Home, Family And Stuff And Nonsense.

Good morning.

You know when you just want to write stuff but you have nothing of interest to say to people. (Example my last post!😊I) like writing, I like words but I don't read that much - to be honest I can usually find something else to do apart from when I am planning stuff for the garden which I suppose is a bit of reading.

Jon and Harry have been away for the night so was just me and Alfie, it was lovely. But when he, or both boys, is in bed and Jon is not home I find it so hard to motivate myself to do anything, I mean anything. I wander around the house thinking "I really should put that pile of clothes away" or "my craft bench really needs sorting out" etc. When Jon is home or at work it is totally different; we have our 'pink and blue'  jobs to do and things we do as a family but I just can't get on with mine very well on my own. 

I did manage to make bread and do some washing yesterday and keep the home fires burning, literally. I even find it hard to settle watching TV, if there is anything decent to watch anyhow.

I suppose the weather is not helping at the moment. I always try to stay positive, about most things actually, including whatever it's doing outside but I have to be honest the rain and wind has been so dismal lately that I just want to hunker down and do zip!

The last lot of windy weather put paid to a lot of my hard work outside where I'd been covering the main veg patch with chicken manure and polythene ready for Spring. I will have to make a real effort on the first day we get a break in the weather - that will NOT be today!

This coming week I have to get things organised for Alfie's birthday - he will be 10!
Presents have been decided on, I feel sorry for him having his birthday so close to Christmas but he never seems to mind until we get to summer when he realises both occasions are some way!

Yay!!! Just spoke to Jon and Harry and they should be home before lunch. NOW I feel motivated. I'll get the burner in the living room lit, the kettle and cups will be ready for a brew when they get home and once logs have been brought into the kitchen and living room we will be ready to settle down for the day. Lunch will probably be soup and a sandwich for quickness before Columbo starts (bit a thing I have on a Sunday) and it is roast chicken with all the trimmings for tea. That all sound like bliss in my book and how my home should be - all of us together and if Alfie has his way we might squeeze in a game or two of Happy Families before baths later.

Aaaah, bye for now.

Lou.xx 

Schedule Shmedule!

I've just been running the vacuum around upstairs and thinking about stuff I previously considered in a sad kind of domestic way. (You may need a few minutes and a cuppa for this post!)

I am a planner, there is no getting away from it. I like to do things in advance and Jon will say "do it when you need it/make it fresh". I like spontaneity but I also need to know what I am doing at certain times for various reasons. With the boys I have to know if I need the car to take them somewhere, I need to try and do a number of things on one day when I take a trip to Aber etc.

Our previous house, I think, was roughly the same size, maybe slightly smaller, but was laid out totally differently. I used to have a cleaning plan for the week and normally would stick to it. I have just started to come to the conclusion that if something needs cleaning clean it and if it doesn't why make work for yourself? This house is older than our previous one and I think it makes its own dirt in a way. The slate floors in the bottom kitchen and hall have years and years of dust in the cracks between them and this comes out each time I sweep them. I don't vacuum them to get them any cleaner as that is the way they are. the same goes for the floorboards in our bedroom. Is this making sense to anybody?

I also think part of my getting things done is to justify my staying home. Jon would NEVER asks me what I've done in the day, he always asks if I've had a good day. How could I not have a good day when I am lucky enough to stay at home where I am able to cook, bake and make a home comfy, clean and cosy for my family? I know it is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, and would drive some women to drink, but I love being the one to make a home for me and my family.  I think my pay of tax credits, if you look at it this way, works out at just over £2 an hour for a 7 day week at 8 hours a day. There we have a whole other discussion about whether or not being a stay at home mum is a valid occupation. I have never looked at it like that because for most of my married life I have just counted my lucky stars that I have been able to take up that occupation.

If anybody has got through the mire of this post and would, perhaps, like to comment congratulations!

Lou.xx

Love Is All Around Me And Mine.

I saw a similar post to this the other day and thought it was interesting. A photograph of in front and of behind me and to my left and right. The world around me just now and all the things I see make me so very happy. 

Our home is something which we have dreamed of in lots of ways for so long. I never thought Jon, or the boys for that matter, would love the house as much as he does but he does! We all love it for different reasons and there are reasons why we both love certain things.

Always difficult to take a nice photo of a window!

My sister, bruv-in-law and niece came to visit this weekend and I was so pleased they said the same thing as others have done, which is that the house is just us. I don't think I could wish for a nicer thing for somebody to say because we have put things together in the rooms that I think have been in our minds for longer than we know. It has all come together so beautifully and for that I am so grateful we are so very happy here. I think that will be my entry in my Journal of Gratitude today.

Bye,Lou.xx

Miscellaneous mumblings.

This is one of those posts made up a few things, a bunch of nothings really.

What do you have on your fridge? With kids I seem to always have something stuck to it, but things for myself, too.

Here is the front of the fridge.

You might need to enlarge the photos to ready everything. The small card attached to the Home Means You piece says:

It's nice to have a holiday
And nice to have nothing to do
But it's lovely to sometimes sit
And think of home and you.

And if you can't read the Home Means You one it says:

I'm feeling fine and working hard
But always have in view
The goal of getting home again
And that means YOU.

I don't go out to work but I just love the sentiment; we are such home birds in our house!

This is the side of the fridge.

Home meal plan for the week, recycling info whilst I ATTEMPT to educate my husband, and the menu plan for school so I try and not duplicate lunch and tea!

I have not done much papercrafting since we moved but her are a couple of things.

This one I made a few years ago and I hang it in my kitchen all through January.

and this one is for a friend's birthday this week. The January 'banner' comes from an old copy of A Diary Of An Edwardian Lady which I use for crafting.

Right, that has got a few odds and end done. 

See you later.x