NotSheep

…and another week has gone by without me blogging. I think I need to establish a regular time to blog each day. The problem is that my life is never that regular!

This week has been especially irregular: Scratchy had exams on Wednesday and today, and was off work most of the week to revise, so we were staying clear of the house to give him peace to do it. He went into work on Monday morning, but finished at lunchtime, and I took off with the boys to buy groceries, socks and trainers. We came home for dinner, followed by ju-jitsu.

On Tuesday we spent the day at the house of some friends; they’re schoolies, so weren’t around until after 3pm, but were kind enough to leave us a key We left just after 5 pm to take Barney and George to Community Circus, but in the car en route, a grumpy George decided to punch Freddy in the eye, so I decided I wasn’t willing to inflict him on anyone else and only left Barney there. The traffic was bad crossing the city, and by the time I got Freddy to Beavers, I’d arranged for Barney to be picked up by someone else, and then made further arrangements so that Barney didn’t actually come home! Instead, he stayed over with the friends whose house we’d spent the day at (and I know that should read “at whose house…” but it sounds awkward LOL) He missed out on St John Cadets because of it, but he wasn’t too bothered, as the sleepover made up for it. I went to pick him up on Wednesday morning, and left Scratchy there instead, to study for a couple of hours. Then we did some shopping - bought belts for Barney and George since their trousers are always falling down - and went back for Scratchy, and dropped him off at his exam. Then it was time to pick up the boys’ friend J, and off we headed to Archery. Toby has decided he doesn’t like the car, and cried most of the way there and most of the way back - we have to do something about this, at least for the next little while, as it’s just not fair on him. It’s okay if I can time things carefully so that he’s been fed just before we get into the car and he’s just ready to fall asleep, but the rest of the world won’t stand still for me to do that Ideally we’d use a later archery class, so that Scratchy could be home from work in time to take them and Toby wouldn’t have to go along, but the only later class conflicts with Cub Scouts We finally made it back after what seemed like an age in the car, dropped George at Cubs, went home for dinner, then Scratchy took Barney to Scouts and picked up George, then back a while later to pick up Barney. The usual late-Wednesday-switcheroo thing. We tried Jack in a booster seat with an attached back on Wednesday too, but he can (and does) get out of it too easily, so it was back to his big convertible carseat. Jack is really, really challenging right now - I know it’s his age, but I’m quite sure that the older three weren’t quite this…um…challenging. Yep, it’s a challenge.

On Thursday we took advantage of a different bunch of friends, and hung out at their house until about 2ish, then I met Freddy’s dance teacher, and she took him to dance and we went to her house and looked after it until she got back with Freddy. And we didn’t make the Scouts parents’ meeting last night, because I was too knackered and Scratchy was too grumpy/busy revising. He was especially grumpy because our half-cat scratched his hand yesterday. He’s been stressed all week, with his exams and he’s also been fighting flu, I think - and he’s been taking it out on the cats. (Before anyone rings the RSPCA, he mostly swears at them, and about them. Mostly.) But I can’t really find it in myself to be too sympathetic, because he did something very daft: the hungry, half-feral cat was sitting outside the kitchen window while Scratchy was making dinner, and Scratchy was daft enough to stick his hand out with some food for the cat in it. Surprise surprise - the cat pounced. Cue one extremely annoyed husband…especially when his wife didn’t go “aw, sweetums, did the nasty pussy-cat scratch poor diddum’s hand?”

Today we got to stay home - yay! The boys did some work this morning, then we caught up with all the household chores that had been missed during the week. I was very organised and prepared the bulk of three different dinners in one go, so there should be minimal cooking this weekend. We even got the bedrooms cleared up enough to be able to put laundry away. I do have a question, however. How is it that I bought Jack six new pairs of socks on Monday, and already we can’t find a single matching pair?!

Scratchy got home about 2.30 and I promptly put him to work - now his exams are over, he can do all the things I’ve been saving up for him He reckons he’s going to have to re-sit one and possibly two of them in April, but a) he’s a pessimist, he’s probably done just fine; and b) April is a long way away and I can keep him busy around here for a while until he knows for sure We have a second dining-table that we shipped from Canada with us nearly two years ago; it has been in the shipping packaging since then. Today we finally unwrapped it. Set it up in the dining-room, where it will serve a dual purpose - we’ll use it when the kids study, and it will be where we eat when there are too many of us to fit around the breakfast-bar in the kitchen. We ate in the conservatory (where our other dining-table lives) all summer, and that was lovely, but it’s a bit chilly in there in the evenings now! I counted how many dining-chairs we have, and it comes to an astounding 18. There are six at the table in the conservatory, four at the breakfast-bar in the kitchen, and another eight for the table we put up today. Four of those had never even been taken from the boxes they came from the shop in! Anyway, there’s no shortage of seating here now

Tomorrow morning starts with swimming lessons at 8.30 - and that’s another thing we’ve got to figure out, because Barney and George are to move up a class for the next session, which begins at the end of this month. That means their class will start at 9am and finish at 9.30 - and their trampoline class starts at 9.45. Both activities are in the same building, so it wouldn’t be a problem for people who didn’t take 40 minutes getting dried and dressed after swimming…maybe they’ll learn *looks hopeful*. We’ll still need to be there for 8.30 am though, as Freddy is staying in the same class *sigh*

Apart from all that, I spent the week (unsuccessfully) fighting off flu, Toby has a stuffy nose and Jack has a runny nose (which he constantly wipes across his cheek with the back of his hand - lovely!) The fish are doing well, and Mollycat hasn’t stayed out all night in over a week (though I don’t think she’s come in yet this evening, so maybe I shouldn’t count my chickens, if you see what I mean). And I think I’ve figured out why my camera sometimes doesn’t take a picture - well, I haven’t figured out why but I think I’ve worked out when it does it - it’s not random, it’s when we use the zoom. Bummer. We have another camera, but it’s not nearly so easy to use, especially one-handed (which I nearly always am).

Barney, Freddy and Jack are now watching a DVD, Scratchy is putting together the last two dining-room chairs, George (who was miserable at dinner) is reading in bed, and I’m nursing Toby to sleep (propping him on my him and my forearm so I can type). Note to self: under “special skills” on my CV, add “multi-tasking”…