Day 14

I'll let you just guess if we did our activity today.

Ding ding ding! If you guessed 'no' you would be correct! Today's activity was to make Christmas wreaths - never happened!

The kids came home from school, and I was all geared up to get out the tissue paper and the glue, but I got a text from the boys' mum saying they'd get picked up early, so instead, we made snack-time out of the cakepops from a few days ago. We melted some chocolate, poured sprinkles into a bowl and dipped cakepops into both. And then ate them. It was excellent fun. (We followed that unhealthy snack with a bowl of mango yogurt to even it out somehow.)

And off topic, I gave Jaguar a babyspoonful of unsweetened natural yogurt, and he was entirely confused/impressed.

A.Dor.A.Ble.

Anyway. We had fun with our cakepops. I still thought maybe we'd do our wreaths after the boys left, but we didn't. Instead, we had a girly+Jaguar night in while Scott went to the cinema with his mum, dad and sister. We ordered in Chinese, opened their presents from their friends Eva and Eden from school, and watched Frosty the Snowman in pajamas. The girls also bought snow globes (we had to pop into Tesco to get some photos printed - and while they were there they got to play with an iPad-operated remote control car!) and a Santa sticker book, so we played with those too. Sure we never did wreaths, but we had a good evening together!

I also finished a sewing project. I made a stack of Eco Reusable Sandwich wraps, all of [sand]which have already been bought and paid for, for my IntoBento site. [Sand]Which is still to be launched, sorry, dear Awaiting Public.

Will take orders for them though!

Tomorrow, we are off to Edinburgh to see friends Judith & Craig & kids, whom we haven't seen in years. Hopefully we can find their house... Scott and I aren't the best with directions, and we're worse when we try to find someplace together! But it's an early jump, so I'd better get to bed. It's nearly midnight.

No Cards, Not Today

Right. Plan for next December: Don't be so busy with EVERYTHING else to do what's important, that is, Advent Activities with the kids.

I've been a real failure this December.

Sunday, we were to have a picnic in our pajamas on the floor. For some reason, eating dinner on the floor as a picnic is mega-exciting to the kids, and to do it in pajamas is somehow even more incredible. Well, we did manage to follow through with that, though dinner was merely leftover party food from the day before, reheated. And I didn't get any photos. I was still recovering from post-party stress disorder. I think I might still be recovering to this day.

Yesterday, the 10th, we were told by the elves to paint Christmas decorations. I am proud to say we achieved this as well, and it went according to plan. I went out in the morning and found some great wooden tree ornaments for £1 each and bought enough for all the kids to paint one. After school, the boys (my childminded boys will be from here on known as 'the boys') and the girls (my girls) finished their homework and donned painting aprons and went to work. They seemed to really enjoy it, and even Lolly managed to not stress me out with the project, which is pretty magical.

But today, we were instructed to make Christmas cards and deliver them to the neighbours. Cue loud BWAW BWAW BWAAAAAAAW. (That's a failure buzzer noise, FYI.) We never did anything of the sort. I had an IntoBento party tonight, displaying my stock and doing some yogurt taste-testing and demonstrations, so I didn't have time to get up to my elbows in glitter and glue. The kids actually all had fun setting up my 'shop' with me anyway, so we still had fun together, just not elf-approved fun.

The party tonight went well, by the way. I wasn't sure if anyone was going to come at all, but in the end, a good few people came, and we had a good time over mulled wine and mince pies, and I made some pennies for Christmas. So, for any of you reading, thanks for coming over! It was great catching up with those of you I haven't seen in a while!

Now, it's nearly 10pm, and I really want to go to bed, but Scott and I are going to watch Sunday's episode of Dexter first. We need some us time, and what better, more romantic way of spending time together than watching a TV program about a serial killer?

My New Company

I know it's nothing as fundamental as food and water, or as sentimental as sons and daughters. I know it's nothing monumental, but today I am thankful that my new stock has arrived!

This really encompasses a variety of things I am thankful for. I am thankful that I arrived home from nursery this morning just in time to see the FedEx man lugging boxes out of his truck with "EasiYo" printed on the sides and didn't miss the delivery. I am thankful that Scott makes enough money to pay our bills and that my childminding pays for the rest, so that I am able to pursue crazy and wacky business ventures like this. I am thankful that Scott and the rest of the family believe in me enough to encourage me to try these things. I am thankful for all my self-employed, business-minded, intelligent, motivated, creative, helpful, generous friends who motivate each other, share advice, and help each other grow our own businesses. I am thankful that the stock is arriving and giving me an enormous thrill!

(By the way, if you are interested in purchasing any EasiYo products or bento boxes, the items are not yet entered into the online shop, as intobento.co.uk is still in the process of being built and designed, but you can contact me privately if you want to inquire about any of the items! Or visit lunchisboring.com for more info too.)