All Normal Here

This morning I was woken by the loudest cup of tea in the world.  The kitchen at the back is next to father's room, where I am sleeping.  I don't know what they were doing to make stirring a cup so loud but it sounded like it was hooked up to a microphone and pumped through the sort of amps they use at Glastonbury.  At 6.30am on a Sunday it was Not Welcome.  This is especially as bear didn't stir until 8.30, which is impressive, so I managed a little more reading.  I'm a bit bogged down on the book I am reading on my kindle.  It sounded so much more promising on the blurb, and I am quite interested in stuff like dinosaurs and fossils, but it is turning out a lot dryer.  Still, it was free.  I may make the effort and read some of the classics that I keep thinking I ought to read as a lot of those are free.  I'm going to have to work up to that, though.  I'll put it on the list of Resolutions, which are looking a bit limp, to be honest.  Although I seem to be doing a lot of cleaning as I go along.

I'm going to have to spend out again.  It's going to be a lot of money as well, at least for me.  Bear needs a chair.  He has been sitting in a kiddies chair and now it is far too small for him.  It has now reached 'ridiculous' so I can't put it off much more.  Still hopefully it will be the last such purchase for a while - if I can stop bear bouncing off the sofa.  I keep expecting to hear a 'crack' and a shout.  I feel a bit depressed just thinking about it.  I am wary about buying furniture second hand as getting stuff through our door takes a lot of skill and effort.  It is looking depressingly like this...

I took the photo from the IKEA website.  By the time I've paid for delivery it will be £200.  Add in the associated costs of visiting IKEA such as the tempting morsels in the kitchen area and the meatballs for the men in the restaurant and on top of everything else I could cry.

I could put it off, but it is already getting a bit tense between DH and bear as they compete for sofa space and so I need something, and I am hoping if I get something comfy it will be used and last for some time.  On the other hand, I don't want to spend the pennies.  I'll have to work something out, or start with the second hand stuff.

So, all normal for here.

Bear leaves no stone unturned

Bear is in heaven.  At school they are doing rocks, soils and volcanoes.  Bear has been picking up odd bits of stone for years - since he was in nursery, toddling back in his reins and picking up stones to put in his pocket.  I currently have a bucket full of stones in my porch dug up from the street.  In reality they are variations on bits of broken brick and concrete, but bear is convinced there is at least one piece of moon rock in there.

The problem I have is that, while bear is very keen on rocks and pebbles and general stone stuff, to quote Sir Terry Pratchett, we're on loam here.  It is all deep soil with plenty of farm land.  As bear violently opposes travelling, the places nearby where there would be a chance of rock collecting are out of the question.  I've been racking my brains for somewhere within easy distance.  I am sure I can find somewhere with a bit of a google, and until then I can see what else I can suggest.  Meanwhile there is always YouTube.

I am feeling very blessed.  The weather is dreadful but we haven't been badly affected.  We have power and the roof is in one piece.  There are places in the USA that are colder than Mars!  I have been reading threads about foodbanks, and I am grateful for food and the money to pay for power to cook on it.  If all I need to worry about is finding a place for bear to pick up stones, I am blessed indeed.

Now I am off to Wiki Commons to find a nice 'rock' picture.

This lovely sunny picture is from the Wiki Commons taken by Arlette1 and used under Creative Commons

More from father

I opened up the cupboard where we keep batteries.  It ought to be a really convenient and helpful cupboard but because of the way the room is we have to have furniture right against it so I only climb over the sofa to get in very occasionally.

Apart from the batteries there were some candles, a very suspect bottle of sloe liqueur and a bottle of Devon cider father brought home three years ago.  There was no sell by date on the cider but it went down the drain.  The drain has seen some action this morning.  I had a quick foray into the walk in cupboard and there was some sad reminders of how enthusiastic I get and how I forget stuff.  The stardrops with ammonia's bottle had gone all squishy and I just got rid of the carpet cleaner as I think the carpet is beyond even professional help.  In fact all sorts went down the drain and I kept the water running just in case there was a chemical reaction.

My heart sank at some of the other stuff in the battery cupboard, particularly the bottles of red wine.  There must be about a dozen.  I don't like the stuff and neither does DH.  We don't really cook with it.  Father can't drink it any more (and has probably forgotten it) so I am staring at all this stuff and wondering how quickly I can get it out of my home to make room for just room, or at least stuff that I like.  I'm going to pass them over to my brother tomorrow.  That's if I can get to all the dratted things and if they're still fit to drink - wine doesn't keep indefinitely, at least not the cheap stuff we get in.  Once it has gone then there will be a space and I am not in a hurry to fill it.

Mind you, I'm wondering if the sloe liqueur counts as one of my five a day.

One week into the Year

I'm not doing brilliantly with the Resolutions.  Don't get me wrong, it could be a lot worse.  I have been checking the bank and diary daily, and the shop is more or less under control.  I did order something from Amazon one day after the deadline as bear had been awesome and I ordered him a complicated dot-to-dot with lots of numbers.

I think the thing is to keep on going.  The Resolutions are really an ongoing list so I am just going bit by bit.  I was working out the big reorganisation I need to do of bookcases and had the uncomfortable realisation that before I do this I need to do that and before I do that I need to sort this and to make room to sort it I need to move this and shift that and finish the thingy in the corner.  I also cleared out part of a cupboard and got rid of a load of stuff that only I liked and that is full of gluten.   I know it is going to the foodbank, but it is still incredibly depressing.  I miss some stuff.  I could live off ReadyBrek, but it is full of gluten and I am still recovering from the diet cola.

Currently the biggest challenge is still the five a day.  I have managed to have some dried fruit for breakfast.  I managed some orange juice and an apple.  However the veggies for dinner was a challenge.  I did carrots with dinner and looked up the amount that made up one portion.  It is three heaped tablespoons per adult.  I always thought I was generous with veggies but the carrots on our plates were about half that amount.  It was eaten with tortilla, which bear utterly rejected, so there was a bit of veggie in there.  It is turning out to be a challenge, especially if I want to stay away from sugar filled fruit.  Mind you, I think a bigger challenge is staying away from sugar filled chocolate.

Still, I can look at yesterday and be fairly pleased.  I sorted out the gas and electric bills, the phone bill and chased up the pumps that bear needed.  I got washing done, I got bits of housework done, I set up a pile for next Tuesday to take to the foodbank, and I even planned tea and cooked what I planned which is a bit of a miracle in this house!

Now I am going to find a pretty picture from Wiki Commons to cheer up the blog and try and happen somewhere.

Image from Wiki Commons, taken by 3268zauber used under Creative Commons

Bear and Stories

As you would expect, bear has a real sense of story and can get lost in them, he reads stories, he makes up stories and he has a lot of fun creating stories with DH.  He also uses stories.

I wish you could have seen his pitiful face as he looked up at me.  He had just seen a YouTube video of the worlds creepiest things that really exist.  He was convinced that just looking at the image of a cursed picture would mean that someone or something would come and get him.  After all, it works with Weeping Angels in Doctor Who (thank you, Mr Moffat!).  I asked him how many people had seen the video.  He checked and it was over a million.  I said very pragmatically that if everyone who had seen it had been affected it would have been in the papers.  Bear was unconvinced.  He said that people seeing the picture were light headed and nauseous and he felt light headed and nauseous and he needed a lot of stories to make him feel better.  I looked into his pleading, innocent eyes and it was like an extortion racket run by Tiny Tim.  This was the leverage to get more stories.

By stories bear means stories about cats, which to be frank I am running out of, and stories of olden days (pre-1994).  I am regularly racking my brains.  So for bedtime, as DH was out, bear had a Brer Rabbit story, an account of malevolent cat trying to catch meerkats by fishing into the old tv while a wildlife documentary was on and an account of my brother sneaking off and trying to climb the Great Orme when he was about four (father caught up with him).

Image from Wiki Commons, The Great Orme, taken by Peter Hodge and used under Creative Commons

I hope you like the picture of the Great Orme, father got to my brother before he got to the nasty scree part.  It's just next to Llandudno and they had neolithic copper mines there.

Bear really likes these stories, but I am running out of ideas.  There is always a punctual call from upstairs, between 8.50pm and 9.10pm, where bear claims that, 'Muuuummmmm, I can't sleep without a story.'  You could set your watch by it, it is so often on the dot of 9pm and it is certainly more punctual than the local buses.

I should add that DH has a good half hour or more with bear making up stories with him as they battle monsters or explore dungeons, mazes, space ships or jungles (depending on what bear has been watching or reading).  Then there is story time at school, the games they play in the playground and bear's own quiet time as he plays with his toy soldiers/cars/figures or reads.  I have a story addict.

It could be a lot worse.

I'm Going to do the Lottery

It isn't really bad luck.  I hadn't got back to DH about the dates for the holiday in Whitby that I had booked for May, so when he went to book it the dates had already gone.  So we won't be going away in May half term as we had hoped.  It's bad planning on my part but it does feel a bit like another swipe.

Now I can see this as a really good thing.  DH can get the week before off so he gets some down time, we don't have the rest of the holiday to pay for and we may even get our deposit back if the holiday can be relet, and besides we can really do without spending the money that we would.  Bear usually just hangs out and we have to drag him out of the holiday cottage apart from the local softplay and the museum adventure playground.

Another up side is that father has been talking about coming with us.  That is completely impossible.  However once he realises it, there may be a problem.  I worry about him getting depressed and giving up.  So not having a deadline in May is a good thing, it gives him longer to adjust.  We have planned to go to Cardiff anyway in October so that is something he can keep in his sights.  It is equally unrealistic, but October is a lot longer away than May.

The down side is that bear is likely to be devastated.  He has had so much going on lately.  He was worrying about father and the car accident and he definitely didn't enjoy the juggling around of things so that was involved in getting the visiting done.  He always goes to Whitby, well, as long as he can remember, and he always stays at the same place.  For nearly two years he has lived with so much upheaval and now something that was always so reliable isn't happening as well.

Time to stop borrowing trouble and get tidying for bear's friend coming round.  I'll tell him after they go home.  He may not be too bothered after all.  

Definitely Fail

Bear prefers school dinners to my cooking.

Off to raise my game.