Following on from Debs Witchy Woman’s blog about pet peeves, I felt inclined to write one of my own rather than filling up her message box!

The things that bug me usually tend towards parenting choices. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m perfect or always right. But there are just some things that seem wrong or unnecessary to me. Like bringing your child sweets to school at hometime every day. Hometime from nursery is dinner time, and from the main school is nearly tea time (for my children at least, since bedtime is around 5.30pm). To make matters worse, a vast amount of these parents stand by and allow their children to drop their sweet wrappers on the floor all the way along the path leading out of the school gates. There are several rubbish bins along this path, but apparently it’s easier to just drop litter on the floor.

Another bug bear relating to parents (and I’m going to get jumped all over for this one) is children in pushchairs. Nursery age children, to my mind, no longer require pushchairs. Hannah was out of hers at 14 months, Louis by 18months. Admittedly, Theo still uses his on the school run, simply because over 200 people dashing back and forth while he’s trying to walk would be very intimidating. If we’re out and about I try to make sure we have time to let him walk and he really enjoys it. Of course, an added bonus is that he’s actually tired at bedtime!

The offroad bikers that frequent the bridleways around the valley our horses drive me crazy. Now, I will admit that there are not enough places for those that pursue this sport, and instead of just blocking access the councils should provide areas for them to use. But when I want to enjoy a leisurely ride and my horse freaks out because of some irresponsible offroad rider, it annoys me. There have been horse hops put on the entrances to most of the bridleways but these days the bikes are light enough to just lift over them.

I could keep on with things that bug me, but you’d just get bored reading. So, what gets you wound up? Answers below!

For those few not on Facebook that didn’t already know…

Meet Lil. The picture isn’t very good because Lil wouldn’t stay still but I took that as a good sign.

Lil is due on the 8th May, and no, I don’t know if it is a boy or a girl, and no, I won’t be finding out!

I haven’t posted for a long time (it’s already sounding like a confession!), mainly because I have just been doing the mundane, day to day things…taking the children to school, seeing to the animals, making sure everyone is well and looked after.

But when I look back, I have fitted in quite a few other things too. I usually manage two bike meets a week, where I am regularly plied with coffee and reduced to fits of giggles. I have had some issues with the groups of people I choose to socialise with, it seems that the first group don’t particularly like the second group, but I know where I fit in best and who looks after me. It gets complicated, but the looks I got turning up at a meet of the first group with the second group made me furious, until I realised that I shouldn’t care what they think of me. I make my own choices in life.

Anyway. My tattoo is not yet finished as the second sitting of and hour and forty minutes was much worse than the first two and a half hour sitting. It’s going to take some time, but the outcome will be well worth it.

The animals are all looking wonderful, as we are coming into that magical season of Autumn. It’s the season that I love best; the beautiful colours, that starting of the frosts and the darkening of the evenings. Now if I could only find the battery charger I’d be out with the camera getting new photo’s!

The three ferrets are growing their winter coats as are the ponies. Alfie is gleaming black and Winston’s bright blond mane is beautiful against his chestnut coat. Both are hugely fat and lazy, and absolutely spoilt rotten by several ‘friends’ that use the footpath parallel to their field.

Theo has recently turned one and is a very happy, independent little boy. Louis is desperate to move up to school out of nursery and Hannah is making new friends all the time.

As for the dogs, well, poor Benny doesn’t get a minute while Theo is around, that boy adores him. Ben is the most gentle beast with him though, despite being a great lumbering thing. Taggy and Jasper are as thick as thieves and are always causing trouble together somewhere. At least Jasper doesn’t escape from the garden anymore.

And then there’s Mehitabel. Why do we have cats? She is hardly ever in. When she is in she wants feeding, a quick cuddle and then she’s off again chasing rats. Unless it’s really cold out, then she wants my bed. She is a beautiful animal though, and very cheeky too.

So really, I don’t have a dull life, it’s not really SSDD. I have a wonderful family, friends I thought I could only ever dream of, and I am finding my niche in life.

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Today, I let an 18 year old loose on my body.

Now, there’s more than one person would like to get their hands on my body (!) but this was the guy I wanted.

And just look what he did with me!

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We visited my brother and sister-in-law over the bank holiday. The 200 mile journey took just over 4 hours but the children were happy colouring and sleeping in the car.

Christian had to work on the Saturday but his wonderful wife Nicki had organised a fantastic day at Tilgate Park; a huge area of woodland, parkland and a nature centre.

It was lovely, and Nicki brought a picnic for everyone. The children all wore out themselves (and us!) so it was back to Christian and Nicki’s  in time to meet another guest, also from Sheffield.

Saturday night was spent watching DVD’s and catching up with each other’s news.

Sunday is the day of The Family Barbeque. Poor Nicki spent all day running around organising, cooking cleaning up after people and generally being a more than perfect hostess.

She baked with the children, looked after them, fed them and kept everyone’s drinks flowing. As for my dear brother, he offered to buy her some new shoes when her feet wore out! Tut tut!

I can’t put into words what a great time we had, so this will have to do. And the photo’s of course!

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The kids have been on about going to the seaside with Momma since before the holidays started. Yesterday was the day we managed it.

We decided on Sutton-on-sea because we’ve been there before and it’s a lovely place. Right between Mablethorpe and Skegness; it is not ‘touristy’ at all. There are a couple of cafe’s, a cafe/bar on the sea front, the obligatory gift shop and a wreck on the beach. Unfortunately the wreck has been deemed unsafe and had a lifeguard tent around it, but we know it’s there!

When we arrived at about 10 o’clock, the car park was deserted. We parked and had a cuppa before strolling up to the beach. The beach was also deserted and even later in the day when it was at it’s busiest, there was hardly anyone to be seen. Wonderful.

All the children had a great time digging holes in the sand, burying toes and paddling in the sea. I was very brave, stripped down to my bikini and dived in for a swim. I came up gasping for breath and wondering how I was ever going to make it back to the shore (all of 30 metres away!) and then realised I could still reach the floor…

After warming up for a few minutes I had another leap into the sea and this time it was actually quite nice. I love the way you can just float lazily in the salt water.

There is also a fantastic little play area with a paddling pool that we had to have a play in too. Theo loved it in there as the floor wasn’t shifting under his feet all the time!

Momma wasn’t very well, having caught a sore throat and cough from me and Hannah, but made it through the day.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photo’s as my camera had no batteries in it and Hannah has done something with the SD card. I have no idea where she’s put it!

We all thoroughly enjoyed our day out, went through vast amounts of clothes and nappies and all three children were exhausted last night.

I had been told about Matlock Bath Aquarium, but never been in. Since it's inside it didn't matter what the weather was doing so I stuck the kids in the car and off we went.

Every place has some down sides, so the problems we had were 1) I couldn't take the pushchair upstairs so had to carry Theo and 2) There were no toilets. Fortunately I asked this first so was able to sort it out before we paid to get in!

The children were all enthralled by the fish, HUGE beasties they were! The aquarium is at a Victorian Spa Bath and it is this bath that is filled with koi and other large fish which can be fed.

It was very cheap to get in, just £2.40! There was also a hologram exhibition but again I had some problems here. The pictures were all hung at adult eye level, and to see them properly you need to be right in front of them. This meant putting Theo down, lifting Hannah, catching Theo, lifting Louis and catching Theo again. Not something to be done on my own next time! We did discover that if the kids stood far enough back from the holograms they could see them but there wasn't always enough room to do this.

All in all it was excellent value for money, and the children never get bored of seeing fish swim around. But next time I'll make sure I have help on hand!

We visited Sheffield Botanical Gardens today. It’s one of our favourite places, whether we have ten minutes to spare or a couple of hours.

The children were particularly enchanted today as there was a wedding party celebrating and having photographs taken. Hannah thought the bride looked like a beautiful princess, and of course she did.

Looking around in the Gardens, I wonder why we travel away from Sheffield to see stunning views, when we have them right here on our doorstep. All over Sheffield there are parks, gardens and farms where the children can run and play safely while learning of the joys of the countryside.

I love the Botanical Gardens in every season, the plants and trees are constantly changing throughout the year and even on the coldest day we can wrap up warm and enjoy wandering around.

The children love to see the statue of Pan, the fountain, the ponds and of course, they love to feed the squirrels. The squirrels themselves are so tame they will eat out of your hand, but I can never quite get the camera organised quickly enough!

So, for your viewing pleasure, my album from today. Enjoy.

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Well, it seems like maybe I am missed after all. I can't log onto Windows Live at all without going all around the houses and lately I haven't been that bothered about making the effort.

It seemed like every time I blogged it was to bring bad news or have a moan, and looking back at some of my original blogs, whilst badly written the were short, entertaining and made even me laugh.

So, some good news. The Hubs has a new job, the kids are loving being on holiday (whilst I tear out my hair) and the last remaining baby ferret (not wanting to jinx anything so fingers crossed, touch wood and bring on the black cat) seems well, is growing and regularly tries to have my fingers for breakfast. Only Artemis remains, but I am considering getting her some young friends as her Mummy is too old and grumpy to want to play.

We had a WONDERFUL time camping with our biking friends at the Blackhornet Rally at the start of the Summer holidays, the children had a tent to themselves and bless the darlings, they slept through the DJ, the live band and drunken bikers staggering back to their tents!

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So throughout the next 6 weeks of holidays I hope to bring regular, if short, updates on how much fun we're having!

In the past I have used Arthurian names, musically inspired names, and Egyptian names as well as several other random names in between. I was going to continue the Egyptian theme, but decided instead to go with a Greek

So, welcome…

Morpheus and Khaos; the boys and Artemis, Gaia and Persephone; the girls.

I have lots of photos of them but most show just a tangle of fur and legs. I will try to post some individual pictures now that Istnofret is relaxing more with them.

The babies are starting to open their eyes, and, much to Istnofret’s consternation, regularly wiggle out of their bed to explore the hutch and find tasty morsels to eat.

Rocco, on the other hand, is miserable. He has not been allowed back into the main hutch yet as he is quite an aggressive male, and he is bored on his own. Next week he is going for the snip, which will calm him down and allow me to put him back in with his family.

It’s going to be great to have a large group (or business) of ferrets again, I did fear that I was loosing the chance to continue my breed line and Istnofret and Rocco would become my last two. But these little guys are doing well, their personalities are shining through already and I am looking forward to watching them grow up. Watch this space!