We're buying....

A bigger house!! :-)

Yes, we're hoping to move soon! We've put in an offer for the house and it was accepted, and we've agreed a date of entry by the 5th of October. Don't think I've really got an idea of how much work it will be to pack everything up and move, but I'm still excited! I don't know if I've mentioned here before about our plans to build an extension on our exisiting house, to make a office and a dining room behind the house. Well, we contacted the architects back in December last year and had hoped that work might start by around March...but it's now nearly *September*, and they've still not finished all the planning work. So we have no idea how long it would be before it was possible to even *start* the building work - much less when it would be finished! So thinking about this, I began to think I really wasn't sure we could cope with having the house torn apart (well, at least the back of the downstairs) while having active toddlers. And if it happened during the winter months, then they'd be confined in a very small space indoors. Not to mention the fact that Clement would be crawling (if not walking) by then - and Benjamin's eczema adds enough stress to life! Sooo, long story short, I started looking for houses - determined that I was sure I could find something in the wider area at least that would actually in the end be more economical than an extension. And the above house is what I found - slightly more space than what we'd have if we'd had the extension built, but hopefully laid out in a way to make the space more usable - and still plenty of garden space (front & back) for the children to play in! (That was one issue with the extension here - we'd have hardly any garden out the back - and the front is small enough as it is.) And the house is in walk-in condition, though we'll need to floor the attic and build another garden shed to have some extra storage space! :-) The house is about 25 miles north of where we are now - but good road there, so only just over half an hour's drive - not far off the main road, but in a small estate, so not too many houses around.

So here are a few more pics of inside the house, copied from the brochure:

Kitchen (obviously!)

Dining room, looking down from the stairs

The current lounge (sitting room) which is upstairs! However, we're hoping to use the front entry room (in front of the kitchen) as a sitting room, and this upstairs room (which is quite large) will be divided to be a bedroom for Abigail at the back and play/school room at the front.

Master bedroom, with good sized walk-in closet

So, plenty of work to be done clearing out clutter here and packing up soon! And the task of getting this house emptied and up for sale! Sooooo, if anyone is looking for a house in the Highlands of Scotland... ;-) our house here will soon be up for sale! Peter has started putting together a website, though our house won't be officially for sale yet, as we're required to have a home report (survey) first, which will be when the house is empty! But just to see if there's any initial interest! :-) http://yourhighlandhome.weebly.com

No time to say anything much else, as I need to get to bed soon! So just one photo of my lovely wee boy, who isn't all that very wee! :-)

Afternoon at Rosemarkie & other photos

Guess it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted here. Benjamin got over his "flu" symptoms and none of us got it either, which was rather strange. Still not sure what it was. The following week was very difficult with his eczema - I think there were 3 days/nights in a row where he was waking in the night with frantic scratching and it was hard to calm him down. So not a lot of sleep for either us or him. Eventually on Thursday last week I decided I had to take him to the doctor, as his body was almost entirely covered in awful red eczema, :-( and it looked quite infected too. So far we'd managed to keep infection at bay with the various creams we use, but this time nothing was working. So the doctor gave us oral and topical antibiotics (along with 1% hydocortisone). The oral ones he prescribed tasted *awful* - so bad we couldn't get a drop into him! Thankfully that evening he re-prescribed a different one (Co-Amoxiclav) which tastes a lot better, and we were able to get Benjamin to take that. Unfortunately though, between the confusion of me picking up the first one that morning and Peter picking up the 2nd one that evening, I didn't realise it had to be stored in the fridge. :-S (I'll blame it on the lack of sleep! lol) Anyway, I only noticed it 3 full days later, when the colour and consistency seemed to be rather odd. So on Monday the doctor had to represcribe it again, as it wouldn't have been doing any good for him. So it was annoying that he had to re-start the 7 day course, especially since it's given him quite an upset tummy. But it has been quite effective in clearing the eczema up. So he's much better just now in that regard (though might be a different story next week when he finishes the medicines). But I think that's the whole point of steroids - to calm things down when it gets really bad - and then you try and manage without them for a while until they're needed again to suppress it for a bit. Though I wish we could get by without them! Anyway, last night Benjamin has come down with a very runny nose/congested head and a bit of a temperature. It's only 2 weeks since he was last ill - so I don't know what it is this time. I'm guessing he's just got a very weak immune system - hoping it's nothing more serious than that.



I mentioned last time that I would possibly post about detergents & soaps, but not had any time for that. In any case, I started making my own clothes washing powder with soap flakes (maybe I already said that?) and got rid of all cleaners etc. Not sure it's done any good (at least not yet) but it's nice to know there aren't any harmful chemicals being used anymore - even natural shampoos & bar soaps! :) And a very big thank you to Jo for ordering me some soap nuts! They arrived in a lovely red cotton bag all tied up like a present! And best of all, I'm amazed at how well they clean! I've been using them on Benjamin's clothes and his nappies and they smell very fresh! If anyone doesn't know what soap nuts are, you can see here: http://www.inasoapnutshell.com/ So I'm using my soap flakes mix every now & again to brighten things up a bit (if necessary), but using the soap nuts for most all the washes. It's really neat how you can put 8 half nut shells into a bag and then do 6 or more loads of laundry with the same nuts!!



Well, Clement is already 4 months old! He had his check with the health visitor yesterday and weighed in at 18lbs exactly! So that makes him well above the 91st centile, climbing up there towards the 98th centile! He's one big boy! He's still not mastered rolling over - doesn't seem to be very bothered with the idea of doing it. But he does get half way over and curls backwards a bit, like this here:





Last Saturday we had our annual outing to the seaside in Rosemarkie with our homeschool group. Unfortunately most of the families weren't able to make it, but we still had a nice time. Abigail and Benjamin enjoyed playing in the sand for hours, though Clement seemed to be having a bad day and cried (ie screamed!) for rather a long time! So not as many photos as I might have have liked, but here are a few.

Smiling at last - after finally having a sleep and feed! He's rather mega teething at the moment (tho no sign of teeth yet) and it makes him quite grumpy and difficult at times. Still lots of smiles, but he can refuse to eat when he's actually very hungry!

And this (above) was the children at the end of their day out to the seaside. They all had a long nap (well, not Clement) - which meant a late night!

My fat little boy with his big sister

Chewing his favourite toy

a rather poor attempt at getting all 3 of them together! lol

The two boys still in their pyjamas - and Abigail already dressed! She's usually the first one in the house to get dressed - sometimes while I'm still in bed! [blush]

A Mei Tai sling that I made today! Fabric was a 50p charity shop find - something I picked up a couple of years ago and always thought I'd make some sort of curtains out of it! Found out recently that it originally retailed at over 22 pounds per metre (and I had over 2 metres). Since it was so nice & sturdy I thought I'd make a sling out of it - even if a bit of an unusual colour/pattern scheme! lol

At least Clement likes it! :-)

Ok, off to bed.