Insomnia isn’t catching, is it?

January passed in a blink.
We have sleep issues in our home, our youngest daughter, E, has decided to take control of her sleep and do it during the day instead of the usual night time.
Ramifications; 1. Beautiful daughter is butt ugly in the morning.
2. She doesn’t go to school for the correct time.
3. She doesn’t go to school at all.
4. She disturbs MY sleep.
5. Even though she is in school for a short period each day she is still reaching or passing her goals.
6. She makes us tear our hair out in frustration and husband is going thin on top anyway.
Short of gaffa taping her to the bed with a blind fold i don’t really know what else i can do.

We have learnt that there is ‘VAMPING’ teens using social media at night to talk to friends and kids they meet on line, dangerous possibilities there, E knows of these dangers, she has been taught them at home, school, scouts and we keep an eye on the facebook page but there are so many different social media sites for them to use these days. Bedtime comes round, the bedroom door is shut and the light clicks on and you just know sleep hasn’t a hope in hell.
Hands up, i can say whole-heartedly that she has us over a barrel, we are frightened of her and the shouting that goes on if we take computers, phones, ipods off her. We can’t face the scene she makes and will often let her have here own way, to a certain extent, just so we have a quiet life. That’s not to say we let her get away with murder, she is dragged to school if she is unwilling, the phone is taken away but i think we are fighting a battle we could loose if we are not careful, just because we are up against everyone else’s kids and parents.
But is Insomnia something you can catch?
Big bro B spends all night on the playstation, i have no control of that as he is 19 and has moved out, there is a job in the offing maybe that will turn him around. Next bro A, 16 left school, not in further ed or training, plays on the computer all day and night, not a good role model. I often wonder if i did something really bad in a past life to earn these kids, i wouldn’t have dreamt of doing the things they do, reading until late was about the worst it got.
Yet tonight here i am at 2.10 am and i am cooking. There is a big pan of chicken and noodle soup on my stove simmering away for tomorrows lunch, the smell is delicious and i am writing my first post of 2015 and instead of it being about photography it’s about sleep or the lack of.
I’m not sure how many nights have been disturbed since last June when things started to go pear shaped but i figure that over the past month i have only had a handful of nights that haven’t been disturbed in some way. Yes i feel sorry for myself, who wouldn’t, and i want EVERYONE to know how sorry i feel, battling my daughter is taking massive chunks out of my day, bits where i should be working, out taking photos, looking for craft markets, on social media sharing my work, out selling it or arranging for gallery space. It is SO frustrating!
Finger’s crossed this phase will pass soon, year 9 at school is options year and we are nearly there. My business needs my attention or it wont grow. Please God of sleep smite her down and lets get this Insomnia thing beaten!
I don’t think Insomnia is catching, you suffer from it/with it and you suffer with those you love. We will do everything we can for E to help her overcome this and will do it with love and i hope understanding. It’s a tough one but we will do it together, as a family.

Our Summer Holidays are now over! Officially.

Summer. You think of warm/hot sunny days, warm BBQ evenings and balmy nights. Well maybe in other countries but not in England this year. This year has been a bit wet to say the least. It has been confirmed that  summer 2012 in England and Wales has been the biggest washout for a century, with  the Met Office saying that it has been the one of the dullest, coolest and the soggiest since 1912.

We had been scheduled to go to Cumbria last week but received a call the day before leaving to ask if we still wished to go as they were giving out boards and tarps to all campers as it was a bit muddy. We decided to go to Derbyshire  instead! While we were there we read in the paper that  Cumbria was hit by heavy rain and flash flooding on Thursday forcing people to leave their homes and causing a train  to derail. A landslide is thought to have caused the derailment of the  train, which was travelling towards Sellafield nuclear plant.  Summer this year has had just 399 hours of sunshine, it has also been cool, oh really, with a mean temperature of 14C (57F),  0.4C below  average. We have experienced, some more than others, 366.8mm of rain, not quite the 384.4mm seen in the summer of 1912 but give it time.

But. Our Summer has not been all about bad weather. We have had three great weeks camping. Two weeks in Bath and Dorset and a week in Derbyshire. We have visited some fantastic places like Longleat, The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, The National Brewery Centre, Burton upon Trent,   Donington Park Race Track, Derby, Twycross Zoo, oh lots of lovely places and visited with a cousin and his family not seen for many years. One of the high lites of my summer holidays was the visit to Brownsea Island off the coast of Dorset. I have been a Scout leader for over eight years and i have always said i would visit the home of Scouting and i have, we had a lovely day, it was sunny, walking around the Island and visiting the Stone which marks the site of the first Scout camp in 1907. There were several Scout and Guide groups camping on the Island and we were waved to and offered tea whenever we met a group, one leader even gave my daughter a rather long peacock tail feather which is sitting in a vase on my sideboard. We had a great day and enjoyed the boat ride back to the mainland. I dont think the children got bored all holiday but i know they wont want to go back to school this week, shame. Unfortunately we missed the Olympics but we will get to see the second week of the Paralympics  and will be able to cheer on our favorite athletes.

My holidays have been about reconnecting with my children, relaxing with my husband and taking lots of photographs, i think i have managed all three! It will be a wrench when everyone is back at work or school and life is back to normal but on the other hand it will give me SOME peaceful days in which to work on my photos and put them up on my blog, flickr, viewbug etc. I have  put a few photos below which are my particular favorites from this summer, i hope you enjoy them. Oh and here is looking forward to  October half term!