Wishing you.....

Did you all have a good Christmas?
I have not been able to blog for a little while for many many reasons. The main one is that life just got busy busy busy. I prefer to keep things running smoothly and at a slower pace but we were right up there recently with over booked schedules and not enough hours in the day. My christmas shopping was done the weekend prior to christmas, good grief we didnt even get the tree up until the Tuesday before christmas day. Anyway we must not dwell on these things.

I dont do New Year resolutions, but I am going to try and blog a little more (that is if anything worth blogging about actually happens..ha ha ha..) I do have lots of wishes for the coming year and will share them with you as the year goes on.

So I wish you all a safe and Happy New Year.
GOD Bless,
S x

One Hundred and Forty

Squares cut out to quilt with.

I asked my dear daughter what she would like for christmas and the reply was

"Something to make my room look nice"

Now this is actually an improvement on previous years where she has just asked for "A surprise".

Now some of this fabric I bought to make her something with years ago and we are talking at least 6 years. It has been put away in the hope that I could think of what to make, only seeing the light of day when I would open the box, look, drool and stroke said fabric and put it away.

Some of the fabric flew all the way from Sunny Australia and the talented Levin as part of a swap, I wanted to use it for something special and couldnt think of anything more special than something for my daughter and some of the fabric is from thrifted embroidered table cloths supplied by Grandma. I am not too sure if I have too many squares but having laid the fabric on top of a normal quilt it looks slightly bigger (thanks for the idea Mum) and taking into account the seams I think it will be ok. I dont think there are any hard and fast rules about quilt sizes are there?

There are 41 days until christmas so really I need to get cracking as there are afew other things I want to make for christmas gifts also. I am still feeling a little under the weather though and dont think that my head will put up with the sound of the sewing maching just yet, so I will have to wait a little longer.

Right Now

This is where I am at. It is dark and miserable and I am feeling Yuck!!! I am sick of watching day time TV and even though I dont think I slept a wink last night, I just cant sleep right now.

I have so many christmas projects that I want to do but I just dont have the energy today. I have been thinking of what to get people, especially those people who already have everything. I so badly wanted to be organised by December 1st but there is no way that that is going to happen now. I heard the other day that a shopping centre nearby was so busy at the weekend that you couldnt get parked. Now I love to go christmas shopping and look for lots of lovelies for the lovelies in my life but I just dont seem to be able to face fighting to get parked and look around. I think that internet shopping may be the way forward.

How are your plans for christmas?

A Day in the Life

6:30 wake from sleep, shower and get ready for work.



7:00 Get children up, make sure they wash with water (apparently it burns !!!!) and brush teeth make sure they are dressed.

7:50 Run around looking for swimming costume you forgot needs to go to school today.

7:55 Dash out of the door to drop children at school for eight, only to realise you have practically
ZERO petrol.



8:00 Kids dropped off, dash to petrol station.

8:30 Run through the doors at work in the nick of time. Lots of worky stuff during which
time you manage to shovel something into your stomach that resembles lunch.

2:50 You leave work (late, running)

3:00 Collect child 2 from school and run back to the car at great speed.

3:10 Arrive at swiming pool to colect child 1, dash to supermarket as you intend to eat at some
point, call home to collect another swimming kit and deposit child 1 back at swimming pool
for yet another lesson.

4:10 Get back home and start to prepare dinner

4:45 leave house to go and collect child 1

5:10 Arrive back home, finish dinner, try to eat it whilst burning your mouth as it is too hot, getting indigestion for eating too quick.

6:00 Desposit child 2 at club.

6:15 Arrive back home and take dog for walk.

7:15 Collect child 2 (******************)

7:30 Arrive back home to get two tired children bathed and into bed.

8:00 Clean up kitchen, sort washing, answer phone .....................................................

9:00 Collapse into chair and wait for hubby to return home from work.

So to the person who complained at me today for something I had not had time to do but was not all that important.......

WHATEVER !!!!!!!!!

Am I really Bovvered???

I am tired and this is just one day, I could tell you about the rest but you would fall asleep.

Thinking

I have just been reading some interesting posts over at Green Twins Mummy .
It got me thinking about just how much money we spend on foods and other stuff at the supermarket and how much of that money and food we actually waste every week, You only need to look in the press for an article on what the latest figure if for family waste.
6.2 millions tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK every year, this averages about £420 per family for the year. I dont know about you but I dont want nor can I afford to throw this kind of money away, you may as well put the pound notes through the shredder.

Anyway it got me thinking about how much we could actually spend per week and still have lovely home made food on the table every night, nice meals that were nutricious and lovingly made but perhaps they were costing that little bit less. How much can our food bills be reduced and less food be thrown away whilst still filling little tummies with something good at the end of the day. I dont want to compromise on the quality of our foods but just be a little bit more "savvy" with what we have to spend.

It is a challenge..........
how much can my family of four survive on per week, with ZERO food waste and packed lunches every day for me and Hubby to take to work? Can we meal plan for the week so that we know what we are having for dinner and not rushing out to buy something last minute? Can we be that organised? Ha !!! I think we will have to wait and see.

I have done my food shopping for this week but will be starting from the weekend..
I have tonnes of cookery books, including a couple with war time recipes and one beloved book which is an Amish cook book. They are full of ideas of how to make your meals stretch further and to make the most of what you have got.

This post has gone on for far too long and when read back will probably make po sense at all but I just had to get my thoughts down so they didnt get oushed to the back of my mind.


I also need to make up two packed lunches every day for my Hubby and I.

The Dales

During the school holidays I was lucky enough to go and stay with one of my older sisters for a week in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. It was so nice to kick back and relax as much as you can do with five children between us This is not her house in the picture below but is one that brought back many happy childhood memories of visits to stay with our "Nannie" as we used to call her. I remember the bus drive with my Gran like it was yesterday.

It couldnt be anywhere but England.
I was holding my nephew up to look over the bridge at the water .
"You wont drop me will you?" he asks
"Of course not, silly"
Now when I was little I can vividly remember my Dad doing the same thing and I was convinced that he would drop me even though he was sure he wouldnt.

Autumn Days.

Do you remember singing this when you were at school ? I do and I used to love it, I enjoy it more now hearing the sweet voices of my children as they sing and hum the familiar childhood verses.. I am loving Autumn, I love the smells and taste of the damp air and the sound of crisp dried leaves beneath my feet. I think that along with winter and its promise of Christmas, Autum must be one of my favourite seasons of the year. Which is yours?

Autumn days, when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All these things I love so well

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Clouds that look like familiar faces
And a winter’s moon with frosted rings
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces
And the song the milkman sings.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered
And a swallow curving in the sky
Shoes so comfy though they’re worn out and they’re battered
And the taste of apple pie.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Scent of gardens when the rain’s been falling
And a minnow darting down a stream
Picked-up engine that’s been stuttering and stalling
And a win for my home team.

So I mustn’t forget
No, I mustn’t forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn’t forget.

Autumn Days by Estelle White

Lots of fun.

Hello, firstly a Thank you to April over at Cupcakes make the world a better place for the lovely gifts she sent through the post as a Pay if Forward. What did I recieve ? Lets take a look,

A lovely drawstring bag ( I love pink), a Vanilla Cupcake Yankee Candle Tart (smells wonderful, I have to keeping picking it up to have a smell) and a cross stitch of my name with magnets on it. Oh and a cup cake post card. Thank you so very much April.

In a bid to increase the fruit consumed by the children we decided to make smoothies. My son is not what I would call a fussy eater but there is a huge list of things he thinks he does not like, when he tries to taste them he puts them on the tip of his tounge and then claims to dislike it. So we decided to make Old Fashioned Lemonade, I admit that this was probably too bitter for little taste buds but my daughter loved it. I didnt really follow a recipe but we squeezed the juice from three large lemons,

Squeezed the juice from one orange.

Put this in a jug and added some honey disolved in water (honey syrup)for some sweetness.

Then we put in cold water until we got the taste we were looking for. You can add more or less honey syrup or water until you get a taste you like.

Serve with lots of ice and a slice of lemon or orange.

We also made a smootie using fresh strawberries, one banana and one orange peeled and cut into segments. You whiz it all up in e blender and here you have a delicious healthy drink. We made up a second batch and have frozen them into lollypops for the children. My son turned his nose up at first as the drink appeared to have bits in but he eventually tasted it and loved it .

This was taken this morning when we took the dog for a walk on the beach nearby. What a lovely way to start the day, the kids collected sea glass to add to the collection.

Colours

Oooo would you just take a look at the colours of these fabric swatches I got from here , you can send for five free swatches if you follow the link.

How can they fail to bring some sunshine into a dull day, I have no idea what to do with them yet but I love them. Perhaps I can put them to some use in the bathroom when we get it decorated. I have lived here for six years and hate hate hate the bathroom but these little stripes of candy may just add a little something to the smallest room in the house.

Talking of colour I took this picture of the sky when we were at the beach the other day. I like the colour of the sky, it is so nice to look up and see the beautiful blue perhaps with the odd fluff of cotton wool floating on by. Lets hope that the sunshine is here to stay.

No trip to the beach would be complete without the obligatory bucket and spade hastily cast aside for the finer things in life.... ice cream.. Again I am loving the green of the grass . My son asked me why I was taking a picture of an ice cream, only a blogger would understand.

Talking of children here is a snippet of a conversation I heard between my two the other day,

Daughter " Mam you used to go Horse Riding didnt you? Do you still have your riding gear?"

Me "Yes it is in the attic"

Daughter " Will Dad get it out?, I could use it."

Son "It will be no use for you"

Daughter "Why?"

Son " They used different riding gear in the Victorian times"

What the ???? At only 34 I am sure I was not around during the Victorian times, perhaps my Great Grandparents were but not me, IAM YOUNG !!!!!!!!

Procrastinating

Oh why is it that I have put off and put off doing things until they have piled up beyond belief. I think if you were to knock on the door right now I would hide behind the chair for fear of actually letting you enter the house. Honestly there is so much stuff everywhere that you may never see light of day again in an attempt to make it out of the door. My house is yet again fit to burst and I have all the time in the world at the moment in which to actually do something about it. Bleurgh !!!

Anyway moving on to something a little more important here are my kiddlets moments before asking,
"Please Mummy, I will look after it"..
"Of course cherub just open the gate and we can stuff it in the back of the car with the dog"

Please note the horse riding gear my Princess is wearing, I was convinced she was due to go to the stables today, it was lucky I rang on route to check only to find it is not actually today at all. Opps silly Mummy.. Still we had a wonderful walk with the dog and we got to see ponys at the same time.

As you can see the daft dog was happy.

Grandma's Peppermint Creams

Mt Grandmother used to mka ethese using a handwritted recipe from a book owned by her mother. They are easy peasy to make and I actually let my eight year old make them whilst I snapped away with the camera. You can easily half the recipe if you need to and you can always substitute the raw egg whites for the dried eggs you can buy in the supermarket and you will make them up as directed on the pack .

1lb of icing sugar ( I think this is confectioners sugar in the US)

Few drops of oil of peppermint

Whites of two medium eggs

Few drops of oil.
Few drops of food colouring.

Whisk the egg whites until they are frothy.

Add the icing sugar and peppermint oit to the egg whites and stir until it forms a thick paste.

Add a couple of drops of green food colouring if you like.

Kneed onto a surface covered with icing sugar and either roll out and use cutters to cut or roll small pieces into the palm of your hands and place onto a greased baking tray.
Leave them for a couple of hours to harden.

Eat and enjoy.

Your dentist wont thank you but the children sure will

( I will be sending mine off to brush their teeth the moment one passes their lips)

Winner Winner

I am so sorry that it has been some time since my last post, things just got kind of crazy. However we are now finished with school for the summer and now let the fun begin.

I used one of those random number generator sites and the winner of my giveaway is

Marit

So if you can email me your address using my email address on the top right of the blog I will get your parcel sent off soon.

I appreciated all of your comments and apologise for not replying to them but it has been very busy here recently. Hopefully now we are in the holidays things will calm down and this means we have much more time for the fun stuff.

4th July and a giveaway.

Happy 4th July to my American friends.

Why is it that in England, we celebrate nothing. I mean St Georges day passes without anyone noticing, Remembrance Sunday is of course remembered by some, to name but a few. I can remember as a child having street parties for things and certainly during my Grandmother and mothers time people would remember and celebrate event. But in modern day England "Certainly not" unless it is Christmas when people rush out to buy all sorts of crap and junk to get themselves into debt over. Halloween is kind of celebrated but only by children out alone in the dark wearing garish masks knocking on peoples doors for money and not sweets. Most of these children are teenagers who have gone into the nearest shop and bought a £1 mask. (sigh!!).

We have no national days, no special celebrations, remembrances or partys..

WHY ????

Because we are British ... (bleurgh)

OK so I am not feeling all too patriotic today, perhaps I should go out and buy a Union Jack to display, oh but there are rules about those too. grrrrrr..

Ok so as I have American relatives, who granted I have not seen in years (but my Mum keeps in touch with)... am I aloud to celebrate things like Thanksgiving and some of your other fun stuff. Can I be made an Honourany (is that spelt right???) American for the sake of my children who will grow up not having fab celebrations apart from their birthday and christmas ( yes I am probably one of those who dashes around getting stressed buying crap ;> ..... )

Now my English friends if you can prove me wrong then please do so and tell me what we celebrate over here.. Is it just that living way up north we are not civilised enough to know about these things, is there a whole party scene going on that we dont know about and the county dont tell the rough and ready Northerners for fear of invasion.. OK so I am kidding please dont send me emails!!!

BUT please do tell me what as English people we celebrate for our country. Please leave your ideas, links or suggestions in the comments and I will enter all of your names into a hat for a fab giveaway. I am happy to post overseas, please leave your ideas.

The children and I have been enjoying afew days away. It was truly wonderful and we cant wait to go again. I have wanted to take them for ages, I have been before but didnt have children at the time and I think it is so different when you have your own children with you. Magical.

We are looking forward to the summer holidays, only two weeks to go. Although I have nthing planned at the moment I have lots of ideas of places to take the children and things that we can do at home. I have been searching the web, blogs and the huge amount of activity books I have collected over the years to come up with some cool things to do. My daughter is now ten and I wonder how much longer she will want to do things with me, I know it wont be long before she would rather be out with her friends doing their own thing and Mummy will be the taxi or the personal bank supply. LOL....
I have decorating that I need to do also, My daughters room needs to be done an the front room also needs to be tidied up. Then there is the BIG DE CLUTTER I have planned (shudder) we have lots of old toys and books that have been dearly loved but surely it must be time for them to be passed on to someone and then there is the forest (garden) that my house sits on. It has become so overgrown recently due to lack of time to do anything with it that the dog and children could get lost in the long grass.

I hope that there will be lots happening that are worth blogging about and not just the usual day in day out stuff.

Take Care.

I dont do mornings.

Urgh at 6.30 this mornng I heard the pitter patter of tiny feet coming through the bedroom door.... WHY is it I cant get this little man out of bed during the week when we have to go to school/work ? But as soon as the weekend comes he is up at the crack of dawn. Mamma is tired and doesnt want to get up so early so she sends him back to bed and peace continues in the house for all of 20 seconds. Can you imagine how LOUD a toy aircraft carrier can be at 6.30 in the morning ( you need to imagine the noise of planes landing and taking off and those noises that ships make, honestly why do they make toys so bloomin loud) so cue : cranky Mummy, Daddy goes off to work and we get out of bed....

I have to stay in all day today waiting for some mail that will be delivered between 9.00 and 5.00 , the sun is shining but stay in we must. I cant go out to the garden as I cant hear the door and I NEED this package today. I dont think that the house has recovered since the children came last week for my sons birthday so there is plenty to be done but I just dont want to do it. Ha.

We are looking at changing things around here a little.
We moved here 6 years ago and at the time I thought that this house was huge compared to our last home but the walls are fit to burst with stuff and it feels oh so small now. They say that the bigger the house the more stuff you fill it with, boy this is so true. In our last kitchen I had a set of drawers, cooker and one double floor unit on one side with the fridge, above this was one double wall unit. On the other side I had the washing machine and a double floor unit with the sink in it. The kitchen was tiny tiny and you could only fit one person inside, if you opened one of the cupboards the door nearly touched the cupboard opposite. Now my kitchen is huge in comparison with lots and lots of storage but the cupboards are fit to burst, I try to sort them out but find that the stuff inside is stuff I want to keep.
The childrens rooms are another story, they are jam packed with stuff and it was only afew weeks ago that I had a huge clear out and took a boot full (volvo estate, so you can imagine how much ) of stuff to the charity shop and yet I feel that there is still so much. I also know that if I were to risk life and limb and climb into the loft that there are piles and piles of stuff up there too.
I am off to get some work done and kick the kids off the TV.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sarah x

Camping

During the half term holidays we took a family camping trip. I love camping, there is nothing like sleeping under canvas for the night. I dont mind the bugs and creepy crawlies ( unlike me at home), I dont mind the coolness of sleeping under the stars, I am a happy camper as long as I can go and get a nice hot shower to scrub up at the end of the day. This was our base for the week, not the best picture but hey ho !!
Beautiful walks along beautiful beaches. This is what we practically woke up to every day. The beach was right next to the camp site.

Looking the other way. I went walking here on a morning and found it the most wonderful way to start the day. It was so warm when we were away, we were just so lucky. It rained once during the night but as the tents were pitched on sand under the grass it drained and dried up real quick.

Pretty sky's at night.

Happy Puppies.

Happy children going for pony rides along the beach. Well you just HAVE to ride on the beach. The camp site had a riding school and it just so happened that Little Miss packed her riding gear and twisted Daddy around her finger to pay for two lessons (not to mention the lessons she has weekly at home, alas but what are Daddy's for?)

Goodness she is nearly as tall as me, how did that happen?

Oh and yes please take note Mum and Dad, I am actually walking along the beach WITHOUT SHOES.. ha ha ha

I dont think that my poor Dads back has ever recovered from having to carry me onto the wet sand when we went to the beach as kids. I absolutely 100% cant bear the feeling of the sand on my feet. I am no different now but Andrew refuses to carry me anymore, I mean comeon I just dont understand why!!

Well that sums up our little camping trip. I have a busy few weeks ahead of me but there will be lots of fun also. I just cant wait t show you the pictures.

What are you all up to?

Sarah x

Happy Birthday Little Fella

Yesterday was my not so little boys 8th birthday, I cant believe that he is eight already. Where did the time go? We had a house full of little boys on Saturday, running around and keeping me on my toes.
We bought him the "bestest" present ever. Click here to have a look as the batteries have run out on my camera after taking lots of pictures at the park today. I am exhausted and worn out after a long weekend, so will be back later in the week.

Sarah x

Rose Swap

I was lucky to join in with Melanie's Rose Swap recently and was paired up with Vanessa. I was blown over with the kindness Vanessa has shown me when I opened her gifts. Just take a look at what she has sent me

This is a beautiful rose box, the kind that you may put photos or cd's in (although this is destined for greater things, not sure what yet though)


The flash is not working on my camera so the pictures look very dark but here are the goodies inside the box.

A pretty rose jug, rose flavoures chocolate (yummy) rose tissues, rose drawer scent bag, rose ornament, rose petals for the bath, rose soap AND.......

The prettiest necklace that I have worn every day since. It is so me...

Girlie and pink.. after all folks a girl can never have too much pink or lip gloss (that is what all the girls in my family get told from their dear old Aunty..lol)

Thank you to Vanessa for her kindness and it you follow the links above to her blog you will get to see much better pictures of the things she has sent for me and you also get to look at more of her stunning pictures.

I have enjoyed taking part in this swap and thought that perhaps we could organise another one maybe a "Pretty in Pink" swap..let me know what you all think.

Birthday Gifts

Happy Birthday gifts to take with us to see special people tomorrow.
My homemade gifts challenge is proving challenging but I am enjoying making them. I think it has motivated me somehow to get the sewing machine out or whatever gift I make and getting on with it instead of putting things off and dashing out to the shops at the last minute.
I do owe a gift for my Daddy but as he is understanding he wont mind waiting until it is made.

I am going to tuck little people into their beds and then wait for Hubby to get home, well atleast there is a man who sometimes appears at the breakfast table and I am sure he lived here once over but for some reason someone called "Work" seems to be taking him away from here.
On a good side I get to have the remote and watch my TV without moans of "What are you watching this crap for ?" ha ha ha..

"Magic"

My son asked me ages ago to make him a cape fit for a Magician. I just so happened to have the perfect fabric for it so just needed to get some plain black for the outside. I used an old Asda cape we bought for Halloween a couple of years ago as a template to get the right size. The only problem was the purple fabric stretches and slips around so I found it difficult to sew and so is not quite as perfect as I would have liked but hey the magician is happy so that is all that counts.

Here we are and every self respecting Magician knows he has to wear Ben 10 jarmies with his cape.
Even with magical purple sparkly stars

The purple fabric has gold sparkly bit on and they are quite bumpy in texture, not sure that my sewing machine fully appreciated them and its protests were heard.

Happy Magicians all round.

I am sat here this evening on my own, everyone is tucked up warm in bed apart from me. There is no noise or distractions just me, the dog and the lap top. I had a conversation with my Mum today (on my beloved phone) and she was telling me that my uncle has aksed if I would like to have his oil lamp which belonged to his late wife. This got me talking about my childhood, I used to go with my Dad for a walk that seemed such a long way for such little legs (but was infact just up the road) to go and get parrafin to be used in the lamps at home. I was only born in 1975 so I am not exactly old, LOL.. Our home didnt have any electricity at all so we relied on these lamps for light. Now when I see a lamp or smell the smell of parrafin I am yet again about 5 years old walking with my Daddy. I cant wait to get this lamp from my Uncle, it has certainly come to the right home and will be treasured and used forever.

I feel the urge to add more simplicity into our life, I think that things have got a little crazy around here recently. I feel that the children are in need of more quality time with their parents to learn and experience things that with the day to day busyness of our life are getting put to one side. I want to teach them things that they wont learn in school, I want to lay back on the grass and watch the clouds float past, to cook, bake, sew and tell stories to one another. I am all too aware that my daughter is getting older and I want her to look back on these days and say "Yes, we did that". My son needs to get out of the house on a daily basis, he has so much energy and he needs to work it off. He loves bird watching so we need to spend more time just sitting back and watching.
Both of the children like to help out in the kitchen so we have been cooking up a storm. We decided that on a Wednesday evening the children could cook dinner (with supervision), I may change the day later but it is fitting in quite well at the moment. On Saturday I am going to teach my daughter to knit, I have tried a couple of times but we didnt get very far but this time I know we can do it. I will be back later with pictures.

"Operator"

Just look at the loveliness that is my new toy.. It is the real thing, not a replica but an original 700 sesries telephone complete with the original "Ring, ring" of childhood days. I keep drifting back to my Nanny's house, sitting by the fire watching... probably Emmerdale, listening to the tick tock of the clock when the phone "Rings".. He he he... My parents also had one but it was one that hung on the kitchen wall. The sad part is that I keep ringing it from my mobile just to hear it ring...



It takes forever to dial a number on it, no speed dial and it is SO LOUD when it rings.. Oh but so much fun. Can you still dial 100 and get the operator?

Here is a picture of my Belle, I think that she looks a little dazed in this photo but she has just tasted her very first frozen ice pop so was probably on a sugar high or something.

In other news I have shrunk my Hubbys newish expensive wool jumper. Do you know what the bad thing is? The first thing I thought when I took it out of the wash and realised it would fit a barbie doll was "Oooooo project". I mean what kind of wicked wife would see the good side in shrinking ones Hubbys lovely jumper? Especially when the project would be of some kind of crafting thing.
Thank you to the lovely Melanie for this award.. I have to nominate seven blogs but this is the hard part if you ask me. There are so many wonderful blogs out there that i find it hard to narrow it down.

Periwinkle

Green Twins Mummy

Cakes make the world a better place

Smilernpb

Faerie Nuff

I Wanna Be Crafty

And I am going to send it right back to Melanie (probably breaking the rules but since when have I followed the rules?) Ok I give it to these blogs as they inspire me in so many different ways.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Early morning walks along the cliff edge whilst my daughter was at her riding lesson. There is loads of wildlife near here, mainly lots and lots of birds but we were lucky enough to see a fox...

Inspiration

Don't you ever just need a little inspiration? You know when you look around you and see the piles of things (read..Crap) that you accumulate and hoard and keep F-O-R-E-V-E-R. You dont know what to do with this stuff and the house is all messy because you are out all day at work and the kids have homework but all they want to to is play and your daughter is bugging you about getting ready for a party in five hours time and you really should make some time to just play with your kids but you have a list as long as a roll of andrex of things to do.... sigh.... Sometimes you just need a little inspiration........
I used to be one of those Mummys who did stuff with the kids, all that crafting stuff and cooking and baking and we had trips out and all sorts of stuff. Now by the end of the week I am exhausted and want to sleep until Monday when I go back to work but then I am annoyed that I wasted the weekend... Ok so tell me what kinds of things you do to keep your children entertained, what do they enjoy and what kind of stuff do you do for family time.. Any ideas greatly appreciated..

Okay rant over with..LOL..

We did enjoy the half term although not all of the activities planned were done but we had fun all the same. I have some lovely pictures on my daughters camera but cant find the cable that connects her camera to the computer so they will have to wait. Anyway here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Lovely walks along the beaches near our home, It is so nice to be able to hop into the car and drive down to the beach. I could walk but I am far too lazy for that.. ha ha ha This is not the closest beach to us but only a short drive away..

Rock pooling on the beach, sadly they were all empty as word had got out that we were going and all of the little creatures made sure they could either hide in the depths of where I was unwilling to put my hands ( well you never know what might run out from under the seaweed )or swim back out to sea.. I am sure I could hear them laughing. Next time we will get them..
Little purses made for little girlies to take to sleepovers. Lovely sleepovers at Grandma's house with lots of sewing, quilting and hiding the remote control from Grandad and forcing him to watch Sponge Bob... ha ha ha....

50 Things about me.

I found this over at Cakes Make the World a Better Place and thought I would join in on the fun. Feel free to join in but let me know so I can pay you a visit.

1. Are you wearing a hat?No.

2. Bottled water?Sometimes, but I usually drink it from the tap.

3. Do you have a crush on someone right now? Err no not right now.

4. What kind of computer do you have?Fujitsu Lap Top

5. Do you prefer writing in pen or pencil? Pen, but if I am taking notes I will usually use a pencil

6. Who was the last message in your inbox from? A friend from the US telling me about her children.

7. What’s your favorite season? I like them all but will say either Autmn or Winter

8. Does your best friend have a boyfriend or girlfriend?No

9. Do you like Tea? Yes I like a cup of tea but also enjoy herbal teas.

10. Favorite radio station? BBC Radio 2

11. Type your name into Google. What's the first site that appears? An article for a Sustainable Community Workshop.

12. What’s your favorite song at the moment? I think it would be something by Nina Simone.

13. Coke or Pepsi ? Neither.

14. Favorite subject in school? History or French

15. Last concert? Well I took my daughter to see Girls Aloud but a concert for adults would have been either Hayseed Dixie or Marilyn Manson.. Ha bet you were not expecting that. LOL.

16. Next concert? None planned but love to see live music of all sorts as you can see above.

17. Last magazine you bought? Your Home

18. Last book you read? "Hello Fatty" Dawn French

19. Do you prefer cats or dogs? Dogs

20. Is there someone you want to punch right now? Next question, better not name and shame...

21. Favorite sports team? ?????????????

22. Country you most want to visit? USA........

23. Are you a Blogger addict? Probably

24. When do you shower? In the morning.

25. What’s your dream job? Either to be a baker or own my own little Tea Shop.

26. What kind of car do you drive? Volvo

27. What word in the dictionary best describes you? Crazy

28. What’s your blog address? You are reading this so you know..

29. Worst TV show at the moment? Well I dont really watch much telly but Iam going to say the Moto GP as that is all that is on our at the moment and it is on until about October....sigh.....LOL...

30. Are you a better talker or better listener?Listener

31. What your favorite colour? You mean there are other colours than pink.. I didnt know that.

32. What is your favorite animal? Horse

33. Are you afraid of the dark?No.

34. Is there something lacking in your life right now? No.

35. What do you miss most about childhood? Not been afraid to fall off the horse, it hurts when you get older.

36. How many times did it take you to pass your drivers test? Passed on my second test.

37. How many kids do you want? Trillions

38. Are you good painter? No

39. Can you cook? Yes.

40. Are you a cheapskate? No..

41. What would you do with a million dollars? Buy a house in the middle of nowhere with a HUGE fence around the land, get a shotgun and sit on my porch.. No I am not anti social.

42. Have you been to Disney World? Does Disney Land Paris count?

!43. How man days a month are you online? Most of them

44. Last time you went bowling?February for my daughters birthday.

45. Hot or cold weather? Somewhere in the middle

46. How many pairs of shoes do you have? 4 or 5 something like that, Iam not into shoes. The best are my DM'S the best pair of shoes ever and they are PINK!

47. Are you a shop-a-holic?No - I hate going shopping.

48. Where were you yesterday morning at 10:30? Watching our motorbike been taken off the back of an AA truck outside the house.

49. Are you afraid of the dentist? Oh I hate it, terrified. Although I am actually a trained Dental Nurse.. I dont care as long as it is not my mouth. I do go though.

50. Were you bored or entertained by this survey? Entertained.

Sigh !!!!!

Poor hubby didnt get very far before the AA had to bring him home, at least it was just a breakdown.

I am back to work on Monday (sigh!!) I have had two weeks off and feel much better for it but just dont feel like going back yet. Boo hoo......