For the last couple of nights I have been a moon stalker! Apparently we have been enjoying a supermoon.
Basically this means that the position of this full moon is such that it is the closest to the earth that it gets (a perigee moon) appearing bigger than usual.
I have to say that it didn't look huge, but beautiful non the less.

Judge for yourself!

Ok, hopeless photo, but my first view of the full moon

The moon was preceded by a lovely sunset.

So lucky

I have become an avid blog reader in the last couple of years. The list of blogs that I follow is ever growing, with many favourites.
There is a clear pattern to my favourites, strong, loving women sharing their lives.
Today I read this http://motherhoodmatters.blogs.deseretnews.com/2012/04/10/your-children-want-you/
and I reflected on what I was feeling as I read it. I felt lucky, blessed. Motherhood for me was.....and it is hard to say this without sounding saccharine sweet....perfection. I have spoken before about how complete I felt holding my first baby in my arms. And there is no doubt that time has softened the edges of the difficult, challenging days of motherhood with three young children, now that they are so very grown up.
But even accounting for the rose tinted spectacles, there is no denying that I was privileged to spend the time with my children as they grew. To give myself heart and soul to them. I learned more from them than I ever did at school or from any books.
Reading the motherhood matters blog also had me thinking about the many amazing mums that I have met throughout my life. And how often I hear from them that they feel inadequate, what a struggle it is to 'fit it all in', and all the pressure that they feel under from so many sources. My heart has broken time and again when I have seen family's striving to 'have it all', to give their children 'everything they want', meaning holidays, new cars, toys and 'stuff'...when all those children really craved was time with their mama and daddy...
I have heard every justification going, 'we can't afford for me not to work', 'I need time away from the children', 'my work defines who I am'...and that's when I know just how lucky I am.

For me being a mama is who I am, I rarely felt the need to be away from my children, time enough as they began to grow and stretch their wings and step out into the world without me...

I know that this is my path and mine alone. And that one woman's medicine is another's poison, yet I can't help thinking that there isn't lots of room for improvement. For our society to value the role of motherhood and make it easier for mothers and fathers to spend more time with their children. I firmly believe that over time this would lead to more women looking forward to being at home with their babies instead of dreading it and wondering how on earth they can feel fulfilled until they get back to work.

Anyway, I have gone off track and stepped up onto my soap box, when really all I was planning to do was celebrate just how blessed I feel to have been a stay at home mama. To have been any kind of mama really.

So thank you, to the three wonderful children who chose me as their mum and to Chris for being the best dad and husband, I love you all so much.
XXXX

How adorable is this....I am utterly torn between my desire to protect such a wonderful creature and allow it to have it's natural right to nurse from it's own mama and my love of wonderful ice cream. Mostly I avoid cow's milk for many reasons, animal welfare and health being the two main ones, but with the sun shining the other day Heather and I headed to Archers http://www.archersjerseyicecream.com/ to sample their delicious wares.

Heather chose easter egg (creme egg) and toffee fudge whilst I sampled Turkish delight and hokie pokie (chunks of honeycomb and toffee sauce)

Then on the way to the car Heather noticed there was no-one on the zip wire and no-one around to see....

finally finished these adorable spring colours socks that I began last summer

flowers....

...galore!

SPRING!!!

I was giddy with excitement this morning.....drum roll.....I got to hang out the washing on the line to dry! The weather has been lovely the last few days, sunny and really quite warm. And I have been a proper busy little bee!

I completed my evaluation cycle, the final piece of work for the diploma and posted it off for marking...this left me in a rather odd state of limbo. On the one hand I had no more work to do (beyond putting my portfolios together) but couldn't completely move on. So we began sprucing up the house...and boy did it need it!

First the porch I repainted with similar colours, then Chris laid new laminate flooring (why oh why we had put up with that filthy carpet for so long is beyond me!!)

A new light fitting, door mat and shelves that don't wiggle all over the place and it's done.

Next the stairs and landing...I still have a bit of gloss work to do and the voiles need hemming, but it looks fresh and clean with freshly painted ceiling, ivory walls, new lampshades and curtains.

A beautiful bouquet...just because he loves me *swoon*.

Now for the crux of this post...oh be still my beating heart spring is here! I spy daffodils in bud at the bottom of the garden. Crocuses opening their faces to the sunshine. This called for washing on the line and jars of red and yellow tulips and daffodils on as many window shelves as I could find!

I have had my evaluation cycle back and am just waiting on my tutor report and then the portfolios can go off in the post (EEK!). I have the gloss work upstairs to finish then I will start on the hallway (then the utility, loo, kitchen, bathroom, shower room, our bedroom....it really is like the Forth road bridge! You just finish when it's time to start over again!! Seriously though this is only really the second wave of decorating since we moving in TWELVE, yes TWELVE years ago. And most of the rooms have only been done once, so it is by no means excessive!)