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!