A Game of Cards: Mum's the word

My Mom went home this week, after what felt like a very short 4 weeks with us. It wasn't a particularly exciting trip for her in that we didn't do much, but she did get to experience what a normal month in the Card house feels like! She did school pick ups and drop offs, visits to the park, watched swimming lessons, came along to rugby training and did the weekly shop... like I said, not exciting, but it means that when we talk, she has a much better of what I am on about, and can empathise with the relentless housework, especially the bloody washing!

All her wonderful help made a big difference in my daily chores and her generosity means that she bought us some household stuff that she felt we couldn't live without! We had a lovely trip up to Morpeth to a mammoth garden centre, which was so big that we couldn't get all the way around - despite a valiant 3 and a half hour attempt!

We had a delicious afternoon tea and bought a fair amount, including a beautiful handbag for mom which made me very happy. We were lucky enough to have the whole day away as agood friend of mine offered to have Tom in the morning and pick both boys up from school, just so that mom and I could get away to do something nice, unencumbered by children. Such kindness!

We also had a lovely breakfast one morning, to give us the energy to tackle the weekly shop - how I wish that I could start each weekly shop like that!

We had a family meal out on the Saturday that mom left at a very family friendly Persian restaurant about 2 minutes walk from our house. It is rather odd, with plastic covers over the table cloths and an eclectic mish mash of ornaments, but the food is delicious and amazingly reasonable.

My mom is not up to much walking - not that she isnt always on the go with some busyness or the other, but she doesn't move very far or very fast. Add to this the horrible cold she caught from our germ ridden boys, along with a truly dreadful cough, meant that eating out and wandering around the shops were our main activities (besides houswork!), and so we also had a lovely trip into Newcastle.

One of the highlights in November in Whitley Bay is our firework display and so we all wrapped up warm and headed down to the the links to go and have a look at this year's offering. In addition to the fireworks the Shimmer Festival was also on, in which various light shows were displayed, including the stunning use of Spanish City as a canvas and also the North Tyneside Youth Circus putting on a fire display...