January is nearly over....thank goodness!!! It's the worst month of the year, supposedly has the highest suicide rate....not surprising!!!! Moan, groan....

Anyway, not done an awful lot, been grumpy and horrible to the kids most of the time, must be suffering from that 'SAD' syndrome. BUT... we are away for a few days next week to Yorkshire, staying in some Forest Lodges with seven other families from the Home Ed group. We are all quite excited as the cabins look really nice (and they were quite cheap!) and the kids will have great fun playing Robin Hood all day while we get a chance to relax and chat. Hopefully it will re-charge the batteries and I can get my head around getting on with a craft business and being Dave's gopher!

A few things have happened in the last week or so, done cottages, went for a windy walk up Gummers Howe with some friends.

We had a really good science group last week about blood types (I learnt quite a bit even if the kids didn't!). We actually started the group looking at the Holocaust as it's memorial day sometime soon which was really interesting and this led on to different peoples blood groups etc in a roundabout way! Then we did some Jewish dancing which was a bit like ring a ring a rosies but without the falling down (hopefully the video will load).

I have started going to a slimming group to give myself the kick up the bum I need. It's all very happy, clappy and girly and really not me at all but I will grin and bear it for the sake of losing some weight!!!

I have also today quit Cumbrian Cottages .......Hurrah!!! This was after a lot of thought and wondering how we will survive without the money but it's done now. We have done it for two years and for a few different reasons, enough is enough!! Dave's work seems to be ticking over so I will just have to pull my finger out and start making lots more felted bits and pieces to sell or find something else to bring in some extra money. So...things are changing....scary!!!

Today was wet and miserable so Dave couldn't work again. We decided that instead of sitting on our bums all day we would get out and go for a wander around Kendal. After dropping my poorly car off for the work to get done on it we headed over to the big Age Concern warehouse to have a look around and left the car there and walked into town. The river Kent (runs through Kendal) was really high and running very, very fast so we got some lunch and sat and watched it for a while before walking on. We picked up a couple of walks around Kendal from the Tourist Information and had a lovely wander around all the old yards and learnt about the history of some of the places as we went.

It's funny..... when we used to come rushing up from the South for our visits to the Lake District (before kids!) Kendal was one place we were never interested in. We always thought it was a bit boring and there wasn't much to see there, little did we know!! The kids were fascinated by all the 'yards' and alleyways which are dotted all over the main part of Kendal and it was amazing to find great big, beautfiful old houses just tucked away behind the main street which you would never have guessed were there. I think the longer we live here, the more it grows on us!!It was a really nice walk around and we discovered completely new places and ways of getting to places, a bit like a treasure hunt and I'm sure there is still lots to discover!

While I rushed out to get some shopping Dave read the bedtime story and packed the kids off to bed last night, including Louise. I got back about an hour later and could still hear Eilidh and Louise chatting away, trying not to be heard! I decided that they would eventually wear themselves out and sleep so left them to it. Well, they did go to sleep.........until 2am!! I was woken up to the sound of chatting coming from Eilidhs room, so I got up to tell them to go back to sleep. Not only were they awake, they were both messing about putting make-up on and fully dressed!!!!! Unbelievable!! Needless to say they were swiftly told to get back into their pyjamas, back into their beds and back to sleep! After lying awake listening to them for another ten minutes, Dave went in to find lights out and sudden quiet. Fortunately they did then sleep until 7am but both of them were very tired and grouchy this morning!!! Oh the joys of sleepovers, I'm sure we never did anything like that when we were kids (ha, ha!)

Well, we went out this morning for a walk and came home with an extra body!! We have our friends daughter over for a sleep-over tonight and I think her and Eilidh are still upstairs chatting and giggling.Goodness knows what state they will be in tomorrow!!

We popped into our friends house over a Grange-Over-Sands on the way to a walk around Humphrey Head, mainly because Dave wanted to see his new Russian Army Jeep (boys and their toys!) Louise (their daughter) decided she wanted to come with us and we braved VERY windy, freezing cold wind to walk and find some caves to explore. It was a good walk although we never did find the caves. Jayne had said she was making chocolate cake for when we got back so worth it!!! We ended up staying for cake, coffee and dinner! Eilidh and Louise disappeared upstairs to do 'girly things' and came down all dolled up in dresses and make-up, so much for Eilidh being a tom-boy!! They seemed to have a good time and just as we were about to leave they both decided they wanted a sleep-over so Louise has come to stay. Eilidh and Ben were so excited as this is their first 'real' sleep-over....bless! Jayne and Ditch were happy as all their kids are out tonight at other peoples houses so they have the place to themselves for once!!

It was a really lovely day and we are trying to be a bit more organised this year and hoping to meet up for days out and walks whenever possible which will be great as I desperately need some motivation!!

Yesterday Dave was back at work so we decided to get some fresh air and go for a walk up Cunswick Scar, the fell just behind our house. We decided to head for the road bridge over the dual carriageway but managed to wander off in the wrong direction! We still had a lovely walk in the frost and sunshine and the kids got to play on the big Cairn at the top and then came back down through the woods. We treated ourselves to hot chocolcate and home-made banana cake when we got home.
Today we woke up to a covering off snow but it didn't last too long beofre it started drizzling this afternoon. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to go sledging on and we had a quiet afternoon in front of the fire.

A Whole New Year....

We spent a few days over New Year over with Dave's mum again, meeting up with family and friends. We had a lovely dinner at Barbara and Alan's and Barabar showed us some of her glass bead making which was fascinating. I had a go but only managed a wimpy looking bead, just couldn't get the spinning bit right!!! Dave also met up with a friend he found again on Facebook, he hasn't seen this guy for about twenty years so they had loads to catch up on.

We had a good day out on New Years Eve with Dave's mum, went down to the coast and had some lunch. It was absolutely freezing, I have never seen frost so white before, it looked like the trees were actually made from it! After driving around all day in our car we got back to Consett and popped in to get some more fuel before going back to his mum's house and the car wouldn't start again! Typical, just what you don't need on New Years Day plus it would be the one time we didnt get breakdown cover on the car as it was meant to have been sold by now! GRRRRRR! We managed to get towed back to the house by a nice man and then quickly got on the phone to arrange breakdown cover. Cheeky, but it worked, you have to wait 24 hours before you can call them out, so we left the car for a day and then rang them on the Friday saying it had broken down!! Ha, Ha!!! We ended up being recovered back home (much to Ben's delight) as apparantly it is the alternator (again!) So now we are without a car again!

Yesterday was a really rubbish day, we had two cottages to sort out and Dave then realised he was on duty at the church as well. Great! I ended up having to take the truck and the kids to do both cottages on my own while Dave had to cycle to church and back and do his bit there. Actually they aren't really cottages at all, one is a two bed, two bath house and the other is a big house with four bedrooms, one bathroom, toilet, shower and large kitchen. Needless to say that after New Year the places were a mess, the smaller one took three times as long as it normally does and all the Christmas decorations had to be out away as well. I was NOT impressed, the kids were bored , I was completely fed up and we didn't finish until about 5.30pm after much screaming and shouting. Ho Hum!!
However we did get home to a yummy dinner already cooked and I got some Baileys which was left behind at the cottages so it wasn't all bad!