Kitchen sink

This is my mum's kitchen sink, the bit on the right is the draining board. Bread is always on tap in the bread bin.

Take Away fish and chips

We are off to Libero's Take Away fish and chip shop. I went to this chip shop many Saturday's in my youth with my dad to pick up fish and chips for dinner.

There is nothing in the world like Dublin take away chip shops. They are dotted around the city and are all run by Italians and sell the same thing - fish or cod in batter and chips or French Fries. The taste is unique, the smell is unique, the experience is very Dublin and unique.

Let's order some fish and chips

Don't you love that girl's huge pink hair clip?

Before the deep fry

Batter covered cod fillets await.

While we wait

They always have Italian soccer games playing on a TV at these chip shops!

Getting closer

They shovel the chips into the bag and then pour tons of salt and vinegar on them.

All packed up in brown bags

The grease soaks through the paper. I was wondering what that dude was doing, not helping with the cooking. People live above the chip shop, so perhaps it is his place!

Here they are

Explanation

I understand how annoying it is to click on to a blog and find the same post for months and months. So I wanted to share why I have stopped posting to this family blog recently.
Firstly, I am busy doing my photo a day blog. On that blog I do post photos of the kids, but with no explanation.
Secondly, the photos that I have been taking with my new camera are much larger files and they take a while to upload, and I am taking so many it would take so long to sort through them and decide which ones to post.
I can only do so much in the day, with homeschooling, learning photography, doing my Somerset Studio type art and running this house I just have not had time to blog about our family life. So for friends and family members who like to see our daily life, I am sorry I have not been posting. Perhaps one day I will have the time to capture it in this space again.

More Mark

Mark is the Executive Director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Houston. In that capacity he sometimes writes articles for journals. Here is an article that was published this month.

Mark Published

I am the proud wife of an author! Mark wrote a book on the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is a collection of short (interesting) bios on each of the signers, great for homeschoolers doing American history, and for us adults who want to know a little about signers other than John Hancock and Thomas Jefferson!

It is listed on Amazon!

He is such a productive man, he has many wonderful projects he is working on, including 3 other historical books in various stages of completion all while working two jobs - as an attorney for US Development group and as a spokesperson for Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, serving as a Deacon at church, being an AWESOME daddy, teaching Latin and Greek to Matthew, working on a PhD in something to do with religion (I ought to know more), studying Classical Literature for his Thursday Great Books class, being part of a worldview class on Sundays and he and Marcus Mucha are going to learn Olde English on Friday's so that they can read Beowulf in the original language. And he is a great husband too. Mark ROCKS!

More fun

Here are the States (in red) that I have visited in my time in the States.

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Another Day Out in Houston

We went into the Natual Science Museum today to see the IMAX show on Greece and then the Rome exhibit. Rome was OK, but they mainly had busts and household artifacts, no swords or shields. Luckily they had some live Roman re-enactors in the lobby with stuff to share and great costumes.































We went to the ground floor in the exhibit hall where there are lots of hands on science things.
Here Laura is experiencing clouds.
























Then we walked over to my favorite place in all of Houston - the train.











We use to live 5 minutes from the zoo area and if we had nothing going on I would read whatever kid's train themed books I had and then grab a snack and take the kids over there and ride the train. I did this even when Matthew was my only child!The ride is not too long, but somehow I always feel happy on it. No matter how hot it is the breeze is lovely and I feel like I am really being a good Mommy, like this is what being a mom of little people is all about, I can't really explain it. Anyhow, today I had 4 kids on the train and my wonderful husband. I was a happy mommy.

Lily is 5 today!

Time really flies. I remember the day I had her. The birth was so easy and she never fussed, she fitted right in to Mark's political campaign which was consuming our life at the time. She was so beautiful and good and has been such a joy ever since. Lily has made my life better in so many ways. She is so forgiving of my flawed parenting, generous, creative, colorful and fun to be around. She wears costumes daily with utter seriousness, she is either a cat, Ballet dancer or Princess, often a combination of all three. She loves to do school and excels at all her subjects. I am so excited to be her momma.

Planting time again

The kids helped Mark plant more wildflower seeds again this year. I hope they bloom as nicly as last year. Don't you love Lil's Ballet costume with Kelly green tights?

My new blog

I have started a new blog called A Picture Per Day. I was inspired by another artist blogger Misty Mawn to do it, and now my friend Amy Barnes is doing it! Doing what? Posting a picture per day! No comments, no explanations. I take photos of the kids daily anyhow and it takes seconds to upload to blogger. The hard part for me is not writing a title or a little caption! I like to talk, at least a little. But hopefully the photos will speak for themselves. I plan to capture our life at home on the new blog. Cole World News blog is designed to capture our family life in general and to document the kids growth for the extended family and friends.

It has been fun seeing what the other ladies are taking photos of. Anyone else want to start? Email me your link so I can add it! Shonacole@aol.com

New territory

For the first time in 2.5 years of living here I went exploring the front part of our forest. I have a whole new respect for my dogs. They have some wild countryside to roam in there! It is made up a series of mini streams (drainage) that have cut little valleys up to 8 feet deep in places. It would make an excellent place for toy soldiers staging a civil war. We ventured out there today with Ricky Welch, whose family goes to church with us. Needless to say there were guns involved.

Just for fun

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

There are:

1130 Mark Coles

791 Matthew Coles

20 Lily Coles

612 Laura Coles

259 Annie Coles

Annie enjoying becoming one

Where's Annie gone?
There you are! Hello.

Yum, yum, pink icing. I think I will enjoy being a big girl!

Happy Birthday Annie Rose

Annie Rose Hope Cole was born this day last year. She looked like this!

This was taken on the eve of her first birthday. She is a happy, easy going baby who loves her family and loves to sleep and eat and sway to music. She has been a joy all year. She has a beautiful soul and I am so excited that I am get to see her grow up. I love you Annie.