A gift of money meant that we were able to have these lovely pics taken of our family. We hope you like.

Jo

Pancakes and Lent

Yesterday we had our annual pancake party with friends. I didn't do any flipping but I ended up with some lovely round pancakes made with eggs from Claire's chickens at Now we are Six. The boys of course won't eat my pancakes and had some of those little scotch ones from Sainsburys. I also made a chocolate cake as I have decided to give up cake for Lent. I had my final slice late last night. This will be very hard for me as I love cake very much. You can probably tell that from my avatar. LOL.
Baby crying will post more later and add pancake pics.
Jo

New Longies

Finished these when I should've been doing the housework. Didn't even have the cuppa I'd planned. Addict!!!!!

Lego

Just wanted to blow ds1's trumpet. He recently did a Lego Exhibition for Tearfund/Kid's Life charities and raised £112. I am so proud of him. The idea came from a bible study we did on using your talents for God. Here is Jesus on the cross in Lego (hope no-one finds it heretical).

Jo x

Nappy Heaven

We are in nappy heaven since we have discovered wool wraps. And knitting heaven too. Pictured below is my dearest Will with the soaker that got me started; an easy peasy pattern from The Children's Year. It is now lanolised thanks to Carley at Bibs n Bots and is fantastic; I change his nappy so much more often now as I am aware almost immediately when he is wet or soiled and consequently he is so much more comfortable. See also my longies in production, using fabulous Kaffe Fassett wool from Rowan. I am truly a wool convert.

Jo x

Spring

Well spring has officially sprung. Today the boys spent all afternoon in the garden with various offcuts of wood and the tool box fashioning a 'cat house' for our poor beloved three legged feline. It is rather a ramshackle affair and the cat won't actually enter it but I am rather proud of their efforts and dead pleased that they enjoyed the fresh air for so long. I have changed the cloth on our season table to a lovely green and the snowdrop fairy has arrived to herald the onset of spring. I am very excited about it all, especially since we go on a busman's holiday to the Kent coast with dh at the end of March. I hope the weather will be as lovely as it was today. Speaking of today, my Myriad order for dear nephew's birthday arrived today, and with it a catalogue. Oh my, I am going to be selling things on Ebay to fund some purchases.
True to form my littlest has awoken and is screaming the place down.
Goodnight.
Jo

Crochet disaster and success/ living organisation

You will see my sister's crocheted hat in the pictures of William below - it came out rather small. I have now managed to crochet a larger and very successful version for sending on Monday. I will try and take a photo of it before it is posted, if I can find my phone/camera.

Today we are ousting the tv from our sitting room. Currently we have a TV in both the sitting and dining/family rooms. Today we hope to have a reading, relaxing, listening to music room. I will let you know how it goes. The children and dh may revolt.

Jo

snow n stuff

Housework and etc.

I am really struggling to get on top of the housework atm. Every time I put LO down he sqawks - I use the sling for as long as I can and for the tasks it's appropriate for but I am just not able to do it all of the time. And because he doesn't have much of a routine as yet it is so difficult to get anything done. result: the house is barely fit for human habitation. Hey ho!!!

Good news on the weaning front - it is going fantastically. I love blw - it is so freeing and he is just devouring anything I put in front of him atm. I even had a pooey nappy with real food bits in it yesterday, so he is definitely 'eating'

I am reading an excellent book at the moment called Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviour by Susan Perrow. I bought it when a fellow mum at toddler group asked if ds2 is autisic.
Then another lovely lady said he needed more discipline and suggested we smack him. In response I smacked him once after battling with him for an hour to dress him and we both cried for ages before I decided that my earlier non-smacking instincts were actually correct. So I am at the end of my tether with a very challenging but adorable little boy whose role as youngest and mummy's baby has jus been usurped in HIS eyes. So we are addressing each issue with a suitable story as the occasion arises and I think I just might be making some progress. I'll let you know how we progress.
Jo

Snow.

Have mislaid my charger yet again but some friends took lovely photos of the boys in the snow which I thought I would blog for your pleasure.

Enjoy.

Jo

Tax Nightmare Continued

Well I have finally filed my tax return. I am going to put in a 'Reasonable Excuse' form because it is unreasonable to have to phone them 15 times to get a simple IT problem fixed. And if they make me pay they are scuppered 'cos I earn absolutely no money. I have CB but would they really make me cough up out of that?! Snowing here, but not really enough to make a vast amount of difference. Hope it's not too bad overnight as we don't want to miss digging in Evesham tomorrow.

Finished Will's woollen nappy wrap last night. Haven't lanolised it yet but put it on over his pul wrap today 'cos it looks so sweet and I wanted to show it off (very sad). Tbh they're more longies than a soaker so it was okay to wear them on top iykwim. My next project is to knit some bedsocks for my little sis's birthday. I hope she doesn't read this. Sorry hun for spoiling the surprise if you did. I have finally found my chargers so I will charge up my phone/camera and get some photos on here.

Toodle pip

Jo