Le Autre Weekend

We’re indulging in a little bit of French language here, in preparation for our death-defying leap over the North Sea (yes, we’ve booked the planes, no i haven’t yet organised the passports, yes i really am going, no i haven’t placed a bet on the certainty of a major terror alert erupting in the week before we go but i will be doing, it’s a dead cert, i suggest you do it too) and i’m trying to drag up as much of it as i can remember. The kids are doing lots of lotto and stuff in French and i’m planning to do as much as i can with them over the next few weeks. You might get a few French blog titles 🙂

We’d planned togo to Kelmarsh over the weekend, but in the end the first freee weekend with a car was mostly required for tip runs, house clearing and general catching up. Max’s bike needed repairing (again, how come no one makes puncture free tyres? And how come he gets so many????) We got rid of the rubbish from Gran’s house and i’ll do a charity shop run later this week too so then that job will be moreorless over. It’s an odd thing, picking over a persons house, i’d hatre to do it if i were closer to the person really. I found it terribly sad, not in a grief-y type way, but in a lost opportunity sort of way. She was intensely private and i don’t think any of use realised that every card, every event, every photo was carefully catalogued and kept. She’s written diaries her whole life, personal ones, travel ones, baby ones; she was a wealth of information and fascination that i for one never really made enough of. I’ve got a lingering guilt about it now i suppose (surprise) and a determination to do better with the people i still have.

Max has worked really hard at spending quality time with Amelie over the weekend and it seems to have paid off in a calmer, less clingy child since. He’s looked at dinosaurs with her, read her books on volcanoes, listened to her reading and taken her out and about with him. I think she’s finally realising about grabbing and cuddling people who don’t want it, which is a big deal; she might still want to, but she’s spotting the “back off” clues a bit better and is holding back or going to me or Max instead.

One other side effect of reading George and Sam (a side effect i’m so pleased with i’m immediately reaching for all other parenting/HE books) is that it has reminded me of why i’m at home in the first place and that my main motivation is to be a mum. This is part of my ‘grand plan to be happier’ too (not one person voted me happy on facebook, a grim enlightenment indeed 🙁 ) so on Monday morning we set about reclaiming HE.

First up was back to maths and i was glad to see the big 2 hadn’t lost any ground by having a month or so off; Fran’s nearly finished 3A now and she’s working well within her capabilities on it but benefitting from the revision. I was quite impressed when she did 235×3 in her head the other day, there is no way i could have done that at 9 (possibly not at 19 actually!) I spent ages on the sofa with Maddy doing ORT books and then lots of time with Amelie doing Peter and Jane. That was really nice too.

Then in the afternoon we tried to go berry picking, but it was closed, so went to the farm instead. More tomorrow – run out of time 🙂