Journal Entries
January
Posted Jan 29, 2009
Didn't go back to work until the 8th and enjoyed my three days at home alone.
Started to feel ropey at the beginning of last week and when Sic was ill on the Friday and I rang in to say I'd work at home, my boss said I sounded so awful I should probably just be off sick as well. So Sic and I had a sofa each and watched all six hours of Pride and Prejudice. It was brilliant. She really enjoyed it (as did Nod, who watched the second half) and both girls noticed that Darcy actually only smiles ONCE in the entire series. They weren't over impressed by the drippy shirt scene and couldn't understand how it had caused such a furore when it was broadcast.
Peaceful weekend but by Monday it was clearly sinusitis which is horrible, I just feel as though my head is too heavy to stay put on my shoulders. I felt a lot better yesterday but still stayed at home in case I found myself flagging halfway through the day. But I didn't! I was better! So I went to the school governors' meeting in the evening, thinking, well, if I make it through that I'm certainly ready to go back to work ...
... and at 9.30pm I realised to my horror that I was very close to finding myself in a crumpled heap on the floor. Staved that off by drinking lots of water and came home ...
... to be greeted by DH who, even before I had taken my coat off, was telling me all about the huge row he'd had with Sic earlier in the evening. Cheers.
I've stayed at home again today and I'm seeing my GP this afternoon. And feel very low.
DH's job is still good and the only downside really is that I'm having to do all the household management - his share is to cook tea and tidy up the kitchen afterwards, and he's not managing the tidying up very well (no surprises there then). However, the weekend cleaning is working well - the girls are earning their pocket money by cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming the stairs and landing, and cleaning the living room, while DH and I do the kitchen and other bits and pieces. So that's good progress.
I have missed H2G2, and I've simply replaced it with playing cards on the computer, so restricting myself to a monthly visit hasn't really had the effect that DH was hoping for. 
to all.
Mol
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Jan 29, 2009
Happy birthday to me!
Posted Dec 21, 2008
We went to London for the day for my birthday.
It was 
- my best birthday ever 
And the loveliest moment was when Osh, for no reason at all, suddenly gave me a huge kiss while we were travelling on the underground. Six year old boys are lovely - it's so nice having a man in my life who likes to tell me he loves me.
In fact it was perfect right up to the moment when I realised I'd dropped £20 in the loo at Paddington station 
. But I'm not letting that spoil an otherwise perfect day. Oh no. Even though I absolutely *hate* things not being where I know I put them, and could have spent that £20 much more enjoyably than on a trip to a toilet. The most expensive wee of my life.
Anyway, we didn't get home until nearly 2am. So we're having a pyjama day today, and the Christmas baking can wait!
Mol
Discuss this Journal entry [10]
Latest reply: Dec 21, 2008
Worried about Sic
Posted Dec 1, 2008
We are having some problems with Sic (now aged 10, but, as she has been since she was about 3, acting as though she's going on 15).
We've had one argument after another this evening and she's just going ON and ON and ON and shouting and stomping and slamming doors so even when we said Go To Bed You Are Tired we still weren't allowed to forget the fact that she's got a strop on.
She's having a tough time at school at the moment (9 year old girls are complete b*tches and it's hard to know what to do about that, if there's anything we *can* do - there seems to be a lot of sniping and oneupmanship) but she's being quite imprecise about what it is that's bothering her right now. There's a lot of anger in there and both of us think she might benefit from some counselling or therapy, but she seems to think that only "bad" people have that, and wasn't convinced when DH and I said that we'd both had counselling ourselves. She was very worked up about what her teacher might say to her about her spellings last week, possibly because she finds it hard to recognise gentle ribbing and does take things to heart. So there might be a teacher issue in there - or maybe I'm just being supersensitive because of the whole gifted and talented thing.
But none of us really want to spend our evenings shouting and screaming at each other, which is mostly what happened tonight. Apart from Guides, which I took Sic to simply to remove her from further conflict with Osh and DH, and which Sic seemed to thoroughly enjoy, but was unenthusiastic about when she got home. Mind you, by then she was associating Guides with having left her coat behind in the village hall "And now everybody's BLAMING me and saying it's my fault!" Well, erm, it is. So be nice and go with DH to fetch it back. But she wouldn't do the being nice bit.
It's constant pushing pushing pushing until we snap and it's very wearying. Yes it's fabulous that she's confident enough to challenge authority but it's always OUR authority and she simply doesn't know when to stop. And, key issue, she's not apparently like this at school or with other people. Now, while that's a Good Thing (in terms of the standards of behaviour experienced by other people), that suggests to me that the problem may not actually be at home, because here is where she feels safe enough to do the challenging and the pushing.
Perhaps it's normal 10 year old behaviour. Normal for a particularly dramatic 10 year old. Normal for a child who in some respects has a maturity that some much older girls lack (I'm not talking about lipstick etc, although she does do that, I mean in terms of her emotional understanding and ability to debate - sometimes it's hard to remember that she's just a little girl). BUT, it's not behaviour that any of us (including Sic herself) likes. So it's a problem. And one that we can't work out how to solve.
Because she is, really, in so many ways, just a little girl. And she's a lovely, sunshiny person. So it's really hard to see her behaving in an angry and unpleasant way.
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: Dec 1, 2008
A week to myself
Posted Oct 31, 2008
I'm off work until 10 November, using up leave.
As I haven't had a proper holiday all year (Butlins is exhausting and Guide camp ... I mean, I love it, but ...), and as I've been feeling totally and utterly worn out for several months, this is My Week in which the intention is that I Totally Relax.
So, the to-do list runs:
make doll's house
dig over the front garden and turn it into a rose garden
sort out old emails
organise my bookmarks
bring my guide paperwork up to date
bring my school governor paperwork up to date
sort out all my writing
write some more
watch all 3 extended LoTRs
read lots of books
eat lots of chocolate
And I only have four days to do it in, because the kids are at home on Monday.
Oh, and obviously I have to tidy and clean the house before I can settle down to do any of that.
And I have a re-scheduled parents' evening appointment for Osh, because DH got muddled on the night and didn't go to all the right teachers. And while I'm there, I want to find out about Sic's new G&T status.
And before *all* of that, I have to get through this weekend. We are seeing Stomp on Saturday evening, and afterwards I'm going to a party (our only two social engagements of the year, both on the same night). Then Sunday is Sic's tenth birthday, so there's the swimming and McD's and birthday cake stuff to do, while DH is at work.
But I'm really looking forward to my week off
Discuss this Journal entry [16]
Latest reply: Oct 31, 2008
The things they say
Posted Oct 22, 2008
So, all is going well. Bit scary, really.
DH comes home every day with tales from the front line of education. Today's one was the teacher who hollered across the classroom "Boy! Stand up!" ... and got the answer, "I *am* standing up."
Quite a short child, apparently.
Meanwhile, on the home front, Sic has been put on the gifted and talented register for literacy. I wasn't able to go to parents' evening yesterday otherwise I would have been asking a *lot* of questions about this, because the prospect just plunges me straight into the turmoil of my own school experiences - which means I can't think straight about it and fail to take on board things such as the major changes in education over the past 30 years. 
But I am concerned - just sticking her in with the year above for literacy lessons isn't a solution, and that's all that's happened so far. So I'd like to know what it means and what is proposed, if anything.
What is most impressive about Sic is that her talent in literacy is certainly not linked to her range of reading. She finds books with lots of closely-packed print intimidating ... so this would be almost all books except Jacqueline Wilson and High School Musical ... my substantial collection of classical children's literature remains untouched 
. However, she is now keen to overcome this (and yes, we have had her eyes tested). So she might be even more impressive this time next year.
Work is hard at the moment. They've published the scoring system for working out who gets made redundant. And because it's based on our assessed competencies, those of us who have only been in the job for a couple of years will score more highly (which is a Bad Thing) because it's not possible to get a good rating while still being trained (which takes about two years, sigh). So, potentially gloomy.
But, cheery cheery, I'm going to see Hamlet tomorrow
Mol
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Oct 22, 2008
Mol - on the new tablet
Researcher U222463
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."