just another morning here

Actually today seemed quite chilled out in comparison to some Saturdays. Joe left early for choir as usual but then the girls and I had an hour extra at home, since orchestra started later than usual – that was really nice Really gearing up for Russia now, which is quite exciting!

We had Josiah’s friend with us for the day so have had two boys and two girls – I’ve not had to remember names today, just used ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ when yelling at people Came home via Sainsbury’s for some essential stuff we’d forgotten (birthday present, pudding for shared tea tomorrow, etc!), and had lunch. The girls then got ready for Caitlin & Riona’s party at Decoy Park, which goes on into the evening.

Meanwhile the boys lazed around watching tv (I took Will out for a quick geocache too but Josiah didn’t want to come!), then eventually got ready to go back to school for their practice and tea before the evening’s concert.

Steve and I went for a quick look in the camera shop (always dangerous, we’re at our best when blowing money) then a bite to eat together – on our own Then we went back to the Cathedral for the concert. It was great, lots of blow-you-away choral stuff, re-creating the Coronation, with footage from the actual coronation on a screen behind the choir.

Just home, now I’m catching up on the last Gareth Malone that I missed in the week … I’d be in his mothers’ choir

Pick and Mix tea is what we have when we empty the contents of the fridge (and larder) onto the table and everyone takes what they want. Okay, not the entire contents, but you get the picture. Rules are that as long as we eat a sandwich/wrap/ricecakes and a piece of fruit then we can add pretty much what we want. The children think that this is a huge treat, so when I announced at the beginning of the week that it was going to be Pick and Mix for dinner every night it was met with huge excitement.

However, the reason for this is that we simply don’t have time this week to cook and sit down together, so I wasn’t quite so enamoured with the concept – not for a whole week! So if you want to be very bored hearing about the various reasons, read on …
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So, a weekend. We ended up all doing different things but it was all good I think. I Josiah went off to choir first thing on Saturday, and was kindly shipped back to orchestra afterwards. ECO was busy, being the first rehearsal of the summer term, and we’ve got LOADS going on – 40th Anniversary celebrations to prepare for, the Russia trip getting nearer by the day, so there’s lots to think about and get done. Lots of people are working really hard which is fab. We are there from 9.30am – 1.30pm every Saturday though so it’s a long old morning.

From there, we came home and dropped the girls off, picked up a pre-packed bag with sandwiches, birthday present, old trainers and a map, then I took Josiah to a friend’s birthday party. This friend lives on the edge of Dartmoor, so I arranged to meet my caching friend up there and used the time to get a few caches in! It was a lovely afternoon for it and we climbed up some Big Rocks but as usual I’m feeling old and achey now.

Survived the journey home with a party-bag kazoo being played at full volume, stopped at Tesco to go to the toilet for the first time in the day and pick up some new hair clippers after ours broke this morning mid-haircut. Found Steve already home having come second today ( .06 of a second to find tomorrow ).
Cooked veggie lasagne for dinner while they all watched Doctor Who, then slobbed around in the evening – will have a second go at cutting Steve’s hair in the morning.

Today Josiah went off to the Cathedral for morning services; I stayed at home to help with various homework, getting totally tangled up in simultaneous equations which really shouldn’t have caught me out! Collected the boys after mattins, washed the car very quickly (and hence very badly), then took Josiah to yet another party. This one was just round the corner from Grandma’s house so the girls and I went there for lunch, a catch up, and a nice veg out in front of a film.
Later on I had a meeting with some church friends so the kids played at the park with one of their friends. Well, the younger two did – Anna had deemed herself Too Old for the park and sat in the back room playing DS.

Home for dinner eventually and Steve had come second again – to the Cosworth He was pleased with his day though, so that’s what counts. Plaques not glasses though, nowhere near as useful, I think I will put in a complaint!

This evening we’ve been catching up on some TV; The World’s Strictest Parents (always makes me feel better about both my parenting and my children’s behaviour!), and then BBC Young Musician of the Year. Had Anna wittering on about being home educated again so that she’d have more practice time but thankfully she’s only planning to do it after Y11 so that’s ok.

So now it’s Sunday night and have I thought about the week ahead? Have I buffalo. Ah well, too late now. Time for bed and we’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes … at least next weekend has one more day in it!

When we sit and listen to ECO’s concerts I end up feeling very proud to be involved in such an amazing organisation – everyone does their bit at a concert, helping out in loads of different ways from lifting drums to making cakes.

We have a great bunch of kids to work with, Richard the MD is brilliant too – all in all just excellent. There are niggles along the way too, and things go wrong all the time, but despite all that it’s still generally fab Anna played her Debussy piano solo tonight as well – again better in practice than in the real thing, but she still got lots of applause.

Oh, and whoever made the carrot cake that got squished so nobody bought it and I had to bring it home with me: thank you, it’s delicious