Category Archives: General

Growing Old Gracefully

I always swore I would go old gracefully, and not bother with all the hair colouring etc etc, as at some point, you have to then grow old suddenly, or look slightly odd.

it is, of course, crunch time.

well, actually crunch time prob really was a few years ago! But my hair is now most definitely grey looking. The white streaks are now prominent enough for the over all impression from the front def to be grey, but its not uniform, and prob about 5% white?

It has become more noticeable on photos, and also today i plaited my hair in about 8 plaits after laboriously combing out the camping tangles. I haven’t plaited it since sitting the last lot of exams in 2000 – where there were hardly any white hairs! [plaiting hair a good finger distraction activity whilst revising i think!]. So, aarrgh!

I don’t feel at all older though, i’m not sure where all the time has whizzed by, but here, alongside the 40 next year milestone, is the evidence that time is marching on. All sorts of other options change. I’m not averse to change, and don’t fear the aging, just wish for another 10 years before it became noticeable! There’s the child thing. The longer i don’t consider further treatment, the less likely it is, so i guess indecision here is probably a decision. I am not, after all, racing to alter it. There is the pension thing – and in this credit crunch world, is that as sorted as i thought? after all, the equity in this house was supposed to keep us going for a bit [yep, i do have a works pension, obviously - i am anally retentive after all - but chris hasn't that much work to pension]. And i really must make the most of the next 10 years, as they will fly by too.

so, rather odd time of year for resolutions but

1. I MUST LOOSE WEIGHT/ BODY MASS

2. I REALLY SHOULD FIND SOME TIME TO EXERCISE

3. I might henna my hair, but apart from that, i think i will take greyness!

4. In planning for the future, credit crunch or not, life is lived in the here and now, so i MUST NOT STRESS!

busy bees

we have had a mostly screech free day here today. BB is *very* piercing! when I got up, BB had been watching magic school bus – and I found another one i hadn’t seen – the microbe one! [yes, chris is going to get round to it!!] SB started off with doing a jigsaw book on ancient egyptian sites. We then read together a story about ramadan and eid, and she went on to look at a the what I believe book. Then did some self directed recorder practice – getting better at hole covering so not so many shrill bits. BB and I did maths at this point. she is starting to add 1 onto things, and subtract 1′s. BB and I then did some alphabet stuff, as she doesn’t know it at all yet.

SB then looked at our usbourne picture french dictionary [after me telling Katy that we weren't doing french reading - of course SB LOVES reading] so we did the a’s and b’s [she complained that only the english words were always a's and b's :roll: ] SO we did it together with my pronunciation :oops: and thinking of sentences to put it in.

SB did singapore maths – must buy the 3 series – whilst BB did starfall and i hemmed the Gi thingy for judo – so at least now she can walk without flappy arms and legs!

And then we had breakfast :wink:

OK, it was a late breakfast at 11! BB had already had breakfast earlier and SB and I had brunch. SB did violin whilst I still hemmed, and we are being inventive at the moment, with the majority of the time she is finding sounds, or making up tunes for me or playing scales – she likes scales. At this time an amazon bookseller order arrived from way back – one of the 3rd grade detective books, which she loves, so she tucked herself on the sofa and had finished it within 1/2 an hour. hmm! We also had a parcel from the manor borns, so SB moved onto melrose and croc, [most impressed with inscription from Clo] and BB spent most of the rest of the day in lizard related activities – very enthusiastic! [chris went shopping for gas canisters - so that was his day - rofl!]. SB made up some choc angel delight on her own – though BB sahred the task of eating it.

The girls are really in to playing with the castle and stuff at the moment, i was in charge of dragons, SB had romans and courtiers, and BB assorted lizards and dinodoors [as you do] and they had tea parties, swimming parties and hama bead diving competitions [i need to get out the hoover]. I in the end drifted away [i think I did VERY well to carry on for that long] and SB fancied knitting – so she brought back some yellow moon first cross stitch kits, she did the flower [well, at least she started it and did the centre]. BB played with the kit, but didn’t actually DO any.

They then did some convoluted liz game, I went out into the veg patch and picked loads of greenbeans, toms, brocolli and courgettes. they came out and did whizzing about the garden with lizards, but when i went in to cook the curry for tea they came in too. SB hama beaded, BB did liz dives into hama beads games, and i read them a book about remainder of one.

SB has gone off to Judo [first time since broken foot so fingers crossed] and BB watching the ways things work. I am pondering cars and how much i can stretch too.

edited to add: when SB came back, with free choice to watch whatever she wanted, and BB asleep, she chose Muzzy german level 2. and then we discussed protons and dark matter :smile: She has been a happy bean all day.

also, any recommendations on good balanced books – pref story related and good for 8 year old who has good vocab skills – about the crusades?

Camping and Beaching

we like camping, and we have found that we like sharing out tent as well. it seems to be a good tent for sharing! we went to the east anglian weekend camp for the weekend and met up with some east anglian families. unfortunately loads of the potential attendees had been put off by the weather forecast, so it wasn’t quite as planned! the children all loved having the woods nearby – and got suitably daubed in mud as well. i also suffered from mud foot from an ill judged step – but luckilly that was it! SB was quite skilled at leapfrogging, and chris wowed us with his prowess… lots of games played in and out of tent and children all had fun.

on decamping we stopped at brancaster beach, which i do love. there were loads of shells to be picked up and admired, and lots of running about in blustery wind with end of day sun. just a perfect end to the weekend! [well, that and little chef]

next year, we really must do more weekend camps to the north norfolk coast, as i do love it there. i think i am going to have quite a lot of new years resolutions!!

Protected: Same old, same old

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

not blogging

though i wish he would… chris did packing for camping, SB did piano and maths. girls played with animals, watched cable tv at his parents, shopping, home, ‘dunno’ girls had a bath – i came home, and sb v proud of making her own bubble mixture – shampoo and bubble bath. listened to a roald dahl cd. chris did more sorting ‘got grumpy’ and more things like that really.

pretty much his own words except the shampoo bit!

i-viking we will go

i’ve been working, but chris and the girls have been busy busy. a visit to nots and tots at one of our not so close HE groups. picked up our suma order from Katy – pleased so see that it is enormous, as it was expensive! Also pleased that chris left in the dried mango slices – yum yum. SB put out that she didn;t finish the science experiment on heat loss as she had to go to the dentist. SB was fine at the dentist, and was oK with the discussion that her front teeth stick out and will need some work when she is older. [aargh to thumb sucking, if i could go back in time i would be there with the dummy] bB wouldn’t open her mouth. she decided she only will when she is f and bigger :roll: for an overwhelmingly confident bean she is remarkably scaredy about these type of out of family/friend things.

in the afternoon, SB did maths, handwriting, piano and violin - she is def motivated at the moment! When i got home they were recreating the heat loss experiment. weirdly paper did best, our socks obviously not v good!! BB and i had lots of stories from library books, and she played chase the A through the book.  SB did some more of our viking brooch craft, and also made a paper kit viking ship i picked up from greece some time ago. SB particularly likes the idea of i-viking as a phrase! She amazed me by saying that she knew how the vikings and normandy tied up, and telling chris about it. it is in SOtW, but i don’t test recall, and make no significance to remembering, and i get a sad thrill about things remembered! We did some french altogether, with SB snuggled on my lap.

I really like an SB snuggle, and I don’t get one so often any more [oK. i still get lots, but i like LOTS] and i had a distinct moment of looking at her and seeing the lovely, charming older girl looking back at me. i cherish every second, because one day this older girl is going to leave home! i am not sure that we do the best that we can all the time, and i know my parenting and ed could be better, but i think we try hard, and love well. Though she is still emotionally up and down, i hope that this gorgeous and sensitive child is being done the best by that we possibly can. ah, i had a real mummy moment!

whilst bB went to bed, it was games time, and SB did some of the horrible histories viking sticker book with me and then chose a multiplication game. we read a bit more of the second roman mysteries book and did a made up story.

odin’s day

we are being reasonably productive at the moment. yesterday the girls had a library morning, making owls and listening to owl stories, and SB has read loads of her library books. she also did some piano and handwriting. She learnt she had got a place at gym – woohoo, and also went to the first swimming of term, she is now at level 7, so v happy.

today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!

BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.

we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.

SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.

SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.

a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.

chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!

Step this way for pirate mania!



IMG_1373, originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

nearly all the piccies are up!

Pirate lost and found

Actually, a pretty small haul, and mostly knew whose things were.

But there is a light blue cool bag that no one has claimed yet – anyone?

after the excitement…

… comes the eating up of spare party food – never so enjoyable!! though katy’s cheese bread that i missed on the day has been wolfed down!

chris and the girls went shopping for some non party food, and also try out a different library. SB has done maths and handwriting, and we have printed out the first Dolch set of words for her to learn how to spell. Since they are allegedly common words, we thought we could start with those, especially since a lot of them are easy!

both girls have done a lot of playing with shops today, and also castle stuff, and also being puppy dogs. SB has bee doing a lot of french knitting, and made BB a bracelet, and also some painting of kits and bB has made pompom creatures.

When i got home we did some french altogether – BB ‘woofed’ her responses – hmm. We read some viking stories, a section of SoTW and did recorder practice. Bit of playing outside, and a game of SET. BB also did some blowing on the recorder.

i am STILL flickring. i will delete duplicate photos when up i think.