NotSheep

It’s been all photos and philosophy so far around here this week, and as usual when I don’t do the “journal” bit, I’ve forgotten half of what we’ve done, but I’ll do my best.

On Sunday, as previously-mentioned, we had a small celebration for Toby’s first birthday. I’m mentioning it again because I forgot to tell you what Barney did. My step-father is a “teaser” - he likes to tease the kids, and sometimes he does it to the extent that it annoys them. They generally are pretty tolerant about it though; however on Sunday they were ready for him. Knowing that George was taking over the back bedroom, they figured Granda would go up for a look. So Barney filled a cup with water and balanced it on top of the door, intending for it to soak Granda when he pushed the door open.

Only Scratchy went in first.

I had a hard time deciding whether to laugh or slap somebody

Also on Sunday I finally got around to dyeing my hair with the package Scratchy bought for me weeks ago (it had been sitting in the bathroom so long there was a layer of dust on it). Well, what can I say? If I was twenty years younger and fifty pounds lighter and of an entirely different complexion, it might look good. As it is, I can just about tolerate it - unless I’m looking in the mirror, when I go “gah!” How soon after dyeing your hair can you dye your hair?

On Monday…hm, I can’t remember what we did on Monday. If it comes to me, I’ll get back to you.

On Tuesday… we planned to walk into town after lunch, go to the library, etc. We were all ready too - books gathered, house tidied (argh, I tidied up before going out! I’m turning into my grandmother! LOL) etc. And then I discovered that both the stroller and the Storchie were in the car. And the car was parked in the car-park where Scratchy works. So much for that idea then. Instead, the boys chose - yes, chose - to do some more work. After a bit of that, I suggested they could watch a movie. What kind of family is it where the children want to study and the mother tells them to stare at a flickering screen anyway? Once the car returned, I decided to brave the wind and rain and go to the library - the kids were all still watching Madagascar, so I went alone. Yes, that’s right - on my own. Without any children. Not even one. I’m surprised the librarians recognised me

On Wednesday… see Monday.

Today, we started off with us all around the dining-room table looking at a book called ArtWorks. (I’d link to it, but I can’t find it on-line - not that I’ve spent a lot of time looking.) It shows you, step-by-step, how to do drawing and stuff. I’ve never been any use at drawing, or any kind of art for that matter, so I gave it a go alongside them, and it was fun. I spent about half an hour at it, the boys spent about an hour (I had to stop to deal with Toby, but they kept going). We tried drawing an apple; George retrieved one from the fruit-bowl and set it in the middle of the table, and that worked well until, while sitting with Toby on the table in front of me, I looked briefly in the other direction, and he grabbed the apple and started eating it

After that they all did some handwriting practice - at my suggestion, but they weren’t exactly coerced (George, beaming: “Yeah! I really like handwriting!”) Then Freddy did a few pages from his science book and Barney built a huge lego pyramid, then worked out (using a mathematical formula, though I’ve no idea which one) how many lego-bricks were in it. I’m not sure what George was doing during that time, but I’m pretty sure Jack was driving him nuts. Jack is driving me nuts too. At this rate, Jack will be lucky to see five years old four-and-five-months.

After lunch, Barney played on the computer and the rest of them decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean (again - it’s such a hardship watching that over and over… drool… ;-)) Towards the end of it, there was a knock at the door (causing a great yappy fit from Misty-the-miniature-schnauzer) - hey, the family of Chip-the-collie-cross was back from New York! They stayed for a while, the kids ran about together, J and I caught up with what we’d each been doing in the last few weeks (she had someone run into her car too! - well, her mother’s car, but she was driving). Then they took Chip off home with them (and they seemed very pleased about the kennel we’d acquired while they were gone), so we’re now down to just one doggy being doggy-sat.

I ordered fabric dye from a seller on ebay on Tuesday afternoon, and it arrived early yesterday morning (howzat for service!), so today I shoved the duvet-cover and matching pillowcases into the washing-machine and dyed it. It’s not quite come out how I imagined it, but maybe it will be better when it’s dry. It’s got to be better than the hair-dyeing results anyway.

I was telling Scratchy about the education-y stuff they’d done this week - George reckons the best bit of the week was learning about Shakespeare, and Freddy was grinning manically at having started to learn French. I can’t help but feel that this level of enthusiasm is an indication that we’re doing something right