with more promises of diligent blogging.  Maybe this time I will make more than 5 entries…..From memory, I wasn’t bad as a diary keeper…but, then again,  that was in my youth ( sentence I never thought I would say but somehow, these days, am saying a LOT!)….hormones ricocheting off every wrong word my parents said, I had a lot more to complain about then!!!  That is not to say I do not have a lot to complain about now.  I have plenty on which to dwell, exacerbate, be melancholic and sentimental, scared and insecure about in my ‘middle’ years….BUT with 3 children and a job, I don’t have much time to document my life’s traumas!!!!  Instead, I find myself trying to memorise my little darlings’ moments.

And of those there have been plenty…..where do I start?  In the last week there have been the dead terrapins which we have replaced without telling the kids….I have always been opposed to getting pets at the age the kids are now for fear of prematurely inviting the ‘death’ talk.  However, DH reckons they already ask enough questions about death (worryingly about mine and his!) that we could handle explaining the passing of a goldfish.

Despite DD’s puppy craze at the moment, we thankfully have the excessive summer heat to use as a valid reason against getting a dog.  I couldn’t bring myself to get a hamster/guinea pig…..I have heard horror stories of kids opening the cages and ‘losing’ the little furry mites somewhere in the house only to be found long after rigor mortis has set in.  Nope, something containable and easy to manage.

Welcome Soni and Sparkie, 2 red eared terrapins.  They tick the ‘containable’ box but I am not so sure about the ‘easy to manage’ box.  It seems nigh on impossible to keep fish tank water clean – even with a filter!  These critters are to be fed several times a day on a diet rich in vitamins and minerals which should include lettuce leaves, fresh cuttle fish, snails, shrimp, mussels, fresh fruit, tomatoes…….seriously????  That diet is better than my children’s!  They require a lot of direct sunlight and daily exercise…..The puppy option is now looking more attractive….  At least puppies show affection, and unlike terrapins, there is not much chance of contracting salmonella poisoning from cleaning up after them.  Terrapins can grow up to 8 inches and live for up to 30 years.  The kids will probably have left home in half that time and DH and I will still be flushing salmonella infected terrapin poop down the toilet every day…..