Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

The Vyne, Basingstoke It's been oh so quiet this week as the entire family apart from me has been on fun trips while I held the fort (note from Izzy - "why do you always start your blog so weirdly - who even says 'oh so quiet?' anyway?!"). Glenn disappeared early on Sunday morning with George for a week in the Alps cycling, then I had to drop Abi off at 5am on Monday, also to go to France, with Izzy following at a much more sociable 8am to have half a day in school before going to the PGL camp at Swindon.  So one by one they disappeared and the house got quieter and quieter (and tidier and tidier!) - bliss, or not... In my imagination this week was going to be wall to wall sunshine and I was planning on working from home with the doors thrown open and lots of catching up on things I've had on my work to-do list for a while. I had booked some extra yoga classes in the evenings, a sports massage and the week would pass in a flash. In truth the house felt v...

Puppy Love #1 This weekend, like many others, has been a case of 'spot the child'. I occasionally wonder whether I should want them spending all their time here with one of their friends, rather than at their friend's houses, but actually in truth that would probably drive us mad and so I'm happy in the knowledge that they are having fun, safe, and this is a normal part of growing up. I certainly don't want or need to be one of those parents that wants them tied to my apron strings (what apron you might say) 24 hours a day! I remember wanting to spend all of my weekends at my friend Charlie's house and couldn't understand why Mum and Dad sometimes said no - now I realise they might have wanted to see me sometimes. The selfishness of being a child - at that age you have no concept of the fact that other people might have feelings as well. As ever Abi was at Mia's - the two of them are joined at the hip. Abi went straight from school on Friday and fi...

Izzy and Grace looking too grown up! As ever half term has passed in a flash and on the one day I took off to be with the family literally no-one was around - perfectly planned or complete fail?! I will freely admit that the idea of a few hours to myself to potter around, safe in the knowledge that the family are all off doing something that makes them happy, is my idea of heaven. Abi in particular has been nowhere to be seen. She was home to start with last weekend, but then stayed down with Amanda after we went visiting last Sunday, came back on Wednesday before heading out on Thursday to go riding at Angie's, from which she only got home this afternoon. Even on the evening she was at home she slept in her shed! I've had to work most of the week so it didn't really make a huge amount of difference to me but I do miss having her around for a quick huggle every so often. Izzy on the other hand made the most of being the only child and has been using us more as a pit...

It's the little things that are still so special. This weekend was a  bank holiday (yipee!) and having had no plans to speak of we seem to have filled it from beginning to end with no problem at all. On Saturday we decided at short notice that the impending visit of Chris and Jess with baby Albie was too good to miss and so we decided that all of us (not Glenn of course, babies are not really his thing) would head down to Somerset for the day on Sunday to see pretty much the entire family. The deal was that if the kids got up early and we were away by 8am, I would relent my normal hard rule on junk food outlets (as opposed to junk food of which we have our fair share in reality). As if by magic Abi was up at 7am and Izzy at 7:15, the guinea pigs were fed and cleaned out in record time and we were in the car and on the road by 8:05am. Amazing! We drove to Andover and went to the MacDonalds Drive Thru (doubly special - MacDonalds and a Drive Thru - all their dreams come true!!) w...

What to say when I only wrote last week's blog yesterday and I'm on constant catch up with myself! This weekend has been one of juts trying not to do too much. Yesterday was supposed to be a school open morning but somehow the kids managed to persuade Glenn that they didn't need to go (how?!) - apparently he thinks they've been so good recently that they should have a treat and this was it. I guess it's healthier than chocolate or sweets. In fact I think it is more that he definitely doesn't believe in school on a Saturday, not least as its yet another day to have to get them up, breakfasted and out of the door earlier than they would like. In actual fact Abi was up early as ever - she has been brilliant with the guinea pigs since we got them and never complains about getting up and getting their breakfast sorted. Thank goodness we didn't insist on them being Izzy's as we got them around her birthday - if we had they would absolutely have been abando...

This has taken over a week from posting the photo into the template to actually finding time to write some words... that just about sums up life at the moment. I knew it would be mad for at least 6 months when i took on the challenge of starting a new job, and it certainly is. At least my brain has stopped hurting for the most part and I'm working out priorities. What I love about my new role is that I have quite o a lot of flexibility to do what I want to do. In a company as lean as ours, chances are if you spot something that needs doing in your area of focus, it's unlikely anyone else is getting after it and so you have a clean run at things. the downside is that means just a lot of stuff goes by the wayside! The key is not to worry about the things you can't fix - that way lies madness. At least I've finally learnt that lesson! Last weekend was one of the kids being busy doing their sporty things, with Abi heading out the door on Friday evening to go to Angie...

It's bank holiday again and this time it's bloody freezing - a far cry from the Easter weekend - how a few weeks can change things! The weather looks lovely from inside, bright and sunny, then you get outside and its like winter. I've put the heating back on - not good! It also means I've done hardly anything in the garden, although Larry the Lawnmower means it's looking great regardless.  The weekend is a bit overshadowed by the fact that I have to fly to the US tomorrow for work which is a bit of a pain. I'm off to Miami this time, somewhere I've never been, so I'm hoping that I might manage to get a hour or two to actually look around. The hotel is not a millions miles from the beach so I might even get to dip my toes in the water, you never know. In the meantime the kids have got an extra day off school and so Glenn has to make sure they are kept amused for the day. In reality this means one of two things. Either they will spend the day with...