Malbridge House

I’ve not been around for a while, had loads on, life and stuff. My Mum and Ed got married last Saturday, hopefully some photos should appear next week. I’ve got a new camera and it’s all got to be installed etc!

Today a friend came round that I’ve not seen for over four months, it was great to see her and her two daughters. I’m also looking after my nephew a couple of days a week as my sisters family circumstances have changed, so she’s working part-time and I’m having Charlie to help her out. It really isn’t a hardship, he’s lovely.

My friend also bought her Mums new dog, also called "Charlie" he’s 14 weeks old and a Yorkie X Bichon Frise, so I had eight children in here and as I’m looking after my Mums Bichon Frise while she’s on honeymoon, we had five dogs. Everyone was really well behaved and I’ve had a lovely day.

I’ve walked our dogs over the fields this evening with Eden, just a short one because it’s so hot, Med is puffing and panting and finding it hard in this heat.

I’m really looking forward to the rain and thunder and lightning that’s expected tonight, I may even go dance in it!

The veg really needs the water, again hopefully I’ll post some pictures of it all soon.

My boys  at my Mums before we left for the St Georges Parade.

It was Callums second parade and Clarks first

The scouts gathering, see the big white mini-bus, that’s us!

The band that we followed, our Beaver troop were at the front of the parade, the poor little things had to have little bursts of running to keep up with them!

The Cubs and Beavers on parade.

After the parade and church service we gathered together at the local scout campsite for a bar-b-que. We sat in chairs and on blankets, ate hotdogs and beefburgers and chatted and laughed in the sunshine whilst the children played football and climbed trees. In fact I relaxed and chatted so much I forgot to take any photos!

It was one of the most pleasant afternoons that I’ve had in a long time.

We’ve had a really busy week, we’ve done quite a bit of schoolwork which is fortunate because we had a letter from the LEA and they’re coming out next week for our review, he’s doing them over two days so that he’s not here all day!

All the children love the LEA visits as it gives them a chance to show off their work, I only hope he wears stout shoes as they want to show him the bughouse we’re building and the veg!

I’m not a political person at all, although I don’t agree with war, I can understand why they start and once started they can be hard to stop.

Somebody sent this to me and it moved me so much I just had to post it.

Last week I was in  West London attending a conference.

  While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer.

 I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.
 
Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their uniforms,as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
 

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I’m not alone. I’m not the only red blooded Briton who still loves this country  and supports our troops and their families.

 Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work, and enjoy our home without fear or reprisal.

 Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers.
 
He knelt down and said ‘hi,’ the little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.
 
The young soldier didn’t look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy.
 Suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.
 
The mother of the little girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Corporal and had been in Afghanistan for 5 months now.

As the mum was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.
 
When this temporarily single mum was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second.
 
  Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie.
 
They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.
 
  After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, ‘I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.’
 
He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a Kiss on the cheek.
 
He finished by saying ‘Your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.’
 
  The mum at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted Courtney and her mum.
 
I was standing no more than 6 feet away as this entire event unfolded.
 
  As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause.
 
As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own.
 
  That young soldier in one last act of moment turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.
 
We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices.
 
  At the end of the day, it’s good to be an Englishman.
 
RED FRIDAYS
 
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday.
 
The reason? 
Englishmen and women who support our troops used to be called the ’silent majority’.
 
  We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for Country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing.
 
We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions.

  Many English people, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of  Britain supports our troops.

  Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that every Briton who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.  By word of mouth, press, TV — let’s make Great Britain on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football team

  If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family, It will not be long before Britain is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once ’silent’ majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on. The first thing a soldier says when asked ‘What can we do to make things better for you?’ is…’We need your support and your prayers’… Let’s get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

Haven’t had time to blog, even read other peoples blogs. We had a big exhibition at our local church to celebrate it standing for fifty years, so we went to lots of talks they had on about fishermen, soldiers and village life in the time of Jesus. We were there every morning for about ten days. We’ve got lots of information which should probably come in handy somewhere along the line.

We’ve had more problems with the neighbours, they rang the R.S.P.C.A to report that I was kicking my Yorkie in the back garden and apparently it’s a regular occurance! Thankfully for Yorkies everywhere I haven’t actually got one, so not only were the claims false but they hadn’t even got the breed of dog right and I’ve got three different breeds that they could chose from! Not happy with that they then rang the police to tell them the same thing and that they’d rung the R.S.P.C.A. All the street knew it was them anyway, both the police and the R.S.P.C.A. were fine but it’s just so annoying. I’ve come to the conclusion that these people are just attention seekers and they really aren’t doing themselves any favours with the rest of the people in the road by doing this to us. Everyone knew it was them and they’re coming up to me telling me to ignore them and they know how much I love my dogs.

We went away over Easter to our favourite camping site, had a lovely time, I’ve got loads of pictures to upload from church and camping.

We off to the Beavers and Cubs St. Georges Parade today, Clark was invested in Beavers on Friday night just so that he could take part in the parade today, so I’ve been sewing on badges and polishing shoes. Look out for even more photos over the next week.

I’m so proud, two of my boys in uniform marching along. Soloman is already asking when he can join Beavers, luckily he doesn’t have  much concept of what two years actually means!

Last Saturday was Ed’s birthday, Ed being my step-dad-to-be.

We got him some vouchers for him to buy fish with as he’s just set up a fishtank. I also knitted him a jumper from us all. Mum bought some wool so that I could knit a jumper from her.

Our jumper

Mums jumper

Opening presents

We had a little tea party, the weather was absolutely glorious and we ate out in the front garden. Here’s the boys with their cousin sitting on a blanket.

They’re eating scones with jam and clotted cream Well, what else would eat outside on a lovely Spring day?

Warning

If you see one of these in your garden do not approach.

Known as Welly-boot Monsters, they can’t be slain, they make a lot of noise and if your not careful they can cause hysterical laughter!  Leave well alone and I hope you never have the misfortune to come across one! I don’t know how I escaped unscathed!

Today we went to our local church to join them in their Knit and Natter session. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but had the feeling we wouldn’t be welcome as we tend not to be , well not so much me, but the children!

Yesterday we went to church for their Mothers Day service, Eden had church parade with Guides, so we all decided to go. I saw one of the ladies who runs the knit and natter and asked her about the children going, she was delighted. She then took me to one of the ladies who does the knitting and informed her about the children and you could just see on her face she wasn’t so delighted! Anyway, we turned up because if we say we’re going to do something , we do it.

Firstly, they didn’t know where to put us, everyone has their designated seats, so we sat at a little table at the back not even joined onto their table. We were offered refreshments, some of the ladies spoke to us, one in particular was lovely. They were all surprised that the children could knit and crochet.

One of the ladies didn’t talk to us at all. Maybe she’s shy!!

They use to have 15 ladies knitting but they’re down to 7. You would have thought they’d be grateful for our company!

The "main" lady asked us about the Echo article and asked if I was a qualified teacher, to which I replied that you don’t have to be. She then went back to her seat and must be deaf because she was talking to her neighbour in a loud voice!!

" She’s not a qualified teacher, she said you don’t have to be. They were in the Echo last week, you know. They only asked me if they could come yesterday. I didn’t know they would turn up today"

Apparently she wanted to ask the ladies if we could go, so I think the answer would have been no, or she might not even have asked them.

Eden and Clark didn’t enjoy it but Callum loved it, he’s raring to go and has started knitting one of the strips that they knit to sew together into blankets.

I will go back next week for Callums sake, but when I overheard the lady talking I didn’t know whether to turn round and walk out the door or wet myself!!

Onto other things

We’ve had such a busy week, we’ve had something to do every day, Clarks birthday was at the beginning of the week.

This is what he wanted!

His cake and below his decorations

On Thursday we went ice-skating with some friends as a birthday treat

From this —– To this !!

Our friends

They had a blast and next time I’m going on the ice…. well maybe!

I’ve got loads more to post, knitting, gardening, but I’ll save them for another day, I’ll just post this weeks Sketch Tuesdays…..A Barnyard Animal

 Edens Callums

  Clarks

I thought we’d been ditched, but we hadn’t. The reporter has misquoted us a couple of times, but we’re really pleased with the article

In the actual paper they had a bit about what Eden had to say about it with a picture of it but that doesn’t seem to be included in the online article.

This weeks Sketch Tuesday was to draw a plug that goes into a socket.

Here’s our attempts…. Edens

Callums

And Clarks

The eldest three did some schoolwork this morning, Eden’s still doing Seven Wonders of the World, it’s turning out to be quite a big project, the two boys did some word endings, and, ent, things like that.

This afternoon I went over the fields with the dogs and my friend, she’s got Hexas sister, Pudsey. We were out for about an hour and the cobwebs were completely blown away.

It’s Clarks sixth birthday in eight days , so I’m trying to get plans together for a day out, the trouble in this house is that there’s always little ears about!

I’m now off to knit and see what’s happening in Eastenders! Oh, what an exciting life I lead?!

I’ve had a headache all morning, five children cooking and playing does not peace make!!

I’ve been meaning to post all week but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I’ve just wandered around a couple of blogs to catch up.

My Mum and her new partner have been away for a few days, so we stayed at our caravan and came back home during the day to HE and feed the cats, catch up with things!

We were in the caravan on Wednesday night when it snowed, we only had an inch pitch but it snowed from 3am ( I know because we had to let the dog out for a wee!) until about 10am.

It was jolly cold in the caravan, we’ve got a heater but I won’t put it on whilst we’re asleep, because I’m such a worrier and it’s bound to blow us all to Kingdom Come!

Eden has discovered sewing with a machine and has been down Grandmas sewing her petticoat to go under her Bridesmaid dress. I didn’t realise you still had such things as petticoats! That is what comes with not having worn a dress or skirt for years! If I could have got married in trousers I would have!

Eden’s now handsewing some clothes for a doll ( Clarks, don’t ask!)

I’ve been doing lots of knitting and you never know I may get a photo up before the end of the month!

We’ve been doing quite a lot of work, in the back of my mind is the LEA visit we had last April so in theory we should get a letter soon, although last years was four months late.

Edens been doing a lot of work on The Seven Wonders of the World. I’m really pleased with her, she’s very self-motivated which I think is such a good virtue. The boys have continued with bible stories and we’ve done lots of reading. I want to try and pull Clarks up a bit.

I have had my birthday, 21 again!

Eden cooked a lovely three course meal, prawn cocktail, followed by Roast Beef, followed by Lemon Chiffon cake. Malc timed the beef for her and all I had to do was make the batter. Honestly, I couldn’t have cooked it better myself.

 My blog was a year old at the end of February, how fast has that gone?

We’ve had our photos taken for the local paper but as yet the article on Home-ed that we did hasn’t appeared yet. Maybe they ditched us!

So life is playing out in it’s usual fast way, with me running behind trying to keep up!

Eden wants to make pizzas for tea, so I’m just off to supervise the dough making, Lord only knows what’ll end up on the top of it.

Yesterday we went to Delph Woods. We go there a lot with the dogs and children as there are lots of trees to climb, a stream running all the way around it for the children and dogs to play in. We went with some friends that I’ve blogged about before, we always try and meet up in the school holidays.

Climbing Trees

I’m the King of the castle!

Soloman is the only one not in this photo, he had a "cob on" for some reason

I fell over

We had our picnic on a bench and went for a walk alng part of the Castlemaine Trail, which is a long walk going from Upton to Stapehill, I’ve just tried to "google" it to link in the information, but according to them it desn’t exist! I know it does, we’ve walked it many times!

We then went back into the woods to play in the stream, it was meant to be a paddle but the children had other ideas!

On a log 

We found a bridge

Round the corner a bit the stream widens and lo and behold there we found a piece of rope with wood tied into it which made the most fabulous swing, it would be churlish not to try it out!

As you can see my friends son had a bit of a tear in his jeans!

We were here for a while, a couple of Mums came past us with their sons who looked to be about fourish, you could see in their eyes that they dearly would like to have a go, but their Mums wouldn’t let them. They probably thought we were a bit potty!

We got back to the mini-bus and completely stripped the children down to their underwear and put coats and blankets around them and we went home to coffee and hot chocolates all round. Luckily my friend had brought a change of clothes with her, we know our children too well!

We were all in bed by 8pm, we were shattered. I’ve seen my friend today as her eldest stayed for tea, she said they were all in bed early last night and this morning the boys were covered in bruises where they’d fallen down so much, Eden has a lovely lump on the side of her knee.

We’ve not had so much fun for ages, when they were on the rope-swing my friend and I were laughing so much I nearly wet myself, honestly you couldn’t pay to be entertained so much.

So roll on the next school holidays so we can do it again. Up you up for it K.A. and boys?

Monday morning we went to our local Nature Watch Group that we go to, they’ve changed it a bit, for some of the acivities you now have to pay £1 per child which works out a bit of money for us, also instead of running a class every month on a Saturday they’re running some of the classes during the school holidays, so we turned up and it was heaving, which is good.

I have written a letter and so have the top three children saying we were disappointed that we were going to be charged and sent it off to Leisure Services, I’ll let you know if we hear anything back.

I thought we paid for these things out of our Council Tax, it means that these classes could now be out of reach for some children which makes me feel quite sad.

Anyway, they made some bug houses and they also had to make a couple of huge birds nests, which is sitting in our back garden at the moment waiting for a couple of Emus to land, when you’ve seen the picture you’ll understand.

From this…. to this….

We managed the base really well but found it really hard to build it up around the sides. We have new found respect for birds who do all this with their beaks and balance it whilst building it on a tree which probably isn’t static.

We thought it could also double up as a coracle or even a basket for Moses in the bullrushes!

We then went into the cafe for a well earned ice-cream for the children and coffee for the adults, only to find some artists painting a mural on one of the walls, Eden drawn over by the Art got talking to them and we found out that they know my brother, a local artist who draws with his foot due to a neck injury, they’re going to have a competition to find a design to cover a bird hide which Eden is interested in entering.

Eden was then offered a paintbrush and told how to continue painting this Peacock

The gate is from the walled garden at Upton Park, the Dolphin is the symbol of Poole and if you look through the gates you can see Old Harry Rocks which were named after Harry Paye a famous pirate of long ago who use to terrorise out harbour.

The Peacock is for Upton Park as they have lots of them there, they use to have white ones but unfortunately they were stolen a couple of years back.

In the afternoon we had a lady from our local rag come and talk to us about home-edding, Eden behaved like a dream and answered all her questions really nicely, unfortunately Callum grizzled most of the way through it because he kicked Clark and got told off. Don’t you just love them?

We’ve got a photographer coming next Tuesday to take some pics, Lordy me, I hope they are better behaved.

I received some roses and a lovely card ( handmade by Eden at Dh’s request)

Usually on Valentines Day, Callum has his little girlfriend round for tea and this year was no exception.

We set up a table in the lounge next to our dining table, we put a candle and tablecloth on it, very civilised, don’t you know?

I cooked a three course meal, well I didn’t cook all of it, the starter was carrots and cucumber with a mayonaise dip, then we had spagetti bolognese, follow by fresh pineapple, ice-cream and some squirty cream, as it’s known in this house, you know the one, it comes in a can!

Some pictures of the event!

To make the meal complete we were surrounded by valentine decorations

Callum handmade her card.

Then on Sunday we did some gardening, we moved these roses and put some bark around them and starting digging the veg patch

Clark sorted out a load of rubble that we want to keep for our garden path, we’re going to break it all up and then lay the path and put gravel on top of it.

Cody did what he does best,…… get dirty!!

He actually had mud in his hair.

That was our weekend!

I know they’re very late but here’s our snowman.

We were walking over on our local fields at about 11-30am and the sky looked black with rain clouds, we managed to get home in time for the heavens to open and LOADS more snow to fall.

Today we went to our local park to walk the dogs and then the children played on the beach and swings.

Firstly, they were shipwrecked and had to walk up the beach

One of the pirates needed a bit of help!

Luckily Captain Cody found another ship to command.

 Climb up the mast and look out!  Ship Ahoy!

Where?

Then we rode on the back of a Blue Whale.

Well Dolphin!

Back to land with a helicopter ride.

What was all this in aid of I hear you ask?

Why treasure, of course!

I can’t believe how much time has passed sinced I last blogged. We’ve been really busy but I can’t really remember doing what!

Eden has had her 11th birthday.

Callum has gone from Beavers and  swum up to Cubs.

Clark was meant to start Beavers last Friday but due to the snow it was cancelled, which means he should start this Friday, he’s only there one week and then he’s off the next because of Half Term.

Talking of snow, we had quite a bit and I’ve got pictures of a lovely snowman and us over the field with the dogs walking in it but they seem to have vanished whilst uploading them. Luckily we’ve still got them on the camera so we can try again and I’ll post them another day.

Onto Sketch Tuesdays  Look here around Tuesday lunchtime and you can see all the pictures, this week it was " Road Signs"

Edens

Callums

Clarks

The computer is still freezing, I have to do as much as I can in 30 minute segments and then shut it down or it usually freezes, it’s a real pain.

Scholl work has continued, Eden’s doing "The Seven Wonders Of the World" I didn’t realise that there were the " ancient, medeivel and modern" seven wonders. You’ve also got " natural wonders"

So I think she’s going to be busy for a little while. Callum and Clark have been doing stories from the Bible, today we did "Noah and the Ark"

I’m not deeply religious, but I’d like to think my Dad is watching and guiding us from somewhere, I try to treat people as I would like to be treated, the children have been christened, so when asked I would say that our faith is a Christian one, I will teach the children both versions of how the Earth was thought to have begun and they hopefully will make their own minds up as to what if anything they want to believe.

The breadmaker has just beeped signalling the bread is now ready, it certainly smells lovely!

I hope to be back soon, I have lots of posts going round in my head but not enough time to get on the computer and blog them!

Lordy me, I’m running out of titles!!

We’ve not been doing much bloggable really, schoolwork, cooking, cleaning, we did go looking at tents at the weekend with my Mum and her fiance.

They’re hoping to go with us when we go camping, Mum use to sleep in the awning with Eden, but they’re going to borrow our tent and see if Ed likes it and if he does they’ll buy their own. So we’ve been picking out some amazing tents for them to buy!!

The children have done their Sketch Tuesdays, I’m show casing them a little late! They had to draw something that goes fast.

Edens plane

Callums lorry

Clarks train

I’ve also finished some knitting, a scarf for my friend for her birthday. I assure you it is wool and not a dead animal!

A jumper for my nephew, Charlie. He’ll be three in the middle of February.

I was in the middle of the last sentence on this post and the computer froze which it does about every 30 minutes and has been doing so for the last few days, we keep having to reboot it. Any ideas anyone?

So I’m going to go and publish this before it does it again!!

Look what I’ve got!

Some new wool. We went to The Courtyard Centre on Tuesday and Hurrah it was open. So we had a lovely look around. We’re going to book Eden some lessons in the shop that sells and repairs anything beady!

I bought some wool for a scarf for a friend for her birthday and for two jumpers for my nephew for his birthday in the middle of Febuary.

My Mum also bought some  wool and gave it to me because she wants me to knit a jumper for her new fiance for his birthday at the end of March

I’ve finished knitting this

Modelled by demon cherub child!

Eden has been busy creating this

She has crocheted a bag to put Hexa in and it’s complete with a handle which she puts round her neck, Eden that is! and she carries her around. It’s rather like one of those baby carriers! Luckily Hexa’s so laid back, she lets the children do anything to her!

I’m off to get out my knitting needles and become Granny Bridget!! Just wish I had the rocking chair!

I don’t now if it’s the time of year, my frame of mind or what but I’m feel a bit "Blah" at the moment. Nothing very interesting is happening, saying that we are constantly busy, but we don’t seem to be achieving anything.

This weekend we went for a lovely walk with our dogs and some frends, we went to Ham Common, which is a sort of Nature place next to the beach. We go there quite a lot as it’s literally just up the road from us. They’ve got a little pier which I use to jump off into the water in my youth.

The childen walked out onto the end of it and we could see patches of ice floating under the pier, it was really wierd, the children thought it was great.

It was incredibly cold which seems to have an adverse effect on our mini-bus and it wouldn’t start! So after a couple of domestics and some help from one of the neighbours it would seem that the contact on the battery had worked loose. That’s what we’re hoping it was anyway!

On Sunday we went to my Mums for tea, roast lamb, yummy, followed by the last of her Christmas Puds with cream. Oh, I do love it when I don’t have to cook, it tastes so much better!

Today we went to The Courtyard Centre, I love this place, it’s just the best place around for beads and wool. So off we all set, it was pouring with rain, all got out and walked into the centre only to find it’s shut on Mondays! So we’re going to have to go tomorrow instead. I’ve run out of wool and I’ve got a scarf and two jumpers that I want to knit for birthdays in February. I’ve just finished Codys cable sweater ( hopefully photos of him soon wearing it) I really wanted to get started on the next thing. Never mind!

Schoolwork is not going as well as I would like, today we did Sketch Tuesdays. Soloman joined in today.

You had to do something worn on your hands.

Solomans, complete with bracelet

Clarks, he did "just hands" because you wear your skin! He did bracelets and nail varnish. The " lines" are the wrinkles on my hand apparently. Anyone know of a good anti-aging cream?!

Callums had nail varnish, a ring and he included a pair of mittens.

Edens had nail varnish, ring, barcelet and she surrounded hers with different sorts of gloves.

We went to Staples today and bought a box file and some wallets to keep Solomans work in, he was so proud of them and had to carry them out of the shop.

Our main problem is Cody at the moment, we did have everything organised with him but now his little playmate Soloman is into doing some work he’s lost him and is hell bent on disrupting everything, this morning he picked up all the crayons and threw them because the older ones were colouring their Sketch Tuesdays. If he can’t get what he wants he literally stands there and screams, it’s quite shrill too!

I’m racking my brins trying to remember what I use to do, I’ve HE-ed with a 2 yr old before. Cody is so stubborn and his brian can do more than his hands can so I think it frustrates him. He wants to do what the big boys do. So that’s my next project, trying to keep Cody amused whilst HE-ing. Wish me luck!

Today, Eden and I went shopping, she wanted to spend some of her Christmas money and I must say she did really well, she bought some trainers in a sale for £10, down from £30, she bought a pair of cords and a pair of jeans for £6 each and a lovely hooded top for £5, she still came home with £17.

Like any nearly 11 yr old grl she loves clothes, she chose it all herself, I must admit she has a really good dress sense, me, I wear whatever I’m comfortable in that doesn’t show chocolate or glue stains!!

We’ve got a new printer so I’ve been trawling the web for sites that give you free worksheets for the children, I’ve got a nice lot printed off.

Soloman has started to ask for work, we’ve started with his name which is quite a challenge because it’s quite long and I’ve printed off some letters to start on phonics, I know quite a few people don’t like them but the top three have done well with them so we’ll give them a go. Over the weekend we’re going to get him a box file to put his work in, so that he feels like the others.

He’s not four until April and wouldn’t start school until September but if a child is asking to work I do believe in taking the bull by the horns and letting them, I find they’re more liable to succeed if they’re leading the work themselves.

Callum and I did loads of cooking this afternoon, we made quiche and some coleslaw to go with it for tea. We also made bacon and cheese puffs, sausage rolls and he made chocolate cornflake cakes by himself. All the children like to cook which I think is a valuable asset for future life.

We had Pudsey, Hexas brother for a couple of hours this afternoon, so we’ve had loads of playing, yapping and sibling tussles going on, until they wore themselves out and fell asleep.

I’m now hoping to have a cup of tea, sit and do some knitting and I might even catch a soap or two whilst I’m doing it. What more could a girl want?!

That’s who I’ve been this Chistmas, we were planning a quiet one, but we’ve had my Mums engagement party, people to tea, friends from Scotland, we’ve visited people for tea. Thankyou V, very nice it was too, although I should say thankyou A, because he cooked it all, V and I just ate it!!

We played games, who could eat the most profitteroles, jaffa cakes and slices of pizza. I think I won!!

So I’ve been flitting from one soiree to the next and it’s been geat fun. 

Christmas was lovely, New Year wasn’t so good, Malc went to the doctors and the chest infection he had before Christmas is still lurking, so he’s on his third lot of anti-biotics and another load of steroids, eighteen days worth this time, if that doesn’t knock it on the head I’m taking him to the vets! Or the knackers yard I’ve not decided yet!!

I woke up on News Years Eve with a really stiff shoulder and sat for most of the day with a hot water bottle on it, I drank medicinal alcohol and yes, pernod and black is medicinal. It worked for me, after a few I felt no pain!

The children danced and played games, the top three were awake for midnight, so we didn’t ruin their night.

Today we were back to HE. We’ve not done a lot as we’re easing into it gently, more for me than the children.

We did our Sketch Tuesdays, they had to draw something old, Eden and Callum did treasure maps and Clark did our standard lamp, although I try to think of it as retro rather than old!!

We also wrote all our thankyou letters for our Christmas presents, so that took up the best part of the morning.

This afternoon we walked to my Mums which is probably a couple of miles, we took the dogs and the children rode either bikes or scooters. As we left we had a flurry of snow, much to the childrens delight! We had a cup of tea at Mums and then walked back. As I type the bottom three boys are asleep as they’re exhausted from all the walking and fresh air, the dogs have eaten their tea and crashed.

Over Christmas I managed to finish knitting this for Malc.

I’m now knitting an Aran jumper for Cody.

We’ve had a couple of light flurries of snow during the day but hardly anything really, we’re hoping for some tomorrow. It’s certainly cold though.

As we all know at this time of year there are a lot of pretend Santas around, at the shopping centres, at the Church Fayre, places like that. Well we met the real Father Christmas here.We usually go here, as the children don’t have parties at school with him visiting we try to make the effort so that the younger children can see him.

This year we had said that we wouldn’t go because of finances with Malc being made redundant.

After talking to a friend who went last weekend who said that "the santa" was brilliant we juggled a bit and decided to go.

Lordy me was it worth it, he was smashing. He even had his own white beard and not a fake one. He was brilliant with the children, they all got lovely presents, you choose them as you go in.  You could take as many pictures as you wanted yourself. In fact at the end of his chat with the children he asked if we had a camera and told us to snap away.

I would like to say a big Thankyou to Fi, she’ll know why.

I don’t think I’m going to have time to blog tomorrow, stuffing turkey and all that!!

So I would like to wish everybody who reads my blog a Merry Christmas and peaceful New Year.

For cooking, cleaning, stress, present wrapping and running around like a headless chicken!! Or turkey as the case may be!!

I don’t know where to start, my Mum’s got engaged, which I will go into another time because I should really ask her if it’s OK to post details as it’s her life story, not mine. But I will say that he’s a lovely, lovely man and I really think they will be very happy together. As happy as Malc and I, Lord I hope she’s happier than that!!

We’ve had Cody’s 2nd birthday.

From this at one hour old to this….

Yes that is my double chin in the corner of the picture!

Aww Bless!!

We’ve been on quite a few walks with the dogs, last week it was really frosty and the children found loads of ice.

We went to the same place as we got our Christmas Tree, the views are spectacular. See for yourself.

The heathland just seemed to be never ending. It was beautiful.

This picture was taken on another walk through some local woods, Hexa meeting a Ridgeback.

Eden went ice-skating with the Guides as their end-of-term Christmas party. She loved it and is begging to go back there.

Callum is going to a local pantomine with the Cubs tonight and tomorrow he goes to his Beaver party as he’s still in both as he’s in his " swimming up" period. Don’t ask!!

As usual our childrens social life takes over which is just as well because Malc and I don’t have one!

Off to do some more stressing!

We’re well on the road to it! Staying in for a week did us the world of good. We’ve got a couple of little coughs left but we’re all well! Shh, don’t tell anyone!

This last week we’ve been so busy, yet I’m racking my brains trying to remember what we’ve done.

We’ve done this http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/calendar/index.html

This is a brilliant site, get to the calendar, click on the date and it tells you about Christmas in other countries.

We’ve been doing this everyday but that’s all. HE has come to a stop until after Christmas, otherwise I wouldn’t have time to fit in the shopping, cooking, card writing, wrapping and all the rest of the festive fun!

The children also decorated these.

We put our decorations up, got a picture of the tree, it’s not very good, but  by the time it was up and decorated I’d had enough!

The children have been practising a play that we’re going to watch just before Christmas, we hope to video it. I’ve not been privvy to the details but I managed to sneak a picture!

I didn’t realise that Santa and the Angel Gabriel appeared in the same play but there you go.

On Saturday we went to our local Wildlife club, they meet once a month. This month we had to meet on some Heathland and cut down some pine trees. We had to cut five down and then we could cut one for ourselves to take home. We all did many more than five. I took a picture of the children in front of one pile, there was a little footpath to the right of them and another pile, double the size of this one. We all had great fun and there was rather a lot of testosterone flying around as you’d expect with men with tree loppers ad saws. 

We bought a tree home with us and we’re rather posh this year because we have two trees, one in the lounge and one in the kitchen!

I’ve also been out to lunch with my Mum which was lovely, I bought some wool to knit Malc a jumper with. I’ve knitted about ten scarves, some for presents and some for Eden because she loves scarves and likes to be colour co-ordinated, so she has to have lots of different coloured ones!

Today we had the cats spayed, so that’s another job done. Eden and I took them to the vets and then went into town to get the last four presents, I just have to wrap them all now! The cards went in the post today, I’ve got a few to hand deliver and I can then sit back and enjoy the rest of the festive season!

We put our decorations up yesterday, we always do them on the 1st Dec. Tree and all. I’ve not uploaded the pictures yet.

Our Tv isn’t working, well not the TV, the Box. We’ve rung them up and they’re going to bring out a new one tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind but this one is only 4 weeks old! I’m sure they should last a little longer than that.

We’ve also got our new bill and we were charged £10 for the delivery of the box which we had not been told about, so I feel a letter coming on. £10 for a box that lasts four weeks, I think not!!

Without the TV we’ve got so much done tonight, it does make me regret getting one again.

I’m miffed at missing "I’m a celebrity" Now if we didn’t have a TV and I hadn’t started watching it I wouldn’t be missing it at all would I ?

Hexa has had her second injection and can go out as from next Saturday, I can’t wait.

We’ve been in for days staying warm in an attempt to get rid of all our germs, it seems to be working, we’re all much better. Clark has got a bad cough and so’s Mum, but the rest of us are well on the road to recovery. Thank goodness.

Cough and sneezes spread diseases!

Tell me about it, most of us are still ill. Malc went to the doctors on Tuesday, he has a chest infection. He scared me to death, he was wheezing so much I thought that he was going to have an asthma attack! So he’s on antibiotics and steroids at the moment. Eden came down with a sore throat and headache and has spent most of the last 48 hours on the sofa ( If only!!)

The youngest three boys seem to be recovering, they’re all left with coughs though.

I’ve now had this a total of three times and it’s getting very boring indeed. I seem to get better, be better for about four or five days and then come down with it again.

We’ve been staying in, some work has been done but we’re on a lighter load. Quite honestly if they were at school they would be off and doing nothing.

The thing that’s really getting me down is the constant bickering and grizzling, and that’s just me and Malc.

I spent this morning doing loads of cooking, apple and blackberry pie, apple and saltana pie with a splash of Brandy, purely medicinal you understand.

A chicken pie and some mince pies to freeze for Christmas.

My Mum rang this morning feeling very unwell, the Doctor has been and pronounced a chest infection, so she’s coming here later and staying the night so I can do my Florence Nightingale bit, probably without her patience!  So that’ll be another sofa taken up!

Thank goodness we’ve got the TV, just in the nick of time. It takes their mind of arguing for ten minutes at a time.

So although I’ve done quite a bit towards Christmas we’re not particularly feeling festive at the moment. I hope to put the tree up early next week., maybe that will help!

So I leave you feeling very snuffly, blocked up and determined to go on, let’s face it, do I have a choice?

Here are the pictures of the puppies as promised.

We’ve been so busy I’ve not had time to blog, illness still abounds in our house. Sniff, sniff!!

Pudsey, our friends dog and the brother of Hexa, our puppy.

Pudsey in the red collar and Hexa in the pink.

Hard work this!

Yet again we’ve got so much going on that I’m not getting any "me" time. No time to blog, knit, relax or anything else. I seem to be doing less than when Malc was at work all day even though he’s now home and I should have time to do more because he can take up some of the slack.  I’m finding it really frustrating.

We’ve been puppy sitting a bit for my friend and "Pudsey" as they’ve called him.  We had him on Friday afternoon and all day today as she had to go on an outing with school and didn’t want to leave the puppy on it’s own. He’s coming tomorrow morning as well as she had something booked that she’d forgotten about.

Pudsey is lovely, I’ve got some smashing photos of him and Hexa together for a project that we’ve got going on. I’ll try and post them soon. I dare you not to go " Aaww". They are really cute.

It was the anniversary of my Dads death on Saturday, Mum stayed here overnight as she didn’t fancy being alone. We all went to his grave together to put some flowers on it.

On Sunday we were meant to walk our dogs with some good friends and their dog but illness is still prevailing in our house, the youngest three boys have had really runny noses and hacking coughs, so I thought it better to stay in. So our friends came to our house and the dogs ran round like mad, it’s a wonder their dog isn’t traumatised, Hexa was yapping like mad and hanging off it’s cheek!!

Tomorrow we’ve got our Health Visitor coming for Codys two year check, she’s lovely, I’ve warned her to wear her bullet proof vest. I think they draw straws at the clinic and whoever gets the shortest one gets to visit us!!

I’m off to try and get some knitting done, I’ve only got to do one more  scarf for a Christmas present and then I’m done with them, I want to knit Malc a jumper next.

Yesterday I met one of my friends, who is also a neighbour whilst we were shopping. As usual we had the dogs with us and Eden had to show Hexa off. My friend has two cats and has recently progressed to hamsters each for her three children. Her second daughter has wanted a dog for ages and ages and is always coming over to see our dogs but my friend has always said no, maybe when she’s older.

Yesterday she absolutely fell in love with Hexa, she rang me later to get more information about her, breed, size when fully grown, price, things like that. Anyway I went over with the advert for Hexa and her littermates and also another advert for Jack Russells, we talked about caring for a dog as she’s never had one before.

She rang and arranged to see the litter today, she asked if I would go with her as she didn’t have a clue what she was looking for.

So we went at dineertime, she’s come home with Hexas’ brother, he looks just like her, he spent a couple of hours here getting to know his sister all over again. Her children didn’t know that she was looking at puppies, so they’ve come home from school and been completely surprised, she’s video-ed it so we can watch it.

I can think of no better way to spend my day than looking at puppies and watching all the dogs playing together.

H.E. is still going well, Clark and I have been doing a lot of work with money, Edens been doing fractions and algebra, Cals been doing a lot of work with spellings. We have a new addition to our class, Soloman has been writing his name and numbers to ten. He only works for about 20 minutes, writing, but I think that’s OK for a three year old.

TV is still a novelty and I’m doing loads of knitting sitting in front of it during the evenings.

Illness has struck again, I’ve got my sore throat back, Cals had a heavy cold and Cody’s very bunged up, croaky and grizzly.

I’m going to post some pics of the puppies over the next couple of days , so keep a look out.

We’ve joined the realms of the TV licencing public again. We’ve been without a TV for just over two years, it was our choice, I got fed up with watching rubbish, not hearing the Tv because of talking children and not seeing it because of children standing in the way. Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about Strictly come Dancing and X Factor, the children have been asking about having TV again.

I think the clincher was when we asked Callum what he wanted for Xmas and he said a TV again, as my heartstrings pinged, I looked at Malc and the eye communication was "Oh Dear!"

So we’ve got it, we were going to carefully monitor it, but that’s gone out the window and it’s been on all weekend! We’ve got music channels, I have listened and watched all the top 40 singles, do they still call them "singles"?

Anyway I now know what all the pop stars look like, I am officially the hippest Mum in Dorset!!

Malc and I have discovered " Extreme makeover" The house one not the body one!!

Eastenders is just as if I’ve not missed one episode I’m sorry to say! Some of the same people in but I can’t honestly say that it’s improved any!

I’m knitting more because I’m sat down more watching it, so I don’t think that’s such a bad thing, I’m relaxing more and not running around in the evenings catching up with things, which I think can only be a good thing, I need to relax more.

Anyway, now I’ve got a TV Licence I’m going to make sure I get my moneys worth, so I’m off to flick through a few channels an see what delights I can watch this evening!

This is what we were doing about an hour ago.

We’re on a bit of a knitting fest here at the moment. I’m knitting a few scarves with lovely fluffy wool as Xmas presents.

Clark is a bit blurred, but I couldn’t leave him out!

My knitting.

During Half Term the children had some friends over, so I had nine children sat around the dining table, we put a roll of wallpaper down through the middle of the table and all the children sat round and drew, painted, glued and sparkled a firework picture.

The children went "Trick or Treating" on Halloween, I had a sickness bug, both Cody and I were sick within an hour of each other a couple of hours before we were due to go out. So Malc took the children out, unfortunately because we were ill, everything fell apart a bit, I’ve not got any photos of them.

Called "Hexa" because we picked her up on Halloween, luckily before I got ill. It’s me holding her, complete with nightie and dressing gown laying on my sickbed sofa! She’s adorable and she’s mine!!

I’ve not been around for a while, lots happening. Malc has been made redundant again, I love him dearly but he really upsets our routine!

I’m planning lots of decorating over the next few months. He’s rung a couple of agencies  one of them told him that they’ve had one job in over the last three weeks. So I’m expecting it to be months rather than weeks. Two people we know have been put on three day weeks and another has taken a 10% drop in wages to keep his job.

Malc got an appointment at the job centre this afternoon, he gets his last paycheck today which is one weeks money, but his claim could take four weeks to go through. Go figure!! I was up from 2 am until 5am last night worrying about it all.

We’ve been here before , we’ll get through it.

I’ve also had a virus which ended in a throat infection, I’m not usually ill but I felt like pants! I only usually go to the doctors when I’m pregnant ( quite a lot then!) but I felt so ill that I went. When I got back I text my Mum " Been to Drs, got antibiotics, I’m ill, it’s official"!!

Unfortunately I don’t get time off or sick pay!

The children are busy making Halloween decorations, we’ve done lots of work on Halloween, Vampires and other ghostly goings on. They’ve done a big project on it.

We are going "trick or treating" tonight for the first time ever, I’m not a big fan. They’re sooo excited.

We’ve also been doing a lot of knitting and crochet, I’ve got pictures that I’ll post over the next couple of days.

That’s all, just thought I’d post just in case you thought I’d fallen off the end of the world, I haven’t, but it sure felt like it at times!