's lovely

One of the loveliest things about being Linnea's mother is that she's still young enough that I can tell her over and over again how much I love her and she thinks it's lovely, not embarrassing or weird or crazy. This morning I danced wildly around to Queen (she particularly liked "Another One Bites The Dust" and "We Will Rock You"; her sense of rhythm is excellent) while clearing the two downstairs rooms for hoovering, and she was delighted with my exhuberance. We just grinned like loons on loon tablets at each other until I put the hoover on and she ran away. I agree that "Bohemian Rhapsody" is not improved by hoover noise, but the carpets certainly were.

It's spring! I can tell, because the thought of leftovers as a salad for lunch was pleasant, not a dread and dire duty. And I was able to tell Linnea how much I loved her for trying to cut her ham up to eat it. She's getting really very good at buttering bread.

The bread was made by Rob to a recipe found on the internet and hastily converted from American cups by me. It didn't rise as much as it ought; we shall be making experimental changes to the recipe this evening. With luck, we will soon be making all our own bread in the breadmaker; it's foolish to have it and only use it when we're going to have soup, which is pretty much what we were doing. All the breadmaker recipes I found online called for skim milk powder, which we're not using. We're open to other suggestions, though.

Another thing we need to do this weekend is try to make a chocolate sponge. The last one I made ended up like shoe leather (slightly thicker than shoe leather; shoe-sole leather), so I haven't tried since. That was in 1999. It's a test-run for Linnea's birthday. I ought to see about invitations for that, too. A friend will let us borrow her printer to print them off.

And another thing we need to do is find a home for a printer which is old, but has all its manuals and packaging, and refuses to do paperfeeding at all. I assume someone could fix that, given the inclination and expertise, but we have neither. Printers are Rob's bête noir - and I see from that that I have read far too much Anne of Green Gables lately.

Meme: Lyrics quiz

1) When the strong wind blows, the thunder runs away merryhouse Tikkabilla Weather Song
2) Have a happy day today merryhouse CBeebies birthday song
3) When the tree starts to twinkle mrs_warwick Fimbles song
4) Where it comes from, nobody knows
5) Tell me, what do you think? helenprev Which colour house? Balamory song
6) The wasp, the ant and the bumblebee mrs_warwick The animals went in two by two
7) We'll have some fun tomorrow merryhouse CBeebies bedtime song
8) Be a farmer, and work in the fields all day
9) Blue sky blue
10) We'll explore and have fun