Sunday, Monday

I was taking an all-age worship service on Sunday, so Lfish decided to miss Eucharist and Mattins and come along to that with the rest of us instead, coincidentally (but not!) getting an extra hour or two in bed 😉 Having worried about a service which I had had relatively little time to prepare (given a shockingly busy time beforehand!) it was fine and we stayed for tea, biscuits and chat afterwards before returning via a supermarket (naughty, I know, but sometimes needs must) to buy burgers to go with the buns we already had at home. We dropped the older children off at the playground near our house for a quick burst of letting off steam and had a big cooked lunch ready for them when they got in. A quiet afternoon of pottering, dozing and writing newspaper articles (Lfish and Afish have both been doing this as part of their English work this term) and then Jfish was back from his weekend away and it was time for a quick tea and bed.

This morning we had a bit of rushing around and last minute prepping then some HE friends arrived for the first session of a new club we’re trying out. One family were already well-known to us, but the other two are fairly new. It was good to have the chance to get to know them better and do things together. The idea is one the girls came up with, that we should have a few different activities going on and make it half social and half educational, but hopefully all fun. We’re calling it the XYZ club, to reflect the fact that there are different things to choose from, and hoping that some older children might want to come along and that we can build up a little peer group of children to grow up together. My ideal would be to have enough friends nearby to keep all four children from feeling that they need to go to school for companionship. There are many good reasons to go, but that shouldn’t need to be one of them. I’d also like them to get to do things with other parents and to learn with other children – we do some of that already but it’s a thing I can’t imagine having too much of, really! Today we made Roman libum (having first made the ricotta) and also shaped lots of bread dough (cheatily made in the bread maker before everyone arrived), played a number of different board games, made Suffolk puffs with Christmas buttons sewn on the front, wove little paper heart baskets and talked about what direction the group might go in future. We’ll see how it develops…

Extra!

Lfish being on the small side (for our family at least) when a film company needed a child over 9 to play the role of a child under 8 she seemed a good candidate, especially as she comes with her own costume. We had to go through the various steps of applying for a performance licence and I had to go along with her as chaperone, with the added advantage that this meant I could also be an extra and play the role of her nursemaid, which she found very reassuring. We had a very early start (especially after a not-very-early night!) as we had to be on the road shortly after 4:30. Partway there we hit heavy fog which meant that we arrived a little later than planned, but it seemed not to be a problem – and in fact since I had travelled in kit and Lfish is used to getting in and out of hers quickly we made up the time very quickly – and then sat and waited for a few hours before the filming (due to start at 7:30 to catch the first of the daylight) began at about 10. “Should be over by lunchtime” which we had interpreted as “lunch might be late” proved to be overly hopeful, even with our proviso 😆 as the first scene we did involved both animals and children and took several takes, but things got faster after that and the afternoon all went very smoothly – helped along by the fading daylight! The film is of the life of John Wilbye; I had to look him up, but Lfish recognised the name immediately and said that they had sung some of his work at choir, including the madrigal which gives the film its title: Draw On, Sweet Night – which Lfish describes as “It’s lovely music but the words – he’s basically saying he wants the night to come so he can curl up in a ball under the duvet and whinge.” 😆
We got home just after tea and both retired to bed almost immediately after a long and full day. It was fun though, and I think both of us would happily do it again – as, I’m sure, would any of the other children given half a chance!

And the days go by…

Monday 3rd November: more research – Lfish and Afish’s turn this time. Slightly worryingly Afish’s ECG had some issues which meant that she was not cleared for the exercise elements of the research, and that we are now awaiting a referral to a cardiologist. Everyone was very reassuring and we’re told that it is most likely to be a mismatch in timings which means that the trace just didn’t pick up the details they were looking for, but a repeat ECG repeated the problem so it’s all about being on the safe side…
Other than that, all went well and both girls got a lot out of the experience. Both went into the MRI, although Afish came out early, and both had their calorimeter room doors sealed, although Afish asked for hers to be opened later in the evening and then came in with me from about midnight. Good effort though 😉

We collected L’s saxophone from the repair shop on the way home. It now has lovely new pads and has been realigned so everything works nicely 🙂

Meanwhile Bob was in charge at home, doing usual Monday evening things (football for L and Kfish and English online for Jfish) and then setting them off on a Dyson challenge card on Tuesday morning, which the girls and I joined in with once home. It proved to be beyond our capabilities to build a cardboard and sellotape marble run which would keep a marble moving for at least 60 seconds, at least for that day – the parts are still sitting in the annexe waiting for attempt #2!

WedEd on 5th was rather smaller than usual, as Em and family were busy elsewhere. This meant that Science, Maths and Art happened, but sadly no music and no saxophone lesson for L. Hopefully we’ll find some time to catch up later in the term. TheBabs had to leave early too, so no lift for L and Afish this week. Bob’s car was in for a service so he couldn’t collect them either; we left early and dropped them at home on the way to choir and Italian.

On Thursday we had a free films for schools (or rather their new guise “Into Film”) viewing of The Boxtrolls, which was very good. We dashed from there to multisport and thence to trombone (where Jfish discovered that it is a Good Thing to have a sister who also plays trombone – his instrument case was empty but hers, fortunately, was not!), paused briefly for breath before Afish’s gym session, then had a quick tea before judo.

Friday was Conservation. We woke up to heavy rain but by the time we left it was clearing up and in fact it then stayed more or less dry so cooking lunch and orchard clearing were not the unpleasant chores they might have been. I attribute this to the fact that I took a large umbrella with me 😉 The usual Friday afternoon and evening ensued: library for the boys, violin then choir for Lfish (with Afish as a hanger-on), quick yomp across town to music for Jfish and L, then choir for Kfish. This time things were slightly enlivened by the arrival of my sister, so we had a bed to make up and some catching up to do.

On Saturday Bob was again in charge (it has felt rather as though life is rushing past for me and he’s having to pick up the pieces these last few weeks :/ ) and took music scholars to music school then Lfish to gym while my sister and I drove across to my aunt’s house, where we were to meet my cousin and a friend to go through my aunt’s things and decide, as per her will, which we would each like to have. It was not an easy day.

Sadly Polly had to rush back to Wales on Saturday so we only had her company for a short while. Sunday was a day of Remembrance Sunday parades and music, though, so I guess we’d not have seen all that much of her anyway. Lfish decided to parade with the local Guides and Brownies rather than travelling to be with her new brigade (because of times and days of meetings her Guides are not very local) and Afish to go choir rather than to Brownie parade. The boys all came and supported the local parade and we attended the service at the memorial together. I do wish they could find a way to avoid having cars driving right through the middle of the service – it doesn’t quite spoil it, but it doesn’t help with the atmosphere.

In the afternoon Jfish had a recorder lesson – with an exam this term he could probably do with more than one lesson a month but we’re very grateful for what we can fit in, given how busy both his teacher and his family are! Meanwhile Kfish was playing his cello and then practising his reading ready for a special Remembrance evensong. It was a lovely service and he read beautifully 🙂

Busy week over it was time for a (relatively) quiet one. At least it started that way…

Monday and Tuesday were filled with nothing much (football, Guides, Brownies and general pottering, along with a bit of tidying) apart from social worker visit to check that L is still okay and happy with us. Apparently he is 🙂 On Wednesday Bob worked from home as usual, which meant that I could pop to a toddler group with Afish and some Usborne books – it’s that books for Christmas presents time of year again, or at least I hope so! After that we went round to a neighbour’s house and picked some of the last of her bumper crop of very tasty apples. One huge pot of stewed apple later it was time to head off for choir and Italian again – that week went past like lightning!

Thursday was largely taken up with Tudor cooking. L and the girls all helped, with Kfish and Jfish occasionally lending a hand. We made pottage, eggadouce, cheese farce, frumenty, gingered bread, sod lentil, buttered peppered peasen and a spelt loaf. In the evening I was doing a WI talk on being a Tudor housewife, hence the orgy of cooking. Last time I did one I promised Lfish that she could come along next time, so she did, in full kit – we got a round of applause for demonstrating how her hair is fastened under her coif! This left Jfish in charge of his littler sister while Bob took Kfish and L to judo – it is so handy having an old enough and sensible enough child to leave in charge!

Friday found most of us quietly getting on with work while others were frantically packing! Jfish had a NMYBB weekend, which he was going to late in order to be able to babysit so Bob and I could go to Bob’s work early Christmas party, while Lfish and I were to be extras in some filming at Kentwell and needed to take full kit and possible changes (so we could fit with whatever corporate look the costume designer had decided upon). Alongside all this I had a service to prepare for Sunday and we still had violin to fit in (exam in two weeks – eep!) as well as getting ready to go out and making sure that there was a suitably easy tea for Jfish to organise (pizza, coleslaw and chocolate eclairs!) We decided it was just not practical to get the children to all their usual music commitments as well, and Bob talked me out of even trying, since this was to be our first evening out together in quite literally years. Pizza, an old favourite film and chocolate cream cakes seem to have been adequate compensation though!

Having been uncertain about going out – I think it’s just been too long and I’m out of the habit! – I actually really enjoyed the evening. It was lovely to meet Bob’s colleagues and to chat with other grown-ups about all sorts of different things as Bob’s wife rather than as J/K/L/A’s mum. We actually ended up staying rather longer than we had originally planned (we took the car so we could leave early, but in the end the taxis were at the door by the time we were) which made getting up the next day harder, but it was worth it 🙂

Weekend at grandparents

Lfish had gymnastics, and 7 people descending on my parents would have stretched their ability to put up people, so K and Lfish stayed at home while I took everyone else to my parents. The drive up was long but uneventful, nice food, then bed.

I pulled the children way from the TV, and I drove us plus Dad to Alderley Edge (the hill, not the village). Dad knows a lot about it, including the links to the Weirdstone of Brisingamen. He knows the author, and pointed out places that are mentioned in the books. It was a lovely walk in the woods, with bonus history (bronze age onwards), literary links, scrambling over a simple but very good mini-adventure playground made from logs, and searching for treasure. The treasure was little bits of ore left over from the mining – azurite (blue), malachite (green) and cobalt (surprisingly, black). The view from Stormy Point was, as ever, fantastic. Ice creams when we got back to the car park, from the regular van – Dad’s friendly with the owner and gets a discount!

Back home, more lovely food, then out to Widnes. Dad has a radio-controlled battleship, and knows where there’s a boating lake in Widnes. The battleship was not as fast and flashy as a radio-controlled speedboat a father and son were playing with, but still excellent fun and I think the ducks put up with it. Afish and Mum played on some swings while us blokes took turns – fortunately we didn’t need to use the wellies or boat hook that Dad had brought just in case.

We went on to Catalyst, which is a Chemistry-themed science museum. It was small and poorly lit, but a good place for a couple of hours. The favourite exhibit seemed to be the large column of viscous liquid that you could pump air bubbles into. You could create different sizes of bubbles, and big ones rose faster than small ones, so you could get bubbles to engulf each other. There was also a fairly decent playground outside – Mum stayed with the children there while Dad took me to see a bit of local and family history. Our ancestors used to run barges on the Mersey, and near the museum is a post from a barge that used to hold the rudder. It was about 10 feet tall, so it was easy to imagine how vast the barges were – they were the juggernauts of their day.

On Sunday we stayed at my parents’ home – TV and then helping in the garden. This was joining in the battle against leaves, harvesting tomatoes, admiring the pond and waterfall and generally mooching about. Afish spotted an interesting stripey-shelled snail on a bucket, and then impressed Dad by recognising the herbs he was growing (the results of spending time at Kentwell talking to the right people).

More lovely food, then we hit the road. K had borrowed some story CDs from the library, and we got through most of Einstein’s Underpants and How They Saved the World. It was daft and good.