wrapping up the week

It has been another busy week but busy is the norm here and mostly, I enjoy being busy.




The laundry keeps defeating me. The drier is completely dead, not even Richard can fix it. I don't think we'll get a new one anytime soon.

Richard was really busy last weekend, cutting down the badly neglected wildflower meadow (also known as the front garden) and then hiring a brush strimmer to get it down to the ground, ready to be seeded with yellow rattle and a suitable selection of wildflowers. The grass had taken over because we have not looked after the meadow. Oddly, wildflower grasslands in the wilderness don't seem to need this kind of attention.

Sam has been away all week on a community leadership training camp. He left on Monday morning and was not heard of until Friday evening. He came back exhausted but content, having camped in the wilderness, built rafts, made new friends and made a beginning on a new community project he and his new pals have to plan, develop and work on over the next few months.

Annie is now the proud owner of glasses. The frame really suits her. Did you notice how frames have increased in size over the past few years? Interesting how fashion affects eye wear also.

I will be working full time again soon. I am on a 0.8 FTE contract but have a near full time schedule. I don't think I'll have to change my working pattern much but it will be nice to have more money to spend on fripperies.

I am more than halfway through with my Zombies, Run! 5k training programme. Each session is about 50 minutes now, quite a big junk of time but the programme includes walking, running, stretching and exercise routines (for example knee lifts and heel lifts). To be honest, progress is slow and I am still somewhat hampered by my foot, which hurts sometimes. Learning from experience, I am taking it very slowly to prevent a flare up of my plantar fasciitis. I might not run the full distance when it is time for my virtual race on Halloween. I received two training missions for this race, to get me into the spirit of things. The first mission was spooky, a reconnaissance run to an abandoned mansion. Ghostly with a few hungry zombies thrown in. The second training run was even more spooky with a creepy old witch and hungry newts.

I am in a new book group. I am reading a non-fiction book about Boko Haram in Nigeria at the moment, it centres on the abduction of several hundred girls to serve as wive/slaves for Boko Haram extremists. It is really interesting actually, despite the grim topic. The other book we are reading is an autobiography by Michael J Fox. His acting is better than his writing, that's all I am saying. I have also just finished 'How to stop time' by Matt Haig, which I enjoyed.

I am taking a whole week of. I plan to do nothing but sew, knit and drink coffee. The kids are off, too. James is booked into an adventure camp organised by Scouts. £50 for a whole week, including food. Alistair is too young to go but wants to go to a camp, too. Not the alien invasion one he says. It took a while to get to the bottom of that one. The boys sometimes go to an American style holiday camp. You know, the kind of camp in involving cabins in the woods on the lake. Except ours is without cabins, woods and lake and during daytime only. Anyway, apart from campfires and sing alongs, one of the adventure camp activities was an alien invasion game, which seems to have traumatised my youngest. I still haven't booked anything for Alistair but maybe I can get him into football camp for two or three days. Failing that, he'll get as much screen time as he wishes to have.

The weekend has been uneventful. I did some chores, spent some time knitting and I worked on my quilt. I listened to audiobooks, too. James and Alistair were quite feral, playing outside with an assortment of neighbourhood children. At one point I lifted my head from my quilt, only to seem them climbing over our very high back fence. They were astonishingly filthy and very hungry. It is great that they are not the only children allowed to play outside, unsupervised.

I have switched the alarm clock off. I am so looking forward to having a lazy week. We went to Turkey last year for the October break and loved a bit of sunshine before the beginning of the dark season but this year, we are too poor and will just hang out here in Glasgow.

Have a good week, whatever it may bring xx















Comments

  1. I raised my 3 in a half feral way.. I was insistent on raising them in the countryside so we got a house on 2 acres and we got goats to milk, chickens for eggs and a pony for the kids. We then moved to a 5 acre place with a 100 year old farm house and got more goats which we milked and more chickens and more horses and a sheep. :-) They all loved the freedom of their growing up years. I loved hearing about your guy having fun on the fence. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  2. A bit of wildness is a wonderful thing. Your plans for the week sound excellent, I do hope you have a lovely time. I have picked up my knitting needles again now that autumn is here. It's a comfortable seasonal thing for me. CJ xx

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  3. How to stop time by Matt is probably going to be my bookclub choice next yr. Hope you don't mind me asking - where do you get your audio books from? That's one thing I find with the bookclub, I've not always had time to read them, lame excuse I know but I do like the sound of crafting whilst listening. I've just ordered this months on cd but the cd players tend to lose it's place if you stop mid chapter / track. The joys. Cx

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    1. Hi Cathy. Hope you are coming back to see this reply, you are a no reply blogger so can't reply directly. I have been a subscriber to Audible for years. It is now an Amazon company and easy to use. There are different subscriptions but you can also just buy an audiobook. These can be downloaded on any device but you also have an online library so you can go back anytime, even years after (like a book shelf but less dusty). I use my phone for listening. Cx

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    2. Thanks for the reply Christina. I think I looked at the Amazon one £7.99 a month I think. I'll take another look later.
      You mentioned I was a no-reply blogger, how do I change that please? On this particular reply there was a 'notify me' tick button. Is that what you mean. Sorry if it's obvious.
      Incidently I'm following Amy at love made my home on bloglovin' direct. It says I can't see any new blogs as I've 'not been invited'. Any ideas what to do? Hoping I've not upset Amy, oops!
      Like you I took the e-mail button off as the numbers rocketed and some! Weird. Cx

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  4. I hope you have a wonderful week. My children were raised in a small farming town and rode their bikes wherever they wished. It was an idyllic life. Now they're grown up and I live in a big city area..times gave changed. About your plantar facititis, I had that problem too. I had a cortisone shot but didn't want to continue down that road. I finally started wearing these arch supports in my shoes and slippers www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002H42G2C/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1508109797&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=walk+fit+orthotics and it worked wonders. They are Walk Fit Orthodics. Hopefully you can find something to help you. Enjoy your week and dear family. Pat xx

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  5. Hope you have a wonderful week. I have this amazing image of children climbing over the back fence. My girls were quite feral and were often seen climbing haystacks and such, they often say they had an idyllic childhood.

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  6. I am fully in favor of a week of lazing.. i don't know how to knit but a week of no alarms, reading and coffee sounds blissful

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  7. It seems that not enough children today get outdoors and just play so it's great to read that your sons do, Christina, and most likely it totally exhausts them...another good thing out being outdoors. I've considered a book club, but my reading rate can be sporadic. Sometimes I can devour a book in a few days and other times it may take me a week to start one. A friend really enjoys the audible books she listens to from Audible, but I have been downloading and listening to podcasts instead...so many choices and so little time it seems.

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  8. I think a stay at home week sounds wonderful. You will get so much done, or nothing done but it will be your choice. You won't feel all exhausted once you get back and have to do all that laundry with no dryer. I would love a week like that where I wasn't sick and in bed, but home by choice. Enjoy every second of it.

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  9. Enjoy your well earned week off. Well done on the running, I seem to be on a slow down at the moment. I need to get at it! Sounds like your boys have great fun, nothing wrong with feral :). B x

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  10. Hey Christina,
    I love that your boys run feral. We live on one of the more busy roads in St Ives. There is no pavement and the cars use it as a rat run. So I've never felt happy letting the boys out to play until they were older. More road safety that stranger danger here. The other week, Olly nearly got run down just leaving for school, so I am even more anxious. I wish we had moved to the estate near me, but Marc was having none of it. Your week off sounds fantastic; all that time to sit and pursue your hobbies. Good for you.
    Leanne xxx

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  11. Hmm, have you sought Physio for your foot? I believe PF is something they can usually help sort out. Good luck. X

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  12. Your posts are so fun to read! I hope everything goes well! I love the photos of the autumn leaves at the top by the way.

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  13. Love your description of the neighbourhood and your kids. Sounds like my childhood. You have a wildflower meadow; so very pea green with envy!

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  14. It's nice that your kids can play out with other children. There are virtually no families with young children where we live and it's a shame that my two don't get that experience of playing outside unsupervised, because it's such a good way to build trust, independence and confidence. I sometimes wish we'd bought a house on the new build estate near school where all their friends live. X

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Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment, I love to hear from you, I really do. I sometimes reply by email but I am not all that reliable... Christina xx

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