Special delivery!

Yes--you guessed it- the chocolates have arrived again! I was literally just about to call the company to inquire where they might be as I was getting ancy--(they came 2 days later this month), when lo and behold they were at my door! Here's a laugh: On the menu list is one entitled: Vieille Prune by Valentinio. Here is the way it is described: Inside this glossy milk chocolate shell is a dark cream ganache blended with pieces of finely chopped prune and softened with an aged prune eau die vie. The prunes come from the Perigord region of France, famous for its gastronomic delights-as Willy Roelandts found out during a recent visit where he also discovered the prune eau de vie, the inspiration behind this recipe! For all you prune lovers out there--or haters--maybe you should try them covered in chocolate. Now the delightful box sits atop my breadbox atop the other box of chocolates that Charlie bought me for Mother's Day!

Happy Mothering Sunday!

England celebrates Mother's Day-otherwise known as Mothering Sunday--tommorow! Here is some info on the history of this day which I found online:
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Although it's often called "Mother's Day" it has no connection with the American festival of that name.Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family. Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home made cards to their mothers.
History of Mothering Sunday
Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or "daughter church". Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or "mother" church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their "mother" church, or the main church or Cathedral of the area. Inevitably the return to the "mother" church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.) And most historians think that it was the return to the "Mother" church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family. As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift.
Here's to all mother's everywhere!

Keith--this one's for you

Sunday evening we had dinner with some friends, and had just returned home and were walking a few yards up the street from our car to our front door, when disaster struck. We crossed the street when Charlie looked at me with a desperate look on his face and informed me that he had just dropped his keys down the drain. What are those things called anyway..sewers, gutters? Anyway, you know the kind with a grate top which you can look down into. Instead of getting annoyed, I felt only instant pity, as I'd sometimes envisioned myself doing the same thing, and being stuck all by myself with no car keys or house keys with small children in tow. Thankfully, a neighbor lady named Jane 2 doors down was home, and let us in. The homes around here have enclosed back gardens (yards), but luckily they are not too high, and Charlie was able to scale Jane's wall, which then put him into the back yard of the people next door to us. From there, he found a way to leap over their wall, landing him near one of our rose bushes and then into our house via an unlocked back door...all within 5 minutes. There was a ring at Jane's doorbell, and Charlie came in to get us, and we were able to go home. Then--also within minutes, he had invented a coat hanger contraption to which he tied string...went out and put it through the storm drain--yay--maybe that's the word, although I'm sure it's something different here? and emerged through the door triumphantly holding up his keys. We had just been talking about how this was high crime season, and break-ins have been happening in our area. Charlie has been locking the back doors more carefully at night, as well as in the day time, but for some reason...had not locked them this particular day...Both Keith and Jack Bauer would have been proud.

A list of random funny happenings in our house

1. Discovering that we had a new kind of mouthwash (clear rather than blue) but then discovering that the said mouthwash was only water.

2. Discovering soon after, that the (pump) handsoap in our bathroom (blue in color) gave off a suspicious mouthwash scent upon washing with it.

3. Discovering that I---not Lexie, or Arthur, had called 999 (the equivalent of 911 in the US) and having to explain myself to the operator

4. Watching my genius son plug the power cord into my computer with almost the dexterity of...well...an older person

5. Listening to Arthur pluck Charlie's guitar with the above mentioned dexterity

6. Hearing Lexie 'reading' stories and using expressions like: "One bright summer morning"

7. Lexie coming over to me with her friend's miniature wooden spoon and 'paddling' me as I sat talking at a friends house.
And the list goes on...

Just for Laughs

Kids do have a way of relieving stress, that is, er when they make us laugh:) Let me regale you with some such ways in recent days..
The other day Lexie and I were sitting on the couch and I heard something outside. "What's that?" I said. Quoting from her fairy tale stories cd (Hansel and Gretel in particular), Lexie said: "It's only the wind and the weather".

Today, Arthur had the phone, and was taking great pleasure in punching in numbers. I saw him doing this as I went upstairs with Lexie. A few minutes later, the phone rang, and then stopped. Before I knew it, I heard Charlie speaking on speaker phone from downstairs. Arthur had "answered" the phone.

Lexie has taken to wrapping one of her dolls up in Charlie's Game Cube carry bag--a small black nylon bag that came with the game cube that Charlie bought several years ago. Fine around the house..but a little embarrassing when we are parading through the neighborhood. Especially with the especial marker scrawls Lexie has defaced the poor dolls head and face with.

Lexie walking around the house pushing her stroller with her rocking horse's bridle on her head as if it was perfectly normal headgear.

Arthur testing out the law of gravity, by dropping one bite sized morsel after another off his high chair onto the floor...okay... that definitely does not make me laugh...