Our little family

Sometimes i wonder how the hell i am 34 years old, very nearly 35, it seems only yesterday i was sat in my room at home in my parents house feeling really annoyed that i wasn't allowed out later, and at 15 nearly 16 being really peed off that they would not let me out to Main Street ( a local night club) like everyone else, and how unfair it was!! I have to laugh, did i really think they would let me go to am over 18 night club at 15? would l let Ewan go at 15? NO!! at the time though i remember feeling really hard done by, makes me laugh now. I remember sat listening to Dancing queen by Abba and thinking i wish i was 17, it felt like a life time away. When i was a teenager, i was wrapped up in becoming a dancer on a cruise ship, that was my ambition or a Red or Blue coat at a holiday camp. I loved musicals, old musicals, with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and of course Judy Garland. I watched them over and over and always looked out for Diana Durban. because my granddad always told me we were related and i looked like her. It doesn't feel like years ago, it feels like yesterday.

Ewan is nearly 10, far to smart for his own good! and loves learning about everything and has made some comments recently that has made us laugh, like he would never ever snog a girl as its completely disgusting uurrggg! just wait another couple of years Ewan! Molly is 6, how did that happen, she still a baby in my mind, although, now she is getting bigger she is into makey makey just like me, the other day we sat knitting together and it felt amazing to be a mother to such a smart little girl, we always say, its just us girls against all the boys in this house. To be fair Ewan knits as well and enjoys doing stuff like that (at the moment!) and Freddies getting there as well, he is also very switched on and stubbon! and Ali, well he is starting to be a little monster now when he doesn't get his own way or can't do something he wants to do and throws tantrums! I love our little family, its great to see them grow, i love being in the midst of it all even though its hard sometimes and tiring, i just wouldn't swap it for the world and i have to admit it will be very sad on the day the littlest starts school ( a few years off yet!) and i have nobody at home with me and no pram to push.We both agree that having four kids is the best thing ever! Pauls words exactly! I can't say we both made plans to have 4 kids but each time i would get broody and Paul would say he would like another, and so it was, but while we have spoken that four is a good number, we both feel that we wouldn't be disappointed to have another, but there are the logistics to consider, space, time and money and the main thing is my back and hips, another baby would properly cripple me, i can barely walk some days as it is. But for a few years we have spoken about fostering or adopting and its something we might seriously consider in a few years, who knows.

What i would like is for time to slow down so i can enjoy every moment of them while they are young and we can spend every precious minute in our family. They are all amazing and wonderful and we are so lucky to have them, we wouldn't have it any other way xxx

cosy at home

I have been reading about the Scandinavian "Hygge" means being cosy, on a few posts and a few articles that have popped up on my news feed, what a great concept, in fact apart from lighting welcoming fires, which is probably not a good idea with little kids, thats exactly what i have been doing since Christmas. No diets or gym bunny behavior for me, no giving up things, just relaxing and making the most of my time, heating on full to keep the chill out, wrapping up for walks, wearing comfy house clothes and baking sweet buns, eating comfort food and knitting, lots of knitting! It does just feel like the right thing to do at this time of year hunker down and indulge yourself till the days get longer and you feel more like dieting and and cutting back and getting out and about. so thats my plan anyway.

I finished my Sweet little pixie hat yesterday and despite wearing it out for a walk yesterday i forgot to photograph it. I couldn't help but start it straight away when the wool came and it only took a few hours.

I am still working on the starwars jumper and i don't think it will take me that long at my current rate of knitting,

So thats what i am off to do now! xxx

Snow Day

Its early in the morning while i am writing this and its super chilly, i have come down stairs as i am am wide awake and thought i would snuggle up under one of my big blankets, only to realize that they all seemed to have moved up stairs over the last week while its been so cold, and are draped over currently sleeping kids, so i have one of Alex's cot blankets over me, that i have been using on his pram, not what i was after, but still nice and warm, just can't stretch out!

Saturday night Ewan and i sat watching War of the World, we both love disaster movies, the others were watching Frozen up stairs, when it was finished i looked up and out the window to realize that it was SNOWING!!!!! i had seen a couple of flusters earlier on, but i was sticking!, it looked so beautiful, i love snow, i really really do! i ran around shouting the others to look outside, well Molly as the others were fast asleep at this point. Next morning they were up super early and out to play, luckily it was still all there. They loved it,

i choose to stay in doors, they were out with there friends and i had a ton of ironing to do, as my iron blew up the week before and i had just got my new one, boring i know! We should have go out somewhere really but they were happy, so i though why spoil it. Later they made some cakes, even Ali got in to decorating them, well eating them and licking the, but it was much fun for them, cake decorating always goes down well. I did make some rose buttercream with a new flavor i bought, but i was not nice at all, so we made some regular buttercream

Unfortunately all that snow mean't runny noses and sore throats on Monday morning, so i kept them off school and we stayed in (more knitting time for me blankets on the couch for them. Tuesday morning they were still a bit off, so another day off for them, but they did seem to perk up a bit after i had called in to let school know they were ill. so i made it clear they would be going in on Wednesday. So decided we would do something educational and we had a make an alarm clock using vegetables as battery, its a great little kits and we tried a few, but the apple worked best, it says it will last for a week, so we will see.

After that and a jigsaw, we played game of life, which i actually enjoyed this time!, for me the last four days have been rather lazy and basically full of knitting, i am desperate to finish this second star wars jumper and move on to a new project that i saw and bought the yarn for the other day> Its a sweet little pixie hat.... for ME!, might make one for Molly as well as i think i have enough yarn, there is a poncho to match as well, would love that too! The pattern is Drops, i think its great how they provide the patterns for free and at the end it automatically has the yarn for the project in the cart so you can just click to buy and print the pattern, quite a few company's around the world do this, but still here in the uk, they charge up to £10 for some patterns from the big company's, and now i don't like to pay them for the patterns, i don't mind if its a small designer or a shop on ravelry or etsy but big company's like Sidar, should do them for free,

I hear movement and coughing upstairs now so better go and get them ready for playgroup and school

Thanks for reading bye for now xxx

Gala Choosing of the New Queen

Its Saturday morning and last night was the choosing of the new Gala Queen, the little ones are on the couch watching teletubbies and the big ones are still fast asleep, Paul in work till dinner time and i am feeling full of a cold! i started with it yesterday and must have got it from poor little Fred who has lost his little voice, at least we managed to hold it together for the disco last night and i think Fred stole the show!
 He hadn't been himself all day and was slowly losing his voice, so by the time it was his turn in front of the judges it was just a little squeak, but he stood there like all the others smiling and doing his best to speak.

  We had 27 Children come for the choosing plus more for the disco, i think its great the the gala is having such a come back, i know when i first got involved the gala was lucky to get 7 children and only have one float, so i think that the changed i have made, such as doing the choosing this was have really paid off and we have so meny new events planned, its all getting real again now.

Molly was hoping to be Princess this year, but i stayed out of the judging completely, as i don't was and accusations or blame from any of the parents, she cried and was really sad on the way home, but to be honest she is a bit to young to be princess, they are usually 7 or 8 and they have to make speeches which i don't think she could do right now, but another year and who knows. After a little chat she cheered up, when she realized she would be with her best friend on the float and after all she will still have a great time.

A funny part of the night was when one of the boys, ( we had several this year, which is great) was chosen to be a Prince to the Princess and he burst into tear and ran to his mum crying please i don't want to be a prince! and then looking at the boys there was a group saying urrg not me please, at that age i think where standing next a girl is disgusting! but we choose one boy who was really pleased, so that was great.

A good night all round, but despite feeling ill it takes me ages to get to sleep when i have been to any function or meeting as my head is usually buzzing with it all

It was nice to walk up this morning to a stunning view across the field, it was covered in a layer of white frost, my phone camera is getting worse, so i am determined to treat myself to a new camera for my birthday next month, so i can have some nice pictures like the other bloggs i read.

Other fun on the last part of the week included a trip to hatters, the kids enjoy it much more since we don't go there that often anymore

Getting the train out and tipping it everywhere, after asking for it for days! why

Knitting, lots of!

Mousetrap on games night, not fun for me actually, re setting the traps is a nightmare!

Fred has just asked if we can go on the parade today! the next few months are going to be long ones!

xxx

Hybernating

Only half way through the week and i feel ready for the weekend, i can't complain i have been really busy like last week, the opposite in fact, i have not done very much other than knit, crochet and watch 48 hours on youtube. I am getting into watching programs on youtube, i love 48 hours which is a American crime documentary program, but i think i am coming to the end of all the more recent ones, well from 2000 onwards, that are on you tube, so might have to find something else to watch. Its strange really, over christmas the only programs i watched for about weeks were Downton Abby and Call the midwife, plus a couple of films, and thats it! I am not really a big tv watcher, i don't like the soaps, or any of the reality programs, so that leaves rather a limited number of things to watch. I do like a good drama so i tend to record them and then we will watch them in one. But when i am siting knitting i like something to listen to and documentary's are great, hence 48 hours, i can plug my headphones in and knit away for hours.

The weather has been really crisp the last couple of days, and it has started to get quite cold, this is how it should have been before christmas as it has that christmassy feel when its like this, but it really does make you feel like hibernating, which i suppose explains the pure laziness this week, i have to admit though its nice and the starwars jumper i am working on is knitting up nice and quick, and i have stuck to the row a day on stripy blanket till today when Alex knocked not one, but TWO cups of tea right onto the middle of it and one of those cups contained at least  soggy biscuits! urgh, so its in the wash now, should be able to start working on it again tomorrow. The only place i have been busy this week is in the kitchen i am really enjoying trying out some new recipes and will perhaps put a few on my blog next week. Its not such a bad life really, curled up at home eating nice homemade comforting food and crafting. Well all that ends tomorrow as i have to get everything ready for the Choosing of the new Gala Queen which is on Friday evening, i am looking forward to it, since gala season ended last year, even though i have still been busy with gala work its not like now where it will be all go for the next few months, exciting times!!!.

Will sign off now and go and collect Ewan from after school club, streetdancing tonight.

Bye for now xxx

Virus Shawlette

Finally another crafty post, i actually finished the Virus Shawl before Xmas, but i have been wearing it as its super snug and actually matches my next coat, so i just hadn't managed to photograph it till this week.

I got the pattern via Ravelry and there seems to be some controversy about who's pattern it is, but the pattern i printed to use was a chart, i do love a chart, i actually find them so much easier than written patterns but the are few and far between. I used a 4 ply yarn that i had bought from yarndale  in 2014 and had been sat waiting to be used.

I had started this project basically as i had just finished the star wars jumper and had another to make but really didn't want to pick up another jumper straight away, so this was a nice little interlude for me, and i realize i never make anything for myself, so that was nice too.

I am really pleased how it turned out and think i will be making another one soon, as i found a large bag of 4 ply in my stash, its mainly in pinks and i think was leftover from when Molly was a baby, so it might be nice to make one for Molly

I don't feel that i made a lot last year, i think thats because i had quite a few knitting projects and they take me a lot longer, plus with the gala i had to spend lots of time planning that, but this year i defiantly plan to spend more time making things and have lots of projects lined up.

xx

Brockholes

We all decided after really being cooped up inside a lot over Christmas our first day out of the year needed to be outside some where and we all were ready for a nice walk.
Brockholes is a nature reserve about 15-20 mins away, that i have heard lots about but we have never managed to get to, so i checked the weather report which said that Sunday would be cloudy but dry, packed a hot picnic and off we went.

When we arrived it was absolutely chucking it down!!! so much for the met office!, but we sat in the car and ate the Mustard, Maple pulled pork on barmcakes that i had made in the slow cooker the night before, even Ewan ate all up, it was so tasty. We got wellied up and set off walking, i took the pram but Alex actually walked the whole way round, so won't bother with pram next time.

We choose to walk next to the Deep Dark Woods, that has gruffalo carvings, but we only saw acorns, so i think we must have to walk through the wood next time, we just walked around it following the River Ribble.

Alex just loved the big muddy puddles, in fact the vast majority of the walk was thick squelchy mud

It was quite hard work dragging the pram behind me but next time we will leave it

Alex was just covered in Mud, well all the kids were, in fact when we got back to the car, i had to strip them all off and tip water out of Alex's welly, even his nappy had mud in! how?

They had a fantastic park with a huge zip wire and a rope course and large slide that was on a hillside

They had a restaurant and craft shops on the lake

When we finally got home, we were ready for the Meat and potato pie i had left cooking in the slow cooker, followed by nice hot baths for all!

It was such a great place we will be going back again i am sure. I have to say though that the kids seemed to enjoy it all the more for the mud!

xxx

Getting back into the swing of it

First week back started with a bang! Kids back to school on Monday and i had two meetings on Monday night, so no easing back in gently for me!  First meeting was the Cleveleys Forum, which is run by local Councillor and the aim is get various local groups together helping each other achieve what they want to. It was really interesting, with all the cuts that are having to be made by the local councils, the main message was that there is not much money for things like parks for example , so the locals are encouraged to group together to for friends groups and trust and apply for various funding that are available via the lottery etc, and all the small businesses in shops were encouraged to work together to resolve issues and encourage new trade and use other local businesses. It had really community spirt at the heart and made a lot of sense. There were some people who really didn't get it and thought perhaps the council were trying to encourage them to physically the grass on the parks themselves!!! But over all the message seemed to get across, that you can't sit whinging about something, you have to step up and get involved. I was there representing the gala and i made quite a few contacts that will be really useful and found other whom the committee and i could get involved with. So with my head still full from that meeting i dashed over to the Gala meeting, which was another productive meeting and we made lots of our plans firm, so yesterday and today i have been calling people getting everything booked and now have a mass of emails and website updating to do, but its all good fun to me and i am looking forward to it all ( not the paperwork side though!)

I have found a bit of time in the evenings to keep up with my resolution to finish stripy blanket! which has now been on the go for TWO years! and its about half way through, so i have decided to do just one row a night and think i have about 150 rows left, so it won't be done anytime soon but at least its not sat in a basket anymore.

It would easily cover a single bed if you wanted the stripes running down the bed.

Also we have reintroduced craft and game Wednesday, as it got forgotten about in the last few months, so each Wednesday we will play a big board game or do a craft, this week me and Fred built his Bob the Builder house he got for Christmas, which is really cute as it has proper bricks and cement, that sets hard, but can be washed off so it can be built again.

Molly wanted to make some with here Beadeo gem kit

I have to share my bargains of the week! i needed to pop to the out of hours doctors on Tuesday night and while i was waiting for my bus popped into Asda, i came out with a fill carrier bag for 56p!!!

Every thing was either 5p or 6pm loafs of bread, sauage rolls, cupcakes, cream cakes, steak bakes, so we all have nice lunches the next day!

On Saturday we continued our family buffet night with Spanish Night!

I made Prawn Pealla

Spanish Meatball and butterbean stew

Spanish Sauage and Potato

Spanish Stuffed peppers, with chorizo

It definitely was a hit!, its nice to be able to do things like this and it gives me chance to try out new recepies and the kids to try new foods, they love the fact they can help themselves.

I let Alex have a bubble bath with me on Saturday night as i realized he never gets a bubble bath as he always shares with Fred and Fred has such bad skin, we can't use anything at all on him, or put anything in the bath, Ali enjoyed it.

First week over, now just another 50ish to go before Christmas! xxx