Today's Positive

Today me and Mr Messy cleared out all the Christmas junk (wrapping paper, cardboard packaging etc) and took it to the tip and the house is bigger and airier again :-)

Drama Teen spent the day at home and spent quite a lot of time downstairs with us, and it was lovely having her around :-)

Little Prince's uniform is all ironed and ready for him to re-start school on Wednesday (thank you so much Drama Teen) :-)

I've got three loads of washing done and almost caught up on the washing I was ignoring over Christmas/New Year :-)

Christmas Pressies :-)

What did you get for Christmas?

I got some lovely snuggly warm slippers, do I sound like my grandma or what?!?!

I got a gorgeous hand woven scarf that Mr Messy bought me when he and Drama Teen visited our Exchange Student and her family in Berlin :-) Its made of cashmere and merino wool and is SO warm, I LOVE it :-)

Yes there is a slight theme here lol, I like being warm :-)

I also got some great books, dvds, perfume and spent quality time with my lovely family - the best present of all :-)

Well that and my very own room!! No me and Mr Messy aren't arguing lol, he's given me his old office to turn into a Craft Room :-) WOW my very own craft room :-) I've gone planning crazy and have all sorts of inspiration on Pinterest, just waiting for Mr Messy to clear out his stuff (I'd call it junk but I'm being extra nice to him at the moment lol). I'm so excited :-) I just can't wait to get started and then to get crafting :-) I'll have time to get things done while Little Prince is at school and Princess Lollipop is at Tiny School (and real nursery after Easter eek!!) and I won't have to panic about clearing it all up from the dining room table before they get home either - giving me loads of extra time and less stress :-)

I plan to scrapbook, I loved making Mr and Mrs Messy's Wedding Album, it was so much fun and I'd like to do more. I can also get myself organised and finish the Lifestory book I've started for Little Prince, which I'm doing digitally and then I can get one done for Princess Lollipop too. I want to get back into sewing, I've got tonnes and tonnes of American Girl doll clothes patterns that I never got chance to use before Drama Teen grew out of them. I'd also love to try quilling, its always intrigued me and I've never had chance before. Pinterest has got me interested in trying out decoupage with Mod Podge too, and I'll be giving that a go as soon as my Mod Podge order arrives :-) When Little Prince heard me talking about my new Craft Room he asked if I was going to make him his 100 Good Wishes Quilt - so that (and Princess Lollipop's one) can join my ever growing list of projects :-) I'll finally the room to get all the things I've planned for Princess Lollipop's Pink House made.

And all this will give me a focus and interest that is MINE. And although I'll be primarily making things for the house or the family, it is MY interest - not Janet the wife, not Janet the Mum, it will be just Me - Janet :-) I suffer from depression (I take medication for it, I'm not just saying it) and if left to my own devices without a "plan" I vegetate in front of my computer and do NOTHING, literally nothing. Then I look round at the house and how untidy I've allowed it to become and that depresses me more. The fact that the washing pile is exploding out of the washing baskets depresses me more. The fact I haven't planned what to eat for dinner that night and we end up eating the same old thing depresses me more. The fact that life didn't used to be like this and I used to be more active depresses me more. So this new focus and interest will hopefully help to alleviate that, help to keep me occupied and even exercise my fading brain cells a little :-) And give me chance to re-find that creative, happy person I used to be :-) Which will be good for me and for the whole family :-)

Christmas lessons learnt

This Christmas I learnt that Father Christmas doesn't mind if I don't exhaust myself trying to get the whole house cleaned and tidied before his arrival!! I didn't do the usual mad dash round the house, and Father Christmas still thought I was a good girl and left me my presents :-) And I enjoyed Christmas MUCH more as I wasn't stressed and exhausted before it even happened :-) I need to take this to heart, and remember that I don't have to be perfect - good enough is good enough :-) I often feel that I have failed because things aren't perfect, I have to remind myself that things don't have to be perfect - just good enough :-)

Christmas clearout

Today Mr Messy and Little Prince went to the DIY Shop to buy a saw so that they could make a bird box. Apparently the sales were on, and they bought quite a bit more than "just a saw"!! Drama Teen was supposed to go with them, but didn't get up in time, she wanted to buy some baking supplies from the Supermarket to make brownies.

Later that day after I'd wrangled Princess Lollipop in the bath, with assistance from Drama Teen, we managed, eventually, to get her hair conditioned and combed through. We ran out of the Curly Q conditioner that I had been using on her hair, and have been using different conditioners that we bought on our holiday in Florida. I'm not impressed with them. The first one I ditched after two tries, Princess Lollipop's hair felt "crunchy" and not soft and healthy like it usually does. The second one is working better, but doesn't condition Princess Lollipop's hair as much as Curly Q did. I'm only using this conditioner until the new lot of Curly Q arrives, and then hopefully Princess Lollipop's hair will go back to being glossy and healthy again. And as a great added bonus after a week or so her hair becomes MUCH easier to comb through, so the battles with Princess Lollipop over getting her in the bath might lessen. I certainly hope so, especially for Princess Lollipop's sake, its awful having to force her into having her hair conditioned and making her scared of having a bath :-(

While we were bathing Princess Lollipop Mr Messy took Little Prince to his friend J's house for a few hours, so that he could meet J's new Border Collie. I can't quite believe that J's family have got such an active dog as J is pretty similar to Little Prince and you'd think they had enough on their plates lol. Once we'd all finished and we were all ready. Me and Mr Messy left Drama Teen babysitting Princess Lollipop, they were watching Phineas and Ferb together :-) We stuffed my car full of all the Christmas rubbish and cardboard needing recycling, which was a large amount as it consisted of the packaging from the new TV we bought to replace our broken one. And 50" plasmas (don't ask Mr Messy is in charge of household tech lol!!) don't come in small boxes!! We managed to get rid of all the cr*p that had been cluttering up the house and it feels much nicer (and bigger) again :-) And at weekend we'll borrow Mr LMS and he and Mr Messy can get the huge old TV to the tip too, and I'll have my whole dining room back :-)

Once we got all the littlies to bed, well Drama Teen is in her room (hopefully) revising for her re-sits (and not on Facebook!) me and Mr Messy are watching one of the BluRays we got for Christmas. We can't watch DVDs as the new surround system won't play them. Mr Messy is hopping mad and will be returning the system tomorrow!

Happy New Year

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack :-)

I've been pestered by a number of people (you KNOW who you are!!!) to start blogging again, so I'm trying :-) I can't promise how often this will happen but I will try to post more regularly :-)

Anyway I'm not going to try and catch up on the last few months!! Mr Messy has been ill with pneumonia (and has also developed pretty severe asthma), which the doctor says is unlikely to improve much until Spring and the weather gets warmer. He has been struggling and hasn't been able to be as supportive as he normally is, and its been hard work. However, we are getting through and looking forward to Spring :-)

We had a quiet Christmas. Just us and all five kids (I'm counting Mr LMS now too). So it wasn't quiet really, it was noisy chaos and it was LOVELY :-) It was SO QUIET in the evening when Mr and Mrs LMS had gone home, Drama Teen was in her room and the littlies were in bed!!

Todays happenings consisted of visiting family in the Ancestral Homeland. It was lovely to see my parents, Baby Sis and her baby daughter and briefly Lil Sis and her family. We were going to visit Mr Messy's Mum but she was on her way out, so we'll visit again soon to catch up with her too.

And to round off this New Year post I'd better let you know what my New Year's Resolution is - I'm going to try and think positively and count my blessings. I'm going to keep a note of something positive for each day of the year - and today's positive was seeing my Mum and Dad and my two lovely sisters and all their lovely children :-)

Thursday

This morning was horrendous, which was VERY puzzling as Little Prince had been given his medication. I was nearly in tears most of the morning, especially when Mr Messy and Drama Teen went out to OUR shop and were out for well over an hour. I couldn't believe Little Prince's wildness, how could he be like this when his medicine had been working so well?!?!

I took Little Prince upstairs with me for a chat, and to separate him from Princess Lollipop (they were winding each other up so much!). During our chat, Little Prince admitted he had spat out his medicine this morning, which to be honest was a huge relief. I explained that it could be dangerous for Little Prince to do that, as I would then tell his Paediatrician that the medicine wasn't working and he would prescribe stronger tablets, which could be dangerous as Little Prince wouldn't actually need them!! He seemed to take all this in, and was very upset that he'd been so silly! At least I know that his medicine DOES still work and can stop panicking!!

As Little Prince hadn't fully calmed down I took Princess Lollipop to Tiny School on my own. As we pulled up she started to say she "needed Mummy" and she was still saying this as I left her! The staff do a very brisk (but caring) handover and I left Princess Lollipop, listening to her saying she "needed Mummy" and getting higher and higher. It seemed a long two hours before I could pick her up!! I think this "easing in" is as much for me as it is for Princess Lollipop!! When I did pick her up she did a very short sob in my arms, and then jumped down and said she didn't want to come home yet! She then marched off back into the house with her arms firmly crossed, saying she just had to finish something lol. I managed to persuade her to come home, and she was much happier chatting away about what she'd done, and very excited that she will be having lunch at Tiny School tomorrow :-)

We then had to wait for Drama Teen's Doctor's appointment to finish, she has been suffering from very similar symptoms to Mr Messy and is getting worried that she has pneumonia too. Luckily the doctor said she "just" has a viral infection and should drink lots of water to help her recover, I'm so relieved that I haven't got two seriously ill ones.

Princess Lollipop demanded that Little Prince go outside and play on the trampoline with her, so they are both out there playing nicely (for now!). I have been left in charge of Peach (Little Prince's favourite doll) and have had to give her, her milk, sandwich and get her to sleep for her nap! Little Prince treats Peach as an extra family member and is now getting quite stroppy that Princess Lollipop is being loud in the lounge and might wake Peach up!!

Wednesday

Yesterday was Princess Lollipop's first day at "Tiny School" (her name for the nursery/childminding service I have chosen). Tiny School comes very highly recommended by lots of people, and when we visited it seemed lovely and nurturing and a perfect place to get Princess Lollipop used to being apart from me. Me and Little Prince dropped her off, she cried a little but not as much as I expected her to, and then me and Little Prince went out for a quiet lunch together. We ended going to two separate cafes, one for lunch and one for cakes! Little Prince ate loads, his new medicine seems to work much better at allowing him to eat, whilst also calming him down. Princess Lollipop only stayed for an hour on her first day without me, and when we picked her up she grabbed hold of me and sobbed, she had huge tears pouring down her cheeks and clung so tightly round my neck. The staff assured me that she had been fine during her hour, and that we should carry on easing her into staying there. We decided to have her stay for two hours next time and build her up to the full four hours she will be staying there. We've decided to have her stay there two mornings a week, so I will have some time to myself and try to regain some semblance of order round the house, and see if I can find my sanity under all the chaos lol.

After we got home from Tiny School, Princess Lollipop wasn't very keen to talk about it, and just turned away when we mentioned it. However, by the time Mrs LMS got home, she was proudly telling her that she'd been to Tiny School :-) And at bedtime she told me that she was told off for climbing on a chair, and that she played with cars and Lego and tomorrow she wants to do colouring and drawing.