Not as expected #motivationalmonday
I bought a teepee a little while back, i think it was last year. My intention was to use it on lovely ‘concept’ shoots the sort that i have been inspired by so many times in the past. I have used it a couple of times but more often than not its been used by the cute little folk in my house. Initially i was a bit reluctant to let them loose on it. There is always a high probability in my house that something like this will get broken or drawn on at some point and so i was a little worried about it not being ‘fit’ for the purpose i had intended.
But gradually it has become part of our furniture, propped away from time to time but out for play..and yes it has been drawn on and broken in that time too!. My oldest daughters like to ‘camp out’ in it in our living room and my smallest two play a lot of games in there, sometimes they let mama join in too, especially when you play a game of peek-a-boo through the hole at the top!
I actually dont mind that it hasn’t fulfilled its initial purpose. I was maybe a little unrealistic to be honest. Dazzled by american photographers who can rely on good weather, beautiful hazy sun flare and warmth..when realistically the soggy summers and freezing springs we have had, haven’t actually lent themselves to extended concept shoots with little ones.
So for now, its purpose has changed but i don’t think it has less value. It is being well loved. It is part of some stories, cowboys, indians, tea parties, dolly get togethers, trips to the shops, imaginary journeys to foreign lands, and a few sibling fall outs 😉
My intentions may have been different but its purpose now brings a warmth to my soul when i hear it being bought to life.
Sometimes things just work out like that don’t they? Not always as planned but still as good.
i like that.
Giveaway time this week is for this super cute MINI BODEN tee for the little toddler guy or gal in your life! Just follow the rafflecopter as always. The winner of the LUSH gift box is Danielle Preira. Please contact me to get your prize! Congratulations!
The day pink died #motivational monday #springcarnival
One of my favourite books when i was growing up was The Lorax, used to love the line ‘I am the Lorax and i speak for the trees’ It was one of those books that i can still remember reading as a kid. Recently the kids got the DVD version of the film that came out last year. They totally love it., it has big numbers in it and some big hollywood names voicing the characters. But what i love is that the message is still the same. Unless. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not – Dr. Seuss.
Now speaking of trees….As we live in a city sometimes trees can be a bit scarce. Well to be fair this city in itself isnt too bad. There are quite a lot of green areas. But in our own back yard its a bit different.
We don’t have a huge garden, when we moved in it had been fairly well landscaped with a family in mind and the only tree in the garden was a small, shocked, apple tree that had been hacked and trimmed within an inch of its life and its pretty much still trying to recover.
But the house that backed onto our neighbour was owned by an elderly lady and it had two beautiful, rambling and stunning pink blossom trees. Im sure there is a proper name for them but all i know that every spring we would all look forward to the bottom of the garden being accented with pink. The branches leaned over into our garden in such a generous way. Like the tree knew i would appreciate it. 🙂
I cannot count how many pictures i have of this tree. It was so pretty i used to go out and photograph it a lot….playing with settings, lenses and filters.
The girls would bounce up and down on the trampoline which was under the tree and grab the blooms, giggling and threading the pretty green leaves through their hair.
At the end of spring it would slowly loose all its blooms onto the tramp and the deck and we would have a pretty pink blanket.
Truly such a lovely tree, it bought us pleasure every year. We watched it, enjoyed it, interacted with it. It was part of our seasons.
Sadly the lady who lived in the house passed away and the house was sold and a few weeks ago we heard that high pitched squeal of a chainsaw and our beautiful neighbour tree was gone. 🙁
Just like that…
and being honest with you, and i do understand the reasons why the new owners have got rid of the tree, but i really miss it. Now its like looking at a picture and constantly wondering whats missing and then going ”oh yes…”
Even the kids have missed it. We miss our adopted pink tree. It had been largely uncared for by its owner but for years we loved it. It was part of our story and history in our garden.
thanks pink tree 🙂
Im going to finish with a clip from the movie, we all love this song. Watch out for ‘you greedy dirtbag!’ My giveaway this week is a copy of The Lorax on DVD. It really is a lovely family movie. So to be in with a chance head over to rafflecopter below and follow the instructions and be sure to check back next week to find out if its coming your way!!
Last weeks winner of the Captain Calamari developmental toy was Helen Dickenson Anette! Congratulations. Please get in touch to claim your prize 🙂
So what else do you do? #motivationalmonday
This week has been an all round rubbish week that has left me feeling like, out of all the ‘roles’ i have in my life, im seem to not be doing any of them well. *sigh*
This week I had an interview, it was at the place i work for a job that i had about 2 years ago and then lost through the delightful NHS cutbacks and is now being offered again…its a long story, a long, boring and miserable story that i won’t bore you with. But the interview was this week and it wasn’t the nicest experience ive ever had i have to say, runs up close to root canal or another such painful event.
My interview was delayed by over an hour and then during my presentation prep a fire alarm joined in and banged around in my head for half of the time. Nerves jangled somewhat i stumbled through a presentation based on a practically impossible scenario and then was asked a bunch of questions. A few of which i did sort of okay on i think and some i totally BOMBED. You know, in the, ‘shall i just get my coat’ bomb.
But there was one question that just irritated me….and continues to which is why im moaning about it here. I was asked what extra CPD (thats continuous professional development) i had done in the past two years. Extra, as in, extra to the standard stuff we have to do to maintain professional registration. I answered with a few things then she looked at me, i think with a little sneer (though i may have imagined that) and said ‘and what else have you done?’
hmmmmm…just let me think a bloody minute. I dont know…maybe..raise five kids, turn up for every single shift i’m supposed to regardless of sleepless nights, vomiting bugs, stressed out husbands, broken cars, car accidents or snow with a bloody smile on my face. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Of course i know she wasn’t asking me about what else i do outside of work. But it may be a mad crazy thought but your life outside of work can effect your ability to throw huge amounts of commitment and time at your work. Its a tricky balance for all us working mums i guess.
It was the only question that actually upset me, how funny is that. Even the ones that resulted in a ‘nothing happenin’ here’ look on my face as mortifying as that was..i can shake that off. But what pisses me off is that some people don’t realise that actually just showing up with your game face on takes all you have on some days and sometimes that is just all you can give.
I wanted to shout the above tirade in her face and see what happened but of course i didnt.
and i didnt get the job.
cherry on top 😉
So in a bid to lighten up this post and because what follows demonstrates a little bit of ‘what else i do’
Here come the girls ….two of my bunch. Just hanging out with the girls while we get frozen by the spring 😉
This is a little bit of what else I have done.
She is telling me in that bottom picture ‘ there are no monsters here mummy’ – just in case you were wondering!
My giveaway this week is another lovely sunshine box of goodies from LUSH. You don’t have to leave a comment this week if you don’t fancy it but if you do that would be nice. Remember to come back next week and check who snagged the prize!
Jane Greenfield you win the Rob Cowen signed book please get in touch! Congratulations!
in your eyes #motivationalmonday
My second daughter wears glasses. She was diagnosed with astigmatism just before the end of her reception year in school. It was picked up through a routine school nurse check that happened at the beginning of the year. I have no idea why it took the best part of a year to find out but then there’s nothing like the slow turning wheels of the NHS. 😉
Anyhow she had to be referred for tests at the local children hospital and I obviously went with her this time, whereas the school checks had been done without either me or her dad present. The initial test, reading the shapes, with both her eyes uncovered she rocked it..all the way down to the little house, square and circle..even i struggled to make them out.
Then the nurse covered what we now know as her unaffected eye and i watched her struggle with the first couple of lines and then give up. I felt gutted for her, gutted that she couldn’t see, gutted that we hadn’t noticed and gutted what this meant for her in the future.
I remember spluttering my excuses out to the nurse, ‘we have never noticed anything!’ “she doesn’t ever do anything that would make you think she can’t see!’ To which, the nurse, probably well used to this sort of pleading parental guilt coming her way just smiled at me and said ‘ wait and see what the Doctor says’
It turned out that her vision in one eye is so good that she was totally over-compensating with that eye and so that is why we had noticed nothing. *phew* 😉
She now wears glasses all the time and she has been incredible about wearing them, which given the sort of um…..independent character she has….is pretty remarkable that she has toed the line. But her eyes, with her glasses on, now have the same ability and she can read all the way down to the tiniest symbols with both eyes.
Her older sister was pretty jealous of her glasses and wanted to see if she needed them too…she even has a pair of fashion ones and i think, still yearns after the pretty glasses her sister has. We even had quite a lot of pouting and ‘its NOT FAIR!” type comments from her when her sister first got the glasses. Last week on half term we were talking about my niece who doesn’t need glasses but is wearing fashion ones all the time and my daughter who doesn’t wear glasses was nodding in agreement with how lovely they are and pretty and trendy…etc etc..
So I asked my daughter who wears glasses ‘do you think wearing glasses is fun?’
she thought for a while and said ‘No because i have to be careful and not break them and i loose them all the time and people can hurt me if they bump into me!’
Funny how just a little different perspective can change your attitude…
isnt it?
i have another LUSH product box to giveaway this week! Just follow the rafflecopter below. Last weeks winner was Cheryll Hastie! Congratulations please contact me!