It does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live...

Ahhhh lovelies, it feels strange and unfamiliar to be here, I'm not sure why.

All is well with me, all is well with my little family. I hope the same is true for you.  I'm grateful to you for taking the time to read this.

I can't give you a reason why I haven't posted for a while, as I'm not sure there is one. I've just not feel compelled I'm afraid. 

I've been so touched by the lovely, sweet, emails I've had from a couple of you checking I'm ok. You are dear, dear people. I'm completely convinced we'd be wonderful chums "in reals". 

I'm not closing down and I'm not going away, just sitting it out 'til I feel drawn.

"Soaking my head to unrattle my brain..." as wise, wise men say ;)

Kate x

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A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

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Funny really, this week Biscuit looks older and Wiggles seems to look younger.  Biscuit shows off her tiny teeth, just a little.  She is still yet to lose one, much to her dismay. I keep telling her that's a good thing!  It means she'll keep her big teeth looking nice for longer, but the lure of the Tooth Fairy is too much for her!

Wiggles looks distracted, I don't think she was aware of me photographing her.  She looks less determined than usual here, which I'm pretty sure is why she looks much younger to me.  Love her pretty little ringlets just starting to make an appearance.  Hope they stay.

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

The Week That Was - Old Lady Knees & Brilliant Brekkies...

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Thankfully Biscuit seemed to have largely recovered after being poorly during the night.  So much so she was cross that I wouldn't let her have cocoa pops for her breakfast!  It seems there is a nasty bug going around, the only people yet to have it are myself, Tilly, Impressive D and Dinky.   Fingers crossed we survive!  I spent the morning tidying up, boil washing and trying to make things a little less whiffy!

Tuesday -  We spent most of the day getting ready for Biscuit to go back to school. Thankfully she was feeling much better! I offered to take the girls to the woods for a walk, but neither of them was keen!! Probably not a bad thing as my knees were still very painful. I kept them elevated all evening and started on a new blanket in the hope that it will keep me sat still for a while!

Wednesday - Work for me, again with such sore knees, boooo! The new knee supports I'd ordered had arrived, so sexy! But hopefully they'll help...

Thursday - I joined Jill, Ned, Lucky and Dinky at Tilly and Em's house for a delicious brunch. 

My golly it was good!!! It was a really lovely morning, and Tilly is a complete Domestic Goddess! I nipped out to the doctors so I could get my knee checked out - ligament damage apparently. Ugh. They seemed to think it would be ok to keep running, but Mr Husband and I went out together in the evening and it was so painful I had to give up. 

Friday - Work for me. Sitting with Carlos the Jackal made my day brighter. I picked up a takeaway on the way home courtesy of Mr Husband. We had a lovely evening stuffing ourselves and drinking Black Cherry Bulmers. Mmmmmm.

Saturday - Mum, Dad and my brother headed off up North for a few days away visiting family.  Mr Husband took the girls to the zoo so I was home alone! Very strange! Instead of parking my bottom I cleaned the house from top to bottom! Then Impressive E and Impressive D dropped by and we headed off to the annual allotment holders BBQ which was nice. We had paella which was AMAZING! When I came home Mr Husband and the little lovelies were home so we spent the remainder of the afternoon snuggled up in the lounge watching The Incedibles. 

Sunday - I got up early and let Mr Husband sleep in. Around ten Impressive E came over and dropped off Woolly and Beetle. I'd offered to look after them both so she could get on with house stuff unhindered. They were all do well behaved! 

In the afternoon Impressive E and Impressive D joined us for tea. It was nice, but Impressive D was poorly and a bit grumpy. Poorly boys are never fun! Still it was nice to see them all, a nice end to the week. 

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

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A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

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Same walk, totally different children!  Biscuit races off towards the tall trees pretending to ride her pony.  Wiggles sees it, and biffs it with a stick.  Two quite different personalities, both excellent ways to pass the time!

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

The Week That Was - Actually Two Weeks!

The week, before last my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Started in the usual way, sorting out the house after the weekend, then Wiggles and I took Pearl the Pug for her walk whilst Biscuit stayed at home and kept Gran entertained!  We all had carrot soup together for lunch then after trying to persuade Wiggles to nap for an hour we gave up and went to the library!  I signed the girls up for cards and they took some books out - which was VERY exciting!  Mr Husband played golf after work so I watched girl telly- woooo yeah!

Tuesday -  I got up early and went for a run first thing. Needed to get it out the way as it was the Toddler Group day trip!! Unfortunately it was terrible weather. We got a little lost on the way, Wiggles and Em fell over in the water. Wiggles lost her shoe (never to be found again) Em was VERY unhappy and we all got soaked in the rain. 

We came back home and Tilly and I had a glass of wine. Mr Husband was poorly and had an early night.

Wednesday - work for me, day with Gran for the Smalls. I met Mr Husband at lunchtime as he'd had a new tattoo. It looks fab. Then he bought me lunch; winner!! 

Points to anyone who knows what it is!!

Thursday - Went for a run first thing. After a house tidy we all went to the park and met Tilly, Em, Lucky, Dinky and Bell. It was still pretty cold so we went back to Lucky's house for tea, cake and lady beer, lovely! In the evening we had a McDonalds because we are lazy, lazy people! 

Friday - I had the day off!!! The children and I went to the seaside with Lucky, Dinky, Bell and our lovely friend Tea and her little boy M.  We all had such a lovely day drinking tea in deckchairs and generally watching the children have a marvellous time.  There were fish and chips, obviously.

Saturday - We went to the beautiful wedding of our friends Mr Small & Curly Small. It was a lovely, lovely day. I enjoyed it thoroughly!!! 

Wedding photographs taken by our lovely chum, the talented Mr Newman.

Sunday - A bit of a relaxing day, after yesterday's busy one! I went over to see Impressive E and Impressive D at their new house. They were busy, busy, busy painting, decorating and making it liveable. Its going to be gorgeous when they're done. Spent true rest if the day very little, but did manage a run in the evening. 

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Bank Holiday so Mr Husband was off work and could spend the day with us. We didn't do anything exciting, but it's lovely to all be together. 

Tuesday - Wiggles, Biscuit and I went to the swings to meet Tilly and Em. The weather was so rubbish that we came back home and watched Harry Potter!

After the children went to bed Mr Husband and I went out for a run together. 

Wednesday - work for me, very dull unremarkable day!!

Thursday - Mojito day at Lucky's house!! We had a lovely lunch followed by a couple of cocktails and the children all played together. It was really nice.

We came home, had slow cooker tea and Mr  Husband and I went out to do the shopping. 

Friday - work again, dull again! Lovely curry at lunchtime though. Another run with Mr Husband after the children had gone to bed. 

Saturday - I took Biscuit to a birthday party, tidied up the house and made lunch. Then Mr Husband and I had our hair cut. I've moved the parting in my hair into the middle and had a new (fuller) fringe added, which I'm pleased with. It's not much of a change, but even a small change can be refreshing sometimes, no?

Any thoughts?

I then picked up Biscuit before collecting my brother from a garden party. Mr Husband made coffee cake and I sat on the sofa to rest my aching knees (running injury, ugh). In the evening we watched Kill List (brutal) and ate Eton Mess ice cream. For future reference, Eton Mess ice cream is not a good accompaniment to that particular film! 

Sunday - I had a lay in, but as the children were being "high spirited" I couldn't sleep so read my book instead. Really relaxing to do nothing undisturbed! I got up, had breakfast and we all went for a lovely walk in the woods.

We came home, had lunch and polished off the coffee cake. I read some more of my book and then we all had slow cooked pork for tea, yummers.  After putting the children to bed I went to car Impressive E and Impressive D at their new gaff and had a lovely beer. Those two knock my socks off with how hard they work! Unfortunately just as we were about to go to bed Biscuit was sick, poor thing.  So we spent a while sorting her out and swilling things back down.  Hopefully she'll be feeling better by next week.

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

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A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

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Somehow that cheeky Daddy managed to sneak into this week's picture.  I loved this picture, they're concentrating so hard!  And that cloud of icing sugar only got bigger - trust me!  My three favourite people, right here.

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

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A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

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A week late I know!  I'm not even going to apologise!  We've been enjoying ourselves and things got busy, as you can see from our pictures!  We had a lovely day at the seaside, for a change the sun came out and it was even hot enough for swim things!  The small ones enjoyed all the traditional things, ice creams, sandcastles and fish and chips and frankly, it was flippin lovely!

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

Look Facebook, it's not me, it's you....

I'm on the verge of a potentially messy break up.  Facebook and I have fallen out.  I am sick to death of people who I thought were sane and normal clogging my newsfeed up with ridiculous photographs and other such nonsense, suggesting that if I don't "like" said picture within six seconds of seeing it all the fairies will die. Yeah, laters fairies.

Worse are the FISHERS! People who have so little going on they have to attention seek through the medium of status updates. Phrases like "feeling a little broken hearted" creep up. Now firstly, in my opinion, you are either broken hearted, or you're not broken hearted at all. You can't be a little. That's like saying something is "a little bit unusual." It either is or it isn't, just decide! Secondly if you were truly, truly broken hearted and wallowing in a pit of despair I doubt the first thing on your mind would be to make sure the world and his wife were aware of your predicament via your pitiful status update. So you're not really any of the above are you? Right, so shush.

Nearly as bad are the Lurkers. They befriend and remain silent, just to the point where you forget about their existence. Then they smile smugly when you drop yourself in it. They obviously read every single flippin thing you do, see the photographs of you chucking yourself around after a few too many and then they make snippy little comments when they see you in real life. Show themselves up on the tinter'web though? Oh ho ho ho, no! Either join in, or get lost. Mmmmmkay?

I also have a problem with words like Unlike and Unfollow. Mostly because they're NOT REAL WORDS! Unhinged yes, and yes, I just might be close to being just that, unlike, no, no, no, no, NO. If you insist on dragging these faux-words into my daily life I think it only fair that I should be allowed to add a couple of my own: upsmash mother-hugging screenypops. I will, don't push me.

I have rules regarding Facebook friends. My biggest is my acceptance criteria: if I would happily go to the pub with you, sit opposite you and converse with you in the real world, then we can be friends. If you bullied me at school/met me once on a night out/once sat on the same bus as me, sorry love, but it's a no. Someone round here has to maintain standards!

I mean Facebook is great for keeping up with family and friends far away, but frankly so is Skype. And you're much less likely to irritate me with a stream of repost this message to fight depression/find a cure for cancer type/find the monster that called this puppy ugly nonsense on Skype.

So Facebook people, you're on your final warning. One more strike and you and I are quits. I mean it. Up-pull socks so they're flippin' undown!!

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A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

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A very happy Biscuit at her first football match.  Sadly it all went a little bit wrong shortly after this photograph was taken!

A cheeky Wiggles drives Mummy's car whilst sunny skies shine down on her.  Love her cheeky face beaming through the windscreen.

Apologies for the phone shots - it just happened that the things I wanted to record this week didn't seem to happen when I had my camera handy!

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

The Week That Was - Parks, Pukes and Rusty Nails....

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - It was a busy day for us!  Trina and her little boy and girl were coming over for lunch and to visit so we cleared up after the weekend then nipped to the shops to make sure we had enough for lunch for all of us.  They arrived and we had a lovely catch up and lunch before heading to the swings and to feed the ducks.  We came home and the children all watched Star Wars before they headed off back home.  The heavens opened and there was the most almighty thunderstorm and torrential rain.  I panicked and made our tea ridiculously early so that the power didn't go off in the middle of cooking (happens all the time in small villages).  Thankfully we made it ok!

Tuesday -  My car was due at the garage for its annual service and MOT so I packed up our bags for the day and Wiggles, Biscuit and I stopped it off and headed off to the park. We were met by Tilly and Em and Lucky, Belle and Dinky who were fresh back from their holiday. I'd missed them so much!!! We had a lovely time at the park together. The children played in the sand and we had lovely coffee and cake made by lovely Lucky. 

I did my best at a little photo bombing and ended up looking like Superwoman!!!

We has fish and chips for lunch followed by more playing before we picked the car up and headed home. In the evening Mr Husband and I went to the shops to buy a few essential bits and bobs. Oh yes, and ice cream!

Wednesday - Work for me. Ugh. LB clef in with her poorly leg, it was lovely to see her. At lunchtime I went to H&M to get a security tag taken off a t-shirt Mr Husband bought on Friday. I nipped to M&S to buy some cake ready for Crafty Stella's visit on Thursday. Apart from that, very dull! 

Thursday - Got up and tidied up, then after lunch we were joined for tea and cake by Crafty Stella and her two gorgeous girls. We had a good chat and a lot of cake, which is always a good sign, right? In the evening I had an early night and watched iplayer in bed (bliss) while Mr Husbabd watched Thor. 

Friday - Work for me, my lovely friend Lynne gave me a bottle of perfume (which I love) that she wasn't sure was "her". I couldn't have been more chuffed!!! 

At lunchtime I bought a gorgeous black dress from Monsoon in the sale.

After work I joined my Mum and Dad (who were in town for dinner) for a non-alcoholic cocktail. Look at this puppy!! 

I came home to a lovely tea cooked by Mr Husband. He is a sweetheart, so I treated him to this:

Saturday - my turn for a sleep, then a lovely long bath followed by cooked breakfast (mmmmm). Biscuit was very excited because she was going with Daddy to her first ever football match.  He'd promised her an Arsenal shirt and a car picnic on the way home.  She had sweets for half time and had been counting down the days with excitement.  They headed off and around an hour later Mr Husband rang me to say that Biscuit had been sick all over the back seat of the car.  I spoke to her and we put it down to travel sickness (not something she's ever really suffered from) and we'd decided that she should probably be ok to go ahead and continue.  Just as I was saying goodbye to them Wiggles stood directly in front of me and threw up all over me!  Ugh!  The smell is never a good thing is it?  Thankfully my Dad was on hand to help and I cleared up whilst he hosed poor Wiggles down.  Strangely she seemed fine and was running around nose diving into sofa cushions so after a  little while Mum and I decided to chance it and take her with us to a local vintage fair.  It was lovely.  We headed back without incident.  I had a Rusty Nail in a vain attempt to kill any germs that might have been hanging around in my system!!

We then discovered that poor Biscuit had been sick from the moment she entered the football ground and didn't even make it to her seat!  Thankfully the Emirates stewards and St John's Ambulance people were wonderful and took her and Mr Husband off to a First Aid room until she'd recovered enough to make the journey home.  When she eventually got in she went straight to bed.  I went to KFC to buy poor Mr Husband a treat to cheer him up after a pretty rotten and disappointing day.

Sunday - Mr Husband's turn for a sleep.  After he got up I went out to tackle the sicky car, which thankfully wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.  Mr Husband went to the supermarket and came back with yummy lunch and a bouquet of flowers for me to thank me for the car cleaning and the KFC mercy dash - bless him!!  Poor Wiggles and Biscuit spent the day on the sofa wrapped in the poorly blanket watching films. 

 In the after I had started to go a little stir crazy so insisted that Mr Husband and I go out for a least a walk.  It was lovely to get out in the fresh blustery air.  In the evening I decided to go for my first ever run!  I'm not even going to pretend that I don't feel pretty smug about this turn of events.  In truth it was more of a sweaty walk than a run, but I did it!  I came back and collapsed on the sofa with my jelly legs and scoffed a Magnum Gold to recover.  A girl's gotta have some perks, right?

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,