Category: Katy’s day

Monday Monday…

CHEF sports today 🙂
Shame we didn’t get there until halfway through, thanks to hideous traffic on the A14 🙁 Should have gone the other way, but it looked clear right up until we hit the queues…

Anyway, we still managed to chat about plans for Latin etc and L enjoyed playing with SB and E, then we went to the park with Gina, E and J for a bit more chat (adults) and running around (children) 🙂

By the time we got back here L was sound asleep, to the extent that I transferred her from car to bed without waking her 😯 and she had a good forty winks while the boys pootled and we got lunch ready (leftovers from yesterday 😉 ).

J decided he wanted to make a cake for Bob and me, and we happened to have a Victoria sponge complete kit (just add eggs and butter; even jam included) I bought last time he said that so I pointed him in the right direction and let him get on with it 🙂 All I did was to put it in the hot oven and take it out when he told me the time was up. We haven’t tasted it yet, but it looks great – it’s even iced and decorated with “Best M and D” 😆

While he was busy cake making I made up some cheese straw dough, because they all went yesterday and the children felt cheated 😆 then while the cake was cooking J made cheesy letters – he’s learning to multitask! Meanwhile K did maths (slow because the current exercises have lots of reading to do too) and L did poissonrouge.

I had a chat with the children this morning about Melrose and they decided they want to go so much that they are willing to have token Christmas presents so that we can afford it, so a quick chat with Bob later the form and bank transfer were winging their way 😀 Now we just need to plan a journey in easy stages to make it bearable 😕 Still wondering if it should be just the children and me to preserve some of Bob’s holiday, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t just hide away all the time then 😳

Christening

The day started a bit too early, with an unhappy R, but fortunately none of the other children seem to have been woken up, so we were able to go back to sleep peacefully until a more respectable hour 🙂
The morning went quite smoothly, considering how many people were trying to get ready at once; the extra space (and extra bathroom) at this house a definite advantage there 😉 Mamgu decided the apples needed using up, so raided the larder for some mincemeat which also needed using up and made a vegan mincemeat and apple cake (which smelt divine as it cooked and tasted just as good as it smelt!) while B, L and I peeled and grated carrots, toasted pine nuts and crushed garlic (or Daleks) to make carottes rapees.

Somehow we managed to get ourselves and all the necessary things into cars and to the church with plenty of time to spare and tempers pretty much intact. Cups were put out and cakes arranged, the urn put on and readings allocated and practised. It was lovely to see the church filling up with families (there are normally between 2 and 12 children there; today there must have been nearer 40!) and to have a chance to say hello to friends and family – although there were some I know I missed and many I only just managed to say hello to in passing.

The service was lovely. We had requested the old service form, but with a prayer from the new (will get Bob to type it in later) and an advantage of this was that it was typed out rather than needing people to find the right page in a worship book. J read the second set reading (about Jesus blessing the children) and did it beautifully – slow and clear – I was so proud 😀 A received a thorough wetting (I have never seen an infant so well and truly baptised!) but accepted it gracefully (I just wish I had had a camera handy to catch her expression at each splash!) and smiled at Robert as he took her round the church to introduce her. When the children left after the ceremony and the second hymn the church felt a little bare and the Sunday school leaders were almost overwhelmed but rallied gamely 🙂

I handed A to one of her new godmothers and nipped out during the last hymn to get tea and coffee made but was still caught out by the first thirsty (and speedy) members of the congregation. Fortunately one of the first was a good friend who didn’t mind being co-opted to help, so she (wo)manned the teapot while I made coffee and hordes of helpful children handed out cake (no ulterior motives there, I’m sure 😉 ). It was bedlam, but in a friendly way 😆

Eventually we got everything more or less cleared away and those who were left were invited to come along to the local godparents’ house for lunch. Lots of lovely food appeared (thank you to all who brought things 🙂 ) and the children had a whale of a time in the garden enjoying what will apparently be the last sunny day for a while. It was a lovely relaxed afternoon and we ended the day feeling shattered, but deeply blessed that we know so many special people and are lucky enough to call them friends :cheers:
I think leaving the mess at someone else’s house helps too 😉

Phew!

It’s been a long but worthwhile weekend!

On Friday I woke up feeling lousy and with a large painful lump in my left breast, which strongly suggested impending mastitis 🙁 I got L to drain it as best she could, but it was still tender and lumpy and I was starting to feel suspiciously ‘fluey. In one of those strange “bad things which happen for the best” occurrences Bob should have been catching the bus that day, as his usual lift wasn’t available and we needed the car, but the bus came early (really – he was on time and it sailed past him well before he got to the bus stop) so he phoned to ask for a lift, I told him how grotty I felt and we decided the most sensible thing was for him to take the morning off to look after children and give me some chance of recovering, then for us to drop him off at work in the afternoon on the way to French, do some shopping and then pick him up and come home together. Genius! It made a potentially awful day fairly bearable 😀

The boys got English and Maths out of the way and L and I iced the board (mostly to cover the Christmas patterns on it!) while Bob did odd jobs, then we oiled the table top (did the benches and underneath of table yesterday) and had snack. Bob and children finished weeding trugs and planted remaining primroses while I iced the cake, then L and K helped me to make pink roses and J and I made white roses while Bob did a bit of general tidying up. At some point a friend popped by with a large bag of apples, which got parked in the kitchen to be dealt with later. After an early lunch we set off, pausing en route to collect a parcel (J caught the “We tried to deliver but…” note as postie put it through the door yesterday – didn’t try very hard then!) and then getting caught in heavy traffic on the A14 so Bob was later for work than planned, especially as he still had to collect J’s new French book from his old school and a suit from the dry cleaner.

Having dropped him off, the children and I went on to Browns Field, where we sat in the car park and finished our lunch while we waited for everyone to arrive for French. Music hasn’t started yet, but all three are now doing French (each in a different class) and it was nice to have a chance to chat – and coo over M’s 3 week old baby 🙂
Then there was time to play outside, and chat some more, before heading off to Daily Bread, where half of us met up again – it must be the place to go on a Friday afternoon 😆

We picked up Bob and were heading home when J remembered that he had left his new French book and CD and also his new music theory book, under a lamp-post in the playground 😡 so we turned round and went back there to look for it, to no avail 🙁 By now it was nearly 5:30 and we had told my dad that we would be home by 5, so tempers were starting to fray, but at least the A14 was unusually quiet and we got home quite quickly, to find that my dad and his partner (Tadcu and Mamgu) had managed to get in (he still had a key from his last visit, fortunately) and had made themselves at home. We fed the children pasta and jar and got them off to bed, then planned jobs for Saturday and got off to bed at a moderately sensible time.

Tadcu doesn’t get over here very often, but when he does he likes to feel useful. Mamgu is the same, so she and I spent the morning baking, with help from random children as and when they felt like it. She made a madeira cake while I prepped up a curry for tea and fed A, then L and I made date slice while Mamgu amused A, we all made cheese straws and got the ingredients ready for flapjacks but by then it was lunch time, there was no room left in the oven and the children and I were supposed to be elsewhere at a birthday party…

Meanwhile Tadcu disconnected the heater which can no longer be on the annexe wall because there is a piano in the way, then he and Bob started to think about taking out the dividing wall between the kitchen porch and the annexe, decided the first step was to put up extra shelves in the kitchen to take the stuff from the shelf on the wall, got the shelves (bought for old house but never put up) from the workshop and began drilling. Tadcu is a great teacher/supervisor; once he had Bob started and was sure all was going well he, J and I took a look at the climbing frame cubes and decided how to put them together. We thought two blocks would be more adaptable (and easier to move) than the one large block it used to be. In fact J had very definite ideas, so he dictated and Tadcu did the putting together, while the children and I grabbed presents and sped off to our party, leaving a hive of activity behind us.

The party was great: lots of children (and parents) we know well and just enough structure to keep things busy, with plenty of time to play or chat as well. The children, and many of the adults, painted mugs (made by the birthday boy’s mum and fired but not yet glazed), including a birthday mug with all the children’s fingerprints, which will be glazed and fired for them, then decorated pizzas and played a few party games while they cooked. Everything over-ran, but nobody cared – except when we realised it was 4:30 and the Rainedrops were due back at home for tea… By the time I had rounded up the children it was nearly 5 and we didn’t get home until the time we had expected our guests to arrive. As it happened, we needn’t have worried, because they were running late too 😉

We got back to find the fridge had moved (it had been in front of the door/wall to the annexe) and there was a door where there had been a wall! The new shelves were now fully stocked, the flapjacks made, the climbing frames assembled and a downpipe inserted where there had been an open-ended gutter on the annexe. There were also a few new (to us) toys, including a lovely doll pram for the girls, as Bob’s parents had been and gone while we were out, bringing some bits which used to be SIL’s. Since A was happy in the car Mamgu and I took the chance to nip out to the shops and get a few more bits and pieces for the christening celebrations, which took a little longer than hoped – but again we needn’t have worried as we returned to the news that the Rainedrops had been held up even more and were now stuck on a totally closed M1.

By the time they arrived I had been able to decorate the cake (not great as no piping bag to be found so had to use bought plastic tube thing 🙁 ), get rice cooked and make a spicy tomato and green bean dish (PIL again) to serve with the curry. Then it was a flurry of getting children off to bed, all in the same room as this had been specially requested on condition of getting ready quickly before we could relax and chat – and finish embroidering the christening gown.

Oil and primroses

It’s been quite fulfilling in the garden the last couple of days 🙂

We bought a large table and two benches in the Focus sale a while ago (reduced by 75% and then a further 10% off thanks to our homemover card 😀 ) but hadn’t yet put them up, mostly due to time and weather not coinciding. One of the things we bought from Ikea on Sunday (shhh – we don’t do Sunday shopping really!) was a bottle of oil for treating outdoor furniture, so this week Bob has put the benches and table together and the children and I have treated them. It’s so easy! Nice to be using something the children can help with, too. While we were at it we did a children’s bench my dad got for the boys a few years ago – and it was unbelievably thirsty 😯 Must remember to do these things a bit more often!

Also this week we weeded one of the trugs (easy to do when you know nothing should be growing in it 😉 ) and planted it up with primroses brought back from Monster’s party (thanks Nic and Adey), using some amazing expanding compost we got from Wilkinson’s – fun in itself 😆 There are a few more left to plant, so I think another trug needs doing – a job for today before we head off to French.

Ups and downs

It feels like ages since I blogged properly (okay, it is ages since I blogged properly 😳 ) so I’m going to make a new start and get cracking, even if it feels I have nothing to say…

It’s been a long and fairly tough few months, what with having a baby, moving house, assembling costume, doing Kentwell, paddling at Muddlepuddle, having various friends to stay (making the most of now having space to put them in!) and squeezing in all the parties, trips and outings which seemed to come along, like buses, all at once. Much of it has been great fun, but it has not all been easy.

Our new house is great, but we’re still only half unpacked (if that) and now that I theoretically have time to get on with it A has decided it’s time to be clingy, toothy and permanently starving, so nothing much is getting done 🙁 The cake is marzipanned but not yet iced, the gown is here but not yet embroidered – although I do have the thread ready – or at least I did, if I can find it again… Still need to find the pink bow for the neck, or make another, since it currently has a blue one from SIL’s little boy’s christening.

We started term with a bit of a HE sort-out and a return to the use of individual trays for the children’s Maths and English books, which is great because on a good day they come down, have breakfast and then get cracking of their own accord 🙂 leaving the rest of the day free for whatever we all feel like doing next 😀 On a bad day, this takes until nearly teatime *sigh* and there is precious little rest of the day 🙁

The biggest challenge at the moment is clothes; we have piles of:
a) clothes which fit but need putting away,
b) clothes which don’t fit just now but will soon,
c) clothes which won’t fit for a while but are worth hanging onto until they do,
d) clothes which don’t fit anybody but get snuck back into the pile if anyone notices I’ve taken them out,
e) clothes to go to charity shop (which have to be smuggled out quietly to avoid creeping into category d))
f) clothes I haven’t even got round to looking at and categorising yet.

It doesn’t help that pile a) keeps getting larger – some of the things in there will probably need to go to b), c) or d) by the time we get to them! It’s all a bit overwhelming, so we tend to fling them into the spare room (no bed, so I guess we could reclassify it as a wardrobe 😉 ) and shut the door. I guess that’s fine while we can still shut the door… 😯

My personal demon just now is the internet. I’m sinking again (mostly tiredness, I hope) and it’s coming out in aimless drifting from site to site, telling myself I’m doing worthwhile things and finding out useful info, when really I’d be better off either in the real world or better still in bed. I think it’s a way of escaping – but things are still here when I drag myself back and then I’m just left frustrated and angry with myself for wasting yet more time. Even if I can’t do much just now, thanks to permanently feeding baby, I could be catching up on rest and reading, or even planning things for the next day – resolution for next week is to treat myself like the children and limit my PC time.

Ironically, just as I’m feeling like rubbish mum #1, I get a phone call from a woman I met at P&T a few weeks ago when it was doubling as a slingmeet. I demonstrated back carrying in a wrap and then lent her my purple waves (I had been thinking of selling it, but I’ve *missed* that wrap!) and haven’t heard a peep since, so the call was a relief but a bit unexpected. She was asking about returning the wrap (yay!) and then, obviously rather embarrassed, said “This might sound a bit odd, as I hardly know you, but I wanted to ask you something.” I made encouraging noises and she said “You seem to have a parenting style that’s like the one I aspire to, but I’m finding it really hard. Can I talk to you about it?” I didn’t know what to say! We talked AP a bit and I recommended Cosy Nostra (since hunnybeez has gone down the tubes), suggested she come along to P&T again, as I think over 50% of the mums there are distinctly AP, and offered to meet up whenever she likes, but I’m not entirely sure what she wants. I don’t think she‘s entirely sure what she wants – although I think the main thing she needs is a huge dose of self confidence (and I should know!)

Presumably, even when I feel I’m doing it all wrong, there’s something which looks right 😕 A few months ago the organiser of B-a-R asked me if I had thought of writing a book about parenting – hah! Me a parenting guru? I think not 😆
I guess that has to count as an up though? 😀

Taking advantage of a chance to type…

…and trying desperately to remember all we’ve been doing in the last month or so!

Bob took a week off, then went back to work because we thought the time would be more useful for moving, so the children and I have been doing a rather laid-back form of HE (I mentioned elsewhere how bad I felt at them not doing “proper” HE and it was pointed out to me that they are actually doing childcare 101 – a very useful course 😆 ) and quite a few trips out, which I guess if I’m completely honest are only partly because there happen to be lots of things on just now and largely because I feel a bit guilty at them missing out…

w/c 25th March
A’s first trip out was on the day after her birth, when she and I took the boys to Z’s birthday party. The boys had a great time, A was much admired and I was able to sit down, drink tea and eat chocolate cake 😀

My sister phoned on that (Sunday) evening to ask if she could pop in to see us the next day as she happened to be coming over for a conference. Bob’s parents were also visiting and we had J as usual, so the house was a bit crowded, but it was lovely to see everyone and Polly had brought Christmas presents for the children (shows how often we see her!) which went down very well. We saw her again on Tuesday between conference and train and Bob introduced her to the wonders of flickr :mrgreen:

Wednesday found the children and me at Bouncearound (just squeezing in before the Easter break) while Bob stayed at home to do jobs. We had a bit of a late start due to waiting for m/w visit, but were in time for songtime, when L was presented with a gift for A and a book for her to say well done on bringing her new baby sister. We stayed late so the boys could help with the tidying up, as usual – if only they were so eager at home 😆

Thursday was p&t but Rebecca had offered to do it for us, so we only had to turn up, show off the baby and offer a little token help, which was great.

Friday club was another chance for Bob to do jobs while I took the children out. We had a drama teacher in to do a session with the children, which gave the mums a chance to sit and chat (and coo over A) and then did an Easter egg hunt, which made us late leaving but I think the children felt was a necessary part of the last session before Easter! Having left late we then got stuck in horrendous traffic which made us even later so that L missed her French class and we arrived only just in time for music. Bob met us there so I was able to sit back and rest again. Tea was quiche kindly given to us by one of the Friday club mums.

The weekend is a bit of a blur – will have to come back to that if I think of anything, especially as I’m now NAK so typing is trickier 😕

Excuse me while I scream!

The last week has averaged at least an hour a day (often more) of solid tantrum from L. How does she keep it up for so long? What do I do when she starts hitting me, kicking me, pulling my hair and screaming in my face? Or worse, doing it to the boys?
It’s completely unpredictable what will set her off, so it’s virtually impossible to head her off. On Monday it was because she wanted some oat cakes she’d spotted in the car on the way to the boys’ sports session, nothing else would do, and she spent the entire hour sitting on my lap screaming that she wanted oat cakes (having said that, she did get a chair for me to sit on so that she could sit on my lap 😆 because I couldn’t hold her up any more and she wanted to be carried; I couldn’t put her down because she was trying her best to climb up my legs!) – then when the boys came out she was fine and played with them quite happily 🙄 That was in the morning. In the evening she did another big rant because I offered the children a choice of soup or risotto and she wanted pasta. When I’d finally managed to get soup made (stepping over and round her when necessary as she was lying on the floor clinging to my legs) she ate it quite happily and came back for seconds. *sigh*
That kind of set the pattern for the week. It doesn’t help that J is ill, so exceedingly fragile and responding to every little thing in a totally ott way 🙁 The best thing though, is that L has started coming back into bed with us again and then has to be cuddled up to mummy (daddy will not do), preferably with an arm around my neck and her face touching mine, then if I try to turn over (which I do quite frequently now, as my hips start to seize up, especially when she is there so I can’t sleep in the positions I prefer) she screams blue murder, pulls me back, clambers over me etc etc 😥 So Bob and I are both exhausted too :wall:
I’m trying my best to be patient, because I appreciate that things are all a bit unsettled for her atm, with new baby on the way, big brother shrieking at her for the slightest thing, we’ve just been away on holiday and so forth, but I’m really not sure how to handle this; neither of the boys did the tantrum thing and none of the tactics we used to use on L seem to work just now. A friend has at least been pointing out that when she is older and puts her mind to doing something she’ll be able to use that amazing tenacity to get to the top!
Tbh, I kept expecting her to come down with something too, because that was the only time the boys used to behave anything like this, but she’s just as healthy and cheeky as ever – meanwhile I feel like death warmed up and keep finding myself withdrawing from the situation, which I know really doesn’t help; I just can’t cope with this right now 😥
Sorry – I’ll shut up and go to bed now. Couldn’t go earlier, despite being exhausted, because Bob was trying to settle L again, after she decided 11 was a good time to wake up and start shouting…

Wednesday… and Thursday

Last B-a-R before Christmas and J wanted to take home-made chocolates for all the helpers (especially Dave, his favourite) so the first job today was shaping chocolate ganache balls and rolling them in cocoa and/or icing sugar 🙂
Unfortunately Bob woke up ill and J woke up crabby so not as good a start to the day as we’d hoped, but eventually we had a couple of nice packages of freshly-made chocs to take and three children actually dressed and wearing socks, shoes and coats. Thought we’d be horribly late, but the day started to improve as we reached the end of the road just in time to catch the far more direct bus (which only goes every 40 minutes at fairly random times, as opposed to the other which goes every ten minutes – in theory anyway – so that really was a good feeling!) and so were able to get there at about the time we’d expected to without the strops, the hunt for missing socks (where do they go?) etc etc.
Chocs went down very well (Dave wasn’t there, but J made them promise to save him some 😆 ) and the children all enjoyed doing lots of craft (making glittery angels on straws to turn them into puppets) and then K and L joined in songs and listened to stories while J made even more angel puppets and chatted to friendly grown-ups. We couldn’t stay until the end of tidy up time, which he was a little disappointed about, but the promise of drama (brought forward by an hour, hence the not being able to stay) induced him to leave without too much fuss.
Drama was good (L, who is not officially part of the class, hovered by the door in such a way that when the teacher asked someone else to come in and sit down she was able to convince herself that she was included too, teacher didn’t seem to mind and L was then picked to play the part of Cinderella, lines and all! K was fairy godmother because he had his own wand, well glittery angel on a stick 😆 ) and looks set to continue next year too – good news for the children if not for my purse!
After that we wandered towards the shopping centre to see what Santa’s Grotto looks like this year, going via the bakery where we hoped to get gingerbread men. Bakery was closed, so we consoled ourselves with a trip to a couple of charity shops where J spent his (accumulated because I keep forgetting to give it to him) pocket money on a micromachines lorry (£3 well spent, as it turned out when we got it home 😉 ) and also managed to find a pair of salopettes in his size which should make up for the disappointment of having outgrown his snowsuit last year 🙂 Oh and a video of Le Roi Lion, which we figured must count as educational!
Since the cake shop was closed as well we had no choice but to go to Millie’s Cookies and make a selection there, including a double chocolate cookie for Bob “to make him feel better” 😀
Sadly, Santa’s grotto had been vandalised so there was no animated show to watch 🙁 and we then had to walk home in the cold and dark – not so pleasant, although the cookies helped…
We were supposed to be helping to decorate the tree at church in the evening, but with Bob really not feeling up to going out decided to give it a miss, then suddenly remembered that there was a local preachers meeting at 7:30, which both of us are supposed to attend (I have a three line whip as a local preacher, while Bob has an open invitation as a worship leader) and it was too late to send apologies. Children had eaten, but not us, as we had intended to get a curry or something equally comforting later, so I had to quickly grab something to keep me going and then leg it, leaving Bob with boys in bed but L still wide awake. The meeting was good (got there at 8, but managed to sneak in quietly) and was followed by a study session on overseas aid and theology by Stephen Plant (who helps to run local ministerial training college and whose wife is director of MRDF, so he’s well qualified!) which I had intended to miss in favour of food and sleep, but ended up staying to hear. Was glad I had – lots to ponder on, but not here and not now…
L was still awake when I got back *sigh* so no chance of an early night, which I guess means I shouldn’t be surprised at how tired I was today 🙁

Bob still ill (another day off work) but able to help us get ready for parents and tots, as long as he knew he’d get the chance to sleep later. P & T was very quiet, in a number of people sense at least. We had known that J and E wouldn’t be there, but hardly anybody else came either. One of our regular mums arrived with her little boy, but left shortly afterwards because he was bored 🙁 I think the main problem there was that he likes to roam (forever in the kitchen under my feet 😆 ) and with the hall still blocked off and rather limited space he was wanting to go up and down the stairs instead. Mum didn’t want to keep following him up and down but didn’t want to let him go alone either (fairly vicious stone steps) and there was no one else to distract him (J and K sitting doing maths and L playing quietly by herself) so they gave up. Some time later another regularish mum appeared, with a daughter who was happy to just potter with L, then an HE boy with his mum and that was it until snack time, when Rebecca and R came and then Lucy arrived (for the first time) with her three, which livened things up considerably (especially when they found the box of noisy instruments I had foolishly got down from the cupboard and proceeded to set up a marching band up and down the aforementioned stone stairs 😆 ). The younger older children also spent a fair bit of time playing with K’s micromachines fire engine, while the older ones made snowflakes (and lots of mess on the floor) and we all did lots of stencilling and colouring to calm down at the end – mostly using lovely wooden tree decorations from yellow moon last year which turned out to be ideal as Christmas templates 🙂 Oh and J made a complicated pattern for Bob to trace “to help him forget his pain” – only a bad cold really, but nice idea!
No Gina so no piano 🙁 but we came home “to look after Daddy” instead, which turned into Bob looking after me as I was so exhausted that I just stumbled up to bed leaving him to supervise lunch.
Went to collect B and F with just J (K and L curled up on settee with Bob), which turned out to be just as well as weather was foul and B kept us waiting outside his classroom for 15 minutes – goodness knows what he was doing 🙄 – and then had forgotten his bookbag so had to go back! F was really tired (as usual) so ended up having a carry from about halfway home (good job I’d taken a sling just in case!), which really made me notice the difference between a child who is used to being carried and one who is not. There is not a huge difference in size between F and K, but he is far easier to carry because he uses his body to help. F loves to be carried, but either just sits there or leans back 😯 – it makes her feel much heavier and even slightly unstable.
When we got in we warmed up with frothy hot chocolate and filled up with nachos because everyone was starving, then made F a pouch sling to carry her baby (and had to make one for L too because hers was in the car and Bob had taken that to go into work to get his laptop so he could catch up before going back to work tomorrow) and then I decided to give in and just sit them down in front of a DVD for a bit, since they were getting a bit tired and hyper. Bob came back with pizza (yay!) so we reached a suitable stopping point in Jonny English and ate, then their au pair arrived before we could get back to JE – probably not a bad thing or we’d have been under pressure to let them watch to the end.
At least with everyone being so tired they were all in bed and asleep well before 7:30 (official bedtime), leaving us to collapse and do nothing much, even though we should be trying to catch up on work/housework/sorting 🙄 and I think I may just go to bed now myself…

Monday… and Tuesday (and a Jolie Ronde ramble)

Monday

No J and E today (I hope, cos otherwise we missed them :shock:) but CHEF sports, which the boys enjoyed, then off to the park, which I think they enjoyed even more 😀 L seems to have adopted SB as an honorary big sister and spent a lot of time playing in her vicinity, if not actually with her.
Then we came home and did a bit of a manic tidy, as well as some Maths and English which suddenly became incredibly appealing when mentioned in the same breath as tidying up 🙄
Friends who are moving much nearer very soon came along here for tea (after collecting keys to their new house 🙂 ) and lots of increasingly riotous play.

Tuesday
Maths and English passed off relatively painlessly today, then we pottered, made lots of (very glittery) Christmas cards, the children did some online activities from the Natural History Museum website and I finally got round to cancelling my ATL membership – usually I only think of it when we get the DD notification, which is too late! I shall miss the mailings and magazines (not that I have time to read them all anyway) but it’s silly to keep paying for something we don’t need. Although, having said that, I’m thinking very seriously of doing a Jolie Ronde franchise, so may decide to take up ATL again anyway. Ho hum. Jolie Ronde is fab! The boys have both done classes (J still does, but there isn’t one currently for K’s age group) and learned loads whilst really enjoying themselves too. Unfortunately the franchise is not cheap and even once the up-front fees are paid you still have to buy materials through them (fair enough) and pay a royalty per pupil per class (so classes would have to be charged for even if I did them as an HE activity iyswim) – and then when you finish all teaching materials have to be returned 🙁 I’ve been canvassing CHEF to see if there’s enough interest (you have to have a minimum number of pupils to start too) and it looks promising, but I think to make it worth doing I’d have to find one or two ordinary classes to teach as well, where I wouldn’t feel bad charging enough to start to recoup some set-up costs and where I would have a straightforward group of children of similar ages and abilities. The course is set up to run in fairly strict (school) age groups, with a few years of entirely oral/aural work and then gradual introduction of reading and writing from about age 6/year 2. I know that some of the children in those age groups interested in an HE group would not yet be reading/writing, plus there will be children who have not done any French… A good reason, I guess, for it to be an HE parent who takes on the teaching rather than a “normal” teacher 😉
Anyway, I digress :frog:
So, Tuesday…
After lunch K sat in front of a large pile of shoes claiming to be unable to find his pair until we were late for dance, at which point I gave up and got them for him (clearly my eyesight is far better than his 😛 ) and we then had to drive in order not to miss the class 😳 but salved our consciences (well, mine) by collecting three heavy boxes of books from Bob to save him having to carry them home over the next three nights. The class was good, apparently, and K came out full of beans 🙂 L had said she wanted to go, but changed her mind when we got there so we spent the time reading our way through the pile of books some kind soul had left on the windowsill while J worked his way through a magazine (an educational, age-appropriate one, honest – can’t remember the title but it was so good we’re thinking of taking out a subscription) and we all cooed at baby R 😀
Just enough time at home to open the boxes and see which books were to hide, which to put aside for other people’s present and which could be looked at straight away and then had to rush out to J’s French club, where L and I huddled under our lovely new babywearing poncho and read more stories with K – oh and excavated my handbag to find lots of only slightly fluffy mini Smarties from some long-forgotten party bag, which made K and l very happy 😉
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig, via a pop to the Co-op to get ingredients because we suddenly remembered that it is the last B-a-R of term tomorrow and J wanted to make chocolates to give to all the helpers, then back home to watch Blue Peter and make truffles of various sorts – the ganache ones can’t be shaped until tomorrow, when the chocolate mix will be set enough to roll into balls, so that will be a nice start to the day :cheer: until we suddenly realised how late it was and had to phone Bob to bring chips home for tea ( 😳 but we did have lots of veggies with them 😉 ) or we’d have starved and had to eat all our freshly-made chocolates :norty: 😆
Just as they were going to bed J remembered that we had mentioned St Nicholas’ Day when talking about Advent a few days ago so they all had to get shoes out to put by the front door with apples and carrots in for his horse – and now Bob and I have to scour the cupboards (or perhaps pop out once again to the good old Co-op) for something to put in them…