karate kids

Another exhausting day, cleaned N's, cleaned Mums, made her and Ed a roast chicken dinner, got home at 1pm. Had lunch ourselves and then did an hours ironing. The basket is empty! Until I get the washing off the line which I'm holding back on as I'd like that basket to be empty for just a couple of hours!
Schoolwork, mainly reading, spelling, geography work on Switzerland whose biggest export was not chocolate which really surprised me!
Tea did in the slow cooker all day so it just had to be dished up.
Malc and some of the boys and Eden are working tonight for an hour whilst the two youngest are at karate. Clark can't wait to get his cast off and get back to karate, he enjoyed it so much.
Talking of which the promised picture of them in their new uniforms complete with their hard earned belts and certificates

Writing letters.. a dying art

Worked at N's this morning, then round to Mums. Malc was meant to drop off a slow cooker stew first thing to Mums  on his way to work but he forgot so I had to wait for him to arrive at dinner time so I could warm it through for them.
After our own lunch I did an hours ironing which cleared two thirds of the basket, although I've just put another load in the washing machine and I noticed that Malc had got the washing in and it's full again!
Oh well there's always tomorrow!
The boys and I then settled down to do some schoolwork.
Most weeks we write to Nanny Ann in Essex, although the internet is everywhere not eveyone has it and Nanny Ann likes to receive something other than junk mail through her letter box.
As we were on a roll we then wrote to the secretary of the Shaftesbury carnival committee ( whose name and number I did get from the internet!)
I rang her earlier to ask for their address and after talking to the boys about the different aspects of arranging a carnival like safety, organising bands, floats, availability of food, parking and road closures, setting up directions and sponsorship we decided it would be a nice idea to write and thank everyone involved.
Most of the people would have volunteered and we thought they deserved a big thank you for all the hard work they put into the event.
Tonight Malc and Soloman have gone to Cubs, Soloman has taken his karate grade two certificate to show and tell, he should receive a badge once he's done that. Don't ask me which one, I can't keep up!
I'm off to set up a slow cooker for our tea tomorrow so that I just have to flick it on in the morning.
Then a bit of crochet, if I  get a wriggle on I might even get to sit down and watch Emmerdale!

Birthdays and carnivals

It was Callum birthday on Friday, firstly he opened his presents, he received quite a bit of money, clothes and we got him a much wanted and asked for Tablet!

I only worked at J's because I wanted to spend  as much time as possible with him and I only did her because she's away next week and I don't like to miss two weeks in a row.
We had a quiet afternoon and then went out for a meal in the evening at our favourite restaurant where we have our Sunday breakfasts.
Mum and Ed were meant to come, they were actually paying but Mum went down with a mystery virus so she gave us the money for us to go without them. We had a lovely despite initially feeling really bad that they couldn't come.
Cal chose his cake earlier in the day and we took it to the restaurant with us.

When we arrived home one of my friends had literally just pulled up to deliver Cals card and present so they came in for  cuppa and a natter. They left about nine o'clock.
We watched a bit of TV and went to bed.
Saturday Malc, Cal and Clark went to men's breakfast at our local church, it's an event that's run every two months and they get a full English and a speaker, they have had some really interesting ones over the years.
I went to Mums for an hour to check they were OK.
We left late in afternoon to go to Shaftesbury Carnival and had a fantastic time. Some of the floats were huge.
My pictures aren't the best I'm so short so trying to get a picture above people in front or to the side is a task!
Lots of the floats seemed to have men dressed as ladies!

This was a float done up as Christmas!

This float was done up as London after the apocalypse, the people didn't move, it wasn't a "fun float" exactly but it was brilliantly done with lots to look at on it.

We got home about 10pm. Eden had stayed at home and had a couple of friends round  so we came home to music and dancing, being the hip, cool parents we are we joined in! We ended up eating pizza at midnight and dancing until about 1am. My goodness my hip is paying for it this morning!
My head is still 16 years old but my body sure isn't!
Today we went to town to a local craft shop which is really cheap where Cal, Clark and I bought some card making stuff. The boys want to make their own Christmas cards which I'm sure will be appearing on here when they are made.
I have finished crocheting two squares of a six square throw for my mums new sofa and I have crocheted them together.
The first picture is of them folded as it was too big to take a decent picture of

Crocheted together

So tonight I'm starting on square number three whilst watching Downtown Abbey, that is if I can concentrate on what my fingers are doing whilst following the plot!

Happy Birthday Callum

Fourteen today

Details of his fun filled day on my next post

An Explanation

Well I was certainly feeling very sorry for myself last night wasn't I?
I was very upset about something that had happened to me and the hurt I felt was going round and around in my head until I couldn't think logically in the end.
Basically J one of the ladies I clean for asked me to get a prescription on Friday when I'd finished at her house. I said I would get it Saturday and as we were going out on Saturday evening I would run it round on Sunday for her.
Unfortunately four of us went down with a tummy bug in the early hours of Saturday morning, as Malc and I were two of them we couldn't get to the chemist that day. On Sunday even though we were both feeling very drained and up half the night with Callum having his turn at the bug we went to Asdas thinking we could get the prescription filled at their pharmacy, a brilliant plan other than the fact that the pharmacy didn't have any of the tablets in stock. I rang J to tell her later that afternoon only to find she was out anyway
As Malc is more mobile in his work than me, meaning he has the mini bus he went to our local chemist on Monday morning. I rang J to tell her that she would have her tablets by the afternoon only for her to tell me that she was going out but absolutely had to have the tablets that day as she'd run out.
Malc had to go back to the doctors and chemist three times because the pharmacist wasn't happy with the wording on the prescription.
We eventually met at J's having gone like the clappers to catch her before she went out.
Malc explained the to-ing and fro-ing and said the pharmacist was really helpful to which J said she would ring them chemist and thank her personally! We just looked at each other!
I don't expect anyone to throw themselves at my feet in gratitude but we'd gone the extra mile to get these tablets when we really could have just done with having another day to recover and our part in this was just taken as it was expected.
Looking back I think I felt it more because we were ill so I wasn't really feeling myself but at the same time I do a lot for other people, I do it willingly but I'm a cleaner at the end of the day. Anything extra I do I don't get paid for and I'm getting the feeling that J is beginning to feel that I'm her personal jack of all trades. It started when I took her to hospital when the doctor rang me as she didn't have anyone else to take her.
Today I feel better in myself and I've decided that I've just got to harden up a bit, not feel so guilty if I haven't get the time to do things for people and say NO!
Onto other news, Soloman and Cody passed their first and second grades in karate last week and should come home with their belts and certificates tonight.
I've done some ironing this afternoon and my ironing basket is empty! A very rare occurrence which probably won't even last for 24 hours I'm sure.
I've also been making more dinners for Mum, a shepherds pie and a casserole, again with anemic potatoes on top as it'll be reheated in the oven and I don't want them to burn.

Thank you to those of you who commented on my last post, you'll be pleased to know Mrs Sorry For Herself has left the building and normal blogging should resume!
Off to crochet!

Where do I start?

Cooking, cleaning, helping others, walking dogs, teaching, bug through the family! That's how I've spent the last couple of weeks!
No time to blog, sometimes I miss it, sometimes I don't.
Sometimes I don't write about the things that make me mad or sad due to the fear of offending somebody with my opinions, not wanting to read a comment that in turn offends me.
Sometimes I wonder why I blog at all, is it  for the reader? for me to outpore? although not absolutely! Is it to record, to entertain?
My life seems to get busier and busier and I seem to get more resentful of the reducing amount of time I have for me, for doing the things I want to do, I need to do!
Will I in fact even publish this?
I don't think I'm going mad, just one if the side effects of being awake at 3-30am!!

Good news

Eden rang me this morning to say that about 30 girls out of her year were called out to a meeting this morning.
Apparently they all didn't do as well as they were predicted in their English exam and the school have found out that they were all marked by the same person so the school feels this person was overstrict with their marking.
The upshot of it is that the school are sending all their papers to be remarked and the school are paying for it. One girl was under by 11 marks so hopefully Eden will go up a grade with only 2 marks to find.
So we've just got to decide if we want to have astronomy remarked which luckily was the cheaper one.
Today has been the usual round of cleaning for N and Mum. I reheated the crofters pie for Mum and Ed before I left so that they'd eaten lunch.
We then went shopping, got home and unpacked.
I then made these, one for Mum and Ed, that's lunch sorted for tomorrow.

Our slightly bigger one. So that's our tea sorted for tomorrow too

I had a phone call today which did make me laugh. Apparently A & E got in touch with our local community clinic about Clark's broken arm, a nurse in turn rang me to find out which school he went to so they could inform the school nurse in case he needed extra care during school time.
When I explained he was homeschooled she said that was why he couldn't be found, they'd been looking everywhere for him on the local schools registers!
I said that I had told A & E he was homeschooled and she commented on their lack of communication, I could only agree with her!
Off to get out my crochet.

To re-mark or not to re-mark?

Eden was approached by her Physics teacher today who also taught her astronomy last year.
Eden got an A in astronomy and the teacher told her she was one mark off an A*. She thinks she should get it re-marked and see if she can claim that point and go up a grade.
She got a B in English, her only B grade, the English teacher also came up to her today and said she was two marks off an A grade and she thinks it would be worth getting her exam re-marked.
The only catch with this is that the astronomy re-mark is £30 and the English is £37. The school won't pay as she isn't taking an A level in either subject.
Eden thinks (and this is a hazy thinks!) that if she does go up a grade than the school would reimburse the payment for the re-mark.
If the re-mark goes the other way and she looses a mark or two it won't effect the grade she already has, it'll stay the same.
Now I can understand re-marking the English as lots of employers like you to have English and Math but not so much the astronomy.
Although saying this some Uni's do take GCSE results into account and the higher the grade the more points you have towards the entrance points you need. I think that's if your A level results aren't as good as you had hoped.
So at the moment we're deciding what to do.
This is the sort of thing that my A* child writes on her brothers cast and then suddenly realized that the nurses and plasterers at the hospital are going to see it!
Those easily offended look away now!

After working this morning and having lunch Callum and I made some stuff for Mum to put in her freezer so her and Ed can just zap a few things in the microwave and make mealtimes a bit easier.
Crofters Pie

Shepherds Pie

We also did two tubs of mince and veg , some boiled potatoes and some roast potatoes.
I don't roast them too much as Mum and Ed put them back in the oven to carry on roasting as they heat through.

The boys are at Karate and Callum and Eden are working with Malc for an hour so I've had time to blog and browse social media which has been lovely but I'd better go and wipe up that washing up sitting on the draining board!.

Hot and busy!

It's been really warm today so I got really hot doing my cleaning today. I went to N's first and did my hour and then went to Mums and did a couple of hours there.
Malc has been playing catch up with work for the past couple of weeks what with time off because of stepdads stroke and going away but finally today he has caught up.
It's such a good feeling.
After lunch I made a lasagne for tonights tea and then did some schoolwork with the boys.
Eden feels much better and had a good day at sixth form. She had double physics and said her day was so good as she loves physics so much! My goodness, that child is a freak!!
My neighbour has a seven year old girl and she's asked Eden to give her extra tutoring one night a week so Eden did it for the first time tonight, she was so enthusiastic about it she listened to Cody read his book after tea! The neighbour is paying her, I have told her that I won't be!
I finished crocheting another dogs blanket last night, this one's for our dogs though.

I've already started on my next project, a throw for my Mums new sofa.
I'm off to sign Clark's cast as his brothers have already done it.
It'll be really full after Friday as all the Scouts are signing it!

Critters Birthdays!

While I've been busy and offline we've had a few animals with birthdays.
Firstly Hexa who was six years old last week. She's Edens dog.

Then we have Chumleigh who was a year old last weekend.

His sister and litter mate who was obviously one year old too!

I can't believe the puppies are a year old already.
Today has been spent doing an absolute pile of ironing whilst Malc worked this morning.
The boys have been playing out for most of the day.
Eden's been in bed as she has a shocker of a head cold. She can't stop sneezing, she feels a bit better today but felt awful yesterday.
She really doesn't want to take time off sixth form already, she's only done three days!
I'm off to do some crochet, nearly finished another dogs blanket and then I'm doing a throw for my Mums new sofa.

Eventful (Again!)

Thankyou for the comments on my last post.
We managed to get away in our caravan for a few  days and had such a relaxing, pleasant time.
I can thoroughly recommend Shaftesbury Abbey where you are all given a hand portable audio thingy! It tells you about the different parts of the Abbey, both functionally and historically. I thought the boys would be bored to death but they were absolutely engrossed.
The Abbey ruins

The boys with their audio devices,

I thought standing on this cross was disrespectful but when I told the boys to get down they said that the person on the audio device told them to stand there!

We had a picnic overlooking the most beautiful view, the doors to the Abbey are the black ones behind Cals head.

Soloman made a new friend and I had to take this picture as it reminded me of two old man sitting fishing

We also visited Sherborne Castle

This is known as the Pope's Seat after a poet who visited the castle. It faces a beautiful waterfall.

I managed to get quite a bit of reading done

Quite a bit of crochet too

I did this for one of my Mums dogs.
Unfortunately she had to cancel getting the new puppy because of Ed's stroke. It was lucky she did as we'd only been back a couple of hours and he had another one!
He made a good recovery again but this time we are making him have complete rest.
So I'm cooking and cleaning for them at the moment as well as N's and another lady that I clean for. Things are hectic here as usual.
Clark had to have his arm x-rayed on Thursday morning and hopefully  was having a smaller cast on.
I've got some pictures of his scar as this was the first time that we'd seen it,

It was much longer than we thought it would be.
They told us at the fracture clinic that the plate wasn't going to come out whereas on the ward when the op was done they said it would be taken out in six weeks so I'm not really sure what's happening with it.

Thankfully he has had a smaller cast put on and is finding he can move his arm much more and he's so much more comfortable.

Eden has started sixth form and is stressing out about her maths A  level already! She's loving not wearing a uniform.
I haven't had time to catch up on blogs, a situation I hope to rectify over the weekend.