Only a few days left, and actually, it's not been too bad. We've been greatly helped by having nice weather, and thus being able to get out and do stuff. Today, which looks set to pour down rain any moment, Sarah has a friend around to play, so that's also ok. I think they're upstairs playing with Millie's My Little Ponies (of which she seems to have quite a few - she brought a whole bag full) - the game seems to involve a pony show, which their team (the girls) seems to be winning, over the boys' team (the boys being imaginary, made up for the purpose of the game, so that they could beat them, I think). Such devious minds at only 5 1/2!

Geoff's brother is coming in from Australia later today, somewhat unexpectedly - as Geoff's dad isn't doing too well. I mentioned that he'd had a 2nd stroke, but he's also had 2 heart attacks since then, so none of us have very high hopes for his recovery. Stuart is coming over to spend a month with him and Lucy, just in case. It will be lovely to see him, of course, though one would wish it were in more pleasant circumstances. Anyway, he'll stay with us tonight, then go up to Leicestershire tomorrow. And hopefully he'll be able to spend a few days with us at the end of the visit as well. Someday we may actually make it to Australia for a visit there, but it won't be particularly soon. Might as well wait until the kids are old enough to get a lot out of it, as we won't be able to afford to do it more than once, probably.

So, 4 days of the Easter holiday down, only a million to go. Ok, not quite, but it feels a bit that way. We've been lucky to have really nice weather so far so that we can do outdoor things (it doesn't stop them from whining, but at least the whines aren't as loud outside) instead of being stuck inside. And there are two bank holidays this weekend, which means that Daddy is home to help entertain the monsters...I mean, lovely adorable children.

My friends and I have a theory that although school is great and we love it when our kids are in school, the problem is that they get so used to having their entire day structured for them, that when they have a holiday they spend the entire time expecting their mums to devise activities for them. Which would be ok, if they would do the things we devise instead of deciding that those activities aren't good enough or interesting enough, and therefore, they're bored [most commonly heard phrase during school holidays: "Mummy, I'm BORED"]. At least my two girls are close enough in age that they can play stuff together. It's usually weird stuff involving sitting on each other's heads or something, but at least they do it together, and usually in another room. Not that I mind doing stuff with them, but sometimes I also need to do things like cook dinner, do washing, clean the house, feed the baby, etc etc etc.

Seems to be a problem posting to my blog at the moment, but I thought I'd type something now anyway, in the hopes that when the publishing thing is sorted, I'll not have lost all the stuff I've added. We'll see. Of course, being a tightwad about internet stuff, I don't pay for one of the premium services, so the chances of their dealing with my problem are slim to none; perhaps it's a temporary server thing (I know all about those from the years on ns.com) which will resolve itself anyway. I should be so lucky.

Today was the last day of school before the Easter Holidays - two glorious weeks of bored children, and I'm sure the weather will turn all rainy just to make life that much easier. The kids got out of school today at 1.30, and by about 3, they were already intolerable. It's going to be a fun two weeks. And as Geoff's dad recently had another minor stroke, we won't be making the previously planned trip up to Grandma & Grandad either, which won't help any (that's not my primary concern about Geoff's dad's stroke, of course, but it's an additional negative aspect...)

We did start an "Easter Egg Tree" today, though. I don't know if anyone else did this as a kid, but we did - we decorated eggshells and hung them on a "tree" (ok, a branch), which we used as a decoration. As Geoff says, it makes sense, as eggs normally grow on trees. I know, I know, but I guess it's just a good way to display them. Anyway, we have a couple of eggs I bought at the garden centre, but we're going to make some more - it's a holiday project. It won't be quite the same as in the US as most of the eggs here are brown (although sometimes at Easter they do sell white in some places), but there are other ways of decoration than just dyeing...

The last two posts I've tried to post haven't showed up, so this is a test again. Boring, I know.

This is in the way of a test. I wrote something earlier and tried to post it, but it doesn't seem to have shown up. So you can just ignore this...

So of course, now that I've bragged about blogging a lot, I let it slip and go a fortnight without writing anything. Typical! But it's been busy here (so that's a great change). Not that today is any different, but it was a strange enough day that I just had to say something. This morning when I got up, it was snowing. Yes, snowing. Yes, I know it's April - go figure.

I recently got by email one of those survey things that you fill in and send around to your friends (favourite colour, parents' names, and so on) and one of the questions was how much you love your job on a scale of 1-5. I said 5, which is usually true, but honestly, good thing I wasn't filling it in today, as today we have Mr "I'm going to scream whenever I'm put down" Baby. He's currently with his daddy, screaming because I'm not holding him any more. There are days when I almost (but not quite) wish I was still back at work...