One word? When seven would do…

Work for me today. Ady had been supposed to attend a meeting this morning so I’d arranged for Dad to have the children in the morning rather than the afternoon but at the last minute yesterday afternoon Ady’s meeting was cancelled due to snow so he was just doing local price surveys (a bit like mystery shopping and a fairly large part of his job role – at the moment, it is forever changing) and able to take Davies and Scarlett with him so had them all day.

I’d been intending to walk to work – I should walk more often really anyway as it is just a 15 minute walk but I am so often laden down with books to return on the way there and books coming home on the way back, not to mention the chance of weather being bad and dark on the way home in the winter that it rarely happens. But I’ve not moved my car from the drive since Tuesday evening and our road and all of the roads I drive to work down are side streets that have not been gritted and are therefore great big ice rinks. But Ady and the children dropped me off (sticking to main roads) instead.

I was greeted with the news that as phase one of a three phase budget slashing exercise the opening hours are being ‘rationalised’ which will cut staff costs aswell as lighting/heating costs of buildings. It all makes perfect sense and as someone who only works 11 hours a week I am unlikely to lose more than about 2 hours a week – if anything at all so I am not personally likely to be affected that much but of course the knock on effect on morale and customer satisfaction might prove more of a fall out. Our opening hours are planned to go from Monday-Friday 930am-7pm (with early closing at 1pm on a Wednesday) and 930-5pm on a Saturday to Monday -Friday 10am-6pm (including Wednesdays) and Saturdays 10am-4pm. As my hours are one morning a week (alternate Wednesdays and Saturdays) 9am-1pm and one full day a week (alternate Thursdays and Fridays) 9am -5pm I will obviously lose at least 45 minutes twice a week on that basis which might put me to 9.5 hours a week rather than 11. But I suspect I will be asked to modify to a greater degree than that and there has been talk of hours being totally thrown up in the air and started from scratch. The first stage is a preference form for staff to request hour cuts and specify which libraries they can work in. Given we have very much built our weekly commitments around my working I am actually quite inflexible and certainly don’t intend travelling to other libraries but in the scheme of things this is fairly minor trauma and certainly won’t be keeping me awake at night while I wait to see what the eventual outcome is.

I did the banking, went to the bank, did some work on my display, was supposed to run Baby Rhyme time but unsurprisingly noone came along to attend it. The library has been shutting at 3pm and 4pm each day this week due to snow and the decision had been made to close at 4pm today so it felt very short given I had a late lunch from 1pm-2pm. I did some time on the Enquiry Desk and the Counter and spent some time chatting to one of the librarians. All of the borrowers coming in today seemed in jolly moods and as one of my colleagues said ‘it feels like that odd time between Christmas and New Year has been extended with the snow and kids off school and the library closing early’. It did very much have that novelty feel about it today.

Ady and the kids came in at about 3.45pm to collect me having had a nice day together including having to be towed out of a snow drift in a garden centre carpark (shades of the Shell Island incident from what I gather), fish and chips for lunch and general enjoying being together :).

We came home and got a fire lit and then Ingird arrived. She is Tom (Ady’s soon to be ex-work mate, pheasant dealer and all round thoroughly nice bloke)’s girlfriend and also works with Ady. Tom has been skiiing and was due back on Wednesday but his flight into Gatwick was cancelled so he came back tonight instead. As we are only half an hour or so away from Gatwick Ingrid came here after work before heading off to go and pick him up. So we had a nice couple of hours of her company :).

I finished reading Davies and Scarlett which we’ve really enjoyed and Ingrid liked so much she asked if she can come round for stories every night :).

Davies and Scarlett went to bed, Ingrid left to collect Tom, Ady and I had baths and ate pizza and I’m looking forward to a complete weekend off with nothing at all planned or arranged or scheduled :).

which for some reason always puts me in mind of Milly Molly Mandy although there is every chance she never actually trudged anywhere.

I woke up this morning and laid for a while before I opened my eyes trying to guess what time it would be. I’d woken when Ady got up but fallen asleep again until it was properly daylight. I could hear the cockerels crowing and decided it was 903am. I was quite staggered when I was utterly spot on to the minute 😯 Wonder if there is career potential in such a skill? 😆

So, got up, woke children, breakfasted them, let the chickens out and fed them and broke the ice on their water, put some washing on, put some bread on and sat down with a cup of tea.

I think we may have had a little more snow overnight but it was bright and sunny out. I decided we’d walk into Lancing offering fresh air and exercise all round, some being out in the snow for the kids and some local shopping for the few bits we needed for dinner too. So I got the rucksack out in order to have both hands free to clutch children if needed and we set off.

We hailed neighbours as we went and spoke to everyone we passed which was nice – the snow certainly seems to have brought out people’s community spirit. We walked across the big park but the snow is now more like ice and even the untouched, virgin snow is actually just six inches of loosely packed ice now. Very pretty in the sunshine glistening away but no good for snowballs or walking over really. The tops of my legs ache from adapting my gait to account for it.

Into the Co-Op for various bits, including five tins and two large bags of onions which my back is still protesting a bit about now but at least counted quite considerably as exercise and load-bearing exercise at that. We had a look in the charity shops and the pound shop before trudging home again. This time we walked through the alleyways as my back was protesting and Davies said he had cold feet. I did berate him that as a nine year old boy in the snow he should be in his element. Once he’d ascertained what ‘in his element’ meant he explained that ‘but my life is so good I get to do whatever I want whenever I want anyway. I understand that all the nine year old boys who are usually in school think this is really cool but for me it’s like my normal life. But colder.’ 😆 😆 While we talked about this Scarlett was busy counting litter (I didn’t point out that there was probably a lot more litter than she could see nestled under the snow) and came up with 17 pieces which she said was sad but a whole load less than when we did our litter walk on that route and declared she was proud of us because obviously our clearing up, putting up displays at the library and being in the paper had made a real difference and people had stopped dropping so much litter :). And you never know, she might just be right, it certainly was a well executed campaign :).

Ady rang just as we were nearing home to say he’d called in for lunch and where were we. I said we’d only be another five minutes or so and he got the tea and hot chocolate on for us :). He’d come home in the company van having been delivering stock locally that the artics couldn’t get in or out to do and been passing on his way back to the office and wondered if I’d like to go back with him to Chichester to the Lush shop to spend my birthday money. Except the van is two seater only. On the spur of the moment I rang my Dad and asked if he would be happy to have Davies and Scarlett for a couple of hours while I went and spent the money they’d given me yesterday. He agreed so the kids and I leapt in the back of the van for the mile drive to my parents. It was pitch dark and excellent fun :). We spent the journey trying to work out where we were in the dark and were really good at left and right turns and going up and down hills but rubbish at gauging straight bits of road which felt way longer than they were in the dark being chucked about. Davies said it was ‘like a rollercoaster in the dark’ and Scarlett said ‘we have *got* to do this more often!’ 😆

Kids safely despatched with my Dad -and my Mum on her way home too- Ady dropped me off in Chichester all alone :). I had a lovely couple of hours with a lot more trudging. Lush were doing a £20 lucky dip bag of Christmas gifts free with every £20 you spent so I spent my £40 and got £80 worth of stuff – the pile of free things is bigger than the ones I paid for – 3 bags full :). The shops started to shut around me from about 330pm though so I rang Ady and he came and collected me. I sat in the car outside his work for a while (luckily the kids had left their DSs in the car from yesterday so I played on Davies’) and then we came home via my parents to collect Davies and Scarlett and have a quick coffee with them.

Mum and Dad have just booked a 3 week holiday in China so were full of that :).

Back home Ady made pancakes for the kids’ tea while I had a lovely bath with lush bubbles, soap, facepack and shampoo :). Then I made Economy Gastronomy chilli con carne for dinner.

I went to bed feeling very blessed with lovely friends, not to mention wishing I’d not signed up to quite so many forums and mailing lists that had all bombarded my inbox with automated birthday greetings moments past midnight :). I was a bit disgruntled about lack of snow mind you.

I woke up about 3am and got a drink and noticed it still hadn’t snowed.

Then Scarlett woke me just before 9am to say ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ and ‘LOOK AT ALL THE SNOW!’ 🙂

Once downstairs I was presented with cards, gifts including some lovely snuggly (rubber leopard print) pjs and five boxes of luxury chocolate liqueurs (it’s the perk of an after-Christmas birthday, excellent sale pickings :)). I got a bottle of Baileys from my brother and £40 from my parents to spend at the Lush shop (had been very firm about not wanting anything other than Lush stuff and said that part of the fun is choosing my own so any cash for that purpose gratefully recieved 🙂 That should buy me a years supply of nice bath bubbles :)). Davies had also modified a cardboard box into a sort of ‘workstation’ for me including tissue holder and contact lens space 🙂 Scarlett had made me a potion. I am so beloved ;).

Ady brought me three cups of tea and several pancakes and we sat and watched the snow falling prettily down. I had loads more texts and emails and messages from friends and colleagues and phonecalls from both parents – Mum at 10am and Dad bang on 10.10am (the time I was born) which was lovely :).

We watched a kids tv show where the children are in charge of a holiday with their parents and get to decide on activities and ban their parents from doing stuff – they banned their mum from eating chilli sauce and shopping 😆 and made their parents do stuff like white water rafting. We all really liked the look of the crazy pursuits (along with the rafting they did being pulled behind a boat in big rubber rings, jumping off cliffs into water, fishing and powergliding behind a boat). The kids said if they were in charge they’d pick a similar holiday for us and ban me from my laptop (which they did concede I don’t have on holiday anyway) and from drinking tea 😯 Scarlett then decided the tea was harsh and I could have tea after all, but be banned from drinking wine!!! Not sure which I’d miss most – actually I am, I could give up wine but tea would be a real struggle. Maybe if I could start smoking or something I’d be okay…

Davies and Scarlett headed outside to play in the snow and an indoor / outdoor snowball fight ensued. I was inside and na-na-nahing at them through an open window but wasn’t quite quick enough to close it every time so snow came in. Which did at least arm me to throw some back. After Davies had a real bulls eye shot in with snow all over the lounge I gathered it up and went upstairs and showered them from above from the bathroom window 😆 They then caught me by ringing on the doorbell and bombarding me when I opened the front door so I went outside to get revenge :).

Ady came out too and we had a walk up one side of the road and down the other including making snow angels, skidding on the road and chatting to a couple of neighbours. We came back in for hot chocolate and a warm up and then decided to go out. We had planned to go to Chichester or Brighton for the day prior to the snow to have lunch out, spend my Lush money and get a few more bits so decided to drive and see how the roads were and made a decision.

The roads turned out to be pretty dire and so we decided to go into town instead. We thought even if we got to Chichester the Lush shop might be closed anyway (plenty of shops were) and we might then have problems getting home again. At least Worthing is only 3 or 4 miles from home and is walkable home if the roads got too bad.

It was really nice seeing so few cars on the road and so many people out and about walking, pulling sledges, out with all the family. It was like Christmas card scenes and how I remember bits of childhood. Like everyone had decided that just for today nothing was more important than being with their family and having fun in the snow. Loved that my birthday was a bit special for lots of other people too :).

We parked in town and decided to visit my Mum in her new shop (she’s managing a charity shop for a local homeless project charity) as she’d said on the phone she was working for a few hours today. The shop is quite small and very lacking in stock so far (it opened a few days before Christmas so stock is still trickling in and in the process of being sorted and priced etc.) but is well located and nicely fitted out. I think she’ll be really happy there and they have no policy on retiring people at 65 so if she wants to carry on working (which she will – she is 63 this year and has no intention of stopping in 2 years) then she can.

We had a wander round town – Poundland for gloves for the kids (theirs had been soaked in the snow earlier so were drying on the radiator at home. Two pairs for a quid means I was happy to buy them another pair each), a silicone butterfly shaped mould for Scarlett who is into making jelly at the moment, some freezer bags for all the batch cooking I’m doing and a new tin opener as we chucked out ours last night in temper when it messed up opening all four tins of tomatoes. Honestly if your sole purpose of existance is to open tins then you really need to be able to manage that! I got some perfume (Sun, Moon and Stars, I’ve worn it for years but my bottle ran out about 3 years ago and I’ve never been able to justify just buying a bottle of perfume for myself since) and that was it. I actually got a huge buzz out of walking round the shops and realising there was nothing at all I wanted or needed :). Still looking forward to going to Lush though ;).

Back home again for a very late lunch of Christmas food leftovers – fancy meats and cheeses etc followed by my birthday cake (Thorntons toffee cake – yum). Ady put 16 candles on it and I was rather shocked to agree that yes, that had been 20 years ago!

The children had a bath to warm up. They complained it was too hot after they’d got in it so Ady went and gathered an armful of snow and dumped it in – cue great hilarity 😆

A very late tea for Davies and Scarlett followed by a very late bedtime as they were still sat infront of the fire playing while Ady cooked a curry and I had a bath. Lovely dinner for us and lots of lazing around in my new pjs pretending to be a grown up :).

it’s my birthday tomorrow.

Up early with alarm clock assistance this morning as I’d said we’d collect Dad from the MOT centre at 9am after he’d dropped his van off there. I got up and dressed, woke Davies and Scarlett, let the chickens out and broke the ice on their water, did the washing up from last night and hung out one load of laundry and put another load on while the kids got dressed. I’d already got the engine running on my car and the ice on the windows defrosting while I got on with everything else. So we were at the garage before the mechanic was. Dad was most impressed :).

Dad had arranged to ring the garage at midday and as there is cricket on Sky Sports and my Mum wasn’t home giving him licence to sit and watch to his heart’s content he asked to be dropped home again and said he’d ring me later to let me know what time he had to be back at the garage to collect the van. As we drove past our house however a fire engine screamed past us, turned into our road and three firemen ran up the drive of Don and Maureen – our opposite neighbours 😯 so we turned up the next road and came back down our road to see what was happening. David (thank you neighbour) was out deicing his car so I sent him off to find out the gossip. It turned out to be no more than a faulty smoke alarm but David shared the information that it is his birthday today. I said it was mine tomorrow and we wished each other happy birthday before we carried on to drop Dad off home.

Back home again properly Davies and Scarlett played in the garden for a bit, this time bringing in a starfish shaped lump of ice that had frozen in one of their sandpit toys. We put it in the chiller to see how long it might last.

I did some more online stuff in various places – slow and steady :). The bath seat and the saucepans both have takers on freecycle so collection has been arranged – hurrah for less tat in our house :).

Davies did some Xboxing, Scarlett announced ‘I feel Arty’ so got her pens out and did some drawing. I drank tea :).

At 11am we headed out having gathered up audiobooks from Scarlett’s room and books from my pile to go back to the library. I’m not working til Friday (should be in tomorrow but noone should ever work on their birthday IMO) and knew I had a couple of books out with waiting lists for them and had had emails to say more audiobooks were in for Scarlett. I also wanted to get some mince and a couple of other bits so intended going to the Co-Op and the butchers along with the library. Library first, then Co-Op and as they had a special offer on mince we by-passed the butcher and came home. On the way we had much discussion about fair trade, buying local, supporting small businesses, eshewing supermarkets, organic, economical and all sorts of other ethical / moral /financial reasons for the way we shop. Interesting having my thought processes on these things questioned and explaining where my real priorities lie when the chips (made from locally sourced, organic potatoes grown by disabled farmers from an ethnic minority while singing U2 songs while they work) are down.

Home again and I started batch cooking the braised mince in batches ready to seperate and turn into spaghetti bolognaise, cottage pie and chilli con carne.

Dad rang to say his van would be ready at 130pm so I arranged to pick him up at 115pm.

I cooked the kids dinner of leftover toad in the hole with some mashed potatoes (using those same potatoes as mentioned in the chips earlier) and vegetables. What a wonderful Mummy I am, I am, what a wonderful Mummy I am :).

Just had time for a speedy round of toast (and leftover Christmas pate) and a cup of tea before needing to go out again to collect Dad. Scarlett had licked her platter clean but Davies was still eating so we left him here and dashed off to collect Dad, drop him at the garage and come home again.I was rather surprised to learn when collecting him that Frazer was home… all that said I suspect even if Mum was home Dad would still have asked me. Never sure if this is because I am somehow easier for him to ask for a favour as he hates asking anyone (I understand that, also hate asking for favours) or it simply doesn’t occur to him to ask Frazer. Either way seems slightly odd.

Davies still hadn’t quite finished eating but he did eventually and I made them fruit salad for pudding. They played while I carried on internetting having finished braising the mince ready for next stage later.

Then it was swimming time. I’d been reading everyone elses accounts of heavy snowfall and feeling envious and very reluctant to leave the nice warm house and go out in the dark to get wet. But we girded loins and galvanized selves and headed off to the swimming pool. I bought the kids a new swimming hat each as their’s had gone mouldy in the swimming bag. I think theirs were rubber and the new ones are latex, what a difference! Easy to put on, not so pulling on their hair and a much nicer feel – well worth £2 each :).

Scarlett was dispatched (rather reluctantly) at her lesson, Davies went off and managed to make friends with a couple of lads in the pool and I got stuck into my lengths. After four I could really feel not having been for weeks but I managed a full 25 in the first half an hour which keeps me about on track for the 50 in an hour I had worked up to (although I know my second half hour is slower than my first). Scarlett then got in with me and swam a length, then walked alongside the pool pacing me for a length, then showed me her underwater handstands… so I lost some time. I’d been aiming for 35 lengths in 45 minutes (had decided to get out after 45 minutes to get Scarlett and I dried and dressed before Davies’ lesson finished) and managed it with a minute to spare so went for 36. It seemed an appropriate number to move up from and to somehow… ;).

Everyone dried and dressed we dashed home, dropped Davies off with Ady for a bath and toast before Sea Scouts and Scarlett and I went round to the church hall for Brownies. Except it wasn’t happening. There was one other Brownie there who’s mum was sure it was starting back today but as there were no other Brownies or indeed people to run it we deduced it wasn’t after all so we walked back home again.

Scarlett had a bath and some toast while Davies got in his Sea Scout uniform and I drove him up there. Except that wasn’t happening either. Despite Ady insisting they had said 5th January and one other Sea Scout turning up (are you spotting the pattern here?). So we came home.

Ady did suggest they had both been cancelled due to weather forecasts and maybe annoucements had been made at local schools which may well be the case.

So unexpectedly earlier night than planned meant pjs and several stories from ‘how the whale became’ for Davies, Scarlett and I.

I turned 2/3 of the mince into bolognaise which was labour intensive and time consuming but really very worth it – now have 1/3 as bolognaise to freeze and 1/3 plain to turn into chillli on Thursday. Am a convert to the mince treatment at least :). It took longer than I expected to reduce mind you so for once it was me creating a very late dinner.

We had a very brief flurry of snow around 8pm which lasted all of about five minutes and has been long since washed away by the on /off rainfall all evening. Given Ady and I have both booked a days holiday tomorrow and we have no real plans it would have been perfect circumstances to have loads of snow here. I have probably had about equal white birthdays to non-white birthdays so I’m still secretly hoping I wake up tomorrow to a big white world :).

just as well it’s a slow, lazy, rather random one ;).

‘Back to school’ yesterday then. Dad was having his van MOT’d at the industrial estate down the road at 11am and had asked if I’d go and pick him up so he could wait at our house for it to be done. The car took a lot of de-icing and I even had to use the ice scraper as the spray just wasn’t working.

Before going out I’d done some laundry, tried to bake some bread but not been able to find the recipe booklet, made some phonecalls (I thought I’d sorted out Scarlett starting Brownies last year having spoken to the leader, confirmed they had a space for her and she’d promised to ring me back late December to let me know times, start date and so on but I’ve not heard from her and I know Brownies is on a Tuesday so am assuming it restarts this week. I couldn’t find the woman’s number so had to ring the Rainbows leader and get it off her, have left a message on the woman’s answerphone but not heard back. I think we’ll just go round there later tonight when it’s on and see if we can sort it out in person) and cleared off the bookcase of everything that isn’t books. I may have kept the table clear for a whole year but there are certainly other surfaces in the house that collect crap and clutter. The bookcase is one. It mostly had paperwork on it so I filed all of that in the relevant places and have found a folder to keep all the children’s various certificates in – it now contains tickets from all the various shows and places we went to last year, swimming certificates, Badger certificates, Summer reading challenge certificates and various other things like that. I’ve no plan to do anything more than that with them really but if we do find ourselves in a situation where evidence is required at least I have a sheaf of papers to throw at someone. Which actually, in my opinion is pretty much all they are useful for anyway ;).
I also sorted out the kitchen wall that contains a pinboard and white board and is therefore another place that things seem to get put – and removed all the old artwork that was pinned to the kitchen door so Davies and Scarlett have a new blank space to put the next load of pictures they present to us. I listed some saucepans and a baby bath seat on freecycle that I had kept out of the cupboard under the stairs when we found the breadbin (yes, we do still own the breadbin after all, it is now in the kitchen containing bread – I know, how radical are we?!). My plan is to declutter a few small steps at a time until that cupboard is empty of stuff.

So that all felt very efficient.

We collected Dad, he came back here and we sat and drank tea / coffee and chatted about chickens while Davies and Scarlett played outside in the ice testing how thick it needed to be before they could stand on it and how easy it was to break. They came in after about half an hour (at least 25 minutes longer than I’d expected them to last) and I made them hot chocolate to warm up.

They went upstairs to play and wanted to stay here while I ran Dad back to collect his van again so I left them to it and was back in ten minutes to find them singing along to Queen songs at the tops of their voices.

I put a loaf of bread on using an old recipe and then battled with the computer on various tasks. My laptop is on it’s way out and I suspect I had too many windows open and was just asking it to deal with too many processes and tasks at once, so it protested.

More laundry, lunch – a pic n mix from the children with all the various Christmas foods we have left over; twiglets, mini chedders, babybels and finished with a fresh fruit salad meaning they had all their five a day at lunchtime :), more battling with the computer, I read some of my book No Impact Man: Saving the Planet One Family at a Time: Saving the World, One Family at a Time which is excellent, I finished it last night and have really enjoyed reading it.

Davies and Scarlett did some drawing, watched Transformers (Toby apparently loves Transformers so Davies asked if I could get the films so he can watch them and know what Toby is talking about :lol:) and played with the geomags (old faithfuls). Davies and I did some more research on Greenpeace and went through the list on their website about their campaigns and Davies wrote a list out, read it back to me and explained all of the issues and campaigns too. We both learnt stuff there :).

Dinner for the children was more leftovers, this time of roast dinner with more vegetables cooked fresh. I’m determined to get them eating better this year and might try hot lunches rather than dinners for them on the days we are home for lunch.

Ady arrived home and I read the children the first couple of chapters of which were very good and even Ady hung around to listen to. We do love Ted Hughes. Told Davies it was by the same author as Iron Man and Iron Woman and he said ‘oh no wonder it’s so good then!’ :).

Both the children have been dreadful at bedtime for the last couple of weeks with all the late nights and lack of ‘routine’ so they were both packed off to bed at 8pm. Scarlett was asleep by about 930pm (which is fine, actually if they were both asleep by 10pm I’d be quite content with that really) but Davies was still awake when Ady went up to bed just after 11pm. I woke them both just after 8am today though and with more garden playing, swimming lessons and Brownies / Sea Scouts I am hopeful tonight will be even earlier :).

Ady cooked pancakes this morning for breakfast. Actually he’s been cooking them most mornings for the children but today I partook of one too.

Davies had ‘homework’ from Sea Scouts as part of his Global Challenge badge and had to choose an international charity and find out some facts about it. He and Ady had decided to choose Greenpeace so we looked at the form he’d been given to fill out. First of all he learnt how to spell Goddard. He’s written it before but only ever with it spelt out by me. Just as he learnt the days of the week in one ten minute sitting when it was relevant and he felt the need he cracked Goddard in just a few minutes and every so often throughout the rest of the day I asked him to spell it again and he could.

Next he read the form out to me and was pretty fluent knowing most of the words by sight and sounding out the odd word like ‘global’ ‘challenge’ and ‘international’ but not really needing any help other than me agreeing he’d got it right. Practise is definitely required to get him really fluent but it is quite amazing seeing him actually able to read now – gives me courage to carry on leaving Scarlett alone too :). We talked about how you would find out the answers to something you didn’t know and he came up with: asking someone (me actually!), looking in a book, checking the internet, trying to find a film or tv programme about it. We checked the bookcase to see if we had any books on charities or Greenpeace specifically but we don’t (I think we have a copy of Dear Greenpeace kicking around somewhere but I wasn’t going to try and dig that out as I’d get all cross about the state of bookshelves ;)) so we booted up the computer and I asked Davies to do it all with me watching. He said he’d use google and type in Greenpeace – he knew how to spell green but wasn’t sure about peace but he already knows to watch the box and see what drop down suggestions it makes so once he’d got to greenp it came up with it and he knew that was right.

We found out when they started, whether they have any patrons, what they do and ‘any other information’. Davies wrote it all down and was very wary of writing too much when I told him he might have to be able to read it out back rather than just hand it in so went for brevity. We talked about genetic engineering, whaling and I read out the brief overview of Greenpeaces issues. Ady has since looked at it and decided he’s not done enough and needs to do more. Personally I think he’s done as much as he wanted to do; if it proves not to be enough then he’ll know for next time, if it’s about right then he won’t have put effort in he will resent later by doing more. I can see how this sort of task really wouldn’t suit Davies. I’ve said we’ll look at it a bit more tomorrow though if Davies wants to.

Scarlett and Ady went off out, ostensibly to get a joint for roast dinner but with theatrical winks about upcoming birthdays ;). Davies played x box and I sifted through photos online organising my flickr a bit better. It was nice to be snuggled up together on the same sofa while doing our own seperate things. 🙂

My parents had arranged to come over in the afternoon so they arrived around 2pm, followed eventually by Ady and Scarlett returning. We had tea and mince pies and then as Ady had got a very large joint of pork and because I was feeling both generous and slightly wanted to show how straightforward it can be to cook a full roast dinner with trimmings for six people without massive amounts of stress I invited them for dinner.

Mum nipped home to get the Christmas puddings we’d taken over there on Christmas Day but hadn’t been eaten. We had a nice few hours and I got Dad to tell Davies and Scarlett about life when he was their age. He had no electricity, TV hadn’t really been invented, the toilet was outside, the bath was a tin one brought in and filled with hot water warmed on the open fire. All cooking was done on the open fire, as was drying the washing. He said they ate lots of rabbit pie and rabbit stew. The kids asked about evacuation (lots of children from Liverpool were evacuated to North Wales where Dad was), what he got for Christmas (an apple and an orange and they were both put back on the sideboard again once he’d taken them out of the stocking!), rations for sweets and chocolate (‘Chocolate! Chocolate! I didn’t see chocolate until I was in my teens! There was a war on!).

Dinner was delicious if I do say so myself and included parsnips from the allotment which went down well.

The children disappeared upstairs to play and had to be coerced to bed around 9pm with Mum and Dad leaving shortly afterwards. Unfortunately neither child went to sleep and I had Scarlett wailing about a scary audiobook and wanting to sleep in our bed (that was a no! I did go and sit with her til she fell asleep though, poor, very overtired little girl) and Davies was still listening to his radio. Definitely some fresh air and exercise tomorrow along with getting them up a bit earlier to try and break the cycle. Scarlett also needs some more light and frothy audiobooks too.

After trying to be all sensible and go to bed early last night to be ready for work this morning all of my best laid plans were foiled. Scarlett was still listening to an audiobook and Davies was still listening to his radio. I got into bed beside Ady, who was watching the TV and commented that I didn’t expect to be going to sleep before our children when they were still only 7 and 9! And then Scarlett came upstairs to say actually she didn’t like being all alone downstairs so could she sleep with me?

We did try and transfer her back to her own bed when she fell asleep within minutes but she woke up and protested so she stayed with us. Well me actually, as Ady gave up after about half an hour and went off to sleep in her bed with all the stuffed toys.

I made sure everyone was up with me this morning though as I think the late nights and late mornings are getting a little out of hand even by our standards. For the children only of course I have to state as I sit here at gone 230am still typing away…. 😳

Work was uneventful – I took down my Cosy Classics display and my 12 days of Christmas display. I’ve brought home the pictures for the 12 days of Christmas as the kids and I made them together and we’re planning to stick them up in the hall alongside the stairs next year – we have 12 stairs. I also made a start on the next display in Junior which is Arts and Crafts. I’ve got loads of books in for it and decided to make letters spelling out Arts and Crafts in all different arty and crafty ways. So far A is some felt-tips and crayons bluetacked to a cut out letter A and the first T is knitted using string as yarn and two pencils as knitting needles.

Back home again Davies had declared it a pyjama day, while Ady and Scarlett had been chopping wood. We had lunch, I rang my Mum who had rung Ady earlier to ask what I wanted for my birthday but then pooh-poohed all his suggestions (which had come directly from me). Worried that I was to expect yet more money spent on things I don’t want and will clutter up the house along with making me feel bad about being ungrateful for being given things I don’t like I rang her and said I’d really rather have money to spend in the Lush shop than anything else and stopped her from being reduced to clear gift items in the M&S sale (which was where she was at the time). Phew.

I had planned to take down Christmas tomorrow but after a spot of reorganising in the kitchen to try and fit a breadbin on the worktop (which we might well not even own anymore so may have to buy a replacement) I had a taste for it and decided to take everything down today after all.

Scarlett helped, while Ady and Davies did something on the computer to do with DS games, then the kids wandered off to play while Ady and I finished off and hoovered all the pine needles up. The tree is now being enjoyed by the chickens, who actually still have last years which didn’t go brown until about August. We’ve rejigged the lounge a little and now have a sofa at each end and the table in the middle under the other window. I like it and think it feels bigger (the lounge, not the table) and I get to sit in the window on my sofa too which is good :). We’ll see how we all feel about it after a week or so though and decide whether to keep it like this or move it back again. The playroom needs tackling at some stage soon too, maybe tomorrow.

Lounge all sorted and all traces of Christmas removed I nipped to the supermarket for some soup for Scarlett and some veg for dinner tomorrow. I managed to be over an hour as I bumped into a friend and my mum in there so spend ages chatting. I also filled up my car which I’d been playing petrol chicken with since well before Christmas so we’re all ready to face next week with Ady back at work and the kids and I getting back into the rhythm of our usual weekdays again.

Ady and the kids watched Total Wipeout, I went and had a bath and then Ady cooked dinner. I’m not sure where the last 3 hours have gone but I do seem to have managed a very long post below about 2010 so I guess I better go and get some sleep so I’m ready for such busyness ahead.

to be including around this time next year in our Round Up of 2010.

In the closest we ever get to planning anything in advance here is what we want to do, see, learn, experience, visit and make happen.

I have mentioned to several people IRL that we do this rather vague list every year and I’ve already been asked 3 times if I’ve done it yet and if so what does it contain. I suspect they are clinging to the idea that we do have some sort of curriculum after all but it remains as random as we are despite me having fantasties that Scarlett will ask to learn calligraphy and Davies will want to know about converting fractions into percentages 😆

First up, regular stuff:

Wildlife ExplorersBoth Davies and Scarlett want to carry on with this. They get loads out of it and have both settled well into being in seperate groups now. I think Scarlett moves up when she is 8 so this whole year will be in different groups for them. We’ll also do at least the monthly Home Ed meet up at Pulborough Brooks, carry on with the Wildlife Action Awards (silver is complete and just needs printing off and posting, gold is probably already underway if I look at what they’ve already done for it). I’ve been looking at Pulborough Brooks events site and already earmarked several events coming up in the first quarter of the year to book.

Swimming Scarlett has specifically mentioned improving her swimming as something she wants to achieve this year. They are both making steady progress and I’d hope they had both reached the big pool by the end of 2010. I have also done well with swimming this year going from a gasping to reach double figures at the beginning to managing my goal of 50 lengths in an hour by the end of the year. My aim is to continue swimming for an hour most weeks and just see how many more lengths are achieveable for me in that time slot.

Badgers This will be Davies’ last year in Badgers, infact he could even finish in the Summer and become a cadet in September. He will have done the full five years in Badgers by the time he finishes, been awarded SuperBadger and has already achieved his gold paw and become a Follow Me Badger. He intends attending Badger camp again this summer.

Scarlett has her silver paw and will have achieved her gold by the end of the year. She will still have two full years ahead of her even by the end of this year but will certainly be well on track for completing all the badges and getting her Super Badger status.

I have also joined the ranks of SJA as an Assistant Badger Leader, which I hope the trade off of poking my nose into something that had previously been Davies and Scarlett’s domain and forgoing my hour alone or with Ady each Wednesday evening will pay off with securing the future of the Worthing Badger sett along with giving me something else interesting to add to my CV.

Brownies and Sea Scouts which I’ll lump together because they rather conveniently run at almost the same time on a Tuesday evening and mark the fact the children are in the middle set of the guiding and scouting movement now rather than the first one (Brownie and Cub rather than Rainbow and Beaver). Davies has enjoyed his first term at Sea Scouts despite facing some tension over his Home Ed status. I am both proud of him for choosing to stick with it and hopeful it will work out ok for him. This coming term and the Summer term should prove to be the more enjoyable ones with them getting out and about more and doing outdoor activities which I think Davies will love. Brownies for Scarlett will be very experimental and I reserve judgement on how she will find it – and indeed on how they will find her – until after she’s been a couple of times.

Young Archaeolgists Club Davies intends signing up for a second year of the local branch so should start attending their monthly meetings again in February when they restart.

Reading Groups Along with the Home Ed reading group Davies and Scarlett have started going to monthly I have also volunteered to run a six week long trial of Chatterbooks at the library. They are normally run as a monthly meeting book group but the powers that be have dictated we do it for six consecutive weeks to see how it works out. It’s on the condition that Davies and Scarlett attend as it’s in my own time and has a strict 7-9 year olds age range. I’m still at planning stage with regards to how it will actually work each week but anticipate it including illstrations, storytelling, talking about books and authors and sharing what we enjoy about reading and books.

Having asked everyone what they’d like to do, see, learn about in 2010 I got a fairly reticent response from all three of them but I suspect this was to do with timing (day after a very late night and long car journey) than general apathy about their lives ;).

Ady wants to learn about butchery. He thinks it might be something he’d like to do as a career one day but he’d like to learn more about it recreationally at first at least. We will look out for courses or other opportunities to learn for him. He’d like to visit the Isle of Wight – we’ve not been for years and he has a yen to go over on the hovercraft for the day.

Davies wants to learn to ride a bike. I’m hoping he will crack this at Centerparcs actually as we’re intending taking his bike, he’ll have nice flat roads with no cars to practise on and plenty of able friends to cheer him on / show him how it’s done. He wants to continue improving his reading. I think he’s cracked it this year but needs to practise now. He surprises both me and himself with how well he can read when he actually tries but still has a bit of a mental block about trying in the first place as he’s spent so long not being able to read he seems to forget he can. More bushcraft type activities would be good and he’s very keen to try out his own little tent for the first time. He wants to go to Badger camp again and would like to learn some more stuff about animation. He did ask if there was an animation museum and I’ve found various possibilities including The Cartoon Museum, The National Media Museum (which has the annual Bradford Animation Festival each November and we may consider visiting).

Scarlettwould still quite like to see a dolphin actually! She also wants to see an elephant although she is not being so particular as to demand to see one in the wild. She did say she’d quite like to ‘go to a jungle’ but she knows this might be one of her dreams she needs to make happen one day in the future rather than asking me to facilitate. Visiting either Port ympne or Chester Zoo will tick the elephant box for her at least. I’m hoping a planned visit to Scotland in the summer may prove successful for the dolphins.
She doesn’t want to read or write although does at least concede these days that she may have to learn if she really does want to work with animals. I overheard Davies putting forward a very convincing argument for literacy and numeracy based on her zoo vet DS game the other day :lol:. She wants to improve her swimming and would also quite like to learn to ride a bike now. She’d like to hatch ducklings which we have got planned for the spring as soon as the timing is right for them to be okay outside when they are fully downed.

Both Davies and Scarlett still want to learn to do backflips. After toying with gymnastics for a term and concluding it wasn’t for them I have put feelers out for circus skills and tumbling / acrobatics coaching instead. They have their names down for Whippersnapper Circus and we’ll keep an eye out for one off courses with them. I also have a fire juggling friend with contacts in the right places seeing what she can find out for me too.

I have had an initial chat with a friend and fellow HomeEdder about art classes for them both as I think they’d benefit from someone giving them advice and training on how to use various materials and some ideas. I’ve also got their names down at a local art gallery for art classes there too if the tentatively planned skills swap (I do something with my friends’ daughters while she gives Davies and Scarlett some art lessons) doesn’t pan out.

A woman I met on my WPA course has offered music lessons and has a folk harp, piano and various percussion instruments. We agreed to get Christmas out of the way first and then come back to it but that could become a regular thing if she and they get on and enjoy working together.

Julie is keen to progress with the pony riding this year too although Honey is getting very old and tired and she doesn’t expect to still have her by the end of the year. Jack and Maisie are not interested but Julie thinks Lorna might be and wants to carry on with Davies and Scarlett who she feels show potential and enjoy it.

I am looking forward to doing some real live shepherding, finishing my WPA training (I have an interview, assignment, H&S training course and CRB checking to undergo still yet along with more training along the way) and actually doing some volunteering. I am reserved about the Badger thing but know I will learn new skills from it and be doing something community spirited. I’m looking forward to the various things I have proposed at work and the further training I have been put forward for too.

I want the allotment to be even more successful this year. I want to increase our ‘livestock’ to include ducks and maybe even make some money from breeding chickens.

I want to shop seasonally and locally and try and avoid supermarkets wherever possible. I am planning on batch cooking, using our own produce, PYO and doing lots of freezing, preserving and other such muffiny pursuits.

I want to carry on with my swimming weekly, cycling as soon as the evenings are light again (which tidily brings me to 30 minutes three times a week during the summer months) and think about something feasible for the winter months but at least include a couple of daytime walks a week to get the blood pumping. I want to spend more time on the beach.

I’d like to learn to crochet and try and make one thing every month craft-wise that I am proud of enough to sell / give away as a gift or just keep and hug to myself every time I see it (a bit like my blanket 🙂 ).
Places to go
Which also includes planned or half planned holidays.

January
Centerparcs from 18th -22nd with a visit to friends on the way up and a visit to more friends on the way back again.

February
There has been a request from the kids to visit Cadburyworld. We have been before but Davies only just remembers it and Scarlett doesn’t at all. As it’s indoors February would seem a sensible time to take a visit there. Having checked prices I don’t think the group discount price is worth the headache of trying to organise a group visit there, but if sufficient people are interested then I might be persuaded to think again…

March Planning the Isle of Wight day trip on a hovercraft for March.

April
I want to visit the Thames Barrier and as part of the trip would include a riverside walk we stand more chance of decent weather in April than any earlier in the year. Again, would consider organising a group trip if enough people are interested, but equally happy to visit alone. The minimum group size is only ten so possibly worth trying to drum up numbers.
Am also keen to visit Wildwood at some point in the Spring and again would like to try and get enough people in for a group visit so we can take advantage of prices and an educational talk. Another place probably better visited late March / April for hopefully warmer weather.
Groombridge Place opens at the end of March – end of November and is somewhere else I definitely want to visit in 2010.

May
We’ll definitely do the Green Fair at Sustainability Centre, although I notice they are doing a Skills Fayre for the whole week with all sorts of interesting looking things happening which I will wait to hear more about and maybe considering doing. I think we’d love it.

Also up for the Victorian Farm camping trip if that happens although it would likely be just me and the kids.

Hoping for a repeat of fabulous time at Jan and Jonathan’s.

If we’re not already booked up there is the Food and Farming Fair at Weald and Downland on 2nd and 3rd May,

June
Nothing specific planned yet, but there’ll be heavy horse show at Weald and Downland on 5th and 6th, Open Farm Sunday
on June 13th, the South of England Show on 10th, 11th or 12th June depending on my work rota
July
A camping trip to Scotland is in the planning stages with Marcus, Michelle and Chloe. The quest for spotting dolphins continues…

Dates already released for the Festival of History as 17th and 18th of July so will be doing that again, along with Wicksteed Park for coastertastic fun.

August
Davies tells me he’s going to Badger camp, no idea on dates for that yet.
It’s the Steam Festival at Weald and Downland on 14th and 15th

September
We’ll be doing our traditional camping at Sustainability Centre with day trip to Butser again. I’m hoping to pre-arrange something a bit different at Butser and see if we can get one of their regular workshop tutors to run something for us like flint knapping or Roman or Celtic cooking. DATE SET for Sunday 5th – Saturday 11th September.

October
Just noting a few events if we are free at the time: Autumn Fair and Game Show at Ardingly 2nd and 3rd October.
Autumn Countryside show at Weald and Downland on 9th and 10th.
If we’ve not already managed it earlier in the year I want to visit Port Lympne.

November

December
Already planned Christmas camp for Okehampton along with provsionally booking Pennywell for the nativity. Come and join the celebration! 🙂

The year already looks pretty full when I see it like that!

New Years Eve I had to work from 11-2 so I was up, dressed in Nicola-clothes and had gathered up all the books and dvds that were due back by about 930am. I left the others still in pjs playing with lego and playmobil – I think other than chopping some wood ready for getting home on New Years Day and getting the sleeping bags and camping mats out of the wardrobe they were pretty much in the same spot when I came home again.

I gave myself an hour to wander round the charity shops to see if people had started their grand post Christmas clear out and give to charity yet – they haven’t. And to visit the newly opened pound shop. I got some nylon shopping bags which will be perfect for shoving in my bag / pocket so I always have a bag around as I’m great for having cloth bags in my car at all times but less good at having them on me when I actually am out and about. Also got some plastic tubs for storing and freezing food (have been reading Economy Gastronomy: Eat Better and Spend Less and am planning lots of menu planning, local shopping and batch cooking), some very cheap but pretty and twinkly hairslides for me (decided to keep my hair long for the time being but make more of an effort to do stuff to it so I don’t get bored and take to it with the scissors) and some glowsticks to take to Bob and Katy’s for the children. They turned out to be a false economy from a pound shop it has to be said although seeing glowing patches on Scarlett’s sleeve and cuddly toy amused me a bottle of cava in ;).

Then to work. I caught up with colleagues about their Christmasses, put some books away, manned the counter and said ‘Happy New Year’ to about 60 borrowers and then left.

Back at home again we gathered up overnight stuff, I made some sandwiches to take with me and we set off. For some reason I’d not thought through getting food and drink supplies to take properly and had in my head we’d go to the supermarket near Bob and Katy. Til Ady reminded me there was every chance they’d be closed by the time we got there! By which time we were already on the M23 so we had to detour into Crawley and find an Asda which appeared to be also being visited by most of the south east and was heaving. Fizz, cheese, crackers, grapes and olives (I felt like *such* a grown up!) purchased we were off properly again. Sat Nav had said ETA of 1830 and we’d anticipated a big snarl up around Dartford but it was a really clear run and we actually arrived by about 1815.

Lovely Em and The Babs were already there; Davies and Scarlett disappeared straight into the throng and we settled in for eating, drinking, chatting, laughing and dealing with visits from various children, balloons, leaky glowsticks and other such needs. We watched the countdown on Bob and Katy’s fab retro black and white tv set which had both a lot of charm (we had a colour tv by the time I was born but we still had a portable black and white in my parents’ bedroom which we sometimes watched some things on. As an aside I’ve just realised how very laughable calling those great lumps of electronics ‘portable’ :lol:) and nostalgia as well as heaps of irony seeing fireworks explode into ‘2010’ in black and white.

There were glowing balloons, lots of port consumed (some spilled on Babs’ trousers :lol:), we realised that none of the children had been born a decade ago (although Beth and Jonathan had been on the way and Davies was concieved sometime between Christmas and New Year 1999). We talked about how we’d seen 2000 in and what a big change all of us have lived through in the last decade.

LovelyEm and Matt headed off somewhere between 12 and 1am, Ady and Chris went off sometime around 1ish and took lingering children with them leaving Bob, Katy, Babs and I. Bob went off not much later having regaled us with genuine Bob facts (and we will be expecting BobFact to be maintained 😉 good to see a start made 🙂 ) about fathom and Godmanchester, we’d talked about proposals and weddings (and giant elephants, or actually pygmy elephants) and finished by looking at some photos of a very young Katy and her baby sister and seeing the likeness of all four of Katy’s children in them. I think it was about 3am when we finally went off to bed too.

Consequently this morning was a slower start, which was nice. I like the morning after the night before with friends. We left about midday as I was conscious of wanting to get back in daylight and have a quiet afternoon to recoup as I’m working again in the morning. We had a very uneventful journey home, a late lunch and baths all round.

We watched bits of a couple of films; Dragonheart and Willy Wonka and then the warm up intro show to a Dance show that’s starting on Sky one on Sunday with Davina. Then it was Doctor Who. Scarlett and Ady went to her bedroom and listened to some audio books (she’s working her way through a load of alliterative Lucy Daniels stuff ‘ cub in the couboard, hedgehogs in havoc, puppies in the pantry, lambs in the laundry…. I reckon I could write those :lol:) and she lost her front tooth.

Davies and I enjoyed Doctor Who although it did seem to drag on a bit. Not at all sure about the new doctor, I thought he did a good David Tennant rather than a good doctor in the few minutes he had to win me over so far.

The kids went to bed, althought it’s nearly 11pm and neither of them are actually asleep yet. One is still listening to Koalas in crisis or something similar, the other keeps reappearing back downstairs with flimsy exuses. Pesky non-sleeping children!

January
The year started, as all good ones should, surrounded by people we love at LovelyEm’s Lovely Parent’s lovely house..
We got a table – yes this is worthy of a place in the roundup and yes it is still a clear horizontal surface at the end of every day. And yes, I still hate tables.

We had a lovely weekend staying at the Old Manor.

I became middle-aged and had my 35th birthday which was extendedly celebrated by Ali’s fab birthday trail. The table exerted it’s influence early on as Davies and Scarlett began the Wildlife Action Awards which had them taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch and doing various written activties about birdwatching, compost making and so on. Ady and I used it to entertain our Not Swinger friends for a dinner party.
My Mum took the kids and I to the Ice Show and Davies and Scarlett watched Chang at Magic Lantern film club. We had a very chilly visit with other Home Educators to Tilgate Park.

February
Kicked off with a visit from The Beans , here is my only photographic evidence though – Davies and Elinor in a field!

We had snow which is so rare it is always worthy of mention, Davies and I were both crafty and creative with him making his own Ewok (cut out, sewed and everything)

and me getting really into my knitting and making a hat and gloves for myself and a cat shaped backpack for Scarlett
Davies and Scarlett got their Bronze WAA certificates and made a start on their silver. Actually a start is all that has happened as we still need to write up the last activties they’ve done and send off for the Silver awards :oops:. The children and I had a very wet visit to Pulborough Brooks, where I thoroughly tested my fab new wellies

Our boiler stopped working for over a week and I didn’t deal with it very well at all, Davies, Scarlett and I tried ice skating at the temporary rink in Worthing.. Scarlett had a whole day on her own at a Rainbows Art Day during half term which she adored and Davies started at Young Archaeologists Club where he learnt about footwear through the ages and had a go a sewing a shoe

March kicked off with a party at The Salmons
, Davies and Scarlett had a joint display at the library about litter made up from photos they’d taken, pictures they’d drawn and a combination of the two .
Marcus, Michelle and Chloe came down to stay for the weekend and we introduced them to Pulborough Brooks, more fields with cows, chips on the beach and chicken midwifery. We got a geology loan box from Littlehampton museum which nicely fitted in with Davies’ request to learn more about rocks and fossils and spent some time identifying them, drawing pictures and generally getting our heads round rocks, fossils, minerals and different types and how they are formed. We spent plenty of time at the allotment. Davies, Scarlett and I had our now annual trip to Coombes Farm for the lambing.
I went on a First Aid training course and spent the next six weeks desperate for someone to require first aid so I could practise my new found knowledge. No one did, probably for the best ;).
We discovered Mr Gum / Andy Stanton who rapidly became our new favourite fictional character / author. (In 2010 we are hopeful of either seeing him in a literary festival somewhere or indeed getting him to visit our library, although I had an email forwarded to me this week to say he is in America for most of the early part of 2010.)

We had a run of spending time at museums when we did Paradise Park (not a museum as such but certainly educational and covering history), the RI and a bit of the Natural History Museum in one day with various friends, Littlehampton museum and the Look and Sea museum with Julie and the cousins, and Amberley Working Museum.

We had a lovely Family Spring Walk with the other Goddards and rowed a boat around the lake at Arundel.and we finished the month with a fab trip to the British Wildlife Centre and an overnight stay from Michelle, Kirsty and respective children.

April Began with Mich and Kirsty still with us. We met up with Ali for a trip to Paradise Park. There was lots of allotmenteering.
I’m making a link to the night we read Iron Man as Davies amazed me by going upstairs to bed after having had it read to him once and recreated the entire book in drawings spanning about 35 pages in a book retelling the whole story. It’s a story I’ve told to other people to illustrate how home ed works for us and I suspect one they have gone and told to others.
Kirsty and Helen celebrated a joint 70th birthday and we had a lovely sunny weekend in the company of friends 🙂 We also had a fab early Easter with Marcus, Michelle and Chloe, Kirsty, James, Marcus and Alex
Unfortunately after that we all went down with The Bug Of Doom – which I still half suspect to have been swine flu which laid us all low for quite some while – Davies and Scarlett were both having daytime naps for the best part of a week 🙁 Actually I think that wrote of most of April reading back over my blog posts for the month 🙁
We had some chicks hatch but it was our worst ever hatching with lots of deformities. I think it was down to inbreeding of the stock they came from (Tom’s bantams,not ours) and I did some proper practically-a-vet type work splinting legs together with tape. Ady did some rather less pleasant culling but the chicks who’s legs I fixed are still going strong as adults now 🙂

We had a nice bluebell walk at Woods Mill
and a visit to Salvington Windmill which was ace – will definitely be going there again. We all learnt loads 🙂 and the tea and cakes were cheap and delicious! and finally Davies and Scarlett started Forest School – a ten week, 3 hours a time out in the woods experience led by rangers from Sussex Wildlife Trust. At the time I thought it was expensive and not particularly productive or well run. With hindsight I still think if was all of that but can see the benefits it brought too in terms of learning new skills, getting used to being with people they wouldn’t necessarily choose the company of and making some new friends.

May We visited the Pulborough Brooks Nightingale Festival and heard them singing , attended Tony and Adam’s birthday party (which was ace, as their parties always are)
Davies and Scarlett carried on with Forest School and Tasha and I went to a Craft Fair and toted our wares.

We had our now regular first camping trip of the season and went to the Green Fair with the very welcome addition of Chris and Helen 🙂 attended Eve and Rei’s Cavemen Birthday Party more pictures here another visit to Amberley Working Museumand an utterly fabulous weekend camping at SotP more pictures here
which included watching the sun rise, sitting around chatting with friends, watching the sun set again, a long walk, Pimms, and seeing my favourite house in glorious sunshine.
The kids had a Pulborough Brooks event which they enjoyed and we finished the month with a Summer Walk at Truleigh Hill – cows included 😉

JuneBegan in a musical fashion with a visit to the LSO at The Barbican followed by a visit to the Museum of London with various friends
– and a splash in the fountains outside The Barbican inbetween :), Forest School continued weekly, we had several visits to PYO and things hotted up at the allotment including me as I rode my bike there and back a couple of times a week.

Badgers and Swimming also carried on weekly for Davies and Scarlett who continued to progress through the ranks at swimming and did various things at Badgers including having a visit from The Police where they learnt about fingerprints and types of road crossings

I ran a ‘mixed up fairytales’ event at work, the kids went to what turned out to be their last Magic Lantern session (it’s shut down 🙁 ) and we had a flying visit to Sompting Festival
We had trips to not one but two farms for Open Farm Sunday

and bought some fertilized bantam eggs at one which we hatched (but only ended up with a cockerel from – he is pretty though).

Usual monthly trips to Pulborough Brooks (Home Ed and Wildlife Explorers), we joined the Weald and Downland Museum for the year and had a visit there with my Mum
We had our annual trip to the South of England Show, which we followed with an overnight camping stay in Ros’ garden for Ellie’s birthday
(and got to meet Nell :)) photos of SoEs here

Davies, Scarlett and I saw a fab puppet show as part of the Adur Festival, Ady and I celebrated 16 years together, Scarlett had a day at Drusillas with Rainbows (at which I snivelled soppily when I dropped her off) and we took Davies to see Coraline after YACs. Davies and Scarlett attended an animation workshop at Hove library, and a drumming and rhythm workshop at Lancing library where Davies made a real impression on the guy running it and Davies and Scarlett did their litter collection walk as part of their WAA and appeared in the local paper and also had another display up at the library.

We went to an end of season party at Ady’s work and the theatre to see Little Leap Forward.

July saw us considering a curriculum
. It didn’t last long as Tarly was rather resistant to it but we may come back to it later.


We had a week’s holiday camping at Shell Island. Not much of a view and it was a bit sandy, but otherwise good ;). Along with camping with friends we also had days out to CAT, , Llanfair Slate Caverns , an ill fated dolphin watching trip (good boat trip though no dolphins)and Great Orme Copper Mines – full set of photos are here .
Davies and Scarlett had their first night away from home, at Ali’s for Freya’s birthday sleepover. Davies, Scarlett and I finally managed to visit Lancing College Chapel which we’d been meaning to get to for ages and was every bit as breathtaking as I remembered it being. We went to the Rare Breeds Show at Weald and Downland museum which was good – we mostly learnt that we don’t want call ducks after all! we do still want ducklings though 🙂
We had a visit from The Raines, who are always very welcome houseguests, even more so than usual as they offered childcare this time too :).
We had a fab long weekend camping at Wicksteed Park from Thursday to Sunday including a day at Wicksteed Park itself going coaster-crazy and two days at English Heritage Festival of History which included spending time with various friends.
Davies and I went to RhythmFest Joyce came to visit!

August was when life got very political – we took part in the Bubble Blowing flash mob in Brighton and I ended up on the radio and TV aswell as quoted in the local papers – so much for staying under the radar! 😆 There was a period when my whole facebook page was filled with a rather unflattering screen grab of myself as everyone of my friends seemed to have linked to it.

We all went to a fab evening event at Pulborough Brooks called Night Time Wings and Other Things where we saw moths, bats, snakes, deer, various birds and allegedly a badger 😉

We had a fab overnight stay Microcamping in Weymouth, where we chucked minimal stuff in the car and drove until we found a campsite, stayed overnight and came home the next day. An evening walk round Weymouth, a lengthy drive home through the New Forest and a night under the stars. . We had our annual visit to Fishbourne Roman Villa
I guess one of the biggest things of the year, let alone the month was Davies going to Badger camp. which was hugely testing for all of us (mostly me ;)) but also a Very Positive Thing for lots of reasons too. . He had some excellent days out including kayaking, Chessington and swimming, along with camp activities such as cooking, talent shows and team sports events.

Scarlett and I had a good week of mother-daughterliness too including an overnight stay at Marwell with Ali and Freya and a day where Scarlett was totally in charge which meant a walk to the beach, ice cream on the way, paddling in the sea, then ice cream on the way back home again.
We got together with schooled friends a couple of times and finished the month with a visit from The Barts.

In September Ady and I didn’t meet Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, celebrated ten years of marriage and nine years of being parents.
We had our usual wonderful camping experience at Sustainability Centre, sharing it with more friends.
” alt=”” />and another good trip to Butser

Davies had his ninth birthday (celebrated with a cake cooked in a field and served in a teepee

and a giant chocolate eclair, what a childhood!)” alt=”” />
There was the Not Back to School Picnic , we went to the Wood Fayre (which Davies spent the morning being a YAC at), a wonderful Monday morning on the beach with our much missed friends Caz, Bid, Archie and Elliot, making the most of their company before they moved halfway around the world. . We had a trip to London with Ady joining us for a lecture at the RI followed by a picnic in the park with friends and then the Science Museum with Marcus, Michelle and Chloe for the Wallace and Gromit exhibition.. I got name-checked by my mate Dayve when he was on the plinth, we went to a really good local Apple Day and I started my evening course to become a Waste Prevention Advisor. The kids and I finished the month (which on reading back seems to have been a kerazily busy one) with another trip to London for another lecture at the RI and a visit to the Cocoon at the NHM.

October started with the departure of Caz and Bid who left with a splash of a swimming party for Archie and Bid’s birthdays. I had a Day Of Doubt which are always good for cementing why we do what we do ;). Swimming, Sea Scout, Badgers, Rainbows, Gymnastics, my course and the regimented week day evenings this routine brought about were sort of settled into but with small doses of resentment for being timetabled. We had another swimming pool party experience with a weekend away at Michelle, Marcus and Chloe’s which is always good.I think they are the very best hosts we know :).

We participated in the Mass Lobby of Parliament which was at once interesting, slightly disappointing at the size of the turn out and heartening that there were a couple of hundred people who cared enough to come along.

Ady and I went for a Very Posh Meal Indeed with his ex-boss and we had a trip to Longleat. . We only managed one film for FilmEducation week. We had a mad night away at The Babs’ collecting various Salmon children along the way and arriving at midnight to cook our own dinner at the table! 😉 . I had a visit to the local recycling sorting plant as part of my course and brought the kids along with me.

I’d got tickets for This Is It (Michael Jackson film) and Up which we enjoyed, along with Worthing Astronomy Club setting up their telepscopes on the seafront for people to come along and see the moon and Jupiter.

November had Davies and Ady going to YACs for a WW2 recreation event. Davies and Scarlett participated in the Remembrance Day parade and Davies laid a wreath with the SJA cadets.

We went to the Christmas Market at the Weald and Downland museum and enjoyed a horse and cart ride around a field.
Davies and Scarlett started at a Home Ed Book Club for 6-12 year olds. It’ll be held monthly and include talking about a book the group has read and craft and art activities based around it. The first book was Little Nose which we’d enjoyed about a cave-boy.
Scarlett went missing while being ‘looked after’ by a friend which was rather more excitement than any of us needed on a Wednesday afternoon. I think we both learnt something from the experience although even I fail to put too much of a positive spin on it and still feel faint and shaking typing about it now.
My car had a non-opening bonnet saga which was eventually cheaply and easily fixed much to my great relief. Ady and I had a fab evening with an old friend who was in the UK for the weekend and came over to spend some time with us. We all forgot our ages, drank far too much and were very silly til the early hours – good for the soul!
There was the vegetarian Japanese evening complete with breaking down car, slobbering dog, lentils, tofu, pouring rain and sake. Let’s not retell that story again, funny though it has become in retrospect ;).
We had two days running in London – visiting The Rainbow Warrior while it was docked in London for the weekend, followed by a full day at the RI in the morning and the NHM in the afternoon for another visit to The Cocoon..
Davies and Scarlett both got badges and certificates and were moved up into the next groups up for next term at swimming, Davies was invested at Sea Scouts and Scarlett ‘graduated’ from Rainbows and took part in the end of term Christmas singing. (yes it was as shambolic as it looks in the photo 😆 )

December kicked off with Christmas Camp which was a lovely time with friends. Already looking forward to next year at Okehampton :). I loved being with friends and celebrating early Christmas and highlights were definitely seeing all the children love being together, the cabaret, the carols, the secret santa and the walk on the downs. and of course the dumpling tossing, now I had my chief dumpling tosser with me ;).

I attended a Lookering course which I really enjoyed – am looking forward to actually using some of what I learnt in 2010.
Scarlett turned seven
and celebrated on the actual day with a trip to the Sealife Centre in Brighton aswell as lunch and dinner out with family.

We had a nice walk with Julie and the cousins in the woods and on Badger presentation night along with getting their Healthy Badger badges and certificates Scarlett also got her silver paw, Davies was made a Follow Me Badger and it was announced I’d be becomming an Assistant Badger Leader.

We had a nice meal at the Not-Swingers that didn’t include pulses but did include a hangover the following day. We all went to see Them With Frozen Tails a kids winter show with plenty of audience participation and some very good improvisation.
The kids had Book Club again and I returned to my Reading Group after a couple of months off as it clashed with my WPA course.
We had SNOW! ( a big deal south of the south downs, not even an annual occurance) which was much enjoyed while it lasted, sadly not long enough for a white Christmas like so many of our friends have enjoyed.
We do have the sea though eh?
There has of course been Christmas, kids have had a ball, got everything they wanted – and more! Davies’s presents have been very Star Wars themed along with plenty of art and craft bits, a video camera and a weather station all of which pretty much sum up who is is at the moment
and Scarlett got loads of crafty bits, several books about animals, perfume making stuff and art things which also pretty much sums her up at the moment.

The strange last week of the year is being spent mostly indoors as although we don’t have snow we do have plenty of cold, grey rain, along with plenty of nice food and drink and things to watch and do indoors.

We saw 2009 out in pretty much the same way as we saw it in, with friends :).

It’s been a year with plenty of firsts, Davies and Scarlett are really growing up and at 7 and 9 are very much people rather than little kids now. We’ve had plenty of striking out independantly this year, which is good and right, if scary at the time.
I’ve personally had a good year with lots of time spent following new interests, learning new skills and developing myself further. I’ve done courses in Waste Prevention, Shepherding and health eating and nutrition. I’ve met new people, mixed in circles I’d not previously been involved in and whilst the shepherding and the WPA have yet to lead to any active volunteering which is the purpose behind them I am looking forward into throwing myself into that in 2010. I’ve developed my (admittedly fairly small) role at the library and by volunteering to run events and putting myself forward for more training I am hoping to continue that more in 2010 too.
Ady has had a changable year career-wise and I personally hope he is employed elsewhere this time next year but he is spending time considering and researching both new career options and ideas for other pursuits that he would enjoy and be fulfilled by so hopefully he will be able to find some new opportunities for himself this year.
Davies is scarily grown up with his week away from home, mature outlook on so many things and I feel him moving away and enjoying being his own person. He makes me very proud, very often.
Scarlett is discovering the joy of finding her own passions and remains very clear on her interests in animals and nature. She has changed loads this year, I fully expect loads more big changes in the coming year.
Whole family-wise it’s been another good year; plenty of camping, trips with friends, great day trips, sunshine, snowfalls, group holidays and parties and get togethers. Once again, we’ve ended the year with less debt than we started it, with exciting plans for the coming year, we’re all happy, healthy and ready for 2010.

Am looking forward to tomorrow, for all sorts of reasons but chiefly that I get to go to work for 3 hours which I’m sure will lift everyone’s spirits! 😉

This morning with some gentle cajoling Ady stopped cleaning, making food and generally not being in the room with the rest of us and did some stuff with the kids. I have told him, many times, that he will regret being remembered fondly as the father who brought the children a drink before they even realised they wanted one rather than the father who spent real time with them and got to know them. I get really fed up with seeing him in his ‘professional uncle’ guise around other people’s children where he is able to switch on ‘fun and wacky and zany’ and be the most popular Pied Piper figure there is but switch is back off again when it’s just Davies and Scarlett. It’s great that he is able to put all that effort in but it would be nice to have some effortless bonding too rather than concerted effort producing this sort of manufactured parenting. I certainly don’t think I have all the answers in parenting but I am at least able to consider myself engaged, present and in very strong individual relationships with both Davies and Scarlett.

Oh doesn’t Christmas with all it’s prolonged intimate contact, time spent indoors, feeling sluggish from too much food, drink and TV and too little fresh air, exercise and decent reasons not to spend time with your family such as work through all our little quirks into sharp relief and do an excellent job of bringing out the worst in all of us! 😆

So, they three went outside and gathered stuff to view on the Eyeclops while I researched recipes for fancy confectionary gifts I wanted to make for a couple of upcoming birthdays. They looked at worms and various other garden safari creatures then released them back into the wild and Ady and Davies did some meccano building together. I went off to do sweet making and Scarlett joined me for a while and made some smoothies in her smoothie maker. One of my recipes proved tentatively successful but was put to chill / set whilst the other was obviously not a success and I managed to burn the tip of my finger by dipping it in to scoop out a little to try. D’oh!

I made lunch for everyone and then we went out to visit Ady’s work mate, Tom. It was one of those weird situations where Ady and Tom had been effusive with promising to get together between Christmas and New Year while they are off work, Tom and Ingrid bought us and the children very generous Christmas gifts and they adore Davies and Scarlett so I’d encouraged Ady to follow up on arranging it. I realised this morning though that we were visiting them at Tom’s little house in Portsmouth rather than his parents big countryside pile where we’ve been shooting and fishing and running with the dogs. Ady had also said something like ‘we’re over your way tomorrow…’ when arranging it so then had to manufacture some reason for us being in Portsmouth other than us just having driven over to see Tom.

Neither of the children really wanted to go and it suddenly felt like those Christmas visits to relatives as a child when the home didn’t have resident children and was therefore a cross between really boring for being filled with adults stuff and really fascinating for being filled with things that anyone with children simply wouldn’t own or would have moved to higher shelves when they had a baby. We arrived to find Ingrid had gone out and some tension of a recent row still in the air (they’re having a bad patch), so stayed for a cup of tea and a bit of a post Christmas, pre New Year chat before heading off again about an hour later.

Davies had been asking to go to Toys R Us as both children got £40 each Christmas money (and Scarlett still had £10 from a cash incentive we promised about 2 years ago to persuade her to give up her dummy that she’d cunningly recalled and cashed in when she actually gave them up 3 months ago!). I’d said they could spend £10 each and had to put the rest in their bank accounts given they both did so well at Christmas. Davies was torn between a Lego Indiana Jones set and a Hans Solo Star Wars figure. Scarlett walked round the whole shop lurching from one soft toy to the next, and making faux-vomit sounds all the way round the ‘girls’ toys of Barbies, Baby Annabel and Hannah Montanna 😆

Finally, after nearly an hour Scarlett made a very strong case for spending all £50 on a Playmobil animal set. She has played with her Noah’s ark pretty much every day, does love Playmobil and frankly what you get for £10 is bugger all compared to what you get for £50. There was a set with £20 off containing loads of animals and other little accessories (a tree house with jeep, motorbike, dinghy and more) so I relented. At which point I told Davies he could spend all his money too. He remained torn but what he really wanted was a big Lego set (Indiana Jones) which was also £50, so on the basis that such joy and delight is rarely bought for the bargain price of a tenner I said he could have it :). £100 later (only a tenner of it mine, mind you) we left with two glowing children just like in a TV advert.

Back home Tarly and I set up the Playmobil while Ady and Davies made a start on the Lego. This made for a very late tea and an even later night which we decided was training for tomorrow. Baths and dinner for Ady and I were equally late and I also did some further sweet making, finishing off the first successful batch and remaking the second to a far more satisfactory result.

And, as I said at the start of this post, I’m off to work tomorrow for a couple of hours so I really should go to bed.

Ady went out first thing to take Davies’ videocamera back as the volume still wasn’t working properly on playback. We decided it was a design fault on that model so have upgraded to a slightly more expensive one. This doesn’t have sound on playback at all but is far more robust with a better quality picture. We’ve talked about putting even more money to it and buying a really good one but Davies decided he was happy with this one for now and may upgrade to a better one at some future point.

Davies did some more of his weather station kit making a barometer with assorted help and nosiness from the rest of us. Ady and I spent some time online looking at knife sets. We have had our knife block and four (used to be five, never did find out where the lost one went to) knives since we bought this house nearly 16 years ago and probably only paid about a tenner back then so they owe us nothing but having used some decent knives at Truleigh Hill (Helen’s I think, certainly not hostel ones) I realised just how crappy ours were so have been hankering after replacing them with half decent ones. Having read lots of reviews and looked at what various retailers had on offer online we found a set at Argos – half price in the sale making them within our budget. I also reserved a load of rechargable batteries as we now have two chargers in the house and Argos had their value rechargable batteries on offer.

Davies and I went to Argos to collect everything, had to queue for ages as the knives had to be paid for at a manned desk rather than the paypoint to check I was over 18. It was pouring with rain, Davies was wearing strap on rollerskates on his shoes and I was carrying knives – I’m not at all sure we met any H&S regulations 😆

Back home I sorted out the cutlery drawer which is always a job well done. I removed all the utensils we have duplicates of which now included an array of knives, a sharpener, steak knives and other things like cake slices and tin openers. I shoved it all in a carrier bag together which a freecycler with a setting-up-home daughter is coming to collect tomorrow.

The kids played with Elefun for a while and then Scarlett and I made some mince pies and tried out her new smoothie maker. The others all played Lego Creationary and we watched Toy Story on dvd.

The kids had a bath and some tea and then we all watched Miss Potter which Ady and I have seen before. Scarlett worked out the love interest plotline very early in the film (I won’t say incase anyone hasn’t seen it and intends to), then they went to bed while I had a bath and cooked dinner (using the new knives). Ady and I watched part 2 of The Triffids.

one screaming harridan, one hiding husband, one tearful daughter, one subdued son and a whole load of recyling.

Tomorrow, tomorrow I will find my equilibrium again and be back to normal. Today must have been my last hurrah or something. Davies and Scarlett’s bedrooms were in turmoil so I sent them off to tidy them up after breakfast with the intention of removing the last few things from the lounge which hadn’t yet been found homes into their rooms. Ady went and ‘helped’ Scarlett which is always an error, partially because I think she then has no ownership or investment in the tidiness and partially because Ady doesn’t tidy anyway, he shoves. Shoves things under beds, into boxes and on top of wardrobes. There are no cupboards in Tarly’s room but if there were he would have shoved stuff in there too.

Davies constructs piles of stuff. This means floor space is clear but surrounded by towering piles of things. Davies collects junk anyway so there is always loads of empty cardboard boxes, drawings, bits of packaging and general ‘stuff’ his room. Along with at least two empty or half empty glasses, at least one odd sock which may or may not need to go in the wash, various art materials and a pile of books that has slipped off the bed into a random fan shaped pile on the floor.

So, while I decided to empty out the old pens and paper drawers in the playroom to make space for the new pens and other crafty and arty bits I thought they were all getting on with clearing out stuff from their rooms and generally tidying them up a bit. For a brief period I felt at ease and peaceful at the notion of order being restored to the dwelling.

But I was wrong. I was indeed tidying, creating more space to put things away in a proper, permanent, appropriate home and getting rid of stuff from the house that we no longer need (take that felt tips with no lid that are all dried up, be gone pencil that the lead is broken all the way down in so you tease us with a new point upon sharpening only to break again as soon as pressure is applied to paper with you, leave this house oh stub of crayola crayon that may once have been yellow but is now tainted with other scraps of wax from jostling against browns, reds and purples as children rummaged in the box over the years). Ady is shoving, Davies is piling and Scarlett is mostly wandering around the house still in her pyjamas deciding that whatever anyone else is tidying up is the most interesting thing to be doing and offering to ‘help’ with that instead.

Once *I* had a full bin liner and had fed the recycling box a fair bit of cardboard and paper AND had made the start of a pile for ebay / charity shop / whatever the local freecycle list is calling itself this week I went to check on the others’ progress.

Cue me yelling, Ady hiding, Scarlett crying and Davies looking like I’d maimed a puppy infront of him.

Ady continued to hide, Davies pulled himself together, added to the rubbish and recycling piles and whilst it’s not perfect (and we both agreed that 9 year olds are not supposed to have perfect bedrooms anyway) it is now under control again. I explained to Scarlett about a place for everything and everything in it’s place and how the bed isn’t supposed to be shored up by a pile of crap so high the legs are off the floor and she brought out various things and put them in proper places so we could lose some packaging and clear her room a bit too.

Order was restored once more, Ady came out of hiding and I made everyone lunch.

Ady had reserved some Christmas lights in the sale at Argos and we wanted to return Davies’ video camera as the volume control seemed to not be working on playback, so we went to Asda, queued for about half an hour and exchanged that, collected the lights from Argos and nipped into Morrisons for a few bits.

Back home I was feeling tired. I’ve not been sleeping at all well for the last week or so and my jaw is really achey which is either me grinding my teeth when I am asleep (I used to do this all the time but haven’t done it for years – back in stressed retail management days) or my bite being out as the dentist suspected it is. Or perhaps both. Or one being caused by the other. Or something. I suspect this has all had an impact on my frame of mind but that doesn’t excuse me being such hard work to be round for everyone else 🙁

I cooked a lovely roast beef dinner and whilst that was cooking I looked at Davies’ weather station with him (a Christmas present). It’s very good and has all sorts of experiments, all of which neatly fit inside the weather station itself which includes wind gauge and thermometers. We did the first few experiments and learnt about wind direction and how they are measured. We learnt about the Beaufort scale which I’d not remembered very well but fortunately the accompanying booklet was very good at explaining, we got out the compass and worked out wind direction, checked the temperature at various parts of the room (close to the fire was 5 degrees warmer than near the door). There was pH paper in the kit so we tested various things to find whether they were acid or alkaline, trying to recall some of the stuff we’d learnt at RI lectures. We tested tap water, tea, orange and lemon juice, milk, brandy, salted water, vinegar and my tongue and Davies wrote down all the results in the little notepad that came with it.

Meanwhile Ady and Scarlett were playing with the Eyeclops which is also excellent. We looked at hairs, skin, the carpet, a paper cut on Scarlett’s finger, a spider and a woodlice that Ady brought in, a pine needle from the tree and various other things.

It was all very science experiment-tastic here for an hour or so :).

Scarlett asked if we could watch Fox and Child so we put that on and then it was dinnertime. We enjoyed a good old bitch about my parents over dinner which I found very healing. I try not to colour the children’s view of my parents too much but they are pretty astute and see ever such a lot of what goes on. It was a lovely end to what had been a rather wobbly in places sort of day.

Too much sitting around eating and drinking too much and being inside was catching up with me today so I insisted we went out. I’d earmarked ‘a Sussex Christmas’ at the Weald and Downland Museum for Boxing Day but been convinced by Ady that it would be too muddy after heavy rain on Christmas Day evening and feeling fairly fragile yesterday anyway.

So we donned wellies and headed off there today. Ady’s car was still at my parents from Christmas Day so we drove over there in mine and swapped cars. My parents spotted us so I nipped in to say ‘hello’ and promised we’d call in on the way back. It was muddy indeed and pretty cold thanks to a clear sky and chilly wind but lovely to be out, lovely to be just the four of us and lovely location regardless. It was not as full on as I’d been expecting it to be but as the museum is almost entirely staffed by volunteers I imagine it can be hit and miss as to which volunteers are working which days and how enthusiastic they are. There was a Christmas Tree in the Victorian schoolhouse decorated with candles, oranges stuffed with cloves and little painted decorations. The big farmhouse was bedecked with holly and ivy and laid out with a feast for the servants of pottage and bread and for the masters of all sorts of fancy foodstuffs including a roasted boars head, pies cooked in coffers, biscuits decorated with natural food dyes including cochineal, spinach and saffron. We learnt that Croydon was once the chief place to get saffron which was very commonly available 500 years ago, while sugar was the expensive element to the feast. The volunteer in there was very knowledgable and enthusiastic. As was the volunteer in the kitchen. We learnt that kitchens were rarely in the house as the kitchen was prone to catching fire so best kept seperate with a pantry in the main dwelling for storage, reheating if necessary and titivating.

In the kitchen we learnt about curing ham and fish, drying herbs and spices and vegetables such as onions. We were shown how they cooked pies in a stiff pastry designed not to be eaten but to contain and cook the contents and about mincemeat made with meat.

Ady chatted to the men in charge of the heavy horses while Scarlett patted them and Davies and I looked at the chickens, cows and rare breed sheep. We tried some mulled cider (very delicious), some prunes stewed with wine and spices, some cinnamon sugar, gingered bread and cheesy bites. All very nice.

We went in the mill and bought some freshly milled flour for breadmaking and some duck food, then Davies spent ages feeding the ducks and videoing them with his new camera while Tarly spent ages feeding the ducks and trying to catch them. I sat nearby and listened to her chattering to them and assuring them they had nothing to be scared of.

We had hot drinks every so often (either tea from the shop or mulled cider or wine) to keep us going for about 3 hours but finally started to get cold as it started to get dark so headed for home.

Back to my parents to collect my car and call in for some tea and Christmas cake (I made smaller ones this year and gave them one). We had a nice hour or so with them and then came home. We’ve watched back to back films tonight, with a break for Outnumbered.

I have to confess to being rather glad all the actual Christmas stuff is over. Ady’s off work for another week and I’m looking forward to some nice quiet family time.

Davies and Scarlett took forever to go to sleep on Christmas Eve, I remember being much the same at their age. Finally they went to sleep about 1130pm so we brought all the presents down, put them under the tree, filled their stockings and replaced them at the ends of their beds and went to bed ourselves around midnight. Typically I then couldn’t sleep and it felt like I’d barely dropped off when Scarlett came thundering in, turned all the lights on and said ‘It’s Christmas Day! Father Christmas has been!’. She asked if she could start opening the presents in her stocking and we blearily agreed. Ady asked me what time it actually was and when I checked and it wasn’t yet 3am we told her it was still Christmas Eve night after all and she should go back to sleep. Rather pleasingly she did :).

Ady then snored, the cat came and slept on our bed and purred noisily and I laid awake for a bit longer before finally falling asleep and then being woken just after 7am by the children again. Ady went and put the kettle on and I watched (without the aid of contact lenses, so very blurrily) and listened as they opened all the bits in their stockings. A combination of very grateful children and parents who know them pretty well meant they had done well :).

We came downstairs at about 8am and present-opening proper began in earnest. Davies has the rip the paper off everything as quick as possible and look at it properly later approach, whereas Scarlett is quite methodical and savours the opening, the still having a pile to go and the looking at things in detail.

They both had a vast array of stuff thanks to charity shop hauls, Ady getting to go into Tesco and Sainsburys staff shops for heavily discounted end of lines, damaged packaging type bargains and us buying things throughout the year. Aswell as a big selection of art materials, craft kits, Star Wars and Doctor Who figures, books and more Davies got a W&G book
he’d been coveting, a similar to a flic camera but much cheaper little video camera and loads of other things. Scarlett got an Eyeclops, a cd player for her room, a new load of glass bottles, essential oils, base oils and other perfume making stuff, a couple of gorgeous animal books and loads more too. I got a new reclining camping chair and a laptop tray, Ady got a couple of jumpers, some aftershave and series 1, 2 and 3 on dvd of a series he used to love watching on TV. Everyone did very well :).

We drank bucks fizz, ate toast and chocolate and Davies played a new xbox game while Scarlett did some watercolour painting. Finally it was time to head over to my parents.

We didn’t necessarily have a Merry Christmas there but it was certainly inkeeping with traditional family Christmases of my childhood. I probably won’t say too much more about that really but we did have some laughs.

We were home again for 8pm, the kids were chased into bed, although they didn’t sleep for ages, infact I was asleep before them as I was utterly drained and took myself off a little after 11pm, which for me is a very early night.

Today we’ve stayed home all day. Watched many films, Herbie, Bridge to Terabithia, Flushed Away and more, done various craft kits including animal puppets, Ben 10 shaker maker, Star Wars make your own comic, watercolour painting, plasticine and more. And eaten. And drunk. Lots and lots of festive food and drink.

Work for me again this morning. It was an odd morning with a really busy first three hours followed by a completely dead last half hour. A flurry of Merry Christmas!’s and an air of general silliness. I did almost lose my rag with Nightmare Colleague and snapped at her twice. It was probably for the best she left early to catch her train as I’d long since lost sight of the end of my tether let alone being near the end of it.

I rang my parents in my tea break to check how my Mum was and see if there was anything they’d not got for tomorrow and wanted me to pick up. My Mum was suitably dramatic and said how dreadful it was going to be for the following reasons:

She couldn’t get fresh turkey so had to buy frozen. Assuming she intends cooking it and not actually leaving it frozen I don’t really see how this is a problem.

No fresh cream so she had to get Elmlea instead. I assured her baby Jesus probably wouldn’t mind.

She couldn’t get parsnips or sweet potatoes. I know, I know, it won’t really feel like Christmas without them. She is hoping my Granny who she had ‘on the case’ was going to be able to source some (possibly she has black market contacts from the days of rationing and is able to get root vegetables even when the supermarkets have sold out, I dread to think what sort of price she’d have to pay though). I assured her if Granny failed we could ring Bob Geldof and he would probably pen a single and raise funds for us.

It will of course forever be the year we had Elmlea and therefore Christmas was ruined though.

I came off the phone and relayed all this to my colleagues who said they felt our pain and their Christmasses were probably also runined. We did wonder if one day we might look back on this and laugh, infact as Sarah pointed out I already was laughing. Shock does effect different people in different ways of course.

Davies and Scarlett had watched Santa Clause 2 and 3 with Ady (they’d watched Santa Clause yesterday) and decorated pillowcases with glitterglue and fabric pens.

We had lunch and then headed over to Chris and Julie’s for our traditional Christmas Eve afternoon with them. The four older cousins were at fever pitch and spent most of the time playing hide and seek together in a rowdy fashion :). We sat and drank tea and ate mince pies.

Back home again, kids had tea, opened their Christmas Eve pjs gift, put out mince pies, brandy etc on the hearth, we all watched Shrek 2 on tv, Ady and I opened beer and fizzy wine. Davies and Scarlett went off to bed -sleepover in Davies’ room so that we all wake up upstairs in the morning.

Ady and I had a very nice Chinese takeaway and have watched various Christmas specials on telly. Predictably the children are still awake so we’re now waiting on them going to asleep before we can bring out the gifts and go to bed ourselves.

Am considering going to bed anyway and setting the alarm for 330am and getting back up then to put presents under the tree!

In brief.

Worked this morning. We had no childcare so Ady manufactured some wild story about laying a festive wreath at his father’s grave annually the weekend before Christmas being snowed off so postponed til today and then dropped Davies and Scarlett off at the library at 1130 for the last hour and a half with me.

They were utter superstars – been very proud of both them, their behaviour and their reputation today :). Lovely home ed kids :).

We went to the newly opened pound shop in Lancing where I must have bought 20 things as I spent £20. Hurrah for £ shops, I love ’em.

Home again where by popular request we watched a Festive Film (capitals provided by Davies, who is in many ways his mothers son.) with popcorn purchased from the £shop. After much deliberation (Davies wanted Nightmare Before Christmas, Scarlett vetoed on grounds it was too scary, Davies wanted Polar Express, it was disqualified for not being in the case why was it not in the case???, Scarlett wanted Rudolph, Davies vetoed on the basis we’ve seen it so many times we can all recite the script along with the movie) finally they settled on How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

I caved in and rang my Dad as it had all been a bit ‘we’ll see’ as to whether he could come over and mind the kids while I went to the dentist and confirmed that he could, so I left before the end of the film to drive along the road to the dentist. I had a 15 minute wait before being seen. I was told the piece of tooth had broken off for unexplainable but slightly concerning, possibly bite related reasons (does this mean I may be a secret and undiagnosed vampire?) and given a filling. I was told it would fall into NHS band 2 of treatment and therefore cost £46.50 which did seem very extreme for 10 minutes in the chair and a teeny bit of filling but I guess I’d rather be hurt in the pocket than the mouth. Ouch all the same though, 2 days before Christmas.

I nipped to collect a couple of balls of wool from a freecycler who had left a big carrier bag out with a note to say she’d found some more knitting related stuff I was welcome to take too. Stacks of needles, crochet hooks and wool, along with various very retro patterns. Have already made a couple of flowers on a plastic loom that came with instructions to make 357 flowers and then crochet them together to make a blanket. As learning to crochet is something I have scheduled for 2010 it seemed like a good place to start.

Back home again Dad had taken delivery of presents for Davies and Scarlett from Peggy-next-door. She had sent her meals on wheels lady round with them along with a message to say she was going away and had lost our phone number incase of emergencies and could we pop it round again. As Dad was here I nipped round there and then and was invited in. I’ve not been in the bungalow before and was given a guided tour and sat chatting to her for nearly an hour. I actually really enjoyed learning more about her – she is one of 9, although only 3 of them are still alive, her husband (who we knew too, he passed away 5 years ago now) and her were married for 54 years and she still missed him every day. She thinks Davies and Scarlett are wonderful, loves the chickens and tells me she is amazed that she never hears me shout at the children when I have them home with me all day. I assured her I do indeed shout but that we probably spend as much time laughing too and that I attribute the childrens’ closeness, loveliness and our generally happy state to them being Home Educated. I think another 2010 vow is to spend more time next door with Peggy.

Back home again I put the chickens away, sorted out tea for Davies and Scarlett, enjoyed a comedy 10 minutes trying to get the wheelie bins through the garage into the back garden and sat down with a mug of tea. The children and I were in rowdy, silly moods so there was much messing about until Ady got home. I started reading which is really rather good (By Pippi Longstocking author) and then Davies and Scarlett pretended to go to bed.

We’ve watched festive Hugh and River Cottage, roasted chestnuts on an open fire, drunk the first drams from the festive spirits and listened to hailstones drumming the windows which is the closest I suspect we’ll get to a white Christmas down here.

I’m working again tomorrow morning so bed would be a pretty good idea.

And all is festive :).

I should always function on about 5 hours sleep and barely digested dinner from the day before, it makes for a very efficient morning. I tackled the mountain of clean laundry in the playroom and tasked the kids with putting their own clean washing away (doubt it’s been done properly but as one of my most hated jobs I’m only too happy to delegate and can live with lower standards), hung some out, put another load on, baked 48 mince pies, put pizza dough on for Davies’ dinner later, spoke to Ady on the phone about the last few bits he was buying, spoke to my parents on the phone – correctly diagnosing my Mum with cystitis (since confirmed by a visit to the GP), supervised the children writing the family Christmas cards, read a book to Scarlett.

And then we had lunch ;).

We called in to the library to drop off some poinsettias for work colleagues that had been looking sad at home so I wanted to get rid of today rather than tomorrow, I picked up a couple of books and took a couple back that I knew had waiting lists (Jo Brand’s autobiography and the latest Marian Keyes that I’d finished). Then over to Elizabeth’s for a couple of hours. The kids had a slightly odd dynamic going on and spent some time playing with the next-door-but-one neighbours and their visiting cousin but snowballs were involved and a fair bit of ganging up on each other seemed to be happening. Elizabeth was dealing with some landscape gardeners chopping down some trees at the bottom of their garden and then popping out to collect their cleaner from the station so I spent quite a bit of time sitting alone in the kitchen. We left just before 5pm when Ady rang to say he was home but didn’t have his keys so was sitting outside in his car looking longingly at the house!

The children had tea and then we braced ourselves and headed to Sainsburys for our festive food shopping. We’re going to my parents for Christmas dinner so only really needed nice nibbles and picky foods, aswell as festive drinks. That all went smoothly and we were home again by about 830pm. Davies and Scarlett went off to bed, Ady and I put the shopping away and then while he cooked dinner and had a bath I did the rest of the wrapping.

It took *ages* but finally I was done just before 11pm. I had a bath and we were eating dinner by about 11.15pm – dinner at about 9pm tomorrow will seem like afternoon tea! 😆 I wrapped the last few bits after dinner watching Songs of Praise and feeling all festive and misty eyed at carols I didn’t even remember I knew from school choir carol concerts of my childhood.

So, all ready for Christmas, and now all ready for bed – I’m working the next two mornings and suspect Friday might just be an early start too ;).

Oh how very ‘street’ I’ve become ;).

A very long overdue visit to Tasha and co today. The children all seemed fairly oblivious to the fact we’ve not seen each other for *ages* and fell straight into playing with each other. We didn’t see Davies and Toby for the whole time we were there, Scarlett reappeared briefly and spent some time with Vinnie and the kittens, but then disappeared upstairs with the boys again.

Tasha and I had a good old catch up – I knitted a hat and she crocheted one – how rock n’ roll are we?

Ady rang me about 5 times and said (among other things) he was going to Croydon. Both Tasha and I advised against it but he went anyway. I should probably concede now that it wasn’t advised against for weather conditions before anyone starts to think perhaps Tasha and I are witches performing Winter Solstice Magic and the like.

We came home and Davies and Scarlett disappeared upstairs to play. I had intentions of making some mince pies but took the pastry out of the fridge to return to room temperature and have ended up not rolling it out. I’m home all morning so will do some festive baking then instead. Ady rang at 4pm to say he’d been stuck on the Purley Way for half an hour not moving due to snow.

I did the kids some tea – everyone was having various leftovers tonight so Tarly had pasta and Davies had pheasant and roast potatoes. Ady still had only moved about 2 miles in 2 hours so I concluded tonight’s planned food shopping wasn’t going to happen. I had foolishly promised copies of the photos of Grumpy Old Man at work being Santa and was also anxious about the remaining Christmas presents for Jack, Maisie and Lorna so the children and I nipped to Tescos. We managed to get the photos, the presents for cousins, a couple of jumpers for Ady and a new top for me to wear on Christmas Day and arrived home at about the same time as Ady.

The children needed a top up of food before bed, then Ady and I got out all of their Christmas presents to compare pile sizes. We don’t tend to worry too much about money spent figuring that will even out over the years but do look for a similar volume of wrapped gifts. As ever we have already got way more than we realised. We have decided on one last thing for Scarlett which Ady will get tomorrow and we wrapped all of Davies’. I’ll wrap Tarly’s tomorrow and I have a bag of stuff for other people which I can wrap during the day tomorrow. I’m still waiting for various parcels to arrive but they all show as in transit so hopefully we’ll have them all by the end of tomorrow.

Thankfully it was leftovers for dinner for us too as we finished wrapping Davies’ presents at 1130pm, I went for a bath and Ady shoved dinner in the oven to reheat and we finally ate around 1230am. Once again -how rock n’ roll are we?! 😆

Today was delivering all the local-ish Christmas cards day, which we always do on the last weekend before Christmas. It often seems to be the only time we actually see certain friends, despite promising each other every year we will get in touch and make the effort to get together more often. Christmas cards generally have been very thin on the ground this year – not sure if that is people being ill, a move towards eco-friendly not sending them, credit crunch meaning people are being tighter with their spending or merely us dropping off people’s Christmas card lists ;).

So we planned a route to take in Argos at Chichester for yet another reserved online item and calling into Bognor which has a The Works where I wanted to get a few bits. First Christmas card delivered and Ady went to do it while the kids and I stayed in the car. He was gone ages and really we should have gone in and had a cup of tea with them for a proper catch up. Ady’s promised we’ll have a night out with them soon (it’s his oldest friend and his long term partner) although quite how we’re going to arrange overnight childcare I don’t know! Hard to explain to someone when they regularly have her grandchildren to stay over.

Argos to collect and then into Bognor to drop off more cards.This was to the parents and sister of the previous friend’s wife who sadly died of an asthma attack when she was in her early 20s. The parents now live in an annexe of the house of the sister and her husband and their three children (still with me?), which by coincidence is the house that Ady was living in when I first met him and I often stayed at with my then boyfriend who also lived there. Two sets of other owners had the house inbetween those days and our friends buying it. Told the children the story and explained how you can die of asthma and all the people we know who have asthma and then gave a lift into town to the middle daughter who is off to uni next year. Those children were younger than Davies and Scarlett when I first met them and now all of them are embarking on uni and grown up stuff!

Both sets of friends said to Ady ‘we saw Nic on the telly a few months ago!’ 😆

I’d been planning to nip to the shops I wanted to visit but Ady and the kids decided to come into town too so we parked up and split up. I got the various bits I wanted and then we met back up again. Home via a Garden Centre (where Ady used to work and was working when Davies was born. On his first Christmas Ady was on the management rota to go and feed the pets on Christmas Day so we have photos of Davies in his little santa suit there when everything was closed :)) for a book I’d spotted for Scarlett ages ago but not managed to go back and buy since.

Four more cards to drop off on the way including two to old ladies Ady used to do gardening work for, one of whom was home and he says still hasn’t aged at all. Scarlett had been wondering about what happens at the beach when it snows and I’d told her the salt means it doesn’t really settle so as we were driving alongside the coast we pulled over to park and have a quick look.

It’s been really interesting driving around today seeing how in Chichester and Bognor all the snow has disappeared but here in Worthing and Lancing it is still very much in evidence with all of the side streets and all of the pavements still totally iced up and very dangerous for driving and walking. I was really surprised to still see big clumps of now very icy snow still very close to the sea on the beach so we ran around (by necessity, it was bitterly cold down there) for ten minutes or so before finally coming home.

and I managed to slip over 😆

Once home the children disappeared off to play and I got roast dinner on and did some baking. I made some pastry but it’s in the fridge to use tomorrow as I ran out of time and some mincemeat muffins. I also marzipanned and iced one of the two Christmas cakes. Again I’ll do the other one tomorrow.

Dinner was lovely, we ate watching the James May Lego house thing on TV and then we all watched River Cottage Christmas before the children had another late night. Tomorrow will be wrapping up and checking we have everything at which point all the stressy stuff stops and we can just get on with eating too much, drinking too much and watching lots of Christmas specials on telly!