When I'm cleaning windows

I was going to write this post about something else entirely, but then I walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water. The sun was shining directly onto the windows and door and I realised just how much they need to be cleaned. Maybe that's why people do their cleaning in the sping - it's when the sun starts to come out again for long enough for people to realise just how much things need cleaning. Throughout the winter the sun wasn't around long enough to notice properly. But I disgress... (although I'm not sure if I do it with one s or two).

Anyway, I looked in the cupborad under the sink to see what we had, and sure enough I came up with some window and mirror cleaner. I was slightly put off by the fact that the spray trigger appeared to be absent, but only for a few minutes. I read the instruction and decided I could just apply it withn one cloth and then wipe it off with another. However, the problem with cleaning windows, as I discovered, is if you clean one side it just makes you realise how much the other side needs cleaning too. I hadn't had this problem with the bathroom mirror upstairs, and that had turned out looking ok, but lets just say although bits of the windows in the kitchen look better, some bits seem to look worse. I decided to call it a day as I was really quite thirsty. Thus recalled to my original quest I got my glass of water and retreated to the front room to write a blog post. Which is how I ended up writing this post, and why I'm now going to ask if anyone has any failsafe, or at least useable methods for cleaning windows. Because I think cleaning windows is just going to have to go on my list of things to do this holiday. Along with a million other things. Just as well I've got two weeks!

Promise of posts to come

Oh my dear faithful reader(s?), I have left you all alone with nothing to read for too long now. I cannot promise that this post will fulfill your reading desires, however it is a promise of posts to come. As of tomorrow at 2.30pm the school I work in breaks up for two weeks for the Easter holidays. By no means does this mean I'm having two weeks off (because I'll be looking after little people Tuesday through to Thursday both weeks) however, it does offer some potential opportunities for me to come up with something intellegent to say to you (all?).

I also have some great photos that I want to share with you. Well, more amusing rather than great - my camera decided it doesn't want to charge so I've had to take pictures with my phone camera, so the pictures may look a little grainy, but still it's the though that counts (possibly).

Anyway, I'd better stop talking before I scare you all away forever. Can you tell just how tired I am?

Kinda appropriate don't you think?

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

I found this on Rachel's blog. Sorry for the lack of content lately, life's just been toooooo busy.

My Mother, the washing up queen

My Mummy is the sort of washer-upper who if noone comes along to dry up for her, she just carries on anyway. This is just a post to wish her a very Happy Mother's Day and tell her that we love her :-)

Hasn't he grown?

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. Life has been very busy, and I've been getting these nasty migraines - I had one on Saturday and ended up not getting to see HP in her show, and I had another one today and had to come home from work.

We're off to see the HP, the wonderful HP of Ex(eter)

Ok, so we're off tomorrow, and those words didn't exactly fit right, but I made an effort! And we'll get to see her and most of her housemates perform in Princess Ida. I'm really excited. Especially since Bekki will be there for the weekend too, and my Grandparents and Uncle (featured in this previous post, among others!) are coming to the performance. And HP's boyfriend Steve is going to come too (so he has someone to sit with!)

(In case it wasn't totally clear, the title of this post was to be sung to the tune of 'We're off to see the wizard' from the Wizard of Oz.)

Slippers

Today I had a moment when I felt like a really bad child minder. The little one and I were heading out for a walk in the beautiful sunshine, and he lives in a first floor flat so there are lots of steps to go down. We were doing fine on the first set of steps which are inside the flat, but about halfway down on the second set he suddenly slipped and there was no way I was able to grab him. He sort of rolled down the last few steps and landed at the bottom crying. It was like it happened it slow motion. I jumped down and picked him up and took him inside.

He was really upset, and so was I. It didn't make me cry, but I half thought it might. I think my the calm rational side of my brain took over. I got his coat shoes and muddy trousers off (he landed in a wet patch at the bottom) and then found the first aid kit. He was very brave about it all, despite having grazes on one side of his face and on his hand. I calmed him (and me) down and we went to look at a book for a while. I got damp towel and held it on his face and forehead because there were bumps coming up, but the problem with a 20 month old is that they really don't want to stay still for too long. He would stay with me for a long as a verse of 'twinkle twinkle little star', and then he'd be off again (the singing seemed to calm him down and stop him wriggling, and it was the first song that came to mind!)

A little while later we did go out again, and this time I made sure I was right in front of him and there was no way he was going to slip. By the time his parents got home he was acting just as usual, and only had the lovely bump and grazes to show for it. They were really lovely about it all, and told me not to worry about it. That made me feel a lot better :-)
I came home around 3pm and I'm going back this evening to look after the little one so that his parents can go out to their church small group.

This afternoon I've been tidying up my room and finally found my slipper which seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet. It had somehow got under the end of my bed, which is a place that wouldn't really have seemed possible for it to get to, only I'd checked all the logical places and still not found it! The title of this post refers to finding my slipper, but I've just realised it could just as well refer to the little one slipping down the steps.

Monday Monday, except it's not, oh actually it is

Hmmm, yes, the post title gives you a small insight into my befuddled brain.

We (my church) had a joint service with two other local churches and ran a huge sunday school for all the children aged from 4-11. I was one of the people up front leading it. For anyone that doesn't already know, our church meets in a cinema, so we have sunday school is various different screens week by week (or, if it's like the week before, sometimes different screens throughout the morning!) We usually have around 20 children in the 4-7 age group, and use the space at the front of the screen. In fact, it's quite easy to forget that you're actually in a cinema, and if when you do go to the cinema to see a film it's a bit of a novelty (at least it is for me, because I've only been once in the last as long as I can remember little while, if that makes sense!).

Anyway, it's usually us (3 leaders), the kids, some chairs, juice & cups and maybe a CD player or flip chart or something. But this week we had more like 80 children (the wider age range, and the extra children from the other churches), a lot more adults, and lots of scary technology. We had a microphone, we were meant to have two, but one of them wouldn't work, we had a laptop and projecter for the words of the songs, and we had a keyboard for the worship time. We also had the sound desk to go with the mike, the keyboard and the computer. And I, for some bizare reason got chosen to be in charge of the sound desk and computer. I was the one responsible for scrolling through the words of the songs, keeping an eye on the sound levels, and changing from the songs to a clip from a DVD. And it all went ok, until almost at the end of the last song when the computer decided to 'hibernate' and there was no way it was going to let me turn it back on. But it was ok, because most people already knew or had got the hang of the words by that point, and it was the (planned to be!) last song. So I didn't panic too much!

We had a fantastic time, and I even managed the bit where I had to stand up and talk into the microphone to everybody for about 5 minutes (and I couldn't find my copy of the notes I was trying to speak on, and had to borrow someone else's at the last minute!)

And yes, now we come to the whole point of the story - it went really well, but left me really shattered. I didn't do much yesterday afternoon and managed to make it through today, but now (slightly later than I'd planned due to the long length of this post) I am off to bed. And hopefully I will feel more awake tomorrow for looking after the little one.
Goodnight all :-)

ps This was just another classic Little One moment captured for posterity.

P A R T Y

I love those parties when you don't have to stand on ceremony, but are just friends getting together to have fun. If this is your first time here I'm not trying to suggest I don't want you here, what I'm trying to say, although it's not really coming across right, is that I'd love us to be friends and have fun. So stick around, join me for some silly games and fun, and leave me a comment to tell me what you like a party to be like, and I'll see what we can do.

In all the party fever I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Debs, I'm 24 and I live in London, UK. I've been blogging for about a year and a half now, and love reading other people's blogs too (so if you leave me a comment I'll definitely be popping over to say over the next week or two!) I also blog over at One Weigh or Another, so if you want to know more about my and other lovely ladies current weight loss journey you can find us over there.

I work in a primary school as a special needs assistant giving one-to-one support, childmind two days a week, and also do some home tutoring, which all in all means I work with eight different children over the course of a week. That's not including being one the 4-7s children's workers at my church, and all the other babysitting I do. At the moment I'm single and so don't have any children of my own, but love 'borrowing' other people's, and they seem to enjoy it too, which is good! Recently I've been reading more and more blogs written by home schoolers, and I reckon if one day I do have my own children I'll have a hard decision (made with my husband, of course!) whether to send my kids to school or home educate them. However, a few other details need to fall into place before I have to make that decision!

Hmmm, I seem to have turned into one of those people who you get stuck listening to while they rabbit on for ages. I do apologise, I wanted this party to be fun. One thing that can be amusing is when someone has some sort of party trick, at least it can be a good conversation starter. So, what's your party trick?
If you don't have a party trick, what's the best or worst party you've ever been to, and why?