Here are the hits of the week from ’round these parts:

1. My new YouTube channel. You may have heard that Edenland has started a lip sync competition in honour of her little brother, so I did one, then another, and now I think I’m getting a bit addicted. Lookout internet world, I know* the words to lots of songs….

2. Liam, for organising a “Golden Garage Sale”. The kids have cleaned out their cupboards and collected some other bits and pieces to have a garage sale this weekend. The money is going to World Vision, and the items won’t be priced, we will just hope people are generous with their gold. I’m proud of them for giving up their stuff and their time to raise some money for other kids.

3. Coco for performing a solo violin piece this week. It was reputedly “Mary had a little lamb”. Regardless of how much my ears were bleeding, I was proud of her for being able to get up in front of an audience to play. No chance I could have done that at seven. Or now.

4. Nurse Jackie. As usual, I’m probably late to the party regarding this tv stuff, but I saw my first episode this week. I’m not sure what it’s all about, but it wasn’t reality television, and it wasn’t a crime show. It was gritty and grotty and I hope I can find it again to see what it’s all about.

5. Painting the house. How good is it? My office was looking a bit tired, so we painted it last weekend, and then I accidentally kept on going, to some other walls, then some balustrades and some skirtings. It’s bloody marvellous- much better than cleaning.

How was your week? Any hits?

Have you done a song for Eden yet?

*Possibly not the correct words.

…From The Ashers

Things our kids argued about in the car today, before my first coffee:

• Whether or not google is actually a number.  (It kind of is, but it is spelt googol)
• Who knows the most.  (Me: About what? Them: Everything.   Okaaaay then.)
• Who is better at violin.  (Hard to say, they are both shit and sound like tortured cats)
• Who is better at Minecraft.   (Depends how you define better of course.  So they devised a competition, of which I will judge, where they will each craft a thing- say a castle- in a set time-frame.  I already know how this will end.)
• Whether or not Liam brushed his teeth properly.
• What exactly Coco meant when she said they do “skill building” first up on Monday mornings.  (By now I was shouting: You know what skills are, you know what building means, so “skill building” is both of those things put together.)
• Whether or not Loom Bands are better than Pokemon Cards.  (They are both shit and I’m close to banning both.)
• Whether or not One Direction used to be Coco’s favourite band.  (They were, briefly, in 2012.)
• Why Coco should refer to other kids called Liam by their first and last name.  (Apparently our Liam gets confused.  For example:  Coco: Mum can I go to Liam’s party?  Liam: What party?  I’m not having a party.  My birthday is in September.   I shit you not, this was an actual conversation.)
• Who the cat likes more.  (No-one.  She’s a cat.)
• Whether or not Coco meant to hit Liam with an ugg boot when she hit it with her tennis racquet.  (I don’t think so.  It’s unlikely at this skill level that she would have dared even think of connecting.  However I think she was overjoyed with the result.  Which, of course became the problem.)
• Who is better at the six times tables.  (Who cares, I still rule, so suck on that, under 10s.)

Somewhere around about here I told them both to shut-up.  I may have mentioned that they were both hopeless at everything, and that I was better, and would always be better, and they should both stop talking to each other immediately and look out their own windows, or else there would be no ‘devices’ for the whole week, including the weekend, if I heard just one more peep.

We drove along in blissful silence for at least thirty-seven seconds, as I hummed along to some young-person’s song on the youth network.  Some young person with no kids or mortgage, who was probably at this moment stressing over mid-year exams, or whether the beer-can wall would get completed before the next house inspection, or planning a snow-boarding trip to Perisher.  Mmmmm, yes, Perisher, with schnapps and sore bums from falling onto the the icy-snow and sore knees from, well, nocturnal activities…

A tiny voice from the back, broke my reverie.  “Mummy, Liam just looked out my window.”

Do your kids argue about bullshit?  Do they have their “own” window?  (And why did I say that?  Because now, there are “own windows, of course)

…From The Ashers xxx

Unit Two has just started violin lessons.  Yes I know: NERD ALERT.

So you can imagine our wonder and relief when My Friend John posted THIS on the Book of Faces yesterday.  Okay, so they aren’t violins, but they’re close enough.  Our ragbags were freaking out… Unit One was stamping and air drumming.  Unit Two was air-violining.  (Yes, unfortunately in our house, this is now a thing.)

Why doncha fire up your Apple TV, turn up the surround sound and watch these two crazy crowies rock out.  If you have time, and are feeling all romantic, watch With Or Without You.

I wonder if those dudes got laid afterwards…?

Here endeth the blog. (Sorry it’s a short one, but I have to go and watch the bi-atches on MKR)

Are you watching MKR? (I swear, this is my last night)