Mud & Mischief

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Managed to deliver one of those overdue birthday presents. Toddled over to see Nikki and Emily, and went to a claycraft class at their village hall. Myf and Emily had an absolute blast - as soon as I get my camera hooked up to the puter, I’ll upload pictures of our creations. We made magic fairy houses. And I was so impressed with her - she did it beautifully!

Left the little two with James for the majority of the day. Myf and I stayed for lunch, and then another couple of hours. She played with Emily for nearly two hours, in complete peace and quiet. Polly Pockets everywhere. I honestly think it’s the first time she’s ever had to play quietly with someone her own age without Thug (aka Piglet) barging in and destroying whatever it is she’s doing, or Tea wanting to join in and not *quite* getting the game. They had a lovely time. And Nikki fed us a lovely lunch (Jon’s trifle was scrumptious) I do have to apologise for talking a mile a minute. Can you tell I don’t get much in the way of adult conversation?

Right, life is settling down onto a more even keel, so hopefully we’ll get back into the swing of blogging HE related stuff, as opposed to swearing about the builders. I have all my kitchen units in place now, so I get to organise the contents; before starting to organise the playroom shelves and try to make sense of the chaos in here. I need to find my Child Trust Fund voucher for Piglet and invest that before the Govt does it for me. although I have just found out that it doesn’t matter if they do - I can change the location of the account at any time, any number of times and for free. They don’t tell you that, do they? Thank you, Martin the Money Saving Expert! The newsletter is fab, and the forums are great for money off codes and loopholes and the sort. As soon as I dig out my box of bills/finance stuff etc, I’m going to fill in his debt calculator and make a start on reducing it.

Right, off for a cup of tea then bed. Am knackered and it’s preschool tomorrow.

One of those ’sum yourself up in one word’ kind of titles. I could add another dozen words - forgetful, spaced, snowed under, absent minded, sidetracked, away with the faeries, blonde - but you kind of get the pictures.

So far this year, I owe 3 birthday presents, 3 new baby presents (two left from last year and I haven’t actually seen/cuddled any of them), have 3 birthdays to deal with in the next week, have unpacked a grand total of 4 boxes out of the several dozen strewn around the house, and have neglected to blog about a score of very blog-worthy occurances (including a fabulous blog bump, the latest *yawn* installment in the building saga, and the odd inimitable Piglet quote or 6). And we’re not even three weeks into the new year.

I did manage to list 9 things on eBay tonight though. Well whoopee-bloody-do. Only another four score and ten to go.

eta - did I mention the several dozen way over due thank you cards, and unposted xmas gifts for at least three people that I can think off the top of my head, that are buried in boxes in the garage too?

First read word, that is.

LPG account ticket, the words ‘Tom Wood’ scrawled across the top in none-too-neat biro. She’s stood beside me, pointing to the letters as I list things on turbo lister, and it took me a moment to register what she’d said.

“Tuh. Oh. Mm. Tom.” Nudges me. “Mommy, that’s Tom.”

Four years, one month and eleven days old.

And as I sat here typing this, so completely gobsmacked that I couldn’t think of words to use, she came running back into the room bearing a shoebox lid and a blue biro - “see, I can write Tom too!”

She had too. In capital letters, just like it is on the receipt. Very proud Mommy moment.

Then there’s Myf’s story of the bird and the one-eyed snake, but I’ll save that one for after dinner.

We have a floor. It’s so sad, I’m so excited. Slate tiles. Not the most even of floors, but it’s a floor and it covers up the concrete. I think it’ll look pretty good when it’s finished - more rustic than perfect, but that’ll suit us.

Plus we just bought one of these. (but not for that much!! Don’t ever believe on-line price comparisons) So our old fridge has been evicted outside, in readiness for delivery tomorrow. It’s even got the ice maker thingy on the front. lol

Test drove a third series Renault Grand Espace too. 7 seater people wagon thing. It’s not a Discovery I guess I could get used to it, under duress. Not impressed at the thought of selling the G4. However, mpg is starting to be an issue. Time to be practical.

Us? Practical?

4 pm, busy day almost done, house in chaos, tiler coming tomorrow. I suddenly realised that my offspring has neatly avoided doing any book work, instead preferring to play with the vacuum cleaner…

“Myf, go get your explode the code book please.”
A minute’s rustling, then she appears at my side with a *maths* book.
“I can’t find my exploding book,” she says. “Can I do a few pages of this instead?”
I sit there doing an admirable imitation of goldfish.
“Will you sit with me like Merry sits with Fran?”

So we do 5 pages. Note, five. 5.

Thanks Merry. I’ll bring two bottles of bubbles next time.

Gardening book, that is. This one is absolutely brilliant. No flashy, glossy pictures or heavy hardback format. It’s just full of really, really good, straightforward information. It’s got everything you need to know about rotations, cultivars, tools, raised beds, ordinary beds, allotments ideas… I love it - it’s my absolute favourite.

And considering I have over 40 different gardening books kicking around, that’s saying something.

So for those of you who have asked (you know who you are ) - see, I can finally get around to making an executive decision.

Never to blog when I’ve got PMT. It’s too damned depressing.

However, things are looking up today. Myf and Merry’s Fran have hit it off fabulously - in fact, all 7 girls are playing together wonderfully. Maybe too wonderfully, as they won’t actually go to sleep - too busy chatting.

And Merry and I are sat here tapping into our respective laptops… sociable, eh? Think it’s time for the wine.