Cheap car wash

Our cars get dirty so quickly – it seems that we often end up washing cars on the weekend. Last time we had help! (how cute do they look??!!!!

   

Joy already has a few jobs that are hers around the house (making her bed that kind of thing) hopefully we can work towards having two little car washers!

Birthday Pictures

This is the new slide, it was a HIT! We spent most of the afternoon playing outside – Robin even had a go on it  (!!!!!!) This is when Elias and Joy were both sat on it eating birthday cake – what fun!

 Here Elias and Joy are testing out the new toys (still in PJ’s!)

 

 

Pool - EVEN CHEAPER!!!!!!

I’m not sure if you remember but one one of the first days I ever blogged I mentioned this type of pool, well I have just found it the cheapest I have ever seen! So for all you families who’d love a real pool, here’s a cheap alternative!

 

Birthday disaster!!

Well, today is the day, Elias has turned three today! And, as any parent knows you shouldn’t leave assembling the star present to the night before – but we forgot the golden rule and did just that.

We bought a slide for him, the perfect gift, only trouble was that it seemed impossible to fix together. What made it worse was that Elias spotted it and was devastated that he could not play on it. After getting two engineers to try again to and assemble it and them also concluding it couldn’t be done it is now back in it’s box ready to be returned.

How frustrating for a three year old to be bought the perfect gift and then have it taken away again! I only hope that we can just replace it with a similar one TODAY! Oh, I feel like an awful parent!

Blogdog clothing

Blogdog now has a logo, and over the weekend we got made up a couple of t-shirts with the name and logo on. The ultimate in ‘geek-chic!’ they could really take off. We’ll take pictures, then you can start placing orders! 

Incidentally, if you have a geek to buy for then take a look here for all a true geek could ever want!

Learning Colours

Elias is learning his colours at the moment, he seems particularly keen on yellow and blue. I mentioned this to a good friend of mine (someone who knows me very well) who thought it was hilarious, because those are the Ikea brand colours, she seemed to think that may have something to do with it. He may just like those two colours?? Nah, who am I kidding, with a mother who likes Ikea as much as I do, it was inevitable!

 

Argos - Home of The laminated book of dreams!

I may have slightly mis-quoted that, Bill Bailey did a piece in his ‘Part Troll’ show about Argos, made me howl with laughter.

When I went to Argos today, I was thinking about what an odd shopping experience it actually is.

You have the catalogue to drool over at home, you select what it is you’d like and then you pile in the car and go to the store. When you’ve paid and been told to go to the all important collection point (B being my personal favourite) you wait. Then they stamp your receipt and you’re handed a rather un-assuming brown cardboard box. It’s almost like they’re keeping you in suspense until the very last minute when you open up that box…….Odd.

Today my mission was to get Elias’s birthday gift, I have two big brown boxes hidden in the garage. I know one of them is a duplicate present so they are remaining boxed until I know which is going back, then we’ll get on with the business of assembly… Hmmmm.

Oh, incidentally, that is one reason why I personally like Argos – I have never had a problem with returning a purchase, and have always had excellent customer service when I’ve done so.

I know I am sad, but I really enjoy looking through each new catalogue, it amazes me the range of products they now sell, from the sublime (Hot tubs!!) to the ridiculous (who buys this stuff?) Oh, sorry, lost my train of thought, thinking about the hot tubs……

Ebay - a place for bargains & lost time

I have recently been searching on Ebay to see if we might pick up a second hand outdoor climbing frame. Although I am registered I have never actually bought anything (although Robin has bought and sold) I find that when I start looking I get ideas of all sorts of other stuff to look for.

Before you know it you’ve lost an hour or so, and looked at varying items, some total rubbish, some pretty good. And then there’s the whole strategy aspect of how much to bid and when… again, takes time. Funny really. I like the ‘buy at home’ aspect, I like the fact you can find some real bargains, but I hate the way Ebay seems to eat up time!

Maybe I’ll feel differently when I do take the plunge and actually buy something!

Blog probs

Yesterday I was unable to blog all day! (Argh!!) How is it that technical probs always occur just when you have lots to say? Oh well, back to blogging as usual.

 

Some words should not be used together

It struck me that we often use words together that don’t make real sense. The one that got me thinking about this is ‘affordable loan’ – surely if you had the money you’d not be getting a loan at all? So therefore I reckon a loan is actually something you can’t afford.

Other examples would be things like….. low fat ice cream (that’s just plain wrong!) or for Robin ‘semi-skimmed milk’ (in his opinion it’s not really milk at all – and don’t get him started on skimmed…) I wonder what other examples those of you reading this will come up with!

 

My not so little ones!

     

Here are pics of my two kids. Next week Elias turns three – Joy is approaching seven. My Mum says that she often  looks at me and my sisters and can hardly be believe that she is a Mum, let alone a mother of 4 grown girls. I feel the same! (although of course mine are smaller – and not all girls!)

 

Next

I was in Next this afternoon, spending some gift vouchers I was given for my birthday. I had real trouble finding clothes that weren’t totally bland and samey (attention – made up word!) or lovely and over-priced.

I opted for Linen 3/4 length trousers and a stretch beige shirt – not having the time to try on I am not sure they’ll even fit, I really hope they will as I found shopping there so uninspiring. (incidentally I spent more than I had intended on those two items)

The website show the clothes off much better I think.

Oooh it’s just not right arriving home with clothes that you’re not dying to try on. Where’s the fun in that?

Two free Star Wars tickets

I entered a competition, and won 2 free tickets to see the new movie tonight in Milton Keynes – thing is we’re really too busy to go. Does anyone want them (you’ll need to collect from our place this afternoon/early evening) in Oxford, UK!

Blogdog looks GGGGreat!

It’s still not that long since Robin introduced me to the wonderful world of blogging. Although I use it to share what personally interests me blogging has also gained considerable use in business.

This is one thing that Robin is passionate about, and as a result he has been working on his new business blog Blogdog. He is also in the process of liasing with companies offering a blogging service, take a look at Blogdog, I’m sure it will be evolving on a very regular basis – looks good to me.

 

I became and Auntie today!

This morning we had a rather rude awakening just before seven as the phone rang. It was my Dad calling to say that my sister Heidi was in labour – funny thing was that she had in fact given birth already!

So welcome to the world Elodie Grace Renee Thomas. We are thrilled to finally meet you (she’s so small and light!) Joy and I share names with her ( me Grace, and Joy Renata – which is the Czech/German form of Renee) So I think it’s possible we are even more thrilled than everyone else…. well maybe not, but we’re pretty chuffed nonetheless!

Being a good Auntie I raced over at the earliest opportunity to have a hug, and for those of you who have yet to meet her, she’s lovely!

Robin has piccies of her on his blog, I’m sure there will be more coming as he is a very doting uncle who can’t wait to meet his newest niece!

Long standing friend

I was pleased to hear yesterday that a family friend will be in Oxford this weekend. He’s like a honorary uncle to me and my sisters.

It’s a funny story, my Dad went on a French exchange when he was in his early teens and made friends with Marc Soulier, they remained friends and then Marc was best man when my parents married just over 30 years ago! Since then we’ve seen him occasionally Because he lives here. Last time he dropped in was at my sister Heidi’s wedding.

He’ll be amazed at how we’ve all changed and just  how many grandchildren my parents have now (with another expected any day… yeah Heidi!) I’m amazed how a friendship like this has kept ticking over this whole time, I guess wherever you go, for however long or short, you’ve no idea when you’ll next make a long lasting friendship.

Camera shy

I don’t photograph well, I’m awkward and unnatural in photos – point a camera at me and I just assume this forced ‘get this over quickly’ smile (well, really no, it’s more of a grimace) This is one reason there are few pictures of me I’d let anyone see. However, Robin recently took this one which I think is pretty nice.

The only problem is, I’ve not yet learnt how to rotate images so you’ll all have to tilt your heads to the right a bit… yes, there you are. Thank you for your patience, I’m still fairly new at this!

I think I need to consult my technical advisor…

Maybe I should stick to taking the pictures!

Lots of changes

Our Church has been undergoing many changes in the past year or so. I think the first one was the staff overhaul as a result of people moving elsewhere. We’ve gained really talented and gifted leaders, when my first reaction was all about losing ones with great – only different giftings.

We’ve also changed our main service time till 4pm, another ‘biggie’, and me being less than perfect again thought ‘uh-oh, not sure I’m going to like this!’. Well, it’s taking some getting used to yes, but it’s pretty good, and I think most people are pretty positive about it. The kids think it’s pretty fun, and seem to look forwards to it ‘finishing’ off the weekend.

Robin and I also co-led a midweek group (well call them key groups) with a couple we love very much, and were really thrilled to share with them the birth of their daughter earlier this year. Sadly for us, our group grew too big and Maggie needed a proper bedtime so we’ve multiplied into two new groups. We’re looking forwards to seeing these new groups grow, and friendships take shape. But change is not always easy, and we feel as sad about the end of that time, as I guess we feel excitement about what’s to come.

Church is also going to be changing venue from May 22, perhaps permenantly, to Bayards Hill School. So they’re keeping us on our toes for sure! I’ll probably let you know how that goes……..

24 - I want more!

Last night Robin and I finished off watching 24 series 3, I got the set for my birthday and have been desperately finding the time to watch it ever since. I have found the series to be as compulsive and gripping as the first season, without the massive amount of violence the second series seemed full of. As we have the first three series I am toying with revisiting series one to fill the vacuum that running out of new episodes has now created!

The worst thing about finishing it is that series 4 is not yet released on DVD, and as we do not have SKY we have not been able to watch it already. I found on play.com that it is released in August – argh!!!!! I wonder if Robin would like it for his birthday………

If you are not familiar with the series, then you probably have not experienced the continuous nail-biting suspense it seems to maintain, and the compulsion to yell at the characters to do something different. (or, after having watched a number of episodes late into the night having the ‘being chased/saving the world from terrorists’ dreams!)

Our television watching has taken a real shift in the past couple of years, we seem to have got on board with a few series, and either recorded them or bought them rather than watching (so much!) random rubbish. I’ve been developing a taste for ‘The West Wing’ too of late.(if anyone has any on DVD I’d love to borrow them!)  It does seem a shame though that most of these shows are American, with all our British TV and film heritage I wish we could be producing something equally gripping. Maybe we will….maybe it’ll be bigger and better… ‘48’ perhaps??!!!

Milton Keynes is getting one!

 

17th February 2005

IKEA announces plans to open a new store in Milton Keynes

 

Today, IKEA announces plans to open a new store in Milton Keynes. IKEA is hopeful that this store, which will create 400 jobs for the local community, will be opening at the beginning of 2006. The IKEA site is part of the Denbigh stadium development south of Milton Keynes city centre.

 

Might be a bit easier to get to than the Wembly store – still too far away for my liking though!

 

Sneaking the goodness in...

I’ve been trying to get back into cooking more in the past couple of weeks, it had fallen by the wayside and I was getting pretty complacent with what I was making. I was also thinking about what I’ve been feeding the kids.

Yesterday I made some raisin & apple bran muffins – I found the recipe in the Annabel Karmel baby and toddler cookbook  (look here.. http://tinyurl.com/8twu5 ) and they turned out great, although next time I might use a little less bran than suggested. Joy especially liked them and I love the fact I’m sneaking all that goodness into their food without them even realising. (Not sure if Robin is keen though, he left behind the ones I packed ready for him to take to work!)

Particularly when the kids were small I’d freeze cubes (in ice cube trays) of puree’d veggies and stir through pasta, or into mash potato. They never noticed! Sneaky and oh, so effective!

Last night we ate home made pizza (ALL homemade – aside from cheese, not attempting that just now!!!) with a yummy salad and home-made bread rolls. It gives a real feeling of satisfaction having cooked the lot, and knowing exactly what ingredients are in each bite of food.

Only downside to all this cooking is I need to get back into the habit of buying all the ingredients I keep using up!

Robin has been saying some interesting things...

Robin has been saying a few things that have been interesting me (good job really – seeing as we’ll be spending the rest of our lives together!) I especially like what he’s said about Luther’s birthday and naming ceremony, go take a look….http://rjjm.net/

Why do I blog?

I’ve been talking to a lot of friends and family about blogging since I myself became a blogger. Some are new to the concept, some do it themselves and others don’t seem to ‘get’ it. That’s all fine. But one question I have been asked a number of times is why do I blog?

Having had a think, and a talk with my father in law, I think I have put my finger on it. I used to love to write, I produced a monthly newsletter which had quite a following before I got married and it was great fun. Since having the kids I’ve not really had much chance to ‘air’ my views, and lots of my time chatting with people has been talking about… you guessed it, the kids. While this is not a bad thing at all, I’ve not had so much opportunity to talk about things which I am thinking about.

By putting things on my blog, about products, attitudes or just things that I’m thinking through it creates a space for my thoughts, musings, ranting etc. It feels very therapeutic, plus I get to write again, in my own way, for anyone who may be interested. And for friends and family it is another way to catch up with what is going on in our household, see the odd photo etc. (it still surprises me I’ve had so much interest!)

Another thing which seems to keep popping up is ‘where do I get the time to blog?’ Well, I make it, I snatch it from here and there, because I enjoy it and get a lot from it, just as you might make time to go to the gym, or pursue a hobby. I’ve found that I have a time when the kids are eating which is when I blog the most, the kids like having me there and as I’ve mentioned before we often explore a web site and have some fun doing that afterwards too.

Right now, I’ve run out of time, and that’s okay. I can blog later…..

 

Solutions to Ikea being so far away...

To move closer to Ikea. (tempting, if a little far fetched just to be close to the blue and yellow warehouse of delights)

http://www.flatpackbrighton.co.uk/ – well they have it sorted in Brighton (and there have been a number of hints urging us to move there from Robin’s family members)

http://www.instantsatisfaction.co.uk/ – I‘m tempted to try them out, but I don’t actually know anyone who has yet.

To buy a van and hire a chauffeur for the express purpose of shopping more easily at Ikea. Ohh, might be getting just a bit carried away…..

And fresh from the Ikea site – new stores are being planned in the following places…

Stockport
Sheffield
Southampton
Coventry
Northampton

(Could not find anything about Milton Keynes Wend, I’d also heard Swindon might be getting one…)

Annoyingly enough, many of those are about the same distance from Oxford.

 

TinyURL.com - where tiny is better!

Robin (hubby) kept complaining that I was sending him links to things that were hundreds of characters long – he directed me to… 

TinyURL.com - where tiny is better!

You pop in your super long link and it makes it .. well … tiny in comparison! Very easy, useful and quick.

 

Oooh, to have an ikea nearby!

We have a jumble of bedroom furniture – most of which is tired at best (or falling apart!) I was just having a really quick look on the Ikea website and I found this wardrobe – just £69!!!!! It makes me grumpy again that we live so far away from the nearest one (Wembly) cos, if it were not such a hassle to go there… well, I might well buy one…. or two at that price!

IKEA | home | Beds & mattresses | Bedroom collections | MELDAL bedroom collection | HENSVIK wardrobe

 Oh, and while I’m at it, look at link below for my recommended coffee table, £12, solid and lovely looking piece of very useful furniture. Ours has taken a real beating in the past 2 years and still looks respectable, plus it’s a great height for little tots to play at – we have a little bench which slides neatly underneath and doubles as storage – nifty! (not Ikea though – Habitat that one, and it’s been discontinued)

http://tinyurl.com/c97kw

How come life got so busy?

I used to think before I married Robin that I had a pretty busy life, work, social time and so on.

Then when we got married we got involved in things together and found ourselves more busy.

A little while later we had our first child, Joy, and for two years we were not just busy looking after her but she also kept me up most of every night too – you know, just in case I was bored or something.

As Joy has grown we’ve found our calendar filling up with play dates, pre-school and parties – and we’ve not even reached the piano lessons and ballet yet!

Oh, and we also gained a little man too (almost three years ago) who thankfully does sleep, but keeps you wondering what crazy stunt he’s going to pull next and endanger his life…. He’s also super fast so he keeps us literally rushed off our feet.

I keep looking at the calendar, and it gets full without us even realising, it’s not uncommon for us to be triple booked for things. (and choosing which commitments to keep is so hard)

It just makes me think that our modern lives are so very busy, time seems to be flying by – and I wonder when things will start to slow down. (I think we need a holiday!) Does anyone else feel like this??

 

Learning while they eat

Sometimes whilst the kids eat I show them around website that will teach them things without them realising (it’s fun for me too!) Today we found this site, it has a few fun little activities that are music related. Joy particularly liked the tempo bit, I wish it’d speed up her eating as well.

http://www.sfskids.org/templates/home.asp?pageid=1

 

Borrowed Piano

We are piano-sitting just now, Robin has always wanted one (and has yet to have a play – weird!) and Joy and Elias think it’s great. Elias is particularly good at rather atmospheric almost ‘film incidental’ sounding pieces. Joy is loud and how shall I say… experimental in her approach.

My repertoire is limited to the pieces I remember doing all those years ago when I was learning – I think perhaps I need to try something a little different!

It’s fun having a piano in the house – if a touch more noisy than usual.

Be careful what you blog!

I have been amazed at the amount of people who have been commenting on my blog! I have gotten a few other tips as a result of my musings, thanks Sarah for the  link to this site http://www.kneebouncers.com/ Elias has been having such fun doing it all by himself!

As for recycling, maybe I’ll get organised to recycle my plastic too – they don’t collect it in our green boxes yet, I wish they would! Oh, and here’s the link for freecycle  – where you can give stuff away – for free when you’re done with it. (not just in Oxford!)http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OxfordFreecycle/

Which leads me to the pizza, I’ve been having requests for homemade pizza since posting that, in fact there are a fresh batch of mini ones cooling just now in the kitchen. So, maybe I should think before I blog about such things??!

 

Litsen to frogs

10 minutes of fun for kids (adults too) Listen to the different calls of frogs…. Just in case you’ve nothing better to do.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/tracker/

Where Daddy goes.........

Elias really enjoys visiting the office every now and again. And finding all Daddy’s bits of food to eat. I think he sort of sees it like that is where we ‘keep’ Daddy in the daytime.

At the moment our visits have to be pretty short as a two year old in an office is a very disruptive thing, but they seem to brighten up the day for us all!

Recycling - easy things you can do

I’m not a recycling freak – we have not reached the stage where we use our peeling etc for compost or recycle all plastic etc etc. We use our green box though, paper and cans and glass – we’re good at those. What I’m really wanting to talk about is recycling other stuff, the not so obvious things. Almost like stealth recycling! (because it sort of sneaks up on you without you even noticing!)

Like taking your outgrown/unwanted clothes to either a charity shop, or if they are in great condition to a clothing agency  like where I used to work( http://tinyurl.com/9238q for a couple of details) That way others get the benefit, you might even make some money back and there is less waste being generated.

It’s also a great idea to keep toys moving – our kids frequently out grow toys, we have a little pool of friends thst we tend to offer them to, you can be really clever with this and make friends with families whose kids are older just in case you might get their hand me downs too! Or, buy them at NCT sales http://www.nctpregnancyandbabycare.com/events.asp?show=nns (where you can sell your stuff too) or in the paper, or via a local site like this…http://www.dailyinformation.co.uk/  or check out freecycle.

There is always Ebay as well, you’d be amazed at how many people want your junk!

Recycling can seem offputting, I see it more like keeping stuff moving, getting the most use out of things. I’m sure there are many other ways to do it.

 

One day to go!

So I’ve been looking a bit at my blog so far, and up till now I’ve managed to aviod the issue of the election – but it is just a day away now!

I saw an article on the different approaches to voting that men and women have, I found it pretty interesting. Apparently men are more likely to use their vote to count for the big picture – like countrywide/worldwide issues. Women however seem to use their vote to try and influence what directly affects them and their families, so local issues and childcare etc are higher up on their lists. I found this fascinating, I am sure that there are many exceptions to this theory, but I do see how a male and female perspective fit neatly into that model.

After sharing that with you, I’ll leave you with this…. If the guys vote for the big picture then maybe they could get on with the running of the country (as they already have the monopoly there) and perhaps we should see women running the local government!

(Notice, no political allegiance has been divulged!)

Thoughts on.... coveting

This morning in key group we were talking about coveting – what is is? What do we covet? That sort of thing. It was like opening up a whole can of worms…. Lots of us thought that we live in a culture which actually programmes us to covet just about anything we don’t actually have.

I have to say the thing I covet the most is a house of our own – but that said, I don’t think it is a greedy or unreasonable thing to want. It’s more that it occupies so much of my thought life that it’s become something of a distraction from being content with what I actually do have. And at what point does an okay desire for something become coveting it? Well, it’s got me thinking about it that’s for sure.

That’s a bit deep for a blog huh?