just another morning here

These may look inefficient, but they are vastly more efficient than what we had before (one small bookcase behind the sofa, this is the only picture I can find with it in). They’re twice the depth and three times the width, so they had to be, really They’ve also freed up the bookcase that was there before to go upstairs. And I’ve got rid of that horrid metal unit at last!!

The spaces are there on purpose, I’d like to put something nice in them, although as usual we can’t agree on what would be nice (remember the dried flowers in the fireplace? Put there just to fill some space until we could decide on something better – they are still there!). So, any ideas?

I think I like this theme. And I think that most things I’m bothered about having working are working now, so that’s enough tinkering for the moment anyway.

We finally got our new shelves up in the lounge yesterday so I have my work cut out in sorting the resultant changes out through the rest of the house. The shelves are fantastic, they look great, and have given us loads more storage space in the front room. We still have some space left to fill with something pretty, haven’t decided what yet though.

I think everyone has had an ok week in their various places. Probably just ok and not great, but there we go. The younger two children in particular have seemed quite tired at times, and therefore not coping brilliantly with life in general, but hopefully a good weekend will sort them out.

The girls both had parents’ evenings at school this week; I went to Abbie’s with her, and Steve took Anna to hers. Josiah escaped due to having not been at school long enough to make it worthwhile. He’s settled in well though, according to his teacher, and he seems really happy and talkative when he comes home, so that’s good. They’ve all started learning Christmas songs so that’s adding to the musical melee in our household

Can’t think what else there is to report, other than all the usual stuff. We didn’t do anything for Bonfire night, other than watch a few fireworks from the window. I’ve not done very much at all – no nursery work, very little garage work, the bare minimum of housework … but I have completed Sonic Rush Adventure, done some Christmas shopping, and – there must be something else nope – that’s about it. Next week will be more productive though, I promise.

Subtitled ‘uninspired blogging’, really don’t have much to say! Yesterday we did lots of jobs and sorting stuff out; I did some food shopping, Steve built a new shelf in the garage, we washed the trailer which finally made it home on Friday, and put everything away. Played some Tetris on Facebook! I did loads and loads of washing and ironing. We also watched the qualifying, popped into town and had an ice cream on the quay.

Today Anna has been at a friend’s birthday party all day, I took the other two to church, then we came back and had sandwiches while watching the Grand Prix. Plan was to have friends to stay tonight but just as I was about to make beds up I heard that they couldn’t make it after all; bit disappointing but hopefully we’ll see them in the week sometime instead. Tried to get the kids to tidy their rooms even if friends weren’t going to be sleeping in them, but it didn’t work! Steve shaved his beard off. Watching Casualty now – it’s gone all ‘american medical drama/24/csi’ style which is a bit weird.

Joe and I spent a while this morning on the subject of castles; we’d finished off a worksheet that they had at Windsor last week so that I could stick it into our holiday diary/scrapbook thing, and then he got into the idea of castles and went to find his Usborne Great Castle Search book, as well as some other knight/castle books he has.

Then violin practice as usual, but with the addition of a pair of chopsticks! These are stuck into the holes of the violin at right angles, and serve to stop Joe’s bow veering off at strange angles down the fingerboard.

Don’t know if other teachers do this sort of thing as well or if it’s just a Suzuki idea but I imagine it will help a lot if he practices with them over a longer period of time. For a while he had an old 35mm film pot tied around the fingerboard to make sure his left hand didn’t collapse inward, and that helped a lot (although he still has to be reminded about the left hand shape sometimes!).

Steve came home mid-morning and we worked all together on the garage – it is now completely cleared out, and a garage full of crap (really should have taken before and after photos as it is an incredible difference!) has been transformed into a mainly empty space with tools/decorating/gardening stuff stored tidily on shelves at one end, and bikes at the other.

The girls got home after school and everyone had ice pops on the patio and played with the guinea pigs for a while. Then Anna went off to do music practice and Joe & Abbie got ready for swimming. Joe’s doing really well with his swimming at the moment, and his teacher rang over half term to say she wanted to give him a trial in the next class up. This means that he’s in the same group as Abbie! At first he was pleased about the move, then said he didn’t want to change groups [my heart sank, dreading yet another swimming lesson related trauma!]. I later managed to ascertain that the only reason he didn’t want to change was that he thought it might mean no time in the bar upstairs (where there is a tv, snack machine etc.), so we went up and watched the Simpsons as usual. He was still a bit nervous, but made a good effort. The trial’s extending to next week, mainly to help me out as if I get used on jury duty I can’t get them both there until 5.30pm anyway! Joe’s a bit titchy compared to the rest of them, so hasn’t got the physical strength/stamina of most of the class, but he kept up well enough, I thought. And perhaps him catching up will spur Abbie on, too