A Humdrum Mum

Today Elf went to football training (scored two goals, one left-footed again) and then went conkering (as opposed to conquering) with his mate up the road. Left with all of this free time, I entertained my old friend who was staying, along with her 19 year old neice, who we were trying to help make a life plan. Greasy haired, we sat in our PJs, ate a brunch and gossiped. My friend used the make-up I bought yesterday to give me smokey eyes. I wondered if Mr Humdrum would notice; he did but didn't say anything as he thinks I look weird with anything other than nude eyeshadow on. Anyway, after this I decided to do some baking and made the oaty cookies from my previous post, but swapped the apricots for chocolate drops, and I made soup which I would take to work this week. Roasted butternut squash from the New Covent Garden Soup for Every Day book. Yummy! We had a cupful with our cheese on toast dinner; Mr Humdrum approved and even Elf said it was yum! The cookies were nice too. I ma...

I'm sure I've seen a linky for selfie Saturday but I can't locate it. Here's my first pic using the new iOS 7 camera edit feature. Trying to make myself look like a 60s model! I need a makeover ... Next week I'm going for a spa weekend as a real treat (I don't do this very often) with four friends. No kids and no blokes. Bliss! I'm having a mini facial and mini mani. In preparation I have bought some new make up - purple eye liner, silver/blue shadow and a pink gloss called Turkish Delight. I feel like I need a teenage bedroom night in where I shut myself in, armed with make up and hair stuff to experiment! Do any of you ever feel like you need a new look? How do you go about it?

Last week's article by Polly Williams in the Guardian's Family section, entitled The Munch Bunch, explained the reason for the £12,000 extra that a boy costs to raise than a girl - appetite. Polly states "a magic porridge pot would be the perfect solution" and she lists two omelettes, Weetabix and toast as her teenage son's breakfast. This was exactly what I'd been thinking. Well not exactly, as my boy is 7, but man, can he eat? Polly's friend states a boy needs 4 meals a day. That's my boy too. Breakfast - 3 Weetabix. Either a packed lunch (with 6-7 items) plus snack bar, or a cooked lunch and a snack bar, snacks after school, dinner, topped off with Weetabix for supper. And he can eat in between this too. My mother-in-law told me that there will come a time when you can't get enough bread or cereals down them. And there's nothing to him, not one ounce of fat. It all gets burnt off. I'm always on the look-out for home-made solutions. I...

Up until now, it's just been sports day and 10-length time trials at swimming that have moved my heart into my mouth and rendered it painful to watch. You desperately want them to do as well as they can, you don't want them to be upset with their performance, you wish you could take their place etc etc.  Well now I can add competitive football matches to this list. Elf has just started in his under 8s team. Two friends play, and we are getting to know the others in the 7-strong team. We know some other parents very well, and it's a good opportunity to catch up over the dodgy bar coffee. Last Sunday they played for the first time as a team. They'd not even trained together before as a unit. One mum's other son had started the week before in the under 9s and had endured an excruciating 15-1 loss. It's not that they're bad players; they just haven't had the chance to gel, nor to receive the specialised team training yet. So this week we fully expected t...

A is for Are we there yet? One and a quarter hours into our four hour trip I hear it. It's not actually Are we there yet, more How long? I was driving and Elf was in the front seat, so we were able to converse in between bouts of DS, PSP, reading and listening to his iPod (he kept asking me to turn my music down!). I did take the opportunity to explain miles per hour and distance covered. He's seven, but he understood that if I'm going at 70mph, then it's going to take just under and hour to go 60 miles. B is for beaches, hence the photo. We are not a theme park family, I tell people. Don't get me wrong, they have their place. We use Paulton's Park as a meeting place with my best friend's family once a year, and the boys have been known to go to Legoland on an inset day. But not at the expense of the countryside and certainly not the beach! I spoke to a boy at school the other day who said he'd been to a seaside town very near where I grew up in Corn...