So, our long-awaited and debated conservatory is finally underway. Tuesday was a lot of digging, …

… yesterday was a lot of concrete …

… and today we finally get some walls!

(Unfortunately we also have a lot of drilling into the house and sawing, which isn’t doing much for nap times, but hey – we can see the end of the road…)

We’ll also get some steps and a path down to the shed at the end, but that’ll be a bit later. Right now – just glad it’s started!!

According to Google Images, this is what a Sleeping Child should look like:

Isn’t it lovely? Isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t almost like there should be fairy dust and twinkly stars around their beautiful little head??

Currently our wittow angel is snoring, (I can hear her through the baby monitor) but the whole point of this post is that She Has Not Been Sleeping Enough in the last week. Seriously, this is how our evenings are supposed to go:

1. Daddy gets home and takes the babby, and they play lovingly while Mummy makes dinner.
2. Fambly has dinner, and Daddy clears away while Mummy and Babby have a bath, get into our jim-jams and nurse ourselves to sleep. (OK, maybe that was an inappropriate use of the collective – that just sounded weird.)
3. Mummy and Daddy actually find their real names and spend the evening talking to one another like adults (read: watch lots of telly) until it’s time for bed.

Except since Sunday, there have been a few addenda:

• Babby wakes up after about an hour, and nurses back to sleep again.
• Babby wakes up again and wants to PLAY!
• Babby may or may not go back to sleep.
• Cat yowels loudly outside sleeping babby’s door for no discernible reason and WAKES HER UP!!
• Babby doesn’t want to go back to sleep again until at least 11.00. Last night IT WAS 12.30 PEOPLE (THAT”S AM!!) and Mummy gave up and called in Daddy for reinforcements. Then slept fitfully for an hour about being chased by a grizzly bear. (No, I am not kidding…)

Mummy is now shattered and is not quite sure of her name, address, or serial number. Or rank. Or whatever it is that you’re supposed to give to the enemy. Except, frankly, if the enemy would let me sleep, I’d probably sell out several governments and international corporations for a small kip at the moment…

* That’s Macbeth, BTW. Act 2, when M has just committed regicide and he and Lady M are planning more nefarious perfidies (like, really bad murders and stuff). (If you want me to use less high-falutin’ lingo, LET ME GET SOME SLEEP!!!)

UPDATE: OMG, she went to bed on time! And slept! And woke up for normal feeds, and then went back to sleep again!! And she had a nap again today!!! I may faint…

How is it Thursday again, almost Friday because it’s perilously close to midnight, and I haven’t posted for a week? Where does the time go?? Yargs.

(I have decided that that is probably my new favourite word. It sums up nicely my sense of exhaustion, frustration, and complete lack of will to do the dishes. Again.)

Anyway, just a quick moan and then I’m off to wash cutlery so we can eat breakfast. Joy and rapture, in equal unparalleled measure.

Good night.

(After I’ve done the dishes, obviously.)

((Yargs.))

I truly cannot believe that it has been a year since our beautiful daughter Lucy was born. All day, I’ve been wondering what I was doing last year at that time – and I have to say that once we got out of the operating theatre (I had an emergency caesarian at 9 am) the rest of the day is quite a blur – mostly involving sleep, I think… Anyway, here she is:

Happy First Birthday, sweet girl. We love you so much!

(Oh, and yes, I know – fruit flies like a banana. And the post-cake sugar high?? Well, she’s never sounded like a monkey before!! )

For those of you who know our church, St James, Finchampstead, you may also know that we’ve been working on raising £500,000 for a conservation project for the last few years. And we’ve done it! As of the end of July, the church was closed and the conservation work that has badly needed to be done to our wonderful old building (which is almost 1000 years old, in parts) has been started. And one of the churchwardens has been taking pictures every day, which have now been uploaded to Flickr so you can see what’s been going on.

North Chapel - Ceiling Removal

Here’s view that hasn’t been seen since about the 17th century, when the north aisle  of the church was built! You can see photos of the work here, week by week.

‘Mummy, read me a story!’

Want Kitty….

Sheesh! I was going to do this yesterday, too! Not enough hours in the day once your baby starts crawling, I guess…

‘No, YOU’RE too cute!!’

Well, I’ve got quite a lot done this week. I decided to join a stash-busting group on Ravelry to encourage me to get rid of some (most) (all) my stashed yarn that was sitting about doing nothing. I know I don’t have a huge stash compared to some (*cough* Becky! *cough*) but it’s a space issue – smaller space, bigger problem!

And in order to get rid of some of the stuff that I’ve crocheted up already, I decided that whatever I make that isn’t for Christmas presents must go to charity. Combined with discovering a great pattern for a triangular scarf that can be as big as however much yarn you have, I got going. These two:

have gone to Seasalt for their Knit to Save the Bees charity drive. As my grandfather kept bees on our farm when I was growing up and the honey was AMAZING, I’m a big fan o’ the bee. Besides the whole if-they-die-out-so-will-we thing…

Another charity our church supports at Christmas is Operation Christmas Child. While I probably won’t be able to do full shoeboxes this year, some woolie additions might be welcome in others. This is the first of a few that will be going there:

Add to the fact that suddenly it’s a lot cooler outside, and I’ll probably be able to do more stash-busting by making a few things for myself. But so far, quite a productive few weeks!

Check out lots more fiber-y goodness on Alpaca Farm Girl’s blog – including a spider-silk tapestry! No, really!

Because I keep missing Wednesdays, people…

‘Hmmm, what shall I destroy next??’