At last the weather has improved again. After a lovely weekend we had a couple of miserable days but the sun is back. I have to admit I’m not one of those people who like to sit in the garden. I wish I was. I often think about how nice it would be to sit in the sun but I just can’t do it. Or how nice it would be to sit and have breakfast on the patio outside our bedroom. I have to admit to hating it when I go to other people’s houses in the summer and them insisting we sit outdoors - mind you, I do have a good excuse this year as I have now been formally diagnosed with the hay fever and asthma which is triggered off by tree pollen, timothy grass etc.

I do like being outdoors though - I love being in the countryside and have this urge to go camping despite our previous attempt being such a disaster. Maybe it’s like childbirth - you forget how awful it was until you’re there again and wishing you’d remembered.

I’m going to work on it this year though, and force myself to sit outside. I might even do a bit of back garden camping too - and if it’s a nightmare I can always run in to my nice comfy bed!!!

I decided to try a new toddler group today - the one I usually go to on a Wednesday is the one I was running. I have to admit I was starting to get a bit fed up with the same few people to talk to every week - lovely as they are, I just get this urge to meet new people every now and then. Maybe It’s a subconscious thing from our days of moving to a new place frequently? I find I *need* to get to know new people (not dump the ones I already know, I just want to add new people to my life).

Anyway, off I went, sat myself down and the first person who walked past me said “hello!! How are you??” You know that awful moment where you’re thinking “I’m sure I know you but where from????” but I couldn’t place her at all. Was she just being friendly? She stopped to talk to me again on her way back from wherever she had been and fortunately she’d had the same “I know you etc etc” moment. It turned out I know her from the knitting group I used to go to. Well, that was just the start of it. I seemed to know half the people there from various other places. So much for me meeting some new people! I couldn’t really say “please don’t talk to me, I only want to speak to people I’ve never met before” could I?

On the flip side though - it was nice to realise just how many people I do know around the area.

I’m finding my online time changing too. I’m moving away from forums I used to frequent a lot. One I haven’t been on for weeks now and I have to admit I haven’t missed it. I found when it changed servers and design the atmosphere changed and I just didn’t feel comfortable there any longer. I’m sure no one has even noticed my absence anyway (and if anyone from said forum is reading this, no that’s not an attempt to get people saying “oh we have missed you, please come back”).

I don’t know what’s wrong with me at the moment, I’m feeling down but no idea why. I can’t complain about sleep - well, I could, but considering how bad it was I’m not going to. Barney is still sleeping in our bed at night and waking every 2-3 hours for a feed. Actually, he’s not really waking, he just stirs a bit so I sit up and feed him. He’d probably just settle back to sleep if I left him. I’ve got that feeling that things are changing again - I like change though, so I’m not worried.

Jack is still enjoying school - he comes running out with a big grin on his face. I’m so pleased he’s settled in so well. And that I’ve got Sophie to report back on what he’s been up to!!


Right, that will do for now. If you’re on Twitter and would like to follow me I’m memesmama and Barney, clever baby that he is Tweets under the username baby_barney

Two birthdays

Blimey, it’s been over a week since I updated.

So far our nights have been great. Barney settles down to sleep between midnight and 1am and then wakes for a feed every 2 - 3 hours. Ok, it’s not as good as an unbroken nights sleep but I’m happy. I’m actually getting some sleep at night and am able to get up as a proper time and stay up until bedtime. Hurray!! Keep it up son!

On Monday I had a friend round with her children. There were 13 children in the house but it was very civilised and they all got on really well. My lot really enjoyed having some other children to play, and it was lovely that the visitors were all so beautifully behaved and polite. They’re welcome back any time.

Tuesday was back to school, although we discovered that actually Robbie should have gone back the previous day. Whoops!! I can’t keep up with 4 different schools!

It was a big day for Jack - his first day at big school. Before the holidays he was adamant he wasn’t going to a new school but as we bought his uniform, shoes and lunch box he got more and more excited. Before they went he said, “Soph’s [his nickname for Sophie] we’re going to big school today!” Sadly I didn’t get a photo of him in his uniform as he wasn’t having any of that, but he does look so cute.

He had a great time, absolutely loved it and we’ve had no problems with him going all week. Sophie looks after him as he’s in her class and of course she reports back to us what he’s up to.

Tuesday was also Bethany’s 16th birthday which is a bit of a milestone isn’t it? I’ve been a parent for 16 years. That’s nearly half my life. And it makes me feel really old. I think she had a nice day.

Today is Millie’s birthday. She’s 9 now. It doesn’t seem like that long since she was born and we had all that stress over her being so ill. I have photos from then that I want to scrapbook one day but I find it hard to look at them at the moment. She got some lovely presents which she’s very pleased with.

So we’ve had two parties this week - we don’t need to invite other children round as we’ve got enough to have a little party ourselves, lol - and of course two cakes which have been very tempting but I am being strong as I am determined to lose my weight.

Also today I went to meet a friend at Starbucks for a coffee which was lovely. Sadly I could only stay an hour as I had to get back for one of the school pick-ups.
But, while I was there I was chatting to the bloke that works there about archaeology (he’s an archaeologist) and mentioned my Time Team obsession and told him I wanted to dig up my garden. I thought he was joking when he said he could get a team together to come and dig it up for me, but it turned out he wasn’t so they’re coming to dig some test pits next week. I am really excited about it - I just hope they do find something though. It will be embarrassing if they don’t! And maybe they can tell me some more about those badges - I found another one the day after I posted my last entry.

I think that’s it for now. Not made anything this week, but hopefully I will get some knitting or sewing done this weekend.

Until next time, take care.

Doh!

In my enthusiasm and hurry to post yesterday I forgot to give this link. http://www.oliverands.com/patterns/Oliver+SLazyDaysSkirt.pdf

It's a free pattern for a skirt which looks really easy to make.


And in other news (and I know my already shaky membership to the AP club is going to get cancelled when you read this but hey!) - Barney slept for 3 hours last night. On his own. In his cradle!!!!! Ohh, it was lovely. He woke up at 4.30am for a feed and then came into bed with us for the rest of the night - until 9am!!!!!!

So now all we need to do is get him to start going to bed earlier and maybe I will get a decent nights sleep again at last. I don't mind feeding him 2 or 3 times during the night, as long as he goes down again (whether it's in his cradle or our bed).

It was quite cute that to give him something to look at we put my Julius the Monkey PJs over the cot sides for him as he loves looking at the monkey faces and he grabbed hold of them and held on to them. I m going to have to make him something to hold with the bit of fabric I have leftover.

Cross your fingers and toes for another good night please!! :-)

I got some very nice post today. A few weeks ago I ordered some patterns from Oliver and S and was getting a bit worried that they hadn’t arrived. A card came through the door saying I have a packet that owed £21 in Customs charges on it - ouch!!! Well, it was my patterns which the PO have had since Tuesday of last week! How did it take so long for them to bring the card round??? And what is worse, of the £21 charge, £8 was Royal Mail’s handling fee!!! I am now worrying the other parcel I have coming from the US is going to get caught as well.

Anyway, despite being stung, I am very pleased with the patterns and can’t wait to make something with them. They also come with a little paper doll to cut out and play with but I think they might be too nice for that.

Easter weekend went ok. The usual quiet time as we don’t celebrate Easter in any way other than getting the children an Easter egg each. Oh, ok, I had one too.

Yesterday was the start of my diet - I am fed up of my maternity trousers, nice as they are. I want to get back into my old clothes again. I’m not telling you how much I weighed but it was too much. I enjoy this diet most of the time (I did it two years ago and lost 4 stone) although I am finding it a little bit hard at the moment as I am so used to eating chocolate and other junk all the time so it’s getting out of that habit that is going to be tricky.

Otherwise things are quiet here. I am currently reading a book on vaccinations a friend has lent me. Hmm, it’s got me even more confused than I was. I haven’t had S, J and A immunised and am fairly confident in my decision but at the moment I’m wavering. It all started last week when I took Barney for his 8 week check and the Dr assumed I’d be having him “done”. I didn’t say I wasn’t as I was so tired and couldn’t face a discussion about it, but then he went off to see if the nurse was ready for us - thankfully she wasn’t and I escaped. But for some reason it set me off thinking about it. The book isn’t really changing my mind on it, apart from for the diphtheria vax, but then you are never going to get anything that is impartial are you? It’s hard. I’m sure I’m doing the right thing, but you can’t help but wonder can you?

I managed to do some sewing the other day as well - I made Pjs for Alfie which he wasn’t too keen on at first. I like them but for some reason the sleeves are too short. No photos, and they’ve been wrecked with chocolate cereal milk down the front already. Hey ho! Also made another hat for Barney with some of the offcuts. So that’s another metre of fabric de-stashed!!

I’m thinking of changing the blog’s name - it doesn’t really reflect what I tend to write about because the original intention was for it to be about Millie and her being diagnosed with Aspergers. But she isn’t going to be and I talk about other stuff instead. However, I don’t know if it will still appear in subscriber’s feeds if I do change the name. Does anyone know? I’d hate to change it and no one be able to find it again.

Talking of Aspergers though - I am more and more convinced I have Aspergers. Everything I read about it makes me go “hey, I do that” or “that’s just like me”. I’m not going to go down the route of official diagnosis, there’s no point, but it is quite nice to know why I am the way I am.

Anyway, that is it for now. Barney will be back any time now - he’s gone to Asda with his dad and Robbie - so that will be my peace and quiet time up.

Whoops!

Just realised the photos didnt load up for the medal thingy. Here they are.

Edited to add - I have had an email telling me that it is a cap badge and would have been worn on the berets of the service personnel.

On Wednesday night I decided that as Barney (did I mention we’ve decided to call him Barney?) had slept for a couple of hours on the sofa the previous two nights I’d try him in his cradle once he had gone off to sleep. So, at 3.30am off we went, I lay him down and went to get my Pjs on. When I got into bed his eyes were awake and within 5 minutes it was obvious he wasn’t going to sleep there at all so off we went back to the lounge. Ah well, it was worth a try.

I had looked up the sunrise times and according to the website I found the sun rises here at about 6ish which would mean leaving here about 5.15 to make sure I was in place to watch on the morning I go. However, I happened to walk through the kitchen at about 5.20 and as the blind was open I noticed the sky was fairly light and I could see the sun just coming up so I’m guessing I’ll need to leave about 4.15. If I ever go. I might be lazy and go and watch out of Jack’s bedroom window (it’s probably safer than driving up to the coast now that I’ve announced to the world I’m going to do it one morning, lol)

Have you noticed I never seem to mention doing anything much during the day? I just never go out, I never feel like it once I’m up. But yesterday (Friday - it’s currently 2.30am Saturday) I forced myself out of bed after 4 hours sleep and went over to see a friend. I have to admit before I left I was sat feeding Barney and wishing I hadn’t organised it, I was so tired, but I am so glad I did. It was a lovely afternoon which I enjoyed so much I lost track of time and was most shocked when we discovered it was almost 6pm!! I took the three younger girls and they had a great time too.

We live in an old house (well, half of it is 200 years old, the other half is relatively new at about 25 years) and I’ve often wondered who used to live here so the other night I spent a bit of time on ancestry.co.uk looking through the census records and I think I now know. Unfortunately they didn’t put house names on the returns although I’m not sure the house would have had it’s name then. I’m pretty sure there were only two or three houses on this road until the early 1900s so I’m fairly sure I’ve got the right people. It also seems the road had a different name at one point as well.

It was interesting looking through the names of the families that lived in the village. There are several surnames that I’ve noticed I hear a lot round here anyway and they cropped up in the census. If I’m right then our house was lived in my one of the ancestors of one of Jack’s playgroup ladies.

I still really want to dig around outside and see if there’s anything buried in the garden - and one of these days I will take a photo of the military “things” I found in the garden to see if anyone who reads this can tell me what they are and how old they are. I think they are some kind of button or other kind of decoration for a uniform but I have no idea otherwise and it’s hard to read the inscription on one of them. They turned up in the gravelled part of the garden so I suppose they could have been in the gravel load rather than dropped by someone here. If they are from here there could be more - I think the chickens may have scratched them up. I should go and have another scout round in case anymore have turned up.

Having written all that, I’ve decided to photo them now - of course, I can only find one of them. They’re funny things - they disappear and reappear regularly. We put them “somewhere safe” and they’ve gone when we want them, and then they reappear somewhere really strange days, weeks or months later. Anyway, the one I have photographed is the one that looks like it slides onto a strap or something. It says “HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE” and “ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS” In the centre it looks like GR VI

Having Googled it, I’ve got some info about it - it’s from George VI’s reign so could be as much as 70 years old. Anyway, if anyone knows anymore I’d love to know. The photos aren’t great though, sorry.

I did start writing this last night but then Barney needed me to pick him up so it’s now Saturday night. Another day has been wasted really with us sleeping. However, I did do a bit of sewing - made some Pjs for Alfie and a hat for Barney from the off cuts. Does anyone else have to try and sew with two toddlers climbing all over them and trying to touch the machine? Jack was trying to turn the wheels on my over locker - it took me ages to get the settings right after the last time someone messed about with them so I wasn’t impressed!!

Barney has found his voice today which is sooo cute. He’s lying on his playmat at the moment talking to his toys. I keep forgetting he is 2 months old now and is probably wanting to look at toys and things. Now he’s smiling as well it’s lovely. It’s a good job he’s so cute isn’t it??

Right, that looks like my typing time is up for now, Have a good Easter Sunday whatever you’re doing. Don’t be sick if you’re lucky enough to get lots of chocolate!!! ;-)

Jealousy and Madness

I am so jealous that my sewing efforts are not nearly as lovely as the ones on this blog. Click on the link and drool at the lovely things that Jeanette makes. A very talented lady!!

And I’m mad. I must be. One of the things I have always wanted to do is watch the sun rise. To sit and watch the sky turn from black as the sun comes up. I’m 35 and have never done it. And what’s worse, I live only 20 minutes from the east coast (does that sound quite so lovely when I say I mean Skegness??) So, one of these mornings instead of sitting and watching Time Team I’m going to drive over there, find somewhere to park where I can see the horizon and watch. Knowing me it will take me so long to find the right spot I’ll miss it, but I’m going to give it go.

Watch this space!

Tuesday morning

It’s 3.30am. Need I say more about that?? Ignore the time stamp on the blog entry as it’s not the same as the actual time IYSWIM? Barney is asleep so I am catching up with my emails etc as fast as possible before he wakes up again. It’s not worth me going to bed this morning as Bethany needs to be at school for 8.30 for extra study sessions and then Barney has his 8 week check at 10.10am so I might as well stay up until after that.

My body clock is now completely out of sync. If I were to go to bed now I wouldn’t sleep. Ok, so part of that would be to do with the fact I spent much of yesterday asleep - I went to bed at 8am and slept until 3pm (being woken to feed the baby around 12.30) and then went back to bed at 8pm and got up at midnight. But even if I don’t sleep most of the day I cannot seem to sleep at night. Having the baby in bed doesn’t help. I sleep so lightly when he is there so every noise he makes wakes me up, I worry about covering him up with the quilt so every time I move I wake up as well. Yet I can’t bring myself to put him to sleep in his cradle.

My diet is so unhealthy at the moment as well, mainly to do with the odd hours I keep. It’s just easier to grab something quick to eat and I’m ashamed to say that means crisps, chocolate, toast and magnums. We’ve had a supply of magnums in the freezer which Jack has been helping himself to in the morning when he gets up. He eats it so slowly that I sit there drooling over it (he never takes the hint to offer me a lick!) so I end up having one for breakfast too. I am so overweight I feel horrible. I’m still wearing my maternity trousers and I look pregnant still. So the weight loss diet starts on Monday. I am determined to get back into my normal clothes again as soon as possible.

The Spring Cleaning continued today - got Millie & Sophie’s, Bethany’s and Robbie’s rooms tidied and hoovered. Haven’t painted the girls room yet and I have a feeling we wont get round to it.

At the moment I am knitting Shaun the sheep. I bought a kit for it and after knitting his white bits have quite a bit of white yarn left. It was a 50g ball so I decided to weigh what’s left to see if I will have enough to make a second one. There is 24g…. I have no idea if it actually did weigh 50g before I started so am debating with myself about making a second one in case I run out of yarn. It’s not worth buying another ball for the sake of maybe 2g of wool. I’d probably end up wanting to make a third one to use up the rest of the wool. Don’t suppose any readers have got the kit and have got some of the white left over? It’s Patons fairytale, a bit like Sirdar snowflake.

Right, I am off to finish Shaun’s legs and watch this morning’s Time Team. Have a lovely day - hope it’s another sunny one!

Spring is here

What is it about a bit of Spring sunshine that gets us all in the mood for spring cleaning and de-cluttering our homes and gardens?? Well, I have been bitten by the bug anyway and the great Spring Clean 2009 has begun. I’m not sure the rest of the family are quite as keen on the idea mind you!

My grand plan was to tackle a room a day and basically clean, tidy, sort, declutter and do those unfinished jobs that need doing each one in turn. Hmmm, well, it’s taken two days so far on our bedroom and en-suite. Not because it’s so awful but because I’m up all night with the baby I tend to be asleep until lunchtime (considering I go to bed at 7 or 8am I think I can be forgiven!) so nothing gets done until mid afternoon.

Anyway, our bedroom is now cleaned and sorted. I got rid of loads of clothes that I either don’t like or don’t fit, including some maternity clothes that I didn’t wear this time round. The bathroom has been painted at last and the blind is going up tomorrow.

Tomorrow I think we will try and tackle Jack’s room (general cleaning and the border replaced) and the girls room (probably needs a few dozen bin liners as well as the walls repainted).

In other news this week - Jack’s new school had a meeting for the parents of the children starting in September. They are able to take those children who are already 4 after Easter. In two weeks. Yes, my little boy starts school in 2 weeks!!!! So that’s a set of uniform and shoes to add to the list of things to do this fortnight.

That, I think, is it for now. Sorry there are no photos. Have a good week (or however long it is before I get round to writing again).