The One and Only TEA Room: Everyone Welcome (bring champagne and muffins please!)

[Jacksmama]

Wow, we're on our third thread!!!
Previous (second) incarnation of the tea room.

A warm welcome to everyone, whether you have one child, none, or ten. This is a tea-and-muffin or booze-and-sofasorcanapees sanctuary for all. But certain standards of behaviour continue to apply - anyone engaging in fisticuffs will be ejected by George Clooney, ably assisted by Mellors the Gardener.

Cheers all!

OMG it is so COLD here today!!!

I was just wondering if we could have a sheep - haven't acquired one yet, thought I should ask first. I was thinking of taking up crocheting again. But I suppose she would do as a pouffe as well?

And please please please - what was the "one-handed gimp of Canada" about? Last I checked I still had two hands... although one is in fact a bit gimpy today because the skin has split right by my thumbnail from the cold and because I have to wash my hands so much at work... speaking of which, must dash!

xxxx

I can't stop, I'm off to babysit my friend's DD, which is a welcome opportunity to spend the entire evening playing Professor Layton on my DS (Nintendo variety, not previously undisclosed second child) and to have a little time off from my own precious darling, who has spent most of the day being a right little madam. Friend's DD is actually even more of a madam, but she goes to bed earlier, and presumably doesn't know exactly which of my buttons to press to get a reaction (not unless DD has told her).

I'm so glad that the tearoom has become a drama-free sanctuary/place to hide from one's spiritual director.

I think we just found the name for our next tearoom thread when this one is full.

(((((Hugs back to justabout))))

Busy morning today. Everyone's been out shoveling snow and hurting themselves so I am busy!!!

what did you see in the garden birdswise then? I saw some swans and ducks an seaguls today, nt in my garden to,they were on the river. Any one see a penguin? No not teh choclate covered variety.

LOL at MP and molesworth being used to sus people out.
Can I join in the muffin eating contest , mine are choc with choc fudge frosting and choc star sprinkles. Yummy.

So after teh jail braeak, finding a horse and Mellors rumled loo on occasion, whats next in the tea room movie.
Now for something completely different.

Justabout .

We are celebrating as ds is in bed, asleep, by 7pm. And he had a nap this afternoon which was good as I needed one too.... And we had supper together (that does feel rather early, but had the advantage that he ate up nicely which meant that we started upstairs earlier than normal, and have already eaten ourselves. Although I am going to have to tear myself away from the sofa early this evening and try to have an early night.

Not managed to do any bird spotting in the garden today - although I did see a red kite on the way to the park for the dog walk this morning. We do sometimes get them over the house - which would be interesting for the RSPB survey!

Must be almost time for some more bubbly - have brought a couple of bottles to add to the supplies.

Birds? Alas, nothing remarkable. We get some 35 species through in the average day, but in that particular hour, just seven fairly ordinary ones. Drat.

Justabout, not knowing a sheep from a swan?! . The Parable of the Lost Swan will never be the same for me now...

I love the idea of Molesworth as an indicator of compatibility As an unrepentant lover of Girls School Stories Molesworth hits all the right notes.

We have a green woodpecker who trashes the lawn in search of ants eggs if you want to add him to the survey. I was a member of the Young Ornithologist Club as a child. Possibly the most unsuccesful member ever as no one had noticed at the time that I had very limited sight in one eye

I think we should have a pets corner - the sheep, maybe a Llama too ?

For Ambers info, we took the A4 Avant out today. It drove like the sort of thing that people who don't like driving buy. Came back, told the sales guy this, and he borrowed the S Line with sports setup for us - totally different car and much more fun ! Its the current leader on the board - depending on what deal they offer

CMot - did you take a toddler with you and did it result in you getting someone to see you very quickly? [evil grin]

Yes, DS was with us. Actually they were very good about him wanting to sit in all the cars in the showroom - things are desperate in the motor trade these days !

DS seems to favour the R8 - 80k's worth of car, and tells me that I need to buy a purple car that goes zoom

DH taught him to say 'no deal' and 'it's all about the money' before we went

Was it the RSPB survey today? Pity - completely forgot. Also forgot to fill bird feeders today so they would have been thin on the ground.

at green woodpecker. We do sometimes get greater spotted ones tho. My best bird is not in the garden but on the way to work; the river by our school generally has up to 5 little egrets. (Justabout, they will be in Christchurch harbout too as not far. They look like white herons. A heron looks like ... oh, never mind. Just concentrate on relaxing and eating muffins.)

Have done some really creative parenting this evening. Either that or I am the sort of mother who ends up calling in Super Nanny as they totally ruin their children by self-indulgent neglect.

WS has a terrible cold. She can't breathe and keeps having nose bleeds. Today she ate the grand total of five garlic mushrooms and half a chocolate biscuit. When I put her in the bath her nose was steamed open, started to bleed again and she decided she was ravenously hungry. I think she wouldn't eat because she couldn't breathe. So she sat in the bath, blood running down her face, eating handsful of cheese cubes and drinking a bottle of hot chocolate.

This could be a scene in the tea room movie, but had better be left out of the Tea Room Guide To Parenting.

Oh, bless WS. Its awful when its all blood and snot, even worse when you aren't old enough to really understand. Cheese and hot choc in the bath is totally understandable, and def what one would do for yourself in the circs.

If I told you that DS managed to find the packet of chocolate mini rolls in the kitchen and had one for breakfast, followed by pinching a slice of my toast and nutella (DH - 'he's already had too much chocolate'. Me -'You try getting my breakfast off him then') you'll know the scene here

The Karvol plug in diffuser is a great thing btw if you haven't used them. Our house is gently scented by Karvol as DS is still very chesty and seems to get a lot of relief from it at night

Best place to see Herons is the southern perimeter road at Heathrow early in the morning. At 6am I've seen up to 10 in the river there

CMOT - WS has had less healthy breakfasts than that!

RevJustabout - We were thinking of working on a guide, in our quiet momments between baking and eating muffins, drinking, riding Earl Grey, feeding RacingPig, supervising Mellors (particularly Amber and Daisy), being ridden around the house and stabled in the clothes airer, bouncing with spiders, riding unicycles, playing the viola, appearing in Midsummer Murders, polishing our Mary Janes and adjusting our fascinators. And of course we do have a plethora of quiet momments, having hardly any children.

But having heard some accounts of our child raising, do you really think that anyone would actually buy it??

MJ quite often has pudding in the bathroom as he is able to practise multitasking that way - as he is male, I think its a really important thing to practise!!!!! And it cuts down on time between starting supper and actually managing to get into the bath...

Did I tell you I managed to combine funeral and nosebleed - not recommended.... (thanks to MJ headbutting me at bedtime the nightbefore).

We like the baby olbas oil - In fact, MJ often requests it even when he doesn't have a cold....

I thought of your funeral while watching WS dripping blood onto the cheese. (!)

I like olbas oil too, and eating menthol sweets.

evenin all
I was jsut reading through to catch up and realise that I do now sometimes use some of Sir Terence of Pratchett's words too as a filter - my fave being "rat-onna-stick, anyone?" CMOTDibbler will of course get the ref!

DH and his cousin saw a (apparently) male green woodpecker today in his cousin's garden. Personally, having looked at pics of them both I would be bloody amazed if he could truly tell it was the male rather than the female! Afaik he is not a twitcher...

whoops, meant to add - Justabout, I think you are perfectly safe in here. After all, it is a magic tearoom, and therefore should be invisible to those who would be after you for posting. Plus, it's not really MN, is it? It's a haven within MN, so there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to post here.

The RSPB survey is today as well, so it's not too late to dash out with a set of binoculars and a notebook.

Oooo, am I supposed to be co-supervising Mellors . I'd better go find my "how to supervise handymen that look like movie stars and wear no clothes" section in Debrett's New Guide to Etiquette. Thanks to Page 122 I know how to introduce a Lord to the Queen, if that helps?

Purely in an amusing sort of way, how about

IJustAboutFlounced

IJustAboutSmackedHalfOfMN

JustAboutDoneWithWinter (that should be mine, I'm so sick of this cold and of running around bundled in plaid and now they're calling for snow again )

But seriously:

JustAboutToHaveACupOfTea

?

Sadly, right now, that is the best I can come up with.

Jackbaby had a restless night and woke up at 7 am, bright-eyed and babbling. His parents, on the other hand, were bleary-eyed and yawning. Of course, he's now conked out on my lap having a nursey-nap, whereas I'm still tired but have had too much coffee to go back to sleep. [half grr, half besotted-with-child emoticon]

As we're making these suggestions in the tea room, how about

JustAboutToHaveACuppa
JustAboutToScoffACake
JustAboutToHaveASnooze
JustAboutToHaveANiceSitDow n
JustAboutToHaveANightOfLuurrveWithMyHusband

Anyone for tea?