Just Jo!

….International Women’s Day, we did absolutely nothing today! And felt jolly good for it too!!
I gave considerable thought to cycling over to pottery, Olivia’s still got a few pieces there to pick up. But the padlock to the side gate is stuck and I couldn’t find the WD40 anywhere. I might have found it, if, perhaps, I’d looked in more than the one place I thought to look.
We could have dragged our bikes through the house. But as we’re celebrating IWD, we couldn’t possibly entertain the thought of doing anything strenuous like that.
I knitted this weeks square for The Throw. Olivia amused herself by starting a foundation row for crochet. And another one. And another one. We have wonderful pink strings all over the front room, in addition to fragments of nesting material.
We read books. We lazed. We wasted our time.
Then I realised Maisy needed food, so we donned coats and got the bus to town. Olivia also ended up with some new clobber from Primark. We got food. We got cat food and litter. I know it’s possible to get vegan cat food, and I’m sorely tempted at times because I can’t stand the smell of the meaty stuff, but it’s so expensive. And Maisy would probably pack her bags in a hissy fit anyway.
We bumped into Lin and the boys in The Works as well. So we said hello. Because that’s a nice thing to do.
After we went our seperate ways to continue shopping, we bumped into them again on the bus coming home. Lin got new trousers. They’re the same as mine that I got a few weeks ago. She copied me!!! I got mine first!!!
The boys had got their books for World Book Day. They got the same ones as Olivia. They copied her!!! She got hers first!!! OK, OK….I know that in their age range, those were the only books available, apart from the hideously pink ones that I banned Olivia from having, and I couldn’t quite see either of the boys going for them!

Adam was still on the ‘puter when we got home. When we’d gone out, he’d been typing up a 6 week plan for himself. He’s not going to drink any alcohol for the duration, if he goes out with friends, he’ll stick to soft drinks. He’s not going clubbing at all. He’s not eating any fast food or junk food and he’ll be going to the gym 5 times a week. The aim of this plan is to save money. He’s starting it on April 2nd. Let’s see how long it lasts….
He said to me that he’s going to put in a patent for his microwaveable baked beans tin idea. I said he’d better get a move on, because judging from some of yesterday’s comments, other people might get in there before him!
“Mother!! What did you do that for??!! That’s my idea!!”
Then, shaking his head sadly, “I can’t believe you did that!”
Oops….can you patent an idea though?

Seen over on IndigoShirl….

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don’t get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

I have the most balanced brain. Ha!!!

Then, after what has been a very relaxed and lazy day, I kicked Adam off the ‘puter, “It’s my time now! Go be a teenager in your room!” Then I read this on Yahoo and I got seriously pissed off by a certain MP. Adam is black and he can’t understand why I’m not jumping for joy and celebrating his decision to join the RAF after his gap year. Racism is not acceptable in any way, shape or form. And pleading ignorance, a la Miss Goody, or just not thinking, in this day and age is f*****g pathetic and inexcusable. I won’t apologise for the bad language either. The only time I use strong language like that is when I’m seriously pissed off. Or repeating a joke.
But looking on the bright side, eternal optimist that I am, after 6 months with his Dad in London, followed by 6 months working in Spain, hopefully Adam will have changed his mind about the RAF. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Any other suitable body part crossed.

Olivia is having an early teenage sulk at the moment. We saw Lisa and the girls yesterday, I was keeping an eye on them for an hour or so at group, and a tentative arrangement was made for Olivia to stay the night at her house. I would say sleep, but by all accounts they don’t do much of that!
But Olivia couldn’t make her mind up. She finally decided for definite when we got home from town. So I gave Lisa a ring, but could only leave a message. Olivia’s sulking because…. “I really want to stay at Lisa’s! Can you phone her back?! Can you text her?! Can you do something??!!”
“No. You left it ’til the last minute. I rang Lisa, left a message and that is all I’m doing. For future reference, don’t leave it to the last minute to make up your mind.” (And I’m pretty certain this little nugget of wisdom has been passed on to both children on numerous occasions. )
She sulked.
“It’s your own fault, so get over it.”
Never have had much time for sulking kids.
But as I was typing this, there was a little tap at the door, “Is it too late to pick her up?”
“Oh, you are a life saver!!”
Yes! It was Lisa, she’d got my message. A life saver for Olivia, because quite honestly, I’m under the impression that it is now illegal to murder your children for sulking. But I’m a bit fuzzy on the law, you’ll have to correct me if I’m wrong.
And a life saver for me, because I’m also fuzzy on the legislation about using Lush in prison bathrooms.

Now, it’s dinner. A squashed Clive’s pie (Chestnut Cassoulet) and the last of the stuffed vine leaves from the deli we stopped at yesterday. Dessert will be strawberries and kiwiberry. They’re new, they’re baby kiwi fruit. They’re nice!
And tonight, in the name of sisterly solidarity (and because I won’t be spending the night in a cell after all), and celebrating women’s achievement’s in my own unique way, I’m going for an extra long Lush bath. I think Emmeline Pankhurst et al would be proud.
Perhaps not. Being decadent in loads of Lush bubbles is hardly on a par with chaining yourself to railings, being forcefed or getting trampled by a horse.

….or….Our Naked House….
I couldn’t quite decide on an adequate title for today.
Late last night, Adam’s creative side finally emerged, “I really, really wish I could invent….”

“What? What? What?!!!”
“Hang on!!”
“WHAT??!!”
“I really wish I could invent a baked bean tin that could go straight in the microwave.”
“What?!”
Out of sheer laziness comes creativity.
“Perhaps if you started cooking your dinner at a reasonable time, instead of midnight, you wouldn’t get this creative urge?”
“Yeah, but I’m hungry!”

This morning, I got up early in order to take a photo of our house with ivy. But the council gardener’s got here before I was ready for them. So there’s no piccies.
They woke Olivia up, she came blearily downstairs, “They woke me up!”
“Get dressed and go say hello then.”
She did. I made them a cup of tea about 15 minutes after they got here. Olivia chatted to them, asking questions, that sort of thing, the whole entire time. She came in an hour later, “Cor, they’re taking a reeeeaally long break!”
“What? From you?”
“Shut up!”
One of them asked if she had the day off school, “No, I’m home-educated.”
“Wow! That’s nice!”
Well, I liked him!
And they saved two bird nests from the ivy. There were three, but I don’t know what happened to the other one. But two are more than enough anyway. They’re very loosely woven, so when Olivia brought them in, they sort of got spread around. We had more ‘nest’ in the hall and front room than in the actual nests themselves.
We walked to group, not being able to get our bikes (Mine survived yet another night in the weather!) out because of the scaffolding.
It did mean that we got to see lots of stuff that we wouldn’t normally when we’re whizzing past on our bikes. All the buds, budding and stuff like that. The magnolias look like they’ll be blooming good this year. We also got to chat, in a conversational way, instead of me yelling, “GET INTO GEAR!”
We chatted about food, and why I insist on Olivia having marmite at least a few times during the week.
“But I didn’t want marmite on toast for breakfast.”
“We need B12 and marmite’s the easiest way to get it. That’s why I add a spoonful to every stew we have. Or why I make you eat a marmite and peanut butter sandwich. Or marmite on toast for breakfast.”
“Oh! What like an optional ingredient?”
Perhaps she’s read too many recipes….I dunno….

Olivia upset her boyfriend at group today, quite dramatically. They were playing a game where she pretended to kick him. But actually made contact. He’s got Asperger’s. He had a major meltdown. The whole family had to leave early.
I spoke to his dad and he was fine about it. They’re all used to it and understood that Olivia hadn’t been malicious or anything grotty like that…..T just doesn’t understand all the rules of pretend play.
Moving swiftly on….we had a committee meeting in the afternoon. We got our major grant for this year!! Wahay!! So we went over all the things that are planned for the coming year. Woah!! Loads of stuff. Organic arts, circus skills, canal boat trip, Bronze-age village type activities up around Dartmoor plus archeological stuff, lots of bushcraft in a wood, rock-climbing, horsemanship and a three day trip to a youth hostel on the Jurassic Coast. And that’s not including teepee camping and snowboarding for the older ones! Can you tell I’m excited?! Sod the kids! Except because it was a ‘committee meeting’ I had a hard job staying awake.
And all of that’s still not including the outdoor centre stuff that I’m organising. Archery, kayaking, orienteering, windsurfing, raft building and a climbing wall. The form’s in, we’re just waiting to hear back from the officials who can rubber-stamp it. Fingers crossed!
And that’s also not including the school’s concert thingy in July. Us not being a school means that we’re usually the smallest group involved. And I don’t do getting up on stages at all, but I’m more than willing to go along and support!
After group, we traded Book Day vouchers for….um….books. Um, I confess I was naughty. When I sent the e-mail, I said I was home-educating 4 children. Um, do I feel guilty? Um, a bit. But then I remembered that we didn’t have any last year at all. And now I think about it, we didn’t have any the year before that either. Adam would have qualified for some too, so I’m not really being naughty, I’m just ‘catching up’ on missed vouchers. And Olivia does read a lot and appreciates it all. Does it sound like I’m desperately trying to justify my deceit? I’m really bad at being naughty, the guilt is written all over my face….
We did a bit more shoppimg….we got some more origami kits at The Works (forgot to say that we got an Australian animal one on Monday), I got part 10 of The Throw, Olivia got the next Bugs magazine, and we hit Sainsbury’s as well. We now have all the proper ingredients for the Japanese dumplings we were going to make with Lisa. We were just going to wing it before, but now I have Sake to soak the TVP in. If, of course, it lasts long enough. Till the next Japanese festival. Which just happens to be Cherry Blossom Viewing. Starting on 18th March in Tokyo. Sakura. Which also happens to be a delicious Lush bath bomb. I’ve never had Sake before, I’m not holding out much hope for it lasting that long.

Olivia got to drama this week. Like she has a problem being dramatic the rest of the week.
I had a delightfully peaceful hour reading my book. Then Lin turned up.
It was lovely to see Lin. I haven’t seen Lin for….I could scroll down and find out, but have you seen the time?!
Safe to say, it’s been ages!!!
When we did our Hina Matsuri thing on Monday, I forgot that Lin is busy that day, ’til Lisa said, “Oh, but Lin can’t come because….”
We had a lovely chat tonight (yesterday now!), and they came back to ours after drama. But only for a short time. Couldn’t get rid of them ’til gone 10!! Not that I’m complaining. We watched Nanny McPhee. They did. I was sat at the wrong angle for the flat screen.
Lin showed Olivia how to crochet. Despite getting an e-mail from Dawniy and three library books, I still haven’t managed to tutor my daughter in the fine arts. If you give me a few extra hours in the day, I will do it. I promise!
Adam got home a few minutes after 11, so Olivia showed him how to crochet too. He sat there and was totally rapt! I am shocked! Completely!! If you’d have told me 24 hours ago that Adam would be interested in crochet, I’d have spluttered all over you, “Yeah, right!!!”
Mind you, this was after an evening of snookering and the general pubbing that entails, so I’m not holding out much hope for a delightfully crocheted blanket from him….
It occurred to me that I’ve not heard anything from Olivia for about an hour and a half now. I went up to see her and she’s fast asleep. In her clothes. Do I wake her up to get her PJ’s on? Or do I leave her to sleep, and let her have a bath and get changed in the morning? Which will make my life easier tonight?
Yeah, she’s going to sleep in cords, a t-shirt and a hoodie….
And just because it made me laugh, bad vegan that I am….