Happy Hogmanay

It is that time of the year again. It really deos seem to come around quickly. We are through the first decade of the new milenium already.

Though I do find it odd to be spending Hogmanay in England though. Every time that I do I feel a little sad that I am not in Scotland. I think that if I am to come down here for Christmas again then I am going to go back home before Hogmanay.

I have enjoyed it down here but I really am ready to go home. The younglings are ready to go home too. I must confess that I am really glad that they want to go home. I know that we do not have much but I am glad that they want to go back.

I wonder what next year will bring for us. The twins will have their fourth birthday and my eldest will have his sixth birthday. He will also complete his first year at school and the twins will complete their first year at nursery. I am still happy about the idea of delaying them starting school by a year. I know that it will be a pain going out three times a day with them at nursery, but that time will pass and before I know it they will all be at school and I will get the time during the day to develop my career. I never thought I would be interested in developing a career, but I not only need to but I want to.

Christmas day fun

We had fun yesterday evening. during the day my youngest son was not that well so I started giving him bigger doses of his inhaler, but after we went out for a walk he was not well at all.

When he was asleep on the couch I noticed that he was struggling with his breathing even in a relaxed state. both my partner and I were worried about him and even though I am not the best at making phone calls at the moment I phoned up NHS and after talking to the nurse for a while she was able to arrange for a doctor to call back.

When the doctor called back he told us to go in at 8.10 in the evening.

We were seen quickly and thankfully I was able to get a new inhaler and a prescription for another one. He has been given dome medicine and after soem treatment he is much better. He had a good sleep.

I am so, so relieved that he is getting better. It is a worry to see him like that as I know that there is not a lot that I can actually do myself to help.

Happy christmas

We have come around to this time of the year quickly and of course not without drama.

We were supposed to be going on a steam train yesterday with the younglings to meet Santa. That was the plan of course, buit sadly when my father went to check the situation with the ice he fell down and broke his arm.

Thankfully after a short time in hospital he was able to com home. It is a clean break and he does not even need to have a cast. He has got it in a sling and will go back to the hospital next week to check on the progress. Bless him though he was very upset that he had ruined the day, when he had done no such thing and we were just worried about him.

The council have said that they will provide some grit so that we can grit the road ourselves but that should have been there years ago. the road is an utter nightmare when it is icy as it is on a slope.

Today is going well though and the younglings love their presents. My brother and his partner are also here as well so it has been nice seeing them.

Though my youngest son is not that well today. He had a bad night last night coughing and if he does not imporve we will take him to the doctors. We also need to get him a new inhaler.


At least there have been no arguments so far but then again I am not sure if I can recall a Christmas day when there were arguments.

Arrived at my parents safely

My partner and I along with our younglings are spending the Christmas and Hogmanay (We travelled on Monday 21 december)

The train journey was interesting and very long. We ended up going on further than we were supposed to. My mother told me that the roads were getting icy but that the train went to a stop not too far. I had wanted to get off a bit earlier to break up the journey for the younglings but thankfully they managed well with the extra time on the train. We were ten hours on the one train and one hour on the first train. We spent about twelve hours travelling. We left at about 8.20 so we could catch the train at 8.40. We were on that train for roughly an hour and thankfully that was running on time. this meant that we were able to catch the connecting train with no problems. That was such a busy train (thank goodness that we had reserved seats as there were people standing in the corridor) we were on the train for about ten hours. We were collected from the train station by my mum and dad. I am not sure what time that we got in but I think it was about 8.30.
But we are here and settling in. the younglings have still been waking at night so I still have not had a decent sleep. Hopefully I will get a decent nights sleep tonight.

I also managed to catch up on my Tarot card and rune of the day. With the lead up to coming away I had not managed to do that for a while, but I have done that now. I like drawing a rune and tarot card for each day. It helps me learn more about different tarot cards and it also offers me some useful advise.

The younglings have been behaving well since we got down though and they are being so much better than what they were last year. I suppose that they are a year older helps. But I also think that it helps that not only is my eldest at school but the twins are at nursery.

Though while it is nice being here, I must confess that it will be nice when we get home. Hopefully the wild weather that we are getting at the moment will not stop us from travelling. I am missing the snow as well. Darn that gulf stream for stopping Cornwall getting the snow (though as I said I will be glad if the wild weather stays away while we travel)

MAd weather

With less than twenty four hours before I spend the Christmas at my mum and dad's there could be trouble with the trains.

Part of me is looking forward to it and part of me wishes that we were staying at home (especially while there is snow about and there is no snow where we are going)

Both my partner and I have decided that this will be the last Christmas that we will visit them. Last Christmas was wonderful at home. I know that we will enjoy this Christmas but last Christmas felt special.

We were worried about my youngest son earlier as he was not feeling well but he seems to have picked up since and before he went to bed he was not saying that he was feeling ill.

School's out for Christmas

It was the last day of school today for my eldest. He got a present from his teacher. Though as it was not a car he was not impressed. I was not happy with him for that as I never got any presents from my teachers. I know that he is only five but he will have to learn that he should be grateful for whatever he recieves. He may wish to have something but he needs to learn that he should not expect to get it.

What he got was a Cars drawing kit. He wated cars that he can play with. He has already got lot of those and he will be getting more for Christmas.

Ah well he will learn in time. And I will get him to see that what he got was actually really funky.

On a different topic, I was always used to not having that much heating on and having to put on more layers of clothing of I got cold. But when I moved up to Scotland my partner wanted the heating on so much. But after several years he has now got used to not having the heating on that much and wearing more clothes when the weather gets colder. In fact he is so used to it that when he goes to his friends house he tells me that he finds it far too hot.

Nativity time

I went to my eldest son's nativity play today. I really enjoyed it and he did really well as well. He was a sheep so while his part was a small part he was sat on the stage for the duration of the play and he sat really nicely.

It meant that my morning was really busy. I had to take my eldest to school, then take the twins to nursery for their Christmas party. As soon as I'd done that I had to go to watch the nativity. Then as soon as the nativity had finished I had to go up to the nursery to collect the twins from their party.

Though I did have time to get a cake on the way to collecting the twins.

They all had fun and they like me was so happy to see the snow. It was properly snowing (big flakes falling slowly) It was so serene walking through the wood in the snow. I love walking in the snow. I hope we get more of it.

When I collected my eldest from school later he was really excited to see the snow and started throwing snowballs at me. It was fun.

Nursery song time

The nursery had a Christmas singing time today. My daughter did really well and she really looked like she had a good time. She was right at the front for the most of it, so that meant I was able to get some good shots of her.

My youngest son did not look like he was having a good time though. Bless him he did not make a fuss but he did not look like he was having a good time. There was a lot of people there though, so maybe he was overwhelmed by that. I my daughter really noticed as I was sat at the front and she was able to then see me and just focus on me.

They had a raffle after the singing but sadly I did not win anything. I wanted to get the pink duck for my daughter. I do not know why I do this though as I only end up disappointed (especially when the woman next tow me won two prizes with her two tickets)

The thing that really bothered me was that there was a lot of people there and not one person spoke to me. They were all talking among themselves but not even one hello to me. I felt very isolated.

Once I was home I started to feel better. I did bump into my two friends after school though, so I had someone to speak to. One of them was able to give us a lift home (my eldest son had his Christmas party today)

I also managed to find the new door handle today (I spend a lot of yesterday and a lot of today trying to find it) that has been now fitted and it is working fine. I am glad to have the front door working again.

Improvising and early Christmas presents

While I have been sorting out the home I have had to improvise to fix things that have broken.

The wardrobe in our bedroom is broken. But I have not got anything else that we can put our clothes into. The only thing that had broken was the mirrored doors that were in front of them (I did not like them but I must confess that I do miss the full length mirror)

The clothes were also a mess in there. It took me a while to go through them all and get them sorted out into order but it looked so much better once it was tidy. Hopefully I have got a better system that will now stay tidy and easier to maintain.

I had mentioned to my partner about putting a curtain at the front for an improvised door and he thought that is was a good idea. The only problem I thought I had was finding material long and wide enough to do so. I thought I would have to make up patchwork sheets to do the job, until I tried out the curtains that my friend gave me a few months ago.

My friend has had several clear outs recently and the one she had a few months ago she gave me some curtains. I put them up against the wardrobe to see how long they were and I was surprised to find that they were more than long enough for the job. I was worried about them being a bit too see through but now I think that makes them idea as they are so lightweight (especially considering how long and wide they are)

Because the curtains had loops on them I was able to put nails into the wall and hang them onto that. I am so pleased with them and I think they look so funky. It has changed the feel of the bedroom totally. I think that once I have got the kitchen sorted then this flat will feel so much nicer.

I went shopping in the morning and I picked up a couple of Christmas decorations, presents for the younglings and some clothes. I am lucky that my friend was able to take me in her car otherwise I would not have been able to make it in time.

A little later I decided to give the boys one of their cars early as a treat. They were so excited but bless my daughter was feeling a little left out, but I was able to find a car that she could have as well. She was so excited by it. All three of them loved their cars and took them to bed with them. I have told them that they are special cars and they have got to look after them (they are special James Bond cars) My eldest was given the Aston Martin from Quantum of solace, My youngest son got the Aston Martin from Goldfinger and My daughter got the Lotus Esprit from The spy who loved me (it is a model of the car when it was in underwater mode)

I do not mind giving them part of their Christmas present early. Sometimes I think that you get too many presents at once and you do not appreciate what you get as a result. It to see how much they loved their one little car.

I think I am coming down with a cold. I am not feeling good at all at the moment. I had a sore throat earlier on (I thought that was from me having to raise my voice a few times today to the younglings) but I have started to not feel well and I can feel my cheeks burning. I think that once I have done this amd my photography blog I will get ready and go to bed with a Lemsip (I have got some raunchy new romance books to read in bed)

Winning the battle

Well the battle of order that is.

My home was totally disorganized and verging on chaotic. This was having an effect on us. Stuff was going missing and it was challenging to find it.

Things started getting better after we had a mass clear out last week when we knew that someone was coming around to look at the damp problem and the landlord would be there as well.

Another important moment was when I realized that I would have to maintaining pretty much by myself.

Since then I have been working hard each day to make sure that I keep up the good work with keeping the place clean but also finishing off any things we were not able to declutter last week.

Today I was able to get some work done in our bedroom and I sorted through the photography magazines that I had got and took out anything that I think will be useful for me.

The last room that really needs work on is the kitchen. There is clutter down one side that we did not manage to move last week. The other sides are looking much better but I do have to clean it up after it was used today. I think because it is such a well used room (like the living room) that it will only be ordered with a lot of work to keep it clean)

But the good thing is that all of the clean and dried clothes are put away. I have now found all of my eldest son's school uniform. Socks are in matching pairs and there are a lot of them (I am fighting back against the infamous sock monster)

The main reason why I feel like I am winning the battle was the feeling that I got when walking through the flat tonight. There was such a funky serene feeling from the lack of clutter and just seeing it clean. That and the fact that it is still clean one week after the mass clean up. That has not normally been the case, usually one week after a big clean up the clutter has started to creep back.

I have had to sacrifice the computer though to achieve this. I barely spend any time during the day on it. I am not missing it though, and the gains far outweigh the sacrifice.

Hopefully I have pasted the turning point and I will not go back to a cluttered and chaotic flat. I will then be in position to start teaching the younglings how to keep things clean as well (the are getting old enough that they can start helping out as well)

Keeping the home clean

Last night I realized that maintaining the home cleanliness will pretty much be down to me to do.

I had sort of noticed it before but it was only really later last night that I came to the conclusion. My partner is good at helping me really give the place a good cleaning when it gets too messy, he is also good at doing the dishes and cooking meals, but apart from that he begins to struggle.

He likes to moan about when it starts to get messy and disorganized, but he does nothing about it. He would much sooner sit at the computer browsing the Internet, and every so often look up to huff and puff about the mess. I understand how adictive the computer and especially the Internet can be, but we both know this. I wish that he could recognize this and switch it off more often. Though sometimes he switches off the computer and just sits and watches the TV. He does not understand that when I ask him to get off the computer I mean for him to do something more constructive than watching the TV. Wishful thinking on my part.

Off topic though, I think it is great watching my youngest son on the computer. He is only three but he can not only switch on the computer but he can switch on the train game and he can happily play it without too many problems. He is even learning how to design tracks. I think this is ver impressive for a three year old. I will have to get a video of it.

Back on topic, I had hoped he had changed after our last argument. I told him in the heat of the moment that our home lacked order and that was why it was a shithole. He was not happy about what I said at the time but he must have been thinking about what I had said as the next day he seemed to be better.

I had hoped that he had learned that a well ordered and organized home should be constantly maintained...more wishful thinking on my part I think.

Now that I understand this I can make sure that I set out a plan to make sure that I do keep on top of the housework. This morning when the twins were at nursery and my eldest was at school, I cleaned the living room. I was able to have the TV and catch a show that I like to watch in the morning.

In the afternoon after my partner had got up (today is now his day off college) and he was either reading my Skaven book or on the computer I cleaned the kitchen.

If I can keep up this kind of motivation then I will be able to maintain a clean and organized home (well that is the plan anyway)

I know that once it gets to night time the last thing that I want to do is the housework, so that is why I need to make sure that I get it done during the day.

But I am really pleased with what I managed to do this morning. I just need to make sure that I keep up the good work.

May the force be with me.

Not feeling too good

I think I am coming down with something. I am not feeling too good. I was not feeling that good last night either. Though it did not help that I did not get a great sleep. Hopefully I will have better luck tonight.

Though it does not help that I've had to get up for the younglings during the night a lot recently. The boys have not been too bad but my daughter has been waking up a lot during the night.

Though last night I was lazy and I brought her through to bed with us earlier as I wanted to get some sleep and I did not have the energy to keep going through to her.

I do need to start eating better though. So maybe it is a combination of eating badly and not being too well.

My eldest son wrote out his Christmas cards today. The twins cannot write yet to I wrote them out for them but now he is learning to write he could write them out. I thought that it was impressive that he managed to write out fourteen cards. There was a list of the children in his class in his learning book, so I thought I would just get him to write a card for every other child in the class.

The Christmas decorations are up

No decorations this year I thought. I was not in the mood and I could not be bothered to do so.

Well it was that way until today when I changed my mind. I am glad that I did as the place looks braw now that they are up. It is also nice seeing the decorations that the younglings made (including some that my eldest made last year) I am also pleased with how I have set out the decorations. I think I have done things that I would not have done beforem but I think it works well for it.

The younglings helped me decorate the tree. It did not take long as it is only a wee tree, I am not bothered as I am not interested in having a big tree but it does look a little lost next to the television.

My partner has been to see WASP in Glasgow so I have had a night to myself. I must confess that I do like getting to spend nights on my own. I enjoyed watching a programme about Scottish history. My history education was very poor indeed, so I have to make up for lost time. It will help me teach the younglings about their history.

I did not realize how tough it was for Scotland in the past. It caused a lot of Scots to emigrate to Canada, America and Australia.

Home looking so much cleaner

As the landlord was coming around today with someone to look at the damp, both my partner and I were so busy making sure that the place was clean.

I cleared out the junk in the bedroom last night and this morning I hovered and made sure that it was clean.

The flat looks so much better now there is less mess and clutter. We really have to work hard to make sure that this is maintained. And of course we have to look through the shed to sort through the junk we dumped there.

I did mange to get time to go to the shop to get some pictures printed off for my brother for his Christmas present. I got pictures of the younglings printed off. I think they look really good. It was really easy to do. I think I will have to get some more pictures printed off.

The man came around mid afternoon to check the damp. He has checked it and will have to come back to check something else. My partner overheard the guy saying to the landlord that our home 'was like the other place but worse'

Hopefully we will able to get the damp problem sorted.

Some good news

The land lord came around today and told me that there will be someone coming around tomorrow to have a look at the damp. I am so pleased that someone is eventually coming around to hopefully get it sorted out.

There was the Christmas fair at the school today,I went along there when I collected my eldest from school. I left the twins at home as my partner was at home.

The twins made some Christmas decorations and so did my eldest. Sadly my eldest son's decorations were not labelled, so I just have to hope that the ones that he told me that he made was the one that he did make.

There was a few stalls there and face painting, but we could not stay for too long as not only did I have to get up to the shops but it was so busy.

The school had also made up a calendar for next year. They have put pictures of children on each month (well the ones that are born in that month) and of course it has the school holidays in it (which is very, very helpful)

Sickness in the house

On Sunday morning my eldest was sick. Thankfully after he was sick he has been fine since. I was glad as the day after he went on a school trip and I thought it would have been sad if he'd have had to have missed the trip.

Last night at nearly midnight my daughter stated crying. I knew instantly that it was not her normal cry and of course as soon as I went into the room I smelt the sick.

Thankfully she had not got any sick on her comfort blanket though.

I cleaned up the sick and got her settled off to sleep. I stayed up longer to make sure that she was not sick again like my eldest (He was sick less than two hours after the first time) but thankfully she has not been sick since and all of her bedding has now been washed. I doubt I will be able to get her duvet dry by tonight but at least I will be able to use a sleeping bag for her to use.

While I was waiting to see if she would be fine I made sure that I got the younglings clothes ready for the next day. That would mean I could sleep a little bit longer and be still be out get out on time.

But this morning my youngest son was sick so that meant that I decided that they all should have a day off (even though there was nothing wrong with my eldest I could not get him to school with the twins being off.

While it was nice not having to rush out to school and nursery, getting my cleaning jobs done has been challenging.

At least I have made good progress in the kitchen and I am working on cleaning my computer corner up.

Thankfully the younglings seem to be back to good health. They are eating food, drinking fluids and keeping them down. Hopefully it was just a bug that was cleared out just by being sick the once.

May the force be with my younglings and may the cleaning force be with me.

First photoshoot for my eldest

My eldest was photographed today by one of my friends.

He wanted to take some pictures of him so he could enter one of them for a photography competition. I thought it would be good for him and I am also interested in what pictures will be made from it.

I saw some of the pictures on the camera and there are some really nice pictures so far. My eldest behaved really well, and he lasted a long time before he would not sit still for long and had become tired of it.

The good thing also is that he said that when he gets them printed I will be able to go to the shop where he gets them printed and print off some pictures for my brother for Christmas. All he asked for was some pictures of the children. I have got some selected so all I have to do is get them printed.

That is the last time that...

I let my partner persuade me to have a longer lie in. He said to me last night that I could get up later as he was leaving later and he would get the younglings ready for school and nursery.

When I got up later my youngest son was still asleep and the other two were still eating their breakfast.

So I pretty much had to do what I normally do but rushing around more to make sure that we left one time. I did get some help from him though thankfully. He did dress them once I had sorted out the clothes.

My poor eldest had to go with a plastic bag as I could not find his school bag. We were on time but later than normal.

When I got home I noticed that I had missed my boots being delivered again. Thankfully I was able to see the postman and he phoned the guy and they were delivered eventually. Parcel force are pish as you cannot tell them to deliver in a certain time so of course they try to deliver when I am taking my younglings to school and nursery.

I am glad to get my new boots as I really need them.

It is pretty cold here. It is freezing at the moment. I love it when it is this cold. I have got hats and gloves for the younglings and myself. That has helped us a lot. Though bless my daughter her hands were still cold this morning.

I just wish I knew where my eldest's school bag was.

Happy St Andrews day

Today is St Andrews day.

I managed to make a kilt for my youngest in time for nursery this morning. One of the teachers kindly gave me some tartan so I could make a kilt for him. I am really pleased with how it looked and my youngest son liked wearing it as well.

They made flags and did some Scottish dancing.

My eldest is going into Edinburgh to have a visit to the museum. Hopefully he will have fun there. It will be a good place for him to learn about Scottish history.

I think it is great that something is done about St Andrews day in the schools.

I do not remember learning anything about St Georges day when I was going to school when I lived in England.

I have started learning more about Scottish history. I think it is important that I learn about Scottish history so I can help my younglings as well.

I think I will have to take them to some interesting places next summer. Now that they are getting older it should be easier. If I go somewhere on the train they will travel for free as well.

My eldest was sick in the night

My eldest and my daughter have taken to getting into bed with my partner and I during the night.. Usually at a point when I am too tired to send them bad or very close to the tie that we need to get up.

My eldest came through this morning and shortly after getting into bed he started coughing and was sick. His jumper caught it and the bed was safe. It was not so fortunate the next time.

Thankfully he has not been sick since so hopefully it was just something that was not sitting right and once it was out of his system he will be fine again.

He has eaten something this morning and my partner has taken the younglings to visit his mother so I will find out how he is when they get back.

So for now I am making the most of my child free time and spending some time reading one of the latest Star Wars books and getting some cleaning up done.

I have changed my mind about Christmas. I am not really looking forward to it. I have this fear that mum is going to get us doing too much. I just want to relax. Last year was the best as all we did was stay in and have a nice time. I restricted the chocolate so the younglings were not hyperactive we all have a lovely time.

I have a feeling that I will not be able to truly relax while I am away and while I will have a nice time I will only be able to properly relax once I am home again. I am also not looking forward to the train journey. I will need the force with me on those days.

Operation house clean

I am so, so fed up of the place being cluttered and messy that it has to change and something has to be done about it. I seem to be able to make good progress in getting it clean but I do not seem very good at maintaining it.

This will hopefully change.

Though I think I will be getting more help from my partner which will help.

We had an argument last night when I was trying to get things cleaned up before I went to bed. I was getting cranky due to being tired and the flat being so disorganized did not help things. I told him that the place had no order and that was why it was a shit-hole. He was not happy but I think he has time to think about what I have said and he has been very helpful this morning.

We really do have to get this sorted out though as we cannot live like this.

I was not happy to find mould on one of my daughters dressing up costumes. We are going to have to see the landlord about that. Another reason why we have to get the flat looking sparkling clean and free of clutter.

May the cleaning force be with me.

It is so nice to have heating again

The plumber came yesterday and fixed the radiator, so we now have heating again. It feels so, so good.

It took him a lot longer to fix than he had hoped and it cost £98 but it was worth it. The reason why it took so long was that there was two cracks in the pipe. He fixed the first one and when he was trying to get the heating to work water was pishing out of the pipe and across the floor.

I am glad that we do not have a carpet as it made wiping it up a lot easier. This was when he discovered the second crack at the floorboard level He told me that he did not have the right toll to get the floorboards and that I would have to wait till Thursday to get it fixed.

When I asked about what would happen if he used what he had already got, he just told me that it would not look too neat when he put it back. It did not take me long to decided that he should just go ahead with it anyway as I wanted the heating back as soon as possible.

He had to go away and when he got back he was able to get the job done in good time. He also bled all of the radiators after and left me a spare key so that we can do it as well (we did not have one)

The twins were good with him as well (they had to miss nursery for one day) they liked watching him but they did not pester him too much. My daughter was very sweet at one point. When he was working away she leaned over him and gave him a hug a couple of times and then after rubbed him back. It was so sweet to see her acting so affectionately.

Since getting the radiator fixed, the heating is working better than ever. This could have been one of the main reasons why the heating was having so many problems recently. But it is indeed so, so nice to be able to not only get the heating on without any problems but to also get hot water without any problems.

A rant about my home

I need to rant about my home.

I hate, hate, hate it. Not enough room, too much junk and too many problems.

The bad damp (bad for health but and there is mould forming on our possessions and clothes)
The broken radiator
The broken oven door
The kitchen that is falling apart
The broken doors The back door that will not open properly
The broken light in the kitchen
The broken light in the younglings
We only have one lamp which has to timeshare between lighting the kitchen and lighting the younglings room
The heating when working, does not work properly
The never ending mess (no matter how much I clean up it never gets clean and I have had enough)

I think that is it for now.

I took my daughter to the doctors today

My daughters fingers and toes have swollen in the past during the colder months. She has been taken to the hospital and tests have been done but they were not able to work out what was the matter.

Her toe had swollen recently and I just assumed it was that. But when the swelling did not go down and it was hurting her I took her to the doctors. The appointment was this morning. She must have hit it at some point badly. While there is still bruising the toe is thankfully not broken and the swelling is now going down. Hopefully it will be the start of her getting better now.

Her fingers and toes do not seem to then be reacting as badly to the colder weather than other years. Hopefully her sensitivity to the colder weather is getting better as she gets older. This is a good thing as I would like to move to Canada.

Thankfully as the doctor was on time I was able to take her to nursery after and I was able to go home and sit and have a cup of tea in peace before I had to collect them.

The afternoon was eventful. My sort of father in law came around to fix the radiator that had come off the wall. He did that without a problem and I thought that was the problem fixed.

It was until I came to wash the dishes later. The water was not working properly as it normally does (the landlord will not fix it) so I turned up the pressure like how he told us to do. The water worked for a short while before it cut out. It would not work again.

I was then called into the living room to find a pool of water coming from the radiator.

We have had to call out a plumber out to get it fixed as the heating will not work until it has been fixed. Hopefully it will not cost too much. Thankfully not only is it not that cold but we are not used to having the place over heated (My step daughter finds our home cold because her home is like a furnace)

A long time since I last updated

It has been a very long time since I last updated, so I thought that it was about time that I did so.

My eldest is now 5 and will be 6 next March. The twins are 3 and will be 4 in January.

My eldest son has started primary school and the twins are at nursery. I used to take the twins to Homestart on a Thursday has sadly come to an end due to funding problems but I did get a letter from them not too long ago asking how we are. I really must phone them on Monday to thank them for the letter.

It is still madness in our home but the good thing is that all of the younglings are in one room so my partner and I have got a bedroom back. We have to sleep in the living room twice a week when my step daughter stays over but that is not too bad. We are waiting to get a new home though. Hopefully we will not have to wait too long.

There is still damp in the flat and we have to work hard at keeping the damp spores under control for our health. My youngest son has been in hospital twice now due to breathing problems. That is in fact the main reason that I want to move. We could make the flat work for us by making sure that we do not have too muck stuff but the damp is what is really causing the problems. The landlord said he will get it fixed but he still has not done so.

If he has not done anything soon we are going to call out the environmental health. I have found that is not just our health that is being affected but our possessions. Our bedding is getting mould on it and some of my bags and clothes.

I must confess that I am glad that the twins are at nursery as it gives me some time in the morning in which I can get some housework done. It is not much but it is better than nothing. I am getting tired from the extra walking that I need to do but at least it will be keeping me fit.

The younglings are kind of sleeping better. My youngest son sleeps the best but it is not unusual to find my eldest and my daughter in bed with us in the morning. The good thing is that we are mostly getting uninterupted sleep.

My eldest is enjoying school and is getting on well and the twins are also enjoying nursery and getting on well.

Though my youngest son had taken up swearing. I have been guilty of using swear words from time to time but my partner was the worst. Thankfully after he started saying the f word we both became so much better. I managed to stop swearing totally and my partner only swears occasionally (hopefully to improve as well) but this has been enough to stop my son from swearing (hopefully it will continue)