Great Site for Fireplace Mantels

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I think its worth a look

Flashback Friday Speading The News (Three Times!)

If you read Karins Blog you’ll know all about Flashback Friday. If not get over there and look!

Anyway Karins theme this week was how we broke the news of our pregnancies to our nearest and dearest. Here is my story.

With all my pregnancies I took the pregnancy test alone. I didn’t even tell hubby until after the main event. My first two pregnancies were planned, so no one was too surprised when I broke the news.

My third pregnancy was a different kettle of fish. I had just stopped breast feeding and my periods had just resumed. We were using birth control and were definately not planning a pregnancy so soon after the other two.

I began to suspect I was pregnant when my period was a few hours late (yes I am THAT regular). I just had a feeling, so while at Tesco doing our groceries I slipped a pregnancy test under the bananas and as soon as Ray and Jay were in bed I slipped into the bathroom.

After I pee’ed on the strip?I waited, and watched as the pink dots appeared. They were so faint that I wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not, but in my heart I knew I was expecting my third child.

I walked into the kitchen and just burst into tears. Hubby hadn’t a clue what was going on and it took me at least five minutes to explain what was happening. He took the news so well, and although shocked he was positive from the word go.

I was terrified, it wasn’t that I didn’t want another baby. But my other two were so young (1 and 3) that I was worried I wouldn’t cope.

One of hubbys friends called by and rather than sitting there pretending I was fine I jumped into the car and drove to my sisters house. She opened the door to find me in floods of tears and even drove me to our nearest supermarket to get another test in case the first was wrong. She helped me that night more than anyone else could have (hubby excluded of course). She seemed to know just what to say and by the time I got home I was beginning to look on the bright side once again.

It was another month before I broke the news to the rest of my family. I wanted to be OK with it myself before telling everyone else, that and my mum can’t be trusted to keep news like that to herself.

Everyone was shocked, some people did a bad job of disgusing how stupid they thought we were. In the end though the laugh is on them.

I now have three perfect kids and Baby D,?who is?six months old is so loved and cherished I can’t believe I was worried. I wouldn’t ever be without him, he has been the perfect addition to our (now complete!) family.

Adolescence Looming!

Ok I know Ray is only four, but already I am beginning to worry about her adolescent years.

For some reason I focus more on her teenage years than the boys. It must be because she is a girl and in some way?I suppose I see her as a whole lot more vulnerable.

I’m not worried about her teenage behaviour, well not the tantrums and sulks anyway, though I’m sure they will come. I am more worried about her safety. How will we protect our little girl while still affording her some freedom to become her own person.

How do we convince her that sex is something that should happen in a proper loving relationship if a boy she likes is telling her otherwise? How do we make sure that she doesn’t walk alone on a dark night?

I just hope that by remaining open, honest, patient and tolerant with our children they will always feel that?they can talk to one of us about anything. I hope that by raising?them as best we can, with good morals and judgement that?they will be able to make the right decisions without our prompting when the times comes.

Hubby says that?I am worrying too much about something that is years away. I know he is right, and believe it or not up until I had children, worrying wasn’t a past time I indulged in very often. I used to be pretty easy going and carefree. Three children later and I’m a gibbering wreck!

A Parenting Proverb….

For my first post on Family Of Five, I’m going to pass on some pearls of parenting wisdom….

Take note of what you fed your baby this afternoon,
For by the evening your shirt will be the same colour…..

That’s all for now!

The Sliding Scale Of Supermarkets!

Back when hubby and I were young and free (if not single), when we had two wages, one mortgage, one car?and no kids we shopped at Sainsburys. Our shopping bill could easily top ?90 per week (though that also included alchohol) and we never batted an eyelid. We thought nothing of buying whatever took our fancy, regardless of the price, and regardless of the fact that most of it would be out of date by the time we got around to cooking it.

Then came the kids and we moved house. All of a sudden we had one wage, one larger mortgage, one then two kids and two cars (one that seems to drink Diesel at an alarming rate!). We decided then it was time to take our custom to Tesco. We began to budget for our shopping each week, and even shopped online sometimes in a bid to reduce those impulse purchases. We continued like this for about a year.

Last year we found ourselves ?600 into our overdraft each month and discovered we had a third baby on the way. Drastic times called for drastic measures and we again changed supermarkets. This time we did our weekly grocery shop at Lidl.

OK so you may not be able to read the German text on the packaging, but it makes for a good surprise when you open the tin. And it may have come as a shock the first time we were asked to pay for the plastic carrier bags, but it encouraged us to be more environmentally friendly and use cardboard boxes instead.

Thankfully the belt tightening worked, we got out of our overdraft, our business began to make some money and we were able to move back to Tesco.

This month is a tight one though. A friend is getting married, both of our mums birthday fall in March as does Mothers Day. So we have made a compromise. Unable to face the thought of German food for another month, we drove straight past Lidl today and made our way into Asda instead.

Hubby often says that our neighbours can tell the state of our finances by which logo is on our shopping bags. Over the last few years we have been slowly sliding down the scale of supermarkets. I can’t wait until we can move back up and maybe one day shop in Sainsburys again or who knows maybe even Marks and Spencers!

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I?m So Hungry, Who?s Going For Pizza?

Tonight I forgot to make dinner for hubby and I. I don’t know how I did it, I fed all the kids (even the baby!) and even gave them snacks afterwards. But I completely forgot about us.

The kids are all bathed and sleeping, and while doing some work on the pc I noticed my tummy rumbling. I asked hubby “have we eaten yet”, thinking that I must have made something so boring for dinner that my brain had already flushed the memory. But he confirmed that we hadn’t eaten since earlier this afternoon and that he too was ravenous.

That was an hour ago. We are having a stand off! I am too tired and p****d off to cook, and while we would both love to order a pizza, neither of us has any cash. So as we both refuse to get off our backsides and go up to pick up some food, we are slowly starving. I am going to start knawing my own arm if hubby doesn’t go soon!

Seperation Anxiety!

Our oldest Daugher (in fact our only daughter) Ray has become quite the social butterfly since starting nursery school this year. She not only attends tap and ballet dancing but is often invited on ‘play dates’ to friends houses and also their birthday parties. I am dreading when we have to return the favour on her birthday…it will cost a small fortune!

I love to see her socialising, she is such a happy secure little madam and while she loves us dearly, she is happy to be apart from us as long as she knows she is coming home again.

Jay is a different matter. He is used to being with me and hubby all the time. He will happily stay in my mums or sisters, but has never been invited anywhere else.

So today when a friend (with a daughter close in age to Jay) invited him to her house for a few hours. I was nervous, I almost said no.?I had this awful vision of him crying the whole time, or worse pulling an almighty sulk, as he often does when he doesn’t get his own way. In the end I agreed, I know that he needs the company, and in the end I was only down the street so if he needed me (or was driving my friend potty) I could be up there in 2 minutes to take him home.

I dropped Jay off at 12.20pm, and after dropping Ray to nursery I sat at home not quite knowing what to do with myself. Baby D fell asleep, so I was actually able to enjoy my lunch in peace. The guilt soon set in though so?I tidied, washed and cleaned until it was time to go pick up the kids. The whole time I was carrying the cordless handset of our phone, waiting for the call to tell?me that Jay had locked himself in the bathroom and was hysterically crying for me. It never came.

When?I arrived, Jay was playing happily on the floor with his new friend. He had eaten his lunch (cleared the plate by all accounts!), played outside, painted pictures, built with Lego and never asked for me once.

I am thrilled. My wee boy can cope without me…the question is can I cope without him. If I got that nervous over a visit to a friends house, what will I be like when they all start school!

Our Young Rocker

Hubby has a lot to answer for! I always wanted my children to be musical. I love to sing and hubby is a guitarist, so of course music plays a large part in our household.

However while Ray loves her nursery rhymes tapes and to watch old musicals like ‘Seven Brides For Seven Brothers’ or ‘Mary Poppins’ Jay can more often be seen ‘rocking out’ to ACDC or Queen.

He was bought a plastic guitar for his birthday in August. It has been dropped so many times that it no longer plays music, but it works great as a prop. He is so attached to this piece of blue plastic that he often sleeps with it.

Tonight?after collecting Ray from her tap and ballet dancing class?I found?Hubby, Jay and baby D in the living room watching a Bon Jovi video. Jay was prancing about the room pretending to play lead guitar (he has the rock pose perfected!) his microphone and stand was set up in front of the TV and he would sing a few incomprehensible words into that once in a while, with the occasional break for a bang on his bongo or a keyboard solo.

Poor Ray wanted to put on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast so she could show us her new dance, but Jay stood in front of the TV telling Ray that it was rock time and refusing to turn it off.

Even when his dad is at work he makes me put on?the rock cds (these can be ACDC, Metallica, Meatloaf, Queen, Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin, I could go on and on and on!) and shouts “louder mummy louder!”

I love it that he likes music, and for his third birthday we are definately going to buy him a proper childs guitar and teach him to play. But I would have much rather that he got my taste in music, which is much more sedate.

Its bad enough that I have had to listen to cheesy rock for the last ten years when hubby is home, but to have to listen when he isn’t is just pure torture. Whats worse is that?I am not allowed to sing or dance along, because apparently?I can’t rock properly. Dad is free to join in, and Aunty O got a lecture last week for not strumming the (pretend) gutiar properly. But mummy must just watch, admire and if I am lucky I get a go on the bongo!

Lazy?.Me? Never!

If a stranger was to walk into my house any day of the week they would take a quick look around and declare me the laziest housewife that ever lived. I would love to be one of those women whose house you could visit at any time, day or night and never find a thing out of place, but it just isn’t me.

In saying all that I don’t feel lazy. To be honest I feel like I never sit down.

I have three very young children (4, 2 and 6 months old) who take A LOT of care and attention. Hubby and I run a business from home, and amidst all this I am trying to make a home and forge a bit of a social life for me and the kids in a new town (well we have lived here for almost 3 years, but up until this year we didn’t know a single soul!).

I think the problem must be one of organisation. Hubby and I have tried rotas (at least 10 different ones over the years) and none have worked for more than a week. This is usually because I do my bit for the week, hubby gives up after a day and then?I stop in protest.

When rotas fail I?often try to impose rules upon myself, for instance

Thou shalt not leave the house until the breakfast dishes are washed

But what if the dishwasher is full of last nights dirty dinner dishes and there is no more room for cereal bowls?

Another rule was

Do at least two clothes washes a day and make sure to iron, fold and put away any clean laundry as and when it arises.

This just doesn’t work for me. I can cope with loading the laundry into the washing machine, hanging it out (or bundling it all into the tumble drier) and folding it (I don’t do ironing/pressing). But after that it builds up in piles all over my dining room until it collapses into an unsightly heap a week later and I have to spend half a day refolding, sorting and putting away.

The problem with mine and hubby’s bad domestic habits is that they are starting to rub off on Ray. She detests tidying after herself and can often be heard bribing wee brother Jay to do it for her. He is still at the stage where if you call him “mummys little helper” often enough he will act as a willing slave.

I feel another?clearout coming on! Every so often we blow our tops and spend at least half a day blitzing the house. The problem is that we usually give up after a few hours of clearing closets and cupboards, at which stage the house looking worse than when we began.

I console myself by saying that my kids would rather I spent quality time with them, than spent all my time cleaning and tidying. That won’t last forever though, what will be my excuse when they grow up!

Chickenpox Has Made Us Social Outcasts!

Just as Ray starts to get over the chickenpox, and stops waking every half an hour at night with the itch and pain, spots start appearing on Baby D’s face. We now have two casualties.

Typically this weekend was supposed to be packed full with activites. We had a birthday party on Friday, a meet up of our old Mother and Toddler group on Saturday and I had a hen night to attend on Saturday night.

Everything had to be cancelled, we didn’t want to pass the illness to any other kids (or pregnant women) and I didn’t feel it would be fair to leave the hubby alone with the kids if they were waking all night.

So as cabin fever set in we have been trying to occupy all our time without watching TV 24 hours a day. I felt most sorry for Jay who is perfectly well and rearing to go, but hasn’t left the house in days. Hubby took him out for a country walk in the snow on Friday evening which he loved and my sister took him out for the afternoon yesterday. It may have been to Tescos but he loves any individual attention at all, and was thrilled to be getting in a different car and to be eating grapes while being pushed around in a trolley without his sister poking his ear.

We spent this evening making cornflake buns, getting a long bath to remove all the chocolate that was left on our hands faces and legs (?)?from?licking the bowl, and then eating the cornflake buns. During all this I must have received at least 50 kisses from Ray and Jay and?was told at least 10 times that I’m a “good mummy”?who is loved “a million, million, million”!

So all in all the weekend at home was well spent, and the house is a lot tidier. We have buns, about 100 snowflakes made by Ray and homemade birthday cards a-plenty. Maybe we should try staying at home more often!