Who’s Normal Anyway?

I never stick to my new year’s resolutions (if I even get round to making any) but putting these on my blog might encourage me to try?

5 personal goals for this year

Write the articles I’ve got in mind in my head but haven’t got around to committing to paper/computer
Find something to do just for me, just because I want to
Reply to emails as they arrive - stop procrastinating
Fill in L’s baby book before I forget stuff
Keep on top of the ABM website / emails

5 home ed goals for this year

With M, pick some projects to work on and make something of them - even finish some of them!
Write an ed phil and in the process review what we’re doing and if our priorities are being met
Build up a home ed network for us where we are moving to
Use the BA science things and do science more often because M loves it when we do
Start fitting in more German and more music

5 family goals for this year

Eat all our meals together at the dining table
Start a weekly family night in with games or a family film
Invite friends to visit and fit in visiting them too
More geocaching than we’ve fitted in this year
Explore and do things together at weekends - don’t waste them on shopping and TV

5 house and home goals for this year

Stick to the routines we decide on until they are routine and then maintain them, especially for keeping on top of housework
Involve M in a way that helps him feel useful, needed and important, but not put upon
Work on settling in to our new house and make it feel like home
Plan and develop new garden with A (and allotment? must enquire once we’re settled) and grow bedding plants and veggies
Sort out an organic veg box and regularly cook home made healthy meals

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2006 is everything you’re wishing for.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Haven’t quite forgotten all my maths then LOL. My mum would be proud!

We did go geocaching on Wednesday, in the snow. It was pretty much of a drive by cache once we’d solved all the questions to work out the co-ords. The weather was very cold and fresh and it was nice to be out for a little while, and L got a good sleep in the car too. M had fun stomping through the snow and it was a bonus to find the cache. It was a micro so I wondered if it would be buried beneath the snow and impossible to spot, but luckily not.

Yesterday my Mum and sister came up for the day to have a meal and exchange Christmas gifts. They were mostly over their colds/bugs and feeling better so had a drive up before the snow set in more heavily today - though we haven’t actually had so much as was forecast. M played Lemmings with his auntie and we all had a go at Set, which I’d bought my mum for Christmas - she usually loves puzzles and card games so I hope she’ll have a lot of fun with it once the idea of it has sunk in. M and L received presents that are useful and/or don’t take much room to store but will be used alot, so that was appreciated. My sister had knitted some lovely things for them both.

L fell asleep on my knee after lunch and slept about 2.5 hours in the end. He’s hardly been napping the last few days and was pretty cranky so I just suffered the dead legs with his weight and held him so he’d sleep.

In the afternoon A went off to mountain rescue til next Tuesday evening (he had to do either Christmas or New Year long weekend) and my family went about 20 mins later. We had an early tea and then an early night. Well, I went to bed much earlier but then sat up sewing my L’s cardigan that I’ve been knitting forever (2 buttons to sew on and then I ought to press it or whatever you’re supposed to do with knitting) and afterwards watched Lost and read some of the Lost book I got for Christmas.

This morning I got up for the loo about 5am (after being semi-awake going on 2hours waiting for L to drop off properly instead of just hanging on to one breast or the other) and M was awake and reading his new Star Wars annual so I told him to go back to sleep, but he came in with me and L and had a cuddle and eventually went back to sleep. I managed to doze, but was a bit sandwiched between 2 boys I didn’t want to move and wake up. Shall have to try for an earlier night tonight.

This morning we’ve played Neopets and extended M’s Neohome. Then we got bundled up to play outside in the snow for a while. It was snowing heavily for a while but then turned to that hail/slush stuff and now it’s more raining than snowing. We decided to make the most of it while we had snow. M scraped up snow to build up his snowman from the other day and I got the sledge out and pulled him round next door’s drive (they’re away) for a little while. L was in his snowsuit and woolly hat, sat in his pushchair in the semi-shelter of the garage where he could watch. When my fingers felt like they were about to drop off L and I came in and chatted to A about making soup and fajitas (he’s on cook duty today).

When M came in he wanted the TV on but I suggested getting out his new jigsaw instead so we’ve been doing that for quite a while, with a break for some lunch. Now L’s fallen asleep in the sling so I’m making the most of it and having some computer time while M is watching Star Wars Ep 1.

We’ve had a good Christmas, though things didn’t work out quite as planned. We’ve still to see my mum and sister to wish them a merry Christmas in person and exchange presents because they both came down with a flu bug so didn’t come up for the day as we’d planned. My BIL also came down with a 48 hr flu/tummy bug so yesterday we had the in laws for the day without Uncle R. He came to stay for a couple of nights before Christmas and M started getting to know him – the last time he saw him M was only 2.5. R lives in Germany so we don’t see him often and we enjoyed having him to stay.

The in laws brought him up on Wednesday and dropped him off, bringing MIL’s sister and her DH to visit at the same time. They thoughtfully brought a job lot of beef sandwiches so that I didn’t need to make them lunch (??!!). M’s behaviour deteriorated rapidly the longer they were here, but basically was jealous of all the attention L was getting. R played Lego and darts with M to try and keep him busy and his grandma did a bit of “directive” drawing with him for a few minutes, but M was desperate to show Uncle R all his PC games and I said he couldn’t go on til later because I know once he goes on the computer when he’s excited he never wants to come back off and gets really hyped. But then he had a major tantrum about it and stormed about in his bedroom crashing and banging and swearing, much to the rellies’ disgust. A popped in from work briefly to say hello and then left again, so he couldn’t really help.

On Christmas Eve we did baking and then A cooked the turkey in the afternoon and got veg ready for a Christmas Eve Christmas dinner after the crib service at church. We decided to try having our main meal on the evening before so we didn’t have to do major cooking on Christmas Day and it worked well, though felt a bit strange because it was the first time we’d done it that way. Think we might do it that way again next year too.

On Christmas Day we got up about 7.40am, which seemed fairly reasonable, leaving L in bed asleep for a bit longer. It meant M got more attention opening his stocking pressies and we had a fairly calm morning (as much as Christmas is ever calm) and went to church at 10.30. In the afternoon we opened more presents and played board games. M got Star Wars Trivial Pursuit questions and we played that, though he knows far and away the most about Star Wars! We also bought Pay Day as a family present to ourselves, so had a round of that to try and work out the rules. We had a simplified Christmas dinner of turkey and veg at tea time – think we’ll be eating turkey up for ages yet!

Yesterday my mum and sister were supposed to be coming up for the day, but because they were ill we asked the in laws to come up yesterday instead of today (they wouldn’t have come today with it snowing anyway, even though it’s not settling). So we had another day of eating a lot and opening presents. M and L were spoiled rotten, I don’t know where we are going to put all their new things. M has loads and loads of Lego, which he loves, but once it’s built it has to be put somewhere. In a lot of ways I prefer the more classic Lego or at least the smaller kits because he plays more imaginatively with those and constantly rebuilds them. The in laws had also bought a Micro Scalextric set “for the boys” (including granddad and A) so they had that out – think we need a major storage rethink, especially when we move house in Feb!

Today we’ve played more games, M has built his huge Lego Viking ship and we’ve been out to the supermarket to restock on bread and milk. We’ve had a couple of snow showers but nothing is sticking so far. Tomorrow we’re thinking of going geocaching, but it depends on the weather. I’m not sure when we’re going to have my mum and sister up for the day, we’ll have to see how they are. A goes away with mountain rescue over the new year, starting on Thursday afternoon, so we also don’t have time to fit in seeing more of R, which is a shame seeing he lives so far away.

L has fallen asleep on my lap, so will stop there for this evening I think. Not that I expect he’ll stay asleep if I try and transfer him into bed. Shall have to get around to posting more about how L’s been soon, but I’ve typed enough for this evening.

I made these lebkuchen on Christmas Eve from an American recipe, then I weighed everything to put the recipe into ounces. They taste lovely, so thought I’d share the recipe.

Beat together:
8oz dark brown sugar
8oz runny honey
2oz butter

Add in 2 eggs, one at a time and beat well.

In another container, mix together:
3.5oz ground hazelnuts
2.5oz ground almonds
14oz plain flour
3tbsp cocoa powder
1tbsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
0.5tsp ground cloves
0.75tsp salt
0.5tsp baking powder
0.25tsp sodium bicarb

Mix dry ingredients into first mixture. With wet hands, take out a generous dessertspoonful of mixture and roll into a ball then place onto baking paper on a baking sheet, flatten slightly, and bake at GM4 for about 15 mins. Makes approx 32.

Hmm, what’s memorable about the past week? L’s been under the weather for most of it. He still seems to have a dicky tummy and isn’t napping well unless he’s in the sling or sleeping so well at night. His eczema seems to be spreading all over his trunk and his head is raw in places - we’ve resorted to socks on his hands at night. The doctor wasn’t very helpful and it seems like they just want to pack you off with chemicals to apply. I don’t want to put anything on that will aggravate his skin further though. So that’s been on my mind alot.

M’s clearly jealous of the attention L gets and while he’s wonderful with L, with everyone else he’s being a pain. He seems to be being as provocative as possible to see what reactions he can get. We went to my aunt’s on Saturday for a Christmas meal and to see my cousin who’s over from Italy, and M behaved worse and worse as the afternoon went on, it was embarrassing.

On Tuesday I went to the mum and baby group again and the nursery nurse who’s currently running it in lieu of the health visitor (who recently left and hasn’t been replaced yet) thought it was “just a bit of fun” and perfectly acceptable to hand out “goodie bags” full of commercial baby food samples, vouchers, spoons with logos, formula company pens etc as party bags at the end (it was the Christmas party) and even the pass the parcel had free sample “baby fennel tea bags” between each layer. Then she brought out follow on formula samples and packet food that she was handing out for babies “from 4 months” - grr… does she not read the weaning leaflets they give out? So she wasn’t impressed when I said what I thought about it to her at the end. I guess she’ll be even less impressed now I’ve made a complaint in writing to the chief exec of the PCT and copied to the HVs. The HVs should know better - their professional code of conduct prohibits using their professional status to promote commercial products, and she was running the group for them. Must send in one of the Baby Feeding Law Group forms about it too. And then another one about the blooming formula company “baby club” adverts in the doctors’ surgery. I’ll wait til I’ve heard back more about the first complaint before I start on that one I think though. It’s no wonder no one breastfeeds here really, honestly!

On Friday it was the music group Christmas party and then the last Musical Theatre of term afterwards. The party was good, the same general chaos with lots of fun as it usually is. I do like that group! We had food and sang Christmas songs, did some crafts and M had a go at juggling. He’s been practising again today with his socks LOL. I also picked up my Suma (food coop) order while we were there so I have packets and packets of flour and oats and things. A just went to look for something in the garage and disturbed a mouse though, so brought all the packets back in to the house. Hope we don’t get mice in the house, in the garage is awful enough (it’s ajoining).

We’re still behind on our Jesse Tree - we didn’t do it at Okehampton in the end. We’ve got as far as Jonah and the Whale. We catch up a few stories and then get behind again. Must try and fit a couple in tomorrow.

We’ve finished our Christmas shopping but still have some bits and pieces to wrap up. I’m trying to organise what we’re going to eat this week and the start of next so we can do a final shop, but it seems like no matter how often we go supermarket shopping there’s always something we’ve forgotten. We still have piles of washing to catch up with, we seem to be permanently behind, and we need to decorate the Christmas cake and probably do 101 things that haven’t even occurred to me yet. My BIL is coming to stay from Wednesday to Friday so tomorrow I need to do more of a tidy up. I’m also getting my hair cut in the morning, so fingers crossed L and M are quiet while we’re there.

Sure there were alot of other things I was going to blog about, but what they were is escaping me for the time being.

Started writing this over a week ago, then didn’t get any further. I don’t think I’m dedicated blogger material LOL. Anyway…

Last Sunday (not yesterday, one before that) we had our “Thanksgiving for the birth of a child” service. We were up half the night before with L who woke up screaming and just kept on at it and only calmed a little being walked around - not sure what it was, trapped wind maybe but I don’t know what set it off. So we weren’t entirely at our best to start with.

My mum and sis came up along with A’s mum and dad and we got to church OK, to find the vicar was still photocopying service sheets and even then they weren’t quite right I don’t think the wording was what we’d agreed, though I haven’t checked exactly cos it’s just too annoying. Basically he didn’t do the sheets til the night before from what I’m gathering. But anyway, we had the thanksgiving which was the main thing and also included M as equally as we could manage, which hopefully helped cos he’s feeling quite jealous of L still.

My mum and sis got cards and a gift for M and L to mark the occasion which was a lovely touch. M got this children’s New Testament and particularly likes the spy glass feature and quizzes, and L got this Child’s Prayer Book. The Church was supposed to be getting them gospels/new testaments to be presented in the service but he presumably forgot - they did have Bibles presented but they were standard ones our church buys in bulk, he didn’t bother to put “Presented to…” or anything in the front, and it turned out M’s had been written in, so no thought put in there. He does annoy me so much!!

We came back to our house afterwards and had a roast dinner cooked by A. M had a Lego building fest with his auntie and we tried to keep L as calm as we could, then had an early night.

Right, off to put M to bed and then I might be back to catch up the rest of last week.

Well it’s all happening here today. We’ve spent the day in, writing Christmas cards, making choc chip cookies for the music Christmas party on Friday, playing monopoly. But so far L has pooed on the carpet (pooing loads today, almost every time he goes on the potty and lots in between). I thought he’d finished, went to empty the potty and came back to him rocking on all fours and straining. Good job breastfed poo wipes up easily! And all this while I was trying to talk on the phone. Then just now the CO alarm has gone off, nearly deafening us all, so I’ve had to turn off the central heating and the cooker (half cooked sausages for tea then!!) and we’re waiting for the gas person to come out. So what else will happen next??

On the last full day of our holiday we got up and off in the morning to go the The House of Marbles and then on to the nativity play at Pennywell Farm. Barbara bravely decided to follow us to the House of Marbles (brave because A was driving the new car for the first time and the brakes were very keen compared with our old car!) and Anna came along with Barbara’s family too. A and I had a cooked breakfast to set us up for the day out when we arrived, though M was off his food and the others all had hot chocolates. We looked around, watched marbles being made in the glass workshop and spent some time just watching the marble machines which were fascinating. It’s much more hectic visiting somewhere like that with other people, because all the children wanted to look at different things all at once!

Then we drove in convoy again to Pennywell, looking for a garage or shop on the way to buy snacks/lunch for M and for B’s family. There was nowhere to stop, and the farm didn’t have it’s cafe open as they only do the nativity thing out of season. M didn’t seem too bothered, he was a bit pale and off his food generally.

The nativity play was good. They’d decorated the barn up with lights and had farm animals in stalls as part of the play. Once most of us had arrived all the children had the chance to volunteer for parts in the play and went off to get dressed. None of the boys would volunteer to be Joseph, M was adamant he didn’t want to do it but agreed he’d be a king - I think he was the only boy who joined in, except for Joe who had to be a shepherd with Sarah. The narrator told the Christmas story and the children were arranged into position at the relevant points in the story, while the adults in the audience joined in with the carols.

Afterwards we visited Santa and then had mulled wine and mince pies. I survived the first glass with no effects so had A’s glass too, but then it started going to my head. I shall have to practise over Christmas LOL.

Spent the evening chatting to everyone and got to bed about midnight, then was sung to sleep to the strains of Grease from the common room. Woke in the middle of the night to screaming child (thankfully not mine though) and then again about 7am to hear people moving around in the corridor coming out of the common room - they’d not been to bed. Got to admire their staying power! But glad we had an en suite room as a sound barrier from the common room!

On Wednesday morning we just chilled in the YH again, I can’t remember anything specific we did. The plan was to go caching again to a proper cache with a box with swaps and for Barbara and anyone else who wanted to to come along. By the afternoon it was starting to drizzle, so we went by ourselves to cache hunt at a local reservoir. We parked up about 100m from the cache, cutting the walk we were planning to do short because it was totally tipping it down with rain. Found the cache up a muddy bank and then went in the reservoir visitor centre and cafe to dry out a bit.

Chatted some more with Jax and Helen about all sorts, including EC and L’s leg warmers. Nic and Ady made a lovely stew and dumplings for tea. The evening was spent chatting in the common room waiting for L to drop off to sleep. I enjoyed the evenings of just chatting once M was in bed, even though I am getting too old for all the late nights everyone else manages! Midnight is about my limit if I want to function at all the next day.

Ooh, and how could I forget, Wednesday was the day Steve drove our new car over! M cried at bedtime most nights for the previous week about getting rid of our old car, but he was pretty excited to see our new one thankfully (though still sad to see the old one go - “it’s the only care I’ve ever known”). I think the trays appealed to him, he kept mentioning they’d be great for drive through McDonalds, but so far we’re ignoring the hint LOL. Steve arrived in the dark and rain and we went out to have a brief look and a talk through the controls, while Sarah looked after L inside for me. Thank you Sarah and thanks to you both for sorting us out a new car!