NotSheep

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Heh. Seems I caught a few of you this morning then

Apart from that, today was a normal Saturday. The boys went to their swimming lesson this morning, and I experimented with different bread-making techniques (since I couldn’t just toss it all in the breadmaker anyway, I figured I might as well play). It made very good bread; now I’m thinking maybe I don’t really want a breadmaker. The food processor does the kneading just as easily, and I like baking the bread in the oven rather than the breadmaker anyway (better shape and no paddle-hole!) I don’t expect I’ll get my money back when I take the dead one back to the shop though, so if the manufacturer does send me a new breadmaker, I’m thinking I might just sell it.

Made delish beans-on-toast for lunch (everything from scratch!) and then… well, I’m not sure what I did with the next couple of hours really - the boys were on various computers, I know that, because after they started to squabble about it, I decided they’d had enough. Being a bad mummy, I suggested they could watch a movie instead - so they watched King Solomon’s Mines, and then got into another argument about what to watch next - Jack wanted Ivanhoe But never let it be said that my children are hot-housed: in the end, he settled for Wallace and Gromit

There was another - well, not really a squabble, more of a discussion - about whose fault it was when the DVD got jammed in the DVD player. George said it was 99% Jack’s fault and 1% his fault; Jack said “no, it’s 99% your fault and 1% my fault!” Scratch what I said about hot-housing then

Scratchy went off to buy groceries (I have a cook-for-the-freezer day planned tomorrow) and basketball practice - and came home barely able to walk. The basketball team members have been asking him to join the team for a while; he doesn’t want to commit to the team (too much else to do!) but does enjoy both the game and the exercise, even if it does leave him hobbling in pain. I never did understand the appeal of deliberately-inflicted self-torture - my approach is more “no pain, no pain” - but apparently some people find it appealing

It was a very productive morning here! I took three recipes that I know always go down well, and made them in huge quantities, then froze it all except enough for dinner this evening, and one lasagna for tomorrow’s dinner. Feeling very virtuous and looking forward to eating it all

This afternoon I decided to take the breadmaker back, to save me taking all the boys with me tomorrow. So I put it in the car, and drove to the shopping centre where I bought it - but when I got there, it was closed! There were lots of people standing around the various entrances, and there were signs on the doors saying that customers and staff were not allowed in “due to unsafe circumstances”. Somebody said it might be a flood after all the rain - but I can’t see the whole shopping centre being closed for that, I’d expect them to close off the affected section. Very odd anyway - and I didn’t get to return my dead breadmaker

The boys were squabbling at a computer again this morning - why, when we have two desktops and countless laptops, do the four older kids all end up squashed around one computer and arguing?! So I turned it off, and told them to find something else to do. This produced a bit of a Kevin moment from Barney - unfortunately for him I turned around unexpectedly and caught the grimacing he was doing behind my back. He’s been informed that it’s to be expected that he will have disagreements with us, but that he’s to express his feelings to our faces, not behind our backs, and that he’s to express them in a respectful way. It was also pointed out that this method is far more likely to convince us to listen, and to get him what he wants

The four of them spent most of the rest of the day constructing things with the domino-race stuff, and using every piece from the games drawer to create scenes and scenarios. Barney was going to teach Jack to play chess, but delegated it to Freddy, and since Freddy isn’t terribly good at keeping Jack “on task” (as the schoolies say ;-)) it wasn’t too successful. He’s definitely ready to learn though, so I’ll have to try to get the QuickChess out during the week.

We’re all now watching HP4 again, and munching popcorn - a good end to a busy day

Why do things have to be so complicated?

Today I phoned to see why 2/3 of an order I’d placed on-line a month ago hadn’t arrived, and why the replacements for the items that were wrong/broken in the received 1/3 hadn’t arrived. The not-yet-received 2/3 was sent to me on Friday. Last Friday. Friday, March 31st. I placed my order (and paid for it) on March 3rd

As for the items I’d reported as wrong or broken - well, they’d no record of that. Apparently the person I spent 20 minutes on the phone to a couple of weeks ago did absolutely nothing. She didn’t even log the phone-call

The damaged item - which was in stock when I phoned two weeks ago - is no longer available. The item that was wrong is, I’m told, the “nearest available”. Except that it’s not at all close to what I’d ordered. In fact, the only thing it has in common with what I’d ordered is that both things are books.

And then, to top all that off, the main item I’d wanted to order - the one thing they had that made me place the order - is no longer in stock

After all that, do you think I’d had enough frustration for one day? Of course not. I felt I needed a bit more hassle in my life, so I tried to engage with the health service.

We don’t actually see a doctor very often, but there are three people in this family who need aqueous cream for dry skin. Our preferred product is available over-the-counter - but it’s also available on prescription, and since two of the three are entitled to free prescriptions, that’s how we’ve always acquired it. And all I really want is a prescription for that. Shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

Wrong.

I don’t really want to register with the practice nearest us; I’ve heard too many things that put me off. And the one time I tried to phone them for an appointment, they said “ring back tomorrow and we might be able to get you an urgent appointment”. Normally, that would have been fine - but it was a week after I fell and my pain was getting worse, and I was telling them on the phone that I couldn’t take a proper breath. So: can’t breathe? - phone tomorrow. Rrright.

(That was the time it turned out I’d a fractured rib.)

Our old doctor had suggested another fairly local practice - it’s less than ten minutes away from us, but when I phoned them a while ago, they said we were out of their catchment area.

Someone I spoke to a couple of weeks ago suggested (yet) another practice - about 20 minutes away from us, but she said they were pretty good, so I phoned them this morning and asked if we’d be in their catchment area. The receptionist asked the doctor who was standing beside her, and came back and said oh yes, that’s in our catchment. I asked about the practice’s attitude towards alternative medicine and was told that they didn’t offer any, but it would be okay if we used it. I mentioned that my children aren’t vaccinated, and - oh, suddenly the doctor next to her didn’t think they’d have room in their practice. After all, their area is growing and it’s very busy and they’re moving offices soon… so no, they wouldn’t be willing to take us as patients.

So. Back to square one. Since there seemed to be no alternative, I phoned the local practice (the one I don’t really want to join).

After dialling and getting a busy tone seventeen times, I finally got through. I said that I’d like an appointment for my son, and that he’d be new to their practice. Their response? Bring down his medical card, and we’ll register him and then you can book an appointment. Apppointments are booked several weeks ahead. I explained that I’d have to have the car for the day in order to come in, and that I’d have to drag five kids with me, so that it would be much easier if I could just book an appointment and do the forms etc on the same day. But oh no, that can’t be done. Apparently that is just too difficult for their computer to manage.

But it’s not over yet. Oh no, that would just be too easy a day for Deb. Deb needs a bit more stress. A bit more frustration. Something else to swear about.

Remember that local workers’ strike last Tuesday? The one that meant, amongst other things, that there was no garbage pick-up that day? Guess what day our garbage gets collected. No, really, go on, guess. I bet you get it right.

Yep, you got it right.

So today we put out more garbage than usual. The bin wasn’t quite overflowing, but it wasn’t far off.

And - guess the answer to this one too - it’s another easy one - did it get collected?

Right again.

Like Helen, I’m a terry square, but unlike Helen, I do use terry squares sometimes. I also use Tots Bots, FuzziBunz, Motherease, anda variety of other accumulated-through-the-years bits and pieces. My favourite is…well, it’s a tie between Tots Bots and my terries - which are mostly those gorgeous colourful Bright Bots

You are loyal, selfless and loving. Hardworking and
dependable, you are always willing to lend a helping
hand and people often take advantage of your goodwill.
Remember to treat yourself every once in a while,
you deserve pampering too.

After a day like yesterday, you can’t just immediately go back to normal. Too little frustration on the day after a day like yesterday, and your head could implode from the withdrawal symptoms, you know. You can’t just pull away from those sorts of stress levels cold turkey. It wouldn’t be good for you.

So today I took my dead breadmaker back to where I bought it.

Pretend for a minute that you are a store manager. You have a customer in front of you who is returning an item she bought a few months ago, an item which has stopped working. The customer does not have her receipt, but she does have the store-card bill which shows the purchase. So you know she’s someone who shops there regularly enough to have a store-card, and you know that the bill she’s got shows a total of £265.19, so she’s not just buying batteries. The manufacturer of the broken item has already offered to replace it with a new one at no cost to you or the customer. You’re not being asked for a refund. All you have to do is send the item back to the manufacturer.

What would you do?

Maybe it’s because I lived in a place where people expect good customer service, but if I was that store manager, I’d say “Of course. No problem.” I’d be thinking that the most important thing was retaining that person’s business, you see.

But I know you’re far too intelligent to think for a nanosecond that that’s what happened.

Instead, I stood there for an hour and ten minutes while the customer service person, and then the store manager, told me they couldn’t do it. Not because they thought they had no legal responsibility for it, but because they didn’t know how. They didn’t have a procedure for it. They don’t have a form to fill in for that. And when I asked what they planned to do instead, they just kept saying, in one way or another, that they didn’t know. “We don’t have any procedure to follow; we don’t usually send things back to the manufacturer without processing a refund.”

So I, thinking quickly and speaking slowly, said, “So if I came in with this item and said I wanted a refund, you’d know just what to do, and I’d get a refund?”

And they said “Yes.”

???

They would rather give me my money back than send the item back to the manufacturer (cost to them: nothing, since they already send stuff back regularly) and keep my money.

Ooooo-kay.

So now I’m the proud owner of a �66 credit on my store-card and no breadmaker.

*Shrug*

Barney casually mentioned that he thought he needed new trainers - I’ve only been trying to convince him of this for about nine months, and now he says it as if it has only just occurred to him so we got those, and new trainers for Freddy and Jack, who also had falling-to-bits footwear. Went to the healthfood place for rice cakes for Toby, and as we walked out of there, a mall security guard approached me, carrying a little girl of about four, and holding the hand of a little girl of about two. “Are these yours?” he said. Uh, yeah. I have five kids with me so the two that you’ve got must be mine too. (I suppose that must be the opposite of the line I usually get: “Are these all yours?” I’m usually tempted to reply, “Oh, no, there are more at home!”)

I did stop though, because the four-year-old was looking kind of scared, and she didn’t seem very keen on the security guard either. The little girls were lost, and apparently had been lost for some time - the security guard had had them for about five minutes, and before that they’d been seen in at least two different shops without an adult around. I thought maybe she’d be less scared of a woman, or of other kids, or that having a baby to talk to might help her. I did manage to get her to nod and shake her head to a few questions, but she wouldn’t say anything.

After four announcements over the PA system, at least 20 minutes after they were lost, their mum arrived. The two-year-old had kicked off her shoes, and the mum just said “Come on, get these shoes on”, helped her get them on, and left. Not a hug, not a word of “Thank goodness you’re safe” or “I was worried about you” or anything like that. If it had been me, I’d have been frantic and in tears after 20 minutes of my kids being lost in a shopping mall, but she didn’t seem bothered

The weirdest thing of all though, was this: Lots of people noticed they were lost but just walked past - except for one woman, who called over, “Oh, I know that one’s name” - pointing at the four-year-old - “it’s E…, and her mum’s called N…” - and then walked on!

It’s not just me, is it? If you saw a child who was lost, and you actually knew who the child was, wouldn’t you stop?

Anyway.

Apart from all the stress-and-shock shenanigans of the last couple of days, we’ve done masses of work with the kids: geography, history, French, Latin, maths and more. They’ve written about their favourite books, and they’ve drawn pictures representing “Spring” for Illustration Friday. I’ve baked bread twice - using the food processor and shaping it by hand, and it came out really good - yum, we served some with dinner last night, and I’ve just realised there’s some left so that’s my midnight snack sorted Oh, and I phoned to ask why our garbage wasn’t collected, and they apologised and sent someone to collect it today.

Freddy had Beavers last night and tonight George and Barney had Cubs and Scouts respectively. Barney and George also had St John Cadets and Badgers last night - Barney came home very pleased because the leader had found a spare uniform for him to wear when he goes to events to help out. They’re really enjoying St. John; I’m so glad we gave it a second chance (when they tried it about three years ago, in a different town, they said it was boring - and it was!)

And this post is quite long enough, so I’m going to stop writing, and go have some bread

…but this description of me couldn’t be more wrong.

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting. You’re friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

The heating didn’t come on last night. Guess why?

The house feels fine right now, but the forecast temperature for tonight is -1. Looks like I need to tidy my bedroom then.

Last night, with all the kids camped out on the floor in my bedroom, I looked around and thought “This is kind of nice, we should just do this occasionally anyway”. And it was. It seems that as children get older, you don’t get so many of those just-hanging-out-together moments, when everyone’s in the same place and there’s no need to hurry up because someone has to be somewhere in half an hour. I often think how lucky I am to be able to spend so much time with my children - much, much more than I’d ever get if they were in school - but it’s not often that we’re all just sitting around, nowhere to go, nothing better to do, in one room. So there’s Silver Lining Number One

This morning we just kept the bedroom door closed until everyone was dressed and ready to go, since it was the only warm room in the house. We went downstairs and let the cats out, threw some food I’d tray-frozen last night into freezer bags and back into the freezer, grabbed a few things to take with us, and left. We picked up a drive-through breakfast, then I swept through a local kitchen equipment shop for a few bits and pieces, and went into a healthfood place for “Dragons’ Eggs”.

We bought these the last time we were there, and the boys really liked them, and they’d asked me to get some more, so I went in and looked, leaving all but Toby in the car. I couldn’t see them, so I asked the assistant, but she had no idea what I was talking about. She suggested a few things, one or two of which looked vaguely familiar but weren’t called Dragons’ Eggs. Eventually I picked up two bags - one of some kind of peanutty thing and the other of seaweed-based snacks (doesn’t that sound delightful? they are good though LOL) and went back to the car. I told them I couldn’t find Dragons’ Eggs, but I’d found things that I thought were probably the same thing, just packaged under a different name. “Oh,” they said, “We just call them dragons’ eggs, that’s not really what they’re called!” Well thanks for making me look like a right dope in the shop guys!

After that we headed for S’s house. We’d a lovely time there, as we always do - Silver Lining Number Two S and I did lots of laughing and the kids all ran about and played, indoors and out. We had home-made pizza (catered by S) and homemade bread (catered by me) for lunch, and the tea was kept flowing. I won’t hold it against them that M, the same age as Jack, told me, with a very serious tone and a very serious expression, that my hair looked weird

Picked up Scratchy on the way home, and once we got here he went straight to the garage to get the oil flowing through the furnace again, while I did spag bol for dinner (quick and easy). Both of us accomplished our respective tasks quickly, and we sat down to pasta in a rapidly-warming-up house. I can’t believe how much the oil cost though - nearly twice what I’d expected The rates bill arrived today too, so I don’t think there’ll be any more money spent on dragons’ eggs (or anything else) for a few weeks!

Barney, George and Freddy have just arrived back from ju-jitsu, where they’d a games night since it was the last week before the Easter break, and they’re now gathering their pillows and distributing them to their own beds again. Back to normal then - whatever normal is!

Today was a bit of a non-day for me - I was very tired (probably from doing too much over the last few days; I still struggle if I’ve several busy days in a row) and spent most of the day lying down. The boys spent most of the day reading and drawing and making objects out of paper. Jack trashed George and Freddy’s room (again) so there was much get-that-room-sorted-ing going on around dinnertime. We’d one of my stashed frozen lasagnas for dinner, then I got myself into the shower in an attempt to wake up properly for the St John Ambulance Parents’ Evening.

Well. What can I say? - scary flashbacks to Girls Brigade Displays! Lots of marching etc, to the same music and doing the same routines that I remember doing in Girls Brigade. Apparently this group (chapter?) has been the area champion in “drills” (that’s marching to you and me) for the last few years - can’t say I see the point myself. But in Girls Brigade all we ever did was marching and displays with twirling ribbons and stuff like that - not particularly thrilling for us, and the poor parents who had to sit through three-hour displays of it must have been bored stupid. At least tonight there was a bit more variety. I don’t think we ever did anything as interesting as creating (fake) burns and treating them while I was in Girls Brigade. There was one first-aid display which was very funny - the “elderly gentleman” started off with a damaged vein in his leg, which the SJA volunteers had come to his home to dress - but then he fell from his chair and bumped his head and had all sorts of other calamities while they were there and at the end of the display was carted off to hospital in an ambulance, strapped to a wheelchair and breathing oxygen! Much muttering around the hall of “If they come to my house they’re not getting in - that poor bloke only had a sore leg when they arrived!”

It got to about 9pm and Jack and Toby had really had enough - Jack was almost asleep on his feet and Toby was struggling valiantly on but you could tell he hadn’t much left in him. (He’s got two teeth just sitting right below the gum - that one I mentioned a while back never did come through, but I’ll be really surprised if he hasn’t got at least one through by this time next week - so that wasn’t helping.) So Scratchy brought me home with the two youngest (and they’re both in bed and sleeping now - Jack snoring loudly) and went back for the rest of it. Freddy chose to stay and watch the rest of it and when we left, Barney was busy getting tied in various bandages. George was waiting in the reception hall for the next Badgers bit; he was looking really tired, so I hope the prize-giving doesn’t go on too long. I did get a chance to speak to the woman who takes the Badgers before I left, and asked her if it would be okay for Freddy to go occasionally - he has Beavers (Scouts) at the same time as Badgers happens, so he can’t go all the time - and she said that was no problem at all, so he’ll be happy to hear that

Ah, they’ve just got home - Freddy has run in and told me I should have stayed because “there was food and drinks!” - you’d think I never fed this lot!

I’ll blog properly tomorrow, but right now I’m hibernating. I need to. It’s part of my personality. This says so!

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have medium extroversion. You’re not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party. Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences. But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your “down time.” Conscientiousness: You have medium conscientiousness. You’re generally good at balancing work and play. When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done. But you’ve been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You’re generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You’ll try almost anything interesting, and you’re constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

…because I can’t think of a decent title

I got to sleep in this morning! Then I went off to a La Leche League meeting with Toby, and thoroughly enjoyed it - so nice to be in a room full of women with similar parenting ideas When we did the intros bit, I said that I had five boys (and noted the general sharp intake of breath around the room), and that I hadn’t been to meetings there before because I would have needed to bring them all along, since we home-educated (and noted several “ooooh”s in response). Later, after the main part of the meeting was over, two or three people came up and asked me about home-education. There was another woman there who used to home-educate (her daughter has now chosen to go to school) and who is very positive about it. Unfortunately it seems that the local education authorities are still giving people completely inaccurate information (like: you must teach 21 hours a week), but at least I was able to correct that I think that one woman I spoke to was doubting what I was saying at first, thinking that I couldn’t be right if I was saying such different things to the man from the education authority, but when the other mum who used to home-ed came into the conversation mutter “oh rubbish rubbish rubbish” she seemed to be a bit more convinced

Home for a late lunch - the boys had already eaten, and were all doing various things on various computers. Scratchy had scrubbed the conservatory roof clean while I was gone - it was covered in bits of moss etc on it, so it really needed that! It sounds like the kids had fun with that too - they kept getting under Scratchy while he was up the ladder, so he kept spraying them with water Later Barney and I took off on an Easter Egg hunt - by which I mean, we visited four different shops to try to find chocolate Easter Eggs, and not one had any. What’s with that then? So at this point it doesn’t look like my children will be getting Easter Eggs - we usually buy them one each. My mother rang while I was out, and she’s coming over on Sunday, so it’s possible she’ll bring some (which will probably be from the horrible company) but I think Scratchy may be sent out tomorrow to continue the hunt. The kids will be most disappointed if they don’t get some - especially Freddy, who is a chocolate fiend. Hm.

I was also looking for a baby-gate, but they were sold out of those too. I’d a quick look at high-chairs, but I think we might just make do with the booster-seats we’ve already got. We’ve a small clip-on seat too, but it’s too deep for my miniature boy.

I got home to find that Toby had just woken up, so sat and fed him while dinner cooked, then did some aquarium maintenance.

I think the boys spent most of their day on the computers, apart from Barney. Still, he’ll be pleased when he discovers that his laptop now has twice the memory it had before: Scratchy bought a 256mb memory thingy for his own laptop (which previously had 128mb), then found it didn’t work. He tried it in Barney’s (which also started out at 128mb) and it worked in that. So he took the original 128mb from Barney’s, and tried it in his own - and it worked. So now they’ve both got double the memory, and both are very pleased. Not a patch on my 512mb, of course

I do actually think there is some benefit to be had from boredom - or at least from having time to get bored. But I can’t imagine why it should be necessary to go to school to achieve that - and I certainly object to the notion that we should actually pay people to inflict boredom on kids!

Independent Online Edition > News

Teachers say children need more boring lessons to help them deal with the world beyond the classroom door.

Pupils needed to get used to the idea that life wasn’t a constant “Disney ride”, said delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference yesterday. “I don’t have the energy to do all-singing all-dancing lessons every day, five-days-a-week, each term,” supply maths teacher Zoe Fail explained, to loud cheers. “Children are not bored enough. They are over stimulated. Being bored encourages thinking skills and imaginative play.”

So, apart from reading that open-mouthed, what have we done today… let’s see. We: tidied up the back garden, cut back some of the bushes (we can now open the composter again LOL), filled a tyre with cement and a bit of pvc pipe (for a clothes-line, of course), looked at the leisure centre schedule to see what else we want to do in the next session (just how many places can one person be at a time? - will let you know…), Scratchy hunted for Easter Eggs and found some (though not sure the kids will go a bundle on what he found), made bread, made more hot cross buns, made more hot cross bun dough and refrigerated it for baking tomorrow, made dough for calzones (ate them for dinner with caesar salad), kids played computer games and went out on their bikes (including Jack, who I got to hang onto the back of as he rode up and down the street)….

A fairly normal Saturday then

I just love this.

This morning was spent tidying up both the inside and outside of the house and cleaning bathrooms (I am certain that the people who design toilets never have to clean them, if they did, they’d design away all those dirt-trapping nooks and crannies on the outside!) My mother and stepfather visited this afternoon, along with my great-aunt, who is 80 and who we haven’t seen for at least four or five years. It was great to see her again. The visit went very well - we’d made hot cross buns and when our guests loved those so much they wanted the recipe, Barney first went to the computer and found the website (it was printed on the page I’d printed) and provided them with the recipe, then started to make more hot cross bun dough for them to take home with them I did have to finish the dough, but they were most impressed with his culinary skills

They stayed for dinner (lasagna from the freezer, salad and home-made bread, supplemented with leftover calzones from yesterday) and admired both the aquarium and the “new” freezer The boys were fabulous. There was a brief period during dinner when George was winding up Jack, and at one point Jack was explaining to everyone about “the bad finger” but apart from that, they were helpful and cooperative and generally just perfect children

A fairly uneventful morning, made up for by the afternoon

George and Freddy were out on their bicycles this afternoon, when there was a knock at the door. Expecting it to be R from across the road, Barney went to answer it - but it was a woman, with George. It turned out that George’s bicycle and her car had been involved in a collision.

Most important things first: George is fine. He has a very impressively-bruised cheek, from where his face came into contact with the car, and a cut thumb, but otherwise seems well. What actually happened isn’t very clear: George was going down the street and around the corner and the woman was driving up the street and around the corner, and his bike and the side of her car met. He says he managed not to come off his bike, though I’m really not sure how he managed to bash his face as he did in that case. The car door has a deepish scratch, and a dent, I think - I didn’t really look closely at the time, since I was checking George was okay, and thinking about how he might not have been - I’m sure you can imagine.

The driver and I exchanged names and addresses and phone numbers, and she said she’d contact her insurance to get the car repaired.

Later, looking at the bruise coming up on George’s cheek, and vaguely remembering something about it being required to report any accident where there’s an injury, I phoned the police to ask. They said yes, it should be reported, took a few details and then phoned back to say they’d like to come and speak to us. They did that - George told them what happened, as best he could, and the older police officer and I had a chat about birth and how great breastfeeding is, much to the bemusement of the younger one They left here a little while ago to go and talk to the driver, saying that it was really impossible to know who was at fault, and unless she said something unexpected (like “I was driving on the wrong side of the road”) they would file a report and that would probably be the end of it, as far as they’re concerned.

I wouldn’t mind a few more dull moments

I think we were all a bit more shaken than we realised by George’s close shave on Monday. Certainly I didn’t sleep at all well on Monday night, and while George seemed to be fine overnight, yesterday was a different story. He was clearly on edge during the day, and when he had a minor argument with his friend from across the road (they’re eight and nine years old, so it was all “You’re never allowed to play in my house again!” etc), it led to the mother of all meltdowns It took me nearly an hour to bring him through it. Lots of “I’m terrible; I’m crap at everything; I hate everyone; I want to die” etc In true George style, two minutes after we got past all that, the world was just fine and dandy and he was smiling and talking like nothing had ever happened. His friend stayed for dinner, and they spent most of it writing their names in funny ways in the steam on the conservatory windows. Friend then played for a short while before going home, and was back here today, so clearly yesterday’s threats didn’t last long. What a surprise

Today we made a start on a jigsaw puzzle of Escher’s “Relativity” - hard work, I can tell you! Not sure how long this one will take us, and just glad we can pull the plastic cover on the table back over it rather than having to finish it in one session

Scratchy took the car to our mechanic this morning, but the mechanic wasn’t going to be able to finish the work today - again, not a surprise - so Scratchy came back by bike and train. I’d suggested he took the bike in the back of the car this morning; he hadn’t thought about it but I think he was glad he took my suggestion, because it probably saved him at least two hours of walking. Later, for a variety of reasons, I took Barney and George out for a ride - we went the whole way into town (slight downhill most of the way), heading for the cycle shop. Got there to find that it’s closed on Wednesdays! Coming back is, of course, slightly uphill most of the way, so that was a bit more of a challenge. I planned a route that involved a couple of short, steep hills and left the rest flat, but George was having issues with gear-changes - he coudn’t change gear because he wouldn’t keep pedalling while he moved the handlebar thingy, and he couldn’t/wouldn’t pedal because it was too hard in too high a gear… and as ever, George is definitely one to turn a crisis into a drama (or whatever it was that insurance company used to say in their ads), so there was lots of “I’m dying!” and “My legs are broken!” going on. We did eventually make it home, having ridden about eight miles. Despite the last 2-3 miles, I was quite impressed with how George handled it, to be honest. And quite impressed at how I managed too - it’s a lot of years since I used to cycle to work! Barney is really quite fit - he was taking hills without any problem at all. We managed a bit of road safety on the way too - things like crossing roads with a bike, and choosing the best routes. So overall, not a bad trip, though I could definitely have done without the drama of the last couple of miles.

Car should be back tomorrow, so I can probably go for a few more years before I get on a bike again

…or maybe it just feels that way.

It hasn’t been an easy week around here, and it didn’t improve today. It wasn’t anything specific today: just a continuation of the grumpies. I began to expect it when George informed me this morning that he’d been reading in the living-room since 4 a.m. When asked why he got up so early, his response was that he’d woken up and noticed that Freddy wasn’t in his bed - and that Freddy was reading in the living-room, so he did too. Ooh-kay. The 4 a.m. bit might have been a slight exaggeration, but I don’t think it was out by many hours By 10.30, all the boys (except for Toby, of course!) were planted in front of electronic games of one kind or another - computers, GameBoys etc - and were already starting to get on each other’s nerves. By 11, I’d made them all go outside - the weather was glorious and I’m a firm believer in making the most of it. They came in and ate lunch in the conservatory, but were still grumpy. Scratchy left shortly after that to go pick up the car (taking about 1.5 hours longer than expected, because he missed the train by four minutes - which meant a 40-minute wait for the next one, plus an extra 20-minute wait to connect to the next train, and then a longer drive back because traffic was building), and left me to deal with it all on my own, much to my delight. Not.

Eventually, after listening to fights over batteries, bionicles, jigsaw puzzles, sidewalk chalk and goodness-knows-what-else, and after watching them moan and sulk over being asked to pick up their shoes or their chalks or after some other horrendously onerous and desperately unfair request, I’d Completely Had It. And that is why my children went to bed at approximately 5.30 p.m. They were all tired and grumpy and needed to be there. I wasn’t tired, but I was getting grumpier by the minute, and I needed them to be there too.

I did take them some food later, and they had a picnic on the bedroom floor. Then they were sent to clean their teeth and told they could read for a while longer before going to sleep.

It’s now about 8.45 and I haven’t heard a peep from them in about an hour. Seems their day lasted quite long enough

I did this one a while back, and planned to blog it on Earth Day, but never remembered to look up when Earth Day is. So, having been reminded by the same quiz going around the EYHE blogring, I’m posting it now.

These are my results from when I did this last August:

Earth Day Footprint Quiz

CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.2
MOBILITY 0.3
SHELTER 0.7
GOODS/SERVICES 0.6
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 2.8

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 5.3 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.6 PLANETS.

I got the same “final score” of 1.6 planets today, though with a slightly lower number for mobility (makes sense, I’m spending less time in the car since Toby was born) and a slightly higher number for shelter (which doesn’t make sense, since I live in the same house).

I had to estimate some of the answers and guessed high on my first run-through, then went back and guessed low - and reduced my total footprint to 2 hectares (i.e. a necessity for 1.1 planets). I can’t decide if that’s fairly good, being lower than the average person in this part of the world, or if it’s fairly bad, considering that another tenth of a planet isn’t going to be found easily.

I’d quite like to compare my answers to Jax’s though, since she got 1.6 planets too, and I don’t do anywhere near the driving mileage she does, and almost never drive alone. I know this house is a good size, though it’s certainly not a mansion, and being fairly new, it’s quite an efficient one - and there are seven of us living in it! Foodwise, we eat vegetarian more often than not, and I’m actively trying to cut back on processed foods. So where are you gaining the points to make up for all that driving then Jax?

Saturday got off to its usual start here, with three children in the pool by 9 a.m. for their swimming lesson. I went with them this morning, because George wanted me to stay for his trampoline class again. I didn’t sit in the class for the whole session today though, just tootled about the leisure centre, and he was fine with that. I mentioned to the instructor that he’d had a rough week, and she was surprised, as he’d been absolutely fine during the class.

After leaving George in the trampoline area at 9.45, I took Barney upstairs to the fitness suite, as he wanted to try out the Fit Kids programme - the kids get to use all the equipment and do other bits and pieces too - today they’d an obstacle course set up. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and plans to go back. I had a tour of the fitness suite too; I’ve been thinking that I could drop the boys for swimming classes on Saturdays and do an hour working out myself while they swam and got dressed. We’ll see if my willpower ever gets me that far. They offer a pay-as-you-go option as well as a membership, so at least I don’t have to hand over lots of dosh only to find out I never use it.

Freddy stayed with me this morning too, so once Barney was settled in, we went and had a quick look at George bouncing on the trampolines, then headed for the cafeteria where I read to Freddy (Harry Potter - what else? LOL) while he realised that he shouldn’t have bought two jawbreakers. He just about coped with the first, then traded the second for a drink from Barney once his class was over

The Fit Kids session includes a free swim, but it has to be used on the same day as the class, so this afternoon when Scratchy went to play basketball, Barney and George went with him, intending to go swimming. Can’t believe I have two kids old enough to go swimming without parental supervision But they’d only just arrived at the leisure centre when a power-cut meant the whole place had to be shut down, so they never got to swim after all. Maybe we’ll take the whole family tomorrow. I haven’t been swimming in ages - I do enjoy it, but Toby is so skinny I’m afraid he’d freeze! He hasn’t got an ounce of fat for insulation! But Scratchy isn’t keen on swimming anyway, so I could either let him look after Toby, or I could take Toby in for the last few minutes I was in the pool with the others.

At home again, they all had a DVD while Scratchy cooked and I mooched. I did make what was probably the best bread I’ve ever made, with or without a breadmaker. It was about 1/4 wholewheat, and it just rose beautifully and coloured beautifully and came out very tasty with a really soft tender crumb and a crust that was just right - crunchy but not hard. Will definitely use the same quantities again. I’m thoroughly enjoying this breadmaking kick I’m on - it’s very little trouble, the process is fascinating, and the results are very enjoyable

You’re supposed to bold the ones you’ve read, italicise the ones you’ve been meaning to read, and stick some question-marks on the ones you’ve never heard of.

Some of the choices for the list aren’t what I’d have chosen - I think there are better Margaret Atwoods, for example, and Ms Clinton is only there by virtue of her connections, let’s face it. But it was interesting and killed a few minutes

Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women
Allende, Isabel - The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret - Cat?s Eye
Austen, Jane - Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade - Salt Eaters ???
Barnes, Djuna - Nightwood
de Beauvoir, Simone - The Second Sex
Blume, Judy - Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
Burnett, Frances - The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S. - The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S. - Possession
Cather, Willa - My Antonia
Christie, Agatha - Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra - The House on Mango Street
Clinton, Hillary Rodham - Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia - A Voice From the South
Danticat, Edwidge - Breath, Eyes, Memory
Davis, Angela - Women, Culture, and Politics
Desai, Anita - Clear Light of Day
Dickinson, Emily - Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois - I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne - Rebecca
Eliot, George - Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi - Second Class Citizen
Erdrich, Louise - Tracks
Esquivel, Laura - Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty - The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne - Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins - The Yellow Wallpaper ???
Gordimer, Nadine - July’s People ???
Grafton, Sue - S is for Silence
Hamilton, Edith - Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia - The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell - Bone Black ???
Hurston, Zora Neale - Dust Tracks on the Road
Jacobs, Harriet - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jackson, Helen Hunt - Ramona
Jackson, Shirley - The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica - Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn - The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk - The Secret Life of Bees
Kincaid, Jamaica - Lucy
Kingsolver, Barbara - The Poisonwood Bible ???
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Larsen, Nella - Passing ???
L’Engle, Madeleine - A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris - The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope - Moon Tiger
Lorde, Audre - The Cancer Journals
Martin, Ann M. - The Babysitters Club Series
McCullers, Carson - The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry - Disappearing Acts
Markandaya, Kamala - Nectar in a Sieve
Marshall, Paule - Brown Girl, Brownstones
Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy - Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan - When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost ???
Morrison, Toni - Song of Solomon
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu - The Tale of Genji
Munro, Alice - Lives of Girls and Women
Murdoch, Iris - Severed Head
Naylor, Gloria - Mama Day
Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Traveller’s Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol - We Were the Mulvaneys ???
O’Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
Piercy, Marge - Woman on the Edge of Time
Picoult, Jodi - My Sister’s Keeper
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne - Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie - The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel - 365: No Repeats ???
Rhys, Jean - Wide Sargasso Sea ???
Robinson, Marilynne - Housekeeping ???
Rocha, Sharon - For Laci ???
Sebold, Alice - The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Smith, Betty - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie - White Teeth
Spark, Muriel - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna - Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth - Amy and Isabelle
Steel, Danielle - The House
Tan, Amy - The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah - You’re Wearing That
Ulrich, Laurel - A Midwife’s Tale
Urquhart, Jane - Away
Walker, Alice - The Temple of My Familiar ???
Welty, Eudora - One Writer’s Beginnings
Wharton, Edith - Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls - Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary - A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia - A Room of One?s Own

We’ve had a few moods from Barney today - a sign of things to come? I do hope not; it completely throws me when he goes from one extreme to another the way he has today. He threw a stone at Freddy’s head this morning when they were out on their bicycles, then switched into The Charming Child a few minutes later; was in helpful-eldest mode at the swimming-pool, only to be found winding up Jack in the back garden after we came home. Then he got all grumpy about being expected to put his bike away without knocking over every other thing in the garage - and by mid-dinner was back to delightful, having a very good-natured staring contest with Scratchy and then teaching Jack how to do it. It’s exhausting keeping up! Is there anyone reading this who has older boys? Is this how they get at eleven-and-a-half? And when does it go away again?!

Other than that, it’s been a good day This morning the boys played, both inside and out, while I put together a huge pot of tomato-vegetable sauce, with the intention of compiling vegetable lasagna this afternoon. They got on really well, and didn’t even go on the computer (they couldn’t, I changed their password a couple of days ago and I haven’t told them the new one LOL) Then we made a delicious pizza-thing for lunch, with a herbed pizza base and roasted garlic and cambozola cheese - something I’d never even heard of until I found this recipe, and was stunned and impressed in equal quantities to discover that the local grocery store actually had it After that we all went to the leisure centre, where Barney got his free swim that he’d missed yesterday, along with George, Freddy, Jack and me. This time last year they were all, essentially, non-swimmers; now they are completely at home in the water, tossing themselves underneath, going down the big slide, and even swimming a bit I’m very impressed by how far they’ve come. Jack hasn’t had swimming lessons, but very effectively propelled himself around the pool by hanging onto a large, frog-shaped float and kicking his legs like mad. He also had a couple of panicky moments when he went underwater and forgot it was shallow enough for him to stand up in. The swimming classes at the leisure centre take children when they reach school-age, so he’d be able to start in September, if we want. I’m still not sure about that - I can’t see him settling down to actually pay attention in a swimming-class (or any class, for that matter!) Having said that, he’s surprised us a few times recently - his drawings are suddenly excellent, he’s taken to writing numbers and letters (this morning it was “4″ - “oh, did you write that?” - “Yes! I just thinked about it and drew it!” LOL) and on Friday he read the number “100″ off a packet, which startled all of us. He also - and this is a biggie - answered a question this morning with the words, “Yes, I am!” The reason this is so startling is that I don’t think he’s ever said “I am” unprompted before - it’s always been “um is” So who knows what new talents he’ll display over the next few months?

Toby got his first swimming experience - Scratchy kept him until a few minutes before we were getting out, then Barney took Jack into the men’s changing room so Scratchy could get him dried and dressed, and brought Toby out to me. Toby was… um, less than impressed. I think he liked the water (which was lovely and warm) but I think there was too much noise for him. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to wail in distress or watch all the activity around him. He was probably in the pool for less than ten minutes, then Barney took him back to Scratchy while I got dried and dressed.

After swimming we came home - Jack fell asleep in the car and slept for ages after we got home - the car was right by the side door into the garage, and I propped that open, so I could both see and hear him from the kitchen. No doubt after that he’ll be up until silly o’clock tonight. Once he woke, he joined his brothers in playing while I finished off the lasagna, freezing two big pans of it and cooking a third for tonight’s dinner. And despite having vegetables in it - even some recognisable ones! - everyone ate a good portion of it. Toby is loving food now - especially bread (hm, can’t think where he gets that from ;-)) which induces squeals of impatience when he sees it and you don’t get him a bit of it quickly enough. He’s got both the centre bottom teeth, and I think there might be one or two coming through at the top too - about time! He’s just delightful right now - lots of “talking” to us and he’s exploring his world so much. Last night he sat for ages on the bed playing with two small toys, putting one down and picking up the other, then switching - you could really see the thought process that was happening. I just wish I’d something soft to put on the floor downstairs so he could sit and play with toys down there - it’s all hard tiled floors and he still falls over too often for sitting on those!

…it’s about bloody time, isn’t it?

We’ve known this for years - and they’re only just figuring it out. If we’re lucky, they’ll do something about it in a decade or two.

Bah.

Mothers got wrong advice for 40 years - Sunday Times - Times Online

BREAST-FEEDING mothers have been given potentially harmful advice on infant nutrition for the past 40 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has admitted.

Charts used in Britain for decades to advise mothers on a baby?s optimum size have been based on the growth rates of infants fed on formula milk.

The organisation now says the advice given to millions of breast-feeding mothers was distorted because babies fed on formula milk put on weight far faster.

Edited, to add another example!

Survey ignites school age debate

Research by Glasgow City Council has found that boys in particular could be put off learning for life if they go to primary school before they are ready.

Children and teachers in 50 primary schools were involved in the study.

The author of the report - educational psychologist Alan McClean - said no child should start school before the age of five.

He also suggested that boys start school at the age of six, a year later than girls.

It’s even worse here: they start school - proper school, that is, sit-down-and-do-your-work school - at four. In fact it was my conviction that it would destroy George’s spirit to be forced into a classroom at four years and two months that led us to look for an alternative, and that’s how we found home-education.

It’s been a busy day, and I will probably blog about it tomorrow (or at least about bits of it, I’m still trying to work out other bits in my head!) - but to keep you out of mischief until then, I offer you this. Enjoy

…there’ll be another post along in five minutes.

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