The End May Actually Be in Sight...

RoaringTwenties

Well I've just logged into my mortgage account, first time since July according to the site, there's not much point as it basically just says "hello, you have a mortgage" Anyway, it looks like my calculations this year have been pretty spot on, which is impressive as they've only just moved from a paper statement through the post once a year to an online login that shows how much you owe at that point, there's still no record of transactions or details of interest accrued etc, so you have to do it all yourself. I'm quite envious of those who can see their mortgage moving daily or have brilliant apps to track their progress . Anyway, after a year with my scroll & quill calculations I was £3 out! So not bad I think you'll agree :T

A few potential spends coming up, after fighting the ladders in & out of the shed & clambering up into the loft for about the eighth time this Xmas we decided that some of those pull down loft ladders might be invaluable So will get onto my handyman & see what he can sort out. DD starts nursery on Weds, eek! It's v reasonable though, £7 per session, it's subsidised by the church. I hope she likes it, she's quite a nervous clingy one at times, though when I took her to look round she stormed in & started playing with gusto :A

Got best friend arriving from London shortly so we are doing Xmas all over again (minus the turkey ) with the kids' fave Aunty :j

Hope everyone has a great weekend xx

edinburgher

We held out on the new fangled modern technology thing till DS was 5, then we got him a Kindle Fire (as it has Parental Free Time & the screen is 30 times tougher than plastic apparently, v useful for Mr Destructive as he's known in this house

To childless me, 5 seems quite early, but I know that's no longer the case. I remember querying a work friend as to whether her child was old enough for a tablet at 7 and she laughed out loud!

£7 for nursery sounds very reasonable, is that for an hour or two, or for a longer spell?

RoaringTwenties

edinburgher wrote: »

To childless me, 5 seems quite early, but I know that's no longer the case. I remember querying a work friend as to whether her child was old enough for a tablet at 7 and she laughed out loud!

£7 for nursery sounds very reasonable, is that for an hour or two, or for a longer spell?

Our DS was very much the last of his friends to get tabletised Ed! We held off for as long as we could, every time school said his IT skills were his weakest area we'd secretly rejoice . Our view is that he's being compared to kids who spend their lives staring at screens & that learning work/life-related IT is utterly inescapable so he'll get that stuff as & when he needs it, he's not going to be frozen out of the information economy cos he doesn't know how to play Angry Birds aged 7 <parental judgey pants firmly on there> :rotfl:. It'll all have moved on by the time you get there (in fact it's prob moved on since I started this post :cool:) but the Kindle with Parental Free Time is marvellous as it firmly locks to what you want them to do, you can set it for certain times so longer on educational apps etc. And thus far it's still in one piece which is remarkable, believe me :eek:

The nursery sessions are 2.5 hours. It's just a little day nursery offered by a local church, they just do 9.30-noon or 1-3.30pm. There's also a lunch club 1-2pm, so they can do all day but really it's the school day, not professional hours childcare. DS went there & loved it, he was without his diagnosis then (Autism) & could be quite challenging, & the staff were utterly wonderful with him, they loved him & cared for him without judgement, instinctively really, we were very grateful to them. So we're glad DD is going, just 1 session Weds PM. There will only be 6 other kids there which will help as she's very shy - the *total* opposite of her gregarious brother!

greent

RoaringTwenties wrote: »

Your family sounds lovely greent . In another world I'd have loved to have had more, but it just wasn't to be. I have a few friends who have 4 & they all say it's easier than 3! I can't work that one out but I'm sure they know what they're on about

3's an awkward number - 2 can side together easily and leave the 3rd one out With 4 it splits more easily into 2 x 2 - less need for parental involvement to break up minor squabbles and also they can more easily entertain themselves (even though we have 1 x DD and 3 x DS) (that sounds very 'hands off' parenting - oops!!)


We never planned on 4.... we were happy stopping at 2 - then DS2 came along...:o - so we planned number 4 (the only planned one :o)


I love having 4. I'm the only child of a single parent (I have a younger half sister with whom I share a dad, but neither of us saw our dad, so we had no real interaction with each other until after his death - so although I now say I have a sister, I was brought up as an only child) and the noise and number of things going on at any one time in our house is fantastic (we also lived literally miles from school and any friends and my mum worked full time so holidays were spent with grandparents/ aunts, so I was a very content in my own company (most of the time), bookish child well versed in the company of adults - through necessity, rather than choice)


(My uncle, on the other hand, was the youngest of 6 - and chose to have only the one child and live miles from the rest of his family! )

easylife73

Hi RT, just read through your whole diary and thoroughly enjoyed it - you are doing so well, and your family sounds lovely. I miss the time when the kids were little, mine are 14 & 12 now. Off to subscribe so I can follow the rest of your journey....

Crumpets

greent wrote: »

3's an awkward number - 2 can side together easily and leave the 3rd one out With 4 it splits more easily into 2 x 2 - less need for parental involvement to break up minor squabbles and also they can more easily entertain themselves (even though we have 1 x DD and 3 x DS) (that sounds very 'hands off' parenting - oops!!)

I agree 3 is an odd number [STRIKE]I'm definitely not having another one though[/STRIKE] there's less than 2 years between dd2 and Ds and they are great playmates. Dd1 is 6 years older than her sister and 8 years older than her brother so she's the one that gets left out she does mind as well as she's quite a young 10 year old and likes to join in their games. If it had been the other way around I probably would have liked another one to keep dd company

I hope dd enjoys her nursery session tomorrow RT, I'm sure she'll have a brilliant time. Ds used to hate being dropped off at pre school but was always fine as soon as I went home. Now he runs in excited to start playing with his friends and all the exciting toys. It sounds like you have a lovely little nursery to send her to, having lovely staff makes all the difference

RoaringTwenties

greent wrote: »

3's an awkward number - 2 can side together easily and leave the 3rd one out With 4 it splits more easily into 2 x 2 - less need for parental involvement to break up minor squabbles and also they can more easily entertain themselves (even though we have 1 x DD and 3 x DS) (that sounds very 'hands off' parenting - oops!!)


We never planned on 4.... we were happy stopping at 2 - then DS2 came along...:o - so we planned number 4 (the only planned one :o)


I love having 4. I'm the only child of a single parent (I have a younger half sister with whom I share a dad, but neither of us saw our dad, so we had no real interaction with each other until after his death - so although I now say I have a sister, I was brought up as an only child) and the noise and number of things going on at any one time in our house is fantastic (we also lived literally miles from school and any friends and my mum worked full time so holidays were spent with grandparents/ aunts, so I was a very content in my own company (most of the time), bookish child well versed in the company of adults - through necessity, rather than choice)


(My uncle, on the other hand, was the youngest of 6 - and chose to have only the one child and live miles from the rest of his family! )

I'm similar in that I have two younger half siblings, but there's 11 & 16 years between us & I never lived with them. I still feel an only one, I'm sometimes discussing that & then I say something about my brother or sister & people do tend to look at me rather strangely

RoaringTwenties

easylife73 wrote: »

Hi RT, just read through your whole diary and thoroughly enjoyed it - you are doing so well, and your family sounds lovely. I miss the time when the kids were little, mine are 14 & 12 now. Off to subscribe so I can follow the rest of your journey....

Hi easylife73 & welcome to my diary Many thanks for taking the time to read through, glad you've enjoyed it. I'm trying [STRIKE]and failing[/STRIKE] to update more regularly! Two of my friends have one of 14 & one of 12 & I'll say the same to you as I've said to them, if you have any horror stories of teen years please keep them to yourself, I wish to remain ignorant on that topic for as long as possible :eek: :rotfl:

Let me know if you have a diary?

RoaringTwenties

Crumpets wrote: »

I agree 3 is an odd number [STRIKE]I'm definitely not having another one though[/STRIKE] there's less than 2 years between dd2 and Ds and they are great playmates. Dd1 is 6 years older than her sister and 8 years older than her brother so she's the one that gets left out she does mind as well as she's quite a young 10 year old and likes to join in their games. If it had been the other way around I probably would have liked another one to keep dd company

I hope dd enjoys her nursery session tomorrow RT, I'm sure she'll have a brilliant time. Ds used to hate being dropped off at pre school but was always fine as soon as I went home. Now he runs in excited to start playing with his friends and all the exciting toys. It sounds like you have a lovely little nursery to send her to, having lovely staff makes all the difference

Are you sure you might not just squeeze another one out Crumpets? <ducks> :rotfl: When I was your DD1's age I'd have loved to have had little siblings at home, I'd have treated them like dolls . DD loved nursery, when we arrived I was busy telling the staff that she can be clingy & probably wouldn't let go of my leg, when I looked round she'd shot off & was playing in another room :rotfl:. She then cried when I went to collect her as she didn't want to leave . So I think we can say it was a success!

RoaringTwenties

Hello thread,

I'm enjoying January so far, but I'm one of those strange people who likes this month! I like the not splurging on spending & eating, it's sort of a quiet detoxy month & I like that. It's been nice to not have my eye permanently on Xmas as I've been going round the shops. It's interesting as I think I almost get in a spending mindset, even though I'm working to a strict[STRIKE]ish[/STRIKE] budget & pricing up to get the best value, it's been refreshing to just have washing up gloves on my list as opposed to toys/Xmas crackers etc I managed to lose another 2lb whilst pigging out over Xmas & since watching my diet again from new year I've managed to put them back on again :eek:. If anyone can work that out then you're doing better than me :rotfl:

My new regime (which will last for all of 5 mins) is to try & list a couple of eBay items each day I'm in the house. So far today I've popped a pair of small pink shoes & 2 nursing bras on there. When I cleared the Xmas stuff out of the top wardrobes I looked at the eBay pile & it amounts to around 4 bin bags, which sounds like a lot but is scarily about an eighth of what it was :eek:. I kept everything after DS assuming I'd have another boy, & as there's a 5 year gap I now have ludicrous amounts of blue clothing. I think DD was sent to tell me to declutter

OH's cousin got engaged on Xmas eve & is getting married later this year at the other end of the country to us, so I think I need to try & top up our holiday fund as we'll make a bit of a trip of it. We've started planning our holiday too, we only do Cornwall but it's not cheap when you add in petrol & far too many cream teas

Just making a fish pie for tonight then heading to my Xmas credit card bill when DD naps, wish me luck