loving on a Thursday

Today I am expressing my gratitude to the wonderful Mother Nature. She is a fantastic force of which I am always in complete awe.

Within the last 2 weeks, we have had freezing blizzards of snow, rain, beautiful sunshine and cloudy yet warm days.

yet, with all this interchangeable weather, the flowers still grow, the squirrels have awoken and are already busy collecting, the birds are returning and I am full of glee.

I love my life. When I was a kid and imagined how my life was going to be, this is it. I have a really brilliant husband who I love adore and a son who I feel blessed to have, for me, work is coming together.

Sometimes, when one isn't feeling so gleeful, it is hard to see the good in our lives. The unfinished book that we really want to find the time to finish and get published, the car that we long to have but is out of the budget range, the sleepless nights having a new born baby, or having a really stressful job - all these things can really narrow our impressions of life. But I dare you to go for a walk TODAY, and just take the time to look around and see what you haven't notice before, even if it's a 30 minute stroll to your local park. I was walking the other day along a route that I would normally drive and saw this really beautifully built building, it's really ornate and very well maintained. Its got really gorgeous flowers in the front garden and all the paint looks fresh, its on the roadside but not having a car allows me to just potter about.

I took the above picture on Saturday - the day with real sunshine in the sky. I walked past this plant and at that precise moment thought to myself, I want to smell the sunshine and to my friends amusement I stood stock still and just sniffed, rolled my shoulders back, looked up to face the sun and smelt this wonderful floral smell, looking down I saw this flower in all its spring time glory...I simply had to take it's photo!!

I love the fact that no matter what our human emotions are doing, mother nature rolls on doing her work, bringing out the flowers, making the ever changing weather and wiping the slate clean for us to appreciate.

So my thought for this blog is a) what are you loving today and b) when was the last time you took time smell the flowers?

so much kind support

Thank you so much, I have had soooo much lovely words over my poor little car, But, it would be nice if those comments were maybe left here for others (and me)to read.

I know that sounds slightly weird, but I would like to take my blog forward, with it becoming more thought provoking, and if you think that your words could maybe trigger some long forgotten memory for someone, or would add to my words then please feel free.
Before I starting writing this (and sometimes still do) I wondered if anyone would want to read my thoughts about me and my very ordinary life, I took the time to think, am I really that self centered that I would put my life out there for people to read? Now, I don't think I am being self centered, this is sort of a good thing for me to do. I love writing and I really enjoy allowing people to associate themselves with something I have written - as much crappy as that sounds!!! maybe write something about the entry, or to do with the ever changing thought for this entry - I really do take the time to read each and every comment that is left - I enjoy hearing what others are up to!!

I think as humans, what truly sets us apart is our deep rooted emotions, to love who we love, to laugh at the things we find funny, to cry in the bad times and get so angry to the point of wanting to change whatever happened, to truly look at our children when they are unaware and to feel that warm glow with the knowledge that they are yours.

my son asked me once "mummy, do you like me?" I looked at him and in the most sweetest motherly voice I could muster I replied "oh, honey I love you sooo much", he then looked straight at me and said "yes mummy and I love you too, but do you like me", I inwardly smiled and told him that yes, I liked him and that he was my best friend. I think he had just turned 4, so no age at all, but was surprised that a person of that age new the difference between like and love. Sometimes we don't really get the chance to tell the difference, raw and unsuppressed love sometimes blinkers us in other areas.

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my blog through the good times and the bad times and I now ask for your help in taking it forward. Some people may feel slightly awkward about leaving words...please don't, most of my words are garbled nonsense!! others may feel as though they want to share something that is related to the entry - I say go for it, don't hold back!!!

Again, my deepest gratitude to you all and may you love like you ain't never loved before, each and everyday.

So my thought for this blog is - what have you always wanted to do but kept putting it off and maybe still haven't done it???

and so, I had to bid farewell

Saturday was a very sad day for me. The car went to it's retirement home....yeah right.

When I woke on Saturday morning, I had this feeling of foreboding and whilst I lay there, I couldn't remember why. Then it hit me, like a big bang hit me.

My little whistling car was going to the breakers. With a little tear in my eye, I was ready to face the day.
It was a beautiful, sunny, spring morning that one couldn't feel sad. So I went outside and took some photo's of the doomed car and said my farewell.
And off my husband took it. I simply couldn't go, it was too sad for me, but i waited at home with a cup of tea and my son to keep me company.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to our favourite lunch place with some friends and then take our son and their son to the park. Where I saw carpets of flowers, the first squirell of the year and lots of smiling happy people.

But, alas, it was a bit of a down day for me.

When the first day of spring comes its rather hard not to feel light and happy, as though the blinkers have been taken off.
It does make me laugh, that first day though. People clearly have no idea what to wear (and yes, I do appreciate that's a very girly thing to say). Some people were wearing their full coats with scarfs and big foot wear, others were in t-shirts and some even had sandals on - slight wishful thinking!!

The onto Sunday, Sunday was a bit of an odd day, a bit like the calm after a storm. The weather wasn't as great, and everyone seem to be a bit "ooohhhh wheres it gone". My husband, bless him, realising that the day before had upset me, let me have a bit of a lie in.

Now, you would think that maybe I got breakfast in bed or something sweet like that..nooooo. I woke up to the sound of "loving in an elevator, living it up when your goin dowwwwwwwnnnnnnn" and lots of what I interpreted as thumping noises.
On further investigation I find my 30 something husband and my 5 year old MOSHING. I have to ask, how old is the legal consent to mosh with ones father, I thought it must be those god awful teenage years, right?
And after that, when things had calmed down in my house, I asked my son to tidy his room - he then declared "my life's over" - HE'S 5, not, as you may be forgiven on thinking, 13.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell...the ups, the downs and the down right weird.

So my thought for this entry is - how was your weekend my dear friends?

wow - what a week and some sad news.

Don't grow attached to things because the bubble of love will burst. Read on for it to make sense.......!!!!!




All I can say is...I am sorry for not writing sooner. I have an excuse, this week has been manic!!!

So, we went to the wedding on Sunday which was magical. It was everything that one could want from a wedding. An excellent exchange of vows, excellent food, funny and endearing speeches, a good old jig on the dance floor and new people to meet all set in the most beautiful surroundings - my idea of a great time.

Then back to reality on Monday, we picked up our son and basically hung out on Monday. Tuesday my son and I went on a dinosaur walk at ryton pools, brilliant time. Wednesday saw us back at ryton pools to go den building, I am not sure who enjoyed this the most most - kids or adults!!!...again a great time. That night my son had 2 friends for a sleep over - they went to bed at about 8.30pm and woke at 5 am!!! tired but very very mental boys!!! we then went off to see the chuckle brothers in the afternoon on Thursday and then today, I was at work so my boys had a man day.

This week has been filled with laughter and naughtiness!!! we have had so much fun. My son and I used to just hang out all the time before he started school and we very rarely get the time to do it now that the weekends are so precious. So this week we got to be mates again and yes, we got into heaps of trouble!!! the house looks like a toy bomb has gone off and we are all very very tired.

But, my dearest friends, I have some sad news, you may all want to just go make a cuppa with biscuits and then continue reading, for this will make you want to cry.

10 days after my 30th birthday I passed my driving test. It was the second test I had done and I failed the first one in total laughable style. My very generous friends gave me a car, of which I decorated with flower decals. I love that car. The freedom it gives me is liberating and, although I don't necessarily need to drive, I do when my son and I need to do..for example, swimming or taking a picnic to the park in the summer or taking his bike to the park in the winter. but...and I say this with a genuine tear in my eye..the car failed its MOT..not to worry I hear you cry... but its old, knackered and it whistles to me when at a certain speed...I love being able to say "just going to get that out of my car" or "shall I drive today", but the end is nigh.
For the last 2 MOT's it has passed (which was absurd the age of the car and the amount of miles it has done) and every time my husband has said "if it fails honey, its car history". But the little banger sailed through. Not this time.

I asked my husband what would become of my little clapped out car and he said that he will have to contact the breakers yard....whats that I naively asked.
Now a normal person, seeing that I was very upset, might have spared me the finner details of putting a car out to pasture..I imagined my car in a lush green field somewhere with others just like it, but no apparently not.
The breakers yard man comes along, and takes the car. But not to a green pasture full of the rays of sunshine with frolicking lambs in the distance, but to a bleak cold dark and damp place where...oh gosh I don't know if I can even write this - take the car apart and sell the bits for parts and then - aaahhhhhhh - crush the rest. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DO THIS???? its horrible.
I know, I know, its a lump of metal on wheels, buts its my first ever car, that I decorated with love and now some big fat hairy lump of a man will come and rape my car...is there a telephone number to the car police where I can report this atrocity??

I have to now move on to the thought part of my blog or I will just rant on forever.
Have you ever grown attached to an inanimate object that needed to be thrown out but you just simply couldn't????

sniff sniff

love on valentines day, extra entry

My son has gone to my parents house until Monday afternoon and all is good in my house.

I have been spoilt today, I got coffee and toast in bed with a vase full of tulips (my favourite spring flower). I had the previously stated words from my man and all was love.

then we went into town and my husband bought me a Bopit (google it!). its a very addictive toy that was first introduced to me over Christmas by my sister in law. we were supposed to be having a family gathering and there was 11 of us, and i sat there playing on this damn thing against my brother in law...a lot of frustration and a lot of laughs later, i announced the fact that i absolutely needed one of those things.

anyway, between then and now i can say that i had almost forgotten about the Bopit, till today.

Now, I adore and worship my husband with all of my love, he is my world and the only one to match this love I have is for my son. However, he is THE most competitive person that I know...and so the games begin...at the moment I have the best score which is driving him mad!! - oh the smug, glee called fun.
We have soo much to do tonight though before we head out before silly o'clock in the morning to go to a wedding, so there is little time for him to practice (as he calls it when he is doing crap) before we do go out the door tomorrow.
I fully expect to be woken in the middle of the night to "bop it, twist it" (those of you who are familiar to this game will know).

So I thank my husband for a wonderful loved filled day and look forward to beating his top score!!

so how was the love in your house today?

share the love on Valentines day

This is the day that we explore and celebrate our love for other. Some may say that its a load of rubbish and why do they need a commercially endorsed day to show love for our partner?? I assume this is spoken by men???

My husband and I write letters or do research and try to find the poem that sums us up as a couple, instead of buying cards. We always feel that bought cards are words from someone else's view point and not our own personal relationship. I like simple words, rather than long meaningful "I love you because..." and then a whole list of things. Simple to the point poems. I like it when he researches this because (and you may think this a little silly) I like to think that he has thought about me and what he is going to write, without me being there!!! - that makes me sound really high maintenance doesn't it!!

For me, this year, he says he really thought that the poem that he found and it summed things up nicely. I was touched by what he had written, Its written by an old favourite of mine, Shakespeare (this my husband knows) and it read "I love thee, I love but thee, with a love that shall not die, till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old"...hmmmppphhh I love my man, he knows me soo well.

So where did February 14th begin.....let me explain.
It began when Rome was at its strongest during the Roman Empire. In the middle of February they would worship the God of Fertility by the men choosing their mate. When Claudius became emperor he outlawed marriages, thinking that husbands wouldn't leave their wives to go into battle.
Young couples who fell in love still wanted to get married though and consulted the catholic priest VALENTINE. Valentine then started to wed people in secret. Claudius found out about this and ordered Valentine to death. In prison, however, Valentine began writing letters to the jailer's daughter and they fell in love. On the day before his execution, he wrote "to my love from your Valentine".
When the Christians took over, they outlawed this pagan festival and replaced it with something more appropriate and decided to set a day in February to worship St valentine the martyr.
In 1969 the church removed the day from its official calender.

So it is no longer what is known as a religious festival but more of a tradition.

So my thought for this entry is...do you continue with the tradition and if so, how to you show your partner that you love them???

love thursday

Welcome to my first real "Love Thursday"

The photo above is of 3 hearts that my son and I bought for all 3 of us at Christmas. They got individually wrapped and to whom they were for and were put out under the tree like every other present, my husband was very chuffed that my son managed to keep them a secret!!
They are to indicate our love for each other, no matter how different we are, yet still similar to each other.

We use them as place settings during mealtimes so we know who's sitting where. My son normally "helps" me lay the table so he normally gets to do the seating arrangements.

I am very lucky within my little family that we have a lot of love and respect for each other. Don't get me wrong, we are by no means the Brady Bunch - we have our moments, but I pride my little family on the fact that we can talk to each other before the fireworks start.

So this weekend couples HAVE to be romantic to each other and be all lovey dovey for the sake of one day. My husband and I are going to a really exciting wedding on Sunday so that night we are staying in a B&B, so my parents are having my son from the Saturday afternoon onwards till Monday morning.....nice.

So our plans will be to have a nice meal from Marks and Spencers and then maybe go see a film endorsed by sooo many awards - I am thinking Slumdog Millionaire. We will awake on Sunday to rush round and head out of the door before 9am to get to the B&b before 11am. So Saturday will be a bit like the calm before the hectic storm.

Please leave your links to your own Love Thursday or simply tell me all about your love.

Nathan my darling, I always love you no matter what day it is...kisses

don't fret people I am now all OK

so the pain that I felt yesterday was second to none, the hardest thing was going up and down the stairs to the loo, I have to say that I waited a while before I went / had to go!!

Today I am still sore but managed to walk around a little and the stairs do not feel like Mount Everest any more. Even better news is I didn't take leave of my senses and Davina Mccall did not get an email from me or from anyone supporting my "sod off exercises Liberation front" supporters.

So tomorrow I will try again and will, hopefully, not push myself too hard. I have a really exciting weekend planned and don't want to spoil it by self inflicted pain.

I also didn't eat crap yesterday or today, so bring on Sunday when I weigh myself again. Although when my son got home from school all he wanted to do was bake a chocolate cake with a chocolate icing in the middle and also spread all over the cake. This is something that all the will power in the world can't get me through.

This got me thinking about when I was a kid helping my mother bake, it was always fun!! I bought a new kitchen toy the other day and with it came an electric wisker!!hmmm

So I laid out all the ingredience and steered him through the recipe (he's rather good) and then I had a genius idea of getting the new gadget out!! What a laugh, the mixture went EVERYWHERE, I swear, I will be finding the ingredience around myy kitchen forever more!! But we got through with much more hilarity.

The cake has been baked and is now cooling waiting for its clothing of chocolate topping.

I have to say that both cake and icing would be much bigger / more if my sone and I hadn't of eaten the raw mixture to the extent that we did...he's 5, what's a mother to do, say no???

So help me be silently willing me NOT TO EAT THE CAKE...c'mon the size zero figure!!

My thought for this entry is did you help your parents bake / cook? was it a happy affair? did you like the bowl like we did so unashamdedly?

oh the pain...the pain I tell you

So on my conquest to get rid of 10 pounds, I decided to do an almighty workout yesterday.
It was fantastic, I kept up and did all that was required of me with the DVD and felt really alive after wards.

They say (the medical people) that when you excersise the body releases endorphins into your system which make you feel happy....I have always thought that this was some white lie, that you have to excersise non stop for about 3 hours or something to feel the effect of those endorphines. But I have to say that after my workout of just 30 minutes I felt bloody marvelous and went to work yesterday in a really good mood, the sort of mood that carries you through the day.

So I had big plans of doing another 30 mintue workout again today, to get me to the target of a 10 pound weight loss.

Hmmmmph, my body, however, has other ideas. I blame and solely blame Davina McCall for the pain that I am in today. It hurts, I mean truly - without questions hurts.
My Husband thought it highly amusing and in his eyes was the laugh of a thousand people, but bless him, he didnt outwardly laugh - I love him.

I am having trouble, standing, walking, sitting down, getting back up again. My thighs feel dead except for when I try to exert them then they feel really painful. When I walk it looks like I have poo'd myself because i do not want to put any weight onto either leg...not a good look really.

So today I am going to eat crap and sit on my arse watching TV all day feeling very sorry for myself and my thighs and will try to find an email address for wicked with of the west Davina McCall to tell her of my thigh blight...please no laughing.

Oh I wish I could just sit on my bum all day and do nothing, but life presses on. My husbnd has this notion that if I keep my legs moving they will get easier to move...He did say this with laughter tears in his eyes though.

So today will be a sort of sitting down day, I am taking the oppurtinuty to write and read and everynow and again move my poor legs.

So my thought for this entry is...have you ever dont a sports injury (and no I do not think "sports injury" is taking it too far) and did people laugh????

hmmm interesting......

My son during not feeling ill times...thats not food down His top, he has fabric painted his own design onto it!!



Today my son has been seriously ill, dipping in and out of a temperature rising to 39.9oC - not good. He has been very sleepy and its heartbreaking as a mother because there is nothing I can do except put various kids medicines down him and try to keep him as cool as possible...not easy when he is shivering saying that he is freezing.

So whilst he was taking one of his naps I got bored and did a bit of web surfing and the results are 10 rather interesting facts which I kinda said hmmm to.

1. The 7 wonders of the world were compiled by Greek historians and are, The great pyramid of Giza, The hanging gardens of Babylon, The statue of Zeus at Olympia, The temple of Artemis of Ephesus, The Mausoleum of Halcarnassus, The Colossus of Rhodes and The lighthouse of Alexandria.

2. The powder of chewing gum is finely ground marble

3. If you stop feeling thirsty you are in desperate need of water, the body shuts of its dehydration mechanism just when you need it the most!

4. If you are ever swimming in the Amazon or Cranoco Rivers of South America...be warned, do not take a pee. The fish Candiru is attracted to the smell and will swim into the penis or vagina and lodge its self there with the spikes on its back and will drink your blood. The removal of the Candiru can cause the loss of the genitalia.

5. The Hawaiian alphabet only contains 12 letters which are A E I O U H K L M N P and W and every word ends with a vowel

6. The marathon was started by a man called Pheideppides in 490BC. He ran from Marathon to Athens to report of Greeks success. The 25 mile run was over hills and straights and when Pheideppides arrived, his feet were bleeding, he gave the message and dropped dead. The 1st Olympics in 1895 honoured him with a race of 25 miles.

7. The roar of the ocean noise when holding a shell to ones ear is not the sound of the ocean but that of the blood rushing through the veins in the ear.

8. Bats always turn left out of caves.

9. The plastic thing at the end of a shoe lace is called an Aglet.

10. If a statue of a person on a horse has a) both front legs in the air it means that the man dies in battle. b) the horse has one leg in the air means that the man on the horse dies due to his battle wounds. c) both legs of the horse are down means that he dies of natural causes.

I have learned something today and I hope you have too. I think its healthy to be able to blart out rubbish facts like those at times of lulls during a dinner party!!

so my though for this entry is...what have you learnt today?

tis back again!!

As I said before, the snow brings out the child in everyone, and yesterday I was completely in contact with my inner child.

The school had closed and my husband was stuck so it was the 3 of us at home. Husband was working so no help with child, so I made the corporate decision...its sledging time!!!.
During my husbands lunch break we trotted off to our local park. It is a bit of a walk but I don't think any of us minded as the park as some hills which when walking up them really get the heart pumping, so great for seldging!!
We went with a friend and her 2 little girls. All of us had a great time, I haven't laughed like that in ages. The hills were packed with people but everyone was in fine form and polite enough to move as I careered down the hill with no control over direction...needless to say, I was the one doing most of the falling off.

On the way to the park I took the above picture, and I have to say that I am really rather pleased with it. The man on the barge was most friendly, waving at us as he chugged away. Having a digital camera I was able to view my pictures and as I said was rather pleased with my efforts, the barge went under the bridge and low and behold the name of the barge was called....Rebecca!!! - how perfect is that? - again I went into child like mode jumping around telling all that the barge was named after me personally!

For the last couple of days I have been feeling rather poo. A bit like having a cold but no outward symptoms...just a feeling of a sore throat and my limbs feeling heavier that they should be. So Today when I woke up, it truly felt as though my throat had self combusted and as though there was a rather large alien trying to get out of my skull....I am not at work today. I was feeling very sorry for myself when my husband declared that the school was closed again. I love my son, he is my world and I adore him, but when I am feeling as bad as I am the last thing I really want to do is play mum...but here I am on all kinds of cold remedies trying to be perky...do you think its working yet?? Husabnd made it into work today...typical.

So onto the thought for this entry, what brings out your inner child??

tis gone for now

So the snow has nearly all gone but the ice remains. My son and I together with one of his friends was supposed to go sledging today but, alas, it was not supposed to be.

I took the beautful scene at Jephson Gardens (it looks better in real life, I am by no means a photographer!). I love this place as its great in the winter and great in the summer with an excellent cafe!!! It also has an indoor mini Eden project which is a fantastic place to take the children.

Anyone taking a trip to Leamington Spa must pay a visit.

thought for this entry is, where do you go to re-activate your senses?

very happy

So Monday has been done for this week and what a manic day it has been, work and mind agility to leave me, well frankly it has left me gasping for energy.

But a general excitement fills me and my boys as its snowing, big fat heavy flakes of the white wonderful stuff - I love it!!!

I saw the most beautiful pictures today, I saw the first spring flower, a snowdrop, peaking up above the snow, behind it was two branches..one of an ever green and one of a single bold branch...i will try to capture this with my camera and upload it. Another scene was of 2 small children running around in circles dancing in the falling snow. The last but by no means least was the looks of pure joy mixed with concentration on my sons face as we walked to school this morning...he was soo overjoyed with the snow and trying desperately to walk where no one had trodden yet..fantastic.

My cats however are blaming me for the weather. You have to appreciate that all 3 of my cats are devilishly dumb. They do not go out side when its too wet, too cold or too damp so the snow has completely thrown them. My cats have scowls and I got more that my fair share of them this morning. If they could have spoken to me as I was pottering about they would have said "oi you, dinner now, make the snow go away as you put it there...sort it out" - the usual.

But today I feel humble to the snow. It lays covering all the dirt, it makes you cold enough to want to go back in and have a bowl of soup and fresh bread, it makes you want to go outside and reclaim your youth by building snowmen, it lies to you..its semi warm when you go out to play snowball fights but within half an hour you can no longer feel your wet gloved hands. I bow down to its many facets.

So today I am happy with the pretty town I live in and tomorrow it will have all gone. I hope it isn't all gone as I really want to get out there with my camera..I am no photographer but I do like to snap away at things that please me.

My thought for this entry is..what is the weather doing with you?? and do you appreciate it or wish it would try something new??

weight loss new year resolution

If you read my new year's resolutions, you will know that one of them was to loose up to 10 pounds.

Well this week I have been really going for it, walking when I could have driven, Eaten fruit instead of crisps or chocolate, and all this has paid off in the form of 4 mighty pounds!!!! I haven't been hungry or felt that I have been missing out and all that walking has given me more energy!!! Even my husband has noticed.

The thing is is that just 4 pounds is such a fragile weight loss, one major blow out like pizza and garlic bread followed by a chocolate cake and it will go back on again. So I need to keep track of what I eat and try to do the right thing.
I am going out for a celebratory lunch on Tuesday which will (I am sure) involve a weeks worth of calories but I will try to be on track.

I have also bought some fitness DVDs because the weather has been sooo rubbish that walking at the moment is very cold and so far this year we have been able to avoid any coughs or colds.

The fitness DVDs I have bought are 30 minute of intense work outs. One is for core strength, the other is like a boxercise one and the other one is stretch and tone...fantastic body here we come.

My main incentive for this is to make my self feel better. My husband is fantastic in that he always says I look great, but I want to feel great for me.

So my thought for this entry is what do you do to allow yourself to feel great on the inside?