One more sleep to go ...........

I hope you're week is going well.  We break up tomorrow for a whole week and a day off school and work....yippee!

The little darling's pretty have much booked us to do something everyday next week, so by about next Wednesday I will probably be wishing I was back at work!

This is the last week of the school holidays I am able to spend at home as we open our caravan next month for another season and nearly all the school holidays are spent by the seaside - not a bad life really is it!

Enjoy your weekend and lets keep our fingers crossed for no snow next week here in sunny London.

Sue x x x

Dusting off the soapbox....

Happy Valentines Day to you all.  Hope you are all being spoilt today!  I've been very lucky and received a large bouquet of my favourite flowers - Stargazer Lillies, and the smell beautiful!

Now that the niceties are out of the way, I need to have a moan....BIG TIME.

As most of you know, I work in a school office with my 3 colleagues.  All of us are first aid trained for emergency first aid in a school.  Very basic stuff really, banged heads, cut fingers and nose bleeds...stuff like that really.  We don't actually have a 'Welfare lady' as such but we all cover the medical room.  Over the last few weeks we have had a nasty tummy bug go round the school - mostly sickness.  Last week one of our Y5 children came to us complaining of tummy pains and looked a bit pale.  He couldn't eat his lunch and felt clammy but didn't have a temperature.  He's not a usual visitor to the medical room, so we called Mum to come and collect him.  She came and reluctantly took him home.  He was back into school next day and again came to the medical room that afternoon, this time doubled over in pain and crying.  Again, we contacted Mum, who was not to impressed as she was at Tesco's shopping and had to arrange for the child's Grandad to collect him.

On Friday morning she came to the school office with her child in tow.  She told me that she was not impressed that he's been sent home twice this week and had taken him to the Doctors who confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him.  She also advised that she was going to keep him off school today as although he is perfectly well, it is a waste of time sending him in as WE KEEP SENDING HIM HOME.

Now, I explained that he had been clearly in discomfort earlier in the week but if she says there is nothing wrong with him then we will not send him home.  This mother is also a supply teacher (not at our school).  So, you'd think she'd know better.  The teacher kept sending her son to us, what are we supposed to do?  She then had the audacity to slag us off in the playground saying the school should have a  proper Welfare lady or nurse as we don't know what we are doing!  The cheek of it.

She is the sort of parent that if we didn't contact her when her little darlings were unwell - she'd still have a moan.

I know I shouldn't take it to heart but I can't help it.  I am so annoyed with her that I feel like challenging in the playground in the morning...although I know it would not be the right thing to do BUT I would feel a lot better!

Hazards of the job my boss says. 

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhh.

Have a good week.

Sue x x x

Letting go...

The hardest thing so far that I've found with being a parent is letting go, and loosing the control I had over my daughter.  Until recently, I was pretty much in control of her life in many ways - what she wore, what she ate, where she went etc.  It's been very hard to let her take over these decisions I can tell you.  I'm not a controlling person (well I don't think I am) but I like to feel in control of things...does this make sense?

She will be 15 in the summer and is very much all grown up.  So different to me as I was a young teen in the early 80's.  She has found her own identity, wears what she likes/wants and does not feel pressured to follow the trend.  I admire her for that.  But she is feeling a bit pressured to be slim, which worries me some what as I had an eating disorder in my mid teens.  It will be her prom in Jan 2012 and she wants to look her best - her words not mine.  So during the week she will not eat all day until she gets home from school.  I have tried to explain to her that this really is not a good idea but I don't want to make a big issue out of it - just yet.  She is not really starving herself as she does not stop eating the minute she gets through the door at 4pm!.  She has a lovely little figure and I've told her that her body shape will change by itself as she gets older - but why would she listen to me!

It's not easy this parent malarkey is it?

It's so easy to 'push' your children away - even if you are not really trying to.  It's a case of getting the right mix so they trust you and will confide in you but you have to remember not to be too pushy and come across as it you are prying into their lives too much.

Apparently, I was a right cowbag as a young teen - so my Dad says.  I would argue with them over the silliest things and often for no real reason at all but I always thought that they were the ones at fault.  Now I have a teen myself I can appreciate just how difficult I made my parents life! 

Is it any easier with boys, I guess not - probably same worries for different reasons.

Have a good weekend.

Sue x x x

More tea Vicar........

Friday again.....Well, where did that week go then???

You'll be pleased to hear that the new mattress is great and really comfortable too.  So, as a treat I have purchased a new duvet.  Looked into getting ours dry cleaned to threshen it up but it's costs about £15, so instead I decided to buy a nice new one as they are never really the same afterwards...can't wait to get into bed tonight now.

I had to go to the Doctors on Wednesday as I've had two migraine headaches this week. The first was on Saturday and the second on Tuesday.  I'd run out of the anti-sickness tablets so I thought I'd better go and have a chat with a Doctor.  Not very helpful really, if I'm finding that they are coming more frequently then my only option would be to take medication each day to stop them coming in the first place, which is not really something I'm keen to do.  I can just about manage with the pain of the headache itself, it's the vomiting that I find really difficult as it can go on all day and night and boy do I hurt all over for a few days after.  She's given me some stronger anti-sickness tabs and suggested I try other types of over the counter pain killers to see what works best for me.  So, we shall see how I go and hope for the best.

I'm looking to see if there is a pattern for when they strike too.  One of my main triggers is if I don't have enough to eat, or if I go too long in between meals.  My appetite is very poor anyway, so I am really making a conscious effort to eat better and graze throughout for day and not get hungry.  Also, I've noticed that my caffeine intake has gone up in the last few months.  I used to have around 5 cups of tea a day but recently it's been more like 8 or 9.  So, I'm cutting down and also having de-caf tea too, although still having the odd caffeine tea through out the day as going cold turkey on caffeine can also give you headaches.

Another quiet weekend planned for us. Becky is going on a date tomorrow to the cinema with the lad from across the road.  Although, I got told off for calling it a date as they are just friends.  This is the 2nd time they've been out and they walk home from school together each day...but they are just friends, even though he says he really likes her....but they are just friends...and she really likes him .... Oh, I give up! 

When I was her age I was still playing with Sindy dolls!  Hubby is struggling with the whole idea of his little girl having boyfriends so we are not allowed to talk about it in front of him!

Enjoy your weekend, keep warm.

Sue x x x

Spring has sprung............

No, it's not what you think.  After just over one years use, one of the springs decided to come out of the side of our mattress. Thankfully on hubby's side....phew.  Not impressed, I complained to where it was purchased from.  They tutted and rubbed chins and sent me to the manufacturer as it was outside of it's 1 year guarantee.  So, there I was all ready to give them a mouthful when they offered to send me a new one.....I was gob-smacked!  What great customer service.

So today, at 5.45am we were up and waiting for our new mattress which arrived at 6.15am.....hubby was very kind and offered to go back to bed and make sure all was good with it.....bless!

Twitter.  Is it me, 'cos I just don't get it.  I joined it a few years back but I just can't 'gel' with it.  Now Facebook I get and love but not Twitter.  All you do is 'tweet' a sentence and that's it. You wait for responses.  It really doesn't push my buttons at all.

Over Christmas we bought one of those micro-wave hot water bottle things.  All you do is put it in the micro for 2 mins and there you have a lovely toasty hot water bottle to warm up your bed.  The other night hubby put it in the micro to warm it up and clearly hadn't listened to my instructions on how long to heat it for as we heard a sound very similar to a high pitched pig squealing coming from the kitchen.  He'd left it in for 5 mins and it had blown up to the size of a large water melon.  Silly man!  Then, to add insult to injury, after it stopped squealing he took it upstairs and put it in my sons bed who put his foot on it and and burnt it..........men.  So, it is now a funny shape and probably not safe to use anymore.  Thankfully Alex's foot was ok.

Not a lot planned for us this weekend, enjoy yours.

Sue x x x

Nigella, I most certainly am not....

My Mum was a brilliant cook.  We had fresh homemade food - made from scratch everyday.  Apple pie, steak and kidney pudding, rabbit casserole, rice pudding to name but a few dishes.  I was keen to learn and would try and copy her when I was young.  But along came the '80's and with it the microwave and all of it's convenience foods.

Now, why bother to waste your time in the kitchen preparing dinner when all you have to do is pierce a couple of holes in the plastic lid and pop it in the microwave for the few minutes and.......voila! You have a tasty, ready meal for one.  Or do you?

No you don't.  And that's half the problem.  It's so easy to buy ready meals now days.  Time is short in many households and you know what it's like the kids want their dinner as soon as you walk through the door after school.

So I'm really trying to eat better, not just me the whole family but it's not easy when cooking is not really your forte is it.

So last week, I thought I'd try and make some Cornish Pasties.  I followed the recipe to the word but as I have not made pastry for nearly 28 years (since school) I flopped.  No, I flopped BIG TIME.  If we had a dog I wouldn't even have given them to him to eat.  They were awful.  Hard as nails.  Like biscuit coated mince and veg.  YUK.  So in the bin they went.....with a loud thud as they dropped to the bottom of it!

I'm now having flashes of Ria from 'Butterflies' keep coming in my mind as she was one terrible cook!

So tonight, I thought I'd get the scales and apron out again and have ago at making a Dorset Apple Bake.  Now, I was feeling a bit cocky and thought I'd add some extra ingredients - even though the recipe didn't call for it.   Why oh why did I do that?  Yes, it's edible but it would have been better without the cineman.  Then, as it was cooking, I thought I'd 'knock up' an easy cheese flan.  EASY - well that's what the recipe said (Oh, and it was from a school website for Yr 9 children, so how hard could it be??)  Well, let's just say the finished article is edible...just about.  Could have done with more cheese in it....a lot more cheese actually.

So, I'm not too dis-heartened and I will try and improve - 'cos as they say "Practice Makes Perfect" don't they.  And none of it will be wasted as I shall take it to work tomorrow and 'cos they love me they are sure to eat it.....I find the threat of a Chinese burn can work wonders too.

Have a good week.

Sue x x x

I smell something fishy.....

Firstly, I would like to say a big 'Thank you' to you all - my friends, for the lovely comments you have left on my last post.

When I re-read it back it makes me sound a little bit selfish.  I love my family very much and I don't want to rush my children in to growing up I promise.  But sometimes you get in a rut and it's then that you start to re-evaluate you life and then realise just what you do have and that you should really be very thankful indeed!

I will try to take on board some of your suggestions.  It's difficult as I can't go out in the week as hubby works till late and Becky is not really responsible enough to look after Alex on her own....yet.  The weekends seem to be taken up with chores and as Sunday is hubby's only day off we tend not to plan too much.  But I'm sure my life is no different to many other working Mum's out there.

I've not been too well this week as my asthma has been playing up - nothing too serious but I have been struggling to get my breathe at times.  So after a visit to the docs today I have been put on a course of steroids and hopefully this will help alleviate the problem.  My under-active thyroid is also being naughty, my last blood test showed it was boarder-line and I have to have another test next month and may possibly have to up my dose of medication. 

My son too has been struggling with his asthma but after a 25 minute debate with the doc on Monday he has put him on different medication and I am pleased to say he has been transformed by it.  He can now run around at play at break/lunch time and sleep through the night with out having to use his blue reliever inhaler....yay!

Can't be bothered to cook tea tonight, so it's fish and chips all round...yummy, yummy.

Boy, is this week going fast but I'm not complaining!

Take care.


Sue x x x