One word? When seven would do…

Nothing to get up for this morning – bliss 🙂

Ady’s friend Tom had given us a real Christmas tree (via his job, he works for the company who supply Homebase so we got a sample one, it’s a bit bottom heavy and could probably do with a trim but it’s free and smells gorgeous) so Ady had brought it in and stuck it in a bucket of water. It was still all closed up from the cold outside and being in a net so needed to relax into the warmth of the room before decorating.

Both Davies and Scarlett are still suffering Camp Cold – Scarlett is at coughing and looking a bit peaky stage, Davies is still in full on feeling crap and needing to lie about on the sofa so we’d decided very early on we wouldn’t bother with swimming today meaning there was no need to leave the house.

I spent some time finishing off some online stuff with the intention of clearing my email inbox, almost there :).

Davies was having a dvd day – he watched Toy Story 3, Flushed Away, How to train your dragon and various dvd extras. Scarlett played with her playmobile stuff and I went off to do some festive baking. I started with gingerbread mix and then stuck some shortbread mix in. I’d not been thinking though as I’d put the shortbread mix on to make some basic biscuits and picked the recipe I use to add stuff like lavender to which makes a lovely pressed into the tin shortbread but is no good for rolling out for biscuits.

Both the children wandered in whilst I was doing it and both stopped to help for a while, cutting out stuff or brushing with glaze before wandering back out again. Every year I use the same gingerbread recipe and am surprised by how many biscuits it makes! This year it did all the biscuits for a nativity cookie cutter set I had and several trays of hearts, stars and plenty of cut out biscuits to stick boiled sweets in the middle of to make stained glass window biscuits.

I used the mistake shortbread to make a shortbread round and then made several batches of pastry to make 5 dozen mincepies which used up all of my home made mincemeat reserves. I have ingredients for more and want to make some mincemeat muffins though so might try and do that tomorrow. I made some icing and gave Davies and Scarlett the biscuits, a bowl of icing and another of sprinkles and set them to task on decorating them while I did the nativity – it needs some writing icing to finish it of nicely though.

While the mince pies were cooking I split loads of firewood, made some late lunch for the kids and then came and sat down with them infront of the fire.

We’ve had lots of cuddling up, lots of just enjoying being in a house, with a fire and a sofa and a TV set :). Storing up comfort points for next year when we’ll be exchanging them for adventure points instead ;).

I spent some time creating a ‘best of 2010’ set on flickr in preparation for my round up of the year post and then got all soppy about what a fab life we have and how wonderful our friend are, what a great path we’ve chosen, how lucky our children are to be chasing so many of their dreams and being taken so seriously. I know this has been a really testing year for many of our friends and I have certainly shed many, many tears for their troubles but despite that I look back over a year filled with many happy times too.

Ady came home and we sorted through a loft space that has our Christmas decorations. This year we’ve decided on a very old fashioned look with the tree containing edible decorations (home made biscuits and candy canes) and baubles made from old recycled Christmas cards. We’re leaving the tinsel in the box and have just strung up various Christmas lights around the house and will have lots of candles. In small part this fits with our minimalistic look and the hope of having some prospective tennants come and look at the house but mostly it fits well with the Christmas we will have this year – lower impact, made by us with little waste – a far cry for us from Christmasses past.

Am in the middle of the usual slushy birthday post which will appear in the side bar at some point. But to the actual day…

Ady heard Davies get up in the night and go downstairs, he listened out assuming he had gone to get a drink but when he didn’t come back up Ady got up and went to check he was okay. He found him in Scarlett’s bedroom, gently shaking her awake saying ‘Scarlett, it’s your birthday, wake up!’. He stopped him and guided him back to bed as it was 3am!!!! 😯

I was woken by both Davies and Scarlett at the rather more sociable hour of 730am. Along with the trip yesterday and money in the gift shop we had got her a digital photoframe with a couple of cards – one I had already put photos on for her, the other one we sat and filled together this afternoon. She loves the frame and has gone to sleep tonight watching it flick through all her favourite pets, friends, day trips and holidays – perfect gift for her really and nice and small to bring along containing her favourite photos with us next year :). We also gave her a fishing rod, two different sized latex duck shaped moulds so she can make models of her beloved Sploosh and Lucky and a couple of Playmobile sets from Davies – a chicken coop and a cat scratching post with several cats. Davies got Toy Story 3 on dvd.

She was really pleased with all of this and spent time after opening each thing to fully explore it before moving onto the next gift. I’d promised whatever she wanted for all meals today and her breakfast choice was pancakes so I needed to walk round to the shop for eggs. Scarlett came with me and as we walked up the glittering pavements hand in hand with dragon breath in the cold air I marvelled at where those eight years had gone. Later the same day I had her I felt the urge to get out of the house all alone so had nipped along to Sainsburys while she slept, leaving both the children with Ady. I was gone less than half an hour and I remember standing in the queue thinking ‘I gave birth to a baby this morning!’. Being in a queue with her eight years later all big and chatty and lovely is just amazing really.

Back at home I made pancakes, lit a fire and had a quick phonecall with Julie to arrange for them to come over to us for a couple of hours. We watched TS3 and the kids played with playmobil while I made a cake. Scarlett wanted a victoria sponge with Sploosh and Lucky on the top. Except my car won’t start and I had no blue food colouring, no black food colouring and no icing to make such things with. Instead I made a double layer sponge, put it together with green buttercream, smeared more over the top and created a duck shaped stencil with a piece of paper then sprinkled icing sugar through to make Lucky and cocoa powder to make Sploosh. It passed muster later 🙂

Julie & co arrived and we had a nice catch up with each other – it’s a couple of years since they were last here. I showed Julie the van and we did candle blowing and cake eating.

They left and Davies started to feel rough so he curled up to watch more TS3 while Tarly and I looked at photos and she had a pile of cinnamon french toast – her late lunch food request. Ady arrived home bringing a Christmas tree and plaster so we can cast some ducks tomorrow.

We all got ready and drove to the Harvester to meet Mum, Dad and Frazer who pulled up at the same time as us. Scarlett got yet more cash (she now has over £100 which she says she wants to bring WOOFing with us rather than spend – I have a horrible feeling she intends buying an animal with it… 😉

The meal was the usual Harvester fayre, acceptable and OK. Davies and I played boxes on his kids activity sheet thing and Dad showed Tarly how to play it too, then I got bored and set up 10 pencil bowling standing pencils up on their ends and knocking them down with an empty butter pat container. Dad was the best scoring several strikes and scores.

Scarlett told the waitress it was her birthday earning her a sparkler in her jelly and ice cream 🙂 Davies did really well to last the night I think as he was looking pretty ropey but adamant he didn’t want to spoil her birthday. We came home for coffee and cake and Davies went up to bed and was asleep really quickly. Scarlett showed Mum and Dad her photo frame before they left and then I sat with Tarly in her room for a bit looking at her pictures with her.

Love that girl, love being her Mumma, having her as my crazy daughter, celebrating her eight circles of the sun with love, laugher, animal related stuff and many cuddles.
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Saturday started slowly as we were all still in post camp recovery. Scarlett and I are suffering from Camp Cough, Davies seems to be going down with it and Ady has thus far escaped but will probably be next.

Heavy rain overnight had washed away pretty much all the snow much to the kids disappointment. Our original plan for the day had been Wildlife Explorers in the morning folllowed by a visit to an armoury in Chichester in the afternoon to look at guns and knives as weapons seem to be the gift of choice for all of us this Christmas.

Wildlife Explorers had been cancelled though so we had a lazing about morning and were slack to get going really. We’d realised Christmas shopping would be starting in earnest everywhere so actually fighting our way into Chi would be silly.

The other three had a game of Monopoly and then Scarlett had a wobbly moment. Not at all sure what brought it on, well aside from being very tired and not 100% well and feeling that she is hurtling further away from having once been my little tiny baby. So she required some serious cuddling and reassurance and her and I looked through some very early photo albums and her baby books.

Scarlett loves looking at photos from times gone by which means Ady has been saying for a while that a digital photo frame would be a good gift for her. Yesterday we put it to her and she adored the idea.

So after a quick look at a garden centre which might have had knives but didn’t we went to Sainsburys and then Asda to get a few bits including a digital photoframe for her.

Back at home I was adamant they would have an early night so they had early dinner, bedtime story (we’re reading the latest Mr Gum) and then they were in bed and sure enough asleep at a very respectable hour.

I was on track to blog the week when the phone rang and it was my friend Heather from NZ. I worked with her some 13 years ago and we really hit it off, met her husband when I used to drop her home on a Friday after work and pop in for a glass of wine and then Ady met them too and we all became firm friends. They have a daughter 4 years older than Davies and were really good friends to us in the early days of having a baby. Within a year of us moving to Manchester they moved to NZ (for Heather it was moving home) and aside from a brief visit from Derek when he came home for his dad’s funeral we’ve not seen them in the 8 years since they left. We were really good at staying in touch but it slipped to an annual Christmas phonecall and in the last 2 or 3 years has slipped to nothing. I think of them often, they crossed my mind for several reasons last week while we were away so I was thrilled to hear from them.

Derek is on facebook and had been searching for me as well as googling me – quite reassured they didn’t find me til about page 4 and that was an old TV interview Davies and I did for Miranda. So we had a very happy hour catching up on all sorts of news and have since exchanged a flurry of emailed pictures. Made me feel most warm and fuzzy but did prevent me from blogging and then I realised just how late it was and just how early I needed to be up today so I went to bed.

Sunday Today was the day for Scarlett’s birthday treat. Both children have had a couple of big hiring a hall birthday parties (Davies 6 Wallace & Gromit, 7 Doctor Who. Scarlett 4 Princess Party, 5 disco) and the last 3 years have had a celebration at camp – for Davies this has been in a field at the Sustainability Centre, for Scarlett at Christmas Camp. I like the idea of an experience as a present, both to cement memories of a special day and because it’s less stuff in the house – even more important this year while we are shedding stuff. Davies’ Campcraft Sleepout was a really good gift for him and I wanted to find something equally as good for Scarlett. We spent ages researching, emailing and ringing places to try and get something suitable organised along her favourite theme – animals. Eventually after much deliberation she decided she’d like to just have a day trip to the zoo, the day before her birthday so Ady could come along too.

The zoo was one I’d heard about last summer from a friend of a friend and earmarked as somewhere to think about taking Tarly and it turns out is featured on one of her most favourite TV shows – Roar. Further research showed a simple day trip with an upgrade to the safari would be ideal for her so we traded in some Tesco vouchers and planned to go today to Port Lympne – chosen the day before her birthday so Ady could come along too.

I’d checked their website and it said they were open every day except Christmas Day and had some very up to date information about the gorillas being given advent day themed enrichment activities so it wasn’t until we pulled into the car park that it occured to me they might not actually be open… It had been a longer drive than I’d expected and we’d driven through some really heavy snow with the M25 the quietest I have ever seen it.

We walked in and I asked the very friendly women in the shop if we were the only people at the zoo, they answered no, we were numbers 5,6,7 and 8! 😆 We booked onto the 11am safari (which they radioed ahead and had not quite left so waited for us) and dashed down to join the other 4 people on board the jeep.

Port Lympne is very much about the conservation and protection of animals. They go to great lengths to remind you they are ‘not a zoo’ but are a ‘wild animal park’, with animals given as close to their natural environment as possible to live and roam in. This means they are not on show as such and there is no guarantee you will actually see everything, more than you are being invited for a peek into the animals homes and if you are lucky you may catch a glimpse of them. I really like this, it removes the aspect of zoos that I am always rather uncomfortable with that these animals have been put on show for my entertainment.

So first the safari – an open sided jeep on very steep landscapes going through heavy clunky gates and fences felt really quite authentic. The recorded commentary was a bit patchy – not sure if that was how it’s supposed to be, a result of the weather or just in line with the slightly tatty feel of the place generally. The guy driving the jeep did the odd bit of pointing stuff out but he had this really raspy voice and a dodgy London accent that made him sound like he was trying to sell us the animals at knock down prices rather than telling us about them 😆

We went ‘across the plains of Africa’ and saw various grazing animals; rhinos, all sorts of antelope and deer, zebras, ostrich and then had to stop for giraffes to cross infront of us.
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We stopped at a gift shop to look at meerkats, a few reptiles and spiders in a warm room and presumably to spend some cash ;). We obliged by buying tea, coffee and hot chocolate (which Ady cunningly topped up with some brandy he’d sneaked into the rucksack for him and I )which warmed us up for the second leg of the safari. The landscape is beautiful with panoramic views over the channel and the sweeping grass with animals roaming. It was bitterly cold and none of us could feel our toes or fingers despite gloves, socks and hats but worth it as we had the place almost entirely to ourselves.

We stopped then for lunch and were the only people in the restuarant – it was pretty pricey but we’d bought some stuff to supplement it and just needed some warm food to top up our reserves. Once we could feel our fingers and toes again we set back off, keen to see as much as possible. This time we were on foot so saw a different perspective to being on the jeep, walked round different parts and of course kept that bit warmer for being on the move.

We started at ‘Palace of the Apes’ where we were delighted with the gorilla that came rushing over to clap and snap his fingers at us. We did it back and he looked qiute chuffed back :). We stopped at Scarlett’s request to take pictures using the face cut outs – oh so flattering 😉

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We moved on to the small cats – many I’d never heard of but most Scarlett seemed to know – she’d really impressed me earlier with knowing about various endangered animals and being really excited to see przewalskis horses and telling me about how they are in her endangered animals dictionary. She was right too, she showed me this morning :).

We arrived in time to see a keeper feeding some lynx and fishing cats their dead rabbits so watched as they very efficiently broke all the bones and ripped out the insides. Then we moved on to the big cats, past an asiatic dog which looked like a giant alsatian sized fox, very pretty. The lions were barbary lions, extinct in the wild for nearly 100 years but doing really well there. They are HUGE! The pride were very active doing lots of pacing and then suddenly all on the alert as though they had collectively spotted some prey. We spent ages trying to figure out what they had seen and then several minutes later a jeep arrived with their food. We watched the keepers close them into a smaller area and then clean out their enclosure before hiding food in footballs and around the area for their enrichment / feeding time. A bengal tiger was in the next area and was very beautiful – tigers are my favourite animal (closely followed by penguins). The pictures are a bit rubbish as they have the fence so prominently in them but that shows how very close we were, just about four feet away from the animals for much of the time.

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We then started to walk back up to the top, passing elephants, rhinos, some bush dogs (very cute), red river hogs, cheetahs, snow leopards – their eyes looked amazing when we took pictures with flash on

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We finished at a pair of lions who had two cubs. The cubs were away as it was starting to get dark but the lion and lioness did some prowling around and some roaring which is always very impressive – I remember the first time I heard a tiger roar at a zoo, it felt like an earthquake!

Finally to the gift shop 🙂 I’d said Scarlett could have £20 to spend in the shop as part of her birthday present so she could remember the day. I was so very proud of her for not choosing the biggest soft toy she could get for the money and for being really logical in her choices. She spent quite a while looking at the books but she already has a pretty comprehensive library of wild animal books so discounted them, she looked at ornaments but said they wouldn’t be great for next year. I showed her the adopt an animal packages – they had two different ones, one for £10 and one for £25. Ady was a bit horrified but I was really proud of her for going for a much smaller token for herself and donating her money to animals. She went for a £10 one for a tiger and has a very cute small soft toy tiger and a certificate to print off online. She also bought a tiger notepad and a tiger pen and has saved the rest of her £20.

It was her dream day really – loads of animals, in a place she felt really happy seeing them, she spent her money on helping them 🙂
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We sang Christmas songs all the way home, food and bed for very tired children for Scarlett as the last time as a seven year old.

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Sunday we were all up, car packed, rooms rearranged for Dad to come in and decorate and in the car before 10am :). The journey was smooth and straightforward all the way with no stops at all until we reached Okehampton other than a quick dash into the Sainsburys at Bournmouth for tissues as no one seemed to have brought any and Scarlett – one of several people who seemed to bring a Camp Cold with them – had failed to bring any with her. I also picked up sugar, a forgotten essential for mulled wine and a Christmas cd as we didn’t have any Christmas music in the car and I felt like we should be listening to some. The Christmas cd was one of those ‘sounds like’ types though where the original artist was not the one singing the song so Ady took it back and despite my suggestion he buy a different one he just got a refund.

We wildlife spotted all the way, hoping for deer but not seeing any other than the five legged stone one along the way. We did see buzzards, kestrels, loads of other birds and a fox slinking along the side of a field of sheep.

Once at Okehampton we had nearly an hour to kill before we were allowed in the hostel. We’d driven through all sorts of weather conditions from no snow at all at home to the odd pocket of loads of snow in places. Okehampton had a dusting that had frozen so it looked very pretty and festive but was more ice than snow. We parked at the Co Op and I dashed in for some sandwiches which we ate in the car before heading to the hostel.

The manager greeted us with the news that the previous group had not actually exited the building yet. They were a religious gathering who wanted to have one last shared prayer before they left. So he made us a tea and a coffee and we sat and had a chat in the dining room with him while the cleaners finished tidying and the group said their prayers. He showed us round, explained the various bits of kitchen kit and then showed us the rooms which have been quite substantially upgraded since we were there back in 2005 and many are now en suite (the 2 and 4 bed at least, none of the 6 bed are). New flooring has been laid and new lighting in the lounge – we didn’t really like the new lighting actually as it made it too light of an evening so we took some lightbulbs out in the end to reduce the glare a bit. The disco lights were cool :).

Paul the hostel manager left us to it and we went round armed with white tac from the pound shop and our door signs to allocate rooms. I thought that took a lot of doing but actually removing the bloody white tac at the end of the week was probably harder work ;).

We got jacket potatoes in the oven, mulled wine in the soup tureen and first arrivers were with us – Kirsty & James, swiftly followed by Helen & Chris. I’ve lost track of who else arrived in which order other than of course Stella came very last over half way through the week.

Everyone else gradually arrived, rooms got filled with people, the jacket potatoes actually cooked and we sorted out toppings of cheese, beans, tuna and set up the servery.

We ate, we cleared up, we had cake, we drank tea, we drank wine, we played games, we knitted, we chatted, we stayed up far too late. I’m guessing you can guess who did which from that list ;).

Monday I got up far earlier than I’d have liked given the lateness of the night before as the big food shop for the week was being delivered between 9 and 11am. The only supermarket which would deliver to a business address was Tesco so I’d gone with that as we’d have not fitted a whole weeks worth of food shopping for 60 people in our car, I didn’t really fancy doing it in real life anyway – it would have been many, many trolleyfulls! We’d debated getting it delivered on Sunday but the window was 2-4pm on Sunday so too early, also we knew there would be more people around to help on Monday morning!

I was getting twitchy as the time moved towards 11am but it arrived just after. I later got a text message to tell me the shopping would be late (several hours after it had actually arrived) and when we got home yesterday there was a message on our landline answerphone to apologise for it being late – I’m guessing they did everything to avoid talking to an actual person! 😆

It was lots and lots of shopping, but people swung into action, we opened the fire exit direct into the kitchen and it was unloaded and put away in minutes :).

I realised we were missing a couple of necessary items and also wanted to get something else for my secret santa and gloves for all four of us. We *never* manage to keep gloves from winter to winter so I always end up buying pound shop pairs each year. Ali kindly agreed to be nominated adult for Davies and Scarlett should they need one as neither of them wanted to come with Ady and I so we headed down into Okehampton for gloves, the bits we needed and a couple of things for Ali. We also realised as we walked past a shop window that we’d forgotten crackers for Christmas dinner so bought ten boxes of those too. Felt very festive running about for last minute bits and very nice not to be doing it in the usual just-before-Christmas crowds – a definite plus to having Christmas early ;).

Back at the hostel Scarlett had been searching for ketchup and Davies had sprained his ankle – just as well we don’t leave them often ;). The ketchup had been found on a table, Scarlett made me laugh by accusingly saying ‘so it wasn’t on the shelf where you said it was!’ as if it had some sort of gps allowing me to know at all times where it was located, I’d simply said I had put it on the shelf! Davies had been attended by Dr Helen and prescribed rest which his little posse of mates were ensuring he took to the letter and waiting on him 😆

I think a group went out for a walk or a geocache but I stayed behind and along with various others got curry prepared and cooking for dinner.

Sarah and Abbie came along in time for dinner, which was lovely. I so wish Sarah still Home Educated, camps always feel like she is missing so it was great to have not one but two guest appearances from her, even if we couldn’t persuade her to stay over :).

Monday was deemed Birthday Night so out came the cakes spelling HAPPY BIRTHDAY, along with specially made cakes each for Scarlett, Alys, Jax and Alison. Gifts were given – thankyou to all who gave to Scarlett, I have no idea what was from whom but she loved everything she was given, the edible things lasted about an hour! 😆 and Alison and Jax were presented with their canvasses which were both gorgeous 🙂 I think they were as pleased with them as we all had been when we first saw them.
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Queue for cakes and then seconds of cakes and then wired children were released to continue rioting round the hostel while we did our own more peaceful version 🙂

Tuesday Stew Day 🙂

I didn’t leave the hostel but there was another walk that Ady and the kids joined in with. I love the mixing and mingling of groups, adults, children, pairs, trios and bloody great packs of people that morph and merge over the week. I’m rather getting ahead of myself, I intended the soppy sentimental bit to be at the end (and don’t think for a moment this brief foray into it excuses you from the round up dripping with love) but the walks were a great example of this with some kids and some adults going and some kids and some adults left behind with everyone in each venue assuming responsibility for those around them regardless.

The Latin etc. gang had brought along loads of crafting stuff so lots of us joined in with that. I made a fimo charm thing and helped my two with their dyed squares. Later Scarlett and I made Latin etc more Goddard etc with added craziness as we tried to dye a purple streak each in our hair. It didn’t really take but I enjoyed wearing a bit of tin foil and Scarlett loved sitting with her head dipped in a bucket! 😆
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People appeared to peel and chop veg, make dumplings and get stuff happening. I made a pile of mince pies on the basis if I was in the kitchen anyway keeping an eye on stew I might as well be doing something else useful.

Stew of course means the usual ceremonial Dumpling Tossing, by now a proper NicCamps tradition. So Scarlett and Alison were summonded, Rachel came along too and after the vegetarians frankly poor beginning we carnivores showed them how it’s done. Loved the hermatic sealing of the veggie stew and creation of splashback for this. For the record we lost fewer dumplings than they did ;).

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Far too much morphing of days into each other to provide more details than that…

Wednesday was Pennywell day. We’d loved this five year ago and at last Christmas camp several of us had watched the video of it with teary eyed nostalgia so it was fairly instrumental in us booking Okehampton hostel again. It was further away than I remembered. We all left on time having given everyone more than sufficient leeway for working on Home Ed time after us being rather tardy for the Planetarium last year. I’m so sneaky 😉 of course it would only work this once as next time everyone will assume I have added time and not bother leaving when I say. D’oh!

So we arrived, were held in the foyer next to a sign welcomming us as ‘Goddard Home Educators’ very laughable given I barely Home Educate any Goddards let alone anyone else 😆 Eventually I was ushered in to pay while the rest of the group were taken away by Mark The Elf. And a very enthusiastic elf he was too. I suspect given some of his play narrating (he was also a narrator, guide to the cafe and a waiter) he is a Believer and I wonder how much of his vim was due to it being only day two of the nativity experience but he gave me a run for my money in perkiness and optimism ;).

The barn we were herded to for eating lunch was freezing. It had a single heat source which we gathered around and ate lunch while the kids admired the animals and the bouncy castle. There were goats, sheep, pigs, piglets, ducks and various birds. The animal enclosures were rather hilariously entitled with different animals (pigs had DONKEYS, sheep had GOATS and so on) but once you’d got past that – and we as WWOOFers of the future were able to clarify for anyone unsure 😉 it was great to be able to get up close to them. Scarlett cuddled ducks, I had a quick cuddle of a pig and lots of the children bounced on the bouncy castle.
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Next to the Nativity Barn where we were slightly dismayed to realise we would be sharing the experience with another group 🙁 This meant we didn’t get to have a Joseph or one of the innkeepers or wise men from our group. To be honest I suspect this wasn’t actually an issue. Scarlett wanted to be Mary for the sole reason she wanted to ride on the donkey, Davies wanted to be a shepherd for the sole reason he wanted to carry a lamb and judging by the whispers between the children and the hands shooting up those were the main desired parts all round.

Fran was nominated to be Mary – a shame that she was deemed too big to ride on the donkey so I saw lots of the girls who ended up being shepherds or angels muttering about her not getting to ride the donkey anyway but she did a beautiful job complete with many facial expressions and other dramatic effects. The angel Gabriel was Elinor who did a fab job in the same sort of garment Em and co ended up wearing on the M5 later in the week, Catie did a splendid job of singing like a proper angel, Tilda won everyone’s hearts as an angel in DMs, Mary directed Joseph who was half her size, the massive posse of shepherds with Claudia as my favourite grabbing handfuls of strawbale out of the ‘shepherds hill’ did their trooping round after the cuddly toy sheep and Ben (who always wins my vote for comedy value after his Centerparcs escapades in January) stole the show for me by responding to Mark the Elf’s question of how Mary might feel waking to find an angel in her bedroom with a loud ‘ARGH!!!!’ 😆 It was classic kids nativity play stuff, how fab we HE parents don’t miss out on it after all :).
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We outsung everyone, with particular mention to the descant singers on the carols and then went to see Santa. The kids got the usual tat – Scarlett swapped her Secret Diary with Libby for the younger girls cuddly toy monkey, Davies got a truck which I suspect is already lost. I got a picture with Santa 🙂
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After some milling about near the reindeer Mark the Elf came over and asked if we wanted to see the Christmas film. I confessed what we really wanted was a hot drink so we went through to the cafe for tea, coffee, mulled wine and mince pie for adults and squash and biscuits for children. Scarlett became an honorory grown up for a cup of tea, I suspect a few other children did too. Mark the Elf came to chat to some of us about how great Home Ed is. Not sure if he thinks everything is great or if he was sincere but he was enthusiastic nonetheless.

I think most of us decided to go to House of Marbles and ended up in a convoy there. We were responsible for a wrong turn and an all the way round the roundabout waving at the people behind us turning and Chris did a wrong lane at the roundabout move too but we all got there. Its a fab place and they dealt well with the onslaught of about 35 children into their breakable environment. We pressed buttons, cooed at amazing marble runs, watched the making marbles demo and succumbed to buying a few.
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We headed back with me realising we would be among the last back and probably people would be waiting on me for dinner prep commencement. Was really chuffed to see a start had been made on onion chopping :).

We launched straight into pasta meals with rather more options than had previously been planned being made but everyone seemed to have something to eat :).

As is traditional on ‘Christmas Eve’ we started prepping veg for the following day so potatoes, carrots, parsnips were peeled and chopped and crosses were put in sprouts. We had a crack team of kitchen crew who got it all going on and included Scarlett. I love that she had a hand in making that massive dinner for the masses :).
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Veg all done we headed upstairs and it ended up being the night the gamers were up til about 3am and the rest of us were up pondering all sorts of deep stuff (we had Jonathan with us for quite a while) before getting all tangled up with the wool puzzle Jax had brought along. The final handful went to bed just before the rest of the hostel woke for the morning. I insist it is not morning until it is daylight… but it’s fair to say we’d have put Santa off of stopping….

Thursday Christmas!!!! We woke to a snowfall proclaiming the real deal for the day. I’d had all of 2.5 hrs sleep so was not on top form but had a shower and got dressed intending heading to the kitchen to get cracking on dinner. The lure of the snow proved far too tempting though and after a cup of tea I put on coat, gloves and boots and went outside instead having stuck the ovens on to pre-heat.

A fantastic snowball fight ensued between James, Wayne, Zoe, Chris and I with Ady on camera duty. Some of the kids were doing stuff with icicles and snowmen while some (Poppy, Skye, Davies, Maddy, Marcus, Eve) joined in. The snow was powdery and hard to clump together to form balls but we had a bloody good go and a really good laugh.
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Back inside we buckled down and the Kitchen Krew did basting, dealing with the Crazy Oven (I have a nasty burn on my thumb and a lesser one on my wrist, Zoe got an injury too but we eventually showed that oven who was the boss), writing motivational notes on the clippy thing and generally getting everything happening. Alison and I made pastry, Zoe made stuffing balls and peas aside we were on track for our 2.15pm prediction.

After dashing off to get dressed for dinner and getting James on carving duty we decided to do crackers first and the noise of so many of our wonderful friends singing and toasting each other with Christmas wishes was quite overwhelming. The memory of standing behind the hot plate singing along with Rudolph will stay with me forever :).

The peas finally boiled, everything came together and armed with a crack team behind the hot plate and another the other side we got everyone served with Christmas dinner. The servers were seated and eating by 3pm and toasting ourselves :).

Another, quite un-primed team swung into action on plate clearing and washing up duty before we all retired upstairs to get ready for secret santa. As we were waiting for a few people we did some singing including a very rousing chorus of the 12 days of Christmas :). Eventually everyone was with us so we doled out Secret Santa gifts. I think all of ours were well recieved and we all loved ours – I suspect we are all the harder to make for knowing we know in advance who we are recieving from… Scarlett got a couple of books – one with dolphins and one with Wondering Wombles, along with some home made biscuits. Davies got a home made box containing a notepad and pen all fimoed up, a fimo note / photo holder, some chocolate and a necklace and wrist band made with fimo beads. Ady got a slab of chocolate in a lard wrapper and I got a glass box with emergency supplies of meat in it. We loved them all 🙂 Thanks lovely friends :).

Lots of the children headed off to do a dress rehearsal of their play and we sat around. Sarah arrived and finally we all headed down to the dining room for the play. I decided to miss the play and instead cook the mince pies I’d made earlier, Ady helped me cook the Christmas puddings, warm up custard and clear down the hot plate so we could use it for that.

We adjourned upstairs after the play for carols and orchestra which was just lovely, particularly the chimes. Jan and Catie sang us a Christmas Pudding song and we all went back downstairs for our final dinner lady turn at the servery ‘pudding or pie?’ ‘custard or cream?’ and did a fine job of slopping custard about and pretending to be in a Carry On Film.

Back upstairs we put a film on and sitting down in near darkness without the stimulation of actually chatting did me in. I dozed through the film and then decided the only sensible place to be was bed. I did slightly regret it the next day and half wished I could have found a last little reserve of stamina to share the last few hours with friends but I was asleep almost instantly so it was the right thing to do.

Friday The usual chaos that is trying to put a hostel back together, return belongings to the correct owners and tidy up quicker than the children can untidy again! The kids are mostly old enough to help now and they did a fab job of tidying up with Ben earning a special mention for emptying the bins in everyones bedrooms – yay Ben :). I did some fridge and kitchen clearing – I was really pleased with how the food lasted out, we didn’t have stacks left over, we only had to dash out for two containers of milk and 4 loaves of bread which I thought was excellent and I think we fed everyone well at bargain prices 🙂 We were over on rice, pasta and baked beans but I knew I’d got extra portions of all of those on the basis they are cheap, even the pickier kids tend to eat them and they can be used for lunch, dinner or other hungry moments. There is no real science to my food calculations so I’m always pretty proud of myself when it comes together :).

As ever there is a critical number of people who just need to leave so numbers are sufficiently reduced to actually tidy. People with little children, longer journeys or pressing reasons to be away earlier left leaving behind what seems to end up as the ‘usual suspects’ for the final push and last cup of tea together. Sadly the very last hour was a tense and sad one as poor Elinor had a nasty accident leaving us all dashing about trying to find calpol, milk, bits of teeth, postcodes for the hostel so Chris and Helen could sort out an emergency appointment at the nearest dentists so it was with tear stained cheeks most of us bid each other a final goodbye.

Our drive home was very straightforward although bitterly cold outside the car with the temperature going to minus 7.5 at it’s lowest point. For rush hour on a Friday it was very quiet on the roads, I assume many people had not been at work. We arrived home at about 5pm. We’d thought we were already tidied out but we realised we needed further tidying reserves as every single room in the house was upside down having been decorated by Dad while we were away. The hall needed shoes, boots and coats putting back in their rightful places, the lounge needed pictures hanging back up, curtains rehanging, sofas pushing back to place, TV and unit putting back where it belonged. The bedrooms all had beds in the middle of the room with all the other contents of the room stacked up on the beds and the kitchen and bathrooms were in disarray too. We also had the contents of the car to bring in and put away. We all helped and then the kids had a bath while Ady and I did the heavy stuff.

The kids ate dinner and went off to bed, we had baths, had dinner at a far more usual to us time and were in bed at a not too ridiculous hour ourselves.

To start naming people who made the week so wonderful would be doing a disservice to everyone else. Every single person – adult and child played their part in making it the wonderful week it was – by chopping, cooking, washing up, by sweeping, making tea, bringing a craft, leading a walk, taking photos, making someone laugh, offering a cuddle, put thought into a secret santa, said thank you when handed a plate of food, throwing a snowball, singing, playing an instrument, watching someone’s baby for five minutes. I feel so very priviledged to be part of this amazing circle of friends, to love and be loved by such wonderful people, to have you all in my photos, helping to make my childrens childhood memories, sharing all that magic. I love you all and hope we share many more Christmasses together in years to come. xxx

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 :).