Skywatch Friday - Ancient Skies

Well not ancient but pretty old - just checked back and I haven't done a Skywatch for 5 months (OK haven't done much of anything since last summer). So to bring my world back to date, here's some skies from the last few months that I've been hoarding.....

Back in the Autumn we went for a training day at (according to Anya) the hallowed Villa Park, home of (according to Anya) the mighty Aston Villa.

Child misery after being told the footballers
were too far away to get autographs

Child happiness after
hurdling seats to get Ashley
  Young to sign their tops

We went for plenty of walks before the cold set in....

This year was the first fireworks night without tears,
another undeniable sign of big kids!

November 27th was the start of the big freeze, the earliest snow that I can remember. It was -14 every morning for weeks. The frosts made tinsel from spider webs and branches, looked pretty but felt very very cold!

The snow very nearly made me miss out on a flying visit to see the German markets of Frankfurt and have a girlie shopping, glug drinking, childfree weekend.

We managed to fit in plenty of sledging (note for next year - avoid wire fences!)

The lighting made for great photos:

Washed out 'Vantage Photography' style shot

The boy and his sledge

Now that wasn't so bad - maybe I'll be back next week?!  In the meantime wander over the Skywatch Friday to see lots more very modern skies....

Better together?

Like all siblings my children have their spats, they rough and tumble, they have been known to have a bit of a kick out at each other and there is definitely some teasing and name calling going on. If they did this to other children I would be called into school on a regular basis, and rightly so, but is this wrong when it happens at home?

A study on family life by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex indicates the fewer siblings children have, the happier they are. The report says that one of the reasons only-children appear more confident and content is they do not have to deal with ‘sibling bullying’, with almost a third of those with siblings saying they are regularly hit or shoved by a brother or sister.  Many children with siblings also complained of their belongings being stolen and being called ‘nasty names’ by a brother or sister.

This is just so sad - The family is a loud, mad place to live. Siblings relationships are really special - you can hate each other one minute but unite against the world the next.  I know that I might tease my little sisters (and often did do) but no-one else dare be nasty to them - or else!

Households with a single child now outnumber those with two by more than half a million in the UK, making up 46 per cent of all families. It will be interesting to see how all these children grow up.  Yes - they can be monsters but my children bump along alright, they understand about compromise, other people's feelings and taking turns (although the negotiations may be loud and furious). In some ways the teasing and fighting at home is a safe dress rehearsal for real life. But it's probably up to me to balance the relationships so that the home doesn't turn into a war zone.
: 

Shhh - it's a secret

Kids self portraits for a surprise in about 6ish weeks. Love Euan's happy face - I think he's given himself cheeks?

Attempt two - note Euan's ears. Patch took a bit of cut and pasting after a nasty nose disaster.

Dragging myself into the present tense

I've been clicking in and out of this post for weeks - I'm really struggling to put down anything about my life, it's not so much that there aren't funny, happy, positive things to write (although daily life does seem to have been grinding me down recently - the unending groundhog-dayness of school/work/tea/household chores/bed cycle) more that I don't really know why I do this blogthing and who reads it?

I started it so that the grandparents (both sets live too far away to be a daily part of life)  could get a flavour of what we're all up to, but I'm pretty sure than neither set has clicked onto here for a very long time (may be I'll be surprised and they'll leave a comment - no prompting ba bags!).

I had a little wobble over wanting to get as many followers as possible for a bit and got upset when people disappeared.  I took part in a few memes to up my visitor stats - I put one of those ticker things on the bottom to track who read my mutterings - it became a popularity contest that I could do without.  I'm long since over the wobble and although it's nice to notice that someone has spent a minute of their life being here, it isn't an obsession.

So what is the point?  I found that this blogthing is a fantastic way of recording family history, pretty pictures, funny things, who's doing what and silly little everyday type details that will disappear down the back of the sofa if not stored somewhere special. It's nice to time travel and see where the Overtiredfamily were at any point in the history of here.  So it hit me that really I'm just doing this for me, but may be one day the smaller members might like to time travel themselves (leave me a comment if you've come back from the future - and if I didn't tell you today "I love you more xo!")

So after a mammoth wittering I need a mega catch as I haven't really done any packing away of memories for ages - I have far too many photos on my camera to down load and sort so that's a job for the next post (apart from the clever one above - see what I did there?) but for a wordy type catch-up:

• we went to the Cambridge Festival via Suffolk in a campervan
• GG came to stay and Patch went on two wheels while she was here (made both their days)
• we had another damp cold summer relieved by an amazing
• 10 days in Cambrils, Spain with hot days, balmy nights, great company, happy children, lushious limes from the tree and too much gin
• we celebrated the baby Jacob's christening
• Tim coped better than I did while I went on a four day course in Bristol
• we went to Aston Villa and Anya got her shirt signed by Ashley Young
• saw our first 3D film (since the days of one blue lens, on red lens)
• have lived with a toy story obsessed growing boy (in the words of the other two - not again!)
• coped with two lots of fireworks with out anyone (including dog) crying - a major development.
• Tim got a camera for his birthday and has become the new family photographer
• lots of other fabulous stuff that will come to me once I press the publish post button....

And so to the old regular bits...Quotes of the summer - in the car after Tim had a moan at us. Patch - "I think you should find a new husband and take me with you", me - "What about Anya and Euan?", Patch - "Anya can come but leave Euan because he's a pain".  Have been on the look out for a new model, I'm wondering if this young man is free - think I must be getting old as I'm not normally a gorper but just look at that tummy. To give him a name he's True Blood's Alcide Herveaux played by Joe Manganiello.

Patrick has worked out that if he feels ill he gets let off school. Two attempts so far - "I had too many sweets, I feel sick", "Shall we go to the doctors?", was dressed in his uniform in the blink of an eye. Second attempt - called by school as he told the dinner lady he was ill. When I got to school he was doing PE and quite happy. I asked what was wrong, answer "I felt pale".

Thought of the summer - "If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?" ~ Stephen Levine

Euanisms

I have been incredibly lax on the blogging front and completely missed the 2007 model's birthday post - so a bit of a summary of the world from a 3 year and 2 month year old.

Euan's world is Toy Story shaped, it is mainly blue (an early convert to the pink is for girls religion) and every thing is to the power of three (holding 3 fingers up - I am 3 so I need 3 biscuits....).  The Sun (along with the rest of the universe) circles around Euan's world - and we all seem to have been swept up with this new world order. Anya gives up her toast for him, Patrick accepts that car is Euans, we all huddle up in bed so the smallest family member can have half of it and all the covers!

Euanisms are common place - It's freezing and cold, I'm soaking and wet. Look at my hairbrows (above the eyes). I need a tissue for my funny nose.

Food in Euan world is quite scarce, preferences come in crinkly packages, deep fried or sugar coated (note to self - this must be addressed this year!!).

Activities are varied there are loves of books, jigsaws, bikes, bouncy castles, gymnastics, colouring and lego. Although the ritual watching of Toy Story must be carried out daily.

'You're my favourite deputy' and your world rocks xo

Plug in and forget

Wet play time when I was at primary school, a gazillion eons ago, meant fighting over the 6 available chess sets (bit geeky but fun), making up funny rhymes, tiddlywinks competitions, colouring in wallpaper squares and manufacturing fortune tellers by the dozen (weirdly at one school I went to these were called frogs - why?! and I really must revive these on a wet weekend).  Apparently these past-times are too dull for the children of today - Anya has reached the grand old age of 7 and is now deemed old enough to be allowed to take a Nintendo DS to school for wet play.

Forgive me because now I rant......you what!! Someone once said to me that the DS is brilliant, it keeps the kids quiet for hours. So that's how the Victorians did it then. I thought the days where children should be seen but not heard had long gone, maybe it's me that's behind the times?

Obviously lots of the other class parents think that this is a good idea because plenty of the children were asking Anya where hers was. To me allowing such an expensive toy in school is just inviting bullying, but according to the head teacher they aren't that expensive but are very educational....mmmm?  The children will all be spending their play times on brain training games and the shoot'em ups will be left at home.

Amongst my out of school friends I'm also Luddite-mum, not allowing my little bundles of joy to have a handheld plastic packet of fun. We have had a talk about it today and they've decided that they would prefer new bikes rather than a DS and I like to see more than the tops of their heads - we're all happy. Childhood lasts such a short time that I want them to enjoy every minute of it being proper children, even the ones where I'm bellowing at them to keep the noise down.

Nintendo DS are toys of the devil - or should the overtiredfamily just get with it?

Skywatch Friday - Bonjour Spain

An amazingly warm, relaxing and lazy 10 days in Spain have provided a plethora of sunny sky photos to pick from (can't whittle them down much as they are helping me remember the good times) so here's a selection.

Flying into the setting sun.....

The only taxing thing about the holiday was the language, my one line of Spanish wasn't much use.  Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan - I am not a sailor, I'm the Captain, couldn't be slipped into conversations without causing much confusion.  We all found that we kept lapsing into French, but like typical British abroad we found speaking English loudly, slowly and with a slightly foreign accent was the best way to communicate.

Fly around the world without having to cope with speaking the lingo at SkyWatch Friday

The baby Jacob gets dunked

SkyWatch Friday - Chasing the dragon

'chasing the dragon but never catching it (like "chasing after the wind [a wild wind])' ~ Wikipedia

All the 'on trend' tents (and camper vans) at the Cambridge Festival had poles with kites adorning them. The 2007 model loved the dragon kites but never managed to get his hands on one.

I have been very lax with my blogging of late (despite ba bags reminders) so I've got a back log of SkyWatch photos that I've had problems whittling down, bear with me as here are some others from the same campervan get away (full report later - promise bags x)

See the tiny dots that aren't pebbles? That's us having a picnic after having a swim on the Suffolk coast.

Shortly after the beach - British summers?!

Go and see some real summer skies from somewhere else around the world at SkyWatch Friday

Stop growing up so darn fast

The father reading to his girl
some little tale they always read
is unaware that this may be
the last one that she'll ever need
she's grown past stories softly read
by daddy sitting on the bed.


The mother with her muddy son

kicking a football in the park

cannot sense as they wander home

through chilly, soft approaching dark

this was the last time they'd come out

to kick that happy ball about.

How secret sneaky-soft they come
those last times when we'll kiss it better
hold their hand across the road

or lift them up to post a letter

they pass unmarked, unnoticed for

we're not so needed anymore.

So the abandoned fairy tales and

nursery rhymes that mummy sings

leave behind soft toys and us

and put away their childish things

a loss so small, our loss the greater

un-missed, un-mourned until years later.

Lucy Berry