And there was light

Our loft now has a new hatch, a ladder that pulls down, some new flooring and a light with a switch. Hopefully that will be enough for the boiler man to put in the boiler. It also means that we will be able to put some of the clutter in our house into storage in the loft with out fumbling around in the gloom and balancing on dodgy bits of wood.

Itchy

I am very itchy. Glass fibre is nasty stuff. But the loft flooring is coming along nicely. This is one of the things that we have to do before the gas man comes next week to fit a new boiler. It would be quite easy to do the flooring if our loft wasn't full of so much rubbish. It's like doing one of those puzzles made of squares where you have to slide the pieces into the space to recreate the picture.

Motherhood

My daughter took part in a dancing competition yesterday. I felt so proud of her. Not because I thought she might win, she didn’t, but because she‘s been working so hard and took part. I’ve been realizing a lot lately that I find it really hard to trust God with my children. I love them so much. I feel such pain when they are rejected or sad. I want to give them the world but I’m in no position to do so. I was reminded of Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac. I Feel God calling me to do the same thing. To give my Children to him. They are of course his too. I realize its one thing to trust God with your own life but it’s another thing to trust him with the life of your child. I know it’s a daily act of faith that I have to give them over to him and trust in him. Also If I love my children with my life how much more does God Love them.

Daytrip to Blackpool

I went to Blackpool today for work - not as exciting as it sounds. I was training some of our customers in the use of an aspect of the company I work for's software. It all went rather well.

I got there last night as was able to pop down to see the sea. It was deserted - I suppose it isn't really beach weather at the moment - and I found a shop to purchase some rock, which seems to have gone off! (who'd have thought that was possible - but then it is probably from last summer).

It's freezing and I'm grumpy

It’s freezing. I hate the cold and not having hot water and central heating is defiantly making me realize how lucky we are to have such a blessing. I have been so grumpy today. The poor children not only do they have to put up with cold they have to put up with a grumpy Mum. Another blessing is that I live so close to my Mum and we’ve been going round there for baths. The new boiler will not be fitted for about 2 weeks. I’m just praying that the weather improves. Last night we decided all to sleep in our son’s room as he seems to have the warmest room and I thought it would be more cozy I have to say I find it quite comforting us all being together .The Children found it very exciting .We only all share a room when we are on holiday or staying with family. The only down side is you get woken at about 6 am from our son who’s ready to play. Usually we can ignore him for a bit and come too.

A new hatch.

The big hole is now filled. The house is returning to merely chilly now.

I can't believe it snowed on the day we had the biggest hole in the ceiling. At least we have booked a plumber - two weeks till new boiler day!

A big hole

As part of our enforced boiler replacement program I have to fit a loft ladder. This requires the enlarging of our tiny loft hatch. To this end I have been struggling with sooty fibreglass and 2x4s all day. The effect is quite startling - the hole is quite large! Hopefully it will look better when it is finished and hopefully it will be finished before the forecast snow arrives as there is quite a draught through it.

Special Needs?

We live very near a school for children with special needs. Recently they must have banned smoking on the site as the ladies that work there have recently migrated from the end of our garden (which I assume is outside the staff room) to opposite our house. I find this a bit dissapointing as I am sure that if such a thing were happening at my eldest's mainstream school that the headd teacher would take a very dim view of it.

Not to mention the fact it all looks a bit untidy.

Fun at work

We had a fun day at work. There was a big company meeting today to announce some 'exciting' news. The exiting news seemed to boil down to the fact that the product that the company has been developing over the last 2-3 years is going to be scrapped and we are going to use an older product from the company that we merged with a year and a half ago. But as we have spent the last six months preparing for the launch of the now scrapped product it is exciting in not as a positive way as was made out.

On a more positive note we had a nice evening out at a friends birthday meal at an indian restaurant. It was amazing value - a starter, main course, side dish, rice, nan and coffee all for £7.95!

Here is the husband of the birthday girl having gorged himself on cheap indian food.

In the loft?

So here we are shivering - waiting for a gas fitter to turn up at some point. (Not sure when - they are an elusive breed).
I think that the best place for our new boiler in in the loft. This does seem a bit mad, but my mother in law has one and it seems to be all the rage. And anyway there is no where in the kitchen for it to go. This does mean, however, that we need a bigger loft hatch and a ladder. Though thanks to Google it doesn't seem to hard to do this so I am going to have a go...

Stepford wife?

We’ve had another lovely weekend. This weekend we’ve had the in-laws come and stay. I’m always a bit stressed before they come and start days before they come cleaning, cooking and bribing the children to behave!!! I want every thing to be perfect. My Mother in law is one of those women who is very good at most things and I always feel a bit inadequate in comparison, so before she comes I want the House to be perfect, the children to behave, so that they reflect good parenting and the food to be wonderful. I must admit I feel I fail big time on all three. I think as I am getting older I care less and am much more accepting of myself and care less when I have to buy a apple strudel for desert but I wonder how do some women do it all ? The perfect houses, wonderful cook and wonderfully behaved children. As I examine my motives I do genuinely want to be kind and hospitable, I get a lot of pleasure from that. I know I should stop trying so hard. I don’t really think any one else cares as much as me but I find it so hard not to. Maybe deep down it’s all part of feeling excepted into this family, reassuring them that their darling son has made the right choice in marrying me. Isn’t it so wonderful that we don’t have to do that with God? We are accepted into his family with open arms. If I had to please him I would fail at the first hurdle yet he loves every thing about me even with all my failings.

Brrrrrrrr

Our boiler has broken. I was very old - probably 30 years but it started smelling funny and spitting out soot and is beyond economic repair... Consequently it is a bit chilly in our house and we have no hot water. We are waiting on the gas people to give us a quote for a new boiler - which should be cheaper to run and easier to control but will, undoubtedly, cost lots of money. We have borrowed a few heaters from friends and are having baths at my wife's mothers so it's not too bad. But the uncertainty of getting the boiler fixed and paying for it is weighing heavily on our minds.

Back to work

Still not fully recovered from my 'man flu' but back to work today. It was quite quiet. In fact there is not a lot to talk about.

Hello Scott Adams

As you may know I enjoy reading the Dilbert cartoon by Scott Adams as well as his blog. He has just blogged that he has discovered Google Alerts and that he reads them as they pop up for "scott adams dilbert". Well to test this theory I am going to say:

Hello Scott Adams!

Sick pay

Sick pay is a wonderful thing. Here I am at home feeling rough with a headache, sore throat and temperature and I can rest assured that I will be paid the same at the end of the month as I normally am. I expect that if I didn't get this money then I would force myself to go to work, not do a great deal, infect other people and probably take longer to get better.

Also as it happens my wife is ill at the same time and so we can share school runs and child care. Thank goodness tesco delivers our shopping or one of us would have to do that as well.

Here are some pictures from our trip to see Egyptian stuff at the museum - described in a previous post by my wife.

The roof of the courtyard of the British Museum.

An Egyptian carving.

The children walking on a bit of glass floor. Our youngest was unsure of it at first - I suppose that is a good thing; and our eldest would do it only if I didn't walk on it with her (I assume she thought that my giant weight would cause her to come crashing through the glass).

My wife from above the glass floor.

A day in London

Yesterday we went to London for the day. Our Daughter is doing a project about ancient Egypt. We've been meaning to go to the British Museum for ages so this was definitely a good opportunity to go. We invited our extended family and my Mum, brother in law and his Mum joined us for a fun day out. Despite the cold and the rain we had a really lovely day. Before we entered the Museum my Mum treated us all to a lovely coffee and cake at this little Italian cafe- restaurant opposite the museum. That's what I call a good start to the day.
I hadn't been to the British Museum for about 11 years and it had changed so much. It was amazing. They had transformed the center courtyard into a massive atrium. It was great space and much needed in allowing our son to run free for a bit. We then went to explore the ancient Egypt exhibits which were fascinating . The Mummies exhibit is my favorite bit of all. I remember seeing them as a child and was truly amazed by how old they were and fascinated by the ancient Egyptians thoughts on preserving the body for the afterlife.
After lunch we decided that the children had had enough of the museum there is only so much of carrying and trying to control our 2 year old son in a public place that one can cope with. Our daughter has not really seen much of London apart from some of the museums so we decided to walk from the British museum to Covent Garden. Despite the rain it was exciting to walk through the hustle and bustle of London. We seemed to lose our way a bit and ended up in china town, although that made it more exciting for our daughter to see all the different culturally rich areas of London. It all brought me back to the wonderful years I had living in London.

A Normal Wife

I've decided to give this Blog thing ago. Maybe spice it up a bit. Maybe not!!! I'm wondering what I can bring to this blog spot.I have to say I love reading other peoples blogs and journeying with them. It's like reading a book,wanting to know what happens next. Part of it is I'm just plain nosey. Well, here we go. Where do I begin. Maybe I should introduce myself. I am a normal bloke's wife. I am currently a full time mum and have been for the past 7 years. I have loved this phase of my life but I am beginning to think about what to do next as my youngest starts school next September. He will only just be 4. In some ways I do not want to face my baby starting school but at the same time I am looking forward to the change and maybe a new adventure. My passions in life are My relationship with God my family and friends. I like to think that I am a deep thinker who enjoys nothing better than a good laugh and maybe a glass of wine or two. I seem to spend a lot of my time taking the children to various activities,mums and tots. I also co-lead a mums and tots at our church on a Thursday morning. Fridays is definitely the best day of the week for me. Our church runs an in depth Bible course called CBSI, anyway they have a creche so I drop our youngest off and go and have what feels like time and space for me and God. I have been doing this for about 3 years now. We are then given an in depth bible study to do at home. I do find that it disciplines me to read my bible and study Gods word.So That's a bit about who I am.

Do it yourself

My eldest has to do a two week project on the Egyptians for homework. It is nice to see her so keen but it is also very hard to encourage her to actually do anything that actually requires effort. Especially when it involves reading and writing. We have spent most evenings gently persuading her to do a bit of something each night.
She has done some very good stuff - tracings of maps, pictures of pyramids and the sphinx and some writing about them. The hardest thing from my wife and my point of view is to not do it for her. Not because we would do it any better but because it would be easier than encouraging her to do it!