Foos, Food, & Family

Five things for today.

1)In the kitchen – made a Herby butternut squash & chickpea soup, and Butternut Squash, orange & sultana muffins with leftover squash. Recipe on previous post.

The two small boys helped me too!

2) Foo Fighters

Put Sylvie in her brother’s old Foo Fighters vest! Loved seeing it being worn again!

3) Merangos
Had a sweet treat after dinner of meringue, Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream & berries. Yum! Albie calls them Rangos so we renamed them “Merangos”!

4) Texts – had a text from a friend who is very close to having her second baby & hoping for a home birth! Really excited for her & hope she gets a dream labour and delivery. I’d have loved a home birth but it wasn’t meant to be, but I think they are wonderful! Looking forward to an announcement!

5) Brothers – they drive each other spare a lot of the time & I’m always refereeing squabbles… But they really do love each other. This pair below in particular have a good bond, but clash too! I love watching my children interact (on a good day!) – it makes having a large family all the more worth it.

Picnic & friendships

1)Picnic with friends
My friend Mia came today with her three children for a walk and picnic! It was lovely even though it didn’t quite go as expected! Came home & had a nice cuppa & chat too.

2) Sleepy girls

Our two little ones sparked out after the picnic! Sylvie complete with grassy knees! Was lovely to see! I really am looking forward to watching them develop a friendship as they grow!

3) Muffins

Made some Italian courgette muffins for our picnic with a little help from the children. Recipe was from Abel & Cole They were yummy!

4) Warm weather Was lovely & sunny, and we managed to eat a lovely mackerel pasta outside this evening.

5) New phone Changed from an iPhone to Sony XperiaZ yesterday with a free upgrade. Phone is huge & it’s taking some getting used to but I like it. It’s positives outweigh the negatives so far. Exercising my thumb too! 😉

Facebook; and being there for others.

1) Bye bye Facebook – trying to phrase this as positive as possible! Recently, I’d noticed more and more political or religious rants/posts/debates appearing on Facebook, photos of animal abuse, rape discussions, and general negativity, and quite frankly it was starting to upset me & get me down. I was starting to dread logging in & scrolling through endless photos of grumpy cat, rants about the Conservative party, endless discussions about the state of Britain, welfare & benefits… People on their soapboxes rightly upset about things that matter to them. That’s fine, but you know what? Facebook isn’t a fun place to be anymore. I felt like I was swimming in a sea of endless memes’ and debate, & I’m most likely boring them with endless baby photos! I need a break. Call me apathetic if you like but right now I need to be in my bubble.

A friend got in touch with me after I made decision to leave, telling me she completely understood my reasons & how she was reverting back to letter writing. She said,

We know what people have had for their dinner yet not how they feel or what they’re thinking. There is no investment in friendship anymore and the simple yet meaningful art of correspondence is lost.

I couldn’t agree more! I feel sad that I’ve friends/family close by & yet because of the ease of Facebook, there is little real connection outside of it. It gets me down. I’ve deactivated for now, I need to download my content & then close it properly. I will miss many friends I’ve made & the instant fix of catching up, but hopefully we shall stay in touch via other means.

2) Realisations – Another friend sent me a photograph of her 4th baby breastfeeding. She told me that it was because of me, & my support that this time she had managed to succeed. Made me cry! I didn’t realise I’d had such an impact on someone in this way. It isn’t often someone tells you something like this, I don’t even know how I helped, but it has made me smile. Of course, we became friends properly via Facebook which is why the above decision has been hard, but I’m adamant that we will stay in touch.

3) Baby giggles Sylvie has really started doing little chuckles now! She did one a couple of weeks or so ago but I think it was a fluke… But today she’s been beaming & doing little chuckles when I blow raspberries in her neck! She’s wonderful 🙂

4) Upcoming birthday – my third son turns four next week! We’ve ordered a couple of presents, however money is tight so I’m hoping he will love the bits we have chosen. Hoping to have enough dosh to take him to a play place, or if not the local park to play. A friend suggested maybe meeting one day at RAF Cosford, so might look into this.

5) Bed! early night tonight, I came up when the little ones went to sleep. My chap hasn’t been very well the last two days, so going to snuggle & look after him, & watch a DVD perhaps. My little girl is right next to me too… Bliss!