Highly unlikely, but not outside the realms of possibility?

Last night was all about the hand-sewing, tonight is all about the knitting.  Yonks ago, I actually can't remember when, I decided I wanted a close fitting grey jumper with rainbow stripes, so bought some Faroese wool in grey and some rainbow Kauni wool from eBay, which I promptly lost in a pub somewhere.  I swore a lot, and sulked a lot, and then bought some cream wool and some more Kauni, and just got on with it.

Of course, very thin wool on titchy little needles takes a while to knit, so I left it in my knitting bag, and ignored it, and occasionally knit it, and eventually finished the body.

You can't really tell from this photo, but there is a weird "side boob" thing going on under the armpits, and I thought long and hard about it but decided I really, really couldn't live with it, so ripped back all that knitting that had taken months and months, and started again.

I eventually finished it the other day.

It still needs a good block, and the right cuff is considerably bigger than the left, but I can live with that, as no one else will notice, and a bit of sewing will hide it as well.  

I wore it today as it was cold.  FFS April, sort it out, it hailed earlier.  The jumper still needs a block, and I will do that later on, but for now I am running around the house, cackling with laughter as my jumper looks ace and I love it, and also my denim skirt is too big and I will wash it and then send it to the charity shop to seek its fortune.  Hurrah. 

I'm sure I'll have something more to say tomorrow evening.  We're going shopping on the Goldhawk Road tomorrow.  Brace yourselves. 

2014 in pictures

One more look back, and then it's business as usual.  We're going to Brighton today, and also, hopefully, to the cinema. so we're already busy.  So far, 2015 has been the year of everyone being ill at the same time, which is rubbish.

No particular order to the collages, just some photos from a fun year.  All of them were taken on my iPhone, which is why they aren't great.  I've got my brand new brilliant camera to take photos on now, so lets see if things improve this year. 

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.

More crowing about how wonderful the first born daughter is, I'm afraid.  She's been ill recently, and generally grumpy and all that, and I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to make her Rainbow promise with the others in the group.  No need to worry; come hell or high water, she was going to be there to make her promise in a big clear voice, remembering the words and generally causing my heart to burst with pride.

The new Rainbow promise is not great, but I suppose we have to cater to everyone, and as far as Lucy is concerned, thinking about her beliefs is thinking about God, so let's let that one lie.  Also, it's a lost battle.

Anyway, there she is, my wonderful little Rainbow. 

March Madness - 13/31

50/52

Not waving, drowning.  Ofsted, the end of term, the Nursery Christmas Concert, Christmas, the Nursery children, my own children, pantomimes, Rainbows, swimming lessons, parties.  It's all getting on top of me a bit.

Still, I had a fun morning with Hattie on Friday.

She was very annoyed with me when she discovered the milk froth on her nose thirty minutes later.  Bad mother.

We decorated our tree.  

We went to a pantomime at the local theatre; it was good, but the best bit was watching the Rainbows and Brownies getting very stuck in to booing, cheering and shouting "Behind You!" a lot.  Lovely.  Lucy was a bit emotional - tired, grumpy, hot and generally under the weather afterwards, so soft hearted mother bought the teddy from Tiger.  An extraordinary shop.  Lucy loves it, has christened it "Hope" and carries it around everywhere; something she's not really done before.

Roll on Friday.  Please.

Portraits of my children once a week, every week, in 2013.

Happy Thinking Day!

Today is the Baden-Powells birthday, and as such, has been designated as "World Thinking Day".  GirlGuiding associations around the world use today to think about their sister guides around the world, and to consider what Guiding means to them.  I'm a bit of a novice at this whole thing; I was a terrible Brownie for a very short time, with only the Frog Impressions and the Cup of Tea badges to my name; I lost interest in all girl organisations before I was old enough to become a Guide, and Venture Scouting never appealed - the outdoor life is not my thing at all.  It's only now as an adult that I really see the benefit of doing it, and so I'm nearly through with my Leader training.  I recently retook my GirlGuiding Promise, and it's somewhat different from when I was a child.

I'm sure that as a Brownie, I had to say "I promise that I will do my best, to do my Duty to God, to serve the Queen and help other people and to keep the Brownie Guide Law", and I had to read a very thick book that looked just like this:

and was full of helpful things about Pixies and making cups of tea and talking to your puppy and generally being a nice member of the community, and a Good Gel, ready to be a good Guide and then wife, mother and Prime Minister.  I stood in the Hall in Linton Infants School, looking into the mirror to see the elf, and promised to be a good and helpful person, and to Lend a Hand.

It's really easy to mock GirlGuiding and Brownies and Rainbows, and lots of people do.  All that stuff about Duty and God, and meeting in church halls, and getting badges for things instead of no thanks or reward, and the people who run it must be a bit odd, after all, only weirdos want to work with children, and anyway, who has time for any of that, honestly; and so we forget that GirlGuiding provides a space for girls to be on their own, without the competition for attention from boys.  Girls really need time apart from boys; it helps them find a voice without being shouted down, it gives them a chance to do things and it gives them a chance just to be girls, which, as they become adolescents gets more and more difficult.

I went to an all girls school, and while it was rubbish in many ways, it gave me the confidence to know that I can do anything I want to do.  Obviously, girls are rarely saints and can be far more unpleasantly vicious and damaging than even the most obnoxious boy, and I am no champion of single sex education, but I am a big supporter of GirlGuiding, especially now all that difficult and unpleasant "duty" stuff has been removed, and we promise to love our God, serve our Queen and our country, help other people and to keep the Guide Law.

A bit demanding, particularly for us Lefty Republican types, but as George Orwell said,

“Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.”

and that sums up GirlGuiding.  It is different to how it was back in the dim and distant past, it is a living, growing thing, and changes as each cohort of girls makes it change, and yet it is still the same, still an organisation that puts girls first, that allows girls and young women become the people they want to be.

A bit serious for a Friday, but it is World Thinking Day after all.

Hnnnnnnggggggggghhhhhhhh

Which is the sound made by someone who has no energy for anything outside of work and children and desperate scrabbling around for time to write about ANYTHING.

Ah well, it's been a busy old month what with one thing or another, what with racing across London to see a man in Stratford of all ghastly places, wrestling Lucy from school to school to French Club, to Rainbows, to Cubs, to ballet, to Costa, to exhaustion and tears, hothousing Hattie in playgroups, baby French clubs, trips to the park and Waitrose.  Hattie can now sing "Brille, Brille", which is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in French (in so much as she can sing anything using words), and Lucy is interesting, interested and can write her own name and count up to 100, so it must all be worth it, mustn't it?

I even have time for myself occasionally, knitting and crocheting away, making baby gros, tending the orchids (which are thinking about flowering again, how exciting) and even sometimes sleeping, although never enough.  I've even had a chance to dye yarn, in order to make a new Rainbow cardigan for Lucy.

October Unprocessed is nearly over and I will have a Diet Coke on Thursday.  I have missed it like crazy, but as that is really the only thing I feel I just couldn't make at home, I felt that the letter of the law had to be applied in that case.  We have a variety of wonderful meals recently; tonight we are having Ox Cheek stew with Mushrooms and Orzo.  Ox cheeks are cheap and very meaty, although I don't really recommend cutting them up.  

7 day week

What's a weekend?  I've spent the last 7 days looking after other people's children, and sometimes even my own.  Don't get me wrong, I sometimes quite enjoy Nursery, and I really enjoy Rainbows and Junior Church, but I am tired, and I need a break from the whole volunteering/working thing.  Unfortunately, that won't happen until the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Show in a fortnight's time, which will be a yarn heavy weekend with a great deal of petting and sighing and buying.

On Saturday, we took the Rainbows to London Zoo.  There were a lot of Rainbows there.  It was as you would expect it to be, so I will draw a veil over that part of the weekend.  One girl was sick, a couple were a bit tearful when we left, my own daughter was as good as can be hoped for, and the whole thing went with a swing.

The gorillas were my favourite animals by far, and they make me feel sad, as they are clearly too intelligent to be in captivity.  They have very sad faces, she says, with great profundity.

Simon went for a date with my friend Lyn's husband on Sunday - they went to get "manscaped", which in practice meant a wet shave with hot towels, rather than a back, sack and crack, but that took the whole afternoon, so further child entertainment was provided in the form of Lyn and Laura, Pizza Express, some swings and a lot of food.

I am doing the October Unprocessed thing again this year, so tonight we are having home made from scratch spaghetti bolognese with parmesan and extra wine.  Yum.