Tuesday 26th March - Reasons to be cheerful

1) I have washed up and put away my packed lunch things for the last time this term. From today and for the next two-and-a-half weeks I will have my lunch on a plate. The same things, probably, but not all crammed into random plastic boxes.

2) I have almost completely cleared the to-do-list for this week! Including writing half a dozen postcards, and going to the bank and the building society, and taking unused medicines to the chemist, and recycling a load of plastic bags, and all those other itty-bitty here and there jobs.

3) I have exceeded both New Year's resolutions this month. We've eaten chocolate several times every week, and yesterday I took a whole trolley load of stuff to the charity shop - literally - I took one of the big ones from outside Waitrose, loaded it up from the boot of the car and wrangled it through the town to Help-the-Aged. And yes, I did return the trolley to Waitrose afterwards.

4) I have managed to stick one of my Lent resolutions - I have not played Freecell or Minesweepers once since Ash Wednesday. I've done quite well at the other - remembering to check the rear-view mirror more often.

5) I have taught the last timetabled lesson of term. There should be two more to go, but one lad has broken his finger (he's supposed to be here now) and the next one has a meeting at college, so I have finished early. It will be good to have a bit of a break.

6) I have bought four audio CDs from Oxfam to load onto my mp3 player; some Miss Marple short stories read by Joan Hicks, some Father Brown stories, a Simon Brett Murder (I do like a good murder at bedtime) and "Kidnapped". All for less than £15. I am ripping them I as type. Even better, I can feel good about spending the money as it is all in a good cause - a donation with its own reward.

7) My husband gave me his "last Rolo" - the Rolo Easter egg that everyone was given at work today. How cute is that? You can see it in the picture, behind the CDs.

I should stop here - things to do, food to prepare, programmes to watch...

Hope you have reasons to be cheerful too...