Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, Tick

Awoke from a daze earlier this week to a very loud and insistent noise, previously unheard - the ticking of my biological clock. Now it won't go away - you know what it's like when you get a tune in your head ;-)

We've been perfectly happy as a one child family; in fact, we've spent the last seven and a half years actively trying NOT to have another one. It's not that we didn't want another baby, as such, just that the time was never right and it was always something to consider "in a few years". Well, I'll be 35 in just over a month's time - the few years may well be running out.

Hugely inspired by Hazel's fantastic news we've decided the time has come to try for another baby. Well. Almost. As it happens, I'm in no physical shape to cope with a pregnancy at the moment. Given Emily's incredibly traumatic premature birth, I wouldn't want to be pregnant again until I'm at least the same weight as I was then, preferably a lot less - at the moment I'm even bigger, and we're talking stones, plural, in a number greater than 5. :-(((

So, I need to get fit. I'm taking out swim membership at Gainsborough sports centre and I plan to go to their early bird swimming as often as possible, at least 3-4 times a week. And to get serious with healthy eating. I don't do "dieting" as such - I've never seen it work for anyone, really. I don't eat that much anyway, eating's not my problem - lack of exercise is. In the year before Emily started school I was terrified of being the fattest mother at the school gates - through just eating properly and going on the exercise bike every day I lost six stone. OK, OK, so in the last two years it's all come back again :-((( but the point is that I've done it once and I can do it again. So there ;-)

Hopefully by spring-ish next year we'll be in a position to go ahead with Plan Pregnancy. Anyway, that's the idea. Although we still have mixed emotions over the thought of forcing a baby sibling onto Emily when she's always been so absolutely adamant that she has never wanted a sibling. I'm not entirely sure how ethical it is to plan a baby knowing full well that she won't be over the moon at the prospect. But well, I guess it's just one of those things where we as adults have to "know better" than she does at 7. We respect her strongly held views on the issue, but we'll just have to trust that it will all work out OK if and when it actually happens. When I fell pregnant with Emily I'd only just come off the pill, it seemed to happen straight away. I'm well aware we may not be as fortunate this time round. But hey, whether or not we ever do have another child, at least I've finally prioritised - I need to get healthy, baby or not - Emily and Jon deserve a fitter, healthier Mum and wife.

Anyway, enough rambling. I just want to say something to Hazel if she's reading this: thank you. You gave us the courage to home eduate two summers and a lifetime ago; now you've inspired us again and shaken us out of complacency. We owe you. :-))

Back to the matter at hand; oh yes, home education. Well, yesterday afternoon Romy came round to play and the girls spent a long time paddling and playing on Emily's beam before finally ecaping the heat to come indoors and play dressing up Tudors-Meets-Ancient Egypt. Or something like that. Emily then went to the last yoga of the term and came home with a really long Vinyassa she has to learn by September.

This morning we went to collect her new silver glasses and we've been out in the garden the rest of the time, doing some maths and English. Oh, this afternoon we did come in for a bit to do more body project - more on teeth. We've set up an experiment with eggshells in coke, milk, water, juice, squash and something else I can't remember - we'll check them in a few day's time and see what effect they have had. We also tried an experiment with chewing crackers, spitting them out (lovely) and leaving them for set amounts of time before testing with iodine to see if the saliva had affected the starch. Except that our iodine was in a tincture and, um, the experiment failed miserably. Oh well. Guess we learnt something from that, anyway!