What a weekend

What a busy weekend but how satisfying to accomplish so much and have a tidier happier home at the end of it.... After the last 3 weeks of driving 52 miles a day doing the school runs costing us nearly £40 a week I was ready to drop on Friday... luckily Mr P has been able to pick up Jamie from school at 3:30pm so I get an afternoon off...
Friday morning while Danny was at pre-school the sky man came and fitted our sky dish and we are now flicking through more channels than can be healthy but as we never go out socialising and Mr P missed Overhaulin and Mythbusters I caved in and let him have sky again...

Saturday morning saw a hive of activity cleaning and tidying the postman delivered Jamie's bus pass so I no longer have to drive her 44 miles a day to school ... to say I am pleased and relieved would be an understatement, Jamie's friend from school came over and they started designing their fancy dress costumes for an 8 mile sponsored walk they are doing at school on Wednesday... needless to say I dug out some transfer paper and they printed designs off the computer which I then fumbled my way through ironing onto a white t-shirt... Jamie's friend took hers home for her mum to do... Jamie then spent the afternoon at her friends house... we dropped Danny at mums and headed off to the garden of an elderly family friend and mowed, pruned and tidied her garden.... after a quick coffee we loaded Mr P's van and he headed for the recycling center and I headed for the electrical store....
it had been decided that we really could do with a freezer as I was at a complete loss as to what to do with all my apples so I quickly chose a under counter freezer and I also bought a combination microwave oven

Mr P headed home with new electrical bits and I zipped off to mums to collect Danny and get home by 6:30pm as Jamie would be home at 7pm...

Now if I can get my head around all the new technology (obviously a freezer is fairly simple) I will hopefully be able to simplify meal times and still be able to watch that programme I would have missed while preparing it... if I can get it off the cartoon network and Disney channel for 2 minutes! ;D

Sunday was slightly less manic... only slightly though... in a bid to get a little more storage space in the kitchen I rescued a pine shelving unit from the garage and with Danny and Jamie bundled into the car I headed for the DIY store... we bought undercoat and white gloss and some magnetic blackboard paint (more about this another day)
Of course we had to have ice cream before we came home and then I returned to undercoat the shelves... I have managed one coat of gloss before Mother and father in Law arrived for afternoon tea... Then it was home work done, tea then showers and baths and uniform and school bags all ready... and

phew....

So off I pop to tidy the bombsite that is my horrid little bathroom and I find a friend.... where he came from after all the activity I do not know but if Jamie knew she was not alone in the bathroom when she showered I believe the screams would have been audible on Mars...

Jamie does not do spiders.... especially big ones

So I can only assume that frosts will soon be upon us and the spiders and mice will be heading somewhere warmer and so long as its not my house I am happy!

I have been quite low the past few weeks, tired and very fed up with my lot but today as I drove to pre-school with Danny I listened to him singing in the back of the car never has a rendition of "12345 once I caught a fish alive" sounded so sweet from a 3 year old and I realised that everything around me looked somehow brighter and clearer... perhaps my mind and my soul are restoring themselves but to say I was considering asking the doctor for medication to help me cope I think I might be okay now though... I still feel fuzzy and spaced out but I think I may be cresting the wave and rising from the depth of the swell... the immediate future feels less worrying so on that note I had better get on and collect Danny from pre-school and after we have had lunch I will give that shelf another coat of paint....

take care everyone
thanks for popping by!

x Alex

Edited 21/09/09 at 1:20pm
Change of plans... while the sun is shining we are off to the shop to get an ice cream and then going to the swings and slides for a play and a picnic... its suppose to rain tomorrow I can paint shelves then... live for the moment and all that!

big hugs!
A

What a Beautiful September day,
I bought some pears from Kathryn at the village cafe and I am tempted to make a pear and apple crumble... the apples are from my tree at the bottom of the garden...

This year has been a good year for apples

Still a few apples left...

and the sky is so perfectly blue...

We shifted a ton and a half of concrete the weekend before last from this small area of our long narrow garden... we have put down Cotswold chippings as the soil underneath is very clay and brick filled...
a friend of ours thought it was like a garden of rest...
and as that's what I need I think it will do just fine...
the shadow is cast by a large horrible asbestos garage that is on the list of things to be removed but as its full of motorbikes, tools and some of my stuff too I think it will be a little way down the list...
I estimate we have another 5 tons at least of concrete to shift...

We looked into buying wood to make a planter but while we were at our local farmers supplies store buying a new fence panel and posts (Mole Valley farmers) we suddenly realised that the cattle troughs were cheaper than actually buying the wood... so we opted for one of those...
now I know that galvanising is a really nasty process using horrible chemicals but it will last a good long while and I need raised containers as acid pants (more commonly known as Smudge the dog) takes great pleasure in peeing on anything and everything killing it dead... he is better than any weed killer I know! trouble is he doesn't differentiate between my herbs and the weeds...

Weekend Work to come...

We desperately need to replace the bathroom, and as we are currently without a boiler the kitchen needs a rejig to fit in an on demand water heater... as we don't have central heating we don't need a big boiler just enough to do the washing up and wash hands and faces... The bath will need to be ripped out and a shower put in its place... so that our teeny tiny bathroom at least feels a little bigger.... now all we need is the nerve to take the plunge and do something... Mr P is a "rip it all out and buy new" kinda guy...
but I am a "well there's nothing wrong with the ceramic hob so why do we need a new one!" kinda gal!

its a little tricky like that... I use to be a "wow... get a new one coz its all sparkly and nice!" but I do so worry about our wastefulness... and to think back at what our parents and grandparents had and how we don't realise how lucky we are... it a predicament indeed... I am sure we will compromise and anything with a little life left in it will be offered to Furnicare or the local second hand furniture shop...

Well I had better put the kettle on and do some washing up... my only means of heating water at he moment... its like camping in my own home..

and there may be a light at the end of the tunnel regarding Jamie's school bus, Somerset County Council seem to think there is an empty seat on the bus and I have posted back the forms they sent me... so keep everything crossed that it isn't a data entry mistake on the computer...

Danny had a fall at pre-school and cut his head on the concrete in the play area, he seems fine though

The Kitten is due to go to the Vets on Monday to have her stitch removed...(we had her spayed) which will be good as she's driving me nuts with the lampshade on her head.... mind you I raced down the garden to find her in the Guinea pigs run and the only thing stopping her from killing the guinea pig was the cone on her head... as she couldn't quite get through the gap... phew that was close!

Mum is waiting for an appointment to have more skin cut from her arm as a mole she had removed was malignant... they say that they have gotten it all but they still want to take some more... this will mean that the hole will be too big to just sew up and she will probably require a skin graft... she's worried about it.. I can tell... but as usual is putting a brave face on it all..

I have posted the giveaway parcels today and have an order for a Regis dog from a lady at the village cafe...


I am not sure how much to charge her though... I suppose £4 would be fine as its enough for me to buy another ball of wool to make another one... so long as my habit for yarn covers its costs I am happy.. :D

T.L.B.G Wednesday

We have been asked to write about and share ideas and thoughts on green cleaning....

To be honest this is my weakest area as I don't really buy green products, so I have been researching what I could do to be greener....

First I thought I would have a look and see what Mrs Beeton had to say about the subject...
(Considering she died when she was 28 she seems to know an awful lot about running a Victorian house)

(click on images to enlarge)

1,112 pages of fascinating information about everything and anything to do with running a Victorian house, and over 900 pages of recipes

but I am unsure of the modern validity of some of the ingredients so I sought a more up to date information and popped over to visit Rhonda Jeans blog Down---to---earth

now this lady has an amazing list of home made cleaning products that I will be giving a go...

Now I know that I am really naughty for not being greener in my cleaning products and I know its something I need to rectify but I am starting out on this road to kinder living and I hope you can forgive me for my lack of effort...

Sorry for the simple post but to be honest I am shattered, the 50 mile a day school runs are taking their toll, but fingers crossed a place may be available on the school bus after all... and Danny (in his mad dash to get the best bike, at pre-school) tripped and smacked his head into the concrete path, resulting in a trip to the doctors... he's seems fine though and I did put a plaster on the cuts as the oozing clear scabby stuff coming out was very gory looking...

I am posting the giveaway parcels tomorrow
and I have just taken delivery of my October Crochet World magazine so a happy evening will be had by me...
fingers crossed!

Take care
Alex
x

Yay... Mr BT engineer fixed it....!

In fact Mr BT Engineer was lovely.... mind you I am very nosey and chatted away about everything and anything while he worked.... we got a new junction box and a completely new line to the telegraph pole... which will hopefully make our phone and Internet not cut out when it either rains or gets windy...! ;D

Perhaps not blowing a fuse when Jamie announced that the football boots and shin pads we had just bought and she promptly left in the trolley outside Matalan never to be seen again was paid back to me by karma sending me a soon to be retiring BT engineer that is really fed up with the way BT are treating their staff! I am annoyed that they are forcing them to change their contracts to something that suits the company and has little regard for the staff (seems to be a common trend in all large companies) but yay for him being super efficient and doing a fantastic job...

Mini swap
Anyhoo.... I have been chatting to Lisa Ridgeon online and she kinda asked and I sorta offered to make her a gecko or two and it ended up being a swap... for 2 of her fabulous felt treats... I told her my plan to sew the Jammie dodger onto a bulldog clip so that I can keep all of Jamie's school notes and letters in one place so that I might find information when I need it.... and she thought it was a fab idea and in return for her using the idea she kindly sent me the felt goodies already attached to the clips... and I have to say she has done a much more professional job of it than I ever could...

her hand stitching is remarkable...

Lisa kindly sent this Jaffa cake for Danny's Pre-school notes...

And to finish it off at the back a lovely button....
Thank you Lisa, I think I came off the better here in this little swap...

by the way the real Jammie dodgers are a perfect size for popping in your mouth! even Danny has had a few... mind you he first wanted to eat the Jaffa cake... took me ages to get him to believe me that it wasn't real... ;D

Beach Hut round up....

On asking "Danny, are you cold? do you want your jacket?" this was the response...

This is the response when you turn a camera on a maturing 11 year old
.... go on Jamie suck it in... pose a little.... that's my girl! ;D
I think if we lived right on the coast she would really suit being a beach bum tom boy!
We had a lovely week... we didn't pop down as much as I had hoped as the road down from Yeovil to Lyme Regis was really quite tiring... and parking once there was horrendous... I booked the hut for 2 weeks but this last week I was hoping that Danny and I could pop down in the afternoons but unfortunately Jamie didn't get a seat on the school bus and as its not her catchment school they apparently don't have to provide one...
My week days are now:
8:20 everyone in the car
8:50 drop Jamie at school
9:30 drop Danny at pre-school
10:00 home
12:10 leave to pick up Danny
12:30 Pick up Danny
1:00 home
3:00 leave to pick up Jamie
3:30 pick up Jamie
4:00 get home cook tea....
needless to say a crochet project almost permanently lives in my car with me... thank goodness its so portable.. ;D

Giveaway time...

On the 1st of September all the names were written on paper and placed into the jug I found in mums cupboard... I really love the old enamel wares...
Jamie delved in and pulled out

Pink Fairy Gran

then Danny said "hey what about me!?"

so he delved his little hand into the jug and pulled out

Lisa Ridgeon

I managed to contact both people via email... before it got too windy and wet and Internet was lost... So I apologise for keeping you in suspense and big hugs to all that didn't have the luck of the draw... this time!

Well I am starting to get back into a routine and I am being hounded to give local tuition to ladies eager to learn to crochet... if the parish councillor who nabbed me in the village shop yesterday organises the mornings at the village hall I will gladly attend and give anyone who asks as much help as I can... but I really can't take on organising the venue, refreshments and money...

I am desperately trying to take a back seat but the people in front of me keep moving their chairs behind mine...

Well I had better get on with the washing up and make some mid morning snacks...
I have apples to pick, a crumble to make.. and a friends lawn to mow and some pruning and garden tidying to do... A PTA fun day to organise (even though I no longer have a child at the school...) but I will be standing down in October at the AGM... and a graffiti wall to organise for a youth event in October... I am so glad I am slowing down and taking it easy! lol ;D
Its starting to feel very Autumnal, my thoughts are turning to pumpkins and all the new recipes I have found for warming you up on a chilly evening...

I must get the chimney swept too and fill up the coal bunker.... and ...... I mustn't forget to..........


x
Alex