Cruise control.

Murray and I are currently on a little road trip.

It's not every day that your childhood best friend gets married and invites you to their wedding at River Cottage. The universe smiled even more upon us as it coincides almost to the day - of our ten year anniversary.

10 years. Wow. We have officially been a couple for a third of our lives!

We dont escape get away , on our own, very often at all. And really, we wouldn't have it any other way, the nest is hard to beat! But sometimes it is nice to head out on your own with no definite timings in mind, just meandering our way through the days. It's nice not to have to know "if we're there yet".

It's good that we get on so well, it has been a pretty long drive but it's been relaxing and even fun.

One topic of conversation that kept coming up was how this trip would never have happened 10 years ago.

For a start it couldn't have happened! I loved my little car of the time because it meant freedom for me. I had been without a car for a while and lived in a teeny tiny village that was quite cut off, so my little white car was my ticket to freedom for my boy and I. But it was far from a road worthy road trip worthy car. When we drove through puddles the water came through the floor, the window wipers hardly worked and well only half of the seats had covers on. But it got us around.

The car we have now is solid, I love our car and it feels so safe to me after the disasters of last year!

I was also not the most adventurous of drivers, I would not have considered driving on a motorway! Oh no. And to drive hundreds of miles on a road I have never seen? Forget it.

But Sean makes it possible.

Oh how I love our Sat Nav!

Another thing we wouldn't have had 10 years ago was a working radio in the car but also a

CD player! And two ipods crammed with music.

 If I could speak to my 20 year old self I would tell her how far she would go in the world. A CD player in the car for goodness sake!

And Mr Peat's favourite joke of the day

LeeAnn - there's a huge Q up ahead.......

 Unfortunately my knowledge of motorways hasn't really improved much and I seemed to annoy a lot of people. I learned many new aggressive driving styles and gestures along the way.

But those grumpy folks couldn't take any of my excitement away because our car has cruise control! Set that baby to 70 MPH and we were just cruising along. It's like one step away from the Jetson's, people!

Just living the dream.

10 years ago we knew were going to be together forever, But I'm not sure even we could have envisioned how "richly" our lives would have improved.

We both have a job that we love, we have our own roof over our heads, we have two beautiful, intelligent , loving and fun loving children.

Our home and lives are enriched by our love of each other and by the family and friends that surround us.

Here's to 10 years of togetherness and to just cruising along for another ten years.... and beyond. xx

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 ....

Our sunny September Sunday

What a wonderful contrast to the rest of our week. That's the great thing about life, it just keeps on rolling.

Relaxing - weekend style.

After a horrible week we decided that Friday was the start to great weekend. So we kicked back and relaxed.

Meatball style.

LeeAnn style.

And Murray style.

Last night I finally made the apple pie that had been planned since Monday.

Have you ever seen Christmas vacation?

Do you know the Christmas eve scene where they carve the beautiful, succulent looking turkey and it disintegrates into grey dust?

This was my moment.

The house smelled ah-may-zing.

Like really really good. Like Autumn had properly arrived and brought a touch of Christmas with it.

It smelled like magic.

The pastry was crumbly and golden and crisp. I was so pleased.

But when I cut through the perfect, crumbly , film worthy crust!

The apples were thoroughly undercooked and had oozed at least a pint of juice!!

It still tasted nice! I just drained off the syrupy (yummy) juice and hope that the apples will cook through when I reheat the rest of the pie.

Does anyone know how to avoid ths? I wanted fresh apples , not previously stewed. Is there any way to get the crust and inside perfect?

I wonder if it is too late at 10.50pm to eat apple pie and ice cream.

 Well it is the weekend after all......

I should have seen it coming.

When you start your week with a migraine and a big fat disappointment - it is a sure sign that it is just going to get worse!

I'll back up a little.

Sunday afternoon K and I  headed out with Beebs and Lor Lor (and Laurel with the VERY pink hair!) to a handmade charity event in Dundee. I ended up with a migraine, the blinding, agonising type. Yuck.

Unfortunately it lasted until Thursday!

On Monday I went to buy the wellies I have been drooling over for weeks and weeks. When I finally had the good fortune to find a hole in my old wellies, I wasted no time in zipping off for the red spotty ones!!! But they did not have my size! I am still crushed. I tried again today and there are still none.

You can read about the rest of Monday here

On Wednesday my girl broke her heart going in to School. It was totally unexpected and I was blindsided. Completely.
I had to leave her crying .
I shattered into a million pieces.
I left crying and cried all the way home. It was 9am! How was I going to make it to 3pm without knowing how she was?  I finally pulled myself together and got on with my morning.
I was sitting playing cars with the new little boy I care for. He is 18 months old and adorable. He somehow lost his footing and caught his mouth on the table. Hard. After some ice and more tears (all mine! the little honey was still smiling!) I was really a bag of nerves. I had a whole day of worrying about two kids to do now!

Lor Lor came to my aid and kept me sane  company. We went shopping when the wee man got picked up and the day passed much faster.
K was perfect when I picked her up, she had settled quickly and came home smiling! I put the kettle on for a cup of tea and put a chicken in the oven to roast.
My nerves were settling and I was ready to relax into the evening, the day could only get better right?

Fraser walked through the door with a black and misshapen finger. He had hurt it playing rugby at school. First period.
The School dealt with it in a VERY unacceptable manner and I knew nothing of it until he came home at almost 4pm.
I rushed him straight to the local Hospital but we were already too late for the x-ray dept. We had to go back in the morning.

I was fried! I was so so ready for the day to be over and for Thursday to come.

Thursday morning came and another hospital appointment! Fraser has  fractured his finger and needs to return to the fracture clinic next week. Cue a long letter of complaint to the school for the way they handled the situation!

Mama bear is not happy!

On the plus side K went in to School absolutely fine.

On the down side - K got sick on Thursday night and had to miss school on Friday.

What a week! It was certainly not one I was sad to see the back of!

I obviously had to take Friday off of work, I am so lucky to work with the great families I do. They all were very understanding.

K and I had a snuggly day. We lay on the couch and watched Disney films, we looked through cookbooks and made baking plans. We relaxed and  re-charged. It was just what we needed.

Today was a busier day, K had a hospital appointment for an eye test (on a saturday??)  and I had some fabric errands to run.
I will never do this on a Saturday again!
 People in car parks are rude.
That's all I'm going to say about that.
 I think this post is long and depressing enough.

Tomorrow we are going to get back to what we usually enjoy as a family. I have some sewing to do and we are going to head out for a long walk somewhere, blow away the cobwebs of this horrible week. I will take my new camera and play a little. I can't wait, it's a good thing that it's almost bedtime. x