NotSheep

Well, a bit more, if I’m honest. More long-time-no-blog. Sigh.

Okay. Beginning at the beginning. A week ago - ah, no, almost two weeks ago now - it was the end of British Summer Time. Not that we actually experienced a summer, you understand. As for all those people on the radio etc saying things like, “You get an extra hour in bed tomorrow morning!” - well, uh, no, and quite clearly you don’t have children. Because no, I didn’t get an extra hour in bed, and didn’t expect to.

Sunday (not last Sunday - all days referred to mean over a week ago, until further notice) was spent doing bits and pieces around the house. The boys all studied, having spent most of the week watching movies. Freddy got frustrated whilst exploring tangrams because his hexagon “isn’t a sensible one!” Definition of a “sensible hexagon”: Uh, I dunno.

The positive side of being up an hour early (which is what happens to parents when the clocks go back) was that I got a lot done - or at least, I felt that I did. By 6.45, dinner was over, the kitchen had all been cleaned up, the dishwasher was running and all my children had had baths and were in pyjamas (except Barney, who’d showered on Saturday and isn’t yet quite willing to shower daily). Maybe I just need an extra hour every day?

On Monday morning I got up with plans to tidy up before the arrival of a friend I haven’t seen in a long time, but those plans took second place on the discovery that I couldn’t actually get Barney’s bedroom door open due to the massive accumulation of all sorts of things behind it. I decided he’d been warned enough times and started to go through it all myself. Many bits of Lego and K’nex and goodness-knows-what-else were reallocated to their homes in other bedrooms. I filled two bin-liners with bits of paper and broken toys and things collected from long ago - and I didn’t actually throw out anything he cared about. Except, perhaps, the charger for Jack’s GameBoy SP. Hm. Anyway, I expected him to be royally hacked off at me afterwards, but he didn’t even seem annoyed. We talked about it a day or two later, and I suggested that maybe he’d been a bit relieved - that he didn’t have to do it all himself and/or that it was all decluttered (because really, it was Cluttered!) and/or that a lot of what was removed was stuff he’s probably too old for now, but maybe it was hard for him to let go. He agreed with all of that, saying that sometimes change is difficult. Hm again.

After the Great Bin-It Adventure, Barney spent a few hours - well, it seemed that way - making toast for everyone. Toast and more toast and more toast. They all finally stopped eating about ten minutes before it was time to start thinking about lunch…

My friend T arrived with her daughters, who pretended to be shy at first but were soon bouncing around the house as though they’d spent their entire lives living with six boys. I was feeling fairly organised, with dinner in the slow-cooker before they even arrived - but it was needed, because I knew I had plenty of taxi-ing to do on Monday evening. First Barney was left at Air Cadets - oh, no, first we had to convince Toby that it was okay that Scratchy’s car was parked in the wrong spot in the driveway (I’d moved it to the back of the drive because he wasn’t going to be using it for a week). Then I took George and Freddy to ju-jitsu. On settling down in the car outside ju-jitsu to entertain Jack and Toby (Louie already being asleep) for the next hour, Jack moved into the front seat and spent a few minutes admiring my dashboard: “You have lots of lights up here!”

I’d arranged for Barney to get a lift home from Air Cadets - they’re supposed to finish at 9.30 but it’s regularly between 10 and 10.30, and I really didn’t want to be sitting in the car with five other children waiting for him - so was able to be home with all the other children in bed by about 8.40. I’m glad I don’t have to do that every week.

On Tuesday morning Louie woke before 6 a.m. - changing his internal clock isn’t quite as easy as changing the one on the microwave (something I have to figure out twice a year, having completely forgotten since the last time - every time). I managed to keep everyone upstairs until 7ish, but then gave up and went downstairs and made us all cinnamon French toast. Some excitement was provided when we had a flurry of snow. Jack came wandering into the room and I told him to look out the window. “It’s raining?” he asked - uh, yeah, like that’s something that’s worth remarking on here! “It’s snowing!” I told him. Jack’s response came in an amazed voice: “It’s winter?”

He watched the snow for a few minutes, then turned to the table with a pencil and paper, and asked me for a reminder on how to write a capital L. I told him, he wrote it, checked with me that it was right, then balanced his paper on the window-sill and held up his hands with his thumbs sticking out (left hand making a capital L). “The snow is coming from the left,” he announced. I thought all that demonstrated impressive problem-solving skills

With my stress-levels rising on Tuesday afternoon (a product of the usual trying-to-do-seven-things-at-once), I handed Louie to Barney, who took him into the living-room. I went in to check on them a few minutes later and found Louie on Barney’s lap, with Barney reading to him - from Shakespeare. Hey, it worked

Dinner was early, in part because I was exhausted and in part because Toby was looking very likely to fall asleep. All parents know what a bad idea it is to let a three-year-old fall asleep at dinner-time.

Wednesday morning was very, very cold. I’d been resisting putting the heating on for more than a few minutes morning and evening to get the water heated, but I gave in. I felt justified when I read later that the temperature had been the coldest recorded in October since 1934. We had dinner for lunch - partly because I felt, even if nobody else did, that we needed something substantial inside us to warm us up, and partly because it was just easier that way. Then, of course, we had lunch for dinner. Jack and Toby certainly didn’t seem to be suffering any lack of energy though - they wore themselves out by hopping all over the kitchen because it was entertaining Louie so much Maybe my fatigue was more to do with being up from 4.50 a.m. with Louie, who seemed to have misunderstood the whole idea of clocks going back and had switched his clock an hour forwards instead.

Scratchy was due to arrive back here on Thursday morning, although for a while we weren’t at all certain that would happen. First there were delays in Toronto due to air-traffic control. Then there were the high winds at Toronto Airport, and snow forecast here. He got to the airport in Toronto early, and managed to catch an earlier flight to Newark, which turned out to be just as well, because the flight he was booked on was delayed even longer, and he’d have missed his connection from Newark - which would have meant him spending 24 hours in Newark waiting for the next one. And that would have meant him getting back on Friday morning, rather than Thursday morning - and that would have meant me taking all six children with me when the Open University met Barney.

Oh, and we’re back to days of the week meaning their most recent occurrence - that’s progress…

Barney and I, accompanied by Louie, went into the city by train, which, compared to driving, was a) slower and b) more expensive (even taking parking into account) - but it had the advantage that I could have Louie in my arms or even nursing while travelling, rather than listening to him cry through the end of the morning rush-hour. He seemed to like the train - lots to look at, both inside and through the window. And Barney was happy too, because the staff maths tutor at the OU agreed that he could do the course he wants to do. The paperwork was submitted and now we just need to wait for his student number to arrive so that he can log onto the website and start the assessments (having already worked through the textbook!) - and to find out if his funding application has been accepted. We’d assumed that he couldn’t get funding, but the OU staff we spoke to all said it might be possible so we might as well apply. All the better!

The boys watched a movie on Friday afternoon - I was told what it was, but can’t remember. Anyway, they asked, “What year was this made?”, and when Scratchy said “About 1982″, their response was, “Really? It’s so modern!” Er…1982 was modern. Wasn’t it? I distinctly remember 1982, and I’m only…uh, well, perhaps the less said the better

Friday evening found lots of children in costumes flitting about the street, of course, as mine and others went trick-or-treating. Barney dressed as ART - which stands for A Ridiculous Thing, and has to be seen to be believed. I do have photos, and I will get them up soon. He took Jack and Toby out while George and Freddy stuck together - which worked well, because it allowed Scratchy to be here to man the door, and that allowed me to take off to bed with Louie

Where are we? Oh yes, up to last weekend. I spent most of the day planning things - studying for the boys, to-do lists for me, Christmas plans… I had hoped to make most of the gifts for others this year, but I suspect that might be too optimistic, given my lack of ability to get two hands available for anything. I did think about buying some kits from Opitec, but they’ve decided to charge us ridiculous postage too now - £25 for any order up to £250. I’d only be spending about £30, so I’m not doubling it with the postage charge. So instead, I went out yesterday to try to at least make a dent in the “need something for so-and-so” list. Lots of people oohing and aahing over Louie in the Storchie. I had to stop at about 1pm to nurse him, so I fed myself at the same time, and had a conversation about breastfeeding with the woman at the next table. She had no children, and was very positive about breastfeeding and fascinated by how it all works, but was obviously a bit nervous about asking at first. I did make a few (very) small dents in the shopping-list, but mostly what I got was sore feet. How I used to shop all day in stilettoes is beyond me - as is why I used to enjoy it! I think there’ll be as much on-line ordering as possible done this weekend, and then I’ll have to brave the stores again to fill in the gaps.

Someone yell at me if I haven’t blogged again by this time next week…