quick post

Reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K.Rowling, and it is very good. It was not what I was expecting. When I had shown an interest in buying it when it came out, my then boyfriend put me off it a little by saying it has been panned (dont know where he heard that). It didnt put me off reading it, juts purchasing it new. I always intended to read it when it was cheaper to buy. I found a hardback in the charity shop one day whilst i have been busy buying up all the Harry Potter books I could lay my hands on.
I started to read it 2 weeks ago. It is a bit slow. Guy dies in first 3 pages, takes till page 174 to get to the funeral. But at the same time it does not feel slow. It has a lot of information, background, and character descriptions.

I am no where near finished, and I can confirm I like it.

My reason for the quick post is I found out that she answered a fan question on the book and I started to read it and then realised that it would give away all the plots and twists and turns.

So I am going to leave the link HERE. For me to read once finished



Elf on the Shelf post is going to be one post with all of the shenanigans posted. Sorry it was not what I wanted to do.

Alos on Potter News. Young Potter is coming to a theatre near you soon, well 2015 more likely.

A miss mash of thoughts

Read this this morning, and it hit home at how I was acting last night that I am ashamed of myself.

Last night Lyle told me he did not want to write a letter to santa. I insisted he go and finish the letter that I wrote and all he has to do is copy it and we can send it. He doesn't want to, so I told him no letter = no presents.
Now I have said it, I need to stick with it, don't I?
 He was upset as he tried to copy the letter. Once dinner was made I told him to leave it, but not after he had seen how dissapointed I was, even though I tried not to show it, and I tried to encourage him with saying how great his writing was etc. After dinner the plan was for him to finsh the letter and then we could watcha  film together, instead as I was already annoyed with myself, we both didn't bring up The Letter and instead we watched Snow Dogs.

My reasons for needing this letter? To practice his handwriting away from school/homework. And I would like a memento of his first letter to Santa that he writes for himself.

My first reason is valid, He needs the practice,  and its hard for me to help him in other ways away from homework, as he is learning in Gaelic, and my Gaelic is not too good. In fact it is piss pot poor.
Second reason is that I am selfish. And somewhere in the back of my head, I do have that 'I am the mother and what I say goes' attitude that I do fight with every single moment of the day. I have noticed that the more time apart we have, the more louder that voice becomes.

When I see him tomorrow I am going to find an reason for him to not send a letter (and still believe in Santa) and I will apologise to him.


Today, the First this week, we were late for school.
I turned down the light on the clock and it wasn't bright enough to wake us up. my mobile alarm has stopped going when I set it to. It did go, but the one that tells me we should be brushing our teeth and getting ready to head out the door, not still in bed.
I had been feeling a bit brighter this week, and I have been putting it down to the new alarm clock. I am getting to bed at a reasonable time of between 10 and 11 pm, go me!, and then waking up gradually and I do feel a lot better for it. (I am still a grump though. And seem to be very grumpy around dinner time) Today I have been 'groggy'.
Tomorrow I am going to test the clock without sound. If I wake complete on my own from jsut the light then I will be using only the light, as it is the noises that make me want to turn it off.


Advent for us was to do some 3-d snowflakes. After my disaster of approach t oThe Letter, I just didn't mention anything else. the ELf on the other hand, coloured all our milk Green and Lyle refused to eat his cereal this morning.


Also the cat was sick in the bathroom. 


Checked my bank balance today, we have been paid a little early, so this balance is not what is going to be staying in my bank, but it certainly feels good. And it is a massive achievement for me. Especially when just a few short years ago I lived in my overdraught and it never got any closer to zero than minus 500 pounds. So how much do I have today? Just over £1000. Glad that Christmas spending is done :) (apart from 2 presents, both budgeted for and just needing to get to the shops for.)

3-D Paper Snowflakes

Everyone is doing these just now, they are all over pinterest and facebook.
Here is the one i have done for in work.
Its nice and simple. fold 6 square pieces of paper in half to make a triangle, fold again to make a smaller triangle. cut 3 lines almost all the way up paralel to the side with only 1 fold.
open up, take the middle two 'triangles' and roll togetehr, tape in place, turn paper around so the roll is on the table, take the next two in line and roll together and tape, repeat until done. do with all 6 pieces of paper. join together in middle, then all the taped rolls on the outside, you want them to join so that when hung it keeps its shape.
make a hole at the top of one point and trhead some nice ribbon through to hang up on the celling. I dont have any just now, so i am using paperclips haha.

fold in half

and half again

3 cuts upto the side with 1 fold, dont cut all the way through

open out

tape middle 2 triangles together

flip over

tape next 2 together

and soo on and soo on

till all done

I stapeled 2 together

and then 3 pairs together in the middle

no sides joined, goes all floppy

stapled the outside 'X' together with their neighbours

not floppy anymore

hung up at my office counter.

decided to do more cuts this time

Apologies for no Advent or Elf on the shelp posts. Depression is kicking my butt big time just now, and I don't have the energy to kick its butt back :( I do have a mobile full of pictures for posts, just now goingto tray and find time to get them done. So apologies in advance for possibly having 3 or 4 posts a day and then none for a while again. 

Elf on the shelf
What has our ELf done?
Well he has been found in the breakfast cupboard, having a bath with the octonauts, TP'ed the tree, snuck into bed with us during the storm, hidden that days chocolate from the advent calendar. Tonight he is making these 3-d snowflakes for us to finish along with our letter to santa and a lot more...

Advent day one

Today is the anticipated day of Advent, for me, it is the chance to get playing Elf on the Shelf. For Lyle, it is the count down to Christmas. I know it is a lot more than that. But for us just now, this is what we have been looking forward to.

Day one.
In our advent calendar it said go visit Santa with a ticket for xscape.
So off we went. Wrapped up warm. Santas grotto, you see, is on the snow.
After we were booked in, names on, we waited in short line (6 children per booking slot) beside the grotto. We tried to pick up some snow but it has compacted to ice, as we got closer, we could see Santa through the window and Lyle, really excitedly says "its the real one mum, look the real Santa has come!"
When it was our turn we both got to sit beside Santa, and he spoke to Lyle, saying how he knows he is a good boy but really needs to listen to his mum more, how his writing and reading are coming along great but needs to start liking sums more. He asked him if he is still wanting the new Skylanders and that his elves are busy making some just now.
Then Santa brings out a parcel just for Lyle, and inside this parcel is an elf. Santa said that elfie will come back home each night to tell Santa and his family all the great things that Lyle does, like bring helpful, being kind and tidying his toys away.
We all got our picture taken, then Lyle got to race an elf named Darren down the hill on sledges.

We waited in a short line to get our free picture, but when it was our turn, the printer broke, we waited for 40 minutes then they put them on pen drives instead.

Lyle was soo cute, asking Elfie what he liked etc and putting the elf up to his ear to hear what the reply was.

We then spent some money on different games like air hockey and whack a mole.

Our day out was great, and I would fully recommend Snow Factors Santa experience.

End of the 10pm Bedtime Club/November Challenge

Well the end has been and gone, overall it wasn't a complete failure, I had more nights where I went to bed before midnight, and a few that were after. Compared to before, this is a vast improvement. I intend to keep trying and aiming for a 10pm bed time. 

The National Sleep Foundation ten top tips, which are mostly common sense when you really think about it. 

My tips are

Get rid of electronics from the bedroom. 

• No TV, 
• No p.c., 
• No laptop, 
• No tablet, 
• No smartphone, in fact no phones at all. 

Have your bedroom at a comfortable temperature.

•  I prefer cool, 
• my son needs warm as he doesn't sleep with covers; ever. Even when it is minus 12* outside and cold inside. 

Make it nice and dark

• invest in blackout blinds if necessary

Don’t eat after dinner and try and have dinner before 7pm.

Don’t get sucked in with TV time schedules. Most people have some sort of record facility on their TV’s. Record and watch when you have time during the day.

Well thank you for following me on my mission to get more better quality sleep. Oh and I  purchased a Lumie BodyClock. Tried it today for the first time and it sort of worked. When the beep beep of the alarm part came on and woke me up, the sun was shining, I hit the snooze and the light and sound went off, I was not expecting that. I would have liked the noise to stop but the light to continue, it snoozed for 9 minutes and this time the beep beep woke up Lyle and he got up and came into my room.

The verdict is still out but I have not written it off after one day. 

And it does do the nice rays of sunshine on the walls. And boy, is it bright!

Next mission is