NotSheep

Lots of the links in this post lead to posts which are now private because they contain photos (and I only keep those posts public for two or three weeks after publishing them). So log in, or else…well, or else you won’t be able to see them.

When I started this review, I thought it had been a quieter year than 2006. Now that I’ve spent half a day writing it, I understand why I’m so tired. I think I should go and lie down for a year or two.

The beginning of 2007 found us - well me, anyway - trying to come to terms with the imminent loss of Barney and Henry. The latter sulked for several days after I booked the flights, and the former had a meltdown during which he expressed his doubts and fears and began to understand that courage is not about a lack of fear, but about doing something despite your fears. We made a list of things we wanted to do before the big boys left, and started with a trip to Ecos and another to the Folk and Transport Museum, where we explored both inside and outside, despite the wild windy weather. We saw the marvellous Titanic exhibition and had a ride in a flight simulator. We discovered that our activities were going to be seriously affected by our local leisure centre closing for two years. I got tough on Henry over his maths, which suddenly improved dramatically, and we rounded off the month with a trip to the bowling alley.

February began with a home-ed trip to a Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust property and I noted how much boys like sticks (big ones in particular) and felt relieved that Jack did not repeat his escapade of our previous visit. The “wild” theme continued with a visit to a wildlife rescue centre and we checked one more activity off our to-do-before-they-go list when we spent an afternoon tie-dying t-shirts, with fab results. Toby ended up on antibiotics - the first time any of my kids has had them for over nine years - due to infected nailbeds on a finger and thumb; I also got an infection but managed to clear it with lots of soaking. Freddy and Jack and I went on a trip to the local marina with Beavers. We all went to visit the Palace Stables and St Patrick’s Trian. Arrangements for Barney to attend Henry’s school in France were made. We visited a wildlife reserve with a friend of ours who ran the place until recently - he was a wonderful guide Toby got his first haircut, and the rest of the boys attended Chinese New Year celebrations. We spent a day with some other home-ed families at an aquarium and rescue centre, followed by hours in what was probably the worst traffic jam ever seen around these parts - but we just managed to join the rest of the Beavers for a visit to the police station, where I was handcuffed (but only briefly ). We returned to the Folk Museum, since the weather on our last visit had driven us indoors fairly quickly. And Toby turned into BatBaby.

March found me trying to pretend that Barney and Henry’s departure wasn’t less than two weeks away. We visited the science centre again and we went bowling again and visited the Castle again. George and Freddy had an argument about who was going to be first in the dentist’s chair, and we went to not one, but two museums in one day - the first telling the story of the linen industry, the second a small local museum which had a special display of Japanese artifacts. Henry had an, um, interesting visit to a local school, to speak with the class of one of the Scouts and he complimented both my French and my ability to teach maths I took Barney and Henry to the Ulster-American Folk Park, where they discovered (re-discovered, in Barney’s case) the story of the Irish settlers in America and got fed pancakes fresh from the griddle. Scratchy took all the boys to the science centre to meet The Titan.

And then they were gone…

Scratchy went with them, they had a great few days, and Barney decided to stay (not that there’d ever been much doubt). I spent a few days with friends before going to collect Scratchy at the airport (and missing him), then coming home to celebrate Jack’s fifth birthday with cake and yet another trip to the science centre. We cleaned up the garden, explored Mind Maps, and I was rescued by one of the Beavers’ dads when I got a flat tyre. And Barney, still in France, had a brief illness, which made everything more difficult for everybody.

Wow…all that and we’re only up to the beginning of April!

Barney recovered, we all got some time outdoors and Freddy and George earned their ju-jitsu orange and yellow belts respectively. I returned a bit of electronics kit, then had to go and get it back when I discovered I’d actually returned something else entirely. Scratchy took George, Freddy and Jack to the science centre while I took Toby to his first speech therapy assessment. Easter was celebrated with much chocolate and a visit to the seaside. The boys helped prepare for two new arrivals who also brought many visitors, and Barney continued to enjoy his time in Europe. Later in the month, my laptop started misbehaving and we’d a couple of difficult phone-calls with Barney. We continued our gardening efforts - little did we know that summer would never actually arrive. George and I attended the Cubs’ District Sports Night and Barney cycled around the French countryside.

In May, I took delivery of a replacement laptop, we got lots of new badges, Jack was happy and we discovered a Dalek in the garden. Barney started to sound more cheery and went to the beach, and the rest of us had a party for Freddy’s 8th birthday and took the dogs to the forest. George went to Centenary Cub Camp and I took the Beavers to the same location for a Centenary Beaver Day.

In June we started with a playground day with other home-ed families and George acted all grown-up while I was ill. We had another home-ed outing - this time to the zoo - and the pups continued to grow like weeds. We took advantage of a sunny weekend with a trip to the coast, a picnic lunch on the beach and a visit to our friends at their caravan. Barney, meanwhile, was enjoying the South of France. Jack showed off his knowledge of anatomy. We took off for a few days at the caravan, during which we watched the deck being completed and I took the older boys to the Giant’s Causeway and the Rope Bridge. We decided to stay over the weekend too, and we spent most of our last day in the surf and the sand. Once home, Toby fell downstairs, George had a birthday party, we talked to Barney and returned to the caravan with an extra pup - the sister of our pups, who was being adopted by our friends.

We started the second half of the year by running away again - back to the caravan, on a moment’s notice. On our return, we called Barney, only to discover that his French papa had been in a bicycle accident. The next few days were worrying for all of us, as he had surgery twice and was in an artificial coma for over a week. When he finally came around, things started looking much better, but it was decided that in view of how long his recovery was expected to take and the fact that his wife would be spending a lot of time at the hospital, it was best for Barney to come home a bit early and perhaps return for a few weeks next summer. In the meantime, we prepared for a visit from four teenaged Japanese boys - Scouts, en route to the International Jamboree. Their arrival came with a bit of a surprise: they spoke no English. This complicated things slightly, but we managed by drawing, pointing, showing photographs… we took them to the castle, ten-pin bowling, and, along with the rest of their group and ours, to the Rope Bridge and the Giant’s Causeway. During that outing I had a fascinating conversation about education with a teacher. The lack of words-in-common didn’t prevent the teens and my own children from getting on like a house on fire, though, and we even started a little cottage industry in origami. We are very glad we volunteered for this; if you ever get such an opportunity, take it! Just two days after leaving our Japanese teens to one airport, I was on the way to a different airport to collect my own almost-teenaged son.

And on to August - the latter bit of the summer that never was. We started by gathering early in the morning with other Scouts from our District to mark exactly one hundred years since the beginning of the camp that started the whole Scouting movement. I got a brand new camera, we had more of those great conversations that make you wonder why you ever buy workbooks, Toby turned two and Barney and George attended the world’s smallest drama group. We all went to a friend’s birthday party, then came home and got ready for bed - only to have our bedtime plans dramatically interrupted when the car - the one that had been sitting in the drive, in the rain, not running, for over 24 hours - burst into flames. We had another day-trip to the caravan, Cassie got sick and then better again, and Jack wondered if we owned a magic carpet. We decided the local indoor playground really wasn’t worth the bother (or the money) and spent a couple of days with friends we don’t see often enough. We walked dogs, met some Germans and spotted some seals, we cut children’s hair, Barney played tennis and Jack didn’t do Kindergym. Toby did rather well for birthday presents and was cute, as usual.

September brought puttering and putering, attempts to purchase a new refrigerator, yet another week in the caravan, during which the dogs ran away and back, the door cut Tobys’ thumb, Jack learned to ride without stabilisers and we rode bicycles on the beach. Barney joined me and the other Scouting adults of our group in cleaning out the hall in preparation for a new roof and we attended the wonderful Last Night of the Proms. We got back into our usual routines of studying and activities and we knocked our Beavers numbers up over 20. We made playdough, wrote letters to Santa(!), squeezed in a few more days in the caravan before the summer-that-never-started came to an end. I got scabby knees and the boys all switched bicycles. We got lovely letters from one of our Japanese Scouts and his mother, one of our car tyres died (exploded?) and Barney went to Scout Camp - as did Scratchy, having finally filled in his form to become a Leader.

October brought our first real preview of teenage mood-swings, funny noises which took the one remaining car out of service for a week and cost us a small fortune - and then more, a month of no Scouts (because of the roof replacement), moans about socks, another science centre visit, a day at the zoo with hundreds of Beavers, dogs helping redecorate and National Schools Film Week, during which we saw Tales from Earthsea (largely because I hadn’t realised it was manga) and Arthur and the Invisibles. We had another science centre visit, another visit to the castle, lots of sickies around the house (including me), and dressing up for Hallowe’en.

In November I continued to feel very rough, Toby improved his flirting skills and was dismissed by the paediatric cardiologist, Jack was invested into Beavers and Freddy swam up from Beavers to Cubs. Barney turned into a teenager - we celebrated with a day at the science centre and the bowling alley.

December - visits to the dentist and the mechanic, Freddy’s Investiture into Cubs, the local pantomime, the purchase and installation of a Christmas tree, an announcement to the world, cookie-baking, gift-wrapping, and balloons and face-painting at Ikea. We had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, which worked very well on all counts, especially the one that let me laze about on Christmas Day. And, of course, there was Christmas Day itself, after which we hibernated until 2008.

• Just remembered to publish my blog-review of 2007; I’m soooo organised. #

• Children desperately excited about snow. All 3 millimetres of it. #
• Long to-do list; need to do something. Anything would be better than current activity (or lack thereof). #
• Braving the blizzards (uhuh) to do errands. 2yo "hiding" behind a hung-up dressing gown because he doesn’t want to put his socks on. #
• Have just been asked ‘can we get our supersoakers out?’ !!! #
• Survived the snow, which is now rain. Spoke to someone about elderly neighbour. Now home trying to warm up, tho more damp than cold. #

• Lounge is this - ( ) - close to being tidy for first time since Xmas. Only about 8 more rooms to go… #
• The Christmas tree has been replaced by an igloo. #
• Watching a movie and counting down to bedtime. #

• Wondering why I am so bad at scrabulous. Or is everyone else cheating? #
• Is everyone using that? Really? No wonder I’m losing! And I thought I just had very intelligent friends… #
• Drinking tea, as insisted upon by 2-year-old. #

• Breakfast nearly over, children nearly dressed, kitchen nearly tidy, I’m nearly awake. #
• Two-year-old listening to ten-year-old’s mp3 player and very loudly singing along #
• 13yo adores 2yo, to the point where he undermines my saying ‘no’ by cuddling and commiserating. Dirty looks for me from both #
• I should be catching up on paperwork but I’m not. #
• Wondering if the boys’ ju-jitsu class is on tonight. Wondering if Beavers is on tomorrow night. Not good; I am Beaver Leader! #
• Youngest asleep; this is not surprising since he stayed awake until 11.30 last night to watch a movie with me! #

I’m still here, just about. We’re getting back to our normal routine - the week after Christmas demonstrated how much some members of this family need it. The weather is miserable, so doesn’t seem like a great imposition to stay indoors, and now that we’re settling in again, the atmosphere in the house is improving.

Jack is working on reading; despite all I’ve written about doing it when the child wants to, I am pushing this a bit, because I really want him to be reading fluently before the new baby is born. I think he would benefit from a bit of scheduled time each day, not to mention a bit more attention from me, but I’m finding that my time is very limited as it is. (Don’t mention Facebook; I needed it like a hole in the head and really I’d have been much better off, time-wise, if I hadn’t bothered.) A new baby isn’t going to create more hours in the day and if he’s reading well before the baby comes, at least I can sit him down to do some reading or writing or whatever without needing my full attention.

Barney would like to sit GCSE French in May, but although I’ve been trying to find an exam centre to allow him to sit as a private candidate since October, I’ve had no luck so far. There is one which says it will be possible but hasn’t provided any more details, like cost or whether it will be possible for him to do the oral component or when he’ll need to attend (which is especially relevant as it’s two hours away).

Toby’s speech has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. We started giving him Omega-3 supplements in late November and we’ve been amazed at the difference since then. It could be just coincidence, of course, but to be honest, I don’t care. The supplements won’t be doing him any harm and the speech development is fantastic. Before the SALT appointment in November, I made a list of the words he used regularly and got about 18 of them. Now there are well over a hundred - and he’s putting together short sentences. The words aren’t always very clear, but he’s turned that corner into being a verbal person - he’ll protest with words rather than wails now, he’ll argue with you using words, he’ll talk rather than pointing, etc. All very encouraging

The house is depressingly untidy; nearly every room needs a good clearing out. The only room that’s in reasonable shape is the living-room, and that’s because it had the clear-out treatment when we took down the Christmas tree last weekend. The tree has been replaced by an igloo, in which there is currently a cushion, a beanie-snowman, an eraser in the shape of a frog and The Pirate’s Handbook

• My two youngest children are having a stand-up-screaming fight; I’m trying not to get involved. #
• And it worked - they’ve made up and 5yo came in and told 2yo "I’m sorry I hurt you"! #
• Playing scrabulous in French, largely by going "hm, that sounds like it might be a French word" and trying it. #
• Cuddling the finally-asleep-2yo who spent the evening bouncing about and singing Smelly Cat. #

As if to prove the veracity of my comments yesterday on his speech, Toby spent the evening bouncing about and singing Smelly Cat - okay, so you might not have recognised it as such if you didn’t already know what it was, but we knew, and it was very entertaining

And more good news - we have a place for Barney to sit his French GCSE! I’ve been phoning and emailing since October to try to find an exam centre; all the centres on the lists provided by the exam-boards turn out to only accept their own past pupils for re-sits, or don’t take any external candidates. (”We know we’re on that list,” said one, “but actually we don’t accept external candidates at all.”) None of the local FE colleges offers French at all, and every school we contacted said no to external candidates. One, when asked why, said it was just too much administrative work. We found one centre which is two hours away and which said, before Christmas, that he could sit the exam there, but then didn’t send me any information. I phoned them this morning and they gave me the dates for the exams - which turned out to be the dates for a different specification, one which requires coursework - and told me they’d arrange the aural assessment for the same day as one of the written exams - which sounds helpful, except that the aural assessments have to be completed nearly three weeks before the first written paper - something you’d kinda expect the exam centre to know. When I asked them (for the sixth time) how much they would charge, they told me it would be £262 plus a fee for the teacher doing the aural - well over even the highest cost I’ve heard of others paying elsewhere. So I wasn’t feeling optimistic. Another centre - much closer to home - said they could enter him for the exam, but couldn’t provide anyone to do the aural, so I’d have to find a qualified French teacher, or a native French speaker, who could go to their centre to do it with him.

We have friends who used to home-educate and whose eldest child transferred schools last summer, to a school which has mightily impressed them with its attitudes and flexibility. K suggested I try that school, but when I’d phoned them before Christmas and again last week, I got a fax machine. I tried them again this morning and was put through to the exams officer.

“I can’t see any problem at all, from my point of view; I’m certainly willing to sort this out for you. There’s an aural though, and the French teacher would have to do the work involved with that, so it will be up to him. I’ll get him to ring you when he’s out of class. But as long as he’s willing, well your son would just sit it with our own students - 3651 is the specification we use anyway - so there’d be no additional fees for invigilation or anything like that. If the French teacher is willing to do it, there’s no reason why not.”

The French teacher phoned me this afternoon:

“Well for goodness sake I don’t know why anybody makes any fuss over this; sure it’s only pressing a couple of extra buttons on a computer keyboard. Absolutely no problem at all. We’re doing mocks with our own students next week - would you like me to send you the papers we’re using for those, and the cassette for the listening bit?”

He was amazed when I told him how much trouble we’d had arranging an exam centre, and spluttered and tutted when I told him other schools had told us they didn’t want the extra admin. What a difference in attitude! This school is also two hours away from us, but a) they seem to know what they’re talking about, b) it will cost much, much less than the alternative, and c) we can stay with our friends before the exams, so don’t have to worry about accomodation or travelling on the day.

So it looks like Barney will be doing his French GCSE after all. I’m not bothered about him getting a qualification - it’s not as if he’s going to be looking for a job any time soon - but I think it would be good for his confidence, and also useful for him to get some exam practice. He’s going to want to do other GCSEs or similar exams in the next few years. I did my maths GCE (yes, I’m so old there were separate GCE and CSE exams then) a year early, and I know it was a tremendous help when I sat the rest of my subjects a year later - and I’d been through the school system, sitting exams twice a year. Barney hasn’t, so I think it will be even more valuable for him.

In the meantime, Barney is practising by playing Scrabulous against me - in French. My efforts mostly consist of me throwing a few letters together into something that looks vaguely like it might be a French word, and then seeing if it’s accepted.

Otherwise today has been a quiet one. The boys did some studying in the morning, but I was so tired I took myself off to bed in the afternoon. Toby didn’t nap at all, so I’m a bit surprised he’s still running about full of beans now, but it’s better than sleeping from for an hour from 5pm and then being up until midnight. Right now he and Toby are playing on a wooden rocking-horse that my grandfather made for my first Christmas

George and Freddy have gone off to Cubs; I assume, since they’re not back yet, that it did start back tonight. Barney will be heading off to Scouts in less than an hour, and with any luck Jack and Toby will be asleep not long after that.

• Just found an exam centre for B’s French GCSE #
• Cold and want to eat something but have no idea what #

• Busy Little Beavers: B on Eng Lit, G on French, F on Maths, J reading to T. Me? - er…facilitating! yeah, facilitating, that’s it #
• Struggling with G and his maths - the maths is not the problem though. #
• Just woke up! #
• B at youth-club, others all asleep. I’m hungry. #

• French and history here this morning, much busy-ness. Eldest sitting on chair in middle of room, not sure why. #
• Having a conversation with my 2yo through the door #
• @jaxb - tell them you think it was worth more. they always offer low to start with. ours went from 1000 to 1700. always worth a try. #
• Have rung all Beavers to remind them back next Tues. Have 2yo who has not napped - what fun… #

The papers from the school where Barney is to sit his French GCSE have arrived in the post; he’s excited and wants to do them today. I’m very glad we found somewhere so helpful; the “information” promised by the one other option (the really expensive one) arrived today, and turns out to consist of a single sheet of paper: an application form.

I’ve been taping up boxes (from jigsaw puzzle received by Toby at Christmas) and books (board-books which are showing their age but which are worth keeping - The Big Red Barn, for one). Barney, George and Freddy have been studying; we’re being a bit intense on that score at the minute, partly to make up for the lack of ejookashun in the weeks before Christmas and partly as an attempt to move out of Meltdown City, which is where at least one family member has been living for the last few weeks. I also need to have a look at my Beavers folder today and see what planning needs to be done for the next few weeks; it seems to have been dropped in my lap by default. I don’t really mind; I’m a bit of a sad case who quite enjoys it - it’s just that finding the time is sometimes difficult. We don’t always follow the plans I’ve made, but having them certainly improves the programme, and it eliminates that “oh heck it’s 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Beavers starts in three hours” panic.

So: Beavers planning, GCSE papers, tidy dining-room (really needed - the table there is covered in books and papers, the kitchen table isn’t big enough for the whole family to sit at, and it’s too cold to eat in the conservatory), do some reading with Jack…you know, I’m sure there used to be a time when weekends were for relaxing.

• Semi-awake and drinking smoothies. Children bouncy. #
• Practice papers for B’s French GCSE have arrived from college - he’s excited, wants to do them today. #
• @HelenHaricot - you can have my voice, it’s not like anybody pays any attention to it anyway! #

• Marking French GCSE papers. B and F play-arguing in French over a pencil. J looking for his book (as usual). #
• Trying to convince my 2yo to go to sleep. #
• @HelenHaricot Happy, uh, anniversary! #

There are twelve houses on my street. Of those twelve, there are nine which have already been vacated by the children and at least one parent by this time of the morning - actually at least an hour ago, and in a couple of cases, before 7.30 a.m. Of the three remaining houses, one has a 90-year-old woman who lives alone, one is ours, and I don’t know about the last one (no children there).

My children have all had breakfast. Three of them are dressed and one of the remaining two is helping the other get dressed now. Two of the three who are dressed are playing YuGiOh just now. We’ll start our “work” soon. Oh, Barney has just arrived in the room and continued with what he was doing yesterday, so that’s him started already.

There’s such a difference between what we’d be doing if the kids were at school and what we actually do. I forget how relaxed we are in comparison to most of our friends and neighbours. If we were schoolies, I’d have to have everyone up, fed, dressed, prepared and out the door by 8.30 - even Toby, because of course he’d have to come with me for the school run. George, Freddy and Jack would probably all attend the same school, so that would be only one drop-off in the mornings, but they wouldn’t all finish at the same time. Barney could be at one of two secondary schools in town, or he could be at one a bit further afield - so he’d be leaving at either 7.40-ish or at 8.20-ish. Or he might choose to leave earlier so that he could get a lift from Scratchy. Or he might need me to leave him off, which would add an extra drop-off to my morning routine and would mean I had to leave at least twenty minutes earlier.

And people tell me they don’t know how I manage to home-educate with five children, how I cope with them all day, how I find the time. Well, most of those people have already spent at least two hours or more doing the get-’em-up-and-ready-and-out-to-where-they-need-to-be routine. Me? I’m sitting here wondering what to have for breakfast.

• Eating home-made oatmeal cookies for lunch (kids had something more substantial); working on list of "musts" for French GCSE Writing with B #
• Two children at ju-jitsu, two in bed (one very grumpy about it), one still bouncing on top of me. #
• My 2yo just fell asleep with a smile, while listing the people who love him #

• Gas for fire just ran out. Bah. #
• Wondering how a certain child can spend 40 minutes cooking fish fingers and still not have actually got them as far as warm. #
• Back from Beavers; "only" 17 there tonight, but no programme as such, so lots of games. *Deb falls over* #

George and Freddy have gone to Cubs - after a great deal of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from George because he couldn’t find his Cub scarf. Mine’s been missing for weeks, so he couldn’t borrow it. Barney offered to lend his, but George couldn’t find that either. I think he eventually found one before they left, but I was pretty much tuning it all out by that stage so I can’t be sure.

I never did get breakfast on Monday, and lunch consisted of oatmeal-raisin cookies the boys had baked on the weekend, but we did eventually get on with studying. George and Freddy returned to ju-jitsu on Monday night. Barney’s been thinking about Air Cadets, which meets locally on a Monday, but decided he was too tired on Monday evening, though he says he’s going to go and check it out next week.

We ploughed on with the studies yesterday, interrupted only by someone who came to have a look at our insulation and who, I realised afterwards, hadn’t even raised an eyebrow at all the children being here during the day, or when I mentioned that we home-educate. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. Maybe home-ed is becoming mainstream?

Today has been a lazy day around here; I think an hour of active games with Beavers last night pretty much took any residual energy I might have had. We’ve all been studying hard for the last couple of weeks though, so I don’t feel too guilty. I did speak to Mr. B (the French teacher who is being so helpful in arranging Barney’s GCSE exam) again; I read him a couple of samples of Barney’s past papers and he was impressed. The exam has four components: reading, listening, writing and speaking. The first two of those are “wee buns”, as they say around here, for Barney: it’s like filling in forms for him. I don’t think he’ll have much trouble with the speaking bit, but Mr. B is going to meet him when we go in to do the paperwork for the exam-entry, and he’ll be able to give us a heads-up about any potential problems there. The writing is the major sticking-point - Barney has no exam experience and thus none of those skills which are needed on top of actual ability in the subject in order to do well in an exam. (Having said that, I’m sure there are plenty of students who do have exam experience but who still don’t have those skills - I know I was one!) That’s where the past papers are really needed for him. His first attempt at a writing paper saw a letter which answered all the required questions but with no additional information. His second attempt saw the same letter, re-written, massively long and full of details - but took much too long. On his third attempt he spent most of his time planning the letter and then ran out of time to actually write the bit that gets marked. His fourth attempt was a great improvement; he got everything completed and squeezed in nearly everything that the marking scheme mentions, although he didn’t have time to do a read-through at the end. Still, 37/42 on the weakest bit isn’t bad. We’ll keep at the practice papers and with luck, by the time he’s doing the exam, he’ll have the technique perfected. Expect lots of bits of French on this blog in the next few months as I try to keep up with him…

No Scouts tonight; one of the leaders is away on a residential with the school where she’s a classroom assistant, and it didn’t occur to the other one that she could have asked Scratchy to come in until after she’d rung all the Scouts to cancel it. Ah well. It will give Barney more time for Facebook before they shut down Scrabulous

I’m going to finish this with a mention of a very good friend who is undergoing heart surgery tomorrow. Lots and lots of fast-healing vibes are heading her way!

• I want - nay, need - a smoothie. Only fruit in house is apples #
• Cubs starts in ten minutes; G cannot find a scarf. There are at least three in this house. Everyone else’s fault, of course. #
• Two home from Cubs, both excited to be on team for quiz on Friday. #

• My 2yo is guarding the stairs, telling those who want past "Say bitte!" #
• Wondering about friend who was having catheter ablation (heart surgery) today. #
• Text message from friend’s husband: surgery not successful - dont know any more yet. #
• Complications during friend’s surgery: heart was punctured, quite a lot of blood lost. Will know more after surgeon sees her tonight. #
• Friend is recovering, sore, tired, fed up. They’ll try the same procedure again in a few weeks; she hopes to be home next week. #

• Something is beeping, like it has a low battery. Trying to work out what. #
• Momentary panic for eldest when he thought FB Scrabulous had gone #
• Does everyone have a favourite tetris piece or is it just me? #
• Ooooh! Have just figured out what I can eat! #

• Youtubing David Bowie with my retro children - F says his eyes "must have freaked out his parents!" #
• and T is accompanying with maracas! #
• All children except youngest have gone to bed howling after watching documentary about man who lives with wolves. Awoooooooo! #
• Youngest also howling, just not seeming to have sleepy intentions. #

Yet again, days pass, and I have no idea how, when or where they went…it’s a bit scary to think that this is my life.

I do know that we spent some time yesterday looking for David Bowie on Youtube. George was most impressed at the wide range of images he’s had (no surprises there). Freddy was most impressed by his eyes - “that must have freaked out his parents when he was born!” - in other words, he considers them very cool. Toby mostly danced - he is very keen on dancing these days - and provided accompaniment with maracas. I’m not sure why we started looking for David Bowie on Youtube; it must have been one of those things that made sense at the time. I know we also also saw heard him when we watched Arthur and the Invisibles, but that was after the Youtubing, so it can’t have been that. We also watched a documentary about a man who has spent the last few years living with a pack of wolves, and that led to much howling at bedtime. I wonder what the dogs thought of that?

I’ve spent most of today in my current favourite place: the corner of the sofa. At least I’ve figured out a class of food that I can manage to eat: spicy. That’s how it was with Barney too - I spent most of the pregnancy subsisting on jalapeno potato wedges that we bought in bulk from Costco. I’m still waiting for that second-trimester energy to arrive though; it’s taking its time, I’m 17 weeks. I suppose I should probably contact the midwife sometime soon, but I’m still thinking about what exactly I’m going to tell her I want. I do know that I want the Community Midwifery Manager to stay completely out of it - I don’t even want her present when my name is mentioned. I suspect that might cause some administrative issues for the midwifery team; if so, that’s too bad.

• Eating scones and trying to gather enough energy to do something. Anything. Tired of being tired. #

• Friend who had unsuccessful heart op last week now out of hosp, at airport waiting to fly home. Airport closed due to snow! #
• Youngest has climbed on kitchen counter, helped himself to teabag, taken it upstairs and emptied it over landing floor. #
• G and F back from ju-jitsu, B off investigating Air Cadets. Looks like one more taxi job for Monday evenings. #
• Just spoke briefly with heart-op friend - *very* good to hear her voice! #
• Eldest home from Air Cadets. Full of enthusiasm & tells me he can fly (ie take controls) with supervision as soon as he gets the forms back! #

Today was loud. I spent a lot of it muttering about the volume in the house - Jack and Toby seemed to be having a competition to see who could scream loudest, Freddy’s generally loud anyway and George certainly hasn’t been what you’d call calm and quiet recently. And then I went to Beavers, where it was even louder. I’ve started a new tradition there: when I want quiet, I stand quietly with one arm in the air. Gradually the Beavers copy me, looking expectant. The first few times I did this, it took 20 or 30 seconds for them all to catch on, but now if there’s anybody still chattering about seven seconds in, I can almost guarantee there’ll be another Beaver or two nudging them and nodding in my direction to make them notice. Making yourself heard over a small group of Beavers - we only had six in September 2006 - is one thing, but when there are 20 of them, it requires all your energy behind your voice if you want it to be louder than them all put together. Standing there with your arm in the air requires much less energy

(Unfortunately it doesn’t work so well at home, largely because everyone isn’t usually gathered in one room, so I could wave my arm until it fell off and they wouldn’t notice.)

I’ve also been nominated to keep doing the Beaver programming, which I don’t mind. I’m not bad on the planning end, and I don’t find it too onerous. I had programmed from September to the end of January, but didn’t want to just keep going and step on anyone’s toes. Tonight when I arrived (with a programme that could be used, or not, it didn’t matter either way), I asked “So do we have a programme?” and the response was comments like “That’s your department!” and “You’re good at it, you can do it.” The only part of it that has been difficult recently has been the actual getting out and gathering things we need for programmes; a combination of only one car in the family and my lack of energy have complicated that bit - but one of the other leaders has agreed to take care of that as long as I provide her with lists of what’s needed. The other one is finding out the school term dates because we don’t usually meet during school holidays, and I’ll get on with putting together a plan that will take us to June. It’s a good agreement; I get to do the bit that only needs me to sit on my bum in front of a computer, the others get to avoid doing the bits they think are boring, and the Beavers get a damn good programme, if I say so myself

Otherwise…Toby appears to be on the verge of giving up naps. This seems unreasonably soon to me. I feel it would be much better if he would continue to nap early each afternoon for, oh, at least another three years. He has different ideas, it seems. He’s also taken to helping himself to things from kitchen cupboards - any kitchen cupboard, regardless of height or contents. Yesterday he got a teabag(!) and emptied the contents over the landing floor. Actually, now I think of it, he hasn’t been limiting himself to the kitchen.

He’s a long way from being the child who’s the hardest work at the minute though. By 10 o’clock this morning, George, having been even more intense than usual today, had already been informed that he would be going to bed early tonight instead of to SJA Cadets. Barney went though, and has volunteered to take part in a competition of some sort at the end of February. We know the date, but time and location (and what he’s supposed to do) remain a mystery. Freddy and George are taking part in a regional Cub quiz competition on Friday night, so it seems we’re back to the usual busy schedule.

The Big Thing for Barney so far this week, however, has been that he went off to investigate Air Cadets. And came home to tell us that as soon as he takes the forms back and takes some basic training, he could be flying a small aircraft - actually taking the controls - with supervision. I thought I had another four years before I had to worry about him taking control of vehicles, but I was thinking of the kind which have four wheels and stay on the ground - it had never occurred to me to worry about him taking to the skies at 13

• Surprise surprise: the child who was up reading at 10.30 last night is now grumpy and meltdowning. SJA tonight already off cards for him. #
• The volume here is becoming too much for me to bear. #
• Volume. Seriously. #
• Quiet now. Not sure whether to be relieved or worried. #
• Wishing it wasn’t Tuesday. #
• Back from Beavers; turns out the volume at home today was just easing me in gently. #

• Well hello there, end of rope. And how are you today? #
• Cubs tonight; F&G had screaming fight in driveway over who was going to sit in the front, so both are now changing into pyjamas. #

• We have a hammock. Now all we need is a summer. #

I’ve probably done more today than I have in the last two or three months put together. I’ve certainly been out of bed for more hours in a row today than I have for ages - probably since mid-Octoberish. It’s now almost 10 p.m. and I’m still wide awake and while I wouldn’t say I’m brimming over with energy, I haven’t fallen over yet. That could be a sign that the fatigue is finally lifting, I suppose, or it could be that I’m going to pay for this big time in the next few days.

Yesterday and Wednesday were pretty much like most days have been for the last while, with me struggling to stay awake and upright long enough to actually do anything with the boys, then collapsing into bed at the first opportunity - which makes it all the odder that I’m still awake and upright now.

I woke about 7.30 this morning to the sound of rattling in the driveway - the lids had blown off the recycling bins (which were at the end of the driveway, waiting for collection) and all the recycling stuff was blowing around the street. After the boys had breakfast and were dressed, I sent George and Freddy out to collect the strewn contents, with a reminder to watch for cars, since it was about 8.20 - fairly peak-time for traffic here, with people leaving for school and work. I thought they’d complain about the cold and wind and having to go out and pick stuff up, but when I went outside, they were grinning and told me “We had fun!” Cool. So now I know what to do next time they complain of being bored: throw the rubbish out and arrange for a bit of a typhoon.

Meanwhile Barney dressed Toby for me and I gave instructions to Jack in between cleaning my own teeth and getting dressed and gathering what we needed to take with us. We were out of the house by 8.40 a.m. - yes, 8.40. In the morning. Kind of blew my mind I couldn’t get the boot of the car open; it’s still not been permanently fixed since the switch in it went at the beginning of December - it’s now supposed to lock and unlock manually with the key, but that didn’t seem to work either this morning.

Our first stop was the barber’s shop - it’s a one-man operation, and while he does a good job, he also takes his time - about half an hour per customer, even little ones - so I wanted to get us in first. There was already someone waiting at the door when we arrived at 8.50 though, so that didn’t quite work. Then at about 8.58, the barber stuck his head out of the upstairs window and told everyone he was just out of bed and would be down in a few minutes I decided to leave the three older boys (who were the only ones getting haircuts anyway) and go off and do some errands, but first I phoned the local community midwives and asked the head of the team (L) if she’d have some time to swing by my house sometime today. “Oh, it’s lovely to hear from you - are you pregnant?” she said. Anyone would think I had a reputation.

9.20 found me sheltering in the doorway to the bank, which is right by the open water, so the typhoon was certainly making itself felt there. I made a phone-call to a friend who’s about to go off to tour the US for six months and had a chat with her while we waited for the bank to open. After getting some money in my pocket, I phoned Barney to see how far they’d got - the barber was still working on the first customer (the man who’d arrived before us) so I went and gave the boys some money to pay for the haircuts and brought Jack and Toby home to do some tidying up. Discovering how disgusterous (that’s Merry’s word but I like it) the downstairs of the house was, I vacuumed and mopped and cleaned out the dogs’ crates. Other people do vacuum in this house, but it doesn’t seem to occur to them to move things while they’re doing it, so disgusterous was definitely the right word.

Barney phoned me at about 11 to say that both George and Freddy had had their hair(s) cut and that he was just starting to get his done - I’d told him to ring me at that point, figuring it gave me plenty of time to get Jack and Toby into the car and go back down to collect the other. I’d left extra money with them in case they were done just as L (midwife) was due, or while she was here, so I could tell them to get a taxi, but since she wasn’t due until 11.30, I drove back to pick everyone up.

Semi-shorn (i.e. half of us had had haircuts), we came home and finished tidying up, then we heated up some leftover pasta for lunch. L arrived and we had a lengthy chat, starting with her asking if I wanted more or less the same thing as last time, and was I planning to have a pool again - which I am. With a grin, she said, “You notice I didn’t even ask if you were planning a homebirth?” - well yes, I had noticed that she’d just skipped over that bit entirely The meeting with her went well; she’s got the measure of me, I think. In other words, she knows not to assume anything, and not to do anything without asking, and she knows that I’m pretty well clued-in about my options and the pros and cons of them all. She didn’t mention anything at all about me being over 40 by the time the baby arrives, nor did she mention anything about grand multips (I think I do just qualify for that description now). Even better, she told me that the community midwifery manager has moved on - to a different job in a town about an hour-and-a-half from here - which as I had planned to make it clear that she was to have nothing to do with me, not even paperwork or being present when my name was mentioned, was very good news. Good riddance - though I do feel for the people where she’s working now.

Anyway, a very positive appointment. L asked if I was willing to have any bloodwork done, and was surprised when I said there were some things I actually wanted checked - mainly my iron and B12 levels, since either or both of those could be partially or fully responsible for my current knackeredness, and if they are, it’s a relatively easy fix. I’m declining most of the other stuff though - it wouldn’t do to get too cooperative Wanting those bloods done was one of my reasons for contacting L now, rather than waiting. My other main reason was that although I’ve felt lots of things that might have been fetal movement, I haven’t felt anything that was definitely thus - I wasn’t very worried, since I’d felt the fundus (top of the uterus) and knew it was about the right height for almost-18 weeks, but I thought it would be reassuring if she could pick up a heartbeat. She offered a choice of pinard or doppler; I chose pinard because I’m really not keen on routine ultrasound exposure. Unfortunately she wasn’t sure of what she was hearing with the pinard, so I agreed to a very fast listen in with the doppler, and she found a good strong heartbeat of about 140/minute, which is just about absolutely perfect. I also felt some is-that-baby-moving-type movement while she was doing it and she agreed that it was indeed baby moving

She agreed to come back and take blood for tests next week (I think the B12 needs a tube which isn’t a routine one for them to carry in the community) and after that I’ll see her again about four weeks later. There’s a new midwife on the team (the primary midwife who was here for Toby’s birth has retired) and a new student, so I’ll get to meet them, and I was reassured by L that if I don’t feel comfortable with any member of the team, I only have to say so and it will be arranged for my care to be from the others - which I knew, but it was very positive to hear someone on a midwifery team actually say so without even being asked. One of the other team members, G, is doing a lot of work with the GP practice that Toby and I have just registered with; I’ve only met her once, but on that occasion she had a good old rant about routine tests and procedures which aren’t justified, so I took to her rather well - I’m quite pleased to hear she might be more involved this time. L left to go and check when her holiday-time is booked next summer, as she’s very keen to be able to attend the birth this time - she was really disappointed to not be on-call when Toby arrived. She’s one of those soothing, supportive midwives, and if she is on-call when I go into labour, I might just call

So…that over, I told the boys to get ready to leave the house again, as I’d plans to go and check the cookware section of Ikea and had to collect Scratchy. But George had locked the car when we got home, and didn’t know what he’d done with the key. We only have one key, and we only have one car, so its un-findable-ness was a bit of a worry. After 20 minutes or so, it turned up between the ottoman in the front hall and the wall. At that point, I discovered that Toby was shoeless and sockless - we found socks (the boys all having received character-socks in their stockings, that particular bane of my life seems to be much diminished for now - thank you Sally!) but one shoe remained stubbornly missing - and still has not been found. Eventually we gave up on it and left the house with a pair of much-too-large wellington boots for him instead. We do own a pair of wellington boots which would fit him much better (they are very little and very cute) but those could also not be found - it only occurred to me hours later that they were probably already in the bag in the boot of the car. Not that I could get the boot open anyway…

By that point there was no time for Ikea before collecting Scratchy, so instead I scooted into town to check the charity shop for cheap blankets for the dogs’ crates, them having pretty much eaten most of the blankets that were in there before - but parking in the afternoons is at a premium, and I ended up joining the line of about nine other cars which were double-parked. I told Barney to run in and get me if he saw a traffic-warden, but apparently the traffic-warden came up from behind and “just popped up at the window”. Maybe he felt sorry for me when he saw All Those Children, or maybe he was having a good day, or maybe he’s just a nice bloke, but whatever, he didn’t give me a ticket - instead he came into the shop and found me and asked me to move my car. Quite a nice surprise, that!

Scratchy, having been taken out for lunch by his boss, had told me to meet him outside a certain shop, so I went there and waited…and waited…until he phoned and mentioned that he hadn’t meant that shop, he’d meant another shop in the same chain - not the nearest one to where he works, not the one opposite the other shop he’d mentioned needing to go to, but an entirely different branch. Hence my twitter wondering if I speak the same language as the rest of the world.

We decided to go to Ikea anyway. Scratchy hadn’t been before, and I wanted to see if they had any pizza-stones (for baking bread as well as pizza). They don’t sell pizza-stones, but I bought some plant-pots at 99p each and Barney bought a £2.99 stool to fit under the roll-out desk under his bed. Freddy announced to all the people in the lift that his favourite age was 16. It must be really cool to have a favourite age which is exactly twice your current age

We decided to eat in the Ikea restaurant, partly because there wasn’t going to be time to get home and feed everyone before the Cub Quiz, partly because we didn’t like the idea of driving across the edge of the city at rush-hour. The menu is limited, but I must admit that being able to feed my entire family for about £9 is fairly impressive. (Actually it wasn’t the entire family - Scratchy was still stuffed from having lunch out - but even so…) With respect to time and travel, it would have made sense to take George and Freddy’s Cub uniforms with us when we went out in the afternoon - and I did think of that, but was already running so late that I decided not to stop and get them - in retrospect, that was not the best move. We got home, George and Freddy shot in and got changed (and George cleaned his teeth, having “forgotten” this morning) and I shot off with them again. We got to the Cub Quiz with about 90 seconds to spare, then waited for 10 or 15 minutes while the stragglers from the other teams arrived…

Our Pack had two teams in the quiz; Freddy was on one, George on the other. One of the Cubs on George’s team was sick, so they were down to three members - but still managed to come second, which meant that they got medals, and also that they’ll be attending the next round (county, I think) in February. Freddy’s team tied for 8th place (out of 17). The leaders and parents had their own mini-quiz in an adjoining room (a tactic designed to stop them cheating helping their Cubs) and I think we did quite well. Okay, so I sent Scratchy a text-message to get him to find out the name of an actor, and okay, so I convinced the rest of my team that another photograph was of Kenneth Branagh when it was actually Ewan McGregor…but none of the rest of them had come up with any names at all so it’s not like I made them get it wrong. In my defence, the photos had been specifically chosen to make them harder to identify. We got Edmund Hillary and Somebody LightSomething from Snow Patrol though, and a couple of sporting figures whose names fell out of my head as soon as I’d written them on the page…

And now, I think it’s time I did that falling-over thing I’m getting so good at. Night all

• Almost, but not quite, out of the house before neighbours this morning. Why won’t car boot open? #
• Older children at barber, younger ones with me, waiting for bank to open. Seeing midwife later this morning. #
• Have cleaned kitchen floor, tidied downstairs, cleaned dogs’ crates & collected children from barber. Have not got car boot open. #
• Saw midwife. Spent 20 minutes searching for car key. Now seeking shoe for 2yo. #
• Nice traffic warden came into shop to get me instead of ticketing me! #
• Sometimes I wonder if I’m actually speaking the same language as the rest of the world. #
• We have one hour to get home, get G & F into Cub uniform & get to Cub quiz. I give it 50/50 odds. #
• Just made it on time for the quiz. Now waiting for those teams who didn’t… #
• 2nd place for our team despite being one Cub short #
• @HelenHaricot I am so sorry to hear your news. Huge hugs. #

• Why does my nose always feel stuffed-up when I’m really tired? #
• Have made it out of bed, which is more than I expected. Only semi-upright though! #
• Sitting down with four months of bank and card statements to try to catch up on reconciling them all. Wish me luck. #

• More past papers with B. Meeting with French teacher and exams officer tomorrow. #
• Anyone know a way of rescuing problematic handwriting? #
• Hoping I get a better night’s sleep tonight, as have over five hours in the car tomorrow. #

It’s been a very long day for Barney and me. I woke up to find that the baby had changed position overnight and that I now look about eight months pregnant, but no time to investigate that - Barney and I had to get out of the house bright and early. We arranged last week that we would go today to visit the school where he’ll be sitting his French GCSE. It’s about 2.5 hours away, so we left the house at 9.20 and after a couple of brief local errands, we were on our way. Barney is fantastically good company on a long drive; we had a wonderful conversation which included (and this is only a partial list): the kinds of careers he’s considering; how he could accomplish the things he thinks about; forensic science; robotics (particularly artificial limbs); what philosophy is about; his disappointment (his word) on hearing about the likely problems of human life on other planets due to differing air pressure, because that means that if there are extra-terrestrials, they won’t be able to land here and we won’t be able to land on their planets; a theory that life on earth is all a huge alien experiment; an alternative ending for the last Harry Potter book (Harry kills Voldemort, then James wakes up and is glad to find it was all a dream and that his son, who is after all only a year old, has not been through all that, then there’s a knock on the door, an evil laugh and a flash of green light…)

We stopped to visit my friend K, who is recovering from an unsuccessful operation on her heart just over a week ago; it’s the school her two oldest children attend that has agreed to let Barney do the exam there. After lunch at her house, we drove to the school and went in to meet with the French teacher and the Exams Officer.

Both were very welcoming and delighted to help. The French teacher spent nearly an hour with us; he looked at the past papers Barney has been doing and is very satisfied with the level of work in those, and repeated what I’ve been telling Barney for the last few weeks about the need to get organised at the beginning, watch the time, make sure he gives the information that’s specifically requested, etc. He spoke in French with Barney too, and again is very satisfied with his French, but says Barney needs to be more forward, more relaxed, and bring a bit of theatre to it. He gave us one extra past paper (the only one he could find in his stash that Barney hadn’t already done) and a couple of textbooks which have practice questions in them, as well as lots of information and hints about the aural exam. Barney also got to meet and chat with their French assistant, who is a French woman who has been in this country for three weeks. We were shown the gym, where he’ll sit the exam, and the seating arrangements for it were explained to us. He also gave us timetables and his email address and told us to contact him if there was anything at all that we needed or had questions about. The Exams Officer presented me with an invoice for the exam: £24, which is exactly what the Examination Board charges. In other words, the school is not asking for any reimbursement for the time the French teacher spent with us today, for the materials they’ve provided, for the time which will be spent on Barney’s aural assessment, or for invigilation.

I think we’ve been amazingly lucky to find them - after emailing and phoning from October to January, I was on the verge of giving up. I haven’t asked about Barney (or the others, when the time comes) sitting other exams there, but I’m hoping that once we’ve been through this one, the school will be willing to cooperate for other subjects too.

We finished at 3.20, which is also school-letting-out time, so we collected K’s sons, C and J, and drove them home. They and Barney then got to spend some time together before we left for the long drive home, during which Barney fell asleep (so it wasn’t nearly as interesting for me as the outward journey!) We just made it back in time for him to go to Air Cadets; fortunately we’d brought the things he needed with us. And we have another busy day tomorrow - not so much driving, but plenty of action, I’m sure - so I think it’s time I went to bed. Maybe I’ll just check on my Scrabulous games first though…

• Baby has shifted overnight & I suddenly look 8 months pregnant. If only! #
• En route to register B for exam #
• Sitting in reception in a school… #
• Believe it or not, I’m doing a school run. #
• Home. Long day. Even longer for B, who is now at Air Cadets. Lots of support from school re exam; very impressed. #