Now here is a post with a large number of potential names… blood, sweat and tears…. nurofen, paracetamol and mouth wash…. stress, stress and more stress??
What a couple of weeks; we’ve had worse (ironically aroundabout exactly 2 years ago) but this was pretty tough too.
So… before it got especially tricky we did have the first gymnastics session, which went down very well with all of the big three and the next door neighbour too. All the girls did well and they all seemed to settle in fast. They were most upset not to have leotards, but we’ve trawled ebay this week and come up with some. Fran isn’t fit for gym tonight, which she is annoyed about, because she has a very lovely leotard that she is delighted by!
Got to say though, i’ve been driven to irritation twice in the last week by people who send stuff out stinking of cigarette smoke. It is just horrible, especially people who claim to be sending out from a professional outfit. I think ebay need a “smoke free” icon that people can add to their listings!
Monday was the start of Max having an intensely stressful week at work, probably the most stressed out i have ever seen him; he said it has been like being in The Apprentice. I phoned him during a meeting and although he answered, he didn’t speak and i could hear it. It sounded like a large number of people in need of ‘Kalms’. That kind of left me and the girls fending for ourselves for the week, which was far from ideal; Fran was fine but the other girls were really quite anxious, i was behind at work with no opportunities for going there, a relative of Max, Auntie Sue and MF’s had died, which left both me and MF temporarily childminder free and therefore me staff free. It all added up to STRESS… and then the funeral was planned for Friday, the same day as Fran’s op, which just added layers to the entire thing. Fortunately (tricky to find a word that actually applies adequately to it really, so fortunately will have to do) it was not actually a person Max was close to, so it didn’t affect him as much as his Gran dying, but it is never nice to know other people are sad.
Oh, and then Tuesday/Wednesday was the second anniversary of me ‘choosing’ to turn my life into a permanent living hell for the rest of my lifetime. I’m REALLY not good with anniversaries; they shouldn’t be any different, but to me they are. I can’t help it. As Max and i have now reached a state of being incapable of discussing it at all anymore, as i’ve simply run out of tears to cry and as i’ve reached a point of feeling that i must surely have bored every friend to tears with my own folly by now, i rather choked to death on the whole thing 🙁
Cheered (ahem) ourselves up with “I Am Legend” – not one for Helen i think… and i played with Fimo for a bit to distract myself.
Through the week, the girls did quite a bit of work. ETC is doing Amelie and Maddy good and Amelie is now managing to read the instructions in a Charlie and Lola drawing book while Maddy is continuing a slow and steady progress through simple reader types. Fran got through a lot of Meleto – i should have put her on Yr 6 i think – and she and i also did decimals in Singapore 4B. Maddy is whipping through book 3 and seems to be gaining confidence now. Good to see her having the courage to read it now and write what she thinks is right. Everyone used EC and we signed up to Brainpop again as Fran and i started on GCSE Biology and we wanted some computer back up.
The GCSE thing has come about purely because everything up to that level seems insultingly simple and Fran is already bored by it. She’s keen to do more science and has gone passed the basics in KS2/3 type books, so a GCSE Revise type textbook is giving us access to a little more depth. I’ve not got the passion to make it up out of my head, nor even just follow up as things come up, so the book is a help.
We started on cells, plant and animal ones and then types of cell and how they work. It’s been interesting and well within what we can both manage. I daresay for now we’ll skip over 40% of it totally and only dabble in 20% of the rest but it gives us something to work at. She’s also loving Horrible Geography currently, which is offering lots of topics up.
Maddy and i have been reading about Cleopatra and finally agreeing that an Egypt project might actually be acceptable! Currently she is scavenging the house and finding the last few pennies to by this elf to add to her collection of fantasy creatures. She’s managed to find the best part of £7 (our haggled price) just lying around the house!
Anyway…. i think i might do the hospital visit in a separate post. This one has got long enough. Besides, i think it might be time to play Wii Mario Kart and make some lunch. I’ve got to be on hand later while some upgrades are put into BM – i’m very excited about them as they are going to make it much easier to do special offers etc. Right now every little would help; toys and crafts seem to be very slow all over just now and i need to pay the VAT man!
Always happy to listen if you need an alternative shoulder to cry on. Have fun with the science, I have to say biology bored me to tears when I had to do it so choosing to do it at that age is just madness to me!
Sally, that is very lovely of you but to be honest, it isn’t the willingness of friends to listen so much as my ability to think it is okay to still go on about it. even if the friends have been doing it with gritted teeth that i can’t see, they’ve listened and listened and listened. It’s just i imagine people gritting their teeth now – and as a PoP reader, i think you fall into the category of people (in my head) who have done more than your fair share of listening!
you can go on about it forever to me as well you know. apart from totally forgetting to give you yourbooks back, chris also has assorted secondary school science books?
When are you off H? We must do a day…. would you fancy coming over on Saturday maybe?
We are away camping this weekend….
If there is something I’m learning through this journey of self discovery that I’m on its that there is no time limit on grief or self loathing of things that might have been. For you its been two years, for me its been ten (tho the incident is different), the only difference is that you are brave enough to talk about your pain so if it takes me asking every single day then thats what I’d do if I thought it would help because despite our lack of physical friendship I care. So please, NEVER think you have talked too much, it has never been enough if it still has the power to hurt you this much.
I think you must have bought from the same leotard supplier as me. A very nice but cheap leo, reeking of smoke from a supposed professional company… sounds all too familiar. I bought one the same time as you!