OWW OWW OWW!!!

Owww is the title of this post! I have had a tooth bothering me for the past few weeks but I assumed it was down to irritable gums and just ignored it mostly. Plus treated with the usual flossing and a bottle of Cosodyl! However I was beginning to wonder what was going on as it wasn't working. I didn't need to worry much longer as Saturday night brought about the most agonising tooth ache that kept me up all night! Took some cocodamol at 3am and eventually managed to pass out for 4 hours. Then woke around 9 and couldn't get back to sleep as the pain level was high again. It was radiating all over the right side of my mouth and mostly felt as a deep aching pain in my lower jaw. I was reaching for everything - the painkillers, hot water bottle, comfy pillows etc etc. I was feeling very sorry for myself but was unsure if I was just being a drama queen for some inflammed gum issue! Any way I decided as it had kept me awake all night I should get it seen to so rang 111 who said all appointments in Winchester were gone so I was to go to Basingstoke at 1645. I honestly went fearing that I was being a drama queen and it would be nothing. However I left with 2 fillings in 1 tooth all for £23 as it was the emergency pricing. Lucky there as 1 filling is a lot more than that on standard pricing! So this was yesterday (Sunday). I had to dose up on cocodamol but was able to get straight to sleep and had a good nights sleep last night - Yippee. However I woke up to more pain. It settled after 10 mins or so then flared up again when I went out of school run as it was cold out and the cold air got in my mouth. My whole face was throbbing when I got back! Then I upset it again by having breakfast and I couldn't eat on it for the pain of stabbing. Then drinking hot coffee set it off. Then lunch set it off. By this time I had enough and rang the surgery for some advice. Who said that if it was a composite (white filling) which it is - then they are well known for causing sensitivity after having them and it can take some time for them to settle. As the filling can shrink in the settling process. Plus a filling is surgery so my poor tooth's nerves will all be inflammed so it will take time to settle. So got to see if any improvement by the end of the week. Watch this space ...! Meanwhile I am dosed up on ibruprofen right now ready for it to get to work before I go to sleep soon! So after all that tooth drama what else has been happening? A minor amount of garden work on Saturday - Sunday was wasted to the tooth drama. But i'll update about that in another post. So let's do some more catch up ...

Saturday 10th April:

So today was another garden day. I went out with a big feeling of I don't know what to do with all the changes going on! The garden doesn't feel mine this year and I feel lost. So I decided that the bush by the compost should be cut after all. Just a small trimming but tidy it up a bit and it makes it a bit smaller and easier for digging up and moving later. 

I still have potatoes in bags from last year so I decided after this I needed to dig them up. I was going to reuse the bags this year but they are all cracked and fit for the bin 

instead! Here are the bags I have left to go through:

I had a go at growing some late season beetroot. I picked one today but it felt really hard and didn't look like it would feed a mouse so composted it!

Today I got Daniel out with the drill to drain these pots for me. Put holes in so they can drain and dry out! Will leave a week then look at them after. These are large 50cm pots.

Oh when I moved the potato bag look what I found behind it! A family of snails all cuddled up!

And todays harvest. The same as I have had of late. Potatoes, Carrots and Spinach.

Sunday 11th April:

Well today hubby wants to go in the garden! I use the word "wants" to lightly! But he is going to get the fence down where we need to mend it. The neighbours tree was pushing up against it and it got cut down around 18 months back. The roots were pushing against their sleeper which is behind our fence and the sleeper pushed our post over and out. So we need to claim back our boundary and sort the fence before we can put up a shed in the corner. Gah! This is what it looks like before and after 1 panel was fought out! It was well nailed in!

Whist hubby was attacking this I decided somewhat hastily to start the moving of the stones by the fence and putting cardboard down to then put bark on top. We (I and a little helper ...) started by using some old slab bits and bricks against the fence to stop loosing any bark later on. I did this around the main veggie patch last year. It's very rough and ready. Quite amatureish but also good at recycling. Otherwise we would be charged for taking these broken bits to the dump! So we both reuse and save money even if it looks a bit rubbish! Once these are in place we start to pull back the shingle to the weed liner underneath. Now the people who owned the house before us load this and they must have run out of liner as half of it is bin bags!!! For extra protection I plan to put cardboard on top and then the bark on top of that. Hopefully that will keep most of the weeds at bay - she hopes! Ha! The liner isn't in great condition and does have some holes in so tbh I don't hold out high hopes. Now the trouble is with putting the card down is that I got so far and then ran out of ruddy card! There will be more around the house though I just need to go a-huntin'! In this first picture I wanted to create an idea of what the size might be like. So I used the pots to lay this area out so I can start using it

Look what I found when I moved a bag away from the sleeper! A strawberry plant had crept down from the planter above and rooted from a runner behind the bag! How funny!! It looks really cool though so I kept it and put it in a planter for now! He has to live after all the effort he put in!

Now I had to start planing something! So I started with a brand new bag (arrived today! Thanks Amazon! See here if you want any - 3 felt bags with flap for £18: https://amzn.to/2QE67hs)

I put in 5 potatoes and covered up a bit. 

After this I started filling a new 50cm pot I had brought with 50:50 compost to vermiculite. (Only it wasn't until this weekend I discovered it wasn't Vermic but it was ruddy growmore!!) How the hell I did that when it clearly says growmore on the tub i've no idea ... Garden FAIL!

I then give up and go indoors. Taking these 2 pics of my poor greenhouse on the way. It's covered in holes, with a few rusty poles and broken connectors so if never even got used as a greenhouse! It was just a make shift shed. And as a real one should be coming this year ... Meh I'll leave it for now its covering some stuff up to keep dry. Just in the unconventional way!!

Right that's it! I'm off in for this roast dinner! Yummy yummy!

All done for this blog post! Nothing else to report for now. Kids went back to school today. Pretty much drama free once they eventually got out their beds - Ha! Otherwise all good!

Right i'm off to bed to rest my poor aching tooth! It's always worse this time of night so writing this has been a bit of a distraction! Sleep well! /Good morning/afternoon! Lots of love from The Mad House Xx

Still playing Catch Up, Catch Up!

Hello World again!

Here we are with another update. I'm playing catch up and have nothing major to report this end so i'm just going to dive right in ... 

Monday 5th April:

The week starts with us still at Mother in laws house still for Easter. We wake up to a slight dusting of snow. Nice!

Today is spent quite lazily. Well there is nothing else to do at someone else's house is there! I try to use it to be creative an calm. So out with the puzzle book - word search - and some diamond bead art. 

Jess was in her new found place at mother in laws desk in the workshop on her laptop that we brought up with her friend on facetime. Sophie was flitting between random toys, annoying me and watching cartoony stuff on tv. We don't have Virgin or Sky at home only free view and Amazon firestick tv over the internet. So we tend to try and put something different on that we don't have at home for a change. 

Sophie took my phone to take random pictures. 

Tea time was meat and potato pie that mother in law made. Kids had something else generic like pizza as they won't eat it. 

Sophie carried on after tea with her obsession of stealing mummy's phone and taking random selfies!

Tuesday 6th April:

Today was another snowy day. Lot's of showers. Sophie even decided to go outside in just her pants to collect some snow off the car LOL! Some that tried to lie. Another lazy one with crafting, reading and laptop. 

Wednesday 7th April:

Same as Tuesday with crafting, reading, laptop! Today we bathed the kids with hair washes before we venture home. Or maybe that was yesterday?! I forget now! Either way they got bathed lol. We attempted take away but the Italian wasn't answering their phone so we default to Dominoes instead! After the kids were in bed I wrote a blog post and then watched trash tv ... Gogglebox anyone?! 

Thursday 8th April:

Today is travel home day. We are up 830 and out by 11. We arrive home after another 3 stops around 330pm I think it was. Had lunch early before even being half way home! No one slept which was a surprise as we have had a lot of late nights! They did however entertain themselves by decorating Jessica's big toe in stickers. He is called Toe-ey! Very imaginative lol!

Got home and just chilled. Hubby got on with the laundry as he is one of those! I can't be bothered with all that and it can wait til tomorrow lol! I have a little nap then we hit chippy for tea! 

After the kids were in bed I read some more of my new book. Between. How to parent a tweenager! From age 8-13 years! Don't we half need it!! If only I can actually remember it all in "the moment"! It's actually turning out to be a good book the delves into the brain changes and growth that this age range experiences. Their brains are not fully developed until well into the 20's. Emotional and Social development is still high up in the list. They are very impulsive emotionally as their brains are not yet capable of reasoning and being able to sort through emotions on the spot. This is not something that will be learnt for some years yet. Just because they look physically bigger and older we expect more when in fact the brains development has gone back to a toddler stage with impulsivity and temper tantrums ... again! Then of course they have the physical development going on as well. The book covers chapters such as dealing with friendships, their behaviours, what they want and what they need - often different!, mental health, personal hygiene, school motivation, screen time, learning finance and learning to let go of your teen! So there is a LOT to this book! It is well and easily written and I highly recommend it! 

For anyone who thinks this looks helpful or good to purchase for someone else here is the link to it at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2P1x920

Friday 9th April:

Today was a day of 2 halves. Both being lazy after travelling yesterday we woke tired. So sat around and played Roblox with the kids as well as doing house work. Hubby went to Tesco's for some sandwiches for lunch and then did a big weekly shop in the evening. No piccies for today.

So that's another weekly round up done! Doing well at catching up now aren't I!? Nothing else to report except that I am looking forward to another weekend of gardening ahead as the weather is set to be warmer and sunny/cloudy. So good weather to get out. Right i'm off sleep well all! /Good morning/afternoon where ever you are around the world! Hope all is well with you! Lot's of love from The Mad House Xx