A Peculiar Week

Its been a peculiar sort of week in the Beckety Home, more like the end of the Old Year than the beginning of the New.

The older two childers left to resume their usual pursuits and the Hub returned to work, leaving Youngest and I feeling rather bereft. Middlest needed alterations to a very posh evening gown she'd bought for this weekend, which took much swearing last weekend; it was way too large in the bust, and several inches too long...with three layers to hem, the top being chiffon...Grrrr....

The garage hasn't yet managed to get the Hub's car road-worthy due to dealing with so many emergencies, and since the weather has turned bitter again, its not feasible for him to cycle, so, no car for me. (Meh! as eldest says when she feels short-changed.)
Loads of housekeeping to catch up, really exciting stuff, like laundry- I'm pretty sure that the girls came home with no clothes of their own and wore Youngest's all hols...how else to explain the amount of laundry needing to be done?

So many half-formed ideas swirling round my head waiting to be considered and designed properly, it makes for a rather split personality interaction- wise. I'm making lists though.

Youngest has, finally, received her Christmas present, better late than never! She asked for a 'Gothic' style doll and wanted it to look sad, which caused me some grief as you can see! ( sorry for the pun!!)

The Christmas Tree needs to come down today, should have been yesterday, traditionally, but the folks offered us a day out to Enniskillen so we jumped on their band-wagon and went! They needed the company, you know?! Photos next door, it was a beautiful winter's day.I really am trying to balance out family and everything else, but my head feels like there are windmills inside. Its difficult to concentrate when so many things need immediate attention...whoops, and the dog just got his paw caught in the flex of the good lamp- golly! but that was a good save missus!!

Joined the GIY site before Christmas as it consists of local growers and gardeners, and have found the most wonderful writer- Mícheál O Cadhla. His posts are awfully witty, very well written, and the humour is pure Irish. (In my next life I'll be able to write like him! Dream on, Buster!)

Despite the low temperatures (or is it because of them?) its a beautiful day today, incredible blue sky with hardly a cloud in sight, light bone-disintegrating breeze, and the frost and snow dusting is melting in the sunshine. Sunny days in Winter are so truly beautiful!
(Apologies for any odd spacing, blogger won't let me organise this post, it keeps deleting things. Ah well!)

Tick...whizz...tock!

Do clocks fly? Or is it just time that flies?
Yesterday I went with the folks to Enniskillen to do the main grocery shop for Christmas. It's better to get it in now before places are too crowded. B and Sos came for an outing and we all had a very productive day with everything being achieved. Quite a feat, I'd say! (All Civil Servants in the Republic were on strike yesterday so no School or College.)

The drive was interesting as the various lakes are so full. In Enniskillen town they had lined one road with sandbags and were pumping the water out so that it was drivable- interesting to watch.

I got some thread and the dinkiest angel! Today I taught Music until lunchtime, combining several classes at a time. One song with disastrous timing was sorted with the help of the oldest class, and for the rest we were working on accurate entrances and melding the different voices together into a unified sound. It was difficult and required intense listening to themselves but the children worked very hard and very successfully, although by 12.30 we all felt like limp rags!

The temperature dropped considerably throughout the day and this evening the wind is cutting. We've had sun, rain, hail, strong winds and more hail. I sound like my sister who is on a trip to Antarctica, and sent a postcard from the Falkland Islands giving us a weather update! Is it perhaps an Irish characteristic to be obsessed with the weather?

An Outing

Today the folks went to Enniskillen (Northern Ireland) for the day so I hitched a ride too. We did various bits of shopping and I got a pair of summer trousers in M&S, not much use at present, but you never know what the weather will be like next summer!

Tell you a funny story about Enniskillen: Back in 2002 (I think) when B was eight (I think) my older sister went to work for the summer at Glacier Bay in Alaska. There was a lot of chat about it,postcards, looking at photos, and some of the family went out to visit her, more photos etc. At the end of the summer, about the time she was due home I took the girls to Enniskillen for the day. B was good as gold for hours of shops and errands and then suddenly mid-afternoon she burst into tears in the middle of the grocery store! I was horrified and we all crowded round asking what was the matter? She finally wailed: 'If this is Alaska I want to see W (my older sister)!'
Talk about crossed wires! Just shows you how small people can misunderstand things too. It took some explaining, but ever since then, Enniskillen has been referred to as Alaska!

So today I went shopping in Alaska!