Secondly some ebay buyer is messing me around and doesn’t want to complete their transaction, which is just irritating in the extreme for a number of reasons.

And NOW. Now. I have been playing this silly game called MySims on the wii for a few weeks, and was going to complete it today – complete as in have collected all the UberSims and maxed out the town in the various ways you can do it. Anyway, the daft game developed a bug at the last minute, and wouldn’t let me move the last UberSim in. Or move any other Sim in for that matter, it had one Sim stuck in its memory and wouldn’t even move that one in. So I gave up, which I probably should have done weeks ago, it must be the most boring game on the planet, I really don’t recommend it – only people with ocd like me will get a kick out of completing boring tasks just for the sake of collecting everything and ticking all the boxes. But even I’m not OCD enough to start again from scratch.

Guess I’ll have to do some housework instead. I’m waiting in for some shelves to arrive today, and it has seemed futile to do much cleaning until they’re here, as when they are set up I am planning a major re-organisation of books and stuff around the whole house, which will create loads of mess, which I’ll have to clear up after, so there really isn’t any point clearing up beforehand, is there?

After saying goodbye to the girls we did his violin practice which went well for once. It’s been a long summer without seeing his teacher and it’s been hard to wind back up into regular decent practice (everyone, not just Joe!), but today he managed great posture/bow hold, as well as actually remembering his pieces, hurrah.

Then we started putting his Romans lapbook together, which involved me doing lots of cutting out and Josiah doing lots of sticking. Joe chose to complete a little flap thingy on Romulus and Remus, so he drew a picture of them as babies, and then dictated a very brief version of the story to me (there was no way on earth that he’d have been able to write it out, so better to go for the CM dictation approach than have a frustrated writer on my hands).

He played outside for a bit, got the guinea pigs out, nearly lost one of them in the garden but we managed to catch it again! Then played with a lego creation for a while, before Steve came home from lunch.

After lunch I had a lovely chat on the phone with my friend Liz, and then I taught Joe how to play San Juan. This took a long time but was worthwhile as it’s a game I actually like playing! I am so so bored of most of our board games, I really need some other new games that are enjoyable for adults as well as children. Literally the only games I really like playing are Yahtzee and Mastermind/Mindbender, everything else makes me groan when he suggests them. So we went off to PlayMerrily and had a look there – we like a look of a few of the games

By the time we’d done that the girls were home, ravenous despite having had school dinners, and Laura turned up for piano lessons. Tonight it’s Stage by Stage and Wind Group so a busy evening ahead.

Josiah and I have had Robyn with us all week so we’ve kept busy which is good all round, it means Joe and I don’t annoy one another too much, Joe and Robyn annoy one another instead

Monday was shopping day, then we baked cookies, then just played at home. As usual breathed a sigh of relief when Anna got home as she is so great with Robyn! Mollie and Ruby came over too, and they all played with Robyn’s playdoh for hours

On Tuesday we went swimming in the morning, which was pretty fun although Joe just seemed out of place and huge in the little pool with a bunch of toddlers.

Anna had cello after school; the rest of us went to the park while she was there and I met an old friend, so it was nice to have someone to chat to (makes the park bearable!), and generally catch up with her and her family.

Wednesday‘s activity was home ed group at the park; Josiah made another new friend (hurrah) and Robyn enjoyed bimbling around the park too. Came home in time for Robyn to have a sleep, a little bit of Zelda (have been playing lots this week!), piano and recorder lessons, had tea, then went out for violin/Stage by Stage/Wind Group as usual. Appreciated the return of my chauffeur after two weeks doing that run without him

On Thursday we met up with our friend Becca to do something with her in celebration of her birthday. The weather didn’t look great so we ended up at Crealy – then it actually turned out to be a nice day! We played in the play areas, treated Becca (and ourselves) to a panini in the cafe, walked across the bridges to the lake where we fed the ducks, came back up and the children played in the sandpits for a while, then we rode the carousel and Becca even took Joe on the log flume, she was obviously feeling reckless

Today was County Show Day. We had a great day; Josiah took photos of everything he thought Steve would have liked to see, which was mainly cars. The highlight of our day was probably Andrei Burton (a top mountain bike trials rider) doing a display at the Cycle Exeter stand, he was amazing! Robyn loved all the animals, predictably. Oh, and our other fave stand was a science education one where there were all sorts of primary science type activities, as well as circus skills and a clown, we stayed there for a really long time, almost as long as the queue for the face painting

Home to generally veg out and then Joe lost his first tooth. For some reason this makes me stupidly emotional, my baby losing his baby teeth. He is quite excited that the tooth fairy has gone out to play poker tonight, as the tooth fairy promised that if he won, he’d be in a good mood *and* have some money by the time he came home to look under people’s pillows!

Oh, and I almost forgot, Anna got a Thank You Certificate at school for passing a Librarian’s Test and therefore being awarded the honourable title of Library Assistant, complete with shiny badge

Over the weekend, after watching the run on Sunday, we basically did not a lot at home. The girls did (yet another ) big room tidy. One day they will learn that if they pick things up every day then they won’t have to do mega-tidies at weekends. Then again I sometimes prefer the ‘do nothing for ages then give it a blast’ approach too, so I shouldn’t complain too much I suppose. Meanwhile Joe and Steve worked on this meccano type metal kit, which kept them occupied for a while.

Steve watched too much snooker, and has traumatised me by shaving off his beard yesterday. Changes like that shouldn’t be allowed. I started a new ac:ww town and moved my (almost completed catalogue) character over there so that took up far too much time over the weekend as well.

We did have a nice walk up on Haldon yesterday with various friends. Abbie and Josiah took bikes, while Anna decided not to take hers because she wanted to help look after baby Josh.

Today has been hard work, I really don’t like bank holidays, they lull you into a false sense of holiday and then you have to snap back into normal work mode, not only that but I always spend all week thinking it’s a day earlier than it is! Might not feel so bad if I hadn’t been kept up by a certain snooker match last night

We had Robyn this morning so got some stuff done first thing and then took her out to Crealy as it’s ten times easier than staying at home! Had to bribe Joe with a muffin to get him to help look after her in the play areas but then he did an admirable job.

Home for lunch, said goodbye to Robyn, now having a lull (I needed one) before the girls come home from school.

Of course Easter is a special occasion as well. We celebrated yesterday together – we had an egg hunt in the courtyard here, with chocolate eggs as well as plastic ones with clues to the Easter story inside (which my friend Liz had sent – and I have to specially thank her as everyone here appreciated it, it worked really well ). After hunting we went indoors and sat round the table to look at the Easter story clues, and then Dad read the Bible and we all tried to sing a hymn that only three of us could remember! (think Steve has some amusing photos of that but he’s not as sad as me so you won’t see those till we get home).

After dinner we went on a long walk from the farmhouse to Belstone Tor – didn’t quite make it to the very top before turning round to come back. Stopped for a drink in the pub at Belstone and then walked home again. Took us 3.5 hours altogether and Elodie walked most of the way too which was very impressive! Played Trivial Pursuit in the evening. In fact we’ve played board games most evenings which has been a highlight of the week for us so far.

Nothing else to report really – Viking day was fun, apparently.

Had a couple of rubbish days with Joe and him generally not wanting to do anything constructive after I try to limit screen-time. But yesterday was better, Crealy was open so I promised a visit, which meant that he got violin, maths and music done in record time with a great attitude towards it all.

Today we’ve done more of the same (violin, maths & music) and we’re about to head out to the South West Festival of Food & Drink which should be good fun despite the rain

He also did some beautiful writing in his Draw Write Now book, and a good violin practice this morning. Apart from that we’ve just been playing, with Lego again, a bit more Sonic, some jigsaw, and that’s about it. I sliced into my thumb while chopping onions this morning so enlisted Steve’s help peeling and chopping a pumpkin, then repaid the favour by helping him out with picking up a car. Oooh we’re so nice to each other

This evening saw various ones of us doing table tennis club, swimming, and ballet. Well, that was the children, obviously – Steve and my lives are nowhere near as interesting although we have just enjoyed playing San Juan and then watching Comic Relief doing The Apprentice

Joe started off with a Draw Write Now early this morning while the girls were still around. This was mainly so that he could cajole Anna into colouring the background and writing some of the sentences for him Still, the writing that he did was probably neater than hers! While this was going on the other three girls in the house (Caitlin & Riona were over here very early) were simultaneously practicing their recorders. Steve and I wondered if Rog & Ruth had done that on purpose?!!

Once the girls had gone, we sat and read the end of Monster in the Wardrobe which we’d started yesterday at the Music Festival. We quite like that Treetops series, they’re not bad stories. I think I did more reading than Josiah today though. Sometimes I insist on sharing the reading with him but other times I want him to enjoy the story without worrying about the mechanics of reading so it’s more fun to read to him. And often he’ll read something without really taking it in … I’m still generally waiting for his understanding to catch up with his de-coding abilities. He can read me a sentence out loud perfectly and then still turn to me blankly if I ask him what it said! Ahem, anyway. Moving swiftly on!

He went on to violin practice after the story, and that was very quick today. I told him if he could play his two pieces without stopping/making mistakes then that would be it, so he pulled all the stops out and did it. Fairly effortlessly as well. Which *really* makes me wonder why we have these torturously long and arduous violin practices!

After that he did some painting, from a Kipper kit that he had years ago. He got bored pretty quickly (it was colouring in by another name!) so had a bit of a play on Sonic Rings, then went and got the Lego out to play with for an hour or so while I spent some time with a Miscarriage Support Group person. Have had a couple of people through the group recently who’ve helped make it all feel worthwhile again so I’ve got a second wind with that whole thing.

Then came lunch, and we watched Friends and Heroes on CBBC. Because I’d seen it advertised and told Joe I wanted to see what it was like, he immediately said he didn’t want to watch it, he hated it, and it was rubbish (just like everything else at the moment it seems). However he then stood transfixed for half an hour while it was on so it can’t have been that bad

Another hour or so of Sonic, and I had a phone conversation with the other local Suzuki teacher who’s doing a group lesson in a couple of weeks. After the last disastrous attempt to join in with this group I’m more anxious than ever to get it right this time so I wanted to find out what she was planning so that Joe can be as prepared as possible. Apparently she’s happy to have older siblings joining in so I’m hoping to enrol Anna to help me by joining in on her cello. Anyway, more on that when it happens!

Then we played some other games together. We did some mindbender type puzzles from a puzzle calendar that we hadn’t even looked at since Christmas (got to about the end of January today!) so that was fun. Then we got the draughts out and had a looong game. It was looking touch and go at one point, I thought Joe was going to beat me but then he made a silly mistake at the end so I took him out.

The girls are home now and having piano/recorder lessons, and alternately playing chess and draughts with Joe. Then it will be tea and the mad rush out for violin, Stage by Stage (must write a cheque) and Wind Group. I’m missing my chauffeur tonight too … but at least that means I can take a short cut across town rather than sitting in traffic wondering if we’ll be late

On Tuesday … erm … I really can’t remember what we did. Oh yes, Josiah went to Nippers for a very long overdue haircut (now I really must get mine done too). We visited our favourite shop in town and came home with Sonic and the Secret Rings, which kept us both busy for the rest of the day. It’s a good game Anna came home and had a cello lesson, Abbie came home and painted. Abbie has been painting A LOT recently, in addition to the step by step drawing that she and Anna have been doing.

Wednesday’s activities elude me now too. I know we went to the library, because it’s not open on Tuesdays. I think I might have got Wednesday and Tuesday muddled up actually, in which case I *really* can’t remember what we did on Tuesday! I’ve been muddled up about my days ever since I realised that my calendar’s weeks start on a Sunday not a Monday like last year’s, it keeps throwing me out even though it’s almost 3 months into looking at the new one! Anyway whatever we did, it ended up with the usual Wednesday routine of piano/recorder/violin/Stage by Stage/Wind Group.

On Thursday we found ourselves in Plymouth on car-related errands, so took the opportunity to walk on the Hoe, which was lovely (photos may follow if they’re any good, or even if they’re rubbish but I haven’t got them off the camera yet). Tried to remind Joe about Francis Drake but he’s completely forgotten anything he ever knew about him (it was a long time ago for him!).

Picked Abbie up from school later as Anna was staying for a new table tennis club, which she loved, incidentally.

I’d been worried about the new hamster having not heard it for a couple of days, so we went up to check on it, and as I suspected, it had died. Anna was really upset when she got home and sobbed uncontrollably. I wasn’t going to replace it but just gave in when I saw how upset she was, I didn’t think she’d been that attached to it. We think it must have had something wrong with it; it never seemed normal, was always very jittery and nervous, and wouldn’t let us handle it at all without it screeching and making strange noises. I rang Pets at Home and they said they’d let her have another one, so she recovered after that, but was still a bit teary about it when she talked to Steve later on.
Steve took Abbie and Josiah to swimming lessons, and I took Anna to ballet.

I decided that the girls’ bookshelves needed sorting out on Friday morning so started that task, with Robyn and Josiah surrounded by piles of books, so they both did lots of reading As a result, there are a couple of boxes ready for the charity shop, Robyn went home with a bag of my favourite books that I couldn’t bear to completely get rid of, Josiah has new books on his shelf, and the girls’ shelves are lovely and neat and alphabetically ordered, and they can actually see all the books they have Anna is a librarian at school so with all those librarian skills she really ought to be able to keep them that way! I congratulated them on the fact that I *didn’t* find any manky pants or socks hiding there this time, as I usually do!

We spent an hour and a bit at Crealy before lunch which was nice as usual, they have brand new piglets and goat kids which were really really cute. Both children raced around and came home suitably tired.

Popped round to pick up the girls again; Abbie had had a bit of a meltdown about school in the morning so I’m trying to work out if she was just tired or if she is genuinely changing her mind about school. I think it’s a combination of both; she often complains that some people in her class make life difficult and spoil things for the rest of them – yet on the other hand she loves her friends too, and likes the work/structure as well. I don’t know – again I sometimes wish that my kids didn’t know they had a choice, because they can often think the grass is greener on the other side to wherever they are! Anyway both girls were inordinately happy when I told them that we were planning to go to Muddle Puddle Camp at Kessingland this year I’m not going to mention it again though as I really can’t stand any more renditions of Sparky’s Krew Club’s song!

Finished sorting out the girls’ room after they came home from school, had tea, and then headed out to pick up yet another hamster. This one is black and white and has been called Gizmo. He seems absolutely fine so far, and I will be watching him like a hawk. Well not quite like a hawk, as I imagine a hawk might fancy eating a little hamster, but you know what I mean.

Today we popped into town first thing to pick up a few essentials for Anna’s dance show; the rehearsal is tomorrow and I’ve been very lax and not bothered sewing ribbons on her shoes or even getting her the uniform tights up until now, I’m a very very bad ballet mother! Joe, meanwhile, has perfected the art of walking into town with one game under his arm, and back from town with another, which he did today – as long as you swap for something pre-owned you can manage this relatively easily, he’s found!

Then we spent the rest of the day celebrating Steve’s Aunty’s 60th birthday with his extended family.

We went out for lunch and then later on Steve joined us after work for tea together. Anna and Abbie both dressed up, did their hair specially, and wore well-applied makeup – they looked lovely.

Steve’s cousins both have children around the same age as our girls so I think the girls enjoyed spending time with them; Josiah had his nose in his newly acquired Lego Star Wars 2 on DS so he was happy too. I have eaten far too much.

Joe’s been doing lots of maths – shapes/area related pages from CIMT – and we had fun looking for hexagons and pentagons in the house one morning. He’s also learned lots about time and calendars recently, which is a real pain in the neck – when he asks me what the time is, I have to be precise to the minute, otherwise I’m in trouble. He knows exactly how many days it is until his birthday, and seems to spend ages thinking about time and dates, working out random useless pieces of information, or giving me a running commentary about how long it is until the next exciting event in the day. This pedantry extends to all areas of life actually but I guess I only have myself to blame for that

Josiah’s also doing a fair bit of reading, mainly late at night in bed. His favourites at the moment are the Usborne Flip Flap body book, and How Your Body Works (the one with all the robot pictures). Since he lost his knotty a few months back we haven’t replaced it because we realised that he wasn’t sucking his thumb while he didn’t have it … so he hasn’t been thumbsucking recently but the downside is that he hasn’t been going to sleep until about 10pm most nights! Still, we think he has memorised the entire Chronicles of Narnia from audiobooks

I took him to Crealy on Thursday, then he got invited out there again the next day with Robyn and Adam, so he’s done plenty of running around like a loon. He’s doing really well with swimming lessons at the moment as well, which is such a relief, after years of it being really hard work – their teacher came and told me that Abbie and Josiah had both swum well in their lessons on Thursday.

The girls both enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day on Thursday (Abbie went to school as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Anna went as Alice in Wonderland). On Friday Anna went to a friend’s house after school, and Abbie had a friend back here. Anna’s been busy doing lots of drawing from various ‘how to draw’ books, some of the results have been quite impressive actually!

The usual music stuff has been going on as well – for all three of them. Joe’s just carrying on as per usual with his violin, very nearly at the end of Suzuki Book 1 now, although I suspect there will be a fair bit of review to do before he’s at graduation standard with all the pieces. Abbie’s working towards Grade 1 piano in the summer and is sounding pretty good most of the time. Anna’s playing in some music festival or other in a couple of weeks, so she’s practising for that as well as for Grade 4 cello in the summer.

Had a bit of a stress at the end of the week as my car got written off – only bent metal, thankfully no-one was hurt and I wasn’t driving at the time but still a bit of a nightmare generally, takes a fair bit of emotional energy to deal with stuff like that, we discovered.

Can’t remember which night it was but the smoke detector went off for some unknown reason in the early hours of one morning – batteries are fine, and we couldn’t find any other reason for it – but Steve got up and checked everything, we both work up and couldn’t get back to sleep at all afterwards, so that probably didn’t help the latter part of the week either! We must be getting old, when one broken night wipes us out for the next couple of days!

The weekend has been nice though, lots of kicking around together. Kids brought me belated-birthday-breakfast-in-bed on Saturday which was great, so it was a lazy morning. Then we went up to Dartmoor and climbed up Haytor which everyone enjoyed.

The children went and stroked a nearby pony for ages, I was surprised by how friendly it was actually, I expected them just to run away. On the way back the kids decided to roll rather than walk down the hill!

Went out last night to a housewarming/birthday party of some friends who both have the same birthday as me; played poker there too, while watching the lunar eclipse! Steve’s gone out to play poker again this evening with a different set of friends.

Today it has been chucking down with rain *all day* so we’ve been at home just chilling out. Abbie did some painting – really nice pictures, some of them. Then she had great fun with a bath bomb kit – I think she made one bath fizzer and then spent the rest of the afternoon putting various ingredients together, then covering the kitchen in red and blue fizzy stuff

Anna and Joe have been playing their way through Lego Star Wars on the PS2 together – fantastic game, they’re both really enjoying it. In the midst of that Steve took the PS2 apart as he had done a couple of days previously, the game kept crashing – it is on a blue disc that apparently the PS2 lasers can’t always read well so he adjusted the laser which fixed it for them so they were quite impressed with their old dad for once

Steve and I have been working on a new website for the garage, and doing a bit more of Abbie’s jigsaw, and sorting out laundry, and that’s about it.