Inspired by Lola.....

I haven't been feeling too well this past week, in fact not only have I not remembered feeling this unwell for years and years but my husband can also not recall ever seeing me so poorly. When on Friday I slept for most of the day (something unheard of with me), and spent the evening talking to the 'big white telephone', if you'd have told me that the following day I'd be back in Devon I'd have probably have laughed in your face!

Well yesterday morning when little shrimp woke up, I decided to crawl out of bed with her. As we led on the settee together watching the wonderful 'Charlie & Lola', for the first time in over a week, I started to feel a little better..(may have been something to do with the extra strong pain killers prescribed by Doc starting to kick in).

Charlie & Lola was all about Fossils yesterday and as we watched it a thought came to mind....If I were to really force myself to get up, showered and dressed, put some slap on and start to feel slightly human, do you think I could make it to Charmouth Beach with the girls in search of their very own Fossils just like Charlie & Lola?

After all, I was having severe beach withdrawal problems having had to cancel our weekend visit to the cottage, and as this was so much closer to our home, maybe, just maybe if I dosed myself up to the eyeballs then I could manage it? If I could, then great as I was staring to feel slightly claustrophobic having spent most of the week in our bedroom...I needed some space but most of all sea air to blast away those nasty horrible germs!

I revved myself up for the most of the morning...can I/can't I make the journey and when I'm there will I feel up to the car journey home again? I decided no....and sent Mr Shrimp off to Frome to get a haircut. Then I felt sad............................I hate being ill and after a week of feeling rubbish and couped up at home I'm somewhat 'over' being ill now....getting rather tedious and look at the day I'm doing my family out of? the girls were so excited about becoming 'Lola & Lola' the archaeologists for the day and they'd been so considerate and well behaved during the past week as I was so unwell, surely they deserved a little fun?!


OK, Ok I can do this...quick everyone, before Mummy Shrimp changes her mind..........Mind over matter.......I feel OK, I feel OK.....I won't be sick, I won't be sick..................... Yes it worked and just under one and a half hours later we arrived in Bridport for a little Saturday afternoon mooch....Of course the whole time I was there I was looking out for Hen, Mr HH and the adorable munchkin....... Alas my 'Hen spotting' came to nothing so I had to make do with admiring all the lovely buildings in this pretty little town.....

....paying a visit to Hens favourite store where I must have said; "Don't touch"..or trip over the dog at least 30 times and resisted some lovely greengate oilcloth.............

...and putting my will power to the test and not purchase this stunning 'mini' chair..............Couldn't resist snapping it though for fellow bloggers to admire. Isn't it fab?

We (or rather 'I') only managed a little mooch as we knew we wanted to visit a few more beaches, so back in the car to head to West Bay. That's what I love about blogging, how reading other peoples blogs and seeing pictures inspires you to visit such places you otherwise wouldn't have come across.

We took a little walk, until the shrimp's infamous 'Bendy Legs' took over, we did manage to get this far though to sit and admire the lovely views..

Back down to the beach where the shrimps played whilst I almost jumped with joy at the sheer amount of driftwood to collect, that made me very happy!

On we motored just along the coast to Charmouth beach for the shrimps' Charlie & Lola moment.....fossil hunting on the beach. Unfortunately we took them into the shop prior to our search so they were expecting to dig out treasures such as this..

Or this...............

Or maybe one of these?

Thankfully Daddy purchased a few 'treasures' before we left the shop to take for 'show and tell' or we may still have been there now...... I did have a flash of inspiration to put a smile on their disappointed little faces and sent Mr Shrimp back to the shop to buy another fossil that he could 'accidentally' drop right by their feet in readiness for them 'discover'.....but my plan was scuppered as the shop had closed!!!!

Oh well, time to leave, mummy shrimp was on her knees and not particularly looking forward to the journey home. I did snap this picture on our way our of the car park which summarized our impromptu afternoon................just lovely.

I won't go into the journey home, but let's just say it involved the Sat Nav taking us the wrong way, the battery running out on the girls DVD player resulting in HSM being played and sung all the way home in v.loud and un-tuneful voices and me muttering the words; "Oh my god, why did I think I could do this today"? several million times under my breath. ............... Push myself? Me? NOoooooooooooooooo.

N.B Just noticed that the date at the start of this post reads; Saturday 30th January....how bizarre seeing as I'm sat here typing away on Sunday 31st! Must have my settings wrong somewhere!

What's not to love?

OK, so there are times when I stop and thank my lucky stars, not only for the good health of myself and my loved ones, but also for the fact that weekends like I have just experienced are no longer few and far between but a weekly occurrence................I couldn't ask for more.

I've been feeling really unwell this weekend but standing at the edge of our country and enjoying not only the feeling of space, but the sea air in my lungs has helped no end, I may resemble Rudolf the red nosed reindeer at present, but hey who cares, I've had a fab weekend.

A request from the shrimps to go for 'coffee & cake' at our favourite beach cafe,'The Winking Prawn' at North Sands, Salcombe, certainly didn't meet with much opposition from us. It may of course have something to do with the huge dressing up box that they love to delve through...

And dress themselves up to entertain not only us, but those at surrounding tables..

'Ay, Ay Sailor'.

"Maybe I'll grow into it"?

"Loving this hat, darlingggggggg"....

We always follow our visit with a walk on the beach immediately outside.

They love to explore and climb over the rocks.

It doesn't take long for the shrimps to get wet so I invested in waterproof dungarees, which seemed to do the job!!

A little further along the road and we reach Southsands and views such as these.....I certainly didn't feel as if this was a winter weekend in January....this view couldn't help but lift my spirits!

For me, my favourite time of the week is when I creep out of bed on a Sat/Sun morning without waking the family and enjoy the beautiful sunrises as I walk along the quay with the dogs.....All that can be heard is the sound of the water gently lapping against the boats or the birds above.

I love to walk to the waters edge and spend a moment contemplating the day ahead........bliss.

As it turned out, this morning we found ourselves 15 minutes down the road in Beesands, a favourite of the shrimps as not only do the get to ride on their scooters....

.......but play in the little park and run on the beach whilst I beachcomb, adding to my collection of driftwood...not to mention enjoying views such as this, the sun glistening in the sea and the soothing sound of the gentle waves.......

So you can see, I have very little to complain about in my life for which I'm eternally grateful for. I went through a little patch a few months ago when I contemplated if this 'split' life was worth it, after all there is alot of driving/packing/un-packing/gardening/cleaning etc involved in running and visiting two homes, I don't for a minute expect anyone reading this to feel sorry for me, but it is the reality. Those times were however during the dark/rainy weekends, when we have weekends such as this it makes me realise why we have sacrificed other things to give ourselves a wonderful quality to our lives where we get to enjoy the best of both worlds.......Long may it continue.

Frosty the Snowman....

Oh my goodness, what a slack blogger I've been of late....the last few weeks have gone by in a bit of a blur to be honest. So much going on and so much to enjoy, I'm not quite sure where to begin!

Since I last posted we have been busy...

...Visiting Santa at Longleat, which is something we've done for the last 5 years. The train takes you into the middle of Longleat's wood, where you are greated by a roaring fire, trees sparkling with different colour fairy lights and a woodland chalet where the shrimps escaped the cold for a few minutes to visit Santa.

Before we left for Longleat, they wrote their letters to Santa...

....ready to be posted on the board outside the chalet for Santa to read later on...

On the 24th when we returned from the Crib service at church, Daddy's old boots were left out in the porch for St Nicholas to fill with sweets (my daughters aren't stupid, they soon worked out they could get more in Daddy's boots than their own shoes!!.....they were so excited when they actually heard the reindeer sleigh bells and a 'Ho, Ho, Ho' outside the door.

With their Daddy being half German, it's a tradition that we follow each and every year and something that truly makes Christmas Eve for us all. The girls also opened presents off their little friends and always look forward to opening their presents from Uncle Thomas over in Germany before phoning him to wish him a very Frohe Weinachten (Happy Christmas).

Of course there were more presents to open on Christmas Day....

A particular favourite of little shrimps being some Minnie Mouse shoes that have hardly left her feet since.

And a fun sparkly Christmas cake to enjoy, courtesy of my mother....

In our household Boxing Day is always celebrated in the same way as Christmas Day, we even give out Boxing Day presents... More guests arrived and were treated to a Christmas show by the shrimps! By the way if you hadn't guessed, little shrimp is Mary!

On the 27th, we packed up our car full of new toys and lots of warm clothes and headed to Devon for a week full of relaxation.............pure bliss.......no sales to trawl around, no retail parks to visit...no supermarkets to endure, just a week of family fun. Lots of games were played, family films watched, left over chocolates and treats eaten and long walks on the beaches and along the quay to blow away the cobwebs. We even managed to meet up with big shrimp's best friend from school at the Winking Prawn in Salcombe on New Years Eve. She was visiting her grandparents that live a few minutes walk away. The girls had great fun exploring the rock pools for Mermaids Purses!

New Years Day was fabulous. As we were up and about early, we headed to Bigbury on Sea. We arrived around 9.45am and apart from 2 other couples , we had the entire beach to ourselves. It was only at around 11am that others started to arrive. It was fabulous, the dogs and girls absolutely exhausted themselves running around and climbing all over the rocks in search of Mermaid houses (you may have guessed, but my daughters are slightly obsessed by Mermaids).
We returned home at the weekend ready for school on Monday morning and however much I love my daughters I was REALLY looking forward to my first day off from the girls in almost 5 weeks. I get 2 childfree days a week when big shrimp is at school and little shrimp at pre-school. I relish these days SO much after 5 solid years of 24/7 childcare with no family nearby to ever give me break. Before Christmas both girls managed to be ill during those childfree days for the 2/3 wks leading up to the big day and with all the Christmas preparations falling on my shoulders I was almost cartwheeling down the lane last night at the prospect of a 'Me' day today!....no whinging, temper tantrums or whining to listen to (Little shrimps 'terrible twos' started at 18 months of age and she's still going strong/getting worse at 3.5 years.

You can imagine how, however beautiful this scene was to wake up to this morning, my heart sank a little when I heard the list of school closures....Oh well, may as well make the most of it and turn it into a day of fun....

Yes, very funny, hit a woman with a snowball when she's helpless with a camera in her hand....

Yes, you'd better start running, or better still girls, get daddy.

Making such a friendly looking snowman put a smile back on my face, isn't he sweet?

Ok now, that's enough raiding of mummy's button tin....can we put the lid back on now please?

I hope that snowball isn't meant for me?!

Now, shall I make a run for it determined to still get that 'me' day, or shall I curl up on the settee with the girls, heating up full whack and enjoying a few good films?.....

Looking at the lane from our front door I think the 'me' day will have to wait another week!

Wherever you are reading this, I wish you a happy and healthy 2010. Have a wonderful day and if you're in the UK I hope the snow isn't effecting you too much and you're able to enjoy it.