kinda catchup

just for me really. have been mooching around quietly with girls. SB is a v caring and sensitive soul, and i really thank her for her quiet love and care. she is looking gorgeous in crop tops and crop trousers! summer clothes suit her well, as does her new cropped hair cut! think there is a theme there! i have taken the foot completely off the pedal of HE currently tho, but she still does bits and pieces – far less than when i am actively involved! but it does let me see that she does like some of the books in particular – like the schofield and simms one! and she also did a fair bit of her grade 1 theory. we haven’t done any music prac, but holiday orch next week should get things going. she continues to read loads tho! and i have read loads with her. we have played quite a lot of board games together – she likes the new alhambra, as well as old favs! and we have played loads of wii mario winter olympics. currently i have so little emotional reserves that my temper is shorter than it should be, but am doing my best to do activities we both enjoy and feel communal over to try and make up for the times i feel short of time. I did, after all, take them to the park for 2 hours!! something of a personal best.

BB continues to be challenging. i’m not really into applying labels to children’s behaviour, but she goes from 0-60 in nanoseconds. her response to any challenge, or anything not going how she perceived it would is a total meltdown. we are trying hard to help her control this, and to consider other options of behaviour, but it is v hard, partic when both of us have our moments of non rational parenting screeches! must try to remain calm at all times! obviously, the great majority of the time she is an adorable poppet! v affectionate and physically loving. we have done sewing and crafting together, and i have played her imaginative games too, so feel i have shared a lot of time with each.

both girls mostly also having fun playing together, tho going thro a bit of a tale telling phase at the mo…

so this weekend, well sat we did seed sowing [beans and courgettes], potting up [sunflowers] and also finally put the potatoes from the potato council into bags. chris and I had a bit of measuring and planning to the garden. hoping he might pay for someone to come in and mass weed quite a few areas so we can mulch and start again! also got the ideas for some of the veg beds. having thought i wouldn’t do any veg stuff this year as feeling it hard to hold body and soul, the brightening of the weather reminded me that it is a soul activity! its nice doing planning with chris too. i have been tying myself tighter and tighter into myself that i forget to give time to my family commitments! tho, we are disagreeing on my uber dream planning wrt the upstairs… oh yes, went to the village park with the girls. v busy as lovely day, but they had a great time, and some new equipment there. think we have a lovely friendly village. hmm?? some board games, some wii, and then?? oh yes, whilst outside, the girls made a brick wall on our lawn! oh, and during the day we got the k’nex out, and SB did a bridge challenge and then we used the solar panels we got from ebay and she made a twirling planet!! BB in this time was sticking glow in the dark stickers to make 3 pics for her bedroom from this resource pack we have had a while, but think is really quite good [especially when you buy it cheaper!]

Today was much the same, except we put up new tent!!

small and compact and easy to put up. we gave it 8/10.
marks lost for -
1.the silly pole as door awning, it isn’t right, it puts far too much tension on zip. we knew this from reviews, and have used string currently to take some of tension off, but seriously poor design, and should have been picked up.
2. cheap skating on inners. the khyams have double doors, so a mesh and an opaque. these have opaque bottom and mesh top rather than being able to make total private, or total see thro. the girls in the khyam like to see us out in the main bit, so have mesh only. then when we go to bed we close the opaque – to ensure privacy, partic in morning! since this is in their ‘deluxe’ range, would think that it should have them really.

otherwise think that it more or less fits the bill well, so happy! i think this particular one should have been aired since last camping trip, as unfortunately a bit more mildew staining than i like… perils of second hand! but a few mildew spots worth the 140 reduction in price i think! was also nice that we can more or less bodge the khyam porch onto it for rainier days!!

SB chose to do some schofield and simms and some music theory inside the tent.

BB thought it warm enough for paddling pool, so we obliged and she generally trundled about having fun, coming for hugs and tickles. SB and I played games. we then made the earth and satelites model from the night sky pack, and talked about the moon landings, hubble etc etc and now think we should go to leicester space centre again! more wii winter olympics, some watching of magic school bus, and i think that is the day done? oh and i played shops with the girls. another thing i forgot! we did some sewing together. BB has decided to make a patchwork blanked for ‘yoshi’ – nothing like a challenge! so i decided easiest to cut felt squares and then use blanket stitch. total meltdown that she couldn’t do it, but she can. must buy binca and embroidery thread, as she wants to do more ‘patterns’ in fact, she wants a sewing projects book. SB happily got going with a headband she is making for BB – pattern in her head!

anyway, a book for bb? any recommendations?

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