NotSheep

Have you ever had one of those days when you did have a plan, but it didn’t go as planned, but it was still good? That’s kind of how this weekend was here.

We started on Saturday morning with swimming for Barney, Freddy and George. Last week, Freddy was told that he was moving up a class, so would be going into the same class as Barney and George. He didn’t get a bit of paper saying this, though, which is what happened when the others moved up, so I wasn’t sure. On Friday night I suggested to Scratchy that he phoned the leisure centre to ask if Freddy would be in the 8.30 class or the 9 a.m. class, and he agreed that was a good idea. He still didn’t do it though so they all had to get there for 8.30 just in case. As it turned out, Freddy is moving up, but not until the end of the session. Barney is less than impressed that Freddy will once again be in the same class; his muttered remark to George was “Right, after Christmas, we’re working on getting outta here!”

George got left at the leisure centre after swimming, for his trampoline class, and the others came home. Everybody got some food, then I went to pick up George, and we went together to get a Christmas tree. We had a great conversation on the way - “How was swimming?” “I can’t tell you.” “Why not?” (thinking, what did he do…) “Because it was too good.” “It was too good to tell me?” “That’s right.” “But… why can’t you tell me it was good?” “Because there aren’t any words for how good it was.” Ah….

An artificial tree was in the plan, but apparently if you add a foot to a £35 tree, the cost increases to £80… This is the same shop that told me bookcases were seasonal items, though, so I don’t know why I’m surprised Anyway, I decided it would work out cheaper to buy a real tree and get an artificial one for next year in the sales after Christmas I do like real trees though, so I’m quite happy to have one We picked out a nice one and some lights for the house. The tree just fit into the car (and I never thought, when I left Scratchy with the other kids, that I’d have to put a tree in my car on my own - bad planning, that).

Anyway, home, tidied up a bit, put up tree, swept up needles, got out decorations, swept up needles, sorted through decorations, swept up needles, put some lights around the bushes out the front, swept up needles… you know the score. Eventually we got lights and decorations on the tree itself, and it does look good

Browsed on-line after getting the boys to bed, but didn’t actually order anything because I couldn’t quite bring myself to click on “checkout” after I’d seen what it said in the basket after the word “total”. I have forced myself to click on “checkout” this evening though, in consideration of the fact that Christmas is now just three weeks away. Let’s hope that neither Hawkins Bazaar nor The Book People use Famac for their deliveries, or we’ll be lucky to get the stuff in time for Easter. The last time I got something delivered by them, they delivered it to the windowsill of a house about a mile away. Completely different address to ours - fortunately the woman who received it brought it round and asked if it was for us (it having our address on it was no doubt the clue :roll:) And the time before that, they left a vacuum cleaner in the middle of the garden in the rain. You have to really make an effort to be that good at being bad

So where were we… oh, Saturday night. This morning started off very quietly - usually the days here start with a child or two shouting at the top of their voices, and everyone else going “argh! sssh!” but this morning when I woke up I discovered that Barney, George and Freddy were playing quietly in their beds, with the bedroom door closed so that the light wouldn’t wake everyone else! After the shock wore off we had breakfast and set about moving the aquaria. We went through about six plans there before finally settling on one, and about that I will just say this: it all looks good, but those danios can jump! Fortunately, said danio was rescued by Scratchy before the cats realised anything was up

Barney requested that we make bread, so we threw some stuff in the breadmaker this afternoon, but took it out for baking in the oven - I don’t think we let it rise long enough before baking though, as it turned out slightly… um…dense. Good, but dense. Discovered that the BT bill is overdue - why do they only give you about ten days to pay it? What if you’re away or in hospital or something? I really don’t like BT. If I could get broadband without them, I’d dump them All the other bills are up-to-date, though, and there’s a cashback cheque due on the mobile phone bill, so if that £120 arrives promptly, it will be a nice little Christmas pressie

Everything I did this weekend was slowed down somewhat by the fact that Toby has decided that I, and only I, will do. He doesn’t want Scratchy or Barney or any of the other people who, until now, have been adequate mummy-substitutes for a few minutes. He wants me! This is very flattering, of course, but does make life more difficult. Hm… just wondering if it has anything to do with me being gone for an hour yesterday when I went for the Christmas tree