just another morning here

Well today had nothing planned, but as it turned out we’ve had a lovely day spending time on a spontaneous project … this morning someone advertised a big hamster cage on freecycle. I’ve tried getting bigger cages from freecycle before and missed them, but this time we were the first to reply, and boy is Haffertee a lucky hamster.

This is a handmade hamster palace, with four floors, and a clear panel at the bottom so you can see the burrowing/nesting/hiding bit as well. We went and picked it up from a lovely man who had made it himself for a rescued hamster. Hadn’t quite realised just how big it was but when we saw how great it was we couldn’t change our minds – and Abbie thought of a perfect place to put it, so we’ve squeezed it in. Gonna have to sell it to Anna as a new bedside table, it’s as tall as the bunk beds!!

So we spent a happy afternoon gluing lolly sticks onto a couple of planks to make ladders – typically Haffertee has been climbing the sides of the cage instead of using the ladders, but there we go. Then once we’d cleaned and prepared the cage we put Haff into it and he seemed to love it – took him a while to really go exploring but when he did he was away. So a huge thank you to Dave from Freecycle, it is fantastic and we all love it

We’re wondering how long it will take Steve to spot it, I suspect he will see the photos/read the blog before he notices it

Comes round quickly, Sunday night, doesn’t it. Must go and cook tea then fold the washing so that they have school uniform ready for the morning.

It has been a beautiful day here; bit gutted that we haven’t managed to make the most of it, but there we go. I had the annual Memorial Service for babies lost through miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death to go to this afternoon, and Steve had to go in to work to let someone test drive a car, so it was always going to be a non-starter of a day, really.

The children have played out a fair bit though, with Mollie and Ruby in the close, Josiah is out there still in his pyjamas, and Abbie is in her sunsuit! Just couldn’t be bothered to insist on anything today.

Abbie spent the first part of *her* morning on a hamster hunt, she did admit responsibility in having accidentally left the cage open yesterday, so I think she breathed a huge sigh of relief when she found him in her dolls’ cot.

Anna has dossed around, but came with me to the service this afternoon. Her comments were that it was a short service, and that she was surprised at how much crying there was. Doh. My feelings on the whole thing are pretty much the same as last year and the year before that. I can’t quite decide if it’s good to give time to feel stuff all over again, or if it’s just a strange sadistic thing to put yourself through once a year. I am really considering stopping the support group, and if I do stop it I don’t think I’d go to the service, which leads me to think that it is just me getting emotionally carried away by the situation rather than any real grief of my own. Obviously I did and occasionally still do grieve, but the service itself doesn’t help in that for me personally, I don’t think. Still, having said that, someone read a very powerful poem today which I might post one day.

We had a lovely night out (at Harry’s) yesterday, too, which deserves a mention – we were celebrating a decent month of sales at the garage, so it was a works’ do – felt like a proper one for the first time ever though as it included our mechanic and his wife as well as Steve’s parents and us. We might even manage it this month as well, if we’re lucky

Not brilliant photos, sorry, he kept moving! He is gorgeous though, and seems very happy to be handled – good!

Such a mad day I will have to amend the time of blog-entry to make this appear on the right date!

Started off this morning by helping Steve at work, running errands with kids in tow.

Home for a quick coffee for me, while the children played with Mollie and did their music practice.

Back out (via the cinema to get Orange Wednesday 2-4-1 tickets for Narnia) to our Home Ed groups’ joint Christmas party. A well attended affair including a party lunch, storytelling session, gift giving and opening and enjoying, then carol singing and lantern procession around the park! We were there until around 5pm when we went to extract Steve from work and take him to the cinema.

Loved the film. I wasn’t sure I was going to, and I’m not going to attempt to review it at all as there are plenty of reviews out there already. But I liked it – I liked the ‘magical-ness’ of the story which I think they did a great job translating into film. The cast were brilliant; there were a couple of moments where the special effects seemed less good than others, but the main animal characters were exceptionally well done. The battle scene, we realised on the way home, was interesting because there wasn’t a drop of blood spilt (or very little, at least!). Still not quite sure it tops the animated version for me personally, but they are such different films from different eras so you really can’t compare them. If Disney/New Walden Media are planning to make the entire series I will be thrilled, does anyone know if they are?

Once home and the children were in bed it was an early night for us, too. Well, it would have been early for me until I started chatting online on Animal Crossing, where the Wild World has become a small world – wi-fi means you meet people by playing across towns with your characters, and somehow I’ve managed to meet a someone who’s as sad as me – obsessed enough to buy AC:WW before it’s even released in this country, then play it obsessively too. I got Nookingtons (with added hair salon) first though! Bizarrely, my new found friend actually lives nearby in real life, so one of these days we’re going to have to meet up and play AC without worrying about the network dropping out!

Still no photos of the new hamster but Abbie did have him out of the cage this evening and he seems quite settled and still very cute. Will get Steve on the case today