In:

i should have mentioned

that Pip's plaster on his arm was a result of blood taken for tests after we went to Kings College Hospital on Monday for a check up at the Paediatric Liver Clinic. He came through with flying colours, he has to return in a year and if all is well then he will be signed off. What an adventure! I am happy to say he won all the staring competitions he had with the commuters on the train on the way down there at 8am in the morning!

In:

cute & brave







i love it when i kiss him and he turns his head round for more.


it will soon be a year since his traumatic arrival, i am going to mark the occassion by doing a series of 'a year ago today' posts with the hope that one day i will scrap them. :)

In:

did you see me on the news?

'cos I think I ate the whole world over the weekend.

After 2 weeks of being 'into' a new way of eating, the first week I was brilliant, the second I began to slip a little, this weekend at my friends birthday party I ate pretty much everything with unashamed abandon including a great big slab of choc cake (lovely btw Sharon - did you make it yourself asks SR?)

Baby Pip is not conforming to required sleep pattern so I am currently letting him cry for a bit to tire him out. Once he starts making retching sounds I'll go in! We go to Kings College Hospital tomorrow with him for an untrasound and check up. Hopefully he'll be given the all clear.

ok, pathetic retching sounds are emanating from his bedroom, time to do the ironing whilst rocking a baby in his chair- an acquired skill but very useful.

In:

baby on lap post

I wonder how much I can type or how many photos I can include with Pip (all 11 wriggly months of him) on my lap?
well one sentence at least, he's currently trying to decimate a postcard which he is enjoying to the full despite just having had his lunch.
I went back to the gym today (hang on post card has been lost - it's ok postcard & kids scissors retrieved- should have longer). I was very disappointed, I thought I would have retained the minimal fitness I was nearly at 2 months ago without having to expend any energy at all. Sadly this is not the case am I am going to have to haul ass for some considerable time before any benefit is revealed (to me or anyone else).
I did download the army fit programme and it seems I am not fit enought to even do the conditioning pre-programme. God how sad is that?
Here's a programme called Couch to 5k Running plan - it looks doable. I need firm goals otherwise I cave in and give up. I don't have a backbone of steel and a will of iron, well not yet anyway.
The baby is now stocktaking the paper w have stored underneath the desk, I'd better deal with that before it's all dribbled on and screwed up.

In:

Now I know I've gone batty

I am talking animatedly to the checkout staff at the supermarket.


Here's a picture of what I see every night unless I am on their little asses chasing them to do their homework. Bloody Nintendo ;)

In:

The sleep thing is getting hard






Pip is still waking up after a couple of hours after being put down. It's getting boring now, he was brought downstairs and rocked, then taken back up a long while later and fed to sleep (mistake.mistake.mistake) He woke at 4am and Hubby dealt with him, I sort of heard him get up in my sleep but was so tired I just rolled over, I should have got up and helped but didn't. Feel guilty now, but I do sort it out every other night. As soon as this little chap's 1st birthday comes around I am stopping breastfeeding and he's going cold turkey sleepwise. I did it with Munch with advice from a sleep clinic, I will do it again!




Knitting progress is given here - I've got a feeling the hat will fit me (I'm not complaining, I told Hubby that Marja had sent the wool and it was so top knotch that it instantly turned me into a yarn snob). Oh and ignore my filthy windowsill, I do.



Stash sorting is also nearly complete - I've binned everything that I had not used in 2 years that I was never going to use inthe future, I put everything in little baggies sorted by colour awaiting the discovery of smart little see through boxes for storage (if anyone knows of cheap,cute,see through boxes that are about 2inx3in let me know).



I got Sam to take some pics of me, partly to record what I look like today (rough, fat and olld basically) as I have decided some things that will hopefully make a different picture of me in a years time. God I look rough.




Munch takes a great photo, bless his little heart.







oh and some scrapping believe it or not:-




In:

spring cleaning from the inside

This is the second day of my no sweeties,no cake,no choc,no biscuit,no bread and obviously I've lost 25 stone (read Kirsty W's blog - she is so funny with her gym/weight thing). I'm finding it tough, but got so incredibly depressed on Wednesday about my willpower, weight, fitness, thought of dying young that I felt I had to buck up my ideas and stop fannying about.
I've started a food diary where I am writing down everything I eat. It is so easy to forget the odd biscuit here, the odd packet of crisps there. It's so easy to lie to yourself about what in reality you do eat. My double standards are breathtaking, I deny my children certain treats and snacks as I don't want them to grow up to be chubby like I did, yet this is what happened to me as a child and it turned me into a secretive eater. If you spent the day with me you'd say I ate ok, but what you don't see is the secretive eating. It's dreadful, not excessive but the denial and hiding feeds the habit.
I had such a complicated relationship with my parents, built on control, lack of praise, secrets, lies, selfishness - all on both sides, no wonder they don't want anything to do with me and no wonder I don't want anything to do with them. My mother hated food, she would have been happy with a food pill 3 times a day. My father loved food, loved snacking and always seemed to busy himself by making something to eat. I take after my father in most respects and that drove my mother crazy and she tried her hardest to limit what I ate, but given my psyche it just drove me to eat in secret. Go figure!
I plan to use the playing card journal thing that Emily F is doing to track how I am doing.I was even toying with the idea of getting up at 6am and going for a walk/jog. Naturally I didn't actually do it but I have thought about it for a long time and maybe I should try it? am going to download the armyfit thing and see if that would fit in with my lifestyle of sitting on the sofa all day.
And what started this off? Cathy Z of course and this post here.
I am going to sort out my embellishments now - plan to chuck the rubbish and colour code the rest - if it works for Stacy Julian then it'll work for me.
Am also knitting - major RSI but oh Marja that Debbie Bliss wool you sent is divine to knit with (although a bit of a bugger to cast on cable wise). Am dropping stitches but don't care - chaos knitting, it could be the new black.

I am going to publish this but will take some pics and load them later of a finished bunny, a part way through hat and a little baby boy who is cute but is challenged sleepwise at the moment.

In:

Major parcel, walking and chocolate cake







I received a mega parcel from the lovely and uber wonderful Marja , the pic does not do it justice and words cannot adequately describe its wonderfulness. Thank you Marja :)




Went to a small village where some friends moved last year and had a walk and some food. My wellies rubbed the back of my ankles til they bled :( Pip had choc cake fo
r first time. I think he liked it.




In:

knit fever

Am knitting up a storm - just went and spent money I don't have (borrowed the boys xmas money allocated for nintendo game) on knitting needles, toy stuffing, 3 small canvases, ball of wool, other knitting paraphenalia, storage bags for duvets, ummmmm, other stuff I cannot reveal as it will spoil a birthday suprise and a kiln jar to make up a cocoa thingy got the idea from the brilliant Alicia Paulson (Posie get Cosy). The pic is from the site not by me! - the idea is to make up a funky hot choc mix using cocoa, skimmed milk powder and other flavours , layer them in the jar, decorate jar and add recipe for making it up on a tag and attach. My friend only drinks cocoa or hot milk so I thought this would go nicely with her funky uber cool mug.
The thing I am knitting is this.... well if I could find an image I'd post it, but I'll post progress reports. I am currently on the first ear having done 3 body pieces. I have another half and ear and whole ear to do followed by blocking and pressing, seaming, stuffing and pom pom making! I bought a pom pom maker today, i may pom pom my way through the year it is so simple to do.
I found out last night that my blog was on some kind of football website probably because I had not turned off RSS feed and had mentioned the team by name, I can just imagine hardened footie supporters arriving at my mainly scrappy & crafty blog thing 'WTF'. So apologies for that :). RSS feed is now switched off too.

In:

cute box making video

http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/videos/index.ihtml?idx=82
I made a ton of these when Munch was christened, did it slightly differently, but this was is actually better. Excellent way of using up old patterned paper that you are not going to scrap with.

In:

Busy doing nothing

it was very wet and muddy on saturday.


up early today, it is very windy, very very windy and the wind makes our tv aerial clatter and bang. The tv aerial is right above Pippy's room so he decided to make a noisy protest around 5am. This child will not settle in our bed either - he thinks it's playtime and I always think 'why didn't I go to bed earlier?'. Got my super comfy super alluring dressing gown on and trooped downstairs with him, half comatose. Stick him in chair and doze and ignore him for a couple of hours whilst looking at tv.

The older boys won't get up either, the dark and the lateness of them getting to sleep makes it tough. I try to chivvy them along with noises like 'hurry up or the girls will see you in your pants' (the girls get taken to school by me on Mon & Tues) but they've got past that bothered stage.

I got myself together and slung Pip in the car to get my dry cleaning (it's the 2nd time they've rang to tell me to pick it up) and to buy some wool. It's a complicated story but I have nothing to do so here goes - we have no money this month, I am on a spending ban, I desparately need wool to start my new knitting fad, I am on a spending ban online too, cannot go into town as I always spend more and I am on a spending ban, I have £5, I find a local shop that stocks everything from hamster food to embroidery kits, I buy wool & needles for £5 and am blissfully happy. Am currently knitting a dodgy tension square (like that's gonna make my knitting look better).

Need to hoover and feed the tamagotchi's.


In:

A bit late but here goes

I generally have the same resolution every year. To lose weight. As if achieving the nirvana of perfect weight will help me get to all my other goals. Every year I fail to lose the weight and therefore fail to achieve any of the other sub-goals. Even if I have specific goals, like say, run 5km in 30 minutes without needing hospitalisation, I neither achieve it nor am I close to achieving it. It's not like I cannot do it, it's that I cannot be bothered to do it. This is the brutal truth I'm afraid, I've probably skated through most of my adult life just getting by hanging onto goals that don't interest me that much. I mean if I lost the weight and felt fabulous then my mother would have been right and life is all about how you look and fitting into a size 10.

So let's look back on the year:-

january - spent mostly in agony due to pelvic dysfunction and being huge and pregnant.
february - spent mostly being scared witless thinking my little 8 week premmie baby would be very ill and in hospital for weeks, but he did very well and was out in 3 weeks,

march - spent mostly prodding the baby when he was asleep to make sure he was still breathing

april - spent mostly awake on the sofa with a baby too scared to go to sleep in case he was prodded

may - spent still mostly awake, but remembered all of a sudden I had 2 other kids

june - spent mostly eating chocolate and mostly awake

july - spent mostly in shock after baby slept through the night (at 18 weeks), still awake as I needed to check he was still alive at night. Middle child was 4 i think

august - spent mostly sleeping, thinking there might have been two other kids haring around but as there was no bleeding or obvious injury let them get on with it

september - spent a ton of money on my birthday, christening and school shoes. Middle child started school, elder child tied a tie without garroting himself, baby got used to being flung into a buggy and raced at break kneck speed to school every morning before they shut the gates

october - spent mostly in a tshirt as it was still so warm

november - spent mostly thinking I would get ahead of the game and get Xmas sorted early

december - spent mostly in a daze of sleepless teething nights and mild hysteria over elder sons 8th birthday and impending Xmas season with nothing sorted at all


Pip chasing computer wires today, first pics of 2007


In:

Knitting is the new whatever




I have ordered a couple of books and can't wait for them to arrive so I can peruse. Last year I got a book on making journals that is beautiful but I have never used it :(, no time really. I am hoping that I will find time for knitting. I really fancy some home grown comforts and new chunky cushion covers.
Am trying to keep the house tidy, but it is nigh on impossible with 2 tearaways who use anything as play opportunities and always leave their mess behind them. A bit like always seeing accidents in you rear view mirror.
No New Year Photos, I completely forgot about my camera for once, but I have some cute pics that Sharon took jsut before Xmas.... I can't find them on the pc so they must be on CD and the boys are pestering me and about to wake the baby up with their moaning so will uplaod later.