I simply do not have time ....

..... to educate my children. They're just going to have to do it themselves!

Honestly, I just lose the time to all sorts of stuff and we just don't seem to be getting on with much at all. Yesterday, I was just getting started on an Lent chart (along the lines of this and this) with the girls when the phone rang, and there I was for an hour on the phone to a friend who was feeling rather down. When we finished I just had time to make a quick lunch for Jade, get her changed and rush her off for her afternoon at school.

Today I slept late, as I had a stinking headache, and had just staggered downstairs at about 9.30am when the phone rang, and it was my Mum needing advice about broadband. 55 minutes later I eventually got free and got myself some breakfast, and a second breakfast for Jade and Shannon. What with sorting out food, washing, a couple more vital phone calls and fighting terminal exhaustion we only managed to do a small amount of reading on the human body which Jade requested. I tried to set her up with an old DK CD-Rom on The Amazing Human Body but I couldn't load it on either the desktop or the laptop so that wasted half-an-hour. I eventually found a couple of interactive websites for her, so we heard some narrated clips about the brain and skeleton, built our own skeleton and that was about it. Then it was lunchtime, after which we went out swimming.

Swimming was good, though. Jade is now fairly confident swimming with her arm-bands, so I'll have to start gradually reducing the amount of air in them. She also took them off and swam holding one float in front of her. She was resistant at first because she didn't like how far down she went in the water, but when I showed her that when I did it, the tip of my chin was in the water but no further, she agreed to have another go and did it! Shannon discovered that she can get her feet on the bottom of the pool, so voluntarily let go of me for the first time ever and took a few steps here and there! It won't be long before she realises she can pick her feet up and not sink, and she'll be off with her armbands on too. And Jade actually let me wash and rinse her hair in the shower, which was a major, major achievement!! We've never managed hairwashing without major hysterics before, so I usually don't bother. She gets it wet in the bath and that manages to keep it OK, but I was relieved to give it a good wash for a change.

Anyway, head is still pounding and pizza and chips are just about ready in the oven (yes, terrible food I know but all I could manage feeling the way I do) so must go.

So.....

So, none of you except Helen gives a monkeys that I've been at death's door then Honestly, what does a girl have to do round here to get a little attention, huh? Ah well, at least now I know who my friends are ;-)

For the benefit of the few who are interested, I'll just reassure you all that I am definitely on the mend. I did go to the Dr in the end but he diagnosed pharyngitis which is viral so no antibiotics required for which I was grateful. I did suggest ice-cream, though, so I wasted no time at all in going to the next-door supermarket for a big tub of Ben & Jerry's! And I'm NOT SHARING IT!

On top of all this, on Friday we had the trauma of taking the dog for surgery. She'd had a large lump appear in her groin, and they weren't sure what it was so it had to be removed. She's fine, though - it turned out to be a fatty lump which popped out with no trouble and apart from the 6 stitches to be taken out, she requires no further treatment. Can't say the same about our finances though which are going to need CPR any time now .......

Anyway, as I've mostly been in bed for the past 3 days I can't tell you much about what the girls have been up to, apart from running riot! DH is looking ragged, the house is..... erm.... a tip and Shannon has been distraught about being kept away from me while I've languished in bed so she's particularly clingy. Could somebody send in the cavalry, please?

Thump, pound, thump .... stab, stab, stab

So that would be the thumping and pounding in my head, and the stabbing in my throat .... I don't know if it's tonsillitis or some other sort of 'itis' but it's been accompanied by fever and all-over-body aches.

Fortunately it chose to strike on a Wednesday, when Bill's at home with the girls anyway, so I spent the day in bed - didn't have any choice actually as I couldn't manage vertical. Today there is juggling between grandpa, childminder and friends and Bill coming home early, so though I feel slightly better I should be able to stay in bed today mostly as well. I've broken out the laptop again and am blogging from bed!

Unfortunately it chose to strike when my colleague and I were supposed to be doing workshops about the work of our charity to an NHS Trust in Oxfordshire. I was supposed to be there today, while she had my kids, and she's there tomorrow while I'm supposed to have hers. So I've had to cancel today's, and K's arranged different childcare for tomorrow. Ah well, it's not the end of the world but it's stressful having to cancel something external rather than just a day in the office.

I don't think we've done much specifically educational since I last blogged. We certainly haven't done any more maths or Sonlight stuff. But there has been painting, drawing, sticking, cutting, dancing, reading and the like. We are racing through the series of Boxcar Children books that Katy lent me, which are going down very well with all of us. I have just bought the Story of the World Book 1 and Activity Book, which look fantastic so we'll be getting into that shortly. I looked through the first couple of chapters of the Activity book and reserved some of the 'additional reading' titles from the library so they should come through in a week or two. I don't suppose I'll be organised enough to always plan ahead like that but at least if I manage it sometimes it'll be good!

We did go to the Butterfly Farm in Stratford on Avon with the HE group on Tuesday. The girls and I went on our own about a year ago, and after managing well to start with Jade had not liked the butterflies flapping round her head and we'd cut the visit short. So I was not sure how it would go. She managed well, though, as did Shannon, although there was one particular butterfly that took a great liking to Shannon's hair as a safe place for her babies, and laid 4 eggs in her hair! We had a guide who took us round and did a bit of chat in each bit, and although I don't know what Jade learned, I learned that butterflies taste through their feet! I didn't know that! We saw the caterpillars and the pupae and the emerging from the pupa bit and of course tons of butterflies. It did get a bit much for us all towards the end, though, as although there's no rational reason for it I really didn't like the butterflies in my hair and Jade had had enough, so we came out early and missed the mini-beasts bit, which as far as I'm concerned is not a problem at all. I do not want to encourage my daughters to love spiders and cockroaches!

Last night at about 7pm Shannon surprised me by saying her sister's name properly for the first time! I don't think I'm giving too much away of the real name by saying that Shannon always called Jade "Dandrin", but suddenly last night, she just got it and said it properly! We were all very excited and she repeated it several times, but she's refused to do so this morning. Ah well, she is 2!

Ah, silence. The house is quiet. Nobody here but me. I'm going to sign off and just appreciate it.

It's been quite productive here lately. Yesterday (Monday) we started off with some Miquon Maths - using Cuisenaire rods to play around with all the number-bonds to 5. She can add higher numbers than that but I wanted her to get clear the point that you can write the sums any way round, and that they are all different but equivalent. Then we did her first 'official' recorder lesson - we have a book and we did Lesson 1 (the note B) and today we moved on to A. She did extremely well both days, especially the timing (crotchets and quavers) which she just 'got' instantly. She was mighty pleased with herself! I also read to her the first half of Capyboppy, a novel from Sonlight K which I realised the other day won't be scheduled for us as we are following (or not, as the case may be!) the 4-day programme rather than the 5-day. It really goes without saying that she looked at/read several books during the day too. I don't have to encourage her to do that.

Today we started with crafts. She had pulled out several cards from my '50 things to do on a rainy day' Usborne activity cards, and wanted to do them all, LOL! We partly managed 2 things - a joined-up row of paper hearts, decorated, followed by a princess hat - a tall cone decorated with pink and purple tissue paper and (later) to be decorated with glitter and sequins and tassels. We then did the 2nd recorder lesson (cue more excitement and pride!). I think after that (about noon) I actually persuaded her to get dressed, and then we had lunch. We were out this afternoon at the HE group - just a social/playing get-together with no particular activity or theme today. When we got home she sat down and read the ten Oxford Reading Tree books that we'd borrowed off someone there! So I guess that's literacy covered for today then!

It's funny - when I write stuff down like this it seems much less somehow. I probably forget some stuff, and of course with a 2yo around everything takes an awful lot longer than you expect, but anyway, they've felt like positive and productive days so that's what matters.

Meet George

Say Hi to the quietest member of the family, although I suspect he may not stay long.

Obviously much snowy play has taken place here yesterday and today, although Shannon definitely is not too impressed. She won't walk in the snow at all, insisting on being carried, nor does she want to pick any up.

As well as that, we've had quite a good day. At last (been meaning to get round to it all week) we picked up the Usborne Children's Encyclopedia, had a look at the Solar System pages and then went to the Internet-linked sites. Had a fab time with those, on a virtual tour through the solar system here and also the 'create your own planet' bit of the same website. We then got sidetracked onto all sorts of other websites. We went here but Jade hates timed games so we explored the rest of the site. She (with supervision/help) did a 'which state goes where' puzzle of the USA, virtually polished some gemstones and made them into jewellery, and created a safe path for a bug to get from a mushroom to a flower (!), when all the time I think we were really supposed to be here! Ah well, it won't be the first or last time that a little unplanned wandering pays more dividends than the original plan. All this time Shannon was sitting on my knee and watching transfixed. She mostly does that when Jade is on the computer.

When I needed to go off and get lunch or dinner or something, Jade went on to a Learning Land CD-Rom which again Shannon just watched her doing. Shannon has also played with Fun-Blox, playdough, floam-substitute and done lots of jumping (her current skill-to-be-worked-on-at-all-times), spinning round and round and of course having strops and wailing.

The other thing of utmost significance that I did today was to at last find a home for one of Shannon's big Christmas presents, which I realised I could slot onto a shelf if I turned the existing box on it short-end in instead of longways. It does mean both boxes stick out in front of the shelf somewhat, but they are under a little fold-out table bit which is always out and never down, so it doesn't show that much. Dunno why I never thought of it before! That meant I could at least clear a few more bits of toys and general clutter and clear a space that hadn't been empty since before Christmas. Just to prove it, I vacuumed up several pine needles which I hope will be the last!

I have also (strangely) swept the entire kitchen floor, bleached the sink, cleared and wiped off two work-tops and wiped down the door-seal of my fridge like FlyLady told me to! Phew! No wonder I need an early night.

BTW, just out of general curiosity - anyone else not yet completely unpacked from Melrose?

Melrose

Loved it. Had a really good time. Much easier than last year, as Jade was actually able to leave my side and go off and play quite a bit. And I could even leave both of them in the Playroom while I went and had a nap, one day. Wow! How I longed for that last year! But I'm not in the mood to blog lots about it as I'm too tired by this stage of the day, and I can't blog coherently while the kids are around. So that's yer lot for now.