Best Laid Plans

So, today I had a plan. 

I was working from home for my real job.  I got my head down, focussed all day and was really pleased with what I had achieved by the time it was time to pick the boys up from school.  Dinner was planned, so all I had to do was cook it, and then spend some quality writing time while the boys were eating.

And then it all went wrong.

Youngest son got in the car and said, "Mum, I really hurt my arm playing football at lunchtime."  

Now, he's not really one to complain, there's always something happening with the pair of them, and usually it doesn't last very long.  But when I asked him to show me where it hurt, and to lift his arm up, I realised by the look on his face that a trip to A&E was in order.

He told me it would be fine, but as he's broken wrists four times before (playing football) I thought it would be best to get it checked out.

Three hours and an x-ray later and it was confirmed - he'd chipped a bone in his humorous - believe me it's not funny!  Nothing too serious, his arm will be in a sling for a few weeks and there's no football for a while.  He shed a few tears at that.

But seeing as its the Easter holidays after next week and I was planning for him to go to football camp while I worked it has kind of set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Next week was already looking busy with an orthodentist appointment, a dentist appointment and a school trip, now I've got a visit to fracture clinic to squeeze in between work as well.

Quality time for writing?  Not today I fear!

I Survived!

I have survived the birthday week and now life can really get back to normal!

Last Monday as it was my youngest’s birthday, we took him out for a meal at our local pub and a good time was had by all.

On Tuesday a restaurant down the road from us was having a 50% discount night so my husband booked us a table there as well – how decadent for the first week in January!  He’d told the staff that it was a birthday celebration and bless them they put balloons on the table and made a real fuss of the birthday boy.  The pudding came out with a sparkler and a song.

After eating a huge portion of fish and chips the young man found it a bit difficult to eat all the pudding so Mum had to help him out – well that’s what Mum’s are for aren’t they?

The rest of the week was business as usual but then on Friday we had a sleepover for four of his friends.  They all had a lovely time – although it was a trifle loud and not too easy to get five boys to sleep in one room, but thankfully they’d all had a busy week so eventually crashed out.

Saturday morning was more noise and then I took them to play football at a centre which has synthetic pitches.  They had a great time and I got to sit down with Writing Magazine and notebook for two whole hours – what bliss.

Then it was out for lunch and then eventually I managed to get them all back to their separate homes before crashing out on the sofa, completely exhausted.

Football Crazy

It’s getting to that time of year – the time when all the football leagues are coming to a dramatic climax.  But I’m not talking FA Cup, European Championships and the like, I’m talking about the Under 10’s local league, and the match I watched today certainly had more tension than a cup final, at least as far as I was concerned.

My youngest son’s team has been neck and neck on the leader board with one other team, and are currently at the top.  The top two teams from each division will compete in the semi-final next week, with the final taking place the following week at Chester Stadium.

Today, after much postponement, they played the team they have been in competition with all season.  Tensions were running high even before the match kicked off, but it was so evenly matched, with each team desperate to prove themselves, that each touch on the ball, each tackle had our hearts in our mouths. 

But especially me.  As my son plays in goal, I sometimes have to remind myself to breathe when the ball is in the goal area.  Today, luckily, he was on top form.  He made some absolutely brilliant saves, some which he literally hurled himself at. 

I have no idea where he gets his bravery from (or is it lunacy?) because I certainly wouldn’t be able to do what he does. 

In the event it was a nil-nil draw, which was a pretty good result.  Both teams played so hard that neither deserved to loose, and it was down to both goalies that nothing went into the net.

Next week the tension will be even higher.  The team have worked hard all year that it will be devastating to be knocked out at the final hurdle.  But then, if they get through will it be even worse.

My eldest son played in the final at Chester when he was the same age.  I remember it as one of the proudest, yet scariest moments of my life.  But then he wasn’t playing in goal, so if they do make it, I think I might just need a defibrillator on hand.

Oh what it is to be a football Mum!

Back to Reality

After the excitement of the last few days, today is defintely back to normal.  Saturday morning was the usual standing on the sidelines of the football pitch - fortunately, unlike last week, the sun was shining.   My son's team won and it wasn't too stressful for me as the team largely kept the ball away from him. As he plays in goal that's always a good thing.  I've aged so much since he started playing in goal!  Last week, even though they won 4-2, he was really upset on the way home because he'd let two goals in, bless!

 

This afternoon has been uber exciting, defrosting two freezers and a fridge, supervising homework, and cleaning the bathroom!  Don't I know how to live life to the full?

 

Now though I'm off to have a long hot bath before watching Strictly, the highlight of my weekend!

 

Hope you're all having a much more exciting time.

 

Frustrating Days

Today is turning out to be a frustrating one.  First of all I had to take my car in for it’s MOT.  Although it was booked in, I didn’t fancy hanging around so thought I would come home and try to work while I was waiting for it – better than shivering in a drafty garage!

So when I got home I thought I would just empty the washer before getting back down to some work.  But I didn’t realise that it hadn’t drained properly and although the door shouldn’t have opened, it did and flooded the entire kitchen.  I used up practically my whole collection of towels to mop up the tsunami and now I have to wash them too – fingers crossed that the washing machine will actually drain this time, otherwise I won’t actually have any towels to mop up the mess.

I don’t know about you but my washing machine has a little tap at the bottom which you can turn when the water won’t drain and it releases the water from the front.  The design on it is so brilliant that you can’t actually fit anything underneath it at the bottom to catch the water coming out – so there was another flood.

Soon I’ll have to go and pick the car up and knowing my luck today it will have failed it’s MOT – oh the joys of working from home!

And the weekend wasn’t much better – my youngest son scored a hat-trick – not in goals mind you but in broken bones.  He first broke his wrist when he was four – playing football in goal.  It was a bad break and for a while we were worried about how well it would heal.  But as he was young we were assured that his future growth would sort it out.

When he was six, he broke his other wrist – playing football – in goal.  Brilliant!  So after that we decided that perhaps he shouldn’t play in goal any more.  But he loves it so much and is really quite good so last year we decided that he could start playing again. Everything has been fine and it has reignited his love for the game.

On Saturday morning, though, his luck ran out.  Although he had hurt his arm, we didn’t think it was broken as he could move everything quite freely.  We strapped it up and hoped for the best.  But on Sunday morning when it was no better I decided that a visit to A&E was in order.  In my defence, the triage nurse didn’t think it was broken either, but when the x-rays came back, although the bone wasn’t fractured, there was a crack.  Now he’s back in plaster and I’m waiting for an appointment for the fracture clinic.

At least he’s not in pain anymore, and actually is quite enjoying being the centre of attention, but I spent most of yesterday cancelling arrangements I’d made for him for the next few weeks and he really is going to have to consider the fact that his goaly career is over.  Later today I have a visit to the orthodontist planned for my other son.  

 

But I’m managing to smile, I will take this all in my stride and tomorrow is another day.  Oh dear, think it might be safer not to get out of bed at all!

Hope you’re having better luck than me at the moment.

Talking of Footie and Birthdays

Well what a weekend that was.

It started off early on Saturday morning as my eldest son who is nine was playing in the final of his football league.  All the matches were played at Chester football ground so this was a major event and incredibly nerve wracking, both for us watching and him playing.  The kick off was a nine am and by nine forty five I was physically drained.   I must admit the team played well and had many chances to score but unfortunately it was not to be.  However, the other team didn’t score either so no one lost.  Being only nine they don’t do extra time or penalties so both teams will share the Shield for six months each.   It was rather nice that there were no losers on the day and both teams should be proud of themselves for playing some very good football.

I’m not what you call a football fanatic, but living with three of them in the house, you do tend to get involved and it was a lovely atmosphere at the stadium with mums and dads shouting for their boys alike.  Talk about proud – I was positively puffed up.

More football followed in the afternoon with the FA cup final but the boys went to watch it elsewhere, leaving me in peace for a few hours.   And I used my time wisely by playing with my new toy – a Kindle.

I have been debating the merits of e-readers versus books for a long time but have finally decided to take the plunge.  My kindle will never replace the good old fashioned book as there is nothing like the feel or smell of a book so I don’t see it as the demise of the hard copy.   We live in such of an age of technology these days though that it doesn’t make any sense to ignore it.  Rather, I think you should use it the best way to benefit yourself.

Anyway, the Kindle was a birthday present (for yesterday) and it had arrived in the week.  Of course I had to take it out of its box in advance, just to make sure that it had arrived in one piece and on Saturday afternoon I decided that it would be prudent to charge it up so that it was ready and waiting for me on Sunday morning.  Well of course then I had to connect it to Wi-Fi, and register it, and it made sense to download some samples of books too didn’t it?  I did resist the urge to start reading then – because that wouldn’t be right now would it?

No, I put it away and went to get ready to go out.  The boys were spending the night at their cousins so we went out for a lovely Italian meal with some friends.

It was weird waking up on my birthday with no children, but it was very chilled out an relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable – although I did get to the stage when I insisted on picking them up because I was missing them.

In the morning I did have a chance to play with my new toy properly and so far I’m really pleased. I love the fact that you can download sample chapters of books for free so that you can see if you want to buy them.  I picked quite a few of my wish list and am now compiling a must have list.  I found the Kindle easy to use and to read and I’m looking forward to saving my baggage allowance when I go on holiday at the end of the month.  So far I’m really chuffed with it but I’ll let you know how I get on.  As far as I’m concerned it will never replace the paperback, but as I’m desperately trying to declutter my house, it will come in very handy.

In the afternoon we went swimming, went out for tea and then spent the evening with friends enjoying wine and cake.  I got some lovely kindle vouchers too, so I can spend freely on my first books.  Can’t wait.

All in all a fantastic weekend. Now I just need to recover.

I'm Back

Hello to anyone out there, I'm back from my hols. Well actually I've been back for nearly a week now but it seems like a lifetime and lying by the pool with the sun beating down on me is but a distant memory. But at least I got there.

The week before we went was a bit traumatic to say the least what with little one breaking his arm on the Saturday. I apologise for my outpouring on Saturday night but despite my attempt at being up beat it did deal me with a bit of a blow initially.

But I pulled myself together and decided that the best way to deal with the situation was to look at the possitive - he was OK.

I knew we wouldn't find out from the hospital until the day before we were due to fly whether they would let him so I carried on as though we were going and started the mamoth packing job.

And the stripping the bathroom out job. Oh yes, we had decided to have our bathroom revamped while we were away so that had to be prepared, bathroom suite ordered, tiles ordered and chosen, so in addition to packing we were rushing around town trying to sort that out too.

And then on Thursday our tiler snapped his achilles and it was all off! Incidentally, this was also a football injury - how I cursed football. But seriously, I do feel sorry for him because it will take ages to heal and to anyone who is self-employed knows just how damagng that can be.

I must admit I did begin to get spooked again - what's going to happen next? But on Friday, despite an horrendous wait at the hospital all was well. The fracture wasn't as bad as last time and we were fit to go. The problem with broken limbs is that they can swell up during the flight. So what they do is cut the cast part way through so it is still secure but in case of an emergency someone can pull the cast off and stop the circulation from being cut off (or have to prepare for an emergency landing!)

And then all I had to do was finish doing everything and then pile us all on the plane an exhausted wreck.

I'll tell you more tommorrow