Category Archives: vivien

i nearly made the title discombobulated, but felt that was a bit too pretentious, even for me.
what has been going on then this week? lets do me first, as that is rather quick
1. far too much work. crisis saw me losing my day off in a state of high stress – 9/10 on the stressometer.
2. worried about my sis, she is having a rough week of it, and needs lots of positive thoughts.
there you go!

family
weeeellll, due to item 1, they didn’t go to a fab RI event on wed. however, did go to a local raptor centre. SB has done lots of piano practice. She was also lovely to me on woeful wednesday, and made me a sandwich and gave me lots of hugs, and i love her kindness and generosity. she bought some material, and together we made a tabard for one of bb’s sylvanians. we have sent some postcrossing postcards, and she has read lots of books. not sure what else! oh yes, started her second theory book, and also the 9-10 nvr book. today there was a lot of microscoping to look at crystals – v much enjoyed i believe. BB is bb.

i am def getting more unreliable at blogging, and chris appears to have completely stopped. since he does most of the home ed, and this blog is technically his, this is a problem. as a friend of mine mentioned in the past, if there is something eating up at your life, and you can’t blog about it, it makes blogging on the whole v difficult. most of my friends reading this blog will know what is mostly eating away at me, but… I am still also v much grieving for little nanny. i really miss her.

so, what have we done that i will do some blogging about?? well, my mum and dad , sis and family came up last weekend. saturday was a gently pootling about day, the kids did lots of playing together fimo and hama, my sis rested, mum and dad tidied my house a bit – bless them, i did try and persuade them not too. it is a fairly forth bridge kind of task. but thanks to them. i did lots of baking and prep for my nephews party the next day, oh and my cous ran a triathlon in london. way to go martin. we had hugs and chatted and said the needful things over glasses of wine – well no wine for me as migrainous.

m had what appeared to be a fab party. aunty m and family joined us fir the day, he got lots of ace presents, played well and watched in surprise as chris and my b-i-l went completely mental with the water… i might need to put that on a blog sometime! aunty m and family left as did sis and b-i-l. aargh!! we have 4 kids!!!

i spent most of the next day drugged to eyeballs with migraine, and tues at work till v late. but the big 2 went to barracudas, a holiday activity club, from which they came back excited on both the days, and the littlies played together and with grandparents.

wed is a home day, so i attempted to recreate the activity day for the little 2. you know, this blog is being hard to write. anyway, we started with face painting straight after brekkie, my cutie little niece had a butterfly, and my terror of a daughter had a monster… [or dragon as she insisted] therein lies all the differences between them i think!! they then had lots of fun on the swings before i brought out gluing and sticking. we made LOADS of mess!! and did loads of gluing and sticking. another craft aunty helen! well, ok then. we did painting plates with ceramic paint. both of them shew just how dreadfully 4 and 5 year olds can do it when they are racing to have decorated the most… I stopped them at 6!

we had lunch and i read a french book to both of them – and following that we did science by the way of volcanos, and then i let them mess about making potions for the rest of the afternoon, well until they got bored! then i read loads of stories, then biguns came back, disappointed because grandparents had sloped off midday, so we had a chippery dinner in front of doctor who.

the big 2 again had great times. they did loads of swimming, games, crafts, trampolining, fencing and m got to do quad biking on the fri. SB didn’t go in tht day as feeling unwell. the only thing she didn’t enjoy was dodgeball, which she didn’t do again, and she was heckled by some boys for being the only girl to choose football, and although she stood her guns that day, she didn’t repeat it. the girl/boy thing struck, as nephew only played with teh oys, and so sb only played with the girls, but they seem to have been v happy with this, and sb made up a play and a talent show for the girls to do on the last day, it is just such as shame that she went down with a lurgy and missed friday. she really did have a lurgy, as i had a minor worry it might be nerves, and she has been lurgified since with sore throat and nasty cough. anyway, voted a resounding success and desire to go again next year from both of them.

so to friday, nephew was slightly reluctant to go on own, but did so and had a great time. the plaything the littlies were booked into turned out not to be so good, and sb needed a fair bit of chilling time. when i returned from work my sis had arrived and we had take out pizza and narnia. the children were tossed into bed, we chatted some more before bed too.

time marches on etc etc!! anyway, took some days off work to go and reconnect with family, as it sure has been stressful around here and with the folks. We had dad’s friends around on the fri, and then a family meal on the sat with my sis and hers as well. she is looking v well, which we are all pleased over, and not needing additional chemo at the mo [still on herceptin]. my nephew a bit green round the gills with travel sickness or nameless other bug on arrival! he and BB were a bit dreadful together, so in the end i moved them, and calm was restored. SB and E behaved perfectly.
After lunch we wandered along the thames, with the weather alternately hail or bright sunshine on a flip switch it seemed. in the end, the hail got a bit too depressing and we made a trek back to the cars and to my parents house for an afternoon of family conviviality. or something like that!
during the w/e SB has learned to play [and not cheat at] donkey [which chris calls sevens] and we have played a fair number of other games, and she has been tutored at golf by dad, which she enjoyed after initial hesitation over his likely hectoring style. he was cautioned and a parent was out there to ‘take pictures’ aka make sure all went ok! was going to be me, but BB took the opportunity to fall down the stairs and divert my attention, nasty bruise and graze to cheek. reassured nothing broken as eating chewy sweets helped – that’s bb for you! a watch at walking with monsters, which we will have to watch more of, as enjoyed by all, as well as a volcano prog. i got a bit of a quizzing over HE, and not feeling at my most confident at the mo.
got home in time for sb’s last ballet class of term, which is always open. she is much better at barre work. must try and practice in between lessons. then we started our easter egg making eggstravaganza….

it takes quite a while to drive to oxford! especially if you fill up at south mimms, forget your pin and have no other means of paying… SB says she was  very worried [i had her with me to buy a drink - bb with chris at home] but chap was very friendly, and after some negotiation, SB looking worried, me groveling and apologetic we got to leave.

Sis was positive and upbeat, SB played beautifully with E. i took lunch and cake, and we just talked. uneventful drive back, with SB and I nattering about allsorts there and back again. I do so love SB.
we forgot about pancake day mind you. BB i think has had fun today, and was certainly pleased to see me when i got back.