Sunday, May 11, 2008
Sun, sun and more sun
Oh! how I love this weather - suddenly feel so much younger and very, very silly *laughs*. Tim and I had to wash something outside earlier with the garden hose with the inevitable result of a bit of childish playing going on!
Rosie has gone to Abbotsbury today with grandma, grandpa and Luke so it was just me, Tim and April at home. This morning we went to Tesco and picked up some essentials (including sun lotion!) and not-essential-but-essential (if you see what I mean!) things like yummy egg custard tarts (which we thoroughly enjoyed for tea!). Also picked up April a preschool letter learning pack with sticker book, colouring book and wipe clean workbook. Was then astonished to see her sit down with the wipe clean book and trace over some letters almost perfectly! She has amazing pen control for a 3 year old! She also recognised a load of the letters and was matching them up to pictures. Anyway, here's her page of traced letters :)
Aprils also spent ages outside today playing with a bowl of water, painting and hunting for ants so she's a very happy little girl. She would spend ALL day outside if we let her - hmmmm, a great candidate for being shut up in school full time - NOT!
Tonight, Tim and I are going to relax with a bottle of VERY chilled white wine and Young Musician of the Year on telly. Perfect :)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Here's a rarity!
Not so much the temperatures (although they are lovely!) - more the fact that for the first time in I don't know how many weeks (months!) there is NO rain forecast!! Our local weather for the next few days looks very warm and toasty :)
Well, today I went to the opticians - not a huge change in my eyesight so I'm putting the headaches down to stress or whatever. I feel fine in myself so, given the opticians report, I don't think there's much wrong. I did order a new pair of glasses though, just for the sake of it, *smiles* slightly more modern ones than I've got now and (amazingly!) quite cool and sexy ;)
Also, today, we went (finally!) and paid the registration fees for April's nursery place. I still have massive misgivings about this whole thing and I know, mostly, that she's going purely for selfish reasons on my part (ie I need some time alone!). I'm pretty sure that she will be ok there but it's still an "educational institution" and, to be honest, I'm not overly fond of them. Anyway, I'm going to break the whole thing down into chunks. First, we'll get to half term and, if she's still ok, then we'll leave her there until the summer holiday. At that point we'll make the "big" decision as to whether to send her back in the autumn or not. Obviously, if she gets there and is monumentally unhappy then she'll be out straight away!
I'm trying to look at this from a positive viewpoint:
- I'll get time alone - once a week (did I mention that?!)
- Assuming that we may well home ed her, it will give me time to plan stuff for the start of her compulsory education (she's due to start reception September 2009 - gulp!)
- It will give me some much needed time alone with just Rosie so that we can work on some stuff she needs help with.
- If we don't home ed her, it will give her (and me!) time to adjust to the new routine.
Right, I'm off now. It's been a busy day and we're winding down for the kids bedtimes and then Tim and I can relax with dinner.
Monday, May 05, 2008
This just about sums things up
I doodled this yesterday. It started off as Toad (the little mushroom guy from the Mario games), then turned into a cross toad and then turned into a cross toad stood next to a busted computer. It clearly shows my state of mind at the time.
Y'see, a couple of days ago our computer decided to just stop working - no loud bangs, no weirdy behaviour, no warning, nothing. It just wouldn't start - or rather, it did but, for some reason, there was nothing getting through to the monitor. Tried a different monitor - still nothing. Tried the main monitor with an old puter and it worked. Hmmmmm. My brother (who knows a lot more about these things than us) had a look and thinks it might be overheating and causing something to "short out" ... or something. Anyway, when we've got the money (which we don't have at the moment), we're taking it to Nami (who does our computer mending) and getting him to sort it out but in the meantime we're stuck with our ancient old pute. I'm seriously hoping that nothing was lost off the other other one and that it will be a simple repair job.
D'ya know what I think the problem is? I think it's overworked and this is a sign. It's a sign that says I simply MUST have one of the gorgeous pink laptops that they sell in PC World and thus put less strain on our main pute. It makes sense! Ahem.
So, this thing we've got now is S....L.....O.....W. It can't handle too much in one go (I know the feeling) BUT it's something (and I'm bloody glad we hung on to it when we got our new one!)
Thingamablog and all my archives were on the other computer so over the last couple of days, Tim has laboriously set everything up and copy/pasted my posts into the archives so that I can carry on blogging using this pute. He has the same problem with his blog but has a lot more posts so is just not going to bother - so no blogging from him for a while!!
So, what else has been happening. Not a lot really. The kids both have colds - Rosie mainly, April just has a bit of a sniffle. I've got the opticians tomorrow - new glasses required most likely - fab, I can really excel myself and see if I can look even more geeky than I do already. Tim rather likes them - it's the saucy secretary look I guess but I don't cause they annoy me by slipping down (I've only got a tiny little nose which just isn't the right shape for supporting glasses). Oh well, better than seeing everything through a fog I guess!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Need a massage
Very achey today (and no, that's not the slightly embarrassing painful problem I mentioned earlier!) - I think I must have slept awkwardly last night because I'm all stiff between the shoulder blades.
Well, after Tim got home from work and we'd had lunch and then took April for, what will be her last, Tumbletots session. 2 reasons - firstly, we've (finally!) decided to go ahead and put her in the Montessori school and secondly Tumbletots is, in fact, pants. It looks impressive when you first walk in there with all this fancy climbing equipment but it basically involves the kids queuing up to do the same circuit over and over again for 3 quarters of an hour. Meanwhile I (as I mentioned in a previous post) had to sit in a side room with all the other mums and listen to their endless drone about their kids (I think I must be a baaaaad mum coz I hate that stuff) This week the topic of conversation was milk teeth *yawn*.
Anyway, so that was that. Our decision to put April in the school a couple of sessions a week means that Tumbletots will be knocked on the head. She's only 3 and unlike a lot of parents I don't believe every second of every day has to be filled with activities and whatnot - she'd be cream crackered.
So, the school. There are OH! so many reasons for this - the main one being that she is just SO into everything all the time - she totally needs to be in an environment where she can do stuff that I cannot possibly do with her at home (AND try and home ed Rosie!) She had a fab time when we went to look round and she has no problem with being "left" so I reckon she'll love it. The other reason is me. I need a break - the age gap between them (nearly 8 years) makes trying to do stuff with both of them really hard. Rosie has (at most) 6 years of compulsory ed left (less than that if, in 3 years or so she decides to go to the Upper School) - the thought of starting all over again with April leaves me feeling a little giddy to be honest. I'm not saying we've ruled out home ed for her - just want to see how the school goes first.
Her sessions at the nursery will give me a whole afternoon ALONE. Unbelievable Wednesday afternoons will see Rosie and Tim at the Littledown Centre, April at nursery and me all on my own! Ooooo! what will I do? curl up on the sofa and read?, sit in the garden and soak up some sun? Whatever I do, it will be peace and quiet. Heaven! The only real time I get to myself at the mo is when Tim gets up early for work (he leaves around 4.45 in the morning) and the kids don't wake up for another couple hours or so, so I quite often get up and have tea, do some yoga or whatever - it's really nice "me" time but Wednesday afternoons are going to be the highlight of my week *smiles*.
All this stuff leaves me in a bit of a quandry about what to do with the Dorset home ed group stuff I was doing. To be honest, it's going to be a little redundant as Rosie's not fussed either way and is happy with her current activity level, April won't really need it so .... well, we'll see. Right now, at least for the next year or so, we're going to be a half home educating family and d'you know what? I'm actually really looking forward to a change of "scenery" and I think April will be much happier too *big grin* Happy bunnies all round!
Right, now I'm off to chill out - lovely evening here, very sunny and warm :)
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Teddies!
The kids decided it would be fun (not entirely sure why *laughs*) to line up every soft toy they own on their respective beds and take photos - I couldn't believe how many they had!! It didn't even include the pile that I have on my kitchen worktop that I need to repair! Rosie took the pics and you can just make out April in the corner by her bed (looking spectacularly grumpy!)
April's!
Rosie's!
I've had a "nothing" kind of day other than making phone calls, drinking tea and keeping an eye on the kids. Not much else done due to a (painful!) reason that I certainly won't be revealing here! I do, however, want to share this cute pic of Mo that I took last night - dear, gorgeous old thing *smiles*
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Temptation
Just found this on You Tube .... bliiiimey, it takes me back! I always did absolutely love this track - extremely provocative and a tad rude - especially if you listen very carefully to the lyrics sung by the woman right near the end ;) Video gives me the heebie-jeebies even thought I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Sexy ;)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Quiet
Tim's at work this morning so I've taken the opportunity to get on and hoover/dust/clean up bathroom a bit. Y'know, not all that long ago I used to really hate doing this stuff but just lately I've actually started to get some pleasure out of it. Pushing the hoover about or washing up or whatever allows me to daydream which is really rather nice *smiles*. Of course, the finished results always look lovely too!
Anyway, today is quiet - the kids are both currently happily engaged with things, I've finished my cleaning and am (obviously!) blogging and about to have tea.
This afternoon, Tim is taking Rosie to her trampoline class at the Littledown Centre. Sometimes April and I also go if the weather is nice so that we can play in the park but today its rubbish so Tim will have to go on his own and read the paper in the cafe while he waits for Rosie. This gives me and April a lovely quiet afternoon at home *smiles*.
Tomorrow, I have to take April to Tumbletots. Now, she adores this but I don't like it so much for the simple reason that I have to wait in another room with all the other mums. What I can't stand is the inane chatter - last week we had stuff like "oooo! you'd never guess how many poos Matthew did yesterday?!"
No, I wouldn't and furthermore I don't flippin' care!
I don't understand why a bunch of parents (ooook, mums!) have to get together and discuss their kids bowel movements! I mean, it's not like I get together with friends and start discussing mine or Tim's toilet habits is it?!
"oooo" you'd never guess ............"
Ok, let's not go there.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
"Yeah?... waddya want?"
Hemmy, being typically Hemmy (i.e a moody git) when I call him to try and get him to look at me so I can take his photo.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I'm honoured
"The "Arte y Pico" award was created/made to be given out to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their works, whether it be writing, artwork or more. When one receives this award it is considered a "special honor". Once you receive this award, you are to pass it on to at least 5 others. For more info on this wonderful award, where it originated, please visit Arte y pico at their blog. ( I couldn't think of a better way to describe this award so I just used what Nats wrote which originally came from Auntiebunny )"
I am the very proud recipient of this award, given to me by my wonderful friend Natalie. Looking at some of the other people that have been awarded it, I feel totally unworthy (especially given that this reincarnation of my blog is so very, very new) but amazingly happy!
I'm considering who to pass it on to ... there are so many that I think deserve it so I'm giving it some serious thought.
PS - thanks Nats for my pressie which arrived in the post this morning - It was incredibly thoughtful of you :)
EDITED:
I've given this thought .... here are my 5 choices. Some of the writers of these blogs might not even know I exist but I wanted to send the award to them because they have all, at some point, totally inspired me and/or amazed me with their creativity :)
Stephanie - such a wonderful, informative blog and such a wonderful, warm human being.
Caroline - fab lapbooks she makes with her kids :)
Maricar - WONDERFUL homemaking hints and tips - I linked to her waaaay back on my old blog and still adore her site now.
Amanda - gorgeous crafts, gorgeous blog
Merry - 4 kids, own business, fab blog - I'm not sure how she does it frankly ;) Inspired me from the time I started home edding.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Dorset Home Education
If you live in Dorset (or the closely surrounding counties), pop along to our groups event page - we have some great activities (arranged by us and other home ed friends) coming up and all are more than welcome to join in :)
Please excuse the fact that I have, thus far, failed to install a top bar on the page to take you back to the main DHE index page. Ahem. My excuse is that I don't know how to do it ...... Tiiim?!!
See archive index for other posts