"Be Thankful For What You've Got"

"Be Thankful For What You've Got"

I adore this tune, it really lifts me, I love the Massive Attack cover version too but the original is just smoother in my opinion. It reminds me of my first summer with Roger driving round the streets of central London in our convertible car.

It is on my mind as I have, today, waved good-bye to my favourite, brown, birkenstock boots. Once repaired the leather has again worn into a hole and today the zip finally gave up after several near misses. They don't owe me anything though. Although an expensive initial purchase this is their fourth winter of near continuous wear. But, I am thankful as I have other shoes that I can wear and spring is nearly here which means the approach of pedicure season with an airing for the toes.

We went to Fishers Farm Park today with my lovely Mum for a bounce around inside soft play except we didn't really bounce inside much. The sun came out so the smalls wanted to go outside. They joined in with the animal feeding and small animal handling, saw some three day old baby guinea pigs, fed the rabbits then we went outside on the carousel, trampolines and, for the first time in his life, the littlest small made sand castles.

Another first happened today when the biggest small got lost. A simple misunderstanding meant she wasn't where we thought she would be. We quickly found her but I could see straight away she was very distressed so I said "I bet those few minutes felt like a week." and we all I had a big hug. She said "I was just about to find a member of staff" which I was really rather pleased about!

All of this outdoors play would have been fine except I had dressed us in tracksuits for soft play not waterproofs for outdoors so pretty sandy we came back inside for the farm show and animal feeding. The biggest smalls helped bottle feed the calves and fed an orange to Jessie, the Guernsey cow, who lives at the farm, before being treated to a ride on her back whilst I breastfed the littlest small off to sleep. We love it at Fishers Farm. The staff are fantastic and there is a sign in the car park which says "Warning: Free Range Children." which I rather like.

We came home via the library as some of the Dinosaur Cove books we had ordered on Monday were ready for us to collect.

The post on the mat today included a membership renewal letter from Bignor Roman Villa which is very close to where we live. Et said "I'll deal with that" and he produced the picture at the top of this post. The two gladiators are fighting. The one on the left actually had a pretty accurate face before it was covered in blood as the picture is also the story of the fight. Then he wrote his name on it and covered it in kisses. Didn't ask me about the order of the letters or copy it.

We will definitely rejoin Bignor this summer. The smalls think it is incredible that actual, real Romans lived so close to our house 2,000 years ago and I am rather partial to the fantastic cakes they sell which, coincidentally, happen to be made by some inspirational friends of ours.

Sometimes when we return home from a day out I have a moment of doubt as we see the school children in their uniforms heading home too. Then you have these occurrences and you think "Oh, Okay, they are learning all the time, no matter what I do." In fact since I completely relaxed about home schooling and moved more towards unschooling they seem to happen more often than when I tried to coerce them!

Et and I made popcorn this afternoon. It is the first time he has done this and I am sure you can imagine the giggles watching the corns burst inside the glass lidded saucepan. (we don't have a microwave)

That's us today. I haven't forgotten about growing brains, it must be on my mind as the last four meals I have made the smalls have been fish based!

Arsenal v Barcelona tonight. Daddy says we can all stay up and watch it. I told the smalls I had been to the Nou Camp, before they were born, but I just know they don't believe me and what's more I don't really mind. I'm just thankful for what I've got now.