Student and Mummy...

Grace's school are taking part in a "Golden Boot challenge".
Basically the point is to travel to school in any way other than car.
Mmm easier said than done for us, now I'm not making excuses and yes we probably do use the car more than we should but it is essential for school because.............

1. We live in the next town about 2.5 miles from her school.
2. I have to drop Tom at my Nans on a Monday and Tuesday before school.
3. I drop Grace at school at 9am and actually have to be at work at 9am, I'm usually about 6 minutes late and no one says anything. Any later and I think I'd be pushing my luck.

One of the options is park and stride - parking a little way from the school and walking in. This is what we did today.
We parked a couple of streets away but it did mean I had to get a shift on when I'd dropped her off!

I feel guilty that her book is mostly going to say car, there seems little provision for parents who actually have to go on to work after.
One of her friends lives literally a 30 second walk from school and they were bragging that they'd already filled in the book for the entire 3 weeks "walk, walk walk". Bearing in mind they live so close, both parents are at home and they don't work it's hardly suprising.
Still I'm rambling.........

I finished the Biology assignment and it's all handed in. We've just started a new topic - Energetics For life, all about Aerobic and Anaerobic respiration and I have to say it's very boring but on a more positive note last night was my last Study Skills lesson wohoo!
We had an exam, we moved all the desks into exam style, lined up outside, entered the room in silence and were handed the paper face down. Tracey the tutor gave us 45 minutes to do the paper - it was all very formal.
Once I'd started the paper I'd realised that it was actually quite jokey one of the questions was;
How many sugars does the Access co-ordinator take in her tea?
That kind of eased the stress a little, although the point of the excersise was to give us the feeling of what a very formal exam is like.
All I have to do now is arrange my portfolio and get it ready for moderation.

The garden is looking fab, the turf should be coming as I speak and Giles is at home to lay it.....this time tomorrow I'll have a lawn yippee!

Well the 3rd lot of Maths tests went ok, I got 92%.

I made 1 silly mistake and the other one I got wrong I didn't understand the question. Not understanding the question is actually less frustrating than just a stupid mistake.
Still I passed and that's the main thing.

I've still got the introduction and conclusion of the biology essay to write.
Why is it that everything else suddenly looks far more appealing than doing an essay?
I've never been so desperate to get a 3ft tall pile of ironing done in my life

Well, I had a good easter weekend with the children despite Giles having to work all of the days bar Monday.

We did as I had anticipated get snowed under with eggs, but the children seem to be making pretty rapid progress through them this year. I suppose being that bit older, they can eat more it's only once a year so I don't mind too much.

We had a lovely lunch at my nans on Easter Sunday and then monday Giles was at home, we went to a local park, fed the ducks and had ice cream which the children loved.

The gardens looking great just half of the lawn left to level and then we'll be ready to lay the turf which is super. It looks so much wider, once it's finished I'll upload a before and after picture.

I started back at college last night, and if I'm truthful I didn't want to go. I think having almost 3 weeks off you lose the momentum, hopefully it will quickly return.
I have had a lot of work to do this holiday aswell which has been hard going, most evenings it's a push to get motivated at 8pm, get everything out and start working. I have though and it's paying off, I took the rough draft of my Biology assignment in last night to be checked and it's fine so I'm really pleased. It consisted of two posters on Mitosis and Meiosis (DNA replication and cell division), two worksheets on genetic coding and genetic faults and a 1200 word essay on The risks and benefits of genetically modifying crops. it's all done barr the introduction and conclusion for the essay - although I only have 200 words left, so I suppose they'll be quite short
I have to say, if I had my time again Genetics would deffinitely be a field I would have loved to have gone into, alas now I could not afford to fund the degree. Hopefully once I've done my nursing diploma I may be able to look toward that field. It's funny when I was at school I don't think I even knew what genetics was - I think I had crap careers advice

I also had a Maths assignment to do, which is done. That was on Data Handling, my hypothesis was;

"women giving birth to baby girls have shorter labours than those giving birth to baby boys"

I had to devise a questionnaire, collect around 60 pieces of data and then process it on 3 different types of graphs, commenting on things like Mode and Median etc.......

I've also had a maths homework sheet and 2 revision papers for the exams tomorrow, one calculator and one non calculator........wish me luck!

So busy at college at the moment, although I actually only have 9 weeks left before I've finished my first year - yikes

After I finish work at 12.30 I'm not back until Tuesday morning

In the last couple of days I've lost count of the number of people who have called to say that they have Easter Eggs for the kids.
Last week we threw away 7 easter eggs from the cupboard left over from last year..........I always say to people buy them something else - Grace loves writing and drawing and Tom loves puzzles, please not lots of chocolate.
Every year we end up with lots of chocolate.....does anyone else end up throwing them away?
It's just such a waste.

On a different note, the garden renovation is coming along nicely, the patio's almost laid the borders are in and the majority of the fence is painted. All that's left is to buy and lay the turf, I say all
It all needs to be done and ready to walk on by 20th May, Mums having her 50th Birthday party at my house.
I'm just hoping for a wet spell for a couple of weeks after the turf is laid, with the hosepipe ban here it's going to be very arduous having to water it with a watering can.....

Last night I played an Early Learning Centre game of pairs with Grace who's 5.

There are lots of pairs of picture cards you lay them out randomly, then try to pick a pair. It's meant to improve memory.

Grace set the game up (laid out the cards) while I was tidying and bringing in the washing.

We sat down to play and she got an amazingly high number of matching cards eventually winning the game.

She's either got a photographic memory, or she cheated..........

Place your bets now

....was foul.

I spent ages on Thursday evening cooking it, it was very fiddly. It contained cod, salmon and boiled eggs. If you like fish it was probably ok, we aren't huge fish lovers!

The kids hated it, I hated it and Giles hated it.

I WILL NEVER COOK FISH PIE AGAIN...........EVER.

The curry was a mild success, I mean they ate more than I thought they would, Grace actually said she liked it and I pretended to Thomas that the curry sauce was gravy, heehee and it worked!

Fish pie tonight and I'm anticipating another success, Hooray for Annabel Karmel and her Superfoods for Kids .

...to work.

There is a railway bridge that I have to pass under in order to get to work. This railway bridge is constantly being hit by lorries, so it's been closed for 3 weeks for essential repairs. The traffic around and about is chaotic, everyone is queing to use the alternative bridge and it's adding unacceptable time to my journey.

Usually I have to drop Thomas off at my grandparents and then Grace off at school, but today the kids are at my Mother in laws and she very kindly collected them, so instead of sitting in traffic for 40 minutes to get 2 miles up the road I cycled and it felt very good, although a little cold!

I'm currently thinking about whether it would be feesible to cycle when I have to drop the Kids off, now that the weather is improving. I do have a trailer that attaches to my bike that the kids can sit in and it's waterproof, although it would mean detaching the trailer and leaving it at my grandparents and then walking Grace to school, but it's only up the road from there.
Petrol is so expensive and my car is a 2l engine it's costing me about £80 a month in fuel, just for the school and work run.

I shall ponder that thought.........

I've changed my main photo.........

The big dog on the bike is me - keeping everyone going!

The cat is Giles - pretending to be doing something to keep everything going!

The little ones on each end of th stick are of course Tom and Grace

.....the loft is finally cleared of junk.

The skip came on Friday and we managed to load all the garden rubble into it and still have loads of room left. We decided to clear the garage and loft while we had the skip.

I went through 10, YES 10 dustbin sacks full of kids clothes from the loft.

I Sorted them into skip, charity shop and Ebay piles. The charity shop pile accounted for 6 sacks full! I scouted round the local charity shops trying to off load them but most have stopped doing childrens clothes as they just don't really sell. If you ask me they would sell more of they dropped the prices! Finally finding that The Princess Alice Hospice were over the moon with 6 sacks full.
* note to self, go there first next time*

I've finally started listing again on ebay so hopefully some of it will sell, I find it exciting watching people bid but the listing process is so tedious!

I got the double pushchair out of the garage and emailed some pics to friends that I've been promising for months, hopefully they are still interested.

Getting rid of all the baby stuff and then deleting some old photos from an old pc has made me feel strangely broody, I feel pretty sure that I don't want another baby but getting rid of the childrens stuff is very hard. I've kept some little vests and a babygrow that they both wore, first shoes and a dummy of Tom's in their keepsake boxes but I still feel sad.
I'm a terribly sentimental person and throwing things away is such a wrench, I still haven't got the courage to get rid of the cot!

So things are looking up, just need to get the patio and turf laid in the garden...........Oh and do a 1200 word essay on GM crops and my Maths project and finish the posters for Biology but I think I'm winning.

I've also started a new cooking regime in the evenings. The children are very fussy with their eating, Grace more so than Tom. So I've decided to try some new recipes and try to get them eating some slightly different foods. Their diet consisted of Fish fingers, sausages, fish in butter sauce and ham - mostly with mash and veg.
I usually eat later with Giles as he doesn't get in from work till about 9pm. So what we are doing this week is, I'm eating with the children and re heating Giles' when he gets in, this is the menu;

Monday - Homecooked Canelloni
Tuesday - Mild Beef curry
Wednesday - Salmon and Cod pie
Thursday - Home cooked beef burgers
Friday - Sausages
Saturday - Fajhitas

So we'll see, so far they hated the canelloni - no idea why it was lovely and they usually like pasta!

Watch this space..........