It has been so long since I posted here.  Life sometimes goes off track and I never seem to have the time to do the things that are important to me.  Like this blog.

So today I am starting over.  I need to start writing again because I am not even spending time on my novel.  I need to focus on me for a few minutes a day or I am going to be lost amongst the rubble of family life.

I don't even remember when I last wrote - or what about - or what was happening in my life.

I am now a Mom of 5.  I am a homeschooling mom of 5.  Laurie remains in school but Susannah and Chris have decided to stay home this year - and because Abigail is so bright for her age I am also homeschooling her.  At 3 she is already reading and writing.  She is not an easy child - but perhaps that is because she is so much like me.

Right now my life is chaotic.  We move house in 3 weeks time.  I haven't started packing yet.  We are moving to our dream home.  I am very excited but I don't have much chance to focus on it really.

Samuel is 8 months old now.  He is crusing along the furniture, crawling, saying Mom and has a tooth.  In other words he is growing up far too quickly.  Lloyd and I decided that Lloyd should get the snip - its now 6 weeks post op and I think we both sometimes wonder if we did the right thing.  No more babies.  Yet our baby will soon be walking and will no longer be a 'baby'.

Today had been a busy day - I taught Susie to do cross stitching and french knitting, we playeda  dice game, we did modelling with fimo, we did math, LA and some more work on telling the time.  Chris worked on his assignments.  We all have colds.  Lloyd and I are seriously sleep deprived as Sam is restless at night because of his cough and cold.  I don't do well on no sleep.

God I can't wait to move house - I hate living here - where everyone else knows your business and watched your every move and the doorbell never stops ringing and the women stand outside all day every day with their arms folded gossiping about nothing.  Why don't they ever take their kids anywhere - or do anything?  Their whole lives are spent in our cul de sac watching their kids ride around on bikes - ALL DAY EVERY DAY.  Get a life!

I spoke to my Mum this morning.  She lives in England.  They buried Granddads ashes yesterday.  I saked how it went but she seemed to want to talk about other things - I think we had a nice conversation but the one thing that stood out was her comment about how I have gained weight - from the photo I emailed her.  She's probably right but I could have done without that comment.  Or maybe thats what I needed to hear.  I eat when I'm stressed and lately I've been very stressed.  Selling a house with 5 kids and a dog is not easy.  Worrying about whether the sale would go through ok.  My @#^$#^# in-laws arrive on Sunday - 2 weeks before we are due to move - really bad timing and what pisses me off is that they didn't ask if those dates were ok.  I just would never be so rude as to tell someone when we are going to visit - surely you should ask????  We do have a life!!!!

Lloyd - my rock, my safe place, the amazing man I get to share my life with - he is keeping me sane through all of this. 

So in 3 weeks we will be living in a beautiful cape cod style house on 16 acres of beautiful Alberta rolling hills.  We will even have a horse.  Deer running through our garden, miles from city life.  and NO NEIGHBOURS!!!!  I will finally feel able to breathe!

And best of all our lovely porch where Lloyd and I can sit on our porch swing and watch the stars above.