Just Jo!

Due to technical complications my blog is now HERE

Today is the winter solstice, and, according to some calendars/websites, World Peace Day (but it could be tomorrow, don’t quote me!). So this morning Olivia made a dove of peace and two lanterns to lighten the shortest day of the year. Then moaned she was bored…. Fortunately I was well prepared with some Christmas worksheets! Ha ha ha!!!…. like she’s going to catch me out! She did a ‘matching up’ definitions with Christmas words, which she liked more than she thought. And 203rd discovery…. she doesn’t like the sound of eggnog!
Then we went over to visit Olivia’s only school friend that we’ve kept in touch with since she came out. We took mince pies to keep us going through the afternoon, with lots of tea and chat, playing with the hamster and we started watching Santa Clause 2.
This is where the onions come in…. As we were leaving, Jackie asked if we cooked with onions? Her mum had given her a huge bag, she was worried that they’d go mouldy before she got to use them, could we use some of them? So her Christmas gift to us was a load of onions! Yay! She apologised but, hey, we like onions! And she’s also loaned us a few DVDs that look good.
Adam had promised to take Olivia into town today, for late night shopping, to buy presents for me(yippee!)….the gifts bit! But after a few hours already in town, ‘celebrating’ Christmas with his friends, I got a phone call asking where we were… still in town… so he said ‘they’d’ meet us. Him and two friends. Full of the ’spirit’ of Christmas…. hmmm.
One of his friends hasn’t seen Olivia for a while, so immediately whisked her way up in the air, cue lots of hysterical giggling!
They all wandered up the road, with me telling Olivia to keep an eye on them and not to let them get lost….
The lion bit comes next. Walking home, merrily minding my own business, a huge great lion crossed my path…. okay…. maybe it wasn’t exactly a lion, but it was definitely the biggest, longest haired ginger cat I have ever seen. It could eat Maisy in one mouthful! Luckily, Maisy never ventures that far from our house.
Adam and Olivia came home much sooner than I was expecting. How can they possibly have bought me exactly what I want…. and plenty of it?! In that short a time?? Ooops…. I forgot we’re doing a ‘reduced’ Christmas this year…. don’t think it should apply to me though!
Adam’s friends had headed straight back to the pub after I’d left them, and after dropping Olivia home, with strict instructions to keep her mouth shut (she is completely useless at secrets!), and hiding my presents, he went to join them. He’s going up to his dad’s for the holidays, so feels the ‘need’ to see as much of his friends, and ‘celebrate’ the joy that is Christmas, as much as possible. He even let Olivia stay in his room to carry on watching Santa Clause 2. He must be drunk…. I am such a proud mother! Not sure if the sarcasm is coming across clearly enough!
A few days ago, Adam mentioned that he was working 6am ’til 10am on Friday…. that’s tomorrow (remember that little nugget of information!). He asked me if I could give him a wake-up call at 5…. The last time I got up at 5am, I was heading off to Italy (Rome, Pompeii, Capri). Now, I don’t know about you, but getting up for Tesco’s really doesn’t have the same appeal, so I laughed at him…. like you do…. maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. As he left tonight, he mentioned something about going to a club as well. Suddenly, I find myself enjoying the prospect of waking him up very, very loudly, tomorrow…. how peculiar….

Olivia carried on with her bag this morning, then we had an outing to the theatre with our home-ed group this afternoon. Jolly good it was too. ‘The Ship With Three Decks’ by a small company of three at the local arts centre. It’s where Olivia has her drama class on a Wednesday evening. It seemed odd to be there earlier.
It started on a bit of a creepy note and one of the little girls didn’t like it much, so they left early. The rest seemed to enjoy it though. Olivia wasn’t overkeen when the goblin king got splashed with the Water of Life, which is really, really bad for goblins. Their stomachs turn inside out and their brains gush out through their noses. Hmmm……technically, I suppose it is a tad gruesome. It was his just rewards for stomping on and squashing the Ant King who had helped the champion Lucius Cornflower! But the Water of Life miraculously revived him. Hooray!!! Guess you had to be there, honestly, it was good, very cleverly done with some great effects. We’ll be looking out for their next production.
We did a little more shopping after…. grumble, grumble, grumble. We got a huge bunch of mistletoe, chestnuts for roasting, a mini punchbag for Adam, ginger beer for Olivia, wine (ahem) for me.
But guess what? Guess what?!? Bet you can’t!! It was snowing!! Yes! Really snowing!! Oh joy! Oh bliss! How exciting!!!
OK, it was only a snow machine on the top of the shopping centre, but it might as well have been real for all the excitement amongst the kids, jumping and running about in it! And plenty of adults too! Lots of photos being taken, but I’d left mine at home… doh!
We got home and hung our Christmas cards up and that was about it really today. Bit of a sudden ending, but I’m desperate to roast some chestnuts!

After a quick breakfast, leftoverbeansfromlastnight on toast with loads of veggie worcester sauce, and a panic-stricken hunt for my mug (I have more than one mug, but I can only drink out of the one with my name on, I’m sure it tastes different, it’s bigger as well!), we attacked the front garden.
Olivia raked up leaves, I swept the path and cut back various triffid-like things. Anyone who visits our house will now be glad, as they’ll not get shredded to ribbons by the pampas! One leaf/frond(?) managed to go down my trouser leg…huh? As you can imagine, I was extremely careful in pulling it out! Things we discovered today…. a ten year old thrown in a wheelie bin increases capacity by at least 100%! But she does cry to be let out after a few hours….
I even cleaned the front door, so it’s all sparkly and spiderweb-free….. which will please Adam no end as he’s scared of the little creatures. Which, in turn, actually makes for great enjoyment as Olivia isn’t scared, so any she finds, she very carefully tucks into Adam’s bed, then loiters on the stairs waiting for the yells and pathetic screams! Yeah…. so do I!
We have lots of ivy growing over the front of our house, I know it’s not good for the pointing etc, but it was already there when we moved in 10 years ago, just not so much of it. Now the council have decided it is bad for the house, why they didn’t know this 10 years ago is a mystery….. So they said we had to cut it down, which would have been a hell of a lot easier TEN YEARS AGO!!! I cut a section out of the main trunk/s, now we have to wait for it to die in a few months. Then the council will come and pull it off the walls. Olivia’s quite upset because there’s usually birds nesting in there, right by her window, and they won’t have anywhere to live now. It also means Maisy’s main supply of fresh meat will have been cut off….
All Christmas cards that needed to be posted, were written and sent. We have cards going to Spain, France, Germany, USA and Cyprus….. what’s the chances of them getting there before Christmas…. or Easter?! Well, if my family keep insisting on emigrating….. they should know what I’m like by now! And I cheated as well, all the Hastings/Eastbourne/Sussex area ones got bundled into one big envelope to my Dad. So he gets to play jolly Christmas postman. Ha!!! He’ll like that!?! But I’ve also discovered that I do actually have an aunt living closer now. She was living in France with her sister, who is, coincidently, also my aunt(!), she’s moved back to live in Wiltshire (well, it’s closer than Sussex!), t’other’s still in France.
A load of washing was sorted and put on, then I took a deep breath and attemted to tackle the Giant Redwood in the middle of the room. We pulled out my chair in front of the window, after Olivia had removed all remnants of her card-making activities.
Seriously though, how much junk can fit behind one chair??? It defies belief! And it is indeed junk, by no stretch of the imagination could it possibly be called ‘resources’. No matter how much Olivia says “Oh, this could come in handy”. OK, that’s usually my line, but come on! Even I have standards! And you know the worst part? Yep, it’s all my junk!
Anyway, moving quickly on…. we solved the problem by shoving all the junk in the Christmas tree box, which is plenty big enough for huge amounts of junk! So sorting it out has now been deferred to twelfth night!
We decorated the tree to the accompaniment of the last playing of the Sounds of Israel CD, because it’s still officially Hanukkah. Then we could get out the cheesy stuff. Decorating the tree is the first outing for it each year. Adam came home midway through, groaning, “Noooo, noooo. Can you put something else on?!”. Yeah, ‘cos he so much prefers Hava Nagila!
The rest of the cards got done, except for the new discovery of being 10 short, so more were printed and stuck.
In spare minutes, since last night, Olivia has started sewing herself a bag out of some scrap material she found. It’s got a contrasting pocket on the outside and she’s sewn her name on the front, along with different colured flowers. She’s really pleased with it, her name does look good actually, and her sewing’s getting loads neater. And I haven’t had to thread needles or tie off ends. And it keeps her quiet, which is always a bonus!

Apparently, Kirsty is just a ‘friend’ who lost her keys and couldn’t get home….. hang on a minute, let me just go and see if I’ve got ‘gullible’ written on my head….. nope, didn’t think so.
This, I think, is the third girl who’s ‘lost her keys’…. not that I’m keeping tabs or anything. Either he walks around with a big sign, ‘Anyone who’s lost their keys, come on back to mine!’, or he’s a complete gentleman helping out careless girls….. hmmmm….. ‘careless girls’? Must remember to update the ‘condom chat’….. will he be embarrassed? Yep, probably! Am I ready to be a granny? Nope, definitely, absolutely, categorically no. So I think it’ll be a dose of cringing embarrassment for my first-born while he listens to me, his mum(eeww!!), talk about condoms and s… e…x. Should be fun, can’t wait!!
Actually, I think I will…. just until after he’s got the Christmas decorations down from the attic!
We were supposed to go round and see a friend today, but she phoned in a bit of a panic quite late last night. “He’ll still be in school! I got it wrong! He doesn’t break up ’til Tuesday!” OK, so we’re going on Thursday instead now.
Which meant that Olivia could get on with her production line. Slight cheating going on…. She’d made a collage card at an artist’s friend’s house, who’s teaching her some professional techniques (She’s also a herbalist, showing Olivia how to use wild plants and flowers, but that’s a different post!). We then scanned it, well, Adam did, and a bit of manipulation later, we printed them out so she could stick them on card. So most of the cards were made like that this morning ‘cos she was running out of ideas.
Then it was town…. I might have mentioned before that shopping isn’t my most favouritest thing in the world….. and 6 days before Christmas??!! Why do all the stupid, ignorant, ‘haven’t got a clue what they want’ people all have to come out at the same time?! And all walk about two steps (slowly!) in front of me? Wherever I am?! Actually the loo roll aisle in Sainsbury’s is usually clear….. that’s it then, I’ll lurk there ’til the New Year! Is loo roll vegan? Must be…. what about the shampoo’s opposite? And the toothpaste? That’s me sorted then!
We also discovered that it helps to post cards if: a) you’ve written them out beforehand, b)written addresses on envelopes, c) got stamps and d) remembered to actually take them in town with you! Anyone who gets a card from us this year should be extremely grateful!!
What else? The saga of the new tree!
We threw our old fake tree out last year, it was ten years old, looking a bit ropey but had had a good life. The plan was to buy a real one this year, but we didn’t, I got another fake a few weeks ago. When my mum abandoned us for Spain a few years ago, she gave us lots of tree decorations which we couldn’t put on our old tree, so I bought a bigger one to accommodate everything. We got it out of the box today…..
Now I know why we only had a 4′ tree…. we have nowhere to put this thing!!! It’s in the middle of the living room, we live in a teeny tiny council house, it has nowhere to go!! Olivia’s prancing around it like a hippie, “I love this tree! It’s beautiful! And so big!” I’ve spied through neighbours windows and they have trees just as big, but they are so obviously not home-educating and have nowhere near the amount of junk (make that ‘resources’!) we do!
Oh my lord…. now she has one of my frogs (I collect froggy things, sorry!) stuck up the tree (it’s not being adorned until I find somewhere to put it!), she has run upstairs to get a couple of Polly Pockets to ‘rescue’ the frog because “it’s scared of heights and can’t jump”…??
I make absolutely no apologies for the fact that I may be having slightly more than one glass of wine tonight…. in my new bubbly bath…. it was in the same aisle as the loo roll!

I couldn’t sleep at all last night, so at 3.30am I was messing about on the computer.
Adam had gone out for the evening, telling me he’d be back about 5. Might seem a bit late (alright, a lot!), but he’s an adult now. Besides, he’s 6′2″, how would I physically stop him?! Anyway, all fine and dandy, but I’d left the chain on the door, so when there was knocking, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Opened the door to what can only be described as a panicked look….
Adam - “Why are you still up?”
Me - “I couldn’t sleep”
A - “Are you on the computer?”
M - “Yes”
A - “Why?”
M - “Um.. I bought it, I pay the broadband, the rent’s in my name….. I could go on, but basically it means I can do whatever I want.”
A - “Oh…… this is Kirsty….. she’s staying the night”
M - “Oh….. hello Kirsty…… um”
K - “Hellooo!”
A - “I’ll put the kettle on”
M - “I’ll go to bed….. night!”
A - “Night”
K - “Night”
Now, she seemed nice and polite, and I have no doubt she is, I would like to be able to trust my son’s judgement when it comes to girls…. but….. Well, I must admit to being a little thrown by a skin tight leopard print (very!) mini-dress on my doorstep at 3.30 in the morning!
Needless to say she was gone by the time I surfaced this morning. Although Olivia did knock on my door (loudly!) about 8, and say (loudly!), “Adam’s got a girl in his room!”
Then, when she was munching her toast, “I really liked her clothes, they were lovely.” Hmmm, she needn’t think she’s getting anything remotely similar for Christmas!
The rest of the day was taken up with making angel decorations for the tree… must remember to actually put it up at some point.
Then lots of cards. We weren’t going to do cards this year as part of our frugal Christmas, with a heavy emphasis on the ‘true meaning’ and the ’spirit of Christmas’ etc, etc. But Olivia started getting worried that people wouldn’t know she loved them if she didn’t give them a card. So today she decided that she definitely wanted to send cards, cue a huge production line effort and the most glitter our carpet has ever seen. I’m staying out of it, if she comes up with these bright ideas, knowing that all our family live miles away and they’ll have to be mailed, she’s on her own!
Now it’s bed for her and bath for me. There might possibly be a glass of wine and a book involved somewhere along the line as well.

Well thanks go to Lin who’s sorted my blog out. Ta very much!!
Oh no… now I have to think of something to actually say…. um…. er….. wellll…..
Today is the start of Hanukkah, or a bit later at sundown…. think it might have already begun now I’ve just looked out of the window.
Olivia’s been busy with lots of worksheets on it, and over the last few days she’s been making decorations for it so we could.. um.. decorate the room. Lots of Star of Davids, or should that be Stars of David? Don’t know… We had friends round yesterday to celebrate and do ……. stuff. And a very noisy game of dreidl. Is it supposed to be that noisy? Again, don’t know, but they had lots of fun sharing out candy canes anyway. They also enjoyed the doughnuts, didn’t get round to making latkes, but then they have eggs in, so I wasn’t in much of a mood to make them really. And doing Hanukkah related jigsaws on the ‘puter. We discovered some are a whole lot easier than others and when you’re being timed, it’s really not fair.
But what have we been up to since . . . . ooh, Febuary?
Well, we had a lovely three weeks in Spain, with Adam joining us for the middle week.
We’ve fostered a cat called Maisy. My friend’s allergic to her daughter’s cat, so we’re looking after her ’til said daughter gets a place of her own.
We had a few weeks in Hastings, visiting family. Most of my family live near and around there now. Down here, it’s just me and the kids (and my mum’s weird cousin who does have a heart of gold, but who tends to shovel food in like he has no idea when the next meal is coming from, whose idea of ‘bring a bottle’ is one bottle of Becks, who, after 5 Xmas’ of charades, still insists on talking all the way through, ie. as he’s tugging on his ear,”So this means sounds like”, “and this means…” you get the idea, who calls Adam ‘Dude’ which isn’t much appreciated to be honest, who calls Olivia ‘Ollie’, who then looks really puzzled, “well, who’s that?!” Every family has one I’m sure, and I always ended up in a corner trying not to laugh too loudly while my mum was in the kitchen, pulling her hair out, “he’s not coming next year!” and my stepdad’s just come back from the pub “wass tha promlem?”!)
Anyway, back to me and just the kids, I started to feel a bit isolated and was seriously thinking of moving up there to be closer to family. But after two weeks of Hastings….. well, let’s just say down here looks pretty darn good! Cleaner, friendlier, cheaper, more to do, better public transport, sea not too far, moors, etc….
Adam is now 18 and I am the mother of an adult, which is very, very scary! Far scarier than when I had my fortieth a few months ago. Not that it actually bothered me particularly, it just seems weird to be, like, a ‘proper’ grown-up, when I still don’t feel any different to when I was 18.
Adam went down to Cornwall for the weekend of his birthday. All reports suggest that, yes, Newquay is indeed still standing. Although his dad, who came down from London to go with him and his friends, is older than he previously thought and lost his voice for 2 days. Oh, how I did giggle mischeviously!
What else have we been up to?
Lots of the usual home-edding kind of stuff, quite a few trips to the theatre. Olivia went up into double figures this summer and we went to see Shakespeare in the Park (Twelfth Night) on her birthday which she absolutely loved, ‘got’ it more than I thought she would, so I could feel quite smug in that peculiar home-ed kind of a way!
And we got a spanking brand new computer!
Um…. quick run through now…. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and next is Cristmas…. whew!
Now I’ve got to work out how to put on smilies and photos.
And it’s Robin Hood in a minute, which I have to watch, purely for it’s historical ‘accuracy’!

We haven’t had a family night this week; another of A’s friends birthdays. Lots of them are turning 18 now, so parties are no longer a couple of hours in Charlie Chalks. They are planned with military precision, various venues and events throughout the week and a biggie at the weekend. Can’t wait for A’s …

O went to her friends birthday party at a swimming pool and had a great time – loads of floats, body-boards and a huge great inflatable thing. Lisa and her girls went too and gave us a lift home, so I invited them round for dinner. Lisa took all the girls off to walk her dog for a couple of hours while I got on with making a huge pot of stew and dumplings.

After they’d gone, my bug came back for another visit so I spent a long time soaking in the bath feeling very sorry for myself.

I had a horrible bug a few weeks ago and it came back to bite me last night, and way into the early hours of the morning. Looking on the bright side – the hours spent in the loo means that I’ve just about finished my library book!

The morning was spent in bed, not rising till gone 11. o was quietly amusing herself in her room. I think she was just keeping her head down to avoid me making any suggestions as to how she could be profitably spending her time! When I eventually surfaced, I put a wash on, put some porridge on, set O up with some English and went off to wash my hair. When I’d finished, O had gone up to bed for a lie-down. “Er, no, I don’t think so, get on with your work!”

When I looked at her work – mostly finding alternative adjectives and a bit of alliteration – I just thought, “What?! I really try hard not to criticise, but sometimes it’s almost impossible not to, especially when she’s making really silly mistakes – ‘lions’ spelt ‘linoys’? Come on! Anyway, I wasn’t exactly complimentary and nearly half her work got rubbed out …

To top it all off, I remembered that she’s got a friends’ birthday party tomorrow and I hadn’t got a present. So we had to head into town. On a Saturday. In a mood (both of us). With a dodgy tummy. And I really hate shopping. We also had to get her party food ‘cos it’s easier to take her own than expecting someone else to cater for one vegan out of loads of kids. We got the present and, walking past Waterstones, made a detour to buy a children’s Thesaurus.

Getting home, the washing had finished so I hung that up in the kitchen I’m ill and it’s far too cold to be prancing around the garden with wet washing. O got on with re-writing her English using her new Thesaurus. How much did she like it?

“This is brilliant! Much better than a boring, ordinary dictionary. I’m going to use this loads more!” English was finished in about 5 seconds with no spelling mistakes, result being one happy daughter and one happy mummy. Yeah!

O then started making some Hama coasters to take over as a present for Nanny and Grandad in Spain. She heated up the rest of yesterdays soup for herself and got on with the coasters quite happily. So what was looking to be a truly foul day ended up being saved by a thesaurus and Hama beads. Simple pleasures!

I cruelly dragged O out of bed this morning. She got on with her Bible activity book – Joseph’s Coat of Many Colours now – while porridge was cooking.

We watched some school programmes this morning. We haven’t had the TV on since Monday morning. I think the novelty of day-time TV is already wearing off because she hadn’t even noticed; but she did say she loved school programmes. She only sits still for any length of time if she’s very tired or very ill anyway. There’s usually something much more interesting to be doing instead of just being sat there.

We popped down to the shops after lunch so O could buy the ingredients for her tomato soup; she wanted to make some bread rolls as well. They didn’t have everything at the local supermarket – so after dumping it all in the kitchen – we got the bus into town. We saw Lou’n’two (plus one) again. It has been freezing today – even snowing a bit. I just happened to mention that we’d be in Spain in less than two weeks, and she told me to shut up! How rude! What are the chances of it snowing when we’re over there in southern Spain? A big fat NO!! can’t wait.

When we got home, O made an immediate start on the rolls. She wanted to make ciabatta ones, although it was a close run thing between them and sunflower seed rolls. She chopped up the onions and cried – which she was actually quite pleased about (weird child) – peeled and grated carrots successfully; made a simple stock; opened tins of tomatoes; and clearded up the mess as she went along (admittedly with a bit of prompting!). she just had so much fun, especially when it came to using the mixer and hand-blender. She supplemented Lisa’s original recipe by adding dried basil and oregano (her favourites) and dried chilli (not her favourite). I was surprised about the chilli, but I suppose she’s seen me adding a little to so many things, so many times, she’s become indoctrinated.

The all-important taste test? It was really good – ooh, Lisa, you’ve got some serious competition! I can just see a cook-off at dawn!

We watched ‘Frida’ later on. I’ve had the DVD on loan from the library for about 2 ½ weeks – the fine will be big … fingers crossed the computer goes down again. O’s been almost obsesses about Frida Kahlo ever since she saw a trailer for the film on another DVD. It was a good thing we watched it up in my room so I could shove her head under the duvet at certain … let’s say, ‘graphic’ moments.

I was really tired last night, not having been able to get rid of people until nearly 10! A got home just after that so O had to show him everything that she’d been doing. And then I woke up; wide awake, not even the merest hint of a yawn until 3am. 3am! Which meant that today, being Wednesday and our busy day, didn’t exactly get off to a good start.

We got to group late and sketching was about to start. O didn’t want to sketch but she was willing to pose for the budding artists. She actually managed to sit still for ten minutes. That has to be some kind of record as sheis the world’s greatest fidget. Even she was impressed and kept going on, “I sat still for ten minutes, ten whole minutes.”
“Yeah, how about not actually saying anything for ten whole minutes? That’d be quite impressive.”
“No. It wouldn’t. That would be silly.” Oh well, I live in hope!

Spanish as usual after lunch. Then most of the group disappeared off to bowling, but as ballet had resumed after a short break, we stayed for that. Not me obviously, that would be almost as silly as thinking O might possibly consider a ten minute silence!

O picked up 3 very girly, very pink books from the library all about tiara princesses or something. Ooh yeah, I forgot that this morning we’d taken about 5 books on the Romans back that I’d forgotten so they were late and I had to pay a fine. But the computer went down and the man said to forget it, I didn’t have to pay. I saved a grand totalof … 20p. Small things like that make me happy. I’m either totally not materialistic or just really cheap. I prefer to think of myself as the first!

Drama again in the early evening then a lift home. A phoned to say he was staying out; at a reasonable time for a change. It was a birthday party out of town and he’s getting a lift to college inthe morning.

Guess what we had for dinner - yep, left-over Chinese. O was sent to bed early with her library books, just so that I could have some time on my own, slobbing out on the sofa, listening to music and reading my library book in peace.

A quiet, serene start to the day before the hordes descended. We spent the morning resurrecting O’s Chinese dragon that she’d made last year. We usually keep big things she’s made for a few months before taking photos and throwing them out - we just don’t have the room to keep everything. But the dragon’s been lurking on the shelf outside O’s room for a year now.

It was a good day, a very good day I think. A perfect day of educational value and just fun. Lisa’s girls, Lin’s boys and O made dragon puppets (and snakes and a dog!), Chinese lanterns and flags, bookmarks, fun worksheets answering a few questions and colouring in maps, working out the Chinese horoscope; who were rats, horses, tigers, pigs, rabbits and oxen (I think that’s everyone!) all while listening to our groovy Chinese CD.

The kids all settled down to watch Mulan while we cooked a huge feast of fried rice, 3 different stir-fries, noodles and pancake rolls; most of them having a go at using chopsticks as well. Lychees and ice-cream for dessert - lychees not proving popular with everyone. That’s OK because O and me love them so we can finish them off tomorrow! And it was all vegan - even the ice-cream!

All the kids had helped tidy things away during the day, and with the washing and drying-up after dinner. So then the dragon was allowed out to play, charging around the living room - it’s at times like that I really wish I had a bigger house! But they all had a go at being the lead with no arguments. In fact, considering they were confined to the sitting-room for over 8 hours (apart from slaving in the kitchen and the odd toilet break!) they were all brilliant, it was a real pleasure having them all round.

And thanks to Lisa and Lin for their contributions. It’s your turn next Lisa!!

The villa had been moved up to my room for Tuesdays get-together and came back down again in the evening. It usually sits on the floor in front of the fire, so it’s been kicked about and trod on a few times; looking a bit like an earthquake’s hit it now. Repairs were carried out first thing and it now has a new home on the table.

O finished two of her library books last night, so she wrote book reviews for them – something she’s done since she finished Booktrack last August. She’s still reading Lemony Snicket Book 7 as well; she’s like me and usually has a couple of books on the go.

Spanish homework was done after the book reviews. Then she got really excited because she got some post addressed to her. The Roald Dahl magazine that she’s been collecting and hasn’t heard anything from since way before Christmas. The last one was no. 4 and today she gets nos. 10 and 11. what happened to the others?! I haven’t been charged for them so that’s OK, but it’s still odd. There’s more important things in life to ponder I suppose. Lisa and girls dropped by in the afternoon. We had a cup of tea while I waited for the washing machine to finish. The girls played with the villa; I managed to remain calm and not at all worried about the recent repairs and whether the glue was still wet or not. Not so O, “Two trees have come off.” Chill child.

We all piled into the car to nip round to Lisa’s. she made us a lovely tomato soup that O wants to have a go at making. Well, if Lisa can make it, I’m sure it can’t be that hard … hee, hee!! It was delicious, so thank you.

The girls ran around in various costumes and fancy dress, tinkled the ivories in some semblance of a tune and watched a bit of a video. An argument erupted over ‘Hello Kitty’ when O said it was babyish. Apparently, that’s tantamount to treason. M obviously had to put it on just to wind O up. Well, if O goes around criticising people’s tastes, she’s on her own. I think they might be getting a bit tired and emotional!

Lisa dropped us home a little later than originally planned; so it was another stir-fry for dinner – it’s quick! But I think that’s the last of the Chinese for a while, I’m getting low on sesame oil and soy sauce anyway.

O finished painting a pretend Chinese fire-cracker decoration this morning so that we can scare away all the evil spirits for New Year.We watched some school programmes this morning, before a quick tidy-up and heading into town.

The library was the first stop-off to take some books back. We also wanted to get a CD of Chinese music for tomorrow. But midway through New Year celebrations, what was I thinking? All Chinese CD’s are already out on loan. Oh well… Bumped into Lou’n'two while we were there. O didn’t have her usual plaits and Lou couldn’t get over how long O’s hair is.

Stocked up on loads of stir-fry veg and sauces, and also ended up buying a cheap Chinese CD. I’ve found Solo is very good for world music, wonder if I’ll get a discount now, maybe if I shout louder…

I assembled the fire-cracker when we got home and O made some Chinese lanterns. She also started a new English workbook and did her Spanish homework. When we later watched “Around the World in 80 Treasures”, O was really pleased with herself when she translated Mesa Verde into Green Table. “I knew that, I really did.” Then it was “Tales from the Palaces” before I threw her out of my room so I could watch “University Challenge”. Well, I need to concentrate on the questions.

Then - after another bath! - it was Supernatural. Thanks Lisa! I’d have missed out on that if it wasn’t for you! And I really need to get my TV watching levels up … who else to inspire me, eh?! Sorree … you know I’m only joking. I hope!!!

How long was I in the bath last night? 9.25 till 12.05! That’s long ! That’s bliss!! Not one single, solitary interruption at all! Water got a bit cool towards the end, but the heating was whacked up full so I was absolutely fine. More than fine; absolutely, perfectly wonderful!! Oh, I did enjoy it!

A stayed out last night at a friends. He very kindly phoned to let me know he would be; at 1 in the morning mind, but I was still in heaven and nothing was going to bring me down. He came home in time to get changed into his kit and off out for another football match (Sunday league this time).

O made a Roman laurel wreath, a lovely silver one that’s too heavy so shehasto holdon to it as she walks around. I can see a toga materialising fairly soon.

As it’s the beginning of Chinese New Year, we started making decorations for it - we’re having friends over on Tuesday for a party-type, get together-type thingy. This meant lots of red and gold paper and paint, and Feng Shui-ing the front room. Luckily the fire’s in the right place, ‘cos I don’t think the council would appreciate me ripping it out because of inauspicious positioning.

A came home really aching but happy because his team won 4-1. Yeah! We used to go and support; but me yelling my head off, showing my disapproval if he gets fouled and telling him to watch his language is supposedly embarrassing. Can’t see it myself, but I’m banned now anyhow.

Concerns have arisen recently about O’s mental faculties. Listening in on my phone call to a friend about my marathon bath, she said she didn’t like me having such long baths because then she’d be on her own.
“Um… you’re in bed, dear, asleep, you’re always on your own.”
Then 5 minutes later, getting out a metal rule to measure a ruler.
“That’ll be about 30cms, love, give or take.”
I’m left fearing that the descent into Blondesville is rapidly becoming an avalanche.

Up lateish this morning; but hey, it’s Saturday. Oops, forgotthat we don’t actually do weekends as such. Nevermind, moving swiftly on …

O started on the Lego city first thing until I suggested that she have breakfast first. and as there were still acrylic paints all over the floor (lids on, well done!) from yesterdays Klimt moment, “It might be a better idea to finish the masterpiece before the Lego city gets a paint job, dear.”

We went over to Lin’s in the afternoon. O and the boys watched Lemony Snicket, while we consumed loads of caffeine. Incredibly low on educational value, but really could not care less!

We bumped into another friend on our way home. O was being shown a few things on her guitar by a friend who has now abandoned us for pastures new up-country; so O hasn’t really touched her guitar in a while. But running into this friend (this is getting confusing!) was a stroke of luck since he is more than willing to carry on where S left off. O had a smile bigger than her head; me too when he said he’s stillgot a bottle of wine that he’s been saving for nearly 2 years now. 2 years!?! It wouldn’t have lasted 2 days in my house!

O finished off her painting; and after dinner carried on with some knitting that she hasn’t touched since the beginning of December. She’s knitting herself a scarf; should be ready by next Christmas hopefully. Was that sarcastic? Didn’t mean it to be …

When the painting was dry we stuck it on the wall. I found some prints of Klimt (The Kiss and La Jeune Fille) and stuck those up too. After looking intently at the print of La Jeune Fille while listening to me read the description - I have to admit to feeling smugness at my intellectually arty daughter - her only comment was, “There’s a lot of nipples in this picture”.
“It’s art”, says I, smugness totally evaporated.
“But there is, look, there’s one there, one there, another one over there, one there somewhere, look, I counted 5 at least.”
“Yeah, alright, it’s bed now, go and clean your teeth!”

Anyway, I checked, and there’sonly two, no idea where the other 3 came from.

We agreed last night that today was going to be timetabled …

It was, but then something happened, or didn’t to be precise. We got up in enough time to watching an hour and a half of school programmes. We went round to the cash-point to see if the cheque has cleared – it hasn’t, so I tragically spent my last 50p on 2 loaves of bread. We bumped into Lin (again!) and she was a bit concerned; but we have a fridge, a freezer and a cupboard full of food so we’re not going to starve between now and Monday. No matter what O says as she mourns the lack of prawn cocktail crisps (Walkers are vegan!) and bourbon biscuits (they are too!). And I’ve just remembered that A owes me £9, which is a debt that will be called in a.s.a.p.!

When we got home, I took great satisfaction in scribbling out the timetable; then O decided what she really wanted to do from it. She wrote out a list and just drew a line through each thing when she finished it. First was 6 questions from a new chapter (forces and motions) in her science workbook. She finished her current English book, and did some work on 2D shapes and area, and 3D nets for maths. Might as well have left the timetable up …

O started a Klimt-inspired doodle painting just before dinner; it’s looking good so far. Dinner tonight was ‘chicken’ style soya pieces fried with mushrooms and a tin of aubergines in a tomato herby sauce added with rice. The pieces were a bit too realistic and O got more and more concerned about them, until – midway through dinner – I had to fish the empty pack from the bin to show her they were OK. It tasted good apart from me being distracted by O when I was adding the chilli oil. All the way through the meal she kept commenting on how spicy it was; “Nonsense, eat up, it’s lovely”. Shame it smelt like a cowshed really …

Right … where did today go?!!!

It got to about 2 and I thought about washing my hair. But what else did we do? Nothing! What happened?!

O finished reading one Lemony Snicket and started another. Apparently, Count Olaf was wearing a tambourine. After a bit of digging, it turns out he was actually wearing a turban. Close enough I suppose.

She finished colouring a tessellating bird picture that she’d started on Tuesday. She also finished the medicine chapter that she’d also started on Tuesday. Apart from then building a type of city with Lego, that really was it today.

We wandered round to the shops to buy supplies for family night; it’s tonight this week.

A came home really tired after college. I think because he didn’t get back till late yesterday. He had a football match down in Truro. He’s doing sports science and has recently been promoted to the first team, which he’s really pleased about. But they lost 2-1, which he’s not really pleased about – obviously.

Anyway, he was really tired tonight, so we didn’t exactly have a night of sparkling wit and repartee. Do we ever? Neither of them wanted to continue our game of poker; because I’m winning – spoilsports! A chose to do one of O’s science kits that she’d got for Christmas. The ‘Sport and the Human Body’ one. We got as far as looking through the booklet and some transparencies, and measuring each others heights. Then A gave up and went to bed. I looked through the rest of the kit which actually looks quite good; lots of activities to keep O busy anyway.

Up and out early today for F.R.L. Lin and boys came over about 9.30. She walked with us again this morning – hurrah!

I said I’d do an activity today so I took along some string. How exciting is that?! It was to show the kids cats cradles and other string games; a few of the kids had a go and seemed to enjoy it.

O still didn’t feel like yoga. On alternate weeks there’s sketching or drama. Today was drama which O doesn’t do as she goes to the arts centre in the evening instead.

Spanish again after lunch. O gaily handed in her homework. All memories of last weeks panic-stricken rushed job happily forgotten. It’ll be interesting to see if she’s learnt a lesson; or will I have to remind her at some point; or, even better, ‘evil mummy’ rears her head and leaves it entirely up to her!

A man called Nick came to the park this afternoon. And why shouldn’t a man called Nick come to the park?! He came to teach the kids some environmental games and make concoct some ‘interesting’ smelly potions. It was absolutely freezing!! I lasted about 5 seconds; long enough to take a few photos before I retreated to the relative warmth of the hut. All the kids had fun anyway and there were plenty of rosy noses and cheeks.

We stopped off again at the library on the way to drama. O had a chat with one of the librarians who’s got friends in Spain. Her friends live very near to where my mum lives so we were comparing notes.

O enjoyed drama; they practised a song about black socks never getting dirty, the longer you wear them, the stronger they get… hmmm, I have a son who adheres to that principle.

Oh, stuff the … timetable!

We got up late: to be honest, I only got up because A knocked on my door to say goodbye and ask for money for his next driving lesson in the afternoon.

O’s decided she now wants to be a writer so she spent about an hour getting stuff ready for that. She does like to be organised, but no actual writing seems to have appeared yet. I think she’s planning on some collaborative writing with Lin’s boys – should be interesting!

She wanted me to help her with a medicine chapter for her project. When she started this project, she wrote a chapter list and chooses one she feels like doing. After the food chapter trauma, she thought medicine might be equally gruesome: which is why she’s asked me to help. She really can’t face it on her own! And we have to do it quickly.

She played with the villa, reorganising the cut-out figures. “Be careful”, I said, “like Rome, it wasn’t built in a day.” I am so, so, so, sorry! I have been trying really hard to not say that, but I really couldn’t resist! Temptation? Bring it on!

We went over to Lin’s in the afternoon. O got the boys writing a story, which they gave up on in the end. Lego’s much more interesting!

My lovely, lovely, lovely step-dad sent me the flight details and included a cheque for ‘travelling expenses’! £100! I need a new dressing gown, new shoes, new … whatever!! The money’s spent already and we haven’t even left town yet! I might just consider giving A and O some – if they do lots of sucking up!

O did some English, maths and science – she finished the section on electricity and drew some very colourful electrical circuits. We watched a programme on environmental change in Berlin. I’ve been there before, but it was before the wall came down so I told O about that. After lunch more T.V. on maths; rounding, percentages and adding to large numbers.

Then into town to pay in a cheque! On the way I was stopped for directions. I really should wear a huge sign on my back, “Please, if you truly value your sanity, do not – under any circumstances – ask me for directions!” I don’t know why; I’m not stupid; I know where I am; I know where I’m going; I always know the places people are asking for; I do know how to get there; I have a very good sense of direction and I can’t remember ever getting lost. Why, for the love of … , why can I not give simple directions?! I think it must be because I don’t drive and our town is full of one-way systems. We usually either walk or get the bus, and cars can’t go where we go … excuses, excuses. Anyway, the poor bloke ended up looking more and more worried. I did apologise and suggested that maybe it might be a good idea to drive on a bit, turn right and ask again. He drove off … quickly.

Ooh, the timetable thingy! The workbooks this morning was about the extent of it. Well, if people (thanks John!) insist on throwing cheques at me, chances are I’m going to be distracted.

Tomorrow is the last of the timetabled days we’ve got planned, so I think that’ll be the last one. O has decided that maybe timetabling just one day a week might be a better idea. Funnily enough, I find myself agreeing with her.

Timetable: 8.30am – up, dressed, breakfast and wash
9am – fill in background on mosaic and finish villa
10.30 – write list of Roman emperors
11.30 – 5 questions in science workbook
Reality: 10 am – open bleary eyes, “Timetable? What timetable?”

I’m left wondering how long this timetable thingy is going to be ‘funner’?

Anyway, O did a page of her fraction workbook (comparing equivalency), did finish her mosaic, did finish the villa – well, I did, which meant there was loads more, “Are you pleased with it?”
“Stop right there, love!”.

She also got through pages of maths workbook: a revision book of quick activities; proportion and ratio; multiples and square roots; factors and prime numbers; and, wonder of wonders, magic number squares. Ditto English and more of a Bible activity book that she’s been doing for … no idea how long now. It’s dot-to-dot, word search, spot the difference and tons of colouring, but it’s very basic for her so she’s really bored with it. I don’t like wasting money though, so it will be finished (there’s that evil mummy again!). All the activities are based on various stories, the current one being David and Goliath. The inevitable question being, “Can a stone on your head really kill you?”
“A boulder on your head most definitely. A stone would depend on velocity, trajectory, point of impact … no, we won’t be doing a scientific experiment … ever … absolutely not … it’s called murder and people tend to get a bit cross if you do things like that.”

Tonight was our family night. We have one every week because otherwise we’d never see A: him being 17 and a ‘sociable’ kind of person. He usually decides which night it’s going to be since he’s the only one with such a hectic social calendar. Me? Bitter? Nooo!

Tonight it’s tomato tart, one of his favourites. He’s not vegan, a confirmed meat-eater, so he usually refuses to eat with us (hence the insistence on family nights). Mind you, I don’t see him complaining when he has a plate piled with food in front of him.

As it’s Sunday, family night meant I missed an episode of ‘Invasion’ – the sacrifices I make! After dinner, we played poker and I am now chip-leader. Hooray! Who needs T.V.?

Fingers crossed for tomorrows timetable!

Forget to say that yesterday we started building the Roman villa and O started to make a bird mosaic. So first on the list was carrying on with those. O’s gummed paper for the mosaic – which tastes foul – so she’s only got as far as filling in the outline of the bird. And by about the 2 millionth piece of the villa, she got bored. So I’m doing most of the rest of it (well, it keeps me quiet and out of trouble), while she does a chapter on writing and numbers for her project. She can also tick the boxes for maths, English and science workbooks. But not, however, the book on fractions. We’ll save that for another day (evil mummy!). While I was kept engrossed with a certain villa, O made herself a hot air balloon, not a full-size one, we have a tiny house.

I was only interrupted once to tie a knot in the balloon and that was it. O was really pleased with herself and kept on, “Are you pleased with me? Are you proud of me? Do you like it? D’you think it’s good? Are you pleased with me?” (can you tell she was pleased with it?!).
“Yes, dear, as long as you’re happy”.

As soon as A walked in the door (he works in a bakers on Saturdays), “Do you like it? D’you think it’s good?”. He just jumped in the shower and went out for the evening. Why, oh why can’t I do that? Just once would be quite nice.

It seems just lately that O has been taking ages to get anything done – so I decided on a timetable today. Eek!! A very detailed timetable, even down to – 11am – get biscuit and drink! It seemed to work though; Spanish homework was finished so she won’t have to panic next Tuesday evening. We even watched more school programmes on T.V. (this is starting to become a habit). More importantly, O asked for the next few days to be timetabled because “It’s more funner”. Must remember to schedule in some grammar.

We got up a bit late today, 9.30. I was awake early though, so does that count?

O got on with her Roman project - it was food today. As we’re vegan, there were a lot of comments along the lines of, “Ew!”, “Gross!”, “That’s revolting!”. By the end a quiet little voice was heard, “I really do not like Romans anymore, why did I choose them?”. Particularly disgusting was the fish sauce was the fish sauce used in desserts!

Luckily, because I’m such a caring, kind and loving sort of mum, I found some riveting maths for her to do. Well, she said she felt sick, so I did what I thought best to take her mind off larks tongues!

A had his second driving lesson after college today. He looks and sounds so grown-up now. So it’s a little disconcerting to see him sitting on the sofa, clutching a ‘steering-wheel’, changing ‘gears’, screeching round corners and jamming his foot on the ‘brake’! Sadly, I have no photographic evidence. Is it really that immoral to blackmail your first-born?!

Wednesdays are our busy days. We go to Free Range Learning, a home-school group that meets on, surprise, surprise, Wednesdays. As we were walking there, we bumped into Lin and her boys who were heading for the bus stop. We ‘forced’ them to walk with us! It only took 40 minutes, what’s the problem?! And we did a bit of shopping on the way.

We really like this group because there’s always lots to do and everybody contributes. One mum was doing yoga when we got there, then another started sketching afterwards. O didn’t feel like either today, so she made an origami flapping bird with someone else instead.

Time for a play in the park with all her friends, then lunch before Spanish. O handed in her scrap of homework and how glad was she that she’d finished it last night? This actually sounds like Mathilde (the Spanish teacher) is very strict. She’s not at all, she’s very laid-back and makes it fun for the kids.

As soon as the room was cleared, pottery was set up for those who wanted to do it. Neil showed them how to make a pinch pot, which lots of them had a go at, including O.

Neil will take everything away to fire, so she’ll get her pot back in about, ooh… a month? Don’t know, Neil was vague!

We had to stop off at the library after group. It’s conveniently close to the arts centre where O goes to her drama group. It’s a lovely quiet time for me to sit in the café-bar there with a friend so we can chat, child-free. Her girls are home-schooled as well; but today there was one who didn’t go because she’s decided that drama’s boring.
“Why, child, why? This is supposed to be mummy’s quiet, chatty, gossipy, putting the world to rights time!”

after a lift home, and only being able to keep my eyes open long enough to make a quick tea, it was an early night for O and me. Sort of early anyway, we found a programme about wildlife in Spain that we had to watch – because we’re going there in 3 weeks!!

O’s turn for an extra long bath this morning. Her facecloth got wet which means either she did actually wash(!) or it just fell in the bath by accident (most likely!) While she was wallowing, I had time to make a soup, in peace and quiet, no interruptions at all. Bliss! One of yesterdays gems was, “Did you know, Caligulalalar was in the top 5 worstest emperors?”By the end of the morning, I had a prune for a daughter and enough soup to last a couple of weeks.

When O eyed up the soup, she was all smiles and happy that it looked like gruel (hangover from Oliver yesterday!). Hmmm…..not totally convinced that’s actually a comment, love! And gruel is grey and lumpy anyway, my delicious soup is a beautiful shade of green… and lumpy.

A doesn’t have classes ’till 1.15 on Tuesdays, so he didn’t get up ’till 12.15. Well,why on earth would a 17 year old boy get up before noon when there’s no need?

After lunch (of wonderful, tasty soup), O and me headed into town. First to the museum to pick up a papyrus-making kit for a friend. So good we got one for ourselves aswell. Then it was time for O’s dance class, a sort of ballet mixed with other stuff. She only started last week but really enjoys it. It is another chance for dressing up after all, and you can never have too many of them according to O!

On the way home, we stopped off at a friends. O had a chance to do her Spanish homework. It only has to be done by tomorrow… why does this sound like school?

Last night, just before bed, O announced that she wanted to be a pole-dancer when she grew up…. cue me spluttering half a cup of coffee across the room.

“What do they do Mum?”

“Ooo, um, er, not sure…. no, it’s too late really to look it up now, how are the Baudelaires getting on anyway?”

A huge sigh of relief this morning when she’d changed her mind and now wants to be an archeologist. Result? Innocence of child no. 2 safely preserved. Child no. 1 due for an in-depth chat about appropriate topics of conversation when within earshot of child no. 2.

We actually watched T.V. during daylight hours this morning.We don’t have reception downstairs and only get 4 channels upstairs. I’d had enough of T.V. just over a year ago and got rid of all satellite connections, so we’re building up our DVD collection instead. After watching the school programmes, the last one being a short Dickens biog., O was ‘in the mood’ to watch ‘Oliver!’. She loves musicals and used to be happy enough just singing along. Now she has to get dressed in full costume, quite often using props aswell.(A, bless him, has now learned to turn a blind eye, but he does have to have final say on any costumes she might wear whilst out in public!) Anyway, her favourite character in Oliver is Fagin, so she had a velvet jacket on before I could blink. No, no, no, no! We’re building a villa today, no more T.V.!

We didn’t actually get much of the villa made (ie, nothing!) because we changed our minds and went to the library instead. O’s got out 5 more books on Rome, and managed to entertain the library staff by falling off her chair quite spectacularly!

While I had a long bath, O added to her chapters on women and children. After I’d read it through later, she now also knows the definition of ‘plagiarism’.

A leisurely start to Sunday was called for this morning. I’d decided that today was the day to defrost the freezer. Why? No idea! This meant, of course, that I could amuse myself by shoving freezing hands down the back of O’s T-shirt! For some odd reason, she wasn’t as amused as me. I did manage to stop tormenting her when she showed quiet determination to get on with her Roman project. She’s decided to write about women and children today. Slight stress when she couldn’t draw a pair of dolphin earrings absolutely perfectly, but got there eventually. She’s also found a lovely intricate hair-do with lots of tiny plaits and coils. She’s had the brilliant idea that I can do it for her *and* make a stola. Hmmm…..

While she was busy, I finished off a Van Gogh jigsaw that we’d started ages ago. Well, it seems like ages when it’s been taking up a significant amount of floor space. Now it’s out of the way, I’ve promised O we can start building a Roman villa. Visions of major excavations in the back garden? Nooo, just small-scale cut-out thingy, just following instructions and a little bit of glue. Easy.

I also had a lovely conversation with my step-dad (he and mum live in Spain) to sort out a trip to visit them in February. It’s to ‘help’ celebrate his 60th birthday. And they’re paying!! Yeah!! We’re going for nearly 3 weeks, A only for a week because he’s got to get back to college. Apparently their neighbour is 60 on the exact same day….. can only hope the locals are fully prepared.

We had invited ourselves over to Lin’s for dinner. We aimed to be there about 2p.m., but O decided to wash her hair fifteen minutes before we left. Seeing as she always has plaits and I have to do them for her, I was not terribly impressed, owing to lack of time. When questioned about the length of time spent in the bathroom, she was admittedly honest, “I was messing about”. Through gritted teeth, “Well, let’s get going now then shall we?” Having stopped off to pick up a paper for Lin, we were only ten minutes late.

Me and Lin (not grammatically correct, but, hey, I don’t care!) spent ages looking at blogs, with Lin eventually setting me up with this one. The kids were all extremely happy playing on X-box, O being even more excited because we don’t do game thingies at home.

We cooked dinner, fajitas, with Lin adding a lovely spice(!) mix into the stir-fried veg. Spice being the operative word, with O having her head blown off and having to drink copious amounts of water! Lin had to scrape her veg out but I was the only one brave enough to finish, owing to half a bottle of very chilled Chardonnay!

We set the kids up with a video while we sorted my blog… and finished the wine! I will sleep well tonight and dream of exciting things for O to do tomorrow regarding her ongoing Roman project.

Outcome of day? Lost tastebuds, gained a blog, great fun had by all!

After spending a so-called social call to my good friend Lin, and having spent numerous conversations dismissing blogs(!), she has now convinced me to set up my own. So here I am… after a bottle of Chardonnay!

Now… what do I say? Obviously I’m home-educating, for 18 months now. One daughter, Olivia, 9, at home and one son, Adam, 17, at college. We live near Lin and luckily enough another good friend who also home-eds. Depending on my mood, we are either completely autonomous or she has to do the dreaded workbooks.

Well, that’s my very first entry