Currently 05/04/2015

This week lots has been going on! I was back at work after nine months of maternity leave - just two days - which was great. Very nice to see friends again and get back into the swing of some non-mummy things! We've also had my lovely friend Rachelle staying which has meant lots of chatting, cooking and long walks. Amazing.

Time and place 8pm on Easter Sunday evening.

Reading Coot Club by Arthur Ransome. I'm finally back on a roll with my big Swallows and Amazons read and I'm excited to finally post about Peter Duck and Winter Holiday this week! I'm loving all the adventures and kids learning to do stuff for themselves. It's brilliant. I'm also still (slowly) reading A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and still enjoying it, but the boats and adventuring are taking precedence at the moment. I've finally admitted defeat with War and Peace as I'm just too far behind to catch up now and the library want their copy back anyway. I do also own a copy and I do intend to carry on and finish it once my enthusiasm for it comes back from wherever it's gone. Massive thanks to Hanna for the readalong though as I now realise that I really enjoy it so I probably will actually finish it one day!

Watching The series of Terry Pratchett's Truckers which was made the year I was born. I need to finish it up as we got a bit distracted chatting while it was on. Also rewatching the first series of My Mad Fat Diary while we wait for the second series to arrive from eBay. I'd actually forgotten how amazing it is, but I've now got Rachelle into that and Rainbow Rowell so I'd count that as winning!

Listening Still so much Muppets. All the Muppets. And managed to catch a bit of Elaine Page on Sunday, our favourite Radio 2 show - 2 hours dedicated to showtunes. Hooray!

Blogging I'm hosting my first ever readathon in May! It's a week completely dedicated to re-reading old favourites and books you've not read for way too long. I'm calling it the Re-Readathon (because I'm imaginative) and I'm hoping to have a twitter chat and possibly some kind of challenge/giveaway although I'm not going to do too much as it's the week before Bout of Books which I also fully anticipate taking part in. If you have anything you'd like to re-read please join us by signing up here. I also posted a review of Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad and a discussion post about pre-ordering books. 

Also the first post in our Meet the Ninjas series came out over on the Ninja Book Swap blog yesterday, featuring yours truly! There will be lots of other swappers in weeks to come so do go have a read whether or not you've heard of the swap before!

Finally, I added a new page to the blog. It's called 'Books for Beanstalk' and contains all the books I currently have for sale as part of my fundraising efforts! I'll be updating the page as I have more books to add and am eagerly trying to finish my TBR tin so that I can get started! I also plan on doing a car boot sale with whatever I have left plus some other stuff at the end of the summer with all funds going to the charity. Head over there and have a browse through what I have. All money raised will go towards helping kids to read.

Recommending My Mad Fat Diary to everyone who stands still for long enough. Did I mention how excited I am that there's going to be a third series? So excited. Also Chocolate Tea. Love it this week!

Loving #yearofmaking and One Little Word for making me more creative and more mindful of how much stuff I have and making the most of things. The prompt for this month for One Little Word is all about the photography and I'm really enjoying it. I used to do lots of photo taking as a teenager but haven't really in recent years and I do love taking photos of the boys and seeing how much they've grown! Also Easter. For the first time ever I haven't got a ridiculous amount of chocolate and I actually really like having less. I feel less like I have to eat it all in one go and feel sick, it's nice.

Making So this week has been all about the making! I've made Vegan Shepherd's Pie from this recipe and it was so good! I also made a chocolate loaf cake which failed as a cake due to our oven taken ages longer than it was meant to to cook it, but did spectacularly well as chocolate pudding, chocolate brownies, carrot,sultana and cashew cookies, and tea loaf. And I started knitting a blanket, because my knitting needles had been idle for too long. It's the Community Afghan from this pattern, and I'm doing it all in blues and purples. It's pretty so far, and I've knitted six squares so only ninety to go before I'm done...

Anticipating the 24 hour Readathon coming up! I won't be able to take part in all of it due to having to look after small people but decided to do it anyway because I know I'll be sad and feel left out if I don't! Also hugely looking forward to my Re-Readathon and to Bout of Books! Offline, I'm excited about having my sister and her boyfriend and my other sister and brother-in-law coming to stay with us this week. My sister and brother-in-law haven't seen the house yet, so I'm looking forward to showing them around! Also nervously anticipating my second (techincally third but the first was over five years ago so obviously doesn't count) attempt at my driving test on Friday. We shall see.


Aaaaaand while writing that post I ate my entire Easter egg. And now I feel sick.

Happy Easter everyone! What are you reading?