It's been really wintry this week with very cold early mornings but some sunshine too. I like it when it's like this as long as I'm all wrapped up in the right clothing!

The week started with a trip to the orthodontist on Monday with D to be fitted with a new bottom retainer that I'd had to order as her one had split. That was my purse £90 lighter so I hope this one lasts a bit longer than the year the last one did. Unfortunately she tends to grind her teeth at night and they're quite flimsy things so I won't hold my breath.

I worked Tuesday, and Wednesday instead of Thursday this week which meant that I could take the children to the village toddler group. I think it must be about 10 years since I've been and not a lots changed. It was an easy few hours work with a couple of coffees and chocolate biscuits thrown in!

On Friday D's boyfriend, Jack, celebrated his 18th birthday. She went for a meal with him and his family to The Ivy in Exeter which she said was amazing. It is booked up weeks in advance as it seems to be the in place to go at the moment.

This weekend we have been to Bournemouth with K and L to visit our friends Geoff and Sara.  We always have a weekend with them in January but last last years had to be moved on a year due to Covid, however, we did see them last October when Geoff threw a surprise party for Sara's 50th birthday. We had a lovely meal out with them last night and then today had a walk along the seafront and a coffee out in a lovely little cafe right out on the end of the pier. It has been really nice catching up with them. There has also been a little bit of shopping and some copper spent on the machines in the amusement arcade on the pier.      

        

       

Now, I need to make sure everything's ready for school tomorrow and then it will be another episode of either The Bay or Around the World in 80 days, not sure which yet, but we are really enjoying both.

 Another week hits the dust. I know I've said it before but with school, work, clubs etc now all back to normal life just whizzes by. There's a small part of me that misses this time last year when school was shut and we just pottered about at home with some online schoolwork and a walk each day. No rushing out the house early, no packed lunches, no clubs - bliss!

Monday was a bit of a wasted day. L had a hospital appointment in Exeter for a rare mole she has developed on her nose. She is under the care of a consultant dermatologist who every few weeks has a look at it and measures it. Unfortunately, because of where it is, to remove it would leave a big scar so a greater problem than what she is dealing with. They are hopeful that as she gets older and her face and nose grow it will fade out. In the meantime their advice is to use concealer on it. Anyway she was running 45 minutes late so the whole afternoon was taken up in the end.

Wednesday I met a friend for coffee in our village garden centre in the morning which was very pleasant and then it was home to just get on with the usual domestic drudgery!

Thursday I went into town with S for a wander around and we had a coffee out. This week she started her new job up in Exeter but it has just been a few hours each day doing induction training whereas next week it will be back to long shifts and not much opportunity for coffees out.

Fridays, D finishes school at 11.00 so that is her day for Mummy time, as she puts it, so back into town for another look around and another coffee out.

Saturday I was back into town in the morning as L has started scouts and we needed to buy her uniform. The uniform shop only opens on a Saturday for a couple of hours so I couldn't combine with my other trips. In the afternoon it was only me and L so she got her scooter out and we did what we call our lockdown route around the village, me walking and her scootering. From our house we go down to the bottom of the village, up through our park to the main road that goes through the village centre, through the centre and then back down to home. It takes about 40 minutes and got us out for some fresh air.

Today I fancied some sea air so we went over to Teignmouth and walked all along the sea front and beyond and now I am cooking a roast for dinner.

Have a good week everyone.

 I can't believe the last time I wrote anything was Christmas Eve, the days have just flown by in a blur of Christmas, New Year, lots of Bank Holidays and regularly not knowing what day of the week it was!

We had a quiet but lovely Christmas. It was just the six of us for lunch and then S and D's boyfriends came over mid afternoon and they all played board games and we relaxed with a couple of glasses of bubbles. We have managed several wet walks and a trip to the cinema. We also had a trip to the theatre in Torquay to watch Cinderella which was very good. 

Now we are back to the routine of school and work and actually it's nice and I always like a whole new year ahead with holidays and little trips to plan. This weekend we have been up to Wiltshire to see family as we didn't see them at Christmas. Yesterday we took Mother in Law into Bath for the afternoon which was nice. We didn't go in many shops but it was just nice to stroll about and we had a coffee. In the evening we had fish and chips with my Dad and today we had lunch at Prezzo with my Dad, Sister and Brother in Law so lots of catching up done this weekend.  It has been really lovely but it's always tiring fitting in so many people in such a short space of time.

Tomorrow we have the hospital with L - she has a rare mole on her nose and so is under the care of a paediatric dermatologist who is keeping an eye on the size and colour of it. At the moment they feel she would be left with a worse scar than how the mole looks as they would have to cut deep to get rid of it all. They are hoping that as her face and nose grow with age it will fade out - we shall have to see.

I am working Tuesday and then meeting a friend for coffee Wednesday morning. As for the latter end of the week I am not sure what my plans are I shall just see how it all unfolds.

Well I am now going to slump on the sofa and read my book. Hope everyone has a good week x 

 Well it's Christmas Eve and we are all ready and waiting. It was great to finally be out of isolation on Monday and get out for a walk and some fresh air. There has been a lot of baking this week by K. She has taken over from my Mum as the sausage roll maker and has made batches of meat ones and Delia's veggie ones. The last few years she has also made mini Christmas cakes for my Dad, Brother-in-Law and Mother-in-Law so those were done at the beginning of the week. I made the Christmas cake but Husband did the marzipan and icing and S did the decorations. S also organised the gingerbread house which wasn't a great success this year - literally minutes after taking the photo the roof caved in and the chimney and santa fell off! It had to have some emergency repairs which so far are still holding up.

In the end we decided to play safe and cancelled out plans to go up to Wiltshire for the night yesterday. We are a big family and Husband is part of a big family so 16 of us were going to go for a meal last night and 12 for lunch today. My Dad and Husbands Mum were worried about the number of different people mixing with omicron about and felt it better to ostpone till the new year so on Tuesday Husband with K and S went up for the day and delivered our presents to everyone. My Sister and Brother-in-Law will spend the day with my Dad tomorrow and I will phone him in the morning for a chat.

Well we are hoping to get out for a nice walk this afternoon although it's currently raining which is a pain so all that remains is for me to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas x

 Just a short post to say I tested positive for covid yesterday so am now in isolation until the middle of next week. I feel fine at the moment just a bit of a cold. The isolating I am going to find hard as I like to be busy but Daughter S has done a great job of running the show since yesterday, getting the girls off to school today and cooking meals. Husband is out of isolation tomorrow, just need to keep testing Lois as she is the only one of us not to have had it now.

I will be back before Christmas, not that I will have done anything to write about!

Take care everyone x

 It's been another busy week here starting with the carpet fitter ringing on Monday saying he had made a mistake with his diary and could he come the following day instead of Wednesday as booked. Well that put Husband in a flat spin as he frantically did lot's of finishing off jobs and ripped up the old living room carpet and took it to the tip. I got home from work on Tuesday to find it all done and the girls had helped Husband hoover up all the bits and put the furniture back. I have to say it all looks really lovely and the new fireplace that Husband built really makes the room. 

Tuesday evening and Wednesday we got all the Christmas decorations out of the garage and now the tree is up and decorated as is the rest of the house and we are looking truly festive. The girls all have a chocolate advent calendar but we also have a fabric one for the living room which Husbands Aunt made for us about 10 years ago. There is a pocket for each day which I fill with chocolates and they squabble over who's having which one every evening!

At the beginning of the week Husband started to feel like he was coming down with a cold. He did a lateral flow test on Tuesday which was negative but as he was still feeling rough on Wednesday Daughter S made him do another and there was a very faint line so with that she had him booked in for a PCR first thing Thursday morning. Unfortunately for him the result came back positive so he is now isolating in Daughter L's room until the end of next week. Daughter L is now sleeping in with me and we are hoping we don't succumb as we are the only two in the family now not to have had it. Unfortunately, a child I looked after Tuesday and was obviously in close contact with, tested positive Wednesday evening so I've got it coming at me all ways. I'm sure it's the same everywhere but our village is rife with it at the moment.

On Friday evening our village Scouts/Cubs and Beavers were doing an outside carol concert at one of our village pubs so me, L and K walked up to listen and enjoy a warm mince pie and the fake snow machine! 

I am going to miss Husbands company obviously, but also we work as a team with the girls as they all go to different schools in different towns and attend various clubs etc so I am now the lone taxi driver - it's going to be a tiring week for sure. Luckily all Christmas present shopping is done and wrapped, just food bits left to get and he will be out of isolation to help by then. Disappointingly, we were meant to be going up to Wiltshire this weekend to visit my Dad and Mother in Law which we had to cancel as even if we had gone without Husband there is too high a risk that me or L could be carrying it. I had presents all wrapped to take just in case Boris changes rules at the last minute again and we can't go for our Christmas visit, now I will have to keep my fingers crossed that our plans to visit 23rd/24th December get to go ahead as planned.

Well last week of term thank goodness. Poor old D has mock A Levels this week so not much of a fun last week for her but the other two have Christmas lunch and jumper day on Wednesday and that is about it as all other Christmas stuff has either been cancelled or postponed. I have finally had a date for my booster which is next Sunday so I will be glad to get that done. I am hoping that Daughter D gets a date for her second dose before Christmas as well. Husband was booked in for his booster this coming Wednesday which he has had to cancel so his will be in the new year now.

Well I think that is it for now. Going to get out for a nice walk with the girls this afternoon.

 Well it's been a busy week of Christmas preparations. I now have all the girls presents bar one and they are all wrapped and hidden away. I have a couple of bits to get for my Dad and Mother in Law and then they are finished. We are going up to Wiltshire this coming weekend and I am planning on taking their presents and those for my Sister and her Husband just in case there are any last minute restrictions on travel etc due to this new covid variant.

K has made two batches of sausage rolls this morning for the freezer for Christmas and she will also make a couple of batches of Delia Smiths vegetarian ones. I have lots of bits of food stashed away in cupboards and in the freezer but I need to sit down and roughly plan the meals we are going to have and see what else is needed and what fresh bits we will need nearer the time.

L's classmates should all be back at school tomorrow after having to isolate as they had covid but as so many children have been off,  the school has decided to postpone their Christmas production as their is not enough time left for rehearsals etc.  She was also meant to be going up to Exeter this coming Friday with the school to the theatre but the decision has been made to cancel this as well. 

I will be back to work this Tuesday which will be a shock to the system after two weeks off but it will only be for two weeks and then it will be the Christmas holidays. It's a busy week this week as we are finally having new carpet fitted in our living room and hall, stairs and landing. Husband has not quite finished decorating the living room so he will be flat out tomorrow and Tuesday! Once that is all done we will be able to put up our Christmas tree and generally decorate for Christmas.

Yesterday we had a lovely day out down in Plymouth visiting Saltram House which is owned by The National Trust. They always decorate the downstairs to a theme and this year it was The Nutcracker. It all looked amazing and it was lovely to be able to visit again. Last year the house was closed so we had to make do with just walking all around the grounds. Afterwards we had a hot drink in the cafe and then came on home. We usually got to Killerton House near Exeter as well but they are not taking part this year.

Hopefully back later in the week.