Thursday 15 May 2008

A day of doing very little...






Today has been a day of doing very little it seems.

I had grand plans to make it to our local regular home ed group, but the car was still at the garage being fixed (broken cam belt) and we were waiting to find out just how serious the problem was. Apparently broken cam belts often 'write off' a car engine and the thought of having to spend £1000+ on fixing the car - or having to buy another one - has been at the back of our minds for the past week since the darn thing packed up. Fortunately it seems as if the car has escaped further damage, and although we're wary that there might be some other problems with the car I drove it to work tonight after the garage put a new cam belt in it. Actually I don't know anything about cars or how they work, and don't really have any inclination to learn. I figure I have enough jobs around the house and if I start learning about the car it will then become my job as well. Nah! Sometimes there are advantages to staying ignorant about these things. I just know that it's a bummer when my back AND the car break down at the same time and that I'm relieved when one - or preferably both - are fixed!





Go-karting down the driveway





So no home ed group today. Ds1 was prompted by me to spend some time this morning writing out his application for a Blue Peter badge. It was a long slow laborious task. First we discussed what he would like to/ought to write. Then, consulting with him, I wrote a couple of paragraphs on a scrap of paper. All he had to do then was type up the sentences in a word document. Boy, it took ages! I think it must have taken over an hour and he typed up about 6 or 7 sentences! I sure hope these Blue Peter guys appreciate the effort (child's and parent's!) that has gone into this application. Still, if he gets a badge and I can get him into Legoland for free then I guess it'll be worth it. Just have to come up with an idea for ds2 then, so they can both get in free.

The rest of the day the kids mostly just mooched around. Dd1 spent some time drawing pictures of her brothers and the dog, which are really rather cute - big smiley lopsided people and animals! At the moment I'm keeping them all pegged up from a string that hangs across one of the walls in our lounge, but if she gets too prolific I might have to thin them out a bit. She's only started drawing things over the past fortnight, before then we just had a few scribbles and the occasional amoebic blob with eyes. The progress is quite spectacular. Still, it's often the way with most of the things the kids learn. If I keep well out of the way they seem to suddenly make great leaps in their knowledge or ability. If I try to teach or interfere, then all is lost!

Spent much of the day today trying to browse the internet for dh's birthday present. I'm always lousy at getting him something decent for his birthday because for whatever reason, May is either very busy, or in some way a complete washout due to illness, pregnancy or other reasons. This time I've ordered something off the internet (I'm running out of time and energy and health to go shopping in town) and spent far more money than I was intending. Oh sod it. Sometimes when you're skint, being even more skint doesn't seem like a big deal does it? {g} Ah well, so much for all my frugleness of the past few weeks! Anyway, I sold the travelcot to a guy today for 20 quid, so that's a little bit to go in the pot (yeah the bottomless pot, that's the one!)

Have managed over the past few days to put a few bean poles in the garden where dh has dug and also planted some quite large tomato plants, but haven't got much further with the garden. Moved some of the rampant jerusalem artichokes to a more useful place, but there are still loads of stray plants that have taken over one of my raised beds. Even total neglect doesn't seem to kill them off! Looking on the bright side, at least they are pretty, even if they are in the wrong place. And all these plants came from just from a few uneaten organic veg-box tubers that I threw into the compost bin. Boy, they are survivors!

Despite trying to downsize a bit this year, I have lots to be planted at the allotment - greens, tomato plants, runner beans, french marigold plants, leeks, onions, seed potatoes (found another 2 bags of them in the shed - arrgghh!), and well, lots of other things. Have also been trying to pot up my pepper/chilli pepper plants into their permanent pots in the greenhouse, but I'm finding it all difficult work with my back still not too good. Sciatica came back with a vengence this afternoon (probably because I'd been sat in one position too long in front of the computer) and the terror of yet another fortnight in agony on the sofa is ever present. I need to phone the doctor to go back and see him to 'review options' (as he put it), but am putting it off. He's a bit of a tosser, totally unsympathetic and he's managed to drive me to despair on several occasions ( I'm not sure that patients sobbing on the way home from the doctor is one of the NHS targets!). I have a new surname for him, but don't think it's appropriate to post on a blog! So, will try and summon up some courage tomorrow to make an appointment and then if I get no luck I'll try another doctor. Someone human perhaps...{g}

As for the 'flight' project that we started a while back, well, it's been making slow progress. I really need to focus and get the kids doing something more structured as we seem to be drifting from day to day. They are still learning things, but with the back and car 'situation' we've got out of our routines recently and it's been hard for us all to be so housebound. Ranted big time at the kids yesterday. Apologised afterwards, but I think at least some of it was warranted. The kids really need to start pulling their weight around the house, helping me out and cooperating, or the situation is just going to become impossible. Even the threat of school didn't seem to have much of an effect. Darn! Must have used that one a bit too much!

1 comment:

Shirl said...

Good luck with the Blue Peter badge. Dee has a green one but we forget to take it on our days out!