Sunday

Today has been strangely quiet at my house. My best friend took my youngest son Brandon to the seaside for the day to give me and my eldest 2 a little break. Because of Brandons autism combined with his age (4) he is extremely hard work often argueing with his brothers and generaly just being very demanding on all of us so it was lovely to have a nice peacefull day. Here is a lovely picture of Brandon on the beach on his day out with aunty Karen.

Bradley has been asking if his friend J could come round and play for a few days now and by a strange coincidence J called Bradley this morning asking if he could come and play for the day. J is a lovely young man who Bradley has been friends with for many years. J is only 13 but incredibly tall for his age below are 2 pictures of Ben stood next to J you will see in the second picture Ben actualy has to look up at J to speak to him which I thought was very cute and just had to get a picture of. J's face has been blotted out to protect his identity.

As it was so peacefull I decided to get a little baking done I made 3 different types of cup cake, a ham and egg pie, a loaf of bread, and some lemon tarts. Unfourtunately I only managed to get a picture of one set of cup cakes as I got so into my baking I forgot to take pictures of the rest ooopppsss lol.

Ben had great fun licking the bowl when I had finished with it lol.

I am always looking for ways to cut my electricity bill we are a completely electric household no gas at all. During the warmer months we spend around £20 a week on electric and during the colder months around £40 a week (this used to be £70 a week untill I looked at ways of saving electric on heating bills such as extra layer of clothes, extra insulation, draught excluders etc etc) When I went into town on thursday I found a lovely pair of wind lanterns at a cost of just £2.50 each I decided to buy them and use them in the evenings instead of electric lighting. I had a big bag of 100 tea light candles at home which will keep me going for a while and I can get a set of 20 tea lights from the cheap shop for just £1. As soon as the boys go to bed of an evening all the lights go off and I use candle light only. The boys go to bed around 8pm and I am usualy up till around 1am I use one tea light candle in each lantern which lasts the whole night. So working out the figures it will cost me 10p to light the house for 5 hours awsome and I have to say how relaxing to curl up with a good book or do the washing up by candle light.

With easter fast approaching Ben and I have been discussing how our faith effects us in our daily lives I dont know if I have mentioned it before but we are a christian family and we take our faith seriously. Ben also attends a christian school and on thursday Ben will be playing the part of caiaphas in the school's easter play. I am extremely proud of the way my son follows his faith he seems to have a natural pull towards the christian faith even expressing a desire in becoming a vicar. Ben is also very intrested in writting. At the age of 5 he was a published poet and is extremely advanced for his age. We have even been told by several different teachers that he could quiet easily get a fully paid scholarship at private school. However Ben is happy where he is and I have never been the sort of parent to force my wants upon my children so he will be staying at his current school untill he becomes a senior. We will then look at this option again. All this said Ben has been working on his own version of the easter story and I have promised him that if I feel it is upto scratch I will publish it on my blog so keep your eyes peeled and I would love to hear your comments on his writting skills.

Anyway I am now going to watch the danceing on ice final and go to bed ready to face another day.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx