Category Archives: General

Making ourselves at home.

Up in Glasgow for a work conference for Helen, just for couple of days. We’ve all come mostly becuase BB needs her food :-). Not been to bad as the hotel is attached to the conference centre so aquick text can bring mummy running, and we can pop back in during the day easily enough. Looking around the room -we’ve certainly made ourselves at home ….:-(

The site is in the old docks area though, and not much actually around here. Me and the kids ambled around in the morning, crossed the river on a couple of bridges, nosed about a bit etc. Helen bunked off for couple of hours and we walked down to see this old sailing ship It was pretty good, SB enjoyed looking round the boat in that sort of flighty – ok what’s next 4 year old kind of way. She was keen to go when I showed her the leaflet, and enjoyed it. There was a little indoor musuem bit as well, sadly not a proepr cafe, so we had to head back to the hotel for our dinner (H had gone back to conference)

Gatecrashed the conference coffe break for BB BF, while I had coffe and cake and SB charmed (she does it so well) numerous chocloates from one of the company stands :-) popped out for a quick shop essentiaals such as beer…. – failing to find any black leggings/tracksuit bottoms etc. for SB for her Stagecoach class we’ve booked her into down in Huntingdon

Once H went off to her evening do me and SB settled down on the bed, a bit of Webland and then we watched ‘What the Acients did for us’ With Adam Hart-davis doing his thing about the Egyptians. I thought/hoped she’d drop off during it, but obviously was interested enough to watch the whole thing -though she did keep wanting to know when we would get to the pyramids :-) Once in bed though she did zonk out before the end of the story book.

After a couple more interupptions of H’s meal by SB getting the munchies I settled down to couple of hours time wasting on the ‘pute with a beer.

H back, better leave her bit of net time :-)

Count me reprimanded!!!!

As have been so by the matriarch of the another morning household! Apparently I have blogged too much today and she nearly missed things!!!! [smiles]
so for your delectation to day is
Quick catchup post about easter mainly and a bit about today.

6 photoposts, the bottom one being BB as fairy

Interview Me: my interview by monster and teeny’s Nic – idea originally on the morning matriarch
– about 600 posts down! And also threaded meme like throughout the blogring

PEST Chris commenting on SB’s spelling ability

Does that help everyone??

Quick catchup post

SEE PHOTOS BELOW!!

Easter
Well, we are at my parents for easter and have had a lovely time. Whats more, I didn’t eat way too much chocolate – woohoo!

Sb and my nephew ran around having a ball. Grandad took them to the park a couple of times to let some energy free, and that worked well. He also took SB to feed the ducks by the river on their won. Its the first time he has had her all to himself like that since he did a mercy mission when she was 9 months with chickenpox. I was really happy!

My migraine eventually disappeared – thank god – and we were all otherwise well.

My Nan dozing more than before, but still happy and we all played scrabble together. She had some lovely cuddles with BB, and was entertained by SB. unsurprisingly she hasn’t voted to live with us, but is aware it is an open invitiation. TBH I am actually v disappointed, as it seemed right for her to live with us. However, if I am keen on having an independent autonomous daughter, I can’t really complain at an independent and autonomous Nan! I will still mention it every now and again, and perhaps have her visit us now and again for a battery recharge.

All in all, lovely time. Will prob add a couple of piccies – partic a nice one of BB after SB had decorated her with body stickers!

Today
SB at nursery in the morning. When we woke up, she was telling me how much she wanted to go to the ostrich farm, and wondered whether we could do it today. I was fairly non-commital and texted the post natal group and they had arranged the farm – how jammy is that!! cue wreaths of smiles from SB when i picked her up from nursery and told her where we were going. Took us ages to get out, as she made all her nursery friends cue up to admire and stroke BB! The farm has a nice indoor play area, as well as some unusual animals outside. she particularly liked the wallaby [wollowpie!] with baby in pouch. Also played well with the postnatal group today without getting left out.

BB def gets bored now, so some effort made in jiggling, wiggling and toys! Still feeds for England, and sleeps well though.

In one of her morning sleeps I wrote my letter to work, enclosing an official looking form requesting to work flexibly. I’ve opted for compressed hours for a 4 day week, in the hopes that they find it more acceptable and say yes. then with time, I might work on losing an afternoon as well. However, a 4 day week sounds like a great place to be at the moment. fingers crossed!

Aunty Margaret visited late afternoon, and had a good cuddle of BB, and read ‘the glass heart’ to SB – which is a lovely book. SHe had bought SB a glass heart for easter, and as luck would have it, is still unbroken! She is keen that we restart putting photoalbums on our webpages when we move, so she can keep up with SB and BB. there is such a lot of things to miss when we move.

Thoughts of the days: still gripped by a riptide of melancholia with regards to time passing, both for children and loved ones. however, even with this as background leitmotif, we have still had a lovely time. I am still determined that I will live as much in present as possible, and enjoy it to the max, disregarding sasdness of return to full time employment and mortality issues. I think I have managed quite well.

Easter families

Easter families


my mum and nan with BB

at the swings

at the swings


Helen

at the swings

at the swings


with dad doing the pushing Helen

family easter

family easter


finally all 4 grandchildren in 1 piccie
Helen

family easter

family easter


Helen

Easter pic – faerie princess

Easter pic - faerie princess


Helen

Interview Me

Interviewed by Monster and Teeny’s Nic.

1. How did you and Chris meet?

well i guess that the duke of edinburgh introduced us, with a bit of help from my dad!

To get into med school I did the duke of edinburgh gold award, and had done all but the week away thing. I was finishing the first year and asked dad just to arrange something, so he chose a british trust for conservation volunteers week, making steps for a footpath at boxhill. Chris was the driver/cook and I needed a diversion after my exams! obviously very diverting.

2. How did you hear about HE and who convinced who?

Think this is 2 questions really!
At about 2ish, i decided that i wasn’t that keen for SB to be thrust into a large class at an early age. thinking she was going to be our only, i looked into private ed, and there is a lovely family school nearby. it has small groups, nurturing environ etc, and i thought that sounded good. I also thought about just starting late – 7ish, which i think is more sensible. Chris also was thinking along same non-school lines for similar reasons, but caught a thread on one of the NG about home ed and joined some lists first. About 2 1/2 we discussed it, and started to think seriously about home ed. I guess chris was the primary driver as off and on, i still think i may have gone the private route if no money issues, and an equally friendly place where we are moving. Partly cos last year in partic the grown up HE groups were scary places and it seemed inevitable that SS would knock on your door, and only children with special needs that school had failed, children that had suffered bullying, or those with very unconventional ways of life were HE. [I consider myself v conventional] However sticking mostly to mud pud, and meeting HE-ers from there and also yorks region has been good.
i still think we can do a far better job than school, but look at it in bite-size chunks, that we will HE until SB 8, and think then on how it has gone, and whether still right thing to do. now we have that decision, I think in typica Helen style I have then gone about looking at the practicalities and retail therapy with more of a vengeance than Chris!

3. Describe yourself in three words

This sounds like one of those dreadful moments in medical interviews when they want to know the difference between clinical governance and audit ‘in three words’ [bugger all really]
Not Really Sure? [maybe will come back to this?]

4. Songs and readings at funeral
well, hopefully someone to stand up to say I had a good innings, was happy in my life, and leave behind a lot of love. music can be vaughn williams lark ascending. [green burial under tree please]

5. What would I like SB and BB to say about me as a mother

another tricky one really, as I so want it all to be positive!
I guess it is important to me that they remember home primarily as a place of love and safety. hopefully that Chris and I worked as a team to put in place what we could to help them acheive their dreams. I want them to have felt loved, valued and empowered. With lots of laughter on the way. That perhaps I juggled work and home OK so that has given them more confidence in making their choices. I would like them to feel that I was still loving and affirmative of their choices, however different, when they reached adulthood. Also that we could agree to disagree without any loss of respect or trust.

I guess that is it. Thanks Nic.

If YOU want to be interviewed:

1. Leave me a comment saying ?interview me.?
2. I will respond by asking you five questions (not the same as you see here).
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions. (If you don?t have a blog, let this inspire you to begin one!!)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions