How often can I title a post "Busy"?

Run off my feet would be more appropriate! Malcolm has had a rush job on so it"s been all hands on deck. A lot of walking and delivering to houses on foot.
I really don't understand how I'm not 8 stone!
Here is Eden upon her return 2 weeks ago now. Wow! Where did that time go?

She has got two legs honest! It looks like she's only got 1 1/2 in this picture!

This was taken before she threw the contents of her suitcase all over the floor to be washed!!

She's come home with over 500 photos which I'm sure will appear on this blog over the next few posts.

In between working we have been walking dogs in the evening in this beautiful sunshine. By the evening it's just about bearable for me!

Eden went back to school today and home school started. I'm amazed at how competant a reader Cody has become over the holidays by just spending time reading books by himself. We have school books which are just for schoolwork and they we have about 5 bookcases full of books they can read anytime. 

We were also given this a few days ago

I cut the end off before I thought to take a picture, we've had some steamed for tea but I've seen a recipe on another blog for marrow and ginger chutney so I'm thinking  giving that a go.

We have had so much cardboard left over from one of Malcs jobs that the boys had a bonfire on my dug over veg patch, they also burnt some wood we've had hanging around the garden. I thought I could dig it all in and it might put something good back into the soil!

Well that's a very quick update, I could go on but I've now got to sort some tea out! Then onto another dog walk. I sometimes wonder why I have a bed and wish I could sleep standing up!!

Tales From New York

We skyped Eden last night, it was amazing. First time I've done anything like that it was great to talk to her. So much gets lost in emailing and messaging.
They went to the Hard Rock cafe and apparently Eden was so excited looking at the wall of guitars.She  also sat in the window of her hotel room for most of the night watching life happening. New York is her dream and she told us she didn't want to miss a bit of it, not even to sleep!
The boys had a good time in the tent albeit not sleeping also ! They were playing on Clark's tablet until the early hours of the morning, but as they were outside it didn't keep us awake!
Callum, Clark and I went to a knitting meeting on Saturday and handed in some of the charity knitting we've been doing. One of the ladies there parcels them all up and sends them off to the right places or gives them to the right people.
We also had my friend with the big family over for a barbeque yesterday. It was one of her lads who stayed with us for the last couple of days.
Today we went for breakfast at the lovely restaurant we go to sometimes. It was as lovely as ever. They still do the deal of 2 children eating free with one paying adult so this is a really good deal for us, we only pay for two adult breakfasts.
I have done a load of ironing this afternoon. We have got barbeque leftovers for tea and I plan a long soak in the tub this evening so quite a nice weekend really.
Whilst I did the ironing the boys made this ready for Wednesday.
They asked if they could do the banner for Edens return which I thought was really sweet. It"s nice that there's no jealousy about her going. They seem to be very excited for her and can't wait in the morning for me to read out the emails and pictures she's sent.
It would be nice if this continued as they all get older but I fear it won't, as they all get partners and have children other influences come into play. But I think that I will enjoy and encourage it at the moment whilst I can
Here's a picture of the banner, it's not string together yet but you get the gist!

Swallows and Amazons Urban Stlye!

Clark has got a friend staying tonight. We have put the four man tent up in the garden and they're sleeping in  there for the next two nights. That's the theory anyway!

I hope you have got your anti-glare on, the sun shining off Malcs bald patch is rather bright!!

The weather forecast is not very good at all, it will start to rain in the early hours of tomorrow morning and doesn't finish until Saturday afternoon so rather them than me.
Eden is on her way to New York for two days, she'll be visiting Ground Zero, Times Square and other touristy places. So I'm sure she'll enjoy that.
Other than that not a lot is happening, I'm going to put a roast on in honour of our guest. I think most kids like chicken and roast potatos and I've done several different types of veg so I'm sure he'll like at least one of them!

Sleep tight boys!!

Just how any colours do Goldfish come in?

The boys have decided that they would like to spend their pocket money on some Goldfish.
Now all the boys earn their pocket money by helping their Dad out who is self-employed. They each have set jobs that they do with him every week and if he gets extra jobs one week and they give him extra help then their money goes up accordingly. Eden earns her own money delivering leaflets which she's been doing for about five months and that's how she's got her spending money for her holiday.  I'm very proud of the fact that they earn their money as I think if you give them it for doing nothing they are going to expect that for the rest of their life.
That's just my opinion though.
Anyway they have got the old fishtanks and pumps out of the shed as we had fish several years ago. The water has to stand for a couple of weeks, they have collected stones and shells from the beach, scrubbed and soaked them and arranged them prettily in their fishtanks, it has been a long two weeks and it has been counted down as eagerly as Christmas! ( We are nearly into September so I am legally allowed to use that word!!)
Yesterday we went to the pet shop that we regularly attend so the boys could chose their fish.
Callum has already got a couple in his tank so he wanted a couple more. Clark wanted two for his tank and Soloman and Cody are sharing a little tank so they were getting one each.
 They stood eagerly peering into each big plastic tank full of a variety of different colored fish.
The young lad who served us was brilliant so patient as my boys chose exactly which two fish they wanted out of a tank of about two hundred!!
Malc and I thought it was hilarious, the young lad was so good and really tried his best to catch the ones they wanted!
So we returned home and they were floated in the tanks in their plastic bags until they'd had enough time to acclimatise to the water temperature and then the bags were opened and out they swam!
Watching them swim around  kept the younger boys entertained for hours, it was great. I'm just going to have to watch very carefully that they don't overfeed them and I'm slightly worried after having had a conversation with Cody about why they can't be stroked!
The boys have been knitting and crocheting again over the past couple of days so more pictures in my next post!

Moving On!

Eden rang last night about 6 ish to say she'd been on the beach all day. Then I received an email about 4 o'clock this morning. I've also had a couple of Facebook messages today so I feel much better. Many thanks to Carol and simple Suffolk smallholder for their words of wisdom yesterday.
As the tittle says, moving on!
 Today Clark, Callum and I went to our knit and natter group. We had a few extras there today. Some of the ladies had grandchildren with them. So my boys got out their spare needles and wool and had two of them knitting in no time at all. Passing on knowledge is one thing I'm passionate about. It's OK to have a way with words and be numerate but sometimes I feel practical skills are overlooked and I'm a firm believer in passing on our skills, whatever they may be. As you know Clark crochets and Callum knits so the other day Clark passed on some tips to Callum who can do basic crochet.

I love that picture, I caught them unaware!

There's nothing better than seeing  my children working together like this. I've learnt to treasure these moments as they don't happen all that often,  they are usually arguing!

A while ago I think I posted a picture of a fireman that Callum had knitted for a local fire station that wants a mascot, this was through a knitting group we belong to. More were needed so myself and another lady have volunteered to  knit one each.

Here's mine,

I really don't like to do toys like this, they are very fiddly and involve quite a bit of sewing which I'm not a big fan of.

I also promised a picture of Clarks mice in a previous post, so here they are,

These are two of them, he's made about eight but he's sold some to Callum who's going to wrap some and put them into his lucky dip boxes that he's taking to his next table top sale. 

I love the way they negotiate prices with each other with Callum working out how much he needs to sell them for and how much he can pay Clark and then working out the profit. 

Priceless!!

What to do with my "Mummy Head"?

I went to my Mums yesterday with Malc and the boys. We mowed her front and back lawns and trimmed wild bushes back to neatness. We ended up staying all day. We tracked Edens flight which the boys thought was amazing. I received an email last night from the mum of the family she's gone with.I've also joined Facebook for the 10 days she's away. I haven't got a clue what I'm doing, I can't find anything or anyone. I really don't understand it but it means that Eden can message me and we can see what adventures she's having so it's got to be worth it. Clark stayed at my Mums last night so we only had three children here which felt really weird. Unfortunately there was a party in the road round the corner from us with loud music and a fight broke out which spilled into our road so that kept us up until the early hours. Then I woke at 3-30 am and checked my emails to see if Eden had been in touch. She had, so Malc and I had a cup of tea and looked at them and replied. Cody also woke so he was looking at them with us. We went back to sleep and woke again at 9am. I've been fine, there have been a couple of times I've had to hold back tear but this morning one of Edens favorite bands, Imagine Dragon's came on singing one of their songs that I'm so use to hearing Eden sing and it was all to much. I indulged in a few tears sitting on my bed! She just seems so far away! I know she's safe and happy, I've had pictures of her playing a guitar on their front porch already but my "mummy head" is going to take a right bashing over the next couple of weeks I think. I feel such a fool as well, other mums seem to let their kids go anywhere and they don't seem to worry, don't want texts or contact but I find that strange. I feel like I can't talk to friends, they seem to think I'm over protective and worrying too much. I feel quite lonely and isolated with my thoughts and emotions at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow is another day and each day will get easier. Sorry to ramble and indulge in self pity, I just don't seem to have anywhere else to release my feelings

My feet don't touch the ground!

It's been two weeks since I lasted blogged ( that sounds like a confession!) I just don't know where the time goes.
We've had Malcolm's and my Mums birthday ( they are on the same day)

So Callum made this sponge and Clark decorated it. We had a takeaway as a birthday treat together and then some delicious cake.

Eden is off on her travels to America tomorrow so this week has been all about ironing and packing and getting last minute things together for the trip. She's leaving us at 7-30 am and won't touch down until 8-30 our time tomorrow evening so it'll be a long day for her and a stressful one for me until I know she's arrived safely.

We have had about 5 barbeques in the last couple of weeks, most of them at other peoples houses that we've been invited too and we've had some lovely food and company.

Last night we went to a local firework display which is held every Thursday night as a tourist attraction. There are street entertainers and live music. ( Some bands are better than others!)

Then a load of fireworks are let off from a flat barge in the middle of the harbour and I have to say they were pretty impressive.

Tonight the same thing happens in Bournemouth, it's further away so what we do is go to a viewpoint that's nearer to us and we watch the fireworks from there.

I have also been knitting but I've forgotten to take photos so you're just going to have to take my word for it!

Clark and I have also been to a friends house who very kindly helped us to understand an american crochet pattern as their abbreviations are different to ours. Clark was then able to crochet this

He's also been crocheting a load of mice which I will post pictures of next time.

Callum is knitting a penguin which he hadn't quite finished yet so again pictures to follow.

Right I'm off, honestly it takes me ages to do a post, I'm constantly interrupted by children or the phone!