NotSheep

• @asilon Much sympathy from one who has very similar. Gets very wearing being woken by meltdown Every Single Day… #
• Waiting for the vampire midwife #

Another midwife visit yesterday, for her to take blood. I’ve declined most things but asked for hemoglobin (and other things necessary to calculate true iron level) to be done and also for a B12 check; part of me hopes one of those is abnormally low, as it would mean I could actually do something about the exhaustion. I have horrible veins; it takes an age to find one that looks half-decent and then they usually collapse seconds after the needle goes in. The first attempt yesterday resulted in less than half a millilitre in the bottom of a tube - that’s about one-tenth of a teaspooon. Second attempt didn’t get anything at all. L kept apologising but there was no need; I already know it’s me! She left me a bunch of booklets and leaflets, all of which went straight in the bin after a single glance, since I’d either a) read them before and knew they were useless, or b) opened them to a random page and discovered something which was evidence that they were useless.

I did a couple of very fast errands in the morning before she came, then came home and got the boys settled to some studying. They’ll be doing some more this afternoon; it probably sounds awful to be making them study on weekends, but there are things that work much better when there’s an extra adult around - to keep everyone out of the way when Barney’s doing past papers for GCSE, for example.

When we were at the science centre on Tuesday, a friend filled my car with boxes of things she’d been clearing out in preparation for moving overseas, so I got to those this morning. Books, jigsaw puzzles, toy animals (which led to a look of wonderment and delight on Toby’s face), and a marble-run which has already been packed into a box to be given to someone else. It had been out less than an hour and there had been several fights over it, and when Barney physically attacked Freddy to get him to hand over a marble, I decided enough was enough. Barney did not take well to this decision and stormed off (we don’t care about him, we don’t care about anything he wants…) including taking himself off outside in his (short-sleeved and short-legged) pyjamas. It’s cold enough that he was back indoors less than a minute later. He sulked for a while after that, but cheered up while eating lunch (he forgot he meant to be cross LOL)

Freddy sat down and did a KS2 science sats paper, but got very cross about one of the questions, and claimed it was “impossible to answer the question without breaking the rules!” It turned out that the question asked him to “draw a conclusion”, but there were line for him to write on, so he couldn’t draw anything…

The Toby-induced-smile-of-the-day came when he walked into the room on tiptoe; Barney missed it, so I said to Toby, “”how me how you can stand on your toes” and he did - one foot flat on the floor, the other foot on top of it

• Weather forecast site says it will be -218 deg C here tomorrow evening. Somehow it will still manage to be raining. #
• Eldest has thrown tantrum as only teenager can; now eating and forgetting his intentions to be grumpy. #
• My 8yo is doing ks2 science sats paper. He is cross because it says ‘draw a conclusion’ but gives lines to *write* on. #
• Wishing there was something like Centerparcs accessible to us. #
• Exploring twitter wiki and getting geekily excited about some of the things people are doing with twitter #

• Weather forecast site says it will be -218 deg C here tomorrow evening. Somehow it will still manage to be raining. #
• Eldest has thrown tantrum as only teenager can; now eating and forgetting his intentions to be grumpy. #
• My 8yo is doing ks2 science sats paper. He is cross because it says ‘draw a conclusion’ but gives lines to *write* on. #
• Wishing there was something like Centerparcs accessible to us. #
• Exploring twitter wiki and getting geekily excited about some of the things people are doing with twitter #

• When a 2yo comes up with a name for a toy giraffe, where does he get "Hot Dog" and "Bert"??? #
• Home alone - all children off to enjoy Chinese New Years event but I’m too tired. Going to sleep instead #

• Trying to think of someone to sign my driving licence photos. Has to be lawyer, dr, etc who has known me 2 yrs; have to get it done asap. #
• Browsing for pancake-related activities to do with B|eavers tomorrow. #
• Have thought of so-called respectable friend - well, he’s a teacher anyway - and he’s agreed to sign. Hope photos & signature tomorrow. #
• @jaxb not seeing your reply on my homepage. hm. midwife a thought, dunno, prob won’t see her for 3-4 weeks now. teacher friend going to sign #
• twitter apparently buggy - lots of tweets and replies missing. http://tinyurl.com/2mhbh6 #
• G has been cutting out big circles and then smaller circles from the big circles for me to use with Beavers tomorrow #
• J on toy laptop phone: "Can you order two ice-creams? Cold with a stick in one of them and a stick not in one of them." #
• Just cleaned my laptop screen - wow! everything looks so bright! #
• Very strange goings-on with one photo which seems to be there but not there in flickr #

• @MerrilyMe Twitter has been very iffy for the last week or so, and I’m not getting any sms from it this morning at all #
• Trying to stay awake, bearing in mind that if I fall asleep now I will be barely conscious for tonights Beavers meeting. #
• Apparently I’m "an idol" in my next-door neighbour’s house. I thought I was just idle. #
• Waiting for oldest two children to exit SJA Cadets. Tired and hungry. Pizza place across street looks oddly appealing. #
• Home and *still* hungry! #

It’s been one of those very strange days when all sorts of unexpected things happened. I’ll tell you about Monday and yesterday first, because - well, because they happened first, and that’s what I’m like.

I realised over the weekend that my driving licence had expired. In November. How did this happen? Don’t they send reminders? Well, yes they do…but somehow my address change never got processed after we moved, and I was a bit busy having a baby (Toby) etc, so it never occurred to me that the new bit hadn’t arrived. I never use my licence - a bank teller asked me for photo ID once and I started to look for it in my bag, but the next teller over said “oh, it’s all right, I know her” so I never took it out and looked at it. If I had, I might have realised that the address was wrong, and then I might have told them again, and the reminder they sent out might have been sent to where I actually live.

I phoned the licensing people on Monday and a helpful man there told me what I needed to do and pointed out that until I did it, my insurance wouldn’t pay any claims. Oops. So getting it sorted out moved rather rapidly up the to-do list. One of the things I had to do was get photos taken and have them signed by someone who has known me for at least two years and is a “respectable” person - which made me think hard, because we don’t have a minister and the doctor I’m registered with has never actually met me and the only teacher living in the street has only known me since last summer. Eventually I remembered a friend who doesn’t live too far away and is a teacher (though whether he’s respectable is definitely up for debate, as he and his wife were the first to agree).

George cut out lots of circles in the afternoon, so that I could use them with Beavers for Pancake Puppets. Meanwhile I browsed for other pancake-related activities we could do, and phoned my co-leader to check that the cooker in the hall was working. And got frustrated with Twitter’s recent flakiness.

Barney went to Air Cadets on Monday evening - proudly wearing the t-shirt they gave him last week - and Freddy went to ju-jitsu. George announced he was too tired, then took great offence when I told him to go to bed right after Freddy left. But y’know, if you’re too tired to go out, it doesn’t make any sense to stay up until the time you’d have come home if you’d gone out in the first place. In the meantime, Jack and Toby played in my bedroom with a VTech phone thingy. Jack was ordering in: “Can I order two ice-creams? Cold, with a stick in one of them and a stick not in one of them.”

On Tuesday morning, Scratchy arranged to work from home for a while so I could run out and get photos taken for the driving licence application. Somehow he thought he’d be at work by 10. Given that the chemist (nearest place to get them done) doesn’t open until 10, I’m not sure how he thought that would happen. He also thought that he’d be here with five children and still get some work done…heh. I got home and did some work with the boys and got more frustrated with Twitter’s recent flakiness.

Tuesday evening: Beavers. I took all the cut-out circles and various other bits of equipment with me, including the ingredients for making pancakes. We split the Beavers into three groups to make their pancake batter. Then we took them into the kitchen and…discovered the cooker was not working.

We talked about pancakes, played games, made Pancake Puppets and sent each Beaver home with a cupful of pancake batter. We told the parents to look at it as an easy breakfast the following morning. Not sure how that fits in with using up all the eggs and butter etc before Lent, but there you go.

Afterwards I went to visit my maybe-respectable-maybe-not friend and he signed all the things I needed him to sign. By the time I got home, it was nearly time to collect George and Barney from SJA Cadets, so I dropped Jack at home and the neighbour’s son at his house. My neighbour told me that I’m “an idol in this house” - I’m not sure how much of that is because I have five children and how much is because we home-educate. We were talking about getting them all up and out in the mornings. I’m in two minds about this: both he and his wife work full-time, and I really don’t know how anybody manages to do that and also manage children and their schedules, but also - well, they’ve only got a six-year-old and a teenaged daughter, so it does look from my perspective as though it must be fairly straightforward. I suppose we’ve all got our own ideas about what’s difficult. Anyway, I went to get Barney and George and finally got everyone home and to bed, having warned them that we needed to be up and out early today.

We had to be up and out early because Cassie was booked in at the vet’s to be spayed. They only do one spay a day, and they do it first thing in the morning so that they can keep an eye on the dog all day, so you have to be there by 9 o’clock. I reckoned that leaving at 8.30 would be okay - and I’m sure it would have been. Unfortunately I was woken by Toby jumping on me at 8.29. I haven’t leaped out of bed as quickly as that in a long time. Much shouting at everyone to get dressed etc - poor Jack was rudely awoken and almost dragged out of bed. Older children dressing and chivvying along younger children, many orders being given. We were pulling out of the driveway exactly eleven minutes after I opened my eyes. So it turns out I could do it if I had to - but I really don’t want to!

We got lost on the way to the vet’s (it’s a very rural practice), but got there with just a minute to spare. The four parking spaces across the road were taken, so I parked across the back of one car and told Barney to come and get me if I needed to move the car. I talked to the vet, filled in all the forms etc - and then two police officers came in and said, “Is that your Chrysler Voyager out there?” It turned out that someone had parked on the other side of the road - probably marginally more legally than the way I was parked, if there are such things as gradiations in the legality of parking - and between us, we were blocking the way of a large truck. And a police-car. Actually I don’t know if the police-car just happened to come along or if the truck-driver called them, but either way, I abandoned Cassie and ran out to move the car - and give Barney an earful for not coming to get me. Oh, he’d seen the truck. Oh, he’d even told the police officer where I was. But did he come and get me? No. And just as I was turning the car back onto the road, the text-message that Barney had sent me arrived: Car needs moved.

I provided all the children with a drive-through breakfast and took Toby to get new shoes. He has reached the dizzying heights of a size 5. No longer will it be true that his shoes are almost as wide as they are long Next stop: play resource centre, where the pickings were slim but at least my membership card hadn’t (quite) expired. Conversation with Barney en route about the ethics of animal-spaying: “Isn’t it sort of like genocide?” Well, I can see the reasoning, but I definitely think the pros outweigh the cons. I realised I didn’t have the vet’s telephone number with me (result of earlier speedy exits) and that I was supposed to ring at 1 p.m. to find out when Cassie should be collected, so I phoned Scratchy and asked him to google for it. A few minutes later he rang Barney (on top of everything else, my phone battery was dying) and told him he’d phoned the vet. Uh…beginning to see where Barney gets his (in)ability to follow simple instructions! (Not shouting at all now. Oh no. Of course not.) Oh well, one more reason for the vet to think I’m a moron.

And then off to the driver licensing office with my forms and my passport and my photos and my cash. The licence will take about two weeks to arrive, but will be dated from today, so at least I’m now driving with insurance.

Hm, what did we do next? Home for lunch, I think. A game of 20 Questions in the car. Barney: “Hey, guys! I have a really good one! It’ll only take one question!” Jack: “Is it a frog?” Barney: “No! It has to be the question we usually ask first!” Freddy: “Is it alive?” Barney: “Yes! You figured it out! It’s a live. Get it? It’s A Live.” Uh, right. Me: “So what exactly is A Live?” Barney: “Isn’t that really a philosophical question?”

Home and found the vet’s phone number myself and phoned at 1 p.m. Cassie was doing well and would be ready to leave at about 3. Good stuff. Checked the post and discovered a letter from the Education Board - oh, had they finally noticed us after only nearly seven years of home-educating? But no…it wasn’t addressed to me. Or even my address. It was, however, addressed to the Scout Group where I take Beavers, with the actual postal address of the Scout Hall on it. Not that we get post delivered there…but how on earth did it make it to my mailbox, in the next town, when it didn’t have my name, house number, street name or postcode on it? The mystery was solved when I remembered one of the other leaders I’d met at the Cubs Quiz a couple of weeks ago - he works for the post office and apparently they get confused because they can’t deliver to some of the Scout Halls - so they just give anything Scout-related to him and he figures out what to do with it. He must have remembered where I lived and decided that was the quickest way to deal with post for our Group

Also in the mailbox: a card about a parcel delivery. What could that be? I haven’t ordered anything recently. It said to collect it tomorrow, but I don’t plan on having the car tomorrow, so I took the chance and went to the post office anyway - and noted with optimism that there was a ParcelForce van right outside it. And yup, there was my parcel. Remember way back in November when I bought something from Ebay Canada for George for Christmas? It was posted to me on November 13th, and the Canada Post tracking system had it on their website as leaving the country on November 22nd. But it didn’t arrive in December; George was very understanding when I explained to him just before Christmas and said that he’d get it when it got here - but by the end of January, I’d given up hope of ever seeing it. Well, we saw it today. George is now the ecstatic (his choice of words) owner of a pair of Vector Prime and Wing Saber transformers.

(Oh, and can anyone explain to me why in the UK, where we call it “the post”, it’s “Royal Mail”, but in Canada, where they call it “the mail”, it’s “Canada Post”?)

We brought Cassie home too, all shaven underneath and acting subdued. The vet brought her out to the reception area from the back of the surgery and said “She’s just lovely!” Yeah, she is

And now…George and Freddy are at Cubs, Barney is leaving soon for Scouts, and I’ve got a website to work on. It’s a simple website, but the person who wrote it did so using Microsoft Publisher, so the code is 95% rubbish. I volunteered for this - it was a plea for help on Freecycle - but the bloke whose site it is has said he’ll service my oil boiler for nothing in exchange, which I think works rather well all round

• From eyes open to pulling out of driveway with 5 kids and 1 dog: 11 minutes. So I *can* do it. But I don’t *want* to. #
• Come get me if the car needs moved, I said to 13yo. 10 mins later, a policeman did. 10 mins after that, the text message from 13yo arriv … #
• T has reached the dizzying heights of a size 5 shoe. Kids eating. Dog is recovering from op, to be collected at 3pm. #
• Leaving to collect dog. Have had note about parcel at post office; don’t know if it will be there yet but will swing by first to see. #
• Have just collected parcel which left Canada in early December - supposed to arrive for Xmas! #
• Cass home from vet, all shaven and feeling sorry for herself #
• Lying in the bath talking to strange men! #

• @SallyM - it’s twitter silly beggars. Loads of tweets missing, lots of people complaining on help forum. Your timeline missing my last 3 too #
• It appears that this baby has woken up; I’ve been feeling lots of kicks for about four hours. #
• Counting down to bedtime and wishing twitter would get its act together. #
• All that baby movement has got it sitting (or doing headstands) on my tailbone now - ow! #
• Eldest has tucked youngest into bed and youngest has fallen asleep! #

• Things seem to be improving with twitter, but now it’s me who’s fallen over. #
• @tworedboots It is actually improving, but it’s not solved yet. I’m just hoping people don’t give up; I like twitter too much lol #

• Hm, lots of tweets. Looks like twitter might be waking up - wahey! #
• Tidying dining-room, organising bits of paper and making mental to-do lists (will go on paper when I find some). #
• J thinks he looks cool in his "leather" jacket. Actually it’s not the jacket, it’s the pose and the look #
• My 2yo is very charming (but might not be quite so much when he’s still up at 11 - very late and long nap today). #
• Much as I want to fall asleep, I know I will pay for it with wakefulness in the early hours if I do, so I am fighting the urge. And losing. #

After Wickedly-busy Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were…slow. I can’t handle a day like that without taking a day or two to recover, so there was little more than the necessities done on those days - and even the necessities were largely done by people other than me. Cassie, on the other hand, made a remarkably quick recovery - after being fairly sleepy on Wednesday evening, she was up and raring to go on Thursday. Her crate is in the hall, and when its side door is open at 90 degrees, it blocks the hall - but on Thursday morning when she was on one side of that and I was on the other and she wanted to get to me, she didn’t let it stop her - she leapt right over it. One day maybe she’ll realise it’s on hinges and she can just nudge it with her nose or her paw

She did keep getting painkillers until Friday evening, and was supposed to get antibiotics until this morning, but I forgot to give her yesterday morning’s dose, and by the time I remembered it seemed a bit pointless. Her wound looks great, and she’s leaving her stitches alone, so I decided it was almost certainly fine not to finish the course.

I spent most of the day in the dining-room, tidying it (it was 7/10 on the tip-scale) while the boys dealt with the living-room (which was 9/10 on the tip-scale). Once it was tidy and all the bits of paper were in various piles (”deal with sometime”, “deal with this week”, “deal with soon” and “sort this out now” LOL), the boys sat around the table and did masses of studying. Scratchy took Jack out to get groceries - Jack in his “leather” (actually vinyl - and that kind of very vinyl-y vinyl) jacket, came up to me before they left and asked, “Isn’t this so cool?” - and it was, but it was the pose he struck and his facial expression that made it so, rather than the jacket They brought back dinner - Chinese food, in honour of Chinese New Year (which is a three-week festival in China, I’ll have you know, so were not at all late in celebrating it two days after New Year’s Day). Well - not genuine Chinese-Chinese food, but what we call Canadian-Chinese, although I suppose having lived here for over a decade, we should really be calling it British-Chinese or Euro-Chinese or something. The stuff you get from the take-away, anyway. We can get our mitts on Chinese-Chinese food, but it requires a trip to the Chinese supermarket, which is not somewhere any of us wants to be on a Saturday afternoon, and requires us to cook it ourselves, which neither of us was really up for yesterday. We were pleasantly surprised at how little it all actually cost from the take-away; we think they might have given Scratchy a discount. We know he got a discount when he took the boys to the Chinese New Year celebrations last weekend - they charged him for three people instead of six!

Anyway, our New Years dinner was very tasty, and I actually managed to stay upright long enough to sit at the table with the rest of the family until it was over, which isn’t something that’s been happening too often recently.

Toby was rather bouncy in the evening, having fallen asleep mid-afternoon and slept for two hours. I was ready for sleep long before him, but fought it, knowing that if I went to sleep at 9, I’d pay for it in wakefulness in the early hours. Unfortunately staying awake until later didn’t work, as I was awake from 1.30 until after 5 anyway. The combination of small people kicking me (from both inside and out) didn’t help, and nor did the snoring, but really it was mostly plain old insomnia.

I still managed to be awake at 9.45 this morning and got on with more sifting through the paperwork, getting to-do lists done, etc. I used to use an A5-sized filofax-type organiser thingy, and it kept me much more organised, so I’m going to work towards having everything in there again. I already feel much more organised - I know there’s nothing that needs done in the next week that I haven’t got on a list, and I have a plan for dealing with it all. There are still some more papers to deal with in the next few days, but now that it’s all organised in one place, I know I’ll get to it. I found a letter about an appointment on Wednesday that I’d forgotten about and that I was supposed to confirm, so I’ll do that tomorrow morning - I hope just in time. I also found a £10 voucher that we got from Argos that we got before Christmas - I was vaguely aware that we had it, but only discovered today that it expired on February 14th, so spent some time trying to figure out what we needed from Argos, and finally settled on a watch for Jack for his birthday next month and a pack of six rechargeable batteries. I also found a £25 voucher for Tesco, sent to me as a thank-you from the woman whose two Japanese Scouts we took on along with my own two last summer; I keep forgetting I’ve got it, but maybe now it’s in the front pocket of my organiser, I’ll remember to use it! And I discovered a book token, given to George for his eighth birthday, I believe (remember he’ll be 11 in June!) - I don’t even know if it’s still valid or not, though there’s no expiry date printed on it. And a cheque for £40 which is I’m pretty sure won’t be honoured now, since it’s nearly three years old - and I don’t have any memory at all of receiving it. You see why I want to get all this stuff sorted out?!

Again, I managed to stay upright throughout dinner, and even for a short period afterwards - which is more than poor Toby did. He fell forwards from the mattress of the bedside-cot and did a face-plant onto the side of it, giving himself a nosebleed

• Trying to get organised. Again. Trying to catch up. Again. I used to be organised and caught up. I wonder if it will ever happen again. #
• Buying batteries from Argos because I have a £10 voucher about to expire. See what getting organised does for you? #
• How did I forget how good Pride & Prejudice was? All of my children are glued to it! #

• @MerrilyMe that happens here a lot too - most recently re quadratic equations. And I was one of the stars in school maths! #
• @MerrilyMe - I found a fantastic website that made them easy-peasy. Far better explanation than school ever gave! You want the URI? #
• Eldest is discovering the joys of logic puzzles, but in French. #
• Getting annoyed at websites which establish distance from postcode to store without taking large bodies of water into account. #

I’m hiding in the dining-room; there are eight children here at the minute, several of whom are grumpy (all mine) which cannot be impressing the guest children, though all of them are being very polite about it. A friend had an appointment with one of her clients in this area this afternoon, and since her eldest is on half-term this week, she collected her other children from school and they all came here. My friend then left to go see her client and she will, I hope, be back soon, as dinner is almost ready to hit the table.

We spent most of the morning cleaning the conservatory, which has, for the last few months, been nothing but a holding pen for the dogs when they come in mucky from the garden, which is every time they come in, because the garden is like a field, but not as clean and tidy. To stop them from traipsing mud through the whole of downstairs, we’ve been leaving them in there until the mud dried up and/or fell off them. This has been a reasonably effective technique for keeping it out of the rest of the house, but another consequence was that the entire room - walls, windows, floor, furniture - became covered in a thick layer of mud, loose dirt and dog-hair. Four of us attacked it this morning with mops, large sponges and buckets of soapy water, and about three hours later, it was…well, cleaner. Not really what you’d call clean, but certainly a sight better than it had been. Everything will have to be washed again to get to that it to actually clean. The floor has been mopped seven times and still isn’t clean, but at least the colour is visible again. The vacuum cleaner had a nervous breakdown part-way through the process, but recovered later, and fortunately we’ve a smaller one upstairs, so I was able to use that in the meantime.

Barney spent the morning trying to work out what the tune in his head was; when he hummed it to me, I thought it sounded like the theme-tune to Star Wars, but when he figured it out, it turned out to be David Bowie’s “Starman”.

By lunchtime we were all wet, soapy and mucky, so I sent the boys upstairs to shower in turn in my bathroom (the family bathroom has a bath and a shower attachment but nothing to hang it on on the wall, and no shower-curtain). I went up to have a shower myself once they were done, and discovered that someone had been at bottles of moisturiser and make-up, and moisturised the toilet-seat. Then my shower was interrupted when Barney arrived to tell me he could sing Starman in French: Il y a un homme d’étoile, attendant dans le ciel… Hippy Hothousing Homeschoolers

The midwife rang with my blood-tests results. The good news: my iron-level is great. The bad news: my folate level is low. The good/bad news: my B12 is also low. The reason this is both good and bad news is that it means I have to have B12 injections, which hurt going in and then sting afterwards, but they are very effective and this will probably help my energy-levels a lot. The midwife annoyed me, though, when she said, “So with this, do you still want to go ahead with the homebirth?” - since she knows how I feel about hospital birth, I think this meant she really didn’t understand the results. She phoned the GP, who phoned me and emphasised how important it was that I get these levels up - she wants me in the treatment room at the practice three times a week for injections. When I asked if the community midwives could do it at home (as they did last time this was a problem), she wasn’t keen on the idea - largely, I think, because she doesn’t want to hand over something she sees as medical to the midwifery team. But the practice midwife, who will be the one giving me the injections in the treatment room, is off until next week, which means I won’t get started until then. So: urgent enough to take up a couple of hours of my time, three times a week, but not urgent enough to let the midwives get on with it at home (which would have allowed me to get the first injection tomorrow). And everything I’ve read says that when both B12 and folate are low, it’s important not to supplement folate without supplementing B12, so I won’t get started on that until next week either. Argh, I feel a treadmill slipping under me…

• I know the kitchen floor needs washed, but milk and rice krispies wouldn’t really be my method of choice. #
• I thought I’d killed the vacuum cleaner but it has come back to life. #
• @onceinabluemoon - the point? don’t be silly, it doesn’t need a point! #
• @SallyM - you have obviously never seen this hoover pipe, or you wouldn’t even joke about it! #
• Somebody’s been in my bathroom and has moisturised the toilet seat. #
• Hippy hothousing homeschoolers: singing Bowie’s ‘Starman’ en francais! #
• Have just discovered more gift vouchers. Woolworths this time, £20 for each child. #
• Have low B12/folate, but hg normal. GP & midwife appear totally confused. Any experts on biochemistry out there? #
• I have a naked 2yo here, jumping around and shouting, ‘I not naked’. #

• Shouting at printer in attempt to wake it up #
• Heart-surgery friend arrives at hospital for second go at op tomorrow - fingers crossed all goes well this time! #
• T is ducking under the table and shouting "Barney! I not here!" #
• Considering pizza for breakfast, trying to work out booklet printing #
• Printer and pizza successful. 13 on maths, 10 on Rosetta Stone, 8 learning German vocab. Dogs eating. All very productive #
• Bang smash crash - and we’re down another plate… #
• And now I know who was the culprit in the great bathroom-attack yesterday - because he’s been at it again! #
• A child is playing a harmonica and two dogs are providing accompaniment - quick, pass the earplugs! #
• Back from what I suspect was a completely pointless appointment; getting organised for tomorrow morning when I hope to wake before 8.28. #

• About 5 minutes from ready-to-leave; slightly different from last week’s panic! #
• I hope they’re wrong about things coming in 3s; broken plate yesterday, and I’ve just smashed a cup. #
• Dog left at vet; now attempting to feed humans. #
• I really dislike queues of traffic. #
• Really, really dislike it. #
• Oh, moving! #
• Didn’t last. #
• Friend’s heart surgery complete and all went well #
• Next time anyone gives one of my kids a book token, I will hand them said child and my car keys. #
• Poll: should I buy a sat-nav? Should eldest get contact lenses? #
• B’s old glasses have been lopsided for so long that he feels his new ones are, even though they’re perfectly straight. #
• I really need to start taking notice of school terms and half-terms. Traffic is v. Annoying #
• I know a lot of parents dread the school holidays. I do too, but it’s because we’re used to having the world to ourselves! #
• On way to vet’s for dog. Should have been there 45 mins ago, but…did I mention the traffic? #
• All home, dog rather subdued, youngest child *not* - he’s dancing and singing Bananaphone. #

• Is it morning already? #
• Gardening services bloke has looked at garden. Anybody got plenty of money they’d like to spend on turning a field back into a lawn? #
• Hoping to get 1st B12 injection on Mon; must get 1st at dr but plan to negotiate rest: if they want to do it, they’ll have to do it my way! #
• can someone explain the <3 thing to me and also how to do the hearts? And are there any other new things I should know about? #
• Ah, just found it on the twitter blog. Are they not working now it’s the day after then? #

• Considering how to start on garden. Spades and wellies, I think, and see how we get on. Remember when weekends were for relaxing? #
• Garden has been dug over, not sure it will make much difference but hoping it will help it dry out. Need less rain for a while! #

• Waking up every 70 minutes is not really an effective way to get a good night’s rest. #
• Have finished - yes, finished! - with piles of papers. Have not yet filed the filing, but still! #
• Cscratchy has no idea about what goes on here. He is in *so* much trouble if anything happens to me. #

• @SallyM Must be the morning for howly dogs; mine have been singing too. Wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m awake though. #
• Have found 5yo sending texts (including tweets) from 13yo’s phone. Argh. #
• @SallyM That would have been very worrying - he’s 5 & learning to read LOL. You can see one in my timeline; I don’t know what it means tho! #
• Why is it that I can’t sleep at night and I can’t stay awake during the day? #
• Youngest is eating pizza and bananas and singing "hit me baby one more time". Obviously a multi-tasker like his mother #
• Watching Coupling clips on Youtube; haven’t found my favourite one yet though. #

• 13 working on his French with 2yo on his lap; 2yo repeating everything. Too cute. #
• Sounds from kitchen: "Jack! Open! Toby! Bananaaaaa!" #
• Pleased to be getting lots of use out of my new long-reach stapler. How sad am I? #
• @onceinabluemoon No you are definitely not the only one! I can’t stand them, I always get it wrong on the first go too. #
• Have just stopped J on his way up the stairs with two packs of cup-a-soup. Would love to know what goes on in his head sometimes! #

Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have noticed a bit of cyber-swearing this morning. I also did some real swearing down the phone to a friend, and a bit of weeping down the phone to Scratchy, out of exhaustion and sheer frustration.

Here’s the story.

About three weeks ago, I asked for some blood-tests, particularly a B12 level, as I’ve been so tired lately, and I’ve a history of B12 deficiency and it does leave you knackered. So the midwife came out and took the blood and sent it off for checking.

Last Tuesday, I got a phone-call from the midwife to say that my B12 was low, and so was my folate. It might sound odd, but I was quite glad to hear the news about the B12 - although the injections are nasty (they’re intramuscular hurt going in, then sting afterwards and leave you feeling bruised), they work, and it’s much easier to fix this than some other, more generalised cause of fatigue. And they work fast - I felt much better last time after only the first two or three of them. So I was quite keen to get going on them. But it has to be prescribed by a doctor, so she rang the midwife at the GP practice.

The GP rang me. Lots of “well we need to get these levels up” etc., and wanted me to have three injections a week. I said if she wrote the prescription, dh could pick it up and fill it that evening, and one of the community midwives could come out the next morning (that would have been Wednesday of last week) and give me the first injection. But oh no, that wouldn’t do, they had to be given in the treatment room at the surgery. Last time, the midwives gave them to me. At home. No problems at all. But this time I’d have to traipse into the surgery three times a week for them, although maybe after the first few we could see if the midwives “would be comfortable” giving them to me at home.

They’re midwives; if they’re not comfortable with intramuscular injections, they shouldn’t be doing the job.

And since the practice midwife was off all week, I’d have to wait until this week to start. So much for “we need to get these levels up”.

We’re a one-car family, and Scratchy takes it to work except when I need it (then he catches a bus in and I pick him up). So me going into the GP practice for an injection involves:
- Scratchy taking the bus (and the associated cost and extra time)
- me getting myself out of the house (which isn’t always the easiest thing to do at the minute - bear in mind that B12 deficiency leads to extreme fatigue)
- me getting five kids organised and out of the house - I could leave the older ones at home, but then I’d have nobody to watch the younger ones while I was actually getting the injection
- us all sitting waiting for my turn to go into the treatment room
- me bringing everyone home again
- me going to collect Scratchy when he finishes work (there is a bus, but it leaves a lot later than he finishes)

So at least two and probably nearer three hours out of my day - three times a week. Exactly what a person needs when she’s exhausted - extra stuff to make her more tired.

We finally arranged for the first injection to be given this morning, but in the community midwives’ office at my nearest health centre, rather than the practice where I’m registered. They seemed to think this would suit me better, although in fact it makes no difference at all to me. It’s a little closer, but I still need the car and it’s actually much more difficult to get parked. The community midwives are only in their office from 9 to 10 in the morning however (they’re out in the community, regularly driving past my house, the rest of the time). So this morning, Scratchy took the bus and I got all the kids up and fed and dressed etc and organised all the things that needed to be done this week - optician for Barney, vet appointment for Cass to get her stitches out, etc - for today, since I’d have the car. And I went to the health centre and got the prescription filled at the chemist there, and then I climbed two flights of stairs along with a two-year-old so that I could get the injection.

There was only a student midwife there, and a minute after I went in, she took a phone-call. All of the midwives except for one were at a meeting somewhere else, and the phone-call was from the one midwife who was supposed to be there to do my injection and cover the phones. She was phoning to say she was stuck in traffic.

And she said: “So just tell Deborah to go home and I’ll come by later and give her the injection there.”

If they’d just agreed to do that in the first bloody place I’d have been having my fourth injection today, rather than my first, and I’d probably be feeling a lot better by now! But oh no, that couldn’t be done, regardless of all the hassle it causes the patient - but if a midwife gets caught in traffic, well, it’s no bother at all.

And of course having rearranged everything else in my life, I wasn’t here all day today, so I didn’t get the injection at all. Will they decide they’ve caused enough trouble and come out and do it tomorrow? I’m stuffed if I know. Despite my needle-phobia, I’m off to google to find out where I can get needles and how to give it to myself, because I’ve only had two antenatal appointments this pregnancy and I’ve already had enough with being part of the bloody stupid system.

I will blog the rest of my day later, when I’m not so ranty.

• Trying to find the energy to get me & kids up and out so I can go get an injection intended to help my energy levels. Oh, the irony. #
• #\&*$*@* #
• Any faith I had left in health/maternity services has just been battered to an unpleasant, bloody death. #
• @MerrilyMe too long to twitter. Look for very ranty blog post tonight.
• Have bought new dog-leads, now on way to bank.
• Just been stopped on street by tv news to ask my opinion. Don’t think they got the opinion they were expecting. #
• Most errands done. Eldest cannot stick things in his eyes. Thinking about lunch.
• Getting value for money by eating our body-weight in pizza and pasta. #
• Being taught all about knights by G and F. B mostly making bad jokes.
• Now we’re examining and discussing the fire alarm system in the restaurant.
• There is no way this place could be making any profit on us eating here!
• When your 8yo pretends to unzip his forehead and says ‘I’m a slitheen’, it’s time to step in. #
• Errands all done. Having short playground break before collecting the GOM.
• On way to vet for stitch removal.
• Fewer than half my twitters from sms today have made it to twitter #

Apart from my ranty blog of yesterday evening, I haven’t written a proper blog-post in ages, so here is a rundown of the highlights/lowlights/midlights/whatever. I should note that in creating this post, my memory has been greatly aided by Twitter

We returned to the vet on Valentine’s Day so that Andie could also be spayed. We couldn’t book both dogs on the same day, as the practice only does one spay a day - that way they can do it first thing in the morning and keep a close eye on the dog all day in the office. We figured it was no bad thing to spay our two a few days apart anyway, to let us make a fuss of them individually, but both recovered very quickly so it wasn’t really necessary.

While Andie was at the vet, we went off to the shops. We’d a book-token to spend - given to one of the kids so long ago that I couldn’t even remember whose it was - so they shared it. It took a Very Long Time to make a selection, and in the end I spent the last bit of it on a book of my own choice: Michael Morpurgo’s Alone on a Wide Wide Sea. I also bought a long-reach stapler, an item about which I am sadly excited.

We also all had our eyes tested. Barney didn’t need a new prescription, but got new glasses anyway, given the state of his old ones. What the optician doesn’t know is that the new ones will be in just as bad a state as the old ones within a week. In fact in the car on the way home, he asked if his new ones were lopsided - he’s been wearing a lopsided pair for so long that “straight” feels wrong We talked about him getting contact lenses, as he would like to go back to fencing but doesn’t like doing it without his glasses, and you can’t wear glasses with the face-mask. He’s too young for wearing contacts all the time, but if it’s a couple of hours once or twice a week, it could be do-able. None of the others needs glasses, although Jack has a mild astigmatism. I’ve had perfect vision ever since having laser surgery about seven years ago, but now my age is showing, and I’m very slightly long-sighted. No reading-glasses needed yet, but I was pre-warned that I’d probably need them in another two or three years. Just what you need a couple of weeks before your 40th birthday: to be reminded that you’re getting old

Toby added Bananaphone to his repertoire.

And my friend whose heart surgery went all wrong a few weeks ago underwent the second attempt, which appears to have been very successful

On Friday we had someone come and look at the garden, figuring we probably couldn’t afford to pay someone to do it but we might as well ask and find out. We were right the first time. It looks like we’re sorting it out ourselves. Now we just need a few weeks without rain to allow it to dry out enough to dig and roll flat, before putting down turf. Seed would be cheaper, but would take a lot longer to establish, and we’d really like to be able to use it this summer. So Saturday found Scratchy out there in his wellies, accompanied by various children at different times, some of whom were more useful than others.

Monday was a crazy day, but I’ve already written about most of it here, so no real need to go over that again! One amusing moment (rather than hair-pulling-out moment) was when Toby was having lunch - pizza and bananas - and singing, “Hit me baby one more time”.

Toby continued his unbearable cutess on Tuesday morning, sitting on Barney’s lap while he did his French and repeating everything he said. Later he was heard yelling at Jack in the kitchen: “Jack! Open! Bananaaaaa!” Yes, I think he’s definitely turned into a talking child now.

Yesterday was another one of those up-and-out-early days, completely unnecessarily, as recounted here. After leaving the office and sitting in the car shouting and crying down the phone at a friend and Scratchy, I drove back across the city so that Barney could be fitted with contact lenses for fencing. Unfortunately it turns out he can’t put anything in his eyes. In fact, he can’t even open his eyes if he suspects there’s a finger anywhere near his eyelids, so contact lenses are a non-starter, for now at least. He’s going to practise poking himself in the eye for a few months before giving it another try.

While he was at the optician’s, I walked down the main shopping street of the town with the others. Now for this bit, you need a bit of back-story. We used to live in that town, and three of my children were born there. One of the reasons I started considering a homebirth when I was expecting George was that the local maternity unit was so completely, absolutely, dire. The local Supervisor of Midwives actively discourages homebirth - she spent three hours in my home trying to talk me out of it, mostly talking rubbish about the dangers and describing physiological processes that could not actually happen. She lied to the National Childbirth Trust about local homebirth rates, multiplying the true figure by 50 - yes, it’s that bad that it could be multiplied by 50 and still sound low. She tried to intimidate me by threatening to remove care. The local maternity unit, despite having no SCBU and therefore taking no high-risk cases, has a similar c-section rate to the next nearest unit, which takes the highest-risk cases from the entire population. The unit is old, dirty and insecure. I’ve witnessed a baby removed (by a visitor) from the nursery and the fact not even being noticed for more than two hours. Confidentiality is non-existent. And so on…

Yesterday morning it was announced that the unit is to close in about a year. As a result, there was a news journalist and cameraman out on the street, looking for people to give their reactions. Well, when they saw me coming - visibly pregnant and accompanied by four children - they probably thought they were in line for an early finish and a long lunch. Unfortunately my response was not of the “shocked, appalled that they’re taking this service away” kind that they were expecting. Instead it was of the “good riddance, it should have been closed years ago, it’s probably the worst unit in the country” type… Scratchy is well-aware of my feelings on this particular unit (and shares them) and when I phoned him to tell him about being stopped, he roared with laughter

After our errands and meeting up with Barney, we went to our usual all-you-can-eat pizza-and-pasta buffet for lunch, where we always get our money’s worth During the meal, Freddy and George educated me about the different kinds of knights in the Middle Ages and what the various protocols involved. Then they all inspected and discussed the restaurant’s fire safety system. But when Freddy started to pretend to unzip his forehead and announced, “I’m a Slitheen“, I decided that was as far as I was willing to let that particular discussion go

We’d a quick playground visit before collecting Scratchy, then I left everyone at home while I took Cassie back to the vet’s to get her stitches removed. Soon after getting home, I went to bed - but the day wasn’t over for George, who was part of the team at the County Cub Quiz. Our team came third and George arrived home very tired, but happy

• Late start - 2yo didn’t even wake until nearly 10! Now sort of settled, but hoping to get to bed this afternoon for a bit. #
• @jaxb No sign at all. Card left at door yesterday to say she’d been, even tho I’d said I’d be out. No call this morning. I’ll ring this pm. #
• Having had a phone-call from a midwife, I refer you to my sentiments of yesterday morning. It will save me the bother of swearing again. #
• Youngest slept until nearly 10, has been out of sorts all morning and has now fallen asleep again; definitely not himself. #
• 13 is grumpy and stormed out of house - well not really, but he convinced us he had. Really, he was hiding under his bed #

You’ll already have read the first bit of this story if you’re a regular here and not one of the people who’s arrived as a result of me crowing about my accomplishments on an email list somewhere - in case you’re one of the latter, however, you can find the sorry beginnings of this tale here

After all that brouhaha, and after being told by a midwife that they were doing me “a big favour” coming out to do the injections at all, I’d had enough. I don’t need or want favours that leave the donors feeling resentful or like they’re owed something. I got so mad I decided that the best thing was to do the injections myself.

The other thing you need to know is that I am needle-phobic, and have been for as long as I remember. I’ve never even been able to watch people getting injected on televison. I remember three injections that I had before puberty, and I managed to pass out at every one of them - sometimes multiple times. After an appendectomy, when a particularly unsympathetic nurse was taking blood from me and I said I felt faint, and she responded, “Don’t be silly, you can’t faint lying flat on your back”, I promptly proved her wrong. When everyone else in my year at school got a vaccine for something (BCG? can’t remember), my mother signed the “no” bit on the form, because she knew what I was like. And so the rest of the class toddled off from Geography to get jabbed, and I and one other person stayed behind. And then we all went to English class, during which the boy seated next to Martin Somebody said “Miss, Martin’s not feeling well” and we all turned to look at Martin and he was green…and I, knowing that the cause of his green-ness involved a needle twenty minutes earlier, fell out of my chair and woke up in the hall.

So yeah, pretty bad about needles. Even working in a hospital lab - even in Blood Bank, even in Pathology, where you really do see some gross things - didn’t help.

Those of you who don’t have any phobias won’t understand this at all; you’ll think it’s daft and unreasonable - and you’d be right. But those who are needle-phobic will understand why this decision was, for me, a huge one.

Of course, never having even watched an injection, I was starting from a fairly, uh, uneducated position.

But google is my friend, as is youtube. And I read lots of websites and forums and watched all the youtube videos of people getting and giving IM injections - at least, all the ones that didn’t involve people getting their jollies from it (and really, what on earth is up with that? I thought the diaper-fetishists were bad enough, but injections? Eh?) And 5.30 this morning found me lying in bed, in the dark (so as not to wake Toby) watching and reading more. And feeling stressed as I realised that in less than five hours a midwife would arrive and I would a) have to have a needle in me one way or another and b) have to try to convince her to let me do it myself.

By 9 o’clock, I was tired enough that I wanted to go back to bed. By 10 o’clock I felt sick. And the midwife was late…

By the time the midwife and a student arrived, at about 11, I wasn’t in a fit state for anything. I had said on the phone yesterday that I wanted to learn to self-inject, but obviously nobody took me seriously, because they were surprised and worried when I said it this morning. The midwife didn’t know if it was legal for me to do it; I asked under what law it would be illegal, and how exceptions were made for women injecting fertility meds, body-builders injecting steroids, etc. I told her I’d read about lots of people self-injecting B12 IM. She accepted that it might be legal for me to do it, but worried that she might not be allowed to teach me. I suggested she sat next to me while I did it and told her what I was doing, so she didn’t have to say or do anything unless I was getting it dangerously wrong. She wasn’t going for it. She said she’d have to speak to her Supervisor, and she’d do the first injection today and come back on Monday and if it was okay she’d teach me then. I pointed out that I’d been working myself up to this and that a weekend of further nervous waiting wasn’t something I was willing to take. She tried to contact her Supervisor but the paging system failed. I phoned the GP (which I needed to do anyway to get a prescription for folate), and he said he was happy for me to self-inject if she was happy to show me - she was still hesitant (the GP, hearing her in the background, said to me, “it sounds like she just doesn’t want to do it”). I suggested we phone the Royal College of Midwives and ask for a professional opinion, but in the end she phoned the local fertility clinic (the irony!) who assured her that yes, it was perfectly permissible for a professional in her position to teach me what to do.

And so she did.

I already had the procedure of actually injecting well-memorised, but wasn’t completely clear on all the preparatory stages - getting the stuff from the vial into the syringe, etc. We got through that without any trouble though, and then I found myself sitting on the sofa, one trouser-leg pulled down past my thigh and a needle attached to a syringe full of cobalamin in my hand…

This was the point I had thought might take an hour - getting pysched enough to actually do it. But a couple of deep breaths and…I did it.

I shut my eyes as I started to push the needle through the skin, but had to open them to pull the plunger back to check for blood (which would have meant the tip of the needle was in a blood vessel rather than the muscle and I’d have to start over). I pushed the plunger in a lot slower than I’ve ever had anyone else do it, but in fact it hurt less that way so I’ll stick with doing that!

I am quite ridiculously proud of myself; I know that for a lot of people this is a minor thing, but for me it was a Very Big Deal Indeed. I still need more syringes and needles and a sharps disposal box, so a midwife will come back on Monday morning with those, and sit with me while I do the second injection, but after that I’m on my own - and I’m quite happy with that! The midwfe and student who were here said I did a good job, and you know, I actually think I did

• Been awake for over an hour. Know I’m going to pay for this later. #
• Just been greeted by a newly-awake 5yo saying "Is this the day you get your injection?" - I’m glad *somebody* is looking forward to it! #
• Less than an hour to 10 o’clock, after which the thing I don’t want to think about but can’t stop thinking about will happen. #
• Still feeling sick, still no sign of midwife (supposed to be here at 10). Bah. #
• I DID IT! I CONVINCED THEM TO GO WITH IT AND THEN I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF! #
• Toby is holding the remote control hostage! #
• Not sure why my blog-post never showed up here earlier, so: http://tinyurl.com/3dd9zf - I am seriously proud of myself! #
• @HelenHaricot Scary! Are you ok? #

• Boiler service-person been and gone; got it free for fixing his website. Wondering when rest of family will arrive back. #
• Have had very rough day with certain children who were talking at 3 a.m. Those children now in bed; others on way soon. #
• Heartburn sucks. #

• Have dyed hair because cannot cope with thought of being exhausted, fat, 40 *and* grey all in the same week. #
• @onceinabluemoon I’m *very* envious, since I never get to go to these things. I’d happily drive whatever, but I’m not such a good swimmer… #
• Just woke up - didn’t intend to fal asleep but I suppose that three hours up in the middle of the night had to have some effect. #

And I managed to do it again this morning - second B12 shot, still a bit nervous and feeling sick beforehand, but not nearly as bad as Friday. A midwife came out to sit with me while I did it this morning, but from now on I’m on my own - which I think will actually make it easier, as I’ll have nobody watching me, plus I’ll be able to do it first thing in the morning so I won’t have the waiting-for-someone-to-arrive bit to handle. Up, cup of tea, inject, forget about it until the next one’s due.

Apart from my attempts to puncture myself… The boys have been continuing with their usual work, getting through quite a bit. George had a very good couple of days towards the end of last week, even making it through two entire days without any kind of meltdown - but a late night on Friday, followed by waking early on Saturday, with a 3 a.m. conversation with Freddy in between, resulted in a very shaky weekend for him. This morning didn’t start well when he went into wobbly mode before he got out of his room, but I managed to pull him back from the brink, and while there was still lots of room for improvement, it’s been a better day than the last two. I have to admit to a smile when I heard him getting mad at Barney around lunchtime; Barney was allegedly winding him up, but George’s response to his denial of this was “Barney, I can see the smile playing on your lips!”

Barney had his own tantrum on Thursday evening, storming out of the house and slamming the door behind him. Well, actually, he slammed the door in front of him, because he didn’t like the idea of being out in the dark on his own, so he stayed inside, locked the door, pocketed the key and went and hid in his room. He fooled us too! We gave him a few minutes to cool off, then Scratchy went to find him, while I phoned his mobile to see where he was (assuming he had it with him). When I heard it ringing in his room, I hung up - only to find him standing in front of me seconds later demanding, “What are you ringing me for?!!”

Barney and Scratchy went to a St John Ambulance competition on Saturday morning, leaving me at home with the others. A man came to service our boiler - at no charge. He’d posted on our local Freecycle list about two weeks ago asking for help with getting a website uploaded, and I’d offered to provide that help. He said that if I got it sorted for him, he’d service our boiler for nothing - that’s his business. It turned out his site was written in MS Publisher and it was easier to rewrite it in a different program than to fix the errors, so I did that. It probably took a couple of hours altogether, but he’s very pleased with it - and he spent a couple of hours on my boiler and I’m happy with that, so a good result all around

A bowl of cereal at bedtime yesterday bought me a night without heartburn, for which I was very grateful, as I really needed the sleep. After coping with George, as the others woke up and came into my room to greet Toby, it was like the Waltons in reverse: “Hello Toby!”, “Hello George!”, “Hello Toby!”, “Hello Jack!”, “Hello George!”, “Hello Barney” - well, you get the general idea

• Have brought a child back from the brink of a disastrous start to the day; let’s hope things are smoother from here. #
• It’s like the Waltons in reverse here in the mornings: "Hello B!" "Hello T!" "Hello F!" "Hello T!" "Hello J!" "Hello B!"…you get the idea! #
• Have been beaten about the head by things falling from tops of cupboards. Horizontal surface does not equal place to stash any & all things! #
• Midwife has been and I’ve stuck myself again. Kids and dogs have way too much energy. #
• G is getting frustrated with B winding him up. B: "I’m not winding you up!" G: "B, I can see the smile playing on your lips!" #
• 13yo to Air Cadets, 8yo to ju-jitsu, 2yo gone with them. Nearly-6yo in bath, 10yo Gameboying but going to bed very shortly. Where’s my gin? #

• Both 13 and 10 have already been told no activities this evening, due to evidence that they need an early night. And it’s not even 9am. #
• It’s shaping up to be a loooonnnnnngggggg day. #
• I’m living with Grumpy, Wobbly, Isn’t-Listening, Pushing-his-luck and Anything-they-can-do-I-can-do-better, in that order. #
• @MerrilyMe Bump (also known as Frank Jr Jr) is less trouble than anyone. Apart from heartburn and B12 business. #
• Waiting for draught-proofing people to show up at 10.30. Yes, I know it’s 11.51. #
• Eldest is growing up; has calmly and effectively dealt with fire-risk in kitchen without a word or a second’s hesitation. #
• So what does a girl do for her 40th birthday when she’s tired, pregnant and trying to save the pennies? #
• @MerrilyMe - oh that went without saying. I was wondering about the few hours when I’ll be awake! #

• Considering getting up #
• Putting on the wrinkle cream and support stockings. #
• You’d think they could make *some* effort for today - like clean clothes, for instance. #
• Leaving house. Don’t know where we’re going. (Not sure anyone else knows either.) #

• At transport museum, since membership expires today. #
• Looking for lunch in all the wrong places. #
• Just been thanked for lunch in four languages! #
• 3 x b12 in, no problem. 4th one is when I almost pass out. #
• Have so much food for dogs in the freezer that I’m ringing friends who also raw-feed to try to offload some. #