This week my Word of the Week is: Progress!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

What a week! It seems to have flown over but at the same time dragged on. One minute it was Sunday morning and I was thinking about everything I needed to get done and now here we are at the weekend and I am wondering where the week went! I am very glad that it's the weekend. I think I need a bit of a breather after this week because it feels like there has been something going on every single day!

The big news from this week is that Ellie has bagged herself a job! At the moment, it is only a temporary one with four weeks of work but there is a possibility that it could lead to a temporary position afterwards. So, of course, we are keeping everything crossed and hoping that it works out for her. It is a start and after all the applications, waiting, interviews and stress we're very happy! Hopefully, this job will give her some experience and confidence too. If nothing more comes of it, she has at least 4 weeks worth of wages, something else to put on her CV and another reference. As well as getting everything sorted for her new job, Ellie is doing an English course to get the equivalent of the GCSE that she didn't pass. She has also had appointments almost every day this week, been sorting out all the paperwork and other things she needed for work and somehow still managed to find time to see her friends. I don't know where she gets the energy from. She did make me chuckle this week when she was filling out some forms. She hadn't written very much by hand since she was in college and she was sat there struggling. Not because she didn't know what to write but because her hand was aching! She did have quite a lot to write though. It sure did make me realise how much we have all got used to typing everything. I can't remember the last time I sat down and wrote more than a shopping list.

Monday was busy for me too. I was helping my dad and brother out with some admin stuff for their business. They don't usually have that much admin to do but the powers that be have brought in some new policies and there have been a lot of hoops to jump through and forms to fill in over the last month or so. It's not hard work but it is annoying. Over the last couple of weeks, the powers that be have been sending letters out which are fine but the emails are stupid! They are automated with reference numbers on them but no actual details about what part of the business the reference numbers refer to, which is not helpful! My dad rang them and managed to speak to an actual person but the person he spoke to was just as clueless and said to ignore the emails and hope that letters are sent with more details. That doesn't seem very professional to me. If you are sending people emails about something important and giving them reference numbers, surely the email should actually tell them what the reference number is for. It has made everything more difficult than it needs to be. I was back at my dad's yesterday and there was more admin to do. We seem to be making progress with it though. I know paperwork is just part of running a business but it's like this paperwork has been created just to make life more difficult than it needs to be.

I had planned to go shopping on Tuesday with the girls but by Tuesday it felt like I'd had a week of it already after spending most of Sunday cooking the roast dinner and being at my dad's on Monday. lol I just wanted a day to myself to catch up on things. I did miss out on a trip to TK Maxx and M&S which I am a little sad about, so I am going to have to drag Stu out sometime. I will need him to carry the bags. hehehe.

Looking back progress sums up my week. Ellie has got herself a job for now, started her English course and is getting into a new routine which feels like a big step forward for her. I've also made progress with my dad and brother, getting through the thick of all that admin even if there is still more to do!

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Merriment! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

Over the past couple of months I have had a few things going on in real life that has caused me some stress. Nothing massive and not one big thing, lots of little things which haven't seemed worth writing about. You know when there are loads of small things niggling away at you and you can't really put your finger on one particular thing? That has been me lately but over the last week or so things seemed to have settled and worked themselves out. This is the first week in a few months that I have felt truly happy and relaxed and this week has been full of laughter, celebrations, good times and plenty of things to smile about.

I think Merriment is a good Word of the Week for me this week. Merriment basically means laughter, happiness and having fun and I think that sums up my week quite well. After having a few things on my mind lately, it has been really nice to have a week when I haven’t been worrying about every little thing and have just been able to enjoy myself a bit more. Sometimes you don’t realise how much you need a week like this until you actually have one. I’ve laughed more, enjoyed myself more and just felt like things are starting to settle down a bit.

Becky spent some time in the kitchen earlier in the week and she did make me laugh. She felt like she had been slaving away all afternoon making a lasagne from scratch and a sponge cake. I said that is the story of my life, cooking meals from scratch most days. lol She cooks one meal and thinks she deserves a medal. Although next week and for the next few weeks at least, I will be getting Gousto boxes again. I was sent an email with 40% off for the next two boxes and then 20% off for a few more. I have already picked the meals for next week which I am very excited about.

I have had a busy week of pottering around the house, having a tidy up in the garden, doing some life admin and of course, wrapping birthday presents. It was Becky's birthday on Thursday and she had a great day despite spending most of it in bed after having a night out on Wednesday evening. There were cheap drinks and late-opening bars in town, so she made the most of it. I think she was glad of a quiet family meal on her actual birthday. There is nothing wrong with having a big night out followed by a very lazy birthday day in bed. Sometimes that is exactly what you need. 

I have been on writing this blog post for over an hour as I keep getting distracted by the TV. As I type this I am watching Friday Night Dinner, a British sitcom about a family who have dinner together every Friday night. The two grown up sons constantly wind each other up and play silly pranks. Their parents, Jackie and Martin are pretty strange themselves, while their neighbour Jim keeps turning up uninvited. I haven't watched it since it was on TV years ago and I really did forget how funny it was. I haven't stopped chuckling to myself and sometimes laughing out loud. I was also trying to paint my nails at the time and did a very bad job with all the laughing and then laughing at myself getting the nail polish everywhere. Oops.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Autumnal!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

September has arrived and it is definitely starting to feel a little autumnal around here with the cooler weather which I am quite enjoying. I do love summer and always feel a little sad when it starts to get darker earlier and the sun is shining less but I am also excited for Autumn. The kids have all gone back to school and college around here. I was in town the day the college went back and it was so cute hearing all the new starters chatting about their timetables and how different it is from school. Bless them!

Ellie had her birthday last weekend, which I wrote about in my Friday Favourites post and during the week we went out shopping to pick a few extra things up for Becky. She wanted all the sensible things like socks, some jeans and new slippers. It's all practical things that she would have bought herself but now I've saved her the money. Birthdays definitely change as the kids get older. When they were little, there was always so much excitement, presents, birthday cake and all the things that go with them. Now it's more about spending time together, getting them things they actually want and making sure they have a nice day!

Stu went back to work after his week off and he said the week has really dragged on. He did not want to get up when his alarm went off and hit snooze a couple of times, which was very annoying for me, who didn't have to be up that early. Becky, on the other hand, has been loving life and has this and most of the next week off for her birthday. She went for a trip to the beach. It wasn't the warmest of days and everything seemed to have shut for the season, another sign that summer is almost over but she still had fun and brought me some candy floss back. hehehe

I had my first pumpkin spice drink of the year from Starbucks this week and it was perfect! I did think about getting one from Greggs but wanted my first one of the season to be done properly, so Starbucks it was. I chose a pumpkin spice Frappuccino instead of a hot drink as it was still quite warm outside. Give it a few weeks when it has got colder and I will move on to the pumpkin spice lattes. hehehe Some people think pumpkin spice season starts far too early but I don't care. If it's on the menu, I'm having one! I also got one of the Greggs Bonfire Toffee Muffin! It is a toffee flavoured muffin with toffee pieces and a burnt toffee-flavoured filling, topped with a chocolate and salted caramel flavoured icing and toffee butter crunch. It was very sweet but very nice!

In other news, I did something this week that I've been meaning to do for a long while. I applied for my provisional driving licence. Before anybody thinks this means I'm about to start learning to drive, it doesn't. I'm not saying I am booking lessons now but it is something I am thinking about. Getting my provisional licence is the first step in the right direction, it's a baby step and if nothing else, at least I will have some proper photo ID.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Holidays!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

Happy Saturday and I hope you have all had a good week. I have had a great one with lots of family time. We had an early birthday celebration for Stu on Saturday and I have a blog post all about it next week as we saw and did lots of out of the ordinary things. He had a great birthday and this week also saw more rain this week than we've had in months. I'm not complaining, it's a good thing!

Holidays have definitely been a big theme in our house this week. Becky took two days holiday from work and ended up having a whole week off. It was just the way her shifts worked, and it means she is onto her third weekend on the trot off too. Not bad at all! She has been back to work this week and then I think she has about three shifts in before having another two weeks off for more annual leave. She always takes a chunk of time off around Ellie's and her birthday. Stu also took last Friday off and ended up with a four-day weekend. He has all of next week off too, which was originally the time he had planned to decorate the bathroom but he started and finished earlier than he planned. It wasn't the big job he thought it was going to be and everything going to plan helped. He did have to go into town on Monday to get some more filler but he ended up finishing it off that afternoon. So now he has a week off with no bathroom to decorate. I am sure he will find something to do and if he doesn't, I will. hehehe

Thursday was GCSE results day and despite Ellie leaving school a few years ago, she was still waiting for her English result. Unfortunately, she still didn't get the grade 4, which is the standard pass or what would have been an old C. I am not trying to make excuses for her because she needs the qualification and she knows that too but I do feel that she didn't always get the support she needed with English lessons at college. I made my thoughts known several times, including one rather awkward phone conversation with a member of the wellbeing staff. I didn't realise the English teacher was actually standing next to her when I was talking about the English lessons. He had no comeback. Ellie isn't letting the result get her down. She has already signed herself up for an English course and should have an English qualification, equivalent to the GCSE by the end of the year.

When the girls were little, the summer holidays were a huge thing. Six weeks felt like forever and there were days out, fun activities and trying to keep them busy on rainy days. Now they are living their own lives as adults and the summer holidays mean nothing now, since Ellie has left college. In past years by now, I was usually stressing about getting everything sorted, like uniforms, bus passes, new shoes and everything like that. Now there's nothing and after almost 20 years of following the school holidays it feels strange. The good thing that has come from it is the extra money in my bank account. This would have been the week I would pay for the college bus pass. lol

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Questions!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

Happy Saturday and I hope you have all had a good week. This week seems to have flown over as we have had a lot going on, all good things, so there is nothing to complain about. Apart from the heat. I am definitely going to complain about the heat!

It has been another very warm week and I am starting to wonder if we're supposed to call this another heatwave or if we're just accepting that hot, hot weather is the new normal. I don't mind a bit of sunshine, but I'm at the point now where I would happily swap it for a few days of rain. I want the sort that lasts for a few hours and soaks everything. I can't remember the last time we had any decent rain. Surely it has to rain soon?

Interview questions have been a big part of our week. Becky's partner is applying for a promotion and Becky and I were helping by coming up with questions and answers that may be asked at the interview. AI was very helpful and gave us lots of ideas that we wouldn't have thought of. Then our attention turned to Ellie. She has two interviews coming up for two very different jobs, so there were more questions and answers to come up with. It was actually quite fun sitting there trying to think like an interviewer. What would they ask? What examples would they want? What would be a good answer? What questions could catch them off guard? Hopefully, all the practice will help and they'll go into all the interviews feeling confident.

Another big part of my week has been catching up with the Lindsay Clancy trial. I've been following the coverage and thinking about it a lot. It's such a sad and difficult case and there are so many things about it that leave me with questions. Lindsay is accused of killing her three children before seriously injuring herself. The trial has focused heavily on her mental health, with the defence arguing that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and other mental health problems and wasn't responsible for her actions. The prosecution says that she knew what she was doing and should be held responsible. I've been watching the coverage of the court case and hearing about her mental health struggles, the medication she had been taking and her husband's account of what happened that day. Some of the evidence has been really hard to hear, especially the details surrounding the children’s deaths, which I thought was not needed as there is no argument about how they died. The trial is still ongoing. There are still plenty of questions that haven't been answered but three children have died in the most tragic circumstances imaginable and there is a woman who appears to have been experiencing a very serious mental health crisis beforehand. Whatever happens at the end of the trial, there isn't going to be a happy ending.

For the last few weeks, the girls and I have been asking Stu what he wants for his birthday and he has been the same as the girls, answering with I don't know. Why don't they know what they want for their birthday? I always had a list. lol He said he just wanted a family meal out but the girls have bought him a couple of presents and of course a Toblerone, his favourite chocolate! I haven't got him any presents as he said he would rather save the money and we could put it towards something for the house. I don't know what yet but next time he asks for something, I must remember he has a free pass.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Slow!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

We have had a slow week, mostly because Stu was just getting over a cold and then Becky and I caught it. Ugh! Ellie has been really lucky and hasn't had as much as a sniffle and she thinks it's brilliant. Oh, to be young again! I have been feeling very sorry for myself over the past week as I have not been sleeping properly and when I don't get enough sleep I turn into such a grump. Early in the week, Stu and I were waking each other up coughing and each spent a night on the sofa just to give the other one some peace. I only realised after that I could have slept in Becky's bed because she was on a night shift. Thankfully, we are all feeling much better now and are over the worst! I had forgotten just how miserable a summer cold can be. Everyone talks about coughs and sniffles in the winter but having one when its warm outside feels so unfair! Ugh!

The week started with lots of wrestling to watch, which gave me a good excuse to just sit in front of the TV. Over 4 days we had about 10 hours to watch and all the shows were fantastic. A guy returned after 17 months off and neck surgery and did not take things slow, 5 minutes into the match, he was flying over the ropes onto people on the floor outside. Championships changed hands, there were more returning superstars and lots of drama.

I have done the bare minimum around the house and even though I felt a little guilty at some points throughout the week, I knew it was for the best. Stu has been a great help and Ellie too. The floor could do with hoovering and everywhere needs a dust and I might get around to it today but if not, it's not the end of the world. I need to keep reminding myself that the jobs will still be there tomorrow and nobody should be judging me because I've been unwell.

I wrote this yesterday after being out to see my dad. It's the first time I've been out of the house all week apart from being in the garden. It has been nice to sit out there and get a little air and it really helped at times to feel less stuffy. I had a slow walk to my dad's and got a lift home. It really tired me out. I guess I am not fully over this cold yet but it was nice to have a change of scenery and get some proper fresh air. It was good to have a catch-up with him too as I didn't see him last week as I was waiting for the people to unblock the drains again. It's an ongoing problem. There are cracks and damage to the sewer pipes and it makes everything drain slowly and every 6 months or so it just gets too much and blockages happen. It's on the water companies to fix list but until then we just wait.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Applying!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is: 

How weird is this? Exactly a year ago my Word of the Week was applying, just like this week. Last year it was all about Stu applying for jobs but this year it is all about Ellie applying for them and Becky applying for houses.

It's crazy to think this time last year Stu wanted to quit his job because he hated it but what a difference a year makes. There were unrealistic targets, people were walking out, he didn't like anyone he worked with and the bonuses and targets weren't achievable. Last year, Stu had a lot of tellings off because he wasn't pushing products enough. There was one call which really stuck with him. A woman rang to change her contract because she was fleeing domestic violence and his manager said Stu wasn't doing his job properly because he didn't try and sell her a new phone! Can you believe that? There is a time and a place to try and sell someone something and that wasn't it. Some things matter far more than sales targets. He had firm words with his managers and they listened and since then, things have been amazing! If there is something he doesn't feel comfortable with, he just says no and no one argues! He gets to pick his hours. As long as he does 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, they don't care when he starts, finishes or what day he goes in. He has a good group of people that he is friends with and apart from the freezing because of the air conditioning, he's happy at work. He's been told the only reason he hasn't been promoted to manager is because he can't do late shifts, Sundays and Bank Holidays. He said he wouldn't want to be a manager anyway, there's too much stress.

Ellie has been great at applying for jobs since she left college and I couldn't be any prouder. I thought I would have to nag her more but I'll be looking through job websites and ask if she's applied for a certain job and nine times out of ten she already has. She's so organised about it too. She has around four different versions of her CV depending on the type of job she's applying for. I didn't even think about doing that when I was younger. This week she had another job interview but sadly didn't get it. She's not devastated and it has actually given her more motivation. Every interview seems to give her more confidence and helps her understand what employers are looking for. She's becoming more comfortable talking to new people, travelling to different places and stepping well outside of her comfort zone.

Becky has been applying for more houses. Her and her partner had thought about buying but have decided that renting is the better option for now. They are still waiting to hear back from the one they viewed last week but the letting agent said there were a few applicants and the owner of the house is taking their time considering everyone. They are not fussy and have been applying for different houses which have come up locally. Rent prices are strange though. I've seen 3 bedroom houses for £600 a month, a 2 bedroom for £650 and a 1 bedroom place is £700 all within a 5 minute walk of each other. Make it make sense. lol You'd think the bigger house would automatically be the most expensive but it all seems a bit random sometimes. Becky isn't asking for much, at least one bedroom, close to work and with a decent landlord. Every house they apply for comes with another mountain of paperwork. There are forms to fill in, documents to scan, references to provide and then everything has to be emailed back. They seem to be getting quite good at it now though.

Hopefully, all this applying will pay off soon. Ellie will get a job and Becky will get the keys to her own place and can start making it feel like home!

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Outside!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

I hope you have all had a great week. Mine has been fantastic with a good mix of being busy, staying on top of things at home and of course, some downtime. We've had some lovely weather here this week. The temperature has been just right for me! It has been great to open the back door and have a bit of a breeze coming through the house, even if the flies did come in. Hmmf.

I've spent quite a bit of time in the garden this week. I had an afternoon out there pulling weeds, trimming things back and giving everywhere a bit of a tidy up. There's still of course lots to do but by the time I'd finished, it looked lovely and I felt very pleased with myself. Of course, now there are already more weeds appearing. Ugh. It really is a never-ending job!

The biggest excitement has been my tomato plants. I have around ten of them and they're all doing really well, although they all seem to be growing at different speeds. Some are full of green tomatoes while others are only just catching up. Every morning I go and check on them and see how they are doing. I was convinced one of the plants would already have ripe tomatoes on by now but what I thought were going to be little cherry tomatoes are actually much bigger and they still seem to be growing. I hope it won't be long until I can pick some. I have lots of plans for tomatoes this year!

The school summer holidays officially started this week where I live. It still feels a little strange, even though Ellie has now finished college. For the last 20 years, our lives seemed to revolve around school holidays and now they don't but I can't help thinking that we should be making plans, having adventures and enjoying the extra free time. Things are different now but Ellie and I still decided to have a little adventure together. We headed into town to take part in the We're Going on a Bear Hunt sculpture trail. Since I read about it online I have been dying to go hunting for the bears. I don't think either of us realised quite how much walking we'd end up doing. By the end of the day we had walked miles. One of the best things about our little adventures was that we explored parts of our little town we had never been to before, walked down streets we don't usually use and noticed little things we'd never noticed before.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Quiet!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

I hope you have all had a great week. I've had a good one but I feel like I don't have much to write about as not much has been happening here but I am sure once I start writing a post will come together.

The biggest news from this week is that England are out of the World Cup. Hmmf. I am gutted that they lost against Argentina. It seemed as soon as they went a goal up they panicked and played too defensively. Instead of continuing to play and making Argentina worry about them, England started focusing more and more on stopping Argentina scoring, which did not work. Oh well, we have one more match today against France to see who comes in 3rd place, which seems like the most pointless match ever. I'll still watch it though because it's football and I can't help myself.

This week we found out that Ellie could have another year at college if she wanted. She gets another year funded because she doesn't turn 19 until the end of August and the cut-off date is the 31st. It was quite a surprise because we'd just assumed that it was done with. She would love to do another year because lots of her friends will still be at college but that's the only reason. She's now reached the point where she feels like she's closed that chapter of her life and is ready to move on to whatever comes next. She has an interview next week for a little something, so we're keeping everything crossed that it goes well.

On Monday we went into town for a little mooch around the shops. We didn't really need anything so there was a lot of window shopping. We ended up stopping for lunch at the all-you-can-eat place because it's only £9 something at lunchtime on a Monday, which is such a bargain. I didn't eat another proper meal all day and just had a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits later in the evening. I definitely got my money's worth.

I've just started watching Elle on Prime. It's a prequel to Legally Blonde and I'm really enjoying it so far. Now that the football has finished, I can get back to my watch list and I have so much on it since I haven't watched anything apart from football for the last month. I want to watch Little House on the Prairie, I Will Find You, The Five Star Weekend, Ride or Die, Off Campus and Dutton Ranch. I don't know when I'll fit them all in.

A hosepipe ban came in at the start of the week and watering the garden has become a bit of a chore. Filling watering cans over and over again isn't nearly as easy as standing there with the hose. The plants are definitely worth the effort though. I remember at the start of the year when it seemed to rain every single day for weeks. I complained constantly about it. Well, I take it all back now. A little bit of rain would actually be quite welcome.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Unexpected!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

This week has had a lot of the unexpected and has been full of little surprises. From the weather changing, to football results, to Ellie making plans for the future and to random flying visitors in the bedroom.

The week started with us going to an agricultural show and it was a fantastic day out (I have a post coming about it). The weather was perfect, although not quite in the way I expected! Throughout the day it was sunny and bright for 10 minutes, then the clouds came in and we had a chance to cool down. When we left the house, it was grey and overcast and I thought it was going to stay like that, so stupidly didn't bother with sun cream. By the time we got home, my shoulders and back were starting to sting a little. I slathered myself in after sun lotion and thankfully, it helped. I peeled a little mid-week but it could have been worse and at least I have a nice tan to show for it, even if it wasn't gained in the most sensible of ways! It's a reminder that you can never fully trust a cloudy day.

Did anyone stay up and watch the England match on Sunday night? I didn't but did catch up the next morning. Everything seemed stacked against England, with Mexico not losing many matches, not losing at their stadium and our boys playing at altitude but they did great and we got the win! We had a day without football on Wednesday and it felt strange after having so many matches over the past three weeks or so. I didn't realise how much I had got used to having a match to look forward to. It became part of my evening routine. Tonight it's the England match and I am part excited and part nervous! All I've seen on my TikTok over the last couple of weeks is Erling Haaland. He is quite the character and it's quite scary how fast he can run! I know a little about football and my thought is Dan Burn needs to start the match to deal with him. I've seen them play against each other in the past and if anyone can stop Norway scoring, it's Big Dan Burn! Football is full of unexpected moments, which is probably why we all love watching it.

At the end of last week, I felt like there was no routine to my life. I like routine. I used to have Tuesdays and Wednesdays by myself when Ellie was at college but now she is home more and I was starting to feel I had no time to do my own thing. I don't think it helped that Stu had a couple of days off work and Becky had the whole week off so everything felt strange. This week was just what I needed. Becky and Stu were back at work and Ellie has been here, there and everywhere this week doing her own thing. She met up with friends, had a visit to college to sort some paperwork out that she should have done before she left college and went shopping for something to wear to a job interview. She hasn't got an interview yet but she wants to be prepared as she has been applying for a lot of full-time jobs. She applied for a dream job during the week: it's local, dealing with one of her favourite things and something sort of to do with engineering but not the typical engineering job. I don't want to say too much yet but it has made me smile how she is following her dreams in a round about way.

I can't have a Word of the Week post without talking about the weather. It has been another warm one. I am sitting here at half past 10 on an evening and it's still 21C (69F). It's going to be fun trying to sleep tonight. Last night I was lying in bed and heard what I thought was rain. I thought surely not, so I got up to look and it wasn't raining. I turned my head back to the bed and could still hear the noise and figured out it was coming from a plastic bag. I was brave, picked the bag up and looked inside and it was a fly which must have crawled in and couldn't find its way out. Somehow, I managed to keep it in there, tied the bag up and threw it downstairs. I swear the bugs are terrorising me! Just the other week I wrote in my Friday Favourites post how a bug had found its way into my laptop and was crawling around behind the screen. It's still there but hasn't moved and I don't notice it any more! Phew!

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Well!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

I always think I like to be busy but when I have a busy week I want a quiet life again. lol This past week has been a busy one. Last Saturday seems such a long time ago and it feels like we have been non-stop with life things, trips out and all the normal stuff! I can't complain though, because everything has gone really well, which is why I chose Well as my Word of the Week.

The week started with Ellie filling in a load of forms. It turns out that leaving college and being a fully-fledged adult means there is admin to do and she wasn't impressed. Thankfully, all the forms were all online, which made things easier but some were not easy to fill in. I helped her out a little. We would have been lost without Google explaining some of the questions to us. That's all done and it's another thing ticked off her to-do list. She had an appointment yesterday for the forms and it went well too.

My garden is doing really well considering last week was so hot. I kept on top of the watering and everything has survived. Phew! There were a couple of evenings where I was out there watering everything thinking I couldn't really be bothered but I'm glad I made the effort because it has paid off. My sweetcorn is doing especially well. I've tried growing it for the past few years and this is the best it has ever done. It's taller than it's ever been and looks so healthy. Every year something has gone wrong. Either the bugs have got to it, the weather hasn't been just right for it or I haven't watered it enough. Fingers crossed this is finally the year that I get to enjoy some homegrown corn on the cob!

On Wednesday evening we had a fun time. We went to a pub to watch the England match, which was rather stressful but we got the win and then went to the bike night. It is a big meeting where people turn up on their motorbikes, show them off, there are displays, food stalls and lots of fun things going on. I was so happy smelling all the petrol, it's one of my favourite smells.

This week has felt strange. Ellie is home more now that she has finished college. Becky took a couple of days off work at the start of the week, meaning she has been off work the whole week and Stu had yesterday and today off work. I feel all out of sorts with them home. I'm not used to it but I am not complaining. I have enjoyed all the family time we have had. We're all together over the weekend too and have some fun things planned which I will write about at a later date.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Strange!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

This week has been a brilliant but strange week! Everything has felt like it's off kilter. We've had days and nights out, big life things happening and lots of little things which are different from our normal.

Ellie left college on Wednesday. Officially, it's her last day today but she didn't have to go in for the rest of the week. There were tears from her and her friend when they realised they would never be in college again together. They'll still of course see each other and already have made plans. It's just the end of college and not their friendship. Everything felt a bit off on Wednesday, it's the end of an era. I have gone for 20 years with kids in education and now it is no more. I'm proud my girls have done so well but now I feel like a bit of a spare part. I thought I'd feel relief or maybe excitement for Ellie's next chapter but instead, I just feel strange. It's hard to explain. For so many years, my life has revolved around school and even when they got older, there was always something. Now suddenly there isn't. I know this is exactly what every parent works towards, raising independent young adults who go off and do their own thing but nobody really talks about how odd it feels when you actually get there.

We went to see the newest Toy Story movie early on in the week and it was fantastic. It was strange walking into the cinema with my girls who weren't even born when the first two movies were released and now they're adults. It was also nice because they had air conditioning in the cinema and it was such a relief from being outside! We got the bus into town and had to go to a different stop because workers were painting new lines in front of our bus stop and then there seemed to be roadworks around every corner which made the journey take twice as long, it felt like torture being on the hot bus.

Records have been broken again here in the UK when it comes to the weather. We've had the hottest day ever recorded in June and it's just getting silly now as I am sure we had the hottest day in May too! Schools have been closed, people have been told not to travel, roads are melting and I am trying to enjoy it because I know it is not going to last. We went to my dad's on Thursday and his place was roasting even with fans going. He'd been out all morning and with the door shut it felt like an oven, it was actually cooler outside in the shade. lol We went into the shed where one of his vintage cars is and because of the plastic roof, it felt like a greenhouse! How he works there I don't know! My dad is a strange one, the heat doesn't bother him at all, although my brother and I do have to keep reminding him to drink plenty.

Tuesday is usually the day when I watch Monday night's episode of the wresting and this week I haven't got around to it yet! It made me laugh a bit because if you’d told me a month ago I’d miss wrestling because I was too busy with life I would have rolled my eyes. I am blaming all the football I have been watching. I need to catch up today with Monday's episode of wrestling and last nights episode as there is a live event tonight. That is how this week has been, it has been all over the place. We went out on Tuesday night to watch the England match and I have said never again. They can be playing on top form but if we go out somewhere to watch them, they never seem to win. I know it's just a coincidence but it is a strange one. We went to my dad's a day early because Ellie was out with friends last night celebrating the end of college and even getting the food shopping delivered yesterday felt strange as that is usually a Thursday job.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Father!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

I could easily have used the word football again as I have watched a lot over the past week and have been planning my evenings around the matches. Of course, I was celebrating England's win! 4 - 2 against Croatia. It sounds like a convincing win but watching it was stressful, especially with the penalty having to be retaken. I had never seen that before. One of the things I have really enjoyed is seeing some of the so called smaller teams giving the big teams a run for their money. It was great to see Portugal, Brazil and Spain only manage draws against teams that many people wouldn't have expected them to struggle against. It just goes to show that anything can happen in football. 

On Sunday we went out for a family lunch, an early one for Father's Day as Becky is at work tomorrow. It turned into a full day event. We had a lovely lunch out, went to another pub to watch the Grand Prix and then another pub closer to home just because we wanted to stay out and we ended up playing pool, watching football and singing along to lots of Queen songs. Those are my favourite family days, the ones that aren't planned!

I've had a really quiet week, I've not been up to anything exciting at all. I've stayed home and mostly just pottered around. It has been nice. It feels a bit like the calm before the excitement starts. Life is quiet now but we have lots of things happening over the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Stu has had a good week at work. Better than good actually. He was given a £200 bonus as he was the best in his team and what makes it even better is that it's a voucher so he won't be taxed on it. Also, a year or so ago, Stu was told that he could finish work at half past four instead of 5pm if he only had a half-hour lunch break but at the time it was pointless as the bus came at 4:45pm and it was a good 14 minute walk to the bus stop so he never made it in time and then had to wait until half five for his usual bus anyway. Early this week it came up in conversation and Stu realised the bus timetable had changed and now there's a bus at 5pm which he has been getting. Him getting home half an hour earlier has made such a difference to our evenings and the first evening it happened it surprised the girls so much. Becky thought she had slept in for her night shift as she is usually on her way out of the door when Stu is coming in and Ellie was just confused. I knew he was getting in early, they didn't! hehehe

I took my dad his Father's Day gift yesterday and I was told off. Stop wasting your money, he said to me and then got excited because I had bought all of his favourite treats. He does make me laugh. He is so hard to buy for, so I always buy him a foodie gift for special occasions, as he says he's at the age now where he has everything he needs or wants and if he doesn't, he just goes out and buys it. I think the only thing he could possibly want at the moment is for someone to come and do the paint work on one of his vintage cars. It's a long process and he has been on with it for around 2 weeks but I do think he's enjoying it.

Happy Father's Day for tomorrow to all the amazing dads, stepdads, grandads, father figures and those who take on that special role and sending extra love and hugs to anyone whose dad is no longer here, those spending today missing them, remembering them and wishing they could have just one more Father's Day together. Thinking of you all!

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Football!! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

If you know me at all, this week's word was always going to be football! The World Cup is finally here and I am loving it already. For the next few weeks, you will be able to find me sat in front of the TV watching match after match. I don't even care what teams are playing. I'll happily sit and watch football from morning until night when the World Cup is on. I am even planning on recording some of the matches that are being shown during the middle of the night and hopefully avoiding seeing the scores beforehand.

I have been watching football all week, with the friendly warm up matches been shown. On Wednesday, I was ready for England's match expecting kick-off at 9pm only for them to postpone it because of a storm. It was chucking it down at one point and the pitch looked more like a swimming pool than a football pitch. By around 10pm it was clear. I don't know what sort of magic they worked but it was impressive!

Of course, I'll be cheering England on. Supporting England is part of the fun, we always seem to do so well until we don't. It is a rollercoaster of emotions being an England fan. I always find myself rooting for the underdog teams too. I love seeing countries make history. Cape Verde are one of the teams I'll be keeping an eye on because this is their first ever World Cup. Just qualifying is a massive thing. Curaçao is the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup and has less people in it than the nearest big city to us. Then there are teams like Haiti and the Ivory Coast where their fans have been unable to travel into the US after their visas were denied. It feels unfair that so many fans won't be able to experience the tournament in person. I also have a reason to support the Netherlands. Stu drew them in a sweepstake at work and if they manage to win the tournament, or even finish second, there is money to be won.

One of my favourite things so far hasn't even been the football itself. It's been seeing everything happening around the tournament on social media. I have spent far too much time watching videos of teams arriving, fans celebrating and countries sending their players off in style.

Brazil's plane set off with their plane being baptised, Turkey had what seemed like the longest convoy escorting their team, Norway's players dressed as Vikings for photographs and managed to look intimidating and hilarious at the same time and Senegal had a special dinner with their country's leader before leaving. I love it all! It shows just how much the World Cup means to people.

The American advice videos on TikTok have also been making me laugh. There seem to be hundreds of videos aimed at England supporters warning them not to walk to the MetLife Stadium as it's illegal and dangerous but I understand why fans want to. From what I have read, the train ticket prices before the World Cup cost around $12.90, which is roughly £9.50 but since the tournament arrived, some prices have jumped to around $100, which is about £75. Football fans already spend enough money on tickets without those sneaky price rises.

Another thing I've been wondering about is how everyone is coping with the heat. The players are fit but even they look like they're struggling at times. I've seen clips of players pouring water over themselves and wearing cooling scarves packed with ice and then we have the water break half way through each half. The fans must be finding it hard too, as some of the stadiums are not exactly shaded.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!

This week my Word of the Week is: Changes #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

It feels like last week’s Word of the Week post was ages ago. This week has felt completely different in every way. It’s like everything is shifting at once, even though nothing massive has actually happened. It’s lots of little changes stacking up. Weather, routines, people, plans, everything feels like it’s moving in slightly different directions.

The biggest change this week has been the weather. Last week was around 30C. This week has been hanging around 18/20C. It's not been freezing or anything but definitely not the hot weather we had. It’s gone into that in-between stage where you’re not sure if you need a hoodie, a blanket or both. I think it has rained every day this week too but I don’t mind it at the moment. The garden definitely needed it, everything was starting to look a bit dry after the heat. It has also meant I’ve slowed down a bit without feeling guilty about it. When it’s sunny I feel like I should be outside doing something all the time but with this weather, I’ve been indoors more, just pottering and it’s felt quite nice.

On Saturday, I felt so lucky that I could have a little lie in while Stu went to work after our night out. We didn't get home that late but it was still a few hours after Stu would normally go to bed on a work night. The tiredness didn't bother him at all while he was at work. In fact he had a brilliant day, smashing all of his targets, then some. It was only when he ate his tea and sat down in front of the TV that the tiredness hit him.

We were all at home on Sunday and it seems like a long time since that happened. We didn't do anything special but it was lovely. I made sure I made the most of it and got everyone to help out with the housework. lol I am sure the girls would deny it but we all had fun and they finally got all their clutter from around the house put away properly.

Ellie went back to college this week for her last term there and she is so close to the end of her education. Yesterday I wrote about how Ellie has fewer lessons with the college year wrapping up and it is such a big change for her to have all the free time. She has been using that time wisely and has been busying herself applying for jobs, tweaking her CV, speaking to the careers people at college and going on a couple of shopping trips. To be honest, I thought I would have to do more to help her find a full-time job but at the moment she is doing all that she can without me having to step in and nag. It's exciting, scary and very emotional that my baby is growing up!

My main excitement came on Tuesday when I went to view a house with Becky and her partner. It was all very exciting for them. I was trying not to put them off but to tell them about the realities of having their own place! Light grey and almost white carpets look great but I would worry about staining them in a rented property. Lots of grass in the garden is great but that means buying a lawnmower and if the cooker breaks there is no just going out and buying a new one as it was built in. At the moment, they are still in the applying and viewing places stage, so it might not be anytime soon but now I have got my head around my girl moving out I am quite excited for it and she is too.

Yesterday it was just me and Becky going to my dad's as Ellie had her 2nd English GCSE exam to do. It was a real treat for Becky and my dad, as usually Ellie is there, so they got some quality time together. It was a nice change for us all. My dad had a bit of Grandad guilt as he always gives us lunch and it always seems to be the weeks that Becky isn't there he gives us something good and sometimes dessert too. Yesterday it was bacon and black pudding sandwiches with an ice cream to follow. 

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one! I am of course linking up with Anne who blogs at Raisie Bay to join in with her Word of the Week linky!