Not a day goes by that I don’t speak with my Mum. She is the one that when the children make me laugh, or something makes me sad, I phone. She is the most wonderful friend and loving Grandma any daughter could ever ask for.
Mum…
- I love that you are strong and determined and whatever life throws you deal with it positively
- I love the way you see no wrong in your Grandchildren even when they are monkeys
- I love your enthusiasm as we drag you up the side of a mountain in the Lake District
- I love the way you bring our family together
- I love how you cook and bake for us
- I love how I can always depend on you
- I love how you encourage me and always make me feel like I am doing a good job at being a Mum
- I love how you love us all and always make us feel welcome and safe
For all of that and so much more I want to say Thank You!
Helen xxx
Please leave me a comment and share what you love about your Mum.
As I sit here trying to stay calm our evil I mean wonderful twins are seriously playing me up.
Nothing unusual just the same as most nights, when I put them to bed they decide they are hungry, not tired, have tummy ache, and really anything else which pops into their head.
I feel myself start to panic at the thought of them falling asleep in class or contracting various illnesses due to lack of sleep. This is never the case as they wake up before me bright and breezy full of new ways to tie me knots whilst plotting their next move. I feel I should add at this point it is only 8pm, but it feels so much later.
Well I am hoping this will get easier when they get their own rooms. We are in the middle of having two new bedrooms built. They have never slept in separate rooms since the day they were born and it does seem a little sad.
In my experience twins do have that special bond, this doesn’t mean they don’t fight like any other siblings, but they are also fiercely protective of each other, and as they were learning to speak one always knew what the other said which was always handy and saved me from a few frustrated tantrums.
From the outset the crying was double although always in turns, I always felt this was to prolong the agony, an elaborate plan they conjured up whilst lying side by side in the same cot.
They play a game where Poppy is the princess and Tom is her dog, she walks around with him on a lead he is very submissive while she acts like a dominatrix slightly disturbing although very innocent, and fantastic role play just as long as this doesn’t go on much past the age of five.
The other day they both appeared dressed as princess’s fully clad in pink satin dresses, tiara’s and high heals sporting the latest coral lipstick they found in my make up bag, Poppy looked pretty whilst Tom wouldn’t have looked out of place as Widow Twanky in in the local panto.
School has also been a challenge, they are in the same class which is great until recently when they were ill, at different times! Even the mere mention of the absent twin resulted in floods of tears and a minor melt down.
Tom is the organised tidy one he folds his clothes, packs away toys and has the best personal hygiene of a four year old I have ever known. I feel very honoured to have a boy like this as his older brother floats around in what we call Jack land leaving a trail of destruction with a unique odour I can only compare to a Labrador.
Poppy can best be described as Quirky, it’s a word which has described her perfectly since the day she was born. She speaks her mind and can be brutally honest, sometimes too much so but alway’s in good faith. Just last week she had one of these moments as a lady came out of a shop in Grassington, Poppy asked in her usual stage whisper if the lady really should be eating the ice cream she was holding as she had a very big bottom. I fear that ice cream may have been dropped in the nearest bin!
Without a doubt having twins is so much fun and can only enrich your life more than you can ever imagine, oh and I am only joking when I refer to them as evil twins, they missed the 06/06 /06 date by only a few hours other wise I really would be scared !
It’s exactly a week ago now since my very best friend, Donna and I sat sweating it out in the “heat experience” at the Titanic Spa in Huddersfield, a very thoughtful Birthday present from her and one that we shall both remember for more than one reason.
The evening was planned and I was to pick up Donna at five fifteen in order to allow plenty of time for our arrival at the spa at six. Now I admittedly have zero sense of direction so my very concerned husband printed us a route planner and gave strict instructions on leaving the map reading to Donna.
This is where it all went drastically wrong because although my very lovely and seemingly competent friend looks like she could navigate her way through France, it appears that she has more similarities to me than just our looks. I can now honestly say she is the worst map reader I have ever come across except myself!
After numerous trips around Huddersfields rather undesirable suburbs and a genuine fear of being car jacked due her politely asking a pair of drunks for the directions to the “Titanic Spa” (as it was obviously somewhere they visited regularly) we arrived at almost seven having never felt as much in need of some relaxation in all our lives.
It was a huge old mill and on entering there were robe clad ladies and the odd man floating around looking serene and refreshed. We checked in and were given our robes and slippers and then shown where our canapés and champagne would be served to start our evening.
We had a wonderful evening and well and truly put the world to rights, and after having discussed men, children, life and hair removal our night was complete.
As we emerged from the doors we looked fresher, younger (ahem), scrubbed and ready to face our week ahead with all it has to throw at us.
But first the big question was “How the bloody hell do we get home” and trust me it took a while after going in the wrong direction but we made it.
The week that followed was not good. I flitted between an emotional wreck due to poorly children and generally feeling sorry for myself, and a crazed Stepford wife thrusting porridge and home made cakes down the kids necks in hope this would make me feel back in control of my chaotic house which at one point looked like we had been burgled, and pale sickly looking children.
Luckily things are getting back to normal now the kids are on the mend and my mental state has slightly improved after a really good dose of retail therapy on Friday and some long over due antibiotics for Tom.
So this Sunday evening there’s no champagne and gossip, just a cup of tea and Dancing on ice, oh and maybe a Kit Kat!
Just a quick one as this is still making me giggle and it was almost two weeks ago now. In fact I actually thought about it in the middle of last night and laughed out loud. Andrew asked me what I was laughing at and I pretended I was coughing!
So here goes. Andrew and I went into a very empty Fat Face shop in Ilkley. Within minutes Andrew had armfuls of jumpers and shirts. I told him he was getting a bit old for hoodies and he was not impressed. He went off to the changing rooms while I had a look around. I followed on having found nothing I liked (although I am obviously not too old for hoodies).
The changing rooms were like corrugated surf shacks. I tapped on the door, he did not answer (maybe sulking?) so I gently, although repetitively kicked the door whilst chanting let me in, let me in, LET ME IN.
Me: I know your in there,
Andrew: no answer
Me: I bet you are too old to wear Fat Face jumpers
Andrew: shuffling around
Me: Let me in or i’ll break in !
Andrew: still sulking, no answer
Me: Do ya look sexy in there?
Andrew: Still no answer
So I decided to pick the lock whilst giggling childishly, although i’m not as good a lock picker as I thought even with the nail file out of my bag. So I decided to poke my head under the door. So i’m on the floor head under the door when… Oh crap, Andrew appeared from a changing room further down the shop.
I joined him at the check out and tried to look innocent. A gentle looking lady in her mid-fifties scuttled out of the offending changing room and made a run for the door.
I just smiled at the girl behind the till and shrugged my shoulders, well come on how was I to know.
Every now and again I get a sinking feeling that life as it is right now will end and never be quite the same again. Now I know that this sounds incredibly pessimistic but let me explain.
When the twins were born life suddenly became a whole lot harder, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have had it any other way (well possibly the addition of a cleaner or a nanny). There were some very fraught times, weekends were chaos and school holidays seemed very long.
We were constantly reassuring ourselves that life would get easier, and sometimes it was really tough in fact at one stage I was convinced I had narcolepsy as I would fall asleep in public places or in the middle of a conversation. Although this only makes me appreciate how much easier life is now and how I would stop the clock if I could.
I worry that our eleven year old daughter Rosie, who still wants to be with us and has no desire to go anywhere by herself, will suddenly become excruciatingly embarrassed to be seen out with us, and would rather chop off a leg than spend a Saturday evening in our company. Or that our nine year old Jack, won’t want to hold my hand on the way from school anymore and have his most favourite time just spending the day at home building Lego in his pyjamas. Then there are our twins, still innocent and vulnerable wanting kissses on the lips in front of all their friends and still feeling like they can leave house dressed as a Power Ranger or a Princess.
I know that I have mentioned before how I feel the need to be in control so how will I go on with teenagers, not knowing every move and exact location. I really wonder if microchips are out of the question and I don’t mean the sort in a cardboard box, oh and the odd urine sample would be good. OK, maybe a bit extreme but come on it’s scary.
My point is I know time moves on and things change, but sometimes we need to take stock of the here and now. Some of our most special memories are those doing simple things. We take a holiday every year to Northumberland and stay in a cottage on the beach. Our days are spent by the sea, flying kites and last year surfing the sand dunes. I wonder how much longer we will get away with such simplicity, and a week eating fish and chips, ice cream and fishing off the harbour wall.
So I decided, not to get so caught up in whats next to just be happy and thankful our children are still wanting to be around us having fun and embracing life.
“Now and then its good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy .” Guillaume Apollinaire
Here are some photos of some of our great times.
Please share some of your quality times or just moments that make you smile, and leave me a comment i’d love to hear from you.
Helen x
OK, so I decided this could be a good week for some good honest confessions.
This has come about after something that I have already admitted to this week. I happened to mention to our twins teacher that they wouldn’t go to bed on a night even after the usual bed time ritual of stories (numerous), tuck in with kisses (on the lips has to be or it doesn’t count?) and hugs, including every teddy and doll in the room, tuck in tight, and then they get up for another wee… you get the picture.
Anyway, I decided to try a few of my own tactics and told them they either went to sleep or a police man was coming! Yep, usual me, no holding back. This seemed to work until a few nights later a community policeman knocked on the door and almost gave them both a seizure! So that one back fired and now I have two children with an extreme phobia of the police and no they still won’t go to bed.
So here goes and this could go two ways. You could think thank goodness someone is more of a lunatic than me, or phone the social services! You see these are the things you wouldn’t normally admit to:
- I continually yell at the kids to “STOP SHOUTING“
- I dropped Jack out of his car seat at the baby clinic. I suppose I was in the right place or may be not?
- I padded out the baby walkers with cushions due to them not yet having head control
- I buy night time cough medicine aged eight and above and give it to the twins who are four
- I tell them it’s fine to eat sweets they have dropped on the floor (it’s good for their immune system)
- I sit them on the naughty step then forget they are there
- I fed our old dog large amounts of Green and Blacks dark chocolate thinking it would be a humane way for her to go (it never worked thank god, although it cost a fortune)
- I put the clocks forward to get them to bed early (only works on the youngest and on digital clocks)
- I left the brake off the double pushchair and went to paddle in a lake with the other two children, and when I turned around a strong gust of wing had turned it upside down (whoops rather nasty and a trip to A&E)
- I blamed the kids singing Monkeys on a Bed to me on not hearing the reversing sensors and hitting the car behind me
- I left the dog tied up out side nursery and came home without her (accidentally of course)
- I threw a childs shoe last week and it hit one one of kids immediately turning their finger black (I thought I had broken their finger, but it turned out to be shoe polish)
But I think one of the worst things I have ever done is gone to deal with my very sicky baby in her cot whilst I was pregnant and in turn thrown up all over her due to a weak constitution and the over bearing smell.
Luckily Andrew is far more sensible than me and restores the balance, and the risk of too many serious injuries.
They say to confess is to cleanse the soul and I have to say I feel thoroughly cleansed, So come on I want to hear what you’ve done it can’t only be me!
Happy New Year every one!
Well, once again this year my resolutions are the same as always; to be more organised, to stay calm (when I feel like steam is about to come out of ears), to keep fit and to keep all the family happy and healthy, we will see how it goes.
I actually felt quite sad taking down the Christmas decorations and tree this year which is normally done with gusto along with a manic clean of house, children and dog ready for the New Year. All of which only last a day but it makes me feel back on top of everything, although Rosie and Jack are way too big for that now I hover with the nail clippers and a wild look in my eyes.
This Christmas Eve was just as always, a mince pie, glass of sherry and carrot for the Reindeer were left in the hall, only Tom insisted on a full bag of carrots so no reindeer was left out. It was truly magical seeing Poppy and Tom at such a innocent stage in their life and the older two were amazing with them, I felt very proud of them.
Although there were a few changes, all the children have a stocking which has always been hung on the end of their beds only last year this was a complete nightmare. By 0200, and numerous attempts at filling them I tripped entering Rosie’s room and dropped the entire contents on the floor. She woke up and raised an eye brow and shook her head, thank goodness it was her and not the other three!
So this year due to an E-mail we received just before Christmas about health and safety and Santa not being allowed to go into their rooms any more 
the stockings were hung on their bedroom doors on the outside. So at Eleven o clock me and Andrew were like skilled ninjas traversing across the landing or so I thought until Rosie sat up and said “could you two be any noisier?” it was obviosly the sherry!
Christmas is always at ours and this year was lovely. We have my Mum, Dad, Sister and her two children and all the kids play. I prepared nearly all the food on Christmas Eve and it made everything seem really easy. Having your mum on hand is a godsend, and she brings the majority of the dinner already prepared with her.
We always make ridiculous amounts of food although there is a reason as it is tradition for us all to congregate at Mum and Dads on Boxing day for cold Turkey and Gammon with all the left overs made into bubble and squeak followed by my Mother in laws trifle.
So on to New Year and back to those resolutions, well the organised bit is going well, starting with a mega clean up in the storage/full of crap room under our house. This took place on Sunday, much to Andrew’s disgust. Whilst he was at football with Jack I emptied the entire contents of the room onto the patio! He returned to me and the twins who were dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, buried under around two skips full of junk(what a great game). We’ve had to borrow a van for next weekend just to get rid of it! I feel truly cleansed though and that’s a massive tick of THE LIST it’s been on there three years.
The next one to stay calm.. mmm, well what can I say some weeks more than others. This weeks not started well when I got a parking ticket outside the vets. This will just add to the already massive bill for our not very well guinea pig, Nutmeg. I then locked my keys in the boot of my car right before the kids needed picking up from school.
The keeping fit part should be easy as I have no excuse now the twins are at school although i’m sure I will think of something. I have been running for quite a few years now on and off, although I slightly over did it last year and all my toenails fell off, horrible I know, but the’ve all grown back perfectly fine.
Keeping every one healthy and happy? Well I’ll try my best when you live in a house like ours you can only smile!
How was your Christmas and New Years? I would love to hear what you all got up to and if you have set any New Years resolutions so please leave me a comment below..
I absolutely love Christmas.
The very best thing is spending time with my family and friends. This year has been great. Our tree went up with no stress or tears which in previous years has not always been the case. A few years ago it was so stressful with baby twins and a seven and five year old, I completely lost the plot and kicked a fully decorated tree up in the air!
So whats been going on in the Mason house in the lead up to christmas this year? Well it was a good start with me offering to be the elf at our annual Christmas fayre at school. Poppy and Tom thought this was fab although it was definitely Rosie’s worst nightmare, but it was great to see all the children’s faces, really magical and I feel very honoured to have spent the afternoon with Santa!
This year I have made a Christmas cake and some Christmas chutney with my Mum, that I have to say was lovely and has already gone, I’ll let you know the recipe. Rosie is very crafty and having watched Kirsty Allsop’s home made home we decided to make some Christmas decorations, we felt very proud of ourselves.
The twins were on stage at our local church in their school nativity. They did really well although it didn’t seem like two minutes since we were the ones struggling with crying babies while watching the older two on stage. This year was very peaceful and we didn’t come out sweating with sweets stuck in our hair.
When I was told the twins were Kings I won’t lie I had been hoping for an angel. Is it just me or do we all hope for our girls to be Angels?, all angelic with a tinsel halo. I even wondered if any one would notice a discreet pair of wings on a kings back, but as it happened it worked out really well as my niece is in the same class and they are all very close. They made three very cute Kings and it was a very strategic move to keep them all together and prevent any tears.
I shall never forget when Jack did his first nativity and I got the letter it read “Dear Mrs Mason this year your son is an Ass” I swear this could not be more fitting as he is our Jack Ass.
After my initial panic all the shopping got done early. Every year I panic and think this year won’t be as good as the last, but once you start to look there is so much out there it just takes a bit of imagination and for the first time in eleven years all four kids were at school. The joys of shopping alone, although I do miss the pushchair for bags and the odd sit down, but the pros definitely out weigh the cons!
The kids decided they would dress Maisie our dog up as Santa Paws in an old Santa suit (not the special dog ones). It involved a lot of wrapping round and knots to get it to stay in place, very sweet until they forgot, got bored and let her out in the garden only for her to reappear with a very wet under carriage and some go faster mud stripes.
Well here we are on Christmas Eve, Andrew has finished work and we are all together, the Snowman is on the TV this afternoon and I never get bored of it. So we will be eating copious amounts of chocolate and getting ready for the arrival of Santa.
I hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful and very Merry Christmas and a happy healthy New Year.
Helen xx
Please don’t tell everyone but just recently I have been ever so slightly disorganised. I have enjoyed updating my blog so much otherwise important things have been neglected.
Don’t get me wrong this is nothing any normal person would pick up on, but like I have mentioned before I do like to be in control of well everything.
I honestly thought when the twins were born this would improve, due to the fact I had four children, and things would just have to give a little, this obviously did not happen because if you are that sort of person there is no getting away from it. I have recurring dreams that I am drowning or that my feet are stuck in concrete and I’m trying to run, now thats got to speak for it’s self very deep I know and i’m sure there’s medication for it.
So my never ending, ever growing to do list goes on and has the most ridiculous things on it which I could probably take straight off. Does sorting out my neighbours garden over my fence count as one of my jobs? probably not but you get the idea.
Well, Christmas is just three weeks away now and as much as I try really hard I know I am getting ever so slightly twitchy, well thats’s what I will call it anyway although i’m sure Andrew would call it some thing much stronger. I can’t help it four children is alot of presents, and with massive preconceptions my kids love the way things have always been done.
I love traditions and the fact they think their Christmas’s are always so perfect is great, but on the other hand the pressure is on. Rosie is now eleven and so hard to buy anything for yet still I don’t want her to seem to have any less than the other three.
The twins should be easy at only four but because we saved so much from Rosie and Jack this is also proving quite difficult. Luckily Jack is my saviour as it really won’t matter what he gets he will love it and play with it, he is definitely our easy child and god we deserve at least one!
Well my list of things to do is off the richter scale and my stereo typical smiley mum is hanging on by the skin of it’s teeth. So I have to sort this out and do some serious shopping.
My wonderful very organised friend didn’t help when at the end of November no less handed me a very beautifully wrapped bag of presents for all our family complete with card!
So off I go next week to hit the shops and hopefully for once be grateful our bank account has taken a hammering, because this will be guilt free shopping and all in a good cause, making my children’s christmas as special as ever.
Let me know how all your christmas shopping is going and how your all holding up.
Well, what a wonderful long weekend away me and my husband Andrew have just had, two nights with no children. We feel very refreshed, although I’m not so sure Grandma and Grandad feel the same having spent two nights looking after all four of our kids.
We spent the first night at the City Inn in Leeds because we had a night out with some friends in Leeds. We went for a meal at Brown’s which turned out to be one of the worst meals we have ever had. The table was booked for eight and we eventually sat down at nearly nine only to have a full tray of drinks thrown at us.
I have to say I can forgive this as I am one of the clumsiest people ever, but the food was dreadful, cold and one of our friends meal just never arrived. She ordered fish and was only told after we had all nearly finished our main course that the fish had run out at two o’clock that afternoon! It was one of those awful situations were your food arrives and you politely sit not wanting to start until everybody has got their meal but you just start picking at your chips and before you know it your whole plate of food has gone!(whoops)
She eventually was offered “a bit of Salmon” they had found. Salmon obviously doesn’t count as fish and to be honest didn’t really resemble it. It was inedible I dread to think where they found it. After lots of complaints they offered us free desserts or cocktails and fifty percent off our bill. None of this spoilt our night though as the company was great and that is what really counts.
So off we went back to the City Inn where we found as we booked in we had been upgraded to a suite. We have stayed in the City Inn before and it’s really contemporary and fresh and does a lovely breakfast. Andrew always orders smoked haddock and poached eggs which he said was really good, although the smell makes my stomach flip. I ordered a full English with the best black pudding, which I love and makes Andrew feel sick. We both loved the croissants and pastries and came out feeling like we didn’t need to eat for the rest of the week!
The next stop was Swinton Park near Ripon. We had never been before and had heard some really good reports about it. We couldn’t check in until three o’clock so we headed for Leyburn just a few miles away and had a walk although it was rainy and cold we got wrapped up and braced it.
The not eating for a week didn’t last long and we went for Sunday lunch at the White Bear in near by Masham, it’s so cosy with log fires and Theakstons ale. We sat in there a couple of hours, some thing which is normally impossible when the kids are with us.
We were booked into the Turret Suite at Swinton Park which is on three floors. It has a first floor sitting room, second floor bedroom and the biggest bathroom you have ever seen on the third floor full of Molton Brown toiletries. It was all very grand and oldie worldly and Andrew spotted free Whisky and gin in decanters which made his day. He doesn’t normally drink whisky but he had a few just to be polite.
There was a small spa which you had to book. You got a key and had exclusive use of which was lucky as Andrew had packed my bikini and when I put it on he had packed the top and a pair of my knickers by accident, admittedly they were black but they were a thong not a pretty sight as I came down the steps backwards into the hot tub! I really wonder if this was a deliberate move or a genuine mistake.
The best bit about the whole weekend was the relax when we got back to the room. The plan was to have something to eat in the bar that evening although this never happened as we ordered room service and completely crashed out for the rest of the evening. There’s something very decadent about been sat in bed eating club sandwiches and chunky chips whilst washing it all down with a pint of Guinness (sorry did I just spoil the illusion).
Again, breakfast was really nice but the rain was pouring down so we decided to have a day Christmas shopping in Harrogate. I had forgotten how nice Harrogate is and has so many of my favourite shops. One shop which I love is called James Brindley it sells the most beautiful things for your home and the one in Harrogate is on four levels. I would have my house just like that shop if I could all sparkly and unbelievably fabulous
We also had a quick look in Molton Brown after loving the products in the hotel only this was cut short after I leant over a candle to smell it and set my hair on fire! I was lucky I didn’t get blasted with a foam fire extinguisher.
So armed with lots of bags (not that much Christmas shopping I have to say) but a lovely Joules coat for me, we set off back home to pick up all the kids from school.
We had missed them all so much and couldn’t wait to give them all really big hug, I don’t have to be away long and it makes me appreciate everything at home in a whole new light. They were all pleased to see us too, although the first thing they asked was “did you bring us anything?” I wonder does a few nice shampoos and some herbal tea count which I borrowed from the hotel ?
