Lazy Monday

Well, as expected we didn’t win last night, but as usual the quiz was great fun, and even better- we managed to stay awake for it! Mike has the day off today- a very rare occasion, so after taking all the older girls to the bus stop in town first thing he drops our littlest to school for me, giving me the chance to have a bit of a lazy start to the week for once. Our eldest daughter, though still tired and chesty, is feeling quite a bit better today so has gone into work with strict instructions to come home early if she feels too rough.

My lazy start doesn’t last long as I feel too guilty for sitting in bed reading, and by the time Mike comes back from the school run I’ve already loaded the washing machine and begun on the washing up! With everyone feeling at such a loose end yesterday, nothing much got cleaned for once and, as a result of having had a house full on Saturday, nearly every mug we own is sitting by the sink! It takes a while, but for the first time in a long time Mike and I stand together at the sink sharing the duty.

Hot drinks in hand, we head to the dining room- Mike takes out his computer and is soon lost in some game or other, and I settle down to do some admin. Emails, Facebook page and blog checked, I realise that my new St. David’s day dress needs to be highlighted on the homepage of the website if I want people to notice it. As I haven’t yet managed to get one of it made up yet, I simply write a couple of lines about it, and add a link through to its page.

It’s getting on for lunchtime by the time I’ve done a bit more work on checking that the website is up to date, doing a stock take etc. and as a rare treat we are going out. Only up to a village in the moors where there is a lovely little delicatessen we came across a year or so ago. They sell the most wonderful fresh filled baguettes, and the range of fillings you can choose from is amazing- even at this time of year. They also sell pasties of every variety, salads, delicious cakes, locally grown produce and have a butcher’s counter! If money was no issue, you could easily eat from the shop every day of the year, and still find something you hadn’t tried before!

We sit eating our baguettes in a car park overlooking miles of beautiful moorland, enjoying the view and the wildlife, and just being in each other’s company with no other interruptions around. After a very enjoyable couple of hours out with my dear hubby, we head back home refreshed for the week ahead. Second youngest daughter is already home, having finished college early today, and its nearing time to pick up our youngest.

Happy and full, I decide that it’s too late to get the sewing machine out today, so sit down to work some more on my blog, which is currently nearly a week behind. I debate missing a few days out and just skipping forward to now, but it just doesn’t seem to flow properly. I soon abandon that idea and simply continue as before, over a (very naughty but nice!) tea of treacle tart from the shop this afternoon!

Quiet Sunday

It’s a dull and cold morning, but it’s not frosty or raining for once, so it shouldn’t be too bad for my brother and sister-in-law’s plans for the day, or for their long journey back to London this afternoon. The younger girls are taking full advantage of still having each other to play with this morning and are playing more giggly games around the house, while also somehow managing to eat breakfast and get dressed! Our biggest girl is still feeling quite poorly today, so isn’t coming to church with us, which takes the pressure off our visitors to leave at the same time as us. We say our goodbyes as we head off to church, and leave them to pack up their belongings with our daughter’s help.

It looks like half the congregation has also stayed at home this morning, as it’s very quiet in church and quite a few of the regular worshippers are missing. I only hope they haven’t got this cold bug like our poor daughter as it does seem to be a very nasty one. Fortunately the teenage Youth Church is running today, so at least the children are happy, and there’s craft available in the side of the church which keeps our youngest amused.

We’re all still feeling quite full after yesterday’s big dinner, so we stop off at Morrison’s on the way home and Mike pops in to buy something simple for lunch. We arrive home to a very quiet and empty feeling house. Usually our house is bustling and busy with seven of us living in it, and it’s amazing how much difference having three extras for one day can do to the feel of the place! No one quite knows what to do with themselves, and everyone seems a bit lost- I don’t suppose last night’s late night at the pub has helped much either. I just hope they’re not all brewing this cold bug…

At least our eldest daughter is looking a bit brighter today, having got up and dressed to help my brother pack the car up. After lunch she and the other children all decide the only thing to do today is catch up with some rubbish telly. Not ideal, but then again it’s better than wasting the day by doing nothing at all, which is where they were heading before lunch.

With the children all occupied at last, and Mike playing games on his computer, I log onto mine which I have hardly looked at since Friday morning. I’ve had a new order come in over the weekend, a few new Likers on Facebook, and the blog has had quite a few page views. All good there then!

As I haven’t managed to publish a blog post since Thursday, I decide that maybe some blog drafting is a good idea so I start by noting down some of the things that we did over the last few days, and then start writing them up. I’ve also got a couple of previous posts still in draft form waiting to be published, so I check over the oldest of these and put it up on the blog. It’s getting on towards early evening by now, so I decide to stay at the computer and draft some more of the outstanding posts, as I’m feeling very tired after such a busy day yesterday, and it’s the monthly Quiz Night at our local pub tonight- which I’d prefer to be awake for!

A Second Christmas Dinner!

To be fair to my niece, she was incredibly good last night after the disappointment of finding no one awake to play with, and although she wasn’t ready to settle straight down to sleep she sat quietly with her mum and dad while beds were blown up and everything brought in from their car. I didn’t hear anything from any of them once I was upstairs in bed, and I hope this meant that they slept well and didn’t get too cold on the hard wood floor.

By the time I wake up this morning, there are giggles coming from the younger two girls’ bedroom and it’s obvious that the cousins have met up and are playing happily together. I hadn’t let on that our visitors were arriving last night, although they did know they were seeing them today, and I hope it was a nice surprise for them. I don’t have to wait for long for the answer to that one as three bouncy girls arrive in our room- with a full explanation of the game they’re playing!

Knowing that we will have a very busy day with so many people in the house, Mike and I take our early morning drinks upstairs and grab a sneaky few minutes longer in bed. By now the girls have taken their game downstairs and I can hear them bossing my poor sister-in-law around. We didn’t really have much chance for a chat with our visitors last night, as by the time everything was set up for the night it was getting rather late and everyone was tired. So we head off downstairs, while the girls head back up, and all sit around in our pyjamas having a good old catch up and another cuppa.

We didn’t get to see each other at all over the holidays, and so my brother had suggested cooking and sharing a Christmas dinner type meal together today. He and my sister-in-law went shopping at home and found a lovely looking joint of gammon, which they have brought together with a contribution to the veg, the ingredients for his red cabbage speciality, and most importantly… a nice bottle of Rose wine!

After a nice lazy morning, my brother and Mike head off to Morrison’s for the rest of the veg. and something quick for lunch while I start the gammon cooking. I also take the chance to pop a load of the ‘weekend’ washing in to wash, as I’m sure I won’t think much about it for the rest of the day! When the men return, they are loaded down with goodies and I set about sorting out where everything will fit in the oven, and which saucepans to use!

We then spend the next two or three hours with us adults all in the kitchen, enjoying preparing dinner together- complete with compulsory (slightly stronger) drinks and chatting, while the children are busy playing yet more giggly games together. The time passes very pleasantly with everyone chipping in, and helping out and soon it’s time to sit down to our second Christmas dinner.

Our eldest daughter is feeling a bit brighter today, and she’s come downstairs to share in the meal, which is good as she needs to build her strength back up if she’s going to return to work on Monday as she plans to. It also would have felt incredibly wrong not to have her at the table with us. There’s a real happy and festive feeling around the table- it’s about quarter past four when we dish up so it’s still light outside in the absence of Christmas lights, but we’ve got Christmas crackers and the younger children seem to find the jokes funny, even if we’ve heard them all before! It’s a lovely meal, even though we all eat too much, and I’m really glad we managed to find this time to spend together.

The plan is to pop to the local pub early this evening if anyone wants dessert- no one has any room left just yet anyway, and it’s a good excuse for a drink and a game of pool. In the meantime the children head off to the living room to play our son’s Wii U, which stops the younger girls running around too much after eating. Washing up may not be the most exciting pastime, but with everyone involved once again it’s a nice chance for more chatting, and everything is soon clean and put away.

By half past seven most people have the space, and the desire, for pudding so we set off for the two minute walk to the pub. Desserts and drinks ordered we spend the next hour all together, with a few games of pool thrown in, before the children head back off home under strict instructions not to disturb our eldest daughter who had settled down for the night before we left. An hour later and we adults also head home at the end of what has been a very enjoyable day.

Tomorrow our visitors will be leaving for a drive around the moors, before heading back to London. And I am going to have to do a lot of catching up- with admin and my blog, which is now nearly a week behind. It may now take a little longer to achieve my goal of creating an up to date and informative blog for my website, but we’ve had a lovely weekend catching up with a part of the family we see all too rarely these days, and nothing can compete with that.

Weekend Preparations

My brother and his wife are due to travel down from London with their little daughter this evening, but the temperature has plummeted overnight and it is very frosty out. I’m a bit worried that if the frost doesn’t thaw during the day, then by the time they are able to leave home after school for the five hour journey, travelling conditions could be nasty. Our eldest daughter has also woken up to find that the cold she had yesterday has taken a turn for the worse- she now has a raging temperature and the shivers, so we send her back to bed fully dosed up on paracetamol and a hot drink. Not a great start to a busy weekend.

Worried that she may have one of the many cold related bugs that seem to be going around, I send my brother a message telling him the situation and leave it up to him whether or not they still want to travel. As I don’t hear back from him straight away, I get on with my usual early morning jobs and plan my day around making sure the bathrooms and kitchen are clean and the house tidy enough for my own liking- let alone theirs!

Mike has the day off today- the car has to go in for some work, and he says he’s going to be around to help me wherever needed! I'm not sure that’s likely to mean much, but it’s a nice thought anyway. He does the school run for me, and heads off to the garage leaving me to the washing up. Feeling a bit better under the influence of the tablets, my biggest girl comes downstairs for a bit of company as she isn’t really feeling up to reading, Facebooking or knitting- her favourite pastimes. As I’m still waiting to hear back from my brother, I decide to log onto the computer and get a few admin bits done, and blog drafting so that I can be around for her, even though she’s now found some daytime telly to watch.

An hour or so later, Mike is back and playing a game on the computer, and our daughter heads back to bed as she’s exhausted. I head off to start cleaning the bathrooms- after all it is a job which is always needs doing anyway, so it doesn’t really matter whether we end up with visitors or not for the weekend. I’m very aware of the fact that I don’t want to make too much noise around while our eldest sleeps, so once I’ve cleaned the downstairs cloakroom I check on my emails. Having talked it over, my brother and sister-in-law are still going to come and visit anyway- after all their daughter is only six, and just as likely to take illness home from school as they are to pick any up from here!

Having started out so cold and frosty, the day is turning out to be a lot milder in temperature than expected, so maybe it won’t be too bad this evening after all. The rest of the day passes by with lots of cleaning and vacuuming, and making sure there’s plenty of space free on the living room floor, as our visitors are bringing air-beds and that’s the only free space for them! Our poorly daughter spends most of the day asleep, and even her youngest sister seems to respect that and doesn’t hassle her too much on her return from school.

At around half past nine my brother and sister-in-law arrive safe and sound, along with their very sleepy little girl. Most of ours are in bed and asleep by now, and she looks a little disappointed that they’re not up to play with her! It’s probably a good thing though, as if she’s anything like my children she probably won’t be too keen on settling down to sleep yet, having just travelled two hundred and fifty miles- and having playmates around would have only made things worse as none of them would have slept for hours...

Thursday

It’s recycling and black bag rubbish day again- just what I needed to face first thing on a cold and dark winter’s morning! At least this week I remember it before taking our littlest to school, so I can make a start on collecting the rubbish up beforehand. Mike was supposed to be working from home today, which would have left me free to sort it all out before getting up, and would have meant my working day could have started earlier. However, meetings got changed around and he has to go in to the office this morning, and he leaves just as I’m sitting on the cold kitchen floor, waist deep in recycling.

I manage to get all the bins emptied and the bag ready to go out, before eating a very hurried breakfast, but at least I can drop the bag at the end of the driveway on the way down to school. When I get back I sort out as much recycling as I can, and by the time it’s all put out, the washing’s going, and the  breakfast dishes done its nearly eleven o’clock- again. The post has arrived, and I know the yellow trimmings that I ordered yesterday have come, so as soon as I get a chance I grab a cup of tea and open my parcels.

The yellow ric rac is lovely and bright, and the yellow lace is a lovely sunset colour. Unfortunately, but as I suspected they might, they don’t particularly go together very well, and the ric rac actually looks almost green against the yellow of the flowers on the fabric. I think it may be time for a rethink. I’ve got a very short length of orange ric rac left over from a previous outfit, and holding it against the fabric confirms that it is the right colour to use. As I want the dress to be a bit more special, I don’t want to end up just using ric rac around the hem as well, but when I place the new yellow lace against the orange ric rac I’m pleasantly surprised at how well they complement each other. Problem solved- now I just have to amend the dress description with the revised trimming colours.

I parcel up the Christmas dress order I finished yesterday, ready for posting this evening and as I do so I notice how few postal bags I have left. I always buy them from the same eBay shop as they have very good customer service, and are very speedy with delivery- which also happens to be free. Generally I receive my parcels from them by the next day, but I always order around lunchtime and I’m not sure when their cut off time is. As I’ve only actually got one more bag in the size I use most, and several more orders I want to make and send out in the next few days, I abandon my parcel wrapping and head over to eBay. It’s nearly half past one, and for delivery next day I need to order by two, so I’m pleased to see I have plenty of time. I order the bags, and some parcel labels as I’m nearly out of them too, and then finish wrapping my parcel.

After his rescheduled morning, Mike arrives home with a sandwich lunch which, as it is a lot later than planned, is very welcome! After eating, Mike sets himself up working at the end of the table and I try to get on with some of the sewing that’s waiting by the sewing machine. However, I’m finding it hard to get going this afternoon- it’s nearly time for the children to start arriving home from school, and for me to start cooking dinner so I know that whatever I begin working on will soon have to be abandoned for the day… or more likely the next few days, as we have visitors due for the weekend and I’ll have to spend at least part of tomorrow finding some space for them…