New Years Eve

I finished Jack’s blanket last night which I am very pleased about. I did enjoy making it but by the end I was getting a bit fed up with being so close yet so far. Photo left. Jack likes it but refused to take it to bed with him. He wants it to stay downstairs, so it will live on the sofa.

I have started a second sock tonight - the other one of the pair I started making a while ago. Despite the fact they are too big for me I may have to keep them for myself anyway as I just love the colours. Sorry Craig. You can have the next pair!!

Tonight is New Years Eve. I’m not a huge fan of NYE I have to admit and don’t celebrate. I like the idea of New Year New Start though.

I have a few things I want to achieve this year. Ok, a lot of things!! I won’t list them but I hope to be able to post again this time next year and congratulate myself on how many I did.

It also means that I can’t fob people off with the response “oh, not until next year” when they ask me when I’m due anymore. And I can’t kid myself that I still have months to go anymore either.

One thing I won’t be doing is buying anymore fabric, yarn or craft stuff. Well, that is the intention anyway. I want to use up as much of what I have as possible over the next 12 months.

So, Happy New Year to you. Thank you for reading my blog in 2008, I hope you find it interesting enough to come back in 2009! And I hope your 2009 is a good one.

Christmas

It’s Boxing Day already!! I can’t believe Christmas is over again for another year. It was a lovely day though. Nothing much happened, we didn’t get dressed and the curtains and blinds still haven’t been opened since we shut them on Christmas Eve!!

The children were up at about 5.30am but we told them they had to wait until 7.30 before they could open their stockings. It was 7.52 when they came back to our room to ask if they could open their other presents. Being mean (and tired!!) parents we told them they had to wait until we got up. We made them hang on until 8.30 and the opening began.

They were all pleased with what they got. I did plan to do a scrap booking layout of each of them holding their favourite thing but none of them could decide which is great.

I managed to do quite a bit of Jack’s blanket which was good as well. Only another 8 balls of wool to go and then it’s finished (my aim is to do 2 balls a night minimum). I’ve also finished a pair of socks and a hat for the baby. The socks were really simple and I have quite a bit of the wool left so I will probably do another couple of pairs.

The bathroom is coming on. I do have a shower and a toilet now which is great - I cannot tell you how lovely it is to be able to have a shower every day again. And not having to traipse upstairs for the toilet is great as well for someone who is 34 weeks pregnant.

Hopefully the builder will be coming back the week the children go back to school to finish off, but it is looking great. The tiles are lovely, the shower is fab, it’s all great!! I didn’t take any before photos which is annoying, although I do have some from when we first moved in. I will post them and the after ones once it’s finished.

I can’t believe a week of the school holidays is over already. Why do they have to go so quickly?? We haven’t done anything really. I’m hoping to organise some craft activities for them for next week.

I’m now 34 weeks which is in some ways a bit scary - I don’t know where the time has gone, I still don’t feel “that” pregnant. While I can’t wait to be holding my baby I also don’t want the pregnancy to end. I love feeling the baby moving around and I love my bump. There’s also a part of me dreading the sleepless nights, the total exhaustion, the wondering if you’re ever going to get another full nights sleep.

We seem to have escaped too much illness this year. Apart from everyone coughing and a few colds we’ve all been well which is nice. Normally everyone is ill over Christmas. I hope I haven’t spoken too soon!!

Another week goes by

I started writing this several days ago and was waiting to get round to getting some photos but haven’t done it. I know blogs are far more interesting with pics but I’m afraid this will be another one without. Yet another week has passed, another week closer to Christmas and another week less of our lives to live.
The reason I started up this blog was to document the process of getting Millie formally diagnosed with Aspergers. We’ve been having regular appointments with a psychologist and can now announce that she doesn’t have Aspergers. She doesn’t appear to be on the Autistic spectrum at all. But we don’t know what the problem is. The most likely conclusion is that she is just immature for her age and whether or not there is a reason for that is still unclear.
In some ways I am disappointed. I kind of wanted a label for her so that we could explain why she behaves the way she does easily, but it looks like we can’t. She’s just got her funny ways and probably always will. She hates change and has very definite ideas about things but maybe she is just highly sensitive. I feel that I need to just accept she is the way she is without needed a label for it, without constantly searching for answers. She is going to see the psychologist again after Christmas and we’ll see what she says then.
However, the process has made me more convinced that Bethany has Aspergers but I’m not going to pursue it. I don’t see the point now she is soon to leave school.
As well as that we have been preparing for our new en-suite bathroom to be fitted. I think we started the process way back in August, but it has now all been delivered, and is being started tomorrow. I will be so glad to be able to have a shower again and not to have a bath every morning. I hate baths. I very rarely have them as I just can’t be bothered, so to be forced to have them every day and to have to wash my hair in the bath with a bowl to rinse has been a nightmare. The only nice thing has been the 10 minutes I spend laying back and watching the baby moving around (well, it seems a waste of all the effort of running the water to just jump in, get washed and get out again).
I am not looking forward to the disruption though, or the fact that I can’t have a lie in or an afternoon sleep while it’s being done. I don’t need a sleep every day but to have no option always makes it more likely that you’ll need one doesn’t it? I’m not looking forward to not being able to nip into the en-suite for the loo at night as well.
We also put the Christmas tree up yesterday - that’s as far as we got though. I’m hoping we’ll get the lights on tonight and then the children can decorate it tomorrow. The control freak side of me always wants to rearrange the children’s efforts but I always resist and accept that it’s a much nicer tree when the children have done it than one to my idea of perfection. I wonder how long it will be before the little ones notice the chocolate decorations?? And how long they will last (the choc not the littlies!!).
Craft wise I have made the lamb suit for the teddy and Jack wasn’t well for a few days and requested a blanket which I have started. I’m using Noro Kureyon. I have a pattern which I thought was for a baby blanket and chained the amount of stitches it said but it is very wide so more single bed sized. I couldn’t be bothered to start all over again so decided to use two different shades of the Noro. It’s going to take 20 balls (alternating every 2 balls of each colour) and will be a really good size. I’m really enjoying making it, it’s quick, easy and I love the colours (well, most of them. For some reason Noro always put some horrible colours into their yarn which I’m always tempted to cut out. These balls are mainly blues and greens but have brown in them which just doesn’t go).
I have a load of Kureyon in red shades that I might make another one of these blankets from when I’ve finished a couple of other projects I want to get done. And last year I made a blanket from Silk Garden which I love so I may make another one of those too.
Blankets seem to be this years “thing” for me. I’ve made several. Last year it was scarves.
Since I started writing this entry I’ve come down with a cough and chest infection. I’m a bit worried that it’s going to aggravate my asthma - fingers crossed it wont. The bathroom is under way and is hopefully going to be finished very soon. Admittedly at the moment (Tuesday night) it’s looking a bit unlikely as there is no floor in there still - turned out it wasn’t Craig’s DIY skills that caused the wet floor, but the toilet pipe was leaking. Sorry Craig!

Cool website

This is really cool! You can make a graph of any website (much better than it sounds!!) Sadly I can't work out how to post the picture on here.

Try it for yourself here: http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/

Socks, soup and seasonal swaps

On Sunday I took three of the girls to a Green Parent forum meet up near Lincoln. I nearly didn’t go I have to admit, especially when I woke up this morning and really wanted to go back to sleep, but the thought of seeing a rather wonderful lady (the author of the Smile a Day blog in my blog list) again and of meeting another online friend plus meeting up with a few other mums from the forum forced me out of bed.

I’m really glad that we did go though. It was lovely to meet up and be able to put faces to names now, and the lunch was lovely. I love soup and we were spoilt for choice with four different ones. I have to admit to having two bowls because I couldn’t decide which ones to go for and now regret not trying the other two as well.

The walk round the nature reserve wasn’t huge fun I will admit. Whinging children are not great company especially when 5 minutes after you’ve set off they want to know when the walk will end.

I also finally made my thing for the seasonal swap on the GP forum this week which is a huge relief. I really didn’t know what to make, no inspiration from anywhere until one afternoon just as I was waking up from a sleep I suddenly had the idea. I wont say what it was at the moment in case my recipient is reading but I will say that blood, sweat and tears went into it. Well, maybe not sweat, it was very relaxing to make, but there is possibly a bit of blood in it where I stabbed myself and tears from when I missed out on an eBay auction for something (yes, I was going to cheat!!) because my internet link went down 5 minutes before the end of the auction just as I was about to bid and didn’t come back until 2 minutes after it ended. I did cry a bit out of sheer frustration at missing it and because I was totally stuck for ideas. Anyway, I hope it is liked. I liked it so much I made another one to keep.

This week I have also made a sock which turned out to be too big for me so Craig is getting them when the second one is done, and a teddy for the baby. I am really pleased with it and am currently making the little outfit for it. Photos of the sock and teddy above.

Otherwise a quietish week. I can’t believe it is getting so close to Christmas. I’m hoping to get the tree etc up over the weekend. Craig is in Germany again next week so I’ll be on my own for a few days which I don’t mind, but I am really needing an afternoon sleep nowadays so I may struggle a bit this time. I am now counting down the weeks in single figures to Feb which is a bit “oh blimey, that’s gone quick”. I’m really looking forward to it, but at the same time don’t want the pregnancy to end either as I’m really enjoying having a bump again.

Oh, I did forget to mention I have been back to see the asthma nurse and am on yet another inhaler. Hopefully this will be the right one for me.

Anyway, that’s it for now.