blink....and it's gone!

I simply can't believe it's Saturday night already. This week really has gone past in the blink of an eye. It's been so full and busy, but really nice too! 

It was the first full week back at school and that is going pretty well, apart from Rebe missing a day on Monday because she had a crick in her neck and Benny was off on Friday because of this...

horrible conjunctivitis. 

I hope it clears up soon bless him, he's having a hard time with it :-( 

We're still getting used to spending so much time in the car doing school runs, and we are also adjusting to the kids going to Andy for 2 afternoons instead of a full day during the week. Some of our afternoon time is  spent trying to come to grips with Irish spellings (goodness me)! I feel so helpless trying to help Rebe with them, I don't know what the words mean or how to pronounce them. I will have to find someone or someway to help us with this!

Joa 'making porridge'

Those things aside, life is full in other ways. The garden and the drill in the field are producing loads of goodies, so I've been busy harvesting, storing and processing that.

apples from my friend's orchard, we made crumbles and lots of apple sauce

 the carrots are doing well in the drill. It appears I planted 2 varieties: short and fat and long and thin! But they make great carrot cake...

 We took a cake over to a neighbor of ours this morning. She's very nice, all her kids are grown up now, and she has offered to babysit for me an evening a week so I can do something for me!!! I have been looking at evening classes, but there is nothing I fancy so far, but I think I might have found a singing group which would be just perfect.

Knitting and crafting.
I am working on a few projects at the moment,

This is a re-knit I finished a wee while ago. A few years ago my mum knitted me a tank top with this yarn, but I lost quite a bit of weight and the top didn't suit me anymore, so I unraveled it and re-knitted it into this cardi. It's the first thing that I have actually knitted for myself that is larger than a hat! Since finishing this one I have re-knitted another cardi, and just in time too, the temperature has dropped here and autumn seems to have arrived.

 At the moment I am knitting a hat for a wee doll that I made during the week. I'm really enjoying being back at the machine again making dolls. I have tentatively taken on a few custom orders, but I am very wary about my list becoming too long for me again. I have also decided that to maintain a bit more balance in my life I will only do doll work 3 nights a week. Aside from that I am sewing myself a dress and I have plans to make some birthday presents for some special people.

 The kids were busy this morning too. Rebe decided that she wanted to make some cakes to sell (to buy herself a pony). So the three of them worked away and made some (edible) chocolate cake. This afternoon we went to a story telling event at our local hotel and the kids took a basket filled with slices of cake to sell. I think they sold one (to a sweet friend of mine) and then lost their confidence asking people to pay and just shared the cake out to the other kids that were there. In my mind that was a much nicer thing to do than sell them, but then I don't really want to stand in the way of their independent ideas and try not to discourage them putting their ideas into action because after all that is such a vital life skill.

Tomorrow is my day without the kids, and I have no plans other than going for a run, resting and relaxing. Refueling ready to face another week that will no doubt fly past at break neck speed!

 Oh yes, and Joa can draw! He has drawn countless pictures of Gromit today after discovering he can do it

and how proud he is!

Wishing you all a happy week too :-)