And men think women are complicated?

Miniature Earth

Whilst browsing yesterday I came across this website (you need to click on your language of choice for the video to play). It was very interesting, not least because I've recently bought the book If The World Were A Village for the children.

Both it and the video can really bring home how privileged some people are, including myself. I have to say the video is a little schmaltzy and probably made for the American market (as in my opinion it seems to be targeted at that part of the western world) but definitely brings home in a very visual way the world (or should I say village?) in which we live.

Update and general catch up

Life has moved on since my last post in more ways than one.

Firstly my mum turned 60! Yes, 60 and did we, by which I mean my whole family, let her forget it? No! We've been building up to it for months now and at every possible opportunity have managed to mention 'bus pass/seniors discounts/heating allowance etc.' in almost every conversation. Even Katarina got in on the act and has been pulling grandma's leg unmercifully - she's obviously been well trained.

My step-dad, Richard (yes, another one), planned a surprise meal for various family and friends. Actually surprise is a bit of an overstatement because mum knew something was going on but not the actual where or who so it wasn't that much of a surprise. I don't know about anyone else but I had a great time. It was so nice to meet up with family members I either haven't seen in a long time and in one case haven't even met yet. My cousin Kurt and his wife Helen each fall in to one of the previous categories. Richard (my Richard) and I really enjoyed talking with them and Helen is so lovely. Kurt's not so bad either

I've finally got around to uploading the photos from the dinner party and, putting on my best "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" voice, they are to be viewed in a nostalgic 1950s humourous style (for those of you with trombone arms: just click on the little pictures for the big picture!):

Scrapbooking wise I've not been very pro-active. I did complete one LO which I have been trying to complete for months. You know what I'm talking about. The LO you take to each and every crop, pull out of your tote, shuffle the photos around on the page, play with the embellishments and then end up putting away saying "I'll have a look at it another time!". The same LO that then stays in your crop bag untouched until the next cropping day where you take it out and repeat the whole process again. And again. It's not that it was a hard photo to scrap. It's not. I mean look at that photo. It's just that I really wanted to do justice to it, not over crowd and take any focus away from it. I also was adamant that I wanted to use this particular range of Christine Adolph paper as it is just so 'right' for the photo. I also knew that I wanted to use that quote too (from the movie To Have and Have Not). Anyway, I finally completed it and I'm really pleased with it too. It's my current favourite and will be until I do the next LO, LOL!

Life is settling back in to the school year routine. Noah is slowly settling down to school life. We have had a few incidences where he, shall we say, has physically shown his displeasure with children who either annoy or irritate him. But his teacher and I are teaching him other tools in which to handle himself on these occasions. I must admit to feeling a little guilty about sending him to school at such an early age and have asked myself whether or not I should have held him back, at least for this term, but apart from him needing to learn how to control his temper, academically he is more than ready. And most importantly he loves school, is desperate to learn how to read and spell and obviously isn't unhappy there as he is currently demanding to be allowed to stay at school for lunch. How can you explain this to a 'just 4' year old? His sisters take their lunches to school, why can't he? But he needs to only be going for half days at the moment, he is exhausted when I pick him up at lunch time. However, it is only for a little longer as after the October half term he will be staying until after lunch, still only half days, thankfully, but at least he will feel happier trotting off with his packed lunch with 'the sisters'.

I also applied for a job. I feel ready to get back in to the work force but am trying to avoid falling back on the old steady of accountancy. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it once but it wasn't a career path I chose. It chose me, I sort of just fell in to it and luckily happened to be quite good at it. But each and every time I've stopped work, due to popping out more children, I have promised myself that I wouldn't go back to it, that I'd do something I really wanted to do, not just take the easy option. However to be honest I don't think it would necessarily be the easy option now. I have been out of the work force for so long that I'm completely out of touch with the current tax/company rules and regulations and ought to go back to study in order to get a decent job. I would really have to be desperate to further a career in accounts to do this and quite frankly I'm not. Desperate that is! Unfortunately I heard yesterday that I didn't get the job I applied for. It was, apparently, a very close call but close calls do not get you the job. I would be lying if I said I wasn't really, really (and I mean really) disappointed, because I am but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, isn't it?

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Finally, and I apologise for my verbal verbosity (is that an oxymoron?), I have restarted at the gym. Well I say restarted, I went twice last week and this week not once so... but it's a start... it's better than not having gone at all... and this week isn't over yet...

Oh, and I feel sure I owe someone a tag but I can't remember who tagged me and what the tag was, so if it was you then feel free to drop me a gentle reminder.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

And I hate waiting. I'm so not a patient sort of person. Actually, in some aspects of life I am but when it comes to something I really, really want, then no! No patience whatsoever.

And at the moment there are quite a few things I'm really wanting and am waiting on so my patience is being pushed to the limits. It's making me really antsy and full of nervous energy. Good job I decided to restart at the gym this week...

Busy, busy, busy

Busy getting to grips with html as I've decided to move away from blogdom and move in to having my own website. Not sure how it will work but I have bought my own domain name and now just need to get sort out hosting and put something together.

It's not that I don't like blogging but more that I can't seem to get my blog to do what I want it to do. A website will give me more flexibility in creating something more in line with what's in my mind (scary stuff really!). The down side is that I'm not sure I can incorporate the capability for readers to leave comments but as I don't get many comments (not a fish for more I can assure you) I'm not really that bothered about having that function.

I will continue posting here until I'm ready to switch over but you won't need to worry about a change of web address as I'm pretty sure I can set up something within typepad that will automatically map to my new site.

We'll see....

Back to school

I've just realised that I haven't blogged about this. I've obviously been avoiding the issue. I can't believe that Noah is going to school.

His first day was last Wednesday (6th September). Doesn't he look cute? I was building myself up to having to drive him to school, Richard coming with me for emotional support, when Noah announces that no, I'm not driving him to school, he's going on the bus with 'the sisters' (his collective name for Katarina and Harriet). What?!?!?! I don't think so.
Because of where we live and where the catchment area school is (in a neighbouring village) it has been deemed too far and not safe for the children on our estate to walk to school. North Wiltshire District Council therefore provide a couple of mini buses which take the children to and from school. Which is great, at least most of the time. The downside is that I don't get the opportunity to chat at the gates with other parents, perhaps a good thing, and likewise don't get the opportunity to speak with the childrens teachers. I applied for Noah to have a place on the bus but didn't intend for him to actually start to take the bus until much later in the year, perhaps not even until he starts school full time in January. He obviously had other ideas. He is 'grown up' now, or so I'm informed, and should catch the bus.

This was a real conundrum for me. I've always maintained that I am raising adults, I am not raising children. I want my children to grow up in to caring, independent adults, who, even though they know we will always be there for them, won't be dependent on their parents to be able to make their way in life. Probably not a popular view of what a parent should do but it's ours. So on one hand if he feels he wants and is happy to take the bus then he should. On the other hand he is only just 4, he is the youngest in his class, in fact the whole school, and he's my baby. I'm not ready for him to grow up.

But if Noah feels confident and independant enough to catch the bus,
should I stop him? Is it right to stop him? I decided it wasn't, put
him on the bus with 'the sisters' and then promptly jumped in to the
car and followed the bus up to school! Besides wanting to make sure he
was really alright, I am a scrapbooker and I needed those lining up in
the playground shots.

He was fine. Why wouldn't he be? Katarina is a great big sister. She made sure he was buckled up on the bus, sat by him and helped him get off the other end. I'm glad we drove up though, and not only because of the look on his face when the bus pulled up in school, but because I wouldn't have wanted to miss this milestone. He was a little upset, bless him, and looked quite worried but just as he was getting off the bus he saw myself and Richard and his little face lit up. He was still feeling the enormity of it when it came time to line up in the playground.

The school decided this year to stagger the intake, 10 children on Wednesday, a different 10 children in on Thursday and another 10 children on Friday. It wasn't until the following Monday that all the children attended.

And Noah? He's still insisting on going on the bus. I've decided, after a few days of following in the car, that if he's happy with this then so should I be. Continuing to drive up to the school by myself is more about my feelings, my insecurities than it is about his. And so I've stopped. It's the beginnings of loosening the apron strings. My children are growing up and they are independent, they are confident (mostly, Harriet can sometimes be the exception) and that is ultimately how it should be.

I'll finish with a few more pictures of all the children, on the drive of how house before on the first day.

Dentists and retail therapy

Related? In the normal world? Probably not. In mine? Definitely.

I had to go to the dentists this morning. Uggggh. Just some repair work to a filling but I needed an injection. Uggggh again. So I'm sitting at the pc, feeling sorry for myself, my baby's now in school, the whole right side of my face, from just below my eye down to my chin, is completely numb and I'm dribbling coffee all over myself, and I suddenly (!) find myself dropping things in to an online basket.

Ahhhhh. Retail therapy. There's nothing quite like it. Want to know what I bought? Hmmm? Hmmm?

		Two sets of gorgeous Autumn Leaves stamps. I'm loving the calendar set in particular but the build-a-flower set looks pretty good too.
Some fabulous rub-ons, because, as we all know, a girl can never have enough rub-ons! These are all by American Crafts and I have ordered the Jack Jr Mini-Marks in both black and white and have splashed out and bought both sets of the Mini-Marks colour flourishes.
		And some great looking overlays. These were really popular a couple of years back and then seemed to go out of fashion but I am loving these ones by Autumn Leaves (liking most of what is coming out of them lately). How simple will it be to create funky looking LOs with these?

And that's about it, although, between you and I, something rather strange seems to be happening. When I logged back on to the site it seems as if, bizarrely, another basket is filling itself up but this time with some very scrummy 7Gypsies stuff. How can this be happening?

*** Edited to add: For the sake of freedom of information, and because it seems people want to know where to buy these items, I mean which site to avoid, I should tell you that Two Peas In A Bucket should be avoided at all costs! ***