just another morning here

Haven’t had much time for blogging this week and basically life is just bumbling along as usual so there’s not much to say.

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!

Did I not get here yesterday? Ah well, thanks for the lunatic comments anyway. We were obviously having too much fun – actually yesterday got really busy, we went swimming and met P1′s Dad in the pool so Anna played with him for a bit, went on the slides etc., then went to someone’s birthday party, and generally was looking after the kids too much to indulge myself with 15 minutes on the computer.

Butterflies have all hatched and we released them this morning. Don’t know if I mentioned the butterfly named ‘Lucky’ by Anna, depending on your definition of lucky, it was kept alive by her despite having dodgy wings … anyway, the other three were fine.

Erm, what else? Anna’s been very grown up going to and from her sessions on her own, don’t know why I worried about her the first day, it must have been hormones. She stayed up late the other night watching Life Before Birth on Channel 4 so that was educational, too. She’s made friends, and is generally having an excellent week.

Abbie’s been enjoying her group and asking me lots of faith-related questions which has been interesting and made me think a lot. She got lost on the way back to the chalet yesterday which was marginally amusing after the event.

Joe seems to think he’s 8 too, and is quite happy to leave the chalet and go to his session on his own – he doesn’t have Anna’s sense of direction though, and I’ve lost him a couple of times too. He is a complete maniac on his scooter and my legs ache from running to keep up with him! I’ve enjoyed time with him this week though, we’ve had plenty of it and it’s been nice, lots of nice chats, reading together, etc. And it’s been interesting to watch his response to all the meeting-type stuff too.

I’ve had lots of time to read which has been nice, I’ve read that book Joyce mentioned a while ago, and am part way through something else. Also been obsessively playing zoombinis, which I’ll blame on Josiah, he got me back into it yesterday. I must be old though, most of the stuff I might like to get to is on late at night; the After Hours concerts etc., but by the time they’re on at 10.30pm, despite having friends who would babysit here, I just can’t be bothered to go out … how apathetic. Ah well.

Home tomorrow, so will catch up properly then

All packed and ready to go – wish me luck, I don’t think I’ve got anyone to be cynical with so I might just have to be spiritual instead. Or bury my nose in a book or six, I stocked up at Waterstones at the weekend

The only thing I’m still umming and aaahing about is our butterfly box. The caterpillars pupated almost three weeks ago, so they’re due to hatch any day now. One chrysalis has darkened in a threatening manner, I seem to remember that’s what happened just before the butterflies came out. One of the five fell off the top, so we’ve got that one ready to take with us but I’m not sure it will hatch, then again I’m not sure about carting the box to Minehead with us, will the remaining four survive if I move them around? I don’t know how delicate they are at this stage. Decisions, decisions. Somehow I will feel very gutted if Steve texts us a picture of them rather than us being able to watch them. While I was bored one day I uploaded the file of our Caterpillar/Butterfly journal from two years ago, so if anyone’s interested it’s here – crappy photos, but it gives a good idea – how stupid will I look carting that box into our Spring Harvest chalet?

Anyway, I’m taking the laptop with us for Zoombinis-style entertainment, but I doubt there will be internet at Butlins, it’s not as good as Hesfes , so all will be quiet here for a week or so …

Stuff we have done today:

We all ended up at home from about half past four onwards, and we’re part way through watching a channel 4 documentary on Henry VIII and his wives, which the girls and I are finding really interesting. Joe and Steve were both falling asleep in front of it before tea We’re planning another instalment after bathtime.

Steve and I are sitting here trying out some different radio stations (his dream come true, I’m sitting next to him while he listens to his beloved stereo, *and* I’m blogging!) – currently listening to PlanetRock, which is classic rock (Nirvana, early U2, 70s/80s stuff) … he’s enjoying it . Tomorrow I’ll put the radio back to R2