sunday snapshot

Cats and Casts, My Sunday Snapshot

April 11, 2021 by Anne Sweet 5 Comments

This has been a real difficult week (Seems to be the way lately) but before I’d get to the icky photo I’d start with a nice one. Trust one of my lovely cats to give me this opportunity. Ash, how on earth did you manage to stay sleeping half hanging off the settee?

Cats, Ash fast asleep lying half on the settee

So that’s the cute bit over, let’s get on to the real world.

Casts

Last Sunday I posted a photo of lovely Easter Eggs and it was a lovely sunny day. We had a delicious dinner planned and all was good. We had lunch then I sent the Little Man into the garden to get some sunshine and watch his Dad plant a tree for me.

Within five minutes of him being out I heard a blood curdling scream. The Little Man had climbed on the slide to watch his Dad, slipped and fell. He’d only fallen about two feet, but he had landed on his arm in a bad way. We had to call an ambulance and he was carted off.

So much for a lovely Easter Day!

This is my Little Man shortly after having his cast put on.

The Little Man in a hospital bed with his arm in a plaster cast.

It’s been a tough week and we’ve not had much sleep. The Little Man is grumpy and in pain and it’s hard to see your little one suffer. He will get through this though, I keep telling him things can’t get any worse, they can only get better.

I hate seeing my children suffer, who doesn’t. The cats can be a great comfort with a good old snuggle and purr to make you feel better. We need to look on the bright side, even if it’s just a daft cat.

I have lots of posts about cats for you to purr-use

Fortunately, I don’t have many photo’s of casts.

This Week it’s Easter Eggs for My Sunday Snapshot.

April 4, 2021 by Anne Sweet 4 Comments

Happy Easter! Here are some of our Easter Eggs. Other’s had been hidden for the Little Man who is the only one who wanted to hunt for his eggs this year. And of course, the grown ups have some eggs too. In fact, I don’t think we’ll bother with food today, we can just live on chocolate can’t we!

photo of Easter eggs arranged on a shelf with an Easter bunny and Easter Card.

The photo also includes a little bunny I crocheted a couple of years ago, and lovely card that my Little Man made at school.

Missed Week

We have had a rather strange week, I was in hospital every day for my infusions and this time they really affected me. I’m not sure what happened. They did them as slow as usual and I drank tons of water, but my body wasn’t happy at all and I’m just recovering from a two day migraine sent from hell. I literally could not hold my head up. I’ve spent so much time sleeping these past two days because that’s about all I could manage to do, and it was only because of the painkillers that I could manage that. Inbetween sleeping I’ve been watching television. I’ve watched Harry Potter and yesterday I lay on the settee and watched Doris Day in ‘Move Over Darling’ What a timeless fun film.

Today it’s Easter Sunday and the sun is shining. For the first time in days I can look at my computer screen and sit upright without pain. I’m not going to push it though, I’ll be logging off soon. We have a big Sunday dinner to cook, but we won’t be eating until this evening. Graham will do most of the work, he’s becoming a really good cook. But we have had a lot of take outs this week thanks to my being ill and Graham being busy, so a nice home cooked meal will be squeezed in amongst the chocolate! I’m sad I didn’t get to bake my Simnel Cake.

I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks of no school or home school and I’m hoping we don’t get the snow we have been promised as I would love it to stay sunny enough to start some work on the garden. We have two weeks so fingers tightly crossed.

Enjoy Your Easter Eggs and happy holidays!

More of my Snapshots.

My Sunday Snapshot, Yay! Spring has arrived!

March 21, 2021 by Anne Sweet 5 Comments

Spring has officially arrived…yay! I’d love to show you photos of flowers growing in my garden…but there are none. Well, Graham said he spotted one yesterday but I haven’t been able to get out yet. So. Here’s one I made earlier!

At least this one won’t die on me.

I have a longing now, an urge to get out into nature, see the flowers, feel the breeze. I guess we are all waiting for lock down to be over. I don’t think I’ll be rushing out into crowds but I can’t wait for the weather to get a little warmer so I can go out and enjoy some freedom.

The kids have been out at least. They have been back at school and the Little Man has been spending a lot of time outdoors. His school is encouraging a lot of outdoor learning, no matter what the weather. He’s mostly enjoying it but he comes home covered in mud almost every day. On Friday he has Forest School and this week it had been wet so it was particularly muddy. One of the other children had thought it funny to have a mud fight with my Little Man. He was not impressed, he even had mud in his hair. He came home feeling really upset. We talked about one of his school values, resilience. Accept, Reflect, Move On. Even though he’d been upset we looked at it from the other child’s point of view, they thought it was funny, so the Little Man had to try and understand this even though he didn’t think it was. We reflected about what happened and what could have been different. Then after talking about it he decided it was time to move on. It was done and there was nothing more to be done than to get over it. He was resilient.

Linking up to Rachel’s Sunday Snapshot.

Previous Sunday Snapshots on Raisie Bay

My Sunday Snapshot, Confession! We are Really Missing School

February 7, 2021 by Anne Sweet 13 Comments

This is not one of my photographs, I have taken from last weeks school newsletter. It’s the Little Man when he was at school and it has made me realise just how much we are missing school.

Really Missing School

It’s been a tough few weeks and I’ve come to the conclusion that our main problem is that we are missing school. This has come to a real shock for me. I’m one of those Mum’s who countdown to school holidays, love having my kids around all day and I am very hands on with their home learning. But, it’s not all about me and my kids are unhappy, and when my kids are unhappy, I am too.

The girls have not been to school properly for nearly a year now. We tried when they went back in September but it didn’t work out. They couldn’t cope with all the new rules and felt unsafe. The school compromised with a safe place for them to go for an hour and half each day. They didn’t learn much and I complimented their education at home with Ed Place. It wasn’t great though, they missed their friends and school interactions. The Summer holidays arrived and lock down relaxed, but they were still too anxious to go out. We did have a friend around on each of the kid’s birthdays. That’s all the interaction they have had in real life.

Computers

All three children now spend most of the day on their computers. Once, computer time would be limited but now they actually get their lessons onlines. They attend classes on Team meetings and then write and submit their work online. Once they are finished they play with their friends…again through their computer screens. I don’t want to deny them this interaction even though I feel they have had enough time glued to their screens.

I try to break it up with other activities like baking, family games and even helping with the housework. It’s so difficult to keep them off their computers though.

Home School

I love having my children home and I love teaching them. I can help with practically everything they are learning (yes, even algebra.) My weak subjects are geography and physics but I’m willing to learn with them. I’ve told them this but they don’t want my help. Even when they get stuck, asking Mum just isn’t a welcome option. The Little Man is better, he will let me help him. I found out last week that even though he was attending school all day online, he was not submitting his work. So we knuckled down and got that done.

As much as I love having my kids home, and I would rather have them here and safe, it’s started to get to me not having a moment to myself. Having teenage girls, they don’t go to bed until I do, and they are here all day. Even if they spend a few hours in their bedroom in the evening, I still have to make sure they are behaving, showering, eating, going to bed at the right time. I would like a break sometime. I do miss that peace and quiet I had after the manic rush to get them off to school. I do miss not having to worry about lunch, just grabbing something when I could. Now I have an hour to make sure everyone is fed and ready for the next lessons to begin.

And as much as the girl’s complained about school, I know they are missing it now, it’s been way too long. And it looks like Star won’t be going back at all.

It’s a different story for The Little Man. He went back in September. His school was brilliant and they did really well at keeping the virus at bay. He loves school, and they spent a lot of time outdoors (As his photo above shows.) He misses his friends and teachers and even though he loves his computer he has become so bored of it.

So, that’s my confession for this week. We are really missing school!

My Sunday Snapshot – Festive Feeling

December 20, 2020 by Anne Sweet 9 Comments

What gives you that Festive feeling? For me it’s most definitely the Christmas tree, lights and decorations. I couldn’t imagine not putting them up at home.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

My Christmas tree is so old. I bought in our last home which was a lot smaller and we only had a small space. When we moved here we had a huge space for the tree and it looked measly. But as the years have gone by we’ve had more and more furniture and now there is barely space for the tree. Last year I wanted to buy a bigger tree and move some furniture but the family didn’t agree. This year I nearly never bothered putting a tree up at all, but I’m glad I did.

When I was a child we lived in a house with a big bay window. My Mum would move all the furniture around and even remove some to make room for a huge tree. She’d get rid of armchairs and replace them with spare kitchen chairs for all the guests that would come. My Nan would stay for Christmas and even bring her own armchair with her. It seems like a lot of effort for Christmas but it was always special.

I think that’s why I get frustrated sometimes by my own family’s lack of interest in decorations. But I can’t bring back the Christmas of my past, we just have to make our own traditions. It can still be festive.

This year is going to be tougher than ever with all the restrictions. It’s heart breaking to know that families can’t be together. More people than ever will be spending Christmas alone. It’s hard to get any sort of festive feeling when you realise what is going on around the world. I may wish for a family that loves Christmas like my family used to, but at least I have my family here around me. I’m really lucky.

What makes Christmas festive for you?

Linking up to Rachel for her Sunday Snapshot

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