To rival batbaby, we have Baby Jasmine

and then of course we have Amelie and her geomag roses (I’m sure the Portico children don’t make roses with their geomags… i just don’t know where i went wrong, i really don’t!)

Today we had a playing morning while i had an extremely long awaited cuddle of little Madison and a long catch-up with Kate. Really nice to see them both looking so well; having looked huge at birth, madison looks everso diddy now Certainly next to the enraptured Josie, at any rate. Not a baby anymore.

The girls all entertained themselves fairly well in fact; they are all quite into AC again and played that in a trio, plus did other bits of computer work. Then, after a leisurely lunch, we finished storyboards and Maddy narrated her story, while Fran typed hers. She got to the end! I’m really proud of her The stories are so funny; i must blog them here too – they illustrate the difference between them absolutely perfectly
Then we did a spelling test, Fran read the first 2 chapters of Charlottes Web (i refuse to take them to the film until she’s read it!), Maddy did some EC while Fran did a Singapore Chapter (back to 3 something for some bits we’ve missed) on time. I was impressed there too; she used her 6 times table faultlessly to work out hundred of minutes and added all the hour fractions on correctly too. Somewhere in there lurks a braincell or 2 afterall

I chose (why, why oh why???) to pick a fight with Josie over saying thank you. 45 minutes later we were still locked in a standoff that neither of us were going to win. She didn’t get the juice so was consequently thirsty and cranky, i felt a prize cow/idiot/rotten mother She has rewarded me with several thank yous this evening though, so perhaps it was worth it. Currently feel slightly like i’m training a puppy, with lots of over-enthusiastic positive enforcement

I really don’t get why they choose to face off about things like this at this age; it isn’t like i wanted her to say the dreaded s word (sorry) – what’s such a big deal about saying thank you? Where is the confusion? We all say it, all the time. She used to say it, what’s the deal? But even more – WHY did i pick a fight about it? Honestly, you’d think i was a newbie, not someone with a total count of 20 years mothering experience now! *batters self over head*

Shortly after this, we had the habitual shrieking match over lost ballet shoes

PS – Ros, Maddy says thank you very much for her card; very cute and DEFINITELY worth the £1.23 in missing stamp fees

This is the ultimate in illustrations of an expanding business; these files are, from left, copies of my sales invoices from 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07. We’ve run out of space in the 2006-07.

When i look at it like that, it really is quite extraordinary However, they are all now out of my hair, as i moved them to a safe storage place today. How very grown up that feels

Maddy Moomin’s Muddles

Maddy has narrated and blogged her story; I’ll add the storyboard later too; (when i find the camera charger! )

A bright sunny day makes all the the difference, doesn’t it? Especially when you get an hour off to go cycling in it, which made me very happy indeed. The headwind was a bit brisk, and i forgot my gloves, but the amount of work my legs were doing warmed me up plenty The girls have noticed the difference too i think and were much less whiney. This is a good thing.

I was utterly shattered AGAIN this morning and totally overslept, though i got a lot of cuddles and so on along with my snoozing. Luckily, i ‘d done all my parcelling, so once i was up, i launched everyone straight into the variety of EC, Studydog and letter practise that makes up their morning and it all got done in record time. While i cleaned down the kitchen and got loads of washing going (washing of a variety that soap nuts were not going to cut through!), Maddy sat in the kitchen and read a variety of Ladybird Read-It-Yourself level 2 books. She still insists she can’t read, which is quite funny, but she can

This is her jigsaw from last week; i’ve finally worked out how to get pictures from my phone to my PC. Yay me!

Auntie Sue arrived about 1pm and i got my 2 hours of me time; i’m coming to rely on that, it really is a brainsaver. Today she demosnstrated ably why i should spend more time on the floor with my kids; much happiness, little mess, delighted children. They were playing “The Biggest Cat is an….. cat” where you have to think of descriptive words going through the alphabet; must do some work on adjectives with them!

I went out for a ride after first placing 2 stock orders and 2 stationery orders; also managed to get tickets for their show in 2 weeks; only their particular session still had tickets available. Thank you, Cosmic Supply Company In 2 weeks they dance on the stage we watched The Nutcracker on the other night. Gulp. Came back and had a blissful, unbothered shower and re-emerged into the world of parenting.

Fran had finished up her book (finally, having slightly misled me yesterday!) while i was out so rather than doing a review, i suggested she could try writing her own chapter and make up her own Teddy Robinson adventure. to help, I made her a page to draw a storyboard out on and she did 8 little pictures to try and tell a story. She needed quite a bit of help to really get a beginning, middle and end to it but once we’d done that, she typed up a good bit of her story into her blog. She’s kept it private for now, but she did well, only asking for the odd spelling. I thought tomorrow i’d help her do the punctuation and then help her do a second version that she could narrate and we could hopefully pad it all out a bit more.

Meanwhile, Maddy was making a model with a jam tart base and a pack of pipecleaners. She eventually came down with a much sellotaped, but rather good, model of a person under a beach umbrella, with bucket, spade and icecream. I suggested she too did a storyboard and she did a pen one and then a coloured version and told me a very involved storyline (that being very much her thing.) Hopefully we’ll get to blog that tomorrow too; we spent a while discussing some of the stages of films we’ve seen on Disney dvd extras.

We’ve also managed a bizarre conversation on ethics, thanks to a quote in SOTW the other week about when Muhammed was asked to judge on whether a man should give back money on the sale of a camel that died the next day. Covered a variety of things there; fairness, deliberate selling, accident, honesty and by some slightly convoluted route, the distance selling laws which i have to work by!!!!!

I’ve got some more photos for later, but i’ve just seen this on the news and thought it looked interesting; plus quite relevant to us at the moment – Worldmapper.org

… wake up till 12pm

I’ve not be able to lie in (in the proper sense of being midday style slovenly) for ages; in fact, it was just about the only indication i had that i was pregnant last year, becasue i suddenly slept in til 10am for 2 days running. And since then, i’ve avoided it like the plague because it has a tendency to give me brooding time. Plus it was easier in the old house when the living room was downstairs like in a proper house, but here, the living room is opposite my bedroom and so being prone tends to mean that people jump on you, or in Josie’s case, come in and pester for milk

However, the last 2 days i’ve slept in till gone 11. I think i must have needed it badly as i feel an awful lot more human again now.

Today just toddled by really. Fran is obsessed with Neopets (thanks Charlie!) and Maddy played on a Yr 2 Jump Ahead game for ages. Josie and i had a lovely time playing on Poisson Rouge together, which she loved. Shame it isn’t slightly more navigable for her on her own really, but did occur to me she might be ready for that intro Reader Rabbit game. Occurred to me too how much less we rely on cd-roms these days, with everything on the net being so available. It is a big change since we started to HE with Fran.

Fran has pottered at a variety of things, including trying to finish her book so she can mark off a star on the new reward bookmark which Claire brought her (owner of yet another new business there!) What esle they’ve been up to i’m not sure, but Amelie sat outside my office today with a shop of fimo blocks and she and Josie entertained themselves with that a lot.

Max and i have cleaned and decluttered a good bit and i’ve put new blue bedcovers into our room and hung dark blue curtains (decorating by stealth, fixtures and fittings only but no paint until i wear him down!) i need to hang my painting now but then it will be done. I’ve even put up, for the first time, the little picture Max bought me for our wedding. Aw Max came home from last weeks business trip abroad with a stinking 24 hour flu type thing and was off on Friday – he still doesn’t look himself now at all. I had to do the shopping on Friday – that’s how bad it was!!!!

I’ve bike rided again today (only had one near death dog experience, a marked improvement on a sunny day ride) and spent time contemplating the effect of bigger or small ears on evolution, the possibility that perhaps i should just give up and be happily fat but have a shorter life, why people would go on a family walk and stomp around one behind the other in total silence and on the possibilities of being married for another 40 years. I passed one couple who were fondly reminiscing about some field frolick in the past, while walking along holding hands with one hand and balancing on sticks in their other – and another couple who had disdain and boredom with each other written all over their faces. made me think reall; it’s a funny old thing we sign up to – a forever vow – if you break it, well, you break it – but if you choose to stick it out, you have so much to gain, but so much to lose if you made a bad decision. it’s quite frightening. I’m endlessly awed by people who stay married for 60+ years – but it would be a very long time to be unhappy. Must make sure we keep putting in the work to make it happy

Much like last year, well, the beginning of it, the girls seem largely content with a diet of skill gathering and story based information at the moment. The Antartica thing was nice and has captured their imagination briefly, but i think having explored the basics of the geography and some map work, the animals, the explorers and it’s history and perhaps just a little snow orientated science thrown in for good measure, we’ll be leaving that again for now. I’d like to go back and “do” glaciers at some point but it isn’t urgent. We touched on them on the way home from Dynamic Earth and that will do for now.

This week has mainly consisted of getting Maddy into a routine of guitar practise, which is mildly tricky as she’s got that gitar up on a “must not be touched” pedestal. However, i think i’ve persuaded her that she should and she’s done half an hour every morning. She’s very good at deciphering the next chapter in the book and i’m unsurprised, but impressed nonetheless, by her ability to stick to time, having had only a very brief explanation of note values by me.

Fran is really enjoying EC and i’ve been watching her progress on the report with interest. She’s about ready to move on to the second French section and she’s scoring highly on various Yr 4/5 stuff. She likes the science in Yr5, it is a bit more meaty. Aside from that she’s been steadily reading a few chapters of her latest book (Teddy Robinson) a day and liking that, plus doing some blogging. I helped her narrate a book review of Matilda the other day (cue much banging of heads about ‘brief overview’ not meaning tell the story word for word!) and she liked doing that once she got the hang of it.

Fran has also been enjoying doing co-ordinates on EC, in Singapore and on various free sheets i printed off. She’s got as far as beiing able to manuipulate negative co-ordinates now, which i think is pretty good going. She’s also enjoying map work so i think we might delve a bit further into that

Maddy is plugging away at reading and liking the simple repeating nature of P&J books. We’re about ready for level 4, which means i’ll actually have to concentrate; i don’t know those ones by heart because we’ve never got that far before! She’s very much enjoying writing and drawing again and has been designing clothes, drawing stories and so on. She did some costume designs for a play the other day, which i thought were great. She’s also 3/4 of the way through her paid Studydog now; when she’s done that i’ll probably put her back on the free level 2 for a while and see what happens next.

Ams is making a start on reading and continuing having fun with letters; she’s done lots of maths with Emma, looking at greater and less than (the crocodile snaps the biggest pile of food but if they are the same size he gets confused and makes his lips go like this = ) being my explanation to help Emma remember how it went! (She looked a tad bemused but i bet she never forgets it!) She’s working on EC and a bit of Studydog too and just writing and drawing all the time.

Oh, one other thing i’ve started with the big two is spelling tests; the plan is really to help Maddy consolidate words and give Fran an opportunity to develop a joined up style and gain confidence in writing generally. I’ve made some sheets for them, so they think it is all rather fun and i’m planning on doing 10 words on most days, starting with really simple words that are current to Maddy’s reading and hopefully going steadily from there. The sheet gives them 3 practises and then they do the test on a separate sheet which has a box for the answer and a second try box to help Maddy not get flustered if she makes a mistake. F got 10/10 in her first go (all joined up too) and Maddy 7/10 – so they were delighted with it.

Josie is getting ever cuter and more manipulative – the thing that still gobsmacks me is her language. She is so incredibly verbal! And of all of that, her grammar impresses me no end; Today she said “I don’t like you doing that. You took my breakfast” – Maddy and Amelie still can’t use took properly, they say “tooken”. Someone of Josie’s age would surely be doing fairly well to say “taked” so i was quite open-mouthed at her.

Wednesday and Thursday we had Charlie and Claire here, so we did some craft with Floam and there was lots of playing and silliness. Plus more too, but i’ll have to look at my camera to remember. We’ve done some Hand Up For Home Ed hands, which i must photograph and our Young Scientist Kits have started to arrive, so that is a new plan for the weekends too.

Last night i took the big 3 to a performance of The Nutcracker by The Siberian State Ballet. I was really impressed by them, given it was their first big deal trip to the theatre and they were all completely captivated. I spent nearly as much time watching them watching it as i did looking at the stage myself. It was a slightly odd production but i got quite into their ideas by the end (though surely Clara doesn’t normally dance the Sugar Plum Fairy?) – i’m a bugger in a theatre though, even now, because i’m ridiculously critical of anything they do to effect changes and stuff. i can always instantly think of 6 other ways i’d have done it . The costumes were rather good though, everyone wore masquerade masks and the costumes were very sumptuous. I don’t know if it is imp[licit in the story line, or whether the particular production made it so, but i’ve never noticed such a strong “womanhood” theme in it before. The second half had Clara played by a more senior dancer (who did the Sugar Plum bit) and she appeared after they’d been “married” and then gone off for a bit while all the dances took place. Somehow it was very obvious that she went away a girl and came back a woman

Anyway, shall definitely make the effort to do more of that now even despite irritating people behind us. One man persistently thumped time on his knewee right into my ear until i turned round and stared at him and the 2 old biddies on the other side yakked like they were at the bingo. I hate bad theatre manners.

Today i’ve forced myself to chill out and laid on my bed and read a book. I’ve also cleared out the spare clothes cupboard and pruned them again and my room is nearly ready for being “decorated” tomorrow. I’ve also been for a bike ride with the big two and now i’m off for an evening of biscuits and tv. Sod Weightwatchers

Well today would be thrice argh!

I’ve had a hugely entertaining day, spending my time and irritatingly my own money, making calls to sort out the cock ups of three separate companies.

First off was the letter from Royal Mail in answer to MY letter asking why they hadn’t changed the address of my home, to which all my business mail should be routed.They claimed, thism orning, not to have been paid for this service, or received the request to change it at all; clearly they had as a) i used to get it sent to the Sorting Office but for a few short days it arrived at my old neighbours home, thanks to a kindly new resident, a b) the person i spoke to today turned out to be able to clearly see my payment on their screen. *bangs head on wall* Turns out some mail got returned and ‘Birmingham’, may they be forgiven, decided to just cancel my PO Box instead and CLAIM i hadn’t paid for it anew. *ARGH* So that would be all recent catalogues, carefully requested at the Toy Fair and a host of customer cheques, all of which i now have to chase up and apologise about.

*ARGH* number 2 would be my bank, who rather stupidly listened to my original request for a card processing system and just gave me what i thought i needed instead of actually telling me how it needed to be done and advisingly me accordingly. Thanks to a thread on a forum and Claire, we spotted last night that this actually meant they had set me up, quite knowingly and they agree that they have several recordings detailing it, with a system that actually breaches their own terms and conditions, unwittingly (or perhaps witlessly) costing me rather a lot of money for 3 years for something i can only use to do about a 1/5 of the job i need it for. Though, without me even having to raise my voice, they’ve conceded the errors and agreed to set up the other half of it for free so in the end i will actually have something better than i might have. But had it not been for the thread and Claire, i could have ended up in real trouble, just because an advisor couldn’t be bothered to actually think. Never assume a customer knows what they are talking about.

The icing on the cake is that the only phone in the house that can receive incoming calls from a call centre as a rule is mystifyingly not accepting any incoming calls at all So i’ve spent the day receiving emails from the colleague of someone in a call centre who does have external email access and then calling back the people who have caused me all this hassle in the first place.

To give them their dues, each and every one of them has been incredibly apologetic and not tried to pass the buk at all – but ARGH. This is why running a  business takes so much bloody time, because you spend half your life shovelling someone elses poopidoop.

*wishes she still had her wall emoticon*

Fortunately the kids had Claire and Charlie here and have played, crafted and socialised to their heats content with Claire taking full and competent charge, bless her.