It's nearly finished!

Today I'm linking up with the lovely Catherine at Making it as Mum for the Making it Home part of her blog. Catherine knows about all things home and knows how to make a space work-oh, how I wish I did!

Well, the kitchen is nearly finished. It has taken ages! (The work started back in September) Him Indoors has done most of the work all by himself saving us thousands. (My friends are quite envious of having a handy husband-"My husband would call someone in to change a fuse" was a comment from one friend.)

Purple splashback. I wanted a 'statement' colour here as everything else is very safe and neutral. We'd originally chosen a blue/purple but they sent this one by mistake and I'm so glad they did as when we held up the blue/purple sample against this one we realised that colour would have dragged the whole thing down. Thank you renovation Gods! The beauty of this is because it's just screwed to the wall it can be changed at any time. (I will definitely NOT be changing it any time soon.)

Behind 'the tower' is the boiler and cylinder-a huge thing that looks very complicated to me. Anyway, Him Indoors built the housing and put the doors on. At some point, when time allows, but sooner rather than later we'll spray paint the bottom two doors with blackboard paint so we and Toddler can let our creative juices flow. Toddler loves drawing and mark-making so that should be right up her street. Also it's at the opposite end of the kitchen from the cooker, so well away from any danger.

If you've got a renovation, decoration or interiors post you'd like to share you can link up to the Making it Home section of Making it as Mum here.

Oh no...today is jab day.

Today is jab day...I hate jab day. Immunisation, inoculation, jab. Baby will be having his second lot of jabs this afternoon. I get quite shaky normally but today will be even worse as this is the set that Toddler had a reaction to. When Toddler had these jabs the right side of her face was affected. It was if someone had drawn an invisible line right down the middle of her face and everything to the right of that line was affected. Her eye and right side of her nose and lips swelled. By the time the doctor saw her the swelling and redness had subsided to almost back to normal. An appointment with the consultant followed which didn't clear up the cause of the reaction unfortunately. The nurse spoke to me at Baby's first jabs appointment regarding Toddler's reaction. I said I was happy to go ahead with the second set of jabs as I know he won't necessarily react the same way and Toddler has not reacted to any jabs since. The consultant also mentioned that it might have not been the jab and could have been some sort of external irritant and the timing was just coincidental. Still hate jab day though.

Work of the future.

I'm definitely not going back to any sort of paid work any time soon but occasionally my mind does wander down the road to a few years from now when I will be in a position to be gainfully employed again. I know full-time teaching is definitely out as I really can't see the hours I feel you have to put in to be a successful teacher and those I feel I would have to put in to run a successful household tally up. Young children also have to be dropped off and picked up from school so that's another consideration. What kind of job allows you do it from 9:15-2:45???? Perhaps something I could do from home and control my own hours? Holistic therapy has been an interest of mine for a while. After having Toddler my back was in an awful state. Physiotherapy didn't seem to be doing much but the reflexology sessions I had really helped-so perhaps that's the way to go.

I'm really enjoying being a stay-at-home mum and to be honest I never thought I really would. There were some days after having Toddler when I thought I would go completely bonkers being a stay-at-home mum but as the months and years have progressed I've grown to enjoy it and I feel like we all get a lot out of it. One day it'll be back to work...but not just yet.

A lot can happen in six-and-a-bit years

I can't remember what sparked this thought this morning-tiredness + 'baby-brain' does not a good memory make! Anyway, I started thinking what had happened to me over the past few years and at first I didn't think it was much but as I thought I realised there was quite a bit going on...

Summer 2005-Move to Spain with long-term partner after having broken up and getting back together about 18 months previously.

Winter 2006-Break up with said long-term partner.

Summer 2007-Return to UK.

Spring 2008-My Dad died.

Summer 2008-Meet Him Indoors.

Spring 2009-I am pregnant with Toddler.

Summer 2009-Move into flat with Him Indoors.

Winter 2009-Toddler is born.

Summer 2010-Move into house.

Spring 2011-Move into current house.

Spring 2011-I am pregnant with Baby.

Winter 2012-Baby is born.

So, yeah, a lot can happen in six-and-a-bit years!

Right now I love...

Ah, my poor neglected blog, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day! So I thought I'd do a 'Right now I love...' series of posts to get my blogging mo-jo back. I'll include all sorts-it could be a product, t.v. programme, book, place to visit etc.etc. Any products I include, unless otherwise stated, will be things that I've bought for myself or others or that I just have around the house.

So let's kick off with Right now I love Chessington World of Adventures in the rain. Him Indoors had booked a day off recently and, yes, it turned out to be one of the wettest days we've had so far this year. He'd booked the web pre-school offer which, as I understand it, is non-transferable so we had to go and it was great! It was tipping down by the time we got there and there were just a few cars in the car park so we got to park right by the entrance. The lady at the entrance told us that because it had been raining for more than an hour we'd be able to use our tickets again for entrance on another day under their 'Rainy Day' policy. Basically, if it has rained for more than an hour they log the day in their system as a rainy day, they let you keep your original ticket and all you have to do is look on the website to see when you can go back under the terms of the policy. I imagine the list of available dates to go back will be restricted, I've yet to have a look, but nevertheless I think it's a great idea.

We had the park more or less to ourselves but there were enough people there that there was still a good atmosphere. No queueing or waiting around for anything and at all the shows we were at the front with an unrestricted view.

It was a fantastic day despite the awful weather, but it didn't rain the whole time. We thought that we wouldn't get to see the mammals due to the rain but we managed to see most of them. Typically, about 4:30pm when most people were getting ready to go the sun broke through the grey clouds and it was beautiful.

One thing I would suggest to take, that we didn't, if you think it might rain whilst you're there take a couple of small hand towels to wipe down seats.

Chessington World of Adventures in the pouring rain-Love it!

http://www.chessington.com/

The fascinating 'Bearcat'-it smells of popcorn-honestly!

The village in Village Mama UK

I realised recently that I've never explained my blog name. Why am I Village Mama? I'm in the fortunate (as far as I'm concerned) position that I've lived in the same place my whole life and up until roughly this time last year in the same house. When I say "...I've lived..." I mean in the sense of the family home has always been the same, at the same address. I've actually lived all over the place in England and even had an all too brief stint (2 years) in Spain. Up until last year four generations of my family had, since the early 1900's, occupied the same property so I suppose you could say the village is in my blood. This time last year we moved-but only across the road!

As you can imagine the village is very important to me and even more so now I'm a stay-at-home mum. Near enough everything I do has its roots in the village. Unfortunatley Toddler's pre-school is in the next town which is a drive away-shame, can't have everything. The village isn't even really a village in the rural sense as it's surrounded by fairly large towns. In my view it's a little oasis in the midst of its near neighbours. I could now go on to write a whole list of things that I love about the village but I won't because you get the picture already.

At times, when I have the time to think about it, I feel quite sorry for Him Indoors not to feel as connected to the place in which he lives as I do. How can you feel that connected to a place and community when you get up, go to work outside of that community, come home again and don't leave the house again until you go to work the next day? The only job I've ever had in the village was as a young teenager on my paper round. When the time comes again for me to go back to work I can only hope there's a job waiting for me somewhere in the village.