Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

To call it a holiday would be doing all my holidays in the past a disservice. I don’t think we stopped the entire time and Vonnie was going into this with all the present buying etc already behind her so she deserve extra praise for lasting the distance.

To put the last ten-fourteen days into context I can’t actually remember much except for the long nights. I was up until god knows what time on Christmas Eve wrapping presents, baking a cake and making a trifle. Christmas day itself was a complete blur with family visiting and then Boxing Day was similar but for that we went to my parents but after about 8pm I haven’t a clue what went on through sheer exhaustion. The rest of the time just blended into one day with periods of restless sleep and zombie like movement about the house. And to think I managed just 4 beers this entire time. I then spent until 2am on Saturday night stripping the wallpaper in the living room and until after 1am last night painting said living room. Roll on Saturday is all I can say!

I don’t know whats been up with me over this time but somethings stressing me out and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s not the wedding. It’s not work. It’s not the kids and it’s not the house. I really don’t have a clue One minute I’m fine the next I’m not and the main problem I get from stress isn’t anxiety but lack of energy and grumpiness. Never a good combination.

So to sum up apologies to all that have had to deal with me over the last two weeks. Apologies to those I’ve not talked to over the last two weeks as well as if you’ve tried talking to me in person I’ve been spaced out and if you’ve tried to instant message me I’ve been lucky to sit staring at the screen and actually be aware of what I’m doing for maybe 5 minutes during this time. Apologies to the kids for being an a-typical bah humbug type of person this Christmas and apologies to Vonnie for having to put up with my sorry arse.

So work for today…get away from the office asap and get the downstairs tidied up for tonight.

By the way, those that haven’t been invited yet but think you’d be on the list at the door we’re having a soiree tonight to celebrate the bringing in of the new year. Feel free to pop along for a while and say hi.

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Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

Just to start off this isnt a reaction to today or Vonnies LJ post the other day. Don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea from the start.

Have you ever had that feeling of your life just rolling along? It’s the same thing everyday and any small bump in the road gets taken care of. Or you’ve got a huge hill to climb but rather than take the tough direct route to the top you go the route that runs around and around the hill going up gradually meanwhile singing “She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes…”

Thats how I feel. Stuck in a rut effectively without the ability to jump of the trail and go directly from A to B without anything in the middle. Between work taking up most of my day and family taking most of the night it doesn’t leave me with the energy and time needed to step things up and move our family from subsisting in the house to living in our home. The only time I get to really do any work around the house of substance is on a sunday morning when everyone else is at church but even then thats only about 2-3 hours in total if they go somewhere afterwards. I want to get this place sorted but its going to take more than that to do and it’s going to take more energy than I currently have.

Add into all this my migraines have been horrific this last week. Up until the weekend I was dosed up on ibuprofen and cocodamol. Neither of which really took the pain away but it helped a little. The only problem is neither one helps enough on its own and cocodamol knocks me for six. The amount of errors I’ve made at work has been stupidly high because of it and I’m walking about the house like a zombie. The new pills are helping but I’m only allowed 2 per day and they run out after about 5 hours. I’m not even sure if I can use them in conjuction with the normal pills to get me through the rest of the day. Suffice it to say right nowI could forget where I put my keys and be sitting there with them in my hands and not have a clue where they were.

I need need need to fix this.

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Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

To catch up it’s been a busy week. Wednesday seen us take the kids out round the doors for Halloween after a rush to get Findlay’s costume finished and find something for Nairn to wear. Findlay was going as a headless man and we’d spent the best pat of 3 nights making his head but we hadn’t started on the body. I managed to get something made up in time for him to go out but the costume kept slipping and the eye holes were two small so he was having trouble walking everywhere. This would a be a problem on the thursday night as it was a halloween school disco he was going to. Nairn ended up being Bob the Builder for the night and whilst he wasn’t to keep on waling about the streets at night he soon worked out you got free stuff if you chapped at peoples doors so he was off. Might need to make sure he realises that only happens once a year though. Erica was dressed up as a turtle and seemed to completely gloss over the night and was just happy to be cuddled and carried everywhere

Thursday had me trying to figure a way to stop Findlay’s costume from falling off a the disco and I managed to rig something up with a an old rucksack and a coathanger. Seemed to do the trick although he had to take his costume off as it was scaring one of the P1 girls. Yet again he didn’t win best costume despite most folk agreeing he should have. He lost out to a store bought Jack Sparrow.

I can’t actually remember what I did on friday. I’m sure it was probably relaxing knowing how much work I intended on doing over the weekend. I know I installed Football Manager 2008 so that may have something to do with it.

Saturday I lazed about.and did almost nothing. I either had the drive but no energy or energy and no drive. We were supposed to go to a fancy dress party but we bailed on that and ended up having dinner at Kirsty and Mo’s which was nice although I reckon we could have left about 3 hours earlier and I’d still have been knackered. As was we got home just after one and because I was over tired and my neighbours were having a party I remember seeing 3.30am and still being wide awake.

Sunday I cleared the stairs and most of the landing of junk and we went and picked up some units from my parents that a friends of thiers had dropped off. I then spent the best part of the evening lumping them upstairs into our bedroom and rearranging the furniture so that they fitted. We’ve now got enough storage space in our room for everything I think so hopefully that will get our bedroom moving just like the others.

I’m really looking forward to the fireworks tonight. I was worried about the weather but it seemes to be getting brighter and the forecast is for a nice if cold night.

I’ll leave you with a pic of my pumpkins that had carved. I’d struggled to get a decent photo of them and when I went to move them for this photo last night the one of the right was just about to give way as it had went rotten. The only thing holding it together was the skin :S

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Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

*Sermon Starts*

So what do you do to save this planet from ourselves?

Until I moved into my new house I never recycled. If I was lucky the drinks cans at work would be put into the recycling box rather than the bin and the waste paper that did’nt have confidential information on it would be sent off as well for recycling. Once we moved in though we had a whole new blue recycling bin to play about with Thats not what this post is going to be about though.

When you have kids there is so much waste and I don’t just mean the contents of their nappies. Everything from clothes to bath tubs and disposable nappies all have a shelf life when it coms to kids. It’s easy to go through 5-6 disposable nappies a day some times which when you consider how much that actually makes up of your fortnightly rubbish you’ll soon begin to wonder where the hell your going to put the rest of the household rubbish!

How can you go about helping the earth when your filling the dumps with nappies that arent going to decompose in your kids lifetime never mind your own? One of the easiest ways in to go with reusable nappies. Its very possible you wore them yourselves when you were a kid. You’d be surprised just how easy the switch over is and with the advances in design over the years you’ll actually find they fit better and look more like disposables than the terry toweling sheets of yesteryear. In fact if it wasn’t for the fact our eldest was so big and we’re having trouble tracking down cloth nappies and wraps big enough for him you wouldnt ever see a disposable in our house now. Aside from the landfill filling 100+ year decomposition rate the energy used to make them works out at something like twice as much as a cloth nappy would over its lifetime when you take into account construction and washing.

Forgetting nappies though lets move on to the other things you’l encounter. Clothes and equipment. Anyone and everyone will buy clothes for the wee one at some point. In fact you’ll possibly find that they’ll be lucky to wear each outfit once at times so what will you do with them once they’ve worn that dress just the once and have grown out of it? You’ll always know someone thats having a baby and you can guarentee that most parents will be grateful of the offer for extra clothes. Even although they may only ever wear some things once the rate that they go through clean clothes is phenominal!

The other thing that we’ve got into, or rather Vonnie has, is freeshare/cycle. When Nairn was born we had the furniture already from Finn and we had the pram bought for us by my parents but over time we’ve managed to pick up things that are no longer needed by people and that we are crying out for. We got a perfectly useable pram that is actually far better constructed than any of the prams we’ve actually paid hard cash for and the boys bed came from there as well. Reusing things like this not only saves you alot of money but by reusing them your stopping them taking up more space that landfill and making a small bit of difference.

OK ok ok I know this has been a bit of a shite post and most of you if not all won’t actually give a crap about the subject. But when you consider just how much cash we’ve saved never mind the benefits from recycling or being careful with our waste your looking at a tidy sum that can be used elsewhere. In anyones book thats worth it alone let alone the fringe benefits of helping the earth.

*Sermon Over*

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Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

So much to do. So little time.

I’ve spent the last few days recovering from being ill and although theres lots of things I’ve wanted to get done around the house I’ve had neither the energy or the drive. Now I’ve got the drive I’m struggling to find the energy but I will get it.

Plans for today include drying out my tent from last weekend and hopefully not having to deal with any mould. I also intend on getting the kitchen sorted out a bit so that by tomorrow at least I can have the big cupboard shelved and most of the appliances put away and the backdoor cleared (again).

Well the weathers looking not to bad and both the babies have been great this morning once I found out what would keep them happy. Erica’s bouning around in her bouncy door frame bouncer thingie and and Nairn’s watching a bit of TV with a drink before I take him upstairs to play so that I can get stuck in to the kitchen.

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Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

So today was virtually a non-event.

I think I’d managed about 3 hours sleep before Erica woke me up and I think Vonnie got even less. Whilst everyone was at church I managed to get the boys room tidie dup again and find somewhere to hide the toy cars and train track from Nairn. The difference it makes with them not being thrown about the room is amazing!

We were supposed to go to a photo studio yesterday to get some family pics done but with there being no energy in anyone of us we rescheduled that for later in the week. I think it was round about this time my hangover kicked in. I’m not sure if its a a real hangover though. Only had 3-4 beers last night but Vonnies had a dodgy tummy and I’m feeling a bit like that myself. Might be the same thing …

Anyway Vonnies next door at Heathers with Erica and I’ve just managed to get Nairn off to sleep so I think I’ll veg for a bit and maybe talk Vonnie into heading to bed early so we can watch some CSI.

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Right. I’ve decided its time to get the photoblog back on the go. Since Erica was born I’ve had neither the time nor the energy to keep it up but enough is enough.

Two things have got my enthusiasm and energy level back up for this. I’ve got a fortnights holiday starting next week and we’ll at least be spending a few days on the east coast an maybe fit in a trip elsewhere as well. A photography forum I am a member of has also started a mini competition running alongside a main competition. The main one gives me a chance of winning some weird monopod/pouchpod thingie for every post I make and the the mini one gets me put forward for display on the sites front page each week. Basically their assignments are going to slightly more strict for a change. You get two weeks to get a photo taken and uploaded on a specific theme and the best one wins. I doubt I’ll win but its the taking part that counts as they say. Also each photo I post makes my chance of winning the main prize a little better The other reason is that Alt Nation is changing the way its photography forum works and a small camera club seems to be starting with folk from AN running the show.

I feel as though I’ve done nothing today. I took Finn to school and by the time I got lunch out of the way it was time to pick him up form school. Next stop was getting the kids to bed. I just feel that the day has completely passed over me and I don;t have a clue where its went.

REally should be finishing todying the living room and the kitchen just now but I just don’t have the motivation or energy which is a bad thing. If I don’t get it sorted by tomorrow afternoon theres no airsoft for me on the saturday!

So I wanted to talk about something interesting for once rather than boring all you valued readers with my life. And guess what? All the great ideas I had over the weekend but didnt have the energy to write about have flew out the window to be long forgotten so you’ll just have to put up with this instead.

My photoblog idea is coming along but I am really struggling to get a photo from each day. Becuase of my limited time at the moment to do anything but work, cook, clean and sleep fitting in some photography that doesn’t take in one of these subjects is getting increasingly hard. I can’t take photos at work becuase of the nature of my work, cleaning is boring and sleep is … well sleep is when I’m sleeping so if I’m taking photos something is wrong. The ‘excitement’ over the last week has seen a few more opportunities crop up for photos but again being in a hospital room or on a bus only gets you maybe one or two photos that dont start to bore folk

I found something the other night that basically gave 30 challenges to would be photgraphers to fire through so I think I’ll use that for some inspiration over the coming months.

In other news I’ve reviewed another album for Alternative Nation, Loney, Noir by Loney, Dear. He’s playing at The Admiral tonight if anyone fancies it. I was supposed togo and review the gig but even if Vonnie was well I don’t think I’ve got the energy for it. Might be getting a wee interview type thing done with the guy though if I can come up with any decent questions to go with. Hopefully aget a few more of these done over the coming months.

I can’t believe its Sunday night already. I’ve been off work for the last four days and it still feels like I havent been away from the place.

Today I was hoping to go airsofting but thatnks to a communication mixup and someone out enjoying themselves it wasn’t to be. It was a last minute thing though so it would have been lucky if I’d managed to arrange it. Ended up spending today in the house with Vonnie, a few friends and the cats. The kittens are up on thier feet and look like wee cats now. This will be the only time you ever hear me utter these words…they are so cute.

Anyway, managed to get dinner out the way and now I’m sittin in the same crappy mood with no energy to do anything as I have been the last few nights. I really need to kick myself out of this as its doing noone any favours