Life with Chickenruby: family

Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Monday, 26 May 2025

Week 21 One Daily Positive and Project 365

Can't believe it's half term already, only 4 weeks this term due to a late Easter. How does the weather know it's half term? Typical!

I'm in Northern Ireland helping out with son and his family and getting loads of new born and 3 year old grandson cuddles.

I've had a couple of headaches this week, but nothing requiring anything stronger than paracetamol. This new migraine drug is so far working, however the nausea as a side effect really isn't pleasant.

Day 139

A very quiet day in work, walked to fetch a student from home and caught up with year 7 assessments and a last minute Lord of the Flies revision session ahead of tomorrows GCSE. Charged the car at work then met Peter for coffee, watered the garden, watched Mastermind Finals, bath then Lockerbie and bed. These 2 photos taken 12 hrs apart.

Day 140

A good sleep till the alarm and tea brought up to bed. The whole day has been stress free, work was good catching up with assessments and my last GCSE English tutoring session. I am glad to see the back of Macbeth for now. Sorted out car insurance and van windscreen repair, then into town for some shopping and a coffee and home for dinner. I bought and wrapped birthday presents and made cards for the month of June whilst catching up with the soaps.

Day 141

Took the car for a charge and Peter went for a coffee and I went for my medication review before work. A full day of organising and supervising assessments. Home for an hour then out to meet a friend for coffee. A late dinner, I packed for my trip on Friday, did the washing and tidied up my school paperwork.

Day 142

Windscreen repair done and Peter cleaned the van for my trip to Northern Ireland tomorrow. Bags and car packed and I found some time to fill up the new flowerpot Peter made and get round to planting the azalea we bought a couple of weeks ago. Evening spent in front of the tv.

Day 143

A day at work which went well. I then popped in home for a cuppa and swop cars before driving up to Birkenhead to catch the overnight ferry to Belfast. It was a long drive but passed without incident. No cabins available so I got my head down in the lounge and managed a few hours sleep.

Day 144

Arrived off the ferry after a couple of hours sleep. Eldest grandson had been taken into hospital on the Friday night, so plans all changed. I unloaded the car which included a Little Tykes slide one of our neighbours was giving away free. Walked the dog and fed the baby while DIL got ready for the hospital. Spent midday till 4pm at the hospital. I was exhausted so came home to rest. Outlaws collected DIL after their visit and I had baby cuddles when son returned for the night shift.

Day 145

A long day starting with baby duty which I bloody loved, walked the dog, made dinner for the evening and headed off to the hospital to spend the day with our 3 year old grandson. We read books, went for a walk, got him off to sleep for an hour, did loads of colouring in and played with his cars. He was discharged early evening and we came home for dinner, a play on the new slide and lots of bedtime stories. I watched TV and went to bed around 10pm

Things to make you smile:

Grandson telling me I'm not his favourite anymore when I told him off. I was no longer his best friend either when I said I wasn't reading all those books at one bedtime.

I was being tooted at on the ferry but the cars behind couldn't see the vehicle in front of me was driverless and they park us so close on the ferry there was no way I could get past.

Things that made me happy:

Thank you cards from my students ahead of their last day in school for their GCSE's. Memories, gluten free cakes, the ferry trip, dog walks (in the dry), baby cuddles (photo captured by 3 yo) decent hospital car park charges.

On the blog this week:

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week.

Word of the Week - Battery

What I'm reading 2025

Wednesday, 30 April 2025

The Good Bits of April 2025

April has been busy and packed full of fun with 2 of our sons, DIL and grandchildren. The weather has been perfect for being out and about and we've made the most of it. The 2 weeks Easter Holidays felt so much longer and despite packing so much in, we've also had plenty of time to rest, watch TV and just chill.

Things that made me laugh:

April Fools Brownies. I made these for my students. I work in a secondary school, they humoured me.

Parking the white car. My other vehicle is a camper van, a Ford Transit. I can park it anywhere, this thing takes several attempts and a taxi to the pavement. I took this photo to prove I can actually park it.

The grandchildren have provided us with lots of entertainment from 'She was naughty for 3 minutes' When granddaughter spoke to her friend at the park and didn't give her cousin the full attention he wanted. Being told by granddaughter that I am her favourite, but not to tell granddad. Also the importance of a half year has been discovered. And I best not mention the punch in the face I gave our granddaughter when I was trying to put her seatbelt on.

Places we visited:

Forest of Dean - Beachenhurst with Peter and the grandchildren for the park and lunch

Malvern Hills - Walks with our son's dog and to see the bluebells on our own

Park - We're fortunate to have several nice play areas in Malvern to take the grandchildren to

St Briavels - Two nights camping together and a walk to the local pub

Chepstow Castle - Day out with Peter and our granddaughter

Easter Party - In my old neighbourhood with DIL and the grandchildren

Much Wenlock - English Heritage Wenlock Priory in the morning with a friend, then

National Trust Benthall Hall - Late afternoon before I headed to my camp site for the night.

National Trust Berrington Hall - On my way home

Countrytastic - Three Counties with Peter, DIL and grandchildren

Birmingham City - Two trips to watch Birmingham play

Croome Park - A day out with Peter, DIL and our grandchildren

Goodrich Castle - A day out with my friend and her 2 children

Keynsham - Peter and I visited his mother as there was some DIY to be done - catching up with reading on all the trips

Meeting with friends - Lots of coffee visits, meals out, just chatting and drinking tea moments also

Things we did at home:

Gardening - Lots of moving pots around really for best sun light

Grandchildren to stay

Tidying up after the grandchildren had visited

Had a visit from the Easter Bunny

Had fun with Olive our friends dog we looked after for the Easter weekend

I'm not sure May will be as busy but I do start and end the month in Northern Ireland with a bank holiday weekend and Whitsun holiday, so who knows? How was your April?

Monday, 7 April 2025

Word of the Week - Grandchildren

We have 3 grandchildren and another due the end of this month.

A girl, 2 boys and another boy on the way.

They are 5, 3, almost 7 weeks and -3 weeks.

The 5 year old and 7 week old live just over an hours drive away and we see them as often as we can. They haven't been to stay over for since the baby has been born and we've been making more trips down to visit them. There are no photos posted online, at their parents request, which we respect and fully support as it's a protection issue, but annoys us as so often it feels like we don't care or can't be bothered especially as we have our other grandson with us this weekend and we'll be posting pictures of him. I often have to remind hubby he can't post pictures or we take extra pictures that we know we can post.

I do have a private Facebook album where I share our adventures with our grandchildren for them to see them all in one place when they are older.

The 3 year old and the -3 weeks grandchildren live in Northern Ireland so our visits with them are less frequent. We visit them every February and October half term and I will fly over a couple of times a year for long weekends. They have been over a several times on the boat but with two dogs and all the paraphernalia required with a baby, it's not been an easy trip. Their last one being just before Christmas and for the first time the two grandchildren really got to know one another properly and they got on so well together.

I do make video calls with them when I'm with the other and encourage them to draw pictures and help them buy little gifts for each other when I visit so they can keep in touch, but seeing them together is so lovely. And this weekend, our son and the 3 year old came over on the boat with one of their dogs, while our pregnant DIL with -3 weeks to go until the baby is due had a weekend of R&R.

So what did we get up to?

On Friday we had a baby shower for the new baby, baked and iced Paw Patrol cakes, read 100 books.

Saturday our son went to the football and we introduced the 3 year old to his new baby cousin, then took the 5 year old with to Beechenhurst in the Forest of Dean on the Grufflo Trail. We also had Bailey the dog with us. We walked, played in the park, had drinks and cake and had a picnic.

There was only one upset when the 5 year old saw a friend and went off to play with them, leaving the 3 year old declaring them as being naughty for 3 minutes and not being their friend anymore, but it passed quicker than 3 minutes.

They held hands when they walked, they chatted about their baby brothers and their other grandparents and their Uncle Jamie and Aunty Jess in Australia. They talked about our cat Pushkins and Aunty Stephanie and their Mummies and Daddies and ate ice cream and looked after each other when they fell over and got dirty.

Sunday we went shopping and for a coffee then had some time off while they went back to visit their cousin and met up with other family members and had a BBQ, getting home at 7.30pm in time for more stories.

They go home tomorrow but there is one last treat before they leave, a visit from the Easter Bunny.

The house is a mess, there was washing and ironing, cake crumbs trodden in the carpet, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Joining in with Raise Bay #WotW

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Stephanie's Birthdays

Today would've been Stephanie's 37th Birthday.

As a blended family we've had 25 wonderful years with Stephanie.

We weren't always around to spend every birthday with her on the actual day, but we always made sure there were cards, gifts and a cake and a visit as close to the date as possible.

Stephanie didn't grow up, the family just grew older around her.

2000 aged 12 at Poolway Rise

2001 aged 13 at Gran's house in Saltford, when Stephanie went to St Christophers School in Bristol

2002 aged 14 at Gran's Honestly these photos are 2 years apart, I've doubled checked the printing dates on the back (Truprint and Kodak) She didn't grow out of clothes or shoes, just wore them out eventually.