Category Archives: General

For all the other bits of info on mumof2.com that just don’t seem to fit anywhere else!

General

It’s always the simple things that make life so much fun!

A lovely log den we stumbled upon
A lovely log den we stumbled upon

Whenever the sun comes out, we try and take the opportunity with both hands. As the UK has had its wettest year since records began, this has generally meant that these days are few and far between.

We were recently at Wimpole Hall (a National Trust property) in Cambridgshire having a walk about with the boys and our dogs and came across a log den that someone had built and ended up spending a good 2 hours or so playing and exploring. We had such fun each pretending to be the Gruffalo.

If you happen to know of any other places that could give us a lovely day out and doesn’t cost the earth – please get in touch and let me know.

General

I’m back! Happy 2013 to you all!

I hope you all had a good Christmas and spent it doing all the good things you like doing and that 2013 has started on a good note. If it hasn’t, well then I hope that things can only go in the right direction from here as there is another 355 or so days in order for it to get back on the right track.

Our building work is 99% finished and the dust is slowly settling. We were warned about the dust but no matter how much wet dusting I do, it is back with a vengance within seconds. All for a good cause though as we are now loving the changes and doesn’t feel like a dustfilled building site…just a dustfilled home.

I am also having thoughts of redesigning my blog – so check back every now and then to see how I go or if it is unavailable for a few minutes then you will know why. As I said in one of my first posts, I was bound to make some mistakes and learn during the process and I can say the learning curve has been steep over the past 3 months with a lot of information I am processing and realising I can’t make too many changes all at once.

General

Tea making skills require more work

It’s weird – when I was little and right up into my teens – I only drank tea. I loved the smell of coffee but was a tea drinker through and through. I then had a gap year aupairing in Holland and discovered coffee there. Coffee in Holland/Nederland is an occasion. It’s not something you rush together and drink as fast as humanly possible without burning yourself.

Anyway, so along the way I have slowly become more of a coffee drinker and in all fairness it was since having the boys and I required the caffeine to keep me going from the moment I woke up. So, with the builders we have on site, it is a very good way of finding out how things are going by doing the tea runs. My tea making apparently requires more work. It is not strong enough for the teaspoon to hold itself standing up in the middle of the cup! Some days it’s great and others(I can see by the builder’s looks) it merely passes for a cuppa.

Yesterday and today, I resorted to making cakes in the hopes it would help disguise my tea debacle but even then I still have tricky customers. The electrician doesn’t drink hot drinks at all, so thankfully squash is ok but also doesn’t like anything chocolately and in fact would prefer a Bailey’s cheesecake – I have told him that alchohol and building are probably not a good mix.

I did try and leave the tea/coffee making items for them to make their own – and they weren’t touched (plus I didn’t have an excuse to go and inspect…not a clever move when you hear swearing and there hasn’t been swearing since the get go). We shall see how tomorrow goes…

General

Christmas in October

I am usually a procrastinate to the last minute kind of person – must be the adrenalin rush of racing about to get everything done. So this year, I had noticed a friend of mine had booked her Christmas grocery delivery slot at the end of October. I honestly thought it was a bit early to be doing it and then the nagging suspicion was that there was most likely a reason for it. So 2 days later, yes a WHOLE 2 days later, I thought ‘well it wouldn’t hurt to just go online and book a slot with maybe something in the shopping basket’. Shock horror! I could not get a delivery slot for the Christmas week and when I booked a slot for the week before Christmas, it would not allow me to add anything from the Christmas range to said slot!

Horror and then shock that the grocery company was dictating to me that it was ‘too early’ to buy Christmas goodies that could have gone in the freezer when they have already had all their Christmas week delivery slots taken. Pah! So I thought indignantly, well, I’ll just to go a different company then only to be met with no bookings in December. I could order for October and November but nothing in December.

Serves me right for trying to be a little organised and mess with the Christmas spirit! December it will all have to be and maybe, just maybe, I may even put a reminder on my phone to see if I can get a delivery slot instead of fighting my way 3 rows deep to get to the chocolate!

General

Lost in translation

Right, so thankfully I have an anti-spammer that picks up dodgy/automated comments to any of the posts on mumof2.com and I should have probably added this to the Learning the ropes…version 2. I was having a look to see whether any had mistakenly been ‘mis-diagnosed’ and couldn’t help but laugh at the latest in response to Dust…Dust…Dust… which reads :

“I enjoy you because of all of the effort on this web site. Betty take interest in making time for investigation and it’s really simple to grasp why. Many of us notice all of the lively method you produce functional thoughts on this website and therefore improve contribution from others on this issue so our favorite girl is undoubtedly becoming educated a lot. Take advantage of the remaining portion of the new year. You are conducting a very good job.”

It was for a credit check site (yes…has no relation to Dust and building whatsoever!) I  have decided to start a page featuring the ones I laugh at AND are clean and that are genuinely not from a real person who has taken the time to comment.

General

Learning the ropes…version 2

You may or may not have read my learning the rope blog post (I have added the link in case you wanted a refresher).  I thought it may be nice to let you know that www.mumof2.com is a while month old! Bring on the candles and cakes!

I have a buzzing brain and a new addiction, which is actually helping my chocolate addiction I should add. Anyone with Toblerone or KitKat chunky shares…apologies for the fall in profits this month. I am still toying with the idea of changing the look of my blog and am now trying to incorporate a lot of the advice and tips I have seen and read. One little step at a time is my new motto.

Having never been on twitter before nor created a new facebook page or using WordPress, I am kind of pleased that I haven’t made any great big mistakes and crashed all forms of communication in linking them together. It has opened a whole new world and I am loving learning all the new things that go with being a blogger. Sort of like being a new parent where you bumble along and figure out what works and what doesn’t. I can say that I am trying to figure out the twitter etiquette (note to self – maybe buy a book on this!). There are some amazing, helpful people out there who have been very patient with me or who have just given advice out of the goodness of their hearts.  My confidence is growing slowly although my addiction is growing at a faster pace.

I can say for our first month we have  had :

Visits: 139
Unique Visitors: 79
Pageviews: 380

Don’t worry – I don’t have any specific information on who has visited etc!!! I just wanted to thank all of you who have visited, commented and been really supportive. The numbers may seem very small to some, but for a new blogger I don’t think they are too shabby.

If there is anything you particularly liked, feel free to comment and if there is something I haven’t covered and you would like me to guest blog  – please let me know either by twitter or my facebook page

General

Dust…dust…dust…

dust, building, mumof2

 

We’ve bit the bullet and taken on a small internal building project which is going to apparently last all of 5 weeks (and that can only mean one thing….loads of dust!). We are 2.5 weeks in and thankfully our house is still in tact and so are relations. My supportive husband and I have been sharing/squatting on the boys bedroom floor as there isn’t anywhere else to really sleep in the house.

Our friends warned us about the dust. I mean they REALLY WARNED us to expect a LOT of dust. So the first week, I was very cautious and ensured the dust sheets were up and that there was no way a spec of dust was going to make it out the ‘building section’ whilst the massive wall bashing was taking place. All has gone well and the wall bashing is finished as is the chasing for the electrics along with the sawing.

Our builders have been great. No swearing. Very clean and tidy up after themselves. They even take their shoes off if there is no dust sheet on the floor. Extremly considerate for the boys and our dogs and very patient!!

So – I figured – they have finished the dust making part, we don’t need to worry about said dust sheets any more. Well…I can tell you something else! There is MORE dust now that they are doing small jobs than there ever was with the wall bashing! Today, after cleaning the kitchen, there was a small layer of white dust all over the stove. I wandered upstairs to the ‘building section’ to ask where all the dust was coming from and saw the culprit. A bag of something like wall glue (forgive me – I am not technically up to speed with building words I have to tell you). I could see these fine particles going into the air as the builder was taking a small trowel (yep – learnt a word!) of this fine powder out of the bag to gently mix it with whatever it is he mixes it with.

I have refused to dust for the last 2.5 weeks. REFUSED! The bets are on for how long I actually last for. I can see dust on everything. It’s all for a good cause and being as stubborn as I am known to be I don’t know who is going to win the dust war. Me or the dust!

builderswithasenseofhumour_mumof2