Saturday 31 January 2015

Catching up with catching up.....


It's been quite a domestic week.  I've made lemon cake and tear-n-share garlic and herb bread and a batch of damson and onion chutney all on different days. I've shortened some new jeans and made a start on patchwork repairing the sofa bed.

We have put the pool table onto eBay. .. end of an era!
And because hubby needs to sort the games room stuff he had decided to check out the games and jigsaws to see if they are for keeping or charity shopping, but of course if they are not complete then they will hit the recycle bin, so we keep getting job interruptions from jigsaw making.

Daughter had been here with the children lots this week, (very very lovely), with lots of comings and goings for Daughter and/or a child for dental or physio appointments, percussion lesson, dance lesson and drama leaving the children not needed for each thing with me. Some of this included her taking my car while her's went for a service and MOT. Sad to say it failed and expensive sounding repairs were started. .... three days later and still in the garage, hopefully it will be done by end of Monday!

Last night I had one of my lovely sleepovers with friendH, always good to have time for a real catch up gossip till nearly 2am. Then didn't leave there till nearly lunchtime today.

Meanwhile, as I'd pinched my car back overnight, Hubby had helped out with the normal Saturday morning driving children to various activities, but now I'm home she can have my car back...... and he'd finished the latest jigsaw


Wednesday 21 January 2015

Click click click.....


There's been a bit of knitting lately.
My latest is this cushion cover, no pattern just played with an idea and really pleased at the end result.

O had a sleepover which he hasn't managed for a very long time. Daughter and M took themselves out on a date night,  probably only the second time since O's birth. The children came here knowing that they could be picked up for home late or sleep here. In the end the girls went home and as O had already decided what we were having for breakfast and that he was going to text his mum to come and get him after breakfast,  he stayed. Good as gold as they say and I got my extra cuddle in bed from 6:15 till 7am when we got up leaving granddad for his lie-in.

Term restarted for our art group but we have lost the use of the hall attached to the church that we've always used, apparently it is going to be a coffee shop! We have now the use of the small room within the church but if anything else is using the main hall we can't use the small room as we then wouldn't have access to the kitchen or toilets without walking through the hall. ...so first one was at Sue's house and the second one is tomorrow so I'll let you know what the little room is like.

Trish who hosts her craft group each month held the January one at her house with shared lunch. This was postponed from our Christmas lunch. I think there were eight of us there, all busy and all very chatty.  Trish produced a couple of quiz sheets to keep us amused straight after lunch. Sue had asked me about the baby ball I'd previously knitted and could I show her next time how it's done, so I've told her to knit the six rectangle/tubes needed and then I'll show her how to put them together. So now I'm knitting 12 rectangle/tubes so I can have one ball finished and one to demo on rather than doing her's for her. Also as I was still working on my cushion cover Joan was fascinated mainly because there are seven bobbins of wool hanging. She wants me to get her started on one next time we meet too, so I've told her what she needs to bring and now I've started another one so I can show her how to carry the wools across the back each time. I'm so much better at doing for others to watch rather than explaining.

We've been quite rubbish at housework for some time now, it's always a case of we see something needs doing one of us will do it, like when the sun shines we notice what furniture needs dusting.  But we are both guilty of not noticing as much as we should,  I'm usually in the bathroom without my glasses on, that sort of thing. So as well as the see-it-do-it we are starting a plan to focus on just one room each week to have a thorough clean and sort. So far so good.

Hubby also has some more diy house changes afoot, and I can't put him off any longer as he always needs a project. I'll report on progress of course.

Meanwhile I'll get back to knitting 😊
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Sunday 11 January 2015

Nothing is set in stone....


Life's been very changeable recently with plans made and changed or cancelled because of illnesses or other things.

Daughter had tickets on Friday for the opera in London for her and the girls but E wasn't well enough to go and R then said she didn't want to go and not worth spending the train fare to even try to persuade her, so I received an early text to say I wasn't having O for the day as planned. Friday had already changed for us as we had been invited out to dinner, so the end of my day with O would have been tight timing, hoping his dad would be back in time as Daughter wouldn't be. Our dinner date was then cancelled as our hosts sadly had a family funeral. We will rearrange of course but for now we were relieved that it made our day a little more relaxed. Then ironically we weren't having O anyway. 

 Then followed a whole text conversation because O was upset not to be spending the day with me even though Daughter changed her day to go to the home ed group instead so they came here for lunch and Daughter and R went out soon after. E stayed here doing quiet things and O and I made biscuits with his dinosaur 3D cutters.

E was spending the weekend with her dad and as R had a really busy Saturday Hubby had offered to drive E to the meeting place and as he had the bowling travelling league on Sunday at Heathrow Airport Bowl they had all arranged for him to collect E there Sunday night too. 

We checked with E Friday that she felt well enough to still go, but another early morning text told us that E's dad wasn't well enough to have her,  so that trip was off. However,  E didn't feel well enough to hang around with Daughter while R did her activities so she came to stay here with me. .... and if E was coming here then O wasn't going anywhere but here either. 

Are you keeping up with all this? Well would you believe it, the Sunday bowling was cancelled due to the team captain not being able to gather together a full team..... Thank goodness Hubby now wasn't collecting E!

On a much less confusing subject, and far more exciting, after many barren years one of our orchids has flowered 😆


Saturday 3 January 2015

Annual mother/daughter day.....


Yesterday was Daughter's birthday and we had our traditional day together in town at the sales, mostly for her to buy clothes as her birthday present from us but also for extended lunch and coffee shop conversations, a very special time together helped by M having all four children at his home and Hubby cooking us a full roast dinner to come back to at our home.

I collected her from home at 10:30am and we shopped between lunching at our usual place quite early and wallowing in comfy chairs in the coffee shop late afternoon until we had to rush out to get to the car before the parking expired. Daughter's clothes buys came to about 9 items and I bought a couple of things too including a top which is a possible towards an outfit for my nieces wedding in June,  that was a real bargain as priced at £17.99 reduced to £11.49 on the ticket but rang up at just £5 at the till 😊

Another amazing bargain of mine was in Primark for a king size fitted sheet which although probably of very poor quality I was chancing as reduced to just £5 but when that came up at an unbelievable £1 on the till I sent Daughter back to grab another one. We both bought some better bedding in the BHS sale too and picked up a little black shrug for E to go with her concert clothes and both saw the most adorable "snowman" zip up jumper that had to come home with us for R.

I dropped Daughter at home to collect all the others, then we all meet back at mine for roast lamb that just fell off the bone, plus veg of course, plus vegetarian alternative. Followed by cheesecakes x2, water melon and squirty cream which always seems to cause great hilarity at the table, and then that was followed by birthday cake with candles (they took most of that home as we were all so full).

Silly me forgot to take any photos 😕
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Thursday 1 January 2015

Where did that year go?.....


...We say it every 31st December as it ticks towards 1st January and last night was no different.

I've said Happy New Year thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter, emails, text, WhatsApp, messenger and in person but in case you missed it
HAPPY NEW YEAR 
and wishes for a healthy and happy 2015.

We spent the evening as we've done for the last four or five years with our friends-next-door P&A and a Chinese takeaway.  The only problem was the 2.5 hours it took for the food to arrive,  I think they'd forgotten our order as it arrived 20 mins after Hubby chased them! But it didn't really matter as we had plenty of nibbles, drink and flowing conversation.

Don't read on further expecting new year's resolutions because I can't see the point of making the same promises each year that I'm unlikely to keep and inevitably then get very cross with myself for being so weak willed,  yes that has happened often enough for me to learn not to bother in the first place,  but that being said I will be pleased when the delicious but totally unnecessary heap of goodies are all gone and we can get back to a healthier eating regime.  And I need to work out a way of keeping my blog written along with writing in the beautiful hand bound journal I unwrapped from a friend (aiming for it to carry more personal stuff than I choose to put here) and read what is written by all the blog-friends I like to keep tabs on, plus play all the WordsWithFriends games I need to keep my brain active,  while not sitting on the sofa all day as my body definitely would benefit from a bit more activity. So let's see if there are any improvements by this time next year,  although no promises and no recriminations,  I'm far to oldsensible to waste time in feeling bad with myself.
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