The weather here has been really lovely recently. I have to admit not liking it when it’s too hot outside but fortunately our living room is usually fairly cool in the summer. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it being an old house?

Today the temperature display on my car read 33 degrees at one point! Even my air conditioning was struggling to keep us cool. One of the feeds I subscribe to is for the met office weather warnings and for he last two weeks or so I’ve been getting a daily warning of heavy rain but so far it still hasn’t happened and the forecast is really good until the end of the week when we will apparently get some rain.

One of our chickens has gone broody again - she does it every year and it usually lasts several weeks. Normally it doesn’t bother the other hens but for some reason this year it does seem to have put them off laying in the nesting box. They must be laying somewhere but we have no idea where - one disadvantage of having birds that like to get out of the pen and wander freely. It’s probably down in the dyke between our house and next door but we don’t fancy getting down there to look so we’ll never know. It’s a bit of a nuisance though as I have a bit of a thing going with a couple of friends where I give them eggs and they give us lovely fresh veg from their gardens. Last week we had some gorgeous strawberries, cabbage, broccoli and lettuce. I’m looking forward to seeing what I’m going to get tomorrow for my half dozen eggs (should have been a dozen but as I say, I have no idea where the others are).

Tomorrow is a big day for Ellie - she’s spending the day at her new school. I think she’s quite excited about it. I still can’t quite believe that’s another one of my children going up to big school. As they like to say on that awful programme “Me too” - where did the time go???

And talking of Me Too - does anyone else think that Tina looks like a man in drag??

I know the cute/funny things your child says are never as cute/funny to anyone else but I’m going to share this one with you - Sophie was telling me the other day that she is “only going to have 5 children”. It made me laugh that to her 5 isn’t many whereas to most people it’s loads.

No photo again today I’m afraid. I will try and post one next time.

I’ve done it again - gone a while without posting.

Not a great deal has happened mind you. My memory is so bad I can’t actually remember what I did last week. The weekend was a quiet one with a rather disastrous walk that ended prematurely due to our stupidity in allowing the children to take various ride-ons/bikes. Note to self - next time we go out the children must leave everything at home!!

On Sunday C took 5 of the children to the beach which they all seemed to enjoy, especially as they found a stretch of beach where they could park the car on the edge of the sand and there was no one around apart from the odd dog walker.

I finished a pair of socks that I have been knitting for a couple of weeks. I’m really disappointed with them as they are waaaayyyy too big for me so fall off as I walk. As they were knitted on two needles this wasn’t obvious until I had finished plus they needed sewing up which is an advantage of knitting with DPNs.

I was telling Millie they were too big and she said she didn’t think daddy would want them (they are pink) so I told her I would have to find someone with bigger feet than me to give them to. “They might fit you when you’re grown up” she pointed out. Maybe I’m not as old as I feel after all!!

I’ve been having a bit more of a declutter. I’m not usually sentimental about things, especially books but there are a couple I just can’t bring myself to get rid of - one is a 14 year old copy of Miriam Stoppards pregnancy book. Even way back then when I bought it the photos were old, but I’ve referred to the baby development info every time I’ve been pregnant. The other is “breast is best” by the Stanways. I bought it when I had just had Eleanor, my first successfully breastfed baby and referred to it lots. I’m not planning any more babies so I’m not likely to need either book again but I can’t get rid of them.

I’ve a few things to get rid of though and thought I’d mention them here in case any of my readers would be interested. One is a seasonal festivity stand. You can see it at www.toyspectrum.com in the celebrations section. Mine is the natural one but if you look at the white one it gives you an idea of what you can do with it. It has holes to hang decorations from as well as larger holes for candles and the decorations from the birthday rings. As you can see it is almost £50. Mine has mainly sat on the shelf gathering dust so I’d like £30 for it.

Also 17 balls of Twilleys Freedom 100% wool in Moorland which is a heathery shade of greens and purples (I made the felted slippers a few pages back from it). A couple of the balls have been knitted so will need to be frogged. Plus a pattern book. £25.

And the following books:
Books from AIMS -
Am I allowed?
Choosing a home birth (Pat Thomas).
Safety in childbirth (Marjorie Tew),
Delivering your placenta, the third stage.
What’s right for me?
Birthing your baby, the second stage.

Also - not from AIMS - MMR understand your choices (Sussman)
All of them £2.50 each plus postage.

Your birth rights by Pat Thomas. Unread but one of my children knocked a glass of water over near it so some of the pages are watermarked. £5.00
The breastfeeding answer book by Jack Newman - £25
Why vegan - £3.00
A-Z of animal ingredients - £3.00
School is not compulsory - £3.00
Mothering your nursing toddler - £3.00
Three in a bed - £3.00
Do not disturb - £4.50


Email me at foreverj2 at aol dot com rather than leaving a response here if interested.

Photos

I uploaded some photos to go with my last post but they got lost somewhere so here they are. Alfie on his birthday and Barney wearing an outfit I made. I quite like it and as it was so easy I might make him another one.

Birthday boy

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted!! I’m not sure what happened - the first week I just didn’t feel like posting anything anywhere, was just feeling too negative, and then I just didn’t get round to it.

Since last time we’ve had Alfie’s birthday. He was 3 - where did the time go??? I think he had a lovely day. He liked his presents - a wooden bus, an Ostheimer duck family and 3 books. I didn’t get round to making him a pond for them. He also had the cake he desperately wanted - In the Night Garden. He was so pleased with it that it was worth the £8. We haven’t had a good track record with birthday cakes in the past. I don’t make them, I prefer to buy them, but we’ve always had trouble finding the one the birthday child wanted. One year we were going to get Ellie a Blue’s Clues cake and the week before her birthday we saw one in the local supermarket but decided to buy it closer to the big day. Of course we went in the following week and couldn’t see one on the shelf. When we asked we were told “oh, we stopped selling them last week”

Last week I went to Peterborough with a friend. If you read her blog then you’ll already know we had a bit of an adventure trying to get back to the car which included me getting locked out of the car park while she was shut inside with the babies. If not here is the story (and it’s a lovely blog too).

I bought some Amy Butler fabric in John Lewis to make a changing bag but I haven’t got round to starting it yet - have been trying to finish the things I cut out several weeks ago. Just got a pair of trousers to go and then I can get cutting. I am slightly nervous as it wasn’t cheap fabric but it should hopefully be nice. I also bought some packs of interfacing and wonderweb only to discover I obviously thought I needed to stock up last time I was in there as I already had a couple pf packs of each in my box. I really must check what I actually need before I go in future!!!!!

What else? I can’t remember now. I’m sure I had loads of things to post in my head but they’ve gone now.

The children are all well. Barney/Amos/whatever we’re going to call him is having a really miserable time right now. I have no idea what is wrong with him. Part of me wonders if it’s teeth, or tummy ache, or just that he is one of those miserable babies. He has slept in his cot for the last few nights and has managed to go for fairly long stretches of sleep (4 or 5 hours) so we’re obviously disturbing him when he’s in our bed.

Oh, and talking of beds, we put Alfie’s new bed up in Jack’s room. Jack had been adamant he didn’t want Alfie in his room or this other bed in there but given the chance to help daddy he was very enthusiastic. Alfie hadn’t been keen on the idea of a big boys bed either but again, when he saw it he changed his mind.

The plan was that we would assemble the bed now to give Jack chance to get used to it and then try Alfie in there over the summer holidays but of course he wanted to sleep in there that night. They were still messing around at midnight and when they eventually did go to sleep they were both in the same bed - which was very cute! We’re not trying it again until the school holidays!!

Poor little Jack is seeing a speech therapist again because he’s developed a really severe stammer. It started before his birthday last year and would go in phases of being bad for a couple of weeks and then disappear for a few more weeks, then come back again. Now it’s all the time. Some days are better than others and it’s only the odd thing he stumbles over but other days are so bad he can’t say anything without struggling. He’s starting to become really aware of it now as well and sometimes starts to say something and just gives up. Sophie says the children at school copy the way he speaks which is horrible and I’ve had a word with the teacher although she was very surprised when I said he has a stammer as she’s never noticed it….

It breaks my heart to hear him struggling to speak, especially knowing how cruel other people can be and knowing he will almost certainly be teased or even bullied over it. Some days I just want to cry for him. I really hope that speech therapy can help him or that he is one of those children that grows out it.

Bethany has now finished her exams and is bumming around at home. We’re hoping she will get herself a job so she can earn herself some money and give her something to do - mind you, she has been very good at keeping Alfie occupied as he loves her so much.

That’s it for now. Until next time, enjoy the sun!

Well, we didn’t get anymore felting done yesterday (here's the promised photos though). Instead we cleaned the cars and tidied up the front of the house a bit.

My car was desperately in need of a clean. I can’t remember the last time it was done and where

we live the roads are often muddy because of the farm traffic around so when the roads are wet as well your car is sprayed with liquid mud. Too often have I gone through the carwash only to have a dirty car again by the time I’ve got home. I had clean bits on the door sills where your leg touches it when getting in and out (and filthy patches on my trouser legs!!) So it was a big job. But, we got it clean and I even have a cleaning tip for you. The front of the car was covered in dead insects and they wouldn’t come off until I tried one of those foam cleaning blocks you can buy quite cheaply on them. This block was so good that it even got all the black stuff off my hub-caps so they are gleaming now too. I don’t want to go out in it and spoil it now, lol

Today is book sharing Monday and I’m not going to share a book with you but a whole series of books. You know when you get one of those thoughts that pop into your head for no apparent reason? Well, last week I suddenly thought “I wonder if you can still get those Garden Gang books?” Remember those? They were written by a 9 year old, but I loved them. I didn’t have all of them as a child, but, thanks to eBay, my children now have almost the whole set (well, we’re waiting for three of them to arrive but you know what I mean).

There are 14 books in the set and here’s a photo of 9 of them. My children have really been enjoying them this last week as they’ve arrived.

I have several emails in my inbox that I need to reply to - if you’re still waiting to hear from me I will get round to it soon, I promise!

Finally, here’s a sunset photo. It doesn’t quite pick up the beautiful colours out there, the sky was blue, pink and yellow striped. One of the lovely things about where we live is the amazing sunsets we can see, and the way the dining room is often lit by the pink light as the sun sets.