Oh, we also managed to hang some crystals outside on the small (but rapidly growing) potted cherry tree that Emily has next to Merlin's grave. There's hardly been any sunshine since then, but the idea is that the sunlight will catch them to make the rainbows dance over the grave; Emily thought Merlin's spirit would enjoy chasing them as he loved doing that when he was here. Deep breath. Here's the Midsummer Fairy with Nagini the Giant Snake, back inside just after hanging the crystals:
Emily took her Kickathon sponsorship form with her to tai chi and she and Jon explaind what it was all about - lots and lots of people there sponsored her, bless them, so she was very chuffed about that. The Kickathon is taking place at karate tomorrow. Assuming Emily manages about 200 kicks (she can do 150 odd without pausing for breath, lol) she'll raise about £50 sponsorship, which is pretty good I think.
Yesterday we went to our friends for the day and cuddled the most adorable week old jet black kittens. Awwwwww!!! Needless to say, Emily is keen to take on two of them if they're looking for homes for the kittens when they're ready (they may decide to keep them all) - apparently she'd call them Severus and Voldemort, ROFL. It's not going to happen though; not this time round. It wouldn't be fair on elderly Cassie Cat to put her through the upheaval of more kittens. It took her about three months to get used to Romeo and Juliet, and now she wouldn't even have Merlin to share the burden with. So no more kittens for us. They are adorable, though!
Yesterday Jackie did lots of maths with the girls, looking at magic squares and their esoteric and cultural background; Emily was fascinated with that. I did some history with them, looking at the differences in childhood through historical periods - each girl researched a particular area, made notes and then "taught" the other two what she had learned. That worked quite well, so I think we'll do some more of that next week. We were going to do some science too, on the topic of density, but they were having such a ball playing that it seemed a shame to interrupt them!
Today Emily's been busy writing down her theories on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, doing jigsaws, playing with Ello and bouncing on the trampoline. No ballet today since we've opted out of this concert thingy. I did get a letter from the teacher yesterday letting me know when Emily's lessons for September will be - on Monday evenings, yay! This is the first time ever they haven't been scheduled for Saturdays. This means she won't be able to go to football practice on Monday nights BUT she will be able to go to the football practice on Saturday mornings instead plus all kinds of other things that always crop up on a Saturday.
Since it's the weekend, I've had to do my traditional "oh, it's the weekend, I'd better work on some deadlines" thing, sigh. Before we go away I've got six sets of BBC work to complete, the huge amount of work for the new press agency contract to finish, plus the two normal monthly press agency contracts both of which have deadlines set for whilst we're away. Eeep. Did have a very promising conversation with the editor who rang about the book proposal - looks like that will be going ahead after all, although fortunately I don't need to add that to the list of stuff that has to be done before we can leave.
We've also got no less than three separate Grandad hospital appointments in the next fortnight, plus he wants to go back to the docs, plus he's got a dentist appointment, shopping trips, opticians, prescriptions to put in, prescriptions to pick up, etc, etc. And we're still waiting for one Grandad hospital appointment to come through, which no doubt will be scheduled for the week we're supposed to be away....which will mean cancelling our holiday, naturally. I'm not very impressed with these hospital appointments. One is for the diabetic clinic which he only went to five minutes ago and which they said he didn't need to go back to for six months. Instead of which this will now be his third visit there in three months. They never actually DO anything, and he doesn't listen to their advice in any case. Another of the appointments is for an angiogram pre-screening, which, according to the bumpf that came with it, is just so that they can talk the patient through what an angiogram involves, take his medical history and check his medication. OK....except he's only just had an angiogram during the hospital saga, so that's only a few weeks ago, and they're well aware of his records and medication. So that's another pointless one. No wonder the NHS never has enough money.
Jon has been supposed to be going for a six monthly blood test at the doctors; we've put that off for a month already, now we're putting it off again. I don't think he's been for a doc appointment of any kind yet in 2007, which given his diabetes is a bit off. Time to attend to our own needs is getting pretty thin on the ground. We've also been putting off various trips with Emily for the last three months or so, again due to lack of time. I think I'm going to be making a resolution come September when the school kids are back safely tucked away - it's time we put our own needs and wants first for a change. Naturally, we need to take care of elderly relatives and it's not Grandad's fault, for instance, that he's ill. I probably sound heartless. *Shrugs*. Jon's Dad is much loved. He can be extremely demanding, however, and given his regular moods and cruel put-downs of Jonathan in particular, that doesn't sit very well with me at times. Those who've been in this situation may know where I'm coming from. Those who haven't should try walking a mile in these shoes. I just don't think the brooding resentment we're starting to feel, in this demanding atmosphere, is doing any of us any good at all and it certainly isn't helping the father/son/daughter in law/grandaughter relationship. There has to be some give and take. Much as we may love someone and have a sense of duty towards them - Emily only has one childhood, and when her needs and wants are also being sidelined, something has to give.
No comments:
Post a Comment