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I have finally won a game of Ruzzle! In fact, I've won 4 times since this. 

Looking forward to the arrival of a new pair of boots on Tuesday. Ordering them made me smile. 

More skiing carnage at the Winter Olympics amused me - very well timed to fit with half term!

And the boys once more made me laugh with a hastily rewritten pop song at bedtime. 

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Today is a good day for smiling. 

Watching Winter Olympics in bed. 

Improved back pain - still sore but not sharp. 

Some mad skiing action as well as curling agony and ecstasy. 

A walk to the shops with Jude, always good for a chat. 

A beautifully written blog post by a friend about coming through a period of depression. 

Lots of retweets of various things I've said or written. 

Dinner at Pizza Express - delicious! 

Silly songs at bedroom. My boys are hilarious!

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Good to be back in worship group, even if I did get hit over the head by an exuberant worshipping Barbara. Soon solved by removing my microphone from the stand and moving closer to Phil. Also meant I could read his large words ;)

And a very pleasing run on a sunny albeit cold afternoon. Having trouble breathing in the cold so I was very pleased with my average pace. Picture is the edge of the Country Valley Park as I sped past; that's flooding not a lake!

I knew Jude had a plan at lunchtime when he approached me with a smile on his face and eyelashes fluttering... sharing bags of crisps is not a problem for me, unlike John who ate an entire bag of M&S cheesy tasters all by himself.

Isaac's ability to balance his entire body in something akin to the lotus position on the tiny saddle of his bike is quite impressive and certainly causes a smile as I pass and wonder where the rest of his body has gone.

And John in cycling gear is always worth a smile ;)

Finally - this song is by someone I knew in youth group and last saw about 25 years ago! I like it - listen to the words (and they're below the video on Youtube too)

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Finding my Christmas resources in the storage made me smile today - thought I'd lost them and was very cross!

A lie in made me smile too.

Sushi for lunch.

Looking through the boys' old school books made for lots of smiles and laughs too, especially Jude writing that Isaac had 'kicked him in the balls' in his RE book; his teacher had written 'This isn't necessary Jude!' :)

And the Christmas Cabaret was wonderful, even singing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 30 seconds after eating the last mouthful of Christmas dinner!

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Apple crumble at lunchtime and biscuits after school. Thanks Gemma! Delicious and very welcome!

Year 3 loved Un elefante today and made me promise to teach them another song next week. Some of the girls demanded a sneak preview. Cue pretending to be a singing dancing cow whilst on break duty!

A very excited 11 year old has gone to bed smiling at the thought of presents in the morning. I know already what tomorrow's smile will be!

And with winter tyres now fitted, the summer/normal ones are in a tyre hotel in Corby. Wonder if they'll send a postcard?

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Not sure which I like best. What do you think? 

Cabaret rehearsal this evening made me smile. Hard not to smile - and spit - when singing "Oh Chitty you Chitty pretty Chitty Bang Bang"

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Good to see a sea of smiling faces greeting me when I had an observation today! Also good to see observer smiling!

And in note that it's impossible to sung Chitty Chitty Bang bang without smiling!

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Another day when smiles have been hard to find but not completely lacking. Looking back, there have been more smiles than tears but it's the latter that stick in the mind sadly.
So, I'm reclaiming my smiles!
Year 3 worked really hard all morning and made some great Tellagami.
It wasn't raining at break.
I shared a laugh with children whilst on duty.
My new colleagues looked after me when I was sad and cared enough to ask if I was OK.
I got home earlier than I thought I would.
I didn't have to cook dinner.
I went out with friends and colleagues.
Janey was amazing in her show and we all whooped with abandon.
I have a family that love me very much.

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First rehearsal for Christmas Cabaret today - hurrah! So pleased to be back home so I can take part, although the WPS staff do means I can only sing on Saturday :(
Still, I'm very very excited. Whilst I am far less talented than many of my Cabaret colleagues, I love singing and will give it my all. And that includes choking on fake snow whilst trying to sing ;)

Also enjoyed a trip to the garden centre (although I swear I have never been there with John as he insists!) and smiled as my little boy kept me up to date on the women's triathlon only to realise later that it had happened this morning so I could have googled the result!

Thought for the day:

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Many smiles today at school: the funny things that the children at school say and the questions that they ask (although no one asked me about living in Sweden today!), banter in the staffroom about residential trips and the sheer joy on the faces of Year 3 when they realised that it was OK to stick out their tongues at me! And the biggest smile of all at Jane's FB status informing me that she'd been practising a Spanish song to teach her class and that she hoped I was impressed. I am. And smiling!

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Wahay! Mum's night out. I'm not sure that Sanook in Winterthur was quite ready for the us but we had a great time!
Too late for much more than photos but we smiled LOTS!

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So many smiles that I lost count! Edited highlights!

Knobs. Manx knobs to be precise, courtesy of Rachel aka @lancslassrach. Oh how we laughed! And I managed to get the leftovers. Did you know that knobs can be grumpy or fruity?

I love my MFL friends - the so called #mfltwitterati. Miss them so much but they're only ever a tweet away. Here are just a few of them - John, Alex, Eleanor and Jackie - with me modelling our lovely T-shirts, organised by Eleanor. Someone took a photograph of all of us in our Tshirts but has yet to share it.

Singing Bohemian Rhapsody in French Spanish and German - oh, and English! - with Simone, Isabelle, Jen and Rachel. Love singing and love languages so very happy!

Then there was singing El Pollito Pío, a little portion of which was captured by Simone here and everyone loved their Toblerone.

And my boys sent me a picture of this from the widow at Vollenweider ;)

Smiles in other languages 

Well, not quite smile today as I can't find that but here's 'smiling' in Manx in honour of the knobs ;o) - mongey.