Busy busy. Mum came to look after us for a fortnight, which was lovely: so nice to have that extra pair of hands to pass the baby to, or to peel potatoes, or colour with Tamsin, or do Maggie’s homework. (I mean, of course, help M with her homework.) And now she has gone and we are working out how to manage three children two grownups; it seems the way to manage is mostly to do no housework beyond the absolute essential* and to live in a midden. So naturally I have upped the ante by choosing this week to put the house on the market. Any buyers out there who can see past the toys and clutter and non-cream walls and distinct lack of immaculacy?

We have a new car, so can all leave the house simultaneously and not in convoy. It is a Toyota so may well be recalled for weirdy accelerator issues:  it will have to go back anyway as they have not fitted the reverse parky beepy things that we requested. Not sure if it is the fault of the lease company or Toyota; frankly I don’t much care as long as it is resolved before I reverse into something. Cameron sold his at the weekend and is now driving my old one, muttering under his breath about the yogurt and crumbs and mud and general unpleasantness of it: he tried to get it valeted on Sunday but was turned away from two places. We are not sure if they were scared by the state of it or just about to close.

Jenny** is growing and growing and I know this is a good thing and what babies are supposed to do yet couldn’t help feeling sad as I realised I had to stop cramming her little feet into newborn-sized babygros and get out the next size. It is a novelty for me to have a big baby (she’s not huge, just biggish) after the other two tots, and she is such a happy content sweet thing with bright eyes and a double chin. Maggie is reading, properly – just discovering the Secret Seven and really not that interested in being read to or even in reading out loud but just wants to be left in peace with her nose stuck in. Just like her mum. She’s a sensitive soul who was upset when Granny went home. Tamsin is, well, three, and didn’t give a monkeys. Very three. She’s enjoying preschool but still refuses to speak there (but will whisper, with some sort of 3-year-old logic) and is great at jigsaws -oh, and she has started ballet lessons which she loves.

* Essential = one hot meal a day, clean plates to eat it from, clean clothes.
**Links are to photos

OK so I haven’t quite been here as much as I intended.  Part two of our hol has not yet appeared. Today: a new term, a new school year. And boy are we back to normal: Mag loved school of course, despite a small wibble when we went in to her new classroom, saying goodbye to Ruby (different class this year) and not knowing where her drawer was. But apparently her new school shoes were brilliant. Tamsin and I zipped into town on the bus to visit the market for 2 kg of plums – I have an unexplained urge to make wine – and some damsons for gin, then she went off to preschool. Cameron has gone to Italy via London (he is showing some press people round Ferrari, how horrible for him) and I am home alone in the rain with a short deadline. And actually rather enjoying being on my own for the first time since July!

I haven’t set foot on the allotment since being kicked off: am going to have to stop being sad and embarrassed and get myself down there. There’s a sandpit and two raised beds (and some lovely veg, and a rhubarb crown that I know they have been coveting) that I will not leave for the next person. It’s raining though; did I mention that?

I’ve been reading…not that I am ever without a book, but I’ve been getting through them at a better rate (we’ll see what happens now it is term-time again). One of my reads was not on the label, an interesting book in the same vein as tescopoly or fast food nation. It wasn’t full of surprises but has reinforced a lot of the things I was trying to do anyway – so I am back baking bread, which had slipped over the holidays (and early pregnancy too, don’t forget – a pretty damn good excuse if you ask me) and stepping back from the meat-centric diet we had drifted towards. (This is complicated by Tamsin being almost exclusively carnivorous.) I have dug out my excellent river cottage bread book and today attempted english muffins (that’s them in the picture); bagels are next on the hit list. I am unsure about prawns, the farmed fish/wild fish thing continues to confuse me, but I feel quietly smug (and lucky) to have an organic farm shop in the next village that competes with the supermarkets price-wise and stocks about 95% of things I want.

Week 1 was spent at my parents’, mostly sitting on my bum drinking endless cups of tea (all made for me) while they catered and entertained the children. Lovely and restful and rejuvenative, and C (who commuted into london every day, which I think he rather enjoyed; change good as rest and all that) & I even managed a meal out. Together. Caught up with a selection of friends and mostly the sun shone.

This week has been sunshine and heavy heavy showers, and nicely busy. So lovely getting up in a normal way in the mornings; no rushing about shrieking SHOES! On Monday we went to Chatsworth to meet a whole forum of ladies with babies born in November 2006 (so Tamsin’s age). Having “known” them for over 3 years, I was still surprised that they were all as imagined; not a hairy middleaged trucker to be seen. We had a really lovely day and I hope we will see them again! Tuesday, predictably, we were knackered so did very little apart from a friend’s “barbeque” (cooked under brolly, eaten indoors) in the evening – a late night for the children saw Maggie sleep in past 8 the next morning! Garden centre to meet anther new online friend yesterday morning then a jolly trip to Costco in the afternoon. Very interesting for me, never having been before, but rather less so for the hooligans. And this morning Tamsin is at nursery. Maggie and I have had such a nice quality time together! Went into town on the bus (it felt just like the old days, when I was expecting T and we used to take the bus in to go to the library), popped to Starbucks and the toy shop at a  leisurely pace (shopping with Tamsin is just not fun), pottered in and out of various other shops, and wandered home again.

An updatey sort of a post. In bullets, because that is the sort of focused and efficient mind I have.

• We survived M’s first year of school! Relatively unscathed: she’s reading beautifully and seems so grown up. Am extremely glad to have 6 lovely weeks of not spending 10 minutes every morning shouting shoes! bag! coat! shoes! SHOES!*
• Anomaly scan on Friday showed no problems with new baby. Girls behaved beautifully and were very interested (sonographer had a student in so explained very well, and was really nice to the children too).  Tamsin was slightly anxious – held my hand throughout and was very worried about the gel “it’s all gluey“. Midwife completely thrown by my non-standard notes and made me explain why I hadn’t had a dating scan and justify why I was using an IM this time. Interestingly, the hospital printouts contain “EDD by dating scan” so I have no idea where that has come from.
• Had C’s parents down this weekend – walked at Loggerheads yesterday. Rain held off until we got to our picnic – and we walked 3 miles to the Devil’s Gorge and back, even the children** – though the sandwiches got a bit soggy. Some sort of iron-age reconstruction people were there, which was quite interesting – I am always intrigued by the re-enactors, how do they pick their era? What makes them think yes, I will devote my life to being a Pict goodness me I would hate to be a Roman/Medieval person/Sealed Knot type? (Though having done a bit of wiki investigation, I find they don’t necessarily devote their lives: there is apparently 3 categories, ranging from “farbs” who might – gasp – wear polyester or trainers – to “stitch counters” who are very hardcore. Hmm.)

*We will just overlook the shouting that has already happened, 1 hour into the holiday, because I have no patience for the two of them screeching at each other.

**T was carried for half of it.

and has helped me fix this so in principle FB should now see a link to my website with a summary, rather than reams and reams and reams of writing; I hope people will now leave comments at turquoise rather than on FB where they are ephemeral like the wind not carved in stone to haunt you forever more.

Let’s see if it works with this long and convoluted test post.

Also, Torchwood is on.

There’s a distinct whiff of spring in the air today, as evidenced by this picture of the children outside without a million layers of clothing. It’s half term, too, so the afternoon was of a sensible length and conformation, without the very annoying school run that usually bisects any activity of interest. Thought I’d just pop in and say hello, still alive, back when I think of something to say. Are you missing me?

January was busy, with my birthday swiftly followed by Cameron’s significant birthday plus party, with my grandmother’s funeral thrown in somewhere between the two for good measure. February has so far been remedially peaceful.

I have zero energy and less enthusiasm. I’m not miserable, nor do I have any weirdy seasonal bluesy thing: I just want to curl up on the sofa with a book, and maybe have a nap. I do not want to shop for food (though I have done so), put it away (though I will, soon), cook, clean or do any of my usual jobs. I don’t much want to do the school run; I certainly don’t want to exercise. I can’t be bothered visiting my allotment and the spring bulbs are still in bags on top of the microwave. The house is gradually getting more and more of a tip (and we’ve a babysitter on Saturday so I must get off my bum before then) and we have no clean socks. I cannot face going out with the old boys tonight: even less so since plan A – walking to the pub with Peter and Mrs Peter – has been put off in favour of plan B – waiting for C to get home from Germany then going down later on my own. People reckon I must go, it will do me good. I expect they are right

I am feeling very hibernatey (yes it is a word thank you very much) which is the perfect opportunity to start knitting a doll for Maggie’s birthday (or next Christmas if I don’t get along as quickly as I hope). It is nearly 20 years since I knitted anything – I am so old – but so far* it has been ok, despite requiring me to learn from a book a new method of casting on. I hope it will turn out like this one.

Apparently it was -11 degrees in Chester last night, and it certainly felt icy this morning, so I feel no guilt about staying in. I can hardly insist Tamsin digs in the sandpit. I have lentils boiling, flapjack baking, T asleep on the sofa. Also nothing for tea and dust you could write your name in, but I never claimed to be perfect.

*4 rows and counting.

It’s been a while hasn’t it. Very pleasant festive season here: sorry to see M and C go back today and T is not at all sure what to do with herself. No resolutions, because I don’t really go in for them, but lots of plans and a very long list of Things To Do. Including sorting out that allotment (or giving it up altogether) and a new photoproject at blip. Which is somewhat hampered by having broken my lens: I have to take everything from the other side of the house via my very zoomy zoom. Tripod required.

I have a most exciting night out planned for Wednesday: the old boys from the allotment’s Christmas night out (to the local) , plus both Cameron and I have birthdays this month. Busy busy and I hope to be back here a bit more, too.

Poor me.

Cameron left for Japan* at 7 am on Saturday: I was left to shiver achily under a blanket on the sofa while the children trashed the house. (I am still full of cold and yet to find the energy to pick up all the bits from every single jigsaw we own and sort them into the appropriate boxes: it is a good job Cameron is still away as he doesn’t tolerate bits on the floor terribly well.)

Tamsin fell off a bridgey thing at Tumbletots on Monday and smacked her head on the floor. I am hoping that is her third thing and she will be ok now: she is such an urchin with hacked hair, pointy teeth and a bruise. She does have a whole lovely new winter wardrobe though, as I got a bit carried away at Mothercare.

On the very bright and exciting side: Maggie brought home her very first reading book last week and (mostly) read it to me! Am very proud.

*so I was already sulking.