To Be Read 2012

I have shelves full of books in my house many of which I have read but many of which I have had on my To Be Read list for years. I saw this challenge for 2012 and thought it was right up my street.

Here is my pile

31 Songs - Nick Hornby

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Marquez

Paula - Isabel Allende

Big Stone Gap - Adriana Trigiani (oops picked up the wrong book for the pic)

The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes

Dylan Thomas - Andrew Lychett

Eating Children - Jill Tweedie

The Christmas Books - Charles Dickens

Birds Without Wings - Louis de Bernières

Shakespeare - Bill Bryson

Quiet Moments in a War - The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir

1940-1963

Tess of the D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy

Insomnia - Stephen King

In no particular order I have to read 12 of the TBR pile in 2012 (with 2 spares in case 2 are no-goes). The challenge starts on 1st January 2012 and ends on 31st December 2012 by which time all the books will have been read and reviewed here. I think it is a fab challenge and hope it makes a big space on my groaning bookshelves in 2012!

:(

I am not happy with my life right now.

That sounds awful, but it is not that dramatic. I have a penchant for the dramatic sentence. To clarify, I mean to say that there are things about me that I hate, not so much about my life, that make me unhappy.

There are things that I want to go but never get around to doing. I am currently trying to apply for Olympic tickets with 51 minutes to spare before the 5,000,000 day deadline is up. I could not motivate myself to apply for something I have been wanting to get for years. There are thousands of other people trying to do the same thing and causing the website to crash. I actually set up a ticket account this afternoon which was awfully foresighted of me. Not foresighted enough to actually get the bloody things though. What an idiot.

I have no energy or get-up-and-go and I can't control my eating.

I can't even be bothered to finish this post. 23.23

23.41 I have just come back from the Olympic website after trying for an hour, and managed to request 4 tickets for the night of the men's 100m final! Whoop whoop! I did it! If ever there was a time to pull one out of the bag that was it! Ok, so I don't have them quite in the bag yet, but at least I applied for the ambition! I am so pleased with myself I just want to apply for jobs now!

Reasons to be cheerful 1, 2, 3

My family is safe and well and home.

We should be enjoying a glass of local Spanish wine on the desk of a large cruise ship, about to set sail from Tenerife with the warm breeze on our faces and a belly full of good food. Instead I am at home, at my desk drinking a cold glass of sauvignon blanc and looking on the bright side of life. Thos morning at the airport before we check in our baggage, Little Pickle took a tumble from Mr Gherkin's shoulders and landed on his head. He cried and puked and we rushed him to hospital in an ambulance and abandoned all plans for our well-planned, much-looked-foreward-to cruise holiday with the in-laws whilst they looked after Cornichon at our house. He was wobbly in the ambulance and then fell asleep and then was fine in the Emergency Room and bright as a button as we waited for a bed on the ward and positively bouncing when we stayed on the ward for 6 hours. Whilst we were doing all of the above the in-laws were phoning round trying to work out a way of carrying on with our holiday despite missing the flight. We came home at 4 and have a plan in place. We catch the cruise up on their next stop tomorrow, flying from a different airport further away from home.

Taxi is booked, boys are sleeping, wine is in hand, waiting to start out holiday all over again tomorrow!

Small achievements, big picture

I love parenting. I think about it constantly. I love spending time with my boys. I make a conscious effort every day to to teach them about the good things in life that will help them grow. I am a bit of, well not quite a "stickler" but I do love cooking heathy food for them and I steer away from processed food, however convenient it may be. I am not totally against the odd trip to fast food places or the occasional frozen convenience food, but I really love making a special treat of eating out and making my own convenience foods and bunging them in the microwave for a quick 5 minute 'ding tea'.

Anyway back to my point in the title of this post. Cornichon has a packed lunch every day in school which I make every morning (as I really think that sandwiches made the night before can get a bit wet/dry/wet and dry and I've made my bed I'll lie on it so I am not complaining!). I make him a sandwich (he has had couscous/rice/pasta salads in the past but they come straight home and are wolfed down here as I think the other kids may take the mick when he has anything more interesting than a sandwich) and he has a little salad (veg/cheese/olive/whatever chopped up in a tub) and a dessert (yoghurt/fruit/flapjack/whatever). He eats most of it each day and I am pleased that he loves my non-processed foods. Yesterday he went shopping with Mr G and they came home with Mini Baby Bel cheeses as his friend has them. OK I thought. He can have them to see what they are like, let's see how they go, and I popped one in his box today.

"How was your dinner today sweetheart"

"Nice. I didn't like the cheese though. Friend A has that cheese but I didn't like it. It doesn't taste like proper cheese."

I did a silent punch to the air. I am bringing up a boy who loves "proper" food!

New Year - introspection

I always find myself every new year, in a resolving mood. I love a fresh start to a day, a week, a year, a new exercise book and a clean car interior. I do irritate myself when I let days, weeks, years, books and cars get into such a mess (and they always do). This year, I will not resolve to do lose a zillions pounds by February or read 12 books a week or never each chocolate again as they are easy resolutions to break. This year I will take stock of what I have, use things I need and charity shop everything I don't need or use. We have a reasonable sized house but we have limited storage available. I plan to go through every part of this house (and my life) and re-organise every little corner, understand what we have and what we need and clear out the excess shite and make the most of what we have. Today I tidied 2 cupboards in the kitchen and made a note of things we need and moved things that were in the wrong place and will charity shop the stuff we have that I hate. 2 cupboards down and it's only day 1!

I also spent a hour or so in the garden whilst the boys messed about. It was good to get some fresh air as we have a had a bit of cabin fever these last few days. I want to DO the garden this year. Get a greenhouse. Dig a border along the back fence. Dig up my pots. The front garden needs a LOAD of work done to it but I think that if I focus on the back garden and get that where I want it then I will be brave enough to tackle the front maybe later in the year.

I will re-visit the 101 list and go back to the monthly goals I started last year. When I was blogging and writing them I was doing them and it was good.

This month I shall ...

1. Write and start a weight-loss plan. I work well when I have it written out in front of me.

2. Clean the inside of my car (Mr G did the outside today and I feel compelled to finish it!)

3. Make a playmat for my best mate's little boy.

4. Get a gardening diary and work out my plan for the year.

5. Find a dentist.

6. Complete The Great Organisation of the kitchen.

Come on January - let's get sorted!

Bloody Ebay!

I am going from one extreme to the next! I am weaning myself off blogger and facebook only to discover ebay! D'oh! Since I started typing this post I have discovered, bid upon and won some Ben 10 laser guns for the boys! Whoop whoop! I am not sure if I will be so pleased with myself come Christmas afternoon and they re driving me nuts! I lucked upon 2 lots of gogos for a few quid and won them this afternoon. It gets so exciting when the auction is coming down to the last few minutes! I have been outbid on a few lots of gogos as they seem to be really popular but I managed to keep hold of too before some 10 year old sneaked in ahead of me with 20p to spare!

Anyway I am off now to pat myself on the back and tuck into a mountain of ironing. I may well be back on ebay before the night is through!

I love blogger, but ...

I love love love Blogger. Even though I have not been posting for the past few months I have still been using it to follow all my fave blogs on RSS as this is a great way of reading the "headlines". I have, however decided to stop doing this as I find that there is soooo much lovely interesting stuff going on out there, that there is no time left to do important stuff like blogging myself and doing useful things like, erm Christmas shopping! I often read blogs for half an hour, an hour day whilst waiting for the boys to go to sleep or just noodling about on t'laptop until stupid o'clock at night. This is all very well and lovvely, but not ultimately useful or creative for me. Now this time will be used more creatively for doing inspiring crafty things and making some space and money for little old Gherkin.

The blogs I follow are largely crafty ones, written and photographed by some very clever and talented and INSPIRING people who make me OOOh and aaaah daily on sight of their pretty wares. They are just so amazing and make me go "I could make that!" and all to quickly I find myself with a bunch of new fabric and bits of shiny things to do to it and then no time to actually make a dent in said fabric and shiny things! I have vowed for 2011 to clear a space in my crafty boxes (and there are MANY) and make stuff with the stuff I have and then blog about it myself and maybe inspire someone else to drag a box out from under the bad and do something with the contents!

Here is a list of the things I plan to make over the next decade or so.

Voile fabric flower brooches (5 fabrics bought this week)

Vintage button rings (ring blanks awaiting toppers!)

Dust ruffle and bunting and bolster cover for Cornichon (fabric in bag awaiting wash)

Bunting for Little Pickle (ditto)

Earrings for Folksy shop (beads hanging around since summer)

Envelopes to sell (too many books in wardrobe waiting to be snipped)

Slides for birthday presents (make-your-own-button kit relatively unused)

Quilt for Mr Gherkin (need to get rind of some fabric!)

Quilt for me (fabric saved from January awaiting wash)

Quit sandwiched for Mum and Dad (WIP right now- will be done for Christmas!)

Lavender bags to sell (huge bag of lavender is residing in my wardrobe - yum but ugly)

Baby quilt for N's little girl (so much fabric to use up!)

Baby boy quilt (ditto)

Cut up old clothes for the ultimate recycling quilt (memories of old sicky babygros)

Denim quilt (nobody needs a whole box of old jeans that don't fit any more, do they?)

That is just the tip of the iceberg. Quilts take ma ages. Hopefully, I will have much more time on my hands now I cut out my inspirational reading time and turn it into inspired crafting time!