Mud & Mischief

New Blog site

2005-11-22T22:49:00.000Z

Mud & Mischief at Blogsome

Bloody template is going to take some getting used to - urgh

Lo, the wind changeth

2005-11-22T20:34:00.000Z

Strange sort of day - one of those odd periods when the mood starts out like a full-on north-easterly, spins the weathervane 360 degrees, goes dead calm and finishes with a gentle, albeit uncertain, southerly breeze.

Lots of talk about where we're going, both metaphorically and physically speaking. Welsh smallholdings & Lincolnshire bungalows; do we stay at the shop, up sticks and go to France/Wales/travelling for a year or more, stay here and enjoy our new extension (when they finally finish building the damn thing), can I plan my garden for next year etc etc... Deep searching questions about Myf's education, where we're heading with that, what we've achieved over the past year, what we want for the next 12 months; public school, curriculums, my inability to get her to understand basic mathematics.

I'm switching over to Blogsense shortly, however. Afraid I need to be able to password my blogs now. Which kind of sucks, in some ways; but then, the people I want to read them will still be able to.

And I've got a waterproof(ish) roof on my extension! It's not tiled, but it's felted and latted. Electrician comes tomorrow, plumber on Friday. Roll on Saturday when we should have tiles, and plastered walls. Hooray!

Oh - and for those of you who got the wrong end of the stick - this was our dirty weekend!

Still here

2005-11-17T20:03:00.000Z

Life's been taking over from blogging, again. Doing too much nano'ing and not enough anything else.

Have managed to get white truck fixed - the noise was expensive, but not as bad as originally thought. Rear wheel bearing, which was quite gratifying seeing as how that's wot I thought it was. lol

Feel crap today though, generally ill and run down and in need of a little R&R. Eaten something that's disagreed with me, bad time of the month anyway for belly ache and just about had it with state of house, garden, builders etc etc.

Nice having James at home though - he sent me to bed for a couple of hours which was very nice. Being woken up by Piglet was maybe not so nice, but she was most concerned - "Mommy poorly, Mommy not well!" at full volume, in my left ear.

However, have nano'ing to do. Off for the weekend on Sat (taking James away for a dirty weekend for his birthday) so need to get ahead on my word count. ;)

How sad am I?

2005-11-11T00:05:00.000Z

Found this yummy looking recipe whilst trawling for info for my Nanowrimo thingie... and for some reason felt compelled to blog it instead of losing it in the depths of my Recipe folder. If anyone else tried it, let me know. ;)

Cawl

Ingredients:

2lb Best end of neck Welsh Lamb
1/2 lb Carrots
2 large Leeks
1/2 oz Flour
1 small Swede or Turnip
1 lb Potatoes
1 oz parsley
Salt and Pepper

Method:

Put the meat into the saucepan, cover with cold water, add salt and pepper, bring slowly to the boil and skin carefully. (This can be done the night before and the fat allowed to set on the surface. This makes it easier to skim off)
Then add the carrots (cut in half), the swede (sliced) and the white of the leeks, and simmer gently for two to two-and-a-half hours.
Add the potatoes (cut in flour) and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.
When the potatoes are almost cooked, thicken with flour and a little water.
Lastly add the green of the leeks and parsley (chopped) and simmer for another 10 minutes and serve in basins while hot

Catching up - crap mice and all that

2005-11-10T23:32:00.000Z

Seems I've been absent for a while. Had a briliant time at the festival of the lights thing near Bridgewater. The kids just loved it - very loud, very bright and very late.

Also extrememly wet weekend, but fortunately it stayed dry for the two hours of the carnival so that was special. Go back and had to pour several gallons of water off my Mom's awning and pondered the need for heavy lifting equipment to get the vans out of the mud...

Am going to have to watch my language though. I was making lunch earlier, talking to JAmes in the kitchen, and this voice fromthe dining room demands to know what's for lunch.

Pasta, I says.
Don't like pasta, says Myf. I want sausages.
Where doesn't she like the decent stuff? I ask James. Why is it always the crap stuff?
Are sausages crap then Mom? comes the voice from the dining room.

At least they weren't bloody crap, I suppose.

And we've got mice in the garage. Clearing out boxes, moving things around to put the chest freezer in there, and we're finding little holes and mouse droppings in all the boxes. The got into my craft box and made nests in the 2 kilos of angora goat wool I had in there ready to spin one day. Had to bin the lot. :( At one point, I pulled out a round hat box tpe thing full of wool, lifted the lid and there was one sat in there looking up at me. Not sure who was the more surprised! lol. It scarpered and I just stood there laughing. It was quite cute, actually. But very smelly.

So James went out to buy mousetraps at the local hardware store. They only had the snap'em kind, the quick-release-without-touching plastic ones, so he bought a twin pack.

And we've already caught two of the little buggers!

Sloping off for the weekend

2005-11-03T14:37:00.000Z

Well, 10484 words and I'm off for the weekend.

Going to Bridgewater for the Festival of Lights carnival - should be fun so cross your collective fingers that it doesn't rain on us! That's on Saturday night, and Friday we should be off to Glastonbury for a browse.

See you all later.

Where did yesterday go?

2005-11-02T12:49:00.000Z

I know where it went - by in a blur of NaNoWriMo activity.

I knew it was a bad idea when Jax blogged it. I had a sinking feeling when I perused the website. And then last night I abandoned my children, forgot the dog and disappeared into a hole with a blank Word doc and a mug of tea.

Several hours later, I emerged, sorted out the various two and four legged livestock and refreshed the cold cup of tea.

And in the early hours of this morning I sloped off to bed having written well over 6000 words.

I'm sure Myf did some maths workbooks at some point. And we had friends over for lunch. But don't ask for any more detail than that.

This morning, I've only written a few hundred words, Myf and Tea have both done some of their new Explode the Code books - straight into number 2 for Myf and the pre-code book Get Ready for Tea. And now they've eaten lunch and me, the bad mother that I am, have put the tv on for them so they can veg for an hour and I can write more! hahahaha... wanders off into the kitchen cackling madly

Where do you find them Tim?

2005-11-02T12:47:00.000Z

Raistlin Majere

An intensely private individual that chooses actions with care, you strive to further your own skills and powers.

This happens because I choose it to happen!

Raistlin is a character in the Dragonlance universe. He has a short biography at Wikipedia.

Very impressed & pumpkins too!

2005-10-31T17:07:00.000Z

My Sonlight order just arrived. Am very impressed, especially as it was dispatched from the company on Thursday morning. Good ol' FedEx.

We've had a productive day, in spite of being wheel-less. I still feel like some has amputated a limb, but we're coping better than I expected. Did just under an hour of 'bookwork' this morning. We've got a couple of the 'Gold Stars' workbooks (think we picked them up in the supermarket way back last year sometime), and Myf did a dozen pages of the 5-7 one and Tea happily scribbled and coloured all over the 3-5 one. Hey, don't care what they're doing at the mo. As long as we're working towards the routine of spending an hour or so doing 'normals' every day, I'm content.

After that we whizzed down into the village to do library (taking back over due books), chemist (Piglet's excema stuff) and the veg stall (pumpkin!). Didn't have time to go to the post office as we had to be back for the Tesco shop arriving. It was late, but that didn't matter. We started carving our pumpkins. :)

Before:

I grew the white one on the lottie this year, and the little diddy orange one was all the veg stall had.

During:

And finally, after.

Although I like this one best, even if it is sightly blurry.

Fingers crossed Blogger doesn't blow a fuse, or fuse a circuit, trying to upload all of those! :)

Even more catching up

2005-10-30T21:34:00.000Z

The past week - recapped for posterity.

Monday 24th - Bradway HE meet. Did lard bird food blocks and kids loved it.
Tuesday 25th - Sarah's for afternoon
Wednesday 26th - Nikki's for afternoon, followed by 'magic show'
Thursday 27th - walk in woods and then to other Nikki's, then home to harangue builders
Friday 28th - truck very poorly so Kirsty and Katy came to me and we had a lovely day with pizza and piggies and lots of adult conversation. Ish. lol
Saturady 29th - watched builders drink tea and lay a few bricks for 5 hours

Today, we had a good start to the day, the girls didn't wake up too early, even with the clocks going back. Grandma came to visit for an hour, first time she's been over in months and months, which was lovely. Then Sarah rang and said she had chocolate cake, so I said I had chicken, so we had roast dinner for two adults and five kids and it was lovely. My bestest, oldest friend was supposed to be coming up today with her hubby, 2 kids and dog, but she spent yesterday at the vet's with said dog and so couldn't make it. Hope Dordje gets better soon.

Have a lovely picture of the five kids, all sat in a row on the sofa, each with a baby piggie on their laps.

Left to right we have Piglet, Tea, Dino, Mimi and Myf. Awww (Note Tea has wrapped her piggie up in her skirt, poor little sod)

And now, it's all quiet, the girls have crashed out, absolutely knackered, I've finished filing all the bank statements (yay!) and should really start on the credit card crap, but really CBA. So shall go make cup of tea, cut myself a sliver of that cake that Sarah left for me and have a think on the novel I'm supposed to be writing on Tuesday. So far I have a hot air balloon and a blacksmith. Suggestions anyone?

Order tracking and overdue catchup

2005-10-29T23:45:00.000Z

Those few bits I ordered from Sonlight were dispatched on Thurs Oct 27 at 8.59am. I just checked on the oh-so-interesting tracking facility, and the parcel is in Nottingham! As of 4.17am on Sat 29th. I'm amazed.

Just wondering how long it'll take 'em to ship it the final 30 miles. lol

Have just realised that I've been blogging complete cr*p lately, and have hardly mentioned education. Well, it has been half term. At least, that's my excuse.

Today has been mixed. Apart from the hoo-ha with the builders, we haven't done a huge amount. I've best part filled another bin bag with paper rubbish, sorting out the piles of papers that have been sat around gathering dust for months on end. The girls have played, fought, whinged, eaten some, not drunk enough (as we're out of apple juice, oh the shame), argued, whined and generally driven me totally insane. I just know we're going to be stir crazy by tomorrow night. Even with a walk to the woods planned for tomorrow, after Grandma has been over to visit for an hour.

We had jacket spuds with cheese and beans for tea, with carrot sticks for starters and Myf helped me make pancakes for pudding, which went down very well. And they all ate everything, which is an improvement on the past two weeks. A scrub and teeth and then a couple of pages of Little House in the Big Woods, which is being recieved very well indeed. Myf keeps asking me for more, and she can now recap what we've read previously before I carry on with the story. I enjoy these books, and it's revisting my childhood every time I pick one up. Can't wait for Narnia, Famous Five (yes, I know, not PC but hugely enjoyable - at least, my 7 year old self loved them), Anne of Green Gables, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, etc

Before lunch she played on a Garfield CDROM we bought a while back. She's flying through the Year 1 cd (I should think so too) and even did all the addition in the two additon squares she was presented with. wtf? just grids, 1 to 5 onthe first one, 1-8 onthe second one. And she did them. I am now extremely suspicious. Well, she didn't quite finish the second one, as the baby had a melt down so I insisted all electrical devices were switched off before I was tempted to hardwire Piglet into one of them. You remember how they powered the cities in Monsters Inc? That child could run Doncaster on her own when she starts screaming.

I did get a bit of unsolicited writing out of Myf however. She made Daddy a card, which read "To Daddy, I mis yuo. I hope you have a lovly taym in CroATIA love from" with lots of kisses. She asked me why hop didn't say hope, to which I pointed out it was a 'magic e' word, and then she asked 'lovely is a 'o' not a 'uh', isn't it? like love?" And the best bit was when she went to the big wall map to see how to spell Croatia. Hence the capitals for the last 4 letters. I was gobsmacked. And more than a little pleased. And also, quite relieved in a way. Maybe there's hope for us yet. :)

They're still here!!

2005-10-29T14:03:00.000Z

I can't believe it, my builders are still here!

:::does little happy dance around the kitchen:::

I'm so pleased, I'm even making them a cup of tea (which I try to avoid doing more than once or twice a visit, as it slows them down even more) But as it's now 2pm and they're still laying bricks, I think they deserve it.

And it's not raining. I've got nappies on the line, I've nearly finished one of my knitting projects, the dining room table is completely clear and the girls have gone to bed after spending the last hour fighting like she-cats. I don't know what's got into them. Well, actually, yes I do. They've been watching television, and the difference in their behaviour is startling. And quite disturbing.

The last few mornings, as I've been so knackered, I've said yes to requests for having kids tv on. So it's my own fault really, as it's given me an extra half hour to wake up and shower and generally psyche myself up to facing the day. But in the end, it's been counter productive, as I've come downstairs to find them watching the pre-teen crap, instead of the fluffy cbeebie stuff. So Myf had a final warning this morning - I catch you watching that stuff again, and I will personally cut the plug off the tv. And they've fought and yelled and screeched (Piglet has the most incredible voice - first she screams and squeals like a stuck pig, then starts this growling wail - impossible to describe but it's got to hurt her throat).

However, I'm off to clean the kitchen, as we're going to do some baking once they wake up. Hopefully that will put them in a better mood! :)

Edited to say - I knew I should have kept my mouth shut. Less than half an hour later, they went. Ran out of sand, didn't have the stilsaw for cutting the bricks... and it's not even raining yet. :/

My builders are here!

2005-10-29T10:19:00.000Z

Looked out of the window at 9am to see them both sat in the car having a quick fag. They then spent 20 minutes faffing with the cement mixer, mixed up a bit of 'gobbo', stood drinking the tea I foolishly made them, then said they were off to the shop at about 9.45. It's now 10.15 and they've just laid their first brick of the day.

Chief John isn't here though - it's his two sidekicks, both of which are a can short of a sixpack, bless. However, I don't care as long as they get all the brickwork finished today. That's what they said they'd do and so they better do it. If they come back to me at 12 and say, right we're off, we'll finish it off next time, I might just need restraining.

The expensive noise

2005-10-28T12:25:00.000Z

Is back with a vengeance. So much so that I now know what it is and, more infuriatingly, there's absolutley nothing I can do about. Rear wheel bearing, for those who know about such things. Some small, expensive, round, metallic bit of the rear wheel assembly, and vital to the smooth forward motion of the vehicle for those who don't. I even dug out the Hayne's manual, fully intending on stripping the damn thing down and refitting it myself, but it's rated 4 out of 5 on the difficulty scale, and I don't have a bench press to squish the bearing back together. :(

So now I'm stranded for the next 6 days, until himself returns from his wanderings around the continent.

Guess I shouldn't have been muttering so much about my busy calendar! lol The Fates have a funny way of working things sometimes. Actually, it might be nice to know that we can't go anywhere, so can't agree to go/do/be anything apart from at home. Means we can do all the little local things I've been meaning to do - library, Piglet's prescription, post office, etc - as well as really get cracking with these mounds of paperwork. I hope nobody sneezes in my dining room today, or I'll look like I'm sat in a snow-globe.

It's escaped me

2005-10-27T20:49:00.000Z

I had something really interesting to blog about this evening, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Shows how interesting it actually was then!

Normal headless-chicken kind of day. Got up, did breakfast/clothes routine thing, made Myf sit down and do some 'normals' (nothing normal about that child - wish those cuisinaire rods would hurry up and arrive!), then we wrapped up and went for a walk with the dog up to the woods and park.

Unwrapped halfway there, because of the horridly unseasonal weather we're having. Yes, it was nice and sunny and warm, but it's OCTOBER!!! Hello? It's not supposed to be warm and sunny and nice to amble round in tshirts in. It's supposed to be misty and damp and a season of mellow fruitfulness. Nearly November kind of weather. Not warm enough to be spring time. And I also saw some very disturbing signs of how dreadfully skewed the weather is - we were picking leaves for the seasonal table I've set up for the girls. Yes, picking, as most of the leaves were still on the trees. True, some are colouring up now, but the oaks are still fully dressed in dark green, which is most bizarre. And whilst we were picking those oak leaves, I noticed splashes of acid green here and there. Next seasons buds are opening. There are tiny new pale green oak leaves at the tips of some of the branches and that is really, really not right. As soon as we get a frost, that's those new shoots shot. There's a very odd feel in the air and I don't think I like it.

Of course, one bonus to the good weather is that my builder finally turned up. And I was very nice and didn't give him half the bollocking I should have done, but he did admit that yes, they'd been a bit tardy, and yes, they'd finish it in four weeks. Better be a damn sight sooner, as it's 6 weeks till Tea's birthday and I want a party for her in the new playroom! So, Saturday 10th December it is. Fingers crossed, folks.

After our very educational walk in the woods, with lots of tree identification going on, discussions on why Mommy is so irritated with finding new shoots on autumn trees, and what exactly frost does to soft leafy things, we came home, threw dog int he house and took off in the truck to meet up with some local friends at a soft play centre. Managed to get in without paying, which was good, as we stayed for lunch and that was expensive. :( Then to toy shop to find Nikki's lot some birthday pressies, as I'd missed the boys' birthdays and it was Nin's 2nd today. Went to hers, had a coffee, and then came home.

And that ghastly noise is back. The expensive sounding one on the white truck. Different wheel this time. Nasty grinding shuddering crunching squeaking sort of noise. Not impressed. Was going to swing past a friend's garage on the way home but didn't want to drive it that much further. Which, in hindsight, was stupid, as I needed to go to doctors for Piglet's prescription, post office to post 3 letters and a parcel and Bob's is just a few doors down from there.

Instead I put the kids down for a nap and started cleaning the kitchen.

And now I've blogged and still can't remember what it is I wanted to say so I'll shut up and go excavate under the sofa. Just for the fun of it. :/

Good start to the day though

2005-10-26T23:15:00.000Z

Thought I'd better blog something a little more PC and cheerful. :) We had an excellent start to the day. I caved in to peer pressure and let the girls put the tv on. Which meant I got an extra half hour in bed before being leapt on by a starving two year old demanding 'bekfast now mommy'. Bad mother that I am. :)

After food, shower, clothes etc, I debated peeling the offspring away from the tv... my computer won, however, so they got to watch Cbeebies until nearly 11am! Doubly bad parent. However, I drew the line at Big Cook Little Cook - I can only listen to that theme tune once a month, so it got switched off as soon as they started waving bye-bye.

Myf then sat at my desk whilst I was clearing off the buffet unit and found a Sudoku.

"What's this Mom?"
"Oh, that's just a game." She says, blase...
"Really? Can I play?"
"If you want. It's just a logic game."
"What's that then?"

Cue a half hour session on Sudoku, and she completed half a puzzle, half of that on her own! I'm stunned. Here's a child who can't do simple addition, instantly grasping the concept of 'no two numbers the same in one column, box or row' and also, getting the idea of working her way through the possible options for each little box very quickly. It's no wonder I'm going grey.

After a hurried lunch (yes, doesn't time fly when you're just ambling along?) we zoomed over to Nikki and Emily's for cake and company. It was a lovely afternoon, with scrumptious chocolate cake baked by Emily. The girls all had a blast - Emily seems to own practically every single Polly Pocket house, mansion and compact on the market and my three were in raptures.

Then I went upstairs and found the 'stockroom'... oh boy oh boy oh boy. Jax, you think you've got books... think again! It was absolute bliss and I could have stayed there all day, working my way around the bookshelves (there's at least two in every room!) and the boxes of wonderful bits and pieces and kits and wands and all manner of fascinating stuff. Next time I go, I'm going to give myself plenty of time, and take a chequebook with me. lol

The girls abandoned the Polly Pockets in favour of the dressing up box and we had to peel Tea's outfit off her when it was time to go home. Will most definately have to do that again. Before we'd even turned the truck around, Myf was asking when we could go and play with Emily again. And I was very impressed it was Emily she asked to go see again, and not the kittens! Who were cuteness personified and very sensibly hid for most of our visit. Piglet is a little over enthusiastic when it comes to cats. Thanks for a lovely afternoon Nikki!

Odd evening

2005-10-26T22:26:00.000Z

This should probably be passworded, but as Blogger doesn't have that function, I'll just warn those of you of a religious nature away from the following post. :)

We were invited by a HE friend to a 'magic show' at her church in Retford this evening. I was a bit reticent at first, but then thought, hey, magic show, what the heck the kids will enjoy it. So we went along, 6 till 8 she said, so we turned up at 6.40pm, after waiting in vain for the builders to arrive, and sat down to one side.

As we snuck in and sat down, the magician on the little box-high stage was doing tricks with a £20 note, and he started asking the crowd of kids in front of him what was written on the note. The kids were all sat on the floor in a semi-cricle around him, and the adults were seated on chairs, again, in a semi circle. There was a lot of shouting and heckling, the average age of the children in there was about 8 or 9. Then he started talking about the 'promises to pay the bearer' bit on the note, and I got a funny feeling. He told the kids that the reason that was there was you used to be able to exchange the note for gold, and so on. And then he moved on to how that promise on the note was now an empty promise, as it was old. But God never breaks his promises...

Yup - we'd gone to an evangelical 'magic show'. If I could have bolted for the door, I would have done, but the girls had gone into the crowd of kids with D's children and I was stuck. So I sat through an hour (yes, the show went on for over an hour and a half - I'm so glad we were late) in a hot room, feeling kind of out of place and had to endure the preaching. He did a few very neat magic tricks, to be sure, but they were all somewhat spoiled by having a moral to them. Here, let's take three ropes of different length and hey presto, they're all the same now - just like you're all equal... I can't recall the rest but had to sit there, suffering unpleasant flashbacks to my childhood and Salvation Army Sunday school.

Then they fed the kids crisps and fizzy pop (no added sugar of course - nothing natural in there) and the grown ups had tea and coffee and biscuits that had been iced by the kids club earlier in the day. And those visitors who had come with friends were exhorted to come and talk to the Pastor and his two helpers if they wanted to find out more etc.

I don't know what I'd expected, to be honest. I had had a passing thought about the possiblity of being invited to pray or to sing or some such, but I can ride through that (can't sing so don't, and if everyone else is praying with their eyes closed, they can't see you gazing vacantly around the room admiring the cobwebs).

I had turned down an invite to a ladies' night last weekend. Apparently it was women only, for a sit down meal and there was going to be a black gospel singer, which would have been fabulous to listen too - except not in a church. It makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. Mainly because I've got my own personal issues with the church which don't need to be gone into in detail here. But also, because of the girls. I wanted to introduce them to each of the major religions in turn, (and some not so major), at their own pace and to do it logically and dispassionately. If such a thing is possible with a topic as fraught as religion. But then to have a grandfather boucning up and down on stage (yes he was a grandfather - his first grandchild had been born just after midnight this very day) telling my kids that this was the only way they could be loved and equal and saved and assured of a clean inside and a clean outside (done with a pack of cards) and that Jesus was the only one who could clean the stains off their insides...

I know there are flaws and good bits about each of the major religions, but I must confess to having the most problems with Christianity. Ironic that my name is taken from that, isn't it? Maybe one of the things I object to most of all is their drive to convert everyone to thinking the same as they do, and that once you do, you must make everyone else think the same way.

I am not a sheep! I do not want to be part of the 'flock' ffs. They even use sheep imagery. We need pastoring and shepherding and pointing in the right direction. Well, baaa humbug, I will not be herded. And I don't want my children to be herded, spoon fed or told how to act. I want them to learn how to think on their own two feet, to weight the pros and the cons and make up their own mind about what they feel and think and belive and trust in. Not to be led by the nose by some creepy guy with a uniform and a tambourine promising everlasting salvation if you'll sit on his lap whilst he reads you the parable of the lost sheep.

Sorry, ran adrift there. But you can see my point.

But, if at the end of the day, they want to be Christian, or Buddhist, or Jewish, or even Baha'i, then they'll have my blessing and we'll celebrate their high days and holy days, and they'll be welcome at mine with open arms. Just as long as they don't expect me to convert.

Bloody Amazon

2005-10-25T20:10:00.000Z

Now they've gone and lowered their limit for free postage.

Like I need any more temptation to buy books.

Her father's sense of humour

2005-10-25T11:04:00.000Z

There's nothing more disconcerting that watching your two year old lying on the floor, flipping through a Gary Larson 'Farside' comic book, and laughing. And not just at anything - she'll turn through a few pages, then suddenly start giggling and stare at one page for a while, then turn a few more... it's really rather unsettling.

And all this whilst trying to explain to Myf exactly what a Weiner Dog is, and why someone would use one to paint pictures with.

Complaint address

2005-10-24T22:10:00.000Z

I've had quite a bit of feedback about that advert, so for those who'd like to know, or even those who are just curious, this is the address for the Advertising Standards Agency. Just click on the big red button at the top of the page to start complaining! :)

Also, any suggestions on how to beat the principles of simple addition, ie, adding two single numbers together, the total of which is always 10 or less, into a stubborn 6 year old head would be gratefully received!

First ever complaint

2005-10-23T18:08:00.000Z

I've never before in my life put in an 'official complaint' (although the LEA are seriously pushing their luck). But last night I sent an email to the Advertising Standards Agency and had a rant about a radio advert.

And so far today, I haven't heard it on the radio! lol. I listen to Classic FM all day, every day. It's on in the kitchen, the car, the computer - I love it and the kids are starting to recognise pieces of music on a regular basis. The only think that irritates me is the adverts, but after a while, you get to the point where you can block them out and just wait for the next bit of music. But lately, there's been an awful advert on, which has actually made me turn the radio down whenever it comes on.

It's a Lotto ad, and features a woman panting and screaming whilst giving birth to the 'next lotto millionaire' who then asininely asks 'where's the champagne?' I've had Myf asking 'why is that lady screaming Mommy?' and to be honest, it turns my stomach everytime I hear it.

I'm not sure why - I had a few moments of thought when trying to fill in the complaints box as to *why* exactly it was offensive. Basically, I think it's having something like the pain of childbirth belittled in such a fashion. It upsets my kids, makes me feel queasy and I can imagine how it would probably adversely affect a number of women of child-bearing age.

So I complained. And I wait with baited breath for their response. And those of you who know me will probably be scratching their heads in perplexity and wondering what on earth has got into me. Answer? No idea.

Bloody blogger

2005-10-23T14:14:00.000Z

Why won't blogger blog today? I'm also doing a Sonlight order on Monday, and was wondering if anyone wanted to add a few bits to it, save on postage. But if Blogger won't blog, how are people to know?

Bloody blogger.

Things they say

2005-10-23T13:21:00.000Z

"Tea, please don't say bloody," says I, cringing as the middle one is running around the bathroom, shrieking 'bloody water everywhere'.
"Yes, Tea," says Myf sagely from the bath. "There are some words we aren't allowed to say, aren't there Mom?"
"Yes dear."
"We aren't allowed to say holy cow, or bugger, or holy shit, are we Mom?"
"No dear," says I.

Don't ask me how I kept a straight face, but the effort nearly killed me.

Expensive noise

2005-10-19T21:31:00.000Z

Figured out that the noise coming from the white truck is probably expensive. Well, duh, that ain't rocket science.

The banging, scraping and groaning is coming from the rear passenger side wheel. Either the brakes are binding, there's a large stone or piece of flint stuck between the brakes and the disc, or, most probably, the brake pads are slipping in the callipers and catching on the wheel. The entire drive train shudders when it happens, the front end of the truck lurches to the right, as the rear left wheel is basically braked.

Sarah asked me if this was dangerous. Um, probably. Well, depends what speed I'm travelling at when the wheel jams solid, I guess. Or, if the brake disc shatters, depends on who is in the immediate vicinity.

You know, you spend all your time trying to hold everyone else together, but when you start to come apart at the seams, the buggers just come and nick your stuffing.

Laura's Star

2005-10-19T11:59:00.000Z

Myf and I have just been to see Laura's Star as part of the Film Education week, and we loved it. And yes, we both cried. We've been home half an hour and Myf is still leaking occasionally. She gets very emotional when it comes to movies. For me, I think it was the excellent music. It was scored by Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, King Arthur, Thin Red Line, The Lion King, True Romance, Batman Begins, Pearl Harbour, The Rock, The Last Samurai, Hannibal... you get the idea). I love Hans Zimmer's music, reallyreally love it. And the bit towards the end, where she lets the star go, even though she loves it so much... well, not a dry eye in the house.

And, of course, after scouring the Film Education website, there's absolutely nothing on there for the film we've just seen. Sod's law that! However, they do have stuff for Nanny McPhee, which I fancy seeing. I do like Emma Thompson. Ever since I saw her on stage in King Lear in Birmingham with Kenneth Brannagh. We pratically bumped into her in the street near the stage door as she was hurrying into the theatre - "sorry, miles away," she laughed, and vanished into the building. Just struck me as very human and very civilised. And she's extraordinarily pretty. At least, she was 12 years ago! lol

Now, it's tomato soup for all (except Myf - we had popcorn!) and then we're off to Loubi's for the afternoon. She's about the only person who's had this bug that we can go socialise with. James spent the whole of yesterday with his head down the loo, or in bed. Only Myf to go, but I have a feeling that she's escaped the barfing bit. She felt a bit off on Monday night, didn't eat her dinner (macaroni - you know something is wrong if my kids don't eat their pasta) but was fine on Tuesday. Fingers crossed that was her through the bug. :)

Off like a headless chicken again today - need to go collect the orange truck from the dealers (just a bit of warranty work - and yes, it's pretty much all fixed and working again now, fingers crossed) and also, pick up a few bits for my white one. I had to go to Nottingham last night, at nearly 9pm. Was gone 10pm when I got where I was going as someone who shall remain nameless had printed all the directions out for me using Mapquest, which is next to bloody hopeless for anything more complicated than going to the local shops. The maps are out of scale, the directions are vague, listing only road names and not numbers, and so basically a 45 minute journey took me about 80 minutes. Got there, started swapping bits over between my old truck and the other one I'd gone to see, and the heavens opened. And someone who shall remain nameless had emptied the truck before going shooting last weekend. No brolly, no coat, (no maps - I'd already checked). I got soaked.

Bits swapped over (well, another story there but shan't bore you with that one) and I head home at half past 11... to be startled by a large, heavy grinding noise coming from the nether regions of my beloved old truck. I have never been so scared in my entire life. Not even when facing down a 2 year old charollais bull that was running loose in Worcester markets one day. And every time the grinding noise happened, the truck lurched and the steering when funny.

On a dark, cold, rainy night, on an unlit road through Sherwood forest. Not even a torch in the truck (he who shall remain nameless, etc etc).

Off to see what caused the noise - assuming we make it as far as Doncaster! lolol

Someone mentioned the 'C' word

2005-10-17T21:37:00.000Z

Yup - Christmas. You know, it's only 10 weeks away. That's one fifth of the year. And they've already got bloody xmas decorations, cards, giftwrap and party booking banners up in Doncaster. There should be a law against having any mention of the C-word until Hallowe'en is past. Do we really want to spend 20% of our lives in anticipation of the most overly commercialised holiday in the calendar? Bearing in mind that it's only one day out of the year?

No, I didn't think so.

Bah humbug.

However, if anyone is reading this, I'd really like a little digital camera in my stocking, please. For taking to HE group, of course.

Cheesecake's new babies

2005-10-16T21:55:00.000Z

These seem to contradict each other

2005-10-16T21:02:00.000Z

You are a Logical-Mathematical Thinker
Logical-Mathematical thinkers:

* Like to understand patterns and relationships between objects or actions
* Try to understand the world in terms of causes and effects
* Are good at thinking critically, and solving problems creatively

Like Logical-Mathematical thinkers, Leonardo based his theories on evidence rather than speculation.
Other Logical-Mathematical Thinkers include Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Albert Einstein

Careers which suit Logical-Mathematical thinkers include Physicist, Chemist, Biologist, Lawyer, Computer programmer, Engineer, Inventor

You are a Naturalist Thinker
Naturalist Thinkers:

* Like to understand the natural world, and the living beings that inhabit it
* have an aptitude for communicating with animals
* You try to understand patterns of life and natural forces

Like other Naturalist thinkers, Leonardo longed to spend time in the countryside. He spent hours watching birds to understand how they flew.
Other Naturalist thinkers include Charles Darwin, Jane Goodall, Johnny Morris, David Attenborough

Careers which suit Naturalist thinkers include Biologist, Meteorologist, Forester, Farmer, Astronomer, Alternative therapist

Plus I got Spatial thinker too, which just kind of goes to show that I'm about as mixed up as I ever was.

This is me

2005-10-16T14:15:00.000Z

You are Schroeder!

Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Back in the land of the living

2005-10-16T00:07:00.000Z

Just.

Feeling a tad dizzy and having trouble focussing on the screen, but I'm here. Went to bed when James got back at 5pm last night, and didn't get out of bed until 11am this morning. Apart from a couple of trips to the bathroom to stick my head down the loo, but hey, it was something to relieve the boredom.

Staggered through the shower and came down stairs to find clean kitchen, fed and dressed kids and man doing stuff with bleach. Fine by me.

And no guests today. Felt awful for having to cancel them at such short notice, but there's no way I would have been civil today. Bad enough that I have to consider a trip shopping, as we've run out of cereal, loo roll, lemon squash - you know, the essentials of life.

Oh - and Cheesecake had her babies last night. I went out and opened the hutch this morning to have a nose, and two babies fell out! Fished around under the hutch to retrieve them, and did a head count. 5 live ones and a dead one - figure it was still born by the look of it. But the five live ones are adorable. Shall do photos etc later.

Hit the wall

2005-10-15T14:01:00.000Z

Guess it had to happen sooner or later - have pretty much hit the wall. Body refusing to do anymore. Spent half the day in the vicinity of the toilet, either sat on it or with head in it. Feel absolutely appalling.

Managed to keep breakfast down for long enough to fly over to Retford farmer's market. Picked up a huge amount of quality, ethical meat; dropped off 1/2 of it at Nikki's before heading home. Made kids sandwiches between trips upstairs (corned beef was probably not the most intelligent of choices). Have thrown kids into bed, and sat down with cup of lemon and ginger tea, hoping that will quell the queasiness.

House is a pigsty, kitchen should be condemned, Kim & Aggie would faint at my bathroom... and I have 7 people coming over for Sunday dinner tomorrow. Joy.

Roasted bones and vegan cheese

2005-10-13T21:42:00.000Z

I like food, so I thought I'd have a ramble about the stuff. Can't stop thinking about it, actually, as the house smells divine. I went to a local farm today, and bought proper bacon, real chicken and some home-grown beef, and asked for a couple of bones to make stock with. I roasted the bones and put them in my huge jam making pan (as none of the others were large enough) and now there's a gorgeous smell wafting my way as my fresh beef stock simmers on the hob.

But for the less carnivorously-inclined of you, I also made a vegan "macaroni-cheez" last night and it was really, really good. I swiped the recipe out of the Uncheese Cookbook ( bought for James' mum) and I told her I'd try a couple of the recipes out on my lot, before she attempted them. Well, was I impressed or what? Cook the macaroni as normal (don't overcook it - worst thing ever you can do to pasta is make it mushy). Make a roux with olive oil and flour (gluten free if you like), a little mustard powder and a pinch of cayenne. Add some dairy-free soy or rice milk, very very slowly until it's creamy and cook for a while. Then, add half a cup of nutritional yeast. It's quite extraordinary stuff. Mix with macaroni, bake in oven for 20 minutes or so and you have a very respectable mac'n'cheese, without a shred of dairy in it.

However, tonight's dinner was roast chicken, garlic and olive oil couscous and peas. And very nice it was indeed. Baked a butternut whilst the chicken and bones were roasting (very economically minded of me!) and shall make soup with that tomorrow for lunch. So off to load the bread machine before having a bath. :) Going to have an early night.

Apologies

2005-10-12T22:26:00.000Z

But I've turned on the word verification thingy for the comments. How much spam is actually of any use to anyone? Do these people have nothing else better to do than irritate us?

Be warned, am very irritable at the moment. Haven't heard back from LEA, which I guess is a bonus. Posted Eyebal's letter a day late, but hey, what the heck. And my calendar is absolutely jammed and I feel like I have no time to breathe. At least the Diary of Activities that I sent in with my letter was pretty full up.

Just looking at my calendar and I've got the 17th, 18th and 26th of this month free. That's all. There is something written on every single other day. 3 days a week we're out of the house for just before 9am (ok, so Thursdays, technically, I don't have to leave until 9.15). This Sunday I'm doing a roast dinner for 5 adults and 7 kids. In my little house? There are three separate things happening on Saturday alone. And add to that the fact that James is off to Croatia for 9 days, as of Tuesday 25th. Yes, he is missing Hallowe'en and you have no idea how ticked off I am about that.

On a lighter note, I'm still waiting for my guinea pig to have her piglets! The poor thing is the size of a rugby ball and I'm looking at the calendar in some trepidation. Guinea pig gestation is between 52 and 70 days (7.5 to 10 weeks). And it generally goes that the longer the pregnancy, the more babies there are in the litter.

Cheesecake has been pregnant for 9.5 weeks. Now the average size of the litter is 2-4, but can be as many as 8. (I did find on one site a vague reference to the occasional occurence of 10+ piglets... but I shall ignore that)

Anyhow, watch this space and I shall post a few pictures as and when she pops. Again. :::sigh:::
This time, however, Moose is in a separate cage already, and shall remain there. :)

LEA looms large

2005-10-07T21:26:00.000Z

I am sick to death of this LEA nonsense. It's not like I've haven't got anything else to do.

Have finally finished my letter (2 pages of irate rhetoric), and have an updated Educational Philosophy (2 pages, with references, web links and suggestions for books he should read!), a current Diary of Activities (2 pages, in depth) and a book list (1 page, but that's just the books from 2 shelves in the living room - I haven't listed all the ones upstairs or got from the library etc). Plus a couple of pages on Autonomous Education (for his information, as Myf is technically autonomous at present as we're not doing anything *formal* until she hits seven - in theory). I'm not bothering with a summary of the law EO style, as he's probably shredded more copies of that than I've had glasses of wine.

You reckon that's enough? I won't bore you, dear readers, with the entire body of text that is going to land on that irritating little man's desk on Monday morning, but I shall just cut'n'paste the final paragraph, as I'm fairly pleased with it. Any suggestions or modifications gratefully received. :)

Continual harassment of this nature, demanding ‘evidence’ that neither exists, nor is required, is detracting from my daughter’s education. Time that should be spent with my children is instead being spent drafting irate communiqués and compiling unnecessary lists.

Ok, so maybe I should rephrase the bit about irate communiques, but I was sooooooooooo right royally p*ssed off when I wrote it. :)

But on a more positive note, I had a houseful today and it was great. Sarah appeared first, with her two and Jax's two, shortly followed by Jayne and her three to collect a guinea pig. I went and fetched my younger two from playgroup and we had 10 kids and 3 adults squished into my little house. Well, the three older boys all went outside and did unmentionable things with water and mud and sand and building detrius and I think they had a marvellous time. Sorry Jayne! :)

When everyone had gone, I hoofed the three of them into bed for a quick nap whilst I finalised the irate communique, then it was off to the doc's for Myf, who'd been complaining of earache all afternoon. Waited half an hour for the doc to say there was nothing wrong with her - and she announced she felt fine. Earache only reappeared at bedtime, but it was swiftly chased in bed and I haven't heard a peep since.

After that we went and collected our veggie box from a friend who's started a local organic veggie box scheme, Bawtry Organics. At last, a local source! :) Scrumptious looking leeks and melons and a big box of fat avocados, glossy aubergines, punnets of rich brown mushrooms and baskets of lemons - there were boxes of fresh veg and fruit spilling out of her garage and it all smelled divine. She's at Doncaster racecourse this weekend for the food festival, so I hope it all goes well.

So now, time to print out the final draft (must post it on the lea list first) and then get an early night. Have a busy morning planned - have to do a bit of supermarket shopping (argh), present shopping, fill truck with gas (opposite side of Doncaster to me), fetch caravan (from top end of Doncaster), clean, load and pack said van, sort out pets etc and be ready to go down to B'ham for my brother's 30th all by 3pm. And do all normal feeding, dressing, chasing, etc of small children whilst I'm at it.

Oh, and post the damned letter.

Busy week

2005-10-06T20:27:00.000Z

Have hardly had to time to pee this week. (I used to wonder what on earth people meant by that statement when I was a kid. Now, I know...)

It's just been one chaotic, headless day after another. Either in the car, going somewhere, coming back, taking something, round in circles. Preschool and playgroup and visits and shopping and lunches with friends and friends coming over and paperwork coming out of my ear.

Damn the Eyeball, too, as he's still demanding reams of written work, in spite of the letters I've been sending him saying we are of a broadly Steiner-Waldorf philosophical bent, yadda yadda yadda, no written work, yadda yadda yadda... and the man still wants to see 'artwork, which may be captioned, things she may have recorded, multiplication tables or maths concepts she may have recorded (she's 6!!!!)" I could go on.

But I won't as it all depresses me something bloody awful and I'm fed up of having to worry about him on top of everything else that's going on. I have till Monday to provide him with stuff, and as we're away all weekend, until Tuesday, I'd better spend tonight writing damned letters to the blasted LEA, when I'd rather be finishing off the cute little bear I'm knitting for a friend's 4 week old daughter, or lying in the bath reading my latest 'Grow Your Own' magazine whilst sipping a cold bacardi and coke.

Although the next letter is going to include words such as 'bullying' and 'harrassment' and the like. Not sure whether to include the bit about him contravening my Human Rights and all that (yes, there is a clause in there I can use :)

However, on top of Myf mastering the knit stitch at the start of the week, she also had a recorder lesson at Nikki's on Wednesday, in which she learnt the first three notes, G, A and B, plus was shown tenor, treble and sopranino recorders, as well as listened to Nikki playing some 18th C stuff as well as more modern - so I think that's music ticked off. We read some Roman books, but they haven't really inspired her.

I did notice, however, that in the last couple of history-ish books we've read through, she's been very intersted in what they've been wearing. Hardwick Hall fascinated her, mainly because of the dresses. And in the Women in Rome book we got from the library, she went looking for dresses and togas and what the different styles were called. Maybe I ought to skip specifics and get a book on fashion through the ages.

Made a hobby horse for Kindertots. It went down an absolute treat today.

Little bit of maths

2005-10-03T22:34:00.000Z

Shortly after my last blog entry, I was trolling round the blog ring, and came across Hazel's link to the percentile charts. I had to print one out, and so we did a little maths. Everyone stood up against the doorway, and I marked their height on the woodwork with a thick black pen. That went down a treat - Mom drawing on the walls! (it was a dry-wipe pen)

Plotting the heights against the various ages, we find that Myf is between the 75th and 90th percentile, Tea is smack bang on the 50th - and Piglet is way off the scale. No surprises there then! And as Myf helped me read the heights on the tape measure, found the right numbers on the chart, and then helped cross reference them with their ages, I think that ticks off maths quite nicely for today.

It didn't help that Hazel also linked to a source of food. Spent a tad over £30 (!) at goodnessdirect, including some stuff for James' mum. I got her the Uncheeze cookbook for her birthday, as she's on a vegan diet (from the cancer clinic) and one of the main ingredients in a lot of things is nutritional yeast. And I found some on this website! So a huge thanks and a big hug to Hazel for pointing me in the direction of it. :)

Huge great big pan of macaroni and cauliflower cheese for tea

But Mom, we haven't done any schoolwork today

2005-10-03T13:10:00.000Z

Uh, no, you're right, we haven't.

We've only played with lego, building small houses and perfect boxes that got filled with hama beads and turned into shakers. Boxes were only built using the principles of real brickwork, ie, each block must rest on at least two blocks beneath it, with 'breaks' not running upwards in one continuous line. In between times, Myf has suddenly mastered the art of knitting. She can do five or six stitches in a row, without dropping any or losing her place.

We then only played cutting and sticking, turning squares of sticky paper and sellotape into frogs, handbags and some bizarre game that only 2, 3 and 6 year olds can understand.

And then we only spent an hour (!) playing with Hama beads, Myf doing some intricate pattern on the six pointed star shape, and Tea making neat rows of maxi beads. Not entirely sure what Piglet was doing during that hour, but she was quiet in the living room with the basket of Barbie and Bratz dolls and nothing got dismantled, rearranged or destroyed, so that was a bonus. All whilst I spent a couple of hours on the phone to a local homeschooler, who is luckily over the border with regards to the LEA, bitching about said LEA and just having a generally good gossip and catch up.

And whilst that was followed by tidy-up time (complete with the sing-song 'this is the way we tidy up, on a cold and frosty morning) in which EVERY SINGLE BEAD got picked up and put back in the box, followed by a home cooked lunch of sunday soup (long story) and chicken noodle soup, I guess we haven't done any school work this morning.

Not done any housework either, come to think of it. Or laundry. Or even washed the breakfast bowls up.

Don't think that really matters though, eh? ;)

I do like this

2005-10-01T20:12:00.000Z

The design more than the content. :)

Now I know why we're having such problems...

2005-09-28T21:45:00.000Z

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;

But the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be mese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

22) I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

Screwy pronunciations can mess up your mind! For example. If you have a rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through the bough on a tree!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England. We take English for granted.

But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wiseguy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on

Banging head on desk...

2005-09-23T11:12:00.000Z

In frustration. Irritation. Exasperation. And a whole load other 'ations' that have escaped me for now.

Dropped the two small ones off at playgroup and have come home to spend some quality educational time with Myf. Except it's like getting blood out of a stone. She keeps telling me she wants to write, so I say, ok, here's a poem, let's read it, now copy the first 3 lines.

3, note. Three. Not the whole damned thing. I go to put the kettle on to make some hot chocolate, and look down at what she's doing at the table. She's written the first two, and has doodled all over the rest of the page.

And written "I do not love Mom" in the margin.

Am I such a miserable ogre? Maybe I've been wrong all these months, thinking we'd take it easy, nice and steady, let her 'deschool', find her feet, give her a bit of autonomous leeway. Maybe I should have pulled her out of that school, sat her down at the dining table the next day and said 'here's the maths workbook, do me 30 minutes', followed by 'here's your English workbook, do me 45 minutes'. I know we've accomplished something, as she can now read. But her writing is appalling, she won't sit and do anything for any length of time, even though she moans and complains that she can't write, her letters/numbers are wonky, and basically does the whole 'I'm so stupid' whinge.

She's not - she's bright. Not quite as bright as the other two, but she's by no means dumb. I thought Sonlight didn't work for us for a number of reasons - mainly the strict regime and the religious content. Am I hoping too much that Steiner-Waldorf is going to fill that gap?

Yeah, yeah, I know, we're just having a bad day. Once the extension is finished, yadda yadda yadda.

Doesn't help that it's starting to rain either.

eBay and Sonlight

2005-09-20T21:07:00.000Z

Have finally gotten around to listing stuff on eBay - whilst I have a huge amount still to put on, I've managed to get some Sonlight stuff on there, that's been lying around for nearly a year, unused.

Kirsty came round for lunch too, which was lovely. Marcus and Alex spent the best part of the day outside with my three, which was good all round. Can't get over how lovely the weather is for late September. She also rifled through the Sonlight stuff I hadn't listed, and went home with a couple of carrier bags full of read-alouds and instructor's guides (no one tell James [that's her James] just yet...)

Apart from that, I've been browsing some Waldorf curriculum stuff - yes, it's that time of year when even the most autonomous home educator gets all twitchy at the sight of books and new ideas. ;) So we're going to go with Steiner as Sonlight quite plainly isn't for us. I've even gone so far as to put a few things in my paypal shopping cart, but need to wait for the eBay stuff to sell.

Off to sort through a couple of bookshelves to see if there's a rare first edition of something or other that might sell for a couple of quid.

A quiet day

2005-09-19T09:08:00.000Z

It's 9am on a fairly dreary Monday morning. Last night, I was woken up by each of the girls in turn. Myf woke me up at 3am to give me her other tooth that had fallen out. *Why* couldn't it have waited until morning? Tea was talking in her sleep, and then came to tell me she was dreaming. Wouldn't that suggest that she should have stayed in bed? And Piglet was just restless and squawky, not really waking up either but wanting soothing.

So this morning I feel like death warmed up. Not an unusual feeling, mind, just a wearily familiar one. However, there are plus points. I have noticed that when I talk to the girls in a chillingly quiet monotone, I get far better results than when I shout. ;) And when instructed that it was 9'o'clock and she better go find a book and be quiet whilst I had something to eat, Myf did exactly that. I've just peeked into the living room and she and Tea are sat side by side on the sofa, each with a book. And it's quiet. Peacefully, blissfully quiet. Only Piglet, sat in her highchair making random comments about her bowl of rice crispies is disturbing the quiet. And even that is more amusing than irritating.

And now, a double plus, I just had a call from a fellow home-edder D in Retford, inviting me to her HE group this afternoon! It's a church based group, and D's husband works for the Bible College that's in North Lincolnshire, and somehow, we seem to have become good friends. So, an invite to group, and to have lunch before hand in the church coffee shop (which apparently does the best jacket potatoes for about £1.50!) and the day suddenly isn't so dreary after all.

I've made a decision about the whole currriculum thing too. Sonlight just doesn't work for us. It's a fabulous curriculum, and it's got some stunning resources, read-alouds and workbooks, but at the moment, it's just not right. Which is a shame as I bought the Kindergarten core package last year. So it's eBay time. I've listed a few bits and we'll see how they go. And if they sell well enough, (which I think they might considering one item already has 6 watchers!) I'm going to buy some Waldorf resources in a couple of weeks once I've built up a bit in the Paypal account. For some reason, the Steiner philosophy really appeals to me. I've been borrowing books off Nikki and I think it's time I bought a few of my own. Shall ramble on more about that later - time to tackle the laundry mountain.

That's after I've posted a few pictures to flickr for Dad. :)

The most amazing piece of artwork ever

2005-09-15T16:20:00.000Z

Click and up to zoom in, click and down to zoom out.

Zoomquilt

Positive fruitful day

2005-09-13T22:48:00.000Z

It's been a good one. Did a mammoth shop, on my own first thing. Went to Asda, of all damned places, fully expecting it to be heaving with panic buying (remember the last fuel strike, when people were buying everything they could get their hands on?), and it was really, really quiet. Maybe because they had no fuel. lol

Did it without kids too, as it's James day off, so he sat on them whilst I wandered the aisles in relative peace and quiet. And as it was the first supermarket shop in over a month, I managed to fill my trolley so full, I needed two when everything had been put into bags. lol No more shopping for me for a month! Except for fresh stuff from the Fieldgate centre (nice food!)

Then we had lunch once I was back, did a bit of gardening, mowed the lawns, fixed the front of my car, and then Hazel, Colin and Romy arrived to collect Toblerone. They also brought Pip and Willow to meet their new room(cage) mate, and we had a living room full of kids and dogs and guinea pigs and it was absolutely lovely. The girls all made instant friends and ran off to do 'things' in the garden, Colin and James retired to the driveway to talk Land Rovers and Hazel and I had about 3 and ahalf minutes of relative peace to have a quick chat before the kids all came piling back in. It was chaos and it was great. Of course, if I'd known they were vegan, I'd have hidden the simmering pan of steak and kidney in the oven, and had some of my ginger biscuits ready to go. :)

Once they'd taken Toby to his new home, I threw the small people into bed for a quick snooze - "I'm not tired" wailed Myf, who was asleep in about 5 seconds flat and stayed that way for nearly an hour. She is not nice when tired. (wonder who she takes after??) Two loads of laundry, some potato digging and shopping unpacking later, we had tuna pasta bake and then I got to go to the lottie. On my own. Whilst James put the offspring through the tub and into bed. I dug up another 40lbs of spuds, some beetroot (not sure what to do with it as I'm not hugely keen on the stuff - might pickle it) and a parsnip. Desperately need to get up there and do some serious weeding. Someone has been throwing their old potato haulm and weeds onto my plot, probably as a mute form of protest. Time to beat that fat hen into submission, I think.

I bathed, read my book and now I'm here, but off to bed. It's the little ones' first day at pre-school tomorrow. !!!

It's that time of year

2005-09-11T20:27:00.000Z

The first seed catalogue just landed on my mat. :) Which of course, led me to begin speculating on what I'd grow next year. Which in turn made me start berating myself for how crap I've done this year in the garden and so I've wandered over to Muddy Musings to have a ramble there.

And now I'm making alist of everything I want to grow next year, I'm already revisiting my favourite on line seed sellers (browsing Vida Verde as we speak) and vowing, of course, to do it all much better next year.

On a home-ed front, I've decided that tomorrow is the start of our study term. Shall not be mentioning the s-c-h-o-o-l word around here. Three days a weeks, Mon Wed and Fri, we're going to have proper sit down at table and do 'stuff' kind of days. Just a couple of hours in the morning, and then they can do what they like in the afternoon. We need to cover the basics in maths and the like, and to brush up on the whole reading/writing thing.

At least, that's the thoery. Let's see how it works in practise.

Surreal conversations with a 2 year old.

2005-09-10T18:27:00.000Z

Me: What do you want for dinner?

Piglet looks thoughtful a moment.

'Hula hoops!'

'Hula hoops?'

'And bread."

'Is that all?'

'Bread and soup.'

{Suspicious sniff} 'Do you smell?'

'Couloboutso!* Orange squash! Whistle!'

Rapidly departing child.

Weird, weird day.

* Italian for smelly bottom

The world just gets odder

2005-09-08T07:44:00.000Z

Parents to get public money to run their own schools

Another wasted morning

2005-09-07T11:12:00.000Z

My children are sitting watching Alice in Wonderland (so much for the no-tv-in-week policy). I've spent the morning on the phone, sorting out an insurance claim that isn't going to happen, doing posters for the new playgroup (why do I get myself into these things?) and intermittently talking to 3 or 4 people. And it's now 11am and I feel like it's another morning gone, swallowed by bugger all and msn and blogs and irrelevant crap.

Myf has done some reading though - I didnt know she knew the words 'invitation' and 'beautiful'. She's constantly surprising me at the moment. Piglet made me smile too - I was wiping pink stamp pad ink off the kitchen surface, muttering to myself about how everything round her was going bloody pink, and she says "But Mommy, I like bloody pink." :) Everything is now bloody pink, which would probably offend the grandparents, but it's making me smile. Tea is having a difficult day, but at least she comes for a nice cuddle after each bout of tears.

Need to walk down into the the village, take the posters to put up in the library, post office, newsagents, etc, return library books, buy some veggies and maybe some pork chops for tonight. No idea what time James is back from Shropshire, but hopefully it'll be with a working truck.

Merry, where did you get your TT from? I feel I have a need for one.

Term starts

2005-09-06T22:58:00.000Z

At least, it seems to be starting for almost everyone else on the blogring. Have just read my way around (first time in ages, apologies for the slightly surreal comments, too much whiskey and not enough hot water...) and am feeling somewhat unsettled at the amount of stuff people have started to do.

Today we have done precisely bugger all. Got up, had breakfast, let them put the tv on, made them switch it off for fighting, tried to tidy up but was undone by Piglet. Went to Nikki's, had lunch, came home, made them all nap. Played in the garden, ate a late tea, bathed them and put them to bed. And not a lot much else in the middle. So am now feeling a tad guilty, especially after reading accounts of maths and English and science and lots of drawing and painting and arty type stuff going on. :( When the playroom is finished... that's turning into a mantra. "When the playroom is finished we will [insert name of suitably entertaining/ educational/ stimulating/ inspiring activity]" :::sigh:::

At the moment, it's just brickwork, to about 3/4 of the required height. So much for only taking 4 to 8 weeks. They started digging the foundations the day we went to Kessingland! 10 and a half weeks - the builder said it would be 4 weeks until the roof was on and another 4 weeks to 'first finish', which is, as I understand it, basic plastering, wiring and plumbing done. It's taken over two months to get half the brickwork up. I'm starting to get a little irritated, which is never good. Especially as our builder goes on holiday on the 26th for a fortnight.

edited :/

Off to top up the whiskey. :-D

Bizarrely - Simply Knitting

2005-09-05T22:30:00.000Z

I want back copies of this magazine - it's great. However, as issues 1 - 3 are going on eBay for upwards of 10-15 quid each, it seems I'm going to have to wait awhile to get my hands on them. Unless any of you good folks happen to have them lying around and are willing to pass them over for a while - I'll send them straight back once I've copied the patterns out of them that I want!

Bizarre request, I know. But that kind of typifies the weekend we've had. It's been a good one, on the whole. James got back from work at 6ish on Friday, and we hooked up the van and took off to Skegness for the weekend with the DOC. Did a treasure hunt on Sat, followed by a couple of fabulous green lanes (picked about 2lbs of sloes on one - was very please with myself) and then spent most of Sunday bogging the white truck down in the most wonderful sticky clayey mud on an old WWII airfield. The conning tower was still there, standing stark and ruined, windows long gone, which leant a bizarre backdrop to the day.

Pulled truck out of mud eventually. I just love the sound of an exhuast pipe under water - blub blub blub, had to climb out of the window and stand on the hood to catch the rope, except I couldn't do a great deal with it as there was 2" of mud on the hood and there was no way I was lying on that to try and reach the recovery point, that was over a foot under muddy water! Will have photos to blog shortly.

Ok - slight bloggus interuptus there. 5 hours later, I've come back to the puter and have completely lost my train of thought. Hate it when that happens. James has diappeared to Shropshire to beat the orange truck into submission (hopefully) so I have a peaceful, quiet house all to myself. Guess I'd better finish this post and go tidy something up. House is a dreadful tip, is very depressing and I find myself finding more and more things to do either in the garden, or on the computer, or at someone else's house entirely, just to avoid dealing with the bomb site. Ho hum.

Sometimes I toy with the idea of hiring a cleaning lady, but then the OCD would make me clean everything before she came round. I know people with no kids and part time jobs that have cleaning ladies and ironing services and sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I could live like that. Never mind, I still have that lovely big skip out the front of the house - need to fill it up! :)

A new chapter begins

2005-08-31T23:38:00.000Z

Tomorrow is the start of my 'new' life.

Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but things are changing, and it seems September is the month in which these things happen in my life.

First thing in the morning, the new playgroup starts. Not sure entirely how I got roped into this, but Nikki and I have taken over the Thursday morning playgroup in Bawtry. We're going to run it along Waldorf lines, and try to figure out a way to incorporate the homeschool kids in once a fortnight. We have a basic outline plan but I think for the first session we're just going to wing it, ask lots of questions of all the mums who'll (hopefully) come along and see what kinds of things they'd like us to do.

I'm also going to get Tea and Piglet a place in the local pre-school. I think I may have blogged this awhile back, but my intentions are to get them in on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, which will give Myf and I some much needed one-on-one time to do 'stuff'. Not entirely sure what kind of 'stuff' we're going to do but it'll be a start. I'm thinking timelines, a little British history, some Celtic myths, some basic maths (we've slipped alittle in that department) and building on her reading, which has suddenly developed a very strong foundation. I'm hugely proud of her reading. I've also got this Sonlight science thing, and a whole bunch of Krampf science project emails I'm dying to get started on. It's the kind of thing, though, that doesn't need a 2 year old dismantling everything as we go along.

And on that note, I'm going to have to start getting some sleep. Tea has given up her dummy, voluntarily, about 3 weeks ago. After several months of me telling her she was too big for one now (she's 4 in December), we lost the last one on a Tuesday nap time. So we persuaded her to go to sleep without it. An hour later, she was still awake, but not crying, which is what she'd always done before when I'd tried to take the dummy (known as sookie) off her. I went up, and she was complaining she couldn't get to sleep without sookie. I tucked her in, gave her her fleecy blanket and her baby doll, which, I pointed out, didn't have a sookie, and left her to it. 5 minutes later, she was asleep, and she's slept fine without it since! And there was me thinking I had a huge battle looming.

Thing is, I'm so used to be woken up to find sookie, find bunny, drinka water, etc etc that I'm waking up on my own two and three times a night, and that's after it's taken me an hour or two to get to sleep...

Time to start switching this thing off before 11pm, I think. Even before midnight would be a start.

And then there's the smallholding I've found in Wales...

My Gullibility Factor

2005-08-31T22:19:00.000Z

Your GF score is 91.

(Out of a range of 0 - 100, where 0 = mind slave, and 100 = free thinker.)

Mind slave

Free thinker

(You)

100

Free Thinker

Welcome to the top 5%. You're a true free thinker and a person who is well informed about the reality in which you live. Although you may have been easily manipulated earlier in life, you eventually gained lucidity and developed a healthy sense of skepticism that you now automatically apply to your observations and experiences. You are endlessly curious about human behavior and the nature of the universe, and you have one or more lifestyle habits that most people would consider odd or unusual. You are not only of very high intelligence, you are also extremely creative in one or more areas (music, art, software development, inventing, etc.)

If you were in The Matrix, you would have taken the red pill, completed the combat training, and started fighting (and beating) agents from day one.

Your architects: You have cast off reality distortions taught to you by your parents, schooling, corporate advertising and government propaganda. You create your own beliefs based on what serves you best, without much regard for what the rest of the crowd is doing. You are guided by your own internal code of ethics (which may or may not agree with politically-correct ethical codes) rather than any pre-set system of ethics (such as from any one religion).

Check out Crawford's Snippets page and click on 'Take the Gullibility Test' to find out your Gullibility Factor

Thanks Jax

2005-08-19T09:00:00.000Z

Must stop following these links...

Visual
13

Aural
15

Verbal
17

Physical
13

Logical
18

Social
11

Solitary
15

Edited to add Especially when I can't figure out how to display the results. :( However, have at least added the numbers now! :)

For the Smart car set

2005-08-18T08:36:00.000Z

Animal attraction?

Veggies and knitting

2005-08-12T22:31:00.000Z

Had a lovely day yesterday (Thursday) - went round to Nikki's for a day of knitting and talking and just generally socialising in a most civilised manner. Jax and Kirsty came along, with offspring, and all ten children ran around and played quite happily. We were all very impressed with them, and mightily pleased too!

Today I spent running long overdue errands, as my white Disco has been off the road for a while (missing reverse gear). We did supermarket shopping (urgh), but only after we'd been to the Fieldgate Centre. What a little find! Now I'm by no means vegan, or even remotely vegetarian, but I do do 'healthy' and most vegan cafes I've been to do healthy very, very well. We had beans on toast and vegetable and lentil soup, which were both lovely (Whole Earth organic baked beans - I swear there's cinnamon in there). Myf's only complaint was that she didn't like the 'butter'. Um, probably because it's not butter...

Stocked up on organic veggies and the like before doing a Sainsbury's shop, and then heading home to find my washing had been rained on and not a builder in sight. I did make pizza for tea though, from scratch and it was lovely. And distinctly not vegetarian. ;)

Must stop doing these quizzes...

2005-08-09T23:14:00.000Z

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system.
And while this may not seem big, it can be.
It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes.
You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

That's me

2005-08-09T22:56:00.000Z

Your Mood Ring is Yellow

Imaginative
Wondering
Thoughts
Peaceful

Mood Ring Generator

Does that translate as 'offically a space cadet'? :)

Had to do it

2005-08-08T23:00:00.000Z

Are you Addicted to the Internet?

76%

Hardcore Junkie (61% - 80%)
While you do get a bit of sleep every night and sometimes leave the house, you spend as much time as you can online. You usually have a browser, chat clients, server consoles, and your email on auto check open at all times. Phone? What's that? You plan your social events by contacting your friends online. Just be careful you don't get a repetitive wrist injury...

The Are you Addicted to the Internet? Quiz at Quiz Me!

Chaos

2005-08-08T12:24:00.000Z

Am thinking on this education lark.

How, precisely, are you supposed to be able to do anything with your easily-distracted 6 year old, when your 2 year old has a shriek that can shatter glass at 100 yards and your 3 and a half year old loves nothing more than to torment the 2 year old to the point where the shriek is one continuous ear-splitting noise?

That's without taking into consideration the fact that the 3.5 year old has to do whatever it is her big sister is doing, except with none of the finesse and twice the enthusiasm, but only for 2 minutes at a time, by which point the 6 year old is throwing a full scale strop refusing to do antying as the 3.5 year old is 'spoiling everything' and the 2 year old in the meanwhile has been in the freezer and found a forgotten bag of frozen broccoli and strewn the contents all over the kitchen floor.

Boarding school has never looked so good.

Cheesecake finally popped

2005-08-07T21:52:00.000Z

peekaboo, originally uploaded by Poledragon.

Peekaboo!

Mini Moose

2005-08-07T21:50:00.000Z

running, originally uploaded by Poledragon.

This one is just like his Daddy - he's got wavy fur and even his whiskers are crinkly!

The Fantastic Four

2005-08-07T21:44:00.000Z

fantastic four, originally uploaded by Poledragon.

How cute are?

Look what I got!

2005-08-07T21:43:00.000Z

huddle, originally uploaded by Poledragon.

Four little baby guinea pigs born today! You can't quite see the grey one under the huddle.

Visitors

2005-08-02T10:18:00.000Z

It's lovely. My two cousins are vising from Birmingham and it's wonderful having the extra 'help'. Charley is nearly 10, and gets ordered round by Myf and followed like a puppy by Tea. And Vicki is 19, soI get someone to talk to and also, lots of help with Piglet who adores her.

And to that end, we've had a tidy up in the living room, blitzed the kitchen and are even seriously considering having a stab at the dining room... drum roll please!

Yesterday we all went to Bradway, courtesy of Sarah who drove all the way from Chesterfield up to Bawtry to collect my extra passenger. Seeing as how the titchy truck only had five seats... oh, all the trucks only have 5 seats now. :(

And speaking of trucks, James has decamped in the titchy truck to take it back and collect the orange one, that is working perfectly on gas but refusing to fire on more than 3 cylinders on petrol; and I finally put the green one in the Autotrader yesterday. Must sell that.

Today's Jax-style to-do list reads:
computer off, laundry out, more into machine, kitchen floor to mop, living room to vacuum, children to chase (although the cousins are doing an admirable job), large pile of 'stuff' to chuck into skip before it's collected this afternoon, guinea pigs to clean out, feed dog, dig out frozen stuff for making lasagne, water toms/chillis/egg plants in greenhouse

Ok, shall stop there and go prepare for James' imminent arrival - he's just collected the orange one from Guy Salmon, and apparently it's running like a bag of nail still. Even on gas. So they lied. Doesn't want to start on petrol, and once it's onto gas it's lumpy and bad tempered and gutless. He's not a happy camper. Duck'n'cover folks.

G4 update (or 'I told you so')

2005-08-01T23:41:00.000Z

They took the orange one away on a low-loader on Friday morning, and left me with a titchy little Freelander. Myf only barely fits between the two car seats in the back. However, it's quick, and I can fit into any darned carpark I please.

And todays update? They spent all day today (being Monday, they didn't touch it until this morning) faffing around with the engine, testing various inputs and outputs and pressures and flows and so on and so forth et cetera et cetera ad naseum. And guess what? They still don't know what wrong with it. But the best bit is, it's running perfectly on gas.

Not totally sure how James managed to keep a straight face when he was told that, but he did. They cannot get the thing running properly on petrol, but once they pick up the revs enough to switch over to gas, it runs just fine.

And to think, I very nearly became a mechanic.

On-road rant about the off-roader

2005-07-28T21:20:00.000Z

*Techi-mechanical grumble* of little interest to those who either don't know my trucks or aren't petrol heads like me :) Of course, if you want to read a good rant and grumble, then by all means, go ahead...

If I never have to drive that damned orange thing again, it'll be too soon.

Where's the smiley face that's screaming and tearing its hair out whilst banging its head against a brick wall?

Took our new(to us) Discovery into Guy Salmon in Sheffield today, for them to do a few warranty bits and fix the annoying hiccup the V8 has developed in the last couple of days. We thought it was due to the duff battery (due to be replaced under warranty), and since the whole thing is all computer controlled, chipped etc, a poor electrical draw would affect the performance considerably.

Yesterday I went to Jax's for an afternoon's gardening, which was fab, but the truck (which is known as the G4) was running like a bag of nails. I had trouble coaxing it over 120kph on the M1, which isn't much over 70mph. And the 4 litre V8 should be capable of nearly twice that on a good day.

Not that I'd ever do that. Honest officer.

So today I took G4 to Sheffield, got a nice new Freelander to play in for the day, and then went to Meadowhell with Sarah. Urgh - wet day in the school holidays? Don't these people have lives? Is there nothing else to do but go and wander around a mall all afternoon? I had a purpose - bookstore, Millie's cookies and get the offsprings feet measured. I was also going to go to the big Sainsbury's there and do my bi-monthly supermarket shop. But it was closed.

But I digress.

When I picked the G4 up at about 4pm, I was told that they'd replaced the airbag on the suspension, fixed the winch and ordered the bit for the driver's electric window. BUT, the battery was fine, it wasn't buggered at all and the problem was the LPG system we'd fitted to the engine, so they'd pulled the fuse on it and the engine was running fine.

*Start of mechanical ramble*
The LPG system doesn't affect the running of the engine when it's on petrol. The battery was screwed, I'd watched James put the tester on it, ffs. The dealers don't like working on LPG vehicles since a mechanic at another dealers had killed himself and blown up the workshop by drilling into the gas tank, because he didn't know it was there.

Darwin award anyone? The gas tanks are only little I know - mine wouldn't quite fit into a supermarket shopping trolley, and only takes up 2/3 of the trunk space. WTF???

So I was heavily patronised by someone who hasn't spent the last 15 years of their lives with their head under the hood of a Landy, and treated like a blonde bimbo when I said, "but the gas system won't cause a misfire". "Ah but yes it would, but it's running fine now we've taken the fuse out."

That makes no mechanical sense whatsoever.

But the icing on the cake? God damned machine died on me on the way home. I pulled off the forecourt and hadn't even reached the first set of traffic lights when it was blatantly obvious that there was still something seriously wrong with the engine. It's a V8. It's supposed to purr. Grumble at tickover. Growl as you set off. And put the hairs on the back of your neck up whilst doing something on a visceral level to the rest of you as you reach 4000 revs and rising. It's a beautiful piece of mechanical engineering.

And it was like driving my old Skoda after it had blown a head gasket. No power, hunting for gears in the autobox, hiccuping and miserable all the way home through Rotherham, as the M1 was solid once I'd limped down the Parkway. Good job the traffic was slow heading down West Bawtry Road as well, as I wasn't going much over 40kph.

5 miles from home and I got so fed up of the hiccups I put my foot to the floor hoping that it might clear whatever it was that was causing the power loss. Rev counter shot up to 4000 and then, suddenly, dropped. Took my foot off the gas, barely in time to stop it dying. Nursed it up a hill. Everytime I put my foot down, the engine would die. But on tickover, there wasn't enough power to move the two and half ton beastie along the road. Then she completed died. Restarted the engine. Put hazard lights on. Limped another 200 yards at 10kph. Died again. Restarted. Limped another few yards, before dying. Again, 300 yards at 15kph. Died. 200 yards at 5kph. Hill looms large ahead. Limp up that. Three restarts necessary. It's taken 15 minutes to do 2 miles.

Fecking machine is not beating me. I let her rest a mo. Restart the engine, get the revs up and drop the autobox from N into D with foot planted to floor (not advisable). Truck lurches forward and we make half a mile at 20 kph. Would dearly love to have a clutch at this point. I have a feeling it would have been easier with a manual box.

My house is at the top of a rather steep little slope of a road, which in turn is at the top of a only-slightly-less-steep very busy main road. It's 5.20pm. A half hour journey had taken nearly an hour and a half (albeit allowing for rush hour). I nurse the damned thing up hill, swearing at it and hitting the steering wheel in frustration. Chorus of small children in the back going 'come on orange one, come on orange one'. Myf chimes in 'Come on you bag of needles'.

That made me laugh anyway.

Onto drive, engine dies.

Somebody's head is going to roll for this.

Oh - and the best bit? Called Land Rover Assistance once home, and the guy came out within the half hour (brilliant service). Not only is the battery completely FUBAR'd, one of the plug leads was hanging off.

WTF? It's had a full service in the past month. And a plug lead was hanging off? It's the mechanical equivalent of not checking the fuse in the plug if your toaster stops working. It's like wondering why your kettle isn't boiling when you haven't put the plug in the wall. We're talking nursery grade mechanics. But there's something else seriously wrong with the engine now. I'm not sure what the garage did to it, but there was 2" of water in the air filter box, airflow meter lead hanging off too, it's not talking to the testbook (laptop that gets plugged into the electronic element and 'reads' all the fault codes')... and there's more.

But for legal reasons, I shall now stop here. ;)

That and I need more Pimms.

Brilliant Billing

2005-07-28T09:50:00.000Z

The link to this was posted on an off-roaders rant page, and I just had to put it here. This is the kind of thing we did at Billing at the start of the month.

And the pink Barbie Land Rover was painted that was for St Dunstans - a charity that helps blid ex-servicemen and women. I'm not sure that he ever got out of that mud hole though... :)

http://www.pistonheadstv.com/videos/434.wmv

Fabulous clip.

It's raining!

2005-07-24T22:04:00.000Z

And I'm so happy. :) Probably not the expected response to a steady, gentle, summer rain, but I've been hoping and hoping for this for a week or more. My poor garden and alloments desperately need this rain.

And I just found this:
"Analysis of the 2004 key stage 1 data indicates that, despite considerable improvements in standards at KS1 one in six children leave key stage 1 reading below level 2, and one in 10 below level 2 in mathematics. There are over 1,000 schools where less than 70% children achieved level 2 in reading and over 600 schools where less than 60% achieved level 2B in mathematics. In nearly all LEAs some schools fall into these categories."

If our LEA chap even dares to make a comment about Myf's reading... :) That is, of course, assuming we meet him.

But more about that anon.

A question of etiquette

2005-07-21T23:33:00.000Z

Just a random thought - when reading blogs, is it common courtesy to leave the occasional comment if you read someone's blog regularly, or is it ok to live vicariously and read without commenting ever on anything?

Sometimes I go to comment, then think, 'ah, no one will be bothered to read what I've put' or some such, and so I don't. Then I start thinking, but maybe I should, so they know that someone has read what they've written. Even if I'm the 10th person to comment 'I agree' etc.

Ramble over.

Good day - visited Nikki, Sarah was there too with her lot, kids all ran around like loons, mainly under foot and I sat in the corner wondering what on earth it was that I had to do at 3pm.

Didn't remember, so went home and put the kids down for a snooze anyhow, then remembered at about 4pm...

Ho hum

Went swimming with Grandma, then to pub playground. Kids to bed, Chinese for a late tea for the grown ups and now, I'm trying to formulate a response to Doncaster LEA's letter asking for a visit in August. Seems they've swept the lot under the rug and we're almost back to square one.

Bugger.

Bed time I think.

Nursery ramblings

2005-07-19T11:36:00.000Z

Got a letter this morning, confirming that I'd declined Tea's nursery place.

Subsequently, I'm having a bit of a crisis over it.

Well, not really crisis, but a bit of self-questioning OMG am I doing the right thing, kind of nonsense. Still tired from Billing so forgive me if I make no sense.

I can't take Tea to the nursery at the local school - that's where I pulled Myf out of last November. And the nursery entrance is right next to her old classroom. It wouldn't be so bad if there was someone who could take her for me, and collect her, but I don't feel it's fair to drag Myf down there twice a day, as about the only thing she misses from school are a couple of friends and I don't want to have her getting all confused again.

Plus, I don't think Tea is ready for nursery - or rather, I don't think she's ready for spending several hours a day with a gang of strange children. I have a few concerns about her behaviour and development, but they're my private thoughts and I don't want some teacher to spend a few hours with my little blond space cadet and start labelling her. And I know she'd be labelled. Her speech isn't good, and sometimes she can be a little hard to get through to. She's incredibly linear and literal in her thinking, as well.

Plus I'm having another am-I-doing-the-right-thing about Myf. Which is daft, really, as suddenly she's decided she can read. (Thanks Jax - that Toe by Toe is working wonders!) and is now reading everything - well, trying to. She swings from appearing to read confidently, to being unable to sound out the word 'pick'. And that was after listening to her work out what 'Cheltenham' was...

Right, time to do something about the bomb site. I also have a large bag of apricots that James brought back from his mum's last night (I only sent him to pick up the dog). Need to hunt down an apricot jam recipe, methinks. Anyone else got any other suggestions as to what I could do with them?

Billing

2005-07-18T22:47:00.000Z

Was great! We spent the whole week watching hundreds and hundreds of Land Rovers - no two alike - and sunbathing under a faultless sky. I took my old white Disco around the off road course, got very very muddy and didn't get stuck once. James had a very chilled out week too, marshalling on said off-road course, and thoroughly enjoyed himself playing in the mud, pulling stuck/broken-down/drowned motors out of various holes, bogs and lakes.

Weren't too impressed to get back and find the blasted builders have done bugger all whilst we've been away though.

Have trolled half way round the blog ring, and beens side tracked by a couple of quizzes (Sp?)

Why do people blog these things? Don't they know how sidetracked I get just reading the blogs, let alone following random links (not pointing any fingers, Tim).

You are a Pomegranate...unconventional, unique, and
just a little bit tart...you know how to make a
lasting impression and often do so with your
zest for life...

What Kind of Fruit Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Now I shall go do something useful, like have a bath and ignore the enormous pile of laundry that is taking over my kitchen floor. :)

Been busy

2005-07-05T20:23:00.000Z

Shall now list accomplishments, Jax-style, in order to pat myself on the back. :)

- Cleared off kitchen counters (and I mean everything), scrubbed them down and only put the bare essentials back. Binned the junk
- Emptied the black-hole cupboard next to the cooker, binned 30%, gave 30% away and put the rest back neatly
- Emptied 2 huge 'moving' boxes and four slightly smaller ones out of the garage; contents mostly binned (gotta love that skip), a few put into a pile to eBay, the rest condensed into one small box (!)
- Fed, bathed, storied and tucked kids into bed, all within the space of an hour
- Stripped and made up bed
- Emptied tumble dryer (bloody weather), put wet nappies onto radiator, set washing machine going again
- Folded clean laundry, put clean folded laundry away, brought down basketful ready to go in when current wash clean
- Washed up and tidied clean kitchen

The first three were accomplished with the aid of Sarah (huge great big thank you!) who made tea, chased kids and caught the steady stream of things I threw at her and filed them neatly into 'bin', 'eBay' and 'house' catagories.

And, having had so much to blog about, I've spent the last half hour (folding laundry) composing today's blog entry in my head. Filled it with witty, deadpan one liners and scintillating paragraphs of inestimable intelligence.

Then promptly forgot the lot when I sat down at the keyboard, and wrote this instead.

Bradway today

2005-07-04T23:20:00.000Z

Had a slow morning - let the girls watch some tv for an hour whilst I pottered round, tidied up, read the blog ring and cleared my emails. Tea and Piglet now get bored with the telly after a while, which to my mind is a good thing. Myf would still sit there all day if I let her.

Myf did some Jolly Phonics too - I thought we needed a recap as we've had a few weeks off, so she worked on her vowel blends. And, for some reason, today she managed to do all the cursive writing without a hitch. Seems mightily pleased with herself for 'writing like Mommy'. Maybe that's the problem I've been having with getting her to put pencil to paper - she doesn't like what she sees when she's written it. I have heard, here and there, that some people advocate going straight into cursive script - why teach a child twice how to write?

Anyhow, after that we toddled over to Sheffield to the mudpud group at Bradway. Our hastily-organised Hama session went down a treat, as did Jayne's fabulous face painting. My three were all entranced by their decorations, and Tea had to be bribed to wash her face (we told her she could have a cat next time). Myf made sure that we had a photograph of her flowers too, so shall blog that anon.

Need to have a bit of a wandering rant at some point, but at the moment, I just haven't got the energy. Does Blogger do private blog things? See, brain not working, can't even think of what you'd call a function to password blog entries. Apart from a function to password blog entries. jeeez

Pink Floyd

2005-07-02T23:58:00.000Z

Live.

Ever wanted a moment to last forever?

Home again - 272 emails

2005-07-02T21:28:00.000Z

And one of them contained a link.

So I did this instead of unpacking the van,loading the washing machine, etc etc etc

Now I'm going to have a shower and go to bed. Because I'm knackered, and every other thing out of Myf's mouth has been 'when are we going away again?'

I may blog about camp tomorrow, but I dare say there will be more interesting blogs posted in the mean while. Although next time I'm taking a narrow boat instead of a caravan.

Sidetracked

2005-06-24T16:02:00.000Z

By the blogring, would you believe? Switched the computer on to print off the packing list (yes, I keep a master copy in excel format), and just thought I'd have a quick look at Jax's camping list.

Ho hum - it was only when I clicked 'next' and landed on my own blog that I realised I'd got a little off-target.

So shall now switch computer off and go pack something. Not sure what, as the caravan is still in storage and we still haven't decided which ruddy truck I'm taking. Was the green one last I heard. It's like a damned used car lot out there.

Oh, and half way through shopping, Myf asked me why people had to die. That made me stop in my tracks. A dozen possible answers kind of flitted through my head, but in the middle of a supermarket I took the coward's way out and asked her what made her say that? She replied that Grandma wasn't getting better and did that mean she was going to die? and if so, she really didn't want her to.

What do you say at moments like that? Mid-shop, trolley full of camping supplies, lunch a little overdue, Piglet pulling Tea's hair... I'm ashamed to admit that I gave her a hug and mumbled something inane before changing the subject rapidly and scolding Piglet. Just wasn't prepared for that in any way, shape or form.

Am going to go pack now. Honest.

Bit of a lightbulb moment

2005-06-23T10:47:00.000Z

Actually, several lightbulb moments so far today and it's not quite 11am.

First, getting up earlier really does make a huge difference to my day. Yeah, I know, not exactly rocket science, but the past few months I've really struggled to get moving before 8am. A combination of not getting to bed before midnight, being woken anything up to 5 times a night and then having the alarm go off at 6.15 for James. Doesn't really make for a restful night's sleep, so when I do doze off after he's left for work at about 7am, I'm forcibly woken up by leaping children at 8am and feel all the worse for it.

So this morning, I was up and dressed by the time James left for work. Mainly because I wanted to take some Voltarol and needed to eat before taking it (it's not pleasant if you don't). So my morning went as follows:

7-7.30 - bring laundry in, put more on line, load machine, eat breakfast, take tablet
7.30-8 - feed and dress children, blog, check email
8-9 - do half a mountain of ironing whilst chidren play (dismantle) bedroom, start interesting conversation with Myf on the Second World War, prompted by an advert on Classic FM for the Victory celebrations on July 10th (her birthday)
9-10 - child-initiated hour-long WWII fest, reading Horrible Histories of Woeful World War Two, in depth study of wall map following invasions etc as laid out in Horrible Histories, talked of rationing, why oranges weren't in the shops, why there were no supermarkets (oh to go back in time), how much butter you would have been allowed per week, etc
10-10.45 - more ironing, Myf pairing socks, Tea and Piglet dismantling the other bedroom, then nappies out on the line, and another load of washing put in

Am dead impressed with myself. Seems the drugs are working! Not too impressed with the state of the kitchen though. I'm not daft enough to try and empty the bin, which desperately needs doing, but I need to sweep and mop the kitchen floor, clear off the counters, then go outside and move the two tables and all the plants thereon down to the greenhouse, plant the remaining tomatoes, chilis and eggplants into the growbags or the greenhouse soil and see if James has sharpened the lawn mower blades yet.

That's all on top of the normal 'find living room floor, dining room floor, top of dining table, computer desk etc' routine that I should do anyhow but never seem to get round to.

Oh, and the Kessingland packing.

Fingers crossed

2005-06-23T07:26:00.000Z

that this morning isn't so bad. It's not even half past seven, and I'm up, dressed and even breakfasted. Pretty amazing. However, there is method in my madness. Somehow, I have contrived to do something unpleasant to my back. After suffering for the past 5 days or so, I've given in and dug out the voltarol/diclofenac I was given last year when I hurt my shoulder. I loathe taking tablets (having lived on ibuprofen for years after college), so only took the bare minimum. Which means there's plenty left for an emergency like this.

And yes, I do classify it as an emergency - I leave for Kessingland in a little over 48 hours. And James has invited a couple of friends round for a BBQ tonight. And I'm supposed to be going on a girls night out on Friday (first time in ages and ages), and that's after a trip to the chiropractor as Friday afternoon was the first possible spot they could squeeze me in. And yes, it is as bad as all that, I'm afraid.

Man waved off to work. Breakfast eaten. Tablet taken - bleargh. Kids still asleep. Better go water the hanging baskets and tomatoes (as he was a little busy last night).

Oh, and did I mention one of the friends coming round for the BBQ is a bit of a neat freak? Bugger.

Crap morning

2005-06-22T10:31:00.000Z

Being grumpy mommy. An hour behind schedule (ha, yeah, right, what schedule???) Being beastly to the three little urchins who would rather run around in the sunshine outside than get dressed, pick up trail of books and toys, find hairbrush and bands, locate shoes etc etc

Have also managed to hurt my back again. I've suffered with my back (or more accurately pelvis) for years and years, but recently, since having Piglet, it's been pretty good. So now it's hurting again, I'm having to relearn how to live with it. It's been 5 days now, and it's also getting worse. The most annoying thing is, I don't know how I've done it. It's not like I've had a major digging session at the allotment (although I really should do at some point) or rearranged the furniture or anything specific.

Suppose breakfast might be a good idea.

And you know what I really hate? Nasty cheap supermarket ham, the kind which when you take the last slice out of the packet, it's wet. Not just damp, but wring-out-and-hang-on-the-line sopping wet. It's revolting. Why do they have to add water to everything? I know it ups the weight and therefore the price and therefore the bottom line profit, but must everything be sacrified for profit? Flavour seems to be an optional extra these days. And if you want that, you have to add it in with something that begins 'E'.

One small comfort, though - I haven't bought fruit, veg or meat from a supermarket in over a month. :) Just my small stand for small, local producers and suppliers, but I get fruit and veg either from the little veggie stall in the village or from an organic vegebox supplier, and my meat either from the local butcher in the village or direct from the best farm shop ever. They raise and slaughter their own free-range, corn-fed chickens - no added water, no cross contamination in processing (did you know that organic chickens are processed on the same line as bog standard ones? with no cleaning in between batches?), no burnt hocks or black meat or birds spending their last remaining days with less room than the area of a sheet of A4 paper sat in ammonia filled barns...

Rant over. Going to try and get out of the house, over an hour late. :::sigh:::

8.44am

2005-06-20T08:44:00.000Z

and the kids are still asleep.

Amazing, eh? I guess the fact we didn't get home last night until midnight might have something to do with it. Spent the weekend at Eastnor Castle, just below Malvern, at a Land Rover show. Got sidetracked on the way home at Mom's and didn't leave there until gone 9pm. Had to stop at the services to retrieve Bunny and various blankets and snugglies and the like from the caravan, and then again on the A42 to remove said snugglies from under the front seats of the truck and replace back in the arms of squawking children. I also tucked them all up in a large fleecy blanket whilst I was at it. Two miles later and they were all fast asleep.

Now I've got a million and one things to do before Bradway group this afternoon, so I'd better switch this device off.

Oh - and picked my first courgettes this morning whilst wandering around the garden at 7.30. :) Might have a rootle round under the potato haulm and see if there's anything big enough for dinner. I noted there were also a few broad beans that might be big enough to pick, and a few pea pods (although they tend to get eaten raw in the garden - I don't think any have made it into the kitchen yet this year.)

Little surprise

2005-06-15T20:09:00.000Z

Back in March, we got a couple of bunnies from one of Myf's cousins in Wakefield. They were quite small, and we chose a black one and a brown one. Daddy named them Guiness and Tetley. Suitable names for a couple of boy bunnies.

Tetley, however is not a boy.

I was checking on them yesterday (it's Myf's job to feed and water them every day, but I check in every so often just to make sure) and when I opened the sleeping compartment, to see if they needed cleaning out, I saw a large pile of pale brown fur in the corner. Thinking they'd been fighting, I reached out to touch it - lovely soft, warm bunny fur. Absolutely gorgeous.

When it jumped and started squeaking, however, I had to reassess the situation. Underneath their soft coverlet of down were four little blind, naked baby bunnies, no more than 3 inches long. Eyes tightly closed, soft velvety skin all wriggling and smooth. Three black and one brown.

Bearing in mind that our guinea pig is expecting, probably due at the end of July, it seems our menagerie is growing slightly quicker than planned. Espcially as I'm supposed to be getting some chickens sometime in July too...

Anyone want a new pet? ;)

Found another quiz

2005-06-13T09:52:00.000Z

You scored as Paganism. Your beliefs are most closely
aligned with those of paganism, Wicca, or a similar
earth-based religion. You may also follow a
Native American religion.

Buddhism

71%

Paganism

71%

Judaism

50%

Islam

46%

Hinduism

46%

agnosticism

42%

atheism

33%

satanism

31%

Christianity

13%

Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)
created with QuizFarm.com

BBQ weekend

2005-06-12T23:07:00.000Z

Had a lovely day yesterday - BBQ for Piglet's second birthday. After a brief moment of consternation when it rained (for all of 5 minutes), it turned out all right in the end.

Barbara, Kirsty and Nikki all came round with offspring, plus two other local friends with their children , so there were 12 small people tearing around the garden. We charcoaled sausages and burgers and the kids ate twice what I expected them to - which was great!

At about 5ish, the first batch of merrymakers started to wend their way home and the second wave of guests arrived - more children, slightlyolder this time, and more stuff to BBQ, with cake and other niceties.

Needless to say, was a late night - gone midnight and several glasses of wine consumed. Tea and Myf went to bed about 10pm, so they were exhausted. I'd whisked Piglet upstairs for a bath at 8pm, and the poor thing could barely keep her eyes open by the end of it.

Her excema is bad though. The rosehip seed oil which was recommended to me had started to work really well, but it seems to have lost its efficacy. I'm not sure if it's something she's eaten - I've cut oranges and tomatoes out of her diet, much to her absolute disgust. But the last couple of days the red patches in the flexures of her arms and legs have grown and now look angrier than ever. I wondered if it could be dairy, as someone suggested, but she's had barely any milk (apart from the stuff on her breakfast) and it's no better. :( Poorly Piglet. Anyone any suggestions? I tried some calendula cream from Sarah, but that didn't help either.

And today - we finally moved the greenhouse. Should really blog that over in the Muddy Musings blog, but I haven't updated that one in months. Ho hum, guess that's what happens when real life comes along and interupts a perfectly good blog. :P Had the first potatoes and carrots with dinner tonight though. Very, very good. As was the rib of beef from a local farm.

Busy day - again

2005-06-06T20:11:00.000Z

Had a car-ed day - seemed to spend half of it on the road anyhow. First to Kirsty's to drop off her laminator, (borrowed via Jax), then whizz into Sheffield to see Barbara for an hour. They were going to Bradway though, so we left them at lunchtime and headed to Chesterfield to visit with Sarah & co.

Would have liked to go to Bradway, as they were making sock puppets, but we're still in self-imposed quarantine due to chicken pox. Actually, we're a day or so in the clear now, as the particular strain we were exposed to makes itself known 14 days after contamination, but we thought we'd err on the safe side, especially with Kessingland coming up.

However, there are no spots visible yet, so it seems we've escaped the pox yet again. Must be the third exposure since February, and Tea and Piglet still haven't caught them. Myf had them when she was 10 months old, so fingers crossed will be immune.

At least we're clear for Thursday - it's Doncaster's first Home Ed meeting, at the Point. 12.30 to 3.30, for those who want to know. Guess I'd better post it on a few lists.

Borrowed a set of 'Bob' reading books from Barbara. See if that gets Myf reading. Especially as Barbara's E sat and read the first book to me, with Myf looking on in astonishment. Hmm - wonder if I've awakened a competitive streak in her. Or if she'll just sulk and pout that E can do it and not her. :::sigh:::

Popcorn

2005-06-05T21:04:00.000Z

We just made home grown popcorn. And no, that's not a typo. :)

Last year I grew a variety of Amish corn called Purple Popcorn. And what do you know - but it is! I put an entire ear of dried corn into the microwave, turned it on and stood well back. After a couple of minutes, it began to jump around and fluffy white popcorn appeared. The kernels were smaller than commercial popcorn, and a little chewier, but the girls didn't complain. Drizzle on a little melted butter and they were fighting over it.

Home grown popcorn. Am I pleased with myself or what? And to add to the brag, I have peas and courgettes barely days away from harvest, my spinach is overflowing the square foot bed (having had three good dinners and numerous salads out of it already), and I think that any day now I could start rootling around under lush foliage for the first new potatoes.

Wonder if it's too late to sow some corn direct into the soil.

Normal service shall resume shortly...

2005-05-24T23:27:00.000Z

Ok, been one of those months. Suddenly, it's almost June (and even more almost my birthday!) and I haven't really blogged a huge amount. A few pictures of our holiday, but nothing of substance.

There are a few reasons for that, but none that are worth going into here. My blog outlook has changed subtly over the past month or so, and I've had to reassess why I blog and what I get out of it.

We've still got two family members going through the chemotherapy thing, both coming to the end of their first courses of treatment. We're keeping all fingers crossed for lab/scan results in a couple of weeks time (although we have had one batch of very positive results for James' mum, which is an enormous boost). James and I are still wondering where we're going - but at least the mess of last year is over and we've decided that where ever we're going, we're going as a family. He's got a lot of thinking to do regards work, life direction, what he wants to do etc. Myf is telling anyone who'll listen that we're buying a farm. Which is ultimately what we want to do, to be honest, but where/when crops up again. (Personally I like Wales and the west country, but James would rather go North Yorks...)

But I think I'm going to leave all that kind of nonsense out of future blogs - my main focus of life at the moment is Myf and her education. Or lack thereof. Three large bookcases and two wide shelves full of books/resources/material, and she isn't interested in any of it. I've read up on autonomous education, dipped into Steiner-Waldorf, had a look at Montessori, imported some formal Sonlight curriculum, brought home bags of KS1 books and the like from various book shops and bought pretty much every Usborne that the Book People offer.

So far, the only thing she seems to have taken a liking to are the dozen or so pocket science books that arrived in the Book People box a couple of days ago.

Maybe we need to reduce our social life somewhat - Sheffield on Mondays, days out with Daddy on Tuesdays, Chesterfield on Thursdays, and visiting friends on at least one other day each week. But we spend too many days in the house and everyone goes completely stir crazy.

We have had a fairly successful day today though. We read through the 'How do Bees make Honey?' science book - made extra interesting by the fact that the chap we went to Croatia with keeps bees as a hobby. Myf was most impressed when I said that Wayne would probably take us to see his beehives if we asked him. I also got her big keyboard out today - it's been in Piglet's bedroom since Xmas, and they've all been playing with it. We found the Usborne First book of the Keyboard and worked through the first 6 pages. Then the two little ones found the recorders and I left them all to it in the living room. When the little ones went down for a nap, Myf brought me a little tapestry kit I'd picked up from the Scrap store and we started it. She got a bit impatient after 10 minutes, so I sent her up for a snooze.

So, for a little while, I think it'll just be a running diary of the things we've accomplished as a home ed family. With a bit of gardening thrown in, some Land Rovering... oh and the occasional HE camp. :) We are so looking forward to Kessingland.

2005-05-20T22:29:00.000Z

The village where we were staying - pronounced "Z-band-eye" with the Z like the S in pleasure. Weird language... almost Russian

2005-05-20T22:27:00.000Z

A snippet of scenery. The whole country (well, the part we were in, Istria) is like this.

2005-05-20T22:23:00.000Z

A picturesque water mill - it's been refitted at the moment with a generator and will be supplying the village with all its electricity by the summer.

2005-05-20T22:21:00.000Z

Oops - and we wondered why this road was closed! That's me in the khaki shorts, peering over the edge of the tarmac at the 50ft drop. It was a bend in the road around the side of a mountain and the road had just... slipped away. About 100 yards to the left of the picture was a big chunk of mountainside, topped with a neat triangular piece of tarmac, a couple of kerb stones and a still-standing speed limit sign!

2005-05-20T22:16:00.000Z

The Limski Canal (more of a fjord than a canal). The water was crystal clear though.

2005-05-20T22:13:00.001Z

Windy little street in Porec. Look at the colour of that sky!

2005-05-20T22:13:00.000Z

The house in Croatia where we were staying. That gorgeous wisteria was just coming into flower as we arrived and was just finishing as we left. It was stunning.

Oh, I needed this...

2005-05-16T12:07:00.000Z

Pep you up

Full blog posting coming later on today. Just to say we had a fabulous weekend at a Land Rover show, kids had a ball (there were 9 little girls on the DOC stand, ages 2 to 13 years old).

And yes, Croatia pics coming too.

I'm back

2005-05-11T08:33:00.000Z

And it was absolutely fabulous. :) Want to go back, want to go back.

Actually, we very seriously looked at land and houses over there. James is wanting a move, and we still haven't ruled out moving abroad. We've always looked at Brittany and NW France, but Croatia would be good. It's so stunningly beautiful out there, and it's relatively uncrowded. The soil is a rich, dark red and everywhere you look are grape vines and olive groves. :::sigh:::

The house we stayed at had wisteria growing round the front that was just coming into flower as we arrived, and as we were leaving the flowers were giving way to silvery green leaves. The garden was walled, and they had a handful of outbuildings, including one known as the summer kitchen. Apparently in the summer it gets too hot to cook in the main house, so they do it all in the separate 'summer kitchen' to avoid over heating the house. Which is made of stone so it stays lovely and cool inside.

We had temperatures of 25 degrees and gorgeous hot sunny days. I have a whole raft of photos to upload, but I need to finish editing them. We took over 700 pictures, so I'm going to have to choose the best dozen to blog.

However, I need to go finish some laundry now - I have mountains of the stuff. Oh for a cleaning lady who irons... lol. Never mind, once I've hung some stuff out, I need to attack my garden. The grass is 8" high and my poor lawnmower needs its blades sharpening. I'm really after a scythe though (long story). We saw someone using one in Croatia, and Myf said 'Mommy, when we get our farm, will you need one of those?'

Certainly will, my dear. :)

Greetings from Luxembourg

2005-04-23T20:25:00.000Z

Well, guess who found an internet bar halfway up a mountainside in Luxembourg? lol It's costing 0.15 euros a minute and I'm wasting 20 seconds of every minute on here trzing to work mz waz around this German bloodz kezboard.

And yes, the z is where the y should be. Ho hum.

But it's gorgeous here - the weather has been alternately wet and sunny, and we drove up the side of this mountain, through the gorgeously pictuesque village of Larochette (go check a map, it's just north of Luxembourg city itself.)

Today we drove from just outside Dunkerque, where we camped after gettng off the ferry last night at 9.30 pm local time, down to Lille, across into Belgium, around Stuttgart and into Lux. Tomorrow we head across into Germany and down into Austria, where we'lls pend the night very near to Innsbruck (skiers will know where I mean). Should be a good opportunitz for more photographs, as it's in the Tyrol and therefore pictuesque.

Ok, fed up of this kezboard now. lol. James has the small ones in he little park in this campsite, so no doubt they're bouncing off the equipment in an ice-cream-fuelled-sugar-rush. :)

K xxx

Sunny day and a pulled plug

2005-04-19T12:18:00.000Z

So, I'm washing again. I know I've got 5 people in my house, but honestly - my washing machine runs every single day of the year. Normally several times a day. And, being a big toploading Yankee thing, it holds almost twice what a standard front loading washer does. Sometimes I feel like I spend my life washing.

At least today is sunny and blowy and I can hopefully get through the two more loads I've got to do, before the rain clouds make an appearance. I'm washing kids jackets (needed for holiday!) so they're going to take some drying.

But why am I moaning about laundry, for goodness sake? Myf has made a huge leap in the last day or two. I came in from the garden earlier and thought - hmm, quiet round here. The smaller two were excavating a flower bed so I went looking for my eldest. And there she was, cuddled up in the armchair reading a book. Now, I don't know how much was reading and how much was looking at pictures, but she was studying each page, running her finger across the words, pausing now and then.

It's taken nearly 3 days, but it seems that I've actually suceeded in doing what I set out to do on Sunday. I pulled the plug on the tv. Literally. Scrambled around down the back of the tv unit and unplugged the idiot-box from the socket. We've had tears and tantrums and the baby wailing 'telly on telly on!' for two days - and then suddenly, today, they're playing.

I tidied up the living room, vac'd the floor and then went to do more laundry. Came back, and found them all lying on the carpet in a pile of books. Even Piglet was looking at a Tweenies annual. :-D

Ok, so I won't gloat anymore. Not too much. But they're demanding more Wizard of Oz now. Off to do my parental duty and educate my children.

There is one small problem...

2005-04-17T22:42:00.000Z

with me voting Green. I do, in fact, agree with a lot of their policies. But as it says below, there is one point we do differ hugely on. I am very, very PRO-hunting.

I shall now sit back and wait for the stream of invective to arrive in my comments box. No doubt the more poisonous comments will all be anonymous. :) lol

This is how I'm supposed to vote...

2005-04-17T22:09:00.000Z

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Conservative

Your actual outcome:

Labour -36
Conservative -11
	Liberal Democrat 20
	UK Independence Party 17
	Green 28

You should vote: Green

The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Minutes letter

2005-04-15T22:37:00.000Z

Well - it's done. Have actually finished the bloody thing that's been plaguing me for weeks (well, a month almost). Am not going to post the entire thing here, as I'm sure you've all got much better things to do than read a snide dig at the LEA.

I think I've refrained from the libellious invective I initially wrote - it's been edited and added to so much I'm not sure how much is my original text. then again, as someone so beautifully put it, "It's only libellious if it isn't true". ;) I like it, I like it.

One particular paragraph I really like comes right at the end though - the main part of it was originally written by me, but a rather nice chap on LEAwork gave me a few suggestions on how to word it:

"Doncaster LEA cannot make up their own version of the law and insist on policies going beyond it. Richard Iball has continued to demonstrate hostility and suspicion towards families not following his preferred educational style. It is not be possible to work constructively with him, unless he radically revises his approach away from visiting, inspecting and policing. As well as having no legal right to insist on visits, you also have no right to insist that we deal with a particular individual. We suggest that you take legal advice and consult with DfES before proceeding further with any planned SAOs."

It just reads so nicely. I may be letting myself in for some hassle at some point or other, but as I've said to a number of people, I'll move, then sue the LEA for harassment. :) Or vice versa. Feeling a tad 'what the hell' at the moment. Might change my tune when the real hassle starts, I suppose.

Off for a cup of tea (minus whiskey, Nikki! shall be over at some point with copy of letter unless you'd like it emailing) and a slice of 'raisin cake' [malt loaf]. Feeling quite guilty though, as have just eaten half a tube of Smarties - not sure which is worse, the piggy feeling or the fact they're made by Nestle... I think they're a hangover from Easter. Urgh