Subtitled ‘uninspired blogging’, really don’t have much to say! Yesterday we did lots of jobs and sorting stuff out; I did some food shopping, Steve built a new shelf in the garage, we washed the trailer which finally made it home on Friday, and put everything away. Played some Tetris on Facebook! I did loads and loads of washing and ironing. We also watched the qualifying, popped into town and had an ice cream on the quay.

Today Anna has been at a friend’s birthday party all day, I took the other two to church, then we came back and had sandwiches while watching the Grand Prix. Plan was to have friends to stay tonight but just as I was about to make beds up I heard that they couldn’t make it after all; bit disappointing but hopefully we’ll see them in the week sometime instead. Tried to get the kids to tidy their rooms even if friends weren’t going to be sleeping in them, but it didn’t work! Steve shaved his beard off. Watching Casualty now – it’s gone all ‘american medical drama/24/csi’ style which is a bit weird.

Then violin practice as usual, but with the addition of a pair of chopsticks! These are stuck into the holes of the violin at right angles, and serve to stop Joe’s bow veering off at strange angles down the fingerboard.

Don’t know if other teachers do this sort of thing as well or if it’s just a Suzuki idea but I imagine it will help a lot if he practices with them over a longer period of time. For a while he had an old 35mm film pot tied around the fingerboard to make sure his left hand didn’t collapse inward, and that helped a lot (although he still has to be reminded about the left hand shape sometimes!).

Steve came home mid-morning and we worked all together on the garage – it is now completely cleared out, and a garage full of crap (really should have taken before and after photos as it is an incredible difference!) has been transformed into a mainly empty space with tools/decorating/gardening stuff stored tidily on shelves at one end, and bikes at the other.

The girls got home after school and everyone had ice pops on the patio and played with the guinea pigs for a while. Then Anna went off to do music practice and Joe & Abbie got ready for swimming. Joe’s doing really well with his swimming at the moment, and his teacher rang over half term to say she wanted to give him a trial in the next class up. This means that he’s in the same group as Abbie! At first he was pleased about the move, then said he didn’t want to change groups [my heart sank, dreading yet another swimming lesson related trauma!]. I later managed to ascertain that the only reason he didn’t want to change was that he thought it might mean no time in the bar upstairs (where there is a tv, snack machine etc.), so we went up and watched the Simpsons as usual. He was still a bit nervous, but made a good effort. The trial’s extending to next week, mainly to help me out as if I get used on jury duty I can’t get them both there until 5.30pm anyway! Joe’s a bit titchy compared to the rest of them, so hasn’t got the physical strength/stamina of most of the class, but he kept up well enough, I thought. And perhaps him catching up will spur Abbie on, too

So instead I drove round about 5 local pet shops looking for something suitable and eventually found an ex-display double hutch in one of them, so that was a result, as it wasn’t too expensive. Also picked up a nice big run (like this but mine was cheaper!) which reminds me of a babydan playpen, it’s octagonal but like the playpens you can use the sides in any combination you like. I’ve split it down the middle with some other mesh panels, so they now have a huge amount of space each, but can still see each other.

Yesterday they both seemed really happy and were jumping around all over the place – mind you if Caspian gets too close to Reepicheep’s side, Reep does start rumbling at him immediately. I wonder if he’ll grow out of it … just couldn’t bear to see any more injuries on the way. Caspian’s back is healing nicely but it’s a scar at least a centimetre long (which is quite a lot on a small guinea pig really!), and until Reep has settled down it’s not worth them being together.

Our other pet trauma was with Gizmo the hamster, who seemed to have nasty crusty spots growing on all his soft tissues (ears, nose, bottom of feet, genitals – ew!), so we took him to the vet on Monday. Anna was really worried that he’d have to be put down so spent much of Monday morning faffing around taking photos of him just in case. Found out that he has hamster mites which is treatable, he had one injection then and there’s another in a week or so. Had to scrub his entire cage etc. really carefully too. Gizmo has now become our most expensive hamster ever

Haven’t managed to achieve much else other than that! The girls have been back at school after half term, so Joe’s been missing them … he would swear blind that he doesn’t miss them but his behaviour tells me that he does They’re both happy to be back, really enjoying their schooldays. Sometimes it really makes us wonder whether Josiah would be better off back at school as well, but there we are, an ongoing debate in this household!

We’ve had Robyn with us over the past couple of days, so had a trip to Crealy yesterday, did the Sainsbury’s shopping, and that’s about it. Music stuff ongoing as usual, and Joe spent a while yesterday doing mazes/puzzles and music theory workbooks, but that’s about as educational as we’ve got I have spent too much time nit-combing this week already (and have lost my best nit-comb, aargh). Last night was Miscarriage Support Group and then we watched a film when I got home. For the second time in a row I managed to stay awake all the way through!

Steve’s working on a little project of his own, mission Garage Clearout. Joe’s been helping him a bit, too. It’s going relatively well at the moment, especially since he lined up our old fireplace surround and other stuff in the drive ready to take to the tip, and our neighbour looked over the fence and said ‘I’ll have that!’. She took the fire too, and some decorative patio slabs that we’d taken up – ie most of the heavy annoying stuff! Always happier to see things go to a good home than to the tip, so that’s good. I had tried to freecycle it all last year with no luck!

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

At home Joe and I have decorated the kitchen – well, stripped the orange-terracotta painted wallpaper and repainted in a light yellow – which is much brighter and lighter so that’s good, although I’m not sure the colour goes in the kitchen as well as I thought it would. And having painted the walls it’s just highlighted the fact that the gloss needs doing as well. Trouble with starting on gloss is you never know where to stop as one room leads to another, doesn’t it. Anyway, I digress. Joe’s also done loads of maths, finished one of his music theory workbooks and then laminated the certificate from the back of it, erm … oh and he’s now got an old computer in his room so he’s been rediscovering Zoombinis (our Maths journey disc is dead though ) and Carmen Sandiego Maths Detective and playing lots on those.

Abbie and Anna have had another week at school, groups/lessons have all started back up again (with the exception of swimming which is 2 weeks late due to pool refurbishment). Nothing much else to say on that front other than that Abbie got another Thank You Certificate this week – for something maths related. Anna’s cello teacher asked for more time with Anna from now on, but we decided that instead of 1/4 hr more in lessons once a week, it might be more beneficial if she just practiced more!

We rewarded ourselves for the hard work on the kitchen with a new wii game which has kept us occupied pretty much ever since we got it home!

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

As in the title, we had Princess Zimbo and her time machine. We also had the Inventor Prince (who seemed to be inventing lots of weapons but never mind!), and a fortune teller! They met up for chats over wine (or fruit juice, as the Inventor Prince didn’t like wine ), and talked about their respective time travels and inventions. I also met Fungus and Fungus’s friend (with shoes), who entered into the story at some point but I’ve forgotten quite how.
It was just gorgeous to watch the story/game unfold, as the children went along they were making different models to be the different parts of their story, and changing them to suit the storyline

In other news … we’ve generally just been working hard; Russ is on holiday so Steve and I have been busy. Garage is pretty slow at the moment though

Children are all enjoying the last couple of weeks of school, although Josiah is good for nothing by the time he gets home. He had a school trip to Bicton this week, and Abbie has a trip to Escot next week. Other than that, life just goes on as per usual with their various activities etc. We’re all looking forward to the summer holidays, and seeing friends then

Tonight we have a party with Emma & Adam (home from Iraq for a couple of weeks) before going down to the Quay for the opening night of the Exeter Festival – we went last year and it was a great night so we’re taking the children as well this year.

And a quotation, to end this post, just to amuse me. We keep showing our printer’s block picture to people, and I always want to say (in a cheesy american accent, that’s a clue) “looks like we’re in a printer’s shop – smell the ink?” Anyone remember where that line comes from? And if you do, I want to know *is the story true*?

Before that the kids and I had worked hard getting all their rooms straight again, which happened fairly easily. Had to hit the kitchen again as well due to Joe and Abbie having juiced cherries all over the kitchen I know I do juice fruit for breakfast fairly regularly but honestly, I do usually use a juicer! It looked as though they had just squashed them between their fingers!! There was cherry juice all over the cupboard doors, floor, worksurfaces, etc, groan.

Meanwhile Steve was putting up our picture, which is now straight I really shouldn’t post a pic as it doesn’t do it justice in the slightest but it might be ages before some of you see it in real life.

Title of this post from the song, obviously … Anna got a part in her Stage by Stage production of the Wizard of Oz so we’ve been learning songs and Over the Rainbow is one of those that just sticks in your head. I played her the Eva Cassidy cover and she moaned that it was the wrong tune, so I’m off to find some proper music for her so she can learn it on the piano herself … linked here so I can print them out at work tomorrow

The funny thing about this was that I picked out the five letters. I was so chuffed that a piece of art that we both really liked could also be personalised, even if only in a random and not-necessarily-visible-to-anyone-who-didn’t-know sort of a way. Then Steve came along and said ‘do you think we should have a question mark in there, just in case?’, and for a second I thought he was perfectly serious. I almost think he was!!

We’d been discussing how it was something that would last forever and suit any sort of house that we might live in … anyway, rofl, we decided that if we did have an accidental 4th child we’d just have to make sure we picked a name that began with one of the other letters in the montage Made us laugh, anyway

Didn’t photograph it but we are also having a very Monty Python-esque hand block included in the picture, which we both just liked the look of – the sort of hand with a pointing finger that might have been used to make a ‘this way —>’ sign. So looking forward to it, did I mention how pleased I am about it?

The kids are well chuffed as we bought them a chair each and they love them! Got the grown up version for myself as well And Steve has bought this awful cabinet which for some bizarre reason he seems to have fallen in love with, and as I gave him free rein to do what he wanted in the lounge my lips are sealed! Must be the most despicable piece of furniture I have ever seen, looks like it should be part of some mad scientist themed furniture in Animal Crossing!! Ho hum. All we need is a sofa now, only potentially another 6 weeks to go

Excitement tonight (apart from the chairs and various after school activities for the children) is watching a load of ebay auctions finish plus the Apprentice in a minute … oh, it’s such an exciting life