Februrary! Spring is just around the corner!!

Yes! It is very exciting! The day is around 10 days away that we turn into the 1st March! The day one breathes a huge sigh of relief and flings open the windows to let in the fresh air again! It's a mad tradition I have but one I look forward to doing annually. I almost feel as I shove open the window that I am letting out winter and letting in Spring. Total twaddle I know but it's how I feel! So how are you all? Hope your all well. Do post some comments or questions on anything! It's very quiet out there! Are you all looking forward to Spring too? What do you look forward to the most? For me it's finally stepping out into the fresh air and my garden and reconnecting with nature again! Lots of plans for the garden this year - Whether any of it happens is another matter but we shall see! First big garden job is to mend my greenhouse. It is looking very sorry for itself! Rubbish pictures but you can just about make out the state of the poor thing from these 2 piccies.

So now we are in Feb its time to reverse to the 1st of Feb which was a Monday. Google photos tell me nothing much happened apart from Sophie making her school work pencil into a butterfly ... How creative!

Tuesday 2nd February (Nearly wrote November then! Don't want to go back to then!!)

This was a zoom school day. I seem to have Jessica's work. Mostly illegible as she doesn't give a poop about doing school work! So here's some illegible English and Maths ...

Mummy finds a picture of this cute wooden heart and thinks what fun it would be to make with the girls. Knowing full well she would end up doing most of herself and they would get bored of it ... The idea was for a row of them for Valentines. I can tell you now this didn't happen ...

Fast forward to Wednesday 3rd February:

Sophie played with her doll instead of doing school work and made me some soup in a real cassarole dish that she fished out of the cupboard. It was my nans!! I love it and wouldn't want it broken but there is a part of me likes them to play in a realistic way. It is good to learn how to handle glass, cutlery, food etc. Its how they learn through play so I let it slide! It even had water in the bottom like a real soup is watery. I love how kids play like this and use their imagination. I am loving these moments as they are so bitter sweet. I know it is only a matter on months before her play will turn more grown up. Jess had a real change around age 6 and stopped the make believe early play :-( So it's really sad that these days will soon be through! 

In the evening we got down some old craft making boxes - Toucan and the like ... Sophie had been asking for them so gave one activity to her and 1 to J. J's was making a mouth with teeth in out of jam biscuits and putting marshmallows inside for the teeth. And Sophie's was making a rib cage with the organs inside. For some reason I never got a picture of the finished article of Sophie's!

At bed time Sophie dressed up as a bride. I forget who to this time though!!!

Thursday 4th February:

Sophie procastinated over school work by needing to destress with some relaxing music on you tube and doing some yoga?! And my Daffodils we got Sunday are well open now. And my Hyacinth I got for £3.50 odd from Waitrose is coming out nicely too! Don't they look gorgeous and sooo Spring like!!

It's the first year I have ever brought Spring flowers so early in the year and I must say they have given me a boost. Just try and see past the junk of my dining room table!! Bet yours is looking similar if you have kids too! ;-)

And lastly Friday 5th February;

Some random English work that Jess did on Zoom with her class. See if it makes any sense to you coz it sure doesn't to me!

Sophie wrapped me a present. I can't remember what it was now? But think it was something along the lines of a toy mobile phone!

Below Sophie made a big dolls house out of little houses. Note: The pot on the side filled with water ... This is a dolls swimming pool. She dives off the top of the houses and straight in. As you do ...

And today my Sunbed arrived! Yes I have gone totally mad! However my old one is very broken so I needed a new one. Brought the other one the year I was pregnant with Jess so it's 9 years old this year! 

It's been ripped so not even sit-on-able. Hubby sat on it a few years back and it's slowly been on the way out since lol. Him sitting on it last year just finished it off! Any way I brought this the Friday and the very next day it snowed LOL! Now who do you know who buys a sunbed when snow is due aye?! Well I had read that there is going to be a lack of garden furniture this year due to lack of shipping containers. So I got in quick whilst they were in stock!!! I couldn't live a summer without my bed. Wait it will be a rubbish summer now ... Sorry everyone! I'll blaim Brexit. Everything is Brexit's fault ...

Right that's it for this weeks round up! Not much happened so really scrapping the barrel there! Oh in other news I have my covid vaccine booked for the 26th. So expect a moaning post about a very sore arm lol! This is if I have it as it seems Asthma is now not considered a severe underlying health condition?! I am keeping my appointment for now as I was told to book it by the Dr's but expect it to be cancelled within the next week. We shall see! 

Right I'm off to snuggle up in bed for an hour or so with a book and some relaxing music! I have a new one now! I'm sure i'll share about it in another post. Lots of love to all. Keep looking up - We are sooo close to Spring I can smell it! Things will start to get better soon - Yippeee! Sleep well or Good morning!! From The Mad House! Xx (Well you gotta be mad to buy a sunbed in the middle of winter right!! Haha!)

I feel I should be writing another blog post ...

I feel I should be writing another blog post ... But I really don't feel like writing one! I'm still in the lockdown pits. Thankfully home education is over for a week! So hopefully I can calm down somewhat and return to some form of "normal". A good sign of that will be more posts! Right let's get to some catch up ...

SATURDAY 30TH JANUARY:

This day was spent mostly in Jessica's room with the clear up/change around. Today's plan is to move the chest of drawers into the walk in wardrobe section and move the bookshelf out. So I start with clearing the top of the chest of drawers - Before and afterz ...

Once this was done I had then tidy the walk in to actually be able to access it. Dumped the dolls house on the bed and pulled out the suitcase, chair and box. The stuff on the desk I finished up by putting into a box to come out another day. I then turned it round to the only position it would fit. However I didn't like it so I pulled it back into the room further so that I could chuck junk into the back corner instead. (You'll see in photos further down) I then move the bookshelf into it's new home by the window. 

I fill it up and it looks some homely and cosy once it's finished! I do love a good bookshelf me! 

Once the book shelf was done the chest of drawers got the drawers put back in and all the associated junk in this corner around it. I tested out her rail and it could be moved back against the wall a bit more as it sticks out some what. So will get hubby on the case. 

Whilst I was dealing with all this Sophie was downstairs creating a rucksack out of card with paper straps. Pretty creative and impressive!!

After tea I came back to attack the top shelf in the wardrobe. Had to take books down that I had saved up for J when older and put on her new shelves. Got rid of some bags that were mine and hubby's. 

Got a fan in there, sleeping bag, 2 memory boxes of stuff from when she was a baby and nursery and a couple of other random bits. 

Well it's taken me 2 nights to get back to writing this. Such is kids who don't wanna sleep during lockdown! Someone is always still up in the 11pm-12am hour! Jess hasn't been up at 07 something at all since she turned age 8. Which is both so nice but also a surprise! She sleeps around 10-1030 until around 9-930am at the moment roughly. Sophie has always been a late bird and is going down around 11-12am and awake around 10am+! 11am yesterday! Any way got them both off around 11:30pm tonight. Just caught up on BBC news, emails and Facebook land. So now to try?! and get this finished and up. Thankfully though tonight I feel much more myself and like wanting to write to this so that's good too! Right where was I? 

SUNDAY 31ST JANUARY:

Mostly a down day. Down as in doing nothing. Not down as in down in the dumps. Although tbh I probably was too ... January has been sooo haaard!!

Started the day with breakfast and caffine in bed with laptop. Nothing unusual there then! Sophie made a rainbow picture for the NHS off her own back. 

It was a proper snow flurry day so me and Sophie decided to go to the shop just to get out and see snow falling around us. Not necessarily an essential visit although I do want to say we got something that we needed? Was it loo roll? Margarine? Either way it could have waited a couple of days but we got it any way. Forgot what it was though! We brought some daffodils that Sophie chose whilst we were there too. She wrote a cute shopping list which for some reason I didn't get round to photographing. Her most prized item to buy was brocalli?! We have some in the fridge so managed to avert her from this to some fruit instead! We got chocolate, some sandwiches for a super late lunch and other random bits too. Doesn't she look cute in her snow boots all dressed up for snow! Typically just as we went out it was more sleety and when we came out the shop it had stopped. So much for falling snow then!

Later in the afternoon I sat downstairs under my snuggly with songs of praise and my knitting. All knitted but now to sew in him and stuff him! Here's his progress to the finished article. I wasn't happy with it but Jess said it makes him unique that he looks so squiffy and out of shape lol. She's sooo cute!

His mouth is too short one side and his nose doesn't look nose like. It annoys me! Jess tied the bow at first but then I had to redo it later. I even sewed his head on wrong. The seam is meant to go down the middle not one side. I am so my own worst critic! Any way here he is! And amongst the daffodils we brought starting to open already and only a few hours indoors!

Right this will do for this blog post as it is very picture heavy and I don't want to make it so long that it bores you all to death!! 

I will try and get another one in before the weeks end as it is half term. 

It is definitely nice not to have to get up and battle kids into doing work! It looks like the weather is starting to warm up - with a big increase coming at the weekend! So obviously this is ringing the garden alarm bells in my head. Urgh not started planning or anything yet! Can't be bothered/too busy having to educate kids/dealing with threadworms to start. I know the year will run away with me again and i'll be behind as usual! Will jsut try and bung as much stuff in as I can directly into the ground me thinks!

Right that's it! Sleep well/Good Morning All! Keep looking up!  Xx