Happy? Busy? Mmm, that's me!

Well it's been a busy few days. JB, April & I have been minding Lyla between us for a few days and I have been on the school run a couple of days. Things are going great with the baby and Lisa is amazingly well given how grim she felt after the c-section, though we do think it was more about the comparison to having Lyla so quickly on the front seat of the car outside maternity..than the actual birth being bad itself, in fact it sounds like it was quite routine and no probs.

(Climbs on soapbox for second.. aside from them doing great..I cannot believe that there is such a shortage of midwives. They wanted Lisa to go to the surgery for 5 day checks, saying they do not have enough staff to travel out! But how can self-employed people get there if the men work and the new Mum is told not to drive.. and in the snow....

What happened to the old fashioned period of 'confinement' and the daily visits from the same (fantastic) local midwife when I had mine?  Lisa luckily had great staff on a quiet D-day last week but the following day all hell broke loose, no-one to help post-op women get their babies, no bells working so another lady got out of bed and ripped her wound, why don't they have some nice ladies in to help new mums, just to sit, hold their hands as they take those scarey steps into motherhood.  it incenses me when they talk on breakfast TV about the new maternity services they are planning.. hello..hello?!.. they were what we had all sorted 25 years ago!!! 

... off soapbox but carrying it with me just in case.. midwifery, childbirth and breastfeeding are my specialist rant subjects in case you hadn't noticed.. ;-)  )

This week ..

Work has been busy. Col is quite proud of a new composite block handler he designed.  The company have had a few clever units from us and called him in to sort this one.   Even our design guys didn't think it would work...but Colin did! He has a new Einstein quote he is proud of too, it so suits him as he has so many great ideas and doesn't need a batch of qualifications to know if something is do-able or not..

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

-Albert Einstein

We went to look at a house with the new baby and M&D. It wasn't really suitable , too much work required but lots of space if it had been good.. back to plan B, C and maybe D, but you have to start looking don't you.. and get away from renting when you can.

We had a builder over yesterday and he is starting on our extension in about five weeks. We have an old lean-to that was a kitchen before we came here. It was due to be knocked down to please our mortgage company but we just moved the kitchen indoors and kept it as a porch...It is a grim site, built half covering my hall window, so as soon as it is gone, even before my new room is done I will have more light into my house through the hall window.. yay!

Then there is the office extension and possible new building being contemplated so you can imagine we are mentally dead beat by bed...mind you, I'd rather be dead-beat than bored.. yeah, I am not happy when there is nothing going on, in fact when things are ticking along just fine I don't like it...

Thinking about the happy prompt this week...I like the ups and downs, maybe like Anne says you have to have the downs to really enjoy the ups.  It has never appealed to be too routine and prescribed, I like the unexpected, the rush, the chaos.. maybe because it is better to feel something (whether it is stress, panic or euphoria) than not much at all!

Zac has driven home this afternoon, he had a college half day and free tomorrow so we will be chilling out and maybe doing a few things over the next few days.  the girls got the house tidy and we had a lovely curry for tea, everyone was busy talking and I was just enjoying listening.

It reminded me of how Mum didn't always have a lot to say as she got older and all the family would be round the table.  Maybe she just liked hearing all her family swapping stories and getting along, there isn't the need to say much when you are content letting the world go by and your kids are your world.  I guess she probably hoped me and Ken would get our families together more, but we are so different and so far apart years wise (he was past 11 when I was born)... we have 13 children between us but his were having children of their own almost as soon as I started, so the generations are kind of out of synch.

Am I ever happy for no reason at all?...yes.. not sure why, guess that's because there is no reason! But it is nice to feel the sun, a good track on the radio and be near the sea.  The alternative is a grey day, Cornish mist and a dreary politics chat show and that isn't conducive to 'hapy' is it.

Do I demand my own way like a child?  Mmmm depends who you are asking! I would say no, that I am pretty easy going and not a shouter or a stamper of feet... but if I am honest I do hear myself sometimes hinting that I would like a job doing, or 'when we have time' or 'could you just'... so, maybe just like a child I use that wearing down tactic to keep my requests on the agenda!

And this is a secret ... shhh.. I think I have got better at getting round Col. Maybe we are both getting older, maybe both wiser to each others ways... or maybe he just got tired and gives in sooner.. I'd like to think I just know how to work him better, when to ask, when not to nag, when to make him happy and then just quietly mention it... ahh I must be learning from my teenagers.. it's all in the timing!

To finish the post, here's a bit of what we have been up to this week..

Lyla at only 22 months is adept at working a cameraphone with her fingers to swipe and tap. She likes playing faces in the camera and loves browsing videos of what we have done..a child of the century.

Amazing, she may never have to learn an old fashioned keyboard if tablets and pads keep changing so much..

I read a quote which applies so well to learning and children these days :

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
  .....by writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, creator of Future Shock

Oh and baby Annabelle, I haven't seen her properly awake yet.. and see Lilly there in the bottom corner.. what a sweet pea..not missing a trick, I didn't even know she was there xx