just another morning here

Me! I have my hand back! As of today I’m officially allowed to use it as long as it’s not for anything too strenuous. It’s so liberating! I just have a small finger splint for night time, because the tendon is still weak and I can’t hold my finger straight. It is quite achy, too, using it after so long not using it. But I have my watch back, and my rings, so I’m feeling fab …

Also chuffed today because Anna chose to buy herself a handwriting book which she’s been doing for fun … and Abbie’s been playing around with new cdroms, all educational of course! Joe’s been ‘helping’ all of us. Other fab news is that a tiny bit of inheritance money we’ve been waiting for appeared in the bank today, enough to pay for the tv we bought the other day, and pay off credit cards – another liberating feeling! (just have to make sure we don’t use them again, now.)

Anyway, better dash, desperately trying to tidy the house before friends arrive, have done a charity shop run and Steve’s just gone to the tip with lots of rubbish too, then we’re hoping to put a new mirror up in the bathroom – I’m not helping, this time!

Oooh, I’m brimming over with title words today! I’ve steered clear of housework, hoovering and hama beads, despite the fact that they all played a part in the day’s activities … it seems that some of my regular readers think I might start engineering the things we do just to begin with the right letter each day – well!

Anyway. The children have been writing lots of letters recently. Despite the fact that I’ve been very bad at insisting on handwriting practice, Anna’s writing is improving, and so is Abbie’s. Abigail is left-handed and until recently hasn’t written much at all but over the summer she suddenly became more confident. I was quite proud of today’s effort which was a letter to Josiah, here it is:

Also, happily, it was Steve’s day off today. Well, supposedly – he made it home just after 12, so a half day, in reality. We spent a lovely hour together while Joe was having a nap, doing one of our science kits which was all about solids, liquids and gases. Although it was at a basic level, the experiments were great fun – one was watching raisins go up and down in sparkling water, another was using a balloon on top of a bottle to demonstrate gas being produced in a reaction (see, I could have had Hydrogen in my title, too!), watching bubbles rise from a fizzy sweet in a glass of water (even better as Celsius the Science Bug had included extra sweets for eating!) … and a couple of others too.

not a terribly brilliant photo I know, but it kind of caught the atmosphere of our afternoon

here’s Abigail watching our raisins go up and down

I was really pleased, because not only did we have lots of fun together, I felt that the girls also understood the concepts contained in the activities, and it all fuelled their ‘science is fun’ mindset, too.

Aunty Jacky came round later on, she’s doing a mini-project on Israel with the girls, as she’s going there at the end of September. She brought them a map and asked them a question about Israel, and has challenged them to make a little notebook to write the answer in, and she’s planning to send them a postcard every few days while she’s there with another quiz question on it that they have to find the answer to. It sounds like fun … and has made me think even more that I need to find a poster-size world map for the dining room wall. Oh, and she brought sweeties with her as well, so that went down a treat.

We played on the dance mats a bit again today (tick music/rhythm awareness and PE!), and then Steve had to go back to work at teatime. I didn’t mind too much, as he came home with a bag of Cantonese food for us – had to laugh at myself because as I opened each container I said ‘ooh, this pot will be good for keeping beads in!’ … tell me I’m not the only one! Anyway, we were sitting eating dinner trying to think of words to describe our day that began with H, and were saved at the last minute by the makers of the paper bag something came in – Hoo Hing Ltd!!

We were in town pretty soon after 9am this morning, having made jelly before we went, at Abbie’s request. I had to get to the bank to request some special letter or other, and I wanted to do ‘before going on holiday’ errands like stocking up on first aid kit stuff, checking that Joe’s shoes still fit, etc … and these things take time when you’re trailing round in the pouring rain with three children in tow.

We finished up at the Museum where we’d arranged to meet a friend to take part in the activities there today as part of their ‘Taste of Brazil’ exhibition. There was a storytelling session, followed by a head-dress making session, along with Brazilian ‘nibbles’ … pineapple, coconut, brazil nuts, and some other unidentifiable bits and bobs. It was all relatively enjoyable and the children especially enjoyed the stories. We talked afterwards about myths and how they arise – and how one part of the story was true but the rest was made up by people in order to explain something … it was quite interesting to discuss it all, anyway.

After that (it was still raining) we went back to our friend’s house for lunch, before heading off to a birthday party (Anna) and the cinema to see Piglet’s Big Movie (the rest of us). I didn’t think much of the film – not worth paying to sit in a cinema for unless you’re a big Piglet fan, in my opinion. Still, it passed the time – and as it rained all day long it was better than being stuck at home doing nothing.

Went back to the garage afterwards to do some paperwork – people don’t seem to want to look at cars while it’s raining so Steve wasn’t very busy …

Anna got home having won an exercise book and pens/pencils at her party, and promptly sat down to practise handwriting. Don’t know what she wrote, because she’s put it away now (well, after a fashion – putting it away was miracle enough!) … but it just goes to show (yet again) that when she wants to do something, she’ll jolly well do it. When will I learn to relax about stuff like this?!

I’m bored now, Steve and the kids are watching a film that I’ve already seen … and my main job for the evening is folding washing/ironing. Abbie’s just asked to do the next layer of her jelly so I’d better go and give her a hand.