You really have to wonder...

Today in the UK is election day, I'm not really going to go on about that, but if you are in the UK and reading this, please vote. It doesn't matter who for, you can even go and spoil your paper if you really want, but do it, it is important and it does matter. I have gone on about this before though, so I won't today.

I have already voted, being out of the country I got to experience a postal vote for the first time, I only hope that it didn't get re-directed on the way back via somewhere random and then not arrive in time. Voting by post was a bit of an experience. I had a normal voting slip which went in an envelope with a window, but turned round so you couldn't see who'd I'd voted for. Then there was a declaration to sign, and the whole thing went into another envelope with a window. What amused me more than anything was the extra bit of paper. A green slip of paper, that did admittedly have a number or two printed on the back, but on the front was this important warning:

This is not a ballot paper. Please remove and destroy this section.

Thank you so much for those words of wisdom, despite the lack of anything else printed on it, I'm sure that I could have easily become confused and thought that it was a ballot paper. I might have even gone as far as putting an 'x' on it and voting for...well no one actually. I'm not sure what the point of the paper was, but even if it had some strange purpose, I'm sure that it didn't need that warning on there, any more than a bag of peanuts needs to warn you that it contains nuts.

I'm sure that it was in there with the aim of clarifying things, to make them less confusing, but like many things that try to do this, if they don't make them simpler, then it doesn't make it less confusing. The more instructions that you give, the more confusing and complicated it becomes. Either way, I think I did it right, because I didn't try and use this piece of paper to vote. Having said that, I haven't destroyed it yet either, hope I'm not going to get in trouble for that...

Dear future me

Have you done all of those things that I keep putting off at the moment? Have you done any of them yet? Most importantly though, how's the book going. I say the book, but I'm hoping that I'm meaning the current book and you've actually written a few. I'd like to think that they were finished and published too, although it doesn't matter if they're not, just actually started, and finished, would be good.

Have you managed to do more sewing and making things for the kids? Now that they're all at school, have you put that time to good use and used it to make the things that I don't seem to have time for today. I hope that you're not wasting time doing nothing extra, that would be a shame. Unless of course the business is keeping you too busy, I suppose I couldn't really complain about that.

Are you swimming and walking regularly like you promised that you would? How's the yoga going? Managing to keep it up? Did you ever fit back into those jeans like you hoped you would. Either way, I hope that you've finally cleared out your wardrobe, there's really no need to keep hoarding those clothes you'll never wear.

How are the kids doing? Are you coping with older children and teenagers, or is it as scary as you thought it would be? Try not to stress about them too much, they grow so fast, and even though the teen years may be angst ridden, before long they'll be even older and leaving home. It was only five minutes ago they were small after all. I thought I'd include this photo of A I took yesterday, thought it might make you smile to remember how crazy she was when she was little.

Are you and M less stressed? Did you finally get on top of things, is life easier once all the projects were finished? (Please tell me you finished them finally!) Where are you living now? Are you happy there? Is it home?

Is there anything you'd like to tell me now, I hope that I'm not missing out on things or doing something that you regret. I hope that I'm making the most of life today so that you look back and smile. 

Most of all, I hope that you're happy and healthy, all of you. 

Take care

Love 

Today's me.

What would you write in a letter to your future self?

I must confess...

It's funny isn't it. You often think that you know yourself. But it's so very easy to suddenly discover something new that you hadn't really realised before. It's not usually something major, but it can be quite a surprise to find out something about yourself that you hadn't known before. 

I have recently discovered, and I am going to say this quietly, as it's a bit of a guilty pleasure, that I actually quite like romance novels. I don't suppose that it should be a guilty pleasure, but romance novels don't have a great reputation. The thing is, I like reading, I like reading lots of things, but I've always had quite a dismissive attitude to romance. I'll happily read murder mystery like they're going out of fashion, but turned my nose up at the idea of a romance book.

The really crazy thing, is that lots of my favourite books are really romance, or at least contain a

heavy dose of romance. I love all of Jane Austin's books for example, but of course they're much more than that. As I suppose are all other books that I really like.

I don't like all romance books though, they can't be too cheesy and they must be well written with a bit more going on than man meets woman. Actually the best ones have far more going on, but have a nice bit of romance to add that feel good factor. 

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, next thing you know I'll be enjoying romantic comedy films too. Surely not?!

Being a parent is...

Yesterday I came across one of those lists you see on line, this one was about what parenting is really like. It caught my eye because the first one said something along the lines of 'parenting is mostly shouting where are your shoes, find your shoes you're all ready late.' I seem to spend a great deal of time saying this to my children. I don't know what it is about shoes, for some reason between the time that they are taken off at night, and the time they need to be put on again in the morning, they go for a wander all by themselves. Even on the days when I make sure that they've been put away in the cupboard where they live, they still seem to have gone on an adventure by the time morning comes around.

For someone who is often late getting out of the door, this is little short of a disaster. Yet again I'm going to be rushing the children into the classroom as the bell sounds calling out sorry-we're-late-couldn't-find-the-shoes/keys/my-marbles in a fast out of breath jumble as I race to the cloak room to hang up their school bags. I never used to be like this I'm sure, prior to children I was organised, generally on time, and certainly didn't spend half my life looking for shoes.

It's not just the shoe hunting that's unexpected though, you find yourself saying the most bizarre things that you would never have dreamt would come out of your mouth in a million years. 

"Bat man, please don't hit your sister with a light sabre, she doesn't like it."

"You can play with the rabbit again tomorrow, right now it's bed time"

"No, you can't take the bike to bed with you"

There are many many more. I can't say I ever expected to say any of them, but say them you do, it's all part of being a parent. It is of course, all good fun, but it's nothing like I expected. Nothing at all. 

Hamster life

Ever have those days, or even weeks and months where you seem to do the same things over and over again. I'm feeling a bit like that at the moment, like it's a hamster life. It doesn't help that I have so much on at the moment of course, but I feel a bit like I'm drowning under the housework.

I think that we've already established that cake decorating isn't really my thing, despite my best efforts, but it has to be said that house work really really isn't my thing. Unlike cake decorating, I don't really put my best effort into it either. It's not that I like living in a state of mess either, I actually really really don't, but I also don't like dealing with it. At the moment things have reached crisis point. My lounge looks a little as though life has exploded across it. It's not normally that bad, but with party organising, a LOT of washing to sort and put away, and children who seem to think that their only purpose in life is to make a mess, well, it's not good.

Much of the problem is that it seems to be never ending, no matter how clean and tidy you get a room, turn around, count to five, and suddenly it looks as though some kind of natural disaster has struck. Last week, the house was looking quite good, I was on top of it all, and feeling good about it. A day or so later and a casual observer would assume that I haven't actually lifted a finger in about a year. It's never ending, just like that hamster wheel. You'll notice that there are no photos, I'm really quite ashamed about the state of it, so I won't be sharing those!

At the moment I have two choices; put up with the mess, or just get on and deal with it. Stop moaning either way. I can't quite bring myself to do nothing (apart from anything else, I can't find anything that I need at the moment!) so I'd better get on and deal with it... wish me luck!

Birthday madness

Turing five is a big deal, it's a big deal anyway, but when you live in New Zealand, and you start school on your fifth birthday, then it's a really big deal. Last week was L's 5th birthday, and for the last two weeks of so, live has been manic. First of all we had last days at daycare to contend with, then it was the birthday and first day at school, and then this week it's been party time.

She took to starting school like a duck to water, I hadn't really got any concerns that she wouldn't, she's been keen to go for so long. Really the only one that's been struggling in any way has been me, mostly because I've been flat out busy and supposed to have been organising a birthday party for today. In true, flying by the seat of your pants fashion, I managed to invite everyone who was supposed to be invited before the big day (but only just phew!) and managed to arrange a cake and other party goodies.

Sadly my cake decorating skills never quite match up to the visions I have in my head, having said that, this time it was a case of asking L last night, would she prefer a crown or castle shaped cake. (The unicorn, fairy and rainbow creation that she mentioned a few weeks ago being well beyond my capabilities.) So this morning I knocked up a pink castle cake, I was quite pleased with my chocolate cross windows and drawbridge that I made with melted chocolate on a plate that I'd cooled in the freezer. The fact that my children were not convinced that castles have cross shaped windows is besides the point (even though I explained why they had them, they still weren't having it.) So, here it is my pink bunny fairy castle cake:

Slightly more impressive, even if I do say so myself, was my attempt at a piñata. I had forgotten, until yesterday, that L had specifically asked for one for her birthday. After discovering that a bought one was going to cost me around $30 (and it's not like I could re-use it) I decided that I could make one myself. I have tried this before, with limited success, but this time I decided to do a bit of googling and found this paper bag piñata. Armed with a paper bag, crepe paper streamers, some scissors and glue, I thought my end result wasn't bad. It actually got knocked off the string before it broke open, but I'm yet to see one that doesn't do that. Either way, the kids seemed to enjoy it.

The party is done and dusted, the children all seemed to have a good time and got sent home full of sugar and high spirits, all that really remains is for me to collapse go to bed. 

A month of blogs

A few weeks ago there was a discussion in a blog group that I'm part of about doing a blog challenge in May. Basically the idea was that we'd all do a post a day for the whole month, great, I thought, count me in. But I forgot a few things. The beginning of May is a bit busy, Lena has just turned five and started school, I've got a birthday part to organise and it's the middle of cloth nappy week, which is one of my busiest times in terms of the business. (I've done nothing but send parcels out for the last few days.) So, yes, it sounded great at the time, but now I'm not so sure.

Today's entry is going to be just a quick intro and then we'll get into the proper posts. I am cheating a little as I write this, May 1st was such a manic day, that I'm writing this on the second and changing the date to yesterday. Then in a second I'll write today's entry. 

The idea behind the blog challenge, is that it gets me into the swing of posting slightly more often. I had been doing it pretty much weekly, but then fell behind over the last few weeks or so. Hopefully this will give me the boost I need to get back on top of things again. There is a list of suggested topics, but they are only suggestions, and as I have a few things going on at the minute that I might like to write about, I probably won't dip into the suggestions just yet. So, here we go, blog challenge time...