NotSheep

Toby woke up this morning with a huge smile - the first time he’s done that in a few days He’s still coughing a little bit, but it’s more of a throat-clearing cough than a rattly-chest cough now, and he’s obviously feeling so much better. He does a little “aahhh” thing, like a sigh, after he coughs each time; he manages to make even illness look cute

George fought with everybody else all the way through breakfast, but seems to have cheered up somewhat now. I’m a bit fed up because I came downstairs this morning to find that our dalmatian molly had hidden away among the leaves of a plant and quietly left this mortal plane Must admit that this is getting frustrating - and wondering whether the problem is the quality of fish in the shop we’ve been using, as it seems that the ones that survive the first couple of weeks don’t have any problems afterwards (i.e. it’s not our tank). The problem is that the other options are a large chain-store in which the staff don’t seem bothered if there are dead fish floating in the tanks, or a very tiny local place which doesn’t seem to have a clue

I’ve been thinking about using one of those vegetable box delivery schemes. It seems like we’ve been eating the same things over and over recently, and I’d really like to widen the range of veg we use. It seems like winter is a good time to try a veg box, as I can always toss everything we don’t use by the end of the week into a pot for soup. So off I went a-googling, and more frustration resulted - it seems like all the local box schemes that I’ve found either don’t deliver to our area, or have stopped operating I’ll have to do a ring-round of my more radical friends to see if any of them knows of one that covers this area.

Barney has done some maths and history this morning, George some geography and maths. Freddy’s been working on his animals book - he seems to have been using it forever, but it’s such a great big thick book, and he’s nearly at the end. Jack drew some pictures and insisted I “check” them, just like I check the older boys’ stuff

Freddy is off to his dance-class this afternoon; my friend J (who is also the teacher) picks him up so I just have to make sure he’s found socks by about 2 pm - don’t laugh, this can, on a bad day, be a challenge He’ll be home about 5.30, by which time Barney and George will be gone with Scratchy and the Cubs to watch an ice-hockey game. They’re rather looking forward to it No archery today because it just can’t be fitted in - socialisation problem? Yep - can’t keep it down!