What a week!

Summer holidays are supposed to be calm and fun and warm. At least, that's how I remember them as a kid. They were, you know. For me anyway.

Calm?
I've been engaged in a frenzied attack of cleaning. Boy, did we need it. The first week was Grace's room, the second was Jack's and now, this week, I've assaulted the 'conservatory', which is a lean-to addition to the ground floor of our house, half bike-shed, half laundry room. I'm pretty pleased with myself, but am missing what I THOUGHT I'd be doing this summer, which is lying in the hammock with a good book. Or 6.

Fun?
I'm trying. Honest, guv. I booked those two weekends away with Youth Hostel vouchers we got free from Tesco, our supermarket. It has a loyalty scheme which allows you to convert points spent shopping into other deals. Hence the two free weekends away. We *have* had a nice time. Jack has been going every day this week to a science course, which is basically several days of hands-on experiments leading to a recognised award and he has found this LOTS of fun! Grace has had less fun, she's not been feeling too well and needs cheering up. I hope to work on that with her next week. But we did see Bridge to Terabithia together today, which was a good mother-daughter treat.

Warm?
Ugh, with yet more record-breaking weather, it has not been warm. The most sunless and most rainiest of summers since records began, in the 1700's. Great. Thanks! We *did* pray for an end to the drought, so we can't really complain. {g} Three months of rain following a hot Spring is apparently heralding an early Autumn, I heard on the radio news this morning. Oh Goody! It seems like Summer has been postponed this year for us in Britain. I guess I need to start looking forward to Christmas.

Whiney, whiney, whine, whine.

And now for something completely different!

Two lovely blogging ladies, Debbie and Jen have given me an 'Inspirational award.' I think that means they both like my blog. {g} (I am wondering if there's a Whining Award, as I surely deserve that one!) It's intriguing to think that I inspire anyone, but also extremely flattering and I'm always up for a bit of flattery.

Let's see if I can get all this right! You can read the list of rules for this award at the Writer's Reviews Blog.

I'm supposed to pass this one on but, wouldn't you know it? All the bloggers who inspire me have already been recognised by others, so I'll go for a different one, the

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to present the Courageous Blogger Award to Yvonne at Homeschool in the Little House, because she courageously works hard to homeschool, despite financial hardship, making the best of what God has given her and she is not afraid of using her blog to explore the ways she struggles to do this. In fact, I see genuine struggle and realistic problem-solving going on in this blog with no attempts to say, 'There now, didn't I do well to neatly solve that problem!' Life rarely results in neatly tied up endings. It is encouraging to read a blogger who records the process of confronting difficulty without constantly presenting happy endings to her readers.

I KNOW Yvonne is going to be horribly embarrassed to receive this award, but I've decided to do that to her anyway!{g} I'm pretty sure that there are other readers who would say the same thing about her. Onward and Upward, Yvonne!