first weigh in..... and some other randoms

and I lost 2lbs! yay! I'm sure it would havebeen better had I managed to get my head round the plan and also hadnt been yoghurts that I thought were free and actually had one or 2 syns in there.

Never mind! Onwards and downwards!  I feel better already and healthier and I filled in my gym application form today! And I am so excited to get the started  :-)

My new job is going great and I get every Monday off. Murray and I both got to have a day off today, together! :-) He even took me out for lunch. I forgot how awesome it was to have an actual date! Instead of a couch date like we usually have. He is now in the kitchen cooking up a yummy slimming world curry and some areebee for another night. Recipes and pics will follow , just in case anyone out there might be interested. If not, it is always good to have back up copies of recipes ;-)

The weather is just crazy this week! it has pretty much snowed and hailed constantly for almost a week! But we are yet to trudge through any fabby snow, it all just melts on impact. But very pretty and freezing to walk through (in a crazy , stormy, feels like stones crashing off your face- kind of way :-)) K and I have been curled up on the couch all afternoon with hot water bottles and cozy quilts.

My creativity seems to be on holiday at the moment, which is a pity seeing as I have 4 quilts to finish! I am hoping a good old clean up in the craft zone will help. I did make a new outfit for miss Emmy and I am so very pleased with it!

And this random blog post will show that I also seem to be a bit rusty at this too!

I'm off to eat another orange, I've had one already and it was very yummy. It is no substitute for chocolate but seeing as I have used my syns for today already (on garlic bread and naan bread!) I can't actually have any chocolate. But I will be having a chocolate bar tomorrow! for sure! X

Randoms.

I think random is the best way to describe us at the moment. I don't have a nice well thought out post for you. Very few pics of what we have been up to . We have not really done anything. It is a very weird stage in our lives at themoment, for blogging purposes anyway. But I don't want this little bloggy space to disappear, I must try to post stuff. I have loads of non-family - hey look at this cute jug of flowers type moments most days. I will just have to post those too!

 Weekends are filled with real lazy days and relaxing times.
 Fraser is either sleeping over somewhere or sleeping til lunchtime. The rest of the time he is holed up in his room only coming down to raid the cupboards or share some part of his book or fancy move he made on his game.
Now that K is at school our time is so limited together, after school we have been pretty busy with other kiddos for after school care. Weekends are for playing games, reading books, going for walks and of course visits with Granny's.

None of this makes for many blogworthy moments. I seem to have loads of phone pics of random things, tiny moments. But that's it. There isn't much in between! Obviously, we still have many awesome moments in between. Like tonight for instance - I thought our car just had to be physically rocking with the laughter and hilarity going on inside it. It was all we could do to draw breath in between fits of laughter.

Tomorrow the guys go back to school, I am hoping for a full 1.5 hours in the afternoon to get on with some polka dot creating , I have a huge to do list and an even longer want to do list! I already feel slightly melancholy at the thought of my nest being empty again, but I have to say there is a tiny flicker of enthusiasm for the time I will gain to be productive.

We have lots of fun things coming up, in a couple of weeks we have a family party with a rock theme. The whole family have been invited and we are all starting to think about our outfits and possible celebs that we could be :-)

In 5 weeks K and I are flying to Spain to Aunt Sarah and the gorgeous Joe boy. Who, unbelievably, just turned two this week! Can you believe that? 2??

Look at how ig he has grown!

I am so sad I didn't get to smooch him on his special day :-( but I only have to wait a matter of weeks until I get to love on that gorgeous boy xx

Cue an onslaught of cute/crazy/random pics from the last week or so in our house, I don't think poor Frase is in a single one! He has his own life now! Teenagers...... sigh........ ;-)

mmm homemade salsa

I love it when it is Lelli Kelli time :-)

Spring blossom on our teeny cherry tree

some wii bowling fun

an easter Sunday Craft fair

Chocolate bunny

a twirly wirly straw from a special friend in Canada

a wee trip to Ikea......

roses from my girl - for being a nice Mummy :-)

A magnet I ordered! lol I love them :-)

a haircut for our girly!!

a small wine for mummy! Ooh just remembered there is still half a bottle in the fridge! hmmmm.........

Our silly girl playing in Granny's dress up bag!

I will try to be back before the end of the week - that is my challenge to myself!!

Maybe some wine would be inspirational..........

Busy days.

Wow I seem to be so crazy busy at the moment! It's good though! I have been wanting to come on all week and talk about our days! I have hardly taken a pic of the kids or anything! But I have a whole heap of pics of my gorgeous Joe boy!!! They are back for a couple of weeks and I have spent as many precious moments with them as I can! It's been lovely.

I have also been trying to build up my little handmade business Polka Dot Sweetheart. It has been a busy and pretty productive week! With an exciting new line of items coming along. I also reached 100 fans on Facebook last night so I am celerating with a little giveaway! If any one wants to be in with a chance of some polka dot goodies - then head on over to my FB page and join in!

I have LOVED having Hilda with me all week and we have had a heap of photo fun! Here are just a few.....

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and that a good week is to follow! x

Monday.

It's Monday today and it just soooo feels like it! I can barely keep my eyes open! As a general rule I actually quite like Mondays, I like that we get a new start to each week, I like getting our house back into some semi - order after a busy or extra lazy weekend. I'm also quite often off on a Monday too which is not to be sniffed at!

This morning I have my girly with me. She is choked full of the cold and has a pretty constant (and fairly "embellished") cough. She has been prescribed lots of cosy drinks, vicks vaporub and lots of rest. The last is the hardest for K to do, she is never still! She likes to keep busy!  We are snuggled in watching Annie at the moment ( I have already cried twice!) and have plenty more movie magic planned for the day.

I wanted to share with you the view I have from my end of the couch, my sweet girl at the other end, snuggled under a "mama made" quilt with her heavy eyes and her pink PJs. Out of the window I can see a lovely wintry blue sky and the sun just making it high enough to tip the top of our trees in gold.

But I have two cameras and neither have charged batteries. Sigh.

So instead I will share a couple of pics taken last week of some of our December fun.

Our christmas cake mix

filled with glistening jewel-like fruit and an amazingly spice filled aroma.

Yesterday K and Emmy got a great surprise, Granny C has been busy knitting up a special Christmas suit for our favourite little girl.

special Christmas Emmy.

I'm off now to pop the kettle on for cuppa number 2 of 200. I may pop back later to share some gifts that have been keeping us busy.

October

Autumn is taking it's sweet time to arrive. We even had a heat wave last week! I try I really do, I do all of the things that I should do in the summer! 

 But  now, I am so over summer and hot weather. I am desperate for cool days and warm colours.

I need fallen leaves to scuff through, leaves falling like snow as you drive underneath them. Warm hats, cosy boots and a little gloved hand to hold.

Today I took a stroll in the sunshine with Murray. I roasted myself alive in a scarf and woolly hat! I was treated to my first gingerbread latte of the season! It was lovely. I even bought a pumpkin!

Pumpkin bread and a walk in the woods awaits.

The weather may not yet be ready, but I wont wait.

 It is October and I WILL enjoy every autumn delight!

The weather can catch up ... eventually.


ps- my husband thinks I am crazy because I was talking to my pumpkin. Seems perfectly normal to me....

Spillers Farm

How sweet is this arch for a welcome?

While we were away for the wedding last weekend, we had the pleasure of spending two nights at Spillers farm.

In the summer months there is also a tea room here and I hope we can sample that on our return! (hopefully next year!)

The owners of the B&B were super friendly. They made us feel like we were visiting friends.

We were invited to explore the farm and introduce ourselves to the animals.

The pigs were so friendly! They breed the pigs and use the "offspring" for their own meat.

When exploring, you always need a tour guide.

The tour guide at Spillers farm was adorable.

Meet Merryck.

He was always up for a stroll around the lake, all he needs is someone willing to open the gates and he will show you around.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to take the boat for a spin, but Merryck highly recommended it, as you can see. He apparently likes to swim alongside.

Bridget and Keith (the owners) buy some orphaned lambs every year, they raise them and then use them for meat also. These sheep have such a happy life!

The farm and surrounding landscapes are just stunning.

The views were just beautiful.

Merryck was a little put out because we couldn't go any further. We had booked dinner in Lyme Regis, so we had to turn back.

Check me out! Check out how close I was to the chickens!!

We had to walk through them to get to the lake.

I had to dig deep for the courage people!

Very deep.

But Merryck cleared the way.

He was my hero.

And I was very grateful for the ah-may-zing eggs in the morning.

The breakfast room doubles as the tea room in the summer.

I loved the adorable china.

I loved EVERYTHING about the place!

Our views from our room were lovely.

And even the keys had my hero on them!

Love!

We would thoroughly recommend this B&B.

Even if only to visit Merryck and eat some of the delicious breakfast!

But you could also explore the surrounding area! It is beautiful.

(Just wait til you see the pics of Lyme Regis!)

I will never get over the fact that I was too ill to eat my yummy breakfast on Sunday.

Boo hoo.

I guess we will just have to go back again!

spinning.

I apologise in advance, my head is spinning at the moment. This is a brain/thought splurge. Thoughts are fleeting through my mind, sometimes blog posts form in my mind and run like a mantra all day. But by the time we have bathed and bedded our girl, loaded the dishwasher and sometimes packed a lunch,  we settle down for the night, I open the blank page and ......... nothing. It's all gone.

I am tired. My days are so full at the moment. Starting at a very respectable 7am! eek! The challenge of getting K and Frase out by 8.40am is proving easier than I imagined! (we're not perfect, we were almost late once and I have had to drive twice. I may have yelled a couple of times.)  However if I stray a little and snuggle with K until even 7.15 then we lose the groove and it is rush city. But WE ARE DOING IT!

 I can be organised!

 I can have two (sometimes three) children out the door and walked to school. They even eat breakfast! ok That may seem like a crazy thing to celebrate and for K , little miss multiple breakfasts, it is a no brainer. But it is a revelation for Frase. He is not a fan of breakfast. I thought I had used all of the tricks in the book to get him to eat before he goes to school. But it seems I missed a glaringly obvious one. Yes , I have moved to the dark side. Bribery. No electrical items are allowed to be switched on until he is washed, dressed, has eaten breakfast, his bag and blazer are ready to roll, oh and he has to have clean teeth. Then he can watch a little tv or something before school.
I know just what you are thinking. wow. Mum of the year!! Where did  she learn to be so caring and fabulous!?
What? that's not what you were thinking. No me either, bribing your kid with TV is probably a very bad thing to do, but hey! He eats to start his day right and I can limit my early morning yelling, which would result in a day long guilt fest for me.

Once my cherubs are safely esconsed in their respective classes (sob!!) I collect a multitude of other peoples cherubs and care for them all day long instead.

It is busy and fun filled and I love it! I really really love it. In what other job can you spend the day tickling gorgeous little cheeks, baking muffins and rolling out playdough cookies and pies. I get paid for this people! It is pretty awesome.
It is also hard work! It can also smell pretty bad sometimes! And I am about to add 3 more cherubs to the mix. oy. And none of them are my cherub. I miss her so.

Today was a bit of an eye opener for me, we had our usual extra side job to do (which I am totally quitting but can't until I find a replacement! grr.) But instead of coming home early afternoon for some family time, K zipped off to a birthday party!! What's with that? When did she make other plans?

It made me realise how little time we have now, I have so much that HAS to be crammed into the four hours K has between school and bed. I don't get to spend much time with her. At least Frase gets some parent time after K goes to bed but she has to share me all the time.

Next week Murray and I are going to a wedding, far away. We will be away from Thursday until Sunday. We have been planning it for months, excited for so long. It is at River Cottage for goodness sake! In 10 years of being together we have had a handful of nights away and our two week honeymoon alone. I think we deserve a little time together! I know we do. But right now, in typical LeeAnn fashion, a little bit of sadness is creeping in. I will miss home and the crazy people who fill it! I know that K willmiss us and the routines of her normal days. She is a sensitive soul and needs me still. However, I must remember that it is only four days. 3 nights. We will come home again and pick up exactly where we left off. Because it is home.

Tomorrow we are staying home. A day of nothing. I have a little sewing to do but other than that no plans. I think we will play games and do puzzles, watch movies and eat together. We will be a family for one whole day this week. A whole day. One day. Only one day. I must just make more of an effort to be more present in the time that we do have.

So sorry for the brain dump. I wasn't feeling morose all day, I was doing fine this week actually until I was reading a blog tonight. The Mom who writes the blog posted a pic of her two girls playing happily in the daytime, in their pjs. At home. And it hurt. I cried, I know I was lucky enough to have roughly 5 years of those days , with each of my children! It is over now. Those carefree days are limited to weekends andholidays, not every days.  I can't believe I clearly can't accept!) that my Mum days of having little little children are gone. It seems so fleeting and so sad that it is over.

And now I am crying again, it's a good thing I cry all the time! Because now no one even bats an eyelid! I am lying next to Murray and he hasn't even realised! LOL. I think I will pop on a Christnmas film and get a good sleep, family day is tomorrow and I plan to be completely unplugged to everything other than my family. Night night for now x


ps - I love uploading pics from my camera, I come across all sorts ....