Must... Keep... Blogging...

I really have to keep at this, I did really well before, not sure why I stopped. I need to keep a record of what we get up to from a home-ed point of view as well as it being somewhere to keep our pictures in context. You'll find no pretentious, self-important, up-my-own-arse twaddle-crap that I've read on some blogs lately. I won't pretend to be a domestic goddess/ crafting genius/ mother-extraordinaire, because I don't think she actually exists!
Ok, so enough! What have we done this week? Sunday - bought and fitted a new stairgate so that Winnie can't get into the kitchen to eat the cat food - it contains egg and makes her puke! Ask me how I know.....
Monday saw us go find a playground we'd not been to before - only had a slide in working order, so probably wouldn't go back. In the afternoon, we went to babysit for Harri and Rachael as Vaughan had impaled himself on a soup bowl and needed to go to A&E for xrays and stitches.
Yesterday was fairly quiet as we all have a bit of a cold. Tilda read me her library books and did an hour of Reading Eggs.

 

Today we have done more Reading Eggs, been for a charity shop trawl - I needed a new jumper/cardigan type thing. Its refreshing to actually be able to buy second hand clothes for me - managed to do up a pair of size 16 jeans today! Tilda had a conversation with one of the shop ladies about the film 'Matilda'. We shared a portion of chips for lunch and bought the ingredients for tonight's pizza.

Since it is Wednesday, here's a pic of my nearly finished scarf, claimed by Tilda. I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow.

 

On the way home we collected yet more conkers and some leaves which Tilda incorporated into some artwork.

 

Last but not least, we have Mildred. I don't think I've introduced her yet? This is her in June,

 

and today she looks like this!

 

The poor thing is recovering from being neutered yesterday. I love how her skin is tortie too! Since some numpty at the pet insurance company spelled her name wrong, she has actually been known mostly as Mudred which seems to suit her fairly well!

More balls!

Well, the same troublesome one anyway! Yesterday after a trip to the supermarket, Steve noticed his vision getting worse and by teatime, 75% of the retina had detatched - luckily the gas bubble from Thursday was holding it on around the optic nerve. Today he had a vitrectomy - removal of all the fluid in his eye so they could get a really good look, then stick it back together. My poor, poor Stevie is off to bed to lie facedown. I've rigged up a box type contraption to help him, but he's in for a miserable night I think.
When he was at the hospital yesterday the Girls and I walked up to Dockholm Lock and back again in the glorious evening sunshine. We saw a swan, mink, rabbits, ducks, peacock butterflies and two squirrels!

Today we met up with Nyree, Harrison, Rachael and Vaughan for a trip to the park.

Perpetual mess

What little got tidied yesterday is now a crap-hole again. Really very annoying! I'm found out that Winnie isn't particularly impressed with banana, but does like carrot-poofs!
Steve has been messed around by work again today and is an upset/angry ball of misery now. He's cancelled going on his brother's Stag weekend so he could go to a meeting today but when he got there nobody knew anything about it! soooo frustrating! Now he's gone back in to babysit the others who haven't completed the work they should have. Not fair.

On a happier note, here are pics of Tilda's workbook from yesterday - there are still bits to go in it and it needs more colour, but things are looking good!

 Tilda decorated herself with a Sharpie,

I've made some frogs for the ELEPhants to decorate tomorrow. The frogspawn delivery has been delayed due to a tummy-bug, but hopefully should arrive soon.

Tried Steve's new tussah silk nino that Nyree has acid-dyed for him - its very nice indeed!

This morning Matilda demanded 'schoolwork' so we set about finding some for her to do! We had a woodland visit logbook from the Woodland Trust's Nature Detectives site which she has (mostly) filled in about her visit to the woods in Rolleston the other week. We went and printed off some pictures to stick in it too - pics to follow tomorrow. She also took her tick-box spotter charts and a clipboard - we saw blue, yellow and red butterflies and I picked up a good dose of hayfever. The trees are all in flower - I may have to avoid walking that way for a few weeks.
This afternoon I've been cutting out frogs for the children to decorate at the ELEPhant meet on friday and have managed to find the table under lots of junk.
This enabled us to sit together and eat our dinner nicely. Winnie smooshed up a pear and sucked on some corn tortilla. She seemed very proud of herself. I doubt very much that anything went in as her gag reflex is still pretty strong, but we're in no particular rush and she seems happy to just suck things.
Here she is in all her sticky, pear-juicy glory!

Thursday!

A busy day here today!  First of all, after a yummy berry smoothie,

we started making bookmarks for Mother's Day presents. Then the postie arrived with a new, bargainous wrap. I am being a seriously hypocritical wrap-ho by getting one as I fell out with the Evil woman and swore I'd never wear another, but it was super-cheap, so principles? meh.

 

We also recieved some wonderful wooden toys from Kerry today that I have started to paint - will oil them to seal once they have dried.

Planted(!) our avocado stones.

Our trip to Asda was a very windy one, Tilda found a ladybird, we read the poem on the sculpture, then went and bought Haribo!

The poem reads;
Come all you people
Pause a while
And I will tell you a story.
A story of this enduring valley of ours
Of factories and flowers and furniture
Of lace, bobbins, planes and pencils
Of mines, railroads and canals
Of water and willows
Where Kingfishers and Herons dive
Where quiet flows the Erewash.

by Janet Devereux