Here comes the bride

Today is the day of the Royal Wedding! I assumed that I wouldn’t really be bothered by it, but I’ve actually found myself getting into the swing of it a little… Aaw, everyone loves a wedding. And a good love story. And a prince and princess!

So here’s a bit of cheesy celebration 🙂

Via Love & Home

Via bauers_petz_n_more on eBay

Via The Contemporary Home on notonthehighstreet.com

Via Royal Wedding Mania

Via KK Outlet

A Very Modern Royal Wedding, KK Outlet

The Happy Couple Aaaaawww

And some even cheesier celebrations closer to home:

Iced biscuits to celebrate with friends

My school held a no-holds-barred street party yesterday… the children and staff dressed up in all their prince or princess finery, there were balloons and bunting and flags. Even a life size cardboard cut out of Kate and William! Live music by one of the music teachers, a huge spread of food, wedding cake baking competition entries from each class – it was incredible! The children sang the anthem and toasted the queen and everything. All the pomp and circumstance befitting a royal wedding 🙂

And the weather was just gorgeous! So was my little prince.

I’m planning on having warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam but I’m getting a little distracting watching all the preparations on tv. But I’m pretty sure I’ll have to make red velvet cupcakes to celebrate the anticipated Buckingham Palace balcony kiss 🙂

*Best wishes to the happy couple*

Japan

I have avoided writing about Japan.

I can’t even comprehend what’s going on over there.

My brain can’t compute. I don’t think my empathy extends that far.

And I guess that I’ve been avoiding it because if I write posts about every disaster that I see on the news, this blog will just be a constant news stream. How do I decide which disasters to write about and which to ignore? (Yes, I have been ignoring it. Not just ‘avoiding’ it. It’s just too difficult.)

This seems to be one of my ‘things’ at the moment: I’m suddenly very aware of the stuff going on in the world. And I mean the bad stuff.  I’m slowly emerging from my baby-induced bubble and it’s like I’m seeing all the horrible things for the first time. My filters are out of practise. Let’s face it, we all have filters. There is no way we could get  through each day if we couldn’t filter out certain things and just get on with looking after ourselves and our families. But have we become so good at blocking out the awful things that we forget about them completely? Had I become so complacent about poverty, disease and disaster that I’d stopped caring, and now suddenly I feel bombarded by it? My ‘comfort zone’ (for lack of a better description) has been jiggled around a bit, and it’s not pleasant.

I wish I could go out there and solve all the world’s problems. But I feel utterly helpless, and I even feel as though it’s pointless to try to help – I mean, what is my little donation to charity actually going to do? The problems are so big.

 

Sigh. Saying ‘it’s not fair’ is useless. But I can’t stop thinking it.

 

Omnivorous?

Over the past year or so I have found myself thinking a lot about the food I eat – where it comes from, what’s in it, how much it’s been processed. I saw a link to this video on a friend’s blog. I may not be a raging carnivore,but meat happens to be in most of the meals I know how to prepare. So I would be lying if I said I have now stopped eating meat, but it certainly makes me think twice.

 

[I so could’ve rambled on about this topic, but I have stuck to my challenge all week and I’ve Kept It Short and Simple. Yay me!]

Life…

As a contact lens wearer, I take a close look at my eyes at least twice a day. And all I see is a spiderweb of very unattractive red lines over what is called the ‘white’ of my eye. Yet Little Man’s eyes are so so white… It makes me consider how we live our lives – we stare at screens far too much, and don’t sleep enough. For a payslip. Bleh. Something’s not right here…

Pocket Grandpa To The Rescue!

Before Little Man arrived, there were certain ideas I had about babies and parenthood. Things like diet and tv and sleep, that kind of thing.

For instance, I am not a huge fan of the television. Don’t get me wrong, I watch plenty of it, but I generally think it is a waste of time and don’t particularly like it on just for the sake of a buzz in the background. And as a primary teacher I quickly feel indignant when children tell me about how much tv they watch (when they should be getting an early night. Or better yet, practising their spelling list). And so, naturally, I am never going to plonk my children in front of the television, unless I have personally checked the educational or developmental value of the programme.

I am (luckily, I think) able to see the humour in having my pre-baby ideas/ideals blown out of the water time after time:

This morning, Little Man was not happy about my attempts to lie/strap him into any sort of distracting or restraining device… In the end, the only way I could get ready for church was to plonk (*sigh* I was never going to plonk) Little Man, dressed and carseat-ed, in front of Sunday morning children’s television.

I am very grateful – Grandfather In My Pocket (or something to that effect) rescued my morning.