The Brick House

I got down with B this evening and made A Plan (TM) for the rest of the week. It will be interesting to see if she sticks with it…

Saturday-Sunday
Nannie picked up B @ 1:30 for her riding lesson (2:00-2:30) then they brought Smoko home and B went on a trail ride with Sue on Sunday

Monday

• called in to pick up a DVD to return to the library, and find her German book
• pottery 9:45-11:15
• bus trip to Dickson; lunch
• German 12:00-1:00
• borrowed two DVDs and Sally Morgan, My Place, on CD audiobook
• watched part of one of her DVDs, Fruits Basket
• identified that there was a problem with sending emails, E fixed

Tuesday

• chat convo w. E
• watching BTN 10:00-10:30; Our History; Engineering at the Cutting Edge; Grand Designs
• watched some more of Fruits Basket
• swimming with Nannie 1:00
• out to the farm
• went riding, fell off, got back on again 🙂

• googled for a cupcake recipe, made a list of the ingredients she thought we might not have, checked what we did have and discussed substitutes, estimated how much it would cost, went to the shops (with the dog)
• discussed possibilities for non-petrol transport options for local shopping (ie. finding some kind of trolley which could be hitched to her scooter as a trailer, and how to harness up the dog for extra pulling power)
• went looking for different recipes, found one for spiderweb cupcakes, got enthusiastic about a link to Halloween recipes she found
• made cupcakes entirely without assistance. They wuz yummy.
• played on the ‘puter, watched TV, played in the garden, helped look after H
• Scouts 7:00-8:30 – went canoeing
• watched Futurama with E

• babysat K 8:00-9:00 while H and I had a sleep in; made pancakes for breakfast
• HENCAST meet-up in the morning 10:00-11:30 – drumming workshop
• played with K in the pool then helped her have a shower
• played on the computer; got frustrated with monitor troubles
• chat conversations with E and Anne
• did some gardening with me – finished sheet mulching the beds and helped spread peastraw; we observed the peas which had sprouted from the mulch in the other bed
• actually ate the same dinner as we were having (although she spoiled that somewhat by behaving like a pill and winding K up)
• watched Futurama with E

And other stuff wot I forgets…

• made breakfast for K
• played computer games and sent me a chat message
• watching ABC Schools’ TV 10:30-12: BTN (the apology and stolen generation; East Timor attempted coup/assassination; various sporting crap; then Naked Science on shark attacks
• got a postcard from Anne, which she had no problems reading
• Bunnings 12:30-2. Also went to bakery for me & bought bread & horrible pies
• TV + getting ready to go, 2-3:30
• horse riding 4-5pm; picked more apples on the way home; Kelly came round for a quick chat when we got home
• watched her anime whateveritis DVD she borrowed from the library
• helped me bath H and wash his hair (with bicarb)
• tried the black bean stroganoff but preferred to eat the mashed potatoes with the meat sauce from Saturday
• watched Spicks and Specks
• we talked about her horse and various things about horses, including the interesting factoid that one should stand up in one’s stirrups while one’s boy horse is peeing, because he straddles his legs and it’s more uncomfortable for him to have you sitting on his back than standing up. We speculated as to why this is so and she came up with a credible explanation involving distribution of force.

• Watched morning TV
• Went out in the morning to drop E off at the mall; went to the supermarket and bought nappies, cheese and bread; talked about the kind of things whe wanted to buy but which came from China
• watered the pots on the deck and the new seedlings; fed chickens and checked for eggs
• played on the computer
• Had a chat conversation with Anne and then with me (asked for help with some of the spellings; spelled writing as righting so we talked about that)
• helped look after the boy while I did much laundry; put on a load of laundry for me
• helped make lunch for K; vacuumed up some peas that she dropped on the floor
• Played Tummy Ache! with me and K
• I read her a story about the new fossil discovery of a giant toad
• watched afternoon TV

Saturday

• markets in the morning
• horse riding 2:00-2:30
• Glenn na Meala open day from 3pm
• St Valentine’s tourney and feast

Sunday

• went through her books and read quite a few; asked me to write a comprehension sheet based on one of the stories in Five True Dog Stories

Monday

• vacuumed living room
• made pancakes for breakfast
• pottery 9:45 – 11:15
• caught the bus to Dickson with C and C’s adult sister L
• German 12:00-1:00
• borrowed books/DVDs from the library; bought Con-Tac to cover her German book and stickers to decorate it
• got home ~2ish; played with K’s new wooden jigsaw; covered her book; did crafty stuff; put K in the bath after she covered herself with glue; made K a snack
• watching TV from about 4:30ish
• watched a movie?
• helped tidy the living room with me and E; watched Futurama with E
• read a chapter of Geronimo Stilton and the Curse of the Cheese Pyramid with me. I was intrigued by the way she is now getting words like “antique” and “valuable” from context without difficulty, but still struggles over the little words like “I” and “he” and “on”, etc

Monday:

• hypothetical – if we lived in a tiny house and had only room to keep five personal things, what would she choose?
• Pottery 10-11:30
• German 12-1:00

Tuesday:

• visited Mel & family in Bungendore 1:30-4:30

Wednesday:

• watched “Why I Need An Apology” on SMH’s website, and a slideshow I can’t link to about a family for whom the apology was too little, too late
• watched the Apology live from PH
• Pa arrived to drop off bathtubs and horse manure while we were both in floods of tears watching Rudd’s subsequent speech, but didn’t mind us ignoring him in favour of the historic moment
• continued the discussion about bringing more simplicity into our lives
• watched a documentary on labour conditions inChinese factories and dictated a letter to family about the issue
• playing in the garden with K – K got sung by a native bee, and B brought in the insect (which she killed) so I showed her how I made the identification (4 wings = wasp/bee not fly; pollen carriers on legs = bee)
• playing MummyBethy in the garden with K
• tried to find some info herself on the LEGO website about where their components are manufactured – I found her the Annual Report which described how the main production facility is in Denmark but subsidiary factories are going up in Mexico and Eastern Europe. She asked if they used slave labour but I have no idea how to find out. She decided that on the whole LEGO could go on her OK list 🙂
• lunch ~2pm
• other stuff?
• horseriding 4-5; we also picked a big bag of apples from various feral trees on our way home

Thursday

• HENCAST – Fun Factory ~12:15-2pm
• did stuff with E in the afternoon(?)
• cooked Weetbix Slice
• read SMH article/watched slideshow on Tasmanian Devils – she already knew about the facial tumour disease
• lots of discussion with E about identifying emotions/low blood sugar crash and associated behaviour, etc (?)

Friday

• used our safeword to unstick B from an unproductive situation. Practiced creative negotiation strategies when playing with her sister. Helped with H when he had a shower. Watched lots of TV *rolls eyes*
• lunch (monkey platter) 12:00
• watered new transplants and pots on deck
• playing in sandpit/garden
• chatting on Club Penguin – asked me how to spell some words, and checked the spelling of some others after she’d spelled them herself
• I kicked all the squids outside when they had been horrendous for far too long, and B planted out nasturtiums for me while K pottered around being Hero Katy and H sat in his chair and kicked his feet in the grass
• Scouts 7:00-8:30

After B spent her first hour or so of the morning on the computer playing Club Penguin (and doing a lot of sotto voce reading), B and K have spent most of the morning playing MummyBethy in the cubby house, as far as I can tell. I did convince B to help put away the drying up, and K helped me with the bins, but that has been their main focus. I have also managed to get the first raised bed filled with manure, sheeted with newspaper, and covered with mulch. Hurrah!

B’s plan to read Geronimo Stilton in bed last night was thwarted by not being able to find the book. Must dig out the living room this weekend and perhaps it will turn up.

B cooked lunch today (confetti risotto) and K did some washing up. My new Patapum arrived and we discovered that it fits B really well and she’s comfortable carrying H in it, so she’s stoked about that 🙂 We walked down to the park with H on my back in it, then I took him out for a feed while the girls played, and wore him home in front. It’s comfy both ways but feels more secure on the front, probably because I’m more used to front carries.

We haven’t had a car for two days so various projects got put on the backburner til we could go out and get components for them. I’m getting twitchy not being able to visit Bunnings for new seedlings!

Must go bed…