If it goes up, then it must come down….

Life’s never boring with my two. They keep you constantly on your toes.
Inquisitive? You bet. It’s never ending. One little word. Why? It’s used a lot in our house.
With the 3 year old, it;s used for absolutely everything.
‘Mummy, why does my name look like that? Why is that toy over there? Why is the sky blue? Why has Mr Tumble got a spotty bag? (Cbeebies programme to the un-initiated.)
With the (then) 7 year old it gets a bit more complicated. The  questions are  still coming thick and fast, they’re just a bit more complex.
It all started out of the blue on the walk home from swimming.
“Why can’t we feel ourselves spinning round when the Earth is spinning?!’
Cue trying to explain to a 7 year old how we can’t actually feel the Earth spinning round because we are on the Earth spinning around at exactly the same speed so we can’t feel it going round – kind of like we can’t tell we are moving when flying on an aeroplane or in a fast car as we are part of it!
Then it moved onto gravity with him declaring “It would be great if there was no gravity, I could fly.’
Cue me explaining if there was no gravity he’d just take off into the sky and never come down. Gravity is what keeps us on the ground.
Which led to “but mummy if I sit on this wall here, gravity’s not pushing me down as my feet aren’t even on the floor!”
To which I had to explain that even though there was no feet touching the floor, the reason he was able to sit on the wall and stay there in the first place without floating off it was because he was being pushed down on!
Well, he keeps my brain ticking over and mind active. Beats the usual mummy brain usually up there!

(I’m currently in the process of transferring some posts from my ‘old’ blog    http://mistress-of-witterings.blog.co.uk/  and this is one of them. So if you think this post sounds familiar, you’ve read it over there.

Onwards and upwards with my new bigger blog…..)

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Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells…..

I love Christmas.  Presents, mulled wine, mince pies, friends and family and parties. No, I haven’t gone mad, I’m fully aware that it is still only August, but now September is upon us this week my thoughts have started to turn towards the festive season.

I never used to be this organised, and was one of those people you see a week or so before Christmas running around with a glazed look in my eyes, and sharpening my elbows ready to barge people out of the way to try and find whatever presents were left in the shops.

Now, two children later, money plays a large factor and even though I still leave everything to the last minute if given half a chance, a little bit of early preparation is needed.

It’s little things like stocking filler type presents . If I start buying things in September as and when I see them, it saves me rushing around trying to find nice things and grabbing the first things I see as there’s not much left and about a 100 other people all doing the same.

You’re also not spending an absolute fortune by not buying all your presents in one go at the end of December then wondering why you are completely broke and have no money left. Spreading it out is definitely the way to go.

I’m not quite organised enough yet to start buying in the January sales, and even if I did with the clutter that accumulates in this house they’d only be lost by the time December rolled again! (see previous blog post ‘It’s like shovelling snow in a blizzard…’)

Some shops take the whole ‘doing it early’ thing way too far though. Our local card shop has had a whole wall dedicated to Christmas greeting cards and wrapping paper since the beginning of August.

Can we at least have our summer holidays and enjoy whatever sunshine we can manage to grab in Britain before we are forced to think about all things festive?!

It all comes around way too quick as it is.

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Why I love Twitter….

I still get asked what I ‘see’ in Twitter by lots of people, so this post is to try and make them see how it can be so beneficial.

I never ‘got’ Twitter. When I first opened my account a couple of years ago, I never did anything with it as it just seemed so, well…..BORING.

What on earth was it all about?! Endless drones from what people who you’ve never met before are having for their tea/are doing today in the form of ‘status update’ type things such as Facebook? Where is the appeal in that?

Then I realised it is actually a lot more than that, and if you follow your interests it can be great.

Twitter is as interesting as you make it – to ‘open up’ your Twitter feed, get following as many people as you can with the same interests as yourself.

For example in the case of writers, it is exceptionally good. Once your Twitter is up and running, if you have a blog you can link it to Twitter to give your blog a whole new audience.

You can follow people in the writing industry, editors etc and be able to have conversations/comments with influential people who you would never normally have at your fingertips.

You can follow publications and publishing houses you may not have necessarily heard of before.

You can get job vacancies/media openings from places you would not have thought to look, and hear of writing opportunities and get great advice on writing.

You can get all the breaking news, sometimes before it has even hit mainstream media as Twitter is instant, and updating constantly – people can put local happenings onto Twitter before news crews have a chance to be there.

So don’t knock Twitter until you’ve tried it – it’s more than knowing your next door neighbour has had fish for tea, and if you’re a writer and not on it yet, what are you waiting for?!

 

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Listography – this week

It’s been a pretty non-eventful week in our household, so this week’s listography theme ‘Last week’ has taken some thinking about! http://katetakes5.blogspot.com/

We’re almost at the end of the summer holidays here, so the endless having to keep the 7 year old constantly entertained will cease as school will keep him occupied (it’s been a case of the minute he stops doing something to ‘say what do I do next? I’m bored!) which he says ALL. THE. BLOODY. TIME.

1)

First thing on the list this week was a visit to the good old British seaside.

Armed with buckets and spades me and the 7yr old decided to not just make any old sandcastle, but four sandcastles with turrets, all connected with walls, and a moat running round it. All the time constantly trying to ‘shoo’ the four year old away from it as his favourite game at the beach is pretending to fall over and land on your sandcastle squashing it flat.

It is funny when he does it with a loud pretend sneeze – ‘ACHOO!’ Oh dear, the sneeze was so loud it made me fall onto your sandcastle!’ but not when you’re trying to be clever and build the sandcastle equivalent of Buckingham Palace!

2)We’ve also had the 7 year old’s birthday party this week, as we did it a week early due to it being Bank Holiday weekend this week and would have been a nightmare trying to book anywhere.

He opted for a ten pin bowling party with some friends from school, and a great time was had by all. Well, apart from when the 4 year old won the game (he’s very competitive.)

3) I finally got some ‘me time’ this week and yesterday me and the husband took ourselves off to the cinema to watch the final Harry Potter movie. Something I’ve been wanting to watch for ages but never had the babysitters to do! Thanks, mother in law.

Now looking forward to it coming out on dvd so that I can add it to the collection and we’ll have them all!

4) I’ve also been attempting to tidy up the house and sort things out (see previous blog post, it’s like shovelling snow in a blizzard….’ it really isn’t easy when you’ve got a hoarding husband and toys lying all over to break your neck on!

5) I’ve also been on Twitter a lot (nothing new there) trying to promote my blog and general posting, commenting and blog reading. So if you’re on Twitter, follow me and I’ll ‘see’ you over there!

Now just got to think of some things to do with the last week of the summer holidays before they go back to school!

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It’s like shovelling snow in a blizzard….

With two young children, and a husband who has a complete aversion to throwing ANYTHING out, tidying up in this house is like trying to shovel snow off your drive in the middle of a blizzard.

I have to battle with things like ‘Keep all them empty cans of Coke. I might need them to make a tin can necklace/build a spaceship/etc etc.

Trying to get the kids to keep their room tidy is also fun. I get ‘I LIKE them all in the middle of the floor. They don’t like being in the toybox.”

Despite a perfectly good bedroom to play in, jigsaws migrate downstairs despite being told to keep them in their room, then the next thing you know you’re getting  jabbed up the butt with a stray Peppa Pig jigsaw piece when you try to sit down.

Then there’s the fact that we have 85 of everything, such as kitchen implements. Sorting through the kitchen drawers on any given day will yield 3 cheese graters (I mean WHY? How many blocks of cheese are we going to be grating all at the same time?!) .

Then there’s the wardrobes. I’m guilty of this one as well. I’ve got a few skirts and dresses from when I was about 18 and haven’t got a chance in hell of ever fitting into again, so why keep them?!

Maybe to serve as an incentive to fit back into them again?! Well it hasn’t worked yet, but you never know it might do one day!

I feel a wield of the black bin bag coming on. Just don’t tell the other half or the kids. Any moaning and all three of them might end up in the bin themselves.

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Tickets please! take your seats now…

I’ve always loved going to the cinema. Have you seen how much it costs nowadays though? Especially when most films now are in 3D and cost upwards of £9 a ticket.

When you’ve got two kids and then the adults to pay in, it adds up to a ridiculous amount, especially when you all want popcorn as well!

So what we’ve started to do is have a ‘cinema night’ at home. During the day, the 7 year old is in charge of making the ‘tickets’.

Pieces of coloured card and pens work well for this. On it he’ll write the name of the film we’re watching, ‘seat number’ and the time the film starts, and then will cut the tickets out when finished.

So, when it’s time for the film to start, he’ll hand out the ‘ticket’s for the film and we then take our seats.

Don’t forget to close the curtains and turn the lights off for the full cinema experience.

You’ll need popcorn as well. Great fun can be had making popcorn, they love to hear it all popping all over the place in the pan! Healthier than the shop bought stuff as well (although we’ve cheated tonight and bought shop bought toffee flavoured popcorn.) Yum.

The film for tonight is ‘Finding Nemo.’

Any family friendly suggestions for next week ?! All suggestions welcome!

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Guilty Pleasures

I couldn’t resist joining in with  this week’s Listography over on    http://katetakes5.blogspot.com

as guilty pleasures are a speciality of mine! You know, the kind of thing you know you really SHOULDN’T like, but you do.

I could write a book on mine.

So here goes:

FRIENDS repeats

Yes, yes I know. It ended several years ago, but someone seems to have neglected to tell the TV networks that. Channel 4 double bill in the mornings, E4 never ending repeats. I’ve seen them all that many times I practically know them all word by word.

However it’s strangely comforting to know that whatever dross is currently showing on telly, there’ll always be a Friends repeat on somewhere out there, whatever the time of day.

Nothing to watch?  Flick over to watch Joey ‘How u doin?!’, or Ross and Rachel “WE WERE ON A BREAK!”

Still funny and easy to watch even after seeing for the 855,000th time!

I read somewhere that E4 are threatening to pull the plug on all the Friends repeats. Noooo. Then what will I watch?!

Cheesy music

If anyone asks, I like cool music, right?! I do like some bands that I can admit to, and that I hopefully won’t get ridiculed for. I love Green Day, Bon Jovi, and like Metallica.

Just don’t tell anyone that I love anything cheesy. Stick me in the middle of a Reflex nightclub with all the 80′s cheese songs on and stick a vodka in my hand, I’ll be in my element singing along to all the songs.

Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, yes, even Wham! Bit of ‘Club Tropicana’ or ‘I’m Your Man’ drunken loud singing,  basically anything cheesy and that’s me sorted.

Even the 90′s cheesy songs don’t get past my cheese enjoyment radar. Bit of Chesney Hawkes?! Ok maybe that’s pushing it but I’ll still be there singing and knowing all the words! Oh the shame.

Magazines and newspapers

Now, if I could curb my magazine and newspaper habit, I’d have a lot more spare cash. Heat, Closer,and Reveal for the latest wannabe celeb gossip, That’s Life, Take A Break, Full House, Pick Me Up for the real life stories/stories to make you realise hey you might feel a bit crap at the moment, but at least you aren’t as bad as some of the people featured in there!

Sci-fi programmes

I’m a bit of a geek, it has to be said. I own all the Quantum Leap boxset dvd’s, and am a big Red Dwarf fan.

So got a bit excited when I heard there is a new series in the offing. Would also secretly love to go to the Red Dwarf Dimension Jump convention. (Well not so secretly now.) Maybe next year.

Snape and Lucius Malfoy

Yes, they’re old. Yes, they’re very naughty Death Eater type people and like shouting ‘avada kedavra’ at people and everything. But I so would.

Ok that’s my guilty list, please don’t judge me too much for it.

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Welcome!

This is just a quick welcome to my new blog, as I am on the move from over here:

mistress-of-witterings

I like to write, and blog about my opinions, day to day life with two young children, and blog about everything in between as well.

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