Back to school

So the kids have been back at school for a week & a half...
That means time for cleaning.  (Sod spring-cleaning - the house needs a good clear out after the summer holidays way more than in the spring!)

Where to start though?  EVERYWHERE is an absolute pit....  I am soooo overwhelmed with it all.

AND I'd like to have the little boys room, the stairs & preferably the living room decorated before christmas... (which would of course explain the bizarre yellow squares all over the stair walls!)

And speaking of christmas - it's time to start thinking about that too....  so far I've got as far as putting together a spreadsheet of who to send cards/presents to...

Ah well - will come back to you when I've got myself a bit more organised!

Mud, glorious mud....

I know it's been over 2 weeks since Download, but I figure we've established by now that I'm a bit of a lazy mare when it comes to keeping my blog up to date....

So, how did my first camping experience since I was a teenager go?

Well, as the title suggests it was a flaming mudbath....
Tramping through 6 inch deep mud for over a mile from the carpark to the campsite is really not fun - especially when it's flowing like a mud river.... mmmmm, nice!  We were quite lucky that our particular patch was uphill - there were people who'd been there for a couple of days who were on lower ground & therefore literally camping in a quagmire....

Our boots!

And losing the tent at the end of the night was really really not fun - stumbling round in the dark for 2 hours or so is enough to make you want to tear your hair out.....  Although, judging by the amount of people in the same situation as us, it wasn't entirely our fault.  In fact I'd go as far as to blame whoever it was who decided that closing off the original route that everyone in our sector had taken in favour of making us go across the actual race-track was a good idea - complete threw us all...

(after this fiasco & the state that the track was being left, they didn't do that again...)

Not sure I'm ever going to do it again - if I do I'll be paying the small fortune to camp in the exclusive area where you can park your car next to your tent!!

But the music made it all worthwhile (& the guest area beer tent - discovering the Velvet Elvis cocktail was an absolute epiphany!!)

We did manage to miss a couple of bands through getting confused over stages but once we'd figured out what we were doing/where we were going, it was all good.

I'm not going to go through them all, other than to say Little Angels were as fantastic as they ever were, but Slash & Metallica were disappointing....

And here's the pics!

Little Angels

Me with Spike from the Quireboys

Tyla

Sebastian Bach

And just to show you that it didn't rain all weekend.....  

Me & himself - no idea who the randoms are!!



Tempus Fugit

So, I thought I'd just write a quick post before I go off to Download....
Then I realised that it's been a month since I last updated - a whole month!!  (not that anyone cares - it's not as if I'm hysterically funny like Stickhead at Slightly South of Sanity; or informative like the organising blog ladies)

Just shows how boring my life is that in the last month, nothing of note has happened...  Just my usual gripes about other drivers (who probably have the same gripes about my driving); kids being, well, kids; work; trying to get my house tidy (I have blitzed the kitchen so it actually looks like a kitchen rather than the tip it was...)

I did go to a workshop by the fantastic Pantera Blacksmith yesterday (& now I ache all over & have my ordinary class tonight, ouch)  The woman is a legend in the world of pole-dance - I'm so glad I got the chance to meet her.  I sooo hope I get to do another workshop with her at some point in the future...

But other than that, it's been same ol' same ol' for me...

But as I may have already mentioned - I am off to Download.  Here's hoping it's not raining.....

oh for goodness sake - more asbestos....

You may or not remember the asbestos saga (hold on, didn't I start my last post like that?!)

To bring you up to speed, we pulled down a fence at the back of the garden last year thinking it was just screening general rubbish (which of course shouldn't have been there in the first place, but hey) only to find sheets of asbestos.  It then took much to-ing & fro-ing to get the council to admit responsibility & come & remove said asbestos & rubbish....

Now when they did finally come, they said they were only allowed to remove the surface rubbish, they weren't allowed to dig...  Annoying, but fair enough.

So, as per my last post, the weather's finally nice enough (occasionally!) to let us get out there & start sorting out the extra bit of garden we gained by removing the fence.  We already found a load of junk last week...

Today, not only did we find a ton of junk buried out there (& a toad!) but yep - more fecking asbestos....
Guess that's more emails being fired off to the council....

Mind you, we've also found bones..... a couple of ribs & either a hip or shoulder socket....  I'm pretty sure they're not human but if we find a jaw bone I'll let you know!!

Sorting the garden

You may or may not remember me posting about finding a load of crap at the back of the garden just after we moved in last year (& the resultant battle to get the council to come & remove it).

Well, we did eventually get them to come & shift it - however, although they took the asbestos & the surface rubbish, they were apparently not allowed to remove anything under the surface, even though sheets of corrugated metal could be seen sticking out from under the soil...

I've finally got round to getting out there to start sorting it this afternoon - my good god.....

In one small section we've removed half a barrel (well & truely rusted away - I wouldn't be surprised if it had been whole when it was buried), several sheets of said corrugated metal, loads of bricks & a scary amount of broken glass (it looks like at least one flaming window's been buried out there...)  There was also an external tv aerial and the door from a kitchen cabinet.... (oh & we found a toad as well!!)

Why would anyone bury that stuff, rather than take it to the tip or getting the council to come & take it away??

No wonder they'd put a fence in front of it.....

Catching up...

I might have been full of the joys of spring last time we met, but golly gosh,it's bloody cold today!!
And what have I been up to since last time?  Well, whilst other people across the country were panic-buying fuel, I was panic-washing laundry....  yep, that's right.  During that brief but glorious hot spell that we had, I was catching up on all my winter  build-up of clothes.  3 loads per day I was getting done.  Which I know sounds a hell of a lot, but there are 6 of us remember & I don't possess a tumble dryer, so during winter &/or wet weather, I can't actually do a lot of washing, cos I've got to wait for it all to be dried on clothes horses/radiators...
The only problem with doing all this washing is that now I've got nowhere to put anything!!

But I'm glad I did get pretty much all caught up cos we've gone back to winter.  Snowing in fact!  Thankfully not as bad as Scotland & Northumbria, but still!!!

What else have I been doing?  DS3 turned 5 on April Fools Day (explains an awful lot about him, that does!) so I've been making mountains of cupcakes for his party that he had..  (delicious, even if I do say so myself!)

And due to the problem of lack of clothing storage, I've started decluttering it all...  I now have mounds of clothes to take to nursery & a shedload of nappies to sell and Freecycle....

hohum, what an exciting life I lead!!!

Full of the joys of spring!!

The weather's been glorious here - I've had FOUR loads of washing out today!! 

It's inspired me to start sorting out the back bit of the garden (which was clearly used as a dumping ground by previous occupants but we finally got the council to come & clear the majority of the junk...).  It's going to need a lot of work doing to it, but a little every (dry) day should hopefully soon see it right for at least planting some annual flowers in...

I've also just about finished the big boys' bedroom - I promise I'll put some pics up just as soon as I've got the coving put up!

And being full of the joys of spring, I'm ready to crack on with my habithacking....
I looked at my spreadsheet just now to see where I'm up to & coincidentally, the next step is to start customising the routines - which is just what I figured I'd blog about today anyway!!  Seeing as how 2 steps ago was to add in a half-assed housecleaning hour (or half-hour as I'm hoping to make it!) & the habithacker does hers on a Monday...  Now that doesn't work for me for a variety of reasons.  So I thought that I'd do it on a Wednesday, as I've got to get rid of all the rubbish on a Wednesday anyway to put out for the binmen on a Thursday.  Then I realised that I just don't have the time on a Wednesday...  Plus I like to change the bedding at the weekend...
So I finally figured, the best thing for me is to split it up - so now I'm doing some on Wednesday, some at the weekend but most of it on a Thursday (when I have the most time).  And that's going to work best for me, so I should actually DO it - which is the important bit about this whole getting organised malarky - making things work for YOU, not just doing what some book or website tells you to do....

Onwards & upwards!

I am my only octopuss....

Hello lovely readers.  It's been a while due to my extremely bad habit of procastinating....

Anyway, as some of you might know, I do the odd bit of pole-dancing (& by odd, I mean odd!!!  My lovely teacher Jamie shows myself & my classmate moves, & we do them COMPLETELY differently to her!!! )

So Rhi & I went to watch Jamie & one of her other students perform last week.  And they were fantastic...  Nicola was totally inspiring & motivating, she was so good & if I'm going to get anywhere near that standard I really REALLY need to practice more.... (I've been good tonight & had a bit of a session but by bit, I mean 1 song... oops!  It is the song I'll be performing to at the showcase next month so not too bad I guess..)

Anyway, we were talking to Nic afterwards & other than nagging us about practicing more often, she showed us a tattoo she's had done to motivate herself.  "I am my only obstacle"  So true, so very true.  The only person stopping me being as good as her is me.

So I really, honestly will be practicing a whole lot more often.  I don't want to be my only octopuss....

Children are strange

now while I'm pretty sure there are stranger out there than mine, (please tell me there are!!) on the weird front mine are up there with the best of them.

Take today for example...  My delightful darlings are playing at being waiters and DS1 had taken an order for roast octopus from me (ok, that might be a little hint at where they get their strangeness from!)
DS2 piped up that he wanted a roast octopus & salad sandwich....  All good, right? 

Cue a couple of minutes later when DS2 is sobbing uncontrollably...  I ask him what's wrong, only to find out he's this upset because DS1 didn't put octopus in his sandwich......  How he can tell these things from an imaginary plate, I have absolutely no idea, but DS1 had to correct the error!!!

They get nuttier!!!

Penny Pinching Mama

Well, as you know, I'm attempting to organise my life.  And that includes my finances.  Which aren't in the best shape in the world.  They could be worse but they could also be a lot better.
Now, according to www.creditexpert.co.uk my credit rating is "fair" but I'd love for it to be "good".  Which means getting rid of the debt.

So in a moment of serendipity, I came across the Penny Pinching Mama.  This lady has some fab tips for cutting costs, living on a budget & shifting the debt. 

And for the next couple of hours she's running a competition to win a copy of her book "how to save money & get rid of debt"  simply by going to her blog post here

All you need to do is comment on the blog post by the end of 28th February & you've got a chance of winning!

Good luck guys!

Unclean, Unclean.....

Beware, for I have man-flu!!  Which is typical (& more than a tad annoying) seeing as how I'm off work this week....

Littlest son has also been ill - horrid hacking/barking cough, listless & totally not himself...  Last time he was like this, I ended up feeling like I do now - horrid cough, sneezing constantly, sore eyes, aching all over, freezing cold & absolutely no energy....  the rest of the house remained perfectly healthy.....  hmmmm!!

Anyway, illness aside, we've been decorating this week.  The biggest 2 boys bedroom to be precise.  So far, we've only managed to strip the walls & fill in the holes but it's a start. And not bad when you consider we've been up to see family & also spent the day in Swansea yesterday, so we've really only had 2 days....

The house is a goddamn tip again tho....  (not that it was actually tidy but at least 2 of the downstairs rooms looked reasonable.)  I have managed to keep polishing my original place (living room floor) but that's a tad difficult as we have no vacuum cleaner at the moment.  The shit spots have regathered shit and the dining room table (which had become an extension of the place polishing) is also covered in crap....  I blame having everyone round...  honestly, it's nothing to do with my own laziness...

I'll kick-start it all again in a minute and in the meantime, in case you were interested in where I'd got up to on the Habithacking steps (before it all went pear-shaped), I've now begun my Brain On Paper (BOP); added to it and learnt about the importance of using a timer.

Next week, once the kids are back at school (& I'm back at work, boo)  I'll start on the D-Day Delve  And boy does this place need it!!!

Hope you've all been enjoying half-term - see you next time!

At last, at long last!!

I have been scouring Ebay/the local car dealers/free papers for a good couple of years, looking for a Volkswagon Caravelle....

I've wanted one for years...  Firstly, so I could go to gigs knowing that all I had to do was chuck a mattress in the back on top of the seats & voila, a handy place to sleep (mind you, the fact that when I was going to all these gigs, I couldn't actually drive was just a small sticking point)

Secondly (& probably more importantly) I seem to have a miniature tribe of small boys....  I'm still not entirely sure where they actually came from....  Anyway, said small boys were getting a tad cramped in the back of the Zafira that we were transporting them in....  and there's nowhere to put the vast quantities of food needed to feed a small tribe in a Zafira once all the seats are up....  ignore the adverts - they lie I tell you....

Anyway, we've finally got one!!!  I am so chuffed.  Yes it's old but it's got virtually no mileage (unlike vans that were a good 10 years younger than ours with 200K + more mileage.....) and it's in really really good condition.

And the boot space!!!  My good grief!  We could do our shopping for several months & still have space to spare!  And if we suddenly decide to move house (not that that's likely to happen, barring a lottery win) we could just take the back seats out & put stuff in the back - ok, it would take several runs but we wouldn't need to hire a van!

On the downside of course (there always is one, isn't there) I think it's going to cost us a bomb in fuel..... 

But do I care at the moment?  Nope!

Habithacking....

Well, I promised that I'd get round to telling you about habithacker.com

I came across this lovely lady's site a couple of months ago & I have to tell you, I way prefer it to Flylady - only one email a day & she tells it like it is - a shitspot is a shitspot not a "hotspot"!!

And she's transforming me!  You should see my living room - it only takes me 5 minutes these days to whizz round my living room, including vacuuming!! I'm not saying that it's immaculate, cos it's not, but I'm not going to be apologising for the state of it if someone calls unannounced!!

I will admit to you now, even though I've been subscribed for a couple of months (71 days to be precise) I'm actually only up to Day 7.  This is because of the way my inner rebellious teenager works...
I really really was trying to add a step a day, but then earlier things weren't getting done...

So I decided to start again at the beginning & add a new step only when I was into the habit of the earlier steps....  And that is working much better for me...  I may not be doing everything every day, but step 1 ("Polishing my place") is definitely ingrained now...  In fact, I do that several times a day!!  Even the monsters are getting pretty good at tidying the living room!! (My "place" if you're wondering is my living room floor...)

I also finally got round to putting the key rack up that I bought months back cos of this (day 3)
And I'm getting pretty good at shovelling the shit (day 5)


BUUUT, I'm stuck on step 7 - putting clothes out for the next day before I go to bed....  I really want to move on, so my goal for this next week is to do this EVERY night....  including the boys (although uniform's not challenging to think about so no excuse there!)

Anyway, in case any of you want to follow along with me, here's the links to the steps so far...

Step 2 Do your do

Step 3 Stash that key

Step 4 Polish twice

Step 5 Take a break

Step 6 Shovel the shit

Step 7 What to wear?


And yes, I know, you can always sign up to get the emails yourself but if we can cheer each other on, then maybe we can finally get organised (ok, you're probably already living in a tidy haven, so maybe I can finally get organised!)

And if you did want to do the steps alongside me, then honestly, these first 7 steps are easy to do a step a day, so this time next week, you can be at the same stage as me....  (if you really want to be!)

And maybe I can put some pics up as well as we go along!  *wonders if there's a way that you can share pics with me???*

Have fun everyone!

So excited!!!

So, me & my lovely husband were umming & ahhing over whether to go to Download this year or not.... (We've booked the time off work just in case of course!)

I've just been checking the latest band announcements on the Download Facebook page to find out that Little Angels are reforming for it!!!!  I absolutely adore Little Angels & was heartbroken when they split (bizarrely I was actually more upset when they split than when my favourite band split up - but then, The Wildhearts do keep splitting & reforming so I guess that I never believe it when they announce a parting of the ways!!)

I now have a grin like the cheshire cat on my face...  Am I going to Download?  Oh I think so!

Bye Bye Baby, Baby Goodbye....

Sigh...

My youngest started school today...  Only in the mornings, but still - school.  Uniform & everything....

I'm not a happy Mammy today.  He's still my baby - he even smells like a baby still if you get the right part of his neck...  He can't possibly be big enough to go to school.  He certainly doesn't look big enough...  And we were stopped by so many people ahhing over him on the way in this morning!!

So that's it - no more baby.  He'll grow up soooo quickly now.

Mind you - on the plus side, I'll get to drink a hot cup of coffee, & actually get my housework & Avon round done soooo much quicker!  (not that I'm that fussed on the housework, but you know what I mean!)