just another morning here

Josiah and I looked at Scratch for a while this morning. Well, everyone’s talking about it so I had to at least try it! We both liked it but by the time Joe had got to grips with it he’d lost concentration! Will look at it again later in the week I hope, I think the next step is to show him the website so that he can get some inspiration.

I went to work and wrote mileage letters while Steve pulled down our rotten porch (and half of the front wall of the house ) He was going to just replace the porch roof but now it seems that this might include bricks, and cement … aargh. I don’t really like DIY – either doing it or even being around while someone else is doing it! So it is best if I stay out of the way, although now that the mileage letters are done I’m going to have to get creative with my excuses. Joe helped Steve a bit, got paint all over his trousers, but generally had a good day I think.

When the girls came home Abbie was wasted and good for nothing; she is somehow not 100% and hasn’t been for a few days but nothing other than a few snuffles and a bruised elbow from the park the other day seem to be wrong with her. She did some nice DWN out in the conservatory ‘on her own in peace’, while the other two argued over who was going to bake what. Eventually Anna produced snickerdoodles, with help from Josiah who is more practiced at baking and operating the oven – it made me laugh anyway. She cooked dinner too – ok, it was only spaghetti and leftover casserole (mmm! ) but it was nice that she did it anyway, it’s unusual! I did suggest to her that she could cook dinner every Monday if she wanted to and she quite liked the idea but then procrastinated for a year or so by saying she’d wait until she was home educated again and I could give her cookery lessons. Oh yes, because my cooking is just so great.

Tired now. The evening has disappeared in a combination of obsessive computer games (just for a change) and then the excitement of planning a trip to see Nanci Griffith’s tour this summer

Today in pictures, as I’m too tired for words …

Had a lovely day here while Em & Adam were trying to squash too-big furniture into a too-small house. Sun shone, we made lots of yummy cakes (which are being saved for our holiday!), and it was the last day of term, which is enough to make everyone happy here. Off for a week now, see you all soon

Food Festival was great fun as always – I love tasting everything from jam to chutney to cheese to … the duck sausages we had for lunch – Duck Dogs with plum sauce, mmm!

Joe bought himself a strawberry, doughnut and marshmallow kebab from the chocolate fountain stall – which was supposed to keep him quiet while Becca & I watched Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall do a demo in the cookery theatre but it was packed to overflowing by the time we got there so we didn’t bother after all!

He managed all bar the last marshmallow of it – no mean feat, it was huge! The rain held off and it was nice enough to have lunch outside, then we went back to Becca’s for a cup of tea.

As I write, Anna is out playing with a friend from school. Meanwhile Abbie is creating culinary delights in the form of a jelly sweet kit that she’s had since Christmas. Joe did some more maths and music workbooks this morning and we’ve set a goal of finishing them both off before Easter, which should be manageable, only a few pages left in each one.

Forgot we did a science kit the other day, which just happened all about the solar system, good consolidation/revision for Joe. He quite enjoyed making this poster using pastels on black paper, and cut up a planet factsheet to label each planet.

Nice combination, huh? Perhaps I should suggest it to Ben & Jerry. Can’t see it catching on though!

Anyway, we’ve had a busy day including the regular music practice, a trip out to help Steve with transport, spray painting a dalek, and lots of baking this afternoon because I thought my friend Ivonne deserved a birthday cake

Steve helped Joe with spray painting … this was after we’d glued little pony beads onto the dalek’s body … next we’ll have to use a little brush to paint the individual beads in a contrasting colour. At this point though it’s hard to tell that it’s an egg! Steve and I have enjoyed ourselves immensely helping Joe with this one, we might even make another one to keep ourselves! The patterns are in our little set on flickr if anyone else is interested

Josiah joined in with baking too – he didn’t like the fact that I was doing baking to take out this evening so he found his favourite Annabel Karmel cookbook and made some choc-chunk-cookies all by himself. He managed to drop an egg on the floor, spill some mixture at one point, and then finally upturned the bowl on the floor just as he was putting the last cookie on the tray. So the kitchen floor needs a clean, but hey, they taste great. I made gingerbread for home as well, some of which Abbie has taken to Wind Group.

Joe’s just had a good violin lesson, he learnt a new piece today, so we’ve got The Happy Farmer to practice this week. And Anna’s at Stage by Stage where they are doing High School Musical, aargh, are we ever sick of those songs already.