Internets working 
long may that continue !
What a start to the year it’s proving to be. Ben has been very poorly with a cold and a temperature (so probably a virus), Summer has been very poorly with what turned out to be a chest infection we think and is on antibiotics, she had a raging fever for 3 days, Paige is loaded with cold and struggling, my Mum has a had a really bad chest infection and today Imogen woke at 6am and threw up ! So happy new year us lol !
Actually the week the kids went back to school was quite nice as Graham had a few days of work. We had planned to do more with the week but Summer became poorly so that scuppered any plans we may have had. Instead though I did achieve a lot of jobs around the house and Graham made a really good start on the allotment. Last weekend he took the boys with him too and they loved it, even Owen ! which is fantastic, I’m all for anything that gets Owen outdoors and away from computer screens.
We’ve met lots of our neighbouring allotment holders, all bar one have been lovely. Just next door to ours is a lady who I’ve not met and I’m reserving judgement until i do. She said to my husband she was hoping we would start on the plot soon as it’s VERY weedy ! aherm, (it’s been the middle of winter and lashing down) also she should know that it’s NOT weedy at all, a little bit of elephant grass, nothing that would affect her plot. Also she made a comment about 6 children being ‘rather excessive’ and that while in theory it’s nice for children to help ‘they can soon get bored and this is not a playground’, Graham only told her we have 6 children, he didn’t have any of them with him at the time (so it’s not like we’d all turned up there).
I will wait until i meet her but if she is rude to me i will point out to her that families have as much right to be there as everyone else and it would be nice not to be judged before she knows us and nicer still to be encouraged rather than discouraged. I think it makes me crosser because i am extremely aware of how my children’s behaviour could affect others and as such I am quite proud of the fact that when I take them anywhere they are well-behaved and considerate of other’s, it’s taken a lot of parenting but I have never let them go anywhere and run riot, they don’t even do that at home. We’re not sponging of the state either, Graham works very hard and a lot of hours to keep us all. I am sure she is just worried I’m going to let the boys start kicking a football around and all my kids ruining the peace and quiet down there, hopefully once she’s met us all she we see that she needn’t have worried.
The plot had apparently been SOOO overgrown for SOOO long that to be honest you’d think she’d be glad that anyone was now taking it on and that we’d paid to have it cleared and rotavated.
There’s lots of allotment politics and backstabbing that goes on though we’ve been told by many of the holders so we’ll be keeping right out of it. Honestly these are grown up’s, never ceases to amaze me how child like some adults can behave, like play ground politics lol.
The man who has the plot at the end of ours hasn’t started on his yet but it turns out that he is a friend of mines husband and step dad to one of Kyle’s very good friends. They are lovely people and have offered to share tools and a shed with us etc so that will be really nice to have them at the other end of our plot. Also he has had an allotment in France that did very well so he has some idea of what he’s doing, he just laughed when I said our neighbour called our plot very weedy and was quite shocked, in his words ‘there’s nothing on it ‘!. One of the other men there brought his old metal detectors down for the boys to keep ! and has offered them lots of raspberries when it’s harvest time, a few other people there have been very nice to the kids too and welcoming.
I have encountered lots of prejudice for having had a large family though from people everywhere in the past, so much so now it causes me to yawn rather than to justify myself like I used to, I’d say a good 95% of disapproval comes from people who are actually just jealous anyway. I can understand from the ecological footprint view point (and i think if things had been different maybe i would have had less children), i try in some small way to at least contribute to society too by doing volunteer work, even my husband does his bit, we’re not just takers.
I have posted a couple of pics up of the boys that Graham took of them helping out, bless Owen he’s wearing my lovely gardening gloves lol. The girls are equally keen to get there too, once they’re all recovered.
If you look at one of the bottom pics our plot goes up to the two little white posts beyond that is my friends family plot.
Graham is back to work now, back to early nights and mornings 
I loved him being home, very surprisingly he suffers far less stress when he’s at home than he does when he returns to work. Given we’ve so many children you’d kind of think it would be work that would be less stressful but it really isn’t. Hopefully work will settle down for him in a few months or he’ll get some amazing stress free work offer….nothing wrong with hoping lol.
I chaired a 3 hour-long charity meeting at home yesterday with a poorly Summer and a clingy Ben, once we have our registered charity number I will do a piece about it. I will be SO glad when it has and the start-up fund is in the bank, then it will just be a case of fundraising and hosting the events but essentially it will be a lot less admin and meetings than at present.
Hope everyone else’s New Year has got of to a less bumpy start
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