A day of lists, time to ponder.

Had to make a start today on all the jobs that needed doing so of course I resorted to writing lists as I usually do - the satisfaction of crossing jobs off that list is amazing.  First job was to unpack all the shopping that the Tesco man delivered in the pouring rain....the weather again was not pleasant at all.

So today was spent booking hotels for Sarahs university interview visit as we have decided to drive up there on the day leaving nice and early and then staying overnight as the whole interview process does not finish until 5.15.  I don't fancy driving back in the dark on unfamiliar roads if I don't have to.  We have booked into the East Midlands Conference Centre at the DeVere Hotel.  Got a good price for dinner, bed and breakfast for us.


  I think it is a better idea and I know I will be more relaxed about the whole thing.  She could take herself up there but I thought it might be good for to have company and it is in half term as well.

Next job was to finish those dreaded  writing targets and pop them into my literacy planning.....tick.  Then came the maths planning... a week on time for us to plod through.  Always a good one to do as useful in the real world.  Spent quite a bit of my own time looking for the work I wanted them to do but that is another thing done.  I might try and spend a bit of time this week getting another week or so of planning done and then I can relax a bit at weekends when I am back at school.  Spent some time also doing bits sorting out some of the children's finances from years ago and completing Sarah's CRB form for her for her to take to the university interview.  best to get these things sorted now rather than hunting for them when we needed them in 7 or so weeks.  Yes I also spent time counting the weeks to the next half term....you can tell I am not happy in my job when I do that before I even go back.  Only time will tell though as what 2014 will bring....

Managed to get everything I wanted done.  Late nights were catching up with Daniel so he took him off to bed early...yes 7.30 is early for him.  Sarah seemed to spend her evening flitting from one room to the other to have a chat to who was around and I spent my time reclined on the sofa watching a film.  Bedtime was around about 9 with my cosy pjs, my comfy duvet and my latest book.




Not sure what I think of this yet, still getting into it but it is light reading and I do enjoy a little light reading.  Tomorrow will be another day of lists I think.

A sleepy Sunday but relaxing and a good way to meet neighbours.

Didn't plan much for today as I just wanted to get some school work done and dusted, I don't want to let it all pile up until next weekend and then be rushing around at the last minute. 

So literacy planning was done and dusted this morning in readiness for our new book.  I read this a couple of weeks ago and wasn't sure what I thought about it but then when I looked at the planning for this book I could see how the children would become engaged in the story.  With all the flooding at Christmas this book is quite appropriate for the children to study, not just in literacy but in our geography topic.  I am sure we can bring other subject areas in as well, PSHCE and art no doubt will feature in our planning around this book.  We had great success when we worked on our last book with them - "The Princess' Blanket", even the boys were engaged and were quite happy to write love letters, news reports etc.  Let us hope that this book creates the same activity with both boys and girls.

We woke to a lovely frosty morning, rain is forecast for the rest of the week though so cold was good today.  I had to just take a few pictures of the lawn with its coating of white.

Even the rabbit run was frozen

Back garden

Front garden 

We spent the afternoon looking at trees in the back garden with our new neighbours and the neighbours from the house behind ours whom we hadn't met before.  Hopefully we will be getting someone in to remove the fir tree that is in the back garden and has developed a bit more of a "lean" than it had before the storms.  
This evening I intend to sit down and watch some films and have a relatively early night with my book.

And the sun is now shining!

After a particularly windy Christmas, I look out the window this morning and see relative calm out there. The sun is even shining.  We have just dropped mum off to the coach station for her coach home, have spoken to my cousin on fb and he is going to pick her up at the other end - not that she knows this, so it will be a surprise for her.  Martin is talking about, note I said, talking about sorting out the fence in the front garden.  It will be the first time he will have been outside over the Christmas period as laziness seems to have set in.  Daniel is still tucked up in bed and Sarah has retired back into her room to read I think.

I am considering a trip to the local garden centre to see what bargains can be had..... looking at a jacket I spotted before Christmas..... you never know.  I also need to make a list of things to get done now over the next week as I don't want to leave school work and things like that until the end of the week rather than do bits here and there as I go along.  Looks like I could be heading out to collect fencing bits and pieces as well as I know Martin will not just do it himself.  He needs that extra kick up the behind.

Had some lovely gifts over Christmas though and am very luck.  Some I have put away others I need to sort out today.

This is my stocking that my lovely daughter made for me with some of the things I love best and supplies of hot choccy for next term.

  

This is a selection of the gifts I received, some from my family and some from friends and the children at school.  Clothes have already been placed upstairs in the wardrobe and I might just remember to photo them later.

Just had to nip out and help the menfolk sort out the fence which is now laying on our front lawn.  Sarah was called into action as well.  They find it difficult to do things independently around here......May even have to go shopping to get the metal posts to go into the ground next...

Also have had a chance to nip to Tesco and pick up some quick essential supplies and the local garden centre to buy a jacket that I have had my eye on for a little while now - just a waterproof regatta jacket that was reduced and will be good for wet playground duties!

Oh going to be called for duty again.... I heard the inevitable words "Where's your mother gone?"  Looks like I am off out to Sainsburys Homebase.

Christmas 2013 after the storm and before electricity.....

That's not totally true as thankfully due to the staff of UK power we did have electricity for some of Christmas day  and we were very thankful for it.  Many of their staff didn't get home to celebrate with their own families and despite the frustration of the lack of information, I also have to say that my thanks went to Tammy in the call centre who kept her word and kept ringing us back even if she could not get any more information to us, it was nice not to feel as if we have been forgotten.

The storm hit us on Monday 23rd in the evening, we lost power just as mum and I were sitting down to watch a film, don't think I will be watching that one again in a hurry!  The weather had been bad along the route for mum but got to pick her up from Gatwick and get her back home where we had an early dinner thank goodness.

Christmas Eve was a washout as we had no power, no heating, no hot drinks apart from meeting our neighbours in the evening and finally getting a flask of hot water as they had a gas hob.  The less we remember about that the better especially since the evening went so slowly and the number of times we bumped into tables etc..... well.  Sadly because of this power cut we lost a number of our fish from our salt water tank but Martin stayed up all night and agitated the water every twenty or so minutes and we kept at least half of them alive.  It was quite sad to come down the next morning and find a number of them dead.  I know they are only fish but you hate to see any living creature suffer.  We were all safe and well so we were very thankful.  We also found that we had lost much of our front fence and a tree had fallen across our new neighbours lawn at the back .  We will sort all this out at some point but all in good time, no one was hurt.

Christmas Day dawned, a cold and bleak one at first.  Mum, Sarah and I stumbled off to church not feeling our best, as with no hot water, we could not shower..... we smelt fairly sweet though so no one backed away.... Church was quick and would you believe it there was no heating in it, despite the fact that they had power.  To say mum was disgusted ..................well she uttered her disgust as soon as we entered.  Thank goodness it was over quickly.  The season of goodwill was not extending too far at this point.

Sitting in church I thought that I might just get the bbq out when we got home.  I knew I had sausage and bacon in the car..............well not much point putting it into a warm fridge so I had left it in the car overnight...Off came the cover of the bbq, on went the gas bottle and soon it was alight with the smell of sausage and bacon and a pan of boiling water.  Breakfast was yummmy although I did question what I had done when the sky emptied in a rain shower whilst |I was cooking...

  

They were very well received by one and all and Sarah even said it was one of the best breakfasts yet on Christmas morning.  We thought we would battle on and think of other ingenious things to cook later in the day.  About 11 ish I went upstairs to get something, can't remember what and I saw a UK Power van go past our house and stop.................. well I ran downstairs without whatever I had gone up for..... Daniel and I went off on a reccie to see what was happening and met four very nervous looking engineers and lots of neighbours whom we had not met before.  Got all the info and thankfully they managed to connect some of us back onto the power supply.  Sadly some people are still off as I type, we may go off again when they try and reconnect the other people.  We were so pleased I went back down the road with a tub of Quality Street to share.  I did ask if it was safe to put the turkey in?

Christmas was back on..................................  Turkey went in, Daniel did the sprouts, mum the potatoes and swede and Martin sorted out the fish tanks.  Sarah went to check on the rest of the menagerie.  We then decided that if dinner was back on the rest of Christmas was, so mum finished wrapping her pressies she had bought and left here, bit difficult to do by candlelight the night before.  We sat down in our back living room, gathered around the tree about three and opened away and left the turkey cooking.

 

Daniel is seen with his blanket around his knees as he had resorted to clean shorts......he had been asked to bring his washing basket down on the Monday but hadn't and was recycling clothes....think he has learned his lesson.  So after all the trauma we had a lovely Christmas and ate our dinner and relaxed in the warmth.....Not too bad after all.

Christmas shopping may commence

I never ever do any Christmas shopping until after the children's birthdays so today was the day I could make a start and I had a little spend this afternoon using some of my photos but that is about as much as I am going to give away for now.....just in case.  I do love Christmas shopping, trying to find the right gift for the right person.  I already have some ideas for the family which is quite surprising actually.  I have even made a wish list for myself on Amazon so that family members can be directed there if they ask.  I always find I can't think of anything if I am asked directly.

A productive day was had today as Daniel and I finished painting the front fence as well.  Just got to get the back one done next time we have some dry weather.  I also managed to cut back some of the trees around the animals shed so they will have more light now if they have to stay in if it gets too cold and wet for them outside.  I cleaned out some of the rubbish from my car, did some washing but am on ironing strike as I just cannot be bothered.  Am going to wait until someone notices because I folded all my clothes when they came out of the tumble drier and have left it.

Yesterday my furniture arrived for the kitchen area, just two simple chairs where I can sit and have a coffee 
( if I ever get the chance to sit down) and a small coffee table ( which Sarah very kindly assembled yesterday with a little bit of difficulty I have to say.  So it is all finished now apart from removing the other table that Martin has sited there.  That has to be a bit of a diplomatic move.......

My two are all grown up! Happy Birthday Sarah and Daniel xx

A special day today but really do not know where those 18 years have gone and in some ways I feel quite sad.  My children are all grown up and can now vote, go into a pub and buy a drink and be seen as an adult in society.  They will still remain my children though no matter how old they are.  Love them to bits.

I was up early this morning and had sorted their pressies out for them when they came downstairs.  Always have to make sure they have the same or at least equal value in their pressies.  And then I waited........ and waited.

I even decided to go around the garden and take some photos of the remaining flowers whilst I was waiting, a bit wet out there but even so it was fine for a few shots and will be good to look back on and see what was growing.

Whilst waiting for them to appear the Argos man came with a delivery and then came the lady from Tesco with our food shopping.  All of a sudden Daniel appeared......now that did surprise me as I really thought it would be Sarah who would appear first but no it was Daniel........   We waited for Sarah to appear as they have always liked to open their pressies together.

Finally they were both together and a fun time was had trying on their new watches

And of course if you get a tin of celebrations you just have to sort them into layers don't you?

Once the pressies had been opened, the money counted up, their thoughts turned to food and of course, Sarah would have to have her bacon and mushroom sarnie for her birthday breakfast.  Daniel said he wasn't too hungry but still managed a bacon sarnie too.

Looks like a good day out there now, think it may be time to go and locate my hedgehog house amongst the leaves and would it be too cruel to see if my darling son would like to finish painting the fence on this fine morning?

Another week nearly over.....Autumn is here

Why does it seem that holiday weeks go so much quicker than regular weeks when you have to work?  Is it because you are enjoying yourself and are relaxed, nobody around you causing additional stress, no one asking you to reach impossible targets, no one nagging you asking you why you haven't got things done?  Or perhaps that is just my place of work at the moment.  Never mind, going to enjoy the last few days.  At least I feel that I have managed to do a number of the jobs on my list

• tidy the garden
• writing assessments
• paint the fence ( or get someone else to help to do it)
• meet friends for coffee
• sort out maths planning
• sort out pictures and hang
• birthday shopping
• garden centre visit

Of course when you go off to the garden centre you just have to come back with a little pressie for yourself don't you.  Meet Mr Owl and his friend, cyclamen.

Yesterday was pretty miserable out there, it rained, it rained heavily, I got slightly wet but went shopping nonetheless as had to get one or two bits for some birthdays that are fast approaching us.  Need to go back again today and do another few bits as some stupid person....yes that's me, bought a present that had already been purchased....... hmmmm never mind.  Will fly up to Crawley first thing this morning and sort that one out and then into Horsham, get Daniel's hair cut finally - we seem to have found a barber with an Xbox, not sure that is a good thing or not....  First of all had better go and get madam her bacon sarnie for brekkie and get her out of bed.

Daniel might just get the rest of the fence painted today if the rain holds off. He made a good start on Weds but really would not have been able to do anything yesterday.  It is looking good now though and will look better when it is all sorted out there.  Need to go and repot some of the bulbs I put in the other day and the squirrels have relocated!  Need to make sure the weather stays dry for about an hour or so just to get some of the jobs completed.

Breakfast has now been served to madam who is still dozing but she will be up and moving shortly as she has been very good getting up in the mornings.  I am sure, however that she will be wanting a bit of a lie in over the weekend.  I think she deserves it.

Anyway taxi duty will need to be underway in a while so better make a move, get showered and dressed for duties to begin.

Phew half term and I made it!

At last half term is here and I have just about lasted.  Life has been a roller coaster in school and you should know how much I hate roller coasters!  If I hear that word beginning with an "O" one more time............  Fed up and think I want out, although I love my class and have had a great start to the year with them, my own contentment and happiness has to come first now.  Perhaps 2014 will be a new beginning in job satisfaction!

However back to happier thoughts.  This coming week sees my two babies becoming adults.  Where oh where has that time gone?  I feel a little nostalgic and in someways sad that they have grown up.  I, am however very proud of them and love them dearly.  They are two lovely young people even if I say so myself.  Sarah is having a good week at a local equine vet, seems to be really enjoying herself coming home with stories of donkeys with bad teeth and horses and ponies as well as puppy sitting, bad driving.  She is having a great time and I admire her for giving up her half term and working through it whilst her brother is sitting at home on the x box...... little does he realise that he is on fence painting duty today......

Mum was with us at the weekend to celebrate a little early with the children and to go shopping for some gifts.  We went out for a lovely meal on the Saturday evening and then had dinner at home on the Sunday.  On our travels we manage to rescue two dogs running amok on the A24, they had escaped from their garden and their owner was out searching for them.  Sarah sprang out of our car, called the dogs and they both came running over to her and hopped into the car.  Thankfully both animals had collars with a telephone number and dogs and owners were soon reunited with grateful thanks.  I do love a happy ending.

Thankfully there was no real damage in the storm the other night apart from the lost of a buddleia that had grown a bit too large.  Need to get out and sort that one out soon.  Yesterday managed to clear the front drive of an abundance of acorns and leaves....yes I know there will be more but might as well clear the ones already there.  Have decided to have a hedgehog hide down there in a sheltered part under all the leaves and bits and pieces.  Then came back to the back garden only to discover a beautiful rose still blooming and the most gorgeous perfume - one that I have been searching for for years.  An old neighbour of mine had one beautiful rose in her garden and for years I have searched for a deep red rose with this divine scent, and there it was right under my nose.  I know this is the right house, every thing just feels right and homely and little things like this just top it off.

Also had a lovely visit with a friend and a trip to a local garden centre for a cuppa and a cake which was a good way to spend a Tuesday morning.  Today I had better get down to some school work, pressie wrapping and a bit more gardening.  Think that is the agenda for today, after I have dropped off my daughter back to the vet again and got my son out of bed....... he really needs a hair cut.

Dog Sitting and an Inspection

What a lovely weekend we have had.  After a tiring few days away on the school residential trip I came home on Friday to our furry visitor, Pixie.  She was coming to stay for the weekend as Julie had her son's wedding on the Saturday.  Sarah was very pleased as she loves Pixie, taking her for walks and generally just fussing over her.  Pixie arrived on Friday evening with her bowls, her food and her crate ( hmm she had other ideas on this one).  She is such a pretty little dog and has a lovely nature as well.

Well we all settled down for the evening forgetting that Daniel was out at Cadets.  Now that was interesting when he came home as Pixie was very very wary of him and even uttered a little grumbling growl as she backed off.

Well all was well the next morning as Daniel was no longer in his uniform but just lolled around in his dressing gown.  Off he went to Cadets again whilst Sarah and I decided to take Pix out for a lovely walk in St Leonards Forest.  We hadn't been there before so I was a little wary of getting a little lost but we were fine and found our way around the place.  Beautiful countryside as well as a little wild in places.

 

  

We all had a great walk even when it started to rain a little but that didn't matter.

Pixie came home settled down with whoever was sitting down and chilled for the rest of the day until Sarah and I took her for another walk later that evening.  She came back and flopped.  Although she had stayed in her crate on the Friday night, she had whined a fair bit so Sarah took pity on her and let her sleep on her bedroom floor for the night.  She slept soundly until I go up this morning at 5.30 - well the maths planning was calling.

Today was Daniel's annual inspection so he set off for Squadron at 8.30 this morning with a packed lunch and his taxi awaiting.  We didn't have to be there until 1 this afternoon.  Another day where we were grateful that the weather wasn't too bad as it was all outside.  Daniel was carrying the banner and doing the bugling when the flag was brought down this evening.  He did so with dignity and respect and it was great to see.

   

Very proud of him and he even made friends with Pixie before he went.