A good day

started by the fact that I didn’t surface until 12.30, as I was finishing off my book, The Margarets 🙂 Not sure that I can be bothered to write a separate book review post (although I ought, as there are a couple of other books I’ve read that I haven’t reviewed yet. But there you) so I’ll just summarise here – as Helen stated in comments earlier, this is slightly different to the standard Tepper plot, and as such, well worth a look. For once, it isn’t all down to the male of the species, and it isn’t just self-sacrificing women that will save the day. I suspect that this was actually a book deserving of rather more attention than it received here, as I raced through it in a weekend, but I don’t have many spare hours for books as I should be absorbing Montessori manuals atm, so I gave it as much time as I could, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Add it to your lists, Tepper fans, it’s worth it.

Then after I came down, I pottered about and mooched and generally did not very much while getting ready to go to the shops. Briefly I was going to go with Big, then somehow I was going with Small instead – I think Big only wanted to go if she got me to herself, as Small did yesterday (did I blog that? Trip to the music shop? Need another tab…ah yes I did. Good.) but somehow she decided against the whole thing, and he was very into the idea of another trip out, so out we sauntered.

On the way down the street we passed an driveway and as we passed it a number of boys came hurtling round the corner, and they included a little boy who was one of Small’s closer friends at school until April, whose mother I have been supposed to be ringing for some time, except I’d lost her number, so I seized the moment and we followed him back up the alleyway and banged on the back door. Five minute catch up and then I left Small there while I ran to Sainsbury’s in the rain, and walked back briskly in the drizzle then we had a much longer catch up. I like H, it will be good to see her more often as I suspect we will now, not least as she’s currently 7 months pregnant so shortly will not be working at all, which should mean B and Small managing to reaquaint themselves properly.

So that was an unexpectedly pleasant and social afternoon, and I also did small things like clearing off the bathroom windowsill (was being used as a shelf but we now have the shelf unit back in there) and removed various bits of tat from the floor in here. I’m trying to keep up with the little and often approach, I think it probably ought to be medium and more often but hey, at least I’m trying 😉 Oh, and I stitched Small’s cloak, fixed Big’s loom knitting and will shortly stitch her slipper socks – I am trying to be a more compliant mother rather than forever saying no. I have been so tired and so distant for so long – I can’t do big gestures, but perhaps I can take little steps.

Somewhere in and amongst all of this Small is bursting into reading at a rate of knots – the only thing that distracted him from the tv at H’s was a set of magnetic words 😀 He is fascinated right atm, and I think we have to grab and hold – have suggested to Tim that shopping excursions tomorrow should include magnetic words so that he can carry on. Until very recently (well, OK, today) I’d have run screaming from the idea, but it turns him on, so who am I to complain? The boy learns in very different patterns to the girl, and there’s no point in fighting it.

Big and I are going to concentrate on maths. I’ve got the lower elementary files waiting for me right now – I want to reduce them to pseudo index cards in a box so that I can rifle through rather less obtrusively than lifting down huge files any times I want to consult something. (Can’t use real index cards as couldn’t find any the right size for the box I already have, they were all dinky little things of no use to man nor beast.) Am pondering whether The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure would do as a class read aloud or whether that would be pushing it, think I probably need to read it for myself first. I’ve ordered Calculus by and for Young People (Ages 7, Yes 7 and Up) and the whole bundle of stuff from the mathman website, but it hasn’t arrived yet, so I can’t plan on that featuring as my extension activities (from what I’ve seen of it online, it should work quite nicely that way) this week. Hohum.

Right, must go now as I need to reboot this machine so that I can listen to a few minutes of Murray Nadal before I go to sleep off my wine. Like I said, a good day.