Shopping

Me, Mum and Princess Lollipop went shopping in the local charity shops today. I bought quite a lot of bits and bobs to upcycle for Princess Lollipops office and spent less than £10, bargain :-) There was a huge thunder storm when we were out, but we had been persuaded by the very persistent Princess Lollipop to take her to Macs, so we were warm and dry :-) Ialso bought Princess Lollipop a butterfly fairy wand and she had great fun skipping along in front of us spreading her magic around :-) Her greatest adventure was going on the bus, which isn't something she gets to do very often!
When we got back Mum and Dad's neighbours were trying to get into their house, having locked themselves out, Mum had the genius idea of letting them climb through her loft into their own loft and gaining entry that way. It worked and they brought a bunch of flowers round later as a thank you :-)
Me and Princess Lollipop watched the new dvds Drama Teen had bought her, and after a late tea it was bedtime for the tired Princess. She settled pretty quickly bit didn't stay sleep very long before she was back downstairs cuddled on my knee, after she dozed back off I managed to get more of her name cushion embroidered. And Mum raided her stash to find me some of the right shades of embroidery silks to finish the last two letters, thanks Mum that saves me a drive to the shops this week and means I can get on with the last letters and then start on the decorations :-)

Great Day

Today has been lovely :-) I had lunch with my friend S and her gorgeous baby boy, and even managed to sneak some cuddles from him :-) Then after school me and Princess Lollipop drove over to Drama Teens University Halls, to have tea specially cooked for us by Drama Teen. It was a lovely vegetarian stir fry, very delicious :-) Although Princess Lollipop ended up swapping hers for plain pasta and chicken dippers, followed by lots of biscuits! We took Drama Teen for a quick trip to the supermarket, and after dropping her back off at her Halls we drove over to my Mum and Dad's house for a sleepover :-) Princess Lollipop was on top manipulative form and managed to get Grandma to play snakes and ladders, make her a hot chocolate and persuade her to let her eat a jelly! And it was already way past her bedtime when we arrived!! I drew the line at Princess Lollipop getting a bedtime story too, and finally got her to bed, she was asleep almost instantly, poor tired plum.

Catch Up

I've been to both my Craft Classes this week and whilst there carried on working on the name cushions for the Littlies birthdays. Little Prince's one is finished, but due to how I've placed his name and the decoration it looks a bit unbalanced! So I'm going to embroider a meandering trail of horse shoe prints in the space and hopefully that will solve the problem. Princess Lollipop's cushion with her initial in the style of a Superman logo, topped with a crown is totally finished, I just need to insert the cushion pad and sew up the open edge. I'm making her a second one with her full name and more girlie decorations and I got that started today. She will appreciate the Superman one more I'm sure, but I'm really enjoying making these cushions and can't resist making her a totally girlie one, so it's more for me than her!!
This morning I met up with a couple of friends for early morning coffee (Diet Coke for me lol), company and chat :-) It's the first time we've all got together since Christmas soooooooo it was lovely to have a proper catch up, rather than the snatched conversations we have at the school gates :-)
I've also been looking about on Pinterest to get inspiration on how to paint the "mini Welsh dresser" I've bought to make Princess Lollipop an "office" she adores writing letters and sticking things with sellotape, so I think she'll really love it :-) And I'm having loss of fun planning it all too - win win :-) I bought the paint and some cheap brushes (Mr Messy says I never clean them properly so I don't bother any more, I just buy "disposable" ones!) So I'll be able to get on with that as son as I get a minute!!
The tumble dryer broke down, with a full load of washing inside it and another waiting in the washing machine!! But the repair man was able to come the next morning and fix it there and then, it was something we could have done without (especially after just having both cars fixed!!) but at least it was repaired quickly and relatively cheaply :-)
So it's been an up and down week, but mainly ups :-) This positive thinking is getting to me :-)

Struggling to Find a Positive :-(

Today I explained the concept of a "Get Along Jar" (both pick a forfeit to do something nice for the other person when they've been fighting) to the Littlies. Together we tried to think of suitable forfeits and I told them if they started fighing they would be picking a forfeit from the jar. It didn't take long!! Then Little Prince kicked off, as he usually does when we try something new, copied of course by Princess Lollipop! What should have been a quick 5 minute job turned into a huge battle, ending up with Little Prince not allowed on his new PlayStation game again today and Princess Lollipop carted off to bed!! Hopefully as they get used to the new rules it will be less stressful, fingers tightly crossed. The rest of the day they managed to "just" bicker constantly rather than actual fighting and somehow that was even more grading on my nerves than the all out warfare earlier!!
I did manage to get Princess Lollipop bathed and get hair detangled and styles with very little fuss, which now I think about it is a huge positive :-) And after a yummy tea, cooked by Mr Messy I had a relaxing soak in the bath, another positive. Writing these post does help me to look back on my day and remember the positives among the chaos :-)
Once the Littlies were in bed me and Mr Messy relaxed in front on the tv whilst I enjoyed the chocolate he'd bought for me :-) Chocolate is always a positive :-)

Two Positive Posts in One Day

I booked Princess Lollipop's birthday party this evening, it's going to be a Pirate and Princess Party at an indoor play centre. Predictably Princess Lollipop wants to be a pirate and DEFINITELY NOT a Princess, she's a girl who knows her own mind :-)

After some poking about on Pinterest we found a pirate costume that suited both of us, boyish enough for Princess Lollipop and girlie enough for me - result :-) It's going to be a red and black tutu skirt, a white t-shirt with lacy ruffles down the front and then a corset style bodice over the top. She'll also wear black and white stripe tights, a pirate fabric headband and most important to Princess Lollipop a toy cutlass :-)

I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into making the costume :-) Fingers crossed that this year she actually agrees to wear the costume I make!! Unlike last year's batman tutu costume!!

Lovely Day Out

Me and Little Prince has a lovely day out at a Shopping Centre today :-) It was his turn to spend his Build a Bear vouchers, so we went to the same place I took Princess Lollipop last week.  Now he's bigger I let him sit in the front seat, although I did insist that he still used his car seat. Even though this was his idea he got quite freaked out by the high driving position my car has and spent most of the hour long drive clinging to the sides of his seat! We did manage to have a lovely, uninterrupted by little sister, chat about his very early life with birth family. He has a much more mature and in-depth understanding of the reasons he isn't with his birth family and it showed in the comments he made and the questions he asked.
At the Shopping Centre Little Prince got overwhelmed by the noise and sheer number of shoppers and we had to have a sit down on a bench to let him regroup and regain his composure. Then we had a wander round, before visiting the Lego Shop and the Disney Store, he decided he'd like some Lego Technic for his birthday and wanted to buy Disney Infinity for the Wii, but it wasn't in stock. Next he decided he was ready to visit the Build a Bear shop, he chose a brightly multi coloured bear almost immediately. Then we had to queue, for AGES! Despite the crowded shop and the long wait Little Prince waited patiently and I was immensely proud of him.
At the food court Little Prince went for the familiar of a MacLunch, but despite that he was still obviously stressed and couldn't eat very much, he did manage to sit quietly and chat sensibly while I ate, again I was extremely proud.
After lunch Little Prince requested a visit to Game, where we found Disney Infinity at £10 less than at the Disney Store - result :-) Little Prince's was thrilled as he was spending his own Christmas money and also chose a driving game for the PS3. The queue stretched out of the shop and yet again we had to wait for AGES!! But my little superstar was patient and sensible once more, he's grown up so much recently :-) Once we were finished there Little Prince's was shopped out, so we headed off home. He told me he needed to zone out and asked me not to talk to him, again a huge behavioural improvement. And huge emotional growth too, he recognised he needed time to chill out and could calmly ask for this need to be met :-) So very very proud of my maturing Little Prince :-)

More Positives

I got the last bits of sewing on Little Prince's name cushion finished, which hardly took any time at all :-)
I had a long, informative phone call and arranged a meeting about something new and Mr Messy are planning to do, no details until we are sure we are doing it :-)
I had a quiet relaxing day at home on my own :-)
Mr Messy's car was successfully fixed and didn't cost an extortionate amount of money :-)
So it was a good day today :-)

More Crafting

At today's Craft Class I got the special cushion I'm making for Little Prince's birthday almost finished. I just need to finish the design with a few button decorations and sew up the seams and it's done, with plenty of time to spare :-) I'm a total procrastinator and it's rare for me to finish something well before the deadline so this is a definite positive for me :-)
I'm going to be starting a new job next month as a part time nanny and thought I would have to give up at least one, of not both of my Craft Classes, but I've just found out my hours and I get to attend both YEAH :-)

LMS Visits

Today's positive is having LMS home for her weekend :-) Just like when Drama Teen visited last weekend it seems ages since she was home, when in reality its only been just over a week! I miss my big girls when they are away.

The not so positive is my car has been playing up, using up lots of fuel and not starting sometimes, luckily Mr Messy knows a good mechanic who is coming over tomorrow to check it out, fingers crossed its a quick easy fix! Mr Messy has finally got round to checking his car over, it's been off the road since before Christmas, and it needs two new tyres, the wheels balancing and the battery charging, which isn't going to be too horrendous to get fixed.

Today's Tutu Positive

During today's Craft Class I got a Tinkerbell tutu almost finished. It's the first time I've made a tutu on a crocheted bodice and it was just as easy as making one on an elastic waistband :-) I only have about 6 inches of the second row to finish, then I need to add the ribbon halter neck tie and it's finished :-) It's for one of the children that travelled to Florida on the charity wish trip Mr Messy photographed before Christmas, the little girl is in hospital having an operation and the tutu is to cheer her up :-)

Girlie Day

I had a lovely girlie day out with Drama Teen and Princess Lollipop, we went shopping so that Princess Lollipop could spend her Christmas present of a Build a Bear voucher. After much deliberation and cuddle testing, she eventually chose a Red Stunk (aka Red Panda!) who she had now decided is a wolf!! And she's called it Ronny, no idea where she's got that from lol. She also got a new pair of very cool Spider-Man trainers from Drama Teen and after a play in the indoor play centre as well, declared it the best day ever :-)
My positive was spending a lovely day with two of my gorgeous girlies :-)

The Last Few Days

Nothing momentous had happened in the last few days, I've just been busy getting the house in some sort of order after the chaos of Christmas. I've finished tidying, sorting and cleaning Little Prince's room, just need Mr Messy to have a few hours to store to get one or two things fixed and it's completely done :-) It looks quite bare and Spartan, but that's how he wants it and if can cope with keeping it cleaner and tidier then it's better for everyone.
I also restarted my Thursday Craft Class where I managed to get most of Little Prince's name cushion sewn ready for his birthday at the end of the month.
Something pretty major did happen, I forgot! I met up with a recently bereaved Dad to arrange me looking after his two young children when he returns to work in February. Hopefully this extra bit of income will make things a little easier and we'll have a bit of spare money to get jobs done round the house, and my favourite buy some oil for the heating! The children are lovely, but despite their young ages are struggling with the loss of their Mum, so it's going to hard work getting them through this. That and the fact that all mine have large age gaps between them and there is only 18 months between the two little ones I'll be looking after, a while new challenge for me :-)

Back to School

The Littlies went back to school today, and that have me chance to get the lounge changed up and back to normal, after all the Christmas decorations were removed yesterday. All that's left to do is tidy and sort out Princess Lollipop's toys and games in her space behind the sofa that she calls Girls World :-)
Both Littlies enjoyed their return to school, and although I miss them I'm glad to be getting back into a routine.
When we were all back home we worked together to get the last of the lounge tidied, the Littlies and Mr Messy helped without whinging, I'm very proud of all three of them :-)

Twelfth Night

Today's positive was definitely taking the Christmas decorations down :-) And also getting the Littlies stuff ready for school the day before, instead of running round like idiots tomorrow morning :-) The uniforms are all ironed (Thank you Mr Messy) and put out ready, the shoes need the restoring polish buffing up, but Mr Messy said he'll do that in the morning and that along with making Princess Lollipops lunch is all he's got left to do.
AND my Craft Class restarted :-) The teacher was I'll for the last few weeks of term last year so the classes haven't run for what seems like she's, and I've really missed them, so it's another positive for today that they are on again :-)

Just a Nice Quiet Day

Today was just a nice, ordinary, quiet, family day. The type of day I dream of when the Littlies are constantly fighting, or when Little Prince isn't coping and is acting out.And my positive for today is that we've had more of these sorts of ordinary days over the Christmas hols than the horrible stressful sort  :-)

I know we haven't got to the huge destabilising hormones of puberty yet, but Little Prince has come so far with his coping skills and ability to self regulate that the past couple of school holidays haven't left me a gibbering wreck who can't wait for school to restart. In fact I'm going to miss these quiet ordinary days with my Littlies when they are back at school. 

Another Positive Day

Even though I didn't get any of the jobs on my To Do List done, it has been a lovely day :-) I introduced Princess Lollipop to the joys of coin collecting on the Wii Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game, and she loves it :-) She didn't want to come off the game for either her tea or bedtime and wants to play it again tomorrow.Although tomorrow I will have to start working through my To Do List too, so we won't be able to play all day.
Little Prince has a mainly calm day, even without his medicine and I was really proud of him :-)
The only downside to today is that Drama Teen returned to university and I miss her, lots :-(  She is coming home again next weekend to have her hair extensions removed, so it's not too long before I get to see her again :-)

Day Three

Feeling more positive today thankfully, probably because I got a full nights sleep with no sickie visitors (Little Prince spent an hour in our bed, before throwing up everywhere and going back to his own bed feeling much better!).
Today's positive is that I've finished sorting out Little Prince's room, all shelves, toy boxes and even the floor have been thoroughly cleared of rubbish, washing and broken bits (and unidentified "stuff" that I'd rather not know what it was)!! All I've got left still to do is vac and mop the floor :-)
I can't take credit for most of the tidying and sorting as LMS did WAY more of it than I did, she was a superstar and I'm very grateful for all her help - thank you very much darling xxx

Struggling to Find a Positive :-(

It's not good that on day two I'm really struggling to come up with a positive for the day :-( It's been a long, stressful day at home with the warring Littlies and unfortunately I've spent most of the day losing my cool with both of them, not my best mothering day.
I found my positive later when I was cuddled up with Princess Lollipop getting her to sleep, as I tell her every night, it's my favourite time of the day :-)

2014 Year of Positives

I'm tentatively going to try blogging again, I enjoy it once I'm back in the habit, so here we go :-)
A couple of years ago, me and some fellow bloggers started to note something positive for each day of the year, unfortunately I got derailed when Mr and Mrs LMS split up and didn't continue with the positive posts. Now LMS is in a much better place and has turned her life completely around and is back on track to achieve goals she put aside to get married, I've decided to try again.
Today's positive is starting the New Year with the Littlies at my Mum and Dad's house, then returning home to spend the rest of the day with Mr Messy and LMS :-)