As always, I’m offering a very warm welcome to Friday! It’s almost the weekend again, so let’s hope that it’s one full of sunshine, eating outdoors, relaxation and fun! In the meantime, here’s a brief round up of all that’s made me happy this week:

1. With G leaving for France last Saturday night, we celebrated Father’s Day a day early, with our inspired gift for D – a waffle maker! He’s been saying for months that we should get one, but he would never have got round to it himself, so was really pleased with it. And the verdict on the waffles? Amazing! They are so, so much lighter and fluffier than shop-bought ones, so between us we managed to demolish quite a pile!

2. We again had a lovely evening outside last Sunday, barbecuing some delicious fish on the fire pit – trout and herring – which we then ate with sour dough bread and olives, sundried tomatoes and peppers. It really was heaven on a plate.

3. We also tried out a new long cocktail drink last weekend – a Gin Daisy (I obviously only wanted to try it because it has “Daisy” in the name!). It is made with grenadine, orange juice, lemon juice, gin and soda water, and is so tasty. It looked as though it would be very sweet, but it wasn’t at all – it just works really well, and was a nice change from our usual gin and tonic.

4. It’s a very rare occurrence for me to have a bath, but it so happened that, on Monday evening, I had nothing that desperately needed doing and D was working, so I treated myself to a long soak in my new mango and papaya shower gel/bubble bath, and it was absolutely lovely. I really should make the effort to have a bath more often, as it is such a simple little treat – and is a great opportunity to catch up with some reading or Netflix watching.

5. G and I went with friends to see a great production of Romeo and Juliet at Derby Theatre last Friday, from Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory. It was a far more contemporary adaptation of the timeless masterpiece than I have previously seen, yet it retained the language and almost all of the narrative of the original, a combination which worked very well, and gave a very “young” feel to it. All of the acting performances were outstanding, and the whole production was very exciting and vibrant.

6. Cherries! I bought some delicious fresh cherries this week – and they are so good! I seem to have consumed rather a lot whilst writing this post, by the looks of it.

7. Ginger and Lemongrass Cordial from Bottlegreen. D and I have drunk a lot of this this past week, and it is so yummy – and zingy! A lovely alternative to the copious amounts of tea that we usually consume.

8. We seem to have eventually found a new Netflix series to get stuck into – Luther. D has apparently seen one or two of them but I haven’t at all, so I’m really enjoying it so far.

9. The smell of the puppies when they came back from the groomers yesterday. They don’t just look super-smart after their summer trims but they smell incredible. I’m not sure what shampoo she uses, but it’s good!

10. As with B in April, one thing that I know will make me happy but hasn’t happened yet is G returning home from France. We’ve spoken to her a couple of times and know that she’s fine and has been having a great time, but it will be lovely to have her home again – at midnight tonight!

As all weeks seem to be at the moment, this has been one of ups and downs again, but I am, in the spirit of all gratitude lists, going to focus on the positives and the things that have made me happy this week.

1. We had a really lovely day last Saturday, when we took B for his induction day at the school he will be starting at in September. He was kept busy from 10am until 4pm, which gave us a wonderful opportunity to catch up with a friend we hadn’t seen in eight years, but whose younger son is also starting at the same school in September. Her older son has been at the school for a year already, so it was great to hear more about it from a boy who is there and is loving it! It was fantastic to catch up on each others lives as well – a lot has happened in the past eight years, as you’d expect! – so this was a great excuse to while away the day ambling around the nearby park, stopping for a drink in the café there (I may become quite a frequent visitor!) then strolling into town for a lovely Italian meal.

2. The other great thing from this day was that B had a lovely time. They had a day of sports activities, swimming, lunch, chilling and getting to know the place and the other boys, and he was very positive at the end of it. Phew! It was also good for G to see where he is going to be in September.

3. We had a really nice family evening on Sunday, cooking a delicious curry all together, followed by playing family games on the Wii, which we haven’t done for so long. It was great fun!

4. D was a complete superstar at the beginning of the week, when he picked up on the fact that I was feeling pretty down, and thus came home from work with treats – a huge bunch of flowers, and yummy bread, cheese and wine, to help cheer me up. It was all very gratefully received – and his thoughtfulness helped a lot!

5. Films! We seem to have had a bit of a film fest over the past week – we don’t watch many films, often because they seem just a bit too long and I always think that I will fall asleep – but we have watched three great ones this week: “The Other Woman”, which was very funny; “The Theory of Everything”, which I have wanted to see for months and thought was absolutely amazing (wow – Eddie Redmayne!); and “Philomena”, which was very poignant and shocking at times, but wonderfully done.

6. A wonderful conversation I had with a friend one evening this week. It was so good to have a really great catch up, although an hour and a quarter just wasn’t long enough. Luckily we are meeting up in a couple of weeks, so we can pick up where we left off then!

7. Lottie falling asleep whilst cuddling D one evening – she was properly cuddled up against him  – and snoring – too cute for words.

8. Actually coming up with a good idea for D’s Father’s Day gift this year! He is so hard to buy for, but I think that we’ve done well this year, so hopefully he will agree!

9. I know that this one has definitely featured before, but I have to mention the garden again, and the new flowers which are constantly appearing as if out of nowhere! It is still a revelation to us each time we spot something new – it will obviously be different next year, when we know what to expect – but the previous owners did an amazing job of choosing so many various plants that flower at all different times, so as soon as one has died or faded, another stunning bloom appears. I think that I may have to do a garden post next week!

10. The new toy that I bought for the puppies yesterday! It is just a bright pink, squeaky bone, but they love it, and all three dogs have been enjoying the bones I fetched back for them from the pet shop yesterday – they’ve certainly kept them quiet for a while!

So we are going to celebrate Father’s Day on Saturday this weekend, as G then goes away late on Saturday night to France for a week with school, so we are looking forward to a nice family day together before she leaves. Whatever your plans are for the weekend, I hope that you have a good one.

Well, it’s had its ups and downs, but we’ve survived another week – hurrah!

Now that the children’s exams are over, things seem far more relaxed, and we are all beginning to see that the end of term and the start of the summer holidays is in sight. I am incredibly lucky that I can be at home with the children during their school holidays, but it does mean that the preceding weeks can be pretty crazy, as I try to put things in place at work and set up procedures in advance, so that I can have some time off. This seems to be even more vital this year, as we have quite a busy itinerary for their break, with our holiday first, then having two French Exchange children to stay, some of which time we will spend in Norfolk, then CarFest at the end of August, before B starts at his new school at the beginning of September.

So, what’s made you happy this week?  Here’s my list:

1. A truly lovely family weekend, as documented here – it was so good to spend lots of time together again.

2. Cooking popcorn over the fire – we weren’t entirely sure that it would work, but it did, and we ended up with a huge pan full of buttery, salty yumminess!

3. Using my lovely, flowery insulated cup, that B gave me for my birthday, almost every day. He had noticed that I had managed to drop and crack my previous one, so he (absolutely correctly) thought that I’d like this. And I love it! I’ve used it on the way to work and again when I’ve been on the afternoon school run, as, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m always rushing around so much when I’m home that I don’t ever get to drink a HOT cup of tea.

4. The quick meal that G and I had at Ed’s Diner on our girly shopping trip on Sunday. I had Atomic American Fries – delicious fries with five dips: jalapeno jelly; guacamole; cheese sauce; sour cream and chilli – with a skinny peanut butter milkshake. A very naughty treat!

5. Planning what we’re hopefully going to do in Grenada next month. So far, we’ve got deep sea fishing, a trip to a treetop restaurant, a hike to the highest waterfall on the island and possibly another boat trip on our wish-list.

6. The beautiful weather for walking the dogs -although they do get very hot and are very ready for water when we get home.

7. Sorting out the garage! Not a very exciting one to most people, but the satisfaction I get now when I go in the garage is huge! It isn’t completely finished, and D needs to chop a lot more wood to be stored away for the fire pit and then the woodburner , but it’s so much better than it was this time last week.

8. G’s exam results. It’s been her turn to get them back this week and she’s done very well – her hard work has paid off.

9. A trip to QUAD in Derby with a lovely friend on Tuesday evening for a bite to eat and the National Theatre Live performance of George Bernard Shaw’s “Man and Superman”. The National Theatre Live concept is just brilliant, and this performance was amazing – how Ralph Fiennes remembered all those lines is incredible – it is a really long play with 57,000 words, roughly half of which are his.

10. A visit to my favourite café – The Book Café in Derby – to write a blog post yesterday. It was definitely a good place to write, with the most enormous mug of chai latte for fuel.

We have a day at Ben’s new school tomorrow – well, he has a day of activities and getting to know people while we have to entertain ourselves for a few hours – but hopefully he’ll have a great day. What have you got planned for the weekend?

Well, that’s the end of the children’s first week back at school after the half term holiday, which means that they only now have five weeks left until the summer break (which means it’s only just over five weeks until we go away too – hurrah!).

In the meantime, this is what’s made me happy this week:

1. My beautiful walk with the puppies at Kedleston Hall last Saturday – as described, with lots (!) of photos, here.

2. G finishes her exams today, which will make us all very happy. She has worked very hard and deserves good results, so fingers crossed.

3. B has been getting his exam results back this week and they’ve been pretty good on the whole, I have to say, which makes me both happy and relieved! (When I took them to school on Monday, G was facing her first exam and B the prospect of getting his first exam mark back – guess who was the more nervous of the two of them?!)

4. I had a good night out with my sister on Monday. She is member of Soroptimist International (if you don’t know them, they are a global volunteer movement working together to transform the lives of women and girls), and they have an annual fundraising fashion show event which I always go to. It is a fun, relaxed evening, and I always come away with a few real bargains – I think that my favourite purchase this year was a pink summer scarf decorated with beach huts – a lovely reminder of Norfolk!

5. Food! We have had some very tasty meals this week, especially a prawn and vegetable curry, and also the spicy Thai prawn meal shown in the photo above – that was especially good, with the added bonus of being very healthy.

6. Lottie has really discovered the joy of playing with balls this week. She has been able to retrieve one since we brought her home at 9 weeks old, but she has suddenly become obsessed with them this week, and is becoming very adept at catching. The photo below shows the sight I’ve been faced with repeatedly this week, as she drops the ball near me and then sits there looking hopeful until I throw it for her. So cute!

7. The garden is continuing to be a beautiful delight to us, as new flowers and plants emerge. This week has seen the blooming of the amazing peonies – honestly some of the most stunning flowers I have ever seen. In addition to the flowers, it was so lovely when D spotted the beautiful moth shown on the photo at the top of the page on the tree in our fire pit area last weekend. It was about two inches in length and the camouflage markings were so clear and defined.

8. After leaving work a little earlier than I had intended on Thursday, I made the most of the extra time as an opportunity to visit a farm shop which opened a little while ago quite close by, but which I haven’t had time to go to previously. It was lovely and I was very tempted by so many things, but I came away with some lovely fresh, locally made bread, Crunchy Red Onion and Sage cheese, a special bottle of beer for D, some croissants and a bag of huge marshmallows – we are consuming a lot of marshmallows right now!

9. A nice break in G’s revision evenings this week was when we had a meeting at her school about her upcoming trip to France. It was good to find out more about where they will be staying, visiting, and the activities planned, and lovely to see how excited she is about going.

10. A final one for this week was my night out yesterday. I went with some friends to the Red Carpet Cinema, which I haven’t been to previously, to watch “A Royal Night Out”, which was lovely. If you haven’t seen it, it is about the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret venturing out of Buckingham Palace to celebrate VE Day, incognito. It is very far-fetched, but I did wish that it had been true – it would certainly have been a night for them to remember!

Someone has just asked me what we have planned for this weekend, and I had to say that I have absolutely no idea! It sometimes feels like such an achievement to actually get to the end of the week, that we don’t actually get around to planning anything. No doubt it will include lots of chilling time for G, a family evening around the fire pit, some good walks with the dogs – and maybe even making a start on sorting out the garage if we feel brave enough!

Whatever you are up to, have a great couple of days.