dottyspots

….. someone else’s fault that I see these things and get sucked in!

Who Should Paint You: M.C. Escher

Open and raw, you would let your true self show for your portrait. And even if your painting turned out a bit dark, it would be honest.

I blame Kris.

Your Life Path Number is 1

Your purpose in life is to lead others. You have great drive and determination. Nothing is going to stand in your way. You seek out challenges and the spotlight. You’ll take all the work - and all the glory. Status and success are important to you. You demand the best from everyone and everything. In love, you tend to take a protective role. You enjoy being the provider in relationships. You expect others to be like you, and as a result, you are often disappointed. A little selfish and vain, you always put yourself first. Remember, everyone already knows you’re great - you don’t need to remind them!

…… that makes them think it’s a good idea to deposit half-eaten pears in people’s gardening shoes?

Yes, it went squidge - yuck!

It’s my birthday today - just another year until I’m 30. I took Ned for his photo session. I won a free photo (yes I know it’s all part of a promotion to get me to buy loads of photos, but then I wanted some of Ned anyway and at some point need to get one of the children together, so actually it’s quite welcome). Ned was a star, smiling enthusiastically and burbling away at the photographer - I can’t wait to go and see the proofs next week! It was a lovely birthday present just to go along and watch him laughing

Erk’s gone back to school, rather unenthusiastically as it turns out school isn’t quite as fantastic as he thought it might be…..

I’m planning to go and visit my brother in Brighton in the summer (not been to Brighton before) so am feeling rather enthusiastic about that and apart from that everything’s plodding along.

I’ve been slowly cutting out dairy again and hoping it might help my skin out a bit - also on the cards in wheat etc., but I need to look at the logistics of managing that and not eating meat as well. This was the problem a couple of years ago and I came across someone who is vegan and also gluten-free but unfortunately they didn’t answer my questions about the hows etc. I don’t want to have lots of supplements, I’m not a fan of pill-popping, rather I think people should get the vits etc. they need from the food they eat. I’m off for a blood test when I get a spare min as doctor thinks I might be low on B vits - lots of ulcers etc. in my mouth (plus itchy mouth etc.) which could be a sign of candida apparently - basically my diet needs a complete overhaul and I really MUST lose some weight (because whilst I’m not exactly a vain person, I’ve put on a lot of weight whilst pg with Nin that just hasn’t shifted and the extra weight makes me feel so heavy and tired - which is not a good thing - I’m a size 18/20, rather than the 12/14 at which I feel healthy and haven’t been for 2 years).

Time to get really strict about the number of cakes I’ve been eating!

Thanks to Jax for this one (I saw it there first):

You Are a Soy Latte

At your best, you are: free spirited, down to earth, and relaxed At your worst, you are: dogmatic and picky You drink coffee when: you need a pick me up, and green tea isn’t cutting it Your caffeine addiction level: medium

….. for my birthday (it arrived early and caused some confusion because I’d forgotten that it is my birthday soon).

See the little child in a sling behind the shield? My grandmother knows just what I’ll love

Tusen takk Bestemor

Still really busy!

I’ve been carrying on with getting R’s jumper finished (just a couple of inches on one sleeve and another sleeve before making up), I’ve started a little tunic for Ned (I’ve almost finished the back).

The allotment now has 13 raspberries (because I bought some and as I was putting them in our ‘lottie neighbours popped their head round the gate and asked if we wanted some more!) 2 (possibly 4) blackcurrant bushes - I wasn’t sure about the 2nd two as I couldn’t remember what I’d got - and 2 redcurrant cuttings (which will hopefully take - I did have 4, but gave 2 to the neighbours as they’d very kindly given us some raspberries and also some beans some of which they helped R. plant up and leave in their polytunnel to be collected later). I also planted some carrots and R. put in some beetroots (in between hiding in the shed from the rain), so a rather productive day!

We had a meeting with the LEA last Wednesday. This has been a bit of a sore point as R. didn’t want to meet them and of course I supported his decision, after all, we don’t need endorsement from an outside agency, we’ve HE-ed since 2003 and it’s going very well. I don’t lack confidence with the decision to HE and know that R. is getting the best education he can (certainly better than school could provide for him).

However, the LEA was insisting on ‘examples’ of work and I was arguing that R. didn’t want this and there is nothing in the Education Act (or case law) that dictates that ‘examples’ must be provided. This has gone on since last year and there has been much to-ing and fro-ing of letters and I was preparing to dig us in for the long haul (and had taken some legal advice!)

The R. changed his mind and declared that he wanted to meet the local HE Advisor. So this duly happened last Wednesday. It actually went very well. R. made scones (mostly because Fiona, who came along too, had made scones last time we visited her, so he wanted to return the kindness) and the 2 bods from the LEA were fed them with organic strawberry jam and a cup of tea. We discussed various subjects, I told them something of my thoughts on how children learn and R. told them some of the things he was interested in and what he had been up to recently, quite a bit of which involved gardening, history and cooking. Not one scrap of work was shown (as R. didn’t want to show any of his work) but the response from the HE Advisor was that R. is clearly a very intelligent, articulate young man and we must be very proud of him I’m not a person that looks for (or needs) outside approval - but hey, it’s a bonus!

R. has been continuing with his project on Ancient Egypt. I’ve given up on ‘the schedule’ again, as it’s behind (again) and R. is quite happy meandering along. We will get to Ancient Greece when he’s ready, but we’ve so much else on too that it’s hard to squeeze in the time for his project as he’s spending a lot of time reading and with the planning for the allotment, him cooking (he’s doing more and more) and just getting out and about more, we seem to be busy all of the time!

Anyway, time to get on with dinner. I’ve a nice home-made jam sponge ready to go in the oven (yum!)