Spanish Lover. 

Nursery Food and tractor DVDs. Boiled egg and soliders, marmite toast, macaroni cheese – it’s all been about comforting nursery classics this week. I’ve also been very glad of out vast collection of Tractor Ted DVDs – perfect for my poorly little boy to watch on his ‘sofa bed’.

Knitting lots of little snowmen. These are for the boys’ school Christmas fair. My mum and I are having a stall at it next week. She has made lots of lovely things too.

HIBS 100. On Thursday morning I had a lovely surprise when I realised I’d made it in to the HIBS100 top 100 for the first time. I’m number 91. I’m so pleased and it really has given me a little push to keep working hard on my blog. This week, I’ve tried really hard to get back to speed on everything (after letting things slip a bit earlier in the Autumn). It’s so nice to feel like ideas are beginning to flow again!

And don’t forget this weekend is Stir-up Sunday. I’ve been writing about it here. It doesn’t have to be a big deal – how about just making a small cake? Or a jar of mincemeat (a lot easier than it sounds, I promise).

This week I’ve enjoyed reading these lovely blog posts:

Katie’s post about Remembrance.

Emma’s post about an adventurous Autumnal picnic

Laura’s post about how to cope when your husband goes away for work.

I hope you all have a good weekend. The weather is supposed to be turning wintry here. If I had a woodburner I’d light it!