We started off cuddled up in bed reading (catching up on) the Story of the World, then came downstairs to do some of the activities. J did some map work, K coloured in a Roman soldier and L decorated a Celtic dragon brooch. Then J chose a sentence or two about Beowulf to do as narration (yay – writing!) and they did some charging around, with the intention of dressing up as Celts (blue eyeshadow for woad and fleece cloaks 😉 ) later – but I was saved from this by a phone call asking if we (either just boys or all of us) would like to go and play with S. Resounding yes from the boys, so we ate lunch and then set off, the idea being to drop boys off and for L and me to do some long-overdue shopping (their house is fairly handy for Waitrose – definitely a good excuse for a spot of luxury lol) but first we were delayed somewhat by L attempting to sort herself out with a poo in the loo and managing to pull half the toilet roll off – would have blocked the toilet except most of it missed… – and then when we got there she asked to go in for a little play and somehow we never left, so still no shopping and the cupboards are nearly bare 😕
I suspect I should have asked for something to eat, or at the very least drink, but natural timidity far too great and no offer made, so when I realised that the suddenly rising noise level from my children (who had been playing really nicely up until then) and my own headache/whooziness/grumpiness were probably due to low blood sugar I gave the children a five minute warning and managed to get them away fairly easily. Fortunately we discovered a bag of Snack-a-Jacks in the car, along with a half-empty bottle of water and those just about got us home…
Unfortunately I am beginning to realise that I will have to be seriously sensible about eating and drinking regularly and once I have started to feel bad this seems to get harder (for example I boiled the kettle but forgot to make the drink – d’oh!), so the afternoon pretty much deteriorated from there 🙁 We were almost at the witching hour already (it can’t be just us who experience this!) and then as I was trying to get tea L did another solo poo on the loo and this time succeeded in blocking the toilet with the other half of the toilet roll, so I had to get J to supervise her in the bath while I unblocked the toilet and finished getting tea (not quite simultaneously!) and then J and I had to try to persuade her to get out of the bath to eat and what with one thing and another I ended up shouting at them all and going out of the front door just to escape for a minute or two 😳 and then came back in, after literally a few seconds, to find J in tears because he thought I had gone out and abandoned them 😳 🙁
Anyway, once L realised tea was actually on the table and was what she had been asking for all afternoon (root vegetable mash, with just a smidge of mince mix to show willing; the boys had it the other way round lol) she got out readily enough and by the time Bob came in I was able to hand over a fairly harmonious tea-table of children and head back to the kitchen – which is when I realised I had never actually made the drink I knew I needed an hour or two ago *sigh*
Hence I am now sitting here, hiding at the PC and letting it all out!
Need to do some serious J-reassurance though, I fear 🙁
Month: September 2006
Can’t think of a title!
Well Monday went well – in fact J and E had such a good time that they refused to go home when their mum came to collect them 😆 The dynamics worked because visitor J and our J are very similar in age and aptitude, while E is exactly in between K and L and she enjoyed doing girl things with L (who’s just discovering girly stuff!) and playing with K (who has rather more time and patience for her than her own brother, as he likes the fact that she can do a bit more than L 😉 ). They brought surprise presents with them to break the ice, as it were; Lizard Lunch for K and E, “snow” for J and J and Touchabubbles for L. In fact they all played with all of them, the snow being a particular hit once we had put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. In fact it is still going strong – although a little more gets dropped and swept or hoovered up each time it comes out to play!
Also on Monday we got the exciting news that Rebecca (from P&T) has had her baby, a little girl 😀 Still haven’t found out whether she managed the VBAC she wanted but hope to pop round and get the full story soon 😉
In the evening I went out to a Friday club prayer and planning meeting, as usual held in a beautiful, well-cared-for, large home which always leaves me feeling conscious of our cramped, cluttered and incredibly untidy little house. Consequently have spent rather too much time on rightmove looking up houses we could just about afford which would give us enough space to have a proper spare bedroom, a kitchen we could eat and live in, a room to store HE resources and toys (and maybe also play/work in) and a proper, tidy, toy-free grown-ups sitting room. There are some, but none near enough to Bob’s work to avoid a lengthy commute 🙁 If only he could work from home – or we could suddenly have the brainwave idea for a small business which would bring in loads of money for very few hours with total financial security… Yeah right!
Tuesday was a bit stop and start, as we were supposed to be going to see my friend with the twins, but when I checked my email there was a message saying she wasn’t sure it would work logistically because of multiple school/nursery runs for her older boys, then another saying the children were all ill so visit was off. We prepared ourselves for a day of pottering and workbooks, then had a phone call from her to check we’d got the email and whilst chatting decided that we would go after all and just risk the possibility of catching the bug. In the end it all worked out well, as J and K love playing with her boys, who were just about well enough to need to run off a bit of energy then collapse once we’d gone. Meanwhile I was able to do a bit more sling enabling (I really should look into doing it as a business!) and I think we have finally found the perfect sling for her in an Ellaroo Mei Hip 😀
Despite traffic and learner drivers we made it back in time for J’s French club and a nice chat with a few other mums also waiting for their little darlings 😉
Wednesday was once again reading morning for J and K and science for J (who refuses to tell us what they do as he says it’s a secret 😕 ) then dragging the children away whilst stuffing food into them to raise blood sugar enough to avoid horrible tantrums (theirs and mine!). Amazingly the boys had done lots of English without complaint before we went, but any attempt to get them to do maths once we got back met with rebellion and sullen attitude. In the end I got sick of them both and threw all three children out into the garden with a treasure hunt which involved finding and counting natural objects – we agreed to call it practical maths 
For tea we ate potatoes grown in our own garden (in the old toilet cistern the plumbers left behind when they refitted the bathroom!) boiled and served with butter (yummy!), Grandad (runner) beans cooked with tomato and coriander (equally yummy) and cabbage with almonds – then spoilt it all by finishing off with chocolate sundae from a revolting packet mix. Actually, Bob and the boys made and ate the sundaes, as L and I were both so shattered we went to bed halfway through tea…
Despite such an early night L slept through (although I did hear her wake and whimper a couple of times in the night, but she didn’t come through or ask to feed) until 7, and despite such an early night I was still struggling to get out of bed as Bob was leaving for work (and telling me I had to get up now; he had to go!) which meant that by the time I realised we had no biscuits and no milk for parents and tots and we would have to go via the Coop to get some we were already late. I did manage to throw together some bread dough to take and grabbed a carton of eggs as we were leaving, so at least we had something for the older children to do and something for lunch 😉
We made texture pictures using scraps of material like fleece, silk, bubble wrap, sandpaper, wool, fun fur and corrugated cardboard, then thought of words to describe each scrap. As usual just now K was rather more enthusiastic than J…
Once everyone had left we wolfed down fresh bread and hard-boiled eggs then rushed over to the other side of town for African drama (although it is now far more music than drama) which L asked to join in this time. She managed to maintain concentration for 45 minutes of the 60 minute class, then came running through saying “I’m tired of music now!”, had a brief feed and promptly fell sound asleep 😆
Then we rushed back across town to home, arriving with just enough time for a quick drink before setting off to collect B and F from school and bring them home for tea. F has just started in reception and is absolutely shattered; it reminded me of how J used to be and how terribly hard it was to do anything much with him in the evenings other than shovel in some food and get him to bed 🙁 Still, B and the boys had fun, mostly playing Operation, while L watched and F curled up on the sofa with a picture book. J did some great money addition to find out who had won the game, then got very frustrated when K kept randomly adding to his score so that it would be higher than J’s (winning) amount. I don’t think J minded that K was pretending to win, but it really bothered him that he was making up numbers!
Harvest festival
For some reason many moons ago when we (worship committee at church) were talking about harvest festival this year it seemed a good idea to take the topic of trees – just for a change, you know!
Anyway, my dad and his partner are involved with forestry stuff in Wales so I suggested that they might be able to come and do something for us and this was taken as a good idea. I contacted them and they agreed, so we left it that I’d tell them more when I knew more… Nothing more was said about harvest festival, so nothing more was done…
Then on Wednesday or Thursday of last week I had an email form the minister saying that I had offered to do a talk on trees and could I make it all-age and do it on Sunday in the harvest festival service please? 😯 Errm, no I didn’t!
Obviously too late for my dad to come but I managed to get him to email me some info, then we all sat up late making lists of interesting things we get from trees that we could find about the house. Collected them all together and sorted from most unexpected (things like aspirin, chocolate and moisturiser) to most obvious (wooden toys etc) so that I could get them out a few at a time and ask what they had in common… then the minister introduced my section of the service as “Katy will now talk to us about trees” 🙄 ho hum!
Anyway, it worked okay, even though the element of surprise was now missing *sigh* and after that I talked a little about good forestry practice, clear fell versus continuous cover and so on and got the children to sit very close together on the floor and then try to grow up and spread out their arms without moving their feet – demonstrated beautifully the necessity for thinning as they clung to one another and fell over!
Later in the service we also had a talk about hardwood trees and heartwood/sapwood. It was really interesting to see that a coconut tree has no heartwood (because it’s really closer to being a grass, with a hollow stem) and that the wood in the centre is totally different to the wood near the edge. The speaker brought in three planks, one from centre, one from edge and one from in between, and showed us that the centre is very light (pulpy rather than solid) while the wood at the edges is incredibly hard and heavy. In fact the centre plank would float with 3/4 of it out of water, while the outer wood sinks!
Not sure exactly what it had to do with harvest festival (other than general awe at and care for creation) but it was a good service, with lots of learning thrown in 🙂
Choosing presents
This morning K discovered half a dead mouse indoors, that had probably been left there by one of the cats. He asked why they did it and I said that it was because the cats thought that we were really special and so wanted to give us a present, and they would like a mouse as a present so they think we would too.
He said “Can’t we train them to bring us a present that we’d actually like?”
In other news, after a late start, L slept through again last night. This could be habit forming.
Milestones
J and L clocked up milestones this week. (I think J’s happened a few weeks ago but yesterday was the first time I noticed.)
Yesterday I took all the children to the park and J was eager for me to play football with him – L’s buggy as one post and a shrubbery as the other. This was occasionally tricky as K and L needed attention too on the swings and things. During half time when I was play equipment assistant I noticed J could swing by himself completely! Probably not a major thing and maybe even late compared to his peers, but another sign to me that he’s growing up and another way he’s able to enjoy himself without needing my help.
L may be messing with our heads, but one night this week she slept through completely, in her own bed :shock:. It was a bit of a shock to not feel v. tired the next day (just tired). She hasn’t done so since, but tonight was encouraging too. She went up to her bed after the boys were asleep but before she seemed sleepy. This normally lasts about 5 minutes and then there are footsteps coming downstairs :roll:. Tonight she didn’t come down at all. Hurrah!
Another week gone by!
The LEA inspector asked me on Monday about what we do on a normal day and I realised that our days really have no regular rhythm to them; it’s the weeks that follow a pattern. I think this may be part of the reason why time is whizzing by so fast!
On Mondays we go to Mustard Seeds, except when there’s CHEF sport (once a month) or a CHEF gathering (also once a month). Tomorrow, however, we will be having a couple of CHEF friends over for a fair part of the day and if that goes well it may become a regular thing. J and K have decided that it would be fun to save up all the Sonlight science stuff and do a week’s worth in one go while their friends are here, so we’ll give that a try tomorrow 🙂
Tuesday mornings are usually free, but J has French club in the afternoon. We try to use those mornings as a chance for a little normality, doing Maths and English and catching up a bit with the Sonlight Core, but often end up doing things with people we don’t see very often because it’s our only reliably free day 🙄
On Wednesdays we go to another CHEF friend and the boys have a reading session (currently The Wind in the Willows) with one of the mums, while the other mums keep all the younger children amused. After that J and a couple of other boys do science with one of the dads while the rest of us play and chat. Wednesday is also the day that CHEF trips out often seem to be arranged, so we hardly ever get to Bouncearound, which used to be J’s favourite activity before reading mornings came along.
On Thursdays we have Parents and Tots, which is starting to be a bit of a HE haven 😉 Usually a couple of the HE parents will take the older children aside to do activities (often from SOTW) while the younger ones make the most of charging round the hall. Thursday afternoons just recently have found us doing African drama/music, but this is only for a few weeks. Then at school pick-up time we have an old school-friend of J’s round to play and to stay for tea. His little sister has just started school too, so now we tend to get her as well – certainly keeps me on my toes!
Every other Friday we have Friday Club, which takes up much of the day, as we usually all stay and eat together afterwards. In good weather this can stretch to spending much of the afternoon playing. Alternate weeks are free, which gives us another chance to catch our breath and try to do those things we’re supposed to be doing on a “normal” day.
Saturdays vary wildly from big family days out to DIY or shopping filled busy-ness to mooching around at home or wandering to the park, then Sundays are largely taken up by church, especially if I am preaching or doing Sunday School or Bob is on creche. By the time we get back home all we want to do is laze around or potter.
In between all this we try to keep a little Maths and English going each day, along with lots of reading and playing. I would love for the boys, especially J, to start doing some music and I would also love for them to be doing a bit more sport. We’re looking into Badgers/Beavers/Woodcraft Folk etc for J (and I guess K soon) and have also been looking into Jesus College Choir, as J talked recently to a boy who has been doing that for a while and loves it. It’s quite a big commitment though (2-4 evenings a week, depending on age) and there is an audition to get in…
No wonder the holidays feel easier!
Well this kept L happy for a bit…
while I went to an MSLC meeting, leaving her with Bob 🙂
Are you a badger?
Also, it seems k. d. lang is to change her name 🙂
and there’s a nice story about Tabasco sauce 😆
Diversity
I work for a large American company (this wasn’t my choice – it bought the small UK company that I had joined). My limited experience of large American companies is that they worry about Diversity – note the capital letter and have directors dedicated to it, training courses for all staff and so on.
I’m sure that this is well-intentioned at least by some of the higher-ups, but sometimes – too often – comes across as lip service and window dressing. I know that Brits can be just as insensitive as Americans and any other group, so I’m not going to claim the moral high ground. The people from the German company we’re selling to at the moment say they have Diversity too, so maybe it’s all large companies these days.
Anyway, I was in Germany on business and got an excellent illustration of it done properly, i.e. with a small ‘d’. It reminded me that reading books on ecumenism is all well and good, but the proper way to be God’s family is to just chat and get on with people who go to different churches from you. Back to diversity. There were many of my US-based colleagues on the same trip, and so there was American, British and German in the mix. Actually one of the US-based people is really Venezuelan, and one of the Germany-based people is actually a Pole, but that just led to interesting accents.
So, I had an American colleague telling me where the rest rooms were in the office we were visiting (not the toilets or even Toiletten). We had Chinese takeaway for lunch (a bit random, but nice) and one of my US colleagues had stuff in a satay sauce for the first time (“peanut butter sauce”). One of the Americans was dying for some water that wasn’t Mineralwasser and so the satay eater said “Why not have some tap water?” which made me puzzled so I asked him what he called the thing it came out of. He said “spigot or faucet” – I had come across faucet before, but apparently a faucet gives out tap water, which was new to me. As was the fact that sandwiches in the US don’t usually have butter spread on the bread – you’re much more likely to have mustard, mayonaise or something else. I discovered that to get an outside line from a German switchboard you have to dial 0 rather than 9. I spread enlightenment by recommending (and describing) cream teas – this is apparently now on the list of things to do/eat when the Americans are next in the UK. Hurrah!
It also embarrassed me how poor my German has become, and my French. Then there’s Spanish, Russian, Mandarin and Hindi etc. – I suppose that’s the problem being a native speaker of the de facto international language – which foreign languages do you choose to learn?