Albino Stoat

-12* with windchill and boy did it feel like it. The wind was really cutting.

Huffle went off to the office today. The boys went to school on the bus. Moo and I went to aerobics. Lots of silliness and fun today and two beautiful presents. A lovely star tree ornament from ExerciseNic and a homemade knitting in a bauble from K1. Today I changed My weights to 7lbs and I think I might notice tomorrow.

We came home and showered and went immediately out to meet up with Suffolk and have lunch where my toast got caught on my sleeve and jumped off my pate and onto the floor. More silliness, chatting and laughter and then she left us to go to school and Moo and I went and did a little Costco shop and a Homesense shop where we picked up a few presents.

Back home we divided up meat for the freezer, made dinner for all the boys and cleaned the kitchen.

Smallest and Huffle went to football practice this evening leaving Small playing on his tablet and Moo and I played Table Tennis, folded washing and sorted the pantry. Huffle has now caught seven mice which is what is supposed to be a whole family, so we have now moved everything out of the boxes and back on to the shelves. It makes finding things much easier. I hope the mice don't come back!!!!!

On the way home Huffle nearly ran over an albino stoat.

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Robinson Family Crusoe

Today the bus was running so the kids went to school. Their day was mainly filled with practicing for the School concert.

Huffle worked in Small's room this morning as Moo and I were babysitting LittleFin for a couple of hours while ClownRose had an interview at the local Daycare. I had forgotten how tiring a little one is. Bearing in mind it wasn't his house and our house is full of dangers, stairs, glass table, precious things......... Moo and I followed him around as he slid, fell, stumbled around, banging into things, knocking stuff over. He was very funny and he was mainly fine and happy. He kept shouting mama as if she was hiding and when I went upstairs he panicked a little but when I upset him by stopping him from doing something he decided Moo was his best friend. ClownRose also said that he slept well when she got him home.

Moo and I went for a food shop when they left after a cup of tea. The worst time to shop here is between 11:30am and 4pm. It gets so busy. That's why I normally shop early morning. We decided (well I did, Moo warned me....) to use the self scan which took far too long. TAKE THE ITEM OUT OF THE BAG. PLEASE WAIT FOR AN ASSISTANT. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH

Eventually we got home, put the shopping away and had lunch with Huffle while we watched the end of a Grand Designs we started a while ago. At 2pm we went to the hospital for my mammogram appointment. I haven't had one before so didn't radially know what to expect. The lady who did it was lovely and despite my gown having a knot in it that neither of us could undo, the whole thing went swimmingly and was very quick. So quick in fact that Moo didn't have time to read the waiting room magazines and was very disappointed.

We got home just in time for a walk and decided to pop by MrsWales as Moo had brought her daughter some chocolate penguins. They invited us in and we had a lovely cup of tea (ahh the Britsh know how to make a good cuppa) and we had a nice chat. We both share the same views on kids not going to school on Snow Days (ie we normally send ours and no-one else does) so she was very surprised to find out I hadn't sent mine in yesterday but when I explained, she understood. Funny, because both of her girls, though in different years, are in the same classes as the boys and neither of them said they weren't there yesterday. She was very happy with the penguins.

We walked home and made a start on dinner. The kids were already home. After dinner, we took the boys to school for their concert and found ourselves seats in the quickly filling up gym. It was full to capacity and beyond and very very warm. I thought I was going faint and had to have Moos water. It was a very long concert. Small's band played an out of tune Let it Snow and then a much better African Noel. There were lots of other songs and a play and some MC'ing by two girls before the Kindergartens came on and stole the show with a story about a snowball they wanted to keep as a pet in their bed but it ran away but not before it wet the bed. Very cute. Smallests class sang about five songs throughout and we couldn't really see him at all. Small's class did some body percussion which was very good and we could see him. There were lots of videos of people heads, babies crying and people trying to get out of the hall because their child had finished. Huffle wants to charge for tickets to stop it being too full and to stop people videoing and taking photos but to make a professional video and photos that people could buy (not too expensive though). Lots of Mums were standing up and trying to get their kid to wave. Silly!! Our boys did well and so did the rest of the school but I'm glad it's over for another year.

This was my view of Small and his Tuba. (Well not him really, just the Tuba).

Small is in top and middle and Smallest is somewhere in the bottom one!

Back home we watched TV before bed and had a cheeky Baileys on Ice.

A rare moment of niceness before bed

 

 

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Snow Moo Day

It seems that I have become the local School Bus Cancellation Notification Service, as while I was getting the boys lunches ready, I had a text from my hairdresser (whose kids go to our school and on a school bus) asking if the bus was cancelled (I just look on the website.....) and when I text ClownRose to tell her the bus was cancelled, she didn't know either. I digress, the reason for the cancellation was the foot of snow which was dumped on us overnight. Our road wasn't ploughed and our cars were well stuck on the drive.

As Small had a hospital appointment first thing, Huffle decided to clear the drive to help me get out. Smallest couldn't then be walked to school like we normally do when the bus cancels because I was taking Small for his appointment. I looked at Smallest and said "what do you think?" "Do you want to stay home today". All innocently he said 'but I'm not poorly!' Bless him. The kids thought about it for a while. Not many kids would be there today as lots stay at home on a snow day. If not many kids were there, they would probably just be watching films. We decided to let them stay and Smallest helped Huffle clear the snow.

Small and I drove to the hospital. Our road was awful and we were skidding but the main road and everywhere on the way was fine. Our appointment was for 9:10am and we got in around 9:30am. Today's appointment was for the bump on the bottom of Small's foot. Last time we came, the surgeon said he didn't want to cut it out unless it got worse. It's not cancerous, it's not growing, it doesn't hurt. He said to leave it alone and to come back if anything changed. We have the chance to go back to him within a year otherwise we go back to our family doctor. We were back home before 10am. On the way I called the school to check if I had to let them know the kids weren't coming in. The system works like this: if the child is on a school bus and the bus is cancelled then they don't get a reported absence but if they are not on the bus and don't turn up, they do. So mine were fine. She told us to have a nice day and enjoy ourselves. Imagine doing that in the UK!!!

Huffle was still hard at work clearing the drive. Smallest was busy jigsawing. Otto was standing outside waiting for the bus (he should subscribe to my text service). The kids helped me around the house and went on their tablets and Smallest and I played a few games of Stack em up.

After lunch where we all watched some of The Grand Tour (top gear new) the boys played table tennis and had a light sabre battle.

At 2pm we went to the airport and left Huffle working in the loft. The journey there was okay, no problems. We parked and arrived and I had just placed Smallest at the front of the barrier when Moo walked through. She didn't notice the boys at all until I pointed them out. The journey home was pretty good too and we were home by 4pm. That's excellent. Moo had an 'incident' on the plane where she fainted in the cabin crews' station. Silly Moo. The woman who sat next to her was Russian and didn't speak English but proceeded to get a blood pressure kit out of her bag and put it on Moo. All was well.

Back home she emptied her bags and although she said she wasn't bringing any goodies with her this time, we ended up with a huge stash. Well it IS Christmas.

We had dinner and sat and watched a bit more of The Grand Tour until Smallest went off to Cubs. We told him to take his snow pants in case he was rolling around hand in the snow but the silly bum left them in the car and came home half frozen with wet legs, feet and boots. Moo warmed him before bed and Small and I did some Rubiks Cubing. I am teaching him how to do it bit by bit.

Smallest went to bed and we watched a bit of Oceans 13 until Small went to bed, quickly followed by Moo who has been up since 5am UK time (midnight here). No wonder she was tired.

 

 

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Bulkheads in the basement

Another night of not sleeping for me but Huffle slept all through the night. Smallest had an horrendous nose bleed when he went to bed last night. Blood everywhere and it went on for much longer than normal. I wonder if it's going from cold outside to warm inside. I might take him to the doctors as I want them to look at his shins too which look to me like he has eczema. Huffle has now had two days of no twitching. He has been very good and had lots of fresh fruit and veg, taking his potassium tablets and cutting out fizzy drinks. Fingers crossed that's the end of it.

We started our day with a FaceTime from Moo who was packing her case (naughty Moo, talk about leaving it to the last minute!!) and panicking about what to bring. The boys sorted her out but they forgot to mention all the goodies they wanted. Oh well too late now.

After breakfast, Huffle Facetimed Grandma and Grandad to listen while the boys practiced their piano pieces for later today.

It carried on snowing all day, just a tiny fluttering to start with but much later it accumulated and covered everything. The forecast said we were going to get up to 12-20cm (eeeeeek I have to get to the hospital in the morning and the airport in the afternoon).

Obligatory ice on windows shots

Such amazing patterns

We had a quick lunch and then went off to the recital. MrsPiano has recently had her basement redone and we benefitted from a roaring fire, Christmas decorations, punch, hot apple cider (with butterscotch schnapps added for some), fresh fruit, cakes and cookies. There were seven kids playing in all. I think they played from youngest to oldest. Our two kids were last and their hard work paid off. They played brilliantly. In fact all of them played well. We finished with refreshments and lots of chatter. Huffle and I were very inwardly entertained by today's recital. MrPiano was asked how much work had been done new basement. His reply was "......errr yes, we did errrr.....yes, there was a bulkhead.........yes, errrrrr, well........yes". We have no idea but it looked nice. One of the Mum's was very loud and when I asked if my drink was alcoholic she said "but it doesn't make you an alcoholic!!!!!" Her daughter was named after a South Western County next to Cornwall!!!! There was much more which we discussed and laughed about later in the privacy of our own home.

Very proud of our talented pianists

Tonight was a cub/scout 'activity'. Smallest was supposed to be handing out candy canes to the pensioners eating a turkey dinner at the Legion and Small was supposed to be clearing up after the said dinner. Neither of them went. We gave them a night off for their excellent Recital performance though I'm not sure the Leader was impressed. We are not impressed that it is classed as an 'activity' so there you go!!!

Instead we sat and played with the rubicks cubes (now we can do the 2x2x2 one too) and I tried to teach the kids. Smallest made a paper chain for his room and we put some Christmas decorations up. Our main outside lights have a group in the middle that don't work and we can't work out why. The bulbs are really difficult to take out and check.

This evening we watched the final of Xfactor. Bloomin' rubbish. Obviously fixed, not that we wanted either of them to win. Small decided that from now on we will only watch the auditions as that is teh best part. Huffle and I have been doing that for years as we hate the love shows. All the judges do is get drunk!!! Not entertaining.

 

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MUMMY!!!!!!*

Huffle and I slept better last night and it was nice to lie-in this morning.

After breakfast, all the boys watched the Stoke game and sorted washing while I got Moo's room ready (she is here on Monday) and moved some Christmas presents out of prying eyes (Moo's mainly).

Suffolk and Miss9 came and picked up the cake and gave us a Rubik's cube that they no longer wanted. Suffice to say I spent the rest of the day trying to solve it. Eventually I used a website and after two hours, finally did it. Now we need to solve Small's 2x2x2 which is supposed to be the same but easier.

Midday we went out to Smallest's football game. Today they won 7-0. Smallest almost got a goal today. The team played brilliantly and deserved the win and the clean sheet AGAIN.

After the game we came home briefly, let Smallest get showered and then we went out to buy snow pants for the boys in the sale. We did well and we then went off to get some dinner at our favourite Italian place. We got there too early so played about with Snapchat again. It was very funny. (Thanks MrsRumbleskins for getting us into it properly but sorry MrRumbleskins for sending you so many).

We had a lovely dinner and a game of Deal Monopoly and came home with our bellies full.

We watched the XFactor final tonight and Huffle thought he heard that Hovis was singing with saaaaaraaaaa. We sat waiting for a loaf of bread to come on stage, but unfortunately it was some camp fella from America. What a disappointment.

*in the car, I opened the window to take a snapchat video of the snow, not realising it was flying through the window into Small's face. My video was of our road full of snow and Small shouting "why is the snow.......Mummy? MUMMY!!!"

The boys practiced piano (Recital is tomorrow), we did rubicks cubing, watching TV and bed. We have some serious snow on the way. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

 

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Why isn't the tree lit?*

Huffle and I are not sleeping well at the moment. We go to sleep easily enough but we wake up some time during the night and then stay awake for far too long! Both of us have stuff on our mind, possibly mindless, useless rubbish, but still enough to stop us sleeping. We are soooo very tired.

Huffle went off to work for a meeting, but not before the kids had cleared his windscreen for him as it had snowed overnight again. We didn't get too much snow, just a decent covering. It was cold though and we had more snow later.

The road to knitting

I went to knitting but didn't do an awful lot except for drink coffee and chat. Suffolk and I went for lunch afterwards and then a quick shop, before I went off to buy cake supplies.

I arrived home at the same time as Huffle. Today he had a meeting with his new boss who has given him a new role and he is now responsible for three people. He is happy but did ask if a pay-rise was included. Apparently the answer was "wait until April and we'll see". BOOOOOO.

I went for a walk with ClownRose. She wasn't happy either so we had a very quiet walk (for us anyway). Even littlFin went to sleep. It was nice to get some air even though it was very icy air.

Our unploughed path (sidewalk)

Snowy silo field

The boys came home and I made a soup for Small and I as I had made a stew in the slow cooker this morning for the other two (Small hates stew). Our soup was butternut, carrot, lentils, potatoes and garlic. It was yummy. We had it with my dumplings which are more like scones as I don't use suet.

Piano practice was done while I made Miss9's (Suffolks youngest) birthday cake. She requested a Snoopy one. I had lots of ideas but none of them seemed to work so I gave up and ended up with a chocolate round sandwich cake with choc fudge buttercream and then placed Snoopy, my third attempt at Woodstock and Linus. Unfortunately they started to fall apart and ended up being stuck with cocktails sticks, which I found out today were called toothpicks, not cocktail sticks. I must remember to tell Suffolk, we don't want someone eating the sticks! Originally the cake was supposed to be a snowy scene with Snoopy on his kennel but the snow was too creamy coloured and not white enough. I hope she'll like it. Suffolk is picking it up tomorrow for Miss9's birthday. While I was attaching the mixing blades to my hand mixer, I got my finger caught and it started. It was very painful. DO NOT STICK YOUR FINGER IN A MIXER WHEN IT IS ON!!!! It is bruised and hurts but it's not broken. Silly girl! I am always so careful when the boys are anywhere near the mixer too. Good job it wasn't my big mixer, else I would have lost a finger I think.

This evening was the Tree Lighting in the Hamlet so we all wrapped up warm and walked down to the centre of the village. We had hot chocolate (too sweet, always too sweet here), a candy cane and a biscuit (cookie) and then later we were handed a homemade cookie that the Cubs had made. The tree was lit, the Cubs, Scouts and Brownies were gathered and then they sang, accompanied by 'MrBlowongInTheWind'. StinkyAlanFartridge came to get Small but I said "he's not singing". When he questioned it Huffle said "he will sing right here instead". Small had said he didn't want to sing with them so we said fair enough. When they start to put on activities for the Scouts, then he might come and sing for them (though he probably won't). Smallest just opened and closed his mouth, didn't sing, didn't even try to look like he was singing, naughty bear! *"why isn't the tree lit" were my words as we arrived, despite the fact we were there for the tree lightening DOH!!!

It snowed while the singing continued which was nice. There was a big turnout and as usual we just stood on the edge, not really talking to anyone. We are so antisocial. We walked home and got warm. I finished the cake and Huffle cleared away and added the obligatory oooohs and ahhhs when needed.

We finally sat down after 9pm when both boys were in bed and watched the silliness that is Celebrity Juice Christmas Special.

 

 

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Did you find sticks?*

Today has been the coldest day of Winter so far. -8* and a chilling wind. So why then did I decide that today was the day to go foraging for greenery for the outside urns? Afte the boys went to school and I had my breakfast, I dressed for the cold and went down the to bottom of our garden and further, down past next door's bit of land and into Small's friends foresty part. He there are hundreds of lovely red dogwood. I cut lots of pieces and then cut some of the green off the trees, different pines and cedar and even found some red berries. I knew I wanted some yellowy orange berries sompopped to MrsRoyals as I knew she had some bittersweet growing. Then I went and cut some sumac flowers from the trees down the road.

By now it was around 11am so went to TheRoyals, got warm and had a cup of coffee, a biscuit and a long chat. By the time I got home, it was midday and I was cold again. I stuffed what I could in the urns which was difficult because they were starting to freeze up. I made a fair job, it's certainly full and a bit Christmassy looking. Huffle had brought up some of the outside decorations and I placed the Christmas Doormat and door wreath and stuck some baubles in the urns too.

Huffle and I had lunch together and watched the rest of a Grand Designs we started a day or two ago. I left him working and went off to work where I briefly saw Jeff, met some new people who live in the Hamlet near us and picked up my body warmer. I also picked some more bittersweet and then headed over to Angels house to drop off some greenery and have a cup of tea while cuddling the baby.

I got home around 3pm, just in time for a walk with ClownRose and some cutting of more sumac. We had a good walk and I delivered my sumac to MrsRoyal before the kids got home. My sumac went into one of our containers.

Small had homework. Smallest had got an A in a French Test. Both practiced piano and cleared and set the table for me before playing on their tablets.

After dinner, Huffle took Small to his football and Smallest and I made a Woodstock for the cake, jigsawed and watched Grizzly Adams.

* did you find sticks? Was a question I was asked while I was carrying back a bag full of sumacs. I had put the flower heads into my bag and the stick ends were poking up. Yes I found sticks!!!!

Well done to HB for getting her new job.

Happy Birthday MadameCourvoisier.

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