Friday's Fave Five - 27/8/21

Friday already?  Time to look back on the week and find the favourite things and then share over at Susanne's site: Living to Tell the Story.

1)  My bowel screening test came back clear.  It was a routine test so I wasn't expecting any surprises but still good to get that confirmed.

2)  My new Fitbit arrived and I'm getting used to it.  It has more features than my last one which I'm gradually getting to grips with.

3)  We had these little guys here this week:

Miles seems fully recovered from his bout of Covid and Noah enjoyed an adventure with his Daddy while he was here.  He took him on the cable car across the Thames or as Noah put it the "flying car".

4)  My son, DIL and Rory and Vinny arrived back safely from the US.  It was lovely catching up with them again this week too.  We even managed a picnic lunch in the garden.

5)  We survived the sleepover with Nathan last Friday.  He did wake up around 3am and I had to snuggle in with him but he was fine in the morning so we're definitely putting it down as a success!

Definitely a family focussed week, my favourite way to spend time.

Have a good weekend.

Friday's Fave Five - 20/8/21

Susanne usually hosts this on Fridays but she's taking a break this week as she has family visiting.  The idea is to look back on the week and write about 5 things that we are grateful for.  Even on uneventful weeks (which lots of mine have been during this pandemic!) there are always things to be found and it's a good habit.

So although there's no link up this week I'm still listing my faves which are:

1)  Got some tests out of the way this week.  Hopefully results will be back soon.  I'm not particularly worried about them and I wrote more about them here.

2)  I lost my Fitbit this week, not something I'm grateful for, but I am grateful that I was able to order a replacement and it's currently on its way.  Should arrive by Monday or Tuesday.

3)  A neighbour who likes to share.  The neighbour to our left has a bigger garden than ours and the bottom section is used for growing fruits and vegetables.  There are only the two of them (although they do have family close by) and we have already benefitted from some broccoli and runner beans.  I now have some cooking apples which I shall turn into a crumble over the weekend.

4)  DIL Amy seems to be much better after her bout of Covid and she was able to complete her first day back at work today after her maternity leave for Miles. 

5)  Grandson Nathan is asleep!  He's having his first sleepover here at Nanny & Grandpa's.  We've looked after him overnight before (when Ella was born) but at his house, never here.  He was a bit of pickle when it came to going to bed but I did eventually get him settled and asleep.  He rarely sleeps right through the night though so the test will be when he wakes as that's when he'll probably want Mummy Becca.  We shall see.  Wish me luck!  His Mummies are coming over in the morning to collect him then I think we'll need a rest. 

Enjoy the weekend!

A Testing Day

It's been one of those days.

Started off with having to do one of these:

 

Once you reach 60 in the UK they routinely screen for bowel issues every two years so it was time for my second round of screening.  Done in the comfort of your own bathroom and just posted back.  Hopefully I'll get a clear result in a week or so.

Next I did one of these:

I used one of the new tests we got recently which only use a nasal swab.  So much easier than swabbing the back of your throat.

Then I took myself to the hospital for the mammogram they ordered after the abscess problem I had.  This had been delayed due to us having to self isolate recently.

Getting to the hospital was a challenge for me as it was a new journey by public transport.  This always causes me some anxiety but things went smoothly and coming home is always easier.  

I also did quite a bit of walking today but very annoyingly I lost my Fitbit somewhere along the way.  I think I probably lost it at the hospital when I removed my jacket but despite retracing my steps and revisiting the clinic I couldn't find it.  I will ring the clinic in the morning in case the cleaners found it but otherwise I shall be ordering a new one.  Thankfully my phone recorded me walking over 12000 steps today.  Some of the walking was with hubby - he's leading a local walk on Thursday and wanted to make sure of the route.   As you can imagine I'm tired now and off to bed!

Friday's Fave Five - 13/8/21

Well it's Friday again so time to look back on the week and list five blessings from the week and then share them over at Susanne's blog: Living to Tell the Story.

It's been a quiet week here due to most of it being spent in isolation but I can still list 5 blessings:

1)  Firstly thanks for all the kind messages left on last week's FFF.  It has been a difficult couple of weeks but I'm happy to report Grandson Miles is much better after his bout of Covid and although his Mummy Amy is still feeling under the weather she is much better than she was this time last week.

2)  The rest of the family, including hubby and me, have all remained Covid free and are now out of isolation.

3)  New glasses.  I picked them up today.

Now I just need to sort out a haircut! (And take better selfies!)

4)  New library books.  I did a lot of reading this past week and although I still have a couple of library books to read I passed the library on the way to the optician so I took back those I'd read and got some new ones.  

5)  Better weather.  We have had so much rain this last week but today stayed dry and was warm but not unbearable hot.

Plus Grandsons Rory and Vinny seem to be having a great time on their holiday, Matt & Amy celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary today 

and hopefully tomorrow we'll see Nathan and Ella and their Mummies.  On Sunday there is a local jumble trail to explore.

Have a good weekend all. 

Friday's Fave Five & other things! 6/8/21

Lots of catching up to do here.

Firstly I missed posting my photo of the week last week which would have been this one:

Not a great photo but it has 4 of the 6 grandchildren in it and their parents, plus hubby in the background.  I took loads but it's nigh on impossible to get four little ones all looking the right way, let alone smiling.  This was probably the best of a bad lot.  

Matt and Amy had arrived late on the Tuesday (27th) and this was taken on the Wednesday.  They stayed until last Sunday (1st) and we managed to get all the grandkids together briefly on the Saturday but I didn't even attempt to get a group photo.

The main reason they were down at this time was to attend a wedding on the Thursday (29th).  On that day Nick and I had all of the little ones in this photo during the day, except Rory who was at nursery.  We then collected Rory from nursery and after feeding them we handed Rory and Vinny over to two of our lovely nieces to put to bed while we brought Noah and Miles back here to do the same.

Noah is very good at going to bed and, even though he's not as used to us as his other grandparents he didn't make a peep.  Miles was a bit more challenging but eventually gave in.

 I didn't dare try and put him down in the cot!

As you can imagine hosting them and having the others visiting didn't leave much time for blogging!

This week started very differently and this is my photo of the week:

This is a screen shot of the NHS app on my phone.

Unfortunately someone at the wedding tested positive for Covid.  This meant Matt and Amy had to get tested and unfortunately Amy tested positive.  She had been feeling unwell but hoped it was just a bad cold.  Noah hadn't been well while they were here and was constantly telling us he was "snotty"!

This meant Nick and I had to go for PCR tests plus Rebecca & Vicky.  Fortunately we all tested negative but rules are still that you have to isolate for 10 days from last contact with an infected person.

Michael & Liz and their boys were already on a plane to New York!  They had tested before they left and tested again when they arrived and again were negative.

So it seemed that Amy was the only one unfortunate to have been infected.  She's also the only one who's only had 1 vaccination - her second jab was booked for this week.

But then Miles became unwell and ended up in hospital for 2 nights.

They were concerned about his SATs levels which were dropping too low when he was asleep so initially they gave him oxygen through a nose cannula but then switched to a mask near his face.

He also tested positive for Covid but thankfully he improved enough that by the end of this afternoon he was allowed home.  He was clearly happy about that!  

Hopefully he'll continue to improve in the peace and quiet of home where he and Mummy can get some rest.

As you can see it's been a busy week or so and a worrying last few days.  On top of which I obviously caught the bug that the little ones had and had a rotten cough since Monday and felt quite unwell.  If I hadn't had a PCR and 3 lateral flow tests all come back negative I might be more concerned but I did feel a bit better today so hopefully over the worst.

But despite all this drama there are still things to be thankful for and on Fridays we join in at Susanne's blog Living to Tell the Story to share them.

Here are mine:

1)  That Miles and Amy are home and hopefully will continue to improve.

2)  Our NHS being there when we need it, even with the pandemic.

3)  That none of the rest of us caught Covid.

4)  Michael and Liz made it to Vermont to see her family after a very long time - first time they have met Vinny.

Jet lag obviously caught up with Rory today:

5)  Online shopping - we made it through to our delivery this morning although we were getting low on milk but of course we can't just pop out to the shop.

Hubby and I had very different priorities on what we needed to get through the isolation period though:

Nick's choice, a dozen bottles of wine.

My choice, chocolate!

5 more days to go!

Have a good weekend all!