Just Thanking My Lucky Stars

Hello all! I've been reading a lot of blogs this week. I have come across so many lovely ones while scanning through my Twitter feed, and as I had a few spare minutes, (by avoiding washing the pots,) I sat with a brew and my phone and scanned away.

There were a lot this week with a similar vein running throughout them and the general feeling is that a lot of mothers out there, don't think very highly of themselves and are very lacking in self confidence. It is really sad seeing women in these down trodden attitudes when I'm sure the families and friends surrounding these lovely ladies think very highly of them indeed. My life story is far from perfect and I often have the very same fears and anxieties as the rest, which is obviously why a lot was ringing true with me, and why I chose these particular ones to read.

There are many mothers who seem to aspire to completely unattainable targets by looking at others who are far further on in their own personal journey, Mumpreneur's, blogging and  PR experts etc. We tend to look at the end product of these people and think to ourselves 'I could never do that' and 'why can't I have an amazing idea like that?' The thing is, I bet these people started out with a fair few ups and downs and a few less grey hairs! Great success doesn't come over night for the most part in any case, and I'm pretty sure a few mini or indeed epic failures, occur in the middle of each and every journey.

I read a quote earlier in the week which read

Don't compare your chapter 1 to somebody else's chapter 20.

and this is absolutely paramount to realise if we want to maintain even an ounce of sanity!

Fortunately I have a fairly lighthearted attitude towards life and I feel my ability to laugh  at myself has steered me clear of alcohol and happy pills. As I mentioned before, my fears are the same as most but I can laugh most of them off. We are who we are and we can either accept it and roll with the punches or curl up in a ball, call for a straight jacket and sob away in a dark corner of a padded sell. Personally I've tried both, but the aforementioned has better end results in the long term.

May I just say without even a smidgeon of self pity that like most of you, my life is far from perfect. I'm a mother of two which is hard work. Even though my kids are generally good and well behaved, parenthood is never without stress. I live in a small town, three story terraced house, filled with damp, clutter, loose laminate planks, frayed carpet and an undecorated bathroom which has been that way since I was pregnant with my first child. (6 years!!!) I have no money to put any of these imperfections right so I have come to terms with the fact I shall be living like this for a while. And to top it off I work as a cleaner from 6:00am until 9:00am so I can help provide for my family and still have the full day to look after my children, be for there for them at all times, without smothering and spoiling them of course. 

But, I have a great husband who fills my life with hilarity and has done for close to fourteen years, and I am happy. So I thank each and every one of my lucky stars daily and without fail because even though I'm not a fabulous Mumpreneur or Blogging superstar, and I'm still waiting for that all important lottery win, (should really start buying tickets!) I'm doing OK and I sincerely hope you all are too. Don't let your self esteem be kicked to the gutter because you don't feel the best at anything. The only thing we need to be is the very best version of ourselves possible and that's all we can do on our one time visit to this mortal coil.

Lots of love x

Day Status: Busy!

Hello and welcome! 

Goodness me. Today was one of those days. The kind of day when you just don't manage to even get a hot brew down you. The morning specifically. I shall go through the morning in bullet points if you don't mind. Would you care to join me? Please do. Grab a cuppa, (preferably hot!) and read along with me.

1. Wake up - obviously
2. Make a brew
3. Hear the baby stir - stir brew have a sip. Brew Status: Hot
4. Change and feed baby - eldest enters the room.
5. Prepare eldest's brekkie - Some chocolate malarkey, bad parenting.
6. Sip brew - Brew status: tepid
7. Get self dressed - long loose top and jeggings. Jeggings status: Up.
8. Dress eldest in freshly laundered uniform - not off of the bedroom floor, good parenting.
9. Sip brew - Brew status: cold. Nuke it. (Microwave it for those who no not this term.)
10. Sip Brew - Brew status: Hot again.
11. Sort family hair - me: Messy with Fudge Shaper, Husband: ponytail, he did it himself clever boy. Eldest: French plait. I did it, clever girl.
12. Load baby into pram, put sun cream on and gather school tit bits - Jeggings status: slightly lower.
13. Sip brew - Brew status: tepid again. Bollocks!
14. School run - Jeggings status: gathering at knees.
15. Home again, hug baby and put him in chair with toys.
16. Plug in iron and put kettle on.
17. Make brew, sip it -Brew status: hot.
18. Start ironing, burn elbow - Iron status: Really fecking hot!
19. Finish ironing, sip brew - Brew: status cold. Give up on brew, pour glass of orange juice.
20. Take baby upstairs, sing silly songs and cuddle him.
21. Lay baby on the bed - bad parenting. 
22. Fetch ironed clothes - swear at iron on passing. It remains un-forgiven for the burn.
23. Put clothes away and sing to baby - Jeggings status: way down!
24. Clean bathroom, change baby and hoik up jeggings - jeggings status: uncomfortably high. Must get new pants.
25. School run part 2 - hug daughter, get home, make sarnies of choice.

And that was just the morning. Cold brews, hot iron and tight pants, what a day! The afternoon brought more mayhem of course. My girl choked on a grape and fell down the stairs! Fortunately only a bruised bum is left to remind her to hold onto the banister. Poor lass. And all I've managed to do between playing and soothing bruises and shock, is feed my baby and do a few loads of washing, all the while practically dehydrating from my lack of hot brews!

I reckon tomorrow will bring more of the same. Not that I mind of course but I really would like a ho cuppa. I think that's the only thing I miss from having the wee 'uns. Still, if that's the only thing missing from my life, along with the lottery win I've been craving, then I don't reckon I'm doing too badly. 

I'm falling asleep over the keyboard here, probably from lack of tea, so I'm thinking I need to wrap it up. I want to write about my allotment because I'm so chuffed with how things are going on it. Most of my veg are flourishing, but well, that's for next time. 

Toodlepip all. Good morning or sweet dreams depending on the time!

Oh Knickers!

Hello there one and all!

I was getting my little girl ready for school this morning when suddenly she said "Mummy, I've got a wedgie!" Obviously it's time I bought the girl some new undies, she's growing up way too fast for my liking. Then I thought to myself, I can't even remember the last time I had a wedgie and then I looked at the contents of my knicker drawer.

Just a little sketch to put the point across.
Well, I wasn't taking pictures of my knicker drawer!

Well it's no bloody wonder I don't have wedgies any more, you should see the size of my crackers!  Parachutes and tall ship sails as far as the eye can see. It's a wonder I haven't been carried off whilst blow drying!

   The reason? Well that's it isn't it, since having my babies I appear to have been purchasing yacht sails and wearing them as underpants. As a parent I do have to go for comfort as I'm sure a lot of you are aware, walking along on the school run picking lacey knickers out of your bum is not something your kid's want to be associated with. And no child  needs "Oh yeah, that's knicker picker's son!" being shouted at the school gates about them. School's hard enough! 

   I did however find 4 pairs of pretty patterned things obviously acquired before I started buying underwear from bosun's locker, and before baby number 2, when I had time to practise the art of seduction. All that's gone to pot now of course, the best we can hope for is a quick "are they asleep? Quick get naked!" and away we go! I mean, planning a lace encased evening of passion is nigh impossible! So alas I have become the queen of the cotton gusset. Practical, comfortable and minimal chance of a yeast infection. (We've all had 'em, and we know it ain't good!)

   I digress, the point is I'm utterly shocked about the size of my 'smalls' because this lead me to thinking at great length (or rather width) about another thing. Good God, you should see the size of my arse! Yes, not rocket science I admit.  Maths tutorial

                             large knickers = lard erm I mean, large arse.

   I shall HAVE to do something about this! I'm not completely massive but I could certainly do with losing a few pounds, to stop the chaffing if nothing else. I'm thinking about Slimming World. I managed to lose a stone and a half last time, put a stone back on like, but kept the half off. Now I think it's high time I re-tackled it! I don't mind being buxom, but for the sake of my health, and my knicker drawer, it's time to fight some flab! I'm going for it, lose 5 pounds and treat myself to a new pair of satin knickers. 

   With a cotton gusset of course!

  

 Is there anyone else who, with parenthood looming over you, have opted for the cotton? Can you be bothered donning silk G-strings instead of Bridget Jones' style bloomers? Do share, but not with too much detail please.

Thrill Seekers!

   Hullo there reader! After doing a spot of cleaning the other morning -nothing major just pots, ironing, squirted a bit of polish so it smelled like I'd done some- I decided to phone sister number three of the first batch to see if she and the kids wanted to meet me and my brood for a wee wander. The answer was positive and the plan was to walk and meet up half way. We stuck to the plan and did indeed walk and meet halfway, the halfway line being The Dock Museum of Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. 

    We said our Hello's, and complained about the heat as we trundled along Channelside walk. We admired the lavender which smelt lovely, as we approached Jubilee Bridge. All very tame and normal until.... there came the simply WILD behavior.

  Well my family are obviously adrenaline junkies. We have clearly set a new bar on devil-may-care activities. What did we do? Be patient and I shall tell you. Bungee jump? No. Sky dive? No. Waiting on Jubilee Bridge for a bus to come and make it jolt? Abso-bloody-lutely!!! We take it to a new level of thrill seeking. I should have been more careful of course, involving my offspring, sibling and niece and nephew-ing, in such a reckless activity but hey, I've used it before and I'll use it again, that's just how I roll. 

Oh Look! I actually do bake bread.
Just absolutely not first thing in the morning.

   Nothing else of great importance has been happening over the past couple of days, just the normal day to day malarkey. You know the sort of stuff, waking up get the kids fed, washed, dressed. Put a wash load on, peg the wet stuff out, make pack ups, bake fresh bread and cakes etc. Hahaha! I'm obviously lying through my teeth here, I think we can all safely say that I'm a bare minimum kind of woman. And talking of teeth, I'm lucky if mine get scrubbed before 9:10 a.m! If they don't, I just have to make sure I don't smile or chat on the school run. (Cue thoughts of "ignorant, sour faced cow.") I then have to make time for chin wagging on the pick up,  (cue thoughts of "weird, schizophrenic cow") to catch up on the parent gossip. I have to say though, I've never been to school in my pj's, I mean, you've got to set some standards for the children haven't you haha!

   That my friends is about all I have to share at the moment. I'm off on the hunt for some other Mum and craft blogs.

   Toodleoo!

    

I'm going Bald!!

   That's right people, I'm losing my hair. I'm telling you, it's not like I haven't got a high enough forehead to begin with, I've now been graced with an extra half inch for goodness sake. It happened after my first baby too. Everything is great for about 3 months, then suddenly the bath water drains a hell of a lot slower and you start picking rather long hairs out the crack of your butt. Oh believe me, it's every bit as attractive as it sounds.
 I googled it, (postpartum hair loss, not hairy bum picking) something about your follicles going dormant because they don't rest while you're pregnant, hence the luxuriant locks you get during pregnancy. Children have a lot to answer for, it's a good job my boy is cute bless him.

   Mind you, it's probably a good thing this hair loss malarkey, it's prompted me to get a long overdue haircut. (Just trying to find the silver lining here!) It's about time I had a spot of pampering so I have booked in for the weekend. A cut and colour with a compulsory fringe to camouflage the receding hairline. They better do a good job as well, they're charging me 70 quid! Still at least it only takes about 8-12 months to rectify itself and start growing again. I can then go back to not bothering with haircuts and looking like a bedraggled, land bound mermaid, with only hair and shells to cover my lady lumps. Oh yeah, that's how I roll!

   Well readers, that is about the gist of today's session. Short and sweet, much like my hair will be after the chop! 

    If this is happening to anyone else.... just thank whatever gods you believe in that it isn't your teeth! That's what I'm doing.

Toodleoo!

What Should I Be When I Grow Up?

Goodness me this is a question that has been bugging me for a while now. I'd really like to re-train myself in doing something I love. Not so much at the moment because I have my two fab kiddiwinks to take care of and that's going to take up most/all of my time for quite a few years, but I'm thinking when my boy starts nursery in four years, (can't beat planning ahead!) I've got a bit of spare time to educate myself in something new. 

At the moment I'm on maternity from my cleaning job, and while the cleaning job is

• money
• perfect shift hours
• not bad pay
• fits in with my life nicely
• and has the chance of being offered over time.

Let's face it, nobody wants to be a cleaner for the rest of their life. I really want to have a shot at doing something I love. One problem mind... not entirely sure what I would love to do. 

I love getting creative and I already make some little things for relatives and myself, cards, cakes and poetry  mostly, so perhaps taking a leap and starting up my own business. Perhaps that might be too ambitious though as I am officially Her Royal Highness, the Queen of dis-organisation. Call me thick but you probably need to be organized to run your own business. I'm going to take some of those online career quiz's, and have fun seeing what I have the skills for. Watch me come back with 'your skills are suited too CLEANING' and/or 'growing cauliflowers' 

Hug Me!

Well, like I said, I've a while to think about it all. The most important thing in my life is my family and they come first. Not as a chore but as a pleasure. Oh, and my allotment is on the list as a close second, so I shall continue to nurture my children, my husband and my cauli's and live my little life contentedly. 

New Allotment. New Baby. New Anti-Wrinkle Cream Needed.

   Blimey it's been a while, and believe me a lot has happened. First things first.
   This is actually something I was supposed to post in November last year, being smack bang in the middle of pregnancy number 2 we managed to acquire one! An allotment that is. One of my little family's dreams, small though it may be, has come true! We can now plant and nurture the cauliflowers that our hearts have long desired!

Planted and ready to grow!

It was not the best time to begin the project. Being half way through a pregnancy was not an ideal time to start picking up forks and digging for your life, but my husband was also excited about it and my daughter has proved a dab hand with a hoe so they were in charge at the beginning. I just picked out seeds and did a bit of research, When should I plant said cauli? For example.

Back breaking work needed!

The Burnett allotment project is now well under way since I had my baby, (Boy, gorgeous! More on him later) the top half is half planted and half waiting for planting, but the bottom half... WHOA! That half is going to need some T.L.C. There is a serious weed situation that needs dealing with....pronto!

Me and my Boy

My new arrival, as I mentioned previously, was a boy. A simply gorgeous boy if I do say so myself and I love the little fella to bits. He's such a good baby I don't know how I got so lucky to be honest. My daughter loves him as well which is great. There's no friction at the moment. A spot of jealousy at the very beginning, when visitors came round. My girl hardly ever spoke to anyone so the surprise on visitors faces when she struck up conversations, (drawing attention away from the wee lad) was really rather amusing.

Another boasting parent moment I'm afraid. My daughter is doing so well at school I'm brimming with pride! She knows all her alphabet both normally and phonetically, she spells out small words by herself and coming on leaps and bounds with her confidence! Chest. Swelling. So. Proud.

   Well, I reckon that's all I can (hopefully) hold your attention with for the moment. Plenty more has happened, but I shall save the 'failed to dilate' story for another time.
Toodleoo!

Motherhood Mayhem

 Well good day to all who view! I am currently in the middle of;

• trying to plan a birthday party for my daughter next month
• planning my crafting for Christmas tit bit's
• imagining list after list of things that need doing in my house before bundle of joy number two is born, and last but not least
• figuring out how long I should take of work after bundle of joy number two is born.

 

and in all honesty I'm beginning to find it all a bit overwhelming. Not only do I have all of the above to consider, but it has just hit me that not only am I pregnant, but I will in fact have another child to look after!! I realise that makes me a little slow on the uptake, I mean I know how the whole thing works of course,

My first pregnancy bump.

1. you have sex
2. you get pregnant if you're lucky (or unlucky, depending on the situation!)
3. you stay pregnant for a number of months and then
4. you have a baby by pushing or slicing, which you usually keep, love and cherish forever. (this also depending on the situation.)

I obviously just didn't realise it applied to me this time. Doh! So I was just sitting in my recliner last night and had a mild panic attack about the thought that "Oh shit! I'm gonna have TWO kids to look after!!!!" Followed by another thought of "AHHHHHHHH!"

Oh well, it can't be too hard can it? My mother's had six and she managed OK, I guess only time will tell.

 

 The whole 'operation tidy' I spoke of yesterday did not come into fruition. My brother is ill (likely story ha ha) and my Mother is planning a divorce (thank God, the man's a pillock!) so I did what any woman in their right mind would do, sat on my back side and watched anything at all to prevent me from doing the housework.

 After watching crap on the tele I had a visit from my mother with all manor of jargon from the solicitors, council etc. And we had a good gossip about the fact that husband number 3 is a beep beep beepety beep! During this we totally lost track of time, my bath had run to a ridiculous level and my cat had pooped with a ridiculous level of stench. I had to literally dive into said bath, scrub a dub dub and get the hell out, leaving my mum downstairs with the aroma of poo, a scented candle and a box of matches!

 Consequently we had to drive around the corner to pick my girl up, without me even having time to bush my sodden hair. Slummy Mummy or what?!

 

My own playdough creation.

 All serious questions will have to be pondered onlater in the day, the only serious answer I've fallen upon is that I'm going to let my daughter have a full day at her school nursery as well as her free morning sessions. This is only due to he fact that she has been crazing my gear box about having a packed lunch. She wants to take grapes, an orange, a banana and a cheese sandwich. At least I can be thankful that she has healthy taste.

 

 An eventful day and it's not even gone 2:00pm. Love my life, and I'm not even being sarcastic. Big smiles as always from me.

Two Times With Three Results!

 For the first time for a long time the husband and I had a night to ourselves on Friday. My girl went to my Mother's for the night and I can't tell you how weird it felt. Having said that, I quickly got over it and managed to eat my way through 3 platefuls and a pudding at our local Chinese banquet which was absolutely delicious.

 The husband and I were enjoying our rather yummy grub and talking about intellectual subject's such as politics, (I don't get most of it,) phonics, (I just don't see the point of the added confusion,) and phonic tests on "made up" words. (I mean really?) I actually had to point out the fact that we were being very grown up, discussing things that affect the growth and development of our child. We are actually good parents, (toot toot goes my trumpet) we love our girl and our foetus and obviously want whats best for them both, but it's just as surprising watching ourselves grow up and develop as much as our young! You just never stop learning in this lifetime.

 When we got home after intellectualising, I called my mum just to see how my wee'un was, if she'd gone to bed OK etc, and of course she had, and been as good as gold about it bless her, she just couldn't wait to go and see her Auntie and Uncle's who are much younger than myself, and obviously loads more fun, queue sad 'put out' mother face.

 After the phone call which i knew wouldn't behold any bad news, but us mothers just like to check don't we, myself and the ball and chain sat down to some word games on our phone apps, and laughed at words we'd found such as 'fart' and 'shite,' our level of maturity is quite frankly astonishing, but I love our relationship and wouldn't change anything at all about it. We then went on to have sex...... TWICE! With THREE reslults, if you know what I mean wink knudge. Not something i usually like to discuss but I'm a bit smug about it to be honest. 13 years together and we can still manage twice in a night, I may live a sheltered life but I happen to think that's awesome!

 

 My holiday from work started yesterday and my plan was that during my 5 days off I'm going to try and make my house a little less of a junk yard, so my teenage brother has been bribed round to help me do the heavy lifting bits and my mother has been roped into doing the driving to the tip bits, I may finally have a front room free of crap tomorrow woo hoo! I'll let you know how that little venture turns out tomorrow.

 If anyone has any views or props to help me get a bit more on board with Phonics, I'd love to get a better understanding of them, especially seeing they are a masive part of my child's learning development, please give me a clue. Books, sites, cd roms, anything that has proven useful to you would be a great help, cheers!

Long Time No See....

Well I can honestly say that's it's been a long time since I last blogged and I apologise to anyone who gives a monkey's. Nearly 3 months have passed and so much has happened and yet I can think of nothing to type! I'm gonna carry on and see if anything comes to me.

Not my husbands best swimmers, but you get the picture.

 First thing's first. I'm PREGNANT! Woo hoo! That happened shortly after the last blog entry actually. (Not the conception, but the finding out.) So that took up a lot of my thought for the first few weeks of July and pretty much the rest of the time too, apart from the time my daughter commandeers. (I'm gonna go 80% daughter, 20% baby at the moment.) 

 

 After I found out I had been impregnated, I then had a  bleed, I wasn't too worried as it wasn't heavy and the same thing had happened with my little girl, still, I obviously had it checked out, went for an early scan and saw the wee flicker of life that my womb held within. It was so cute. The 16 week scan followed, we got a couple of pics, only two mind at £2.50 each!!! No, I'm not a cheapskate, just skint. If I had cash I'd buy more. The husband and the daughter came to the midwife at 18 weeks and we all heard the heartbeat. I cried like a baby myself, my daughter told it promptly to "shut up, it's making too much noise!" (she's in for a rude awakening, and NOT just metaphorically!) and my husband just sat there looking slightly bewildered. The midwives smiles at me and passed me a tissue as I took full responsibility for being an emotional female, it was all very action packed.

 The summer holiday's have also happened and thankfully, Cumbria has had some warm but wet weather, but as my daughter and I are firm belivers in walking in the rain, we donned our waterproofs and away we went to the park, to the Nanny's, to the forest, to the Great Nanny's, and even just playing with the snails in the garden. Plenty of fresh air for us girlies.

 

 And that just about brings us to now. The Autumn has just about kicked in, time for making stew's, hot puddings, forraging for berries, making jam's etc. (I'm not of course talking about me.) I've had the heating on twice, but I'm not quite at the stew and dumpling phase yet. I'm gonna get the knitting needles out soon though, I'm certainly not about to go out drinking so I'm gonna try my hand at a little cardigan for my unborn. I shall certainly let you know how that goes, or not, this is me I'm talking about, Goddess of the unfinished task. I'm off now to not finish something else.

Teapots!

Another fulfilling day in the life of moi! My husband has a few holidays in this week so we can spend a bit of time together, and so he could take me out for some grub which I told you about yesterday. But first things first, the first morning with just us two, (our girl being a nursery for her morning session,) and the hubster gets called in for some blinkin hearing test, I wouldn't mind but I'm the one with tinitus.... not him. Never mind though, I took that time to have a lovely relaxing bath, which I promptly tweeted about, slapped a bit of make-up on and felt perhaps not a million dollars, but I reckon at least $48.

The hubby came home in time to watch me struggle with the stupid buckle on my new wedge sling backs, and then we went shopping. Not boring shopping for sprouts and yoghurt, but the good kind where I get gifts. Yippee!

I seem to be having a bit of a crafty type phase at the mo, so I decided that I wanted to go and get supplies, so what d'you think happened? Well I had free reign of the hubbies wallet and could I get inspired? Could I buggery! Highly irritating I have to tell you. I did however come out with a nice new orange teapot! I got a teapot for christmas, a fantastic pumpkin one, but I obviously can't use it because it's far too special. So this super functional one, an by "super functional" I mean a teapot with normal teapot abilities ie: it brew's tea and water, is orange and I just need to tart it up with a pumpkin tea cosy. I love pumpkins. Something groovey about the shape and the ringlety vines, I just love them.

After the shopping, we went to collect the girl and went out for my birthday meal. We went to the local italian restaurant and as usual is was delicious! (Was going to do a review but decided that wasn't for me.) As we waited for our food my girl was watching nursery rhymes on the hubby's phone and started growling out death metal renditions of 'The Grand Old Duke of York' and 'Humpty Dumpty,' not quite sure the table next to us thought they should call a doctor or an exorcist. I assured them neither was needed.

The service was great and I'm always pleased with the food from Salvana's Ristorante, and today was no exception.

What follwed the lovely dinner was my child screaming in the middle of town for no apparent reason, she obviously thought it was the perfect place to let off some steam. I (pause for emphasis) didn't. What a little monster! Then she kept standing in front of me so I couldn't walk without tripping over,  she tried to pull me into Toy Master, (I think NOT!) screamed "stupid man" at the fellow who pressed the button before her at the crossing, and presumed to walk back into our house like nothing had just happened! Shall we play Mickey Mouse game Mummy?

WHAT?

Unfortunately I continued to have a face like the proverbial slapped arse for the remainder of the afternoon only to be cured by remembering I had been bought a birthday teapot. Tea and cake followed this revelation.

This evening I had a lovely time unwinding with my best buddy, my Mother and Sister Number 3 of the first batch with her baby boy. Mother was doing a spiritual reading for my pal, (my mum talks to the other's, she's a bit spooky and uncommonly accurate.) and then she did a spot of Reiki on her aswell. I sat quietly, took notes and ate chocolate biscuits, I felt it was the appropriate thing to do.

Well I'm off shopping again in the morning, I've had a quick scan for some craft ideas but if anyone knows of any good crafty type blogs/sites please clue me in.

Clinging to My Youth!

What a blow! Tomorrow I reach the big 30! No grey hairs yet but the wrinkles are etching their way onto my forhead, around my eyes and on my filtrum believe it or not. I haven't stooped to buying any "miracle" creams yet, and I'm far to fraidy cat for botox. I'm doomed to grow old gracefully and look whatever age I look.

My husband and I have decided to try for another baby, 30 is still a good age, still got a good bit of spring in my step. My Mum was popping out children until she was 45 (I think) and she's still coping. I think 2 is going to be my limit though. I come from a massive family myself, I'm the eldest of 8. I have 4 sisters and 3 brothers and there is never a dull moment! I have to say I love it. I was thinking the other day how nice it is just having my girl but then my head clouded and i got a bit deep. I started asking myself questions like "When I die who will help her with the funeral?" and "Who will she talk to? I can't let her do that all on her own!" Good God, parenting can be so morbid at times. Obviously I don't think she's going to grow up a total loner recluse, my Dad's an only child and he's the worlds best host, he has loads of friends and will laugh and joke with whoever but I just don't know what I'd do without my brothers and sisters. If I have problem's, need a baby sitter or just want a good gossip, there's always one available on the end of the phone. I need to give her somebody to grow up with I think, it'll be good for her. Oooo! Is this my wisdom coming to me because I'm closing my 30th year?

Another celebration subject..... Christmas! Yes I realize it's only July, (I know that because it's my birthday tomorrow whoop whoop!) but I'm going for an amazing fully hand crafted room this year, and I need to plan early if I'm going to get all the tinsel, card and sticky backed plastic that I'm going to need for this seasonal wonderment! I can't wait for me, my girl and my husband (under protest) toget stuck into salt dough stars, popcorn garlands and gingerbread angels all on the tree. Been looking at some lovely retro Christmas books from the library with things in it like sewing your own stocking, making dried fruit baubles and things, really lovely. I now the net is a fountain of information, but sometimes a book is just.... better. The Ultimate Christmas by Jane Newdick has some lovely ideas. My head is obviously seasonally pickled. All this weird weather has my inner calendar confused. OR IS IT MY AGE??!! Well, at least I'll be full of idea's for Yule and if I find some crafty bargains, I'll be sure to let you know. If I get around to doing any of these things is a story for another day.

A Happy Moment

I've had such a wonderful coulpe of days. I can't really recall the order in which most of the events took place but I have a general Idea.

On thursday I recieved a message from an old friend saying;

  "Hello Kyla. I passed you before with your gorgeous little girl, holding hands and skipping at the bottom end of Greengate street. You made my day mate, you both looked so happy and carefree, it brought a smile to my face and a lump to my throat. Had a tough week work wise but you brightened my day so thank you you lovely mummy you xx"

   It was so lovely it brought a tear to my eye. My friend works as a social worker, mostly with children and I appreciate that it must be quite hard to stay positive at times dealing with the things that she has to, and even knowing that such horrible things go on in the world, so I'm glad I could brighten her day. There are some good parents out there, I'm certainly not saying I'm the best but I do try to be good. We may not have all the money we'd like but you don't need money to have a good skip to the library hey?! Loads of fun.
   Talking of skipping to the library, when we arrived there needless to say, we picked out some books. Little'un opted for a story about peas and I opted for a one pot cookery book, this suggests the truth about the family....we all have a good appetite!

  
  On saturday my husband had gone out from early afternoon until early hours of this morning. He's in a band and so gigs fairly regularly, last night was one such gigging night.

   My little woman and I had a whale of a time and didn't miss him one bit! Well maybe a little. We started off with dancing, my daughter's music of choice is a bit of metal especially anything by early Sepultura, whenever i put 'Roots' on, she goes absolutely crazy and I tend to follow suit. After a spot of groovey moving, it was finally decided that we should have hotdogs, fries and baked beans for tea, but sit on our new picnic blanket in the lounge with it to make it that extra bit fun.
  After that heavy bout of decision making, we then played ball rolling in the living room for a while and I have to you that I find that one of the most therapeutic games ever! No stress just pure fun and I don't know what's so funny about it, but me and my girl don't half giggle. While we were playing that, (with me darting back and forth to the kitchen warming hotdogs and buttering bun's etc.) there was a knock on the door, a bit of a random really. Some fella had moved in two doors down from me, and asked if he could borrow a pint glass?! A strange request, one which I had to decline as I don't actually own one. I have plastic tumblers, halloween tankards, and a few crystal wine glass', which were one of my wedding pressies, so I'm not lending them out to strangers. So I had to send him on his merry way without one.
  Well, me and the girl had our fabulous hotdog indoor picnic and loved it. This was follwed by a desert of buckaroo, frustration, many of our library books being read and a very late night! Extremely bad parenting at 9:45pm, but we were having too much fun to be bothered by such trivialities.

  This morning was also doubly good. Not only was it the first day of my holiday, not having to get up at 4:45 in order to get scrubbing a supermarket, it was also seen in by my husband whipping down to Morrisons for all ingredients needed for a good full English, we are not a vegetarian household so it involved lots of meat! Sausages, bacon, eggs, black pud, mushrooms, hashbrowns, beans and a slab of bread and butter. Lush! He was promptly forgiven for having a social life the night before.

Piggy Goes Pop!

Oh dear! I think I spoke too soon when I put 'working' in the title. Just had a rather unexpected call from my manager telling me that there will be some major hours cut at work! I have to tell you that I'm slightly worried about the whole ordeal. I'm only a cleaner at Asda, but that job keeps budget meals on my family's table! (Well, laps on the sofa, we're not at all conservative.) I'm having a one to one meeting in the morning so I'll find out more then. Fingers crossed for me not getting too many hours knocked off. 

On a slightly more uplifting note, my husband has just whipped off for some ear bleeding doom guitar practice and despite me spending 2 hours playing buckaroo, frustration and piggy goes pop, (which looks remarkably like myself upon entering a restaurant of any kind,) my daughter still cries for her daddy. She's such a daddy's girl bless her, it's really quite heart warming.