Must Try harder...!

Well another week has sailed on by, but my excuse this week is that Paul has a deadline tomorrow and has been 'hogging' the computer all week to get his essay written. Normally working on Sunday's is a "no, no" here, but he was really struggling with this one and it actually became unavoidable in the end. Still he has it finished now and will be handing it in in the morning. Blogging this week might be a tad scarce too as I am out at least 3 nights this week! Monday - Ikea with two friends to buy Christmas presents and goodies for a 'Swedish' girly night coming up soon, Wednesday - Pizza Hut with a bunch of Paul's friends and their partners, Friday night - Sunday School meeting! Yes, busy, busy, busy as usual!

I've been feeling exceptionally tired these last two weeks, so this week we really did have that 'take it easy week' I was planning :)

Tuesday - nightmare day that seemed to go nowhere! Plan - Maths, History and a little bit of English.

The day began by my friend S (the one I was 'advising' last Friday) offering to take the girls to their usual Tuesday Toddler group, as my other friend was away in Italy and S goes anyway with her two boys. So I accepted gratefully. Good start :) She came and collected them and me and the boys knuckled down to school.

Maths was a bit of a slog, so we took a long-ish break after it and then got down to some fun History. We talked about the fact that Tubal Cain was a worker with Bronze & Iron. (5th generation from Adam, descendent of Adam's first Son Cain - about 500/600 years into history & while Adam was still alive - Adam lived to be 900 odd!!) . This means that early man was clever! Cain (Adam's son) built a city - he was not a cave-dweller!! We compared this to the fact that standard history books state that it was 'thousands' of years before man discovered Bronze (and do you realise how difficult it is to make bronze? - just follow this link and read the first two posts!!) and it's interesting because the 'order' of discovery stated in the history books is probably not that dissimilar to what I believe actually happened (and what the Bible seems to say) - it's just the time-scale that is so different. Anyway, so then we followed up by making some nice 'bracelets' with half toilet rolls, silver foil and little bits of colour-dyed pasta (they were meant to look like jewels) , which are to remind the boys that early-man was clever and that "Tubal Cain was a worker of Bronze & Iron." It was fun and they look good. :)

'Tubal Cain' bracelet



Just as we were making the bracelets, and were rather sticky with glue, S arrived back with the girls, but instead of just bringing the girls in she took her boys out of the car too. They of course trotted in with my girls and S proceeded to tell me all about a course she is starting. I was only half listening as I was trying to finish off with the boys.

So then S went off into town with her boys and left her car in my drive, which was fine, and Me and the children had lunch. We usually take a long lunch break and as we had a full morning all the more so. Just as I was telling the boys to get out their books to do some English S arrived back. I had fully expected her to just pick up her car and go, but no! She came in again and asked for a drink. I said she'd have to make it herself as we were just about to start school again, but she proceeded to take out all the books she had just bought in Oxfam to show me, by which time her boys had run into the house and were totally distracting mine from doing as they had been told. P (her 5 yo) was throwing his Action Man around and saying 'look at this Joel, look Jake..." Next thing I hear ..."SMASH....!" Me; "What was that you've broken?" storming into the hall to find a very meek and tearful looking Jacob saying , "sorry, I'm really sorry Mummy!" He had thrown an Action Man so high (we have very high ceilings) as to smash the glass light shade in the hallway and send large & tiny shards of glass everywhere within a 2m radius!! I was rather livid - especially when P said "Jacob is so naughty Mummy" to S!! I'm afraid I laid into him a bit verbally for that - but no more than I did to Jacob for copying the foolishness of a 5yo when he knew better. Well, after I had hoovered the hallway, and living room and girls room doorways I was really in no mood for school, my stress levels were in the roof and it was 3pm! I was so worried about having missed bits and the children's feet and Ellie's little hands and knees, but what more could I do? S went sheepishly away - without her drink!!

Just so Jake didn't get away with school we did some light English and I called it quits.

In the evening when Paul tried to take down the remainder of the shattered shade the wiring to the light just disintegrated in his hands - so that's another light down!! We now only have lights in the lounge, the bathrooms and the children's rooms!!

Wednesday - never really got off the ground! We were late getting started because Jacob had a lay in. The girls were home so I had promised we would do some cookery in the morning. Having some seriously over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl I decided we would make Banana Loaf. The kids had a ball, mashing bananas and weighing ingredients- and loved licking out the bowl at the end (always the best bit!), but sadly I burnt the cake! Our 'oven' knob's temperature markings washed off one time and so now it is total guess work. I only needed 350F and had no idea where that was - I guessed wrong and the cake was undercooked inside and burnt on the outside - such a shame!! :( However I compensated by us then making 'quick breakfast rolls' which turned out great and were very tasty! :)

After the kids had had their hands in dough they of course wanted to play with dough, so out came the play-dough until lunch time. After lunch I deemed everyone was tired (well actually all except Jacob were and we so rarely have naps these days...) and so they all went to bed for a rest - boys too - and woke up about 5pm!!

I was out in the evening at a Lady's meeting - day over!!

Oh, except Wednesday has been designated our 'family home-church night' and the children were eager to do it in spite of my absence, so Daddy carried on without me. Apparently Jacob, who had been listening to 'Runrig' singing in Gaelic, asked Paul this; "When Alison (one of our Pastors, who is Scottish) prays quietly to herself she talks in Scottish doesn't she?" The answer was "Actually no, she prays in a language called 'Tongues" - so hence-forth a discussion about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit and the language of Tongues. Great stuff - sad I missed it, but thrilled it took place. :)

Thursday - I can't even remember Thursday! Can't have been too impressive. I know we did try to get a bit more school done, but I think even then it wasn't too heavy. Oh - I do remember Jacob taking an age over his Maths again though - story of my life - but he eventually 35/40 questions right. They weren't particularly easy & they were all 'mental maths', so I guess it was quite tough, but at the same time with a little bit of application and attention I know he could do it as well in half the time - it's just getting him to realise that too...Ho, Hum...!!

Friday - NO SCHOOL! Free play day for all of us :) The children were on their computer doing 'Jump Ahead Yr2' for a lot of it I think, and then 'Guess Who?' (which is all about problem solving), so I guess they self-instigated school!! I just kept out of the way :)

Saturday - the usual Tennis, swimming, Ballet routine and then Boo went off to her friend Rosie's to play for the day and Jacob had a friend to play in the afternoon while the other two girls rested. The boys were so occupied together I even managed to doze lightly on the sofa too - great!

Sunday - feeling a little less tired today (probably all those naps this weeks), but still unusually tired for me. And going to bed at quarter past one won't help that I'm sure, but when else am I going to blog!! Anyway off to bed I go :)