Friday, October 29, 2004

Just a Little HE

I thought I'd blog just a little of our Pre-school home-ed! It seems that at half-terms (when the boys are not doing school) the girls get their turn.

At Tea-time yesterday Boo stunned me by doing 'take-aways' with her Smarties!! She is only 3 8/12 and I didn't even realise she knew what 'take-away' meant, but there she was... She counted her Smarties (17) and with each one she put in her mouth she said "take away one." When she got down to 10 left she then started saying "10" (starting number), put one in her mouth "take away one leaves..." (recount) "9!" And she did this all the way down to "none." I was astounded!! Joel only really began to do this kind of thing 6 months ago maybe and she's just absorbing it. Bear in mind though, that she is only really around for Maths maybe 1 or 2 days a week because she is out three mornings and we tend to try to get Maths done early on. I can't believe it's come from playgroup - they're not that good!!

Other learning that came from the mini-Smartie boxes; Boo recognised the letters 'S' 'M' and 'A' (although she had know 'A' for some time now - both upper and lower case are in her name) on the backs of the boxes.

Then at bedtime we were looking at one of our library books and Boo was successfully able to identify the numbers 1-5 without error.

At various points over the last few weeks I have also noticed how many opposites Abbie knows, even some more obscure ones; young/old, black/white/, under/over/, go around/go through, loud/quiet, noisy/ sssh! :)

When did my baby get to be so smart?! :)

Phoebe (2 8/12) is really making a concerted effort to learn her colours at the moment. She has Pink and Blue off pat - but not much else yet. We're getting there. Considering she only really started talking about 6 months ago she is doing really well I think.

I really love Home-Ed - especially when it shouts at me that it's working!! :)

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Still Here...

Just in case you're all wondering, I am still alive - just! I'm feeling lousy and not doing much. The kids are having to amuse themselves for the large part. I'm needing to sleep +++ and walking around with a hazey headache (as is my thing in early pregnancy) that leaves me grumpy and no fun to be around. I can't face food of many descriptions, but thankfully it is staying down OK! I'm lurking around - reading blogs and commenting here and there, but there's not much to report of note in the Wellyboots household - and may not be for the next few weeks - so you're pre-warned!! :)

Monday, October 25, 2004

Catching Up - again!!

School trips and birthdays - it's all been happening here!!

Not sure really where I'm up to, put save to say - all the best laid plans have been laid to waste!! I'm feeling too ill in the mornings (well until about 2pm really) to do much and Ellie has been up in the night, stuffed up with cold, for a few nights too. So despite planning to work last week we really didn't do much and all my fabulous library books lay unopened on the bookshelves :( Still the children didn't seem to mind too much having a few extra days off!!

Tuesday afternoon we went to play at my Swedish friend's house (she must be crazy!) and it was good to see how well her little girl (5) is doing with learning English. they have only been here a couple of months and she was managing to communicate really well with my children. They had a great time playing 'Peter-Pan' together and dressing up (well the girls did!). Very educational - 'Cross-Cultural studies' !

On Wednesday I spent the morning sorting through the remainder of the girls wardrobe - filtering out the summer clothes and the things that have been out-grown - while the boys hung around asking "are we doing any school today Mummy?" - I think they were struggling to think of anything to do, but I was struggling enough to get my job finished, let alone have to occupy/school them too. I handed them a pile of games from the cupboard that they could play with the girls too (Tumbling Monkeys, Pair-Bears &, Funny Faces) and that kept them occupied until lunch time and had a little education value (well PSE - "getting along together" - if nothing else!!) .

Thursday I helped out at our church 'Clothes Sale' - where we sell off loads of clothes (another reason for my finishing my sort out on Wednesday) and other 'odds & ends' at 20p a piece in aid of a charity called 'Lifelink' that supports Elim Missionaries (and in turn developing world projects). We managed to raise £71 this time - which is the most we have raised for a long time. Anything we don't sell goes on to the Women's refuge as emergancy clothing, so it gets put to good use whatever.

Friday - no school day anyway and end of half-term!! :)

Saturday - no tennis - ballet as usual - no swimming this week. Then in the eveing we took 7 children (together with 6 adults) bowling & to MD's for Joel's birthday party. We all had a "ball" !! Ellie and Phoeb's went to Helen's so that kept them happy too.

'spare'


'spare' 2


Spare celebrations!


team work!


Nice!


Bro's chatting


The Pro Bro's


Two wise Monkey!! (Joel & Dom)


The rest of the gang



Sunday was Joel's birthday - 6 already!! So the day began at 7am with cards and presents and a very excitedly happy little boy :) Then off to church wearing his new England Kit (this is exceptional as I usually like them to dress smart, but I couldn't be that mean today!) Home to his favourite lunch of Jacket Potatos with fried chicken in (nice and easy that one) and a 'Formula One' birthday cake. Normally I try to make their cakes, but I confess I wasn't up to it this time ;)

Today - lots of playing with new toys and getting cross at anyone else who wanted to join in - especially when it came to shariing his new Magnetix set - oooh - major stroppiness there - even when I wanted to play!! In fact the children spent most of the day bickering (usual holidays style), while I hid at the PC and installed Windows SP2 (which took a while!!) and Office SP2 (another while!!) and Mum cleaned my bathrooms for me (which took her all day - they weren't that bad - she just is not a very efficient person and always takes an age to do everything!! But I couldn't face the job, so better her take all day at it than me not do it at all :) ).

Then swimming; Jacob has gone up to Level 7 already - WOW!! Joel is staying put at Level 3 for now, but has made a good improvement according to his teacher.



Tuesday, October 19, 2004

So Now you know Why!!

I guess I can't keep it secret forever. I'm guessing this is the reason I've been so volatile of late, so I'm coming clean before you all guess anyway! Yes, Number 6 is on the way!! Even my 3 yr old suspects something so I shall tell the children this week I think. Not too many people know just now, but I guess I shall have to spread the news fast now that I've blogged it!! By the way - the counter is blue as I'm almost certain it will be a boy - timing was too good!!

Had a good morning so far though :)

Monday, October 18, 2004

Feeling like I'm on a See-Saw!!

Well the last couple of days have been really up and down. Friday was up, the weekend was OK, today was definitely down again!!

Friday started out lovely with Jacob bringing me toast in bed (on a tray!) and Joel making breakfast for himself and Abbie of his own initiative. He then had to make Phoebe's too because she refused to let anyone else!! The boys then went off for a bike ride and a walk along the canal with their Dad while I had my Mum's group here. Afterwards I took four children (via the shoe shop for the boys) to the library where we ended up borrowing a grand sum of about 35 books!!Jacob chose to take out 8 readers (yellow and red bananas - click the link and put 'banana books' in the category box - these are about the right reading level for him, but with colour pictures and great titles like "Dragon Boy" & "Fire Cat" so they are encouraging too. Some of them even link up with History topics in the yellow books). Joel chose a 'care for you Guinea Pig' book (hmmm- maybe he might like to clean her out now he knows how!!), a reader (which he read cover to cover last night - all 21 pages!!), and a read-to-me book - nice variety young man :) Abbie got lots of sparkly starry books, a princess book (!!), and a couple counting books (she's really into 'numbers at the minute). Phoebe got a Thomas book, a touchy feely (she still loves those) and a twinkly star book. And I got out masses of books to use for our "U.K." study in Geography - books about Shakespeare (one with some 'child friendly' Shakespeare plays), Florence Nightingale, The gunpowder-plot (that's a reader actually), one of Jake's was about the Fire of London, then some on famous Britons, London and the 'British Isles' generally. We're going to do a bit of cookery & history, all tied up in our geography (cooking different dishes from each of the UK countries and some from different times in history maybe too). I'm really trying to 'spark a flame' for learning in the boys, but all I seem to get back at the moment is "schools boring...I hate school!!" - it's very dishearteningly. Especially when you ask them exactly what they hate and they can't tell you because in actual fact, when they think about it, it's really not! It seems to be just the idea of school that makes them say these things!

Saturday was swimming, ballet and tennis as usual, followed by a shopping trip into Chester for shoes for Jacob (ended up costing me £50!! - he has terribly 'strange' & wide feet), a 'Sunday dress' for Boo, tights for both girls and other various 'bits & bobs'. Tiring, but pleasant enough. Rounded off in the evening by a family quiz night at the church - which our team won!! :)

Sunday - nothing to say really!

Today - another "RRRR" day! Begun the day well. The boys did their PBS (Postal Bible School) work well and then went on to do some Maths. Jacob had his usual application problem and quickly got sent to work at his desk. Joel had no trouble with the maths in itself, but moaned and moaned about having to actually write the answers down! I actually needed to prepare something for the afternoon and could already feel my patience wearing thin (it seems to be rather flimsy of late). Anyway, they got that finished and played for a little while til it was time to collect the girls from playgroup. When I got home my friend rang and asked if I could have her 18 month old for an hour or so, as she had to go and meet someone and her Mum had been unable to have her little girl today as had been planned. I agreed to that, but it meant in effect that school just simply didn't happen this afternoon at all. The children played well until about 3.30. Then they started nagging for the playstation (which I simply couldn't face today). I asked them to tidy their toys away first - cue tantrum and an hour in their room NOT tidying up. So then it was time for swimming. The boys took 45 minutes in the changing rooms after swimming (!!) which was totally unacceptable and then Joel came out saying that Jake had thrown his trunks up onto the ceiling and they'd got stuck on a ledge right up high (rrrrrrrr). An attendant had to get a ladder to fetch them down and was not best pleased with him - as neither was I of course! Joel then had the cheek to ask for chocolate!!

Once home, after tea, I gave the boys 15 minutes to clear up their room (bearing in mind there are two of them). Well, Jacob sat on the bed giving orders while Joel did a bit, but at the "5 minutes left" warning there was mass panic! They were warned that whatever was left at the end of the time was going in a black bag until the end of the week and I shall do the same for the rest of the week - I am SO sick of tidy-up battles! I'm hoping this might work as a motivator. A few bits went in the bag tonight - we'll see what happens tomorrow!

Anyway - I hope to post something more cheery tomorrow. Sorry folks.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Crash and Burn-out!!

Its been a tough week this week and I don't know if that's because of the children or me. I'm still feeling really tired and hence ratty and irritable. Why is it these things seem to rub off on the children? They too have been arguing with each other and me almost endlessly these last few days. School has been a struggle to motivate both myself and the boys. One of those weeks when you wonder "Why am I doing this?" So today I threw the schedule out of the window and did next to nothing. Started the day with wordsearches and a little science. Then did spellings (both boys got full marks again!), handwriting for Jake and a little bit of reading for both and called it quits. All this interspersed with very long breaks!! The boys at one point decided to pretend their bedroom was the park and scattered conkers all over the floor and then played a game that involved collecting them all up again - very sweet, and I couldn't possibly disturb them. At another point both boys decided to dress up in the girls' fairy outfits which was quite amusing, if a little worrying! - that didn't last long though. They also started to build an aeroplane with some conrtuction mecchano type stuff that we have, but Ellie woke up so they unfortunately had to put that away because of all the small bits.

Generally today the boys' behaviour did improve, perhaps for two reasons; one - their Dad had a 'word' with them this morning before he left and two - I took the pressure off schoolwise. Maybe one day I'll learn to take the lid off before the pan boils over!!

It seems my blog is taking a twice-weekly turn, that might have to suffice for now due to my weariness come the evenings.

Sorry this is not such a cheery post, we all have our bad days!

If you're wondering what the 'crash' bit in the heading is about, Joel has managed to break probably my only valuable possession, which started the day off on a rather negative note, especially when he told me he did it a couple of days ago and hadn't told me. I was saddened and disappointed that he hadn't been honest enough, so after my initial rage and when I'd had time to calm down, we sat and chatted about honesty and why rules are important (like not playing ball in the lounge!!). I think lesson learned for now. I told him he has to think of a way to show me he is sorry, as I feel that sometimes its too easy to say sorry and there be little consequence. It's not that he's not forgiven (and he knows he is) I'd just like to see him go the extra mile because it was something that was precious to me.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Must Try harder...!

Well another week has sailed on by, but my excuse this week is that Paul has a deadline tomorrow and has been 'hogging' the computer all week to get his essay written. Normally working on Sunday's is a "no, no" here, but he was really struggling with this one and it actually became unavoidable in the end. Still he has it finished now and will be handing it in in the morning. Blogging this week might be a tad scarce too as I am out at least 3 nights this week! Monday - Ikea with two friends to buy Christmas presents and goodies for a 'Swedish' girly night coming up soon, Wednesday - Pizza Hut with a bunch of Paul's friends and their partners, Friday night - Sunday School meeting! Yes, busy, busy, busy as usual!

I've been feeling exceptionally tired these last two weeks, so this week we really did have that 'take it easy week' I was planning :)

Tuesday - nightmare day that seemed to go nowhere! Plan - Maths, History and a little bit of English.

The day began by my friend S (the one I was 'advising' last Friday) offering to take the girls to their usual Tuesday Toddler group, as my other friend was away in Italy and S goes anyway with her two boys. So I accepted gratefully. Good start :) She came and collected them and me and the boys knuckled down to school.

Maths was a bit of a slog, so we took a long-ish break after it and then got down to some fun History. We talked about the fact that Tubal Cain was a worker with Bronze & Iron. (5th generation from Adam, descendent of Adam's first Son Cain - about 500/600 years into history & while Adam was still alive - Adam lived to be 900 odd!!) . This means that early man was clever! Cain (Adam's son) built a city - he was not a cave-dweller!! We compared this to the fact that standard history books state that it was 'thousands' of years before man discovered Bronze (and do you realise how difficult it is to make bronze? - just follow this link and read the first two posts!!) and it's interesting because the 'order' of discovery stated in the history books is probably not that dissimilar to what I believe actually happened (and what the Bible seems to say) - it's just the time-scale that is so different. Anyway, so then we followed up by making some nice 'bracelets' with half toilet rolls, silver foil and little bits of colour-dyed pasta (they were meant to look like jewels) , which are to remind the boys that early-man was clever and that "Tubal Cain was a worker of Bronze & Iron." It was fun and they look good. :)

'Tubal Cain' bracelet



Just as we were making the bracelets, and were rather sticky with glue, S arrived back with the girls, but instead of just bringing the girls in she took her boys out of the car too. They of course trotted in with my girls and S proceeded to tell me all about a course she is starting. I was only half listening as I was trying to finish off with the boys.

So then S went off into town with her boys and left her car in my drive, which was fine, and Me and the children had lunch. We usually take a long lunch break and as we had a full morning all the more so. Just as I was telling the boys to get out their books to do some English S arrived back. I had fully expected her to just pick up her car and go, but no! She came in again and asked for a drink. I said she'd have to make it herself as we were just about to start school again, but she proceeded to take out all the books she had just bought in Oxfam to show me, by which time her boys had run into the house and were totally distracting mine from doing as they had been told. P (her 5 yo) was throwing his Action Man around and saying 'look at this Joel, look Jake..." Next thing I hear ..."SMASH....!" Me; "What was that you've broken?" storming into the hall to find a very meek and tearful looking Jacob saying , "sorry, I'm really sorry Mummy!" He had thrown an Action Man so high (we have very high ceilings) as to smash the glass light shade in the hallway and send large & tiny shards of glass everywhere within a 2m radius!! I was rather livid - especially when P said "Jacob is so naughty Mummy" to S!! I'm afraid I laid into him a bit verbally for that - but no more than I did to Jacob for copying the foolishness of a 5yo when he knew better. Well, after I had hoovered the hallway, and living room and girls room doorways I was really in no mood for school, my stress levels were in the roof and it was 3pm! I was so worried about having missed bits and the children's feet and Ellie's little hands and knees, but what more could I do? S went sheepishly away - without her drink!!

Just so Jake didn't get away with school we did some light English and I called it quits.

In the evening when Paul tried to take down the remainder of the shattered shade the wiring to the light just disintegrated in his hands - so that's another light down!! We now only have lights in the lounge, the bathrooms and the children's rooms!!

Wednesday - never really got off the ground! We were late getting started because Jacob had a lay in. The girls were home so I had promised we would do some cookery in the morning. Having some seriously over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl I decided we would make Banana Loaf. The kids had a ball, mashing bananas and weighing ingredients- and loved licking out the bowl at the end (always the best bit!), but sadly I burnt the cake! Our 'oven' knob's temperature markings washed off one time and so now it is total guess work. I only needed 350F and had no idea where that was - I guessed wrong and the cake was undercooked inside and burnt on the outside - such a shame!! :( However I compensated by us then making 'quick breakfast rolls' which turned out great and were very tasty! :)

After the kids had had their hands in dough they of course wanted to play with dough, so out came the play-dough until lunch time. After lunch I deemed everyone was tired (well actually all except Jacob were and we so rarely have naps these days...) and so they all went to bed for a rest - boys too - and woke up about 5pm!!

I was out in the evening at a Lady's meeting - day over!!

Oh, except Wednesday has been designated our 'family home-church night' and the children were eager to do it in spite of my absence, so Daddy carried on without me. Apparently Jacob, who had been listening to 'Runrig' singing in Gaelic, asked Paul this; "When Alison (one of our Pastors, who is Scottish) prays quietly to herself she talks in Scottish doesn't she?" The answer was "Actually no, she prays in a language called 'Tongues" - so hence-forth a discussion about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit and the language of Tongues. Great stuff - sad I missed it, but thrilled it took place. :)

Thursday - I can't even remember Thursday! Can't have been too impressive. I know we did try to get a bit more school done, but I think even then it wasn't too heavy. Oh - I do remember Jacob taking an age over his Maths again though - story of my life - but he eventually 35/40 questions right. They weren't particularly easy & they were all 'mental maths', so I guess it was quite tough, but at the same time with a little bit of application and attention I know he could do it as well in half the time - it's just getting him to realise that too...Ho, Hum...!!

Friday - NO SCHOOL! Free play day for all of us :) The children were on their computer doing 'Jump Ahead Yr2' for a lot of it I think, and then 'Guess Who?' (which is all about problem solving), so I guess they self-instigated school!! I just kept out of the way :)

Saturday - the usual Tennis, swimming, Ballet routine and then Boo went off to her friend Rosie's to play for the day and Jacob had a friend to play in the afternoon while the other two girls rested. The boys were so occupied together I even managed to doze lightly on the sofa too - great!

Sunday - feeling a little less tired today (probably all those naps this weeks), but still unusually tired for me. And going to bed at quarter past one won't help that I'm sure, but when else am I going to blog!! Anyway off to bed I go :)





Monday, October 04, 2004

Funny Tomorrow!!

Ok so three days later is hardly 'tomorrow' but hey ho!! :)

SO, Friday...In the morning I had our usual Mum's Bible Study meet here together with a whole swarm of 12-18 month old girls (strangely no boys). Sometimes they were playing well together, often they were bickering over who had what doll. We have LOADS of dolls, but they always want what the other has at that age don't they!!

Afterwards one of the ladies stayed behind to 'chat' a little. She too is homeschooling her little boy (5), but he had been refusing to 'do school' over the last couple of weeks. She only really does 2-3 half days with him and doesn't want to go down the 'unschooling' route. She, like me, is the sort of person who feels she needs to at least have a rough guide and a 'fall back' structure, even if it isn't the be-all and end-all of everything. She would like to use Sonlight, but her husband would like her to not use anything at all! Sticky situation. She is the one doing the 'schooling' as he works full-time, but she doesn't want to go against him. I hope I helped her! I told her she needed to go home and 'talk straight/discuss' with both her hubby and her little boy about what they want and how they can best meet the needs of the 'whole' family. I also suggested to her that she needed to vary her 'subjects' more as she has only been doing letters and numbers until now and her boy is very bright. He might be bored. I suggested she introduce some geography, or music, or something such like, for more variety and 'spice'. I know that's where I went wrong to begin with and school is so much more fun now. :) Tough one!!

As she was leaving another friend arrived from Whitchurch with her three youngest children to play for the afternoon. Which was lovely. A chance to chat about all-sorts of things schooly and non-schooly. The boys decided to play marbles and as our back garden has no grass they had to play at the front. Of course then the little ones wanted to join in, so the boys were put on 'careful watch' duty. Boo and Beef were out there in their fairly dresses and it certainly wasn't warm, but they refused to change! They were getting plenty of looks from passers-by, but I know they are very reliable as far as the road is concerned and they were more interested in the marbles and acorns (we have a big Turkish Oak in our front garden) than in getting run over!! :)

The house was a bombsite in the evening having been raided by two sets of children that day, but a good fun time was had by all I think. :)

Saturday was a stay home morning - for me anyway!! No swimming as my friend we usually go with is on Holiday in Italy for a week with her sisters. But the boys still had tennis and Boo still had ballet, so Paul was in and out ferrying kids about on bikes all morning (bless him).Then in the afternoon my friend MS came round and we went out for coffee and to but a few bits I needed to get at the market. And of course, as I was child free (having left the girls all sleeping and the boys playing with M's little boy on the PC) and she only had her toddler with her, we hit Oxfam bookshop. I spent another £20 - and justified it by adding in some 'stocking fillers' and 'books for someone else'!! But I got some goodies - as always :)

Children Just Like Me (DK) - for my HSing friend as we already have it
Allsorts 6 - collection of poems and stories. I like these kinds of books.
Sophie's Lucky (Dick King-Smith)
The Last Cowboys (Harry Horse)
Let's get out of here! - collection of poems by Quentin Blake and Michael Rosen - VERY funny!! We read some tonight (Monday) and Jacob loved them. Just a little 'crude' in places without being crass. Very appealing to a 7yr old lad's sense of humour :)
Attack of the Tentacled Terror (Susan gates) - otherwise Known as Sea Hags, Suckers and Cobra Sharks! - sounds interesting :) I am trying to inspire my rather reluctant reader.
The Worlds Best Fairly Tales - in 2 volumes (Readers Digest). M said she had these as a child and read them over and over and they do look wonderful. For a family who disallow 'magic' we do have rather a comprehensive collection of fairy tale books now. While I'm doing the reading we shall avoid the magic laden ones, and I hope that by the time the children are ready to read them alone they will better understand why we avoid it and will choose to do so for themselves to a large extent. Of course there are no guarantees and I know that inquisitive minds are apt to want to find out what all the 'worry' is about, so I guess that will be the time to read and chat through them. Until then, we'll just read the ones without magic and there are plenty of them after all.
3 Beatrix Potter books - we don't have any at the moment, so maybe these will 'test the waters'. I always felt they would be an expensive collection to have if they weren't to get read because the children didn't take to them.
Joshua Conqueror of Canaan - Mark Healy (a history/factual book, with great pictures)
The Silk Route - for when we look at China
My First Look at Honeybees - a gorgeous text with great 'real-life' pictures
Cinderella and The Pied Piper of Hamlyn - Ladybird Fairy Tales (I'm collecting these)
And four little stories about woodland animals for the girls (stocking fillers) that I thought were nice because they depicted the animals in their natural habitats.

Sunday was Harvest festival 'fellowship lunch' at church (we stay and eat together) which was lovely, and then Abbie had her Ballet photos at 2.30pm. She pulled a terrible grimacing smile, but we'll see..! Crashed out for an hour at home then back to church in the evening (just me and I met my boys there - they had both been to play at Dom's again!!).

Today some of us Mums decided to hit the soft play centre this morning. The girls were packaged off to playgroup and me and the boys & Ellie went to 'Funsters'. When we got there we were told the boys weren't allowed to play because the session was only for under 5's (good in some ways I can see, but how do you contain a 5 & a 7 yr old for a whole hour?) . It was a shame though because I had hoped it would be a treat for them for working so hard & well the last few weeks :( I fed them chocolate and they had a drink (which cheered them a little!) and then gave them charge to 'look after the little ones' - they rose to the challenge and did a good job - in between playing!! Jacob even managed to sneak onto the big frame for a few minutes - afterall none of the tinies were on there so why not? And the staff didn't say anything, so I guess they just decided to turn a blind eye :)

When we got home, we rushed to pick up the girls and then bimbled home collecting numerous acorns and conkers (can get a bit wearing that, but the kids can't get enough of it and, as it was warm, not raining and for once we were in no hurry, I didn't mind. Phoebe's word for conkers is "con-conks" - which I think is too cute. "Acorns" is pretty much the same!!

After a long lunch we sat down to do just a little school, but I didn't want to get heavy at all today (just to fill some time really), so we did PBS (Postal Bible School - which we do every Monday) and Geography (favorite subject of the moment - closely followed by History!!). Joel protested a little, but cheered up when he realised this was all I was asking of him today! We looked at the 7 continents and the 4 oceans. Talked about them, related them to NSEW and discussed what that meant in terms of climate. Then they filled in their own little map, labeling the continents and oceans and colouring each continent a different colour - being careful to include the right countries in the right continent. They enjoyed that. Jacob really gets confused with Continents and Countries, but I think it's soaking in slowly :)

At 5pm the boys had swimming and this week I had to troop everyone down as Paul had a meeting, but it was a good opportunity to sit a read stories to the girls while the boys were changing afterwards - lots of Percy the Park Keeper stories - nice :)

Then tea, stories and bed. Now peace reigns and I get chance to blog, while Paul is once again out at music practice. He's a busy man!!! (Ah, I hear the door...)

Friday, October 01, 2004

Mad & Busy Day

I'll blog properly tommorrow! Lot's to do tonight and want to watch a friends DVD with Paul. :)