Wednesday at home

Well it is Wednesday which means I am at home with the kids. This post started as an experiment to try uploading photos to my blog directly from Picasa. So far so good I think, although a photo too many (I forgot to clear my tray). The first picture is of a really gorgeous little sculpture I bought last summer and I have just contacted the artist, emailing this photo, to ask if she has any more. I didn't mean to post it. But now I have I will add that I get enormous pleasure from just looking at it. Its form is very simple, its colour perfect, its texture smooth. My favourite object.
The next photo is of a bean stewy thing I cooked up last night and which was looking boring; beans, peppers, courgettes, garlic, tomato paste, when I had the inspiration to stir in some black olives and some tapenade I had. Result: yummy!!! I will definitely do this again.
I will also try to take better photos although I was in a hurry for the first and didn't have good light for the second.
I have started cutting out my patchwork peices for my pot holder (which is really a hot saucepan lid holder for when I'm cooking and stirring and tasting to make sure I am not burning too which has often been the case). I read everywhere that when machine patchworking - my intention but we'll see - it is very important to cut carefully. So am pulling threads to get a straight long strip and then cutting my squares carefully. I am cutting more squares than I will need for one so that I can make a few (gifts) and/or experiment with the design. Enjoying it so far. Worried about the strain on my eyes though.
Right end of post. When S has woken up and fed, we are all going out to play hopscotch. D was showing me her hops and skips yesterday (she says she can only do them at the same time) so I thought we had better put some of them to good use. I myself haven't hopped for yonks so we'll see how I get on. D was the Jellybaby queen this morning - you cannot beat a four-year old's imagination. The hard part is to slow down and pay attention to their ramblings.