Silent Sunday

Linking up with Silent Sunday

 Swimming For My Bro

Today was one of those days that in advance you look at and think

How an earth am I going to make it through to the end

And if I do make it through to the end,what shape will I be in and will I still be alive or just a walking talking zombie.

I had to fetch Chipmunk from school at 3.15,then get Sharky to the doctors at 3.50,then get Chipmunk to the turning on of the village lights at 4.30,then swimming at 5.30.It seemed impossible at the worst and mega stressy at the least.

Well hey ho I managed it (had a lot of help from my mum and dad,thankfully) and was pretty exhausted that night but we did make it and the point of this post is to say wow at Chipmunks swimming.

As you may well imagine by the time we got to the swim lesson everybody was working on overdrive.

The day was bitterly cold,we had been blown all over the place by a very strong November wind that was causing havoc in some parts of the country,we had been in and out cars that much that we were almost dizzy and then you enter the swimming baths... the hot,humid swimming baths.

You walk through those doors and the heat and the overpowering smell of chlorine hits you,you go from being cold to being hot in under ten seconds,it always gets to me.

The lights are dazzling,the noise echoes around you,the siren to signal the wave machine starting blares out,children are running everywhere,the tiles are slippery and therefore a hazard for not so steady kids to walk upon ~ total sensory overload!

We made it to the poolside (how did that ever happen) in time and as the teacher was busy giving forms out she instructed the children to start to swim widths across the pool.

Now we had got a guest observer,Sharky had come with us as I wanted to keep him close after his blood test earlier that evening and the crux of this story is Chipmunk swam for Sharky.

Up and down he swam and he was using his arms!So lovely to see him using his arms and he was using both arms!

He did better swimming unguided than he did usually throughout his lessons!

It made me wonder why I pay for lessons and why I don't just bring him to a pool and say swim!

To be honest I can see why I bring him to lessons,the teachers are great,the structure of it means I make the push and he does swim once a week and infact swim lessons are cheaper than me taking him as I would have to pay for me and him to swim and that would bump the price up no end.

Sharky was impressed and my mum and I were flabbergasted but so,so pleased and proud of young Chipmunk.

After Christmas he has been put up to the next stage classes,stage three,so there is improvement.It has taken him 18 months to move from stage one to stage two classes but only a term to move from stage two to stage three classes.

He's on his way to be a swimmer!One day this little chap of mine will swim competently and won't it be worth the wait when that day comes.

Christmas Is Coming!

Rumour has it that Christmas is on its way and to welcome Christmas,oh and a certain jolly fellow dressed in red,to our area,the town threw a big Christmas countdown celebration.

There were reindeer,real ones,the cast of the pantomime,which is Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs,Fireworks,groups singing and of course Santa.

We went down with our friends and one of the main things we wanted to do was to see the reindeers.

Well it was jam packed full!We walked round the age of the crowd and tried to gingerly squeeze our way into a spot where we could just see a bit of a reindeer,any little glimpse of a reindeer would do.

The cheer went up and we stood on our tiptoes and craned our necks hoping to catch sight of one of Santas magical reindeer,people started moving and we managed to edge closer to the front,this is it I thought,

"Are they there?" I said to the boys.

"Er they have gone" said a voice.

We turned to see a security guard looking at us.

We had missed them,Santa's reindeer had gone!

As we stood trying to think of something to cheer the boys up,we noticed people moving barriers and after a chat with the security man we found out that the reindeers were coming back and you could go to see them.

One look around though told us that the que was going to be long,very long,nearly impossibly long!

We stood talking and then realised that the barriers were being pointed in our direction and as we watched the barriers were built right up to where we were stood.

Blow me down,we were first in the que!!!Even the security guard was laughing.What a bit of luck!

Walking through those barriers was daunting,everybody was watching but we were so excited!Chipmunk and his friend stroked the reindeer and I took a hasty photo and then we went.

What a thing to remember...

We were the first people to stroke Santa's reindeer!Yay!

And the reindeer were in question were Dasher and Prancer.

Playing In Leaves

Today was a really busy day,I had been hammie cleaning and the time had ticked on until it was afternoon and we hadn't had any fresh air.

I decided we would go for a walk,I didn't know where,anywhere would do.

Chipmunk went on his scooter and we hadn't been walking for too long before we found this

a gigantic pile of leaves.

So we stopped to play and had a great time

scootering

making pathways for scooters

kick those leaves!

It turned out lovely,Chipmunk had a really good play in the leaves and then we walked up to the shops for a Saturday night treat ~ choccie!

The sky was so pretty

And we saw a tree all lit up ready for Christmas

And the little boy who didn't want to come out really enjoyed himself

Linking up at Country Kids.Pop over here to see some fab posts all about outdoor play,honestly the ideas are great!

Silent Sunday

Linking to Silent Sunday

Friday Night

Friday night was cool,I just love Friday nights!

We don't do anything special but it's just that Friday night feeling,the promise of two days off,no school,no work,a chance to chill and make time to play,walk,talk,be with the boys.

Saturdays are great but on a Saturday I wake up and see the weeks devastation staring at me,swim bags,school bags,work bags,pe bag,work planning folders,lunchboxes,a table that is piled so high with school letters,papers and just the general debris of the past week,there is more than likely dishes piled up in the sink and a pile of washing to contend with and I gaze around and the gloomy old overwhelm feeling pays a visit and I think argh 'how am I going to get all this sorted' and it's like groundhog day 

yep its Saturday let's tidy the table that never looks tidy anyway

Yep it's Saturday lets cook a nice sausage and egg cob for Sharky while washing the dishes and supervising homework,sorting washing out,oh and 'tidying the table' 

 

Are you beginning to see why Saturdays nice though they are do not have the same feel as Fridays!

Sunday's are even worse!Im still loving the fact that I'm at home but the work is piling up and it's becoming obvious that unless I grow a hundred new sets of arms and hands I'm not going to make it through and get all that needs to be done completed and that makes me feel stressed.

So Sunday can be fun,I do like it but it certainly hasn't got the hopeful feeling that Friday has got.

Friday is the promise of the weekend.I feel that I can achieve everything on a Friday and although deep down I know this isn't quite the case,the feeling sticks and helps me through the last day of my working week.

It's the one day when I don't worry if I sit down at night and just be and how good a feeling is that!

Looking back I think I have always loved Friday nights,even when I was a little girl.

In those days Friday nights meant a walk up to my grandmas ( quite a long distance away and we had no car so whatever the weather we trolled up there)

 My cousin and Aunty would be there and my cousin would bring her record collection round and we would play all the top 40 favourites.She was older than me and had a much larger collection of singles than I did and we would play music and talk while my grandma and my mum would gather in the other room and chat about important grown up stuff.

We would eat beef burgers on bread and my auntie would bring some Thornton's special toffee up which I used to love.I ate so much of it that for a while I could never face it when I was older.

We would watch the Sale Of The Century with Nicholas Parsons and then I would sleep at my grandmas and everybody else would go home.

Nowadays I end up flaking out on a Friday night,after a week of work and school runs Im usually just glad to have made it through to Friday night!

This Friday night we had tea,I read Chippie his Wishing Chair book,he played with Lego ( not often I see him play so I was impressed with this) then he went to bed and fell asleep after story whilst listening to me rabble on with my mum as she had rung while I was upstairs putting him to bed.

It was so restful knowing he had fell to sleep by my side.

I then went downstairs and played on Twitter shock/horror and then me and Sharky caught up on all the Coronation Streets we had missed.

It was just what I needed after a rough old week.

So nothing special but everything special,Friday night chilling.

Grounded

When life is going slightly pear shaped these little everyday things have kept me going.....

You go to school happy and all tucked up snugly,hat,gloves,bag packed and a big drink to keep you going.

You come happy,that faithful scooter gets you home in style!

You go to bed happy,clean sheets,clean jammies,bedtime story and a peaceful nights sleep.

This week these few photos have kept me grounded.