March Madness

Firstly - why is it that every school morning I have to cajole children out of beds but on the school hols they are bouncing around at 6.30am!!!!

So its that time - time to round up what has happened in the last month, K has been quite poorly again, Kidney Stones have played a huge part in our lives this month, we thought that K had cracked the secret of getting rid of them, drink water till you slosh about when you walk, it has worked for a couple of weeks but today they have come back, so annoying, he's had a blood test but has to go back for another this week and a chat to a Nurse has been booked about lifestyle changes - that should be interesting, I've never known anyone eat as many veg as he does.

Money has been tight as predicted and we thought we would be ok this month but K had an MOT on his car and it failed to the tune of £280. Gosh and gulp. We have managed to reduce the cost by about £100 - thankfully my brother will do some of the work and the garage will do what he can't, we'll buy the parts ourselves as its cheaper, still an expense we could do without.

C had her 13th birthday, we all clubbed together and got her a Chrome Laptop, the look on her face was priceless, it was one of those moments that I'll never forget, I also joined her on Facebook so now she sits quietly palying away on the Facebook games, worth every penny if you ask me lol.

13!! I never thought I'd be Mum to a 13 year old girl.

K has applied for another job, he had an interview so now he is waiting for the good or bad news, if he gets the job he will be paid £5k more a year - what a difference it will make, so its fingers [an everything else] crossed.

T has found some life in his old bones and continues to plod on, he has bursts of energy and then tires quickly and sleeps a lot.

C and D are both doing really well at school. C has been picked, along with some others, to do a dance routine that will be shown at Bedford University and then later at the School Performance, very exciting, she is also in a school play aptly named "Teachers", I'm looking forward to seeing both performances later in the year.

K has started his own blog. He's an artist and a very good one, it was time to showcase his talents, between us we have cobbled together a blog, unfortunately the photography is all down to me so its not showing his pictures in the best light but maybe in time I'll get better.

So blog hop to kev'sart.miltonkeynes - go on, you know you want to.

I have joined a Gym, ta da!!! £20 a month gets me full gym membership and full use of the swimming pool so even if I just use it for taking the children swimming once a week it will pay for itself and that means the gym bit will be free.

The weather has been appalling all month, hardly any sunshine and lots of snow - for someone who really likes the snow I have to admit to being thoroughly fed up with it now, all I want is some sunshine, I need to start planting seeds at the Lottie but at the moment there's no chance of that as the ground is way to cold and the hard frosts we are getting will kill everything. So I'm late in starting, which means that soon I'll be planting seeds like a mad woman and my hands will be constantly muddy - I can't wait, I'm so fed up with not being able to get started.

Enough of my moans for now

Helen x

Blogging

I'm no good at this blogging malarkey. I keep forgetting to do it. I've decided to stop.

I want to say thank you to those of you who have lurked and/or left comments, I do appreciate it.

I shall continue to follow and read your blogs but I'm not blogging anymore

Helen x

Life is . . . .

Arwedd at stepping out in faith has written a very interesting post today about why she blogs about her life, this made me think about why I blog. I started a very long reply to Arwedd but deleted most of it because it became a ramble about me, so I answered Arwedd's question and then thought I'd pop on here and ramble away to my hearts content over here.
I blog to keep a record of our lives, whether it be the boring day to day mundane jobs or the more exciting [to us] things that happen. I don't expect anyone to read it [although it is nice that some of you do  :}] I really want to show the children when they are older that having no money does not stop us from doing things, we just adapt what we are doing to suit our purse. My daughter really struggles with not living nearer her school so she can see friends after school but to be honest I'm more concerned with her getting a good education and I don't think that she lacks anything from not always seeing her friends after school. My son struggles with not being in the football team for the area that he schools in but again, education comes first and he'll get football practise next year when he moves up to year 5 at the next school. These are 2 areas that comprimses have to be made but we manage.


As for blogging, Arwedd - I like your blog and I like reading what you have to say. I shall continue to blog even if K is the only one reading it.


Helen x

Blog Reading, Ebaying

Hi
I've had a busy week listing things to sell on Ebay, we don't have much to sell that is worth any real value but all those 99p sales add up. I'm selling things to raise money so that we can do 2 things - 1. pay for petrol and spends if we manage to book a cheap holiday at St Ives, Cornwall in June and 2. the same for a holiday at Bacton nr Great Yarmouth in August [booked and paid for by Nana] C, D, Nana and I will be going on holiday 2 and K, C, D and I will be going on holiday 1. The Sunday Post are doing an offer for a £10pp per break holiday with a holiday company who have about 150 sites around the UK. I've not heard of them before and can't remember the name of the company. The offer involves buying this weeks and next weeks paper which Nana always gets so thats holiday 2 sorted as it will cost £40 for the 4 of us to have a 4 night break. K is really pleased as we sisn't think we would be able to manage it this year!
Blog Reading - I've been cathing up on my blog reading this week too - I love reading what other people are up to and how they save money, make things or just learning what others do for there days out. I've learnt more about being frugal, crafting and going out cheaply in the last 6 months than at any other time, we've taken full advantage of what I've learnt and we've had many an excursion out somewhere even if its just for a walk that we wouldn't have done before so . . .

Thank You to all the bloggers who have made a difference to us

H x

Wednesday update, Blogging

How on earth did I think I would be able to find time to Blog more often - I haven't got enough hours in the day to do the regular stuff let alone extras

D has been picked to do the footie club at school so he went off today very excited at the thought of wearing his new gear [tracksuit and boots] and really enjoyed himself. I've severely neglected teaching him to do up his laces so this morning there was a frantic 5 min session, he got the idea of it very quickly and managed to do it but needs more practice. D has also decided he wants to do cookery after school once a week [after school club for 8 weeks] so his letter was duly signed and returned and now I just have to find the £10 to pay for it.

C has had yet another good day at school, she is like a different child when she comes out at the end of her day, she is happy and smiley and full of talk about what she has done, its lovely to see and also heart braking - why - cos I let her be so miserable in that flippin school she used to go to for so long!! I'm so very annoyed with myself.

Went to MrA yesterday to do a top up shop - £68 later - shock, horror. We only went in for a few bits.

I've spent today washing, drying and doing the never ending ironing, 1 more load to wash and dry but still loads to iron

Had to buy a new iron as the other one packed in, what a difference a new iron makes, its so much lighter and quicker

K is on a late today and due home soon so I'm signing off now

Please do leave a comment if you drop by

Love Helen x

Charity Shopping and Blogging Daily

Today, as K was on a day off we decided to have a walk round the Charity Shops at NP. We were after a square frame for a card I'd bought when we were in St Ives in June and also a tile stand for .... yep, you guessed it, a tile, again bought in St Ives. I love browsing round the Charity Shops. I rarely buy anything, not because I don't want to, but because of the silly prices they charge. £4 or £5 for a t-shirt - the same price as BHS!! They have priced themselves out of the game for me but that doesn't stop me wandering round them. Anyway, we found a frame but forgot to look for the tile stand, so that means another visit on another day. When we came home K made a mount for the frame and out the picture in and I have put it on the wall to the right of the computer in the Kitchen but tomorrow it will be moved to the wall on the left as that's the way I generally face and I want to gaze on it and remember the first holiday we took as a family, at St Ives and how good it was, and it really was quite possibly the best holiday I've ever had.

I've also, after reading another blog [which I can't remember the name of now - sorry] decided to blog on a more regular basis. What is the point of trying to record our lives for the children to read in the future if I don't blog about it! Tomorrow will be the first of many blogs about the children and what they have done aswell as my own ramblings and talking of ramblings, thats enough for 1 night as its bedtime

Helen x