Ashamed

So ashamed as I have not blogged since the summer.
We're now in the glorious autumn - my favourite season I think, although I love them all and shall be sad when they all merge into one.
Talking of which we have been doing some serious recycling/decluttering, call it what you will. I think we are coming out of the fug that is parenting small children and are moving into the next exciting stage - whatever that may be, and as we leave it we realise all the stuff that we have been harbouring for the next one, all the stuff people have passed onto us and we have gratefully received - may not be needed anymore. (I say we but I think it is I who is the major culprit as Hamish would happily exist sitting on a cardboard box resting his feet on the cat)
It is a good thing - less really is more and we are discovering space that we didn't know we had and a clarity of mind and spirit that has been buried under 17 duvets for several years.
Hopefully keep you up to date with any major discoveries we have - material and otherwise, oh and if anyone should need any bedding......!

Summery sunshine

AAAh, what a lovely day.
We've cricketed, supped elderflower cordial and eaten an impromptu sponge cake and read. Now THAT is what summer is all about. It is also about a medium sized girl's first solo jaunt out to the local lido and her first awful case of sunburn. A happy day with consequences.
This house of ours is mad and chaotic - and it's all our fault we know, but here we are at the end of a sunny busy day and the children are still munching on cereal and watching the Goonies (great film)
We love it though and wouldn't change a thing....well not many things!
The small one has had chicken pocks since Tuesday morning and so that means we've been confined. I'm ever so slightly stir crazy but she's been fabulous. She has been covered - even with some on her tongue..oouch!
Eldest is away for a week - camping!!We are missing her and hope she has fun and is able to keep warm and happy. To say she would feel out of place in an Enid Blyton story is a slight understatement, so we await her return and her tales with eager anticipation.
I'm not sure if anyone still reads this, but I just thought I'd check in and let you know how we all are, blogging twice in one month seems to be quite good in the Facebook age.

After the lull

I am writing this whilst avoiding the dinner dishes and the rest of it.
We are well here in London. The weather has been glorious and now has turned. I don't mind too much as I don't do heat very well - I am not glamorous at the best of times but less so when it's 38 and I have to cycle uphill!
We plod on here in Camberwell, realising what a charmed life we have - or should I say - trying to emphasise what a charmed life we have to the children. I've been mildly involved with getting supplies to the folk who have been made homeless by the fire last Friday, and just that small involvement was a good reminder for me to appreciate all that I have - and also how precious my non material posessions are ie. The Cookies!
I do have a housefull of small people running riot so I should go and see what all the noise is, but can I just leave you with a great Franciscan Benediction I came across today:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

A lovely Sunday afternoon

Hallo from sunny London,
We have had a pretty exhausting weekend because we had a birthday party. The party kind of took care of its' self but it was all the clearing up beforehand and then the clearing up the morning after. Never mind morning after - I think it will some days. Still - I hope she had fun and will have fond memories.
This week was good - I managed to overcome my techno difficulties and finish my coursework....only to be told that I rushed the last bit and maybe I should add a bit more!! It was just like being at school again.
We are all well, trying to help the eldest with her homework is proving trickier by the day. It would seem that Hamish and I not getting our o level maths does matter after all though. We are stuffed if we can remember how to calculate the angle inside a rhombus..with only very scant info being given to help you out..? Will she need to do that later in life?...my guess is not...but don't tell her I told you.

Technologeeeeeeeeee

It would seem that the computer has eaten my coursework.
I've had quite a humbling day - realising that I'm not quite as clever as I thought I was! This computer thing has moved on since 1987, and although I can shop quite competently, saving coursework and filing it so that I can find it again is proving to be a bit beyond me. So is writing an account that doesn't sound like I'm writing a letter to my Granny!
Still, I'm not distressed (now). My coursework is a follow-up journal to a facilitators course I attended in April. I'm learning how to facilitate a parenting group, so I've been thinking about my own parenting all day. It has made me smile as I've recalled stuff that's gone on this week. I think I'm a pretty cool parent, and of course that Hamish is in fact the coolest dad, but our kids seem to have very different ideas...can you believe it. I think they just yearn for a normal pair..?I would like to think that when they get to the age of SREE - Big Brother, last night, they too will proclaim to the entire country (well those that watch channel 4 anyway) that we are gods...because we give them food - now that's parenting for you.

disclaimer: I was in fact only watching Big Brother as a bonding excercise with the eldest.

Here we are again

Writing to you on the eve of another birthday that has come around very quickly indeed. Baby no.2 is getting old again. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVELY GIRL -WE'RE SO GLAD YOU'RE OURS. X X
Last week was very successful. Most children seemed happy most of the time. We swam, did the cinema, the park, the seaside...what more could we ask for? Sun..well we had that as well. Life is good and we are very grateful.
nb.the picture of the birthday girl was taken at a museum - not our house!

Ah...british culture

The children thought it would be a good idea to go swimming yesterday, and it did sound like a good idea. Swimming, or rather visiting a swimming pool in this country must be the same kind of experience as childbirth. How so? Well - in my humble opinion, it's an incredibly painful experience, but you forget about that until the next time someone suggests that you do it again. It was noisy, crowded [I'm finished my childbirth analogy now] and the staff are far too keen to blow their whistles and aren't very nice once they've done that...oh!And the changing rooms smell of wee.
All this seemed to pass the small people by though and the promise of chips got them to leave the pool without the usual moans and groans.
We did have a nice day yesterday; Lazing about in pyjamas till lunch watching bad TV and consuming multiple breakfasts.I on the other hand was working hard for my family whilst they were tucking into their cornflakes. I was part of a consumer panel for Sainsbury's, for which I got £30 in Sainsbury's vouchers. There's a new supermarket opening nearby and they want to make sure that they're ahead of the game and don't lose customers.
Now for those of you who know me, you may be aware that I think supermarkets can be the bad boys and I would rather support the small independents. But I thought I would use this opportunity to give my opinion and try and shape the future of the fat cat - for the better in some small way. Yes of course I came across as a bicycle riding hippy with too many children but it was fun.
It's another day with the smalls all wanting to do different things, so I must go and negotiate! Bye for now.