Out of the mouths of babes

Tuesday night - doing battle with my eldest over the dishwasher never a truer word said...



My daughter only has 3 main jobs that she has to do - Practise her cornet, do some reading, and unload/load the dishwasher.



At the end of the school year, all the kids get tired and ratty and to be honest dont want to do anything job-related, but as was with the reasoning on giving Aimee the dishwasher job, i think kids need to do the boring jobs so that they learn that life isnt always sweetness and light, and so the dishwasher still needs to be done otherwise we will be eating off paper plates !





So Cornet practise was done, then the complaining starts......





I dont want to........... its your job





But its boring .............. it may be boring but boring jobs still have to be done





continued on in this fashion for 35 min - would loved to say that I was cool, calm, and collected but alas not... my arguement was if you spent less time complaining and using that time to get the job done you would have more play time





Any way in the end job was done....hooray!! so off to bed she went, forgetting that she had to make her bed,



Aimee: 'There arent any sheets up here'

Me: ' go downstairs and see in the dryer - thats what I was doing today, the boring jobs so you have clean sheets'



so she turned to me and said 'THATS AN EASY JOB ITS ONLY MOVING THEM FROM ONE MACHINE TO THE NEXT' !!!



I was laughing that much - all I could say was ' isnt that what doing the dishwasher is??'



Made me think though..... thats technically all I do all day...





School Run - Move kids from home to school
Washing - Move clothes from one machine to the other
Cleaning - Move dust from one area to the other
Cooking - Move food from one place to another



Even when I go to work...... I move paper from one place to another



so basically a stand off on ONE job summed up my day completely,



My name is Andrea and I am a SHUFFLER ..... ho hum .......

Eternal gratitude to the NHS

2 Posts today to play catch up !

The past fee weeks I have been in a complete flat spin, Our youngest was taken ill, nothing out of the ordinary, watery eyes, slight temperature and a bit of a cough that got worse when he was asleep but when he was up and about he was back to normal, that was the Wednesday, no appointments left in the doctors so Thursday night we thought we would take him to the walk in centre in the hospital, so hubby took him up while I looked after the girls, well within 1/2 hr of being seen at the hospital baby boy was being whizzed down to be incubated to stop his airway closing up, so as you can imagine I have never been so scared in my life, the staff were wonderful with up and never left our side right through to when they transferered him over the Alder Hey Childrens Hospital, anyway, long story short they dont actually know what was the matter with him but were treating him for bacterial croup he came off his tube on the Friday and after a weekend stay in hospital we were released on the Monday - which was actually our wedding anniversary, which we both forgot but in hindsight we had the best anniversary gift ever! - I cannot praise the nurses and doctors enough and even if I started today and continued daily I would not be able to thank them enough, thank you so much x x

I dont know how or why - but I am thankful x

As you already know I have 3 children and would love more, my dream would be a house full of kids like they are in Cheaper by the Dozen where it is all organised chaos, - we have the organised chaos sorted already, but circumstances and finances dictate that we cant have any more children, I do however love all the films with large families in and love reading books about large families. I recently picked up a fantastic book written by a lovely lady Mary Ostyn who actually writes on of the other blogs that I follow http://www.owlhaven.net/ the book is called The Sane Womans Guide to Raising a Large Family, and Ill be honest with you I have read it minimum 4 times and still love it!!

Anyway in the book it tells the story of how Mary and husband are raising their family, and the financial obstacles that they have overcome in order to adopt, A paragraph stands out so vividly to me (I am summarising here) "adoption is an expensive business but somehow a door always opens and god provides for us, enabling us to proceed with the adoption process and alowing us to open our doors to care for another child" - Sorry Mary I know I havent quoted it exactly !!

Which now brings me to our situation, for the longest time (in fact for as long as I can remember since being with my husband ) we have had to scrimp and save for everything, I am not overly religious but I do believe that something/somebody is looking down taking care of our family. Whenever we have the wolves at our door (collection agencies), just before they manage to get in something always comes our way, I dont believe that it is down to luck, twice it has happend to us this week, we had some concert tickets that we couldnt go to - had them for about 6months no joy in selling them, but this week when we had a Friday deadline for a debt, someone out of the blue said they were unable to get tickets because it was sold out ! this is not the first time, I was crying because of the relief.

Later that evening, I was taking to Mark (husband) about it and he had thought the same thing - he likes to think that it is his mum looking down on us still taking care of us - I hope so - I dont think that we are ever going to be rich and affording foreign holidays, but we are so much richer than any millionaire who doesnt have to wait and save for anything, I have my family, and we have camping holidays, but my family and the time together with them is so much more precious than any amount of money in the world.

The Iron Men of Crosby

Over the weekend we visited what is locally known as the Iron Men of Crosby, which is in fact a series of statues by artist Antony Gormley entitled 'Another Place' this piece of art has been on the beach for at least 3years but is one of thoses things that people flock to see but because it is only on your doorstep, life gets in the way and time flies and lo and behold it is 3 yrs down the line.

For those of you who have not heard of the iron men, it is 100 iron lifesize statues of men, scattered along a mile or so of beach some further out than others.

Up until now all we have seen or heard of these iron men is that when they were erected the number of calls into the police and coastguard went up because the public thought that they were people stranded, or trying to hurt themselves, and again when the initial shock of them wore off they hit the news when the lease was up and they were due to be removed there was public outcry that they couldnt be moved and were part of the landscape now (rather like the 'superlambbanana' - which has been adoped by the people of liverpool - the artist has got NO chance of getting that back off us !!) so anyway the iron men are here to stay and we went to visit them.

To look at them you can see why all those calls were put in, they are so realistic that as you get nearer to look you expect them to move like the statue artists that you see in Covent Garden. and the way that some are closer to the beach some further out all looking towards the sea, it is an amazing sight, each one numbered so the kids had great fun running up to them finding out the numbers although the cultural side of it was lost on them because all the statues are 'naked' so kids took great delight in shouting across the beach to us that they could see it's willy, and obviously the tide being the tide brings in all sorts of seaweed, barnacles, and litchen that clings to the most in-oportune places, kids were in hysterics, nothing a quick visit to the iron doctor with some iron tablets wont cure !!!!!!

I can highly recommend it to anyone, may think twice on taking a picnic on the beach, may feel a bit uneasy with all the 'visitors' watching me eat !

Happy Fathers Day x x

Yesterday was Fathers day, and it made me think about the different relationships I have and my children have with the male figures in their lives, Obviously the biggest relationship we all have now is that of my husband - the kid' dad, I couldn't ask for a better more patient man to raise and guide our children along the way, it says it all when a grown man goes between knowing all the words to Bob the Builder to Hannah Montana and who doesn't mind getting down to glue and glitter.

Then there are the grandads, my dad, I have always had my dad there but have never had the type of relationship that you could talk him about anything - yet he has a great friendship with his grandchildren, my stepdad, who I very rarely speak to, who shows no interest in the kids, and that leaves us with husbands dad, who is a complete nutter and again who the kids love dearly.

So it just goes to show,that like most things in life, relationships vary in their intenseness (if that is a word?) and that each relationship whether it is as a daughter, son, dad, grandad, is each unique and brings a special quality to the table.

To all the sons, fathers, granddads, uncles out there I hope you had a wonderful Fathers day and remember that you mean to the world to someone x x x

I know, I know !!

I know, I know I said that I was going to be more organised and have certain days for blogging certain topics, but that obviously didnt take into consideration school holidays, husband being off work and me having tonsilitis ( I honestly didnt have the energy to lift my head off the pillow never mind think of anything interesting to say !!)

So I'm here again begging for forgiveness ! what we have been doing since last writing is teaching our girls how to ride their bike without trainer wheels our eldest managed it last year so only needed a refresher so all efforts were put into our 5yr old, took the trainer wheels off daddy holding onto the seat, we rode along the prom which is a wide open space no cars, she spent the whole length of the prom crying her eyes out (dont forget this was HER idea to ride her bike without the wheels) did this for a few times stopped and rested, asked Aimee our eldest and Holly (5yr old) if they were enjoying themselves riding by themselves both shouted YES !!!!!! (even Holly who had just moments earlier been crying).. so after a rest decided to try again, back in the saddle and AGAIN spent the whole of the prom CRYING AGAIN !!??? - go figure that one ?? very strange .. all this along with out 2yr old son who decided to jump on his trike that very morning

and start peddling away but with no sense of direction Id be merrily walking behind/alongside him then all of a sudden would be sideswiped by a 2yr old with road rage,

so there we all are Aimee whizzing along telling Holly how easy it is , Holly being helped moaning the complete length of the prom and Owen trying desperately to keep up the rest of the family had done 2 lengths of the prom by the time we had got 1/2 way along - Funny days, it was just one of those lovely days, no work or chores to do just a family relaxation day topped off with the obligitory ice cream on the beach afterwards - Holly still hasn't fully sussed out the riding but that can be saved for another posting !! - take care, see you soon

Where do I start ???!!!

AGGhhhhh where do I start, My Little boy was ill Monday, I had it all worked out the kids went back to school Tuesday, and I thought if he was still under the weather he could lounge on the sofa and Ill catch up with my blog and let you know of our first camping adventure over the Easter holiday, but we are now on Thursday, Monday/Tuesday Owen was ill, then Holly Joined in Tuesday evening, Holly and Owen both ill Wednesday either end of the sofa, Holly back to school Today and Owen is still not 100% sleeping the last of it away I think - I hope - and through all this Aimee is getting fed up becasue Holly had a day off school and she still had to go in, Aimee moaning cos she had to go in and Holly moaning cos she Couldnt- go figure that one out ?? in the meantime I am up to my eyes in sicky children and sicky washing - thats not even mentioning what is in the nappies !! wondering what to clean up first, and deciding that the washing can go on first then clean the kids up, poor washing machine wonders whats hit it and I am thanking my stars that we got the added warrenty on it and wonders if over use is ok as an excuse if it blows up??? and in the meantime what am I doing??? - I dont know all I know is that I am meeting myself coming backwards and hoping it will pass soon : ) when it does I will get myself back on track and let you know of our holidays- hopefully tomorrow x

wife and mother

Now what I am about to say will go against what a lot of people agree with or have strived to achieve over the past few decades.

I am a Housewife and Proud of it

When I had my first child I went back to work part time and it broke my heart to leave her each morning at nursery, luckily my husband is very supportive and so when I had my second daughter and then my son said that if I wanted to stay at home then he would totally support my decision, which trust me is no soft option to stay at home.

I work harder, longer and have picked up a wide spectrum of skills that I would have never experienced through sitting behind a desk in an air conditioned office.

I love the warm feeling that you have when you watch the old 1950’s films where the mother stays at home pinny on baking all day (not that it happens in reality!!) I don’t feel that I was born in the wrong era, I love the independence, and strength that modern day women have, but I personally feel that my best job is to stay at home, running a busy household and making sure that the children are ready and to respective classes on time.

During my time as a housewife I have learnt to

Budget as a single income family, which is no mean fete as hubby is a postman so not earning millions – yet !

Time Manage – trying to co-ordinate 3 children, 1 husband, 1 dog and 1 rabbit, remembering, school, after school classes, parties etc

Cleaner – refer to previous post and my 6 binbags full, and that’s just the start.

Cook – working out how to cook nutritional food, healthy, within budget and more importantly that the kids will eat, not always the same thing

And these jobs are only the ones that spring easily to mind, if I was an executive I would be hailed as a wonder for my multi-tasking and paid a small fortune, yet I do all of this for nothing, just for the love for my family, the respect from my family and the wet sloppy kisses that I have off the kids when their faces light up when I am there every morning and afternoon to pick up and drop off at school.. we have very little money spare….money can’t buy everything….and do you know what….. I wouldn’t have it any other way x x

spring cleaning in La La land

Being a parent involves several skills that you won’t find in any parenting book, you will need all the peacemaking skills to give Kofi Annan a run for his money and all the secrecy and espionage to put James Bond to shame. The latter of which was put into practice over the past week, I braced myself and battled my way through the waste ground that according to our house deeds is a second bedroom commonly know as my daughters bedroom. As we have our two daughters sharing a room we cant really afford to have it too messy, which is where I come in, while the kids are at school I go in like a stealth bomber and blitz the whole room, so that when they arrive home from school everything is pristine (for at least 10 min !!)
Last week it took me 2 days, I managed to get 7 bin bags full of junk out of their room, (don’t know where from) and after those 2 days it didn’t look any different – why?
It does get easier though, before, when my youngest daughter was only in playgroup for a couple for hours in the morning, I had to move fast, tidy, dust and dispose of rubbish down to the tip before picking her up, couple of times we were late, daughter all seatbelted up in car, picking up binbags that start playing all sorts of tinny, tinkly music when you pick them up, so there we are unpacking all sorts of trinkets never used but as soon as I try and throw them out they become treasured possessions (until next time !!)
Which brings me back to last week, and my 7 bags of rubbish, and the icing on the cake is a 2.5ft tall La La courtesy of the teletubbies, hasn’t been looked at for the longest time hence the top of the rubbish pile, as the clearing had taken so long we were late to the rubbish tip so had to go after school pick up. Down to the rubbish tip we go, 7 bags of rubbish into the skip, no problem, soon as we get to La La, youngest daughters bottom lip starts to wobble, oh ohh….. so back home we go, trip to the tip over, and we have a visitor with us, yes La La has decided to extend his visit with us indefinatly – so now he is back home, gracefully decorating the kitchen floor, twice I have moved him, along with the several times the baby has tripped over him…… seriously outstaying his welcome…….till next time !!!