365 Project Week #17 ~ ‘Green’

MONDAY:

It was Liberty’s boyfriend’s birthday today and you can’t have a birthday without cake. So before we headed out for a meal and a few drinks, I baked a chocolate cake to take round as a present – it went down very well with some Champers before our dinner!

TUESDAY:

I got the big food shop out of the way today – managed to remember milk AND bread this week. I’m definitely improving! Then it was time for Unofficial Writer’s Club, this time held at QWERTY Mum‘s house, where we had a bit of a giggle when Liberty and Taylor’s younger sister invaded to do some colouring in and then hid outside the door making funny noises (which really confused Liberty).

WEDNESDAY:

This morning Taylor, Ivy, Liberty and myself headed out on a shopping trip to make sure Taylor has all the essentials for going to Uni. You know – felt tip pens, hot pink folders,bright pink Animal bag, cool new dress…the vitals. Luckily we went shopping in Telford which is almost entirely enclosed – a bonus on a day like today where the best method of travel was probably swimming. Then Caius and I went to get the Smalls – Artie had a grumpy day which meant lots of tears were involved. And snot. Lots of snot. Most of which ended up on Caius’s shoulder. Lurrrrvley!

THURSDAY:

Tori and Arthur’s favourite spot at the moment is the windowsill in the front room. They are semi-constantly there building with Duplo and watching the world go by outside – much to the bemusement of passers by. We went for a lovely walk down by the canal today – the kids had fun throwing bread to imaginary ducks (all the real ducks were conspicuous in their absence) – and it didn’t rain on us for a change either. Yay!

FRIDAY:

I attacked the housework with reckless abandon today. It needs it and I don’t seem to ever be around enough to make a real difference – today was the start of me *making* a difference. Once the kids were in bed, I settled down with a G&T and did a bit of writing to relax – made all the edits suggested at this week’s Unofficial Writer’s Club ready for Official Writer’s Club next week.

SATURDAY:

Sunny day today. The Smalls and I have popped over to pay a visit to my parents and had good fun playing with Play-Doh, enjoying a visit from Meggy and Scott and good old simple fun outside in the garden. The the kids were unceremoniously deposited in bed in time for me to watch Doctor Who. Of course.

SUNDAY:

Arthur got me (and James) up very early today so I spent a while reading whilst he played with teddies on my bed. Then we went back to our old church for a visit and later we are off to a BBQ with Junior Church which should be fun so long as the weather holds!

 

365 Project Week #13 ~ “Water”

MONDAY:Time to head home after my busy weekend but first I had time to relax in the sunshine by the fountain in Stevenage Town Square before my train left. Then we had a mini birthday celebration for Tori at my parents’ house with cake and a few presents before dropping them off with their Dad. A quiet but enjoyable evening at Monday Night Snooker before falling into bed at home to exhaustedly sleep off last week!

TUESDAY:

I did very little today until I had to drag myself to Unofficial Writer’s Club where we had dinner, drinks and a good whole-hearted discussion about Ivy’s ‘Beer Board’ story plan  – lots of ideas flew around and it felt like a very productive and creative evening

WEDNESDAY:

We watched the Olympics a fair bit today – lots of action on the water. Exciting stuff   Then after picking up the Smalls it was off to visit baby Riley for a while before home for more Olympics fun.
THURSDAY:

Today was Tori’s ‘Official’ Birthday (It was her birthday on Saturday 31st but as I was away we decided to postpone our celebrations til today). We started the day with cards and presents before jumping in Felix (the car) and heading to Telford Town Park. Tori had a whale of a time until the heavens opened and we had to run for cover! After a quick lunch we went on a bear hunt to the Build-A-Bear Workshop to get Tori a birthday present of her choosing. We left with a new family member ‘Splash’ the teddy; He’s bright blue with jellyfish and fish all over him and he’s holding ‘Nemo’ (I’ll let you guess what sort of fish he is) in his paw.  After that we headed round to visit English Folkfan for *more* presents and lots of fun exploring her garden – we didn’t find any frogs but the Smalls had fun popping seed pods and seeing what they could float in the pond. Finally it was time for home and Monster Cakes then bath time and bed. Busy busy busy!

FRIDAY:

Quiet day at home involving exciting things like washing up, more Olympics and CBeebies.

SATURDAY:

Another busy day which started out with breakfast in Spoons with Caius, Liberty, The Boyfriend, the Smalls and Meggy. Then Meggy, the Smalls and I headed off to her house. After a bit of time chatting with her and Scott, I vanished off to catch a train to London ready for my next Games maker shift tomorrow, leaving them to babysit. Three hours on the train later got me to Stevenage then it was straight in the car with Chrystal and Nad to head to our friends’ house where we are staying the night. After getting ourselves all packed and ready for our early start we settled down to watch the FANTASTIC evening of Olympics Athletics – the flowers Chrystal bought as a ‘thank you for having us’ present turned out to be extra appropriate!

SUNDAY:

Today’s Games Maker shift was WET! In a thunder storm kind of way. Great fun as always but my socks were still wet when I got home at half past eight in the evening having picked up the Smalls and driven home with Meggy!

Monster Mash!

Tori turned three on the 21st of July. Yes, three. Already.

I was off in London living the Olympic high life on the day so yesterday we had a second celebration together. She had birthday with Daddy on the day and birthday with Mummy and Caius this week. We had a lovely day out together, playing in the park and making a visit to the Build-A-Bear Workshop for a treat before heading back for an afternoon in English Folkfan‘s back garden in the sunshine with bubbles and flowers galore (and MORE presents for the birthday girl).

Then home for cake. MONSTER CAKE for my little Monster.

I had fun making these – I used a recipe/design from the book Caius bought me for my birthday back in June and whilst I had a few icing issues (my first batch was too runny and went grey rather than purple {made a good mud monster in the end} and I didn’t quite perfect it later) the end results were quite good. They made me smile and I think Tori was impressed (possibly more by the amount of E-numbers than my cake-making prowess).

Preparing all the eyes! (mini lollipops and peach ring sweets)

Making the fur

Green furry monster and ‘purple’ mud monster taking shape

With their faces made

Fuzzy pink monster

The whole herd!

Having individual cakes instead of one big one was a nice change and they were good fun and fairly simple to make. Very sweet though with all the extra bits!!

Happy Birthday Dad! 247/365

No married man is genuinely happy if he has to drink worse whisky than he used to drink when he was single.
H. L. Mencken

A Post For Kathryn

Today is the 22nd birthday of someone very special.

She isn’t here with us any more but that doesn’t mean we don’t think of her every day and smile. Or wonder what she’d be doing now and where her life would have led.

My daughter shares her name because I made a promise to myself that should I ever have a baby girl I would remember Kathryn that way.

I was playing Flashback on the Amiga when Mum told me the news. It was the 2nd of February 1998 and about half past six in the evening. It felt like the bottom had dropped out of my world. In a way I think it did. When you are nine years old you don’t expect your friends to die – not friends that are basically family. I knew Kathryn was ill – she had been for as long as I could remember but I still never really thought I would lose her. How could someone so perpetually happy and joyful at the world, someone who saw the sunshine in everything and had the biggest smile in the universe possibly ever go away?

I remember her funeral. I remember crying and I remember laughing. I remember playing in the sandpit in the school afterwards whilst all the grown-ups had coffee and tea. I don’t remember who else was playing with me but I know I wasn’t on my own.

I still struggle to sing ‘Yes, Jesus Loves Me’ and ‘One More Step Along The World I Go’ all the way through without shedding a tear or two because they were her very favourite hymns. But mostly I just remember her laugh and her smile and the hours of fun we shared on holidays and whenever we were together.

When she died I wrote a poem for her. It’s not a work of technical genius but a work of love because even when I was nine my way of sharing things was through words on paper, something that hasn’t changed at all as I have grown, despite everything life has thrown in my direction. Here it is – just as I wrote it, dodgy punctuation and all:

Kathryn and Me. A True Story

The first time I met Kathryn I was one year old,

Not in England oh no I was in Germany my birth place.

The first time I went to her birth place she was seven months old.

Yes we were in England, Keld to be precise. (That’s in Yorkshire if you did not know)

The next time I saw her we were back in Keld, Easter ’91,

Kathryn and I enjoyed it when Andrew (my BIG brother) read us Spot stories.

Next time we saw her we met Emma her new little sister.

When my family and I moved back to England we saw her quite a lot.

Why? you might be asking, because we lived quite near her. (Well sort of, in Richmond)

Sometimes after Kathryn had had her check-ups at North Allerton Hospital,

And I had finished play school we would go and have lunch at a cafe in Richmond.

It seemed our favourite flavour sandwich was “grass” (cress),

But if someone offered me a “grass” (cress) sandwich now my answer would simply be Yuk! or NO WAY!

Then I moved away again this time to Shawbury I didn’t see her as much then,

BUT Kathryn did visit us once only once Why? because we only lived there one year.

When Emma and Kathryn did visit us we picnicked in my Wendy house on my back lawn,

I then moved to Wem where I am now. We didn’t see them much at all.

Apart from when we went on holiday together,

The first time I remember going on holiday with them was when we went to The Forest of Dean.

When we were there we went for walks together, played together and had picnics together,

We also went to Wye Valley Farm when we were there.

Kathryn was nour four and I was six (just thought I’d inform you,)

Anyway at Wye Valley Farm we played with piglets and other animals and did some trampolining.

We said “goodbye” as we left The forest of Dean,

Believe it or not they dropped in once to see us on the way back from their hols.

The next time we saw Kathryn and Emma was at Chrystal’s (my BIG sister) 18th birthday March ’96,

Kathryn, Emma and I helped Chrystal blow out the candles on her cake. (And helped eat it!)

Bedgelert in Wales was the next place we saw them,

Kathryn and Emma’s Dad (Uncle Chris to me) treated us all to a GIANT ice-cream each. (I think more of it ended up down our fronts than in our tummies!)

I also took a picture of Kathryn and Emma by a “Thomas the Tank Engine” model!

The last time we met her we were on holiday together again. this time we were at Sandy Hills Bay Scotland.

Whilst we were there we visited Threave Gardens,

Emma and I wanted to go through the woods but Kathryn didn’t.

Kathryn, Emma and I went for loads of bike rides around the site,

(Of course Uncle Chris came too.)

One day we even went Rock Pooling/Crab Catching.

One time it was really windy so we flew a Kite with Dad, (my Dad)

Then a few months after we had left Kathryn became very ill with Leukaemia and sadly died on Feb 2nd 1998.

Kathryn was eight when she died I miss her terribly and I always will. I know Emma will be very lonely with out her sister, but will all try to remember all the good times we had with her and as we all know she ENJOYED her short but happy life.

Kathryn was my SPECIAL FRIEND!

by Carole Heidi, February 1998

~

Happy Birthday Kathryn

xxxxx

Happy Birthday to me!

It’s my birthday – I have reached the grand old age of 22, hurrah.

Apparently this means I’m meant to grow up and be an adult and do sensible things like work in an office and eat pizza with a knife a fork.

I don’t think so.

I like being silly, I like making things up and writing them down, I like sitting on the floor and playing with my daughter’s building blocks and  I REALLY like eating pizza with my hands and getting covered in cheese. I’m not giving that up just for a number.

I also love presents and the prospect of unwrapping lots later actually makes me feel like I’m six years old – the fact that my 11 month old daughter will be fighting me for the wrapping paper may contradict this but that’s a minor detail. For the rest of today I am six and I want to unwrap things, eat lots of food and have cake. Lots of cake. I do hope there’s cake…