Friday Quick Takes

1. Its been a house of sickness this week- we've had a relay team of at least one, mostly two boys off at a time. That's just one of the many joys of having five children - the flu takes twice as long to go around the house. Poor Mac has been hit with it the worst- you KNOW a boy's sick when he shows no interest in his new DS, refuses chocolate and ice cream, and actually SUGGESTS going to bed himself.
 Rory, on the other hand, who was also 'under the weather', gave an Oscar winning performance in an effort to extend his one day off. Big beseeching eyes, shuffling slowly around the house, that trembling little voice saying 'No dinner for me, Mummy-my tummy's sore..... Well, maybe just a wee bit..... No, a bit more than that....... And I'll maybe take that piece of cake too.' Aye right,pet. Is your bag packed for the morning?
From a purely selfish point of view, it's been three, long, tough weeks- the sickness coming right on the back of  Loverboy's jolly/worktrip to India. But them's the breaks, and thank goodness, everyone's on the mend now. *touches wood repeatedly*

2. My 5:2 eating program, which coincidentally  I've also been doing for 3 weeks,  has been going....very well actually, but if you want weekly weigh ins and hip measurements, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong blog. I've an aversion to standing on  the scale- once a month is enough for me-but I CAN tell you that I've lost the Christmas lbs, and I definitely feel my muffin top is somewhat reduced. (Of course it's all relative isn't it, because If I were an ACTUAL muffin, I'd be one of those humongous American style ones, whereas you're probably a perfectly proportioned fairy cake!)
More importantly though,  I'm finding it works for me.  I don't want to big it up too much-  there's certainly no before and after pictures- but I'm not finding the fast days too difficult. I actually enjoy the challenge of seeing how far I can make those 500 calories stretch, and then it's lovely not having to think or focus on it for the other 5 days.  In fact, on those other days, I'm finding that I appreciate the taste of food a lot more, and I'm much less inclined to graze mindlessly on the kids' leftovers. So at this stage, I'd say that I'm tentatively optimistic. As in, come July I might actually fit into those tight jeans hanging in the back of my wardrobe for the last 3 years, not as in, here comes ginger Kate Moss!

Come to Mama.....

3. Are you just LOVING Mr Selfridge? Cos I am! I watched 'The Paradise' before Christmas and adored it, but thought between that and Downton, I might have had period drama fatigue- clearly I was wrong. My mum actually bought me the book  it was based on several years ago, (well, it WAS Book of the Week on Radio 4), but I was a bit ho-hum thanks Ma, and anyway I'd had a pile of Grazia mags to work my way through, so it just sat on the bedroom  windowsill and got all sun faded.. Now of course, SHE'S hooked on the show so has huffily  retrieved it, but tells me that I can borrow it when she's finished!.

4. Finally, I wanted to say a big thank you to anyone who nominated me for the MAD Awards 2013 this week- I'm so very grateful! If you haven't and you'd like to, just click the badge at the top of the page- it only takes a minute, nominations are open until 18 February and I promise that I'll love you long time!

5. Finally finally, I heard this song on the Radio yesterday and it brought me right back and just made me smile. To think that I used to know ALL the moves!  Enjoy and happy Friday! Emmax