We have finished the babysteps - cautiously moving into toddler sized steps now.

[Carrotsandcelery]

You are all going to be so disappointed. My hobby is horse riding. Ta da!! I really wasn't trying to be coy. I didn't realise you were all so nosey took such an interest in fellow thread members I am totally mortified that it is not hang gliding or rally racing or anything a bit more adventurous

I am hoping dh has got me a phone as the one I have was £20 years ago and is in its death throes. It randomly decides not to send or receive texts and seems to do it on the basis of how important the text is. If it is a strange one from dh about what he had for lunch then I get it. If it is from a friend sorting out pick up times or child care arrangements it seems to snub them

I am hoping dh has encouraged the dcs to get me perfume as I am using a motley collection of overly strong perfumes which are probably "off" by now. Bleurgh!

hmmm.... a rice cooker eh angel? I have wondered about getting one of those (for me) before, but am worried about getting something which takes up even more cupboard/worktop space!

I still don't have any ideas for DHs xmas present, but after reading the what can I buy DH thread over in Christmas, I think I might get him this for his birthday and when he gets bored of it I will have it

bessie my dh has a watch (a GPS one I think) that recoreds all the information from his runs. He can then upload it and analyse it etc. It looks like the gadget you linked to does the same on a smart phone. Dh loves his watch so hopefully your dh will love the gadget.

I have been out with a friend this morning but spent about an hour and half filing when I got home so the majority of it is done. Yay! There is a suspicious looking box in the kitchen still that I haven't been brave enough to explore yet. I suspect it may also have a whole load of dh's filing in it. If it does I don't know if I should do it for him just to get it out of the way or if I should punish him for leaving so much not done and make him do it himself.

My usual routines have been done too so, despite mucking around with my friend for 4 hours I have still got a reasonable amount done.

Hello all, I have had a very busy day today, Went a bit like this:
School, home, town then home for lunch then out to supermarket, Home, school, home to cook dinner, wash up, help DS with homework, get dc ready for bed, put to bed, wrap DH birthday presents and relax... Only trouble is it is nearly bedtime now!

I think tomorrow will be a housework day although there will be no hoovering as DH is on night shift so in bed in the mornings.

Arghhh! My crown fell out last night (stupid bloody toffee) I'm not in pain, but it is very, very sensitive & after attempting a luke-warm cup of tea this morning, am afraid to eat or drink anything. Luckily I have an emergency appointment at lunchtime.

Anyway, moaning over. Sounds like you were very productive yesterday. I need to be highly efficient & organised as DH is away for a couple of days, so had better get off here!

Good luck with the dentist today bessie and the being organised for solo flight.

Ds has Clinical Psychologist today. I am so nervous. I will report back later

Good luck with your appointments today.
I am on a tea break so MNetting.
I would like to try and get the downstairs of the house quite tidy before tomorrow as both the DC will be home all day.

Hello everyone, sorry I haven't been on lately ds1 has decided to continually rob my laptop, to the point of me unplugging the internet yesterday, so that he could do something else. and ds2 has tonsilitis again!!! i will be cleaning later as dp will be down tonight and i have sticky floors....

Hope your appointment goes ok carrots

Good luck with the tidying black

I'm not going to comment on gossips sticky floors

at sticky floors. I don't want to know

We are just in from the hospital so I am having a and trying to relax. I can feel a stinking headache brewing so I think I might have to take something for that - I will see if the cuppa does the job.

The appointment went really well. The doctors dealing with us were really lovely people and very supportive. We actually had a good laugh despite the subject matter. They also seem to think they can help us which is obviously the main aim. They are going to spend some time discussing things with the school and then they are going to see dh and myself again without ds being there. It sounds like tactic No 1 is going to be sleep training so I will have to brace myself I suspect.

They have also told us that we would be justified in launching a complaint against the school. We are not going to but it helps to know that they were in the wrong and we weren't iykwim.

I suspect that once they have discussed things with the school they will be in no doubt about their hand in this anyway. Hopefully that will be enough to stop them doing something similar again to another wee soul.

So for now we carry on with the tactics we have in place and there was not a hint of suggestion of medication. Yay!

I feel totally drained but hopefully a wee sit down will do the job.

Glad it went well carrots

my crown is back in place and he had time to do my long overdue checkup & clean, so that's something crossed off the to do list!

I have vacuumed & mopped, and just placed my order for 4 photo calendars. Hope everyone wants to have my gorgeous girls grinning at them all year! It has made me realise that we don't have enough good pics of the girls with their GPs & GGPs. That might be my new years resolution - to take more pictures.

DD2 will be awake in a few mins, so I'm going to get DD1s bag packed for pre-school tomorrow

Carrots, that sounds great. Hopefully the school will be helpful.

bessie, glad you got your teeth sorted. The rice cooker will be useful for us, I think, but I suspect it's only good if you've young children and/or do lots of cooking. DH is training to be a Christian minister so I will probably spend half my life cooking for guests.

We need to do some clearing up. DS is having an obsessed with cooking phase. It's useful, but very messy.

I need to do some admin bits too.

Angel one of my friends is a minister's wife and she gets heavily involved too. We used to joke that if she was going to marry a minister she would have to learn to bake and cook - little did we know how true it was. I have other friends who are very involved in the church and they are entertaining constantly too. I suspect your flying and cooking skills will definitely be necessary.

I have just had a very tricky conversation with dd, brought on by Christmas, asking what religion she is. I was raised Church of Scotland, dh was raised Roman Catholic, dd says she believes in God and Jesus. We decided she was a Christian and decided further definition was unnecessary and a bit silly I am not sure if I have done the right thing!

I am assuming everyone's dcs are home today. I have put on a wash, washed and dressed, put on the dishwasher etc but the kitchen table top is invisible and there are pens and pictures all over the floor. I think that is just family life.

arghh I'm dreading the inevitable conversations with the DDs about religion. PIL are very active in the church (including lots of baking), but we are not, so need to word things very carefully so that she doesn't think anyone is right or wrong. I was going to tell them they don't have to decide on anything until they are a grown-up!

DD1 is at pre-school as usual today, DD2 & I have just got back from swimming & I am decluttering my graze box while she feeds.

I'm hoping to get the meal planner done this arvo, but she was up in the night, so i may need to nap too. ZZzzzz

I actually slept all night for the first time in AGES. It makes such a difference. I think it will just be basic flying today as the dcs are around. We will have to tackle the kitchen table though.

I have both DC home today so not much flying going on here. I got the glitter and glue etc all out this morning to try to keep them busy so they have both done a picture for daddy. DD ended up wearing some of the glitter so may be in need of a bath.

I stupidly fell down the stairs earlier so now have back ache and my ankle hurts a bit but hopefully o.k.

Must go and try to sort some lunch now.

Oh no BlackCat I hope you are ok. That sounds nasty. You may need a warm bath yourself but maybe not all together if you are bit sore.

Carrots, that sounds like a very sensible conversation with your DD to me. :)

My inspiration for FLYing is our minister's wife who everyone thinks is superwoman (she has 4 teenagers, works a day a week as a GP, cooks brilliantly and does loads of stuff at church). However because I know her better I know she's really a disorganised person by nature who has got better very slowly via FLYlady. It gives me hope!

Hooray on sleeping so well. It makes such a difference, doesn't it?

Black, agree, a bath sounds like a good idea.

Our freezer has broken. :( It appears to be leaking gas. It's only about 5 years old. Thankfully we also have a fridge/freezer and I have managed to stuff most things in there, and I caught it before things had defrosted. My hands are rather chilly though.

BlackCat how are you injuries today? I hope you are ok.

Angel re the broken freezer. Our washing machine is definitely leaking, our tumble dryer doesn't work and our printer is also not working. I need a plumber to readjust the water pressure and we have a dripping kitchen tap. Unfortunately we can't afford to deal with any of it, or if we do we can't afford to do Christmas and I don't think it will wait, so I am limping on with my crumbling house

On a plus note I have done the dishes, worktop, lunches, washed, school run, put a wash on, hung a load etc.

We failed on the kitchen table front yesterday (too many phone calls) so I am going to attempt that today. I also want to do this weeks filing before it gets out of hand again. I am heading out to the stables though so we will see. I am not sure what I am going to use to pay for my lesson though I think I will have to write a cheque and pray dh's pay goes in before the cheque comes out. Gah!

Morning, I am o.k. but my ankle still hurts a little. I can walk on it though so it can't be too bad. At least my back is not hurting as much now.
I am tired today though cause DD didn't sleep enough last night. I'm hoping she will have a nap before 3.00 so I can join her.

Carrots sounds like you are not having much luck at the mo. Hope things improve for you.

I am going to attempt a bit of work in the kitchen again as there are always jobs to do out there.

boo to broken appliances! The spare part for my oven should be arriving late next week. They assure me that they will be able to fit it as soon as it arrives & that it will be fixed for xmas, but it's all getting a bit close for my liking. It could be soup in the slow cooker for xmas dinner! (carrots what will you have? I need some veggie inspiration)

I had my car serviced a couple of weeks ago & they realised they didn't know when the cam belt had last been changed, so had that done last week. I'm just on statutory mat leave pay now, so that's cost me more than a months wages

i've done the meal plan this morning. Need to do the shopping list this afternoon. Lucikly DD2 slept ok last night (just up once at midnight) so I don't need to nap today. Hope you get your nap black

As we've just been paid I need to do some xmas shopping today too. Before I start, I need to investigate cheap amazon loopholes or buy some amazon gift vouchers with my nectar points!

Hello again everyone.

I have been for a long hack through the woods with a friend and I feel a lot cheerier again.

bessie do you understand the discount finder you linked to. I don't know if I am being daft but I can't make any sense of it

I only have a few gifts left to buy: theatre tickets, a wii game and a wad of cash (for MIL who has bought an expensive chair). I think that is it anyway but I need a clear day to get the stuff for the dcs down from the loft, wrapped and sorted out - then I will know for sure.

I ended up with a whole thread about my Christmas dinner bessie. It is always a massive trauma in our household. For years I dreaded Christmas because my dparents always had a row about Christmas dinner (long and dull story), then we started going out to eat and that solved it. My dniece is a nightmare in a restaurant though, so we can no longer eat out as a family, so we are back to having it at my dparents house again and to the ensuing rows.

We experimented last year by not having a traditional Christmas dinner as it seemed beyond what my dparents could handle so we had a lentil hot pot and dmum also made some sort of meaty hot pot stew sort of thing (didn't pay any attention to it)

This year we are considering lasagne - a meat one and a veggie one - with nice bread and salad.

My dbro is not happy about it but he is also not offering to cook Christmas dinner so will have to lump it I suspect.

I would love to cook something veggie and Christmassy etc but it is out of my hands. The time with my dparents is more important to me than what I get to eat.

Sorry, that whole essay doesn't really help you with your Christmas dinner inspiration.

I did buy the BBC Vegetarian Christmas edition but can't say it did it for me. Nothing looked very Christmassy to me.

I would probably want something like brie and cranberry filo parcels if I had my own way but I don't have recipe for anything like that I am afraid.

Hmmm..sounds difficult carrots! Last year, when it was just the 3 of us we had mushroom & chestnut wellington with a load of Xmas veg. This year we have my parents & grandparents round & I feel like I should provide a non-veggie option but have no idea what. We will be having chocolate brownies & cheesecake for pudding though!

bessie the one time I hosted Christmas I also felt obliged to provide a turkey. I compromised and got a turkey crown from M&S so all I had to do to it was put it in the oven (trying not to look). I also bought a tray of those sausages in bacon as my dbro loves them from M&S. The other side dishes were veggie so we all had them. I don't remember what we had ourselves it is all blocked out by the trauma of having a dead bird in my house. I imagine it was a nut roast of some sort as I remember I was quite stressed about it all. The meal itself is not that stressful but my ddad's inability to calm down about it is very difficult to deal with.

Definite boo to broken apliances.

Carrots, that sounds like a horrible Christmas.

I've yet again failed to finally sort out our Christmas lists and I'm now being hassled by all our families. I've not had a very productive week, mainly due to being out lots including a couple of eve

On the plus side, I have planned the meals for this week. :)