Party of Five

Remind me to not touch glue from a hot glue gun. It blisters and removes skin.

The result was worth it though as it helped to transform a black plastic and very cheap (£3) Ikea chair into a still cheap chair that now looks cheerful!

pics later

• 5 min warm up


• 90sec running, 90 sec walking


• 3 min runnung, 3 min walking


• repeat

It's a great programme as it pushes you to just your limit and then lets you walk. Yesterday I could just about do it, I normally jog at 7.2kph (most pple walk faster than that) and I did that bar the last 2 minutes running where my legs felt like jelly, I had to slow to 6.9kph. But I don't feel a failure as I still completed it, albeit slowly. How can it be failure when i am hauling my lardy arse around for 30 minutes? I feel good about it and good about myself doing it - this doesn't happen very often, so pat me on the back when you see me.

Week 4 looks very scarey as I have to run for 5 minutes straight. I may repeat week 3 again if I am not happy on Friday (my last gym session of the week).

Tiddly is in biggo trouble, he logged into an online kids chat room that he is addicted to but as one of his friends. He typed out a swear word and got his friend banned for an hour. This is not good and he had been punished, but it is getting harder and harder to make him care. How do you make them care? he simply could not give a hoot. Maybe he likes the attention? who knows. I know that 8 year old boys are a tricky bunch to fathom and I'm going to have to do it twice more!! Munch is a peanut and actually saught out a maths book to complete yesterday, Tiddly used to run as far as he could from them, but little Munch, the boy who struggles to be understood, who can take a beating from a friend or brother and not moan about it, who struggles with his core words all the time who forgets them as soon as he's seen them, he actually loves numbers. Pip is a little pip, learning from his brothers, getting into all sorts of scarey scrapes considering he's only just 1 and not yet walking - his favourite being getting into places where Mummy can't reach him. Fun game that, usually played near electrical sockets during dinner preparation when I am at my most hassled. Pip loves to be read to, particularly a little book given to us by the Health Visitor which in this early reading book sheme. It's called 'I love it when...' and inside describes a few scenarios with penguin illustrations. Ok it's cute the first time, but not so much the 101st time.

Tiddly was a Lion in his class assembly - he's wearing Munchers t-shirt, much to his chagrin!

I have been going to the gym and trying to run on the treadmill whilst maintaining my eating frenzy at home, I came to the unedifying realisation that nothing is going to change unless I take drastic action. Normally I shy away from drastic action as it's all too much like hard work, but I know what has to be done I just have to knuckle down and do it.

So last night I went back to WW, a horrifying weigh in that was treated with tact and discretion and the company of a very good friend made it ok. I hate having to plan food like it was a military operation, but my problem is I eat and eat and eat, I forget what I've had and eat some more. Token efforts down the gym aren't gonna fix this Big Momma, no siree Bob.


Other triggers for action are:-

• had to take a self portrait for a online photo course I am taking and could not get one decent one, even after copious rearrangements of my form


• my niece is getting married in 10 weeks, if I want to enjoy myself without feeling like a fat bird in a fat birds dress I have to get my groove on and stop eating so much.

Hubby is supportive but busy with lots of other things, kids couldn't give a monkeys what I look like and I've run out of people to moan to.

So, here's to Day 1 of taking myself in hand.

I also plan to run 5k around our school playing field to raise money for charity, not run fast or anything but run without stopping, obviously it's an organised thing, even I do not have the chutzpah required woblle along on my own.

At the gym today I went onto week 2 of the couch-to-5k plan (I sort of did week 1 during the last 2 weeks):

• run for 90 seconds walk for 2 minutes for 20 minutes.

Sound easy? not on your life! maybe it's the bulk I am having to run with but I really suffered. The good thing is that it made me realise that I work best working to goals - lose weight for the wedding/run the 5k at school etc etc. It would have been really easy to give up or to take it really easy, but no-one ever said that running was easy, especially at the start and I am now one determined lady.

In other news....

We are back. A little more tanned (or red & freckled in my case), a little more worn out and a little more of a closer family than before. The boys love spending time with their Daddy on holiday, I am usually left to do the cooking, cleaning and bathtimes! It makes me realise how little time he gets to spend with them during the week, so I don't mind too much, it's been a long time since it's been the 'me, me, me' show and I like it that way.

Congratulations to Marja and Kirk on the birth of their very cute little girl, Noemie, on the 11th April, I hope all are doing well. Even though Pip is only 1 (well 14 months in 2 days) I couldn't go back to newborn again, not anymore, not with my advanced years. You forget about how tiny and fragile and needy newborn babies are, how exhausting just exisiting can be but also how thrilling.

We have 381 photos of our trip to Eastbourne, home of the Old Dots, many will be discarded in the dustheap that is the 20,000 photos on my hard drive (that I really need to get an external hard drive for) but I am sure that I have some real peaches.

There is so much washing and stuff to do here I must go do it before the baby gets up and Hubby gets back from wherever he went.

oh the wonder of paper crafting! (Roman soldiers costume made from construction paper and foil) - this is all paper honestly!

Munch went to his first proper birthday party whilst being at big school, he had a blast. He also got to take Mr Dog home for the weekend which was fun, although the responsibility got a bit much at times.

so why am i on here?

I have been goofing off for a whole hour, I am an expert in the field of goofing off or as we Brits like to say 'an expert slacker' - it's a field that I perfected whilst working and have successfully carried it over into my non-working life. I could represent my country in it and I am training my oldest son to be an expert as well (he goofs off on Club Penguin and Neopets, whilst I am a successfull craft website slacker).

I now have these (unused but in-waiting)

and I have some of these babies too as an early mothers day present (plus one is a bday pressie for a friend), they look so pretty I could not resist forcing Hubby into buying them from here.

I went to Stamperama this weekend with my friend Ruth, although it catered very much to the cardmakers & stampers of this world there was more than enough there to keep me interested.

the baby is asleeeeeeeep!

can't post my scraplift LO as that is *secret* and I also need to photograph my oddly sized mini album (7.25 x 7) which I have actually got 5 finished LO's in (and as they are >6x6 they count as 'proper'LO's!! woohoo!!!) Will take photos later and post.

Munch has a temp of 38.8 - here we go again, but at least he'll sleep (he'd win any sleeping contests hands down that kid)

Church accounts to check, so I mustn't dawdle....

I had 3 hours sleep last night when I needed 8, this is the worst I can ever remember even with the other two.
Tiddly used to take about an hour to get to sleep and I had to sit next to his cot til he drfited off and then when he woke in the night I used to go put his dummy back in.
Munch used to wake every 2-3 hours and didn't have a dummy, but he would just snuggle up and go back to sleep ifyou brought him into bed with you.
Pip, from 18 weeks he slept through and I had been luxuriating in this wonderfulness until the end of November last year. Since then I think we've had 2 weeks of sleeping through and varying degrees of waking up that range from once and going back to sleep with a back rub to last night - slept for 3 hours then woke up 10 minutes after I went to bed, then 5 minutes after I put him back after taking him downstairs at 12:30am, 1:30am. I gave up the ghost at 3:30am and just got a blanket and sat in my chair and watched old X-Files on FX. I must have fallen asleep around 4am and woke at 6:30am when Steve was getting up. I am grouchy and miserable and fed up with this.
I know kids sleep problems are the oldest and most boring story in the book but it's spoiling his and my life at the moment and hearing that raspy cry just brings out so many emotions I am not sure where I am :(
I did scrap this weekend though so am feeling good about that, need to do a secret challenge with my UKS team, I am due to post one and had forgotten, so really need to do that today as I have some ideas for once.

One day when I am sane I will post all my recent scrapping work,.

and this is my poorly little Pip, two weeks ill and a viral rash to boot, he is as fed up of snotty noses as I am.

This is where I have spent most of my week with Pip, can you see my shape outlined permanently into the cushions?