Happy Hippy Madhouse.....

I wrote this at the end ofmay but then hestated in posting it as i wondered if i should' keep these thoughts private but then thought what the heck...Do you remember when you used to think about various stages of your life and had a kind of idea as to how it would be at certain points? You know, kids getting bigger, maybe getting back to work? How sometimes small changes inevitably occur without you even noticing them at first?Ii've had a little preview of that over this last week and it's kind of overwhelmed me a little bit to be honest. As most of you know here in the Madhouse there're enough bodies to ensure that we never have to be alone, to be honest the problem here is usually that there's nowhere for you to be alone even if you want to - apart from the throne that is and it's unlikely that ANYONE would want to follow them there, unless you're me of course and then the minute you sit to comtemplate for a while and then everyone and the dogs NEED your u

Well, how much have i missed! Sorry i've been absent for so long, we had a major trauma in the laptop dept, the (new) puppy ate the power cable, Aagh! What a nightmare! Don't you just love puppies??!!! Lol. yep, the latest addition to the Madhouse is a Belgian shepherd pup, named Sirius. The Harry Potter fans among you will know that Sirius Black is an animaegus who can transform into a black dog, which Sirius pup is, hence the name. Ho hum. Young master B was given him as a birthday gift by his daddy. We had his uncle and grandfather when we were together and it's nice to have a continuation of the family here again, he is SO like his uncle Pagan who i loved very dearly, right up until he passed to the dog playground in the sky last year at the ripe old age of 12. He was a wonderful companion and left us with a lot of happy memories. none of which involved a chewed power cable and no internet connection for the last few weeks i'd like to add! We don't have a deskto

Hi all, sincere apologies for my abscence over the last month, i was just so tired, run down and fed up i decided to take a little time out for me. However i'm back now and feeling great so hopefully it's back to normal - well, as 'normal' as it ever gets here in the madhouse anyway!!! To be honest there hasn't been much excitment to speak of, two more of my babies have had birthdays, Kayleigh is now 23 (eek! How did that happen?) and young master B has turned 10 on friday. Double figures no less! Where is the time going? How can my babies be this old already? How did i get to almost 42? It's incredible to think that they're all growing up so quickly. They are my pride and joy, my life would mean nothing without them. it makes me sit up and think they're growing sooo fast, even my babies aren't babies anymore. I need to get myself back on track and start to spend quality time with them. it's far too easy to let the days pass in a blur of life,

Hi all, i'm sorry it's been a while but i've been quite ill. You remember that i was ill before xmas? Well, this made that seem like a walk in the park. I've had another chest infection but this time it's been so bad that i had to take steroids and anti biotics together. The doc has seen me and at one point wanted me to go into hospital which i really didn't want to and it was only my promises of absolute rest and doing nothing that kept me home. If i'm no better by tomorrow i have to go back but that's not going to happen. I've been a good girl for the most part, poorLlittle Miss R has missed out on a couple of days out 'cos i've not been well enough to take her. Master B is at his daddys again so luckily for him he's had fun. Luckily we've has her friend Sophie here for two nights sleepover so that's kept her a bit entertained. I feel bad when the kids're stuck in when i'm ill but there was really no way i could've g

i read a beautiful post by Wendy over at Hedge and Hearth about our Crone years. It really made me stop and think about where i'm at in my life. In some ways i'm not going to be there for a while, my youngest babe will be 8 next week so i've a good few 'Mother' years ahead of me yet in that respect, however at the other end of the scale my oldest babe will be 23 in march so i've been doing this job for a while now! I used to think that these terms were literal, you're a mother until your babes are grown, whilst you can still bear children you couldn't become crone. So how does that work now? I 've not reached menopause yet but i can no longer bear children, so does that make me Crone? Confusing eh? When i first started along this path i thought everything was clear cut in definable chunks (how little did i know then?) Now i can see that there as many pathways as people to walk them and nothing is written in stone. I don't believe in a dividing li

I'm not american, but i do feel american politics affect my life over here in the U.K. I, as a general rule, don't watch tv, only listen to the news on the radio and have a general allergy to politics and all the lies that spew from that area of our lives, whether we support the policies/politicians/party or nay. Yesterday, however, i decided to turn on the tv to witness this historic moment in world history. As I listened to this man, saw the incredible crowd, the hope shining on everyones faces i have to admit, i felt optimistic too. a little glimmer of hope slowly began to flicker inside me. I know that politicians are well versed in the art of speaking for a long time without having much to say, it comes with the territory. Despite this, however, this man had a lot to say. He didn't put a whitewash over it, he said that times were going to be tough before they got better. There were very little rose covered titbits given out to sugarcoat the truth, it's going to be

I visited the lovely Aimees' blog (CageFree Family) today and was once again struck by the generosity and just general kindness of ordinary people. They've had a run of poor luck over the last couple of weeks and found themselves stuck in a hotel for a few days as the heater on their Rv has gone on strike. She was feeling a bit sorry for herself with all the holdups and everything, not to mention the pain she was in caused by trying to be supermam. So out they trudged, also feeling a little concern with regards to their bank balance. So, they decided to do a bit of shopping at whole foods as for xmas they recieved a $400 voucher for that shop. However, on entering the shop they didn't grab a trolley and do a supermarket sweep in 5 mins flat, instead they decided to donate their gift to the charity. All of it. Despite their concern regarding their own finances, the fact that they could've easily found useful purchases for this amount and they don't have a re

I don't usually 'do' new year resolutions - it's like (potentially) setting yourself up to fail before the months out, which doesn't bode well for the year, in my case anyway - so i've made a few promises or list of aims of things that i want to achieve - or stop! - this year. Since i've been disabled i 've found myself on a number of occasions making plans to do something or go somewhere only for this to be prevented by my back being bad on that day. It's so infuriating! The thing is that often there's no warning, one day i'm up and pottering about, albeit slowly, then the next Bam! back to bed for you madam. I've lost count of the number of plans that have gone out of the window due to me being unable to get out of bed, Grr. The kids're so good about it, they understand about mammys back, it's been nearly 5 years now so it's all the two youngest have ever known really, but of course sometimes we do get tears of disappointmen