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Wednesday, May 31, 2006
personality tests by similarminds.com
Monday, May 29, 2006
Drowning, not waving
I've not been feeling well for the past 24 hours - just around the children's bedtime last night I came over all achey - just a cold really but it's made me feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience at times today. And then the weather, good grief, I'm thinking it's about time I wrote and complained to somebody. I am so fed up with rain ruining everything, from planned days out to playing in the garden, my washing and my mood.
The good news is I've just won an Ebay auction very cheaply for the sort of bed Jade wants. He could have got a lot more money for it if only he'd listed it better. Anyway, all we have to do now is get to Mansfield to collect it! Anybody nearby who wants a visit? And then, we have to completely rearrange and redecorate two of the bedrooms, swapping the guest room and Jade's room around and making the bigger room a joint one for the two girls.
As far as HE goes, I bought a lovely set of books about famous artists and we've read a few of those, she's played with her LeapPad, Learning Land CD-Rom and Bill's read her some history stories he's found online - I'll try and remember to get the link - about King Alfred and King Canute. She did seem rather more interested in fiddling about with toys and stuff than listening - but hey, maybe something went in.
And she's chatted over the fence with the new girl who lives next door, so it would be nice if that develops into a friendship.
And now I'm going to drag my aching body off to bed.
The good news is I've just won an Ebay auction very cheaply for the sort of bed Jade wants. He could have got a lot more money for it if only he'd listed it better. Anyway, all we have to do now is get to Mansfield to collect it! Anybody nearby who wants a visit? And then, we have to completely rearrange and redecorate two of the bedrooms, swapping the guest room and Jade's room around and making the bigger room a joint one for the two girls.
As far as HE goes, I bought a lovely set of books about famous artists and we've read a few of those, she's played with her LeapPad, Learning Land CD-Rom and Bill's read her some history stories he's found online - I'll try and remember to get the link - about King Alfred and King Canute. She did seem rather more interested in fiddling about with toys and stuff than listening - but hey, maybe something went in.
And she's chatted over the fence with the new girl who lives next door, so it would be nice if that develops into a friendship.
And now I'm going to drag my aching body off to bed.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
New blog title
I never liked 'Trying our best' - far too earnest and serious and worthy. I just couldn't think of anything else. Been meaning to change it for ages, and at last I have. Will also be using the girls' middle names for a tad more anonymity.
This morning I got up at 8'ish with Shannon, while Jade slept till 9.30ish, having had a very late night last night. We just pootled about this morning, while I actually did some tidying up (first time in days!) and Jade did some painting. We have new neighbours moving in today so she painted a goodbye picture for the 2 girls moving away, and a welcome picture for the new family moving in. I'm quite excited about it, actually, as the Mum is a childminder!!! Could be very useful! Apparently they have 3 kids - 2 boys and the youngest is a girl aged 6, so I'm hoping Jade will make friends with her.
This afternoon, we've been over to visit a friend's new house. It's lovely, and throws our messy, run-down place into stark contrast. I just do not know why I find it so hard to keep things in order - I just look at stuff lying around and simply don't know what to do with it, so I leave it there. Not helped by always feeling I am 'behind' with important stuff like our finances, letters, playschool or Usborne stuff, and feeling like it's more important to get on with those than tidy up once the girls have gone to bed. I have a great urge just to chuck everything out onto the lawn and start again. If only it would stop raining long enough to do so. It's an extremely wet drought we're having, isn't it!
Anyway, I have 2 birthdays (Bill and Jade) and 2 holidays to plan (a few days in London just prior to Kessingland) so must dash!
This morning I got up at 8'ish with Shannon, while Jade slept till 9.30ish, having had a very late night last night. We just pootled about this morning, while I actually did some tidying up (first time in days!) and Jade did some painting. We have new neighbours moving in today so she painted a goodbye picture for the 2 girls moving away, and a welcome picture for the new family moving in. I'm quite excited about it, actually, as the Mum is a childminder!!! Could be very useful! Apparently they have 3 kids - 2 boys and the youngest is a girl aged 6, so I'm hoping Jade will make friends with her.
This afternoon, we've been over to visit a friend's new house. It's lovely, and throws our messy, run-down place into stark contrast. I just do not know why I find it so hard to keep things in order - I just look at stuff lying around and simply don't know what to do with it, so I leave it there. Not helped by always feeling I am 'behind' with important stuff like our finances, letters, playschool or Usborne stuff, and feeling like it's more important to get on with those than tidy up once the girls have gone to bed. I have a great urge just to chuck everything out onto the lawn and start again. If only it would stop raining long enough to do so. It's an extremely wet drought we're having, isn't it!
Anyway, I have 2 birthdays (Bill and Jade) and 2 holidays to plan (a few days in London just prior to Kessingland) so must dash!
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Not much of anything
I haven't been blogging because we haven't been doing anything educational. It's just been work, playschool and random playing or TV watching. Too much going on, not much of it of any interest. I have, however, resigned as Chairperson of playschool effective from September, so that's one pie I shall no longer have a finger in! I've also been working out what times/days I need Tamsin to go to school in September when we start the flexi-schooling arrangement. We are moving offices at work, next week, to save money and this will give us the chance to re-arrange our working hours. And Bill is applying for flexible working - condensed hours on 4 days per week and spending one day a week at home with the girls. So, if that is successful, the plan is that Bill will be at home on Wednesdays and I will work all day. Then I will work on Thursday morning and Tamsin can go to school that morning. She will also go on a Monday afternoon when they do music/dance and possibly on a Friday morning when they go swimming. So she'll be at school 2 or 3 half-days per week, mostly for non-academic stuff, and the rest at home.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Quick blog
We had quite an educational afternoon, for a change, so I thought I'd better blog. This morning was playschool for Tamsin and work for me, and after collecting her and getting home, Isabelle was asleep so I took the chance for a half-hour lie-down too. After Isabelle woke and was dealt with, Tamsin started playing with the sea-shells she collected in March at Exmouth beach. I suggested she might like to draw them, so she decided to draw round them and compare shapes and sizes. After that, I suggested we Google to find out what sort of creatures the shells were from. We tried good old Enchanted Learning, which came up with some interesting stuff. Then we looked at the Usborne Children's Encyclopedia, and read through about coral reefs, the sea-shore, the deep ocean, plants and more. We talked about gills and oxygen and photosynthesis and fish and mammals and molluscs and shells and skeletons and all sorts! I then followed up some of the Usborne Quick Links for the first time, and was very impressed with the activities and colouring and worksheets they include. We got to some video clips of sea-snails and anemones and all sorts of other sea-creatures feeding.
Then Bill started playing some music to try and keep Isabelle occupied instead of climbing up on my knee, only it distracted Tamsin too and it became PE time with lots of dancing. Tamsin then put on a dance show, spontaneously, which was lovely! And then we just moved on into general playing, TV watching, and dinner making etc.
Then Bill started playing some music to try and keep Isabelle occupied instead of climbing up on my knee, only it distracted Tamsin too and it became PE time with lots of dancing. Tamsin then put on a dance show, spontaneously, which was lovely! And then we just moved on into general playing, TV watching, and dinner making etc.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Sometimes I sit here for ages, trying to think what to start writing about, and other days it just flows. Today is a 'sitting and thinking and coming up with a blank' day... So, with apologies for poor literary style or continuity or flow, here are my random thoughts about the past few days.
Bill had all last week off due to 'you-know-what', and would have gone back to work on Monday in reasonably fine fettle except that, yes, he did break a tooth but I'm not entirely sure it was due to gritting his teeth so hard... anyway he woke up on Monday morning in fair oral agony, phoned the dentist immediately and took some strong painkillers, which sent him so woozy that I ended up having to drive him to the dentist in the afternoon. In Oxford. Where he had a triple root canal filling. And today he looks like a hamster storing his food in a pouch in his cheek ..... poor love!
In the meantime, there have been some nice positive learning times with Tamsin. This morning, for instance, she found her scrapbook and some pre-printed pictures that Granny had given her, and asked me to sit with her while she invented a story with them. So she chose and stuck pictures and dictated the story to me which I wrote. She did manage to write one word - iron - but she's really not too keen on writing much. Still, no rush! She did write a birthday to a card as well today.
Yesterday she pulled out some maths workbooks which we have on the shelf, and I suggested we try the 'Simple Adding Up' one, which went down pretty well - I think we did about 8 or 9 pages of that and she seemed to be getting the hang of it. We've really done very little maths stuff, but I think it would be nice to do a bit more of that while it's still in her mind, to consolidate it, if she's willing. She's done some more Dot-to-Dot, using numbers up to 50. She's counted up to 100 orally quite a bit, but not done much written work with those higher numbers, so it was quite good to go over those and have her actually recognise that thirty-two is 32 and so on.
This afternoon we've had a couple of girls age 4 and 6 and their mum over - we met them at HE group and it was the first time they've been here. It went really nicely, with the girls running down the driveway shouting, "Tamsin, Tamsin ....!" excitedly, which was encouraging! They all played very well and happily together. I showed T, their Mum, my box of Sonlight stuff and she was very taken with Handwriting without Tears. She doesn't have internet access at home but is going to go to the library to try and find a UK supplier - anybody know of one?
Today's most exciting moment, however, came when we went to the local park after dinner because I was roped in to helping to paint the railings round the new play equipment in advance of the Grand Official Opening to be held on Sunday. We met my friend Kate and her girls there, and they had their bikes, so Tamsin had a go on a bike without stabilisers for the first time! She did fantastically well - it was so exciting. She managed 10 metres or so on bumpy grass before wobbling and falling off! She did that several times, and was so thrilled that after the 3rd or 4th time she jumped up after falling off, and ran towards me giggling and laughing so much she just couldn't stop, and threw herself into my arms in utter joy!!!! And of course I had the biggest face-splitting grin and tears in my eyes too! Perfect moment.
Bill had all last week off due to 'you-know-what', and would have gone back to work on Monday in reasonably fine fettle except that, yes, he did break a tooth but I'm not entirely sure it was due to gritting his teeth so hard... anyway he woke up on Monday morning in fair oral agony, phoned the dentist immediately and took some strong painkillers, which sent him so woozy that I ended up having to drive him to the dentist in the afternoon. In Oxford. Where he had a triple root canal filling. And today he looks like a hamster storing his food in a pouch in his cheek ..... poor love!
In the meantime, there have been some nice positive learning times with Tamsin. This morning, for instance, she found her scrapbook and some pre-printed pictures that Granny had given her, and asked me to sit with her while she invented a story with them. So she chose and stuck pictures and dictated the story to me which I wrote. She did manage to write one word - iron - but she's really not too keen on writing much. Still, no rush! She did write a birthday to a card as well today.
Yesterday she pulled out some maths workbooks which we have on the shelf, and I suggested we try the 'Simple Adding Up' one, which went down pretty well - I think we did about 8 or 9 pages of that and she seemed to be getting the hang of it. We've really done very little maths stuff, but I think it would be nice to do a bit more of that while it's still in her mind, to consolidate it, if she's willing. She's done some more Dot-to-Dot, using numbers up to 50. She's counted up to 100 orally quite a bit, but not done much written work with those higher numbers, so it was quite good to go over those and have her actually recognise that thirty-two is 32 and so on.
This afternoon we've had a couple of girls age 4 and 6 and their mum over - we met them at HE group and it was the first time they've been here. It went really nicely, with the girls running down the driveway shouting, "Tamsin, Tamsin ....!" excitedly, which was encouraging! They all played very well and happily together. I showed T, their Mum, my box of Sonlight stuff and she was very taken with Handwriting without Tears. She doesn't have internet access at home but is going to go to the library to try and find a UK supplier - anybody know of one?
Today's most exciting moment, however, came when we went to the local park after dinner because I was roped in to helping to paint the railings round the new play equipment in advance of the Grand Official Opening to be held on Sunday. We met my friend Kate and her girls there, and they had their bikes, so Tamsin had a go on a bike without stabilisers for the first time! She did fantastically well - it was so exciting. She managed 10 metres or so on bumpy grass before wobbling and falling off! She did that several times, and was so thrilled that after the 3rd or 4th time she jumped up after falling off, and ran towards me giggling and laughing so much she just couldn't stop, and threw herself into my arms in utter joy!!!! And of course I had the biggest face-splitting grin and tears in my eyes too! Perfect moment.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
You Are Red Orange |
 You are a very genuine person, although it takes a while for you to show the true you. A bit introverted, you desire respect and affection from those close to you. You are quite empathetic, and you have a true concern for the well being of others. Many people have warm, heartfelt memories of you - even if you don't remember them well. |
Friday, May 12, 2006
Doesn't time fly when you're ......
having fun? Well, I don't know about that, but time has flown anyway.
Last Sunday we went to see the dance show that Tamsin would have been in but decided not to. I thought she was quite brave as she went to sit on the steps right at the front of the audience, so that she could see properly, while I sat nearer the back. She stayed there for most of the performance too. I enjoyed the dance show, and so did she, and she did say later, "I didn't know it would be so easy." So, next year, she thinks she will want to be in it!
On Monday, Bill was very brave and underwent a Short Procedure to his Manly Bits. No more babies for us. He's therefore been at home all week, recovering, poor thing. On Monday afternoon I tucked Bill into bed with several strong painkillers while the rest of us went off to HE group. It was so nice to see all the different age groups playing together with no difficulty whatsoever. And I made arrangements with a couple of the other mums with similar-aged girls to mine to come over in the next week or two. So that's good!
The rest of the week has proceeded pretty much as normal - work for me on Weds, Thurs and Friday mornings and playschool for Tamsin. We did make a trip to the library on Tuesday and came back with another armful of early readers for Tamsin, which she is making short work of.
Oh, and Isabelle fell asleep at the dinner table this evening!
That's it!
Last Sunday we went to see the dance show that Tamsin would have been in but decided not to. I thought she was quite brave as she went to sit on the steps right at the front of the audience, so that she could see properly, while I sat nearer the back. She stayed there for most of the performance too. I enjoyed the dance show, and so did she, and she did say later, "I didn't know it would be so easy." So, next year, she thinks she will want to be in it!
On Monday, Bill was very brave and underwent a Short Procedure to his Manly Bits. No more babies for us. He's therefore been at home all week, recovering, poor thing. On Monday afternoon I tucked Bill into bed with several strong painkillers while the rest of us went off to HE group. It was so nice to see all the different age groups playing together with no difficulty whatsoever. And I made arrangements with a couple of the other mums with similar-aged girls to mine to come over in the next week or two. So that's good!
The rest of the week has proceeded pretty much as normal - work for me on Weds, Thurs and Friday mornings and playschool for Tamsin. We did make a trip to the library on Tuesday and came back with another armful of early readers for Tamsin, which she is making short work of.
Oh, and Isabelle fell asleep at the dinner table this evening!
That's it!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
"Oh dear"
'Oh Dear' is Isabelle's newest phrase, and a very appropriate one too last night, when I would have blogged but couldn't. Because my new (to me, cheap but legal, if you remember :-) ) computer has been behaving temperamentally, and finally spit the dummy last night when it refused to boot up no matter what we did. So, seeing as there was no computer to use and therefore no point to life at all, I fell asleep with the children and stayed there all evening, and got up this morning to find a rejuvenated computer thanks to my dearly beloved :-) !! There was a faulty memory chip, apparently. I'm so glad I don't have to know any of this stuff myself! In fact, I was having a conversation with Bill in the car the other day, trying to make him aware of how little I know about the basics of computers, like backing-up, etc. He does it all, you see! The conversation was prompted by the news that my Mum (72) has ordered a laptop. She's never used a computer. She hasn't a clue. Bill said I could teach her. That's when I revealed I didn't really have a clue either.
Anyway, we've been away. I had a work conference to go to in Cardiff, and as I am still feeding Isabelle, she had to come. And I didn't fancy trying to look after her while trying to be professional and take part in a conference too, so the whole family came, and Bill did kids' stuff while I conferenced. It was good, it's given me lots of new ideas, and the only problem is it hasn't given me any extra time in which to carry out those good ideas. Ah well. Oh, but I love staying in hotels. So tidy! So clean! It makes me want to come home and throw everything away.
This afternoon, my Mum is coming, bringing back Poppy the dog who's been on holiday with her for a week while we've been at the Beans' party and at the conference. We'll then go off to see the dance show that Tamsin should have been in, but refused. That's OK. Being confident enough to perform in public isn't compulsory, and all I want is for her to enjoy her dancing, and it's saved me an awful lot of time and worry getting costumes together, but it would have been so cute to see her up there on stage. Maybe next year!
Anyway, we've been away. I had a work conference to go to in Cardiff, and as I am still feeding Isabelle, she had to come. And I didn't fancy trying to look after her while trying to be professional and take part in a conference too, so the whole family came, and Bill did kids' stuff while I conferenced. It was good, it's given me lots of new ideas, and the only problem is it hasn't given me any extra time in which to carry out those good ideas. Ah well. Oh, but I love staying in hotels. So tidy! So clean! It makes me want to come home and throw everything away.
This afternoon, my Mum is coming, bringing back Poppy the dog who's been on holiday with her for a week while we've been at the Beans' party and at the conference. We'll then go off to see the dance show that Tamsin should have been in, but refused. That's OK. Being confident enough to perform in public isn't compulsory, and all I want is for her to enjoy her dancing, and it's saved me an awful lot of time and worry getting costumes together, but it would have been so cute to see her up there on stage. Maybe next year!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Catching up
We really enjoyed the party at Chris & Helen's on Saturday! It was good to see everybody again and catch up. I did take pics but haven't downloaded them yet.
Today would have been a good day to do the "home-ed day" photoblog meme but as two interesting things had happened before I had even left the bedroom and found my camera, I thought I had better get more organised and plan in advance to do it another day.
Tamsin went downstairs with Bill while I was still waking up slowly, and came up 15 minutes later bouncing and shouting excitedly that she'd done her first crossword! And indeed she had - in her "Thomas Activity Book" she'd filled in a little crossword with the names of Thomas, Edward, Percy and so on .... - beautifully done! And then while I was trying to get the girls and myself dressed, Isabelle was wandering about naked, and I found her reclining upon a piled-up duvet, thinking, and looking very cherubic - I would have loved to catch that on the camera!
So, apart from that, the day has been full of washing, phone calls, reading, did an Usborne Puzzle Adventure book with Tamsin, receiving and putting away a huge Tesco delivery, e-mails, Tamsin mixed up some flour-and-water 'glue' and then added various other stuff to make a 'cake' - she loves making up these 'recipes' that are inedible! Also My Little Ponies, Fuzzy felt, beads, and other enjoyable pursuits.
Today would have been a good day to do the "home-ed day" photoblog meme but as two interesting things had happened before I had even left the bedroom and found my camera, I thought I had better get more organised and plan in advance to do it another day.
Tamsin went downstairs with Bill while I was still waking up slowly, and came up 15 minutes later bouncing and shouting excitedly that she'd done her first crossword! And indeed she had - in her "Thomas Activity Book" she'd filled in a little crossword with the names of Thomas, Edward, Percy and so on .... - beautifully done! And then while I was trying to get the girls and myself dressed, Isabelle was wandering about naked, and I found her reclining upon a piled-up duvet, thinking, and looking very cherubic - I would have loved to catch that on the camera!
So, apart from that, the day has been full of washing, phone calls, reading, did an Usborne Puzzle Adventure book with Tamsin, receiving and putting away a huge Tesco delivery, e-mails, Tamsin mixed up some flour-and-water 'glue' and then added various other stuff to make a 'cake' - she loves making up these 'recipes' that are inedible! Also My Little Ponies, Fuzzy felt, beads, and other enjoyable pursuits.
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