Tall and Short Of It.

Hi my lovelies,

What have you all been up to today. I have done very little, sleep seems to be top of my list of things to do at the moment. I'm blaming the grey skies for that.
I made up with Callum and we had a chat about things. We both said sorry for being horrid and I think he gets where I am coming from. That and his sister and brother both told him that I'm easier to handle when happy and they joked with him that they had spend a very long time and put in a lot of hard work to bring ME up properly and just 'cos he is the youngest didn't mean that he could ruin all their endeavours. And; besides his job was to let me kiss and cuddle him, it is his job as he is the youngest. So we all ended up laughing and poor little Callum had to endure my kissing and cuddling of his 6ft 4in self.

I also cottoned on to something today that made me laugh.
The beautiful Patricia always stands away from Callum. So if they are in the kitchen she will be one side of it and he will be on the other side, if he moves, she moves and they sort of dance round the kitchen in this manner. I have always found it odd but never thought to question it.
Today the penny dropped. You see Patricia is very tiny, I know I have said this before but she really is tiny and can still buy clothes for 13yr old girls and I am often asked to adjust clothing to fit her. Patricia is about 5ft 2in. Where as Callum is unbelievebly tall, he is the tallest of the kids.

Patricia stands away from Callum so that she can make eye contact with him with out having to strain her neck to look up to him. When I mentioned this they all laughed and Patricia was as red as a beetroot. Callum thought it highly amusing and said to her

"Ha ha your so small you have to look up to ME, my BIG sister has to look up to ME!" to which she replied,
"Listen squirt, I don't care how TALL you grow, you'll always be my LITTLE brother"

I like the banter between the kids and am pleased that it never goes beyond banter. They are all rather good natured towards one another. I have seen some of my friends kids get totally out of hand with their siblings both verbally and physically and I don't understand parents that allow it.
There are plenty of people outside the home who will be mean to you for no apparent reason, why would you have it inside your home. It makes no sense to me, after all shouldn't people teach their children to respect others and surely it starts at home by learning to respect your own family.

My mother taught me that you only get out of kids what you put into them, which still makes me laugh, as I had a terrible relationship with my mother. In fact after 3days with her I had to leave or it would end up in a disaster, with one or the other of my brothers having to come and get me and take me home. So I got it down to, arrive day one, late in the day. Spend day two with her, but go to bed early. Day three leave ......early, by lunch time at latest. It worked out ok for us. So if you know anyone in a difficult relationship with their mother, feel free to pass on my top tip for getting along with them over three days enforce time sharing.

Much love
Lia
xx

Just Another Day.

Hello all my lovelies,

I do hope your all well warm and comfortable,
I am freezing and have whacked up the heating, Francis (with an i) is frowning at me, as he says the house is nearly the temperature of the sun. Do I care no, 'cos I am cold!!!!!!! and moody tonight.
Misty is sitting on the dinning room table with her head in a porridge bowl. I really should stop her, but it's not everyday you see a porridge eating cat sitting on your dinning table and it amuses me.

I've had a row with my Callum, it doesn't happen that we row often, but this one has been brewing. Bloody kids can't live with them, can't clot him as he's now 6ft 4in and I would have to jump up to reach his ear.
I know what his problem is...his mother didn't smack him enough, for long enough and hard enough when he was smaller.........oh darn I knew I was doing something wrong when I raised him.
We'll be alright, but right now we are skirting around each other, it's just one of those teen/parent rows. But having been through this twice already I know we will be fine. Both need to calm down and talk tomorrow.

In a way I have never really minded to kids having rows with me. I am a very strong person and a stubborn streak, I can be opinionated and I'll never back down if I believe I am 100% right. I will apologise if I am in the wrong, I strongly feel that you should if you are wrong and put things right. No one should be too big to say "I was wrong" or "Sorry".
There are certain morals, standards and beliefs that I demand the kids adhere to, but other than that I am a rather relaxed and informal parent. They just better not cross a line or I will unleash hell on them. And because I know this about myself I can't help but admire them when they do row with me. I mean part of me would like to slap the hell out of them (I don't by the way) and the other half of me is laughing and saying "you go kid, if you can stand up to me, you'll be fine in life at fighting your own corner."

I don't believe in rowing for the sake of it, but I won't run away from them when they come my way. Having spent the better part of 30 years on building sites, being the only female there and being the youngest of 13 and the only girl, standing my ground has never been a problem and in many ways I can recognise myself in the kids when we do row and I admire them for it. Just not going to let on to them that I do. Well come on......they out number me 3 to 1. Besides some one just has to be the boss and I don't do orders well.

Which reminds me did I ever tell you about the time I joined the Army? No! Here's the short version........

At 16 I joined the Army much to my poor mothers horror, but she signed the paperwork.
I arrived at the camp at 10am, by 12 noon I wanted out.
All those people shouting at me and me not being allowed to shout back.
Don't get me started on how unfashionable the uniform is!!!!!!!
Unfortunately I had to stay for 6weeks, I was so much trouble and even tried to get the other girls to go on strike, till they stopped shouting at us.
They let me go home by the 8th day.

There is still the family joke that I joined the Army and tried form a Union. It goes......

"Our Lia, the only woman to join the Army, moan about the lack of fashion sense in the uniform, refuse to take orders, tell them not to shout at her and try to form a Union and all on the first day"

It is always meet by raucous laughter and much mickey taking by the family, which normally ends with some one asking me when am I planning to take over the World, as if I'm going to tell that lot, they'll be the first to go, for crimes against my teenage rebellious self and 30years of laughing at me about it.....lol
See I told you I was opinionated with a stubborn streak. Oh and I still think the uniform sucks!!

Much love
Lia
xx

Getting There.

Hi Everyone,
How are you today, well I hope.

Stood on the scales again today, I know your not meant to do this, but I'm new to this diet lark, so I'm allowed to be silly.
I'm 13st 2lbs today, ain't that great.
I was so shocked that I got off and on a couple of times, just to make sure it was right.
Even went and put my glasses on, how mad is that.

I can't say I understand this weight loss business, but I do rather like it's surprises, well the nice ones anyway.
I have to go back to the hospital on Jan 26, so I hope to loose the other 1lb by then and be able to show the specialist that I was serious when I said that I might have Fibromyalgia, but it ain't having me. I will beat this thing or at lest have it on the run, as there is no cure.
I do so hope that she tells me I can get in the pool again, I know she wanted me to loose weight and wait before I got back in, but I'm impatient by nature (a failing I try hard to keep in check) and I just want to move on to the next stage, which is to muscle build.

Now I don't want to look like some muscle bound knuckle-head, I'm not even doing it for muscle tone, but from what I have read about this silly illness if you have a good muscle structure you end up in less pain, this is hard to explain, but put as simply as I can.........
A good muscle structure leads to stronger ligaments and tendons, there fore supporting the skeleton in the right positions. This leads to less stress on your whole being and therefore your posture is better. There's also a thing called the Alexander Technique that teaches you about the right posture for you body and then later on this year once I get a bit more movement and flexibility I can move on to Pilates.

Oh hark at me babbling on like like I did something truly amazing, all while eating a digestive biscuit......Ha hahahahahahahaha, but I am only having the one and I am feeling rather smug that I will loss the stone by the time I see the Specialist again, only I don't think she quite believed me when I said I was determined to do it, but then she'd never meet me before.

Oh and I have a bone to pick with you lot......useless you are!!!!
Totally useless, what am I going to do with you all, I ask you for help and you lot clam up.
Excuses, excuses........that's it you might not get invited to my Valentines ball, your just all too naughty.
Mel had the best idea, names in a hat....Mel you get to come to the ball.
As for the rest of you....useless and naughty.
And... and...I still don't know what to do,
I hope one of you have a hat for me to stick the names in.

Much love
Lia
xx

ps I love you all really...honest I do. xxxxx ok no whining you can all come.

Good News, Diet, Landshare & Confusion!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone,
I do hope you all had a good weekend. I certainly did.

Well to be honest any weekend spent without the hated neighbour making life hell on the street is a GOOD weekend, and they were no where to be seen. In fact we have hardly seen or heard from them in weeks, so it's bliss here right now. I have just found out that they have opened a restaurant in Greenwich. Good luck to them I say. After all the more time they spend there the less we have to put up with them and the happier the street is, with neighbours talking to each other and everyone happy and relaxed.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to eat there, you see their kitchen is next to mine and the horrid smells that come out of their kitchen don't inspire me to want to eat there. Funny really as a few of the neighbours have made the same comments and all this time I thought it was just me being nasty, 'cos I am biased against them. Turns out that quite a few of the others think along the same lines.

We saw a couple of reviews for the restaurant and they weren't favourable since they took it over. Most of the other neighbours want them to fail and are praying for it, personally the better they do, the better for my family and the street in general. So I really mean it when I wish them luck. They are open twice a day, 6 days a week, so they are going to be too busy to bother the rest of us on the street and hopefully too tired when they are here.
That can only be good for the rest of the street.

I recently came across a site about land sharing. Put simply it is for those who have a garden and helps put them in touch with people who don't have a garden, can't get their hands on an allotment, but really want to be able to grow their own produce.

Just in case you haven't ever guest about me there is a bit of a hippy chick in me and I think this is an excellent idea. So I put us up for it. I figure there are a few good things about this:-

A- I can't do the garden any more, small as it is, it is too much alone and no one else in the house has one iota of interested in helping me. So I will get some help.

B- I get to met new people and possibly become good friends. Although I am not stupid enough to believe you can make friends over night, like a garden they need to be tended.

C- I get to help others to grow their own food and food for my own family. But mainly for me, as I have to have organic veg now, due to hated illness and my garden has been organic since 1996.

Sounds great so far. Here's the problem, I have been inundated with requests. I have told people it is small and that it must be organic, non-smoking, no dogs, fences need fixing and that Bear and Misty (the cats) must be taken into consideration, especially Misty as she is old and never leaves the garden these days. Now how do I pick who is to share the garden, I have managed to whittle it down to 4 couples, but am stuck now as I know I will be disappointing some people and I really wish I didn't have to.

I was thinking that maybe I should send them a link to my blog; after all they may not like me after they read it. But then again I have just gone and put this post up about what to do, so they will think that I'm mad!!!!!!!

So, do any of you have any ideas about how to pick someone to land share with!!!!!

Oh!!!! What's a girl to do? Anyway I am off to visit you all now and see what you have all been up to. As you can see from the above photo, my diet is working and my hair is growing back.....no seriously it really is growing, but then as I "HAVE" eat my body weight in veggies everyday (due to stupid illness) I suppose there really should be some benefits to all that veggie chomping, not that I didn't eat them before, just that well I really do mean body weight and there is a hell of a lot of weight lol. Didn't do well last week, am still 13st 5lbs, oh well am not going to give up, as I do feel a bit better.

Much love
Lia
xx