Rainy Day Survival

The weather this past week has not been great. In fact, that is an understatement. It has been downright miserable. I have been at a complete loss as to how to entertain the children, when we are stuck in day after day. We've done all the puzzles, read lots of books, watched lots of cartoons and DVD's and gotten fed up of that old stand by - drawing. So, what to do???? Then it suddenly came to me. I remember being at a playgroup near to where we used to live and one of the organisers had brought in some homemade playdough. That's it, I thought, I'm going to make some playdough. And make playdough we did. I googled for a recipe then we got right to it. And joy of joys, it provided a least a couple of hours of argument-free play. It even held their attention for another couple of days play, that is until Jasmine decided that it could do with the addition of some mixed omega 3 seeds that she was snacking on. Needless to say, it went in the bin and I went back to the drawing board...

Family walks

As of the last few weeks we have made it a point to go out for a walk on a sunday before dinner. The children just have so much energy to burn that it makes sense to take them out for a couple of hours, and it's about the only time that we get to spend any real quality time together as a family. Luckily the weather has held out and apart from a little light drizlle, it stayed dry. The we decided to try a walk that Nick had heard of in a nearby village called Standlake. We're not sure if we found the walk that was meant, but we did find a long bridle path through some fields that was quite nice. There were definately lots of lovely, deep, muddy puddles which delighted Ben and Jas. They insisted on splashing through all but the deepest which we warned them not to go in. The highlight of our walks though is the part where we find a nice cosy little pub and stop for a drink. Me and the kids had yummy hot chocolates which came with a small biscuit and mint chocolate. Then we walked though the village back to the car. It was really nice to walk through the door and be greeted by the yummy smells coming from the kitchen, and none of us realised just quite how hungry all that walking had made us - ahhh, the country air! After dinner we all also realised just how tired we were and it didn't take much persuading to get the children bathed and into their pyjamas.

Aaahhh!

muddy puddles, yay!

Jasmine enjoying her hot chocolate in the Black Horse pub, Standlake

It's amazing how simple it really is to enjoy life. I feel at my most content and happy when we've all been out and spent the day together walking and enjoying the outdoors and eachother. When it comes down to it, that's all that really matters.

Two very tired children...

Since moving to our new home our 3rd bedroom has been used as little more than a junk room with all of the boxes that we haven't yet unpacked or sorted through being piled in along with the larger of the children's toys and anything else that I can't find a home for. We had great ideas of turning it into an office come playroom come guest room (ambitious I know, it's only a small double), but so far this plan has yet to materialise - that is until Nick decided he was gonna sort it out. And when Nick puts his mind to doing something, he finds a way and he somehow does it. Case in point would be our new bed (which I lurrve soooo much that any excuse for a nap and I'm in my PJ's!). we bought it from Ikea and it is a Euro Kingsize bed. That is, it is larger than a UK Kingsize. Anyway, we went to Birmingham for the New Year and as we arrived we left the kids and were off again to Coventry to the new IKEA there. we duly bought mattress and bedframe etc...and I was worried that it was never going to fit into our car. Nick wasn't fazed however and somehow or another he got it in - and all without having to leave the boot open. Admittedly we had to move our seats so far forward that my chest was up against the dashboard - and God knows how uncomfortable Nick was - but we did it all the same! That wasn't the end of the bed challenge either. Nick had to go home the next day so that he could go to work New Year's eve and he took the bed. By the time he called to say he was home safe he'd already put it together - he both drove to witney and assembled this mammoth of a bed in just over two hours. Not bad, not bad at all.

Did I mention just how much I love my bed?...

Yesterday he set about putting up the new desk that we bought at the weekend (another IKEA find - I just love IKEA!) and although it remained in it's box in the hallway, and then in the junk room for a few days, he once again set about assembling another flatpack and thus started the ball rolling.

Before....

During...

After!

The kids wasted no time trying out the new set-up!

I took the kids to the park and they took theirs...

Since the rain managed to let up today, I decided to take advantage of the respite and take Ben and Jas to the park to get rid of some of their excessive amounts of energy. Jasmine insisted on taking her 'babies' and her new pushchair that she got for Christmas, and not to be outdone, Ben decided he was going to take his 'zeebra' (pronounced as Americans do - don't ask, cause I don't know!) I must admit that I can get rather bored at the park, and regularly check the time to see if I can come up with a good enough reason to leave 'in 5 mins - or a good enough bribe that is. It's not so bad when there are other children/mums on tha park to entertain us, but sometimes the kids just wanna stay until I feel as though my bum would freeze to the bench if I stayed any longer. There is some pleasure to be had though, usually when we race from one end of the park to the other and back, or watching the way the kids interact others and the games they come up with. As you can see from the pics, they especially enjoyed having their babies with them to put on all the exciting apparatus!

Now you just sit tight and hold on...

Weeeeeee!

We have had flood warnings issued over the past week and already certain parts of Witney and the surrounding villages have been flooded. Me and Nick work in an old converted Mill in the middle of a field which is surrounded by the river Windrush. Normally it snakes around the building (and through it where the old waterwheel used to be), but now it has swollen there appears to be a lake out there. Even the playing field near our house has been saturated

Looking rather contemplative...



Splish Splash!

As the rain is showing no signs of letting up I'm going to have to rack my brains for ways to entertain them both so that we don't all go mad. If the rain isn't too bad I'll just wrap them up warm, stick on their wellies, hand them their umbrellas and we'll go do some more splashing!

Rain rain go away....

We are well and truly fed up with all this rain we've been getting. Me and the children are driving eachother nuts out of sheer boredom and cabin fever. So today I managed to prise Ben away from the cartoons on our new TV and Sky Box to get us all out for some fresh air. Ok, so we only went to the Co-Op round the corner to pick up some dry-cleaning, but it's a start!

Anyway, Jasmine got a new matching rain mac and umbrella from her aunty Dawn for Christmas and relishes any chance to show them off, so it was as good an excuse as any to go out.





I know I say it really often, but I can't believe how time flies. It seems like only yesterday that Ben was born nevermind Jasmine, and yet my youngest baby is now of school age (well she would be if we were still living in Leicester, Oxfordshire children start a year later). As she goes to nursery every morning I decided to make life easier on all of us and get her a uniform. It not only saves time choosing clothes, but stops them getting ruined too, and has the added bonus of making her feel really special and grown up (give her a few more years and she'll hate wearing one I'm sure)

So today she got to wear her first school (read 'nursery') uniform. And doesn't she look soooo adorable!

Bye Gail, we will always love and miss you x

It’s been a long time since I last posted anything and so much has changed, both for good and bad. Devastatingly for my family was the sudden passing away of my aunty Gail at only 44, the morning after arriving on holiday in Marseille. Even more unfortunate was that it happened the day after Jasmine’s 3rd birthday and I found out just as guests were arriving. I have never experienced anything so completely devastating in my life and it has changed me so much. Gail was such an intrinsic and focal point of our family – in more ways than we even realised when she was with us and her passing has left such a gaping hole. The kids adored her and she them, and they regularly say they miss her or they want her to come back. It was the hardest thing I have ever done telling them that their aunty Gail had gone to heaven, made easier only because I don’t think they fully grasped what it actually means in the long term. I definitely think that us no longer living in Leicester has helped both me and them to deal with it. If we had still been living five minutes away from her house then it would be all the more painful as she often dropped by after work and we would visit most Sundays and she would also babysit during the week for us. I couldn’t possibly hope to condense all that she meant to us and all that we did together into a short blog entry, but suffice to say I feel that I have lost a mother, a big sister and a best friend all in one. Gail, we miss and love you and always will until we meet again in a better place x

Christmas and the New Year

Despite the sadness, we actually had a really nice over Christmas and the New Year. We had Nick's mum, my mum and my brother over for Chrsitmas day, and boxing day all my family visited from Leicester and so did my best friend - and godmother to Ben and Jas - Joss. In all we were 18 and yes, I cooked for us all - on both days! For the New Year we went to stay with Nick's family in Birmingham and much eating, drinking and playing of games was enjoyed. Benjamin and Jasmine got to go wild with the Theo and Emile (Nick's much younger brothers!), and their cousins Joshua and Jonathon and also got to eat whatever they did or didn't want. Apart from the odd fight, or banged head they were content to amuse themselves leaving us adults to far more serious pursuits such as girls v boys on articulate!

Ben took this photo and I think he did quite a good job!

Those presents are almost bigger than they are!

Ben and Jas with their 'Nana Debbie' and their 'Uncle Ben'

Look at that! Gambling in front of children!

Jasmine and Theo pose for a picture

For the above reason Christmas and the New Year was particularly hard for me, but I have decided that this Year things will be different. I will stop making excuses and finding reasons why I can’t do the things that I really want to, or need to do. Case in point would be taking my practical driving test. It is now here on record that by the end of this week I shall have booked myself some refresher lessons to familiarise myself with my new surroundings, and my practical test.
Another thing is to get up earlier. I always want to do this to give myself time in the morning to prepare better for the day before the children wake up, but especially at this time of year, it is just too cosy under the duvet and too dark outside to stick to any promises I make about waking an hour earlier. But life is too short to waste sleeping, so as of Monday just gone I have been getting up at 6.30 instead of 7am – ok, so it’s only a babystep, but as confuscius said; ‘a journey of 1000 miles begins with one step’. This is my first step. Next week I will aim for 6am. I will also be setting myself regular daily and weekly goals to keep up the momentum. I shall keep you posted on my progress……