One word? When seven would do…

Ducks, swans and moorhens

Of the genuine variety as opposed to my google ad game! Yesterday we went to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust in Arundel with Activeo . We met up with Chris and Julie and the twins and had a nice couple of hours walking round looking at all the birds and their chicks. We then had lunch in the cafe there which was less of a success as between them the four children kept a constant fuss of one or another of them for the duration of the meal!

Then we came home and walked round the shop together. Monster found some popcorn someone had dropped and spent the rest of the walk finding clues about who could have dropped it, which included flower petals, stickes, stones and so on. That feels like all we did yesterday really, and as the children are driving me mad while I try and type this I don’t think its wise for their wellbeing to continue it just now so will blog more later…

I’ve got email!

Biggest event of the day really was that I have now got email showing my magazine name. Children were wrecking the house, untidying all the tidying, screaming like banshees and generally being horrid while Jax (who truly deserves some sort of award for patience shown in the extreme to computer illiterate folk like me! thanks again Jax :-))sorted me out via yahoo chat, so hurrah!

So to get back to the rest of the day APRICOTS* we did a fair bit of tidying before my grandmother arrived, we hoovered all of upstairs, cleaned upstairs bathroom, dusted the bedrooms, changed Monsters room around a bit to make some more space, got everyone dressed and got the first load of washing on. Great Granny then arrived and in the manner of people who have not had children around them since their own grandchildren (the youngest of whom is my brother, now 28!)said she had brought them some sweets which of course they demanded upon hearing about them, which meant lunch was a bit of a non starter a mere half hour later, then CHEESE as Monster had an audience he was not up for sitting nicely and eating his lunch – with much cajoling he did actually eat it all but Teeny barely ate one quarter of her sandwich. ROSEMARY, PETUNIAS, GRAPEFRUITS, NOSTALGIC, DRAGONS, TOOTHPASTE.

Great Granny finally left when I said we needed to get ready to go out for the afternoon, which left us free to get another load of washing on, peg two loads out, hoover the stairs, assorted shouting at children, FRENCH KNICKERS, and sorting of email addresses. BONNIE AND CLYDE.

I then relented for being evil mummy from the dark side and we had half an hour play with the playdough, while I made a stegasaurus from the air drying clay I bought last week – quite pleased with it actually, it has just the right mix of cartoon versus realism – oh who am I kidding its a three inch pink clay replica of a 50 foot long extinct creature from millions of years ago but we know what its supposed to be! CARROTS, LAMB SHANK, HAIRDRESSER. Then a quick hoover up of the scattered playdough, a touch more shouting at the children before tea was served. Ady arrived home shortly after plates of baked beans, potato waffles and turkey dinosaurs (greeted with much excitement those I can tell you!) EVAPORATED MILK. and took over the kids while I had ten minutes of time out!

Then milk and sleep for Teeny, milk and begging me not to leave from Monster as my parents arrived to look after them for a couple of hours while we went to say goodbye and help with last minute loading of vans with our friends who are moving to Ireland tomorrow – GUINNESS. Home again for 10pm, Ady cooked up sausage and mash which we have eaten in shifts as Teeny awoke soon after we got home and is currently nestled in his arms while I blog before retiring to bed. HAWAII, BEDFORD, ANGELINA JOLIE, CORONATION STREET.

* for those who hadn’t guessed my odd selection of random and totally irrelevant words in capital letters is for the benefit of google ads, I’m desperate to see if I can get it to come up with something hilarious off the back of them! The words are totally random, but no doubt a pyschologist could find some subliminal messages hidden in them from deep within my consciousness!

Banana, fish, bucket, pants!

Anyone else frequently amused by the google ads thrown up by their blog – the latest on mine is dinosaurs and house removals – wondered what it would make from the title above!

Another good day yesterday, we went to staunton with Chris and Julie and the twins and despite being a bad day weather wise we managed to avoid the rain and even had a bit of sunshine while we ate our picnics. The four children all got on so well again, apparantly the twins, J&M are a bit cautious and Chris and Julie were saying they are surprised how well they have taken to us, M proved this by sitting on Ady’s lap for a story and then sitting with me and pointing to all her dolly’s body parts when I asked where they were. They brought up the topic of babysitting again, don’t really know how they think it would work as we do live about 15 miles away from them, so I guess it would involve one of us going over there for an evening to look after the twins or one of them coming over here to look after ours, we’ll wait till they bring it up again and find out how they had thought it would happen! We normally leave them shortly after lunch but yesterday they invited us back for a cup of tea so we did and didn’t get home till nearly 6pm – very late for us. Luckily the kids ate the rest of the picnic in the car on the way home so they didn’t need tea, and both fell asleep quite early having run around like small lunatics all day with the twins! I’m not sure what photos Ady took of the day so will blog some later if there are any nice ones.

Today I have great tidying plans – Monsters room specifically is very messy – he’s got lots of stuff in there which looks nice when its all in its proper homes and a complete shambles when its scattered about like it is now! He is also really into dismantling things like tissues and cotton wool and often does it when he’s going to sleep, so there are bits of tissues and funny rolled up scraps of cotton wool everywhere too. Our room needs a hoover and the bathroom needs a huge hoover as kids have been playing with sparkly powder again, donwstairs the sofas need their covers washing, luckily the spare set for the first time ever has been put away clean so thats achievable, there are at least two other loads of washing to do and the playroom needs some serious attention (this includes my computer area too – I need to make some proper space for my tiny times stuff and clear away some of the other redundant work stuff.

Tonight we are going round to our friends who are moving to Ireland, their removal people arrive tomorrow so we are going to say goodbye and give them a hand with any last minute packing stuff, Mum and Dad are babysitting. In about an hour my grandmother is supposed to be coming round for a bit so I really should get myself and the kids dressed and tidy at least the lounge before she arrives. We have already made some handprints and footprints this morning as additional logos and Monster was very calculating too – he did his, Teeny did hers then he said ‘oh look Mummy, theres some paint left still’, I thought he was going to ask to do some more and as both of them were already cleaned up was going to say no, when he said ‘so you better do your footprints too’ so I did! They are all drying now and as mine came out quite well I think I might scan them and make them smaller and have my own on there too!

Let’s go fly a kite!

are y’all singing yet?! Had a good day today, Ady did some gardening in the morning and Monster assisted (well hindered really but some nice father son bonding time anyway!) while Teeny and I did some ‘womens work’ and went to the newly opened Waitrose and did the food shopping!

Teeny was so cute all the way round, she let me listen to my Will Young cd in the car instead of demanding Peter Pan or Toy Story soundtracks, sat in the trolley and made her little chattering noises, took shopping off me to put in the trolley, chose the yoghurts for her and Monster’s puddings (Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine for any interested parties in brand recognition in 19 month old girls!) and then helped load it all on the conveyer belt too. I even gave her a carrier bag and passed her the lightest stuff to pack too. We really should do more of having one to one time with the kids – last week I took Monster to see Shrek 2 while Ady stayed at home with Teeny and that was nice too. However Teeny kept looking for Monster in his car seat, in the trolley next to her and was thrilled when we got home and he came running to greet us (with a milk bottle full of buddleas he had picked for me!), and last week at the cinema Monster kept asking what Teeny would be doing and kept back some sweets to share with her.

The kids came in the house with me while Ady tidied up outside and helped me put the shopping away and make a picnic lunch (I say helped in the loosest possible definition you understand!) then we set off for Drusillas. Halfway there we suddenly saw all these huge colourful things bobbing over the downs and turned a corner to see a field full of kites and windsocks, signposted as Brighton Kite Festival we pulled over and went on in. And had a great time.

Photos below show some of the sights, there were literally hundreds of kites, some enormous ones, some teeny tiny ones and a big arena in the middle with stunt kites, multiple flying, and loads more. Monster had a go at the free kite workshop (you can see him flying it in one of the pics) and the kids had a great time running round like loonies in the field, pointing at all the colours and getting blustered about by the wind. Then we had a quick go on the crooked house and caterpillar train rides. Cheap, fun and a good day out!

Went over to my parents for a couple of hours and I told Dad about our financial situation, he will no doubt busy himself with going off to think about it all now, but despite crying while I told him and getting a bit of a lecture I feel so much better that he knows, my guilt about the whole thing has lifted a bit, the worlds still turning, and better days are just around the corner!

Tomorrow we are meeting up with Chris and Julie which is always a good day and next week is largely unplanned so far, will think about some stuff to do each day and plan in some advertising space selling time too.

Monster flying his kite 

Monster amid some kites and windmills 

cute pic of the kids in our bed yesterday morning 

Sarah’s Friday Four

well everyone else is doing it so I might as well join in!!

1. How many times have you moved house in your life (now, work out the average number of moves per year of your life … !! We all know Merry is a hot favourite for the most here but her children might do better …)

Not many actually, lived in one house till I was four then parents moved into the house they still live in. I moved out into a flat with Ady, then we moved in with my parents for a month while we completed on the house we bought, where we lived for ten years till we moved up North, but we kept the house and moved back into it again which is where we are now – so four different addresses, although two of them have been lived in twice.

2. Do you have a moving highlight or disaster you can tell us about?

I don’t recall moving when I was four, the move to live with DH was not a total one – left most of my clothes and stuff at my parents, then moved back into my parents for a month or so which involved chucking all our possessions in the back of our cortina and unloading them again into my old childhood bedroom! Moving in here for the first time was fairly chaotic – Ady crashed the car the day before we were moving and we were penniless and had to fix the busted radiator by going to a scrapyard and buying one then getting a friend to bodge it as a moving in pressie! We then for some very odd reason decided to move everything we owned into this house over the course of just one day using said Cortina – this included a flat packed kitchen and bathroom, all our clothes, a bed, kitchen stuff, two TVs and various odd donated pieces of furniture – the spare room was literally full – you couldn’t even open the door fully and if the cats went in there it could be days before they found their way out again! Moving up north and then back again was all done by Pickfords – although there was a wobble when we moved back here a couple of months ago and when Ady checked the kitchen cupboards he found they had missed all our fragile stuff from the kitchen, which ended up piled around the kids and cats in our people carrier, loose and with a chinking clinking sound every time we went round a corner for the full 250 mile trip!

3. What’s your favourite place you’ve lived and why?

I guess it would have to be here – its my first home, it’s grown with us from a little two bedroomed bungalow to a four bedroomed house, and may even grow again if we have our way, its light and airy, I like the views, I like the location and I just feel very sentimental about it!

4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

America. Don’t laugh but I really feel thats where I should live – to the extent that when I see it on telly I almost feel homesick. I have a dream of us in small town america in a little wooden cladded open plan style house living in a town where nothing ever goes wrong and everyones a bit like in the Brady Bunch…

A much better day – even quite a productive one!

Have spent the whole day sat on the lounge floor with the laptop going through all the free local papers and the county wide parenting mag getting all the details from the people who advertise in them, I know I will be cheaper than them and have focused on companies and businesses who are specifically in this town to ensure they will be of interest to my select group of potential readers.

I also had a reply from the woman who runs something similar up north with some handy hints and well wishes, which was nice. She is also sending me the latest copy of her mag which will help no end in trying to explain to people what I mean, give me some ideas for layout and subject matters and helped no end with my confidence to hear someone who has done it, made a success of it and is willing to be a bit of a mentor to me!

Have been thinking about my website and got lots of ideas for that once its up and running too – if any bloggers think any of their sites might be of interest to parents to be and parents upto aged 10 children let me know and we can sort out some link exchanges or something. I’ve also pretended to be a potential customer and asked for prices and stuff for advertising in a couple of similar type publications which will be helpful too.

The kids have been pretty good today – yesterday we were all badly behaved but today I had a lot more patience and they reacted by behaving better. They spent all day around me, Teeny had a good nap this morning which gave Monster a chance to have some one to one time – which he chose to use having an early lunch without interuptions – odd child! Then we had a bit of a book reading session and then Monster asked to do some painting -erm no! – so I dug out a couple of those magic painting books where you just brush water over the picture and colours appear on the page – they both spent quite a while doing a book each before deciding that Teeny was going to be a flying painted dancer (no I don’t know either, and it sounds a bit exotic and not at all the thing Ady will be proud of her for in her teenage years) which meant Monster painted the outside cover of the book (all pages had been torn out once completed as presents for mummy!) with water to create the ‘wet board’ (again I don’t know!) and Teeny painted herself to look pretty for her dance – this involved her putting loads of water on the picture till a puddle of colour appeared then daubing her legs, arms, hands and feet with it till she looked like the mad tattooed woman of old tattoo town, the dance never actually happened but the preparations were enough entertainment in themselves!

We also did some sticker book work – I bought Monster a first 100 words in spanish book which he started working through – basically finding the stickers and matching them to the pictures which have spanish words underneath instead of english – so a bit premature for someone who can’t read but I told him how to say the words and he had a pretty good bash at repeating and remembering them. Teeny did a reusable sticker farmyard scene and enjoyed that too.

Mum appeared just before the kids dinner and stayed for about an hour – quite nice and low key, they have arrangements for the weekend and so do we so probably just a flying visit with them tomorrow – its quite odd since we moved home we don’t seem to have actually spent that much time with them which is ironic considering how much they were looking forward to having us home.

So a mellower day really, not much education in any sort of formal manner gone on, but kids have enjoyed playing around my feet as I worked so to speak which is both nice as I couldn’t have done with being evil mummy again today and cos it shows they can which is promising for success of my fledgling business and ability to work round them at home.

my logo – think it might come out rubbish but you’ll get the idea! 

and….relax!

I was a pretty crap Mummy today really, both kids really created cos I was on the computer or the phone most of the day. I did try and be patient but tended to do more shouting and stomping and crying than educating or being kind, caring and the sort of mother who would put Supernanny out of business! (which is of course my usual persona!!!!). Made it all up with both kids before bedtime though, Teeny fell asleep in my arms and I’m guessing she will have her revenge by waking in the middle of the night and getting my full and undivided attention for hours then! Monster was all ecstatic about Daddy coming home and had his milk and cuddle with him instead of me, then came over to say that I had a curl, lots of further questioning finally deciphered that he was talking about the children’s rhyme:
there was a little girl and she had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead;
when she was good, she was very very good and when she was bad she was horrid!
I used to say that to them quite a bit, especially when Teeny was very small and was a bit like that. So he qualified that later when he was just falling asleep by telling me that I am ‘super lovely’, and even when he’s cross with me he still loves me, and that he was cross with me today and wanted to tell me off but he couldn’t cos I kept shouting at him. Very cute and very guilt-creating! Alls well that ends well though!

So positives from today – Ady still loves me despite the huge debts and tells me everything is okay and we all have each other and we’ll be fine, the lovely support from you guys, and pretty much everyone else i have shared our predicament with, I have done some research into our options and as i am convinced this is a temporary blip and I can earn sufficient to put us back on track again within the next couple of months I am going to have a bit of a chat with my dad and see if he can help us out a bit for a while. It might just be the impetus I need to shove me into actually getting on with my business idea and everything happens for a reason so either I needed this wake up call to sort myself out or we will win the lottery on Saturday and all will be well once more! Am I positive and optimistic or simply foolish and head in the sand!? Never mind at least calm is restored once more in the house.

Tomorrow my Mum is off work and I think she wants to do something with us and then (I can’t believe its come around again so quickly) its the weekend! At least we already bought season tickets to drusillas and paradise park so we can go and see animals and dinosaurs whenever we want for free!!

On the subject of getting off my arse and sorting the magazine I have a name for it and almost a website! It will be called Tiny Times and when the site is in a decent state I will let you all know. Jax is being a superhero and helping me and its being hosted through codeplacidly too, and I’ve sorted a logo – which I will attempt to blog later. Its very basic – my own handwriting saying tiny times and instead of dots on the two ‘i’ s there are handprints courtesy of Monster (we did footprints and Teeny did some handprints too but his came out the best so we’ve gone with them!)and I think I might do some more footprints from Teeny to go round it as a frame. Tomorrow and over the weekend I’m going to firm up my advertising rates and draw up a contents list for the first issue and a list of places to contact next week to get some advertisers organised, by this time next week I will have some definates and I plan for the first issue to be September & October (it will be every two months) so it will need to be ‘out’ and printed by the end of August, at the printers mid August which gives me a month to sell all the space, write all the articles and sort the layout – erm no problem?!

Anyway thats it – don’t want to curse it by mentioning it really but Teeny slept through the night for the first time in weeks last night, don’t for one minute expect it again tonight but it was lovely! Thanks for listening to my self pitying wailing, I think its all out of my system for now!

serious wobbles at our house!

Have just ‘come down’ from having a bit of a moment! Finances seem to be going from bad to worse – just got some redirected mail from old address and discovered that Ady’s tax code has been changed due to his company car and he now gets no personal allowance at all – can’t quite work it out but it looks to be about £125 a month additional tax to be paid – just when we really can’t afford it and there is actually no ‘benefit’ to him having the company car – he literally just uses it for work – not even to travel to and from work as he is on the road and only goes to the office once a week – phoned the tax office who said that unless he leaves the car at work every night it is considered to be a company car and therefore a taxable benefit. we don’t use it as we have a people carrier anyway and it makes Monster carsick – so even selling our car and just using that is not an option – admittedly it does save us about the £100 a month (I am assuming that is all it is and desperately hoping its not more – otherwise we really are in trouble)in not having the second car to tax insure and run, but the car is a total necessity to do his job rather than an enjoyed benefit. So after phoning him and the tax office and shoving Monster quite roughly for spitting at Teeny while I was on the phone I retired to the bedroom for a big sob! It was not long before I heard two sets of footsteps creeping up the stairs and in came the troops! Monster went off to find tissues, wiped my face, asked why I was crying ‘I am sad’ why was I sad ‘grown up stuff’, what grown up stuff? ‘money’, what about money? ‘we don’t have enough’, oh well don’t be sad anymore, I’ve wiped the tears away so now you can be happy. Teeny (who for some reason was wondering round with Monster’s Buzz Lightyear toothebrush) climbed onto my lap for a cuddle, pointed at my tears and said ‘uh-oh’ then brushed my teeth! I am now feeling a little more composed and determined to be practical and sort stuff out. (but still a few tears escaping onto the keyboard!)

So to resume normal blogging – yesterday was an eye opener really. We walked into Lancing in the morning through the alleyways and took back a couple of books – and got about 25 more! I got about 10 on stuff like working from home, working for yourself, setting up a business etc and the kids chose about another 15 between them – Monster got lots of ones about bodily functions and what makes us work and Teeny got some poem ones (with help from me!), home for lunch and then out to Rachel’s house. Another friend was there who used to meet with us before we moved up north, her daugher EL is the same age as Rachel’s E and she has just had a second daughter – K who is 5 weeks old. Have not seen EL since she was about 18 months old and she is a gorgeous nearly four year old little girl now – quite tough and tomboyie, and seemingly quite unaffected by a little sister arriving. She will be starting school in September and Kerry (her mum) was telling us the nightmare of getting her into the ‘right’ school including attending church and getting the minister to sign forms to say she had and all sorts. For once the topic of HE did not come up and as it didn’t I didn’t say anything – of course she may already have been briefed by Rachel and decided not to bring it up.

E was a real little monster yesterday – there was him, EL, Monster, Teeny and the little baby there and he just went wild, he was lashing out at all the other children, specifically Monster who seems to be a bit of a target for him, he was taking toys off them, trying to spoil any games they were playing and generally being bullyish and boarish with the others. Rachel, by her own admission, does not know what to do and feels she has lost control, she took him away a couple of times, I believe he got at least two smacks but he just kept coming back into the room, being rude to her and continuing doing what he was doing, he shouts at her and sticks his tongue out when she is telling him off. She is worried as the new baby is due in September, and E is due to start school in January full time. She actually asked for our advice and said she doesn’t know what to do next. I told her that I get that sort of behaviour (although not as extreme) from Monster but only ever in our own house, when there is just him, me and Teeny there and he is attention seeking. I can always either remedy it by giving him some positive attention, distracting him with something or if all else fails removing him until he understands what he’s done and apologised. Rachel tends to spend most afternoons sitting playing with E giving him her full attention and it would seem that he is just reacting to the change in this when other grown ups are talking to his mummy instead of him, and other children are playing with his toys. Also watched Supernanny last night and am feeling, certainly not smug but content that we are doing the right things to ensure our children have rules, boundaries and know what is and isn’t acceptable, whilst giving them sufficient time and attention to ensure they feel valued and don’t need to kick up the instant they don’t have attention for a short while. The other thing from Supernanny, and even from Rachel and E is the talking – I talk to mine all the time, explaining what we are doing, why we are doing it and reasoning and rationalising stuff with them, clearly Teeny is too young to grasp this but Monster does have a basic understanding that if he wants me to stay home and look after him and learn with him here instead of him going to school or other daycare then the trade off is that he lets me have some time to work on the computer, make phonecalls or whatever – it doesn’t always happen but he knows it should! It seems maybe a bit cruel to put that pressure onto a three year old but life is about compromise, making things work, having consideration for others, self discipline and so on so at the very least he is gaining some valuable life skills I guess.

Anyway enough of the poor old me with no money but see what a great parent I am stuff – the whole point is I should be out there drumming up some advertisers so off I go!

Mean old shouty mummy, that’s me!

Pretty pooh day really although I don’t actually feel too down about it. Went to the bank first thing to transfer money about – without going into too much detail we are financially in a bas position at the moment – Ady took a pay cut when we moved and I currently have no salary at all – as I have consistantly lived above our means for the last however many years this is quite serious for us. A relatively small amount of earning by me would remedy this for now if we spent wisely, and I am sure Ady’s salary will be increased within a fairly short timescale too so I see it as very short term, but the less additional debt we can incur during this period the better….erk!

So this additional head stuff has made me all impatient and shouty with the kids today and as a result I seem to have done little with them other than tell them off! I know that’s probably not the case and I have noticed that Teeny is being especially loving and affectionate with me recently. In terms of HE I feel really confident at the moment, both kids are clearly thriving, I feel totally able to continue this well past school starting age. Fortunately as Monster is one year away and Teeny is three years away from school starting age and the childcare costs of two children would impact severly on any salary I could earn having been out of the traditional workplace for four years it is not even an issue that we go down that route.

Yesterday was my Mums birthday, we went into town in the morning to get her pressie and then onto Asda to do the food shopping – both kids sat in the trolley and were so sweet till about half way round taking it in turns to want cuddles, then they started this game of shouting and seeing who was the loudest – luckily most of the looks we got from other shoppers were either indulgent or sympathetic but I’d rather they hadn’t done it! Then home and Mum came over to share birthday cake, blowing out candles etc and being sung happy birthday to by the children before they went to bed, then Mum, Dad and bro came over for dinner later in the evening. Today bank again and then I gave the kids the choice of what to do and they wanted to play in the house all afternoon. I also decided to make the logo for my magazine and wanted a handprint and footprint for it so got the kids to do some painted prints for me, which have now dried and have been scanned in ready for me to do some arty stuff with!

Tomorrow we need to take some library books back and we are going to Rachel’s in the afternoon, Thursday is as yet unplanned and Friday my Mum is off and wants to do something. I planned to get some serious work done on my magazine tonight but a friend arrived then we watched wife swap and now Big Brother and I’ve done nothing.

So as usual I’ve blogged myself round in a big circle – we need more money, I’ve got a business idea which would provide it, really I just need to get off my backside and make it happen!

Socialisation? sometimes you just have too much of it!

Mad, mad weekend really – after the guests who just didn’t leave last night we dragged ourselves out of bed and packed the picnic for a day out with Chris and Julie – we were half an hour late and when we pulled up at their house the family car was missing – Ady went in and Chris was there with the kids but Julie was commentating at a horse show all day – it was a bit of a confusion and I’m still not sure whether I had gotten confused about which weekend it was or Julie was supposed to ring to change it but we had a nice couple of hours with Chris and the kids anyway! The four cousins all get along well now and its so heartwarming to see them all playing together when you consider how Ady and Chris should have grown up together like that but didn’t. Chris and Julie still see a bit of Chris and Ady’s mother but they are not sure it is doing any of them any good and Ady certainly has no wish at all to make contact with her – and after hearing some of their tales I don’t want her anywhere near my children!

We left there and went onto another couple of friends who have moved house while we were up north just along the road from where they were before. Loved their new house – very cottagey – built in 1700 and something with loads of cure features and a huge garden… still pondering on what we’re going to do house wise but I think we have come to a decision to do nothing for the rest of this year at least. We will live with the fact that Teeny is downstairs in her bedroom – quite frankly the nights she stays there and doesn’t end up in our bed are few and far between anyway – and all the time she’s in a cot it is all academic as she can’t go anywhere anyway. It will then give us time to see how Ady’s job is panning out and whether there are decent enough prospects to keep him on that corporate ladder or not! After moving only two months ago neither of us can quite face doing it all again quite so soon and we have a few plans to improve the garden and make it bigger and more child friendly. We are going to hold back the missold endowment money we planned to use for the extension and when the architect finally comes to tell us that the planning permission has been refused we will talk to him about scope for extending the kitchen so we can still have the kitchen we wanted…in the meantime that means I can have a serious bash at my business idea and see if there is any mileage in it or not. We plan to think about it all again at the end of this year and decide whether to get a bigger mortgage (hopefully either Ady’s job will have yielded a payrise or my business will be operating at a profit) and move somewhere bigger locally, stay here a bit longer and see what happens or sell up and either do the post office thing or go travelling with beads in our hair and rings on our toes!

Which leads me quite tidily to my business idea… it’s not a particularly new or radical one but it encorporates both what I know, what I’m good at, what I have previous experience in and something I know has worked for others. Basically I am looking to start up a very local parenting magazine. I first had the idea when we moved up north and I struggled to find friends, contacts, details of where to go for toddler groups, where was family friendly and so on. There was a local parenting magazine run for an area which was too far out to be relevant to me but I got friendly with the woman who did it as we advertised in it eventually and it was very good. It inspired me to do something slightly different. I had the idea of doing a very local parenting mag for the town we lived in which would list all the what’s ons from toddler groups to family events, features on family friendly restuarants, places to get childrens haircut, buy kids clothes, support groups for all aspects of parenting – breastfeeding, homebirth, c-section support, PND right through to sleep clinics, behaviourists, cranial osteopaths, baby massage, kids gymnastics, swimmin lessons etc etc etc, giveaways and competitions, parents handy hints and tips, readers letters, funny stories, lighthearted stuff and more serious articles, money off vouchers, roundups of where special offers were on nappies, baby food etc and loads more. I had conducted two interviews of relevant people and places and lined up some potential advertisers and giveaways – and found a couple of places willing to carry it on their counters when Boss Lady offered me a ready made job with a good wage and I copped out and took it!

So now we’re back in the town I grew up in and know really well and aside from a county wide (Sussex) parenting mag which is very glossy, very focused on Brighton and in my opinion too full of adverts, editorials for the companies who advertise and lots of information but very little ‘personal’ stuff there is no competition. It will use my skills in selling advertising space, writing, giving the opportunity to smaller local businesses to reach their target market by very low cost, specific advertising, produce the sort of magazine I (and the friends I have pitched the idea to) would like to read, hopefully turn in some money for me and give me something productive to do – as the littlies get older it will be something they can learn about and even help with, it won’t really take anything of me away from them, any research can be done with them in tow – indeed will be better done with them in tow!

So my to do list is to draw up a list of potential advertisers and donators of freebies, get some proper costings for printing to enable me to decide on how many to print initially, how much to charge for advertising, source potential places to leave piles to be picked up (although I will also stand in the town centre and hand them out to everyone with a child if necessary!), draw up some ideas for articles , interviews, features etc, get all relevant information on the business side of stuff, decide on some timescales and date for first issue and just start doing it! I also want to have a website – intially just for info about the mag, where to get it, how to contact me and submit stuff, how to advertise etc and with some links to advertisers and maybe even a yahoo group for local mums to chat online and arrange to meet up perhaps – but all in the future!! Jax – I will be in touch soon about some stuff for the website and if anyone has any ideas / suggestions etc all comments would be gratefully received!

This week looks to be fairly quiet so far, its my mum’s birthday tomorrow so mum, dad and bro are coming for dinner tomorrow night, I need to fit in a trip to the bank, shop for food for the week, flowers and chocs for mum etc tomorrow, our only real engagement is for Wednesday afternoon with Rachel and E and the rescheduled outing next Sunday with Chris and Julie… so plenty of time to be getting stuck into all my business stuff – and creating some sort of schedule of stuff we want to complete for Monster too – more on that tomorrow…

and a stegasaurus 

and a triceratops 

and another 

Monster and one of his most favourite things 

Livin La Vida Loco

Been to see Shrek 2 and it’s great! Had another nice day today – will blog some piccys of today and yesterday with the dinos tomorrow when I download the camera. A lousy night last night – Teeny woke at about 11 and stayed that way till nearly 2am – I crawled into bed and have hazy recollections of Monster being in our bed, Teeny coming up at least twice once it was already daylight and I was alone in the bed and whacking me awake with a big smile and a ‘Ma – MA!’ until I finally regained full consciousness just before nine am!

We went to Arundel Castle today which had a big Noddy exhibition – costume characters, merchandise, stalls etc. Quite expensive and to be honest a bit of a lost cause for my two neither of whom are really bothered one way or the other about Noddy – but we enjoyed wandering round, Teeny had a bit of a dance with the characters although didn’t want to get too close, Monster did not like them and upon closer questioning claimed to be scared of their big shoes (not at all sure whether that was genuine or a cop out!). We left as it started to rain and then Teeny and Ady went home while me and Monster went to the cinema.

Monster’s first trip to the cinema, I was going to take him last year to see Finding Nemo but somehow we never actually got there, so we have been talking about it all week, Ady has been describing what cinemas are like and he was very well prepared for everything. We went in, queued for our popcorn, sweets and fizzy drinks, Monster chose where to sit (second to front row) and settled down having got to grips with the foldy up chair! He was very cute, he stayed glued to the screen, eating from his monster sized popcorn which he graciously shared with me, supping from his huge cup of coke, which he also shared and finally muching on some of the skittles we’d bought – which he insisted on saving half of for Teeny (so sweet!). The film was fab, loads of adult jokes, many of which I am sure I missed and will catch when it comes out on dvd. He seemed to follow the story and asked a few questions towards the end and about ten minutes before the end he decided he didn’t want to watch it anymore (think it had gotten predictable!) but was persuaded to sit tight and see it out. Ady picked us up and we truly thought both kids would be sound asleep by seven when an old friend of ours was due round for a beer and a chat. At half past seven with Teeny still wide awake downstairs I went up to Monster to persuade him to fall asleep – Lee (the friend)arrived with his wife and their four year old daughter – so Monster got a reprieve and came back downstairs, Teeny gave back her dummy and the three of them spent three hours running round, clearing out the playroom of toys and roleplaying Peter Pan. All three were in their element and had a really nice evening while the grown ups caught up. Finally at ten they left, we decided that we would get a takeaway instead of cooking the steaks we had bought and after a second bottle of milk each both kids finally went to sleep!

A very nice day, good to see MPers back from camp and will post some pics tomorrow.

Where are we going? (clap, clap, clap) dinosaur place!

Yep, thats right, we finally got there! But first…yesterday!

Thursday – yesterday morning, erm not a lot actually! Teeny had a decent morning nap for once, and I finally got round to sorting out our tax credits and some other boring paperworky stuff. and did some playing with Monster too! Then we had lunch and the health visitor checks.

All went very well actually, she was truly pleased we are back in Sussex, said she had really missed us and both kids were fine developmentally – which I already knew and infact was brought home even more by Teeny butting in and completing several of the tasks designed for Monster. I would be actually very, very concerned if either of them had not managed the tests as they were very basic. I don’t even know if the whole HE thing would even have come up but she asked when Teeny started walking and I laughed and said about how Monster has three baby books, all meticulously completed for each and every milestone while Teeny has just one which is glaringly full of holes and incomplete! HV said I would need to remedy that as one of the projects they do at middle school is to find out all that sort of baby book type info about themselves (first crawled, first tooth, first word etc) and I said that would not be a problem as they are not going to school. She asked why, I explained that I had many reasons, some of which started out as the main ones and are not even relevant but over the last year I have researched HE and in doing so have come to the firm and definate conclusion that it is the right thing for both the kids as individual and us as a family! I also explained that I have little or no faith in the British Education System and feel sure I can provide a better education for my kids. She asked about group work and the social aspect, I explained that we are members of four HE associations, both local and national, we attend one or two social HE gatherings weekly, mix with various friends who are or will be schooled regularly, the kids’ cousins will also be HE’ed and finally that we are a very social family and have no concerns about that aspect either. She appeared more than satisfied with that and if she scuttled off to write deep concerns about any of it I would be amazed!

Glad its all official – or as official as it needs to be at this stage anyway!

Today – A phonecall first thing from my best friend in New Zealand, who I have been meaning to ring for weeks – and every time I checked the time it was either the middle of the night or they would be at work! So she rang and we had a good old catch up about everything which was nice and it always makes me feel all cherished to talk to her! While I was still on the phone to her Mum arrived and got Monster dressed for me – his clothes were there but we hadn’t got round to putting him in them yet! We set off to Paradise Park aka as The Dinosaur Place! and had not told Monster where we were going but he had already guessed and was truly excited by the time we arrived. Teeny had refused to have any sort of conveniently timed nap in the car on the way and was full of beans. We bought a season ticket as I ‘know’ we will be visiting there again at least twice more in the next year which justifies the cost and in we went. Monster impressed Mum with his immense dino knowledge and learnt a fair bit too, then lunch – Monster ate pretty much all of his, Teeny ignored hers but ate lots of Mums! Then another trip round the dinosaurs and the weather had improved enough for us to have a walk round the gardens which are really good – its all quite maze like and probably not nearly as bit as it appears but they have about 40 miniature recreations of Sussex landmarks and attractions which are nice to see, fish to feed, a lifeboat to launch and loads more. Had a great time, Monster got quite a lot of education from the day too and came home to find Ady right behind us on his way home early too.

Excellent BB tonight, Monster asleep, Teeny’s just woken again and tomorrow I’m taking Monster to see Shrek2…Sunday we are meeting up with Chris and Julie for the day, and can’t really sum it up properly at the moment but I’m pretty happy at the moment all told!