Blood and tears

L had a dentist’s appointment today so stayed at home with Bob; 6 opted to do the same, so I left a pile of resources and a list of ideas for them to use as a basis for the day. Carrot cake was made 😀 Bob may have to tell you the rest, but it all sounded nicely productive.
Meanwhile K, A, J and I set off for the station, only to discover that Bob still had J’s season ticket (having renewed it at the weekend). Buying a ticket meant missing the normal train and hanging around for the late one, which J hates as it means he has to run at the other end – mind you, if he hated it that much you’d think he’d get up and out more reliably 😉
We spent the day with E and S, doing normal HE type pottering. E was very tired and droppy, while A was tired and grumpy, so it was a nothing much kind of day, really. We looked at some Sir Cumference videos on youtube over lunch 🙂 and I cut out the guard for E’s kirtle, pinned it into place and then somehow got carried away and sewed it on too (it still needs catching up/hemming though). I also managed, while the children played outside, to finish putting together the layers of 6’s bodice, so that when we got home I could cut the skirts to fit (and have now just spent the evening hemming the first couple of sections; my fingers hurt too much to carry on tonight though – lightweight!). Reading happened, piano happened, French happened (with E, at least), a little bit of maths happened (can we count Sir Cumference for that too?) and the children collaborated on Sumdog and Gridclub for a while too – then we realised that there was blood on the carpet, looking rather gruesome. Everybody checked for wounds and we realised A’s blister, which had been covered with a plaster, had come uncovered whilst trampolining and had obviously split; blood was dripping down her heel. I chased everybody out (A, S and K to do jobs in the conservatory, E upstairs to do some English) so I could attempt a clean-up – pale carpet and blood not a good combination!
Careful planning around a swimming lesson came to naught as the lesson was cancelled, but since J’s after-school activity was also cancelled that meant we could collect him and get home sooner than expected, which was a definite bonus. Unpleasant drive home though, with a “discussion” about J’s DT project, which he was meant to have gone to teacher about last week, but still hasn’t (he missed the final lesson, so hasn’t completed it and needs to arrange a time to do that, preferably before the projects are marked and he gets into trouble for not having completed it). As usual, it is everybody’s fault but his *sigh*
Then we got home and I had another unpleasant discussion, with L this time, who had not done the grade 2 music theory paper I had asked her to do as a priority and then decided she was utterly unable to do it, and so of course became utterly unable to do it 🙄 Lots of tears and wails and sobs, some shouting (blush) and eventually she got her head down and gave it a proper go. After tea she had a look through the grade 3 one and was surprised to find how much of it she could do, or thought she would be able to do. It’s amazing what a difference attitude makes!
K, after some persuasion, did a short ‘cello practice, as did A. J did some homework, but not as much as I’d have hoped, given extra time tonight and less tomorrow. Ho hum. I found a 1000 first words in English book for 6 and went through the first double page of that with her – lots of pronunciation practice and also a discussion of English versus American English words, as the book had “faucet” and “closet” which we changed to “tap” and “wardrobe”.
Skirt pieces now cut out and first one hemmed. I need my fingers to toughen up!