Monday and Tuesday

A combination of a bit of a blogging apathy and the wireless internet connection crashing meant no blog post yesterday.

MondayWe had half a plan to go to the not bluebell walk place for a bluebell walk that may well have been a not bluebell walk as the bluebells bloomed early this year and I suspect they are going over by now. But it was another event I’d posted up details of and noone had shown any interest in so given I overslept anyway and it was a but damp and very windy we decided not to bother and took Tasha up on her invite to go round to theirs instead.

It was about midday by the time we got there and we had a very nice few hours sitting and chatting and knitting while Davies, Scarlett and Toby played. They spent much of their time in the garage and outside.

I’m sure there is a very good reason but Davies is being rather testing at the moment and argumentative with me for the sake of it. He then follows it up with being lovely and thoughtful and wanting to cuddle up with me so I wonder if it’s some sort of leap forwards he needs to make and is struggling with so veers between total independance and total regression or something. Whatever, it is very wearing and I have neither patience nor tolerance for it so I’m coming down quite hard on him over it. We’re also talking about it lots in calmer moments which is good but the odd flashes of having to deal with it by getting riled have me sighing a lot. Scarlett is of course doing testing of her own just to keep up so yesterday teatime I lost my temper with them both after hefty doses of warnings from me and preteen eyerolling, attitude from them and explained very clearly that Home Education entails spending lots of time with me and each other. If that works and we all get on it is great, if they piss me off (didn’t actually say piss me off but came close) and squabble with each other then it doesn’t work and as far as I’m concerned that’s the time for them to start school, have less time with each other and me and we can focus on making less time together more enjoyable rather than more time together hard work.

I am prepared for dynamics to shift, to go through tricky and challenging phases and have periods when we aren’t all living in peace and harmony but I’m not prepared to have our lives characterised by rudeness, disrespect for the other people in the house and me turning into some sort of shrieking ogre. I am pretty laid back and approachable I think and I refuse to allow myself to be turned into someone else by living in a life that doesn’t suit me. We seem to have shake up like this every so often (I think it was the year before last but it was around this time of year) and things usually settle down again so hopefully with a few more reminders here and there they will be persuaded to put sufficient effort into making our lifestyle work.

We had a couple of chapters of Humphrey before they went to bed and then my mood was further blackened by trying to install some software for Ady’s new phone onto my laptop which crashed it and killed the wireless internet thing too. I got increasingly fedup with it before giving up and going to bed in a foul mood.

Tuesday A much better day :).
Early start as we had the dentist first thing. Ady is very dentist phobic so I don’t tell him we have an appointment until a day or so beforehand to prevent him from getting all stressed about it. It’s just along the road so we walked and were slightly late. We were all four fine with no work needed and just a checkup appointment made for six months time :). She did ask me if I smoked – no it’s tea stains 🙁 and cleaned them up nicely but it did make me resolve to get better about cleaning (note I don’t intend reducing my tea intake ;)) with decent toothpaste and maybe 3 times a day rather than just twice.

Ady went off to work and we went off to Forest School. I’d said I’d stay this week so I made the hill climb (it’s incredibly steep and really, really hard work) and even chatted a bit to people as I wheezed my way up it!

They all had to gather firewood and tinder, learnt how to build an upside down fire
and use the firesteels to make sparks to add to the fire.

Today’s activities were learning about ‘fox feet’ (to go with deers ears and owls eyes) where you walk on the balls of your feet and explore your footing before putting your weight down. Everyone had a go at that before going to an area where they’d strung a rope between a load of trees which you had to walk along blindfolded. They said all the mums had to have a go but I think I was the only one who did. I really enjoyed it though – it was quite a long way and over very uneven terrain with slopes and holes and bushes. Amazing how your other senses kick in when you can’t see. I had my eyes closed aswell as the blindfold but you can still sense light and dark so the shady areas made me jump when the lack of light suddenly showed through the blindfold and my eyelids. I really enjoyed it 🙂 as Liza captured on camera 😉

The other activity was making spinners- they sawed a piece off a long stick, drilled two holes in it, strung it onto string and decorated it to make discs that spin and hum.

That was it for the organised stuff, there was lots and lots of playing in the woods. Davies and Scarlett are loving it, they have made friends with a pair of brothers and along with Andrew have set up a camp and passwords and stuff. I feel slightly frustrated at the cost of the sessions and the level of input and activity there is and did again today. One of the rangers was explaining that lots of kids who come to Forest school don’t get the chance to be out of the classroom in a free environment without rushing through a timetabled schedule and to play in the woods.I can see that but I do with they’d be playing to their audience more and realising that this group of kids can play in the woods whenever they like for free.

The rangers are being tougher with the group though which is good and I suspect the fewer parents around the better it works for them really. No FS next week as they are breaking for half term.

On the way home we called into Sainsburys for a few bits and then my parents house to drop off birthday cards for Frazer who is 33 today (just how did that happen? He’s my baby brother and should remain about 14. Actually I think he might have heard me think that and is acting like he’s still 14 in many ways ;)). Dad was there so we had a cup of tea with him before coming home to get ready for swimming.

I did some laundry processing, had a sandwich, faffed unsuccessfully with the laptop wireless and shouted at Scarlett before having to comfort Scarlett :rolls:

Swimming was fine – they had a good lesson while I managed to swim 22 lengths. I felt very wobbly of leg when I got out but I’m sort of enjoying it and hoping to pull off 24 lengths next time. Again, no swimming next week due to half term.

Back home again to more laundry processing, checking the chickens (three hens are being broody over 2 eggs they keep nicking out from under each other. I’m fairly sure they aren’t going to hatch but am traumatised over last weeks experience so am giving them a bit longer), making dinner for the kids and preparing a lasagne for our dinner.

Ady got home and I headed out to reading group. I was going to drive but decided that was lazy and it was a lovely evening so I walked instead. Double bonus of feeling virtuous about being green and being healthy aswell as meaning I could have 2 glasses of wine :). The book ()split the group in opinion which always makes for a more interesting meeting. I lingered chatting to a couple of women (one of whom has 2 children the same age as D and S, a daughter who goes to Rainbows with S and tends to go swimming with them on a Tuesday. I like her and had recommended a load of books to her most of which she enjoyed :)) before helping to tidy the library up and then walking home.

I spent the walk chatting to Frazer on the phone and then Julie so it went very quickly (and is probably good for my breathing too managing to talk and walk briskly at the same time). Davies and Scarlett got up when I came in and managed to wangle a chapter of story out of me before I had a bath and did dinner. I sorted out the wireless doodah and am feeling much more at peace with the world in general ;).