Just Jo!

Only because it’s been a normal kind of Wednesday, I’m tired and I want to go to bed. But I’ve started now, so I may as well finish.
We bussed to group, weather too grotty for anything else. Olivia was wearing her kagoule, but got too hot in it and took it off.
“Can you put it in your bag please, mum?”
“No,” (’Cos I’m an ‘orrible mother like that!) “You should have brought your own bag.”
“You didn’t tell me to bring a bag!”
“”You’re almost eleven years old, I shouldn’t have to tell you to bring a bag!”
“I’m quite inventive though….”
“Whaaa….??!!”
The child gives me headaches….recklessly, needlessly and without any thought at all for my sanity.

Normal Wednesday at group, doing normal Wednesday group things. Except for Lou being there. Still. For goodness sake, have the baby would you!!
Olivia pinched Sarah’s camera to take a few snaps. Yoga hasn’t started yet, but there is already a teenage girl fanclub.
We bypassed the community garden today, figuring it’s had enough rain lately. We shall visit on Saturday and make up for our neglect.
A quick visit to the library. No fines! Yay!!
Olivia got two more Enid Blyton books, a Secret Seven and a Faraway Tree, with another one on order. She also got a photography guide for kids. We discovered the ‘Children are taking photos’ group on Flickr, to which she uploaded her photos from yesterday.
Teeny tiny bit of shopping, then drama. I couldn’t get into my library book, so was glad of the chat with Lin when she turned up.
Tesco’s, then home.
Typical Wednesday all in all.
I need my bed.
Knowing me, as soon as I get up there, I’ll be wide awake.
I shall start my book again, see if it’s more riveting second time round….
May even open my bottle of wine….
Or not….

Well, I stayed awake for the rest of the film last night….but I slept in late this morning. We both did. We all did actually. 10am!
Then it was a big fight over the bathroom….
I finished decorating my polystyrene egg and Olivia got on with some workbooks. She’s finished another English one, a couple of pages of maths and science. She had another crack at multiplying decimals, then she lost interest and energy. She’d had a tough time earlier with some mental maths. Mental maths is not her favourite thing and she finds it hard. I said she didn’t have to do it all in her head, she could write down whatever she needed to. No point her getting frustrated and upset because she can’t do it. She loves maths (even though it’s her weakest subject), and if she starts feeling like that about it, she’ll lose all that enthusiasm and just not want to do it anymore. I think if she maintains a love of it, it’ll eventually click somewhere in her head.
I suddenly remembered that it’s the start of Songkran, a New Year festival in Thailand (I think), lots of water involved apparently, and I was looking up more info on it when Lisa and the girls arrived. Apart from going out in the garden for a waterfight, there was nothing quickish they could really do today. So we left it. That and Baisakhi, a two-day Sikh festival. I’ve been a bit slack on the festivals lately. The next one coming up is Cocuk Bayrami (Children’s Day in Turkey) on 23 April. Ooh! And St Georges Day! Will I get my act together in time for those two?
Anyways, those who hadn’t finished their eggs on Tuesday did so quickly, then joined those who had in drawing, glittering and playing in the garden. Except us grown-ups who drank tea and chatted.
We had hot cross buns again. I asked who wanted one. Everyone did. Olivia and one of the girls didn’t want theirs toasted, they wanted to eat theirs straight away.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes!” they answered.
“You just want a plain bun?”
“Yes!”
“Not toasted?”
“No!”
“Who wants theirs toasted?”
The rest of us did.
“So, two plain buns, four toasted, right?”
“Yes!”
I handed over the two plain buns, and started toasting the others. Olivia and D chomped into their plain buns. Not toasted, because they’d both made it very clear they didn’t want toasted hot cross buns. Does it feel lke I’m labouring the point here? They definitely stated they definitely wanted plain buns! I’d made absolutely certain. I had witnesses and everything! I handed out the toasted buns. Olivia walked past us in the kitchen….
“Ohhh! How come you get toasted buns???”
Give me strength!!!!
As they were leaving, R said that the eyes she’d just glued on to her pompom rabbit had rolled up into it’s head….
“Yeah, mine do that a lot as well!”
I got a photo of all the eggs, including mine and Lisa’s….

Olivia managed to fall quite spectacularly from the garden gate as she was saying goodbye to everyone. I’d already come in by then, so she came in howling to me and Lisa came into see if she was all right. She also got a wonderful display of my maternal concern as I tried and failed miserably not to laugh as Olivia was gulpingly telling me what had happened….

I’ve realised it’s later than I thought, so Olivia’s been chucked up to bed. I’ll have a quick read of blogs, then bath, followed by Withnail and I, another Lovefilm offering. I’ll not be doing the drinking challenge game that goes along with it. I’m half asleep already!

Saw this on Eleanor’s….

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

Yay! I got an A too!!

I sincerely hope you’re ready for a lot of photos today! I took a lot, more than usual….
We left the house at 8:45, and didn’t step back through the door ’til 6:30. We met Denise and her two at the bus station to catch a bus. Who’d have thunk?? We got one to Tiverton for the first of our group’s big grant spending spree. A horse-drawn barge trip along the canal. She’s got lovely children (I will try very hard to limit my use of lovely, it might be hard, it’s been a very lovely day!), and we had a lovely (failed at the first hurdle ) chat on the way. A lovely (pathetic!) walk up to the canal to meet everyone. Lisa was very pleased with herself to be one of the first to arrive!

We got on the boat, and Olivia, being my daughter, made straight for the bar.
Who said home-educated children are isolated, never get a chance to ’socialise’? There were 75 of us.

From teenies to oldies (No! I wasn’t the eldest!), most of the teenagers came too!
Phil (I had to ask Olivia what his name was), the boss man, introduced all his workers, mostly his family, and we got going.

We stopped for a question and answer session. Our worries (and quite a few others’) about the poor horse Taffy, having to pull all us lot, were allayed when Phil explained that in actual fact he’s only pulling the equivalent of a third of his weight. Because of momentum ratio and a ton on land being the same as 40 tons on the water. Well that’s alright then! They have about three horses and they never do more than two trips a day.

We saw lots of ducks and ducklings, moorhens, a pair of swans….

Phil wanted to try a first with us. He’d already done it with lots of school trips, but we were the first home-educating lot he’d had. The thing was if we could keep quiet for one whole minute and see how ever so quiet it was. We sort of smirked, “Yeah, you’ll be lucky!”….
But we did it! Apart from two of the smaller ones, who really did not want to be quiet. At the end of the trip, he said it was a pleasure to have us and he hoped we’d enjoyed it as much as him.

Rosie and Jim came out to play as well!

Olivia and the girls had a play on some rocks with their friends, then we said our goodbyes and went for a walk back along the canal.

I thought it was just me who liked photos of backs, but Lisa does too! I’m so relieved that I’m not a weirdo. Not a total weirdo anyway….

We saw this nettle thing, and didn’t know what it was, but I have identified it now….

It was a lovely walk. All 5 miles of it! We saw lots of things, ducks with 19 (19!!) babies, lambs, dogs, cyclists, cows, dogs, fishes plopping, cyclists, dogs, pheasants, dogs, rabbits, cyclists, dogs, butterflies, think we saw an Orange tip, but I don’t remember the one we saw having speckled bits on the underside of it’s wings. I can’t find what else it could be though.
Oh, and we saw some dogs. I think the girls must have stroked every single one of them.
One of the last ones they stroked was old, a bit blind and deaf. He was very accommodating, Olivia explained in all seriousness to the girls that, “Deaf dogs are always friendly because they can’t hear what you’re saying about them…..” Oh yes, the Oliviaisms are back!!
A bit further along, we saw a blackbird in a bush who was merrily singing away, until we stopped to have a proper look at him. Then he shut up. Olivia told the girls that she’d been talking to a blackbird in our garden and that he talked back to her.
“Go on then,” I said.
She chirped and tweeted to him. He didn’t answer back….
“It’s not the same one….” she said….
I’d like to say she’s a unique entity, but a dog barked on the tow-path, there was an answering bark. I could only see a swan, and for a split second I thought it was the swan barking at the dog…. “Cor! Didn’t know they could bark!”
Look, it was at the end of a long walk, I was tired, the sun was in my eyes, I couldn’t see another dog….it could have been the swan, evolution and all that, defence mechanism, y’know?
I’m going to bed!
I’ve copied the study pack we got on the barge for the girls. There’s three of them and Olivia. So I printed four copies of it, a four page study pack. I got to the final page and realised that I didn’t need to make four copies. Three copies and the original makes four.
Look, it’s the end of a long day, the sun was in my eyes, a dog was barking, I had visions of ghost planes (long story, remind me tomorrow!)….
I really am going to bed….to fall asleep during the second half of Shakespeare In Love.

Golf today was a write-off because we didn’t hear from our friends and Olivia was a bit disappointed. Oh well, I’m sure she’ll survive.
We carried on with the goodie box and making things for my Mum and stepdad.
Then Olivia got in the bath. Which is where the ‘classic blonde moment’ comes in.
She was sat there for at least half an hour, with the water running. I heard a pathetic wail, “Muuummm! Come here! There’s something wrong with the bath! Come here! It won’t fill up! COME HEEEERE!”
Eventually, I prised myself away from my book and had a look….
“Um….d’you want to try putting the plug in?”
I’m sorry, but after that, I lost possession of all rational thought as I tried (and failed dismally!) not to laugh at her….she was almost in tears….I felt bad….but still couldn’t control my giggles….I had to run away and hide behind a cushion….especially when she wailed again…. “I don’t want a bath anymore! I want to get out!!”

Olivia drank it!!!
The experiment was to leave a glass of water, and by seeing how much scummy stuff was left behind in the glass, we’d know how hard our water is. But she got thirsty….
And to make matters worse, she had one of her supremely blonde moments….
“But I drank it ages ago!”
“No, you didn’t!”
“I did!”
“I’ve been checking it every morning for you!”
“Oh…. But I did drink it ages ago….”
“No! You didn’t!”
The glass has been refilled and the experiment started again.

We were up early today to go to group. We rode our bikes (More stupid people parking in the cycle lane!!) and were there at 10:30!
All because a man was coming….oh, please! I’m not that desperate!
He came along to do some bushcraft with the kids. I thought he was coming at 11, hence our promptness. Everyone else was expecting him at 12. He thought he was due at 1.

While we were waiting for him to get there, a lot of the kids had a game of football with B and D’s dad. Olivia said yesterday that she really wants to learn how to play football, and asked Adam to teach her. Don’t know when he’ll get round to it, so Mike being there today was very handy!

The bushcraft man showed, and it turned out to be an exercise in how to raise the next generation of arsonists….great fun!
The kids had to get themselves into groups. Olivia’s group seemed to have all the ‘leaders’. You can imagine how interesting that was….
They all got on great though, their group just seemed to take a lot longer and need a lot more ‘talk’ about everything to get organised. They took turns lighting matches.

Then gathered firewood.

There were four teams to see who could get a fire to last three minutes. One of the youngest girls managed to get the best fire….

(There’s more pics on Flickr.)
And how cold was it?!
There were actually a few snowflakes!
My fingers froze to my camera!
And we were riding our bikes!!!

I’ve been given the forms to fill in for the grant that I’m ‘implementing’. The outdoor activity one. So I’ll be sorting that out (and doing some kind of fancy poster to put up at group as well) over the weekend. Oh, thinking about it, I’ll have to do it on Saturday, EO meeting thingy on Sunday.

We rode to the library after group to take some books back….how cold was it??!!
It was so cold that I absolutely *had* to go to Lush. Olivia was kept happy with a birdwatching book/kit, complete with binoculars, from The Works.

Then it was 2 1/2 hours of peace and quiet for me while she did drama.
I managed to get halfway through my new library book.

Then we rode home….
HOW COLD WAS IT??!!
My eyes were watering….
It froze to my face….
It was raining….
Freezing icicles of rain….
Olivia was convinced it was hail….
Or snow….
She was crying….
“I’m tired!! Can I walk?? Can we get the bus tomorrow??”
I think we’ll be getting the bus tomorrow!

Guess where I’m going now??
Yep, it’s a Lush night tonight!!

As much as I think the red ones are really pretty, they do tend to suggest that BT is getting a little stern with me. So I did the honourable thing and paid it this afternoon.

And I paid my TV license….OKaay….it’s 5 weeks late, but hey, they haven’t got round to sending a pretty red letter yet!!!

This morning, Olivia spent ages doing a few pages of english, really dragging it out, mainly because I was busy sorting out my in-box and she thought she could get away with it. The jokes on her though because she doesn’t get to watch any DVDs now for a few days. Last night’s second half of Henry V will be it for a while.

And I think that I should be allowed to slip in a few Oliviaisms as well. So I will share with you her comment after the Battle of Agincourt…. She appeared from under the duvet (she’s squeamish about any kind of battle scene), I gleefully pointed out to her the huge bloody puddles, "Oh that’s alright!" she said, "They only use food colouring anyway!" From the size of the puddles, it must have been a shed load of Supercook bottles….

She also has a bit of a crush on Kenneth Branagh now as well. But only when he’s laughing and happy, not when he’s furious and angry. Which is a good thing I suppose….angry = ugly….happy = really, really cute. Yes, I like that way of thinking….even though I disapprove of a 10yo having crushes!!

After lunch, we rode our bikes into town (to pay all those bills!). We parked up by the library and went in to check the time of storytelling tomorrow. I was only told yesterday, but it didn’t register at all!

I bought three old books (two on Australia and one on Japan), Olivia bought a Famous Five video. It’s Setsuban on Saturday, so we asked Claire if she had any books on Japanese festivals. There’s one in Okehampton….Where were we yesterday??

It’s on order for us, will we get it in time? Very much doubt it….

We went to Sainsbury’s via Lush, like you do. I have enough to keep me going for one or two days weeks at least.

We chatted to the man on the National Trust stand. We got a list of spring events in Devon and mentioned that Olivia is home educated so we go to lots of places. He asked if she enjoyed being home educated, she nodded (of course!), then he said that being home-educated made her very special! I like him! If you want an ego boost, go see the nice man on the National Trust stand. And he had nothing to sell! We’d already told him we were members!!

Then we went to Holland and Barrett where my friend works. Which is always a bonus when there’s free samples to be had. We get extra! Today’s freebie was ginger ale. Quite strong. Olivia doesn’t like it, but kept trying. I like pain however, so I guzzled it down!

Olivia bought herself some more Geomags with Christmas money from Nanny and Grandad. She has just over a tenner left, which she is saving for the zoo on Thursday.

What else? Can you tell I’m rushing this?? Is it obvious to anyone but me??

I HAVE LUSH IN THE HOUSE!!!!

AGAIN!!!!

AFTER A FAR TOO LONG BREAK!!!!

Sooo….I’m writing this, Olivia is doing a few more workbooks, then we’re having dinner (no idea what!) then….then….and then….I will be spending the rest of the night IN THE BATH!!!!

And on a final note, dunno about you, but this really made me snigger! As I’ve never had the slightest inclination to ever get married, it seems a little drastic to me….

I’ve just realised that you can see on Flickr how many times a photo has been viewed. Most popular? Olivia’s Bangladeshi flag….I know I don’t exactly have a lot of photos up yet, but it does seem somewhat odd….takes all kinds I suppose. And, like Olivia said, the flag’s wrong anyway.
Aaah, perhaps that’s it. People are checking out what’s wrong with it!
My bed was far too comfy this morning so I stayed there. For a long time. I won’t tell you exactly how long, ‘cos it was quite obscene in all honesty. But there was just the perfect hole in the bed for me to sink in to. Well, would you want to get up if you didn’t have to? Exactly!
And Olivia took full advantage to watch lots of her Robin Hood DVD. So we were both extremely content. Adam wasn’t, ‘cos he had to go to work….my heart is bleeding….well you try Tesco’s own brand after Lush!!!
So what did we do today? Not a lot really. Olivia carried on with her knitting and finished her Biblical transport picture. I found a moon phase button thingy that she really wanted to put on her blog. All I can say is, thank goodness Lin was online at the time and managed to resurrect Olivia’s blog!!
Lots of frantic emailing and IMing, Olivia hyperventilating, “Where’s…uh…my…uh…blog…?”
Lin got it sorted, “Ha! Lin’s better than yoo-hoo!”
“Shut up!”
We had to go into town to get ingredients for a cake Olivia wants to make at the weekend. Also picked up the new Bugs and Art of Knitting for us both.
Lots more weird chat again….
I’d already told Olivia what we needed to buy in town, she had to remember three things. As we were getting ready to go out, “So, what have you got to get?”
“All brown.”
“All Bran!”
“I don’t like saying All Bran.”
“Well, you have to, that’s what it’s called.”
“I’m not used to saying it though.”
Then while she’s supposed to be brushing her hair, “Stop jumping around!”
“I’m not! I’m hopping backwards!”
On our way home, we got off the bus, “D’you think I’ll get stronger if I carry heavy things? ‘Cos I’m using my muscles, so they’ll get stronger?”
(Can you see what’s coming next?!)
“Yes dear, the more bags you carry, the stronger you’ll be! Try these on for size!”
Once home, Olivia *had* to introduce her new bug to the scorpion, “Where’s my little scorpion? There he is! I’ve got a friend for you! Here he is! You might try to eat him though. Doubt it, ‘cos you’re all locked up!”
We’d already decided that we were going to have a tomato tart for dinner and Olivia wanted to cook it but then….
“Actually, I’ve changed my mind. Can I not do dinner now?”
“Well, it means you get to use a rolling pin.”
“Ha ha!!” (I thought she was excited about rolling pastry, but no….)
“Ha ha!! Whack! Whack! Whack on your head!”
Evil child!!!
While the tart was cooking, we had a look through the Bugs magazine, “I’m definitely collecting all the spiders mum.”
“OK.”
“So when there’s a spider, I’m getting it!”
“OK.” (Could’ve sworn we’d just covered that!)
There was also a page on ‘heavy-weights’. Yep, the biggest insects imaginable. With photos. On people’s hands. HUGE!!! (OK, so they’re on kid’s hands and insects seem even huge-er) I have to admit to the pair of us getting very, very girly, “Eeeww!! Horrible!! Gross!!”
Not sure I want any one of them in my house, even if they are dead and encased in perspex!
This week it’s an Emerald Beetle. Except it’s not. In Olivia’s world, it’s an Almond Beetle.
The scorpion’s called Scorpio and the beetle’s called Greeny….
Sod the detox, I need the wine!
She did cook dinner though, here are photos….

And she spent ages sorting her Geomags out to put in the new box we got in town. I’ll be knitting the next square of the throw from the Art of Knitting later. But first I have to read some more of Our Island Story.
That’s about it today, basically lots of me banging my head against any available hard surface!

Olivianess is taking over the world!
The latest sorry victim is Adam.
Yesterday I got two DVDs from love.film. I started to watch An American Haunting and asked Adam if he wanted to watch it as well.
“What’s it about?”
“Well…. I am just guessing here mind….an American haunting.”
“But that’s just the title innit. What’s it about?”
“A haunting. In America.”
We had to postpone viewing while he cooked himself some poached eggs in the microwave. He *tried* to cook poached eggs in the microwave. But the egg popped and he swore. A lot.
“Why are you swearing?!”
“Didn’t you hear that bang?”"
“I thought it was the door.”
“No. It was the poacher.”
“What happened?”
“It popped. The egg popped. The poacher popped. It’s not broken. It just….popped.”
Another bang. More rude words.
“Adam!!”
“Gnnnhhh!! Oh why does everything have to be so complicated??!!”
And just to up the ante….I left my mug (empty!) on the floor this morning. Olivia came in and kicked it, “Oh why is your mug so camouflageable?”
I’m beginning to think my children have a pact to send me doolally….
Olivia gave up on growing her fringe this morning (Hurrah!!) so I got to chop it off.
Our Home-ed group started back today. We were (again!) planning on going. Olivia was desperate to meet up with her chap. Although my cold is a lot better, I’ve just got an odd voice at the moment (kids have their fingers crossed I lose it entirely!), I didn’t feel like going. Olivia was disappointed but she never dwells on things for long. When I’m not feeling 100% there are a million and one things I’d rather be doing instead. Maybe not that much, but you get the gist.
To be perfectly honest, we used to love going to this group, but it’s just not the same anymore. Although there are some lovely new people now, there’s too much of a divide between the older and younger kids. I have an 18yo and a 10yo so I am fully aware that teenagers need their space (man!), but honestly, for a few hours on a Wednesday?….get over it!!! I was talking to Lin about it yesterday, and there are such distorted lines of communication there, it really does my head in (man!) It’s a bit of a standing joke that dates and plans keep getting changed….I wouldn’t consider myself a control freak, but it is really NOT that funny! It really is NOT THAT HARD to arrange something and STICK to it! Can you tell I’m slightly peeved?!
Anyway, rant over, Olivia made potato and onion soup this morning.
Which gave rise to some classics, “We can use the dreidl to serve it up.”
“That’ll be a ladle love.”
Then when I was hunting for the bay leaves and had to move things out of the way, “Why have you got the tobacco out?”
I had to look twice, “Tabasco!”

She chopped up the onions and celery, crying her eyes out, “You don’t love me! You don’t like me! No-one cares about me!”

Slightly over-dramatic, but drama does start back today. Did you see what I did there? The clever link?!!
She made one of her bead rings and then we headed off to the arts centre for her drama group. First time back after Christmas.
I particularly like Olivia going to this group. She helps out with the younger group for an hour, then she has her own group for an hour and a half. That means I get….wait for it….drum roll please….a whole two and a half hours child-free. In a cafe-bar (not a pub!!). With a large glass of red wine. Bliss!!!
Tonight, J and M started as well. So while the kids were up being all dramatic, it meant Lin and I could have a lovely chat. Grown-up like!
They all came back to ours after. The boys had their own cream of tomato soup, us girlies all partook of Olivia’s potato and onion soup. And very delicious it was too!
Olivia and boys disappeared upstairs to watch a DVD and we stayed down to chat. With Adam on the computer. I tried my best to embarrass him into disappearing, but would he??!! NO!!
I covered everything from periods, tampons, sex, wet dreams, vibrators, even got so far as masturbation but then Lin got too embarrassed….so I had to stop.
Um….that actually makes the conversation sound far more explicit than it was….
Now I’ve had to post this really, really quickly (before she gets home in time to post her own!) to say that Lin totally shocked me with her drinking habits!!
You kind of had to be there really! But I think we had a good night anyway….