Grouchy!

I'm very tired again today. This morning we were all still asleep when the alarm went off at 8am. I'm usually up before the alarm goes off but not today. I did get going eventually though, enough to get a parcel sent off to my brother in Australia. I took it to one of the Post Office services at the local pub, a lot less stressful than going to the P.O. in town. I had a bit of a cleaning blitz in the kitchen too, scrubing down the work surfaces and tiles with a mix of bleach and bicarb of soda. The oven badly needs doing but Hubby said he'd do that soon! But I'm back to being tired again - very irritated by the phone constantly ringing and it's just people in call centres and sometimes they rig it so that when you pick up the phone, it calls them so you end up paying for the call. They ought to be prosecuted! Trying to help Honor with her homework is very draining too. I wish Primary kids didn't get homework.

I'm starting to get niggling pains with my teeth, too. Just in time for Christmas. Boo!

Yum!

I'm just cooking some steak and chips for tea. Yummy, but not as yummy as the fabulous Indian meal Jancy cooked for us last night. We went to Glenn and Jancy's house for dinner last night. It was a lovely evening, catching up with my old teaching friends. I like to dabble in a bit of flower arranging now and then so this was an excuse for me to make a little something for the table. I got the gold and black mosaic vase from TK MAX and used that as inspiration. The kids went for sleepovers with Grandparents except for Hope. We picked her up on the way home. Although we left the in-laws with her moses basket and sleeping bag, she didn't sleep and kept them pretty busy that evening. She was desperate for a feed too. Actually, earlier that day, we had a bit of a scare. We went to the school xmas fair and while there I had a burger. She kept trying to grab it so I thought she'd be ok to eat a piece of bread. Unfortunately, she choked on it and Hubby had to give her a bit of a whack on the back to bring it up. Very scary. No-one else batted an eyelid, though!

And one of our chickens died. Hubby found her huddled up by the pond yesterday.

My beautiful girls again!

Here is Hope helping Honor with her Kumon. Start 'em early, I say!

Finished.

I've finished clearing Henry's bedroom and Hubby managed to put together the bed-in-the-box

from Homebase even though on one of the poles the holes were drilled on the wrong side! I've put little xmas trees in both their rooms as we're not having a big tree this year.

Clearing out.

My father-in-law came round this morning to help with replacing the old skirting board to match the new door (see pic). Meanwhile, getting down xmas decorations has lead to clearing out and reorganisation around the house. Why? Cos it just does! I'm fed up with trying to change the sheet on Henry's midi sleeper bed and I thought it would give him more space in his room. More space to accumulate clutter. He doesn't play under there, not enough room. So Hubby and I have agreed to replace it with a normal bed. It is such a tiny room. I have cleared everything out for now and will try to work out a better system for it (getting rid of lots of 'stuff') in the process.

Cooking Day.

Henry made scotch eggs again, slightly overdone, but will do for tomorrows' breakfast. And Honor made lemon and lime cheesecake. A very easy recipe from CBeebie's 'I Can Cook'.

Christmas pretty.

It is the first day of Advent today (ok, it was Sunday) and Hope is almost 8 months old (tomorrow). So today I put up the advent display, changed the nature table to a winter theme and decorated the fire place. I'm not sure if there'll be anymore decorating for Christmas as I was thinking of keeping it fairly simple this year (no tree!!!). But the kids want me to turn the study into a fun grotto like I did last year, so I'll probably do that again nearer the weekend.

Hope's progress, for the record is... she has 4-5 breastfeeds per day, plus 3 meals of mashed food and doesn't seem to mind at all what goes into her mouth! (She can feed herself with rice cakes).She is not quite sitting up yet (maybe for a few seconds but can't hold herself for long) and is crawling about. In fact today was the first day she made it into another room! She waves when you wave to her and seems to understand the verbal command for wave too. She is completely fascinated with her brother and sister (well, who isn't?) and responds particularly well to Honor. She sleeps very well, 2 long naps (2-3hrs) per day and sleeps through the night most nights. She does not have any teeth but loves to blow raspberries ans makes babababa and dadadada sounds (but not mamamama!). I don't know how much she weighs as I've not been to the clinic since August. She like TV (sorry) and her favourite programmes are Waybuloo and Loose Women!

I'm nearly done with my Christmas Shopping. I went out and did some today, hoping to get it finished, but it's so time consuming and bloomin' busy. So I've still a few more bits to get.