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?