One reason why you should bring in the kids clutter before the end of November!

Lethargic already!

OK so tonight is a wino night. After holding a "Grand Lunch" for the pre school today, clearing up, food shop, basket ball & year book I have to admit I have had a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio or two!

I was trying to check number 2's homework but that appeared to be too much of a challenge today.

All my intentions of writing Christmas cards, doing my knitting that unfortunately I had to undo yet again (however I am desperate to get into it) even on line shopping as I need to ship to the UK in the next week are totally out of the window.

Tonight is a chocolate & TV slob alot night!

Oh dear old age is approaching way too quickly!!!!

Oh White Xmas!

Yesterday I took number 1 & 2 kids to Boston to see the theatre production of White Christmas.

Superb!

You have to understand being country bumpkins going to the city is a biggie for us. Oh yes no ripped jeans & matching underwear ( I still have 1 special set after all of these mummy years!).

"We have to look like we fit in & please do not ooh & aah at the skyscrapers or our disguise will be ruined" I advised the kids!

The last time we were in Macy's they played on the escalators until a tight lipped sales assistant spoiled their fun. It is one weird feeling watching your kids being fascinated at the ages of 9 & 11 by an escalator as I grew up in suburbia.

Anyway back to the theatre. Oh it was so beautiful. Excellent acting, singing, dancing & costumes. I even had brimming eyes at the end. Two old ladies in front of us were bawling their heads off... that will be me next year!

It was the last scene when the General opens the barn door & there is the snow.. always a tear jerk er. The snow even came down into the audience!

So if you are a local I highly recommend a visit to the Wang Theatre & if you are not.... tough!

7 Things about Me!

Thank you so much for tagging me! I feel so honored that someone other than paid or bribed visitors visit my site. However still being a learner on the blog thing I have come to a decision that I need HELP! I have tried to create a link.....other than messing up my blog after an hour I have had to admit total defeat.

So here are my 7 I am thankful for things:

1. I am thankful for my family who do not give me a minutes peace whilst I try & educate myself on the pc.... my excuse for being pc illiterate!

2. Thankful for my kitten (soon to be cat)as he will catch all the chipmunks that eat my seedlings every year!

3. So, so, so, so incredibly thankful for English chocolate.

4. Pinot Grigio... need I say any more?

5. Our adopted family that feed us a yummy meal every Thanksgiving.

6. Knitting my winter hobby that I am still trying to master.

7. Thankful for blogging as I love it!

However I may have bitten off more than I can chew trying to learn to blog,create links & master knitting patterns all in one weekend!

The above is a hat that I knitted whilst being home bound with 3 kids for 3 days due to a huge Nor Easter snow storm las t year.

I did not have the correct sized needles, so I am improvised & VOILA!

What a creation!!

Number 3 loved it & even wore it to bed! I told him it was made with love!

This photo was his reaction when I told him I was going to make him another one that would fit properly!

I will take orders!! Many colours available!!!

New England Weather!

Sometimes you really wish that you had brought in all the garden furniture & kid clutter at the weekend..... alas we did not!

An all over the place blog!

I have just cooked a most scrumptious dinner... even if I do say so myself! Roast lamb in garlic & freshly chopped herbs from my pot, roasted potatoes, garlicked sweet potatoes and good old cabbage. Yummy, yummy.

It reminds me of home & the Sunday dinners that we would always have. Speaking of the Brits there has been some severe marketing over there this year for Xmas. I have been swamped with requests via e-mail & telephone as to what the kids would like for Xmas. My sister in law stressed that there were only 5 weeks left before Xmas!!! To me that is more than plenty as I have to buy, wrap & post for both Sir L & my family. Mailing normally only takes 5 days too. We have been threatened that if we do not respond by the end of today we will all get coal! I did comment that I would prefer oil as it is a silly price at present...

So the mad frenzy has begun....shop, spend, wrap= lots of stress. Why do we do it?

Enough moaning. What a beautiful weekend we have had again even though it is just above freezing, the sun is out (always makes for a happy Daffodilly!)

Spinning away on Saturday morning my mountains had snow on the top...that did not stop super spinner Daffodilly this weekend! Even Lance Armstrong would have struggled to keep my pace. There was a guy in the class who continually sets world records for spinning/cycling for numerous days at a time & when he pedals quickly he looks like road runner off the cartoon. His legs go so fast you cannot see them. I was very tempted to push him off his bike... show off!

My mind sems to be jumping all over the place today.. is it hormones or the strangely shaped moon that we have at present? Maybe even both!

Careers

What is it that makes us all want to have a fulfilling career? I blame it on going to an all girls grammar school from the ages of 11-16 years old. We were educated in our little Madeline uniforms... blazers,berets & brief cases! For goodness sakes the briefcases were bigger than us! We were the new women of the 21st Century.......supposedly going to be CEO's, directors, doctors, lawyers etc.

We were told that if you were not good at french you had to learn typing as it meant that you were on the path for a secretary's job. I felt so superior as I was OK at french... how little did they know that typing was an essential once the computer age hit! So much for speaking "oh la la!" So all the supposed to be secretaries are all managers & the french speakers.....well probably working at M & S.

I have had a variety of jobs ranging from hotel manager, sales support, buyer, health club manager until I moved to NH. Little did I know that on arriving in USA I was pregnant with number 1. I thought that I was stressed & the water did not agree with me! More like the result of too many emigrating parties & having to empty the drinks cabinet as we could not bring it with us!

Where I live is beautiful & very rural. Lots of sun & lakes in the summer & snow in the winter however the job market is abysmal. I have been a waitress, account manager, tele - marketer .. (I know it sucks), cleaner (well it pays well!), personal assistant & now I am trying a new career as an assistant teacher.

As I lay on the floor surrounded by 3 year olds pretending to be a kernel of popcorn about to pop I could see my dad sitting on my shoulder saying " what the hell are you doing after I paid good money for your education?"

So let's see if this is the new career for me or if I should go back to cleaning. Can you believe that you can get $25/hour for cleaning here & only $9/hour for being a teacher? As they say is Yorkshire " there's money in muck!"

Lavender Oil

Well last night was not too bad however I was still up with my little barking seal 3 times. I did try a new treatment last night out of sheer desperation as I could not face going back into the shower!

I read an article that if you massage the child's feet with lavender oil it helps them relax, therefore they do not cough as much which then should lead to a peaceful nights sleep.

I used some baby oil with lavender in & massaged his little feet & yo & behold the coughing stopped! Apparently the smell & the massage is the trick so no more steroid treatments for my little munchkin anymore!

The Croup!

Any mothers out there will know the horror of croup.

Why I hate the croup?

• Listening to your child bark like a seal... totally unnatural & places doubt as to where your or more likely his genes came from!
• Holding their exhausted limp sweaty body to comfort them as you feel so helpless.
• Spending hours in the bathroom.... you know how a slug feels continually damp & moist due to living in the shower.
• You are in the shower for so long you discover how filthy your bathroom really is, why do you never wipe the paintwork, all the cups they play with are dirty.. how can that be they are in the bath?

The most worst part is that as soon as it has stopped you put them back to bed, climb into your own bed & just as you have dried off & are about to nod off .....then the barking starts again! Then it is back to the beginning again. Shower, steam sleep. After multiple hours of the same routine it is morning.

Your child gets up , you drag yourself through the motions of waking the household & getting on with the day. The barking seal of the night before is a normal child in the daytime..rosy cheeked, eats & drinks well maybe only a little tired.

Was it all a dream????

Oh no the proof is looking at the parent. You have red veiny eyes, limp hair from the continuous steam sessions, your pimples have been popping beautifully... but you forget to clean your face due to other priorities so now you are looking like a hormonal teenager called Spot.

Exhaustion is just not a strong enough word for how you feel.

It is going to take more than a glass of wine & English chocolate to get me through today!

Let's hope that tonight is not a repeat as my whole face may explode with zits!

Foreign Foods

I took number 2 child shopping for winter boots today. As a treat we went to a Thai restaurant and ordered a Poo Poo platter. It came with the usual crab rangoon's, spring rolls & other fried stuff......one of which was fried tofu.

Personally I detest tofu as the texture makes my knees tremble! Number 2 had never had eaten it before so not wanting to ruin his appetite I let him be the guinea pig & sample the big T. He had a bite and said "Emmm." I asked him what it tasted like... his response " like fried chicken fat!"

That just about sums it up for me too!

The last of the leaves...after Noel!

So here is what remains of the leaves on the tress after hurricane Noel.....not very much especially if you were hoping to have a family portrait with the fall colors! C'est la vie!

Last night I took a spinning class. I have to take a photo of the view as it is all mountains. As I am pedalling along in class I am Lance Armstrong at the top of the mountain even the one with snow on....Mount Washington! Here is today's happy moment ..I really am lucky to be able to live here as how boring would it be to look at roofs, chimneys & pollution pouring out of factories... all grey & gloomy whilst sweating & spinning away! I know I am a spoilt brat!

Well enough of Pollyanna! What shall we all do today as Sir L is still in Italy on business. I could bring in all the summer clutter... chairs, tables, swing seat, football net, numerous bikes, scooters, balls etc that my kids cannot seem to live without yet are unable to part with! Or even rake the 500 hundred, billion, trillion leaves that are all over the grass.....out of stubbornness ( who knew that there were 2 n's in this word?) I cannot do it! Raking leaves after all I wanted was a family photo with them on the trees. It feel s like the trees have had the last word!!!

Anyway I still have 4 bags of leaves in the garden left over from last year that are probably ready for my compost heap! I have to expand a little here.....we live on 5 acres so even though we do have a little bit of what we call "the woods" we have a lot of grass to cut (2 hour job) or hours worth of leaf raking to do! Any volunteers?

Other alternatives I may take (drag) the kids hiking as there is a frost in the air and these days are numbered with the winter about to pounce in. The last hike to the fire tower is still memorable for my 4 year old....every mountain we see he says "I see the tower on the climb that we did." Please bear in mind that we live in New England & are surrounded by the White Mountains! So I hear this statement on average 5 million times a day & do not forget that he is in school most days.

Or I could do all the mundane stuff...laundry, cleaning, wash the car blah blah blah!

I guess it is decision time.......let me have one more coffee to think on it!

Jack Frost is out!

Today I woke up to a crisp frost covering the ground. My heart sank & my shoulders scrunched as I could feel the iciness chilling my bones. I went to advise my kids... "dress warmly!"

As I told each one of them they jumped out of bed all excited......to my utter shock!

They then had breakfast, got dressed & ran outside to play in the frost! My crazy genes have come into play at last!

It made me think about how we all respond differently to life. Here I was all miserable & feeling chilly as all I could think of was after the ice we get the dumps of snow! The children were all excited as they wanted snow!

I have to admit that I am now going to change my outlook on life & try to look for something positive each day. Knowing that Sir L. is in Italy this week on business is a little sickening however on the bright side the weather over there is the same as here at the moment!

I am not sure that I could handle him coming home with a tan!

The weather is against me yet again!

So here I am about to celebrate Guy Fawkes night tomorrow.. OK I know it is a day late!

For those non Brits this is an English celebration where we have bonfires, fireworks, treacle toffee, toffee apples & all huddle together to keep warm. It is all in honour of a man who tried to blow up the houses of Parliament many many years ago!

Strange really, but as my gran always said " there's nowt as strange as folk!"

Back to my original statement. We have planned a big fire, food, fireworks etc. & today the weather is glorious! Tomorrow we are expecting the winds & rains from hurricane Noel!

There is definetly an issue with the weather & our Saturday plans.....is this a coincidence or is life just against us????

Who cares anyway right????