[ ouchy ]

sooooooo... i pick up my boys from school, & i don't do this often but they love it, i brought them a lollipop to eat in the car. when i say i don't do that often don't go thinking i'm a meanie!! i usually try & give candy nearer a time they are going to clean their teeth...

we arrive home, it was pouring with rain, my phone starts ringing & i drop my keys in a puddle. i'm desperately trying to keep the kids from jumping in there too with arm actions so the person on the phone doesn't have an inkling of the chaos going on. i'm rubbish at doing that though because even though i try really hard i know my voice changes a bit & i can't actually listen properly to whats being said either!!

somewhere between the car, steering the boys, trying to get flynn to put down the muddy sticks he's collecting, carrying 2 backpacks, a closed umbrella, my phone held to my ear with my shoulder & unlocking the door i managed to knock the skin completely off my knuckle :( it was bleeding quite a lot & at first i stuck some kitchen towel on a la cut yourself shaving... but it looked gross & wasn't very functional!!

flynn, my 4 year old, has a very caring nature, came over & wanted to see, then before i could stop him he kisses it... but we're not talking a light peck... we're talking big sticky lollipop smooch... then shouts for his brother & says 'look mum's got a boo boo' & didn't steer his point so well & pushes his muddy finger in... so i now have a skinless knuckle covered in a mixture of cherry slobber & dirt!! but it was nothing a spiderman band aid couldn't fix!

flynn the photographer!

[ religion... ]

sooooooo... i was raised catholic, went to a catholic school but we seldom went as a family to church, in fact i can probably count the number of times we did on one hand... my dad would tuck us in at night & listen to our prayers...

when i emigrated, with my parents (my mum [mom] is 100% italian) to a very small village in italy at the age of 15 & it was a whole other story... everything revolved around the church, religion is in everything...

after i returned to the uk i didn't continue going to church ~ except christmas & for the usual activities that my dad likes to call 'hatching, matching & dispatching...'

then i found myself living in the states & engaged to an agnostic ~ it didn't cross my mind for a moment that we would marry in a church.

on a visit to my mum we were exploring the amalfi coast & as i ran up the 64 steps to this gorgeous cathedral i said now this is a church to get married in!! 6 seconds later my mum emerges from the church saying you can!!! what! nooooooo we can't, but apparently we can & could!! it involved me registering at my local parish, lots of paperwork & my now husband being a really great sport about the whole thing!! from meeting with the priest, at our local parish, for all the paperwork i got to know & really like this guy!! & felt compelled to go on sundays & i have to say i started to enjoy going... sometimes i'd sit there listening to the sermon & think ??? no way... but for the most part there was a nice message & a feeling of community...

believe it or not i even started being a lector...

everything was good until... i went, heavily pregnant with my first son, to the baptism classes & this woman (running the class) said something unforgivable about hurricane katrina... it took every ounce of my husbands being to not walk out & i'm surprised we could see across the room from steam that his nostrils were generating!

then there was the fact that we had very carefully picked out the god parents ~ we chose the most amazing couple & we would want only them to take over from us... but no we weren't allowed by this church... & were told that they would pick out people for us...

needless to say the actual god parents are the only ones we adore (we got around it) & i started backing away from my religious love affair...

which leads me to today... we were in one of my most favorite places on earth... dragonfly farms :) i'm perusing the beautiful christmas ornaments... when my son oscar shouts out 'mummy... that's kevin...' intrigued by what he meant... i go over to where he's standing & say 'where darling?' oscar points & i follow his finger to a beautiful wooden carved nativity... he's pointing at joseph!!! seriously?! i started laughing... mostly because i found it funny (where did he get kevin from!!!) & the slightly nervously because i should be having a religious conversation...

wish me luck!!

kevin...

[ toilet paper... ]

sooooooo... i walk into the bathroom... errrr... does anyone know what happened to the toilet paper??
 
no-one saw a thing...

[ HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! ]

sooooooo... i walked my son, oscar (6), to school ~ it was a lovely morning, a bit misty. My other son, flynn (4), trotted along happily with our old husky, lennon 11. lennon seemed really happy & enjoying the walk, his back legs seemed much better today, the arthritis not effecting him so much & i'm happy to say there were a few times that his tail even managed a curl, not seen that in a while.

oscar was asked to bring in a fruit today, to make a thanksgiving fruit salad with his class. we looked at all the fruit in the store & decided on a pineapple... then found a pineapple with 3 sprouty top bits instead of the usual one. so we had this pineapple in tow & i'd put in a brown paper shopping bag.

we reached school & said our goodbyes ~ i glanced behind me, as i walked away, to see oscar proudly showing off his pineapple to the kids in line, one of the handles had ripped off the bag & i knew it would only be a matter of time till that pineapple busted out!!

flynn & i continued home ~ the leaves seemed so much brighter today, beautiful colors as we high kicked through them... flynn asked me to carry his toy jet plane so he could hold my hand & he clung tight... i suddenly got butterflies in my stomach, the eve of a holiday my kids super excited, i was filled with childhood memories. we have a lot to be thankful for & i truly am.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all you wonderful friends & family x

flynn's center piece ~ gobble gobble