The Santa Dilemma

My kids are in Grade 1, and almost 7 years old. Recently at school, A. spent a lunchtime vigorously defending the reality of Santa because "everyone" was saying that "if you still believe in Santa you're a baby." She sort of looked at me quizzically, but not too quizzically, because she's still very solid on the idea that Santa is real. Mostly her expression was like "Isn't that weird, Mum?" So she wasn't really asking me.

But man, I almost came clean. Almost.


I've been thinking about this for some time. The kids are getting older, and with kids in general being exposed to more and more information younger and younger these days, I don't expect belief in Santa to survive more than another year at best. I've mentioned before that I'm sometimes a bit conflicted about Santa et al. Mostly I love it - I love the wonder and the magic of it, and how our whole culture conspires to provide this magic for children. But sometimes I feel a bit guilty about the deception of it all. Logic tells me I'm not doing anything wrong but my "heart" isn't always convinced.

On the couple of occasions my kids have asked why some kids don't believe in Santa, my mind has automatically thrown up the following possible, but inappropriate, responses: 

"Mate - you still believe in the tooth fairy. You're asking me about Santa?"

"Of course Santa's real, would I lie to you?"

"Dude. Think about it."

So at what age will I tell my kids the truth about Santa?

I'm 43 now - is that a good age?  (boom-tish!)

The Loch Ness Monster and Santa 

I recently read the excellent article 'Loch Ness Memoir' by Tom Bissell in the Virginia Quarterly Review, in which the author recounts a trip to Loch Ness and remembers his childhood belief in the monster.

He is clearly my own generation. My heart jumped as he mentioned the 'generation-defining television show In Search Of...' which 'managed to sound both skeptically sober and insanely irresponsible' and which 'suited the mood of that blurry, nameless time (1979-1981)...' 

Yes! Way to capture a moment - and my childhood. I LOVED 'In Search Of...' (and I have the book from the series).  Like 'all children' I too loved 'dinosaurs and the paranormal', and yes, I'll agree that that era seemed well suited to those passions. Bookstores abounded with stuff on 'unexplained phenomena', and my pocket money was regularly spent on books on ESP, astral projection, dreams, cryptozoology and UFOs. I am sure I am not mis-remembering when I think that there was less knowledge and therefore less skepticism in those days. More sober and intelligent people were open to the possibility of 'unexplained phenomena', because we did not have the knowledge of the human genome, the brain and the nervous system, nor the public and devastating debunkings of Uri Geller and psychics in general that were to come later.   


Tom Bissell posits that the Loch Ness Monster is enduring and is loved because it is friendly, or at least benign, and it combines those two childhood interests, 'dinosaurs and the paranormal' . To his childhood self, 'The Loch Ness Monster made the world a little stranger, a little more wonderful.'



Do you remember the day you stopped believing in things you believed in as a child? I do. I remember the day my mother answered my question "Santa's not real, is he?" with "No," and a smile. I was shocked. And upset. I really expected her to say yes!  But, you know - I was nine. It was definitely time.


I remember believing in the Loch Ness Monster until I was a teenager, and then reading in a Sunday paper a feature article that included the fact that Loch Ness was only formed 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Pleisiosaurs, of course, died out with the other dinosaurs 60 million years ago. So that settled it. Oh well then, that's that, I thought, surprised. I was a little deflated, a little sad... but mostly surprised. The loch is only 10,000 years old. That's a very important fact. That's the salient fact. How had I not read of this before, in all the years of all the print on the Loch Ness Monster I had devoured?  

How strange, I thought. Why is there even a debate about this? The thing simply cannot exist. It was my first realization that people could write books that were skewed to leave out certain inconvenient facts. 



Tom Bissell compares this to the realisation that Santa does not exist:

I finally remember, for the first time in a long time, the day in third grade when, during recess, Chris Burkland announced that Santa Claus did not exist. His brother had told him so. I stepped forward, rationally explaining how the man had been eating the cookies and drinking the milk I left out for him for years now. Chris Burkland would not back down. Neither would I. It came to blows. When my teacher learned of the cause of our fight she visibly blanched. Even though it was the middle of the day, my father was called. I was still crying when he picked me up, still infuriated. On that short, very long ride home, something about my father’s silence kept me from asking the question I suddenly knew the answer to. And how strange that was. The people I loved most, the entire culture I lived in, had systematically set out to deceive me, and I had no idea why. The confusing, unfamiliar way in which this hurt, my desire to believe in something that part of me always knew was not real and could not be real—I remember it so clearly.

BAM. There's the kicker. That sense of betrayal, and the confusion and hurt around that betrayal. I hate the thought of causing that.

But kids get over it, right? I don't think I felt that hurt/confusion for more than a few minutes, and I don't think I felt bad about it for long. 

But it was as if suddenly the world was very different. It's a strange feeling, to suddenly realize the world is not what you thought it was. When I was 13 I knew I didn't really believe in God any more. When I was older than that, I reluctantly put away my beloved beliefs in UFOs, out-of-body experiences, ESP, telepathy and divining the future. If anything I think the paranormal stuff hit me harder than Santa or God, but in each case the feeling was the same. The world was different. It was clearer, it was suddenly dazzling and new. But it was also just a little less wonderful... for awhile. 

Everyday Beauty: Weeds

I hate weeds. They're usually ugly. They stop pretty ground cover and flowers from flourishing. And they're what makes me give up gardening, time and time again.

But even among the weeds, there is beauty.

I quite like this stuff:

Clover and "buttercups". Gorgeous.

This one had to be taken as an EXTREME close-up, because this is one of those ugly, sprawling, prickly fellas (who has since been pulled out). 

But the flower was rather stunning, when you looked up close:

Where did you see everyday beauty this week?

Work and Walk: NAILED IT

If you're like me and work in an office environment, in the city, work clothes can be a hassle. Unless you're very senior or in a very staid industry, you probably don't have to manage pantyhose (shudder), high heels, suits or full make-up, but you still need to look a bit corporate and moderately well groomed.

At the same time you probably catch public transport, which means walking a little, which means you also need to be comfortable.

In my head I have a hazy sort of ideal outfit that I call "Good To Go". The Good To Go outfit is dark trousers, a mid-season top, cross-body satchel bag and low-heeled boots or shoes. Possibly an artfully-knotted scarf or non-bulky jacket on top. It's something you can wear almost anywhere, and it is comfortable and hassle-free.  It's the kind of outfit worn by girls-on-the-run in spy movies, or hot lady cops in the better TV mini-series.  It doesn't have to be plain - it can be a sparkly top, or satiny pants - but the main requirements of Good To Go are that the outfit is streamlined, simple, stylish and walkable.

Unfortunately, though this outfit is my daily goal, I rarely come close to achieving it, due to limitations imposed by money (style is expensive) and body shape. Most days I settle for a pair of nice-looking black pants that are not too short (hard - very hard to find), a longish top and a soft jacket or cardigan. Oh, and the artfully knotted scarf.

I have three good quality bags, one of which is a cross-body satchel (though too small for everyday work use really), and the other two which are great-looking and were expensive but are not ideal designs for carrying. One is a good shape but too heavy, the other can only be looped over a wrist or carried by the handles, which gets annoying.

Shoes are tricky. In my youth I never found shoes hard. I wore what I liked and I walked everywhere. In the 80s I was a student and wore Doc Martens, brogues or flats. In the nineties I was living in Greece where appearance is everything, baby - this was my stylish phase, and I wore high-heeled ankle boots or very high platform heels, along with short skirts, slim dresses, leggings, fitted jackets and other gorgeous stuff I can no longer go near.

I never remember shoes being too uncomfortable back then. Heels were a bit, of course - but certainly not everyday flat shoes.

These days? It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to find a comfortable shoe. I think once you're past 40 no shoe is going to be totally comfortable, unless it's a runner. I'm also quite a bit heavier than I was in my youth, and I know that has an impact. But more than that, with age comes wisdom or perhaps grumpiness, and I have close to zero tolerance for sartorial discomfort as a result.

Since my accident and surgery I've been wearing casual pants and runners pretty much non-stop - that's almost 4 months - and that's been very comfortable, but I'm pretty sick of them.

This week I returned to the office for the first time in weeks, having worked mostly at home since we came back from Greece. Since I can't drive, I have had to abandon the car commute I was so fond of and return to public transport. Which I am quite enjoying, to be honest, though not loving the hour and a half the trip takes me most days.

But I am finding it seriously challenging to put work outfits together, which are also comfortable for my "walking bouts" in between buses and trains and the office.


Here's the thing:

• I'm sick of wearing runners to work and carrying an extra bag for my work shoes.
• I want to wear nice shoes which are also comfortable, and I don't want to break a sweat on my morning commute.
• I want to carry ONE bag. And I don't always want that to be a giant tote or a backpack.

Another thing - and I blame my kids for this because it didn't happen before them - is that I find it very difficult to leave and arrive home carrying ONE bag. Even if I leave with one bag (e.g. having left my work shoes at the office so no need to tote them), I arrive home with two or three, by the time I've picked up emergency groceries, a schnitzel and veggies from a cafe to serve for dinner, or some, um, magazines and books (but I've cut that out now, really).

(The last 2 days I've had to stop at the quickie-mart on the way home, to pick up margarine, hair clips, lunch box snacks and the like which my organised self neglected to order from the supermarket).


Soooo.... you appreciate how difficult and unwieldy my life is, I hope.


Except today - thanks to a fortuitous combination of circumstances, I managed to achieve Good To Go.


The circumstances:

• warm and mild weather. My favourite weather in Melbourne today: warm but not hot, mildy sunny and blowy. Perfect. No sweating, no freezing, no lugging around an umbrella or a coat
• second day back at the office. This meant I had already lugged in my extra bag with notebooks and files from home the previous day, so I only needed one bag

The outfit:

• slim straight black pants
• long silky top with elbow-length sleeves
• long, black sleeveless jackety thing (dressy, slimming, adds coverage and a little warmth)
• taupe patent platform sandals - comfortable to walk in 
• moderately-sized, non-heavy bag which loops comfortably over arm or shoulder, leaving other hand free for Myki card, phone or coffee cup. 

(I 'shopped my closet' and rediscovered a lovely bag which was not expensive but looks it, and which being mostly fabric is light to carry, while still being roomy [and bonus, the lining is pale caramel, making it easy to find stuff inside]).

I was going in a little late to the office after we dropped the kids at their holiday program, so Y. dropped me at the train station near his work, which is in a MUCH nicer area than where we live. There is a cafe across from the station so while I waited for my train I picked up a takeaway coffee and in my perfect outfit and large sunglasses I swanned stylishly down the street imagining I lived there and that every day I sauntered thusly across the road from my renovated Edwardian house to the train station.  I passed a boutique home furnishing shop which advertised 'Hours: 9.30 - 3.00', and I thought, Well, wouldn't that be nice.

I felt mobile, powerful, stylish and comfortable. I was Good To Go.

Now... what am I going to wear tomorrow?

Image by adamr courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Everyday Beauty: the Degas photo

Here is my daughter at her ballet photo day recently, suddenly imitating a Degas painting.

I was holding my phone and snapped at just the right moment.

What kind of everyday beauty did you notice this week?

Calculate Your Most Efficient Trajectory, and other walking games

Could not believe my eyes when I saw this madness on (er...) 9GAG the other day. 

OMG IT'S NOT JUST ME THAT DOES THIS.

Kids play walking games: 

Step on a crack, break your mother's back;  

Step on a line, break your father's spine

So do adults.

Here are the walking games I still play - cannot help playing - every time I walk:

1. Even Stevens
2. The Point of No Trace of Origin
3. Most Efficient Trajectory

Even Stevens

I no longer try to avoid stepping on lines. Please! I managed to stop that madness in my twenties! But I do have a thing quite often where I have to keep track of how I step on lines and keep things "even" with both feet.

Example: 

I've just stepped on a line with the ball of my left foot - therefore I have to do the same with my right foot. But so I don't stop short and shuffle my feet around and look like a weirdo I keep walking "naturally" but keep count of what I step on with both feet, until I can even the score of each item with the other foot. So the count I keep in my head might go something like: left one ball of foot, left one heel, right one middle of foot, left two ball of foot...

Of course at some point it starts to get too hard to keep track, in which case I DO quickly do a weird foot shuffle or stop and swap feet, so I can keep my feet even.

The Point of No Trace of Origin

I do this while city walking, when I've just passed through an intersection or turned a corner. Imagine someone got a snapshot image of you walking at a given point in or after the intersection. Based on your position on the footpath, distance from the curb or corner, length of your stride and angle of your body, at many points it must be possible to look at the snapshot and figure out whether you got there by crossing the street or turning the corner. At some point, as you go a little further, there is a point at which it would no longer be possible to tell which way you had come.  

As I walk I try to pinpoint where that point is. Sometimes I try to pass through an intersection in a way that would give away as few clues as possible as to whether I had come from straight behind or from around the corner. 

Most Efficient Trajectory

Like the 9GAG cartoon at the top - but in my case with frustratingly little math skill. Try and estimate or calculate the most efficient route between two points. That might not be the shortest one; it could be the one with fewest angles, the least foot traffic, more downhill slopes, etc. I spend a bit of time trying to figure out at what distance/number of obstacles a zigzag or series of corners is more or less efficient than a straight line, etc.  This is not to avoid walking, which I love - just another attempt to be more efficient through silly shortcuts.

Here's how I know I'm not the only one doing this:

Adult walking games in popular culture

I remember two references:

The first was an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry walks his date to his apartment door and tells her about a game he plays where he pretends he's being chased by murderers and when he gets to his door he has to unlock and open it as fast as possible to elude them.

Who hasn't played that game?

The second was a short film I saw years and years ago as a kid. When I was a kid, when you went to see a movie it went like this: ads; short film; interval; movie.  Shorts were a mixed bag. Most were boring, some were genius. This particular short one of the best I ever saw. It followed a Londoner on his morning commute into the city. All the dialogue took place in his head.  He is standing on a bus and looks around and picks three or four other passengers to "race" with. He assigns each a name like "Green Cardigan", "Umbrella" and "Bowler Hat". When they all get off the bus he starts narrating (in his head) in the style of a horse race: And they're off! Green Cardigan gets off to a fine start but Bowler Hat is way back... The narration continues as it shows him hurrying through the busy streets, taking little shortcuts, veering through foot traffic, all the while keeping an eye on the others as he tries to reach the finish first.  It's obvious these are all regular commuters going to the same street for work and he plays this game with different people every day. There are a couple of tense moments where he thinks he won't “win”, then he's on the home stretch and in front of everyone. Just as he's grinning smugly and striding to the "finish" he realises Bowler Hat is not behind him as he thought but in front. He gets such a shock at being about to lose the "race", that he loses his sanity – the film ends on a freeze frame as he cries out and grabs  "Bowler Hat" by the shoulder.

Do you play walking games? Tell me one!

Best Porridge Ever

This is how I make porridge. 

It is the Best Porridge Ever. 

You will never eat better porridge than this.

Ingredients:

1 cup traditional oats
1 and a bit cups water
1 and a bit cups milk
one apple
handful of sultanas
brown sugar
nutmeg
cinnamon



Method:

Put the oats, water and milk in the saucepan. It works best if you have a heavy-bottomed saucepan, so you can cook it slowly over low heat.  (When I say slowly, it still only takes about ten minutes. No need for quick oats).

Peel and grate an apple; add the grated apple to the saucepan.

Chuck in a handful of sultanas, unless you have kids who get mad when you include sultanas, in which case only include this step about a quarter of the time, when you really want sultanas.

Add a sprinkle each of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Stir with a wooden spoon over a low heat, until porridge is cooked, thickish and bubbly. This should take a few minutes, but not too fast - enough time to cook the apple and nicely absorb most of the liquid but still leave the porridge a good, liquidy consistency.

(I trust you have separate wooden spoons in your drawer for sweet and for savoury? You should. Do NOT use the same wooden spoon you have used to stir spaghetti sauce or curry).


Pour the porridge into bowls, add a splash of cold milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar to each bowl,and eat.

At our house the dog gets to lick the kids' bowls afterwards. 

There's never anything left to lick in mine.

With thanks to my long-lost university friend Katherine, who taught me how to add apple and cinnamon to porridge. I bought that pretty blue and white bowl then. I was in my second year of uni and living in a uni flat with Katherine and two others. It was decreed that we each needed a lovely bowl for our porridge.

Listography: Top 5 Truths According to Women

Listography time. This month's is an interesting topic - what are your Top 5 Truths? What have we learned as women of a certain age?

Here are mine:


1. There is no such thing as work life balance, unless you are very rich or very lucky. There is just life, and you have to try and make yours work for you. We all have our trials and crosses to bear; we all have times of bounty and times of crisis, and we all struggle to make it all work. Find your way, know that it won't be perfect, manage stress, depression and difficulties as best you can, and enjoy the good bits. For that is all you can do.


2. The Internet is a major time-suck and must be managed. There is so much cool stuff out there, and so much to read - you will never read it all so do not try. And once you start participating in it - blogs, Tumblrs, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, parenting forums, LinkedIn, Google Plus, StumbleUpon, meme generators, linkys, news article commenting, education platforms.... aaaaaarghhh, you can get lost in it. Limit your internet time to a small window each day. (Note to self: why don't you try doing this yourself before you preach it to others?)


3. Kids will always demand more of mum their primary carer. It doesn't matter if you both work; it doesn't matter if it's unfair; it doesn't matter if you're tired - it's just the way it is. Most often you will feel glad and smug about it; sometimes you will feel annoyed or overwhelmed by it. Doesn't change it either way.


4. Women's Weekly cakes you make will never look as good as the ones in the book. But your kids will love them anyway.

5. You don't need a lot of clothes, shoes, bags or make-up - just ones that you really like. When you go shopping for clothes, shoes, bags or make-up, you are really trying to purchase a new, invigorated, different or younger you. Good purchases are few and far between, so don't buy too much.

Linking up with Kate Takes 5 for Listography.

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Real Life Wednesday: Snack Foods

Because I am fearless and searingly honest, I am going to break one of the last remaining parenting taboos - right here, right now!

Parents - give - their kids - UNHEALTHY SNACKS.

Yes we do!

Once upon a time, when I was a kid, this was normal. You came home from school and had biscuits. Kids' story books were filled with luscious descriptions of cakes, cookies and ice-cream. We didn't eat raw carrots as snacks. Crackers were salty and greasy and most of the time we ate them with butter. It was perfectly acceptable to have sugar and cinnamon on toast, or jam and cream on bread.

These days, things are different. Yes, we know more about nutrition and yes, we all want to avoid obesity, heart disease, etc. So the whole "healthy food" thing has permeated into everything in kid culture. The reader books my kids bring home from school are filled with kids in daggy trackpants making butterless sandwiches with raw vegetables and grinning like they're eating cakes.

It's funny now to read the childhood classic "There's A Hippopotamus On Our Roof Eating Cake", with the reference to Mummy on a diet eating salad, and the little girl who eats honey sandwiches every day.


At our house here is what my kids eat on a typical school day:

Breakfast (when at home): Sultana Bran, Weet-Bix or Cheerios cereal or two pieces of white toast, one with Vegemite, one with jam.

Breakfast (when at before-school care): Cheerios or raisin toast or pancakes

Morning tea: cheese and crackers for M; a "Stringers" cheese stick for A

Lunch: white-bread sandwich with margarine and jam; or with tzatziki; or wheat/rice wrap with butter and Vegemite; or wrap with cheese and tomato.  Sweet snack: mini muffin or two biscuits or pack of My Little Pony/Scooby Doo biscuits or muesli bar or homemade cake/slice. Fruit: apple /strawberries / grapes / banana, etc

After school snack (when at after-school care): Cup-A-Soup, crackers and fruit

After school snack (when at home):
3.45pm: two biscuits and a glass of orange juice or chocolate milk
3.50pm: "I'm still hungry":  Cruskits or rice cakes or rice crackers or popcorn
4.00pm: "Muuum I'm still HUNGRY": cut-up apple or orange
4.30pm: children attempt to steal sweets from cupboard, I (usually) notice and stop them; tell them to eat fruit or nothing
5:00pm: "still hungry". I tell them dinner is coming soon and to wait. Often end up giving them another rice cake or Cruskit, or if things are bad and I am starting not to care, a sweet biscuit
5:30pm: Ditto

Dinner: Mostly not eaten (Big surprise huh).  Includes cut-up carrot sticks and apple or orange on the table to make me feel better when their only other plant-food intake is two negotiated bites of broccoli (which they used to love).

Before bed: HUNGRY again - because they didn't eat dinner. I serve up the warmed-up dinner but unless the dinner includes plain rice or plain spaghetti, this isn't successful and I end up relenting and giving them a piece of bread and some fruit.



Things that frustrate me:

• My kids used to eat only multigrain bread. Since they discovered white bread awhile ago keeping up the multigrain has got harder and harder and I've now abandoned the effort - we've moved on to white bread 
• I cannot buy enough bananas. Every week at the supermarket I buy two or three bunches. Between Y and the kids, they're gone in three days
• My kids used to LOVE broccoli (seriously). It's also my favourite veggie. We still serve it often but now have to push them to eat even a little
• A used to love wraps with Vegemite for lunch. Now apparently "hates" them and won't eat them
• The kids like Vegemite on toast but not on sandwiches
• I'm not strict enough and struggle to get them to hold off snacks before dinner - then they don't eat dinner
• I have the only child in the world (A) who hates mincemeat. Won't eat homemade meat pie, lasagne, spag bol or any other normal family go-to meal. I have the only two kids on the internet who don't like Mexibake

Things I don't care about:

• a sweet snack after school
• once a week I make them macaroni and cheese (from a box) for dinner
• on weekends they often have a Nutella sandwich for lunch
• icy-poles every day during summer
• a chocolate milk or Milo every day

Things I have got a bit cleverer at:

• So they eat their fruit in their lunchbox, I give them a smaller sweet snack. 
• A is put off by whole fruit so I cut up fruit and put it in a little box in her lunch box. E.g., I cut up one apple and one banana, or one apple and four strawberries, and split it up between two boxes for the two kids
• I sometimes make up a little snack bag containing sultanas, a couple of mini Oreos, and a handful of dry Cheerios; I try to sneak in a couple of almonds or walnuts but they don't fall for that
• Sometimes I make up an after-school snack plate of crackers, tzatziki, cut-up fruit, carrot sticks and two biscuits - so they can graze while watching TV and the entire snack amount is controlled

not available every day

• I use a million chicken recipes for dinner - butter and soy chicken, lemon chicken, honey baked chicken, orange chicken, apricot chicken, crumbed chicken, chicken in tomato sauce, homemade or frozen chicken nuggets...
• Sometimes instead of steaming veggies I boil them in water with butter, orange juice and honey, for a bit of flavour. It makes it easier for them to choke down those vital two bites.

And that's REAL LIFE in our house.

Linking up with Picklebums for Real Life Wednesday.

Everyday Beauty

Garden flowers in a jam jar on the draining board.

My first Everyday Beauty post.
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Sunday Fun Day: Paper Pizza

A few weeks ago, trying to get one of my daughters out of her doldrums, I started a thing called Sunday Fun Days. Every week the kids agree to get their homework done and completed (without tears or tantrums) by Saturday, and I get all my tasks out of the way by then too. Sunday is then completely free for a FUN DAY.

The first week was A's turn to choose an activity, and she was excited and specific. First, we would go and see a movie. Then we would come home and make people out of construction paper. Then I would sit in my rocking chair and they would sit on the floor and I would read them two stories.

Well, okay then.

On Saturday night before the big day, A very carefully chose and laid out her favourite clothes to wear the next day, and went to bed smiling and happy. It broke my heart! My poor unhappy child, were things this bad for her? (Have I mentioned I have a pessimistic streak?)

On Sunday morning, A, who normally sleeps in on weekends and has to be coaxed out of bed (and out of a foul temper) most mornings, was the first one up. She dressed herself, brushed her teeth and brushed her hair, then came and woke me up, eyes shining with happiness.

She enjoyed her day immensely.  We saw Ice Age 4, made our paper people, and generally had a fun and relaxed day. I even enjoyed it myself.

The next week was M's choice. She chose to go to her favourite play centre, and then make a fairy garden at home (leaves, sticks, plastic container).

Last week was their friend's birthday party. So that was our Sunday Fun Day taken care of quite nicely.

Today was A's choice again, and she chose swimming, followed by more paper craft - this time making paper pizzas.


I so did not feel like going swimming. But the kids just love it, and it wears them out and makes me feel good that we all get some exercise. Also, because the girls are doing dancing classes and Greek school every week, I cancelled their swimming lessons this term so they wouldn't be completely over-scheduled, and they miss the swimming lessons. (You can't win. Well, I could if I cancelled Greek school but that's not really an option, sorry kids!)

Swimming was actually quite nice. The pool was heated to a lovely warm temperature and because it's not summer it wasn't all sauna-like inside. My lovely mother came along so we also got a lift. (Following the surgery to pin my broken arm two weeks ago, I still can't drive for another 6-8 weeks)

So we did that, and then it was home for paper pizzas.

After the pizzas, the girls decided to make a giant paper girl.  I drew the outlines for the t-shirt and skirt, the zigzags for the sneakers and the ball, but the rest is their own work.

She started off a basketball player, then a cheerleader and finally a soccer player - hence the weird uniform.

I like to think these Sunday Fun Days are having an impact on my kids. A does seem happier, and we do all have fun.  On the first week, inspired by this post, I also promised I would not look at my phone or laptop one single time, ALL DAY. I admit I didn't do this today as such, but I didn't use my phone much, and next Sunday I'll go back to not using it at all.

How do you spend "quality time" with your kids? 

How do you manage special times in your busy life?