Well, this has been a rather mixed week – lots of positives, but also a few days of having too much on my mind, which has made it more testing than perhaps it should have been. But it’s “Happy Friday”, so I’m going to focus on some of the things which have made me smile:

1. D and I had a lovely meal out at The Book Café in Derby last Friday evening. It is one of my favourite places to pop in for a drink during the daytime, but we had not previously visited at night. But it was great! We enjoyed a very nice cocktail when we first arrived – a Book Bellini for me – and then had a delicious meal, accompanied by a rather lovely bottle of Chardonnay. The atmosphere was perfect – there was a good mix of people there and live music being performed throughout the evening, which we really enjoyed, so we will definitely be returning soon.

2. My sleepy, cuddly “bookends”! Just how adorable?

3. Saturday night, being B’s last night at home before returning to school, became “family night”, so we treated ourselves to a Chinese takeaway, whilst watching a couple of our favourite “family” TV shows – Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Death in Paradise.

4. B was good enough to make his famous pizza for us before leaving on Sunday – and it really was delicious! A wonderful going away gift!

5. Tuesday turned out to be a very productive day, as I decided to paint the sitting room. When we had the room renovated about 18 months ago, we painted the room a warm, mellow yellow, which I originally loved, as it was so light and bright during the day, but really cosy in the evenings, when we have the woodburner lit. However, I decided that I’d like it to look a little more up to date and fresh, so we went for a colour best described as “greige” – a mixture, obviously, of grey and beige. We are really happy with it – I managed to paint two coats on the whole room whilst G was at school, so it wasn’t at all disruptive, and it has freshened the room up well.

Before –

After –

6. To add the finishing touches to the sitting room, I managed to find both a canvas print for the main wall and some new cushions, to tie the colours together, which I’m really happy with.

7. All my mornings this week have begun in the same way – with a cup of tea and a great book in bed. This week’s fabulous read has been Until You’re Mine, by Samantha Hayes. I love this as a way to start the day – although it does mean that my morning exercise sessions have been completely forgotten!

8. My next one is really quite mixed. On the one hand, I am so grateful that I have a husband who works so hard, and I appreciate that so much. However, the fact that he has been working ridiculously hard – one night getting home at past 1 o’clock in the morning and then leaving again at 6.30am, cannot be sustained, and does worry me.

9. Hurrah for some proper winter weather at last this week! We have had some extremely cold but beautiful, sunny, frosty mornings,, which I just love, so my dog walks have been so much more pleasant.

10. The final one for this week is that B has been so much more communicative than normal! We usually hardly hear from him whilst he is away, but we have had calls every night this week, which has been lovely.

So, that’s it for this week. It’s felt like a pretty long one, so we are all looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend.

I hope that you have a great one, whatever you have planned.

Here we are at the end of yet another week – and that’s half term just about gone, which is such a shame. But we’ve had a good week, with lots of lovely highlights along the way:

1. Of course, number one has to be having B home for the week. D collected him from school last Friday and they had a good journey home, so we had a really lovely long first evening together – what a joy!

2. Love was in the air on Sunday – Valentines Day! D and I don’t make much fuss about this but we had a nice day (despite the fact that D was working for most of it) and loved our small gifts to one another  (we had both got mugs, as we do drink A LOT of tea together!) and enjoyed some pink fizz in the evening.

3. We have had a really quiet half term week compared with others, as we had a few chores to fit in, but have had a lovely time nonetheless, filled with plenty of relaxing for the children (who were ready for a break), playing board games (I love the fact that they still enjoy this so much) and watching films in front of the fire. Simple things!

4. I completed my hospice volunteer training this week, which came with mixed feelings from the whole group, I believe. The sessions have been so well-structured and thought-provoking, that we have all really enjoyed them, so, although this means that we are now closer to actually making a start on our volunteering, it was very poignant for us all, as we have shared a lot over the past few weeks and now know that our paths may not cross again.

5. I made a cheeky purchase of these lovely bowls during the week – aren’t they pretty? G and B didn’t really understand why I liked them so much, but they just caught my eye immediately – and they were more than happy when I filled them with nibbles!

6. Once again, books feature on this week’s list. I first read “The Betrayal” by Laura Elliot, which I would definitely recommend – an entertaining, thought-provoking psychological thriller, and I am currently halfway through “The Secrets We Keep” by Jonathan Harvey, which is written in a very different style but is completely intriguing as more and more small details are slowly revealed about the disappearance of the main character, which is riveting. We had a quick trip to the library on Saturday, so I have a lovely pile of books ahead of me!

7. Daffodils! I just love daffodils (almost as much as I love tulips!), so it’s so lovely to have jars of them dotted around the house at the moment. They add a wonderful splash of colour and are a sure sign that spring is just around the corner.

8. I lit my new sandalwood candle for the first time this week – and it is beautiful! I adore the smell of sandalwood (when I had my soap making business a few years ago, this was always one of my favourite fragrances) and the ceramic pot it is in is lovely too – a very good buy!

9. It has been lovely to see the children getting on so well together this week. There have been a couple of tiny spats between them, but for the vast majority of the time, they have had a great time together, and have really made the most of the week before B heads back on Sunday.

10. D and I are now looking forward to a Friday night out, which doesn’t happen very often! We are going to The Book Café in Derby for a meal, drinks and live music, which I am so looking forward to. Hopefully it will feature in my Happy Friday list next week!

I hope that you all have a great weekend, whatever you are up to.

So we are at the end of yet another week – and it has been a good one, with lots of reasons to smile. Here are just a few of them:

1. I had the most lovely weekend with my sister in Norfolk, which is going to take up a few points this week. Let’s start with the weather – Saturday was absolutely glorious, with bright, blue, huge Norfolk skies and so much sunshine.

2. We made the most of the beautiful weather by going for one of our favourite walks. It is about 6 miles long and takes in a mixture of country lanes, wild common land and coastal path (where we spotted these pretty snowdrops!). The only difficulty was how hot we became, quickly shedding coats and scarves and enjoying the warm sun.

3. Dog friendly eateries! There are quite a number of places in north Norfolk where the pooches are welcome, so we took advantage of one of them about two thirds of the way through our walk, stopping for a very welcome drink at Deepdale Café, where Lottie and Honey behaved beautifully (it wasn’t that Tilly didn’t, but I had left her at home with D and G!).

4. We then returned to the cottage for a delicious lunch of homemade soup (thank you, Christine!) and bread, before having a few hours drinking tea, eating chocolate and reading – the most perfect way to spend an afternoon (it may have involved a little snooze on my part, too!).

5. Saturday evening saw us heading out for a meal to The King’s Head in Bircham. We had decided against getting a taxi, mainly because they were crazily expensive, so we just had one delicious Hendricks and Fever Tree before a nice meal. The starter wasn’t the best but the main course was very good indeed, and it was a lovely evening.

6. Champagne! What a fabulous way to end such a perfect day! As we had only had one drink whilst out, we indulged in some champagne when we got back home – whilst sitting in our PJs watching Casualty – lovely!

7. Sunday made us realise how lucky we had been the previous day, as it was VERY wet and miserable. We managed a walk around the village though, before heading off to visit my niece and her boyfriend in their flat in Cambridge for lunch. They made us a delicious meal, and it was so nice to see them and where they are now living, which is absolutely lovely.

8. Wow – seven points just on the weekend! (It was that good!) However, on to other things, D made me very happy with the orchid that he bought for me on Monday. We love orchids, especially because they last so long, so I’m loving seeing this in the bedroom when I wake up each morning.

9. It has been a week of great progress in lots of areas this week, which is making us feel very positive – all good! For example, I’ve only got one more session of week two of Couch to 5k to do, which definitely counts as progress.

10. The final one for this week is my continuing hospice training. The sessions are so interesting – they are full of fascinating information and really make you think, and some of the other people on the course have amazing stories to tell. I will really miss the training when it is done and we are all volunteering in our different areas.

So, almost the weekend, and I have another lovely one planned, with a quick trip to London scheduled for Sunday to visit a friend for her birthday, with a theatre trip thrown in, which should be great.

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!