First Holy Communion

We went over the responses and prayers for weeks, to make sure he was word perfect... and he was. He had confided to me that he was a bit worried he wouldn't 'do it right', so I told him that there was simply no way he could do it wrong.

Later, as I watched him walk carefully up to the altar, his hands joined, an expression of such earnest concentration on his face, I felt myself tear up, so I studied the booklet in my lap instead, read this 'Parents' Blessing' on the back page.....and lost it completely.

 When you were born
Our hearts were so full of happiness
That there was no room in us for words.

When you were growing
Our hearts were so full of care for you
That we spoke soothingly
And sometimes sharply.
Fearful for your safety,
But always in the deepest places of our hearts
We spoke lovingly.

Today,
As we watch you
Moving forward with your friends
We marvel at all you have done
And become
Our spirits sing praise to God
For the gift that is you.

And, though our hearts
Have stretched to love others,
Yet, there is still a place within us
That is yours and only yours,
Always.

For the light you have shone on us,
For the life you have called us to,
For the special gift of God
You are now, and will ever be,
Thank You. 

		But there was no time to be sad, not with a house full needing fed and some serious bouncing to be done. And despite the rain, and a barbeque cooked under an umbrella in typical Irish style, it was a day to remember...and we even got a photograph with everyone looking  and smiling at the same time!

Homework for Dummies

I am so completely over primary school homework projects. Last week, when Rory arrived home with his shiny, new 'Life in the Recent Past' folder, filled with blank pages waiting to be filled, a 'helpful' subject related topic chart, and a parents' comments page, all I wanted to do was put my head straight into the freezer. Because, let's not kid ourselves, this is NOT homework for the six year olds -this is torture for the parents, pure and simple. Its time consuming, extensive, and frankly a complete pain in the arse. Gimme a worksheet, reading and spellings ANY day of the week over this shit.
Inevitably, he's I'm given a few weeks to produce the goods, but throw in a Holy Communion, a mid term break, and just everyday chaotic busyness, and what ACTUALLY happens is I pull it out of drawer the night before, and think 'Oh crap! This is due tomorrow and we've done sweet FA...time to get this show on the road. The crucial next step is the sourcing of a varied selection of pens/pencils for the parent comment form, because nothing screams 'night before' more than the amateurish faux pas of using the same blue Biro throughout. Then, its straight into 'Olden Days 101' for  Rory, covering among other things, walking to school with bare feet in the snow,  conkers, Catchy Kissy and Snakes and Ladders.
 I should probably reassure you at this point that I'm not remotely anti homework - in fact, I'm the Queen of homeworks. I spend hours of every working day overseeing, assessing and correcting 4 of them...simultaneously... while  cooking, folding washing and sometimes balancing plates on my head. I even have a smorgasbord of EXTRA homeworks up my sleeve, for when I decree that someone has too little that day or I'm simply in a 'Tiger mother' kinda mood.
 Last night, I happened to be out with a few friends for a meal, and two of us got chatting about the project homework.
'How many pages have you got filled in?'
'All of them'. She seemed surprised at the question. ' You?'
'Two'. FFS .
'Oh? Well, we included pictures of old washboards and photos of old games, but the word on the street is that X's mum actually included a recipe from a hundred year old cook book.' FFS...there's always one isn't there.
 And what of Rory? Well, he punched in a contented half hour cutting and sticking in pictures of microwaves from the Argos catalogue, and our subsequent discussion on how cooking methods have changed over the years went something like this.
 'Rory, have you any idea how people used to cook?'
'Well, I know how Stone Age people did.They took two sticks and rubbed them together and...'
 Ten minutes later and I'm losing the will to live, so I cut in with, ' That's great, but no. That was thousands of years ago, I'm thinking of the recent past, when your Nana and Granda were wee.
 'Ehhh, no. I only know Stone Age.' Let's just say it was a long night.
 But, as a final push, before school this morning, and having actually lost sleep imagining Rory's project on public display as a warning to others, I was motivated to give him a short intensive presentation covering washboards, mangles and chamber pots, with accompanying pictures included and labelled, so I have to admit that this time I'm feeling quietly confident....

A Bit of This, That and the Other...

Totally pulling it off

This week, Loverboy and I at last jumped headfirst into 'Homeland', and I have to say that I'm completely hooked! Also, and I won't deny it, there's a smug pleasure in only being on episode 4, while the rest of the country is wailing and gnashing their teeth at the series' end. And the thrill of taking it in turns to fast forward through the ads? Let's just say it doesn't get old...I wonder is it wrong to love Sky+ this much?

 The downside of all that of course, is having to be on Spoiler Avoidance Alert all the time! It's a MINEFIELD out there between TV, Facebook, twitter and just general conversations. I've already had to do the 'fingers in the ears La la la, don't tell me, don't tell me!' three times this week.
And isn't Claire Danes tote amaze? And Damien Lewis as well. I mean, obviously I don't rate him hotness wise,

Soames-such a gen

( it's the old ginger/ginger clash I've touched on before), but as an actor he's fabulous. I really thought that I'd never be able to get past his 'Soames' persona, (Forsyte Saga-boxset it) but now I'm all 'Soames who?' (Oh and FYI apparently he's lovely IRL too- he was filling up his car recently in a garage in Belfast and my uncle spotted him and  started chatting and he just couldn't have been nicer...I just LOVE to hear stories like that.)
Speaking of Twitter, I absolutely 'get it' now! I tried it about a year ago but clearly I wasn't focused enough, and I slunk back over to Facebook. Then recently,well frankly, I was  too afraid of missing something, so I gave it another go and sure it's great craic altogether.. It's basically people dropping in and out for a bit of a yarn as they muddle through their days. The whole 140 characters  was a bit tricky at first, but it really forces you to think snappily (and wittily!). It sharpens and hones the mind.... like sudoku, only with gossip and jokes.
You 'follow' people, which means you get to see their tweets, but they have to 'follow' you to see yours, unless you tweet them directly. So slebs have thousands, sometimes millions of followers, but they actually follow relatively few. This is where it can get a bit playgroundy- everyone's vying to be the wittiest/cleverest/rudest, with the ultimate prize being a retweet or even better a direct tweet from your fave sleb. It's easy to get caught up in that, I suppose, but actually far better fun if you don't. That said,  I was BEYOND THRILLED to have a little interaction with Marian Keyes, (the very same!), who I LOVE LOVE LOVE, and where else could you do that? And isn't it marvelous it's even possible at all?
The other big news around here is that it's Cormac's First Holy Communion this Saturday. The school's trying to keep the numbers down to three per family (boooo!), but that ain't happening around here. I mean, I've been utterly ruthless, and we're STILL sitting at eleven. Oooops...looks like I'll need to hide a few of them up my skirt.
Afterwards, it'll be a stampede back here for barbecue, bouncy castle and (obviously) wine. The weather isn't playing ball right now, and of course a gorgeous day would be fabulous, but I'm not overly concerned. I mean, I've witnessed Loverboy and Mr Bouncy Castle, (whose name I shamefully don't know, but I've rented too many bouncy castles now to ask him), tie it down to the drive on lawn mower, in a sleeting wind tunnel, and it STILL didn't stop the kids wrapping up and getting out there...(and honestly, only the bare minimum of 'encouragement' was required ;-)) ) catch ya later, Emx