T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Yesterday was "Box Day" ie that momentous day when the Sonlight box lands in the living room and you go "OMG where on earth is all this lot going to fit????"  it was also the day when 2/3 of the LDA order arrived In fact the 2 couriers practially arrived together, formed an orderly queue and laughed at a small child getting all excited at all her school stuff arriving at once… she was very excited about unpacking which added somewhat to the general level of "buried in resources"-ness going round.  The excitement peeked when she discovered that Sonlight had sent stuff in a Castle Box (ie it has a castle printed on the inside so once momma empties out all the goodies she has to rip open the box, re-stick it the other way out and allow offspring to play with it instead of keeping all the stuff in it for a while until working out where it all goes.)

So what did I get?  Well, I don’t need it til September but the exchange rate was so nice looking that  I got Sonlight Core 2 which is the second half of their first whirlwind tour of world history (they do it all again in later years, I may or may not join them on that trip - I fancy some of the Winter Promise packs for a change)  I also, because I couldn’t resist even though I should have doen, got Lyrical Life Science 1 and a times tables CD.  Oh, and a large stash of workbooks and other goodies for Mummy Bean.  All that lot found homes eventually and we have already enjoyed a listen through of the science CD (the work text looks way too advanced though)

the Phonics and Maths  board game packs from LDA have gone down a storm (they were an "early birthday pressie from Jessie") which gives me something less tedious than Ludo to play with her and gives her a more entertaining way to practice some of teh basics, get her "puzzle star" for the day and not get nagged at my me (did I ever mention that autonomy isn’t our style?) 

There was also a timer that I wanted to try to keep me on track a bit more with things like getting sucked into hours of mindless websurfing when I should be studying.  I can set it to give me a count down to when I should stop messing and start learning, then alot myself a specified time of study time after which I can stop - somehow knowing that I am going to study for a set time makes me more liketly to start than just "oh, I’ll just sit here with my books"  I used the timer last night at Rainbows so taht the game didn’t go on for ever and it was a big hit.  It’s not perfect, setting the thing going involves a lot more button pressing that I think it ought to do (oh for the top to be a nice big start button…) but it’s handy and I can see it getting a lot of use.  I really could have done with it for my exam as it would have helped me plan my time better, mind you I seemed to do okay without it   and I’ll have it ready for the next one.

Today we story-ed and puzzled in the morning then swam then, to celebrate getting it back from Lola, we watched HP5.  I suspect I could recite a large chunk of that script you know.  

for those of you who don’t boycott anything to do with The Old Schoolhouse, there is a page of freebie  links to other sites there, some of which may well be of interest (but to be fair a lot are US specific)

Both my car and our house ins come due in Feb for some reason (confusing since I got the car in March 2000 and we bought the house in June 2000 but there you go) and both the companies sent their quotes in with just a little increase over  last year.  So, me being me, I thought I’d just ahve a look see what was available.  And promptly saved very nearly £200 between the 2 policies.  That made me feel happy.  Having the money on hand to pay in one go and not have to pay an arm and a leg in monthly premiums makes me feel down right smug.  Now I just need to remember to set aside about £40 a month to be sure that we have money on hand this time next year to repeat the pleasure.  And as a side effect it made me feel much less guilty about how much I spent with Sonlight and LDA last week!

This morning was JJs which was a bit of a strain …. typically had we come home at 11 when she expired in a heap on my lap we would ahve been in for the delivery that arrived at 20 past but never mind, it will arrive tomorrow instead along with the Sonlight Box (which, acording to the FedEx site has now left Stanstead and is "in transit") making tomorrow a serious Box Day!  Obviously I’ve not tidied up ready for this momentous event but hey, I’m sure we’ll find homes for it somehwere (anyone want to rent me a bookself????)

this afternoon we did Garden Ed (yay!!!) and enjoyed the lack of rain and a bit of day-light for a few hours.  Then the cloud thickened up ominously and we whipped back inside just as the first plops of rain arrived.  One day my garden may dry out you know….. after that she helped get tea ready which was lovely, she’s getting pretty proficient with slicing and dicing these days. 

After the final installment of Summerfield (which made me cry and made Aprilia ask if she could go there when she was big) it was puzzles and reading which she romped through.  I do believe she may have had a small breakthrough there you know, not a huge momentous explosion into reading but a definite increase in confidence and ability.  Tis nice to see.  Really must find her reding ruler though, she kept missing lines out by accident and then wondering why the story didn’t make sense. 

We need to totally re-work Aprilia’s room.  She’s got too tall to sit up in her bed (it’s a loft bed and we ahve low ceilings!) so it is going to have to go.  Which means she will no longer have a desk under her bed, so she will need to take the desk out of the living room (YES!!!  YES!!!! AND AGAIN YES!!!!!!!) where it has resided since she ceased to ahve space for it in her room.  We will also need to invest in a wardrobe for her as we currently hang stuff on teh underside of her bed (damn!)  Ikea have some nice daybed frames which would look lovely in there and are quite cheap so taht’s an option.  Arogos have a cheap (and probably nasty) fabric covered kids hanging rail thing that she fancies which, if I could find the vouchers, we are halfway to affording and would fill the gap until it breaks and we can hopefully get something more grown up.  I also saw a thing with a load of pockets and mirror in to hang up in kid’s rooms on the Ikea site.  Trouble is Ikea costs me a fortune, i always find so much little stuff taht would be oh so useful…..  So I’ve asked on Freecycle for ANYTHING that would do the job and have everything crossed that I’ll get something we like.

Also today we had wide ranging discussions about the UK political system brought about by reading the first chapter of HP6.  So now she understands as much about government as I do.  Which isn’t a lot.

And I’m a bit insomnia-ish tonight.  Probably because I had the bed all to myself last night and thus had a wonderfully peaceful night’s sleep.  Duke fell asleep downstairs so I’d covered him over and he stayed down there!  Must go to bed though, otherwise we will be late for JJ (again)

I planned a quiet "schooly" day today and that’s exactly what I ended up with.  There were some stern words when she was messing about just to be irritable but that soon passed.  I think bribing her with intermittent Harry helped.  Trouble is we just started book 6 so the bribary can’t go on too much longer really…. but hopefully by then we will have pushed through a good chunk of stuff and the habit will have re-established itself (or it will be sunny and we can venture forth into the glorious Delamere again!  We always get so much more done when she can stretch out on a blanket under the canopy of something so old and stately as a big old oak or horse chestnut (although you do have to watch out for conker shells!)

Anyway it filled the day up fairly roundly.  She demanded more puzzles as an avoidance tactic at bedtime which I, with mock resistance, aquiessed to.   It’s now nearly 10pm and she’s still bouncing about in her room which doesn’t bode too well for her getting up early in the morning!  I really should make better use of that time before she wakes up.

I need to spend some time fairly urgently in tidying and sorting out this week.  I have made use of the great exchange rate to buy next year’s core and also made use of a discount code to order maths and English Stile stuff from LDA which should all be arriving rather soon.  And the LEA woman comes in under a month and I would like to ahve somewhere she can safely sit down without risking life and limb!  Not to mention the fact that my desk has disapeared under several feet of crud which makes finding anything impossible…. Oh to be organised…….

the reality missed the mark just by a fraction!

I planned to have a nice quiet day at OP today with my books.  So, i got there, lept merrily out of the ambi and asked Rick where he wanted it parking (there are a few options, I like to check before I dump it in the wrong place!)  Instead of the cheery greeting I expected I got "I’ll sort that out later.  Can you go and clean the kitchen whilst I take a few deep breaths before I drive over to _______’s house and thump him"  So, having put the kettle on for a restorative brew, I set to removing tea stains off the surfaces, the cupboard doors, the walls, the top of the bin, the sides of the bin, the floor….. It apears that it hasn’t occured to anyone for a week or so that cleaning a communal kitchen is a, well, let’s face it, a communal responsibility and the paramedic who was working there yesterday was already in bad books for stiring things up on Rick’s day off so he took the blame really.  Ho hum.  It can only get better from there yes?

Then Harley arrived, having just dropped his first favourite female (not his wife….) and her hubby at the airport and in a foul mood because of some intra-family bickering that he has got himself intertwined with and insisted on telling me all about.  Still not opened a book here….. but I’ve made several restorative brews for grumpy blokes.

Then someone from teh circuit staff arrived to find out exactly what the problem had been yesterday with the paramedic which evolved (devolved?) into a general character assasignation session.  More tea, still not studying.

EVENTUALLY everyone bogged off to different corners of the building/circuit and I got some peace!!!  Mananged a couple of hours of study before Duke arrived with Aprilia on their way home from Cheshire Oaks wehre they had been to the cinima and then Duke had spent his bonus on a second hand DS (not a lite) and Brain Training.  The day finished not long after they went home and I got back to find them both with their noses in their DSs like a pair of teenagers…… 

I’m hoping that tomorrow will be a calm-ish day and we will get some "school" done as I do think she is suffering a bit at the mo from a lack of routine.  And I have a birthday party to sort out.  And she told me this evening that she wants SB and BB to come although I suggested taht that may be a bit impractical as it’s a long way (but you are wellcome if you would like to come Helen!  We have a sofa bed) 

Great way to start the day!  Slightly over-generously buttered toast, orange juice and my vitamins all fetched up to me by Aprilia.  We staying in relaxed mode all morning then (except for where I fought with the Sonlight Ordering system - I won eventually!) but decided to flex the brain cells a little in the afternoon.  So she did 4 pages of Starter Stile (due to the excitement of being told that "grown up Stile" has been ordered) which she found little or no troubles with after me giving her a pep talk about the fact that she can in fact read and that all she needs now is a little more practice to get really good at it.  I based this on the fact that she read to me yesterday and only stumbled on a few non-phonic words but read the rest beutifully, complete with expression and understanding rather than just saying the words mechanically without knowing what they actually meant or noticing punctuation which seems to be alarmingly prevelent amongst my Rainbows (and makes me wonder who’s conning who with all these high literacy results that teh school they all go to gets…)   And I’m doing that ridiculously long sentence thing again - sorry!

She also did lots of bouncing after watching the Bernadette Tynan thing about making your child a genius where she said taht trampolining was great for brain development.  Aparently NASA gets teh astronaughts doing it to develop some clever stuff so it must be true….. 

We also knitted, she painted a box to be a racing car, complete with a very round hand-drawn circle to put the number in, which she sat in for rather a lot of the day, and I dried all the remaining washing which has shifted the washing mountain from the baskets on the landing to my bed waiting to be put away.  Never ends does it! 

I’m sure we did other stuff as well but just now I’m not sure what it was.  I think we did stories but no puzzles.  I know I dried several loads of wsahing OUTSIDE which is somewhat of a novelty.  I also know the day started badly just before 8am wehn I slipped down the stairs to answer the door to a delivery of Yellow Moon catalogues (new spring ones, full of cute chick, bunny and lamb based crafts that will take care of several Rainbow crafts for pennies and significantly more crafts for my craft-adicted child) leaving me with a sore posterior (and when you have as much rear end as I have that’s no laughing matter you know!)  Hmmm, grammar seems to be escaping me today, is taht last sentence as bad as I think it is???

Swimming was pleasant though.  Me her and Harley, so not much swimming but a lot of him being daft and my daughter adoring and worshiping him   He was in a particularly good mood as he has been signed off for another 4 weeks, has apointments for various tests coming thick and fast which may get to the bottom of his dramatic memory lapse and was feeling good just for the fact it wasn’t raining. 

Oh, I set my screen reader to read out the course introduction and took a nap this morning too, yes, it was that boring!  The course itself is much better but I did think I ought to check tehre was nothing important in the introduction.  Still no idea if there is or not….. wonder if subliminal learning works….. 

Girls finally emerged at 9am this morning which I thought was pretty spectacular!  They carried on playing reasonably well until Aprilia decided she needed JUST MUMMY time for a bit and graciously allowed L to play on her graphics tablet for a bit whilst she curled up with me. 

We walked her back home after lunch to find A really suffering with an abcess on her tooth,  I did feel sort of guilty returning L to her when she obviously needed rest but Aprilia was all socialised out as L tends to be fairly intense  (yes, I know Aprilia can be too but I do try to haul her off when I see those looks of panic in the eyes of her "victims"!) and as she had Rainbows she needed a bit of time to regroup.

Rainbows are boistrous at the moment.  I think there is an element of cabin fever going on as they all seem to have ridiculous quantities of excess energy.  Roll on lighter nights when we can trail off down to the grassed area at teh back of the hall for games!

So now I’m back to just 1 girlie and am in a slight position to say taht I can see the advantages of singletons and siblings! 

I love just having one to organise, get into clothes, shoes etc when we need to be out.  I love not having to balance out time between more than one child.  Obviously I am rather keen on the lower housework load that only one child getting filthy every day and only having 3 sets of dinner things to wash compared to those of you with extras (well, okay, so loading the dishwasher extra times is hardly a chore but when everything is just out of your reach cos it was designed by the idiot who things that everyone is "average height" it’s a nuicance…. I accidentally set sideways off taht step at least once a week) 

On the other hand, having another child there meant that I didn’t have to play a single inane bored game (spelling intentional), adopt the persona of Ron Weasly (how come she gets to be a girl in all her fansasy games and I always end up as a bloke??) or pretend to enjoy playing some internet kids game or other. 

But of course, changing the current arrangements would involve feeling yucky for 9 months without the benefit of a boss sending me for a sleep every lunchtime (although that did mean I had to make up my hours elsewhere….) then 3 years of nappies, at least a few years of "mummeeeeee, baby is ruining my craft again!!!" and at least a 7, nearly 8 year age gap.  You know, I may just admit defeat here and stick with one (cos I think taht after very nearly 4 years of trying defeat is a reasonable thing to admit)

I have L sleeping over tonight!  Her mum wasn’t well this morning so I took L off to Jungle Jim to give her a little peace (not a huge amount of peace as I didn’t take the toddler but hey, every little helps!) and by the end of the journey to JJs the girls had decided that L should sleep over.  they have just got into bed (20 past 9) after entertaining each other all afternoon without any intervention from me - wow!  is this what it’s like to have more than one child?  They play with each other rather tahn expecting you to play with them all day?  I could do that!  Not sure I could do the sibling rivalry nonsense though….. there’s ups and downs to both options aren’t there

got an e-mail from my new tutor today.  I’d said taht I probably wouldn’t make it to any tutes as child care on Saturdays is hard to come by and he said well, fine, bring the child with you then.  Okay….. I may see how taht works!

and now it’s CSI and I can smell coffee being made so I’m off!