Home Educating the Puddle Girls…

She was having more fun than it appears…. (honest!)

More or less this amount, in fact!

Some ‘discussion’ as to whether this was Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. I mean, come on people, let’s do this RIGHT!

Every woman should get to see their husband floating away looking sultry in a peapod just once in their lifetime… (and while we are on the subject, did anyone else notice they’d rebranded their ‘ladies’ toliets as ‘female’ toilets?

I stroked him at the toyfair. Gosh, i get about.

Girls.

You see, proper cricket. Sheep, sun, silliness and no pyjamas, no taking it seriously and absolutely no skullduggery.

“Look Papa Bear!!!”

Josie ACTUALLY thought it all marvellous - “look mummy, LEGO!!!!”

Yes, that really is someone with a machine gun on the dome. There was a man about to jump on Big ben too. Not that they have an odd sense of humour or anything.

See? She liked it. First smile in a week. Not that i’m counting

“If your name’s not on the list, you’re not coming in.”

And that was the day in pictures - backwards for some reason. We had a monumentally fab day so a huge thank you to Nic and i will blog it all nicely tomorrow when my face has stopped glowing

Amelie was itchy and woke me up and now i can’t sleep plus i got a lie in this morning after trying to stay up to keep Max and the cricket company and therefore deny myself my full 4 1/2 hours Cricket… the perfect portrayal of the major differences between most men and most women. How is standing around for 5 days and eventually ending in a draw something that can be described as a game, for ***** sake? I can deal with an afternoon round the village green for a bit of local japery, i can deal with sports like football that last a reasonably comprehendable 90 minutes, i can handle rugby (less comprehendable but redeems itself with lasting only 80 minutes) and i’ll sit through motor-racing of various sorts, entertaining myself with shaking my head in bewilderment at men going round in circles and cheating death… but 5 sodding days of cricket? I ask you. And if you must do it, don’t make a world cup last 7 weeks and DON’T wear flipping pyjamas! At least be a bit colonial about it, wear white and take tiffin at 4 - at best, cricket really ought to be regarded as some sort of national oldy-worldy treaure

*Mildly fragile state of mind leap over it alert*

Oooops - ranted. Mind you, i was only looking through my rants the other day and came across my post Josie’s-birth rant. Oh well, i seem to have got over that. Obviously i just need a major, all-encompassing life crisis every 2 years or so. i have learned something new over the last year, something i never understood before, could only see from what i imagined i would feel. This time last year, there was a sort of tacit agreement that if life got sorted and i wasn’t emotionally able to recover without a baby, we’d at least talk it through. To have a baby with a not too huge gap, before i’m 35, i’d really need to get pregnant this autumn. What shocks me is to discover that i’d be ABSOLUTELY NO WAY emotionally ready to do that; i’m a million years away from being that healed. I don’t think i ever will be. So now i understand a new side of the coin; i understand needing time in a way that i never have. I’m a girl who never waits for anything, but now i know what it is to need to wait. Weird.

Anyway, weekend. Lovely sun filled couple of days in the garden; Fiver has been lovely and is all settled in. He’s enjoying cuddles, very patient about the girls, comes and sits on the sofa with me in the evenings and has grown already, i’m sure. Max made a wire screen to go into the main run and we thought we’d pop him into one half and let them get aquainted without endangering anyone. We both thought Smartie was so soft that it would be just fine.

Lucky really didn’t just try to introduce them face to face. Fiver was fine, went over and sniffed amicably but Smartie went UTTERLY wild and started attempting to saw through the wire with his teeth, frantically snapping at Fiver as best he could. So we erm.. removed him. Clearly Smartie still has enough hormones left to smell that Fiver is a threat to his status. (Hahahaha Smartie, we’ll fix you… what you gonna do if we let him **** your girlfriend, huh?) I’m kidding.. kidding…

Anyway, Max and i did more to the garage, then i took Fran to dancing (she’s doing some polka step or other and she’s looking so graceful, i can hardly believe that is my little girl. She’s loving the grade 1 stuff and clearly getting it very quickly.) On the way back she and i wnet to our favourite sewing shop which specialises in quilting, got some needles and a few sale fat quarters. Now i’m wrestling with the maths of the design she is doing and trying to work out how to make it fit. I’ve got sucked in too and have done a cushion front tonight. Like i need cushions

Lovely evening watched Dr Who and that meant i dreamt a VERY post watershed episode, with an excellent plot, and even more excellent action MUST get out more… at least as far as somewhere selling David Tennant fan posters

Today we’ve gardened and gone to E’s birthday party. Thhis evening Max put trellises up on the wall of the garage that makes one side of our garden up and planted roses along it. The children potted up a huge number of tiny plant kits that i dug out of the garge and we’ve begun hunting through our craft boxes and preparing for much craftiness next week. All good stuff.

And this…

… has made me very proud. 41 individual sales on Amazon in a week, so around 55 items in all. Given that an average week in April/May (my quiet months) does 60-65 (by projection from last year) this is a major extra source of custom and i’m REALLY proud of it. Onwards and upwards.

PLus i’ve been making pretties.

Well, the description isn’t me, but hey! to the flower

… for the annual HE day in pictures perhaps, this time courtesy of 24 hours of Flickr.

Okay, brave Merry stepped back out into the outside world AND went to one of her least comfort zone areas of pboro today (where she realised she was distinctly middle class and set in her ways.)

So, first thing, whipped the children through normals as best i could in a short amount of time, bashed out some parcels (quiet, quiet day on the site yesterday although somewhat saved by £180 worth to one person at 11.30pm, on the phone who, among other things, ordered 69 bags of one colour!) and then grabbed enough stuff to last the morning, a handful of overseas parcels i needed to post at the PO since my smartstamp is on the blink and various other bits and headed out.

First stop was the HE group that we’ve not been to in almost exactly a year; i’ve been hibernating and avoiding people since Still very nice, good venue, (if a bit scary!) and the laid on activities of human body and health were excellent. Girls liked doing blood pressure and heartbeats, cleaning pennies with cola, making healthy pizzas and more, so thanks to H and L for that.

Chris then pointed out it was A World in the afternoon, so went haring across town to post and shop, then took them all there. That was good too, they all had fun and i got to chat, though i did nearly come unstuck at the number of babies and bumps at one point Is it weird to have got throguh MOnday just fine and now be feeling freaked out by knowing that this time last year i WASN’T pregnant, do you think? It feels awfully sad and very much ‘in the past’ now, which is a bit disconcerting. i think maybe i need more pills; i have a feeling i’ve got addicted to being blissfully happy and unconcerned by life…. i wonder if that is a bad thing? Tricky one… blissfully happy and unflappable but with no sex drive, or mental, despairing, horny and broody….. hm… talk about a hobsons choice

So after that we flew home, despatched much cardboard and sundry other bits of crap ‘useful to others than us items’ on Chris and the Beans and hunted down the errant ballet and tap shoes before heading out at great speed again. And then Joey and i went to the garden centre for rabbit food, only i’d forgotten my cards… so we window shopped and discussed wooden ducks instead.

Did have a variety of conversations with children too… have forgotten them all.

Get this bit done first, as it really was the crowning glory of both the last two days for me and Maddy.

When Moo and i had our school/no school talk the other night, she asked me to make sure we followed up on all the topics that caught our attention. One thing she has been really into recently is Mythical Creatures, mainly from a jigsaw book that Tammy and Sam gave her last year. She wanted to learn about Phoenixs, but has mislaid the book in their hellhole pit bedroom, so yesterday i printed out a load of stuff from the web and we read through it all before we went out. That was interesting, especially seeing how many regions the bird has popped up into the mythology of. I love all that stuff (and i’ve just thought of a book i have she’ll love) so we had a nice time discussing it.

Being an arty girl, she got into the idea of using several art media to make phoenixes in and made a start today, using a variety of extra pictures that i printed for her, plus a printable “stain glassed window effect” one that she liked.

(Yes, school dress!)

I just love the shapes she has created in these two, she has a real eye for making what she wants come out of the clay.

The finished article.

And a couple of drawings.

In an effort to create total emersion, i downloaded The Phoenix and the Carpet as well and they all listened to that and got quite misty eyed when they realised it was the same children as the ‘5 &i t’ stories. (I didn’t realised that either.)

Maddy is a happy girl and i feel i’ve done what she needed for a change

Right. Yesterday  i marched them all through normals and then headed off to Stanwick Lakes, after seeing it on Elle’s blog. REALLY lovely time there with Claire and Charlie; for a £2 parking fee it is fab, we happily stayed 3 hours 9and the kids could have stayed longer!) it’s got a warden there so it is clean and safe and looked after and the balance of equipment is just right for a good range of ages. They REALLY liked the water pumps….

I liked the wood stuff.

Amelie enjoyed posing for photos.

Maddy didn’t pose but looked lovely as usual….

And Josie perfected her “butter wouldn’t melt…” look.

Got everyone home and flumped. Can’t remember anything else except that Josie felt ill again and fell asleep on the sofa and frightened the life out of me by opening her eyes and staring blankly at the ceiling while still fast asleep. I yelped LOUDLY and shook her, which scared her too

Today Max had to go to germany and back in a day, which meant leaving at 4am and taking the car; he’s on his way home now (looooong day.) Unfortunately Josie was at that “not ill anymore, at least, not ill enough to lie on the sofa but DEFINITELY ill enough to want to scream all day, be carried, shove her hands down my top and scratch, rummage, pinch and squelch while poking me in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and life blood.” All of which was enough to send me running down the road screaming in an effort to get away from her She probably gave me my hardest day EVER from her, it was like being back in the “one child and it feels tough by 5pm” days. So, i was VERY glad at 8pm when she conked out.

The rest of the day was okay in some respects; Amelie was similarly whingy first thing but then i found her asleep in my bed; whatever this bug has been it has wiped the pair of them out and she was a good bit happier when she woke up. She’s done various bits of workbooks (she adores them), playing, colouring, sorting of washing, reading and flopping in front of the tv.

Fran learned to iron and did all the placemats for me, plus all the seams on her quilting. Travel irons are brilliant for kids learning to iron. She’s probably ironed more fabric today than i have in the last 4 years She’s started Harry Potter 1 but i won’t hold my breath as she dots through books at a huge rate still and rarely finishes anything unless i make her and done some French, some EC and some handwriting practise. TBH, i think it is me that needs to do that, i can hardly remember how to anymore!

Maddy did guitar and is finally getting the idea about holding her fingers in a useful place all the time rather than waiting till she needs them, EC, maths in a workbook, read more P&J5b and was just generally happy all day and towards the end of the day i cracked open a couple of these window mosaic kits for them and they were both completely absorbed by them. I love these and i’m really surprised by how slowly they’ve sold. having had a go at them today i shall have to do a better sales pitch because they really are fantastic, very therapeutic and easy to do and the feel of the gel plastic you use, the look of the colours and the simplicity of use are fantastic. Can’t recommend them enough.

Can’t think what else except that i’ve tidied like mad, employed a cleaning agency to do a top to bottom clean once a fortnight to try and keep the house decent, sorted washing like it is going out of fashion, fended off the bank trying to give loan me money and done a Sonlight order for 3rd edition Singapore Maths as i have officially fallen out of love with MPH and won’t be buying it again. I think thry are pants by comparion; stupid monsters all over the place and not enough practise. 3rd edition has too much, but at least you can skip it and the progression makes more sense. I don’t like MPH at all.

That’s it.

Ugh. Feeling a bit flat today, not sure why. Weather, perhaps?

Maddy and i both have headaches and Joey has kept me up a good bit of the last couple of nights and i’m now thoroughly confused as she appears to have a tongue covered in the same spots as Amelie got after eating the biscuits. So now i’m wondering if i’ve been bluffed and they both have a virus and the tongue just looked like it did after the nuts but was actually just stinging because it was sick and being irritated by an otherwise innocuous biscuit. Where’s the wall banging emoticon when you need it? Actually, where is the wall banging emoticon? Do you have to install them into every theme? I’ll have to go and root around in the ftp thingy.

Also confused by the fact that my children pester me for attention during the 90 minutes of early morning where i do something else, then ignore me and have a billion things to do when i come free for them at 10am? I find this a bit frustrating; i’ve got loads i want to do with them but somehow they get immersed in games, play and business in the garden just when i get to a point where i’d like to interact (i’m so not a morning person!)

I’m not sure what this is and the problem is that while i’m perfectly comfortable with my child-led but parent-orgainised learning structure, i also want them to have a childhood they remember with affection and happiness - and that rather stops me from breaking up fun for ‘work’ given i know that just sets us off on a negative path anyway. But if i fit ‘learning’ into times when they are bored, arguing or fractious, then it isn’t great either. So little time, so many egos to pander to

Oh well, it isn’t so bad really; i did have a very odd conversation with Maddy the other day though. We were all sat round at dinner and she was in the new school dress, asking if she could play out in it later. In a sudden odd moment of wondering if she was trying to tell me something, i asked her if she wanted to try school. There was a bit of initial conversation, some thoughts from her that maybe she would in a while, then she seemed to try frantically to read our feelings on it and started to say she go now “if we wanted her to”. I was desperately trying not to backpeddle, while wishing i’d never said anything and not wanting to pressure her, then suggested she consider it over the summer and go in the autumn if she wanted, whereat she dissolved into tears, i *think* because she desperately didn’t want to go but being a people pleaser she was saying what she, for some reason, thought we wanted to hear. At least, i ‘m fairly sure it was that and not that she grasped at an offered straw and was devastated when i withdrew it slightly. I confess to not exactly being sure of it.

She and i went up for some quiet time and cuddles and she staunchy denies wanting to go to school. What she does want is for me to always remember the things that we talk about doing and always do them. So i’ve promised to remember and we’re going to have a list of things we want to find out about and tick them off.

She and i did some reading together today and i helped her and Fran make a word game using all the th- words and they played that together. Fran and i did some maths (Fran’s going through a forgetton-everything-i-ever-knew phase) and she read some stuff, Maddy did some guitar and Amelie did some writing and Studydog. Maddy’s now finished her paid for Studydog - i do like seeing 100% completed on a resource… doesn’t happen often!

I had a business meeting at lunch time and have now joined the local Business group, which feels like rather an investment, but i think will be very good for me and BM. It’s a 600+ strong group of businesses that mentor and support one another, meeting fortnightly for talks, seminars and networking. Feels like the push i need to get more organised and i’m still awestruck by Amazon - i’ve sold 45 items there in the last week, over 4 times as much as before i got my named account. Mentally different. In fact, the last few days, it’s been busier than BM in terms of customer numbers, if not sales value. All good stuff.

Fran and i sat for an hour or so this afternoon going through a “What’s happening to me?” book and talking about all ‘that stuff’ and she’s now well and truly up to speed on all required bits of knowledge. At 3 stone 12, i suspect she’s a good way off needing to know it for herself, but i’m glad she won’t get caught out in conversations with older kids at camps and things now, anyway. Plus, with any luck, she’ll fill the rest of them in and i won’t have to explain ’sex just for fun’ to any of the others! Usborne books weren’t like that in my day…. *good mummy pat on back*

Ballet restarted today… please tell me i’m not supposed to know what a petite-jete is?

See? - totally irresistable

And Smartie and Button, just for equality

As for the permission thing… there is a delicate balance to negotiation, if you know you’re on to a definite winner (and he was never going to refuse me anything yesterday) then ask, that way you are less likely to get stung with the “you need to clean out YOUR rabbit” line, plus i might not even get asked to cough up for Fiver’s 1/3 of the bills. Rabbits are very definitely Max’s domain in this house, he is Keeper of the Rabbit Run and a pet should always be a joint decision *cough*

As it was, i just got a text back asking if i was going to get bored after 3 weeks, but i replied that i felt i’d proved myself with the child ownership, up to now

I’ve been dreading this date for the last year but you know, it’s been really nice, good in fact. Now i think about it, this April has been one of the least depressing i’ve had, so either the pills are good, not seeing cherry blossom and daffodils anywhere is good, or i’ve gained a sense of perspective i didn’t have before. Any one of the above will do.

I’d planned to spend the day planting out the garden with nice flowers, in the company of my children and Michelle, then Max was gonig to meet me and the girls for a picnic in the evening, as a sort of salute to our commitment to make life better for our family after last year. In the event, the day dawned cold, dull and drizzly for the first time in a month, so pretty much scuppered that

However, me and the girls had all done everything required by 10.30, in the shape of workbooks, guitar and parcels and when Michelle and Chloe arrived they all went off to play while Michelle and i drank the first cup of tea. Then, after Michelle had performed the dual essential tasks of helping get the parcels out on time and purchasing goods we headed off to the garden centre anyway.

We started with lunch in the cafe and then, given the rain had started again, headed down to the pet bit for a look around. They only had 4 rabbits in, but everyone was very happy with fish, hamsters and parrots and bimbled about for a good while looking at those, while Michelle and i hung over a run admiring a white bunny. And then… it happened… i turned round, saw a little dark fawn Netherland Dwarf rabbit in a box on his own… and knew he was supposed to come home with us

Texted Max to ask permission, then decided to ignore him regardless of whatever answer he sent back, and buy the bunny anyway, negotiated my way round the reluctant saleswoman, who didn’t like me impulse buying (and i think wanted to keep the rabbit anyway!) and finally headed off, promising to be back to pick him up soon.

While we were there we picked up two climbing roses for the wall, one called “Super Fairy” and one called “Open Arms” and some flowering shrubs. Everyone picked one, then Amelie asked what hers was called, so we looked on the label to discover it was in fact called ‘Amelie’!!! She was DEEPLY thrilled

Shortly after i went back and collected the bunny, who nearly got called Hazel (i do so love Watership Down) but got called Fiver instead, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than that being my favourite rabbit in the book. He’s gorgeous, very alert and inquisitive and looks like he’s meant to live here. Let’s hope he’s at least as fortunate as his namesake. Fiver in Watership Down has second sight… i’ve spent the last year wishing i could act with hindsight, but since i can’t, some second sight might be handy

This evening we all had a family meal together and Max has done stories while i pootled. Am really proud of myself for making it through. Max, Michelle and Claire have all been stars for supporting me and i’ve got a house full of flowers I really hope now this is passed i can start to look forwards; i’ve done enough punishing myself.

Quick round up of the rest of the last few days:

Friday i can’t remember much but we did go out for a couple of hours in the park. Amelie had to be coaxed out of the school dress she begged for the night before. The i went back to Tescos to buy 3 more for the others who were all equally desperate for them… most emotionally traumatic £16 i’ve ever spent. Amelie, Josie and Maddy have worn the constantly , Fran has turned her nose up since the first day though lol: Everyone did some work in the mornings, feels like the routine is back now.

Saturday, Max wanted to go to Silverstone for the day and i really, really didn’t so i went to Claire’s with 3 of the girls and Maddy went for a day out with max. Got there to find they were struggling to put the springy bit into a trampoline and, i kid you not, i was the most mathematically enabled person there, given Bev and Claire had utterly failed to even come up with a method of getting it centred right So we did that for a bit, then Bev went looking for a man to help with the tougher springs, we all cursed, huffed, puffed and fretted for a while and eventually the man figured out (fractionally before me i’d like to point out!) that we might get on better if we stretched the springs to the frame rather than trying to stretch the mat to the spring!

Oh, i picked up the Little Lovelies and Jingle Jangle Ladybird from Manhatten Toys while i was there for Madison and Summer. So soft and lovely

We had a lovely day there and got home to find Grandad and Uncle Joe here for the night; the girls discovered the new bag of workbooks i’d brought and begged (really, and in front of Joe which they always seem to do and makes me feel like i’m showing off or behaving in a mad fashion!) for them so all 3 of the big ones sat and did maths on the floor with me for a while. A couple of the books had flash card sums in them; Amelie and Josie ended up playing those and Josie kept holding one up and saying “this maths is 28!!!” - which i thought was rather good really. Fancy knowing 28 is a number at 2 1/2!

Sunday there was some fairycake baking by Fran, some work, some playing on upturned garden pots and Max and i rearranged the garage so that the racking cuts off one piece of it at the front for bikes and the rest is more like a room with table, desk and craft stuff. Gives us lots more opportunity to use the space, which will be great. Was good for me too, since i did feel quite down yesterday, so it gave me a project to get my teeth into.

BM has been quietish, but the Amazon store is gonig really well; i’ve had LOADS of sales there this week, lots of them for multiple items to each customer, so i’m thrilled about that as it is a great boost to cash flow and getting myself known. The craft kits i picked out are going great too, so i’m chuffed about that.

That’s your lot - need to go finish my VAT now (It’s looking like being £800+ - waaaaaaaaaaaaah.) Go buy things - quick!

EDIT: Oh, forgot the poorly Josie bit! She drooped badly yesterday in the afternoon, fell aleep on the sofa about 5pm, wept when we woke her for tea, fell straight back to sleep, slept through Doctor Who while we all watched it together (how we’ve avoided Pig nightmares i don’t know!)  slept through being carried to bed, woke at 1am for Calpol and 2 bottles of milk, slept through till 8am and pretty much did a repeat performance today, althoguh we managed to wake her for a while. Poor little mite, she seems very off colour.

Oh AND Amelie reacted to biscuits she’s always eaten perfectly well, that had “may contain traces of nuts” on the side, but she’s eaten them since the first episode with no effects. This time though, she got blisters on her tongue the size of chicken pox spots near the back and all her tongue was covered in dots that looked like they were raised up on stalks Roll on the allery test as i’m starting to wonder if it is more complex than nuts, perhaps a colouring or preservative or something. Either way, it’s getting worse

Plans to add hunger controlling normone to baby formula.