Family Shenanigans

Off they were carted in several trailer loads. I don’t like to ponder where they were going…

I had a day off the potty stuff today as R was at nursery all day. V proud of her as only 2 accidents there between 9 & 5. Good stuff!

Sloes are thawing nicely…

Last night we saw a fire in yonder woods and being the nosey types we are, we got out the binoculars. Looking more closely, revealed, erm, that it was a fire. Nothing else. No-one lives over there. Was it a car been set alight? Should I dial 999? It died down and we forgot about it. Today, it was burning again and there was a landrover parked up by it so, so someone erm obviously burning some er stuff. Legitimately. No need for 999. But I did discover something quite trippy about taking a photo through the binoculars. Spooky eh? Can you tell I’ve been trapped indoors with the potty training again looking for things to do? We had a breakthrough with the potty stuff today after a dreadful day yesterday with 7 accidents. Look away now if you don’t want the details! (more…)

A day of hits and misses today. Literally hitting or missing with the potty training. 2 hits and 7 misses. It was a day of mopping and moping (for mummy anyway). R asked me at one point “Are you cross mummy?”. Of course this is the cardinal sin during potty training. Must not scald child for causing yet another god almighty mess. Stay calm at all times. Mmmmm. Sounds easy enough when you’re reading this stuff.

On a brighter note – I love my new pastry brush! It’s dayglo green and made of silicone. (more…)

I had to be quick to catch this tonight. The sky was completely blue again a few mins later.

Have survived the first day’s potty training. Well, afternoon. Spent the morning creating piles of toddler pants / socks / easy-access trousers, towels, cloths & cleaning solutions to mop up plus my huge haul of old bed sheets and duvet covers which I’ve covered the carpets with, with the idea that I can chuck these in the washing machine instead of scrubbing the carpets for months (that’s if we don’t break our necks tripping up on them first). (more…)

Was listening to the radio while doing the washing up tonight (it’s all rock n roll round our gaff). Can’t get my fave 6music (the station of choice for senior indie / raver citizens) because the supposed infallible digital signal makes everything sound like very loud daleks under water. Anyway, guess who was on good old analogue radio 1? Pete Tong! Well blow me. Took me back to circa 1992, sitting in bedsit land in kentish town. I used to religiously tape Tongy’s show and then use my double cassette deck (really showing my age now!) to edit together intricate mixes of all the songs. This was before I graduated onto actual vinyl and a set of actual decks. Never got further than DJing at home but hey, I had fun. (more…)

Was so glad to see the cows were let out of the shed and into the field at the back of the house yesterday. The farmer’s finally come to clean them out. It’s always exciting to see life in the field when it’s been empty for so long. Especially because it always takes you by surprise. “Oh look! The cows are back!” Did feel sorry for them out in the freezing cold though the last few days. Here they are in the frost and mist. Probably just glad to be out of their own umska I expect. Been fiddling about with the camera a bit today to try and figure out some of it’s more scarey “manual settings” eek! This was the view “of” and “through” the front door …

We did some painting yesterday with the lovely new poster paints R got for xmas.

Not sure who was more excited with it all, especially when we got down to the technical stuff ie. red and blue makes ? red and yellow makes?? blue and yellow makes??? Amazing stuff. I get a bit distracted putting the newspaper on the table because I’m reading all these headlines and articles mostly for the first time and it reminds me that there is actually a grown up world going on out there somewhere. Talk about “yesterday’s news”. More like “3 months ago’s news”. (more…)

Today I decided we would go down the field to see our friends rather than take the much longer route on the path. I remembered when I was on a steep bank knee deep in mud carrying all 3 stones of R, why I’d decided not to do that again the last time.

The gorgeous sunshine and crisp frost gave me a false sense of security. That was until the layer of ice broke and plunged us into the goo. A few drinks, biccies, chats and changes of borrowed socks and trousers later, poor R had to endure the long way home via the proper path with her foot inside a freezer bag inside her wet welly. Of course she’ll be scarred for life. (more…)