Last week Abbie went on a kayaking course down at Haven Banks, along with her friend Riona. They really enjoyed themselves, and finished up by achieving the vast majority of level 5 of the Paddle Power Passport. I imagine they may well go on and do the higher levels another year.

Joe and I went down for a walk along the river on their last day and watched them paddling back then finishing off a few bits of their award.

Anna and one other ECO member joined in – Anna loved having the opportunity to play some more challenging music. In fact I did have to laugh at one point as she was grinning at us and sliding her hand up and down the cello – clearly not actually playing the notes!! Anyway it’s given her a taste of the big wide world which I suppose she hasn’t really had before; she is still only really involved in school things rather than anything bigger. It sounded great, too – they played Holst’s Mars, and themes from Gladiator and Pirates of the Caribbean – if Josiah didn’t have a concert on the same night I would be very tempted to go to the concert as well!

On Friday night we had a lovely meal down at the Chinese. I’d lost track of time and not managed to cook tea in time, plus it was the start of half term, plus we hadn’t really done anything for Steve’s birthday, so all of that meant we felt justified enough!

Today – more work this morning, Riona came over to spend the day with Abbie, we had a rather delicious spaghetti bolognaise for lunch, then drove down to somewhere near Ivybridge to visit our friends Nic & Ady who are staying there at the moment. They’re WWOOFing their way around the country this year, in a camper van called Willow. I’m incredibly envious, I must admit, as the idea of leaving the ratrace does seem very appealing at times. Josiah was shown around the farm by D & S, and we sat around drinking tea and chatting, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, looking out at a fabulous view across the moors. Simply idyllic. Fitted in a quick cache on the way home

We were due to set up for this year’s church holiday club this evening but the caretaker didn’t turn up, so it’s going to be a very efficient job done in very little time in the morning.

It was a lovely day today so when Steve had finished work we decided to go out. I’d unearthed a free family ticket (which I won in a raffle over 3 years ago!) to the River Dart Country Park, so we drove down there for the afternoon. It’s the first time we’ve ever been, and it was fairly quiet, so we had a lovely afternoon mooching around in the sun. The children were treated to a turn on the High Wires which was a highlight for them – Joe just had one moment of uncertainty but otherwise made it round as confidently as the girls.

We had Josiah’s parents’ evening on Thursday, that termly visit where the teachers tell us about this wonderful child that we don’t quite recognise the description of! Glad he is getting on well there anyway. In the same evening I managed to squeeze in a night out with friends from work and doing a risk assessment for a school trip – quite impressive all in one evening, I thought!

Work has been slightly better this week, still incredibly challenging though, and I still feel completely out of my depth, but hey ho. Small improvements are good – and it’s only two weeks until half term now.

Anna went away to Dartington on Friday night for the weekend (more on that later). Abbie went out with the panto kids to watch a video of their summer performance, so Josiah chose a film and we relaxed a bit with that, plus additional wine, hot bath, etc.

Saturday morning was school (their open day) for Abbie, work for Steve, orchestra for Josiah (on time for once, as it’s his free weekend from choir commitments), and the orchestra AGM for me. While I was off sorting out an upset child they managed to re-elect me as chair for another year! Hmmm. I didn’t really want to give it up though didn’t think I could carry on – too late now! Still, it is the only activity that all three of my children are involved in, so I like being part of the committee there rather than anywhere else, hopefully I will manage to hold things together despite the added pressure of work this year.

From the AGM I met my sister and we made a mad dash up to Oxford for a church event – honouring Barney Coombs who has been the international leader of our group of churches – and then the official commissioning of my Dad into that role. It was a special afternoon, so glad I made the effort to go – but it was also very long so glad I made the decision to leave the kids behind!

At home Josiah had a much needed haircut, and Steve took both children in to visit his Grandad, who is very ill in hospital at the moment

I got home around 9.30ish and ate soup while watching the end of X Factor.

Today I’ve been fitting in all the things that I didn’t have time to do yesterday; the usual laundry and school work, plus my 700th geocache, which was a 5/5 for difficulty/terrain, so will be a memorable one I had to do one for the 10/10/10 challenge! Abbie cleaned out the guinea pigs and Steve did the food shopping, I ironed shirts then washed the kitchen floor.

After that we had to go to Dartington to collect Anna, and watch the first act of the Whaletone Opera. She’d accessed this weekend workshop via SWMS, and it contained lots of improvisation and composition, so it was very good for her. All a bit strange and modern for my taste but very well executed, and the dance group who joined the SWMS musicians were excellent. Anna had a brilliant time there, anyway.

Now home, had tea, watching The Cube and X Factor with the kids while doing a bit more work … I have a horrible cold and feel rubbish

On Saturday afternoon, Josiah went off to evensong, and I took the girls out to Creative Stitches. They were incredibly lucky that I’d just been paid and was feeling in need of retail therapy! We had a nice time – it wasn’t as expensive as it could have been, either. They both came home and got on with their new arty stuff while I cooked dinner – my favourite Cottage Pie … comfort food! Steve came first in his class at the new hillclimb at Manor Farm so he came home in a good mood too.

Today I was up early to take Joe to his morning services – then came home and worked (huge ironing pile plus school work) while the girls did more arty bits and bobs. After picking Josiah up we rushed off to Charmouth to watch the hillclimb – it’s the last race of the season and the first time we’ve managed to go and spectate! The venue brought back happy (and some not-so-happy!) memories of Hesfes, and actually it was a good hillclimb venue too – not too steep, and not a long hike from the paddock to the spectating area! Not as much fun to watch as Wiscombe though, although Steve said it felt fun to drive. (nb turn speakers off before watching video otherwise Abbie’s annoying cheering voice will grate somewhat – I did tell her not to do it but she thought I was joking, apparently )

Anyway, after the race we stood around chatting for a while, then went down to the town for a cache, then to the beach for an earthcache where we had to find fossils, something the kids love doing. Steve found a whole ammonite which looks like we could polish it up – so have been googling that this evening – anyone know anything about that?

Now home and trying to fit too much ‘finishing off’ into one evening – there’s ironing to finish, school work to finish (all four of us schoolies have some!), not to mention a shopping list that needs making and other general tidying up …

After that we went on to see the launch of Girl Friday‘s EP at a tiny cocktail bar in town – plenty of atmosphere and fantastic to see what Steve’s sister has been spending all her time working on recently. Can’t link to the new video yet as I don’t think it’s online so will have to post this one instead

On Friday night we went to Exmouth, along with some other families, for an end of term BBQ. Well, we didn’t BBQ as that would have meant being organised; we had chips on the seafront instead. Everyone else was far more civilised than us, of course. Miss White even joined us for some of the time, which was lovely- possibly the last time we see her! The kids had a ball, and it was very chilled for us grownups as well

Yesterday Steve took all his employees on a jolly down to Haynes Race Track, so muggins here covered at the garage. It was very quiet although I did see one genuine customer – but a quiet day suited me as I had some time to think about planning for next year – not that I actually managed to get any work done, but still. The children spent a pleasant day with Grandma We were meant to go to Exmouth again with different friends but I made an executive decision that I was too tired so called an early night all round.

Today the girls went off to panto for the day, while Steve, Josiah and I went into town, then out to Wiscombe as spectators for a couple of hours – a novelty for Steve! Since he blew his gearbox up yesterday he had little choice

Anyway, back to the girls – over the past few weeks they’ve been involved with a mini-production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by the ‘Juniors’ of the Pinhoe Panto Society. Well, we thought it was a mini-production but actually it was pretty major! Considering how little time they’d had to rehearse it was an amazing show, with all the kids involved, some great singing and dancing too – and they all had such fun doing it, which was obvious in their enjoyment of the performance.

Afterwards all the panto families went and sat in the park and chatted while the kids played, lovely

The highlights were going down to Isca for the end of the Exe Valley Challenge which Abbie took part in today – lovely atmosphere and Abbie enjoyed the walk itself (though I hear she broke the rules by going to the toilet in a shop ). I may hear more about it from her tomorrow when she’s not so tired.

Then came evensong and two concerts in different places, which made for a tricky afternoon for me – I went to evensong, then eventually extricated boys from the cathedral; heard a little bit of the violin one and the second half of the other one – but then afterwards we went back to Mr Featherstone’s house for a BBQ with some families from the Suzuki Violin group and that was lovely The kids played badminton and hung out together while the parents chatted – very chilled.

It is also known as the Orange Elephant, because of the type of dairy cows that they keep but also because they keep a big orange elephant in a field that you can see from the A38 dual carriageway! Anyway. Georgina’s mum had fixed up an official visit, so after an ice-cream in the cafe (because it would have been rude not to!) the very friendly farmer showed the girls around, let us take all sorts of photos, talked them through the dairy farming and ice cream making processes. It was fab

Now, of course, they have some work to do writing it all up …