a new house

We moved! wow that went quick!

We had a phone call on monday evening last week to ask us to come and view a house, we moved in on Saturday. So shocked and pleased, we now have a bedroom each and Stephanie has settled straight in to her room I was worried, unnecessarily it seems, how she would react to sleeping in her own room after spending the past 4 years charing with me.

We also have a garden, its small so will not bw growing our own vegetables in it unless they can survive in pots, but we can fit in larger pots than we had on the flat windowsills.

We also seem to have no heating,I Just cannot get it to work. Neighbour has had probs with his which a visit to the builders a couple of houses up fixed for him, so hopefully I can catch a builder tomorrow to fix mine. Its ok in the day but by night it is FREEZING in here! I didnt appreciate how cosy my flat got.

Have spent past couple of days unpacking and am very pleased to say I am nearly there, must buy a loft ladder so I can place things such as christmas decs up there and clear under my bed/ corners of rooms of the boxes I just can't find anywhere else for.

My mission for tomorrow is to get on with my uniwork. My bedroom is big enough for me to have a kind of office at one end of it-so no excuses really. Off for an early night to try and catch up on lost sleep from my non stop weekend!

oh and yes I have been told you cannot catch up on lost sleep ;-) but surely it doesn't hurt to try!

NIGHT

a learning curve

I got up this morning to bake the bread and muffins; the muffins taste great, the bread however was a little on the heavy side, but Stephanie likes it. It tasted good with a little of my home made blackberry jam spread on it.

the muffins

the bread

Have been and watered the plants we are growing and they are looking very impressive, if I do say so myself. Just look at these fine specimens:

Am currently considering a new shampoo, should I try a organic/no chemical type one which costs more financially but is good for the environment or do I buy a normal shampoo which costs little financially but not as good for the environment. Hmm pondering and internet research required I think..............

baking day- well night

Have decided to give making my own bread a try. In the past I have had a bread maker and found the bread that came out is very heavy- almost cake like in consistency. I prefer a lighter loaf and so have am trying a different recipe which I found on the net and has good reviews. Will let you know tomorrow once it has been baked and tried if it is better than my breadmaker attempts at home. The results of my attempts before baking:

I have also made strawberry muffins mix ready to put in the oven once we wake up in the morning. They should make a nice sunday morning breakfast and will use up the oven space left over whilst the bread is cooking, thus being more eco as I won't use the oven twice. Also the preparations for the morning bakings is excellent procrastination material- I have yet to open a uni book despite Stephanie being so exausted she went to bed at half past 6!

Making bread is part of my effort to be less reliant on supermarkets and their uneco policies. I am also investigating the possibility of using the local butchers for our meat, am not sure how feasible this will be when I am out of the house for uni or even later work. If I can get in the habit now then perhaps it will be easier when I get to that stage. And as Dylans aid the other day "we need to use local shops more mum so that we don't loose them". A good head on his shoulders has my boy.

Oh and speaking of Dylan he has passed his ju-jitsu grading and is now an orange belt. Very proud of him.

times flying!

wow where is time going at the moment?

seem to be constantly busy at the moment. Lots of uni work to do and have also been visiting schools for the GTP and have been to a couple of interviews. I haven't got any of the jobs though, so I will be doing the PGCE in September. Feel very calm now that a decision has been made.

Have been busy at home playing games, and making a model of the solar system. Stephanies knowledge is astoudning. She asked me the other day where the bricks and books were kept when the world was all water, before it cracked and we got mud so that the humans could come. WOW! my baby is not really a baby anymore :-( such a sad thought.

Our plants are growing well all of the pots have little shoots appearing; apart from the sunflowers but they were planted about a week after the others. Will post some pics another day feeling a bit tired tonight so going to go to bed soon.

Went to look at a school with Carla today it was a fantastic looking school, it had a great little outdoor area; they had a caravan, a rope swing, climbing apparatus and a woodworking bench with real hammers/ saws etc for the children to use. Was so impressed I have ordered a real toolkit for Stephanies birthday present.

drowning in paper!!

I feel like it anyway. Am just tying up the loose ends of my dissertation and it is lots of different pieces of paper (hopefully all talking about the same subject!). Its due to be handed in tomorrow so having a slight panic as the printer wanted to print wonky, skip some lines of random pages and other crazy things. It is all done now and in the folder ready for submission.

Have had a busy day in school with goldfish class. We have been playing playdough LOTS. I also took half the class for story time today, lots of fun felt very grown up and teachery doing that.

Dropped of Stephanies old smart trike to its proud new owners after school, she hasn't noticed that it has gone yet but am sure she will soon.

We did notice at bedtime our plants are sprouting up, we have tiny green bits belonging to peppers, carrots, salad leaves and tomatoes so far. Just waiting for the peas to shoot up, they may take longer as they are already outside. Will try and photograph tomorrow to record their progress, will also check on the sunflowers to see if they are doing much yet.

Hello

I am planning to start this blog to help organise my thinking and as a sort of online diary of our time as a family.
We are a little family, just me, my son Dylan and daughter Stephanie. We enjoy spending time together exploring different places, or at home playing games and cooking together. Just the usual family stuff really.
I am currently in my third and final year of my degree, and will be starting my teacher training course in September.
Dylan is in his final year of primary and due to start secondary in September.
Stephanie is in her final year of nursery, due to start infants in September.

So as you can see we have a lot of changes happening this year. Oh did I mention we would also like to move very soon too!

Not to many changes happening for us in the forthcoming future. Well the move isnt likely to be within the next year. Currently renting but am wanting to buy in the next few years. I am with a housing association at the moment and its a tiny little flat, we don't even have a balcony. We are on the list for a house, like thousands of other families in the area. If we get moved and like where we get moved to then I may consider not buying, but I see that as unlikely.

So to buy a house I need to sort out some debts I have, credit cards!, and save for a deposit. I think I could do this within 5 years, if I manage to get a place on the GTP teacher training so I get paid as I learn. Otherwise I could take a bit longer, as although the PGCE route has a bursary its not a lot. So GTp 5 year aim, PGCE 6 year aim. So not too long.

Am planning to use the blog to chart progress towards this goal, and the little things we do as a family along the way. Like today we went to feed the ducks, who rather disappointingly weren't hungry! So we planted sunflower seeds instead.

We are having a bit of success with our seeds we plnted last week to, we have little sprouts from the salad leaves, and we think the peppers. Although they might be tomatoes, I forget which we put in which pots! So will see when they start to fruit!
We also have rainbow carrots and peas planted. We are never going to be able to grow more than a mouthful of each plant as we only have space for small pots, but it is good experience and practice for when we finally get a garden.

I do have our names on the allotment list, but I have mor ehope of getting a house than an allotment. We are 26th on the allotment list shame they only let about one a year!

So watch our progress and see will we get a garden or an allotment first!