Chatting, ranting and some stepping! Come in and have a brew with us.

[carrotsandcelery]

A place to have a blether, and a . All chatters are welcome, stepping or otherwise.

Come inside and settle down on the sofa.

It is hard if you have more than one child - I mean trying to share your time with both so they don't feel left out. We have this problem with DS. He is a lot older than DD so they do get treated differently. It's difficult because he is that much older he kind of needs to be a bit more independent than DD but still not old enough to "be independent". Do you get what I mean?

DD only being 3 takes up a lot more of our time and attention so DS (8) (understandably) sometimes feels like he is left out. DH does try to spend time with him playing on the xbox or watching football and they sometimes go out together. He does prefer to do things with daddy.

Anyway, I must get on and do some jobs.

Sorry carrots Xposts

That's a tough one! I guess though it might be o.k. to do a few bits for her if it's going to help the packing process move along a bit faster.

Morning all.

Feeling very tired here. Has anyone got couple of matchsticks I can use to keep my eyes open. I think I must have had a few tossy-turny nights recently.
I have to try and sort out money today for paying for my car - I'm with Natwest so not as easy as it might be right now! So far they promised someone would phone me at 10.00am this morning - they haven't! I need to arrange a very short term overdraft in case the money I'm cashing in from an income bond doesn't get in my account by tomorrow! So far I've spent half an hour or so queuing in the bank on Friday and some time on the phone on Saturday and they weren't able to do anything!! I'm giving them till lunch time, then I'll have to phone them I think!

Carrots - difficult call re DD and ironing. I'd say, if you think she can take it on board that your helping is just a "one off" then go for it, if you think it will encourage her to be more "resistant" to getting on with ironing in the future, then don't!

I have courgettes, mushrooms and some cottage cheese in the fridge that desperately need using up! Any ideas on what I can do? ( I also have carrots, onions and potatoes if that makes it any easier !)

Bessie - thank you for your Ginger soup recipe. Would it do as a main meal do you think of is it more of a snack lunch meal?

Hi Arti - do you have eggs? I would gently microwave a potato and chop it into small cubes, then chop up an onion and soften both of them in a frying pan on a low heat until they are browning. Then I would add the chopped courgettes for a few minutes and then the mushrooms for one minute. I would add to that the cottage cheese with a couple of eggs whisked into it and make it into a big omlette sort of affair. Yum!

Good luck with the money situation. I have a friend who got stranded at the petrol station after her bank card wouldn't work to pay for her petrol due to the technical glitches at her bank just now.

I am just back from the doc and he has diagnosed extreme tiredness and stress as the cause of my twitchy face and prescribed a seven day course of sleeping tablets to try to kick start my body back into a normal sleep cycle. They are very, very reluctant to prescribe anti depressants or sleeping tablets at our surgery (quite rightly) so he has given me a bit of a shock. He has suggested I don't take them until the week we come back from our holiday when everything should be calming down a bit.

I am not sure if I will take them but I will pick them up from the chemist so they are there if I decide it might sort it all out.

I think I will leave dd's ironing. I feel mean but she does have time to do it this week and it is only a few things. I don't want her bad habits to continue, for her sake as much as anything.

What is everyone up to today? I have done some basic jobs so I am going to try to chill out and probably make some jewellery. I will do a bit of my ironing and ds's ironing later as well.

Never a dull moment

Toddler got up at 4:15 this morning. He's so full of snot he keeps calling "Tissue!" to have his nose wiped. I put him up for a nap around 9:30/9:45. I haven't heard him stir yet but think I should check on him soon. I should have napped, too, but instead talked to a friend on the phone, did some emails, cleaned out some email (I've been slowly decluttering my email) and did 15 minutes in the living room.

I really must go into town this afternoon. Not sure I really want to but I have to (can't really put it off any more). If the weather holds maybe we'll go feed the ducks after the "boring Mommy business."

Our caterpillars arrived this morning. Toddler was fascinated! Wait until he comes down and sees that one of them is walking around the pot. I've put his magnifying glass next to the pot if he wants to look closer.

Poor Ts Scout although the caterpillars sound fantastic.

Ds had caterpillars in his classroom and the dcs were fascinated.

I have been doing the ironing and eating my body weight in toast this morning

I don't think I will be doing much for the rest of today, still feeling a bit ill.(cold/flu kind of thing).

Have been out this morning. I am looking into selling things cause we still have some baby things hanging around and we could do with the money. I am also thinking of increasing our overdraft cause the money situation will not be great for the next 2 months!
May need to cancel a few direct debits.
I am also looking into the possibility of selling some art work. I know someone who does this and was talking to her this morning. She said I might be best to join a local art society. I went into one shop who sells paintings and prints but the lady wasn't very helpful --a bit snooty-- Anyway later I was talking to my friend and she said that shop go for the higher end of things. They even refused her work and she is brilliant!

I've just checked on Toddler and he's still sound asleep. He didn't stir when I opened the door and I could hear him breathing (stupid cold causing his stuffy nose). I've made the decision to just let him sleep until he's ready to wake up -- it's what his body needs.

Toddler kept saying "Caterpillar butterfly! Caterpillar!" I think tomorrow we'll paint egg cartons to make caterpillars. He doesn't seem fond of gluing/sticking so making pompom caterpillars might be out. I do want to do something that's not just coloring/painting on paper so think the egg carton will be a hit.

Cats don't be put off. Some art shops are dreadful for turning up their noses. Just remember that Jack Vettriano was knocked back again and again and look how well he has done.

Most of my artist friends join groups and have exhibitions and sell that way. They also sell through lots of little galleries dotted about. Coffee shops also often display art work round here and lots of people sell that way. One friend also sells on the internet. I don't know if Folksy or Etsy do paintings. I think she sold on ebay in the end. Another option is craft fairs. It is definitely a good idea.

Good luck selling the baby stuff. I have been amazed by the money I have made selling stuff we no longer need, even outgrown clothes.

Is you art work ready to go on your profile yet? I would love to see what you have done. I am just about to photograph all the stuff I have made recently as a record of colour combinations etc.

it's not completely finished yet. I think the thing I may struggle with is finding the time to do it. I only get mornings on my own then DD is home from lunchtime onwards and DS from mid afternoon and usually by bedtime I'm pretty tired. I'll have to try and work out something though. I hope my cold goes away soon cause I feel quite tired with it.
I could do it when the DC are here but they always want to join in. DD usually gets in such a mess with paints. it takes time to get evrything set up and then you need space to dry it. If there is only one of us painting it's not too bad.

hello - just quickly popped in to catch up.

carrots I am at the sleeping tablets! you really must be utterly exhausted? Will you get chance to rest on holiday?

cats my FIL shows & sells his paintings at art exhibitions they hold at his local church.

arti the ginger soup has lentils in, so should be substantial enough for a main meal (it is for us!)

I am bursting with pride today. Last week at swimming DD1 floated on her back unaided. Today she swam on her back unaided! - I have no idea if this is to be expected at her age, but I am VERY impressed!

Must go do some frantic cleaning now. DH is away for a few days this week, so this might be the only time I get to do some!

bessie how old is dd1 again? I think that sounds pretty young It sounds very promising. My dd was about 5 when she learned to swim - she seemed about average from what I could gather from chat with other mums.

I am too bessie. I have felt awful for the last couple of weeks though and have been trying to slow it down while the dcs are at school at least.

The holiday we are going on could be quite stressful as we are going with my dparents. I love them both dearly and we do have a good time but it can be stressful trying to keep everyone happy. I generally end up stuck in the middle a bit.

After that I should get a chance to rest a bit. I think the issue is managing to relax when I rest iykwim.

I have just begun setting up a facebook page for my teeny weeny jewellery business. I don't know if anything will come of it but it definitely won't if I don't try. It is not costing me any money so I don't see why I shouldn't give it a go. I have no idea what I am doing though so I keep dipping into other jewellery makers pages and stealing their ideas adapting their formats. I am presuming that once I get going I will learn and be a bit more creative and original with what I do.

What I can already see is that I need a much better profile picture, that will stand out a bit more (of something I have made, not me!) It is a work in progress

Carrots, you're a marvel!

I only had one (slightly old) egg so I decided to make a batter with flour and milk and do it as a kind o pancake. It was definitely edible ( though looked a mess so I probably wouldn't serve it to a guest!).

There was a lot of veg so I've saved half, plus some cottage cheese and batter for tomorrow.

Then I realised I hadn't used any of the courgettes
So they'll have to go in tomorrow's lot too!

Bessie - thank you for advice re ginger soup. I am looking forward to giving it a try!

Carrots - FWIW, if the Dr had prescribed the sleeping tabs, I think you should give them a try!

Just having a before waking the monsters....

DD1 is 3.8 - She only did about half a width by herself (with the instructor next to her), so still a long way to go, but I am still very, very proud

carrots - can you schedule some time to yourself on holiday? Or pre-organise things for the others to do? We are going away in October with my parents & I think I will find it stressful because my mum is generally unable to make a decision (although very good at finding fault with any decision anyone else makes).

arti - glad you managed to invent something for lunch. I'm not very good at dreaming up stuff like that unless it can go in an omlette, stir-fry or pasta!

carrots - you will have to pin some images from your fb page for me to see (& re-pin!)

No problem Arti. I am glad you created a new meal

bessie I won't get time to myself on holiday but the week after dd will be at her my dmil's for the week so I will only have one child to keep entertained and no schedule to keep. That is why I discussed keeping the tablets til then with the doc. He agreed they would be more effective when I am in my own home and in a more normal routine. The idea is to try to get me back into a normal sleep cycle. Fx!

I think at 3.8 she is doing well to swim half a width by herself. I would be exploding with pride too. Well done little bessie.

We established a tradition of little parties to celebrate success at the swimming pool, so that every time the dcs achieve a distance badge we have a mini party for tea and a little victoria sponge.

We have had a bit of an unwelcome drama after school today. Ds hurt his back on one of the play frames in the playground last week. It bothered him all week but was not agony or anything. Today he banged the same spot on a table at school and heard a click and was in agony. He was in tears when he came out of school and everything. When I turned him round to look at his back I realised he was also covered in sick (sorry zoo). The boy behind him in the lines when they came out of school had been sick several times as they left the school. He had obviously accidentally splatted Ds as well.

I put him in a warm shower and washed his hair. I then washed my hands and alcohol gelled them too. [paranoid] The doc had no appts free so the nurse saw him has now asked for him to see the doc tomorrow first thing. He has to take a sample with him incase he has damaged his kidneys, although the pain is higher than that.

He seems happier now and has been allowed a screen time session in the hopes that he relaxes and doesn't dive around for a while.

bessie I am off to see if I can figure out how to pin something on pinterest.

Dd is doing her ironing so I was right to leave it for her

Carrots I used sleeping pills a few years ago, a lot longer than a week tho, I'm sure that if your Dr doesn't usually hand them out like sweets then he does know what he's doing.

I haven't heard from the vet, and the puppy is back to passing blood, so once I've had this coffee I'm going to the vet's.

Hope everyone is feeling better this afternoon, and has manged to sort out bank problems.

He is a good doctor generally and tends to send you packing with your tail between your legs if there is not really anything up with you I will listen to him - I promise

bessie I have tried to upload a pin onto pinterest - if you are on would you mind letting me know if it has worked please?

carrots liked & re-pinned!

carrots - it would be good if the image clicked through to your fb page though, otherwise people won't know who made it!

Thanks bessie. I will look into how to do that. I am not sure I can without opening up my own fb page to the whole world as well. I shall investigate.

Thanks for repinning

Yeah, carrots you defo need it to link to your non-personal fb page or blog.

scout how did you get on with reigning in your chaos today?

My fb bead page is part of my own personal fb page. I think I will just take it a step at a time.