Not such a Super Woman after all...

Well I did say I would be irregular - I am true to my word...so 2 months down the line, I feel the urge to blog once more.
Yesterday was memorable, my Great Grandmothers funeral.
I wept when told of her death, she was almost 102 and had a long, healthy, productive life - so after a day of mopping around and feeling sorry for myself, I set about getting on with organising my family to attend the funeral. I arranged days off from school for the children, nagged the bigger ones to make their apologies at work and college, made sure that work was aware that I would be away, asked my fab friend to pop in to check on the dogs, got all the black coats and hats dry cleaned, stitched new buttons into empty spaces on said coats, polished shoes, filled the car with petrol and ... BIG mistake, took the wretched thing through the local car wash. As I left the car wash, things seemed noisier than usual and there was definitely less power than I am used to. Took hubby with me for a short ride to check that I was not imagining it - I wasn't !! So, with only a few hours to spare, went online and arranged a hire car.
Still on track the morning of the funeral, I collected the hire car, swung by the local cop shop to collect eldest daughters mobile phone ( she had left it in a taxi over the weekend ) and made for home to collect the rest of the tribe. Mike drove his car with youngest son aboard and the hire car was just for us girls ( whoopee ).
Congratulating myself on my organisational skills and the great way I had coped with this emotional fortnight so well, I had lunch with the extended family at the local pub opposite the church and then crossed the road with the whole clan to say 'goodbye' to Great Gran - still thinking how well everything was going, how smart my family looked, how polite yet confident our children were being etc, I positioned myself next to my mother to provide her with some support during the service. Still fine - bit of a chat with Mum and Dad, little joke with Sister Liz behind me, encouraging smile for Lucy who was looking a little sad and then the first hymn started and I dissolved completely - Mum held MY hand and was a tower of strength, a rock, whilst I cried like a baby through the second hymn, the eulogy (beautifully delivered by my Father), the prayers, the sermon AND the third and final hymn. The day has taught me two things, i)I still have much to learn from my mother and ii) pride comes before a fall.
Still, Great Gran had a great send off - no more than she deserved - and as Mike said at the end of a very draining day, it's a shame she couldn't be there to see everyone, she would have loved it !!!

Getting away from it all....eventually

I have been washing and ironing ( again ) and planning and writing lists of things that I must not forget and arranging new passports for two of the children ( £107 !!! )and booking the dogs into kennels and organising carers for the chickens and trying to get a map of France from Tom Tom ( who quite frankly are RUBBISH and are not answering their phones or their emails even though they have managed to take payment for a map that won't download - GITS ) and getting the dogs a hair cut before they go into kennels and filling the fridge for the offspring who are staying at home and coordinating travel plans with our travel companions and sorting out everything that needs cover/answering/replying to/delivering and avoiding at work while I am away and hoovering the house ( lord knows why as the only people who will be here for the next couple of weeks really don't care if the place is clean or a total pig sty ) and remembering NOT to cancel the milk as there will still be people at home who drink the stuff and packing little bags of things into bigger bags of yet more things and now I am really looking forward to getting away from it all. I feel much better now I have got that off my chest !

Two More Big Eggs !!

Not sure which chicken laid it, but it is mahoosive. Peggy is walking about slower than usual so it may be her, I am concerned that this is the beginning of another sick chick saga...we will have to wait and see.
The other big egg is above my sons left eye, which is now a lovely pale blue colour. He fell off his bike yesterday, scraped his knee, elbow , shoulder and managed to give himself a black eye, trying to avoid a wheelie bin on the pavement. Daughter number 2 patched him up while daughter number 3 phoned me at work and I gave first aid advice down the phone before leaving work and driving home to dunk the patient in a warm salt bath.
Daughter number 2 was calm and in control ( like great gran in a crisis ) whilst daughter number 3 was anything but !!!!
I can remember the sick feeling in my stomach that I got when I fell off the back of a bike years ago (tearing a hole in my new jeans which mother repaired with a 'Smile Jesus loves you' patch! ) but then the slight feeling of pride when displaying scars, bruises and bandaging to friends and family after any mishap - weird.

massaging a chicken

seriously !!!
Meggan ( a copper black ) became ill this weekend - sunday to be precise, best day for vets as it cost about 7 times what the chicken cost me just to see the vet !!!
any how, meggan looked ill, drooping tail, listless, dodgy eyes etc so rang the vet who said she knew very little about chickens but if she ( the chicken not the vet ) was egg bound then steaming would help !!! So duly ran very hot bath and placed chicken next to it for approx 4 hours - nothing appeared so rang vet again and she advised us to take megan along to surgery... £97, a dose of antobiotics ( for something called sour crop, which am now suspecting was something the vet made up to justify extortionate fee ) and a lesson in how to massage a chickens crop whilst holding the bird upside down, later... meggan is much improved. I have had a busy weekend and the ironing pile has not reduced at all... bloody chickens !! Am now planning to retrain as a vet or a chicken masseuse ( is that how you spell it ??? )
more later - much later !!

No commitments !

this blog may be VERY irregular - I make no promises that I will keep it up or reply to any one who is kind enough to respond or that I will make more than a couple of entries a year.

here goes...

today was an amazing day in that although I acheived very little, I had a relaxing time and didn't feel at all guilty !!! Spent the day at a local country park, MH fishing with number one son, Lulu and I lounging about with friends and dogs, barbequing, sipping wine and generally having very little to do.
Made a batch of goosegog jam when we got home ( eleven jars from one very small but elderly bush ) and then was meaning to tackle VERY large pile of ironing, but was distracted by sister who asked on fathers blog when I was planning to start my own........... cheers NEA !!!

Will explore possibility of photos so I can show you my dogs and chickens and children and the beautiful area I live in .... Middle England in the summer.