NotSheep

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