Wild Flowers

Well, morning, but the title was too good to miss. . We went to see Greyfriars Bobby at the cinema today. It was good but made me . Afterwards, we popped home for lunch and then the Peas sat in the car for 20 mins whilst I fed and watered the cat that we’re looking after. I’d promised them sweets if they would read quietly and not fight/get out of the car so we drove to the local shops to grab some before coming home. Music practice has been done but we have been distracted from workbooks by the little girl next door and now they are all skating up and down my path . I’ve been pottering a bit but my back is killing me and I don’t know what I’ve done to it, so I’m trying not to irritate it further . Must go and cook tea as they all need a bath before Dr. Who.

Yesterday was one of those days that just evolve into lazy days without you even realising. We had planned to go here but got up late and couldn’t really get motivated. The sky looked unpromising so we decided to stay at home, so of course it then turned into the hottest day for weeks .
We took full advantage of the sun to start assembling the kids hammock that I bought in the sales. Everyone promised to help but mostly they walked past occasionally and helped with the odd screw as I enjoyed the sunshine.
I don’t really remember much else. ‘Normals’ were done I think but mostly the day was an educational washout .
Friday was, in comparison, the busiest day we’ve had for weeks. We seemed to be 10 mins late for everything all day grr . Morning was all ‘normals’ and a very bad mummy moment as I lost my temper big style with Pea 1 and then cried a lot at my loss of temper. I just seem to be patient with her for so long as she pushes all my buttons and then every now and then I go mad .
After lunch, we headed off to the library. Pea 2 couldn’t find her bookpack again FFS it is bright yellow and usually stands out in the mess . SweetP popped some more books on her booktrack and we all grabbed fresh books for half-term reading and walked to the museum. After a (very) quick glance at the Australian section, we went to see the toy exhibit as it finishes over the weekend. We played a quick game of twister and copied some cool pictures on the light box which we pinned up. All Peas (and me!) were a bit gutted that the mini cinema was showing He-man again and not Sylvanians, my little pony or care bears , just bad timing I guess as it’s on a loop. Then I realised that it was 4:45 and we had to get back to the car, get petrol, make cakes for the Brownie hostess evening and get the Brownies changed and there by 6:00 as well as feed a cat as a favour for my sister, who’s gone away here for two days.
Managed to get back home, changed, make cakes and pop them on, then ran out to feed cat, back to get cakes and the Brownies were only 10 mins late so not too bad. This left Pea 1 and I 50 mins before we had to be back at Brownies for the hostess do with the little girl next door.Stopped to get petrol on the way back home but, Tesco had a fire alarm go off so popped back to check on cat and give it tuna (had gone home to get tin opener as I couldn’t use the one in the house, only to find tin was ring pull ), dashed home for Pea 1 to change and to grab little girl next door (orange petrol light glowing all the way :) and was glad to see Tesco had solved it’s fire issue, got petrol and made it back to Brownies 10 mins late . Had a well deserved cup of tea (served by the hostesses ), a nice and fattening piece of sponge cake(buttercream and jam filled yum) and chatted to a few of the mums. Then I realised that L (next doors daughter) was going to be late for a family meal so sped all the way back to my house (all my friends know that I NEVER speed but it feels like that’s all I’ve done today )only to be intercepted half way by harassed and late neighbours oops- it’s a good job they like me
Because the neighbours had a short notice family meal to go to, they’d canceled their BBQ so I treated the Peas to Chinese food for tea. I think I’d already burnt off the calories today .
And in case you’re wondering, I’m in love with the thought of half term- sorting out the house, seeing friends and not having to rush to any groups for a week .

Just as I got to the bedroom with cocoa and a good book (too upset after Desperate housewives to go straight to sleep), I realised I had to put the washing away that I had sorted earlier on today into piles. Smiled as I realised Pea 1 was in my bed and she was stretched out rather like a biblical painting of Jesus on the cross- I don’t know how she sleeps all spread out like that, it doesn’t look that comfy . Smile disappeared when I realised as I went to move her that the cat had puked over my bed, most of the washing-including a batch that I had sorted for the charity shop and also over Pea 1 YUCK!! Needless to say Pea 1 was less than impressed as I had to wake her, strip her and wash her. The cat was chased out, most of the clothes has been deposited back in the washbasket and my bedroom stinks of cat sick. Thought I would blog whilst waiting for my perfume spray (nicer than air freshener ) to overcome the stench. My cocoa has gone cold and when I opened the airing cupboard to put the towels away and was roasted, I checked the themostat and realised one of the Peas had turned the heating up to 20!!! I thought it was an unusually hot evening and am really annoyed at them now for wasting money .
Cat can spend all of tomorrow outside as this is the second time he’s done this in two weeks (he gulps his food, steals food from the other cat unless watched and then has too full a tummy and …… ) and I’m getting P***** off with Eau de cat vomit as the evening smell.
Missed my exercises tonight to be a good Brownie mother and sew on the badges SweetP got months ago two down, three to go

It feels like all I’ve done today is dodge the rain . The day started off very promising when I woke up at 6:45 to brilliant sunshine flooding in through the window but, by the time I’d staggered out of bed at 8, the sky had already darkened and the idea of surprising the Peas with an unplanned trip somewhere nice had been abandoned.
I hate grey mornings as it always seems to take us ages to get going. The Peas only surfaced for breakfast when I threatened them that I was going to bin it if they didn’t come downstairs in 5 mins . We read through our Ambleside( Eugene Field poetry and a couple of chapters of Our Island Story ) and some ‘normals ‘ were done whilst I pottered. Then dashed out, narrowly avoiding the wrath of the traffic warden again-FFS he knows that I’m a resident but, as I don’t have my permit to prove that the car I’m driving is mine and despite the fact he sees me coming out of my house all the time, no permit, no parking in the residents area even if you are a resident GRRR . Had great plans for the library and the museum to visit the culture gallery (for Australian stuff) and toys exhibit (mainly for fun ) but, by the time we discovered that there was no parking close to town, it started raining again and we raced off to the local shops to pay some bills and pop into the charity shop for a bit.
£114 (mostly bills) and several bags of books later, we grabbed some lunch and headed home to peruse our purchases. Pea 1 was delighted to have found this for £1 as, before xmas, we were considering buying it from Amazon as we couldn’t find it anywhere else (and it still had some of the packing still on so obviously hadn’t been played with). She also found some of these still in an unopened packet for £1.50 so she was very happy.
It was good luck to find the 5-sie merry-go-round, we had got so many books that I had to go back to the cashpoint (I know enthusiasm for books is good but my arms ache ) and then the shop was suddenly so busy that I suggested looking at the toys until it quietened down and there it was on the top shelf. I wish I’d seen it when the Peas weren’t there though as it would have been a great xmas pressie . I’ve been quite a lucky git when it has come to her 5-sie obsession as I have also found her the rocking horses for xmas in Woolies for £2 in the sale recently (despite the fact that they have never had them in to sell that I have seen ). So I’m quite a popular mum today .
SweetP and Pea 2 had a few books each and we were lucky enough to find some top trumps packs for 50p each (sharks, dinosaurs, LOTR and Beano ) so they all choose a pack each and decided to share sharks . When we got home they realised that two of the packs were brand new so were really pleased with their ‘new’ games .
After a snack lunch, Peas 1 and 2 turned the t.v on to the African radio station and we all had a great time dancing and giggling for a bit. Then Pea 1 ran off to design dream avatars and SweetP decided to learn about dinosaurs (until her rubbish mum couldn’t find any books-I know that they’re here somewhere ). Instead, she joined Pea 2 in dressing as ‘Africans’ from the dress up box and dancing for a bit.
Then, a quick rush off to SweetP’s music and a few top trump games in the car for Peas 1 and 2 and I and home for tea, more dream avatars and next doors two kids in to play.
Got soaked as I chatted to a friend outside so had a lot of warming pizza for tea- Ahem! Will have to exercise in a min to burn it off during Desperate housewives
Why do kids have to be so changeable ? Having spoken to the lovely ballet teacher today to try to arrange lessons for my three and saying how keen they were, Pea 1 has now anounced that she no longer wants to do ballet just football Grr . I don’t know what to do with her, she’s driving me bonkers

Have decided to keep going with the song lyric titles for my own amusement more than anything ( and of course to annoy people when the lyric gets stuck in their head and they can’t remember where it’s from ).
Today has been good, if a little mind numbing. Pea 2 just simply does not get maths at all. I have no idea how her mind works but she can spend hours working out the easiest sum and then get it wrong or ages on a hard sum and get it right and if I try to help explain something she just stares at me blankly and then continues on as before. I find attempting any maths with Pea 1 and 2 really hard work, whereas SweetP is just like I was as a child and laps up any maths at all including her recent interest- algebra. She seems to grasp the concepts easily and just get on with it but Pea 2 had to be led through every single one of her multiplication sums today (I wish I had the banging head on wall smilie ).
I’m feeling a little more people happy today, though I haven’t answered the phone and I made my neighbour hang her own washing on my line instead of me doing it as I didn’t have time . I did pick it in when it started to rain though-I’m not that grumpy and then she repaid me by ringing the doorbell to tell me that the traffic warden was about so I should move my car . Bloody residents parking-because my car failed the MOT and I bought a new one, I also have to buy a new permit- even though my last permit is valid until Feb, it doesn’t count for the new car .
SO, this morning we got through ‘normals’ , almost finished our aboriginal pictures(they are looking good), watched schools tv, read our Ambleside-Understood Betsy and poetry ,practised violin and cello, made rainforest trees and played with our guinea pigs.
After a quick lunch we read another chapter of this and practised some Turkish words, to much amusement and then, as the sun had come out again, we settled with blankets on the patio to play the foodchain game that we had bought on holiday. It took Pea 2 quite a while to get the rules (I think maybe she’s having a lazy brain week ) but (after we had all run inside to escape the rain again ) she ended up as the winner . I think this game is going to be a firm favourite as all the Peas really enjoyed it and it has definitely improved their knowledge of food chains after one play.
Then it was off for the Tuesday music runs. I took the dog and chatted to a friend as well whilst Pea 2 had her cello group and lesson. Pea 1 and SweetP helped another little friend with her homework , until SweetP’s violin lesson, whilst I walked the dog and then Pea 1 and I popped to the shop to get the Angelina Ballerina outfit that we’d ordered last week, before collecting the musical Peas and heading home for a bath, tea (mash potato highly commended by Peas ), nit combing Grr and another chapter of NL before bed.
Hoping to be up bright and early for a busy day tomorrow so best get to bed now .

No particular reason for title angst, just feeling very angry for no reason at all -must be hormones . After a nice relaxing weekend spent doing things with/for other people, I decided not to answer the phone at all today and only wish that I had a big enough house to pretend that I couldn’t hear the doorbell as well.
Will finish writing up about the recent hols (with many photos) soon but really wanted to get this week up and running blog wise. I don’t know how long this will last but I have decided to change my life priorities a bit. I seem to spend a large amount of my time pleasing people and ‘being there’ to no real benefit to myself or the Peas-sometimes completely the opposite in fact. I field long phone calls from friends in distress(quite often I am guilty of being the friend in distress -waves at Lin ), end up going out to clubs I dislike when no-one will ever come to places I like with me and often my children end up with no bedtime story/a rushed lunch/a missed trip out/less help when they ask for it because I am busy at the door/on the phone with people who cannot often understand that I am, in fact, very busy and that educating my children is a full-time job and I’m actually a human being trying to get through life with minimum disruption and sanity. Hee Hee, that reads as minimum disruption and minimum sanity too, so I think I’ll leave it
The holiday really helped me clear my head. I’d always thought that I was stressed because I was home-edding 3 kids by myself but, in reality, having been in the same room as them between the hours of 8am and midnight with only an hour off, I have realised that it’s OTHER PEOPLE who bring stress to my life (that and the messy house maybe ). I love all my friends and family but there are so many other people (lets call them aquaintances instead of pains in the ***) who really have no place in my life and yet are in it.
So, I’m no longer answering the phone during the day (if it’s important there is the answering machine), I’m spending a lot more time on myself (as I will lose weight before my birthday), I’m going to start getting up earlier and if any of the friends whose birthday evenings out to cra**y clubs I have attended don’t come out with me for my birthday because they don’t like where I’m going, they can all sod off if they think I’m coming out with them again
So, apparently this week I’m not going to be a people person
Right, mini rant over. Today’s been pretty good all round. We all got up early and breakfasted before Ambleside -poetry, a chapter of Understood Betsy and a bible story today- and Pea 1 and SweetP finished up their ‘normals’ quickly and then settled to watch schools tv. Pea 2 really hasn’t been herself today, all she’s wanted is cuddles and I’m just too grumpy to give many at the mo. SweetP practised her new violin before lunch as well and Pea 1 worked some more on the rainforest village that she’s making. I was so glad to find a book to engage her attention as all she is usually interested in is animals, this has broaded to be the Jungle too and she had suggested the mini topic of study that we’re on at the mo-Australia- so all is good with her education wise. Oh and this evening she requested a project on Asia so I’m quite excited about that, though we’re doing Egypt first as I’d promised SweetP and we have loads of cool activities for it so it should be good.
Pea 2 continued to just loiter about and was apparently writing in her diary upstairs, which she was keen to show me, so all was not lost education wise for the morning. I was very good and did lots of housework-well washing, hoovering and preparing for this afternoon.
After lunch, I presented the Peas with the remaining pages of their Australian mini workbooks that I had finally managed to print off from Enchanted learning(ta Lin ) after many ink cartridge mishaps and they settled to work through them to the sounds of the Aussie cd that I’d picked up at the library (how organised is that?). Many thanks to Jo for letting us blow her didgeridoo the other day (no sniggering at the back) and for lending us a fab art magazine with a cool aboriginal picture inside to replicate. When the Peas had finished, we trooped upstairs to look at an Aussie museum collection online (MUST move computer downstairs as buying laptop idea has gone to the dogs with having to buy new car ) and then started work on our Aboriginal pictures. Each of the Peas drifted off at points to let their pics dry and have a go on the computer-number skills cd-rom so I can tick maths off for today .
I had plans to get the pics finished today but the layer paint effect took longer than we thought and so they’ll have to be finished tomorrow. Finished today with Blue Peter, a five second visit from the girl next door (why knock and ask to come in if you’re going out in less than 5 mins? Every time the door goes, the dog goes nuts and it’s very annoying Grr ) and the usual Girls brigade run for Pea 1. We walked the dog down tonight as it wasn’t raining and I met another GB mum on the way down so we had a nice chat.
Home for a lovely long cuddle with SweetP and Pea 2, after they had fed all the pets and we’d had a nice dance to 80’s movie songs on the telly and then picked up Pea 1 and bedded everyone down with a chapter of northern lights. I’m actually quite disliking Lyra as a main character as she smokes, swears, fights, causes criminal damage and is generally rude but I suppose it makes a change to all the good, helpful, nice children in the Ambleside stories .