Pumpkins, Mums and the PTO

Oh my!

There was a Pumpkin and Mums sale up at #1 Son’s school today.


Last year I was completely confused as to why they might potentially be auctioning off fellow mothers…

It turns out the hus-creature was also, as he checked – ‘mums = chrysanthemums

Which was a relief I have to admit πŸ€£πŸ˜‚


There was also hot apple cider sadly, (or perhaps not given my liver still seems to be crying after Friday), not alcoholic, and ring donuts and…. a petting zoo.

I’ve made a vow this year to actually do more of the after/outside of school activities and so I insisted we head up.

First came the petting zoo:

Sadly, #1 Son was not keen, but TT was enthralled. So I sent my boys off to forage for pumpkins – but sadly not mums as it turns out that they are highly toxic to cats and dogs, so no plant for me – while TT went in with the animals.

It wasn’t completely successful as she has actually listened to me about not petting strange animals it seems, and took a lot of convincing that it was ok to do so. There was a lot of “Mummy no, I not touch animals” but she had fun.

Then came… pumpkin decorating:

Both kids had so much fun. I had to intervene a little when #1 Son kept trying to attach stickers to his sister’s pumpkin (and believe me, she was not impressed by that!), and my role was “Chief re-attacher of pen lids”, but they both had so much fun.

Also TT was hilarious – she was most definitely choosing her own pen colours and would not be swayed.

Serious artist is serious

She would not relinquish that red marker.

Then it came time to leave. She would not be parted from her precious pumpkin. She had a full on level 10 meltdown when we left it in the boot of the car to, you know, dry and set.

Her precious:

Both children decorated a pumpkin of course:

And we had to let her have it on the way home from lunch, so she cradled it like a teddy bear:

Such pride many happy πŸ€£πŸ˜‚β€οΈπŸ’—

But then once we returned what were we to do? I had visions of her sleeping with the darned thing. However through some judicious use of lollipop based bribery, to prevent her from sitting outside all afternoon, both pumpkins now have pride of place on our front porch:

But this does mean that for once I have contributed to the Halloween decorations hurrah!

Self improvement

Starts here.

Actually, it started last week when both the hus-creature and I joined a gym!

Yes I know, I can hear you all laughing hysterically. But it’s true.

Through ruthless calorie counting, and as close to a daily walk around beautiful Melrose as I can, I have managed to shift just over 20lb.

And I’m really proud of that. But I need to keep the momentum going. And I’m getting very familiar with my town now, and I needed to step it up a gear. So gym it was. You have 24/7 access and, after the first 30 day’s, can access any branch globally as part of your membership πŸ™€

So, yesterday I went for my induction session.


I feel that it should be noted that I had attended the gym pretty much daily last week barring Wednesday. I had signed the “I promise I won’t sue you if I hurt myself” disclaimer, and I remembered how most of the main machines worked so while I was waiting for them to book me in, off I went.


With the lovely Erik. Well he was very friendly and very good at his job.

I told him I hated him at least twenty times during the course of that hour, to which he merely laughed – the evil man!

But I did recant at the end of the session.

They seem positive that if I regularly attend (and I will) I should be able to reach my initial goal weight within a reasonable time frame – which I want to have done by next summer.

I will wear a pretty bikini goddammit

However I seem to have mildly overdone it πŸ€£πŸ˜‚

I will also in part attribute this to going out on the town last night with my wonderful H πŸ’—πŸ’—πŸ’—πŸ’—

We danced, we laughed and we got very, very drunk πŸ˜‚πŸ€£ we were total dirty stop outs and didn’t get home til 1am!

Yes, I am rocking navy lipstick πŸ˜‰

It matched my dress. My TARDIS dress. No I won’t be wearing it as an everyday look, but I put full face on for the first time ever by myself

It all comes under the self care banner. I’ll never be a “girly girl” but I can enjoy the occasional benefit from it.

Oh and the hus-creature? He still needs to sort out his induction – but he threw his back out again this week. Hopefully he can sort it out next week.

Me, I won’t be going to the gym tomorrow. We have a stupidly full schedule and I can barely walk so…

It’s the differences that hurt

I started writing this post in late May this year. Mostly to quietly vent. I’m not sure if I ever intended to publish it. But I feel I should. It’s important to be honest, with myself as well as everyone else.


I’ve been ruminating on this post for a while, and I suspect that it will be a good few days in the writing before I hit the publish button to be honest.

We all know that I have my two kidlets:

And

And I love them both to death. I do. I would both die and kill for these two. I have been a mama lion for #1 Son over the last year or so, and will continue to be for as long as he needs or wants me to be. But, can I admit something?

I get so tired.

It’s so hard. So so hard. And half the time at least it’s just not his fault or anything to do with him as himself. He continues to be one of the kindest, funniest, sweetest boys that anyone would be lucky to know.

But it’s his condition. It’s his disability (and I bloody loathe that word).

He is not a standard child. And this world is set up for the standard. For the “normal”. And everyone else is left to sink or swim.

TT is growing up. Every day it seems she does something new.

And she is blowing right past him

I don’t mean like for like now, at almost six he still ahead of her, but at their comparative ages she’s miles ahead.

  • She plays with toys.
  • She has proper imaginative play.
  • She is capable of playing on her own.
  • She wants to play with her brother. She idolises him if truth be known.
  • Her language skills are amazing
  • She has concepts such as sharing down. Admittedly mostly when they benefit her but she’s got them.
  • Milestones such as crawling, walking etc she already blew past him with.

There are more, so many more, but these are the ones that stick in my head.

It’s almost daily that I will look at the hus-creature and say:

He was never like this.

Or

He never did this/that.

And I wonder if he has somehow been short changed by my just not knowing that he was non-standard.

How did I not know? Well for a premature child and a boy, he was hitting all the relevant milestones within the age-appropriate ranges.

We didn’t see a problem until he first started formal schooling.

I worry for him. I worry about him. If I, as his mother, can get upset and frustrated


And I do, believe me I do


Then how will the rest of the world cope? How will he cope with it?!?!?


And that is where I stopped. I couldn’t carry it on.

I think my pain, worry, fear is quite obvious no? But, I’m pleased to say, that things are once again on the upswing.

He’s had a few knocks since the start of the school year. For example he started leaving class again, particularly after we got back from England. However that was two weeks ago, and he’s getting better.

I still haven’t had to visit the new Principal (which is great) and he’s making great strides in his reading, writing and math.

I’m just so proud of this kid.

He’s a trooper. He’s my best boy. And I will continue to be the Mamasaurus that he needs me to be.

He got that star in his first week and we have also had another since.

Fall Yarn Projects – and a surprise πŸ˜†

Good evening (or day depending on where you are in this great world of ours) dear audience.

Let’s discuss something that is close to my heart – yarn!

“But wait!” I hear you cry (I have amazing speakers on my phone/computer you know!) that is far too broad a topic.

I agree my friends, so let’s narrow it down. The dreaded C word is fast approaching you know. Yes, Christmas.

Now, I know many of you who are crafters (like me, or at least I like to pretend that is so!) will probably have already started – if not completed – some of your intended gifts.

However, this is what normally happens for me:

The Festive Season Checklist:

  1. Realise Christmas is X number of months away.
  2. Realise “oh crud – gifts
  3. Think to myself “oh, of course, I could hand make gifts”
  4. Start lists of everyone who I think I could make something for.
  5. Remember that, actually, I am a slow knitter/crocheter and so in order to do this for everyone I should have started in January.
  6. Cry at list.
  7. Throw list away and start browsing Amazon.

However, there are people out there, normal sane people, who can do this and do this well.

And for those I have some wonderful news.

This is my first-ever sponsored/requested post!

Yes I’m actually doing something practical for a change.

(Stop gasping at the back there, you there in the back row – I see you!)

So, let’s talk seasonal knitting. Now did I mention I am a slow knitter? I’m better crocheter in terms of speed, but I find making anything beyond blankets in crochet a bit head scratchy.

So I really ought to have started things like sweaters or cowls or ponchos back in the spring let alone in the summer.

(I do have a seed stitch cowl that I’ve been working on but it’s very much at the bottom of the unfinished object pile)

However for those of you who can knock up a sweater in a week – and I know people like this exist, there are several in my weekly knitting group – there is still more than enough time for my exciting news to impact you.

LoveKnittingUSA are running an amazing giveaway via yours truly.

They are offering 10 free balls of yarn for one of my lucky readers.

That’s right dear audience 10 balls of gorgeous yarn from the Simply DK range

Why DK? Well it’s from my own personal preference – I find I underuse DK (when I work on projects for myself I tend to work in fingering/sock weight) and I therefore feel that this yarn could use some love.

Isn’t that amazing? Obviously there are T&Cs but they are remarkably simple. You will need to be prepared to provide your name and address by email (so that spam bots don’t pick it up from my blog or Facebook) to receive the prize.

It will be sent directly from LoveKnitting, (due to me knowing how crazy busy my life can suddenly get, and I would NOT want you missing out) and so you would also need to contact me once the prize arrives with a photo.

And, we would very much like a picture of the winning Finished Object.

Which leads me nicely on to the next part of this post.

So, how do you win this wonderful loot?

Well, send me a comment, either on the blog directly, or through the Facebook link, telling me:

  1. Your favourite part of Fall/Halloween heck even Christmas
  2. What you would most love to make from the prize.
  3. Who it is intended for – and don’t be shy, self care is important, so if it is for yourself that’s great too.
  4. The color palette you would use – all 10 could be the same shade for a sweater, or multiple for scarves, or heck brioche colorwork it’s up to you.

The deadline for comments/entries is two weeks from the publish date of this post.

So sharpen your pins, polish your hooks, heck get out those looms people.

And get thinking/posting/writing

If you need ideas, there is this wonderful Fall inspired post which includes ideas for cozy seasonal patterns.

Or, if you are more spookily inclined, (and I have to admit that since moving to Massachusetts, Halloween is fast becoming one of my all time favourite holidays) there is also this Halloween knitting projects post which LoveKnittingUSA have already published.


Why flog a dead horse? These are amazing resources dear audience so please use them