Originally we were supposed to be having friends over today, they cancelled and so I thought I’d be super organised, go through the rest of the Badger meeting ‘lesson’ plans, write down a list of all the stuff I’d need to buy, get anything non-perishable now, write in my diary reminders for things to buy the day before for all the rest and schedule in a few rather more interesting things I’d thought of doing with the Badgers too.
I’d also stuck the chicken carcass from yesterday (dinner, not one of ours!) in the slow cooker to make stock and had half a plan of getting some rolls to go with and making soup for lunch. So I told Davies and Scarlett we’d be going into Lancing mid morning to get shopping once I’d created the list and to gather some audiobooks they had finished with and had waiting lists of people wanting next so we could take them back and collect some more that I’d had email notification of being ready to collect from the library.
Except I got bored doing the Badger lists – several of the girls are quite challenging and moan about the stuff we’re doing being boring. Partially they are being tricky on purpose and partially they are right, it is pretty boring and I could just imagine their disdain presenting them with some home made playdough to make ‘play food’ with. So I’ve started to think up some alternative ideas which I’ll slip in instead and I need to redraw up the schedule.
And then we had a hiatus when the case for an audiobook couldn’t be found and I had to get involved, Cue a rant from me about bedrooms, looking after stuff, how we’re leaving in four months and everything , EVERYTHING needs to be gone from bedrooms. Cue Tarly getting all wobbly lipped, Davies going into hyper-helpful mode (calming me, pacifying Scarlett) and all of us ending up with a full bin bag, several tidy boxes sorted into ‘keep forever and put into storage while we’re away’, ‘keep for now and probably give away before we leave’ and ‘yet to make a decision’ status and lots of things like shells, conkers, sticks and pebbles relegated to the garden.
Painful but productive…
The post arrived and with it insurance paperwork to complete and return and the hook up adapter. I went and plugged the van into the mains in the garage and we have power 🙂 Kettle, toaster and telly all now working. I’m not sure if the battery is charging and the fridge appears to not be entirely happy but it could be the angle of the drive.
We had lunch and I put off til tomorrow what I could have done today with the shopping.
I did manage to make a couple of phonecalls on some other paperwork kicking around though. Our debt management plan needed an annual review which I had attempted to email to the CCCS. I’d initially said our situation was unchanged but they said they still needed an income and expenditure form completed and emailed me one. I completed it and emailed it back but they couldn’t open it, I copy and pasted it into the body of an email and they emailed back with some queries at which point I decided I should probably just talk to them. One of the queries was a big leap in our gas payment per month which is clearing some arrears from an underpayment, so I took meter readings and had an online live help chat with our energy provider to check where we were with that before listening to the worst hold music ever (a sort of jazzed up, house version of ‘all the ducks are sitting in the water’) for about 20 minutes before finally talking to a person at CCCS. I was feeling really wobbly about the debt suddenly. It is our intention to not tell anyone that we are not working or change our official financial status at all but to carry on paying out of the revenue from renting the house out which will cover both the debt repayment and the mortgage.
I did feel better having talked to someone and got it all sorted out and OK’d for another year but it did have me feeling a bit crap, my bluster and bravado about the whole business and how well we’re doing all took a bit of a kicking really in the face of being questionned as to just how long I wouldn’t be working full time and would be Home Educating the kids. I felt very reminded of past mistakes 🙁
All of which contrived to make me decide to go swimming early. I felt the need to go and be good at something, to do something that has a good effect on others and swimming is something that I find quite relaxing, it’s almost meditative to go up and down the same 33 metres, brain totally disenaged other than chanting the number of lengths I have done to myself, challenging my brain with fractions and percentages of achievement against target and generally switching off.
We were at the poolside for about 345pm, giving me 1hour 45 mins to swim as much as I could. I decided to aim for 80 lengths given I had done 75 in 1 hour 37 for the Swimathon but had been in better condition. And I managed it 🙂 Felt very wobbly of knee when I got out and actually my knees are still protesting now but as that is the most I have ever swum in one session I guess I should expect some noise from my body. No one has actually sponsored me yet and I was half thinking I would quietly not bother to do the channel thing but I feel inspired anew to carry on again now.
Back home I stuck some tea on for the kids, Ady arrived home and we messed about with the van and the electrics for a while. I read the kids some of the latest Morpurgo – An Elephant in the garden and they went to bed, very tired as they had also had over 90 minutes in the swimming pool each :).
Sorry we had to cancel. Flute teacher only had space on Tuesday this week as we had to cancel Wednesdays lesson due to art trip. Looking forward to seeing you next Tuesday. Please put me down for £5 sponsor money for your big swim – keep on going. It is a huge challenge to swim this distance and I know you can do it:). See you Tuesday. Hugs me xxxx
Comment by Helen — 29 September 2010 @ 5:20 pm