Here it is Ladies and Gentlemen, the famous pictures of my family's little cottage in Normandie.

I know it took me almost on month to share this pictures, sometimes we get overwhelmed

I'll show you 3 pictures: 2 of the house and one of the garden.

As you can see it's a traditonal thatch cottage.

It must have been built 250 years ago, or so. I don't have more time for blogging right now, I'll tell you more about it next time.

OK, I come back to my blog, I have been very busy this last weeks, we have a lot of family outings in june, and I really did not have time for my computer's friends, I'm sorry.

I also had to deal with the death of the eldest member of our family , my father's aunt, she was 93 and we all have been very sad, because we have no more grand parents for a long time now and she was a kind of granny for us, and the memory of the family... 

She was also my sister's godmother's and I had to comfort her.

Godmothers and godfathers are very important for us Catholics, they are almost as important as grandparents for children.

I have a lot more to tell today, I'll try to come back later this evening (with my Normandie's pics )

Today I came back from Normandie where I had a nice time with my parents.

Today is Mother's Day here in France and I have been blessed with hand made presents from my children, this kind of present is priceless for a mum

They are so precious !

I took a picture of the presents I received:

They made all this lovely things at school, they also learn some poetry for me.

I love so much being their mother  

Tomorrow, I'll post pics of my parents's cottage in Normandie, my mum is a very good gardener and she has a beautiful garden !

 I have found this on the comment section of Candy's blog today, it was written by Carla, I had fun reading it, then I copy it for you  

I OWE MY MOTHER

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY.
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"

15 My mother taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait until we get home."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.
"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

25. And my favorite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"


THANKS MOM

I wish a belated happy  mother's day to American mums, in France mother's day will be on May 28

Lynne ask me several questions...

First one:

Books in english are easy to find in France when you live in a big city, but I don't !

Where I live, I only find classic english litterature or bestsellers like John Grisham, or Da Vinci Code style of book, it was not what I was looking for...

Of course, you can find everywhere translations of English/American books but as I understand English, I don't want to read translations.

Second question:

About my english, I have learnt english during 10 years in high school and university, I had several opportunities to go to England, I even went to USA once (student exchange) when I was 16 (I spent 1 month in StLouis, Missouri).

My mother was a trilingual secretary (French-English-Spanish) and she always told us how important it was to speak at least one foreign language...

Third question:

I won't post a picture of my laundry room right now because it's not a room I want to show for the moment

In fact I have a third bathroom that I use as a laundry room, and I have a big room next to it that we use as a storage room (it's a real mess). My hubby put me some clothelines across this room, near the ceiling, so I can hang 2-3 loads of laundry at the same time, I can even hang sheets.

When I hang my laundry early in the morning, almost everything is dry in the evening, I must add that we have a central heating, and there is heating in this room.

When this room is rearrange, I'll post pics ! 

Right now, I hang all my laundry outside, I won't have to use the inside clothelines until november.

I hope I have answered your questions

I have just discovered that I can find a huge amount of American books on the French Amazon.

That's such a good news to me

I enjoy reading American blogs, and each time a lady talk about a book she loves, I think: "I can't order it because the shipping costs from USA are so high..."

Today I have ordered 2 books on Amazon.fr (so far ):

Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley (the Fly Lady), I love her website and I wanted to read her book for a while.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictorats by Sally Fallon, Mary G. Enig, Marion Dearth

I have read a lot of good things about it on several blogs and I really want to try the recipes, as I'm fond of traditionnal values and good ol'recipes.

I'll receive them within 2 weeks, I feel like a little girl waiting for Christmas, I'm such a bookworm !

I was getting very frustrated not being able to buy books in english for a reasonnable price, now I must be careful not to waste to much money on them

I have found something funny to share, if you go here, you can find what is your French name, just try and tell me what your new name is ?

Today is Labor Day here in France.

It's a Legal holiday, and a day for Trade Unions to demonstrate in the streets of big cities, France is a country where people love to do demos when they disagree with something (that happens all the time ), we call it  "descendre dans la rue" (to go down the street).

We also have another nice tradition on May 1rst, we offer each others a spray of Lily of the valley as a lucky charm. I have heard on the radio that it came from king Charles VII (around 1600).

People are allowed to sell the Lily of the valley on the streets to earn some money (this flower grows everywhere in forest or garden in most part of France) on may 1rst only.

Nobody goes to work on Labor Day, everything is closed, we have 3 more legal holidays in May, that's why it is one of the French favorite month

Appetizer

Do you prefer salty snacks or sweet treats?

I'm a sweet one, but I don't snack often (as we say in french "sugar appeals sugar", if I start I can't stop...)

Soup
What is your favorite board game?

Uno or Monopoly with kids, and "Dames Chinoises" with hubby (don't know at all how to translate)

Salad
If you were to have a painting done of you alone, what would you want the background to be?

A countryside landscape, with spring flowers

Main Course
What's a "big word" you like to use to impress people ?

As I'm graduate in litterature, I have learnt latin during several years, when I want to impress someone I use some latin words...

Dessert
What kind of shoes are you wearing today?

I wear sandals, from beginnings of april to october;

I don't live in a very warm place, so people often think I'm a bit weird , but I don't mind I love to have barefeet

Ilona asked me a question about the Bonne Mère and the patron saints.

The Bonne Mère is the Virgin Mary, in France there are catholic churches even in the tiniest village, and they are always dedicated to a saint (sometimes several), this saint is the patron saint of the village.
For exemple the patron saint of the city of Paris is Sainte Geneviève who saved the city from Attila.
In the little town where I live there is a big church called "Basilique Notre Dame de la bonne garde" (virgin Mary),
This place is known from the middle age (the church was built around 900 AC) to be a rest place for pilgrims on the way to Saint Jacques of Compostelle in Spain.

A "basilique" is a special church where you can find reliques (sorry I don't know how to translate it, I am at work ~lunch break, and I don't have my favorite Harrap's on hand ), in this particular one there is a piece of the real cross of Jesus.

I hope I have answered your question !

Ilona ask me to post some more pics of my vacation, so here are they

My boy in front of a nice little Provence's style house, in a place called Aubagne.

The famous Provencal author and film maker Marcel Pagnol was born there at the end of XIX's century. At this time Aubagne was a little village off Marseille, nowadays it's quite a big city in the suburb of Marseille. 

A picture of the mediterranean sea, you can catch a glimpse of the seaside resort of "Sanary sur mer"

A view of the most famous monument of Marseille, the "Bonne Mère", this church is really important for the natives of Marseille, she is the patron saint of the city.

Welcome to a tour of our family vacation in the beautiful south of France

First a picture of the whole family in front of an old fortress on the shore of the mediterranean sea, the day was extremely windy, and our hair had simply gone wild !

As you can see we sat on a cannon

The kids in front of the old port of Marseille, this port was first found by Greek merchants coming from Phocea around 600 BC

This pic was taken from a ferry-boat we took to go to the Frioul Islands off Marseille, at this moment we were just leaving the old port

Me and the kids, on the boat

A little further from the port, you can see the XVII's century fortifications

The famous Château d'If, maybe you have heard of it, if you have ever read the novel "Le comte de Monte-Christo" by Alexandre Dumas, it was the place where Edmond Dantès was jailed

Saint-Estève bay, a nice little sheltered cove on the largest one of the Frioul Islands

My brave little girl, I can tell you she had been courageous because the water was really cold

That's all for today, if you want to see more pics of my vacation, just let me know in the comment section, and I'll post some more tomorrow

We had a wonderful holiday in Marseille, we also went to see some friends on the "côte d'azur" (the french riviera), I'll post the pics tomorrow...

We came back on yesterday evening, after a 9 hours journey (540 miles) !

I didn't work today as the Easter Monday is a legal holiday, I go back to work tomorrow, but hubby and the children are in vacation until next monday.

Today we have done a late chocolate eggs hunting.

In our French tradition, on Easter Sunday, the kids search for chocolate eggs in the garden, the children are told that the eggs are dropped by churches bells back from Roma. The children believe that bells are in Roma, because they stay mute from Holy Friday to Easter Sunday.

The children love to respect this tradition, even if my two oldest don't believe anymore in the Easter bells...

I had some comments about the among of vacation we have in France. I just want to tell you that the average worker in France doesn't have as much weeks of vacation as I do, I am very lucky to have 10 weeks, it's quite unusual (the legal vacation in France is 5 weeks/year, I know it's already not so bad)

As I work for the Juvenile Justice Department, I'm a civil servant, that's mean not to much hours of work but a poor salary !

I know nothing about economics, but I know we're having a lot of issues with globalisation (is that the right word ?) in France, because we have too high employment costs and we don't work enough (only 35 hours/week). The social French standarts don't fit at all with the modern world and it's a huge problem for the French society. For example, we have a lot of unemployment (10%) and a major problem with young people umployment. In our country, we are always in strike against something, when you go to a big city, you often cross a demo...

Well, once again I'm going far away from my subject , but I find very interesting to share this with people from differents cultures, we have so much to learn from each others and this what I enjoy with blogging.

Tomorrow, I'll have a busy day, I must pack everything for our vacations in Marseille (we leave early on sunday morning), and I need to tidy the whole house, I can't stand leaving my house in a mess

I don't know if I'll be able to blog from Marseille, I have a laptop, I think I'm going to bring it with me, I'll see...

I'm going to bed right now (it's already 11:45pm around there !)

Bonne nuit

I haven't blog for a while, since I went back to my normal life last monday

You know I dislike the job I currently have.

I don't like to work on a 4 days a week, 9am-5pm schedule, I would prefer to go back to my former schedule with night working hours but only 3 days a week. In fact, as some of you may knows I don't like working outside of the home.

The good new is that I'm going to be able to go back to this former schedule next september, as I have been offered to work in a new hostel for juvenile deliquents. I don't know if you remenber but I'm an educator for the Juvenile Justice Departement. For the past 2 years, I was in charge of the vocational training for young educators, that was quite interesting but I was out of my depth. What I like in my job is to help people going back on the straight and narrow.

As I have to work for the moment, I prefer to do something I like, and the icing on the cake is that my income will be much better, this kind of job is regarded to be dangerous (but I don't mind, I've already worked in an hostel like that during 9 years).

What I like too with my job is that I have plenty of vacations, in fact 10 weeks/year, I know it can sounds weird for Americans people with only two weeks/year, but we don't like to work to much in my country

Next week, I 'll be on easter vacation, with hubby and the children we're going to the city of Marseille, in the south of France, near Mediterranean sea, to visit some good friends.

I plan to take nice pics to show you this beautiful part of my country called Provence

I'm looking forward the warm weather, with deep blue sky and plenty of sun...

Today we celebrate the fifth birthday of my sweet little daughter Alice. she was born on the 3 of april, but it's easier to invite the family on sunday

I can't resist to show you some pics...

Isn't she cute ? I can't even imagine she is already 5... She's my youngest, and for me she forever will be my baby  I love my 3 children so much...

I really want to say thank you for the nice comments I had after my last post. I didn't have much time to answer personnally to all the nice ladies who wrote to me, because I just allow me 1/2 an hour for blogging everyday, if I don't schedule it I can stay on my computer for hours

This was a great comfort to know that I'm not alone, wanting to come back home. In fact, I'm not used at all to speak about that, because all of my friends are working girls, and I 'd be misunderstood if I say that I want to come back home.

In France, 80 % of women work ouside of their home, even with 3 or 4 children, because we have a lot of help for children, for exemple it's affordable to have a child-minder for our babies, we have special allowances to pay for it.

Some people may think it's wonderful to have the choice to work, but in fact we have a huge social pressure to keep us working, it's not a real choice.

Well, that's enough on this subject for today, at the start, I didn't imagine I was going  to blog about wether mother should stay at home or work , but about all the feminin skills I enjoy, like homemaking......

I have some more time at home, I go back to work on april 3, I'm off for the moment because of my son's accident (I posted about it on March 10), and I want to have a clean and organize home before coming back to work.

Today, I have done my son's room from bottom to top, I have completed it in 3 hours and I was pretty proud of me

Tomorrow, I want to finish my kitchen cupboards, after that my kitchen will be completly spring-cleaned !!

See you tomorrow and God bless you.

Today I have done about half of my kitchen cupboards, and the chimney on the top of the hood extractor, the kitchen is almost sparkling

Anyway, it won't be finished until monday, as I don't use to do this kind of things on sundays (morning is church and afternoon family outings or fun time!)

I'll post pics of it when it's done next week.

I really love homemaking and like so much seeing my clean kitchen and my well organized cupboards.

I would like so much to be a full time homemaker, I'm fed up with working outside of the home, I want to stay at home and have time to cook, bake, sew, knit, take care of my family without of the feeling of running all the time.

In fact, I grew up in a very feminist environment, when I was young I had no idea that I could stay at home, I couldn't even imagine it.

My mother had 4 children (I"m the eldest), she stayed at home about 8 years and she hated that.

During this time, she used to work from home as a trilingual secretary, by the time my younger brother went to kindergarten, she went back to work outside the home and she enjoyed it very much, at least during the first years...

My mom isn't very interested in feminin skills, she hardly can sew a button, I learnt a lot with my granny (knitting & sewing).

I had always been taught that I had to work hard in school to have a good job, then I did it ! After I graduated from college (I'm graduated in litterature and in sociology, I also have an educator diploma), I entered the work force.

I only quitted it for maternity leaves of my 3 children. After the birth of my son, I started to work part-time, 3 days a week, but with a special schedule (7am-3pm or 2pm-11pm), last year I went back to a normal schedule (9am-5pm), but 4 days a week.

In fact, we can't afford to live on one income because we have a huge mortgage for the house, we don't have other debts, but this one is enough, we 'll finish it in 3 1/2 years, after that I sure 'll quit, but I'll have miss a lot of my children childhood and this makes me really sad

If I can say something to younger ladies, please really think of it before having children, when you work outside of the home, you can't try to do two things at once, this is feminist brainwashing, and guess what is the most important for you ? 

I haven't posted yesterday, because I had been very busy with the beginning of spring cleaning.

For the moment the focus is on the kitchen, I must have finished it on sunday, hence I'm just having a little break to post this entry, and I go back to do a super scrub of my fridge

I have already done:

- Oven & microwave                                                            

- Outside of all cupboards, counter and knick-knacks                                            

- All other furniture (bench, shelves... )

- Windows & blinds, outside door (my kitchen open on the garden)

I still have to do:

- Fridge in & outside (right now !)

- Extractor hood and the chimney  on the top of it

- Inside of all cupboards (major work, I'll do it this week-end with my older daughter)

Then, I'd better go back to my work

Today was windy and rainy again, tomorrow 'll be sunny and colder, we'll see...

Tomorrow I have some baking to do for school, it is the turn of  my  4 yodd  to bring the afternoon snack in class-room, I'm going to bake a yoghourt cake, very easy to make and very good to eat  

Let me now if you're interested, I'll post the recipe.

Have a wonderful sunday everybody