New Year Resolutions

I've just looked up my post for last New Year and I had flu. So I'm very thankful for being relatively healthy this year, except my leg is hurting. It hurts every morning when I wake up but usually eases off if I stand on it for a little while but today it's kept hurting. Never mind it will get better.

I'm sort of wondering about some resolutions, perhaps:

1)    Pray and read the Bible at the start of each day as far as possible
2)    Get up on time and be generally better organised in the mornings
3)    Sort out our bedroom so instead of a dumping ground for clutter it becomes a peaceful, harmonious and restful place to be
4)    Finish my essay
5)    Get back into my dark blue jeans
6)    Sort out my kitchen cupboards
7)    Spend some time with God praying about future and especially about church situation

8)    Go on a healing course
9)    Wear nail varnish more often
10)  Get my hair cut regularly

You know what, I'm going to do all these, not all at once but I'll work towards them so by the end of the year they've happened. Where's the nail varnish?

Goodbye 2011

So here we are saying goodbye to 2011. It's been a funny sort of year really, some good bits but some not so good and a year when I've felt God had been encouraging me a lot and saying things are going to get better so I'm looking forward to 2012 and hoping this will be the year when amazing things happen.

Would you eat this?

When we were at the market the other day P bought a brace of woodcock being delighted they were so cheap as they are a delicacy, apparently. The other night he prepared them the 'traditional way'. With a flourish he presented me with my plate. My woodcock sat on a bed of toast with two clawed feet hanging off the edge and curled up in the middle a head complete with feathers, a rather sad expression and a beak.

There was just  no way  that any of that was going into my mouth, however much effort P might have put into it, however much it might cost in a restaurant, however much he might call me a 'townie'... I was not going to eat it. In fact I could hardly bear to look at it. 

Give me 5 day old cold leftover turkey any day.

Family games and a theft

J beat me at monopoly inevitably. Yesterday I played him at Scrabble and we ended up arguing because he was being such a bad loser. The trouble with games and our family is we all have different skills. Anything to do with numbers or strategy and J is streets ahead, general knowledge or artistic skills and P is up there, words and I'm the winner. There must be some game where we're all on a level playing field. When we were at my brother's last year we played 'courts' which was good - one person is defendant, one the judge, one the defence lawyer, one the prosecution, others police, jury, witnesses etc. You have to make up a crime scenario etc and it's really good fun. You need quite a lot of people though.

P is working on our new sewage system, our old one being inadequate (you don't want to know details), this isn't much of a fun job for him really. When he went to fill up his digger with diesel the other day he found his diesel supply had disappeared together with some hydraulic oil. Seasons greetings to you too thieves. Ok I'll forgive you, I'll pray for you but please can you not nick any more of our stuff.

Good day

Had great time today visiting friends, good company, delicious food, J happy with their boys, bliss! If you're reading this thank you so much, we had a really good journey home and I'm sorry I jogged the table and spilt the drinks.

 

Christmas

J didn't wake up until 7.40 yesterday - joy! Came and sat on our bed and opened stocking. At what age do you stop stockings I wonder.

P started cooking as soon as he was up, got turkey in oven and went to church. Quite a short service. As usual children took up their presents but J felt he was too old. He did help light Advent candle.


Sort of friend who used to coach J in French and German came in and sat next to me, nice to catch up. Becky and family came along as well and I got to cuddle the baby. So cute.

Brought Mavis back here. Had a very nice lunch. J very helpful with cooking and laying table etc. Mavis can be a bit difficult at times and she was a bit difficult yesterday but we coped. J got me to play Monopoly City with him. Good fun but didn't finish. Playing Monopoly with J seriously scary - he's ruthless.

Went on skype and talked to my brother and family.

Today did a bit of shopping, got 3 pairs of trousers in sales and none of them fit, they will when I slim down a bit.

J is ath this moment reading my blog. Help! 

Happy Christmas

I'm going to say Happy Christmas now in case I don't make it onto the computer tomorrow.

Have a really nice and blessed day.

Christmas Eve

Feeling nice and relaxed, everything just about ready for Christmas. Missing being with my brother and family but it's nice being at home. 

On Wednesday got up far too early to take Mavis for blood test. Then our friend Joanne came round for coffee. She's going to be on her own for Christmas as she doesn't get on with her daughters in law (how sad!) but won't come to us as she says she just wants to be on her own.

Had a nice shopping trip with J on Thursday including a hot chocolate in Caffe Nero. P and I went in rain to Christmas market last night and delivered cards and presents in village. Before I even woke up this morning P had been round Waitrose trying to go early to avoid crowds. Then he and J went and got turkey and delivered cards to neighbours. This afternoon went round to Louise and Steve's to give them their presents and ended up staying a couple of hours. P has been doing a lot of cooking - I think he's preparing a banquet. He and J iced cake (which is massive). I thought the yellow thing on it was a crab buit apparently it's a manger. I've made the bread sauce, might be a bit lumpy.

J mega-excited. Has just tripped over my scooter (which wasn't parked in usual place because J had left stepladder in middle of room after hanging up decorations) in rush to look for his stocking which we haven't been able to find. Think he's just a bit bruised.

Just found stocking and still has chocolate coins in it from last year!

Outnumbered on tonight. Yay!

Internet limit

During J's absence our internet usage dropped dramatically and it became obvious what was the reason we keep going over our limit - J playing games.

Carol service

Just as the nativity finished yesterday it started snowing huge flakes which was quite romantic but then it turned to sleet. Today it's cold and icy but no snow.

For years and years we have been to the five o'clock candle-lit carol service at church but last year due to the bad weather it was cancelled and we went to the service at 'other church' which was absolutely brilliant and J enjoyed it. This caused a bit of a dilemma this year but two factors influenced our decision - an email from one of the organisers at usual church saying 'shall we just do it the same as last year' and J saying 'Do I have to go to the candle-lit service?' So feeling a bit disloyal we headed off to 'other church' and it was really, really good again - cafe church style with chairs round small tables with cakes and mince pies, tea, coffee or hot chocolate, an excellent choir, lively carols sung in a worshipful style, funny videos and a really well delivered talk with a serious message on forgiveness and a chance to say hello to several friends and get to know a couple of new people.

On Christmas day we'll be back to usual church. 

A 6 ft king

There can't be many church nativities that have a 6ft king. It was meant to be younger children in the nativity but they kept dropping out so J, Adam and a teenage girl had to step in as the 3 kings. J towered above everybody else. They did a very dignified performance I think. A king has always been J's favourite role, I've lost count of how many times he's done it. He sulked when he was a shepherd, his antlers fell off when he was Rudolph in the school play and as for the time he was a squirrel and had to wear tights...

Piano exam result

Phew he passed

P's job shock

For some time P has been thinking about taking early retirement if he can get a good deal. He was having discussions with his managers about this and training others up to take over his job. Ok, fine ...then...

.... the other day he gets a letter from his boss saying they have to make a post redundant and it has to be P or a woman he works with. She's also interested in early retirement. So what's going to happen? How will they decide who goes? What if he's not allowed to go? Would redundancy be better than retirement or worse? To complicate things the possibility of a job in another department has come up if they can get funding. 

At the moment it's all totally up in the air. Definitely a pray and trust in God situation.

Yummy Nepalese food

On Thursday night we went to a Nepalese restaurant. Food was very nice, similar to Indian but spices a bit more subtle and with a hint of Chinese influence. The dish I liked best was the spicy potatoes. Nice to have a night out just the two of us.

He's back

My boy is safely back from Germany having had a brilliant time. Didn't have any snow there which they were expecting. Shared a room with his 3 best friends which was really good (went to sleep about 11!). Bought me some chocolate marzipan and a wooden puzzle and P some dark chocolate. He was a bit tired this morning but got up wanting scrambled egg as getting cooked breakfast withdrawal symptoms and then wanted to catch up with the back log on his advent calendar but spoilsport mum said no, not all in one go. He's been round Tim's most of the day. I've finished letter and posted cards and even wrapped some presents. Just got P to clean windows and mirrors. A bit more tidying to do before Christmas. Ok a lot more tidying to do before Christmas.

Snow!

It's snowing!

Christmas tree

Here it is the Christmas tree:

Isn't it good?

I'd be lost without you

This morning at coffee morning we had a couple of men singing songs to make it Christmassy. They were really good but they started off singing this mournful love-song repeatedly singing the line 'I'd be lost without you'. There was this whole line of widowed women looking like they were just about to burst into tears. By the end of it I was beginning to feel a bit weepy. We managed to get them to sing some more cheerful stuff after that - 'So Here It Is Merry Christmas....'

I've invited Mavis to come to us on Christmas Day. She said that she'd had nowhere to go and she'd been trying to get the Salvation Army to take her but they were full up. That seriously made me feel awful.

Must get on with that letter.

Letter writing time

On the school website they've got a blog written by one of the teachers on the trip saying how they're getting on. Isn't that a nice idea! They're having a great time apparently.

Yesterday I had a nice long lie-in. Mmmm. Then I wrote all my Christmas cards (I think) which is really early for me. Just have to write the Christmas letter. This is a bit of a serious undertaking since I managed to unintentionally offend one of my relatives with it one year and she didn't speak to me for months. Actually I think I'll take the attitude that if someone chooses to be offended by anything that's up to them and that particular person won't receive a letter.

Someone in my family, mentioning no names, said that because of the recession let's not do cards or presents this year. So I thought ok if you can't afford it I understand and I never know what to get you anyway although I do feel not sending cards is going a bit far and I'll probably still send you one. Fine. Then in an email the other day this person said the money they'd save by not sending us presents they'd donate to charity. This is kind of weird. Shouldn't the money you donate to charity come from what you'd have spent on yourself not what you'd have spent on other people?

I know some people have hundreds of cards to write and it's a real chore but I really miss the days at church when we all gave each other cards. Now we sign one big card and give the money to charity although we still give cards to a few people. I just liked the chance to write a nice message to someone and perhaps say thanks for all you've done this year and I liked all the cards sitting prettily on the shelf. 


What am I going to write in my letter?

 

School report

This year J has been working very hard at Graphics and has managed to get an A* for every piece of work. When we got his report he'd only got an E+ and also had an E in English and C- in Science and ICT. These are the four subjects in which he's started his GCSE courses. English has never been his best although he's been doing ok but he's very good at the other three. I emailed his Graphics teacher and she said his grade for the work they've done so far is A* but the way they have to report it is as which grade he would get if he took the GCSE exam now and as they've only covered a small amount of the work he would only get an E+ but obviously as they get closer to the exam that grade will go up.

Isn't this confusing? 

I think all school reports need is four columns  working well/not working well       behaving/not behaving

That's all we want to know.

School trip

What had been meant to be an organised & punctual departure for J's school trip somehow descended into a chaotic, me discovering J had just stuffed everything into his case instead of folding his clothes, him frantically trying to stuff his shoes in, P crumpling everything even more in an effort to get it all in, me yelling that what was the point in me washing and ironing clothes if they were going to end up like that, J agreeing to carry his shoes in separate bag, still not able to find camera, P pointing out it was J's responsibility to look after his camera and why hadn't he put it away and he should me more responsible with his possessions and here he can use this other camera but it's not as good, J forgetting his watch which P had bought specially, me repeatedly pointing out how many times I'd told J to get everything ready the night before, J just grunting, ending up in mad dash to get to school on time making it by just a couple of minutes during which journey I asked J to promise to wash and brush his teeth and wear his coat and have a great time. Then he was getting on the coach with his friends and the teacher was checking his passport and we were driving off and I was blinking back the tears.

Then P got to work and opened his briefcase and guess what was inside - J's camera.  He must have borrowed it sometime.

A lady who lunches

I've been out for lunch twice recently - we had our coffee morning Christmas lunch. This year we went to a different restaurant and it was very nice - and cheaper. Instead of  a long table we had tables of four which was cosier. Then on Friday I went out with some of the people from other church housegroup as we were saying goodbye to someone who's moving away. I don't know if I mentioned her before but she lost her second baby at birth about a year ago and now she's pregnant again which is lovely. 

Lions, hyenas and crocodiles have been at the hippo.

Dead hippo

For some reason we are sitting watching a programme about a dead hippo.  Really there's this  horrible bloated dead hippo lying there with its legs in the air and scientists are watching through secret cameras to see which animals come and eat which bits of it.

Actually I've just told P I have to watch the Strictly results cos otherwise I'll hear it on the radio in the morning & that spoils it.

Tomorrow J is going on another school trip so have been helping him pack. Mysteriously his camera has vanished off the face of the earth.

Can't find Strictly Results on iplayer & now the vultures are moving in on the poor hippo. Aaaagh.

Bottle-top Christmas tree & a sore foot

Over last few weeks youth club have been making a Christmas tree banner. When I say the youth club doing it I mean Emily's daughter, another girl, J, Tim and Adam have been coming along with several of us parents and between us we've been doing it. Yesterday the younger element spent quite a lot of time turning cartwheels and playing on the musical instruments in church. This tree is made from plastic milk bottle tops which are covered in fabric with a bit of padding then stuck on fabric in the shape of a tree. J did some calculations to work out the ideal number of bottle tops. P got them each to have a turn at the glueing yesterday.
This morning in church was the grand unveiling of our efforts and it looked very good. What's more J even gave a little talk about how it was made and did very well.

Yesterday evening was a meal at other church monthly family housegroup. Had a very nice time - turkey for the third time this year and some pleasant conversation. Only thing was I'd taken off my boots cos they've got a cream carpet and they've got a labrador which must weigh about 10 stone and he trod on my foot. Ouch. 

Wild weather

Weather wild today - wet and strong winds. At least it isn't snowing. I've ordered some plastic track things to put under your wheels if you get stuck in snow and it mustn't snow until they arrive.

Just had a round robin Christmas letter from someone from my ante-natal class saying how her daughter got Grade 3 piano last Christmas then Grade 4 in the summer and is taking Grade 5 at Easter. Also she's enjoying her extra GCSE in Astronomy. And the family really enjoyed their Mediterranean cruise. Sigh.

I can't think what to write about myself in my Christmas letter. I don't think I've done anything much different this year to last year. Put on a few pounds? Watched lots of 'Come Dine With Me'? Put off writing essays? There must be something.

The wind sound like it's about to blow the roof off.

Piano exam

J finally went back to school on Tuesday which was his piano exam day. So I took him in for PE and half of drama then picked him up for exam after which he was returned for English and after school Mandarin. Still he got his attendance marks.

 Tuesday morning was just one of those mornings - overslept, couldn't find tie, couldn't find homework diary, frantically scribbling letter to teacher, car windscreen iced up, roadworks, lots and lots of roadworks...Anyway we had thought J would have a good practice before school but he didn't (and as far as he was concerned it was all my fault). I picked up P then we got J and drove 37 miles to the exam centre. This long journey (I've just worked out altogether it was an 80 mile round trip, don't even think about cost of fuel) was because teacher had said this was much better centre than previous one and he was right. The last one had no piano in the waiting room but this one did and they had organised practice sessions for each entrant. The other parents/teachers were saying 'That's really good' to their children, I was saying 'You're still not holding that minim down long enough'. At the other centre he wasn't allowed to try the piano in the exam room first but here he was allowed to warm up and what's more it was a Steinway. 

I've noticed that's there's a distinct gender difference with music exams, girls tend to come out and say 'I played a couple of wrong notes I've failed,' and in some cases burst into tears. Boys on the other hand come out saying 'I did fine, apart from a couple of wrong notes.'

Anyway he said his pieces went fine (wish I felt so confident), his scales went a bit er wrong, the sight reading was really easy but his singing was off pitch. We shall just have to wait and see.


There was an advert at the exam centre for a book about helping visual learners to play music, wonder if it might be helpful.

Bit of an update

J & I should be at church but we're not. He's on his top bunk coughing & I'm lying here keeping him company & trying to rest my leg. I'm really hoping P brings us back a couple of turkey rolls from the church lunch. With stuffing & cranberry sauce please.

Had a text from Sophie my housegroup leader whose house was burgled this week. I don't know what was taken but I know it included some of the children's stuff. Horrible, horrible thing to happen. There have been a lot of break-ins round here lately. One woman at church arrived home to find her front door smashed in then two men came running out of it holding her daughter's ipod. Don't think they would win any intelligence contests though as they had parked just across the road. As they drove off she filmed the number plate with her mobile & it wasn't long before the police came knocking.

My friend Becky's granddaughter made her appearance a week ago - in the back of the ambulance. The ambulance took an hour and a half to arrive & it was a quick labour. A bit traumatic especially as no pain relief apart from a bit of gas and air at the end. Ambulance man got drenched when her waters broke. Still she's a lovely little baby with a pretty Victorian name & her mum's recovering.

J has started wearing his glasses & there don't seem to have been any problems at school. I think he's impressed with how much better he can see.

Dinner guest

Me trying to convince J that we should invite Mavis who is elderly, lonely but often behaves in a way that is quite difficult, to Christmas dinner:

'Remember Jesus said that 'If you do it to the least of these you do it to me, so when we have Mavis over really we're having Jesus over so treat her just like she's Jesus.'

J: 'You mean I should pray to her?'

Bad leg

Today my right leg is so painful that I can hardly walk on it. Has this been caused by waiting hand & foot on my sickly son? I don't know but I wish it would get better, I've got to get ready for Christmas.

A poorly J & a Christmas Fayre

Ok blue background looks stupid.

The main thing that has been happening over the last few days is that J has been ill. He came home from school on Tuesday night all shivery & when I took his temp it was 38.1. Oh dear. Had aches & pains & sore throat plus slightly runny nose. Really seems like flu. Been lying around in bed or on the sofa ever since but has now made it to the computer so things looking up. I thought that since we all had swine flu the winter before last & J & I had flu last winter that we wouldn't get it this year. I was wrong.
Big concern is piano exam next Tuesday. Is he going to be well enough?
Tomorrow we were going to see our friends who we had to cancel in October because I was ill now we've had to cancel again. 

P & I have just popped in to Christmas Fayre at J's old junior school. Very nice but as usual so crowded it's hard to get round. We were waiting in a queue to get into one of the rooms & suddenly realised that what we were queuing for was Santa's grotto. Perhaps we're just a little bit too old. Reminded me of the first time I ever took J in there when he was 4. He came out most indignant 'Father Christmas asked me what I wanted for Christmas & I said a train & he gave me a fire engine!' I could see his point.


Actually the other night when I asked him if he'd brushed his teeth I could see he was contemplating lying about it & I went into this lecture about the evils of lying. Then he said 'You lie sometimes'. 'Ok, give me an example.' 'Santa.' Hmmm.


At the fayre I had some really nice mulled wine & felt I ought to try the chocolate fountain & buy some cupcakes. I also got a really nice little decorated box with paper flowers on top. Someone's getting that for Christmas.

Hello

Hello we went over our internet allowance again so poor little blog has had to wait. What does this blue background look like?