One word? When seven would do…

and all through the house… clothes were drying on radiators and many cakes were nestling in tupperware…

Poor Tarly had a rough night last night, it was 11 before either of the kids were in bed and then she was in our bed by about 2am. She said she’d had a bad dream but during the night she was burning hot and I woke at one point to find her clamped around me like a limpet. She’s been fine all day today though so I’m assuming it is too many cold days and late nights this week – camp is sure to sort that out 😉

I was off to work this morning and arrived to learn there was a storytelling event happening. Apparently a bid was made way back last year for funding for specific events, resources and materials to provide a better service for disabled and special needs children. The bid was successful but when the election happened a freeze was put on the cash. It was since lifted but as it needed to be spent by the end of March 2011 and we had missed a large chunk of the time planned to spend it in they took half the money instead.

One of the events was a tailored storytime and activity event today at Lancing library but they had fallen down rather on their promotion of the event – not least because people like me didn’t know about it and have therefore not been promoting it and they were unsure how many children would come along.

So much so that when Russell – who has just been promoted and is now properly important 🙂 – was fretting I offered to bring in Davies and Scarlett for numbers which he very gratefully agreed to so I rang Ady and he dropped them off.

The storytelling was being done by Orange Apples who are awesome 🙂 They told some very high impact interactive stories and then did some crafts around them. Ady came back to collect the kids but it was all still going on. Scarlett elected to go back home with Ady but Davies stayed for the second part as he was loving it. The second half seemed even better as they handed out sheets of paper and talked all the kids through folding it as part of the story which included a hat, a kite, various other things with every fold, a highly interactive story about pirates and a boat that got trashed with them all tearing off the relevant bits of their boat – very impressed with them :).

I had a fairly frantic morning generally trying to get stuff ready to go on holiday and catch up with James who I only see once a fortnight and Russell who I don’t see that often at all aswell as do work. We were supposed to be going round to see friends this afternoon but they cancelled as their kids were ill. It was sort of a relief as we really had far too much to be doing to be off socialising but a shame not to see them just the same. C text me but I’d not managed to text her back so M rang me. M was the first person I thought I loved back when I was 16 and I cherished a crush on him for several years on and off and we did share a kiss or two back 20 years ago. We’re both happily married with two children now but I still had a brief thrill when my boss said to me ‘phone call for you – M someone?’ 😆 Quick phone catch up and a promise to get together before we head off.

Davies and I came home and we all had lunch. Ady went to fill up all the chicken feeders and waterers. Dad will come in to let them in and out and will be over here for much of next week decorating but we thought it would be good to be prepared. I needed to go to the supermarket to get stuff for camp dinner tomorrow and breakfast on Monday as the big food shop isn’t arriving until Monday morning. Not totally straightforward as some attendees seem to be wavering about coming tomorrow. Both Davies and Scarlett wanted to come with me so we headed off with our list and got everything we needed.

Back home Ady finished off putting things into the middle of rooms so Dad can come in and paint walls and I got cracking on baking – three cakes baked, decorated and packed up. I directed the kids to gather clothing for the week before finally gathering my own and hanging out the last load of washing to dry, hopefully in time to be packed tomorrow morning.

The kids went to bed, Ady and I had baths and ate dinner, there is a large pile of stuff by the front door ready to load in the car. And so go bed/

In love with my friend Tasha who checked on the start time for today’s Stone Age workshop and realised it was 10am, not 1030am as I had thought, text me to let me know so we could arrange to pick them up half an hour earlier. And she made soup and cheese scones and brought enough to share with me :). ♥

Less in love with trying to put my new spare wheel back in the special hanging under the car place. I failed and got black hands in the process. Serves me right for being impatient about just sitting in the car waiting for the windscreen to defrost and thinking I’d use the time to do something efficient instead. ♥

In love with my fab local Home Ed friends. M who ‘found’ the flint knapper guy and set up the workshops, Caz & Bid who provided the venue, D, K, O and various others who have been at the workshops, all the kids mates who have also been there and made their learning a fun, group experience. ♥

Slightly in love with flint knapper guy. Partially due to his Ray Mears-ness, I do love a man with strong arms and thighs who knows enough to hunt meat for me and show me how to make nettle cordage but mostly for his passion about his craft and his excellent gentle, patient teaching methods both to our children and to the interested adults in the group. ♥

In love with Ady who drove to Croydon to get stuff for camp for me, got a fire going when I was freezing cold and has changed the bedcovers ♥

Deeply in love with my children who have had the exact same long day at the end of a long week as me but still ended it happy, lovely and gorgeous with Scarlett skipping off to bed declaring it ‘one day til camp, eight days til the zoo and nine days til my birthday!’.

The workshop today was Stone Age harpoon making. It wasn’t cheap at £25 each for the kids but worth every penny I thought. First Karl talked about what harpoons were used for and how hunting and gathering worked in prehistoric times. They discussed the types of animals hunted and what tools and methods would have been used. Next which materials and techniques used to make the tools to make the weapons.

Karl had some deer antlers and showed us how they would have removed strips of antler to create the harpoon and then handed out an antler ‘blank’ each. Next step was to create a saw from flint which he did by making thin slices of flint then nicking out a series of teeth
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which was then used to saw a series of parallel lines along the length of one side. This was hard work and required patience but gave a really clear idea of just how labour intensive tool making was. We finished the morning session with everyone having a harpoon with lines sawn. The kids went off to run around for an hour while the grown ups sat and chatted. Really enjoyed talking to everyone about the meaning of life and simpler versus richer.

After lunch we brought out the metal and used little hacksaws to finish off demonstrating how much easier tool making was once created materials and tools had been discovered and invented.

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Next the in between bits were snipped out, again using modern tools for speed, then back to a knapped bit of flint to be used as a polisher to take off some of the outer brown layer of antler. Karl talked about how archaeological finds from this era show they had started to apply decoration to tools by this time.

The final stage was to drill a hole through the harpoon so cordage could be attached. The harpoon would then be thrown by hand or attached to a stick. The drilling was done with another piece of knapped flint, this time into a tiny sharp point turned and turned in the same place on one side of the harpoon.

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This was hard work, not least because the flint sharp bit kept breaking off. Tasha and I grabbed hammerstones so we could re-knap to put new sharp bits on them and many of the group joined in with our re-doing of ‘U can’t touch this’ by MC Hammer, using instead of Hammertime, Hammerstone. Very catchy :).

Once you were nearly through the antler if you held it up you could see light through it and knew you were nearly there. I encouraged Davies and Scarlett to ‘drill for Jesus’ as we had ‘seen the light’

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Then they were done 🙂

The kids all went off for half an hours more playing while we had another cup of tea and some cake and chatted a bit more.

Then we came home, dropping Tasha and Toby off on the way. I put the chickens away and Ady got home shortly after us. We then had a dilemma about eating as our initial plan had been fish and chips for dinner before going back out but noone was really hungry enough for dinner so we all had a piece of toast and voted to get KFC on the way home for late dinner instead.

We were off to see an adaptation of A Christmas Carol at Worthing theatre. I’d booked in as part of my drive to do lots of theatres and cinema visits and thought it would be perfect a couple of days before Christmas camp to get us in a festive mood. Really it was a but much at the end of a long week, on an evening that could have been better spent preparing for camp / getting the house ready to be decorated, at the end of a day already spent doing lots of sitting down concentrating but it was really good and worth all of the above minor quibbles.

We all really enjoyed it and although tired and very cold were glad we went. We got a bucket of chicken on the way home, ate and snuggled and the kids went to bed just before 11 and were asleep very soon afterwards – they don’t need to be up in the morning anyway.

I do need to be up in the morning as I’m working and still have stacks to do for camp but it’ll all come together, or it won’t and that won’t matter either. Friends, mulled wine, high possibility of snow and plenty of Christmas cheer, what more could one possibly need and how little could anything else matter?

The blog title is inspired by Scarlett who asked ‘what day is it today?’ and when answered ‘Friday’ replied with ‘Friday, I’m in love?’ 🙂 but it’s not sponsored by The Cure and no money has changed hands 😉

to the tune of ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’.

Ady had meetings today so couldn’t take Davies and Scarlett which meant I had to beg childcare off my Dad. I know he doesn’t mind and one of the many things I adore about my Dad is he will either say yes or no to a request and then stand by his decision. If my Mum had rearranged things to accomodate helping me I’d never hear the end of it, Dad had clearly fiddled with his day but once he was here he was here and had no plans to be anywhere else. There is much about my Dad that is far from perfect but if I hope to emulate anyone in life it is often him.

We had no bread for lunch so while Davies and Scarlett were eating breakfast I dashed round the shop to get some. I got caught by David the Thank you Neighbour on the way back who insisted on kissing me on the cheek and then engaged me in a ‘resident of Osborne Drive’ moan about parking. It felt like ages before I escaped.

Dad arrived and I made him a coffee before heading off to work. I’ve no real idea what they all did all day, I know Scarlett did some wallpaper stripping but by the time I got home after 6pm Ady had been home for a couple of hours, fed them and was wallpaper stripping.

I unpacked my bag of a few interesting things from work – the latest adaptation of A Christmas Carol (very Polar Express), another Cressida Cowell audiobook and some plasticine for the kids as promised when we chucked out some manky old plasticine last weekend.

Work was fine, a few laughs, some good news for a couple of higher up the food chain colleagues who have got promotion in the latest round of ‘I’m a Librarian, get me to those books’ but I confess to a real lack of interest any more. It’s so very quiet, there is no point in trying to drum up enthusiasm for new initiatives, I’m ready to move on.

I joined in with the wallpaper stripping and felt all of my nearly 37 years stretching and bending after being on my feet all day. Being active is one thing but standing on the spot is quite another. All done though, just pushing furntiture to the centre of each room on Saturday morning in some rooms while I’m at work and Sunday morning before we go for the bedrooms and Dad can come in and do magnolia-ising while we’re away.

We stuck on the film while Ady and I finished wallpaper stripping so that everyone has the storyline fresh in their mind tomorrow. Davies and Scarlett had said hearing the story of Midsummer Nights Dream the night before had really helped them focus on the minute by minute enjoyment of the live production without worrying so much about following the plot and whilst I doubt a production of Christmas Carol will have much in the way of complicated plot it will be good to be more familiar with the story.

The kids went to bed, I had a bath and then cooked a curry while Ady did the last of the clearing up in the lounge resulting in a very late dinner. No surprise there then 😉

Really looking forward to camp and really wishing I had an extra day with nothing happening between now and then…

I love out and about days the most :). I love seeingf rriends, learning from passionate experts, being with people, drinking tea and coming home to deconstruct it all with the 3 most important people in my world afterwards. Today had all of the above and more :).

I allowed more time for the car start and de-mist / defrost than it needed so headed to a tyre place my Dad had recommended and happened to be on the way to Tasha’s and got a new spare tyre for my car. They only took cash so while the guy was fitting a new tyre onto the wheel we dashed off to a cashpoint and then collected it. We were only five minutes late at Tasha’s which is probably earlier than we’d normally be :).

We had a quick play for the kids upstairs and cooing over the rearrangement of furniture downstairs for me as Tasha has been doing ‘home-makin’ ‘ ;). Then all in the car and off to Barnham to meet Julie. She was having Honey’s teeth looked at by the Horse Dentist and thought we might be interested in coming to watch. I was very interested, as was Tasha and Scarlett came over to watch some of it and ask a few questions of Suzanne the equine dentist. We learnt about how many teeth horses have, what they are for, that they have milk teeth, that they can have ‘wolf teeth’ (like wisdom teeth), that they have a set which don’t stop growing and need filing down if they don’t wear them down and watch Suzanne with her rachet contraption in Honey’s mouth to hold open her jaw so Suzanne could both stick her hand down Honey’s throat to pull out some unswallowed due to not chewing properly grass and to examine Honey’s teeth. She filed a couple down that are no longer being ground down by natural methods all while answering all sorts of questions by Scarlett – quite intelligent and me – less so and more along the lines of ‘do did you always want to be a horse dentist when you grew up?’. Not a job I’d like to do at all but inspirational to meet someone who so clearly has found what makes her happy, earns her a living and she finds rewarding and worthwhile :).

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The kids all did plenty of bouncing on the trampoline and Scarlett did some chatting to Suzanne and some catching the chickens free ranging about 🙂

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The kids all decided to walk back to Julies with Julie’s Mum (who they all call ‘Oma’ – sounds like ‘ooomi’ – German for Granny, accurate in Jack, Maisie and Lorna’s case, honorary in Davies and Scarletts – funny that the actual grandmother they do share with J, M and L isn’t the one they all have a relationship and shared name with :)) across the fields while Julie, Tasha and I drove back to Julie’s to get the kettle on. Julie wanted me to look at her laptop which was doing funny things with email accounts so I fixed that and then Gerda (I don’t call her Oma) and the kids arrived back with a hedgehog. Scarlett (who else!?) had found it snuffling around and known it should be hibernating but was clearly too small so they’d brought it back in a welly boot. There was some concern it was hurt but when it was tipped onto the grass and left for a while it uncurled and seemed fine. We let it scuttle about for a while but Scarlett was really worried it would find somewhere to hide but not be able to last the winter so we caught it and put it in the guinea pig run while we debated what to do with it. Scarlett found worms to bring it to eat. It was decided it would be bedded in a crate in straw in the polytunnel and fed cat food so Scarlett prepared the crate for it and her and I moved it down there.

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All of this meant we were a few minutes late getting to Willow (where Caz and Bid live, not our campervan) to do the flint knapping course Davies, Scarlett and Toby were doing this afternoon. It was first in two Home Ed workshops about Stone Age tools led by Karl Lee of Primative Technology and was excellent :). I’m a bit of a flint knapping fan having had a go at River Cottage so was thrilled to be given a hammerstone and piece of flint again to have a bash (ha ha) at. Karl did a brief introductory chat about flint knapping, early tools, hunting and other uses, what sort of stone flint is and how it is made and some historical facts and dates. All done in a very interactive and interesting way that had the children – aged 8-10ish and accompanying adults all captivated. He then made a hand axe, we had a tea /run around break and then he showed us how to make a hide scraper, handed out hammerstones and flints and came round helping us as everyone had a go.

I loved it, the kids loved it, it was excellent 🙂

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We had head straight off when the session was over as we needed to get back for Badgers. I had anticipated us being late and had let Julie know it was a possibility but in the end we were on time. I was freezing – too much time stood in a field then sitting in a greenhouse with a through draught today – so a welcome cup of tea warmed me up a bit. We were running through what the Badgers will be doing for presentation night so there was lots of standing up at the front recounting things we have done for Hungry Badger. I’d tried to let them use their own words as far as possible and offer ideas but let it very much be about them and how they’d seen the badge so was unbelieveably touched to hear one of the girls had written at the end of her bit ‘I have really enjoyed doing the Hungry Badger badge and will really miss Nic when she goes’ 🙂 awwwww. Maybe it has been worth it after all ;).

We only have presentation night left to attend which I imagine will be something of a tear jerker actually with Davies getting his SuperBadger award and all three of us leaving. Might even invite my parents down to watch 😆

Back home Ady had got dinner on for Davies and Scarlett and the fire lit. He and I got straight into stripping the second wall of wallpaper in the lounge. The kids helped too after their tea – I’ve told them they can do the third wall tomorrow while I’m at work and Dad is here with them if they like :).

The kids went to bed, we had baths I was the Apprentice, paused for half an hour and then slightly ruined by reading a tweet from Richard Herring disclosing the winning team leader – d’oh! Am now wondering just when I’ll manage to do baking to bring to camp…

Done :). I can’t deny it’s been a slog at times. 1073 lengths is bloody loads, it’s been 12 sessions which would have meant the 12 weeks in which I had to do it in was perfect but for the fact the first week we were away camping at Sustainability and the last week we’ll be away at Christmas camp. I quite like the fact the offficial dates are the day before Davies’ birthday to the day before Scarlett’s birthday :). That along with a missed week due to illness meant I had three catch up sessions to fit in too. I’ve thrashed my personal record for the 75 lengths I did for the Swimathon in April where I did 75 in 1 hr 37 minutes and have now done that in 1hr 27 minutes, I have achieved over 100 lengths in 2 hours more than once and I have also given myself a new record for most lengths in one session of 110.

There have been several points along the way when I would have happily climbed out of the pool and never gotten back in, I am pleased to not be swimming next week and I will sit and watch the kids lessons the week after, not least because it will be their last swimming lessons for a year or more…

But I am glad I have done it. I am pleased to have achieved something challenging, I’ve swum the bloody channel! 🙂 I am proud of myself both for sheer stubborness and bloodymindedness, for doing something I would have laughed at someone telling me I could do a year ago, for facing dislikes of parading around in a swimsuit, of getting my make up splashed, of knowing I don’t have the perfect stroke or the best technique, I am not the fastest but I do have stamina and determination. I feel I have beaten something from way back when I had my swimming lessons at that very pool as a child of 8 or 9 or 10. I really struggled learning to swim, I was not a physically able child and didn’t have the inbuilt flotation devices I do today 😉 I used to loathe the smell of the pool, the rather grubby changing rooms, the sight of the ceiling as we were told to look up while doing backstroke. Once I had mastered basic swimming I stopped lessons. I never made it to the Big Pool, so I am thrilled to have conquered that big pool big time.

I was cheered by Davies and Scarlett and congratulated by several instructors and lifeguards who have been aware of my challenge, Ady greeted me with a bottle of fizz and I’ve had a personal invitation to attend the sessions starting in January for adult swimmers to improve their stroke technique from the instructor running it.

Donations for the actual charity have been quite slow but I got a hefty amount for the swimathon after I’d actually finished it so I am hoping completing this will trigger a flurry of people sending cash, it would be good if my personal achievement could be matched in a decent amount of cash for a very worthy charity. Not really being able to give to charity from a salary by monthly direct debit is something I have missed doing since such practises were clamped down on my the CCCS. I have spent about £30 on swimming sessions, hopefully that ‘investment’ pays off in making several times that amount for the charity rather than me just giving it to them and not bothering with the swimming :).

And the rest of the day? Davies did some room tidying while Scarlett watched something with sharks (think it was Deadly 60) and had her Sharks top trumps cards out to keep matching them up with what was on TV, for a child who can’t read she’s had to make a great leap towards other methods of recognition, I almost think it has helped in making her more aware of stuff :). Both kids want journals for next year and had in their heads the sort of thing they wanted – I think we have found them at an ebay shop very gorgeous, might have to get myself one too :).

I wanted to nip over to my Dad’s to borrow some wallpaper scrapers so we decided to do that before lunch – I was also thinking about Christmas cards. We won’t be doing them next year but we have now done photocards every year since Scarlett was born so it would be nice to do them one last time. I do have moral dilemmas with Christmas cards but I know several people keep ours and we only give them rather that buying other ones for family too. I’d found some from previous years while sorting stuff out so have about 20 blanks and envelopes so we decided to go for one box plus some extra photos to put in the blanks. So armed with santa hats and a camera we headed out to the garden to take some pictures.

Cue much silliness and lots of ‘smile for Baby Jesus’ and ‘Look out for the giant polar bear’ 😆

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Actually some of them are very lovely just for capturing Davies and Scarlett and who they are right now so I will treasure some of the ‘misses’ but we settled on one that is sufficiently them whilst still being a ‘nice’ picture.

Dad wasn’t home so we called into the supermarket for some bread and I got us a cake each as they were on 3 for 2 and Boots for something for my hair. I don’t know if it is the swimming pool, the central heating or something else but it is in a right state at the moment – greasy in some places, dry and frizzy in others and perpetually tangled. It feels like it should either be dreadlocked or shaved off! I found some specific swimming pool treatment shampoo and will hope that not going swimming for a while sorts it out. Either that or my next sponsored trick will be shaving my head! 😆

Back at home we had lunch and all ate rather too much so had an hour of sitting round cuddled up on the sofa while our bodies digested our lunch. We ordered the Christmas cards online and then decided to call in on Dad one last time before swimming so packed everything up and went via my parents house. Dad still wasn’t home but as we were about to pull out of the end of his road so he pulled in so we went round the block. He lent us a couple of wallpaper scrapers and we had a quick catch up chat before heading off to the swimming pool.

Today was the most important session really as I certainly didn’t want to have any lengths left to do so it was all a bit of a mad scramble and I got into the water with barely two hours. I managed it by the skin of my teeth really with the 99th length being started after the whistle had blown for everyone to get out of the pool as it was closed. Davies stood at the end and cheered me on and both the kids were so proud of me 🙂

At home Ady had dinner on for the kids and a bottle of fizz chilling for me :). We made a start on the wallpaper stripping – just the thing for arms tired from all that swimming ;). The kids finished their tea and were very keen to help out so while Ady had a bath the three of us stripped and soaked. I love their ability to turn anything into a game, their scrapers became characters, the wallpaper being taken from the wall suddenly had a voice (complete with American accent) and they were full immersed in the task and their imaginations. Very efficicent they were too – I love it when we occassionally do get to engage them in domestic servitude ;).

One wall complete 🙂 Ady finished it off with them and tidied up while I had a bath with a glass of fizz. They went to bed, we watched the High street history programme and I spoke to Julie on the phone and sent some emails and texts making final plans for tomorrow.

We were due to go to Book Club this morning. This has been an incredibly successful local-ish group which we were lucky enough to join at the very beginning. Like all good things it has had it’s time of change and re-evaluation and now has two guises – the more structured group and the more creative and artistic group. Rather amusingly we span the two and despite not being your typical sit down at the table home ed folk Davies and Scarlett seem to manage the sitting down talking about books for books sake side of the group so we seem to be welcome at both new arms of the group. I have made clear our limited period only status to all involved and said we will continue to come if welcome until we go but don’t want to take up valued spaces for others waiting.

So today was one of the more structured sessions. The book is The Iron Man by Ted Hughes which was what decided me really. I read it to D&S ages ago in one sitting and Davies went to bed and recreated the whole story in about 30 drawings despite the book I’d read being an unillustrated version. To me it was a rather landmark moment in our HE journey and one I have recounted to lots of people so it felt right to go along to a group about it today as it is so close to our hearts.

The session was dealing with using different verbs and as Barbara and Michelle will know as I distinctly recall sitting on a rock halfway up a very steep hill at J&Js last year talking to them about such things I am slightly hazy about verbs and adjectives. I can remember the lessons at school where I was supposed to be enlightened but I wasn’t. I have got my head round noun – a name but then it gets all fuzzy with ‘doing words’. So I found a website that explained it all perfectly and told Davies and Scarlett it would be being talked about today at BookClub. I said they would get help if they needed it but it would be great if this was not the first time they had heard of such concepts and we quickly covered noun, pronoun, verb and adjective. They both got it instantly, which is just as well as I still can’t remember what is a verb and what is an adjective so they can now help me. 😆 We did lots of ‘comfortable red sofa’ and ‘broken-down old car’ and they were both spot on with which words were which. Interesting that my schooled mind with a decent teacher couldn’t grasp it but my autonomous kids with me backed up by google could…

Scarlett then wanted to know if ‘a noun’ was a noun. 😆

The car took a couple of attempts to start but got going and we headed off. I’m slightly obessesed with an Adele record at the moment so have been playing it lots. Maybe too much given Tarly could all but sing along word for word 🙂

About half way there the car started juddering a bit, I thought it was just struggling with going a bit faster (I was doing about 80mph) and then I thought it was about to stall and was planning when I’d next need to brake and where I would be able to pull in to if it stalled. I then had the strangest feeling I had no brakes, despite my foot being on the accelarator but was too scared to try and see. The juddering was not bad enough for the kids to notice but I suddenly spotted smoke in the rear view mirror so as soon as it was safe to pull in I did so. The kids asked why we were stopping and I said the car didn’t feel right. Scarlett asked ‘does it feel like a flat tyre?’ which was an interesting question and led me to check that first.

The answer was a resounding yes.

Fortunately I’d got us to a proper lay by with a strip of pavement between us and the dual carriageway and a burger van and everything ;).

I have never changed a tyre. Mostly because I’ve never had a flat tyre. I debated the best course of action and rang Ady partly for some moral support and partly for some ‘yes that’s the right thing to do next’ back up. We were not that far from his office so he said he’d come along and see what state we were in when he arrived. This left me with 3 options: call the breakdown cover, wait for Ady or try and change it myself. Given the hangover of ‘what the bloody hell am I doing?’ from yesterday I guess I could have felt feeble and picked on. Instead I could see that this was something I *could* fix so I got out the manual for the car, worked out where the spare wheel was, took off my coat and set about dealing with it.

The kids were excellent cheerleaders, I love their faith in me :). The many, many lorry drivers and other road users who had stopped, some right behind me and either blatantly ignored me or stood ogling my cleavage as I bent down and made my tits jiggle while turning a spanner displayed rather less admirable traits. I didn’t need a knight in shining armour as I am fair from a helpless maiden but a quick ‘are you ok?’ would have been nice and is what I would have offered anyone I noticed in a similar position.

It wasn’t raining,we were only 20 miles from home with breakdown cover and Ady was on his way.Plus we’d driven past my Dad’s house and I’d clocked his van there not 10 minutes before so I was hardly in a dangerous position. I think perspective is always important in such situations ;).

I managed to get the spare wheel off – it is suspended under the car and accessed via lifting a tiny panel, winding down the rope holding it, working out a pinch this bit pull this bit bracket to get it off. I got all the tools ready to use and the nut covers off the very broken tyre wheel. I could not get the actual nuts to move on the wheel though despite standing on the wrench. At this point someone did actually come and offer help and if Ady had not just driven by on the other side of the road I would have accepted. Or waited until my rage made me sufficiently powerful enough to move those nuts! 😉

Someone else came along once I had a bloke helping me and offered use of a socket set. To be honest I think the trade off of listening to him call Ady ‘Boss’ and make helpful suggestions whilst cross examining Davies and Scarlett about why they were not in school today was more of an exercise in not killing him with his own socket set than a help, but there you go…

Car jacked up, wheel changed, car jacked down again, worry from Ady about why wheel didn’t turn, testing wheel by going forwards slightly then realising it didn’t turn due to the handbrake being on, car jacked back down again with kids both getting a go at jacking it up on the second turn and I was ready to go :).

We decided Ady would go on to drop off some money for a workshop we’re doing next month and I’d promised to get to the woman today and then taking them home while I went to a second hand tyre place to get the spare replaced and then home would be the best plan. The tyre place didn’t have anything but are hoping to tomorrow so have my mobile number to call me. I got home about 10 minutes before Ady and the kids so spent some time rather aggressively chopping up wood to absolve myself of bad feminist angst on not being able to get the wheel off myself.

Back at home we had lunch and Scarlett spent most of the afternoon absorbed in a How to train your dragon DS game while Davies and I did a large chunk of which is just excellent – definitely need to add some more of this series to their Christmas lists.

Davies then did some geomagging and then we fell out over his need for strokes and attention. I suspect I was far too harsh and we made up and had plenty of cuddles. Argh to not being so good with sensitive souls 🙁

We practised the Christmas carols sent through on a sheet from Pennywell. I don’t expect them to know all the words but it will be nice for them to know the tunes and enough words to join in. Davies was amazing with his ability to recall lyrics after just one or two listenings, Scarlett is great at remembering melodies. Must do more proper singing with them.

I did their tea and then headed upstairs to finish tidying up our bedroom. It is now properly ready for Dad to decorate and we have 3 sacks full of clothes to bring to camp to give away, hope everyone with littler children is ready :).

Ady came home, Davies and Scarlett did one of their elaborate coin flipping to decide a bedtime story and we read which we’d read before but I’d picked up a for sale library copy that Davies had added to his ‘to keep’ pile.

Ady and I had leftovers for dinner and watched Giles and Mel live the Good Life which we have absolutely loved, very relevant to us, reassuring us how much we do know and laugh out loud funny.

Tomorrow a huge day for me – I finish swimming the channel.

or a walk in the park, or a breeze.

Sometimes its tough to moan or feel able to gripe when a situation is of your own making. I am feeling a great affinity with a couple of specific friends today…

I am hoping this is the toughest part of preparing to go off next year – the pressure is on to get the house empty – both so it is ready to be decorated and invite people in to try and get it let and so that in the last few frantic weeks before we go we are not still struggling to let stuff go. The only thing left to fall into place now is to get the house rented out but that is such a big deal that unless we have a tenant lined up to be paying the mortgage we can’t go, so fairly huge.

The process of clearing stuff is understandably tough on Davies and Scarlett although once we have had the same conversation again about it having to happen if we want to go off next year they always willingly let stuff go it does mean we have a few tears each time. This is a really unsettled time for them, for all four of us really and whilst we are all going in with eyes open and full of positivity and commitment to doing it it’s not always easy.

I’m rather struggling with feeling I am doing the bulk of the tough stuff, the persuading the children to say goodbye to things, the being the baddy pushing hard decisions, the ensuring we keep to our schedule (that I drew up in the first place) as well as the practical sorting out, ebaying, listing on freecycle and so on.

So today it all came to a head, I did some crying and shouting, Ady did some stropping and Making A Point and the kids did an amazing job of throwing out loads of pencils, felt tips and art stuff that was no longer any good. I went through the playroom, dismantled shelf units, threw loads away and now have 4 boxes worth of games and toys for keeping, my sewing machine and a box of material for keeping, two boxes of toy animals and one of lego for keeping, a couple of boxes of things which will be presents for people before we go, a sack of stuff for ebay and another sack of stuff to come to camp to giveaway. There is more to do in there but we’re close to done and near enough to have Dad in next week and shove stuff in cupboards to show tenants round from the week after.

I found countless beads, geomag balls and about 37pence in coppers.

The hall is full of stuff now up for grabs on freecycle and an initial flurry of replies has a lot of it going tomorrow. Anything left can go to a charity shop later in the week if it’s not claimed.

Ady made a very nice roast dinner and peace and goodwill was all restored – we watched a dvd I’d brought home from work while we ate The Secret of Kells which was interesting. What it lacked in gripping storyline it more than made up for in beautiful animation and art work. The kids deemed it ‘okay’ which I thought was a little harsh as they were quite entranced at times.

We watched Countryfile and then they went to bed. Davies had ‘rescued’ an old address book I’d set aside to go on the fire and has started using it to write a story about us going WWOOFing. It’s incredibly creative in it’s spelling but I can just about read it and it’s very funny, written very much in the style of Andy Stanton or Roddy Doyle.

Very much looking forward to sitting with friends this time next week.

I had a lay in this morning which was lovely 🙂

Davies was still feeling a bit rough and hadn’t gone to YACs. He doesn’t really seem to have many symptoms and I suspect aside from a bit of a cold he doesn’t have much wrong with him but didn’t really want us to go out tonight. We were together in that as I wasn’t keen to go anyway so I rang Dad to say I wasn’t going so we wouldn’t need them to come and look after Davies and Scarlett this evening.

Ady spent some time outside chopping up a wardrobe to put in the car and clearing some rubbish from the garden, charging the battery on the campervan and finally going to the tip. I did some blogging and the kids watched some dvds and played Zoombinis. They went with Ady to the tip and then we all had lunch.

We played some Lego Creationary which is always fun and then we sorted out the hall. Coats, shoes and another look at the bookcase which by virtue of having three clear shelves seems have been a magnet for clutter – grr. More stuff ready to go into storage and a very pared down selection of coats and shoes in the hall now. Tomorrow is the playroom, the last room in the house but as it’s been used as a holding bay it is rather full.

As I didn’t have to worry about reeking of chlorine tonight I decided to go and get my swim planned for this weekend out of the way. I really want to finish the channel on Tuesday – the official end date isn’t til 5th December but with us being away I wanted to have it done and dusted next week. I did just over 2 hours and did 110 lengths, the most ever which just leaves me with 99 to go on Tuesday. Hurrah! 🙂

I called into the supermarket on the way home for requested food items for the kids and something for my own dinner, assuming Ady would be out as he was still planning to go out tonight. I got home to find Davies had persuaded him to stay home too – I don’t think he took much persuading actually ;).

I celebrated the saving of money from a meal out tonight and getting swimming out of the way by booking tickets to go and see A Christmas Carol live theatre show on Friday night. We’re doing a lot of theatre and cinema trips at the moment on the basis we won’t be doing any next year and I’d rather spend spare cash on things like that given birthdays and Christmas gifts will be more sparse this year. Haven’t told Davies and Scarlett yet, might keep it as a surprise, they have a lot of cool stuff happening this week and it will be a lovely getting in the mood for Christmas starter to the weekend before we head off to camp :).

They were all watching Home Alone 2 when I got in which had Ady and I reminiscing about New York. I went and had a long bath and treated my hair to a deep condition as it is really suffering from all the swimming – twice weekly two hour dunking sessions in pool chemicals are not very hair friendly. Maybe I should have worn that swimming cap…

Davies and Scarlett went to bed, I watched X factor, we had dinner and watched Armstrong & Miller and felt pleased we weren’t out 🙂

To the tune of Make you feel my love

When the waters splashing in my face
And it feels like an unwinnable race
I think I’ll just cut to the chase
Please will you sponsor me

When the pool is full of annoying folk
when my knees hurt from too much breast stroke
when a mouthful of water makes me want to choke
I know you’ll sponsor me

maybe you haven’t made your mind up yet
you don’t know if you can spare the cash
I’m only asking for a couple of quid
no need for you to make a big splash

I’d go wrinkled, I’d stink like bleach
As I swim across from beach to beach
I’ve long left Dover, Calais’ within my reach
Why won’t you sponsor me?

Instrumental interlude of splashing water

I’m raising money to help Aspire
helping people with spinal injury
it’s all in a good cause it is worthwhile
I’m doing this for charity

I’ve swum many lengths, only 99 to do
I’ve done my bit, now it’s over to you
Click on this link, it will take you through
and you can sponsor me
to make you sponsor me

Once upon a time, when you all first knew me I was pretty different to who I am now.

Sure there are glimmers of that person – there is still the cleavage, the wine-supping, the drunken singing – you know all the most attractive aspects of my personality ;).

But you knew me back when I wouldn’t sleep anywhere that didn’t have an en suite bathroom, now I go camping regularly and am off to live in a campervan and stay with people who live off-grid, with no running water and compost loos.

You knew me when my solution to being out at Bluewater (a place I would never go at all now) after dark was to go and buy new pyjamas for the children to travel home in. On my credit card 😆 Now I’d not be at the shopping centre in the first place, don’t have a credit card, would be buying pjs from a charity shop or hand weaving them from nettle cordage. Or something 😆

You have known my diet is pretty much entirely meat, with the odd bit of lard and carbs chucked in. But you have read about my brush with lentils, beans and chickpeas. Certainly not converted and still only see the point of pulses as collage materials but aware they may be presented to me under the guise of food next year and I may well be hungry enough to eat them.

Time was when I used to sneer at crafters. Then I made rag rugs, learnt to knit and bought a sewing machine.

I’ve always hated dogs, been terrified of them, but a few weeks ago I grabbed a snarling one’s collar and lifted it away from Scarlett’s ducks. I’m nowhere near over my fear but I have in the back of my mind that we will probably get a dog at some point which will hopefully conquer it for good.

There are not many of the ‘things I’d never do’ that I haven’t now done actually and last night I stepped back from my utter boycott of Harry Potter and went to see the latest film. I’ve never read any of the books or watched any of the films before. When the ridiculous hype around the books started I was filled with disdain. I admire JKRowlings success, love the stories of her as a single mother sitting in coffee shops with her notebook scribbling away and can’t help but have respect for the marketing and PR machine which swung into such action to create the buzz around the whole thing. But it’s fantasy, witches and wizards, other worlds, goblins and magical beasties on broomsticks, it’s school and pretend and spells. I hate fantasy, never read Lord of the Rings or any of the other classics of the genre. I don’t care about Terry Pratchetts books or tv adaptations, I’m not interested in vampires or teenage werewolves or people with wands. I am interested in real people, who live real lives and face real challenges. If I want fiction I want it based in truth, if I want boarding school stories I’ll read Malory Towers, if I want stories about childhood friendships and adventures I’ll turn to Swallows and Amazons.

But when I tried to book three tickets for Ady, Davies and Scarlett to see the film I couldn’t get our usual front row seats as there was a block of four and you can’t book three and leave one seat on it’s own. So for the sake of £6 for the fourth ticket I booked it and decided to keep it quiet. Except when I said I’d booked the three tickets for the kids to go with Ady tinged with excitement were little sad looks and an ‘I wish you were coming too Mummy’ comment. So of course I caved in…

I spent yesterday at work, mostly moaning about Harry bloody Potter and Fish bloody restaurants. As not only was I making the ultimate sacrifice of going to the cinema to watch HP, I’m also going out with Ady and some of his work colleagues and ex-work colleagues for a meal. In Portsmouth, an hours drive away. I’m not super keen on at least 3 of the people going (which always makes for interesting seating arrangements as I try and avoid sitting next to them) and having gone to a fish restuarant last time I expected us to be going somewhere different this time. But no, another fish restaurant it is. Two nights running of things I don’t want to do. I’m not very good at being a martyr ;).

I also did singing for Baby Rhyme Time – on countdown for those, I think I have about 5 or 6 left before I leave and one of those will be the Christmas one, put books on shelves and other such library stuff.

I got home and helped the kids get HP’d up. Davies has a proper dressing up cloak and glasses from my Mum, he drew a scar on with lipstick and wore his Badger trousers underneath and the only white top he owns – one saying ‘The world is my classroom and life is my curriculum’. We all liked the idea of wearing a Home Ed top instead of a school uniform under the cloak so much Scarlett did the same :). Scarlett had also had her hair in plaits from the night before so it would be all curly – not sure who that was supposed to make her look like but she liked it :).

We parked in town and got to the cinema where anyone dressed up got a vouched to get a free drink – they had set up the various kiosk and bars in the cinemas (there is a theatre and two cinemas together, owned by Worthing council and run in a nice independant way, much prefer them to the multi-screen complexs over in Brighton). The kids chose some ‘polyjuice potion’ and to ease my pain I got a glass of white wine too – paid more for that one glass than I usually do for a bottle! 😯

The film was utterly as I’d expected it to be. I was bored, not at all sure who most of the characters were and not remotely interested in what was going on. I spent most of it watching the kids, who really loved it. I definitely won’t go to the next one and I really just proved to myself what I already knew. Ah well.

Home for a very late dinner for us and the kids straight to sleep (within about ten minutes of going to bed – hurrah! That’s the solution then, take them out late, get them home late and they will actually go straight to sleep. Not sure it’s sustainable as a sleep solution really…).

I watched some Children In Need and then went to bed.

We had plans to meet up with Julie, Jack, Maisie and Lorna this morning but Julie had other things to be doing. I could easily get irritated about this (and sometimes briefly do) as she does it fairly often – she doesn’t cancel she just decides to do something else instead and assumes others will fall in with her. It is done with just enough charm to get away with it though ;). We were not up for going and watching her muck out a stable instead of a walk round a lake though and I was conscious of my car’s reliability in dodgey weather. We re-arranged to meet after lunch instead depending on the weather.

So this morning I spent some time blogging about my grandmothers while Davies did some secret santa stuff and Scarlett created mazes and pictures of characters from Harry Potter and How to train your dragon. More watching of the dvd too, both of them can now recite the bulk of the dialogue along with the characters 😆

Julie rang just before lunch to say it was pouring with rain over her way so we ‘took a rain check’ and rearranged to get together next week. We had lunch and although it was pissing down with rain I decided we had spent far too much time indoors this week and would all benefit from being outside for a while. We had a vote on beach or downs and both Davies and Scarlett went for downs so we got wellies and coats on and jumped in the car and drove up to where the allotments are. I love that we have the sea and the downs so very close, both all but visible from our windows but the roads around us are boring and dull so it’s always worth a two minute drive to eat up that mile or so for an interesting walk.

We walked alongside the alllotments to check our old plot out. It has obviously been taken over but nothing has been done other than a small area being covered with black plastic and the pond drained. We walked up the very steep hill slipping and sliding in the mud and turned round, breathless near the top to look at the view of the sea. Scarlett had this huge grin on her face and took my hand and said ‘oh, I do love it here.’ 🙂 No matter where we travel I guess this will be a spot they return to in their future and maybe bring their children to stand and admire the view and share memories of their childhood with :).

Davies and Scarlett were keen to share some of the places they used to come to when I was at the allotment and they used to roam so we had a lovely hour or so with them showing me various precious places to them. I saw ‘chalk cliff’, camps, secret paths, heard anecdotes about times they had spent there. I watched them scramble up steep slopes, clamber up trees, splash in puddles and slip in the mud :). We looked out at the sea and across the downs, enjoyed the views of the A27 with snakes of cars with their headlights on, the grey clouds over Lancing college and the sheep (who had a ram in tupping – biology tick!) in the next field.

As we walked back we discovered a stream of puddles running down the hill which they decided to dam so we spent another 10 minutes or so of Scarlett gathering materials and Davies damming the flow.

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We walked back through the woods to the car and I enjoyed listening to them telling me stories about the various trees and houses, I recall a small wooded area opposite my Grandma’s flat that Frazer and I would go and play in when we were about their age and make up similar stories about.

Back home they were very muddy so they got in the bath while I chopped some firewood and got all the muddy clothes in the wash. I lit the fire and got them some tea along with getting our dinner sorted for later. My Mum popped round to deliver a cloak for Davies. It had come into her shop a few weeks ago and she’d rung me to say she knew we were getting rid of stuff but would he like a HP cloak? I said yes and she had put it by to give him on Tarly’s birthday but I’d rung her to say he’d like it for the film tomorrow so she brought it over to give him early. She stayed for a while and was still here when Ady got home.

Mum left, the kids got ready for bed and I read them a couple of Ladybird classic stories that Ady had picked up in a charity shop and I had as a child – Dick Whittington and The Big Pancake.

I finished off the dinner and had a bath, we watched Autumnwatch and thought of Marcus, Michelle and Chloe and our fab holiday in the summer seeing dolphins and what a magical moment the first sight of them was (dolphins, not MM&C!) which had me all emotional about missing them (MM&C, not the dolphins!).

Dad came over first thing this morning with his jump leads to help get my car started. Ady and the kids went off to Croydon to do some store visits and Dad and I had breakfast together before doing a quick tour round the house to discuss decorating requirements :). We then headed outside to jump my car which had been all but flat of battery and with no intention of starting at all yesterday. Predictably it roared into life as soon as I turned the key, so no need to jump it at all :rolls: Dad didn’t mind as he was over our way to go to a local fencing shop which doesn’t open til 9am anyway and he’d got breakfast :). I took the car for a long-way-round (which still isn’t very long) drive to work to ensure the battery would have enough charge to start again later and arrived at work about 20 minutes early. So I nipped to the nearest charity shop for a quick look. We’re off to see Harry Potter on Friday night and the kids want to dress up as you get a free drink if you are in costume. Ady and I had already said we wouldn’t dress up. My Mum rang me about 3 weeks ago to say a HP cloak had come into her charity shop and she knew we were getting rid of stuff but would Davies like it? I said he would and she bought it but has been holding it back and says now she intended giving it to him on Scarlett’s birthday. I explained it would be useful a couple of weeks early so she is bringing it over tomorrow evening which left Tarly without a costume. In the charity shop they had a vicars cassock (is that the right word) fancy dress for an adult which with the sleeves rolled up and the bottom 6 inches chopped off makes the perfect cloak for Tarly. Sorted :).

Back to work and I had a nice morning. Clearly some residual bad feeling about the Christmas rota with a couple of pointed comments but frankly I’m leaving anyway and got Christmas eve off so I have broad enough shoulders to take a bit of flack.

I arrived home and Ady, Davies and Scarlett were already here having had lunch. Ady went back off to work and I made some lunch for myself then Caz and the boys arrived. The children spent most of the time up in Davies’ room. There were some murmers about going outside which I had said no to as the garden is very muddy and an attempt to get us to agree to them playing X box in the lounge (erm, no!) and Scarlett came and joined Caz and I for a while when the boys got too rowdy. She made us both a cup of tea and contributed to the conversation quite well but it did put me in mind of Tilda and Beth and wonder if I have some of that child hanging with the adults sometimes ahead. I think there is a critical age where you realise the grown ups don’t cease to exist when you are not in the room with them and actually they might just be doing something pretty interesting too… our Home Ed kids are even more attuned to this I reckon as they spend more time in the company of adults and are used to being included in conversations generally too.

Caz and I had a lovely few hours putting the world to rights and it felt really sad to break up the afternoon to go to Badgers but we had to so we did. With just one more proper session, a presentation night and possibly a Christmas party left to go I finally seem to have won over the trickier Badgers. We were discussing all we have done this term, talking about what we remembered and planning what to present as little show and tell type bits for presentation night when parents come along and see badges and certificates presented and hear about what we’ve been up to. Loads of positive stuff came up about what we have done, I persuaded some of the reluctant ones to be prepared to stand up and talk, split them into pairings they don’t usually work with and went round each group coaching them about what to say, what to present and how best to work together. I felt it went really well :). One of the least forthcoming little boys sat and talked to me for ages about being bullied at school which was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. It sounds like it is being dealt with but I think he just wanted to chat it through with someone. He and his sister come to Badgers and are both really shy and timid, it’s taken me ages to even get them to really talk to me and last week they confided their mum is pregnant again and we talked about how they are feeling about that. I am confident they will do well telling all their parents what we’ve covered and we have some props to create next week in the form of giant recipe cards, pictures of fruit and veg etc to create which they all seemed to be looking forward to doing. I guess it will be good to go out on a high :). The three tricky girls were all very well behaved and pally with me and Scarlett said two of them had told her I was scary, which Scarlett seems to think is a fair evaluation 😉 😆

Back home Ady had got the kids tea ready so they ate and watched Wallace and Gromit, Ady and I had baths and watched The Apprentice.

Davies and Scarlett have watched How to train your dragon very comprehensively today. The second disc (with a short film), all of the extras on both discs, sat and stopped and started the tutorial ‘how to draw a dragon’ with pen and paper drawing alongside it and Davies presented a lovely picture of Toothless the dragon and Scarlett to Scarlett while she went back to a landscape she had painted previously and added in loads of detail and created a lovely sunset picture.

I finished a blogpost about choices and tough decisions on the WW blog and exchanged a flurry of emails with Lynda who is very excited on our behalf, arranging to go and stay with them in January and giving her details of the blog so she can read along as we go. I also took a phonecall from Okehampton to confirm we can get in there from 3pm on the Sunday and will have use of the kitchen. Getting very excited about camp now :).

I’d arranged to deliver the books I sold on ebay as the buyer is very close and infact is someone who comes in the library regularly but only has one car between her and her husband. So I loaded all the books into the back of my car and then it wouldn’t start 🙁 I tried for about 15 minutes but the battery went flat before I could get it started 🙁 I came in and rang the buyer and arranged for her to come to me instead when her husband arrived home with the car, then rang Ady to see if he could get home to take us to swimming.

I’d intended getting something for lunch while we were out too as we were out of bread so I made some cheese scones and flapjacks instead. The book buyer arrived and I helped load all the books from her car into mine. I had said on ebay we were selling due to a housemove so she was curious about that and I explained about the WOOFing, she turned out to have been a smallholder before she retired and had had WOOFers over the years and said she still missed smallholding. She was also really enthusiastic about the kids going WOOFing. I don’t need external validation but I can’t deny other people’s enthusiasm is still nice to hear :).

I finished off a couple of bits on the secret santa gifts and Scarlett made me a cup of tea which I had with a flapjack (made with stork, not in the same league as those made with butter). Ady arrived home and dropped us off at the swimming pool. I did my 100 lengths (wondering how to top my poem and thinking a rap might work?!). Davies and Scarlett played together for the first hour then Tarly went off for her lesson and Davies joined a trio of other boys impressing each other by doing crazy leaps off the top diving board. He then went for his lesson and Tarly joined a group of other children – I could see her holding court (no idea where she gets that from ;)) and when I asked her about it she said they’d asked what school she went to so she’d been explaining that she doesn’t go to school and all the ins and outs of Home Ed.

Ady picked us up and I repaired my eye make up before heading back out again leaving Ady to feed the kids. I pulled up at the library just as the staff left the car park so my dashing there so I didn’t have to unlock, disarm the alarm and put all the lights on was in vain. Some of the staff don’t like being in the library alone but once I am being rational I am fine with it, deliberately throwing myself into darkness just to prove there is nothing to be scared of ;). I made a flask of boiling water, got the books ready, pulled some stuff off the internet about the book and author and waited for everyone to arrive. We had a smallish group this time of 8 of us but it was a really good meeting. Once we’d covered the book we got to talking about what we’d wanted to be when we grew up and whether we’d done it which was really interesting. Everyone left, I tidied up and locked up, getting home just before when I said I would to the kids (Davies is still being anxious about me when I’m not home and he is but is coping if he knows what time I will be home).

Ady and I watched the Back to the High Street thing (really enjoying that, can’t stand the baker woman).

I was grumpy first thing this morning. Both the children were awake and up and noisy far too early. I shouted down to them to be quieter three times before getting up (although Scarlett did bring me a cup of tea). I then went in the playroom to get the books ready for the person who’s bought them on ebay only to discover I couldn’t get near them for all the stuff Ady had shoved in there over the weekend as I cleared the kids rooms. He seems to be taking the clear horizontal surfaces I keep creating as room to shove stuff 🙁 Grr.

Rant about that over we had a quick visit to the tip to get rid of all of the rubbish out of that room and I tried and failed to return my crutches to the hospital as there was no parking to be found. I got most irate in the carpark at all the idiots going the wrong way up and down the rows particularly as you only had 10 minutes before the barrier of the exit wouldn’t lift without you paying for parking. The carpark was just too mental to let Davies run out with the crutches to drop them in so I brought them home again and will take them in on Wednesday when we wil be just across the road at Badgers. I did what the children found a very amusing rant about how everyone in the carpark should clearly be kept in and treated for being idiots so it was not all wasted time 😆

Back at home we moved on to planning Secret Santa gifts. We’ve been trying to match our recipients to stuff we already have in our ‘to get rid of’ pile so most will be getting books ;). We also wanted to make something personal so the kids came up with designs for something I have done the making of and they both have additional bits to fill the bags with. We did need to pop out to do some photocopying and buy a box of matches though (ooh, mysterious ;)) so went to the library and the newsagents and found Joyce’s book waiting for me at the library too :). Cue great excitement all round as we flicked through the book whilst waiting to use the photocopier and found my name in it :). So very proud of Joyce 🙂 🙂

We also called at the bakers for after-lunch cakes and came home to eat. Davies and Scarlett chose a film to watch while eating and after some debate went for Nim’s Island. I read some of the book for Reading Group tomorrow which I have long since giving up hope of actually finishing which is a bit akward as I am in charge but I think enough other people will have finished it that I can simply chair the debate rather than participate :).

Then I got the sewing machine out to do my part of the present making and am really pleased with the results, while Davies did some drawing and writing and Scarlett did some looking through books for inspiration. It was a nice at home afternoon with breaks for tea, lighting the fire, chopping up some wood and puttting the chickens away.

When we saw How to train your dragon for film week both Davies and Scarlett really enjoyed it and were keen for Ady to see it so we had said when it came out on dvd we would buy it and have a family film night with takeaway which we used to do monthly but haven’t done for ages. The vote was for KFC so Ady brought home the film and a box of chicken and we all watched the film – *very* early dinner for Ady and I before 7pm 😆

The film was as much enjoyed by the kids second time round and they are looking forward to exploring the second disc and the bonus features tomorrow. They went off to bed, we had baths and watched The Good Life and The Trip. Everyone is very positive about next years plans today and we’re really looking forward to camp :).

I woke this morning with a real feeling of being lucky to have slept in a bed last night. Which of course meant my next thought was ‘so why the bloody hell am I giving it up then?’ 😆 Plenty to ponder on there but I guess the other blog is the place to explore that.

Everyone got dressed and tidied up and poppied and as we left the house the rain started. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be wanted to be with the Badgers or not as I am not a uniformed SJA member but I wore all black and looked smart incase I was wanted. It turned out I was, which I was pleased about actually, both to have done it with Davies and Scarlett and to have actually participated in the parade.

It rained for the duration of the 2 hours we were out of the car; walking to the meeting place, walking to assemble, waiting for other groups to assemble, listening to the band, the silence, the service, the laying of the wreaths, the hymns and for the march around the block past the mayor, past the town hall and the town memorial.

I don’t recall a parade that hasn’t had rain or bitter cold or wind, or indeed all three actually. I guess that is the likelihood in November ;), but it always feels quite appropriate. In the same way as I think it should always rain at funerals, like the skies are crying too. And it hides the few tears I always shed.

Back home we had lunch, hot drinks and the kids had a bath to warm up. Then Davies and I went and did his bedroom while Ady cooked dinner and did a visit to the tip and Scarlett bounced between us all at various points. It was fairly straightforward with no real tricky decisions for Davies (once we’d got over the furniture going last night) and we have fitted all of the stuff the kids want to keep into our loft. He now has a couple of boxes of toys which will either also fit in the loft or go to Mum & Dad’s, his bed, his bookcase and piles of clothes which will of course be coming with us or being got rid of before we go. It’s so funny, I think the kids bedrooms look fab, all spacious and clean and tidy, yet they hate it! 😆

Ady had cooked a lovely dinner, there was some debate about what to watch on TV while we ate but compromises were reached and we watched Jimmy’s Food Factory which we’d caught some of earlier in the week so were able to watch the whole programme. Scarlett went to bed, Davies and I watched X Factor and then he went to bed.

It’s felt like weekends and family time generally has been rather compromised and over shadowed by plans for next year and much as we are all happy to do so because we all want the end result I am aware that to children something we started talking about 6 months ago has become something we’ve been going to do ‘forever…’ and 3 months time, particularly when that has holidays and birthdays and Christmas and all of winter to go beforehand isn’t quite a quick enough payoff for difficult half hours now. Again, stuff for the other blog really (I’m crap at keeping them seperate). Anyway, where I was going with it was we are coming to the end of the tough stuff, have plenty of nice stuff ahead and I’m looking forward to a few treats we have lined up for Davies and Scarlett this week :).

I worked this morning. There was a big hoohah around the whole me working Christmas Eve and New Years Eve business with a well meaning colleague ‘taking my case’ to a higher manager yesterday on my behalf. The higher manager rang me at work to say she agreed it wasn’t fair and felt sure she could speak to my line manager Y and get it changed. Y happened to be sitting beside me and was not at all happy about having had all this go on above her head :(. I apologised, assured her I would never have undermined her like that and the end result was I am not working Christmas Eve anymore. So yay for that but boo for someone I like trying to do me a favour and really pissing someone else off and boo for other people getting involved in what is in the scheme of things a pretty minor thing 🙁 At my peak I had 44 staff to do rotas for and the Christmas period was a bloody nightmare with a sale to get ready to launch on Boxing Day, the busiest 12 weeks of the year to staff and every single one of those staff coming to me with really good reasons why *they* shouldn’t have to work the hours I needed them to. I so don’t want to be one of those people…

Back at home they had chopped firewood, cleaned out the chickens, had a chicken drama when the broody hen had stropped about being foisted off her eggs and flapped up to the neighbours garage roof (she returned), the kids had a bath (and Scarlett soaked her toe in a hot tcp footbath too as I was concerned she had dirt in it) and other assorted stuff.

When I got home we had lunch and then set about Scarlett’s bedroom. The aim was to get rid of the bookcase and wardrobe, leave a small pile of clothes and a couple of boxes of toys and nothing else. She cried over the bookcase so Ady spent some time fixing it (she had broken it by using it as stairs :roll:) and it has been reprieved. We’ve decided to see if tenants would mind having bookcases left and if not left here then take them to my parents, we’ll definitely be needing bookcases again wherever life takes us.

But we did clear the wardrobe out and she now has the bookcase, containing only books she loves, her bed with 25 soft toys (all the rest are in the loft), three stacking crates of toys and two piles of clothes. She still has a small chest of drawers which will go before we leave but is useful til that point. I’m hoping the wardrobe will be collected from the front garden tomorrow…

I was very proud of her, she made some difficult decisions but was rational and reasonable about everything that went. We have various clothes to bring to camp to give away, a small pile for ebaying and several bags in the bin along with a car full to take to the tip tomorrow.

All that done the kids had tea and watched some TV before bed. Davies’ room is being done tomorrow and about an hour after he went to bed he reappeared downstairs sobbing at the prospect of getting rid of his bedroom furniture – it was bought by my Granny as the gift from her when we had him so is as old as he is – and far the worse for wear. At least half of the knobs are missing, drawers are broken and doors hanging off. It’s done it’s time and it’s right for it to go even if we were not heading off next year. I spent about 20 minutes trying to talk to him, Scarlett got out of bed and joined in and eventually Ady took him off to bed.

I was really twitchy about what was being said but Ady did an amazing job of talking it all through with him and they concluded they would remove all the knobs and runners and hinges, keep them and build new furniture together when we come home, using the sentimental value bits as a base and using all the new knowledge and skills they have learnt during the year. We ended up all having another chat (both kids reappeared again) about the whole thing and talking it through; the tough bits, the worthwhile bits, the gamble, the it being hard for everyone in different ways and so on. Everyone got a bit teary but in a good way and I feel more like this is everyone’s dream rather than mine I am selfishly dragging the others along for the ride on. All a bit group therapy-esque. We’re the Goddards and we’re getting out of our box.

It was cold and dark and rainy, I was cosy by the fire
but a promise is a promise and mine was to Aspire
I’ve pledged to swim the channel, length by length by length
I’ve got 12 weeks to do it, I’m building up my strength
My hair has gone all frizzy, my skin’s wrinkly as well
…eau de chlorine has become my signature smell
I’m well on track to do it, over two thirds of the way
just 310 more lengths to go and it’ll be a happy day
I’ll step out of the swimming pool, do a celebratory dance
even though my knees are complaining, because I’ll have reached France
So I’ll go out and do the swimming, you stay home nad watch TV
but please visit Just Giving and go and sponsor me
http://www.justgiving.com/Nic-Goddard

I had that lovely feeling this morning of not needing to get up when I first woke, so I turned over and went back to sleep. For someone so rubbish at going to bed I do still enjoy sleeping :).

Scarlett cut her toe somehow in the kitchen while racing to go and let the chickens out. That girl runs everywhere, I’ve no idea how she’ll cope in the van next year! It’s quite nasty, she’s sliced a huge chunk of her little toe but it’s still there like a sort of little toe hat made of skin. Eww. It bled loads so having washed it off in the bath to check it wasn’t anything too serious (she was very calm and unfussed about it so I knew it wasn’t an ambulance case) I carried her back into the lounge and put her on a chair with her foot up and a wet flannel wrapped around it. It did stop bleeding and a quick inspection decided it wasn’t serious and just needs to be kept clean.

We watched some TV, had breakfast, kept monitoring Scarlett’s toe and I wrapped a couple of ebay parcels then we left the house. Miraculously the car (which appears to have been cured) started and we drove into town. I wasn’t sure how long the Shakespeare 4 Kids went on so made sure we parked in the 4 hour zone and paid for the maximum (just as well, we got back with seconds to spare) and then we walked into town. I needed to go to the post office to send parcels so we went there first and bumped into my Granny for a brief chat. One of those weird incidences where you think of someone and minutes later they are there infront of you – how does that happen?

We called in a couple of charity shops (I’m looking out for waterproofs for all of us) and picked up a couple of Usborne Spotter books which can come with us in the van. Next to the bank where we used the automated paying in cheques machine which was very cool as it scanned the cheque and brought up an image of it which we all thought was very clever.

Next we went down to an olde fashioned sweet shoppe which I knew had opened recently. I think it’s a chain actually which rather removes some of it’s charm but it was very lovely, all long and narrow, walls lined with jars and boxes and packets of sweets. Behind the counter were jars of sweeties, down each side were things like sugar mice, candy canes and pretty much every shape and size of licqorice you can think of. Under the glass topped counter was pick n mix so having told the kids they could choose whatever they wanted within reason they both went for that and selected ‘one of those, two of those’ from the woman behind the counter. They had walked down the shop eyes wide with wonder, exclaiming at everything and Scarlett was literally bouncing up and down with excitement when we got to the counter prompting me to comment ‘you are both like, erm, children in a, err sweet shop!’ 😆 which had everyone laughing.

I was really proud of them, with no guidance from me they both chose a sensible amount and both came in under £2 each (sold by weight) :). We called in the bakery but they had already run out of savoury stuff so went to M&S as we were starting to run out of time before the theatre and were all hungry. In M&S I bumped into a friend and had a very brief catch up next to the sandwiches – hopefully we’ll get respective families together in the next couple of weeks for a proper chat. I *never* go to M&S and I felt like a right grown up cluttering up the aisle chatting to a friend while the kids stifled yawns 😆 We grabbed some bits from their in store bakery and left by the back door which leads straight onto the beach where the theatre is.

The sea was high and all brown and angry looking so we watched it for a while, marvelling in it’s power and beauty (I do so love the sea) before going in to the theatre. We were seeing Shakespeare 4 Kids do A Midsummer Nights Dream which I’d happened upon while looking to book HP cinema tickets and thought looked good, was pricey but we happen to have a bit of cash this month and it’s not like we’ll be doing anything theatre-y next year…

I’d booked balcony seats so although we were at the back we were elevated above heads which were a sea of school children. Looking at uniforms they were all senior school I would say and pretty much entirely school groups with the odd adult here and there so Davies and Scarlett would have been the youngest there.

They really enjoyed it, got slightly fidgety in the middle, although there was an interval it was a full 2 hours long with an hour for each act and 20 min break in the middle. It was a really good production, actors were excellent, plenty of singing and dancing, good costumes, great effects, catchy songs – in all a really good few hours :). The kids both said they’d go and see more of their productions, that having read the story the night before helped to familiarise them with the plot and allow them to concentrate on the play rather than keeping track.

We walked back to the car and drove home. The kids put the chickens away and I chopped some wood and we got the lounge all cosy with a lit fire, tea for the kids, a cup of tea for me and the curtains drawn against the wind and rain.

I really struggled to drag myself to swimming when Ady got home but I did go. My right knee started to protest around 45 lengths and then the pool started to fill up with people who clearly come for the social aspect and want to hang around at either end chatting and clogging up the lanes. That really irritates me as there is a section clearly marked off for swimming lengths with the rest of the pool free to just hang out in. I appreciate some length swimmers need to pause every so often to catch their breath / stretch etc but when you can’t actually get to the side for people I start to get fed up. I had in my head I had 379 lengths to go so when I got to 80 and was starting to want to strangle people with those swimming noodles for being in my way and my knee was hurting enough to be uncomfortable I decided I was under the 300 mark sk could stop. As it turned out when I got home I realised I had 389 lengths to go actually so still have 309 but never mind.

I came gome, had a long bath, persuaded children to bed and had dinner with Ady. Am now very tired after all that culture, swimming and of course a hefty dose of wine and have work in the morning…

Which happens to be the name of a small Home Ed child locally but is a word I first encountered as a small child when it cropped up in a story book about a little zephyr who tries to blow a big black rain cloud away. I can’t recall any more of the story but I remember liking the word.

And is relevant because currently there are way more than zephyrs battering the side of the house and making me rather glad I don’t live in a campervan just yet ;).

I struggled to get up this morning and having waved Ady, Davies and Scarlett off I made myself a crumpet for breakfast and a cup of tea. I ate the crumpet too fast and gave myself violent hiccups, which both really hurt and were not something I wanted to take to work with me. Asking advice on twitter gave some interesting suggestions and I think I finally cured them with a too big gulp of still too hot tea which shocked my poor throat out of hiccuping but left me with a burnt throat 😆

My car started (I’ve probably jinxed it now but it has behaved all week despite really bad weather) and I arrived at work. I don’t like my all day shifts as they drag soo much, the afternoons are incredibly quiet and today this was proved by the visitor count we are doing. From 5-6pm we had 3 staff on and only 2 people came in for the whole hour. Something is very wrong when staff outnumber customers 🙁

I was put into a further bad mood by the Christmas rota which has finally been done and has me working both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve for the third year running. This really pissed me off and I made sure everyone knew it (I’m so mature 😉 ) – I will speak to the boss on Saturday and see if there is anything that can be done to change it but I suspect it is already too late. Am kicking myself for not mentioning in advance that I’d really rather not work both but Ady consoled me later with the thought that we wouldn’t do much before lunchtime on Christmas Eve anyway and we currently have no plans for NYE.

Finally it was far too hot at work. Stupidly, heating chucking out at full blast hot. This irritates me on several levels; firstly all of the cost cutting exercises, staff cuts, restructuring, book buying bans put in place while we literally open windows to let the hot air out as it is suffocating. That’s my council tax drifting out as hot air 🙁 Secondly the environmental impact annoys the hell out of me; we try really hard at home to conserve energy and be responsible but the council is behaving like that and thirdly I get really irritable and cross a bit like a toddler when I am overheated 😆

But all those gripes aside, apart from a dragging and too hot day it was fine.

Ady took Davies and Scarlett with him to a couple of stores and then dropped them home and met my Dad here who stayed with them for the rest of the day. They enjoyed spending time with him, as we’ve not seen much of him lately. I arrived home just after six and the fire was lit, the chickens away and it was nice and cosy to come home to.

The kids tidied up while I made them a hasty tea and chopped some more firewood up. Ady came home and we all caught up on each others days before I got off Davies’ bookshelf. One of those bargain priced Book People deals from years ago that has previously remained untouched (although I think I lent Merry one of the books for a while once) which finally came into it’s own tonight as we’re off to see Shakespeare 4 Kidz tomorrow, booked spur of the moment and rather expensively when I was checking to book HP cinema tickets the other day having heard good things about them and feeling we’ve not done a lot lately. I didn’t know the story of Midsummer Night’s Dream which is what we’re seeing so we read that.

My own Shakespeare knowledge is fairly patchy. We read The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet and The Merchant of Venice at school, learnt a chunk of a play to stand up and recite at the front of the class (I learnt ‘but soft, what light through younder window breaks, it is the east and Juliet is the sun, arise fair sun and kill the envious moon… shall I go on?’) I saw Romeo & Juliet in Brighton on a school trip and did a 3 day residential trip to Stratford including visits to Anne Hathaway’s cottage, various other Shakespeare museum places and a visit to the theatre. I recall enjoying most of it but don’t clearly remember much and suspect I ‘did Shakespeare without really doing Shakespeare’ IYKWIM. Davies and Scarlett enjoyed the book, will report back on the theatre experience tomorrow…