ABC Wednesday...................Again!

A is for Apple blossom!

We have just one apple tree in the garden.

I have enjoyed capturing it on film since the spring.

And painting the blossom too!

Now I can't wait to eat the fruit!

ABC Wednesday now has it's very own Blog

created by Mrs. Nesbitt.

To take part in ABC Wednesday, visit the site

You can find it here and see all the other contributors too

In the company of women

Today I have eaten cake. Lots of it! Two tea parties in one day and not a child in sight!!

Some of my girl friends came over just after lunch. We ate lemon poppy seed cake (starters!) and/ or Baklava (main course!). We drank Elderflower cordial and /or tea.

Mother of 2 girls, brought her presents to wrap. It looked a bit like Christmas! I sewed on all Tall Girls new Girl Guide badges and Mother of 2 boys did her nails! We can multi task you see! We're not just sitting around all afternoon gossiping!

Later on, after depositing the children with Husband I went to another tea party, a much larger affair with 2 sorts of Sandwiches, Scones, Jam and Cream, Chocolate and nut cake, 2 sorts of Lemon cake, Fresh strawberries (because if you ate some fruit, you could feel virtuous and it canceled out all the calories from the cake you'd eaten just before!) and pear tart!

It would have been rude not to try just a little piece of all of it wouldn't it?

Who needs a Dyson?!

Small Sprog was sitting cross legged on the floor in the conservatory. He was making me a bracelet, although I wasn't supposed to know it was for me, but when he asked if he could measure my wrist it was a bit of a giveaway!

It was early on Sunday morning and I was feeling (unusually) lazy, so I was happy to sit next to him and watch. After a few minutes I noticed a small bit of garlic bread lying under the table not far away from Small Sprog. We had eaten garlic bread a few nights ago! Oops! I swear there is a whole meal lying under the table by the end of the week, despite my love affair with the Dyson!

"Can you pick up that old piece of garlic bread for mummy please and I'll put it in the bin?"

"Can I eat it?" He asks!

Yuck.

"No it's old.........where's it gone?"

Too late!

A bedroom moment!

I bought myself a dress the other day. I don't like shopping much, I have to be in the mood and sometimes when I get things home I'm not sure that I've made the right choice. My solution is to leave it hanging around in the bedroom and look at it for a while.

This morning, as I was getting dressed, husband wandered into the bedroom.

"If I try on this dress can you tell me what you think?" I asked (that was brave wasn't it?!)

I slipped it on.

"What do you think?"

"Yep, looks fine" He says

"Are you sure?"

"Yep, it will be fine for work and stuff"

I still have no idea if it looks good. I take it off again and replace it on the hanger. He's just walking out of the bedroom and quips "It reminds me of Che Guevara!"

"Well that's great then"

"No, if you just had a big fat cigar it would look quite sexy!"

And the moral of the story............Never ask, just don't go there. OK?!

Sibling moments

8.30am

"Muuuummmmmmmmm!, Tall Girl hit me!" Shouted Small Sprog
"No I didn't!" Tall Girl shouted back
"Yes you did!"
"Muuummm, Small Sprog said he was going to stab me with a pen"
"No I didn't" Shouting even louder
"Yes you did" Tall Girl is in tears (she can lay it on thick when she wants to!)
"You hit me!"
"You nearly stabbed me!"
..........Wait for it!
"I HATE YOU" Small Sprog is crying too now out of rage and indignation. He is stomping off and lands somewhere around the halfway point on the stairs. He sulks. Tall Girl has already stomped up and is in her room. No slamming of doors has occurred. Not yet!

So how can I tell who is telling the truth? It is 8.30am and time for school (Why do these things happen at such crucial times of the day?!)

Now I know I'm the grown up here, but the tension is high and we're all tired (end of term-itus!) I should be showing them by example that it's good to keep your cool in this sort of situation. It is important to be rational and sort things out in a calm and positive manner. Then..........
"Oh for goodness sake come downstairs now, stop arguing and put your shoes on. I'm fed up with you two shouting at each other all the time!" I screamed.
There.
That's better!
How grown up was that?!!



9.30pm

Tall Girl had her school leavers disco tonight, the last one before all her classmates go off to different senior schools. I went along to pick her up at 9pm. They were all in tears! Even the boys, just sobbing in a heap in the middle of the dance floor! They spend years not wanting to go to school and now they don't want to leave! How are they going to get through the last week of school with so much emotion flying about?

She's upstairs taking her makeup off now (obviously good quality mascara, she noted, because everyone else's was running down their cheeks accompanied by the tears) There was a pocket money stall at the disco. In her pocket are two small animals that she has brought for Small Sprog. She is going to wrap them up and give them to him in the morning.

She loves him.

I might be older than I look!!

I was happily blogging (!) the other day when the telephone rang. I answered it and realised straight away the person on the other end was going to try to sell me something!

"Can I speak to Mrs. Subsiding?" Said the voice

"Suburbia" I stated

"Yes, is she there?"

"Speaking"

"Oh" The voice sounded surprised "I'm phoning from stairlifts united" Said the voice, or something similar, I can't remember now! She spoke again, quite slowly in a soothing tone "There's nothing to worry about!"

Nothing to worry about?!!

"Stairlifts?" I exploded "I'm only 40, can you take me off your mailing list please?"

I put down the phone.

Nothing to worry about?!! I was worried for the rest of the day! I spent it wracking my brain wondering what on earth I had purchased in the last few weeks that had led to me being a candidate for a stairlift!!

ABC Wednesday...................

This week we have reached the last letter of the alphabet!

The letter z

for z igzag leaves!

ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbit.To take part or see other participants

visit Mrs. Nesbits place!

Poopy Puppies Part Two!

Mum came over today. She told me a lovely story about the long walk she had had with her dog in the park on Sunday. She is a very responsible dog owner and 'scoops the poop' into one of those peach coloured plastic bags that you see hanging from trees sometimes! The ones people put dirty nappies in and then leave lying around in the woods! You know the ones I mean.

Anyway the dog, it transpires, loves water and lay down in the stream. Mum was surprised and amused and walked a very wet dog all the way home.

"I suppose it was better than walking home with poo all down your legs!" She said

I did a double take! Did she mean her or the dog?

"She had a bad tummy in the park the other day!" She explained

(Phew, she meant the dog!)

"You can just imagine how difficult that one was to scoop up off the grass!"

She continued "More of a smear really."

Eeeww, too much information mum!

Poopy Puppies!

8.40 this morning (school starts at 8.50 and it's a 5 minute journey at least!)

Small Sprog shrieks from upstairs "Mum there's no toilet paper!"

I run up to the bathroom brandishing a new roll.

Tall Girl is already outside, with shoes on, ready to go.

I "unpick" the new roll because if I let him do it, most of the first few meters will be in shreds.

"Ooh!" He squeals "It's got dogs on!"

We usually buy the unbranded stuff but Husband came home with this lot after an urgent phone call last Friday! (We were down to the last roll and I was housebound with a sick child! )

"Yes it has puppies on! Now come on or you'll be late for school"

Tall girl charges up the stairs.

"Why are you here?" I say feeling that the morning is getting a little out of hand.

"I though you were ready"

(Please don't say she needs to 'go' now!)

"I've come to look at the puppies!"

She was outside, how did she know? She has ears like a bat!

And there they both are, standing by the toilet, admiring the embossed puppy shape on the new toilet tissue!! Lovely! Who'd have thought toilet tissue could be such fun?!!!

Were we late for school? Yes. "Sorry miss, we were just looking at the puppies!"

I love this bloggy thing!

My Internet connection crashed again today. Bugger. Although it was sunny here and much too nice to be indoors anyway, but it did mean I couldn't check my comments until this evening. Eventually, when I was reconnected, I opened my blog and dah-dahhhhhhhhh! Lots of helpful comments about how to get the smell of sick out of the carpet! I just laughed my socks off.

So I thought I would share some of the suggestions with you and Tall Girls thoughts on the matter.

1. Vinegar (Tall Girl thought CHIPS!)

2. Vinegar and water (CHIPS AGAIN)

3. Something industrial strength! (I thought I might ask for this in our local shop that sells everything. "Do you have some industrial de-vomiter?" I might say and do you know I bet they would have some!)

4. Good luck! (I'm fresh out of that!)

5. Carpet cleaner (If only I had some, I'm sure I had some once, I think it's just at the back of the......)

6. Baking soda mixed into a paste with water (Tall Girl likes mixing and was keen on this one)

7. Bicarbonate of soda in warm water sponged on the carpet (Tall girl suggested we mix the soda with number 1. It would make a great eruption if nothing else!)

8. An enzyme cleaner from the pet store, if it gets out cat pee , it'll get out vomit smell!! (Might keep the nits at bay too if she gets them again)

9.Febreeze or some soapy stuff. (Tried it. The trouble is the sweet smell of the Febreeze doesn't completely mask the sick smell. It's a bit like putting deodorant on already sweaty armpits!)

But this was my favourite from Peter:

10. And about the carpet smell (he wrote)- all I could suggest would be to get a new carpet! Or as my dad would do - cut around the smelly bit and then replace it with some spare, original carpet!

I'd love to meet his dad!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to comment and not just about the smelly situation but also all the supportive comments about Small Sprogs education. I love this bloggy thing.

So these are for you. Thanks so much. Although if you are feeling a bit queasy because of the smell then don't worry, I've left the windows open and I'm sure one of the suggestions above will work sooner or later!

........And three bad things!

Is there a law that says things come in threes? Is there another one that says that if you have a good thing, then a bad thing is just around the corner?!!! Or perhaps it's just a state of mind.

The three bad things:

1. I lost my Internet connection last night (not life threatening I know but I couldn't blog, aaaagh!!)

2. Small Sprog brought home his school report which showed absolutely NO understanding of his dyslexia. It made my blood boil to read it. It also proved that he has spent another year at school without enough help to enable him to learn anything properly (although the upside is that it has made me realise I am doing the right thing by moving him to another school)

3. Tall Girl vomited her way through Thursday night! The first episode hitting the floor running from the top bunk! Enough information?!! You bet.

PS Anyone know how to get the smell out of the carpet?!

Three good things!

Three good things happened today!

1. Small Sprog has been offered a place at a new school

2. Small Sprog has been offered a place at cubs with his friend who he will miss when he leaves his old school

3. A good friend has given me a contact for a child friendly homeopath

That's Small Sprog sorted then!! And all in one day. Well not really, it's all been in the pipeline for sometime but it's quite strange how it has been resolved all at once.

Picture of frogs in our pond, Small Sprogs favourites!

A visit to the doctor

Small Sprogs eczema has erupted. This time it’s on the tips of his fingers. He has had it on his feet for most of the last two years but he doesn’t complain.

Last time I took him to the doctor about it (six months ago) he more or less said ‘live with it’.

‘Live with it?’, I ask you, why spend hours in the waiting room, catching whatever everyone else has come to complain about, and trying to entertain a whinging 7 year old QUIETLY, just to be told to ‘live with it’!

This time I was ready for battle, the eczema had spread to his hands and I was worried. I was determined not to be ‘fobbed off”! (Never mess with a worried mother!!)

It wasn’t until I entered the surgery that I realised the doctor we were seeing was the lovely lady who was my complete angel and saviour when I had post natal depression nearly 10 years ago. How could I ‘do battle’ with her after all her understanding and help all that time ago?

We went in.

“How are you” She said. This always throws me when they say that. Does she say that to everyone? I mean, if we were perfectly well we wouldn’t be there would we!

“Small Sprogs eczema has flared up again” I tell her, assuming that her question was my cue. Meanwhile he is sat on the couch swinging his legs and looking as if he was planning something. “It’s on his hands now”

She asks to look at his hands and he saunters over to show her the flaky bits on the ends of his fingers. She looks unimpressed. “It’s on his feet too” I say, feeling she needed a little more persuasion that we were not wasting her time.

“Can I look at your feet?” She asks Small Sprog
“Yep!” He swaggers back to the bed, enjoying the attention and starts to make a bit of a show of taking off his shoes and socks. I start to think that I should have told him to make a bit of a fuss!

He took off his shoes and she goes over to inspect. His feet looked pretty good. Better than they had this morning, better than they had looked for months!! How does that happen? As soon as you get a doctors appointment, everything gets better. It must be a miracle!

“They get much worse than that” I tell her whilst she says nothing. She sits down again.

She tries to fob me off with some more cream. “But he’s had it for years” I whine “And now it’s on his fingers and you’re only supposed to use the cream for a few days, I’ve been putting it on for months now and it’s only just keeping the eczema at bay”

She gives me a withering look and explains (very nicely) that sometimes she sees children with such badly infected skin on their hands that they have to have them ‘wrapped’. She seems to have missed the point. That is what I’m trying to avoid. Why let it get that bad? I can find no words that are suitable. She is writing a prescription for more cream which I know will have no effect. “Perhaps he’ll grow out of it” She says. I look at her in a disbelieving way. What am I supposed to do, rejoice that when he is my age he will be eczema free but have no skin left on his feet due to overuse of steroid cream?

I mention homeopathy. She brightens, “You could try that”

Small Sprog was bored now. He had found the box of toys under the table and had pulled them all out. Just as I was trying to formulate a coherent sentence I felt him fiddling with my head from behind. I tried to ignore him but he was not going to be ignored. He had a furry glove puppet on my head. There I am, trying my best to be serious and he has a puppet dancing on my head. The doctor looked unamused. She was obviously thinking that I had no control over my child (she was partly right) and that I was a fussy, over protective mother (possibly) and that my son was verging on the delinquent (right!)

The printer spat out the prescriptions and she handed them to me with a smile as I tried hard not to raise my voice to Small Sprog who was now crawling around the room.

We left.

Tonight my mum called to see how we were. “Did she refer you to a skin specialist?”

“No”

“Oh Billy!” (She always calls me that)

“Don’t ‘oh Billy’ me” I shout down the phone “I did my best!” Never mess with a worried mother!

ABC Wednesday...................

This week we have

the letter Y

Y is for Yellow!

ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbit.To take part or see other participantsvisit Mrs. Nesbits place!

Camping in France Part 2 (Part 1 was yesterday)!

During the same holiday I had another 'incident' of the bathroom variety! I think it was even on the same campsite.

It was early evening and I needed a pee, so off I trotted to the toilet block. The facilities were not up to much, cleanliness wise and they saw a fair amount of traffic but at least they weren't the hole in the ground version! The floor in the whole block was a bit wet and one likes to think, at these times, that the floor is wet because someone has just been in to clean it. However, you're never really sure, but needs must so I popped into a cubical (I knew I was OK this time because there was a door!)

I was wearing an 'all in one' outfit! Well, we are talking about the 80's here. My mother would call it a 'jumpsuit', an odd expression I've always thought, but hopefully you get the picture.

As all women know, we do our best NOT to put bums on seats. Hovering was the order of the day. The 'jumpsuit' was button through and so I had to undo the thing from the neck down to get it off, take my arms out and then pull it down, as you would trousers. It's at times like these when you realise that being a victim of fashion is not at all practical in certain circumstances! I was now, more or less, without clothes except for my outfit which was somewhere around my knees.

Another problem was that, because of the wet floor, I had to hold my clothes up at about knee height while squatting so that none of it dangled on the floor! I think you may have the picture now and not a pretty one at that. Well, at least the door had a lock (at least there was a door) so I was fairly safe in there.

By this time I was just about ready to do what I'd come in for when, just at the crucial moment, a bloody great dragonfly flew over the top of the cubical door and down the leg of my outfit! I think I screamed, probably very loudly and I must admit this bit is fairly hazy, probably due to the trauma! All I can really remember is being conscious that I didn't have enough hands. I needed both of them to keep my clothes from dropping on the wet floor and I needed a spare one to retrieve the loudly buzzing insect from somewhere underneath my pants! To this day I can't remember how I did it. In fact I may have passed out with panic, only to be rescued, in my nakedness, by some passer by who was alerted by the screaming! I really can't tell you. But I do know that I'm not that keen on being anywhere in the vicinity of large buzzing insects, clothed or unclothed (me not the insects), and that that's not easy when you have a Small Sprog for a son.

Showers showers everywhere (Camping in France Part 1)

I have been promising myself to write this post for sometime, and since the weather here is a little 'showery' I thought I would wander back to a summer where the weather was warm and I had not a care in the world (well almost!)

When I was 18 I visited the south of France with my first 'real' boyfriend. We went for three weeks and we travelled in a Renault 5 van! We had little money and, unlike these days, it was totally unplanned, unfinanced and unannounced, a sort of spur of the moment decision.

It was a tumultuous relationship which lasted over ten years and through 2 marriages, his and mine (to other people). But I digress!

Freedom in France was glorious. We worked our way down the west coast from Mont Saint-Michel to La Rochelle through Cognac and so on. So many lovely places but sadly I can't remember the names of them all now. The weather was warm and we lived on baguettes and cheese.

When we reached the south we camped in a two man tent. The campsite was large but there was lots of space, so we went to the far end away from the crowds. There was a toilet block nearby, which was convenient and I took myself off for a shower sometime during the first day.

As I walked into the shower block I noticed that each shower cubical was quite open, three walls and no shower curtain. I had experienced all sorts during the previous week, the 'hole in the floor' loos being the highlight, so the fact that there were no curtains was not really a surprise. Luckily there was no one else there so I walked to the end cubical, which was a little more private, and stripped off. The shower was a bit chilly but at least I felt clean. I dried myself down hastily as I was sure someone else would be bound to come in soon, and knowing the French, this could easily be a unisex block! As I trotted out at speed I only just avoided a couple of planks of wood lying across the door way. I hopped over them and turned around. There was a french man there, hovering outside. He was wearing painters overalls, covered in white paint (the same as the colour of the walls of the shower block) He spoke to me in French, I didn't concentrate well in my french lessons at school so I had no idea what he was saying but I got the gist. Just beside the planks of wood was a sign which said something like 'closed for refurbishment'! How had I missed that on the way in? I had a towel to hide my blushes, but I never really knew just how long the little French painter had been standing there for!

Today mostly in pictures

Today there's been a lot of this...........

Leading to some of this..................

So I'm not really up to much of this.......

Over and out!

PS. Rose, from Praire Rose's Garden

just posted this for me!

How did she know??!

Thanks Rose

Mopping up.

I was preparing the packed lunches this morning when I dropped a metal flask full of squash on the kitchen floor. I shouted something rude and then did a double take. The flask had landed squarely upside down, with the opening clamped to the floor. How strange! A little of the liquid had escaped but most of it was trapped inside. It was a sort of reverse 'Murphy's law'! What are the chances of that I wonder?!

However there was the problem of picking it up without letting the rest of the liquid escape! It's amazing how just a spoonful can look like a whole tumbler full when spilt.

Everyone came to see and offered suggestions, some helpful and some not! None of which seemed viable. It was getting late and the routine last minute rush of teeth cleaning, face washing and brushing of hair should have already been underway. I was tempted to leave the damn thing there where it stood and let it take its chances!!! It would have been better if it had just dropped and spilt everywhere, at least I could have had it all mopped up by now, but instead we were all stood there marvelling at it!

Husband appeared, just then, with a plastic wallet. We slid it underneath. It sort of worked, almost.

Just as I was clearing up the smallish spillage, Tall Girl came in again for another look!

"You could blog about that" She said in her wisdom

Sometimes she knows me better than I do!

Award time.

I've done lots in the last 24 hours but none of it of any interest whatsoever. I hate it when that happens, busy but unproductive!

However I do have a bit of housekeeping to do. Liz has passed a lovely award to me (thanks Liz) and I think I have to pass it on. It was created by Crystal over at Memoirs of a Mommy in honor of the heart donor who saved the life of Crystal's baby boy, Noah.

Crystal says: The rules of this award are: SHARE THE LOVE!!! Share this award with all those blogs out there that you love. All the people who make you smile. All those that make you laugh. All those that make your day. All those that leave uplifting comments on your blog. **All I ask, is that you include a link to this post with the award and ask your recipient to do the same**

So here goes: I would like to 'share the love' with Susan, Maggie, and Mean Mom.

I'd also like to pass it to Rose and Hullabaloo but they already have one and Bobo for all the counselling(!) and BS5 because he never fails to be positive!

There, done now. Just hope something more exciting happens tomorrow!

We're jamin'

You know those strawberries? Well here they are! Actually they are all in jars now but I took this earlier during the jam making process. This is them in a ''rolling boil'', which is when the jam mixture starts to thicken (if you're lucky!!)

The children and I had great fun today, (yes they're still off school but back tomorrow) chores were suspended and it was the most beautiful summers day. We took a picnic up to the Downs (a lovely open space in the heart of Bristol) along with bubble mixture (Small Sprogs choice) and a cricket bat for French cricket (Mine and Tall Girls choice) We did lots of all of it and the sun just shone and shone and I realised how much we all needed to do this together, so much time (too much time) is spent doing routine, 'stuck in a rut' stuff. Small Sprog declared that blowing bubbles on a windy day was the best thing ever and he never wanted his day to end, I almost cried. He so loves life (but is stifled at school)

When we arrived home we made jam, coloured in and played air guitar, all at the same time! I absolutely love playing music very loudly but Husband's not so keen! Seeing as he was at work we had it very loud! We all played excellent air guitar to a few tracks of Cold Play and then the children scraped out all the cold jam from the pots. You can imagine Small Sprogs face. Both delighted and smeared bright red, a sticky gluey mass asking for a kiss just so that he could spread the love (mess!!)

Later on the nit children came home from school and they all went out to play together. Paul Weller returned to my CD player and I felt pleased with my day. Small Sprog is right though, there are some moments in life, which could just last forever.