We've had a good day today! Got up determined that we are going to do some regular, although low-key, 'work' so after breakfast I sat Jade down for a little bit of adding up stuff. She got on pretty well, although at the end she did get all stroppy. I ranted a bit when she wouldn't tell me what was wrong, and probably didn't handle it very well at all, but in the end discovered she was frustrated with not writing some of the numbers very well - and it was only the '2' that she had trouble with, and wouldn't let me show her how to do it anyway!
Anyway to break the tension we took the dog out for a walk, encountering a few neighbours with the usual 'why isn't she at school' question - we haven't run this particular gauntlet with them yet because she did 4 mornings at playschool till July so didn't see the neighbours much in normal school hours.
Got back and made a mask using one of the designs from the "Rainy Day Activities" cards that arrived in my Usborne order this morning. We had a huge glitter-fest and Isabelle joined in too! Meanwhile I was madly cleaning trying to make the house even half-way decent for our afternoon guests.
Then it was time for a quick lunch, get Jade changed into school clothes and everything ready for her afternoon at school ...... and just when we were about to go out of the door I could not find my car-key anywhere. Hunted high and low, phoned Bill and used some very unladylike words, phoned the school to say I didn't know if we would make it ... and then thought hard and looked down the side of the sofa and armchair - and found the key in among the biscuit crumbs and other yuck. I have a new pair of trousers (well, new-to-me - they're actually a lovely pair of Boden jeans costing £4 from the charity shop) with sloping pockets that obviously I'm not going to be able to rely on! So got Jade to school in the nick of time, and then rushed home again to receive a visit from someone I've met a couple of times before who has an adopted Chinese daughter the same age as Shannon, and she is interested in HE. We had a good long chat about all sorts of stuff - I pointed her at MuddlePuddle among other things - so that was good.
(Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to blog yesterday about the phone call I received - there is a new HE family IN MY OWN TOWN!!! (which is very small) with 8-year old twins and a 5-year old daughter!! So they're coming here on Friday afternoon!)
After collecting Jade from school, we went to Tesco's, then home for tea and playing and bedtime went very smoothly so now the evening's my own!
Monday, September 18, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Some good news!
I have my first Usborne recruit! And I have 2 events lined up for this week, and already some for October and November. I would dearly love to give up the day job, so am focussing more on Usborne to see how far I can go with it. And if anyone out there is interested in earning money towards Christmas, let me know!
I had a serious chat with Jade last week, telling her that now she was partly at school but mostly learning at home, we had to start doing some regular learning stuff together. I really want to try and get into some kind of rhythm. I'm definitely not going to be a 'school at home' type, but I need some kind of structure to stop me from descending into complete chaos, and to feel like we're getting somewhere. So I'm going to think up some kind of manageable 'pattern' to our days at home, which can change when necessary but at least is a basic plan to work to.
I was somewhat disappointed when she was adamant on Saturday that she did not want to re-start her dancing class this term, despite telling me the week before that she did. She loved it so much when she was there, but I think the social anxiety has just got the better of her and she just refused to go. Such a shame, because she was so thrilled with herself when she did it. She really wants riding lessons now, but as they're about six times the cost of the dancing, it's going to take some serious thinking about.
I had a serious chat with Jade last week, telling her that now she was partly at school but mostly learning at home, we had to start doing some regular learning stuff together. I really want to try and get into some kind of rhythm. I'm definitely not going to be a 'school at home' type, but I need some kind of structure to stop me from descending into complete chaos, and to feel like we're getting somewhere. So I'm going to think up some kind of manageable 'pattern' to our days at home, which can change when necessary but at least is a basic plan to work to.
I was somewhat disappointed when she was adamant on Saturday that she did not want to re-start her dancing class this term, despite telling me the week before that she did. She loved it so much when she was there, but I think the social anxiety has just got the better of her and she just refused to go. Such a shame, because she was so thrilled with herself when she did it. She really wants riding lessons now, but as they're about six times the cost of the dancing, it's going to take some serious thinking about.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Things I haven't blogged about lately:
~ The extraordinary amount of money we've had to spend on the old estate car;
~ How said estate car has just broken down again, leaving Bill stranded;
~ The phenomenal amount of money he's had to pay this evening to join the AA and get brought home;
~ The ridiculously extended period of time the crash repair company has kept our Prius for, just to repair a long scratch down one side, therefore keeping it past its MOT renewal date so even when it comes back I won't be able to drive it;
~ How I nearly had my eye out by bashing myself on the corner of the courtesy car's door;
~ How the flood at Jade's school has meant she hasn't been there this week at all;
~ The 4th time in a row that we have set out to Stratford to go swimming, and yet not been able to swim (this time, I forgot my purse);
~ The ridiculous number of times Shannon wakes in the night and needs feeding back to sleep and how it's barely worth my while closing my eyes;
~ The simply lovely visit we had from Katy and Becca;
~ The unbelievable weight that Shannon is and how she's off the top of the charts;
~ How we still haven't started anything vaguely resembling 'proper' HE this 'term'.
~ How said estate car has just broken down again, leaving Bill stranded;
~ The phenomenal amount of money he's had to pay this evening to join the AA and get brought home;
~ The ridiculously extended period of time the crash repair company has kept our Prius for, just to repair a long scratch down one side, therefore keeping it past its MOT renewal date so even when it comes back I won't be able to drive it;
~ How I nearly had my eye out by bashing myself on the corner of the courtesy car's door;
~ How the flood at Jade's school has meant she hasn't been there this week at all;
~ The 4th time in a row that we have set out to Stratford to go swimming, and yet not been able to swim (this time, I forgot my purse);
~ The ridiculous number of times Shannon wakes in the night and needs feeding back to sleep and how it's barely worth my while closing my eyes;
~ The simply lovely visit we had from Katy and Becca;
~ The unbelievable weight that Shannon is and how she's off the top of the charts;
~ How we still haven't started anything vaguely resembling 'proper' HE this 'term'.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
She's been to school!
Today was Jade's first afternoon at school.
I was at work all day, so it was down to DH to organise it all. It felt strange. In one way, I was thinking, "This is Jade's first day at school - it is momentous - I should be there!" In another sense, as she is only going to do 3 afternoons per week, for the fun, less academic stuff, it doesn't feel that important. She is mainly HE'd - she is doing less school than she did playgroup - and I still mainly consider us an HEing family, obviously. But it was odd to come home and see her jumping about in her uniform and telling me how it had been ("it was fantastic") just like all those other newly-at-school kids are doing this week.
She did some painting, playing, dressing-up, playing outside on the field, all the kids inspected a grasshopper they found, then the teacher read them a poem sitting under a tree outside.
I don't know what she did this morning - I was at work and she was at home with DH!
Monday, September 04, 2006
School plans
At last, we have sorted out some flexi-school attendance for Jade. We visited this afternoon and talked everything through, and for the first 'term' (half-term as it used to be, but now they have a 6-term year) she will attend for the afternoons (12.45 - 3.15pm) of Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. It's a bit ironic really as I originally really needed to flexi-school to cover my working hours, and now DH does compressed hours so is home all day on Wednesdays and I guess my Dad will have to continue to cover a Thursday morning for a little while longer. I had suggested to him last week that at the age of 74 he might want to stop having to come over every week for childcare duties. However, we felt that with Jade's speech anxiety and the difficulties of her being there for some of the academic work but not all of it (and therefore how do we ensure she is not all-at-sea with what they're doing?), it would be better for her to start off going in for the more practical/sports/social type stuff like dance, drama, IT, which they do in the afternoons, and when she's settled in for the first six weeks, we will review it and see how it is going and maybe then she may start going for a morning session too.
So, we're off to buy the last couple of bits of uniform tomorrow, and then she'll go in on Wednesday afternoon. She's rather excited at the prospect and says she likes it there! But OTOH she says she definitely wouldn't want to have to go all day every day!
And this morning, as Jade, Shannon and I walked the dog in the still sunny and warm day, with a tree-identification book at hand, and picking blackberries as we went, I thought how sad it was that all those other kids would be stuck in school for such a long time from now on. Other sad things - a friend of mine said that her 2nd DD (same age as Jade) was going to get a shock going into Year 1 as there was no 'home corner' or play stuff in the classroom like there was in Reception. And yet so many reports confirm what we HErs know in our bones, that playing is so essential to learning, and that in this country we push formal academics too early. The other thing this friend said was that her two DDs (7 and 5) get on really well during the summer holidays, whereas during the school year the older one treats the younger one like somebody too low for her to associate with. Shame.
Apart from all that, today we've read some of "The BFC big book of planet earth (charity-shop find) and talked about the earth, the sun and the moon, and how each rotates and orbits, and why that makes day and night, months and years; about the equator and the two Poles, and about the unique atmosphere of the Earth. I got the globe out, and another ball, to demonstrate. I wonder where all that comes in the National Curriculum - about Year 4, I imagine!!! She's also done lots of drawing (she's really into that lately), some stamping pictures, lots of imaginative play at being a mummy, a big sister and a baby, and just a bit of CBeebies.
So, we're off to buy the last couple of bits of uniform tomorrow, and then she'll go in on Wednesday afternoon. She's rather excited at the prospect and says she likes it there! But OTOH she says she definitely wouldn't want to have to go all day every day!
And this morning, as Jade, Shannon and I walked the dog in the still sunny and warm day, with a tree-identification book at hand, and picking blackberries as we went, I thought how sad it was that all those other kids would be stuck in school for such a long time from now on. Other sad things - a friend of mine said that her 2nd DD (same age as Jade) was going to get a shock going into Year 1 as there was no 'home corner' or play stuff in the classroom like there was in Reception. And yet so many reports confirm what we HErs know in our bones, that playing is so essential to learning, and that in this country we push formal academics too early. The other thing this friend said was that her two DDs (7 and 5) get on really well during the summer holidays, whereas during the school year the older one treats the younger one like somebody too low for her to associate with. Shame.
Apart from all that, today we've read some of "The BFC big book of planet earth (charity-shop find) and talked about the earth, the sun and the moon, and how each rotates and orbits, and why that makes day and night, months and years; about the equator and the two Poles, and about the unique atmosphere of the Earth. I got the globe out, and another ball, to demonstrate. I wonder where all that comes in the National Curriculum - about Year 4, I imagine!!! She's also done lots of drawing (she's really into that lately), some stamping pictures, lots of imaginative play at being a mummy, a big sister and a baby, and just a bit of CBeebies.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Post-Greenbelt doldrums
I always hate the post-Greenbelt feeling - a whole year till I can go again. I love being surrounded by artistic, creative stuff, even though (or perhaps because) I'm not gifted that way myself. I love there being 20-30 fascinating things I could go to at any one time, like talks or dance or comedy shows that I wouldn't normally visit; I love the music of all descriptions all over the place, and I love being challenged in the way I look at the world, and to become aware of issues I don't have the time or space to concentrate on the rest of the year.
So, we had a great time, except that Jade refused to go to any of the children's sessions, despite the fact that C from Stepping off the Path was there. And just a couple of days before we went, Shannon began displaying extreme shyness in the presence of strangers too, to the extent of hiding her face in a parental chest for up to an hour! It was also a shame that we barely got to see J&J, or the TwoRedBoots tribe, despite camping with them. We were all too busy! We have bought our tickets for next year, though. Looking forward to having the RaineDrops there and crossing my fingers for the Katy/Becca combo too!
Now we're back I need to concentrate on the strange task of finalising Jade's school attendance. We have the school dress, the navy trousers, skirt and cardigan and black shoes, and just need some white polo shirts to complete her uniform! Oh, and I need to discuss with the headteacher when she's actually going to go! I think it will probably be a Monday afternoon (for dance/music) and all day on a Thursday. It has to be a Thursday morning because that's one of my work times, but it's a shame really because the class has two teachers who job-share, and I prefer the one who teaches Monday - Wednesday.
So, we had a great time, except that Jade refused to go to any of the children's sessions, despite the fact that C from Stepping off the Path was there. And just a couple of days before we went, Shannon began displaying extreme shyness in the presence of strangers too, to the extent of hiding her face in a parental chest for up to an hour! It was also a shame that we barely got to see J&J, or the TwoRedBoots tribe, despite camping with them. We were all too busy! We have bought our tickets for next year, though. Looking forward to having the RaineDrops there and crossing my fingers for the Katy/Becca combo too!
Now we're back I need to concentrate on the strange task of finalising Jade's school attendance. We have the school dress, the navy trousers, skirt and cardigan and black shoes, and just need some white polo shirts to complete her uniform! Oh, and I need to discuss with the headteacher when she's actually going to go! I think it will probably be a Monday afternoon (for dance/music) and all day on a Thursday. It has to be a Thursday morning because that's one of my work times, but it's a shame really because the class has two teachers who job-share, and I prefer the one who teaches Monday - Wednesday.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Happy Birthday to me!
I've had a lovely day today. I got breakfast and prezzies in bed, then just lolled around most of the morning. This afternoon Bill and I went to Cheltenham, alone, without children!!! It was fab - my Mum has come to stay to look after the dog while we go to Greenbelt, so she looked after the girls while we went out. I think the last time Bill and I went out together without children was when I was having my labour induced with Jade, and we went for a stroll round Cheltenham while waiting for things to get started.
Anyway, I finally managed to spend the last of my Christmas presents - M&S vouchers - by treating myself to some new underwear! And we went in The Works and I got the 120 Great History Projects book plus 2 or 3 others for myself. And we had afternoon tea together in the M&S cafe - tea and scones and jam and cream - absolutely fabulous!!
And tomorrow we're off to Greenbelt. Life is good!
Anyway, I finally managed to spend the last of my Christmas presents - M&S vouchers - by treating myself to some new underwear! And we went in The Works and I got the 120 Great History Projects book plus 2 or 3 others for myself. And we had afternoon tea together in the M&S cafe - tea and scones and jam and cream - absolutely fabulous!!
And tomorrow we're off to Greenbelt. Life is good!
Monday, August 21, 2006
More aaarrrggghhh!
Broadband has gone down. Bill's cobbled together a dial-up connection but it is interminably slow and I am so conscious of the phone bill ticking away.... 24 hours without an internet connection was dire.
Also whenever I sit down Isabelle climbs up for mummymilk and takes aaaaaages so I am doing this with one finger of left hand!
Bill is off work for 2 weeks now and we are off to Greenbelt on Friday so if I don't manage to get back on before we go, I'll be back next week.
Also whenever I sit down Isabelle climbs up for mummymilk and takes aaaaaages so I am doing this with one finger of left hand!
Bill is off work for 2 weeks now and we are off to Greenbelt on Friday so if I don't manage to get back on before we go, I'll be back next week.
Friday, August 18, 2006
NOT a good day!
Don't really want to go into the whole boring detail, but suffice to say it involved more (thankfully slight) damage to the car, more substantial damage to my ego and confidence but, contrary to my fears, no damage to my relationship with DH as he proved wonderfully absorbent this evening.
Also we have tried and failed 3 times to go swimming this week. Today's two attempts ended in (1) the above car damage and (2) arriving, paying for a car park ticket and then being told the pool was closed due to it having filled up with rusty water.
I have been MIA during the evenings trying to catch up on the unbelievable backlog of our finances, only to find that I kind of wish I didn't know what I found out. What with a £250 excess on the car insurance policy and a £110 excess on the home insurance policy, plus both cars needing servicing and repairs to the tune of several hundreds of pounds I am somewhat stressed.
Somebody send me links to extremely frugal meals/recipes please!
So, no educational things to report here. Unless you count the swear words that the girls may well have learned today.
Also we have tried and failed 3 times to go swimming this week. Today's two attempts ended in (1) the above car damage and (2) arriving, paying for a car park ticket and then being told the pool was closed due to it having filled up with rusty water.
I have been MIA during the evenings trying to catch up on the unbelievable backlog of our finances, only to find that I kind of wish I didn't know what I found out. What with a £250 excess on the car insurance policy and a £110 excess on the home insurance policy, plus both cars needing servicing and repairs to the tune of several hundreds of pounds I am somewhat stressed.
Somebody send me links to extremely frugal meals/recipes please!
So, no educational things to report here. Unless you count the swear words that the girls may well have learned today.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Very quick blog
.... so that certain people know I arrived home safely! Sorry - couldn't blog last night as I was so tired I fell asleep with the girls and never got up again.
So, the girls and I stepped off the path at the weekend, and very pleasant and enjoyable it was too. Got home yesterday around 2pm, only 10 minutes after Isabelle succumbed to travel sickness .... :-(
Shortly before leaving J&J's, I suddenly noticed the middle diamond out of my engagement ring was missing. Katy B had the excellent idea that I should unpack everything out of the car carefully in the dark, with a torch, so that I would see anything glinting. I totally forgot to do it. I foresee my first ever home insurance claim!
So, the girls and I stepped off the path at the weekend, and very pleasant and enjoyable it was too. Got home yesterday around 2pm, only 10 minutes after Isabelle succumbed to travel sickness .... :-(
Shortly before leaving J&J's, I suddenly noticed the middle diamond out of my engagement ring was missing. Katy B had the excellent idea that I should unpack everything out of the car carefully in the dark, with a torch, so that I would see anything glinting. I totally forgot to do it. I foresee my first ever home insurance claim!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Not an end-of-year report!
But really just an excuse to brag.
Sometimes I read other people's blogs with children of Jade's age, and worry a little in case she is not doing as well in some areas. For instance, she's still not really into addition yet, though we've tried a little; she can't swim, even with arm-bands, and her drawing still seems rather simple (head with legs!), but what she *can* do is read, boy she can really read! Today she has worked out 'congratulations' and 'granddaughter' without any help whatsoever, and I notice she is starting to read quietly to herself without asking for help or support, but just for interest. This afternoon she was sitting reading the Usborne Flip Flap Body book.
And really, that is one big reason why we HE. So that she can take each 'subject' at her own speed. The 'one-size-fits-all' National Curriculum hangs over us looming so large, especially as we are going to be flexi-schooling from September and therefore do have to stick to the NC (though what that means I don't actually know!); but we know that each child develops in fits and starts at their own pace, and I just love to see that happening in reality. I know that she will be able to add up soon enough, and that all the other skills she needs in life will develop too, at the pace that is just right for *her*.
I suppose the worry comes in about whether I am doing HE 'right' - am I offering enough, exposing her to enough, involved enough, or am I doing too much of the Lazy Bugger method of HE? I'm very good at buying resources and not so good at using them. I think a bit of orgo-planning and pulling my socks up a little in September would be no bad thing, but really, when it comes down to it, to have fostered a love of reading means I've pretty well done all I have to do! Light the blue touch paper and stand back!
Sometimes I read other people's blogs with children of Jade's age, and worry a little in case she is not doing as well in some areas. For instance, she's still not really into addition yet, though we've tried a little; she can't swim, even with arm-bands, and her drawing still seems rather simple (head with legs!), but what she *can* do is read, boy she can really read! Today she has worked out 'congratulations' and 'granddaughter' without any help whatsoever, and I notice she is starting to read quietly to herself without asking for help or support, but just for interest. This afternoon she was sitting reading the Usborne Flip Flap Body book.
And really, that is one big reason why we HE. So that she can take each 'subject' at her own speed. The 'one-size-fits-all' National Curriculum hangs over us looming so large, especially as we are going to be flexi-schooling from September and therefore do have to stick to the NC (though what that means I don't actually know!); but we know that each child develops in fits and starts at their own pace, and I just love to see that happening in reality. I know that she will be able to add up soon enough, and that all the other skills she needs in life will develop too, at the pace that is just right for *her*.
I suppose the worry comes in about whether I am doing HE 'right' - am I offering enough, exposing her to enough, involved enough, or am I doing too much of the Lazy Bugger method of HE? I'm very good at buying resources and not so good at using them. I think a bit of orgo-planning and pulling my socks up a little in September would be no bad thing, but really, when it comes down to it, to have fostered a love of reading means I've pretty well done all I have to do! Light the blue touch paper and stand back!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
I've not been keeping up again, and it's too late to want to go into much detail. But the edited highlights follow!
This morning started with Geomags, and a jigsaw puzzle of the UK which I've just unearthed from a cupboard. We didn't go to church this morning as Shannon has had a rash for a couple of days and although she seems completely well we didn't want to risk spreading anything. But we did go out this afternoon to a Dogs Trust Open Day (thought there was little risk of spreading viruses or whatever in the open air) so we've had a lovely afternoon in the sun. We met my Dad and his wife Pat and various of her family there. Poppy took part in the doggy dash and didn't disgrace herself although she didn't win either! We looked round the kennels bit and looked at all the dogs needing re-homing - no, I didn't bring any home! We got home to find that Bill had put together Jade's new bed which I drove up near Chesterfield for a couple of months ago after winning it on Ebay. So there's been great excitement while the finishing touches have been put to that and although the rest of the room still needs sorting out, she is very happy in her big girl bed with the tower and slide!
In the last few days we've also had a sleepover of Tamsin's best friend, we've driven over and visited my Dad for a while and we've done various stuff round the house. The odd bit of education here and there but nothing focussed on. I was reading somewhere or other recently how Finland doesn't start formal schooling until the age of 7 and yet they have they highest pupil assessment scores at age 16 of the whole EU. No sweat for another couple of years, then.
This morning started with Geomags, and a jigsaw puzzle of the UK which I've just unearthed from a cupboard. We didn't go to church this morning as Shannon has had a rash for a couple of days and although she seems completely well we didn't want to risk spreading anything. But we did go out this afternoon to a Dogs Trust Open Day (thought there was little risk of spreading viruses or whatever in the open air) so we've had a lovely afternoon in the sun. We met my Dad and his wife Pat and various of her family there. Poppy took part in the doggy dash and didn't disgrace herself although she didn't win either! We looked round the kennels bit and looked at all the dogs needing re-homing - no, I didn't bring any home! We got home to find that Bill had put together Jade's new bed which I drove up near Chesterfield for a couple of months ago after winning it on Ebay. So there's been great excitement while the finishing touches have been put to that and although the rest of the room still needs sorting out, she is very happy in her big girl bed with the tower and slide!
In the last few days we've also had a sleepover of Tamsin's best friend, we've driven over and visited my Dad for a while and we've done various stuff round the house. The odd bit of education here and there but nothing focussed on. I was reading somewhere or other recently how Finland doesn't start formal schooling until the age of 7 and yet they have they highest pupil assessment scores at age 16 of the whole EU. No sweat for another couple of years, then.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Work day
Not much to report today - I was at work all day while DH was home with the girlies! and I would have got to work on time too (for a change) if Jade hadn't had a bout of severe separation anxiety when I was about to leave - she had to be peeled off me, poor girl :-( She seems fine now though!
However I have been spending a fair amount of time reading Montessori stuff. Is it just me, or does everyone else flit from one educational style to another like some kind of butterfly, trying to decide which one to settle on? Everytime I read another blog which says "we home-school in a combination of classical and Moore", or "we are Charlotte Mason style home educators,", I just think, 'what am I?'. I don't have enough time to read sufficient about any of these styles to decide which one to be! I'm just a messy lazy home-educator, that's all. I think I'll have to devise a new style, and call it "The slovenly procrastinator's guide to home-education". Perhaps I could write a book and make my fortune!
However I have been spending a fair amount of time reading Montessori stuff. Is it just me, or does everyone else flit from one educational style to another like some kind of butterfly, trying to decide which one to settle on? Everytime I read another blog which says "we home-school in a combination of classical and Moore", or "we are Charlotte Mason style home educators,", I just think, 'what am I?'. I don't have enough time to read sufficient about any of these styles to decide which one to be! I'm just a messy lazy home-educator, that's all. I think I'll have to devise a new style, and call it "The slovenly procrastinator's guide to home-education". Perhaps I could write a book and make my fortune!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
A game of two halves
We had an active morning, a moderately active late-afternoon, with a huge slump of nothingness in the middle, so it seemed an appropriate title.
First thing, Jade insisted on making the cakes with the Dora cake mix packet that she persuaded me to buy in the supermarket yesterday - I must have had a weak moment because I usually absolutely refuse to buy such overpriced crap, but now I have two Dora fans in the household (yes, Shannon does a lovely 'Dor-wa' now and a great dance to the 'We Did It' music!) I gave in. Still, it gave me the chance to do a bit of tuition on cooking temperatures, though not much else.
Mixing, baking, cooling and icing made us late for HE group, though. It started at 10.30 but we didn't manage to arrive till 11.30! So the huge castle made from cardboard boxes was already constructed and very impressive it was too - with towers and a drawbridge! So there was mostly just general playing, running around and chatting going on after that. I met another new attendee who has a 4.5 yr old son and an 18-month old daughter although she had left the little one with someone else to give her son a bit of sister-free time - apparently she drives him mad! Anyway they don't live too far away and are also going to be flexi-schooling mostly because they have only just moved to the area and want to find him some friends. But they might be up for reciprocal visits.
We drove home in the blissfully air-conditioned car, Shannon fell asleep and I parked Jade in front of Nick Jr with the intention of going for a nap myself when the phone rang and it was a long-lost friend. Fortunately Shannon's nap was very long so I still managed some rest after the chat. After getting up I still felt horribly lethargic and devoid of any energy or inclination to do anything. I did manage to sit with Jade and read a couple of her library books - Antarctica and Are you a snail? But mostly I just lolled and grumped.
I did manage to make myself an iced coffee, though, and that did the trick because later on I felt a little energy trickle back and managed to tidy up a little, vacuum the living room floor and set up a big Brio train track layout for Jade, which is a rare occurrence these days since Shannon became mobile. But having spent about 20 minutes building it, she then spent about 5 minutes playing with it so I was not too impressed.
Can't remember how things progressed from there - I know Shannon did a bit more shape-sorter and has noticeably progressed since yesterday's practice, Jade found some old stickers and stuck them on a big piece of paper and did some drawing round them and as usual she spent much of the time with a teddy stuffed up her top pretending to be pregnant. This is a regular occurrence these days as her best friend's mum is about to have a baby. Said best friend is actually coming to stay overnight on Thursday and Jade is in ecstasy about this - several times a day she works out how many days it is till Thursday and goes into hyperactive overdrive for a few minutes with excitement.
Jade read her own bedtime stories again - a very simple DK Touch & Feel book and a Miffy book and is currently not asleep in her room - but then again it is 28 degrees up there so that won't be helping.
ETA - how could I forget Shannon singing the Alphabet Song along with Jade? Well, OK, only a handful of letters are recognisably pronounced, but she's having a jolly good go! Very sweet! Counting 1-10 and the alphabet before the age of 2 - what an upstart she is!!
First thing, Jade insisted on making the cakes with the Dora cake mix packet that she persuaded me to buy in the supermarket yesterday - I must have had a weak moment because I usually absolutely refuse to buy such overpriced crap, but now I have two Dora fans in the household (yes, Shannon does a lovely 'Dor-wa' now and a great dance to the 'We Did It' music!) I gave in. Still, it gave me the chance to do a bit of tuition on cooking temperatures, though not much else.
Mixing, baking, cooling and icing made us late for HE group, though. It started at 10.30 but we didn't manage to arrive till 11.30! So the huge castle made from cardboard boxes was already constructed and very impressive it was too - with towers and a drawbridge! So there was mostly just general playing, running around and chatting going on after that. I met another new attendee who has a 4.5 yr old son and an 18-month old daughter although she had left the little one with someone else to give her son a bit of sister-free time - apparently she drives him mad! Anyway they don't live too far away and are also going to be flexi-schooling mostly because they have only just moved to the area and want to find him some friends. But they might be up for reciprocal visits.
We drove home in the blissfully air-conditioned car, Shannon fell asleep and I parked Jade in front of Nick Jr with the intention of going for a nap myself when the phone rang and it was a long-lost friend. Fortunately Shannon's nap was very long so I still managed some rest after the chat. After getting up I still felt horribly lethargic and devoid of any energy or inclination to do anything. I did manage to sit with Jade and read a couple of her library books - Antarctica and Are you a snail? But mostly I just lolled and grumped.
I did manage to make myself an iced coffee, though, and that did the trick because later on I felt a little energy trickle back and managed to tidy up a little, vacuum the living room floor and set up a big Brio train track layout for Jade, which is a rare occurrence these days since Shannon became mobile. But having spent about 20 minutes building it, she then spent about 5 minutes playing with it so I was not too impressed.
Can't remember how things progressed from there - I know Shannon did a bit more shape-sorter and has noticeably progressed since yesterday's practice, Jade found some old stickers and stuck them on a big piece of paper and did some drawing round them and as usual she spent much of the time with a teddy stuffed up her top pretending to be pregnant. This is a regular occurrence these days as her best friend's mum is about to have a baby. Said best friend is actually coming to stay overnight on Thursday and Jade is in ecstasy about this - several times a day she works out how many days it is till Thursday and goes into hyperactive overdrive for a few minutes with excitement.
Jade read her own bedtime stories again - a very simple DK Touch & Feel book and a Miffy book and is currently not asleep in her room - but then again it is 28 degrees up there so that won't be helping.
ETA - how could I forget Shannon singing the Alphabet Song along with Jade? Well, OK, only a handful of letters are recognisably pronounced, but she's having a jolly good go! Very sweet! Counting 1-10 and the alphabet before the age of 2 - what an upstart she is!!
Monday, July 24, 2006
I heard that sickening crunch.....
.... of metal on metal, or whatever bumpers and car doors are made of these days. Yes, I pranged our lovely Prius. I can't imagine why on earth I did - I was just pulling out of a parking spot at the side of the road and scraped the whole left hand side on someone else's bumper - and I'm normally good at parking and driving and I just don't *do* that sort of thing! Bugger. We have comp. insurance but the excess is probably about £150 and we just don't need that on top of the cost of the other car this week, which BTW cost £530 the other day and still needs about £650 worth of work on it. Good job there isn't still a workhouse or we'd be headed there ....
Until then, I'd been having quite a good day! The first thing Jade chose after getting up was the Geomags, and I sat with her while she made 'pancakes' (!) - or rather various flat geometric shapes with panels in. We then moved on to building a castle with bricks and blocks, while Shannon practised with her shape sorter at which we applauded and said 'Hooray' every time she got one in so she joined in clapping and hooraying at herself! Then Jade moved on to a Learning Land CD-Rom while I tried to do a bit of summer planning - looking at events going on locally and making notes of which I'd quite like to go to, along with more general stuff like swimming and picnics. After that we decided to go for a walk, but why on earth does it have to take so long to get ready? It was about an hour before we were ready to go, what with getting them both dressed, nappy changing, finding shoes, persuading them not to play upstairs but get dressed instead, etc. Eventually we got out and went for a very hot walk out to the duck pond and back, and then a quick lunch was followed by getting Shannon to sleep while Jade watched a bit of TV. Then I sat with her to do a bit of reading, so we went through the 'Please and Thank You book' by Richard Scarry, a book I got from the charity shop called "One World" of which she read the first half, and then we were about to start 'King Arthur' when she got stroppy and hit me and threw the book on the floor so she had to go and sit on the stairs for 5 minutes. I was not in the mood for more after that, though, so had a bit of quiet computer time while she had a bit more TV till Shannon woke up. Then we all went out in the car to do some food shopping and then crunched the car. :-(
Around teatime Jade found a stray notelet card lying around on the table so decided to write to my Dad - "Grandpa, I love you" so that was a good bit of writing practise, although after all that effort she couldn't manage to write her own name so I did that!
Around bedtime she started to sort through her Letterland alphabet cards and to lay out all the capital letters. I was a bit surprised that she needed to keep asking me which ones were the capitals as opposed to lower case, as I thought she had that all very clear, but anyway she got fed up by about F or G and messed them all up.
Oh, and she mostly read her own bedtime stories, too, by choice!
Until then, I'd been having quite a good day! The first thing Jade chose after getting up was the Geomags, and I sat with her while she made 'pancakes' (!) - or rather various flat geometric shapes with panels in. We then moved on to building a castle with bricks and blocks, while Shannon practised with her shape sorter at which we applauded and said 'Hooray' every time she got one in so she joined in clapping and hooraying at herself! Then Jade moved on to a Learning Land CD-Rom while I tried to do a bit of summer planning - looking at events going on locally and making notes of which I'd quite like to go to, along with more general stuff like swimming and picnics. After that we decided to go for a walk, but why on earth does it have to take so long to get ready? It was about an hour before we were ready to go, what with getting them both dressed, nappy changing, finding shoes, persuading them not to play upstairs but get dressed instead, etc. Eventually we got out and went for a very hot walk out to the duck pond and back, and then a quick lunch was followed by getting Shannon to sleep while Jade watched a bit of TV. Then I sat with her to do a bit of reading, so we went through the 'Please and Thank You book' by Richard Scarry, a book I got from the charity shop called "One World" of which she read the first half, and then we were about to start 'King Arthur' when she got stroppy and hit me and threw the book on the floor so she had to go and sit on the stairs for 5 minutes. I was not in the mood for more after that, though, so had a bit of quiet computer time while she had a bit more TV till Shannon woke up. Then we all went out in the car to do some food shopping and then crunched the car. :-(
Around teatime Jade found a stray notelet card lying around on the table so decided to write to my Dad - "Grandpa, I love you" so that was a good bit of writing practise, although after all that effort she couldn't manage to write her own name so I did that!
Around bedtime she started to sort through her Letterland alphabet cards and to lay out all the capital letters. I was a bit surprised that she needed to keep asking me which ones were the capitals as opposed to lower case, as I thought she had that all very clear, but anyway she got fed up by about F or G and messed them all up.
Oh, and she mostly read her own bedtime stories, too, by choice!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Not so bad after all
We're all still here - no-one's killed anybody else off!
The electricity went off about 9.45am, but came on again just before 1pm, although they'd warned it would be off till 4pm. The worst news was about Bill's car which has cost over £500 to only partially fix .... yikes!
After breakfast, the morning started with some reading. Jade pulled out a Learning Land magazine and we went through that, although she did skip the page about numbers saying "I hate that bit!". We did some reading exercises, she did a tiny bit of lovely writing, and then did the 'healthy eating' exercise during which I talked about needing the right kind of fuel in a car otherwise it breaks down and the same is true in our bodies. She also did a drawing of a 'healthy lunchbox' and drew a sandwich, a banana, a drink and a chocolate bar which I thought was pretty OK!
We moved on to Spanish after that, when I got out our little collection of fun Spanish activities that I'd got from The Book People a while ago. There are three bilingual stories so she read the English and I read the Spanish - with guesses at much of the pronunciation! We practised some of the words together and discussed the Spanish -v- English words.
Then I remembered reading something lately about how short breaks of physical exercise improve learning, and I was certainly beginning to feel a bit sluggish esp. with the heat, so I took them upstairs to bounce on the bed! They started having fun, but fairly soon Jade went into a very moody/grumpy state, and started shouting at me to go away and leave her alone and shouting that no, I didn't love her after I said I did. She curled up on my bed, and shortly after that started crying, but still didn't want me anywhere near. So I pottered around nearby, putting clean washing away, while wondering and praying about what was wrong and totally at a loss as to this sudden mood swing which is not completely unusual as she has been rather volatile lately. And suddenly it hit me - she'd had porridge with honey in it for breakfast and had then continued eating more honey - more than I'd realised before I'd stopped her. So she was having a complete sugar meltdown! And it might well be that the rest of her behaviour lately is perhaps partly due to sugar issues too. Time for some serious sweet-limiting action, I think. The sugar intake has very slowly crept up from just one piece of chocolate per day, to that plus lollies/ice-creams in the hot weather, and biscuits, and sometimes the next-door-neighbours give her something as well without checking first ... (Grrr). And it certainly won't do me any harm to completely cut down on sugar either. Anyway I brought them downstairs for a healthy and hearty lunch and playing out in the garden, so peace and harmony were resumed.
Straight after lunch I wanted some peace and quiet sitting at my computer, so Jade did a Learning Land CD-Rom and Shannon pottered around with bits and pieces. During the afternoon they've played on the swing, climbing frame and slide, although I limited Shannon's time on the swing as she threw up again on Tuesday after a long swing so I am fairly sure she's getting motion sickness from it, although she protests like mad at being taken off. Jade and I played Snakes & Ladders this afternoon, and as I made tea they've watched about 45 mins of CBeebies. Jade read a library book to Bill when he came in and only needed help with 1 word - disguise - so we've started to fill in her "Reading Mission" card from the library that we got last Thursday.
It's Jade's last day of playschool tomorrow. She seems fine about it, but she has loved it so much I wouldn't be surprised if we have a bit of an emotional rollercoaster tomorrow!
The electricity went off about 9.45am, but came on again just before 1pm, although they'd warned it would be off till 4pm. The worst news was about Bill's car which has cost over £500 to only partially fix .... yikes!
After breakfast, the morning started with some reading. Jade pulled out a Learning Land magazine and we went through that, although she did skip the page about numbers saying "I hate that bit!". We did some reading exercises, she did a tiny bit of lovely writing, and then did the 'healthy eating' exercise during which I talked about needing the right kind of fuel in a car otherwise it breaks down and the same is true in our bodies. She also did a drawing of a 'healthy lunchbox' and drew a sandwich, a banana, a drink and a chocolate bar which I thought was pretty OK!
We moved on to Spanish after that, when I got out our little collection of fun Spanish activities that I'd got from The Book People a while ago. There are three bilingual stories so she read the English and I read the Spanish - with guesses at much of the pronunciation! We practised some of the words together and discussed the Spanish -v- English words.
Then I remembered reading something lately about how short breaks of physical exercise improve learning, and I was certainly beginning to feel a bit sluggish esp. with the heat, so I took them upstairs to bounce on the bed! They started having fun, but fairly soon Jade went into a very moody/grumpy state, and started shouting at me to go away and leave her alone and shouting that no, I didn't love her after I said I did. She curled up on my bed, and shortly after that started crying, but still didn't want me anywhere near. So I pottered around nearby, putting clean washing away, while wondering and praying about what was wrong and totally at a loss as to this sudden mood swing which is not completely unusual as she has been rather volatile lately. And suddenly it hit me - she'd had porridge with honey in it for breakfast and had then continued eating more honey - more than I'd realised before I'd stopped her. So she was having a complete sugar meltdown! And it might well be that the rest of her behaviour lately is perhaps partly due to sugar issues too. Time for some serious sweet-limiting action, I think. The sugar intake has very slowly crept up from just one piece of chocolate per day, to that plus lollies/ice-creams in the hot weather, and biscuits, and sometimes the next-door-neighbours give her something as well without checking first ... (Grrr). And it certainly won't do me any harm to completely cut down on sugar either. Anyway I brought them downstairs for a healthy and hearty lunch and playing out in the garden, so peace and harmony were resumed.
Straight after lunch I wanted some peace and quiet sitting at my computer, so Jade did a Learning Land CD-Rom and Shannon pottered around with bits and pieces. During the afternoon they've played on the swing, climbing frame and slide, although I limited Shannon's time on the swing as she threw up again on Tuesday after a long swing so I am fairly sure she's getting motion sickness from it, although she protests like mad at being taken off. Jade and I played Snakes & Ladders this afternoon, and as I made tea they've watched about 45 mins of CBeebies. Jade read a library book to Bill when he came in and only needed help with 1 word - disguise - so we've started to fill in her "Reading Mission" card from the library that we got last Thursday.
It's Jade's last day of playschool tomorrow. She seems fine about it, but she has loved it so much I wouldn't be surprised if we have a bit of an emotional rollercoaster tomorrow!
It's going to be a tough one...
Today I will have no electricity, no car, no Grandpa visiting, and it's too hot to walk anywhere. Pray that we all survive!!!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Really must blog....
But somehow by this time of the evening all power of thought seems to have disappeared and I just can't think what to put.
Today was a playschool morning for Jade, and Shannon and I just pootled around not doing much - a bit of tidying up, a little book browsing, a bit of computering and finally, a long swing for Shannon while I chatted on the phone with a friend. She loves staying on the swing for ages these days - an hour if I can stand it. Usually I swing her high and then go off and do something, and then go back to her when she's slowed down, but combining it with a phone conversation seemed a better way to do it. She was enjoying it, as always, and towards the end (after about 45 minutes) seemed to be getting drowsy and it was approaching her normal nap time. She didn't want to get out, though, so I lay on the grass next to the swing and pushed her lazily with my foot ... and only just avoided it being thrown up on. I don't know if it was motion sickness or something else that disagreed with her. I'm very prone to motion sickness and actually felt slightly unwell just from pushing and watching her while she swung. She still didn't want to get out of the swing, amazingly, but I made her do so because it was time to go and get Jade.
Shannon fell asleep in the car on the way, so when we got home Jade and I got some food and I offered to read to her but she never did bring a book for me. We had a very lazy afternoon in the extreme heat, mostly staying indoors. I felt very lethargic and unmotivated to do anything but did manage to do a tiny bit of tidying. After school time the girl-next-door came round and fortunately she and Jade had a great time mopping my kitchen floor and vacuuming the living room floor!! Oh, this was after Jade had another spell of appalling behaviour after L appeared, stomping off into her bedroom, refusing to let L in, playing with toys but saying L couldn't play with them, and generally being exceedingly unpleasant. {Sigh} - wish I knew what it was all about. Later a bit of painting (on paper, and a mug-painting kit) got done and just miscellaneous playing.
So, that was such a boring day it probably wasn't even worth blogging, but maybe it's a start that'll get me going again.
Today was a playschool morning for Jade, and Shannon and I just pootled around not doing much - a bit of tidying up, a little book browsing, a bit of computering and finally, a long swing for Shannon while I chatted on the phone with a friend. She loves staying on the swing for ages these days - an hour if I can stand it. Usually I swing her high and then go off and do something, and then go back to her when she's slowed down, but combining it with a phone conversation seemed a better way to do it. She was enjoying it, as always, and towards the end (after about 45 minutes) seemed to be getting drowsy and it was approaching her normal nap time. She didn't want to get out, though, so I lay on the grass next to the swing and pushed her lazily with my foot ... and only just avoided it being thrown up on. I don't know if it was motion sickness or something else that disagreed with her. I'm very prone to motion sickness and actually felt slightly unwell just from pushing and watching her while she swung. She still didn't want to get out of the swing, amazingly, but I made her do so because it was time to go and get Jade.
Shannon fell asleep in the car on the way, so when we got home Jade and I got some food and I offered to read to her but she never did bring a book for me. We had a very lazy afternoon in the extreme heat, mostly staying indoors. I felt very lethargic and unmotivated to do anything but did manage to do a tiny bit of tidying. After school time the girl-next-door came round and fortunately she and Jade had a great time mopping my kitchen floor and vacuuming the living room floor!! Oh, this was after Jade had another spell of appalling behaviour after L appeared, stomping off into her bedroom, refusing to let L in, playing with toys but saying L couldn't play with them, and generally being exceedingly unpleasant. {Sigh} - wish I knew what it was all about. Later a bit of painting (on paper, and a mug-painting kit) got done and just miscellaneous playing.
So, that was such a boring day it probably wasn't even worth blogging, but maybe it's a start that'll get me going again.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
***What Your Soul Really Looks Like***
You are very passionate and quite temperamental. While you can be moody, you always crave comfort.
You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities.
You believe that people see you as a bit small and insignificant. People pay more attention to you than you think.
Your near future is calm, relaxing, and pretty much what you want. And it's something you've been anticipating for a while now.
For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.
Inside the Room of Your Soul
http://www.blogthings.com/insidetheroomofyoursoulquiz/
You are very passionate and quite temperamental. While you can be moody, you always crave comfort.
You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities.
You believe that people see you as a bit small and insignificant. People pay more attention to you than you think.
Your near future is calm, relaxing, and pretty much what you want. And it's something you've been anticipating for a while now.
For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.
Inside the Room of Your Soul
http://www.blogthings.com/insidetheroomofyoursoulquiz/
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Musical interlude
A musical education has been going on here today, for a change. After getting home from our church group, when Shannon was asleep in the car, Jade wanted some music to listen to so I dug out something we used to play when she was a baby, Medwyn Goodall. Although this is supposedly New Age music, it doesn't sound like it - it's just basically lovely Celtic stuff like Enya. And we danced together - lovely! And after that was finished, she wanted some more, so, being thoroughly sick of 'kids music' I put on Carnival of the Animals/Peter and The Wolf and we listened to it quite closely, discussing the instruments being used to denote each animal and incident and we both really enjoyed it! It's the first time she's listened properly to anything classical, so it was good it grabbed her attention. Not that it's vital - I think I was thirty-something before I wanted to go near classical music with a bargepole - but it's nice to be able to introduce her to a wide range of experiences and have her evaluate them for what they are in themselves and not what popular culture says a child ought to like.
We then did a little bit of reading "Why is the Sea Salty?" and other questions about the oceans, but didn't get very far with that before she got bored. In fact, at one point today she declared "I hate reading books", which I don't really believe at all but just put it down to her contrary mood lately, or maybe just heat and hunger. or something.
Her behaviour lately, though, has been particularly horrible. I have noticed that other bloggers discuss the 'phase' or age that their child is going through when difficult behaviour occurs whereas I immediately blame myself for being irritable, bad-tempered, a bad role-model and teaching her inappropriate ways of dealing with anger and frustration and conclude that I have already ruined her for life. Whichever is the reason, she's been behaving really horribly quite a bit, especially with Lauren, the girl-next-door who comes round almost every day after school. Jade is extremely bossy and rude some of the time, and can quite often go into major strops where she screams at Lauren to go home and never come here again. It's difficult to know what to make of it really. I know kids have to learn to get along with each other and sort out their differences, but I don't know if Jade is behaving worse than one would normally expect. I only really have Lauren to compare her with, and she seems pretty even-tempered and certainly doesn't go into the strops and tantrums and bossiness that Jade does. House of Tiny Tearaways, here we come ......
We then did a little bit of reading "Why is the Sea Salty?" and other questions about the oceans, but didn't get very far with that before she got bored. In fact, at one point today she declared "I hate reading books", which I don't really believe at all but just put it down to her contrary mood lately, or maybe just heat and hunger. or something.
Her behaviour lately, though, has been particularly horrible. I have noticed that other bloggers discuss the 'phase' or age that their child is going through when difficult behaviour occurs whereas I immediately blame myself for being irritable, bad-tempered, a bad role-model and teaching her inappropriate ways of dealing with anger and frustration and conclude that I have already ruined her for life. Whichever is the reason, she's been behaving really horribly quite a bit, especially with Lauren, the girl-next-door who comes round almost every day after school. Jade is extremely bossy and rude some of the time, and can quite often go into major strops where she screams at Lauren to go home and never come here again. It's difficult to know what to make of it really. I know kids have to learn to get along with each other and sort out their differences, but I don't know if Jade is behaving worse than one would normally expect. I only really have Lauren to compare her with, and she seems pretty even-tempered and certainly doesn't go into the strops and tantrums and bossiness that Jade does. House of Tiny Tearaways, here we come ......
Monday, July 10, 2006
Wiggle wiggle
Big excitement here today, as in a mad moment a few months back I had bought tickets for The Wiggles live concert in Oxford. So I picked Jade up early from playschool, dropped Shannon at the childminder's and off we went. We parked at the Park & Ride and caught the bus, which for Jade was probably as exciting as the concert itself! The bus was full of hordes of over-excited small children all heading the same way as us! The concert itself was pretty good if you like dancing dinosaurs and dippy kids' songs, but in the interests of scientific research I can confirm that Greg is the only Wiggle worth looking at although the others are good for amusement purposes. Jade's reaction was really funny because she was totally overwhelmed by being in the actual presence of the 'real' Wiggles. She said "I feel so funny I want to do something but I don't know what I want to do!" So she just stood and stared.
Gotta go - shannon is wailing!
Gotta go - shannon is wailing!
Monday, July 03, 2006
5 things
I've been tagged by Kath, and Katy (passworded blog!):
5 things in my fridge:
Red seedless grapes
Half an avocado
Organic butter
An opened bottle of dessert wine
A box of yummy chocolates from the Chocolate Tasting Club
5 things in my wardrobe:
Most of my clothes (apart from the ones on the floor in front)
The jewellery I'm hiding from DD1
A big wooden cross
My wedding shoes which I've never worn since (16 years ...)
Moths (judging by the holes in my jumpers)
5 things in my bag:
Purse
Travel sickness pills
Mobile phone and car charger
A Shewee
A book - "Cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics and daily use products"
5 things in my car:
A buggy
Several stones and pebbles in the glove box
2 child car-seats
Sun blinds
Lots of crumbs
5 people I'm tagging:
Ali
Erm, can't find anyone else not already tagged!
5 things in my fridge:
Red seedless grapes
Half an avocado
Organic butter
An opened bottle of dessert wine
A box of yummy chocolates from the Chocolate Tasting Club
5 things in my wardrobe:
Most of my clothes (apart from the ones on the floor in front)
The jewellery I'm hiding from DD1
A big wooden cross
My wedding shoes which I've never worn since (16 years ...)
Moths (judging by the holes in my jumpers)
5 things in my bag:
Purse
Travel sickness pills
Mobile phone and car charger
A Shewee
A book - "Cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics and daily use products"
5 things in my car:
A buggy
Several stones and pebbles in the glove box
2 child car-seats
Sun blinds
Lots of crumbs
5 people I'm tagging:
Ali
Erm, can't find anyone else not already tagged!
I'm lovin' it!
Tamsin is at playschool, and Isabelle has been asleep for 2 hours so far!
I adore my girls, but I just love time on my own at home too, and I get so exceedingly little of it that I'm just basking in the wonder of it!
I adore my girls, but I just love time on my own at home too, and I get so exceedingly little of it that I'm just basking in the wonder of it!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
I seem to do so little HE at the moment that there's not much to blog. We hardly seem to be at home. And when we are, the new girl-next-door comes round to play after school and just about all weekend (rolls eyes)! I don't feel as though I get much quality time with Jade at all.
Anyway, despite all that, a few things have happened today. She requested the Reader Rabbit CD-Rom this morning, which she is far beyond now in terms of phonics/reading but she thinks it's fun anyway. Then we went out to the women's group at church, and then came home and we did some reading - she read an early reader book we got from the Library and I read her something or other - can't remember now.
While I got lunch she played with Shannon, and then we all sat at the table. Memo: don't serve soup to a 19-month old - it gets messy! We then walked into town to post an important letter and to try and get Shannon to go to sleep in the buggy - no luck! Back home at about 4pm and girl-next-door immediately arrived. Much loud playing and throwing of water around in the back garden followed, clothes divested, and much mess made. After dinner, though, at which Shannon fell asleep at the table and was put swiftly to bed, Jade sat down with me and we read through April, May, June and July in the Year at Maple Hill Farm, and a section of the Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature dealing with matter and its 3 states - solid, liquid and gas. So that was timely, as DH had talked at dinner-time about her drink being liquid and she had denied it! Then, to wrap it all up, at bedtime I read her another of those Laurence Anholt books about famous artist - Camille and the Sunflowers
Anyway, despite all that, a few things have happened today. She requested the Reader Rabbit CD-Rom this morning, which she is far beyond now in terms of phonics/reading but she thinks it's fun anyway. Then we went out to the women's group at church, and then came home and we did some reading - she read an early reader book we got from the Library and I read her something or other - can't remember now.
While I got lunch she played with Shannon, and then we all sat at the table. Memo: don't serve soup to a 19-month old - it gets messy! We then walked into town to post an important letter and to try and get Shannon to go to sleep in the buggy - no luck! Back home at about 4pm and girl-next-door immediately arrived. Much loud playing and throwing of water around in the back garden followed, clothes divested, and much mess made. After dinner, though, at which Shannon fell asleep at the table and was put swiftly to bed, Jade sat down with me and we read through April, May, June and July in the Year at Maple Hill Farm, and a section of the Berenstain Bears Book of Science and Nature dealing with matter and its 3 states - solid, liquid and gas. So that was timely, as DH had talked at dinner-time about her drink being liquid and she had denied it! Then, to wrap it all up, at bedtime I read her another of those Laurence Anholt books about famous artist - Camille and the Sunflowers
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Somewhere down the road ...
We woke late this morning, so it was a mad rush to get everyone dressed and breakfasted ready to get Jade to playschool and me to work with Shannon (who is collected by my Dad after about an hour so I can work). So it was only when I was driving past the end of the tiny country lane leading to the church where Benjamin is buried that I remembered it's the 7th anniversary of his death today.
So what's it like, 7 years down the line after losing your first child? Well, for me at least, it's a mixture of maybe 15% missing him and 85% not missing him. I don't know if that's a surprise to you reading - I feel like maybe I 'go on' about it more on this blog than I do anywhere in real life, but then this is my thinking space and exploring my feelings space to some extent, so I guess it's bound to come out here. Actually, I started by writing that it's 10% missing him and 90% not, and then felt guilty and thought, no, surely it can't be that small a space that he has in my life now? When I think about him, my heart swells up with love so much that I feel surely he must still take up 90% of my life - he certainly deserves that - but in reality, no he does not.
I have no idea what it would be like to have a 7-year old boy, and to have 3 children instead of 2, and for Jade to be the middle one and not the oldest one. And would we even have had 3 children, or stuck at 2? Family dynamics would have been quite different, and I have no way of knowing how it would have been.
So here we are, with a family of 2 girls which seems quite normal and complete and OK. And there are 4 places round the dinner table and beds for each of us and most of the time it's not even thought about. But sometimes, and I find it hard to assess how often, I think of him and wonder what it would be like if he had lived, and what would he be like and what would he be doing? And every time (once or twice a month) I drive along the road on which we were driving, approaching Warwick on the way to Birmingham Children's Hospital to get him checked out because I was worried about him, and he collapsed and probably effectively died there in the car, and I remember every single detail and nuance of what happened, and go over it in my mind and wonder if it could have been any different. And every time I feel envious of people who have 3 or 4 children instead of 2, I remind myself that I have had 3, it's just that I have to wait a long time till I get to see one of them again. And when I chat with people about the challenges of having baby number 2, and then I feel a twinge of guilt that I am referring to Shannon as number 2 and not number 3 and am excluding Benjamin from our lives. And when I feel relief that I have girls and not boys, and then feel guilty because of course I did love my boy with all my heart. And when I hear the songs that have special significance in connection with him. And, of course, when I hear of other people losing babies or children and I remember exactly that black hole feeling of the worst thing possible in your entire life actually and really happening and how horrific it is and how the whole world stops and how you can literally think of nothing else for years.
And when I still wonder about exactly how God works in our lives, and why do some people get miraculous healings and others don't, and how exactly do I trust him about difficult and fearful things I have to face, and will He ever intervene, or do I just have to draw courage and strength from knowing He is there, and just keep on going, and then reassuring myself that of course He really was there, most definitely, in our time of need... So the title of this post is an Amy Grant song - "And you say, why why why does it go this way? And why why why, is all I can say. Somewhere down the road, there'll be answers to the questions; somewhere down the road, though you cannot see it now, somewhere down the road you will find mighty arms reaching for you, and they will hold the answers at the end of the road."
However, although on days like today it looms larger than normal, I almost never cry about him these days. We are happy and life is busy with the girls and the shopping and work and trying to get organised and HE and friends and plans for the future and the niggles of everyday life. There's just a little space for Benjamin, that when looked at becomes as if through a magnifying glass and looks enormous and all-encompassing, but then I turn my gaze away again onto the rest of life and it shrinks back down to that little corner. And I guess that's as it should be.
So what's it like, 7 years down the line after losing your first child? Well, for me at least, it's a mixture of maybe 15% missing him and 85% not missing him. I don't know if that's a surprise to you reading - I feel like maybe I 'go on' about it more on this blog than I do anywhere in real life, but then this is my thinking space and exploring my feelings space to some extent, so I guess it's bound to come out here. Actually, I started by writing that it's 10% missing him and 90% not, and then felt guilty and thought, no, surely it can't be that small a space that he has in my life now? When I think about him, my heart swells up with love so much that I feel surely he must still take up 90% of my life - he certainly deserves that - but in reality, no he does not.
I have no idea what it would be like to have a 7-year old boy, and to have 3 children instead of 2, and for Jade to be the middle one and not the oldest one. And would we even have had 3 children, or stuck at 2? Family dynamics would have been quite different, and I have no way of knowing how it would have been.
So here we are, with a family of 2 girls which seems quite normal and complete and OK. And there are 4 places round the dinner table and beds for each of us and most of the time it's not even thought about. But sometimes, and I find it hard to assess how often, I think of him and wonder what it would be like if he had lived, and what would he be like and what would he be doing? And every time (once or twice a month) I drive along the road on which we were driving, approaching Warwick on the way to Birmingham Children's Hospital to get him checked out because I was worried about him, and he collapsed and probably effectively died there in the car, and I remember every single detail and nuance of what happened, and go over it in my mind and wonder if it could have been any different. And every time I feel envious of people who have 3 or 4 children instead of 2, I remind myself that I have had 3, it's just that I have to wait a long time till I get to see one of them again. And when I chat with people about the challenges of having baby number 2, and then I feel a twinge of guilt that I am referring to Shannon as number 2 and not number 3 and am excluding Benjamin from our lives. And when I feel relief that I have girls and not boys, and then feel guilty because of course I did love my boy with all my heart. And when I hear the songs that have special significance in connection with him. And, of course, when I hear of other people losing babies or children and I remember exactly that black hole feeling of the worst thing possible in your entire life actually and really happening and how horrific it is and how the whole world stops and how you can literally think of nothing else for years.
And when I still wonder about exactly how God works in our lives, and why do some people get miraculous healings and others don't, and how exactly do I trust him about difficult and fearful things I have to face, and will He ever intervene, or do I just have to draw courage and strength from knowing He is there, and just keep on going, and then reassuring myself that of course He really was there, most definitely, in our time of need... So the title of this post is an Amy Grant song - "And you say, why why why does it go this way? And why why why, is all I can say. Somewhere down the road, there'll be answers to the questions; somewhere down the road, though you cannot see it now, somewhere down the road you will find mighty arms reaching for you, and they will hold the answers at the end of the road."
However, although on days like today it looms larger than normal, I almost never cry about him these days. We are happy and life is busy with the girls and the shopping and work and trying to get organised and HE and friends and plans for the future and the niggles of everyday life. There's just a little space for Benjamin, that when looked at becomes as if through a magnifying glass and looks enormous and all-encompassing, but then I turn my gaze away again onto the rest of life and it shrinks back down to that little corner. And I guess that's as it should be.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Life since Kessingland
Feet haven't touched the ground really. I got home around 3.30pm on Saturday, and Bill got home around an hour later with the caravan. At 5.30pm I had to go out as it was our monthly film showing for the Rural Cinema - Kate and I run it in aid of the charity we work for. We showed Nanny McPhee, so an uplifting evening in the celluloid presence of a dishy Colin Firth was great, but the house and family were still in total disarray when I left. This wasn't remedied much the next day as I had to travel down to Farnham to collect our dog from my brother, so after getting home at 8pm and then getting kids to bed there wasn't time or energy for much clearing up. Bill had done a mammoth task sorting out and clearing up the caravan while I was out but the house was in much chaos.
I had planned a productive Monday morning sorting everything out while Tamsin was at Playschool, but an emergency phone call from the Playleader who was short of staff meant I had to go in and cover, so that was that morning gone. In the afternoon I went to Witney to visit a friend, which was most enjoyable. Exhaustion by the evening meant all I was fit for after the kids went to bed was sitting at my computer ;-)
This morning we went off to our women's group at church, where I benefitted from some support after receiving a letter in the post this morning of another friend's child's death in a horrible accident in the garden. And this in a family of 3 sons, one of whom has HLHS like Benjamin had, but it's the youngest healthy son who has died. How horrendous is that? I have so many feelings I just don't know what to do with them all.....
But still, this afternoon I have at last got some tidying done and am feeling just a little better as a result.
So when I tell you there are three draft blog posts about London, Kessingland and Tamsin's 5th birthday last week, I'm sure you will understand that I can't quite get them done just yet, let alone Flickr!
Back later, I hope.
I had planned a productive Monday morning sorting everything out while Tamsin was at Playschool, but an emergency phone call from the Playleader who was short of staff meant I had to go in and cover, so that was that morning gone. In the afternoon I went to Witney to visit a friend, which was most enjoyable. Exhaustion by the evening meant all I was fit for after the kids went to bed was sitting at my computer ;-)
This morning we went off to our women's group at church, where I benefitted from some support after receiving a letter in the post this morning of another friend's child's death in a horrible accident in the garden. And this in a family of 3 sons, one of whom has HLHS like Benjamin had, but it's the youngest healthy son who has died. How horrendous is that? I have so many feelings I just don't know what to do with them all.....
But still, this afternoon I have at last got some tidying done and am feeling just a little better as a result.
So when I tell you there are three draft blog posts about London, Kessingland and Tamsin's 5th birthday last week, I'm sure you will understand that I can't quite get them done just yet, let alone Flickr!
Back later, I hope.
London
I really must blog our recent trip to London, if only for our own records. Please don't feel obliged to read on!
Wednesday 7th June - spent the morning packing and got going at about lunchtime to drive to the Travelodge on the M4 near Heathrow. It was the only one near London offering the £10 per night price, so Heathrow it was! We found it OK and unpacked the car, and then drove into West London to get the tube at Barons Court. My Mum used to live there so we know the area well. Jade was tremendously excited about being on the Underground as she absolutely adores trains and had been disappointed that we weren't travelling down from home on the train, but the price made that impossible, especially compared to our frugal Toyota Prius! Anyway we were off to Horseguards Parade to watch the Beating the Retreat. There were major security checks and Bill had his pocket knife confiscated(!) but it was a gorgeously warm sunny evening and the waiting was pleasant. We all thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony, the horses, the marching soldiers and seeing a small royal-blue dot on the dais in the distance which was the Queen! Thankfully we had binoculars so got a closer look at her and Prince Philip. Afterwards we walked up through Green Park and The Mall to look at Buckingham Palace. I reminisced about sleeping on the streets on the night of 28th July 1981, the night before the wedding of Charles and Diana! We got close-up to the Palace and saw they were about to do the Changing of the Guard, so that was fun to watch too. Then we walked back to the nearest Tube station and back to the Travelodge for a late night finish.
Thursday 8th June was Jade's 5th b'day. We had a slow start due to the previous late night and the mountains of prezzies to unwrap! She was thrilled with her pink Maglite torch, her binoculars, telescope, Fun Blox, and the promise of more to buy later with money she'd been sent. There was a slightly tense moment when she asked, "When are my friends coming?" and I realised I hadn't done a great job of explaining that this London trip was instead of a party .... Anyway she took it in her stride and soon perked up again at the thought of visiting the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. I think we eventually got to the first one around about lunchtime so it really was a slow morning, but we all enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs. Jade was absolutely awe-struck by the size of the big one in the lobby and was rather frightened of the large animatronic one! We also took a quick dash round the mammals section and gasped at the size of the blue whale and cooed over the panda. Must spend more time there when she is a bit older. We then went downstairs to eat, and discovered the 'Investigate' section in the Basement where there were all sorts of hands-on and educational activities to explore. We had a fascinating time there feeling all sorts of specimens like crocodile skin, crystals, lions' teeth and so on. When we'd all had enough of that, we moved on to the Science Museum, and at the birthday girl's request went down to The Garden in the basement, where she had a lovely time splashing and playing and generally spending ages doing her thing. Meanwhile Bill and a sleeping Shannon had a bit of a browse of the space rockets. They chucked us out at 6pm and we went back to where we'd left the car and then drove up and down Chiswick High Street looking for a particular restaurant that we had Tesco vouchers for, but didn't find it, so to avoid imminent starvation we just went back to the Travelodge and ate at the Little Chef. Another very late night!
Friday 9th June was Bill's birthday, so again it was prezzies in the morning after a relatively late start. Eventually we set off for the Tower of London. A few people on the journey commented on the cuteness of Shannon, which always warms a mummy's heart! We paid for the Tower with Tesco vouchers! You probably can't 'do' London cheaper than we did it! Of course there was much explaining to Jade about castles, portcullises, moats, slit windows, wars, attacking, William the Conqueror, Henry the 8th and much other stuff. She was fascinated that people used to travel by river and the Traitor's Gate into the castle. We looked at the scaffold site where several people had their heads chopped off, which she took quite calmly! After a bit more of a wander round, but not much due to Jade's nagging to get on, we went to see the Crown Jewels. That was brilliant. I have the vaguest of memories of going to see them when I was a child, but it was fantastic to see them again and the wonderful short movies they have running while you wait to go in showing the Queen's coronation - again very educational for Jade. We came out and had a wander round the Crown Jewels shop and although I would have absolutely loved to buy Jade the £150 set of miniature Crown Jewels, we settled for just one so she has the cutest little miniature Crown which was far too expensive really but I couldn't resist! It was already getting late on in the day by this time so we went off down the road to see the Monument near Pudding Lane. Jade has been fascinated by the Great Fire of London ever since she heard about it - I think it's something of a fearful fascination as she is quite scared of fire/candles/the gas cooker. But she was keen to visit the monument although I had not bargained for her wanting to go up it! But she did, so she and I went all the way up the 311 steps, waved at Daddy and Shannon from the top and then came back down again. It took a couple of hours before my legs stopped shaking! We then took a gentle stroll back up to Tower Hill and got on a boat for a short river cruise down to the Westminster Embankment. We had a quick ogle at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (yes, I know....) and then back to our car. This time round we found the restaurant, so had a fab meal out at the Cafe Rouge courtesy of Tesco vouchers but with two very tired girls by this time we had to cut it a bit short and skip dessert.
Saturday 10th June when the rest of you were setting off for Kessingland was the hottest day of an extremely hot week. After packing away all the stuff we thought it would be great to go to Kew Gardens before going off to the Polka Children's Theatre for which we had tickets. So we drove to Kew, parked down a side street and walked way back up the road in the searing heat, only to find out they charged an absolute fortune for entry, and we only had about 1.5 hours to fill! For some reason, I'd thought it was like the Royal Parks and would be free! Anyway, we walked further up the road and came to an open village-green type space where we settled down under a large maple tree and relaxed. The girls were quite happy tootling about there and playing all sorts of made-up games while Bill and I laid down and relaxed as much as possible. We eventually set off for the Polka Theatre, and got there in the nick of time to see a strange performance called "That's Mine" but Jade had so enjoyed the theatre when we went to see the Gruffalo a few months ago that I had wanted to foster her enjoyment by taking her as often as possible. Well, I have to really seeing as one of my brothers is a professional voice coach who works in acting and the theatre. The other one is an astronomer, hence the telescope we got Jade for her birthday!!
And there endeth the trip to London. We dashed home, unpacked the car and got up the following morning to do it all again for Kessingland. But that's another story.
Wednesday 7th June - spent the morning packing and got going at about lunchtime to drive to the Travelodge on the M4 near Heathrow. It was the only one near London offering the £10 per night price, so Heathrow it was! We found it OK and unpacked the car, and then drove into West London to get the tube at Barons Court. My Mum used to live there so we know the area well. Jade was tremendously excited about being on the Underground as she absolutely adores trains and had been disappointed that we weren't travelling down from home on the train, but the price made that impossible, especially compared to our frugal Toyota Prius! Anyway we were off to Horseguards Parade to watch the Beating the Retreat. There were major security checks and Bill had his pocket knife confiscated(!) but it was a gorgeously warm sunny evening and the waiting was pleasant. We all thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony, the horses, the marching soldiers and seeing a small royal-blue dot on the dais in the distance which was the Queen! Thankfully we had binoculars so got a closer look at her and Prince Philip. Afterwards we walked up through Green Park and The Mall to look at Buckingham Palace. I reminisced about sleeping on the streets on the night of 28th July 1981, the night before the wedding of Charles and Diana! We got close-up to the Palace and saw they were about to do the Changing of the Guard, so that was fun to watch too. Then we walked back to the nearest Tube station and back to the Travelodge for a late night finish.
Thursday 8th June was Jade's 5th b'day. We had a slow start due to the previous late night and the mountains of prezzies to unwrap! She was thrilled with her pink Maglite torch, her binoculars, telescope, Fun Blox, and the promise of more to buy later with money she'd been sent. There was a slightly tense moment when she asked, "When are my friends coming?" and I realised I hadn't done a great job of explaining that this London trip was instead of a party .... Anyway she took it in her stride and soon perked up again at the thought of visiting the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. I think we eventually got to the first one around about lunchtime so it really was a slow morning, but we all enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs. Jade was absolutely awe-struck by the size of the big one in the lobby and was rather frightened of the large animatronic one! We also took a quick dash round the mammals section and gasped at the size of the blue whale and cooed over the panda. Must spend more time there when she is a bit older. We then went downstairs to eat, and discovered the 'Investigate' section in the Basement where there were all sorts of hands-on and educational activities to explore. We had a fascinating time there feeling all sorts of specimens like crocodile skin, crystals, lions' teeth and so on. When we'd all had enough of that, we moved on to the Science Museum, and at the birthday girl's request went down to The Garden in the basement, where she had a lovely time splashing and playing and generally spending ages doing her thing. Meanwhile Bill and a sleeping Shannon had a bit of a browse of the space rockets. They chucked us out at 6pm and we went back to where we'd left the car and then drove up and down Chiswick High Street looking for a particular restaurant that we had Tesco vouchers for, but didn't find it, so to avoid imminent starvation we just went back to the Travelodge and ate at the Little Chef. Another very late night!
Friday 9th June was Bill's birthday, so again it was prezzies in the morning after a relatively late start. Eventually we set off for the Tower of London. A few people on the journey commented on the cuteness of Shannon, which always warms a mummy's heart! We paid for the Tower with Tesco vouchers! You probably can't 'do' London cheaper than we did it! Of course there was much explaining to Jade about castles, portcullises, moats, slit windows, wars, attacking, William the Conqueror, Henry the 8th and much other stuff. She was fascinated that people used to travel by river and the Traitor's Gate into the castle. We looked at the scaffold site where several people had their heads chopped off, which she took quite calmly! After a bit more of a wander round, but not much due to Jade's nagging to get on, we went to see the Crown Jewels. That was brilliant. I have the vaguest of memories of going to see them when I was a child, but it was fantastic to see them again and the wonderful short movies they have running while you wait to go in showing the Queen's coronation - again very educational for Jade. We came out and had a wander round the Crown Jewels shop and although I would have absolutely loved to buy Jade the £150 set of miniature Crown Jewels, we settled for just one so she has the cutest little miniature Crown which was far too expensive really but I couldn't resist! It was already getting late on in the day by this time so we went off down the road to see the Monument near Pudding Lane. Jade has been fascinated by the Great Fire of London ever since she heard about it - I think it's something of a fearful fascination as she is quite scared of fire/candles/the gas cooker. But she was keen to visit the monument although I had not bargained for her wanting to go up it! But she did, so she and I went all the way up the 311 steps, waved at Daddy and Shannon from the top and then came back down again. It took a couple of hours before my legs stopped shaking! We then took a gentle stroll back up to Tower Hill and got on a boat for a short river cruise down to the Westminster Embankment. We had a quick ogle at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (yes, I know....) and then back to our car. This time round we found the restaurant, so had a fab meal out at the Cafe Rouge courtesy of Tesco vouchers but with two very tired girls by this time we had to cut it a bit short and skip dessert.
Saturday 10th June when the rest of you were setting off for Kessingland was the hottest day of an extremely hot week. After packing away all the stuff we thought it would be great to go to Kew Gardens before going off to the Polka Children's Theatre for which we had tickets. So we drove to Kew, parked down a side street and walked way back up the road in the searing heat, only to find out they charged an absolute fortune for entry, and we only had about 1.5 hours to fill! For some reason, I'd thought it was like the Royal Parks and would be free! Anyway, we walked further up the road and came to an open village-green type space where we settled down under a large maple tree and relaxed. The girls were quite happy tootling about there and playing all sorts of made-up games while Bill and I laid down and relaxed as much as possible. We eventually set off for the Polka Theatre, and got there in the nick of time to see a strange performance called "That's Mine" but Jade had so enjoyed the theatre when we went to see the Gruffalo a few months ago that I had wanted to foster her enjoyment by taking her as often as possible. Well, I have to really seeing as one of my brothers is a professional voice coach who works in acting and the theatre. The other one is an astronomer, hence the telescope we got Jade for her birthday!!
And there endeth the trip to London. We dashed home, unpacked the car and got up the following morning to do it all again for Kessingland. But that's another story.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
They're even more disorganised than I am!
Just got a letter from Park Resorts:
"Dear Mrs G,
We hope you had a safe journey home and are feeling relaxed and refreshed after your touring holiday with us at Kessingland Beach Holiday Park."
!!!!!
Still, it prompted me to phone them and arrange to get an £8 refund seeing as they overcharged me for my hook-up pitch!
We're off to London in the morning. Will catch up with many of you at Kessingland when we get there on Sunday (late, probably)!
"Dear Mrs G,
We hope you had a safe journey home and are feeling relaxed and refreshed after your touring holiday with us at Kessingland Beach Holiday Park."
!!!!!
Still, it prompted me to phone them and arrange to get an £8 refund seeing as they overcharged me for my hook-up pitch!
We're off to London in the morning. Will catch up with many of you at Kessingland when we get there on Sunday (late, probably)!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Another baby in heaven
What can we say about another baby, heartbeat not found in utero at 24 weeks. More grieving parents, my good friends Kate and Mark, who may even now be going through labour to deliver their dead daughter. I've barely been able to stop crying for 24 hours since I heard. And they are one of three couples going in this weekend for the same thing. FUCK, I hate life sometimes.
So I escaped the house this afternoon and drove 2 hours to just north of Mansfield to collect Jade's new bed. After a mega-blowout with Jade this morning, I knew it would just be best if I went out and left Bill with the girls - we had originally arranged it to be the other way round. So, bed is duly collected, and on the way back I stopped off at a large cemetery and found the dead babies section (there always is one :-( ) and sat and contemplated the meaning of everything for half-an-hour.
Got home around 5.30pm to find the next-door neighbour's daughter here - erm, but she was here when I left at 12.00 .... well, she hadn't quite been here all day but almost! And yesterday too..... I guess I feel safer and better able to keep an eye on things if the neighbouring kids come here instead of Jade disappearing round there, but it takes a little getting used to! She's a nice enough girl, though, polite and friendly. It's good to see them playing together very imaginatively and nicely.
And I was just reading in the EO newsletter about how we should just be encouraging playing, playing and more playing ..... so that's a day-full of education really!
And now I must pull together a very specific packing list for both London and Kessingland to make the next few days as straightforward as it possibly can be while packing for 2 holidays simultaneously!
So I escaped the house this afternoon and drove 2 hours to just north of Mansfield to collect Jade's new bed. After a mega-blowout with Jade this morning, I knew it would just be best if I went out and left Bill with the girls - we had originally arranged it to be the other way round. So, bed is duly collected, and on the way back I stopped off at a large cemetery and found the dead babies section (there always is one :-( ) and sat and contemplated the meaning of everything for half-an-hour.
Got home around 5.30pm to find the next-door neighbour's daughter here - erm, but she was here when I left at 12.00 .... well, she hadn't quite been here all day but almost! And yesterday too..... I guess I feel safer and better able to keep an eye on things if the neighbouring kids come here instead of Jade disappearing round there, but it takes a little getting used to! She's a nice enough girl, though, polite and friendly. It's good to see them playing together very imaginatively and nicely.
And I was just reading in the EO newsletter about how we should just be encouraging playing, playing and more playing ..... so that's a day-full of education really!
And now I must pull together a very specific packing list for both London and Kessingland to make the next few days as straightforward as it possibly can be while packing for 2 holidays simultaneously!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
| Career Inventory Test Results
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personality tests by similarminds.com
Monday, May 29, 2006
Drowning, not waving
I've not been feeling well for the past 24 hours - just around the children's bedtime last night I came over all achey - just a cold really but it's made me feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience at times today. And then the weather, good grief, I'm thinking it's about time I wrote and complained to somebody. I am so fed up with rain ruining everything, from planned days out to playing in the garden, my washing and my mood.
The good news is I've just won an Ebay auction very cheaply for the sort of bed Jade wants. He could have got a lot more money for it if only he'd listed it better. Anyway, all we have to do now is get to Mansfield to collect it! Anybody nearby who wants a visit? And then, we have to completely rearrange and redecorate two of the bedrooms, swapping the guest room and Jade's room around and making the bigger room a joint one for the two girls.
As far as HE goes, I bought a lovely set of books about famous artists and we've read a few of those, she's played with her LeapPad, Learning Land CD-Rom and Bill's read her some history stories he's found online - I'll try and remember to get the link - about King Alfred and King Canute. She did seem rather more interested in fiddling about with toys and stuff than listening - but hey, maybe something went in.
And she's chatted over the fence with the new girl who lives next door, so it would be nice if that develops into a friendship.
And now I'm going to drag my aching body off to bed.
The good news is I've just won an Ebay auction very cheaply for the sort of bed Jade wants. He could have got a lot more money for it if only he'd listed it better. Anyway, all we have to do now is get to Mansfield to collect it! Anybody nearby who wants a visit? And then, we have to completely rearrange and redecorate two of the bedrooms, swapping the guest room and Jade's room around and making the bigger room a joint one for the two girls.
As far as HE goes, I bought a lovely set of books about famous artists and we've read a few of those, she's played with her LeapPad, Learning Land CD-Rom and Bill's read her some history stories he's found online - I'll try and remember to get the link - about King Alfred and King Canute. She did seem rather more interested in fiddling about with toys and stuff than listening - but hey, maybe something went in.
And she's chatted over the fence with the new girl who lives next door, so it would be nice if that develops into a friendship.
And now I'm going to drag my aching body off to bed.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
New blog title
I never liked 'Trying our best' - far too earnest and serious and worthy. I just couldn't think of anything else. Been meaning to change it for ages, and at last I have. Will also be using the girls' middle names for a tad more anonymity.
This morning I got up at 8'ish with Shannon, while Jade slept till 9.30ish, having had a very late night last night. We just pootled about this morning, while I actually did some tidying up (first time in days!) and Jade did some painting. We have new neighbours moving in today so she painted a goodbye picture for the 2 girls moving away, and a welcome picture for the new family moving in. I'm quite excited about it, actually, as the Mum is a childminder!!! Could be very useful! Apparently they have 3 kids - 2 boys and the youngest is a girl aged 6, so I'm hoping Jade will make friends with her.
This afternoon, we've been over to visit a friend's new house. It's lovely, and throws our messy, run-down place into stark contrast. I just do not know why I find it so hard to keep things in order - I just look at stuff lying around and simply don't know what to do with it, so I leave it there. Not helped by always feeling I am 'behind' with important stuff like our finances, letters, playschool or Usborne stuff, and feeling like it's more important to get on with those than tidy up once the girls have gone to bed. I have a great urge just to chuck everything out onto the lawn and start again. If only it would stop raining long enough to do so. It's an extremely wet drought we're having, isn't it!
Anyway, I have 2 birthdays (Bill and Jade) and 2 holidays to plan (a few days in London just prior to Kessingland) so must dash!
This morning I got up at 8'ish with Shannon, while Jade slept till 9.30ish, having had a very late night last night. We just pootled about this morning, while I actually did some tidying up (first time in days!) and Jade did some painting. We have new neighbours moving in today so she painted a goodbye picture for the 2 girls moving away, and a welcome picture for the new family moving in. I'm quite excited about it, actually, as the Mum is a childminder!!! Could be very useful! Apparently they have 3 kids - 2 boys and the youngest is a girl aged 6, so I'm hoping Jade will make friends with her.
This afternoon, we've been over to visit a friend's new house. It's lovely, and throws our messy, run-down place into stark contrast. I just do not know why I find it so hard to keep things in order - I just look at stuff lying around and simply don't know what to do with it, so I leave it there. Not helped by always feeling I am 'behind' with important stuff like our finances, letters, playschool or Usborne stuff, and feeling like it's more important to get on with those than tidy up once the girls have gone to bed. I have a great urge just to chuck everything out onto the lawn and start again. If only it would stop raining long enough to do so. It's an extremely wet drought we're having, isn't it!
Anyway, I have 2 birthdays (Bill and Jade) and 2 holidays to plan (a few days in London just prior to Kessingland) so must dash!
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Not much of anything
I haven't been blogging because we haven't been doing anything educational. It's just been work, playschool and random playing or TV watching. Too much going on, not much of it of any interest. I have, however, resigned as Chairperson of playschool effective from September, so that's one pie I shall no longer have a finger in! I've also been working out what times/days I need Tamsin to go to school in September when we start the flexi-schooling arrangement. We are moving offices at work, next week, to save money and this will give us the chance to re-arrange our working hours. And Bill is applying for flexible working - condensed hours on 4 days per week and spending one day a week at home with the girls. So, if that is successful, the plan is that Bill will be at home on Wednesdays and I will work all day. Then I will work on Thursday morning and Tamsin can go to school that morning. She will also go on a Monday afternoon when they do music/dance and possibly on a Friday morning when they go swimming. So she'll be at school 2 or 3 half-days per week, mostly for non-academic stuff, and the rest at home.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Quick blog
We had quite an educational afternoon, for a change, so I thought I'd better blog. This morning was playschool for Tamsin and work for me, and after collecting her and getting home, Isabelle was asleep so I took the chance for a half-hour lie-down too. After Isabelle woke and was dealt with, Tamsin started playing with the sea-shells she collected in March at Exmouth beach. I suggested she might like to draw them, so she decided to draw round them and compare shapes and sizes. After that, I suggested we Google to find out what sort of creatures the shells were from. We tried good old Enchanted Learning, which came up with some interesting stuff. Then we looked at the Usborne Children's Encyclopedia, and read through about coral reefs, the sea-shore, the deep ocean, plants and more. We talked about gills and oxygen and photosynthesis and fish and mammals and molluscs and shells and skeletons and all sorts! I then followed up some of the Usborne Quick Links for the first time, and was very impressed with the activities and colouring and worksheets they include. We got to some video clips of sea-snails and anemones and all sorts of other sea-creatures feeding.
Then Bill started playing some music to try and keep Isabelle occupied instead of climbing up on my knee, only it distracted Tamsin too and it became PE time with lots of dancing. Tamsin then put on a dance show, spontaneously, which was lovely! And then we just moved on into general playing, TV watching, and dinner making etc.
Then Bill started playing some music to try and keep Isabelle occupied instead of climbing up on my knee, only it distracted Tamsin too and it became PE time with lots of dancing. Tamsin then put on a dance show, spontaneously, which was lovely! And then we just moved on into general playing, TV watching, and dinner making etc.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Sometimes I sit here for ages, trying to think what to start writing about, and other days it just flows. Today is a 'sitting and thinking and coming up with a blank' day... So, with apologies for poor literary style or continuity or flow, here are my random thoughts about the past few days.
Bill had all last week off due to 'you-know-what', and would have gone back to work on Monday in reasonably fine fettle except that, yes, he did break a tooth but I'm not entirely sure it was due to gritting his teeth so hard... anyway he woke up on Monday morning in fair oral agony, phoned the dentist immediately and took some strong painkillers, which sent him so woozy that I ended up having to drive him to the dentist in the afternoon. In Oxford. Where he had a triple root canal filling. And today he looks like a hamster storing his food in a pouch in his cheek ..... poor love!
In the meantime, there have been some nice positive learning times with Tamsin. This morning, for instance, she found her scrapbook and some pre-printed pictures that Granny had given her, and asked me to sit with her while she invented a story with them. So she chose and stuck pictures and dictated the story to me which I wrote. She did manage to write one word - iron - but she's really not too keen on writing much. Still, no rush! She did write a birthday to a card as well today.
Yesterday she pulled out some maths workbooks which we have on the shelf, and I suggested we try the 'Simple Adding Up' one, which went down pretty well - I think we did about 8 or 9 pages of that and she seemed to be getting the hang of it. We've really done very little maths stuff, but I think it would be nice to do a bit more of that while it's still in her mind, to consolidate it, if she's willing. She's done some more Dot-to-Dot, using numbers up to 50. She's counted up to 100 orally quite a bit, but not done much written work with those higher numbers, so it was quite good to go over those and have her actually recognise that thirty-two is 32 and so on.
This afternoon we've had a couple of girls age 4 and 6 and their mum over - we met them at HE group and it was the first time they've been here. It went really nicely, with the girls running down the driveway shouting, "Tamsin, Tamsin ....!" excitedly, which was encouraging! They all played very well and happily together. I showed T, their Mum, my box of Sonlight stuff and she was very taken with Handwriting without Tears. She doesn't have internet access at home but is going to go to the library to try and find a UK supplier - anybody know of one?
Today's most exciting moment, however, came when we went to the local park after dinner because I was roped in to helping to paint the railings round the new play equipment in advance of the Grand Official Opening to be held on Sunday. We met my friend Kate and her girls there, and they had their bikes, so Tamsin had a go on a bike without stabilisers for the first time! She did fantastically well - it was so exciting. She managed 10 metres or so on bumpy grass before wobbling and falling off! She did that several times, and was so thrilled that after the 3rd or 4th time she jumped up after falling off, and ran towards me giggling and laughing so much she just couldn't stop, and threw herself into my arms in utter joy!!!! And of course I had the biggest face-splitting grin and tears in my eyes too! Perfect moment.
Bill had all last week off due to 'you-know-what', and would have gone back to work on Monday in reasonably fine fettle except that, yes, he did break a tooth but I'm not entirely sure it was due to gritting his teeth so hard... anyway he woke up on Monday morning in fair oral agony, phoned the dentist immediately and took some strong painkillers, which sent him so woozy that I ended up having to drive him to the dentist in the afternoon. In Oxford. Where he had a triple root canal filling. And today he looks like a hamster storing his food in a pouch in his cheek ..... poor love!
In the meantime, there have been some nice positive learning times with Tamsin. This morning, for instance, she found her scrapbook and some pre-printed pictures that Granny had given her, and asked me to sit with her while she invented a story with them. So she chose and stuck pictures and dictated the story to me which I wrote. She did manage to write one word - iron - but she's really not too keen on writing much. Still, no rush! She did write a birthday to a card as well today.
Yesterday she pulled out some maths workbooks which we have on the shelf, and I suggested we try the 'Simple Adding Up' one, which went down pretty well - I think we did about 8 or 9 pages of that and she seemed to be getting the hang of it. We've really done very little maths stuff, but I think it would be nice to do a bit more of that while it's still in her mind, to consolidate it, if she's willing. She's done some more Dot-to-Dot, using numbers up to 50. She's counted up to 100 orally quite a bit, but not done much written work with those higher numbers, so it was quite good to go over those and have her actually recognise that thirty-two is 32 and so on.
This afternoon we've had a couple of girls age 4 and 6 and their mum over - we met them at HE group and it was the first time they've been here. It went really nicely, with the girls running down the driveway shouting, "Tamsin, Tamsin ....!" excitedly, which was encouraging! They all played very well and happily together. I showed T, their Mum, my box of Sonlight stuff and she was very taken with Handwriting without Tears. She doesn't have internet access at home but is going to go to the library to try and find a UK supplier - anybody know of one?
Today's most exciting moment, however, came when we went to the local park after dinner because I was roped in to helping to paint the railings round the new play equipment in advance of the Grand Official Opening to be held on Sunday. We met my friend Kate and her girls there, and they had their bikes, so Tamsin had a go on a bike without stabilisers for the first time! She did fantastically well - it was so exciting. She managed 10 metres or so on bumpy grass before wobbling and falling off! She did that several times, and was so thrilled that after the 3rd or 4th time she jumped up after falling off, and ran towards me giggling and laughing so much she just couldn't stop, and threw herself into my arms in utter joy!!!! And of course I had the biggest face-splitting grin and tears in my eyes too! Perfect moment.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
You Are Red Orange |
 You are a very genuine person, although it takes a while for you to show the true you. A bit introverted, you desire respect and affection from those close to you. You are quite empathetic, and you have a true concern for the well being of others. Many people have warm, heartfelt memories of you - even if you don't remember them well. |
Friday, May 12, 2006
Doesn't time fly when you're ......
having fun? Well, I don't know about that, but time has flown anyway.
Last Sunday we went to see the dance show that Tamsin would have been in but decided not to. I thought she was quite brave as she went to sit on the steps right at the front of the audience, so that she could see properly, while I sat nearer the back. She stayed there for most of the performance too. I enjoyed the dance show, and so did she, and she did say later, "I didn't know it would be so easy." So, next year, she thinks she will want to be in it!
On Monday, Bill was very brave and underwent a Short Procedure to his Manly Bits. No more babies for us. He's therefore been at home all week, recovering, poor thing. On Monday afternoon I tucked Bill into bed with several strong painkillers while the rest of us went off to HE group. It was so nice to see all the different age groups playing together with no difficulty whatsoever. And I made arrangements with a couple of the other mums with similar-aged girls to mine to come over in the next week or two. So that's good!
The rest of the week has proceeded pretty much as normal - work for me on Weds, Thurs and Friday mornings and playschool for Tamsin. We did make a trip to the library on Tuesday and came back with another armful of early readers for Tamsin, which she is making short work of.
Oh, and Isabelle fell asleep at the dinner table this evening!
That's it!
Last Sunday we went to see the dance show that Tamsin would have been in but decided not to. I thought she was quite brave as she went to sit on the steps right at the front of the audience, so that she could see properly, while I sat nearer the back. She stayed there for most of the performance too. I enjoyed the dance show, and so did she, and she did say later, "I didn't know it would be so easy." So, next year, she thinks she will want to be in it!
On Monday, Bill was very brave and underwent a Short Procedure to his Manly Bits. No more babies for us. He's therefore been at home all week, recovering, poor thing. On Monday afternoon I tucked Bill into bed with several strong painkillers while the rest of us went off to HE group. It was so nice to see all the different age groups playing together with no difficulty whatsoever. And I made arrangements with a couple of the other mums with similar-aged girls to mine to come over in the next week or two. So that's good!
The rest of the week has proceeded pretty much as normal - work for me on Weds, Thurs and Friday mornings and playschool for Tamsin. We did make a trip to the library on Tuesday and came back with another armful of early readers for Tamsin, which she is making short work of.
Oh, and Isabelle fell asleep at the dinner table this evening!
That's it!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
"Oh dear"
'Oh Dear' is Isabelle's newest phrase, and a very appropriate one too last night, when I would have blogged but couldn't. Because my new (to me, cheap but legal, if you remember :-) ) computer has been behaving temperamentally, and finally spit the dummy last night when it refused to boot up no matter what we did. So, seeing as there was no computer to use and therefore no point to life at all, I fell asleep with the children and stayed there all evening, and got up this morning to find a rejuvenated computer thanks to my dearly beloved :-) !! There was a faulty memory chip, apparently. I'm so glad I don't have to know any of this stuff myself! In fact, I was having a conversation with Bill in the car the other day, trying to make him aware of how little I know about the basics of computers, like backing-up, etc. He does it all, you see! The conversation was prompted by the news that my Mum (72) has ordered a laptop. She's never used a computer. She hasn't a clue. Bill said I could teach her. That's when I revealed I didn't really have a clue either.
Anyway, we've been away. I had a work conference to go to in Cardiff, and as I am still feeding Isabelle, she had to come. And I didn't fancy trying to look after her while trying to be professional and take part in a conference too, so the whole family came, and Bill did kids' stuff while I conferenced. It was good, it's given me lots of new ideas, and the only problem is it hasn't given me any extra time in which to carry out those good ideas. Ah well. Oh, but I love staying in hotels. So tidy! So clean! It makes me want to come home and throw everything away.
This afternoon, my Mum is coming, bringing back Poppy the dog who's been on holiday with her for a week while we've been at the Beans' party and at the conference. We'll then go off to see the dance show that Tamsin should have been in, but refused. That's OK. Being confident enough to perform in public isn't compulsory, and all I want is for her to enjoy her dancing, and it's saved me an awful lot of time and worry getting costumes together, but it would have been so cute to see her up there on stage. Maybe next year!
Anyway, we've been away. I had a work conference to go to in Cardiff, and as I am still feeding Isabelle, she had to come. And I didn't fancy trying to look after her while trying to be professional and take part in a conference too, so the whole family came, and Bill did kids' stuff while I conferenced. It was good, it's given me lots of new ideas, and the only problem is it hasn't given me any extra time in which to carry out those good ideas. Ah well. Oh, but I love staying in hotels. So tidy! So clean! It makes me want to come home and throw everything away.
This afternoon, my Mum is coming, bringing back Poppy the dog who's been on holiday with her for a week while we've been at the Beans' party and at the conference. We'll then go off to see the dance show that Tamsin should have been in, but refused. That's OK. Being confident enough to perform in public isn't compulsory, and all I want is for her to enjoy her dancing, and it's saved me an awful lot of time and worry getting costumes together, but it would have been so cute to see her up there on stage. Maybe next year!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Catching up
We really enjoyed the party at Chris & Helen's on Saturday! It was good to see everybody again and catch up. I did take pics but haven't downloaded them yet.
Today would have been a good day to do the "home-ed day" photoblog meme but as two interesting things had happened before I had even left the bedroom and found my camera, I thought I had better get more organised and plan in advance to do it another day.
Tamsin went downstairs with Bill while I was still waking up slowly, and came up 15 minutes later bouncing and shouting excitedly that she'd done her first crossword! And indeed she had - in her "Thomas Activity Book" she'd filled in a little crossword with the names of Thomas, Edward, Percy and so on .... - beautifully done! And then while I was trying to get the girls and myself dressed, Isabelle was wandering about naked, and I found her reclining upon a piled-up duvet, thinking, and looking very cherubic - I would have loved to catch that on the camera!
So, apart from that, the day has been full of washing, phone calls, reading, did an Usborne Puzzle Adventure book with Tamsin, receiving and putting away a huge Tesco delivery, e-mails, Tamsin mixed up some flour-and-water 'glue' and then added various other stuff to make a 'cake' - she loves making up these 'recipes' that are inedible! Also My Little Ponies, Fuzzy felt, beads, and other enjoyable pursuits.
Today would have been a good day to do the "home-ed day" photoblog meme but as two interesting things had happened before I had even left the bedroom and found my camera, I thought I had better get more organised and plan in advance to do it another day.
Tamsin went downstairs with Bill while I was still waking up slowly, and came up 15 minutes later bouncing and shouting excitedly that she'd done her first crossword! And indeed she had - in her "Thomas Activity Book" she'd filled in a little crossword with the names of Thomas, Edward, Percy and so on .... - beautifully done! And then while I was trying to get the girls and myself dressed, Isabelle was wandering about naked, and I found her reclining upon a piled-up duvet, thinking, and looking very cherubic - I would have loved to catch that on the camera!
So, apart from that, the day has been full of washing, phone calls, reading, did an Usborne Puzzle Adventure book with Tamsin, receiving and putting away a huge Tesco delivery, e-mails, Tamsin mixed up some flour-and-water 'glue' and then added various other stuff to make a 'cake' - she loves making up these 'recipes' that are inedible! Also My Little Ponies, Fuzzy felt, beads, and other enjoyable pursuits.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
I am so tired, but it's all done! Today's Baby Show went well - sold some books and also got 2 possibles for signing up as my first Usborne recruits! Isabelle loved being a model - she boogied down the catwalk with such verve that she got a spontaneous round of applause! She was utterly gorgeous all morning and was loving all the flashes as the paparazzi took pics! Well, Stroud News, anyway.
And Tamsin's playleader said Tamsin has been positively chatty for the past few days! So I'll try and stop worrying about her non-speaking, anyway.
And Tamsin's playleader said Tamsin has been positively chatty for the past few days! So I'll try and stop worrying about her non-speaking, anyway.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Incredibly busy
I'm in the middle of one of my busiest weeks ever, I think. It looks like my job is safe for about another year, but we have to move offices to somewhere cheaper. So we've been viewing, negotiating and planning. Tomorrow BBC Radio Gloucestershire is in town and we have been invited to promote our charity on air by doing some sort of challenge event, so have been racking our brains what to do and eventually, after a few false starts caused mostly by the inertia of the local Town Council, we are going to renovate some of the floral raised stone beds in town. And on Friday I have the morning off work, and I am doing an Usborne thing at a Baby Show which is to promote Real Nappy Week, and Isabelle will be modelling! So lots of preparation required for that. Not to mention Playschool and Nursery Grant forms and then, oh yes, I've got 2 children too .....
So I'm looking forward to being at the Beans' party on Saturday, 'cos that will mean I can relax a little bit ....!
So not much HE to report, but then, life's like that, isn't it?!!
So I'm looking forward to being at the Beans' party on Saturday, 'cos that will mean I can relax a little bit ....!
So not much HE to report, but then, life's like that, isn't it?!!
Huh?
I just found a biscuit tin, full of potting compost, in my dirty washing basket. WTF? I will never understand a 4-year old's mind.....
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Things I must blog
Today we've been to HE group this morning, which was on the subject of printing, and done some vegetable prints, which Isabelle particularly enjoyed, and some footprints which Tamsin particularly enjoyed. It was also nice to meet a new family with two girls aged 5 yrs and 14 months, so pretty close to my two. They live about a 20-minute drive away and we exchanged phone numbers, so I think that might be another lovely contact and friendship possibility for the girls.
This afternoon we have largely been out in the garden. I pushed Tamsin and Isabelle on the swing for a while, and then got on with some garden stuff. I have planted out my carrot seedlings, potted on my tomato seedlings and yesterday we planted out some lettuces that a friend dropped off. So I really am beginning to feel like a proper gardener! Let's just hope that most of them survive. I could easily fail to water them appropriately, or something like that, and lose the lot. My strawberry seedlings have not survived and I've had to buy some potted ones.
There are a couple of other things from the past few days that I've wanted to record too. Isabelle is *definitely* counting! I blogged on 21st Feb about how it sounded like she was saying "five, six, seven ..." but I wasn't sure, what with that cute baby pronunciation, but she has been doing it ever since, and has been heard very clearly to say "one, two three ..." all the way to ten. She doesn't have a clue what the words mean, I don't suppose, but even so it seems pretty impressive to me that a 17-month old can count from one to ten! She likes pushing mine or Bill's fingers up or down as she does it!
There was another lovely moment a couple of days ago when Isabelle got hold of a little Maglight torch, and was fascinated to wave it around, even in daylight, but even more so when she discovered that if it was pointing towards the carpet, the circle of light got smaller and then disappeared when she put the torch on the carpet, and appeared again when she lifted it up. She spent ages just lifting the torch up and down and watching the pattern of light increase and decrease.
And, mostly for my own records, I will just note all that Isabelle can say so far:
Up
Down
Bye
Socks on
Shoes on
Mummy
Daddy
Poppy
Numbers 1-10
I think that's it!
ETA - she also says Beebib, meaning CBeebies!
This afternoon we have largely been out in the garden. I pushed Tamsin and Isabelle on the swing for a while, and then got on with some garden stuff. I have planted out my carrot seedlings, potted on my tomato seedlings and yesterday we planted out some lettuces that a friend dropped off. So I really am beginning to feel like a proper gardener! Let's just hope that most of them survive. I could easily fail to water them appropriately, or something like that, and lose the lot. My strawberry seedlings have not survived and I've had to buy some potted ones.
There are a couple of other things from the past few days that I've wanted to record too. Isabelle is *definitely* counting! I blogged on 21st Feb about how it sounded like she was saying "five, six, seven ..." but I wasn't sure, what with that cute baby pronunciation, but she has been doing it ever since, and has been heard very clearly to say "one, two three ..." all the way to ten. She doesn't have a clue what the words mean, I don't suppose, but even so it seems pretty impressive to me that a 17-month old can count from one to ten! She likes pushing mine or Bill's fingers up or down as she does it!
There was another lovely moment a couple of days ago when Isabelle got hold of a little Maglight torch, and was fascinated to wave it around, even in daylight, but even more so when she discovered that if it was pointing towards the carpet, the circle of light got smaller and then disappeared when she put the torch on the carpet, and appeared again when she lifted it up. She spent ages just lifting the torch up and down and watching the pattern of light increase and decrease.
And, mostly for my own records, I will just note all that Isabelle can say so far:
Up
Down
Bye
Socks on
Shoes on
Mummy
Daddy
Poppy
Numbers 1-10
I think that's it!
ETA - she also says Beebib, meaning CBeebies!
Just what I thought!
You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering) |
 You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug. |
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Happiness is ......
A new computer. So how should 2 new computers make me feel?!
My dearly beloved has provided me with a new desktop and a new laptop. I now have Windows XP (so I can download Skype and talk to my brother in the USA) and a super-speedy computer.
They're not 'new' new, you understand, but obtained in a completely legal but cheap manner.
I just don't know when I'm going to get time to explore all the new features, though, seeing as I still haven't read the instruction manuals for my mobile phone, my digital camera or the new car!
My dearly beloved has provided me with a new desktop and a new laptop. I now have Windows XP (so I can download Skype and talk to my brother in the USA) and a super-speedy computer.
They're not 'new' new, you understand, but obtained in a completely legal but cheap manner.
I just don't know when I'm going to get time to explore all the new features, though, seeing as I still haven't read the instruction manuals for my mobile phone, my digital camera or the new car!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Books by women meme
Just BOLD those you’ve read, ITALICIZE the ones you’ve been meaning to read and ??? the ones you have never heard of.
Alcott, Louisa May – Little Women
Allende, Isabel – The House of Spirits???
Angelou, Maya – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret – Cat’s Eye???
Austen, Jane – Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade – Salt Eaters???
Barnes, Djuna – Nightwood???
de Beauvoir, Simone – The Second Sex
Blume, Judy – Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret???
Burnett, Frances – The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte – Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily – Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S. – The Good Earth???
Byatt, A.S. – Possession???
Cather, Willa – My Antonia???
Christie, Agatha – Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra – The House on Mango Street ???
Clinton, Hillary Rodham – Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia – A Voice From the South ???
Danticat, Edwidge – Breath, Eyes, Memory ???
Davis, Angela – Women, Culture, and Politics ???
Desai, Anita – Clear Light of Day???
Dickinson, Emily – Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois – I Know What You Did Last Summer???
DuMaurier, Daphne – Rebecca
Eliot, George – Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi – Second Class Citizen ???
Erdrich, Louise – Tracks ???
Esquivel, Laura – Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty – The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne – Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins – The Yellow Wallpaper ???
Gordimer, Nadine – July’s People ???
Grafton, Sue – S is for Silence???
Hamilton, Edith – Mythology ???
Highsmith, Patricia – The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell – Bone Black ???
Hurston, Zora Neale – Dust Tracks on the Road ???
Jacobs, Harriet – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ???
Jackson, Helen Hunt – Ramona???
Jackson, Shirley – The Haunting of Hill House???
Jong, Erica – Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn – The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk – The Secret Life of Bees ???
Kincaid, Jamaica – Lucy ???
Kingsolver, Barbara – The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong – The Woman Warrior ???
Larsen, Nella – Passing???
L’Engle, Madeleine – A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K. – The Left Hand of Darkness???
Lee, Harper – To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris – The Golden Notebook ???
Lively, Penelope – Moon Tiger???
Lorde, Audre – The Cancer Journals ???
Martin, Ann M. – The Babysitters Club Series???
McCullers, Carson – The Member of the Wedding ???
McMillan, Terry – Disappearing Acts ???
Markandaya, Kamala – Nectar in a Sieve ???
Marshall, Paule – Brown Girl, Brownstones ???
Mitchell, Margaret – Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy – Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan – When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost ???
Morrison, Toni – Song of Solomon???
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu – The Tale of Genji ???
Munro, Alice – Lives of Girls and Women ???
Murdoch, Iris – Severed Head ???
Naylor, Gloria – Mama Day ???
Niffenegger, Audrey – The Time Traveller’s Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol – We Were the Mulvaneys ???
O’Connor, Flannery – A Good Man is Hard to Find???
Piercy, Marge – Woman on the Edge of Time???
Picoult, Jodi – My Sister’s Keeper
Plath, Sylvia – The Bell Jar???
Porter, Katharine Anne – Ship of Fools ???
Proulx, E. Annie – The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn – The Fountainhead ???
Ray, Rachel – 365: No Repeats ???
Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea???
Robinson, Marilynne – Housekeeping ???
Rocha, Sharon – For Laci ???
Sebold, Alice – The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein
Smith, Betty – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ???
Smith, Zadie – White Teeth ???
Spark, Muriel – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna – Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth – Amy and Isabelle???
Steel, Danielle – The House???
Tan, Amy – The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah – You’re Wearing That ???
Ulrich, Laurel – A Midwife’s Tale???
Urquhart, Jane – Away ???
Walker, Alice – The Temple of My Familiar ???
Welty, Eudora – One Writer’s Beginnings ???
Wharton, Edith – Age of Innocence???
Wilder, Laura Ingalls – Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary – A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia – A Room of One’s Own
Okay, so I'm not very well read. I've been too busy reading about metabolic biochemistry, OK?
Alcott, Louisa May – Little Women
Allende, Isabel – The House of Spirits???
Angelou, Maya – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret – Cat’s Eye???
Austen, Jane – Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade – Salt Eaters???
Barnes, Djuna – Nightwood???
de Beauvoir, Simone – The Second Sex
Blume, Judy – Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret???
Burnett, Frances – The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte – Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily – Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S. – The Good Earth???
Byatt, A.S. – Possession???
Cather, Willa – My Antonia???
Christie, Agatha – Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra – The House on Mango Street ???
Clinton, Hillary Rodham – Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia – A Voice From the South ???
Danticat, Edwidge – Breath, Eyes, Memory ???
Davis, Angela – Women, Culture, and Politics ???
Desai, Anita – Clear Light of Day???
Dickinson, Emily – Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois – I Know What You Did Last Summer???
DuMaurier, Daphne – Rebecca
Eliot, George – Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi – Second Class Citizen ???
Erdrich, Louise – Tracks ???
Esquivel, Laura – Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty – The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne – Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins – The Yellow Wallpaper ???
Gordimer, Nadine – July’s People ???
Grafton, Sue – S is for Silence???
Hamilton, Edith – Mythology ???
Highsmith, Patricia – The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell – Bone Black ???
Hurston, Zora Neale – Dust Tracks on the Road ???
Jacobs, Harriet – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ???
Jackson, Helen Hunt – Ramona???
Jackson, Shirley – The Haunting of Hill House???
Jong, Erica – Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn – The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk – The Secret Life of Bees ???
Kincaid, Jamaica – Lucy ???
Kingsolver, Barbara – The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong – The Woman Warrior ???
Larsen, Nella – Passing???
L’Engle, Madeleine – A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K. – The Left Hand of Darkness???
Lee, Harper – To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris – The Golden Notebook ???
Lively, Penelope – Moon Tiger???
Lorde, Audre – The Cancer Journals ???
Martin, Ann M. – The Babysitters Club Series???
McCullers, Carson – The Member of the Wedding ???
McMillan, Terry – Disappearing Acts ???
Markandaya, Kamala – Nectar in a Sieve ???
Marshall, Paule – Brown Girl, Brownstones ???
Mitchell, Margaret – Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy – Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan – When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost ???
Morrison, Toni – Song of Solomon???
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu – The Tale of Genji ???
Munro, Alice – Lives of Girls and Women ???
Murdoch, Iris – Severed Head ???
Naylor, Gloria – Mama Day ???
Niffenegger, Audrey – The Time Traveller’s Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol – We Were the Mulvaneys ???
O’Connor, Flannery – A Good Man is Hard to Find???
Piercy, Marge – Woman on the Edge of Time???
Picoult, Jodi – My Sister’s Keeper
Plath, Sylvia – The Bell Jar???
Porter, Katharine Anne – Ship of Fools ???
Proulx, E. Annie – The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn – The Fountainhead ???
Ray, Rachel – 365: No Repeats ???
Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea???
Robinson, Marilynne – Housekeeping ???
Rocha, Sharon – For Laci ???
Sebold, Alice – The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein
Smith, Betty – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ???
Smith, Zadie – White Teeth ???
Spark, Muriel – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna – Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth – Amy and Isabelle???
Steel, Danielle – The House???
Tan, Amy – The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah – You’re Wearing That ???
Ulrich, Laurel – A Midwife’s Tale???
Urquhart, Jane – Away ???
Walker, Alice – The Temple of My Familiar ???
Welty, Eudora – One Writer’s Beginnings ???
Wharton, Edith – Age of Innocence???
Wilder, Laura Ingalls – Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary – A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia – A Room of One’s Own
Okay, so I'm not very well read. I've been too busy reading about metabolic biochemistry, OK?
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
It's been a nice day today. Went out fairly early (i.e. 10am!) this morning to visit someone we've met at HE group who has 2 girls aged 4 and 6. We had a nice time there and Tamsin got on well with her girls, and T and I chatted about all sorts of things including jobs, laziness and disorganisation in HE, homes, lack of money, and the trouble with older boisterous boys at the group, so that was good. She'll come here to visit in a week or two, and we hope to arrange a get-together with another woman and her 5-year old girl too so hopefully there are some nice links and friendships being set up there.
However, I was again concerned to note that Tamsin literally would not speak a word while this other adult was in the room, even to me. She would only whisper to me. When the girls all went outside in the garden she was talking and laughing with them, but not in front of another adult. I came home and made an appointment to talk to the doctor, about selective mutism. If it really is a serious anxiety problem like it appears to be, then she's going to need some help. I would appreciate comments from anyone else who's BTDT, like Joyce, as I am feeling a bit wary about calling in 'the professionals' who may sit in judgement on our lives in some way, or is that just me being paranoid? I could be tempted to cancel the appt, but I just don't know.
However, in other better news, yesterday while I was browsing round WH Smith I noticed their sets of magnetic words, one set being the target words that children should be able to recognise by the end of their Reception year, and three sets totalling the words they should recognise by the end of Year 2. Tamsin wasn't with me, but I know from the reading she is doing that she could easily recognise all of them. I know comparing isn't really the name of the game, but it does make me feel good anyway! Of course, if she was 'behind' in something I would be strongly challenging the necessity of any such ridiculous goals anyway!
The purpose of my sole shopping trip (what luxury!!!) was to try and spend my remaining Christmas presents - £20 M&S vouchers and a £10 Smiths voucher. I thought I'd treat myself to some new underwear, but after trying on 10 or more bras and not being able to get a decent fit in any of them I gave up, went to Smiths and bought a display book for my Usborne stuff and some plastic storage boxes for the kids' toys. Not a great shopping success, then. I didn't know whether to consider the afternoon had been lovely for just simply being on my own and browsing without interruption, or miserable for achieving nothing much. Still, I guess it means I'll have to go again sometime!!
Most of all, though, I've just been loving the sunshine of the past couple of days. At last!!
However, I was again concerned to note that Tamsin literally would not speak a word while this other adult was in the room, even to me. She would only whisper to me. When the girls all went outside in the garden she was talking and laughing with them, but not in front of another adult. I came home and made an appointment to talk to the doctor, about selective mutism. If it really is a serious anxiety problem like it appears to be, then she's going to need some help. I would appreciate comments from anyone else who's BTDT, like Joyce, as I am feeling a bit wary about calling in 'the professionals' who may sit in judgement on our lives in some way, or is that just me being paranoid? I could be tempted to cancel the appt, but I just don't know.
However, in other better news, yesterday while I was browsing round WH Smith I noticed their sets of magnetic words, one set being the target words that children should be able to recognise by the end of their Reception year, and three sets totalling the words they should recognise by the end of Year 2. Tamsin wasn't with me, but I know from the reading she is doing that she could easily recognise all of them. I know comparing isn't really the name of the game, but it does make me feel good anyway! Of course, if she was 'behind' in something I would be strongly challenging the necessity of any such ridiculous goals anyway!
The purpose of my sole shopping trip (what luxury!!!) was to try and spend my remaining Christmas presents - £20 M&S vouchers and a £10 Smiths voucher. I thought I'd treat myself to some new underwear, but after trying on 10 or more bras and not being able to get a decent fit in any of them I gave up, went to Smiths and bought a display book for my Usborne stuff and some plastic storage boxes for the kids' toys. Not a great shopping success, then. I didn't know whether to consider the afternoon had been lovely for just simply being on my own and browsing without interruption, or miserable for achieving nothing much. Still, I guess it means I'll have to go again sometime!!
Most of all, though, I've just been loving the sunshine of the past couple of days. At last!!
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Easter
What to say? It's been mixed. One of these years I will remember that I always get to Easter and feel spiritually unprepared and disappointed, and think about it earlier. Now that we're here, I remember I felt like this last year, and wished I had spent more time thinking about the real meaning of Easter. I think I like it better than Christmas overall.
Two or three nights ago I made all sorts of plans for stuff to do over this weekend with Tamsin - craft stuff and faith stuff. The bits we've actually done have gone wrong (crafts not as easy as they look!) and I set a very bad example by behaving more like a 4-year old than my 4-year old did! So we have a feeble four little eggs hanging on our Easter 'tree', and nothing else. They just took ages! I boiled several real eggs for decorating, and about half of them cracked. And Tamsin was more interested in CBeebies than egg-decorating when I was ready to do them. So there are still 5 hard-boiled eggs in the fridge undecorated. I didn't do the Easter Egg hunt at home this afternoon as they did one at church this morning. And the other stuff I got out ready remains untouched.
I wish I knew what this low mood was all about. It's very annoying, and I've been giving myself a stiff talking-to but I'm not sure whether it's helped.
Anyway, we had fun this afternoon doing some yoga poses, and I took lots of photos and have Flickrd. Can anyone tell me how I just get a few of the pics to insert into my blog and link to the rest on Flickr?
Two or three nights ago I made all sorts of plans for stuff to do over this weekend with Tamsin - craft stuff and faith stuff. The bits we've actually done have gone wrong (crafts not as easy as they look!) and I set a very bad example by behaving more like a 4-year old than my 4-year old did! So we have a feeble four little eggs hanging on our Easter 'tree', and nothing else. They just took ages! I boiled several real eggs for decorating, and about half of them cracked. And Tamsin was more interested in CBeebies than egg-decorating when I was ready to do them. So there are still 5 hard-boiled eggs in the fridge undecorated. I didn't do the Easter Egg hunt at home this afternoon as they did one at church this morning. And the other stuff I got out ready remains untouched.
I wish I knew what this low mood was all about. It's very annoying, and I've been giving myself a stiff talking-to but I'm not sure whether it's helped.
Anyway, we had fun this afternoon doing some yoga poses, and I took lots of photos and have Flickrd. Can anyone tell me how I just get a few of the pics to insert into my blog and link to the rest on Flickr?
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Running on empty
Feel like I'm really struggling at the moment. I don't know why particularly except the threat of job loss (which has receded till end July but is otherwise still there), and maybe the time of year, as it is approaching Benjamin's birthday although I feel a bit impatient if it is that after 7 years. I seem to feel constantly tired and only the very very bare minimum of vital things is getting done both at home and at work. I feel like I need a week's retreat in a Trappist monastery, with silence, total silence. Don't suppose that'll be happening anytime soon, though, what with a breastfeeding babe and all .......
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Cold front passing over, depression looming ....
Plumber still hasn't got back to us so we're still sitting in the cold with the exception of one fan heater. Nevertheless we've managed to have a decent enough day HE-wise, if not behaviour-wise (mine!!).
We started with a leisurely getting-up and going off to the group at church, during which we listened to a tape of an amazing meditation on Isaiah 61, which was very moving and powerful and which I must borrow to listen to more. Had to leave a little early to get to the surgery for Isabelle's 3rd immunisation. Tamsin had said beforehand that she didn't want to listen to Isabelle cry because it was upsetting, so she put her hands over her ears. Strange how it doesn't stop her pushing her over, or taking the toy Isabelle is playing with, or anything else that makes her cry at home! Then a quick dash into the local supermarket to pick up a couple of things which turned into a £40+ trolley-full, and then home, going just slowly enough for Isabelle to fall asleep in the car.
I know for many HEers, the time when the baby sleeps is when they get to do some serious stuff with their older one, but as far as I'm concerned it's time for me to get some rest, so Tamsin got to watch CBeebies and I had a lie down on the sofa and maybe even a little snooze. The tasks of the afternoon have blurred into a muddle, but I know we went through the little 'workbook' thing in the magazine that I bought for Tamsin while shopping, so that included some writing, counting, matching, spotting the difference, and easy addition and subtraction. It was interesting to note in the 'counting' section that she didn't have to count 1, 2, 3 to count to 3 and 4 - she just looked at them and saw how many there were. That's the first time I've noticed that happening. Tamsin then picked up a library book - Usborne Beginners "Dogs" - and read the first few pages of that to me, only needing help with one or two words on each page. While I was making the dinner she sat at the table and read a Red Nose Reader. She's also played with her animals, but really it was just the hardest thing to get her to move more than about 3 inches away from me and actually get on with anything on her own. She's just wanted to sit on my knee the whole afternoon, and Isabelle has pretty much wanted to do the same, and it's just driven me batty, so I'm afraid there's been a fair bit of yelling "just go away" and "leave me alone" going on. I do have to say that this is not the sole tone of our communication today, there has been plenty of positive comment, loving interaction and good stuff, but some days I just can't bear the feeling that they're both just trying to get back inside my skin one moment longer!!!
Didn't manage to blog yesterday (fell asleep at the girls' bedtime again and was very cross to discover I missed ER and the programme about Selective Mutism) but I must just record that a friend came and finished digging the vegetable patch for me, then hoed it, and then guided me in planting the potatoes, so we have our first home-grown stuff planted!! Very exciting!
We started with a leisurely getting-up and going off to the group at church, during which we listened to a tape of an amazing meditation on Isaiah 61, which was very moving and powerful and which I must borrow to listen to more. Had to leave a little early to get to the surgery for Isabelle's 3rd immunisation. Tamsin had said beforehand that she didn't want to listen to Isabelle cry because it was upsetting, so she put her hands over her ears. Strange how it doesn't stop her pushing her over, or taking the toy Isabelle is playing with, or anything else that makes her cry at home! Then a quick dash into the local supermarket to pick up a couple of things which turned into a £40+ trolley-full, and then home, going just slowly enough for Isabelle to fall asleep in the car.
I know for many HEers, the time when the baby sleeps is when they get to do some serious stuff with their older one, but as far as I'm concerned it's time for me to get some rest, so Tamsin got to watch CBeebies and I had a lie down on the sofa and maybe even a little snooze. The tasks of the afternoon have blurred into a muddle, but I know we went through the little 'workbook' thing in the magazine that I bought for Tamsin while shopping, so that included some writing, counting, matching, spotting the difference, and easy addition and subtraction. It was interesting to note in the 'counting' section that she didn't have to count 1, 2, 3 to count to 3 and 4 - she just looked at them and saw how many there were. That's the first time I've noticed that happening. Tamsin then picked up a library book - Usborne Beginners "Dogs" - and read the first few pages of that to me, only needing help with one or two words on each page. While I was making the dinner she sat at the table and read a Red Nose Reader. She's also played with her animals, but really it was just the hardest thing to get her to move more than about 3 inches away from me and actually get on with anything on her own. She's just wanted to sit on my knee the whole afternoon, and Isabelle has pretty much wanted to do the same, and it's just driven me batty, so I'm afraid there's been a fair bit of yelling "just go away" and "leave me alone" going on. I do have to say that this is not the sole tone of our communication today, there has been plenty of positive comment, loving interaction and good stuff, but some days I just can't bear the feeling that they're both just trying to get back inside my skin one moment longer!!!
Didn't manage to blog yesterday (fell asleep at the girls' bedtime again and was very cross to discover I missed ER and the programme about Selective Mutism) but I must just record that a friend came and finished digging the vegetable patch for me, then hoed it, and then guided me in planting the potatoes, so we have our first home-grown stuff planted!! Very exciting!
Aaaaarrrggghhhh!
As I write, Tamsin insists on being so close to me that she is sitting behind me on my computer chair; Isabelle is whimpering and trying to climb up on my lap, and the dog is scratching at my leg wanting to be stroked. It's been like this ALL AFTERNOON!!!!! I know one day I will wish that they wanted to be close to me instead of off with their friends, but at the moment I just wish they'd GO AWAY a bit!!!!!
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Wow, and Damn!
Wow! Bill found my folic acid dissertation for me, and bloody hell I am good!!!! Literature research and review is so my strong point, and I love it. Reading as much info as possible on a subject, assessing all the competing and conflicting claims, balancing the strengths and weaknesses of different studies, bringing in some aspect that hasn't been looked at before and coming to an overall conclusion about a subject is such fun! I know I said that being at home with my girls is better, and overall it is, but I would truly love to be doing some nutrition research too - it really lights my fire, as they say. It's just a great shame I don't live anywhere near the major research centres where there might be the possibility of it. (And I love living here and don't want to move).
Ah well, I was talking to an 82-year old gentleman the other day, and afterwards realised that he is exactly twice my age, so I have a whole lifetime still to live and maybe the nutrition research can fit in later sometime!
The Damn moments have come both at home and at work. At home, our boiler has gone kaput so we have no heating or hot water. Bill had a go on Saturday, but unusually for him he cannot fix it, so we're going to have to call in a plumber, and you know how much they charge! In the meantime I'm sitting at the computer wrapped in a big towel to keep me warm, and the wood-burning stove is back in action.
The work thing is even worse. I may lose my job at the end of May. The charity depends on grants from other charitable foundations and trusts, and despite using a professional fund-raiser there just hasn't been any money coming in lately. If nothing comes in shortly the charity cannot keep going after May. And then we are truly up the creek without a paddle, as we simply cannot manage without the money I bring in. Especially as we've just taken out the car loan. Oops!
Like Merry says, I really MUST do some education this week!!
Ah well, I was talking to an 82-year old gentleman the other day, and afterwards realised that he is exactly twice my age, so I have a whole lifetime still to live and maybe the nutrition research can fit in later sometime!
The Damn moments have come both at home and at work. At home, our boiler has gone kaput so we have no heating or hot water. Bill had a go on Saturday, but unusually for him he cannot fix it, so we're going to have to call in a plumber, and you know how much they charge! In the meantime I'm sitting at the computer wrapped in a big towel to keep me warm, and the wood-burning stove is back in action.
The work thing is even worse. I may lose my job at the end of May. The charity depends on grants from other charitable foundations and trusts, and despite using a professional fund-raiser there just hasn't been any money coming in lately. If nothing comes in shortly the charity cannot keep going after May. And then we are truly up the creek without a paddle, as we simply cannot manage without the money I bring in. Especially as we've just taken out the car loan. Oops!
Like Merry says, I really MUST do some education this week!!
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The Guardian: Folic acid may be added to bread
You know, if only they'd taken the time to ask me, I could have saved the Food Standards Agency an awful lot of time and money. I did a phenomenal dissertation for my degree on the pros and cons of folic acid fortification of flour, and concluded that it would be a very good thing, preventing not only many neural tube defects but also vascular disease, some cancers, some psychiatric disorders and some other congenital defects and with very little basis for the fear that it may mask B12 deficiency if doctors are given basic education on what to keep an eye open for.
It won me a prize for the best student project in the Biological Sciences in my year.
I could be a famous and celebrated nutritionist by now, but instead I am at home with my 2 girls.
I know which is best.
It won me a prize for the best student project in the Biological Sciences in my year.
I could be a famous and celebrated nutritionist by now, but instead I am at home with my 2 girls.
I know which is best.
Monday, April 03, 2006
First shoes
What a lovely day we've had today! Not a cross word said by anyone, I don't think, just relaxed and enjoyable. I have several memories today of Tamsin and I looking at each other sharing laughter about something or other, often one of Isabelle's funny little antics. It was all so sweet.
Not that we've actually done much. I had promised swimming today, which was planned for the afternoon. We had a lazy start to the morning, nobody waking before 8am, and all of us still in our pyjamas at 11am! Pulled finger out after that, and piled everybody plus dog into the car for a (short) trip into town, a visit to someone for work and to walk the dog. Bought fish and chips for lunch, then came home and ate it. Relaxed for an hour, then went off to Stratford for shopping and swimming.
Isabelle needs her first pair of shoes. It's funny how I could hardly wait for Tamsin to have been walking for 4 weeks before I got her first pair, but Isabelle has been walking for over 3 months now and it just hasn't seemed that important! But she is growing out of her cute little soft leather baby shoes, so we went to Brantano to get her measured. I had in mind how Tamsin's first shoes cost £31 and lasted only 4 weeks, so I thought I'd get some cheaper ones, but I didn't like the way there was no width measurement and then we were just left on our own to try on and choose shoes. I try that toe-squeezing move but just can't tell how much space there is in there! So we abandoned that and went next door into Boots for me to try (once again) to spend my Christmas vouchers. Had a lovely time browsing round, and eventually chose a smart aqua/brown coloured laptop case for my new computer (not yet quite set up for me but nearly there!). I feel so cool with it! I shall have to carry my laptop round town just to pose a little.
Found out that by now it was 3.30pm and swimming closed at 4, so had to break the news gently to Tamsin that there wasn't time to go (Bad Mummy!). Promised to go later this week though, and she took it extremely well. Went down to the Town Centre to visit Clarks and got a gorgeous pair of black patent shoes with tiny little pink hearts cut out all round for Isabelle - suitably cute for her to keep forever as "My First Shoes"!
Called round as pre-arranged to see a friend after that, and Tamsin really enjoyed playing out in the garden with her 2 boys. It was quite funny to see a little pink fairy kicking a football! Home late, dinner late and bed late but all is quiet now and it's bliss!
Not that we've actually done much. I had promised swimming today, which was planned for the afternoon. We had a lazy start to the morning, nobody waking before 8am, and all of us still in our pyjamas at 11am! Pulled finger out after that, and piled everybody plus dog into the car for a (short) trip into town, a visit to someone for work and to walk the dog. Bought fish and chips for lunch, then came home and ate it. Relaxed for an hour, then went off to Stratford for shopping and swimming.
Isabelle needs her first pair of shoes. It's funny how I could hardly wait for Tamsin to have been walking for 4 weeks before I got her first pair, but Isabelle has been walking for over 3 months now and it just hasn't seemed that important! But she is growing out of her cute little soft leather baby shoes, so we went to Brantano to get her measured. I had in mind how Tamsin's first shoes cost £31 and lasted only 4 weeks, so I thought I'd get some cheaper ones, but I didn't like the way there was no width measurement and then we were just left on our own to try on and choose shoes. I try that toe-squeezing move but just can't tell how much space there is in there! So we abandoned that and went next door into Boots for me to try (once again) to spend my Christmas vouchers. Had a lovely time browsing round, and eventually chose a smart aqua/brown coloured laptop case for my new computer (not yet quite set up for me but nearly there!). I feel so cool with it! I shall have to carry my laptop round town just to pose a little.
Found out that by now it was 3.30pm and swimming closed at 4, so had to break the news gently to Tamsin that there wasn't time to go (Bad Mummy!). Promised to go later this week though, and she took it extremely well. Went down to the Town Centre to visit Clarks and got a gorgeous pair of black patent shoes with tiny little pink hearts cut out all round for Isabelle - suitably cute for her to keep forever as "My First Shoes"!
Called round as pre-arranged to see a friend after that, and Tamsin really enjoyed playing out in the garden with her 2 boys. It was quite funny to see a little pink fairy kicking a football! Home late, dinner late and bed late but all is quiet now and it's bliss!
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