so the boys are settling in to secondary school.......

so that leads to the next question what next for me????

now there are always many things i could spend my time doing....... suggestions welcomed on a postcard!!.

do i go for easy option one a job that pays ok. fits around family life OR...........????!!!!

so at the moment its a case of listening, looking, thinking, wondering and soon taking a step to trying

well jack and harry are enjoying their last weekend ready to start secondary school on monday

i have just about survived the 6 weeks holidays!!

jess is just about to start her last year

little josh has just started rugby tots

we are heading for jacob and josh birthdays very soon jacob turning 1 and josh turning 4

so time as always is not standing still

Its a big day in the life of Jack and Harry today as they have their last day at junior school.
We all went to their leavers service yesterday..........lots of film footage from them all of their thoughts of their time at the school and thoughts about going to a new school.....lots of pictures from the days at the school......great performances of dancing, singing, poetry and music all expressing their feelings......it was very moving

for me it is also an end to having children at junior school after many years.....taking a glance at the older 4 children who 3 are now adults (wow) and jess who is fast heading to her last year at school and has this week been doing work experiance i know that their time at secondary school will past by very fast......
as today my thoughts are with them i can clearly picture every other one of the childrens leaving services and even my own at the same school!!!

its dan's 18th birthday today and i just want to list a few things that i love about my son
he has a great sense of humour
he has overcome all of lifes challenges that has come his way
he is loving, kind, and charming
hes a great son uncle brother
hes great to spend time with and is willing and loves spending time with me on our own. he has fabulous relationships with his brothers and sisters and brother-in-law
hes a very capable and talented person who uses his gifts for others
he has the ability to charm all of us into doing stuff and is open with that!!!

i am so proud of the boy he has been and now hes a man!!!. how blessed are we as a family to have him.

well as Gary is on nights thought i would take the opportunity to update my blog..

well this year seems to be flying by and we are heading very quickly into the next two important celebrations for our family, firstly my nephew josh and then Dan turning 18... wow!!!

as i've mentioned in previous blogs this year had had and still to come some great family celebrations and its great to spend sooooo much time on celebrations this year.

i think this year has been great for recovering a sense of some parts of who we are as a family in that we love to celebrate and get creative doing it.

so we had even added to this with our ' ere come dine with I' the anstey bristolian version of come dine with me. kick started off with the taylersons giving us the name and theme of a very funny bristolian evening with karoke singlong and great food. followed by sam and jon giving us an evening at the "Badgeworth Tavern" turning their home into a pub for the night with great pub food and playing darts all night.
next is Dan and goodness knows what he will come up with but i have heard a few rumours of world war two themed evening with blackouts!!, or the typical british bbq. lastly it will be me and Gary.... but i am not giving anything away but as always we play to win!!. when we have finshed this round the next round is the credit crunch round and we all have to stick to budget set.

well thats it for now need to go and plan and plot..ttfn

if my aim this year is to learn all about celebrating then this year so far is going very well!!!.
have just recently enjoyed a wonderful mothers day (what a great day to have six children!!).
a new feature of this year was the older ones settting me questions about them all and in exchange for correct answers i was rewarded with a present, thankfully i knew all the answers!!.
even as this month draws to a close we finish it as a family celebrating my dads and his twins 70th,

time for me is moving very quickly this year.... tomorrow we have pancake day which has got to be one of my personal favorite days from childhood. so many happy memories of my mum making pancakes and allowing us to have a go at tossing them. this year hopefully josh will be able to try his hand at tossing one.
then the next day is jessica's 15th birthday, Wow, my little girl is growing up so quickly.
at the moment i am fighting a nasty flu virus and thought i was on the winning side until today when it has hit back hard with nasty symptoms. so hoping that i will feel much better tomorrow.
recently we have been spending a lot of time up by the suspension bridge where there is a natural slide down a small part of the cliff and it is proving to be a real hit with all the boys in the family. i was persuaded to go down and gravity worked against me much to the familys mirth as i went twice as fast down in a most undignified way!!. but at least i fared better than the poor lady who went after and split her trousers!!!
so as feb is drawing so quickly to a close my mind is on march and all that is already in the diary looks like a lot of celebrating ahead with my dad and his twins 7oth birthday. dans, girlfriends 18th, and sams fiance birthday. It has really struck me this year how due to the increasing size of our family how many celebrations we now have.......and as i reflect back to how many hard times we have had i love the fact that each and every one of us Espically my grandson josh loves to celebrate.....in fact my discipline this year is to celebrate and model that to my family just like my mum taught me as a small child that out of a few eggs, some flour and milk what great fun could be had....so get the pan out