Archive : April 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Temptation
Just found this on You Tube .... bliiiimey, it takes me back! I always did absolutely love this track - extremely provocative and a tad rude - especially if you listen very carefully to the lyrics sung by the woman right near the end ;) Video gives me the heebie-jeebies even thought I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Sexy ;)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Quiet
Tim's at work this morning so I've taken the opportunity to get on and hoover/dust/clean up bathroom a bit. Y'know, not all that long ago I used to really hate doing this stuff but just lately I've actually started to get some pleasure out of it. Pushing the hoover about or washing up or whatever allows me to daydream which is really rather nice *smiles*. Of course, the finished results always look lovely too!
Anyway, today is quiet - the kids are both currently happily engaged with things, I've finished my cleaning and am (obviously!) blogging and about to have tea.
This afternoon, Tim is taking Rosie to her trampoline class at the Littledown Centre. Sometimes April and I also go if the weather is nice so that we can play in the park but today its rubbish so Tim will have to go on his own and read the paper in the cafe while he waits for Rosie. This gives me and April a lovely quiet afternoon at home *smiles*.
Tomorrow, I have to take April to Tumbletots. Now, she adores this but I don't like it so much for the simple reason that I have to wait in another room with all the other mums. What I can't stand is the inane chatter - last week we had stuff like "oooo! you'd never guess how many poos Matthew did yesterday?!"
No, I wouldn't and furthermore I don't flippin' care!
I don't understand why a bunch of parents (ooook, mums!) have to get together and discuss their kids bowel movements! I mean, it's not like I get together with friends and start discussing mine or Tim's toilet habits is it?!
"oooo" you'd never guess ............"
Ok, let's not go there.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
"Yeah?... waddya want?"
Hemmy, being typically Hemmy (i.e a moody git) when I call him to try and get him to look at me so I can take his photo.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I'm honoured
"The "Arte y Pico" award was created/made to be given out to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their works, whether it be writing, artwork or more. When one receives this award it is considered a "special honor". Once you receive this award, you are to pass it on to at least 5 others. For more info on this wonderful award, where it originated, please visit Arte y pico at their blog. ( I couldn't think of a better way to describe this award so I just used what Nats wrote which originally came from Auntiebunny )"
I am the very proud recipient of this award, given to me by my wonderful friend Natalie. Looking at some of the other people that have been awarded it, I feel totally unworthy (especially given that this reincarnation of my blog is so very, very new) but amazingly happy!
I'm considering who to pass it on to ... there are so many that I think deserve it so I'm giving it some serious thought.
PS - thanks Nats for my pressie which arrived in the post this morning - It was incredibly thoughtful of you :)
EDITED:
I've given this thought .... here are my 5 choices. Some of the writers of these blogs might not even know I exist but I wanted to send the award to them because they have all, at some point, totally inspired me and/or amazed me with their creativity :)
Stephanie - such a wonderful, informative blog and such a wonderful, warm human being.
Caroline - fab lapbooks she makes with her kids :)
Maricar - WONDERFUL homemaking hints and tips - I linked to her waaaay back on my old blog and still adore her site now.
Amanda - gorgeous crafts, gorgeous blog
Merry - 4 kids, own business, fab blog - I'm not sure how she does it frankly ;) Inspired me from the time I started home edding.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Dorset Home Education
If you live in Dorset (or the closely surrounding counties), pop along to our groups event page - we have some great activities (arranged by us and other home ed friends) coming up and all are more than welcome to join in :)
Please excuse the fact that I have, thus far, failed to install a top bar on the page to take you back to the main DHE index page. Ahem. My excuse is that I don't know how to do it ...... Tiiim?!!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Busy
So, things are a tad busy at the moment! We've had one of those months which has been full of "things" including a birthday (Tim's mum), kids activities (Rosie's trampolining and April's Tumbletots), appointments (haircuts and Rosie going to the orthodontist) and vaguely annoying stuff like having to wait in for a day for a repair man because our patio door "fell off" it's runners. In between all that, Tim has been doing a fair bit of overtime at work - I get the impression they are a little short staffed driver-wise at the moment ( a couple have left). Then today, Tim got an email from Richard, his boss, asking if he could do overtime this week because one of the (few remaining!) drivers had broken his foot!! I don't know how that man manages to keep going under the circumstances - I'm amazed he doesn't get dreadfully stressed!
Tim doesn't actually mind the overtime, or the job for that matter, too much - I mean, he quiet likes driving about in the van (especially when the weather is nice). I do think he wishes they'd get on and find some extra drivers though - it's going to get very mad by the time the holiday season starts otherwise!
So, anyway, it looks set for next month to follow in the same vein.
Overtime ....
Birthday... my little brother James (although as he's turning 36 he's not so little any more!)
Apointments .... I've got to go to the opticians on the 6th (getting headaches so I think my glasses might need updating) and something Tim has to do which I'm not going into here .. ahem.... but "he's a very naughty boy"
Activities ... Tumbletots, trampolining, home ed group activities
Oh! and we've got to book our cats in for their jabs so they can go in the cattery in August AND contact the landlord about the bathroom decorating (remember that?) which seems to have been utterly forgotten about and we've not heard a word! .....
Monday, April 28, 2008
Playing with Photoshop
Sometimes I like mucking around with photoshop and doing interesting things with pics. Other times I just use it to touch up photos or, in the case of the ones below, convert them to black and white. There are just some pics that look great in black and white :)
I love this pic of Tim and Rosie when she was very little. Rosie looks very cute indeed and Tim looks super cool :) He actually looks hardly any different now ... slightly ... er...bigger ... maybe.
Here's another of Rosie - this time taken last year. Her hair looks really dark in this! She looks a lot older than 9 as well.
April, sprawled out drawing. Very rare to get April's face in pics as she is usually busy doing something.
... finally... me :) Tim took this, last year I think. I look a bit moody but this is about as close to "me" as it's possible to get in a picture because I'm camera shy. I Like it so much I might stick it in the sidebar :)
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Stationery
I'm writing this in the middle of a rolling thunderstorm and am frightened (howling gales and thunderstorms terrify me - I'm such a girl *rolls eyes*). Since Tim is currently fast asleep and not available to do his husbandly protection duties (ie cuddles), I'm trying to take my mind off the lightening and racket outside by blogging.
My subject of choice for today is stationery.
Interesting eh? Ooooo! I love stationery. I think it must be a throwback to the days when I worked (shock horror!) as a secretary - I just adored new pencils or shorthand pads or whatever .... bliss! I remember one job I had (for a local firm of estate agents) where there was a woman called Doreen "in charge" of stationery and I think she got a little power crazy and took her job a little too seriously because trying to get a new Bic out of her was like trying to get blood out of a stone.
"Did I not give you a new pen last week?" (peering at you scarily from behind her spectacles)
"Erm, well, yes but it appears to have been stolen"
"Well, I'm not happy about it but I'll replace it but DON'T ask for another one any time soon! Look after it! I'll be remembering you! "
I kid you not.
She soon eased off when I ended up secretarying (is that a word?) for the chairman for a while though I can tell you! HA!
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yeah, so I love stationery and, of course, homeschooling gives me a chance to endulge myself to the max especially when I find something like I did yesterday, namely:
I'm in folder heaven! I got these in Tesco for £2.00 for 3 so very good value and given our recent switch to notebooking in homeschool, they are going to come in very, very handy. I think what I like about them though is the gorgeous colours - they are so cheerful stacked up on the table (especially next to one of the last of our tulips - they are dying back now)
The ones I got from Doreen-the-crazy-stationery-office-woman were never this gorgeous *grins*.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Catching Up
I've decided to "fill in" the week I was not blogging. I took the break because I so badly needed it on many levels, I also wanted to put the wheels of a better life in motion.
Very obviously, I haven't changed radically in the space of one week but I've made huge strides in fact, I think we all have as a family. Things have got very pleasant indeed just through a few simple changes and I'm feeling better - although getting to even this point hasn't been easy.
Firstly, we made a new house rule - that the television and the computer are only allowed on at set times a day and then only for a set amount of time. I thought the kids would be up in arms about this one but, in fact, I've been pleasantly surprised they have taken to it so well that they now complain about the noise if one of them goes on! The computer, for example, goes on early in the morning for half an hour so that I can check/answer emails, blog if I want to or "browse" and then it goes off. After lunch, it goes on for another half an hour, this time mainly so that Rosie can have a play on Club Penguin or Active Worlds, do some online learning (maths mainly) or just look stuff up. Then, generally, the computer doesn't go on again to the evening. Today has been a little different because I've been catching up on the blog (I've got a thousand blog posts buzzing around my brain!) but, on the whole, this is how things are now.
The result of this shutting off of technology is that we've been "getting real" (as I call it). We've been drawing and painting (you can see some of my efforts on my relaxation page) with some lovely new art materials we got, cooking lots, playing with Moon Sand (weird stuff), putting on mini-plays, playing in the garden, doing loads of notebooking (our much more relaxed, unstructured home ed method), studying nature, doing yoga (even April!) and reading. We have also been enjoying a kind of peace in our home that we've never experienced before - it's amazingly wonderful.
On a personal level, all this peace has given me time to think - sometimes painful thinking - and I've experienced the whole range of emotions in a short period of time. I've had several days in a row where I was utterly at peace and going over "things" in my mind and putting them to rest and then, suddenly, the floodgates opened and all this terrible pain came out and I'd find myself sobbing and yelling. Of course, the recipient of all this was Tim ... thank god for him being solid and unflappable! He's put up with me clinging to him and crying one minute and shoving him away and telling him to get lost (although not so politely) the next and he just remains calm ........ I guess he realises, in a way, that I have to go through this in order to lay the ghosts to rest.
Now, in a relatively short period of time, I genuinelly feel that I'm getting somewhere. A couple of things have happened over the last few days that would, not all that long ago, have thrown me into misery and disarray. Now, although I wobbled, I didn't fall over (remember the Weebles? *smiles*) Oooooh! I've got a long way to go ... a long, long way but changes have been made.
Before, every time something bad happened I would completely overreact, take everything personally and get very down because every time something bad happened, horrible memories from the past would come back to haunt me (hence my reaction). I felt I was stuck with it and this was how life was going to be forever ... I was being fatalistic in other words but this is the wrong way to handle former abuse. Then someone told me that the best way to deal with it was, basically, to not think about it and not let it rule your life. I think this is the wrong way to handle it too because it's almost like going into denial. Sure, everything is fine now but one day it will all come back and bite you on the butt - probably at the worse time.
So, like I've had to recently, you do have to face the demons of your past and you can't go on excusing crappy behaviour away for the rest of your life because of them and also you can't just "ignore them".
I chose to simplify and quiet my life so that I could almost hear what was going on in my brain. I chose to relax with yoga and painting and drawing. In doing this I kind of opened myself up to some kind of healing but it hasn't been easy or always pleasant and I've got miles to go but at least I'm doing it. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, I will be able to leave the past where it really belongs ... in the past.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Perseverance
I think we can learn a lot from our children sometimes - like how to not give up with something. How to keep going, however difficult something is, until we reach the end.
This puzzle took April the best part of the day - it's 80 pieces (big for a 3 year old) and she did it all by herself. She did some, went away, came back, did a bit more until, with a beaming smile, she finished it.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Beginning again
Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is.
In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedo
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day
'one who knows the better way to live alone.
~Bhaddekaratta Sutta~
See archive index for other posts