Me on the Monday after my sister's birthday

On Monday's Sian invites us to share a picture of what we are doing.  This Monday I'm trying to undo a little bit of the damage of the weekend.  It was a weekend of food and drink. An Indian takeaway with four other friends on Friday night, then to our local pub for Sunday lunch with all my family to celebrate my sister's birthday, then back to ours for cake.

This means that my healthy eating regime is well and truly gone to pot. Although if you have to be naughty, having a slice of Lorraine Pascal's recipe for Malteser cake is the best way to fall off the wagon!

Which is why Monday finds me having this for lunch

Trying to start the week afresh.  Good intentions, funny how often they start on a Monday and then um ... finish Monday night!

'Twas a good weekend though, the sun shone beautifully yesterday afternoon which meant that when everyone came back to our house for birthday cake, we could sit in the garden and relax nicely.  The children all played nicely and I didn't hear any tears or tantrums.  Not even from the adults!  The nieces played beautifully with my mum's old fashioned telephone and set up a school office on the landing.  Paper, pencils, a hole punch and a lined pad saw them engrossed for ages.  The nephews ran off their energy with a rugby ball and Coco kept the troops entertained by her version of fetch.  Which involves a human throwing a tennis ball, Coco haring off round the garden at 90mph running rings round the ball then returning to the human with a quizzical look as if to say 'what happened to that ball?'.

It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday and due to the vast amount of housework that was done in preparation for guests, I have an exceptionally clean and tidy house to start the week in!  Happy days!