A very diverse week

Posted by Caroline Elliott

There are many words I could use to describe the past week – hectic, varied, hospital, baking, exciting, depressing, progress, hopeful, honestly I could go on, so I have gone for Diverse.

Right… where to start?

We had a lovely weekend, fairly busy but it was my MIL’s birthday on Sunday so that was lovely, and then my parents are having their kitchen renovated at the moment so we invited them round for Sunday tea. Monkey loved a day with all of his lovely grandparents so that was nice!

Monday was a very exciting day! In case you haven’t heard, I was invited to meet Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro by TLC. It really was a LOT of fun. It was also really tiring – a slightly rushed trip down to central London, hours of being on my feet (soooo not good for my Pelvis but I wasn’t about to make a fuss), and you know how it is, all the mingling and small talk can get quite exhausting at the best of times, let alone when being preggo is tiring me out as it is! It was wonderful but I was so tired, some of my London girls wanted to meet for a drink afterwards but honestly there was no way I could do it, far too tired!

I don’t want to go into too much detail about it here, as there is enough for another post about my SPD this week, but there has been some very low lows and a very happy glimmer of hope this week and hopefully we will be making some progress soon on that front. I was at the hospital on Tuesday which felt like a waste of time but have another appointment on Monday that will hopefully be more positive.

My parents looked after Monkey while I was at the hospital on Tues, and they had a whale of a time. But we are all a bit daft, as I had forgotten to get them a key to the house so Monkey couldn’t come inside in time for his nap. D’oh! They kept him going but by the time I got home he wasn’t very interested in napping! It wasn’t a terrible afternoon, just very tiring. Then by bedtime he was so overtired and honestly I am a dummy as I gave him some cake at tea time and with the over tiredness and sugar the poor lamb took ages to get off to sleep. We really take for granted what a good sleeper he is usually and nights like that are so rare and worse because I caused it. Poor Monkey 🙁

Wednesday saw our second trip to the hospital , for Monkey this time. I’ve mentioned before how a health visitor had moaned at me that he walked with his feet out and that we should get it checked. Blah blah. Anyway, to avoid a repeat of this at his 2 year check we duly went to the Drs and got referred to the hospital. We have now seen a pediatric orthopedic doctor who has confirmed what we thought, that Monkey is normal and that it will probably correct itself naturally as he gets older, and that then as he becomes more self conscious he will probably turn his own feet in. So it was a waste of time, but in the best possible sense, and much as we hoped it would be the case, you never really know. So for all my moaning about it, I know it was worth getting it checked just to make sure that it is all normal!

There’s also lots of progress on the Garden renovation …. more to come on that next week but it is taking shape, eek! We have got the landscapers in and they are doing a fab job!

Also, the work has all been done in my flat, all the mould is gone (it was disgusting) it has been redecorated and new carpets are down. Phew! Hopefully we get new tenants soon, then we can start to think about the more costly job of extending the lease (eek).

Hubby’s parents have been wonderful this week and have helped with some of the housework. I hate it as I am a very proud person and I don’t like admitting I can’t do everything… but I have to accept that with my pelvis the way it is right now, I really can’t do everything. Hubby is doing his best to keep on top of everything but he’s busy and tired too so even a little help from family is making all the difference at the moment. Thank goodness we are lucky enough to have support from all of our family!

Oh I also went for a drink mid-week with a very good friend who was actually my direct manager when I was last pregnant. It was lovely to catch up as it had been a couple of months, and she is getting married to one of hubby’s friends (I set them up, go me!) in August, so there was lots of exciting thing to catch up on! She also very kindly told me that I look much healthier than I did at this point in my last pregnancy. As my manager she was used to a very grey faced zombie staring at her blankly most days last time, and she is right as the sickness and zombie-ness is nowhere near as bad at the moment, so that is a very good positive thought! My pelvis may suck, but at least the sickness isn’t as bad this time. I’ll take that thank you!

I am really hoping that next week is just a little calmer… but Monkey has 2 birthday parties to go to this weekend! Aaaargh No rest in sight yet!

I’m Becoming a mummy again!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Ok so the cat is out of the bag, the bird has flown the coop, any other metaphors you can think of for the fact that the secret is out because I am Pregnant. Yay!! So that is my word of the week!

It’s still very early days as I am only 9 weeks pregnant, and I know that things could still go wrong, but I have really been struggling to keep this a secret as it is affecting a lot of our life at the moment! And as I blog about our life it feels very weird to be omitting something as huge as this. We are very excited of course and can’t believe how lucky we are to have fallen pregnant again so quickly. Timing wise it works out exactly as we had ever hoped as baby will be due beginning of November and Monkey will be 2 1/2 in November, so yay! Like I say, we are lucky it happened so fast, I know!

But, and there is a but, much as I am thrilled to be pregnant, and appreciative of how lucky we are and hopeful and apprehensive all at the same time, I am also really tired!! I had forgotten quite how tiring this first stage of pregnancy can be! I am struggling to keep up with the blog and have had to cut down on a few fab linkys that I love, purely because I haven’t got the energy to do the rounds and comment in the way that I think you should when you are joining up to a linky! So apologies for late replies to comments, short comments or a general easing off from commenting, I’m doing as much as I can!

Morning sickness sucks too, let’s just put that out there – but thanks to sea-sickness bands (not 100% sure they work but willing to try anything) and copious amounts of Jacob’s Crackers I am getting through. And, fingers crossed, touch wood it seems to be easing off slightly which is a vast improvement on my previous pregnancy, so hooray for that! I am spottier than I was last time which is irritating but not really worth complaining about! My neighbour thinks this means I am having another boy hehe 🙂 (out come all the old wives’ tales!!)

The big downer so far, and the main reason I have decided not to keep it a secret anymore, is that my SPD/PGP/whatever you want to call it, stupid pain in my pelvis has raised it’s ugly head already. 🙁 Boooo. I won’t go on about it too much here as I have a more detailed post planned but I hurt already. It’s affecting my life a lot and making me feel quite sad at times, and not being able to write about it, or even mention it in other posts has proven a bit difficult.

It’s affecting the way we live and how I keep the house clean & tidy. It’s affecting play with Monkey and getting out and about in general. I am hoping to get some help to prevent it getting worse but it’s proving a difficult process and quite simply, I need to talk about it! Blogging is now a big part of who I am and when I am struggling with something I find it very cathartic to write it all down. Having to deliberately omit something that is worrying me is taking the fun out of the blogging somewhat so that is why I have decided to spill.

Plus, I know that things could go wrong, but if they do I am pretty certain I would need to write about that too, so that in itself doesn’t feel like a strong enough reason to keep quiet about it.

This may seem like quite a negative way to announce that I am pregnant but believe me, even with all of the above moaning, I am genuinely happy and excited to be pregnant again as it means I get to have a little baby at the end of it. Another little darling to fill my world with smiles and cheekiness. I know that will make any and all of the challenges and difficulties worth it, but I also aim to be honest in my blog so I can’t pretend everything is 100% rosy when I am really not feeling it!

Phew! Do you know what? I already feel so much better for getting all of that off my chest and out in the open!

We’re having another baby! Hooray!!! 🙂 Bring on the pregnancy posts! 😉

Word of the week 28.03.14 Better

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Yep thankfully this week has been much

Its not that all of our problems have magically disappeared.We still have a lot going on, but somehow it isn’t weighing me down in the way that it was last week.

We have now seen the condition that the tenants have left my poor flat in, and believe me, it is not good. We are going to have to fight our case with the deposit protection scheme to not return their deposit, as there is so much mould covering the walls, ceilings and carpets. Honestly it is vile and should be very depressing. Yet somehow it isn’t. Yes it’s a pain, but feeling a bit refreshed after some me time last weekend I am able to recognise that it isn’t the end of the world. We will have to pay for new carpets and either clean/redecorate ourselves or pay someone to do it. But it will get done and the deposit should cover some of it and what little extra income we got from the rent has been saved for this kind of thing so hopefully we won’t have to dip into our savings.

Hubby has got another cold, poor thing he just keeps getting poorly lately and I have insisted he take a day off from work today to make sure he rests and recuperates a little. I know he’ll be back on tomorrow (Friday) as “he has too much to do” but hopefully a bit of a rest will have helped him. I guess it is no surprise with working so hard all week and then the amount of effort he has put in for Operation Garden Renovation lately. He definitely needs a bit of downtime!

The plans I had for Monkey and I this week went to pot a bit as the friends we were supposed to meet up with on Wednesday and Thursday both had to cancel, due to poorliness and dentist appointments. While sometimes this would worry me, this week it has been ok. We have actually had some surprisingly lovely times, just us, pottering about the house. My little man is growing up and while he still needs a lot of entertainment from various activities, in many ways he is much easier to please and he can now entertain himself for longer periods of time, pushing his cars about the living room for example.

We had a very lovely, slightly random half hour of giggling together playing with his blankie yesterday. he hid under it, I hid under it, we hid under together, he used it as a cape. So random but lots of lovely lovely fun.

It has not been a perfect week, but judging by my mood you would think it has. I feel refreshed and like a much better, happier mummy than I did last week. Ah the magic of me time!

Word of the Week – Testing

Posted by Caroline Elliott

That’s right this week has been

It didn’t get off to the best of starts with the terrifying ordeal that was Saturday Night, and unfortunately the stress and worry and lack of sleep has leached over and affected the rest of the week.

Despite minimal sleep on Saturday after our ambulance trip to the hospital we still had work to do on Sunday. Monkey was out of danger and we had hired some heavy duty (and costly) equipment for the garden renovation and we knew that work had to go on despite our tiredness so that we didn’t waste the money. It was positive and a lot has been achieved – more on that next week, but the exhaustion has permeated our week.

And let’s face it, when you’re tired, everything feels more difficult.

Monkey has really been testing me this week. He is becoming defiant and obstropulous at times. Normally I know I would cope with it better but when I am tired and not feeling myself, I find it harder to deal with. We have been lucky with him so far and other than firm “Nos” and explaining why he can’t do something, we haven’t had to venture into the realm of discipline. But I think we may be approaching something along the lines of the naughty step, because he just doesn’t listen and needs to understand that there are consequences if he disobeys or refuses to listen to mummy or daddy. no fun and we will see how we go, not making rash decisions, but we knew this day would come.

I’m also feeling, pretty selfishly, that I need a break. With all the work on the garden over the last month, all of Monkey’s care has fallen onto me as Hubby has had a lot to do in the garden. I understand and it’s been fine but I feel like I need a break. I know I’m lucky with how much hubby helps out with him normally, and not sure what it says about me as a mother that I am struggling, but I am struggling and I need a bit more help. Thankfully though we have a quiet weekend planned and hubby is very much looking forward to spending a bit more time with Monkey, phew!

We’ve also been a bit tested by other matters this week. The tenants are moving out of the flat I used to live in before I met hubby, and we’ve just found out that they have led it get damp and mouldy which is a real pain. I lived there for years with no damp, but in the two years they have lived there this is the second time. I don’t understand to be honest but I guess it’s a good thing they are moving out.

We were thinking that we would like to sell the flat rather than rent it out again, as I hate it hanging over our heads, but now we are not sure that is going to happen yet. It is leasehold and we’ve found the deeds and realised that there is only 61 years left on the lease, which basically means it’s hard for anyone to get a mortgage on it. To extend the lease is a process that takes 6 months – a year and costs in our case, wait for it, about £15,000. Yup £15,000. Which we don’t exactly have, just lying around. But it needs to be done as the costs will only increase as the remaining lease decreases. So we need to get tenants in there again after all while we get the process started.

We are hoping that we can add the costs onto the existing mortgage of the flat as otherwise we don’t know how we are going to finance it, and hopefully we can then recoup some of the costs when we do sell it, whenever that may be.

We just don’t need the hassle, to be honest. it’s just a pain but then life is like that, it’s not easy and there’s never a good time for something like this to crop up. It is a bit of a testing time and puts a strain on things. I got really cross with hubby yesterday, like fuming mad for no real reason other than over-tiredness, stress and frustration.

I like to think I am a positive person but I am struggling to find the positives this week. Here’s hoping next week is better. What word sums up your week? Hope it’s happier than mine!!

Word of the Week – Gardens

Posted by Caroline Elliott

This week in our house it has all been about

In truth it has been all about gardens for longer than a week as we started Operation Garden Renovation a few weeks ago now, but this week I am really feeling that it is overwhelming our life!

My last post about it was all about the bonfire, but in fact I am a week behind on the progress posts and the hubby and my brothers have since filled a huge skip with rubble from the 4 bits of patio that used to be in the garden. More on that to come soon!

We have been thinking a lot about the design of the garden, whether to go for patio or deck and what else we want to achieve with the garden. We have also realised that the garden actually slopes gradually towards the house and we may need some sort of step up if we want the lawn area to be level, and a better solution for drainage to avoid getting damp problems.

Because we think now that we would like a patio we have realised this is all getting beyond our skill level and have contacted loads of landscape gardeners to see how much it costs, timeframes etc. Of all of those we contacted, only one has come back to us! I don’t understand? Do people not want the work? Seems crazy to me! The one that has comes to us seems very good but it is looking likely to be more expensive than we had hoped and that it won’t be done as quickly as we had hoped. The deadline of a birthday bbq at the end of April is looking extremely unlikely.

On the recommendation of my friend’s fiancee (who is a carpenter himself) we have contacted another guy who is coming at the weekend and I really hope he can give us some good news!

We have more work planned for this weekend – another huge skip is coming tomorrow along with some heavy duty equipment. We are hiring a stump grinder to hopefully make light(er) work of the 20ish conifer tree stumps in the garden, and cultivator coming to try and dig up as many of the roots of Ivy and other bushes so that it doesn’t all just come back again immediately through whatever we decide or manage to get down.

Hopefully by the end of this weekend the majority of the work we can do will have been done, and we will have a better of idea of who will be doing the rest, and when that will be! Then my life (and blog) can get a bit back to normal and less garden focussed! It’s exciting but draining as we want to be happy with it. We hope to live here for many years and don’t want to regret the choices we make in the garden and have to go through this all again at some point!

What is your word of the week?

The BEST Word of the Week- Monkey’s First Word!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

We have an actual word from our little Monkey! He has said Go once before, a while ago, but it was never repeated. Then this week he started saying it again. To start with we weren’t sure. Is he just saying ‘ga’? But then he was pushing a car and he definitely said ‘go.’ We quite often say ‘ready, steady, go’ when playing with cars, so this made sense.

Then, in one of his Spot books there is a bit where you say ‘let go’ and he repeated ‘go’ back when Daddy said it to him. Then if daddy asked, can Leo say ‘go’ ? He said ‘go.’

I know this may sound daft as it’s such a small word but we are so excited! It’s been a long road to get here, I’ve talked about it many times and wondered if it was somehow my fault that he has been a late talker. We’ve been seeing progress over the last couple of months so I was worrying a lot less – but it is a huge relief to have that first word!

It is also quite an apt word as it really has been all ‘go’ this week! My car had it’s MOT and service, and now needs new tyres, boo :(. It’s also car insurance renewal for both our cars. Thankfully we have a savings account for car related things!

Monkey had a doctors appointment this week too. He’s walked with is feet pointed out since he started walking at 10 mths and we’ve been waiting to see if there has been any improvement, but there hasn’t, so we have finally taken him to the doctors. Monkey was very good and his shyness has improved so much as he let the doctor move his legs about and we had no fuss at all! The Dr said it is probably nothing and he will probably be fine but has recommended we get him checked at the hospital just to be sure his hips are ok. So I am pretty nervous about that but best to be sure!

We’ve also found out this week that our tenants for my flat (where I lived before I met hubby) have given notice to leave at the end of March. So now we need to see what condition it’s in and try and sell it (again). We are hoping that the market has picked up a bit so we can sell it now, and still get out the money I originally put in. It would just be a real weight off our minds if it sold, but there’s work to be done before we can get it to that point.

This week hasn’t all been bad, we had a lovely Pancake Day meal with hubby’s family and Monkey likes pancakes – but only with golden syrup and whipped cream on hehe! We have also been busy doing lots of work and organising for our Operation Garden Renovation, which included finally ripping down the shed and arbor, and having a big bonfire in the garden! More to come on that next week!!

But, yes, Monkey is right, this week has definitely been all ‘go!’

Word of the Week? Trying

Posted by Caroline Elliott

The word that best sums up this week is

I think this word is perfect for this week as there is more than one meaning.

Starting with the positives, I have been trying out new things this week, starting with my website redesign and then my new linky the Creative Challenge which went live on Wednesday (and is still open if anyone has been creative this week and fancies joining in?)

Monkey has also been trying more with his speech, yep at 21 months we have no words, I know it’s within the normal range but I really want him to talk. And he’s getting closer, I really believe it. I say something and sometimes he tries to say it back. Onion = Oeeeaaa, Garlic = Garya, Zip =Zzzzz. Just a few examples and I know he’s not there yet, but he is trying, which means the world to me.

On to the not so positive side…

I’ve also been trying to find the perfect recipe to make creme egg brownies. This has been a very trying experience as I keep failing! Seriously, how hard can it be? First off I tried to wing it, big mistake, you can read more about that here if you like. The next time though, I followed a recipe and if anything, they turned out worse and we actually threw most of them away!

Not only did they look appalling but they didn’t taste good either, really greasy, there was just way too much butter in them. Such a waste of good chocolate, butter, sugar etc. The worst of it was that I attempted to bake these as a way of cheering me and Monkey up on a very trying day where we were both grumpy. Eating all the chocolate and butter and sugar definitely cheered him up, but it certainly did not improve my mood that day!!

It’s my own fault as I wanted to be clever and have mini creme eggs that were within the brownie mixture, rather than full size creme eggs that are kind of sat on top of the brownie. I don’t like to be beaten though so I will be trying again soon. Hopefully I will get it right one day!!

Another trying experience this week was our attempt to cut Monkey’s hair. This is not a fun experience, in fact it is downright stressful. He hates it and cries and squirms and shakes his head about so it’s basically impossible for it to end up looking ok. I know we could take him to the hairdressers, but honestly if we can’t get him to sit still long enough (even with the help of daddy, his fave tv shows, scrummy treats to eat) how the heck would we do it at the hairdressers?

Anyway, this is as good as we could get it.

It looks ridiculous! And I managed to scrape the side of his face with the scissors 🙁 scare me so much!

So yes this week has been partly about trying new things, but it has also been very trying!

What word sums up your week?

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Word of the week – Imperfection

Posted by Caroline Elliott

This week I have been thinking a lot about

My own imperfection that is! It’s all too easy to wear rose tinted glasses with my blog. To show the world only the good things that happen in our house and my life. But that isn’t the full story, it’s not the Truth. And I don’t think it helps anyone.

I started this blog, partly to occupy myself, partly to share my experiences with the world in the hope that I may be able to help another mummy going through similar life changes as me. If I pretend that everything is hunky dory, that every baking attempt goes well, that every playtime idea is a success, I’m putting forward a false picture of my life.

So this week has been about taking off those rose tinted glasses and saying yup I am an imperfect person. I fail sometimes. I have bad days. I am human. So I pick myself up, dust myself down, forgive myself for my failings and try to learn something so that I may be more successful next time. You can read more about this here and here, if you want to 🙂

What’s your Word of the Week?

WotW – Organised

Posted by Caroline Elliott

As usual this week has been many things, mainly lovely, ever so slightly bonkers but there has been a lot of time spent being:

Blog Planning

I started off the week trying to create a weekly blog plan – listing all the linkys I like to link to and planning what post I want to link up with them. I feel like I’m a bit ad hoc and chasing my tail sometimes with my blog and I’m a planner by nature so I don’t like it much! 🙂 It helps me work out roughly what I want to write and when I want to write it which helps.

We’ve also been looking at theme design, I’ve had some ideas in my head ever since I started this blog and this theme (and the one before it) were only meant to be temporary. I’ve finally got those ideas on paper and made a start down the road of theme design – so watch this space!

Accounts

It’s time to do hubby’s business accounts so this week I have been buried in bank statements and the accounts software. It’s pretty simple data entry for the most part but time consuming so I do a little every month and then reconcile every quarter. Not huge amounts of fun but I like to do it so hubby doesn’t have to.

Surprise Treats

I’ve also been having another look at our accounts and at first I couldn’t work out why we had a bit of spare money in the account (we have 2 accounts, one for all the bills to go out of, and one for the monthly spending so we are always know where we are) then I remembered we are in that lovely time of year where we get a break from paying council tax! Wahoo!

I went out for dinner with some friends last night and fancied a new top (I hardly ever treat myself to new clothes) so because we had some spare money I bought one 🙂 I also bought monkey some new play-doh tools and more paints as there is 20% off craft supplies at ELC at the mo.

So a bit of organisation pays off sometimes. I wish I could get more organised with the housework though haha! 🙂

Word of the Week? Happy #wotw

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Yes, it has been a wet and miserable week weather wise.

Yes, I have been really tired this week and we have been busy as usual… but the best word for our week has been:

It started off well, with some me time on Saturday, then on Sunday we had a very lovely family day out.

We’ve managed to have quite a lot of fun this week too, happy mealtimes (more on that coming soon to a blog post near you) and a little adventure which you will hear more about in a few days. Here’s a few pictures to give you a glimpse at our happy week.

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

WotW

A very diverse week

I’m Becoming a mummy again!

Word of the week 28.03.14 Better

Word of the Week – Testing

Word of the Week – Gardens

The BEST Word of the Week- Monkey’s First Word!

Word of the Week? Trying

Word of the week – Imperfection

WotW – Organised

Word of the Week? Happy #wotw