Just Jo!

Due to technical complications my blog is now HERE

Today is the winter solstice, and, according to some calendars/websites, World Peace Day (but it could be tomorrow, don’t quote me!). So this morning Olivia made a dove of peace and two lanterns to lighten the shortest day of the year. Then moaned she was bored…. Fortunately I was well prepared with some Christmas worksheets! Ha ha ha!!!…. like she’s going to catch me out! She did a ‘matching up’ definitions with Christmas words, which she liked more than she thought. And 203rd discovery…. she doesn’t like the sound of eggnog!
Then we went over to visit Olivia’s only school friend that we’ve kept in touch with since she came out. We took mince pies to keep us going through the afternoon, with lots of tea and chat, playing with the hamster and we started watching Santa Clause 2.
This is where the onions come in…. As we were leaving, Jackie asked if we cooked with onions? Her mum had given her a huge bag, she was worried that they’d go mouldy before she got to use them, could we use some of them? So her Christmas gift to us was a load of onions! Yay! She apologised but, hey, we like onions! And she’s also loaned us a few DVDs that look good.
Adam had promised to take Olivia into town today, for late night shopping, to buy presents for me(yippee!)….the gifts bit! But after a few hours already in town, ‘celebrating’ Christmas with his friends, I got a phone call asking where we were… still in town… so he said ‘they’d’ meet us. Him and two friends. Full of the ’spirit’ of Christmas…. hmmm.
One of his friends hasn’t seen Olivia for a while, so immediately whisked her way up in the air, cue lots of hysterical giggling!
They all wandered up the road, with me telling Olivia to keep an eye on them and not to let them get lost….
The lion bit comes next. Walking home, merrily minding my own business, a huge great lion crossed my path…. okay…. maybe it wasn’t exactly a lion, but it was definitely the biggest, longest haired ginger cat I have ever seen. It could eat Maisy in one mouthful! Luckily, Maisy never ventures that far from our house.
Adam and Olivia came home much sooner than I was expecting. How can they possibly have bought me exactly what I want…. and plenty of it?! In that short a time?? Ooops…. I forgot we’re doing a ‘reduced’ Christmas this year…. don’t think it should apply to me though!
Adam’s friends had headed straight back to the pub after I’d left them, and after dropping Olivia home, with strict instructions to keep her mouth shut (she is completely useless at secrets!), and hiding my presents, he went to join them. He’s going up to his dad’s for the holidays, so feels the ‘need’ to see as much of his friends, and ‘celebrate’ the joy that is Christmas, as much as possible. He even let Olivia stay in his room to carry on watching Santa Clause 2. He must be drunk…. I am such a proud mother! Not sure if the sarcasm is coming across clearly enough!
A few days ago, Adam mentioned that he was working 6am ’til 10am on Friday…. that’s tomorrow (remember that little nugget of information!). He asked me if I could give him a wake-up call at 5…. The last time I got up at 5am, I was heading off to Italy (Rome, Pompeii, Capri). Now, I don’t know about you, but getting up for Tesco’s really doesn’t have the same appeal, so I laughed at him…. like you do…. maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. As he left tonight, he mentioned something about going to a club as well. Suddenly, I find myself enjoying the prospect of waking him up very, very loudly, tomorrow…. how peculiar….

Olivia carried on with her bag this morning, then we had an outing to the theatre with our home-ed group this afternoon. Jolly good it was too. ‘The Ship With Three Decks’ by a small company of three at the local arts centre. It’s where Olivia has her drama class on a Wednesday evening. It seemed odd to be there earlier.
It started on a bit of a creepy note and one of the little girls didn’t like it much, so they left early. The rest seemed to enjoy it though. Olivia wasn’t overkeen when the goblin king got splashed with the Water of Life, which is really, really bad for goblins. Their stomachs turn inside out and their brains gush out through their noses. Hmmm……technically, I suppose it is a tad gruesome. It was his just rewards for stomping on and squashing the Ant King who had helped the champion Lucius Cornflower! But the Water of Life miraculously revived him. Hooray!!! Guess you had to be there, honestly, it was good, very cleverly done with some great effects. We’ll be looking out for their next production.
We did a little more shopping after…. grumble, grumble, grumble. We got a huge bunch of mistletoe, chestnuts for roasting, a mini punchbag for Adam, ginger beer for Olivia, wine (ahem) for me.
But guess what? Guess what?!? Bet you can’t!! It was snowing!! Yes! Really snowing!! Oh joy! Oh bliss! How exciting!!!
OK, it was only a snow machine on the top of the shopping centre, but it might as well have been real for all the excitement amongst the kids, jumping and running about in it! And plenty of adults too! Lots of photos being taken, but I’d left mine at home… doh!
We got home and hung our Christmas cards up and that was about it really today. Bit of a sudden ending, but I’m desperate to roast some chestnuts!

After a quick breakfast, leftoverbeansfromlastnight on toast with loads of veggie worcester sauce, and a panic-stricken hunt for my mug (I have more than one mug, but I can only drink out of the one with my name on, I’m sure it tastes different, it’s bigger as well!), we attacked the front garden.
Olivia raked up leaves, I swept the path and cut back various triffid-like things. Anyone who visits our house will now be glad, as they’ll not get shredded to ribbons by the pampas! One leaf/frond(?) managed to go down my trouser leg…huh? As you can imagine, I was extremely careful in pulling it out! Things we discovered today…. a ten year old thrown in a wheelie bin increases capacity by at least 100%! But she does cry to be let out after a few hours….
I even cleaned the front door, so it’s all sparkly and spiderweb-free….. which will please Adam no end as he’s scared of the little creatures. Which, in turn, actually makes for great enjoyment as Olivia isn’t scared, so any she finds, she very carefully tucks into Adam’s bed, then loiters on the stairs waiting for the yells and pathetic screams! Yeah…. so do I!
We have lots of ivy growing over the front of our house, I know it’s not good for the pointing etc, but it was already there when we moved in 10 years ago, just not so much of it. Now the council have decided it is bad for the house, why they didn’t know this 10 years ago is a mystery….. So they said we had to cut it down, which would have been a hell of a lot easier TEN YEARS AGO!!! I cut a section out of the main trunk/s, now we have to wait for it to die in a few months. Then the council will come and pull it off the walls. Olivia’s quite upset because there’s usually birds nesting in there, right by her window, and they won’t have anywhere to live now. It also means Maisy’s main supply of fresh meat will have been cut off….
All Christmas cards that needed to be posted, were written and sent. We have cards going to Spain, France, Germany, USA and Cyprus….. what’s the chances of them getting there before Christmas…. or Easter?! Well, if my family keep insisting on emigrating….. they should know what I’m like by now! And I cheated as well, all the Hastings/Eastbourne/Sussex area ones got bundled into one big envelope to my Dad. So he gets to play jolly Christmas postman. Ha!!! He’ll like that!?! But I’ve also discovered that I do actually have an aunt living closer now. She was living in France with her sister, who is, coincidently, also my aunt(!), she’s moved back to live in Wiltshire (well, it’s closer than Sussex!), t’other’s still in France.
A load of washing was sorted and put on, then I took a deep breath and attemted to tackle the Giant Redwood in the middle of the room. We pulled out my chair in front of the window, after Olivia had removed all remnants of her card-making activities.
Seriously though, how much junk can fit behind one chair??? It defies belief! And it is indeed junk, by no stretch of the imagination could it possibly be called ‘resources’. No matter how much Olivia says “Oh, this could come in handy”. OK, that’s usually my line, but come on! Even I have standards! And you know the worst part? Yep, it’s all my junk!
Anyway, moving quickly on…. we solved the problem by shoving all the junk in the Christmas tree box, which is plenty big enough for huge amounts of junk! So sorting it out has now been deferred to twelfth night!
We decorated the tree to the accompaniment of the last playing of the Sounds of Israel CD, because it’s still officially Hanukkah. Then we could get out the cheesy stuff. Decorating the tree is the first outing for it each year. Adam came home midway through, groaning, “Noooo, noooo. Can you put something else on?!”. Yeah, ‘cos he so much prefers Hava Nagila!
The rest of the cards got done, except for the new discovery of being 10 short, so more were printed and stuck.
In spare minutes, since last night, Olivia has started sewing herself a bag out of some scrap material she found. It’s got a contrasting pocket on the outside and she’s sewn her name on the front, along with different colured flowers. She’s really pleased with it, her name does look good actually, and her sewing’s getting loads neater. And I haven’t had to thread needles or tie off ends. And it keeps her quiet, which is always a bonus!

Apparently, Kirsty is just a ‘friend’ who lost her keys and couldn’t get home….. hang on a minute, let me just go and see if I’ve got ‘gullible’ written on my head….. nope, didn’t think so.
This, I think, is the third girl who’s ‘lost her keys’…. not that I’m keeping tabs or anything. Either he walks around with a big sign, ‘Anyone who’s lost their keys, come on back to mine!’, or he’s a complete gentleman helping out careless girls….. hmmmm….. ‘careless girls’? Must remember to update the ‘condom chat’….. will he be embarrassed? Yep, probably! Am I ready to be a granny? Nope, definitely, absolutely, categorically no. So I think it’ll be a dose of cringing embarrassment for my first-born while he listens to me, his mum(eeww!!), talk about condoms and s… e…x. Should be fun, can’t wait!!
Actually, I think I will…. just until after he’s got the Christmas decorations down from the attic!
We were supposed to go round and see a friend today, but she phoned in a bit of a panic quite late last night. “He’ll still be in school! I got it wrong! He doesn’t break up ’til Tuesday!” OK, so we’re going on Thursday instead now.
Which meant that Olivia could get on with her production line. Slight cheating going on…. She’d made a collage card at an artist’s friend’s house, who’s teaching her some professional techniques (She’s also a herbalist, showing Olivia how to use wild plants and flowers, but that’s a different post!). We then scanned it, well, Adam did, and a bit of manipulation later, we printed them out so she could stick them on card. So most of the cards were made like that this morning ‘cos she was running out of ideas.
Then it was town…. I might have mentioned before that shopping isn’t my most favouritest thing in the world….. and 6 days before Christmas??!! Why do all the stupid, ignorant, ‘haven’t got a clue what they want’ people all have to come out at the same time?! And all walk about two steps (slowly!) in front of me? Wherever I am?! Actually the loo roll aisle in Sainsbury’s is usually clear….. that’s it then, I’ll lurk there ’til the New Year! Is loo roll vegan? Must be…. what about the shampoo’s opposite? And the toothpaste? That’s me sorted then!
We also discovered that it helps to post cards if: a) you’ve written them out beforehand, b)written addresses on envelopes, c) got stamps and d) remembered to actually take them in town with you! Anyone who gets a card from us this year should be extremely grateful!!
What else? The saga of the new tree!
We threw our old fake tree out last year, it was ten years old, looking a bit ropey but had had a good life. The plan was to buy a real one this year, but we didn’t, I got another fake a few weeks ago. When my mum abandoned us for Spain a few years ago, she gave us lots of tree decorations which we couldn’t put on our old tree, so I bought a bigger one to accommodate everything. We got it out of the box today…..
Now I know why we only had a 4′ tree…. we have nowhere to put this thing!!! It’s in the middle of the living room, we live in a teeny tiny council house, it has nowhere to go!! Olivia’s prancing around it like a hippie, “I love this tree! It’s beautiful! And so big!” I’ve spied through neighbours windows and they have trees just as big, but they are so obviously not home-educating and have nowhere near the amount of junk (make that ‘resources’!) we do!
Oh my lord…. now she has one of my frogs (I collect froggy things, sorry!) stuck up the tree (it’s not being adorned until I find somewhere to put it!), she has run upstairs to get a couple of Polly Pockets to ‘rescue’ the frog because “it’s scared of heights and can’t jump”…??
I make absolutely no apologies for the fact that I may be having slightly more than one glass of wine tonight…. in my new bubbly bath…. it was in the same aisle as the loo roll!

I couldn’t sleep at all last night, so at 3.30am I was messing about on the computer.
Adam had gone out for the evening, telling me he’d be back about 5. Might seem a bit late (alright, a lot!), but he’s an adult now. Besides, he’s 6′2″, how would I physically stop him?! Anyway, all fine and dandy, but I’d left the chain on the door, so when there was knocking, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Opened the door to what can only be described as a panicked look….
Adam - “Why are you still up?”
Me - “I couldn’t sleep”
A - “Are you on the computer?”
M - “Yes”
A - “Why?”
M - “Um.. I bought it, I pay the broadband, the rent’s in my name….. I could go on, but basically it means I can do whatever I want.”
A - “Oh…… this is Kirsty….. she’s staying the night”
M - “Oh….. hello Kirsty…… um”
K - “Hellooo!”
A - “I’ll put the kettle on”
M - “I’ll go to bed….. night!”
A - “Night”
K - “Night”
Now, she seemed nice and polite, and I have no doubt she is, I would like to be able to trust my son’s judgement when it comes to girls…. but….. Well, I must admit to being a little thrown by a skin tight leopard print (very!) mini-dress on my doorstep at 3.30 in the morning!
Needless to say she was gone by the time I surfaced this morning. Although Olivia did knock on my door (loudly!) about 8, and say (loudly!), “Adam’s got a girl in his room!”
Then, when she was munching her toast, “I really liked her clothes, they were lovely.” Hmmm, she needn’t think she’s getting anything remotely similar for Christmas!
The rest of the day was taken up with making angel decorations for the tree… must remember to actually put it up at some point.
Then lots of cards. We weren’t going to do cards this year as part of our frugal Christmas, with a heavy emphasis on the ‘true meaning’ and the ’spirit of Christmas’ etc, etc. But Olivia started getting worried that people wouldn’t know she loved them if she didn’t give them a card. So today she decided that she definitely wanted to send cards, cue a huge production line effort and the most glitter our carpet has ever seen. I’m staying out of it, if she comes up with these bright ideas, knowing that all our family live miles away and they’ll have to be mailed, she’s on her own!
Now it’s bed for her and bath for me. There might possibly be a glass of wine and a book involved somewhere along the line as well.

Well thanks go to Lin who’s sorted my blog out. Ta very much!!
Oh no… now I have to think of something to actually say…. um…. er….. wellll…..
Today is the start of Hanukkah, or a bit later at sundown…. think it might have already begun now I’ve just looked out of the window.
Olivia’s been busy with lots of worksheets on it, and over the last few days she’s been making decorations for it so we could.. um.. decorate the room. Lots of Star of Davids, or should that be Stars of David? Don’t know… We had friends round yesterday to celebrate and do ……. stuff. And a very noisy game of dreidl. Is it supposed to be that noisy? Again, don’t know, but they had lots of fun sharing out candy canes anyway. They also enjoyed the doughnuts, didn’t get round to making latkes, but then they have eggs in, so I wasn’t in much of a mood to make them really. And doing Hanukkah related jigsaws on the ‘puter. We discovered some are a whole lot easier than others and when you’re being timed, it’s really not fair.
But what have we been up to since . . . . ooh, Febuary?
Well, we had a lovely three weeks in Spain, with Adam joining us for the middle week.
We’ve fostered a cat called Maisy. My friend’s allergic to her daughter’s cat, so we’re looking after her ’til said daughter gets a place of her own.
We had a few weeks in Hastings, visiting family. Most of my family live near and around there now. Down here, it’s just me and the kids (and my mum’s weird cousin who does have a heart of gold, but who tends to shovel food in like he has no idea when the next meal is coming from, whose idea of ‘bring a bottle’ is one bottle of Becks, who, after 5 Xmas’ of charades, still insists on talking all the way through, ie. as he’s tugging on his ear,”So this means sounds like”, “and this means…” you get the idea, who calls Adam ‘Dude’ which isn’t much appreciated to be honest, who calls Olivia ‘Ollie’, who then looks really puzzled, “well, who’s that?!” Every family has one I’m sure, and I always ended up in a corner trying not to laugh too loudly while my mum was in the kitchen, pulling her hair out, “he’s not coming next year!” and my stepdad’s just come back from the pub “wass tha promlem?”!)
Anyway, back to me and just the kids, I started to feel a bit isolated and was seriously thinking of moving up there to be closer to family. But after two weeks of Hastings….. well, let’s just say down here looks pretty darn good! Cleaner, friendlier, cheaper, more to do, better public transport, sea not too far, moors, etc….
Adam is now 18 and I am the mother of an adult, which is very, very scary! Far scarier than when I had my fortieth a few months ago. Not that it actually bothered me particularly, it just seems weird to be, like, a ‘proper’ grown-up, when I still don’t feel any different to when I was 18.
Adam went down to Cornwall for the weekend of his birthday. All reports suggest that, yes, Newquay is indeed still standing. Although his dad, who came down from London to go with him and his friends, is older than he previously thought and lost his voice for 2 days. Oh, how I did giggle mischeviously!
What else have we been up to?
Lots of the usual home-edding kind of stuff, quite a few trips to the theatre. Olivia went up into double figures this summer and we went to see Shakespeare in the Park (Twelfth Night) on her birthday which she absolutely loved, ‘got’ it more than I thought she would, so I could feel quite smug in that peculiar home-ed kind of a way!
And we got a spanking brand new computer!
Um…. quick run through now…. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and next is Cristmas…. whew!
Now I’ve got to work out how to put on smilies and photos.
And it’s Robin Hood in a minute, which I have to watch, purely for it’s historical ‘accuracy’!