crafty runners, early birthdays and warm kitchens

After such a high from running 8 miles on Thursday I was really surprised that I wasn't really stiff on Friday morning.  Didn't really feel like I had done my longest run ever.
11yod was quite unwell on Friday with a high temperature.  She ended up not being able to play in either the orchestra or her solo at the concert.  7yod managed well though.  He did a poem, recorder solo and played in the orchestra.  It all ended up being quite hectic really.  I had a previous arrangement before the concert was organised so the plan was that Rick would go and support the children.  In the end, he had to stay in with 11yod, I took 7yos and listened to his poem and then left him in the charge of a friend and went to my craft evening.  Throw into the mix 7yos's church group in the early evening and making tea and the fact that 21yos had decided to come home for the weekend for an early birthday as he can't make it next weekend and it makes for interesting organising.  Thankfully the bus from the station arrived (it's not reliable) and we didn't get an SOS to drive the 17 miles to pick him up.
My evening was great.  I went to a friends with the other ladies from the running group and make some Christmas tree decorations.  It was really good fun, relaxing and productive.I ended up making 5 decorations and we booked another evening in a few weeks time with Rick and my friend's husband are at scout camp.
Today Rick drove an hour and a half to our nearest city to run a 10k in which he was determined to get a sub 40 mins.  He came in 39.55 so was very pleased with himself.  We went to the shops, went to visit my parents and then did some tidying up and made the birthday tea.  As 21yos can't be here for his birthday we had a celebration this evening.

11yod decorated his birthday cake but couldn't find enough candles!

It is so cold here at the moment.  The weather warmed up when it was raining last week but now is getting cold again.  We are being hardy this year and not putting the heating on.  There are so many good things about having a cold house!  Getting into bed and warming up when the air around is cold!  Getting into a warm shower from a cold bathroom!  Wearing woolly socks and jumpers! Not breeding bugs in the central heating!  The best thing of all though, is the fact that, because we have a lovely warm wood burner in the kitchen, everyone congregates there.  Even if we are not doing things together we are all in there being together instead of being spread around the house.

The only negative thing about not having the heating on is the length of time it takes to dry the washing!!