Busy doing nothing

Yesterday was one of those day where I was exhausted from over doing it but didn't seem to do anything in particular, apart from housework and refereeing the girls.

Scrubbed the kitchen (again, why is it never ending, our old kitchen never looked as grubby) 2 lots of washing up. Put one load of washing of the clothes horse and away, another out and a 3rd lot in, trying to make the most of the lovely sunshine and good breeze. Cooked porridge for everyone and checked messages, read blogs and facebook. Looked for more cars on the internet whilst waiting for everyone to get up. The girls played with duplo for a bit but kept squabbling so the ginger ninja put on the Wii to try and keep them entertained, didn't last long. Watched a DVD instead. Made lunch and washed up again. Then made cookies with Tinkerbell whilst munch caught up on some reading.

The girls played nicely together for a while whilst I pottered around stripping beds and the ninja put the washing out to make the most of the sunshine (typically it started raining about 20 minutes later and stayed that way for the rest of the day. The girls played rather noisy games of hide and seek with Tinkerbell quite happily counting to ten very loudly and getting all the numbers right. I was feeling pretty tired and baby was making his presence felt by this point so opted for a fairly lazy dinner of fish finger and chips. Plus scrubbing the living room carpet where there were dried milk and yogurt patches (yuck, why do they insist on carrying them around the lounge?)

Finally took myself of for a long soak and a good read of my book and left the ginger ninja to sort bedtime out as I was too uncomfortable and felt I deserved a bath.

A short round up

This week has so far consisted of....Visiting friends, craft club, Home ed group and lots of drawing/colouring. Also lots of expenses by way of new battery and service for car, only to find out the car is worse off than we thought and we need a new one. Had to reapply for credit card to buy a cheap second hand one as we cannot do without one so lots of internet searches as a result looking at cars, safety ratings and seating etc as need at least 3 proper seats to fit car seats etc in. Also looking at tax, insurance and fuel economy.....so lots of factors to consider.

Also this week we have had several film afternoons whilst hiding from the lousy wet and windy weather. A few bargains have been had at jumble sales and christmas bizare's so the children have enjoyed new books and games which on the whole they have shared and played together nicely with. Still no news on the moving front, except that despite having 120 points the house we wanted went to someone with 67 points because they already had a 3rd child whereas ours isn't here yet...although they were an internal transfer and not a homeless case which we are....but I am not bitter (much) :-(  Just have to keep waiting I guess and unpacking as and when we need things and repacking when we don't. After all it has only been 6 months of limbo.........

A not so great week (again)

More depressing news on the housing front. Despite tears, tantrums and polite begging for any information the council are still hedging as to when we can expect a moving date or any news at all. Our best chance is a new build of 9 houses in nearby loose....small ish houses/ gardens but 2 mins from the YMCA centre which do some great activities for the girls and only a ten minute walk from allotments (although there is a long waiting list for these....just over a year) However, the council say they will be ready mid December but when we tried to get a look so as to judge suitability the foreman said they would not be ready until mid January at the earliest......quite worrying when my mobility is lessening every day due to severe SPD and the ginger ninja has mobility issues linked to his Fibromalgya and ME and baby number 3 due in mid February....might be cutting it a bit close. Still nothing we can do about it except wait and see.

To this end we have unpacked some of the craft materials and let the girls lose with them. They have really enjoyed rediscovering some of there old favourites and some of the new additions. Many a pleasant evening has been spent at the table pottering and not arguing....which is always a bonus.

Excuse the poor picture and the mess in the background but I was in a rush to take a picture before they saw me and started posing.

The rest of the week has been fairly quite...popped over to a friends on Wednesday for lunch with Tinkerbell as Munch was at her craft meet following a sleepover at her friends. Had to charge the car first though as battery was dead. Needed to get petrol on way home so switched off engine.....only to find it would not start again so I had to call friends husband to come and give a jump start so I could make it home. Put the car on charge when got home as we had an appointment in the evening to look around the birthing centre only to have to call the AA out afterwards as the car was dead again. Sitting in the still busy car park with the bonnet up not one person offered to help........... anyway we need a new battery and alternator I suspect.....as well as car tax due. Not good when we are beyond brasic so have had to reapply for the credit card we just finished paying off :-(  we did look to see if we could do without the car but seeing as both of us have limited mobility and when adding the cost of public transport even if only to the Faversham meet it would cost as much as we are paying in insurance and petrol so we thought it best to stick with it.

Here's hoping this week brings a more relaxed week.

To soft play or not to soft play?

We tried a new soft play area near us this week. More expensive than the ones we usually visit as they don't do a half price day during term time like some of the others. £11 later we were finally in....after reading the many signs warning that only food and drink purchased on the premises were allowed to be eaten on site and kindly asking that customers witnessing others breaching these rules to inform the management immediately. Now that is fair enough and I understand that they want/ need to make money. However food etc was very expensive  for what it was and they had a limited menu. Nothing gluten/ dairy free or vegan. Not even a bowl of chips wish is usually a last resort for us as the usual sandwich selections are out of the question. The main reason we went is because they have a go ape type area for the older ones ....although the smaller ones soon got bored with everything else. You just can't please everyone it seems.

After some initial reluctance Munch managed to over come some of her fears and have a go....mostly because her friends were to be honest.

Now we are off for a family yard day at my grandparents....which could go either way as one or 2 of my family are very......forceful in their opinions of our choice to home ed and quite derogatory of my husband, who has decided to stay at home rather than risk telling anyone exactly where to go when they ask him if he has a job yet/ has pulled himself together. Wish me luck, I may be coming home early :-)

........

Saturday we took an unexpectedly pleasant trip to the coast. We had to pick up an ebay purchase from Bexhill so decided to pop along to Hastings for a wander and fish and chip lunch. Munch was out with Nanny 1 visiting some friends so left us with some precious one to one time with Tinkerbell. Was a surprising lovely day weather wise, started off blowing a gale but wind soon died down and a lovely day was had by all. Tink especially loved the new pirate play area. She is obsessed with pirates in general and often wanders around the house with junk mail or random bits of paper pretending they are treasure maps with a pair of binoculars around her neck.

 After having no plans for Bonfire night  were invited to friends for bangers and bbq on Sunday night. Was great to catch up with some of friends we hadn't seen in a while and the children loved running around and watching a large amount of fireworks....I dread to think how much the hubby stretched his budget. Cue much hilarity and mud. A very late night but a good time was had by all.

We have been trying to take things slowly as SPD is getting worse, slowly but surely, just when I feel I need to be doing more. So lots of home days watching wartime farm, reading and lots of DVD afternoons since we got a TV from freecycle and borrowed a DVD player from FIL. All mixed with library and park visits along with our regular fortnightly Tuesday  Faversham group meet this week. It was also Mad Science which is meeting mixed reviews from the children involved. This week was finger prints and blood grouping I think. Not too sure actually as it is something which munch enjoys but usually doesn't talk about much, at least to start with. However, over the next couple of days she usually slowly lets slip what she has learned during conversations about other seemingly unrelated things.

Also lots of craft activities in the art room afterwards, mostly glitter fights with her friend Abi whilst flirting with A....not that they would call it flirting at their young age. lol.

Wednesday Munch had her regular craft sessions with a group of friends run by the lovely Rekela....who must have the patience of a saint to run a craft class for 4 1/2 hours in her conservatory with at least 6 teen and pre-teens and lots of dye, hot glue guns and several amazingly ambitious/ complex craft ideas. This week  was geometric pin pictures (reminiscent of the 70's) but not only a simple design...oh no no half measures here. Several practice patterns are needed first....making embroidered/embossed designs on card...almost like embroidered Christmas cards, plus lots of theory, printing of other designs and instructions and discussions of threads, colours etc. Then a large model with pins, embroidery floss and pins before framing and completing. I am exhausted just writing it let alone trying to help half a dozen or so children do it. It is lovely though to see the craft folders they come home with expanding week by week and to see how much Munch is growing in confidence and ability. Next week rag rugs......can't wait to see what she comes up with.