Well, I promised myself that this would be the week to get back on track with Recipe of the Week, but I didn't get round to photographing any of this week's baking (again) and you can't really have a recipe without a photo!
Next week. Promise.
So instead, I just had to share these rules that I found on Facebook yesterday. I honestly thought of printing them out and pinning them to our bathroom door, as they seemed so appropriate!
Numbers 2 and 9 are the most common in our house!
I was tagged by Sarah Jayne at the Lord's Lass to answer the following fun questions, so here goes!
(1) Blueberries or cherries?
Blueberries please. I do like cherries, fresh ones (I don't like the cherry pie filling type ones, nor any sort of cherry cola or sweets though) but I find eating a bowl of cherries with their stones in just a little bit fiddly! So, blueberries it is. Although I'd rather a raspberry or strawberry, but that's not the question is it?!
(2) Vanilla or chocolate?
You know me well enough by now, surely? It would have to be chocolate. It's a tough call though, because I do also love vanilla. I'm a big fan of the Body Shop vanilla shower gels and lotions too, but to eat, and forced to make a choice, chocolate would win.
(3) What is your favourite song?
Oh, dear. This is a really hard one. I have absolutely no idea! What can I say? I'm a musician, I can't just choose one song!
(4) What is your favourite activity?
Baking, cooking, crafting, music, spending time with my boys and my beloved? Again, I couldn't choose just the one.
(5) Have you ever left your country?
I have left the UK only 3 times and each time have been to France, although to different parts each time.
(6) What is on the floor of your closet right now?
Shoes, lots of them. Also a box full of balls of wool and another box full of sewing supplies.
(7) What did you do last night?
I helped out at the children's club at church, which the older three boys go to. Alasdair comes along too, now that I am a helper (because daddy still works away part of the week). Then it was back home to bath the boys, cream up and bandage Alasdair as per his eczema care routine, put the boys to bed, and then went to bed early myself!
(8) What are you most afraid of?
I'm not much of a worrier. Of course I am afraid of any harm coming to my boys, husband or other close family members, but it's not something that I'm constantly worrying over.
'Fear not, for I the Lord your God am with you.'
(9) If you had the option, would you choose a fun drink or an edible snack?
Oh, edible snack, every time!
(10) What is your favourite day of the week?
Well, I can't say I really have one, but I suppose it would be Thursday, because that's when my hubs comes home from working away up north (although every 3 or 4 weeks he comes home on a Wednesday)
(11) What is your favourite breed of dog?
I'm not a doggy person really, but I suppose my favourite breed would be a collie, for their hard working genes and their devotion.
Gosh there are a lot of questions to get through! We're nearly there!
(12) What is your favourite genre of literature?
Oh dear, I don't have one of these either! I will say that my favourite classic book to read, is Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 'Sunset Song' from his 'Scot's Quair' trilogy.
(13) Diamonds or pearls?
As a necklace, pearls. I have two precious pearl necklaces. One was given to me by my husband to wear on our wedding day, and the other was given to my granny by my grandad for their wedding day in the 50s. My engagement ring is diamond though. Funnily enough, the ring we chose is almost identical to the one that same granny had. I didnt ever pay any attention to her ring before we were engaged but we must have had similar tastes!
(14) What is your favourite type of flower?
I love flowers. My choice of favourite flower comes from the fact that it was the first type of flower given to me by my husband, who wasn't my husband back then, or even my fiancé. Anyway, it was a bunch of beautiful smelling freesias, for our one month dating anniversary. I wonder if he still remembers that?
The next flowers he bought me were roses, and so when we married I had freesias and roses in my bouquet.
(15) What is one item on your bucket list?
I don't have one of these either!
Phew, there we are then!
I'm passing the fun along and tagging Rachel from Dove of Snow and Jennifer from A little Islander.
Over the summer I have had a few different crochet projects on the go.
Today, the summer seemed to take a turn towards autumn. Although autumn is my most favourite of seasons, I'm hoping today was just a blip as I'm not quite ready to let go of summer quite yet.
Anyway, I mention this because the weather outside (very wet, windy and dull) gave me the inspiration to finish off one of my summer projects.
I made one of these a year or so ago for my nephew and David requested one for this winter.
He's really chuffed with it and looking forward to the colder weather now. When I was finishing it off, Alasdair was watching me, and asked me when the snow was coming (in Gaelic). Not for a long time yet, I hope!
If it hadn't been so dark when I took the photos you would be able to see that green really suits David's beautiful olive coloured eyes!
Gaelic word(s) of the day:
(it's been so long, I think you all deserve more than one today!)
Uaine (oo-an-ye) - green
Losgan (just as it looks) - frog
Ad (again, as it looks) - hat
But to say 'green frog hat' you would need to say 'ad losgan uaine'
How sweet is this photo of boys 1 and 4 taken at family devotions the other night?
No, I wasn't sitting snapping photos through devotions, I just thought they were so sweet and had my phone nearby so grabbed a quick shot!
Over to the boys once again for this week's make-it.
This is a fun craft for children to make. All you need is some plain white mugs and some porcelain pens, which you can easily, and quite cheaply, pick up from Hobbycraft or any other good craft shop.
Let the kids decorate the mugs and then fire them in the oven according to the instructions on the pens you have. Once they have been fired you can use them and wash them.
These are the ones the boys made last week.
James stuck with his current area of interest...
....Sherlock Holmes!
Has anyone else been busy crafting these last couple of weeks?
A day or two late with this, but joining in with Meghan's great 'Things I'm loving' linky. Missed doing it the last few weeks!
This week I'm loving...
Brotherly love.
The older boys went back to school this week, so Alasdair was missing them a bit on the first day back. He was so excited to see them after school. When we met Calum and David the three of them played in the garden at school while we waited for James to walk down and meet us after his first day at high school - yikes!
We were back to pick the boys up by late afternoon so it was all very civilised!
Thanks again to my sister in law and brother for babysitting. It's now our turn to return the favour for them!
Was anyone else enjoying the Olympics as much as we were?
I wasn't particularly fussed about them in the run up. The media, as usual, totally over hyped the whole thing so I tried to ignore it as much as possible. We all watched the opening ceremony since it was a once in a lifetime thing, it being held here in the UK and it had us gripped from then on!
The opening ceremony was really well done, and we all especially loved the part with Mr Bean and Chariots of Fire.
There were so many different sports to watch and I was surprised at which ended up being the boys' favourites. Especially David, who I thought would enjoy the football or maybe the judo the most, but he was most interested in the equestrian events!
The fact that the UK had such a successful games (our best since 1908!) made it all the more gripping for us. Every night the boys would want me to look up the medal table online and see where we were. I have memories of Olympics when I was growing up and the UK never seemed to do all that well overall.
Anyway, the boys, especially James, always like an excuse to collect things so I thought I would show you their wee Olympic display in their bedroom.
Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots, take centre stage, surrounded by some gold medal winning Team GB Lego mini figs. Well we had to have Lego in their somewhere, didn't we?
This isn't the sum total of our Olympic collection either!
We also have a coin collection, Olympic Jammies for David, Olympic glasses from Mcdonalds and a lovely Team GB scarf for me!
Like I said, it's a once in a lifetime event, hosting it over here. We had to make the most of it!
We were super busy here last week.
These two had the task of looking after the neighbours' chickens while they were away on holiday (that is, the neighbours were away, not the chickens!)
...re-acquainting heads with bodies and other parts.
They look good now they are done.
The main reason we were so busy was that we had Holiday Club (or VBS) on at church every morning. I was one of the leaders and so spent every morning running round doing various jobs, usually with a 3 year old attached to me!
On the last day we made pizzas as the craft which was great as I didn't need to fix lunch for us when we got home and could just collapse in a chair in the garden and enjoy the sun!
To end the Holiday Club fun we had a family BBQ at church on the evening of the final day.The parents of all the children who attended were all invited along. They heard about what the children had been learning, listened to the children singing and then everyone enjoyed the food.
It was a busy but very satisfying week.
James (12) and Calum (9) have been busy crafting this past week.
James is currently interested in reading all that he can about Sherlock Holmes, and so made up this model of the famous sleuth out of Polymer clay.
Meanwhile, Calum was making up a little box from scratch out of cardboard and paper mâché. He painted the finished box, filled it with sweeties and then gave it to his cousin as a birthday present.
I forgot to take a photo of the finished box before he handed it over!
While the bigger boys were occupied, myself and the younger two busied ourselves with some jam making.
A pan of rhubarb jam and one of raspberry.
That boy will go far :0)
