NotSheep

One good thing about being sick in the first week of December is that when you disappear into your bedroom for the afternoon - to do, uh, preparation for the weeks ahead - your children assume you’ve gone to bed and leave you alone.

Mostly.

Jack (pushing door - it’s locked): Mummy!
Me: What?
Jack: What are you doing?
Me (faking sick voice): Resting!
A few seconds of silence.
Jack: Then what are those noises in your room?
Me: Uh, I’m writing a letter.

He seemed satisfied with that, though I think he came back to listen through the door again a little while later

All the Christmas gifts have been wrapped, except for those that haven’t been bought yet. I’m going to have to brave the shops again at least one more time I’d buy on-line, but it’s getting a bit close now, so the shops it will have to be. Most of the outstanding stuff is for people outside the immediate family. If anybody has any really good ideas for girls aged 12.5 and nearly 10, let me know in the comments - which are now working again. It appears that while trying to fix the problems with this theme, I managed to prevent anyone from commenting, but I’ve sorted it out. I don’t think this theme’s going to make it as far as Christmas though; too many annoyances

Barney, George and Freddy had swimming classes this morning. George and Freddy were also supposed to go to the gymnastics class display, but the instructor said they had to be there for 9.30 - which happens to be the time that Freddy’s swimming class finishes, and the time that Barney and George’s swimming class starts. When I told the gymnastics instructor that, she shrugged in a sort of “that’s too bad” way and said something about it being too difficult to manage individual children with so many in gymnastics. I can see that, but I do think it’s a bit off to be getting annoyed because you’ve decided that a child needs to be there 2.5 hours earlier than usual and it turns out they’ve other commitments In the end they didn’t go to the gymnastics at all.

I worked out while they were swimming - first time in a week, but it wasn’t as hard as I expected. Meanwhile, Mollycat finally came home - a full week since the last time we saw her. She’s stayed out all night a few times, and has disappeared for two nights once or twice, but she’s never been gone as long as this before, so we were concerned. However she showed up this morning, looking plump and well, so clearly she’s been getting fed somewhere else - and one of neighbour’s cats came looking for her soon afterwards, so presumably she’s been hanging out with him. Very independent, cats. Human don’t have cats, cats have staff

Yesterday morning (once I’d finally dragged myself out of bed), we made giant snowflakes from the pattern here - they turned out great. I meant to take photos of the boys with them, but forgot - I’ll try to remember tomorrow. We’re planning to make candy-cane reindeer tomorrow too, and I might even manage to sew that tablecloth I planned.

Scratchy took the afternoon off because I really didn’t feel up to taking the boys swimming - and now that Jack has a swimming lesson on a Friday, we can’t just not bother. Henry decided to stay at home with me; I think he felt the need for a bit of quiet. And it was very quiet with all the others gone

It’s fairly quiet now too, mainly because the kids who make all the noise are asleep