Photo of the day. Homemade Headresses

Wearing their headdresses, made by Bean at messy play. (Bean & I made one for Ed now that he has to go to school now-we'd hate for him to feel left out at all).

Photo of the day. Cold Day at the Zoo

a cold day at the zoo, pulling silly faces.

Photo of the day. Tip for Mum

Taken from the latest free Morrison's magazine.
It's so very true, I get so excited about Christmas & it can be so easy to get distracted their christmas lists, but every year we make their friends & classmates chocolate gifts, which they decorate & gift box. It's quite cheap, fun and with my collection of ice cubes trays we can make all sorts.
I'm so looking forward to doing it again in a few weeks.
We also make cards & decorations, so hopefully they won't just be focused on what they'll get out of it.
There'll be no spoilt little brats here! Haha

Photo of the day. Ed Playing the Uke

Ed playing my uke. I taught him two chords and how to strum today to save him bashing away at it.

Photo of the day. Tree Lighting Montage

This is a montage of Ed and I, and our trip to see the Christmas tree being lit at our local shopping centre last Thursday.

Photo of the day. Winter Berries

Winter berries in my garden

Ed's First Show & Tell

On Fridays Ed's class have show and tell. They only started doing it a few weeks ago, but I hadn't yet managed to help him sort anything for it.
I finally remembered at 7am last Friday morning.
Over half term, I found the time to note down some of Ed's crazy thoughts & we wrote a story together, inspired by a dream he had. Him & Bean drew the pictures, I printed it off & made it into a book for them. They were so proud of themselves.
So when I first heard they were starting show & tell at school, I really wanted him to take his story. But could I find it when I needed it? Nope. I ended up faffing with the computer, printing off a new one & putting together a book at 7:30am. I so don't have time for extra jobs in the morning, we barely get to school on time.
So I proudly sent him to school with his book & when we sat together after school I asked him how show & tell went. He pulled these items out of his pocket. Bloody hell. I didn't even know he had them. Oh, did I really let my son go to school with cotton buds in his pocket? Bit dodgy on the motherhood skills.
Anyway, while I tried to put aside how gutted I was about his story, I asked him how it went & to be fair to him, he gave the most detailed description of his items, why he likes them & what one can do with them, so I'm sure his teacher will be pleased with his wide vocabulary & world knowledge regardless of the danger factor of a 4 year old carrying these around all day.
So I'm still proud. But maybe he could do his book next week?
Bloody hope so after all the effort I put in.

Presumption & Advantage Taking

Yesterday, when I collected my 4 yr old son, Ed from school, the first thing he said to me was;
"Where's Jack's Mummy?"
I knew exactly what he was after.
Jack's Mummy has chocolate coins in her pockets for her kids when they get out of school (a practice I'm not sure how I feel about & will be discussed very soon).
Jack & Ed are good friends. They play together at school everyday, but with this friendship comes bickering and the occasional fisty cuff fight (in a 4 yr old-nice-boy-really way). They often end up in pointless fights over silly things, which we always work through. Thankfully (since I'm so new to this mummy vs school thing), Jack's Mummy is wonderfully approachable. In the beginning when Ed came home telling me Jack was hitting him, I could go to her and we solved the miscommunication the boys were having with no problems.
However, because of this occasional bickering, poor Jack's Mummy does seem to feel a bit guilty. She often shares her children's chocolate coins with mine, which is fine by me, I can often use it to my advantage & bribe them to get to the car/walk home nicely.
But, for Ed to presume that she will give him a coin everyday is definitely a step toooo far.
I know it's very easy to take advantage of other people, it's really easy to slip into presuming someone will help/provide/etc. I often have to berate myself for it. A lot of different people have helped me out in a lot of different ways, & I endeavour to remain grateful & courteous, forever. I do find it very difficult, because I seem to be by nature a particularly selfish and inward focused person, but I try really hard to never forget.
Just because someone has helped me out once in a while, doesn't mean that they will/should/can ever again. 
And I do not want to raise two boys who think they can presume to expect anything from another human being. I want them to be independant, but to be able to accept help graciously. Having friends you can fall on in times of need and whom you can be there for when they need you is one of the joys of life. I guess it's about finding a good balance.

Ed never got his chocolate yesterday. I had told him he could have one out of my secret stash (because bribery works) if he walked to the car nicely, but then he ran into the road without holding my hand & therefore lost it. Silly boy.

Any thoughts?

Hand Crafted Bracelet

I just had to tell you about my new bracelet.

A friend of mine, Sarah, runs a jewellery making business from home, in her spare time. All the things she makes are beautiful and delicate, just like her. It's funny isn't it how everyone we do reflects us so truly. I have another friend who makes jewellery and her pieces are so different, they are much bolder, brighter & bigger, statement pieces, just like her. I love Sarah's jewellery, they are all very easy to wear on a daily basis, and she's very open to commissions, which is what this bracelet is. She let me have a good old root through her charm box so I could choose the ones that mean the most to me. And in a few days she'd rustled up this beauty. I paid £8, she wanted less, but too much work has gone into this for mates rates, and I think we should look after our cottage industries.
Please do check out her website, she really is fabulous and affordable.
www.indijewellery.co.uk
www.facebook.com/IndiJewellery 

Thought I should add the reasons behind my choice in charms.
Strawberry - obvious if you've read the 1st blog entry.
C - my initial.
Leaf - I love the outdoors & plants. A lot of my childhood was spent camping in fields playing on rope swings.
Cocktail glass - I like the occasional drinkypoos.
Wing - I love animals, in particular I love birds and I'm completely intriged by bird flight.
Bird house - I'm a very homely loving girl, I enjoy my creature comforts and the quaint things in life.
Flower - who doesn't love flowers?
Key - I have a memory, incomplete but strong of a pair of school shoes I had when I was small, which had a key in the sole. Since then, I have always loved keys, the old deadlock type, just like this one.

Small Town Living

One of the things I've noticed since starting the whole school run thing every day is that so many people are related to each other. 

Is it just me that finds this weird?

My eldest son has a 'buddy', which is a boy in year 5 I believe, who comes over to reception occasionally. To be honest I couldn’t tell you exactly what the buddy's role is, but it’s something along the lines of providing the reception class with older children who can show them around the school, help them, be someone they can go to with issues like bullying, help them with their learning, etc etc. 

Anyhoo, on the way to and from school, we quite often have a child walk past us whispering to his mum that my son is his cousin/brother/friends cousin’s buddy. This happens so often, and by so many different children I’m beginning to be a bit freaked out. I'm just waiting for one of them to say it’s his uncle brother’s stepson’s buddy...which could totally happen in this town.

Having thought about it, I know why it freaks me out. My family is spread out all over the UK & I only have a few family members in this town. Everyone in my family either went to Uni or joined the forces, met someone and moved elsewhere. Only a few didn’t.  I have further opinions on this but they are just plain bitchy and ill-informed so I shall jolly well keep them to myself.
What about you? Do you find your relatives are flung far and wide? Do you live in the town you were born and bred in?

Winning Star of the Week

Ed won star of the week at school last month. We were so very pleased (I never thought it would happen, I mean, Ed is of course a lovely boy, but he can be very willful). Turns out he's quite different at school, all helpful and happy to tidy up. Grrr, why can't he be like that at home?
Anyhoo, the winner gets to take the class bear home for the weekend, and they have to fill in Cocoa's weekend diary. So this is ours. I thought it too adorable so decided to plonk it here and immortalise it.

Dreaming

I was just woken by a boy in floods of tears yelling at the top of his voice. 
It's 2:30am. 
Dragging myself to their bedroom I then have to explain to Ed that Bean can't have stolen his book bag as he is in fact fast asleep. 
All of a sudden the tears stop. 
"Oh" he says. "It was just a dream". 
A cuddle & a cup of milk and the boy goes back to sleep.

(photo is of Ed that night when I checked on them at 10pm, spread-eagled)

Book Crossing

www.bookcrossing.com
I've discovered book crossing through one of my son's preschool teachers, who is world book night distributor (www.worldbooknight.org - books are given out to people who don't often read and each one has a BCIN number so it can be passed on and tracked through bookcrossing.com).
It's completely brilliant, and turns the world into one massive library!

Although we visit our local library often, I don’t use it very much for my own reading (my boys always have bedtime story books out). I like to take my time with a book and 3 weeks is never enough, so i often stress about renewals and late fees. I usually buy books, often second hand on eBay, and therefore have a busting set of shelves. The idea that my books could be passed on and loved by one person after another is just fantastic. So I have labeled (with their own BCIN numbers) a stack of my books, just the ones I probably won't read again, and left them at Bean's preschool for other parents to help themselves to. I love the idea that one could find a travelling book on a train or in a park, but that's unlikely to happen to me. In the meantime, I'll just distribute my old books.

While i was writing my profile page on bookcrossing.com, I thought I would put together a top ten type list of my favourite books (subject to change of course);
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Emma – Jane Austen
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson-Burnett
The Remains of the Day – Kazoo Ishiguro
(That was really difficult to compile, and I know it looks a bit like an A level reading list, but these are the books I go back to read again and again).

Dinosuars Bite Back at Chester Zoo

We love Chester Zoo, and we Especially love the dinosaur exhibition. It'll be gone soon, so I thought I'd post some photos and these awesome beasts.

365 Photo. Day 14 - Recipe

I've had this recipe in my scrapbook for years, but only tried last night for the first time. It was so yummy I thought I'd share it.
I belong to the dollop and splash school of cookery, so please bare with me.

Ingredients:
150g cous cous
lemon (to be honest I used lime juice coz that's what was in the fridge)
200ml boiled water
1x egg
15g melted butter
2x large chicken fillets, cut into strips (you could use any meat/fish)

Add the juice of a lemon (or a good slosh of lime juice) to the cous cous, mix then add the water. Leave for 20 mins, then fluff with a fork.
Beat egg, add butter.
Dip meat in butter, then into cous cous and place individually onto a baking tray. Bake in the oven until cooked thoroughly (about 180 degrees c. for about 20 minutes).
I served them with homemade chips and peas. Yummy!

365 Photo. Day 13

Oops, had a week off. On the plus side, I've been busy. I finally made the curtains for the bathroom (fabric has been sitting around for a wee while), which means that it's one more room that's a little closer to being finished. Whoop! I've gone for a tropical escape look, with a fruity colour scheme; purple, lime, pink & teal. It's only a dinky room, but since I live with boys, I decided to make the bathroom a girlie escape where I can have a quick pamper session, even if it's just to throw on a facemask & paint my nails.

Annoyed by other people's statuses...not me

On the radio this morning they were discussing that one issue that just keeps cropping up when it comes to Facebook and twitter; how easily annoyed people are by other peoples statuses about their kids/dogs/jobs, etc.

I understand their point of view, but why are people so miserable?

So what if I go on about whether or not my kids have gone to bed nicely? So what if a friend’s baby took her first steps? So what if someone’s dog had a great walk in the woods? And so what if they are counting down until Friday coz they hate their job? I think these are the things that are important to people, that’s the sole purpose of Facebook/twitter feeds, these are the things happening in our friends everyday lives, and that’s exactly what I’m interested in. We can’t all only ever put cool witty remarks on every single update.

I don’t watch Eastenders or Corrie, but I love reality TV, I love watching real people reacting to real events and situations, and I think that’s why I love social networking sites. I’m not in it for the wise cracks, the constantly shared photos (except the ones that really make me laugh), or the constant flirting on twitter. I just want to hear/read about people’s normal lives. Raw and honest. And if that means that every Monday and particular person is groaning about their job, and every Saturday someone is out on the town looking a tiny bit trashy, and the constant stream of baby talk, dog photos is absolutely fine with me.

If you’re not interested, turn the damn computer off, or just unfriend/unfollow them. Easy as pie.

Arguing with my phone again

I have completely screwed myself over.

I ‘tidied’ my phone contacts.

Driven mad by the idea that there could be duplicates, oh how I hate duplicates, I love it when things are clean and precise and even.

So, I put them all on my Gmail account (most were there anyway) and expected my phone to be clever enough to find them all when I put the contact list in the Gmail setting. Nope. There are a few important ones missing, like my mum, my baby sister, my besties and....my husband. Oops.

So now it’s not tidy. It’s not even. I now just have a very small contacts list (minus all the Facebook imported junk). I don’t see why it had to take out only important people. Must be karma. I deserved it for being so goddamn pedantic.

To top it off, this morning I had a text from an unknown number, telling me they had a dream about me last night. Not exactly what I want to hear from a stranger haha, but thankfully it turned out (as I had guessed by the dream specifics) to be a close friend my phone has decided to ‘forget’.

Only 3 more months until my contract is up and I can get an iphone!! Whahoo.

365 Photo. Day 12

I had a lovely day at Bean's Pre-school today.
When the rain finally stopped, we found a damp butterfly amongst the outdoor toys, so I picked it up, showed it to some of the kids and then we put it up here to dry off in the breeze. Happily it soon fluttered away. It was a lovely moment, and a fabulous chance to encourage anyone small to look after their world. Sorry the photo isn't better but I was on the hop and I took it with my phone.

365 Photo. Day 11

My husband, who has a nasty habit of bringing home junk and cluttering up our very cluttered house and consequently driving my up the frickin wall, brought these home last night.

Normally I would hit the roof (he loves to build bikes and therefore has a few of them already loitering in my garden/loft/anyway he can find space), but these babies have made me a very happy bunny. I’ve been jealous of Ed’s scooter for a while and wanted an adult size one, and I looooove the ladies town bike, I was looking on eBay a while ago, but I couldn’t justify the spend so I gave up. He found both of these in a skip, and yes, they both need a lot of work, but it’s nothing he’s not capable of. And I know it's really hypocritical of me to not be cross this time, I'm so very selfish sometimes. In my defence, my husband is a very busy man, and building bikes is not something he actually has anywhere or any time to do.

I am very excited, they are going to be beautiful and coooool as. I’m so looking forward to when Bean can ride his bike a bit faster and we can all go to school on wheels.

I was riding round the house on the scooter last night and it’s amazing!  Argh! I can't wait!

And yes, today's photobomb was brought to you by Milly.