Last year, LBG and I had a fabulous time making Valentine's Day cards to post over with Red Ted. I just looked at the pictures and cannot believe how much her pudgey little hands have changed. It's also fair to say that her skill set has changed to. She was unexpectedly off school today with laryngitis and, despite having very little voice, made it quite clear what sort of cards she wanted to make. The idea I had was to do wax crayon … [Read more...]
No child should be left in the cold by rising fuel bills
LBG is home sick today: she has a temperature, a barking cough and has lost her voice. It's awful to hear her squeak. I know what it's like because I get laryngitis often enough. But when it's three-year-old, your three-year-old it's worse. So we are staying at home. I'm keeping her hydrated, dosing her with Calpol and Nurofen (following medical advice obviously) and have whacked on the heating to keep her warm. Because I can do that without … [Read more...]
How to make a family calendar
Last year we made a wonderful calendar after seeing Nurture Store's family calendar. It was a very simple way of showing the important dates in our lives in a sequence that LBG could understand. A year on and it's that time again. Only I made a few adjustments to the original. It all came about when I was tidying away the paper plate phonics chart we have been using to help LBG with her reading skills. It occurred to me that I could use the … [Read more...]
2012: the year of change
2011 went out in much the same way that it came in: DH and I were in bed, were disturbed briefly by what appeared to be a re-enactment of The Blitz, but which turned out to be very enthusiastic neighbourhood fireworks, then fell back to sleep. The only difference was that this year we were in someone else's bed. And for the record, I made that sound waaaay saucier than it actually was: I refer merely to the fact that DH and I were spending New … [Read more...]
How about a house-swap?
DH and I are off on an adventure with The Girls for the next few days, a story which goes back a few months to the Lottery for Olympic Tickets. We didn’t win any and in a fit of pique decided that we should leave the country. Actually, we realised that we’d be better off if DH didn’t have to travel across London every day to get to and from work, and that there would be very little that The Girls would really gain by being dragged out to … [Read more...]
Dear Father Christmas
Domestic Goddesque Beach House The Very Edge of Sanity The Kent Coast Father Christmas, Santa’s Grotto, Reindeerland, SAN TA1 Dear Santa, I'm going to jump right in because, frankly, I feel like death and just want to curl up in bed until the New Year but I have too much to do and not enough time and how the bloody hell did that happen, not least given that I was organised enough to have bought almost every Christmas gift before … [Read more...]
The Advent Adventure Continues: only two days to go!!
Today will be an odd day. DH is finally home for the holidays, and we are off to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway for our (now-) Annual Santa Special trip. We're all very excited about it, since it really marks the start of our family Christmas Celebrations. Sadly, though, it is the first Anniversary of the loss of my Gran. I'm finding it challenging to juggle the range of emotions that these things make me feel. I have been focussing … [Read more...]
