The Weekend

I had a date Friday night.  I made date food. Two sirloin steaks seasoned with crushed black pepper and herb de Provence, sauteed in butter and then deglazed with a red wine reduction. Along side were fritte. I don't remember if I made veggies. It was a mans meal. We drank a bottle of wine and watched the Queen with Helen Mirren. I loved the story. What a strong woman. What a role model, but also how sad her life must have been. I doubt she ever felt that life was perfect.

Saturday I was awakened at 6:30 am by Zelda whispering in my ear Can I watch? I believe I must have nodded yes as she bolted downstairs to turn the TV on to watch CBEEBIES. Again a whisper in my ear can you help me? With what?????? Ok I guess it doesn't really matter what she needed help with, it was 6:45 and I was down there putting on the television, making her toast and warm milk and settling her in on the couch. Nice mommy. Nice mommy. ( a sometimes mantra).

Back upstairs and in bed, the sun was shining into the room, I got back out of bed and put on the coffee maid. We were not disturbed at all so we got to spend some time relaxing in bed and talking and reading. The stuff real people are made of.

9am and I got up to shower. I needed to do the food shopping.  My husband was getting up also, but Zelda stayed in her night gown until it was almost time to go to the party.

2:30 and we were getting into the car. Zelda was dressed up as a Flamenco dancer with pink gloves and jewels to match. She also had a hobby horse. I guess she wanted to "ride into town" when she entered the leisure center where the party was taking place. We convinced her to leave it in the car and make an entrance solo.

All the usual suspects were there. The kids played on the bouncy castle while the adults sat around or stood and talked. I got the chance to speak more with several American women I had met previously at a party. It was a nice social event and the party was lovely.

Zelda fell asleep easily and so did we.

Sunday was glorious. It was the perfect Spring day. We woke up and put the clocks forward. We ate breakfast and we all got dressed. It was sunny and blue and warm. The shadows were long and so was the day. Before breakfast I cooked a gorgeous chicken casserole based on one I had recently eaten at my sister in laws. I Italiancized it by adding pancetta and Italian spices. At 11:30 we walked to Crook Hall, only to find it was still closed, so we turned around and went up to the botanical gardens. We spent the entire day there wandering around the forests, plants and gorgeous daffodils. We played hide and seek and Zelda got lost, but we found her. She did not think she was lost, only looking for the person hiding!

5pm rolled around and we walked back home. It took 45 minutes and Zelda was fantastic. All day on our feet and she never complained. She loves walking. She takes after her mother!

I was dreading bed time because of setting the clocks back. Once home we plopped in front of the TV and watched Nanny Mcfee. We ate the chicken and then it was off to bed. We all fell asleep by 9pm! They say fresh air makes children tired, well it also makes adults tired too.

It was an absolutely perfect weekend and I am still feeling energized by it!