I've always been a bit of a moaner...

...ok well a LOT of a moaner, but those who love me seem to ignoring my grumbles and bring out the nicer side of me. But here I am grumbling again, and this is why I am just so frustrated! For some time now, about two months I think, I seem to have been not quite right. Not ill exactly, just tired all the time no matter much sleep I get. It used to be that I would have a couple of weeks like this and then I would just pick right up again as soon as a particular date arrived (oh the joy of being a woman!). But I am still waiting to pick up again. I feel like I am plodding through each day, doing the bare minimum and hoping it will suffice. My enthusiasm has vanished and I have no idea what to do to get it back. Since this is now a constant thing I can't blame the PMDD, but I'm wondering if I should go and get an allergy test done to see if it is what I am eating that makes me feel this way. I certainly have some food intolerances but at the moment it is just trial and error trying to work it out.
Anyway, enough of all that, one thing that did make me smile today happened at work. I spent a little extra time doing my hair this morning to try and cheer myself up. When I got to work one of the little boys said to me "Are you having a bad hair day miss? Your hair is sticking up all over the place!" later on one of the little girls said "I like you hair today miss, it looks really nice." And so we see the difference between boys and girls he he!

A busy day

We had one of Caitlin's friends sleep over last night, so it was late to bed and up early this morning. Thankfully Lewis got up with the children and left me to snuggle up with my book since I've been a bit off colour this week (again!!). Esaias's birthday present that he bought with his birthday money arrived this morning. He bought a Go Kart which he absolutely loves. He has no interest in learning to ride a bike without stabilisers yet, so we're hoping he will improve his confidence with the Go Kart.
After lunch we went to Cleethorpes Leisure Centre and went swimming with the children. We all had a lovely time. Lewis and I were talking about what a good time we'd had and we realised that a lot of it is to do with the fact that the children are older now. All of them can swim independently now, Caitlin can do it without any buoyancy aids at all, but while both the boys have their swim jackets on they are happy to swim around by themselves. It makes it so much easier to play games with them. Caitlin and I also had a go on the slide which I haven't been on since they used to charge for using it (that was a long time ago). Life is so much easier now, we have no pushchair, no high chair, no nappies, and after this week no more childcare fees!
We then went on to McDonalds for tea which the children thought was great because we let them go in to eat - simple things! When we arrived home Nathan and Caitlin were fast asleep and have gone up to bed half an hour early, Esaias has just gone up and I'm hoping for an early night to as Lewis is going to help John move some things across to his new flat.
The best part of today was that I used the commission I earnt from doing my Avon to pay for the activities we did today, I'm so proud of myself and Lewis is happy that I'm doing something I enjoy.
Unfortunately it is Church tomorrow so I've got this feeling of dread already. While I enjoy my calling in nursery it is tough going right now because we have some difficult children. We are also doing a musical item in sacrament, which I agreed to do, but it has been so much hassle and we've had no time to practice because of Lewis's and Martin's busy work schedules.

Nathan feeding the lambs, this one were born in Feb 2010.

Owen, Kurtis, Joseph, Nathan, Oliver (my cousin) and Esaias

Having yummy Ben 10 cake.

We had a lovely day at Rand Farm Park yesterday despite the rain. The boys fed the cows, goats, chickens (one pecked Nathan but he thought that was very funny!). They also got to see a cow get milked. The milk was then poured into bottles for the calves and the lambs which they all got a turn to feed.

They had a great time playing in the play barn as well, and all of the children were very well behaved. It really was a lovely day.

All grown up

Esaias is five tomorrow! He assures me that he will still want Mummy cuddles when is a big boy of five, which is good to know! We are going to Rand Farm tomorrow with four of Esaias's friends, Kurtis, Owen, Joseph and Oliver and are all very exicted about it!
If we can get the camera to work then photos will follow tomorrow.

http://www.petitiononline.com/tesco/petition.html

Please go and sign this petition to try and stop people parking in the parent and child spaces at Tesco. It is very annoying and I really feel Tesco should do more to stop their more ignorant customers abusing this facility.
Rant over!

Mother's Day

Well yesterday was Mother's Day and I'm not going to say it was relaxing, but Lewis did everything in his power to make it as relaxing as possible and our children were wonderfully behaved. Unfortunately I had no nursery assistants yesterday at Church so I was in nursery on my own with three little boys who are fairly new to potty training, although they are all pretty good (one of them is Nathan) when they say they need to go you have to GO! Which meant each time one needed a wee we all had to go to the bathroom which is at the other end of the Church. Also because it was Mother's Day we sat and made a gift for their mothers (that's right I helped Nathan make my own gift lol) and that is difficult when at least one of them is not that into crafts and would rather ram the others with a push chair. It wouldn't be so bad if people were actually grateful for the nursery class but it is just expected and that makes me a little sad. There is no wonder the Bishopric are having problems finding me a new assistant because it is one of the most physically wearing and under appreciated callings the Church has (aside from the pianist who just seems expected to play whether he/ she likes it or not). On the positive side it was lovely to spend some time with said three boys because they are my three favourites in nursery so we also had a LOT of fun when we got the craft stuff out of the way. They also sat beautifully for the lesson which was about Jesus' Mother.
The rest of Mother's Day was nice. The children have all made me lovely cards and gifts at school and Lewis bought me some flowers, they also got me the first two books from the Twilight series and they were wrapped in brown paper with string which is my favourite sort of wrapping paper.
Lewis's Dad came over unexpectedly which was genuinely nice, because I would like him to think he can come over anytime since he doesn't expect the house to be immaculate. He and Lewis talked gadgets and I got an early night with Edward (tee hee - the main character from the Twilight books)
In other news, I started doing Avon a couple of weeks ago, and I am LOVING it! I have had a lot of orders put in and even if the amount of orders doesn't continue to be this high it is nice to potter around in the fresh air and get to know the people who live nearby. Caitlin thinks that me being an Avon lady is the best thing in the world. She loves getting the little samples to play with and comes with me to deliver the books and pick them up.
Caitlin is starting to do well with her piano playing now and is learning to read music which I am so pleased about.
Esaias is having to get new glasses because his left lense is not strong enough, but other than that he is doing very well. His reading is coming on very quickly and he seems to just pick things up quickly in the way that Lewis does.
Nathan gets up every morning and asks to go to New Holland, on saturday morning he even fetched his uniform down to put on! He will start every day after Easter and I think it is safe to say that he is looking forward to it. Even with his little vocabulary he has clearly told us it is where he wants to be.
Lewis is suffering with a sore throat today, but he is off work now until Thursday which is great because he has had to work a few of his days off just recently. I am letting him rest today, but hopefully he is going to do some work around the house tomorrow!

All change...

Despite my best efforts to try and move Nathan from Pre-school to New Holland gradually this is not to be. Because pre-school would have to send in funding forms everytime we changed the days Nathan went there, they are being a little reluctant to do it that way. So we decided yesterday that we would just send Nathan to New Holland after the Easter holidays. It will make me sad that he won't go to the childminders anymore because she is very very good and has really helped Nathan to progress with his speech, however, on the plus side it means that we won't have to pay anymore childcare. So no more childcare costs and no more nappies to pay for, hurray! Which hopefully means we can save a few more pennies for our holiday which I am really looking forward to. I am hoping that we are going to be able to have a really nice time because the children are a little bit older and we won't have to spend the whole time trying to entertain a baby while we are in the tent. We won't have to take the puschchair or a travel cot, yipee!
Speaking of pushchairs, I did feel a little happy when someone came up to Lewis at church and asked him how we managed to get our children to sit so still in Church. I have to say they do incredibly well, even Nathan. It is also kind of funny because people criticised our method at the time. The way we did it was by keeping them sat in their pushchair for the whole hour. If they got distressed Lewis would take them out of the chapel and settle them down. But the amount of people we get complimenting us on the good behviour of our children just shows that it worked, and they don't seem to traumatised!!!!

Blues and Reds

Caitlin, Esaias and Nathan all dressed and ready for school this morning. Also in the picture is the famous Mr Potato Head, he's never far from Nathan's side these days!

Nathan's 1st day at School

On the 26th of February 2010 Nathan started at New Holland Church of England and Methodist Primary School! Although Caitlin and Esaias are at Wootton, with me working at New Holland it just makes more sense for Nathan to go there until he is ready to start full time. I am sad that I will have to wait a little longer for my school photo with them all in blue jumpers but it is for the best. His first day went ever so well, the other children really took care of him and he coped really well with being sat in a busy dining hall. I thought when he saw me in the dining hall he wouldn't sit and eat his dinner but he sat in his place and ate all of his packed lunch. If he carries on being good like this I might try him on school dinners.
I can't believe my youngest child is at school. It has been a struggle at times to get to this point but I have to say it has gone quickly and all of a sudden my little babies are all at school, Caitlin will be in the junior class in September eeek!

Nathan in a box

It has to be said that this is not the most flattering picture of my lovely Nathan, but it was very funny when he decided to shove his head in the box for his "Spider Spud". This is definitely his favourite toy at the moment and was worth every penny of the £4.99 I spent on it.

In other news I got the all clear in writing from the hospital yesterday. I still need to go back in 3 months for a pelvic scan to see what my cyst is up to, but at least it is not cancer and that is HUGE relief. Thank you to everyone who was worried about me for your kind words, you can rest easy now:)