Just Jo!

Can you tell I haven’t even stepped out of the front door today?!
The closest I came to fresh air was when the door was opened to Lin, who then chucked a book at me.
Oh no, tell a lie….I did venture into the wilderness that is the back garden to return our bikes to their vigilant posts outside. We got back in the dark last night, so it was easier to bring our bikes indoors than faff around in the dark, there’s brambles hanging over the side gate and things out there!
I finished reading my library book. Olivia slaved away over more workbooks.
We made a choccy cake and iced it too! But in our impatience to ice it, we couldn’t wait for the icing to cool down to a setting consistency….so it sort of sagged over the edges….never mind….at least it meant we got to suck choccy icing fingers!
We made a pie. Because we didn’t have any of Linda McCartney in the freezer. (Um…that sounds a bit grim, must remember to come back and edit that particular sentence.) We made the chestnut and mushroom pie from Easy Vegan Cooking. (Our cake is supposed to look like the one on the cover. It so doesn’t.) We didn’t have enough mushrooms for the pie, so used soya chunks in addition to the lonesome mushrooms we did have. And didn’t use nutmeg. Or soy sauce. Or seasoning. We used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon, and that is way salty enough for us. (Oh looky! Gotta keep an eye out for the reduced salt one. Will it be less salty? ‘Cos I don’t do salt. Unless it’s on chips. But I digress….) And only one onion. But apart from that , it was the chestnut and mushroom pie from Easy Vegan Cooking.

I knitted the next square of The Throw, just a bog standard boring garter stitch this week. Olivia read another one of her WBD books. The Code of Romulus. Which reminds me….I was feeling really guilty about receiving….ahem….4 vouchers, but when I’ve ‘fessed up mentioned it to anyone, they’ve all said, “Wish I’d thought of that!” So I don’t need to feel guilty after all. Except I do….

Dinner with Adam was lovely, but he disappeared straight after to meet a girl….
“What, so spending time with some floozy you met at a party is preferable to spending time with your Mother and little sister?”
“Er….yeah! See you later! Back about 2ish!”
“So you don’t want chocolate cake then?”
“Is it vegan?”
“Duh….yeah….”
“No thanks. See you later.”
I served up a huge slab of choccy cake, oozing with icing….
“Um….can I smell it?”
“OK.”
“Um….can I try a bit?”
“OK.”
“Um….can you save me a bit?”
“But it’s vegan. You don’t want to be vegan.”
“Please Mummy! I love you Mummy! Can you save me a bit Mummy?”
“I may save you a tiny sliver.”
And with that he was gone!

Right, Olivia’s in bed, doing some reading or Max and Lara, or something (look, if she’s quiet, me no care!), so I’m off for me Lush bath. Yes, I know I had a Happy Hippy yesterday morning, so today shouldn’t really be a Lush night….but that was a catch-up Lush….so it doesn’t count. Trust me. I’m an expert on these things.

….is this??!!

No no no no!!! I have turned the heating off now! The kids are complaining like nobody’s business, but it will not be going on again ’til late October at the earliest!!

Oh wait….it’s oop north….we’re south west….we don’t do snow!!

The title is self-explanatory!!

My cup overfloweth! Will it never end??
I had a bath yesterday morning, mainly because I’d made the awful mistake of not having a Lush bath on a Lush night! A dreadful, terrible mistake that was soon rectified by having a Happy Hippy in the morning!
While I was wallowing, Olivia made sandwiches for lunch and got started on Max and Lara’s Amazing Travelling Space Circus, a BBC freebie I’d seen over on Lucy’s. I only phoned for it last week, and it’s already come. Olivia’s all agog over it and can’t leave it alone!!
I dragged her away from it so we could cycle over to group to have lunch. Got the deposit cheque from Neil, so I can go and book up all the activities.
More sorting out of lots of grant thingy’s. Olivia spent a lot of time with J, a friend of her’s who is a boy. But not a boyfriend. They’re just friends. OK?? But T, who is still her boyfriend (kind of) has a hard time dealing with it.
Olivia went to the scrapstore with J and his dad and came back with a few more bits.
I had to drag her out of there, because they had their first rehearsal for the WREN trust concert in July. More of a “What shall we sing?” type rehearsal, than anything else methinks. Quite quiet while most of the kids were in there, so it meant I could have some chats with people I don’t usually get much time to chat to, so that was very nice.
After the rehearsal, Olivia said Lin and the boys were in the park, but I didn’t get to see them because we were talking grants and wheedling money and cheques out of Neil.

This is supposed to be a quick catch up from yesterday, but I’ve got a funny feeling it’s going to turn into some major novel writing experience.

Anyways, after completely missing Lin, I finally extricated myself from the hut and we walked up into town with T and his dad. We said goodbyes and went into the community centre, hoping to see Anderson and sort out Olivia’s watering the hedge/gardening. But we’d missed him by about 15 minutes.
But Andi got him on the phone, and we arranged it all. Anderson said he doesn’t feel the group that are doing the gardening now are the ‘right’ sort of group for Olivia to be involved with, they’re a bit ‘raucous’ apparently. So what he suggested was, would Olivia like her own bed (to garden, not sleep!) in the community garden? Oh wow!! “Yes please!” she grinned. So instead of just helping out, she gets her own bit to do whatever she wants with!!
Very exciting, the only condition is that she contributes to the kitchen, ie any produce she produces goes to the kitchen to be used as fodder in the weekly cafe there. But getting to keep some for herself as well though.
A quick trip to the library and the museum after that. We bumped into Lin and the boys in the museum while Olivia was doing another worksheet, to earn another pack of trading cards. One of the doormen there apparently had ‘hundreds’ of trading cards, so the kids kept running up and getting loads more. Had another quick look at the Anthony Frost exhibit while Lin went somewhere else.
Then it was the usual weekly drama session, chat with Lin, and cycle home. Olivia was very pleased to discover that she only needs 1 card to complete the collection of museum cards.
I worked out who will be doing what on the activities….it took hours….I kid you not!
Priority going to those members who didn’t get to do anything last year, ie they were too young or they joined after it had all been booked last year, then those who’d only chosen one or two things…. Overall, I think I’ve been very fair. Everyone’s more or less getting to do what they want, not having to drop any more than one of their choices. Yeah….I’ll just sit back and wait for any complaints….bring it on….
Then we started watching Laputa, Castle in the Sky (or Air?) that we borrowed from Lisa. Got about halfway through, then realised it was 20 past 12.
“Get out of my bed! Go to your own!!”
This morning was breakfast in bed and watching the rest of the film.
Olivia has done pages of Max and Lara, made the tent, and sorted out which seeds she wants to plant in her garden. Which will obviously have to be put in pretty sharpish, I don’t know much about gardening, but I do know that planting gets done round about now.
She’s now getting on with some maths, a bit of science, brushing Maisy (who has a bit of a flea allergy at the moment and really can’t afford to lose any more fur. ), getting hungry….actually….me too. Must have lunch….must make cake….must make sure we do have pies in the freezer for our dinner tonight with Adam….will find funnies later….