…come again another day!

Yes it’s raining and it’s getting boring…especially as we’re supposed to be in a drought!

It is getting to a point where staying in isn’t an option. It was OK for the first week or so but now we NEED to get out and so we did!

On May Day, I had a stall at The Earlsdon Festival in Coventry. The forecast was for heavy rain and they were right! It tipped it down….but do you know what!? We were really busy! Now, had it been sunny for a few days before and then rained, I doubt anyone would have ventured out…but…because it had rained every day leading up to the festival, people were desperate to get out!

We had a great time! We were soaking wet  and cold for most of the day, but we had great fun on our little market stall, selling all out Two Cousins Bakery wares. As you can see from the photo, we had a lovely spread set up and by the end of the day we had sold out!

After all, we do live on an island and as a result experience strange and changeable weather. What would we talk about otherwise? How hot it is or how our outdoor ceiling fan isn’t working…at least we don’t need one of those!

…..again!!

If there is one thing I hate more than really noisy kids toys, it’s the saft batteries you have to keep replacing to keep the noise going!

And if the batteries running out isn’t bad enough, it’s made worse by the kids handing me the toy and having to find the tiniest screwdriver in the world to unscrew a stack of screws.

Please someone invent rechargeable toys that can be plugged into the wall….no batteries required!

My three boys are growing up quickly…my youngest is now 4 years old and though I miss his baby ways, there are other things I really don’t miss!

Since my cousin had her baby, the memories have come flooding back. Dirty nappies, vomit, pushing a baby stroller, crawling everywhere, having eyes in the back of your head….I could go on. I do miss so much about him being a baby but there are others that I would just never go back to. Here’s to the future!

I would love it if my children were musical. Sporty yes, academic yes, but none of them are showing any signs of musical talent.

It’s not like we have nothing musical in our house. We have a guitar which was bought for me (never used it), a djembi (that’s an african drum) and even a piano that has been tuned, refined and even had new replacement piano hinges!

Nobody shows any interest in any of the above, except for middle son who went through a phase of playing the djembi. I have dreams of them becoming pop stars or session musicians or even just a chance to enter them into Britain’s Got Talent!

Well, I’ve finally taken the plunge after years of talking about it and starting my own vegetable garden!

I was going to put it off again this year, but after coming home from shopping a few weeks ago, I found hubby had dug out a patch of garden. “It’s for your vegetable garden”, he announced proudly.

I wasn’t impressed. It meant that I had to do something about it now, otherwise the lovely, freshly dug piece of land was going to turn into a great place for littlest to make his mud pies!

So today I finally planted my first veg. I had some mature strawberry plants given to me, so they went in, alongside leeks, potatoes, beetroot, broccoli, parsnips and potatoes. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, so I’m not holding out much hope of even a seedling making an appearance! It all seems a very magical and mysterious process, one I’m definitely in the dark about.

Watch this space…as the first bits of greenery appear I’ll be posting pictures.

Following on from my earlier post about gifts for my 16-year-old, I’ve been pondering.

If only he had a hobby….something that he could collect for. I don’t mean collect beanie babies or smurfs…something like…I don’t know….drumming! That way we could just go to a music store and buy proline products to build up his range.

We have a piano but I guess once you have a piano…that’s it! You have a piano and can’t add a great deal to it! His dad is paying for a school trip to France, at least that’s what he said 6 months ago, but now the letter has arrived asking for payment, it’s all gone a bit quiet!

So it’s back to the drawing board! Anyone got any ideas?

My eldest son turns 16 in July. He’s a great kid, I couldn’t wish for a better child! Does his homework, studies, doesn’t go out much and eats everything I give him.

My dilemma is what to buy him for his birthday. I mean…what do you buy for 16-year-old boys? Girls are easy to buy for. On our recent trip to Hong Kong, I bought my step-daughter stacks of stuff and could have continued buying for her until the end of the holiday. My three boys were a lot harder and now I have this birthday to consider.

Back in my day, it was easy. A nice watch or a gold chain were an easy option and something that you treasured. My lads never wear watches and as for jewellery…ha! They’d think I had gone mad!!

To top it all, we’re at Camp Bestival on the day of his birthday, so we’re restricted by what we can take. I’m not even sure I would trust myself to take a cake without it being squashed under a ton of camping equipment.

The actual date of his birthday, 27th July, coincides with the Olympics opening ceremony so maybe I could buy him something to commemorate that….I feel some strange looks heading my way!

Having 4 kids, they all love the TV….however….we don’t and would rather watch a film.

We have been very strict with the kids and are careful to monitor what they watch. Even eldest at the age of almost 16, does not have access to the TV in his room. Yes he has a TV and a corner TV mount, but it’s not connected to the TV aerial. He can watch films, and stream TV programmes via his PS3 but if he wants to watch something, he has to do it downstairs so we can see what he watches.

Both of the middle kids have access to a PS3 and a really old TV and can stream limited, age related programmes. And youngest watches some CBeebies.

I don’t know what it is that I dislike so much about the TV, but I really want to discourage them from making it a major part of the life and encourage them to pick what they want to watch and not stare at it for hours on end! I’m hoping that they take this into their adult lives and teach their children to be the same.

I’m always finding jobs to do in the house. I have a list of jobs attached to the magnet board in the kitchen and add to it almost on a daily basis!

We never get to the end of the list…there is always something on it! From big jobs like ‘Paint the Kitchen’….to small jobs like ‘Put up decorative mirrors in the hallway.’

The problem is, the list just sits there getting longer and longer and rarely do we ever cross anything off it! We’re full of good intentions but full of even better excuses!

I wish hubby was a bit more handy and enjoyed DIY, but he doesn’t, and I don’t have much spare time so instead of spending time working on the house we just spend the time working on the list!

I’m hoping that we’ll get enough money together to just buy a new house and then we wouldn’t have to do anything to this house!

18months ago, my husband decided that he wanted to lose weight. To be honest, I thought that he looked absolutely fine and that he carried any excess weight effortlessly given that he’s so tall.

At 6ft 3in and nearly 18st, I thought that was normal. However I was wrong…very wrong. According to all the charts he should be anywhere between 12st and 13st! So, he went on a mission and after losing 1st without any help, he joined a Slimming World group. It didn’t take him long to drop another 3st and at 14st he now looks amazing!

Slimming world is not a diet…it’s a way of life! I’m not writing this blog to promote Slimming World, but to sing its praises as I’m very impressed with the eating plan and if done correctly, you never get hungry! I know this because my husband became a consultant and I joined his group and got back down to the weight I was almost 20 years ago!

Losing weight takes dedication, perseverance and commitment. I know there are quick fire solutions like fad diets and diet pills and I have read the myoripped reviews, but nothing compares with eating the right food with a few naughty’s thrown in for good measure!