Friday

Mac & Cheese, the boys favourite, we had it for dinner last night, but I made a huge pan full, so it's left overs for dinner tonight!

Thursday 30th July 2009

Jason headed off to YM's camp, so I made some treats for him to take with him. I find myself on an eternal quest for the perfect recipes, I think I may have found the best one for American style chocolate chip cookies - yummy! This recipe came from good old Martha Stewart.

Wednesday 29th July 2009

We headed of to IKEA and Costco with the boys in tow. It rained all day today, absolute buckets of the stuff, so indoor activities were a good idea.

Tuesday 28th July 2009

This shot is a little blury sorry. Tuesday was a day without any computer games or television, we call it a 'T-Day' in our family (because the chosen days are Tuesday and Thursday), but the reward in the evening was a movie night with popcorn. Tonight's movie 'Horton hears a Who'. Boys really enjoyed it.

Monday 27th July 2009

I'm sure many a holiday day will be spent like this. We did head out to the Libary later to start the summer reading challenge Quest Seekers - we do it every year!

Project 365 for the holidays

Today is the start of the Summer holidays for my boys. So looking forward to spending some quality time together. We have lots of fun activities planned - trips to the London temple, Legoland, museums, parks and of course the beach. I know I'm late coming to project 365 (a photograph a day for a whole year), but I've really wanted to get involved for some time now. I thought it would be a fun way to document the holidays for our family. The photograph above was taken last weeks on the boys penultimate day of school. I'm actually amazed those t-shirts still look so white. Usually they're filthy after a day at school. I was doing a photo shoot for a friend's son and granddaughter at church, and decided to leave the backdrop up for a few pictures of the boys. I got some really cute ones, my boys know just how to pose.

My first movie night

An invitation to the YW of the Weston-super-Mare 1st & 2nd wards to join my movie night!

So proud of my boy

It's almost the end of another school year and Jarom will be entering year 5 when he goes back to school in September. He's had a great year, his confidence has grown so much and he has continued to do so well academically. My only worry about him is that he continues to make really poor choices with friendships at school. We have tried so hard to encourage him, but he keeps returning to the same boys, or so it seemed. He's not a big 'sharer', what happens at school usually stays at school, he works hard and so likes to forget about school when he comes home. I guess I was worrying a little, and as he is going into a new class next year I thought I would go in to speak with his teacher.

We really love his teacher Mrs. Clark, she really is wonderful, and gets on so well with Jarom. She reassured me that he continues to do well, and he is making some good new friendships, he isn't hanging out with the same group of 'naughty boys'. I expressed that I was concerned that he would be labeled with the 'naughty boys' if he was with them, I have to admit I'm not even sure that I would trust him not to get involved in bad behaviour in the end, if he was always hanging out with the bad crowd. She calmed my fears by saying - "We know your son well, he's a very good boy. Trust him, he really has a good sense of right and wrong". At that moment I actually felt the Spirit witness to me that what Jarom's teacher was saying was true. I should trust my son more, he is a good boy. Also that we are doing a good job as his parents, what we are saying and doing is working. I also remembered the words of his blessing as a baby - "We ask thee to bless this young man... with a character of goodness in his soul, that he will yearn for righteousness, that he will learn to do good, and want to choose the right always". I'm so glad Nanny recorded Jarom's blessing for us, he has been blessed with a good sense of right and wrong. I feel so blessed to have Jarom as my son, he is a really fantastic young man.

The last two weeks activities...

Not the best of pictures, but he had just woke up from a nap. This little man has been pretty good recently, although he's had me up quite a bit at night due to teething. I've been super busy, and he's been super good.

My project for the week has been family history scrapbooks. I had about 12 huge boxes full of stuff to sort through. It was a mammoth task. One that my dear mummy never got around to doing, although she'd kept everything. I'm so glad she did. She had such a strong desire to record-keep, but just felt so overwhelmed by the process of organising it all, and other things took priority such as serving fellow sisters in the church and family history work. So that's where I step in - scrapbook loving, photograph crazy, organizing freak daughter.

I've been desperate to start this project for the past year, but I've been waiting until things have settled in the home and Nathaniel is in a better routine. Now is the time. So I'll start with a scrapbook/photograph album of mummy's pictures, then probably progress to a more detailed scrapbook of talks, testimonies and history of mum's life, plus an organised memory box of journals, and treasured possessions. I then need to turn my attentions to my grandmother (mum's mum), and then myself. I'd love to have them all completed by the end of the year. Hum... not sure if that's a very achievable goal, but I'd love to try.

My arty project was bunting for the boys bedroom. I made this from scraps I had lying around - blue denim from a caravan I tried to redecorate, a red t-towel, and ribbon from my mum's collection. I just love it! The boys room just felt a little characterless in places, but this has really done the trick. My boys like it, I hoped they'd say, "Wow, thanks mum, you're a genius, we love it", but I got "That's nice". Never mind, I think it's really great.

As well as all the little projects I've looked after the home and kept it organised, cleaned a little, cooked, washed (not much ironing was achieved, got to get to that!), shopped, looked after friend's children, worked on my calling (meetings, planned, prepared & taught lessons) read bedtime stories, provided school & club taxi service. Phew, I just love being a mummy!