The Shape of Crepes to Come

[hattymattie]

Here we are crepeys - Friday 13th!

Same boat lalsy and hatty, but just the French paper to go on Thursday.
Dd looks like she's been kept in a cupboard , she's so pale and drawn looking. Best of luck to yours dcs.
Quite a big diff in grades between 1st and2nd choice here . Still nerve wracking though< wibbles>

Cremo that is vv kind but I think we need space from each other or we kill each other- - I am liking the look of one place in Auvergne, I must say.

I have lecturer friends at Newcastle too.

Conducted a Ladyjog this morning and it actually went well so I am clearly over the worst of this wretched virus, though still coughing repulsively from time to time. Waved DD2 off on a week's school trip. Feel ridiculously wimpy for missing her - usually I steam through all this like a rhinocerous....

I may not be able to make the meet up on 27th. DP is laying some heavy emotional blackmail on me to let him go to this King Lear at the National - birthday present, missed the last Shakespeare thing as I was away, etc etc. we could both go out if we got a babysitter, but that would be three in the space of a week, which is well pricey.

DS has suddenly become a boy. He's five next month, and my little baby has gone.

Bit jealous of MI/wilbur's friend and the new baby, really. But I'm sure it will pass!

Awww Herbs - it's the haircut that did it . My DS is going to be 12 next week and I am starting to see how he will look a bit later. I am forced to finally admit he's not looking like a little boy anymore. I will say, I have enjoyed every stage of my children's lives so far. Each stage is interesting and different. The DD's in late teens are now great company and it's fun having their friends around - much nicer than when they were 10 or 11. Some very cute boys seem to frequent my girls - I can't remember them like that when I was young.

It is the haircut. And his ever-lengthening legs. The school trousers I bought him in September that were too long, are now only just OK, and that's with the hems fallen down!

But yes - each stage so far has been a joy, so I'm imagining this will continue to be the case. Until he's 13.

Off to Sainsbury's shortly, but am under instructions not to buy any clothes. Booooooo.....

They're not clothes if they come from Sainsbo's though, are they? They count as comestibles. Same as charity shop books are donations not an addition to our groaning shelves.

Honestly Herbs, teenagers are lovely too! They can be a pita but then so can toddlers and adults...

Absolutely about teenagers.

MI, we had a lovely family holiday in the Auvergne...

DP is pointing out it's Quite A Long Journey but there's a lovely looking house where we could be healthy and outdoorish for a v pleasant week.

When on form, my lovely teenager is one of the top people I know.

I am locked in combat with DP about Boring Food.

Mmmm, it was 7 hours from Calais to an hour south of C-F (but on the "wrong" side so we did a lot of driving while there to get to the mountains).

MI your boring food, or DPs boring food?

we are still no closer to a holiday here..... I am not sure we will get our act together this summer...

His boring food. I cook in the week. Not always fascinatingly but mostly edibly. I also cook a lot of veg/salad. DP has been lecturing me about how we should Eat More Green Veg (this means, in his lexicon, broccoli or green beans) but this weekend he produced a mix of baked potatoes (for Saturday dinner, which I found faintly annoying I will admit) pasta bake (with peas and prawns in the sauce) and oven chips with sausages (and a small number of green beans). I feel this is all a bit limited.

(My own repertoire isn't madly varied atm either but there is some variety in it. )

Good luck to all the exam takers.

MI, we loved the Auvergne - stayed outside Chaud Aigue (sp?) which we loved - fascinating the way people had hot water taps outside their houses. We did manage to fall out of our canoe when we were on the river somewhere near there. Go for it (and bring me back some Blu d 'Auvergne when you do).

DH has gone to the library to look at Which reports on washing machines as mine has definitely given up the ghost. Typical when I have a visitor staying.

Apart from not working when he was at school my DS was a delight when he was a teenager, much easier to cope with than DD and girly angst. A levels were a nightmare and don't mention the results. We seriously wondered if uni was for him, however it was the making of him and he has gone from strength to strength.

Must admit Herbs, if my dh asked me not to go to Lear because he had a jolly with mates, he wouldn't get far!

I'm going tonight

mother Have I had an adverse effect on you re school trips with all my fretting???

lalsy Do hope DD is getting over her sickness now. What a stress, just before an exam.

And I wish all the A2 students success in getting to the end of the exams and through all the result and uni place traumas. I'm sure they'll do very well.

DS has 2 more GCSE papers to go. Maths calculater paper and RE. He's out revising at a friend's place today. It'll all be over on Wednesday. Then I have to go back to the dreaded kit list thing for his trip in July.

We are actually going abroad this year after 3 summers in Sussex. I shunned holidays abroad for a bit. I just got fed up with being herded around airports like cattle, delays, lost luggage and going away only to be stuck in a hotel room with one sick child or other. It always seemed to happen to US. Anyway, I'm in denial about it but we're going to The Rockies and Vancouver. If I start thinking abut it I just collapse in to a heap of jelly. I think wibble seems to be the word...

We have ways of tackling boring food syndrome here... not that they always work of course!

Each family member has to suggest a meal for one night of the week - so that everyone gets at least one meal they really want - and one night of the week is a new recipe (not that this always actually happens) and everyone has to at least try it. If the complaints about meals get too annoying for me I threaten that during the holidays each ds will be responsible for planning / shopping / cooking one night a week which usually shuts them up for a bit.

Herbs, DS is definitely much more enjoyable now than he was at 7/8/9 Just like NU's son - much lest angsty than DD! He was a very spirited child, but is more chilled (probably because he can be more independent) at home now!
And if he wanted to go to Lear, why did he say he wouldn't and leave you looking forward to a night out with us???

It's an adventure, Rose, enjoy it. Tbh, entering the US is much better than it was because of the ESTA - I am presuming that you are going to America as well as Canada? Think about the journeying as being like childbirth - there is something good at the end of it! (That doesn't apply, of course, to coming home when you just have to grin and bear it). We're off to California and Arizona in September and I can't wait.

DH has come back from the library with information about washing machines - I hate choosing anything new like this.

We also like to try a couple of new recipes a month; and then I find we forget about old favourites so they come out again. We do write a evening meal menu plan for the week, which I find helps - particularly so that if I start something one day, I finish it off the folllowing day (beansprouts on Friday is a case in point - beef & mushrooms on Friday, chicken teriyaki on Saturday).

Well the house is clean, the charity admin work done, so I can now enjoy my friend's visit.

I am thinking v firmly of putting the girls in charge of one meal a week (possibly each) in the holidays.

NU - just pick the one that Which says is the best. Can't go wrong.

BTM - the Lear thing is an example of the PA bullshit I have to endure. I said to him that I was going out on 27th. He said OK. Then later realised that was the night he was going to Lear, but mumbled 'It's OK though. You go ahead'. So I did. I'm fed up of reading between the lines. Then a few days ago, he actually got up the gumption to say 'actually, I really want to go to Lear, I missed the sonnets because you were on a jolly, so it's my turn'. Which is fair enough. But I wish he'd said it in the first place.

Soooooo provoking Herbs.
Ask him (nicely) what he thinks you both should do then? Agree on a babysiter? Him to go out instead of you despite PA bullshit saying you should go...? Good luck!

Err, maybe if you're being nice don't mention the PA bullshit for now...

I would just get a babysitter (naturally it falls to me to sort out) but we're also getting one on 21st and 28th, which means a) mucho moula and b) vague feelings of guilty at leaving DS so much. He doesn't really like having babysitters.

NU, I agree with Herbs. Good Housekeeping reviews are pretty reliable too.

Agree with QQ's strategy!