Sorry I'm barely blogging, Lolly is very ill with severe tonsilitus, Doctors have been visiting her at home which is unheard of at my GP surgery! She has pretty much slept a fevery sleep for three days now, I have to rouse her to take her meds and she drops back off whilst I'm taking to her!

The dogs been ill too but he responded quickly to his antibiotics! We lost a young chicken to the fox last night, the fox dug into the run, two other small chickens got out the gap and were running around the garden, he must have been happy with just one, not sure why he did come back for the easy prey?

Lots of PTA stuff going on, I'm always runnig around with my bright yellow badge, a clipboard and posters under my arm with a roll of tape in my pocket!

Weather is alterately pouring down with rain or bright blue skies and sunshine, great for the garden, not so good for the school runs?

I dont talk much about Lollys father on here but he has invited her (not Dumpling and I, just her) to join him and his family as a villa in Spain this summer. Totally torn as she would probably have a great time but I dont know how his extended family feel about me, I dont want them making Lolly uncomfortable and if she wasnt happy there, what could I do? My mum is horrified at the idea, she thinks he'll kidnap her and take her back to where he lives abroad, hardly, he's barely interested in her and his wife certainly wouldnt be up for raising a teenager!

Bleeuggh! Went out Friday night, nice to get out and see a few people but being drunk isnt as much fun as it used to be and I'm just left feeling so tired after eating junk food and drinking coke all weekend, I'd rather have gone camping all weekend, would have cost about the same!

Camping was wonderful, great site leading down by the river to the sea, fantastic views. The site was clean and friendly, excellent bus service running to the local towns, the weather was good to us despite the dreadful forecast, the supposed worst day of weather was the best, bluest skies and day long sunshine!



The tent needed a little patching but nothing that affected our stay, simple enough to put up, they make them simple these days, lots of colour coding for the poles, that helped! We could have done with a bigger table, I always find camping or the beach, you want to keep things off the ground and its not always easy. We borrowed my dads portapotti for middle of the night wee's! We went to the campsites toilets most of the time but nice to have the emergency backup, but emptying that thing is something I never want to do again!



The kids behaved pretty well, certainly a lot more than at home, the bickering started as soon as we got back and I missed the trip and without tv there wasnt so much to fight over! Considering the age gap it went pretty well, I'm looking forward to going again this year, hopefully for longer.



The best day was the last full day, the sun shone, we took the bus to the next town, walked down by the river the a little seaside town, took a boat ride, tried to catch crabs (not one!) and generally just chilled, when we got back later the the campsite the sun was setting, I could have stayed forever...

We're going camping! Three days in the not so wilderness, in fact its quite luxurious! We'll have one socket for electric supply in the tent, a little fridge, blow up beds etc, my dad makes hur-rumph noises at me when we pack his van with stuff as he's ex army and his version of camping involves much much less and all fits in a small back pack!

I'm really pleased at how little the holiday is costing us, the tent was a present from a friend who had no more use for it, the blow up beds we bought at a car boot sale as was the water carrier, you be amazed what you can get second hand if you try. the only expensive things I bought was the lead for the electric and that has an almost 100% resale rate.

Looking froward to getting away from the day to day stresses and really being a family, theres bugger all to do there and thats kind of the point, spending days making our own fun, climbing, walking, looking for shells and fossils.

Will update you with photos, possibly during the trip if we can pick up a wifi signal, shh, dont tell my dad we're taking the laptop...

Bloody bank didnt show my available balance correctly and I went 27p over drawn on a bank holiday. Had to find a friend who banked with the same bank to transfer some funds over, annoying and embarrassing.

Bad blogger

I know, I havnt posted for ages but life keeps getting in the way. Like Dumpling running into the side of a moving car and getting his ankle caught by the wheel (he's fine, walked away with a scratch) I, on the other hand, jnow refuse to let him walk anywhere without tightly holding onto his hand, just when he thought he was getting some freedom...

He has also managed to have headlice, threadworms, impetigo, conjuctivitious and skin his face from falling over in the playground. I think sending him to school is a dangerous thing to do these days, Lolly and I havnt suffered from any of the above so I guess he's getting it all from school.

I had loads to write and now am sat here and cant think of a thing, all thats running through my head is a list of things I have to do today and dont have time for. We are running a cinema night at the school tonight, so I wont even have time to go home after school or eat, I will have to make a picnic dinner for Dumpling and I and we can eat it when everything is set up? I also look after Dumplings friend after school on Fridays and have tried twice to text his mum to pick him up from the school at 4.30 and have had no reply!

More chicks arriving soon, Dumplings school hatched 6, dont think we can keep them all, but fun to have while they are small and cute and know lots of people who will take them off my hands!

cake sale at dumplings school sold out within minutes and children cried there were no cakes left!

dumpling fell over at school and scraped his face from top to bottom

Lolly got an excellent report, A*s, A's and B's, five subjects including all the sciences were A*s for all catagorys

Friend tried to set me up with a guy I had no interest in and then berated me all the way home for not agreeing to go out with him, as if I should be grateful that anyone would ask me

so tired, my feet throb and my fingers can barely type and now I have to go and pick up Lolly from dance class, think I'll crawl there and back!

Its flippin' snowing again! woke up this morning to find a blizzard again, roads and school shut to the west of the county but we seem to be used to it now and everyone went to school and work, its not so cold so we are not getting the ice problem this time, I just hope it stays long enough for Dumpling to sledge after school, he'll be very upset if it all melts by 3pm!

severe back ache and therefore headache, painkillers making me woozy, grumpy, constipated and windy, I'm not a whole lot of fun!

After a few beautiful days of sunshine and spring weather, the cold and rain in back, its great for the garden as all my new bulbs and grass shoots come up but not so good for walking the kids to school and back, I'm walkingthe neighbours children home from school each day and having another child till teatime on Fridays for the extra money, its not much but helps to have some disposable income.

I so need to do a weekly shop today but the weather is so horrible I cant face it, so I have enough change for a chinese take away and I'll get bread, milk and squash on the way home from tonights PTA meeting.

Ho-hum, I feel like I'm working really hard and getting nothing done again, I'm not depressed, but in years gone by I would have been with things the way they are. The older I get the more I'm able to take things on the chin, get on with it and know I wont always feel like this, I can always see the light on the other side of grey miserable days!

Lolly is cooking a stew from scratch with sausages and roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding, I knew it was a good idea to let her change one of her option sto food tech!

Six more battery hens will be free this weekend (and hundreds more, I'm just talking about the ones coming to me) I'm not keeping these, I'm helping my mums neighbour set up chicken keeping, he's a carpenter so shouldnt be a problem, I sat down last night to write a few notes about keeping chickens and it turned into a thesis! You know they say you should write about what you are passionate about...?

Hosted a Fairtrade coffee morning at the school this morning with other PTA members, I thought we would have more of an uptake and we had even less come in after school to loook at the stuff. I think we should have held it in the playground despite the cold, parents dont want to trudge into the hall but they ar tempted if its in the playground, on cake sale days we are almost pinned against the wall by parents and children buying our wares!

I cooked myself a lovely lunch yesterday and as I was taking it out of the microwave, my sleeve caught on the top of a bottle and I managed to throw the whole plateful across the worktop, luckily the worktop was clean and I was hungry so I scraped what I could back onto the plate and ate it and then set about re-cleaning the worktop!