NotSheep

So I had a choice. I could get up and do stuff, or I could stay in bed and do a brief review of 2006. Well, of course I chose the latter. Except, in the end, it turned out not to be so brief. We did a lot of stuff!

In January, we recovered from Christmas ‘05 and did lots of at-home activities. I sewed (this was big news!) and we all made Flubber. We must do that again before Henry goes back to France. We also attended Chinese New Year celebrations.

In February, Freddy started his own blog. The boys visited a crisp-factory with a group of home-educators, and we had a family visit to the science centre. We ran out of heating oil and had a family sleepover so we only had to keep one room warm. We bought a food-processor and haven’t stopped using it since

March brought Jack’s fourth birthday, celebrated by a party with lots of friends. I got so sick that Scratchy took time off work. On the way back from visiting friends, Scratchy tried to turn the light on in the service-station toilets, and instead set off the silent alarm, summoning the police The boys all got very involved in speaking pig Latin, and for Mothering Sunday, I got a humongous freezer. My breadmaker died, and I turned off my laptop for long enough to install extra memory

In April, we managed to run out of heating-oil again Toby got his first tooth, and George went out on his bike and collided with a car (fortunately no major injuries). Jack started to attend a kids gymnastics class - his first programmed activity. We visited the science centre again, and Jack fell and split his head open, which resulted in a trip to Casualty. There was another trip to the hospital when I got a bit worried about Toby’s weight (or lack of). The security guard at a local shopping-centre tried to donate two little girls to my family; we didn’t take them but we did stay with them until their mother was found (which was more than anybody else did - it was all very weird).

In May we took Toby back to the hospital for an appointment involving lots of tests, lots of blood being taken George had his first night camping with Cubs (a district event). We all went on a tour of our local castle with a bunch of home-educators, and we also had a party to celebrate Freddy’s seventh birthday

George had another camping experience in June - this time with the Cub Pack. We visitied the science centre again, and went on another home-ed trip to ECOS, an environmental centre, where the boys participated in pond-dipping and various other activities. We also visited the local castle again, when Barney “worked” his first event with St John Ambulance. There was a fencing tournament on, so we all went to watch. I learned exactly how important backing up your computer data is. Barney went to Scout Camp. Toby had more hospital appointments, and so did I, having fallen downstairs. We discovered that the local paediatrician is a bozo. We planted sunflowers which grew like, um, weeds, and we heard about En Famille, an organisation who arrange exchanges between children from various European countries. We rounded off the month with George’s ninth birthday and another party

July brought sad news - Scratchy’s grandfather died. Scratchy went to New York City for the funeral. Barney camped for a weekend with friends, and the boys built a barbecue - all by themselves. We tie-dyed shirts and various other items (this is something that’s on Henry’s list of things he wants to do before returning to France LOL) The refrigerator threatened to die and the washing-machine did (and was replaced by a humongous one - hm, I see a pattern in humongous appliances emerging…) We went whale-spotting. Someone ran into my car. We doggy-sat for Chip, a collie-cross (now, sadly, gone to doggie heaven); we took her with us on a trip to the beach. We went to visit the Nomadic, a ship which ferried passengers to the Titanic and has since had a chequered past.

In August we celebrated Toby’s first birthday We also did more doggy-sitting, this time for a miniature schnauzer. We went to the museum and made African masks. Barney started cycling to the leisure-centre on his own, and went to St John Ambulance Camp. We visited a corn maze and attempted to fly kites. I started to exercise in an attempt to not look pregnant, and we visited the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. We got information from En Famille and decided to apply to do an exchange.

September brought a sudden new arrival: within the space of about three weeks after we sent in our forms for En Famille, we had emails and a telephone call from a family in France, they visited, and we acquired Henry! While the whole family was here, we visited the local castle again. We also had two trips to the science centre - one before Henry’s arrival, one after. Our sunflowers continued to grow, hitting about eight feet tall.

October was a busy month. The boys built a crystal radio and made some Roman mosaic items. Scratchy took Barney and Henry to the museum, and they also started to attend a local youth-club. Henry was invested into Scouts (and very proud he was too). We visited ECOS again, and went to several movie showings as part of National Schools Film Week. My car went in to have the damage from the accident repaired and I had to drive an Espace for two weeks - didn’t like it. We bought a second car, a Voyager - do like that We had another trip to Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge, and visited the Giant’s Causeway. Not sure what was scariest: the rope-bridge, the headlice, or Hallowe’en. Or it could have been the chicken-pox, which got Barney mid-month and migrated to everyone else by the end of it.

In November, Barney started to attend a fencing club, George learned to sew and Freddy got his yellow belt in ju-jitsu. The boys went to see the Belfast Giants in action, and Scratchy got so sick he actually took time off work. Toby had an appointment with a cardiologist and was found to be fine, and an appointment with another paediatrician, who broke news to us that left us reeling - but only for a short while, until we realised that it’s minor stuff and we can cope. Barney celebrated his twelfth birthday near the end of the month with the sleepover to end all sleepovers.

In December, Jack started swimming lessons and went along with Freddy and me to a special Christmas event for Beavers. George took part in a show with the other Cub Scouts, for his Entertainer badge. We all baked lots of cookies, and had two (or was it three?) trips to the science centre. Then there was Christmas, and much good stuff going on. After Christmas we went to stay with old friends and Henry made a new (bovine) friend

And while all that was going on, we still had the routine stuff: Scouts/Cubs/Beavers, St John Ambulance Cadets and Badgers, ju-jitsu, archery, swimming, soccer, trampoline and gymnastics clubs, basketball, looking after the cats and the aquarium… not to mention all the more formal studying and ordinary, everyday family life. I’m exhausted just reading about it

Here’s to a terrific 2007