the 7 things, as requested by Heather

Posted on December 14, 2005 by | 19 comments

Well, why not. I tried to do it fairly quickly so that it is off the cuff rather than deeply studied – as that way I don’t have to go aarrghh whenever soemone says something I think I should have put in.
It actually reminded me [not that i need much reminding] about how lucky I am in my life.

7 things to do before I die
1. travel round world with family ? better save for a sabbatical!
2. see my children grow up to their potential and be happy. [is that 2 or 3?]
3. a real archeological dig
4. OU course or similar in classics
5. play my violin up to scratch again
6. kiss my first great grandchild
7. laugh merrilly as often as possible
7 things I can?t do
1. exercise ? I am unsuited to it!
2. lose weight ? though I keep trying
3. eat meat ? makes me puke now
4. be a high flying career woman ? birth of SB radically changed my whole outlook on life
5. suffer playground politicking
6. love my beans either any less or any more
7. be a professional violinist
7 things that attract me to my spouse (in no particular order)
1. His cooking
2. His caring nature
3. His evident adoration for me
4. His hopelessness at doing anything quickly ? ah, no, that is a confounding variable!
5. His patience
6. His intelligence
7. His chocolate brownies
7 things I say most often
1. I love you
2. chriiiiis
3. do I have to ask you twice about everything?
4. come on
5. good morning/afternoon, my name is??..
6. beautiful
7. gorgeous
7 books I love (well, I just chose the first 7 that I read so regularly they have broken spines)
1. The gate to women?s country [sheri s tepper ? I like lots of her books]
2. the lord of the rings [jrr tolkein]
3. the golden torc series [by julian may]
4. the curse of the mistwraith series [janny wurts]
5. The chronicals of Thomas covenant
6. pride and prejudice [jane austin]
7. feersum enjin [Iain m banks - I like all his culture books too]
7 films I?d watch again and again (actually the most difficult, I just don?t watch many films
1. Much ado about nothing [Kevin branagh and emma thompson]
2. Out of Africa
3. The Madness of King George
4. lord of the rings trilogy
5. truly, Madly Deeply
6. Star trek first contact
7. harry potter films
7 people I?d like to join in (that others haven?t mentioned)
1. Jax
2. Jan
3. Jonathon
4. Katy B
6. Joanna G
7. Tammy

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Posted in Blogging, Daft Stuff, General

Oh Festive Day

Posted on December 14, 2005 by | 3 comments

In this home-ed lark, it does seem like the whole of December is a Chrismas-ed type of month.
today we hav done:
Christmas crafts – no surprise there, loads of christmas cards done
Christmas writing practice – loads of writing SB to be honest, but still, writing.
Christmas maths – we have 28 cards left to do, how many have we done now, how many left
Christmas counting – how many address labels are left??
Christmas economics – discussion on how we pay for posting, and her jolly stamps or stickers wouldn’t cut the mustard with the post office, why there are 2 different rates [why are there really now, when first class not guarenteed?].
Christmas history – a foray into history of stamps, christmas cards and christmas trees – yes, those victorians!
Christmas music – yep Christmas carols!
Christmas baking – delias yummy savoury scone recipe

OK, and I read loads of Apple tree farm books, which are not Xmassy, we looked at the 1001 things to spot history – but thinking of geography as well. Some cbeebies – particularly good at the roly mo spelling game. Lots of playing with her sister – which I really like. general playing.

BB – well, she is feeling a bit better today, and ate 1/3 of my donut treat [shouldn't live opposite a bakery!] She was mostly stacking things, running off with SB’s toy animals, rarring at shape sorter when bashing in hard still didn’t get things to go in the wrong holes. Also, turning pages of the books I was trying to read to SB, as she doesn’t like me doing this! She is very good at turning pages. She has been walking faster and aster recently as well.

Overall a lovely day. Tomorrow they are both in nursery. I am 2 minds about this as usually we cancel when I am at home, but there is so much we need to do, that a short burst of childcare will hopefully do the trick, and let us really relax and enjoy the weekend. [does this make me awful, having just moaned about lack of time with the children???]

PS SB gagging me – she obviously doesn’t like the descants
password is the usual ,email if you have forgotten and want it – not v exciting though!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Cooking, General, geography, history, literacy, music, numeracy, Stringbean's HE, writing

Protected: Belated Happy Bloggiversary – edited

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Posted in Blogging, General, Ponderings

card city here!

Posted on December 14, 2005 by | Leave a comment

firdt half rolling out today – somewhat underwhelming as not particularly glittery – I miss glitter!

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Posted in art and crafts, General

Christmas tree and vomit

Posted on December 13, 2005 by | 7 comments

being the 2 main things that characterised our day today.

The vomit was BB‘s, she has vomited through the night and on and off through the day, so I have been doing a lot of bf – no change there then! She feels a bit hot, and has a cold, but no obvious dredful anything, and apart from when vomiting, she has only really seemed a bit tired, rather than particularly out of sorts.

Before I flickr it, try and imagine what you think our Xmas tree would be real/artificial ;tasfeful colour scheme/whatever; less is more/deck the boughs. Anyway, Chris had to curse and swear with getting it i the right places, as no good helping with a broken hand. Only one set of lights working, so severly underlighted [I do like lighting to have somthing of an operating theatre intensity about it!], but will sort out something. Last year I divided the decs into breakable, and fairly sturdy, and so gave SB the fairly sturdy to do the lower bits with. WHY NOT ONE OF THESE SHE SAYS, OOPS! I guess there was the reason. The other main showstopper was realising BB was quietly munching on one. hmmm. After excavating most of the shards from her mouth [expect interesting nappies] I realised she has 9 teeth in full biting order. SB chose Christmas chants as the accompanying music – she has excellent taste, before we moved on to more traditional carols. SO all decced up there. Some decs put on staircase, and nearer the day, may prune non berrying holly and strip some ivy. Frugal princess or what!

what else? SB and BB went to library with Chris, and did a sticking Christmas activity and chose about 600 books [minor exaggeration]. We then read 4 on the trot until I insisted she read 1, she did 2 pages anyway with sounding and working out. Beans on cheesy toast. We considered the protein, carbohydrates, fats, vits and minerals to discuss further the book we had read yesterday.

After lunch we did 4 whizzing pages of Singapore maths primary 1A. Very easy pages and romped through them. SB definitely sure of odds and evens. Doing much more mental maths as well without using fingers. i have decided i prefer the primary maths to my pals are here, though both very similar. When we get to 2, I think I will stick to the primary maths series.

Rest of day taken over with Christmas tree business!! i did print the family Christmas cards, with a front and back picture showing my 2 meeting Father christmas.

www.flickr.com

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, General, literacy, music, numeracy, photos, science, Stringbean's HE

early morning blog

Posted on December 13, 2005 by | 5 comments

Blog 2 ? late 12/12/05

Aarrgh, what shall I panic about the most?
No internet access??
No tax return??
Maybe back to work next week??
Not planned Xmas ? yep, that?s the one!! 17 people coming [Mark can?t make it] and only just done the meal planner ? aarrrghhh. To do list priority = xmas shopping!!! [well, chris or a home delivery, as broken arm means no carrying :)

but yippee, yippee, connection is back!!

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Posted in General

yesterdays blog

Posted on December 13, 2005 by | Leave a comment

Hmm, well I really do need some sleep ? the combination [boring though it is getting] of these broken bits means I just don?t get a decent sleep for love nor money. When combined with SB having nightmares about being made into mushroom stew by a witch ? that girl has too much imagination, and BB feeding non stop?..

Anyway, we actually have had a good day, so I shouldn?t moan, even if adult tempers frayed significantly as the beanies bathtime approached.

We started with cards ? as sooooo far behind on both the early years list, and those for friends and family. How did Xmas get so close?? Then a fair bit of just playing followed by tidying up. I read to SB the why we eat usborne science book, so we did a few of the experiments out of that as well. Lunch was disregarded by both the little beans as neither fully chipper. SB did feel well enough for an icecream though?.

After lunch we had a group play session, which BB thoroughly enjoyed. Then we painfully did 4 pages of explode the code 1. SB great at the reading and ringing bits, but finds writing dreadful. Must sort the getty and dubay. She then did lots of sprinklies over the house picture, rather than more xmas cards. Her next book for me was all about magnets. We had quite a long chat about them. BB asleep fitfully in lap, so didn?t do experiments, but discussed the brio trains and the fridge magnets as reference, and we bought a magnet and iron filings set from brightminds as xmas pressie ? so will use that later. When the book got to electromagnets we thought we would have a break.

At this point BB vomited rather impressively all over me. Lovely. SB cheered her up by gentle stroking [read manic mauling] and was then persuaded to put on a music and dance show ? something she needs only minimal encouragement for!

Over tea with did a lot of counting in German and some mental maths ? adding and subtracting. SB also through the day has being coming to me with one liner queries regarding the concept of tens and units, so something percolating there!

Internet connection down, so done this as a word document. Hope it springs back soon!

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Posted in art and crafts, Blogging, Dance/drama, General, language, literacy, numeracy, photos, science, writing

BB update

Posted on December 12, 2005 by | Leave a comment

well, she tends to get lost in the other posts!

She is a lovely happy child with lots of giggles. She does have a firm idea of what she wants, and isn’t averse to shrieking and heel drumming if she thinks that will help!

She has 7 teeth, and another coming though. She can walk [hooray!], gurgle and burble, and say ta, possibly mummum and daddad. She points to things, but doesn’t yet follow my pointing. She does know her name and SB’s. She is still breastfed – voraciously so, so I guess that means i have succeeded there, though I did stop expressing about 6 weeks before she was one, so she did have formula while I was at work- I just couldn’t face it. She eats but not brilliantly – better than SB ever did though! She canput a loaded spoon into her mouth. She is good at picking up tiny things.

For toys, she likes investigating things – so real mobiles and laptops are irresistable! She is keen on musical toys, and can get the drawer out and find the castenets, tambourine and recorder to play wiht. She adores her electronic musical toys too. Often jiggling along to them, or possibly singing?? She can stack some of her cups – and enjoys small tower building – 2-3 at most. She also likes the shape sorter, and can put in the round one. All the others she just tries to ram through. She hasn’t fully grasped that they need to come out of the side drawer, and that her little fist gets stuck when she tries to pull them back through the whole [very cute!]

Attention is like a ray of sunlight, and she loves it when SB plays with her, recently chase has become a good game, as well as singing action games.

Negatives? well, she doesn’t yet sleep through the night – sigh, and has a good line in scratching and biting.

Aaargh, SB has just uncovered loads of felttip matrks on new sofas – off to rage – they aren’t allowed on sofas, and should always have lids on.

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Posted in Butterbean, General

Simple Sunday

Posted on December 11, 2005 by | 5 comments

BB gave us a dreadful night last night, so we have felt a bit zombified.

SB drew a lovely piccie of our house and all the expected Christmas guests in it. She also put the pub next door in as well for GrandadF. Surprisingly, she also drew a route to the seaside [hmm, artistic license?]She then has done a sparkly [very] red Xmas decoration for the tree.

We did go swimming, and I pootled about. It was still rather painful though – possibly due to the 2 children, rather than the actual pootling in the water. SB investigating swimming backwards and dolphin dives. BB just chuckles around the pool.

on the return we did some hama – another glow in the dark star, 2 pages singapore maths 1A, SB read a red nose reader to BB, and I read a variety of books. We never did get to the explode the code. SB then looked at the new webland.

Lots of sindy and barbie playing. WHilst i was otherwise busy [snoozing if I;m honest, with BB asleep on my lap] SB got some blu tack, and is now fully understanding on the reason why you don’t squidge blu tack into a barbies hair – yuk! Any remedies??

We also did a lot of singing paractise – actually going up and down with ploacing our hands on feet, knees, tummies, head and up in the air. After discussions at Okehamton, I’ve decided to be pro active, and hopefully SB will sing better than her dad!

Finally vietnamese stew for tea, and Sudoku for SB and me – it does make it rather more challenging when you aren’t that sure what the numbers are! She has had her bath and is shining my pen torch through my cheek – sigh!

Other things – Chris planted out the garlic [at last] BB played with her musical toys, the tambourine was a real hit. She also had a great giggle at SB playing chase with her. She has enjoyed walking about – shut herself in the downstairs loo in the dark!!

I must see orthopod next week, as arm still really painful. Also, although they did views of my scaphoid, the base of my thumb is still hurting. I can’t think work is going to be that impressed if I need more time off.

Tomorow, Christmas tree.

May try and google child bonds tonuight. would like an ethically friendly one if ok – smile seem to do one through someone else. My dad alread has a babybond with the childrens mutual for each of them [i think] so i don’t think we can have another one?

Oh, and I finally won 2 ebay dressing up dresses for SB within the specified gift price from little Nanny- yippee! [helped by ebay postage coupon]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Dance/drama, gardening, General, literacy, music, numeracy, Ponderings, SB-PE

Easy day

Posted on December 11, 2005 by | 5 comments

we thought we might relax a bit!!

Lots of sindy/barbie playing. some cutting out and colouring paper angels. SB read to me bouncy ben [or from heart!]. i read quite a lot of books. Some cbeebies games. A game of shops – we made the money with different denominations and did lots of sneaky addition and subtraction.

Last stagecoach – SB got a glowing report. She now says she really wants to go back. I think we will put on hold for a bit. We are organising swimming lessons and ? gym instead.

the fruit trees have arrived and have been heeled in.
washing has been sort of done.
I think I may have deleted finally all the spam comments
i have started albumising last years piccies – on June!

Post camp always feels like a bit of a deflationary exercise. I think we have all enjoyed the more relaxed day today. I might try a gentle swim – or at least pootle in the water – tomorrow.

Must look at my diary for visits
MUST do tax return!
MUST do babybond – has anyone any recommendations for stakeholder/shares based ones?

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Posted in art and crafts, Dance/drama, General, literacy, numeracy