Just Jo!

We haven’t had a family night this week; another of Adam’s friends birthdays. Lots of them are turning 18 now, so parties are no longer a couple of hours in Charlie Chalks. They are planned with military precision, various venues and events throughout the week and a biggie at the weekend. Can’t wait for Adam’s …

Olivia went to her friend’s birthday party at a swimming pool and had a great time – loads of floats, body-boards and a huge great inflatable thing. Lisa and her girls went too and gave us a lift home, so I invited them round for dinner. Lisa took all the girls off to walk her dog for a couple of hours while I got on with making a huge pot of stew and dumplings.

After they’d gone, my bug came back for another visit so I spent a long time soaking in the bath feeling very sorry for myself.

I had a horrible bug a few weeks ago and it came back to bite me last night, and way into the early hours of the morning. Looking on the bright side – the hours spent in the loo means that I’ve just about finished my library book!

The morning was spent in bed, not rising till gone 11. Olivia was quietly amusing herself in her room. I think she was just keeping her head down to avoid me making any suggestions as to how she could be profitably spending her time! When I eventually surfaced, I put a wash on, put some porridge on, set Olivia up with some English and went off to wash my hair. When I’d finished, Olivia had gone up to bed for a lie-down. “Er, no, I don’t think so, get on with your work!”

When I looked at her work – mostly finding alternative adjectives and a bit of alliteration – I just thought, “What?! I really try hard not to criticise, but sometimes it’s almost impossible not to, especially when she’s making really silly mistakes – ‘lions’ spelt ‘linoys’? Come on! Anyway, I wasn’t exactly complimentary and nearly half her work got rubbed out …

To top it all off, I remembered that she’s got a friends’ birthday party tomorrow and I hadn’t got a present. So we had to head into town. On a Saturday. In a mood (both of us). With a dodgy tummy. And I really hate shopping. We also had to get her party food ‘cos it’s easier to take her own than expecting someone else to cater for one vegan out of loads of kids. We got the present and, walking past Waterstones, made a detour to buy a children’s Thesaurus.

Getting home, the washing had finished so I hung that up in the kitchen. I’m ill and it’s far too cold to be prancing around the garden with wet washing. Olivia got on with re-writing her English using her new Thesaurus. How much did she like it?

“This is brilliant! Much better than a boring, ordinary dictionary. I’m going to use this loads more!” English was finished in about 5 seconds with no spelling mistakes, result being one happy daughter and one happy mummy. Yeah!

Olivia then started making some Hama coasters to take over as a present for Nanny and Grandad in Spain. She heated up the rest of yesterdays soup for herself and got on with the coasters quite happily. So what was looking to be a truly foul day ended up being saved by a thesaurus and Hama beads. Simple pleasures!

I cruelly dragged Olivia out of bed this morning. She got on with her Bible activity book – Joseph’s Coat of Many Colours now – while porridge was cooking.

We watched some school programmes this morning. We haven’t had the TV on since Monday morning. I think the novelty of day-time TV is already wearing off because she hadn’t even noticed; but she did say she loved school programmes. She only sits still for any length of time if she’s very tired or very ill anyway. There’s usually something much more interesting to be doing instead of just being sat there.

We popped down to the shops after lunch so Olivia could buy the ingredients for her tomato soup; she wanted to make some bread rolls as well. They didn’t have everything at the local supermarket – so after dumping it all in the kitchen – we got the bus into town. We saw Lou’n’two (plus one) again. It has been freezing today – even snowing a bit. I just happened to mention that we’d be in Spain in less than two weeks, and she told me to shut up! How rude! What are the chances of it snowing when we’re over there in southern Spain? A big fat NO!! can’t wait.

When we got home, Olivia made an immediate start on the rolls. She wanted to make ciabatta ones, although it was a close run thing between them and sunflower seed rolls. She chopped up the onions and cried – which she was actually quite pleased about (weird child) – peeled and grated carrots successfully; made a simple stock; opened tins of tomatoes; and cleared up the mess as she went along (admittedly with a bit of prompting!). she just had so much fun, especially when it came to using the mixer and hand-blender. She supplemented Lisa’s original recipe by adding dried basil and oregano (her favourites) and dried chilli (not her favourite). I was surprised about the chilli, but I suppose she’s seen me adding a little to so many things, so many times, she’s become indoctrinated.

The all-important taste test? It was really good – ooh, Lisa, you’ve got some serious competition! I can just see a cook-off at dawn!

We watched ‘Frida’ later on. I’ve had the DVD on loan from the library for about 2 ½ weeks – the fine will be big … fingers crossed the computer goes down again. Olivia’s been almost obsessed about Frida Kahlo ever since she saw a trailer for the film on another DVD. It was a good thing we watched it up in my room so I could shove her head under the duvet at certain … let’s say, ‘graphic’ moments.

The villa had been moved up to my room for Tuesdays get-together and came back down again in the evening. It usually sits on the floor in front of the fire, so it’s been kicked about and trod on a few times; looking a bit like an earthquake’s hit it now. Repairs were carried out first thing and it now has a new home on the table.

Olivia finished two of her library books last night, so she wrote book reviews for them – something she’s done since she finished Booktrack last August. She’s still reading Lemony Snicket Book 7 as well; she’s like me and usually has a couple of books on the go.

Spanish homework was done after the book reviews. Then she got really excited because she got some post addressed to her. The Roald Dahl magazine that she’s been collecting and hasn’t heard anything from since way before Christmas. The last one was no. 4 and today she gets nos. 10 and 11. what happened to the others?! I haven’t been charged for them so that’s OK, but it’s still odd. There’s more important things in life to ponder I suppose. Lisa and girls dropped by in the afternoon. We had a cup of tea while I waited for the washing machine to finish. The girls played with the villa; I managed to remain calm and not at all worried about the recent repairs and whether the glue was still wet or not. Not so Olivia, “Two trees have come off.” Chill child.

We all piled into the car to nip round to Lisa’s. She made us a lovely tomato soup that Olivia wants to have a go at making. Well, if Lisa can make it, I’m sure it can’t be that hard … hee, hee!! It was delicious, so thank you.

The girls ran around in various costumes and fancy dress, tinkled the ivories in some semblance of a tune and watched a bit of a video. An argument erupted over ‘Hello Kitty’ when Olivia said it was babyish. Apparently, that’s tantamount to treason. M obviously had to put it on just to wind Olivia up. Well, if Olivia goes around criticising people’s tastes, she’s on her own. I think they might be getting a bit tired and emotional!

Lisa dropped us home a little later than originally planned; so it was another stir-fry for dinner – it’s quick! But I think that’s the last of the Chinese for a while, I’m getting low on sesame oil and soy sauce anyway.

I was really tired last night, not having been able to get rid of people until nearly 10! Adam got home just after that so Olivia had to show him everything that she’d been doing. And then I woke up; wide awake, not even the merest hint of a yawn until 3am. 3am! Which meant that today, being Wednesday and our busy day, didn’t exactly get off to a good start.

We got to group late and sketching was about to start. Olivia didn’t want to sketch but she was willing to pose for the budding artists. She actually managed to sit still for ten minutes. That has to be some kind of record as she is the world’s greatest fidget. Even she was impressed and kept going on, “I sat still for ten minutes, ten whole minutes.”
“Yeah, how about not actually saying anything for ten whole minutes? That’d be quite impressive.”
“No. It wouldn’t. That would be silly.” Oh well, I live in hope!

Spanish as usual after lunch. Then most of the group disappeared off to bowling, but as ballet had resumed after a short break, we stayed for that. Not me obviously, that would be almost as silly as thinking Olivia might possibly consider a ten minute silence!

Olivia picked up 3 very girly, very pink books from the library all about tiara princesses or something. Ooh yeah, I forgot that this morning we’d taken about 5 books on the Romans back that I’d forgotten so they were late and I had to pay a fine. But the computer went down and the man said to forget it, I didn’t have to pay. I saved a grand total of … 20p. Small things like that make me happy. I’m either totally not materialistic or just really cheap. I prefer to think of myself as the first!

Drama again in the early evening then a lift home. Adam phoned to say he was staying out; at a reasonable time for a change. It was a birthday party out of town and he’s getting a lift to college in the morning.

Guess what we had for dinner - yep, left-over Chinese. Olivia was sent to bed early with her library books, just so that I could have some time on my own, slobbing out on the sofa, listening to music and reading my library book in peace.