Tea Room the Thirteenth

[amberlight]

Welcome to the newest instalment of the One Parent Families tea room. As it's heading for spring, we're now in a nice warm orangery surrounded by woodland filled with spring flowers. All are very welcome to join in with us parents of one (or indeed more!), the tea room gardener/handyman Mellors, various virtual Bishops (don't ask) and a variety of other characters from previous tea rooms. Grab a cuppa, relax!...

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Hurrah for DCMGirlie! Happy birthday to her and here's some celebratory bunting.

There will be lots of bunting on the caravan, won't here?

Hippy bathday to docallmebaby

may all her dreams be sweet tonight.

I think being six is a magical age.

Goodnight all xxx

Good night ladies. I'm off to bed with David Tennant.

On the iPlayer.

Tea, we had quite a simple day yesterday. Opened one present in the morning, then took the rest up to my parents' house after school. Had consisting of party food (my dad's idea) and tuna pasta bake (DD's request!) Then jelly and ice cream, then chocolate cake. The alternative had been to miss art club at school and go to the cinema then out for tea, or to stay for art club and just go out for tea. I was delighted that she chose to stay for art club (it's only running for half a term and she does love it) and then go to my parents' house.

On Sunday however we are taking her bowling, along with eight other children from her class!

Something about six strikes a chord with me; I don't quite know why. I could never quite get my head round having a 5yo in the way I had a 4yo, but having a 6yo feels quite right.

LOL, can't help thinking of the AA Milne book "Now we are 6". Bless!

Must get on, lots to do today... have a sermon to work on...

Morning all...must run now! See you later x

I had mistlechick's parent's 'evening' on Weds - although it was actually an afternoon after picking him up from after-school yoga club (!). We'd dealt with the 'behaviour' issues another day - they have to do a sheet assessment and get you to sign it etc - and he is hugely much better (although this week he's been unlucky as he's been 'spotted' by the headmistress twice doing things that he shouldn't have been doing - I've told him that its because everyone knows his name and what he looks like because he's so chatty and interesting to talk too!!!!)

And he's doing really well - writing he's average (but then, all the girls are better than the boys in terms of handwriting, so being average in the class seems to be OK for a boy in my opinion) towards the top in numbers (that's because we do sums in our heads in the car!) doing well with reading and right at the top in terms of general knowledge and vocabulary.... Sorry about the small crow - but with all the issues we've been having, at least its not all bad.

I love hedgerow flowers, particularly in spring and early summer... Mistlechick is being taught how to recognise different types of tree (in the winter too), birds and flowers.... we need to get a bird book out at the moment to have a look at how many different types of bird have a camoflaged female and showy male - this came up when we were looking at the diving ducks on the lake we often walk around....

Happy 6th Birthday to DCMgirlie!

Mary - you are a brave lady to stay at cubs, hope it went better for BSboy because you were there. I have a similar loathing for having anything in my ears, can't do it - but perhaps if you were to use standard headphones it would reduce the noise without actually preventing you from hearing anything important?

Daisy, if I haven't already said it, so to hear about FIL - never a nice thing to happen.

I also hate the way that old people are reduced to being spoken to as though they are somewhat incompetent children. I don't know why it happens so much - perhaps because they become slower so we get impatient? When I worked in Oxford, we had a couple of retired men who came to work for us as Medical Lab Assistants and we, to my eternal shame, were quite disrespectful of their abilities because they were slower to learn adn understand what needed to be done. These were men who were so used to working that they couldn't stop, even though they were retired - who had worked for all their lives and us pathetic juniors used to take the piss out of them. I did realise what we were doing and did try to reverse my behaviour and thinking - I hope they never realised how ghastly we were.

Not just old people who get spoken to in funny ways, I can assure you

Seem to have a decent choccy cake here, if anyone fancies a bit?

Thanks thumbwitch, not sure I could cope with distorted sound either! I did it for DS, so he stood a chance, you never know, one day it might be uncool for his mum to be there!

Cake please Amber.

Nice. Thank you.

I have spent my evening fashioning a Littlest Pet Shop style cat from icing. Meanwhile, perhaps a mile and a half from my door thousands of revellers are spending their racing winnings, or adding to their losses. What a thrilling life I lead, me and my icing.

I have some very nice chocolate cake here, by virtue of DD utterly disgracing herself by not even touching the very nice chicken and bacon tart thing I made for tea, and thus not being allowed leftover birthday cake. Even though she was horrid I didn't really feel either of us could eat HER cake, so it's hanging around for tomorrow.

I don't know if I've mentioned before that I'm a team leader for a local talking newspaper? I'm told our listnership is mostly older people - this makes sense, as younger people with significant visual impairments would be more likely to use screenreading software etc to access online news. I try to include a really broad set of news, and NOT be patronising and make assumptions about what these older people with visual impairments might be interesting, but it's really hard. My latest effort included:

• cat shot with shotgun
• local authority care budget etc
• Google Streetview
• local Freecycle becomes Freegle
• army major stealing from comrade's support fund
• Monster Raving Loony candidate
• Waitrose bonuses (bonus news feature - wine expert Nick Sherry)
• expensive bacon sandwich
• local dogs win at Crufts (bonus news feature - dog called Araki Fabulous Willy

Morning all - it is piddling it down with rain here - blast it !

Thrilling day of riding in the rain, followed by a trip past DCMB to go and eat noodles and find a present for Dnephew2 who was 16 the other day.

Brother is visiting the parents this weekend, and is trying a reinforcement on the mobility scooter front. Dad is resisting as 'he isn't crippled yet' - obv only being able to shuffle along, plus currently being banned from cycling doesn't count.

DGrandmother in law is back in hospital - I fear that she may have to go into some sort of care setting soon. But as she is 97, and has had nearly all her major joints replaced, I don't think this is doing too badly. Hopefully this time she was able to pack her makeup to take in - last admission she was mortified to not be able to put a full face on in the morning

Good morning everyone!

at DCMB sculpting in icing! Makes me think of Monty Don last night with the trainee stone masons.

And may I just say, in a purely disinterested way that 50 really is not old at all and is in fact middle youth. Ahem.

Tea, hot chocolate, crumpets and toast on the aga for anyone who needs some comfort food on this cold and drizzly day.

Good morning everyone... hoping to sneak in under the wire before we move to TR 14.

Happy birthday to DCMB, waves/ hugs/ whatever to everyone else.

Busy RL plus feeling a bit under the weather, physically as well as emotionally. Feel like I might be coming down with something - feel chilled right through and have a sniffly nose... but that could be due to the spicy Chinese stir-fry I'm having for breakfast. Emotionally feel a bit crap because I did a stupid thing yesterday, left the front door open while carrying in groceries and of course DS bolted. Cue me sprinting after him screaming "NO", DH catching him before he could run into the road and then sternly telling me "you have to WATCH him". Yes, thank you, I actually know that, and believe it or not, I do it reasonably well most of the time. So I said "I know!!!" and he said "then why was he running out the open front door?". Yes, a valid point, but let's pretend I already feel badly enough and you don't need to make me feel worse. Because, to quote the immortal Bridget Jones, "I already feel like an idiot most of the time without anyone's help".
I spent the rest of the evening feeling like a crap mum and shuddering to think what could have happened. Gah.

Is it Bolly o'clock yet?

Ah, thanks!

JM, having found my offspring legging it down the road at top speed at age 2, I can only empathise.

DCMB, I misread your post and thought you were sculpting that list of things in icing

Bolly - excellent. Am in sad mood on account of people being utterly arrghh about arrangements for training coming up very soon. They've basically told me to cope or not bother, which isn't quite the disability-adapted stance I was hoping for

Jacksmama - I think everyone has a "there but the grace of God" story like that. I have. It's an awful shock but what you have to repeat like a mantra is that Nothing Bad Actually Happened.

Amber - Hmm. "Put up or shut up" as the 21st century approach to diversity and training? Fie on them.

Anyone who is brave enough to tackle a week's worth of ironing deserves more Bolly!

Thanks for the cheer-up.

May I claim the gold medal in the ironing Olympics (endurance event)?

medals all round, handed out by mellors.

ironing endurance, iceing sculpting and head banging against brick wall. you all win golds.

DID you know- National trust properties in England are open for free this weekend. not all of them, but most.
We spent the afternoon at Cotehele house in Cornwall. was a nice wayto spend a rainy afternoon. Boy seemed to enjoy poking about an old house and appeared to be doing some thinking about his answers to DH or my questions about what he was seeing and how it differed or was similar to things in our house.

Saw lots of frogs in the pond , and some very big swords and pikes, a suit of armour and a HUGE bed. A ceiling decorated with stars and kisses and folly tower.

Hot choc and national trust shop biscuits on teh table for those who are not so keen on bolly and a straw.

. I don't have an ironing backlog, since I avoid things that need ironing at all possible costs. DH does his own.

I saw the NT thing UniS - but have been instructed that we are going to see lambs tomorrow.

Bolly, Jolly Bolly, sounds delish, cheers everyone

Its a jolly, bolly jolly. golly.

This evening, after having spent the day in town and baked biscuits with Wriggle (Easter hedgehogs and only prevented from doing Easter reindeer by me hiding the reindeer cutter) I found the sewing machine, dusted it and made Wriggle an apron for cooking out of a tea cloth. This is just about the first thing I have ever made!! I am so proud!!!

Have decided I want a 'get to know your sewing machine' course for my birthday, instead of an incubator. Will have to bully a chicken into going broody.