A Bit of a Rant (Part II)

It's been awhile since I have ranted about life's annoyances in England. Well, I just came back from grocery shopping and it's time to rant again!
Let me explain a grocery shopping experience here.
Parking anytime before 9 pm is an issue. Small and limited spaces. I feel like I'm driving a Hummer when I have to park anywhere! If the 5 mother/child spaces aren't open then I have to find a spot that allows me to (1) pull in without scraping the paint off other cars and (2) open my doors and get the car seat out. It's not easy.
Now let's enter the store.
The wheels on the grocery carts (trolleys) are all free moving and each wheel would like to go in a different direction. The cart moves fine as long as I don't put anything in it. Any weight in the cart and I'm doing some funny grocery store dance trying to convince my cart to go in the direction I want. Now let's add in some other shoppers who are trying to drive their trolleys and well, it's annoying! I usually come home from shopping with a back ache.
I'm doing well at finding my way around the store, I shop as quickly as is possible with the crowded aisles and I'm ready to check out.
Here's where things really slow down. There is no such thing as a quick check out. The cashiers are trained to wait until ALL grocery items are unloaded until they begin. I have asked some of them why this is so. I think they have been told it's polite. Well, it's NOT! I tell them I'm quick and I'll keep up so PLEASE BEGIN!
Cart's unloaded, cashier asks me if I would like help bagging. No, I'd like to get home today! She begins to ring up my items...one at a time...very carefully...very thoughtfully...very slowly. I feel like I'm going to scream! But alas, Lizzie does it for me! So, I am throwing things in bags (and sometimes no bags) and throwing them in the cart trying to encourage the process to speed up--it never works. I'm able to nurse Lizzie, eat half our groceries and play Ring Around the Rosies with Hannah while waiting for all things to be rung up.
I'm told my total, I put in my credit card. Do you have a grocery store card? NO! Do you want school vouchers? NO! Please let me go home!
PS I always forget to bring my own shopping bags. I should remember--there are signs everywhere reminding me. Once a cashier repacked my bags so I would use less bags and got a little talk about saving the environment. But I still forget.
We're almost done, we go to the car (it's raining by now) and I see that the cars next to us are parked very close--it's next to impossible not to. The car seat barely squeezes in (sometimes I have to go through the back). I throw the groceries in and see that no one is parked in front of me! Pulling out of a parking space is even worse then pulling in. Little things make me soo happy! I fold my mirrors in so I don't knock off the other mirrors (a common occurrence) and drive out slowly--I have about 3 inches on either side of me.
By the way, there's even more incentive to shop fast--parking in the lot for over 2 hours earns you a $160 ticket.

Land of Castles (and Sheep)

Diwethaf penwythnos ni ymweled Cymru. Dillynaidd!

We took a quick 2-day trip to South Wales and saw lots of castles, sheep and very beautiful scenery.I don't know what was more entertaining in Wales--the beautiful landscape or trying to read the signs (also written in English). The Welsh language (an ancient Celtic gaelic language) looks like a word scramble puzzle and sounds like someone is speaking backwards in a very flowing poetic way.

The Cardiff castle was fun--a small spiral staircase, a dungeon, a big well, small secret doors, and a water-filled ditch surrounding the keep.

I absolutely love these pictures of the sheep looking out over the cliffs into the channel. What a view! And it looks like the sheep are appreciating it.

With over 11 million sheep (in a country of 3 million people) it wasn't hard to see them everywhere.

It didn't take long for the girls to lose interest in the castles and sheep. A person can only look at so many. The conversation in the car went something like this: "Look girls another castle (or more sheep)!" shouted excitedly by mom. Response: Nothing but the crickets chirping--not even a glance up! At a few stops they just stayed in the car reading their books while Jon and I got out.

Their favorite part of the trip? The swimming pool at the hotel.

Blenheim Palace

This is Winston Churchill's birthplace. He was born here by mistake. His parents were visiting family when Winston's mother went into labor early. He was born in a room in the very grand Palace. This 'house' was a gift from Queen Anne to Sir John Churchill for winning a battle. Nice present!

We went here at the beginning of March. Our visit began with less-than-enthusiastic children. But, with over 2000 acres to explore we found enough fun things to make this palace our favorite one so far.

We spent a lot of time in the Adventure Playground. Jon and I were playing checkers (draughts) until Hannah decided we were done and put away all the pieces. (I didn't stop her because I was losing!) Next to the checkers boards were 4 large interactive puzzles (like, get through the maze by only taking left turns). Of course we couldn't leave until I figured all of them out!


Rachel enjoyed the "backyard" with fun statues to climb on. We seemed to have the only children there that very quiet day. They weren't hard to miss!!

Jon, Lizzie and Em looking for a way out of the maze.

The girls did a victory dance when we made it through the maze.

Memory Loss

Yesterday a newspaper had a story about new moms' memory loss. It caught my attention because I am often frustrated by how much I forget when others seem to remember (mainly Jon and Emily retain much more than I do). Thankfully, the article did say we don't get dumber, our brains are just getting a workout like sleep-deprived medical residents. A neuropyschiatrist said, "You are learning a lot. Once your mommy brain gets readjusted, you get more efficient and you become smarter and learn things faster, but it won't happen all at once."
My question is how long do I give my brain to readjust?

What Do Moms Do?

Tonight for Family Home Evening I asked the question: What do Moms do?
Here are some of the great answers that gave me a little glimpse of what my girls think of me:
-stay home and watch the children who don't go to school
-clean the house
-stay up
-brush hair and listen to the kids scream
-read boring books
-marry
-kiss
-hug
-travel
-they have a big job when the husband's not around (Emily prayed tonight that I won't be stressed while Jon's away)
-read the newspaper at hotels
-play games
-move to a different country and a new house
But here is my favorite!
-eat ice cream while watching the telly lying on the couch when the kids are in bed (This one was provided by Emily. I was laughing so hard because she was sooo enthusiastic about it and thought it was funny. I asked her when I did that. "In America, when I was 4 years old. I saw the bowl and spoon with a little bit of melted ice cream in it sitting on the floor in front of the couch!) BUSTED!!!

Happy Mothering Sunday!

Today Britain celebrated Mothering Sunday. We did as well--it was a practice run for the real one in May! The rehearsal went well, with only a few script changes needed. Here are my notes to the director:
I thought the whole "Breakfast in bed" scene was quite funny! A bowl of Fruit 'N Fibre (thanks Rachel) eaten standing up while getting dressed for church was a nice comedic beginning. Set designer--nice job with the beautiful flowers waiting in the kitchen--nice touch with the hand-picked daffodils--very personal, very sentimental--it connects with the audience.
(Note to cast: Could we switch the real production to a Saturday? Getting kids ready for church isn't really working for me.) Nice humorous touch with the mother walking around church with a huge spit up trail going down her shirt! Very funny!
I liked the dinner--simple yet tasty. Could we rewrite the whole dinner script to something a bit more happy, though? Something that says, "I love my family. We are always kind and happy. I eat all my food and never whine." I think that would portray 'We are a happy family' much better than "She took my fork. I don't want to eat it. GIVE ME MY FORK!"
It was all going so well, but I thought it ended much too soon. The father leaving right after lunch for a business trip to Ireland left me wanting much more. The lonely mother having Family Home Evening by herself with her four girls talking about mothers was a bit too real, wasn't it? How about a nice "And they (meaning everyone) lived happily ever after" ending next time closing with a shot of the father putting all the kids to bed while the mother goes off to relax with a big bowl of ice cream reading a book lying on the couch?
Well done, everyone. We'll make a few changes to the script and be ready for the real thing come May.
Break a leg!

Again?

In preparation for Relief Society's birthday celebration, I borrowed some ideas from a website that based the activity around purses (a "purse"onal invitation, a purse game, purse decorations, our life is like a purse full of important/not important things, etc.). After sharing the idea with the Enrichment leader, I made 50 (cute) purse invitations and 2 big purse posters. I was feeling good that the evening had an easy theme to work with and it was going to be fun!
I ended up being in Nursery today, so I gave everything to the Enrichment leader. She hung up the posters and handed out the invitations. Remember what happened last time I made an effort to have something catchy for the meeting? Well, I have done it again. I have continued my theme of "it's not really funny or cute to anyone but me!" After church I found out that they're not called purses!!! They're called handbags!!! So, today I just gave everyone her own personal handbag invitation (that said, "Bring your purse for a game!") that probably confused the heck out of everyone and sounded a bit odd!
What could I possibly do for June's Enrichment meeting to keep the theme going?!?