NotSheep

There’s been a “Five Goals” thing cruising the blog-ring. I couldn’t come up with five goals in each category (personal, work, home-ed, etc), so I’ve taken the easy route, and put it all together. Here are my five (albeit slightly late):

* Eat better, get more exercise and (thus) lose weight.
* Take more photos. I know my Flickr account was bursting at the seams for December, but I feel I’m not recording enough bits of my kids’ childhoods. And I’d like more photos of me, for them. (That’s part of my reason for #1 above.)
* Get more positive with my parenting. I felt that I was getting close to being the kind of parent I want to be, but I seem to have drifted somehow. I don’t like it. I’m going to get back on course.
* Find some work that I get paid for - preferably self-employed (but what? :-/)
* Have a general re-think for each of the children, in various ways.

2005 has been a very good year for us - much better than 2004, and hugely better than 2003. Apart from a certain attempted trip in May, we’ve really had no bad bits this year. Some things which were unresolved (and stressful due to that) have been resolved, it’s been good for Scratchy work-wise (as in, he got some permanent work), we bought a house we like (which is a much better thing to do than buying one you don’t like - take my word for it), and - of course - we have a wonderful new addition to our family

We didn’t have anything planned for New Year’s Eve, but we ended up staying with friends from Friday until today, so we celebrated the New Year with them last night. Good friends, good company, good food - not a bad way to welcome a new year

Just picked up these on a mini-jaunt through the blog-ring - my hair is very difficult to dye - I leave the stuff on twice as long as they tell you and it still comes out the same as it went in - but I do like purple

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional. You’re always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

I know nothing about tarot, but I did this anyway. Not sure about the joyful and bright bit (after a couple of late nights?) and I certainly wouldn’t mind the wealth and physical pleasure bit…

You are the Sun card. The light of the Sun reveals
all. The Sun is joyful and bright, without fear
or reservation. The childish nature of the Sun
allows you to play and feel free. Exploration
can truly take place in the light of day when
nothing is hidden. The Sun’s rays fill you with
energy so that you may live life to its
fullest, milking pleasure out of each day. Such
joy and energy can bring wealth and physical
pleasure. To shine in the light of day is to
have confidence, to soak up its rays is to feel
the freedom of a child. Image from: Stevee
Postman. http://www.stevee.com/

Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

…but right now, I haven’t blogged in nearly a week and I haven’t the energy to do so, so this is what you’re getting.

And, by the way, I think it’s completely wrong.

Your Love Element Is Earth

In love, you have consistency and integrity. For you, love is all about staying grounded and centered. You attract others with your zest for life and experiences. Your flirting style is defined by setting the scene, creating a unique moment in time. Steady progress and stability are the cornerstones of your love life. You may take things too slowly, but you never put your heart at risk. You connect best with: Fire Avoid: Wood You and another Earth element: need each other too much to build a good foundation

Bit of a bummer the OU maths degree requires residentials then…

What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3)
created with QuizFarm.com

33% for art??? - I don’t think so! 3%, maybe…

Back into our usual routines today, with a morning start that didn’t take until lunchtime and some structured work. The boys got stuck in, and all but Barney were finished by lunchtime. I made them go outside for half an hour part-way through the morning too. When I was in school, I remember being forced to go outside at breaktime and lunchtime, unless the weather was absolutely desperate. I hated it, but now that I’m a parent, I so understand why they did that! They ran about the garden for a while (and even tidied it up a bit) and came in much more likeable

George is the one who needs this structure more than anyone, and while today wasn’t entirely a success in terms of avoiding meltdowns, it was better than the last week or two have been. We’ll stick with it for a while and see how things go.

Had a chat with Barney yesterday about how he’d like to proceed - although he’d be finishing Key Stage 2 if he was in school, he’s nearly finished the KS3 maths stuff. I mentioned to him that he could, if he wanted, go ahead and start working on a GCSE-level maths course, with a view to possibly taking the exam in two or three years (or not, whatever…) He was interested but not committing to anything. By coincidence, the subject of doing GCSEs independently came up on a home-ed email list today, and the London IGCSE was suggested as a good option. I had a look at it and downloaded some past papers, but am a bit surprised at how easy they seem - Barney’s current maths skills would cover between 80 and 90% of the foundation stuff, and half or more of the higher level.

Tried some EC with Toby and got peed on twice, but did manage to catch a poop (though more by luck than design, I think).

Freddy made lunch - a first for him to do it alone, though it was only frozen pizza I was going to make spag bol for dinner, but Jack and Barney requested macaroni and cheese, so I started that instead - and was doing quite well until Jack poured half the bag of macaroni all over the floor. Having been told at least three times to climb down from the stool he was using to reach the counter, of course. It was the last bag too - so bang went the plan for macaroni and cheese, and the plan for spag bol was reinstated. Actually we’d quite a few jars of sauce in the cupboard, so there was still some choice in the matter, and we had spag bol with a spicy pepper sauce, which was pretty good

After dinner (eaten early), it was into the bath with Toby and me, since he was wanting to sleep but it was too early for bed - a bath revives him for a while, though once out, he always wants to breastfeed, so of course he falls asleep anyway. Jack came in the bath with us - he was filthy! He’s one of those kids who always has a dirty face, and I’m always surprised at just how cute and innocent he looks once it’s washed - obviously it’s not washed frequently enough, since he wasn’t cute and innocent at all today Then Scratchy did the ju-jitsu run - back in August/September, Freddy didn’t really settle into ju-jitsu at all, and willingly went along with my suggestion to give it a few months before trying again. However new gis (suits) for Barney and George at Christmas have tempted him, I think - so he went tonight, and seems to have enjoyed himself.

Speaking of porridge (in the title - see? I planned it and all ;-)) - does anyone have any really yummy recipes they’d like to share? I quite fancy making porridge a regular thing here, but nobody else is very keen, so I need to tempt them

Right, off to do some Sudoku (yes, I’m addicted, I even did some before falling asleep in the early hours of New Year’s Day - didn’t admit that to the friend we were staying with, even though she’s an addict herself - how sad am I? LOL) and bed

Blogging at 9.20 a.m. because I never seem to get the time later on!

(edit: well, I started at 9.20!)

Yesterday found us hard at work again. Barney and George have started using a creative writing book and they’re enjoying using that to plan horror stories - we’ll see how it goes later today when they actually have to write stories based on their plans They are both still enjoying learning Latin, and we’ve started (another) project on the Romans, since we have so many resources we never got to using last time Other current projects include one on weather (and what makes it happen), based on The Weatherbirds (which is a lovely book - highly recommend it), one on maps - how they’re made, technology for, history of, etc., and another on the solar system (which, to be honest, is probably going to last all of five minutes, because Barney and George already know about six times as much as me about it, and I’ve done the OU course! LOL)

Barney’s maths skills are very good - he’s working about three years ahead of where he’d be in school. This is the right level for him - he can do the stuff, but he has to think about it; in other words it challenges him but he doesn’t struggle with it. What he struggles with is his concentration - it’s “write down a number, inspect my pencil, write down the next number, ask a question about something completely irrelevant, write down a number…” etc. Thus the maths takes much longer than it should - which is frustrating for both of us It’s not that he doesn’t like the maths - it’s just that there are far too many other things competing for his attention! I think he’s ready to look at a lot of subjects in more depth now, so if anyone has any wonderful KS3 resources, let me know!

George has a flair for languages; he picks them up very easily, so he’s enjoying French and Latin, though to be honest I can’t think of a subject he doesn’t enjoy. He’s finding his literacy and maths stuff easy at the minute, so I’ve sped up the rate at which we’re doing that.

Freddy has requested that I teach him Latin too - the Minimus books are just too appealing to be left to older brothers So we’ve made a start on that. This time last year, his reading skills weren’t really good enough to use a lot of the materials we have, but now - well, he can read anything he wants, so the world is his oyster He’s joining in with several of the projects that Barney and George are doing too.

Jack is quite determined to be in the middle of it all - and if I’m not careful, in the middle of everything else too! I’m struggling to find things to keep him occupied, to be honest. If I give him a sheet to practice counting or colour in or write on or whatever, he’s done a minute later, and if I don’t have enough for him to do, he creates havoc in the rest of the house while I’m busy with the others. Scratchy has agreed to do a bit with him on the weekends, as he really wants to read, and I think he’s capable of learning, but it’s really difficult for me to give him one-on-one time right now.

Toby is simply learning about what five-month-old babies are supposed to learn about - his family and the world

All that sounds desperately school-at-home-y, doesn’t it? It’s not really! I mean, we do use workbooks and I do set out stuff I want them to do, but we also try to follow stuff they’re interested in as much as we can (hence the number of current projects!) and the formal part of our learning doesn’t take anywhere near as long as it would in a school setting. In fact, when I see just how much they get through in a couple of hours, I wonder just what they do with kids in school all day! I suppose if I made them all line up and wait for the bell to ring, etc, it might fill another hour or two…

I love the idea of autonomous education, but we need the structure here. I know that some autonomous educators think it’s the only reasonable method (and I’ve even read one blog where it was claimed that those who didn’t practice autonomous ed simply didn’t understand it, that if you understood it you couldn’t possibly choose any other way), but for us, with the personalities involved (individually and in combination), it doesn’t work. I don’t mean they don’t learn - they most certainly do! - I mean that our family functions better when there’s structure and something of a routine. And I think that a functional family is more important than the educational style. So I suppose I use the home-education bit as a way to implement that structure - I could, I suppose, do it in another way - but why? This is working for us, our home runs more smoothly this way, the kids are learning and enthusiastic about learning - so we must be doing something right!

Later (now just after noon)… and moving back to practicalities rather than philosophy ;-)…

Last night was Beavers for Freddy, and St John Cadets for Barney. George wanted to go to St. John Badgers a while ago, but it’s on at the same time as the Community Circus thingy, so he couldn’t. It was a mad rush to get everybody to all the right places on a Tuesday night, so I suggested that they might want to give Community Circus a miss for a few months, and they agreed. This saves us driving about 25 miles each way, and means all the activities are fairly close to each other, so last night was much more calm than pre-Christmas Tuesdays. Circus doesn’t start back until the end of January anyway, so if George decides he’d rather do that, we can look at it again - but I have to admit, I’m hoping he decides Badgers is just as good

The boys have almost finished everything I asked them to do today - Barney has his horror story to write but that’s all. I told George he could write his tomorrow, but he’s begged to do it after lunch instead, so what could I do Jack spent a good hour this morning on Boohbah.com, which someone posted to the Early Years list (oops, almost called it MP ;-)) yesterday - much appreciated in light of what I’ve said above, thank you! I think it might be connected to a tv show, but Jack was enjoying it regardless of never having seen any of it before. The older four are all now having cheesy scrambled eggs for lunch, and I’m lying on the bed and nursing Toby to sleep (and typing in an awkward position, which isn’t very comfortable, particularly since my chest has become quite painful again - I guess that rib’s not quite healed then :-/)

We’re going to head into town this afternoon - the weather’s reasonably good today, i.e. it’s not raining. It’s even quite sunny, though there’s a definite breeze going, so I’ll be sure to take something to cover my ears (why is it that ears hurt when there’s a cold wind?) We haven’t been to the library in ages, so we’ll go there, and I’ve banking and another errand or two to run; I might even manage to replenish the freezer while I’m there. Scratchy will meet us after work, and then tonight it’s Cubs and Scouts for the older two.

You know, it’s lucky I don’t get time to think, because when I start to think about all that, it sounds exhausting!

So where was I? Oh yes… on my way into town, isn’t that right?

It’s about 3.5 miles into town, and I think it took us about a bit over an hour. I’m not sure though, because as I arrived in town, I remembered that my watch had stopped last weekend and I hadn’t replaced the battery yet! Cue sudden rush in case the bank was about to close, because the clock on the clock-tower isn’t usually right either We made it though

Met a woman with three daughters on the way and had a bit of a chat as we walked along the road with our respective broods - hers all pink and fluffy, mine all blue and boisterous. It turned out she was from Toronto - you can’t avoid us Canucks I was going to give her my phone number, but couldn’t find a pen or paper (though now that I think about it, one of her kids was carrying a schoolbag - I suppose she might have had something to use!)

Once again, I couldn’t remember what I’d done with my bank-book, so I had to go in and try to convince the bank staff that I was who I said I was (no picture ID with me either, of course - oh, actually that’s not true, I had my Canadian citizenship card, but sometimes they’ll accept that and sometimes not). She was a bit hesitant, even when I was able to tell her when and where and how much my last couple of withdrawals had been, and how much was usually deposited, and the general pattern for the account, etc… but I think she finally decided that nobody in their right mind would choose to be accompanied by five children when they came to clean out my account, and handed over the dosh.

After another couple of quick errands, we spent an hour or so in the library (having finally figured out what time it was, though not having thought that maybe, since I was in town, I could get my watch-battery replaced… :rolls:) The boys borrowed some books; I didn’t, since I spent the entire time feeding Toby and didn’t get a chance to browse. I didn’t mind at all though, as he’d sat quite happily in the stroller the whole way there, and even fallen asleep. Once he woke up, I put him in the Storchie until we were in the library, and then back into it once his tummy was full, just in time for us to check out books and leave. Had several comments about both Toby (he’s gorgeous, he’s tiny - both of which I knew) and the Storchie (mainly how comfortable it looked and how happy he was in it - both of which I was happy to confirm).

Threw some stuff in the oven when we got home, as it was about 6 p.m. and George was due to arrive at Cubs at 6.30 - he got a packet of crisps and an apple, and had dinner when he got back home, the rest of us ate together when Scratchy got back from dropping him off. Then Barney went to Scouts, George came home, etc - usual Wednesday stuff (so why have I spent today thinking it’s Friday?)

Jack played on the Boohbah website again this morning while the others studied - a combination of Latin, French, history, science, recorder and blogging. Barney has been putting the finishing touches on his horror story, and we’ve eaten some mince pies (yes, I know it’s not Christmas, and yes, I know I’m supposed to be eating better - but I got a big box on sale for 50p, and anyway, it’s fruit, okay? ;-)) I’ve been through the boxes of CDs to see what we’ve got to keep Jack busy on the computer while I do stuff with the others, and found quite a few things I’d forgotten we had, for Jack and for the rest. As a result, Freddy has spent a few hours on a Leap Ahead CD today - it turns out that, despite all my planning, he’s finished his stuff in an hour or so. (What was that I was saying about what did schools do all day?) As for me, I have been having a discussion via email with a friend about whether she, an atheist, is still allowed to blame the gods

I need to get up shortly and provide something for the older three to eat before they head off to archery; Jack is asleep so will no doubt bounce about for the entire time they’re gone. Hm.

Have been trying to convince Scratchy to try wearing Toby in the Storchie wrap - he’s been quite happily using a sling with our babies since George was little, but for some reason he’s been really unwilling to try the Storchie. Too much fabric intimidating him or something, I think Anyway, I needed to move seats about in the car today, and since Scratchy doesn’t know how they all work, it had to be me - and Toby was tired and not willing to even be touched by anyone but me, never mind held. So I said, “I bet if you put him in the Storchie, he’d settle down and fall asleep.” Scratchy reluctantly agreed, I showed him how to put it on, Toby went in, and seconds later was nuzzling into Scratchy’s chest (he likes to sleep with his face all nuzzled in). A minute later I heard Scratchy in the dining-room, singing “Camptown ladies sing this song”… except instead of “oh doodah day!” he was singing “I hate it when she’s right, I hate it when she’s right.”

Heh

Am about to start trying to update the blog to WordPress 2.0, so if you’re reading this on rss or atom, that’s where I’ve gone. Back soon (I hope).

*edit*
Ooo-kay…that was straightforward. Easiest WP upgrade yet. No problems with any of my plug-ins (except for one, solved very quickly once I’d actually read the instructions ;-)) and we’re back

And there goes another weekend - and another long to-do list made shorter left pretty much the same.

Yesterday morning went by in a blur of swimming lessons for Barney, George and Freddy, followed by trampoline for George while the rest of us went to the bank to deposit their pocket-money (and their Christmas money, which, because I’d forgotten to bring it, I had to replace from my own account) and did a few other errands. Bought a new set of bathroom scales because a) the old ones weren’t working and b) they were ?3 - though got home to discover that the old ones were actually not as far out as I’d thought, and that Toby really is very lightweight. Hm.

In the afternoon, I tried to get stuck into an article I’ve agreed to write, but didn’t really get very far. I’m supposed to have about 1500 words; so far I’ve got a third of that, and to be honest what I’ve got isn’t very impressive. Moved car-seats about so that Toby is now in the big seat (still rear-facing, but maybe the big seat will be more comfortable, or lift him higher so he can see out, or do something that makes him happier in the car - I hope!) but not much else that I can remember.

Didn’t manage to get a lot done today either - Scratchy did a water-change on the aquarium and I vacuumed all of downstairs and mopped the kitchen floor, but apart from that I seem to have mostly messed about on the computer (there’s not much else I can do while feeding Toby, and he had one of those days when he just nursed constantly). Barney decided to carry Toby in the Storchie, and while it’s a bit big, it certainly works - I took a photo but I can’t be bothered to go back downstairs to get the camera, so can’t blog it just now. Kids watched a DVD after dinner, then went to bed complaining that they weren’t tired, though within about ten minutes all was silent

Got a friend coming tomorrow (postponed from Friday), so really need to get up and moving tomorrow morning!

8.30 - a.m. Nobody has had breakfast. Barney and George have already been fighting about being in one another’s rooms. They’ve all already ignored me until I yelled. Jack has already argued with me over about six different things. George has already had a hissy-fit about some stupid minor meaningless thing that wouldn’t have mattered for three seconds.

I’ve read them the riot act (very loudly, and mostly threatening to start one).

Not a good start to the day.

So after a less-than-ideal start to the day, I got the kids settled down to do some work, and we tried to salvage things. To be honest it wasn’t a great day - it was a lot calmer than it started, and they did get quite a bit of work done, but nobody was particularly cheery all day. I had a headache all day - not sure if that was the cause of this morning’s blowout or the result. We had leftover soup for lunch, after which I took Toby to bed and told the others I expected their rooms to be tidy by the time I got up.

That didn’t happen, but later I explained a few facts of life, namely:
- that parents work hard all day, and don’t particularly feel like running about in the evenings, so if kids wanted to be taxi-d to various activities, it would be in their best interests to make parents feel a bit more positively about them,
- that we all have responsibilities in our home. I don’t run away, even when I feel like it, because I have to put my responsibilities first. Therefore if they don’t have time to pitch in and help, they don’t have time to go anywhere either. Thus: room a bombsite = no Beavers, Badgers, Cadets, Cubs, archery… etc.

Ten minutes later, the room was - well, certainly not spotless, but definitely pretty tolerable!

So after dinner, Barney fed the fish, George fed the cats, and Freddy cleared the table. And then Scratchy took them to Cadets, Badgers and Beavers, respectively.

Freddy has just returned from Beavers with the beaver ornament and another badge - he was chosen as Beaver of the Week again. This makes twice in three meetings. Maybe I need a little ornament that isn’t a sheep…

I posted to an email list this morning, as well as blogging. The list is about positive parenting and positive discipline - i.e. not using punitive techniques and that would include hitting kids. And I said that I wasn’t really expecting any answers, that I really just needed to say all this somewhere where I wouldn’t hear “oh just smack them”. I got a number of very encouraging and positive replies - and quite a number of excellent suggestions for things that almost certainly would have helped, had I thought of them at 9 o’clock this morning. But how’s this for Stoopid? - one person replied saying: “I try to use alternate methods but sometimes spanking works the best and settles things quickly.”

I’ve added a plugin to let people sign up for email alerts when there’s a new post on this blog. The box to sign up is over there on the left sidebar. But - if you sign up, please be warned that the plug-in isn’t working quite as it should. It will send you an alert for each post, but not until I have posted the following post. In other words, you’ll get alerted about post A when I publish post B, and about post B when I publish post C…etc. Or you’ll get alerted if I edit any other post.

I don’t know why it’s doing this; I know it’s not just me because there’s a discussion about it on the plugin author’s blog. The issue isn’t resolved yet, but I decided it was better to leave the facility for email alerts there though, even if it wasn’t perfect, because it’s better than nothing at all. But you have been warned

Barney is working on his history book, George is blogging, Freddy is watching the fish fingers in the oven, Jack is upstairs looking for socks so he can go play outside, and Toby is asleep in the Storchie. There’s pizza dough in the breadmaker, which will, along with a salad, provide dinner this evening. Just a typical home-ed scene, really

Yesterday was much better than Tuesday. At 8 a.m., everyone was up except for George and Freddy, so I went and woke those two. I know you’re probably asking, “Are you crazy?” - but there is a method to my madness. Since we’re trying to implement a bit more routine, and since mornings haven’t been the smoothest times of day for the last while, I decided they needed a shake-up. So - it’s up at 8 (oh, this home-ed stuff is soooo demanding ;-)) and then teeth and clothes before breakfast, rather than after, and even if I’m not downstairs when breakfast starts, I’m there for the end of it, so can chase them all into what they’re supposed to be doing, rather than them getting involved in Bionicles and arguments.

So far, so good. It’s only been two days, of course

They did a fair bit of work yesterday, and Scratchy was home early because he’d had a couple of appointments and taken the day off - poor thing had a root canal in the morning (though it didn’t stop him polishing off dinner, or lunch for that matter - if anyone spotted a bloke in Burger King who kept missing his mouth with his burger - it might have been him! LOL) Having him back a bit sooner did make for a more relaxed Wednesday dinner-time than usual though, as we were able to eat a bit earlier and then George went off to Cubs and, later, Barney to Scouts. Barney has already brought home a note from Scouts about camping in June!

On his way home yesterday, I had Scratchy stop so I could abuse the very liberal returns policy of a certain catalogue-store I have a small chopper that I’ve had for years - it’s like one of those stick-blenders, only the bottom half comes off (easier to wash) and the top half also attaches to a chopper thing (I hope you all appreciate my use of technical terms here). Unfortunately it gave up the ghost, so we needed a replacement. To be honest, it’s a bit on the small side for lots of things now anyway (well there are more than twice as many people in the family now as there were when we got it!) and we end up doing things in several batches, so I’ve been looking around at proper “big” food processors. I’d narrowed it down to three different ones, so Scratchy arrived here with three very large boxes, and I investigated them. I ruled out one of them right away, because I realised the other two had much stronger motors, and it was also the one that would take up most room on the counter (I want one that can sit out - if I have to get it out to use it, I won’t). For each of the others, it took five minutes to take pieces out of box, then about half an hour to figure out how to fit them all back in again - and while I eventually got all the bits in, one of them is still missing a large cardboard spacer thing Anyway, I’ve picked one, but it’s still going back to the certain catalogue-store, because Amazon has it for £35 less

Today’s gone well so far too. The only thing George and Freddy have left is a science kit - we have lots of them, and rather than them sitting on the shelf waiting for us to think of it, I thought if I scheduled one a week, they’d actually get used. Last week they opened the Optics kit; there’s plenty left in it to do, so I think we’ll go on with that today. Barney has a couple of other things before that, but they’re minor - and one of those is blogging and he’d have done that already if Pipex hadn’t been down for a while this morning. I had to cope without the internet for a whole hour! Fortunately Jack had already been on the Boohbah site, so the flash stuff was already running, and he was able to continue to play - he’s a bright three-year-old, but I suspect the intricacies of ISPs and servers being down might be just beyond his understanding The older three have archery this afternoon, and we should be done in lots of time

I’m sure there was something else I meant to blog about, but I can’t think what now. So there’ll probably be another post from me later

…but apparently they can’t take it: teachers in a school in Wiltshire are upset that Ofsted wrote to the children in the school telling them their teachers “must try harder”.

Why is it “really inappropriate” to use such “very damning language” when talking about teachers, but just fine when it’s applied to pupils? Sort of sums up how the whole respect-in-school things works, doesn’t it?

The three older boys had swimming lessons this morning, followed by trampoline class for George. After lunch, one of their friends who lives across the road appeared at the door, and he came in and stayed for the afternoon - most of it playing computer games. I spent most of today re-arranging the dining-room, which is also the room where the kids study, and also the room where the computers live. So you can see why it needed re-arranging The new set-up is a little unconventional, but I think it’s going to work.

But why, when you tidy up, is there always a box of stuff left over? Or is that just me?

Tomorrow, I’m going to attack the pile of stuff on the kitchen counter

Yesterday… we were going to walk into town, but the weather couldn’t decide on itself. I’d look out and see grey skies with a few white fluffy clouds and think “oh, it looks like a nice day for a walk” - and then five minutes later it would be grey and pelting rain. So we didn’t go. Instead, Barney, who had heard us discussing GCSE maths exams on Thursday night, decided he wanted to do one. So I printed off a past paper, and he sat down to do it. All I can say is: there is no way GCSEs now are as difficult as they were when I sat them. Barney is a bright kid, but even a bright kid shouldn’t be able to get 68% on a maths GCSE paper when he’s 11 years old, hasn’t ever covered some of the material, and is doing it on a Friday afternoon with his brothers screeching around him.

Scratchy has been asked to do some training at work, so he’ll be late home every day this week. That means I get the company of all five children at my obstetric physio appointment on Monday. Should be fun

The boys are supposed to be tidying up their rooms so we can put away laundry.

Scratchy is getting ready to go and return the unwanted food processors to the shop, and I’ve got Toby half-asleep-half-nursing, so I can’t do much right now. So I’ll blog

I’ve attacked the pile on the kitchen counter, and remarkably painless it was too. I did find the road tax renewal form though, so we thought we’d better pay that. And so started the hunt for the car insurance certificate…

We’ve been through all the paperwork that was in piles around the house. We’ve been through the bags that might have held it. We’ve even been through the stuff that was in the cupboard under the table.

Explanation of the cupboard under the table: a while ago, a friend gave me bits of a shelving unit that she’d inherited from her grandmother’s house. It consists of metal vertical supports with wooden bits in between - shelves, cupboards, drawers - and it is very strong and very, very useful. The shelves are reasonably deep, so they hold all sorts of stuff that even deep bookcases don’t. Very handy. We’ve used it in several different set-ups, but the current set-up doesn’t use the cupboard bit. The cupboard bit is about the height of the seat of a dining-chair, and is just slightly narrower than the short end of our dining-room table… so it’s being used as a bench-seat. It works very well, because it seats two kids comfortably and three at a squeeze.

Explanation of the stuff in the cupboard under the table: when I was ill during my last pregnancy, I never managed to sort through any paperwork. Bills got paid - mainly because they were automatic debits - but all the bits of paper just got tossed in various boxes and on various surfaces. So when we moved in here, we had boxes full of bits of paper, some of which was important, some not, some of which needed kept, some didn’t. For a while after we moved in, these boxes lived in the dining-room. In October, when it was getting a bit chilly for eating dinner in the conservatory, we set up the dining-room properly. I stared at the boxes full of paperwork, and finally decided that anything that was in there had been there since May/June, and thus couldn’t be urgent, and so I put it all in a big bag and stuffed it in the cupboard, figuring that if we needed something that we should have received in the previous few months, we’d look for it in there, and if not, the lot could be binned later.

Well… I was very good, and actually went through it before binning anything. I did toss out about 75% of it in the end. It’s amazing how much stuff turns out to be irrelevant a few months on. Turns out that the stash-it-and-hope system of filing is very effective

Unfortunately what I didn’t do was find the car insurance certificate, so I’ll have to phone tomorrow and ask them to send me a new one fastish so I can get the road tax paid.

But I have to admit that it feels good to know that it’s all dealt with… until the next time!

Update: Barney has decided to go to the shop, which means that Toby can go too (without Barney, Scratchy would have to manage three large, heavy boxes and a baby all on his own). So I’ve now got my hands free - which means I have no excuse not to go and balance the bank statements against the computer. Wish me luck

Well, I am!

I worked hard this weekend, have tidied the kitchen and dining-room, rearranged all the shelving in there, it’s all lovely and organised now. And I went through all that paperwork. And as if that wasn’t enough, I went through all the bank statements and balanced everything. I even printed off the last month’s transactions from the Visa website, since the bill gets produced tomorrow and I thought I’d get ahead on it! All I need now is a pat-yourself-on-the-back emoticon

But if that wasn’t enough to convince you, there’s this:

How evil are you?

Okay, so the bit about “very tolerant” will leave those who know me rolling on the floor and laughing off various body parts, but I’m actually quite disappointed not to have got “you’re angelic”, as Sue did

It’s a very peculiar quiz though - one of the questions starts “Which of the following European countries is…” and offers Canada as an answer! I suspect the author is either Canadian or has a thing about Canadians though, as Canada is also one of the answers for “Choose your weapon”

Speaking of Canadians (howzat for a segway? LOL), Scratchy went off to do errands this afternoon, as mentioned, and arrived home with a laminator, since Lidl were selling them for £14. I found this site, where you can get the text of your choice written up in various styles (Ferrari, Nintendo, Star Wars, Yahoo…) so we have played with that, and with the new laminator, and now we have “Barney’s Room”, “Gryffindor Dormitory”, “Prefects’ Bathroom” and “Staff Room” adorning various doors off our landing. We’ve had some more ideas since, and I think tomorrow we’ll be creating “The Cupboard Over The Stairs” (which is actually Barney’s closet), “Head Boy’s Room” and even, perhaps “Third Floor Corridor - Access Forbidden!” for the spare bedroom…

I daresay we’ll find a few other uses for the laminator too - any brilliant suggestions in the comments will be welcome

Not a bad weekend, all round. Got a lot of stuff done, and feel that my life is a bit more under control. It’s amazing how much having piles of unsorted stuff around can pull you down - I think Feng Shui got that right!

This one came from the same person who created the “How evil are you?” quiz presented in the previous post. I kinda liked his style

You are Anarcho-Capitalist

What: Anarcho-Capitalism

Where: At the distant top-right of the politcal spectrum

How: Anarcho-Capitalists believe that big business should take over goverment to the point of government not existing. While they believe there should be law, they also believe that the law should be owned by businesses. Anarcho-capitalism is a modern belief and has never been attempted.

What political extremity are you?

Hm. Nearly. It’s not that I think big business should take over government, it’s that I think it already has.

Nearly five years ago now, I felt like I had flu. One night, I got up to use the bathroom, then sat down on the floor, and couldn’t get back up. I simply couldn’t muster the energy.

I ended up being taken to hospital in an ambulance. For the next few days I couldn’t even roll over in bed. I’d be lying there, thinking “my hip hurts, I’ve been in this position too long” - but unable to do anything about it. After a few days, I was able to sit up, with help - but I’d only be able to stay up long enough to eat three or four mouthfuls of food before I’d have to lie down again - and then I’d be so exhausted that I’d sleep for two hours.

I was in a hospital room with three elderly women - in their 70s, 80s and 90s - and they felt sorry for me. I remember one of them saying to her visitors “That girl over there, she’s very ill” - and realising that she meant me, and I did look very ill, and that I was very ill.

I had lots and lots of tests, to try to work out what was wrong. In the end, they decided I had cytomegalovirus, CMV - a viral infection that lots of people get, lots of people carry, and most people just think is a bad cold. Nobody could explain why it had knocked me sideways so badly.

I was told that it would be “several weeks to several months” before I felt back to normal. That turned out to be overly-optimistic

I did perk up a little after about three months - but then I went straight back down. I spent most of the next year in bed. I really, really wanted to get up and do things with my children - but I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t cooperate.

And as well as the physical fatigue, there was a mental fatigue - a sort of fog. And various other symptoms - muscular aches, gastro-intestinal problems, headaches… and more.

Eventually I saw my GP, who decided (on the basis that I burst into tears immediately on arrival at her office) that I was depressed. Fortunately I’d written out all my symptoms (two pages’ worth) and although she didn’t read it during my visit, she read it in the next few days - and realised I wasn’t depressed. And she ran tests, and we discovered that my vitamin B12 levels were very, very low. B12 injections helped a great deal, but I still got tired easily, still found it hard to keep up.

Slowly - very slowly, things improved. Now? Now I have more energy than I’ve had in years. I’ll be 38 next month; I don’t think I’ve had this much energy since I turned 30. Sure, some days I’m still tired, and some afternoons I still take myself off to bed for an hour or two - but those days are rare now. For a long time the days when I was out of bed for an hour or two were rare.

All that’s by way of a preamble to why it is that I feel so good about having spent today running multiple errands. Various shops, banking, post office, physio appointment… all with five children in tow. We left the house about 10 a.m., we got back at about 5.30 p.m. - and then there was a rush to get dinner made and eaten before the oldest three went to ju-jitsu. And here I am, at 9.23 p.m., feeling normally tired, the way you should feel after a day like today. In fact I feel very fortunate to have been able to have a day like today.

My family is abnormal. You want the evidence? Here it is:

I’m trying to finish something in the dining-room, but Freddy keeps interrupting me. “Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaassse can I do Latin now?”

Then I go in the kitchen, to discover a banana on the counter. Nothing wrong with that - except that there were six of them before lunch.

What kind of home is it when the children have to beg to learn Latin and the parents have to beg the children not to eat the fruit?!

After yesterday’s busy-ness, back to the norm today. Barney, George and Freddy all did quite a bit, I managed to get half an hour one-on-one with Barney over his maths (not that he needed more than a hint every ten minutes or so!) and we ended up having a conversation over dinner about algebra and working with numbers to the order of other numbers. Barney also worked for a long time on his next story - he’s been writing this one since last week, and I know it has something to do with a supposedly-haunted house, but he doesn’t like anyone to read them until he’s finished, so that’s all I know. I’m really impressed with the amount of effort he’s putting into writing at the minute.

Jack put stickers all over the living-room floor (laminate flooring), which left me less than impressed. At about 4 p.m., I realised that a) I had used the only suitable-for-dinner thing in the freezer for lunch, b) Scratchy would be late home because of training, and c) Beavers and Badgers started at 6.30, so a late dinner was out of the question. A bit of a riffle through recipes and cupboards resulted in eggy-cheesy-rice for dinner.

George and Freddy are now back from Badgers (St John Ambulance) and Beavers (Scouts) respectively, and Barney is due back from Cadets (St John) shortly. I’m procrastinating about an article I’m meant to be writing, so I’m catching up on lots of other things I’ve been meaning to get to, like investigating content management systems (that’s what I was pinging you about earlier, Jax). Not really surprising that my brain looks a bit like a watermelon then:

Your Brain’s Pattern

Your mind is a multi dimensional wonderland, with many layers. You’re the type that always has multiple streams of thought going. And you can keep these thoughts going at any time. You’re very likely to be engaged in deep thought - and deep conversation.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

I don’t sew. I never have. When I was 11 and started secondary school, in our second term in Domestic Science (as it was called in those days), we had to learn to sew. (First term was all about personal hygiene, in the third they tried to teach us to cook.) We had to design and then sew a wall-hanging. My designing bit went okay, but the actual sewing… well, let’s just say that when my grandmother moved out of her house when I was 28, the wall-hanging was found in the back of a wardrobe, and it still wasn’t finished.

I took an evening course once to try to learn to sew. We had to make a skirt (dunno what they’d have done if any blokes had joined). I cut mine out, sewed the back two panels together, sewed the front two panels together, and then sewed the back to the front - with one bit upside-down.

Sewing by hand is boring and you end up sticking needles in yourself. As for machines - well, I’m convinced there’s some sort of international assocation of sewing machines and they passed a resolution against me a long time ago.

Knitting, I can do. I can knit anything. My grandmother, who was a champion knitter (or ought to have been) taught me to knit when I was two years old (little blue plastic needles, in through the bunny-hole and round the big tree…) and I used to be quite a prolific knitter before I had children. Even got paid for a few pieces. But sewing… well, I think my grandmother (she also sewed) must have missed the critical moment for teaching me that. Even when I knit, I minimise the sewing-bits-together stuff, using a variety of creative techniques.

So… (heh) … I do just about manage the Scout badges that my children bring home with frustrating regularity - but I have to admit that if there’s anybody around who’s better at sewing than me (not hard) and willing to take over, I’ll willingly let them. And if not - well, I do eventually get the badges on, using fabric glue and a sort of tacking technique.

So it is with great pride that I announce that I have, this morning (drum roll please) actually sewed two tablecloths.

I made them a while ago, but did the hems with that iron-on tape stuff. It didn’t work very well on one though, so I was thinking I’d have to do something about it. And I was in a shop on Monday where they had these little mini-sewing-machines reasonably cheap (there’s no way I can justify spending the price of a real sewing machine), so I bought one. And this morning I played with it.

The first one was easy. The machine came pre-threaded, and while I’m not claiming that my lines are perfectly straight or anything, it looks very good, if I say so myself.

The second was a bit more - well, all right, it was a pain in the bum. I had to use a different colour of thread, which involved re-threading the machine. That was okay, though it took me about ten minutes to figure out how to manage the bobbin, and I’m still not sure how it worked in the end. Then the thread kept breaking, and Toby (in Storchie) woke up and started bobbing his head about - believe me, it’s much easier to sew when you’re not trying to see what you’re doing through a child’s head - and I was getting frustrated and he was getting cross (not sure what order those happened in to be honest) and in the end I handed him over to Barney, who did a grand job of entertaining him in the living-room for long enough for me to finish the sewing and stop swearing under my breath (well, okay, not always under).

But hey! I sewed! Two things!

Don’t ask me to do anything more than a straight line though

Too tired to blog tonight, so this is all you’re getting

You scored as Elizabeth.

I am Elizabeth. I am headstrong and intelligent. I love to be myself, and am very loyal to my family. I can sometimes be prideful and “prejudiced,” but I try to remain open minded and I usually regret past mistakes.

Which Pride and Prejudice Girl Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Night-night

So it’s Friday - and I’m trying to blog all the things I meant to blog during the week but forgot!

Let’s see - Monday. Well, I already blogged about all my errands. During them, not one but two of my children had accidents which required me to buy them new trousers (and neither was the youngest). We were too far from home to go back and change, and although there was a bag of clothes for the charity shop in the car, nothing in it fit (of course), so I bought the cheapest trousers I could find. They’re not too bad actually - adjustable waistbands and everything, impressive for £2.50 and £3! I also took my wedding ring to be resized, since after 16 years and five children, my fingers are a bit more… um, spread-out… than they used to be - but when they started to stretch it, it cracked Scratchy has the same problem (though not the same excuse), and apparently his ring can’t be stretched at all. My engagement ring is too tight too, though I already knew it couldn’t be stretched. So now none of my rings fits. Not that I’m much into jewellery, but I would quite like to be able to wear the “important” rings, y’know?

I was kind of hoping that when I told Scratchy all this, he’d say “oh, after 16 years we deserve new rings anyway”, but I think that might have been a bit too much romance to expect after 16 years

(In case you’re reading this, Scratchy, yes, it is too late to say it now, and no, I won’t believe you if you claim not to have seen the blog and to have come up with the idea on your own. You’d still get some brownie-points though ;-))

Tuesday was a fairly normal day (as normal as they get around here anyway), as was Wednesday (except for the sewing thing - that was definitely different!) Cubs and Scouts on Wednesday evening as usual.

Lidl had some offers starting yesterday on stuff like shoe-racks - I had visions of a tidy garage (we usually come into the house through the garage side-door), so I went to get some bits and pieces, and since I had the car, I went to visit a friend afterwards. Her children and mine play together well (mostly) - Jack and her youngest are almost exactly the same age (about a week apart), and have similar hair, physique, skin colour - so from behind, it’s hard to tell them apart. All the children have dark eyes, and when one stood in front of us in a Spiderman costume, complete with mask, we had to try to work out which one it was We’d lots of interesting and thought-provoking chat; I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did

Then it was back to collect Scratchy, and I went shopping again while he took Barney, George and Freddy to archery. I had Toby (in the Storchie - I get so many comments about both him and it when I’m out! - including my next-door neighbour, who said she only recognised me from behind because of it LOL) and Jack, who just had to run around and around on every one of the spiral tiling patterns in the shopping-centre floor… so I spent a good portion of my time standing waiting for him to finish!

The kids are now in the living-room setting up domino-things - I don’t remember what they’re called, but those things where you set up dominoes in big patterns and then you knock the first one over and it knocks the second one and so on. Not sure how long it’s going to last though, if the sounds coming from the room are any indication

Got a Lakeland catalogue and discovered several items I cannot possibly live without (Lakeland catalogues are like that, don’t you find?) - but what happened to the painted lady?! She’s gone! It’s not the same without her!

Mollycat missed the window-sill on her way out a couple of days ago and is now afraid to jump onto it. She’ll do it - eventually, after examining all alternative methods of getting to the window (and thus outside) - including several methods that clearly can’t possibly work, such as climbing on the chair on the opposite side of the room. I wondered if she’d been injured, but there’s nothing visible on her, and then today I watched her jump up to the window from outside - which is higher than the jump inside - and she did it without hesitation. So she’s just a scaredy-cat

It’s stinky pizza for dinner (i.e. home-made - so-called because the second time we made it, Jack was grumpy and wailed “I don’t want that stinky pizza” - then he ate it in huge quantities, but the name stuck). Speaking of food, Toby is desperate for some. It’s quite funny - when he sees people eating, he’s watching avidly and pursing and smacking his lips, and he nearly climbs over your arm or shoulder to get at it. He’s not quite six months, but I might start to give him a little bit of boiled potato or something this weekend - I can’t imagine a few days will make a great deal of difference, and anyway, if he’d been born on time he’d have been six months weeks ago

And - speaking of babies and food - I was very pleased to find that my local Trading Standards and Environmental Health departments actually took my complaint about Lidl’s infant formula advertising seriously. It’s illegal, but they were doing it anyway (big promotional signs in-store). I spoke to one store manager before Christmas, and he assured me he’d take it up with the regional manager, but a couple of weeks ago I discovered the same thing in another branch. I told that manager, but also emailed Trading Standards, and within hours of them getting my email they were onto it. I’ve now had several emails back from the people involved, as well as a phone call from Lidl (asking for more info), and the last email (from Environmental Health) said they’d been to the store and spoken to the district manager and made sure he was aware of the regulations, that the signs were now down (they are - I checked yesterday!) and they would be monitoring it on an ongoing basis - yay!

And that is enough blogging for now, because I have set a limit on the size of my posts - I won’t let myself go on longer than the sidebar. And I think I’ve just reached the end of it

I find it slightly worrying that Scratchy just told me he had done something, then said “so you can take that off your to-do list”. When questioned, he denied having read this blog today. Which means he can’t have read the last line of the previous post. Hm.

I must be getting predictable. Must do something about that.

Adds “do something about being so predictable” to to-do list.

I may be predictable, but Jack certainly isn’t. I’ve just heard a beep from his bed. He had the phone under the covers

…but better than American history/civics, apparently!

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 7 out of 10 correct!

Given my determination to avoid US things, I’m surprised I did this well to be honest - must try harder Quite annoying that they don’t tell you which ones you got right/wrong though. As for question #8 - “Which countries were America’s enemies during World War II?” - yes, I know the answer, but *sigh* to the question!

Will get (Canadian-educated) Scratchy to do this one later. Bet he gets full marks!

Thanks to the Haricots for these.

Jack has it bad He’s been miserable all day, and most of last night. And every time he coughs or stirs, he has to whine loudly, and wake up everyone in the vicinity.

I feel sorry for him, but my sympathy reserves got a bit stretched after about 14 continuous hours of this

I don’t think he’s ever been this sick before really. He hasn’t eaten anything all day, and wouldn’t even have a drink. He wouldn’t even have ice-cream, which I offered on the basis that once he’d something in his stomach, I could start dosing him with vitamin c. He’s just sat and felt sorry for himself (loudly) all day. He’s quite wheezy too, and I’m sure his chest must hurt, but I can’t really get a straight answer about it from him, because no matter what I ask, the answer is negative. “Are you sick?” “Yes.” “Does your chest hurt?” “Yes.” “Are you going to throw up?” “Yes.” “Will you drink some water?” “No.” “Are your ears turning orange?” “Yes.” And so on.

Toby is a little sniffly, and not quite himself - I really hope that breastmilk heads this one off - it’s bad enough for Jack, for a baby it would be horrible.

Scratchy has taken Freddy and George to ju-jitsu; Barney is at home, because it appears that in his current mood he can’t be trusted not to throw his weight about with his younger brothers

The older three did some work this morning - Latin was on Freddy’s agenda, much to his delight. After lunch I took Toby and Jack to bed for a while, and once it seemed Jack had slept as much as he was going to, I put a DVD on for them all. After that, Barney went and picked up his maths book again and the others tidied up. I offered Toby a bit of potato at dinner, but he wasn’t impressed. Bananas are definitely a big hit though - as soon as he sees someone with one now, he lunges. All that from one or two tiny tastes…

Send get-better-soon vibes for Jack please, but just in case they don’t work, can you please also send vibes for getting me through another day of wuuuuhhhh…wuhhhhhhh….ehhhhhh…ehhhhhhh…? Thank you.

Wuuuhhh….eeeehhhhhh….

Yep, after being coughed on all day yesterday, it’s my turn today. Jack, on the other hand, is only slightly sniffly today, and back to his usual bouncy stuff. Grrr…

I got tagged by Naturally Nice

Four Things

Four jobs I’ve had
I’ve worked in:
> a library - It was a university medical library, and I really liked it. It involved much more than just stamping books in and out!
> a hospital lab - working in Blood Bank (which I never expected to find so fascinating, but I did!), pathology (cutting up the bits people had had cut off - quite disgusting sometimes LOL), haematology, etc.
> as a nanny. The opportunity presented itself, and I went for it. The job I had for longest involved working for two families, each with a baby boy (hah! I see a pattern emerging…). The babies were about six weeks different in age and it was great fun. Made me want twins. I still want twins…
> as a temp - which was brill, because I started off working in the agency office, so after that I got first refusal on all the jobs that came in. I loved it - lots of variety, I worked when I wanted, and no office politics

Four movies I can watch over and over
> Pirates of the Caribbean
> Mrs Brown (Judi Dench and Billy Connolly)
> Shakespeare in Love - I didn’t expect it to be any more than mildy entertaining, but I really like it

I can’t come up with a fourth movie, so I’m going to offer two made-for-tv-but-not-tv-shows instead:
> Pride and Prejudice - the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle one, and
> Twelfth Night - the one with Parminder Nagra and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Four places I’ve liked
> Toronto - because it’s a clean, open city, and friendly (for a big city)
> Dublin - I used to love it many moons ago, when I was a party-girl
> Berlin - I visited before the Wall came down, and it was the most amazing experience - one half of the city new and shiny and modern, the other - well, repressed and retro about covers it!
> Durham - because it has the Cathedral. It’s a nice town, but it doesn’t need anything more than that Cathedral.

Four TV shows I love
We haven’t had a tv for quite a while, so all my choices will be very dated - but I used to like:
> Coupling - I got hooked from the very first episode
> Have I Got News For You - for its irreverence and unlikely guests
> Ballykissangel. I’ve lived in places like that! But it also earns its place on this list for its portrayal of Siobhan’s baby’s birth
> Dharma & Greg - but only the first season, it kinda lost me after that

Four places I’ve vacationed
> Toronto - and went back to live there.
> Berlin - see above
> Georgia, USA - those accents…drool
> Scotland - in a caravan with a decal of Mickey Mouse on the window in the door. I remember nothing else about that holiday, except for that Well… I was only about 6!

Four of my favorite dishes
> caesar salad (when it’s a really good one)
> roasted vegetables (the way I do them every Christmas)
> Panzerotti from Bitondo’s on Clinton Street in Toronto
> chocolate

Chocolate *is* a dish! It is so!

Four sites I visit daily
Hm. There are quite a few blogs that I visit when they’re updated, but mostly I just go through my feed-reader every day (or so). I visit BoohBah daily at the minute, but that’s for Jack LOL. Currently I’m visiting the Amazon site every day to see if they’ve shipped my food processor yet…

Four places I would rather be right now
> Somewhere hot and sunny
> In bed

I give up. I can’t think of four. Either that means I quite like where I am, or it means I’m too sick to think straight.

Four bloggers I am tagging
Only four? Now this is one where I could come up with a long list…

> Emily from The Voyage because it will be the first time she’s been tagged
> Mamadillo, The Reluctant Blogger because it will might just get her blogging
> Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - because June probably has some interesting history to divulge, and it will get it on the Early Years blogring
> The Purple Goddess in Frog Pyjamas to give it an international flavour