Ar-war-wot!

I think we may have solved the mystery of Isabelle's favourite utterance. It goes "Mummy?" (questioning tone) "Mummy!" (very demanding) "Ar-war-wot!" She says it many times a day, in all sorts of circumstances. And the only thing I can think of is that she's imitating Tamsin and I ..... Tamsin when she repeatedly says "Mummy? Mummy!" a hundred or more times a day and then I irritably shout "Oh, what?!!!"

It's been Tamsin's turn to be ill the last few days, with a quite high temperature and just wanting to sit around quietly watching TV or having stories read to her. It's a bad cold and sore throat, so it won't last long, but she's been feeing quite rough at times, poor thing. It has led to very disturbed nights for all of us, so Bill and I have been quite shattered and I've fallen asleep early in the evenings, hence no blogging.

Yesterday I was supposed to be helping at the local NCT Nearly New sale, but had to take Isabelle with me so wasn't quite as productive as usual. We did help out, though, and then got the chance for the preview shopping that is the perk of helping and why I do it! I was somewhat surprised when I ended up spending £46, and on thinking more clearly about it when I got home and checking the clothes and stuff I had bought, decided I had been overcharged by about £20. This morning I was checking the labels on the last couple of things I hadn't brought in from the car prior to phoning to complain, and discovered that the two boxes of Playmobil I'd supposedly bought for £1 each (thought it was a bargain!) were actually £10 each!! They're nice but I wouldn't have bought them if I'd realised. Still, I did buy a nice telescope for £3.50 which I am saving for Tamsin's birthday.

Today Tamsin has done pattern blocks, we've made and played with pink, mint-smelling playdough, Playmobil, and lots of CBeebies. She's pottered around in the garden while I have cleared out the old car for Bill as I am going to be driving the Prius now. No church as the girls are not well enough to go. I tried to retire to the sofa with the latest copy of the EO magazine and a bad headache, but demanding children do not allow such things.

I have a long list of urgent and important administrative tasks such as doing the petty cash for work, deferring my student loan for another year, several important Playschool forms to fill in, and telling HM Revenue and Customs that I earn so little from Usborne that I should not be liable for self-employed NI contributions. Quite when I'll get them done I do not know.

From little acorns ......

Autonomous education is going on apace here. I generally feel as though I am failing to provide anything much at all, but fortunately Tamsin is mostly just getting on with it on her own. I mean, I don't get up in the morning with several resources planned and close at hand to tempt her with, or ideas of what we are going to do, but stuff happens anyway, thank goodness!

So this morning we got up in a relatively leisurely fashion after another rough night with Isabelle - she's got a laryngitis sort of thing with high temps often at night and much coughing and hoarseness, so she's been fed at night again a couple of times (well, I can't refuse a poorly sick baby) and is already expecting it more and more ... CBeebies accompanied breakfast as usual but Tamsin also found a Letterland alphabet sounds activity book which she started working through (too easy for her really, but it gave her a little handwriting practice for each letter) and then off we went to the mums' group at church where I and T both stayed in the creche.

I must digress here to comment on the newly-politically-correct version of Letterland. Has anyone else noticed? Fireman Fred has become Firefighter Fred (okay, I can see why they've done that); Hairy Hat Man has become Harry Hat Man, (mustn't comment on personal appearance???); Lucy Lamp Lady has become Lucy Lamp Light (huh?); Naughty Nick has become Noisy Nick (mustn't damage children by labelling them as naughty!!); Poor Peter has become Peter Puppy (erm, too sad for our delicate little children?); Robber Red has become Red Robot (originally a poor role model??); Ticking Tess has become Talking Tess, Vase of Violets is now Vicky Violet, Water Witch is Walter Walrus and Max and Maxine have become Fix-it Max!!! So what is that all about? I think we'll just stick with the originals - I don't see Tamsin having been very traumatised by it so far!

Isabelle fell asleep on the way home and I wasn't feeling too great what with the mastitis etc so I had a lie-down for 20 minutes until she woke herself up coughing and had to be retrieved.

After lunch I felt I had to actually engage with the girls a bit, despite still feeling naff, so I got a big lump of clay out that we were given when we visited friends who own a pottery a few weeks ago. Tamsin was more interested in carrying on with the Letterland activity book, but when I launched in and started making a clay Easter Bunny, she said she wanted to make a horse, so I helped a little with that. I also took a hand-print from Isabelle, although it's not very deep so I don't know how it will cope with drying out. I then provided Isabelle with some 'sensory play' in the form of some gloop, which she wasn't very interested in and merely dipped one finger in, looked at it curiously, offered it to me to suck (I declined!) and went back to trying to grab stuff off Tamsin. So in desperation I gave her a little bowl of uncooked rice and she happily took her time gently sprinkling it over the carpet. Ah well, it kept her quiet for a bit. Then the "whatever one sister has the other one wants" hormone kicked in and Tamsin just wanted to play with the rice, so she decorated her clay horse with it, sprinkled it into the abandoned gloop, and generally entertained herself with it a good deal more than Isabelle had, who by that time had got down and wandered off to other pursuits. I did however squeeze one more educational moment out of the clay by getting Tamsin to press her finger into it next to mine and then giving her the magnifying glass with which to study our fingerprints.

After a bit of miscellaneous playing (Isabelle is loving her stacking cups at the moment) we attempted to visit the Library, only to find it closed due to the strike, so went on to a charity shop instead but found nothing of interest there. We came home and there was one lovely moment while I was in the kitchen making the dinner when I poked my head round the door into the living room to see both Tamsin and Isabelle engrossed in their own respective Usborne books (Farmyard Tales for Tamsin, a touchy-feely one for Isabelle). Tamsin made repeated raids into my Usborne boxes and made a very good stab at reading much of the stuff herself, although she did appreciate it when I looked through the Children's Encyclopedia with her. Looking at the front cover she pointed to the picture of Tutankhamun's mask and said "I want to look at that", so I turned to the Ancient Egypt page and while telling her that it was all very old and happened a long time ago, she said "I want to learn all about everything old!". She wasn't into much of a long attention span at that point of the day, though, and we flipped on through Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Incas, Vikings, Edward VIII, the Victorians, WW2 and the atomic bomb, and then into the "How People Live" section with a brief discussion of different cultures and how they eat different foods, dress differently, decorate themselves in various ways and so on. It's all very much skimming the surface but at least it shows her that all these things are there to be looked at, wondered at and talked about when and if she is ready to.

Isabelle crawled up onto my knee to be fed at about 6.15pm and promptly fell asleep while I was reading "Treasure Island" (Usborne Young Readers edition) to Tamsin, so she was popped straight to bed and then Bill came home just in time to do bedtime stories with Tamsin, so he finished Treasure Island and "Tom Thumb" that he got half-way through with her last night, so I had a nice easy bedtime stage tonight.

Bill has come home with a lovely Dell laptop which is going to be all for me (cheap; perk of the job), and he's currently searching Ebay for a WiFi card so I'll be able to blog in bed soon, yippee!

My beautiful girl

On Saturday, we stopped on the way down to Cornwall to go to the beach, and I just love this pic of a windblown Tamsin. There are some other nice ones too, but it's after midnight and I haven't got time to do all the rest!

So much to blog, so little time...

Tamsin's at playschool, Isabelle has just gone down for a nap, but after two appalling nights with her as she is not very well, I simply must have a quick nap myself before collecting Tamsin, otherwise I will *never* make it till the end of the day, or more importantly, the children may not survive till the end of the day!! A touch of mastitis doesn't help, either.

So we've been down to Cornwall this weekend and got the car! A lovely Toyota Prius, which averaged 56mpg on the way home, so that's a result! It will be interesting to see how it goes round the doors. Bill and I are going to have a battle royal as to who gets the majority use of it, but I am regarding it as *mine*!!! He is distraught at the thought of the mess and dirt that will result from carrying the children in it. Anyway, he's driving it this first week, just for one week, you understand, to check how much money he saves driving to Oxford and back everyday, and then I will have it. Yes, I will.

On the way back, we dropped in on the tworedboots family which was great although I must apologise in public for being 3 hours late, or was it 4? That has to be a record. Partly due to the change to BST, which despite being a relatively intelligent person, befuddles me completely and I struggle to work out what time my body thinks it is, or more importantly, what time the children's bodies think it is. And partly because the car seller changed his mind at the last minute at coming up to St Austell to meet us to hand over the car, and we had to drive down to the back of beyond to collect it. The most beautiful section of the back of beyond, mind you, with the most stunning views from high up on a cliff over a river inlet and their own private beach, but envy isn't becoming so I will stop there.

So I now have half-an-hour before going to collect Tamsin, so it's snooze-time.

Back to HE

Aha, at last it feels like we've done something worth blogging today.

This morning, Tamsin's breakfast viewing request (normally CBeebies) was the Dorling Kindersley video The Human Machine - the second time she's watched it. So much of it must be over her head, but it was interesting that she wanted it and as a result we briefly discussed brains, bones, blood cells and much else of a biological nature.

Unusually she didn't want to go to Playschool, so we stayed in and read books, walked the dog and then I took both girls off to work with me from 11-1pm. I took some Learning Land CD-Roms and Tamsin worked on a couple of them.

This afternoon she has looked at a lot of Usborne 1000 First Words, reading the words round the edge and then spotting the items in the main picture; we have (ta-da!) done our two first Miquon maths sheets although I was rather annoyed when I left her to continue filling in the blanks in a number square while I went to see to the dinner and came back to find she had scribbled over it; she's played with her farm and both girls have spent a fair amount of time outside, Tamsin pretending to be a dog and running on all fours to fetch the ball, and Isabelle toddling about generally and having a few goes on the slide. Tamsin was struggling a bit with writing some of the numbers so I have made her some number cards to have for reference, with a big dot where the writing of the number should start. Just before serving the dinner I put the Cuisenaire rods on the table and suggested that Tamsin should think which rod should go with which number card, and came back to find them totally randomly scattered! I pointed out that she could count the number of squares on the rods, and maybe match them to the numbers like that ....!! She did :-) She has also, as usual, done lots of word-spotting and sounding out all over the place.

When I sit at my computer and think about blogging, there is so much going on and it's all in such a complicated jumble in my mind that I can't think where to start, hence the blank week. Not that any of it is particularly major, but tiredness and too-much-to-do just get on top of me.

On the HE front, Tamsin's reading is still coming along amazingly. We've done another 'Sound of the Week' poster today with the ch/tch sound and she just loves going through those. She's happily reading words which I think are quite complicated and has a good stab at any new ones. I'm very impressed. I have to confess to a fair amount of relief that she's 'keeping up' with one schooled friend, but also pleased that it has been very much at her own pace and only done as and when she's wanted to.

However, a conversation with her Playschool leader yesterday has given me food for thought. She pointed out that it is so difficult to get Tamsin to say anything to the adults at playschool that it's very hard for them to assess her attainment. Now, in one sense, that doesn't matter at all because I know her level of attainment and I know it's perfectly good, if not better than normal, at this stage. But it did highlight this extreme shyness she has with adults in particular, that extends even to those whom she likes and has known for a year or two, or even in one case, all her life. She will not speak to them, even in a setting where she is happy and enjoys going. Even my friend Kate who has looked after Tamsin since 9 months old finds it hard to get her to ask her directly for something. And on Googling last night about it, I find that these symptoms, which approach but do not quite meet the criteria for selective mutism, are signs of anxiety and possibly low self-esteem, and I admit I'm worried about it. If there is a genetic component to such things, then she's a good candidate for having inherited my tendency to anxiety, and of course maternal guilt is only too quick to rise up and fear that I have been over-protective and not built up her self-esteem enough. None of it is comfortable thinking, anyway.

Nevertheless, the muddle in my head is more than matched by the muddle in my house, so I must go and do something.

Woke in a hazy fashion after a rather disturbed night from Isabelle, and while I tried to work out what day it was, I realised I had a nagging feeling that our car insurance ran out yesterday. I was right. So first job of the day was online to a 'screenscraper' service to get about 30 quotes all at once. Managed to save ourselves a creditable £50 p.a. on that premium, which on top of last week's £100 saved on the other car insurance premium is well worth a little time at the computer! I love the internet!

Today has been a day of much repetition. From the time she joined me in the bathroom to watch me shower, right through to bedtime, Isabelle has been singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over and over again all day. Very sweet! Mostly just a recognisable tune, which in itself I think is amazing, plus a few distinguishable syllables. And Tamsin has done pretty much a whole bookful of dot-to-dot puzzles, going back to it again and again until this evening when she got quite a tricky one that went up to 48 and zig-zagged about, she found it difficult, threw the book on the floor and declared she didn't like dot-to-dot (rolls eyes!).

We've also done lots of 'art' ("I am an artist" Tamsin proclaimed yesterday) although our watercolour over wax crayon effort didn't turn out like it did on the telly! But she's painted flowers, sky, sunsets, Jack and the Beanstalk (yesterday), and various abstract works, while Isabelle has mostly painted herself. Yes, I know this needs a photo, but I didn't think to take one, sadly!

Also I bought Tamsin a little packet of little craft pom-pom balls from the Post Office this morning, so while sitting together making 'dandelions' with said pom-poms and pipe-cleaners, I sneaked in a little maths by playing about with 9 little balls and doing the various number-bonds up to 9, with addition and subtraction. Then Isabelle woke up from her nap in the car, and because I was just trying to finish a quick e-mail, I waited a couple of minutes, and surprisingly the calling out for me turned into wailing, so I *ran* out to get her and fell dramatically on the wet concrete path, so I now have spectacular bruising developing on my right hip, leg and arm. At the same point, my Tesco delivery turned up so all in all it was rather a manic 10 minutes or so, but it was nice to catch up with the delivery-person who used to be our milk-delivery lady back when I was pregnant with Benjamin and then all the trauma that followed. She's a very hearty country-woman but lovely with it and we had a nice chat about kids and dogs and chickens and life in general! I fielded the usual question to Tamsin, "Oh, aren't you in school today?" just by saying she'd be going in September, so a bit of a cop-out there but there are some people it's worth trying to debate with and others it isn't, I reckon.

I am having pangs about the absent chickens every time I open the back door or gate, but I guess I will get used to them being gone soon, and I certainly am looking forward to not stepping in chicken-shit everywhere I go.

Tonight I have done a little sorting-out of papers and finances (much more still to be done on both fronts) but at least it feels like a little progress has been made. And I can see some of the wooden bits of my desk, not just a sea of papers! Very rare.

The chickens have flown ....

Well, one did, as we tried to catch her to be taken away by my hairdresser's mother at 9am this morning. But she came back later, fortunately, though it is sad that they have now all gone. Mostly because they would not stay in their corner of the garden and there is chicken-poo everywhere, and with Spring coming the girls will want to be running about out there. Slight nerves about bird-flu too, though. Will hope to get some more chickens when we can afford to put up 9' high fences to keep them in!!

I'm feeling very frugal at the moment as I have just done an online Tesco order and found a code to get £10 off, and have ordered some clubcard Deals tokens to pay for various meals and sight-seeing tickets for our trip to London in June. I've sold my Amby baby hammock on Ebay this weekend, plus a bundle of baby clothes, so that'll be over £100 to pay off the credit card.

The girls have been happy and lively this weekend, which is more than can be said for their parents as Isabelle has had somewhat disturbed nights and I have ended up feeding her just once during each of the past two nights, to stop her waking and crying every 5 minutes for what felt like an hour or more. I'm determined not to feed here more than once per night, though, and hope this stage passes and she starts to sleep right through.

Plenty of HE has been going on of the reading, painting and Hama beading variety but I can't remember enough detail to blog it.

Catch y'all later.

Mmmmm, Snickerdoodles

Katy, you've got a lot to answer for. Made a batch yesterday and, erm, they're all gone.

Feeling rather sick about finances atm as I have had to find a childminder for Isabelle, and assumed I could claim on Tax Credits for 70% of the cost and now find I can't. Shit.

I did well at the charity shop today, with a few educational books (mostly 50-75p each) plus a cardigan for myself, then we've been to the library for more books and got a package from Bookstart with yet more books. So it's a good job I organised the HE bookshelf yesterday and put everything into subject order, so I know where to put them!

Not much to report

Bill was off sick yesterday with some vague bug and I've got it today. Nausea, fatigue, light-headedness, aching ... and all this on a day when I was driving to near Abingdon to meet my Mum. She's offered to have the dog for a week or so, and we often meet at a mid-way point to do the changeover. Anyway it all went a bit pear-shaped and I ended up dropping in on Bill at work in Oxford, he drove us all to meet Mum and then brought us all home again whereupon I went to bed. Tamsin did impress her Granny with her reading though.

Isabelle is night-weaned (again)! Like last time, she's not particularly sleeping much better yet although she does go for a longer stretch before waking for the first time. She's still waking and complaining a bit a few times during the night, though usually settles after a while. I think my next step needs to be to give her a bedtime feed downstairs, or otherwise not so close to going to sleep, so that she doesn't connect the two at all.

Apart from that, she is just heart-meltingly cute at the moment, especially when she puckers up for a kiss ...aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!

Learning all the time

HE seems to be really flying at the moment, without any planning or organisation by me! Tamsin is very keen on reading, and every time we pick up a book she is reading as much of it as possible, and picking out words or phrases that we read to her and checking out what they look like. We're doing almost no maths, but I'm happy that that will come in time. At the moment, she just wants to read and is concentrating nearly all her efforts on that. She even read the first 3 paragraphs of her bedtime story this evening with minimal help.

She's also asking for lots of books to be read to her. So this weekend we've read the first couple of pages of "What's Under the Sea?", "Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature" all about Spring and started on Summer, "New Toes for Tia", "Letterland Maps Activity Book", more Flip Flap Body Book about how babies are made, plus some stories. Some of you will spot there is much of Sonlight Pre-K in here; I haven't been systematic about doing Sonlight consistently at all, but the box of books is in the living room and we dip into it intermittently. I would like to be more consistent with it, but knowing me I probably won't. I have left the Guide booklet out, though, to try and prompt me to do more this week. Even if I don't, it's all going very well autonomously, so perhaps I shouldn't interfere with the process!

Yesterday morning we visited the school she will go to just 1-2 days per week in September. She enjoyed playing with the doll's house, and then read about 3 of the Oxford Reading Tree books which were out on display. We also browsed through their maths resources (Heinemann) and she had a play on a computer game (educational of course!) that was set up. She met a girl who will be in Yr 1 next year, so knows one classmate's face and name at least. I was struck by how the other parents I talked to didn't just like this school, they totally raved about it and adored it. I definitely don't want to send Tamsin full-time - I can just see so many reasons not to - but I am glad she will get the chance to be there a little of the time.

Today we've spent quite a bit of time outside. I washed the car again as I am fed up of getting dirty trouser legs all the time, and then did a bit more vegetable patch digging. It's horribly hard work - I do wish I could afford to hire a rotovator but it's just way too expensive - but I suspect I will be extremely proud of myself when it's done! Isabelle just loves tootling about outside and frequently wanders round in any state of undress she happens to be in when I pop out to get the washing in or feed the chickens. So she had a lovely time all wrapped up in her thick winter suit-thingy just wandering round and watching what we were all doing. Tamsin helped me with the digging using a trowel, but quickly moved on to making a hole for the ants to live in!

I've made a decision which I think might save me a great deal of time and hopefully some money too. Now that we have taken out this loan to buy the car, things are going to be even tighter than before and we have no slack in the system for buying luxuries like upgrading computer bits (Bill, please note!!!), fancy shoes or books. Uh, hang on a minute, books are essentials, aren't they? Like air and water? Anyway, I have decided to give up reading catalogues!! No more Book People, Boden or Lakeland. And definitely no Rainbow Resources! And no browsing Argos or Amazon websites either. If I don't see it, I won't miss it, and I won't long for it. So there. Does that count as my Lenten self-deprivation? Even though it will have to last for 5 years?

Oh what a beautiful morning!

I'm full of the joys of Spring, here, which is strange considering the broken night's sleep we've all had. Isabelle was intermittently very unhappy at not being fed all night, and Bill did sterling work soothing and comforting her. When it was light-ish at 6.30am I fed her, but she never went back to sleep after that, and neither did Tamsin and I.

However, we've had a really lovely morning so far. Normally so early on a Saturday morning I'd veg in front of the computer while the kids vegged in front of the TV, but today we didn't get onto either till now (9.45am). I've tidied and scrubbed the kitchen so now it is vaguely respectable again. We've eaten a healthy breakfast of porridge with mashed banana, during which we read more of the Flip Flap Body Book, all about what happens to your food. I've had a shower and got dressed, and then we've come downstairs again with one of Tamsin's word puzzles which she's spent ages on. They're little mini-jigsaws of animals with a letter on each piece to spell the animal's name. She told me which one she wanted to do next and I got her to tell me which letters she needed to spell the words. When they were all made, she told a fantastic story about all of them, broke off in the middle into a complicated version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and then continued the story. I only wish I'd been able to write it down or otherwise record it, but I was feeding Isabelle at the time. It's just been so not an activity or lesson that could have been pre-planned, but it was a beautiful demonstration of literacy and imagination all in together.

Soon we're going out for an Open Morning at the school that Tamsin will be attending 1-2 days per week in September. They're threatened either with closure or 'federating' with another school a few miles away, so they're drumming up public support in advance of the public meetings to be held over the next couple of weeks. After that we'll go to Tesco, and then to the library! And then I'll go to bed while Bill takes over!

Today's chocolate biscuit count = 10

Hmmm, not so good then. Perhaps due to stress...... 'cos we've just bought a car off Ebay. So now we can be really eco-friendly (well, maybe just a bit) with our hybrid electric/petrol car. Can't wait to get it, but hyperventilating a bit about taking out the loan......

Apart from that, we've done lots of reading this afternoon. (This morning was work/playschool). My Usborne order which I placed on Wednesday morning arrived this morning! Very impressed, I was. So we've read the Flip Flap Body Book, Night-Time (all about animals that are out at night), On The Farm, Going to School (!) and she helped me read the Farmyard Tales 'Camping Out'. At bedtime we've read the Letterland ABC from front to back and spent ages, together with Bill, spotting all the objects in the pictures that start with the appropriate letter.

Tonight we're going to try and resist Isabelle's calls for night-time feeding, and Bill's going to do his excellent baby-comforting routine. Fingers crossed!

Split personality

I've been having this inner conversation with myself the past couple of days. "Two days! That's hopeless. I should have done better than that." Or, on the other hand: "Two days! That was really tough going, and I did really well! Managing not to eat any biscuits, cakes or other sweet stuff for two whole days. Wahay!!"

Yeah, day 3 I caved, but at least I still only had 2 choc biccies that day, instead of my normal 10. I reckon if I hold myself to only 1 or 2 per day, that's not too bad! I've been snacking on dried fruit and nuts, bananas and cereal instead.

I've been feeling a bit of split personality about Tamsin today, too. I've been seriously unimpressed with her treatment of her best friend from playschool, Shelley, who came over this afternoon to play. Tamsin was quite horrible 2 or 3 times, and made Shelley cry, and I had to talk very seriously to her about her behaviour. On the other hand, her reading this evening has seriously impressed both Bill and I again. She's been working out words like 'loving', 'difficult' 'clean', 'remember' 'Prime Minister' 'growing' without any help and words like 'important', 'healthy' and 'should' with only slight help.

In 'other news', the house is out of control again, I've fallen off the FlyLady wagon, I can't decide what to do with the chickens and money is disappearing scarily fast. Where's that bottle of Baileys?

Lent comes early

If I blog this, it might help me to stick to it, as I'll have all you lot to answer to as well.

I was quite horrified at myself the other day scarfing an entire pack of caramel chocolate digestives, although my choccy biccy habit has been quite substantial for a long time. The next day I picked up a copy of "You are what you eat" by Gillian McKeith in a charity shop, and browsed through it in the evening. Now, in true FlyLady babystep mode, I cannot promise to give up chocolate biscuits, cake and the like forever, but I obviously have a serious sugar habit that needs to be taken in hand as much as possible, so I am taking it 'one day at a time'. I have stocked up on bananas, apples, and dried fruit and nuts and am shunning the 'baddies'. Let's just see how it goes. The temptation is very powerful.

Not a great deal happening educationally - well, it is the weekend. I did spot Tamsin going through the phonics 'folder' thing (that we brought to Melrose) with Daddy yesterday for quite a long time. She's played with Brio train track, and we started this morning with a go at the Egyptian Hieroglyphs game. She had a lesson in how to deal with social embarrassment when I popped into Budgens on the way home from church, bought £28 worth of stuff, opened my purse to pay and found my debit card not there. Hmmm. There isn't enough money in my personal account to cover that amount and I don't know the PIN numbers of the other cards. I can't write a cheque because I still need the appropriate card. I rummaged deeper in my bag and found another cheque book for which I did have the appropriate card. There isn't enough money in that account either but at least with a cheque I have a couple of days to transfer something into it! Actually, I didn't feel particularly embarrassed because these things happen to everyone now and then, but it was an interesting moment or two!

I'm trying to blog but 'The most embarrassing things about the 1980s' programme (or whatever it's called) is seriously addling my brain and I can't think straight - ah, memories..... Let's not go there ... the emotional torments of my late teens and twenties are not worth remembering too much.

Anyway, today I've had my grown-up head on in order to interview candidates for a vacancy at Playschool, and as Chair it was my job this afternoon to phone the successful (nice call) and unsuccessful (hmmmm) candidates. Anyway, it's all done now and we have a lovely new shiny Assistant starting on Monday morning.

This afternoon I dodged the girls while I made the necessary phone calls, but made up for it later by doing a new 'Sound of the Week' poster (on request from Tamsin) covering the ay/ai/ei sound, she's done a beautiful picture of someone walking in the dark in the rain, she's played with Isabelle, built wooden brick houses for Mr Small, Mr Happy and Mr Tall and watched the DK "Human Machine" video. To top it all, among her bedtime stories was "St George and the Dragon" to fit nicely into our low-key United Kingdom project which is ticking along in the background, along with the butterfly one. In the meantime, I seem to have eaten, erm, an entire pack of Caramel chocolate biscuits ..... oops!

ETA - forgot about the face painting! Tamsin wanted to paint me, so all afternoon I've had orange cheeks, a black nose, a green and yellow forehead, one blue ear and one orange ear. I returned the favour and she was a butterfly with orange wings on her cheeks and black feelers on her forehead.

And yes, I am feeling better, thank you!

I'm stuffed.

Stuffed up with a cold, that is. Today has felt like wading chest-high through treacle. And even though I managed about an hour's sleep this afternoon while Isabelle napped and Tamsin watched Mary Poppins, I feel like I could go straight to bed now, but I won't 'cos that's what I did last night. Humph. I hate losing my evenings.

Anyway, despite that we've done quite a bit of reading practice. It is pretty much all child-led, as Tamsin is just totally enjoying decoding words now. Several times each day she is picking up books and either trying to read them herself, or asking me to read her a story but then constantly pointing to words she can read, repeating phrases after me while studying them carefully, or choosing phrases she wants to read while I read the rest. It is all going in at exactly her own speed and she is making steady but sure progress. I explain phonics rules and exceptions to them as and when we come across them, for example this morning I was showing her how 'oo' could be pronounced as in 'kangaroo' or as in 'book'. I am really enjoying going through this process with her, and seeing how it all develops. How sad it would be to have delegated this to a school!

We've also covered socialising, by looking after a friend's 2-year old this morning, who Tamsin gets on very well with, and art/craft by doing some glass painting this afternoon.

I keep meaning to record, mostly just for my own benefit, Isabelle's speech at the moment. It is very limited, but so far she can clearly say 'Mama' (apparently aimed at anybody she loves!), see-saw, ta, 'peeeee' for Poppy (the dog), and shush. I also think she was saying 'down' this evening when she wanted to get out of her high-chair, and for the past week or so she's sounded for all the world like she's counting 'five, six, seven, eight...' although I can hardly believe it can be so. Bill has noticed it too.

It's blooming hard work, this motherhood thing, but I love it!

Green fingers?

I can feel a whole new persona coming on, triggered off by Kris and her garden plan. Get this: I, Joanna, the woman with garden weeds past knee-height for the majority of the year, read gardening books off my SIL's shelf on Thursday evening and Friday morning, pulled gardening books off my own shelf on Friday evening, and have been OUT in the garden TODAY (in February, for heaven's sake!) and started digging a vegetable plot! I have also been to the Garden Centre, bought seed potatoes, pea seeds and compost, and have planted up some previously purchased tomato, strawberry and carrot seeds. Arrrghhh!! What is happening to me!!!???

Apart from that, it's been a very quiet and laid-back weekend. Isabelle's cough/cold has got worse and she was running a high temperature overnight, so we didn't go to church today. Tamsin has CBeebied and Nick Jr'd while I caught up on blogs and e-mail; we've played games, been food shopping, unpacked (mostly), done some baking (Snickerdoodles!) and generally just taken it fairly easy. It's nice to be home.

That was the week that was!

Back home from Melrose and as per usual last night I fell asleep while putting the girls to bed, albeit it was around 10pm as they had napped in the car, so no blogging last night.

In summary, we had a good week and I really enjoyed it, despite everything! And I have to say that that is a bit of a personal milestone for me as a confirmed emetophobic with a deep horror of all things vomit-related. In past times in such circumstances I would have been an anxious crying wreck and bailed out at the earliest opportunity as soon as I heard of the first D&Ver, (or in fact would never have booked in the first place after the tales of last year) but thanks to the wonders of modern psychopharmacology (aka a small dose of SSRIs) my phobic tendencies are minimised and I coped with it beautifully, I reckon!!!

The week started in a great way Stepping Off the Path at J&J's, which was a first for us and I was suitably impressed with the location, location, location. Tamsin was scared we would fall down the hill as we drove over the moors, and I was very glad I wasn't doing it in the dark. On arrival Tamsin immediately went off and played with C and M which was lovely to witness as she does have a tendency to cling to me in new places and with new people.

On Sunday I left J&J still packing while we made our fairly leisurely way up the country. We had 2 stops on the way and arrived at the Youth Hostel around 5.30pm, and all settled in happily, Tamsin being absolutely delighted to claim both top bunks as her personal space. If I remember correctly she seemed to do extremely well that first evening with going off and running about with various other girls, which makes me wonder why it became so much harder later in the week. Isabelle of course was delighted to toddle around contentedly and especially enjoyed communing with her triplet sisters from time to time.

After 2 full days of travelling Monday was a quiet day mostly in the Youth Hostel with a brisk walk into Melrose town and a visit to the Roman Trimontium exhibition, which I found educational at least, and I think Tamsin did too. I decided to postpone a walk round the Abbey till it was better weather and not raining, but as that never happened it will have to wait till a future opportunity.

By Tuesday and Wednesday Tamsin was refusing to go off and play with anyone else if it meant going away from me. She was extremely happy playing with SB and Becca especially and has declared that Becca is her best friend and she loves her :-) but nevertheless refused to leave my side most of the time. By Wednesday afternoon this was driving me to insanity, not helped by 2 or 3 nights of pretty poor sleep due to much bed-hopping between Tamsin and Isabelle's beds, and after an altercation where she kept hitting me because she wanted to sit on my knee and I said no (after having had her sitting there for a good 30 minutes already) she was dragged to the stairs for a time out and I returned to the dining room and burst into tears. Three cheers and a gold medal must be awarded to Barbara, who dispensed hugs and tea, and then took Isabelle and Tamsin off into the Common Room and probably stood with her back to the door to refuse to allow Tamsin to come and find me until I'd had some peace and quiet for an hour or two. You're a star, Barbara, and I owe you big time! Especially as she then repeated her fabulous child-kidnapping act the following day when Tamsin had to be prised off me while I was trying to rest in bed fighting off severe nausea having caught a touch of the stomach bug that was doing the rounds.

Towards the end of that day (Thursday) Barbara told me they wanted to leave because R was ill but she was only considering staying to help me out (see - told you she was a star!) so we hatched a plan that she would help me drive to Bill's sister's house that evening, but in the event, by the evening I was feeling much better and was quite fit to drive myself. So it was an early finish to the week for us but I am quite glad now as it gives us the whole weekend to unpack, sort out and generally return to normal while the girls maximise their Daddy time to make up for the past week.

The nausea returned in full-force as I drove south from my SIL's place, to the extent that I prepared towels next to me on the seat and had a pretty rough time at one stage when the feeling was at its height just while I was driving through roadworks and all the lay-bys were blocked off but thank heaven for some reason it all subsided and I managed to drive home, albeit with three longish stops, and arrived here around 7pm on Friday. In fact one of the stops was a bit expensive (but I won't say exactly how much because Bill will read this) because I stopped off at Meadowhall, never having been there before but thinking it would probably have a children's play area, and entered through Next and a bit of impulse-shopping later and my bank balance was noticeably lighter, but anyway, kids need clothes, don't they?!

My highlights of the week:
- Making and strengthening relationships, long chats with Leandra (very warm and funny woman!) and Kris's vegetable-plot planning session;
- Barbara - 'nuff said!
- Watching Tamsin play and giggle with lots of girls, and listening to their play-time conversations as they all gathered in our room;
- Watching Isabelle just toddle around contentedly like the gorgeous girl she is;
- The great food!
- Tamsin counting past 30 for the first time, and reaching all the way to 112, with only a little help!
- Quote from Tamsin on the drive home - "We're *starving* for Daddy, aren't we?"

It only remains for me to unpack the car (yes, still!), and insist that Bill comes with me next year, and we'll be all set!

I wonder how long it will be:

... before this happens here? We have been discussing the dilemma of what to do if bird flu comes to the UK. I would be very sad, but I think we would have to get rid of the chickens - I have already lost one of my children and I'm not prepared to gamble with the lives of any more for the sake of some chickens, no matter how enjoyable they are to have in the garden.

So 'bird flu' has been part of the educational conversations we have been having with Tamsin in the past couple of days. Other stuff has included reading "The wonderful way babies are made" at bedtime tonight, some CBeebies website games, some lovely painting this afternoon, and ..... er..... complete mind blank about everything else, although I know there has been more.

I am too tired again to think clearly about the past couple of days. Blurgh.

Miracles do happen!

Bill hates London. He said to my nephew a couple of weeks ago that he'd really rather never set foot in London again for the rest of his life. Tamsin loves London. She wants to go to the Science Museum again, and to the Natural History Museum, and the Tower of London, and see Buckingham Palace (but she doesn't want to see the Queen!). She really wants to go for her birthday treat (in June). The odds of fulfilling this dream were not looking good.

But, somehow, Bill seemed to think it was a good idea. And agreed.

And then, I got a £10 per night Travelodge booking, on the M4 near Heathrow admittedly, but even so, £10 ......!

So Tamsin will get her dream birthday! Amazing!

Probably fairly true!

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone. Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people. Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run. No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way. You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle. Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings. A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning. You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

I've had a relatively 'child-lite' day today as I worked this morning, so Tamsin went to playschool and Isabelle was looked after by Grandpa (my Dad) as is the case every Thursday. I left work at 1pm, came home for lunch and a play with the girls, and then out again at 2.30pm as Kate and I were doing a talk to the Women's Institute about our work in the Time Bank. It went well :-) I'm not good enough to earn money as an after-dinner speaker or anything, but I can do a 45-min presentation to the local WI ;-) (youngest member aged 71....).

I was home again about 4pm so my Dad left and I went into the kitchen to decide what to make for dinner. I switched CBeebies on for Tamsin and we caught a snatch of Balamory featuring a lovely chocolate cake. "I want to make a chocolate cake", said Tamsin, and despite it being 4.20pm and nothing yet for tea I thought, "Why not?" and launched forth. So we now have a yummy chocolate cake, and the girls had the warmed-up remains of yesterday's home-made quiche for dinner! At least, Tamsin did. I can't remember a single morsel of solid food passing Isabelle's lips today, despite my best attempts to tempt her with all sorts of things. Ah well, she's certainly not wasting away!

I did notice by about 5pm how very significantly less tired I was than when I have been with the girls all day!

I only have one thing to report educationally and that is I noticed what a beautiful pen grip Isabelle has! Yes, she has a perfect 3-finger hold, to contrast with Tamsin's 4-finger preference. Isabelle has added "bee-beep" to her vocabulary, when pressing her nose, as well as the original "shush" addressed to Poppy the dog. I also noticed, a little sadly, that we no longer see that idiosyncratic crawl any more - she is truly a walking toddler.

Sleeping late

Hmm, dosing the children up with various medications had mixed results during the night. Tixylix dealt with Tamsin's cough very well, but Medised didn't completely do the trick for Isabelle and she was still wakeful and stuffy-nosed for quite a time. And someone forgot to set the Teasmade alarm properly, so we all overslept again!

Anyway, Tamsin decided she didn't feel well enough to go to Playschool, which is a good enough decider for me! Isabelle was still very snotty and clingy too, so I phoned around, cancelled work, cancelled playschool, cancelled meeting a friend to deliver my birthpool to her and cancelled the babysitter for Isabelle, and we all settled in at home for the morning. As usual, though, however ill my kids are during the night, they behave as if in the rudest of health during the day and refuse to take things quietly. Lots of bouncing, running, pretending and shouting ensued as normal. But while they bounced noisily on the bed, I cleaned the insides of some windows. This is not, however, another step towards domestic goddess-ness but just an attempt to be able to see out of windows that haven't been touched in far too long.

I normally hate playing 'pretending' games with Tamsin and cut them as short as possible, but then she suggested one which I loved! "Pretend you're the girl, and I'm the Mummy, and it's your bedtime," she said. Aha, time for me to get my revenge! "Mum", I shouted, every 2 minutes, "I need a drink/cuddle/nose wipe/toy/wee .....". She called my bluff, though, when I 'got out of bed' and went to her and said "I don't want to go to bed, can I stay with you?" "Yes," she said. "I'm never going to go to sleep again," I said. "Okay", she said! Right, so she doesn't know my script off-by-heart then!

Anyway, time to get down to some work. We went downstairs and, following our UK theme, drew and coloured a UK flag. Not wanting to overdo things though, after that I put on some music for a dancing break, lunch and a bit of CBeebies. After taking Isabelle out in the buggy and failing to get her to sleep, a quick car-ride did the trick and while she slept, Tamsin and I read through her newest Dora magazine, the February and March pages of "A Year at Maple Hill Farm" (Sonlight Pre-K book) and then Tamsin read me the first 6 Bob books. She did really well!

Isabelle woke, then we just did loads of playing, washing folding, dinner making and other misc stuff. We ended on a moral high note, though, by reading several stories from "The Children's Book of Virtues" (another Sonlight book) at bedtime. Hope they sink in and permeate her dreams!

Yesterday and today have felt fairly productive. I've been feeling a bit fed-up of being very aimless in our HE, although that is partly to do with a definite lean towards the "better late than early" school of thought. Anyway, I decided to put together a vague topic or two and as the subject of butterflies came up over the weekend, I decided that could be one of them. So after Tamsin was at playschool yesterday morning during which I vacuumed, tidied, dog-walked and napped (following a terrible night's sleep due to Isabelle's emerging cold), off we went to the Butterfly Farm at Stratford-on-Avon. I wasn't sure how Tamsin would cope with the fluttering round her head, but she was really excited and amazed to start with. She excitedly spotted all the different coloured ones she could find and went up to look at them close-up feeding on fruit, and we tried to compare them with the identification sheet we'd bought, although we largely failed to be certain about any of them. We talked about the proboscis and how a butterfly feeds. After wandering round for only about 5 or 10 minutes, though she started to get twitchy about them fluttering round her head, and after a large butterfly landed on my chest and stayed for a minute or so she became largely undone. We made a quick exit into the caterpillar room and studied some pupae for a while (although didn't see any caterpillars) but she was quite anxious still and we left fairly shortly afterwards, only just escaping before she got hysterical. She calmed down quickly once we were in the shop and after buying a lollipop and a cut-out butterfly model book we left.

I still have a few vouchers from Christmas, so we walked over the river into town to see if I could spend anything, but it's just too distracting with 2 small children so I gave up and we came home.

In the evening when the girls were in bed I did some planning and I have a list of activities and ideas on the butterfly theme to pursue over the next couple of weeks.

After another appalling night's sleep - Tamsin came into our bed around 2am and spent the next hour or so coughing, (so Bill made a sharp exit to sleep in Tamsin's bed!) and then not long after she eventually fell asleep, Isabelle woke all stuffed up and hot and was very restless and unsettled from then on - we all slept late this morning but I did remember to check out Class TV for about 10 minutes this morning so we watched a little about the 'ar' sound and about adding up 3 numbers.

Then we went off to our church group and as usual had a good time there with the kids in creche while us mums had some adult time. Isabelle fell asleep on the way home so over lunch Tamsin and I read through a book we had out of the library about the United Kingdom. After seeing an idea on a website somewhere I'd had the thought of doing a 'Country of the week/month' idea and had ordered some library books to start with the UK. So both at lunchtime and again at bedtime we've looked through the 2 books we borrowed and talked about the United Kingdom and how it is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; what an island is; what a capital city is and that London is ours; about the Government, voting, the 3 main political parties and the Queen; and Beefeaters/the Tower of London/the London Underground/farming/ship-building and about cities, towns and the countryside. Phew!

We've also been to look at a freecycled sofa but decided to decline due to the (not previously mentioned) holes in the back cushions and it belonging to a smoker (yuck!), and received in the post an Usborne order, an Amazon order and a parcel for Tamsin from Granny. I have cleaned the toilet more thoroughly than it's been done for a year or two, made a wholesome and tasty dinner and processed about 3 loads of washing.

Just before dinner I was thrilled to re-acquaint myself with Oprah now showing on ITV2 - I have so missed that programme!! And while I watched, Tamsin did a Hama butterfly, which reminds me I must go and iron it. I must also familiarise myself with the new Usborne catalogue and think about how to drum up some sales parties, and finish Ebaying the current batch of baby clothes.

Well, it hasn't been a bad sort of a day, considering the start it had. It's not good when you check the bank balance first thing, and find you're hundreds of pounds overdrawn ... :-( So that would be why my Switch card was rejected at the supermarket yesterday then .... I guess that's what comes of trying to do Christmas without putting anything on the credit cards. So after a swift bit of account juggling and balance transferring, off we went to church. After another stonking good sermon from Phil, I was ready for anything so after lunch I took the girls up to the park which was just re-opened with all brand-new fab play equipment! It was extremely muddy and very busy, with a goodly proportion of Moreton's kids there to try it out for the first time, but Tamsin and Isabelle had a good time anyway.








Yes, I know it looks deserted but I was being careful not to photograph other people's kids to publish to the internet.

Back home and after sandwiches all round I spent 2 hours listing 2 items on Ebay (rolls eyes) but the more I do the quicker I'm getting so I'm keeping at it this evening. Just baby clothes, though - nothing for you lot to get excited about. But we've got to pay off that overdraft somehow!

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

But I don't know which one I got wrong! Probably the electrical charge of a neuron. What is it Helen?

Flexi-life

Last night was the 3rd time this week I fell asleep around 7pm putting the girls to bed and just stayed there - I have been *so* exhausted by the end of the day. I seem to be running so fast just to stand still, and trying to keep up with things and so conscious that I am doing so little productive or educational with Tamsin what with work and everything else going on and I am eating too much junk (cakes, biscuits etc) that I'm probably not properly fuelled and I am just knackered! So not much blogging or anything else. Actually I remember now it's a pattern I've had for a long time - either running on overdrive or sitting around doing almost nothing. I prefer the active feeling but I hate losing my evenings to sleep.

Anyway, you'll be wanting to know about the flexi-schooling meeting with the Headteacher :-) ! It was great. They're all in favour. They (being the Class 1 teacher and the Head) understand the attraction of HE, have experience of part-time children although for health reasons in the past, say there shouldn't be any trouble with T feeling the odd-one-out, have no hidden agenda to get her in there full-time, and generally think it's a great idea! They have music/dance/drama on a Monday afternoon, and swimming or other sports on a Friday morning, so they'll be 2 definite sessions she can go to, and we'll see about one or two other sessions when the timetable is clearer for September. They showed us round the classroom again and talked about the kind of things they do and the approach they take, and like I said before it's so like HE there I hardly know why I don't just send her full-time. I forgot to ask how many they expect in Year 1 in September but it's likely to be about 5 or 6, they like child-centred education following the children's interests, they try to go out for a walk round the village everyday looking at different things, they have other regular outings etc. So apart from the fact that I *want* to be doing the learning stuff with Tamsin myself, and that I feel full-time school is just too much time for a child to be out of the house, especially at this age, I would thoroughly recommend it as a lovely school. This school however has just been recommended for *closure* in 2008, can you believe it! The proposal is being considered by the County Council on Feb 1st. So Tamsin may only get a couple of years there but never mind, we can revert to f/t HE if necessary then, as long as I can find some way of earning money that doesn't mean me going out to work. I think I shall try harder with Usborne.

The news in brief

We're going to talk to the Acting Head of the local school next Wednesday to talk about flexi-schooling. I'm worried about the various downsides of this course of action, like Tamsin being the odd-one-out when she's there, and feeling like she's left out of stuff, and of course the whole National ~Curriculum/LEA thing, but I still can't think of a better solution given our current circumstances, i.e. I have to go to work 3 mornings a week, and we can't afford for me to give it up.

I've been to the dentist today to have a renovation of a veneered front tooth, so now I have a nicer smile but it's cost £97, and on top of the £400 bill we've had for the car this week it's all a bit scary financially.

I've been forgetting to blog about how Isabelle's sleep has deteriorated again ... mostly because sometime over Christmas I started feeding her at night again (she never did get to the stage of sleeping through and she would sometimes wake and make a hell of a racket so I gave in and fed her just to shut her up quickly) and now she is waking at least every 2 hours to feed and she's making me very sore in the process. We'll have to do the cold-turkey thing again I think.

My house is still tidy :-) (relatively speaking - compared with before Monday!). Suddenly it's so easy to put the toys away at the end of the day, now I know where they all go. I knew that's what I needed!! I just couldn't seem to get it done myself. Hooray for good friends!

Clearing space

Today's been good. It feels like great progress has been made. My lovely women friends from church came round and *sorted me out*!!! I now have an organised toy cupboard, with boxes and baskets all sorted out, two large boxes of stuff have gone to the charity shop and two overly-large armchairs and an old large TV have been collected by Freecyclers. We now have some space, some clear surfaces, and a plan as to what to do with the rest. It took 4 of us 2.5 hours to get as far as we did, with plenty more still to do. I'm itching to get it *all done* but I guess that will be a while yet as it will be slower from now on, but at least I can see a way.

The other recent kind-of 'big news' is that I have finally written a letter to the lovely small village school 3 miles away asking whether we could flexi-school Tamsin. In September she won't be able to go to playschool any more, and I still have to work 3 mornings a week! I wish it didn't mean having to cover the National Curriculum, and being known to the LEA, but I think there are other advantages (music, sport, friends) to be gained from it apart from the childcare aspect! Anyway, the school is in a precarious position at the moment having been recommended for closure in 2008 - the County Council will meet in a couple of weeks' time to consider the recommendation. And the long-standing headteacher retired at the end of last term and there is an acting Head in place, who may not feel in a good position to do anything as radical as take on a flexi-time pupil, but OTOH maybe they really need their numbers up any way they can. We shall see.

Today we have:

- Been up to church for the women's group and had a great time. Making plans for next Monday when they're all coming round to 'sort me out'!! a.k.a. declutter and sort.
- Vacuumed the living room
- Washed the kitchen floor (and now it's all muddy again)
- Done 2 loads of washing
- Cleaned the bathroom sink
- Cleaned Tamsin's (shockingly dirty) windowsill and windowframe
- Cleaned doorframes upstairs
- Removed clouds of cobwebs from kitchen ceiling
- Done a bit more reading lessons of sounds 'a-e' 'o-e' and 'u-e', 'igh' and 'oa'. I'm not particularly expecting she will remember these from now on, or that they're totally 'done' in any sense, but she is keen now and very interested in words and reading so I'm just going with it as far as she wants each session.
- Been to the library and come back with stacks of books and read about 2/3 of them.
- Watched nervously as Isabelle has taken to the hammer and ball toy with great ferocity!
- Watched and choreographed Tamsin's ballet/dancing round the living room.

Very briefly...

...as I am very tired and about to go to bed:

I was on playschool parent's rota this morning and it was very busy, so was very tired afterwards. Isabelle had a fab time toddling about with the 'big' kids and was particularly excited by being set free in the big playroom - she's never had so much room to walk and she really enjoyed herself! She hasn't said any words at all since last Wednesday though.

Not much done this afternoon except Tamsin's played on her My Little Pony CD-Rom and we had a brief reading lesson covering 'ee' 'ea' 'ai' and 'ay'.

First word - English; second word - Spanish!

Isabelle spoke!! It was so sweet to hear real stuff coming out of her mouth! Of course she has said mamamam and dadad and so on but I'm not confident that's been more than babbling yet. So today, Tamsin was getting a little frustrated at Isabelle's yelling, and shouted "Shush!" at her, and Isabelle said "Shush!" back!!!! It was really funny. She said it a few more times when prompted too. And then later in the day when Isabelle had climbed the stairs, and I was helping her down step by step, Tamsin was saying "Abaho!" (Spanish for 'down') (may have spelled it wrong) and Isabelle repeated "Aho.... Aho...". How about that - a bilingual baby! Of course, she wouldn't demonstrate for Daddy when he got home, so we'll have to see what utterances if any we will get in the coming days.

Apart from that, it's been another good day today. My sink is still clean! I am taking Flylady very very slowly this time. I first signed up in Jan or Feb 2001, and remained signed up for 4 years and didn't really get any of it done. I improved slightly in a couple of things, but not significantly. So last year I gave up. I think maybe I just kept trying to do too much at once, or trying to get to grips with the whole programme before I really started it properly. So I've signed up again and after a year's break I am reading the e-mails with fresh eyes, and they are speaking straight at me!! And I am committing to nothing more in January than keeping my sink clean. I may do a few other bits, but am not trying to. Very slow babysteps for me this time.

So this morning, we did some writing practice of the letters in this week's Sound of the Week - 's' and 't' so that helped start to turn her 's' around - she's been doing it backwards for a while! And she really enjoyed doing that. She's also done lots of jigsaws and other letter/word puzzles. Later we went into town to pay cheques in and post parcels and letters. Got home and did some more games and puzzles, and then went up to Kate's house for a bounce on their new trampoline and lots of girly games. While I was nit-combing her hair (nothing live in there this time but must keep at it to make sure!!) she drew a lovely picture of Daddy complete with wispy hair on top and then a picture of her best friend from playschool who she is excited to see again tomorrow morning when she goes back.

I have so enjoyed having this time off work, particularly in the past week, and feel I've had a much better time with Tamsin because of it, but it's back to it tomorrow unfortunately.

Busy day

What a difference it makes to me not to be working in the morning. It means I do so much more with Tamsin and we have a much better day.

So, this morning we were up around 8.30am, more tears about the lack of mummymilk, but came downstairs for breakfast and, a la Flylady, did my morning routine (empty dishwasher, have breakfast etc) and cleaned my sink. Which led to cleaning the kitchen worktops, the cooker hob, the oven door, the back door, some of the tiles on the wall, and the back doorstep. Whew! During which Tamsin watched Piglet's Big Movie or whatever it was on BBC1. And Isabelle was happy to copy me cleaning the oven door, which was very sweet to watch!

Since when, we have done beads on Scoubidous, wrapping presents, Tamsin writing labels and putting them on the tree and opening them (!), first chapter of A Year at Maple Hill Farm and Berenstain Bears book of Science and Nature, hence covering months, seasons, snow and the New Year; quite a bit of tidying up, and various other doll-related games. We've also done a new Sound of the Week lesson - the first for a couple of months - covering the 'st' sound and she had great fun cutting out all the words and pictures and sticking them up. Later I hope to get her to practice writing the s and t letters as her letter formation method is not good atm! She's also done a lovely fuzzy felt picture and told me the story, and in turn I did one too.

Tamsin got a doctor's outfit and medical kit for Christmas, so she's spent a fair bit of time since then (and before, but less well-equipped!) pretending to make people better - we keep having to be 'ill' and she gives us pills and injections and takes our blood pressure. She also frequently tends to her dolls and animals. She was a little confused at first as to how she could be a doctor when she was a girl (where on earth did she get that from??!! Not me, certainly.) but we put her straight and now she is happy as Dr Goldie.

It all feels so much better than a normal weekday when I work several mornings and feel too tired and groggy in the afternoons to do much with her.

My sink is clean!

Although not shiny, 'cos it's one of those white ones. But anyway, it's a start. I wonder how long I can keep it that way?

Nice day today - church this morning, then my Dad and his wife Pat over for lunch afterwards. I managed some proper cooking (!) and it seemed to be much appreciated. Inbetween all this stuff Tamsin has done jigsaws, played animal dominoes, done some puzzles (spot the difference, etc) in a book, watched a DK Eyewitness video on the Human Body, and, at bedtime, read nearly half a book! It was a beginner's reader from the library, but I was most impressed. She needed some hints and tips but did incredibly well! It felt most odd sitting there watching her with a book on her lap sounding out and reading words. My baby! OTOH, it's been her first full day of no mummymilk - so not such a baby anymore. She's not too pleased about it and had a good long crying session about it this morning, but I just have to trust she will not be traumatised forever!

NY Eve

We've had a nice couple of days, just relaxing, having fun all together and chilling. Very nice. I don't go a bundle on NY Eve so off to bed in a minute, but just wanted to blog one resolution only: get this house in order!!!! I have re-signed up with FlyLady and will no longer live in mess and clutter. Wish me luck!

7 things

I think this is the best I can do! Films are not my strong point!

7 things to do before I die
1. Travel round USA in a motorhome
2. Ski as much as possible
3. Get a job/career in nutrition
4. Get an MSc or PhD
5. Swim with a wild dolphin
6. See my children grow to be healthy, happy, loving adults
7. Get a full night's sleep again

7 things I can’t do
1. Be tidy
2. Get anywhere on time
3. Say 'I love you' to my parents, even though I do
4. Eat coconut
5. Stop loving my beautiful girls
6. Dance
7. Feel sick without panicking

7 things that attract me to my spouse (in no particular order)
1. His kindness
2. His crinkly blue eyes
3. His big hands
4. His absorbent shoulders
5. His patience
6. His intelligence
7. His humour

7 things I say most often
1. Get OFF my leg, Isabelle!
2. You're so lovely (to Tamsin)
3. You're so scrumptious (to Isabelle)
4. This place is a mess!
5. Where is/are my keys/the hairbrush/the scissors/my shoes/....
6. Oh, FFS, where ARE they?!!!
7. I'm so tired

7 books I love
1. The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
2. Mere Christianity by C S Lewis
3. Taking Charge of your Fertility by Toni Weschler
4. Mister God this is Anna by Fynn
5. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
6. Anything by Walter Wangerin
7. Principles of Anatomy & Physiology by Tortora & Grabowski


7 films I’d watch again and again
1. Dances with Wolves
2. Grease
3. Whale Rider


7 people I’d like to join in (that others haven’t mentioned)
1. Bill (in comments box)

Whew!

I did better than I expected:

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Flicks and friends

I haven't gone down with the vomiting lurgy yet, so I plod on apprehensively, each day planning how I will cancel that day's affairs if necessary - such is the life of an emetophobic ....

Anyway, today has been nice-ish. It didn't start too well, with me feeling gloomy and negative about Christmas and how we spend it and my whole life and how I spend it, and the impossibility of changing anything as I've been over all these things before, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah, but later on we got busy and that was better :-)

We collected Tamsin's friend Holly, and then all went up to Stratford-on-Avon where Bill dropped me and the 2 girls off at the cinema to see Nanny McPhee - Tamsin's first time at the cinema. They settled down well and didn't mind the dark and the loudness of the film, but Tamsin for one didn't seem to follow much at all. "Mummy, who is that woman?..... Mummy, why are those children being naughty? ..... Mummy, why are they all spotty? ..... Mummy, why can't I see my popcorn?"...... Aaaargh!!! All these constant interruptions of my most enjoyable ogling of Colin Firth ..... And when it got to the point where Holly was asking when we were going home and then outright saying she wanted to go home, I gave up and we left. So I still don't know whether the yummy CF ended up with kind Evangeline and whether the children turned out to be kind and well-behaved, but I guess I'll find out one day via DVD hire or something. We then came home and Tamsin and Holly painted pictures and spread copious amounts of glitter around, while I made dinner. The young ones had dinner and then Holly and Tamsin disappeared upstairs for an hour or so, which as I said to Bill is the reason why it's good to have a friend over to stay - it gets Tamsin out of our hair! And it was even more delightful to find that the task that was keeping them so busy up there was tidying Tamsin's bedroom - and they did a really good job. As Holly is staying the night they got ready for bed and had a great, exciting time giggling and tumbling around under duvets together, and then Holly at least has dropped off to sleep very quickly. Tamsin always takes a while....

Tomorrow morning I'm having my hair coloured - don't know what like until Linda my hairdresser comes and we discuss it. And Bill is out all day as he is driving up to Liverpool to collect a (hahahaha) so-called car which I am too embarrassed to even name on my blog.

Will someone please tell me .....

what brand of liqueur chocolates I have to buy to get that lovely sugar crust inside? I just can't seem to get them anywhere!!

Not quite as planned ....

Our day started with copious vomiting by Bill .... who spent the rest of the day alternating between the bed and the toilet. Poor soul. Not a morsel has passed his lips all day till 9pm when he has managed a small sandwich.

Tamsin woke around 6.30am and opened stocking presents - her favourite seemed to be the satsuma at the bottom! Breakfast of cereal and croissants was followed by joyful ripping and tearing - she was delighted with the Baby Annabell and has carried her round all day, the Thomas Aquadraw and the various games (Misfit/Greedy Gorilla) have all been investigated thoroughly, and a few things are still left to be investigated properly (My Little Pony computer game, Finding Nemo LeapPad book). Isabelle has mostly just enjoyed standing up, taking a few steps, laughing and waving her arms victoriously, and sitting down again!

My clever and caring husband gave me a CD he had put together with all the tracks on that 'Soundtrack of my Life' meme we did on the blogring a while ago - I filled up with tears just looking at the titles, so who knows what will happen when I listen! What a sweetie - shame he was ill in bed so missed my opening it.

I took the girls to church and got home about noon. Things got a bit stressful after that with my Mum and I trying to produce the lunch with constant interruptions and demands from Tamsin for attention. *Must* do something about her total inability to function without me for more than 30 seconds if she knows I am around. Lunch appeared around 2pm and was delicious! Consecutive naps for Mum and I were followed by sandwiches, baths and bed for the girls, and the very final bedtime mummymilk for Tamsin. She has one more week to have it in the mornings, and then that's it. I have drawn my boundary, probably much later than I should have done, but I have really had enough.

Bill surfaced around 5pm but didn't last long and went back to bed, but has appeared again now and appears to be on the mend. Probably just a 12-hour stomach virus. Just a shame it was this particular 12 hours. Am now madly praying I don't get it - I am phobic.

Final preparations

We are ready! One final present was bought this afternoon. Also suddenly remembered I needed a roasting tin for the turkey - oops! Could have been a tricky omission, that one! This morning Tamsin went to the church Christmas party - she was a little wavery for a while so we had to stay with her for about an hour before she settled enough to be left. Mum and I went for a wander round Chipping Campden with Isabelle, and had a coffee in a posh hotel.

This afternoon I have slept, catching up from a bad night in which Isabelle was sick (for the 3rd time that day, although not seeming ill in any other way) and stayed awake for over an hour - maybe two, who knows? This evening we've had a yummy dinner and put Tamsin to bed with a reading of the nativity story and the poem "Twas the night before Christmas", which I note several other blogring members have used for their title today!

I do feel I've missed out by not making it to a church service today but there just hasn't been time this afternoon/evening, and I'm always too tired to make it to the midnight one (although I am still up ....). I also missed the Carol Service from Kings College, Cambridge on the radio which usually gets me in the Christmas mood. So I actually don't feel festive. Still, off to bed now after I've filled Tamsin's stocking, and see what time she gets us all up in the morning!

WALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isabelle kept the best till last today, but after she should have gone to bed but I was procrastinating, she took 2 steps! Daddy missed it - he was looking the other way - so thankfully she then repeated it. And then laughed and clapped in delight! I grabbed the video camera, and she resisted performing to command for a while, but eventually did it again. And then again, and again, and again. She is so pleased with herself, and we are all delighted too. Maybe it won't be too long before I can stop saying, "Isabelle, get OFF my legs!!!"

I seem to have forgotten something.....

Oh, I know! It's Tamsin - she's not here! What a very strange feeling. Tamsin was very excited to be offered the chance to stay at Kate's and sleepover with her 3 daughters, so this is our first ever night apart. I feel like I've had something amputated, but also very free! It's quite a step forward for Tamsin, who's never wanted to stay away overnight before despite having had the chance.

And I've also told her she will have to stop having mummy-milk by the end of the year, which she seemed to accept without any qualms. We'll just see how it goes at the time. It's only been morning and evening for quite a while anyway.

So, she's growing up. Sob ...... and hooray!

Tonight has been wrap-fest ... and all except Bill's prezzie are now wrapped. I seem to have got Tamsin rather a lot. Hmmm. I have been feeling grateful I am not Merry, with 4 kids to wrap for!!!! OTOH, it's probably worth it ;-)

Must go to bed. And, if I'm lucky, sleep with less disturbances than usual, as there will be one less person in the bed.

A little bit of everything

When I think about it, on a day when I feel I've just chased my tail and done nothing much at all, quite a lot has happened.

At breakfast time, Tamsin asked to look at the "Adventures in Literacy" file which a friend had bought for her birthday in June. So we covered the 'ea' 'ee' 'a-e' and 'i-e' sounds, and she successfully read many of the words. She's written many of the gift tags of the presents we've wrapped today. At tea-time she was playing with her number balance, on which she hangs numbers on each side of a balance to try and get them equal. TBH, she hasn't really had a clue what she's been doing - she just likes messing around with it, so in an attempt to make it clearer, I used the mini-pegs with which we've been hanging up the Christmas cards, and did several problems of the "If I have four pegs, and you have two, how many more than you have I got?" type. To help make it clear, I paired up hers opposite mine, so she could see how many extra were unpaired. I think it's taken her a step or two further on in understanding addition and subtraction which till now she hasn't got anywhere with.

So that's been a decent-sized reading lesson, maths lesson and writing practice, all casually dropped into a day of much chaos and frustration. Isn't that just the joy of home-ed?! I feel like I've been chasing my tail - trying desperately to tidy up so that I can concentrate on Christmas decs but not getting anywhere. Every time I turn round there's more mess, not less. Tamsin demands so much attention and input from me, and Isabelle only wants to hang onto my legs all day, that it's intensely difficult to get anything much done. One of those days when it took about 2 hours just to get us all dressed and breakfasted.

Still, I've got 2 loads washed and dried. Went out and bought more Christmas decorations. (Hmm, I see I'm doing my usual trick of buying more supplies for crafts and activities and then never actually getting round to using them!) Tidied Tamsin's bedroom. Set up a Brio track while Isabelle was napping. Got some Christmas lights up in our front window. Isabelle did a little painting (including all over her face and hands). Ooh, and the thing that really felt like an achievement today (because it was on my To Do list!) was to plan the Christmas food, make a shopping list, and arrange with my Mum who was doing what.

Inbetween, Tamsin has pretended to be a chameleon, an elephant and done a wonderful Christmas dance which I videoed! And Isabelle has climbed the stairs again, and spent more time perfecting the trick she discovered yesterday of bending upside down and peering through her legs - she loves viewing the world from this new perspective! This week has not been the fun-filled dec-fest that I wanted it to be, but maybe if I get off this computer and into the living room to tidy up, I might make a little more progress tomorrow!!

Ahhh, the innocence!

Tamsin just asked me, "Mummy - after this Christmas, will there be another one?" She was quite delighted to hear it happens every year! Whereas I, a couple of days ago, was musing on the fact that I could possibly still have 40 Christmases to come .... which just feels like too many!!! Surely I will be bored sick of it by then?

Today so far we've tidied Tamsin's bedroom, but the rest of the house is a tip. Just off to wrap a few prezzies, then must tidy and decorate a bit more. Still haven't planned the food and I need to phone my Mum once I have to see which bits she will bring/contribute.

Right!

Time to get busy! I've just spent the last 45 minutes reclaiming the kitchen from 'condemnable by Environmental Health' standards. The rest of today's list includes:

put up tree
get decorations from loft
decorate tree
post cards
ice cake
wrap and post presents
plan Christmas food
have fun with kids making Christmassy things

None of which is easy when your 13-month old grabs and climbs up your legs at every single opportunity - I've developed a nifty little hop and skip to quickly get out of reach when I feel her grasping at my trouser legs.
Memo to self: To go in the '7 things I say most often' list - "Get OFF my legs, Isabelle!"

Will update later!

10.40am - tree is up!
10.55am - Isabelle climbs the stairs from bottom to top, despite never having managed a single step before (not for lack of trying)
1pm - Cards and presents are wrapped, stamped and posted
4.45pm - Tree is fully decorated

Quick blog as the Muse still has not returned.

Health pretty much back to normal - bit of a cough left but not bad. Am having the usual panicky feelings about getting ready for Christmas but actually not doing too badly - prezzies mostly bought (all except Bill), food semi-organised and card labels done. Just card-writing and decorations to do - hope to do tree tomorrow afternoon.

We're off up north on Friday evening to visit Bill's folks - staying at a Travelodge and coming back on Sunday.

Blergh - just have no other words to say really.

Don't worry!

I am still alive! Still coughing, although it is gradually improving. Bill will go back to work on Monday, so 2 weeks and 1 day off work, and I went back for a couple of hours on Wednesday, and then Thursday and Friday mornings. Just can't be bothered to blog, really, or anything much else.

One day ...

somewhere in the distant future, I'll feel better, I know I will. Just wish it would hurry up and get here. Still coughing, still aching, and now a blinding headache has joined the fun. Cannot be bothered with anything - just wish the children would emigrate for a while.

Let's get the dull and boring whinge about my health out of the way .... I got worse yesterday, not better, and spent the afternoon with a horrendous headache and sinus pain. Fortunately it was gone by this morning, and I think I may at last be slowly on the mend. Coughing like mad still, but feeling a bit more human. Bill is still off work too.

I'm having something of a re-think about parenting patterns and boundaries ... which maybe I'll get round to blogging sometime. If only we could have a trial run with somebody else's kids before we ruin our own!

More of the same

Still coughing, aching, sweating, shivering, eyes now going funny, sinuses feeling dodgy, blah, blah, blah. This is lasting *far* too long.

Tamsin - Granny took her up to playschool this morning but it was cancelled as staff are all ill. Fortunately my Mum took the initiative to keep her out of the house as long as possible, so they went for a long walk with the dog and then a hot chocolate at a cafe. This afternoon was simply wall-to-wall TV, while I slept and sweated on the sofa.

Still ill

I'm getting very tired of this. Am still feeling distinctly rough and discovering that my pelvic floor muscles are not up to the challenge of all this coughing :-o ! Mind you, looking on the bright side, the last time I was this bad, I was 8 months pregnant with Benjamin, and that was no fun at all. At least I don't have to try and sleep sitting upright this time.

So, my Mum has come on a mercy mission, at least as much for the dog's sake as anybody else's ;-) She hasn't been walked much lately, poor thing.

Have managed to achieve one or two things though - moving at one-tenth normal speed, I excavated our bedroom of the pile of clothes that was threatening to smother us all, have read Tamsin a few stories including the lovely Usborne Nativity lift-the-flap book which we both love, played "Tummy Ache" board game and attempted to get Tamsin to stick to the rules (rolling eyes icon required!), done some 'rhythm' games where one of us (Bill, Tamsin and me) would tap out a rhythm using a selection of kitchen implements that Tamsin brought out for us, and the others had to copy it. Which reminds me, she wants drums. Real ones. OMDB, I think! Or at least, not until she has a playhouse down at the bottom of the garden we can send her to.

I've been wrestling with the Christmas present issue. Have bid on a few things on Ebay for her but not won them (My Little Pony stuff and a ballet dress just for dressing-up fun) but what she really wants is everything she has seen advertised on Nick Jr (rolls eyes again!). Yes, we've had the "all they want to do is sell you things so they can have all your money" conversation, but she's not convinced yet! I am discovering that I could easily become one of those indulgent mothers who buys her child almost everything they want .... so it's a good job we haven't got much money! Not that that stops some people, I suppose, but it does me :-)

Isabelle is perfecting her standing alone, and continues to be thrilled at herself! She can also walk being held by only one hand, so solo walking can't be far away. She's discovered the delights of flinging her arms up in dramatic gestures just for the fun of it, chucking stuff off tables onto the floor, and opening and shutting the drawers in Tamsin's bedroom and throwing all the clothes onto the floor.

This evening my Mum asked about what regulations or curriculum we had to follow in home-educating ..... and I thought I detected a slight tightening of the lips at my joyful answer that the LEA, all being well, wouldn't even know we existed! I expounded enthusiastically about their lack of rights and used several snippets from the latest MP list (have to still call it that :-) ) discussion. She made no particular comment. I may hear her opinion by some roundabout route or critical comment in months or years to come!

It was a cough
That carried her off.

It was a coffin
They carried her off in.

Cough, cough

Urgh, you know you're really not well when you can't be bothered to switch the computer on all day. Cough is really bad, ache all over, feel generally grotty. Girls aren't much better, and Bill is now heading that way too. Fortunately that meant he took the day off sick so I wasn't managing all on my own.

Ugh, head lice are in residence. I've been itchy since Saturday, couldn't find the comb and got round to buying a new one today. Several of the little beasts on me and Tamsin. I hate the little bastards.

Tamsin and Isabelle are still both suffering quite badly from this heavy cold and cough. Tamsin was supposed to go to playschool this morning while I did an Usborne book party, but in the end she came with me, as well as Isabelle, as she wasn't well enough for playschool. Party went well, which was good, except I've spent all my commission on more books ....

Not much learning been going on due to illness but much languishing in front of the TV instead.

Quiet Day

Today was supposed to start with a walk to the Post Office to get a new Tax Disc for Bill's old Citroen that has to go back on the road now that the Astra is defunct. Try as I might, though, I could not find the fairly recent MOT certificate anywhere, and TBH I wasn't too bothered by that as it has been extremely cold and foggy and I didn't fancy the walk.

So, we've been quietly at home today, and more quiet than usual as both girls are noticeably under par due to heavy colds. Tamsin has been content mostly to sit doing stuff - TV, stories, painting. We had a really good go at her bedroom this morning, which was in a complete state, and now it is very tidy and looks great! I've read some Mr Men stories, some from her Bible Activity book (Jonah and the Whale, Moses in the basket being found by Pharoah's daughter) which involved some stickers, spot the difference (which she really enjoys), mazes and the like.

Later, I got the paints out and Isabelle has done her very first painting! That's a keeper, I think. I managed a nap at lunchtime while Isabelle was asleep and Tamsin was watching TV, so that meant more energy than usual later on. Tamsin taught me some of her dance moves she's learning 'at school', as she calls it (the Dance class meets in the school hall!) and then we tried some yoga positions from "My Daddy is a Pretzel".

So, that's been literature, bible, housekeeping, art and PE then!

Isabelle threw up on me as I was just putting her into bed, due to coughing, so she was feeling rather miserable but fell asleep quickly and has stayed that way. Tamsin has already been awake weeping because she feels rotten. Despite that, with kids safely in bed, I've done some Christmas shopping online. It feels good to have got started!

Round-up

There seems to have been a lot going on the past couple of days, despite the snotty colds and coughs affecting the female members of the family. I can't remember it in any particular order (how on earth do the rest of you remember what's gone on in which order?).

Let me see, we've read about the sun, earth and moon and which goes round which for how long; we've read about David and Goliath in a couple of different versions at different times, we've done some rudimentary adding (although TBH she hasn't really grasped it at all yet); we've talked about 'half' in some detail; plus a fair few story books. Ummm, I'm sure there's lots more but it escapes me right now.

She's also been shouted at lots, particularly for opening one of the presents in the shoebox which is for the Operation Christmas Child appeal. I've taken to doing one each year in place of a present for Benjamin, so this year it's been aimed at a 6-year old boy, and Tamsin removed the little pot of dinosaurs and took off the seal and opened it, which was particularly aggravating since she already has that particular set anyway. She said she wanted the 'grass' (green crepe paper used as packing material) :-( Anyway, I had to phone and ask a friend to come and collect the box and take it to church this morning as I felt the girls, particularly Tamsin, were too under the weather with the colds to go out today.

Isabelle is turning from baby into toddler at a frightening speed - refusing to lie still for nappy changes, arching her back when going into the car-seat, definitely very willful! Tooth number 7 is just coming through, and yesterday she stood on her own deliberately for the first time. And having discovered what fun that was, has repeated it several times with big grins and chuckles :-)

The sleep situation is vastly improved - on the whole Isabelle sleeps pretty well till about 4am and then I usually feed her as she won't take 'no' for an answer! Sometimes she wakes me earlier in the night too, but 2 wakings is vastly better than it used to be! And Tamsin has slept all night in her own bed for about 3 or 4 nights now (not consecutively, due to feeling ill) which is a first at age 4.5!

Bill's had a frustrating afternoon, trying to fit the shiny new red cover onto my (new to me) mobile phone .... and despite being the most technically competent, able and careful person there could possibly be, has bust it :-( If he can't do it, I don't see how anybody else would have been able to. So, back to the old Nokia 3310 then.

Tomorrow we're mostly just hanging around at home. I've swapped Tamsin's playschool morning to Tuesday because I have a work meeting to go to, so it'll be nice to have a quiet lazy morning!

My retirement plans...

Okay, the financial situation is dire, we need a new car, and we're up to our eyes in debt. Maybe this will be the answer to all our problems: The Rich Jerk. Whaddya think? OK, so if you click on that link and get interested too and buy it, I'll get paid! Or maybe other desperate HErs would like to club together with me and we could share it? I dunno really ....

Toys

Haha, my birthday presents have arrived! I've had my birthday money in the bank since the end of August, musing on what to buy, and had a mini-spending spree on Ebay a couple of days ago. So today I've taken delivery of a lovely new DAB radio, and a cute little Samsung A800 mobile phone. I have no idea if it's still a current model, but all I wanted was a flip-phone so I could feel like Captain Kirk. Hooray, I love new toys!

Friends

We had such a good afternoon yesterday with the Puddles and the Beans. I had gone over in that direction (a 2-hour drive) to collect a wooden Tripp-Trapp style highchair for Isabelle, to match Tamsin's, that I'd won on Ebay (which has turned out to be a great bargain - new and unused for £31.50 instead of the new price of £84.99). So I arrived while Merry was on the phone and had a warm and chatty welcome from Fran and Maddy which was delightful. Fran played delightfully with Isabelle and Tamsin fell with great delight upon the big pile of My Little Ponies - I've never seen so many together in one place before! I got the chance to browse some HE resources that I've heard about but never seen, so they get confirmed on my 'to buy' list ... (oops) and chatted a bit, but not enough, with Merry. Then all the Beans arrived and it was lovely to see them all, and with 8 girls all playing together it was a loud and lively afternoon! We left around 7pm after a substantial plateful of macaroni cheese and both girls were fast asleep within minutes so I had a peaceful drive home, and managed to successfully transfer them both into bed when we got home.

Today has been mixed. We've had a nice time but had bad financial news. Bill's car was in for repair/service so he was using mine, so I had to borrow a friend's car to get to the church group this morning and get a lift to the local Home Ed group this afternoon. But we had a nice time this afternoon and I chatted more with the mum of the 3 and 5 year old girls that we met last month, and she was more talkative and friendly this time. In fact, we have arranged to get together in a couple of weeks and I think that's going to be a really nice friendship for Tamsin, and Isabelle in due course, to know other locally HEd girls. But the news on Bill's car has been dire and it looks like his Astra that he only bought 2nd hand earlier this year was a bad'un and will basically have to be scrapped, so he will have to revert to his old Citroen that thankfully we never quite got round to getting rid of. However that is showing its age too, and I'm really not happy about the Subaru estate that I have been driving as it just feels like maybe the steering is going wrong on that, so we may have to be in the market for 2 new cars when we really don't have the money for any such things. We already have a loan, a credit card debt and re-mortgaged earlier this year. We can afford to eat and pay bills, thankfully, but cars, holidays and clothes are not so easy to come by.

So I'll be off to bed and maybe I'll dream of the perfect money-making idea that will relieve all our financial problems .....