Party of Five

I haven't run since Tuesday, I haven't been to the gym for 2 weeks. I sit on the sofa miserable and tired. Someone needs to kick my butt.



In other news they reinstated my running blog - shame I haven't done any exercise.

Haven't run for 3 days and will not be running for the next 2 days either. Hubby is going to Eastbourne for sea breezes, beer and a well earned break so there is no-one to check the little terrors haven't set their bedroom alight or shimmied down a drainpipe using their bedding in the evening.
Not running for the 2 days and my upcoming stint as a face painter at our local school fair is sending me into somewhat of a tailspin, anxiety wise. Although I know it will go ok I am panicking about the details. It is always so busy and there is no let up at all for the 2 hours you are there, it sounds silly to say so, but it is very pressured. I'm not sure I will volunteer next year - this will be my 2nd yr of running the stall and my 4th painting. But no doubt by next year i will have forgotten all this stress and will put my hand up again.
Am going to hop on the bike tonight and cycle me up some mileage to get me out of this funk, I think what they say is true - when you stop running for a while you do feel dreadful.

My 'Mothers Back Twinge' made a reappearance last night, resulting in a 1.5mile Juneathon walk rather than 'slightly faster than walking' jog. I must have picked Pip up whilst he was trying to escape or drive the car - his two most favourite activities.
Other than that the day was uneventful in the way that days are. Well actually it wasn't, having reminded myself by contorting my torso to look at my bulletin board (see above - it's the thing with writing on above the bibs and bags)
I went to Salto - a local gymnastics club that holds toddler sessions, took Pip and he chased a little friend around for 2.5 hours.
Then I went to a parent/child numeracy session at school, which, in my opinion, has come approx 10 months too late. It's supposed to help you work with your child on maths and give you strategies for coping with their problems. What it did was show you a teachers lesson and how column addition and subtraction was taught to the kids and then get you to practise it with your kids, then talk about it without kids for an hour. I've spent a better 2 hours but will continue to go. I doubt very much any child who is above national average standard will gain anything from it, yet 3/4 of the parents there were parents of high achieveing kids, naturally I don't include myself in that group.
I've also been trying to find my friend who commissioned this bag, to give it to her - she's vanished off the face of the earth!

I have been running each day since the 8th June, just 1.2miles a day but it is movement and it's getting better. Each time we go out we get a few seconds quicker and the last couple of times we have not stopped for a walk break.
Although long term having a rest day between runs is obviously the way to train properly, because we are not running far running everyday isn't a really big deal.
What I have noticed is I feel good after the run rather than wanting to call an ambulance, I feel ok during the run and am not creeping along as much, I am not doing any run 'avoidance' which I had been doing before June.
I have also noticed that my shoes are not comfortable and should I up my mileage I need properly fitted shoes. I am also in need of joggers and t-shirts - but don't want to buy a big size so will wear what I have until it falls off me in shreds!

In other news - have started sewing a bag for a private 'commission' and bought some fab 100% cotton fabric that was £2 a metre! bargains! teachers totes here we come!!

Still persuading hubby on camera club thing. Maybe he makes sure his job is safe before his wife starts cavorting with camera lenses and tripods? and maybe i get through June and the juneathon before I commit to something else.

Went for a 2.5miler today, Sam came with me as well as Chappers. We decided a morning run fitted our schedules better (you know, the one with washing, ironing, getting food for family and cleaning up bodily fluids schedule). It was warm with a nice breeze and bouyed by yesterdays good 1 mile we started out good. Lots of walking and poor Sam being injured made out time 37:29. When I looked on my board to see how it compared it was the fastest we'd done it. Even with 5 minutes worth of walking. Obviously I will not be able to walk for the rest of the day now.

So the weight loss thing went ok too - just squeaked in with a 2lb loss, which isn't bad considering my poor eating this week - the usual starting off good and descending into a toast filled nightmare by lunchtime. The running was key to this. Next week good eating will be the key.

Stats
Distance - 2.5miles
Time - 37;29
neighbours talked to - 1
recognised by how many pple in cars - 1
# pple feeling good right now - 1

so, after falling off the juneathon bandwagon for 1 day (with a very good non-breathing child excuse), we are back with a 16:20 1.35mile. Maybe it's because I didn't want to leave Pip with his Dad whose expression of terror of being left for 20 minutes with a sick child all on his own did not instill confidence, or maybe it was the rest day, I am plumping with the Galloway Rest Day for my 40 second improvement as I have every confidence in my darling husband.
Anyhow, yesterday was Open Day at the Rec Club where I take the kids to tennis. I knew it was quite big, but when my mouth dropped open in drooling fashion on the way to getting a coffee it was certainly revealing. There were lots of photographs on display and I was basically nose to photo with them ooohing and aaahing. The Photo Club people could see they's caught a live one. So they told me when, how much, how often etc and all I have to do now is convince the darling husband that £25 a year plus club membership (about £35 per year) and freedom from parenting on Tuesdays 8-10pm are the way forward.
I may have roped my darling friend Chappers (Jackie but referred to as Chappers in this house, with great affection ;) ) in as well. Hurrah! I've wanted to do something like this since I was 18, maybe 16. Let's see shall we?

Stats
Distance - 1.35mile
Time - 16:20
Felt - great
maltesers eaten - about 10
cleaned up toddler puke - 3 times in different places

did day 5 of the juneathon yesterday - a 2 mile walk - had a back twinge that I felt would be worsened by running.
I may have to duck out of day 6 because Pip (my 2yr old) is having severe breathing difficulties and I am contemplating taking him up to the hospital. The Dr this morning prescribed anti-biotics and an inhaler, but Pip freaks out so much at the inhaler it's making breathing a 2nd best to hoarse screaming, personally I'd prefer him to put breathing first so may take up to A&E to see if they can help him.

Another miserable rainy day, but god was smiling on me a little during the school run as it didn't start tipping it down until after I got back.
Major lego relocation took up most of the morning (ongoing lego base site struggles with Sam mean everything has to be done when he's not here) coupled with a bit of tidying and 2 yr old charmer/pain. Bought some suede on ebay for bag making, lets see how that turns out.

Went charring at the scout hut which took all afternoon and came back to chaos as the electricity had tripped and left the house without electricity and the aged grandparents panicking. Calm was restored quickly and tea and biscuits were had.

Running wise it was raining again which meant a trip to Jackies garage gym and the treadmill again.

Stats
Distance - 2miles
Time - 27:14
pieces of lego relocated: about 4 million

took the boys to town today to buy cheap shoes seeing as middle boy had come home from school with the wrong ones and we had no spares.
Having found suitably feet ruiningly cheap shoes and gained a huge headache we came home where I tried desperately to rest on the sofa whilst a lego war waged and a 2 year old jumped on my head.
It's no excuse but the headache didn't go, so I didn't do much apart from containment and feed the tribe.
It was raining later on so I went to Jackies house and ran on her treadmill.
Still have a headache now so I'd better try and sleep it off, hopefully no-one will be jumping on my head this time.

Stats
Distance - 1 mile
Time - 12:41
headaches - 1
cross trainer - 10 minutes
level - 20 for 5 minutes
amount of sweat - 10 pints

Woke up around 7am thinking about this whole month of running thing coupled with a month of eating sensibly.
Sam must have heard me get up as he shot up like a sprite, just in case i went without him I suppose.
We left around 8:15 once Jackie arrived, to my eternal shame I was jogging and Sam was just walking fast next to me. He's 9 and 4ft6 (or so). But I plodded on and managed 1.35miles in 17 mins 20sec including a 1 minute walking break.
The rest of the day was spent avoiding kids mess, ironing, reading papers, ignoring loud and whiny 2 yr old, forgetting to do dinner on time and watching the 30mins of Baryard that we did Sky+ about 7 gazillion times.

so, totally ripping off jogblog (do go and read)
Stats
Distance - 1.3miles
Time - 17:20
combined age of companions - 91 yrs (1x42yr old, 1x40yr old, 1x9 yr old)
# of slower pple passed - 2
# times i wished i'd run in the last 2 weeks - about 54

my meme (from domesticali blog)
Originally uploaded by toniann.

I love the whole randomness of this (apart from the non-random revision of answers if the 1st page of pics didn't suit)

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? toni
2. What is your favorite food? chocolate
3. What high school did you go to? sundon park
4. What is your favorite color? blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? carmine giovinzzo
6. Favorite drink? tea
7. Dream vacation? oregon
8. Favorite dessert? creme caramel
9. What you want to be when you grow up? photographer
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you. loyal
12. Your flickr name. toniann

IMG_1150
Originally uploaded by toniann.

I cannot believe I haven't noted this, but Munch lost his first tooth on Apr 20th. His second tooth was already growing behind it (it's a family trait).
Sadly we do not have that first tooth, Munch was so busy watching tv and eating sweets he forgot about his tooth coming out and swallowed it!

my running blog has been disabled.

Maybe they knew that I really wasn't getting the running vibe going on this time.

I've just had to re-request access. I cannot face having to put in 7 weeks worth of pretty rubbish running stats again. Let's just say I am still fat, have not lost weight and can only run a 12 minute mile...only 1 of them anything more than that and my stats drop to 14 minute miles (for the 1 3 mile run i have done). Rain has stopped play for today in the running stakes but at this rate it's going to take 6 years to run 5k in under 30 minutes.

so i am putting my buckeye outdoors widget on this blog. I don't know how other runners put lots of runs entered into Buckeye onto their blogs but when I do it it'll only do 1. Maybe because I have no gadgets (garmin, nike+ or anything at all except a Special K heart rate monitor watch).

I have been tidying up the garden and am really pleased with it. Have dug up loads of very old shrubs, by old I mean about 10 years old, my garden is small and cannot cope with large shrubs, nor can it cope with 3 boys and numerous footballs/basketballs but at least I can get rid of old shrubs. Will post pictures when it stops raining.

if you didn't guess already I love it that flickr has video now

Munch is able to concentrate for a whole minute on his nintendo. Sadly for his teacher Nintendos are not allowed in school.
Pip is 2, he thinks he is 9 but he can only say 'boo', 'oi', 'no', 'help', 'mum' and 'dad'. He does a nice line in non-specific verbal communication though, accompanied by a dazzling array of pokes, prods and hits.
All our hopes are pinned on #1.

This greeted me on Monday, my poor little guy all puffed up and swollen with an accompanying red rash that made me cry.
After the school run we stood at the Doctors Surgery until it opened and got an emergency appointment. Many tears (from me) and a prescription for Loratidine later we were on the mend. Doc said it was heat rash, Sunday was hot and we went for a long dusty bike ride at Marston Vale (a tale of sore knees and nice cake), and she said it was likely that he was just out in the sun too long.
As much as I like my Doc, I do think she was wrong. The rash was not where clothes had been worn it was where skin was bare and it progressed to cover all his body on Tuesday. The swollen eye was a mystery, but I think the dusty conditions of the bike ride and the high pollen count probably contributed to it, Loratidine did work in soothing the rash and reducing the swelling. I am convinced the harsh sun brought out a non-specific viral rash, he's had them before and will no doubt have them again until he's a little bigger. Munch gets rashes too, Sam gets worryingly high temperatures.

He's better now, esp after a 35p Ikea Ice Cream.

All these following pics are taken pre-illness.
King of the Hill (well Prince of Playground, but a fearful Prince)Asleep in friends car after bike ride - note the shoe in hand and wildly inappropriate car seat for a child his age (my fault not friends).
This is 'dinner refusal but will eat breakfast all day' after the bike ride, photo taken specifically to document the 'non-crust' eating foibles of the smallest child in this house.

I have avoided both the gym and running this week. It's not been a good week and it is continuing to be a very sucky week, Hubby's job is in jeopardy (the reality of working in the house building industry is that we have to ride the waves of recession in a harsh way - he has been made redundant twice in two years).

I am not loving life so much at the moment.

I enjoy gardening, but not the bit where you are trying to do something (like weed or dig) and you have to keep an eye on:-

• the 2year old who still has a penchant for putting stuff in his mouth (stones, cat poo that has been missed from the cat poo trawl before kids are let out of garden (he hasn't done this yet but I am waiting, I am sorry this is so disgusting - but I have worse tales to tell))
• the 2 year old who wants to escape through the wrought iron gate into the outside world.
• the 5 year old who likes to indiscriminantly dig (nice new plants, shingled bedding etc)
• the 5 year old who likes to hit tennis balls. Hard. Over the fence. Tennis balls are not cheap.
• the 9 year old who just wants to sword fight with everything that moves (although he is brilliant at making up complicated games that his younger brother joins in with, not so brilliant at fair minded rules)

granted the 2 older ones are at school during the week, but all that means is that I have to handle Harry Houdini by myself. Preferably under lock and key.

So in the hope that I can both keep the kids under control in my very tiny garden and not let them wreck any work that I do we have engaged someone to come and treat our sorely in need of feeding lawn. Our lawn was nice when we moved in, and then we happened, we have no idea how to keep a lawn - patenetly from the photos - and over the years it has been neglected and then neglected some more. The new chap (Green Thumb) is going to get the lawn all better with chemicals (poor poor environment) and all we do is mow it. We've even been doing that all wrong, we're cutting way to short.
So, armed with hope, luck and chemicals our lawn should improve from it's current state.

To further furnish you with details of our sadly neglected outer space there are some photos of tut central (tut being a work we use for rubbish/debris/not useful stuff).

may 08 garden
Originally uploaded by toniann.

I was talking to a friend as we were in my car about giving kids sweets, as in letting your own children eat sweet things in the house.
As luck would have it The Felt Mouse Has voiced my thoughts much more eloquently than I could have in her post here.
When I was a kid my Mum tried to limit sweet things because I was a chubby child (just as I am now a chubby adult with major body issues) and a chubby child just did not fit in with her whole visual take on the world, if you didn't look perfect like on the tv or in the papers then you weren't worth bothering with or you needed fixing. She was always trying to fix me but all she ended up doing by denying me the odd biscuit or sweet was creating a pathological desire in me for sweet things. Like any kid I wanted what I could not have. She loved sweet things herself but was slim, she often had a toasted tea cake instead of a cooked meal, esp if my Dad was working away. She hated cooking and always said that if she could take a pill and not ever have to eat again she'd be happy. I think what she meant was she wanted a food pill so she didn't have to cook. My Dad got so fed up with Mum's refusal to embrace the whole cooking thing that he started cooking the meals himself. Don't get me wrong, she cooked meals but just didn't enjoy it - that kind of pushed through to the dining room and the whole family meal ambience. I love cooking, esp when my kids actually eat the food. I love to see them clear a plate and it's worth the effort, and it is a hell of an effort sometimes. The kids know I love food too, so I hope that they understand the meal process and learn to cook for themselves when they grow up and move out (dear God please let them move out when they get to 25)
You know, I don't really know but I think that the denial/reward thing that went on in my parents house is now so entrenched in my pysche that I cannot dig myself out of it. I still sneak and eat biscuits when no-one is looking yet appear to never eat at all. I skip meals and snack all the bad stuff. 42 years of inappropriate eating is a lot of baggage to shift (in all senses of the word).
So, in conclusion (!) if my kids want a biscuit or a sweet and they haven't had seventymillion packets already that day then I let them have one. They don't associate sweets with anything other than a treat that is not a meal. These kids are worked so hard at school, they work hard at home on homework, they do sports during the week and at weekend and are generally a joy to be around (I type this and they then bicker and scrap til blood it drawn) I find it's a reward to myself letting them have something in moderation.
I have found these past few months referring to my parents parenting techniques quite a lot.....and doing exactly the opposite. So my kids get lots of positive reinforcement, very little expectation as long as they are doing some work, lots of encouragement, they get taken places and I do a lot of research to ensure they get a rounded childhood (i google stuff in other words)and oh yeah they get told 'I Love You' all the time. I was never sure I was loved and I certainly am not now by those parents.

Flickr Favourites:- Bags
Originally uploaded by toniann.

1. Tote, 2. lotta jansdotter bag, 3. Flowing Dots Tote, 4. lotta jansdotter, 5. Vintage blue and yellow bag, 6. patchwork pottery & bag, 7. Tree bag, 8. messenger bag 1, 9. Bag, 10. Wallet, case and coin purse, 11. Bag, coin purse and case, 12. more bags, 13. buckle bag, 14. Diaper Bag, 15. Simple Sewing Tote Bag, 16. Zarah's Hand Sewn Bag

Oh how I love bags.

I flciked through flickr, scouting for some inspiration bag wise. Looks like I am drawn to the muddy autumnal palette of olive green, grey, brown. Maybe that's the practical mum of 3 boys in me.