Birthday Joy

Enjoying a small rest on my birthday (40).  The man is cooking supper and the kids are out in the garden playing with friends.  Spent today out rambling around an ancient monestry, had a picnic lunch, then icecream and prosecco in a lovely old town near here.  Off for a walk soon then my birthday feast!!! Have had amazing goodies.  Homemade cards and posters drawn by the boy, organic smellies for the house, a super sturdy food processor with a dough hook - cool, winning lottery tickets (i hope) and lots of love, hugs, sunshine and chilling down time - perfect day for me.  Also spoilt myself with lots of books and films from amazon in English as my Italian is so rubbish.  Wishing I could see some people who are far away in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and of course Blighty!!! x

Slowing down a little

Right now I feel very tired, I have big bags under my eyes and my limbs feel like lead.  However, with two children on holiday a business to run and an out of control garden to tend I am forever on the go.  I must not complain as the good totally outweighs the bad, but sometimes I need to listen to my body a little and right now it is telling me to rest!!!  This is so hard with a racing mind and worries about many things but this weekend I will try and nourish my soul and be a little self indulgent.  I hope to: finish my sewing pile, start drawing and painting again, plant some late summer veggies, make a lovely gluten free pudding, read and watch some classic old films.  But today I must catch up on writing (work) projects and maybe take the children for a walk or cycle.

Here are some pictures of a recent visit to Florence:

Princess and the Pea

I am slowly, in fact dreadfully slowly trying to get the house more organised as I can never find anything and I get upset and frsutrated.  I started with the girl's room and I made up her bed with fresh linen, sorted her books and clothes tidied her toys and the room smelt of lavendar oil.  The cosiness was so beautiful - guess where she slept?  Yep in our room on a spare mattress - typical.

Museums & Leonardo Da Vinci

We took a trip last week to Florence on the train, I was pretty excited about visiting the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum.  Let's just say my excitement was somewhat larger than the museum.  We did have fun though, it was very hot (40 degrees) and we just about made it through the day, we spent an hour in a lovely kids centre where they hold art and craft workshops - no workshop whilst we were there but the kids chilled out and actually played together which is a rarity.  I am trying to focus on the good things, the lovely shiny happy moments as there are many troubling things happening in our lives at the moment with very poorly relatives & friends and heavy work comittments.  Also I am so tired and feeling fat!  However, here are some reminders of our lovely day in Florence x

Medieval Festival Monteriggioni

Last weekend we enjoyed a trip to Monteriggioni where they had a Medieval Festival, it was such a lovely evening, kids a tad grumpy as overly hot but we had a great night x

New interests for the boy

My darling boy really is totally Rugby mad and really only loves sport so we are gently trying to expand his interests by using his love of sport to encourage reading, writing, photography, nutrition, social skills etc.  Firstly I have bought a few great Rugby books for kids, secondly I have got hold of a copy of this cookery book below, thirdly we have bought the boy a digital camera to take shots of games he goes to see, and also we have set him up with his own Rugby blog to record his activities.

My boy in his moment

Archie's cookbook by Rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio

So far he is really growing into doing other things, yesterday he wrote a long list of all the Rugby players he wants to interview, he is writing the questions he wants to ask them and hw write his first blog post last night. He has started a project book and has named it 'Rugby Geek' and Archie has written his blog in both English and Italian (bravo).  So I am proud of him enormously and really hope that over the summer he can expand on his love of sport to encompass other things too. x

Tonight we are having a special supper - just because, I am making, Mushroom crostini, Pea and Pancetta loaf, slow cooked red peppers and to finish a gluten free lemon tart adapted from said book above, there is also a bottle of extra dry prosecco on ice - fingers crossed for a lovely evening.

Here and there

So hard to concentrate on work projects in this heat, also knowing my little people are up in the house doing homey things without me is a soul cruncher for me.  I would so much rather be being Mummy and cooking, gardening, playing etc and the summer is whooshin by too fast.  In between a 6 hour stint at work I managed to fit in a little of these:

Barbie makeovers with TT
Bread Making whilst the house was sleeping
Garden tidying and Watering
Snakes and Ladders
Reading The Green Parent which arrived today
Massaging the kids before bed
Puzzle books with TT
Rugby blogging with AA
Set up my easle - hope to start to paint soon
Sorted sewing drawer - hope to start to sew again soon
Recipe planning - making a special family meal tomorrow, no reason just for the love of food and family

And finally a couple of glasses of wine and my current book 'Pure Bliss' by Gill Edwards - lovely reading.  Off to bed in very warm house, hoping for a big storm tomorrow to clear the air and re-fill our empty water tank!

Summer flowers and School show

Most of the the flower pics and the old hound photo where take by TT, which make them even more special to me x