why don't you just send them to school?

*Disclaimer: there's not much about the above question written here, unless you read between the lines, which I'm not sure is possible, but it's something that's been on my mind a lot recently as it's been said to me too many times.
Well, I did start out with good intentions this week. I looked out of my bedroom window and resolved to have a go at tidying up the garden. I never got as far as getting my garden tools out as I seemed to spend hours tidying up the back patio, which involved carrying bucket loads of rabbit muckings-out up the garden to the compost heap and speeping, and cleaning out the rabbit hutches. Joy is usually on top of this but we have had a lot of wet weather lately and she was up at the stables six days last week.
Anyway, as a result I ended up with four rabbits in the kitchen and utility room. Yes my lovely bit of space got immediately commandeered by rodents, which I have only just got all outside again. And I can't find the long-handled brush! grrrr!

Later on Monday I asssembled the trampoline which Meg got for the kids at Christmas, and which she had been promising to do all day but never seemed to quite get round to it. It is still in the living room.


I also laid some of the decking slabs down at the back in an attempt to solve the tricky runnning water situation. Basically I have a watercourse running past my back door, hence the watercress gowing there. It's only a bit of a trickle by the time it gets past the door, but it is a constant film of water, which very quickly turns to mud, which, in turn, becomes muddy footprints on the green kitchen lino. I brought the decking slabs from the old house as I noticed the new people had taken them up. They clean up quite nicely and if I lay the other 2/3 of them I think it will be a lot more pleasant out there. It was putting me off going out of the back door and I felt a bit trapped!


O, yes, and I've had a birthday this week. The boys made me this cake. (I helped wit the baking) It seems to have been going on for a long time, the birthday. I went out on Monday night on a joint birthday celebration, (after a few nights out the weekend also!) and spent most of yesterday, and today, for that matter, recovering. I didn't get any pressies till today, apart from the bottle of wine and choc from Meg, still untouched. (She still hasn't grown out of waking me up at 8am with the card she has made me! 'cept she was still up from the night before! Groan, thanks a bunch, Meg). You can see in one of the pics the food mixer she got me and was intending to take back and swap for a blender when she went to Bolton yesterday, but forgot it. (it's in red bag on chair). I got a copy of The Idler from Mel and a lovely little velvet dress from Dawn. I copied her a Gillian Welch CD, (well, actually, Nick did it)- these are both things we have been meaning to give to each other for quite some time but never seemed to get round to it.

The children have now gone to their dad's for the night. This is a regular thing, plus every other weekend. I have been struggling at times with the whole kids thing and been talking to the wrong people about it, who of course tell me well, why don't you just send them to school? Argh!!! Thing is it wouldn't really help in the short or long term I don't think. I just need to get my act together a bit and start getting into a bit more of a routine with things. Joy seems fine, educationally. I mean she is doing lots of blogging and stuff and loads of horse stuff, but she has been extremely trying at times with her constant moaning and inane questions. The boys seem happy enough, but I do worry about them spending so much time on the computers- now they have one each and have got into vitual reality games!!!
OMG I suppose I, and, inevitably, they are spending quite a lot of time with a man who spends lots of time on a computer. I find WoW mildy irritating at best, but I get to watch quite a lot of films, and have a handy IT manager, which is what I need as there is always at least one computer in this house that needs fixing (Meg's PC currently has new hard drive; needs windows re-installing; She has a Mac, but her CV and basically everything she needs to find a new JOB are on the PC so I'm keen to get that sorted); my laptop's still not mended!).

No, well, the boys did do about 15 minutes of Jolly Phonics before they went to their dad's this evening, plus bouncing on the trampoline, of course...

ps: don't any of you go on Facebook any more? if you did you would know it was my birthday!