NotSheep

For the first time this week, I was actually awake and functional all day long - certainly moreso than yesterday, which was largely spent almost-horizontal. George and Barney did go to Cubs and Scouts respectively in the evening, though George’s friend R didn’t make it, since he had too much homework. He’s in his last year of primary school, and his mum (a nursery teacher) spoke to his teacher, who told her that two hours a night is about right for that age. Astonishing.

Cubs and Scouts went well, apparently, and nobody brought any badges home to be sewn on, which is just as well since most of the last lot aren’t sewn on yet.

This morning George cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast (muttering all the time - he mutters a lot) while the others did their jobs around the house. Barney seemed particularly helpful this morning; the reason for that became clear later

By lunchtime George and Freddy had done some maths and Barney had worked through quite a bit of his French textbook; it’s mostly just refresher for him right now, but he’ll soon be at the same point as George (who’d gone ahead while Barney was away). I’m not sure how it’s going to work - maybe they’ll work together, or maybe Barney, not needing to absorb the vocabulary and structure, will forge ahead - but we’ll work it out when we get there. When Freddy went off to investigate what we could have for lunch, he reported back that there was nothing to eat. I was a bit disbelieving, and sure enough, investigation revealed a wide variety of options in the Big New Fridge alone, before even opening the cupboards. Lunch was more or less a fend-for-yourself affair; Barney was the last to eat and I had to laugh as he walked into the kitchen and announced, “Right, hand over the bread and nobody gets hurt!”

Scratchy did some errands for me at lunchtime - a shower and shower-rail that I hope will work in the boys’ bathroom (it’s too long for a standard curtain-pole) and a copy of Anne Frank’s Diary, since Barney and George are going to do a project on it. We’re reading Carrie’s War at the minute, then we’ll have a brief look at life in Europe during WWII, then read Anne Frank together.

Lunch over, I checked the post and discovered the renewal forms for the car insurance - for the car that went up in flames about a month ago. I rang the broker and reminded them that the vehicle wasn’t really in an insurable state any more…

After that I did some German with Barney while George finished his maths before we read some more of Carrie’s War. During the rest of the afternoon I realised that it’s almost a year since Henry arrived with us - this time last year we were moving furniture in preparation for his family coming. I also had most of my Christmas shopping done - it didn’t quite work out in the end, of course, due to Henry’s arrival, but it was still a sight more than I’ve done this year. I must speak to Scratchy and see when he can take a day off so that I can disappear to the shops - I don’t shop on weekends if I can possibly help it.

I noticed this morning that George was scratching his head in a sort of manic fashion, so thought a nit-check might be in order. On entering the kids’ bathroom, however, I was confronted by a huge spider - in the bath, so no immediate panic, but too big to wash down the plughole, so not leaving the bath usable - at least not if you’re me. I checked George’s head in the master bathroom instead, and the result of that was that everybody else got checked too. Trust me, sometimes negative is better than positive. And I’d certainly have preferred five negatives in a row to the five positives I got

While I was checking Barney, I realised how grown-up he’s becoming. He’s taller, his shoulders are broadening and becoming more muscular…and he told me he’s starting to get a bit interested in girls. Not that any girl will ever be good enough for him, of course He also asked if he could go to the youth-club tonight - aha! that explains the excessive helpfulness all day! Unfortunately when he went to walk C this evening and swung by his friend N’s house, he discovered that the youth-club isn’t on tonight. Why, he doesn’t know, because he didn’t think to ask. Is it just too early in the term? Is it cancelled for evermore? Is it running every night except Thusdays now? The mystery remains… and Barney’s had a shower for nothing