When

• When you are so tired it hurts

• When you are sick of painkillers but cant manage without them

• When you desperatly want another baby, but seriously doubt the possibility

• When you love being a Mama, but often feel bored to death

• When your hair, nails and eyebrow grooming comes after play-doh monster on the things to do list

• When you have a huge trampoline in the garden but cant risk a bounce

• When you used to be slim and confident and are now overweight with zero confidence

• When one best friend moves to New Zealand and the other dumps you when a late baby comes your way

• When you are neat fanatic without the energy to carry it through (so it drives you mad)

• When you are often anemic so look much better with a tan but dont usually tan and in fact go an impressive shade of lobster

• When all of these niggles go away because your two year old lays a chubby little arm around you and say 'I dont like you Mummy, I LOVE you'

Then you will have some idea of what fills my day.

 

 

Simple Supper

So that was summer was it? Seriously though, the sun was shining for a 2nd day in a row, but it didn't last. We had a downpour at lunchtime, followed by a cloudy afternoon and a sunny evening.

Oscar spent most of the morning popping in and out of the house/garden, with his big sister keeping an eye. I was cleaning, cleaning,cleaning. We had our first dinner guests last night and even though it was my idea I wasn't really ready for entertaining. I did manage to clean the whole place in time, including sweeping three levels of wooden flooring, followed by mopping 3 levels of wooden flooring. We have 1 rug down in the lounge which took 2 1/2 minutes to vacuum. Old houses do tend to gather more dust and dirt (or is that just my old houses?). But on the plus side, they are a bit more forgiving when it comes to the lived in look, minimalist it ain't.

Anyway, all the cleaning followed by a speed shower didnt leave much time for cooking so it was good old sausage casserole and mash (apple pie, strawberrys and cream). No one complained and it was pretty yummy.

My sister commented during the grand tour that she wouldn't fancy cleaning the place so I am hoping she meant I had done well, and not that it still needed cleaning. The kids of course couldn't care less and went from the playroom to the garden and back again, dust or no dust.

Along with a simple supper Duncan and Aimee and I quaffed down some wine, but of course the downside to being in the countryside is, everyone else has to drive home, ah well all the more for us, and Oscar, who has to be given Schloer in a proper glass and allowed to say cheers! 300 times during the meal.

Hopefully next time I will get the Nigella books out and manage something a bit more adventurous.

Much Needed

Yes, it finally arrived today in much abundance. The sunshine that is. I make no apologies for the volume of photos about to follow, we may not get another sunny day for another 2 weeks.

The first picture of the day was meant to be of Oscar running happily up the garden, but just as I clicked it, he fell down -

He seemed to decide he quite liked it down there -

It seems the last tennant wasnt much into the garden, and that coupled with 2 weeks of rain meant we really had to cut the grass, so Aimee and I did it between us. Oscar informed us his little wheelbarrow was a 'cutter grass' and he helped with the grass collection.

Tea and cake was an absolute must for the workers

Then Mama did some outdoor knitting

And Oscar went off to play in the long grass at the end of the garden (we need a longer extension cable)

We are hoping for more of the same tomorrow. I hope you have had a lovely day too.

Valerie

xxx

Another Wet Monday

Today started off the same as nearly every other day, regardless of weather or plans for the day, Oscar likes to watch an episode of Noddy, and yes I know tut tut bad TV watching Mama. But he loves it so, and it least each episode has a moral lesson (that's what I am telling myself).

I had hoped hoped hoped for nice weather today, because after a week of rain, Oscar has ramped up his capacity for mischief making.

In case you are not sure what you are looking at, thats the thread from my sewing machine wrapped around Oscar's feet, and encased in the middle is a lollipop.

We managed to make a dash to the shop to buy the ingredients for broccoli soup and cheese biscuits, recipe ideas are HERE

Of course its not like we had no fun, since Mama had her camera out, monkey see, monkey do

And since it was still raining, and rained all afternoon, there was nothing else for it.

Lets hope we can get out to play today.

Valerie

xxx

Where Did My Flow Go?

I am missing the flow I never knew I had. I read a lot in blog-land about rhythm and flow, and ponder on it. I guess it sort of means routine, in a relaxed sort of way. I was never good at routine. I love the idea of it, and I think I mentioned here before that I say lets get organised, a lot, but I never manage to stick to it. It comes with having a low boredom threshold I think.

Now we have moved to this lovely new house, I realise I did have a flow/rhythm to my day. Through Monday to Friday at least, Oscar and I had our own little way of doing things and they have evaporated before my eyes, and I find myself sitting not knowing what to do next. Its partly due to the house being completely different to the old one. The old house was a mid terrace standard layout, ground floor - lounge, dining room, kitchen, 1st floor - bathroom, 3 bedrooms, pretty standard. This house is set out a little different, Ground floor - bathroom, dining room / informal lounge, kitchen, 1st floor - lounge, playroom, Aimee's room, 2nd floor -  Our bedroom, Oscar's bedroom. There is also an amazing sun-room in the garden (freestanding, it was once a jewellery studio/shop), and we also have an old-fashioned wash house which houses the laundry appliances (luckily I don't have a spider fear). The sun-room has bags and boxes in it from the move which we are slowly working our way through, but once its empty and given a lick of paint, its going to be amazing.

Running up and own 3 flights of stairs may be good for our fitness levels (or general lack of, around here), but my memory these days is awful, and you can be sure I will forget many things over the course of the day and have to run up and down many times. Oscar likes to chat on the stairs, which is sweet, but when we are at the top balancing a cup of tea, a menagerie of stuffed toys and my knitting basket, and I am bursting for the loo and need to get to the ground flour, the shine comes off the lets count each step twice and chat to the cats on the way game.

I guess we need to find a new rhythm, its funny missing somthing I never knew I had, maybe the new one will slip into place when I am not looking like the last one did. I hope so, my poor bladder cant take this much exercise.

Its not all gone to pot though, we have actually managed to cobble together a summer nature table (shelf). Oscar loves it, I think its pretty cute too, what do you think?

 

We Are In -

- And we have internet. Oh my, what an internet addict I have become. I was honestly having a bit of a strop about it taking 4 days for BT to get it up and running, pathetic or what?

The house is good though and we are all taking to it quite well. Even the cat. Oscar has asked to go 'home' a few times, but only when he is tired and trailing his blanket around behind him sleepy eyed.

Duncan has a 1 hour bus journey each way until he passes (fingers crossed), his driving test. Today was his first day back at work and he said it wasnt too bad. I used to moan about him coming home at 6pm though so 7pm is going to bug me (until we get a car).

Oh, and while I remember, can you send some lost/found vibes our way please, we are currently hunting for 

• The tin opener (fortunately the organic tinned tomatoes have a ring pull or the pasta sauce would have been fairly yuck tonight)


• The cordless telephone (my parents bakelite is working in the meantime but its quite crackly)


• Oscar's sippy cups (I caved in here, after 4 days of spills, and bought one from the pharmacy)


• The 2nd toiletry bag with the shampoo


• The box for the current reading books


• The flip folder with Oscars little DVD collection (Pingu being the most asked for).

Right, now I have the internet again, I am off to frown at the astronomical price of braided rugs and ponder on the ease/difficulty of making one.

House

I had written a long post last night about the hell that was yesterday. It seems the Gods didnt want me to publish it because Typepad chewed it up and spat it out. Maybe it sensed I was in an emotional state and thought it best to leave that out of the blog? Anyway, here is the abbreviated version

~No money in bank

Bus to new house didnt turn up ~

Caught bus 1 hour late ~

Oscar was VERY sick on both of us on late bus ~

Had to wear awful Red Cross Charity clothes to house handover ~

Red Cross charity clothes better than vomit clothes ~

Got house handover no problems ~

Went for celebratory lunch in 'THE' cafe in village ~

Had no lunch, chef set herself on fire as we got there ~

Caught bus back to city, no sick this time ~

Bag fell open and contents fell out onto young man on bus ~

Spilt contents included, 3 nappies, 2 sanitary towels, lots of scraps of paper, 1/2 chewed lolly, 1 dirty bib, mobile phone, etc etc ~

Went to bank branch ~

Bank froze account because I dont normally have so much money going in (a large check went in) ~

Have to return to bank today ~

Went home in pleated skirt and see through blouse from Red Cross and cried.

Yup, do you believe in 'signs'?

I did take some photos of the house though, its not all the rooms and they are a bit scrappy because the were taken on my phone, but you can get some idea.

Back to the bank today and the removers come tomorrow at 9am. I am not sure if I will manage to post again until the weekend or after, so wish us luck, please wish us luck.

Valerie

Oscar's Weekend In Photos

Duncan and I spent most of the weekend sorting, packing, cleaning or sleeping. Luckily we had Oscar by our side to make us smile.

Have A Lovely Week Everyone.

Valerie

{this moment}

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Soule Mama

Caving In

So there I was, strolling along in the sunshine and I accidentally fell into the wool shop, oh my goodness, how did that happen? So to back up a bit, sometimes you cant help yourself can you?

After I hit publish on yesterdays post, I went about my business of hoovering up scrambled egg and toast crumbs (what do you mean that's not good for my hoover? and ooh have I told you how much I love my dyson? oh I do love it so, even at that astronomical price). I could tell the postman was at the door because Oscar began jumping up and down like a flea and pointing at the door, he gets just as excited at parcel post as me. So what do you think the parcel was, for the woman with 18 pairs of new bamboo knitting needles, a new rocking chair and no wool?

Yeah, did you think I was going to say wool? No, instead it was 'Weekend knitting : 50 unique projects by Melanie Falick, Amazon link HERE Oscar was slightly disappointed it wasn't for him, but while I finished Dysoning, Oscar looked through the pictures (anyone who has seen the book, his favorite project was the egg cozies in the shape of little jumpers). Well goodness me, that was enough to put me over the edge. I had also promised to knit a matching hat as the mama and toddler slouch hats mentioned before, for Duncan. Duncan didnt ask for it by the way, when I put Oscar and mine on, he smiled and said, 'where's Daddy's?' I had a trip out planned anyway, so thats when I fell into the wool shop to buy some organic cotton blend in a lovely shade of blue for Daddy's hat.

Since I am doing another post on knitting (you would think I had nothing else going on in my life at the moment), I braved the mirror today and took a picture of my hat (see yesterdays post for Oscars).

Right, back to the knitting, em packing, no knitting, no packing.

All The Knitting

Good Morning! No seriously, its a good morning, no rain today for the first time since Friday. I know that's only 4 days, but its 4 days in June. Whenever I start to moan about the weather though, it always reminds of The Big Yin (that's Billy Connolly to you), and his joke about 'Where do you think Scotland is? The Pyrenees? Mountain rescue are sick of rescuing tourists in khaki shorts and sandshoes.' Ahem, true true.

Anyway, the knitting. As I said yesterday I managed to knit a pair of hats at the weekend. It started out as one green and cream slouch hat for myself, but Oscar now has the impression that everything I knit is for him. In all fairness it nearly always is, but I promised myself this hat. So a deal was struck that I would make him a matching hat in a colour of his choosing, he chose yellow. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my hat yet (I couldn't face the mirror yesterday), but here is Oscars.

Mine is exactly the same but in green and larger. I made up the VERY simple pattern myself, I may put it up as a freebie PDF. Mama and Toddler matching slouch hat. If anyone would be interested?

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the yellow bundle in the background, its Oscars 'knitting'.

Oscar calls knitting, 'knitty knotty' can you see why?

So, while we are on the subject of knitting, what do you think arrives in the post on the day I have nothing to knit?

And what do you think comes home with a very kind husband on the day you want to sit down and knit with your new knitting needles?

Still, I did manage to make some curtains out of a single duvet cover for the new house (check me out, actually using the sewing machine). And that chair is begging for a new cover and back cushion.