Update!!

As promised, my update. I did sort through all the children’s uniforms and made a list of what we need. Craig went into town to take some washing to the laundrette and got most of the things on the list. The rest we will get tomorrow as they are from shops that weren’t open today such as the school wear shop.

So that’s good! Of course I need to label it all now…. Hate that bit!

PE kits are all in their bags ready to go. Alfie has got his little bag for school which he loves as it’s got his favourite characters on it.

I had to use my inhaler last night and was amazed at the difference. I could actually breathe!! I did carry on coughing but at least I could breathe. I hadn’t realised just how poor my breathing had become until then, which is worrying. I even managed to get a good nights sleep which was great as I was quite nervous about going to bed. Woke up at 7 and needed to use the inhaler again, but managed to sleep until midday - bliss!!

Had to use the inhaler again this afternoon and had a couple of hours of free breathing which was nice but I can feel it closing in again. It’s hard to know when to use it, but I guess that will come with time and advice from the Doctor.

I was chatting to my cousin the other night on Facebook and he was telling me about an old family story - apparently our great great grandfather trained a racehorse that ran in the 1928 Grand National called Tipperary Tim. Tim was an old carthorse who had no chance - except the horse in front fell causing a big pile up. Tim just went round them all and was the only horse to finish the race. Now the story is true, and there is even footage of the race on You Tube, but the info I can find says that he was trained by Joseph Dodd, who so far hasn’t appeared in my family tree, but you never know! Whether it really is connected to my family or not it’s a pretty funny story.

A bit of "excitement" for me

I can’t believe I forgot to mention last time that we had potatoes from the garden with our Sunday dinner last week - very exciting as that is the first time we’ve grown our own food! The apple and blackberry crumbles were very nice too. If the weather is dry tomorrow we may go and pick more.

I’ve had a cold for weeks and weeks now. Most of the time it’s just at a very low level, not doing much other than making me feel under the weather but then about once a week/every 10 days it flares up and leaves me feeling really ill for up to 48 hours. I did wonder if it was just because over the summer I’ve been able to relax and it’s coming out because of that, but I am sooo fed up with it now. I’ve also had a cough for over a month now. Mainly at night and it’s making sleeping difficult as I’m just coughing and coughing most of the night. I’m ok if I’m sitting up but as soon as I lie down there it goes again.

This morning I had another coughing fit and was finding it hard to breathe. It was like a tight band around my chest restricting my lungs and I felt quite ill with it. I had an episode like this a few weeks ago but it passed after a couple of hours. I considered going to A&E but had an appointment at the bank that I really needed to go to so decided to leave it until afterwards. By the time I got out of the bank my breathing was a little easier so felt it wasn’t necessary to go to the hospital. As I didn’t sleep last night I went to bed for a snooze this afternoon but only managed half an hour before I was coughing too much again and I could feel my breathing getting worse and worse. A quick look in my book made me think it’s just a chest infection from the cold - better go to my GP.

Soon I realised it wasn’t going to wait until Monday so off we went to A&E. I was put on oxygen and had my blood pressure and pulse checked. They were concerned my heart rate was so fast so put me on a nebuliser which was very weird - and then I had a massive coughing fit which was horrible as I had tears streaming down my face from coughing so hard and couldn’t reach my bag for a tissue.

Anyway, they have diagnosed asthma!! I’ve been given an inhaler and advised to see my GP for further testing which I will make an appointment for on Monday. I’m glad I know what is causing this and that I now have something to help me - I’m sat here wheezing again and starting to feel my chest tighten and am trying to decide whether to use the inhaler just yet or not. Part of me is worried about going to bed in case it sets it off badly again. Hopefully it’s just connected to the cold and once that clears up finally then so will the asthma symptoms.
So that was my excitement for the day.

Not a lot else has happened this week - I finally did the huge mountain of ironing that was piled up. Well, more a whole mountain range than single mountain! And I must admit that Craig did a fair bit of it too. It hasn’t built up again yet, purely because our washing machine broke down on the same day so we’re developing a mountain of washing waiting to be done…. Might have to take a trip to the laundrette before the man comes on Wednesday.

And they say things happen in threes - well, my shower stopped working this week too. I love my morning shower - jump in, get washed, jump out. Nice and quick and fuss free. I hate baths - too much hassle to run and then get in, sitting in the dirt you’ve just washed off yourself and then trying to wash my hair using a bowl as we don’t have a shower attachment. However, on the plus side it means we need to do something about the shower. Not as simple as it sounds mind you. The shower is leaking somewhere and has soaked the floor which is going very soft so will need replacing as well. And if we’re going to go to that trouble we may as well do the whole room as it really needs to be done…. So I am finally going to get my new en-suite and get rid of the horrible one that is here. It’s got to go on credit cards mind you which isn’t so good.

What was the third thing? Ummm, I can’t remember but there was one. But Craig fixed it.
We got the children’s shoes for school. Not as awful as we thought it would be. Couldn’t et Jack to have a pair - he is still traumatised by being fitted with a pair two sizes too small for him obviously so he’ll be getting more trainers. I hope we can find another pair of Thomas ones for him!!! And Beth is in adult shoes now so she’ll get some from the Next catalogue if I get round to putting in the order.

Just got to go through all the school uniforms to see what they need then go out and get it. And I must find an In The Night Garden backpack for Alfie who starts playschool on Thursday. If he likes it. He’s so little still that we’re having second thoughts. He’s only 2, still a baby, but in some ways I think he’s ready. If he likes it he can stay and if not we’ll be quite happy to take him out until next year.

Tomorrow’s job is to sort the uniforms and I will try and report back to say I’ve done it. Promise.

Time is flying!

I haven’t written anything for ages - sorry! I don’t know where the time is going to at the moment, the school holidays have flown by again and once again we’ve done nothing we planned. Partly because we’ve all been ill with one thing and another (another reason for not updating my blog) and partly because - well, the school holidays always fly by. Every single year I get to this point and wish we could have another six weeks of doing not a lot but enjoying the time to relax and do our own thing with no time constraints. And yes, home educators, I do wonder if we should take them out of school, lol But we won’t - I think the fact they are at school means we appreciate every moment of them being at home even more.

So I have just over a week to sort out uniforms and shoes etc - once again it will be a last minute rush. One year I did manage to get it all done and labelled by the second week of the holidays and that was such a lovely smug feeling. Maybe one year we’ll manage it again!!

We have some changes happening this year - Alfie starts at playschool two mornings a week. Well, that was the plan. And I was really looking forward to having a couple of hours to myself. But we keep looking at him and thinking he’s way too young. He was two in June so he is still only a baby. So whether we will actually go ahead and take him in for his first day next week is still up in the air. We may give them a call and cancel the place (I know they could fill it several times over if we did so I wouldn’t feel too bad about it). Or we may see how he goes and if he hates it take him out, and if he loves it then we’ll be happier about it. He’ll be with Jack so it won’t be as if he’s just left on his own - then again, those two together are so mischievous they could get up to all sorts.

Just this morning I could hear Jack in Alfie’s room and the pair of them were giggling away about something, and last week I went up to get Alfie out of his cot to find Jack in his room and they were both eating the breakfast Jack had come downstairs for and taken back up to share with him. They are so cute together, play so nicely. And then they’ll have a big fight over a train or something.

Yesterday we went to the local country park and picked blackberries, one of our August traditions - and like every year we got halfway there and realised we’d forgotten a box to collect them in. Luckily we were going to Asda (or Hanster as Jack calls it….) anyway so we bought some plastic boxes and filled them with lovely juicy blackberries that I have just remembered are still in the fridge waiting to be made into apple and blackberry crumble (apples courtesy of one of our many fruit trees). Despite the amount we collected the children ate loads of them. Alfie wasn’t too sure at first but just one sweet berry was all he needed to get a taste for them and all the ones I picked were grabbed and gobbled by Jack and Alfie who spent the whole walk saying “more berries please”.

Craig held out a handful of berries to Alfie but before I could finish saying “don’t offer him all those he’ll have the whole lot off you” he’d grabbed them and stuffed them all into his mouth (bear in mind Craig has big man hands so how Alfie even fit them all into his little hands let alone his mouth I will never know). I so wish I’d had a camera to take a photo of him with berry juice pouring down his chin as he chomped his way through them. It’s a good job I’m not worried about my children wrecking their clothes - they all came home with red stains down their fronts and red hands.

Did I mention we’d decided to take the dummy away from Alfie? He’s had one since he was about 14 months old because he just wanted to be latched on 24/7. If he was my only child it wouldn’t have been so bad but having 6 others that need me as well I just couldn’t do it anymore so we resorted to the dreaded dummy. I really hate them, but I am so glad Alfie took to his to give me a break. Anyway, as he’s two I feel he’s too old for one so one day I simply popped it out of his mouth - he promptly stuck his spare one in (he always had one in his mouth and at least one in his hand) so that one went as well. We were reading a story so he was distracted and that was it. He now has it at night, but it’s usually on the floor by morning anyway and he knows it stays in his room.

Since it went his speech has come on in leaps and bounds. He now repeats everything you say to him and you can ask him questions and get a reply other than a nod and a dribbly mumbled around the dummy “yes” or a shake and “no”. So it was definitely a success and sooo much easier than I anticipated - I had visions of weeks of crying and begging for it and me wanting to give in for a quiet life but he accepted it from the start.

I know I promised to update on Millie’s appointment but at the moment I don’t want to say much more than it was a disappointment. I will say more when I feel like it but at the moment that’s all I’m saying.

I started a blog a couple of years ago that was meant to be about the children and my crafts but I hardly ever get to make anything, however, I have actually finished something!!!! Last year I decided to start making a crocheted granny squares blanket and even did a course to learn how to crochet so I could make it. I made about 24 squares for it before I got bored and put off by the fact I needed something like 166. Plus the sewing together of them all put me off too. So my few squares sat in a carrier bag for months and months until last week when I got fed up of seeing them and feeling bad about not doing anything with them. I decided to sew my measly few squares to see if they would be big enough to make a pram blanket and they do. So I am pleased I have finally done something with them. The colours don’t all work together very well so I won’t be posting a photo. I have quite a lot of yarn left over that was meant to be turned into squares but won’t be so I decided to make another one, but this time instead of making individual squares I am just going to keep on going until it’s all used up and decide what it is when it’s finished and I know how big it is.

I’ve done a fair bit of it already as crochet is fairly quick but will probably finish it over the winter when it can double up as a nice blanket to keep me warm as I work. My current WIP (work in progress) is a jumper for the boys that I am determined to finish this winter. I’ve got the back almost done and I think if I can work on it most nights I could get it finished in a couple of weeks.

So, that’s me updated I think. Hopefully it won’t be as long between entries next time!

Why is it that the day I really need Craig here he’s out? I’ve been feeling really ill all day and have thrown up numerous times and the boys have been really demanding - I know it was just attention seeking but I felt so awful I found it quite hard. This morning Alfie managed to get stung by a wasp - it wasn’t even deserved, he was just sat watching TV when it flew over to him and struck. His finger swelled up alarmingly and he was crying and telling me it hurt. I rang NHS Direct as I was worried about it with him being so young but they felt he’d be ok, and a dose of piriton later he was. Poor little thing!

We’ve had an appointment through for Millie to have her first assessment - not with an adult psychiatrist as we’d been told at all, but with the young people’s mental health team. Apparently it will take at least an hour , I guess they’ll be taking a full history and then decide where to go from there. I’m pleased it’s happened so soon as I was thinking it would be nearer to Christmas. I shall update once we’ve been.

Her ear infection seems to have cleared up now as well which is good. The second lot of anti-biotics was obviously the right one and the spray must have helped too. I think she’s got another 2 or 3 days of the medicine left and then we’ll see if it stays away.

I went to a scrap booking crop last week which I really enjoyed. I started scrap booking 2 years ago when Alfie was born but just don’t have the time to do it (find plenty of time to buy stash for it mind you!!) and it’s reignited my interest. I’m planning to go to the crops at least once a month so I get at least 3 hours to work on layouts and it’s nice to have some “me time” as well.