A Mother's Ramblings

Wow! What a week. The Kitchen is finally in, although it's not quite finished as we're still waiting on the tiling to go up, the new oven to be delivered and installed and I still need to put everything back into the Kitchen! I think that because of this our meals this week are a little hotchpotch. Saturday - Burgers (but we actually had sandwiches) There were so many things going on today, that when the oven wouldn't work we just rolled our eyes and started working out a new plan about what we were going to eat. Which seeing as we had no food in the house meant a quick trip to the Supermarket! We ended up doing the weekly shop and eating Sandwiches when we got home... in a power cut!

So, if you're reading this then you are probably going to have a Kitchen Refit soon and so you should read the preparing for a Kitchen refit post if you haven't already. Of course, you could just be here to find out about how stupid I am, because well I am. Anyway, whatever reason has you here welcome and read on! I was so excited for our kitchen refit. I had organised our plumber to come and fit a new radiator, I'd got a plasterer in to replaster the ceiling (and got my husband to paint it afterwards!). I'd ordered a new cooker and even managed to get them to get it to me quicker than they had told me in John Lewis when Flyfour and I purchased it. We had the Kitchen Fitter all booked in and then Flyfour went away for a business trip. I thought it would be useful whilst he was away to pack up the kitchen. OH MY GOSH NEVER DO THIS ALONE.

When I was preparing for our Kitchen refit, I did the one thing that EVERYONE does. I googled for the suggestions that other people had made and well, I couldn't find any blog posts about it! So I had to live the old fashioned way and think about what would be best for me and my family. Luckily I also know I have a HUGE amount of friends who have great advice, so I asked on Facebook for suggestions. And boy did they deliver. So here is the benefit of my wisdom for those who are also going to live through a Kitchen Refit and also provide a laugh for those of you who have either already lived through one, or who just want to laugh at my expense!

Since being called as the Primary President for my ward, I've been asked to give a talk at several Baptisms and a few of them at the last minute! I've been trying to build up a cache of talks that I can use in the future as to be honest, I hate writing talks and prefer to speak off the cuff! As I'm just a child at heart, the talks that I like to give are a little bit more fun than the ones that are sometimes given and on top of this I try to make them super simple as they are aimed at the child who is being baptised. The adults who are there? Well, sure I want them to enjoy the talk too but really the important person in this all is the child! A few months ago I gave a talk at a Baptism to a child that I had met just one week before. The Primary President from the other ward in our building also gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and (she knew him a bit more than I did as she'd had him in her Primary for a couple of months before they moved again in to our ward!)

When we discussed the plans to decorate the children's bedrooms we told the children that when we decorated their bedrooms they could pick whatever colour scheme they wanted, within reason. That caveat was there for a reason, the reason being I knew that Dan Jon Jr had inherited my wackiness and I knew I might have to step in. Dan Jon thought long and hard and decided he wanted Green Curtains, a Blue Carpet and Orange walls. There was no way, the kid was having a giant pumpkin of a bedroom! So we explained to him that how this was going to hurt our head every time we walked into his room and so he thought about it some more and decided to have a blue feature wall and somehow that changed to having a pure white bedroom. All Dan Jon really cared about was that he wanted a bed that wasn't 5ft in the air!

A few weeks back, we were trying to think of how to differentiate between our three seating areas in the garden, mainly because if one of us says we are going to be out in the garden, we need to know how loud we need to yell, so that the person outside can hear us! We decided that what we really needed was to have different names for them and so we all decided to come up with a few that we could pitch to the others. Flyfour, however, managed to come up with what we think are brilliant names for them on the spur of the moment (well possibly he'd been working on this for months, but who knows) and so we're adopting them as the official names.

This is the week that my kitchen is going to be started work on. It's also the week the man is coming to start on the fascias and guttering and I think it's also the week the man is coming to do the garage door. Although those last two might be next week... I just can't remember. The point is, that it's a busy time here and the meals for the next two weeks are actually terrible, terrible meals so please don't invite yourself round to eat with us, but feel free to invite me and the family round to you!

I can't believe that I haven't updated you all about my garden! I guess, with Summer I just got a little carried away with actually enjoying my garden rather than talking about it and so I hope you'll all forgive me and if you can't forgive me, well then just invite yourself round for a barbecue or something. Also this post has a lot of pictures in it, so it's long. It's also pretty! So, we asked a company called Golden Gardens to come round and talk to us about our garden and the plans that I had and what they envisaged for the space. We had a few other companies come around too, but well, it was Golden Gardens that we went with because when we met with Zane he understood what we wanted and was able to put a unique twist on it that would mean it matched our quirky family. Yup, he had our number right from the first meeting! Now, in order for you to fully appreciate the transformation, I need to show you the horror that was my garden before any work took pl

Flyfour and I had headed out to B&Q one evening last week, to buy some needed DIY "stuff" and on the way back Flyfour suddenly remembered something that he had wanted to speak to me about, something that had apparently been troubling him for a few days. "Is it possible, that you can get your morning alarm in line with mine?", he ventured. "You see, my alarm goes off at 6:25 and then yours goes off at 6:30 which interrupts my ten minute doze." "Why don't you change your alarm? Make it go off at 6:20 and then my alarm at 6:30 will be the end of your dozing time and time for you to wake up. Or why don't you only have a five minute doze?" I replied.

I can't believe how fast this past week has gone. I mean I know we were back to School and back to our almost normal routine, but it really has flown by! Luckily this week should take a bit longer to go past because we're used to the whole back to School thing and probably a bit bored of it. I'm also slowly trying to sort out the kitchen because it's nearly time for the refit!

Flyfour and I decided that we needed to do something with the children before the end of the Summer Holidays as a family. Our Summer had been a little disjointed with the works that had taken place, and both children with their normal few days away with Flyfour and various camps that they had gone on and it felt like we hadn't actually done anything together. So, we decided to finally go as a family to Hop Farm in Kent, for our last Summer Hurrah and we'd pair it with going to Margate to have a holiday in a day! We decided to keep it secret from the children and it wasn't until we were almost there that Top Ender twigged where we were heading. The children of course had been here with Flyfour when they had holidayed in Kent last year and the year before that too. They had loved it so much and wanted to take me and we just hadn't had a chance to take me! Until now of course.

The last optician's appointment I went to, had me finding out that I no longer need to wear glasses. It wasn't that much of a shock, to be honest as, despite an increase in headaches over the last few months, I found that I was able to see better when I wasn't wearing my glasses and doing things such as reading or watching TV. The Ophthalmologist that I saw explained that it was probably because I was wearing my glasses so faithfully when reading, using the PC and watching TV that I was developing headaches! The very thing I had got just two years ago to help me, was actually causing me pain! So I left the Opticians, with my glasses in my handbag.

A few years ago, Top Ender had been reading a book at School that she knew I would love and wanted to discuss with me, so she asked her teacher if she could take a copy home for me to read. The teacher agreed that she could but on the one condition that she should bring it back the next morning as it was one of only a few copies that the School had and they were using them in guided reading for multiple groups, on different days. Top Ender knowing that the size of the book was one I could devour in a matter of minutes, readily agreed and brought the book home. The book was Wonder by R J Palacio (the pen name of Raquel Jaramillo) and come bedtime I sat in bed and started to read the book. A couple of hours later and I'd read it and sent it back to school with Top Ender the next morning with strict instructions to tell her teacher that I had loved it so much I had purchased a copy on Amazon for our personal library and also the follow-up novel! As you may have guessed, I am a

Thanks to the countless TV shows I've watched, where someone has been trying to sell a house, or do up a house, or something to do with a house and decorating I know that if you want to make an impression you have to start from as soon as you walk into your home. Which is why, the changes we wanted to make to our Hall, Stairs, and Landing were so important as they are the first thing you see when you come in our front door and the red carpet? Well, I've never been a fan of it. Flyfour and I decided we wanted to continue the same colour theme of our living room into the hallway, which we had already started with our choice of wall paint colour. It's not quite the same, but it tones together nicely.

I love September when the weather starts to turn and everywhere you look A4 lined notepads are piled high. It gives me the back to School feeling that is ingrained into those who have been part of the English School system. It's a chance to start afresh, to be the person your parents and teachers want you to be - organised! This year is no different. Apart from as usual instead of teachers and my parents putting pressure on me, it's me putting pressure on me. In order to help me, (or rather try to help me!) with my quest for perfection, I have a few resolutions that I thought I would share with you.

Well, it's back to School this week, although I think I might give myself another week or so off, depends if we get one of those Indian Summers everyone always dreams about at this time of year! As always I make a few different resolutions and one of them is about food this year, but see the blog post Monday for more details.

I have mentioned at least 10,000 times that I hated my bathroom. There are greek ladies, and a leaky toilet that wobbled and yes, we did manage to have a shower that fed off the taps installed back in July of 2015 , but it wasn't at all how I imagined our bathroom. I imagined a sanctuary, somewhere that I could go and shower and not have to worry about the bath filling up with soap scummy water! So, when we were talking about doing up our home, it was unsurprising that it was our Bathroom that was at the top of the list. I knew exactly what I wanted and after a little bit of a conversation with Flyfour, we arranged to get a few different chaps out to quote for the works in our bathroom. We ended up going with a chap called Mick, who agreed he could do the work at the end of August if that was okay and so we went ahead and got it all booked in. I am not going to lie, living for a week without a bathroom was a NIGHTMARE. We ended up going swimming to shower a couple of times,