Wow.

The big pool is noisy. Much noisier than I expected it to be. All it's lanes are full and there is a swim club that trains at the far end,these people make a tremendous amount of noise as they set off together searching for their best time ever or the perfect stroke that will make them go even more supersonically fast. It's good to watch these guys swim,they move in synchronisation,like a school of dolphins swimming together but boy do they make some noise.

So it's not quite the quiet oasis of a pool that I had envisaged. Not at all.

It is big though. The actual pool is huge. The water seems to stretch out in front of us when we walk in the room,a sea of deep blue water. The seating is treble,no it's loads more than the few silver chairs that we used to quickly dive to when Chips was in the small pool. Now we have a choice of where to sit,near the shallow end or up near the deep end and we usually chose to sit smack in the middle on the bottom row,not sure how my lovely leg would negotiate climbing up the steep array of steps that some people seem to hop,skip and jump along like gazelles. I'm definitely not a gazelle.

In the far corner of the room there is a big window,the glass is not clear but you can see through it and it overlooks a park. On a sunny night you can look out the window and gaze at trees and blue skies,it's a pretty view.

And that is how the big pool seems to me. A busy,noisy,exciting place,a place where new challenges await.

It's not been a easy transition from the small pool to the big pool. It's taken every ounce of strength that Chips had got. Literally. He is swimming much further than he had ever done before and there's no putting feet down and walking a bit anymore. It tires him and sometimes frustrates him but in just four weeks we can all see a difference beginning to creep in.

"Stamina!" said his swim teacher last night.

So thats what you need Chips - stamina and a good attitude that pushes you through the frustration of not having the strength to kick as fast as you need too. If you keep this up you will develop both these skills,so let's keep trying,I know you can do it.

Halfway through tonight's lesson you swam right up to the deep end,climbed out and stood waiting for your turn to jump. It was your first time ever to jump into the deep end. In fact it was your first time ever to even swim in the deep water. My heart was in my mouth. I knew you could do the jump,me being me I was more concerned about you slipping on the wet tiles as you had to climb up a step and then jump. But you climbed the step and stood waiting for Diane to tell you to jump.

And you did.

Jumped beautifully into the pool and sank right down to the bottom of the pool. It seemed a long time before you popped back up to the surface and then began to swim on your back down to the shallow end.

My dad and I were so proud of you. It was brilliant to see. What a achievement and it meant so much to you. I think your confidence more than doubled on the spot.

Our smiles were big that night as you showered and got ready to go home.

And the final words are yours....

"I really enjoyed swimming tonight."

Say no more.... as no more words are needed.

 Down In The Trees

A boy and his shadow were playing with a ball.

Deep in the woods where the trees grow tall.

Under the canopy of thousands of leaves

Time goes slow

And so does the breeze.

It's oh so quiet

And oh so still

As you trail along paths

And meander down hills.

 Even,the ball, rolls pretty slow.

No need to rush.

Nowhere special to go.

They tiptoed through nettles,

Swung under a fence.

Getting lost and then found,

Down where the trees were dense.

And a mother smiled

As she watched them play,

Down in the woods,

On a warm Spring day. 

Footy Shirts

"Which shirt would you like to wear to Mammas today" I yelled down the stairs.

"My Barca shirt" Chips yelled back.

"Liverpool are playing this afternoon" I added.

"My new Liverpool shirt please" replied Chips.

I wandered over to the wardrobe and took his brand new Liverpool shirt out,the one his big brother had brought him for Christmas and my mind went back to a conversation that had happened a couple of days ago when my brother had questioned why I liked Liverpool shirts,he remembered the days when I had supported Forest. The answer was simple but at the same time long....here it is and it's a tale that is very dear to my heart.

When I was a young I loved football. I had a little group of friends who lived on my street and we used to play football on a daily basis. We all supported different football teams Teresa supported Liverpool,Chris supported Man Utd and I supported Forest. It was back in the hey day of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Forest won division one and a couple of European cups and we lived close enough for them to be a kinda local team - I loved them. John Robertson was my hero and everything I owned was red and white. I saw them play at the City Ground and when they won The European Cup in the late seventies/early eighties my mum took me and brother to the city centre to watch the team parade around the city in a open top bus. That day my brother got squashed at the front of the crowd,trapped against a barrier and lifted over the barrier by some policemen. I followed him and it was quite scary. Eventually we were reunited with our mum and all was well. 

So I liked,no loved Forest but there was something else and at this I smile wryly,I did NOT like Liverpool. Infact that is a understatement,hence my brothers raised eyebrow at the table during the dinner. It almost hurts me to think it now but I really did not like Liverpool,I didn't like Man Utd much either and you know what kids are like they tease each other and as much as they can have fierce loyalties they can also have fierce dislikes and that was how it was between my little group of mates,we liked our own team but boy did we rip each other to pieces if 'their' teams lost. Oh the joy in someone's team losing,I'm sorry to say that it was utter bliss! And at this statement I sit here grinning! I imagine the boys reading this and thinking 'oh mother,nooo' Sorry boys,this is how it was and what your mother was like at the age of ten.

My mother had a theory,she said I would marry a Liverpool supporter. This drove me mad,how could she even think such a thing,it was impossible,inconceivable. Me with a Liverpool supporter....no way. 

'Ah but you will just fall for the boy' she grinned.

"Nope" said I,"I would know straight away that they supported Liverpool and that would be that,I wouldn't even go out once with them"

She just smiled.

And do I need to say that I married a Liverpool supporter? No that goes without saying doesn't it....life's like that ....from the moment I began protesting no way, no Liverpool supporter for me I was almost guaranteeing that I would indeed end up with a Liverpool supporter. How my mum must have laughed. Hmmm!

Years passed and my first son was born,a gorgeous little boy known here as Tiger.....Tigs for short. He adored his dad and he adored football and I mean really,really loved football. As soon as he could walk he began to kick a ball around and to this day he still does. He's twenty one now and he still plays in a footy team once a week.

His dad never pushed the Liverpool thing at Tiger but young Tiger soon picked up that daddy supported Liverpool and as lots of young boys do he wanted to be like daddy and when he started nursery and he made friends with a little boy who was also a Liverpool supporter the decision was firmly made - Tiger became a Liverpool supporter.

I brought him a cheapy little football shirt,probably not the first teams current kit and he was proud as punch to wear a Liverpool shirt and be like a real footballer.

By this time I had almost forgot my former dedication to Forest and football in general. I was a mummy now and I had two little boys to look after,a home and a busy job,it took me all my time to pull a brush through my hair,never mind keep up with football,the only football that I really thought about was the football that Tiger kicked around. I was a mum,football for me had gone,pushed right to the back of my mind.

The turning point with footy shirts came when Tigs was about five,up until then he had always worn any old Liverpool kit I could lay my hands on,if the price was right then 'that' would be the shirt I would buy....footy kits were expensive and I had two little boys to feed and clothe. And then Tigs went to hospital. It was just a routine operation but as you can imagine to me as his mummy it was a worry. We arrived at the hospital and as he was prepared for the operation he didn't want to wear his pyjamas,I'm not sure why now,but he started to get stressed and a kind nurse said he could keep his footy shirt on,it was a little cream Liverpool shirt. The doctor asked if I would like to hold him as they gave him the anaesthetic,apparently it's better this way as the child is with his parent. Maybe better for the child but can you imagine how it feels as a parent,pretty traumatic to be honest. You have to pretend to brave when infact you are almost dying inside.

So I sat down on this hospital chair and Tiger sat on my knee and they said he had to count to ten and of course he never got to ten,by the count of three he was gone,really gone. And I felt him go. From my warm alive little boy to a dead weight in my arms,he was so heavy,so not there,it was awful....sixteen years later I still can remember that feeling. The suddenness of my little boy going from awake to asleep - a very unnatural sleep,the sort of sleep no parent wants to see or feel.

The doctors carried him from my arms and placed him on a hospital bed and he was wheeled away and the last thing I saw him wearing was that little Liverpool shirt and as I waited for him to come back into the recovery room I vowed that Tigs would have a proper brand new spanking Liverpool kit with his name on the back and a number every football season.

And he did.

As soon as he came out of the hospital my mum had already brought him a bright red Liverpool shirt with the name Owen on the back and probably the number was ten,but don't quote me on that!

That shirt was worn,washed,dried and worn again,time after time. I never minded that it was all I saw him in,I remembered the promise.

The years passed and my youngest son was born. Tiger was older by then and I think he saw it as his duty to make sure his youngest brother followed in his footsteps and became a Liverpool supporter. So he trained him up! And as soon as he was earning a wage he began to buy young Chips Liverpool shirts. So now I was sometimes washing a whole line of Liverpool shirts! Sometimes the same Liverpool shirt just in different sizes! And this is why I love Liverpool shirts....they symbolize my boys to me and how can I not like/love that? Something that at the age of ten I would never have thought possible but now makes ultimate sense to me.

School Holiday Fun

I saw that Show Us Your Life at Kellys Korner was talking about ideas to keep kiddiewinks busy during the summer hols so I thought I would toss a few ideas out.

 Obviously this is just a teeny tiny glimpse of the fun that can be had throughout the summer but hey it may give someone someone a nudge to think hey I can remember doing that as a kid,I hope its useful to someone somewhere.

Outdoor Fun

 Blowing bubbles

Washing up bottles filled with water to squirt - great fun

Rolling down hills

Painting with water - costs nothing and is great fun

Treasure hunts in sandpits etc

Chalk on the drive

Water flowers

Play in water and make footprints on the drive

Paint outside on big paper

Paint with squirty bottles see here

Go out early in the morning before it gets too hot and then chill in the afternoon

 Here is a early post I did about my 5 favourite kids toys 

Feed the ducks,cheap,cheery and fun

Play catch

Draw a hopscotch grid on the pavement

Indoor Activities

Make binoculars with toilet rolls

Make shakers with yogurt pots

Teddy bears picnics

Have a colour day,when you focus on one colour for food and activities

Teach children how to 'spread' - toast or bread

Make cress - so quick and easy to do

Out of empty plastic containers make boats

Good old Hide and Seek!

Set weekly challenges - how far can you run,how many hops can you do

kids love challenges!

Join summer reading schemes 

Write to famous people like authors,sports celebrities - sometimes you do get a response 

Look out for cheap cinema viewings

Visit a pet shop - always a fave

Indoor picnics on a rainy day

Make blanket tents

Icy Play 

Start a savings account 

Comics,sticker books etc

Visit the £1 Shop and get 'supplies' kids love tacky stuff - A £1 shop find

Card games like Top Trumps or Snap

Bake - a long lost art!

This science activity surprised us all 

Dye pasta tubes and when they are dry thread them onto wool to make necklaces

Bubble Blowing 

Catch

The birds have never stopped singing today. They are singing so loudly now and it's nearly nine pm and they were trilling away this afternoon when I sat in exactly the same spot as I'm sat in now and watched the boys play.

It had been a lazy old Sunday,for some of us anyway. The MotoGp was on the television and nobody was moving much. For hours the boys watched the bikes race around the track and then when it had finished they decided to have a kick around.

There is not much width on our patio but it is long. It has a washing line running down the middle of it. Does this encumber the boys? Maybe. But it also adds to the game. They aim the ball over the washing line and most of the time this works,sometimes the ball falls short and gets tangled up in the washing,my black cardi seemed to fall victim to the ball today but hey I'm not too bothered,I love clean neat washing but I love my boys more.

And so the balls,there were two balls being thrown at the same time,went backwards and forwards over the washing line,making that rhythmic sound of a heavy ball hitting concrete...again and again and again. And feet,in just socks,padded up and down the patio wearing their socks out and causing their feet to be absolutely ditched and feet without even socks on found out the difference between shade and no shade!

And the balls carried on being thrown .

"I almost catched it Mam"

"Did you see how good Iam Mam?"

"Sorry Mam," said with a giggle after it had hit me on the head!

I was sat in the firing line and they or should I say one of them was throwing those balls hard. Of course he said he wasn't throwing them too hard. The sound they made when they hit the fence and ground told a different story.

They were having such fun though. And moments like this always stop me in my tracks. Just a game of catch,on a patio,nothing special and yet ever so special. The looks on their faces. The playfulness of them. The giggles when I got hit by the flipping ball - like I didn't know that was going to happen... It all made for a time for me to stop and focus on these boys of mine and I did.

And now as I fold the deckchairs up and start to head indoors I glance down and there are the balls just lying on the patio,quiet and still,what a difference to this afternoons activity,that's the beauty of kids...they make everything come alive.

Four Days Off

A four day weekend - bliss! Two four day weeks,soon I will have forgotten what it's like to work a full week.

We have not got far at all. As usual,sport dominates the household. To people who do not like sport I cannot explain the hold sport has here,just take it from me that it does! The good bits of that is that it has kept Chips amused,the not so good bit is that we have been stuck inside and most people who know me will know how I feel about that.

Anyway there has been smiles and snippets of good. Let me dig around and find them.

The trip to the park on Friday was nice. We didn't actually get to the park much because Chips had a trip and he grazed his legs and became very upset. What do you do when you are upset and need a bit of comfort? Go to Mammas of course. And so we did. We postponed the park and went to visit my mum and dad,who conveniently live next to the park. And they did the job of smothering Chips with care,until soon the grazes didn't seem to matter quite as much. Chips ate chocolatey malteasers,drank plenty of blackcurrant pop and had a yummy slice of toast - with real butter. Mmmm. That was a treat for both of us. Chips wandered around with his trousers pulled up past his grazed knees in that funny fashion that children with grazes do. He was enthralled with next doors scamp of a cat and spent most of the morning following the rascal cat around. I sat drinking lots of tea,can't beat that,especially on what is usually a work day for me.

Thanks mum and dad for taking the cries of "I want to go home" and turning them into "Do you know Mamma has 21 sewings at her house!" When we walked out that door Chips was much happier than when we walked in it,he is lucky to have such good grandparents.

Saturdays highlight was our Morrison breakfast as after that the day deteriorated. I did smile as I watched Tigs and his girlfriend get ready to go camping for the night. It sounded fun if not somewhat cold! I love to see what adventures this couple get up too. They both work so very,very hard and it's great to watch what they do in their precious free time. It really does make me smile.

MotoGp ruled the day on Sunday. All the boys sat watching the bikes go round the track again and again and again. My mum rang Chips after each race to have the all important race analysis talk - she is affectionately known as 'race control' here and Chips chatters away to her ten to the dozen - once more I think about what I said earlier,the boys are lucky to have such good grandparents.

Later that afternoon my nephew brought his baby boy around to see us. That baby is so beautiful and such a pleasant little chap. I know I say this a lot but Im astounded at how easy going that little baby is. He is adorable. And we all think the world of him. He is six months old now and rolling over. When he lies on his tummy his little legs kick behind him and you can tell that he is getting ready to attempt to move. And he did that funny little thing where you put a baby down on the floor and then without anyone really noticing they gradually slowly move themselves until they are pointing in a different direction to where they were originally put. How clever are babies! Chips enjoyed wafting a cuddly toy near his second cousin and lots of ooos and ahhhs were had as we showed the youngest member of our extended family off to everyone.

Monday rolled around and after a hectic morning washing,sorting and generally running around like a mad thing,the afternoon was spent walking to the park. My brother and family came with us and it was good to see the children play together. Afterwards we came home and ate the enormous amount of cobs that my mum had kindly made us. We laughed at how many cobs she had made when she first produced the bag of at least ten thousand cobs ( well it seemed that way at first!) but we weren't laughing as we ravenously tucked into them and only 'one' was left over. Mother knows best,as they always say! 

And I enthralled my brother with the wonderful radio station that I had warbling away in the kitchen. It was Bank Holiday Monday,I had done a bit of radio swapping around to find something I liked and the show that was on when we brother came up,was not the show I had originally been listening to. And that's all I'm saying but I say it with a big grin on my face. It was playing a corker of a oldie ~ Billy Don't Be A Hero,yep a all time favourite of mine...maybe. And of course my brother would never judge me for having such cracking music on in my kitchen,would you bro....

Four days off....not gone far....not done anything radically amazing but family life plods on and for that Iam grateful.

A Space For The Butterflies

A space for the butterflies and the bees and any other wildlife that enjoyed a sniff around some wildflowers,that's what year five spent their Monday afternoon creating ..... a wildflower garden.

Our local park celebrates its centenary this year. It was given to the village by the Duke Of Portland one hundred years ago to celebrate his wedding anniversary.

The committee who care for the park have invited local schools to help them create a wildflower garden and that's why I found myself accompanying the whole of year five up the street and to the park.

And what a good time we all had.

No dramas,no fussing or falling out,just children enjoying the fresh air and a break from school routine,on what turned out to be a lovely spring day,warm enough to wear just jumpers and teeshirts and to appreciate the freshness of spring.

We arrived at the park and we given two tasks to do. One was picking up litter and the other was sowing the wildflower seeds. Our group was on litter duty first,the children were placed in groups of three - one to spot the litter,one to hold the big hooped bag to pop the litter into and one 

( this was the most prized job) to use a grabber to pick the litter up. Well to say the children were enthusiastic is a understatement! In seconds the park was covered with groups of chattering children looking everywhere and anywhere for a piece of litter. No stone was left unturned. These kids meant business. Infact as far as the children were concerned there was not enough litter to be found at all! The park was soon totally litter free,not often you can say that about a park!

Soon it was our turn to sow the seeds. This was hilarious! The children were led to a big wide area of earth and told how to spread the seeds evenly around. The best way to do this was described as 'the chicken dance' a kind of swaying move as if you were giving chickens their corn. Well the noises the children made as they distributed the seed around the ground had to heard to be believed! Let's just say the word 'chickens' and I'll let your imaginations do the rest. I stood back and watched the children,the were all having a good time - all of them. For that five minutes they had not a care in the world. They laughed,danced,chattered,quietly concentrated, as they sowed the seed. Isn't it funny what a bit of fresh air and a simple activity like sowing seeds can do?Maybe kids need more of this kind of thing,I certainly think so. There was no arguing,no friction at all,just happy,relaxed,smiling children.

When all the seeds had gone we got ready to walk back to school. And for five minutes the children played on a little grassy bank. Some tried to roll down the hill but it wasn't suitable for rolling really,some made daisy chains,some sat and chattered and some just gazed around.

It was such a peaceful afternoon considering that there were over seventy children around.

I can't wait to see what the wildflower garden will look like,I hope the butterflies will like it.