Walk in the woods

Today, Sunday, we went for a walk in a place called Strickland's Glen. It was pleasant enough, a series of pathways lead down through the woods eventually leading out onto the shore. There were some streams leading into a lake, you can see in one of the photos one of the little waterfalls. I thought it was pretty and I am only sorry I did not do some serious photography I guess I did not plan it well enough.

We had some maggots left from the children's fishing on Friday so we got rid of them today too - feeding the fish was a gross experience for me.

Sol walked great today, her two year old legs held up well. The sea was choppy when we reached the shore so she was a put scared of the sound the waves made, she managed though.

On the way back we thought we would be lazy and picked up a couple bags of chips, and some goujons for tea which pleased everyone, even if I have got indigestion now!





This evening was calm, we just sat in the garden savouring the last few minutes of sunshine. the children bounced on the trampoline and played on the kiddie cars until it was time for them to go to bed at 8 o'clock.

From bad to good

The week did not start off well! A friend passed away - in our old house just up the road from where we live now we grew to love the couple next door. I will never forget the support they offered us when our baby Molly was lost, those days shortly afterwards were pretty dark - and our neighbours were there for us. Good times and bad, and despite the age difference we had a laugh many an afternoon spent chatting. Robert Alexander Martin passed suddenly on the 15th May, the funeral was Tuesday, it was a sad day.



Monday - we got a visit from a friend. Not sure if the friend was visiting us or just wanted a run out in her new car teehee. It was a pleasant afternoon just sitting in the garden watching our nine children run round crazy. Those children are a hungry bunch too - you want to have seen the plate of sandwiches they polished off in ten seconds.



Tuesday was the funeral as I already mentioned, it put a damper on the rest of the day.



Thursday saw us head off to a neighbouring village with the children. Roy had left early that day to go to Manchester, so we had use of the big car. I had left the children's glasses prescriptions in at our optician so the plan was to collect three of the four pairs. I met with some friends and we had a very pleasant afternoon chatting and walking, while the kids munched away on crisps and ice lollies. I also picked up a couple presents for our friend whose birthday was Friday 23rd. We got her a ginger bread smelly candle, it was gorgeous and i could have easily kept it for myself. Far nicer than any of the yankee candles I have mmmm. We also got her a tiny glass perfume bottle for her dressing table, she loved it and I have to agree it was so pretty.



After getting the kids into bed I made our friend a birthday card. I used some pressed lavender flowers that another friend had given me and put it in a little vase on the front of some co ordinating lavender card. I also made two little sachets and put some dried lavender in them and popped them inside the card. Its been a long time since I made a card for someone - done plenty of scrap booking but no cards. I love spending time in my little craft room, its upstairs away from the rest of the house so I can just leave stuff laid out as I like.



here is the card






Friday - we visited the friend whose birthday it was and had the best morning sitting in her sun room while the children played out side. The friend was delighted to see us and it restored some spirit in us, we are not so bad after all. That was a nice ending to the week that started off rubbish. In the evening Roy took the children fishing, leaving Sol and I at home for some nice quiet 'sit down' time, I did a little scrapbooking and some laundry!

Saturday - the children did not wake early for a change so Roy and I had a nice cup of tea in bed and a read at our books. When we did make the effort to get up Roy cut the grass and I headed off into the town with two of the children to drop them at chess club. Instead of coming home I took a walk round the shops, picking up a few bargains from Boots and Asda. When we got home it was time to make tea, then time rolled on to the children's bedtime. Come 11pm we were sat laughing at how boring our lives were, Saturday night with a Muller chocolate corner yoghurt thing and a cup of tea with endless episodes of CSI and Criminal Minds.

Families

I am not talking about my immediate family i.e. husband and four children but other (so called) family members here.

I had the wind taken from my sails last week - I found some nasty things written about me on an Internet blog. There is an old saying that goes something like "you can think it, but you cant say it", oh I don't know the saying but you get the gist. Well this was written, and it shocked me at the desperate measures some people would go to to try damage my family, and my reputation of being a good mother and wife. Well it didn't work - sure I was hurt, and to be perfectly honest I was devastated that such things could be said about me.

That person wont win, never, ever - I will always be better than she. I guess I don't have to live with her, and that I am thankful of. Those writings which I discovered led to a family dispute which ended up in me questioning the last 37 years of my life. With both my natural parents dead now - the people I thought loved me, I have discovered don't - turns out everything was a charade. Past 30 odd years of believing gone because people took sides, rather than facing up to a few days of disharmony and discussions.

My children are devastated. I broke the news to my eldest this week he knew something was wrong so we decided not to lie to him, and my second eldest came to realise things were not right either. Tears shed, young fragile spirits broken and sadly they got their first taste of real hurt - I ache for them.

8th May 2008 - Seb's operation

I wish I had more to say this evening, but I am utterly exhausted so I will spare you the gory bits and keep this short.

He made it through! Seb had his operation and mummy survived although ten very short fingernails later. I know this is routine stuff but it is quite overwhelming sitting there whilst people work around you trying to put your baby to sleep for an operation.
They had to stick him a number of times in both hands and feet - he was just determined not to make it easy. In the end the anaesthetist gave him gas and from there on in it was plain sailing (thank goodness - I don't think I would have coped).

He recovered quickly and got home this afternoon which was great for the family too. Toni had been upset all morning, last time she knew someone go into hospital they passed away so I think this was playing on her mind.
and Sol - well she didn't miss me much, just her 'ga-gums' which is her word for the milk which only I can supply.

DEAR DIARY (2nd May 2008)

Lunch was at 12 today, and that was the end of formal lessons as the children have worked particularly hard this week. The weather was too nice to stick around the house so we packed a picnic and headed into the village. Three hours playing hide and seek, making daisy chains, playing with two other children we met, went by unnoticed.

A brief visit to the park put the children in good stead for the walk home.

We stopped at the post office to cash a postal order, and the children ended up helping the post man! They helped empty the pillar box, the Mag & Seb proceeded to carry the parcels and mail bags out to the van, chatting all the while with the friendly post man. We know the post master well, so there is no issue about this, in fact its nice to be able to do this sort of thing as it would not happen in the city!

On the walk home we came across a friendly man operating a small digger outside a house he was doing work on. The digger driver noticed the Seb watching him intently so he put on a little ‘digger display’ for us. He demonstrated how he could lift his bucket up and down, and managed to scoop up some tools for us too – we thanked him and went on our way. By the time we got home it was tea time and this is where I will end.