NotSheep

The working-like-mad of earlier this week continued yesterday morning, and by lunchtime everybody had finished almost everything I’d asked them to do. Barney had to set aside a bit of maths because neither he nor I could work out what he was supposed to do, but we managed to figure out most of it today. Last night was Cubs for George and Scouts for Barney and Henry - preceded by a mad sewing session when I realised there were still badges waiting to be attached to uniforms. At one point I had Barney, Henry and George all sitting around the table sewing, and was doing the same myself There was a quick ironing session after that (a rare occurrence here - I iron so infrequently that my children don’t even know what an iron is for). I had arranged to attend a Scout leaders training session last night - having checked first that I could bring Toby along - so I left George at Cubs and went to that. Scratchy did the 8pm drop-Barney-and-Henry-collect-George thing, and I collected Barney and Henry once the training session was finished. Delightful conversation in the car on the way home with them giving me blow-by-blow details about the Scout who threw up five minutes before the end

This morning Scratchy had a dental appointment; since the dentist is just across the road from the optometrist, I’d booked all the boys except Toby for eye-tests. However Jack spent most of the night wailing that he was sick, so he stayed at home with me instead. He didn’t get out of bed until about 11.30, and then he sat at the kitchen table staring at a piece of toast and looking bereft for the next hour or so before lying down again. He seems quite a bit better this evening, though not entirely back to normal - I hope he’ll be okay for tomorrow evening, when we expect to have a very busy house.

I’d a phone-call from the children’s hospital this morning; we’ve been waiting (since May) for a cardiology appointment for Toby - he has a slight heart murmur which is probably completely innocent, but given his slow weight-gain, they thought it was a good idea. Obviously not an urgent idea though… we were expecting the appointment to come through for January or February, but they had a cancellation for tomorrow and offered it to us, on the basis that we were the first people on the list for whom they had a phone number. I’d been planning to take Toby in tomorrow morning for an ECG anyway (the paeds having changed their mind about wanting that done) and Scratchy has the day off, so that’s where I’ll be tomorrow morning. I don’t think there really is any problem, but considering that we received completely unexpected news at the last medical appointment, I’m a bit anxious about it all.

When Scratchy returned with the boys I took off to work out (first time since last Saturday - I’m slacking…) and then came back to collect Barney and Henry, who’d been invited to visit another home-ed family who live locally. They had a good time and I did a couple of errands and dropped in on a friend and scrounged tea

After dinner there was a nit-combing session, because the barber had noticed some eggs on Freddy’s hair. We hoped they were just empty eggs left from last time, but no, he’s got ‘em again

Apart from the hospital appointment tomorrow, we’ll be preparing for a party: Barney is 12 tomorrow. 12! What’s the world coming to????