A Mother's Ramblings

I'm not sure why a childhood fear of the dark came back when I was pregnant with Dan Jon Jr, but it did. Actually, that's not true. I'm not actually afraid of the dark, no the truth is I am afraid of being alone in the dark and all the evil terrible secrets it holds. Last October, BuzzFeed had an article where people shared statements that became truer the more you thought about them. I didn't get past the first one when I realised. I'm not afraid of being alone in the dark. I'm afraid that I'm not alone in the dark. For me, it's the fear that the bogeyman is hiding in the shadows, or really that he is standing at the bottom of my stairs behind the door curtain that we hung as part modesty measure (our front door has a large glass window next to our half front glass door) and part energy saving measure (the aforementioned huge glass parts of the front door).

Last Saturday was our first day on the new healthy eating plan that Flyfour and I agreed we needed to follow. We had got up super early to clean the chapel, along with two friends of mine, and we were really good and stuck with what we were supposed to be having with breakfast... sort of. I missed half of my breakfast as we didn't have any fruit or yoghurts in the house (it was the end of half term, our fridge was empty!) and Flyfour didn't have any fruit added to his cereal. I did notice about mid-morning that I was feeling hungry, but I put it down to boredom and got on with my chores and it wasn't until I was looking at the meal plan a few days later that I realised I'd short-changed myself! The meals for the rest of the week were as good as we'd hoped, leaving us fuller for longer but I won't know if I've lost weight until I pop to Tesco later on this morning as depending how I stand on my bathroom scales, I can make myself up to two stone lighter.

We decided that we were going to have a PJ day during the half term and generally just chill out. There wouldn't be any housework, there wouldn't be any guilt if we spent all day on the consoles, or watching Netflix. All I had to do was remind the children to drink plenty of water and having made up some packed lunches and suitable snacks, they were able to feed themselves as and when they wanted to. The children were playing a console game together and they were being rather loud, so I had taken myself back upstairs to my room to watch Netflix and actually be able to hear what I was watching! So all was going well. I had my really scruffy PJ's on, with the really baggy top and I hadn't brushed my hair and my horrid rash was being horrid and bright red and cruddy looking. All I was missing was a face pack and rollers in my hair to finish off the "I don't care" look.

Last October Top Ender came down with a case of Pityriasis Rosea. I'd never heard of it and after about a month and a half, the rash disappeared, which was quite lucky, as Top Ender had had enough of the itching after just a few hours. Then, you know when I was ill the other week? Well, I thought I was so sick because I had a really bad cold. I actually said I thought it was Man Flu because I was so sick. Honestly, looking back now I can see that the few weeks before I became ill I was coming down with something because I was just so run down and as I mentioned I was putting myself last .

A few weeks back, whilst watching TV with my husband, a beautiful building was shown. I said something along the lines of; "Wow! That place is beautiful! I'd love to get married there. I'll have to find it online so I can add it to my Pinterest board." My husband turned to look at me and gave me a quizzical stare, bordering on an accusation of stupidity. "Pippa. We ARE married" he emphasised to me. And so returning his look because, Duh! I know he and I are married, I was there! So, I showed him my Pinterest wedding board , handily titled " If I had got Married after Pinterest had been invented "

Flyfour and I were both moaning about our recent lack of willpower. We've got to that comfortable place where we're not really watching what we eat, we're not really exercising all that much and basically, we're becoming really unhealthy. So what's a guy and girl to do? Change our eating habits of course. We decided to follow a diet that we've picked meals from over the last seventeen years and well as you can see it has lead to a return of my weekly meal plans! There is a difference, however, I'm not specifying what days we're eating what!

I was sick. Luckily it was just a heavy cold, but the whole not wanting to eat, feeling like I'd barely escaped death and my body needing complete rest aspect of it all has really knocked me for six. I barely feel like I'm functioning now a week and a half after having "recovered" and I've been taking my vitamins and even purchased a bottle of vitamin tonic (and have been taking it) just like my Nan always told me to do. I couldn't stop doing my normal things whilst I was sick, however. I still had to get up each morning to get the children off to School. I still needed to go and calculate the carb amount for Dan Jon Jr's lunch. I still needed to get Top Ender and her Cello to and from School. Flyfour told me off at one point because I had taken to our bed, and was sitting moaning that I was sick but at the same time placing an online shopping order for the groceries for the week.

In the road I live in, there is a mixed age range of residents and I like it like that. There are a few families with younger children, a few with children around Dan Jon Jr's age, a few teenagers (Top Ender included), a few empty nesters and a few older residents, whose families are all grown up and long ago moved out or away to raise families of their own. It's this last category, these older residents that have been on my mind recently. We call them The Old Lady Gang because they are... well, old ladies. Over the years, these residents have got to know my family pretty well. We stop and talk when we're on the School Run, or when we're playing on our bikes or scooters in the street. The children have delivered small secret gifts and we have all always waved as we walked past just in case they were looking out the window as we've passed. More often than not, they are and they wave back.

Before Christmas, I had my hair cut and coloured by my very talented friend (if you're in the Milton Keynes area let me know if you want her details!). I had decided that I wanted to do something a bit outrageous (for me) and go with a colour and so I asked about going red and my friend agreed I could get away with it, so she picked out a funky bright red for highlights, a darker red for the base. As my friend is a proper hairdresser and stylist, she knew what would suit my colouring and allow me the funk I was after without being too outrageous! The day came and I was terribly excited and loved sitting in her kitchen having a chat whilst we waited for the colour to take/set/whatever it is that happens when you dye your hair. Just after she had coloured, washed, cut my hair and just as she was about to blow dry it, Top Ender's School rang to tell me she'd been hit in the head by an errant rugby ball and was suffering from a mild concussion and needed to be picked up.