1. Women can fix the world
I had dinner on Friday night with five amazing, fun, smart, witty women. Over much white wine, we covered pod-casts, sex education, cyber-bullying, running, decluttering, books, blogs, the glass ceiling, tennis, part-time work, and the scary future that is parenting teens. And we had ginger mojitos, looking out at the sea. By the time we got taxis, we’d solved everything. I just can’t remember what the solution was.
2. Running kids’ parties is not child’s play
Well, running the party is fine – we’ve done it before, and if you have enough buns, games and prizes, it usually goes well. What I didn’t anticipate was the aftermath. I’d planned to start my own birthday celebrations at 4.05pm, but instead, we were still cleaning at 8, then moved on to the joy of putting our sugar-filled, wired kids to bed. At 9.30, I poured a glass of wine. At 11, half way through an episode of Bloodline, I was asleep on the couch. Birthday celebrations aren’t what they used to be. But this girl was very happy:
3. Breakfast is a dish best served alone
On Saturday morning, my husband brought me breakfast in bed – pastries and coffee – yum. And in a shock move, the kids ate the pastries. On Sunday morning, while the kids were watching TV, my husband brought me another breakfast in bed. I ate it while reading a book, with every last crumb just for me.
4. You can judge a book by its cover
Well, not always. But The Girl on the Train is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I just need more breakfasts in bed so that I can give it my full attention.
5. I learned how to spell learned
I usually write learned, not learnt. Then one editor corrected something I wrote to learnt. So I switched. Then another editor corrected it from learnt back to learned. So this weekend I googled it, and it turns out both are fine, but learned is more common. There you go.
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This week I also wrote a feature about family size for the Examiner – how many children do Irish families have – what’s the “norm” here, if such a thing exists? When it comes to kids, three is the magic number
I wrote an article on potty training for Mothers and Babies magazine, with huge help from the lovely Aoife Lee at parentsupport.ie : Going Potty: Top tips to successfully train your toddler
And I got cross about a medical professional suggesting there should be tax incentives to get women to have babies earlier, and wrote about it for HerFamily.ie : Why the fertility time-bomb is nothing but scaremongering
I like the sound of ginger mojitos! Happy birthday to the two birthday girls
Sinead @bumbles of rice recently posted…What’s in my bag? Yes, I was surprised too
Thank you! Yes, you will have to try one. Or two… 🙂
The ginger mojitos sound fab! And, yes, I agree, women can fix the world…great lessons learned.
Life on Hushabye Farm recently posted…Oreo and Strawberry Tart.
Women are even better at fixing the world when there’s ginger somewhere in the mojitos – I’m sure of it!
great post, as always! thank you
(FYI, the link to the herfamily article is wrong)
Argh! Thanks a million for telling me! Fixed now. Appreciate that 🙂
The mojitos look amazing… its unbelievable how may problems can be solved with a few girlies, a sea view and a nice drink.. great post x
jolene monaghan recently posted…Easiest ever Pizza
Mojito’s and Breakfast alone in bed…sounds like an awesome weekend! Thanks for the post 🙂