just another morning here

Or not so brief, this post looks quite long now that I’ve finished it!
Catching up … highlights of life here recently:

The weekend was nice; going to the opening of the Apple Store on Saturday was fun, Anna had orchestra; the other two dragged their Aunty Esther to the cinema, and then having her around for the rest of the day was pleasant too. Sunday was church and not a lot besides; for some reason we were all tired, so we didn’t do much else.

Anna’s been working hard this week with Stage by Stage, with rehearsals at the beginning of the week and performances (High School Musical) at the end of the week. We saw the show last night.

I’ve helped out at school with a couple of things, transport mainly! But providing transport means you get to stay for whatever it is you were transporting children to, so on Tuesday I walked Abbie’s class up to the High School for some sports activities, and on Wednesday I went with Anna and her after-school dance club to a different High School for a dance event.

We are going out for curry with friends tonight which should be good, and then tomorrow Steve is going up to Wales for the now traditional trip to the WRC Rally with Mr Portico, leaving the rest of us to enjoy another weekend following Anna around to various musical and theatrical activities, and I suspect we will all crash on Sunday.

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

I am knackered, the house is a tip, why am I blogging?

Feels like the minute you tidy something up it’s in a mess again the next day, so futile … I’m going to the office tomorrow so hoping Steve will be able to get on top of things.

Had a busy day today doing most of the stuff I thought I would. Taunton trip – left home around 8.15am and got back to Exeter around 10.30am, having dropped off a car and a book in two separate places!

Creative Stitches was excellent as usual, we came home laden with more felt pens and a few gizmos to use with them, some Christmas card supplies, and other stuff.

Anna had a go at a flower arranging workshop which she really really enjoyed, and while she was doing that, the other two did some knitting … and were given a ball of wool and small pair of needles each, so that was cool.

Yummy food to taste as usual, although I was restrained today and didn’t buy any of that. Josiah behaved abominably all the way round, but apart from that it was good. I suppose a craft resources exhibition is hardly interesting for a 4yo boy, especially when all you can see are other people’s legs, in any case. Most pleased that the magic pen man remembered us from last year!

Visited Martins Caravans (interesting fact, Martin as in Chris Martin of Coldplay – it’s his Dad’s business. Lush site, huge amount of stock of vans and motorhomes) but found them to be fairly unhelpful in terms of helping with the awning – will try Reimo next week. Never mind, my free trial copy of Practical Motorhome arrived today, might get some more ideas there too.

Didn’t get to Start Right, I’m increasingly thinking maybe we won’t bother with this book swapping business, as it’s too much hassle to fit in another 4pm appointment in the week. I’m tempted to post the books we have back with a letter thanking them for the offer but explaining that we’ve found we’re able to find enough reading material for Josiah at the library after all, or words to that extent.

Anna was thrilled to find a letter of acceptance from Stage by Stage here when we got home

Kids are now eating tea and we’re about to go out to Friday Fish, a bit early as Anna has to practice the short dramas she’s doing as part of the Narnia theme there. She learnt her script this morning, I do think she’s pretty good at stuff like that. Might even stay and watch, it should be amusing – she’s being Lucy and one of our friends is being Mr Tumnus (and *that* will be the funny part!).

Planning to cook a relatively romantic (well, in that no children will be present) dinner for Steve and I later, and spend the evening together. Still slightly euphoric from my win at poker last night, if only Steve hadn’t lost so badly I would have been rolling in it. Ah well, he bailed me out last time when I lost, as long as one of us does well enough to pay the other’s debts we’re okay

Smoothie of the day: Banana & Mango with Apple juice

Hectic morning turned out okay. Kids all got up and ready in time to leave around 8.40am, getting us to Stage Studios just before 9am. We realised that Anna’s thing didn’t finish until 10.15am so decided to go to the park for 45 minutes, get to Joe’s thing on time at 10am then be a bit late picking Anna up.

Bit disappointed to find that no-one else turned up to the suzuki intro session; we thought there was another 4yo starting at the same time as Josiah, and they would have done some group stuff together. Anyway the teacher, Mr Featherstone, was lovely, and Joe responded well to him – we’ve come away with a sponge & ruler violin – to get used to how to stand/hold the instrument. Steve and I are apparently going to have lessons as well, which is quite scary, but I definitely see the point of it, as otherwise you as a parent must find it hard to support your child in learning. I’m actually just worried that Steve will be better than me

Got back to pick Anna up and it seemed she’d had a good time although she didn’t want to have to choose between this and Stagecoach. I am reserving judgement – we have to give Stagecoach half a term’s notice, so she might as well finish this term, and we’ll decide which one to go on with at half term. Now I just have ballet to sort out – we *might* be having dance lessons again at home ed group but it’s not definite yet.

Popped to Sainsbury’s on the way home for some shopping, had to buy Abbie a couple of pairs of trousers as she seems to have shot up, at least too far to fit into her jeans from last winter. Managed to get Joe some black trousers for Aunty Mimi’s wedding, too, but no luck on the white shirts, they only had polo shirts, what are schools coming to these days, honestly

Had corn on the cob for lunch and now we’re settling down to veg out in front of the original Superman … well, they’re vegging out, I’m doing that laundry I procrastinated over last night After that we’re planning tea, a chapter of The Magician’s Nephew, then more TV. Lazy day really, but hey, it is Saturday.

Have only had one phonecall from the office this morning, which was fielded successfully – thankfully my mobile tells me when it’s a forwarded call, so that’s handy. Hopefully we won’t have missed too many customers on the site, either.