DAYLIGHT

Out the door as usual with Joseph at 7.15 and there was a change...... it was light or certainly almost light. The sun was coming up and it was not as dark as normal. Home by 7.30 and then out to walk the dogs, lately i have been waiting till at least 7.45 as its too dark but this morning it was LIGHT!! A lovely day too, blue sky and mild. Is Spring around the corner??

Off to the breast feeding workshop , then piano,(haven't done any practise this week) and finally my 1st session of Alexander technique. Am looking forward to that......

JANUARY BLUES

Hurrah...... January is nearly over, the days are definitely getting longer, I can walk the dogs around 5 and its just starting to get dark. Half term soon, in 2 and  1/2 wks and we are off to Morroco, just us 2 for  5 days.  The temperature is up in the 20's during the day with a BIG African sun shining down so it should be lovely!!!

Had some bloods taken at the doc the other day and the results show my Hb and iron stores are pretty low. Since getting this news I have been feeling REALLY tired and look dreadfully pale. I am such a hypochondriac, I felt fine a couple of days ago!! Nothing a dose or two of iron won't fix!!

Just off to make tea, falafel  with some home made flat breads and tahini sauce, YUMMY!!

TRIES TO BE FUNNY BUT FAILS!!

Had a big fight with Joseph last night and while he was thinking it over in his room he wrote a list .......
Reasons not to like Mum....  There were numerous reasons but the one that made me laugh was " tries to be funny but fails", also "she says my writing is dreadful... hypocrite"
Reasons to like Mum and there was only one of these..."sometimes she is nice"

I think I will keep it for posterity !!

NEW CARPET

When we moved here 21 yrs ago there was a rather awful carpet on the stair that we had to reluctantly pay £60 for and had high hopes for getting a new one quickly, anyway we have now and rather nice it is too

Quite stripy  but rather smart  and looks very posh, just like us.......

 CIABATTA

I had a go at making ciabatta for the first time and here they are

 Those were the better two, the others looked more like crackers....tasted good though. I don't know why they didn't rise as they had 2 packets of yeast in,anyhow they were fun to make and I will certainly have another go!

KNITTING

This is a slouchy hat i made last night.... not very slouchy so I made a bobble to make it slouch more.... it didn't work, so that will go in my pile for  next years Christmas sale and I will have another go.. colours are good though !

WEATHER

WEll, we have had some weather here in London

It has snowed very lightly for a couple of days and ended up with quite a decent covering, certainly enough to make a reasonable snow man. Everything looks soooo pretty for a while!

Of course all the trains were messed up and so Monday morning meant it was impoosible for Joseph to get nto to school.... so another day off for him. Of course he was delighted and spent most of the day outside and the rest asleep in front of the fire so a very good day for him.!!

He was up and off though this morning and looks like the trains are all ok ish.... this morning!!

CHOIR

Choir last night and only a few turned up so it means you are quite exposed..... to say the least!I can more or less hold a tune if I am singing along with someone and there wasn't anyone to sing along with in a couple of tunes so I sort of fade away.....

 Anyway we managed and it is so good for the soul and lifts my spirits  for a few days after!

Off to work now, see if I can quickly walk the dogs in the field just up the road, I have just had a HUGE bowl of granola and after "fasting" yesterday am feeling very, very full and need to walk off some of it.

Ante natal clinic today and not  too busy, i am waiting for a rush of babies to be born over the next couple of weeks. There has been a bit of a baby boom after  50 shades of grey!!!

SURPRISE!!!!

Well, now i can tell all......
The surprise was a flying visit to Glasgow to be with Sam on his 21st birthday. He had to leave London 10 days ago and was feeling sorry for himself that no family would be with him to celebrate!
So... i hatched a plan to fly up and surprise him .
Becca was also keen to come from Leeds too.
The morning arrived and i had to get up at 5.15 to get to Luton airport and when I arrived there  it was THICK ,THICK fog. The plane was delayed by 2 hrs. At first it wasn't clear if the plane would go at all, so I was panicking as Becca was already on her way.
Finally we were in the air and I arrived there 11.30 instead of (.30. the plan was to go to his studio and surprise him there but just as i got out of the taxi, becca called to say he wasn't there today.... so much pfaffing around was done and finally Rebecca and i arrived at his halls. They wouldn't let us in at the accommodation office but luckily a maintenance man was there so he did...(rather sneaky). We found his flat but he wasn't in his room and while we were standing around wondering where he might be he came out of the loo!!
Poor boy nearly passed out...... it was really good, he was soooooo pleased to see us and chuffed to bits that we had gone up to see him. He smiled all day long as we all did, it was a very special day, just nice being together and it felt a BIG treat to have my big two all to myself.

WEATHER. 

It has started to snow here, so exciting except everything STOPS! Ian is on his bike so I hope and pray he gets home safely. Joseph is at school a few miles away so i hope the trains are running ok to get him safely home. Becca's boyfriend Joe is supposed to be heading up to Leeds to see her for the weekend so fingers crossed that he can do that without any problems. it seems worse in the West and is spreading east during the day , so hopefully once he is on his way it will be ok! 

For me anyhow, I have done my work  after skidding along narrow bendy roads with lots of parked cars and nearly giving myself a heart attack a couple of times, so the fire is lit and i will have a cosy afternoon baking and knitting i think.......

I'M EXCITED

Can't really say too much as not sure who might read this... but there is a surprise in the planning and I am ,for one, rather excited about it!
And really that is all i am prepared to say for the moment!

All will be revealed in the next few days.......

TEAPOTS AND MORE

A very dull and chilly day with damp drizzle all day, so lit the 2 fires and did some cooking and read the saturday papers and did a few crosswords and puzzles which i ALWAYS get wrong , just when I think I have cracked a sudoko or whatever.........

TEAPOT

This is my lovely teapot. you can see why i wanted to replace it as it is soooo pretty!!

This is the teacosy I have for it...... it doesnt really do the teapot justice. It started out as a hat which looked dreadful and so i made it into a tea cosy. I am looking for a new project and I think i might go for a teacosy with matching colours of my teapot!!



GLOVES

These are the gloves i finished last night, i might have to use them myself as i made a mistake at the bottom, You can see it at the bottom on the right , also the sewing up was a little ropey.....I am hopeless at that!!

DENS
This is what you do when you are 13 and not feeling great..... you get your mum to build a fire and then get all the cushions and blankets off the sofa and get your phone and an ipad and just stay there all day...... not a bad way to spend a cold wet january day!!!

WHAT ARE THESE???

These were delivered in my veg box on Friday..... not really sure what they are, think it might be black salsify, can't say they look very appealing, and I'm not really sure how to cook them, but will have a go with the sunday roast tomorrow!!

CO-SLEEPING

Poor old Joseph still feeling poorly but the up side is we can have a lie in as obviously not getting up for school. He has reverted back to coming into our bed in the early hours where he snuggles up and falls back to sleep, rather sweet really, but goes against what I tell my pregnant mums when we talk about co sleeping in the breast feeding class. That is......".You don't hear of many teenagers still sleeping in with their parents".This is in response to someone asking that if you let them into your bed as babies you will never get them out......

i must say I in favour of co sleeping and it certainly worked for us most of the time, BUT Joseph was the last and so there was no hurry to get him out so he made an appearance most nights till he was 5 which I guess doesn't suit everyone. it was only going away for the weekend and leaving him to share with his big sister that seemed to break the pattern.

Lets hope he feels a bit brighter tomorrow. Expecting some cold weather and even snow, always exciting for London, everything STOPS.. even if its only a couple of centimetres.....

BUGS AND TEENAGERS

Lots of birthdays for us this week, Joseph is 13 TODAY and Sam 21 next week. Its quite hard getting the celebratory feeling when i am quite over partying , cooking and spending for a while. On top of that too Sam went back up to glasgow just at the weekend so we had to bring it forward even sooner. We did in fact have a lovely evening at a Thai cafe where we all exchanged gifts etc. Last night joseph had a few mates over for lots of noise , eating and hilarity but sadly followed by him vomiting  and feeling generally dreadful today as well. Not much of a way to spend your birthday.......

have just finished this knitting bag for a knitter friend and i am very pleased with it, i have even lined it!!

Its got cold.... feeling very chilly and grey so have got the fires lit so we are very lucky to be so warm and cosy!

Oh, and I got another teapot, exactly the same, so i am very pleased.

THE NEST IS EMPTYING

Everyone is off again ... the house is becoming quieter and less washing up too!!
Becca left last week as she has some exams to do so thought she would work better back in Leeds. The exam was today , 3 hrs long but seemingly went ok but good to be done.
Sam left yesterday  morning, felt sad to see him go , its not so much fun going back to halls as to your own place. I sent him a big shop from tesco to keep him going for a while!
He is 21 next wk and will be away from everyone so we had a little celebration at the local thai cafe which was very nice and celebratory. He was very happy with his software that we gave him so we have made a good choice finally after the disaster of the headphones!

FASTING

STill trying to keep up the feast and fast 5;2 diet, eating normally for 5 days and eating a very small amount for 2 days. I am hungry today ,especially at this time as everyone else is eating and I am cooking too, it makes me very grumpy but it is nice to think I can eat anything I like tomorrow!

RESOLUTIONS

Well, we have made them, they are written on the paper and tucked away in a drawer to look at later in the year. Included are......stop being so superstitious, visit Dublin,shop local,Alexander technique and the usual drink more water, lose some weight, go to the gym etc,etc.

I have also made a jar where we write down the good things that have happened to us throughout the year... not the best picture, but you get the idea!!
nothing in it yet...!!!

My beautiful teapot smashed today!!! it fell off the windowsill after the window cleaner had been and moved things around and then the clock slipped!! It was a christmas present from Ian last year and was very,very lovely so I am upset indeed> do teapots get broken more than anything else?? they do in my house.....

A NEW YEARS EVE TO REMEMBER

Feeling more human now and able to write more than a couple of lines....... Amazing what 7 hours solid sleep can do!!

PARTYTIME

Just to share some of the hilarity we had on NYE......
Started early with the usual what to wear dilemma, luckily I had Becca home and she could give me some sound advice.
Arrived with everyone else, good timing , and we were served a delicious champagne cocktail which went down far too easily. For the meal Ian and i had devised a "challenge " game that involved doing a task that was a secret and had to be done throughout the meal... for example , break into song, keep saying OMG thats hilarious, keep making toasts, Keep talking about how much better Hogmany is in Edinburgh, etc, etc. That was very amusing to watch as we knew what everyone had to do. We then had to try and guess each others which most of us did!!
we then had to swap our worst presents game, that was also HILARIOUS. Lots of mankinis there, picture to follow......
MIdinght was much hugging kissing and singing, followed by a few reels, stripping the willow and an eightsome . Then passing an orange down the line under our chins, i laughed so much... well lets just say I need to do my pelvic floor exercises .

A tricky but fun pictionary game and a sort of murder game finished us off and took us through till 3.15. We then walked home which was lovely, birds were singing... why is that ?? it was pitch dark !!!

2013 HERE WE COME

Really can't say too much today as feeling somewhat jaded to say the least, a great night out at friends,14 of us, lots of booze, food ,dancing and hilarious games. Couldn't ask for a better way to start the new Year and with such great friends too. i am very thankful!! And it wasn't even raining when we walked home at 04.00 and a beautiful sunny cloudless day today.Had a good party post mortem with the hosts and continued eating.

Happy new year to everyone