Frustration !

Following on from my last post, the first meeting went well. Neighbour has her own social worker and Neighbours son has his own social worker plus a community nurse. So you can imagine the amount of communication that has to go on to keep all parties up to date with events! Unfortunately and inevitably I think the communication hasn't been happening.
The second meeting was canceled but nobody told us, so I bounced down the road with notebook and pen in hand only to be told by N that she'd been rung and was told that I would be rung too, I wasn't !
After complaining to social services I was told somebody would ring! They haven't!
I came home from my Mums today to be told by Malc that another meeting for this afternoon had been canceled! A meeting that neither N or myself even knew was happening, even though it was in N's house and about N!
I honestly give up!
Our back garden fence has come down in the high winds of last week so today we've had some workmen out from out landlord and hopefully it'll be fixed at the end of this week.
We've blocked the gap with rabbit runs but the dogs seem to be more intelligent than we thought and have worked out how to get into next doors garden several times! They have three little Chihuahua type dogs and even though my dogs are friendly I often envisage one of my Staffies returning from their garden with just a little tail hanging out it's mouth!
So what have I been doing to relieve all this frustration? Why, knitting of course!
I've done these for my Mum who wanted them knitted for Eds Great-neice

I've also bought this pattern and I'm knitting this for Callum

With this wool.

It knits up beautifully, I've already knitted the back and front so just two sleeves and a hood to do. I hope to have pictures of the finished article by the end if the week.
Off to start those sleeves and await Broadchurch!

Blogging about things I can't blog about!

The last two days have been taken up with problems at "N's" which I really can't blog about which is really frustrating as I could really do with pouring out all my anger and frustration.
I now have meetings with social services on Friday morning and Monday morning, I'm not looking forward to either and I'm thinking out my strategy of what to say to them and how to phrase things so I can get my point across without looking like a total loon who has lost the plot! I'm a very passionate person and I do tend to get a bit fiery when I think things are unfair.
Anyway, wish me luck!
I have cut back on my working hours so I had time for a quick coffee with a good friend yesterday afternoon, which unfortunately meant that the ironing got postponed until today. However, I'm sure you'll all be glad to hear that tonight there's not one item left in the ironing basket! I think my iron took a bit of a bashing as I work out some of my frustration on those creases!
I also had time to sew this up, a skirt and braces set to go with last weeks completed boleros.

I'm now knitting a white one to go with the white bolero.

We're bracing pourselves for a few days of blustery, wet weather here in Dorset. It looks like we're getting away with the worse of it though as the higher up the country you go the worse it seems it's going to be!
So batten down your hatches and I'll see you the other end!

Charity shopping

Yesterday we went to a big market near us, we've not been to it for years.
We heard that they had a store that sold Xbox and PS games so the boys counted their money out of their moneyboxes and off we set.
They returned not only with what they wanted but Callum, Soloman and Cody bought themselves a second hand DS which they had hours of fun playing with yesterday afternoon.
Today we went to our local charity shop to take three bags of clothes, books and niknaks that I'd cleared out.
Look what I found

400grms of a peach coloured double knit for £1 a 100grm ball and 400 grms of orange 50/50 acrylic/cotton also for £4.
I'm not sure what I'm going to knit with it soon.
Callum returned with a couple of puzzles , Cody with a game and Soloman bought a plane kit that you make a plane with.
A picture of the skirt and braces I'm knitting at the moment

 Me being me though I prefer the pattern on the wrong side!

Malc's at a Cub leader meeting this evening so hopefully whilst the boys are otherwise engaged on their technical devices I will get on with some old fashion knitting!

My favourite pasttime

Which of course we all know is knitting!
This morning I sewed up this,

So that's the two of them done.
As there was a fair bit of wool left I'm now doing a skirt and brace set in white and another one in pink.
We had a lovely New Years Eve, I danced non stop from 7pm until midnight when we all went outside to cheer in the New Year.
Then we went back inside and danced for another hour!
One of Edens friends was staying the night but the others were all leaving by 1am. Unfortunately two of the lads didn't get picked up for some reason, so by 2am I sorted out a sleeping bag and they slept on the sofa.
Apparently their lift text them at 5-30am and said she was ready to pick them up!
New Years Day we went to my Mums for lunch, as usual it was lovely apart from the ache in my hips and legs from all that dancing the night before!
I took a very rare picture, firstly  it was Eden who will never let us take one and also of my Mums dog, Rumbles, who doesn't usually sit with anyone other than my Step dad!

Yesterday we went to my friends with all the children for tea, again we had a lovely time although it was slightly marred by her three year old having to go to A & E after slipping and banging his head on the table. He had to have it glued as he had about an inch gash on his forehead just in the hairline.
He's fine and they only took about 2 1/2 hours which is super speedy for our A & E!
As is normal with young children, he's fine and suffered no ill effects from the incident.
Today we had a lovely lay in, a very late breakfast and I have spent all afternoon sewing and knitting.
I have a stew in the slow cooker and I've made the dumplings ready to go in.
I'm also watching Mrs Browns D' Movie which Clark bought himself with his Christmas money.
Hope you're having a lovely afternoon whatever you're doing.

Party Time

I hope you have a great time whether you're partying or seeing in the New Year quietly.

Just how cold is it?

We've woken up to frost the last two mornings. The boys think it's great, I however can tell how cold it's going to be by how much my knees ache! So I'm not so impressed!
Sunday we had friends over again for tea, the boys played on their Xbox with my friends boys so they were relatively quiet so we could have a nice chat.
Yesterday I was back to work in the morning and then we went into town in the afternoon so the boys could buy some more computer games with their Christmas money!
We've held off on these sort of things for so long it feels very strange to be learning all about these things now. I stood in the shop amongst, let's face it, mainly lads and men and didn't understand a word they were saying. Probably a bit like a bloke in a ladies clothes shop!
Anyway, the boys came away happy!
I worked again this morning and this afternoon I've caught up on all the ironing.
We froze the last of the turkey at the end of last week so I've got that out to make a turkey curry and finish that off.
Eden's due back today and although I was expecting her to be back by teatime I've had a text at 3-30 pm to say they've just left. I'm not sure if they'll be stopping at services or not but I'm not expecting her until early evening at the very least.
I will feel better when I know she's safely home with all this ice about on the roads!
So I hope to spend the evening knitting and watching TV, depending what's on tonight!
Hope you have a nice evening and keep warm!

The feeding of the five thousand...well, lots of us anyway!!

Eden left today for a few days to visit some of Oscars relations in Essex with him and his Mum and siblings.
Gosh, was that only this morning? It feels so long ago!
After she'd gone Callum was an absolute star and cooked up some sausage rolls and cocktail sausages as we had my friend and her eleven children visiting for tea.
I made a huge trifle and a Yule Log,

 They arrived just after four, I'd got paper and crayons ready so they could draw some Christmas pictures to amuse themselves for a while so the adults could chat but they soon abandoned that and played hide and seek with much running along the landing and shrieking!
Plastic bricks were bought down for the little ones to play with and one of the older lads helped Clark transfer his pictures from his phone to his netbook with great success. We were really impressed as we've been trying to do this for the last three days!
It was a really lovely visit. We are going to theirs next Friday which I'm greatly looking forward too.
Her youngest was one years old on Christmas Day and is a lovely cheeky little lad.
Baby number twelve is due on March 15th and as my friend is an avid knitter we had a lovely conversation about the things she's already knitted as she knows this one is a girl.
I've had this one my needles for the last couple of days.

I've just cast on a second one this time it's a pink frill with a white body. My Mum asked me to knit a couple for my second cousin in Germany who had a baby a couple of months ago making it my third cousin I believe! Not sure how all that works!
Tomorrow I've got another friend visiting with her four children, all boys, so more sausage rolls are called for as well as more cuddles as her youngest is only seven months old.
It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it!!