One word? When seven would do…

This

This

This

I was mid post and the laptop crashed when I put the photocard reader in 👿

So, I had mentioned how nice an evening we had last night with Frazer. Just chit-chat, wine drinking, very good curry if I do say so myself (loving my slow cooker 🙂 ) but all very pleasant.

Dreadful night’s sleep with Tarly appearing within moments of me getting into bed at about 11.30pm wailing about wanting to sleep in our bed. She tossed and turned and talked in her sleep until I gave up around 3am and went off to her bed. The rest of the house woke at 6am and the children were in and out of her room until I gave in and got up at 7. So feeling pretty tired today but determined to remain in a good mood as it just has such an impact on the children’s behaviour when I am cheerier.

First thing I drank tea and caught up online – enjoying all the ‘complimentary’ stuff people have been saying about me in the windows ;-). The children predictably did their version of normals – watching W&G and playing with geomags and soft toys 😉 Davies made his own geomag version of cusinaire rods (just can’t spell that word!)
He’s been playing with number concepts a lot again lately but as usual he backs right off if I try and get involved or suggest stuff so I’m leaving him to it, praising when I can and answering any questions he asks.

Then Scarlett got out her princess paints and painting book and did some of that very nicely and accurately. I do have a picture but she was only wearing a vest and on closer viewing it is not altogether suitable so I shan’t post it! Davies watched something about Egypt on Class TV while I made his chocolate factory, which turned out to be rather fiddly and not at all sturdy enough to withstand much playing with but he seems to like it.

They played with that for a while and I looked up some info about Shrove Tuesday online and then told them a bit about Easter, the symbolism of Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs and how some people believe Jesus died for all our sins. We made a geomag cross and a geomag Jesus so I could illustrate how he died (geomags, the ultimate educational prop!) and then we talked about Lent, giving things up, why pancakes are made on Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day and how they’re made. Not sure how much went in but Davies at least seemed to pay attention to it all.

Then I headed into the kitchen and made up some batter which I left to rest while I sorted out the kitchen cupboards in a vain attempt to find a frying pan I am still sure we have somewhere. It was fruitless and it would probably be impossible to the casual observer that I’ve done so but I did reorganise them a bit at the same time. Also stuck three loads of washing on the line as it was breezy and sunny. I’ve just brought them in actually as it started to snow but it saved them being draped round the house or in the tumble drier for hours, they are now just damp and airing.

I then had a little production line of pancakes going with the children reappearing every few minutes for more as I cooked them. I’ve made another batch of batter up this afternoon and there is a large pile of them waiting for the kids tea and for me and Ady to eat this evening. There may well be a knack to pancake making but with each lot of batter I veered between expertly good turning out consistently well cooked, wafer thin, perfectly round pancakes which I could toss like a pro to turning about every fourth one into a soggy heap so I’m inclined to think it is more to do with luck!

I’ve offered reading aloud several times today but no one has taken me up on it (ingrates!) prefering instead to experiment with geomags and a magnetic Dora book and a variety of cutlery 🙄 – ah well I’m sure there’s lots of science in there somewhere!

this one.

She was a gorgeous baby really, but this wasn’t her best photo. Doesn’t she look like Ady though?

Thanks Kath 🙂

My window-y thing is here, please pop along and join in!

And for anyone who’s in a picky frame of mind 😉

It’s been a pretty nice day today actually. The children have been really, really well behaved, which means I’ve managed to remain calm, patient and loving all day and it does make such a difference if I’m not watching the clock from about 3pm gagging for my first glass of wine and for them to go to bed!

First thing they watched W&G twice 🙄 and played with geomags, currently the game with them is to create one dimensional characters using the rods as straight lines and the balls as joints – skeleton style really. So Davies creates his W&G line up and then ‘plays’ with them. Scarlett’s current favourite game is using about eight of the soft toys who usually live on her bed. She brings them into the lounge, lines them up in a very specific order and proceeds to do what I suppose is her equivalent of me playing with my teddies and creating tea parties or picnics when I was a child. At least three times a day I will bung them all back in her bedroom and at least three times a day she will go and retrieve them and line them all up again!

I spent some time working out a shopping list for this week’s dinners and then we headed off to Sainsburys. Davies elected to sit in the trolley (a real squeeze!) and Tarly wanted to walk alongside me. They were perfect children for the whole time we were in there which must have been close to an hour as we were talking and counting and stuff as we went round. Scarlett walked round the whole of the fruit and veg naming stuff and asking whether we needed it. A woman actually stopped and listened and said to me ‘she knows more about fruit and veg than most eight year olds!’ I laughed and said ‘yes but she doesn’t actually eat any of them!’ which isn’t strictly true but she was pulling off a good impression of a vegan and it scared me! 😉 She helped count six carrots into a bag and learnt about checking for freshness / ripeness on certain things. Green bananas as we already have a couple of yellow ones at home, firm grapes rather than squishy ones, that sort of thing. They begged for strawberries so I got some and we had a chat about them not being seasonal and how plants and flowers are ‘forced’ or ‘hothoused’ at times of year or even countries they wouldn’t naturally grow in.

Round and about the aisles with Davies reaching the higher stuff from his trolley vantage point and Tarly bending down for lower stuff, lots of counting for Tarly and addition maths for Davies. They even managed to keep it together while I loaded the conveyor belt, packed and paid so I was really really pleased with them. 🙂

We then headed to the library where we had several books to return. As we left the house the post had arrived with my HEAS newsletter and a couple of World Book Day tokens so we popped into the bookshop in town too. Davies originally chose the Harry & The Bucket of Dinosaurs book out for the WBD promotion but they didn’t have any of the more girlie titles in yet and then Davies spotted a make your own Willy Wonka’s factory book and Tarly spotted a Paint A Princess book complete with heart shaped watercolours so as they’d been so good at the supermarket I added a couple of quid each to their tokens and sent them off to pay for them, which they both did beautifully with plenty of pleases, thank yous and lots of chatting to the shop assistant. I was really pleased to see the delight with which they ran to the children’s section at the back of the bookshop actually. They dashed down there, carefully selected a title each off the shelves and settled straight down on the floor to ‘read’ them. Scarlett adores those ‘That’s not my….’ Usborne books, we have that’s not my bunny and that’s not my fairy at home and they are firm favourites of hers. There was a That’s not my mermaid version which she read through making good guesses on what it said. I love how much they love books. 🙂

Then we went back to the library and spent about 20 minutes sat on the floor there looking through children’s books. They both chose a couple each and I chose a couple of carefully selected ones for them too. While I was looking they’d sat close to each other flicking through a book together and deciding what they thought it was about from the pictures. Davies then grabbed a craft activity book too so we got all those out and came home.

I offered to read to them or for them to do their new painting / Willy Wonka books but they declined and went back to their games for the rest of the afternoon. So I flicked through the YH booklet that also arrived in the post marking off ones available for Halloween with enough beds that are not too far for Joyce. Slightly limits the choice really 😉 I’ll shortlist the ones that qualify and then check availability before posting a short list in the next couple of days for us to decide on and get booked.

Frazer is here for dinner tonight (chicken curry already sorted in the slow cooker 🙂 ) so I’ve been grilling him about Fiona 😉 whilst the kids leapt around him on their space hoppers for a mad half hours exercise at the end of the day.

Tomorrow I have planned pancake making, some reading and maybe some bird seed cake making as we seem to be attracting a fair few feathery visitors to our original ones which the children are loving watching through the big lounge window so I want to keep encouraging that.

Happy Birthday Layla 🙂

Have a fab day darling!

Happy Birthday Sarah 🙂 Hope you have a lovely day.

Happy Birthday 3rd Maya a.k.a as Titch, formerly of blogs such as Dancing Giraffes and The Kitchen Sink 🙂

We’ve been to Chris and Julie’s today. Chris said he’d take Ady to this off road four wheel drive thingy place for his birthday present last year so he thought he’d better actually follow it through before his birthday this year rolls round 🙂 They were semi planning on taking Davies but decided at the last minute that he was probably happier playing with Tarly, Jack and Maisie and Ady wanted to check it out first for suitability. So me and Julie stayed at their house with the children while Ady and Chris went off with one of Chris’ mates to do blokey, brotherly, bonding stuff. They came back quite muddy about four hours later only able to communicate through the power of the male grunt and with testosterone levels so high you could taste them in the air! 😉 Well they enjoyed it anyway. Ady might flickr later on adybloke I suspect. It sounded ace actually, I’m quite jealous. Towing mishaps aside I really like driving and would love to have a go at something like that. I once harboured a childhood ambition to learn to drive HGVs (although I think it could have been inspired by Long Distance Clara in Pigeon Street tbh!), so I made them promise I can go too and have a go next time. 🙂

The children pretty much entertained themselves, there was much jumping on Jack and Maisie’s beds, playing with their pretend food and kitchen and then we let them outside for about an hour where they did lots of running around and digging in mud and came back in with rosy winter cheeks glowing and runny noses.

Julie and I drank tea, talked about Melrose, Kessingland, HESFES, teenage sex and drug taking, Home Education, LEAs and home visits, Educational Philosophies, Feminism, what we considered ourselves to ‘be’ when completing forms (Julie’s a ‘housewife’, I am resolutely NOT and I explained why – mostly because I could get arrested under the trades descriptions act if I tried to pretend to be such a thing but also because it is so not what I do)), what exactly feminism is and what the patriarchy is, how our views and what we get angry and riled about change over time and so on. We also discussed books – she’s reading We need to talk about Kevin just now and recommends it. Interesting chats all round really.

Ady and Chris came back around 3.30pm and we watched Chris’ video footage of the day which was exciting as it was just him sticking the vidoe camera up to the windscreen and then we headed for home via McDs for the kids’ tea.

The children had a bath and I read them all but two of a boxed set of Fairy stories – so we had Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Puss in Boots, Hansel and Gretel and The Frog Prince. They really like having stories in the bath and it does restrict the amount of crazy splashing they do. 🙂

Scarlett is already fast asleep having run around and bounced about for most of the day, Davies is still fighting sleep but unlikely to last much longer. Roast dinner is cooking, bath is run and wine is a-waiting. 🙂

Tomorrow is Day One of the Five Week Rolling Menu and I will be creating my shopping list and shopping accordingly.

And finally the title of this post is a lyric from Tubthumping by Chumbawamba who I only knew of from that particular song being *everywhere* in about 1997, their lesser played follow up Amnesia and the fact that one of them chucked a jug of water over John Prescott at The Brits. I thought they’d gone off to the big collection of 90s stuff in the sky along with 2 Unlimited, Gary Barlow and global hypercolour T shirts but it would appear not. At this very moment they are part of a festival of folky type artists touring the country and Julie went to see them last week. She put on their cd which she bought at the concert and it certainly bore no resemblance to anyone getting knocked down and getting back up again. Just rather surprised me is all.

My brother has this girlfriend. Now this is Quite Big News for several reasons. Firstly he is 30 this year and still lives at home and has not to my knowledge had a girlfriend since Kelly Chapman when we were at middle school! Secondly there was this theory doing the rounds (well OK Ady thought) he might be gay. Thirdly, well it just brings out the annoying big sister in me and despite being 32, married and with two children of my own the temptation to sing songs about Frazer and Fiona up a tree is just toooo great! 🙂

So we’ve known that Fiona exists for a couple of weeks now. Dad told us about her first and then I quizzed Frazer about her and he was all newly in love and gushing about her. Now they have spent practically every night for the last month either at my parents or at her place together so it all seems a bit grown up and serious. And frankly my biggest worry is for my children – if Frazer ever had kids they would imediately usurp my children in my parent’s affections and I bet they’d send them to proper school and not take them to youth hostels in Scotland and fields in Suffolk! And it would make Christmas even more expensive! 😉

So my parents have met Fiona and in Mum’s eyes she’s quickly gone from ‘Fiona’ said in hushed and awed tones as in ‘Fiona – the one who is going to take Frazer off my hands, sort him out once and for all, make him leave home, start eating a wider diet than McCains Oven Chips and toast and maybe give me grandchildren with Davies as a last name instead of just a first one!’ to ‘That Fiona’ said with utter disdain and all hope dashed. Apparently she wears scruffy shoes and utterly failed to engage with my Mum in conversation about favourite baby names. Or something.

This afternoon I popped round the shop for some poppadums and lemonade and there was the usual group of teenagers hanging around the shop trying to persuade people going in to buy cigarettes and cinzano for them and as I went in a saw a scruffy looking woman looking a bit shifty and sort of skulking about inside the shop. I stood next to this bloke who was standing infront of the poppadums and he looked at me and said hello and I realised it was Frazer. At which point I realised the scruffy woman was standing rather close to us and was about to take Frazer’s arm and lead him away from her incase she was a loony stalker type when he introduced as us. Yep indeed this was Fiona! She’s clearly very shy as she sort of muttered ‘hello’ and then sped off into another aisle leaving us to chat for a while. We then queued up together and she continued to wander round the shop coming over occassionally to rest her head on his shoulder and ask if he wanted red or white wine (wine! wine? my brother doesn’t drink wine!). But anyway she seems to have had a very positive effect on him. He was very much ‘the man’ putting his arm round her and doing lots of ‘looking after her’ type body language. He’s actually quite quiet, shy and lacking in confidence so I guess he was never going to pair up with someone loud, overbearing or OTT really. Hopefully I’ll get to meet her again in some other situation. Ady was dead jealous though when I burst in the front door yelling ‘I’ve seen Fiona! Na na na nanah!!!’. My family, as mature as Hugh’s group of friends when Julia Roberst comes to dinner! 🙂

In other news today, Dad came over and teased Tarly then he and Ady went to get some logs. Tarly played with some scales, a calculator and the toy till. I started my career as a checkout operator 🙂 Her and I also did some reading today although we’ve not tried 100EL lessons yet. Then she brought out all her Dora books – I think she has about 12 – so we looked at them.

Davies has played with the geomags for ages, watched W&G, did lots of drawings on his easel and cultivated a whole new range of gestures and facial expressions to use while wearing his glasses 🙂 They really suit him actually, he has his old fogey / mad professor / quirky ways anyway and they sort of help! He only wore them for about ten minutes but there’s certainly no reluctance to do so.

And Ady, well he chopped wood!

Dad hung around for lunch and then headed off, Ady and the kids spent ages bouncing on space hoppers while I read various things about feminism and pondered long and deep on it. Then got bored of that and did some more trivial blog quizzes! 🙂 I also made snickerdoodles again which went down just as well as last weekend.

We also watched a Michael Jackson show on VH1 so we were singing along and Davies was trying to recreate some of the dancing 🙂 Good old Jacko eh! 🙂

You are Alicia. You are intelligent but you can be

cruel and you are always up to mischief

Which Malory Towers character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ariel is a totally spunky mermaid that loves to try

new things!!! She is also stubborn but luvs

to daydream…..That means you’re probably

really creative! You know what you want and

you’re gonna do what you can to get it, so

you have a strong spirit!!!

What Disney Princess Are You???? *pretty pics!!!*
brought to you by Quizilla

Your wise quote is: “Our greatest glory is not

in never falling, but in rising everytime we

fall” by Confucius.
Yes indeed, you see true strenght can only be

seen when a person has “fallen”.

Only then one can tell how they will handle

it. Just don’t make others fall so you can

know who they really are. You on the other

hand may be a very quick recoverer and don’t

let people bring you down. You are your own,

and you’re find with that. Emotional issues

is something you handle rather nicely.

What wise quote fits you? [pics]
brought to you by Quizilla

Wrath

Which of the seven sins are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

You Are a Little Scary

You’ve got a nice edge to you. Use it.

I’ve been waiting for this one to turn up in the side bar after catching a glimpse of it earlier in the week and I clearly have lost my edge altogether. Hell I used to have a full on reputation for being scary…

Happy Birthday Elinor a.k.a. SB from The Beans 🙂