Saphy's Progress: New name for 2012

Ok, so as we head for 2012, I am having a blog revamp.

1st change of title. Saphy's progress was when I was getting ready for my cycle, doing more crafting etc. However although life is a journey it is not always about improvement it can also be about being.

At my grandmother's funeral he described her as an unremarkable woman, at first I felt he was wrong. she was very remarkable as she was my grandmother. However, My Grandmother was unremarkable, she did not climb Everest, she did not go on x factor, she did not discover a cure for Cancer.

My Grandmother was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother, a friend, a carer, a daughter.
she looked after the old and the young and loved her family. she had adventures in her youth and at times was incredibly brave, she faced the challenges of social stigma and was a loyal wife. I would like to be like her.

So that is the inspiration for the change of name.

I like my grandmother, would like to be unremarkable. I do not wish to be famous or infamous. I do not want to be a filmstar or a popstar. I am not looking for 15 minutes of fame.

 That does not mean that I lack ambition. I still want to try new things, to get better at crafting, to enjoy cooking and making. To get out with my camera at every opportunity and take photographs of everything that catches my eye. 

This year my blog has been very up and down as has life this year. In the past 12 months I have lost 2 more  of my significant relatives and had a rolercoaster of a time. some of which I have shared, a lot of which I have kept to myself.

So what does 2012 have in store??? who knows.

I aim to make more time for my friends.

I want to go to church for more than just funeral's.

I am going to try my hand at making soap.

I intend to keep on blogging.......

oh and to lead an unremarkable life!

Merry Christmas.

all is quiet. I have a tired and happy spaniel laying on the sofa with me. I am sat with Dr Who on the TV. both OD and YD are reading their Kindles and SE has gone to see his Girlfriend. The dogs are curled up on the bed...

The last 24 hours have been eventfull (in a good way for a change) My low mood of late lead to me not being able to face putting up the decorations. however it is important that they are up for Christmas. So the plan was yesterday we would put up the decorations....

The day started with the car being MOT'd. (yes on Christmas eve, dont ask, long story) I was a bit grumbly at the prospect of it however, we just had to get on with it. What it did mean was that we had 3 hours to spare near an out of town shopping area. LSP and I divided this time between 3 places. Mcdonalds for a 30 minute breakfast. Then 45 minutes in Curry's and 45 minutes in Laura Ashley. After Curry's where I mentally planned my entire new kitchen (which will not happen but its nice to dream) we then checked out the pre-Christmas sale at laura Ashley. lots of mooching and then, trying on of clothes and after much searching  I found a lovely new skirt to wear to church that evening. It was bliss, having the time to shop unhurried as we had more time than we needed rather than less. for the first time in ages I felt relaxed. After the car passed it MOT (yay) we went to collect some fresh croissants and Stilton Cheese, grabbed a bite to eat for lunch then went to collect our Christmas Cake that our good friend had made for us. We sat and had tea and chatted then before i knew it it was 4pm. we headed home and I decorated the house in double quick time. 2 tree's... 3 garlands, lots of tinsel... oh and 300 baubles.....(pictures to follow) it was all done in time for us to go to church! Not without incident. Usually I take a long time to decorate the house I did not have the luxury of time. After throwing the baubles on the tree, the tree started to lean... I added balast in the form of tins of beans wrapped up in a bag to weight the back down. Again it started to list....It is now straight. how? it has a ribbon, tied to the trunk that is nailed to the wall. I will deal with the whole in the wall later!

Ok, so LSP had to drop me and SE and my older sister at church for the midnight Eucharist. (older daughter chose to spend the night with her boyfriend. when we were dropped off LSP had to go and collect YD from her Job and get to Church by 11.30. there was plenty of time....

at 11.29 I txt to ask if they were going to make it. only to receive a txt back saying on our way, you could not   make it up, we have pictures. Halfway through O' little Town of Bethlehem. LSP and YD arrived. So what was the holdup??? a flock of sheep!!! yes a flock of sheep on the road they were able to persuade them to the side of the road and call the police to assist. So they arrived and fell into church. (yes) as you walk in the church there is a steep step and LSP forgot (we were only in the church the week before). The reason why the rest of us were dropped of first was to save a pew for us all to sit in. I miscounted and got us a pew for 4 when there were 5 of us. (3 of us are not small) so was a bit of a squash and I spent more time kneeling than sitting to fit in. My older sister knelt as well, however, this was not just to save room, but as she had drank half a bottle of red and a large sherry it was a bit of self preservation. my older sister vary rarely drinks so its a bit of a shock to see her merry especially as we were going to church. The rest of the service passed without major incident. A drunken group arrived during prayer's (they thought the midnight service started at midnight) The Vicar said he was going to light the Easter Candle instead of the Christmas one and a random ex colleague  in the adjacent pew.

We went home via the sheep to check if they had gone home (they had). for some late cheese and crackers and waited ... for the children to go to bed so we could put the pressie's under the tree.

Today has been perfect.

yes really.

we rose this morning when OD arrived. an hour of opening presents before breakfast of fresh fruit and croissants, pancakes and brioche. The I disappear into the kitchen at 10 to start the cooking whilst listening to the Archer's then a very special desert island disks which was great. the family were examining their presents whilst watching finding nemo and Aladdin.

lunch was lovely. with no disaster's. (last year the christmas pudding boiled dry and we had a plastic molten mess in the bottom of a pan) roasties were great and we had plenty of lovely veggies.

After lunch...we had pudding, more cartoons and then games round the table. now sat with the soaps.  and my books, feeling great, I am relaxed and contented for the first time in ages.

I am blessed to have the family I have . my partner is amazing and our daughter's are so wonderful.

Christmas is such a special time, a chance to celebrate, both the birth of Jesus and to celebrate what we have.
This past year has been pretty poor. However we need to keep going. I am still sad that we did not have another Christmas with my Grandmother. It was not meant to be. to be here on Christmas evening with my partner and daughters is wonderful.

hope you all have had a good Christmas as well.

(this was last year, this year it is far to warm to light the fire)

tis the season to be .....

Last night my Bestie lost her partner. not lost as in died but lost as in getting drunk and going missing for several hours. He is back now, muddy (?) with a headache having returned to his childhood home in the early hours to make his way into the house and sleep on the sofa. This was after her going out in the early hours of the morning to collect him. He was not where he was supposed to be and not answering his phone. She was worried the whole night and was phoning the police as he walked through the door.

Today they have a lot of talking to do!!!

LSP and I are occasional drinker's and often go weeks or months without drinking. If we are going to a social event together often neither of us will drink. Sometimes we enjoy going out and having a few drinks especially when we are catching up with adult friends and this may happen 2/3 times per year.

I am proud to say that our children have never seen us drunk and OD was 21 before she saw me merry. previous to that she has not seen me have more than 2 glasses of wine.  We have always had a well stocked wine rack and keep some beer and spirits in for our occasional parties.

Alcohol can be very dangerous, it can wreck lives, destroy relationships, not to mention the health problems it brings. Some of the blogs I read concern me when people talk about downing vast amounts of wine/gin etc. facebook on a Saturday and Sunday morning has several people lamenting about their hangover's.

I do not think that alcohol should be banned or that we all should abstain  we just need to be more respectful of it and think about our drinking habits.

Supermarkets do not help either, when I was in the coop they had their discount spirits on each checkout!

last week I was reading the big issue and they had a feature about some of their seller's. One chap said that he only got drunk once, it just lasted for 18 years.

amidst all of the festivities think about why you are drinking? having a drinking problem is not just about drinking every day. just think?

have you ever felt guilty or ashamed about your drinking? have you lied to people about your drinking? have friends or family ever said they are worried about your drinking? Do you need to drink to relax? Do you need to drink to feel better? Do you regularly drink more than you planned? do you drink so much that you black out or forget what you did when you were drinking?

If any of these is a yes, talk to someone. your GP is often a good person to start with.

Sorry for this lecture, but Alcohol can be dangerous especially at this time of year when alcohol is everywhere!

(nice christmasy blog tommorow)

Christmas on hold.

This would normally be our weekend for putting up the tree and decorations. but not this year.
Sadly my grandmother died last week.
her funeral is on Wednesday.
So we have put Christmas on hold for a while.

Post office queue

Today, LSP and I created a Post office queue.

we are lucky in our village that we retain a post office. We went in today to send our Christmas cards and Post the packages.

How would we know that it would take 25 minutes. !!!!

 6 parcels, 8 overseas cards, and a stack of UK cards to be posted. 

(should not have taken 25 minutes) 

all the rest of the cards will be dropped off by hand. 

In the post Christmas Sales we do not need to buy any more Christmas Cards. We have enough in the box. I need to remember this when I see pretty cards. We do need Paper! we are down to the last roll. it did get tense. I did buy a roll of full price wrap this year when we went to John Lewis. I could not resist as it has bunting on it. This was lucky as we would have ran out. 

All of the presents have been tidied away, well those that have not been posted far and wide.

 (happy full snowmen) 

so after disrupting the whole village, we took oldest daughter to the shops. (although LSP and I finished our Christmas Shopping, the rest of the family have not) 

Its great the feeling of wandering around with no pressure. no need to buy, no need to queue, just to enjoy looking. 

oh and fitting in a hot chocolate and mince pie.....

I was tempted to buy for me as Kirsty Alsopp's Craft was only 12.99 and they had some lovely knitting books. however. I resisted. there is nothing in it that I cant find on the internet. 

Also this morning when I was tidying I realised how full the bookshelf is! I am going to have to treat the bookshelves like the cookbooks and will be operating a 1 in 1 out policy! so any purchases will have to be carefully considered. 

After a stroll round TKMaxx...OD still had not found what she was looking for so. 

We ventured to Matalan. I am not the biggest fan of Matalan, but did find something to make me smile...

(No I did not buy one as they did not do double's or king's) 

Well that's all the shopping, wrapping, packing, posting stress out of the way. 

December will be spent catching up with friends and sorting out the food....oh and putting up the decorations. 

The highlight of the day? (apart from spending time with the family)

Beautiful Sky!

All wrapped up.

Well, that's the Christmas Shopping done. just a couple of things to wrap and we are all sorted.

I love Christmas, a lot. however, I cannot abide all the hustle and bustle of shopping in December.
My Christmas shopping is done in the sales and we always have a present box in the house. some things we buy with people in mind and other's are just nice things that will get a home with someone at some point.

All of the cards and wrap are bought in the sales in January/February. However when we looked at all of the cards we possibly have enough for the next 2 years. !

I do go mad at Christmas. Lots of gifts, lots of decorations and good quality food.

I think our day is quite typical.

The day starts with present opening.

Then Breakfast of fresh fruit, Brioche and croissants.

I then retire to the Kitchen where I will cook for the next few hours. I love it. LSP and the children will play with their presents while I am basting, boiling and roasting.

We then sit and eat lunch. LSP and the children do the washing up and then  we watch the Queens speech.

We keep the fire lit all day and it is a very relaxed day.

Our most unusual Christmas was one we shared with a friend.

Our Christmas morning started as usual,  however at 12.00 we packed up the roast turkey, trimmings, roast veg, stuffing and veg into container's.

Packed it into the car and drove into town to a friends house, where we unpacked it all again.

We then had a shared Christmas, there were the 5 of us and the 3 of them. They made the starters and puddings and we brought the main. It went very well and included the most amazing trifle, which pleased SE as its his favourite pudding.

I am sat, listening to the Sunday service on the radio. Its the first Sunday of Advent. I am going to wrap up the last of the presents.

I hope all of your preparations are going well.

(for the regular readers of my blog. Youngest Daughter is recovering. She is still quite weak but in a lot less pain.My Big Sister is recovering and adjusting to living with gall stones and is adjusting to the change in her diet. My Nan is still in Hospital, she has recovered as much as she can in hospital and now just needs to go home. There will need to be adjustments to her care package as she will need some more help at home for a while)

 

my past 2 weeks...

phew! anyone who read my blog last week (its been a bad week) will have seen that we have been going through a tough time the past 2 weeks.

Well. I am not writing this from Vietnam which is where we planned to be today our challenge . I am sat at home on the sofa writing my blog.

They operated on YD to discover that she has been walking around with a rupture in her appendix. which had made her insides a bit nasty! well she is now minus an appendix and has had her insides jet washed and is feeling better. Just sore and hobbely. (walking like an old lady). the strain of up and downing to the hospital and back each day has left LSP and I Shattered. So on the day we were due to fly to the other side of the world we were bringing her home from hospital.

BS. big sister has gall stones, they are not planing to operate until January so she has been sent home with a very low fat diet plan. She has gone to stay with her partner's family in Wales for a few days to recuperate.

Nan, well Nan is on the mend and hoping to come out of hospital next week. the is regaining her mobility!
The sad thing about Nan is that Today is her 85th Birthday. It was not in her plan to be spending it in Hospital and this makes her a bit sad. At least she will still get to see us all as we pop in and see her through the day.

It has been a very tough couple of weeks.

However we are lucky. In hospital we met people who's relatives have also been in for some time. Each day they make the journey in to see their loved ones. for some the prognosis is not so good. They are making the most of the time they have left. We are lucky, 3 of family have gone in and 3 are coming out.


When my Nan was feeling down and talking about dying, I told her quite firmly that I am not ready for her to die just yet so she had better stick around for a few more years as I need her. (yes I am selfish.)

LSP's family have been very supportive and our friends have been great. Here's hoping for a calmer week ahead.

Here are some photo highlights!

Well the soup is now ready (LSP's Tattie soup) so its a quick bowl of soup then off to the hospital I go.