Day 2, Tuesday... in Mayo!: Cycling the Greenway

We woke up for our first proper day of holiday and off we toddled to the nearby town of Newport to collect our snazzy electric bikes.

My trusty steed for the day

Electric bike + trailer= plain sailing

We had been really excited about this part of our holiday because it involved us, bikes, fresh air, nice scenery and exercise, but as Roo would say, not too much. Lee and I aren't as fit as we'd like to be, so when we heard that we could cycle about with the lads in tow with the help of an electric motor, we thought yippee! Roo wasn't too sure though- he didn't like the sound of the trailers that he and de bruvvers were going to be travelling in.

Nonetheless, we met Paul from Electric Escapes at Clew Bay Cycles and collected our bikes. And so began the pirate connections: my bike was called Grace, as in Grace O'Malley, the famous female pirate of Mayo, appropriate, as we had chosen the Pirate Queen tour. Roo settled quickly into his trailer with the Scroonk next to him, while initially Poonch was a bit nervous on his ownio behind me.

And we were off! The weather was very clement: warm and dry, with a gentle breeze to prevent us getting too hot from our exertions. And the scenery was, well take a look at this....

Mostly very peaceful and relaxing: no cars speeding by to scare the bejayny out of us. We weren't completely alone of course:

Moo!

Baa!

And we did meet some people too. A broad mix of young families, retired couples and young, fit types who seemed to me to be regular users of the cycleway. All sharing a friendly 'hello'. What a very civilised and cheery way to spend the day! And what a fantastic amenity to have in the area: a safe, superbly-maintained track to walk or cycle along. Not just for tourists, but local residents too. Aaaahh, if only there were more trails like this around the country. My Dad would have loved it.

Whizzzzzzzzzzzz!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

It wasn't all plain sailing for me though. As the initial euphoria/novelty wore off, I realised I should have asked someone to adjust my saddle before we started as my botty wasn't feeling too happy towards the end. Overall though, we did really well, considering the last time we biked regularly was over 10 years ago in college.

And the lads had a great time: the first thing Roo said the following morning was, 'Are we going cycling again today?' So there you go, highly recommended.

Holiday revisited: Day 1 Mulranny Monday

We started the long drive up to Mayo after collecting Roo from his first day at 'big' school: he got on ok and we met some very nice parents and teachers too. We had our customary pitstop in Clarenbridge at the Provident Market Kitchen cafe, which is always tasty.

We took a slight diversion in Galway at Little Dreamers, a lovely shop for children's stuff, to pick up a new addition to the family (pictured). After that the road became narrow and the countryside boggy as we started on the last leg of the journey. Driving through the pretty town of Westport, we decided we would have to return later in the week for a browse. As we got closer to Mulranny, we noticed bits of newly refurbished cycleway running closeby the road and guessed it must be the Great Western Greenway. It looked very well made and we couldn't wait for the chance to cycle it the next day.

Eventually, we reached our home for the next few nights: Mulranny Park Hotel. This old railway hotel was built long before the Celtic Tiger's glut of ghost hotels. Our room was surprisingly spacious (as we opened the door, we all gasped at its size) with gracious sash windows and high ceilings. Some of the views from the hotel were like landscape paintings and the window tables in the restaurant were much sought after. Well, more popular than the ones near our motley little crew anyway!

Well, I was going to post some more pictures from our recent trip, but my phone suddenly broke down today (possibly caused by a grouchy Scroonk) so it will have to wait until I can get it repaired (I hope)...

We were in Mayo for a few days and it was lovely. The weather was very friendly to us so we got loads of fresh air and the lads (and us) were happily exhausted at the end of each day from cycling, swimming, pedalo-ing, fluming and bouncy castl-ing. More info to follow.

Lee's time-off continues so today we found ourselves in Limerick at the Milk Market. Then my broken phone caused us to stumble across the pop-up Etsy shop on Catherine Street on its last day. Poonch fell asleep so I had a lovely browse through handmade cards, crochet, jewellery and the like before settling on some cute felt brooches from Bettyoctopus and earrings from Silver Soul Design.

We love shopping at the market and getting to know the people who make the things we like. Vi's Sunflower Bakery is one of our favourites: when I eat her creations I always wish I could bake like her. Maybe she does classes....

We've been away for the last few days. Yesterday we visited the town where something extraordinary happened outside this unassuming little church...

Some messy fun outside

So cool! Pope speaks to astronauts

In from the sun for a while. Roo was very interested in this video, what with the spaceman floating up and making the Holy Father laugh! Thank you to Mary for posting the clip on her blog first.

Watered the plants before the sun got too hot. Great weather for potty training by the way.

Warm sunshine here already this morning. Love that early morning smell. Mr Caterpillar is still asleep in the shade of the playhouse.

Meanwhile in other news

...before the rain came.

Poonch is moving away from constantly building flat blocks of Lego (nice and portable) to more imaginative structures like this 'tower' or 'boats'. Roo meanwhile, 2 and a half years his senior, surprises us with train stations, Roman soldiers' forts and the like, all worthy of Kevin McCloud's approval.

Ascension Novena

Ascension Novena: join in?

I have an urge to do an auld Novena at the mo, so looking up nine days from now is, I think, Ascension Sunday. So Google 'n' me came up with this from the EWTN site.

Ascension Novena

Jesus, I honour You on the feast of Your Ascension into heaven. I rejoice with all my heart at the glory into which You entered to reign as King of heaven and earth. When the struggle of this life is over, give me the grace to share Your joy and triumph in heaven for all eternity.

I believe that You entered into Your glorious Kingdom to prepare a place for me, for You promised to come again to take me to Yourself. Grant that I may seek only the joys of Your friendship and love, so that I may deserve to be united with You in heaven.

In the hour of my own homecoming, when I appear before Your Father to give an account of my life on earth, have mercy on me.

Jesus, in Your love for me You have brought me from evil to good and from misery to happiness. Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness. May Your Humanity give me courage in my weakness and free me from my sins.

Through Your grace, give me the courage of perseverance for You have called and justified me by faith. May I hold fast to the life You have given me and come to the eternal gifts You promised.

You love me, dear Jesus. Help me to love You in return. I ask You to grant this special favor:

(Mention your request).

By Your unceasing care, guide my steps toward the life of glory You have prepared for those who love You. Make me grow in holiness and thank You by a life of faithful service.

No car, no problem

The car was still in for repairs today, so I was at home with the lads all day. No school, no racing about.
In answer to 'what will we do noooow, Mummy?' amongst other things, we read books, tidied Our Lady's altar, made a birthday invitation (only 4 months to go), fell about laughing at different ways to pronounce 'party', baked and decorated fairy cakes (while the little Toot obligingly slept) and ran about barefoot cos of 'sticky feet' (no, I don't know what they meant either).

Meanwhile, Lee rushed around for work, trying to avoid falling asleep at the wheel whilst doing a damn fine job for people, some of whom have no intention of ever paying him.

Can never have too many pictures of this.

Reinforcements arrived via EBay in the last few days. We love Playmobil! Thinking of getting Poonch some Egyptians so at least the arguments would be historical.

Roo agrees we should buy some 'eejits'.

The Fall of Rome

Halfway through repairing the Roman soldier (centurion? not sure of his rank) that Mum and Uncle Bee brought back from their trip to JPII's beatification. Roo was delighted with it because he has been fascinated with Roman soldiers since Easter and their part in the Crucifixion/ Resurrection. He also, bizarrely, predicted that Granny might bring back such a thing, even though she is unaware of his current interest. *Cue Twilight Zone music*
Anyway, off he went straight away to build a very impressive barracks (garrison? Must do some Roman empire homework) out of Lego. Happy out... and off to bed.
The FIRST thing he said when he woke this morning was, 'where's my Roman soldier?' eek! UNFORTUNATELY, during the night, one of his barbarian brothers, the youngest, suffering from teething, pushed Toyus Maximus off the table. As you can see, he didn't survive the fall. In hindsight, as good as he looked, he was never going to survive the rough and tumble in this house.

He is Risen!

Alleluia!

Soldiers guarding the tomb...

Roo and I have been busy making and doing the last few days. Today we put our make-and-do Jesus on the cross and at 3 o'clock took him down and placed him in the tomb. Then we put our two Roman soldiers on-guard outside and there they stand, in front of the great big rock at the entrance to the cave. (What would we do without toilet roll-inserts?) Roo is very interested in the story and it's great that he is learning the real reason for Easter.

Thank you to Lacy from the amazing Catholic Icing for the inspiration to get the lads involved in such a brilliant way.

Peace n quiet

Ah the joy of being able to play with your 'big boy Lego' and not risk having it nicked or swallowed by those little brothers.

The playschool holidays are upon us so Toot and Poonch are having decent horizontal snoozes rather than cat-napping in the car. And I am having nose-blowing competitions with Roo.

Daisy chain

Poonch and Lee gave me a lovely necklace today. They made it all by themselves from the sweetest little flowers.

Here it is at the end of a lovely sunny day where we went nowhere but Mass and the local shop (on a fruitless search for a barbecue). Soon after the photo was taken, much to Poonchy's dismay, it broke (well the little stems had withered a fair bit by then). And its ethereal beauty is in its fragility, perhaps.

Thank you, Honey Bears!

xxxxx

Little foal

For the day that's in it...

I love the images they put up on Bing everyday, but today's really made me want to share it with you. Roo loves looking through the pictures they put up too. If you click on the little © character, it tells you a little about the photo.

We could certainly do with a bit of a laugh in this country after yesterday's news. Unfortunately the story of the bail-out wasn't an early April Fool's joke.

Little pea shoots

Sturdy chaps these. So far they have withstood frost, attempted drowning and repeated toddler foot pressure. Wish them luck!

(They are the Kelvedon Wonder variety, for the record.)

Did you meet an angel today?

Anne has removed the comments box from her blog so I can't thank her for her lovely post on today's feast of the Annunciation.

Once again, her beautiful writing has struck a chord in me. I especially liked reading about the 2 year old 'angel' she met. Can't say I've experienced such a revelation myself, but I will keep it in mind the next time I'm trying to cope with a toddler meltdown!

You can catch up with Anne and her gentle wisdom here.

how to get children to eat their crusts...

Bread-making is definitely not one of my strengths, contrary to what Roo said to the little Toot this morning, ('Did you know Mummy is very good at making bread?'). The thing is any previous attempts always ended up like particularly inedible doormats, until I saw the marvellous Nigel Slater make his Lazy Loaf on telly. It's like Soda Bread, only easier to make. In about 30 minutes you can feel pleasingly self-sufficient by producing your very own bread or helping your children make it. Not only is it not inedible, but my little children really actually like it and hence Roo's confident statement. They even eat the crusts, something they avoid at all costs on any other bread. Follow the link if you too wish to see your children perform this amazing feat.

Unfortunately, and not wishing to put you off your loaf, but their eyes, on the other hand, are very crusty. All three of them have now had conjunctivitis over the last few days, which makes the poor lads look, on waking, like little zombies or Egyptian mummies. Roo is much improved, but not enough to return to playschool yet.

St Joseph's Day

We have a soft spot for St Joseph in this house and one of the lads is named after him. I had hoped to go to Mass this morning. Me and the lads were all ready and in the car, but I couldn't go through with it as the two older boys looked so sick with the little alien eyes they've developed in the last day or two.
Not going made me think what I could do in honour of the faithful servant that God chose to watch over His son on earth. If I get a chance, I will make a little cake to celebrate his feast and then I will properly fast for the rest of Lent. I haven't really given up anything this year, partly due to the breastfeeding and partly cos I meant to consciously Be a Nicer Person instead, but I didn't do that either. Just now, Fr Groeschel on EWTN has inspired me to once again make a little sacrifice for what remains of Lent. So here goes...

Lá Féile Pádraig!

Happy St Patrick's Day from the purveyors of green, white and gold jelly.

New beginnings?

The votes have been cast. Please God, look after our country and its new leaders. Some of them have promised to look after the most vulnerable members of society. May your Holy Spirit enter their hearts so that they truly fulfil that ideal and ensure that everyone be protected and cherished from womb to tomb.

Gratuitous picture of pegs and washing

Yes, those are pegs on the line- the first of 2011- with the little Toot's bibs flapping cheerfully in the breeze.

They make me smile. Because they give us hope that Spring might actually be on the way. Because it means one less airer full of limp clothes and loosens my guilty attachment to the tumble dryer that I never foresaw pre-sprogs. (When we moved in, I looked at it and thought, 'well the landlord might as well take that thing away'. Ha!) And because it means the little Toot is having a snooze and I'm out in the fresh air with Poonch who could do with a lungful of something fresh as his tum is upset today.

Can you help? (Warning: political issues involved)

Ireland is currently in the middle of an election campaign. The main focus is on how the next government will affect the economic future of this country, but there is another more important issue which isn't receiving any attention.

Since the European Court of "Human Rights"' ruling in December, some are saying the Government will have to legislate on the issue of abortion. This ruling ignored both the fact that Ireland is the one of the safest places in the world to have a baby and that surely unborn children have human rights too.

Anyway, if you are still reading this, could I ask you to do one of these things? If you can vote, don't vote Labour as they want to introduce abortion here. Second, make sure your local candidates are pro-life before you give them your preference. If you can't vote, then please pray for those who can. And if you'd like to help the prolife campaign in Ireland further, you can contact them here.

We luv IKEA!

My Hero

On our way up the M7 and just wanted to post about how proud I am of Roo. He worked very hard with his speech therapist and concentrated really well during a tough assessment today.
He certainly impressed me with his explanations and reasoning skills, and I'm not just saying that cos I'm his Mum. Well done, little man!

Have sand, will play

...even if it's pouring rain from the heavens. Thank God for those great rainsuits.

Take a seat

Hello. Quite an unusual feeling I'm having at the moment. Sitting down, waiting, with none of my boys to keep me occupied, and finding I have nothing to do.
Maybe a good time to pray. Yes, that's an idea. I will pray the ultrasound of my throat goes well.

Bye bye Jesse tree

Time to take down our last vestiges of Christmas- the Jesse tree and its teeny ornaments. Roo and I learnt more about the Old Testament last Advent as we made little bits to hang on it. An apple for Adam and Eve, a rainbow for Noah, a star for Abraham, Jacob's ladder. I had planned more, such as Joseph's colourful coat but Roo's younger brothers aren't really conducive to homeschooling so we didn't get as much done as i'd hoped. But it's definitely something I'll do again. Another 'tradition' we began was filling baby Jesus' bed with hay with each kind act during Advent. Then on Christmas Day, one of Roo's spacemen appeared, wrapped in swaddling clothes, playing the part of an leanbh Iosa sleeping on the hay.

Muddy puddy!

That's what Poonch called this little oasis of joy that he and Roo revelled in on our walk this afternoon. His vocabulary has expanded in the last few weeks and he chats away, coming out with sometimes startling sentences. He has his own little poonchy take on words, pointing out 'butty...flies', 'piders', 'catty...pillars' and 'bahdies', wishing people 'happy cwisbas' or 'happy to you' when it's their birthday.

Signs of Spring

Some lovely flowers appeared today, carried by my super hubby. They were tied with a green ribbon and put me in mind of Spring as the bright sun came in the window.
As I write this, the little Toot is stirring from a long snooze and his two older brothers are asleep- an extraordinary event in this house! I'm trying to get our littlest boy into more of a routine but it's difficult during the week with Roo commuting back and forth to playschool.

Hello!

It's little me! On the swing.

Bye bye piddies!

Those were the words of Poonch as we visited the piggies for the last time today. Of course we hadn't told the lads that our porcine friends were going to the factory, but you'd swear they knew anyway, as Poonchie repeated the words during the day.

It is quite sad to think of the fate that awaits them, but they have had a much happier life than most of the domestic pigs of this world, and we do eat p-o-r-k and b-a-c-o-n (whisper). I was very glad once again, that the little pink fellas hadn't been growing in our back garden though. That is one lesson that our boys are a bit too young to learn just yet and how would we have explained their sudden disappearance?

Angels at work...

We have been experiencing a bit of a thaw here, so this morning Lee and Roo set off confidently for school with no worries: no sign of frost anywhere. Then I heard on the radio that the roads were deceptively icy. So I texted and rang Lee to let him know.

When I spoke to him about an hour after they'd left, he agreed that yes, the roads were very dangerous....

...and that Roo had warned him to be careful as they drove off. 'But Roo,' Lee said, 'the roads are ok today.' 'My angel told me the roads are slipp-edy,' replied the little fella.

A little visitor

This little chap is staying with us for a short while. He doesn't say much but obviously shops in the same places cos that hat and scarf look very familiar.

Feast of St Nicholas

Here are some Santa cupcakes we made today, as decorated by Roo.
December 6th has brought us mixed tidings over the years. This year was fairly uneventful, the highlight being these cheery little cakes. My phone camera isn't great, but if you look closely, you'll see Santy has a marshmallow beard.

Toy show, toy show!

Here is the Poonch watching the afore-mentioned Toy Show on RTE player. It is a week since the original broadcast, but he keeps asking to watch it again. This from a bookle who doesn't go in much for telly. So thanks to the wonders of the internet, here he is watching it yet again, from behind the safety gate, there to protect my beloved computer from his destructive streak!

Meanwhile, one of the more pleasant things about this cold spell is that Lee has collected Roo from playschool a few times to avoid my having to drag his two little brothers out of the warmth onto dangerously slippery roads.
This means that Poonch gets a proper bed-snooze, which he still really needs, rather than an unsatisfactorily short car-nap.

The reason I am able to write this post is that he is asleep and I am pinned to the sofa under another slumbering babe and his big brudda, back from practising the Christmas play and very sad to see that the snow has disappeared. Unfortunately for him, we have escaped the heavy snow that has blanketed much of the rest of the country. I, on the other hand, am thanking God for the reprieve. How very boring we become as adults. I was just remembering the excitement I felt one year in college when, close to our Christmas exams, there was a flurry of snow. Of course, back then I only had myself to worry about. Nowadays, with three little people and a hubby who depends on his car for all of his work, snow brings many other concerns. But I think on balance, I have a MUCH better deal now! God is good. :)

Peppa pig and the Jesse tree

While Poonch slept off last night's disturbance, Roo and I squeezed in some RE. As we were reading about Noah and the flood, we decided to make a little rainbow as today's symbol for the Jesse tree Poonch and I found on our walk yesterday.
When Poonch woke up, we watched an episode of Peppa Pig I'd Sky plussed while Roo was at nursery. As I tried to settle the littlest Toot, what should appear in the background but a rainbow, courtesy of Peppa and her family! The lads are quite fond of Peppa at the moment. (I think even our Daddy Pig has a soft spot for her since we got the DVD for watching at the Wowee house.)