Even more beach walks

Sometimes I think that you must get fed up of seeing images of the same beach over and over again, but then when I look at the photos, I realise why I am drawn here time and time again. Despite its bleak qualities no two walks are ever the same, and on this particular occasion the sky, and sea were very dramatic, we walked caught in the cusp of good weather followed by bad and that is self evident in the skies.

The wind had brought with it lots of flotsam, and we are now the proud owners of discarded plant pots, rope, a trowel and a sand rake! I wonder if my girls ever lift their heads up long enough from their foraging on the beach to appreciate what is really around them? Then again I guess I don’t fully appreciate the joys of having found a carrot-handled trowel! So we are even there.

I am wondering if the wind, which brought me an earache, in spite of my hat, also brought with it this ague I am currently suffering, Monday was spent shivering in bed, and today the Smallest and I have done as little as is humanly possible so that contact was barely broken from the sofa, I feel truly terrible, and it takes a lot for something to put me off, but put me off it has, so, if it’s a while before the next post, I’m obviously still recovering!

Sunday perfection…

We possibly achieved perfection today. A slowish start to the morning filled with the breakfast of our choosing ( pancakes for me and the Smallest, porridge for Hubby and the Tallest).

Followed by adding the final flourishes to the scarecrows and our wheelbarrow ( more on those in another post ) and putting them out on display as part of the village’s scarecrow festival.

A walk round to view some funny, some clever, some just plain cute scarecrows, warmed by hot soup afterwards and an hour or two spent working my way through the mending pile ( see above ) as both girls played happily together in the presence of MrGT who is still not quite back to his old self yet.

Whilst mending I listened to Roger Deakins which was truly wonderful and has made me want to pick up the book again, followed by a feature length Agatha Christie mystery, virtually uninterrupted.

A trip to the Fair on the green and back again for roast beef and all the trimmings.

Happy children, no arguments or slow timing for bed, a quite amazing day, in a wonderful, uneventful kind of way.

Have you ever had a beautiful, perfect day creep up on you without noticing? I’m so glad I took stock just now to appreciate just how marvellous today has been.

Happiness.

Rainy Days and Mondays…

….always get me down….

Well if the Tallest’s face is anything to go by that lyric would be right!

Despite the less than perfect weather, after some indoor play, we took the dog for a much needed stretch around a fairly local woodland. We were going to look for treasure, but the Smallest had an almighty tantrum, over not wanting to hold Daddy’s hand whilst on the slippery mud, so we didn’t do it lest it should feel too much like a reward for her, shall we call it, unsociable behaviour.

We’ve had a busy few days here as my brother brought his brood up for the Easter break, so, even though on my last post I claimed that all was back to normal – it wasn’t, five children are certainly a tour de force, as my brother put it so delicately when we were corralling the children from one place to another ” it’s a bit like herding cats” ! Indelicate, but alarmingly accurate.

I’m on a break from work this week to be with the children, whether I’m here more often than not I don’t know but I am hoping that I can get back into the mindset of dropping a few lines and photographs here and there over then next week or two.

Normal service to resume forthwith…

It’s been a trying couple of weeks, and as I remarked to my Mum the other day my brain is all a bit of a squiggle lately – too much to think about, too few brain cells to spare thinking about it!

Unfortunately this space had to be abandoned whilst I got to grip with things again, and when I’m sure that I have got them all in order, I’d like to share a little of them with you as a large chunk is to do with the Tallest’s feet and our recent issues with her dafo’s (or lack of them!)

Like I said to Hubby, through tears of sadness, anger and frustration as we were returning home after having to recover my (new) car. (Yes that happened too just to top it all off!) – most of the time I can just ignore it, it doesn’t go away, but it certainly isn’t my first and last thought of a day, but right now, it’s all there, it’s all at the front and it’s getting in the way of normal life…. Marfan Syndrome is not always an issue, but it’s always the issue if you know what I mean?

But hey! things are looking up, especially if you are a three year old with a watering can…

Keep your chin up. I know I am! X

Weekendiness

It was a crisp Spring day that greeted us this morning and despite yesterday’s Summer dresses, coats and hats needed to be worn on the beach.

I never cease to be thankful for the bounty of beauty that surrounds us, to have so much of it on our doorstep, betwixt so many different environments, marshland, sand dune, beach, broad, river, woodland. And that’s just in the few miles around our village.

So often we are caught up in having to go ‘somewhere else’ to enjoy what surrounds us. More often, we are discovering that enjoyment nearer to home.

It’s easy to fall in love with somewhere that you visit for say, a day, a weekend, or a holiday. Sometimes it’s rather easier than you think to fall in love with the place that you live.

Spring Forward

Life in this household seems to be finally gathering some momentum, if a little jerkily at times.

(I was going to share some photos with you, but WordPress seems to be playing up on me tonight…)

There has been the usual level of mild illness from the girls, and the unusual happening of me having a migraine, something that I haven’t experienced since I was pregnant with The Tallest, leaving me, up until some point today, feeling drained and rather like I have a hangover, which is what the period after a migraine is sometimes called, and I can see why, it’s just a shame that I didn’t get the enjoyable night out beforehand isn’t it?

There hasn’t been a great deal of making going on in this household. The knitting seems to be on hold. I managed to do a little bit of sewing for a friend of The Tallest’s and a bit of repairing, but that’s about it. I seem to have misplaced my Mojo for most things right now, as San puts it in one of her recent posts, I too have been suffering from the February Blahs! And I couldn’t think of a more succinct way of putting it.

Today there was a real sea change for me, the weather was milder, we were up and out of the house, The Tallest wasn’t going dancing today as she is having some real discomfort with her feet and wanted to give them a break (more on the ongoing saga of her feet another time), so there was real potential for a lazy morning, but lazy mornings keep turning into lazy days and I didn’t want that, so I had myself and both girls packed up and out of the house by 8.30am (Hubby had already been out since about 6am this morning), and we headed off to help at the Scouts jumble sale.

Despite my protests we have brought back more stuff than we went with, isn’t that always the way? I found a few bargains like a Poole Pottery Delphis Sweet Dish (20p) and a Homemaker Sideplate (20p) which unfortunately has a chip, but won’t look any the worse for being on my dresser:) The girls got a few more little toys, and some delightful vintage jigsaw puzzles. I have decided that if they change their minds about the puzzles I shall make each puzzle a wee bag and give them as gifts as they are too lovely to not be played with.

We are also finally getting the garden moved around (again!) so that room can be made for the long awaited chickens. I have to say that I am glad that our fantastic friends have been able to care for them for us over the last few months, as I get the feeling that that would be one responsibility too many for me over recent weeks!

Hoping to continue sharing with you this next week, with a few photos too if WordPress starts playing fair again, now that I appear to be getting back on track again – Amazing what a bit of Spring in the air can do for you isn’t it?

 

 

 

Oops!

Well, I’ve done it again, lost my blogging mojo! Rather a lot of it has to do with my appetite for watching films after the family have gone to bed (Hubby normally joins the girls by 8.30pm) I’ve been indulging in a good chunk of ‘me time’, and have completely given myself over to being transported off with a good story, and unlike a good book, all I have to do is stare at the screen instead of holding something which means I can work on the Tallest’s cardigan at the same time! So not quite all about me! And I get to watch rom coms to my hearts desire what can I say! I’m easily pleased!

We’ve been slowly making steps towards recovering from prolonged illness here, the Smallest ended up with another lot of antibiotics and an inhaler for the chest infection that she had, and it finally seems to have done the trick thank goodness.

The better weather has meant that I can get out into the garden, I’m doing a bit of shifting about at home to make a new home for the greenhouse which I can then get commissioned and into action, more on that one in a later post.

The above photo is from today, I spend my Tuesday’s at home with the Smallest, and normally I’m distracted by some job or other but today we’ve done plenty of just playing, it’s been lovely, I am slightly tinged with guilt that I haven’t done more jobs etc, but sometimes you just have to ignore all that don’t you? She’s gone to bed happy, tired and far more easily than any other night this past week which is wonderful in itself.

I’ve also realised that the photo lets you in on the other reason I’m distracted – the guitar. I’m teaching myself as I don’t think I could commit to more commitments like lessons if that makes sense, but I’m really enjoying it and so far I have learnt to tune it, play three basic major chords A C and E and am practising them and my strumming, and yes, typing this is a little hard going as the fingertips on my left hand are extremely sore!

I’ll be returning to this space real soon, probably Friday as its work tomorrow, and I’ll try to make sure it’s not just to show you photos of my bruised fingertips!

Half term heartaches

The sporadic nature of posts in this place are a fair indication of the kind of weariness that has befallen this household of late.

A weariness rooted in the whole family’s inability to rub along together, we all seem to want wholly different things from each other right now, and the Tallest in particular is really struggling with it. She is controlling, bossy, serious, and endlessly irritated and annoyed by the antics of her much lighter hearted sister, who cries of ” I’m being a good girl aren’t I mummy?” are NOT helping…

They are both finding it hard to “Tow the Line” as it is called in this household. Hubby and I are in constant discussion as to when did a reasonable request, such as “stop hand standing on the back of the sofa” and “please take off the hair band and tutu off the dog” etc. suddenly become an unreasonable one? Evenings that should be spent colouring, stitching and playing games, have been spent with surly looking girls with crossed arms sitting at opposite ends of the room, unable to offer up any answers as to why it is so difficult to actually comply with any of the requests that we ask of them.

A friend of mine once shared that in any given day throughout one hour in the morning it is usual for a parent to demand over 40 things of their child within the preparations for the day ahead. In this household 10 of those would be given over to just putting on our footwear, and with this in mind we have been trying, with the emphasis on trying here, to be less demanding, less urgent in the tasks we ask our children to fulfil, to give ourselves an extra few minutes so it isn’t the end of the world if it takes ten minutes to get one pair of shoes on….but….. it doesn’t always work like that does it?

I am worn down by the constant battling. I am so frustrated, with myself, for not finding a way to communicate with them that doesn’t sound like I am just telling them what to do all the time, and for them for just, well, ignoring me. A classic example happened to Hubby when he came home from work today.
Hubby: “Smallest, go and sit back down on the seatee like you were told please” (said in a pretty stern tone of voice in lieu of earlier hair pulling)
Smallest: nothing
Hubby: “Go and sit down or I will take away *insert current favourite toy here*”
Smallest: immediately sits down without hesitation

So my dilemma is, how do you help your children to get along without resorting to threats?

Help!

Playing catch up

Life here has taken on that sort of orange glow that those of us without expensive (or even just plain old ‘good’) cameras takes on at this time of year. Time spent indoors, interspersed with trips to play outside in the snow and ice, generally accompanied by Hubby who is having far too much of a good time to bother taking photos!

There is still that low lying residue of illness and general health niggles in the household, which has been the main reason for my lack of posts, to be perfectly honest by the time one and all are safely ensconced in their beds I am just about done for the day!

We have been trying to keep ourselves occupied otherwise, the Tallest is proving herself to be a real chip off the old block and has been sewing up a storm for her doll, her latest dress made with red felt and an appliqué flower is just so stunning that I’m going to get a decent day time shot of it to share with you another day. I’m knitting a school cardigan for the Tallest too, as I am disappointed by the shop bought ones and she is currently attending school wearing both a jumper and a cardigan. She feels the cold terribly and until I get this cardi finished it is the only sensible solution!

I hope that I will get my blogging mojo back real soon, as I do enjoy my time putting together a post or two here, but sometimes rather inconveniently life gets in the way of telling others about it doesn’t it? And a good early nights sleep wins over it all!

Sweet dreams everyone and I hope you’re enjoying the snow as much as we are…

New year’s blessings

As an impressive sunset settles over us tonight, so many of us will be sharing with others the hopes and expectations that we have for the coming year. Some may be considered trivial, others life changing, but all are important enough to have been decided on for the coming of the new year.

In all honestly I probably couldn’t tell you what all mine were without looking them up in my diary. I know a few of them, and I know that I have struggled to keep to one or two of them as well, but I like so many will be taking this opportunity to start as I mean to go on.

Most involve kindness, in particular to my long suffering husband – I suffer from that eternal affliction of having to be right! Always having an opinion on things, especially trivial things, seems to be my speciality, so I will once again be learning to try and keep myself in check again in 2012.

Spending more of my evenings making things, and using my quiet time usefully will be right up there at the top, along with limiting myself on using the computer, iPad, etc. To 90 minutes a day (excluding listening to talking books and music, as I can work whilst listening), and that includes the odd sneaky peek at facebook and especially blogs, which see me reading them until way after the clock has chimed midnight! 90 minutes is still quite a lot so I’m hoping that it will be a fairly straightforward resolution to keep.

Will you be joining in with the resolutions this year?