Today had the potential to be a really rubbish day!
It was rainy and cold . I had spent yesterday in bed with - yet another - Migraine. I woke feeling less than enthusiastic about getting up ;-) I stopped the negativity in it's tracks and focused and things I am thankful for and then with small steps - both literal and metaphorical - started my day.

A very good friend was due to come and have lunch and  I had a mountain of books to move off the dining room table - I know she would not have minded where we ate but it needed doing - we have been decorating and this is the last push to get back to normal - so I set too.

the table didn't actually get cleared in the end because most of the books had been stacked in the other bookcases that were next to the table and I needed to move those first...

Just realised it looks as though we have very few book in the bookcase - the angle of the photo doesn't show the books at the back of each section :-)

I woke Milly at 11 - she was looking forward to seeing Rezwana. She had sat on her swing last night and the wooded seat was wet - she fell off and the swing whacked her in the back of the head! Ouchie... She felt a little tender this morning .... She ate breakfast and watched TV whilst I carried on.

After a while I had most of them sorted and was going to start on lunch when Rezwana called. She had a very sore throat and was happy to come but didn't want to pass anything on :-( Knowing I was not in tip top health and that we are due to go on holiday on Monday we discussed it and decided it would be best to get together when we got back from hols.

We decided to watch a love film that had been hanging around and needed to be watched and sent back. A cartoon Camelot tale. Not a good film - watched 15 mins and then decided to change and watch a DVD we had got from Wordwsworth house ( to help with the fundraising for the garden renovation ) about the Floods - two years ago - in Cockermouth. Saw some faces we knew and saw images of the devastation the raging waters caused.

Then Milly, who doesn't like baking - it's just not her thing you know, as she has always told me :-) - wanted to bake. This is the second time in a couple of days she has asked to bake. She enlisted Alan's help on Saturday to make some chocolate chip muffins for me to have when I got back in from shopping. They turned out a rather strange looking muffin and quite flat! Our scales are quite confusing and they had indeed got very confused and weighed the dry ingredients out wrongly but the wet ingredients were measured out correctly in a jug hence the very heavy and flat muffins. A positive to this experience was that she handled it with humour and was not put off trying again - in fact she was keen to give then a go again that night. The only reason we didn't is she got talking to El and we forgot!

It may not have been *her thing* but right now she is *loving it* - her words :-) - she say she loves the end product and enjoys making things for people :-) Any way today she measured and mixed with confidence and these are the results. Nice surprise for Al...

With chocolate orange butter icing. Mmmmmm.

I had started to put some of Milly's drawings on the wall as I put the dining room back together.

I had put them on coloured backing card. When she came in and saw them she exclaimed "ohhh I have a wall ! " :-))

She ran upstairs, shouting back that she had a fabulous drawing that would be perfect for the wall.

She had done it in bed last night - she came back, tore it from her sketch pad, cut it out and finished colouring it in - whilst talking to El on the phone :-)

I have a way to go in the dining room and have another wall to fill with posters as well as putting all the books and games etc back into the other two bookcases. Will look good when it's finished though - I am liking the pinkness :-)

The wreck this journal I had ordered came today. Milly was very excited and got started on it... 

This morning it took me some time to get going and it didn't turn out as planned but what a fab day it has been non the less :-))