March 31st 2015 - Dragon Egg

March 31st 2015 - Dragon Egg

As lil  man decided that he was decorating eggs today I  took one out of the packet to make into a Dragon Egg with drawing pins like the one on pinterest.  This was very east to do and looks good, the only downside was the last few pins wern't very secure in the egg so I think I am going to have to glue them in.

I am going to look for some bigger polystyrene eggs as well so that we can have an assortment of sizes and places them into a nest.

Very easy to do, but the egg doesnt stand up on its own

March 30th 2015 - Harry Potter Halloween Planing

March 30th 2015 - Harry Potter Halloween Planing

Today is the end of the first 3months of the 365 challenge, i'm impressed to have made it this far, there has been a few problems and I have had to pin new things to match what I have done on a few days, but we are here 1/4 of the way through the year.

For today there isn't 1 pin but a whole new board of pins linked to a Harry Potter Halloween Party for next year, 2016.  Yep that's right i'm planning Halloween 2016 already and we still have 8months until this years party - but that's not really my problem as it's being held at a friends house, although I am helping with decorations and such for it.

Me and hubby were talking about how we need to beat what we did with last year party and the spider theme - we had spider nests and webbing everywhere, hundreds of spiders all over the place and  it too us over a week to put it all up as we were stretching the webs and then layering it with another thinly spread bit in the opposite direction.  It did look really cool especially wit the disco and uv lights on.  I started looking on the net and the halloween forum for ideas and there was 3 possibles - Harry Potter, graveyard or scary carnival, but as the youngest will only be 5 and the next two up be 7 we decided the scary carnival can wait until they bit bigger and we only have a few graveyard bits that I picked up in the sale, we need to buy more!

So we decided to make a plan for the party - the plan is that everyone dresses up as a character from Harry Potter or comes as a Witch/Wizard.  This can be as easy or as hard as you like - Witch/Wizard costumes are widely available and so are proper Harry Potter ones, you can also get iron and stitch on patches that can be added to cheaper outfits.  There is no other rules, and if the adults want to dress as one of the kids at Hogwarts they can!

Hubby already has long blue wizard robes and a long white beard so he will be going as Dumbledore.  I always have my hair  dyed a bright red but will do it purple and I am going as Tonks - the punk Witch.  My eldest son has straight blonde hair and a major attitude, along with being gobby and opinionated so he is going as Draco Malfoy.  My middle son has dark brown curly hair and wears glasses, so he is going to go as Harry Potter.  My lil son is still really small despite his age, so I said about him going as Dobby the house elf but hubby says no he needs be a Wizard, we're just not sure which one or if going as "a Wizard".   He also has Wizard robes in blue that he is going to wear this year, but it wont take much to get a Ravenclaw badge and tie for him to wear next year so its not qute the same.   I have messaged our friends that will definately be here and 2/3 have replied so far saying it sounds a good idea so I will be going ahead with it.  Nearer the date next year when the kids decide which friends they want to invite I will let them all no about the theme so the parents can get Witch/Wizards as well.

My mind has gone into over-drive of the possibilities we can do to the house etc, and although this will be a party a think it is going to end up very big and a thing in its own right.   The internet is going to be a great help for ideas and printables as so many people have already held Harry Potter parties over the years.   Although my house isn't huge I do have space to do things if I move few things around.  Plus I have the garden but there is no guarantee that the weather will behave!

I plan to re-use the spiders and webs etc from last year, with a trail of spiders stuck to  my floor, across my bedroom door and into the bathroom where the big spider will be as Arragog!  The toilet is going to be re-named Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (as I can't put it as girls bathroom cos it will confuse the boys) and im going to have a picture of Myrtle on the toilet lid, I am going to try and find some quotes from her as well to put in there - if I can find a way to do it I will have her talking from the films on repeat playing somehow - this still needs to worked on as to how we can do it. 

I need a platform 9 3/4 sign and a brick wall making - my house is made from concrete so I don't have brick walls, so this will be done via a white shower curtain or bed sheet and a sponge with brown and red paint to give the brick effect.  I plan for this to go over the lounge doorway so everyone goes through platform 9 3/4 to get into lounge.  And hopefully on the other side of it a picture of the fat lady that is over griffindor house.

I have a BIG idea of making a Professor Trelawney from a stuffed painters suit, hippy clothes (charity shop), wig, big glasses and sat at a table with crystal ball, set of rune stones and few other pieces.  This can be used as a photo station as well.

The other BIG thing I will be doing is turning the cupboard under my stairs into Harry's bedroom, complete with airbed and blanket, dressing gown and slippers, a pile of books, a dim light and a few other things!   This will be available for everyone to go into (carefully) for a photo that I will print out and they can all take home at end of night.

I have also had the idea of making a giant basilisk and fixing it around the ceiling of the lounge and up the stairs, just not 100% sure on how to make it - im thinking ladies tights stuffed with ? so it's light weight, just need to play around to make it look effective and like a snake not stuffed tights!  There is a bigger problem here though and that is HOW I fix it to my ceiling as I have horrid polystyrene tiles on it and I can't afford to take them down and get ceiling artexed.  I thought about somehow turning the ceiling black and added small fairy lights to it like the stars in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but not sure on how to do it or to fix it up.  So again it''s a possibility that I have time to play with and see where it goes.


There is also loads of other things as possible decorations on my list but i'm not declaring them just yet as I want some of it to be a supprise for  the actual party but i'm sure it will be really good by the time Halloween 2016 gets here - I have 20months to get it sorted - that's a long time and gives me leverage to buy bits cheaply as and when I see them! Ebay has loads of jewellery type bits and other things from 1p, sent from China but as i'm not in a rush it doesn't matter.

I have started to compile a list of possible foods, or foods we can name as Harry Potter foods, possible games we can play and ideas for party bags - including Harry Potter magic frogs - i've found a template for the boxes and frog cards to go them.  I plan to label sweets as though they are from Honeydukes and hope to get some "tricks" like they have in Zonkos joke shop, all for as cheap as possoble.

I am really excited about this and I plan to make it a night to be remembered by all!

March 29th 2015 - Boys Bedroom (or total tip?!?)

March 29th 2015 - Boys Bedroom (or total tip?!?)

This is the million dollar question!  Is it a bedroom or a total tip???  I am led to beleive that it is MEANT to be a bedroom BUT it looks like the local council tip/waste dump!  I told the boys (9 & 12) to tidy it this morning, they came down with armfuls of washing (supposedly dirty, yet some was folded) and then a while later came back down and said they had done it, I believed them (more fool me!) and I said they could play on the Wii (mine!).

When I next went upstairs I decided to stick my head in their room to check if it was tidy and they had picked everything up off the floor, and yes I could now see the floor which I couldn't before (and no it wasn't piled on the bed like pinterest pic. lol) BUT I could also see a nice pile of "stuff" sticking out from under the bed.  There was clothes both clean and dirty screwed up with toys and games and books thrown in for good measure, not to mention the random lego bricks on the floor!  So I did what most mothers would do drag all of it out from under the bed and dump it in a heap in the middle of the floor and told them to get off my Wii and get upstairs to sort it out - they had 20minutes!

This was part of the pile I pulled from under the bed:

They seem to get distracted very easily whilst tidying up - they find things that were deemed "lost" and start playing or they get into a fight over "whose mess it is anyway" or "that's mine!" and start shouting at each other as "the others not helping".  This causes me to get even more worked up as they are not tidying up their room as I have asked them to!

However, after the battle today I have made a decision there room is now going to be a "no-go zone".  I am not going in it unless it's tidy or there is an emergency!  There is going to be some rules though, and they have been told them -
1. No food or drink or plates/cups will be allowed upstairs. 
2. Clothes WILL be brought downstairs for washing daily. 
3. Clean washing WILL be put away in the wardrobe and drawers. 
4. Room needs to be tidy if they want friends round

Apart from these they can do what they like - if this means they tread on lego and hurt their feet on the "plastic carpet of bits" their problem.  If they have lost game pieces under the bed or on the floor then they cant play their games.  If their books get ripped then it's their problem I am not replacing them.  If they wish to have a pile of paper work, drawings and magazines on the floor they can.  This may sound harsh but they have got to learn and I am fed up of arguments and battles over the state of their room. 

I appreciate that they need "their space" and want to have all of their figures set out in "battles" but they need to realize that if they want their friends to come round then their room needs to be half tidy!  Neither of the boys are great fans of spiders and bugs and really freak out when they find them in their room, yet they don't seem to believe me when I say that bugs like mess!

March 28th 2015 - Family Walk

March 28th 2015 - Family Walk

This morning the weather was really bad,  it was cold, wet and really dull and overcast.  I thought this was going to stop us going on a family walk, however, after lunch it brightened up and stopped raining so we stuck shoes and coats on and we headed off in the car.

Yes I no I said family walk and we went in the car, but we were heading 10mins up the road to a nature reserve we had found on the net that looked really good.  We found the turning in the road and went up it and parked the car in a lay by just down from Harrington Nature Reserve.

First impressions as you walk by the big fenced off area to where the gate is situated is "there's not much water here and it looks like waste land".  Not a good start.  Before we went through the gate we looked at the map and it looks like there is quite a lot here.  We went down the path and onto a bridge and the kids played pooh sticks - they love this simple game!

We followed the path round to the right and the river just stops as it goes under the road, so we followed the very wet and muddy path round a piece of grassland and came back to the main "rezzer" which again had very little water in it, only a few ducks and lots of dead trees and plants and rubbish!  I don't mean drink bottles and crisp packets but tires and road cones and broken things.

Sadly this walk was a big disappointment to us as the Harrington Nature Reserve website makes it look so much better than it actually is.  I would like to think that it is in the process of being tidied up the fact trees have been cut etc, it is a great site and has the potential to be a very nice place to visit.

Here are a few pics that I did take there.

After we left here we headed 2mins up the road to the Salterbeck "rezzer" which again didn't have much so we took a short walk up to the sea - most of the cliff top didn't seem very safe and you could see where a lot of it had collapsed down to the beach.  I'm not sure if it used to be a coal pit/mine or something else but it was definately buildings of some sort.

We nipped to Harrington Marina on the way home and some of the waves were huge, not as big as I have seen but big considering its not very strong winds.

The kids did enjoy being out of the house for a bit, just a shame the initial place we went wasn't as good as it looks on the net.  But never mind.

March 27th 2015 - Dragon's Fire potion jar

March 27th 2015 - Dragon's Fire potion jar

Today is the last day of school for the boys for the Easter Holidays, they finish at 1:30pm.  I have had quite a productive day so far - I have finished painting the lizards new house (finally) and its now drying ready to have the glue put on it to waterproof it.  I have done 2 lots of washing up and 1 load of washing, plus todays pin.

For today's pin I have done another Halloween thing, I found this lovely apothecary bottle on pinterest but sadly there was no instructions just a link to the ladies etsy shop.  This made me start thinking as to how I could make 1 and what I could use to get the flame effect.  My inital thought was pillow stuffing and that is what I used.

I have a pillow that is in the craft box and used as stuffing for toys etc.  I pulled some of the fibre stuffing out and started to colour it with sharpie pens - not as easy as it sounds as the fibres seperate, but I perservered with it and the final result is really good.  I used a base of bright yellow and then added an orange and some red patches to it all and then re-did more yellow to get a nice flame effect (see pics below).

 

Obviously it's not quite finished as I need to print a label to stick on it when I get some ink and I also have a brass dragon necklace on its way from China to add to it.  I'm also trying to work out whether I need the lid added to the jar with "fire" stuck on it or just glue the "fire" to the top of the jar.  I'm really pleased with how it looks.

March 26th 2015 - Re-painting the hallway & stairs

March 26th 2015 - Re-painting the hallway & stairs

Thanks to my lovely kids and their dirty hands up and down the stair walls I need to re-paint them, as where I tried to clean the walls with wet wipes it has removed the paint as well!  GGggggrrrrr!!!!

So we have bought kitchen and bathroom paint that can be washed/is waterproof, so that I *should* be able to remove dirty marks off it.  We have gone for almost the same colour - Water, similar to the pale in the middle.  Once its dry I will take a pic of the painted wall still got all the top to do but as my knee isn't too good today i'm not over doing it.  I will try and get it painted over the Easter holidays.

 

Pic shows the old and new colours, although makes the carpet look grey it is actually a deep green with the pale duck egg type colour spots.  They go really well together.  As I posted above, I need to do the top of the walls and the rest of the stair walls.

March 25th 2015 - Easter crafts

March 25th 2015 - Easter crafts

Today was our last day at family learning and as its Easter week we made little baskets and added shredded paper and chocolate eggs.  This was my basket:

This also gave me a very short notice idea for St john Ambulance tonight as its Easter crafts with them as well. So I set about finding a basket template and printed on paper as printer doesn't like cardboard and then drew each one and double sided taped them all together.  The kids can decorate them with Easter bits and stickers and we will put a small egg and bag of haribo sweets inside.

Last week they were asked to all decorate an egg and bring in for the competition of decorated eggs, there is 2 prizes for under 10s and 2 for over 10s.  They also have Easter cards they can make, pictures of eggs and bunnies and chicks etc to colour in if they finish.  All in all I think will be a good but messy evening for them.

Here are my 3 sons decorated eggs:

Blake (5) wanted to make a nest with chicks in which he did via a brown paper cake case, shredded paper and craft chicks, he then added a part open plastic egg to it.  I Said to him that we needed to put the nest into a tree so cut some branches from our hedge for him.  The only problem the heat in the house dried out the leaves so I have had to tape new leaves on to it today.  The main "tree" was placed in a plastic cup but kept falling over so I filled the cup with stones and expanding foam and then Blake stood it inside a plant pot and added more stones.

Kenzie (9) wanted to make alien eggs on another planet.  I helped him with his planet as it is made of expanding foam inside a box, which he then coloured blue with sharpie pens to make his planet.  I also super glued the material to his alien bodies as kids gllue didnt stick.  He decorated his aliens as he wanted them.

Jay (12) wanted to make a star wars egg, so I found some pics online for ideas and he decided on Yoda.  I helped him bu super glueing the material to his body as kids glue didnt hold.  He then drew the markings on his face etc and coloured it all in, he added the light sabre and even gave him a lego star wars vehicle to sit in.

I think all 3 are great and i'm hoping that 1 of the other adult members will judge who wins as I don't want to choose - this is a big problem with my kids being members, if I pick them for things looks like favourites even if this isn't the case.  The younger 2 will be taking theirs into school tomorrow for the same things - decorated egg competitions.


UPDATE:

3 of the adult members judged the eggs last night - lil man won the under 10s with his tree and nest, middle son came 2nd in under 10s and eldest son won the over 10s.  All were really pleased about this and they did work hard on them.  Sadly there wasn't that many members turn up to the meeting "because it was crafts night" was what we were told.  This does mean that I wont be doing the craft badge with them anytime soon.

March 24th 2015 - Bedlam cube

March 24th 2015 - Bedlam cube

I had to got to town today to see if I could get my middle son some jumpers as he only has 1 that fits and my friend is on the hunt for some travel games to take on holiday but hasn't been able to find any so I said would have a look whilst in town.

Well it wasn't a particularly good trip, none of the charity shops had any jumpers in my sons age nor did any have mini travel games, well thats not quite true I had a game called the Bedlam cube.  Now my friends children are younger than mine so sadly I didn't think it would be of use to her but ok for mine.  It says it has 19,186 ways to make it - I took it out of its case and after 10minutes couldn't get it back as a cube. lol!  So I passed it to hubby and he spent a further 10minutes trying to do it and neither of us have managed to re-build the cube to put it away.  I think it may make the kids very annoyed as they will want to do it but may not be able to.

I have looked online and most of the solutions to the bedlam cube are via youtube, nothing you can print off and stick in the box!

However, all was not lost for my friend as I nipped into home bargains as they had games at 49p last week - they had none but they did have travel snakes & ladders for £1.49 and a 4-in-1 kids card game for 99p, plus I got a noughts  crosses for £1.00 from £1 shop.  So I have 3 games to post to her this afternoon ready for going away at weekend.

March 23rd 2015 - Try something new for tea

March 23rd 2015 - Try something new for tea

As part of the family meal planner I made back in January (that has been altered/updated twice since as found other meals we had forgot about) there is a "try something new for tea".  For this I decided we would try a recipe I had pinned on pinterest for Honey & BBQ shredded chicken.

It sounds really nice and hopefully the kids will like it.  The only thing we have not included is the Italian dressing it says as when I looked at it in shop it looked really horrible and the ingredients had things in I don't eat, so fingers crossed it works and is liked.  It smells nice so far.

The recipe says to use 3 pieces of chicken breast but mine are just big enough for a mouse so i've added about 8 bits to the slow cooker.

I will update later with pics and the verdict of tea.

UPDATE

Well it was cooked alot earlier than the time stated so we had tea at 4pm instead of 5:30pm.  There was mixed reviews on it.  I personally thought it was really nice and so did 2 of the boys, they just couldn't eat all I gave them and there was loads of chicken left so we don't need as many pieces of chicken as I thought we would.  Hubby liked it loose on plate but not in the bread roll as it altered the taste and lil man said he didn't like taste BUT he has come home from  school not well and complaining of ear ache and is off to docs soon.

We will try it again another day but I think would work nicely as an extra for a bbq!  Overall I would say thumbs up for it.

The shredded chicken in the honey & bbq sauce

March 22nd 2015 - Steroids

March 22nd 2015 - Steroids

Today is day 4 of being ill, last night I thought I was going to end up in an ambulance as every time I laid down it felt like my throat was closing over and I couldn't breathe, I would take my inhalers, cough more as they hit my throat and then couldn't breathe due to coughing, a viscious circle!  So I ended up propped up by the v-pillow and 2 normal ones.

Hubby rang the out of hours docs this morning for me (as can hardly talk today) and a doctor rang us because of my asthma and said they would ring me back with an appointment time.   No sooner had we hung up from him it rang again with an app for 20mins later.

Off to the out of hours we headed, got there 5mins early but didn't get seen til 15mins after appointment time as running late.  I explained to the sister how things started wednesday night and I was hot/cold and nose running/blocked etc and how i've got worse.  I've been taking beechams, paracetamol and honey & cinnamon.  She said have been doing the right thing.  She checked my pulse, bp, temperature, checked my chest and looked in my ears and my throat.  She said my chest sounds clear but my throat is really red and will be being made worse by inhalers so I need use a spacer for few days.

She did issue me with Prednisolone steroids for the next 5days, 8 a day.  And said it should help ease my chest and throat and to keep up with the beechams, paracetamol and honey & cinnamon drinks, she also said ice cream will soothe my throat as well.  Not been like this since Sept/Oct last year, so fingers crossed it eases soon.

March 21st 2015 - Carlisle Cathedral and bell tower tour

March 21st 2015 - Carlisle Cathedral and bell  tower tour

A few days ago I received an email from a competition I had entered saying I had won a pair of tickets to go on a tour of the Cathedral bell tower, I was really pleased and hoped it would be during the week so hubby could come as well.  Then I got another email from the gentleman who would be doing the tour stating it was today - 1pm or 2pm.  This was too short notice to get someone to look after the boys so hubby said he would stay with them and I could go on my own.   So I emailed asking to go on 1pm tour due to train times.

The train to Carlisle was mad - a very loud hen party that started drinking on the train, a stag do that were equally loud, a group of teenage girls with 3" thick make up and heels of the same height they could only just walk in and loads of football fans heading to the match.  The train filled up and there was about 15-20 people standing in the aisle it was that busy and the noise was going right through my head.  I don't know how anyone could hear their own conversations.  I was so glad to get off the train!!!

I was in Carlisle over an hour earlier but the next train wouldn't have got me there on time.  So I went and grabbed some lunch from Tesco, and once I had eaten it (whilst walking through the town) I made my way to the Cathedral.  I paid the lady so that I could take photos and went on my way around it as I had 45minutes until the start of the tour.  I took loads of pics of the inside downstairs, here are some of them:

I headed back to the main entrance to wait for the people doing the tour of the bell tower, at the time I was the only person there.  They said we had to wait a few minutes.  The only other person to turn up was the local news reporter/photographer!  So I have ended up with lots of pics being taken on the tour and am going to be in the paper.

The 3 people doing the tour were all from the Cathedral Bell Ringers, they explained things as went including a big plaque on the wall after one of the old clergy who left money to the Cathedral but on the condition that the bells are rung on his birthday!

After posing for a few pics for the paper we went through the little door at the back of the Cathedral and down a little corridor to the spiral stair case - some were steep, others not so, some were big others small, there was over 120 in total to get the bell room.  I took a picture of them as I was coming down after the tour:

 

The spiral stairs are broken up by a long narrow corridor that runs about half way up the Cathedral, the next pic shows the same corridor over the other side of the Cathedral.  Again there were more posed pics for the paper including some of me taking photos.  I remember doing this type of thing with my friends at school - didn't realise it was something that professionals did as well.

 

This picture was what I took when the photographer took s pic of me taking a pic:

I actually like the pic alot as it doesn't have the whole of the window or the wall in it.  I took a few others from up on this corridor as well. 

From the corridor we went up even more spiral stairs and went round the edge of the whole tower, some lovely views.  We then went into the ringing room, where all the bell cords hang.  They explained what they were and they worked, and showed me how they do it (they were using the bell sensors via the computer so as not to actually ring the bells.  The photographer asked for a pic of me posing pulling the bell.  I so wish I hadn't been ill as i'm sure I am going to look like death warmed up the pics, oh well not much I can do now. lol!

We then continued the tour and went up to the bells, where they talked to me about them all, and the real old one in the corner called Maria that has been there since the 1400s.  I have to say that the bells are much bigger than I thought they would be I did think they would be big but not as big as they are.  They had 1 of the team ring one of the bells so I could see how it all works from upstairs - although it didn't "ring" as it had its safety buffer thing in (they did tell me the name but I can't remember).

 

I had a really nice time and it was very interesting, and not something that many members of the public actually get to see.  Thanks to Cumbria Live for hosting the competition and picking me as 1 of the winners.

March 20th 2015 - Special day

March 20th 2015 - Special day

Today is a special day and one that will not be repeated for 100,000 years.  Many people of various religious beliefs think that the happenings of today could indicate the start of the end of the world because of how rare the 2 events of today are.

Firstly today is Ostara, also known as the spring equinox and means that there is as much daylight as there is darkness as both are equal, some people believe that the spring equinox is actually tomorrow not today, but I have always believed it to be 20th March and that's what google says.  So happy thoughts for Ostara if you celebrate.

Secondly today is a Solar Eclipse through out the UK and parts of the world.  It was seen by many but many others, myself included saw nothing due to cloud coverage and rain.  This was a great shame as I had hoped to get at least 1 nice picture but this is the best I could get:

Although it went dark it was more grey and linked to the cloud and rain rather the eclipse and some of the street lights did come on.  They had said that Cumbria was meant to be one of the best places to see it but it wasn't.

March 19th 2015 - Full of cold

March 19th 2015 - Full of cold

I feel so ill, well not ill exactly but i'm fullof cold and have a stuffy and runny nose at the same time!!!   I was fine when I went to SJA last night, however, we had to move to big cold room so we could play games - the kids were all ok as moving about but as I was stood still I think I got a chill.  But 1 of the Adult members has also ended up with a cold  and he wasn't in the cold room so thinks 1 of the kids brought it in.

I spent most of last night going from hot to cold and back again, but more so on the cold front, to the extent I had thick fluffy pjs on,  blanket and the duvet!  My nose was going from running to blocked and back again most of the night which wasn't fun either.  I've taken beechams all-in-1 tablets and they don't seem to be helping so I searched pinterest for ways to get rid of a cold and found this home remedy of honey & cinnamon either as a mix on own or mixed with tea - well I don't drink tea so put it in a coffee and it had a spicy christmas coffee flavour, wasn't too bad really.

The website it's from says 4 times a day for best results.  I don't normally drink this much coffee in a day so hopefully it wont send me hyper, but will get rid of this cold.  I can't say whether ot not it is going to work as only had 1 lot so we will see.

UPDATE

since having the first cup my nose has stopped running and I have only sneezed once.  So I have now made a 2nd cup in with coffee and hope that this does actually work like it seems to have done so far.

March 18th 2015 - Family Learning

March 18th 2015 - Family Learning

Today at the family learning at the school we didn't have the children in with us as they were all involved with Commando Joe who does sports and things with them, and today he had brought in an inflatable assualt course for them to do and as they were at different times they didn't come.

The first of today's tasks was a spelling test of 5 hard words that most people can't spell - I got 4/5 as I put an extra letter on the last word.  The words were necessary, secretary, piece, accommodation and rhythm(n added at end).  We then talked about ways of remembering the words whether it be through pictures of phrases.  And after about hour we were asked to re-write the words down, I got 5/5 then.

We were then all given bookmarks to make for our children - I got the one with the apple and the one with the purple book.  I hope the boys like them.  The initial ideas was for the children to make them but as they wern't with us we did them.

We went to more things about spelling including a KS1 SATs paper where they had to spell words linked to the pictures and then write the word in the space that the lady read out in the story.  Some of the words were not easy for 6/7year olds I tell you.  We also did a SATs paper that KS2 would do and again it wasn't easy although I got 20/20, some of the words I thought would be hard for 10/11year olds.  Linked to this a paragraph that had had the full stops and capital letters put in the wrong place and we had to sort them, some of us said we would put them in different places.

The lady teaching the course gave us all a question that we had to answer - they were both open and closed questions.  Mine was "what would your dream job be?" I answered Paramedic.  And as I had only given a 1 word answer I was asked If I would ever do it - the answer is no because of my knee problems and it never would be an option as my knees are not strong enough.  Everyone had different questions.  We were then asked what our children would say as an answer to our question - I said that my youngest would say a Chef and we got talking about why and I told them that he has his own business plan already written and who is doing what job.  For my other son I said that he wants to be a Fireman but as hes asthmatic he can't.

Finally the trip to the farm we are going on after Easter as the last week of the course was talked about and how we need to take wellies and lunch etc.  This should be a good day, we only have next week left in the classroom and then the course is ended.  They are hoping to do a short 5week craft course after Easter as well and then another 10week course from September.

March 17th 2015 - Depression

March 17th 2015 - Depression

Firstly Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone who is Irish, or Irish Decent or just celebrating.  Have a great day. I had hoped for today to be able to do something linked to St Patrick's Day, but this wasn't the case.

Today I had an appointment at the hospital with 1 of the counselling team about my depression and how they can help me to try and get up from the low place I am in at the moment.  I had spoken to the lady on the phone a few weeks ago but today was my first face to face appointment.  It went ok, the lady is nice (which is a good thing).  We went over the things that are making me feel depressed and why I think they are affecting me and we talked about the depression circle similar to this pin, we filled out a sheet about me in each box.

The lady has set me some "homework" for our next appointment in 2weeks time.  I need to fill out a few sheets of "what I do" and "what I did before but don't do now" and have a booklet to have a read through, plus I need to work out some "Goals" of what I would like to get from the sessions and how we can achieve them.

She did say that normally 1 of things that would be suggested for people with depression is to get out of the house for at least half hour a day and go for walk somewhere, but as I am still struggling with walking linked to my knee injury and the surgery I had on it last year that's not really an option as I end up in pain after walking.  I agree sitting at home within 4 walls probably isn't helping my mood but I am limited on what I can do.  (Don't get me wrong I like my walls, they are decorated lovely - a deep purple on most of them with a white and purple wallpaper of roses on my chimney).

So once the kids are in bed I plan to work on some of it to see what I can come up with.  I also need to get into the doctors to sort a medication review as I don't think my meds are doing much - the pain killers for knee are not easing that much and the anti-depressants that are meant to help me sleep aren't doing that as I am still awake at 1-2 in the morning most mornings despite going to bed at about 10pm!

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

With lil man trying to grow his own vegetables he needs to have markers of some sort so we can tell what he has growing (hopefully) where.

I didn't think that the plastic ones you write on would be very good with high winds and cats, so I looed on pinterest for ideas and found these vegetable markers made from stones with the image draw/painted on them and then varnished - much more sturdy.  So I set about making him some, so far we have carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn markers made (see below) and I need to make garlic, raspberries and blueberries.  These are not all in his big planter but in smaller pots as well.

March 15th 2015 - Happy Mother's day

March 15th 2015 - Happy Mother's day

Happy Mother's day to all the Mum's around, and a big Happy Mother's day to my Mummy who sadly isn't here in person anymore but is in my heart and thought about all the time.  I found a similar pic to this one (but didn't like the look of it so made my own.)

 

I would also like to say thank you to my 3 boys for my lovely cards:

And my gifts that they got me:

This morning would have been great had I not been woken up by my eldest being sick and yelling down the stairs that he had been!  Still love him though.  I know i'm not perfect but I try to do my best for all 3 of you.  You are my world and I love you all.

Hubby is cooking us all a lovely roast beef dinner as we couldn't afford to go out for a meal.  As my eldest was sick and didn't want dinner we took his plate full round to the neighbour as she is on her own for a few days as her hubby is away.  I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

March 14th 2015 - 3 more books from list

March 14th 2015 - 2 more books from list

Back on 9th January I made a post about the 2015 reading challenge.  This morning I have added 3 more books to the list of completed books, giving me a total now of 6/50 read.  I have read more than this so far this year but not all have been on the challenge list.

The 3 that I read this morning are Bulgy from Thomas the Tank from the category of "non-human characters" and Monster stories for under fives from the category of "book with a number in title" and the 3rd book was the dinosaur that pooped a lot from the category "funny".  All of these were read to my lil man, who like his Mum loves books and reading.  He's happy cos some of his on his shelf he can actually read on his own now.

We try and read at least 1 book or story a day, usually at bedtime, but occasionally like today, he will come down with a book and ask if we can read it.  The 3rd of today's he came back from town with as he went and used he book day token.

As its a dry day and the sun is shining I think I'm going to go out and do some of the garden, and I know lil man wants to plant his carrot seeds in his planter.

March 13th 2015 - Red Nose Day

March 13th 2015 - Red Nose Day

Today is Friday 13th!  The second of these this year.  Some people are very suspicious about this day and believe it to be bad luck - I don't!  Bad luck can happen any day of the week/month/year not just a set day.  Today is also Red Nose Day.

My eldest sons school was just non-uniform and pay £1, but the younger two (infants and juniors) had to wear something red and pay £1, they also bought noses for £1 earlier in the week - they both got the diver.

This red clothes wasn't an easy task - I have boys they don't tend to wear red clothes!!!  Well lil man said he would wear his red England top and trackies ok thats him sorted.  Middle son hadn't got anything in his wardrobe neither had the eldest.  So I raided the boxes on top of the wardrobe of clothes that are too big or summery etc, I found a red vest top and shorts (bit too cold for these) and a red top that middle son got for taking part in some event the school organised last year - that will do him.  I did think of removing the xmas decorations that I stitched to a red jumper but thought I would only have to re-do them for xmas so didn't bother.

Lil man managed to rip his red nose in half before breakfast so he didn't actually have it for school, nor for his friends birthday party this evening which is circus themed and he is going as a clown.  He has his blue onesie that has green and blue stars on it, and the wig  I made for him to go with it.  I will add a pic of him before he goes to the party.

March 12th 2015 - Stretching shoes

March 12th 2015 - Stretching shoes

Last week I bought a pair of shoes off ebay because I need a low heeled pair to go with my St John Ambulance uniform for our enrollment/presentation evening in a few weeks and couldn't find any in town that I liked or were comfy.

These shoes were listed as a size 7, which is good as that is what I am in most shoes.  However when they arrived they have a great big 6 on the sole, which isn't so good.  I did contemplate complaining to the seller  but for the sake of £3.79 (including postage) I didn't think it was worth it and would could me more than that to send them back.  I have tried them on and they are a bit on the tight side across the top of my foot and against my big toes.

Then I remembered that I had pinned this random pin about stretching shoes by wearing loads of socks and using a hair dryer - I can do that as have socks and a hair dryer.  So I started off with 1 pair of socks on and a couple of mins under the hair dryer, removed them and tried shoes on without socks, they were still a bit tight.  So we went for a 2nd pair of socks.  Although this did feel that they were stretching slightly after a total of mins the sole of one of the shoes had come unstuck.

So I can safely say that stretching shoes with extra socks and a hair dyrer doesn't work.  This is a pinterest fail.  And I now have a pair of shoes that are still tight and have had to glue the sole back onto them and need find another pair asap.

March 11th 2015 - Family Learning at school - William Wordsworth

March 11th 2015 - Family Learning at school - William Wordsworth

Today at the family learning at the school we had 2 ladies in from Dove Cottage - the home of William Wordsworth.  It was a fun morning and lots of hands on activities.

They started off by explaining who they were and where they from and asked if anyone had heard of it and the person who lived there, my boys put their hands up as we had talked about the people that lived there.  They then made a timeline of how old we all were starting with the 5year olds right up to the parents, and they then removed a boy to be William and a girl to be his sister Dorothy and they moved them round the room and then had them stop and face the rest of line to show how far back in time they were - the room wasn't long enough to have them on the end.

After this it was dressing up time.  They had a boy get up initially but he decided he wasn't wearing the outfit so my youngest son, Blake, said he would wear it - even with them tied to the smallest they would go they were still really big on him but he is tiny!  Because clothes were so expensive back in the 17/1800's they were made bigger so they would last as you grew into them. 

Here is my lil man getting dressed as William Wordsworth:

1. is his shirt
2. is his shirt and breeches (should be 3/4 length but full as he so small)
3. is his waistcoat
4. is his tail coat
5. is cravat
6. is his hat

They dressed 1 of the girls up as Dorothy with her peticoat, pocket, dress, sash, apron, bonnet and shawl this is a pic of them both, I have blurred her face as she is not my child, both look really good:

 

Then the rest of the children and 2 of the adults were dressed up as boys/girls from the era, they didn't have as much to wear as the richer people did.  The following 2 pictures are of Blake and his girlfriend and Blake and his brother Kenzie.

Once everyone had taken pictures and what ever the kids were told how people of the day would stand and how they would bow/curtsey and the males removed their hats etc.  They then all took the outfits off.

The ladies then brought out a box of very old things from Dove Cottage and talked about what they were called and what they would have been used for.  There was a Spurtle used for stiring porridge, a small but heavy iron, a muffin turner, a 2 pronged fork, a pair of small girls shoes and a shoe horn.  The children went for their break which was indoor play as it was raining.  When thy came back they had juice and cookies and were asked if they could remember the names of the items.  The 2 ladies split them up into older and younger children - the older had to choose an item, draw around it and then write a poem about it BUT they were the object and they had to include how they would feel etc.  The younger again choose an item and either drew round it or drew it by hand and they had to write words about what it was, looked like, was used for and its material.

The ladies then told a story linked to Williams poem about the butterfly and they had animal/bird puppets to use.  after this the children had about 10minutes to make bird masks from paper and feathers and things.  Blake made a robin, Kenzie made a brown bird.

It was a great morning and I am looking forward to actually going to Dove Cottage at somepoint, its about an hour and half drive from where we live.