just another morning here

The children have got rather into the idea of Mother’s Day here (although I’ve realised tonight – too late – that I’ve completely failed to do anything for either of mine or Steve’s mums ) and brought me breakfast in bed today. The tray was beautifully laid out with glasses of flowers that they’d cut from the garden and arranged nicely, and more flowers decorating the plate too. Only trouble was that I’d just got out of bed and jumped into the shower when they appeared with it!
So I had the cup of tea in the shower and Abbie ate the rest We have also been given tickets to a special Mother’s Day concert tomorrow afternoon and there has been a lot of secrecy surrounding that (not much practicing though!!), so I’m looking forward to it.

The rest of the day has been fairly much taken over with Anna’s dance school’s show. She did one performance last night, today they had two – one at lunchtime and one in the evening. We all went along and watched the lunchtime one. It was a very impressive show and we all enjoyed it, even though it was looooong! The dancers performed beautifully, costumes were fantastic, attention to details in the production was good, etc. Spotted a couple of other children who we knew so had fun watching them as well. The only disappointment for me was that Anna didn’t get to see it.

Oh, and I just remembered. My blog is now 4 years old. Which is almost as scary as dancers who look grown up yet are only a couple of years older than Anna.

Despite Ros’s reassurances, I definitely felt like a clueless mother this morning when (a) trying to do a bun ‘with twisty bits going back’ in Anna’s hair, and (b) sewing ribbons on ballet shoes.

Now, doing a bun is hard enough normally, never mind keeping strands of hair out of it, to twist them up, to add them in later, and still have it all slick and neat. It took at least 4 attempts and I still thought it was messy (although I did see some other girls’ buns later and didn’t feel so bad after all).

Next came the ribbons on the shoes. Now, how is a person supposed to know where to put them or what angle to sew them on at?! Thankfully, as I had left it far too late to let Anna ask someone/take photos of someone else’s shoes to see what they were like, the internet came to my rescue and I found some guides and then muddled my way through. With minutes to spare!

And all this was just for the rehearsal. Two rehearsals, to be precise, as we had to go in and out to the theatre twice for rehearsing the first bit and then the finale. [as an aside, Merry, does your niece do dancing too, spotted their car when we were driving round town twice today and wondered if it was more than a coincidence?]

So while Anna’s activities took over the day, the rest of us pottered around – Steve fixed a broken arm rest in the van; Joe practiced riding his bike in the close – particularly starting and stopping, as I think if he can get those skills sorted he will be confident enough (finally) to go it alone. He was doing very well with it today

Abbie painted, played in the close a bit, then went down to Riona’s house and played there too. I sorted laundry, and did some more of Abbie’s jigsaw (she’s long since given up!).

This evening we had friends round for another viewing of Little Miss Sunshine, which was just as good (if not better) the second time around.

Life going on at relatively high speed here – well, Anna’s is, at least. This week she has had a dress rehearsal for Vigo the Viking (that was after a weekend sleepover at which I don’t think much sleep was had!), two days of school – tomorrow she has her Grade 2 piano exam (which if she passes I will be amazed), school in the middle, and then the first performance of Vigo, then two more days of school (and a ballet lesson) before another performance of Vigo and another sleepover. Honestly, she is going to need the Christmas holidays, if she makes it there in one piece! Cello lessons are carrying on but she really hasn’t had time or energy for much practice recently – must slow her down a bit next term I think. We had a little altercation yesterday over a b flat, in one of her piano exam pieces no less – she’s been playing a b natural – nightmare to try and fix that with only two days to go! Trouble is she does actually *want* to do all this stuff!

Abbie is taking life at a much more sane pace, just pootling along with school, swimming & music lessons and the appropriate practice inbetween. Likewise Josiah is really happy at home – I think he ought to be getting bored but he doesn’t seem to be! We’re doing some MEP maths and some reading/writing each day, and then just taking things as they come. Oh, and the music theory stuff is ongoing as well, he’s been doing about time signatures recently – just 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 so far, but he’s got the hang of those pretty well I think. Lots of gaming going on as well, as usual.

Think I’ve almost done the Christmas shopping pretty much online (damn but I love the internet), just the tricky people to finish off now Hmm, actually looking at the list there are a few too many tricky people on there!

Cards – I really object to Christmas cards. In particular I object to sending them to people that I keep in regular contact with, as it just seems pointless – pointless to buy them in the first place, supporting the card economy which is hardly environmentally friendly, even if they do get recycled afterwards, which isn’t a given. Pointless to spend huge amounts of time making or writing them when they only get chucked out afterwards! [Please don't tell me there is anyone out there who *keeps* them for anything other than making next year's tags with?] And pointless to send news to people who know it anyway!

So if you’re reading this, don’t expect a Christmas card from us! There are a few people with whom a card/letter at Christmas is the main way of keeping in touch, so rather than writing hundreds of pointless ‘just-saying-happy-christmas-and-here’s-a-blanket-round-robin-newsletter’ cards I’ve decided I’d rather write 20 meaningful cards with a more personal letter in them. I suppose, if you’re reading this and you desperately want a card to clutter up your house with, then you can ask, but you still might not get one Likewise, please don’t send me one!! I’m just as happy with Merry Christmas wishes in my comments box at some point over the festive period

We went to see The Wizard of Oz this evening – really really impressed with Stage by Stage’s production in all respects, it was an excellent show.

Anna is absolutely shattered already … it’s going to be a very long week!